So, hi guys. As I promised (or at least I think I did xD), here is my Wolfish story. I'm not sure what title I'm gonna go with, so please make some suggestions! I've had this for a very long time and I still don't call it anything other than Wolfy!

Anyway, this story will be SanZo centric, (yes, SanZo, not ZoSan), with a very few planned appearances by other characters. Which will not be soon. I don't know how often I'll update, since it's taken me like a year and a half to post this, but I'll do my best. Rated T for language and mentions of nudity thus far. xP

Enjoy!

Shit, it's getting late!

He hurriedly dropped his keys and jacket and ran for the door. He snagged his bag off the floor as he went and slammed the door behind himself. He didn't bother with the lock; no one who could do any damage was going to break in.

He bypassed his car, giving it a longing look as if it could hear his mental apology. He really wished he could just go for a pleasant drive, but that wasn't going to happen. Not tonight.

The streets disappeared as he ran, the moonlight illuminating his surroundings such that he could see civilization fading behind him. He already knew where he was and where he was going, it didn't really matter to have visual aid, but the moonlight helped him know how much time he had. Judging by the light, he was guessing not much.

His breathing picked up with his heart rate and he pushed his legs to go faster. He needed to get further away. He could already feel it starting and that wasn't good. He shouldn't have been out so long, he knew, but he had forgotten what night it was. Had he known, he might've left the restaurant a little sooner, but his days bled into one another, leaving him without much of an idea what day it was. But, he knew now.

His muscles ached and his lungs burned, but he wasn't far enough yet. He yanked his belt off as he ran and threw it up into a tree. The forest had almost fully consumed him, but he still had to go further. A moment later, he fumbled with his tie and tossed it haphazardly at a branch. He knew it caught, but he still turned to look as he began slowing down. He turned his nose to the air and took a deep breath, smelling the clean, earthy scent of nature. He'd gone far enough, he decided.

He undid his buttons with practiced ease and flung his shirt up into a low-hanging branch that he might've hit his head on, had he kept running. His pants were already falling down so he just kicked them off and tossed them up on top of his shirt. He'd left his shoes at his apartment, so he didn't have to worry about bothering with the laces and he also wasn't wearing any socks. So, he stripped his boxers from his body and began running again, naked as a jaybird.

The aches in his muscles that had been purely from exertion sharpened, growing worse and worse. He felt like he'd been punched repeatedly in the mouth and he had to stop to catch his breath. He wasn't handling it as well as he usually did; he needed to calm down. He was already away from people. He didn't have to hurry anymore.

He strode forward as the first of his changes took hold of his body. His teeth ached horribly and he could no longer close his mouth around his canines. His hands prickled as claws grew and he threw back his head, blond hair falling everywhere as he let out a howl.

oOo

A howl pierced through the air, causing him to pause. It sounded distant. Were there wolves anywhere near his area? He didn't think so.

He started to pull off his shirt, followed by his haramaki, as another howl broke through the relative silence of the forest. The pitch sent shivers down his spine. It sounded like a good challenge if he ever heard one. He kicked his boots off and set his swords down gently. He then wrapped his clothes around the swords and put them in the case he'd brought with him. He would have preferred a bag, but he would work with what he had.

He pulled his pants off and tossed them on top of the case before wedging it up against a tree. Just in case. Then, he slid out of his underwear and started running towards the howl. Whatever, or whoever, had howled was definitely worth looking into.

The first of his transformation caught up with a vengeance and he nearly toppled over with the forceful pains all over his body. Several places started to stretch and break and he couldn't hold in a pained howl. He never had been very good at managing his changes, but it still shocked him every time how painful it could be. He just hoped he didn't end up doing something regrettable because of it.

His shoulders popped out of place and he did his best not to scream, but he didn't have any measurable amount of control over his body at the moment. He cried out in pain as his joints all separated and shifted; his knees snapped backwards and his ribcage exploded out against the protests of his skin, pulling it painfully tight. He fell to the ground and barely registered as another howl filled the air. He knew it wasn't his, it didn't sound like his voice. It sounded like something was coming.

