"Feel better?" Shanks asked as you walked into the dining room.

It took a bit of time to find where you were going but you figured it out. The dining room was unnecessarily big with a long, solid wood table taking up most of the space. You could count about twenty chairs surrounding it, one of which Shanks sat in with a brown paper bag in front of him. In his hand was a burrito that was quickly falling apart, overstuffed with filling. 

"Much." You managed to snag a few napkins from the bag and place them under his breakfast in time for it to start hitting the table. "Need a plate?"

"Yeah." His shoulders slumped and you swore he was beginning to pout. "Doesn't matter what you are, you lose an arm and some of the most basic tasks become a challenge."

"I didn't realize it was time for a pity party." You hummed as you went to the adjoining kitchen.

It was very modern, a far cry from the rest of the home. White cabinets, marble countertops, dark appliances, and small splashes of red for a bit of color. He leaned too much into his vampire aesthetic. You were able to fish through some of the cabinets to find a plate and fork for Shanks, snagging a couple glasses for water while you were at it. When you'd gotten back to the dining room, Shanks was scowling at you.

"It's not a pity party." He sighed as you juggled the two full glasses and plate, watching you set things up for him. "I was just saying."

"Uh huh." You helped yourself to the other burrito and with the first bite, you realized you felt like you were starving.

"Speaking of," He cleared his throat and began poking at his breakfast with the fork, disassembling it. "You're handling your situation well."

"Don't get me wrong." You swallowed your bite quickly. "It's scary and I have no idea how things are going to go from now on. But at the same time, you and Mihawk are going out of your way to help me out. We may basically be strangers but I'm glad there's someone here to get me through this. It's not so bad with understanding company."

"Understanding company." Shanks chuckled. "You could call us that. Oh! Wanna know something nifty? Out of all the big cats, jaguars have the strongest jaws. They can bite through bone like it's nothing."

"That's kinda gruesome for a chat over breakfast." You still grinned at how delighted he looked with himself for knowing that little tidbit.

"Maybe but that's still a little important for you to know. Animal forms tend to stay true to their roots."

That piqued your interest and you could tell where he was going with this. Anything a jaguar could do, you'd be able to do soon enough. This had to be what he had in mind for your lesson.

"So, in theory, I'd be stronger than a weretiger or something?"

"Possibly. It'd be based on the average person. For example, if you're weaker than the average human, you'll be weaker than the average jaguar."

"Simple enough." Your breakfast was disappearing fast and that was a feat, the burrito was by no means small.

"Right. That being said, it can be possible to come across an abnormally strong werebeast and you could have a hard time dealing with them, even if they are technically below you on the food chain."

"You make it sound like I should be expecting problems with the other werepeople I come across."

"You might. Being part animal changes people, hell, being supernatural in general makes you different."

"Please don't tell me things get complex." You groaned while he tried to hide a smirk.

Shanks had picked through his food, apparently done even though there was about half of it left. You'd scarfed yours down in record time and the amount of food you'd just ate felt nothing short of impressive. He put his fork down and stretched his one arm over his head.

"It gets very complex, and lucky for you, you're joining the most confusing group of supernatural creatures there is. On a good note, most werebeasts, or shape shifters I guess is the correct term, tend to follow their animal habits pretty well. If you know about the animal side of things, you get a basic understanding of how things work for the people."

"So I should research jaguars?"

"To better understand yourself, yes, but I'm more worried about integrating you into shape shifter society without understanding others."

"And you're going to teach me how to do so without offending anyone." You finished the thought, now on the same page as him.

"You're a quick learner." He took a sip of water. "I'll fill you in on the basics but I'll have to head out when Mihawk wakes up. You can bother him for the nitty gritty while I'm gone and while you're at it, do some of your own research. It'd be best if you had a good grasp on things before your first shift."

It seemed like the only thing you focused on was him saying he'd leave for the night.

"Where are you going to be heading out to?"

"Don't know yet, just need to get out for a bit."

You nibbled at your inner cheek thoughtfully. The way he said it suggested it'd be something important and you felt it had to do with what he was.

"Is there a particular reason you have to do it at night?"

"Mihawk will be awake and can watch you." He answered smoothly. It felt too smooth.

"Can you go out in the sun?"

Shanks stood and walked up to one of the many covered windows and pulled the curtains back, basking himself in the morning light. Nothing spectacular happened. He just stared back at you with his usual smile, waiting for you to say something.

"So I guess that means you aren't any kind of night stalking creature." You huffed. "I guess that's reassuring."

"Don't let Mihawk hear you say that, he likes being a 'night stalking creature.'" He closed the curtains and returned to his seat. "Besides, most aren't dangerous."

"Most?"

"Most humans aren't dangerous." He shrugged. "It's the same thing."

"Touché."

"That wasn't much of a hint, want another one?"

