Accepting His Revelation

Luna fell asleep first. She had hovered over Kaoru ever since he had broken down into tears, her hands fluttering just a hair's breath away from touching him. Give her an impossible situation with minimal tools and a group of dysfunctional teens and she would quite happily create a utopian society, but confront her with a grieving male and she fell to pieces.

Finally she had lightly placed her hand on his back; patting him as if she was half-afraid he would pull away from her. Then, when he did not, she had lain her head against his shoulder, before quietly drifting off to sleep.

As he careful detangled her from himself, he found himself wondering at how young she looked. It was easy to forget, what with the struggling for their lives and all, that they were just kids.

Maybe they would be forced to spend the rest of their lives here, growing old and dying, alone and lost, in the middle of this uncharted galaxy. Maybe they would escape and find their colony again, and return to their old lives, a little changed perhaps, but separating and walking their own paths.

He found himself strangely resistant to that thought, even though when they had first landed that had been all he had wanted. Here there was a place for him, to hunt and provide for what was beginning to feel like a large, dysfunctional family. He liked coming back to the house, or the cave, to the warmth of the fire, and Luna's quiet "Welcome home." He liked their dinners together, and the soft rhythms of their breathing whilst they slept – a constant reminder that for once, he was not alone.

Luna shivered in her sleep, and curled up against him. His mouth twisted into a wry smile as he looked down at her. Somehow, practically against his wishes, she and the rest of them had wormed their way into his affection. He shifted slightly, resting Luna's head in his lap as he arranged his cloak to cover the both of them. His fingers flickered across her cheeks, brushing away the snow. For a moment they lingered against the outline of her mouth, before he shook himself and leaned back against the wall.

Tomorrow they would return to Everyone's House, and find a way to stop the snow from falling. He would protect his family, his friends, his people any way he knew how. Even if he had to spend the rest of his life on this island, he would enjoy it, as long as everyone was there. He had finally found people with whom he felt he belonged. And that was all he needed.