He fought hard to stand and moved away from the howling. Although it had seemed like a good idea when the howl sounded like pain, possibly mid-change, now that it sounded developed, he was worried. If it was someone like him, they were obviously already fully transformed. He couldn't defend himself as he was, so he had to keep away from the other wolf. One large ripple of pain shuddered through him and he half-screamed, half-growled. His skin itched terribly and he knew he was only a minute or two away from finished.

His limbs crackled, bones extended, joints bent in ways no human joints would ever bend; backwards, sideways, both ways, all just to snap right back into place. He felt his organs doing horrible things inside his body and his change stalled. He was still in pain, but it wasn't pulsing and moving around like it had been. He wasn't finished, he knew, not yet, so he took several deep breaths and tried to induce the change. Whatever it was inside of him causing him such pain didn't need much coaxing to start up again and he howled as everything inside him expanded before anything outside of him expanded.

Dark green fur sprouted all the way down his body, claws extended from the ends of his fingers and a tail jutted out from the base of his spine as he was wrenched forward to crouch on all fours. All at once, the pain ceased and he loosened up. He padded around experimentally for a moment, just testing to see if the pain was going to come back. When it didn't, he took off running as fast as his four legs could carry him.

oOo

Where did those cries come from? He turned left and right, but he couldn't hear any other howls. I could swear it sounded like pain.

He let out an involuntary whine as he peered into the darkness. He could see every flower and every rock through the darkness, hear every owl hooting and cricket chirping, and smell every sleeping woodland creature for miles around, but he couldn't detect any sign of another wolf. He didn't suppose he'd know what to do if he encountered another wolf, but it seemed like a safe enough idea. He'd never seen another of his kind before, though he'd smelled them once before and knew of their existence. He wasn't conceited enough to believe that he was the one and only werewolf.

Another of the pained howls sounded through the night and he darted towards the cry. He felt like he needed to help them, whoever they were. The howls were only half-wolf, though, he could tell. They must be having trouble with changing, he figured.

Then, he caught the scent.

He couldn't have described it in words, even if he wanted to. It was indisputably wolf, and it was powerful and delicious. He'd never smelled anything quite as intriguing as that scent, so he followed it. His paws barely made a sound as he dashed in the direction of the scent. He knew that if he could smell them, they could probably smell him, and he didn't want the other wolf to run away.

After a minute, he could hear the other wolf moving, without any consideration towards making itself quiet. That wolf was searching him out. He would have grinned if he'd still had the human capability to do so, but his wolf-lips just twitched in a menacing sort of way. He was kind of searching out the other wolf, too, so that wolf was making it easier on him. He could smell the other wolf closer now. He wanted to see it, to really know that he wasn't alone.

Another howl; different, but the same. The other wolf was calling him; he could hear it in the tone. So, he answered. He threw his head back as he ran and howled with all his might. It was a signal. "I'm here," he was saying. The sound of the other wolf's breathing and footsteps changed, altered just a little bit and he found himself altering with them.

The welcoming, calm, creature-free silence of wide open space beckoned him into a clearing. He recognized it as a place neighborhood teenagers would come to hang out and get high, but it was empty tonight. Not for long, he thought. The other wolf was close, and he ached to just cover the rest of the distance to find it, to see it, but he stayed put. He didn't know if the other wolf was friendly or if it would try to rip him to pieces.

He had to be prepared for anything.

oOo

The sounds stopped, except for panting. He slowed his own movements and carefully stepped forward. At the edge of a clearing, he halted. He wasn't unconfident or lacking in the kind of stupidity it took to be brave, but even as reckless as he could be, it didn't seem smart to just step out into the open. He could fend for himself if the opportunity arose, and he'd be damn good at it, too, but he was new in town. And, he didn't know much about wolf-culture, but if the other wolf had claimed the land or some shit he might not want to cross it. Something about "territorial" or another nature-documentary type word crossed his mind, but he disregarded it. The other wolf didn't smell particularly dangerous. At best he would say it smelled cautious of him as well. But, he wouldn't know one way or the other if he didn't step out.

Carefully, he padded out into the clearing, revealing himself wholly to the other wolf. He could see the dark shape hidden from the moonlight by the cover of trees. The shadow creature stepped out into the clearing with him and his jaw nearly touched the ground. He'd never seen another wolf, never even seen himself as a wolf, so it was a sight to behold.

