Random Peep is my new lover.

~ Lilly ~

Miley was still clad in her cotton pyjamas and only when I noticed the small quakes of her body did I suggest that we head back home so she may change. Winter was dawning on this small Tennessee town and I didn't want to be anywhere else but right here at Miley's side. The clothes Miley had retrieved from my bag were just a pair of denim shorts and an old red plaid shirt I bought about two years ago. I hadn't really had much of a growth spurt once I hit fifteen, yet I managed to become a whole different species almost three years later. And Miley didn't care. She was happy with just me, no matter what I was, she only saw me.

Joyful and in need of a proper shower, I grinned and softly pushed Miley out of my way as I cried, "I'll race you!" She shouted at me, but I was already bounding through the trees, needing to stretch my legs after being restricted to my wolf body for so long. My balance wasn't very stable and I had trouble controlling my movement after my bones had become accustomed to being in a different position as to what they were in now. The thumps behind me indicated Miley's advance and I awakened my muscles further as I increased my speed. A hand slapped at my leg and I stumbled, but didn't collapse. Miley laughed as she surpassed me, bursting through the forest into an open field. Her large house sat in the distance.

"Oh, you wanna play dirty, do you?" I snapped as I hooked my leg around one of hers. She tripped but I caught her before she face planted and I lowered her smoothly to the ground before I started running again.

"Ya'll are dead meat!" she bellowed between pants as she bolted after me. I knew she would never catch me now that I had better command over my body, so I purposefully slowed down. Miley caught up, but did something I was unprepared for. Her entire body thrust into my back and her legs wrapped around my waist, as her arms did my neck. My sharp reflexes brought my hands beneath her knees in an instant to support her as she giggled into my neck.

"Don't drop me!" she demanded urgently.

I smiled and said, "I'd never let you fall." Miley didn't say anything for a second after that and I wanted to turn my head to see if she was okay, but her chin was resting heavily on my shoulder and I was unwilling to risk being so close to her face.

"I'll stand up with you forever. I'll be there for you through it all, even if saving you sends me to heaven," she sung quietly.

"Oh, my God."

"What, you don't like the Red Jumpsuit's?"

"No, I do, I just can't say I was expecting you to leap onto my back and start singing Your Guardian Angel." Miley begun to remove her legs from my hands as she laughed and I leant down so that she could safely climb off me.

"You started it, and I've had the song stuck in my head for so long! It's dang accurate if you ask me," she asserted, doing up a button that had come loose on her night shirt.

"How so?"

"Well... I think that... You're my guardian angel, in a way. You protect me." Her affection was evident to me then and I avoided her eyes, knowing that if I dared meet them, I would encounter those overwhelming feelings only Miley could induce. Her mind was a place I adored and while I knew she loved me, I often wondered to what extent. Enough to keep me around forever, or just until the whole werewolf prospect stopped being exciting? One day, she could wake up and think about how much of a boring person I was when I wasn't a wolf hunting rabbits or getting into deadly fights with my ex best friend.

"I'll always protect you, Miley. Even if you don't need me to," I declared, the sudden troubling thoughts now circulating about my head horribly.

"I'll need you forever." She sounded so sure. But how? How could she possibly understand how real this all was? That this wasn't a fantasy come to life? This was me, being a dangerous combination of human and animal. The desire to hunt, to change, to lose myself in the night under a full moon was becoming so much more gripping. I tried to be heedless, I tried so damn hard, but at the end of the day, sleeping peacefully by Miley's side wasn't enough to calm me internally.

The worst has yet to come.

"Come on, Lilly! We're gonna be late for school!" Miley warned and I hastily tied my shoes before I irritated Miley further. I jogged from her room, passing Robbie on the stairs. He offered me a smile and a nod, which I returned as I descended. Miley stood at the front door, holding it open with a pointed look. I grinned innocently and rushed past her, hearing the door swing shut behind me along with Miley's swift footfalls.

"I told you I'd be quick," I teased.

"We're cutting it too close, Lil! No more late night talks when we have school the next day." Miley yawned and wiped a tired hand over her face, as if that would remove the bags beneath her eyes and the drooping of her lids.

"Psh, I feel fine, and since when are you my keeper?" I said defiantly.

"Since I let you live with me free of charge with food included," she shot.

"Hey! I could live in the forest if I wanted to! There's plenty of food for me there!"

"Oh, how civil. Eating rabbits and sleeping in the dirt. It definitely beats a cooked meal and a warm bed," Miley countered, her calmness when addressing my partial diet igniting an inferno that enveloped my heart. This girl was perfect.

"I think it's your arms that I find comfortable, not your bed," I muttered, but I knew she heard me. The humour in the air was gone and Miley's fingers were around mine, clinging with a need that rivalled my own. Miley thought I was protecting her, but I think it might be the other way around. She was the only thing standing between my humanity and my slowly growing animalism.

"Then stay with me."

"I will." No matter what.

We walked to school in silence from that point on, huddled close together due to the iciness in the breeze. I was unaffected by the weather and produced enough body heat that would keep me warm during a snowstorm, but Miley's human fragility was threatened by the drop in temperature and I wanted to do all that I could to prevent any sickness or discomfort.

Serenity existed presently. My hand remained captive in Miley's and a light fog left her lips with every exhale. She appeared tired, but content. She was paler than usual, but we were up until 3am last night talking about everything we did as kids and fresh teenagers, so it wasn't surprising that she resembled a ghost. We fell into a nostalgic loop and I recalled the day where I fell out of a tree I was dared to climb and ended up breaking my arm. I thought it was cool after the immense pain and Miley relished in the fact that I was such a peculiar child. I didn't become any less of an oddity. Body casts and moronic adventures were still cool to me. I tried many times to flip the conversation onto Miley's childhood, because hers always sounded so simplistic and intriguing. She appreciated life in a way no one else back in California did and though her future plans didn't go outside of living on this very farm until the day she died, I somehow found imagining myself with her more appealing than being trapped in a fast food franchise until I finished college with no true goals in mind.

Any dream I had before meeting Miley changed to revolving around Miley. Being side by side, whispering stories, taking in the air around us, pondering the meaning of everything on cloudy days and listening to the rain with unusual sensations in our hearts. That's what I wanted. I wanted to be with Miley.

I was going to write more, honest! But it's 4am and this seemed like a good way to end the chapter. I fucking, fuck, oh god, I forget what I was gonna say. Okay, well, it was... drama. There will be drama very soon. You like drama, right? Just building this shit.