Boiling Point.

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The wolf was on edge. It had been all damn day, making sitting through the countless observations at the hospital next to impossible! The creature had felt caged and restless as one lecture bled into the other. Luben’s own impatience wasn’t helping its cause.

It had been nearly a week since he had last seen Mickey because of her damned schedule at the Ministry and her ass of a boyfriend. With her birthday next week, Marco had likely been pulling out every empty grand gesture in the book to gain her favor in the hopes of ending the night in bed with nothing between them. He would hear about all of it tonight – hear Mickey feign to appreciate the extravagant dinners and box after box of lacey lingerie. Lu knew better than to believe her though. He could see it in her smile. Not once did it reach her eyes when she spoke about Marco’s gifts – let alone her birthday in general, but it … it seemed to brighten whenever Lu had the chance to steal a bit of her time to present his gifts over the years.

It wasn’t enough though… it hadn’t been enough for some time now, which was his heart’s most traitorous truth.

It was growing more and more dangerous for her to continue coming on the nights of the full moon. The wolf lurking beneath his skin made him reckless. It took everything in him to keep the creature contained on a short leash so that he didn’t mistake Mickey’s friendly touches as an invitation she wasn’t even extending. An invitation she would likely never extend because he was her faithful friend…

Luben pushed the door of the cabin open with a soft sigh, the popping of the fireplace coming to life the soul sound to greet him.

Mickey had told him she would be late tonight, but he had still hoped that it might be an overly cautious warning rather than a truth. In spite of Marco’s usual antics, Luben could only assume that she was late because of work. In spite of her having scheduled shifts, the Ministry infamously kept her longer than they should have, or she lost track of time on the Training Field. Something Luben knew he would never do himself, but Carver assured him that it did happen from time to time.

He closed the door behind him and kicked off his shoes – something he knew Mickey would critique him for later. The very thought of her telling him off or teasing him made smile. Merlin’s beard, he was hopeless! Positively hopeless!

But he had to get dinner ready. He had to do something with his hands – something to get his mind off of her and reclaim his senses! She wasn’t even in the damn cabin and he already felt like he was ready to pin her against the door when she walked in and - …

“Easy…” He reminded himself under his breath, dragging his hands along his face. Carver would likely skewer him alive if he knew the thoughts that plagued his mind, and Luben would probably let him do it. “Damnit…” He groaned under his breath as he stalked away from the door, hackles rising.

Make Dinner. Clean up a bit. Find some liquor to numb these damn nerves.

He could do this. He’d done it for months now – years even. Why did tonight have to be any different?

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Tag: Mikayla Prescott
Word Count: 576
Notes: N/A

She hadn’t even been home for ten minutes before Marco had started on her, picking a fight that he always lost. He knew what tonight was. He knew how important it was to Mickey that she be there. And yet he persisted, telling her that she was betraying his trust by spending the night with another man, screaming that she was going to cheat on him or that she would end up in the hospital for spending her time with such a dangerous creature. Needless to say, his last comment hadn’t gone over well at all.

Mickey quietly dealt with the things that he said about her. But she refused to let Marco attack Luben like that.

So she had grabbed the bag that was already prepped from the bedroom and left, momentarily ignoring the fact that she hadn’t even had a chance to shower. The last thing she wanted to do was remain in that apartment if it meant that her boyfriend was going to continue his tirade. If he insisted on saying such things about her best friend….well, it wasn’t going to end well. Mickey wasn’t going to stand for it.

It had been a tradition since their school days, one that she had sort of forced on Luben in the beginning. Their initial meeting had been a happy accident in her eyes, but she wouldn’t have gone back and changed a single thing about it. Every full moon she went down to the woods and found him, trying to urge him to come back inside where it was warmer. He was never going to spend a single full moon alone if she had anything to say about it. And though he had been a little unsure at first, Mickey had won him over eventually. The two of them had been nearly inseparable ever since.

As she Apparated a short distance away from Luben’s cabin, Mickey mulled over the things that her boyfriend had spat at her before she had left. The truth of the matter was that she cared deeply for Luben...perhaps more than she ought to. She had been trying to tell herself for months now that she was just getting overly emotional, that her job training was stressful and that things with Marco were not improving at all. She had been seriously considering the idea of ending things with him...but was that because of these new feelings that were beginning to surface?

The blonde quickly shook her head. Even if those feelings were real and not just a fabrication of her imagination, Luben couldn’t possibly feel the same. And Mickey knew that she would rather remain his friend for life than dare say anything that might cost her that friendship.

Gently nudging the front door aside, Mickey looked down at the shoes that had haphazardly been kicked off and left askew, shaking her head a little. It didn’t matter how many times she playfully scolded him for being sloppy, he always seemed to repeat the gesture. Especially when he was in a mood.

Mickey leaned down, setting his shoes to rights before she gently set her own shoes beside his. ”Lu?” Her sense of smell told her that he was already in the kitchen. So she set her bag down in the living room and moved toward the doorway, smiling softly. ”Hey stranger,” she called to him, leaning against the doorframe. ”Everything okay? I’d come and hug you but I don’t think it’s fair to subject you to my post-work smell.”

WORD COUNT: 601
TAGGED: Luben Pasternak
NOTES: Here we goooo >>