Author's Note: First Underworld ficlet. Don't hurt me.


DIFFERENT NOW

Everything was different now.

While standing out in the open in the rain and wind probably wasn't the smartest thing he could have been doing, given their current situation, he needed to think; clear his mind and get everything straight. It was all so confused, and he couldn't help but seek solitude, no matter what that meant. He kept his eyes open, and his other senses on alert.

His senses… one of the many differences. They were so highly tuned now; he could hear everything… see far off where he would normally have seen nothing but a haze. He could feel things around him… sense them as never before. He sighed, his breath coming out in a small, chilled cloud in front of his face through the downpour that had soaked him through to the skin.

Everything was so different now.

Michael Corvin looked around, his dirty blonde hair hanging in his face, providing a kind of curtain that he was forced to look through. Not that it particularly hindered his vision as it should have; as it would have normally.

Even after the past two months, he was still trying to get used to everything.

Especially the transformation.

The first time it had happened, it had – he thought – almost torn him apart. The agony and terror had been intense, even with everything that had happened up until that point. But, he thought, perhaps his fear had actually not been for himself, and what was happening to him, but caused by the threat to another.

Selene…

As her face formed perfectly in his mind, his eyes closed slowly, and he turned his face up into the rain, letting it run in rivers down his skin; through his hair. A hint of a smile touched his lips… and all because of her. After the accident, he had thought he would never love again; he had thought he could never love again. It had felt wrong, and he had felt hollow for so long, trying to live without a woman he had loved so deeply it hurt.

But now… after he had met Selene… things had changed. She had helped him, even though it had been wrong for her to do so, in the eyes of her superiors, and the rest of her kind. And now she was a fugitive, like him – if that was even the best word for it – and running from the vampires. Something was happening in their world, to endanger their superiority, and they were frightened… they were angry.

But were they frightened of Michael or what it was that he represented? He never should have been… but Lucian had made it possible for him to be what he was now.

A hybrid.

Some part of Michael wanted to use the word 'freak', but as he turned his head down, he clenched his fist, watching it intently. His fingers curled in, and his knuckles whitened. In that fist was a power he had never had before… and while that intimidated him, it made him feel… better somehow. It made him feel… whole.

No… it wasn't the strength that made him feel whole, or even the other creature that lived inside of him – not quite vampire, and not quite lycan – but something else. Or rather, someone else.

A hand ran over his arm from behind him, and he turned his head, seeing her standing there, her pale skin a contrast to her black hair and clothes. Selene eyed him with concern, saying, "You should come back inside."

Selene… she made Michael whole.

Looking out over the horizon again, Michael paused, sighed quietly, and turned to her, nodding. "All right."

She offered him one of her rare, if only faint, smiles, and led the way. Walking behind her, Michael felt at ease. He felt safe. Whenever he couldn't take care of himself, she was there to pick up the pieces, and do it for him. He hoped she always would be.

Everything was different now.

But change, he had learned, wasn't all that bad.

Fin