Elmo
Just close your eyes, the sun is going down
You'll be alright, no one can hurt you now
Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound
Anthony
Akira spent most nights at Jades. After all, they were still in the honeymoon phase. Did they ever get such things in Briar Ridge? Akira made everything feel like a dream. She never yelled, she never threw things, even when Jade made mistakes. Akira showed her nothing but grace. She had never felt such things before, the ease in which it was to love the woman. Arthur was so angry, how did she end up with someone so gentle and the town had the nerve to view her as beastly. When really she was anything but. She rolled over to feel the absence of another body's warmth, and Akira was gone. Her groggy mind didn't have the appropriate reaction. Akira left, she had convinced herself and got out of bed, she didn't bother to throw on anything more than what she had been sleeping in. One of her lover's button up shirt's. She sauntered through the halls, checking the rooms. 

Jackson was sleeping peacefully in his own room, no Akira, the kitchen, no Akira, finally she turned into the living room, stopping when she saw Akira curled up on the couch. "Aki...? Honey?" She leaned against the doorframe unsure if she should approach. She learned the hard way. She waited for Akira to answer and she would wait until Akira gave a sign that she wanted Jade closer, she stood there, waiting. She didn't realize how disheveled she may have looked, her hair messy from sleep and the shirt halfway down her shoulder from its size. Loose on both her and Aki. The moonlight painted across the both of them, the same moon that betrayed her lover one night out of the month.

Jade finally could not stand not being close enough. She went over to where Akira rested on the couch, Jade carefully sat on the other side, crossing her legs under her. "Aki... What's wrong? Was the bed uncomfortable? Do you need another blanket?" Did she do something...? Before she asked the bittersweet question, she wondered what she could've done wrong, did she burn dinner? Jackson and Aki didn't seem to hate it, did Jade snore and wake her up? Was she being too clingy in her sleep? Did she steal the covers? Akira had never been mad at her before and Jade in her irrational state of mind thought that this was the beginning. Jade had pushed too far, messed up too much, she was friendly to one too many strangers that day. 

She searched Akira's body language, analyzing it. It was tense, she carefully extended her hand to touch the woman's wrist. Afraid of what may come of it. She knew how Arthur would've reacted. Never touch a sleeping man Jade. I could've done worse to you just then... He had a point, he had far too many demons that haunted him at night and she didn't need to be caught in the crossfire, even though she had been. None of the bruising ever lasted long. It wasn't that bad. "Did... Did I do something...?" She held her breath and waited.
Sybil
Nightmares had become a frequent company ever since she had been turned, each one of them packed with Akira's many regrets. They were constant and scattered, filled with the imagery of snapping bones in her jaws, blood being spilled on the snow, silver bullets piercing her hide, the screams of people she knew... Jade's screams.

Since January, Aki had sworn she'd rather eat her heart out than hurting another person again. Her promise remained truth, even at the extreme costs. Yet the fear remained, her hunger was as strong as the night terrors that plagued her, with no sight of her mother's spirits to console her.

She woke up in a cold sweat, a quiet gasp rumbled out of her throat. She found herself not in the Old Davis ruins, or being held at gunpoint by Alma, she was by Jade's side. Still, Akira turned to one side, with her hand shaking as it'd turn into a massive paw at any moment.

Of course she wouldn't want to awake her lover, why would she have to be more of a burden to another person, after all? Did she have the right to scream in terror? Were these nightmares part of her punishment? Was she even worthy of shedding tears for her sins? Akira could be bleeding out, and she would try her damnest to have no one notice it. It happened time and time again, until someone close enough was unfortunate to find out. 

Akira needed a distraction, perhaps some water, or perhaps some distance to collect her thoughts. With the full moon looming closer each day, it became her second nature to shut down. Like a ghost, she paced to the living room with a glass in hand, she hadn't been able to drink the water in it. She simply sat down on the couch, with her mind somewhere else.

"Huh...?"

Little did she know that Jade had noticed her absence. The woman stared at her lover like the beaten puppy that she was, almost as if she were to pull her ears backwards with her tail between her legs. Akira still had to get used to being loved, and it showed, not knowing how to respond to

The many questions that came on her way.

