Sept 17, 17

Hope you enjoy!

:)

Moonlight

"The light of the moon..."

-I mean, what else would moonlight be?

No One's Perspective-

Her vision blurred as she shut her eyes, teeth clenched as she emitted a low groan. Skin burned against the lathering soap along her back, the sponge gliding along the stained skin; at the very least it was a dull red by now. Her grip dug into the tub's sides, water sloshing as she jerked, fluid warmth trickling down her calves as body heat radiated off of her. It surprised her when she was told that the water was cold.

After she gasped, Jade winced, raven hair spilling from her messy bun, pale eyes glancing languidly along Tori's sides, watching her breathing wearily. "Sorry," she muttered, the half-Latina nodding slowly, "I know you want to rest but we've got to get all of this off... Best to keep clean, right?" The singer merely grunted as a reply, giving a small shutter as a sudden tremor of an article chill rushed down her spine.

"Where's everybody else?" Tori croaked quietly, dark eyes opening to the edge of the bath, eyes burning once she vaguely recalled wishing that she'd see the light of the sun once again. Her gaze drew towards the blinding light above her - it was enough.

Breathing quietly, Jade grimaced at the water which now resembled an Arizona's early sunset. "Well, your parents are still down at the elfish headquarters. There were still quite a few witikoes and elves down in the forest but we had them surrounded. I believe your dad's fighting and your mom tending to wounds and such..." Tori hummed in appreciation, remaining quiet - aside from the hiss as soap glossed over her ribcage - whilst the goth thought of more. "Trina and Beck are in her room; she's looking at his wounds and all. I swear I couldn't believe he fell almost fifty feet through a tree and Trina caught him until I saw the marks on his back. God damn he's not going to live that down," she chuckled wearily, Tori smiling weakly. "Anyway, Dr. Retter will be here for the majority when you're here... He's taken more pints of my blood to help cure some of the other witikoes so he'll be needing to go back some. He's on the couch, I think, watching some show."

"What show?"

"Teen Wolf... I think he's passed out though."

Tori chuckled, enlightening the room momentarily with her smooth vocals, bringing a small, gentle smile across Jade's expression. She paused, eyes sliding alongside her limbs, pale legs hugging her own. "How's your brother? He doing good?"

"Yeah, I haven't really seen him much for the past week... I'll call him later but I think he's fine; he knows what's going on anyway. I've talked to him some when, er...looking for you." Jade let her words die off, the half-Latina breathing slowly as she closed her eyes, skull throbbing horribly. "We're almost done," the Lycan cooed, "We just have to drain the water and get the shower on." Slowly, Tori unplugged the drain, the tainted water flowing down in a spiral. She grunted as her arms reached for the faucet, aiming for the knobs above it. Setting the sponge down, Jade held the half-Latina carefully, reaching for the access of clean water. She cringed once cold hit her skin, leaving the knob as she drew the curtains, Tori sighing in relief.

Red trailed down the drain as it left bronze skin, Tori leaning in towards the warmth behind her. Jade rested her lips at the crook of her neck, closing her eyes as Tori did the same. Cold water hit above them, both unmoving as heat radiated off of their skin, Tori more so than Jade.

The thespian blinked as the teen in her grasp moved about abruptly, twisting around until she clung to pastel skin, head resting at Jade's able shoulder. Arms wrapped around the singer, bringing a quaint smile against Jade's neck. Her brows furrowed, eyes lingering along the edge of the bath, soaps cluttered opposite of the showerhead. With her arms growing tighter around Jade's frame, Tori croaked, "I love you."

Jade leaned away, hand still clutching Tori's cheek as pale eyes watered softly. "I-" the singer began again, cut off by the rush of lips to her own. She groaned into it, nails clawing at the goth's back at the sudden movement. Once they pulled away, she weakly muttered, "I didn't... I wanted to when you said but I just, I just couldn't... I didn't want to say it and then just, just go..."

"I understand Tori, I know," Jade soothed, "But you'll be fine now, alright? Beck, Trina, David, Holly, Lothur and I'm here for you... We all are. You've gone through more shit already than any of the oldest vamps out there." Smiling weakly, Tori closed her eyes as lips pressed against her temple, leaving her to her own thoughts. "I love you too."

Suddenly, Tori trembled, grunting before mewling hesitantly, falling limp on Jade's shoulder. Her heavy breaths slowed as she whimpered, "Don't leave me...please."

