Vague sensations and voices pass Luna by while she was unconscious. Like a dim memory, she couldn’t be bothered to pay much attention, as her overwhelming desire was to sleep. Even so, she felt someone lift her off of the ground and take her somewhere, the werewolf’s lethargy preventing her from even opening her eyes. And soon enough, everything went quiet for awhile, allowing her to sleep firmly.

Luna awakens to an overwhelming soreness in her entire body as if some chewed on by some massive dog. Her eyes open immediately after, and initially the brightness made her squint. Her head thumps with a dull pain, particularly at two points near the top of it. As she focuses, it’s quite clear that she was in some patient room of a hospital, albeit very small. The stiff bed she was lying on was one amongst a dozen or so, all of which were empty. Sitting next to her bed is an attractive woman Luna had never seen before. She is wonderfully dark-skinned, with long curly black hair that hangs naturally from her head. A pair of rounded glasses rest on her nose, and her white lab coat gave Luna the impression that she was a doctor. The woman had her attention on a book resting in her lap and seemed to be lost in its contents.

Luna coughs politely to get the doctor’s attention, who looks up immediately and snaps her book closed. Luna quickly caught the title of the tome: ‘Unusual creatures of the Underground.'

“Good evening.” The doctor spoke in a calming voice. She stands and sets the book in her chair, standing next to Luna’s bed. “How are you feeling right now?”

Luna shakes her head slowly. “Uhm...I feel..sore..all over. My head is pounding. Even the tips of my ears are sore.”

The doctor stifles a small chuckle as she leans back, producing a glass-panel tablet from her pocket and begins reading over some information on it. Luna couldn’t help but notice the sharp fangs underneath her lips.

“Well Luna, that’s normal. Most werewolves complain about that after a transformation. It’ll pass in a day or two.” She looks up towards Luna and offers a hand. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Dr. Tayla Smith, the on-staff doctor here in Bastion.”

Luna tilts her head slightly in confusion. “Bastion? What’s Bastion?”

Tayla looks down at her tablet and begins writing on it with a stylus while speaking. “Bastion is the headquarters of the Duskguard in Underground Ravenport.”

“...Underground Ravenport?”

“Yes Ma’am.” Tayla states plainly.

“As in UNDERGROUND-underground?”

Tayla looks up and gestures towards a sizeable closed-blind window a few beds down from Luna’s position. “You can take a look for yourself if you’d like.”

Luna commands her legs to move, and although they listen, they weren’t happy about it. She pushes herself and lands somewhat warily on her soft feet. The shock of the cold tile retracts her foot claws considerably. The werewolf makes her way over towards the window and pulls the blinds apart, the sight that follows giving her significant pause.

The sky was not visible, being replaced by the ceiling of a massive cavern that led to the conclusion that she was thousands of feet underground. Still though, at the cave’s roof sits orange, purple, blue and white crystals that mimic the appearance of stars. Casting her gaze down a bit, the Bastion looked to be a fairly tall, multi-story building, one of the largest, though only one massive black skyscraper appeared to be taller. The city streets below looked like the ones she’d been living on all of her life, but citizens were noticeably different, with humans looking intermixed with the occasional werewolf or other creature she couldn’t identify. The street lights on the ground level kept the urban sprawl nice and illuminated, even allowing her to see that this small city had businesses, restaurants, and housing that all looked quite normal.

After a solid minute or two of looking, of which Tayla finished the business on her tablet and sat quietly waiting, Luna turns to look at the doctor. “...How long have I been here?”

Tayla looks up towards the clock on the wall. “About...three hours. You weren’t really in bad shape when you came in as far as I could tell, but I wanted to make sure. Better safe than sorry.”

“Where are my friends? Are they okay?” Luna asks, returning to her bed and swinging her legs up on top of it, sitting down

“Being detained. I saw Mr. Morales briefly. He had some lacerations on his chest, but he’ll be fine.” Tayla moves over towards the chair and picks up her book, sliding it underneath a shoulder. “The vampire simply required some blood. She’ll heal on her own.”

“That’s...uh...wait. Detained?”

Tayla nods. “That is correct Miss Luna.”

“Why?” Luna questions, her ears leaning back against her head.

Tayla shrugs. “I couldn’t tell you. You’ll have to speak to Jaune about that.”

