As the Moon Teaches

Domestic Comfort.

Once again, Loren had a restless night. He could not get over the fact that Gregory had snuck into the shower with him. When Gregory had then tried to follow Loren to his bedroom, the younger wolf slammed the bedroom door in his face. There was no way he was allowing Gregory to push twice in one night.

The rest of the night was spent tossing and turning, dreaming about Pelian and Gregory in themes that kept waking Loren up. He could not get rest when his dreams were about either Gregory pushing the limits more and more, or things that were almost nightmares. Loren spent most of the night staring at the walls or the ceiling.

Loren did not know it was morning until Gregory knocked on the door and brought him out of his daze. Glancing to his window, he saw the sky was bright and sunny. It must have been at least nine in the morning. He rarely stayed in bed that long, so he must have been more out of it than he realized.

More knocking brought him out of his musings and had him up out of bed in moments. He was still relatively peeved at Gregory for last night, and wanted to give him a piece of his mind again. When he yanked the bedroom door open, he froze. Gregory stood there, hair a bit messy, looking like he barely slept himself. He was dressed in simple jeans and a button up, but looked tired.

“You look terrible.” Was not what Loren meant to say. He had meant to tell Gregory to go away.

“You, too.” Gregory mumbled. “Sorry about last night.”

Loren huffed, feeling his anger deflate at the apology. Sometimes Loren disliked that he was typically an easy going person. He could forgive people too fast at times. He turned and walked away from the door, trying to be cranky.

“I’m going shopping. If you’re coming, hurry up.” With that, Gregory closed Loren’s door and his footsteps faded as he went downstairs.

Mild surprise caused Loren to pause as he wondered why Gregory left it at that. Did he really feel that bad about pushing Loren’s limits last night? Loren continued to dwell on it while he got dressed for the day in something comfortable. Loose jeans and picture tee-shirt, finished off with braiding his dreads to keep them from flopping in his eyes.

Once dressed, he left his bedroom and headed downstairs. Entering the dining room, he was again surprised to find that Gregory was cleaned up and had prepared him some toaster pastries. Was this also an apology? At least Gregory looked better with his hair brushed.

After a short and quiet breakfast, the two wolves stared at each other for a while. It was an awkward silence as they watched and waited. Gregory was looking for forgiveness, while Loren was just suspicious that the older teen was going to push things again. It did not seem like there was going to be peace between them for a while.

Eventually, Loren gave in and looked away. He missed the small smile that quirked up the corners of Gregory’s lips. Loren sighed as he got up from the dining table and went to get his shoes.

“If we’re going shopping, let's go.” He huffed from the front door.

“Coming.” Gregory called back as he cleared the table.

Once Gregory appeared in the foyer to put on his shoes, Loren put on his boots quickly while the other teen put on sneakers. Loren looked Gregory over, frustrated that the young man looked so put together even though his night had been restless as well. When he’d looked in the mirror, Loren had dark circles under his eyes and he just looked tired.

Outside the house, a new situation arose that caused Loren to decide that everything must be against him. Their only options were to either walk to the store, which would not be so bad, but the other option was to ride Gregory’s motorcycle. Gregory was obviously expecting that they took the bike, while Loren was uncertain about riding with him.

“Do you think I’ll crash?” Gregory crossed his arms, glaring at Loren.

“It’s not that… I’m uncomfortable with sitting that close.” Huffing, Loren crossed his arms as well.

“Sitting that close?” It took Gregory a moment, but then he realized and made an understanding face.

With that decided, Gregory put the key to his bike in his back pocket. He motioned to the sidewalk in the general direction of the closest grocery store. Once Loren started up the sidewalk, Gregory joined him, keeping a small distance between them. This would have to work, even though it meant they would have to carry the groceries back.

They walked in silence, both lost in their own little worlds of thought. Gregory was lost in how he had snuck into the shower with Loren last night. He was unsure why he did it, but it had been what Pelian wanted. Though his regret was massive, since he barely slept afterwards.

Loren was going over the bad dreams that had kept him up that night. Dreams of his heart being crushed by a large, glowing silver hand. Dreams of that silver hand trying to guide him somewhere also kept him awake. It was as if the silver hand was important and held meaning more than just in the dreams.

They made it to the grocery store after about a half hour of walking. Loren took a mental note to not get anything that could melt on the walk home. That meant no ice cream, definitely, and Loren was a little sad about that.

Entering the store, Loren grabbed a shopping cart while Gregory picked up a weekly flier. It took very little conversation between them for them to pick items on sale from the paper. They were both surprised to find they had similar interests.

They picked out stuff for dinner that night, and easy breakfast items. They picked lunch meats and bread for sandwiches, and fruits for snacks. Loren chose cookies for snacks, while Gregory chose dried beans to make stews.

After what turned into an hour of shopping, they had a full cart, and enough meals planned for the week. As they waited in line at the cash register, Loren tried to figure out how much his share of the groceries would be.

When it was their turn to pay, Gregory did not give Loren an opportunity to offer payment. Gregory paid as the items were bagged. Loren felt weird about it, almost like he was a mooch, but at the same time, it felt normal to let Gregory pay.

Each teen took several of the bags, Gregory managing to take the heavier bags before Loren could. Loren huffed before thanking the cashier and the bagger. He followed Gregory out of the store and caught up as they began the walk home.

“How much do I owe for my half of the groceries?” Loren tried to sound stubborn as he asked.

“You don’t. One, you don’t have a job, right? Two, I’m your Alpha, I’m to take care of you.” Gregory shrugged.

“Seriously? You’re going to be like that?” The younger wolf grumbled a bit before continuing,” fine, I’ll cook dinner then. I can handle things, too.”

Gregory hid a grin at the thought of Loren cooking. He liked the idea of providing for a pack mate, but definitely liked the idea of someone doing the basic house chores to help him. He was not particular to doing the work himself if he did not have to.

“Whatever makes it fair to you, Loren.” He watched Loren nod.

As they arrived home, Gregory unlocked the door and let Loren lead the way to the kitchen. While they put the groceries away, they fell into a comfortable silence. They moved around each other, almost as if it was natural for them to work together.

“What do you want for lunch?” Gregory asked as he put away the cold groceries in the fridge.

“Sandwiches?” Loren asked as he set the bread on the kitchen island.

“Sounds good.” It was an easy decision for them.

After putting away the snacks and bags of dried beans in the cabinets, the young men went about making sandwiches. Loren slathered mayonnaise and mustard on bread while Gregory got out meat and cheese for each sandwich.

Sitting down at the dining table, they each pulled out their phones. Playing quietly on their phones, they ate their sandwiches. Loren could not help but occasionally look over at Gregory. Something about peacefully eating lunch with the other wolf seemed comforting.