Ok guys, if you want to go ahead and kill me for taking so long, go right ahead, I won't stop you. I will say, in my defense, my schedule at work just went crazy AND I'm taking probably my hardest classes of my entire undergrad career. But I have not, nor will not, give up on this story. I promise.
He knows she won't be happy to see him. She never is. That's alright with him, he understands her frustration. It doesn't mean that its any easier to deal with, but he does understand why she's always so angry. He'd give almost anything to see some other side of her, though he has to admit, her anger gives her a presence like nothing he's ever seen, and he's seen a lot. Between the intensity of Jenner's mood swings and the tumultuous group of kids he has taken charge of, Mal's seen quite a lot by way of different types of people. But he's never seen someone like Luna. She moves with fearlessness and a challenge to the world that is so much more than a chip on her shoulder. It's not a chip, really, and that's what drives him crazy in the best way. It's not a slight- it's who she is. She is a firebrand, a hurricane, a force of nature that cannot be chained down or constrained. She is everything that this place hates, and it's not that she's not smart enough to keep her head down and her mouth shut. It's that she won't be bent like that; at least to a point.
The past few days she has been more contained, for lack of a better word. All of that restless, stormy energy is still there, but she seems to have somehow found a harness for it. She muzzles most of her retorts now and contents herself with digging her fingernails into her palms as she puts up with jibe after jibe and order after order. It is both fascinating and heart wrenching to watch her do what she's told. Fascinating because it plays out so clearly on her face, and to watch her emotions swing through anger, defiance, and scorning contempt before finally knuckling down and grinding her bones to do what she's told. Heart wrenching because someone like her should not be caged like this. He knows it, and though he doesn't let it show, he feels a stinging guilt every time she fixes him with that look that says she hates him because he's tormenting her. He's feeding her crow and if she had half a chance she'd probably strangle him. But he's coming to her now to try and make it up to her.
He knows where to find her. When she's not running messages (the job that he gave her, because it will keep her moving and, for the most part, out of trouble) she's usually upstairs in an empty storage room but its appeal is that almost no one goes up there and there are large windows that offer a wide spread view of the surrounding area. He's noticed she likes to be as close to the sun and fresh air as she can. She hasn't been outside since having returned with her sister and Leland that first night.
He slips into the room quietly, the door refusing to lock because it's broken, and he knows that she can't hear him, and he does take advantage of this. He very slowly picks his way through the dusty, tumbled over chairs and other pieces of furniture, boxes of useless reams of paper, old broken down computers and other electronics that had no use anymore. It's a veritable time capsule of the world Before. But he knows he won't find her amongst the wreckage of a life that has been dead for almost two decades.
He finds her exactly where he knew she'd be, on the window seat, one leg stretched out towards the floor hanging off the seat, the other raised up towards her chest. Her back was against the wall, her head turned and staring out the window. Her mahogany hair was highlighted with cinnamon and gold streaks in the setting Georgia sun that was blazing through the glass. The light also turned her skin to glowing amber; a halo seemed to shine around her, but he knew it wasn't from the sun. It was because even caged as she was, she still had all the firebrand of a solar flare. It was something about the way that even when she was relaxed, she was powerful. She owned the confidence he only leased from others and the borrowed permission of the gun on his thigh. He was as envious as intrigued by her, and it roiled the normally sleek, unfettered calm within him.
When she turned towards him, she did not spring to her feet, tense, or start. Her eyes literally glowed like sapphire jewels in the sunlight, darkened slightly by her silhouette. There was a hardness to her just like the precious gem color of her eyes, an unyielding strength that circled her eyes and seeped down deep into all her bones. She actually grinned at him, but it was not of happiness, more wildness and predatory.
"I saw you coming," she said, tapping the glass with her index finger, still looking at him.
He nodded and tipped his head to the side, still watching her. "May I?" he asked, indicating to the free spot on the window seat opposite her.
