in the midnight sun - act II, scenes xv-xvi
“This is stupid, you know?” Evan says to you while you are both washing dishes. “This whole… fight. I mean, what does it matter who’s in charge as long as it’s someone who wants it for the right reasons? Not that I have anything against Rian, it’s just that ever since Cass has been pregnant the baby thing has been making him a little bit crazy.”
“I think I want to have a family with Alex,” you tell him. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”
Alex hugs you from behind and murmurs, “We have a family. This is our family.”
You sigh and look out over the living room full of other people’s stuff, the air mattress in the corner, the blankets piled high on the couch. Is this what family means? It’s been so long since you’ve seen your own biological family that you can’t remember anymore.
*
The vote is held at Jeff Maker’s house. Alex has a feeling that everyone is going to end up voting for Jeff; he’s the most sensible, knows the most about being a werewolf - the dude knows everything! - and he’s just a good guy in general. But, nonetheless, Jeff insists on there being a Survivor-style ballot where everyone has to write down who they want to nominate and then from there they will vote between whoever gets the most nominations by a show of hands. He is so nervous he could throw up; Grieco is sitting in his lap, perfectly calm, and Jack is beside him trying to solve a Rubik’s cube to keep his hands busy. They’ve all been trying to find solutions to help Jack stop hurting himself, but so far all that has worked is giving him things to do with his hands.
“No matter what happens,” Grieco whispers in his ear, “I will always love you.”
They’re waiting for Evan to submit his ballot because he seems to have misinterpreted the word ballot as five paragraph essay instead. Finally, Evan finishes writing and folds his piece of paper into a tiny square, deposits it into Jeff’s hat and leans back against Dan’s legs with a satisfied grin. Dan rubs his shoulders and says, “It’s just a vote, Ev, you aren’t going to get full credit for this.”
“Oh, ha ha ha,” Evan mutters. The look he gives his boyfriend is of fond exasperation. Jeff glances at the door, like Rian and Cassadee are going to show up all of a sudden because they haven’t arrived yet. They’re probably at the hospital - Alex heard that she had gone into labour in the morning, so it’s anyone’s guess whether they’ll be making it to the meeting in person or calling once she’s done delivering the baby. Dan mutters something about Rian thinking he’s too good to show up and Evan hits him. “You are an asshole,” Evan growls. Dan just smirks.
“I guess if no one else has anything to say we can start counting the ballots,” Jeff says calmly. He dumps them out onto the coffee table and starts sorting them into piles - one pile quickly growing larger than the rest - then looks at one, laughs, and says, “Jack, did you really nominate yourself?”
Jack grins sheepishly. “I thought it was like that scene in Pirates of the Caribbean where we were all supposed to nominate ourselves,” he explains. Alex pinches him.
It takes five minutes to figure out who got the most ballots. Jeff looks out over the motley little congregation - Matt is in a bad temper, no thanks to Danny taking pictures of everything that happens - and sighs. “Has anyone heard from Rian or Cass?” No one speaks up. Jeff counts everything out one more time - onetwothreefour, onetwo, onetwothree and sighs again. “No one wants to change their vote or make a surprise nomination?” he asks wearily. “No one has anything to say about what’s happening at all? No questions?”
Dan clears his throat. “I know jackshit about being a werewolf,” he says slowly, “so this isn’t so much a question as a concern. What, exactly, is this wise leader of ours going to do? I mean obviously I understand the need to keep the whole werewolf thing under wraps, but… it’s not like we’re going to propagate the species, are we? Like… I don’t mean to be an asshole here-” Evan snorts “- but without a political goal, what’s the point of electing a leader at all? Shouldn’t we just be going about our normal lives? Because… okay, I’m no great political genius, but it seems to me that this is more like an illness than, like, a political cause for all of us to rally behind. Like I said, I know jackshit about this, but I’m just saying it how I see it.”
Jeff shrugs. “I guess that’s what we’re all here to decide,” he says solemnly. “Now, if no one else has anything to say then I guess we’ll-”
Before he finishes the sentence, Rian walks through his front door. “Am I too late?” he asks. He looks tired. “Would’ve been here earlier, but the little dude took a while to make up his mind about whether he was going to arrive today or not. I would’ve hated to miss everything. Cass says hello, by the way, but she had a rough time with labour so they’re keeping her overnight with the baby.”
“Better late than never,” Alex grumbles. Grieco gives him a warning look but says nothing.
