#and then being able to get close to flooring it afterward without having slinging issues when straightening out the car

[violet-dragongirl]

I'm getting so much closer to the standard setup in PCars 2. Just need to focus when I'm in the game, take a good break after good results, and keep improving on my consistency.

[werewolfdays]

Valentine’s Day Drabble

just wanted to do a cute lil thing for Valentine’s Day cause I’m hella single and need to get the fluffy feelings somehow. Hope everyone has gross romantic dates and if you’re single like me, don't forget to treat yo self! -

Listening to the gentle chorus of nature around us, feeling the light breeze through my white fur, and watching Nadya sleep soundly against me. This is peace. This was the feeling I was absolutely certain I would never be able to get and I knew it wasn’t a dream because I’ve never had a dream as good as this. The fact that this was something even my own tormented mind couldn’t fabricate to taunt me made it all the more real. 

We started coming here to relax after my patrols. Having some quiet time in the woods with Nadya was my favorite way to wind down. She had leaned herself against my wolf form while she read her current novel and I curled around her in a way that made her call me a giant neck pillow. After a little while I noticed her body started to slowly sink down, the signs of an approaching nap unmistakable, and I knew my soft fur and warmth was only enabling it. Eventually her open book came to rest on her chest, her eyes fluttering closed with her glasses still on, her breathing evening out to a steady rhythm. I curled around her a little tighter to offer more comfort and she nuzzled against me sleepily. 

I was perfectly content with lying here and watching her sleep. Nadya was such a heavy sleeper, it made me envious, but also pleased that she was able to get proper rest whenever she wanted it. If anyone deserved to sleep well, it was definitely her. The deeper she got into her slumber, the more weight her breaths had until she was bordering on snoring. They were adorable little sighs that I couldn’t get enough of. Then I admired the way the soft sunlight graced her beautiful features. Just looking at her like this reminded me that there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do for her.

It was so soothing that I even felt my own eyes growing heavy. I was torn between joining her for a nap and watching over her. I always have a complicated relationship with sleep on a good day, but being with Nadya made it easier sometimes. It made me think that maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if I rested my eyes for a few minutes. I could still keep my other senses alert for anything that could disturb us. 

A loud groan caused a startled jolt to go through me, making my eyes snap open again. I could immediately tell that it had been more than a few minutes by the change of sunlight telling me that evening was on its way. Nadya was still out like a light against me, so it wasn’t her. My head quickly turned to look for the source and I saw my sister trudging over to us.

“Finally,” Skye said in exasperation, “You know, I don’t think Toby understands that when I ask where you guys are and he says ‘outside’, it doesn’t exactly narrow it down.” 

Nadya stirred slightly against me, but remained asleep. I threw Skye a glare, baring my fangs at her with a soft growl that I hoped wouldn’t disturb the sleeping girl. Don’t you wake her up. 

Skye held up her hands briefly and crouched down in front of us, “I hate to break this little nap party up,” she said in a quiet tone, “but they need Nadya at the clinic.” 

They can manage without her, I thought, letting out a displeased grumble. Nadya looked so peaceful lying against me and there was no way I wanted to wake her up. I was just as comfortable, reluctant to move even an inch out of our perfect positions. 

“Yeah, I get it.” Skye said, glancing somewhat regretfully over at Nadya’s sleeping form, “But she’ll probably be a little upset if you don’t let her help. Or worse,” she paused for dramatic effect, leaning in a bit closer, “she’ll be disappointed.” 

I let out a quiet snarl, annoyed with Skye’s words, but also knowing she was right. We both knew I wouldn’t disappoint Nadya if I could help it. So I released a long sigh and turned my attention to the sleeping human snuggled into my fur. My snout gently nudged her head, only receiving a grimace from her in response. She sleepily pushed my muzzle away after my next nudge, making me huff in amusement. Nadya must have been sleeping pretty hard if she was this difficult to rouse. I finally got a groan out of her once I licked her cheek and shifted my body enough to begin propping her up.

Nadya blinked a few times in confusion, slowly reaching up to take her glasses off and rub at her eyes, “What?” she mumbled.

“Good morning, Sleeping Beauty.” Skye cooed sarcastically, “We have a clean-up on aisle four.” 

Nadya frowned deeply at her, still half asleep, “What are you on about?”

“They need you at the clinic.” Skye replied, sounding slightly disappointed that Nadya was too tired to catch on to the joke. “Something about broken bones or someone’s head up another guy’s ass, I don’t know. I didn’t really pay attention.”