She shrugged and turned her head away. He took that as permission and he slid into the seat across from her. He turned and watched the world as well, and truly it was rather beautiful. The gold splashing across the front lawn of the CDC and shining off the fractured street that twisted and winded its way like the ambling of a river. The way the trees were so green that they contrasted like emeralds with the yellow flare of the sun that was turning the sky pink and orange. For once there had not been the usual five o clock storm and so as the sun set almost all the colors of the rainbow spilled across the sky. These windows would never open, they had no locks and were bulletproof, but he could imagine the coolness of the breeze that made the leaves sway and twitch. All was still except for their flickered movements.
"My family grew up with this," she said quietly. Her fingertips brushed the glass with a feather-light touch, and for an instant he saw the longing in her. As desperate and as yearning as a child's terrified cries yet without the sound. "Well, most of them did." She turned to him and fixed him with a steady look and for once she didn't look like she was trying to lay into him with a set of daggers. This was more questioning. "Where's your family?"
He shrugged. Of course she would know where to hit him. She was as perceptive as she was confident, and that was probably what really made her so dangerous. He never spoke about his family unless he was asked. But she had asked, and he had nothing to hide.
"I don't know," he answered honestly. "I never knew my blood family."
Her eyes went wide. "How could you not know?" Even though her voice was rough and hard to make out, he could hear the shock.
"Not long after the plague started, Jenner and Milton and some other adults came back and reclaimed this place. Jenner started his research and figured out that everyone that was still alive was infected regardless of being bitten or not. So he wanted to start working with the next generation, he thought maybe that it would help find a cure. But he had no subjects to work with, it was just adults in the CDC at the time. So when they got the radios fixed, they put out signals, telling people they had a safe place for refugees. But only for children. They didn't have the resources or space for adults, but they could take in the kids. So some parents brought their children to the CDC and gave them to Jenner and Milton. My mom was one of them. I was a week old when she gave me up."
Luna twitched and shuddered. "How?" she rasped. He didn't understand what she meant but she continued before he could ask. "How could parents abandon their kids? How…how could blood be so thin?" She actually looked on the verge of tears and it shocked him.
"You don't know how bad it was," he murmured softly. "People were being torn apart. Starving to death. Getting sick and dying slow, painful deaths. Having an infant in that kind of environment was an almost guaranteed death sentence." He fixed her with a look until she looked back at him, and for the first time he saw an openness to listen. It eased some of the hardness in her. "Many of us were not fortunate like you. You came from a close family, a tight group. Most of us didn't. Most of us came here willingly."
Now she hardened again. "That's not the impression I got," she growled, accusing him of lying with her eyes.
"Because you're rooming with Tau and Leland. The only other two who were taken off the streets by force and brought here. But that was a long time ago." He pressed his back against the wall but tipped his head forward. "You are more fortunate than you realize, Luna."
She shook her head at him. "No," she husked. "Because I have been here, I realize what I have lost." She put her hand up on her chest but clawed her fingers like she was holding something. "My chest hurts." She let her hand fall to her lap and refused to look at him.
He shifted towards her just slightly, which caused her head to whip around to watch him. He paused, not wanting to crowd her too much. Despite the fact that she had seemed to find a harness for the intensity of her energy, he knew it would really only go so far. She was still skittish, still unpredictable.
Still wild.
"It's not release, but I have something for you if you want it that might ease the pain."
She stared at him with vacant eyes for a moment. It was a strange expression from her, because she was always so ruthless and ready to strike at a moment's hesitation. The vacancy was quickly replaced with fire that threatened to consume him until even his bones were ash. She looked ready to pounce, and like she was just toying with the idea of tearing him to pieces, and when she answered, he couldn't deny the shiver that crawled up his spine. She looked ready to eat him alive…and for some reason he didn't think he'd mind all that much if she did. It'd be one of the only moments of honesty he'd had in his entire life.
"You are baiting me," she observed, flicking her tongue around her teeth. "And you wait until I'm desperate enough to say yes." She paused and a growl rumbled in her throat. He could see her hands shaking, her wrists quivering as she struggled to keep from striking at him. "You are cruel. Yet you offer something I want. I hate this game, but I'll play anyway. What do you have for me, Mal?"
"I'm going on a run tonight with some of the others from gen one. I'd like to take you and Judith with me when we go."
She must have seen the micro-twitch that ran through him when he spoke. Because her lips twisted into a smirk and now she leaned towards him a little, as though maybe she were going to try and bite him. A chuff of laughter grated in her throat before she answered. "You are breaking the rules. Nobody wants me or J to set foot outside."
