The day had had its fair share of anxieties for the Andersons as they prepared for dinner. For much of the day there had been the back of the mind worrying over Eric and his session with Frances, but as William and Martha left their bedroom to get started on dinner, still in their fursonas, both knew that things weren't as bad as they'd originally feared. They could still hear Eric speaking to Julie over Skype as they came out into the doorway and soon moved to head downstairs toward the kitchen. Some of it was fairly lovey-dovey as it were, but given everything that Eric had been through, both Anderson parents were happy to see their youngest happy. And both were thankful that the things that Frances suggested as things for Eric to do wasn't too much. Things could have been worse, but thankfully weren't and that gave them room for things moving forward.
"So... dear... what were you thinking of for dinner?" William wondered, "We’ve had to have plenty of it... Even our appetites have grown since becoming weres. But Nate even more so..."
Martha nodded at that. Though a part of her mind told her it made sense. Werefoxes and werecats weren't the largest weres, and thus while they would burn some energy transforming, it wouldn't be that much as they wouldn't gain that much in the way of muscle mass. Even with their present digitigrade legs they were only a few inches taller than they were in human form. That was one of the things that let them manage to squeeze into clothing they'd brought with them from Minnesota. Martha had picked up a few things from Awareness that William felt she looked stunning in, in both forms, but the cost of those clothes being specially made to shift with the were made them a bit pricy. Nate, however, showed a dramatic change between his human and were forms. In human form, Nate was about five inches shorter than William, however, in his werewolf form, Nate was at least a foot taller than William in his werefox form, if not more so. They'd also noted that Nate's muscle mass bulked up even more between human and were forms, which would make it near impossible for Nate to wear anything that would fit his human form in his were form.
In contrast to Nate, Eric didn't seem to gain that much in height, if any when he took on his own were forms. Though, at best they'd only seen Eric in his stage 2 form. It was possible that in stage 3, Eric would be longer than he was tall in human form, as the flukes on his tail would add to his length, just as William and Martha's feet lengthened and added to their height in their were form. And even if the change in size for Eric wasn't that much in going from his human form to stage 3 form, the fact that weremers had three separate stages of transformation, rather than just the one alternate form that William and Martha had, they guessed that there was the potential that Eric's energy needs went up at a rate that was higher than what William and Martha had experienced, as just as they'd noticed with themselves and with Nate, Eric's appetite had gone up. Exactly how much was an unknown, but they knew it had gone up.
"Well... we do have some pork chops," Martha mused, "and plenty of them... They could work."
"That will do... and there are some odds and ends in the fridge that would go with them," William commented, "All we'd need to do is warm them up."
Martha smiled at that as they quietly made their way through the living room, and actually liking the feel of thick carpet under her paw-like feet. It wasn't grass, but it did feel lush and thick and she had all she could do to not stop and sharpen her claws on the carpet. One glance back with her eyes soon found that William was following slightly behind her with his eyes on her hips and tail. That almost immediately brought a smile to her muzzle as memories of some expressed desires while they'd been in the bedroom a few moments before. It was another thing that Martha had felt pleased with at being a werecat, in that it was liberating in many ways. She could feel free and open with herself, something that had been difficult at times in the past, even to the point where William didn't know she was bi before the move to Moon Lake. Now, she had fast friends and found plenty things to indulge her interests, and in seeing how deep William had bonded to her as a werefox, things were happy. Martha could have her fun and had a very handsome werefox to be with. She noted William's smile as she swayed her hips slightly and they moved on.
They soon set about their work cooking. Martha could hear a series of beeps as William began preheating the oven while she moved to collect the wrapped porkchops from the refrigerator. She'd just set the tray down on the counter and was about to turn to the cabinet to find that William had already retrieved the metal cooking pan that they would use and they set about getting the pork out and putting it in the cooking pan, being careful not to touch the meat while in their were forms. It meant using spatulas and tongs, but it worked. As they worked they then turned to some of the other points of conversation that could be had.
"So... how was your day outside of the session with Frances? With my having to get back to the college... I didn't get the chance to ask," William commented to her.
"Pretty good," Martha commented, "though something seems to be getting people excited about something. I got a call from someone wanting to know if we'd attend this special City Council meeting tomorrow. At the time... I was trying to balance things between worries for Eric and studying... but..."
"Yeah... there seems to be a lot of attention to that," William commented, "even students at the college are talking about it. I suppose some of Moon Lake's students are a bit more involved in community activities than others."
"Makes sense..." Martha said slowly, "it does have its secrets that they fear being exposed. If something knew pops up that in theory might threaten that... they might get excited or nervous for fear that others won't respond well. Shoot... we indulged Nate's interest in werewolf movies and stories over the years and we didn't respond well to the declaration that Moon Lake is populated by weres."
"And yet... here we are," William smiled down his pointed muzzle and ran one hand down Martha's arm, feeling the soft texture of her brown fur until they were holding each other's hand up so that the pads underneath their fingertips and the base of their fingers touched with mutually supporting smiles and a flicker of contentment in each other's eyes. "Part of their community... and while I may not have gotten a choice as to what to be... I don't think I'd give it up even if I could."
