WILD [JENLISA]

31[M]

When Lisa woke from her deep, dreamless rest, the first thing she saw was the new moon, just beginning to wax, looming outside a curtained window. On instinct she calculated the time until the next full moon, just under two weeks. Always her first thought upon waking, keeping track of her cycle was an unconscious instinct. Being caught unprepared was an irrational worry, but that didn't ease Lisa's fear or her distrust of her own body.

Disoriented until she noticed Jennie nestled in her arms, Lisa remembered what had brought her to Jennie's apartment and what had happened between them, and her breathing quickened. Despite Jennie's initial knee-jerk reaction, Lisa's coming out had gone better than she could have imagined. Jennie hadn't rejected her, even knowing the whole truth. Apparently she'd even allowed Lisa to fall asleep in her bed, though Lisa couldn't remember how she'd gotten there.

"You were exhausted." Jennie answered Lisa's unspoken question, voice scratchy with sleep. "After we talked, you practically passed out."

Lisa had no recollection past shifting into a tiger then giving Jennie a long, rambling recap of the past month and a half. That she had woken up with Jennie by her side seemed like a good sign. "How long was I out?"

Jennie rolled over to check her alarm clock. "About eight hours."

"What?" Lisa sat abruptly, shocked and embarrassed that she'd borrowed Jennie's bed for almost the entire day. They'd spoken for maybe a half hour before Lisa had fallen asleep. After basically being broken up for the past two weeks, that was hardly enough reconciliation to justify treating Jennie's place like a hotel. "I'm so sorry. I haven't been sleeping much and I just-"

"Because you've been too busy watching over me." Tugging gently on Lisa's wrist, Jennie encouraged her to lie back down. "I know. Providing a bed is the least I can do to thank you."

Lisa blushed. Protecting Jennie wasn't an entirely selfless act.

Now that they'd found each other, Jennie's safety was the only thing that mattered. Instinctively Lisa knew that losing Jennie would mean losing a part of herself, the part that made her human. Not only was Jennie her most real connection to the human world, but she'd singlehandedly erased Lisa's loneliness and convinced her that she could have the same things normal people did. Love. Happiness. A future.

Caressing Jennie's face with the back of her hand, Lisa murmured, "Until Kwon Jiyong is in custody, I want to stay with you around the clock. If you don't feel comfortable taking me to work with you, I can keep watch in a different form. I just don't want to leave your side."

"Can you fall asleep when you're shifted without reverting back to human form?"

"No." Lisa struggled to put her thoughts into words. Explaining something she barely understood was difficult at best. "My body seems to have a tendency or an impulse to retain its natural form. If I lose consciousness when I'm shifted, I usually wake up myself. Naked. Which is embarrassing." She paused, then laughed shyly. "You know, now that I'm talking about this, I realize that I don't know as much about what I can do as I should. I've never really tested myself. I've mostly just tried to avoid the whole thing."

"No more," Jennie murmured. "And as much as I appreciate your protection, if you're going to watch over me during the day, you need to start sleeping at night. If we're locked in my apartment and you're in bed with me, I don't see any reason for you to keep running yourself down like this."

Lisa's breath caught at the unspoken implication. "Does this mean we're back together?" Cringing at the quaver in her voice, Lisa tensed as she awaited Jennie's answer. Since the night of the last full moon, every day she'd dreamed of having Jennie back. Until yesterday, she hadn't thought it possible. In a strange way, Lisa was almost glad for Jiyong. She wasn't sure she would have had the courage to confide in Jennie if he hadn't posed such an incredible threat to the person Lisa held most dear.