William and Martha only starred for a few moments in surprise and puzzlement at their younger son's question. William didn't even notice some of his eggs fall off his fork and onto the table. Eric only looked back and waited for an answer. It was Martha who answered.
"Well... I'd think you should know what love is," Martha commented slowly, "it's an emotion one feels when they care for someone deeply. It can apply to romance... it can apply to parents and children, brothers and sisters... it can even apply to platonic friendships. People will do a lot of things for people they love. Your father and I showed you what we truly are and will do everything we can to protect you because we love you."
"I know that," Eric answered, "that's sort of the definition of love... I can understand that."
And by definition he did understand what love was. He'd already read enough of that online, but that really didn't help him with regard to what was really on his mind. What was on his mind was actually a beautiful were-mermaid who was his best friend in Moon Lake. Julie Stovall was beautiful with bright blue eyes and long blond hair and was the same age as him. Unlike many of the other women that he'd noticed in Moon Lake, who seemed to have wide hips and a D cup bust line minimum, Julie had a fairly modest bust and hips, but then she was also only fourteen, just as he was. As she continued to grow up, she could or likely would develop into the same sort of body type that Moon Lake's female weres had. However, while Julie was physically beautiful, much of what created the questions in his mind wasn't her body or her status as a weremermaid. She was smart, they liked many of the same things, she could actually hold her own in a conversation with him, and she was caring. She had arranged a "pool party" that had just been him and her just to help him get used to living in a town nearly entirely populated by were-beasts. She was his best friend for that alone.
But a lot of that only raised questions. As he remembered being slightly aroused when Julie showed him her full mer form, and that brought new thoughts and concerns to his mind that had nothing to do with Moon Lake being populated by were-beasts or that vixen's obsession with his father. For much of his life, he enjoyed science and science fiction, and he'd had plenty of online friends in Minnesota where they'd debated over who had the better series, Star Wars or Star Trek and the like. He'd enjoyed science and a lot of its mysteries, particularly as so much of it was now starting to work with things he'd seen as science fiction. He still had the issue of Popular Science in which there was an article regarding the work to produce a working teleporter and had the Enterprise NCC 1701-A and a big question mark on its cover. He'd also enjoyed studying things that related to biology and nature, as often the abilities, actions, mysteries, and even beauty of nature was fascinating...
But, that hadn't necessarily won him too many personal friends. A group of kids that weren't as smart as him and focused solely on sports had bullied him in Minnesota over the fact that he wasn't solely into sports. He liked sports, but didn't focus solely on sports, yet those kids bullied him for it. At one point they even jumped him at recess while he was in the fifth grade and he got pushed around, which had left him in tears and bruised besides. But Julie wasn't like them. She liked many of the same things he did and been friendly to him, and after the pool party, had created the question in his mind: "should it be more than friendship, or is it already more than friendship?"
"So what's puzzling you, son?" William asked as he realized he had lost the egg he had had on his fork when he'd raised it to his mouth and tasted only the steal of the fork. "You know that your mother and I love you, right?"
"And so does Nate and so the the Twists," Martha added.
"I know," Eric nodded, unsure as to how to continue, "It's..."
He paused for a moment to look at the concerned and even puzzled looking eyes of his parents before he continued. His mind was trying to answer the question as to whether or not he should try to push things beyond friendship with Julie or if it was already past simple friendship. His dreams, one of them being him turning into a weremerman at the town's nearby lake with Julie there smiling at him and calling him "landboy," and the other being the two of them going to a Halloween party and having a very romantic kiss at the end of the night.
"When did you know you were in love?" Eric then asked, figuring that might be the best way to get answers.
William and Martha both paused, looked to each other, and then figured this might relate to Eric's friendship with the mayor's daughter that Samantha and Francis had mentioned the night before. Both of them also felt that would be a tough one to answer. Counting the time that they had dated in addition to their time as a married couple, William and Martha Anderson had been together for twenty years and their marriage had come about due to love between them. William knew that it was that bond that had secured that when his transformation completed, the bond of mateship would be to Martha and not Yvette.
"That can be a tough question to answer," William said slowly, "Your mother and I actually dated for about four years before we realized we loved each other."
"But how did you realize you loved each other?" Eric asked.
