The Talk

who: oz and bradley
where: the commune
when: morning

Oz was outside on the porch, reading. Bradley hadn't come in the night before, and he'd tracked the kid's scent into town, and to Hayley's house. He hadn't bothered anyone, really so long as he knew where he was, he was fine with whatever, but it did have him waiting for the blonde to get home. He knew there'd been a whole lot of transition lately, and he should probably address a few things if he was going to be spending the night in a girl's room. Especially if that girl was a werewolf.

It was that combined sort of scent of Bradley and Hayley that alerted him to the teen's approach before he heard or saw him. Looking up, he eventually saw him coming down the path to the house. "Morning." he greeted.

Bradley hadn’t wanted to leave Hayley’s side for anything. Getting out of bed and putting his clothes back on before climbing out her window had to have been easily the hardest thing he’d done in a long while. He’d lingered longer than he should have and if he was going to get out of there without her parents noticing the ladder or the boy in her bed he had to leave.

He’d run home, more to wake himself up, give himself time to go over what had happened the night before, what it might mean for both of them. The run had kept enough of his mind distracted that he didn’t focus on the dreadful part of how long it would be before he saw her again and had more moments like those from the night before. By the time he reached the porch he was a little damp, but not terribly winded from the exertion. It hadn’t been an all out sprint of anything, not enough to really wear him out. Slowing in front of Oz he managed a smile, rubbing at the back of his neck. Maybe Oz would think he went out early to run. That wasn’t unheard of for Bradley. “Morning,” he echoed in response, not sure what to do outside of stand in front of Oz awkwardly until he was allowed to pass.

"So, we need to have a chat." Oz told him. "C'mon, let's head down to the lake." he invited, starting down off the porch to the trail that led down to the water.

Chat. Chat was probably not good. Bradley glanced around like there might be a way out of it, but probably not. Nodding he followed after Oz, head ducked so that he could watch the ground.

After they got down to the water, Oz started walking along it, glancing at Bradley out of the corner of his eye. "Now, don't get me wrong." he said. "I'm glad that you're showing interest in girls. I'm sad that it was someone Misha was interested in as well, but this stuff happens sometimes. But I'm glad that you've been sort of coming out of your shell, as it were. It's been really good to see." he said first. Because all of it was true. As far as he could tell, Bradley was making leaps and bounds of progress. "But I've got a question for you. You ready to get married?"

Bradley winced slightly at the comment about Misha. It wasn’t something he was proud of, but there was no avoiding what had happened with Hayley. That Oz was being reassuring helped, helped quite a bit. The question though had him slowing in his tracks and looking up. “Um...married?”

Oz slowed down too. "Yep. Married. As in are you ready to be attached to Hayley for the long haul? Because there's a thing you're going to need to be careful about here. And that's she's a werewolf now. Werewolves...we're not like everyone else. And I can't say that her instincts are going to overpower her? But I can't say they won't either. And there's the issue of mating. If you go a little too far with her--which I'm hoping I'm not too late to talk to you about this with--it could happen, even if it's unintentional. Happened to me."

That was a lot to process right away. An awful lot. “It hasn’t...hasn’t gone that far.” Not yet at least, though things had gotten heated the night before. “I’m not...not sure entirely what you’re saying. It’s kind of hard to process.” Especially given his mind being slightly broken.

"Wolves mate for life. So, there's not a lot of 'dating' going on in that world. Werewolves have a lot of the same instincts. Like, what happened to me, was..." Oz paused, then decided to give Bradley the short, only pertinent information version of the story. "Let's just say I lost my virginity and from that moment on there was only one girl for me. And that was it. And she kind of freaked out about it, which is understandable considering we were pretty damn young, and she was gone for a few years and...I did wind up marrying her--it's Sophie, but still. There was a whole lot of heart ache involved, and I don't want you going into something blind."

Bradley listened as closely as he could, rubbing at the back of his neck. “So if Hayley and I...” he trailed off, feeling a slight bit of panic rise. “And then...oh.” He turned away from Oz, looking at the ground not sure what to do. It was the sort of thing that he would have rather sat down to deal with.

Oz stopped, hands shoved into his pockets. "Yeah." he said, understanding that overwhelming feeling. "I know for Sophie it was really, really difficult to deal with. I mean, neither one of us knew what was going on there, but still. She wasn't ready for it, but for me, it was just...she was it, end of story. When people are so far off of the same page like that, things get really hard, for both parties. I just don't want you winding up in a situation you don't intend to be in, or can't handle."

Bradley was quiet. He hadn’t thought about what page he was on. He was too caught up in being with her, in all the new things, all the new experiences. “Does she know this?” he asked, looking at Oz finally.

"I think she's had the run down, but that was along with everything else. Being a werewolf is sort of like having everything in your life turned up in volume, so I'm sure it's just in there with the blur of everything else she's been told. If you want me to talk to her about it specifically, I can. I probably will, even. I just wanted you to be aware of things as well, so you can make more informed decisions." Oz told Bradley. "Do you have any questions? I'll answer whatever you want."

He tugged at the shirt that didn’t quite fit, not sure what to say. “I can talk to her about it.” They probably needed to talk about it right? Where things were going and what they wanted. “Is it...just that or other things too?” That was an awkward question to ask, looking down at his feet.

