→ Louisa had been gone for awhile. It wasn't that she was a secretive woman, but lately she'd been holding back a lot from her pack. Sterling, however, wasn't the sort to notice those things. He trusted her implicitely based solely on the fact that she'd saved what was left of them from Ryan, their previous alpha. Sitting on the tank of the toilet, feet hooks along the rim of the seat, Sterling blew cigarette smoke out the window because this was a non-smoking room. Everything was fucking non-smoking these days.

→ Marlena was curled up in the bed, trying to sleep as much as she could, resting because she knew she needed to shift soon. While she didn't shift as often as the wolves, and for that she was grateful, her shifts were particularly draining and hard on her body. It always took her a few days to bounce back and she always tried to relax and rest as much as she could before hand to make the time after the shift a little easier. Jeremiah was pacing, watching her while she slept, his eyes flicking back and forth between the bed and the light he could see on beneath the bathroom door. Where was Louisa? How long were they going to stay here? Here when they were already so close to Cold Water Flats. When he couldn't take the silence anymore he stalked over to the bathroom and let himself in, shutting the door behind him. He could hear enough of what was giong on in there to know that Sterling was just smoking and probably not much else. "Where is she? When are we leaving here?"

→ Sterling took a long drag off of his cigarette, flicking the ash down into the toilet below him. It seemed to take forever for him to shift his eyes slowly to Jeremiah. "Hold on, hold on." He shut his eyes and held up his hands, fingers splayed apart except the two that were gripping his cigarette. "My psychic abilities are a bit shakey, sorry, not today." He went back to smoking, finishing up and closing the window. Hopping down from the toilet, he flushed it and went to the sink to scrub his hands free of the tobacco smell. He looked at Jeremiah's reflection. "I don't know, we're spendin' the night here or we're leavin' as soon as she gets back."

→ A genuine look of hurt passed over Jeremiah's face and there was nothing to hide it because he always wore his heart on his sleeve. He had a hard time hiding any emotion at all and he had a hard time not getting upset over little things because that was just the way he was. Pushing away from the wall that he had just leaned against, he left the bathroom to go back out into the main part of the room. He sat down on the empty bed, there were two full sized beds and though she wa a very tiny person, Lena was taking up a majority of the other bed and would probably only scootch over for Louisa.

→ That was one thing Sterling was really good at, being a good-natured asshole and treading too heavily on Jeremiah's emotional toes. Shutting the water off, he rolled his eyes and sighed with exasperation, muttering something about cooyon. Walking out of the bathroom, he shook his hands dry, wiping them on his jeans. "Desole," he started, apologizing. "I'm sure she'll be headin' back here soon enough."

→ desole?

→ sorry

→ Jeremiah was a worrier. Once he was sitting on the edge of the bed he just tangled his fingers into the loose and thinning fabric of the knees of his jeans and he looked out the window. He felt exposed here. Like they were sitting ducks. Essentially he was the puppy that had been kicked one too many times and now hid under the bed with his tail between his legs at the first sign of trouble. And leaving New Orleans to join another wolf pack felt like trouble. Glancing back at Sterling, he frowned a little, already ready to forgive him. "I'm scared, Sterling. What if this turns out to be like Ryan? What if they are all like Ryan?"

→ "The Col' Water pack? You think Louisa'd send us back to those days?" Sitting down on the same bed as Jeremiah, he hitched one heel up on the edge of the mattress so he could lean his chin on that knee. "She may not be talkin', but she knows what she doin'" His Louisiana accent was thick and full of french creole. Maybe it was because he spent most of his time down in the Quarter, hamming it up for tourists. Or maybe it was just that the language suited his slow as sunday morning nature. He reached over and poked his finger at Jeremiah's worn knees. "Rag picker."

→ They were different as night and day, as Jeremiah was wound as tight as a drum and Sterling always felt as if he was so loose he'd come apart at any moment and just go floating off in every direction. "These are the jeans that I like the best." Probably because he'd had them for so long and they were loose fitting and comfortable. "Do you think they will hate us? "

→ "How could they hate you?" He teased a little, leaning over to pinch Jeremiah's cheeks. "You're just so polite an' sweet." Aiming to make his pack member smile, Sterling had a good sense that he wouldn't be able to do it, but that really never stopped him from making a valient attempt. Pulling his arm back against himself, he considered the whole hate question. "No one can know the future, no point worryin' 'bout it."

