stardustly | au scenarios open post

Sam rose to his feet when Steve did, nudging his thigh with his head. Little did Steve know, they had the same destination - and he sure as hell wasn't going to be out here when the sun rose, not when he'd have to get back to the palace bare-ass naked. He'd be better off in the suite they'd been given, even if he changed back in the common area because he couldn't open the door to his bedroom with paws.

Besides, the easiest way to make Steve believe that all of this was real was, unfortunately, to change in front of him. In fact, it was probably the only way he'd believe it before he changed at the next full moon. (Would he change? What if the serum somehow kept the bite from working the way it normally did? Sure, he'd healed quickly, even for him, but- well, it didn't matter. Either way, he had to tell Steve the truth.)

The wolf started to follow along with him for some reason but Steve was too tired to really battle against it. If the wolf wanted to be safe from the guards and other creatures for awhile, Steve understood and he could lead the wolf back out tomorrow. Would the king be mad over an animal in his suite? He had remarked about a no pets rule but this seemed to be an exception, clearly. Later on, he'd discuss things with the king and locate a few more answers for himself about their current home.

When they reached the suite, he opened the door and let the wolf in first before he locked things up again. "You can stay for now just don't break anything. This stuff looks expensive enough to buy, well, an entire country." With a shake of his head, he moved into the kitchen. "Are you thirsty?" Did wolves drink milk? "I'm going to have some milk. I'm still not sure about the water here."

Sam gave Steve a clearly unimpressed look at his one-sided conversation - probably the same look he gave him whenever he was human and Steve commented about the water in Wakanda. He wondered what T'Challa would say if he knew that Steve didn't trust the water here - after all, it wasn't like the country wasn't more than technologically advanced enough to filter their drinking water if it was necessary.

(He really hadn't appreciated T'Challa's pointed comment about pets not being allowed, or the way he'd looked at him when he said it. It was a bit like being less than human - to be fair, he wasn't human, but neither was the king.)

Claws clicking on the floor, Sam crossed the room, sitting down next to Steve. He wasn't thirsty, but a snack sounded good right about now. You know, before everything inevitably went to hell.

Something familiar about the wolf kept tugging at the back of his mind but he ignored it, knowing it couldn't mean anything. Pouring a glass of milk, he sipped at it on his way to sitting down on the couch. The wolf continued to keep close to him, giving him looks he knew he had seen before.How odd.

"You tired?" Steve asked, setting down the glass of milk on the coffee table. "We have to get up early to sneak around before the guards make the rounds.

Sam also gave him a look of "don't you dare set that glass down without a coaster, you heathen" that was a lot like the same one he gave Steve every time he tried to do the same thing back home. More or less identical, in fact, if you discounted the furriness. He put his paws on the edge of the coffee table and nudged a coaster over to him with his snout, although he couldn't actually put it under the glass without a pair of thumbs.

In response to the question, he hopped up onto the couch, fitting his body around Steve's, letting his tail thump on the cushions before he settled down and rested his head on Steve's thigh again. There wasn't anything else to do, so sleeping was probably the best option.

Or trying to sleep, anyway.

The look on the wolf's face coupled with the coaster clicked more then a few things into place. Oh. Okay. Picking up the glass, he settled the coaster underneath, worrying the entire time about the current state of his mind. "Sam?" He questioned, settling back as the wolf rested against him again. It really couldn't be because wolves and people didn't turn back and forth. Sure, there were rumors about it but he knew better than to just listen to such things.

"You remind me so much of my friend Sam."

There was a tugging in his bones, one that made Sam realize he must have lost track of time. He raised his head to look out the window, but it was impossible to see the horizon with the trees that surrounded the palace. Still, the sky was lighter than he had expected, and that meant that the sun was nearly up. With a groan, he pulled away from Steve, tried to get far enough away from him that he would have room - but only managed to get as far as the other end of the couch before his bones started twisting and cracking.

Although Sam had never seen anyone else change, he was pretty sure that it wasn't a very attractive sight. And it definitely didn't sound pleasant, between the bones breaking and reforming and the low gasps of pain that occasionally escaped. Once he had fingers again, they dug into the couch cushions, flexing against the material.

When the change was finally over, Sam laid limply back against the couch. Shifting back and forth always took it out of him, especially during the full moon. He thought about grabbing a pillow to preserve his modesty, but he couldn't be bothered to reach for the one he'd knocked to the floor.

"Could you start a pot of coffee?" he croaked, not bothering to open his eyes. Normally, he would have gone to his room to try and get a few hours of sleep, but he and Steve really needed to have a talk.

