Gone

24.

Weeks pass with Jural and Stone doing simple assassination missions before getting a weekend off. "Hey Jural what are- Oh my god! What the hell are you doing?" A very exposed Jural turns to look at her.

"What! What's wrong?!" His hands were up, one holding a spatula, "what's wrong is that you're naked! In the kitchen! Cooking!" Stone points at his exposed body, "I'm always naked in the kitchen." He replies as he lowers his guard, "you are not." He asks in hopeful denial.

"I am in the mornings, I like cooking in the nude, I'm usually dressed in the afternoons because of mission or because I want to head to the training room." Stone looks at him in horror.

"Oh my god. I've been eating food you make in the nude." He flicks his tongue and narrows his eyes, "no you're never awake in the mornings."

"I'm going back to bed," Amoura mutters and makes a quick U-turn back to her bed. "Feel free to let loose as well!" Jural shouts after her, "getting loose defines putting your feet on the sofa, eating all the junk food not prancing around naked!" Amoura yells back.

"What happened?" Luna and Lee bust through the door, "personal and or private space doesn't apply much here does it?" Amoura mutters as she walks back into the living room.

"Did you all know he walks around naked?" They all nod and say yes. "Thank you for that bit of information I would have liked to have known when I arrived."

"We all have our habits, come on it's not that bad."  Luna says as she and Jural share a smile, "it is when the first thing I see when I wake up is a white ass."

Jural sighs, "my ass cannot be the first male ass you've seen. Aw, come on Stone don't tell me you're a virgin?" Jural teases.

"If I say yes, will you put on pants?" She asks and he nods no.

"I did not spend ten months in hell just to wake up to this." She points to Jural who is standing in his birthday suit. "You kind of did." Their phones go off.

"What is it?" Luna asks, "we have the day off." Amoura says as she sets her phone back down. "Really?" Luna questions as excitement bubble up.

"Yeah, we have the weekend off for the recruits arrive any day now." Stone mutters as she looks at the text message.

"Let's go into town and buy stuff to make a barbecue on the roof!" Luna suggests excitedly.

Stone looks at them, "You guys don't eat food." They look at her, "but you do. We'll eat raw meat and blood tainted drinks." Lee speaks up, Stone suppresses a smile, "you guys go I'm going to shower and touch nothing since apparently, I burn everything I touch." They all reply on point, "good idea, we'll be back." Stone rolls her eyes and heads to her bathroom.

Jural walks into Stone's room once she's out of the shower. "We have time now, you can tell me that whole other story." Stone bends down to tie her shoes.

"There's not much to tell. I was weak and useless and he didn't want me for it." Stone looks at him,

"He's an idiot." Stone sighs annoyed she's defending him, "no, he was an Alpha with a powerful father, it makes sense he'd want a Luna to match those expectations. Besides if I'm certain of one thing is, I'm not Luna material, I know now I am an Alpha." He smiles at her as she gives herself a place.

The anger fades as she notices his smile is genuine. "I've only seen you smile like that when you're cooking." His smile grows, "so cooking isn't the only thing I liked about this place. Come on you can help pick the music." She nods and follows him out.

Stone helps Luna set up the Christmas lights on the rails and the pergola. They roll over the abandoned cable spools to use as tables. Jural starts up the grill as the others chill on the roof furniture.

"I didn't think I'd like you," Luna says as she looks at Stone. "Why?" Stone asks her as the others agree with Luna.

"Because you're a werewolf, I kept waiting for a degrading comment to come out of you. But you're not like that." Stone nods.

"I grew up with Vampires" Luna smiles at her, before getting up and pulling out a camera.

"Well let's take a picture to commemorate our day off."  Luna jumps to her feet.

"Oh, I'll take the picture. I guess this is a bad time to ask if you all will come out on film." They all look at her half amused, "very funny Stone and there's no need the camera has a timer."

Amoura heads back downstairs to get a water. "What's going through your head?" Jural asks a quiet, spaced out Stone.

"You once said I'd get comfortable here," Jural nods, "isn't getting comfortable in hell a bad thing?" She asks as she plays with the bottle top.

"This can't be hell, we don't deserve what has been done to us." Stone looks at him, "just because one doesn't deserve to be hell doesn't mean they can't end up there."

"Those of us here, including those in the other squads, do what we can to sooth the pain we're in. Luna bakes, Lee paints, I cook and collect fascinating-" she interrupts him, "ugly," he ignores her, "things." He points outside to his squad mates.

"Roy builds tech stuff, Wisokey welds weapons, Reyes plays the piano, Cullen makes carved sculptures. Something to tie us to humanity. Anything to remind us we aren't weapons, we do things we love to remind us we are alive." Jural looks at her as he holds onto the chair.

"I don't feel like that," He looks at her sympathetic, "you haven't been here long enough. Sometimes it the little things that soothe our souls." She doesn't tell him that's not what she meant.

"Stone! Jural, come on before the food burns!"