You thought about it for a second before shaking your head. "Nope, I wanna figure it out on my own."

"Good luck with that, how about we get back to our lessons then?"

----

You didn't think it'd be so much information. Shanks went on for some time, filling you in on the social habits of shape shifters. Technically the term shape shifter was more general and included more than werebeasts but it was also the preferred term. The second someone identified what they shifted into, others would be able to get a better idea of what they were.

He left the topic of werejaguars alone so that you could look into that by yourself or with Mihawk but covered just about every other type of animal. Out of all of them, werewolves were the most common and complex. Their large numbers were the reason other animals were hardly ever talked about or mentioned until supernatural beings came into the light.

They were highly pack oriented to the point of sometimes living together in close knit developments or had set meeting grounds they went to often. Their heirarchy always consisted of a single leader at the top, making the pack decisions, a few select alphas below that, followed by the more numerous betas and then omegas. Everything was based off of strength, the stronger you were, the higher up you were on the food chain.

You expected that much but then Shanks started talking about rules and pack laws that became more confusing the longer he went on. Lucky for you, all you had to keep in mind was knowing when to assert yourself against certain wolves. He said it'd be easy to judge where you were in the scheme of things after your first shift and you had to hope he was right.

From there he talked about the rats. Their system was a simplified version of the wolves'. A leader, a few select stronger members of their group below that, and everyone else. Their rules were simple and to the point and it was the one time you decided you liked rats. They were much more straightforward and easy to understand, it couldn't get better than that.

Lions were the only other shifters that had a group. The biggest difference between the shifters and the actual animal was a pride of werelions commonly had more than one male unlike their animal counterparts. They tended to keep to themselves and avoid much contact with other shifters unless necessary. That meant they would be as easy to deal with as the rats.

The only other kinds of known animal shifters were tigers, leopards, and jaguars. They all either minded their own business or moved in pairs. The partner of choice was always determined by the person's sexuality and they often picked partners for life if they stayed within their species. For the most part, they weren't that aggressive and the only "rule" all three big cats agreed on was to keep your nose out of others' business.

The one thing every shifter had in common was other species, human or supernatural, didn't seem to fall under the same rules. They didn't expect the same kind of treatment and tended to live the human side of their lives almost normally. The few telling ticks they had that might single them out as different were hard to notice by the untrained eye and they blended in society very well for supernatural standards.

Shanks filled you in about how to hide yourself better as well. Shape shifting too often and for too long could lead to gaining some animalistic appearances, things like sharper teeth, golden eyes, abnormal hair growth. You weren't excited to hear that but he assured you it took a lot of shifting to reach that point. With that, you also learned that after your first shift, it was possible to force a change outside of a full moon. It would be physically draining when changing back to your human form but it was possible.

Besides that, you were already exhibiting some habits that you'd have to work on masking. Irritability before a full moon shift was a little more common for newer shifters but it was something that most got over. Appetite would change to better accommodate your animal half, that meant you'd probably begin to crave a more meat based diet, and you'd also eat more.

And he finished things off by hinting at a few changes you'd notice after your first shift. You could expect increased senses, scents would become more prominent, you'd be able to have some extent of low light vision, better hearing, and you'd have heightened instincts and strenght. All in all, once you had a handle on everything, there wasn't a lot of bad parts to your situation.

There was time for you snoop around the home by yourself after the long talk with Shanks. He was sure to let you know he'd be gone by dark when Mihawk was supposed to find his way up to the main floor. You assumed that meant you wouldn't see him again until the morning but that was fine. The entire time he'd explained things to you, you went back and forth between getting annoyed at the smallest of things he did and ogling him.

You were irritable for obvious reasons but you couldn't figure out why you couldn't stop checking him out. The bit of chest he showed off was a tantalizing sight that made you want to see more. He somehow had the perfect amount of facial hair and you wanted to feel how soft his red locks were. The look in his eyes, no matter what is was, always seemed inviting, like he was encouraging you to get closer. You'd never met someone who made everything seem like an attempt at flirting before him. On more than one occasion during his lecture, your mind had traveled to dirty thoughts.

Getting a break from him meant time to cool off and collect yourself better. If the circumstances were different, you'd probably be seeing what you could do to get him over to your place but that wasn't going to happen now. You had to be a responsible adult and focus on making sure you could blend in to supernatural society as seamlessly as possible.

That being said, you found yourself standing in the entrance to the library, peering in. The room was empty and left exactly as it was when you saw it last night. You wondered if there happened to be any books on shape shifters. Sure it'd be easier to look stuff up online, but you still didn't have your phone and you hadn't seen a single computer in any of the other rooms you'd checked out. And you'd even gone snooping through the one office in the place.

As you started checking the many titles lining the shelves, you wondered if a general dislike of technology was a vampire thing too. You could ask Mihawk about that soon enough.