Moonlight Chapter 8
"Who? I didn't see anyone! What're ya talkin' about sissy? Ya must be loosin' a few or somethin', cause there's no way-" I began rambling.
"Is it your boyfriend?!" Serenity shot straight up looking at me like I was giving her a Christmas present.
"NO! Of course not! He's just- um…."
"So it is a guy!" Shit, fuck, shit, goddamn, shit, balls, shit.
"Nonononnononononono, it's just the wind, I was making sure the window was…working…"
Serenity gave me a goofy smile, "Suuuure, the wind. What's his name!? Where did you meet? How long have you been together? And you were giving me crap for not telling you about Mokuba, ha!"
"Seriously, Serenity, there was nobody."
"I'll have dad perform a search right now to get answers, sister. You know I will."
I swallowed hard, even the idea of that made me nervous.
I pushed my glasses to the top of my head and rubbed my eyes, before sitting back on the end of the bed.
"Okay, yes it's a guy, no were not dating, he just wanted to check on me and make sure I was healing alright and safe."
"And the reason he didn't come in the front door like all the other werewolves is because…?"
Damn, she was a lot more observant than I gave her credit for. How the hell should I word this? I suppose the truth wouldn't hurt, she is dating a vampire after all.
"He's not exsactly… a werewolf," I gestured, before crawling back under the covers.
Serenity started squealing, "Oh my gosh, could you imagine if dad found out that were both dating people that aren't wolves?! He'd totally freak out!"
"Serenity, were not dating!"
"For now!" she laughed.
I hit her with a pillow, and she raised hers to hit me back. "AH! Don't hurt the cripple!" I bellowed, but the pillow war began anyways.
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"I'm worried he won't like me for me," Kisara said, taking another lick of her strawberry ice cream.
"I don't know what to tell you girlie, he could be a real knight in shining armor, or a real ass. I can't believe you haven't met him yet though, I thought you were getting married in a couple months, 'er something," I responding, taking a bite out of the cone holding vanilla ice cream.
Now that my knee was better, our healers requested I walk to exercise it daily, and Kisara happened to be on one of her weekly visits and overheard, then quickly volunteered to be my walking buddy for the next few weeks.
I may have rolled my eyes at first but, honestly, wasn't that bad. Kisara is very intelligent and passionate about her position as a Beta. The Alpha of the pack was obviously the leader and only one person could hold that title. Next came the mate of the alpha and direct kin, the Betas, such as myself. After that was the Gammas, which were the elders and council members, and then the Deltas and all the other letters of the greek alphabet included everyone else. No one else was more important than the other, so it didn't matter that much. Back in the old days it did, but were way past that tradition. There is a ranking for it, but I didn't pay much attention when they were categorizing us when we were kids. I know Yugi and Honda are both Thetas, and Otogi was a Zeta.
It was a little intimidating at first, walking with Kisara, but she was a natural conversationalist, so there wasn't much pressure on me. The first words out of her mouth were about getting our nails done together or something.
Today we walked from my father's house to an ice cream shop about a half a mile away. Kisara was capturing quite a bit of attention from my pack mates in a blue button up sleeveless top with a lacy back and denim shorts, her hair down and blowing in wind. I'd never seen it out of her braid before, and she was absolutely stunning. She was walking down the sidewalk as if it was a runway, completely natural for her. I was kind of an eyesore next to her in a rolling stones cut off and capris, my hair pulled up into a messy bun that didn't want to keep all my hair up, and of course my cracked glasses. I was a hot mess.
"I've done research on him, and we have talked over the phone. I've seen pictures of course, but we were supposed to meet up a few weeks ago, but he said he'd have to reschedule and still hasn't gotten back to me. He runs a huge company you see, one of the most eligible bachelors in all of the vampire clans according some magazines I've seen. Those are usually in vampire territory and people seem very reluctant to sell to me, hopefully that prejudice will change once we're married. He's very handsome, but he has a reputation for being a prick. I wonder how he'll treat me…"
"Kisara you're very talented and intelligent and stunning, he's going to instantly recognize that, there's no way he won't. Any guy will want to hold onto it. He wouldn't agree to this if he didn't know what he was getting into. I bet he's asking the same questions right now."
