This is Better (human!Winterwatcher)

eight (october junior year): in which the beach is briefly discussed

Moon: are you awake?

Winter: now i am

Moon: sorry

Winter: what is it

Moon: i feel awful meet me in the atrium thingy?

Winter: i'll be there soon

Moon: thanks

Winter slips out of the room, easing the door shut. He hasn't seen Moon all day.

At night, the school hallways are far too dim. Winter hurries through them, finding his way to the common room Moon calls the atrium. 

She's standing at the row of bay windows, her phone dangling from her hand. Did she get here before texting Winter?

"Can you...can we...sit down?" Moon turns from the window, putting her phone in her pocket. Winter can tell she's been crying.

He settles into a wingback chair and holds out a hand. Moon sits sideways in his lap, draping her legs over the arm and resting her head against his shoulder.

"How did you," she murmurs, "become my safe place?" Her voice breaks, and Winter holds her close to his chest, running his fingers through her hair. He has no idea how he ended up like this.

"It was in English," Moon says. Her last class. "I walked in and it was just all too much- the lights, the heat, the noise, the people. I couldn't keep going. I couldn't." She takes a shaky breath. "I left. Just walked out and read in my room for hours except I couldn't focus and I kept reading the same line over and over again." Moon wraps her arms around Winter's shoulders. "I skipped a class, Winter. I've never...never done that. I don't...don't skip classes."

"Shh." Winter strokes Moon's hair. "We'll tell them you were sick or something. And I'll stay here." He doesn't know how to make her feel better, how to take away the shaking in her shoulders, any more than he knows how to fix himself. "You're going...going to feel safe again. It's going to get better. I'll stay with you until you feel better."

"That might be a while. Sorry." Moon takes a deep breath. "But this...this is nice."

"Really nice."

It takes a while for Moon's breathing to even out. She moves a hand into Winter's hair, shifting enough for him to tuck his legs up onto the chair.

"I'm a mess," Moon says. "This can't...this can't keep happening. I'm sorry...sorry for waking you up again."

"I don't mind."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course." Winter would let Moon wake him up every night if she wanted, would let her cry on his shoulder for hours and hours, would let her lead him anywhere. "I'm sure." He breathes in. "I love you."

Moon sits up and looks at Winter, eyes wide.

"I thought it was pretty obvious," Winter says. His face heats. 

"But why? Why me?"

"You...you're smart and kind and amazing and you make me feel needed, wanted, worth it. Loved." He tugs at the ends of his hair. "Like I know exactly what's right and what's wrong and who I am."

Moon closes her eyes and nestles back into his arms. "I love you too. But you probably knew that." 

Winter can barely hear her. He plays with her hair, wondering how Moon became his safe place.

Out the window, a car drives up to the school, headlights glaring in the night. It makes Winter miss summer.

"I'll drive you to the beach sometime," he says. "After I get my proper license." The lights from outside cast dramatic shadows on Moon's face. Winter kisses her forehead, and she almost smiles.

Moon traces his jawline. "That would be nice. I bet we could convince Turtle to let us borrow his sister's car." She sighs. "The water's lovely here, even though it's cold most of the time. You'll probably go swimming anyway."

"Probably."

"Thank you, again. For meeting me here."

"Do you feel better?"

"Yeah." Moon breathes in. "I should get back to bed, if I want to be coherent tomorrow."

"Mmm."

Moon climbs out of Winter's lap, stands up, and holds out a hand.

Winter takes it, she slips her other hand behind his head, and they're kissing, and it's just as amazing as every other time, just as electric, just as dizzying.

Shadows are flickering in the corners of the room and Moon is moving her lips along his neck, and he can't catch his breath. She looks at him, and Winter feels as if he belongs, as if the world was made for this moment and he fits here, better than anyone else.

Something clatters nearby, and they spring apart. Students aren't supposed to be this far from their rooms at night, much less kissing this far from their rooms at night.

"We should...should head back," Winter says.

"I...yeah."

They walk back to the rooms hand in hand, whispering, then falling silent.