so the special bonus scene sent me into another lunnelly spiral and i wrote this to tide me over till the second part is released. big thanks to zarek of planet demos, who no one measures up to, because luna and lo talking about him gave me this idea lol. happy reading :)
.: Bad Brain Day :.
Donnelly descended the carpeted staircase in the Hale house two steps at a time, his phone in his hand. He scrolled through his missed text messages—three from Farrow, one from Akara, and one from his cousin Colin that Donnelly deleted without opening. He pocketed his phone and pulled out his keys, silently cursing the jangle they made.
He'd been Xander's bodyguard for a while now, but leaving the Hale house was still a balance between staying as quiet as possible and getting out before Loren Hale could find him "fucking lurking." Confrontations usually fueled a very chaotic, drama-loving part of Donnelly's personality, but he had to preserve any remaining goodwill he had with Lo—of which there admittedly wasn't much, but a guy could hope.
Donnelly ran a hand through his chestnut hair as he made his way through the living room towards the front door, but movement from the couch caught his attention and he froze. At first he thought it was Lily, but it only took him a split-second to realize it was Luna.
"Hey," he greeted, spinning his key-ring around his finger and pocketing them. "Family dinner?"
"Yeah," she confirmed. Luna shifted her legs under her and plucked fuzz off her leggings. She looked almost…normal today. No marker, no stickers, no glitter. It had him furrowing his brows.
"You good?" he asked.
"Hmm? Oh—um, yeah. All good." She kept her pretty brown eyes averted, twirled a few strands of her wavy hair around her finger.
"Hale," he chided as he walked up to the couch and braced his hands on the back cushions.
She looked up at him, craning her neck and leaning away from the couch. "Donnelly."
He narrowed his eyes and looked her over. She just stared back at him, and for the most part, her expression revealed nothing. She looked stoic, calm, but Donnelly could see what she tried to hide. See the dark bags under her eyes and the tightness in her delicate jaw. She was decidedly not good, but he wasn't going to force her to talk about anything. He was the king of deflection, of hiding his problems; it'd be hypocritical as hell to demand she start sharing hers.
So he reached out to squeeze her shoulder instead. He lingered, took a risk and swiped his thumb over the bare skin of her collarbone. Physical touch was one of the things they had rules about. They both knew what happened when they got their hands on each other—neither one of them had good impulse control. Their slew of one-time hookups have been amazing, but they unfortunately paved a destructive road to nowhere. To heartbreak.
But times like these, he couldn't help himself. If he wasn't going to find out what plagued her, he was damn sure gonna comfort her any way he could.
Luna tipped her head into his arm, resting her cheek against him and closing her eyes. He swiped his thumb again and had to stop himself from doing more—from hugging her, from holding her, from pressing a kiss to her temple.
Fuck him, he was so far gone for her.
"You can call me, you know?" he said, his voice low and scratchy. He hated seeing her like this more than he could put into words. "If you change your mind about being all good."
"I know," she whispered. "Thank you. It's just…"
Luna trailed off and looked up at him with glassy eyes.
"Bad brain day," Donnelly finished lowly.
Luna nodded, a tear slipping down her cheek. "You're too good to me."
"Me?" Donnelly asked, a little incredulous. "Nah, I'm not much of anything. You should raise your standards, babe."
She barked a quick laugh, another tear escaping. "I like my standards right where they are, thank you very much."
He shook his head, smiling a little—he couldn't help it. Luna sat up on her knees, and his hand slid down her arm. He toyed with her fingers for just a moment—just a moment of weakness—before dropping his hand. Luna braced her hands right next to his on the back of the couch, linked her pinky over his.
"Can I break another one of our rules?" she asked, tilting her head back. Luna barely reached his shoulders when they stood side by side, but with her kneeling on the couch, him standing behind it, she looked so much smaller—so much more vulnerable.
Frankly, she could break any of their rules any time she wanted.
"Why not?" He smiled down at her, just a little quirk of his lips.
She took a few deep breaths, and when a blush crept up her neck, he became all the more interested in what she wanted to say. She cleared her throat and said, "I based a character on you."
Donnelly's eyes widened. He hadn't been expecting that at all. "Which one?" he asked. He'd read all the stories she'd posted—even read a few she hadn't posted and a few she'd written just for him. He was already mentally flipping through a list of her characters.
"That's not important," she said. Her face was so red he couldn't resist pressing his hand to her cheek. Yup, she was burning up (not that he needed to touch her to know how hot she was).
"I beg to differ," he said. "I'd really love to know if I'm a crime-fighting alien or…a thief who pick-pockets Thebulan royals. Did you give me tentacles? Please tell me you gave me tentacles."
She gently batted his hand away and laughed. There she was.
"That's really not the point I was trying to make," she insisted, still grinning. "The point is, you're my standard."
He sobered immediately and had to look away from her, from the earnestness now glowing in her eyes. But she grabbed his chin and turned him back to her. Her hand didn't linger long, but she did slide her fingertips across his jaw before dropping her hand.
