(no subject)

[deadashale]

WHO: Laura & Remus
WHAT: Laura has an offer to make.
WHEN: A few days after Laura and Derek's discussion.
WHERE: Remus' apartment

Laura's known all along what the right thing to do - it's everything outside of making Remus the offer that scares the ever-loving hell out of her. And that includes the fact that this is going against a decision that she had made long ago that she would never bite anyone. There's a difference in this situation, though... Remus is already a werewolf, it's not like she'd be changing him into something that he isn't already - the hope is purely that she can alleviate his suffering in some way, shape, or form. And even if it continues to be painful and wild the benefits of the potential weaknesses that might be added to him can make a world of difference in containing and keeping him safe.

It should probably be a no-brainer, but Laura takes her position and what she can to do seriously for that - whether Remus wants to be a part of her pack or not, she can't just offer to bite him without a great deal of thought put into it. And it's only after plenty of that on her own, plus the discussion with Derek, that Laura finally decides she can't keep doing this t herself.

Derek was right, she can't know anything until she asks him if he's even willing to try this - if he wants this. The worry, the fear, it could all be for naught. Laura hopes not, though, even though it comes with a lot of complicated feelings.

And it's with that very heavy thought in mind that the alpha werewolf lifts her fits to knock on Remus' apartment door. Here goes nothing. "It's Laura!" She calls out, hearing the sounds from inside easily, though for privacy and respect she tries not to hone in on any of them in particular as she shifts from foot to foot and shoves her hands into the pockets of her light blue dress. There's a part of her that can't help but feel like it's entirely bizarre that she's showing up, that she's in light colors with such a heavy topic in the air, but it's not like she can run home to change just because she wants to have a heavy conversation. Or more - she shouldn't, anyway.

She forces a bit of a smile and inhales, the familiar scent of chocolate, books, and other notes clear from the apartment within. Familiar. She just has to relax and have this conversation like big girl. And they'll go from there. It's not like she's going to walk in and announce her intention, or take this flippantly - it'll be a discussion she's sure, but she's doing this the right way - the way that her mother would be proud of. Might be easier to blurt it out but she knows she can't. Though it's tempting to scream out her question through the door instead of wait.

Instead she waits with a small smile on her face and listening to the various sounds from the apartments all along this corridor.

Comments

[skygazing]

Remus hardly has visitors, but that's usually for the best - particularly after heavy moon nights, he finds himself exhausted and sleeping away many of his hours. It's been a week or so since the last and he's finally recovering, up and about making a hearty cuppa, the water only just setting to boil.

(Truthfully, it's for Hermione, too - he knows that when she's back she likes to settle down for the evening with a cuppa following dinner).

So the knock comes and he nearly jumps out of his skin, but the voice is familiar enough. He moves toward the door and opens it, looking a little wary. Laura Hale. He only ever sees her out in the large, open warehouse he's caged in during the full moons. To see her here of all places sets his nerves on edge, to say the least.

"Hello there - oh, sorry, come in, come in. I was just putting on some tea if you'd like?"

Remus is dressed in his typical attire - jeans and an oversized jumper, to cover any bruising or scars. The dark circles under his eyes seem to have eased a little, at least, and when he moves there's little sign of pain left. Instead, he all but bounces to the kitchen to retrieve a plate of cookies he'd baked a few hours earlier, and to peep at the kettle.

"Cookie? Well, I'd say biscuit but I right confused Klaus one evening with that."

[deadashale]

"Hey - tea'd be nice, thanks. You really know how to play host, hm?" Laura nods with a smile for the other werewolf as her eyes rake over his thin frame. He looks sick. He doesn't smell it, but then again he's not sick, not really. He's just.... ravaged by the monster that's barely held at bay inside him. And it still makes her just as sad as it did the first time she heard about it, the first time she saw it. There's the immediate urge that she's fought on multiple occasions to stuff his face with something hearty that'll stick to his bones.

It won't help, though, unfortunately - no matter how much she'd love to try.

Laura moves to slip into the apartment, taking it in. She can smell, and hear, the bubble of the water setting to boil. She can smell the familiar scent of Hermione as well as Remus himself as she looks around the familiar layout of all of the apartments, lingering near the couch to force herself not to trail after Remus like a puppy. It's a hard-pressed urge to ignore given the reason that she's here. Instead she manages to plant her feet and she can feel the spike of anxiety in her stomach, but she's pushing through. That's what she's got to do.

"Biscuit... cookie.... whichever it is absolutely - they smell great." She offers Remus a smile before she can't help herself. "How you feeling? You seem at least little better than the last time I saw you."

ty for no notif dw

[skygazing]

"I can't have a guest and not offer something at the very least. Hermione's here, as well. She'd be right cross with me if I didn't."

