[C] Facing the Unreal Reality

Hungry? He was famished. He gave her a grateful smile before digging in.
Fawzi would be able to tell the difference between the way he was eating now and the way he ate with her before. He was really digging into it, not really paying attention to his manners.

He nodded yes to her question, grunting out an answer as his mouth was full of food. A bit of syrup got into his chin.

The woman began cleaning up the flour-y mess she had made when making the pancakes.

When the counters were clean, she pulled out a chair at the table and sat down.

"Chew, swallow then answer the question again," she chuckled softly. She couldn't understand him with a mouth full of food. He'd need to at least swallow what he was chewing before speaking again.

He swallowed his food and looked at Fawzi with an apologetic expression.

"Is this normal?... I don't feel myself at all..." He asked in a low voice.

He felt more animalistic than normal... more likely to just act instead of think things through first.

"I can't really answer that from experience."

She gave a half shrug. "Its normal enough to feel heightened desires. More animalistic."

She supposed that that would create a war within the body. How someone used to act versus how they act now with this heightened sense of animalistic behaviour.

"You've been through a lot. Give everything time to settle and you may start feeling more normal."

The smell of bacon had pulled the woman out of her slumber, her body ached and she was still tired and covered in blood but food was more important.

Her eyes blinked open sleepily as she pulled herself up off of the couch, the blanket she had taken tied around her torso in a makeshift dress.

"Food..."

She grumbled in a zombie like drone as she sat down on top of the bench and stole a piece of bacon, stuffing it in her mouth.

Hair stuck to her cheeks, mattered and hardening from the dried blood that was streaked through it, she would have to see if she could bargain with Khaliq to get a few drops of blood, she needed to replace what she lost.

"Liq up yet?"

She asked through her daze, looking around absently.

Tom winced when he say the girl... his new lycan mother... walk into the room. She was still miserable looking and covered in blood. He hated seeing anyone like that.

"Eat as much as you want." He coaxed her, staring at the woman with worry. He was still slightly afraid of her, even though Fawzi had promised she wasn't a threat anymore.

Fawzi's eyes turned up to Rai when she shuffled into the room.

"Not looking like that, you're not getting any," the woman growled softly, standing and pointing out into the hall.

"Get a shower. Clean yourself up a little. Goodness, we're people. We don't waltz up to the breakfast table covered in blood."

This was one of the few times that Fawzi could be labelled a mother. She definitely carried the motherly 'I know best' tone that was common in strict mothers.

"When you've gotten yourself cleaned up, you can eat." Not a moment before that, though. Not a chance.

Fawzi's eyes turned up to Rai when she shuffled into the room.

"Not looking like that, you're not getting any," the woman growled softly, standing and pointing out into the hall.

"Get a shower. Clean yourself up a little. Goodness, we're people. We don't waltz up to the breakfast table covered in blood."

This was one of the few times that Fawzi could be labelled a mother. She definitely carried the motherly 'I know best' tone that was common in strict mothers.

"When you've gotten yourself cleaned up, you can eat." Not a moment before that, though. Not a chance.

Raisa gave a snort as Fawzi snorted at her, she wasn't in the best mood, she felt like shit and just wanted something to eat, it was the worst time for the woman to get up at her for being dirty.

"What ever."

She growled softly as she hopped off the counter and padded toward the bathroom.

She didn't have the energy to fight at the moment. Instead she got into the shower and started scrubbing the blood out of her hair and off of her skin.

It wasn't until she was in the shower and cleaning her body at she noticed the reason that her arm still hurt was because it had set wrong after it broke, the bone was sharp and pressing against the muscles in her arms.

When she was finally clean and stole one of Tom's shirts and went back into the kitchen, sitting back onto the counter, her hair dripping down her clothed back.

"I need Liq, where is he?"

She murmured, looking at Fawzi grumpily, the woman was being short with her and she just could exert the effort to stand up for herself.

Tom had never seen that side to Fawzi. He noticed the tension between the two and decided to just let them work it out instead of try and get involved.

Once Raisa was gone he looked over to Fawzi with a curious expression.

"How do you two know each other?" He finally asked.

Fawzi didn't want to be the bitch in this situation, but she wanted some semblance of normality after lass nights hysteria. She wanted everything to go back to being at least somewhat normal.

And coming to the table still covered in blood was not, in any sense of the word, normal.

She stood when Raisa disappeared with a growl.

"She's my brother's fuck buddy," the woman replied, glancing over her shoulder at Tomaso. "We're usually pretty friendly."

Yesterday had just shaken all of them.

When the woman returned, Fawzi had made up a load of bacon and pancakes for the woman. When apologising to a Lycan, use a lot of good food. That was rule number one.

"Sleeping. What do you need him for? I could help."

The woman sat down and ate eagerly, shoveling the food into her mouth as quickly as she could before chewing and swallowing it down in a large gulp that would choke most people.

"My arm set wrong, it needs to be re-broken."

She replied, lifting her arm to show how the sharp bone was slanted and pressing against the skin.

