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It was the day he was supposed to leave - it was a fine day in July, the weather warm but not hot, and the Sun pleasantly bright as it shone through the big, luxuriant hickories in his family's front yard, dappling the ground beneath it with evanescent shadows. A faint smell of honeysuckle came from the barbed wire fence nearby where, some distance away, the neighbors' cows grazed lazily on the rolling verdance of Lightfoot land - doing homage, it would seem, to the tremendous green leviathan of a mountain on the horizon.

His Grand Wagoneer, which Bligh had tuned for him last week - the last time they had seen each other - was packed and ready, its white finish glinted in the Sun underneath the hot black private driveway, as though eager and enthusiastic to start the long journey southward to Tampa. With a final sigh, Andrew nodded to himself in satisfaction that everything was ready, and that at last this new chapter could unfold...

Departing for good is a peculiar feeling, novel and unenviable - there is sense of sadness that has saturated the oncoming adventure, a feeling of slow loneliness to accompany the thrilling opening of a panorama of unknown experience...goodbyes are unbearably final, the mingled promises to write, to keep in touch, always ringing hollow, lost in the gloom, even now in the lovely sunlight of a West Virginia summer afternoon, of expected absence.

He shut the tailgate and moving to open the driver's side door, one final duffel bag slung across his shoulder - and once more, maybe for the twentieth time since he had awoken for the last time in his own bed, he told himself that this was a good idea.

A mocking, sarcastic voice from behind startled him:

"Ey! Ain't gonna tell me bye?"

Andrew turned, somewhat jerkily with the weight of his duffel bag, to see his brother - a shorter, slyer, miniature version of himself. He was too scrawny to be shirtless, yet walked - staggered, he must have been drunk again - with an ungainly swagger in imitation, conscious or unconscious, of Bligh himself...a thin silver necklace with a Beagle's tooth as a charm bouncing against his taut chest. As he drew nearer Andrew could see the glassiness in his deep blue eyes - the same as his own, the same as their mother's - that further betrayed an afternoon covertly taking shots of whiskey in the basement.

Barefoot, shirtless, reeking noisomely of Maker's Mark - this was the image Andrew would conjure up in the humid hinterlands of his Florida imagination, whenever he remembered the little brother who once, long ago, idolized him.

At all of fifteen, Stephen had become what Stephen would probably be the rest of his life - drunk, amoral, sociopathic, the passing hint of bisexuality, sneering at the father who doted on him...he sneered at everything generally, but their father especially, with his patriarchy and his money and his influence that slithered still around the halls of the State Capitol.

"Thought y'were asleep," Andrew said simply, feeling his heart sink at the idea of yet another final farewell.

"I was, y-yeah--" Stephen slurred. "But now - I ain't."

"Came ta tell me bye?"

Stephen reached the Grand Wagoneer, whirling around, nearly falling as he did so, to catch himself, with a loud metallic thud, on the car - leaning up against it, next to his brother. Andrew watched as he folded his arms and snerked at him with a self-satisfied half-frown.

"I came ta tell ya y'oughta not say bye ta me, y'oughta say bye ta Bligh - I signed yer goin-away card, that's enough fer me."

Andrew rolled his eyes, tossing the final duffel bag off his shoulder and into the passenger's seat - Stephen was notoriously uncouth, but this was unseemly even for him.

"So the last I see of my li'l bro is em tellin me he dun care bout me?"

Stephen snerked once more, louder this time, as if emboldened by his own tactlessness. "I ain't say that, brother--"

"Did ya not jest say it?" Andrew answered back in rising annoyance.

Stephen pushed himself off of the car to stumble away - for a second it seemed he would faceplant there on the lawn, but he recovered, and, throwing out his arms, practically pinned Andrew to the car by thrusting his hands onto his brother's shoulders. He smiled faintly before leaning forward and - to Andrew's immediate embarrassment, a hot rush of blood turning his face bright red - putting a soft, wet smooch on Andrew's cheek.

"Wanted ta do that fer ages--" Stephen chuckled, a hint of the sardonic coming through his strange smile.

Andrew's hand went up to his cheek where had been kissed, rubbing it, attempting to make sense of what just happened.

"Stevie...what--?"

"Ain't about me," Stephen interrupted. "Did I not jest fuckin say why I came out here? Ya gotta go see Bligh."

"I--" Andrew finally said, dropping his arm to his side despondently. "I ain't got..."

He didn't - couldn't - complete the sentence.

"Time?" Stephen finished for him in a guess. "Ya can't face em, that's what ya should say."

Andrew didn't respond at first - trapped like this, under Stephen's arms, he could only shake his head.

