Irena nodded sympathetically and grinned slyly.
"So if I asked you to turn me next time you transform, would you do it?" She asked curiously.
She felt empathy towards both of her bestfriends, she could never imagine her own parents wanting her out of the house all the time, granted her dad was always gone since he owned his own law office and her mom just slept all day and barely spoke to both her and her younger sister, Beatrice. Ever since Joanna died she found herself leaving the house for as long as possible at all times.
"H-Huh?" Teagan looked over at Irena, clearly taken aback by the question. Presumably Finn could understand them, because his ears perked up and he stared incredulously at Irena as well. "I… I-I don't… why would you want that?" Teagan asked softly. "I don't want to bite you. We'd have to bite you hard enough to draw human syrup. It really hurts. You'd be stuck like this forever. It's hard to control at first, I— p-people would treat you like they treat us. I don't want that for you."
Irena held her hands out, palms up.
"Woah…" She said "it was just a joke."
She noticed how during some sentences, Teagan's voice had broken and been shaky.
"It was just a joke Teagan, I swear." She said, but was it?
"The only reason I would ask you to do that would be so I can spend more time with you guys, so you have more than just each other."
Teagan seemed a bit pale and antsy now, and he could feel his heart pounding in his throat. "I-I don't want… to resign you to this fate, Irena." Finn looked over at Teagan and whined worriedly, nudging his brother gently. "We're used to it now, we've… you can spend as much time with us as you want, but… you don't want this."
Irena nodded and waded closer to him, through the blue tinted water, before he could say anything she saw the worry and emotion on his face and wrapped her grabby limbs around him, resting her head against his chest.
"I'm sorry if what I said brought you stress…" she said softly "it was a stoopid thing to joke about."
Teagan hesitated when Irena hugged him, but he soon hugged her back tightly and rested his head on top of hers. "It's fine… you didn't mean anything by it. I just don't want you to have to hurt like this. People's opinions of us are never going to change, no matter how well we behave. We'll always be monsters, and that's… that's okay. I don't want them to think you're a monster too."
Irena felt her peepers prickle and bit her lower lip.
"You're not a monster." She stated angrily, holding him close "that's just a stoopid stereotype, bigotry is what it is and it's bullshit."
Teagan hugged Irena a bit tighter and sighed shakily. "It's okay. You're right, but it's not going to change anything. We turn into wolves, wolves are dangerous, and… that's that. I mean, all our scars all but attest to that. When Finn was attacked by a werewolf, it was… it was bodge. We were just kids, and whoever that guy was changed the course of our lives forever. That's just the hand we've been dealt, I guess."
Irena felt the prickle behind her peepers getting steadily stronger, so she buried her face in the hollow of Teagan's neck to avoid crying, or at least crying where he could see it.
After a moment, once she was sure the tears wouldn't come, she pulled away slowly and kissed Teagan gently on the cheek.
"I love you." She said strongly and confidently "I love both of you." She said, bending down to pet Finn.
Teagan blinked a couple times when Irena kissed him, clearly bumfuzzled. "Ah?" He replied, always eloquent. Finn leaned into her touch for a moment and then transformed back as well so that he was standing in front of Irena. He pointed to his cheek, sulking.
"Don't I get one too?" He whined teasingly. Teagan snapped out of his stupor to snicker at his brother.
Irena laughed at Finn and then placed a soft kiss on his cheek as well.
"You guys are my best friends, and I'm sorry you got bitten in the first place." She said to both of them.
"The way people treat you really sucks." She added sympathetically.
Finn smiled and straightened back up, standing beside Teagan and looking pretty pleased with himself. "It's alright. We've been this way for just about as long as we can remember." He replied. Teagan nodded in agreement. Honestly, Finn really did have it harder than Teagan. When he was attacked, it was pretty traumatizing for him, and he'd never really gotten over it. In Teagan's case, he was kind of just bitten by his brother. He wasn't really ever properly 'attacked'.
Irena smiled at both of them, then took off pacing the race until the water was pushing against her thighs and then her abdomen and finally her sternum, she then dived under the water.
The sun was out and being naturally pale she burned easily and she had forgotten sunscreen, so the cool water felt very great on her face and shoulders.
The twins ran after her and dove underwater as well, soon popping back up laughing. They seemed to have recovered from the heavier topic of conversation, thankfully. They didn't typically linger on things too long if they could avoid it. They swam up to Irena and stared at her curiously, still mostly submerged. "What do you wanna do after this?" Finn asked.
