No Need To Ask

Awake

 The world around Luna is a blur. Voices, memories, they all pass by. Perhaps this is what they mean by your life flashes before you die? Although, Luna was fairly certain that was only supposed to happen if the person was awake when they died.

A thousand hours of laughter, bedtime stories where her parents read trivial things to her and Helios. The way their father would tickle them if they refused to sleep, nuzzling them simultaneously with his scraggly beard. It was the things that she had forgotten in all her bitterness towards the world. Something in her knows that he would've been proud and happy for her if he saw her taking Raven and their son into her life.

A thought hits Luna's heart like a piercing arrow. What if the boy grows up without somebody like that? Somebody who'll sweep him up and put him on their shoulders? Luna really wasn't worried about people messing with Shaw. Raven was a fierce and scary woman. Her heart cries out to Raven. She wonders if Raven can hear it, wherever she is. Does her desires and wishes and unspoken words reach her?

Maybe if she'd stopped being scared of her nightblood a little earlier they could've had more time. Luna doesn't regret it. In the end, Raven taught her how to live instead of cowering in fear.

Luna reaches out towards the future, towards Raven and the unborn kid. Greedily, she wants all of it. A hand reaches out to grab hers, but she's slipping. Life doesn't work like that. The world slips away, a lightness pervading her body. Their hands gravitate towards each other but in slow motion. Too slow. Luna Rivers fades away.

-0-

Raven enters the room and can't help but let out a little gasp. She didn't really know what to expect, but it certainly was not Luna sitting up and smiling at her. Her heart skips a beat at the brightness before she rushes forward, laughing and crying in relief. Oh, how the tables have turned. All that preparation she had done mentally to not break down if anything bad happened was now turning her into a happily sobbing idiot.

Their foreheads end up pressed together and Luna still sports that dopey grin (it's probably from painkillers). "Hey",Luna says quietly, her breath washing over Raven's lips.

Hearing her gentle voice is the best type of music. It was something that Raven had no idea she had even missed until she heard it again. A weight was lifting off of Raven. In a rush of happiness she leans forward and presses her lips to Luna's, who reciprocates. It is sweet, simple, and short, but the moment lasts forever to the both of them.

"Have you been eating and taking care of yourself?"Luna asks after they pull apart. Raven situates herself on the edge of Luna's bed.

In reply Raven grins sheepishly, shoving her hands into her coat pocket. "I've been a bit... preoccupied." There hadn't been a single thought in her mind since Luna left about food. If there was food, she had already forgotten what she ate in her anxiousness.

Luna chuckles knowingly, expecting that exact answer. "Go get some food. I'll be right here when you come back."

Raven is torn between staying with Luna or food, but eventually her grumbling stomach convinces her to get up. "You better not move an inch!" she threatens as she waltzes out of the room.

The light mood is gone as soon as Raven leaves. Even the room seems darker, clouds blocking the sun outside. The room is too quiet, too white, too sterile. Luna's face drops, her shoulders drooping in exhaustion. A hand comes up to touch her lips that had kissed Raven's not three minutes ago. The kiss had dragged on into eternity for her. The other hand reaches into the pocket of her hospital gown to retrieve a paper.

Dear Future Self,

If you do not remember when you wake up, do not panic. When you see Raven, the latina girl you must love her, or at least act like you do. It will break her heart if I don't remember when I wake up.