"Don't wanna see em cry?" Stephen pressed. "Ya love em that much, huh?" The self-satisfied look returned.

Andrew glared at his brother and put a hand on his bare chest to firmly shove him away. "That's enough, brother. G'on back inside afore Ma sees y'out off yer ass in front o'God and n'everybody--"

"Y'only mad, brother, cuz ya know I'm right."

Stephen chortled defiantly, but still turned away, stumbling back to their house, backwards...as Andrew watched, hanging inside the threshold of the driver's side door - unable, it would seem, to take the final action of getting in the car to drive away - Stephen stopped, wobbling in place on the brick sidewalk that lead to their front door, before speaking again:

"Y'oughta tell em bye," he reiterated. "Yer gonna miss em, brother. And he gonna miss ya more'n anybody else - more'n me, and I'm half a bottle o'way from cryin my eyes out--"

But Stephen's voice, lilting and admonishing, escaping into the languid air of that fine July day long ago, drifted into blackness, the imagery fleeing the oncoming present:

Andrew, laying, fetal position, on the floor of his kitchen, the carving knife lodged in his abdomen, soaked beneath him with blood, wrapped in the warmth of his collapsed boyfriend whose sobs of the basest sorrow could not be quieted.

Andrew's eyes opened, and he looked beyond Cody's crouching form on top of him - the boy's face painted wet with tears - to Bligh...who was standing over him, a small, satisfied smile on his face.

"Wha..." he mouthed. "I'm--"

"Andy?!" Cody choked in surprise.

"I - I'm...I'm..."

"Andy!" He felt Cody clutch him tightly and sob again. "Andy - oh fuck I thought you were dead--"

"Stand aside, Pup," Bligh interrupted.

Cody opened his mouth to protest for a moment before doing as he was told, scooting away on the linoleum to let Bligh in closer.

Bligh, in turn, knelt to put his hand on Andrew's shoulder...as he grabbed hold of the carving knife lodged in Andrew's gut, and without warning, yanked it out in a single stroke.

Andrew screamed in animal pain as the knife left his body - Cody nearly leapt to embrace him as Bligh, tossing the knife in the sank, knelt down again to hover over Andrew almost protectively.

The pain was still like nothing Andrew had ever felt, far worse than even the all-body pain of that morning. But he was still breathing - and as seconds passed, he found he was able to form actual words:

"Why...am I...alive?"

"Because ya can't die that way - watch."

All three looked on at the gash on Andrew's stomach as it vanished, sealed back into the flesh where the cut had been made - the only evidence it had existed at all was an oblong smear of blood where the knife had travelled.

Andrew stared at his miraculously-healed wound, mouth agape, his mind blank with amazement. "No...that's not possible."

Cody looked to Bligh for an explanation. "What just happened? Did you - did you know about this?"

Bligh shrugged. "All I know is that's what happens when I - when we git cut."

Cody nodded slowly. "That's why you stopped me..."

"I knew what he was trying to do."

Andrew was beside himself. "Bligh this - this just don't happen. Healing - the platelets, the collagen, the - Bligh this just don't happen."

"Don't ask me t'explain it, Drew."

Andrew's eyes raced in tandem with his brain. "Some - some kind of - intracellular bacteria? Invading cells - bypassing the immune system, nesting there - transcription factors to the - cytosol, forcing it to produce protein for its own benefit..." He shook his head, his heart empty from obtaining no answers from his internal monologue that Bligh and Cody both watched with bemusement. "That - that instantly heals damaged tissue..."

Bligh frowned to Cody. "He still g'on like this?"

Cody nodded with a polite smile. "Y-yeah, he gets like this when he can't figure something out."

"But you knew, Bligh!" Andrew pressed. "I shouldn't have to figure it out if you - if you knew, already - how--?"

"Ya don't think I tried sumthin like that m'self?" He cleared away the pile of cutlery and utensils that had landed on the kitchen floor when Andrew had ripped open the drawer, and nudging the drawer itself out of the way, took a seat on the floor against the sink-cabinet, across from Cody and Andrew.

Andrew stared at him in disbelief. "Are you fucking serious?" He grunted to sit up some, the pain in his gut only faintly dissipating with the passing minutes - Cody scooted close to be near him, and Andrew could feel the preternatural, canine body heat radiate from the boy. "Please, please tell me you're fucking kidding--"

"Why would I kid about that?"

Andrew closed his eyes and sighed in harsh exasperation. "Ya know for someone being my best friend you hid a lot of shit from me--"

"What was I s'posed ta tell ya, Drew? Fuckin really man, think about it."

He lurched upward - the pain was leaving, but a discomfort remained that made sitting a chore. "I'm so tired of hearing that."

