(Natsuki)
"Phone!" Mom yelled from downstairs. I put down my pencil and called to her as I came down.
"Coming. Who is it?"
"It's Nao." She answered, and handed me the phone before heading back to her office. Mom worked from home, and made decent money at it too. It meant she was always home, but always locked in her office.
"If this has to do with Reito, let me know so I can just hang up now." I said sarcastically. Nao laughed.
"Oh, Natsuki. You wound me." She said in mock pain. "Naw, wanted to know if you were going to come walking tonight. We haven't been in almost a week."
"Walking? Dude, it's nine o' clock."
"Yeah, so? I'm bored, not tired in the least, and when's the last time we went more than three days without taking a walk? Who knows, maybe I'll see something I can use in my report. Full moon, and all that."
"One...I'm sure this is a ploy to get me alone in person so you can talk my ear off about how wonderful Reito is, and two...you don't seem to have caught the meaning of the word 'mythology.'"
"Ah, shaddap. Meet me at the usual place?"
"Mmhmm. Wait another hour though, for Mom to go to bed."
"'Kay."
"See you then."
"Later." and we hung up. Our houses were about half a mile apart and all that separated them was a forest. I had trees on three sides of my house, and Nao had them on two. Our 'usual place' was a huge oak tree halfway between both houses...so it was about a fourth of a mile walk.
I told Mom goodnight and waited an hour before sneaking quietly back downstairs and out the back door.
There was a trail worn into the thicket (I walked it about three times a week), so I didn't have to worry about fighting any grabby branches. I loved the smell of the forest at night-I couldn't imagine living in a city. I looked up and could see a few stars, but there was such heavy cloud cover that I couldn't see the moon.
"Geez, Natsuki-I've been waiting fifteen minutes!" Nao complained as I got to our meeting place.
"Oh well. The fresh air'll do you good." I shrugged, and she rolled her eyes.
"Sure." and we walked on, chatting about school and (you guessed it!) Reito for about an hour or so. We were having a great time until we heard a piercing howl coming from the direction we were walking. We both froze and stared for a minute.
"A wolf?" I said, wide-eyed.
"But-we don't HAVE wolves in this part of the country!" Nao said, disbelieving.
"But, it sounded like..."
"Say, maybe we should head home. It's after eleven, and we've got school in the morning, after all." Nao said uncomfortably.
"Yeah. Sounds great to me." I agreed, and we walked back to the tree. We didn't say much.
"See you tomorrow then?"
"Yep. Tomorrow." I answered, and we separated-each walking a little faster now that we were alone. I was a little scared for the first few minutes, but the closer I got to home, I eased up. I smiled as I walked, listening to the night's sounds. A rustling here, an owl's hoot there; it was like music. And no more unnatural wolf howls. Maybe we'd imagined it. Yeah, just a case of overactive imagination. That's all it was.
3456
(Shizuru)
I had been wandering in the forest, following the scent of the local pack when I scented someone that I most definitely should not have been smelling. I smelled the night. Everything beautiful about the night, the forest, the trees, the dew on the plants, the flowers that only open at night. I followed that enticing scent, and low and behold, there was the ever-elusive Natsuki, looking very beautiful and blissfully unaware of the danger she was in just being in this forest tonight.
She really was beaufiful, too. She was just a bit shorter than me, slender of build with hair dark as night and bright green eyes that showed every emotion that she felt. It was really something speaking with her, watching her thoughts and feelings fly right through those gorgeous eyes of hers. She was innocent, too innocent. For a few moments, all I could do was watch her. She seemed as if she were one with the forest, one with the night. It was a sight to behold for someone who was not one of us to seem that...ethereal. The smile on her face said that she was at home here, even alone in the middle of the night. I finally startled myself out of the stupor I was in watching my beautific Natsuki and spoke.
"A little late to be wandering around in the woods alone, is it not?"
3456
(Reito)
I was following my Erus' orders and searching the forest for the enemy-or perhaps our new friend-and I guess I was running too quickly, because I ran right into someone. I was shocked at how distracted I must have been not to smell a human ahead of time.
