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Chapter Text

Poppy jolted awake at the sound of something clattering loudly to the floor. In a panic she reached over to the other side of the bed, wanting her werewolf girlfriend to go check out the noise. But when her hands came in touch with cold and empty sheets instead of a warm body, Poppy furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

If Bea wasn’t in bed, was she the one making all this noise? Poppy suddenly felt the anger rising in her chest.

With an annoyed sigh she pushed the sheets off her body and walked over to the kitchen, getting ready to yell at her girlfriend for making so much noise in the middle of the Godsdamn night.

When she reached the kitchen, she frowned at the fact that it was pitch black before switching on the light.

“Have you lost your mind, Bea?!” Poppy snarled as the light briefly blinded her.

But the kitchen was still. Silent and very empty. Poppy put her hands on her hips, growing more confused and irritated by the second. Had she dreamt the noise? Even then, where the hell was Bea?

Then a loud rustling sound interrupted her train of thoughts, making the blonde jump for a moment.

“Hello?” Poppy rounded the corner, peeking over the counter to look at the source of the sound.

But the noise just continued, ignoring Poppy completely. As the witch neared, she could see trash scattered all over the floor and.. a wagging tail, sticking out of the trash can.

Poppy stopped in her tracks, recognizing the tail by the color of its fur. The witch grumbled under her breath, “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me”

Then the rustling stopped and the wolf finally turned to Poppy, happily panting with her wagging tail, which just wagged even faster at the sight of the witch before deciding to greet Poppy by jumping her.

“No! Do not touch me with your trash paws” Poppy stepped back, pointing her finger at the wolf in warning and making it stop in its tracks and sit down instead. At least she listened for now.

“Bea, why the hell are you in your wolf form digging through the trash? In the middle of the night, nonetheless” Poppy deadpanned.

But Bea gave no reply, instead she just continued happily staring up at Poppy while her waggy tail pushed the trash around. Poppy quickly grew tired of the staring contest and sighed, leaning down to pick up the trash.

“I’m not in the mood for this, please just turn back and clean u- Ah!” Poppy had started saying as she threw the first piece of trash back into the bin, but screeched when the wolf jumped her, sloppily licking her face.

“Stop! Ewewewew. You reek of trash!” the witch shrieked, pushing the wolf off of her to which Bea responded by giving a little whine and by looking at Poppy with sad puppy eyes.

Poppy wiped at her face before turning back to lecture her girlfriend, “Okay, I don’t know what’s going on with you but I will figure it out and if I find out you did this to mess with me, I will kill you”

Bea again didn’t respond, only blankly looking up at Poppy with her tongue out as she continued panting. “Not a single thought behind those eyes..” Poppy mumbled to herself before going back to clean up the trash.

“I’m gonna clean this up and you stay here, got it?” the blonde eyed the wolf and when it didn’t move, she turned her back to it and began picking up the trash.

For the next minute Poppy was occupied, focused on cleaning up before sparing a glance behind her, checking on Bea. Her heart fell into her stomach when the wolf was nowhere in sight.

“Bea?!” Poppy yelled in panic, but the apartment was quiet. Mentally she thanked herself for sound proofing the apartment with a spell not too long ago.

In an instant the witch dropped the trash and began searching for her girlfriend, sticking her head in every room without any luck until she reached their bedroom.

“Bea?” Poppy called out again as she walked around the bed, finding the wolf happily chewing on her slipper.

“Oh my Gods. Bea, drop the slipper” Poppy warned, stepping closer. But Bea stood up with the slipper in her mouth, her tail wagging as she went into a playful stance, thinking it’s play time.

“This isn’t a game, I’m serious. Drop it” then the blonde made the mistake of moving closer which set Bea off and made her run past Poppy and into the next room.

”No! Stop!” Poppy chased the wolf around the apartment until she managed to corner her in the living room.

The witch was panting with her arms spread so the werewolf wouldn’t just run past her again, with a grumble in her voice Poppy warned, “Drop. The slipper.”

Again Bea just wagged her tail in response, just watching Poppy with sparkling eyes.

“Fine, I’ll take it from you then” Poppy said before diving forward, pulling on the slipper, trying to rip it out of the wolf's mouth meanwhile Bea was happily enjoying their new game of tug of war.

“Let go of it already, you dumb dog!” the witch grunted in between tugs.

And then as if Bea suddenly understood every word, she let go of the slipper, making Poppy stumble backwards and ultimately fall over. To make matters worse, Bea thought it was an invitation to cuddle so she jumped onto Poppy, licking her face again meanwhile the blonde was groaning, waving her hands around to push the wolf off.

Bea stopped her licking and sat down next to Poppy, wagging her tail as she watched the witch annoyedly rub at her face to get the slobber off.

With a sigh Poppy dropped her hands to her sides as she stared up the ceiling, “This is what I get for dating a werewolf”

After a very long night, the morning finally came. Once Poppy got off the ground, the chase began again until she finally managed to trap the wolf and put a leash on it. (Which was for other uses entirely but a leash is a leash.)

The rest of the night was uneventful when wolf-Bea (or dog-Bea?) realized she was bound to the leg of the couch, deciding to finally lay down and take a nap instead. Despite the wolf finally laying low, Poppy couldn’t sleep.

She didn’t bother cleaning the mess in the kitchen and left the ripped up slipper on the floor. Sleeping in their bed felt risky so she let herself fall onto the couch to stay close to Bea in case she went rogue again.

Poppy began searching the internet for why did my werewolf girlfriend turn in the middle of the night and began acting like a dog. Her search came up empty, showing just various fictional stories of werewolves and similar searches by others; tips on how to train your dog.

After countless of unsuccessful searching attempts, Poppy’s eyes began to drop until she finally drifted off to sleep. But sadly that didn’t last for long.

Next to the couch a groan echoed through the room, making Poppy jump awake in panic that Bea got out of the leash somehow. But when she looked to the side, all she found was her werewolf girlfriend in her human form.

“Thank the Gods” Poppy sighed and laid back down, draping her arm over her eyes to have total darkness over her eyes to get another few minutes of rest. Which also didn’t last.

Bea sat up with another groan, the leash tugging on her neck when she moved too far. “Wha- Why am I tied to the couch? Woah and why am I naked?”

The werewolf quickly looked up at her girlfriend, “Oh no! Did we do something that I don’t remember doing?! That’s not-“

“Bea, no offense, but could you shut up for another minute?” Poppy snarked as a headache began pounding under her skull.

The room stayed silent for a moment until Bea began to quietly undo the collar around her neck. Then with a small painful stretch, Bea got off the floor and walked over to Poppy.

“Hey, are you okay?” Bea quietly asked, leaning over to look at Poppy who was hiding her face.

Poppy hesitated for a moment but took her arm off her face and looked at her girlfriend, “Do you really not remember what happened last night?”

A few quick empty blinks and no verbal response was answer enough for Poppy.