"I'm serious," she continued quietly, but strongly. "One of my favorite characters I've ever written is based on you. You're my standard, and I really do like my standards right where they are."
Donnelly didn't quite know what to say to that. He knew she used him to establish her sexual "baseline"—flimsy as that excuse had been that first time they'd fallen together, there had been a grain of truth to it. But there wasn't anything she could say to him to convince him he was a standard for anything else.
He'd never been the guy women sought out when they were worried about standards. Donnelly was the 'one-night stand' guy. The 'sneak out in the middle of the night,' 'never take home to your parents' guy. Luna wouldn't say something like this just to say it—he believed she believed it. And honestly, that worried him. Luna Hale deserved better than him.
He was saved from having to voice any of these self-deprecating thoughts—from having to set her straight with all the reasons she was flat wrong about him—by the arrival of her mother. Donnelly had never thought he'd be grateful for parental interruption of any kind. At least it wasn't Lo; Lily had always been kind to him—professional, but kind.
Donnelly wiped his brow and looked away, hiding from the sincerity in Luna's eyes and shielding her from the vulnerability in his.
Lily didn't see them at first; she leaned on the stair banister and yelled "Dinner!" up to Xander and Kinny. Luna sank back on her haunches and Donnelly shoved his hands in his pockets. When Lily turned around, she startled at the sight of them. "Luna," she gasped. Then, "Hello, Paul."
"Evening, Mrs. Hale," he greeted, nodding his head.
Lily's eyes flicked back and forth between them, and Donnelly didn't like the knowing look that developed in her gaze. Her brows furrowed the longer she looked at Luna—at the tear tracks on her face and the mascara smudged under her eyes.
"Everything okay?" Lily asked.
"Yup." Luna popped the 'p' and, not at all inconspicuously, wiped at her wet cheeks. Luna got to her feet, standing on the couch and reaching a height a little taller than Donnelly's six-three. She planted her hands on her hips very cutely, and Donnelly looked for an opening to exit stage left. "We were just talking. What's for dinner?"
"Meatloaf." Lily tilted her head. Her voice was soft and low when she continued, her lips turned down in a frown. "Your tears make me sad, my Thebulan queen."
"No tears," Luna assured. She wiped at her face a few more times but missed her smudged mascara entirely. "I'm not a sad alien today."
Donnelly snorted quietly, remembering their conversation on the FanCon tour bus. Lily spared him a quick glance, but her gaze pinged back to her daughter when Luna spun to look at him. Luna was grinning now, and he much preferred her cheesing smile over her tears.
"Still want me to take your money?"
"You are the business woman," Donnelly said. "Sad Alien is still one of your best ideas."
"My weapons are my tear ducts." She spread her arms wide and he shook his head. It was impossible for him to forget that Lily stood a few feet away, hawk-eyeing their every move, but Donnelly motioned Luna closer anyway. She leaned against the back of the couch, bracing her knees a bit.
"Look up," he instructed. She did, and he gently ran his thumbs under her eyes, wiping away her smudged mascara. He was efficient in his job, not lingering; they'd broken too many rules today already, and the rule about any kind of PDA in front of her parents, aunts, or uncles had always remained firm. "I'll walk the horses and you let me know if the Sad Alien possesses you again."
"Aliens don't possess people," she said, hopping off the couch. "They transplant their consciousnesses."
He grinned as he headed for the door. "That's right, I remember."
Donnelly slowed in front of Lily to say goodbye. She had a wide grin on her face and an almost excited twinkle in her eyes as he said, "Have a good night, Mrs. Hale."
Lily reached out and patted his arm twice, still grinning. "It's Lily, please. Do you want to stay for dinner, Paul?"
He pulled out his pack of cigarettes and fiddled with the cardboard. "Ah, no thank you, Mrs. Hale."
"Lily." Her eyes flicked over his shoulder. "And if you're sure? Farrow's coming."
Frankly, that made him want to stay even less. Farrow had been grilling him about Scotty lately, and the absolute last thing he wanted was for Lily and Lo to find out what he'd done. Donnelly trusted his friend enough to know he wouldn't interrogate him at the table, but Moffy was a different story.
"I'm sure." He forced a smile and Lily nodded really quickly. It was impossible not to like her when she reminded him so much of Luna, so he added, "Maybe next time."
"Next time." She nodded again. "I think Luna would like that."
"Mom," Luna hissed.
Lily pulled a 'who me?' face that had Donnelly chuckling.
Donnelly slipped a cigarette behind his ear and dared to say, "She wouldn't be the only one."
Lily's expression turned…approving? He didn't want to think about it too much, so he nodded a final goodbye to Lily and stepped past her. Before he reached the door, he looked over his shoulder. Lily's back was to him so he winked at Luna, and she blushed prettily, no sign of her tears remaining.
Just as he was pulling the door shut, he heard Luna say, "Not a word, Mom."
thanks for reading!
