When the Moon Fell in Love with the Sun

Brendon watched Katelyn like a hawk during her recovery, much to the girl's annoyance. She hated being waited on hand and foot, but he always insisted seeing as she was incapacitated. He had caught the girl, on several occasions, watching TV in the dark bedroom when he got back from running errands or whatever he was out doing, so it was to the point where Brendon was hiding the remote controls.

It bothered Katelyn to no end that Brendon was so doting and careful with her, but she had taken care of him during his weeks of being sick before. Somehow this seemed different than the flu though; Katelyn felt physically fine, except for some dizziness when standing up, and only had to worry about not getting her scrapes infected and taking care of the stitches that were slowly dissolving. The massive scrapes covering the girl's legs, arms, and back reminded Brendon of severe rug burn or even an actual burn, and it made him cringe a little every time he saw Katelyn rub one of her injuries the wrong way. Her bruises were a sickly looking purple and green by now, but they were starting to heal. All in all, Katelyn looked like she had gotten into one hell of a fight.

Brendon had just finished reprimanding Katelyn for her latest stunt, trying to escape to go In N Out, but she was sick of it.

"Brendon, I think I can walk to get lunch by myself!" Katelyn stood in the living room, ready to go, but Brendon was blocking her only way out.

"I don't know if you're ready to go out yet... I'd rather be safe than sorry, Kate."

Katelyn grumbled a 'whatever' before retreating to the bedroom. She sat on the bed in a huff, taking her pillow and holding it against her chest. Brendon walked into their room, sitting beside the girl and ran his fingers through her hair.

"Come on, you can't tell me that you wouldn't be doing the same thing if it was me in your place. What if I said we had a house to go look at?"

Katelyn turned to look at him, a look of pure excitement on her face. It had been weeks since she was last out of the apartment.

"Are you serious, or are you just getting my hopes up?"

"Renee called me earlier and said that she found a two story not far from here that she thinks would be perfect for us. She says it has everything on our list that we sent her a while ago."

Katelyn asked when they could see it, and he said whenever she was ready.

"Let's go now!" The girl hopped off of the bed, slipping on her bright red Toms and looking at Brendon expectantly.

They pulled up to the white house with the dark grey roof, and Katelyn could just feel its positive vibe. They were meeting Renee, their realtor, at the house, and she was waiting there with a smile on her plump, tan face.

"I'm glad you two could make it! This house just came on the market and I immediately thought of you and Brendon when I saw the listing. The owners live up in Portland and this is their beach home, you could say, but they recently decided to remain in Oregon year round." The dark red head nodded at the couple, leading them inside.

Katelyn and Brendon were both amazed at the spacious, modern house, with its dark, blue green granite in the kitchen, to the open layout of the bedrooms. Katelyn loved how bright the place was, with massive windows placed throughout the house, while Brendon loved the extra space that was a room to set up a practice space in.

"I feel like we're on an HGTV show." Katelyn mumbled to Brendon as they walked from one bedroom to the next, ending up in the master bedroom.

A look passed between the two lovers, and Renee decided to give them some time to explore for themselves.

"This is it isn't it?" Katelyn smiled as she looked out the window, peering into the back yard below.

"I think so, Kate. It has everything we asked for and then some."

The house was only a ten to fifteen minute walk from the beach, and everything was so much more than they had expected. Brendon had mentioned that there was a backyard for Bogart to play in, along with anything else that came into their lives. Katelyn had given him a weird look after that statement; at 22, she was nowhere near ready to start a family.

"Can you see yourself living here?" She looked to Brendon, who was inspecting the closet that was massive in comparison to theirs.

"Me? Not really. I see us living here though." Brendon sent Katelyn a wide smile before leading her into the master bathroom to check it out.

Once they decided to put in an offer for $50,000 less than the asking price, because Renee said the owners were looking to get it off their hands as soon as possible, Brendon took Katelyn to lunch for some pizza.

He watched the girl that sat across from him, a huge grin plastered over her face as she texted Spencer most likely. Brendon always loved seeing how Katelyn acted around people other than himself, because it gave him more insight to her personality.

"I hope they accept our offer... I know Renee said she'd call as soon as she hears back from the owners, but I'm feeling super impatient." Katelyn played with her napkin, feeling Brendon's gaze on her healing arms.

She couldn't wear a tight sweatshirt or jeans because the fabric rubbed against her open skin, so she was in a pair of shorts, one of Brendon's sweatshirts with the sleeves pushed up, and a T-shirt in October. Everyone in the restaurant gave the couple odd looks, as if they were wordlessly accusing Brendon of inflicting the marks covering the girl that stayed close to his side. This bothered him, of course, but there was nothing he could do about it short of yelling out that she had been in a surf accident.

"Remember when you almost gave up on house hunting when I was in China? I told you it was only a matter of time before it found us." Brendon sent her a smile before setting his left hand on top of her right one, trying to calm her nervous habit. He knew that whenever Katelyn was uncomfortable, she would fidget with whatever was closest to her, so he made it a point to calm her nerves the best he could.

"I know, I know. And now's the part where you say I told you so."

Brendon fought back a smile; she knew him all to well. So he decided to take the sarcastic route.

"Me? Would I ever say something like that to you?!?"