→ Shifting off of the end of the bed, he scooted back up against the headboard and pulled his knees up so that he could wrap his arms around them. Right now he was feeling sort of lost and he wasn't sure when he'd feel right again. His whole life had been New Orleans and now they were so far away. "I just want to get there and get it over with."

→ Sterling at least knew that feeling. He'd fought leaving his home. That plantation had been home to the Ursaline's for as far back as his family tree went. Roots for him were deep in the south, and noo other place would be 'home' while New Orleans was still above the gulf waters. "Hear there's lots of them there. Odds are, petit, there'll be some who like you, some who don't. But you'll always have the three of us." He meant Louisa, himself, and Marlena. They were the important ones.

→ Unable to sit still, Jeremiah came down to the end of the bed, sitting behind Sterling so that one leg was on either side of the other wolf's and he laid his head against his back, cheek flush against his shoulderblade. Wrapping his arms around his waist he just held onto him, needing to be comforted by his touch. "You wont forget about me will you? If we get there and you like them better?"

→ A laugh escaped him at that worry. Quickly though, so as not to prod another pout, Sterling spoke in a singsong voice. "Chere mo lemme t'oi, mo lemme t'oi, mo lemme t'oi." Dear, I love you so. Because Jeremiah was a dear, and Sterling loved him as much as he could love anyone. His pack meant everything to him, small though it was.

→ They had been a big pack, once. Maybe one to rival the cold water pack in size, but they had dwindled down to this. Three wolves and something he wasn't even sure was a legitimate shifter as much as a fae, but he couldn't be suer what Marlena was and they never talked much about how she came to be in the pack in the first place. Ryan had been all about purification but he had seen her as something of a prize pet. Something pretty to look at and show off when he wanted to.

→ Louisa didn't knock, just bustled in with her card key from the hallway. A quick scan of the room yielded calming information. All three accounted for, right there on the beds. She'd expected Lena to be sleeping, expected Jeremiah and Sterling to be idleing. There they all were. "At least something's gone according to plan." She murmured to herself, whisking past them into the bathroom for just a moment. Sterling perked up as much as one so terminally relaxed could perk. "See? There she is." As if he needed to point that fact out to his pack mate.

→ Jeremiah held him a little tighter for a second before getting up off of the bed to go into the bathroom after Louisa. He really didn't mhave much sense of privacy, and he wanted to talk to her. "Are we leaving tonight? Can we please go tonight?" he didn't want to spend another night in the hotel room. "The bed that you want me to sleep on smells like sex."

→ She shut the water off when she heard him come in, surprised it took him that long to follow her. Rubbing a washcloth over her face, she turned to face him, leaning back on the edge of the counter. They'd paid for the night, but it was early enough to just head out again. Exhaustion weighed on her. This stop had been unecessary, and that rankled her almost enough to make them stay the night just to prove the detour had been acceptable. "People have sex on beds, Jer. Every surface we've ever touched, someone's probably made love on it. It's a big world out there." She was a little testy. But after a second, she nodded. "But all right, let's go tonight."

→ "But it smells like..." Jeremiah was going to say dirty but she said they could go and he didn't even think twice about walking out of the bathroom to go and make sure that his bag was still packed. Sure enough, it was, and he was ready to go, so he took it upon himself to wake Marlena up, who at least had had the good sense to sleep on top of the covers.

→ She'd rented a rather large car, and made sure that the company had an outpost in Cold Water so she could just drop it off there. She didn't want anyone from the other pack picking them up from the airport or the hotel because she didn't want to emphasize too much the fact that they were charges to be taken care of rather than equals. Fixing her hair in the mirror, she tried to freshen up as much as she could. The place she'd just been at had reeked of sex, Jeremiah would have been through the roof if one bed bothered him. Sterling, seeing Louisa's state upon coming out of the bathroom insisted that he was driving and went to load the car up of their belongings.

→ Once Marlena was up, Jeremiah went to help load his bag and hers into the car so that she didn't have to carry it. He was excited to be going but he felt sick with his nerves because he knew going now meant meeting the whole pack tonight, or at least some of them. And if he did that... well, he just wasn't sure what to think of it.