“Ah, crap, okay.” Nadya set her book aside and groaned loudly while she pushed herself up, running a hand through her hair a couple of times before looking over at me while I sat up on my haunches beside her. “Did you sleep too?”

Skye snickered and spoke for me, “Like a Christmas puppy by the fire.” 

Nadya chuckled, putting an arm around me and resting her forehead against my shoulder. I carefully rested my chin on the top of her head, shutting my eyes to let her fill my senses. We stayed like that for a few prolonged moments, long enough that I thought she was falling back asleep, until she suddenly snapped herself out of it. “Okay, alright, I’m awake.” 

“Up and at ‘em.” Skye stood and reached a hand out for Nadya to take. My sister hauled her up with ease when she accepted it and patted her on the back. “Attagirl.” 

I watched Nadya brush herself off and bend down to grab her book and glasses, looking at me expectantly once she had them in her grasp, “You coming with us?”

Since I took an unexpected nap and was still in my wolf form, I wanted to go for another run before the sun went down so I could properly reorient myself. Maybe even do one more quick patrol to make use of the daylight. So I shook my head at Nadya in answer.

“Okay, I’ll see you at home before dinner then?” She asked, putting her book into her backpack and slinging it over her shoulders. This time, I nodded. Nadya kneeled down in front of me, reaching up and tilting my head down so she could plant a kiss on my forehead. “Be safe.” she told me softly, fingers brushing through my fur. 

I gently bumped my forehead against hers in a silent promise to her request, nuzzling into her for a moment longer before we parted. My gaze remained on Nadya and Skye as they started back towards the Lodge. Nadya paused at the edge of the clearing, looking back at me and giving one final little wave goodbye. My tail wagged and once she was out of sight, I stood up and bolted off to the right, deeper into the woods. 

My paws tore through the forest floor with ease while I ran as fast as my legs would take me. Carving a path through thick nature at this speed could be considered reckless, but my reflexes and instincts took over and allowed me to skillfully navigate through the trees without issue. Greens and browns passed by in a blur. It felt like I was flying. My senses exploded with energy, my heart thumped with excitement and exertion, awakening both mind and body. Each breath I took carried all of the fresh scents of nature, filling my lungs with cleansing air. My golden eyes caught patterns and movements to pursue, which dragged me deeper into the wilderness without any destination in mind. I was free whenever I ran like this. 

I ran until I reached the edge of the perimeter, until the sun was too low to peek through the trees. My pace only slowed slightly when I was moving along the perimeter of the grounds so I could use my senses to try and spot anything out of the ordinary, but there was nothing to be found and my speed picked up again. Dinner was soon and I knew I had to make my way back to the Lodge. Back to Nadya. I paused briefly to throw my head up and howl, both to inform others of my return and to let out that last bit of excited energy I had into the sky. 

Nadya wasn’t in our room when I got back. Figuring she must still be in the clinic, I decided to shift back and take a shower before heading to the Den for dinner. I was a little worried that she wasn’t back yet and hoped that whoever needed help wasn’t in too much danger. Nadya was always so hard on herself when she wasn’t able to immediately fix her patients. I’ll stop by the clinic to check in just in case. 

I saw that the clinic was closed up when I got there. No patients were lying in the recovery beds. In fact, it looked like the clinic had barely been used at all today. I shrugged to myself and continued on. It must’ve not been that bad, Nadya probably went straight to the Den afterwards to hang out with Skye and Toby if she wasn’t in our room reading or studying. Though I was a little annoyed that it probably wasn’t necessary to wake her from a perfectly good nap. 

Then I got to the Den and saw that she wasn’t there either. Okay, relax, this is a big place. I thought to myself to calm the sudden thumping of my heart. She can be doing anything anywhere else. Toby was working the bar, so I went over to him for some answers. 

“Have you seen Nadya?” I asked while he was cleaning glasses.

He nodded, “Yeah, she’s with Skye.” 

I nodded in relief, thinking that was likely. “Where are they?”

“They’ll be back soon.” Toby answered. 

My eyes narrowed at his subtle deflection. “What are they doing?”

Toby avoided my gaze, putting all of his focus on the glass he was cleaning. I could see it was spotless. “Uh, they’ll let you know when they come back.” 

“Toby…” he only hummed, scrubbing the edge of the glass almost obsessively. I reached over the bar and plucked it from his hands, ignoring his protests and slammed it down loudly on the surface of the wood, glaring at him. “What are they doing?” 

He sighed and gave me a level stare, “It’s a surprise and that’s all I’m gonna say about it.” 