Katelyn gave him the 'are you kidding me' look, making Brendon let out a low laugh. The girl shook her head, asking Brendon what she was going to do with him.

"I dunno, but I have a couple of ideas if you're feeling up to it." He winked, squeezing her hand and making her giggle.

"Are you gonna try and baby me through it again like you did last time?" Granted, the girl didn't like to be manhandled all the time, but she hated being treated like glass even more.

"If you want me to be rough, I'll do my best to oblige." Brendon feigned hesitance, which only made Katelyn's smile widen.

A few days later, Katelyn received a call from Jon Stewart's office, saying that there was a potential job opportunity awaiting her in Los Angeles. It was with another show on Comedy Central, Tosh.0, and that made the girl nervous as well as excited. She would be heading into uncharted territory, not having much experience in television. Brendon had been excited by the offer; he wanted her to take the job so that she could stay in Santa Monica with him.

"I dunno, Bren. I don't want to have to rely on a handout from Jon Stewart for a job." The two were cruising along the street on their way to the library so Katelyn could find some new sheet music.

"Shit, if someone like the host of the Daily Show offers you a job and when you decline, he gets you a different job closer to you? Kate, you obviously did something right. I would jump all over that if I were you."

Brendon actually did make sense, but that didn't surprise the girl. He had always been sensible in one way or another, whether she wanted to admit it or not.

"I guess you're right. It would be really cool to get my foot in the door and do some advertising for his comedy tours and stuff. Maybe I would even have a hand in working on your promos once I get the hang of the advertising world." Katelyn sent Brendon a sweet smile, knowing that he and Spencer were going into the studio sometime within the next month or two to start working on their new album.

Brendon had so many ideas whirling around in his head all the time, and so he needed to sit down and sort everything out and work on songs and melodies. The one thing he didn't have was the focus or time to seclude himself.

Renee had called the same night that they had gone to the library with good news, saying that their offer had been accepted, and that they could begin moving in within the next week or two. Katelyn was excited when she heard the news from Brendon, who was rather pleased himself, despite the fact that he had been in an off mood for the past few days.

During their preparations to move, he had been moody and annoyed. He was on somewhat of a short fuse lately, snapping at Katelyn whenever she did or said something that even remotely rubbed him the wrong way. The girl was getting extremely tired of his attitude, but had no idea where it was coming from. He didn't need to flip out when she asked what color he wanted to paint his studio space, but he did anyways. Katelyn was on her last nerve with Brendon; she wanted to know why he was being cold and short-tempered, so she called Ryan.

"He's gone off the deep end, Ry. I can't deal with it anymore." Katelyn sat outside on the balcony in the beginning of December, wearing sweatpants and a worn out UC Irvine hoodie, staring into the apartment and waiting for Brendon to realize that she was outside after he finished his shower.

"Well you said earlier that he hasn't been in the studio lately, and he hasn't been making much music, right?" Ryan's serene voice filled Katelyn's ear, calming her down without her realizing it.

"Yeah, he used to write stuff all the time and try and make sense of it later, but now he doesn't do anything beside fiddle around on his guitar or Garage Band on the computer. It's getting bad… He freaked out because I left the blowdryer out earlier." She heaved a sigh, remembering the furious look that had been on Brendon's face as he scolded her for leaving the item on their bathroom counter, unplugged with the cord wrapped up.

"I think it's a buildup of creativity. Bren has so much pent up in his head that he can't function right. I know it sounds weird, but it happens to me too. That's the only thing it could be, Kate."

Katelyn's mouth dropped a bit when she saw Brendon walk out of the bedroom in his underwear, a look of annoyance clear across his face.

"Oh God, here it goes. Ryan, you're my semi-witness for this one."

"This one what?"

Before she had the chance to explain, Brendon opened the sliding glass door and glared at Katelyn, demanding to know where she had put his contacts.

"I don't know, Brendon. I didn't touch them…"

The man standing before her let out a frustrated groan, asking her what she was good for, then retreating back inside and slamming the sliding door shut.

"If he lays a finger on you, Kate, I swear to God, I'll kick his ass."

"Spencer said the same thing when I talked to him yesterday. I already decided that if he gets physical I'm out of here. Most of our stuff is already packed since we're supposed to be moving into the house in a couple of days."

Ryan suggested that she take some time to go over to the house and put a little distance between her and Brendon, and Katelyn seemed to think it was a good idea.

Once she got off the phone, the girl headed back inside and noticed that Brendon, still wearing his glasses, was in the kitchen making himself a sandwich for lunch.

Katelyn went into the bathroom and dug around in his drawer, finding his contact container and setting it on the counter for him. She grabbed a packed and labeled box from the living room and went down to put it in her car, repeating the process several times until it was pretty much full. Brendon hadn't taken any notice, or if he had, he didn't care.

"Your contacts are on the counter. I'm going out." She stood in the kitchen, watching as he sat at the counter eating and ignoring her presence.

Brendon mumbled to himself before saying, "Whatever" to the girl, making her heave a sigh. Katelyn left the apartment and headed to the house she and Brendon had bought, looking around as she began to stack the boxes in the living room, near the stair case.

If she was going to be living with Brendon for an undetermined amount of time, Katelyn was going to have to figure out what was going on with him lately. She couldn't live like she was walking on eggshells for much longer.