Walking back to the house the two teenagers ran into Claire and her father.
"And who might this be?" asked Reverend Craig, looking at Roberto.
"Um, this is a friend of mine from America, Roberto da Costa," Rahne said, wondering what kind of reaction the minister would have to her having a male staying with her. "He's visiting over Easter."
"So ye live in America," he said, giving the boy an appraising look. "Ye'll be well aware of the current menace that is faced by us all, then." Roberto looked at him questioningly. "I'm talking about the plague of demons," explained Reverend Craig, "mutants, they call them…." Rahne could see the realisation dawning on Roberto's face and tried to silently beg him to stay calm, a thing the Brazilian had never been very good at. In fact his fists were already beginning to tighten….
"Mutants aren't demons," he said. "They're just like you or I. In fact…." Rahne went to put a warning hand on his shoulder, but the Reverend interrupted anyway.
"Ye are mistaken, lad," he said, calmly. "Ye've been misled by the corruption that is inherent in today's media – they are all agents of sin, abetting the demonic menace."
"But…," Roberto began. "I…." Rahne could smell him start to get angry. Knowing that he tended to 'power up' whenever he lost control of his emotions she quickly grabbed his arm and began to pull him away.
"Ye might just be right, Reverend," she said. "But we'd best be going, my mother is expecting us home for tea…." And with that she dragged the confused boy away.
"What was all that about?" Roberto demanded furiously once they go back inside the house. The Brazilian had never been good at concealing his anger "Agreeing with that bigot! I should have told him where to go!"
"Nay, that's exactly what you shouldn't have done," said Rahne.
"Have you decided you're ashamed of being a mutant?" he asked, almost yelling.
That was too much.
"How dare you!" Rahne yelled back. "Of course I'm not ashamed! But I can't risk them finding out about me either!"
"I'm sorry," he said, backing down in a rare gesture for him. He seemed disconcerted by her outburst. "It's just that everyone's known about us in Bayville for a few months now, and we've managed okay…."
This semblance of an apology was too late for Rahne. Once she'd got angry, she could almost never control it. "Of course ye've bloody managed okay! No one would dare go up against Wolverine or the Professor! And even if they did, there's nearly twenty of ye there! I'm on my own!" Roberto actually looked abashed, but she couldn't stop. "Last week they chased a tourist and his family out of the village here: they said he was a mutant. They were ready to beat him to a pulp just because he predicted the outcome of a soccer game! What do you think they'd do if had even the slightest suspicion that I was a werewolf?" She paused, breathless.
He didn't say anything, but stepped toward her and gently grasped her wrists, which had been flailing at the air. She struggled for a second and then the wave of anger which had fuelled her outburst failed and she broke down into tears on his shoulder. "It's just… I'm alone and…," she managed to gulp out between sobs.
"Hey, no… I'm here Wolfie," he said, folding her in a deep hug.
……
That night Rahne found herself outside the door of the guest bedroom. She knocked softly. The door was opened by a slightly bleary Roberto clad only in boxers.
"Wha… what are you doing here?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.
"What does it look like?" Rahne asked. "I couldn't sleep."
"But… what about your mother's rules?"
Rahne smiled at him. "Since when are you in the habit of turning away girls that arrive at your door in the middle of the night?"
"Well, never, but…." She raised her eyebrow. He caved. "What are you waiting for?"
He got back under the sheets but Rahne sat down on the end of the bed, knees pulled up to her chin, facing him. "So what do you think of Ullapool?" she asked.
"Everybody was… uh… interested," he said, surprisingly diplomatically for him – nobody had been able to stop staring at the strange foreign boy staying with the Sinclairs.
"Well, they've never seen a real live Brazilian before," Rahne told him. "Too bad their first example had to be such a poor specimen…."
"Hey!" he threw one of the pillows at her. She laughed and tossed it back at him, but then sobered up as she remembered the distrustful looks that some of villagers had given the intruder, and her because of her association with the outsider. Roberto noticed her sudden change of mood. "You don't like having to live back here, do you?"
"I…," she began, but stopped, unsure of what she wanted to say. "I don't know. I love my parents and I love the land around here, but I'm just not sure about the people. I guess I'm afraid of what might happen."
"Have you told your parents? You could always move back to the Institute."
She shook her head. "They're still convinced that they can keep me safe here. My father's been here all his life, they don't want to believe that the place could be dangerous. And they don't know everything – I can't tell them…," she broke off.