"You think so?"
"Sure, why not?"
"Oh Jou!" she yelled, throwing her arms around my shoulders for a huge hug. That was another thing I noticed about her, she was big on touching. "You're such a good friend! I've never met anyone as bold as you! When we first met, I knew we were going to be great friends!"
I honestly wasn't expecting Kisara to be a sappy romantic or as easy to persuade as she is, it really caught me off guard. My first impression is that she was as serious and stern as her father. Truth is picking up on social cues and sarcasm didn't seem to be her strong point. She loved talking about her fiancée and their future together. She was very optimistic for an arraigned marriage. It oddly reminded me of how I would talk to Serenity when we were younger.
Her unexpected hug combined with my clumsiness left my ice cream cone dripping down my arm and on the ground. Guess who doesn't have napkins! This girl!
The remainder of the walk back I was mostly distracted by the stickiness on my arm to pay attention to Kisara, but I know she was talking about the stocks of her fiancées company, so I knew I wasn't missing much.
"Oh! Before I forget! In a couple weekends is my birthday! Mr. Kaiba is supposed to be there, but as I said before, he hasn't gotten back to me. I'm having a huge party. I'd love for you and your friends to come," She said enthusiastically.
"Ah! A party huh. Are you sure you want me at a formal party Kisara? I'm not exactly… elegant," I responded, thinking of all the Council Parties I've had to go to and incidentally destroyed.
There was this one time I told my father the only way I would go is if I could bring all my buddies with me, when I first got into my gang. Needless to say, I was grounded for a year and had to clean all the graffiti and damage, and write apologies to every single member in attendance.
"Of course I want you there! I wouldn't invite you if I didn't want you there," she winked. We arrived at the end of the driveway to my house and began walked down the path of trees.
"Thank you for your advice, Johannah, I've grown to look forward to these walks," she said to me with a charming smile.
"Same, Kisara, Same."
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"Listen here sister, I know you were supposed to go home tomorrow, but Mokuba asked that we come over for dinner tonight, so were going!" Serenity informed once I hung up the phone from talking with Set.
"It's like we don't even have conversations anymore you just yell at me that we have to do something," stated, more to myself because she was busy digging through my closet.
"He's sending a car to pick us up at five o'clock!" She continued, throwing various items of clothing across the room.
I sprawled out on my bed and said, "Oh, okay, and what are you going to tell dad when he asks whose fancy car is picking us up?"
Serenity froze mid throw and turned to me, "I hadn't thought about that."
I got up and patted her on the shoulder, "that's what I'm here for babes. What are you looking for in my closet anyways?"
"Something for you to wear! You've got to look presentable!"
"Are ya sayin' I don't usually look presentable?"
"Absolutely not! It's just…."
"Just….?"
"I wanted us to dress up and look fancy, but I don't think you own a dress…"
"That would be correct. I had a phase where I burned them all. All my bra's too. That was a weird one, I'll give you that."
"I think Kisara has some that she's left here…"
"Kisara and I aren't the same size and why does she have dresses here?"
"She comes over like every day to walk with you now, so why wouldn't she have clothes here? You two are seriously almost identical in size so at least try one! She said I could use them whenever I wanted so I don't see why you can't?"
"Please just let me go in sweatpants."
Serenity shot me a death glare as she walked out of the room.
A few minutes later she returned with a handful of dresses.
"So this is one handful of about twenty, so go through these, I'll grab the others and tell Mokuba to send a taxi instead, or something like that."
"This is one handful of about twenty? How many dresses does she need here?!"
