Moonlight Nocturne

She hesitates, hand shaking as she reaches out to touch Miri's ears. "... She could bite."

The scar on her arm is hidden by her shirt, but she's very aware of it, as she scritches the dog gingerly. Dog biteshurt. She was six, and the dog was bigger than she was, his face level with hers when he lunged. It was only an upheld arm that protected her face from his teeth.

She hasn't pet many dogs since then.

She smiles tentatively, following him to the bathroom. Her feet make almost no sound on the carpet; she's used to sneaking, these days, even when she's trying to act normal. She's not making the effort, right now, watching the dog out of the corner of her eye as she follows him down the hall.

"... Uhhuh. Thank you." She looks up at him for a moment, considering whether she'll look stupid, before moving to hug Nick tight. "Thanks."

 

"She could, but she won't." He smiles slightly. "Promise."

Miri nuzzles her hand, but stays on the floor as Elena heads down the hall.

He waits at the door for her, then blinks in surprise before hugging her back, ruffling her hair with an easy smile. "Hey, don't worry about it. I should be thanking you, too. You saved my life, too, Elena." He ushers her into the bathroom. "Go get cleaned up, I'll get us both something to eat."

 

She smiles shyly up at him. She did? He didn't say, you shouldn't have run in, or we can handle it without you? The shy pride that swells in her chest is an unfamiliar feeling, after the desperation of the past two years. It's not like doing well on a test, or washing the dishes; those are kid things, things everyone expects her to do, and she only gets noticed when she fails to do them. This... it feels a lot bigger. More important.

It's kind of intoxicating. Saving someone's life.

She ducks into the bathroom fast, as she starts to blush. She still keeps her knife close to hand while she showers, but ... he understands. No one has understood before.

She takes a while in the shower, scrubbing over and over until she can convince herself she's clean. She almost starts crying again in the shower, but she's too tired and numb for her feelings to hit full force.

She killed someone. She's a murderer. Even if he was trying to kill her... She killed someone. She scrubs her hands again, at the memory of the stake sinking into him, his blood sucking at her skin.

The borrowed clothes make her look almost like she's playing dress-up, made for someone almost a foot taller than her, and half-again her weight. She feels small and wrung out as she pads into the kitchen, her Swiss Army knife safely deposited in the pocket of her borrowed pants. "... You have a lot of siblings?"

 

Nick grimaces, texting one-handed to reassure his big sister, fingers flying over the keys as he hauls a stew-pot out of the fridge one-handed, balancing it on his hip and kicking the door shut with his foot as he rolls his eyes. “It’s fine, I’ve got this,” he mumbles, nearly tripping as Miri casually strolls behind his legs but recovering with a quick windmill of the arm holding the phone. “Augh. Come on, stop being bratty and scooch, I’ll give you a bowl, too, okay?”



He shoves his phone into his pocket, putting the pot onto the stove and starting the burner as he checks on the milk heating in a pot next to it, nods and starts chopping up chocolate with a look of concentration.



Miri gives an upset bark.



Nick glances down at her, then listens, making sure the shower is still running before he nudges her with a foot. “Yeah, well, you should have thought twice before you came out like that, shouldn’t you? No chocolate when you’re in Urhan, Miriam, just because you're my neice doesn't mean I'm going to let you do that. You'll get super sick and throw up," he scolds, shaking his head.

He pours her a bowl of thick, meaty stew anyway, carefully placing it on the floor and ruffling her fur. "Good?"

She lets out a grumpy little whuff, carefully beginning to eat her snack as he listens for Elena, busying himself with getting a hot bowl of soup and a big cup of cocoa stuffed with marshmallows onto the table, timing the movement to the sound of her footfalls and grins big as she walks in.

"Yeah. Lots of family. Means the house can be pretty busy sometimes, but we don't have many people visiting this month, which is pretty chill."

 

She smiles shakily back, clearly running out of energy as she sits at the table. "Thank you."

She's a kid, it's late at night, and her last dregs of adrenaline are wearing off. She's going to crash hard, and soon.

She eats ravenously, though she sits up straight and keeps her elbows off the table like a proper, polite kid. It seems kind of funny to feed the dog out of human bowls, but... well, what does she know about dogs?

"... It sounds kinda nice."

Home is echoingly quiet, with her brother gone. Her mom has been so busy in the store that Elena barely sees her, some nights; she doesn't come upstairs until Elena's about to go to bed. Elena thinks maybe Mom's trying to keep busy, so she doesn't have to think.

"Just... your sister and her husband?"

She stifles a yawn, covering her mouth with one hand.

 

"Don't worry about it," he grins, sitting across from her and digging into his own bowl of food, barely remembering to finish chewing before he replies. "...it's pretty nice. I mean... uhm. My niece Miriam is visiting from England, right now, but she's asleep. She's..." He pauses. "...like. 13?"

He kicks one foot thoughtfully against his chair. "...but yeah. Aside from Miriam, it's just us. Miri here usually isn't around, we're just watching her for Dad. Isn't that right, huh, pup?"

Miri looks up, then down at her empty bowl, and nudges it forwards.

 

Elena blinks sleepily, watching the dog. "... Why's she named after your niece?"

At least... she can't think of anything else Miri would be short for, and Miri's a funny name all by itself. But she's never had a pet, so... maybe they just name their pets weird things.

She's half-asleep already, drinking her hot chocolate, so she doesn't give it a lot more thought. "It's nice here. Home always smells like dust and stuff."

