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This wasn’t exactly where Raine had pictured the two of them having this talk, if they had ever pictured having this talk at all. But it was good, nonetheless. Currently, Raine was sitting atop a rather impressive pile of books that someone, probably Luz, had decided wasn’t a complete hazard if it toppled over. Eda was on a much shorter stack of books, one leg crossed over the other. Raine was still shorter, even with the added height of the books. Something about that didn’t seem fair.
“So…” Eda said, a content smile on her face. Raine was still getting used to this state she was in. She was confident and happy, while still being the same person she had always been. The same person Raine had fallen in love with. She was ready for this talk.
Raine was… probably ready. It had only been a month since Belos had been defeated, and the rebuilding process had started on the Boiling Isles. They’d been staying with Eda for the duration of that month while she got things back to normal in her own house. And her kids. Raine had never known that peace and chaos could come so hand-in-hand.
“So,” Raine looked down at their feet, then met Eda’s eyes. They were more confident than they’d been before, back when they were teenagers, children. They’d had to learn to trust in themself. There had never been a moment for doubt. Doubt got you discovered. Doubt got you petrified. Doubt got your friends petrified.
There had never been a moment for… anything, really. Outside of the mission. There existed in revolution the sacrifice of martyrdom, a direct sacrifice of your life, which Raine was more than willing to give, and the complete sacrifice of oneself, the toll all of the stress took on your body, mind, and identity.
“Are you going to stay?” Eda tilted her head.
“Well… my previous living quarters are completely destroyed.”
“Uh huh. That’s not what I asked. Are you going to move back in when everything’s… not destroyed.”
“You have kids now. I don’t want to be in the way,” Raine gripped onto the edges of the books as the tower began to sway. Eda hadn’t seen furniture as a priority as she fixed up the house, since Luz and King were comfortable (and maybe even preferred) sitting on the floor. Raine might bring some in themself if they had to sit on top of a precariously leaning booktower one more time.
“Raine,” Eda snorted, and Titan, Raine’s heart still jumped whenever she said their name, like they were still sixteen and happy, “you’re not in the way. I think you do the dishes more than the rest of us combined.”
“That’s not that hard,” Raine said with a smirk, Eda laughing in response,
“Ah, you’re right. Still. Listen, I -” She was cut off by the sound of the front door being thrown open. Only Luz ever did it with that much force. Said girl was with them for the week, since her human school had the week off. Even when the school wasn’t off, though, she was frequently in and out, spending all of her weekends and breaks there, and some of her school nights, when she could convince Camila. Raine knew how hard it had been for Eda and King to not have her around constantly. But they made it work.
“Hey, Eda?!” Luz poked her head in, “there you are.” The teenager’s eyes moved from Eda, to Raine, then back again, “oh. Anyway, uh, King and I were chasing each other and he fell and I guess there was a rock or something. Now there’s a lot of blood.”
Eda had already hopped down from the books she was on, giving Raine a brief apologetic look and following Luz outside. Raine hopped down as well, but remained standing in the room. They always had the slightest nagging feeling inside that they were somehow intruding, when anything big was happening. They didn’t quite know their place yet. Hopefully the conversation with Eda, whenever they actually got around to having it, would help.
Eda walked back inside after a few minutes, grabbing a towel and doing her best to stem the flow of blood from a long cut on King’s leg. Luz stood beside her, a hand on her little brother’s head. Finally, Eda lifted him up,
“I’m going to go find someone who was in the Healing Coven, I’ll be back soon… Raine, could you make sure Luz doesn’t also end up bleeding from her head or something?” She lightly elbowed Luz, “these two’s injuries tend to occur in quick succession.”
“Sympathy blood!” King said, not looking as upset about the bleeding as Raine would have expected for a kid his age.
Wait, how old was he?
"More like shared recklessness,” Eda said with a roll of her eyes, walking out the door. Raine turned around, finding themself fixed with the very intense gaze of a fifteen year old girl.