With a sigh Poppy sat up even though her head greatly disagreed with that decision, “Last night you turned and went rogue in the apartment. You went through the trash, chewed up my slipper and played chase with me all night long”

Bea took a seat next to the witch, “I.. don’t remember turning, nor doing any of those things”

“Yeah, I assumed so when you wouldn’t listen to me like you didn’t understand what I was saying” Poppy said as she stood up, “But that leaves us with the burden of having to figure out what happened”

Then the blonde began walking to their bedroom, “But that’s a problem for later. My head is pounding and I need sleep”

Before entering the bedroom Poppy turned around to Bea, “Could you please clean up the trash and take a shower while I sleep?”

Bea quickly got off the couch, “Yes, of course! And.. I’m sorry”

“Bea, it’s fine. It’s not your fault, okay?” Poppy tiredly smiled and then turned around, “Night”

“Okay. Night, sleep well” Bea answered although it was morning.

Poppy then closed the door behind her and got under the sheets, burying her face into Bea’s pillow before quickly drifting off to sleep.

Only a little later, Poppy was gently woken up with a hand sneaking around her waist and a soft whisper, “Hey, baby”

“Mm” the witch just hummed, too tired to speak actual words.

”Do you mind if I join you? I cleaned up everything, brushed my teeth and showered” Bea whispered, her hand stilling on Poppy’s stomach as she waited for a response.

Poppy just hummed again and leaned further into Bea’s body, signaling her humming was a clear invitation to join her nap. The werewolf happily nuzzled her face into blonde hair and drifted off to sleep with Poppy.

Again a little later, Poppy felt something wet on her cheek that made her wake up yet again. “Bea, I told you my head hurts and I’m trying to sleep” the witch grumbled annoyedly.

An answer didn’t come and she thought her girlfriend got the message when she didn’t feel Bea’s body behind her anymore and began falling asleep again. But then something licked her face and the blonde exploded and threw her arm back to push Bea off, “I’m not in the fucking mood, Bea”

A yelp echoed through the room and suddenly Poppy was wide awake. The blonde quickly sat up and turned around to look at her girlfriend who had turned again and was staring at her with big and sad puppy eyes.

“Not again” Poppy groaned and touched her head. It was still pounding like crazy and she was really not in the mood for a repeat of last night.

Poppy looked at the wolf again and strangely it hadn’t disappeared yet, all it was doing was staring at her with its big blue eyes. It was actually really cute when it wasn’t digging through the trash or ruining her stuff.

Suddenly the anger she felt evaporated into thin air and turned into curiosity. She had obviously pet Bea’s wolf form before but this felt drastically different. Slowly she reached her hand out for the wolf to sniff and when it did just that, it leaned back, began wagging its tail and stuck its tongue out to pant.

Poppy wasn’t sure if she could even call this version of Bea a wolf at all. It acted and looked a lot more like a dog, especially the size of her resembling that one of a german shepherd instead of a wolf.

Then she reached out again, scratching behind Bea’s ear. The wolf seemed to like the touch since it began leaning its head into the warmth of Poppy’s hand before licking her wrist. Poppy then trailed lower and stroked the werewolf’s fur until it decided to roll over and show its tummy.

“Why couldn’t you have been like this from the start?” Poppy asked as she scratched the wolf's tummy, making it kick its leg in the air.

“It’s also nice to know Bea actually likes scratches” the blonde mumbled under her breath before stopping the scratching altogether and laid back down.

Poppy softly pat the bed where Bea was lying on before she turned, “Now come here, we’re gonna finish that nap”

The wolf quickly understood the words and laid down where Poppy had patted the bed, nudging Poppy’s hand with its snout to get more pets. The witch quietly chuckled before petting the wolf again as she closed her eyes, “Also still equally as needy”

—

Later that day, after the very needed nap and no more incidents, Poppy made it to the coven’s library. With a loud thud she dropped her bag to the floor and startled her friends.

“Oh! Hi, Poppy! What are you doing here? You don’t work today do you?“ Chloe said, almost equally as hyper as her werewolf girlfriend.

“And why do you look like shit?” Veronica on the other hand asked in her usual monotone tone, turning a page of the book in her lap.

“Hey. No, I don’t work today and I slept three hours in total so thanks for that” Poppy sighed as she plopped into the closest chair. “I’m here because I need your help”

Both of the girls look up in surprise. Poppy very rarely asks for help and when she does it’s usually Bea that she asks.

“I’m taking your silence as a prompt to continue” Poppy looked between the stunned girls, “I need a book on how to get your werewolf girlfriend to behave in said werewolf form”

The two witches then share a look before looking at Poppy again, “Uh.. I don’t really know, no one has looked for a book that specific before.. or written one like that, I guess? Have you tried a book on dogs?” Chloe offered with her face scrunched up in thought.

“I’ve looked into them but I’m pretty sure Bea is smarter than an actual dog and human libraries obviously don’t have books on werewolves. Not real ones at least” the blonde sighed, putting her head down onto the desk.

“Okay, can we back up for a minute? What the hell happened in order for you to need a book like that?” Veronica raised her eyebrows, staring at the blonde.

“Well, last night..” Poppy began retelling the bouts of the night before, explaining how it had happened twice when Bea was asleep and when she woke up she had no recollection of what happened.

“That’s why I’m here looking for a book and Bea is at the pack’s house to ask around for information there” Poppy finished, looking back up to see the two witches staring at her.

The silence stretched further until Poppy started feeling irritated by the lack of response. “Are you helping me or not?” Poppy hissed looking between her two friends.

They shared another glance at each other before Chloe turned around and started rummaging through books on her desk. Then Veronica spoke up with a sigh, “I will never understand why you decided dating a werewolf was the right decision”

Anger began bubbling in Poppy’s chest, “Fuck you, Veronica. If I wanted another lecture about dating Bea I would’ve went to my parents”

With a bored expression Veronica briefly looked up before leaning forward and began typing something into the computer in front of her.

“This isn’t about you dating Bea, I like Bea, she’s great. But this is about dating a werewolf. You could’ve picked any other supernatural being but you chose the one that used to hunt us for sport, the one being that witches hate with all of their heart. You made your life fifteen times harder and nearly got kicked out of the coven and now you have to deal with.. whatever this is”

“Veronica..” Chloe said carefully, shooting a worried look towards Poppy.

She knew that Veronica was right. Deciding to date Bea was an active decision that she had to make herself. Poppy had to be a hundred percent sure of this relationship’s future otherwise she purposely sabotaged her own life for someone that she wasn’t even certain about. But Bea has never shown her anything but respect and love. She was always patient with her and Poppy has already made the decision so she won’t give that up now after dating for a year and hesitating about it for even longer.

Poppy grit her teeth and picked up her bag again, slinging it over her shoulder, “I’m not having this conversation again”

As Poppy began walking out the door Chloe stopped her in her tracks, “Wait! Where are you going?”

If she wasn’t on thin ice with the coven already, she would’ve loved to choke Chloe right about now.

“I’m leaving since you’re not helping me” the blonde snarked.

“Who said we’re not helping you?” Veronica said from the other side of the room.

Poppy furrowed her eyebrows before turning around to look at the girls, “Didn’t you just attack me for dating a werewolf?”

Veronica then finally looked up from the computer screen and looked at Poppy for a second, “I guess I did. Huh”

And with that her gaze went back down, “Wasn’t my intention though. Anyway, I typed ‘werewolf’ into the system and a bunch of books came up.. A lot of them are about how to kill one from like, hundreds of years ago”

“I started sorting through the history books about the war” Chloe happily piped up from the other side of the room.

