The young werewolf is perched on top of the church altar, legs crossed underneath each other as she digs into the tray of shredded chilli beef noodles like it was her first meal in days, which was more than likely true. New York has proved to be more difficult than she expected, it’s not as easy to allow the wolf to hunt — snatching deer, squirrel and rabbits from local forests for her feeding hours. The entire city is surrounded by tall, glass buildings, resembling what she imagines the shadowhunter’s city of glass to look like. Her nearest hunting ground is central park, but after one too many close calls with animal control it’s no longer safe for her to hunt wild life there.
Her luck never completely ran out, though. The city has a wide range of take-aways, pizza houses and restaurants for her to take her picking from, but being a homeless, lone werewolf isn’t exactly a paid position. Any food she manages to pilfer is from rubbish bins, pieces of fruit stolen from street venders until she’s resulted to pick-pocketing students at a nearby high school so she can eat tonight.
She shivers between bites of her crispy shredded beef, despite the array of candles littered throughout the church that offer a faint glow, they don’t do much for warmth against the chill that howls through the cracked window panes, like a werewolf howling in distress. It may be cold, dimly lit and possibly haunted ( she hears spine-chilling noises at night ) it’s the closest thing she has to a home now. When she hears footsteps approaching, followed by the familiar sound of the jock’s voice, she springs down from where she’s perched on the altar, the plastic fork she’d been eating her meal with now posed like a real weapon.
❝ Take another step closer and you’ll be picking plastic shrapnel out of your eye ball. ❞ She snarled, plastic fork still armed like she might lunge at him at any second. ❝ How did you find me, Teen Wolf? ❞ She smirks at that, wanting him to know without a doubt that she saw him transform under the bleachers. Her dark brown eyes dart around the church, she considers running, finding herself another dump to haul herself up in but he’s blocking her only exit.
She chuckles, she actually chuckles as he demands his wallet back. Cute. ❝ You can have it back, no problem. ❞ She didn’t see the point in feigning innocence, he was a werewolf just like her, he’d know she was lying. ❝ Can’t have the money though, spent it on that delicious meal you just made me drop everywhere. Thanks for that, by the way. I was hungry. ❞
he watches as she jumps from her perch, steaming hot food splattering onto the floor. as if this place couldn’t get any grimier. ben pulls a face as he glances around, sniffing out the corpses of rotting rodents and frowning at the uneasy skittering noises of insect colonies congregating nearby. he’s shacked up in plenty of places like this before, but not since moving to the city and not since autumn rolled around with that unforgiving northern chill in tow.
isn’t she cold? ben lifts a brow as she brandishes the tiny plastic fork at him, searching her bare arms for goosebumps. when he finally remembers to acknowledge her threat, it’s with a laugh and the ostentatious flash of his favorite knife. “i’m not being funny, babe, but mine is bigger than yours.” he tucks it away again as she smirks, hands burrowing into the pockets of his letterman jacket.
“i’m a really good tracker,” ben rolled his eyes at the teen wolf pun even though he was secretly endeared by just how impressed with herself she seemed to be over such a lame quip. she’s cute. he’d already noticed as much in passing, but for some reason it feels like he’s really noticing her for the very first time.
and his heartbeat stutters.
“what’s your name? do you live here all alone? how long have you been like me?” he’d meant to start slow and then a sudden surge of nervousness took him by surprise. he’s not afraid of her, but he also can’t quite look her in the eye anymore without a violent crimson heat flooding into his cheeks. instead his dark gaze flickers around the abandoned old church again, sweeping across padlocked doors and uprooted pews with feigned interest.
“i’ll take you to get more food if you’ll still hungry.” he’ll be shit out of luck until at least midday tomorrow unless he can swipe a couple soft pretzels or an apple on the way home, but it would be worth it for her. he just knows it. “or how about breakfast tomorrow? i’m makin' coush coush for my sister. i could bring you some, or you could come over and meet her. our foster parents are never home so it’s usually just the two of us. she’d probably love to meet you and everyone says she’s way nicer than i am.” maybe he should’ve brought caroline along with him tonight, because right now ben feels like he’s scrabbling blindly for the words that’ll keep her from running away again.