"Yeah - well - I wudn't too terribly happy I weren't gonna be human at first, yanno."

Cody frowned, one of his ears twitching in concern. "So what did you do?" But he seemed to know the answer.

"I...took Pappy's knife and dug it into my arm one night--"

"God dammit," Andrew sputtered. "Bligh why the fuck didn't you at least call--" He stopped as he saw Bligh tilt his head with a skeptical frown. "Right - right..." He pondered the idea a moment. "So - why didn't Little Bear live?"

"Little Bear?" Cody perked up.

"Dan--" Bligh answered, his face turning to stone. "S'what we called em - what Coach called em, cuz he was short and - kinda big..." He shook his head, slowly and sadly. "His body was a fuckin husk, man - how the Hell ya gonna heal from that?"

Cody's ears went flat, and he shuddered - Andrew looked away from Bligh to shake his head sadly.

"So there are limits - but what kinda limits..." His eyebrow went up at the thought. "He must have known that - tried to kill himself before. He knew what he was doing with that tank of propane in his truck..." He felt Cody cuddle close to him as he spoke - as though wanting some comfort from the recounting of the dark chapter, the pitiable end of Dan Dorsey's sadness. He looked back to Bligh. "Of course by that logic he really killed himself the night y'all - um, did it." He paused. "And his girlfriend..."

"We dunno that's what she died of, Drew."

"I - I guess. But the pieces fit too well to--"

"No they do not - yer freakin yerself out, man, and yew know it."

Andrew shook his head. "I don't wanna think about that right now. I don't think we'll be doing anything with girls anyway..." He raised his eyebrows, first at Bligh and then at Cody. "Right?"

Cody shook his head. "Nope."

Bligh snickered - a little mirthlessly. "Naw man..."

"Then we shouldn't worry about it..." He looked back to Bligh. "But you - you were telling the truth about him, right?"

"Swear ta God," Bligh affirmed. "I told him ta stop, but he - he kept goin..."

"When he was sucking you?" Cody asked.

Bligh nodded. "Yeah...that night..." Andrew saw Bligh's sheath stir just slightly as he said it.

"He couldn't live a lie," Andrew said.

Bligh cringed somewhat. "It ain't - a lie - people jest dunno the truth."

It was Cody's turn to nod. "And they'd never need to know. It's just us, right?"

Bligh nodded at the boy before moving his eyes to study Andrew as he gazed off listlessly beyond the kitchen and into the living room's ceiling. He frowned, and then, quietly: "Yer...stuck like this, Drew..."

"I am?" Andrew answered numbly.

Bligh leaned in somewhat, as though waiting for him to finish - Andrew, in spite of himself, frowned bitterly as the thoughts ran through his head.

"Lemme get this straight," he said quietly, planting a tongue in his cheek. "You come down here, you drug me, you fuck my boyfriend in front of me--" He raised his eyebrows for effect. "You turn him - and then me - into a werewolf - dog...thing--" He saw Bligh's face go stony against the accusations. "And now I'm stuck like this forever? We're all stuck like this forever?" He let this sink in. "You took a lot from me, Bligh. You even took away my ability to die, apparently. And I'm just supposed to accept this? And everything is fine?"

Bligh absorbed Andrew's words - but he did not yield. "Is it really worse than bein without me?" His ear twitched. "We ain't ever spent a second apart, Drew. We spent our lives tagether, man. Hell, Pappy--" There was a brief hesitation at the mention of his name. "He thought o'ya like a son too..."

Cody seemed genuinely surprised at the remark - he recoiled at first, but then leaned in, as Bligh had done, for Andrew's answer.

Andrew, in turn, let his face grow sad, shuddering at a sudden surge of emotion. "I...I was looking for you in this - this dream I had the other night...I couldn't find you. But I was looking for you, I - I wanted to see you and I - couldn't..." He shook his head. "Fuck you - fuck you, Bligh."

Bligh was undaunted. "I'm right, ain't I?"

Andrew shut his eyes, defeated. "Yes," he hissed. "As usual." He opened his eyes in tandem with a long sigh. "As bad as it would suck being a mutant - dog - whatever, I guess it's better than being dead..." He stopped, realizing the truth that had crystallized with the words. "And anything would be worse without - without you."

"We were meant ta be, Drew." Bligh's mouth twinged. "Yer my best friend." There was an improbable, yet palpable, weight he had put behind that simple phrase.

"I know," Andrew muttered. "I know, I know." He cleared his throat, trying to stave off a forming lump there. "I probably exaggerated when I kept talking - um - yanno, about _everything I've worked for_and all that shit - the truth is life was a mess before you got here." He paused. "Well it still is - technically - I mean, other than - other than Cody..."

