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Chapter Text

It certainly had seemed no different in the Edison twins' workshop, the day that everything changed. The world outside of the workshop was certainly no different, all bright and a sublimely crisp and cheery October morning, now veering close to afternoon, as Tom Edison still sat waiting inside of the building that had been turned into the special and private place for both himself and his twin, Annie.

Repeatedly, he looked at his watch, his impatience growing with every second he counted. His father had told him once that every second counts, and he supposed it was also true from a scientific standpoint, and certainly from a mathematical one as well.

Where was Annie anyway? How could she make him a promise and then renege on it so badly? In a way, it was perfectly her, and could even be expected if something more interested popped up. She also had this way of wanting to help people out, even if it was at the expense of their work as a team. She was always the more adventurous of them both, and perhaps more altruistic, but Tom wished that his sister would place his needs for once over every sad story or charity case that she heard about.

Sometimes he needed a little attention too, afterall.

As did the formula he had thought of yesterday to create super strength, a sort of remodification of his super shakes, which had helped her improve her and her friend, Gayle's, endurance and speed on the track.

He certainly needed it now, what with Smitty upping his smear campaign, by repeatedly teasing him for being a science nerd. He was involving the whole school now, and it was really becoming annoying and even detrimental to his education.

"Don't take it so personally," Annie had told him, just like the first time. "It's just a joke! Besides, we'll be going to college soon...nobody will remember what the guy said back in High School...he'll be lucky if any university or college would even look at him, what with his grades!"

"That's easy for you to say, Annie," Tom had grumbled, shoving his books into his locker, and hating how everything inside of it, from a picture of Albert Einstein to a replica of a DNA strand, reeked of science instead of something more physical...say like a football jersey or baseball pendant. "You don't have some jerk labeling you as a pencil neck all throughout school, complete with putting cotton batten that's supposed to look like my hair on the top of any pencil he gets a hold of!"

To help illustrate his pain and frustration, Tom had pulled out a pencil, and staring at it, snapped it in two and throwing it immediately back inside of his locker, so he wouldn't need to litter it on the floor and cause more work for the janitor.

Annie looked as calm and rational as always, other than the time he had sneaked a look into her diary. "So what's next? Last time, you learned how to skate? What are you going to do now? Join the wrestling team?"

"I don't know about that," Tom had scoffed, but wondered if it was a good idea, besides from the obvious insult hidden behind it.

He wasn't completely sold on it either, still, it had helped him conjure up a new idea, one that he had told Annie about that night and she was supposed to help him out with this morning.

He went over to the large, elongated desk at the center of the workshop and went over his calibrations, the very same ones that had helped veer him towards the formula that he had been so excited to try out, despite his twin sister's reluctance before bed.

"A magical potion that gives you super strength?" Annie had asked, half hysterical and wholly disapproving.

"It doesn't have anything to do with magic," Tom had corrected her. "It's a scientific formulation, a combination of chemicals, meant to increase my strength and agility, all so that I can be more powerful than that creep."

"You really are going to join the wrestling team, aren't you?" her mouth had fallen open in shock. "Just so you can beat Smitty up? But that wouldn't even be fair, Tom! That's the equivalent of steroids, you know, what they were feeding the ostriches down at the zoo?"

Tom Edison had shaken his head at his sister's false belief, soon setting her straight. "No, I don't want to join the men's wrestling team. Believe me, nothing could appeal to me less than grappling with a bunch of other guys. But showing Smitty up, just once, you know, like picking him up in front of the whole class and running around with him until he's begging me to put him down, now that sounds like fun. Also there would be a certain joy just from giving him what he has deserved for a very long time."

Annie had looked more relieved at that, her face softening as she understood where he was coming from...as well as his pain. Being twins, his pain was often hers, afterall.

"All right...I guess, I can help you with that, as long as it's a one shot deal. And, as long as you don't do anything hasty or test anything prematurely, you know, if I'm not around. That would be completely irresponsible. Agreed?"

"Agreed?" Tom had said, shaking her hand and trying to ignore that little spark and soaring inside of his soul that happened whenever they touched. He didn't know if his pretty twin sister felt it too. But he sure knew he did, and always felt uncomfortable and slightly embarrassed by it too...she was his sister afterall; he wasn't probably supposed to feel that way.

Now he wasn't feeling tingly or grateful towards Annie, however. He was feeling annoyed and increasingly impatient. She could have left a note, at least, if something had come up!

It was completely irresponsible of her.

Just as she believed it was irresponsible for him to try the formula out without her presence.

Feeling suddenly motivated by his perhaps justifiable resentment, if not his wounded ego, and his desire to give Annie a taste of her own medicine too, Tom began to gather the chemicals and ingredients together to begin making what she had deemed as his "magical potion".

Though he was frightened she might come back and catch him, the teenage boy, kept going about his task carefully and proficiently. This, afterall, might be a great scientific breakthrough on his hands and it wouldn't do to spoil it all by shoddy craftmanship.

Making it, Tom couldn't help but remember the time that their little brother, Paul, had almost made up a batch of explosives, all as a result of getting an old Chinese cure for the hiccups confused with some other recipe, although they'd never quite found out which one for sure. The poor little guy had almost blown himself up in this very workshop! Luckily, nothing on his own list was so volatile a combination, Tom realized, although it was of his own invention...and he wouldn't mind selling it to help out the world...and his and Annie's tuition fees, that was if they couldn't get a scholarship.

Although, their dad was always squirreling away any prize money they won for their education, as if he didn't notice he had two geniuses at home living with him. Although, maybe he was primarily thinking of Paul, whom could need the help. But it wasn't like their dad, or even their mom, would notice much of anything. They were usually gone to work or neighbours' parties.

