#foresighted

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EB was not one to get scared. Not after she had been tortured and hung. But a stick-thin hybrid slamming into her window at two in the morning? That was enough to make her nearly jump out of her own skin.

She had approached the window cautiously, claws brandished and feathers standing on end, but loosened up when she saw who was outside.

  “WHAT the FUCK.” 

Joan’s thin, awkward body spilled in through the window like a puddle of hybrid, weird wings stretched out on the floor, even weirder tail lying like a dead snake behind her. Then, her big ears folded back and she whimpered sharply.

  “Oh no,” EB snapped. “You are NOT getting out of this by crying. Not this time!” She wouldn’t be admitting that saying that kinda rude statement made her heart clench up slightly in guilt. Nobody needed to know that part. “What the HELL are you DOING?! It is TWO in the GODDAMN MORNING! Some of us are TRYING to SLEEP!!”

Apparently she wasn’t thinking about her neighbors at the moment.

Joan made another woebegone noise on the floor. EB thought she wasn’t going to move, but then the hybrid lunged at her, threw her arms around her, and buried her face against her stomach, which was enough to make her flare her crest in surprise. She could feel growing wetness on her nightshirt, and that was enough to snuff out her irritation and replace it with worry.

  “Woah, kid,” EB set her hands on Joan’s shoulders to try and push her back so she could look at her face, but Joan audibly whined and dug her claws into her back. She winced. “Hey. It’s alright.”

A great, shuddering sob wrenched from Joan’s throat, and EB instinctively wrapped her wings around her, hoping it would be able to hold her together when she was so clearly falling apart.

  “I’m going to move you to the bed, alright? It’ll be a lot more comfortable than the floor.”

Joan didn’t answer, but she also didn’t say no, so EB took it as a good enough sign to scoop her up and make the short trek over to the bed. Upon climbing in next to her, Joan burrowed into her side and sobbed again.

  “Talk to me, love.” EB urged gently. She was still new to this comforting thing, but Joan’s crying hadn’t gotten any worse, so she thought she was doing well enough. “Let me help.”

  “Don’t--don’t--” Joan’s entire body heaved as she tried to speak. Her frail lungs couldn’t take both crying and talking at the same time. Hell, they could barely function when she was flying (EB had learned that she avoided going on flies with her because she actually couldn’t fly for long periods of time and also made “weird wheezy noises that she would make fun of”). 

  “Hey. Take a breath.” EB said.

  “Don’t go to work tomorrow.”

EB blinked. “What?”

Joan took a shuddering gasp, then broke into a coughing fit. EB thumped her on the back to help her along, maybe patting a bit too hard.

  “Don’t--work-- You can’t--”

EB blinked again, and then realization dawned on her.

  “Did you have a vision?”

Joan whimpered and nodded.

  “Aww. It’s sweet that you care about me, but I’ll be fine.”

  “NO!!”

Joan’s shrill tone of voice made EB jump. Stubby, chewed down claws dug into her arm and side as Joan clung to her for dear life.

  “You can’t! You can’t go! You can’t, EB, you’ll-- you’ll--” She broke down into sobs once more.

EB frowned. She knew how false visions were after hers got her killed, but then again she wasn’t exactly a Vesper, which could legitimately predict the future… But she also knew damn well what she saw was real... 

She shook her head. No. Those alleged ‘moon powers’ were bullshit and made up by pretentious Vespers to try and seem better than everyone else. Nothing was set in stone.

But maybe she should stay home. Just for Joan’s sake, of course.

  “Please, please, please, please,” Joan wept.

  “Hey. Hey, shh,” EB wrapped a wing around her, which she nuzzled into. “If it messes you up that bad, I’ll stay home.”

  “Please, please,” Joan begged.

  “I am. Don’t worry.” EB pulled the small hybrid in closer. “But you can’t always believe what you see. You’re going to stress yourself to death one day, I swear.” She grimly remembered when Joan didn’t eat for a full week because she was too busy trying to track the exact moment some random event would happen when she wasn’t performing. She pushed everything aside, even EB herself (which she would NOT admit that it stung a little; she just wasn’t used to not having the company of the scrappy little thing after her trailing after her like a lost duckling for awhile now, that’s all). “And what for, kid? Your visions aren’t exactly very accurate most of the time.”

Joan paused her crying to look offended. “Th-that’s not true!”

EB snorted. “Remember that time you said a freak storm was going to hit and the show would be cancelled but then it never happened and half of the crew was late to a performance because they slept in?”

Joan blushed. “Umm--”

  “Or that time you kept me from getting a new tattoo because, and I quote, ‘the bluebird doing it is going to hit on you and then stab you in the neck once you’re vulnerable.’”

  “I-I don’t--”

  “Or that time you INSISTED on staying at my apartment with me because you had to make sure there was no homeless guy underneath my bed, but I, personally, think you were just lonely and wanted to stay over for company.”

  “Okay! Okay!” Joan shielded her bright red face in her wings. “My visions are bad, okay…”

EB chuckled. “Nothing to be ashamed of. Visions suck anyway.”

Joan looked a tad bit wounded at that. “Yeah…” She mumbled. “I just-- I thought they made me special...”

EB bumped her gently. “You don’t need visions to be special, dumbass.”

Despite the swear, Joan smiled weakly. Then, it faded in a near instant and she said, “B-but what if something I see comes true?”

  “Well, did you see me smothering you in my wings right now?”

  “No?”

  “There you go.” EB said, and then smothered Joan in her wings. In the mass of feathers, Joan giggled softly. 

  “Ooh, are you growing mammary feathers?” 

  “OKAY--” EB flung the little hybrid out of her wings, causing her to giggle again, this time louder. 

  “No, no, I definitely saw something!” Joan said, then rubbed her temples like she was some kind of stereo typical psychic on TV. “Yes. I see very fluffy wings in your near fu-- OOF!!”

EB whacked her onto her back with one of her wings. “Oi. None of that shit. It’s stupid.”

Joan crawled back over to her side. “I won’t be wrong this time.” She said, flashing her a grin. It was wry and thin, but a grin nonetheless.

  “We’ll see about that.” EB said. “If you’re staying, get comfortable. And don’t steal my blanket this time!”

  “Now THAT is a future I know won’t happen.” Joan said.

EB groaned. “Great. Now the psychic jokes begin.”

  “You love me.” 

EB squinted at her. “Somehow.” She said. “You’re going to have to pay for your crimes against humanity the more you steal my shit, though. I’m going to start charging you for rent.”

  “I don’t see that happening in the fu--”