→ Louisa agreed that it would be better if Sterling drove, but it didn't matter, he was already outside in the driver's seat, fiddling with the radio. Once all of them were out of the room, she opened her cell phone, dialing Hunter's number. She hoped he answered, or someone with at least some authority.

→ Hunter had fallen asleep on the couch, worn out over everythign that had been going on in his life lately and over the fact that he was diong twice the work he usually did because school was starting soon and all the professors that he peer edited for had had the entire summer to write articles and other various pieces of work to submit to journals in their field. When his cell phone started ringing it woke him up but he didn't open his eyes. Just blindly reached for it and put it to his ear. "Hello?"

→ She recognized his voice immediately. "Hunter, it's Louisa. You picked up Faris? I'd planned to pick him up on my way there. We're on our way now--day early, hope that's all right." They'd agreed to take one of the spare houses on the property to ease the trouble of integrating packs for however long it took. "About minutes from now. We can divert if you need though--got a hotel room." She spoke in broken sentences, in a hurry.

→ "I picked him up a few days ago. Day early is fine. I'll see you in forty five minutes." Hunter spoke back in the same choppy sort of sentences and then he hung the phone up and let it rest against his chest as he tried to nod back off. He'd hear the cars pull up so he wasn't worried about being asleep when they got there.

→ Louisa still didn't love the fact that she had to utilize Wolf Haven as a hide out. She could only hope that when the shit hit the fan, and no one was living at the old house, people would think it was just some stupid hoax. She wasn't about to continue Ryan's traitorous pact with the hunter. Running quickly down the stairs, she got in the car and instructed Sterling to hit a drive-thru. He threw the car into gear, happily following orders when the orders included hamburgers.

→ Marlena was leaned up against Jeremiah in the back, her legs stretched out across the seat as she fell back asleep, lulled by the motion of the vehicle. Jer on the other hnd was anxious, knees bouncing up and down as he glanced out the window and then back at Louisa and then out the window again. "Are you okay?" he asked her, she seemed tired.

→ She had to wonder if Jeremiah was asking that for her sake, or for his. She couldn't blame him if it was the later; she was their protector and Jeremiah seemed to need it most of all. Leaning her head back on the headrst, she forced a smile. "I'm all right." Once bag after bag of fast food was loaded into the car, much to the chagrin of the worker, Louisa passed back an assortment of burgers, fries, and a couple of milkshakes. "Eat up, I think Wendell was going to take use grocery shopping once we got there, but it's too late tonight and we'll have to wait for morning."

→ It wasn't until he smelled the food that Jeremiah realized he was ravenous. He polished off a few burgers and two things of fries and he woke Marlena up long enough for her to eat a few handfuls of fries and half of a chicken sandwich. She didn't have the same metabolism as they did, didn't eat as much or as often.

→ Louisa often forgot that aspect of Marlena's biology. It was common practice for her to try and shove more food at the girl than she could handle. It was endearing really, her birdlike appetite and her slight stature. Still, she was convinced the girl needed to eat more. The drive from that point on was rather quiet, Louisa wandering about her own thoughts, Sterling humming and tapping out whatever music was playing on the radio. Right on time, they pulled down the Wolf Haven driveway, gravel cracking beneath their tires.

→ Already outside, Hunter was standing with Shane, who had just gotten home not half hour before from a trip that Hunter had sent him on. They'd moved to sit on the porch so they could talk about a great number of things. When the car pulled up the drive, Hunter stood and stepped down off the porch, leaving Shane to finish his cigarette before getting up to follow after him. he was sort of excited, admittedly, though he wasn't letting it show. The idea of another pack, no matter how small, had always been an interest to Hunter. And now they were here, joining his pack. Sort of.

→ Louisa got out of the car first, pulling her hair into a tight bun as she walked toward Hunter. Her demeanor was one of polite command, not dominating, but holding her own against the energy that Hunter was able to inject into the air. She didn't look like much more than some flowerchild, skirt flowing, flipflops flopping, the bangles on her wrist making a pretty sound. "This is beautiful land, Hunter." She complimented him genuinely, unable to take her eyes off of the towering trees.