The other wolf was white in the moonlight, but upon closer inspection it looked more like platinum blond. It shone like the full moon itself as it stood tall on four legs, head held high in a show of power. It had a lean build, skinnier than him, he was sure, but it still managed to look strong, like it could hold its own in a fight. What threw him was the eyebrow. Set aside the fact that wolves don't have eyebrows, it was fucking curly.

"What's with your eyebrow?" he asked, hoping the rumors he'd heard were true, and wolves could understand each other. It occurred to him a moment later that perhaps that wasn't the best greeting in the world, but it was already out.

The white-blond wolf recoiled slightly, its deep blue eyes seeming to blink in confusion. Well, I guess he heard me, he thought.

"My... huh? Are you trying to pick a fight?" It was a strange voice, almost like subtitles across the inside of his eyelids. It wasn't really a voice, although he could hear some sort of short growling sound coming from the blond wolf.

It was awesome, he decided.

oOo

He stared at the dark green wolf, having trouble even with his enhanced eyesight seeing its nearly black form against the foliage. He had never communicated with anyone while he was a wolf before, so he was thoroughly gobsmacked that the dark wolf could just strut out into the clearing and start talking. Insulting him, no less. It wasn't like the wolf's mouth actually moved. No, it was more like the voice of someone in a dream. It was there, because they really were saying things, but it didn't have any describable or distinguishable qualities. But, damn, it sounded good.

"I might be. You gonna fight me?" the dark wolf spoke, or thought, or whatever.

The pale wolf shrugged the best he could as a wolf, his sharp shoulder blades coming up behind his ears. It occurred to him when he saw the other wolf's reaction that that looked more threatening than nonchalant. "Er, I meant to shrug... Can't do that without human shoulders..." he said carefully, not quite sure if the other wolf was in fight-mode or flight-mode, but certain that something was about to happen.

"You're... like me?" the dark wolf asked, his voiceless words sounding hesitant. The blond wolf nodded and immediately knew that gesture got across the right way. The dark green wolf took a cautious step forward, seeming to size him up as it slowly moved away from the trees.

"I've never met another werewolf before," the green wolf stated, and he shook his head.

"Me either," he said, stepping up carefully to get a closer look at the dark wolf. Not that his eyesight was lacking, he just had to see.

The dark wolf dipped his head a bit lower then lifted it up again, examining him as much as he was examining the dark wolf. "I feel like we should be fighting or something... Like, for territory." The dark wolf's soundless voice spoke in a way that made him sound reluctant to act on such a proposition.

"You wanna? I'm kinda hyper right now," he suggested and the dark wolf made an odd snort-sounding exhale.

"Sounds like a plan to me." The other wolf lowered his head until it was nearly resting on his front paws.

He watched its muscled frame move under the short, dark hair and felt himself get excited. The dark wolf was much the same size as himself, just with a bit more muscle and he had a feral gleam to his eyes that made the pale wolf's skin prickle. It was going to be fun fighting the dark wolf.

He crouched as well and the dark wolf flew forward in a blur. He could still dodge it, yes, but he didn't want to. He lunged and met the dark wolf halfway, tackling it to the ground and stepping on its chest lightly with one paw. He grinned down at the dark wolf and it grinned back up at him.

"Strong." The dark wolf's chest rumbled in sort of a purr before he rolled away and pounced on the blond.

He struggled against the dark wolf's strength, matching him move for move. "You're surprisingly good at this," the pale wolf commented in his subtitled monotone.

The dark wolf snorted as they jumped away from each other, taking a breath. "You too. I was expecting an amateur," the dark wolf said, jerking his head to the side in an odd gesture. It seemed like arrogance.

He decided he didn't like the gesture and stood up on his back legs. He didn't normally do so, it left his belly vulnerable, but he felt it necessary to show the other wolf what he was truly dealing with. His shape wasn't exactly like that of a normal wolf; although he was slim in all the right places to be a wolf, he was also built like a bear in the way he stood. He had learned after one extremely eventful transformation that it shocked people to see a "skinny polar bear" in the woods in the middle of the night.