That was, until Jade asked if she had done something wrong, and her hand touched her wrist. Finally Akira reacted, she blinked once, twice even, her mouth opened for just a second.

"N-No..! No no no.." She shook her head, her voice always quiet and gentle, while also being raw and broken in her attempt to remain strong. "You didn't... You didn't do anything wrong.." 

Aki didn't move, she let Jade sit next to her if she wanted to, or hold her, or even hug her.

"Sorry for leaving I... I needed a drink.." She said, noticing she hadn't been able to finish her water even. 

"...I had a bad dream.."
Anthony
Jade knew the weight of Akira's burdens, more so she knew the weight that Akira felt was extreme. She knew her lover's grief and she made it her own most days, she would not let Akira go through this alone. Even if it meant waking up at all hours of the night and sleepily holding her lover. Jade moved her hand from Akira's wrist and moved it to her face. "My love, you are perfect but you are an awful liar" She knew Akira did not need just water. She lazed back on the couch, motioning for Aki to lay down on her. She could rub her back and listen if that was what Aki needed her to do. "Do you want to talk about it?" Jade had spent mainly late nights soothing her baby brothers. 

This was nothing new to her. She didn't mind she may have found herself enjoying it. She could hold them a little closer and nuzzle their chubby cheeks until the fear was no longer there and it was just contentment, comfort. She nudged Akira's leg with her own. "Pretty girl, you don't have to hide from me... You are safe here" She softly purred. Akira had cured her nightmares too, the way she collapsed in the woman's comfort in the hospital. They had seen the darkest parts of each other and still loved. That is something she held dear.

Jade acted as if she were a nymph luring a warrior into her grasp. Perhaps in another life that is exactly what happened between her and the woman. She liked this life better, even if they were hurting. They were human, they loved intensely, protected fiercely, and touched gently. All of those things would not come easy to them as nymphs and prey. Jade did not want to seem like she did not care about Akira being scared, she had learned a long time ago to react calmly, even if she hadn't done so at first. 

"The good thing about dreams, sweet girl. They are not real, they are our minds playing cruel tricks on us. So cruel they startle us from our peaceful sleep and make us wonder if it will ever be real. But it won't. Well maybe not always, Sometimes I dream that we have found the cure and we live happily ever after. I hope that is real" She tried to cheer Aki up.
Sybil
Being told she was an awful liar made Akira's whole body almost turn into a paste as a sigh of defeat escape her, with Jade's hand in her scarred cheek still keeping her in reality. She could run away from many people, but she couldn't run away from Jade. Not that she'd complain about it, of course. She had simply been caught red handed, like a puppy who stole someone's lunch or bit their work shoes. 

Her lover softy moved to sit next to her and offered her comfort, Akira accepted with reluctance, almost as if laying next to her would be enough to snap the oldest of the Grant's in half. She was safe, that's that Jade said, but was she really? What if someone broke down the door with a shotgun in their hands? Would the coalition get tired of the search for the cure and separate her from Jade? What if hounds came from the backyard to feast on her flesh? What if the windows shattered as silver bullets flew towards her? What if-

"Hmmm... They felt very real to me... At least..." She said, her voice quiet, in high alert. The woman made an attempt to remain proud and unaffected, but she was shaking. 

"You know... I-I don't remember a thing of my time during the full moons... I only know if I've hurt someone if I ever wake up where I wasn't supposed to... Sometimes I get flashes though like ah-... The sound of a guns firing, people screaming... And they feel so real... So real just like when Alma came an-...."

Akira bit her tongue as she felt a lump on her throat and her eyes burning. She searched for Jade's comfort and safety into her chest. 

The cure, the very thing that had given Akira new purpose, a way to redeem herself in the eyes of Briar Ridge for her inaction and fear of retaliation. Now, she did still see a possibility, she needed one more name to complete the puzzle, and then... To find a loophole around the sacrifice. They were so close she could feel it.

But, even if Akira were to be human again, would she feel like it? Would she be able to look at

Her neighbors in the eye again? Would she be able to laugh and be with her friends like she used to?

