The next day, Luna stepped into school with her hood up and head down, still devastated over what happened with Stiles the night before. She'd tried to call him numerous times when she got back home but, in typical Stiles Stilinski fashion, he wasn't picking up.
He was clearly mad at her - and rightly so.
So she slammed herself down in her seat and dragged out her Biology books miserably, already wondering what she'd say when he walked into class.
But her attention was quickly diverted elsewhere.
"Hey," came the sudden greeting from someone beside her. She glanced up unenthusiastically, just to see that it was Isaac Lahey himself sitting at the desk beside her.
He was reeking of wolf, but also a much more beautiful scent at the same time. He seemed as if he was really holding himself back, or bracing himself for something, which was quite endearing to Luna.
"Hi," was all she muttered.
"You're the girl I saw in that hardware store the other day, right?" Isaac asked, staring dead into her eyes.
"Yup. Before you went all howl-like and decided not to be a normal human," Luna responded without so much as a flinch. She finally tore her eyes away from his, rolling them in disappointment. "Personally, Isaac, I much preferred you beforehand. The supernatural is not all that it's cracked up to be."
Isaac clenched his perfectly sculpted jaw and gulped.
"Well…I never thought that would be the initial reaction to a greeting," he grumbled under his breath, clearly taken aback. "Also freaks me out that you speak about…that stuff…so openly." Luna glanced back up at him and smiled slightly.
"Why hide it? Look, just don't be an idiot or do anything dangerous in Derek's stupid pack, and I'm sure we'll get along just fine," she hummed, twirling her pen around in her fingers.
"When you say 'get along' - is that enough for me to take you out for dinner one day?" Isaac asked awkwardly, suddenly unable to look her in the eye.
But Luna's heart skipped a beat and she stared at him in surprise.
"A date? Really?"
"I mean, I wouldn't ask you if I didn't mean it," Isaac shrugged back. Luna smiled properly then, feeling quite swooned, and nodded.
"Sounds…good," she hummed, trying to ignore Stiles' small glances at her from across the room, where he'd just walked in. "How about…The Brozo downtown? I'll meet you there at 8?"
"You eat at The Brozo?" Isaac scoffed back in disgust, narrowing his thick eyebrows together.
"Hey! Life is already crappy enough as it is - I don't need the added judgement of where I like to eat my steak," Luna grinned, making Isaac chuckle back.
All Stiles could do was roll his eyes miserably and drag his attention from them once more.
…
"Hey! You came," Isaac grinned as Luna approached him later that evening, looking classically beautiful in her little black dress, pairing perfectly with her long wavy silver curls as they framed her delicate face. "You look…wow," Isaac murmured, his eyes darting across her in what appeared to be longing.
That action alone had Luna's stomach dissolving into a burst of butterflies.
"Thanks! I don't know why you're so shocked that I'm here - I wasn't gonna miss out on a date with arguably the hottest guy in school." Isaac did a double take there, stunned at how blunt she was being.
"You…you think I'm the hottest guy in school?!"
"I said 'arguably'," Luna repeated cheekily, leaning against the wall and playfully running her tongue over her teeth. "Do you think I'm the hottest girl?"
"Well. Arguably," Isaac smirked back immediately, his pretty eyes twinkling slightly out of sheer amusement. Luna giggled as her cheeks flushed an even deeper shade of pink and Isaac swiftly led her into the restaurant so their date could finally begin.
"Alright enough with the surface level talk - not like your abusive dad dying wasn't extremely well deserved. But what made you want to be part of Derek's pack?" Luna asked quietly, leaning on the palm of one hand and prodding around her steak with the other.
"Weirdly, the answer to that question still ties in with my abusive dad. I was sick of being pushed about, sick of being a loser - and Derek gave me a chance to change that," Isaac stated simply.
"Ah. So you thought growing claws, fangs and fur would stop you from being…a loser?" Luna squinted her eyes in mock confusion, seeing a knowing smirk grow on Isaac's face.
She already knew how to get right under his skin, and he admittedly loved it.
"I mean…you eventually noticed me," he pointed out smoothly.
