Touched
Touched
"I see, a bad, moon, a-rising." The slap of his sneakers against the hard dirt kept the rhythm of the song.
"I see, trouble, ooon the way." Lightly tanned fingers partially curled, forming cheesy hand guns, the barrels waving back and forth to the beat.
"I see, earth, quakes, and lightnin'." His head swayed from side to side, his shoulder length light brown hair shrouding his green eyes occasionally as it bounced around.
"I see, bad, times, today." A large backpack bounced against his backside, white cords stretching from a pocket into his ears.
"Don't go 'round tonight. It's booound and take your life." He picked at his dark blue T-shirt, large wrinkles running down from the top as it was a bit too large. His jeans were much the same way, though the length was still a bit short, revealing white socks stuffed into black shoes.
"Theeeere's a bad moon on the rise." The world around him began to come into focus as the path took a turn.
His high school came into view then, hidden before by the high rock wall that followed alongside the path. It was an older style building, made from bricks and mortar, though the outside was covered in some sort of transparent shiny stuff that was supposed to protect it from the weather. It was a large, sprawling building, one story high, flat roof, made smaller due to the distance still left. It didn't quite sit in the middle of nowhere, as if he looked back, he could make out the tiny squares of houses. The path was the only clear way through the foot-high prairie grass and weeds, though there were occasional burnt patches from the local pyromaniacs and other clearings of unknown causes.
'I don't understand how you can stand this incessant irritating drivel.' A voice huffed in his mind. It wasn't really a voice, more of a series of images, scents, and feelings that he interpreted into words.
"You just can't stand the irony of it." The teen said aloud. No one was around to hear him, or stare at him with those eyes that questioned his sanity. He looked up, to the full moon tinted blue by the clear sky.
'Irony has nothing to do with it Kyle. Why don't you put some more actual symphonies in that contraption of yours?' It was a constant argument between the two over what kind of music to listen to. Lune had a much more sophisticated selection of pieces. The... heated discussion soon devolved into the rather typical insults and sarcastic remarks of the others choices.
He really wasn't crazy, or suffering from some sort of personality disorder. Lune was an actual per... err, entity. Though his name wasn't actually Lune, it translated to something along the lines of, 'Moon's Reflection in Still Water.' Yeah, there was no way Kyle was going to refer to him by that long name, so he'd dubbed the entity as Lune, a more masculine form of Luna.
Lune referred to himself as a spirit wolf, a Servant of the Moon. He'd went on about some mumbo jumbo about his species that really didn't apply to Kyle, so he hadn't paid attention. It pretty much boiled down to the fact that Kyle and Lune were in some sort of spiritual symbiotic relationship. Lune said that they were now one of Luna's Touched, with their souls somehow connected. Yeah, complicated stuff. Kyle was essentially a werewolf.
Luckily, it wasn't exactly the same. He wasn't going to go out on some sort of killing spree tonight because of the moon. It'd be easier to make the transformation though, and Lune said it was customary to change into one of the more bestial forms. Gold was the bad metal to be around, due to some sort of fight between the Sun and Moon. Lune was always happy to go on about how humans had managed to butcher their legends about werewolves. Kyle would occasionally get the sneaking suspicion that Lune was hiding something from him. He'd grown indignant at the accusation, and Kyle had yet to catch him in a direct lie, but that feeling was still there.
'Behind you.'
"And not only that, wait, wha-?"
There was a hard smack to the side of his head, enough to make him lose his balance. His shoulder rammed into the wall beside him, ripping through his sleeve and scraping some skin away. It wasn't much of an issue, as it only took a minute for his regeneration to close it up and leave no sign except for a small smear of metallic scented blood. He didn't concern himself with that, instead bringing his attention to bear on his assailant.
'Travis, forty-seven, Kyle, zero.'
"Talking to yourself again Kyle? You know, they say the sure sign that you're insane is when you start talking back." The elder boy flashed a grin before taking off like a cat out of Hell.
"I'm going to kill you." Kyle darted after Travis, who increased his pace.
"Only if you can catch me!"