"I may take who I wish on the runs. I have discretion," he told her. Being so close to her he could smell her scent, a heady blend of cinnamon and sand, like the driest parts of Georgia at dusk through the slipstream of a car going sixty. Her eyes burned like dark ice, a wolf shining through them even as her teeth clicked and her fingers tightened on the seat in front of her like claws.
"You think you have power," she hummed. "But you are only a scavenger. You steal the scraps of a real predator's kills, but you're just big enough to chase away all the other mongrels at your heels."
He snorted. "Insulting me won't get you anywhere, Luna."
She clicked her teeth and laughed again, a brighter sound this time of real amusement. "But you have not walked away. You need me. I talked to Tau earlier, you never go on runs at night, because the biters are everywhere and the artificial lights you bring to see attract them. You need me to scout for you. The real question is why you're going tonight at all."
His skin crawled and heat flushed through him again. God damn it all- she missed nothing. No one really questioned him the way she did. No one looked beneath the surface like she did. They all took him at his word, trusting in his authority, a shepherd for the sheep that he'd been given to look after. He had to find some way to save face, he couldn't just tell her it was on Jenner's orders, or she'd mock him and refuse to go. He only had one card left to play, and it sickened him, but Mal was nothing if not determined to maintain his power over her. If he didn't, she'd tear this place to pieces, and it would be his neck to pay for it.
"Normally we would go on the run tomorrow during the day, but there's an event going on tomorrow and we need to be well rested for it. An event in which you will take part. And I have a feeling you're gonna like it." His lips twitched into a smirk and he watched the way the planes of her face morphed from amused contempt to curiosity.
"This is the chance Simon mentioned, isn't it?" she asked. Her eyes were hungry, the muscles in her arms twitched. Her whole being seemed to come alive, the wolf inside her stretching and shaking snow off its pelt before setting out to run through the wilds of the night. It was exotic and intoxicating and Mal had to wonder what it was like to be that confident, that powerful, that sure of your own self you had no fear in confronting an opponent like Raoul.
Maybe she just didn't have any sense. Maybe she was over confident- maybe she'd never actually been in a fight and she had no idea how hard it was going to actually be. Isolated as she had been he could imagine that scenario occurring.
"Indeed. Tomorrow night, everyone, including the adults, will go down into the basement, into the cage. It's not purely a blood sport, Jenner uses the encounters in his experiments. I disapprove…but he feels its necessary. He had a little break through just before you came here, and now he wants to repeat the test."
Luna's eyes flashed. "And satisfy the restless rage of everyone else." She watched him beneath the curtain of her hair, the shadows on her eyes darkening marginally as the last rays of the sun began to die. "No one was meant to live like this. Trapped in a steel box. Eventually even he won't be able to contain us."
Mal tipped his head to the side, surveying her, doing his best to take it all in. "You over-estimate the group, I think. No one has ever tried to escape before you and Judith. Not even Tau and Leland."
Luna flexed her fingers and watched him closely. "You all have traded freedom for safety. It is sad. You have a large group here, you could make something of yourselves. Reclaim a piece of what was Before you were ruled by an insane tyrant in hopes for a cure to a plague that has already finished wrecking its devastation. You have given everything away for locked doors and barred windows. All of which you have here you could build for yourselves out there."
Mal found himself smiling a little. He suddenly felt compelled to touch her, to tuck her hair behind her ear so he could see her face fully- see and feel the depth of those blue eyes pressing into him. He held back though, because despite their conversation, he knew what she really was.
Wild.
"You will die young, Luna," he murmured. "But before that happens, come and help us, if only because it will help you too." He slid off the seat and turned towards her, waiting for her to follow him, but it was not like before. He was giving her a choice this time.
She paused and for a moment and stared hard at him. "I may die young, but I will not die having lived my whole life as a liar."
She rose up to her feet and followed him. He didn't know what to make of her remark. All he knew was the way it made him feel, like a slap to the face, a shot of homemade alcohol that was a lot more like lit gasoline than liquor, and despite the way that it hurt, a stinging burn that reaches from his throat down deep into his bones, it made him feel more alive than he had in months. So alive that he couldn't even be irritated at her for it. Only desperate for more.