As she grew more unconscious by the second, a tear escaping pale eyes, Jade promised, "I wouldn't ever."

The thundering of cold, relinquishing water thundered against her caramel back, Jade staring off at the faucet as she counted the heart beats. They grew slower with each one, her brows furrowing. She only hoped that everything would be alright soon.

-(:)-

The room was dark, unlike how it was usually fashioned with the near-blinding sunlight covered behind dark curtains. Initially, they hadn't been covered, allowing the room to circulate as it had hundreds of times before. However, a string of mumbled complaints had them closed, the half-Latina's head aching as her eyes burned.

That had been nearly five days ago.

By the time that Jade had settled in the small bench in the corner of the room (she claimed it as her own), the girl remained a ridged huddle under slim covers and a spinning fan. Creeping from her spot, the Lycan eased herself towards the other, eyes surveying the girl. Sweat plastered itself to caramel skin, Tori's limbs shaking so subtly, so continuously and so softly, she had appeared to be vibrating. A deathly cold palm - as Jade had been complimented several times in her life - met the werewolf's forehead, feeling an almost molten surface. It was startling the first time, worrying the second time, nerve-wracking the third and the fourth was an absolute dread to have touched Tori's ill skin.

At this point, it was abysmal.

The door creaked after a few silent steps, violet eyes glowing into the room - it had been very dark for several days. Jade peered towards the doctor, expression blank. "How is she doing?"

Jade glanced down towards the girl before giving a short response: "Her temperature hasn't gone down any."

Clearing his throat, Dr. Retter shuffled towards the bed, reaching for a thermometer. He placed the small device between her arm and her side, waiting for a good few seconds. Taking the thermometer from her armpit, he sighed heavily at the results. Jade tensed at his anxiety. "She's gone up. I can't honestly figure how her body is able to handle this," he muttered.

"What is it at now?" Jade situated herself on the bench.

"A hundred-and-thirty-nine." The Lycan exhaled slowly, her face sinking into the palms of her hands as her elbows dug into her knees. "I'll check in a few hours... It did go down, didn't it?"

Jade nodded, mumbling, "When David left the front door open as I was putting iced rags on her neck."

"Try that again... It's always best to have the issue run its course though I can't say for certain with this," he muttered, stepping to the hall.

"Where is David?"

"Still at the hospital with Holly," the doctor answered, "and I think he'll be there for a bit." Jade only nodded, eyes set onto the girl laying in the bed. His ghostly steps padded down to the living room, greeted by the few voices belonging to some of the elite. None was certain whether or not danger from up north (Montana, the Dakotas or even Canada) would knock at their doorstep. While the war still was in its fury, the tables had abruptly turned.

And it was all because of one girl.

A girl laying on Death's doorstep.

Jade growled to herself for thinking about it, as it was one self-regulating rule to not. Nevertheless, she picked herself up slowly, making her way towards the thin covers. The Lycan situated herself at the edge of the bed, climbing under the covers though to not disturb the ill teen beside her. A notebook was clutched from the bedside table, a black pen embedded in its metal spiral along the side. The pen was slid out from the side before the front cover was flipped over.

Lycanthropy was all that was sprawled across the top margin, several scratched and ink-blotted ideas along the lines below.

She furrowed her brows as the Tori shuffled beside her, her movements lurching. Minutes drew slowly as the black pen scribbled against the paper, a skeleton of a short story - a play - being born to the tangible world.

Silence drew without shaken breaths, Jade pausing in her writings. "Tori?" she asked quietly, her attention blinking towards the figure beside her. The singer lay unresponsive - as she had been for the past few days - body unmoving. Gulping, Jade pressed Tori's fingers right below her jaw along the neck, waiting patiently. One pulse sounded. Without removing her fingers, the Lycan stood still until another pulse came.

One.

Two.

Another pulse was given.

One. Two.

Jade sighed weakly, her hand slacking. She had recalled in another hour that the half-Latina had remained still, though her heartbeat speeding faster than any street race. "Stop scaring me, Tori," she whispered before her shaking hand went back to her notebook.

-(:)-

A pencil had replaced the black ink as she wrote across the journal, her attention solely focused on the task rather than her meal. Around the table sat the group, Andre beside Cat and Beck - his nose still blackened though straight - while Robbie sided with Cat, his arm slung with a blue cast. The Canadian glanced towards the side of the table as heels ventured their way over, Trina seating herself in between Jade and Beck.