It didn't take long for the two to arrive at the front entrance of the school, with students milling about it. Kyle's ears twitched slightly at their chatting, slowing down to a stop next to Travis, leaning slightly forward to pant a bit, and listening in on the others as they caught up on their summer escapades.
"I... hate you." Kyle managed to get around his breathing. His heart wasn't in it, though the fact that Travis showed no signs of the run except a rhythmic heavy breathing and the slightly quickened tempo of the vein in his neck.
"I know you do, pup." That wide grin of his was back. Travis reached up, taking his Carolina Panthers cap off due to school policy. He brushed at his shorter black hair with a hand, making sure it was in order, but a few strands managed to escape his attentions. Kyle had yet to see him anything but his white tees and khaki cargo shorts, which didn't do much to conceal his tanned and lightly sunburned runner's build. His eyes were such a light blue that they looked to be grey. They watched as Kyle took the time to slow his heart to a more reasonable.
Kyle straightened up, resuming his advantage in height. They walked reluctantly through the entrance of the school, whose hallways were packed with warm bodies.
"One of these days I'll beat you."
"Only in your dreams and my nightmares." The senior laughed out.
"We still on for tonight?"
"Yeah. It's not like I have something more important to do. See you then, my class is down this way."
"Remember, nine o'clock!" Kyle called out as Travis broke away. Travis gave a small wave before the crowd blocked Kyle's view of him. He realized that he had a slight smile on his face and quickly smoothed his facial muscles to a more appropriate state of impassiveness that only a teenager could pull off.
He pulled out his schedule, checking to make sure he was at the right classroom before ducking in. He took a seat in the back, as far away from the teacher's desk as possible. Sinking into a slouching position, Kyle resigned himself to a boring class period. It should be illegal to have English in the first slot.
'He'll break your heart if you don't tell him.'
Lune's sudden statement almost caused him to completely slide out of his seat, the presence of the wolf completely forgotten. He scrambled up, face flushed, to the snickering of a few nearby classmates who probably thought he'd been falling asleep. "..." He opened his mouth.
'Don't talk.'
Kyle paused, realizing the mistake he had been about to make. His face retained a dull red color, though with luck, the students and the teacher who was looking inquisitively at him would think it was due to embarrassment, which it was, just triggered by something else.
'I... I know what I'm doing.' Kyle's thoughts were sent hesitantly.
'Oh good, then you know that every moment you don't speak gives someone else the opportunity to lay claim to him. That by not saying anything, you're admitting that you're not good enough, that you'll always be just a friend, that you don't deserve even the slightest chance.' Lune growled out.
Kyle quickly lowered his head to his desk, crossing his arms in front of them to hide the feverish heat that was overtaking his cheeks.
'I can't...' His crush on Travis had been what had started this friendship in the first place, giving Kyle the courage to come out of his reclusive shell. He was happy with how things were. He didn't need it to go further.
'Yes you can. Only a coward won't though. You've got the guts when you're not tying them into knots. Just go to him, challenge anyone else who's interested, then howl out your claim over him.'
'It's not that simple among humans.' His stomach seethed like a stormy day on the ocean.
'Yes it is! There might be some minor adjustments made to it, but that's what you do? What are you so afraid of? Rejection?'
'No...'
'Humiliation?'
'No.'
'Losing him?'
'NO! I'm afraid of admitting it to myself! Now shut up and LEAVE ME ALONE!!!'
There was a small yip of surprise as the mental cage formed around Lune, sealing him off from the rest of Kyle. He hadn't even been aware he could do that. He could feel the wolf raging away at his confinement, but a dull throb in Kyle's head. He carefully set the cage into the back of his mind, alongside his unconfronted issues about his orientation. His strongly religious older brother, a pillar of Kyle's youth whose words condemned those who strode away from the straight and narrow. The paper, reporting on the murder of a city boy, who came out of the closet to be met by four knives and exsanguination. The conversations of his classmates, who dropped words like gay and queer as insults.
He raised a quivering hand, interrupting his teacher's speech. "I don- I don't feel so-" His words were interrupted as he proceeded to expel his cauldron of emotions.
