5 Meet the parent, and the uncle… and the other uncle...

A few hours later, they were all still on the couch. Linda was sleeping, while Hikari was passed out. The two remaining people were drowsily bickering over who was winning.

"I'm still going bitch. I never lose." Alina slurred, gulping down plain vodka. The shots she made were long gone.

"We'll see," Korū drawled. "What's your dad gonna say when you go home drunk?"

Alina snorted. "I live alone. My mum and dad live with the pack on the other side."

Linda spoke, her eyes still closed. "Your dad doesn't find it a hassle to travel back and forth between worlds?"

Alina shook her head. "'Course not, if he gets to see his mate at the end of the day. My mum can't afford to move because she is the pack healer."

Hikari flopped over on the couch, opening one eye. "What time is it- oh my god you're still drinking."

And just then the door opened and their still sober mother and her still sober half-brother stumbled in, supporting their, unbelievably-drunk, other uncle. Takara shook her head at the sight of her kids, Korū especially, drinking like nobody's business, then dragged her brother up to one of the guest rooms.

The eyes of the two guests on the couch followed them as they went, then there was silence except the sound of Korū pouring himself another drink, spilling some in the process.

"So, Linda, wanna crash at my house?" Alina asked the girl. "It's only a few houses down."

"You giving up on this?" Korū slurred, downing another glass.

Meanwhile, there was the sound of muffled screeching from the guest room, along the lines of, "OH MY GOD JUST COOPERATE AND LIE DOWN FOR FUCK'S SAKE", "SHUT UP TAKARA", and "Please don't fight at this time-".

Alina scoffed at Korū. "Mister, I may be 2 shots behind you, but while you were chugging beer, I was chugging cosmos, which are like, more than twenty percent alcohol compared to your measly four point five, so I win." She paused, her fuzzy brain not handling the math well. "I think."

"I chug soju. There's absolutely no difference."

Takara appeared behind them. "Alright, that's enough," she said, taking the shot glass out of Korū's hand. "Seriously, I leave the house for a bit and y'all start drinking. You're aware you lot are underage, right?"

Alina saluted, "Yes ma'am, but watashi no sensei often says: take the chance and take what you want, or you'll get nothing."

Linda just sighed and buried her face in her hands.

Takara smirked, something like Korū's, but definitely not as sadistic. "I like you. Which pack are you from?"

Korū made a grab for his shot glass, but with his half-drunk state against his mother's almost completely sober one, he stood no chance.

Takara's gaze turned stern as she directed her attention on her son and daughter. "Go clean yourselves up, or you two are banned from drinking until you're twenty." With a grumble, Korū dragged himself away to the bathroom, Hikari getting up and following him a moment later.

"I'm from Tranquil Bloodlust. I know it's a cringey name but hey, it's better than Moonshine or something." Alina said grinning, and Linda high-fived her. "We're from the same pack."

"Mh, never heard of it." Takara was interrupted by someone coming down the stairs, also known as her stubborn as heck twin who just straight up refused to sleep. "For the last time, Ryota-"

"Stop fuckin' yelling at me for once," he hissed back. "Check your goddamned phone. Kaito, leave me the fuck alone."

Their poor brother was just trying to get Ryota away and to stop yelling in front of the guests. "Nii-ch-"

"Shut up!"

Things had been like this since they were Hikari and Korū's age.

"Well, we're from the other side, so if you're from Earth it's not likely that you know us. What pack are you guys from?" Linda inquired.

"Bloodmoon." Takara's expression shifted to a slightly wry one. "Though others sometimes call us the Bloodbringers. That name is probably self-explanatory." She was scrolling through her phone, because her brother had told her to and if he didn't say anything else apart from "check your phone" it was probably confidential.

"The Bloodbringers, huh." Linda wrinkled her nose, "I heard that some of the packs here had quite the reputation during your little spat over dividing up the land."

"Ah, that time." Takara sighed and sat down because the alcohol she'd drunk earlier was finally getting to her head. "I can't say my hands, or my entire pack's, in fact, except those who are twenty and below this year, are clean. But just so you know, we aren't the worst. There are packs who kill because they love to, so calling us the Bloodbringers is pretty unfair. I mean, we live in the mountains, secluded from the world because we don't want to fight over territory or some shit like that."

Both Alina and Linda nodded.

"The general population can be pretty unreasonable. I think we haven't introduced ourselves. I'm Linda, and this is Alina."

"I know. Kind of. Hikari told me about you two." Her eyes narrowed slightly as she picked up something long that was wrapped in old-looking cloth. "Also, who started that fight? I got a call from the principal telling me that Korū and Hikari got into a fight with a bunch of to-be Alphas and got away unscathed."

"Watashi no sensei also said that do what you think is right or you'll be wrong." Linda tried to smack the back of Alina's head but she ducked. "They tried to chase us out of our seats like entitled asses, and we even gave them a choice but they challenged us to a fight." Alina continued like nothing happened, proud that she could still speak coherently.

"In fact, we even taught them that Alpha blood is not enough to make them stronger than others if they don't train. I bet their parents would be proud to learn that they got beaten by a person two-thirds of their size."

Takara unwrapped the cloth to reveal a katana, it's blue handle wrapped with gray samegawa. The blade was still in a pretty good condition, given that the katana had existed for like over 100 years. "I agree. I see how Korū is friends with you." She was polishing the blade, as though preparing it to stab somebody. Which was exactly what she was going to do.

Linda shifted nervously while Alina only smirked. She rested her chin on top of the back of the couch, watching Takara, her eyes twinkling at the sight of the weapon.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to stab you." Her eyes gleamed dangerously. "It's for someone else." She picked at a slightly dirtier spot near the base of the blade, the dirt coming off to show some kanji engraved there.

"How often do you use weapons?" Alina asked curiously.

"Not much. We don't really have a need to use them." Takara slid the sword back into its sheath. "We have wooden ones for training so we don't use these, and the only time I took this out since that land-craze was to point it at my father."

Alina's eyes widened. "You actually bring it to fights?"

"Yeah. Why not? In human form we need a sort of defense since we don't have fangs and claws. And we didn't spend the entire time in wolf form." A small smile appeared on her face. "Besides, they're fun to spar with."

"Doesn't that hinder you when you shift? Like with the sheath hanging by your side when you shift… and dropping it would risk it getting lost or stolen." Alina asked.

"Eh, it probably just ends up dangling, and honestly I've never had to shift with it so I don't know." She rubbed the cloth absently. "Do you two want to stay the night, or are you going home?"

"Linda and I can go to my house. It's just a few houses down from yours." Alina replied, "Thanks for the offer, and I promise to come back with some cocktails to make up for the alcohol that we drank."

Linda smiled guiltily at Takara. "Sorry for making ourselves too at home. We'll be leaving now."

"Nah, it's fine." Takara got up to open the door. "We don't get guests often, Korū and Hikari don't really have much friends, with how often Korū gets into fights, so having you two over is nice."

The two of them awkwardly made their way to the door, thanking her and waving goodbye.

Once they were out, Takara said bye again and closed the door.

Alina dragged Linda away from the house shouting, "Onwards!"

Two minutes later they were at her house, Alina unsuccessfully trying to stab the keys into the keyhole before Linda grabbed them from her.

Meanwhile, there was a pretty large figure walking down the street, his face shielded by the shadow of a large hood. The only thing that anyone could see of his features were spiky locks of graying black hair, his scent drowned out by that of lingering alcohol and a lowered guard.