Moonlight

15 |Night Wanderer|

A few weeks afterwards, Luna had developed a small routine to do nightly after everyone had gone to bed. It started when the nightmares and dreams became too overwhelming for Luna to handle. Bruno had suggested Luna do something similar what he does with his visions and it went from there.

Before she goes to bed, she walks around the house checking on what everyone is dreaming and if she sees the beginning of a nightmare she sends one of her butterflies to protect them during the night. Bruno didn't like the idea at first-call him an overprotective parent-but he understood that Luna sometimes needed to sort her thoughts on her own. Plus she promised to bring one of the rats as company.

It seemed to be doing her good. Bruno has noticed that Luna seemed to more happy, the dark circles under her eyes were starting to disappear. There were some slip ups, sometimes a nightmare sneaks in and terrifies Luna to not sleep for the rest of the night but she seemed to be doing better.

She was doing better...right?

Luna felt herself hesitant to push the painting open to do another round before heading to bed. She didn't mind helping her family members sleep, but to have to sneak around to do it? It felt weird...and wrong. It felt wrong.

"Luna?" The girl jumped and whirled around at Bruno's voice "Papa! You startled me." She says. Bruno frowns "Are you ok? You seem hesitant." He says "If you don't want to go out tonight, you don't have to." Luna shakes her head "No, no. I want to. It's just..." She trails off and begins to twirl her hair from nervous habit. Bruno gently pulls her hands away from her hair "It's just like what, mija?" He questions.

"W-Well...it feels a bit wrong to have to sneak around to give the family good dreams. It always makes me feel weird." She explains, Bruno raises an eyebrow "Weird how? Is it your anxiety acting up?" He asks. Luna shrugs "I don't know. It just makes me feel weird." She mumbles, Bruno holds her hands "Luna, I know I've asked you countless times and you know that I'd never make you do anything that made you uncomfortable. Are you sure that you want to keep doing this? You don't have to." He says.

Luna thought about it. If this made her feel so uncomfortable, did she want to keep doing it? Her hands clench into fists and she smiles at Bruno "I'll do it! I'll be fine." She says. Bruno stares for a bit before nodding, he knew from experience that calling Luna out will only make her more stubborn and insistent 'Just like her mother...' he thought. She'll come to him when she was ready.

"Alright then. Be careful and be back well before sunrise. If I find out that you come back just as the sun is rising again, I will ground you." He recounts this with a smile on his face but Luna knew his threat was true...since it's happened before. Luna agrees and Bruno gives her a kiss on the cheek "And of course take Dolores with you." He says, gesturing at said rat who had been impatiently waiting for Luna to pick her up.

Luna giggles "Of course you're coming, Dolores." She bends down to pick her up and places her on her shoulder "I won't be too long, Papa." Luna says before opening the painting and stepping outside the walls.

The girl sighs as she quietly closes the door to Mirabel's room-she hated to call it the nursery as her baby cousin deserved a room of her own-she turns to the rat on her shoulder "That should do it." Dolores gives her a triumphant squeak "Oh, thank you." Luna smiles. Luna did enjoy using her gift to help her family with their nightmares, even if it meant she had to sneak around. Her smile faltered at the thought, even if it meant she couldn't get caught.

Suddenly, her stomach growls "Yikes...I hope Papa wouldn't mind if I grabbed a quick snack." She mumbled. Bruno often expressed how he didn't like Luna going to the kitchen by herself because she was still too small to reach anything and he was afraid of her accidentally knocking something over and creating noise.

Luna makes her way downstairs where she was greeted by Casita quietly clanking tiles as a hello "Hola Casita, I was wondering when you would say hi." She says. Casita helps drag over one of the chairs for Luna to use as a stool to help her stand on top of the counter so she could reach the leftover cookies Julieta made for dessert. Luna squeaks excitedly when she grabs one and turns around to climb down when she froze.

Standing at the doorway with a cup in her hand was Dolores. She also froze, whatever sleep that had still lingered was immediately washed away with the shock of seeing her little cousin who had been missing for a year. They both stare at each other in shock. Luna gulps and couldn't help but utter the word she's heard Bruno mutter under his breath so many times.

"Mierda..." She got caught.