Fic Post: All That's Best of Dark and Bright

[harborshore]

no_tags reveal!

Um, as always, I bring shocking news. I wrote All That's Best of Dark and Bright, which, yes, it has girls and quiet moments of emotional intensity and an authoritarian regime and magic. I'm not predictable. *grins*


Title: All That's Best of Dark and Bright
Pairing/Prompt: 57, The Like (gen or any pairing--Z/Tennessee), college shenanigans OR Brendon/Spencer, supernatural creatures.
Summary: Z had been waiting for months. A story of werewolves, love, and the beginnings of rebellion.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: None besides implied violence.
Word count: 1100
Notes: It appears I wrote both the prompts. Kind of. A little bit. The title is Byron's.




Z woke with a start. Outside her dorm room window, the full moon was rising, and for a moment she wasn't sure--

No, her roommates were asleep and everything was completely silent. But then, oh, oh. Z closed her eyes and felt that inner pull again. Maybe, maybe this time.

She began dressing as fast as she could in the dark, and made her way to the door very carefully, so as to not wake Annie or Laena. Living in the world's smallest triple made you good at that, at not making any unnecessary noise at night. She succeeded this time as well, despite the fact that it had been months since she'd last done this; they slept on undisturbed.

The campus was empty, a result of the recently imposed curfew ("Can't have the students getting restless, you know," Z remembered the Dean saying in an interview, all fatherly like that), but Z took care to stay out of the light and pulled her baseball cap down over her face when she walked by visible cameras. She really didn't need to get in trouble again, she had a lot of black marks on her record and nearly all of them was her breaking curfew.

Once she reached the gates, she slid between the wide-set bars and took the necessary thirty steps to get out of the orbit of the cameras that recorded visitors to the college. Then she waited. She still didn't dare believe she was right, but she was hoping, because she was starting to feel a little less broken, and that usually meant--

When Tennessee stepped out of the forest, all gray and sleek and just like the last time Z had seen her, Z made a broken noise, her knees buckling. She held out her arms and was bowled over by Tennessee who was never faster than when she was happy, and for a moment there was only laughter under the moon.

Finally, they both grew calmer, and Z nudged Tennessee with her head.

"Change back, I want to kiss you." Plaintive, but Z didn't mind being obvious about what she wanted with Tennessee.

Tennessee promptly licked her from her chin to her hairline, and Z spluttered, giggling.

"Eugh, stop it," she said. "I meant properly."

Tennessee shifted in her arms and suddenly Z was holding her girlfriend for the first time in months. Abruptly, hilarity seemed very far away.

"I can't," she said, freeing her hands to touch Tennessee's face, because it didn't seem real, she didn't seem real. "You're here."

Tennessee kissed her then, and Z stopped talking.

--

The grass was cold when one wasn't wearing much, but Z didn't mind.

"You're an idiot, you know,;" she said, idly playing with Tennessee's hair. She didn't mind, not really, because it had been so long and Z had begun to think she was actually going to split in half when the next full moon came and Tennessee wasn't there with her (it was fine, she'd made the choice knowing the consequences, but she hadn't known how much it would hurt).

Tennessee smiled and nudged Z with her nose. "Yes, Z, I am indeed aware that werewolves are classified as Illegal Magical Creatures."

Z raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "So why did you come?"

Tennessee looked a little more serious. "I have to--Z, there's going to be a jailbreak. I came to tell you that we're getting people out. In particular, there's two friends of mine, one with a lunar complaint and one who, you know, shares your affliction, and we need to get them out before--"

Yeah, Z knew. With the double whammy of lycanthropy and bonding, they must be bound for execution. Just like Tennessee would be if they caught her, because it was so easy to tell a bonded werewolf from a non-bonded one, fuck. Her immediate instinct was to forbid Tennessee to go, because, because--but she couldn't. So there was really only one possible thing she could say.

"Then I'm coming with you," she said. "We are for each other, remember?"

"'Til the moon falls from the sky," Tennessee said, automatically completing the oath, and then she shook her head. "No, no, Z, I want you safe. I never wanted--"

Z shook her head right back, because Tennessee was really stupid sometimes. "If you die--" she said, and then couldn't complete the sentence. She kissed Tennessee hard instead, trying to say what she felt in the kiss; after a second, Tennessee released her mouth and kissed over her cheek, lightly, lightly. Z realized she was crying.

"Then you'd best get your things before dawn," Tennessee said. "It's getting late."

"Or early," Z said. Tennessee nodded.

"I'll wait," she said.

--

It was surprisingly easy to pack. Z was used to travel with everything she owned, but this time she just put a couple of shirts and a journal into her backpack along with a couple of necessities, and called it a day. The only thing she felt a pang at parting with was her guitar, but at least she still had her voice; there would always be music where she and Tennessee went, she would see to that.

She glanced over at her still-sleeping roommates and thought about leaving them a message before deciding against it. Better too quiet than the other way around, definitely.

She found Tennessee where she left her, staring up at the moon that was slowly fading into the morning. Z looked at her and thought, I'm never letting you go again. Then they walked away together, down a road together, as the day arrived around them.

--

Possibly, much later, there was a fair. Z might have been humming something new, leaning into Tennessee, and Brendon (that was his name, wasn't it?) might have been yelling at them to hurry up, he's found old friends, and Z might have told Tennessee in a low voice that it's nice to see him smile again, it's so nice to see him smile because it means Spencer's recovered from the silver-laced wound in his shoulder (Z had never seen anything quite that terrifying before). Then Z might have walked past a couple of buskers and then turned in astonishment, because look, look, those are familiar dark eyes and familiar smiles, oh. She might have introduced Tennessee as her girlfriend, because that was safe, you could say that here, and she might have told Tennessee, "They were the only people who put up with me when I didn't have you." There might even have been a happy ending, eventually. Or maybe just a good life.