Lunaticus

4

"Hello." He said softly. "You must be Chloe."

"And you should be sleeping," I remarked, knowing I should be as well. But he wasn't the head chef. He didn't get to make fake excuses.

"I couldn't" he answered, "I kept thinking of you."

My heart did a little summersault. Calm your hormones. Was I blushing? Oh my god, this was mortifying. "How very, umm, invasive of you."

He smiled softly, "I guess so."

I stood there awkwardly, crossing and uncrossing my arms. "Would you, uh, like a cupcake?"

"I'd like you."

Stop it, I silently rebuked my thudding heart and then glared at him. "Will you please stop with the corny lines?"

"I don't know. Will you stop looking so, well to put it simply, corny-line summoning?"

He didn't need me to smile to inflate his already hefty ego. Gone was the meek boy from earlier. This was an entirely different version of him.

"I'm sorry," He said then. Although the smile was still there, it looked almost sad now. "It's one of my better days. I'm trying to make the most out of it."

"Better days?"

He nodded solemnly. "You might not find me in this light mood for a few days afterward."

I frowned. "Why?"

"Because I'm wrong. Wrong and twisted. I'm not the person you'd want to be around most of the time."

We are all twisted in our ways, I thought silently. "I'm sure it can't be that bad, whatever that is. All of us here, we have our secrets."

His smile was gone completely now. In its place was an expression so forlorn it broke my heart to witness it. "Mine wouldn't be mine for long. I don't get to keep secrets, Chloe, no matter how much I want to."

Unconsciously I had moved closer to him so that I was leaning against the table opposite to him. He looked striking in the moonlight from the window. If he were a dish, I would describe him as chocolate chip ice cream, for the dark shadows and the softer light facets that cut each other.

"I don't understand," I said dumbly.

He gave a stiff nod. "I guess you don't. Have you decided, whether you're going to take the oath or not? Before I make things weird, I'll just say it out loud. I'm a bit omniscient. As in, I'm very sensitive to the thoughts of the people around me."

I was shell-shocked. Can he read my mind?

"And no Chloe, I can't read minds." At my worsening expression, he laughed out loud. I was surprised even further by how much it warmed my heart to see him laughing. I wanted more.

"It's just, this has happened so many times, I'm sort of used to it. You'll be too." He sobered again, the light mode disappearing. "Back to you. Will you shift or not? Now that you know that I'm more mate?"

I was exhausted. Not bodily, but by the immense weight of knowledge he had dumped on me. Now I understood what he meant when he had called himself twisted.

I would feel a bit twisted too, if I could read the minds of others. To judge them normally when I knew their deepest, darkest thoughts...

"Is that all?" I asked warily.

"No." His lips barely moved. "But it's more than enough for now."

It sure was. "Well, I haven't made up my mind. I don't know I-" I fumbled with my hands, trying to make him understand.

He nodded and leaned forward. "I shouldn't interfere then."

As he passed me, I sputtered. "Just like that? You wouldn't- I mean you wouldn't force me- or-" Mark me? Make me yours? Play dirty?

Shut up, shut up. He can hear you.

If he did, he didn't say so. But he did stop by me and looked down at me curiously. "Will you mind If I hug you?"

"I-" And why not? What if smells better closer? Perv, Chloe, what a big perv you are.

"I'll do it anyway so that you can blame it on me."

He leaned down, and hesitantly put his arms around me, placing his chin on top of my head. The gesture was so pure that I found myself returning his hug, setting my arm against his head so that I heard the calm thumping of his heart.

"I would never take the choice away from you Chloe," His words reverberated through my skull. "Never. You might not be able to hear my thoughts, but if you were to read my heart, you'd find only find your name written on it."

He leaned back and smiled sheepishly as if he hadn't just melted the world around me. "A piece of your mind in exchange for a piece of mine. In this unjust world, at least I'm playing fair."

And he went, leaving behind the smell of pine cones and lavender and snow.

I was right. He did smell better up close.