Rian remains standing. “So I don’t know if you guys have decided anything without me,” he says, “but if you haven’t, I’d like to nominate someone for pack leader that I think really deserves it.” Jeff tells him that they’ve already counted the ballots but doesn’t tell him to stop talking, so he continues. “I put a lot of thought into this over the past week and what I think we need is not someone who is looking for any kind of power or special treatment in all of this. We need someone… practical, someone who can think logically and doesn’t let their emotions cloud their decisions. It should be someone smart, too, someone who can help current and future pack members deal with the change and any… accidents,” he says, pausing to look at Jack meaningfully. To Alex’s surprise, Dan nods as if he agrees with what Rian is saying. “So I guess…
“What I’m saying is, I’ve put a lot of thought into this, into what we all need coming out of this, and so there’s one person I think we should consider. I know what I have to say probably doesn’t mean a lot to anyone sitting in this room right now because I’ve been a downright asshole and I’ve put a lot of lives at stake, but that’s also why I am asking you to please, please listen to me because there’s someone that I think deserves this more than anyone else.
“I think it should be Evan,” Rian says quietly. “Ev, you’re smarter than anyone and you just… I’m sorry, buddy. I owe you this. It should be you.”
The room is quiet.
“I couldn’t,” Evan whispers. “I couldn’t, I can’t lead anyone, I don’t… I don’t think I’m the right person. It should be Jeff or somebody, somebody wise, I mean, I’m in college, what do I know?” He clutches Dan’s hand tightly and goes pale.
“Which is exactly why it should be you,” Dan tells him. “You can totally do this. You are the best person I know. I mean, I’m totally biased since I’m in love with you, but I think you can do it.”
Jeff stands up quietly and looks around the room. “Almost half of you guys wanted me as your pack leader, but… I don’t agree with that decision. Can we just get a show of hands right now, who agrees with Rian?”
Every hand in the room goes up except for one. Evan’s. “You are all insane,” Evan protests. “You are putting your lives in the hands of a guy who has not even graduated.”
“It was always going to be you,” Rian sighs. “You are the smartest guy I have ever met. I just got… honestly, I think I went a little overboard once I found out that Cass was going to have a baby, so I’m sorry. I am really sorry. Which, um, she made me bring pictures of the baby if anyone wants to see them…? I think he kind of looks like a little tiny alien, but she says he’s beautiful. I don’t know. You guys will help us with the baby, right?”
Matt looks up at him and says flat-out, “If you expect me to change any diapers, you’re crazy.” Danny grabs the camera from Rian and immediately starts looking through them. “We are not getting a baby,” Matt tells his boyfriend tiredly. “Babies require too much work. Congratulations though, Evan. You’ll do a great job. And if you don’t… we’ll eat you.”
Evan doesn’t laugh. Dan announces that he’s going outside to smoke and Evan follows; Alex figures that they just needed a moment alone so he politely ignores the fact that Evan is a nonsmoker. Instead, he kisses his boyfriend’s cheek and murmurs, “So how long do I have before you start?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Grieco whispers, leaning up for a real kiss. “All I ever wanted was a life where I never had to leave you, and I got that. I got more than that. We’ve got a real family now.”
Jack groans, looking at them both and goes, “You guys are disgusting. Get a room.”
Danny takes a picture of Alex flipping Jack the bird seconds before the two of them end up bickering about it - Grieco and Danny look at each other knowingly - and then they end up rolling on the floor, evenly matched as they are since they were both bitten about the same time. Jeff pulls him aside and tells him, “Oh, don’t you worry about Jack getting lonely. He won’t be single for long.”
Matt remarks dryly, “He won’t be alive for long if he won’t stop stalking that poor kid.”
Jack glares at them. “Mind your own damn business. I’m not stalking him, we’re just…” he shrugs helplessly. Grieco rolls his eyes. Alex gets bored of fighting with him and goes back over to his boyfriend, feeling suddenly glad that his own relationship worked out despite all of the… problems. When he got bitten he never thought things would work out like this. He can’t remember how he thought it would all turn out, before, but he never thought it’d be like this. He expected a life of misery, being treated like an outsider. He wasn’t expecting all the other werewolves to be so… normal.
Grieco crawls into his lap and kisses him again. “So,” he says. “How does being stuck with me for the rest of your life feel?”
“Pretty damn good. It’s pretty damn good.” It’s easier than he thought it’d be. The only person who doesn’t look happy is Jack, but he doesn’t know what he can do about that. They are best friends - why won’t Jack open up about his past? It’s a mystery he has yet to solve, but that can wait for another day. There’s drinking to do, celebrating; Alex intends to get Evan shitfaced to celebrate the fact that it’s no longer his responsibility to take care of anyone but himself. And Grieco, too, but the thing about that is that Grieco doesn’t really need taking care of. It’s probably the happiest day of his life - at least until the full moon. After that, anything goes. They don’t shout when they drink later like normal folks would - they howl, and Alex is more than okay with that.