Annie and he had virtually raised Paul. He was like their own child in many ways.

Or the one they had to permanently babysit.

Which sort of explained why he was always hanging around them.

Like now, when the boy walked casually into the workshop, as if he had nothing better to do on a Saturday morning. For crying out loud, the new season of cartoons had just started and they hadn't even had time to go into repeats yet! Why wasn't he sitting in front of the television like his other friends probably were?

Paul had come in, just as Tom was eyeing the contents of the vial in his hands, and displaying his usual curiosity, the same one which continually got him into trouble, Paul studied the vial now too, resting his elbows on the end of the long counter and then resting his head in his hands too, a palm pressed to each chubby cheek. "What's that?" he asked in a bored tone, despite his interest, a feat only Paul managed to pull off successfully.

"It's a serum...to make myself stronger," Tom answered, holding it up in front of himself and wondering if it was supposed to be all red and glowing like that.

"Oh...does it really work?"

"That's what we're about to find out..."

He stopped for a few seconds to stare at the vial...

Annie had told him he shouldn't mess around with it, not until they had gone over it together. But, then again, she hadn't been there now had she. She had broken their contract...not to mention their unspoken and all powerful covenant as twins, by abandoning him in his time of need.

Where was she when he needed her so badly?

"To Annie," he toasted. "My missing science partner since the womb."

Then, before he could lose his nerve, he swallowed it all after a scientific observation of, "Here goes nothing!"

Down, from the vial, the liquid travelled through his throat and to his stomach, a concoction so vile that it made the first draft of his Super Shake actually taste better in comparison.

"Blah, that's awful!" he exclaimed, sticking out his tongue.

"So do you feel any stronger?" Paul asked, more excited now and with his arms lying on the table, and his head out of his hands.

"Only one way to find out," Tom theorized and took hold of the heaviest thing nearby, which was a comfy, red and often used chair.

He grabbed it by the bottom leg closest to him and he should have been able to hold it up like Mighty Mouse used to, with only one hand, only a sharp pain went through his wrist instead.

"Oww!" he cried out, rubbing his wrist.

"Uhm...I don't think it worked, Tom," Paul commented.

"Maybe it just needs a little time," Tom said in desperation. He walked over to the long table and tried to lift it now too, only it didn't budge at all.

"Augh! I don't get it!" Tom said, his elbows now on the table as he pushed his fingers through his blond hair. "It should have worked! Even Annie said so last night!"

Paul's face suddenly lit up in memory. "Oh yeah....Annie told me to let you know that she went out with Lance, this morning...and to remind you not to do anything with the formula until she got home."

Tom whipped his head around to look at his younger brother, whom was cringing, clearly aware he had goofed up. "Gee, thanks for telling me now! You're a little late, you know?"

"Sorry," Paul shrugged.

"Did she say why she needed to go out?"

"Yeah...Lance came and picked her up."

"She went out with Lance?!?" Tom exclaimed in shock.

Paul nodded, "Yeah."

"That was more important than me?"

"I think so. It must've been."

In the depth of his outrage, Tom Edison felt something happening inside of him. First a horrible pang occurred in the pit of his stomach, then it spread throughout his body. Helplessly, Tom clutched at his stomach, holding himself as his face contorted in pain.

"Are you all right?" Paul asked, having obviously noticed his older brother's agony.

"No...it must have...must have been something wrong with the form...formula!"

It was getting worse now, the pain still spreading and his pores feeling like they were burning...and sprouting.

"TOM!" Paul Edison cried out as his brother fell to the workshop floor, clutching out at the ceiling...

As claws sprung out from the ends of his fingers.

When Paul went to his fallen sibling's side, it was with a far more amazed than concerned uttering of the name, "Tom," then he had cried out before.

And as Tom clawed, quite literally, his way to his feet, grabbing to the table with his now transformed hands, Paul made a gleeful scientific observation himself: "Tom! You're a werewolf!"

"Don't be silly, Paul," Tom said, feeling better now, but still strange. His voice even sounded different, and his mouth...well his teeth felt really weird and not normal.

"No!" Paul laughed in excitement. "You really are a werewolf! Look!"

The boy went to get a mirror and then rushed to show his older brother how right he was. Tom stared in shocked horror at his reflection. It was true! There was fur all over his face and his teeth had grown to at least double their size, and become pointed, as well! Why, even the hand yanking the mirror out from his brother's human hand was now more paw like and with long, curled claws on it.

"This can't be happening!" he cried.

"See told you," Paul Edison said, sticking his hands into his pockets. "You're a werewolf."

"I'm not a werewolf, Paul!" Tom still denied. "I just might have activated certain genes and mutations, in my attempt to become stronger. My body must have gotten confused and it turned me into this instead!"

"Well, whatever it is, it sure is cool," Paul said cheerfully.

Maybe the science nerd in him might have agreed, but right then the piercing sound of Lance's horn, the one Tom, himself, had made for his best friend, went blaring through the driveway.

"Oh no, Annie's back!" Tom shrieked. "I can't let her see me like this! She'll give me another one of her lectures! Quick! Help me set up that partition!"

"What's in it for me?" Paul asked, ever the opportunist.

"Look, I'll give you my allowance for the whole week!" Tom pleadingly bartered, which was hard with extra long fangs. "Just help me!"

"Sure thing!" Paul said.

By the time, Annie was coming through the workshop door, they had managed to erect the partition, which was little more than a set of blinds and a bed sheet, which he had used once when he had wanted to enter and win a swimming contest all by himself.

Hidden behind the makeshift wall, Tom heard his sister entering, could tell she had noticed the partition, was remembering its previous uses too, and then was wondering what had happened to make him use it again. He saw it all happening, even though he couldn't see it, although his hearing had become suprisingly sharp actually.

