OCTAVEUS
Drew and I were walking to his house after school, about a week after it started again after summer break, my arm around his waist. The sky had darkened early, due to the dark grey-purple storm clouds slowly making their way across the sky. Drew's house was about ten blocks from Northside, but his parents both worked until six and he didn't have enough money for his own car yet, so we walked to his house every day. After the school was out of view we turned onto a different road, cutting through an alleyway to shorten the walk. Only thing was, the alleyway was literally the longest alley I'd ever seen, so we still walked quite a ways. As soon as we entered the alley I heard an all-too-familiar voice behind us.
   "Fleur," Seth barked at us and I whipped around, unwrapping my arm from around Drew's waist and turning around to face him. This is the first time he has had the courage to confront me since he mauled me in wolf form. We've just been glaring daggers at each other in the hallways when we see each other. "How's life treating you?" He sneered. "Still, ah," he made a gesture of cutting his throat and I growled at him.
   "Leave us alone," I said, gently pushing Drew forward as I turned to walk away. As soon as I'd turned around I felt someone on my back and cold metal pressed against my throat.
   "Why should I?" Seth snarled in my ear, pressing the switchblade more against my throat and forcing me backwards.  Drew's eyes widened in fear and he froze. "Personally, I think it's best to talk about your suicidal thoughts," Seth continued, his voice as sharp and cold as the blade pressed against my trachea. His voice got harsher. "Maybe then you'll finally know that you're not wanted." I tried to claw him, but he dug the blade deeper into my throat, close to cutting the skin.
   "You're a coward," he snarled into my ear, holding me still. "I thought that the first time you tried to kill yourself would be the last time this planet would have to deal with you, but I guess I was wrong, wasn't I? Oh, well," he pushed the knife deeper as I struggled, and I squeezed my eyes shut, a pained whimper came out of my mouth. "I guess I'll just have to wait until next time." To be honest, half of me didn't want to fight back to him, but if I was gonna die today it wasn't gonna be by Seth's hands.
   Suddenly there was a dull thud and Seth was off my back; I opened my eyes to see Drew pinned under Seth a couple yards away from me, Seth's switchblade aimed under Drew's chin. I saw terror in my boyfriend's eyes as he stared up at Seth's face. Before I could do anything two of Seth's gang had my arms pinned behind my back.
   "You little-" Seth cussed Drew out through clenched teeth. He laughed evilly. "You really thought you could help him?" Seth pushed the knife into the skin just under Drew's chin, beads of Drew's dark red blood starting to run down his neck. His face contorted in pain and fear. One of the guys holding me covered my mouth with a piece of cloth as I tried to cuss Seth out, struggling against the pain of my arms being forced into my shoulder blades.
   "Leave him the fuck alone!" I managed to shout through the cloth. Seth turned on me, staring at me over his shoulder as he pressed the knife deeper into Drew's neck, more blood staining the blade.
   "What can you do about it, huh?" He snarled at me. "What you gonna do?" I tried to bare my teeth at him, snarling through the cloth.
   "Oh, you're gonna kill me?" Seth feigned surprise. "Well, that wouldn't go your way, seeing as the first step you take towards me will mark the end of him." Seth dug the knife deeper, Drew's eyes beginning to roll back in his head. That was when I lost any care of the pain I felt.
   I kicked one leg backwards behind me, my aim serving me well; the guy holding back one of my arms immediately doubled over in pain and sank to his knees. I whipped around and socked the other guy in the face, then ripped Seth off of Drew and threw him against the wall. Rage filled my chest, along with a new feeling; a sort of emptiness.
   "Touch him one more time and I rip you apart," I snarled in his face, my voice low and eyes narrow, tightening my hand around his neck, and I could see in Seth's eyes that he knew that I meant it. I held my other hand out, claws unsheathed to their full two-inch length of curved talon-sharp black bone. Suddenly Seth's expression hardened and I felt a stinging pain across my stomach; I let go of Seth, putting my hand over the new rip in my shirt and feeling the thin line of blood across my abs. In the next second I was pinned to the ground, Seth's switchblade now pressed into my stomach.