"Becoming weres saved us," Martha smiled looking to the black fur that made the gloves on her werefox husband's hands and forearms and with triangular ears poking up through his brown hair that sat over the red orange fur on the dorsal side of his head, pretty much the standard coloration for the Red Fox.
A short beep, indicating that the oven was up to temperature. While William turned and opened the oven door, Martha moved to set the cooking pan on the middle rack and then went back across the room for a kitchen timer so they didn't over do the pork chops.
"But the dean says that this sort of thing tends to happen when new and potentially big businesses move in," William commented, "So... this meeting is probably about something like that, because it might attract more normal humans to move in with the company."
"The woman I talked to on the phone seemed to sound to me like she was concerned about something more than that..." Martha mused, "but then... we're still pretty new here... maybe she just got over excited over something. Would you want to go to this meeting? That was something she mentioned."
"I'll have to give it some thought," William answered.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Upstairs, Nate and Alex were making their way through their homework. Thankfully things hadn't been too bad in that department and they'd both managed to get a lot done. As they finished, Alex sat up against Nate's bed and began packing his backpack for the walk back to his own home through the woods that were between the street the Andersons' house was on and the street his own home was on. They could faintly hear Eric talking to Julie through the wall that separated their respective rooms, but while Nate was glad with regard to what his father had told him when he and Alex came home, Eric really wasn't the thing that Nate was worried about at the moment. And when he looked up from the floor to where Nate was at his desk, Alex could see some of the worry on his boyfriend's face.
"Everything will be fine," Alex assured him, "and in the end... Frances Twist IS Ben's mom. It's her right to worry, just as your parents would over you and Eric."
"Yeah... I know," Nate nodded, "I have to admit... For me there is a certain element about this that is directly related to you and Ben. I mean... between me and Eric... ERIC is the athlete. Shoot... you should even remember that I wasn't exactly the fittest guy when I changed. Becoming a werewolf is what gave me the six pack I have now. Before that... I was a bit heavy set, not fat, but not light, either."
Alex nodded, "Yeah... I know. But I've come to like you for WHO you are."
Nate smiled, "That's nice... but not what I was getting at..."
Nate sighed and ran one hand through his hair for a moment, "I mean... Ben was the first werewolf I met... or at least the first that I knew for sure was a werewolf. It was all part of the welcome to Moon Lake, thing. And we made good friends..."
"Yeah... and Ben's been like that," Alex agreed, "a real leader and diplomat. Probably gets it from his moms. We'd always been friends to... and some of "us" was probably set up by him with regard to your becoming a werewolf and us going out..."
Nate sort of followed along with a nod and then spoke, "Which is nice... but remember when you talked me into going out for the game, part of what made say "yes" was that Ben would be there and I could learn from you guys. As I've never done anything like this before. I've watched plenty of Vikings games on TV and even some University of Minnesota games when we were there... but watching football and playing football are different. I figured I could learn from you and Ben... my friends."
Alex nodded. He didn't necessarily like that Frances wouldn't sign the permission form for Ben, as he liked hanging with Ben, too, but Alex also knew that Frances wasn't out to rob them of Ben's friendship.
"Regardless of whether or not Frances says yes to Ben, he'll always be our friend," Alex told him, "So if that's what you're worried about... don't worry."
Nate gave a small smile at that and was about to say more when he first heard a voice faintly call to Julie for dinner, which he guessed was the Stovalls coming through Eric's Skype connection. Shortly after that was William's voice calling Nate and Eric to dinner. That only reminded Alex that he was expected home too.
"I'd better get going," Alex spoke as he got up, picking up his backpack as he did so, "See you later... for some fun?"
"Probably," Nate nodded, "Though, I'll have curfew."
"It is a school night," Alex chuckled as they left Nate's room just as Eric came out of his. "Hey there, man! Everything going good?"
"Pretty good," Eric nodded, "Julie and I talked about her book club... Mostly fantasy type stuff, but they might be willing to let me in."
"Fantasy... so journals on positions you want to try," Nate teased his brother, which did earn a chuckle from Alex when Eric's cheeks flushed with a blush.
"No... fantasy as in the genre," Eric answered, "things with wizards, knights, dragons, and so on. Some, depending on the story could have werewolves in them."
"Most books on werewolves are either guides," Nate answered.
"Which aren't accurate," Alex interjected.
"Or would be in the horror and science/fiction genre," Nate commented, "about the only ones that would be in the fantasy genre would be a few... bad.. romance type novels where the hero is a werewolf. And even they are pretty rare."
"You'll fix that, I'm sure," Alex chuckled.
Nate managed a shrug as they went downstairs. Eric went straight to the dinning room while Nate escorted Alex to the back door. Alex gave Nate a peck on the cheek, assured him that things would be fine with Ben and then dashed off across the back lawn and into the forest behind the Anderson home. Nate smiled at that and then shut the door and returned to the dining room, where he found his parents fully transformed, with William in his Red Fox were form and Martha in her Havana Brown were form. Between the two, William was dressed, though his pants were pulled down a bit in the back to accommodate his tail, and Martha was totally nude for the moment. But no one seemed to mind, and the pork chops smelled delicious.