A gentle knock grabs Luna’s attention, the door opening to reveal a rather classy looking werewolf. His fur was mostly black, but his long, wild hair was white. The underside of his throat leading down to a chest tuft also appeared to be white. He wore a white dress shirt with a black vest and pants. The shirt and vest are opened just enough to show that vibrant, almost curly tuft of white fur through. Two leather gun holsters rest on either hip each filled with a sizable handgun.

“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

Tayla turns to wave at the newly arrived one.

“No. I was just getting ready to come find you.”

“Ah, no need. A proper gentleman is always on time, no?”

Luna picked up immediately on his french accent. She unapologetically stares at him as the male draws closer, his soft, golden yellow eyes looking down at her.

“Ah, the mademoiselle is awake! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Jaune Delacroix, and I am the Werebeast Ambassador for the Duskguard. And you are…?”

Luna’s inner ears burn with embarrassment as she snaps herself out of staring at Jaune’s remarkable appearance, raising a hand to cover her muzzle. “Oh god I’m sorry, that was rude.”

Jaune takes it in stride. “No worries dear. Whenever you are ready.”

Luna nods, stuffing her emotions down. “My...My name is Luna Oswald.”

“Ah, it is a beautiful name for a beautiful girl such as yourself.” Jaune casually comments. “But from what I’ve been hearing, Miss Luna has not been having a beautiful time. Is that correct?”

Luna’s blush returns in full force. The need to progress the conversation forces her forward. “Yeah. I’m still kind of getting used to like...being this monster thing and I thought I was like, the only one or something. That’s on top of being shot at, almost blown up..it’s not been really fun.”

Jaune presses his thin frame down into the chair that Tayla had been sitting in, crossing one digitigrade leg over the other. Luna notes that he appeared to be barefoot, just like herself. “Why don’t you tell me what you saw and I can help clear up any misunderstandings you might have? You must be quite curious, no?”

Tayla speaks up. “Should I leave you two in private sir?”

Jaune leans his head back to look at the doctor. “If you would please. Thank you. And tell the others that the party will be ready shortly.”

Tayla nods and turns to leave the room, exiting it promptly.

Jaune rests his hands comfortably on his lap. “Ask away my dear.”

“Uhm...first thing’s first I guess. Am I...you know...normal?” Luna says, pointing towards herself.

“As normal as the world turning every day. There is nothing wrong with you. You are as nature intended.”

“What about these?” Luna points towards her large fangs jutting from the roof of her mouth. “People...keep telling me that they’re weird.”

Jaune shakes his head. “What they see as weirdness, an imperfection of sorts, I see but one more facet of a rare gemstone. You are what is known as an Aetherwolf. Are you not familiar with it?”

Luna shakes her head. “No, this is the first I’m hearing about it.”

Jaune smiles at her and gestures to his side with a hand. “Well, there are a few different kinds of werebeasts. The first are those who are merely just that. Werebeasts. We’re all unique in our own way and quite marvelous just the same. All werebeasts can use kinesis, or the ability to manipulate an element of nature. But there are those, who, either by incident or genetics, are Aetherbeasts. Or in your case, Aetherwolf. Werebeasts who can cast magic like mages, but still use kinesis like werebeasts. Neither form is better than the other, as they have their strengths and weaknesses.”

Luna nods in understanding. “So...uh...how many have you met?”

Jaune runs a finger underneath his chin. “Well...I’ve been on this earth for one-hundred and thirty-five years...and I’ve only run into one other besides yourself.”

“Do they all have fangs like mine?” Luna asks.

Jaune headshakes. “Non. They are marked by another facet, be it a second tail, missing claws or in your case, large fangs.”

“Why are they so rare?”

Jaune taps a finger on the side of his head. “That I do not know. Ages ago, there was a conflict I am not aware of that was the catalyst, but Aetherbeasts are both rare and shunned for reasons I do not understand. I will warn you now Miss Luna, that some werebeasts and mages are petty and short-sighted and will look down on you for who you are. Please, do not think ill of them. Instead, teach them the error of their ways, and defend yourself you see fit. It would harm me greatly to know something tragic befell you because of bigotry.”

Luna gulps as she digests the message, her fingers toying with the blanket she was resting on. While she was quite used to poor treatment by nearly everyone, thinking about it possibly coming from someone who knew magic or was a beast like her was unsettling. Thinking on that topic in particular though, Luna’s brain forms another question.

“About tonight. I was fighting Scar, and I like...totally blanked out. What happened?”

“Blanked out? As in you don’t remember?”