"Hey? What's going on?" she asked.

Tom looked at his formula, grateful the vial and beaker was on his side, not hers.

"Ahh...Tom was just trying something out," Paul said, trying to cover for him and probably also worried about not getting the allowance, as well as receiving his own lecture for the late delivery of her message.

Thinking of that, Tom felt himself growing angry again and actually vocalized it in a low growl.

"What's that sound?" Annie asked, probably trying to peek past Paul and through the partition.

"Just a tape that I gave Tom," Paul lied. "It's full of animal sounds...I need to identify them for class."

"It sounds like a wolf," Annie remarked.

"That's what I thought too!" Paul said happily. "But Tom wouldn't believe me."

Footsteps, light and cautious neared the bedsheet and Tom could actually smell Annie better than he ever had before, which was both invigorating and embarrassing.

"Uhm...look Tom, I just wanted to apologize," she said.

"For what?" he asked, trying to sound normal.

"You sound funny?" she commented, forgetting her apology.

"It's the partition," he replied. "I...I'm working on soundproofing...it distorts the sound...that's about as far as I got though."

"Well, I'm glad you've given up on that silly strength formula idea...that could have gone badly," she remarked and Tom whispered, under his breath, "Tell me about it."

"I want to apologize anyway," his sister said. "I really wanted to help you with it, but then Lance turned up, really upset. Lulu was breaking up with him, for the billionth time, and he wanted a me to talk her out of it this time."

"Wait! This only had to do with Lulu?" Tom asked, feeling relieved, his anger abating that she had chosen Lance over him.

"Sure. He thought that a girl would stand a better chance of convincing her she was just being silly. Sexist pig."

"And did it work?" Tom asked, feeling better already, Lance no longer looking like competition in his transformed eyes.

"Yeah. He dropped me off back here and then went to make up with Lulu."

"That's good to hear," Tom said, sighing.

"Yeah, so now you have me all day," Annie said cheerfully, and before anyone could stop her, Tom saw her fingers appear at the edge of the sheet, beginning to pull it back over to the side.

"NOO! DON'T!" Paul screamed, and Tom felt his heart give a shock throughout his body.

Instantly he was staring at Annie, expecting her to begin screaming or laughing at him once her mind had processed the change in him.

However, when she just stood staring at him, as if nothing had changed, Tom was incredibly confused.

Until Paul came up to gawk at him, his jaw almost on the ground. "Hey! You're back to normal!" he exclaimed.

"Now you know better than that," Annie teased her youngest brother, ruffling his hair. "When is Tom ever normal?"

She gave her twin a wink and then announced, "I just want to grab a bite to eat and then I'll be back and we can start whatever you want to work on for the day."

Tom smiled, watching Annie leave and liking the way she moved and the shape of her body, which was somehow heightened in his eyes, but Paul seemed less pleased. "You aren't a werewolf anymore."

"No, I'm not," the teen said, pushing his brother out of the way to go and hide the beaker with the rest of the formula in a cupboard somewhere else in the workshop. "The effects must have been only temporary."

"Ahhh...but I liked having a dog. It was almost like when I got to babysit Floyd," Paul bemoaned.

"I am not a DOG!" Tom spat, almost dropping the beaker and vial along the way.

"No! You're better! You're a werewolf! I have an actual werewolf for a brother."

"No, you don't. It's over," Tom said successfully putting the formula away. "There is no more werewolf!"

"How can you be so sure?" Paul asked quizzically, one eye squinted and his face tilted in contemplation as a hand went to rub his chin.

Looking at the experimental strength formula, Tom knew that he couldn't...However, he shut the cupboard drawer, hoping that that would be the end of it, but having no idea that it was only the beginning of his troubles...

And his sister's too.

Chapter Text

Tom was feeling all right, after having transformed back, but while his body was okay, his brain was still racing, not like that was anything new for the budding scientist, though. He could perfectly understand the unforeseen variable that had made the formula not work...there was always room for that when it came to experiments. What he couldn't understand was what had caused the delayed reaction. By all configurations, he should have immediately turned then, only for the reason that he hadn't had all that much in the way of reason for the trigger. Sure, some medications needed time to be dissolved, but this was both too fast and also not long enough, considering the formula itself. He also hadn't consumed anything to bring about the triggering effect.

Had it been something that came from inside of him instead? A hormone most likely or something else?

Meanwhile, he was blissfully getting a chance to be around Annie again after the misunderstanding with Lance. Suddenly everything seemed so much more intensified about her in his gaze: the way she moved, the turn of her smile, the blueness of her eyes, the scent of her skin, all so unmistakable Annie Edison and familiar since their birth.

Infact, it was like something had been pushed inside of his brain and he was getting memories that he could not possibly have remembered, images of them lying together in the cradle, of her tiny hand grasping his own or vice versa.

Of her always having been his.

Unfortunately, Annie hadn't let his feeling of contentment last for too long, once they finished working and got back inside of the house, mom off at a medical conference and dad piloting to some place he'd never actually visit except for the airport before he came back to them. She'd been going into her bedroom, and was talking to him about the university that she wanted to attend.

One that definitely was NOT the same one he wanted to go to.

"And Lance dropped by the admittance office on the way back home and I picked up some more brochures for it! The campus looks great! I think I can find a dorm there, no problem. Or maybe a sorority will accept me. If not, I can even find a place nearby."

"Grrr..." Tom growled, looking down to see, in horror, that his fingernails were growing into claws again and that hair was sprouting up all over his body. Oh no, he thought, still not wanting Annie to see him like this and lecture him about testing out the formula when she hadn't been there, especially when he had promised her that he wouldn't.

