"What do you mean I still can't leave?" You placed your hands on your hips and scowled at Shanks. "I got through the full moon problem free and you said there shouldn't be any problems when that was done."

"Right, and that's all true but it wouldn't be smart to go home just yet. At least Lucci is gone, I know you weren't overly fond of him."

He back pedaled as you moved closer, hitting the door and leaving the room to walk down the hall. You followed after him, hot on his heels with the need for answers. You thought you were fine to go back to living like normal, staying here any longer wasn't part of your agenda.

"Lucci no longer matters. I'm healed up and not trying to kill anyone, I don't see why I can't leave."

"And that's because you're new at this, you'll need to pick up on certain things fast to stay under the radar." He flashed you a smile as you walked beside him. Even with his long legs, you found you could keep up well enough.

"Okay, what kinds of things? I'd like to go home. I haven't been able to tell anyone why I disappeared and that's a problem. I left my phone at work."

"We can make up an excuse for you, speaking of, you're going to want to get used to finding good white lies to tell people on a regular basis. Around each full moon to be exact."

"Fuck." You sighed.

Having to lie about what you'd be doing every month was going to be tricky. Working or going out those nights wasn't going to happen and you were going to have to avoid that without tipping people off.

"Indeed." Shanks slipped out of his jacket and handed it over to you.

He was nice enough to listen to your request for one to cover up but you were hoping to borrow one more for the sake of getting home, not for hiding what the tube top didn't. Though that was a nice bonus. You undid the knot on the left sleeve and slipped into it. You were immediately hit with the strong scent of sake, it covered the jacket, almost to the point of making you scrunch up your nose.

"You can't go home yet for the same reason you'll be needing to lie once a month; people might be suspicious. You suddenly left for a few days without telling anyone, if someone close to you notices you turning up the day after the full moon, it may be harder to convince them that you're still human. And hopefully your boss won't be too worried about you leaving for a while, I talked to him, told him a family emergency came up and you had to got for a short period of time."

"You covered for me." Relief washed over you. "Thanks, I mean it."

That was something that had been stressing you out. Your co-worker Vivi was also one of your friends and she hung out with Nami and the others you often spent time with. If she heard that story, chances were your other friends assumed you were just gone for a few days, not out in the woods hunting down poor defenseless animals.

"I also informed him that you were in a rush and didn't take your phone. That cleared up why no one could get a hold of you. Now I'd suggest figuring out some kind of sappy, sad story to tell him when you get back. Maybe say someone was on death's doorstep, a close relative or whatever."

"I'll think that over. So I'm stuck here for how much longer in the meantime?"

"A day or two, but no one said you had to be cooped up in here the entire time, not anymore that is."

Shanks had led you to the front of the home were three familiar faces waited. One was Benn while the other two were the ones you'd seen at the restaurant with them when you'd confronted Shanks about your wound.

"So....what exactly are we doing?" You looked between him and his group of friends expectantly."

"We've been waiting for you to wake up!" The biggest of the group said with a grin. His shirt barley covered his large belly and when he moved as he spoke, it wasn't fully able to.

"I figured you could use some time out in town." Shanks pushed you forward towards the group. For only having a single arm, he was impressively strong. You stumbled forward, still a little unsure. "We're going out celebrating a successful first shift!"

----

It was nice to get out.

Shanks had introduced you to his other two friends, the intimidatingly round one being called Roux, or Lucky Roux, and the other with the shock of red hair was Rockstar. You seriously doubted that was the man's name but you went along with it.

After making sure you were okay with it and after getting something to eat, Shanks took you to the same bar that led to you becoming a werejaguar. You'd arrived late in the afternoon on a weekday yet the place was completely packed. The first time you were here, all you got were starved, dangerous stares from the supernatural packed building. This time, no one even blinked at you. It was like they could tell the difference between a human and supernatural creature without even looking. That was a trick you were going to have to pick up.

What you really didn't understand was why as soon as Shanks' friends got similar looks, the people would quickly avert their eyes. His friends were all human, yet they didn't get the treatment to the same extent you and Nami had. Your best guess was it had to do with them being men in a predominantly male bar. It sounded about right.

You spent the rest of the afternoon and into the evening drinking and talking about anything that came to mind. Shanks had you drinking the same stronger stuff that you'd had last time and now it felt more like regular alcohol. He'd given you a tip to learn how to act buzzed from now on as like he said, anything weaker just wouldn't be enough for you.

Supernatural creatures worked very differently from humans. From now on, it'd be almost impossible for you to scar, wounds would heal at an incredible rate, and anything like drugs or alcohol would go through your system much faster than before.

