For The Better [1]

Chapter 2: Family Reunion

I wasn't sure how many minutes passed where I sat there with my head hung low in silence, but soon enough, the sound of footsteps echoed in my ears and I lifted my head to see Ryuu padding towards me across the grassy fields. He was often in his human form, but right now, he was in his wolf form. With a pelt of pure white, amber-hued eyes and a bush of red hair on his head. Small black horns poking out of either side of his side, hardly noticeable, but they were there. He had been with me for a very long time, over two years, I believe. He first came around when I first joined WCO and I wrote books at the time. I had just finished watching an anime known as Tokyo Ghoul and he was based on that anime partially. He had been the first character I had ever created for a book all on my own. Yes, there were characters before him, but he was the first that had a book written about his story. We were once lovers, for a short time, until he decided that he would be better suited to be my bodyguard and loyal friend. He'd do anything for me in a heartbeat, even if it meant to kill someone. Beside him, walked a large sabertooth tiger with a pelt of white, purple and black mixed together. I knew him as Sebastian, but I just called him Seb for short. Sebastian was the newest member of our family, being with for under a year and being a character straight out of a video game named Stardew Valley. I had married him in that game and I wanted him to be here with us, though we did not act like a married couple outside of the game. He was still a loyal friend to me, like Ryuu and I cared for him deeply. He even quit smoking for me, which was a habit of his when I first met him. His animal transformation powers were given to him by me so that he wasn't an outcast among all the other shifters of our household. He seemed to like his feline form quite a lot these days.

They both approached me, soaked in the rain that was still brewing overhead, staring at me with their amber and purple eyes in silence. Once they had gotten a few feet in front of me, they both paused, blinking down at me for a moment until Ryuu went forward and pressed his nose against my forehead. "We're here for you." He whispered to me, saying nothing more as he backed away. I looked at Sebastian, who gave me a slight dip of his head as if to agree with his partner's words. Ryuu sat down beside me to my left while Sebastian sat beside him. We spoke no more about anything, who sat there in the rain as we three watched in utter silence as more creatures began to file out of the building in front of us. The next person that I saw was my own older brother, Beck, walking out in his human form, wearing his usual black hoodie and jeans. He looked at us from across the yard with his emerald-hued eyes, a trait that we shared as siblings. He shifted in his mountain lion form, a favored form of his that I knew. He was my brother, what more can I say? He was nineteen, created probably two years ago, after Ryuu, of course, but he had been with us for awhile. He was originally created to be my gender-swap version for a roleplay that I was in, but he seemed to have more potential than I had first thought. The person that I roleplayed him with did not think much of their own character, Juniper, which was Beck's first love. He was heartbroken by her long ago and fell into a deep depression for many months, taking up drinking at bars, getting into fights with other people, even others of the house. There was a time where Ryuu didn't like him, he thought that he was a drunken bum that I had pity for and rescued off the streets to stay here. Times changed though and they respected one another now. Beck still drank, but not as heavily. There was a small ferret on his shoulder, even in his mountain lion form, she always stuck with him. Her name was Piper and she had no other form, but that ferret one. She could talk still though. Everyone talked in this house, no matter what animal or species they were. She had been with me for many years, not having much, but she still there. I thought it would be good for her gentle, happy personality to aid my dear brother, who I gave her to him and asked her to look after Beck, cheer him up. I heard that Beck didn't like her company at first, he didn't like anyone's company, but my own while he was in his emotional breakdown. To the person that he first loved, he was used for pleasure and that's all he was to her. He had even planned to marry her, but she broke him before that was possible. He used to have an apartment of his own, but he put all his expenses into that ring and had to come to me for a place to stay. Tom called him the most approachable person he had ever met and Beck grew more self-hating towards himself because of that. It was another reason I hated Tom, but there would be more about him later in this tale. Piper and Beck had never been separated since I told her to watch over him. Wherever he was, she was on his shoulder, in his sweatshirt pocket or even sleeping in the hood of his hoodie. He was protective of her and I respected that.