“A surprise?” I asked with a raised eyebrow. “And you’re in on it?” 

“All three of us, yeah.” 

“For what?” 

He chuckled and shrugged sarcastically at me, “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because we love you and you do a lot for us?” 

“Toby,” I sighed, handing the glass back to him and he scowled briefly at the fingerprints I left on it, “I do everything I do because you’re my pack. I don’t need you guys to repay me or anything.” 

“It was mostly Nadya’s idea.” he said while he polished the blemishes, “She asked us if we could help, so we did. And it really wasn’t that big a deal to get it done.” 

“Just tell me.” I pleaded.

He cocked an eyebrow at me, “And ruin the surprise? You really want to see Nadya deflate? I’d never hear the end of it from her.” 

“Fine.” I groaned, settling myself onto a barstool. “Pour me a drink while we wait.” 

I was actually curious beneath my hesitation. Of course I was touched that my pack wanted to do something nice for me, even though I was sure I didn’t deserve it. I knew I would love whatever they put together, especially since it was Nadya’s idea. She knew me better than anyone. Anything that she did for me was always an act that I cherished. I was already planning a way to make it up to her, if only to see her face light up. 

About halfway through my beer, I sensed Nadya approaching behind me. Her scent filled my lungs and I paused mid-sip to smile into my glass. Nadya’s arms wrapped around my waist as she stood on the tips of her toes to rest her chin on my shoulder. I set my drink down and tilted my head to the side, shutting my eyes for a second and leaning into her. 

“Hi, Jay.” Nadya greeted with a smile in her voice. 

“Hi,” I murmured back, swiveling around on the high stool to face her and see that gorgeous smile for myself. My arms came up to wrap around her neck and pull her closer to me. “What have you been up to?” 

“Do you want to see?” 

I nodded, but rested my forehead against hers, “You know what I want first.” 

Nadya knew exactly what I was asking for. It felt like forever since I kissed her last even though it was only this morning. That was still too long for me and the sweet taste of her lips reminded me of that. I could feel that she was eager to show me the surprise, but I also felt her melt into the slow cadence of our kisses. Feeling as deprived as me, she wrapped her arms even tighter around my waist and I brushed my fingers through her silky hair in response. She pulled away from me and the gentle tinge of red I saw across her cheeks reminded me that we were in a public place. 

“So,” Toby said slowly, drawing me even further out of the trance Nadya had me in, “Are you guys done, or…?” 

I turned to see the flat smile he had on his face, obviously from having a front row seat to our brief make-out session, and rolled my eyes, “Don’t be a homophobe.” I jabbed jokingly. 

Nadya laughed, pulling me off of the barstool and began leading me out of the Den, “You coming, Toby?”

After Toby finished giving me a playful scowl, he hopped over the bar to join us, “Yup.” 

I patiently followed Nadya through the Lodge with Toby following closely behind. Our destination wasn’t far from the Den, only a few quick turns and I realized we were heading to one of the larger empty rooms that some wanted to convert into another training room or a meeting room. Personally, I wouldn’t mind another training room. Maybe some more exercise equipment, heavier weights, more training weapons to practice with. But something told me that’s not exactly what these three had in mind for it. 

When Nadya reached the door, she paused with her hand on the handle, “Close your eyes.” 

“Really?” I asked, amused with the theatrics.

“Really.” then she grabbed one of my hands, bringing it up and shielding my eyes with it, “And no peeking.” 

I wasn’t sure why it mattered if I peeked or not considering I’d see it in a few seconds anyway, but I obeyed her order, shutting my eyes tight and covering them with my hand. “Okay.” 

Nadya’s hand wrapped around my other wrist, slowly leading me into the room. Skye’s scent hit me and I knew that she must have been waiting here for us. Being more or less blindfolded in front of my mischievous little sister made me tense up defensively for a moment, knowing that she was probably dying to mess with me, but I trusted Nadya to protect me from her antics. 

We probably got halfway into the room when Nadya gave me the okay to open my eyes. The room was mostly empty apart from a few pieces of furniture, like the couch and table by the fireplace that would be nice to hang out at after a long day, and a couple comfy chairs to accompany it, but there was one thing in particular that I couldn’t miss. A grand piano rested in its own corner by the fireplace. A very beautiful and expensive looking piano. The urge to play it was immediate and strong, I haven’t played a piano like that since I was a kid. It reminded me of the one I grew up with. Even though I knew it wasn’t, there was still something familiar about this particular piano that I couldn’t quite place. 