Would Akira Hirano ever be back? 

She didn't know the answer to that, not when their accusatory eyes stared at her, holding back their vile and hate with the promise of a cure.

They had less than two months now.

With a shaky sigh, Akira looked for comfort further by burying her face into Jade's chest. The fact that this woman didn't immediately hate her guts after finding out she was a werewolf over a month ago was a miracle. Jade said part her knew, but even then, she couldn't explain the kindness and love coming from her and-

"...Ah... Sorry..." 

When did tears start rolling down her cheeks? How embarrassing. 

"I... I stained your shirt... Wait- that's mine.." 

Akira made an attempt to hide her face, to not look at Jade in the eye as the abomination she had become, as if her tears were made of acid and it would melt her partner. 

"Sorry..."
Anthony
Akira could try to hide from Jade, but Jade would still find her. That's what their love was, right? Finding each other even in the lowest of lows. Akira found her in the snow, lower than she had ever been, and even though she had tried to go unnoticed, Aki still found her, and here under the moonlight, she found Akira. Jade had been through a lot in April, and in May, her body was still sore and hurt. Yet Akira's weight against her own brought a calmness to her, and she could only hope that it calmed Aki as well. Akira curled deeper into Jade, and she rested her head against her lover. "I know, it all seems so real in the moment, but look around," She muttered. They were in the Grant cottage with mismatched dishes and random patterns of fabric that had been sewn together to make blankets—a perfectly misaligned home. Akira fit right along with it. Perfectly misaligned, her fingers fell into Aki's hair. 

She giggled at hearing Akira say it was her shirt. "Well, duh, I wasn't going to wander down here naked, and it was on the floor, so, finders keepers," She stuck her tongue out playfully as she wiped the corners of her lover's eyes. "You don't have to be sorry for crying, darling." It happens, and sometimes people just need a good cry. You are no exception to that rule. Although I don't want you crying all the tears in your body just yet, you better save me some for the  alter." Jade wanted nothing more than for Akira to look at her and see her. Jade was not mad; she didn't view her as an abomination. She was just Aki—her sweet, loving, cuddly Aki. She gently moved Akira's face to hers. "Honey, look at me; you are safe... I won't let anything happen to you. Okay? I will bet my life on it."

Even her wolf had subconsciously protected her—Aki, her pack. The loyalty she felt for others remained strong even when she was not herself. Jade's loyalty was lethal to herself and others. Ready to sacrifice herself at a moment's notice or ready to tear someone to shreds with a simple inkling that her loved ones had been wronged.

Jade, in the midst of surrounding Aki with every bit of warmth she had, started to hum. She had used this song to lull Jackson and Walter back to sleep many, many times. She would rub their small backs with her hand, just as she was doing to Aki right now, and in moments, they would be out. She wasn't so sure it would work for her lover, but what was the harm in trying?

 Does this ever get better, April?
Sybil
It took Aki some time to meet her misty gaze with Jade's
 If only she could scream, howl to the world how much she's been hurting, how she never chose anything that has happened in the last year or so, her regrets and guilt. Yet her sobbing was as quiet as the night itself, with Briar Ridge's forest taking a deep sigh just as Aki took a shaky one herself, trying to follow Jade's voice.

Aki then managed to let out a little chuckle at her lover's comment about the altar, sparkling a memory.

Akira remembered her first in years in America as if they happened yesterday. She was still a teenager, closer to becoming a woman as the questions about marriage bombarded her overnight, from both an ignorant and yet well meaning father, and acquitances the Hirano had been able to make in the West coast. She remembered visiting them for dinner, glancing over pictures of the one son of that family decorating their kitchen counter. The young man's mama said they were looking for a wife for him back in their Homeland. Akira couldn't help but tilt her head at the comment, perhaps in the middle of her innocence she had become aware. The same lady gave her a pat on the head to remind her to be a 'good wife to her future husband', a husband that would never be.

Ms Hirano didn't take long to react.