   "So much for that plan," he snarled, his shoulder tensing. His foot was pinning one of my arms to the ground, his hand pinning the other, and his other leg holding my legs to the ground. Suddenly Seth was ripped off of me and a tall, muscular dark form held him up by the neck.
   "Touch my brother one more time and the last thing you see is your blood staining the wall." Jessie snarled in Seth's face, teeth unsheathed and bared, his voice dangerously low. His hand squeezed Seth's neck and Seth's eyes widened in fear, though he managed a weak nod. Jessie threw him to the ground hard and hissed; Seth scrambled to his feet and sprinted out of view, the two other guys quick to follow. Jessie turned around to look for me, but I was crouched by Drew.
   "Drew!" I said urgently in his face, lifting his head into my lap. His eyes were wide and blood ran down his neck, staining the collar of his shirt.
   "H-he tried to kill me," he said, his voice wavering.
   "He probably wouldn't have had the guts to actually kill you," I said soothingly. "He's gone now."
   "We have to get out of here," Jessie said. "How far away is Drew's house?"
   "A couple more blocks," I answered for Drew.
   "Let's go there," Jessie said, helping Drew to his feet. Drew almost promptly staggered backwards into me.
   "Everything's spinning," Drew said, putting a hand on his forehead. Jessie and I exchanged concerned glances, then I bent down and picked Drew up, holding him how you'd hold a small child, with his head on my shoulder and his legs on either side of my waist. He wrapped his arms loosely around my neck as I started walking, Jessie beside me.

When we got to Drew's house Jessie went into the kitchen to get a bunch of damp paper towels while I set Drew on the couch and sat next to him.
   "How much does it hurt?" I asked him gently.
   "It just stings," he said, wincing. He  slowly raised one hand to touch the cut but I intercepted his hand.
   "Don't touch it," I said, then tilted his head back when Jessie came back and laid a damp paper towel over the cut. Drew winced again but didn't cry out.
   "Shirt," Jessie said to me, and I took off  my shirt. He looked at the cut across my stomach.
   "I can do it," I said and took a damp paper towel from him, wiping away the dried blood from the shallow cut. "Drew is who you need to worry about."
   Jessie nodded and ran his hand through his hair, sighing. "I wish we were at our house," he said.
   "There's a First Aid kit in the hallway bathroom," Drew said.
   "Yeah, but I doubt your First Aid kit has unicorn urine and mermaid tears in it." Jessie said nonchalantly. Drew gave him a disgusted look.
   "It works really well for cuts," I said. Mostly so that Jessie didn't seem like some psychopath that enjoys combining unicorn pee and mermaid tears for a living. "It makes things heal quicker."
   "Okay," Drew said, giving us a slightly less disgusted look. "No offense, but I wouldn't want you to put that on my cut either way."
   "Understandable," Jessie chuckled. He turned to me. "How's your head?"
   "My head?" I asked. I hadn't gotten hit in the head.
   "Your head," Jessie repeated, this time pointing at his skull.
   "Oh," I got the message. "I'm fine."
   Jessie stared at me for a second. "Don't believe him." He said before leaving the room and walking down the hall.
   Drew glanced at me from the corner of his eye, his head still tilted backwards, but said nothing. He slowly raised his hand to touch the towel over his cut but as soon as his fingers came into contact with it he winced. I grabbed his hand and gently lifted the towel off of the cut; it was right under his chin, where his neck connected with the underside of his lower jaw. I folded the towel so that there was no red showing and placed it back over the cut.
   "How do you deal with this all the time?" Drew asked me, looking at the scars that covered my arms and upper body.
   "I have practice dealing with pain," I replied shortly. "Your cut won't be a scar for long, just scab up a little before it heals over. Probably won't take more than a week to start healing."
   Drew's lip curled a little. "Are you sure you shouldn't be in medical school?"
   I smirked at him. "I'm sure. If I was in medical school I more than likely wouldn't have met you, now would I?"
   "I guess not," Drew smiled.
   "And that would be unfortunate," I said quieter, leaning in to kiss him. Then I heard gagging from the hallway.
   "Please save the flirting and kissing until later, I'd rather not puke right now." Jessie said.