Skye was standing right next to it with a massive grin on her face, “Well?” she asked, motioning to it, “What do you think?”

“It’s,” I shook my head in disbelief, stepping closer to get a better look at it, “It’s gorgeous, how the hell did you guys get it? It must’ve cost a fortune.”

“It was technically stolen.” Skye shrugged nonchalantly. 

I blinked at her, “Okay, now I only have more questions.” 

“It was Nadya’s idea.” she pointed at my girlfriend who blushed.

“The stealing part was mostly you.” Nadya said to Skye and then addressed me, “I wanted to get you a piano and I went to Skye for help because, well, I wanted it to have a specific… feature. I wasn’t sure it was even possible, but Skye knew where one was. So the stealing part was pretty much her idea.” 

“What specific feature are you talking about?” I looked at the piano curiously now that I knew it was very rare in some way. 

Skye answered, “She wanted to get a piano that dad played.” 

My whole body froze. I looked up at my sister in shock, then over at Nadya. She smiled sweetly, giving me a single nod in confirmation, and I turned my attention back to the piano with new eyes and a tightening in my chest. My father played this piano. I reached out with shaking fingers to gently touch the keys and that’s when it clicked. This instrument was familiar because I’ve seen it before. 

“This was the Kincades’ piano,” Skye confirmed my realization, “Remember when we went to visit them and dad would sneak us away when Garret and Declan were annoying us to play the piano?”

Of course I remembered, “You stole it from Miranda?” I can only imagine how pissed the Kincade alpha will be if she finds out. 

“The twins owed me a favor, I took a big fall for them when we were younger,” Skye explained. There were literally endless stories of all the trouble Skye and the Kincade twins, Mitchell and Amara, got into when Skye was living with the pack, so I wasn’t surprised about that, “They managed to switch this piano with a new one. Miranda doesn’t even play, so I doubt she’ll ever notice. It was literally just sitting and collecting dust.” 

“Transportation was mostly me,” Toby chimed in and I glanced over at him, “My family has shipping connections. It wasn’t easy getting it here, the roads are so damn narrow for a truck, but we managed it. Got it moved in here today while you were out on patrol.”

My gaze landed on the piano again. Just remembering the times where I sat right next to my father while he played a fun melody on this very instrument, my fingers hitting the next notes that he left for me on my side of the piano. Playing a song with him felt like dancing, the synced up partnership that we had. He would play his part and look to me to continue, and when we fell into the rhythm of a song, I would smile so broad that it hurt my cheeks. 

A few stray tears fell freely and I quickly brushed them off, “I don’t even know what to say.” words could express how much this meant to me. 

Nadya’s hand met mine, our fingers lacing together while she leaned into me, “Is it too much for you?” 

“No,” I shook my head, giving her a reassuring smile, “No, not at all. It’s everything.” 

Nadya’s gentle smile made my heart swell even more. She leaned in to kiss me on the cheek before quietly saying, “I love you.” 

I pulled her into an embrace where I hoped she could feel just how grateful I was. I held her tight so she would know how much I loved her too. I buried my face in her neck for a few moments to take all of her in. Behold her in utter disbelief and have her fill my senses, telling me that she was real, that someone really did love me this much. And she wasn’t the only one. My head perked up to look at Toby and Skye, seeing their smiles, and motioned for them to join the hug. Holding my pack in a group hug overwhelmed me with even more emotions and I couldn’t stop the stupid tears, but more importantly, I couldn’t fully bring myself to care. 

“Thank you.” I finally said to them once I disentangled myself and dragged my hands over my face. 

“It was nothing.” Skye replied with a dismissive wave, “It was actually pretty fun.” 

Toby snorted, “Yeah, it’s good to do a heist every now and then.”

“Definitely worth it.” Nadya agreed, running her hand up and down my back soothingly. I stared longingly at the piano again, wanting to play it, but also nervous about having an audience. Nadya seemed to have sensed this and she added, “This room is completely private, so you can come here to play by yourself whenever you want.” 

That reassured me. An idea popped into my head as I gave the room another onceover. With the cozy fireplace, beautiful piano, and stunning views of nature through the windows, this could be even more of a relaxing place than the Den. I wanted to use the rest of the free space for books to make a library. Nadya would love that. Just the thought of coming here with her, letting her study or read quietly by the fire while I played the piano, filled my heart with the same peace I felt with her earlier today. I knew I had to make that happen. 

I looked at each of their faces, “I love you all. You know that, right?”

Nadya took my hand again, making my gaze land firmly on her. She had me entranced in just one second. “We do.”