"I'd just turned up to the school, you didn't give me the chance to notice you pre-wolf!" Luna blinked, almost concerned at the implications at this point. "To be honest, Isaac - if you wanted me to date you, you didn't have to do all of this. You're cute, I would've said yes either way. Any girl would."
"I didn't do it just for you, or any other girl," Isaac stated as if it were obvious, leaning back in his chair cockily. "My dad was beating the crap out of me and I felt powerless. But now I could take him. Easily. I could take him in a second."
"Course you could - the guy is dead, you'd be 'taking' a corpse," Luna hummed - before her phone went off from where it was resting on the table. Her eyes darted down to see who it was.
When she saw it was Stiles, her heart leapt.
She couldn't risk missing this call.
"Oh my g- Isaac, so sorry, I'll be right back," she whispered hurriedly before answering it and getting up to step away from the table. "Stiles, out of all the times you could've actually called me back during your little hissy fit, you've chosen now?! I'm literally on a date-"
"Luna, I-I think we need your help," Stiles quickly spluttered out on the other line, sounding panicked.
Luna's blood ran cold and that knowing chill ran down her spine.
"What's going on?! Are you hurt?"
"There's a freakin' reptile. There's a freakin' huge reptile and we can't figure out what it wants," Stiles explained shakily. "I just came f-face to face with it b-but it left me alone-"
Luna knew exactly what this was - she didn't need to hear anything else to know what a Kanima was.
"Alright, I'll be at yours in a few minutes - hang tight." She shoved her phone into her coat pocket and pretty much leapt back to where she was sitting, slamming herself back down opposite Isaac again with an apologetic wince. "Isaac, I am so sorry but we're gonna have to cut this one short. Could we maybe…I don't know, carry this on another night?"
"I…sure?" Isaac frowned a little worriedly. "Is everything okay? Like do you need me to come with you?"
"No, I'll be fine, honestly," Luna hummed, rushing over to his side and kissing his cheek lightly, making him smile at her shyly. "I'll…I'll text you!"
And with that, she ran out of the restaurant to where her car was parked, before Isaac could even say another word.
…
Luna whacked on the front door repeatedly, causing Sheriff Stilinski to open it with a deep set frown. "Luna?!"
"Hi Mr Stilinski - is Stiles here, please? I got call from him and he was, like, freaking out so I had to get down here as quickly as I could but I was at a date so I had to run and now- now I have a stomach cramp, a lot's going on," Luna spluttered out, holding her sides from where they were aching. "S-sorry, I'm not making any sense-"
"No, I gotcha. He's just upstairs with Scott - I have to go down to the station but if you need anything-"
"I'll call, of course - thank you so much!" Luna nodded back before leaping upstairs, her white locks flying behind her. Within seconds she'd skidded to a halt in front of Stiles' bedroom door, knocking rapidly. "Stiles? It's me!" she yelped in a rush.
Scott swung the door open and blinked a few times.
"Scott! Is…is he…"
"Fast asleep. He totally freaked out and then…well, passed out," Scott chuckled slightly. Luna craned her neck to peer behind him, spotting her best friend sprawled out on his bed, fast asleep. "I gotta go and meet Allison. Do ya think you'd be okay left with him?"
"Totally. You go - I'll let you know if he deeply misses you so you can come running back," Luna answered confidently, finally catching her breath.
"Thanks Luna," Scott nodded, squeezing her shoulder before slipping down the stairs and out the front door again. Luna shut Stiles' bedroom door behind her and tiptoed in properly, settling herself on the edge of his bed to watch him sleep.
He looked exhausted, even when he was knocked out.
"Oh Stilinski," she sighed, staring at his snoozing frame fondly. "Why does everything regarding us always have to be so complicated? We've literally never been normal-"
"Wrong. I'm normal. You're the one who was secretly a moon spirit and never even told me," Stiles mumbled back sleepily from where he lay sprawled out, face still buried in the pillow.
Luna's head snapped up in surprise and she straightened up slightly.
"I'm…I'm not a 'moon spirit', whatever that means," she sighed back, awkwardly fiddling with her fingers. "I'm…I'm something called a Lunarlynx."