"Plus I lost a lot of blood last night, I was going to see if I could butter him up to see if he would let me feed."

She paused for a moment between shoveling down more food.
"How are you feeling Tom?"

Tom nodded his head.

For some reason hearing the word "fuck buddy" made him incredibly horny... another thing out of character for him.

Especially since he'd all ready taken care of himself in the shower not all that long ago.

He kept eating and tried squeezing his legs together to suppress his growing libido.

When Raisa showed her arm it helped a lot. That looked disgusting and painful. He didn't even know it could set wrong... there was so much he didn't understand yet!

"I... uh... okay" Was all he answered.

"All things considered that is." He added, scratching behind his neck.

"That looks rough."

Fawzi lifted the woman's arm, prodding it gently as she checked over it. It wasn bad, but not as bad as it could have been.

"Go kick him awake when you're done eating. That lazy ass needs to get up anyway." Liq had been sleeping longer than anyone else. It was high time for him to get up and join the living.

The woman took a step back to let Rai finish her breakfast.

"That looks rough."

Fawzi lifted the woman's arm, prodding it gently as she checked over it. It wasn bad, but not as bad as it could have been.

"Go kick him awake when you're done eating. That lazy ass needs to get up anyway." Liq had been sleeping longer than anyone else. It was high time for him to get up and join the living.

The woman took a step back to let Rai finish her breakfast.

"It's not that bad, I just forgot to set it properly before I dozed off, would be worse if it were my leg."

Having to reset a leg was a pain, the bone took a lot more effort to break and longer to heal.

It didn't take long for her to finish her meal, she was starving so she practically inhaled it.

After she was done she got out of her seat and padded to where Liq was sleeping, glancing over her shoulder before she left the the room.

"Thanks Fawzi."
She murmured, she wasn't mad at the woman anymore, just grateful for the food and for her help last night.

"Liq, wake up."

She called before pouncing onto him roughly, sprawling out over his sleeping body.

"You're welcome." She smiled at the woman as she padded out of the room to go terrorise her brother.

Fawzi sat down at the table again, turning her attention to Tomaso.

"Are you sure that you're all right?" Fawzi looked tired and worried. For the first time since last night, she looked tired. She was finally letting everything she was feeling show. She was worried for Tom. Sad that he was forced through this. Worried that it would change him. The poor man was someone that she liked. She didn't want anything bad to happen to him and this definitely counted at something bad.

In the other room, Khaliq grunted loudly when he was pounced on.

The Necromancer rolled over, trying to ignore the woman laying on top of him.

"Honestly? I have no idea" He said truthfully. He gave her a crooked, halfhearted smile.

"But what about you? You were dragged into this and you look exhausted." He said, leaning in closer to her.

"I don't want to burden you Fawzi." He said, his voice very genuine and concerned.

She returned his smile with one of her own.

This had turned into a load of shit, hadn't it? The past two days had been utterly hectic.

Everything needed to slow down so Fawzi could get her head around everything that had happened and try and make sense of what that meant for the future.

Her hand reached out to grip his on the table.

"You're not burdening me, Tom. You could never be a burden."

He took her hand back in his own, but leaned his head down on the table.

If she only knew what he was going through right now.

He was a mixture of confused, lonely, sore, and horny. It wasn't a pleasant combination for the man.

"If you ever want to take that back I'd understand.... I'm a lycan now and I don't even know what that will do to cause me to change...."

Though he was starting to get an idea. His stomach had never been so hungry for meat, his body had never felt so strong, and his libido was never this high.

"You'll get through it," she assured him.

"I believe in you." She believed that he was strong enough to get through this and start living through a life as close to ordinary a Lycan could get.

Tomaso would be fine. She was sure of it.

"I'm here to help you if you need it. And Rai. And Liq. We'll all be here to help you if things get too hard for you to deal with on your own."

Fawzi didn't want the man to go through anything stressful on his own. He didn't deserve it.

"It's not just me I'm worried about." He admitted, keeping his head on the table. He didn't want to let go of her hand though.

"I don't know what I'm capable of...." He looked up so he could stare right into her eyes.

"What if I hurt someone?" He asked, fear eminent in his eyes.

"Then we'll help you so you don't hurt anyone else," she promised.

They were in this together. All of them. If he did something that he would regret, they would do their best to try and help him through it.

And she would be right there leading the way.

"We'll get through this, Tom."

She gave his hand a firm, comforting squeeze.

Raisa scowled as Liq ignored her, as such she jabbed him sharply in the side.

"Fawzi made breakfast and I need you to break my arm for me."

She growled at him, reaching down and grasping onto his package firmly, giving it a squeeze.

If he didn't want to be limping the rest of the day then he had to get out of bed.

Khaliq gave a rather unmanly yelp when Rai attacked what was most precious.

"All right, I'm up, I'm up!" he yelled, trying to wriggle away from her.

"I'll break your fucking arm. Don't need to torture me first."

Fawzi giggled softly from her place at the table in the other room.

"Liq's up."