A Vampire in Werewolf's Clothing
Rose had tucked a piece of scented stationary in the mailbox outside Gavin's restaurant, requesting that he meet her at the Osaka Japanese garden after sunset. As far as the vampire knew, the truth about what happened instead of dinner that night was a mystery to anyone not them, so there was no real need to meet in a sequestered location, except that she found interludes sexy. But it was a juicy little secret and, even though she had no close acquaintances from which to hide her affair with the werewolf, she knew that Gavin's packmates weren't likely to look kindly on it. Rather than being offensive, the idea of Gavin attempting to keep a vampire as a lover on the sly was a source of entertainment.

The Osaka garden was a beautiful spot within the city. There were enormous rocks and wood bridges, pines, red maples, and cherry trees, not to mention small iced-over ponds where lily pads floated before the winter weather. Rose waited at the middle of a small bridge, twisting a foot against her ankle, and counting the bubbles frozen in the pond's surface. It was very cold. She didn't often bundle up; when a pretty girl wandered around at night by herself in nothing but a skirt and short sleeves, men sometimes offered their coats and an escort, which could lead to a meal if Rose played her cards right. But since she wasn't looking for special attention other than Gavin's tonight, she wore a red letterman's jacket.

The sweet smell had made Gavin pause, an open the mailbox when he walked past it out of work. Surely he would have noticed it before? Then again, with the restaurant being so busy, he may have missed it when he rushed inside. Curiously, he slid the note out, his finger tips feeling the paper crinkle more than hearing it. Despite himself, especially at work, he laughed. Well, this was unexpected, but the werewolf would have been lying if he said he wasn't a little excited. While he wasn't afraid of what he was doing, he was very aware of the consequences that could happen if a member of his pack found out. Then it would only be a matter of time before he was challenged, and re-challenged.

Two seconds, that was all the time Gavin took to consider not going, before he found his feet carrying him off in the direction of Osaka Japanese garden. As he walked he listened. The sounds of winter always seemed fragile to the werewolf. Even his boots on the grass, that soft crunching, the only other sound similar was snow, and sometimes gravel. Briefly he thought of lighting a cigarette, but that notion was banished from his mind when Rosalyn came into view. The red of her jacket had caught his dark eyes, and he lifted his head up, sniffing to catch her scent in the breeze. It made him smile, but he wouldn't tell her that. Drawing closer, Gavin took his hands out of his jacket as his foot landed on the bridge, "And what do I owe for the pleasure of your company?"

Rose kept her elbows on the railing and turned her head his way. Oh, but he looked like such a cutie pie, enough that it surely would've made a gal's heart go pitter-patter, if it could. "Curiosity," she said, a siren's smile on her mouth. "I wanted to know if you'd show." Long hours had been spent indulging her memories of Gavin on a mental loop. Normally it would've been a painless distraction, but given the nature of her job -- a start-up in the the late-night hotline industry -- there was really no escape, and Rose had found herself pitifully crossing her legs and squeezing on several occasions.

Not that Gavin was gonna find that out. She couldn't have him developing an inflated ego, at her expense!

"Now that I know, guess I can go." It was a line cast with a hook and bait on its end, and Rose didn't disguise that, even going so far as to wink as she backed a few steps in the other direction. The toes of her saddle shoes were very white on the bridge.

There were moments in Gavin's life that he knew would stick with him. The way Rosalyn turned to look at him on the bridge, with her elbows still resting there casually, he knew that would be one of them. When she winked, Gavin lifted his eyebrows slightly and cocked his head. So it was going to be like that, was it? "Where do you think you're going, hmm?" The werewolf walked quickly, his dark eyes focused on Rosalyn's face as he made his way towards her, his jacket rustling as he moved. The hollow thudding of his footsteps stopped when he reached the vampire, a few inches short of touching her.

"What would have happened if I didn't show up?" His face was serious, but his eyes crinkled at the edges with amusement. Being so close meant he could smell her hair, and it was too tempting not to reach out and brush his palm across her cheek, his fingers slipping into her tresses smoothly.

Then he felt dizzy, like the world was shifting around him but he was still standing. There was a horrible sense of swaying, like his life had just been capsized, and he was stuck on the sinking ship. What felt like minutes was only a few seconds, and Gavin opened his eyes to find himself looking back at his reflection. No... Not his reflection... "What the hell?"

At the touch, Rose had turned her face into his palm and closed her eyes. Quite frankly, if Gavin hadn't showed up, she wasn't sure what she would've done. Rose had pride, and she wasn't about to openly pout or stomp about, at least with any seriousness, and let a jilting man know her feelings were hurt. Still, it would've required some response, probably in the realm of spiteful. But she didn't have a chance to verbalize that. There was the strangest sensation of vertigo, of literally wobbling forward as if pushed by an incorporeal force. When she opened her eyes, Rosalyn could no longer feel that palm against her cheek.