"Loo, that doesn't even sound real," Stiles groaned grumpily. He finally lifted his head and looked back at her through tired eyes.
"Oh, that doesn't sound real but Scott being a werewolf does?!" Luna snapped back, crossing her slender arms angrily. Stiles sat himself up properly and shrugged.
"At least he told me somewhat immediately," he mumbled.
"First of all Stiles, I turned into this when I was a kid, and barely knew what it was myself. Secondly, I didn't wanna tell you in case you freaked out! I'd just returned to Beacon Hills after all that time being away," Luna stated, her tone edging on angry. "I…I wanted to wait until I knew for sure that you'd take it well."
"Well how's that working out for ya?!" Stiles grumbled back. "You would've sensed that Scott was part of that world too, implying that I'm not new to it. But…but you didn't even try."
Luna sighed and drew her knees to her chest, twisting her mouth to the side in contemplation, thinking about what she could possibly say to help water this situation down - but there was nothing. Nothing could justify why she never told him, particularly as she'd already revealed it to Scott. And she knew that if Stiles ever found out that Scott knew first, he would be beside himself.
Meanwhile, Stiles had already noticed her silence and let out a little sigh.
"Luna, I totally would've freaked out either way to begin with, cos that's just who I am. But you're my best friend…like Scott…and I'd deal with it eventually. You have to have more faith in me than that, okay? I'm a big boy. I swear, I can handle more than you think."
Luna's face broke out into a little grin and she nodded in relief.
"I know," she whispered - before sitting up straight again. It was as if a weight had been completely lifted off of her shoulders. "So…do you wanna tell me what caused you to have a breakdown on the phone earlier?"
"Nope! Do you wanna tell me what the hell you are first and how it changes the dynamic of my life before I have another breakdown here and now?!" Stiles challenged her back without a second thought. Luna let out the smallest sigh and knocked her head back.
He just wasn't letting it go - but he did deserve an explanation.
So she gave it to him.
"Okay. Like I said, I'm a Lunarlynx. We are essentially supernatural guardians bred directly from the Moon, sent to ensure that balance is kept within the supernatural realm. We're all given subsections of the earth, and report back to our superiors," she explained quietly. "We're like glorified hallway monitors. If it looks like things are going to get bad, we try intercede before it does. We have a governing body, The Moon Council, and there are usually consequences for those who disobey us. When the Council themselves have to step in, after a Lunarlynx does, it means things have already gone too far. We're peacekeepers."
"Gotcha," Stiles muttered. "How…how did you become that?"
"Oh, you'll like this - I almost died once…when I was 11. It was shortly after we moved away from you guys. I slipped off the roof and cracked my head open. I was bleeding so badly. Apparently I was so dazed, that I stared up at the moon and whispered if anyone was there, would they save me. I must've looked crazy - but they saved me. I never knew it was down to the Moon Council, but my dear mother explained it to me when I was older, because apparently the Moon have always been great and loyal to our family," Luna explained awkwardly, worried that Stiles would find her odd.
"Huh," he frowned slowly. He stared at her for a few more seconds, only now seeing that there was so much about her that he would never have known. "And…what about the lynx part?"
"Well, there are many sub-creatures that members of the Moon Council take the form of on earth. Lunarlynxes…we have the tendencies of wild cats," Luna explained shortly, resting her chin on her knees. "Speed, stealthiness, super-hearing, accurate sense of danger being the biggest one - that's how we know if something is about to kick off or not."
"Of course you do," Stiles winced to himself. "Wish you could've stopped the huge freakin lizard that I saw today before we made eye contact. Would've saved me from getting some considerable PTSD-"
"Yeah, about that - I think the fact that it didn't kill you is actually very prominent," Luna mentioned quickly, now leaning forward intriguingly.
But Stiles didn't care to ask what she meant.
"Yeah, bless its soft little soul - I'll be sure to thank it!" he rolled his eyes instead.
Then he froze.
"Does that mean you have to go and tell it to stop or something? Like…by order of The Moon?"
"No," Luna sniffed, nibbling on her thumb and leaning up against the wall. "I have to stop whoever is controlling him…by order of The Moon."