Luna shakes her head. Jaune clears his throat.

“Miss Luna, tonight you did something that, with training, most any werebeast can do. You used your Rage form. It’s something that all of us have to contend with, so don’t fret about it much. Though, the fact that you can’t remember it is troubling.”

“Did we catch Scar?” Luna asks.

Jaune snickers. “Oui-oui! He was given quite the thrashing by you if the story I’m hearing is correct. Anything else you need to know Miss Luna?”

Luna nods. “Uhm...the night I transformed. There were these two creepy guys. They had a bear with them. They both had really weird orange eyes. Do you know anything about that?”

“Fenrir’s Pack members I suspect. Be very careful not to run into them. They wield some truly frightening weaponry and will stop at nothing to enslave or destroy anyone, be it Nightwalker or anything else.”

Luna rubs a hand over her stomach, recalling an earlier query. “...Do all werewolves have like, healing powers or something? I got shot in the stomach, and I healed it back, good as new in like, three days.”

Jaune smirks as he starts to push himself up into a standing position. “That is a question best left for a teacher, of which I am not. I assure you that I will help you find all the information you will need to know to adjust to your life, but I do believe we are needed upstairs. Miss Luna, can you walk?”

“Where are we going? Am I in trouble?” Luna says as she swings her legs down off of the bed.

Jaune smiles weakly. “Hmm...well yes...and no. Your friend Miguel has told us much, but we still need to speak with the three of you as a group. If you’ll come with me, we can get to the bottom of what went on upstairs.” Jaune opens the door and steps outside it with Luna following a few short paces after.

Outside of the patient room looked quiet, with a few people talking in what seemed like a typical hospital office environment. They were talking in small groups, dressed in the nursing scrubs that Luna recognized from her scant few doctor’s visits she had growing up. Tayla herself sits behind a desk, absorbed into her work reading something Luna could not see.

Jaune leads Luna to an elevator and presses the call button. It takes a moment, but the elevator arrives, and several people brush past her, one of which looked like a jaguar woman holding a stack of paperwork. The werewolves enter the elevator, with Jaune presses the button to the 16th floor. He flashes Luna a confident smile as the elevator doors close, which brightens the concerned look on Luna’s face.

“So who are we going to go see?” Luna says after an uncomfortable silence during the elevator’s transit.

“The leader of the Ravenport Branch of Duskwatch and the Vampire Ambassador herself, Scarlet Summers.” Jaune remarks, crossing his arms behind his back somewhat officially. “I believe Alexander will be there as well. He’s the Mage Ambassador. Nice man, very curious at times but mages tend to be. It is in their nature, and yours somewhat, hmm?”

The door slides open and leads into a hallway with a distinctly nautical theme. Pictures of ships and naval scenes decorate the walls and on either side of the hallway were a few doors that likely lead to other offices. The carpeting is pleasant for Luna’s bare feet, a far cry from the clinical cold of the hospital downstairs. At the end of the hallway sat a large, heavy double door with the gold name plate resting above it. It read ‘Duskguard Commander’ in an eye-catching serif font.

As the two walk down the hallway, Jaune lowers his voice to speak. “One word to note about the commander. Speak only when you’ve been spoken to, refer to her as Ma’am when it allows and uh...pardon her eccentricities. She really is a good woman.”

Jaune opens the door for Luna into the commander’s office. The room is rather large, and if Luna didn’t know any better, designed to be the captain’s quarters inside of a ship. The walls were made of wood, with various old, authentic looking nautical instruments hanging on them. One panel of the wall had the nameplate likely scraped off the side of a ship. It read ‘The Sky Hawk’ in bold letters. The center desk was huge and kept somewhat tidy of paperwork. The back wall of the office was dominated by large windows that lead out to the cavernous city far below them.

There were three chairs sitting in the room, two of which were populated by Sakura and Miguel, though the former was handcuffed behind her seat. Miguel’s left arm still hung limply at his side. Both turned to look at Luna and seemed relieved, but Sakura quickly turned back around, still trying to work her hands out of her bindings. To the right of the desk stood a relatively lithe, pale man with large rounded glasses. He wore a white jacket with a hood drawn back, dark green slacks and shiny loafer-like shoes. His hair also appeared to be naturally white, though a few of his bangs are a light blond. A large, somewhat fancy looking red book rests in of his arms. Jaune passes the man a wave, who reciprocates in kind.

