#(oralee)

Her new former sister's white eyelights met her mismatched eyes for a fleeting moment. Flicker slowed her activity and smiled at her as wide as her mouth could.

"Dad made me this, it's cool it's cool!"

Maud knew it probably didn't show outside how weirded out she was by seeing and talking to a past shape of the big sister that lost against the glitches. The empty husk she had left behind. Her fingers silently found their way to the gauntlet that replaced her limb, mindlessly rubbing the bits poking out.

"Yeah." 

They stayed silent for a moment, the gentle squeaks of the swing filling the space. 

Until Flicker decided to speak again.

"Hey Maud?"

Maud gestured with her chin that she was listening.

"Anko said you're from uh you're from uh the future?"

Close enough.

"How I am, all grown up?"

She certainly did not want to talk about that.

"Tell meeeee!"

This Flicker was so much worse than her own. 

The girl unfastened her head and came closer and bounced on her feet right in front of her.

Something told her the kid would not stop until she at least answered something.

“You were taller.”

Please, be satisfied.

Flicker extended her arms to push her face closer to Maud’s.

“OOOOH HOW TALL? LIKE THE TREE?” she let go of one side of her skull to point at a huge cherry tree and promptly wobbled to catch her skull after.

Maud took a step back, eager to put some distance between them.

“No, I mean, even on Pebble, you wouldn’t reach that high-”

That thing had been enormous once it reached its adult size…

“Pee-bel?” 

“Pebble. Your pet.”

What was it even? It vaguely looked like a dog, beside the scaly tail… But it had been far too smart for her taste… Well, it was gone. Like her Flicker. Could this conversation leave as well?

“I hab… I have a pet? WHERE?”

Now that enthusiasm was just grating her the whole wrong way. Shut up with this mouth. Stop looking at her with these eyes. She didn’t like it.

“Nowhere, the glitches got to it too.”

The words left her fast, too fast to stop it. Something twisted inside of her at the surprise on the child’s face.

She looked elsewhere.

“Peeble is hurting?”

Maud closed her eyes, breath a little short but still controlled.

“No, it’s… painless. Pebble and my Flicker, they’re… gone but they aren’t hurting anymore.”

Why was she telling her that? Condiment would certainly laugh at her for this unusual sharing… But…it was still Flicker after all?

“Oh,” Flicker seemed to think for a second before beaming at her, “Cool! Yours Flicker is lucky!”

Lucky.

HOW DID ANY OF THIS TRANSLATED AS LUCKY!??? 

“How dare you…” she seethed.

The small pest didn’t seem to register the words and continued babbling nonsense about how she must be happy for her sister to be gone for a minute before finally noticing Maud’s tight fists and her (probably terrible) expression. It was apparently enough to produce crocodile tears.

“...what dit I to?”

It was hard to say why exactly those final words were the thing to break the dam but it did. Badly.

“You say that because you didn't hear the screams.”

Maud drove her accusing finger in the kid’s shirt, eliciting a small confused yelp. She did not yell but her voice had reduced to a frigid tone that was meant to hurt. She no longer cared if it was a child or even “Flicker”, her emotions swept her and the discharge felt almost guiltily good.

“ You didn't lose your sense of reality due to the pain it caused…”

She was done trying, she was done pretending it was fine.

“You didn't see your parents get so disfigured you couldn't recognize them.”

Flicker flinched and froze but she couldn’t stop the spiel now that it was out.

“You didn't try to pull your arm off in order to make the pain stop only for it to be in vain so don't say something like that, brat.”

A flash of phantom pain made her wince and release a sharp exhale, stopping her discourse.

Maud rubbed her arm before letting her fingers tie themself around her spike collar. Why must that limb always act out in the randomest moment? It wasn’t even there anymore…

The garden felt now very silent after her little (mortifying) blow out. Talk about short fuses… 

She finally took notice of a thing a moment later.

It was fully silent.

No shuffling noises. No voice. No tears.

Turning back to Flicker, she choked up at the scene.

The girl was unnaturally still, her head at her feet, devoid of any eye-lights and she seemed almost… fuzzy on the edges.

What? Did she-

A small ping shattered the silence as a blinking red window appeared in front of her.

[Error 418, wait for timer to end to try something else]

She… crashed?

Maud got on her knees, hands up in the air but hesitant.

No… 

Flicker crashed because of her.

It might even have been her first crash for all she knew. Her sister almost never crashed, she only witnessed one after they started losing people they cared about…

She was so stupid. How could she hurt her other sister, which was not much more than a baby, that badly?

Maud thought she had a better grip on herself. Maybe coming here had been a bad idea after all. They weren’t really hers.They were untouched by her grim and the idea of staining her- that family left the most horrid aftertaste in her mouth.

The error message glared at her as she thought about running away. At least for some time. Put some distance on that accident. She doubted they’d forgive her anyway.

But.

“Error 418, wait for timer to end to try something else”

That window was talking about her glitch timer, wasn’t it? The girl was going to wake up to pain. 

What if she fell and hurt herself? What if something happened in the meantime?

She was going to be scared, confused and in pain.

Her hand carefully brushed against Flicker’s, the bone felt slightly staticky. 

Despite that, the child’s bones were soft and unmarred by scars unlike her own but she knew. She knew of the pain that could course through them leaving naught but a trace of it.

She could go warn the others inside and leave after but…

Did they even know what to do in these situations?

And she wouldn’t be able to be sure Flicker was okay then. She needed to know.

Sighing, Maud resigned herself to stay here for a while. She slowly and carefully guided her sister’s body down to rest against her and picked up her head to hold loosely between her arms.

The way her sister found comfort in.

And she waited.

And waited.

And waited.

For her baby sister to wake.

For the window to fizzle away.

For the blasted timer to tick down.

It must have been in its last legs already as she didn’t end up waiting as long as she thought she would.

The window morphed suddenly to a countdown, trickling down, trickling down.

Until it reached zero and the head she had been hugging released a blood curdling scream that was cut as abruptly as it started.

The little one’s teeth were clenched shut as her eyes filled with tears, full shivers ran along her body. Maud could feel the subtle shakes.

Flicker knew how to hide her pain even in this state of confusion… Not good. 

She saw awareness return slowly in her eyes and idly wondered how long before someone came running outside. A scream, however short it was, was a scream.

“What? What? nO DON’T TOUCH”, Flicker weakly pushed her away to Maud’s grand surprise.

‘Why would she want to be touched by her after what she said?’, supplied her mind.

Yeah, but her sister, who always seeked and appreciated contact after a crisis, pushed her away? That was strange. 

Did she hate her that much now?

The instant she let go however, the kid grabbed onto her vest.

“Sorry, you a- you ain’t hurty?”

What?

Maud’s hand easily found its way to her back, rubbing (what she hoped was) soothing circles.

“No, I’m not. How are you feelin’, pup?”

“Weird.”

Unsurprising answer that really confirmed her fear of it being her first crash. Ahhh, she felt so guilty.

Noises from inside the house forced her to consider her options faster. Someone was coming and she was unsure she wanted to stay any longer.

“Can you sit?”

Flicker hummed and sat rather wobblingly. 

But sat nonetheless.

“Hey listen, buttercup. When they ask what happened, tell them everything. Tell them you had a crash, not just the glitch, ok? Your dad will know what to do. And rest today.”

Maud didn’t wait for an answer as the outside door swung open, she had to go.

And she went.

As fast as she could, listening to worried voices and hurried steps.

It was going to be okay.

She needed away.