"One more time. Out the door, through the Gauntlet, down into the tunnels. Then we use the usual route to the chemical plant. Once we're there, we split to find our supplies, then meet back up at the back door. With any luck we should be in and out in under three hours and no worse for wear."
Luna watched Leland's expression as he went over their plan for the final time in the lobby of the CDC. He was nervously shifting his weight back and forth, his shoulders hitched slightly, a clear indication he wasn't looking forward to this. She resisted the urge to tease him and instead turned to Judith who was standing near her side.
"What if we make a break for it while we're out?" Luna's signs were clipped even though the rest of the group, Leland, Simon, and another test subject, Christine, couldn't understand her motions.
Judith shook her head. "We're going even deeper into the city. There's no way we'll make it out alive. And we can't take them all on," she signed back.
Luna's teeth gritted. "All we have to do is slip out as soon as they're not watching. We can handle biters. We have before."
Judith scraped her foot against the floor. "We barely made it back last time, Luna. We stick to the plan." There was a double connotation to her sign for plan, and Luna loosened her jaw. She saw Mal coming up behind them out of the corner of her eye, carrying a large duffle bag as he approached, and smirked.
"Maybe I'll get the chance to save the hand licker's life," she signed, sarcasm and aggravation dripping from every twitch of her hands before she turned from Judith towards Mal.
"Alright, as promised, weapons." Mal set the bag onto the floor and they all crouched down. He distributed one fully loaded handgun, a spare clip, a knife, and holsters for both weapons to everyone except for Judith and Luna. "I have something special for you two."
From the bottom of the bag he pulled out the gleaming Colt revolver that Judith had been carrying as a back up weapon the day they'd been kidnapped. It was just as powerful as her father's python but fit her hand better and had better balance for her lightly muscled frame than the heavy weight of her father's gun. This, along with the gun belt, with the spare bullets running along the length of the holster, he handed to Judith, who took it from him in awestruck silence. She stroked the leather of the belt, ran her fingers along the length of the bullets, and then quickly belted it on. She drew the gun with practiced ease, spun it by the trigger guard on her fingers, the ease and grace of the motions startling to the others but it brought a smile to Luna's face. When she replaced the gun into its holster Mal also handed her the knife she'd had on her the day they'd been taken, which fit snugly into its sheathe on her other hip opposite the gun.
"Don't think I forgot about you," Mal said softly with his eyes now on Luna. Her gut squirmed in anticipation as he withdrew the last items from the bag.
Holstered to the belt she'd worn the day her life had been turned upside down was one half of the set of silver plated nine millimeter handguns she'd had on her that fateful day. She took the gun straight out of the belt and caressed the cool, smooth metal, the textured grip that fit her hand perfectly, the barrel that always led her bullets straight and true no matter the chaos around her. A flood of memories washed over her, days her father and Rick had taken her and Judith down to their target range to teach the girls how to shoot, the calloused touch of their larger hands showing them how to hold and aim the weapons accurately. How to squeeze the trigger and to steady their hands so second shots didn't swing wild from the recoil of the gun. All those little nuances that made a weapon unique and special to the holder. She had of course fired her father's gun, and even Rick's python, and concluded that though she liked the heavy feel of the larger guns, nine millimeter bullets were much easier to come by and so for practicalities sake she'd chosen the lighter weapon.
She quickly belted on the holster and slid the gun back into its sheathe, and Mal also handed her a spare clip that she tucked into the belt as well. "One last thing," he murmured. He dug into the bottom of the bag and came back with a very curved sheathe for a very specific blade. Luna's heart threatened to slam free of her chest and tackle Mal in sheer excitement and eagerness for the weapon to be placed in her hand. When he did hand it to her she withdrew the blade and felt herself almost ready to cry. The blade her parents had given her, with the engraved words of advice marked into the handle, the thing she'd missed perhaps the most except for the people she had lost, was finally back in her hands. She was already wearing the vest that had the inside straps sewn into it to hold the knife in place. Even as she held the knife and turned it over and over in her palms, she pressed her nose into the fabric of her vest and breathed in deep. Despite having been washed she swore she could smell juniper, pine, and cool mountain air, all the smells of home. Her heart began to ache, but she felt more complete than she had since she and Judith had been taken. Her knife slid right into its sheathe inside the vest and pressed lightly against her ribs, it's weight a comforting presence.
