Blindsided

Epilogue: Castle On The Hill

Me: *intends to write the first chapter of all three of the new AUs*
Also me: *updates Blindsided with an epilogue instead*

So yeah. This happened.

Song is Castle On The Hill by Ed Sheeran. Special thanks to the Hole People and Dotemms! Art is from Sonzai on Twitter!

----------

  The sun beamed through the curtains of the smaller bedroom, the air smelling faintly of ozone. One side had a small twin bed, bedcovers rumpled and messy and covered in magazines. The floor around it was layered with dirty socks and sweaters and books on space-time theory. A basket of paper flowers was tucked under the bed alongside a row of well cared-for chelsea boots, and a dresser doubled as a night stand with a desk lamp clamped on the closest edge and pointing over the bed. The other side had a twin bed same as the first, but the bedcovers were neatly tucked and wrinkle-free and a rag doll sat primly against the pillow. A small wicker basket of books sat beneath the bed next to a row of mary janes and tennis shoes and the dresser on this side held an antique tiffany lamp printed with colorful flowers, the area around the furniture spotless save for a scuffed chalk circle.

  The air swirled with dust motes, and flashed briefly pink before a pair of children landed hard on their feet and shook themselves off, snow in their hair and on their shoulders. They brushed the slowly melting flakes off, looking around before smiling broadly at each other. Sel let out an "oof" as he caught the full weight of his sister and spun, her legs swinging behind her as they both laughed.

  "You did it! We got home!" Rasazy landed back on her feet and pulled away. "How did you...?"

  "Stable time loops!" He was breathless as his wings flexed and fluttered from the adrenaline rush. "My theory was right! Stable time loops, I'd feel when the timestream was righted and I could go forward!" He glanced around at the chalk circle beneath their feet. "We must have just left a second ago!"

  They laughed again and hugged each other tight, relief written on their faces and their eyes tearing up. They'd made it. They were home where they belonged.

  Sel grinned at the proof of their existence, their belongings surrounding them, the familiar periwinkle walls that they now knew must have been chosen to fit both a boy and a girl's bedroom. The room they'd shared since Rasazy came into the world when Sel was only three, the room that used to be their father's long before they were born.

  The doorknob rattled and clicked, and they both turned as the door creaked open. A bright smile on her face, their mother stood there in her costume with a familiar tome in her hands and looked down on them. They launched themselves at her and made her drop the grimoire to the floor, both with tears spilling down their cheeks as Sarv shushed and held them. Strong arms surrounded the trio as Ruv loped down the hall at the commotion and joined them, and Sarvente was nuzzling her children's hair and laughing at how she was crying when she'd only seen them a few minutes ago.

  "Mom, Dad," Sel breathed, clutching them both tighter. "You're both here. It's really you!"

  Ruv huffed in amusement, and Sarv wiped her tears away before kissing them both on their foreheads.

  "Welcome back."

----------

The only wrench in my plans for the sequel is that we don't have a definite birthday for Rasazy. I'm going with 7th April because that's the very first time she was doodled and put on Twitter so if I'm wrong hopefully Dokki lets me know somehow. orz

But seriously, as sad as I am that Dokki isn't on her main Twitter I'm glad she's taking time to decompress and spend time with people who love her and know her best. I hope she'll come back someday, and I hope she achieves everything she sets out to do. Same for Geno and Kuro, I live to see these creatives fly! I'm just too old and stubborn to die it seems.