ADYEN

     When I woke up, I was lying in a bed that wasn't my own. I blinked frowning a bit as my eyes flickered from corner to corner in the foreign room. It was plain, and a bit bigger than the one I had on campus. My eyes went wide when my memory supplied context to what I was doing in the cream-walled minimalist-styled room. I sat up, understanding that this must be Len's room. I could hear a buzz from behind the door. When I strained my ears enough, I was able to make out three voices.

     "Why are you telling us this now?" A voice, deeper than Len's said.

     I heard a sigh. "It just happened. We'll have to roll with it."

     "How much does he know?" a calmer voice butt in between the two.

     "How much doesn't he know?" The deeper voice from before said.

     There was a bit of silence and then a firm suggestion. "You should contact Georgiou for this."

     In a way, it felt like I was some captive a bunch of kidnappers was deciding what to do with. I got up from the bed and walked over to the door before pressing my ear against the thin wood. Their voices had become quieter, or they had moved a bit further because all I could hear were whispers.

     With some thought, I decided it was okay to step outside. I turned the doorknob, pushing the door open before sticking out my head. It felt a bit hot in the living room/kitchen, and I wasn't sure why.

     When I didn't see anyone I stepped out, standing in the middle of the living room as I wondered what to do. My head turned towards the main door when it creaked open.

     "Shut up. He—" Len stopped talking when he spotted me staring at him. He stood still, and I watched as two boys walked into the apartment from behind him.

     "You're awake..." Len trailed, and I nodded looking at both his friends. One of them gave me a friendly wave, and the other smiled a little at me. I mirrored his expression before looking back at Len.

     "Yeah," I said, frowning a bit, not expecting the dryness of my throat. "What time is it?" I asked, looking towards the only window in the living room.

     "Eleven in the evening," one of Len's roommates said, making me turn to look at him. He had blonde hair and blue eyes. "I'm Augustine by the way," he said, and I nodded, watching him walk over to the redhead who was grabbing something to drink from the fridge.

     "So, Len told us about your problem," Augustine said, turning to look at me as he opened his can of soda. "Len, still in a daze?" he asked, looking over at Len who hadn't moved from his spot or said anything for at least the last three minutes.

     "I—" he started but paused, shaking his head. He looked at me, before walking over. His face was red, and the way he avoided eye contact with me told me he was a bit nervous and embarrassed. I wondered if it had anything to do with the little fun that we had in the sitting room earlier in the evening. I had passed out and left him to clean up by himself. I felt a little bad about that, but there was always next time.

     "That's Jasper," Len said to me, pointing over to the redhead that was lingering about Augustine. "And you know Augustine, so I won't say anything," he continued as the blond-haired dude waved at me.

     "They're my roommates, as well as werewolves too." My eyes widened at that information and the two boys just grinned, standing next to each other with cans in their hands. "They're also boyfriends," Len added making my mouth hung open.

     "Don't act like you don't know gay people," Jasper said walking over to the living room area. "I can smell you two in here," he asked, and I formed a bit, narrowing my eyes at him.

     "Smell us...?" I trailed still a bit confused. Sure, we had a smell, but Len had cleaned up after us well.

     "Yeah, your pheromones. They're pretty strong," he said, pointing at my chest. "Hey, did you know you smell like cake—?"

     "Jasper, stop it," Len said, pushing his hand away. "Adyen can't smell anything. He's recessive, remember?"

     Jasper blinked. "He can't even smell pheromones?" Len nodded as he stepped away from me. "So is a recessive just a human with a heat?"

     "Shut up Jasper. Shut up," Augustine said making Jasper look over to him. The two started bickering with each other, and I took the opportunity to tug Len's sleeve. He turned to look at me.

     "What's all this about smells?" I asked in a whisper, watching as his eyes went wide. He looked away from me, rubbing the back of his neck.

     "Werewolves can smell when people have sex. We have pheromones," he explained. My cheeks grew warm, feeling a bit exposed now that I knew how that worked. I wondered how werewolves dealt with that. Just knowing something that personal about two people from smell alone sounded like a nightmare.

     A nightmare that was becoming my life it seemed.

     "Let's head inside," Len muttered, looking towards his bedroom door. I nodded, letting him take my hand in his before pulling me in the direction of his room. When he slipped into his bedroom, I could still hear Augustine and Jasper bickering amongst themselves. They had a dynamic where it seemed Augustine had to always stop Jasper from running his mouth. I wondered if they fought a lot, but they told me they were boyfriends even though they seemed like two friends who pulled at each other's hair.

