for amelioraate

[gotup]

[ HYDRA, as it turned out, had been working on other biological projects, which Steve had discovered one night late in the war when he infiltrated a small outpost and found a number of wolves. At first, he'd thought they had just been exceptionally resilient animal specimens - he'd had to set the house on fire and trap them inside to escape after he'd run out of ammunition.

When the full moon came, he discovered that they hadn't just been wolves, they had been werewolves. He turned into a beast, ran through the forest, and when dawn came, he found himself miles from camp, naked on a bed of pine needles.

(That had been a little awkward.)

A few months later, he'd gone under the ice, and nothing mattered anymore.



Fast-forward a good few decades, and Steve's out of the ice and managing his furry little problem the best he can. Which is to say, he disappears once a month and hope nobody notices. That hasn't been a problem till now. He's ostensibly under house arrest in Stark Tower, and, okay, he knows Tony won't care if he leaves, won't tell the government that he's suddenly disappeared. But that doesn't mean he's not paranoid about it.

There's really nothing he can do, though. Sure, he could probably spend the full moon curled up in his room, but he knows Tony has cameras in there to monitor him (doesn't blame him for it), and that's obviously a problem. He'll just have to suck it up and sneak out.

He's pretty sure Tony's preoccupied with something - a meeting, genius Tony things, whatever - when he casually strolls out of the tower before sunset in a hoodie, baseball cap tucked under his arm. Once he's safely out of view, he puts the baseball cap on, pulls up the hood - he can't wear sunglasses right now, that would just look weird. It's not far to the park, but he can feel the tug of the moon in his bones, and it makes him walk a little faster.

Steve wishes he would've had a chance to scope out the park ahead of time; right now, he just has to strip down and hope to god nobody steals his clothes as he stashes them deep in a copse of trees. And then- then the change hits, twisting his bones, reforming his body. It feels like the serum did every time, hurts like hell, but soon enough he's on four legs.

The wolf in him misses the jungles of Wakanda; they'd been hot, but wild, full of animals to hunt. The city isn't the same, not when the park isn't big enough to really run through, not when the biggest animals in the bushes are squirrels and rabbits. It feels distinctly unsatisfying; he wants to hunt, to feel the exhilaration as he brings down his prey, the hot blood on his tongue. As he thinks about it, there's a rustle in the underbrush behind him, and without thinking, he tenses his muscles and leaps. ]

Comments

[amelioraate]

[ Listen, Tony isn't going to stalk every goddamned move that Rogers makes in his tower. Sure, he makes sure that he knows where he is, but he doesn't fucking monitor him. FIRDAY keeps tabs on him and alerts him to when the blond leaves (not that he is supposed to leave according to the shit that has gone down, but like Tony gives two flying fucks about that) just so that, if the situation arises, Tony can cover for him. He does not, in any form, stalk Captain America.

Except when he does. Which is now. Because Steven Rogers is acting suspicious as fuck and Tony is curious okay. Usually, Steve doesn't leave the Tower at all (such a good law abiding citizen he is, except for, you know, the stuff), so when he leaves the Tower looking like he is going to rob a bank, Tony has his interest peaked and really, making sure Steve isn't planning on moonlighting as a bank robber is a good thing, right?

So, moments after FRIDAY has alerted him to the fact that the residential capscicle is leaving, Tony is dressed, shades, hoodie and grease stained jeans on, with his nose in his phone as he travels behind the blond. He is good at this, knows how far away he needs to be in order for himself to evade detection, knows how to blend in with the crowds and knows that, really, he can always rely on satellites if anything goes amiss. Which it doesn't, thank god.

Well, mostly. See, Steve goes to the park which, okay, Tony gets that, the blond wants to be outside that makes sense. It also makes sense that he would dress as casual as he could (though maybe Tony should talk to him about suspicious clothing and body language), but what doesn't make sense, at all, is that Steve vanishes into the trees.

Vanishes into the trees and apparently strips naked before going farther into the trees.