With a sigh she put her bag back down and walked around Veronica’s desk to start reading where she could find some of the books in this huge library.

—

Several hours later, with a pounding headache and the sun having already set many hours ago, Poppy finally made it back home. She quickly kicked off her shoes into a corner and dropped her bag to the floor before walking towards the living room like a zombie.

“Hi, baby- Oh!” Bea was laying on the couch and had sat up to greet her girlfriend but was instead interrupted and forced to lay back down when Poppy let herself fall onto Bea’s chest face first.

But the only response Poppy managed to produce was a long groan. With a chuckle Bea wrapped her arms around the witch and gave the top of her head a kiss, “I take it the search didn’t go well?”

Again Poppy responded in a shorter groan.

“Yeah, I feel you.” Bea quietly sighed, rubbing Poppy’s back, “The pack wasn’t any help either. They took my blood for testing which is only gonna be done in like, days. And the medical records only talk about uncontrolled turning when the werewolf was poisoned. Considering I don’t have any of the other symptoms like foaming at the mouth or.. death, I doubt I’ve been poisoned”

For a moment Poppy let the information sink in before turning to rest her head in the crook of Bea’s neck, “Yeah, that’s pretty similar to what we found too, except that it was told on the side of the poisoner and I’ve had to read about a hundred times about what monsters werewolves are, so really, this situation is absolutely ideal”

“I’m sorry, baby” Bea mumbled against her girlfriend’s forehead, “Any way I can make you feel better? I made lasagna if you’re hungry?”

Then as if summoned by the mention of food alone, Poppy’s stomach growled. With an embarrassed whine Poppy buried her face back into Bea’s chest as the werewolf laughed.

“C’mon, I bet you haven’t eaten since you left” Bea gently nudged her but the blonde refused to move. She could’ve easily lifted Poppy and forced her to eat but annoying her already irritated girlfriend is probably not the smartest idea, so she let her stay there until she decided herself it was time to move.

After a minute Poppy turned again, quietly mumbling something and if Bea didn’t have superhuman hearing, she would’ve missed it entirely, “Can you carry me?”

“Of course” Bea said as she left another kiss on Poppy’s head before grabbing her girlfriend’s legs and wrapping them around her midsection to carry her to the kitchen. When she reached the kitchen, she gently lowered her into the chair and got out the lasagna to heat up.

Once it finally finished heating up and Poppy started eating, Bea took a seat across from her. With a small sigh she broke the silence, “I don’t want to say this but I have to.. Us not finding a solution means I should probably sleep over at the pack house tonight”

Poppy swallowed the bite and began chewing on her bottom lip in thought, “I mean, do you really have to? Nothing actually bad happened on either of those times and we do have chains here for emergencies”

“That’s not a guarantee that I won’t turn feral tonight” Bea gave Poppy a small smile and reached out to give her hand a gentle squeeze, “And you look really tired. You shouldn’t have to deal with me all night in exchange for your beauty sleep”

The witch sighed and looked back down at her lasagna, disappointment apparent on her face, “Yeah, you’re probably right”

Poppy didn’t like this one bit, but considering Bea had turned despite there being no full moon or by her own choice, this is what had to be done to keep everyone safe, including Bea. Still didn’t mean Poppy liked it though.

Chapter Text

Thankfully sleep came easy to Poppy despite Bea not being there. Clearly the exhaustion from the day before had caught up to her and helped her slip into slumber more easily.

At least until her phone's continuous buzzing woke her in the middle of the night. Groggily she grabbed it from her nightstand and blindly accepted the call, “Hello?”

”Poppy! Thank the Gods I finally reached you. I really hate to do this but we need your help getting Bea under control” the voice said, who Poppy finally pinpointed to Zoey.

Poppy said nothing for a good few moments, still lying down in bed with her eyes closed. Then the words finally registered in her head and she was suddenly wide awake, rushing out of bed.

“What do you mean by ‘under control’?!” Poppy said as she threw on clothes from the nearest closet which was Bea’s (whose clothes were too big for her but they would do for now.)

Zoey on the other line sighed, ”Ford got bored of watching Bea from outside the cell so he went in to play with her since she told us she was harmless with you. But guess who isn’t harmless after all!”

“Yeah okay, I’m on my way now” Poppy said as she rushed out of the bedroom and picked up her keys.

It didn’t take long for Poppy to get there. She met Zoey at the entrance and quickly followed her towards the holding cell.

“Hey, sorry I had to call you out here but the holding cells are all empty since we’re far from a full moon, so we have no guards for them” Zoey began explaining as she led the witch to her girlfriend.

“We tried sending some of the other guys in, thinking it’d be fine since she’s tiny but even in this size she has the temperament of a wolf”

“It’s fine, she is my girlfriend after all” Poppy responded, to which Zoey shot her an amused little smile.

When they made it to the holding cell, they walked into the connected backroom with a big window looking into the cell. Inside of it was Ford, backed into a corner while holding up a chair to hold back Bea, who was snarling at Ford while biting the leg of the chair.

Definitely a big difference from the way Bea acted last night.

Poppy hesitated, “.. And what exactly do you expect me to do about that?”

“Don’t worry, I’m not just throwing you in there as bait. Just.. try talking to her and see if that does something, and if not Ford is just gonna have to hold on” Zoey smiled and pushed the microphone towards her.

The witch shot Zoey a wary look but took the microphone anyway. She took a deep breath in before speaking into it, “Hey, Bea”

Immediately the wolf’s ears shot up, straining to hear where the voice came from as her tail slowly began wagging, but she still wouldn’t let go of the chair.

“I know this is Ford’s own fault but won’t you let go of the chair? For me?” Poppy softly spoke into the microphone.

The reaction was immediate. Bea’s tail began wagging faster than a race car and she let go of the chair, turning around and sniffing the air for the blonde.

Poppy glanced at Zoey who shrugged with a smile. Then she sighed and let go of the microphone, walking around the desk to step into the room. She opened the door and Bea noticed her immediately, running up to her as if she was her owner who just came back home.

“Hey, Bea” Poppy leaned down to pet the wolf’s head. From the corner of her eye she saw Ford quietly set the chair down and slowly sneak towards the exit.

The wolf then pushed its head further into Poppy’s hand, demanding more and enjoying the way she scratched behind her ear.

“I should be mad at you right now for making me come here in the middle of the night..” Poppy started but then Bea just rolled over onto her back for tummy scratches, making the blonde fondly roll her eyes, “But it doesn’t seem like you care about anything but pets”

The witch then spared a glance around the room to make sure Ford was really out before getting up and dusting the fur off her pants. Meanwhile Bea sat up, sadly looking up at Poppy.

“Yes, you’re very cute but I should go back home now, call me tomorrow when you’re back to being human, okay?” Poppy gave the wolf one last scratch behind the ears and then made her way out of the room.

She knew that Bea wouldn’t remember this in the morning. But sadly it did slip her mind that Zoey would see and remember.

Outside Ford and Zoey were waiting. Zoey grinned at the blonde when they made eye contact. Poppy scoffed, a soft and pink tint in her cheeks, “Don’t even start, I’m too tired for this”

“Poppy! Thank you so much, seriously! I genuinely thought that was the end! I seriously owe you one” Ford interrupted the moment and thanked her instead.