"What's that, Tom?" Annie asked, her door open but with her still further inside of the room.

Not knowing what else to do, Tom Edison did the only thing he could think of: he quickly ducked, or in his werewolf like state pounced, into his little brother's room.

"Hey!" Paul said, having been reading a comic book in his bed. However, seeing that his older brother had once again wolfed out, he leapt off the bed, smiling from ear to ear. "Tom! You're a were..."

He didn't get the rest of the word out, Tom covering his mouth, as he heard Annie coming towards the door he'd just locked.

"Mmm...mpphhh," Paul mumbled, struggling to break free.

"Tom? Tom are you in there?" Annie asked, while Tom was still preventing Paul from blabbing out his hairy little secret.

"Yeah, I'm in here, Annie!" he called out, trying his best to make his voice sound more normal, and accomplishing it better than he had before, thanks to this being his second time.

"What are you doing in there? We were in the middle of a conversation."

Yeah, Tom thought, one he didn't want to have. He'd always thought they'd be going to the same university. The mere prospect that they wouldn't be made him angry and sad.

"I know, but Paul needed help with his Science Project," Tom lied.

"I did not!" Paul hissed quietly at him, having managed to break free after stepping on his brother's foot, or paw, in this case.

Unfortunately, it also caused Tom to yowl outloud like a dog in pain.

"What was that?" Annie asked in confusion.

Luckily, having caused the mess, Paul was equally quick to help solve it. "Oh, that's just a dog, Annie. It's Floyd again...yep, good old Floyd. My Science Project is all about dogs. I'm using what I learned from when those dognappers were going around. You know the whistle and about expensive breeds."

"Can I help?" Annie asked, obviously wanting to help her little brother out too and making Tom feel like he had a bad case of puppy love suddenly over her kindness for he was making little yelps now. What was he doing?! It was just Annie, afterall!

"No, that's okay," Paul said. "Tom will probably mess it up bad enough."

"Gee thanks," Annie said with a laugh and then disappeared, probably returning to her room.

Paul now spun around to face his brother, his excitement obvious. "Tom! You're getting wolfier again!"

"Tell me something I don't know," Tom growled. "Like what I do to become human again!"

"Well, what caused it?" Paul asked, sitting on the end of his bed.

"I don't know!" Tom exclaimed. "One minute everything was perfectly normal, then she started talking about what university she was going to, without me, and I just started turning into this!"

"Wait," Paul said frowning in genuine disappointment. "You two aren't going to the same college? I thought you two were inseparable at the tip."

"It's at the hip, Paul," he corrected, slightly embarrassed.

"Yeah, at the hip, that's what I said," Paul argued. "Why would she want to split up the Edison Twins? That's just stupid!"

"My thoughts exactly," Tom said with another animalistic sound that was like a jumble of a yelp, growl and howl.

"Look, you two better not be hurting that dog in there!" Annie's voice soon came back to the opposite side of the bedroom door. "I mean it! Animal testing is on the outs in the realms of science!"

Hurting the dog in there, Tom thought. She was the one hurting him, what with going off with Lance and leaving him hanging to let his thoughts wander and for her to even think about going to a university without him...

Maybe they really were connected on some psychic wave, heretofore pooh poohed by the scientific world, because suddenly his twin sister said, "We really need to discuss this whole university situation together, Tom. You know I would NEVER do anything without talking it over with you first and I value your opinion so much...I know what a huge step this will be...I don't want to make it without you. We're a team afterall."

Tom felt the change coming over him again, the happiness turning into a calm that helped soothe the turmoil within him, the desperation like a caged animal, and suddenly he was back to being human again.

"See you, Tom," Annie whispered and then was gone again.

"Hey you're back to being boring!" Paul complained.

"As Annie said, gee thanks," Tom smirked. "But what on Earth caused it? Something had to!"

Suddenly Paul's face lit up, inspiration hitting him, like it usually did with his vast and varied schemes. "Wait! I know!" Paul exclaimed in delight, jumping off of the bed.

"Well, what is it?" Tom demanded, his now furless hands held out in urgency.

"You're in love with Annie," Paul said, folding his arms and looking smug.

The younger boy was acting really happy with himself, having finally believed himself to be smarter for once than the older brother, whom occasionally liked to rub into his face that, in by being older, he was better and more smarter than he was.

Still Tom balked at the very idea. "That's ridiculous, Paul" he said.

"No, look, it all makes perfect sense now!" the boy said, conviction in his dark eyes. "You got all wolfy when you heard that she was out with Lance, then you turned back when you heard it was all because of Lance's girlfriend! You were jealous!"

"Give it a break, Paul," Tom pushed past him, trying to get to the door, but his little brother butted in front, blocking the way.

"Now, you had to listen to Annie talk about leaving you to go to some stupid university that you don't want to go to! Bam, you turned into a werewolf again. But the moment she makes it seem like she'll listen to your advice, or she wants you there with her, you're back to being human! The evidence is rutabagable!"

"Irrefutable."

"Whatever."

Oh no! It did hold a certain logic, Tom Edison realized. But how on Earth could his kid brother see it and not him?

Oh, probably because he had believed it crazy to think that he had feelings for Annie, those kind of feelings...but now, not only was Paul seeing it but his body was proclaiming it too.

No, it had to be a coincidence. Just a coincidence.

"You're seeing things, Paul," Tom said, pushing the boy away from the door.

"I might be seekng things, but it's just the truth!" Paul called out to him. "And I know that you're never gonna beat your little problem if you don't start taking it seriously! Although...I LIKE YOU BETTER AS A WOLF!"

And he'd like Paul better if he didn't have such a big mouth.

He could still remember his brother getting a perfectly innocent man in trouble by saying he was a Wendigo, another entirely fictitious creature...like werewolves.

