Turning Tail [Reader x Doldia Girls]

Part Two - 12 | Wake Me Up When It's Over

"So that's what Boss thinks. After everything I did. Everything we did." Pursena sounds defeated. Her and her sister stand side by side next to the bed, looking down at the bloody face of the person they once called Boss. Now, they are questioning such a title. The person in bed sleeps soundly. They'll wake again, despite the severity of the wounds peeling both their body and their spirit.

Linia has wiped most of her tears away from earlier. Only dried marks remain beneath her eyes. She's got a headache from fighting and sobbing so much, but it's nothing a tough girl like her can't handle.

She glances at her pained sister. "We're weighing Boss down. That's what it sounded like."

Although Pursena appears distressed, utterly devastated to learn the very person she had come to love saw her as but a weight on their mind, she wears a mature face. The decision in her mind has been made, one that weaves along her palpable fears and woes, but one that must be made nonetheless.

The canine girl faces away from the person in bed and looks at her sister. "I want Boss to be happy, Linia," she whispers soft as to not rouse the wounded one. "If Boss isn't happy with us, if we're really just burdens, we'll go."

"What are you saying?" Linia's face lights up, not with anger as it normally would, but a raw sense of anxiety and desperation to not have to leave this person behind. "We can't leave. We need Boss. For God's sake, you... you confessed! How can you say that with no hesitation?"

"Easy," Pursena says, looking down at the bed. "Loving someone means wanting the best for them, yeah? And if you what you said is true, Boss isn't happy. Boss is stressed."

"But Augustus—"

"He's going to get me anyway." The girl turns and starts packing her things — which isn't much. A stray piece of jerky and a tissue she keeps in the front pocket of her uniform. Linia stares on at her sister in disbelief, shaken by the voice of someone who's given up.

"You can't say that," she protests. "With Boss around, we'll be safe. Even if Boss is scared... or stressed... or whatever! Even if Boss hates us, we're safe!"

Pursena takes a soft bite out of her jerky, but she can't even taste it. "You said it yourself. I need to stop relying so much on Boss. Y/N is human. Not a God or my guardian angel."

"But—!"

"You love Y/N too, don't you?" Pursena stares deep into her sister's eyes, picking out every answer before an answer can even be mouthed. Linia hesitates, quietly drawing back, her tail going limp. The silence causes the canine girl to press on.

"You love Y/N too, don't you, Linia?" Pursena repeats herself, and her sister finally cracks. She crosses her arms like she's trying to hug the pain out of herself, then nods while staring down at her feet.

"Not in the way you do," she murmurs.

"You love Y/N like a superior. Like a real warrior."

Linia nods again.

"Love is love, I guess." Pursena shrugs and finishes off her jerky. There is still no enjoyable taste. Every luxury has now been washed away by the gravity of this situation.

She sets her hand on her sister's shoulder. "Let's agree to make Y/N happy. We're gonna leave and face our own problems."

Linia refuses to look into her sister's eyes. She's angry, she's sad, she's devastated. This pain, in and of itself, is simply testimony to every emotion she buried beneath a cheeky grin — that she really does feel for the person she likes to call Boss.

"Where are we going?" she whispers. Her sister grants her a faint smile, though still overwhelmed by a depression weighing on her heart.

"Anywhere we want," Pursena says, "just to bide our time. Let's make Boss happy again." She removes her hand and stands above the person in the bed once more. Linia idles, still hugging herself, but watching her sister from the corner of her eye.

Pursena touches the person's cheek, gentle, even though there is not much that can wake them. She is quiet for a long while, simply staring at the bruises covering this person's face. At first she wonders if it's worth doing anything at all — perhaps it would be best to walk out without a word — but her memories usher her down a different path.

. . .

Each time she closes her eyes, she remembers tasting your lips. She remembers looking down upon you, smelling the sweat on your brow, feeling your delicate breaths tickle her skin.

Pursena wants to remember this for as long as possible, but the more she holds the memory there at the edge of her mind, the easier it begins to slip away.

"Y/N..."

The memory is dying, so she decides to create a new one. The girl bends down, her hair draped down over her face the closer she inches toward your sleeping body, then she sets a long kiss on your forehead. Her lips linger, trying so hard to keep the taste of you fresh in her mind.

She feels even more broken when she pulls away. She turns, walks away, thinking only one thought silently in her head: "This will be the last time I see you."

The sisters leave the inn, vanishing into their own problems that they will no longer burden you with.

They just want you to be happy. To be free of these weights.

That's what it means to love someone.

* * *

The next time you wake, you are completely alone in the blankets. You think maybe the sisters are standing somewhere around the room, but when you open your eyes, they are not there.

You sit up and press a palm to your face, green pulses of magic flowing into your skin and healing up every wound. The pain from before vanishes. Your lungs still burn though. They're on fire.

That pain doesn't compare to the fear you feel when you're unable to find the sisters.

They are not in the room, not in the lobby of the inn, not outside near the building. The town is so small, they couldn't possibly be anywhere else. If they were still around, they'd have to be standing in plain sight. And yet...

Nothing.

There's no one, so you return to the inn, lie down in bed, and cover yourself up. Drowning in misery, you realize the only reasonable explanation is that they've left. They would never leave your side otherwise.

Not a letter, a message, a sign — nothing. They didn't leave the bare minimum, but that can't possibly hurt you beyond any pain of being abandoned. You squeeze the sheets, knowing you'll soon be forced to leave the inn once the fee comes, and you silently curl up. You hug yourself, trying to imagine you're hugging Pursena.

But there is nothing left for you.

Not the sisters, not money, not even a shred of joy or relief. Now, only a sharp regret remains embedded in your weary soul, and a foul down spiral once again seizes control of your heart.

"Let's make Boss happy again . . ."