Ethan had not driven far from the movies when Hayley reminded him, "Alright, what was that long story you weren’t trying to text?"

Ethan scoffed lightly, remembering their texts the previous day. "Okay, uhm..." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"No, no, wait..." Hayley cut him off. "Tell me at your place instead," she added with a smile.

Ethan glanced at her for a second with a puzzled expression on his face before turning back to the road.

"What? Oh please, I really had a great night, and I just want the rest of it quiet, without the voices of seventeen wolves over my head," she said, shaking her head. "I’m sorry, Phoebs, you’ll do without me tonight."

There was another short glance from Ethan and a brief pause before Hayley pulled out her Arcphone to inform someone at home she wouldn’t be returning.

When she did, there were over twenty missed calls and several messages. They were all from different members of their household, including her father.

That made her smile, making the amused sound along with it.

She had said nothing after, prompting Ethan to ask out of curiosity, "What was that for?"

"My mother, before she died, was the Luna," Hayley began.

"That’s what you call the queen of a pack," she added, knowing Ethan didn’t know what that meant.

"But in my house, she wasn’t just the Luna. She played the role of mother for everyone, not just her kids," she said. "And I just realized I may have been trying to fill that role without knowing."

There was a smile on her face when Ethan glanced this time, but he said nothing still.

"I should probably let them know I won’t be coming home tonight," she said, dialing back her father’s contact.

She did so, and the first thing was an audible yell starting with "Young lady," which made her slightly move the phone away from her ear with a wince.

Ethan, who also heard most of it, shook his head in amusement.

"Sorry, sorry," she said back in a remorseful tone, before answering his question concerning their whereabouts. "I’m on my way to Ethan’s. I’ll be spending the rest of the night there, and Percy’s out with a girl."

Mr. Marvin over the phone said with audible surprise, "Percival’s got a girl now?"

And somehow, that got the other werewolves in the background excited, their voices breaking out into eager noises as they listened in on Mr. Marvin’s call.

With all of Percy’s good looks, he’d never really had luck with women. For the most part, he was oblivious to the girls who liked him, and for the ones he liked, he always lost the courage to talk to.

A rather contradictory nature to his outgoing personality.

Both Hayley and Ethan chuckled. "No one knows for sure, Dad."

Then she and her father went on with a back and forth, filled with a couple of laughs here and there. It was mostly a father and daughter gossip moment.

After a few more minutes, the call reached its natural end and Hayley said, "I’ll be back tomorrow. Tell everyone, especially Jerome and Edd, I got the most texts from them."

"They can all hear you," Mr. Marvin said. "And how’s Ethan doing?"

Hayley glanced at Ethan for a moment, then smiled and said in an amused tone, "He’s still playing hard to get."

Marvin laughed and said, "Send my regards."

"Goodnight, Dad," Hayley said.

"Goodnight."

Then the call disconnected.

Ethan sighed but had an amused expression, and Hayley kept staring at him too.

-

They had both arrived back at the manor and walked in with smiles on their faces. Hayley, of course, walked towards Francesca. They embraced and, just immediately, got into quick chatting per usual.

Right before Ethan took the stairs, he replied to Ishtar’s respectful greeting and said quietly, "We’ll start somewhere tomorrow."

Then he went upstairs into his room.

A notification screen materialized before him.

[Self-Imposed Objective Complete: Spending Time with Hayley]

[Reward: +4,000 XP]

[Total Experience Points: 182,250]

Ethan dismissed the screen with a smile. He had a long day and wanted rest. And after he reached his room, he went straight for the shower, leaving a few minutes after.

Now in plain night robes and laying in bed, he reached for his Arcphone, only to realize it was dead.

He sighed, adjusted his body on the bed to plug it in by the corner, before readjusting. Now he stared at the ceiling for a while with a smile on his face, thinking back on the events of the evening.

A short moment after, he dozed from the tiredness.

-

Almost two hours later...

Something had stirred Mr. Stark awake.

And when his eyes calmly opened, the first sight he saw was Hayley.

She was curled up in bed beside him, lying in his direction. Her body was relaxed, peaceful, and her fluffy white tail extended from her lower back, and moved across his abdomen in a gentle curve.

It was the unconscious movement of her tail, a slow shift from his abdomen up slightly over his torso, that had stirred him awake.

And it made him wonder: was he that deep in sleep, or did his body not react to her as an alarming presence, which is why it didn’t bother to wake him?

It was surely an intriguing thing, but he didn’t give much thought to it. He stared at her for a bit, and for Hayley’s wily nature, she slept quite peacefully.

He didn’t see much of her face due to her curled-up position, but her skin was such a fine thing under the dim lights in his room. However, the same position made the rise and fall of her plump chest a bit more obvious from her camisole.

Ethan realized he had stared in that direction for maybe five seconds before he averted his gaze back to the ceiling with a short sigh.

He stared in the ceiling’s direction for a while, and after realizing he couldn’t sleep any further, he calmly slid off the bed while gently getting Hayley’s tail off his abdomen and letting it fall on the same side of the bed.

Her ears twitched for a moment, but nothing enough to get her to wake either.

Ethan took one glance at the prettiness of her sleeping face, then walked towards his balcony, got up on its rail, and let himself fall from it.

Casting the flight spell, it halted what would have been a violent fall to the ground as he diverted his position towards the back of the courtyard.

-

An hour later...