What was Paul likely to do with this preposterous, but also scarily likely, idea that he was in love with Annie and that he had drank the formula, leaving him with certain problem?

Thank God that mom and dad were away for a bit. All that left was Annie herself...

But somehow that was the worse person Tom could think of for Paul to tell all of his secrets too...

Especially since they all involved her in one way or another!

* * *

Apart from looking smug, Paul managed to keep his yap shut throughout dinner, which was a relief to Tom. The teenager was still worried that his brother would blab to their sister. Normally, this might have hampered his hunger, but instead Tom found out that he couldn't stop eating! Even after downing several plates worth, of his sister's cooking, which wasn't great to begin with.

"Wow Tom you're really wolfing down the food, aren't cha?" Annie teased, making Tom snarl in response.

Annie flinched and Tom felt instantly regretful.

It was just her whole choice of words, which had made Paul outright laugh, earning him a snarl and bared teeth too.

The problem was, too, Annie was driving him crazy! Her scent, her movement, her body, her face! How he knew her so well! He couldn't stand it! His real hunger Tom felt was for her and it wasn't something he couldn't satisfy, anyway not at the kitchen table with their little brother present! And she was still his sister afterall!

The other problem was he feared that it wasn't even the formula! Well, that was part of it, but he suspected it only heightened what he had already felt for her, had always felt, and it was just his hormones and natural feelings interacting with the foolish concoction concocted!

"Sorry," Tom apologized. "I...I'm just still upset about you not being here this morning."

And he guessed it was true, because if she'd just been there she might have spotted his mistake and this wouldn't be happening! He wouldn't be turning into a "werewolf" as Paul put it and realizing the full extent of his attraction to his own sister.

Annie looked sympathetic and reached across the table to take his hand. "I told you I was sorry about that, Tom, and I really am. If I can do anything to make it up to you..."

That did it.

Tom was up and running away from the table before he did something really incriminating, like telling Annie what he really wished she could do for him...

* * *

That night, when Annie decided to take a bath, she had not approached him since supper, but presumably thinking he needed space, had left him alone. The space he found was always occupying hers, however, off to the side, never seen, but always hidden behind a wall or the shadows.

And to Tom's shame, he was outside of the bathroom door now, as he heard the water running, his eye at the keyhole as he spied on her as she got undressed, his hands on the door itself.

He ate the sight of her with more ravenous relish than he had devoured supper, seeing her skin and every inch of it revealed, if only if in glimpses. Why didn't they make keyholes bigger he lamented?

When the water was turned off, and he heard a new sound, he realized his fingernails had turned into claws again and were scratching the wood.

"Is anyone there?" Annie called out, having heard it too. "I told you I was having a bath! You should have gone before!" she said in annoyance.

Meanwhile, trying to calm himself down, Tom rushed back to his room, thinking of happy, innocent thoughts, to try to calm his body down and the chemicals released inside if it. It seemed to work and he had regular, run of the mill fingernails in a few minutes.

He sighed in relief, but wasn't quite sure how he was going to survive Sunday until school. Once Monday rolled around, he hoped that with the other pretty girls in class and the hallways, his attraction for his sister would be softened, muted.

"Please, let this all work out," he prayed, heading to bed and putting a sign on the door not to disturb him because he had a headache.

If only that were true, Tom wished!

* * *

Sunday went better than expected, although not without complications. He was still incredibly intoxicated with Annie, but it was also reaching a nice easy plateau of comfort. It helped him to realize how she was truly the person he felt most comfortable with. While other people laughed at him, she understood him, always...except when it dealt with his private feelings for her...

But how was he to blame her for not knowing of those, Tom reasoned with his usual logic? He was het twin brother, and a full 7 minutes younger, as she kept on reminding him.

How could she know he was harbouring and fighting such feelings for her, and had been so long now, he realized, he just hadn't fully acknowledged them, himself.

It had taken the wolf in him to.

That night, when she had been sleeping, he crept in through her room, through the window, no less, eventually some sort of agility and strength coming through in the formula, although it sure had taken long enough.

He watched her sleeping, silently contemplating the perfection of her face and the wonder of her freckles. He couldn't see them in the dark, but he knew they were there and could see every one last inside of his mind.

Boldly, he touched one, seeing, thankfully, his finger and not a claw in the moonlight, caressing her face.

"Tom," she uttered in her sleep, causing fresh, dangerous feelings to stir inside of him, and causing him to flee to the window, lest he lose control of himself.

"Tom..." he heard her saying again, lost in some dream, and he cursed what was apparently his heightened hearing.

When he got back to his room, he tried to calm himself again, aware of how badly he wanted her. Going beneath the covers like he were a child again, like when he and Annie used to crawl beneath them together, he tried to fall asleep, hoping school would offer some sort of a relief by way of distraction.

To help get his mind off of things, he started petting himself.

* * *

Monday proved Tom's hopes to be pretty, well, hopeless. Sure, there were plenty of other women around, Gayle even pestering him to ask her to the Halloween dance, but none of them were as beautiful and special to him as Annie.

No one as beloved.

It only proved to him how he could never be satisfied with the others, when he only wanted Annie.

At least, he didn't find himself wolfing out during class.

That was one relief.

Unfortunately, it didn't last for long, when they got home.

"Can you believe that Smitty actually asked me to the dance?" Annie said with a laugh as they entered the workshop, her putting her school books down on the long counter in the middle.

Oh no, Tom felt himself turning, despite Annie's clear lack of interest...he just couldn't help it! His territorial instincts must have been sparked, especially since it was the same boy whom had made fun of him and started this whole fiasco!

The boy went to turn and run out of the workshop.

