Junk drawer

AUTHORS NOTE:
Hello my fellow angst loving Radea shippers!
I'm glad you showed up!
This is an AU that I just thought up wile writing the description thing lol

TW:
-cursing
-depression
-crying
-last words in a note
(not a suicide note!!!)
-missing person
-mentioning of chronic illness
-grief of a loved one
-grieving

AUTHOR HERE AGAIN!!!:
Hello! It you've made it this far without turning back,
THANK YOU!!! For giving me a shot😁
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Their heart clenched painfully in their chest.

"Raine... where, is, Eda.?" Luz asked much more seriously this time.

All they could do was shake their head. They stepped back, hunched over and crossed their arms, looking down to avoid eye contact. They grimaced, a fresh wave of tears welling up in their dark turquoise eyes.

"Raine. Where is she.?" Panic oozed from her voice as she slowly realized what their reaction meant...

They wanted to explain but the words weren't coming out correctly. The most they could manage was a quiet, painful stammering of multiple strung together sentences all at once.

"Eda, Eda she- I-we tried to... she- missing." They cried.
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They woke up in bed, pillow drenched in their tears. They sat up slightly, only to flop back down, curl up, and sob into their hands.

Three years.

Three years sense she went missing without a trace, and they still wake up in tears. They still have dreams of her... all about the day they had to tell her kids what happened...

But she was gone. She was f*cking gone and they had to do their best to replace her. To replace her as a parent to her kids.

They loved their kids, Eda's, kids... but to do it all alone? It made grieving Eda's loss, nearly impossible...

Yes. Her loss. She was gone.

She was dead. She had to be. There was no way she would have been okay out their and not come back. If not for them, than for her kids.

But she hasn't. She, as much as it pains them to admit it, probably succumbed to her curse from lack of treatment. Dying a slow, painful death alone in the forest somewhere...

So, they forced themselves to get up.

They forced themselves to get dressed.

They forced themselves to wake Eda's-their... kids up.

To cook them breakfast, to send them off to school for the day.

And when they got back? They would begin.

They would all begin the process of letting go.

Starting right where it all began, the owl house.

As they and their kids walked their way up to the door, lacking a Hooty as he was with Raine as well now, they looked at the state the poor thing was in.

It had been completely gutted by the emperor's coven before the day of unity. Thus, the outside looked like a dump.

Piles and piles of her stuff lay strewn across her land. It had all been dumped after the day of unity and she never came back to fix it. By that time, she had already been long gone.

"...alright, kids..." they addressed the children who look on wearily, not wanting to touch anything that belonged to their mother what felt like ages ago.

And yet as they stepped forward and touched something, so did they. They sifted through everything they could.

Soon, Raine came across a drawer that had been taken from, presumably, the kitchen. It looked to have been touched more recently than anything else in the vicinity.

With caution, they lifted the heavy thing, carefully setting it down on the ground. They crouched and plucked a folded paper from the top of the drawer.

It's...it's a letter..! They thought to themselves as they unfolded it.

They took a deep breath, immediately recognizing the messy, cursive-ish handwriting of their beloved.

'Raine,
Hey, you! Haha-
I new you would get here eventually.'

They paused to laugh slightly at the sh*tty introduction, she was never good at writing those.

'Well, I hoped you would, really..-
If your reading this, and not hearing it, from me, you know why...
It's cuz I'm gone.'

Their heart clenched, eyes widening, ears falling slack against their head, so... they were right..?

'No, not dead, Rainey. Gotcha! You always have been easy to fool, love <3'

They reacted the way any sane person would, by blushing madly at her pet-names and tearing up more, knowing she wasn't dead.

'No, I'm... somewhere you can't be...

You and the kids can never know where I am... but I need you to know that, no matter how long it takes, I will be back.

I did not leave you. Not willingly, at least. And I'm coming home...'

Somewhere they can't be..? What-?

'I hope you can forgive me when I do, I hope the kids can to, but for now... be happy! Move on. Live a normal life without me. You've earned it. You deserve it more than anyone.

I love you. You and the kids. That's something I could never say allowed... but you need to know that.

Tell the kids I love them like I said, but not about this letter... I'd like to explain it to them myself one day...

I love you, have a good life,

Love,

Eda <3'

...To be continued...