Luna takes a seat as Jaune takes his place to the left of the desk, holding his hands behind his back and noticing that the counter appeared to be empty. Jaune looks over towards Alexander with a raised brow.

“Where is Scarlet?”

Alexander gestures a thumb over towards the door on the far side of the room. “She had to feed Damien. She’ll be with us in a few min-”

Scarlet bursts open the side door in that instant, holding a bottle in one hand and a wine glass in the other. Alexander sighs quietly.

“...Now apparently.”

Luna’s first thought of the commander was that she really enjoyed the pirate look, as suddenly the design of the office and the room before it made sense. The woman is dressed in a blue jacket that was exposed to reveal a ruffled white shirt. Her hair is a vibrant dark red and seemed a bit longer than shoulder length. Her dark grey slacks were saddled on one side by a somewhat threatening looking saber that looked as immaculate as it did deadly. On her left hand was a golden gauntlet that housed a red gemstone slightly smaller than a coaster. The gauntlet still exposed her fingers and merely covered the back of her hand and a little ways past her wrist. A rounded, dark blue corsair hat sits on her head somewhat crookedly. Rather than the parrot, Luna was expecting, Scarlet’s shoulder housed a white snake with blood red eyes.

Scarlet swings around behind Simon and takes a seat at her desk, the commander leaning her arm down to let her pet slither down. Once it had hit the desk and coiled up, she takes off her hat and places it over the serpent.

“Well well well,” Scarlet says, placing her wine bottle and glass down on her desk. “So it’s you bunch that have been making a mess of the code. State yer names an’ age.”

Scarlet pushes the computer in the center of her desk out of the way so that she could see the faces of the three in front of her. She uncorks the bottle with a bare hand and pours herself out a nearly full glass of dark red liquid.

Miguel starts first. “My name is Miguel Morales. I’m 37.”

Luna goes second, speaking apprehensively. “Uhm..I’m...Luna Oswald. 18.”

Sakura grins sarcastically. “So...are we talking like...normal years or vampire years, or maybe even dog years because, let me tell you, the math gets complicated.”

Scarlet finishes pouring her glass and shoots Sakura glare that would desaturate the color in a rainbow. Sakura’s face shifts rapidly to a less jovial expression.

“Sakura...Just Sakura. I’m 75. Turned when I was 16.”

“See now, was that so difficult?” Scarlet muses.“Now tell me...why I shouldn’t slit yer throats and save myself the trouble? You there. Handsome.”

She gestures her head towards Miguel, who sits up a little straighter.

“Tell me what business you have blowin’ up parts of my town.”

Miguel smirks towards her. “Why, can’t I have a drink first?”

Scarlet passes Miguel an affectionate smile. “I wouldn’t try it. Bourbon and blood doesn’t slide down the throat of daywalkers like yerself.”

Luna sticks her tongue out in disgust, but Miguel shrugs it off. “Might make things a little more friendly. But anyway, I was specifically targeting Sc...Scardino. Benny Scardino. He killed my family and has been a pain in the ass for years upon years. But...things got a little more heated when I kinda found out he was a vampire.”

Scarlet swirls her drink in her glass and sips it. “Did you know he was a vampire?”

Miguel shakes his head. “No.”

“Did you know about vampires in general?”

“No.”

“So...I take it you don’t know the code?”

Miguel shakes his head again. “No idea what you are talking about.”

Scarlet rolls her eyes and leans forward in her seat. “And neither one of these useless chucklenuts thought to tell you?” She says, gesturing towards Sakura and Luna. She turns towards Luna now, pointing towards her.

“So what’s yer excuse sweetheart? Metaphorical cat got your tongue?”

Luna gulps as she speaks very clearly. “I...uh...didn’t know. I was just minding my own business with my..uh...normal life when I transformed one night.”

Scarlet peers at her accusingly. “Just up and did it huh? Where’s yer parents? They didn’t..you know...warn you about this?”

“I don’t know who my actual parents were. I was in foster care. Ma’am.” Luna admits sadly.

“Fantastic.” Scarlet sarcastically quips. “So where are your foster parents?”

Luna scratches the side of her head. “...Uh...well..probably dead?”

“You don’t sound very broken up about it,” Scarlet says, taking another sip of her drink.

“They...weren’t very good people.” Luna admits.

Scarlet snaps her finger over towards Jaune. “Do you have her registry information?”

