Silas had always been particularly sensitive to the moon phases. Of course, he was not alone with this, as Necromancers are technically considered creatures of the night, it only made sense that the moon would affect him. It affected his brother and father in the same way, and admittedly this was the first full moon he had ever spent alone.

He had already lined some of his crystals up along the windowsill in his room, to soak in the moonlight, but beyond that he didn’t have anything else planned. Isaiah had insisted on staying the night for the third time this week, and as much as Silas wanted to be annoyed, the human was growing on him. He had always been somewhat of a loner, had never bothered to really engage in meaningful friendships with humans, but Isaiah was exceptionally clingy and persistent. Silas supposed he should be grateful; he was making his time away from home all the more bearable.

Silas only managed to wait until Isaiah’s breath had evened out, signaling that he was finally asleep. Then, he was crawling out of bed, carefully stepping over Isaiah who had constructed a pallet of many blankets on the floor to sleep on. Silas’s bed was certainly big enough for them both to sleep on, and the first time Isaiah stayed over they had tried to share it, only for him to kick him out in the middle of the night. Isaiah was somehow clingier in his sleep than he was when he was awake, which was how Silas quickly figured out he wasn’t much of a cuddler. So, Isaiah sleeps on the floor now when he stays over, not that it made much of a difference. He always ended up crawling back into his bed in the middle of the night claiming that he was cold or that he’d had a bad dream.

He quietly slipped out of the room, straining his ears to listen for any signs that the rest of the house was awake. It was just Elizabeth and Jayson, Ethan had left earlier that week for some sort of summer camp, but he still didn’t feel like explaining why he was going to stand in the backyard and stare at the moon for who knows how long. He didn’t have any spells or rituals prepared for the night, but his body still demanded that he at least stand in the moonlight and bask in its power. A lot of magic was purely instinctual, so who was he to deny his body of what it wanted?

So that’s how he ended up sitting on the grass in the backyard. It was still quite muggy and warm out, which Silas didn’t like. He hated how sticky everything felt, like the air itself was clinging to him. The sky was clear, the moon shining proudly onto the earth, bright and soothing. A few stars were visible here and there, but Silas knew that was only because of light pollution. The town had lots of streetlamps and businesses, obscuring the stars up in the sky to the naked eye. If he was farther into the country, he would be able to make out the constellations and even name a few.

Soon, he felt sleep tugging at him, urging him to lie back on the grass and fall asleep under the moonlight. He did just that, making himself comfortable in a patch of clovers on his back, and letting his eyes fall shut. He was glad there was no cold breeze to keep him awake.

It was only later that he woke up again, though just for a few moments. He seemed to be surrounded by a warm, fuzzy blanket. The blanket stilled as he began turning over so that he could bury his face into it with a contented sigh. Silas couldn’t remember the last time he’d been this relaxed. He drifted off again to the rhythmic rise and fall of the blanket.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

When Silas woke up for real the next time, Elizabeth was standing over him with a quizzical look on her face. The sun was beginning to rise, just barely peeking over the green tops of the trees and he felt a pang of loneliness that there was no furry creature beside him, like the one in his dream last night. Maybe it was a sign that he’d find his familiar soon. Most witches would’ve already found theirs by now, but his had yet to show its face yet. Coward.

“Good morning, sweetie.” Elizabeth asked as he groaned and closed his eyes again. The sun was too bright, and her voice was much too cheery for morning time. “Come on, I’ll make you some breakfast. How does waffles sound?”

He cracked an eye open to look at her. “Do you have strawberries?”

“Yes.” She smiled. “And coffee.”

“Fine.” Silas agreed, convinced. He stood up, glancing at the giant indention in the grass from where he’d slept last night. Except, he was fairly sure he wasn’t that wide, and he knows for a fact he doesn’t move much in his sleep. Warily, he decided to put it out of his mind and followed Elizabeth inside, where coffee was already brewing.

“What were you doing, sleeping outside?” She began flitting around the kitchen, pulling different ingredients out of the pantry and the fridge.

“It was a full moon last night.” He shrugged, figuring she wouldn’t understand. “I’ll go see if Isaiah wants breakfast too.”

He headed upstairs then, briefly greeting Jayson “good morning” as he made his way through the living room. It was pretty dark in his room, not that it mattered, he could see fairly well in the dark due to the nature of his magic. Isaiah had moved to his bed sometime during the night. He was sleeping above the covers, sprawled out across his bed in his crop top and tiny shorts, slobbering on his pillows. Silas was about to wake him up and yell at him for being in his bed, but something caught his eyes.

Isaiah’s shirt had ridden up as he slept, revealing the bottom of the fabric covering his chest. Now, Silas was aware that Isaiah binded, had felt the fabric over the human’s shirt plenty of times during their forced cuddling sessions. Frankly, it wasn’t any of his business, so he hadn’t said anything about it or pried. Though, he had never seen it either, nor did he know that he binded with what seemed to be ace bandages. Even as a cis male, he was aware that ace bandages were not ideal, and especially not sleeping in it overnight.

What was even more surprising, was that he found himself caring. He cared that Isaiah was potentially putting himself in danger, that he might damage his lungs or bruise his ribs. Humans were really fragile, and their lifespans were short enough as it was.