The dark wolf made a breathy huffing sound while his subtitle voice painted an unreal and indescribable interpretation of laughter. "Cool trick," the dark wolf said, pushing up with his front paws to stand on his back legs as well. They were the same height for all intents and purposes, but the darker wolf was definitely a creature built for fighting. Perhaps he did fight a lot. Perhaps the blond was in over his head. But, he didn't care.

"I win," the dark wolf said, taking a wobbly step forwards like a human child. Except, huge and hairy.

The pale wolf snorted, lifting his chin slightly. "You haven't even seen the cool part."

oOo

He watched the pale wolf take a much steadier step than he himself had and crouch down until he was almost on all fours again. Then the blond wolf shot up and he wasn't on the ground anymore, he was in the air and flying over the green wolf to land quite a ways behind him. He whirled around to look at the pale wolf, which appeared to be smirking at him.

"That's not anything special," he snorted and the pale wolf threw his head back and barked a laugh that, despite being very mocking, amused the dark wolf. He had the strangest urge to be closer to the pale wolf that, surprisingly, wasn't just to rip his throat out; although that sounded like something he would enjoy doing to the haughty blond wolf.

The pale wolf crouched again and lunged forward as only a white smear in mid-air. The green wolf ducked down onto all fours, but somehow the blond wolf still got him. He was forced back by a blow to his mid-section that he would not soon forget and he hit the packed dirt hard, effectively losing any chance at breathing for the next few agonizing seconds. He turned over onto his side and wheezed, trying to get some small amount of air into his lungs, but it wasn't working quite the way he hoped. He whined pathetically, though with what air, he did not know.

The white-blond wolf came up next to him and he bared his teeth at it, not even having enough air to communicate the way he had been before. The blond wolf ignored him, however, and stepped closer, on four legs again. The pale wolf nudged his chest with its snout and he snarled at it. "Back off."

He stood up with some difficulty and made his best effort to breathe, but it wasn't enough. He'd never had the wind knocked out of him nearly so hard. The pale wolf stepped around him and pressed its paw into his back, somewhere he couldn't see and would rather not ever be touched by anyone or anything without his consent. He reared back and growled at the other wolf. "Leave me alone!" he snarled.

The pale wolf lowered his head slightly, but he didn't make any effort to move away. Instead, he hopped up on his back legs and put one of his paws in the middle of the green wolf's back, on a pressure point. Suddenly the dark wolf gasped in enough air to fill his lungs and exhaled only to repeat the action several more times. He looked at the blond wolf. Was it trying to apologize? Damn, it was kind of working. But, he wasn't going to take it easy on that bastard-wolf.

Seeming to sense this, the blond wolf grinned a wolfy, feral grin at him and took off running. "I will kick your ass!" he roared after the pale wolf and sprung out into a run. He caught mere glimpses of the white fur amongst all the foliage and, at one point, he felt that he was the one being chased. But, damn, it was fun.

He didn't know why it was fun, they were really just running, but it was exciting and he was pumped full of adrenaline. He howled for the hell of it, letting the other wolf know he was still in pursuit. And pursuit it was, dashing through the forest without a care in the world, including if he actually caught the other wolf, who had disappeared from his sight, but not from his other senses. He panted heavily and slowed down so he could listen for its steps or catch the pale wolf's scent. The smell of the blond wolf was everywhere at once and he would've face-palmed but he liked the smell. It was good. It was warm and delicious and it surrounded him. That would make tracking the other wolf much more difficult, though.

A soft, furry force caught him in the side and he fell to the ground with a wriggling ball of white on top of him. "Gotcha. Caught on to my little scheme, did you?" the pale wolf asked, burying his nose in the green wolf's fur and nipping at the skin underneath. For a moment, the green wolf wasn't sure if that was okay or not, but he decided he trusted the blond wolf enough not to hurt him.

"Why do I trust you?" he asked the pale wolf, so suddenly that he was sure the thought hadn't even passed through his brain for approval before he spoke it. He supposed he wanted to know the answer, but he hadn't planned to go about getting it in such a blunt manner. Although, he was never one to beat around the bush.

The pale wolf's chest rumbled in neither a growl nor a purr, more of a hum. "I don't know. Maybe it's a wolf thing?" the blond wolf said, climbing off of the green wolf and yawning widely to the dirt.