"As if!" Annie was saying behind him.

Tom was sure he could make a clean get away until he unfortunately ran into Paul, tripping over his brother's leg.

"Hey! Watch it Tom!" he said as his older brother took a tumble on to the ground.

"TOM!" Annie screamed, rushing to her twin brother.

"Don't look at me!" he growled at her, but Annie being Annie, she didn't listen. She turned him over in concern, but then gasped in fear, which swiftly was replaced by confusion and concern as she quickly recognized him as her brother, past all the fur.

"Tom?"

"Tom's a werewolf!" Paul said cheerfully. "Isn't that awesome? Or maybe I should say...pawsome."

"What happened?" she asked, hoping to make sense of something her face clearly revealed she thought didn't make any.

"Oh, he drank that formula you told him not to," Paul said, arms folding, and conveniently leaving out the part about the delay in his delivery of her message. Apparently two days had made him forget all about that part.

Tom held Annie's gaze before she suddenly exclaimed, "I told you not to do that!"

Turning his head around so as not to have to face her anymore, what with all of her judgement and preachiness, Tom Edison wished he had turned himself into an ostrich instead, so that then he could bury his head in the sand. Being a werewolf he was too closely related to a dog, afterall, and he was afraid he was just about to have his nose rubbed in his mistake.

Chapter Text

They were back safely in the workshop a few seconds later, Tom perched up on one of the stools, as Annie continually circled around him. And his nose was wet afterall, which normally would have been a good sign for a dog (although in Tom Edison's scientific experience it was more or less an old wives' tale), but this was because he had been having his nose rubbed into his mistake for the last half hour or so.

The problem was that, with Annie in full lecture giving mode, he wasn't apparently feeling safe enough to transform back into a human. He had to sit there the whole time, feeling even more guilty because he was a werewolf and his error in judgement was on full display about it.

"How could you be so stupid?" Annie was saying, her feet probably very tired by now from the amount of circling she had done, as well as her arms from the way she had been gesturing them about in exasperation. He wished that her lips would equally be tired, from the amount of wagging they had been doing, but she wasn't finished yet. Meanwhile, Tom couldn't help but think of how kissable those lips were and how he wished to be using them for better things than just being endlessly lectured to. He could also find more interesting uses for her tongue besides a lashing from it. "How fool hardy! Your named after Thomas Edison not Tom Hardy, Tom! You couldn't have just waited a few minutes? That's all it would have taken."

"In my defense, Annie," Tom said, "Paul here forgot to deliver your message," he defended, throwing his younger brother to the wolves, or non-wolves in this case.

Besides, he wanted some company in the doghouse.

"Don't look at me," Paul said from his seat in the red chair. "If Annie told you to wait, then that's what you should have done, whether or not I remembered to give you the message. I'm a kid, afterall. You're the big persom, as you always remind me."

Tom snarled at his little brother, whom did look momentarily intimidated. But then looked just smug as Annie sided with him. "He's got a point, Tom."

Great Tom whimpered. But they usually ganged up on him, when opportunity arose, all the time. Like with his robot. He guess it would be no different now.

Deciding it was time to defend himself, Tom hopped off from the stool, choosing to exploit his bark now if not necessarily his bite. "Look. I don't care if Paul forgot to deliver the message, or if you would be back in an hour or two! What I do know is that I was patient to wait all night on it and that we're all responsible in one way or another. This is a prime example of the Edison children getting into trouble together and now us needing to get out of it together too!"

"You're right," Annie said, softening a little. "So this happened right after you took the formula?"

"Not exactly," Tom said more sheepishly than wolfishly.

"When did it happen?"

"A little while after."

"Hmm," Annie said, a hand going to her chin as she looked deep in thought. "We have to discover what triggers the chemical reaction inside of your body. Then we will know how to control it until we can fix it."

"I know!" Paul piped up from the chair he was virtually turning into a movie theater seat to watch all of the drama unfolding before him. "I think it happens whenever Tom's upset because he..."

Tom had gradually stalked over to his kid brother, placing a hand over his mouth. "Shut up, Paul," he said. Turning to Annie, he explained, "It's a very unscientific theory."

"No. I want to hear it," Annie said, sitting down on the stool that Tom had just left. "There are no unscientific theories only unopened minds."

Tom glared at Paul, whom must have seen the murder in his eyes, because he kept his big mouth shut when Tom took his hand away from it. He then also let his older brother give a more sanitized version of his theory. "Paul thinks that it's whenever I'm upset, I turn into this."

"Hold on!" Annie said, hopping down from the stool now and walking towards him. "That makes a whole lot of sense. I was just mentioning Smitty, the same creep that caused all of this. That was when you turned."

Tom felt relief flooding over him. Not only was Annie not aware that his feelings for her was what made him wolfier, but she was placing the blame and recrimination now where it was deserved: on the boy whom had been bullying him.

"Look! He's changing back!" Paul cried out and Tom felt himself turning back into a human, the hair retreating back into his pores and the other changes now reverting too, as his body became more relaxed and the resulting chemicals and hormones brought him back to a safe place of humanity.

"Well, that's got to be it!" Annie cried. "Now your anger is waning towards the situation and you're turning back into our normal old Tom again!"

Normal old Tom, her twin brother thought ruefully, until he was in her arms and she was squeezing him close to her, and all of his instincts were flaring again but with a wonderful sense of calm.

She let him go and looked him square in the eye, which gave him goose flesh but, thankfully, not werewolf flesh. "But you have gotten better in the past, so this is only a small victory. Tom, we need to run a few experiments on you to find out what effects you the most and what doesn't, and hopefully by discovering more about what makes it happen, we can find a cure to stop it all together."