Remus smiles softly and sets the plate on the table near her. Usually he'd engage the kettle like any muggle might, but this time it's with a casual flick of his wrist that the hob burns a little hotter, speeding the boil of the water. He'd hate to have her wait.

But he's held prisoner to the time it takes water to boil and he doesn't know what to make of the unexpected visit and the company. His hands land to the back of one chair, one raising again to use a wandless swipe of his hand and clear the couch of the book he'd been reading, the blanket, everything neatly going back into its place.

"I've been better, yes," he agrees softly, smiling. "A bit of a mess, I wasn't expecting company. I'm feeling better, though I've another few days of recovery ahead of me. Deeper bruises this time, which means the wolf must have been restless. It always does this time of year."

No less when kept in a proverbial cage. Remus doesn't look at her when he speaks of it, as though the wolf itself is something so far removed from him, as if theyre talking about the weather and not the horrific happenings of each month.

"Thank you again for assisting me. I'd offer you more than cookies if I could make it up to you somehow."

dw is the best (read: worst) about that bullshit

[deadashale]

"Sounds like something my mom would've said too." Laura grins to herself, even if it doesn't quite meet her eyes. Talia Hale was... the best, after all - warm, a great alpha, and incredibly well respected all wrapped up into one hell of a person. Laura's positive that she would have liked Remus, and that she would have at least considered what Laura herself is going to offer. Would she have outright gone through with making him the offer, though?

Laura's not even sure anymore - sometimes it's hard to think about what she would have done without having her up on a pedestal after everything that she passed down. And it makes it even harder not to compare herself to her mother. But it doesn't help anything, that's for sure. So Laura tries to banish the thoughts of her mother and the other questions popping up and connecting to her uncertainty about her purpose here. She already made her mind up and wasting brain space and energy on worrying more about it isn't going to help anything. She already spun out now it's time to take the reigns.

Keen eyes watch as he, without even needing the wand she knows he has, magicks things back into their proper place and ties. "God that must come in handy a lot." Laura smiles, sympathy on her face as she moves to take a cookie and a seat - trying to be casual and relax (easier said than done). "Don't push yourself on account of me - I know I didn't give you a warning before I dropped in and I don't want you wearing yourself out." Laura instructs pointedly with a warm but directed gaze. She can't help it - the alpha in her has her doing it.

"You're welcome - but you don't need to make it up to me, it's the least I can do to help - and it's kind of why I'm here, actually," Laura admits, nibbling on the cookie for a moment, maybe trying to gather her wits about her. "I think there might be something more that I could do to help you if you want and are willing to try it. I'm an alpha and I can give the bite - and even though I can't guarantee what would happen because you're a different... flavor of werewolf in theory if it works it could change the way that the full moon works for you, maybe make it easier on you." Laura takes a beat.

"I don't want to get your hopes up or anything because I have no guarantees, but I thought we could talk about it - the pros and cons - see what you think and how you feel bout the idea?"

[skygazing]

"Your mother sounds like quite the woman."

Remus smiles fondly at Laura, and he can pick up on the look in Laura's expression that whoever her mother must have been, she'd been a good one. It makes him think of his own, how she'd cared for him tirelessly - the very way he moves to pour them each tea with a dash of sweet cream - is all he learned from her and more.

He approaches the table and sets one mug out in front of Laura, and with some hesitancy, takes a seat across from her. He finds the warm but pointed look she gives him familiar, and so he acquiesces. To say he feels nervous by her visit is an understatement, but he's happy to have the mug to busy his hands. Otherwise, he appears outwardly calm.

"Something more? I'm afraid I don't follow," he admits, though as she continues and talks about a bite and her flavor of werewolf, something in him freezes.

Another bite. A bite that could change the course of his months, and having seen the Hales and their wolf forms - he'd been jealous since the moment they met.

"I..." he considers his words carefully, his brow furrowing, his mouth twisting to one side. "...I'll admit I don't know how to feel about it. I... the prospect is interesting if it works. If... even if it lessens each moon. But you have to forgive me - the idea that my circumstances could ever be different left my head nearly a decade ago."

He blows out a breath and sips from the tea. When it stings his tongue, a tad too hot, he wrinkles his nose and taps the rim with his finger. Magic does come in handy, certainly, but it's his own magic that got him into all this mess in the first place, isn't it?

"Your werewolves are far stronger than my own - I... if it goes wrong. I don't know how it would go wrong. If any of this would work, but. I'm intrigued."