Being unfrozen after seventy years gave Steve a whole new level on the odd scale and after dealing with aliens along with a whole host of other things, not as much surprised him anymore. At least, until Sam started to change back from the wolf into his human form. The sudden onslaught and the sounds surprised him do much he froze on his side of the couch, only snapping out of it at the sound of Sam's voice speaking to him.

What?

Blinking a few times, Steve managed to climb to his feet, tilting his head away from Sam in his current state of undress. "Right, yes," he croaked out, making his way into the kitchen to do just that. He returned a few moments later, setting the coffee mug on the table. "I think we have some talking to do here."

By the time Steve came back, Sam had at least wrapped a blanket around his waist. He'd anticipated the conversation that would follow, and figured that Steve would probably feel a lot more comfortable if he wasn't sitting on the couch buck-ass naked. Not to mention the questions that would be asked if any of the others walked in.

He took the mug gratefully, sipping the coffee. God, this wasn't going to be easy. "I was in this little village in Afghanistan," he began slowly. "Wasn't much of a village anymore by the time I got there. I went into this house that'd been cleared, and this skinny-ass dog leapt out of nowhere and bit me. Nothing major, I thought, so I bandaged it up and kept working. Couple weeks later, full moon rolled around, and bam. Suddenly I was a wolf." The story sounded absurd; there wasn't any way of getting around that. But it was the truth.

While Sam talked, Steve remained silent to allow him the chance to explain. But the explanation only caused more questions in the end so many of them that Steve didn't know where to even start. "Can you - do you have abilities other than turning into a wolf?" Steve had always enjoyed mythology and the like but reality rarely lined up with fiction.

"Does the rest of the team know?" Would he be the last to know something again? It really frustrated him to be left out of most things for usually the purpose of sparing him.

Reaching out, he tried to squeeze Sam's hand.

"I heal faster than an ordinary human. I'm tougher, too. And I'm stronger and faster, although I'm not exactly in your league." And in all the time they'd spent working out and jogging together, Sam had been holding back to what a normal human could do, so nobody would suspect. "I can smell better."

"Nah, nobody else knows." Maybe Fury; he didn't know what SHIELD knew about him, but he'd always taken care to keep it secret. Sam gave Steve a small smile when he squeezed his hand. At least he wasn't pulling away from him. (Yet, anyway.)

The abilities confession made a few more questions pop up and slam around his mind. "Wait, does that mean you've been holding back on me during our runs?" If so, he would be indignant to mingle in with the hurt he already felt for the hiding. Had Sam not trusted him with the truth?

Smell better? "How good with the smelling thing?" Probably far better than he could. "Fury probably knows because he tends to know most things."

"Trust me, you can still outrun me," Sam teased him. As a human, anyway; he could probably come a lot closer as a wolf. And it was irrelevant, anyway - unless the serum prevented it somehow, Steve would be a werewolf, too. Probably some kind of super-werewolf or something.

"Pretty decent." Sam shrugged. "It's, uh, heightened closer to the full moon. And obviously not as good as when I'm a wolf." He shifted awkwardly. He hadn't kept it a secret from Steve for any malicious reason, but because he just didn't know how he'd react, or if he'd even believe him. Of course, now he'd definitely been given enough proof.

As Sam explained a few things, scenes from last night washed back over him and he could not help but to gasp. "You bit me," he accused with narrowed eyes and folded arms. "Wait, isn't that like contagious or something?" At least, in werewolf lore others were turned into werewolves by being bitten. Hold on. "Is - oh - will that -" He sputtered with the questioning, face turning paler by the minute. No, he could not become a wolf! The serum had to put a stop to it, right?

"Do you usually attack people, Sam?" He had disapproving face in place, folded arms tightening against his chest. "I - this can't be possible. How."

Sam dropped his head into his hands, unable to look at Steve. "I know, okay? You startled me, and I haven't been able to, well, indulge my instincts since we came to Wakanda. And- fuck, I'm sorry, Steve." He rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms. "Something just went wrong for a moment, and it's a shitty excuse, but that's all I got."

He couldn't blame Steve for being angry with him. He was mad at himself for allowing something like this to happen. He'd been so careful for so many years, and the one time things had gone wrong, he'd savaged his best friend. What if he'd killed him? How would he have explained that to everyone?

Maybe he really was the monster the Wakandans thought he was.

A frown tugged at his lips but sympathy filled his eyes all the while. He understood not fitting in, after all, and Wakanda had a lot of carefully crafted rules in place. It made sense they wouldn't enjoy a werewolf very much when they were so caught up with a panther spirit. Still, he worried Sam would lose control again with a much worse outcome. "We could talk to the king and see if something can be set up for you to help?" He's not mad, honestly, more like disappointed and scared.

Looking down for a moment, something suddenly occurred to him. "Wait, you bit me. Is that going to do anything to me?"

