Into: I've missed this pairing. And I needed an upper after DH because...well, yes. No spoilers, AU, follows my fic Rosemary & Thyme. Works fine on it's own as well, though! At least so far. I may keep it going. It's so hard to write Next Gen fics without things feeling terribly sappy. But I enjoy this so very much. Hi to anyone who's still reading my stuff!! hehehe.
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Sister Moon
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By May
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The storm was building on the horizon, far off and over the sea. The clouds were a wall of grey on a blue, cold morning sky long before dawn. Pale blue eyes were taking it all in, the tall clouds and the churning sea, the whipping wind blowing white sand into them. She shut her eyes but only for a moment. She was standing as if under a complex spell that held her feet fast to the sandy beach, the waves breaking not far ahead and just splashing the hem of her white, flowery nightgown. Her small arms swung at her sides, as if she thought the wind could carry her away with it, that she could fly off with the gulls in the boiling slate sky overhead. Her eyes danced when lightening cut through those storm clouds on the horizon with a loud crack, and she sucked in her breath in awe.
"Piper!" The voice shouting her name seemed far away, blown to the east by the strong wind. The little girl didn't take her eyes off of the storm though, her light brown kitten hair flying in her face, "Piper!" Willowy arms were wrapping themselves around her, picking her up and carrying her tiny self away. Piper spread her arms, shutting her eyes, pretending she was flying as her mother's shockingly long pale hair surrounded her, racing across the sand, up the stairs of the summer cottage and along the veranda. And then, suddenly, the wind was no more, only a sound outside of secure, ghostly walls,
"You frightened me, Piper!" Her mother crooned, wrapping a blanket around her. Piper realized that she'd been shivering, and hugged the blanket to herself, "I heard the storm and you were not in your bed and…"
"I had to see it," Piper said simply, staring up at her mother with those overly large, pale blue eyes. Her mother calmed, as the rain broke and started pounding against the roof and window panes.
"Come, I'll make you hot chocolate," Luna took her daughter's hand, leading her into the kitchen. Piper followed, small feet padding against the worn hardwood floor. The wind shook the shutters of the summer holiday retreat, and Luna looked out the windows. Piper's gaze, however, was far away.
"Will he be home today?" She asked quietly, when her mother had sat her on a stool at the small kitchen counter. Luna regarded the six year old pensively, as she heated the milk with a wave of her wand, tucking the birch and unicorn hair instrument behind her ear. She nodded,
"Yes, and he'll be very tired," Luna said automatically, not meeting her daughter's eyes, so like her own, "His work in the city was very hard yesterday and tonight."
"Yes," Piper said evenly, "Moving books is very hard." Luna could have been stung by a hex and it would have smarted less than her daughter's delicate voice, echoing from a delicate, rosebud mouth. Piper took her mug of hot chocolate in her small hands, graced with long slim fingers, taking a cautious drink, "Tonight was a summer moon, you know. It pulled on the sea very strongly, as it pulls on you. It will pull on me too, someday, when I am older." Luna had never been the kind of parent who denied her child any knowledge. Piper asked, she was answered honestly…save when she asked where her father went every month. The Moon Girl wondered if perhaps her child was too wise.
"The moon pulls on everyone," Luna murmured softly, absently. Piper looked at her,
"Ada too?" Luna licked her lips pensively,
"Yes, Ada too..."
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When she was born, she did not cry. She laughed as she grew older, and she shed tears when she was hurt, but she never wailed. Piper expressed joy, and denied sadness, and let her parents believe that she was unaware of any secret-keeping. She was pale and porcelain, reveling in tempests and feeling the river and the ocean in her pulse. She would be a powerful witch one day.
Luna tucked her back in her bed in the rainy, howling dawn, her own long white shift swishing around her still-girlish form as she unlocked the bedroom door and returned to her bed in the cottage they'd rented on holiday. The moon had slipped away into the hidden sun as she'd hunted down her wayward child, and the wolf Luna had left was no more. Still aching from the transformation, the sheets askew around him, Remus was staring up at the rough ceiling, as if his only concentration was on his breathing.
Luna curled up next to him gently, covering him with their down comforter and drawing his head to rest against her chest. She began to hum a familiar tune in the blue of the dawn, drawing her long, slender fingers through his graying hair. Despite his utter exhaustion and weary heart, Remus smiled into the soft white cotton that covered her chest, covering her heart, which beat in his ear. She was humming Scarborough Fair. Outside of the low, ancient windows surrounding them, the ocean pounded in a furious tempest.
"Hullo, lover," she whispered, "Welcome back from Selene's deadly dance."
"Hullo, Moon-girl," He whispered back, kissing the top of one breast through her shift. "I live to see another month. How is the Infanta?"
"Back in bed..." Luna paused, watching the churning clouds outside, sliding her fingers along his aching back muscles, "I do believe she knows. She is so very smart, Remus. I think she is too old to be told lies, even for her own good."
As if on cue, the doorknob began to turn, latches clicking above the sound of the storm outside. Over the expanse of his slip of a wife, Remus beheld his daughter as she crept to the bed, stuffed crup in her arm, seeking his eyes for permission before scrambling up onto the covers. Piper Lupin cuddled up next to her mother's side and Remus wrapped one bare, scarred arm around them both. Father and daughter regarded each other with the same serious eyes, one pair a dusky amber, the other pair wide and blue and luminous.
"You are here." Piper noted after a long moment. Remus nodded against Luna, who was now playing with her daughter's soft hair as well.
"Yes I am." He replied, "And I am sorry we told you that I was not."
"That's okay," The six-year old went on, looking so very serious and adult. That is, until an especially loud crack of thunder sounded outside, and she instinctively shifted closer to her parents. She swallowed, "You're a werewolf, aren't you Ada?"
"Yes Piper, I am." Remus admitted to his daughter. Luna bit her lip.
"We did not tell you, because we did not want to scare you," She told her. Piper nodded.
"That's okay," She squirmed, hugging her toy crup to herself, "But I could never be scared of Ada..."
"You never need to be," Remus whispered, leaning over and kissing her head, "I take a special potion, and keep myself in a safe place when I change."
"That's good," Piper yawned, her eyelids getting heavy, "You're still Ada. Just furry sometimes." Remus smiled down at his daughter, affection stirring in his weary, aching heart. She was so much like her mother, even at this age. "Please don't lie to me again though," The little girl commanded softly, as her brilliant blue eyes closed, "I don't like when I don't know what's going on."
"We promise not to," Luna hummed, and Piper was appeased, burying her face in her parent's blankets as she fell back to sleep in the dual embrace of her parents. Remus looked back up at his Silver Girl, who smiled down at him.
"She is a spirit of no common rate," Luna whispered into the morning tempest, remembering her brave daughter's face on the beach, her fascination with storms. Remus let out a pleased sigh. After his worst torture, even now, he was met by far better than he'd ever hoped for. The storm went on, and he fell back to sleep as well, in the embrace of his two gems. Two were now three.
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Author's Notes: UM...none really. May write more, am feeling the fic-itch.