William's morning had been very quiet, and while he could afford to go in later in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays, he had figured to go in a bit early to at least keep a few things in order for his lectures for the next week. He settled into going back and forth between what he had set up in his classroom and his office which was in a different section of the English department building. Much of it was simple musing over what he'd say in the lectures for each class, though there was also putting together the actual slides on PowerPoint. For the classes he'd done before, that was very easy as he could easily reload old slide shows that he'd used before. For new or different classes that he had had before, that took a little bit more work, though so long as the courses he had remained within English Literature, there was little William Anderson couldn't teach.
However, by about eight-fifty-one AM, he found that getting more work done wasn't going to be on the morning agenda. It happened as he was moving out of his classroom and preparing to head to his office for something, when he caught the sound of footsteps and the mixed scent of fish and perfume. It was a rather familiar scent that he did remember, and he turned to find Melissa Stovall walking quietly up the hallway. What surprised him more than the fact that she had come to the college was the fact that she had a rather nervous look on her face. It made him worry if something had happened to Eric and Julie on the way to school.
"Good morning, Mr. Anderson," Melissa said politely, "do you have a moment?"
"At the moment," William answered, "On Tuesdays and Thursdays I don't have a class until ten."
"Ten!" Melissa said with some surprise and raised her arm up to look to her wristwatch, with to William looked like it had a lot of gold on it, but given how good watch-makers were, it could be only gold paint, "That's actually quite good. Can we talk?"
"Of course," William answered and turned around and opened the door to his classroom and looked over his shoulder, "Is something wrong?"
He noticed the mayor's wife give a nervous smile again and brush her blond hair back with a free hand. This only served to make him curious on the situation as to what was going on. He didn't think Melissa Stovall would put the moves on him, given the amount of love that he'd noticed between Melissa and Martin when Julie had invited the Anderson family to dine with the Stovalls after Yvette's capture, but there was the potential that whatever Melissa had to say related to his youngest son.
"In a way... NOTHING is wrong and things are very much right," Melissa spoke, "but it is something that you and your wife will need to be aware of... as while I'm sure the both of you are adapting quite well to being weres... this relates to some specifics with weremers."
William held the door open and let Melissa walk into the classroom. She set her purse down on one of the long student desks, which looked like a long flat desk made out of a grayish-blue painted wood or Formica or plastic, William wasn't fully sure on what. As she set her purse down, she turned back to William.
"To start with... have you noticed any changes in Eric?" Melissa asked carefully.
"Well... since he's met your daughter, he's actually opened up a bit more and has even seemed more confident than he was before," William answered, "nothing wrong with that... and if, for whatever reason, things don't work out romantically... Eric should be more comfortable being in society... human or were... and not being isolated from the world."
"No... I meant have you noticed anything physical?" Melissa answered, knowing that things WOULD work out between children based on what Julie had told her and Martin of her noticing Eric's eyes changing color.
"I don't think so," William answered, "he's still a normal... at least as far as his scent goes..."
"He's still a normal, yes," Melissa answered, "but those days for him... based on developments that Julie's noticed... are numbered."
"She wouldn't force herself on him, would she?" William asked, phis protective instincts flaring.
"No, she wouldn't," Melissa assured him, "but... you see... every were species has some element of their natures that have no scientific explanation. For werecats, like the Twists and your wife... if they were to mate with a heterosexual human woman, the act of transforming that woman would not only into a werecat, but would make that new werecat become at least bisexual if not becoming an outright lesbian... For werefoxes..."
"It's our bonds," William said slowly, "and how firm they are and knowing that the one we've bonded to is the one we're loyal to until we die."
Melissa nodded, "and for weremers... it's actually literally seeing who will be our true love is. Martin saw that I was his true love the moment he saw me... and Julie saw your son as her true love the moment she saw him at school."
This William remembered, as Eric had made some mention of this to him.
"It was a surprise... because Julie and Eric are both so young, but it happened," Melissa answered, "and from what Julie's told us... her love is being reciprocated."
"From what Eric's told me... I think he's really fallen for her," William commented with a smile, "It really is quite beautiful when you think about it."
"It is," Melissa nodded, "but as this bond builds between a weremer and a normal... the normal will begin to have some physical changes, particularly with regard to eye color..."
"But mine and Martha's eyes only change color when we assume our were forms," William answered.
"It's a bit different for weremers, as we'll tend to have either eyes of some shade of blue, gray-green, or even sea green eyes," Melissa answered, "in fact when I got over some of my own internal nervousness over weres and that Martin was one... my own eyes changed to the color they are now... or at least began to. It's what gives a sign that the weremer has truly found his or her true love and that the normal that the weremer has found is beginning to truly love the weremer back... deeply... passionately... and firmly."
"It sounds like my bond as a werefox to Martha in a way," William said slowly.
"In many ways... many of these sorts of elements are similar to each other," Melissa nodded in agreement.
"So I take it, Eric's eyes have been changing?" William asked.
Melissa nodded, "Julie told me they've briefly turned to a shade of blue that's practically identical to her own. It shows that the love between them is real and growing stronger."
"Good for them," William patted Melissa on the shoulder and turned back to his main counter/desk area, thinking the report that Melissa had given was the limit of it.
"Well... yes..." Melissa said slowly, her voice a bit more nervous, "but because this element is related to the bond between them that is growing... and because Eric has already told Julie that he'll become her weremerman for her... is that this development and grown will begin to push them to take things to their fullest level..."
William turned very slowly, "They'd have sex...?"
"Not to be immoral or rebellious... and in pure theory they can resist it," Melissa spoke, "but the love between is strong and in its own way is similar to situations when a transformation is incomplete... the mutual love between your son and my daughter is so strong that your son in many ways is slowly beginning to change with rising desire and urges to be with Julie in every way. Julie will respond in kind. Neither of them can avoid this. They can fight it...but there's no way to know how well they can resist that urge to be with their love."
William looked back to her for a moment. She looked nervous and was half looking down at her feet and half looking to him.
"This won't..." William began to ask, nervous that this might hurt his son.
"No... once Eric becomes a weremer... things between them will calm back down," Melissa spoke, "so... like any were, while his libido will be higher than it was when he was a normal, he will have full control over himself and they can hold back and wait until an age you and Martha feel to be more acceptable before becoming truly active sexually..."
Melissa reached to his shoulder to assure him that things would be fine.
"...And it isn't something that we can avoid," Melissa answered, "the love and desire will only grow stronger between them. I'd personally wish that Julie could wait... but this is firm and strong, and will affect her just as much as it affects Eric. Forcing them while they're going to be entering into this like salmon needing to go upstream to spawn could be detrimental to both."
William sighed heavily. He was glad that Eric had found someone to love, but he wasn't fully sure how to respond over the issue because Eric and Julie were so young.
"After this... they can wait until they're at least sixteen?" William asked.
Melissa nodded, "as I said... once Eric's transformation is complete... things will ease down between them. Martin and I both agreed that it'd be a good idea to let you and your wife know, as it's something that they couldn't avoid and we didn't want to think ill of your son or anything..."
"I wouldn't think ill of either Eric or Julie," William answered, "at the base level... I'd prefer they way, as they're both so young... But, I'd suppose Moon Lake's details change things a bit."
"They do indeed," Melissa nodded.