"I think T'Challa's idea of helping would be kicking me out of the country." Sam just snorted. If the king found out, he'd definitely make sure he didn't have the opportunity to harm any of his subjects - and kicking him out would probably be the kindest solution. Given their antipathy towards wolves, they probably had some kind of vibranium and silver alloy around.

Sam fidgeted at Steve's question. "I don't know, honestly. Way you healed up, could've just been the serum, or it could be. Uh." He had a hard time saying it. "Could be a sign that you're gonna end up like me." Or, for all he knew, the serum would make things even weirder.

At the confession, the whole world slowed down to a stop for Steve and even just breathing proved to be difficult. He might turn into a shifter? A WOLF? He couldn't wrap his head around it, especially when he found it difficult to even accept Sam as one and if he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he probably would have written it off as a fable. Supernatural things were only supposed to exist in films and books, not actual life. How could he be one? What if the serum made things unstable and dangerous?

Swallowing thickly, he looked down at his hands. "What will we do if I'm like --- that?"

"I'll help you through everything," Sam promised, instinctively reaching to take one of Steve's hands. While he hoped his best friend wouldn't find the thought of what he was (and what he'd done to him) repulsive enough to pull away, it was a fear that lingered at the edge of his mind. "We'll get T'Challa to give us a secure space for your first change, make sure you can get everything under control.

"It's not that bad," he added, almost pleading. "You'll see." He didn't want Steve to fear what he was - didn't want him to change his opinion of him. And, yeah, Sam knew it was selfish, but Steve meant the world to him, and he didn't want to lose him.

Change. Shift. Control. All the words blurred together in a messy array and slid to the point they did not make any sense. How could he cope with this? But Sam's hand solidly in his anchored him to the moment and after some contemplation, he gave a nod of his head.

"We can figure it out together." He drifted off for a moment, thinking. "What's it like? Changing? What's it feel like? Do -"

He let out a sigh and waited for Sam to answer those before he went further.

Sam made a face at the question. "It hurts. I'm not gonna lie about that. But it probably doesn't hurt more than, you know, being strapped down in a tube and bombarded with radiation does. You'll do fine. The weird thing is just- feeling it all, the way your body reshapes, feeling fur grow from your skin. The way the wolf's mind sort of...lurks in the back of your head. It's there all the time, but it's harder to ignore closer to the full moon."

"That sounds scary," he added hastily. "It's not, really. It's like a set of instincts, just knowing that there's this part of you that's a wild animal that wants to get out. It wants to run and hunt and do all the natural things animals do." Yeah, he was aware he wasn't really selling the whole wolf thing very well.

Again, he fell silent to listen and take in all the information from Sam, looking more and more pensive the longer he talked. Being a wolf sounded, well, terrible and he couldn't see any upsides whatsoever. The strength for some maybe but he already had enough of his own. Wait a minute - "You're stronger than you play off being, aren't you?" he asked with furrowed eyebrows, looking down slightly.

"You deal with wolf instincts all the time," he voiced after a long stretch of silence. "Even now?" His body turned a little towards Sam. "What other things besides hunting?"

"And faster," Sam admitted sheepishly. "But still no match for you." That much wasn't a lie; he knew Steve's limits pretty well, and his own, even enhanced, were nowhere near that. Being a wolf wasn't that bad, in his opinion, once you got used to it - but, then again, Steve already had most of the benefits just from the serum.

"A sort of- possessiveness. Need to protect my pack. And..." Sam coughed and glanced away. "I get restless right before the full moon. More...wild." Normally he was open about his sexuality, but it was awkward with Steve.

Possessive over his pack. Okay, sure, it made perfect sense in the bizarre circumstance he certainly found himself in. The new weird existence where supernatural creatures of myth actually existed bit it shouldn't have shocked him too much given aliens existed. "You consider - all of us your pack?" he asked, looking down at his hands as if they held the answers.

The wild line took him a few minutes to grasp onto. Okay. "This isn't getting into a mating thing is it? Like regular wolves?" An important thing for him to know if he turned. "I'm not sure what the serum will do if I do turn. A lot stronger I guess."

He ran a hand over the back of his neck with a groan.

"Basically," Sam agreed with a shrug. He was more possessive of some - like Steve - than others, but fighting the others had still gone against his instincts. The little group they had left, though, that was definitely his pack.

Sam actually blushed at the second question; he knew what the moon did to his sex drive, and it was...awkward to think of Steve going through the same thing. "Yeah, like that. It's this kinda urge."

"I'm sorry," he apologized again. "I really didn't mean to - I've never been a danger to anyone before." But what was done was done, and he couldn't take it back now.

au scenarios open post

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