LUNA'S FIRST LOVE

"My brother," I corrected softly, and his head turned back toward me so quickly that I could not stop the laugh slipping from my lips when relief spread openly across his face. He exhaled sharply afterward, dragging one hand down his face while shaking his head at himself like he was annoyed that I had caught him reacting that obviously.

"You did that on purpose," he muttered, though amusement had already started creeping back into his expression.

"I did not," I replied innocently, failing completely when another quiet laugh escaped me, and he stared at me for a second longer before the corner of his mouth lifted slightly. The look in his eyes softened afterward, but the intensity beneath it never truly disappeared, and for a moment we simply stood there staring at each other while the silence between us filled with words neither of us seemed brave enough to say aloud.

"Thank you for today," I whispered eventually, and his expression shifted again when he heard that.

"You don't need to thank me for protecting you," he replied quietly, and the seriousness in his voice made my chest tighten strangely.

He stepped back after a moment and walked toward the passenger side of the car before opening the door for me silently. I hesitated briefly before walking toward him, and even while getting into the car I could still feel his eyes following me with that same unreadable intensity. He closed the door carefully once I settled inside before walking around the front and slipping into the driver's seat, and moments later the engine came alive softly beneath us as the car pulled onto the empty road.

My attention kept drifting toward him no matter how many times I tried to look elsewhere, and I found myself noticing the way his fingers tightened around the steering wheel occasionally, the distant look that crossed his face whenever he thought I was not paying attention, and the strange tension that still had not fully left his body since mentioning the beast inside him. Every time our eyes accidentally met, my chest tightened in a way I could not explain, and by the time the car finally stopped outside my house, I was almost relieved to escape the suffocating effect he seemed to have on me without even trying.

******

✦THE NEXT MORNING✦

◈AT MY HOUSE◈

I stood quietly in the living room staring at the framed picture resting on the wooden shelf above the cabinet, my fingers brushing lightly against my mother's smiling face while a familiar ache slowly spread through my chest. She looked so alive in the photograph, so warm and untouched by pain, and the longer I stared at her smile, the harder it became to stop the memories creeping back into my mind. At first they came slowly, but within seconds the present around me faded completely back on the night everything started breaking apart.

The muffled sound of a woman’s moan coming from my parents’ room, the bed creaking in a rhythm that made my stomach twist, and my mom stood at the door, frozen, her hand still on the handle, her eyes wide before the pain settled in, tears gathering slowly as my dad’s voice followed, low and filled with pleasure, and she turned away, step by step, like each movement cost her something, her tears finally spilling as she walked down the hallway.

When she pushed open our bedroom door, Xavier and I immediately looked up from where we sat together on the bed, and she paused briefly after seeing us before quickly wiping her face and forcing a smile that never fully reached her eyes. Even then, the faint sounds from my parent's room still echoed through the walls, making the sadness in her expression impossible to hide no matter how hard she tried.