"When we get back I'll have to take them. But we would not be so callous as to discard such useful tools. Or ask you to go out there without something to defend yourself with."
Luna was so lost in her own thoughts she barely acknowledged Mal's words. She took a step near Judith's side and looked at her sister who shared the sentiment running through the younger of the two girls. She managed to quell the tears that threatened to escape her eyes and instead signed "I'll do anything it takes to get us out of here. Anything."
Judith nodded and they both let the moment diffuse before Mal or anyone else could question what they were saying. Luna then sidled away and took a position right at Mal's shoulder and met his eyes.
"And now it would seem it's my turn to show you how to really use them," she snickered. Her laugh was full of gravel and teeth but Mal's eyes glinted with the spark of competition.
Leland punched the code that he'd obtained from Jenner written down on a small piece of paper that would let the steel door open for them. Once they made it back tonight Jenner would reset it so they wouldn't be able to get back out until the next time they had to go for a run. Tonight they were looking for specific chemicals from the plant that he needed in his lab, as well as anything else they could salvage that would be of use. They stepped out of the door and onto the wide concrete step that elevated the CDC off of the sloping, overgrown lawn.
"Let's go," Mal hissed.
They swept off the steps, onto the lawn, and up the street that began the Gauntlet, and true to form, the whole area was crawling with biters like ants swarming their hill. Christine drew her firearm and began to take aim but Luna swung her arm and caught her by the wrist.
"No!" she hissed. "One shot kills one, maybe. And draws the whole city to you."
Christine glared at Luna, her dark eyes flashing like obsidian glass. She'd pulled her long black hair into a braid to keep it out of her face but her bangs had escaped and now fluttered near her eyes.
"What do you suggest we do then?" she snarled coldly as she yanked her arm out of Luna's reach.
"Knives out," Judith said, unsheathing hers just as Luna did the same. The handle was cool underneath her palm, the blade perfectly balanced. Security washed over her as she met her sister's gaze.
"They will condense into a group. Then either pick off the edge or slide past," Judith explained as they tentatively began to move forward. Mal kept one eye on the Walkers and one on Luna who was edging all of them out, approaching a small group of Walkers who were pressing together in a tangle of rotted limbs as they staggered after Luna. With a grated snarl, Luna stabbed one through the temple and just as quickly jerked back, an acrid spray of blood releasing when she pulled the knife free. She continued to turn, the spinning motion allowing her to remain uncaught when two more Walkers were coming up behind her.
"Never stop moving!" Judith panted as she slid forward, stabbed a Walker and in the same motion ducked a second and kept on after Luna.
Mal unsheathed his knife and nodded to the other test subjects. They had all been on runs before, but the spacing was few and far between save for Leland who went on almost every run since he knew the layout of the tunnels better than anyone else. They picked their way through the Gauntlet, their pace increasing as the street became more and more crowded. Ahead by about ten yards Luna was perched on the top of a car, having a very good time stabbing Walkers who were reaching for her but she was safely out of reach. When she saw Judith doing battle with five of them but her back remained unprotected Luna launched herself off of the car in a flurry of limbs and long hair, Mal marveled at the spectacle. She hit the ground running, sliding right into place at her sister's back and with an almost indignant snarl she stabbed another Walker that had been threatening to bite her sister's shoulder.
"They're closing in!" Leland warned from his position in an intersection, carefully dodging and sliding around more and more Walkers.
"Move!" Mal ordered.
Now they went at a flat out run, Judith pulling ahead just slightly because of her long legs. Luna kept pace at her shoulder, unable to hear the panting breaths of her companions nor the grated, hissing growls of the biters. Despite being surrounded by death and danger, she felt much more at home here than in that concrete and glass prison. As Mal had pointed out, she might die young, but she would not die dishonestly. She lunged at a biter and stabbed it with a quick flick of her wrist and a sharp tug to claim her blade back. Fierce, and possibly terrible joy, spilled through her as she took the lead over her sister, remembering the route she'd taken with Leland when he'd led them back to the CDC. Her eyes constantly remained forward, sweeping back and forth for any biters in the darkness that might have been coming up on them. The moonlight was thin, but she picked up motion even in the darkness.
