The waiting room was eerily silent, the kind of silence that pressed into Levi's ears and made his thoughts louder. Rows of sterile chairs lined the walls, and the faint hum of fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. A digital clock on the wall ticked slowly, each passing second stretching into an eternity.

Levi sat stiffly in one of the chairs, his hands clasped tightly in his lap. Damien sat beside him, unnaturally still, his gaze fixed on the floor. Though neither of them said a word, the air between them was heavy with unspoken tension.

The door hissed open. A couple of the examiners took several of the students and their werewolves into different rooms. Mr. Zachary took one student Levi knew by name first. Charlie, a brunet haired girl who was always at the top of the class when it came to overall paper grades.

It wasn't long before Mr. Zachary came back out. Well before any of the other examiners. "Brooks," He said, his tone clipped. "You're up."

Levi stood quickly. A little too quickly. His legs became momentarily unsteady beneath him. Levi glanced at Damien, who sat in that same, unnaturally still, position. For a moment, Levi hesitated. Mr. Zachary didn't call for him and Damien. Only him.

"Let's go," Mr. Zachary snapped, turning elegantly on his left heel.

Levi followed Mr. Zachary, unsure to say anything. His heart pounded and it felt like it echoed all around him. The walls here were just as sterile as the waiting room. There was a lone table with two chairs on one side and one on the other. The one furthest from Levi, the one that was alone, was where Mr. Zachary sat.

"Sit," He seemingly commanded, his presence even more ambiguous and deafening than before.

Levi obeyed, his stomach twisting as Mr. Zachary pulled up Levi's file on his tablet. The man's face was unreadable, but the moment of silence that followed seemed to drown out any hopes of asking any questions.

"You passed," He said finally, the words falling flat and lifeless.

Relief flooded through Levi, but he felt there was more. "But..."

"But," Mr Zachary continued, narrowing his eyes, "it was far from a clean pass. Let me explain why." He tapped his tablet and a holographic projection of Levi and Damien at one of the test stations flickered to life on the table.

"The Obedience Station," Mr. Zachary said, his tone cold. The image showed Damien doing as Levi commanded, but there was something off in the recording. Only now Levi understood. The hesitation to give Damien a command.

"You didn't issue a clear command until prompted to," Mr. Zachary continued, glaring at Levi. "Your werewolf obeyed, but only because he's programmed to. Do you know how dangerous hesitation is out in the field?"

Levi swallowed hard. "I-"

"I'm not done," Mr. Zachary cut him off. He swiped at the tablet, pulling up footage of the next test.

"The Agility Test." Mr. Zachary said, his voice not budging for any hint. "You did well there, more hesitation, but significantly less than there was on the first test." His voice didn't show any signs of respect which made Levi's hair stand on end from anger.

"The Restraint Test was similar." Mr. Zachary seemed about to be bored.

"Finally, in the Aggression Control Station, you asked him to stand down." Mr. Zachary's voice was now laced with disgust. "You didn't order him. And when, instead of ordering him to defend your life, you let the hologram take out both of you."

"But..." Levi started, trying to find the words. "He did stand down."

"Only because the system gave him no other choice," Mr. Zachary shot back. "That's not leadership Brooks. That's luck."

Levi bit back the retort that was now rising in his throat. He wanted to defend himself, to defend Damien, but he knew it wouldn't matter. Mr. Zachary didn't care about why what was done was done- only that it wasn't by the book.

"Congratulations anyways, Handler Brooks." Mr. Zachary said, making it sound more like an insult. "You've officially passed and are now certified. Do not make me regret this."

Mr. Zachary left the room, leaving Levi alone with his thoughts.

When Levi walked back into the waiting room, there was no one else there. All the other students were either already gone with their werewolves leading normal-ish lives, or they left and their werewolves were kept to be reassigned to next year's possible graduates. Damien was the only person left in the room.

"Well?" Damien asked, the ears that usually sat flush against his hair now perked up.

Levi managed a small smile. "We passed."

"You mean you passed?" Damien said his head tilting a little in confusion.

"No," Levi couldn't have done it without Damien. "We passed."

Damien didn't respond, but the faintest flicker of emotion crossed his face- something like relief,or maybe even gratitude.

Levi sat down next to Damien and let out a long breath. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"For what?"

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"For how they treated you! For how the system treats all of you. For..." Levi's words caught in his throat. "For not knowing how to do better."

Damien's ears moved to point backwards. His hand moved up and gently touched Levi's chin, pulling him to look each other in the eyes. "You tried," he whispered. "That's what counts."

Levi couldn't hold back his blush. "And I'll keep trying. For you."

For a long moment, neither of them spoke. The clock on the wall ticked on, marking the seconds that stretched into something new- something unspoken, but undeniable.

- - - -

The soft hum of the city filtered through the open window of the apartment. The air seemed fresher than normal. Not nearly as potent or wild as the afternoon rush usually left with. The stove clock said it was already eight forty two in the afternoon. Levi sat in the living room unsure of what to do next. Damien, sitting carefree on the floor, his ears perked up and swiveling around taking in the new noises.

Levi couldn't make sense of why he had blushed earlier when Damien had made them look at each other. It was something new to him. He might have felt this way once before, but he couldn't remember when or to whom this feeling was directed towards.

Levi glanced out of the window. He lived fairly close to the penthouse of the apartment. Just high enough to easily see over the other buildings in the area. In the distance the Cross Apartment Complex, or CAC, were being remodeled. The Cross Industrial Corp building just beyond that.

