Moonlight Nocturne

"So. Uh. What's your book report about?"

 

Elena scuffs her foot, expression going cold. "That's why you fight them after school, on the way home. So the teachers don't catch you. No one wants to say that they got their ass kicked by a little girl."

She blinks. "Um. Oliver Twist. It's stupid. It's about this dumb little kid who cries all the time and doesn't do anything useful, and then he has a lot of money, the end. Why would anyone care about that?"

 

"...clearly they haven't met enough badass ladies." Nick chuckles. "...and yeah, that sounds boring. Uh. Let's grab your stuff and go to the shop? Lou can help you and Miri with homework and... I... guess I can mind the shopfront? He likes books and stuff."

 

"...I guess. I mean. It might be cool seeing Elena's place," Miri mumbles, trying to look cool.

 

"Wimps," Elena mutters, with enough venom to make it practically profanity.

She blushes, panicking internally. Oh, no, did she do her laundry or is it laying all over the floor? Are the dishes done??

"Um. Okay. That sounds... nice. We could do homework in the shop? You can see my place," she says to Miri, smiling shyly. "It's not as cool as yours."

 

"I dunno. It sounds like you guys have a lot of cool stuff. At least, if Lou hasn't gotten Joanna to buy all of it.'

 

"Yeah! Mom keeps the knives locked up, but there's still some really cool stuff. You can see the table I'm working on." She bounces on her toes as they walk. "Um... there's some silver, though, so you... probably should be careful. ... is your hand okay, Nick?"

 

Nick grins, wiggling his fingers. "...yeah. healing up just fine."

 

"...you're making a table?" Miriam asks curiously.

 

She smiles tentatively up at him. "... good."

"Yeah!" Elena bounces on her toes excitedly. "Well, I'm fixing it. It had crayon all over it so I have to sand and refinish it, and it's a lot of hand work because the base is all carved so if we took a power sander to it we'd lose a lot of the detail. It's got lions on it!"

 

Miriam nods, listening as they head for the car. "....huh. that's pretty cool."

 

"... you can help, if you want," she offers, biting her lip. "... Mom hasn't let me do a project this big by myself before. Mostly I just get stuck with tarnished silverware and stuff."

 

"...bleeech, cleaning!" Miri wrinkles her nose. "That's no fun!"

 

"It's not cleaning, it's--" Well. Actually, it basically is cleaning. Elena shrugs, blushing. "Mom says a little work is worth the extra price and the clientele it brings to the shop when things are in good repair. Because if all we have is what somebody else threw out, then we'll only get trash in return."

And it's helping. Even if it's really, really boring.

 

"...mmmnhgg... I guess that's cool," Miri mumbles, tangling her fingers in her ponytail.

 

"... Mom needs the help, so..." She shrugs uncomfortably. "... my brother's ... not ... here, so..."

She swallows. "Is Natasha a pretty wolf?"

 

Miri groans. "Uuugh she is the prettiest and she knows it, it isn't faaaaair-"

 

"...she colour coordinates her nail polish to her eyeshadow and her blouse. If she wasn't, she'd make sure she became the prettiest," Nick snickers.

 

"... you're the prettiest," Elena says, flushing.

She didn't mean it like that, but now that she thinks about it... Is she supposed to think about it, now that she has a girlfriend?? Oh, no. Is she doing it wrong already???

"... does she have nail polish when she's a wolf? Because that sounds... kinda funny."

 

Miri blinks, looking perplexed for a minute, then leans in to kiss Elena on the cheek and squeeze her hand. "And you're cutest." She declares.