Becoming the Luna

Chapter 335

"I told you I was fine." Hayden repeats to his friend who is still shooting him skeptical looks. "Ruby don't eat the kittens, Apple will scratch at you." He scolds with soft sternness, Yanis marvelling at the way Ruby quickly and easily complies.

"I know." He mutters with a relieved smile, getting to his feet. "So you don't mind watching over Ruby while I get a couple things done?" He asks hopefully, sneakily glancing over to where Ruby was generously sharing out pats to the cats

"Not at all." Hayden waves dismissively, standing up to walk Yanis out. "Go do what you want to do."

"Wait, where are her shoes?" Hayden asks curiously just as Yanis is about to make a run for it.

"It's a long story." Yanis mutters sheepishly.

"O...kay." Hayden nods, waving him off.

"Ruby? Wanna bake with me?" He invited her with enthusiasm, he had spent the day before just cuddling around with Virgil and now he's already bored with sitting inside all alone.

He knows though that staying indoors is the best option for now but the most that would last would be a week.

He was really worried about Dream

"Yes!" Ruby pumps a fist in the air excitedly, hurrying over.

~

Yanis is just thinking how to go back to get the bundle of energy that was Ruby when Hayden calls.

"Hey," he greeted expectantly.

"Yani? I've called Shana and Mae, you don't mind if Ruby spends the rest of the day with me, do you? We started baking and" Hayden trails off glancing over at the flour covered little girl. "Let's just say we might be here a while."

Yanis blinks at this. "Nope, I do not mind at all."

"Great, Shana says she'll come with Mae to come pick her up later." He put the phone down for a bit to call Ruby over. "Ruby come over and say bye to Yanis."

There's a slight tapping sound as Ruby bounds over to squeal a '...bye YaYa!'

"YaYa?" Hayden repeats with a suppressed chuckle when he gets the phone back from Ruby.

"We've spent quite a lot of time together over the past days." Yanis mutters.

"I see, well bye, have fun." Hayden says cheerily, hanging up.

"Well, that takes care of that." He breathes with a sigh, checking his texts, nJennie was probably wondering where he had gone, he should be getting over to the bookstore.

Without having to keep an eye on Ruby, he gets there quickly, remembering to get their usual lattes although it's way past midmorning.

"I thought you drove Hay's car into a ditch." Jennie is already saying as soon as the door dings open and she sees that it's him. "What took you so long?" she asks impatiently already gratefully taking her cup of coffee that was offered to her, although she had already had a cup when she came in earlier.

"Ruby happened." Yanis mutters in disgruntlement, going around the counter to join Jennie.

"What?" Jennie blinks up at him, her black hair packed up in two buns. "Where is she?" She asks in mock horror, making a show of searching around. " Did you knock her out and throw her body in the woods?"

"What? No!" Yanis makes a face of disgust, sipping from his coffee. "Hay took her off my hands."

Jennie nods understandingly. "Ohh I definitely see that happening."

"Gotten anyone in yet?" He asks after a short silence filled with just them drinking their lattes.

"Yeah, quite a lot actually but no one seemed to be in the mood to stay and read, mostly buying or borrowing, weird right?"

Yanis nods absently. "Yeah, maybe it's a mid-week thing."

"Well, look at you, I thought you didn't believe in the supernatural and all that jazz."

"I'm talking to a literal wolf-person, I think that theory has been put to rest."

"Please, Yanis, I'm begging you, stop calling it wolf-person." Jennie groans, walking out to dispose of her now empty cup. 

"But I'm right, am I not?"

"Well, yes but it sounds so wrong." She makes a face, going into the backroom. 

The doorbell dings and Yanis looks up to see someone vaguely familiar.

"Hi. Jed." The lady says as soon as she gets close enough to the counter, signature pleated skirt on, black rimmed glasses framing her pretty face.

Oh, suspicious Cathy with a 'K'

"Hey." Yanis greets with zero of her enthusiasm. "Back already?"

"Yeah" She mutters nervously. "I'm a fast reader." She explains, digging into her satchel to bring out the book.

"Sure." He nods politely, taking the book from her to sign it as returned.

"So do you read too?" She asks conversationally.

Yanis raises a brown at this, pushing his glasses higher on his face. "Yeah do you plan to borrow or buy something else?" He asks pointedly.

"Um, yes." Kathy perks up, hiking her satchel higher up on her shoulders. "I can stay here and read yes?" She asks nicely.

