bakerstreet | rυnnιng wιтн wolveѕ • тнe wolғ pacĸ/werewolғ aυ мeмe

He smirked as he picked up some omelette and tomato on his fork. "I do enjoy the workout," he admitted. "It's nice to exercise some of those muscles."

"Remind me not the get on your bad side if that's you kind of work out." He said as he finished his toast and drank the last of his tea. "Willie, that was wonderful. And if either of you don't mind, I'm going to go hunt down that shower."

"Let me get you a key," Merrick said and stood, turning off the stool and heading back behind the bar to a lockbox hidden behind a panel. "You'll be in the room beside mine."

A room with a key. RJ was very close to getting emotional again. "Better to keep an eye on me?" He teased as he swallowed the lump in his throat down. He got up from the stool and went to pick up his bag then indicating for Merrick to go ahead. "Lead the way!"

"Better so that if you need to find something, I'm close by to ask," Merrick countered, pulling out the room key and rounding the counter. "Stairs are right back there."

It wasn't hard to find. There was a neon sign reading 'rooms' with an arrow right at the doorway, and that was where Merrick led him: up a winding staircase to a hallway that was lined on either side with doors.

"The one on the end to the right," he said, pointing down the hallway, "is mine. Yours is right here."

Merrick unlocked the door and pushed it open to show a decently sized room that would probably be better called a suite, or perhaps a studio apartment. "Right here," Merrick said, stepping in to give a quick tour, "is the bathroom, right across the wall from mine. Kitchen area..."

It consisted of a half-height refrigerator, a two-burner stove, a coffee pot, toaster, and a toaster oven beside a sink and small countertop, all set into a corner surrounding a small table with two chairs.

"The rest of this is the living area, obviously." And there was an armchair, a sofa, a low coffee table, and an old TV on a TV cart pushed up against a waist-high wall. "Behind that wall is your bed, and over here's a wardrobe. No closets, unfortunately."

When the door open, RJ blinked in amazement. "I thought you said a room. This is definitely more then a room." He dropped his pack by the door and moved take a few steps inward, taking everything in.

"Are all the rooms like this?"

"Mmhm." Merrick nodded. "All eight of them. Willie calls them 'efficiencies', which... I guess it means there's a kitchen and a bathroom. But the washing machine is downstairs."

He held the key out to RJ with a smile. "Welcome to Willie's Roadhouse."

RJ was still shaking his head in amazement at all this. He could never have imagined this when he woke up yesterday. The lump of emotion was back in his throat.

To the point his nice was a little hoarse when he took the key. "Thank you." Without even thinking about it, he reached out with his other hand to grasp Merrick's. "Really. Thank you. For everything. You gave me a life, hope, back."

"Wolves run in packs," Merrick said, his smile gentle and honest as he grasped RJ's hand. "You needed a pack. This is the least I could do. So take your time, have a shower. I'll go help Willie clean up after breakfast and see about getting started on some repairs before lunch hits."

"Pack. I like that." RJ returned the smile, a little shakily, before he dropped Merrick's hand. "I'll be done to help get lunch start in a bit." After a shower and maybe a nap. All this emotion was mentally exhausting.

"See you down there," he said with a little smile and headed for the door to give RJ privacy. He could tell that it was a lot for his fellow wolf to adjust to - and sometimes, alone time was necessary for that kind of adjustment.

A lot was putting it mildly as RJ took a few moments to just breath before he even moved from his spot by the door.

When he did finally move, ignoring the tear or two that had finally escaped, he picked up his pack, dropped the keys on the counter and went to go investigate the bedroom and shower.

About three hours later, after a long shower and a lengthy meditation session that had turned into a brief nap, RJ was feeling more himself. He'd needed the break and time to recharge badly. He was dressed in the cleanest of his jeans and a t-shirt as he came downstairs with his clothes bundled under his arm, set on starting a wash of clothes and then going to see how he could help Willie for lunch.

By then, a few tables from the dining area seemed to have disappeared, the chairs stacked to one side of the room. Merrick was nowhere in evidence, but there were new scents coming from the kitchen - the scent of cooking tomatoes and garlic - and the sound a radio playing classic rock and roll, Willie halfway singing along. There weren't any customers just yet, but judging by the smell of that tomato sauce, there would be eventually.

"I think I heard somebody walkin," Willie called. "Am I right?"

