Moon Child

It was easier, the anger. It was a distraction from all the other things swirling in her brain. Maya would hate herself for it later, but for now she let that anger keep her from completely breaking down. Her shoulders stopped shaking as she finished dressing and turned to look at him. Hell would freeze over before she called someone to pick her up here. She didn't need anyone to know that she was still sleeping with men over twice her age. And especially not her friends' dad.

There was clearly no point in arguing with him. Apparently, he had decided, like so many men before him, that she had two options. The Outskirts could be dangerous, Maya knew that. But her whole life had been dangerous. Anything that happened to her on a walk home wouldn't even rank in her top 5 worst things. A host of cruel things she could say sat on her tongue. It was what she meant by the fact she was being a bitch. Saying them didn't even make her feel better, but it did make people leave her alone. Swallowing the barbs, Maya tried to make at least one good choice today. There was no point in arguing, but she didn't have to argue. Instead, she turned and walked out of the trailer.

While he waited for a response, something to let him know what choice she made he smacked his lips in annoyance as she made her way to the door and started to walk away from his trailer.  “Fuck,” he grumbled as he grabbed his handy dandy Crocs near the front door and started to jog to catch up to her.

“Alright, so we’re both gonna walk there?”  He inquired.  Still not the best option, because he lived miles from town and he would have to walk back.  But it beat anything happening to her under his watch.  “You’re being ridiculous,” he pointed out.  Sure, she might bite off his head but he was positive he couldn’t get her any angrier than she was now.

Indica & Sativa surely had enough land, & sea, to run & swim around in. But there was one brain cell that the two German Shepherds share; which always told them to run off & away from Zara's home & the lake. She never understood why or what it was that would possess them to do so. But they did it every once in a while, usually around a full moon which added to Zara's frustration.

And this time was no different. The pair had run off after Zara had to swim out into the lake to catch a ball thrown too far for the two to catch not to mention the two were too lazy to go catch it themselves. So their mother did, and when she turned around the two had run off into the distance in to two separate directions, but were surely heading to the same spot as always. Roman's.

Zara knew the fellow werewolf would have patience & would most likely be happy to see the marvelous pair. So she took it upon herself to change her now wet clothes as she uttered cuss words along with sentences of how she 'might give the dogs away to someone with a smaller home so they could appreciate the space they have now'. After switching into a plain black v-neck & denim shorts, she slipped into her shoes and dragged herself to her neighbor's.

A knock at the door alerts the dogs, who bark excitedly, knowing their mother has come to retrieve them after their adventure. A beat & ten barks later, Roman appeared at the door. "They're here...aren't they?"

Outside in his backyard on his deck, he enjoyed the heat of the sun as the three dogs played around running around the trailer chasing each other when he heard someone at the front door.  Making his way over there, the dogs ran through to beat him to the door as he opened it.

“Yeah, we’re just hanging out back on the deck.  Wanna come join us?  There is beer or sweet tea in the fridge and got some chips and salsa out there,” he offered as he further opened the door to let her in so they could head out to the back deck.

“I know,” he mumbled.  After all, it was a drunk driver that took the life of his wife and his son’s mother.  There was not a lot to be said right now without it turning sour.  The two men were at least speaking, even if Roman was not giving a lot of words to work with.

“I’ll do better,” he insisted.  It wasn’t anything he could promise, but he did want to do better by his children.  Only problem was, he wasn’t sure he was capable of change at this point.

"c'mon you silly filly," the vampire grumbled, eventually getting her inside and quickly shutting the doors the moment she was, bolting it up immediately afterwards and letting out a soft sigh. he met his wolfish friend halfway back to the house, looking through the ammo and taking a box and a half.

"yer sure packin' for a guy in the middle of nowhere in a trailer," there was humour to abe's tone, despite the circumstances.

“Better to have it and never need it, then to need it and not have it.”  Roman commented.  Truth was, there was some paranoia that he suffered from.  It came with being part of a secret unit and eliminating different enemies in the name of freedom.  You never know who might come and try to find you later in life.  Plus, Greywood always had an array of issues it seemed.