_'She's too young! Aren't we free here? I'd personally let Aka-chan choose._'

Aki managed to chuckle at the memory, it was her own way to spit on what they expected from her, as her eyes finally looked up to meet with Jade's. She opened her mouth with the intention to say something else, but her lover began to hum a song until now unknown. 

Whatever Jade was singing, it began to sooth both her soul and body, making Aki think of honey again, the best way to describe her lover. She was safe, as mismatched as she was in this world with her. 

Sure, Aki could gloss over the fact that Jade was only wearing her shirt to conceive her figure, that her legs began to tangle around each other (fo

R now). She focused on the lullaby, closing eyes to follow the rhythm of Jade's heartbeat at the same time, making it even more calming, with every touch becoming more powerful than their own claws during the full moon. Even Akira's own voice tried to follow the song with her own humming. They were just two gentle voices singing by the moonlight, as if no beast lurked beneath their skin.

"Even as injured as you are..." The woman whispered, afraid of interrupting the symphony. "You still sing..." 

A faint smile curled up on her lips, shifting a little to keep her partner warm. 

"You truly are way strong than what you think... Love... Never forget that..."
Anthony
Jade often used this song to comfort Jackson and Walter during many nights, and now she used it to soothe Aki's troubled mind. Nightmares were terrifying, and she had been experiencing them herself these days. Dealing with them herself wasn't new to her, though. She used to be afraid of everything. The world seemed dark, and it was even darker now. However, there was some light in her life—Akira, Jackson, and those who would never leave her side. She could manage as long as they were together.

Jade laughed. "I know, I know, it's not the prettiest, but remember, I'm used to comforting babies, and they usually don't care as long as they're snuggled up and have some sort of skin-to-skin contact," She mused while soothing the woman's hair between her fingers. She was lost in her little world. "I won't," She reassured Aki, although it may have been a lie. Jade was not as strong as she made herself out to be. She was broken down, much like her lover, but she was just used to carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.

She wanted to scream and cry. She wanted to give up, but she didn't. She had too many people depending on her. Hell, she had the whole town depending on her and this cure. "Come on, let's go back up to bed. I'm sure it's much more comfortable than the couch," Jade said as she slowly got up from their place on the couch, the cold air hitting her skin, a chill running down her spine.

She held Akira's hand in her own, carefully guiding the woman up the steps. They both had been through so much, she was scared. She almost lost Akira in April and she couldn't do anything about it to protect her. She still had her chest ripped open. She looked back to Akira, she worried if they would both withstand all that was to come. They were already so beaten down.
Sybil
"Not the prettiest? Haven't you heard yourself?" Akira chuckled in between her sniffles, Gods was she a mess, but so was Jade. "I think you sound like an angel." 

To carry the weight of the world, to cut her claws and pull her own teeth, to tug a leash on her neck, that was the life Aki had been living for almost a year, that was the state Jade had found her, hidden deep within her layers that only now had been peeled forcefully for Briar Ridge to see. Some were disgusted, others afraid, others were to afraid to meet their gaze with a 'witch' and a werewolf, a woman cursed twice.

But Jade never judged her, not even after accidentally burning her palm with her grandmother's silver ring. Aki felt her body lift up, walking in autopilot as her groggy gaze tried to make sense of the staircase, leaning into her shoulder just to get more warmth and avoid the cold air, like bullets that had her name carved on them. 

"Yeah, let's go." She said. "Again... Sorry for leaving you... It was not my intention to just... Do that." 

Akira could be many things, but she was not Arthur. That name alone being pronounced made her taste her own vile, someone unusual for her gentle nature, perhaps because she had to witness her lover suffer because of him. 

The woman gentle flopped on the mattress, flat on her face with a small grunt. She lazily rolled on her side, and extended her arm, still covered in bandages, to invite Jade to join her. 

"Tell me... What will you... Do this full moon?" Aki asked, biting her lip."I just want to let you know that you can still come with us to the cave." 

Was it risky? Of course it was, Akira knew she was hungry, she could feel it in her stomach like a pit, a void that couldn't be satiated. She didn't know how her... Beast could react or interact, she had already been beaten by another pack member for the same thing.

The last thing Aki wanted to do, was to hurt Jade.