You heave several heavy, put-upon sighs, but eventually conclude that there has already been far too much tonight tonight, and trying to communicate why Erskin's talk rubbed you the wrong way would just be too much. So when you get to the end of your coffee drink, and Erskin's teacup is empty, you gather up Dad's robe and beckon Erskin invitingly. "Come on, let's sprawl all over my bed and shed on everything. You can even be the blanket taco, I'm too fluffy for indoor temperatures."
You yawn, stretch, and follow him upstairs. "I think you're just the right amount of fluffy," you say, after he's changed and you've flopped your chest over his back. You nuzzle the patch of soft fur just behind one of his ears and give a pleased sigh.
"You keep saying all this nice stuff about me, but you can't wait to foist me off on someone else," you grumble. What's annoying is that even though you really are very grumpy about that, your tail insists on adding that the nuzzles are nice and should continue. This undermines your protest considerably.
You get a paw on the back of his head and start putting his ruff to order, although it's really mostly fine, just because you think he needs the attention. "Oh, yes, you're terrible," you tell him fondly. "I'm counting the hours. No, but really, Bel, I think we're getting along splendidly so far. It's not about liking, it's about tying your whole entire future down to the first passing rover you come across because he's fun on the go and nice to you. You can't argue that that's a clever idea. You should have options, shouldn't you? And it's no hard feelings on my end if a few of those options don't include traipsing around after me with your tongue hanging out indefinitely. That's how friends are, aren't they? They look out for one another. They hunt one another's fortune."
"Then let me enjoy traipsing after you for a while before you start selling me on some other plan, Erskin. I'm still coming back from the war. I'm nowhere near ready to start a family, even if I'd already met someone I wanted to have kids with."
"Oh. Alright, then," you say, a little abashed, now. "I hadn't thought of it like that." You lean over his ears and give the tip of his snout a lick. "'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law', eh?"
"With my tongue hanging out, though? Really, bro? I'd bite you for that if I weren't so comfy right now."
"As if you could put up any sort of argument! You've been jumping me every chance I give you," you laugh, prodding him hard with your nose. "Not that I can fault your tastes, mind you, I'm very handsome. And charming."
"Oh, I've been jumping you, mister 'help me with this bone', okay, if you say so," you laugh. "Admit it, you're into me. I may not be charming, but I'm twice as handsome to make up for it. I'm even fluffy."
"I'm only in it for the fluff," you assure him, then crane your head around and bite the magnificent plume of his tail.
"Fluff and sandwiches -- hey!" Comfy or not, that demands retaliation. Unfortunately, you're still not used to your shape, and knock over a lamp in the process of trying to bite his tail in return. There's a knock on the door. You freeze. You make a "Growf?" noise that's the closest you can get to yes? and your dad pokes his head in. "Everything all right?" You hop down from the bed so you can pat-paw the wood floor in Morse code: S L E E P O V E R. Which you think pretty much explains all the noise. "Keep it down, boys, I do have to work in the morning." He salutes with his toothbrush and goes away again. Bemused, you hop back onto the bed and try to settle down. "I am guessing," you venture, "that not a lot of made-werewolves' parents react to the news by scolding them for knocking stuff over with their tail."
You laugh. "No, but if I had a pound for every time my maman said, 'puppies that don't watch their paws get them eaten' I'd be richer than my dad! You'll note I still have all my feet, though."
"I'd rather have feet than money. All the feet. This foot -- and this foot --" You remember your dad needs to sleep, and calm yourself. "You're a terrible influence, you make me act like I'm in middle school. This is all on you and not a failure of my self-control at all."
"Pshaw, as if I've ever even been to middle school." You curl up on the bed, a companionable distance away, but not so far that you can't bop his snout with a forepaw.
"That's so weird," you say through a yawn. "That you've never been to school." You squiggle around, trying to get comfortable. Stick your back feet under the pillow. Perfect. "Hey, at least I don't have to figure out how to turn the light off with paws. I turned it off with my tail."
You yawn. "Well I never got my fucking Hogwarts letter, did I? There's a home-school kit my family uses on the pups, you have to pass year six's tests before you're allowed out of the territory." You roll over and give a big grinning pleased-with-yourself stretch and huff. "I didn't, though. I couldn't get past year three so I just kept running away until I was clever enough that no one could catch me. After that I went off to Nepal for a few months and when I came back they'd all given up. My mother says getting anything past maman's probably worth a few University educations right there."
"I'm imagining you at Hogwarts and it's horrifying. You're much too clever for school, you'd ruin everything." You yawn again. "What do you wanna do tomorrow?"
"I kind of want to lie around and do nothing, and I also want to hit the road, and yeah, I don't even know." You think a little, and it comes to you: "I need to go to REI. Camping gear store. I've never done winter camping with my own gear before, and like, I've survived several nights in a brushpile bivouac with no fire, but I've got nothing to prove. We might as well be comfortable. Especially if we're using the truck as a mobile base camp and doing most of our hiking in fur. I don't need to keep it down to backpacking weight."
"I still don't understand how that's supposed to work," you say. "We drive the car a hundred miles. We part the car. We do another sixty on foot. Then we.... we turn around, go back to the car, and drive the car back past where we already walked to? Why would you do that?"