“No problem, after this you owe me a nice bottle of bourbon” the wolf teased as he helped get Abraham situated on the roof for the night shift.  “You need flashlights?”  Roman asked, not sure about the night vision of the creature.

As conflicting emotions swirled within her, she struggled to identify a single one. Was it guilt, anger, or sorrow? Whatever it was, it weighed heavily upon her. The temptation to flee and never return tugged at her, yet she made a determined choice. She slipped a note with her address into Joey's pocket. This was her home in Greywood, and she was determined to face whatever lay ahead.

Recognizing that Joey likely had no desire to speak with her, she respected his emotions. However, she refused to avoid him. Embracing a newfound lease on life, she resolved to grasp it wholeheartedly.

Finally, she turned to Joey, and with her eyes alight, she reached out to him, instantly bringing him to sobriety without a word from him. "Drinking doesn't suit you, Joey," she said softly. "You should consider giving it up."

However, it was too crushing for him to see her as a vampire.  The creature he hated all these decades, because one murdered his mother.

As he was leaving, he felt her hand and suddenly a clarity came over him and the light drunkenness had vanished.  “The fuck?” He questioned.  “Suited me fine the last few decades,” Roman lied.

Suddenly, his son started to rattle one and horror took over his features.  The worst thing about himself he passed down to his own son.  Tears started to form as he swallowed the lump in his throat.  “I–I,” he didn't know what to say.  Addiction was a terrible thing, it consumed the person and often it felt as if there was no way out.  Despite the hypocrisy coming from his lips, Roman spoke up.  “You need help,” he told his son.  Licking his dry lips, so many thoughts were running through his head.  “We can uh, we can figure something out,” he insisted.

"Don't tell me what to do," Maya could hear herself say, "I've been taking care of myself since I was 8. I don't need you to tell me what to do." As it always did, the voice in her head got meaner, crueler. This was why no one stayed. She was at best a wounded animal and at worst a landmine. Yanking on her clothes, she tried to take a deep breath. In her head, she started listing the ingredients to apple turnovers to ground herself back in herself. She managed a sigh. Looking back at Roman, Maya tried to explain, "I'm sorry, I just...it's been rough anyway and I, forgot about small towns. I just need space. I know you're just trying to help and I'm being a bitch, But you have to let me be a bitch."

As she spoke once more, he gave a nod.  “If you need to be a bitch, then be a bitch.  But, it doesn’t change the fact that I am not letting you walk home alone.”  There was a line and he was setting it right then and there.  Either he drove her home or she had someone pick her up, but she wasn’t leaving alone in her condition.  If she hated him for that, then he would take the hate.  “You choose, I take you home or you have someone pick you up.”

Henry still could barely look at his best friend in the face after what had happened with Eris months ago. He avoided him at all costs in fear that he would be harmed if the other male saw him. He couldn't stop himself, and ended up nearly ripping the poor guy to shreds. However, after not seeing the kid for some time, worry started to settle in, and the only person he knew would know was Roman. So, instead of avoiding any longer, he drove over to Roman's home, trying to calm his rapidly beating pulse.

When he got there, he hovered one hand near the door, about to knock, swallowing thickly like he had something stuck in his throat. "C'mon, Henry.... Stop being a fucking coward..." He grumbled lowly to himself before giving a quick three knocks and stepped back, wincing ever so slightly in anticipation.

So when Henry showed up at his door, he was stunned.  “Hennessey?  What are you doing here?”  He questioned with the door opened and Seymour at his feet.  “Everything okay man?”

He knew it was a lot to ask. It felt stupid to say. He knew that Roman had to make a decision when Eris showed up with his chest torn open. He also knew that not going to the hospital if he was hurt again was a bad idea. But he couldn't go back there, where he'd have to be touched and watched by strangers.

"Not hungry." It'd most likely take a while for the nausea to leave him alone. "Sure, we can pick up my laptop and cigarettes from my place. I think that's all I need."