With a small huff, he shook Isaiah a bit to wake him up. “Hey, quit drooling all over my shit. Do you want waffles?” They could talk about it later, once he figured out what he wanted to say.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

As it turned out, Silas had no idea how to talk to Isaiah about it.

He ended up researching about binding, reading about safe practices and do’s and don’ts. Almost everything he read said that ace bandages were bad and not to wear binders for more than eight to ten hours at a time. Surely, Isaiah knew this information. It had to be common knowledge in the trans community, even for a trans person who probably didn’t have a lot of support.

Silas figured that Isaiah probably didn’t have the means to get a binder. He had never met his parents before, but if the way he talked about them was anything to go by, then they weren’t exactly stand up people. Certainly not the kind of parents to buy their trans son a medical chest-binder.

Which was how he ended up buying a bunch of binders, in different sizes and styles, unsure of what Isaiah would like or what would fit him. It wasn’t like he didn’t have the money for it, and the awkward phone call from Michael asking why he was buying binders when he was already as flat as a board would be worth it so long as Isaiah didn’t continue harming himself.

A few weeks later all the binders had shipped, and Silas had told Elizabeth that they were magical ingredients to stop her from snooping too much. It was when the boxes were all in his closet that he began to feel apprehensive. He didn’t want Isaiah to react badly or think that Silas was pitying him or something. What if Isaiah didn’t want binders or something? That wouldn’t make any sort of sense, but still. Maybe he should have talked to him about it first or something? It was kind of late for that now, though.

Deciding not to think about it anymore, he texted Isaiah, telling him to come over.

The human was over not even ten minutes later, bursting into his room with a worried look on his face. “Oh my god, are you okay?” He asked before Silas could even say hello, putting his hand on his forehead. “Do you have a fever or something?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Silas asked, more out of amusement than anything as he swatted Isaiah’s hand away. He was in a giant hoodie and a pair of sweatpants, which made him kind of resemble a hobo.

“You asked me to come over. I thought you were dying or some shit.” Isaiah grinned, then plopped himself down on the bed. “Seriously though, what’s up?”

“I, uhm, bought you something. Well more than one thing actually,” He began, and Isaiah visibly perked up, but before he could say anything, Silas continued rambling like his life depended on it, “And I don’t know if you’ll like them, but I don’t want you to be offended or anything and shit, maybe I should have talked to you about it first, but I-“

Isaiah interrupted him by clapping a hand over his mouth, “Shut up.” He laughed high and loud, his eyes crinkling up in a cute way, “I love presents so I’m sure I’ll love it.”

“Whatever.” He huffed, pushing Isaiah away and willing his face to stop burning from embarrassment. He opened his closet and pulled five boxes out, each from a different company, and threw them on the bed.

Isaiah sent him a confused look, before grabbing the ceremonial dagger off of the altar on his dresser that was meant for sacred rituals and not opening UPS packages, but whatever. He watched with bated breath as he cut the tape that sealed the first box and opened it.

It was entirely silent for some moments, and Silas imagined a scenario where Isaiah turned the knife his way and stabbed him with it. Then he was dropping the sharp object onto the bed, and suddenly he was in front of Silas, grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him down into a kiss. It wasn’t a cute kiss in any way, their teeth clashed awkwardly and Silas was too stunned to respond immediately, but once his brain caught up with what was going on, he wrapped his arm around his shoulders and managed to kiss back. Not that he knew how to do this properly, because he had never kissed anyone before and there was no way he was doing very well. Suddenly Isaiah’s tongue was in his mouth though which felt sort of nice, and he was being pinned against the wall and the door was opening- wait the door was opening? Oh shit.

They jumped away from each other too late and was met with a very shocked looking Elizabeth. Her fingers were still on the door handle, eyes as wide as saucers and mouth gaping open. It would have been comical, if not for the circumstances. She seemed to regain her composure quickly though, smoothing out her facial expression and turning to look at Isaiah. “I just wanted to know if you were staying for dinner, honey?” She asked, voice only slightly squeaky.

Isaiah looked like he was seconds away from crying, but he managed to shake his head. “N-no, ma’am.”

Elizabeth only nodded in response, before quickly shutting the door without saying anything else.

“Oh my god.” Isaiah immediately gasped, hugging himself. Silas watched in horror as he began to cry uncontrollably. “I’m so, so sorry. You’re going to be in trouble, aren’t you?”

“No?” Silas questioned, patting his shoulder awkwardly. He had no idea how to deal with this. “It’s fine. It’s okay.”

“How can you say that?” Isaiah sniffled, watery eyes searching his as if he were looking for any sort of panic in Silas’s eyes. “She thinks that I’m an actual boy, Silas. She’s going to think that you’re gay.”

He huffed slightly, furrowing his eyebrows. “You are a boy and I am gay. My dad’s bi and he’s married to a guy now, so I think she’ll be okay with it. But I can go talk to her and make sure she’s cool with it, okay? Just… just stop crying, please.”

Isaiah let out a choked laugh, punching him in the arm lightly. “Fine.” He turned to leave, but then he was grabbing his hand. “Oh, and thanks. For the binders, I mean.”

The little smile on the human’s face made Silas feel all mushy and warm on the inside. “You’re welcome.”