“It’s no big deal, just.. Don’t do it again” Poppy sighed, rubbing her temples. The lack of sleep was really beginning to get to her.

“Yeah! Of course! Come on, I’m gonna escort you home!” Ford quickly offered, opening the door for her.

And because Poppy was too tired to fight it, she accepted the offer. Walking home in the middle of the night wasn’t her favorite thing in the world anyway, even if this was New York. “Okay, thanks Ford” then she turned to Zoey, “Goodnight, take care of her”

“Goodnight, Poppy. And don’t worry, she’s gonna be just fine“ Zoey smiled with a glint of mischief behind her eyes.

Poppy took one more glance inside of the cell. Bea was now lying on the floor where Poppy had sat just minutes ago, soundly sleeping. Then she went home.

When she got home, she slept only for a few hours until it was time to get up to go to work. In the morning as Poppy was making coffee, Bea had called her while apologizing profusely for Ford’s behavior.

“Bea, it’s fine. Lets just please focus on solving this, okay?” Poppy sipped on her coffee, tiredly looking at Bea.

For a moment, Bea just looked at her, her eyebrows softly furrowed as she frowned, “You look really tired. Did you get any sleep at all?”

Poppy set down the mug, “Two hours before and two hours when I got home”

“..Maybe you should stay home today and catch up on some sleep, you’re not going to be able to think very well” Bea said, her face full of worry.

“I’ll be fine. I got through high school with less sleep” Poppy waved the comment away. She glanced at the time before quickly downing her coffee, “I have to go to work now, let me know if you find anything”

“Okay, I will. You too, please. I love you, bye baby.” the werewolf softly smiled.

“I love you, too. Bye, dummy” Poppy smiled back before ending the call.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully and very slowly, with no new leads from either girl. With a loud thud Poppy then closed the book she was reading and added it on the pile she named ‘useless’.

“I’m done for today, I’m beginning to see letters that don’t even exist in the English language” Poppy rubbed her eyes for a second before she started packing up her things.

Only then she remembered she was the only one still at the library and that her friends had left a few hours ago after their work day officially ended.

Poppy put her hand on her head and leaned back into her chair, quietly mumbling to herself, “Too much coffee and too little sleep”

She sighed before she turned off the lights and locked the place up, quickly making her way back home. Once she unlocked the front door and took her coat off, she made it known that she was home until she again realized she was by herself.

Poppy’s shoulders slumped. Today felt really lonely. She had only talked to Bea that morning and sparsely to her friends at work. Which was weird because Poppy was no stranger to loneliness at all, she felt lonely her entire teenage years so why did today feel so much worse?

The witch sighed for the hundredth time that day as she heated up leftover lasagna from the day before. As much as she hated eating one day old leftovers, she couldn’t be bothered to make something else, there was no energy left for that.

After she ate and took a long and hot shower, she got right into bed, feeling absolutely exhausted. Reading basically the same book over and over with little to no sleep was truly not something she ever wished on anyone else, that stuff truly drains you.

But no matter how many times she turned and changed positions, sleep wouldn’t come to her. Poppy opened her eyes and stared at the empty spot where Bea always slept. She knew she always slept better when Bea was next to her but she never realized how hard falling asleep without her girlfriend truly was.

That was also probably why this day felt so off. She
missed Bea.

Poppy reached behind her and grabbed her phone off the nightstand, immediately opening Bea’s chat.

Poppy💜, [11:43pm]
Are you still up?

After half a minute of staring at her phone, the Delivered changed to Read and Bea’s contact picture lit up her phone.

Poppy answered the call, “Hey”

Some rustling from the other side of the phone came before Bea’s soft voice answered back, “Hi, baby. Can’t sleep either, hm?”

The blonde sighed and put her phone on speaker to place it on Bea’s spot on the bed, “Yeah, feels weird without you here”

“Yeah, I get what you mean. This bed is entirely too small and empty” Poppy could practically see Bea’s pout from the way she spoke, “It also smells like wet dog”

The witch laughed and scrunched up her nose, “Ew, you better not bring that smell back home”

“I won’t, I won’t. But once I do get home, you better prepare yourself to get sniffed for at least an hour because I truly miss your smell and I think it’s driving me crazy” Bea said, her voice sounding slightly muffled through the phone.

Poppy hummed, closing her eyes with a soft smile “That sounds really nice actually”

“We both know you’ll get annoyed around the second hour when I refuse to let go of you” Bea chuckled.

“Probably so” Poppy said, grabbing Bea’s pillow and happily hugging it while burying her face into it. Then her smile slowly faded along with the conversation and into the silence.

“I miss you”

“I miss you, too” the werewolf responded, “It’s weird to think that there was a time where I slept by myself because now it’s so hard to sleep without you by my side”

“Yeah, I don’t like it. The apartment feels so cold. Lonely” Poppy quietly admitted, scooting closer to the phone to trick her brain into thinking she’s lying next to her girlfriend.

“I’m sorry” then rustling on the other side of the phone broke the illusion of closeness and Poppy opened her eyes to stare at the screen with half-lidded eyes.

“Hey,” Bea had moved closer to the phone, her voice coming out louder than before but also a lot softer, “I’ve said this a few times now but we’re going to fix this. And if I won’t, I know you will because you always find a solution”

Poppy closed her eyes as she felt tears threatening to spill. “You never give up even when it seems hopeless and that’s just one of the many things I love about you”, Bea added.

The blonde shakily breathed in before quietly speaking, “But I haven’t had to do it without you in a while”

“But you will anyway because you’re motherfucking Poppy Min-Sinclair! And may the Gods strike you down for believing you need any man or woman to prove you differently!” Bea grinned, playfully acting dramatic to cheer her girlfriend up.

Thankfully it seemed to work when a wet chuckle escaped Poppy’s lips. She reached up and wiped the few stray tears from her face, “You’re a dumbass. I don’t even know why I miss you in the first place”

“Yeah! Now that’s the spirit the Gods are looking for! Good thing you found it before they sent down the lightning, phew” Bea said, her voice coming out slightly muffled again from moving.

“Shut up” Poppy fondly smiled before closing her eyes, holding Bea’s pillow a little closer, “I love you”

“And I love you” Bea responded.

Chapter Text

Even after the call, sleep didn’t come easy to Poppy. She laid in bed for a while until she finally managed to fall asleep. That’s why she woke up feeling worse than any of the days before. And when she doesn’t feel well, her mood swings hit everyone that’s in a five feet radius.

The call she got that morning also didn’t help.

“I didn’t turn last night” Bea had quietly said, already anticipating Poppy’s response.

The witch sharply inhaled, feeling the way her heart tightened in her chest. “So you’re saying that it’s probably me making you turn uncontrollably?”

“Or something at the apartment” Bea quickly added, “We can’t know for sure since you did visit me that night”

“Right.” Poppy answered stiffly. “I have to go now, talk to you later”

“Wait-” but the blonde had already ended the call.

After that the witch went right back to the library, not even bothering to bring anything with her. Not even her phone.

