A Nose to the Wind Chapter 7: Here We Are at the Start, a being human fanfic

A/N: Thank you to everyone for the reviews and advice! Much appreciated and welcomed! Thank you! I don't own Roseanne or Head & Shoulders shampoo for dry, flaky scalp.

Chapter title to 30 Seconds to Mars, "Vox Populi".

Chapter 7 – Here We Are At the Start

Later that night, during a rerun of Roseanne (Sally's favorite), wolf-Josh suddenly leapt off the couch where he had dozing peacefully, and darted up the stairs.

"Josh!" Aidan called after him, but Sally reached him first. She was standing in the upstairs hallway by the bathroom, over Josh, who was laying on the floor.

Human Josh.

Thank god, thought Aidan. Then, considering Josh's all-encompassing sense of modesty, Aidan stepped in to th bathroom and grabbed a towel.

"Glad to have you back," he said, dropping the towel over Josh's waist. Josh lay there, sweating and trembling, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling. His chest heaved with panting breaths.

"Josh?" Sally winked and crouched near his head. He met her eyes and stared, but she could tell that he wasn't focused on her. She could almost see the wheels in his head trying to turn.

"Oh my god," he suddenly gasped. "Ohmygod." He sat up, looked at Aidan, then scrambled to his feet with the towel clutched around his waist. "God. Oh my…holy shit," he chanted before disappearing into the bathroom.

Aidan acknowledged the importance of the closed door, so he returned to his seat on the couch. Sally joined him, sitting on the sprinkling of wolf fur on the cushions.

"Do you think he's okay? She asked quietly. Aidan shrugged and put his socked feet up on the coffee table. They watched the end of Rosanne in relative silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

"I think he's embarrassed," she concluded.

"I think it's more than that. Please, Sally, don't jump on him the minute he shows himself."

She peered sideways at him.

"'Understand?"

"Sure."

"Sally…"

"What? I said okay, sheesh."

As soon as the bathroom door separated him from the anxious scrutiny of his housemates, Josh leaned over the toilet and retched. When he was done, he felt even worse than he had before. His hand shook as he brushed his teeth and watched himself in the mirror. Wasting no time, he got into the shower and felt the hot spray wash away the filth of nearly five days of no soap, and the beard that was forming he quickly shaved right down to the skin.

His hand would not stop shaking, even as he dragged the razor down the slope of his jaw. His stomach emitted grotesque sounds, and another wave of nausea hit him. Fortunately he was able to gulp it down into submission.

Suddenly, he froze as the memory of the last twenty hours flared in front of his eyes.

"Oh my god," he said again, in utter disbelief. "Everything. It's all – it's all…there!" He could remember looking up into Aidan's strong, stoic eyes moments after the change, then Bishop and the priest, heated arguing, then the sense of elation in the room when two random interns wandered in as if sent from heaven to rescue them. Then the car ride that had jostled his surprisingly sensitive lupine stomach, and finally, the time spent in the safety of home with his two friends.

The memories were crystal clear and succinctly detailed. He realized he could probably recite every word of every conversation.

His heart raced in response to his excitement.

In the past, he was never able to recall anything that occurred while he was a wolf. Any attempt left him with a hopeless headache. His now-empty stomach flipped over when he realized this.

What could it mean?

Was Sally right?

What if I don't have to hide myself away every moon?

And what triggered it to begin with…there wouldn't be another full moon for four more weeks.

All he could remember was the derailed priest leaping towards him, then his back hitting the ground. Shortly after that, he was viewing the world through the wolf's eyes – the color spectrum heavily saturated, shadows lightened, and light itself was magnified ten times more than it was now, through his human eyes.

And the feelings…

As the water beat upon his shoulders, he let the lingering sense of belonging and utter devotion send shivers up his spine.

The wolf was linked to Aidan as if tied with an invisible, unbreakable leash. He had been constantly compelled to be at Aidan's side, ready for the next command. But what he had wanted above everything else was to just be with him. The whole mess confused his precarious sensibilities, and he felt the slight against his masculinity…but only a little. Even now, under the shower, he wanted nothing more than to feel those feelings again. The blind love and selfless loyalty. A large part of him wanted to be glued right to the vampire's side, and he knew he could not act upon that wild…feral…urge.

Aidan's my best friend. It would be completely and utterly irrational.

But another thought struck him, and as a result he dropped the bottle of shampoo he had been squeezing.

The whole thing means that Aidan must have found a way to gain dominion over the wolf.