The dark wolf rolled onto his feet and sat down next to the pale wolf, blinking his tired, blurry eyes. "I've never felt this before. It must be a wolf thing." He padded over to a grassy spot and curled up, not sparing a second thought towards the stranger-wolf whom he had met only hours before and didn't even know the name of. He supposed he should ask, but he didn't care. They were good as they were.

oOo

The dark wolf settled into the grass and he swallowed hard. He wanted to sleep there, too. He didn't want to take the space from the dark wolf; he wanted to be there with it. He wanted to curl up around the dark wolf and make sure it was safe and actually there. But, he had to get back to somewhere near his clothes. He had work in the morning, so he needed to be able to get back to his apartment quickly. He'd dropped his bag somewhere near where he started to transform, so he should probably go find it.

With a sigh, he turned and moved towards the scent of anise. He'd been sure to put some on his bag during every transformation so he could find the duffel bag full of clean clothes, a washcloth, two bottles of water and some breakfast bars.

"Where are you going?" The dark wolf's voiceless words stopped him.

He looked over his shoulder and did his best at an apologetic look. "I... have to go find my bag. So I can clean up and get dressed when I wake up. I kinda have a job," he said, hoping the subtitle words conveyed even a small amount of the regret he was feeling. He didn't want to let the only other werewolf he'd ever seen out of his sight, but he had a human life that he needed to tend to.

The dark wolf snorted and stood, stretching his back and his front legs before walking up to the pale wolf. Then he nodded in the direction the pale wolf had been heading before the dark wolf had spoken. He understood. The other wolf was asking if he could go too. And he wasn't about to refuse. "You better not be a really shitty human when I wake up," he half-threatened. But, he didn't really care. He'd found another werewolf.

"Haha. Same to you, bastard." The dark wolf's echoing subtitled voice laughed, and the blond turned his head to look at him. He leaned over and, for the life of him he didn't know why, he licked the dark wolf's pointed ear. The other wolf turned to look at him, but he didn't say anything.

They walked to the sounds of the forest until they came across the black duffel bag with a mesh pouch of anise hanging by a string tied around one of the straps. "Oh, is that the smell?" the dark wolf grumbled, scratching at the bag of anise with one of his front paws and tearing the bag open, although he put no real effort into it. The dark green wolf glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, as if checking to see if he'd noticed, but quickly turned back to face forward. "It smells like shit." The dark wolf huffed, padding some distance away from the bag and plopping down, seemingly without a care in the world.

"I put it on there so I could find my bag again, after running around in the forest for who knows how long," he explained, pawing at the star anise indicatively before moving over to where the dark wolf lay. He still didn't have any version of permission to lay down with the other wolf, so he trotted over to an adjacent tree and curled up at its base so that he was facing the dark wolf's resting form. Like that, he fell asleep.

The morning came cruelly and much too soon, but he'd had a great night's sleep. It wasn't something that happened often, especially not on the night of the full moon. It felt awesome. He stretched to his fullest length while he was lying flat on his back on the ground. He vaguely realized that he was naked as the day he was born, but he didn't much care. He'd been a werewolf for long enough that he was fine to lie in the nude for a while every month. He groaned at the awful soreness possessing his muscles, but that was par for the course.

Suddenly, he remembered the dark green wolf and his head snapped to the side.

Where the dark green wolf had been, there was a man. A well-muscled, tanned man, in all his naked glory, marked with five long scratches from his left shoulder to his right hip, with a patch of green hair like moss on top of his head. Truly strange, but it was a better-looking man than he had been expecting.

The patch of moss moved partially out of view as the tanned man turned to face him, blinking owlishly. "Wha...?" The moss-head opened his mouth to make a confused sound, staring at him, all up and down and in the middle.

"Hi."

"... Yeah."

"'Member me?"

"Yeah."

"I'm Sanji, by the way."

"Roronoa Zoro. So..."

"Mmm... Werewolves, huh?"

"Looks like."

"..."

... So. What do you think? xD Tell me in reviews! And if you have any title ideas (as whatever I have gone with at this point probably sucks), please, please, PLEASEEEEE let me know! I really need to name this story for good! xD