"Well, we could have the talk about where babies come from..." Oz offered. Though he was pretty sure the internet took care of most young men's sex education these days. He didn't think he'd ever actually gotten The Talk. His parents were more concerned with keeping all the werewolf stuff in check and learning about all of that to really have time to worry about that.

“No, no.” Bradley waved that away. “I’m fine on...what goes where.” Just saying it made him a little sick to his stomach. Maybe it was because he was in front of Oz. “You said stuff about a little too far. Just wondering if it’s that far or...not that far.” If he had to explain it again he was giving it up and just forcing the two of them to play it safe.

"As far as I know, it's sex. Once you hit that whole parts going where parts are meant to go and all that, then you're talking mating." Oz said, wanting to be plain on that score. "Up to that point, I don't know of any specific cases where it involved people feeling mated. That's more like...play." he said, thinking over his wording.

Bradley made a face at Oz’s wording, but managed to avoid making a comment. It helped that his focus was on Hayley instead. So far they were fine at least, but the thought of sex had been there, definitely been there. The hesitation on the word and the choice of word in general had him glancing at Oz again. “Play?”

"Yeah, to throw some sports terminology at you, it's playing around, not the actual game." Oz explained. "Like it doesn't count, or something. Which isn't to say you should take any of that lightly! You shouldn't. But If we're talking purely just about what does and doesn't count towards the whole mating thing, that stuff isn't off the table."

The sports terminology actually helped and helped secure just which Bradley was participating in the conversation. “It counts for me,” he said softly, looking up at Oz. Maybe he wasn’t hardwired to mate or whatever Oz was talking about but everything that was going on with Hayley counted and mattered to him. It made things more real, more permanent for him as well. “What if we did? You know mate? Would that be bad?” Wouldn’t it be good to have someone, to know they’d be there and they wouldn’t leave?

Oz opened his mouth, then shut it again, rubbing at the back of his neck for a moment. "I don't know?" he suggested. "Most guys your age sort of...well. Run terrified in the other direction of things like commitment, especially something that permanent. It's just...you have to keep in mind that it isn't something she'll be able to turn off." he explained. "Like with me, I couldn't shut it off, my girl left the country, was gone for three years and let's just say there were issues. And she may never have come back to me, and I wouldn't ever have been properly able to move on. So if she got mated to you and you left? It'd be like knowing for certain that you're leaving a hole in that girl's life, one that won't ever really heal."

Bradley wished he had pockets in his shorts to shove his hands into, but as it was, all he had was the hem of his shirt to keep tugging at, like it might get longer and fit better. "There'd be a hole if she left me too. There was, when she left. And things weren't like they are now between us." If he hadn't already lost his head, he would have then, he was sure of it. Normal teenage boys didn't like commitment, but to Bradley it wasn't commitment, it was stability, which given the past few months, was something he needed more than anything else. Even since getting out of Manchester they'd moved once, forcing a complete lifestyle change, he'd been broken over and over again. That didn't even play into his father not being able to take them back in, to being told that home wasn't an option and the friends he'd lost in the months in Manchester. Losing someone else would be just as hard for him as it might be for Hayley.

"I know you think it would be the same, but it wouldn't be. You'd be able to move on. Like you're putting what happened back in Manchester behind you, a little at a time. If things happened badly with you and Hayley, you'd be upset, certainly and maybe it would take a long time, even, but eventually you'd be able to move on. She wouldn't. That's what I'm trying to impress upon you. It will be different for her than it will be for you. It's hard to explain. But let's just say I had crazy stalker tendencies when we were younger, and I couldn't move on. It just wasn't a possible thing. I couldn't look at other girls, I couldn't think about doing anything else--I was fully devoted to her, and that was that. Most people don't stay with their highschool significant others. That's just the way the world is. You're still figuring out who you are and where you want to go with your life. Don't do something you and she might regret. That's all I'm saying." Oz said, getting the distinct impression Bradley didn't understand. But then again, it was something he thought most normal humans couldn't quite grasp. Not really.

Bradley nodded slowly. He could grasp parts of it, and what Oz said about Hayley not getting over things, that struck a cord. He didn’t want to hurt her, not any more than she’d already been through, getting them to where they were now. While part of him was sure that this wasn’t some regular high school relationship, that there was more to it that maybe Oz wouldn’t understand because he hadn’t dealt with all his friends dying in Manchester, Bradley didn’t say anything. “I’ll talk to her about it. We won’t...you know,” he said making a vague gesture and looking up. “Not until we’ve talked about it.” Maybe not at all. Maybe Hayley would hate the idea of being bound to Bradley like that. It wasn’t like he was a bag of normalcy. Dating was one thing, but long term she might find herself wanting someone like Misha again.

Nodding in approval, Oz gave Bradley's shoulder a pat. "Let me know if you have any questions, or if she does, or if you want to talk about anything." he offered, because he knew this probably wasn't an easy topic for starters. "It'll be alright. But definitely talk to her as soon as you can."

Not sure what else to do but nod, Bradley did that, looking back down at his feet. “Thanks,” he said softly. He knew he could talk to Oz, even if sometimes it was strange. “I’ll go inside in a few minutes. I sort of what to think for a bit.”

"No problem. See you later." Oz said, heading back towards the house, to leave Bradley with his thoughts.

Bradley found himself nodding again, feeling a little left of center as Oz left. Sighing he sat in the grass, running his hands while he tried to get his thoughts in order and his own mind in order as well.