Irena popped up and shrugged.
"I don't really know." She admitted and looked up at the sky, brain brewing, then quickly looked bakc down at them.
"We could hangout at my house, or the park." She suggested.
They both nodded, and Finn flipped over to float on his back again. Teagan yawned and scratched at his neck a bit, more relaxed than before. "Works for me. We'd have to drop by home to change into actual clothes before we go anywhere, though." Finn spotted something in the water and dove down after it.
Irena nodded and dived under again, coming back up with the twist off the top of a Coke bottle grasped in the palm of her hands.
"I found a bottle cap." She said proudly, opening her hand so they could see it.
Finn was still underwater looking for something, and Teagan thought it was strange that he hadn't come back up yet. So, he dove down after his brother and found him caught on some rocks. He helped Finn free himself and pushed him towards the surface since he'd been without air for a few minutes now. Finn gasped and spluttered when he broke the surface, coughing as he tried to catch his breath. Teagan popped up a few seconds later, doing the same.
Irena blinked and ran to the both of them.
"Are you okay?" She asked, fear laced into her voice, she grabbed Finn and started checking for physical damage.
She then grabbed Teagan by the cheeks and did the same.
"Y-Yeah… m'fine…" Finn rubbed water out of his peepers so he could see, his throat hurting from coughing now.
"Idiot got himself stuck." Teagan replied with a huff. "I'm fine." He noticed a hint of red in the water by Finn and tackled his brother into a shallower area so he could pull his leg out of the water. Finn's leg was definitely scraped up, and he was bleeding, but he didn't seem to be in any critical condition. Finn pushed Teagan off and sat up, shaking water out of his hair.
Irena watched this as if she were a distant family friend at a family gathering. She slowly made her way behind them and bent down, looking down at Finn's leg.
"Should I wrap that…or leave it alone?" She asked timidly.
"Oh, he's fine. We can wrap it when we go back to the house." Teagan replied, to which Finn nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, this is nothing. Just a little scratch from the rocks. I got this, though!" He held up a cracked rock that looked like it was sparkling on the inside.
Irena cooed over the rock and smiled at Finn.
"oh, it's bonita!" She said encouragingly to him and then showed them her bottle cap. "Makes this look like tin compared to a diamond."
Finn held the rock out to Irena, offering it to her. Teagan sat beside him, splashing water onto his wound to try and clean it out a bit. "We should probably head back soon, yeah? Get ourselves cleaned up and ready to do something else."
Irena nodded as she took the rock from Finn.
"Thank you." She said quietly.
She held the rock in her palm and placed her palm against the middle of her chest.
"Yes." She said quickly "we should go." She said, beginning to walk up the side path that lead back up to the cliff where their stuff was.
Finn and Teagan got to their groundhands and followed after Irena, both shaking the water off of their bodies like dogs usually did. Finn's leg continued to bleed as he walked, but he didn't seem concerned about it. Teagan didn't look worried either, even though he tended to be a bit overprotective of his brother. They bantered a bit as they walked, as was typical of them, but they weren't fighting for now.
Irena listened to the banter as she collected her things and then began to go through the woods, making her way back to the park, Once they got to the corner where Irena would hang a left and the twins a right, she waved as she hurried to her house.
Once she got inside she changed into an overly large t-shirt and black jean shorts. She pulled on white, short white socks and black slip on vans. She then made her way to the front porch, where she waited for the twins.
The twins waved goodbye and hurried off to their house to change. They put on matching t-shirts and cargo shorts, and they returned with Finn's leg properly wrapped up. More people were outside now and were staring and pointing and whispering when they saw Finn and Teagan. Mothers ushered their children away, brain brewing they might get hurt by the scary werewolves. Teagan glared back when he noticed how it was upsetting Finn.
Irena saw the twins coming up the sidewalk and waved happily, then stopped mid wave when she saw the look on Finn's face.
Finn kept his peepers on the ground, partially shielded from onlookers by an angry Teagan. He and Teagan had been bantering and chatting only minutes before, but now Finn was silent and meek. Every time a woman pulled her ankle-biter closer to her as they passed, or someone jeered at them and called them filthy mutts, he felt sick to his stomach. Teagan hated it as well, but it didn't upset him the same way as Finn. He was more angry that they were being treated this way, and angry that it upset his brother.
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