Reflections of Light

Here

"It's so... Dark outside." Nyx said to no one in particular, leaning on her elbows and peering out of the front room window into the darkening evening outside.

Travis made a noise of agreement from next to her. "The nights are drawing in again. The year's on the turn."

They stood in friendly silence, shooting humorous smiles at each other every now and then.

Travis stretched. "Come on, it's probably bedtime."

"If you checked the clock for once, you'd find it says otherwise."

"Time is a relative construct formed by the confines of society, and therefore technically doesn't exist."

"... Either that, or you still can't read a clock."

Travis twitched and involuntary smile. "My explanation was better."

They grinned at each other fondly. Putting his arm around her, he pulled her in for a hug.
"How are you, anyway? I can't help but feel we've sidelined what happened to you to focus on Rachel."

"It's fine. Looking after her is important. She needs the help, I mean... What happened... She needs us."

"That's true, but not what I asked. How are you? Are you alright? Do you maybe... Need to talk about it?"

"Uhhhh..." She said, looking away, nibbling her lip and fidgeting slightly. "Uh... I... Uh... Uh... I... Don't know. It's all so..."
She trailed off, gesturing expressively around her head with her hands.

"...Much?" Travis suggested.

"Yes! It's all so much! Thank you! Everything just... Happened. I'm still trying to untangle most of it, and make sense of the rest, and... Yeah.
Honestly, I think... I think I'm in some kind of shock. Everything I should be feeling... None of it's set in. It's like... Almost like I don't actually believe what happened... happened, that it wasn't just... That it was real.
I can't... I just can't..." She fished for words again, looking a little lost as she tried to put it all into words.

"I think I get what you're saying." Travis said, reassuringly. "It's okay. It's all okay. You're alright.
You'll figure it out. I'm here for you. We all are."

"Thanks." Nyx sniffed,a few stray tears dampening her face.
She wiped it with her hand, looking back out of the window, into the night.

The comfortable silence fell over them again.

"So... I discovered that Nick has this weird thing about not liking raisins, you know what that's about, Nyx?"

Nyx chuckled, elbowing him companionably. "Shut up."