"Can't tell them what?" he asked.
And so, haltingly, Rahne told him about the sheep deaths. It was a huge relief to finally be able to tell someone about the worries that had been weighing on her for the past month. "…And the worst thing is I don't know," she concluded. "Sometimes I go out and nothing seems to happen, other times bodies turn up even when I don't think I've been out – but I don't always remember going home, and what… what if I don't even remember leaving the house? What if… what if I'm turning into some kind of wild animal, Berto?"
He looked directly at her, dark brown eyes shining even in the half-dark. "Of course you're not, Wolfie." Lifting up the bedcovers, he patted the space beside him. "Come on, it must be freezing out there…."
"Are you trying to entice an innocent young girl into your bed?" she asked, but got in anyway.
"You betcha," he replied, winking. "They always come as well." But he wrapped his arms around her, and it did feel nice to be held like that. "It's okay. Of course it's not you that's doing these killings."
"But how do you know for sure?" she asked, uncertainly.
"I know you." She smiled hesitantly, flattered by his confidence in her, but far from convinced. "Anyway, to prove it I'll stay up and watch you all night, just to make sure you're not sneaking out without being aware of it."
"Well, okay," she said and snuggled against him, closing her eyes. "Roberto?" she asked suddenly.
"Mmm?"
"Why did… why are you here with me?" He smelled confused at that. "I mean, it's not like I'm beautiful, not like Amara, or Jean, or someone like that. You could do so much better."
"What do you mean? You're beautiful!"
She smiled wryly. "Nay I'm not. I'm pasty white, with freckles… And for my mutation, I don't turn into a living flame – I just get really really hairy." Those insecurities had been bugging her ever since she'd first fallen for him. He was just too gorgeous and charming to ever think twice about a short little red-haired girl from Northern Scotland. The looks that some of the female residents of Ullapool had cast her had only confirmed her anxieties.
"Hey, enough of that, Wolfie. You are beautiful – in whatever form you're in. Plus you're smart, and brave, and loyal, and even funny sometimes…."
"Wow, even funny sometimes? Watch out, I might get a big head…."
"No, I'm serious. I really like you. And I don't like having my judgement questioned like that…." He kissed the back of her head softly.
"Okay," she said sleepily. "Make sure I don't go on a mad killing rampage?"
"Anytime."
And so, curled up with the boy's comforting presence at her back Rahne fell into the first proper deep sleep she'd had since before she heard about the bodies on the moor. Her mother needn't have worried about her only daughter's virtue, apparently.
……
Waking up, she found herself face to face with Roberto. He was still asleep, and his face was free of any expression. He was so gorgeous, with his tawny skin and curly black hair. One arm was resting on top of the covers and she could see the well-defined muscles which he'd had even before he came to the Institute. He was…
…hang on! Her brain finally woke up and processed the half-awake observations that she'd been making. He was asleep! He'd fallen asleep some time in the night, which meant.…
"Wake up, Sunshine!" she said, frantically shaking him. He yawned slowly and stretched, then opened his eyes and looked at her.
"Now there's something every guy wants to see when he wakes up," he said, lips curving into a half-smile that almost distracted her all over again.
"You weren't supposed to be asleep!" she hissed back at him.
"Huh?" he asked blearily. "Were we supposed to be doing something else?" He looked almost hopeful about that and it was more than confirmed by his scent. Rahne almost blushed despite her worries, but then realisation dawned for the boy. "Oh… that. But you're still right here. I would have noticed if you'd gone…."
Her mood jumped up at that idea for a second, but then fell again. "Nay, you wouldn't have," she said. "In wolf-form I could lose Wolverine half the time in our sims." That was true, at least, and it wasn't reassuring. "You wouldn't have noticed a thing if I'd snuck out. I must have gone out and then come back, there's going to be more bodies up on the hills today.…"
He grasped her shoulders gently, interrupting this train of thought. "We don't know that you went anywhere. Look, later on we can find out whether bodies turn up – and if they don't we'll know you weren't out."
"That won't mean anything. Maybe they'll be in some kind of inaccessible place so no one will find them." At the back of her mind she was almost aware of the errors in her thought processes and the wild leaps and assumptions she was making, but somehow the message wasn't getting through to the rest of her and the anxiety was mounting again.
"It will all be okay, Wolfie. It will." She spontaneously hugged him tightly, as if physical proximity could make the assurance come true.