“I think I want to have a family with Alex,” you tell him. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot.”
Alex hugs you from behind and murmurs, “We have a family. This is our family.”
You sigh and look out over the living room full of other people’s stuff, the air mattress in the corner, the blankets piled high on the couch. Is this what family means? It’s been so long since you’ve seen your own biological family that you can’t remember anymore.
*
The vote is held at Jeff Maker’s house. Alex has a feeling that everyone is going to end up voting for Jeff; he’s the most sensible, knows the most about being a werewolf - the dude knows everything! - and he’s just a good guy in general. But, nonetheless, Jeff insists on there being a Survivor-style ballot where everyone has to write down who they want to nominate and then from there they will vote between whoever gets the most nominations by a show of hands. He is so nervous he could throw up; Grieco is sitting in his lap, perfectly calm, and Jack is beside him trying to solve a Rubik’s cube to keep his hands busy. They’ve all been trying to find solutions to help Jack stop hurting himself, but so far all that has worked is giving him things to do with his hands.
“No matter what happens,” Grieco whispers in his ear, “I will always love you.”
They’re waiting for Evan to submit his ballot because he seems to have misinterpreted the word ballot as five paragraph essay instead. Finally, Evan finishes writing and folds his piece of paper into a tiny square, deposits it into Jeff’s hat and leans back against Dan’s legs with a satisfied grin. Dan rubs his shoulders and says, “It’s just a vote, Ev, you aren’t going to get full credit for this.”
“Oh, ha ha ha,” Evan mutters. The look he gives his boyfriend is of fond exasperation. Jeff glances at the door, like Rian and Cassadee are going to show up all of a sudden because they haven’t arrived yet. They’re probably at the hospital - Alex heard that she had gone into labour in the morning, so it’s anyone’s guess whether they’ll be making it to the meeting in person or calling once she’s done delivering the baby. Dan mutters something about Rian thinking he’s too good to show up and Evan hits him. “You are an asshole,” Evan growls. Dan just smirks.
“I guess if no one else has anything to say we can start counting the ballots,” Jeff says calmly. He dumps them out onto the coffee table and starts sorting them into piles - one pile quickly growing larger than the rest - then looks at one, laughs, and says, “Jack, did you really nominate yourself?”
Jack grins sheepishly. “I thought it was like that scene in Pirates of the Caribbean where we were all supposed to nominate ourselves,” he explains. Alex pinches him.
It takes five minutes to figure out who got the most ballots. Jeff looks out over the motley little congregation - Matt is in a bad temper, no thanks to Danny taking pictures of everything that happens - and sighs. “Has anyone heard from Rian or Cass?” No one speaks up. Jeff counts everything out one more time - onetwothreefour, onetwo, onetwothree and sighs again. “No one wants to change their vote or make a surprise nomination?” he asks wearily. “No one has anything to say about what’s happening at all? No questions?”
Dan clears his throat. “I know jackshit about being a werewolf,” he says slowly, “so this isn’t so much a question as a concern. What, exactly, is this wise leader of ours going to do? I mean obviously I understand the need to keep the whole werewolf thing under wraps, but… it’s not like we’re going to propagate the species, are we? Like… I don’t mean to be an asshole here-” Evan snorts “- but without a political goal, what’s the point of electing a leader at all? Shouldn’t we just be going about our normal lives? Because… okay, I’m no great political genius, but it seems to me that this is more like an illness than, like, a political cause for all of us to rally behind. Like I said, I know jackshit about this, but I’m just saying it how I see it.”
Jeff shrugs. “I guess that’s what we’re all here to decide,” he says solemnly. “Now, if no one else has anything to say then I guess we’ll-”
Before he finishes the sentence, Rian walks through his front door. “Am I too late?” he asks. He looks tired. “Would’ve been here earlier, but the little dude took a while to make up his mind about whether he was going to arrive today or not. I would’ve hated to miss everything. Cass says hello, by the way, but she had a rough time with labour so they’re keeping her overnight with the baby.”
“Better late than never,” Alex grumbles. Grieco gives him a warning look but says nothing.