After a trip to the nurse's office, he was sent home. Luckily his internal temperature had always run on the warmer side, which combined with the vomiting had warranted sufficient reason to excuse him from school. There was no one at home when they called. Dad was at work, mom was probably visiting neighbors, and his brother was off at some school to become a priest. He managed to convince the nurse that he'd be fine walking home by himself.
Kyle only went so far as the curve before clumsily scaling the rock wall, dropping onto the other side. He fell to his knees before sliding his legs around so that he could lean against the bumpy wall. He felt drained, of thoughts, feelings, and strength. He was alone again, like before Lune had come. A desperate boy who had wished upon a falling angel, a bright speck as it fell from the sky. Lune said it was just coincidence, that they would have joined that day no matter the 'meteorological events.' Kyle liked to think that there was a bit of magic left in the world that even Lune could not understand.
A simple wish to never be alone, that there would always be someone else in his life. Lune would never leave him, and from what he said, couldn't even if he wanted to. Despite the constant fights, the bickering, the torment, they would always be bound to each other, tied by fate. He had that to rely on.
He shut his eyes, removing the cage that held the now quietly seething Lune from it's shelf. Trapping the wolf had been a subconscious act, and unraveling the container proved to be a challenging task. It took a while, but it eventually fell apart.
'Kyle...' Lune growled out before being interrupted.
'I'm sorry, I did not know what I was doing, much less that I could do that.'
'We still need to discuss some things.'
'Please, just... not now.'
There was a short pause. 'Fine, we'll talk tomorrow.'
Lune settled down, leaving Kyle to his thoughts. They drifted aimlessly as sleep slowly claimed him. Missed lectures and hunger transformed into dreams about carnivorous rabbits and talking hearts...
"Kyle, hey, Kyle."
His eyes opened slowly, blinking as sleep released his hold at the gentle shaking. His sight tightened showing that the clear blue sky had turned to night, clouds concealing the starlight, and that there was one concerned Travis with his hand on Kyle's shoulder.
"You alright? I heard about what happened. Frankly I would have figured it out if I didn't. You still reek of it." He half-heartedly poked fun at Kyle.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Kyle said quietly. He saw those same grey-blue eyes a couple of years ago, looking down on him like they were now. His face had been a lot redder due to the fact that a basketball had made contact with his face shortly before. It had healed before Travis had even reached him, but he'd still covered his face, pretending that it still hurt. Travis had approached him, helping him stand to take him to the nurse's office. His touch had been a bit softer then. They'd introduced themselves, and Travis had even approached Kyle the next day to see how he was doing.
They chatted with each other occasionally after that, and they soon had developed a regular meeting once they'd found out they had similar conditions. Travis had always been patient, listening to Kyle's nervous blabbering. Kyle had accepted Travis' physical and competitive nature, the sneaking, the playful hits, and the races. They'd grown close. A tie no less real than the one with Lune. One he hoped was tied together by the stars themselves.
"Good, 'cause we got a date with the moon tonight, and we don't want her to think we skipped out on her." Travis smiled, and Kyle's heart upped its tempo at that and the word 'date.' Travis held out a hand and Kyle took it, letting himself be heaved up by the other.
"Yeah, lets go." Kyle gave his own smile, a little quirk at the edge of the lips.
They took off, running toward the moon, shoes pounding the grass flat, hearts beating against their bone cages. Clothes melded into flesh, becoming tough hides and sprouting fur coats. Bones creaked and snapped as their skeletons reorganized itself, faces elongating. What was four shoes became eight paws that flashed across the earth. What was left of two teens was a wolf with long hair like clouds and a panther, a liquid shadow.
The panther turned to show a grisly smile of pointed teeth before increasing his pace, easily taking the lead, eating through the distance like a child through cookies. The white wolf followed, trailing after that elusive black dot with eagerness. Tomorrow, he'd sort through those human thoughts and feelings that had been abandoned with the form. Now, he'd just be happy for the way things were.
Running beneath the glowing grey gaze of the moon.