"They're surrounding the entrance to the tunnels," she panted as she skidded to a halt at the intersection that marked the edge of the Gauntlet. Down the street and to the right was the manhole they had climbed out of weeks ago but as she had said, the road was crowded with biters.
"Now guns?" Simon panted as he pulled up with the others, directing his question mostly at Mal.
Mal shook his head. "No. We clear them and go down. Deeper into the city for another way in is just more risk."
"Cover us!" Judith hissed to Mal before nodding to Luna and charging forward and then the others could only marvel as the two sisters went to work on the group of twenty or so Walkers. They tagged team, darting in and out close to the hemmed in group, stabbing, jumping back, spinning and slashing, dropping bodies like flies in the brutal heat of summer without rain. Other Walkers were beginning to hem them in and Mal set the others to work, their arms beginning to throb with pain as they swung their weapons and plunged blades through skulls to give the two girls time.
"Let's go!" Judith hollered over the mounting sounds of growls from Walkers who were staggering towards them from the Gauntlet and other streets as well.
The others charged forward, stepping over the recently felled bodies before sliding down into the hole in the middle of the street. Christine went in first, than Leland and Simon. Luna nudged Judith and she clambered down next.
"Ladies first," Mal snickered.
Luna rolled her eyes, spun, and slashed an approaching Walker across the face before delivering a swift but controlled kick to Mal's ankle, spurning him to move while she guarded the entrance. She felled another two biters before scrambling down into the tunnel beneath the streets.
"Come on, we need to keep moving, they'll find their way in eventually," Leland pressed. He flicked on his flashlight and began to lead them through the tunnels.
Despite her bravado above ground, much of it melted now that Luna lacked any type of natural light. Leland's flashlight only did so much to cut the darkness, and it only increased the potency of the shadows outside the narrow beam of light. The close, confined tunnels made Luna's skin crawl. At one of the turns when Leland was searching out the route, Judith arched her eyebrows at Luna and very subtly tipped her head at Mal, who also seemed uncomfortable underground.
"Afraid of the dark?" Luna teased, her teeth flashing in her smirk as she pushed down her own nerves.
Mal's brow furrowed and he rolled his eyes. "Hardly. It's just filthy down here."
Luna laughed again. "Someone's a neat freak."
"It's true," Simon piped up from a few paces ahead of them. "You should see his room. If you touch something he throws a fit."
Mal glared at Simon for a second while Judith signed the conversation to Luna since she hadn't been able to read their lips in the darkness. When Luna had caught up her laughter grew, and lost most of its sneer and though hoarse it rang with sincere humor. The sound made Mal's spine twitch in ways he wasn't familiar with.
"What's so funny?" he demanded, making sure Luna was looking at him so she could understand.
"You," she huffed through her laughter. "Big bad wolf Mal is afraid of getting dirty." Her eyebrows waggled at him and her lips twitched into what he recognized was genuine amusement. Even though it was at his expense, he liked the expression. It softened her wildness and made her seem much more like them than she had before.
To save his face though, he rolled his eyes. "Oh really?" he asked with an arched brow. He let his hand touch the grimy wall of the tunnel and drag across it, ignoring the way he was inwardly cringing in revulsion, before taking his now filthy hand and smearing the grit all over Luna's arm.
She responded to his touch immediately, yanking her arm back away from him as fast as she could, but when he caught her eye, he saw she wasn't angry. There was a mischievous expression on her face, like she was concocting a plan that would have consequences he wasn't going to like. She struck faster than a viper, pouncing on him and knocking him to the ground, smearing mud and filth all over him while they rolled together, each one trying to get the upper hand.
"Alright children, really?" Leland muttered as he stood over them as they both looked up with mostly innocent expressions. Well, Mal's was innocent, Luna couldn't stop herself from grinning wildly.
"Seriously, why are you stopping this?" Simon teased, playfully pushing Leland in the shoulder. "Go on Luna, keep doing it, I love to watch Mal squirm!"