Andrew looked to the boy, who smiled, leaning to kiss him on the cheek and gently rub his shoulder. "Were you really gonna - propose to me at graduation?"

Andrew nodded at Cody. "Yeah..." He smiled wistfully. "Yeah. I don't have a ring or nothing but - yeah."

Bligh sniffed at the spectacle - Cody kissed Andrew on the cheek with a small smile. "I woulda said yes..."

Andrew nodded again. "I know - and..." He sighed. "It would've been the only thing that went right for once. Everybody back home just thinks my life was perfect - it ain't. I don't know what the fuck I'm doing after college, I don't really have any friends..." He thought a moment. "And I lost touch with Stevie. He'll be a freshman at Virginia Tech next month..."

Bligh played with the drawer-knob above him thoughtfully. "Man, ya had me fooled, from what yew been tellin me - I figured you'd have tons o'friends..."

"Nah - nah. USF's a big fucking school - a big fucking school. I mean, yeah, I used to - like, go out, go to Ybor and get shitfaced and have to be the DD for this one frat and wash vomit out of my car every weekend - get invited to parties by that one crazy bitch in my Trig class I borrowed a pen from, once..." He smiled, half-wistfully, half-embarrassed, at the procession of memories, hued in bleary and gleaming electric lights and sparkling glasses that spilled liquor on the shadowy texture of blurred-together nights. "...but before I met Cody, like, that whole year, all that just...dried up, I guess? I dunno what happened - and, like, honestly, I'm not really sure if I care." He frowned. "It got to be that, especially this summer, if it--" He looked to Cody. "--if it weren't you..." He looked to Bligh. "...or you, I didn't care." His eyes drifted to the linoleum. "Pa...took care of me ever thinking to give a fuck about Tempest outside of - you, Bligh, actually - and Stevie, when he'd bother..." Bligh nodded. "Yeah you - mentioned that once. My parents really not keep up with y'all?"

Bligh shook his head. "Yer daddy would git Pappy a Christmas card, yanno, pay a visit once in a while. But they never had us over at the house."

"Sounds like him..." Andrew murmured. "Doing the bare minimum to look civil."

A brief length of awkward silence followed - Bligh's eyes were sad as he stared into the cabinet before him.

"I really wonder how Stevie's doing..." Andrew said slowly. "I haven't spoken to him in - six months? We just - fell outta touch, I dunno."

"He came ta Pappy's service," Bligh said quietly.

Andrew nodded. "Yeah, you said that...did my parents come?"

"Naw."

"Oh..." Andrew tried to stifle a cringe. "I - I'm sorry, Bligh."

Bligh's frown was grave. "He...he was drunk, man."

Andrew sighed. "Fuck...really?"

"Yeah - he weren't disrespectful or nuthin, but - I mean I could tell. Yew didn't know?"

"I wanted to believe he'd stopped."

"Drew he was drunk when he wrecked yer daddy's--"

"Mercedes, yeah, yeah, I know he was. And he could've gone to jail for all the damage he caused and the fact that he was underage - but Pa got his best lawyer from Charleston - um, one of the partners in that one law firm where the guy who filled in for Byrd came from..." He shook his head. "I thought he quit drinking after the wreck - goddam, that fucking kid..."

Cody listened patiently, unsure of the esoteric knowledge that Bligh and Andrew were sharing with each other, but still wanting to be close to them.

Bligh's arm dropped to his lap, and he smirked with a subtle slyness. "We all fucked up, huh?"

Andrew frowned. "Now - right now, yeah - yeah. I gave in to - I took the easy way out..." He shut his eyes, hanging his head as he felt Cody's arm come around his shoulder. "I'm - I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. But understand - just understand - all this mess - all these years. Lies, everyone lies - me, you..."

Bligh scratched his ear pensively. "See where lies git ya, I guess."

Andrew rose, slowly, Cody coming with him, grunting all the while as the pain flared up again. After several breathes, he answered: "Then - let's not lie to each other again. If this is really about us - if we really have to keep this secret from the world, then...we can't ever lie to each other. We have to trust one another..."

Bligh grinned, his tail thumping happily on the kitchen floor. "Deal."

"Good - now - can we get outta here? This is the second time we've all been in here and the kitchen really ain't made for three people."

"Yeah," agreed Cody. "Let's go."

They - the three of them - left the kitchen, leaving the disorderly pile of metal and plastic that Andrew had created on the kitchen floor where it lay, passing the hateful mess of grad school literature on the kitchen table, to the living room, in a peculiar repetition of not more than an hour before.

