Fangs and Fur

Chapter 50 - Scott

The four of them settled down in the undergrowth a little ways into werewolf territory for their customary singing lessons. Mitch started them off with warmups and scales, then had them start harmonies for a song.

Scott was enjoying himself immensely; he felt much more comfortable singing with Avi, Mitch and Kirstie than he ever had hunting or patrolling with the rest of the pack. It was as if he'd finally found his niche - his true calling, a place just for him.

Sadly, their lessons didn't last long, because Kirstie left after only around an hour. She looked stressed and said she had things to figure out, so Scott didn't question her. She was the vampire leader and all that, and probably had responsibilities to attend to.

Once she was gone, the remaining three chatted for a few minutes, before Avi gave an exaggerated yawn and made his own excuses to leave, fixing Scott with a smirk the whole time.

And then it was just Scott and Mitch.

All of Scott's nerves came flying back in an instant when Mitch gave him a shy smile and joked, "I guess the others were sick of us, huh?"

Scott cleared his throat and ran a hand through his hair, eyes fixed on that smile. "Yeah, guess so."

Mitch studied him for a moment, one of his eyebrows steadily climbing his forehead. "Are you getting sick? You're a little red." There was something about his smirk, though, that had Scott suspecting Mitch knew exactly why he was blushing.

"No! No, I...I'm not sick." Scott cringed at his own awkwardness and forced himself to calm down. Why was he acting so strange all of the sudden? It's not like talking with Mitch was anything unusual lately. Darn Avi and his teasing. Scott rubbed the back of his neck and tried for something normal: "Hey, do you want to take a walk? I'm getting a leg cramp."

"Sure," Mitch said with a shrug, and Scott's heart skipped a beat at his little smile. They helped each other to their feet and started off through the trees, heading towards the outskirts of the forest, where it met the field Scott had first seen the vampires from. At the time he thought vampires were dangerous and unkind; now he saw that they were just people, like werewolves and humans and everything else. All equally capable of being dangerous, in their own ways.

"Scott?" Mitch asked, drawing Scott's attention back to him. Scott remembered that he wanted to kiss him, and his heart rate instantly picked up. "What were you thinking about there?" Mitch continued. "You looked lost in thought."

"Um..." Scott blanked momentarily. He shrugged. "Nothing interesting. What about you?" He tried to keep his face from blushing, but it was pointless; he'd become suddenly aware of how close their hands were as they walked side by side.

"I don't know," Mitch said, but he had a strange expression on his face, as though there was something else he wanted to say. His lips parted and he started to speak, but stopped himself with a minute head shake. "I don't know," he repeated. "Isn't it weird how we've only known each other for a couple weeks and it feels like years? There's something...special about it. Supernatural, maybe." He got that look on his face again, illuminated only slightly in the light of the waning crescent moon.

Scott knew where he was coming from; he felt the same way. There was always a tangible connection between them, and he felt it then - he was drawn to Mitch, and ached to kiss him. His nerves held him back for the moment. "I know what you mean, I think. I've never really clicked with anyone besides Avi, until you. Talking with you is easy - and not in a bad way."

"Yeah, but it's deeper than that," Mitch insisted, looking distractedly up at the dark sky then back at Scott with that strange look in his eyes. "Have you..." he trailed off and shook his head. "Never mind, it's not important."

Clearly it was, if Mitch was bothered by it. Scott resisted the urge to pry, though, and shrugged off the feeling that Mitch was harboring a secret. He trusted Mitch to tell him, if it really was important.

Instead, he took a deep breath and moved his hand to nudge Mitch's. Slowly, face burning, he laced their fingers together.

Out of his peripheral vision, he saw Mitch look over at him, then down at their hands with a grin. Suddenly Mitch pulled them to a stop, tugging on Scott's arm. "You're too cute," the vampire teased, holding up their linked fingers between them. Scott blushed harder and tried to avoid Mitch's gaze. With his free hand, Mitch tilted Scott's chin down to face him, then smiled deviously up at him. "Come here," he murmured, before raising up on tiptoe to kiss Scott.

Everything about the kiss was soft and sweet and made Scott blush to his toes. He felt a warm tingle of happiness spread throughout him as he brought his free hand up to cup Mitch's cheek, eyes drifting closed. He had thought this would be hard, but it was so, so easy - right, almost.

Snap!

Scott and Mitch jumped apart, startled by the noise of undergrowth breaking near them. Scott whipped his head around, trying to track the sound. He couldn't smell a thing.

All he could see was movement, as something large ran very quickly away.