Skin...soft and pale as porcelain in the moonlight. Hair...long, wavy, silky. A warm auburn color joined by two streaks of liquid moonlight, streaks that to him didn't mar her beauty but instead served to enhance it. Features as delicate and perfect as any Greek statue, a lithe body of white marble, resting in the pale light that seeped through the window.

He didn't care that everybody else saw her as an outcast, as death incarnate. Why should he? He himself was an outcast, hated by humans, feared by mutants. He'd long ago chosen to stay far away from other people, seeing as the presence of others more often than not irritated him no end. He tolerated the students and teachers at the school only because this was where his pale, young beauty lived.

She was death incarnate? So what - his claws could kill as fast as her skin could. He could kill and had done so many times without guilt or remorse. He could take a life without second thoughts...she could not. She had never killed in cold blood, and yet the inhabitants of the mansion still feared her as much as they feared him.

To them, she was a freak.

To him, she was perfection. Perfect innocence and perfect sin, combined in the body of one young girl.

He sometimes thought that that was the reason why she had poisonous skin - because someone as pure and innocent as her was never meant to be contaminated by the harshness and cruelty of the world. Or maybe because she had already been hurt by the world, and because whatever gods may care about mutants were determined to keep her safe from him.

Her innocence - pure, white and compelling - was in sharp contrast to the blood on his hands and a soul that was black of corruption and immorality. She was young and pure, and he secretly feared that his harshness would cause her innocence to fade away. He knew that if he cared about her, he should stay far, far away. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't.

Because just as her innocence made him want to protect her for all time, the sin in her - sin from the memories she absorbed, sin manifested in an almost unconscious sensuality - made him want to stay with her, kiss her, have her - body and soul - and claim her as his.

He knew at some level that he shouldn't be thinking about her like that, that she was too young, that they were both too deadly, but he didn't care. He also knew from previous nights that she didn't care, either.

Quietly, he sat down on the edge of her bed and heard the faint change in her heartbeat as she became aware of his presence.

Two brown eyes opened and looked up in the darkness. He smiled slightly, and rubbing her eyes she smiled back. It was their nightly ritual. When everybody else was fast asleep, they would enjoy the night together - after all, they were haunted by nightmares on a nearly daily basis, so they saw no reason to sleep anymore than they had to.

She sat up and stretched, and the blankets slid off, revealing smooth, pale skin. The silvery chain that hung around her neck caught the moonlight and gave it an eerie glow. He followed it with his eyes as it caressed her neck, her skin, until it finally came to rest between two bare ivory breasts.

He reached out and caressed her cheek with a gloved hand and smiled as she leaned into his touch.

She grabbed a scarf from under the pillow and he leaned closer. For a moment, they just enjoyed the presence of the other, then two pairs of lips met through the flimsy fabric. A second of gentleness, then longing took over and the kiss deepened, became fierce and demanding.

She lay down, pulling him with her, never breaking the kiss. The covers fell to the floor and he let one of his hands caress her abdomen, moving his thumb around in lazy circles. The other hand and arm rested on the bed and supported his weight. She lifted her head slightly and tangled her hands into his hair, then pulled him closer.

Finally, they drew apart, and just gazed into each other's eyes, communicating silently. A heartbeat, then she smiled softly and made room for him on the bed. As always, his thin, long-sleeved shirt and equally thin pants would keep him safe.

Of course, he would have preferred to sleep with only boxers - or nothing - on, but this was the only time when she wasn't confined by clothing, and he wouldn't take that away from her.

He lay down next to her, and she snuggled closer. Through the thin fabric of his clothing, he could feel her body-heat and soft curves that fit his hard body so perfectly as they lay there. The sound of her heart was like a continuous drum in his ears and he noticed with a bit of satisfaction that her heart followed the exact same beat as his did.

Caressing her belly with lazy movements of his thumb, he closed his eyes and inhaled her scent, a strange mix of innocence, sin, arousal, worry and beneath it all, a smell of satisfaction that wasn't there during the day.

She, too, closed her eyes, then snuggled even closer, for once feeling completely safe. Around them was only silent darkness and soft moonlight - no student or teachers, no kids or adults, no friends or enemies. For once, there was just the two of them.

Because just like the day belonged to the others in the mansion, the night belonged to the silent couple. Marked by darkness, too disillusioned to see the light, they belonged here, felt at home among shadows and moonlight.

To them, the night was a time of peace, of silence.

He could relax and get his temper under control again. His senses could rest and recover from the day.

She could take off her socks and shoes and walk around barefooted, for once without worrying about touching someone. She could look around and see no one but her older companion - no students keeping their from her, no one whispering about her behind her back.

Night was freedom...day was prison.

The sun was unforgiving, bringing every fault, every mistake out into the open. It burned down their defenses, showed their true colors. It had seen who they really were, and renounced them.

But the moon had adopted them, accepted them as children of the night. It bathed the world in pale, white light, and left only a faint trace of color behind. In this light, their limitation, their flaws disappeared and were succeeded by perfection.

In the night, they could be together. In the night, they didn't have to worry about his unknown past, the huge age difference and the fact that technically, she wasn't legal.

In the day, they would keep up their charade. She would act like the innocent teenage girl, and he would act like a pseudo big brother to her. He would make sure that the few teenage boys who had the balls to approach her, would never try anything inappropriate.

The others would think it was oh-so-sweet to see big bad him protect a young girl, and if any of them ever noticed that he was a bit too possessive and she was a bit too affectionate, they never said anything. And until someone did, the two lovers intended for it to remain a secret.

Only in the night, under the watchful moon, could they let go and be together.

They knew that the moon would let them keep their secrets.

But the sun, jealous and petty, would not.

And when the merciless ruler of light arose, it burned away the shadows, the silence, the darkness, hoping to reveal the secrets of the two, but failed. By then, the lovers were already fast asleep in two different rooms, no longer perfect, but human. The sun, angry and vengeful, swore that this would be the last day they would escape.

But the moon just smiled and prepared to greet them again at nightfall.