Andrew peeled off his shirt, which had become sticky and uncomfortable with blood from his - now miraculously-healed - wound, discarding it to the sink where the knife from his botched suicide also lay.

Cody assumed his usual spot on the couch as if it were a normal day, and Andrew next to him - it was Bligh's turn to stand. The awkwardness from before still permeated, if subtler, and it bothered Andrew: he was the first to break it.

"So you didn't - originally - like what you - became?"

Bligh tittered, strangely embarrassed. "Not - uh, no, yer right, I didn't."

"And that gave you the right to try and off yourself?"

Andrew knew the question would needle at him, and it did.

"I - I...reckon...not..."

"So what about me? Don't you think I had the right to do what I did?"

Bligh shook his head gravely, ears flat. "No. No fuckin way. I was alone - you weren't."

"But you let me do it."

"I knew what would happen--"

"You made Cody cry."

He said it casually enough, but Andrew had just made a savage indictment that made Bligh wince. He looked to Cody, who frowned at him - Bligh besought him in sincerity with his eyes, and, with a nod, said "I'm sorry, Pup." Cody nodded back with fresh tears - Andrew rolled his eyes, glancing away to the television so that he wouldn't have to be a part of this moment between them.

A few more seconds of silence passed before Bligh continued: "But still, Drew - that didn't give--"

"Yeah, ah, yeah - yeah it fucking did. Emotional blackmail, drugging me, cheating, biological infection - you really don't--"

Bligh grimaced - the same grimace from the beach. "Shut yer fuckin mouth. I only did it cuz--"

"If I have to understand you then why can't you understand me?"

Bligh shook his head again, faster this time. "No. Yew never had the fuckin right--"

"You had no fucking right!" Andrew stood to poke Bligh in the chest, wincing at the final bit of pain from his mending internal organs - Bligh took a step backwards. "You coulda just told me you were in love with me, and none of this bullshit would have ever happened! I wouldn't have had to watch my boyfriend get fucked by somebody else and I wouldn't have tried to carve myself up like a turkey fucking_dinner!_"

"I know what I did, but I was - I was desperate, Drew, I--"

"I don't care," Andrew cut him off angrily. "All you had to was tell me the truth, years ago, and--" He became flustered, and he raised his arms - as he had done with Tampa Bay, now he was doing with the entire state of Florida. "None of this, Bligh - none of this!"

"And then yew'd never've met Cody - I'd still be human."

Andrew's arms came down in surrender. "You keep - you keep saying that."

"Because it's true."

"N-no, I mean - I mean the human part."

"Well that's true too."

"How?" Andrew was at a loss. "How - how can you like being like - like that. I mean you just said you didn't, before!"

"I can't die, man. I ain't got sick once since I changed and every time I git cut it heals in a second - ya saw it yerself. One time I snapped my arm fallin off a platform and I'll be damned if that motherfucker didn't reset itself." He felt along his own body, his tail wagging again, gliding his hands down to his sheath, which stirred at the feel...he watched it with pride as it poked out and continued to harden. "Besides...I jest love the way it looks. Wolf - dog - their - the way we look is jest _better_man - after the first few times with Duke there weren't no goin back, I cudn't look - at human dicks the same..."

From the corner of his eye, Andrew saw Cody squirm in place, trying to hide his concurrent erection - Bligh looked back up at Andrew, who quite in spite of himself found staring intently at the sight.

"Huh..." he intoned bemusedly. "See sumthin ya like?"

Andrew, as though a spell had broken, sat back, shaking his head furiously. "No - no. I--" He sighed harshly in hot frustration. "I dunno! I dunno anymore! I just--"

He stopped, leaning back into the couch, training his eyes on the crystal dish that an hour ago or so ago had caused him such sudden grief. He would not give Bligh the upper hand this time - no.

He was preparing his defenses - he would not be affectionate, or sympathetic, or angry. He would defend himself the best way he knew how...

"Jest because it dun fit what yew think is right..." Bligh sneered, his penis returning to its sheath. "Bio-logically." He sniffed. "Just cuz we're half sumthin, not sumthin all the way--"

"You think that's why?" Andrew said demurely, knowing full well Bligh was correct - finally yielding, he sat back down. "Because you never told me about you and Duke - another thing you didn't tell me that you just blurted out­­--"

"Wait," Cody leaned forward, picking up on the details. "You and your dog--?"

Bligh nodded at Cody. "Yeah, Pup."

Cody smiled - the two of them were sharing yet another secret bond, Andrew could see - it had bothered him down into his soul the first time he had seen it happen, and even as recently as just today, but now, surprised most at himself, he expected it...

"Whatever then," he said, still not wanting to dwell on the issue. "There's no cure for what I - for what we've got, so...I'll just have to accept it."

