zg_shadows | In response to Sally's post...

Michael lay back on the beach, and stared up at the moon. For a moment, the light seemed to shift, and the shadows on the Luna's Face looked like a rabbit, as he yawned, and took another drink from the bottle by his side. His new flat wasn't far away, and his new pack, new Sept and new friends were still back at the Pavillion, but he just needed to get a little space for a while.

It had been a long night - although the Sept of Tolerance was so much quieter than the London Sept, the Moots were somehow longer. It might be Unity's tendency to gossip, or different styles of stories people always wanted to tell, but there was always something new to hear at one. But at least there were fewer Scandals called here. He liked it here - the comparative peace and quiet meant that he had time to work on the plans he had, without the constant losing battle that was just being in London.

But there were things he missed about the place. The feel of the city, that buzz when the sun went down, and the lights came on, and the way that the place never seemed to stop. And the people. Jamie & James, Tolly, Mark. The rest of the Sept, and the people around it.

And Tegan.

Where was she now? Was she happy? How had her reunion with Caitlin gone? Was Fergal treating her well, or was he beating her again? And did she miss him?

His hand went to the pendant around his neck, the tiny glass butterfly with a clover leaf in the centre, and stayed there for a while. She’d never said goodbye. He’d expected that – she’d said she might not - but to find out that she’d still been in London, and had just been avoiding him had hurt. Especially when he tried to get in touch, but didn’t get any response from her.

Michael knew he missed her. That he missed what they had, missed talking to her, missed the smile she only seemed to smile for him, and missed waking up beside her in the mornings. It’d been over a year, and it still felt wrong to be waking up without her.

Over the last few weeks, he'd found himself chatting to Bethany, a cute redhead, and his packmate's cousin, and flirting with her more and more. Tonight, she'd snuggled in close during one of the tales, and kind of stayed there till the end. But at the end of the revel, he'd made his excuses to her, and stumbled off onto the beach.

It was crazy, he knew, to still feel so tied to someone who’d left him, to someone who’d gone back to her husband and daughter, to someone who he couldn’t ever have. But it was all still there, just as fresh as the last time he’d seen her.

“I still love you.” he muttered, looking at the Moon who he knew looked down at them both, and thinking of her. “And I wish things could have been different.”

He picked himself up off the beach, and headed for home. In the morning, he’d have to call Bethany, and apologise for running away. Maybe take her out sometime, when he got back from Belfast. But was it really fair on her, while he knew he was still in love with someone else?