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When Serenity said we were going to Mokuba's house, I was expecting maybe a two story place, or something quaint, or what normal people live in. No. No, this was a mansion to the extreme. The taxi pulled up to a large gate with the emblem KC in the center, and opened with grace to reveal a large circle drive with a huge water fountain in front. Off to the left of the driveway was open grass, a 'shed' that was the size of a normal house and a huge garden. To the right was a large building that attached to the house with huge car doors.
The taxi pulled us right up to the gigantic front doors, again harboring the KC symbol. I couldn't even reach the fucking knockers made out of golden dragon egg or some other shit like that. Serenity found the doorbell.
A butler answered the door and stated, "The young master Mokuba was expecting you."
My palms were getting sweaty and I gulped audibly. "Are you sure it's safe for us to be here?" I found myself asking Serenity. We had to be in the center of vampire territory based on the potent smell, it had never been this strong before. Vampires weren't stupid, and they could smell just as well as werewolves could. No matter how faint our odor was I'm sure someone had to have picked it up.
"Relax sister, I've been here many times, it's totally fine."
"I'm sorry, did you just say you've been here many times?" I questioned, as we walked into the house. It was even bigger on the inside. A grand staircase was at the far end of the hallway, the entryway looking like a place where grand parties were held, fancy doors lined the walls on either side. It was decorated somewhat traditionally and somewhat modern, but it was mostly cream colored, gold, and silver, with a large elegant intricate blue and silver rug covered the floor and led up the stairs. A gigantic chandelier hung from the renaissance looking painted ceiling, naked baby cupids and all.
As the butler led us to one of the doors off to the left, Serenity began to fidget with the hem of her green knee length dress. "Um…did I say that?" She nervously giggled, and quickly scurried into the room.
I would remember to question her about that later.
It was a kitchen, and it was a complete disaster. It looked as though there was flour and egg on every inch of the hard wood floor, marble countertops, stainless steel appliances, and all of the high top chairs. Mokuba was standing in front of the island in the middle of the room, the top of his head hidden from view by some cabinets, but it his black shirt was covered in the white powder.
We made our way around the cabinets to see a white haired Mokuba sneeze and more flour dusted the room.
"Mokie," Serenity sighed, one hand on her hip, the other on rubbing her forehead.
He quickly turned to look at us, releasing even more flour. "Ah! I though you weren't coming until seven!"
"It's seven thirty, Mokie," the stress in her voice made her sound so defeated. I couldn't stifle my laughter any longer.
"Trying to make dinner yourself I see!" I said between fits of laughter. Serenity looked appalled at me.
Underneath the white powder, a red hue appeared on Mokuba's cheeks.
Serenity hit my arm and went over to brush the flour off of his face and clothes.
Based on all the ingredients laid out on the counter and in the nearly empty mixer, it looked like he was trying to make chocolate chip cookies.
"I sent my cook home for the night because her son was really sick, so I thought I could try it myself. There's food in the oven, I just got a little carried away with the dessert…" he explained, before scratching the back of his head.
I picked up a stick of margarine and before I could stop myself joked, "You 'butter' believe it!"
Serenity face palmed and Mokuba looked shocked, before he let out a light giggle.
We cleaned up the cookie disaster, and I put my fancy smancy cooking skills to work and taught Mr. Mokuba how to properly bake a cookie. I was really feeling goofy and I through some salt at him when he portioned out too much and yelled, "You just got 'a salt'ed!" Hey, at least I think I'm funny. Mokuba cracked a smile at that, too. Serenity didn't seemed quite as amused.
Once the cookies were cooling, we got out our plates and sat up at the mostly clean island and began our elegant feast of some sort of lasagna and sweet potatoes, which Mokuba took a small portion of I noticed.
"Hey, I thought vampires didn't eat?" I questioned.
"Jou! What is with you today? Why are you being so rude? Can't you just not acknowledge the whole werewolf vampire thing for once?" Serenity growled.