"Ow! Who the hell...?" I heard Nao's voice and froze. I looked down as she rubbed her head and looked up at me. "Reito?" I stared. I didn't know what to do...what did I say? Why was I out here? My eyes...they were changing already. I prayed for more cloud cover, it helped to delay the changes. "What's wrong?" She startled me out of my thoughts, and I looked back down at the beautiful girl. Erus, no, Shizuru Fujino...had ordered me not to play around with this girl...but it didn't feel like playing. I felt great just being around her. She was so much different than all the pack-women back home. I hated them. I had assumed I disliked almost all women, as fun as they were to play with, but had been rudely awakened by this vision.
"Nothing...nothing's wrong." I helped her to her feet, but I did not let go of her hand. I couldn't seem to do it. She stared into my eyes, and I hoped they were my own. The thing inside me did not want to let go of her, it wanted to pull her close, to embrace her, to...
"Reito? You're acting really wierd. And where's your shirt? And shoes?" Nao said again, and she looked worried. Yes, I was acting weird. I was completely lost in the scent of her, she smelled like wildflowers, like a huge plain filled with beautiful wildflowers. Why couldn't she have been one of us? Before I realized I had moved, I was already very, very close to her. I could feel her breath on my face and I was lost.
"Go home." I finally managed to say. It came out rudely, gruffly. But that's how I always sounded when I was upset...she just didn't know that. Instead of being hurt as I had suspected she would be, even hoped she would be, she looked angry. More than angry even. It was wonderful. I wanted desperately to kiss her.
"I'm a big girl, Reito." She spat at me, and moved as if she would jerk away and storm off, but I did not let her. Her eyes widened as I pulled her by the wrist until she was firmly pressed against my chest.
"I know." I said, and that was all I could manage before I kissed her. I kissed her as if I were a starving man-though that wasn't far from the truth. She should have run away, this wasn't what she should have been expecting, but she didn't.
Instead, she kissed me back just as fiercely, and her fingernails dug into the flesh of my chest as if she was dying inside. As if this had been something she'd wanted for a long time. The feeling was mutual. However, when her nails drew blood, I could barely contain myself. I wanted to push her to the ground and-I pulled away from her suddenly. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. You should go. We can talk about this later...please, please just go." I said quietly, holding myself to the spot with all my might. Nao looked beautiful while she watched me speak, as if I were her world. She was becoming mine as well.
"Okay." she said after a long moment. "If you promise we'll talk later." she said, and looked at me, her eyes practically begging me to hold her again. I fought with every instinct I had against doing just that.
"I swear." I said, and smiled at her. I meant it. She looked fragile for the first time since I'd met her. I think I loved her then.
"Okay." she said again, turned, and disappeared into the night just before I did the same.
3456
(Natsuki)
"A little late to be wandering around in the woods alone, is it not?" said a familiar, heavily accented voice. I spun around to see an ethereal-looking Shizuru. She was ten feet from me, and even in the pitch-black darkness, I could see her clear as day. As if there were moonlight coming from her very skin. I couldn't do anything but stare as she walked toward me.
"Are you alright?" she asked, looking concerned. Then, I saw sudden movement to my right. It was a huge, dark shape hurdling toward Shizuru. I didn't have any time to think, I just launched myself at her as she finally saw it coming.
"Look out!"
"NON!" we yelled simultaneously as I slammed into her, feeling a small pain on my back as we hit the ground. She pushed me off her and sat up, scanning the darkness. We were quiet for a few minutes before she looked at me, the concern obvious on her face.
"Are you hurt?" she asked me. I grinned.
"I'm fine. What about-" I was cut off as she grabbed my shoulders.
"You…!" she shouted. "You could have been killed! Why would you do something so...so...insouciant!" I was confused now. Not only did I have no idea what that last word meant, but I had no clue why she was so angry with me.
"Um...you could have been killed, too. Anyway, I didn't have the time to sit there and debate the risks to my personal safety. Geez. The least you could do is thank me." I pointed out, which seemed to only serve to anger her further. Then, her eyes rolled upward, her head tilting after them.
"Shizuru?" I asked, and she lowered her head from the sky to the ground, slowly. Her hair kept me from seeing her face. She made a beautiful picture like that, kneeling on the ground with her platinum hair pooling around her.
"It is fine. You are right. I should thank you; and you should be getting home." She spoke slowly, and I swear her voice had gotten deeper. I started to say something, but her hands convulsed around my shoulders, she took a deep breath, and stood up suddenly. She held out her hand, still staring at the ground. I took it and she jerked me to my feet. I stumbled forward at the sudden movement, and she caught me. Her chest heaved against mine as she took almost gasping breaths. I looked up, our eyes met, and I stopped breathing.
