Koriand'r

Life, Rachel had learned, was unexpected. Things happened that were utterly impossible to prepare for. You were born into a world a monstrosity that your own mother couldn’t bear to look at, you were raised to believe every feeling in your chest was a pipe bomb, you died in a battle with your friends close enough to see but not close enough to act. You came back two years after the fact with apologies weighing heavily on your tongue and guilt hanging in a cloud above your head.

Kori was here. And Rachel swore she’d seen her only a few weeks ago, just before that battle where she fell and didn’t get back up, but to her best friend, two years had gone by. For Rachel, it was a blink. For Kori, it was so much more. The guilt festered. 

She felt Kori before she saw her. Kori’s emotions were always an interesting swirl. Rachel had never known if it was because of her Tamaranean heritage or if it was simply her, but it had always had a very specific warmth, a very unique feeling. It had always felt something like safety. Rachel always felt just a little more at home when Kori was near. “Kori,” she breathed quietly, quickly ducking through the crowd to close the distance between them. This was one area in which Rachel’s small stature proved beneficial — she made quick work of the distance. The problem, of course, was that she had no idea what to say when she stood in front of her best friend. 

There was a beat, a moment where she simply stared, throat thick and chest aching. Finally, she opened her mouth. “I missed you.” It didn’t seem like enough, but what words could be?

Her warm eyes had turned a soft green with emotion, unable to hide what she was feeling inside. Though, she was never one to hide her emotions, because that was not what she was raised to believe. To a lot of humans emotions were a weakness, but they were what kept her strong. Now, seeing her stand here before her, she could only feel confusion, hurt, pain, sorrow. Not once had she given up trying to find something to bring her best friend back, but it had gone with only failure.

It felt like a dream right now, that maybe this was an illusion... but Raven, her Raven was standing before her. The complexity of her friend was there, she could feel the power. She could feel everything she had in all the years they’ve known one another. And as they made way towards one another, her emotions only grew, showing in ways only a Tamaranean could; her eyes, growing a bright alien green, hair turning from a natural red to one sparkling beneath the sun in ways no human product could create.

They stood there, taking each other in, her eyes sparkling with tears bound to fall down tan cheeks. “I can not form words for how much I missed you.” Her voice had a mix of happiness and sadness, swirled with a lot of other emotions that bore no name. With a few more seconds of trying to understand how she was feeling, she took the final step forward and wrapped her arms around Raven, not intending to let go for as long as she could. Tears finally fell and Kori let out a shaky breath. “I have felt so incomplete without you here.”

While she taught self defense lessons, she also modeled. It was her very first job on Earth, and seemed to keep her on the good side with the humans. Though, it seemed to be more about appearance than personality. Clothes were scattered around when she heard her friend walking outside. “Come in!” She told her anxiously, seeming like she had something way more important going on than just finding an outfit. @ofcosmicwonder​

Butterflies, as the humans would call them, filled her tummy when she saw a glimpse of the girl out of the corner of her eye. It wasn’t even sight she caught onto, it was the aura of her best friend. The feeling of power that radiated from the woman. 

“Rachel?” They were quite a ways away from one another, but knew she could hear her over the people talking all around them. Maybe she even felt her presence as well. @bewaretheraven​