That was all the encouragement she needed. Luna grabbed Mal by the hair and twisted him over so she was sitting on his back even as he bucked and struggled underneath her. It was taking all her strength to hold him down, his muscled frame almost unseating her several times as she fisted a hand into his hair and pushed his cheek down into the grit. He managed to get one arm free out from under his torso and he clocked Luna a good one in the ribs, finally managing to unseat her. He rolled in the same motion, colliding with the tunnel wall but still managing to clamber over her, panting for breath as he did so.
Now they were both smeared with grime and even though he was holding her down, Luna showed no fear. Only eagerness to keep going, to see who was really stronger and more dominant of the two. They were both gasping for breath and though she stopped struggling, Mal didn't let go of Luna's wrists or ease up on the pressure he was using to keep her pinned down.
"We're going to have to split the wash water rations in order to clean up," Mal muttered, his now tangled hair hanging down in his face, casting even darker shadows over his steel grey eyes. Luna snickered and bucked underneath him but he wouldn't let her go.
"As if water could ever get me clean. I'm bad to the bone," she hissed, remembering the expression her mother would sometimes tease her with. And right at the precise moment she lunged up and knocked her forehead clean into Mal's, sending him reeling back and she scrambled out from under him.
"Ow! That was totally not necessary," Mal huffed as he rubbed his head, very sure he was going to get a bruise.
Luna snickered. "I win."
"Seriously, can we go? I don't really like the idea of getting torn to pieces at any second." Christine crossed her arms over her chest and stared down at Mal who was still looking up at Luna from the ground. Simon offered Mal his hand to help him up and he gratefully accepted as Leland resumed leading them through the tunnels. But now he couldn't take his eyes off Luna, watching the confident sway of her hips and the way she'd sneak glances at him every so often. Every time it was deliberate, and every time it was with a cunning gleam in her eye that whispered to him the idea she might be planning on a way to eat him alive, and that despite all prior notions, they both would enjoy it immensely.
The rest of the run was uneventful, even the return trip back up the Gauntlet, the other Walkers having mostly dispersed, leaving them free to make their way quickly and mostly unhindered back into the CDC. Once they were back inside they returned their weapons to Mal, Luna being the last to surrender them. First her pistol, and then her knife; she refused to let go of it even when Mal's hands closed around the holstered blade.
"You fought well tonight. You helped keep us safe."
She looked up at him and tried to remember their previous encounter. It had been playful, teasing, and the lingering evidence of it was still smeared across their skin. But now, faced with him stripping her weapon away, she lost that sense of sentiment.
"I didn't do it for you." There was the hint of a snarl in her voice that put a cold trickle of fear down Mal's spine. She let the knife go and without another word turned and stalked away.
Judith sighed quietly as she watched Luna leave. "I guess I expected too much too soon," Mal said heavily.
Judith shrugged her shoulders. "Give her credit, a couple days ago, she probably would have tried to stab you and make a break for it."
Mal arched his eyebrows and took in the older sister for a long moment. "Which makes me wonder why she's all of a sudden playing nice."
Judith's gaze hardened. "We're trying to make the best of a shitty situation. Maybe she's finally figured out that picking fights just makes things worse."
Mal snorted. "I doubt that. I doubt she's turned over a new leaf so easily."
Judith shrugged again, her slender form reminding Mal very much of a bird, and her eyes were reflective like a hawk's gaze. "You didn't seem to mind it down in the tunnels. I thought you two were about to start making out."
Mal rolled his eyes. "As if I'd kiss the same mouth that tried to tear my throat out."
Judith snickered, her eyes still gleaming. "Tell yourself fairy tales all you like, Mal. Just remember. She's not a cuddly puppy dog. Go in for the pet and you just might lose a finger or two." She turned on her heel and walked away, leaving Mal standing in the lobby looking like a fool. But the whole way back to the armory he couldn't deny the way he had been watching Luna so closely, and the thought that had crossed his mind that he would very much like to know who she was behind the bristle of her snarl and the growl in her throat. He thought maybe he'd seen a flash or two of it tonight, and it drove him mad that he wanted to know more.
