No Peace [Magic Knight Rayearth, Fuu/Hikaru/Umi, pg13]

[shiegra.livejournal.com]

Title: No Peace
Author/Artist: shiegra
Rating: pg13
Word count: 459
Summary: They all bear the scars.
A/N: Sorry for the tardiness!
Prompt: Magic Knight Rayearth, Fuu/Hikaru/Umi: hurt/comfort - We've all been pushed too far.



She can feel the exhaustion in Hikaru, bleeding through every inch of her frame.

None of them knew what they were doing here. Here on earth, with her sister taking her hand and asking for candy, with her father in the flower bed during his off hours, with the bright sunshine and the blue skies and the last, despairing scream of a forsaken goddess echoing between her ears when she closed her eyes at night.

She sleeps fitfully when she sleeps at all, and she can see the shadows growing beneath Hikaru's eyes, the rigidity of Umi's body. It's draining them all.

It's easy to be self-righteous when you have things in black and white; easy to battle, nobly, for the freedom of the princess when the princes wasn't alive with hatred, begging you to kill her at the same time that she drove, desperately, to end your life. They were left in a tangled knot, sliced free of any chance for answers, any resolution. Only the gaping wound of their own guilt and haunting uncertainty.

Fuu tucked her face into Hikaru's soft hair, holding her safely against her body. Umi's long hair was pinned under her arm, silky-soft, but all she could smell was the salt scent of tears and the touch of astringent soap.

It bound them together. They'd fought together and bled together -- come closer to dying together than anyone wanted to contemplate. Fuu had left a schoolgirl and come back a soldier, and she didn't know how to deal.

She knows she's more lucky than she could imagine that she has...them. Comrades. Friends.

Not sisters. Every time they sit and eat together, and her eyes meet Umi's or her fingers brush Hikaru's, she's reminded that whatever lies between them in all its complicated, entangling glory -- it isn't platonic, and it isn't familiar. There's something that binds them closer than Fuu had ever realized she could be to another human being.

They're still so young -- especially Hikaru -- that the sparks that rise when she looks into Umi's eyes haven't surfaced. Fuu is glad of it; they're dealing with so much else, how would they deal with that on top of it? But when they get together, usually curled on Umi's big bed in soft pajamas, curled up like kittens to sleep, sometimes Umi's hand settles on Hikaru's stomach, her fingers brushing Fuu's skin, her hip. Or Hikaru buries her face in Fuu's throat, her breath sighing out warm and damp.

And even though Fuu doesn't quite know what to do with those sparks, something deep inside her settles. Some core of survival instinct she gained in Cephiro whispers safe here. Home. We won't let anything happen.

And like that, they can sleep.

Comments

[wolfie.livejournal.com]

Man, this makes me want to go back and re-watch this series. It was so simplistic on its own, but given some grittier fic like this, I might really find it more enjoyable to come back to.

I liked this, thank you.

[shiegra.livejournal.com]

Oh, thank you so much! It's an immense compliment to be told you might affect the way someone looks at the source material.

I feel like they touched on the topic of their grief in the manga, but I would have loved to see more on the effects of them learning to fight and kill and then being dropped back into their lives.

[leviathanmirror.livejournal.com]

This is beautiful. Thank you so much!

[shiegra.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much! I'm really glad you liked it.

XD