Gracie Abrams is eking out a solitary existence, fighting day-in, day-out against the drain of working customer service and nursing two newborn kittens in her off time. Out on her own ever since her sister moved in with her boyfriend, the burden of...
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"You haven't told him, Gracie?" Pride was completely unbothered by Kakashi's dark warning. Of course. This homunculus didn't know fear.
His words registered after another moment. The pause felt like an eternity, one where the life Kakashi and I could have led before those words flashed behind my eyes. I'd been lulled into peace and prosperity, giddy as a girl falling in love for the first time. It was true, those rose-tinted glasses. They made the whole world brighter.
Was that why people fell in love?
So that they could look around at this crumbling world and feel okay with it?
But the moment passed. The delusion ended. I was brought back to myself.
Kakashi slowly turned, and my heart skipped several beats, blanking out in a sudden storm of clouds right before a heavy rain descended. You could feel the rain in the air, but the droplets had yet to fall.
When this shinobi looked at me, I didn't recognize him at first. I knew who he was, what he was. This was the man who had faultlessly taken care of Hable and Sintar while I was at work, who had protected me and consoled me, who had laughed on my couch, cooked in my kitchen. Who had wrapped me in his arms, speaking words that blurred the line between friends and...something else.
Somewhere inside the glazed-over darkness peering down through Kakashi's eyes had been the man who'd made me believe...in something.
Now, that man was nowhere to be found.
"What is he talking about?" Kakashi asked, the words arching delicately, as if speaking to a lamb who had stepped all over drying concrete, ruining a perfect picture. It was restrained, holding back all the rage of having to redo a job already considered done.
My mouth opened, closed. I glanced at Pride, whose face angled in that way that made him look down on others despite being smaller than everyone.
"Oh, dear," Patty said, sighing into one of her lacy black gloves. "All it took to shake your happy little bubble were a couple holes. How...sad." She dropped the last word in such a way that I could hear the echo of the word she actually meant:
Pathetic.
"Can we talk about this later?" I asked Kakashi, trying to give a little smile, a little encouragement. Look where we are, I tried to say without speaking. This isn't the time.
Pride wasn't to be outdone in theatrics, however. For such a quiet kid, he sure knew how to stir the pot. What a little terror. Seriously.
"Are you feeling guilty?" he asked, tilting his head to the side. It was such a smooth movement, but it raised the hairs along my arms. Inhuman creatures often moved that way in movies, but I didn't realize experiencing it would provide such a visceral reaction. I actually felt my stomach swirl about, repulsed.