"But I like being this way, Andy," Cody said. He was firm and deliberate, something Andrew had rarely heard out of the boy - he was slightly taken off guard by it.

"I - know - you told Bligh that."

"And I mean it."

"I didn't say you didn't."

"Then why can't you love it too? If you love me...?"

Andrew had no answer - not for Cody, not then. It was obvious, and he despised it with every cell that was now reproducing to morph him into something he was, by infinitesimal degrees, learning to physically accept.

"Because - where..." Cody's voice trailed off even as he seemed to feel safer moving closer to Andrew. "Where would I be if you were - if you were--"

"You'd be with Bligh." Andrew flicked his eyes to Cody, who was deeply wounded at his response. "You and he could--"

"Yew ever know when ta shut the fuck up?"

And now Andrew flicked his eyes - the same action - to Bligh, who glowered at him, incensed.

Andrew smiled - a mirthless, loveless, sickly-sweet smile of unkindness. "Apparently not," he guessed.

Bligh threw up his hands for an instant before returning them, balling up one of hands into a fist, jaw clenched in anger.

"What, gonna hit me?"

"Fuck I might! He fuckin loves yew asshole! And I fuckin love yew - yer s'fuckin smart, ya couldn't figure that out?"

"I hardly fucking think so!" Andrew shot back. "Without a dog dick apparently I'm not his type."

"Andy--" Cody recoiled. "No - you don't - you don't mean--"

"Stop it, Drew." Bligh's glare was deadly.

"Give me one good reason why as a human being I'd still be attractive to Cody."

"I'm sorry!" Cody cried, unable to take much more. "I told you - I told you I was sorry! It was fucking mistake, I--" He stopped, on the verge of a fresh sob.

"Drew, we love yew - we both love yew and--"

"Funny way of showing it," Andrew interrupted with a sarcastic smile. "Date-rape, for one--"

Bligh growled. "It - wasn't - rape--"

"You're right - oh, sorry, you would have been right." Andrew's cheerfulness was a smug cloud of taunting mockery. "Because we both know I coulda taken that knot like a pro. Lock that fucker in my hole tight. Then you and me coulda jetted outta here, two dogs in heat." He knew the remark would devastate Cody - from the corner of his eye he could see the boy put his squirm in actual physical discomfort. Bligh's eyes continued to narrow in contempt as Andrew gave a soft chuckle. "You thought turning Cody first would be foolproof for luring me, didn't ya?" Andrew smirked, slick and knowing, in transparent imitation of how Bligh would do the same - he planted his tongue inside his cheek to wriggle there suggestively. "Shoulda had me first, Lynch. I ain't above getting down with the beast."

Deeply insulted - Andrew's goal - Bligh leered forward, as though threatening.

Cody became alarmed. "Bligh no!"

"Don't worry," Andrew said, unflinching. "He wouldn't." He looked into Bligh's eyes, full in the face of the latter's panting rage, the black fur of his legs, ears, and tail seeming to bristle with anger. "You'd never hurt me." His expression deadened into seriousness. "Punching me at the beach was the first time you hit me since we were little." He raised his eyebrows. "I bet it hurt you so much more than it could ever hurt me..."

Bligh, defeated, took several angry breaths - shaking his head, he growled in stunted fury. "I'm gonna take a piss," he muttered, storming off to the bathroom.

A moment of silence passed as Cody and Andrew were left alone together - Cody broached it first:

"Andy - Andy - are - um, uh - do you...are we still...?"

Andrew looked at the boy, still feeling unable to be truly affectionate, and merely shrugged, knowing his question without him having to complete it. "You tell me. Are we?"

Cody turned away somewhat, ashamed. "I...I wanna be..."

"Well Cody you had my best friend's dick inside you. Doggy or not--" He burst into a malicious smile. "Oh wow, look at that, I made a pun - anyway - doggy or no, pretty sure that's grounds for dismissal."

Cody offered no response at first, which gave Andrew time to realize just how deeply puzzling his own feelings were on the subject as he said it - it was almost as if he was less mad at Cody for cheating on him, than for doing it for someone he, also, had wanted...

"I...I'm...I'm sorry," Cody whispered meekly. "Please, Andy, I don't want you to leave me..." He turned back, his eyes in the depths of pleading - the phrase puppy-dog eyes was, for Andrew, perhaps never so appropriate. "Don't - kick me out--"

Andrew raised an eyebrow. "Is that where your mind goes to, first thing?"

Cody shook his head. "I don't wanna go - back to--" He shook his head again, more briskly, shuddering at some horrible reminiscence. "Please Andy, I - I wanna - I wanna stay together..." The hazel gems of his eyes glistened with tears.