Jaune shrugs towards her with a defeated sigh. “I’m sorry Ma’am. I’ve been informed that the miss is quite unknown.”

Scarlet leans back like she’d been slapped in the face. She points a finger up towards Jaune. “This is what I HIRED you for, Jaune. To get everyone on board with the identification system?”

Jaune gestures towards Luna. “Miss Luna’s story suggests to me that she didn’t even know what she was. We’ll simply just have to take her word for it until we have a reason not to.”

Scarlet frowns unhappily towards Jaune but lets the matter rest for now. The commander then turns towards Sakura and holds open a hand towards Alex. The mage produces a few sheets of paper from his book and hands them over. Sakura looks a little nervous at the exchange, speaking up timidly.

“S-s-so...uh...what’s the paperwork for huh?”

Scarlet gets about halfway down the page before she looks over the top of the paper back towards Sakura.

“...Well screw me sideways and call me a tilted bitch.”

In a motion that was so fast that Luna could barely make sense of it, Scarlet leaps over her desk, unsheathes her sword, grabs Sakura by the throat and slams her against the far wall with such force that the entire room rattles in protest. Scarlet’s cutlass rests on Sakura’s throat, threatening to slice it open.

“I wasn’t aware we had an assassin in the room. Isn’t this the proper greeting for one of your kind!?” Scarlet yells, her grip forcing Sakura off of her feet.

The younger vampire looks shaken but shakily smirking at the commander who had her life balanced on a metal edge.

“N-now I know what you are thinking. Should I kill this...former assassin off? T-the answer might surprise you! So if you just hang on a moment...”

Luna whimpers quietly as she looks up towards Sakura’s predicament, turning to look at the two men on either side of the desk. They both stand resolutely, seemingly not reacting to the violence. Scarlet’s blade bites down just hard enough to push at the skin but not cut it.

“There are three things I hate more than anything in the world.” Scarlet explains darkly.”I have no love fer thieves. I have no love fer cowards. And I have no love fer murderers. Considering you are all three at the same time, you got some brass balls to be up here right now sister. An older me would have killed you instantly. But you tell me Sakura Vyers, what EXACTLY are you doing in my town?”

Sakura shifts her head very, very slightly to look a little more naturally at Scarlet. “Trying to survive. That’s literally it. I didn’t come here with a scheme, or a plan, or anything like that. In fact, I’m unaffiliated right now.”

Scarlet’s grip loosens. Slightly. “You were disavowed?”

Scarlet drops Sakura to the ground roughly and spins her around to grab her cuffed hands. Painfully twisting Sakura’s right hand to get a better look at it, a stylized red eye appears on the back of Scarlet’s hand. From her palm radiates a red light that seemingly burns into Sakura’s skin. The commander focuses this glow for a few seconds on the back of Sakura’s hand before halting it, producing no symbol.

“If you don’t mind my interjection…” Miguel starts, turning in his seat to face Scarlet. Scarlet sheathes her blade and turns towards Miguel, crossing her arms. “I didn’t ask you to speak handsome. But what is it?”

“She...did help us fight Scar. We wouldn’t be here if she didn’t help us out. I know I wouldn’t.”

Scarlet considers this before turning towards Luna. “Is that true sweetheart?”

Luna’s tail wags slowly as she nods in agreement.

Scarlet snorts as she lets Sakura get up off of the wall, taking a few steps back from her. The younger vampire turns around with a small breath of relief. She’s immediately met with the stiff force of the back of Scarlet’s hand, hitting her hard enough that Sakura has to stagger a step off to the side.

“That’s fer being an ass. Sit down.” Scarlet says, moving back to her seat and propping her leather boots up. Scarlet speaks sternly.

“Since nobody thought to clue you the two of you in, let me give you the orders of the day around here. You don’t break the code. And the code I’m speakin' of is the Nightwalker’s code. There are four rules, so pay attention.” Scarlet downs the rest of her drink and slides the glass off to the side.

“Rule one: Do not kill other Nightwalkers. Rule two: Do not break the secrecy of the Nightwalkers. Don’t do a goddamn thing that’ll make it so that humans know of us. Rule three: What happens in the underground, stays in the underground and lastly, rule four: Respect the Duskguard. An’ do you know what happens to people who break the rules?”

Luna and Miguel shake their heads, but Sakura politely has her attention elsewhere. Scarlet answers the question for them.