“Scrap the history books, we’re switching to witches being cast off by the elders” Poppy declared as she started taking off all the books from the desk she was working on for the past two days.

“Uhh, what?” Veronica looked up from the computer screen, confusion written all over her face.

“Why?” Chloe piped up from the other side, already stacking up her own books but still watching Poppy for an answer.

“Just,” Poppy stopped in her tracks, her shoulders were filled with tension as she shot both of them a death glare, “Do as I say. Got it?”

When no further questions popped up, Poppy began quietly talking to herself as she carried the books far away from her desk to sort back later.

She knew that elders only kicked out witches from the coven when they were truly a danger to everyone, especially to the coven. They were ghosts after all, they could see intentions better than anyone else. Did that mean they saw her relationship with Bea as a threat? As a mistake?

Poppy shook the thought off and started chewing on the pen in her hand. In the first step, the witch slowly begins losing control of their magic. Once the elders decide they wanted the witch out, the detachment to the coven begins and with that the stability to the witch’s magic goes as well. The second step — and already last step, was the complete loss of said magic. The witch is officially kicked out from the coven and left to live as a human for the rest of their life.

There is nothing wrong with being human. All witches technically were. But Poppy loved magic. Loved witchcraft. It was the only thing that got her through her childhood and teenage years. Throwing herself at magic made it easier to forget about her parents that didn’t truly care about her at all. Parents that only cared when it was concerning their reputation and not the well being of their daughter.

Besides that fact, she was good at it. Always a step ahead of everyone, mastering the pronunciation and preparation perfectly. She didn’t want to throw all of that away now.

Chloe then walked over to Poppy, handing her a book so she could start figuring out if she’s being kicked out and if so, how to stop it. She roughly grabbed the book with a huff and quickly began reading. She needed to find out now.

Veronica and Chloe made concerned eye contact from across the room after watching the blonde continue to mumble to herself as she started taking notes. Then Veronica briefly nodded to Chloe and took out her phone.

Several hours later, the doors to the library opened abruptly, making all three girls jump in surprise. Who the hell enters a library like that? Like a true maniac?

“Heyyy, I brought food!” Bea grinned, holding up two plastic bags from the chinese place down the street.

Poppy immediately began frowning. Hadn’t they just established that she’s the reason for her girlfriend’s turning? Why the hell would she risk making the situation worse by coming to see her?!

“What the hell are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here” Poppy hissed as she stood up from her seat, quickly walking over to Bea whose smile began fading with every new step in her direction.

Then the blonde’s frown turned into an expression of surprise when she noticed the busted lip and bruised cheek, “What happened to your face?”

Poppy’s fingers twitched at the urge to touch and take care of the wounds but instead she clenched her jaw and took a step back. She needed to keep her distance.

Bea’s shoulders dropped as she sighed, closing the gap that Poppy made. “Let me give them their food and we can talk about this outside, okay?”

Poppy stared up at Bea with crossed arms, meanwhile Bea patiently waited for her to agree, silently begging with her eyes. The blonde huffed, “Fine”

The werewolf nodded and stepped around Poppy to hand the other witches their respective food boxes. Poppy watched her for a moment before she walked out into the hall to wait for her girlfriend.

A minute later Bea joined her outside, stepping apparently too close because Poppy quickly took a step back, “We’re not risking you turning when you don’t have to.” Bea pressed her lips together but nodded weakly in understanding.

“Why are you here, Bea?”

Bea shoves her free hand into the pocket of her jacket, “You weren’t responding to any of my calls and I was really worried about you so I was going to come to you but then Veronica texted me”

Bea paused, analyzing Poppy for a split second. The witch looked so tired. She had dark bags under her eyes and her hair was a mess, it looked like she had been pulling on it which she only did when she was overly stressed.

“She said you came in acting like a psychopath— her words not mine. And I wanted to come over immediately after that, but she said you were basically a ticking time bomb waiting for a detonator so she advised me to wait until lunch so I could bring a peace offering” Bea held up the other plastic bag with a small shrug.

“You shouldn’t be here, I could make it worse by just being in your presence. My magic could be killing you right now!” Poppy snarled, taking a step closer without even noticing.

“I.. don’t know why you would think that but I highly doubt that, Poppy” Bea answered softly, not entirely following what the conversation was truly about, magic was pretty foreign to her.

“Actually, I was thinking and we don’t really know what’s causing this yet, so.. I haven’t been at the apartment since I left it and we could find out right now if it’s you or the apartment”

Poppy uncrossed her arms as she stared up at Bea with furrowed eyebrows, “That’s a stupid and dangerous idea”

“It’s the only one I got, and..” Bea dared to close the gap, reaching her hand out to softly graze Poppy’s fingers, “I really missed you”

Poppy’s resolve began to crumble. Her face softened and she didn’t step away but did pull her hand away from the touch. “We shouldn’t”, she quietly answered, sounding more like she was trying to convince herself instead of Bea.

“Please?” Bea tried again but didn’t reach out this time, not wanting to be overbearing. “I promise I’ll be okay”

Poppy looked down at their nearly touching hands, quietly whispering “You know you can’t promise that”

The werewolf then and there decided to throw all caution to the wind and take Poppy’s hand in hers, giving it a gentle squeeze, “It’s too bad I already did then”

With a shaky sigh Poppy looked up, her eyes searching for something in Bea’s face. Bea’s facial expression didn’t leave any room for uncertainty as she met Poppy’s gaze. Her heart squeezed inside her chest and she couldn’t help herself but give in.

Suddenly she threw her arms around the werewolf’s neck, making her stumble backwards from the unexpected but not unwelcome embrace. Bea then hugged her girlfriend back, dropping the plastic bag to the floor to embrace Poppy in a tight hug.

Bea buried her face into Poppy’s hair and took a deep breath in. Poppy’s scent was always something that lured Bea in. It never failed to calm and relax her.

They stayed in the hug for another minute until Poppy suddenly scrambled back and began touching Bea’s cheek, “What happened to your face?”

“Well,” Bea chuckled but then winced at the pain before continuing, “Since I had some time, I wanted to visit the other packs in the region to ask if they have anything in their records. But I didn’t think about the fact that I’d be crossing marked territory without letting anyone know and, yeah,” Bea motioned to her face, “That’s what happens when you don’t”

Poppy sighed, moving to prod at Bea’s busted bottom lip, “Does it hurt?”

The werewolf flinched away from the touch “It does when you poke it like that!” Bea then pouted and making herself wince.

“Dummy” Poppy said with a small, fond smile and then went on her tiptoes to give Bea’s bruised cheek a soft kiss before moving down to peck her lips.

It felt like Bea was suddenly struck by lightning. Bea felt her heart leap at the affection she hadn’t gotten to feel in a few days. It had been entirely too long since they kissed as well.

Apparently Poppy had noticed the air change around them too because her smile faded and instead she bit her bottom lip, eyeing between Bea’s eyes and her lips, unable to decide if kissing right now would be a good idea.

Bea took the burden of the decision from her and leaned down to kiss her, quickly melting into the kiss as Poppy wrapped her arms around Bea to pull her closer.

They briefly parted with heavy breaths, pausing to stare at the other with darkened eyes before diving right back in, roughly meeting halfway. Bea then backed Poppy into the wall behind her and deepened the kiss, pushing her hand under Poppy’s sweater and grasping at her waist like she hadn’t felt her skin in weeks.