Yanis dials back his frostiness, no need to chase away customers just because he suspected they were paparazzi, giving her a small side smile. "Yeah you can, just browse through the shelves for what you want and call if you need any help."

"Sure, thanks." she beams at him, following his directions.

"Who's the weird chick?" Jennie asks immediately she comes out and sights Kathy leaving.

"Kathy, with a K."

"Uh huh" Jennie mutters, already writing her off. "She gives me journalist vibes, what's she looking for in a small town like Pine Creek.

Yanis' brows furrow at this then he shrugs. "I dunno, taking a vacation?"

Jennie makes a face of apparent disbelief. "Sure."

Yanis slams his hand on the counter at this. "Okay, maybe not, i feel like she's onto me." He pulls Jennie closer to whisper in her ear.

Jennie's green eyes go wide at this. "What?" She whispers furiously back at him. "Why the fuck" She starts to say then she remembers exactly who Yanis' is and apprehension clouds her face. "Shit."

"I told her my name is Jed because I was suspicious so call me that while she's here."

"Sure"

"Jed? Jed?" Kathy interrupts, waving over with a way too bright smile. "Could you spare me a couple minutes?"

"Jed?" Jennie pats his shoulder comfortingly. "You're up, break a leg." She shot him finger guns, staying to man the counter as the doorbell dings to usher in more customers.

Yanis glares at her but walks over to Kathy. "Yeah, what's wrong?" 

"I'm sorry but i can't seem to find the historical section."

"It's fine." Yanis waves away, directing her. "It's just after that aisle."

"Oh, thanks, you found that fast, worked here long?"

Yanis gives her a weird look at this odd line of questioning. "Sure." He mutters vaguely, walking over to Jennie who was just waving off the customer that had come in. 

"Yeah, she's definitely paparazzi."

*~*

Dream had spent his days just like he predicted but instead of moping on his bed, miserable, he found a couple potted plants behind the cottage and brought them in to take care of them, keeping busy everyday.

He knows that it probably isn't healthy to push Dale into an unvisited part of his mind like this and lock it up, throwing away the key but his current peaceful state is one he would pick any day over the heartache and the painful missing of Dale's presence.

The only sore spot was Hayden, he called everyday to check up on Dream, worrying every time, although Dream had explained to him about Erin's return and the fact that he wasn't needed over there anymore.

Maybe Dale had told him what happened? It didn't seem likely, Hayden seemed to be working with a gut instinct because other than worrying about the littlest things he could pick up from the inflection of Dream's voice, he hadn't been forthcoming with anything else.

So Dream had learnt to speak carefully to hide whatever Hayden seemed to be hearing in his voice while they spoke on the phone.

Kieran visited each day, it was already nearing the end of the week and after the first couple days the Head Beta had quickly picked up on the fact that Dream didn't want to hear about what was going on with Dale so he respected that.

Although Dale was the exact opposite, coming over to camp out in Keiran's office eager for every scrap of information about Dream.

Dream puts a kettle of water on the stove before going over to water his plants that he had named Emerald and Teal, not very creative but he liked the names anyway.

It was late afternoon on a friday, Hayden should be calling pretty soon just as he is done watering the plants, his phone rings.

Already expecting it, he goes over to pick up his ringing phone, making his way over to the kitchen to make sweet tea for himself.

His heat had long faded away and each day he woke up with apprehension, a sick feeling constantly sitting in his lower tummy. 

One day he would wake up and find out his fate, he wasn't sure which he wanted to be, if he was pregnant or not, it would hurt equally.

"Hi, Hay." Dream greets with a measured tone, keeping his voice bright but not too bright that it seemed forced.

"Dream! Hello!" Hayden responds with his usual excitement, it makes Dream's heart ache, seeing something he couldn't have.

"You sound really excited, something happen?" He asks immediately, shifting the spotlight from himself.

"Well, Ruby came over to visit again and this time we made apple pie, I can't wait till either of us can come visiting again." He sighs.

"Yeah." Dream mumbles absently, the only reason Hayden hadn't been able to convince him to come visit was because he had been quick to point out Hyaden's lingering heat.

"So, I already talked to Virgil so mind going shopping next week? You know to get me out of this house and spend some time with you, although I don't see why I just can't visit you"

"Hay, I'll go" Dream cut him off, his voice soft and fond.

"Really? Great! We'll discuss the details later but now tell me how your day went."