As they pulled out of the hospital lot, the feeling of glass under his skin lessened. He bit at his thumbnail. He still felt unsettled and antsy, and it'd take a while for that to go away. But leaving the place was the best medicine.

“Alright,” he said with a shrug.  Truth of the matter, he wasn’t hungry either.  “Sounds good.”

While they headed towards Eris’ place, he softly smiled.  “No problem kid.”

With no traffic in town, they managed to get to Eris’ place rather quickly.  “You need me to come with you to get everything or do you think you can handle it?”  He questioned.  Roman was not sure how much he should watch over Eris, but he was trying to do the right thing and give the other some space and not have someone hovering over him.

She nodded as he stated the obvious. She had seen him in better times and could tell that the past months had been difficult. She felt the usual pang of guilt in her stomach that she hadn't been there and then reminded herself why she hadn't been there. As he spoke his next words she shook her head almost immediately. "I just think we sometimes make bad choices and sometimes life gives us bad cards to play with and it's up to us to make good out of them. "

Listening to her words, he nodded.  Life gave him a shitty hand when it came to his father.  Everything else, he wondered if it was his fault.  It was his decision to join the military, to take special assignments.  Was this his fault that he could not sleep at night?  Which was the catalyst to everything else that had gone wrong in his life.  What if he had been home when Matthew snuck out to that concert?  Then Carina would have never been on the road that night.  “What if you try and make good choices, be better, but it doesn’t matter in the end?  The damage is already done and nothing good can come out of it?”

His mom? That didn't make sense. As far as he was aware, Roman and Carina weren't the perfect couple, but they loved each other. It was one of those things that he had once adored about his brother. "You and Carina live apart separately now?" Whilst he should've taken the insults and bitten back, the sheer shock threw Gabe off for a moment or two.

Suddenly, his features changed and he released his fists.  Teas began to well in his eyes as he turned for a moment to take a breath.  “Carina died two decades ago,” he told his brother.  It stunned him how long it had been that even his baby brother didn’t know about his wife’s passing.

"So if I print out a label stating 'ramen' and stick it on a bag of dirt, you'll eat it happily, knowing it's ramen?" Elena countered back, causing Dario to roll his eyes in both annoyance and amusement. Perhaps it was nice for him to see his parents get along like that too, although Elena wouldn't be too surprised if it was his teenage shenanighans at work. "I've heard it tastes great!" Dario defended his choice, and Elena was willing to give him a pass and try it out too. As silly as something like that was, she was willing to do a lot for her son. Even eat raw fish and pay ridiculous amount of money for it. 

"I think that'd be great. You pick something, okay? No pressure." She nudged her son playfully as the boy went through the menu, eventually picking out the teas he wanted just as the waitress showed up to take their order. Once that was done, Elena focused back on the duo with her. "What do you boys want to do after the restaurant? It'd be unfair to plan all of this and end the evening here."

As the two teased each other, he stuck his tongue out at her.  “Alright, alright. Stop making good points,” he joked with the mother of his child.  Right now, things appear great between them.  With over a year in Greywood together, it seemed things were finally falling in place and they were finding their groove when it came to Dario and co-parenting.  “Fine, weird but fine I’ll give it a whirl.  But if I fall over dead, we know who to blame,” he joked.

Once they picked the teas, he looked over at Dario then back to Elena.  “What about mini golf?  Or we could just relax and go to the park?”  Roman offered.  He hadn’t done daddy/son things like this in so long with a teenager, it was hard to remember what they enjoyed.  “Or do you have a different suggestion?”  He asked the two of them.

"The bakery is good!" Zita crosses her legs & takes a bite of her pizza. "I've been trying new desserts so I may need you to be a taste tester."

As he listened, he smiled hearing about her place of employment.  “That’s good, although don’t see you bringing me treats from the place,” he teased. And of course right after that she mentioned being a taste tester, “sure as long as it isn’t weird shit.”

"I was on the verge of death, and then…" Her voice faltered as she relived the memory. "An ancestral figure appeared and offered me a new chance at life." She shook her head. "I was already deeply scarred by your father's cruelty…but I yearned to live." Tears filled her eyes as she gazed at him.