"Mostly that we found a lot that we had in common in many respects," William gave a shrug, "I have enjoyed teaching... as has your mother, though I've been with the college level teaching and your mother enjoyed teaching at the elementary school level. We were able to bounce ideas off each other and so on..."
"And with regard to what we experienced while dating, your father has also been quite willing to give up things to provide support," Martha answered, "it was one the real good things that your father had always had... and it was that I think I fell in love with. And it did make him a good father for you and Nate."
Eric remembered his father actually taking a day off to comfort him and deal with the kids that had bullied him in Minnesota.
"But people don't always fall in love for the same reasons," Martha continued, "I fell for William for his willingness to give up things to be supportive... I fell in love with the Twists for all the comfort they were willing to provide for me regarding moving here and with all they were willing to do to comfort me regarding the strains that had been on our marriage and how far they went to make my transformation into a werecat beautiful..."
"You love them?" Eric blurted.
"I love all three of them... your father, Frances, AND Samantha," Martha answered, "I love them all... and what brought that about is different for each."
"I see," Eric said slowly.
"And that hasn't hurt my love for her," William said to his son, "the fact that your mother has continued to stand by me... in spite of ALL the dumb stuff I did... that has reinforced the love I had for your mother as a human and made my fox intensely loyal and loving to her... even if it means I need to share your mother with the Twists."
"I see," Eric said slowly, a part of him didn't feel that the answers didn't fully answer his own questions. His parents had fallen in love because they had things in common and William was willing to give up things for Martha's happiness. But did that mean that he already loved Julie?
"What's brought about all these questions, son?" William asked, "have you met someone?"
Eric felt himself blush as his father had actually caught him.
"Well..." Eric began slowly.
"It's perfectly fine if you have, sweetie," Martha said to him.
"Well... okay, I HAVE met someone," Eric spoke, "Her name is Julie... she's my age... she's into many of the same things I am... though for different reasons."
"And do you like her?" Martha asked.
"She's my best friend," Eric answered, actually feeling a strange feeling of relief in actually talking about it, but then his parents wouldn't tease him. "But... what if it's more than that already? Should it be more? What if she doesn't love me? I've NEVER had a friend like this before."
"And she's into the same things you are?" William asked.
"Yeah... and she's helped me get used to all the..." Eric paused as he didn't want to say anything that might hurt their feelings about Moon Lake's were-beast society and culture. As while he slept through the sex that his parents had had the night before, he could plainly see that they were enjoying what they were now when they showed him their were forms. "... all the..."
"Weirdness, you can say it," Martha smiled to him. "We're all weird to normal humans that think we're nothing but folklore stories..."
"Okay... she helped me get used to Moon Lake's "weirdness," and has made me more comfortable," Eric finished, "So... I really don't know what to do..."
"It's a new journey for you, son," William smiled to him, "we never really know what to do with regard to love. You just have to take things one step at a time."
Martha nodded, "Do you like Julie?"
"She's my best friend," Eric answered, "but I want to know... if something's already happened or if it's not..."
"That we can't tell you, son," William sighed, "Do you want it to be more than just friendship?"
The dreams he'd had came back to Eric's mind. Him turning into a merman and swimming in the lake with Julie and going to a Halloween dance with her and having a romantic kiss.
"I've found her on my mind," Eric answered, "a lot... but I don't know... what if I see her as more than a friend already?"
"Then I'd suppose you'd be comfortable with asking her on a date," Martha smiled to him.
"What if she doesn't like me as anything more than a friend?" Eric asked nervously, his heart strangely in his throat, worried that Julie might only see him as a friend.
"Have you met outside of school?" Martha asked, "You said something about going swimming yesterday."
"Yeah... that was at Julie's," Eric answered, "she invited me to a pool party at school for yesterday."
Martha found herself smiling with pride. Nate had been more outgoing, and she felt comfortable with his social life and friends. In that he seemed well adjusted, though she didn't know Nate was gay, but Eric had tended to be much more reserved with regard to social interaction. The fact that he'd been bullied in the past only increased that tendency on Eric's part. And while the conversation was puzzling, it did feel like Eric was coming out of his shell.
"You did have fun, right?" Martha asked her son.
"Yeah... I had fun... it was... it was just me and her," Eric said slowly, his cheeks flushing a little bit, "I mean... the WHOLE PARTY was just me and her. We swam... we talked... she showed me all her forms... She also helped me get more comfortable with Moon Lake."