Andrew studied him for a few more seconds - the nipples, the fuzzy ears, the fangs that he could see in Cody's half-open mouth - before he answered.

"Then we will," he said with a finality, rising - he wanted to be free of this house and all that had gone on in it over the past twenty-four hours.

"We will...?"

"I just said so." He made his way to the crystal dish to fish out his keys.

"Did you - did you mean what you said about you and Bligh? You - having him first?"

"You know - I'm not really sure."

Cody winced. "R-Really?"

"I've been in weirder situations than finding out my best friend has a dog's cock--"

"Andy, why--"

"--which brings me to my next point, actually." He looked down at his keys as though to ponder them - he raised an eyebrow and chuckled. "Had it had been any other man? Any other boy?" His smile died on his face as he glanced up to stare Cody down with a half-sneer. "That knife would have gone through him."

Cody's mouth opened, appalled. "You don't mean that."

"Oh but I do," Andrew retorted. "Maybe you don't realize how seriously I take you and me..."

"Wh-why would you even say that?"

"Because," Andrew answered. "After all this - I still love you. You're still mine."

Cody hung his head, silent.

"But he - he wasn't any other man. He was Bligh." He paused, swallowing back some new bitter feeling. "He may have fucked you first - but understand something. There are things between me and Bligh that you'll never get--" He paused as his defenses faltered, if only for a moment. "That I'll never get..."

"So where does that leave us..." Cody muttered glumly.

"Where we are now - I'm just - uh, speaking hypothetically here...I mean, what if he had started with me instead of you? Would he even have _bothered_with you after he got me? Despite what he said, animal attraction and all that bullshit..."

Cody looked up to stare at him sadly before shaking his head. "Now you're being mean."

Andrew jingled his keys to straighten them - he raised his eyebrows to answer: "Am I?"

Cody whimpered. "Stop."

"Fine. I love you - and - we're still together even though you're a dog-boy who cheated on me with my best friend - is that what you want to hear?"

Cody rolled his eyes some. "Well that was - still mean, but..." He seemed to suppress a quiver in his bottom lip. "Y-yeah. If you mean it."

This gave Andrew pause, another temporary break in this front of flippant indifference he was projecting as a defense, and he studied the boy - the mutant half-dog who was not the same as he was just a day ago, before answering: "Yes, Dakota - yes I do mean it."

At the sound of his full name Cody's ears fluttered before flattening, deeply humbled.

"You haven't - called me that in a long time..."

"It's a pretty name, why don't you use it more often?"

Cody continued to stare at him sadly. "You know why."

Andrew smiled. "Your mother gave you a nickname, which was--" He paused, raising his eyebrows and exhaling the name like it was a magic word to open a secret doorway: "Cody..."

Cody looked away, shutting his eyes for a moment before exhaling, giving up. "Yeah..."

"Bet she never imagined her little son jumping the species boat, did she?"

Finally tired of Andrew's prickliness, Cody stiffened, indignant. "Cut it out, Andy! What about _your_mom, huh?"

"I didn't have a choice in the matter." He chuckled to himself. "Besides, my mother's a whore. No big." He tossed his keys up in the air and caught them. Cody offered no response as Andrew shook his head, then made a move to leave, keys in hand. "Anyway, I need to go."

"Where--" Cody shifted on the couch. "Where are you going?"

"Out." Andrew laid an arm on the counter. "Why?"

"Can I come?"

"I wanna be alone."

Cody didn't respond at first, but at a fractional length gave a small sigh. "Are you sure we're okay?"

"I don't lie to you," Andrew answered at once. "Yes. We are."

"But you're going out..." Cody's ear twitched. "Alone."

"So?"

"I - I dunno. What about Bligh--?"

"What about him?"

"Yeah, what about me?"

It startled Andrew - he turned jerkily to see Bligh leaning against the door of the bedroom, arms folded, tail thumping irritably against the doorframe.

"How - how long have you been standing there?"

Bligh ignored the question. "So ya forgave em, huh?"

Andrew shrugged, aiming not to be disarmed. "Never said that­--"

"Andy! What, come on--"

"Sure sounded like it."

Andrew shrugged again, higher this time, as though to allay all further questions. "It's all on me, right? It's all about what I want, ain't that - I mean, without me, this little triad that you so desire falls apart, don't it?"

Bligh unfolded his arms and straightened himself, a flicker of pain coming and then vanishing on his face - his ears flattened, then righted themselves concurrently. "So - so whattya say?"

"I have to decide now?"

"Well why the fuck not?"

"I need time to think."

"Ya _had_time," he said in a low voice.

Andrew threw out his arms. "Maybe I need more!"