→ "Thank you. It's good that you've finally made it." Walking forward to meet her, he offered her his hand instead of his throat. They were equals and she would never get anything less from him than what he would give to someone he considered on his level. "The house is all made up but I took the liberty of fixing up the guest bedrooms in the main house as well if you would prefer to stay somewhere stocked with food. We weren't quite ready, but close."

→ Her first decision came quickly and she laughed a little because his hospitality had caused her a grain of discomfort. "You'd fit right in down South--welcoming and all. We'll take the house, might as well get started there, you know?" Take things slowly, because she was still leary about combining the two packs into a workable whole. She didn't want her wolves causing trouble, but she certainly didn't want them to be forced into submission along with being ousted from their own territory.

→ "I'll walk you down to the house then." Hunter said. "This is Shane. Shane this is Louisa." He introduced ihs enforcer to her and Shane nodded a gruff hello but didn't bother offering to shake her hand because that wasn't really his style.

→ Louisa wasn't sure what to think of Shane, but she smiled at him politely anyway and then followed Hunter, gesturing to her pack to get out of the car as she walked past them. Sterling was the first to jump out, happy to have seen Shane smoking, because as soon as he was out of the car, he dug around in his pocket for his pack and lighter. He waved at Shane, almost a thankyou for paving the way for him.

→ Shane just rolled his eyes and started going back to the house. Old age had just made him more surly, if at all possible. The next person out of the truck was Jeremiah and he looked around before helping Marlena down. She stretched her legs and then her arms before wandering off to follow Louisa and Hunter. She was feeling sort of antsy now, knowing she was going to need to shift soon but now that they were here she was afraid to do it in front of the people who lived here. What would they think? Jeremiah tried to stay close but he got caught up looking for signs of the other wolves and he started to fall behind.

→ Sterling's kind wave turned into a bit of a 'well, fuck you too' gesture before he turned and followed the rest. He didn't notice Jeremiah falling behind, but someone else did. Haben had heard new people were coming and when the car pulled up the driveway, he'd raced downstairs to sit on Robin's porch. He was used to traveling and meeting new people everyday. He loved Wolf Haven, but once you knew everyone, you knew them. Fresh meat, so to speak, was hard for Haben to resist and he saw Jeremiah lag and hopped down the stairs to approach him.

→ When Haben started to walk up to him he looked around, realizing that he'd leth imself get too far away from the group and now he was alone. He could still hear them talking but he couldn't see them and that made him a little nervous. Scratching the side of his neck he kept walking, looking over at Haben occasionally until he caught up with him. "Hi." he said softly.

→ "Hello," Haben said,
his voice nothing but warmth and welcome. "I'm Haben. You're new here. I don't have that great of a nose and you even smell new to me. It's refreshing." He could easily grow tired smelling the same things day after day after day. Jeremiah was a breath of fresh air. "I saw you guys pull up and I wanted to meet all of you."

→ "Oh, yeah, we're new." Jeremiah nodded a little bit and he bit his bottom lip as he gave Haben the once over. "You aren't a werewolf, you smell..." He moved over to stand near him and he leaned in to take a whiff. "You smell really good, but different, what is that?" Curiousity allowed him to immediately be at ease with Haben because he wanted to know more about him.

→ Haben grinned widely. "Guess." He said immediately, putting his hands on his hips and stopping their walk. "You're a wolf, your nose will tell you what I am." As if Jeremiah had ever smelled a lion before to pick up on the faint amber-laced smells coming from Haben.

→ Leaning in, he smelled him a little closer and he closed his eyes, trying to see what it was he actually smiled like. "You smell like sunshine." he didn't know how else to describe it. "Are you a cat of some type? I've never actually scene one but I have heard about you. We're all wolves. Well, except for Marlena."

→ Haben thought it was kind of cute how he refered to just three people as "all," which made them seem more numerous than they were. "Marlena? What is she?" He skipped over answering Jeremiah directly because he liked to tease and keep interest up.

→ "Phoenix." He bit his bottom lip again, it was just a habit. "Do you want to come and meet them? She was sleeping earlier but I think she's up now and I know that Louisa and Sterling are still up for a little while." Mostly because they were both a little riled up over the new area. Or louisa was and Sterling was just happy to smoke.