[deadashale]

"She really was - she gets all the credit for all the good parts of me and Dere." Laura admits with a bit of a wry grin. It's not a stretch in Laura's mind to say that either. Sure, she finished up raising Derek up until her death, but everything good and every bit of control and the good parts.... the good memories, the pack, all of that came from Talia Hale. Nothing would have ever been what it was had it not been for her. And Laura is pretty sure that she and Derek miss her all the time. Laura knows that she does.

She feels like somehow her mother would know what the right thing to do in most situations... whether it were obvious or difficult. And not because she was magic, but she had a special way of thinking things through mixed with her own intuition that Laura wishes that she could have managed to pass on before she'd been murdered. Laura just does her best to try and live up to her, though.

Laura is nervous, but she's made her mind up that if Remus wants this she's going to do it and she just hopes that doing what she feels is right would make her mom proud. Derek is on board, and he reiterated her own gut instinct so whether it's right or not she's got support. Trying to help someone who is absolutely tortured on the regular, though, seems like an act of kindness.

"I mean, I can't blame you - everything I gather about what it's like to be a werewolf in your home sounds like torture - no offense." Laura offers, taking another bite of her cookie as she watches Remus, adding after a moment. "This isn't something you have to decide quickly, either, but I wanted to present the idea, at least." She offers, wanting to make sure that he knows that there is no need to rush into anything. She isn't going to take the offer back and he can hold off or take as much time as he needs as far as she's concerned. She's taken plenty of time to make the offer and think on it before even coming to him with it, after all.

"That's the idea, honestly - we're stronger and we have the ability to control our shifts, and if that's, in theory, stronger than your wolf it could either change what you go through entirely to you being one of us, or change elements of what you go through. Derek and I went around and around and we both think that even if it doesn't give you the control, which is worst case scenario, it would hopefully give you the same weaknesses that we have, which would make it easier to contain and keep you controlled between those and us." Laura offers, reiterating one some of what she and Derek went over and over again over some takeout when she was spun out on this the other night. It's been something she's been playing over the scenario in every possible variable - especially the negative ones - since she started to seriously consider this idea.

[skygazing]

Remus sits and tries his best to listen, to take in everything Laura says. The fact that she and Derek both have thought this through does something for his nerves. It doesn't change the haunting worry, though - that it could go worse than he already has it.

"...torture is an understatement," he huffs, shaking his head and looking down at his folded hands. "I don't talk about it often - it's easier to sleep it off and let the others think I'm well enough. But how do you explain what happens to someone who doesn't know. It can be quite difficult."

And embarrassing, really, but he doesn't go on with that. Instead, he lets out a nervous sigh.

"I... I suppose it can't hurt anymore than my current transformations? If... well, if it gives the same weaknesses then it's a move to the positive regardless. I... it would make my recovery easier in the end."

Remus wrings his hands together, frowning as he runs through all the scenarios. Of all the possible outcomes of this. He thinks about a second bite, and his skin crawls remembering Fenrir's gaping, furious maw back in his childhood. He doesn't look Laura in the eye when he speaks again.

"What do you think I should do?"

[deadashale]

"I believe it - I can only imagine and I'm sure that I can't even get close to what it is in reality." Laura guesses, in earnest. There are some things that are painful when it comes to being a werewolf, but by and far none of them are regular enough occurrences for her that she can imagine what Remus has to go through on a constant revolving cycle. And that's one of the biggest reasons that she wants to help him. She hates the idea of watching a good person, someone who doesn't deserve this pain, suffer like that. And much like she has many of the supes here - Laura takes the liberty of considering Remus a friend even more.

She wouldn't even wish what she imagines he goes through on her worst enemies.

"I can't see how it would add more pain than your current transformations - if it doesn't make it easier marginally." Laura agrees, her head bobbing in a nod in terms of the recovery - it could do that and they seem like such little things when she'd rather it make all the difference for him, but even if it's small things like that... it could mean more to him. Peter was the factor that neither Derek or Laura could speak for - and his feelings, after all. Watching the wizard, Laura nibbles on her cookie, her eyes taking in the frown and the way that he wrings his hands together - his question catches her off guard and she sits the cookie down and leans across the table to put a warm hand on his arm.

"I want to make it clear that this is up to you - I don't want to pressure you." Laura gives his arm a comforting squeeze as she continues, "I've thought through this for quite a while before I came here today and I think the pros outweigh the cons of a second bite. As a friend, and someone who cares about how miserable you are... I'd advise you to take the bite, but as the alpha responsible for this I understand if you need a lot more time, and I will respect and understand if you don't want to based on theory or whatever the reasons may be - I just would like to help if I can and if you want it."