She felt that cheek against her palm. And she was looking at herself.

Blink, blink.

"What--?!" If Gavin was jarred at staring at himself, it could only be more odd for Rosalyn, who had not seen herself reflected in anything for sixty years. Her eyes followed the arm that led back to her torso, noticing the dark hair at its wrist, the unfamiliar shirt, the sudden tallness of her body seeming to tower over everything. "Gavin?" Quite whether she was speaking to the werewolf, or recognizing his body, was up to interpretation. The deep, graveled voice that erupted from her throat was not. "Holy shit! What gives?!"

Shifting to stand up, Gavin momentarily realised he wasn't breathing. Of course he wasn't, he didn't have to now, not when he was... What was he, exactly? Clearing his throat, he tried to ignore the fact that it was unmistakably feminine, and opened his mouth to say something. Nothing came out though, because he was suddenly preoccupied by the fact that he could feel something around his chest, and belatedly realised it was his bra. Her bra. "Christ." He muttered, his hand coming up to rub the back of his neck, startled by the smoothness.

Looking up at himself, Gavin was caught between wanting to laugh, and wanting to scream. That particularly tricky fine line between staying calm, and becoming hysterical. "You're..." Gavin licked his lips, and tasted lipstick, that was the least of his worries, "You're me." Dropping his gaze, he took in the small hands that lifted up, and turned over. "And I'm you." The whisper that left his lips sounded so bewildered that he almost laughed. "I'm guessing from your reaction this wasn't part of your plan?" It was obvious he was trying to make light of the rather extreme situation, but if his heart could beat, it would have been hammering against his ribs. The fact that he was currently wearing women's underwear wasn't making it any easier either. "What do we do? We can't stay like this." Then it started to sink in.

"I'm dead..."

"Of course you're dead, you're a vampire!" Man!Rose put her hands against her flat torso, where a pulse beat a panicked tempo, and smoothed down as if needing to feel a physical confirmation of what her eyes and ears were telling her. "And I'm a werewolf. A big... furry... sweaty...smelly..." Unable to finish her sentence because it couldn't end politely, she trailed off in abject horror. Even if she found Gavin irresistibly attractive, she wasn't a fan of werewolves by any means. On the whole, they were vile, animalistic things that slobbered and howled and didn't shower! What's more, she could feel a strange fullness between her thighs, and suddenly had the answer to that lifelong question women had. How did it feel to stand around with a twig and berries hanging between your legs?

"I have a thing," she said in disbelief, eyes bulging. And somehow, just the knowledge of possessing male genitals drew enough attention down there to stir them to life. It didn't make any sense, but it was just like thinking about yawning and suddenly needing to do it, or imagining an itch and suddenly your skin was crawling. The front of Gavin's jeans swelled outward. "Cripes, this thing is like a fire hose! How do you turn it off?"

Indignant wasn't a close enough word for how Gavin felt, his small hands found his hips and he waited until Rosalyn had stopped talking. While his memories and mind were intact, the actions that accompanied the feelings weren't entirely his own yet. Apparently Rosalyn's body remembered certain reactions. His jaw jutting out, causing a natural pout in the body he was in. "Do you want to finish that, or are you done running me through mud?" Then his arms folded across his chest, hugging the red jacket tightly as he let his gaze fall down the rest of his new body. Outside, it was easier to not panic, it was when he got home that he was worried about. Normal things, like eating, going to the toilet, having a shower, clothes...

"You have a what?" His tone was a little sharp, but the voice that carried it was sweet, even as his eyes moved down Rosalyn's new body. Coughing when he realised what she was talking about, and trying not to laugh. "Think of neutral things, like... The ocean." Part of him wanted to tease her about it, the other part decided against it. After all, he couldn't be sure how she would react and it was his body she was in. That was enough to not want to rub her the wrong way. "We can't stay outside like this." He was trying to think, to figure out what was happening, and he kept coming up blank.

"The ocean?" Rose deadpanned in Gavin's scratchy voice. "Seriously?" Had she been hot and bothered in her own body, the ocean wouldn't have been helpful at all. What was the unsexiest thing in the world? Maybe... her Grandpa King, who had always smelled of vinegar and rolled tobacco. "You think this is a barrel of laughs? Wait'll you get my period." Of course she no longer went on the rag, being undead, but Rose figured that even if it Gavin contemplated it for a second, it was worth the reaction.