→ Looking a little disappointed that Jeremiah didn't insist that he tell him, Haben pouted a little. "I'm a lion, by the way. You were right, cat." Looking after where the group had gone. "Phoenix?" That was probably the strangest thing he'd heard all day. "Really?" Haben wasn't sure he wanted to use the whole group up so soon, meeting everyone at once. But the promise of meeting a phoenix was enough temptation for him and finally he nodded. "All right."

→ "Yes, she's... I don't know if she's actually a shifter or not. She just wandered onto the plantation one day and never wandered back off." he started to walk again, taking Haben with him as they started towards the house with the others. "Louisa is our alpha and then there is Sterling, he's my friend." Though he supposed they were all his friends.

→ Thinking it a little strange that Jeremiah named Sterling specifically as a friend, Haben decided not to ask about it. "Lions don't really have an alpha--well, not anymore." The lions had scattered, wanted to be left on their own. Part of the reason he was even here was because he was the rightful leader of the pride. No one here knew that though, and he aimed to keep it that way. "I guess my alpha is Hunter though."

→ "He seems nice enough. He's kind of scary." Walking with him, they eventually got to the house where they were staying and he knew it was the right one because Hunter was still on the porch, talking to Louisa. Marlena had gone in to claim a bedroom and then after Sterling had claimed one she changed her mind. Of course the master bedroom was left for Louisa. She came trotting back down the stairs, just looking around before she came out onto the porch and then down into the yard.

→ Haben stared at her, trying to pick out small visual cues that meant she was different. Really, it was nearly impossible to tell the look of a one kind of shifter from another, but Haben could sometimes see differences. He was looking pretty hard at her, almost like he was stalking her, waiting to pounce. Louisa glanced over at the scene and smirked. "You certainly do take in your fair share of orphans, Hunter."

→ The girl was tiny, with white blonde hair and pale skin. She walked in a circle in the yard until she finally noticed Haben and Jeremiah. She gave them both a smile before she turned and looked at Louisa. "I have to shift." She told her. "it's been too long now, it's starting to hurt."

"I have plenty of themm, yeah." Hunter said, his eyes going to Marlena when she mentioned shifting. Honestly, he was curious about seeing her.

→ At the words, Louisa tensed. She disliked it when Marlena shifted, and she couldn't hide how disturbing she found it. But it was only because she cared about the girl, and helping her shift meant watching her die. No one should ever get used to seeing that. "You're safe here. Do you want me to go with you?"

→ "No, I can go by myself." Because she knew how Louisa felt about it and she hated putting her alpha through it. "Thank you though." She looked around the edge of the house and then just started off. Hunter stayed still, though he was sort of on edge, wanting to go and watch. "Would you be terribly offended if I went to watch her shift?" Hunter asked Louisa, knowing that it was kind of out of place but he'd never seen someone like her before.

→ Louisa could sense the edginess and nodded. "I wouldn't be offended at all. If I could separate myself from her emotionally, I'd watch it all the time--it really is beautiful." In a choatic, morbid sort of way. Haben wanted to see too, but he stayed close to Jeremiah, glancing from him to where Marlena had slipped behind the house.

→ Hunter nodded, understanding completely. "I'll be back in a moment." he touched Louisa gently on the arm and then stepped off the porch to follow her around the house. Jeremiah could tell that Haben wanted to see too and he nudged him in the direction of the back of the house before he started that way himself. He watched sometimes, when he felt like he could handle it and tonight he thought he could handle it.

→ Eagerly following after the other two, Haben glanced at Louisa, having a slight urge to stay with her. His curiosity won out, however, and he went to see. Standing on the porch, she had her arms wrapped tightly around her and instead of waiting for them all to get back, she went inside the house to start settling in. She would unpack, rearrange, decorate, and touch everything so that her smell was infused in the atmosphere.

→ When she got to the backyard she tried to judge how far it was from the back of the house to the woods and then she put herself dead center so that nothing caught on fire when she shifted. Crouching down, she put her arms around her knees and she put her chin on tpo of them, just sort of waiting for it to open. Hunter stayed back near the house, his shoulders leaned back against the siding as he watched her carefully, studying her movements. This would be something to tell Wendell about. The wolf would be sorry he missed it. The flames started small, licking up from her feet and before long they started to engulf her. It was actually more alarming than he raelized it was going to be and he found himself standing up a little straighter. They weren't ordinary flames, but more red in color and he could still make her out beneath them. Could still make out the agony on her face as she burned to death. It was only once she died that she could be reborn and when her human body died, turning to ash, that was when the phoenix became visible. Not as big as he would have thought, but then again she wasn't very large either. Bright red in color with an impressive wingspan. Shuddering off the last of the flames and ashes, she gave two beats of her swings and was off of the ground.