Rian remains standing. “So I don’t know if you guys have decided anything without me,” he says, “but if you haven’t, I’d like to nominate someone for pack leader that I think really deserves it.” Jeff tells him that they’ve already counted the ballots but doesn’t tell him to stop talking, so he continues. “I put a lot of thought into this over the past week and what I think we need is not someone who is looking for any kind of power or special treatment in all of this. We need someone… practical, someone who can think logically and doesn’t let their emotions cloud their decisions. It should be someone smart, too, someone who can help current and future pack members deal with the change and any… accidents,” he says, pausing to look at Jack meaningfully. To Alex’s surprise, Dan nods as if he agrees with what Rian is saying. “So I guess…
“What I’m saying is, I’ve put a lot of thought into this, into what we all need coming out of this, and so there’s one person I think we should consider. I know what I have to say probably doesn’t mean a lot to anyone sitting in this room right now because I’ve been a downright asshole and I’ve put a lot of lives at stake, but that’s also why I am asking you to please, please listen to me because there’s someone that I think deserves this more than anyone else.
“I think it should be Evan,” Rian says quietly. “Ev, you’re smarter than anyone and you just… I’m sorry, buddy. I owe you this. It should be you.”
The room is quiet.
“I couldn’t,” Evan whispers. “I couldn’t, I can’t lead anyone, I don’t… I don’t think I’m the right person. It should be Jeff or somebody, somebody wise, I mean, I’m in college, what do I know?” He clutches Dan’s hand tightly and goes pale.
“Which is exactly why it should be you,” Dan tells him. “You can totally do this. You are the best person I know. I mean, I’m totally biased since I’m in love with you, but I think you can do it.”
Jeff stands up quietly and looks around the room. “Almost half of you guys wanted me as your pack leader, but… I don’t agree with that decision. Can we just get a show of hands right now, who agrees with Rian?”
Every hand in the room goes up except for one. Evan’s. “You are all insane,” Evan protests. “You are putting your lives in the hands of a guy who has not even graduated.”
“It was always going to be you,” Rian sighs. “You are the smartest guy I have ever met. I just got… honestly, I think I went a little overboard once I found out that Cass was going to have a baby, so I’m sorry. I am really sorry. Which, um, she made me bring pictures of the baby if anyone wants to see them…? I think he kind of looks like a little tiny alien, but she says he’s beautiful. I don’t know. You guys will help us with the baby, right?”
Matt looks up at him and says flat-out, “If you expect me to change any diapers, you’re crazy.” Danny grabs the camera from Rian and immediately starts looking through them. “We are not getting a baby,” Matt tells his boyfriend tiredly. “Babies require too much work. Congratulations though, Evan. You’ll do a great job. And if you don’t… we’ll eat you.”
Evan doesn’t laugh. Dan announces that he’s going outside to smoke and Evan follows; Alex figures that they just needed a moment alone so he politely ignores the fact that Evan is a nonsmoker. Instead, he kisses his boyfriend’s cheek and murmurs, “So how long do I have before you start?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Grieco whispers, leaning up for a real kiss. “All I ever wanted was a life where I never had to leave you, and I got that. I got more than that. We’ve got a real family now.”
Jack groans, looking at them both and goes, “You guys are disgusting. Get a room.”
Danny takes a picture of Alex flipping Jack the bird seconds before the two of them end up bickering about it - Grieco and Danny look at each other knowingly - and then they end up rolling on the floor, evenly matched as they are since they were both bitten about the same time. Jeff pulls him aside and tells him, “Oh, don’t you worry about Jack getting lonely. He won’t be single for long.”
Matt remarks dryly, “He won’t be alive for long if he won’t stop stalking that poor kid.”
Jack glares at them. “Mind your own damn business. I’m not stalking him, we’re just…” he shrugs helplessly. Grieco rolls his eyes. Alex gets bored of fighting with him and goes back over to his boyfriend, feeling suddenly glad that his own relationship worked out despite all of the… problems. When he got bitten he never thought things would work out like this. He can’t remember how he thought it would all turn out, before, but he never thought it’d be like this. He expected a life of misery, being treated like an outsider. He wasn’t expecting all the other werewolves to be so… normal.
Grieco crawls into his lap and kisses him again. “So,” he says. “How does being stuck with me for the rest of your life feel?”
“Pretty damn good. It’s pretty damn good.” It’s easier than he thought it’d be. The only person who doesn’t look happy is Jack, but he doesn’t know what he can do about that. They are best friends - why won’t Jack open up about his past? It’s a mystery he has yet to solve, but that can wait for another day. There’s drinking to do, celebrating; Alex intends to get Evan shitfaced to celebrate the fact that it’s no longer his responsibility to take care of anyone but himself. And Grieco, too, but the thing about that is that Grieco doesn’t really need taking care of. It’s probably the happiest day of his life - at least until the full moon. After that, anything goes. They don’t shout when they drink later like normal folks would - they howl, and Alex is more than okay with that.