"Serenity, it's quite alright, I don't mind," Mokuba interjected, patting her shoulder. I was quite surprised with Serenity's outburst. It wasn't my intention to piss her off. She was usually quite slow to anger, but I seemed to be pressing all of her buttons tonight.
"It doesn't do anything nutritionally for me, so there's really no need for me to eat, but I've grown rather fond of the taste, and it seemed weird for me to just watch people eat, I'm sure it makes others uncomfortable," he explained, his hand rubbing Serenity's back.
She refused to look at me. I swallowed hard, and began eating away at my food, careful to mind my manners. I had a bad habit of getting too excited and eating like the wild animal I was. My family always scolded me for it, but I couldn't help myself.
We ate the meal in awkward silence, except for the scrape of silverware against the plates.
"So, this is quite the place you have here Mokuba," I began after a while, "is it just you?"
"Naw, I live with my older brother. He's out of the country right now. I've actually been getting a bit worried about him, he hasn't checked in with me. He's probably just really busy." He responded, picking at his sweet potato.
I was trying to focus on his words, I really was, but the frustration on Serenity's face was really getting to me. Why did my question spark such a reaction?
"Oh," I began, trying to replay what he had said so I could think of a response, "W…What um…What's his…job?"
"He's the majority shareholder and CEO of KaibaCorp. I'm actually the vice president, I'm looking over the company in Domino right now."
Why does that sound familiar?
I made a noise resembling sucking all the air out of the room and bellowed, "You're brother is going to marry Kisara!"
"Jou! Can we please leave the feud behind us for one night?!" Serenity yelled back.
So that's what it was. This whole thing was really getting to her.
"Serenity…"I whispered as tears started to stream down her face. Mokuba wrapped his arms around her in a hug.
"This whole thing is so stupid! It has to be such a huge deal if they go to school with us or are around us at all, and the constant fighting, it's ridiculous! I just want to introduce my boyfriend to my parents without worrying they might kill him, or have a dinner where politics are not brought up, or just have a normal life! Why is this such a huge deal?!" her voice got louder and louder until she was screaming and sobbing into Mokuba's chest.
"I'm so sorry sister," I whispered, touching her shoulder, "I didn't realize how much this was bothering you."
Once the sobbing subsided and was replaces with the occasional sniffle, she turned to me and said, "It's not your fault, I just want it to be over."
"Me too, girl. Me too." I replied, and looked over to Mokuba, who had a faint smile on his lips, but furrowed brows.
"Serenity, you've got a good soul. I'd love to meet your parents, I'm not worried," he stated.
"You don't know my father," I scoffed. Serenity forced out a laugh at that comment.
"How bad could it be?"
"Did Serenity tell you he's the racist alpha of the Katsuya Pack?"
"I do believe you failed to mention that detail," he chuckled, turning to Serenity.
"I didn't think you'd ever meet him, or want to…" she uttered.
"Why wouldn't I want to meet him, we've only been sneaking around for a couple of months now-"
"-You two are super terrible about keeping secrets, you know that?!" I yelled, "Hang around you long enough and I'm sure you'll spill are your guts! Do you have a pet together too or something? Gosh, never thought I'd say it but you're too honest! How does mom and dad not know?!"
Both of them tensed.
"No fucking way, what is it? A rabbit? A hamster?"
"We don't have a pet at all, what are you talking about?" Serenity fidgeted.
"No point in lying Serenity, she can already tell," Mokuba expressed, "It's a golden retriever. We named her Jono. She's at Serenity's this week. We found her malnourished with a broken leg in the creek outside of town."
I exhaled loudly through my nose and sat back in my chair. "Of course you have a dog named Jono. Whose watching her if you've been at dads though?"
"Mom is, Jono is such a lover, so cuddly, Jou, you'd love her!" Serenity exclaimed, leaning forward with excitement. Talk about a mood swing. Was she feeling alright?
"You two are something else, let me tell ya," I laughed. This was so goofy. "What are you going to do if someone finds out about you? Are you ready for that kind of slack?" I questioned.
