Not While I'm Around || Mairead and Thomas
“It’s me,” dumb thing to say Hastings. She knows that. God. “I’m here.” He pressed her close to his chest, letting his hand stroke through her hair slowly and trying to even his own breathing to a deep, soothing pace, counting through the number of things he felt he needed when he awoke in the early hours with thoughts of death on his mind. “It’s not the morning yet,” he continued, softly. “There’s a moon in the sky as full and round as a penny coin, looking like he’s wondering why we’re awake and laughing at us from the other side of his face. You can’t see it - I can’t see it, but it’s there. Once I crept out of my home, when I was seven or so, on a night like this one because I couldn’t sleep. I ran down to the nearest tree and I climbed as high as I could, because my nurse had told me that if you got a piece of the moon the Queen of the Moon would come and offer you a wish to get it back. I got to the top and I jumped for the sky - and fell all the way to the ground. luckily it wasn’t a very tall tree, but I broke my wrist and my father was most annoyed with me.” He smiled and gave her a soft squeeze. “I was a foolish child.”