The Glass Scientists micro-fanfictions

Solidarity

Jasper could not stop tapping his foot. He would have very much liked to stop tapping his foot, but it seemed that with each time he thought about it, his foot tapping became all the more amplified. If he were alone, he might not have been quite to bothered by this, but he had found himself in the park - he had hoped that if he went out he might have been able to steady himself a little - on one of the unoccupied benches. Why, had Henry not mentioned that it was not proper for a gentleman to be frantically tapping his foot he might not have even thought he should try and stop it at all, but this had gotten into his head and so with each tap was all he could think of. It was a double edged sword, really, as the doctor had said this out of a place of kindness to try and help him, but it just added another thing for him to worry about.
And with another thing to worry about, his tap tap tapping increased, as did the worrying of his already fraying sleeve. 

"You are able to get through this." a voice behind him spoke, which caused Jasper to jump, looking about with wide eyes.

The speaker was a young, somewhat tired man with curly black hair and a distinct and unmistakeable gentleness to his smile. He was not British, if his accent was anything to go by, American but there was an undercurrent of something that reminded him of those instances where Rachel found herself talking about something she was especially passionate about. Rather embarrassingly, the man tilted his head a little as if to examine the other. 

"I didn't mean to startle you," the man continued, and it seemed as if this was said with a complete sincerity rather than the sort of overly perfected false realness, "It is the full moon jitteriness, isn't it? It's tonight so I can't blame you." Oddly enough, he seemed almost apologetic about this. 

"Are-" Jasper began, managing to completely fail with sounding calm about it and so needed to take a moment to pause and take a breath, "Are you a werewolf too then sir? I mean, if you were able to tell so quick and everything?"

The man seemed to be a little taken aback by this, even going so far as to look a little offended by this. This alarmed the young werewolf a great deal, and he instinctively raised his hands as if in surrender - there was a difference between a pacifying raising of the hands and one that seemed to be surrendering, and unfortunately it seemed he had never learned how to differentiate between the two - though the apology he intended to offer never had the chance to come about.

"No, I am not," came the reply, and this was a reply that was not only remarkably calm, but also gentle enough in its explanation, "But you are. Was it by choice?" 

"What?" 

"If you were not able to tell I'm not a werewolf that would mean you were infected rather than born as one. But correct me if I'm wrong there, I don't want to overstep anything, sir," he paused before he actually did elaborate on what he had said, "Did you have any say in the matter?" 

Jasper did not reply to this, however this was evidently more than reply enough for the man, who pursed his lips just a little. Briefly the werewolf wondered if it was a little rude of him to still be sitting there when the stranger was still standing, and yet there was something about his general demeanour that left him feeling surprisingly at ease, all things considered. Why, even his foot tapping had slowed significantly, however this could just as easily been a result of having something preoccupy his thoughts.

"It does get easier, you know?" the man continued, leaning forward just a little, his smile, one that was a little clumsy but all the more real for it, taking on a more sympathetic shape as he spoke this.

"What?" Jasper asked, and then when he realised that all he had really been able to offer to the conversation was increased confusion and possibly insulting the man, he added an equally verbose, "What gets easier?"

"The moon," was the reply to this, "And the, you know, difficulties around it. Its never going to be the most comfortable, but between the two of us, I think you are handling it remarkably well." he praised. If one were to look particularly close, they might have noticed that the way he had his hands clasped was not necessarily out of general pleasantness, but rather to hold back the flickeriness of them. Yes, he was holding himself together better than the fellow he was speaking to, but he did have his whole life to get used to it all, so it was hardly as if they were coming from the same place. 

"Are you sure you aren't a werewolf, sir?" It seemed that Jasper was a little too caught up in his bewilderment to realise just how much this had actually been a - contextual - insult to the other. 

"Quite sure, yes," the man replied a little more curtly, "But that does not mean we do not have enough similarities for what I have said to not be true. You are going to be able to handle it better over time, you just have to give it time, it won't feel completely natural for a bit but don't give up, okay?" 

Even as Jasper offered a little nod in response to this, the man had evidently noticed that his companions had returned - a woman in slightly outdated clothes who seemed to be trying to hide under her cap and a man who seemed to be wearing every single thing he owned - and so with one last nod and a smile, he turned and left. 
He left the man pondering what on earth had happened, but without the insistent tapping of his foot.