"We've talked about that a lot. Times are changing, Jou. It's got to start somewhere," Serenity explained, "And I'm very happy with Mokie…" she grabbed his hand.
Ah man. They were frickin adorable together, and I sure as hell didn't have any room to talk.
"I'll cover for you, but please be careful if you decided to make this public. This is all fresh and we're not gonna know how this whole peace treaty thing will go, so maybe wait it out for a bit longer."
Serenity smiled from ear to ear, "Sis, you're the best!"
"I've been getting that a lot lately. Now, who wants a cookie?" I exclaimed.
"Not me," Mokuba chuckled, "I've eaten so much of these sweet potatoes, I don't know who I 'yam' anymore."
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"Honestly, it's not my fault," Set stated, "by now you should have expected something like that and known to... not grab anything I'm drinking then try to drink it."
"I wasn't. Paying. Attention. Warm. It was warm. In a mug. Like coffee. Who puts blood in a mug? Warm blood? Just drinks it? From a mug? Like someone would do with coffee?" I retorted.
Set just blinked, "…I mean…who drinks blood that is cold-"
"I could have DRANK that!"
He let out a long sigh, leaned against the back of the couch, and wearily pressed his lips to the side of the mug and took a sip, "but you didn't. Your day can only get better from here, and now you have a story to tell at parties."
I ran both hands through my hair and roared at him, enough to make his hair fly back, and he continued to sip away.
Patience hadn't been on my side these last few days, Kisara's birthday party was coming up, and she wanted to spend all her time with me, Serenity kept pressing me to hang out with her and Mokuba, Antonio's was insanely busy, not to mention a little pissy that I had to take so much time off for my recovery, my glasses broke down the middle when I fell down the stairs, and of course I couldn't get new ones until the end of the week, Yugi had fallen ill, my father required five hours four days a week for 'Alpha Training', and Set was getting sassier with every memory he recovered. In fact, I walked on him burning one of my old history books because "that's not even close to what had happened' and he was yelling at some game on television in what I can only assume was… Latin maybe? Some sort of dead language that's for damn sure.
I plopped myself down on the couch, completely exhausted. I began tapping my fingers against my knees to ease off the anxiety.
Then I asked it. A question I'd been struggling with for a while now, but made a lot of sense after giving it quite a bit of thought.
"Set, do you think you'd like to go to a vampire hospital now that you're more coherent?" I inquired quietly.
He was silent for a long while before responding, "Why?"
"Because, they know more about how you work and they can reconnect you with your clan or family or whatever. It just makes sense you know?"
I didn't realize, but I had pulled my knees up to my chest and hit my head in my arms. I could feel him hop over the back of the couch with ease and land gracefully next to me.
He reached over and placed his hand on my chin, forcing me to look at him.
"What if I don't want to go back?" He said, his blue eyes showing pure determination. Mai had just recently shaved the beard that had grown when I was away and trimmed up his hair. He looked really handsome and healthy now. Not that he didn't before, but now… it was just magnified.
I closed my eyes and exhaled. "Set, I'm going to be an Alpha."
"All the more reason. It would strengthen the treaty."
"But don't you want to get back to your life?"
"My memories are returning slowly but surely my little puppy. You are my life now."
"Set, you could have a wife or children already, haven't you thought of that?"
"I know I don't. I know it."
There was no point arguing with him. I don't think he really did know, he was just focus on right now. This love affair wasn't good for him, it was taking him away from his life.
He leaned in close, sparking a fire in my stomach. His thumb brushed over my lower lip as it had before and his husky voice mumbled, "Mind if I kiss you, pup?"
Not at all.
I crossed my legs and my body went tense. Remain in control here, Jou. I pulled my face away from his hypnotic touch and stood up. Why was that so hard? "Set, you can't just-"
My apartment door swung open and hit the wall with a loud bang.
"SISTER! SURPRISE!"
