“Ah!” Sebastian yelled, shoving Edmund off the bed.

Edmund let out an exclamation of his own as he fell to the floor with a loud thud. “Ow.”

“What the f- why are you here? And naked?” Sebastian demanded.

“I- what?” Ed looked around, just as confused as Seb.

“Honey? Are you alright?” Emily called. “I heard a very loud thud just now.”

“Uh, I’m fine,” Seb replied. “I just... fell out of bed.”

“Did you get hurt?”

“No, mom, I’m okay.”

“Alright. Breakfast is almost ready.”

“Kay, be there in a minute,” Sebastian waited to hear his mother go down the stairs before he turned back to interrogate his friend. “What the hell is going on?”

“I don’t know, I just woke up here.”

“How?! I saw you off last night. You sent me a goodnight text when you got home.”

“I remember that much but- but more happened.”

“No kidding. Mind telling me what though?”

“I’m not exactly sure. Please calm down.”

“Calm down? I just woke up in the same bed as my very naked best friend. In fact, you’re still naked.”

“If you give me some clothes, I will gladly make myself decent.”

Sebastian dramatically laid back down and covered his eyes with a pillow. “Help yourself while I try to regulate my heart rate.”

Edmund did his best to be quiet as he got up and went over to Sebastian’s wardrobe for something to wear. While he got dressed, Seb was desperately trying to calm down the blush darkening across his cheeks. He had not been expecting to see that this morning. And even if it hadn’t been a bad surprise, Sebastian still stood by his dislike for surprises at that moment. Especially with the situation, he was suddenly in.

“Alright, I’m decent.”

“And do you have a decent explanation?”

“Well...”

Sebastian huffed and sat up. “Edmund, you were weird for all of yesterday, but this is really the cherry on the Sunday. What the hell is going on?”

“I- I don’t know,” Ed stammered. “Last night, I got home and I was going to go straight to bed but I had so much energy so I decided to go for a run. You know, get it out of my system. But then I got hot, and I tripped on my pants, and my body wasn’t normal, and I was in your yard, and Bruce was growling and I was mad and- and- and-”

Sebastian mentally scolded himself as he realised Edmund was panicking. “Hang on, breathe, don’t think about anything else for a moment. Just breathe.”

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Seb scolded himself again as his friend followed his instructions and took a shaky breath. His hands were clenching open and closed at his sides the way that they always did when he was freaked out. Any anger Sebastian had felt was completely swept away as he comfortingly held Ed’s hand.

Sure, the way they’d woken up hadn’t been normal, but the point was they were both confused right now. Getting upset with each other wasn’t going to solve anything. Seb had to calm Edmund down, then they could figure this out together.

“Tell me five things you can see.”

Edmund took another shaky breath and looked around. “You, the curtains, the door, your desk, and the bedside lamp.”

“Okay, now tell me four things you can feel?”

“This shirt, the bed, the cold floor, and your hand on my shoulder.”

“Three things you can hear?”

“Your voice, um, birds outside, and your parents arguing about what’s better between maple and chocolate syrup.”

Sebastian raised an eyebrow at the last one since he couldn’t even hear his parents from up here, but they could address that later. “Alright, two things you can smell?”

“Food and you. The blackberry smell is stronger this time. It’s nice.”

“Hmm, okay, lastly tell me one thing you can taste?”

Edmund licked his lips. “Pizza. I still haven’t brushed my teeth after dinner last night.”

“Gross, but moving past that, you are here and you are safe. I have no idea what happened last night and you don’t seem to really know yourself. So, let's work this out together. Okay?”

“Okay. Thanks for calming me down.”

Sebastian nodded. “I’ll always be here for you, Eddie. Even if you scare the crap out of me like that again.”

Edmund let out a startled laugh. “I really am sorry about that. At least you woke up after I returned to normal.”

“Right, about that, what do you mean by returned to normal?”

“I, well,” Ed looked away nervously. “I turned into a wolf.”

“...Holy shit.”

“I know it sounds insane, but believe me, I thought last night was a dream.”

Sebastian nodded. “I dreamt you turned into a wolf, too. You faced down Bruce- wait, you didn’t hurt him, right?”

“Bruce? No, no. He wasn’t happy with me being here but I got him to submit to my authority. I think that’s what I did anyway. I'm not entirely sure but he surrendered and let me into the house.”

Seb sighed in relief. “Alright. So, then it was you who came to my side last night and whimpered. Not Bruce.”

“Yeah, how did you not realise the difference between a basset hound and a wolf?”

“To be fair, I was exhausted and it was dark.”

“Still, a wolf is a lot furrier than Bruce.”

“Again, I was exhausted. Would it have been better if I turned on the lamp and screamed bloody-murder, waking up everyone in the neighbourhood?”

Edmund huffed. “I guess not, but you should be more careful about who comes into your room.”

“Well, normally, nobody gets past Bruce. But we can talk about household security later. We need to figure out why and how you turned into a wolf.”

“Right. I- I have no idea where to start.”

“Well, let's start with what we know. Last night, just before you turned, how did you feel?”

“I felt... I felt hot. Like I wanted to take all my clothes off and let the night air cool down my bare skin.”

“Okay. Have you ever felt like that before?”

“No. Wait- yes! The night before, I felt really hot after I got home. I ended up stripping and falling asleep on the couch.”

“Ah... I hope you woke up before your dad got home.”

“I did. Geez, if he’d walked in and saw me then I’d probably be scolded to death right now.”

“Hold on, you felt hot but you didn’t shift at that point?”

“No. The heat felt like it was pulsing through my entire body. Even stripping down didn't stop it. Eventually, I just blacked out.”

“So, basically, you’ve only been experiencing whatever this is for the past two nights. Is there anything weird that happened before the whole heat thing?”

“Well, there was that—” Edmund cut himself off, and tilted his head as if he heard something.

“What? What's wrong.”

“Nick’s coming.”