     Len closed the door behind us before walking over to his twin-sized bed. He sat down before looking at me and tapping the space beside him. "Come and sit here," he said, and I stared at the spot for a bit before walking over.

     When I sat down my weight sunk the mattress a bit. I crossed my legs, clasping my hands together as I sucked on my teeth. Augustine and Jasper had quieted down—or maybe they just left for their room, I wasn't sure. Because of the silence, every little rustling movement made my ears perk up, and my chest squeeze with anticipation. Len wasn't saying anything, but I decided not to push him. He seemed to be deep in thought judging from the way he was staring out into the room.

     "So, pheromones," Len started, sighing before running a hand through his hair. "They're distinctive smells wolves have that let us track and find each other," he explained.

     "Pheromones are also used to attract others for sex..." he trailed, biting down on his lower lip. My face grew warm as my fingers curled up into my palms. I felt like I was in seventh grade again getting a laissez-faire explanation of sex and how it happened.

     "They get very strong at certain points of the month, so people are more attracted to a person then," Len said, and I nodded my head, showing him that I was listening. "Most people take suppressants if they don't feel like attracting people at that time of the month."

     "Ah, okay," I said, frowning a bit as I tried to piece things together. "Jasper said we smelt our pheromones. So, I have pheromones?" I asked, leaning forward so that I could see Len's face better.

     He nodded. "Yeah."

     "You smell like baked goods," he said, confirming Jasper's comment.

     "So, I have a smell, but I can't smell other people because I'm recessive, right?" I said, checking to see if I got it right. Len nodded, making me hum before looking down at my bare feet.

     "I see," I said, feeling my eyelids get a bit tired. I had overstayed at his place based on my original plan of hanging out with him for a bit before heading back home. The feeling, while we were touching each other, was so intense that I passed out.

     "Adyen," Len said, making me look over at him. "You're in heat, so if you want suppressants, I could go ask Augustine for some," Len said.

     My eyes narrowed at him. "Was this why you were acting weird in the elevator?"

     "Yeah."

     There was a period of silence that followed. I heard an owl hoot from outside, and the sound of a car horn in the distance. I pulled a leg up on the bed, letting my fingers play with my toes as I figured out how to word the question I wanted to ask.

     "D-Do pheromones m-make having sex feel good?" I scolded myself in my head for fumbling over my head, but I needed to know if that was why it had felt so good with Len. At first, I had only wanted to kiss him, but things had gone out of hand quickly. Maybe his pheromones had affected me. I wondered what he smelled like. 

     "Yeah, they do." Len went quiet after that as his eyes fixed on the carpet below.

     "I wonder..." I started, not feeling comfortable with the silence. "I wonder if I can sense pheromones just a bit, and not exactly smell them," I said, thinking about how hot the living room had felt when I stepped out of Len's bedroom after waking up.

     "I guess that's possible. We might have to ask Georgiou," Len said.

     "Why?" I asked.

     "His wife is a recessive werewolf too," Len explained to me.

     My mouth opened a bit. "Oh." That made me wonder if being recessive was quite common, or if it was rare. 

     Len looked up at me, before reaching out to push the hair out of my face. "You should sleep over. The buses might have stopped running," he said, and I nodded, not able to say no to the concerned look in his brown eyes.

     "You can take a shower and wear any of my clothes," he said, letting go of my hair. "We can share the bed, or I could sleep on the couch—"

     "Let's share the bed," I said, cutting him off. I wasn't going to give him space to be shy about what we'd done earlier. We'd touched each other, so what? It's not like we weren't thinking about dating. There wasn't any big revelation that one person liked the other. We already knew that.

     "Okay," he said, blinking. We sat in silence for a while, staring into each other's eyes as we both waited for what would happen next.

     I laughed.

     "Don't act weird about all this..." I trailed, looking down at the bed before looking back at him. I was smiling now, staring at his lips as an adorable look of confusion played on his face.

     "None of this has to be weird. Just roll with it, okay?" I said, leaning forward to press a kiss to his lips. He stayed still for a while, but eventually, his hand reached for my face as his tongue parted my lips. I sighed, shivering as we kissed.

     Yes, we shouldn't make it weird.

     People kissed and did intimate stuff with each other all the time on a casual basis. Who gave a shit?