Poppy gasped as she slightly pulled away, absolutely winded from the unexpected makeout session, “Your lip is bleeding”

But Bea ignored the comment and shortly kissed her again before actually responding, “You’ve made me bleed far worse than that”

The blonde breathlessly chuckled, “You’re not wrong” before grabbing the back of Bea’s neck and pulling her into another heated kiss.

But before it could escalate any further, a shriek made the couple separate in surprise, “Eep!” Chloe yelped as she stood in the doorway.

From a distance Veronica shouted, “I told you they’d be making out!”

“Sorry! I tried waiting but I really have to pee” Chloe apologized and quickly rushed off to the bathroom.

The couple watched Chloe disappear around the corner. As soon as she was gone, Bea began laughing and Poppy hid her face in her girlfriend’s neck, her face turning red in embarrassment.

Once the moment passed, Bea leaned down to pick up the bag she had dropped and put her arm around Poppy to lead them back towards the library, “Alright, come on. I’m willing to bet you haven’t eaten anything yet today”

“Ugh, you’re annoying” Poppy groaned but didn’t argue with the statement.

They reentered the room and began eating along with the other two witches, holding up light conversation until it was time to get back to work.

“So Bea, did you actually find out anything from the other packs or did you only get beat up?” Veronica smirked.

Bea’s face began turning red in embarrassment when she looked over at her girlfriend who was actively trying not to laugh at the comment. “No. I kind of just went back to my pack”

Poppy gently gave the werewolf a pat on the back, “That was probably for the better”

“Thanks” Bea suddenly perked up, “Actually, I just realized I have no idea what you guys have been working on”

Chloe and Veronica looked over at Poppy, making no move to explain the past few days. With a sigh Poppy answered, “Well, yesterday we were looking for causes that make werewolves turn”

“Okay, like the day before.” Bea nodded along. “Today too?”

But then Poppy hesitated, biting her lip before looking away. How was she supposed to admit that she had the suspicion that she was getting kicked out, not only from the coven but also from being a witch in general because she’s dating a werewolf.

(Un)luckily, she didn’t have to.

“No, today we looked into witches being kicked off the coven by the elders!” Chloe said from her side of the room, “But she didn’t say why and she was scary this morning so I was too scared to actually ask”

Poppy shot her friend a death glare before worriedly looking over to Bea who, by the looks of it, was quickly puzzling the pieces together.

“The elders?” Bea’s mind was still turning those words around until it suddenly struck her, “Poppy wait, do you really think they’re kicking you out because of me?!”

“It could be. None of the history books were saying anything and I thought I might be experiencing the first symptom of the cast off” Poppy explained.

Bea took the witch’s hand in hers, “Poppy, we’ve been dating for a year now and involved even longer, why would they kick you out now?”

Poppy took a deep breath in before sighing deeply, “I don’t know, okay? I guess I’m just running on so little sleep that I’m beginning to drive myself crazy”

“No shit” Veronica piped up from the side, “You should’ve told us though. Coming in here and just throwing directions at us with no explanation wasn’t going to help anyone”

“I know. I’m sorry” Poppy sighed, leaning her head on Bea’s shoulder as she looked over at Veronica.

“It’s fine”

“You’re forgiven!” Chloe chirped.

Bea then wrapped her arm around Poppy to pull her closer, “So, what’s the verdict then? Do we have to be worried?”

Poppy’s cheeks began to tint pink, sheepishly she turned her head into the crook of Bea’s neck. “No, that’s not really how it works apparently”

“She’d be doing a lot more than just trying to turn you into a dog” Veronica laughed.

“Yeah! This whole house would probably be breaking in from the sheer force of her magic! Especially since Poppy has so much of it” Chloe added while grinning before she dropped her pen for the third time.

Bea laughed as she wrapped her arms around the blonde, pulling her closer to leave a kiss on her top of her head, “I don’t doubt that for a minute”

After a few more hours at the library, Bea finally managed to convince Poppy to go home and catch up on some sleep so she could be ready and focused tomorrow.

They walked alongside each other, hand in hand as they stopped inside of their apartment complex, in front of the elevator. Bea turned to Poppy, “I should probably not go any further in so we have a clear result for tomorrow”

“Yeah, that’s probably for the best” the blonde said as she eyed Bea’s lips. Then she let Bea’s hand go and cupped her cheek instead, pulling her down into a soft kiss.

Bea responded by putting her hands on Poppy’s waist, pulling her closer as she felt Poppy gasp into her mouth. The witch’s hand then moved into her hair, getting tangled in dirty blonde locks as she deepened the soft kiss.

The werewolf briefly pulled away, “Poppy” before she was pulled back into another kiss.

“Mhm” Poppy hummed, as her free hand snaked its way into Bea’s jacket and under her shirt.

Bea quietly groaned, reluctantly separating from the kiss to speak but only managing to breathe out the words, “You’re making this a lot harder for me, did you know that?”

With a low chuckle and no actual response, Poppy leaned back up to capture Bea’s lips again. But as their kiss deepened again and Bea began leading Poppy towards the wall, the ding of the elevator jumpscared the girls.

Before they could properly separate though, their next door neighbor walked out of the elevator, catching the couple with swollen lips and Poppy’s hand up Bea’s shirt. The neighbor sighed but said nothing, just continued on their way out.

As soon as the neighbor was out of sight, Poppy took her hand back and dropped her head on Bea’s chest, mumbling incoherently “Our neighbors are going to start thinking we have some sort of Exhibitionism kink with the amount of times this has happened”

“Or a humiliation kink” Bea sighed and then grinned when Poppy lifted her head, “It was your fault this time though”

Poppy rolled her eyes and pressed her finger into Bea’s bruised cheek, making her yelp in pain, “Be careful of what you say, Hughes, I know many ways to make you regret it”

“Ow! Okay, sorry!” then Poppy let go, her face softening as she looked up at her girlfriend. Bea stared back with a small smile on her face, brushing locks of blonde hair behind Poppy’s ear. “As much as I want to stay, I should really go now”

“I know” Poppy pulled Bea into a short hug and then pulled back from the embrace, giving her one last kiss on the cheek before tapping on the elevator button. “I love you”

“I love you, too” Bea sighed, kissing Poppy’s forehead one more time before making her way back to the pack’s house.

Chapter Text

The next day came slowly. Even though she had seen Bea the day before and felt better about the situation, sleep still didn’t come easy. But once it did, it came hard. Poppy entirely overslept that morning, waking up to a few texts and a missed call from Bea.

Suddenly she felt wide awake.

Poppy quickly called her girlfriend back who answered after a few rings, “Hey. Good morning”

“Did you turn?” she croaked out, her voice still full of sleep but still got right to business, too anxious to wait even a moment longer.

Bea sighed, “..I did”

The line went quiet. Both of them knew what that meant but neither wanted to say it because saying it would make it more real.

“..I see” Poppy finally responded, her voice no longer filled with anxiety, instead coming out disappointed and still raspy from sleep.

“Good news is that the guys were prepared last night” the werewolf added after another moment of silence.

“Which means what exactly?” Poppy sighed.