“Depends on the severity, but for what you all did? Death. But being put in jail ain’t much fun either. So...let me ask you, what am I supposed to do with you three? A pup without an idea, a man without a family and a former assassin. I should just end all three of ya. It’d be easy. And by the time I’m done, nobody would be the wiser. Just two dead bodies and a pile of ash.”

An uncomfortable silence passes before Scarlet speaks again.

“But...you guys brought me a guy who has been under the radar for quite some time. While I wish you hadn’t gone about blasting holes in two damn buildings and coming close to alerting the humans about what the hell was ACTUALLY going on, you still managed to take out an extremely dangerous son of a bitch.”

Miguel leans forward a little bit. “Where is he? Is he dead?”

Scarlet mouth tilts into a wry grin. “He’ll wish he was before long. We’ve got him tucked away behind lock and key. The Vyers family may have other heads, but you put a stop to his operations, however clumsy-like. He was shipping in some rather dangerous drugs into the city.”

Luna raises her hand. Scarlet smiles and points towards Luna, allowing her to speak. “Was it Rust?”

“Indeed it was. It’s a drug produced by the Prophets of Dracula, meant to dull the senses of a human and make them more susceptible to suggestion. It’s incredibly addictive, so once someone gets hooked on the stuff, they get yanked into god knows where and given the Rite.”

Luna raises her hand again. “Rite?”

“Rite of Undeath. It’s how you are turned into a vampire. It’s not the most pleasant thing to describe, but if anyone’s ever talking about the rite, that’s probably the one they mean.”

Sakura spits out a small bit of blood onto the floor, running a tongue over her teeth to make sure they were all present and accounted for. “So what now?”

Scarlet pours herself another drink as she looks up towards Jaune and Alex. Both of them give a small nod of approval. “Well, like I said. I should be killing you. But you also did me a huge favor. So I’ll give you an option...I can still kill you because I still do have that authority...or I could put you to work. For me.”

Luna raises her hand to speak. “...Doing what exactly?”

Scarlet finishes pouring, corking the bottle up. “Well, the Duskguard is what keeps the peace in the underground. We’ve got a whole bunch of Werewolves, Vampires, Mages, Ghouls and others that’s all got to work together down here. We’re all we’ve got. Nobody upstairs is gonna bail us out of something happens. They’ll just kill us without question. But, when you got this mix of anger, ego, and self-entitlement, things can get out of hand. The Duskguard keeps everyone in line. Makes it, so we all get along fairly and squarely. Any questions?”

Scarlet leans back in her seat as Miguel speaks up first. “How much does it pay?”

Scarlet shrugs with a smirk. “Are you really in the position to be asking that? But regardless, it does pay well. It’s a dangerous job. Some days you’ll be out solving mysteries and cases, other days you might just be on a protection job. It’s variable.”

Luna chimes in next. “Where will we live? Scar blew up our last home.”

“Once we get the paperwork sorted, I’ve got a spare house in the valley. It’s an old one, but it’ll suit the three of you just fine. Clean it up good, and it’s yours.” Scarlet says, sipping her drink.

Sakura looks up towards Scarlet with shame in her eyes. “Uh...so...what about me..a vampire family? You know how hard it is to function as a vampire without one.”

To that, Scarlet sets her drink down. She sneers to herself unhappily, narrowing her eyes towards Sakura. “...I’ll brand you as apart of mine, if only for brevity’s sake. And literally nothin' else. But I’m warning you right now. One step out of line, one toe out of the shoe, one foot off of the board, I’m going to run you through myself. No pleading. No begging. My family on the line, my rules, you got that? You’ll lead the life of a good and honest person here. No scoundrels in my family, or my work.”

Sakura nods enthusiastically.

With that, Scarlet turns towards all three of them equally. “So what do you all say?”

Luna rubs her eyes a little bit, her tail inadvertently showing her answer by wagging profusely. “Yes! This sounds..this sounds great to me. I was so worried for so long about so much and..now...it all worked out for the best.”

Sakura nods with a shrug. “It’s cool. I’m in.”

Miguel looks between Luna and Sakura with a chuckle. “Ain’t this a mess? I just can’t help but to be a cop, can I? Damned if I do, damned if I don’t. Sure. Why not? It’ll be fun.”

Scarlet smiles warmly towards the three of them. “Are you sure, handsome? If you say yes, these two will be your family for the rest of your life.”

Miguel bites his lip as he considers quietly for a moment, looking back towards Scarlet with a genuinely happy expression. “...I could live with that.”