Ben Twist pulled his car to the curb in front of an ordinary looking apartment complex in Moon Lake. His new girlfriend, Kenya Adaeze, was sitting next to him.
"From what I've been told, this is where it all began," he said, pointing at the building. "My birth parents had an apartment there. Both were naturally born werewolves of Moon Lake but somehow, being members of different packs, didn't meet until college; despite going to the same elementary, junior and senior high schools. But when they did..."
"I see," said Kenya, looking back and forth between the building and her beau. "If it's not too painful for me to ask, when did..."
"Sometime between my second and third birthdays," answered Ben, recalling when he lost them. "I was inside our happy little home with a sitter while they were out and about, running errands without a care in the world when this drunk driver collided with them. In truth, I barely remember them at all. It's more impressions and sensations than actual memories, but all of them are happy ones."
Kenya reached out and held Ben's hand in hers. "I am sure you treasure them at least as much as you treasure your time with the Twists."
"Yes, I do," he agreed. "When it came time to figure out what to with me, it turned out that the only actual relative I still had was a distant cousin of my mother's living somewhere on the East Coast, who probably doesn't remember what little family was out here anyway.
"Then again," continued Ben, "since no one wanted to send a future werewolf away from Moon Lake, as friends of my parents, Samantha and Frances stepped up and took responsibility for me. Even without the were factor, the courts here are a lot more progressive about accepting two lesbians as potential parents, and eventually they were able to officially adopt me, although I wasn't able to honor them by taking the Twist family name as my own until after my first transformation."
"I see," said Kenya gently, not letting on that she saw Ben wiping a tear away from his eyes. "So your full name is..."
"Benjamin Franklin Wilson Twist," he answered. "I kept my parents' name too, but most people treat it as a second middle name now."
"My formative years are not as exciting," began Kenya. "Both my parents are natural werepanthers, although there is some leopard within our family tree, hence the light hint of spots in my coat when the light is properly upon it. They still live within the apartment I grew up in. Although New York City is more dangerous for weres, since we do not have the tranquility and strong sense of community Moon Lake has, it has had its moments with Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, Central Park, and a host of other historic landmarks."
"I'm sure there are plenty of stories you can tell me," said Ben, starting his car. "Mind sharing a few as I drive to our next stop?"
"Certainly," she agreed, before relating the time her parents had to call the fire department to get their agile child down from a high tree without being able to fully explain how a budding were got up there in the first place.
As Ben showed Kenya Moon Lake Elementary School (grades pre-K through fifth), Moon Lake Middle School (grades sixth through eighth), and Moon Lake High School (Freshman year through Senior graduation), they traded stories about their lives back and forth; growing more emotionally closer to each other with each passing mile.
Then Ben took Kenya to the local diner.
There, they each ordered a milkshake. A cliched outing, maybe, but since both had dinner before going out for the evening, neither of them felt like having anything heavier.
They sat in a booth and talked some more, getting to know each other better.
At one point, Ben felt something running across his pants leg, and looked down to see Kenya's bare foot out of its shoe, going up and down the blue denim.
He looked at her and she simply smiled in return. Not just a gesture of enjoying the moment between them, but a subtle hint of what lied ahead in their future as she licked her lips seductively, and not just for the milkshake on her mouth.
Ben started to blush and raised his right hand to scratch the back of his head, once more displaying the nervous tick he had.
Kenya's smile grew even wider as she put her foot back in her shoe. Then she reached out and took Ben's left hand in her right, holding it tightly as she said, "My love for you is seriously growing, my dearest Benjamin."
"As is mine for you," he said, raising her hand to kiss it. "But it's already after nine, and I need to have my date home by ten," he added, rising from the table, then offering Kenya his hand.
Arm in arm, Ben stopped at the counter to settle their tab, then he walked Kenya back to his car.
After opening the door and making she was secured on the passenger side, Ben got behind the wheel and put on his seat belt.
Leaving the diner, they chatted some more as Ben drove Kenya back to her aunt and uncle's house.