“They had printed out a bigger picture of you and-”

“Oh Gods” Poppy interrupted Bea, already imagining a huge cutout of her in the middle of the room.

“And they placed it inside the room while I was sleeping. Before I turned obviously. And apparently after I turned, I laid down right next to it and peacefully slept through the rest of the night” Bea explained.

“I also got a picture for you” Right after that, Poppy’s phone vibrated with the picture in their chat. The same wolf Poppy had seen only just the night before, lying at the feet of the cutout, sleeping.

Poppy hummed in thought, a small smile playing on her lips, “I liked that version of dog-you, she was compliant and liked the scratches I gave her. Didn’t complain once”

“Only because she can’t speak!” Bea pouted. “Oh! Also the blood results should come in this afternoon”

Poppy quickly sat up, almost shrieking, “Why didn’t you tell me that before your dog story!”

“I’m sorry! I just remembered that that was a thing too! It’s not my fault they unloaded all this information on me right as I woke up”

“Ugh, I really hope it’ll help us figure out the problem” Poppy groaned as she laid back down, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

“Me too. I really miss our bed. Our whole apartment actually. Even the creaking front door. It’s crazy to think that I used to happily live in this house not too long ago and now all I want is to leave and come home to you” Bea said.

“Yeah, I never realized how cold the bed felt until you left” Poppy quietly admitted.

“I’ll be home soon, I know it” Bea promised, the firmness of in her voice helping the witch believe the words of her girlfriend.

“I know” Poppy faintly smiled.

Hours later, Poppy was going through dozens of books again, all ending in the same thing she read thirteen books ago or to a dead end. She was truly reaching the end of her patience. And sanity for that matter.

Thankfully it was already lunch, time slowly nearing into the later afternoon. It wouldn’t be much longer until the blood test results come in.

As she picked up the next book to read, she paused in her tracks. “What is this book on botany doing here?” Poppy held up the book for Chloe to see.

“Oh, sorry” Chloe stood up from her seat to take the book, “I used a spell to help me find all books mentioning werewolves at least five time so I could stop sorting through all of them”

Poppy turned the cover of the book back to herself, staring at it for a good moment until Chloe tried to take it from her hands. In a swift movement Poppy pulled the book out of the blonde’s reach. “No, it’s fine, I’ll read it”

Chloe brightly smiled, “Okay!”

After that Poppy began scanning page after page, quickly growing annoyed by all the drawings of plants and flowers but still no mention of werewolves anywhere.

But then she reached the entry for wolfsbane.

Wolfsbane

Wolfsbane (also known as aconitum or aconite) is a werewolves' worst nightmare and a witches best friend. This beautiful purple flower can single-handedly take out an entire pack of werewolves if used correctly.

Poppy sighed as she read the words. Obviously she already knew that. During the war, killing the wolves by making them consume wolfsbane was their safest bet. At least until the werewolves caught on and stopped stealing their food.

The blonde turned the page and kept reading.

Consumption may be the most efficient but definitely not the only way to get rid of these monsters.

Poppy furrowed her eyebrows at that, her attention suddenly spiking as she sat up straighter.

Witches had to become creative when the wolves caught on and stopped eating their food, rather deciding to capture and torture the witches. So witches began using wolfsbane to wash their clothes, putting it in their soaps and even going as far as sowing petals into all their clothes. All the exposure to the wolfsbane slowly but surely began driving the werewolves insane. But it wasn’t a majority that used these methods since the results weren’t fast enough. The death of a werewolf also only occurred at the death of the witch once she was burned at the stake by inhaling the fumes of the wolfsbane woven into the fabric of her clothing which polluted the air and ultimately poisoned the pack.

The witch sat back, letting the words sink in. Before a thought suddenly struck her.

Poppy suddenly stood up so fast that the chair she was sitting on fell over. But the blonde was already grabbing her phone and rushing out the door, only managing to shout out, “Chloe, you’re a genius”

A single glimpse of Chloe’s big and bright smile was the last thing she saw before she practically ran home.

Nothing else she had read the past few days made as much sense as this single book about fucking botany. This had to be it. She prayed to the Gods that this was it.

As soon as she was in the elevator she dialed Bea’s number. ”Hey, is everything-“ Bea had started saying but Poppy didn’t have the time for this right now.

“I think I found it” Poppy gasped out of breath, running towards the apartment, fumbling with the keys and dropping them in the process. “Fuck” Poppy muttered under her breath.

“Really?! What is it?!” Bea nearly shouted, ignoring everything else that was happening. Poppy quickly picked up the keys again and unlocked the door.

“I think it’s my shampoo,” Poppy started as she put the phone on speaker and rushed towards the bathroom, forcefully pushing the door open until it loudly banged against the wall, “In a book about botany it said witches used to put wolfsbane in all kinds of stuff to slowly drive them insane”

”Why do you think it’s your shampoo then? Don’t you order that fancy stuff from Korea?” Bea asked, trying to follow all the information.

“No, it was discontinued so I got a new one from the store in the coven- Wait” Poppy rushed out to explain and then put her phone down, stepping into the shower and grabbing her shampoo from the shelf.

The witch scanned the ingredients list, the third word immediately catching her attention. Aconitum extract.

Poppy leaned against the wall and breathed out. She felt like she could finally breathe again, like the weight of a thousand tons has been lifted off her heart. From a distance she suddenly heard Bea’s voice trying to catch her attention.

”Helloo? Poppy!” Poppy finally heard as she picked up her phone.

“It’s the shampoo” the witch said, staring at the purple bottle that has brought her to multiple breakdowns in the last couple of days. Poppy suddenly began laughing, “It’s the fucking shampoo and not me!”

“Baby! You beautiful genius!” Bea laughed too, her voice suddenly out of breath as if she started running, ”I’m coming home right now”

Poppy grinned as she aggressively threw the bottle in the trash before getting undressed, throwing her clothes to the floor, “I’m gonna use your shampoo to wash the wolfsbane out”

Bea practically cackled at that, “Use all of it, I don’t care! See you soon, baby!”

After that, Poppy ended the call, washing her hair three times to be sure it was completely out. She couldn’t even get herself to care that she just washed it with the worst shampoo for her hair type.

Not too long after when Poppy was in the middle of the third washing, Bea got home too, already in the state of undressing when she entered the bathroom, “No! Don’t you dare step in here, we need to sanitize the shower first!”

Bea pouted from the doorway, having lost her shirt somewhere in the living room and still in the process of unbuttoning her pants. “But I thought we were gonna have celebration sex”

Poppy fondly rolled her eyes and bit her lip to suppress a smile, “..After the shower. Maybe”

The werewolf visibly perked up, continuing to pull off her pants and leaving them on the floor in the doorway, “Okay! I’ll wait in bed!”

Once the blonde was done with the shower, she walked into the bedroom while drying her hair. When she walked in, Bea was lying on Poppy’s side of the bed, her face buried in her pillow with only underwear covering her body.

“Hey”

Bea quickly sat up at that, her cheeks tinting red as she gave her a shy smile, “Hi! Sorry, I just missed the way our apartment smells. The way our bed smells, you know?”

Poppy walked over to her girlfriend, sitting down on Bea’s side of the bed since hers was occupied. “I know and I also really don’t care” she said and leaned in to kiss Bea.