The guys would sprinkle in these little tidbits of information to the conversation here and there, doing their best to keep you in the loop of how things were going to change for you. The hardest part of it all was having human friends. No one you knew besides Shanks or Mihawk were anything but human and you weren't sure how your friends would react if they knew what you were now. But you were confident you could hide your newly developing quirks.

You saw and smelled everything now. You could pick someone out from a crowd and be able to tell when and what they'd last ate, if they'd slept with someone recently, maybe even where they'd been, all based on tell tale things you would have had no way of noticing before. And to your delight, your strength was on par with a professional weightlifter on their best day. You'd been able to test that yourself when Rockstar tried challenging you to an arm wrestle. When he lost, Roux gave it a shot and ended with the same results. Benn on the other hand, knew better than to try you.

With every little thing that came up that you noticed was different, you took mental note to try acting more "normal" whenever possible. You were sure there'd be slip ups here and there but nothing you could cover with relative ease.

Eventually, Mihawk came by and joined your group, letting you know it had to be dark out. When he arrived, it was like the men all gained new found energy. Hell, even you were able to fight through the exhaustion and enjoy getting to banter back and forth with a vampire and whatever Shanks was. That was still nagging at you.

You were sure you just about had all the information you needed to figure out what he was, but you couldn't quite put your finger on it.

"Here's a guess for you." You shot back the bit of sake Shanks had poured out for you and bumped your shoulder into his.

"This is going to be good." Roux laughed.

"You're some kind of fae."

"Ohhhh, I see you got their term correct." Shanks said, genuinely impressed. "But no, I'm not fae."

"He's not pretty enough for that." Rockstar snickered, making his friends burst into laughter.

"Answer this for me then, how do you hide what you are so well then? I can't tell what's just part of your personality or what's the supernatural parts of you showing through."

"Years of practice." Shanks poured you another drink from the carafe the bartender had slid to him a while ago before pouring one for himself. "Here's another hint for you since you've been trying so hard; I was born what I am, my kind can't be changed to what we are from humans like vampires or shifters."

"Doesn't that apply to most supernatural folks?"

"Not really, I think that narrows it down by a pretty good margin."

You let out a content, buzzed hum as you thought it over. Shanks was charming, very much so, but you couldn't tell if that was simply how he was. He almost always had a great sense of humor, the only couple exceptions you'd found for that were when he was dealing with something serious or when he was hungry, in the supernatural way that is. He'd only touched you a few times but whenever he did, it was always warm and left you wanting more. That had to be part of what he was.

When you'd met him, you learned he could glamor, which through some talks with Mihawk, you'd learned that ability could be used in a number of ways, not just how Shanks did it. Besides that, the only other information you'd learned was he could stand daylight and needed to "hunt" on a semi regular basis.

"I'm going to figure it out and then wonder why it took me so long to get to the right answer."

"In your defense, we aren't all that common."

"I think the important question to ask now is what I win when I get it right." You took another drink, smiling slightly to yourself as you noticed the aches from before were seemingly melting away with the alcohol.

Shanks' mouth curled up into a mischievous smile and Mihawk groaned like he knew exactly what his friend was thinking.

"If you figure it out-"

"When I figure it out." You corrected him. I wouldn't be long until you knew the details.

"When you figure it out, you're more than welcome to be in on one of my hunts."

"Check that out." Roux reached over Shanks to give you a pat on the back. "He's got a soft spot for you girlie."

"Even after all the attitude I've given him the past few days." You added.

"Kept me on my toes." Shanks said.

"That makes two of us." Mihawk added. "By the way, I suppose I should suggest my home as your permanent shifting grounds. Come by every full moon, the room is yours for the morning after."

"You are never that generous with me!" Shanks pouted. "How come she gets such nice treatment?"

"She's still new to this and as we were among the supernatural present that could have prevented all this, we are responsible for her change to some degree. Providing her with private grounds is a good way to extend our apologies."

"That's....super nice. Thanks Mihawk."

You hadn't taken the time to think about what you'd do for future shifts but it seemed they had you covered on that. Mihawk had a habit of being brooding and aloof and you didn't think he liked you enough to offer something so beneficial on your part. He gained nothing from this, if anything, you'd probably end up annoying him from time to time. But with the few short days that you'd spent with him and Shanks, you could comfortably say you felt like you'd built some kind of friendship.

Technically, that was exactly what you were looking for when you first came to this bar; friends that didn't fit in with the normal human. Now you had two of them.