At this, unable to contain his frustration any longer, Bligh whirled around to punch the wall behind him as hard as he could - the room shook with his rage. Cody yelped in surprise, but Andrew stifled a smile...this was classic Bligh, his heart, canine or human, always on his rolled-up sleeves.

Bligh caught the bedroom's doorframe and gripped it so hard Andrew wondered in passing if he would try to tear it off - where his fist had been was an impressive dent in the plaster.

He turned back around slowly - Andrew could see his frosty eyes glimmering wetly in the light.

"Don't - don't - break - my fuckin heart again, Drew."

He breathed heavy, like a cornered animal - Andrew felt his heart twinge, and for a second he almost gave in, but deflected even this:

"Are the stakes really that high...?" he murmured rhetorically, clearing his throat to erase the forming lump found there. "Alright then, Bligh, lemme ask you this - what do you think of Cody?"

Bligh furrowed his eyebrows, blinking away his tears. "Wha - huh?"

"You heard me. I mean - you feel strongly for him, apparently, so - explain it to me. Explain what you feel - beyond, yanno, wanting to fuck his brains out."

"I - I dunno." He and Cody shared a surprised look - the latter fidgeted in place, appearing uncomfortable at the new attention. "I feel...protective of em. Like we're family, but closer."

Andrew nodded, making his way to the door. "You love him."

Again Bligh and Cody shared a look. "Yeah," he muttered.

"Sounds about right!" he said - hiding surprise. "Another question," he continued. "Have you given any thought how'd we go out? Interact with the - the outside world?"

"Hats. Pants." Bligh huffed. "Gits hot but it works. Pappy never suspected nuthin when he--" He caught himself, suddenly emotional. "--was...still livin..."

"Teeth too?"

"People dun - dun really notice - did yew?"

Andrew thought a moment. "...no. Good point."

"When people do notice I jest tell em I was born with sharper teeth and - they go with it. Hell they don't know no better."

Andrew turned to Cody. "Can you wear hats where you work?"

Cody, who had been looking worriedly back and forth from Andrew to Bligh throughout this whole exchange, snapped at attention to nod back at his boyfriend. "Yeah - um - Tim does, so I could if I want."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"I see..." He cocked his head, weighing to himself everything he heard. And then: "Cool! I'm off."

"Where the fuck are ya gonna go now?"

"Out."

"In the state yer in--?"

"You mean the state you put me in?" Andrew smiled, the same unkind smile - Bligh turned away with a sneer. "I've gotta get the taste of vomit outta my mouth and - something greasy and fried - you mentioned Checkers earlier and suddenly I'm craving it, so..."

"Y'ain't even wearin a shirt," Bligh half-protested, defeated.

"Gotta jacket in the Wagoneer."

"Ain't even wearin shoes--"

"You haven't been in Florida long, friend - that's pretty common."

"You--" Cody perked up. "You are coming back, right?"

"Well seeing as all my shit's here--"

Bligh cut in: "That dudn't answer--"

"Yes--" Andrew said like swatting away mosquitoes. "Yes, both of you, yes, I'm coming back."

A thought occurred to him as he reached for the doorknob - a stirring, which had slipped embryonic from that horrid place that pulsed and wriggled when he was watching Cody and Bligh the night before, burned over into something new at the fleeting memory of Bligh's first kiss a half-hour ago...and what Bligh had said about Cody...

It was all fusing together as the door opened and the heat of the late afternoon blew in - melding into something that felt, that really was, perhaps...forgiveness.

Yes - that's what it was. He was capable of outrage and hatred and bitterness, and he was absolutely blameless for both of them - but this was Bligh, this was Cody. For them, for him, he could be capable of more. And he owed them this...both of them. They had hurt him, but had he not hurt them? What were they, after all, when they had been human - when they were mortal? Rather like an angel, and rather like a guardian...

He paused there in the doorway for several seconds, finally shooting a glance over his shoulder at Cody, who was looking dejected and uncertain at the floor, ears flat, on the couch.

"Put some fucking clothes on, Cody. I'll be in the car." Another pause as he stood in the doorway. "And I know you already ate, but - you too, Bligh. I'm expecting you both, understand?"

"Why us?" Cody asked despondently.

Andrew pulled his tongue over his upper canine tooth - sharper than his genetics as a human had originally intended, but still, he guessed, not like the fangs in Bligh and Cody's mouth as yet.

"You told me, Bligh, to make my mind up about what you asked, right?"

"Y-yeah?" Bligh seemed confused at the question.

"I have. Now - put some fucking clothes on - I'm hungry."

He didn't wait for a reaction from either of them - he shut the door behind him.