so ill thinking about jay and bambi and the way that to each other they both have been 16 ever since bambi left. neither has ever moved on from that.
suddenly ten years has passed and their bodies are 26 and they're still two fearful teenagers. bambi still sees them as the broken, angry child they kept together for the entirety of their youth and to them bambi is bared teeth and trembling pair of arms, a guardian who never had any life of their own and whose sole purpose was to protect them and make sure they got to become who they really were.
but what if in those 10 years bambi mourned the baby cousin who got left behind, made a new life for themselves and without their little brother figure was forced to become their own person with their own problems catching up on them. what if jay remained in their old life, growing into the mould but not quite, for she had left them permanently scarred from knowing unconditional love but slowly forgetting what it felt like.
they both are aware of those ten long years, but don't realise what it really means: they're no longer just teenage siblings frozen in time. they are both angry and broken now. they're in love, too, and this new life has changed them.
the baby brother has grown up wearing a mask that doesn't fit them, instead of being the one they fought to be, they're becoming an act they can't end. there are people they find they learn they want to protect in turn, but never learned how; suddenly they have to bare their own teeth and fight, to salvage the remnants of who they were before it's lost.
the sister has now even more to care for. she has found someone who wants to protect her, and she learns to be a person of their own right, one who is loved and good. someone with a new name and a soft heart that then needs to be hardened again for the sake of survival and to save not only the love of their life but that little cousin they desperately want to exist; to then cling to each other like they once did, to have that be enough. but it is not, not any more because that time has passed. they will always be siblings, one day they will find peace with those lost years and the betrayal of growing up in secret.
but right now, they're not 16 and they've not been 16 for a long time.
