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Sascha flaps his hand weakly. “No, I’d rather just… get home. Sorry.”

Though Avery wants to tell him to stop apologizing, and thinks maybe he should, he doesn’t. It’s probably wicked to relish each moment of Sascha treating him like a person with feelings, but Avery can’t help it. This is his price for being fainted on instead of fucked.

After pulling out of the theater, Avery swings by a gas station to use the bathroom and put gas in the car. On his way out, he buys the biggest water bottle they carry. Sascha hadn’t hesitated before handing him two twenty-dollar bills to cover the errand. The trust makes Avery itch.

Sascha chugs the water like a dying man. He pulls away the bottle, now half-full, and gasps for air. The bashful smile he sends Avery, the way it communicates ‘Okay, you were right,’ is what finally gets Avery to unwind.

Once they’re on the road with a full gas tank, Sascha puts up the GPS to guide Avery back to Bliss, then slumps against the passenger door with his eyes closed.

No music, no conversation—nothing but Avery’s thoughts for the first leg of the drive. When he coasts to a stop in frontof a red light, going easy on the brake to avoid a rough halt, Sascha breaks the silence.

“Can I ask you something?”

Avery grunts, drumming his fingers nervously on the wheel.

“Why didn’t you shift to defend yourself?”

Mouth falling open, Avery misses the green light until the car behind him honks to get his attention. Frazzled, he hits the gas a bit too hard, jerking the hatchback into motion. “Oops,” he says with a wince.

Sascha waves the mistake away, his blue eyes fixed on Avery, the gold ring visible even in the darkness.

“I…” Should he be admitting this? “I can’t.”

Clearly confused, Sascha further prods the bruise. “You can’t? How does that work?”

“I can only shift on the full moon,” Avery says around clenched teeth. “And sometimes when I’m… scared. But I try not to.” Because the only time Avery shifted in self-defense, that mugger nearly died. Had that happened, he’d have been disappeared by Parahuman Civil Compliance, not sent up north.

Sascha is quiet for a minute or two. “You can stop from shifting?”

“Not during the full moon.”

“So you can control it even when you’re scared?”

“Why is this surprising to you?” There’s a bit of edge inAvery’svoice this time, though he doesn’t know if the alpha magic he can feel in others resonates in his own words.

“I was just told…” Sascha hesitates. “Werecreatures can’t control transformations, if doing so would benefit their inner… beast. That’s what makes them so dangerous.”

“Them?”

“Shit. Is that speciesist?”

Avery barks out a laugh. “Everything about our interactions is speciesist. This whole…” He takes one hand off the wheel to gesture broadly between Sascha and himself. “All of it. Werecreatures don’t trust or like shifters, and shiftersreallydon’t trust or like werecreatures.”

“Because werecreatures weren’t supposed to exist, but—” Sascha cuts himself off with a gasp and claps his hand over his mouth, the reality of his words apparently biting his tongue.

“I wasn’t supposed to exist,” Avery agrees, oddly calm. “I was bitten by a werecreature who didn’t warn me about the risks of fucking her in an altered state. My whole family rejected me when I was confirmed to be infected, and the person who… bit me… She promised her pack would take care of me, until their alpha realized I wasalsoan alpha. Whatever the fuck that means. So they ran me out of the state. No one thinks I can control myself, which is hilarious because they’re right, just in the opposite direction.”

At first Sascha works his jaw, no sound coming out. He hums, visibly troubled, before saying, “I’ll bet you’re sick of hearing me apologize.”

“Maybe.”No, not at all. “You gonna do it again?”

“Isn’t it implied at this point?”

Avery shrugs.

“You guys can…” Sascha hesitates, and in the corner of his eye, Avery sees Sascha’s imploring look, but he doesn’t acknowledge it for so long that Sascha turns instead toward the window. “I thought werecreatures could partial shift.”

“Those who can control their transformation, yeah. Probably.”