#Touch the Light|Moonknight AU

[brooklynislandgirl]

The small confession does wonders in elevating her opinion of him. She nods. She knows exactly what he means. More often than not she's doing the same, either in the ER or in her clinic. Championing a hundred different causes in a hundred different ways. She wonders if he does it for the same reasons. It's easier to compartmentalise when her mind's occupied. Easier to ignore the things that would drive her right out of her skin if she didn't push it down and under the weight of everyone else's needs. That he defers and chooses to not comment on her compliment is rather extraordinary. Most people she knows would soak into it however slight the praise might be. She isn't exactly checking tick boxes of traits she admires but she does tuck the information away for later examination. "Oh, see…catfish? No can. Absolutely no can. Just a little too…muddy, maybe? Gritty? Just how I've had it, could be convinced t' give it anoddah try some day." She wrinkles her nose at the texture-memory of the last time she'd had it. But she's also not the kind of person who would adamantly refuse an offering from someone else, simply because it's not in her taste. Things like that get under her skin; the lack of gratitude and humility that so often goes hand in hand with today's society's sense of entitlement. Of course, that isn't something you run with off the cuff. "That feels like an unusual choice, f' someone who was brought up in a peaceful house. Especially when it is da pair of you." Oh, she wants to ask. And she curbs herself. The way he carefully chooses his words tells her the story isn't one he wants to tell right now. "A well travelled man. Always a plus. Did you evah have a favourite place? Somewhere ya keep wan go back to? Mebbe somewhere you have yet t' get to go but on ya list?" Beth finds this line of conversation fascinating. "Spent time in DRC while volunteerin' in Med….in Doctahs wi'out Borders." And by extension, it was how she'd both discovered and made friends amongst the Jabari, in Wakanda. She did, however, make the promise to keep those memories to herself, and doesn't bring it up. Nevah had chance t' go to Mount Kilimanjaro bu always wanted to. Might still, if ya evah wanna come along, but it wouldn' surprise me if we crossed ways before. My Gran'faddah still spends time around Japan." Beth smiles quietly as he tells her of this aspect of the Moon. She's not come from a culture or tradition where the celestial orb held masculine properties, and she could imagine the offense running as rampant as wildfire though her various kin at the very suggestion. But his words plant a seed in her to perhaps borrow some books from her hanai-sister's library, the woman having ties to the land of his god. She would hate to say something in ignorance that might cause offense between them. When he asks her though, she gives a little half laugh and demurely presses the back of one hand to her cheek rather than reach out and squeeze his forearm as she was tempted to do. "In some ways, yes." Genetically, if for no other reason. "My people have many stories, and some may seem contradictory dependin' on which side of da family you aks."

She lifts her head and turns toward the moon, inclining her head with reverence. "Some of dem, of us… know her as Hina-puku-iʻa. Or 'Hina-gathering-seafood', patroness of fishermen, and Hina-ʻopu-hala-koʻa, 'Hina who gave birth to all reef life'. We see her in her home so far above us. We feel her as she moves the dreams of Sea. She is da maddah of Maui, demigod-not island, and wife or lover of gods and heroes. And da word we use is…Tradition. My Tradition reveres her as a goddess, as a maddah and maiden and crone in her waxing and waning aspects. But my tradition reveres all nature. We see da Earth as our grandmaddah, an' we try to live as close t' Her will as we can. It tends t' get a small kine…complicated, as you might imagine. You sometimes get dis…lil…sound in ya voice, when you mention da Traveler. I take it you're not on good terms wi' him? An' if I'm ovah-stepping, please feel free to say so."

"I forget myself," he admitted, smile as thin as the moon in the beginnings of waxing crescent. "Always working. It's good to be reminded what exactly I'm working for." In a way, he is complacent in his overwork, at the disadvantage of his wellbeing, his relationships. "It does. Otherwise, what else will I miss." Balancing a line between putting on a good face and not selling something he isn't.

Everyone has hidden depths; he doesn't want to pry so soon. Beth was rather open with parts of her history. He doesn't think she is incapable nor weak with folding his mask. Accommodations should be basic decency. A man is supposed to walk on the side of traffic. Is that gentlemanly or jarheaded?

Confusion twists his forehead. "You can ask anything. I'll either answer or turn it down." Relaxing as she explained her family and childhood, the rank's association explaining a strained relationship. "Shrimp and catfish were definitely seafood I latched onto." Delicious treyf. "Never got around to liking bacon." The smell. He shook his head. It was a reasonable question for a navy brat to ask. "No. My father was the biggest pacifist I ever met. He was a rabbi. I was not the best son. My brother and I both joined the Marines. After…." Never a good way of putting this. He goes for diplomacy. Avoid bringing the evening down with admission of how terrible of a son, of a man, he had been. "The Corps and I parted ways, I spent a lot of time in SWANA and South America. Between….jobs, I spent some time in Japan, Thailand, and Hong Kong."

Darkness was his home; he would remain a beacon of moonlight to terrify those who needed terrifying. Offering hope to those who needed hope. A reminder for himself of who he was now. This life. What he fears in the dark is those he can't scare. And, perhaps, a reminder of who he had been.

"Hmm." He considers the sky once more. Too polluted to see the constellations he know would be there. Orion. Canis Major. Gemini. "I do feel a connection to it. 'Khonshu' means 'traveler' for how the moon travels across the sky and changes phase. He is the Embracer, Pathfinder, Defender, and Healer. The tide rushing though my veins as the moon rises. Fresh air in my lungs. It's not the same as when I was starting out with this." The relationship with Khonshu had soured. Yet, vestments continued to hold their own glow from his 'father's' blessing. "I do feel better when I am under the moon's light. 'Hina's smile,'" he mused, gloved hand on his chin. "I know of her but enough to know when I am out of my depth. There are as many tales about the moon and creation as there is people." He's always been practical, focusing on the tales of Khonshu's people. When a cartel with the names of the Western Zodiac, he's bound to do research. To say nothing of the Western Focused education he went through and discarded. Steven would know more.

"Do you feel her smile wax and wane? Is that part of your-" words fail him. He spends another moment facing the sky while they walk, rolling a gloved hand in his search. "Apologies. Magic has never been on my radar. Your school?" He doesn't know what he doesn't know.