The werewolf quickly melted into the kiss, a feeling of relief washing over her as she cupped Poppy’s cheek to pull her closer. She was so glad this was over now and that she could finally be with Poppy again, to sleep in her own bed again.

She also liked the idea of sleeping with Poppy in said bed.

Bea trailed her hand lower. Slowly along Poppy’s neck and past her collarbone until she reached her covered breast. A soft gasp escaped Poppy’s lips and Bea took that as a sign to continue.

It truly hadn’t been that long since they had sex but the emotional turmoil this whole thing forced them through, made them itch to feel the other in the most intimate way they know. The couple craved this. Needed this.

Bea moved from her sitting position and onto her knees, crawling closer to Poppy until she was forced to lie down. In response, the witch wrapped her arms around Bea’s back to pull her closer and to unclasp her bra.

But before they could go any further, a phone started buzzing on Poppy’s nightstand, meanwhile the couple was making out on Bea’s side of the bed. The blonde tensed up, making Bea briefly pull away to mumble against her lips, “Just ignore it, I bet it’s not important”

“..Yeah, okay” Poppy hesitated but nodded nonetheless before reconnecting their lips, quickly deepening the kiss to hopefully tune out the noise of the vibration. The call soon after stopped and Poppy relaxed into the kiss again as she felt Bea’s hand move under her bra and squeeze her breast.

Poppy softly moaned into Bea’s mouth, but then the phone began buzzing with text messages instead, clearly trying to grab the attention of.. whoever’s phone it was.

For a moment the couple kept kissing, but Poppy wasn’t in it anymore, too distracted by the phone and the thought of a possible emergency to continue. The witch pulled away from the kiss with an annoyed sigh, staring up at her girlfriend, “We both know I can’t”

But Bea didn’t seem bothered by Poppy’s inability at all as she grinned at her before rolling onto the other side of the bed to grab the phone, “I don’t mind at all”

Poppy then inched closer, resting her head on Bea’s shoulder as she watched her unlock her own phone that was still vibrating with new messages.

“Huh”

“What is it?” Poppy asked, scooting closer to get a better look at the texts.

“The pack is spamming me because the blood results came back positive for wolfsbane” Bea said, sending a short text back before putting her phone on ‘Do Not Disturb’.

“You didn’t tell them we already solved it?”

“I was too busy going home to kiss my beautiful and smart girlfriend”, Bea then placed it back on the nightstand and turned to Poppy again, quickly pushing into a kiss, too uninterested in continuing the conversation. But the blonde didn’t mind that, only softly humming into the kiss as Bea’s hands impatiently palmed her tits right over her bra.

The werewolf then moved her kisses down, leaving not so gentle bites on Poppy’s neck until she reached the top of her breasts and began sucking marks into the skin.

“I really missed you” Poppy gasped, tangling her fingers into dirty blonde locks to keep her in place.

With a pinch to her nipple, Bea looked up through her lashes as she answered, “And I missed you too. Let me show you just how much”

—

A few hours later, Poppy groggily woke up from her phone ringing in the distance. Probably in the bathroom where she had left it after the call with Bea. She slowly blinked until her vision became clear and she could see the sun halfway down the horizon already.

Behind her, Bea sleepily groaned as she tightened her hold on Poppy and pulled her closer into Bea’s body. “Don’t get that”

Once the ringing stopped, Bea loosened her hold again. Poppy closed her eyes and muttered softly, “I won’t”

Poppy then moved her behind further into Bea, wriggling until she felt comfortable. The werewolf sharply inhaled, “Poppy.”

“Mhm?” the witch innocently hummed as she smirked to herself, knowing exactly what she was doing. Poppy felt the way Bea’s hand began rising up her stomach to rest right under her chest.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish” Bea mumbled into Poppy’s half-dried hair.

Poppy chuckled and put her own hand over Bea’s to test her girlfriend further, but furrowed her eyebrows when she felt fur on the back of her hand. The witch opened her eyes again and moved out of the embrace, turning around in Bea’s arms.

The sight in front of her wasn’t anything new in the slightest but definitely new in this type of context. Looking back at her was the first step of Bea’s transformation into a wolf. With fur up her hands, along her arms and up to her face, framing her jaw like sideburns.

“What is it?” Bea asked her girlfriend, who was staring at her like she had grown a second head.

Poppy’s expression softened and she reached up to brush through the fur with her nails, gently scratching. “We forgot to change the sheets, we’re lucky you’re just a bit hairy now”

“Oh, okay I see” Bea said, raising her arm to look at the fur before putting it back on Poppy’s waist.

The couple let the silence engulf them as they lovingly studied each other's faces. At least until Bea’s eyes closed on their accord, Poppy’s gentle scratching making her too sleepy.

Poppy didn’t stop though, then an intrusive thought suddenly came into her head. And before she could stop herself from voicing it, she blurted it out, “I want a dog”

Bea’s eyes shot open and Poppy stopped all movement. The couple stared at each other, both surprised at the words that came out of Poppy’s mouth mere seconds ago.

“Really?” Bea softly asked, giving Poppy an out if she wanted it.

But the blonde only briefly hesitated before she nodded and resumed combing through the fur, “Yeah.. Do you?”

Bea warmly smiled, leaning in to softly peck Poppy’s lips “Absolutely. I’d get you five dogs if you asked me to”

“Please don’t” the witch shot her a pleading look, knowing she absolutely would.

“I won’t. Don’t worry” Bea reassured her with a small smile, but curiosity quickly got the best of her. “Is there a reason why you want one now of all times?”

With a quiet sigh Poppy stopped her movements, “As crazy as it might sound coming from me, I’ve always liked dogs and always wanted one, but obviously I had to hide it because of the whole conflict”

Then Bea’s smile quickly turned into a wide mischievous grin, “Who would’ve ever thought that Miss Poppy Min-Sinclair, the head witch herself, would ever admit to liking dogs. Oh my Gods, that also explains the picture Zoey sent me yesterday!”

Poppy furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, “What picture?”

Bea suddenly reached over Poppy and onto the nightstand, grabbing her previously discarded phone and pulling up the picture, “I originally wasn’t going to show you until way later but this is too good to pass up”

In the picture Poppy was sitting on the floor of the holding cell, scratching dog-Bea behind the ears with the softest and most loving smile.

“Oh Gods, I hope she only showed it to you” Poppy said, rubbing her hand across her face to hide the embarrassment she was feeling.

Bea grinned, poking Poppy’s hand, “I doubt it matters for much longer, everyone is gonna see what a big softie you are for dogs soon enough”

“Shut up, I’m not a softie” the witch mumbled. “We’re also still only getting one, two will be more than enough for me to handle”

“Hey! Don’t be mean” Bea playfully pouted with her best puppy eyes and Poppy fondly rolled her eyes before leaning forward to kiss her girlfriend’s dumb pout away.

“I already told you the puppy eyes don’t work on me” Poppy mumbled against her lips.

“And I’ll keep pretending like I don’t know that’s a lie” Bea answered back before reconnecting their lips into a proper kiss.

(Only the Gods know that another pair of puppy eyes will show her soon enough how truly weak she is for them.)