My Dear Tulip

Luna

I woke up to see Indrik staring down at me. I blinked, trying to recall how and when I had ended up here. I pulled a blank unable to recall anything after the tree man. I shivered as I recalled the memory which sleep had done little to dampen.

"What?" I scowled up at him when he continued to stare at me even with my eyes wide open. That, and the fact that the way he was laying so close to me was causing some un-Luna like reactions in my belly.

He smiled down at me in a way that warned that he was about to say something that was pretty silly.

"Don't say it." I warned but of course, he was not going to listen.

"You haven't even heard what I had to say." He grumbled.

"I don't need to hear it before knowing what you are going to say." I scoffed, slapping his arm which was smoothing my hair away.

"Well, I'm going to tell you anyway. So, I woke up this morning and the sun was beaming on your face." He pointed an opening in the branches above the bed which I was certain had not been there before. "In its rays, I realized that you looked very pretty when you are sleeping. Then you woke up and looked even more pretty so I have decided the kind of name to give you that would suit you best."

"Name?" I scowled. "Since when did we start giving each other names?"

"You are going to give me a name too? Well, that is even much more better." He grinned excitedly.

"What? I never said anything about that!" I cried in frustration.

"You don't need to." He placed a hand under my jaw which I promptly slapped away. "I can read between the lines just fine." His grin grew even wider as he looked extremely pleased with himself. I sighed in frustration as he continued with his monologue. "So, back to the names, I'm finding it hard to choose between sunflower, tulip, rose, marigold, peony and a thousand other flowers. Which would you prefer?" He questioned but I simply turned away. Dealing with him could be so exhausting. Here I was, having just woken up from sleep, which meant that I hadn't been able to gather my thoughts, much less clean up myself and he was already frustrating the life out of me. I pouted in frustration. "I know!" He suddenly exclaimed, nearly sending me rolling off the bed and definitely into him. I scuttled away immediately. "I will call you Tulip." He declared.

"What?" I sputtered, my eyes widening as I shook my head in disapproval but obviously the matter was already closed to him as he got out of bed and made his way out.

"Come on and get out of bed. We weren't able to train last night. We should squeeze some in before having some breakfast.

I whimpered as I suddenly recalled where we had slept. "Hey, wait up." I called after him as I sprung out of bed.

"What can I do for you, my dear Tulip?" He asked sweetly.

My ears burned as I wanted to lash out at him but I decided I had a more pressing matter at hand so I let it go, for now. "We didn't go home last night." I pointed out.

"Yes?" He asked like what I had said had not been explanatory enough.

"What do you mean, yes?" I groaned. "We should be hurrying back to the palace before they know we are gone."

"Oh, that!" A look that I recognized well because I often used it myself flashed in his eyes. One that said he knew he was doing the wrong thing but he didn't care. "You don't have to worry about that. You see, I could be dead and gone and they would never notice it so you should stop worrying."

I thought about Blaire who would no doubt be worried about him but decided not to mention it. "I wouldn't be so sure. It didn't seem like that when you brought me to the pack." I marveled that I had been able to touch on that topic without feeling any resentment. Could it be that I was starting to be happy that he had brought me here? I sure hoped not.

"That was different." He grumbled, his eyes looking like a wormhole had appeared in its center and sucked away all of the warmth it boasted of. "The only reason they noticed me at that time was because I had left the pack which according to them, threatened the safety of the pack. Apart from that, they don't give a owl's hoot about me. I bit my lips as I considered this. As a matter of fact, I could understand his displeasure. I had only been here for less than a month yet I had seen enough to know that he was probably right. Another thing I knew was the reason why they were so hard on him. I didn't think he deserved that though after all, he had not asked to be born. Looking at him, I did not see a man, instead I saw a child hurting and yearning for love from his own people only to be disappointed over and over till he finally gave up, knowing that he had no place among them. I could very well understand what that was like because I was going through an episode like that right now. Who better to understand a broken soul than another broken soul.

My head suddenly felt heavy as I tried to stop my eyes from dropping the water that was pooling in them, then I did something that I was probably going to hate myself for soon enough. I wrapped him in an embrace. He relaxed against me as he released a heavy sigh. We seemed to remain like that for an eternity before I finally pulled away.

"Come on! Let's go do some training."