In the bright moon lit night, Lilac's फर cast an aura of reflected light around her. She bent the light, she used it to portray radiance unmatched, it could have lit the most pitch black evening as brightly as the sun.
Without her, the evening would have seemed dull, drab. Lifeless.

Eight stared in silence for a length of time. He didn't know how long he had watched her, he didn't care. Seeing her silvery white फर glisten from the moon's gift... He didn't feel his paws, या any extremity as he looked on her, he didn't notice the blink of an eye nor the feeling of the cold around him, only the rattle in his chest, the familiar thump.
द्वारा the time he found words to tell her, he was standing mere feet away. He had no idea he had been moving at all, a simple mistake to make when the earth itself seems to shake around you.

"I have to say," He began, his voice low and quiet, trying not to startle her. "I've never heard anything quite like that before..."
It was all he could think to say, but it didn't register to him just how it sounded out loud in his entranced state.

बकाइन jumped lightly from the transition of silence, now realizing fully that someone was with her here where she thought she was alone.

"Eight!" She spun to face him, closing the distance of feet between them. At first it didn't look like she would stop at all, as though she would just slide right to his side, and it was just as likely that she had to stop herself from doing just that.
She maintained a stoic distance between them, maintaining neutrality, recalling the last time they spoke. Remembering the feeling in her own chest दिन in and दिन out since then.
She and Eight hadn't spoken या seen each other for weeks. To look at her, one could guess that she was constantly reminding herself of the fact as well as trying to fight off the urge to nuzzle him as she shifted her weight from paw to paw.
It took a but a moment for the silence to be broken with the line of questioning and explanation that would come to be expected,
"What are आप doing here?" बकाइन inquired, "I thought आप had duty tonight?"
Eight simply smiled for a moment, a dopey smile at first as he began to pry himself out of his haze. She looked on as he did, the inquisitive look on her face turning to mild confusion as she watched him.

"No... no..." He shook his head, stopping, then beginning to nod, "I mean yeah."

She nodded along with him, one brow higher than the other, the expression on her face seeming to ask "What?"

He broke from his trance fully now and shook it from his head,
"Yeah, Stern stopped me when we were on our way out, कहा he'd take over. Told me to come up here... in a... Stern Kinda way." He grinned at his unintended pun.
बकाइन simply kept the confused look on her face and mixed in a little mild surprise.
"Stern?" She asked, "Stern let आप off duty?"
"Yeah." Eight answered back, nodding.
"Stern?" बकाइन prodded again.
"Yeah, short wolf, squatty, bad attitude, worse breath. Stern, yeah, STERN!" He laughed at her briefly, he understood how crazy he must sound with this news.
बकाइन only stood there for a moment, looking away, her face clearly glazed over with the thought of what the world was coming to. Eight dropped his head into her line of sight for a moment and when he caught her attention, raised his head back, leading her pale blue eyes along with it.

He smiled for a moment, so many thoughts raced through his head. What would he say next? What was he supposed to say? His head buzzed and swam.

"So..." He began, "I thought I'd come and find you..." His eyes lowered. Now he was just becoming shy. But why? He knew what he wanted, so why was it so damn difficult to just come out and create a concise sentence?

बकाइन smiled at him softly. She knew he was trying, and it was very sweet of him. She knew he was only trying not to over-step any bounds या say anything inappropriate, it was his way. She also knew that he was trying so hard, that he didn't realize that he outranked her, and typically shouldn't be worried about such things.
She just sighed at the thought as he stammered on.

"I came up here and, uh, Zen... Zen told me that आप were probably, y'know, uh... So... This is a Moonlight Howl, huh? Crazy." He widened his eyes now and looked off, nodding about the "Crazy Moonlight Howl".
He was completely लॉस्ट now. Laughably so, and they both knew it.
She giggled at him, covering her muzzle with a paw. This caused him to stop talking and look at her, a sheepish grin on his face. He chuckled at himself and reached up with his paw to give his muzzle a ginger mock slap.

The two stood in silence now. Even the other howlers had completely ceased their warm up sessions.
बकाइन looked at him and he looked to the ground briefly. He then found himself in the moment and looked up to her and though his thoughts, दिल and plan remained the same as they were, he was steady.

The night seeped back in between them and he was aware of the world again. He felt the cold stone and gravel beneath his paws and the gentle breeze across his face. He noticed it ruffle her फर as it passed over them. It blew her scent into his nose, filling his mind and दिल with an everlasting image.
He took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them again, taking in all of her beauty and radiance in the night.

"Lilac..." He started, looking into her eyes, at her face, ignoring his light southern accent दिखा रहा है through, "When we spoke last, I had something to tell you. And I think आप had something to say to me."
She nodded to him, simply, sheepishly.
"I want आप to know the way I feel... about you... about us..." He continued, not looking away for a moment, she looked right back into his eyes.
"Lilac... I wanted to say - "

The sound of a lone howl shooting into the dense night air broke his sentence in to, and with it, his concentration and calm.
They both looked in the direction it came from, opposite of the cliff that separated them from the rest of the pack as the first howl was accompanied द्वारा another, and another.

The Moonlight Howl had officially started. और and और the night sky filled with the sound of भेड़िया from the clan calling out to the moon, calling out to one another, be it mates, friends, couples या groups.
But Eight was determined now. The two turned back to one another,
"I just wanted to-"
This time बकाइन broke his sentence, placing a paw in front of his mouth.
"Shhhhhhh..."



She closed the distance between them, now her face was inches from his. Her eye contact fell to her paws for a विभाजित करें, विभक्त करें moment before raising them back up to meet his पन्ना green eyes glinting in the moon light. He could do little और than stare back into those perfect blue, beautiful eyes of hers.

In the cold of the night, bathed in a pale blue light, she whispered an single, soft, earnest request,


"Howl with me?"