Under The Moonlight

Chapter 22

"Look, Cassey, I know that this is your free day, you've got nothing to do, and your relationship state is... complicated, but you need to stop interrupting me while I try to make some money," Haze complained, talking to zirs friend who had been whining all afternoon, stopping the fae to pay full attention to the customers.

"But she's not answering!" Cas exclaimed from the floor, lifting his phone up in the air, "I'm concerned!"

"As it looks like you don't remember this, I'll tell you again. She is a vampire. Vampires sleep during the day. It's early afternoon still, I bet she's still sleeping."

"Yesterday when she left it was early night, who knows what happened in between those hours! How do I know she got home safely?"

"Again. The cute gal is a vampire, Cas. For what you told me yesterday, she can defend herself pretty well. Vampires can also shapeshift, so I bet she can use that to escape situations of danger," Haze insisted, trying to get through to Cas. Literally, "Dude, you gotta move from the floor. I can't help customers find their flowers from behind the cashier."

"Sorry, sorry," Cas groaned, moving out of the way, now seated, leaning next to the wall, "I just don't know what to do!"

"How about you go to the back of the store and take a nap on the couch? Or go home and take a nap at home? Or do some exercise, get tired up and the take a nap?"

"Why do all of your ways to help include sleeping, Haze?"

"I don't know, maybe because I know as a fact yesterday when you got back from work at 1am you stayed up a couple more hours looking at your phone and today you woke up at 8 am? You're probably sleep deprived, that's no fun. Also, if you're asleep you can't bother me, so it's a win-win situation."

"Why must you always know what to do and be so honest but always deliver the information in such a nasty way?" Cas complained. Haze's frown furrowed.

"Maybe because I don't sugarcoat the truth, sweetheart. I'm just stating the facts as things are. I may be a marginalized fae who has turned against what most of my people like, but there are a few aspects of my uprising that I still follow. One of those being telling the truth overall, and I only follow it because it's a pretty decent rule," Haze's tone had stopped being light and relaxed; it was bitter, as it usually happened every time ze referenced zirs childhood.

"Sorry man, didn't mean to annoy you with... well, all that."

"It's fine Cas, I promise," The usual smile that Haze wore came back to zirs lips, but Cas knew it was only there to shelter other feelings.

"Hmm, whatever. Come here and help me stand up!"

Haze rolled zirs eyes but came where Cas was and pulled him up. Once he was standing, taking the fact they were still holding hands in his advantage, Cas brought Haze close, embracing zir in a hug.

"I luv youuuuu!" Cas squealed, tightening the hug. The goal of the hug was met: a soft laugh escaped Haze's lips.

"I love you too darling, but if you keep hugging me so tight, I'm gonna suffocate," Haze chuckled.

Cas softened the hug. Haze gave one final squeeze before letting him go.

"Don't worry, I'll be out now. Some running will do good to my brain."

"Yep, it will. If you don't feel like sleeping or going home when ya finish, you are welcome to come back. Only if you don't go and cry on the floor again though."

"I didn't even cry!" Cas exclaimed, trying to defend himself, "I was just whimpering."

"Same thing. Oh, before you go," Haze walked to the cashier and grabbed a few coins, "I don't want you to de-hydrate. If you get thirsty, buy a bottle of water. I want the change back though; my boss may start complaining a bit on how much I'm spoiling you."

"Aww, thank you!" Cas got the money he had been handed and put it in his pocket, "I'll be leaving you alone now. Baiiiiii!"

"Later!" Haze waved, as Cas opened the door and started running.

...

While listening to loud music and lying in bed was Mei's grounding activity, Cas's one was running while listening to up-beat music. It didn't have to be necessarily running, any physical activity was fine. They started doing it over in high school, when homework and exams started to get stressing, along with the werewolf traits increasing. He found out it made him feel relaxed, distracted, and there's the plus that it's good for your health. A true win-win situation.

He was lucky that, due to the lack of motivation in the morning, Cas had decided to wear something comfortable: a hoodie, leggings and sneakers, a good outfit for exercise.

It was all fun and games until he got out of breath way too early.

Oh no, Cas thought to himself, the binder-

As today was a masculine day, meaning they've put on the binder. And if he was wearing a binder, he couldn't run. He facepalmed and strolled back to the plant store.

"Hello how can I- Cas? What ya doing here darling? You left the store less than ten minutes ago..."

"I forgot I was wearing the fucking binder, so I can't run until I take it off," Cas groaned. Thank god no one else was on the store at the moment.

"Oh shit, sorry. You know where the bathroom is."

"Thanks..."

Cas went to the back store and changed quickly. Thankfully, the hoodie was baggy, it covered his chest quite well, making it barely noticeable. Over the years, Cas had gotten used to the random waves of dysphoria, but that didn't mean he didn't need their binder. Being genderfluid had those annoying side-effects; you could go from feeling the highest peak of euphoria to crushing dysphoria over the same outfit in a matter of seconds. Thankfully for him, dysphoria didn't tend to be that bad most of the time, and fluctuations between genders usually were subtle.

Anyways. The binder already off, hair secured in a ponytail, Cas was ready to start running again. The music that came out of their air pods was upbeat and nice, the song coming out from them at the moment being from girl in red, one of their fav singers. Her music always helped with his mood, a great way to access free serotonin. Hopefully, Haze was right, and he was just over-reacting, maybe Mei would be ready to talk today and they'd be happy.

...

That day, Mei had barely slept. When she closed her eyes, nightmares came in. The vampire thought those had stopped ten months ago, she was finally adapting back to normal sleep, but now they came back again. After so long, she had forgotten what it felt like, how the dreams felt like. It was bad when the dreams simply occurred, but it was worse when her eyelids became glued together, keeping her inside the trance, stopping her from waking up and escaping the terrors.