→ At first, Haben had been dying to go near her, but when the flames started, he hung back, scooting in closer to Hunter because he felt safe around him. He found that he couldn't look at her face just as soon as he saw the pain there. Instead, he glanced away until the feathers started to form and he saw the bird rise upward toward the darkening sky. "Is it always like that?" He asked Jeremiah.

→ "sometimes it's different.' Jeremiah said. "sometimes she dies before the flames start. That was a good shift. When she gets too tired she just lays down and dies.' He sounded kind of distant as he talked about it, his eyes watching as the red bird flew a few circles before it started to sail closer to them. He stepped forward and held his hand out, letting her land on his arm so that he could bring her over to Haben and Hunter.

→ "If I could fly, I wouldn't be sitting on anybody's arm." Haben blurted, the excitement of the moment getting to him. He felt the urge in his feet to run, jump up into the air like he used to do when he was little and wish as hard as he could that he wouldn't come back down. Peering closer to her, he still kept a fair enough distance from her.

→ "You can touch her. She's just tired. In a little bit she'll fly away and be gone all night." And when he woke up in the morning she'd be curled up in bed with him. Or with Sterling. Just close to anyone who was warm because it was always so much colder for her after a shift.

→ The moment Jeremiah said he could touch her, Haben's hand moved bravely forward and stroked down under he neck. "Copping a feel are you, minou?" Sterling came around the corner, referring to Haben. Retracting his hand as if he'd done something wrong, Haben turned to see the lanky man. "Don't be scared of her, she as harmless as a--well, as a bird."

→ Hunter came a little closer, getting his glasses out of his jacket pocket so he could slide them on. His visual acuity wasn't as good as it had been in his youth and though he was a werewolf, some things did start to degrade over time. The glasses he wore when he wanted to look closely at something or when he was pouring over pages upon pages of dry anthroplogy papers. Reaching up, he touched the bird's feathers and then shook his head a little bit. "I have never seen anything like that. Wendell is going to be jealous." he said, mostly for Haben's benefit.

→ Haben laughed. "He'll want samples, sketches, first hand accounts." He flicked his eyes back at Sterling, who had his hand hooked loosely on his hip. "Ain't like she not gonna do it again." He said with a shrug. "Jus' not as often as all of us. Well, who knows about the chaton over here." Haben knew what 'chaton' meant and he frowned. "I'm nearly full grown."

→ "His mane is still coming in." Hunter said, and there was a hint of something in his voice, something fatherly and proud even though technically Haben didn't belong to him. IT didn't stop him from thinking so. He pulled back from the bird and slipped off his glasses and once his attention was away from her she took off, leaving Jeremiah to lower his arm and allow his attention to rejoin the rest of them.

→ At the comment, Haben made a bit of a face, pouting, but a little bit proud as well. Sterling smirked, but the expression wasn't mean at all, just thoroughly amused. "All righ', all righ', I get it." He held up his hands in surrender. Shifting his attention to his packmate, he spoke to him. "Did you get a room? You ain't even been in the house yet, have you? Got wrapped up in this one here. You'll have to sleep on the floor."

→ "He smells like sunshine. Smell him Sterling." Jeremiah gave Haben a nudge in Sterling's direction and while they were distracted with one another, Hunter went back around to the front of the house so that he could tell Louisa goodnight. "I'll sleep in your room if there is no other room, in your bed, you can just squeeze in with me."

→ That made Haben burst into a fit of laughter. "Sunshine? Really?" He put the back of his hand up to his nose, breathing himself in deeply. "I can't smell it."

Sterling frowned a little, a spike of jealousy tickling the back of his brain. "You don't even know what sunshine smells like, doux doux. Don't go gettin' his hopes up." At the comment about sharing a room, he shrugged. "You take up too much space. It's definitely the couch for you." It was clear that he was teasing; there was plenty of space in the house they were using.