Tony takes a moment to just stare at the pile of clothes and wonder if he really does want to go any further because what the fuck, he wonders what he is going to fine. Of course, that wondering is what makes him move forward. He doesn't call out Steve's name (really, that was mistake two right there, number one being following Steve), and moves into the woods carefully.

There is the sound of something farther up but Tony doesn't know what, and--]

"Mother fucking--!" [There is a goddamned wolf and shit shit shit, fuck he is so-- bitten mother fucking fuck that hurts, and oh my god he is going to die and where the fuck is Steve.]

ONE MONTH LATER

[amelioraate]

[ It had been one hell of an interesting month between Tony following Steve out into the world and, more or less, coming back a creature of myth. A month of him being weirdly touchy and affectionate and needy with the blond supersoldier in a way that weird for him. Sure, he was a tactile person once he got to know someone but--

Somehow, after the first night (morning? day?) of amazing sex, Tony had a hard time resisting the urge to be in physical contact with Steve. Even when he was going through the need to be in his fucking workshop for hours, he found himself wanting the blond. So he had started stealing clothes. Mostly shirts. And, weirdly enough, Tony found that it worked. He didn't know why he needed it, why he felt this need to have Steve around him in some capacity all the time now, but he did and-- well he wasn't too upset about it.

Mostly.

Tony also found that, as the month went on, there were a few things that he started to notice as being... different. You know, aside from his apparent need to have something of Steve's (or Steve himself) around as often as possible. There was the fact that he found himself more in tune with what people weren't saying, like... there was something about interactions that he got now that was never there before. FRIDAY mentioned pheromones, Tony laughed until he cried.

And then there was his actual desire to eat. Don't get him wrong, he always loved food, but now? Now he had to have at least two meals a day or he would get headaches from hell and grumpy and--

Whatever.

And then.... then at almost a full month later the weirdest (worst) new thing hit.

Tony was in a perpetual state of arousal. It was-- well it started off normal enough, waking up with a hard on wasn't something uncommon for him even at his age, but the fact that the urge to push Steve against a wall and just hump him was a thing made it a whole hell of a lot weird. Fuck, it seemed like Tony's rational mind had been thrown completely out the window and all there was room for was want. Steve in his stupid grandpa shirts and slacks reading the newspaper? Tony wanted to ride him. Steve walking by the workshop to drop off a sandwich for him? Wanted him to fuck Tony over the workbench. Steve was--

It was fucking tiring. And yet--

Tony's body wasn't stopping. He finally caved and skipped out on the dinner he said he would meet Steve for in the communal area to slip into the shower and jerk himself off.]

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

[ Tony pressed his forehead to the cool tiles as the hot water washed over him, his hand loose around his cock, working slow.]

[gotup]

[ It's dusk, and they're standing in the woods by the compound. There's no real need to be in the woods specifically, but the wolf in Steve likes the forest, and he thinks that maybe the trees will help Tony get accustomed easier, too. He's already stripped out of his clothes, and although he knows it's optimistic to think that they'll return here at dawn, he leaves them anyway - this is private property, at least, and they'll be able to come back for them sometime. He's taken care of everything he can think of, but he's still worried he's missing something, that it'll go wrong somehow, that Tony will run off and won't come back, lost in being a wolf.

But he tries to hide his nerves, tells himself that he's being irrational. One of them has to be calm, and it's damn well going to be him. ]

Just be glad it's summer. [ He tries to joke, gives Tony a grin that doesn't quite reach his eyes. What if Tony hates him for the life he's cursed him to once the night is over? ]

[amelioraate]

[ it was not quite the two and a half month mark of shit hitting the fan, when Tony actually got bored enough in a meeting to look up shit about wolves and how they functioned (and werewolves but that was more myth than fact). sure, he had meant to do that before the first moon thing but, well, uh he got a little distracted.

a little a lot distracted.

and then the same for the second full moon and, well, now that he has done some reading that was starting to make a whole hell of a lot more sense.

fuck.

needless to say, Tony got a very angry voicemail from Pepper when he bailed on the meeting halfway through to get back to Steve, but he seriously didn't care.]

Steve, darling, what do you know about pack dynamics?

[ also hello, Tony is home and seems strangely agitated. ]