RJ followed his nose and marveled at the scents he was picking up. The sauce was very well seasoned, if the smell was anything to go by. He smiled as he moved to stand in the door way, clothes braced on his hip. "You heard right Willie. Sorry, I dozed off a bit after my shower. Let me get this load of clothes in and I'll be right back to give you a hand. What are we making today?"

"Lunch menu's nothin' special today, but this sauce is for tonight's dinner special. Willie's homemade lasagna in beef, sausage, mushroom, and zucchini for our vegetarians. Made with homemade mozzarella, fresh ricotta, and home-grown tomatoes and herbs. Doesn't get better'n this," Willie grinned. "I'll get you helpin' me chop stuff when you've got your laundry in - Merrick's out back repairing a couple tables. Wobbly legged, see."

The consideration for vegetarians brought a big smile to his face and a whole lot more respect for Willie. "That sounds heavenly. I'll be right back to give you a hand."

He followed Willie's directions to the washing machine and got it all set up to go. After turning the machine on, he did make a small detour outside to say hello to Merrick. He watched for a few moments, marveling at how good the other wolf was with his hands, before saying anything, "Hi. Heard you were out here fixing a wobbly leg."

Merrick smiled as he looked up, nodding. "Yeah," he said, "got two of them - Willie ordered new legs for them, so all I need to do is put 'em on. It's not hard, thankfully - it's just making sure I get everything in the right place.

"How are you doing?"

He'd noticed it'd taken RJ a little while to come down and he hoped that didn't mean he was having any problems.

RJ put his hands in his back pockets as he leaned against the side of the building, watching him work. "Better. It was a little too much all at once and I needed to reset a bit...and then I fell asleep." He admitted with rueful smile.

"You've probably not gotten much sleep lately." That was a foregone conclusion. Walking through the wilds didn't leave much room for sleep, and RJ seemed like he'd been exhausted. "You'll get a nice, full night tonight. We don't generally open for breakfast even though we serve breakfast food, so you won't need to be awake until around ten."

"There is that too." While he'd made do, he couldn't say the ground made for a comfortable place to sleep. Sleeping in a bed tonight would be heaven. "And I will definitely take you up on sleeping in, though I usually don't make it a habit. I like meditate and do yoga in the morning. Helps me start the day. Like you playing the flute."

"One thing to keep in mind is that you'll be up pretty late, depending on business. Thursdays through Saturdays are our busy days, and our last call is around one AM." Merrick often operated on less than the ideal amount of sleep thanks to having to play for the deer of the mornings - at least on those late nights.

"Habits can change." RJ countered with a laugh. "I've been doing a lot of that this past month after all." His hands came out his pockets and he wiped them on thighs. "I better go help Willie with lunch. I just wanted to say hi." Annnnnd that sounded terribly lame, to the point RJ laughed ruefully at himself. "I should leave you to your tables."

"I'll be done with these soon," Merrick answered with a smile. "Then I'll be in there helping with the chopping, too, so you won't be rid of me for long."

That was the culture of the roadhouse. Everyone helped, everyone contributed. But with RJ actually knowing how to cook, well, that meant that maybe Merrick could specialise more in the necessary repairs.

That was a culture RJ respected and would be a glad to be a part of. "I'll see you in a bit then."

Hopefully by the time Merrick joined them, he'd have lived down his own embarrassment. He was grateful to Merrick for helping him and he was acting like a school girl with a crush. Which he didn't have. Nope. It didn't hurt Merrick was being all ruggedly attractive as he fixed the tables.

Shaking his head at his serious case of hero worship, he returned to the kitchen and quickly took a knife to cut anything Willie put in front of him.

Willie gave him the easy stuff first - zucchini, to be sliced into rounds and then quartered, and he worked on the sausage himself, actually grinding it up in an ancient meat grinder that looked well-taken-care-of. And it wasn't long after the sausage was done that Merrick came into the front doors of the dining room with one table in one hand and the other propped on his shoulder. He didn't exactly do things by halves.

After putting them down, making sure they were steady, replacing the seats and then wiping everything down, Merrick came into the kitchen to give his hands and arms a thorough washing.

"Here," Willie said, "get RJ the mushrooms and then you can get started on the beef."

"Gotcha," Merrick said, heading over to the huge fridge that was definitely newer than anything else in the kitchen.

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