"Are you going to eat?"

Jade shook her head slowly, the pencil scribbling away. "She's writing for the play openings next Friday," Andre explained through a thick roll of breading. Once swallowing his bite, he leaned in closer, whispering hesitantly, "So, how is she doing?"

Jade had briefly paused, not answering as Trina shortly explained, "We don't know... Her temperature goes to both extremes as her heart rate and...yeah. Though, her temp hasn't gone past a hundred-and-twenty again." Andre nodded, leaning back. The Lycan continued to write, leaving the world behind.

None of the horrors that she had to face - and Trina, and Beck - were sewn in the memories of Cat, Robbie and Andre. Perhaps their encounter before had saved them, she'd like to think, or perhaps it was the necessary precaution to not fight against wild beasts with a throbbing nose or a broken limb.

And so she wrote, mindlessly ignoring her meal.

-(:)-

The weeks had slowly settled on her shoulders unexpectedly, calming breaths beside her in the dark room. The computer screen shown at the lowest brightness, the keyboard with the small lights on. Jade paused, frowning at the texted in front of her. "'Don't you get it now? We're together and that's that...don't you see it?'" she read aloud. Grumbling tiredly, Jade shut the lid before sliding the laptop to the floor. She shuffled further underneath the covers, eyes towards the full moon as it blinked through the lining between the curtains.

Closing her eyes, she felt the fan's blades shifting the air against the bed, cooling the sheets. As she began to feel herself slip away from consciousness, a slim warmth had wrapped itself around her waist, nuzzling against her back.

Pale eyes snapped open, lingering towards the warm hands clasped around her own. With a small smile, she breathed, "Tori?"

It took a few seconds, though there was an answer - a simple hum.

"How do you feel?"

Tori grinned against Jade's shoulder, calmly answering through a croak, "Like Death."

With a smirk, the Lycan replied, "You sound more like a toad." Tori only chuckled softly, still against the other. "But how are you feeling, like what hurts?"

"Everything," she answered quietly, "especially my head. I just feel like I blasted through a long obstacle course."

"Wouldn't surprise me, everybody's been missing you at school," Jade murmured. The goth felt the shift in the half-Latina's attitude, disturbance frowning against her shoulders.

Clearing her throat, Tori asked, "How long have I been out for?"

"You don't remember?"

"No...I really just remember taking that shower once we were back and then getting into bed...kind of," came a strangled reply. "How- how long ago was that?"

No answer came immediately, Jade playing softly with the warm hands in her grasp. "Er..." she hesitantly started, "I'd say about a month." Tori only groaned, more with annoyance than anything else. Jade quirked a grin across her lips, asking, "What's that for?"

"I have a boat load of homework, don't I?" Tori whined.

"Actually, no," Jade answered, "you missed Spring break, or at least half of it since we had the two weeks this year, and then they've been kind of more focused on group assignments at school... I think you're gonna have to do those though. But, not too much, I've been able to write this one play for the Theatre Bash, or whatever it's called."

"Oh right, did they accept your play?" Tori asked. Jade nodded her answer, a small grin forming against her shirt. "That's good. What's it about?"

The Lycan took a moment to words the response properly, her brows furrowed. "Well, just not exactly fitting in, I guess. I named it Lycanthropy, so that should give a clue...'cept it's more about mental health than anything." A hum vibrated against her skin, Tori listening closely. "So...yeah. I just, uh, wrote it since it popped in my head."

"Of course," the singer replied, "after all, you're good at doing that. Where do you get all of your ideas?"

"I pull them from my ass," Jade smirked.

"Is it storage?"

The goth chuckled before answering, "Yes Tori, it's storage." The fan buzzed from above, leaving the two curled under the blankets in a calm near-silence. Jade sighed before shifting, twisting around until her expression relaxed at the sight of doe eyes. Tori, while she gaze a soft smile, was undoubtedly tired. Without words, arms wrapped around the singer, lips briefly pressing against her forehead. "I missed you."

"I know," Tori murmured, "I did too."

Both drifted into a hazy sleep, neither departing from their hold. The warmth of their skin sent them to dreams, far away from the morbid glow of two, small moons.