Oh no, Tom thought! Annie wanted to run ecperiments on him. That was perfectly keeping with her inquisitive nature, but if she did than he was in danger of her finding out the truth behind his transformations.

He couldn't think of anything more embarrassing than having Annie discover his feelings for her by her turning him into a Guinea pig and the truth coming out inadvertently.

"Annie...I don't know if that's a good idea," Tom said.

"No, it's not just a good idea it's the only idea."

She grabbed his shoulders and once more looked him in the eyes. "Don't worry, Tom. I'm going to get you through this."

No, Tom thought but couldn't say...

You're the one doing this to me in the first place.

* * *

That night, while Annie was drawing up her plans and experiments for him, some of which looked more like she was planning on entering him into the Olympics than actually curing him, Tom snuck into Paul's room to apologize.

"I'm sorry I shut you up today, Paul," he said to the small boy, whom was still pouting about the incident.

"Hey, Tom, why didn't you want Annie to know that you're in love with her?" the boy asked, sitting up in his bed.

"Because brothers aren't supposed to be in love with their sisters! I don't know how she'd react. For that matter, I'm confused why you're taking it so blase."

"Blase? What does that mean?"

"You're acting like it's no big deal!"

"It isn't!" Paul exclaimed. "What's so different about you two from mom and dad?"

"You can't be serious," Tom scoffed.

"But I am. Look, you spend most of your free time together, you like mostly the same things, you understand each other better than anyone. What is there to be embarrassed about if you love her?"

When Paul put it like that it all sounded so easy. But Paul was just a kid, he didn't understand how society worked in general and how hopeless it all was...

So maybe it was good that Annie was trying to cure him, as long as she didn't find out his secret. Then he could just try to forget the fact that his twin sister was his soulmate and try to pretend that he wasn't in love with her.

Maybe Annie was right. He had been stupid to try out the formula.

"I still don't understand why you two can't be together," Paul said.

"It doesn't matter if you can't understand, Paul," Tom said. "The problem is that Annie would understand. There's such a thing as society's mores and Annie would know that."

Paul's face twisted in confusion.

But Tom didn't feel like explaining.

"Anyway. Thanks for forgiving me...and goodnight.

Long after he had left the bedroom, Paul Edison was lying on his back and staring at the ceiling, trying to understand why Tom and Annie couldn't be together when they fit together so perfectly.

It didn't make any sense...

And the Edison Twins were all about trying to make sense.

* * *

For the next week, Annie delighted in running her little tests on him and Tom experienced the sort of stuff that an alien visitor might if they made a mistake and came to the planet. It was lucky the time Paul thought a UFO had come to visit it was just Annie and he making the Sci-Fi movie short, the boy mused.

Thinking of that, in turn, just reminded Tom of Paul's own words that Annie and he spent so much time together, doing stuff that they both enjoyed and how they were more or less always on the same page...

Why couldn't they be together?

For the rest of their lives too?

But it wasn't even a question worth asking because they just couldn't.

Luckily with Annie spending every second of her free time poking, prodding, putting him on a treadmill, taking his pulse, giving him eye exams, even analyzing his blood, she wasn't doing anything to set his lycathropy off. She was always near him, her focus on him alone, and so Tom felt more or less human, although he was drinking in the sight of her and breathing in her scent, exhilarated by her touch.

Not to mention that he was also sometimes half dressed around her, so he was allowed the thrill of that too.

However, now Annie was the one now experiencing frustration, wanting to see him change again, but with it never happening. She couldn't trigger it, unaware that she was the cause.

"Well, I don't know!" Annie said, raising her arms in exasperation. "Maybe you're cured now."

Tom could have hoped the same but he felt the wolf lingering inside, besides he knew that he hadn't been motivated to change yet, his twin sister and he spending every second that counted together and with her mind not even on college anymore but his situation.

Unfortunately, with life being how it was, and with her having exhausted all of the tests she could perform, without an actual doctorate or license, her thoughts eventually did go where he didn't want them too, which only led to the inevitable.

She began talking about the Halloween dance. It even started off innocently enough.

One evening, putting down her pad and pen on to the workshop after writing down his evening statistics, Annie exhaled sharply. "Too bad we couldn't find our what caused it, though," she said. "It would have made for one heck of a Halloween costume. You would have won first prize."

"I'd just be happy to not have to worry about any of this," Tom said, trying not to notice how close Annie was as she now began removing the wires and electrodes from off of his body.

"Well, maybe you don't have to," she remarked. "Maybe now all you do have to worry about is what costume you'll be wearing. Or who you will bring to the dance? Have you given it any thought?"

"Who has the time?"

"Well, you don't have to worry about me gong out with Smitty, which is frightening for the season, sure, but would also be a form of torture," she joked, and Tom sensed that they were treading on thin ice now, but wasn't sure how to navigate it safely. He was in his underwear! He could barely go running out the workshop door! Aside from that, it was awfully cold outside.

"Howie asked me but I..."

Annie's eyes widened and Tom knew what was going on.

Mostly skin on display now, he could even see the hair sprouting up all over his body. His teeth growing and...

"Tom...it happened," she said.

"Yeah."

"But it wasn't when I mentioned Smitty...it was when I was talking about going to the dance with Howie. Wait," she said, suddenly cluing in to both of their distress. "But I am NOT going with Howie, he just asked me."

Once again, with his body exposed, they both could see the hair now shrinking and his mouth returning to normal.

"But then Jack asked me and I said maybe."

The fur was back.

"Although I really don't think I will."

Once again it was gone.

"Tom," she asked, her voice trembling. "What's going on here?"

"I'm...I'm a disapproving brother?" he tried.

Now her face looked deep in concentration as she, no doubt, was reviewing the events of the days when he'd been keeping his werewolf condition from her. "But I really think I will go to that college and leave you behind," she hesitantly said.

