The Divergence

Lavinia wasn't overly surprised when a group of werewolves wandered into the restaurant.

There were five of them altogether, three women and two men, and they paused only briefly near the entrance before being shown to a table across the room. 

It wasn't close enough to be considered friendly, but it wasn't far enough to feel like an obvious attempt at avoidance either.

To a human, the distance might have looked like hostility, but to Lavinia, it made perfect sense. 

Vampires and werewolves could coexist, certainly, but neither species had spent enough time around the other to become careless. 

Lavinia wouldn't have thought twice about turning her back on a normal human in most circumstances.

A human was simply too slow and too weak to become an immediate danger unless they had a weapon, preparation, or some other advantage.

A werewolf was different. Even in humanoid form, they were strong enough and fast enough to matter. 

They weren't physically superior to a vampire, but they were close enough that Lavinia couldn't simply dismiss them, and once transformation became part of the equation, the outcome of a fight became considerably less certain.

So neither table sat with their backs carelessly exposed. It wasn't fear, exactly. 

It was caution, the kind that came naturally when another person in the room was actually capable of hurting you if something went wrong.

The waiter standing beside the vampires did an admirable job hiding his own unease. 

His face remained calm, his voice steady, and his hands didn't shake as he moved around the table taking orders, though his heartbeat told an entirely different story, bumping around inside his chest like a startled deer.

Lavinia tried not to pay too much attention to it and looked down at the menu instead. "I want this."

Rosaline glanced over at what she'd chosen and raised an eyebrow. "That's awful for you."

"Not anymore." Lavinia smiled and turned the menu slightly so Rosaline could get a better look.

The sandwich Lavinia had chosen looked spectacularly unhealthy. 

Thick bread, several layers of meat, melted cheese, salted vegetables, a rich sauce, and enough carbs to make her former self reconsider what she'd eaten for the rest of the day. 

Now, though, none of it mattered. Calories weren't exactly a concern anymore, and neither was cholesterol.

"One advantage of being undead," Lavinia said as she handed the menu back to the waiter. "I can eat irresponsibly forever."

Valerie leaned closer with an approving smile. "That's the spirit."

The others ordered in turn, and whether by coincidence or intention, none of them chose exactly the same thing. 

Evangeline picked soup and fries, Cordelia ordered a salad with bread, while Evelyn chose something lighter at first, only to add pie after a few seconds of hesitation. 

Adelaide ordered grilled meat and vegetables, Celestine chose pasta, and Rosaline selected something large enough that Lavinia suspected she'd picked it purely because it looked impressive.

Once the waiter left, the table relaxed again, although every few moments Lavinia felt eyes from across the room. 

The werewolves were looking at them, and the vampires occasionally looked back. 

Neither side made much effort to pretend otherwise. At this distance, whispers weren't private. 

Vampires could hear the wolves, but so could the wolves hear them, and that made the otherwise ordinary restaurant feel slightly awkward. 

Humans could at least rely on distance to provide the illusion of privacy; the two supernatural species didn't have that luxury.

Evangeline apparently decided the awkwardness was intolerable. She leaned slightly toward Lavinia and said lightly, "Their ears are quite cute."

Several vampires giggled, while across the room, five sets of wolf ears shifted.

Lavinia immediately reached across Rosaline and poked Evangeline's hand. "Behave."

Evangeline looked offended. "I am behaving. Their ears are cute."

One of the male werewolves glanced toward them, and Evangeline noticed the look before smiling back at him.

Lavinia poked her again, harder this time. "We said we'd have an uneventful night."

Evangeline rolled her eyes. "Society is governed by laws, and I'm free to say whatever I want. If I think the dog ears are cute, what's the problem?"

Lavinia's lips twitched before she slapped one hand over Evangeline's mouth, her shoulders immediately beginning to shake. 

Valerie looked away while biting her lip to suppress her laughter, Rosaline covered her face, and Cordelia's eyes widened in amused disbelief as Evangeline stared indignantly at Lavinia over the hand covering her mouth.

"You are actively making it worse," Lavinia whispered.

Evangeline pulled Lavinia's hand away. "Humans get to say whatever they want about us, so why can't I say what I want now? That's a double standard."

"It might be." Lavinia spread her arms before tugging lightly at the collar of her sweater. 

"But we aren't wearing our dresses right now, and I don't feel like streaking through the mall because somebody shreds my clothes."

That earned another round of laughter from the vampires. 

Valerie ran her tongue lightly over her lips and settled farther back in her chair before saying, "We should all relax. It isn't often we get to walk around without backlash or some problem following us."

