#dearest sister

Leo sits anxiously in the kitchen, a mug of green tea in his tightening grip, threatening to break the fragile cup. His prosthetic fingers tap on the mug with a soft tink, tink, tink. He’s nervous, and well aware of how nervous he is. Should he be this nervous? How long has it been…? A few months? But in the future, it has been a handful of years—give or take he can’t remember.

That flinch. It made Shouto jump as well. He knows that feeling very well by now. That knee jerk reaction to flee from any thing slightly negative in fear that it would evolve into something much worse. He hates that he gave that reaction, let alone that feeling. He reaches to rest his hand onto her clenched one slowly, worry appearing in his eyes as he spoke softly.

“I’m sorry if that came off harsh. You have no reason to apologize.”

He went silent. Trying to lay out the words in his head. In a way that wouldn’t come out sounding like a certain someone in their lives. Like they already were going to sound anyway, he was sure. But he could try to turn this around. He had to.

@aheartunbreakable

Violet wasn’t sure what to do.

She stood a bit rigid outside of Lily’s door, an overwhelmingly guilty look on her face. One of her hands was curled into a fist, outstretched towards the door, like she was going to knock. But she felt like she was stuck there. Violet had been planning on telling Lily, eventually. She was just...very nervous about several things. At first, Violet was worried that Ford would change his mind. Or that she dreamed the entire confession up (which the ring on her finger definitely helped alleviate). That Violet would tell Lily and Lily would be just as overbearing towards Ford as Violet felt she was for her.

But she hadn’t meant to keep it an entire secret from her older sister.

Violet sighed, lowering her hand back to her front. She remembered that look that Lily gave her at the dance. Her sister had been smiling...but Violet knew it was a fake look. It had to be. She could tell. 

And now here she was, right outside the door. She needed to tell Lily.

Violet finally took a deep breath, reaching back out to knock several times. And then, she waited.

When the door opened up, Violet put on a hesitant smile, looking up at her older sister.

Dearest Sister dir. Mattie Do (2016)

It had been a long, arduous few weeks for Edwin Brohncliff. Following the death of his adoptive father, Vallon Brohncliff, on Argus, the young sailor had not only reconnected with his siblings, but he had been the subject of attack from the ex-crew of his father’s ship, something in which he was given a nearly fatal injury. 

Following this, Edwin had engaged in an unexpected fistfight with his biological father, Harvee Deadweight, whom he met for the first time without even realizing who he was speaking with at first. This, too, left a mark on the young man’s soul.

Now, riding aboard a small, sleek sailboat, Edwin was on a journey to map the coastline of the Eastern Kingdoms. This, he realized, had likely been done before, but he did not care; this was a task he felt he needed to complete to clear his mind and conscience of all that burdened him.

It was in Booty Bay, where he had docked in celebration of Pirates’ Day, that he received his sister’s missive. Suspicious of the dove at first, Edwin had actually drawn a pistol on the poor bird, for in his drunken stupor he had mistaken the paper attached to the avian creature’s leg as a bomb and not a letter.

Fortunately for the dove, Edwin came to his senses before filling the creature with scattershot, and instead patted the bird on the head, unstrapped the message from its leg, and began reading, a soft smile coming to his lips.

For lack of better material, the sailor, once he had finished scanning the missive, flipped the letter over and began scrawling a reply of his own…though not before snatching a quill and inkwell from a nearby table.

“I’m glad you’re taking some time off, sis. That place reeks of sweat, booze, and smoke; don’t believe it’s good for you to breathe that shit in all the time. I’m currently mapping the coastline of the Eastern Kingdoms, so I’ll definitely dock in Eversong once I get there – with my pendant, of course.

Love, Ed”

After he finished his writing, Edwin gingerly – as ginger as he could be in his current state, that was – attached the letter back to the bird’s leg, fed the creature a few crumbs from the bread he had just finished, and sent the dove into the sky, watching it go with a smirk on his lips.