Rubbing a hand on her (his?) prickley jaw, she looked around the garden. How had this happened? Had someone intentionally done it to them? Her suspicious nature reared its ugly head. "Wait a minute. Did someone from your pack do this? Like as revenge? 'Ohhh look'," she parroted, and Gavin's voice had taken on a distinctly feminine intonation, "'A vampire and a werewolf fooling around. We'll show 'em.' And then poof! Because nobody I know would do this."

Gavin's teeth clenched, an he felt this odd burning inside his stomach. "What did you want me to say? Just go knock one off?" His head cocked and he had to remind himself that he was her. Uncrossing his arms, Gavin felt himself getting, quite naturally, upset at the accusations being fired his way. "You've got to be kidding, right?" The words floated out. "You honestly think my pack members would do this if they caught us together?" Shaking his head, he felt hair tickling his ears and scratched one of them. "I can assure you this has nothing to do with them. We don't use magic or voodoo or whatever the fuck this is, and they certainly don't do anything without confronting me first."

The truth was, in all probability, they would kill her, and deal with him. Or at least, they would try. "Maybe you've made an enemy, a relative of someone you drank, or someone you know did something, I don't know! Alright, I don't have a scooby doo with what the fuck has happened." At some point during his rant, he started pointing. Which was unusual for him, considering he was looking up at himself, Rosalyn. Covering his face with his hands, he fought the urge to scream, and found himself trying to ignore the feelings battling inside him. Dropping his small hands, Gavin frowned as he felt what could only be described as the muscles in his face all tensing together. "Obviously we didn't do it, Sherlock."

Muscle memory did play a part in Rose's reaction. Whereas she might've normally jutted a hip out and drummed her fingernails on her upper arms, she found herself crossing them and flexing her biceps. "Oh. Okay, I must've been dreaming! Magic potions and charms haven't got annnnnything to do with why you and your pack can strut around in your man-suits on a full moon. My mistake," she said huffily. "You know, you might not wanna insult with me, Gavin. I may look like a man, but I still think like a woman, and I can make this city... very, very uncomfortable for you when this gets sorted. Mark my words!" She stuck her masculine chin up in the air a notch. "By the way. You've got something on your face."

Rose gestured at the nose and forehead area. Ha! Let him get a load of that.

Now that struck a nerve... Gavin stabbed a small finger into Rosalyn's chest. His own chest, really, now that he thought about it. "You're threatening me?" His voice hitched, much to his annoyance, and he wasn't sure if he wanted to slap her or not. That was terribly conflicting. The werewolf had never raised his hand to a woman before. Then again, he had never been a woman before. Let alone a vampire. "I didn't do this, Rose! Only I can walk around on a full moon, only the Alpha learns that." It was a power thing. To keep rank, only the Alpha was ever taught how to.

"What?" Reaching up, Gavin felt the ridges, his tongue traced along the fangs, and his tiny hands balled into tight fists. There was no mistaking how close he was to screaming. Taking many deep, unnecessary breaths, he opened his eyes and stepped towards Rosalyn. "Listen... I don't know what's going on, and if neither of us have done it, then there's no reason to take it out on each other, alright?" Desperately trying to calm Rosalyn down was difficult when he was close to just erupting himself. She did have a point, it would be easy for her to screw up his life right now. That scared him a little, but so did the prospect of never being himself again. In a vain attempt at getting even, he lifted his hand, and stroked behind Rosalyn's ear. It was odd to feel himself on someone's fingertips. "We need to think, okay?" The words were soft, and he tried to forget it was his own chest his hand ran over as he stepped back. That should have done the trick, and maybe she'd have the good grace to be a bit humiliated and stop shouting at him.

Rose's head twitched a bit to the left. The touch was brief, but it was the nicest thing, having her ear stroked like that. Why hadn't she ever noticed it before? Her knee flexed a little, and it was with mortification that she realized she'd been about to thump her leg like someone's pleased puppy! Hazel-brown eyes went wide as Rose realized what he'd just done. "That was... no fair," she said childishly, poking out Gavin's lip, but nonetheless in a calmer state of mind. Oddly cold, she crossed those large arms and shivered in his clothes. "So we're agreed. You didn't do it, and I didn't do it." So maybe she wouldn't have to go out and seek massive revenge. Like picking up a man in a gay bar and taking him home for a romp in the werewolf's body, much as the novelty appealed.

Though she found herself weirdly and confusedly jealous of the idea.

"Do you think it's bad mojo?" she asked. "The universe's kookie way of spanking us for doing the dirty deed?" Five times in a row, she silently added.

Smirking slightly, Gavin felt the tension shift from his face and his hand automatically reached up. No ridges, no bumps and... Using his tongue to probe his teeth, he was happy to note that there were no fangs. "That was completely fair." In fact, he was only starting to see the advantages of knowing his own body more than she did. Well... After that night they shared, that might not be quite true. Still, it was some kind of leverage, providing she didn't realise it worked both ways. "I really doubt that." Slender shoulders were lifted up and again he absently touched his hair.

