7. Bjorn #3
“Well, as I said, shifting can be tiring and consumes a lot of calories. Could I do it more than once a week? Yeah, sure. A couple times a day, if I need to. But I don’t need to do it that often, and I tend to forget until my bear gets antsy, so I basically pencil shifting time into my work calendar so I can be sure I fit it in at least once a week, before he turns me into an asshole. ”
“Not shifting turns you into an asshole?”
Bjorn considered how to describe it to a human.
“It’s like…imagine you share your brain with a pretty smart child, and only one of you can control the body at a time.
You can reason with the kid, and most of the time they’re ok with you taking the lead because you understand the world better, but sometimes they get the zoomies or wake up on the wrong side of the bed, and it’s all tantrums and arguments until you give in and let them run around. ”
Dennis blinked and turned his head to look at him before focusing back on the road. “Your bear is like a toddler?”
Bjorn snorted, because honestly…kinda. “It’s not exactly like that.
But that’s the best description I can give of how I know when I need to let my bear out.
If I don’t do it at that point, I become short-tempered and sometimes I’ll start sprouting patches of fur in random places.
Which itches like hell, for the record.”
“Noted,” Dennis said dryly. “I guess it’s kind of like how some days I just really need to hit the gym and work off some excess rage. Except…hairier.” He laughed quietly. “This is fuckin’ weird as hell.”
“What?” Bjorn asked innocently. “That you’ve reached your advanced age without a basic understanding of shifter physiology? It sort of is.”
“Asshole,” Dennis snarked without much rancor.
“I just…didn’t grow up knowing any shifters.
And since I’ve had the pub, mostly my encounters with them have been fights, matings, and people shifting when and where they shouldn’t.
Nobody ever stops to explain what’s going on to the bar owner at those moments; they’re too busy fighting, fucking, or destroying my shit. ”
“Hmm.” Bjorn considered that. “And thus why you don’t want me in your life. You think shifters are chaos personified.”
“Well, you kinda are.”
“We’re not, though,” he said, trying not to sound too insistent. “I mean, at our worst moments, sure. But 90% of the time we’re just normal people, living normal lives. And can you really say that humans can’t also be destructive assholes when they’re agitated?”
Dennis shrugged. “I mean, no, but I’ve never had a rampaging human destroy six of my barstools because they met their mate, shifted, and forgot how big they were.”
Ok, that was probably fair. Bjorn winced sympathetically.
“It’s…pretty overwhelming when you realize it’s your mate.
And no shifter past puberty is used to not being able to control their shift.
So I guess I can understand how that would happen.
I wish you wouldn’t hold it against us as a species, though.
It's not like humans don't get into bar fights.”
“Eh.” Dennis didn’t look persuaded, but he also didn’t look quite as grumpy as he had when they first met, so Bjorn was going to call that progress. “It’s not that I’m holding it against you -”
“You are.”
Dennis shot him a dark look and continued as if Bjorn hadn’t protested. “- so much as I just realize how messy things get around shifters. And I don’t like mess.”
Bjorn pursed his lips and tried to think of his next move.
Dennis was definitely holding shifting against him.
Bjorn needed to get past this block of his.
But how? “You know,” he ventured slowly, “you may not be able to tell because I'm generally a happy person, but this situation is scary for me too.
Suddenly I can't control my own body. I'm shifting at times and in places where I'm not prepared for it, which means I accidentally do things like knock over tables and squish bread.
That's not stuff I want to do. It's actually pretty embarrassing.
"And when I try to put myself in the headspace of people who've maybe met their mates in your bar, who are startled and embarrassed and overwhelmed by a sudden urge to claim their person…
I guess I can see how chairs might get broken and stuff, through no malice of the shifter's.
And while yes," he added, holding up a hand to forestall Dennis's protest, "I know that doesn't fix your broken chairs, there are probably ways to help those shifters keep calm to minimize the damage. And maybe, just maybe, having a shifter in your life might give you some insight into how we work and what those strategies are. Which would, in turn, maybe let you keep things under control at your bar better.”
Dennis did not look entirely convinced, but he did look thoughtful.
That was ok; Bjorn would keep working on him.
They still had a couple of hours in the car, and then however long they were with Gran, and then the drive back to the cabin.
Bjorn determinedly set his jaw. He’d win his mate over, one way or another.