House of Moonlight (Halren)

"In a room full of people, look for me, I'll be what's real for you."

For Halsey, disclosing certain information had to be earned. Through sheer determination from the other person or through complete trust in them.

Halsey liked to think that Lauren trusted her, trusted her enough with a secret very few knew about.

When Lauren first brought up the hallucination that was Normani, Halsey grew concerned for obvious reasons; Lauren's hallucinations were based on an illness she had no control over and that tugged at Halsey's heart. She'd spent days getting to know the green-eyed girl and her heart had become accustomed to feeling things for her that weren't strictly platonic and so Halsey wished more than anything in the world that she could take away Lauren's suffering.

But Normani wasn't a suffering. 

Lauren had dragged Halsey to the music room and perched her down on plastic chair that left a screeching sound against the floor as she dragged it over to the centre of the room. Lauren had fiddled with her hands, her eyes refused to meet Halsey's and the older girl tried her best not to speak in fear that it would scare the raven-haired girl off.

And that's the last thing Halsey wanted. She never wanted Lauren to go anywhere.

Lauren's first words to her were just above a whisper, barely audible but just loud enough to Halsey's ears to catch.

"Normani isn't bad." They were spoken with reluctance, a hesitance that had Halsey wanting to reach over and give Lauren's hand a reassuring squeeze.

Of course she didn't. She knew how much the younger girl needed to do this on her own.

Lauren slowly went on to disclose that Normani was her best friend in every sense of the word. She said she knew the girl was something her mind conjured up but that she couldn't find it in her to hate that. Normani had been with her through all her ups and downs, she still kept her as sane as she could be considering and she never quite allowed Lauren to feel that overwhelming sense of loneliness Halsey was all too familiar with.

Halsey sat and she listened and she began to understand why Lauren was so reluctant to let anyone know about Normani because to anyone who didn't understand Lauren...they'd think Normani was an imaginary friend. Someone made up by an introvert too scared of life to wonder out and actually make friends.

But that wasn't the case for Lauren.

She had friends. She had people who cared for her.

But she also had Normani who did too, at least...that's what Halsey was getting from the explanation. 

And Halsey couldn't fault Lauren for never wanting Normani to go away. The way she described the girl...she was the perfect kind of friend. The one who never told you what you wanted to hear but what you needed to. The kind that listened and gave advice and sat up with you till ungodly hours of the night just because you feel unsettled.

Normani sounded more like Lauren's sister than her best friend.

And Halsey couldn't hate that hallucination because she now understood that the very reason Lauren was still alive was due to it.

And so she sat before the green-eyed girl as she finished her explanation, the room now coated in a thick silence filled with questions and answers and beginnings of things neither of them were really aware of yet.

"She sounds amazing." Halsey finally supplied, her voice a mere croak but enough to rouse Lauren's eyes to meet her own. "She kinda sounds like she'd be really cool friends with Dinah."

"She has a crush on Dinah." Lauren dropped her head as a small smile played on her lips, her heart feeling a sense of relief as she took in Halsey's acceptance of her explanation.