It had been a while since he had seen Alexander. Just under thirteen years now.

"Levi? Levi..." Damien's voice snapped Levi back into the real world.

"S-sorry Damien," Levi responded turning his head to see Damien sitting down next to him on the couch, seeing what color Damien's eyes really were. A royal blue with a gradient darker towards his pupil, like a raging sea that darkens towards the horizon.

"Of course!" Damien said, almost like a robot. That NCS chip was getting on Levi's nerves. He hated seeing and hearing the programmed responses to what he had to say.

Damien, however, couldn't stop thinking about what Levi had whispered to him in the classroom earlier that day. 'You don't have to obey me.' The thought shook his head like a violent tornado. All the things he was taught, or conditioned, to do, flying out the window of expectations.

"Did you really mean what you said earlier?" Damien's voice hushed as if someone else was listening to our conversations.

Levi looked puzzled for a moment before understanding what Damien meant. "Of course. You're a living, breathing, free thinking person, not some tool to be used and thrown out!"

Levi saw the tears start to well up in Damien's eyes.

Damien tried to suppress them, tried to hold back. He was successful too until Levi put his hand on Damien's cheek.

They both lost track of time. They didn't know how long they stayed close to each other. How many exchanges of hugs they gave before they both eventually fell asleep.

That sleep, however, was interrupted by the sound of an alarm going off. It wasn't loud, but enough to wake Levi up.

Levi's eyes slowly opened to the sight of Damien's head resting softly on his legs. His legs sprawled over the rest of the couch, and his ears twitched from time to time. Levi gently rested one of his hands on Damien's hair before smoothly and slowly pet him.

Damien stirred, but didn't wake. His hair messy and unkept, straggled across Levi's lap.

Levi reached over for a nearby pillow to replace his legs under Damien's head. Once replaced, he stood up and stretched, looking at the oven clock. it read. It would have been the time to leave to go to Werewolf Handling 101.

It was almost surreal. Two years of that class and he graduated. Five hundred and twenty non-stop days of learning the ins and outs of being a Handler. Just to nearly fuck it up at the end. But he passed. That's all that mattered right now.

Levi walked over to the kitchen, opening the fridge and taking out the gallon jug of Earl Grey Green Tea that he had kept in there for weeks now. While searching for a cup to drink from, he remembered what his parents had told him before he left, seven years ago, to live on his own.

"If you ever have a guest over, pour them a glass of tea. But never force them to take it." His mother had said. She was a sweet lady and would always help out the needy when she could. Whether it was Hot Chocolate in the winter, or a cold refreshing cup of water during the summer heat.

Levi grabbed two identical mugs and set them on the counter gently. They were the gift he received on his twenty second birthday, just over ten years ago. They were both a deep shade of blue. Almost the same shade of blue as Damien's eyes.

He couldn't get Damien out of his head. The way that he grabbed his chin to make them look each other in the eyes. The way they hugged yesterday till nearly midnight. The way Damien looked asleep on his lap.

Levi blushed, unsure of how he should be feeling according to society versus how he wanted to feel. Most relationships between werewolves and humans were strictly forbidden and were seen as a way to give the werewolves a form of freedom that they were not supposed to have. A sense of belonging, not as an object, but as a person.

Levi poured the tea into the mugs and set one of them down on the coffee table that sat in the middle of the living room on the old, but well kept, hand made rug. The rug wasn't anything special. Just something he found at a garage sale a couple weeks prior.

Levi sat on the coffee table and faced Damien. What could have ever happened to cause such a terrible mess like this? It was the one question that weighed his mind as he watched Damien stir and move.

Before long, Damien awoke. His mind was foggy and he had a splintering headache. He almost felt drunk, although he hadn't had any alcohol in several months. Damien looked around, trying to find where Levi had gone. He wanted to hold Levi, and wanted Levi to hold him too.

He walked around slowly, looking for any signs of his "owner" his "protector." The person who set him free from being held in the cages that he and the other werewolves were kept in.

He walked down a hallway as one of the doors directly to his right opened. There stood Levi. Completely naked from head to toe, holding nothing but a small towel in his hand.

Before Damien had the chance to look away, Levi had slammed the door shut and barked "Go sit back down on the couch and wait for me there!"

The chip in the back of Damien's neck sizzled with pain as he stood for a moment longer. That little hesitation causing a 'punishment' of sorts to happen. Damien's ears flattened as he hurriedly walked over to the couch and sat down, the NCS chip stopping and waiting for the next command to be given to Damien.

Doors opened and closed, but Damien didn't move. Soon, Levi ran out, now fully clothed, but his hair was still a mess. He had essentially tackled Damien back on to the couch as he repeated over and over again, "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry!"

Damien was expecting to be hit or yelled at, but this was new. Something he hadn't experienced before. A sense of warmth, not coming from Levi's body, but instead, coming from the words that were spoken from his mouth.

"I'm sorry Damien. I had completely forgotten about the chip!" Levi's voice was filled with a hatred pointed partially at himself and partially at the creators of the System. But non directed towards Damien himself.

They sat there, Levi crying, or simply just hugging Damien, as Damien had put his arms around Levi. Once again, they didn't know how long they stayed like that together. Levi simply wanted to make it up to Damien somehow.

"I-I love you..." Levi said, shutting himself up as if he hadn't meant to say that out loud.

Damien's ears flattened back, a blush creeping across his face. He didn't know how to respond to that. He would've never been prepared to hear those words come from a human.

Levi relaxed, now understanding he said it out loud. "I love you, Damien."