Moonlight Nocturne

"Bleeeeh, guyysssss..." Nick throws his hands up, unlocking the car. "And yes. Yes she has nail polish on her claws."

 

Elena blushes even more, leaning in to kiss Miriam's lips before she hops in the car. "Well, she is!"

She leans in between the front seats to stick her tongue out at Nick.

"... ... does she pick nail polish that'll match her fur? Or does she just have, like, blue nailpolish and eyeshadow when she's a wolf?"

 

"Yeah, you can see it on her claws. Tattoos and makeup don't show up, it's on your skin, not your fur, you know?"

 

"Oh. Yeah, I guess that makes sense." Elena goes quiet, looking out the window.

"... are Winter and Mike part of your pack? Do you hunt things with them?"

 

"....huh? Yeah. I mean. I'm not super close with them, but... they're around, you know."

 

"... so what makes a pack if a lot of them aren't wolves?"

 

"....that's.... way too philosophical a question for me, Elena." Nick grimaces. "It just. It's. It just is?"

 

"... sorry." She falls quiet again, hugging herself.

 

"...it's not... ngh. It's just. A thing, I guess? Don't worry about it, Elena. It's... I just dunno how to explain stuff like that. It's... it's hard."

 

"We could go punch things," she offers, attempting a smile.

"... I just... don't want you guys to decide I'm... useless," she mumbles. "And ditch me or... or get killed like Nathan and..." She scrubs furiously at her eyes. "But I know you said you won't and I'm fine and can we go punch something?"

 

"I think we have to get your homework done first." He holds his hand out towards her, shaped into a fist. "...fistbump?"

 

Miriam huffs, then leans over and licks Elena's cheek. "BLEEEEAH. You're worrying too much! Don't." She slides an arm around her waist and squeezes.

 

Elena squeaks and blushes beet red, obviously startled out of her fretting by being licked.

Is this a wolf thing???

"... I'm trying." She leans into her, hiding her face in Miriam's ponytail, and bumps Nick's fist. "Sorry."

It's just... it won't get out of her head, seeing that rat climbing out of Nathan's chest, and his dead-eyed, rotting face...

She swallows, and tries to bury the idea in thoughts of pack and girlfriend again, kissing Miriam's nape. "Are you supposed to lick people when you're not a wolf?"

 

"Nah. It's gross. But it's distracting, right?" Miri grins.

 

Elena sputters, starting to laugh, and grabs Miriam to lick the side of her neck. "Yeah."

 

Miri screeches.

There is silliness all the way to the shop, where Nick finds a parking spot somewhere close by.

 

Elena slings her backpack back on her back, taking Miriam's hand. It looked like the door was fixed, and... hopefully everything's back to normal. Hopefully no one noticed. "... how long do you have to work for?"

 

"I don't, you do." Nick ruffles her hair.

The door is unlocked, jingles as they enter.

There's an unfamiliar man at the counter, very tall, but lanky, with a mop of light brown hair and faintly olive-toned skin. He has myriad bracelets and necklaces, some made of gems, some of bone, some of string and yarn... and plenty with lots of weird knick-knacks and amulets on them. He's reading through a thick book, and there's a plant you don't remember on the counter... kind of... a bonsai tree? Except instead of growing as is, there's metal wound around the plant, twining with the branches and trunk...

 

Elena sighs loudly. School is lame. Who even writes book reports when they're adults, anyway?

She hesitates, looking up at Nick questioningly. "... is he your friend? Does he... know stuff?" she asks softly.

It bothers her a little to have things change in her shop when she's not there, but... it looks interesting too. What else can he do with metal, if he did that?

 

"....that's Lou. Go say hi." Nick grins. "He's the bookworm."

He also looks like he's in his twenties.