"So what do we do? I can't go to work, which means you can't be seen there either." Wouldn't that just be tip-top, if she waltzed into the restaurant. Opening his mouth to say something again, he felt his stomach twinge, like he was hungry. The thought would have paled him, had his heart been beating. "And I don't want to tear chunks out of people."

That was an idea that made Rose's mouth fall open. "Food!" Chocolate! Root beer! Fried chicken! By the time Gavin got his body back, he'd be lucky if it hadn't packed on fifteen pounds. What did Rose care, she didn't have to exercise if off. She clasped her manly hands together and jumped up and down on the bridge with glee, boots thumping heavily on the boards. "Oh, get off the moral high horse, vampire. Just pick off a homeless person and be done with it," she said, waving her big hand dismissively. "While in Rome."

Now that she was onto the more exciting parts of this exchange, Rosalyn was a lot less interested in brainstorming. All she could think about was an ice cream sundae, even if her stomach seemed to be asking for a rare steak. "Oh, I've got about six appointments for later on tonight," she remembered, reaching across and digging into the letter jacket's pockets to reveal a cellular phone. "When they call, just answer and keep your voice... well, my voice soft and sweet as butter, and talk about what you want to do to their enormous cock. You'll be off the phone in a jiff."

Blue eyes widening, Gavin felt his jaw go slack before he admonished, "I will not!" The next thing he knew, Rosalyn's hands were rummaging in his coat and he dared to slap her manly hand away. With each word she said more indignant and pissed off he became, spluttering an outraged, "How dare you!" Before, quite literally, slapping her face. The impact wasn't any great force, but the sound of it echoed in the silence of where they stood on the bridge. His hand stung from the way it hit the stubble. "I'm not talking to any of those people, and I do not want to do anything with their tackle."

Personally, he felt quite shaky, and took a few steps away from Rosalyn. There was no limit to how overwhelmed he felt, and it was making his head spin. For a few seconds he clasped his hands, before realising what he was doing and pushing them into his coat pockets. He should have been apologising, but for some reason, he was biting his tongue.

Rose felt her face. Unfamiliar as it was to her fingers, it still connected to her, and she could feel the smarting imprint of that small hand. "You hit me?" The mish-mash of emotional reactions had her feeling everything from hurt to brassed off to indignant. A man had just hit her! Granted, a man in a woman's body, and it wasn't as if Rose hadn't slapped anybody herself, but still. Gavin had struck her. "If you weren't wearing my face right now, I'd claw it off!" she retorted. "Only I happen to now recall how much I like it. It, not you."

It felt like a lie when she said it, but Rose was so incensed, she didn't give a rat's pajamas. As she stood there, she began to breathe harder, feeling the forgotten burning need for oxygen. She noticed everything that was living and livid about her, from the perspiration gathering beneath her arms to the way her hair was beginning to stand on end. The tips of her fingers ached. Rose looked down and saw a set of thick, hardened werewolf nails morphing through.

After a tremendously difficult struggle, they retreated, with Rose not even understanding how this body had gotten it under control. She looked at him, standing there in her jacket and skirt. "Well at least I know what kind of gentleman I'm dealing with, don't I?"

The horrible thing was, he was so certain he would never have done that in his own body. Plenty of women over the years had said countless things and he'd never once hit any of them. What was happening with him? The sound of her shouting was loud, like Rosalyn was barking the words at him. Without knowing why, he felt himself pulling the coat around his small frame and swallowed before shrieking, "Stop shouting at me!" Vampire or not, he still had his soul, it seemed, and with it apparently her emotions. Or at least, it felt like he was feeling as he imagined a woman would. When had he ever wanted to start arguing back with silly little comments?

Pivoting on his little white shoes, Gavin swallowed before mumbling, "Just leave me alone." Of course, he hadn't thought it through that she still had his house keys in her pocket, or the fact that he didn't know what to do next, but he would look stupid if he stopped. Well, he wasn't about to let her know that, so he took another step.

Oh, wasn't that just the most girlish thing to do!

Rose flung her arms in the air helplessly and paced. "Right. No sweat. Stomp off all you want, but at least I know where I'm sleeping tonight," she said, going into Gavin's pockets for the ring of keys she could feel there and jangling them in the night air. "Good luck figuring out where Rose lives. Later, alligator." Rounding about on the bridge, she set off in the direction of the nearest street. Rose planned to march all the way to Gavin's house, let herself in, and raid his refrigerator. Then, and only then, would she sit down for some illuminations on what to do next.