"Ray was right," he whispered to the white bottle of dandruff shampoo. "My god. He did it!"

He finished his shower in a rush, darted into his room and into pajamas, then raced downstairs to meet the surprised faces of his friends.

"How did you do it Aidan?" blurted Josh at the same time that Sally bombarded him with questions.

"You okay Josh? What's it like? You were in the shower for like, an hour!"

Josh ignored her and patiently waited for Aidan to overcome his current stuttering and give him a satisfactory answer.

"Um. What?" was all he got instead.

Josh motioned wildly to himself. "Me! The wolf! How did you get it to-to-to behave?"

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh! Well?"

Aidan dropped back into the couch cushions. "Josh…can this wait until tomorrow?" Under his breath, he added, "although experience tells me otherw-"

"No! This most certainly CAN'T wait!"

"Josh," Sally chimed in, "did you even dry your hair?"

"This is important!" Josh insisted. "I need to – "

"Wait," said Aidan with a sigh. "Sit." Josh obeyed, and Sally sat on the coffee table, blocking the infomercial from Aidan's view.

Energy radiated from Josh so intensely that Aidan found himself blinking from the onslaught.

"What happened when Lucas jumped me?"

Aidan cocked an eyebrow at him. "You don't remember?"

"No, everything else, but not that."

Sally mimicked Josh and leaned closer to Aidan.

"Okay. Well. He bit you."

"What?" Josh's hand flew to his throat.

"It's gone now, though – "

"That rabid bloodsucker bit me?"

"Yep. Just a little bite, really – "

"Did you just say, just a little bite? Did I really just hear you say that?"

"Josh, calm down. He didn't get any of your blood, if you're worried about that."

"Not…really. But okay."

"All right then. Relax, please, you're making me nervous."

"Fine," breathed Josh, and he attempted to lean back, but when Aidan continued he straightened right back up.

"Bishop pulled him off you. I prepared myself to restrain you, or fight you, but after you told me what ray said, I figured it was worth a shot."

"What Ray said?" Josh echoed.

"Yeah, you said that he found out a way to, well…tame the wolf. So, I did that. Tamed your wolf."

"But…how?"

"Cesar Millan."

"What? Oh my god, Aidan, this – this is HUGE! I mean, this could change everything! I want to try it, try what Sally suggested."

"…What? What do you – "

"To pretend I'm just a – a regular, plain old domestic dog who you take care of once a month. I'm sure Danny won't mind."

"He loves dogs," Sally offered.

"You heard that? I thought you don't rem-"

"I know!" Josh beamed, hands gesticulating enthusiastically. "Usually I don't remember a single goddammned thing, but-but I remember everything. Isn't this amazing?"

Aidan smiled. "Sure, i…guess."

"Why are you raining on my parade? Don't you want this for me…" Josh's enthusiasm deflated rapidly when Aidan shrugged.

"I do…"

"…But? You do, but…?"

"I don't know what im going to have to do to stop you if it doesn't work out. Use your imagination."

Josh looked at Sally, then to his hands wringing in his lap. "Well, I want to try. You can do what you have to if it comes to that, and I'll forgive you ahead of time. But it won't be necessary, I'm not going to attack anyone."

"You don't know that for sure."

"I do! Jesus, who would know better than me? We need to try. It's only once a month anyway, well, usually. Unless I spontaneously transform again."

"It may not have been spontaneous," said Sally, quietly.

"What do you mean?"

At Josh's confused expression, Sally remembered that he had not heard this conversation. "You were asleep when I figured out the finer details, with a little bit of Aidan's help. I think that…we think that when Cujo-Lestat bit you, when his…germs got into your bloodstream, which was instantaneously, something in you, maybe your werewolf immune system, reacted defensively by letting the dogs out."

Josh seemed deep in thought while Sally giggled at her own joke. "So…inadvertently…my body forced the change to protect me from whatever toxin or whatever was in the psycho's saliva."

"Something like that."

Josh peered around Sally to stare at the tv screen. "Have I ever told you how glad I am that I have you to explain the unexplainable?"

"Um, no. It's usually Aidan's job. But thank you."

"No problem." Sally plopped soundlessly between the two men as Aidan flipped through channels. He stopped on one of the movie channels.

Josh barked out a laugh. "Only not," he said, watching with amusement as the young face of Michael J. Fox sprouted fake hair beneath the full moon.

A/N: I'm starting a new job next week, so it may be a month or two before there's another chapter. Maybe, maybe not…stay tuned.