"After everything, I grew terrified of harming my own children, so I had to leave. I had transformed into a monstrous version of myself…" She still grappled with the feeling of being a monster, unable to shake off the knowledge of abandoning her children, despite her noble intentions.

“You left your children with a monster and became one yourself, leave me the fuck alone.”

With those words, he managed to stand up although he had several drinks and he made a beeline towards the door wanting to put as much space between the two of them.

it can be fixed. the elder baudelaire sounded so sure, and j.c wondered if he was truly aware of the depth of his sons abandonment issues. it wasn't what the vampire had intended to do but, ultimately, had.

he felt stupid, and small, and scared. perhaps he was destined to lose what he loved all along, be it by his own hand or to greater demons out of his control.

warm, rough hands pulled at his own pallid undead ones, forcing jean-claude to look at roman's face, deadly serious as he spoke. "honestly, roman? i think you're desperate enough to try either way," a humorless laugh left his lips, tipping his head back to look at the ceiling of the stockroom-come-breakroom.

"sorry. sorry," apologising for the biting comment he let out a sigh, turning to look upon the wolf once more. "i'll...i'll text him. see if he wants to meet up somewhere. bring flowers and an apology card," though, jean-claude wasn't wholly convinced it would fix everything. it'd be hard work, to earn back the trust he poured lighter fluid on and set ablaze.

A moment of pause came over Roman, was the vampire correct in his words?  It occurred to him that Jean Claude was right in this matter, he would try just about anything to make sure his eldest was okay.  Including begging a vampire to take his son back and be there for him.

“Nothing to apologize for,” he murmured.  As the other began rattling off things he would do for his son, Roman just nodded.  There was a lot of work ahead for Matthew and Jean Claude, but he hoped both were in it for the long haul.  “You do what you think is best,” he simply commented because at the end of the day, Matthew was a stranger to him.  The two rarely spoke and when they did, it was rarely anything of substance.

“You don’t have to explain anything to me,” he told the other.  “I would tell him.”  Roman wasn’t trying to be rude, he just knew his opinion on things did not matter.

“I uh, I should head out,” he nodded to himself.  “Thank you for allowing me to speak with you about my son.”

He really wanted to believe that it was the truth. That Charlie had been wrong, that he made a mistake, but he knew the actual truth deep-down. He didn't want to argue further. "Fine, if you say so," he muttered, his voice strained, barely masking the bitterness in his words. He knew how to recognize someone who had been drinking, and he didn't appreciate his dad lying about it. His eyes darted to his father's face, searching for any sign of remorse, but he saw none.

Theo bit his lip, trying to control the frustration bubbling beneath the surface. His chest felt tight, a mix of anger and sorrow swirling inside him. He didn't know if he should feel more hurt or concerned, listening to his dad's words. Wasn't his family a good enough reason? Wasn't he enough? But he didn't want to make this about himself. He knew there was a lot he didn't know because everyone around him was always trying to protect him. It just felt like his dad was choosing the bottle over his kids, again.

“Dad,” Theo began, his voice soft but firm, his hands trembling slightly as he turned to face him. "I know you're angry, but tonight could've been dangerous. What if something happened to you? Or what if you hurt someone else?" His throat tightened, the words feeling heavy as he forced them out. Technically, he did hurt someone else. But once again, he didn't want to make it about himself. ''So, tonight wasn't the first time you broke your sobriety?''

Turning towards his son, he did not know what to say.  If something happened to him, he truly believed with every fiber of his body his children would be sad for a moment.  However, they would be relieved soon afterwards and never think about him again.  Only exception might be Dario, but then again his youngest had only been in his life less than two years so it could swing either way.

He wanted to respond with his thoughts, but he decided not to.  There was no need to put his own insecurities on his son.  “I was fine,” he insisted once more.

Sighing heavily, he looked at his son baffled that Theodore was unaware all this time that he had been drinking.  It had been nearly a year since he picked up the bottle again.  “Sobriety is for people who have a problem, I don’t have a problem.”  He commented.