"All her forms?" William asked. He and Martha knew that Julie was a weremermaid thanks to the conversation with Samantha, but he didn't want to make it seem like he and Martha were spying on Eric or anything like that.
"She's a weremermaid... and unlike you and the others that have two forms, a human form and an anthropomorphic animal form... she can transform in stages," Eric said slowly, "One stage only has her fingers and toes becoming webbed. The next stage as the webbing grow more defined and fish scales form on her legs and running up to her hips... and the last stage has her legs fuse together form a complete mermaid tail and her feet becoming the flukes."
"And is she pretty to you?" William asked.
Eric only blushed.
"Well..." Martha gave a chuckle, "I don't think her party was just a party or something just a friend would do... that's a bit too private for platonic friendship. Especially if she did it to help you. She might like you more than that."
"She likes me?" Eric asked.
"You might have to ask HER that," William smiled, "but from what you've told us...I think she might... which then leaves the only question... how do you feel about her? Do you wish to only be friends? Or do you want to go further?"
"Shouldn't I know that from the start?" Eric asked.
"You have to take risks with regard to dating," William told him, "If you expect to find true love at first sight... you might never find love at all. Shoot... many times people may only start dating someone because they're sexually attracted to each other and find out about their personalities and their lives outside of their sexuality later. It's the getting to know people that helps people find out if they love each other."
"What if I do love her?" Eric asked, "What if it happens that I come to love her... do I have to become a weremerman for her?"
"When it comes to sex, you may have to become a were," Martha warned, remembering what Frances said to her when William came out of the worst part of his initial transformation, "and that would all be determined by what kind of were YOU want to become... as our condition could be considered an STD in that regard. So if you have sex with her, you will become a weremerman and if you wanted to be a different were, it'd be too late."
"Couldn't I stay human?" Eric asked.
"I've found some things online when researching werefoxes when Yvette Smith first hit on me," William said slowly, "some of it was curiosity on werefoxes... the rest to find some way that I could have turned her down without things escalating and not coming off as offensive... but, even if you wear a condom... you could very well still become a weremerman. The magic or virus... or whatever it is that makes us were-beasts would go through those measures of contraception."
"Maybe there's a hormone or something that could correct for it," Eric theorized, "like a vaccine..."
"Perhaps," William shrugged, "but I'm not good with science... and that could ALSO be permanent solution. Suppose you find something and then decide you want to be a were-beast... that vaccine would then make it impossible."
"And what if I do become a merman?" Eric asked.
"Well... I plan on going back to work," Martha answered, "I may not be able to apply for a full time job until the spring as all the schools will have their spots full for the present school year, and I'll need to do somethings to get my certification back and up to date, but once I get that done, I might be able to do some substitute work for this school year... and that'd give us the money to put in a pool for you."
Eric watched as his father nodded in agreement with Martha.
"But would you care that I wouldn't be like you?" Eric asked.
"Nate isn't a werefox," William answered.
"And while the term "werecat" has or can be used with any were who's animal form is feline in nature," Martha answered, "those "werecats" that are based off of the Domestic House Cat are always female. It's only when you get into the "werecats" that are based off the big cats, lions, leopards, tigers, and so on."
"But they're referred to as werelions, wereleopards, and weretigers, right?" Eric asked.
Martha nodded, "the only werecats that have males that might be called werecats and aren't referred to by specific cat species are based off the various wild small cat species... Bobcats, Lynx, African and European Wildcats, Margays, Ocelots, and others... and while us female werecats are at least bisexual if not outright lesbians the way the Twists are..."
"These male werecats... those based off of the smaller wild cat species are at least bisexual if not completely homosexual," Eric finished.
And Martha nodded, "and again... the decision will be ENTIRELY up to you with regard to what you want to be. But if you are truly straight, becoming a werecat may not be a good idea, as you'd find Ben more attractive than Julie."
Eric shuddered. He wasn't anti-gay or anything like that, but neither was he gay.
"But since our family already is made up of three different were-beasts, we won't complain if you decide to become a different species from us," William answered.
"We only want you to grow up safe and happy," Martha assured him, "regardless of whether or not you become a were."
"Thanks," Eric answered.
"So... you going to ask her out?" William asked.
"I think so..." Eric said with a weak blush, "where would we go?"
"That's up to you," William and Martha smiled together.