Meluna → Kai Parker

[ CHAPTER NINE ]

March 11, 1992

Meluna sighed, leaning back in her chair as she'd dropped her pen, clasping her fingers together and popping her knuckles. Kai cringed, making a face before lightly smacking the side of Meluna's arm as she frowned.

"What was that for?" she questioned, doe-eyed with her head tilted and a frown played at her lips.

"I hate it when you pop your knuckles," Kai expressed with a scrunched up face. "You know this because Ms. Davis does it all the time and you always have to rub my back."

"Oh, yeah, sorry. I forgot," Luna grinned a bit, cracking her knuckles once more, earning a sour face from Kai. He let out a grunt of displeasure and he cupped his hands over his ears.

"Stop it," Kai frowned.

"Sorry pal," Meluna patted his back to try and comfort him, in which we responded by leaning into her touch. "I just like pushing your buttons, that's all."

"I'd much rather you undo them first," Malachai shot back with a sly grin forming on his face. Meluna just scoffed and rolled her eyes, shaking her head as Kai laughed.

"Disgusting, you gotta stop flirting with me, it's like you're obsessed with me," Meluna shook her head playfully at Kai as he scoffed back, leaning over to snatch her journal from her. She didn't really have a problem with it, of course, she had nothing to hide from him.

"GREED, huh?" Malachai let his thumb play with the parchment at the corner of the journal. "I like this line, 'Money is out of the question when it comes to things I desire because after him I'm never be the same. He is worth more than what diamonds and gold could pay.' it's very..." Kai paused a moment, letting his eyes flicker toward Meluna. A feeling he really couldn't describe because it was a rarity. He couldn't even finish the thought, he was so swarmed with adjectives that could have very well described his feelings, but none of them were perfect. "You know, poetry has always been your forte." Malachai called out, flipping through her journal.

"Thanks Kai," Meluna smiled appreciatively as he stopped turning the pages. She watched as he turned the journal towards her, the rough sketch coming into her view.

"Is this supposed to be me?" Kai's finger tapped on the little scribbles that had been neatly scrawled along the tan page with what looked like a black fountain pen. Kai did a double take at the straight lines and way they went into a perfect curve.

"Oh," Meluna's cheeks flushed, tucking her hair back. She leaned over, grabbing it out of his hand, scooting closer to him. Kai let her lay her head against his chest as she went a few pages back. "Yeah, I never really told you this," she would stop for a few moments, tapping her finger on pictures of him that she'd drawn. "I kind of use you as my muse."

"Why do I look so happy in these drawings?" Kai was puzzled. Normally he wouldn't have brought it up because it wasn't a big issue, but it was hard to ignore because each drawing kind of circled his smiles and crinkled eyes. Every single one. Kai didn't like to use the word 'happy' to self represent.

"I journal everyday. They're either poems, drawings, or anything else I can think of, describing my day, you know? So any day I'm with you, I draw you." Meluna tried to explain.

"Right? But why so happy?" Kai hadn't caught on yet. Meluna wasn't sure that he wanted to, or he'd regret it.

"I draw you as you. I don't just imagine you this way. When you're happy, like this," her finger brushed against his smile in the drawing, "you're with me."

"Oh."

'Malachai G. Parker' was lightly written under each drawing of him. It was neatly in cursive, all almost identical. Meluna had a lot of time to practice writing his name. He never really did like his name, at all. He didn't like his first, middle, or last name. So seeing his name kind of made him shiver.

Meluna laid comfortably on Kai's chest, flickering through the pages of her thick journal. The pages were all crinkled up and thicker than they needed to be because Meluna would stick other papers in her journal as part of her aesthetic.

"Wait, what's that?" Kai stopped her, sticking his hand in a page so he'd hold that place. Another drawing, but not of him. It was careless geometric shapes that formed one drawing. Polygons put together to make out a body, overlapping circles for detail, and a small triangle for a nose. The bottom was labeled: Meluna R. Akimoto

"Self portrait, I guess," she replied dryly, giving him a few more seconds. Kai could make out how it related to her. Her cute little button nose and the usual shy smile. But he also noticed the shapes that made a light aura around her, it was barely noticeable but that was probably the point. A light aura surrounded Meluna, a big creature with broad shoulders. Before Kai could question her, she flipped the page.

Kai let his eyes fall upon Meluna. He avoided this as much as possible because he found himself staring for longer than he intended.

Adoration. He adored her so damn much and it physically and emotionally pained him. How was he supposed to deal with these newfound feelings when he couldn't even deal with the emotions he already knew?

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unedited — 16 december, 2018