Evangeline considered that before finally slumping back into her seat. "Fine."

Across the room, one of the male werewolves snorted and looked back down at his menu.

Lavinia glanced toward him. There were only five wolves here compared with eight vampires, but werewolves had greater overall numbers globally.

Another little imbalance that lingered somewhere in the back of her mind whenever she thought about the two species.

Unlike vampires, werewolves still looked much more human.

Mostly.

Lavinia glanced at the ears and tails, then remembered the strength, speed, regeneration, and the fact that every one of them could transform into an enormous wolf. 

She paused for a moment before smiling faintly to herself.

She was subtracting quite a lot.

Lavinia sat straighter as the waiter approached their table carrying a platter, the smell of food reaching them before he did. 

While waiting for the plates to be distributed, Evelyn glanced toward the werewolf table and softly asked, "Have any of you ever seen one transform?"

Every vampire shook her head. They simply hadn't spent enough time around werewolves for that, and the few encounters they'd had weren't exactly memorable in that sense. 

Mia, Ava, and Chloe had all remained humanoid around them when they encountered them.

A female werewolf across the room exhaled loudly before saying in a snarky tone, "In case you forgot, we can hear you."

Valerie smiled toward her. "We're aware."

The werewolf stared at her, and Valerie stared back without losing her smile. Evangeline glanced between them before grumbling, "Maybe I shouldn't have called them puppies."

Lavinia slowly looked at her.

Evangeline shrugged and picked up one of her fries. "Too late now."

Their food arriving fully broke the tension, or at least dulled it enough that everyone could focus on something else. 

Lavinia lifted her sandwich and took a bite, her eyes brightening almost immediately as she chewed.

After swallowing, she smiled at Evelyn. "You were right. This place is good."

Evelyn's expression softened. "I thought you'd like it."

Cordelia twirled a forkful of lettuce through dressing before taking a bite. She chewed thoughtfully, then nodded in agreement. "It is very good."

A human couple at a nearby table leaned closer to one another, and Lavinia's pointed ears twitched almost immediately.

They were whispering so quietly that a normal human wouldn't have heard them, which might have been useful if the restaurant didn't currently contain eight vampires and five werewolves.

"So who would win?" one whispered. "Vampire or werewolf?"

The other hesitated. "Depends, right?"

Lavinia's empty red eyes rolled around before she gave a quiet laugh. "That might be a small issue."

One of the male werewolves immediately snapped his gaze toward the human couple. "Instead of trying to figure out who's stronger, maybe just eat your food."

The humans froze.

Adelaide rested her chin against one hand while taking a sip from her drink. After swallowing, she glanced toward the werewolf table and said, "We're very different."

Evangeline stirred her soup with a spoon. "If vampires acted that aggressively normally, we'd be back to square one with people calling us monsters."

The wolf who had spoken curled his lip and looked toward them. "I wasn't being aggressive. If you do nothing, humans think they can walk all over you."

He gestured slightly toward the vampires. "Like they do with you."

All eight vampires stilled at once.

It wasn't coordinated, but it might as well have been. Forks stopped halfway toward mouths, fingers ceased moving, and eight sets of solid red eyes turned toward the werewolf.

His ears twitched.

For several seconds, he held their stare before snorting and looking away.

Celestine calmly picked up a butter knife and spread butter across a piece of bread. "When exactly have humans walked over us?"

One of the other werewolves nudged the man who'd spoken, but he ignored it and looked back across the room. 

"Who was it that went on an interview and got the building blown up? Who had blood clinics attacked? Who almost got hunted by people calling themselves Hunters?"

The restaurant became noticeably quieter.

Lavinia took another bite of her sandwich, her eyes drifting around the room at the humans who were suddenly finding their meals extraordinarily interesting. 

Wonderful. They'd barely been in the restaurant long enough to eat half their food, and somehow they were already becoming the night's entertainment.

She chewed, swallowed, and sighed. "We've had a little more to deal with. That's all."

The werewolf snorted. "That's not all. Humans walk all over vampires, and vampires do nothing about it."

Lavinia's expression flattened, but she didn't respond.

The werewolf leaned back in his seat. "Wolves look out for one another." His gaze moved over the vampires before his mouth twisted slightly. "I guess whatever care you have for each other is about as fake as the beauty."

Valerie slowly lowered her fork.

"Are you trying to provoke us?" she asked, her voice losing its usual playful edge.

