Henry sighed when she confessed that he didn't talk a lot about himself or anything, really. Was he really that withdrawn? He had never been that way around Sterling or Malia...so why was this so different? This was his family...shouldn't he be open and honest with them? Had what happened to Sterling caused more problems than he originally had realized? He sighed. He hadn't meant to come across as the silent, withdrawn type. Normally he was rather outgoing and chatty. Perhaps he just wasn't sure they were ready for all his baggage. But then again...they were his family. Didn't they have a right to know that baggage?

The thoughts plagued him as Raven continued on. Already he had decided that they deserved to know him...all of him. He had quite a lot of baggage he had to lug around. It was getting desperately heavy as of late and perhaps they could help him carry it. "Sorry about that...I've been more focused on adjusting, I guess." Adjusting to being a were, adjusting to a whole new family, adjusting to being without Sterling. It was definitely not the greatest adjustment he'd ever made, but he was trying...and he would continue to try. What other choice did he have?

At Raven's clarifying question about how they had met twice, he nodded his head. "We used to live in New York..." He paused a moment. He took a second to work up the courage to tell Raven a part of him that not many knew about. In fact, he was pretty sure only Sterling knew this part of him. "I had a rough start to life. I'll spare most of the details, but when Sterling and I had met, I spent more time tripping out on drugs, drinking myself into a stupor, and sleeping with pretty much anything that moved." That pretty much summed up his life pre-Sterling. It wasn't a pretty life, but it was his life. "When I met Sterling, everything changed â€" he gave me something to live for. He helped me see that my life could be much grander than I made it out to be. In a sense, he saved me. As you can imagine, our relationship blossomed." He would leave out the bit of his own insecurities, the part where he slipped back into drugs and women...the parts that he was embarrassed by.

However, that wasn't the end to their story. It was only the beginning.

He shifted on the bed, trying to not appear as vulnerable as he felt. "Somehow...our memories were erased. We ended up here with no memories of our past. When I woke up in the park, I couldn't even remember how I'd gotten there." The amnesia had been hard on him. It had been confusing and scary. He had never felt more alone and scared in his entire life. "Sterling met me in the park that day and we formed a friendship. It felt right. I couldn't explain why it felt so right, but it just did." He paused a moment as a smile formed on his lips. Just thinking about the happiness in the early days of their relationship was enough to make his heart swell with love for the man. "That friendship grew into something much more. When I kissed him for the very first time in this version of our relationship, our memories somehow returned. True love's kiss isn't just a saying, I guess." He chuckled lightly as he rested his hands on the bed. "Our love somehow defied all odds. We decided to take things slow, to work on our relationship flaws then jump in too quickly. The first go around it was more physical...this time, more emotional. Then the whole mauling thing happened...but you know all about that part." His once happy voice that was full of love and adoration slowly slipped away into something much darker, much more full of shame.

He mentioned some theories he had about why his cat seemed so adamant on being against Sterling. It confused him and he wanted nothing more than for his feline half to feel the same about Sterling as he did. It would certainly make life a hell of a lot easier. But he wasn't sure how to accomplish this task. It seemed almost impossible.

Raven seemed to have a hunch when he mentioned Malia, so when she asked her slew of questions regarding the two of them, he listened carefully. "That's the one...though I knew her before she chose Frost. I was there the first time she became human. I sort of helped her learn to be human." He chuckled. He had a lot of thoughts about Malia lately, both innocent and intimate. The happiness that she made him was evident. "I taught her about forks...and cheese fries...and how to use a microwave. I even taught her basic hygiene. I was just there for her when she had no one." He skipped the part where he had taught her to bathe and had given her the first taste of intimacy with a man.

However, Raven's questions prodded farther and he had a feeling he knew what she was trying to get him to admit. He wasn't necessarily ashamed of what he and Malia had done. He was, however, ashamed that one of those instances was when he and Sterling were trying to work on themselves in the wake of his panther's destruction. "The only time my panther has been around her coyote was with Tet. He was teaching me to climb trees and we sort of ran into her in the forest." It had been an innocent encounter, something that he didn't deem as important. "But we did sleep with each other a couple of times..." Once had been when he was alone and hurting after he thought Sterling had died. The second had been when he was so sure he was unable to achieve any intimacy when he could not make love to Sterling. He had tried...but just couldn't rise to the occasion, so to speak. He had sought out Malia to test his theory. Was it just Sterling that held him back? Or was he simply defective? He had been able to service Malia â€" that's all it was. He didn't feel like he had any sort of emotional connection to her. She was a dear friend of his...a friend with benefits, so to speak. "...but I don't see Malia in a romantic way...not like I see Sterling." Why his panther was attaching itself to Malia rather than Sterling was a mystery to him. It was something he wanted to break. He wanted his panther to see that he loved Sterling and he wanted to protect him. He wanted the world for Sterling and everything in it. Why couldn't his panther see that too?