Sometimes home is... stifling. Everything feels so cramped, between Peter's Raspberry Pis, and whatever Mom's restaining or fixing up. She feels like she doesn't have room to breathe, sometimes. Everywhere she looks, she sees something of Peter's, that she and Mom have silently agreed not to move until he comes back. It feels too final, cleaning up his stuff.

 

"Uuuh. Well. We didn't realize she had..." He hesitates. "...we didn't know about Miriam until she found her way to Dad's doorstep? Her mom's mom moved to England before she was born, so... uh. Yeah."

He downs a mouthful of marshmallows from his hot cocoa, licking the cocoa from his face and missing a bit of marshmallow at one corner. "Uhm. We kind of. Find out about new family members out of the blue sometimes...." He nudges his stew with his fork, then glances up. "...Elena? What's your last name?"

 

"... oh."

Nick's family is weird. It feels impolite to ask but... she's confused about how he got so many siblings all over the place. His dad must have... um... but that's rude to ask about. And she's staring and that's rude too. She looks down at her cocoa quickly, flushing. "Sorry."

She blinks at his question, looking up uncertainly. "Yakir. My dad's dead."

It's an automatic appendage, at this point, to forestall questions. Most adults find out quickly that her mom's a single mother, and they... assume weird stuff. Especially since Mom has an accent. But she thinks he's implying that he's... that she's...

... that he's her brother. And that makes her feel like she's replacing Peter, which makes her start sniffling all over again. It's wrong of her to be having fun, when he's missing, isn't it?

 

"Huh? Uh. No, it's okay. I mean, I went from not knowing any of my family to having a really big one, so..." He chokes on a chunk of potato as Elena says her dad's dead, looking up at her with wide blue eyes. He thumps his chest, coughing. "Oh. Oh man, I'm sorry- I..."

He runs a hand through his hair, scooting back a bit from the table, teeth digging into his lip. "I didn't... mean to... I just wanted to know, so I could try to help. I. Uhm-"

Elena feels a heavy weight on her leg as Miri trots over and rests her head in Elena's lap, looking up with an expression that clearly says 'I'm adorable, be distracted by me'.

 

She sniffles, staring at the cocoa. "It's okay. I don't remember him much."

He died when she was four; all she has are vague impressions. Peter remembers a lot more. He talks about him sometimes, with Mom.

... talked.

She startles at the weight on her leg, jerking away violently enough to knock her chair over and fall sprawled on the floor. But it does startle her out of crying, so there's... there's that. She stares at Miri with wide eyes, before scooting over and sitting on the floor next to her, hugging her tight with her face buried in the dog's scruff.

"... oh. My... my brother's name is Peter Yakir. He's nineteen. He's been gone for three weeks and two days."

 

Nick freezes, half-way around the table as Elena hugs Miri, hand on the back of a chair, then lets out a heavy whuff of air and relaxes, slightly.

Miri whuffs quietly at Elena, licking one of her ears and burying her face in her hair with a huff of puppy-breath, wagging her tail.

"...okay. Well..." Nick carefully moves to sit down next to Elena, cross-legged, expression far more serious than she's seen it all night. "...I'm going to help you find him if I can. I Promise. Okay?"

He holds out his closed hand, pinky out.

 

Miri's tongue is wet and startling on her ear, but Elena doesn't move away, clinging closer. This place makes her feel... safe. Like home hasn't felt in a while.

She hesitates, looking up at him with the lower half of her face still buried in Miri's fur. "... why?"

Why.... why are you so nice?

 

"Because you're going to go looking for him with or without help, right?" He smiles slightly. "...it's dangerous to go alone, take this."

He switches his hand's position to try offering a fistbump instead.

 

She smiles tentatively back, returning the fistbump and then offering her pinky. That's a reason that makes sense. It's... it's such a relief. She pulls away from Miri and moves to hug him tight. "Thank you. No one... no one will listen to me..."

No one listens to her. They just say she's too young, and she should let the adults handle it.

"I don't think anyone else is even looking anymore."

 

He hooks his pinky over her own and shakes once, smiling big and broad, the tension draining from his shoulders in clear relief. He hugs her back, squeezing her shoulder gently. "...nope. Gotta correct you on that one - I'm listening to you, and I'll get my family to listen, too."

His voice is firm, and there's no denying the fact that he believes every word coming out of his mouth. "We'll look, and my brother-in-law might be able to help get more attention on the case, too - he's the County Sheriff."

 

"... really?" Some of the tension drains from her, as she leans into him. "Thank you..."

She'll scritch Miri tentatively, while she leans, trying to stifle another yawn. "... Is he gonna be mad that I... um... I'm not at home?"

A sheriff is basically a kind of cop, right? And she's pretty sure there's technically a curfew around here, if you're under eighteen.

 

Miri yawns wide and leans against Elena's side.

"...uuuh. Not really? I mean..." He pauses. "He. Uh. You were with an adult. So, that's... okay?"

 

She smiles, clearly about to doze off against Miri. "... Okay. Um... don't tell Mom?"

Mom will be so upset if she finds out that Elena's been sneaking out. She hadn't thought about that, but... it seems like the kind of thing a cop would care about. Oops.

She's too tired to really think about it now, though, as she closes her eyes, using Miri as a pillow.

 

"...I won't."

Gabriel and Natasha probably will, though...

He hesitates, watching Elena for a few minutes, then leans forwards to scoop Elena and Miri both up into his arms, quietly padding down the hall to the spare room next to his and carefully tucking both of them into the bed. He leans in to mumble a quiet "Thanks, Miriam," into one of Miri's pointed ears.