The werewolf looked at her, but Valerie didn't give him much time to answer. Her empty red eyes narrowed as she leaned forward slightly. 

"What exactly have werewolves done that makes you think you're so different? We're more or less in the same situation. Humans don't fully trust us, and they don't fully trust you either, yet you're sitting there acting like vampires failed some test and that somehow makes wolves better."

The werewolf's mouth tightened.

Lavinia reached across the table and caught Valerie's wrist, squeezing it lightly until Valerie looked toward her. 

"I definitely can't and won't be okay with losing the rest of the night because of a an idiotic dog who barks at us."

Valerie froze for a moment before the edge disappeared from her expression, replaced by a smile. "Fine."

Lavinia released her wrist and looked toward the werewolf table once more before deliberately turning away. 

Not all werewolves behaved like this. 

They'd even met an Alpha not long ago, and Chloe had been infinitely easier to deal with despite wandering into a bombed building and immediately asking whether something dumb had happened.

The humans in the restaurant began breathing normally again once it became clear no fight was about to break out. 

Conversations cautiously resumed, and the vampires returned to their food, with the tension around their own table dissolving surprisingly quickly.

That was mostly because none of them seemed to respect the concept of personal plates.

Valerie stole fries from Evangeline, prompting Evangeline to slap her hand away.

Valerie waited several seconds and stole another one anyway, grinning when Evangeline narrowed her eyes.

Evelyn carefully cut into her pie while Celestine watched. The moment Evelyn lifted the fork, Celestine intercepted her wrist and leaned forward to take the bite herself.

Evelyn stared at her in disbelief while Celestine smiled innocently. "You could have asked."

"I could have," Celestine agreed.

Adelaide reached toward the pie a few moments later, but Evelyn was prepared this time and quickly pulled the plate closer to herself. "No."

Adelaide laughed. "Just one bite."

"You already had one."

"Celestine had one."

"That's why you can't!"

Cordelia smiled while watching them. "You could all simply order your own pie."

"That removes the challenge," Adelaide said, earning a horrified look from Evelyn and a giggle from Celestine.

Lavinia shook her head and took another bite of her sandwich. 

Whatever lingering irritation she'd felt toward the werewolf table was already fading beneath the familiar scents surrounding her. 

Tangerine and honey mixed with cocoa and cherries, lavender and chai, cream and fresh leaves, taffy and honeysuckle, vanilla and chocolate, and black cherries and red wine, all of it comfortably familiar after nearly two weeks spent constantly around one another.

It was strange how quickly that had happened.

Two weeks wasn't much.

As a human, Lavinia might have known someone for two weeks and still considered them little more than an acquaintance. 

She could work beside someone for months without ever knowing much about them beyond what they did during their shifts, where they occasionally ate, or what they complained about when work became irritating.

With vampires, everything had compressed.

They ate together, slept near one another, played together, fought beside one another, bled on one another, and occasionally drank from one another. 

Lavinia knew their scents well enough that she could probably identify any of them with her eyes closed, and the thought of one of them being seriously hurt provoked a reaction in her that she'd once reserved for people she'd known for years.

Maybe that werewolf's comment had annoyed her precisely because of that.

Fake care.

Lavinia almost snorted.

He didn't know what he was talking about.

She glanced toward Valerie, who was currently attempting to steal another fry while Evangeline guarded them with one hand.

The werewolves had their own instincts.

So did vampires.

Different didn't mean lesser.

Lavinia looked away from the table for only a moment, distracted by movement somewhere near the restaurant entrance. 

When she turned back, something felt slightly wrong.

Her sandwich was gone.

Lavinia blinked.

Then she looked beside her.

Valerie was holding it with both hands.

A large bite was already missing, and her cheeks were puffed slightly as she chewed.

Lavinia stared at her.

Valerie stared back, utterly unashamed.

A smile slowly spread across Lavinia's face. "You could've just ordered your own."

Valerie kept chewing for another few seconds before swallowing. "Things taste better when they aren't mine."

Lavinia giggled and glanced around the table.

Evangeline had responded to Valerie's theft by taking fries directly from Valerie's plate despite the fact that they had originally belonged to Evangeline anyway. 

Celestine was trying to negotiate for another piece of Evelyn's pie, while Adelaide appeared to be waiting for Evelyn to become distracted.

Rosaline had somehow acquired part of Cordelia's bread, and Cordelia seemed more amused than bothered by it.

"I guess all of you feel the same way," Lavinia said.

Valerie smiled and took another bite of Lavinia's sandwich.

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