By the time she came back to the dorm room, Luna had already cleaned up and was settled into her bunk. Tau was sound asleep (and the blissful thing about Tau was that once she was out, it would take a second apocalypse to wake her) and Leland wasn't back yet. Judith arched up on her toes to get Luna's attention.
"Nice job tonight. I dare say you're making him fall in love with you," Judith teased.
Luna lifted her hackles a bit. "I fucking hope not. That's the last thing I need."
"Oh don't act like you didn't like it. I saw you grin like an idiot at him."
Luna reached over and tried to yank a handful of her sister's hair out but Judith was expecting the jab and ducked out of the way. "Acting's easier than I thought," Luna muttered quietly just before the door swung open and Leland let himself in.
But when she lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, she couldn't block out echoed feeling of Mal's hands on her wrist, the warmth and tightness of his grip, the grin on his face, the shadow that haloed his eyes that sparked in their dark caverns just like her knife when held in sunlight. She drove her fist into her pillow and gritted her teeth.
You hate him. You'd kill him if you had the chance.
She thought it was her father's voice, as much of what she knew it sounded like, answering her own thought, and it turned her dreams to foggy shadowed things that didn't let her get anything close to rest.
Don't lie to yourself, Luna. Lie to the whole damn world if you have to, but don't ever lie to yourself. That's the best way to let the world turn you into a monster. Don't lie to yourself…
FanFicGirl10: Well finally Benjamin has a lady in hid life, he really does deserve her, I hope Ivy stays. Oh there goes Fox again hurting Daryl, she really does need to learn to control her anger and not lash out to the person who loves and understands her the most. Update Soon!
Mm, indeed. The relationship between Benjy and Ivy is strained and foggy at best because it's been so long since they've seen each other and Ivy is definitely…not who she used to be for sure. As for Fox…she's trying to hold it together as best she can, but she's never had a lot of skill when it comes to coping peacefully. Daryl understands her though, but everybody has a breaking point….it's definitely not going to get any easier that's for sure…
Brittney: Another great chapter, I liked how this one was set out and Benjy's backstory was great! Can't wait for the next chapter! :)
This chapter was so hard to write. Like I said in the A/N I had written 20 pgs, and then axed all of it. I'm glad you liked Bejy's background though, I definitely want to bring a little bit more of that in the chapters to come, so I hope I keep you interested =)
RedneckBunny: WHOO-HOO! GLENN IS AWAKE! I can't tell if I like Ivy or not... she's an interesting pairing for dear Benjy though so I'm excited to see where you take her and that duo. As usual, I hate the wait, but I was wicked happy to read this chapter.
Yaaaay Glenn's aliveeeeee! I just couldn't kill him (although I waffled on it quite a bit, I must say). Ivy, oh Ivy, I'll tell you guys more about her next chapter, she's an interesting girl, that's for sure. As far as her and Benjy being a ship…we'll just have to see where that goes hm? Thanks for sticking with me, seriously, I know the wait is bloody awful.
Emberka-2012: Such strong and full of feelings chapter. So Benjy had found his lost love, well, or she found him. Good that he may have a loved one in these times.
Aye indeed, it's always nice when someone you thought you lost comes back to you, and he definitely needs it now. But it's not just good for him though, it lends a little bit of moral to the whole group I think.
lunasky99: So now Rick knows her real name. I bet it's hard not acting on his feelings towards her. I am so, so, so, so, so, so, soooooooo happy that Glenn's going to be okay. So Ivy and Benjy are going to be a thing? or no?. It's good he has someone he cared about from the old world with him now because he was probably getting lonely (even though he has the group and he loves them it's not the same kind of love). I am so happy you didn't kill Rick. Great chapter! xD. I think I covered everything but I might have missed something... I hate when I cant remember everything. xD
It is hard for him, because he does love her in a messed up way, and in a similarly messed up way, she loves him too. Because she sees that moral white light shining in him that makes Rick such a great leader, and that's why she goes to such lengths for him, because she'll do anything to protect that light, and the man who embodies it. And yes, I just couldn't kill Glenn, I love him waaaaay to much to do that. So, for now at least, he's safe. Ivy and Benjy, the curiosity surrounding their ship is awesome, I love it. Will it actually set sail though? That remains to be seen ;)