pack mentality

“Ah,” he replied, understanding. The colorful gleam in the other’s eye might have been alarming, if LeFou hadn’t written it off as an illusion. His point about the light bulbs gave him reason to smile.

“They are very convenient! I mean, for most. Perhaps not those who need less light,” he went on sheepishly. “I also thought they were strange at first.”

“And here I thought a wolf’s hearing was one of it’s better sense.” she muttered, shaking her head gently, though her movements stilled as she listened. “You didn’t think that you were the only one who got to have fun did you?” she asked as she took another step toward the wolf, waiting a moment before teasing “Now what fun would that be? You’ll just have to wait and see, now won’t you?” 

“And you were? A hormonal fourteen year old boy who felt put out that big brother got given Alpha over him?” Aria’s eyes flashed dangerously. “We were all children, none of us should have had to even bear the burden of being Alpha, but Ric took care of us all, you just wanted it for your ego. You challenged and you lost baby brother.”

“Ric was WEAK -- we all knew it. What was the point of him playing human shield?  We were no better than pets, and he didn’t care!  Call it ego, but I wanted to go somewhere, and I wanted to take you with me. Our family.”

“I can tell.” she admitted, making a slight face when she said the statement. It wasn’t hard to tell that no one could tell the wolf what to do, and he was a force to be reckoned with. If she wasn’t endowed with the powers she was, she might have feared him, or at least, feared him more than he did. “I’m looking forward to watching your journey… we’ll see how good you can be, or how bad I can be. May the better man win.”

“I suppose we only really need to know the definitions we care to know.” the witch offered with a slight shrug. Her definition of fair defined her very actions, and it was so ingrained in her she wasn’t sure it’d ever leave her even if she tried. “If you want to feel that way I suppose you could…” she replied, a laugh falling from her lips as she could only imagine what the wolf ahd in mind. “If you can be good that is…Otherwise we both might end up quite dissapointed.”

“If your definition of fair is the same as mine.” Andromeda mused with a shrug. Some might say she went overboard with her curses, that she went to far with everything she did, but she didn’t agree. She had cursed the prince who had deemed the aesthetically challenged unworthy of love to that fate until he could find someone to love him for his personality, a thought that had clearly never occurred to him, a fitting punishment in her own eyes. A smirk became apparent on her features with his own confession. “Simple pleasures tend to be universal.” 

“Fair is fair.” the witch mused with a smile. Admittedly, their conversation was going far better than she had assumed to in the beginning. Yet again, her limited experience with the man had taken place when he wasn’t exactly in the mood for talking, and she hadn’t been in that mood either. She raised an eyebrow, her curiosity getting the best of her when he made that weighted comment. “Oh, and why not?”

“I didn’t say that you were.“ the witch pointed out, though she saw his point. She’d always felt more comfortable in her own skin than she ever had her disguises, and she could only imagine he felt the way in his true form.  She hadn’t expected an answer to her question, but the one she received seemed accurate. In the strange place they ended up, he was putting himself at risk. He was smart, and he knew how to survive, she could give him that. She smirked at his next question, giving him a look before saying “Use your imagination.”

“I’m not stupid, I can’t make the curses too easy, or no one would take me seriously. Plus, what kind of watch dog would you be if you could change back at whim?” she asked, raising an eyebrow as she looked to the wolf. “Is that so? Has your diet changed so much?” she adeed after his next statement, growing more and more curious, though her curiosity was pushed to the side in favor of focusing on his next question. “Of course. Maybe I’ll even reward you for good behavior.”

“Well then, I wish you the best of luck with that endeavor. You seemed to do a good enough job in your previous position.” Andromeda offered sincerely. She had no reason to wish the wolf ill will, not at the moment anyway. He’d served his punishment, and she had bigger matters to deal with, though the wolf was keeping her attention for the moment. “Now, why would I do that to the humans? Seems like cruel and unusual punishment for them.” she teased, flashing a small smile. “Nothing yet. But I’m sure you could come up with something…”

“Lucky me.” She would be thankful for the comment if it had been brought up under different circumstances. “What do we do now?”

“We hug, like normal siblings do. Or did you honestly believe that I wanted to disappear from your life without so much as a goodbye?”

“Plenty of animals are territorial, but that doesn’t mean they wish to be alone. Everyone, even you I’m sure, care for someone.” the witch replied. She couldn’t help a slight smirk from forming on her own lips at his own comment. “You know, when you can speak, you can be quite funny..” she chuckled. “But you’re right none the less.” 

“Because we’re FAMILY. Are you so proud that you’d hurt your own sister?”

“That hasn’t stopped me before,” came his rather heartless answer. “But you know I would never hurt you, Katya. And not because we are family -- but because, at the end of the day, I actually like you.” He spoke as if that should’ve been more than enough for her.

“Really? I’d imagined you would find some kin here.” the enchantress mused before she really thought about what she was saying. She knew wolves didn’t tend to be creatures to travel alone, they had families, packs, something. “You know what assuming gets you…” the witch replied, shaking her head before admitting “I’m not sure how I got here actually, but I’m going to find a way home.”

“Your threats don’t scare me, Convel.”

“How come?  Because we are BLOOD ?”

He was trying to copy her tone and he didn’t do too badly; but the look she gave him was unimpressed. Arms folded over her chest as she huffed lightly. “Both you and Ulric left around the same time. I then decided to experience the forest for myself.”