   I rolled my eyes. "Fine, Mr. Anti-Romance. I'll spare you your vision."
   "Thank God."
   He came over to us and tossed a bunch of gauze and a roll of bandage onto the couch, then sat down on Drew's other side and gently moved the towel that was over his cut. I took the roll of bandage and wrapped it around my midsection to cover the cut across my stomach, only one layer. Then I grabbed my shirt and looked at the rip in it.
   "Damn werewolf," I snarled under my breath. "Ripped my favorite Prince shirt."
   Jessie chuckled lightly and looked at me. "You don't even listen to Prince, why do you like him?"
   "Because he's hot." I replied, putting the shirt back on. "But not as hot as Drew," I winked at him and he smirked, his cheeks turning slightly red. Jessie gagged again.
   "What did I say about the flirting?"
   "Oh, stuff it," I rolled my eyes at my brother. Jessie curled his lip mockingly at me and tore off a strip of the bandage, placing it over the cut on Drew's neck.
   "What were you two doing in that alleyway in the first place?" My brother asked, giving me a suspicious look.
   I rolled my eyes at him and sighed. "No we were not making out, it's a shortcut to get here."
   "How come you always assume that we were doing something intimate?" Drew asked him, not in a criticizing way.
   "Have you met your boyfriend?" Jessie replied.
   "Fair point."
   "How come you two always assume that I want to do something intimate whenever me and Drew are alone?" I retaliated.
   "Because it's true," Jessie said. "I've heard what you talk about in your sleep."
   "And you hint every time we are alone," Drew added.
   "Fiiiiine," I scowled.
   There was a couple seconds of silence. Then Drew said, "Wait what does he usually talk about in his sleep? I've can understand some of it but most of it is just jargon to me." That sorta confused me; then I realized that I sleep talk in French and Drew doesn't speak completely fluent French. Unless it's about tomatoes, I guess.
   Jessie gave me a sly smirk. "Well it's usually along the lines of-mmf!" I covered Jessie's mouth before he could continue.
   "Nothing you need to know," I said. Jessie has told me what I ranted about when I sleep. Drew does not need to know right now.
   Just then Drew's parents walked through the door, followed by Kilie sprinting into the kitchen.
   "Uh-oh," Drew muttered. I sat down beside him while Jessie went over to my other side to get the bandages. He tore off a strip and I held it against the cut on Drew's neck. Drew's mom walked into the living room, just as I had expected her to, and stopped dead in her tracks.
   "Oh my god what happened?" She asked as she rushed over to us.
   "We're Fine, someone tried to mug us," I lied easily. Well, it wasn't really a lie, but I didn't tell her that we got mugged by a guy from our school. Then Drew's mom saw Jessie and shock lit up her eyes.
   People are usually surprised by how I look, but the same goes for Jessie. He doesn't look dead, but he just has a burlier build, and a more masculine square-ish face. In other words, he looks like somebody you would want to avoid if you're alone on the streets.
   "That's Vee's brother Jessie," Drew said when he saw the surprise on his mother's face.
   "Nice to meet you," She said, but then quickly turned her attention back to Drew.

DREW
"You know, I really hate that werewolf," I muttered to Vee as he stood in front of the body mirror in my room. He had his shirt off and his jeans undone and pulled down a little bit so that he could see all of the new cut across his stomach, and was carefully cleaning it out.
   "And you just came to this realization?" He said sarcastically as he poured some more cleaning alcohol onto a paper towel.
   "Well, no, but I just felt like I should share it again." I sat up on my bed and lightly touched the bandage that Jessie had secured over my cut with medical tape, keeping my gaze fixed on the wall so that I didn't stare at my boyfriend's very much exposed V-line. Vee finished cleaning the cut on his stomach and zipped his jeans up again, tossing his shirt into my dirty laundry bin and laying down next to me.
   "I don't suppose you're up for some kissing, are you?" He looked at my face innocently.
   "You see, this is what I meant earlier about you hinting," I chuckled.
   He scowled and buried his face in my stomach, which made me laugh again. He started purring and I stroked his hair until we fell asleep.