"Shizuru..?" I spoke quietly. She pushed away from me and ran, disappearing into the darkness. I stared after her for a while, shook myself, then took her advice and headed home. That was...so weird. If I didn't like her so much when she was normal, I imagine I'd have stopped talking to her altogether after tonight.
I snuck back in my back door and went to my room, taking off my clothes. When I climbed into bed to lie down, I sucked my breath in a hiss, sitting up suddenly. My back throbbed in pain. I got up and turned on the light, examining it in the mirror. I had a long, bloody scrape across my right shoulder blade. It must have been that thing that attacked Shizuru, I thought. It had already scabbed over and didn't seem red, so I ruled out infection and went back to bed. (Though I lay on my side this time.)
I tried to go to sleep, but I couldn't. I couldn't get my mind off how Shizuru's eyes had looked before she'd run off. Her eyes. They hadn't been the eyes I remembered from school today, the fair last night...those had been a deep burgundy. Probably brown, but almost reddish in the right light. The eyes I had seen tonight were crimson as fresh blood. I felt them burning into me, setting me on fire, and I didn't know if it was the kind of fire you live for, or die in. There was something about them too, besides the color. The way they looked, with the pupil so large and the iris color so flat. There weren't flecks or lines in them at all, and there was so much less room for whites…and what bothered me most of all was that I knew I'd seen eyes like that somewhere before, but for the life of me...I couldn't remember where.
3456
(Shizuru)
"You." I spat, staring angrily into the eyes of the wolf sitting in front of me, growling. "You could have killed her!" i was furious. How dare he attack me with an innocent present? "How DARE you?" I shouted. The wolf continued growling, and I felt Reito come up behind me, gasping for breath. He must have run a long way.
"Erus, I'm sorry, I..."
"NO EXCUSES." I had not meant to lose my temper, but I did not take it back. He would learn to respect my authority. He was promised to me as my second, the first to join my pack. He would learn, or we would die. The wolf in front of me continued its persistent growling, it was getting irritating. However, as Reito arrived, so did about nine other wolves. They all watched us, prepared to attack. "This is not over, boy." I said to the dark grey wolf at the head of the pack. "Do not cross me. I want to keep peace, but I will not have you harming innocents, your forest or no." The wolf simply growled again, and motioned with his head for his pack to follow him as he raced off into the forest. Even he knew better than to challenge the two of us on a full moon. Oh, he would pay.
I looked back at Reito, and there must have been something in my face because he immediately dropped to his knees and put his nose in the dirt-a display of absolute submission.
"Erus, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...it's just, Nao was out there, and I had to get her to go home, I..." I understood then that my second was only doing as I had done, protecting humans. I steadied my temper with a few deep breaths.
"Nao was here? ...Natsuki was here also. Get up, do not lower yourself so far. Simply do as I wish. I understand your want to protect her, but I also smell her all over you. What have you done, Reito?" I said, watching him carefully as he stood up. His eyes were completely changed by now, as were mine. The change would come soon.
"I...I...I didn't mean to, Erus. I swear...I just couldn't control myself!" He stammered, and I sighed.
"I know you could not. Our strength to hold back only reaches so far...and out here, on the night of the full moon? It is all right. Try not to get too close Reito, it will only hurt later." I sighed, hoping this would not end in a world of pain for Reito. I cared too much for him to see him hurt.
"Yes, Erus. What of Natsuki? Is she alright, safe?"
"Of course she is safe. I would not have it any other way." I said stiffly, and turned away from him.
"It's getting really hard for you too, isn't it?" He said quietly, wanting me to share with him, but afraid I would become angry. I did not. He was right, after all. The two of us were fools.
"Oui." I said simply. "It is time." I said as we both looked to the moon as the cloud cover around it completely disappeared. I couldn't get Natsuki out of my mind. The way she had looked, the way she had smelled, the way she had felt when she had fallen against me like that...I would have done something regrettable had I not pushed her away and run. I hoped with all my might that she would not be upset with me.
It was time to hunt. I only hoped the local pack would leave us be. Two against ten was most definitely not fair odds, although it was likely that the two of us could take them in the right circumstances. They were untamed, vicious animals. We were born and raised for this.