Author's note: No actual sex... but circumstances do require some description and thus the warning...
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Lunch had been a bit of a break from the rumor mills and Tad did enjoy getting to share his lunch with Amy, though much of what other thoughts were going through Tad's head also couldn't be voiced because they were at school. He was eighteen and legally an adult, as was Amy, and she was truly safe for him to have interest in. He'd had some "girlfriends" that were in sort of an on again off again sort of category, mostly due to the fact that if his father was transferred to a new base or new unit, or it looked like he'd see deployment overseas there was the real potential that he'd have to leave his friends to follow the new posting or because of the were secret. Tad knew that his parents hadn't forbidden him from falling in love with someone, but there was the sort of sense that he make completely sure that any normal girl that he might fall in love with be "the one." Continued courtship would include various risks and requirements.
If Tad and that normal were to stay together, it would ultimately mean that she would need to become a were as well, as were scientists had found no way prevent the transference of the Were Virus. Male weres tended to have trouble with the fact that when they had their climax during sex that if they were wearing a condom, the condom would be broken by that climax. A female were's vaginal walls were strong enough that even if a human male wore a condom, her own muscles would grip her human lover's penis so tightly during sex that the condom would be pulled down to the point that the man's penis would be pushed through as they copulated. That would mean any were/normal paring would soon lead to a were/were pairing as the normal joined were society to be with his/her lover.
And for Tad, this requirement would mean revealing himself as a were to any normal girl he might have dated while his father was alive and the Decker family was moving around as part of his duties in the Marine Corps. And that would require a lot of trust in that the girl loved Tad to the point where it wouldn't matter that he was a were and that she'd be willing to join and keep the were secret too. So far, no one that Tad had ever met in the past had come that close. He'd made good friends with plenty of people, but none that ever came the point where it would be worth the risk to expose the were secret to that person.
Amy, however, was different, as were many of the girls in Moon Lake. Amy was already a were, which meant that neither the Were Virus nor the were secret were an issue. And like any teenage male, regardless of being a legal adult or not, that essentially had Tad's hormones in overdrive. It felt almost like he was making up for lost time with Amy. He wanted to shower her in kisses and show her how much he liked her, but he couldn't do that in school. It'd be a bit embarrassing in front of everybody in the school, and the school maintained rules similar to any other school Tad had been to, which meant no PDA while school was in session.
And so they made it through lunch with some small talk on their morning classes and updating the other on what was coming in classes that they shared, but took at different times of the day. When the day ended, they soon met up again just inside the main doors to the building.
"Hey," Tad gave a small smile as he and Amy approached, "have a good afternoon?"
"Pretty good..." Amy said slowly and pushed one of the doors open and held it open for Tad, "though the rumor mill still churned..."
"Yeah, I heard a lot of that all day," Tad commented, "the battle with police and all that."
"Well... it IS kinda big to have something like that IN town," Amy commented, "we generally don't get that much excitement... though I suppose there's just been something with regard to this fall... what with a College professor getting scratched by a rogue and putting the whole town on alert and now another picking a fight with police before getting himself killed."
Tad nodded. Amy had already filled him in on a lot of those details regarding the actions of a lone rogue werefox. He also remembered meeting two male members of his new pack, Nate and Alex in the woods on one of the nights before Halloween where he learned that the College Professor who'd been clawed was Nate's father. Though things had gone fairly smoothly for him after that point, which Tad figured was okay. The biggest thing right now was the combination of the aftermath in the arrest of Lionel Ulysses and then Ulysses' murder. Both carried the potential to expose weres and could get people nervous. It appeared that the battle that had happened Sunday morning was the end of the law's search into the latter legal issue, but wouldn't mean that all issues were suddenly gone with it.
"Yeah... Government eventually had a big discussion on that to start the class this morning," Tad commented as the two began to walk along the street as it moved toward the center of town "the battle and all that... and what it could mean."
"Yeah, I've heard that the Government teacher is pretty civic minded and quite willing to open the floor for debate on specific issues over the years," Amy agreed and then gave Tad a knowing wink, "and I may or may not have heard that from my parents."
That actually made Tad laugh a little bit. They walked along quietly as they came into the large park area that dominated the center of town. What Halloween decorations that had been there were now gone, though the changing colors of the leaves did give a very fall like atmosphere. It was an image that looked quite like any other young couple on a fall day, and in that, Tad liked that feeling when he was with Amy. It felt rather normal to be with her, even though both of them were werewolves.
"Well, I think he certainly generated a lot of though," Tad told her.
"Never hurt anyone," Amy chuckled.
"So... how are you for homework?" Tad wondered.
"Not too bad," Amy answered, "a bit here and bit there. You?"
"About the same... though mostly in math..." Tad answered.
"Well... you HAD to sign up for pre-Calculus," Amy teased.
"It's the equivalent of what I had at Quantico," Tad spoke, referring to the school district he'd attended at his father's last posting before his death, "and besides, there's a surprising amount of math in just about everything. Even video game designers need to be pretty good with numbers. It's like you go to college and you have a triple major in art, math, and computers so you learn everything."
Amy only shook her head.
"So... do we need to wait for your brothers?" Tad asked as he noted that he and Amy were approaching the center of town.
"No, they should be taking the bus home," Amy answered, "and we're free for the afternoon. So... if you want to do a homework study date..."
"School work... one of the finer points of love," Tad joked rolling his eyes.
This felt good. It was more normal and got away from all the stresses and arguments that seemed to revolve around the fight and so on. Most of the theories that Tad had heard had come second had. Their parents read the article in the morning paper and that was about all the kids heard on it. However, with High School Seniors, who were more than aware about the larger world around them to some degree, that sort of thing was bound to create rumors, concerns, and worries. From most of those stories it seemed like this Dymixious Drake really wasn't that great a character to be around, even if one wasn't taking into account that he'd ultimately picked a fight with police.
The one thing that floated in the back of Tad's mind was a run in that he and Amy had had well before Halloween, with a lone man as they walked home from school. The man had clearly been grumpy and a part of Tad's mind wondered if that guy WAS Dymixious, but that was in the past now and was one of those things that talking with Amy about more "normal" things distracted him from. And that felt good.
"Well... it'll due until the weekend," Amy answered, "then you could consider a date to the Local Diner... or we could go to the movies. Something like that."
Tad chuckled and they continued walking.