→ "Well I'm not sleeping on the couch, so I'll sleep with Marlena. Or maybe I'll sleep with Sunshine." He decided that was what he was going to call Haben. He had to imagine that the lion's fur was yellow and so he thought for sure he would be sunshine when he saw him shift. "Or you can stop being you and let me sleep in your bed with you."

→ Perking up at the nickname, Haben's face was coated with a toothy grin. "You'd have to share with Robin, but the bed is big and we all just tangle up in it anyway." Haben was even more touchy than the wolves could be. If it was socially appropriate, he'd rub himself all over everyone he met. Stretching his arms up over his head in a collossal pose, Haben started back to his house. "Speaking of which, I'm going to bed. It was nice meeting you." He was talking to Jeremiah, because he really hadn't met Sterling. Sterling didn't seem to mind. "No one can stop bein' who they are." He quirked a brow. "Come on inside."

→ Giving a wave to Haben, Jeremiah just smiled a little bit and he turned to Sterling with that smile still on his face. "I know. I like you like you are." He leaned his head against Sterling's chest for just a second and then moved to walk away from him so they could go inside the house. "Which room is your room?" so he knew where to go to sleep if he got scared in the middle of the night.

→ "Top of the stairs, turn right." He'd chosen the room with the biggest window, and the one across from Louisa because part of him was protective. He wasn't much of a fighter, but he was clever and could be rabid when the need came. "So it seems like you're fittin' in just fine. Told you you had nothin' to worry 'bout."

→ "Sunshine's very nice." He smiled and he went up the stairs and towards the room that was on the right. He looked at all the bedrooms but decided that he liked Sterling's the best so he just went in there and slipped into the bed without being invited. He took the spot by the wall, pressed right up against it so that when Sterling got into the bed he'd be sandwiched in.

→ Sterling knew Jeremiah well enough to know it'd be pointless arguing for his own room. He didn't suppose it mattered too much, since it'd be nice to have something familiar in a strange place. "Hopefully most of 'em will be that nice." He wasn't entirely sure about that, but he figured optimism was better than not. Shucking off his clothes, he laid them over the back of a chair. Part of him was still antsy, so he unpacked his suitcases. His clothes when in the dresser and all of his ghost hunting stuff got laid out on the top of the dresser. He had some tarot cards, a divining rod, and a few pieces of electronic equipment.

→ Jeremiah watched him undress and then he followed suit, just throwing his stuff over the edge of the bed before settling back under the blankets again. He sort of rolled around them a little, trying to get them to smell like him. Then he watched as Sterling unpacked, not sure where his own stuff was, but he was too sleepy to bother looking for it.

→ "Hey--hey now." He picked Jeremiah's clothes up off the floor and set them in the chair beneath his own. "We'll be keepin' this place tidy." As casual as Sterling was, he liked a fair bit of order to his environment. Taking off his shoes, he put them on the floor beneath the chair. When he was finished, he sat on the bed, holding on to the small crystal ball he'd tugged last out of his case. That prop was just for show, people liked to think he was the real deal on his ghost tours and somehow, a crystal ball said authenticity to them. Rolling it back and forth over his hands, he leaned back against the headboard.

→ Jeremiah turned over onto his side and he let his arm drap across Sterling's lap. He was tired from the long drive they'd had to Seattle and the short drive they'd had to Cold Water Flats. Now that they were here and his fears over whether or not these people would like him had calmed down, he was really just exhausted. Yawning a little bit, he tightened his arm. "Put that away and curl up with me.' He requested softly, not demanding, so it was up to Sterling as to whether or not he gave in.

→ Sterling often gave in--it was what he did best. Go with the flow. Setting the crystal down on the nightstand, wedging it between the clock and the lamp so it wouldn't roll off, he scrunched down into the covers and tucked his arm under Jeremiah. "Do do, then." Which was his way of saying 'go to sleep.' He focused on the familiar sensation of Jeremiah rather than looking up at the foreign ceiling. It was strange the things to which one could become accustomed and not even realize.

→ Jeremiah wriggled in closer and laid his head against Sterling's chest so that he oculd go to sleep listening to the beat of his heart. "Tomorrow we can meet everyone else but you have to come with me." he murmured. Because he felt stronger when Sterling was at his side.