-(:)-

Jade glanced to her side uncertainly, Tori bundled up in a large blanket, leaning against he window. Her eyes followed the trees as they passed, the wheels humming smoothly. It was a road they'd traveled together before, though the half-Latina shook underneath the moonlight. It was an odd feeling, not having to duck into the shadows at the sight of it. The goth allowed a hand to grace Tori's, thumbing over her knuckles. "What are you thinking about?" she whispered.

Tori grumbled tiredly, frowning to herself. "I just... So many died because of me, or the witiko...and the cure was so close for them."

"I know, I know," the Lycan murmured, "but they aren't monsters any longer. And it wasn't your fault." Tori shook her head, resting her forehead against the cool glass.

"You don't understand."

"I know," Jade replied, "though there are people who do. Other survivors like you." Tori almost grinned at the thought of it, but long, cold hallways sunk deeply into her subconscious, a gentle hand shaking her own through bars. "And...I know it's far from over but, you will be safe, right? You're cured."

She pursed her lips, nodding slightly. "It haunts me though, and I can't stop."

"Yeah," Jade set her eyes to the twisting road, "and it'll be like that for a while. You just need to know and forgive yourself, and then find a way to pay them respects... Do it too soon and you'll find yourself in a hole you can't get out of."

"What do you mean?"

"My grandpa said it. He fought in the second world war and he killed a lot of people, damn good sharp shooter," Jade explained. "The thing was, he found that he couldn't forgive himself every time he visited a memorial. It was too soon after the war and the memories were still fresh on the mind, he said." Tori sighed quietly, the Lycan's words growing quiet. After a few moments, she mumbled, "But, you're different than him. You didn't ask for anything and you didn't kill them, the witiko did. You also really put a dent in the elves' plans by getting rid of the two head masters."

"I'm lucky I can't remember any of it," Tori whispered, taking Jade by a small surprise. "I don't want to know how I- it did it. I don't want to think of any of it."

"And here we are," Jade stopped the car, turning the engine off, "you won't have to." Tori nodded slowly, shuffling in the large blanket. As Jade held the car door, she felt a cold hand clasp against her wrist. Turning around, lips pressed against her cheek softly.

"Thank you...for this," the half-Latina smiled gingerly. Jade gave a swift peck with an identical smile before shuffling out of the car. Tori clambered out as the trunk slammed shut, two bags over Jade's shoulders. The two took their time strolling down into the summer cabin, Jade thumbing over keys. The door slid open with a creak, Tori looking around at the old family photos. She gave a small smirk at the younger Jade while the Lycan shut the door and locked it. She strode across the hall, into a large bedroom. The singer dropped the blanket on the floor, her fingers playing with the ends of her sweater.

Screen doors made the wall with glass, the full moon peeking from the corner. It called for her calmly, beckoning her steps towards the woods just outside of the field. She stepped forward slowly, and felt the cold handle against her fingertips.

Jade looked over her shoulder once the door slid and closed in the other room, a small smile stretching across her lips. Dropping the bags, she meandered towards the bedroom to find a trail of clothes towards the door, and then more just outside. In the distance, she saw a figure edging themselves deeper into the field. And she felt herself move swiftly forward, clothes a thing of the past while paws settled onto the patio. Jade hopped from the rail, slowly following the horned wolf.

As grass rustled, Tori twisted about, cocking her head to the side as Jade crept forward. Her tail wagged slowly, which was mirrored in turn. The black wolf moved with a spring in her step, siding with the horned wolf. She felt Tori grow beside her, a great figure now resting beside the wolf. Following suit, Jade turned swiftly, reaching her most intimidating height. "Is it working?"

Tori took a moment before staring into the moon. She nodded.

Jade glanced at the half-Latina before staring, puzzled. "You're horns..."

Tori's tail wagged bashfully in turn. Instead of great, mighty black or grey horns, a pale tan curled around ears, a halo of sorts. Jade nestled into Tori's lap, eyes out into the bright stars. Both remained there, laying in the field as the moon put on its own performance. "So...will you watch my play on Friday?" Jade asked, pale eyes blinking up at the other werewolf. Tori eagerly nodded, settling more comfortable against the tall grass.

The moonlight bathed them as the night shielded the pair. For a moment in time, there was absolute piece.

Man this story needed a lot of time...and proper updating (though that may become a trend of mine...oh well). Even so, all I have to say is this: I have really liked writing this story, actually. Should I do more stuff like this? I mean, I may...probably...

Whatever, thanks for reading this, and I do hope you've enjoyed it.

:)