The fur came faster and Tom was growling in distress.

Annie backed up into the table by the window trying to climb up on to it backwards. "Tom! You're jealous aren't you!"

"I am not!" he spat.

"Fine. Then I'm thinking about going out with Howard and we're going to get married."

Tom was up and growling, even wolfier than before, and throwing a few things around.

"Tom...are you in love with me?"

Her twin brother's head snapped in her direction and he started to whimper again. He had always feared that his body would betray him someday, but he had always thought it would be in a completely different manner.

"Look...I'd really not like to have this conversation looking like this," he was ready to confess before anything else. "Could you please, maybe..."

"But I really don't like him either."

Tom felt himself becoming human again, and the second he was, he grabbed his clothing trying to get dressed so he could get out of there fast. However, anticipating his next move, Annie was there, in the way, blocking the door. "You didn't answer me," she said confrontationally. "Are you in love with me, Tom Edison? Is that what caused all of this? Is that the trigger? Is that the only reason I couldn't pinpoint it?"

Tom met her eyes, defiatnly, a little annoyed that her mind was focusing on it as the reason why she was being prevented in diagnosing him. Like it was so preposterous to her that, of course, she wouldn't have thought of it!

"And what if it is?" Tom asked her. "What if I am in love with you and it's taking every strength of my being not to take you in my arms and kiss you right now? What would say about that, Annie Edison."

When she didn't say anything in reply, and he felt both embarrassed and his heart breaking a little, Tom snapped back, "Yeah, I thought that was what you would say."

Then he lifted her into the air and placed her to his back, rushing out the door and putting on his sweater over his undershirt.

"Tom," he heard Annie saying behind him and then a "TOM!" and then nothing, not even her rushing after him. She probably realized that she still didn't know how to react to it.

He would like to think he didn't blame her, but it hurt so much, he couldn't. He was grateful that when he walked into the kitchen he was still a human, the stimulus not being the exact type needed to change him. Perhaps there was too much sadness and defeat than anger and the urge to fight to bring out the wolf in him right now.

* * *

Annie avoided him for the next three days.

She wouldn't talk to him.

She wouldn't even look at him.

Heck, they might have been strangers instead of siblings, and Tom wished that were the case because then things wouldn't have become so awkward...and he might have actually stood a chance with her!

The werewolf was still kept at bay and Tom was even more convinced that the formula needed jealousy and pain but with a chance of hope to be sparked.

Now he felt merely defeated.

"What's going on with you and Annie?" Paul asked one evening in the workshop, having felt the change in his siblings relationship.

"She found out, Paul," Tom said, grateful for the company since now the workshop felt so lonely all by himself.

"She did!" Paul said in excitement. "Boy I wish I could have seen that!"

"No," Tom said. "It was humiliating. If I had to tell her, I wish it would have been my choice."

"So how did she take it?" Paul asked, sitting up on the counter.

"Not well," Tom confessed after a loud swallow. "She hasn't spoken to me since."

The small boy's face contorted in confusion. "Why would she wanna do a stupid thing like that? You two are perfect for each other."

"Well maybe she doesn't agree with that," Tom said.

"No, no, no," Paul said, shaking his head around brutally. "I know that she's in love with you too! She just needs some help in seeing it. What did you call it? Past Society's morons?"

"Mores," he corrected, but was in so much pain and just missing his other half, that that was what it felt like more. "Look, Paul," he said. "I'm tired. I have a lot to worry about and Halloween is coming up soon, so being the school's 'science nerd" I have a little more to worry about this year, if you don't mind. I'm going back to my room. Could you lock up when you leave here? Supper should be soon."

"Oh, okay," Paul said dejectedly.

"Thanks," Tom said, leaving his and Annie's little brother still sitting there.

Paul just couldn't believe that someone normally as smart as Annie would be so stupid not to see that she and Tom were soulmates. And now she wasn't even talking to him? Yeesh!

Paul hopped down from the counter, pacing the floor and trying to find a way to make this all better. He might be their little brother, and they looked down on him a lot of the time, both figuratively and literally, but he was a whole lot smarter than them both too. Or he knew he could be if he didn't let playing too many video games interfere with his mind.

It was called street smarts.

So Annie now knew that Tom was a werewolf and that he was in love with her. But she wouldn't talk to him. Was she freaked out just like Tom had thought she would be? That didn't sound like Annie's usual behaviour. Usually she was kind and fair minded. She just needed to see things from Tom's perspective.

"Mother to workshop. Mom to workshop," came the call over the intercom and Paul rushed to it, aware that he had been spending too much focus trying to help out Tom and Annie that he'd completely lost track of the time. He was so worried about the two idiots breaking up the Edison Twins that he wasn't even hungry!

"Paul, I'm three minutes away from serving supper," she informed him. "If you don't want it going to Annie's compost project, you'd better get in here quick."

"Sure, no problem, mom, I'll be there!" he replied.

"Good," Mrs. Edison said. "And don't forget to take off your shoes and leave them by the door. I don't want you treading in mud across the floor."

"Got it," Paul said and then ended the message.

Hey, wait, the boy thought to himself, remembering his previous thoughts about Annie's usual willingness to see things through other people's eyes and their mom's mentioning of shoes...

What was that saying again? If you wanted to understand someone you needed to walk a mile in their shoes?

Smiling to himself, Paul rushed to the cupboard, where he'd seen Tom hide away the rest of the formula. Opening it, he carefully brought it out, staring at the vial full of the red potion. All Annie needed was to walk a mile in Tom's shoes, Paul thought, with a mischievous grin and a twinkle in his dark eyes.

Or better yet, in his paws...