“Heyyyyy,” Luz said, jumping up to sit on the book tower Raine had previously been on. She seemed to enjoy the hazardous swaying. A variety of responses ran through Raine’s head and they paused, trying to pinpoint the correct one.
“What were you actually doing outside?” Raine asked, then internally cringed. Out of everything they could have said, why had they picked that? Luz, however, took it all in stride,
“Well, we were trying to tame -”
“Never mind, I have a feeling I don’t want to know.”
She grinned in response,
“So, how’re you liking it here?” She hopped down from the tower and started peeling stickers with slightly offensive words off the walls, that King had stuck on them earlier.
“It’s… different.”
“Yeah,” Luz smiled, “we like having you here though, you know? Me and King. And Eda.” Raine didn’t miss the way her eyebrows rose at the last name.
“Really?”
“Yeah, of course. You’re the only one who does the dishes,” Luz elbowed them, and Raine couldn’t help but admire, not for the first time, the girl’s openness with everyone around her. “You also make Eda laugh, you let King climb you, and you draw with me. You make everyone happy.”
“You all make me happy too,” Raine said. And that was the truth.
“Great!” Luz bounced on her toes, looking around the room. Raine knew that look. They’d seen it in Eda’s eyes many times before. It meant the girl needed something to occupy her mind, or else she would find something, likely something that would put her in the same situation as her brother.
“Luz, you were showing me drawings you made based off of the Azura series yesterday, correct? Could you show me how to draw them?” They asked. Luz’s eyes widened,
“Yes! Give me a second!” She darted off at top speed, coming down after a minute with an armful of loose papers, two pencils and a pen tucked behind her ear.
Truly, Raine’s outstanding talent in music hadn’t transferred over to art at all, and they were okay at best. But that didn’t matter in this situation. They were more than happy to listen to Luz ramble about the characters, her feet kicking against the floor as she lay on her stomach.
She was like Eda in so many ways. Especially her inability to stay still, her impulsivity, and her creativity. She was also unlike Eda in many ways as well. They were still drawing when the door opened again, and Raine realized it was dark out as they looked up. Oh. Neither Luz nor them had had dinner at all.
“Hey,” Eda smiled as she walked inside, King held at her hip with her arm. His eyes were drooping and he stifled a yawn through his claws.
“Hi Eda!” Luz jumped up, “is King alright?”
“Luz, look, I have a scar,” King proudly showed off the wound, which was stitched together by healing magic now.
“More like a temporary mark,” Eda said, but didn’t intervene as Luz and King started talking enthusiastically. Raine stood up and walked over to her. Her hand slipped into their’s. It felt familiar. And natural. Raine never wanted to let go again.
“You two should get ready for bed. It’s dark.”
“And the adults need some alone time,” Luz said, shooting finger guns in their direction. Raine didn’t think they had ever seen a more unimpressed look on Eda’s face.
“Go put on pajamas,” Eda passed King to his sister, Luz running off. The voices of the two were still audible even once they were in their respective rooms. King was carried quite a bit by Eda and Luz, whenever anything stressful happened. Though they had never held King before, Raine had realized it was comforting for all parties involved. After everything the kids and Eda had gone through, Eda was quite determined to give them the best childhood ever, for the remaining childhood years they had left.
“Sorry about that,” Eda said, their hands separating all too soon, “there’s a lot of blood and bruises with those two. And explosions.”
“Definitely your children.”
“Hah, yeah. It feels good to think of them as that, even though I could never see myself as this just a few years ago. Anyway, Camila and I had a talk with Luz about what she wanted, and what was best for her. Now you’re the only one left I need to have a talk with.” Eda had never been this open to communication before. She was learning from Luz, like Luz was learning from her.
Three hours and two sleeping kids later, they sat across from each other in Eda’s new nest, where Raine had been sleeping as well for the past month. “So -” Eda started, and she was immediately cut off by a knock on the door. “Come in,” Eda said, the door slowly creaking open. Luz stood in the doorway, King snuggled into her arms.
Raine knew immediately that it was a bad night for them, from the nervous, guarded looks on their faces. After everything the kids had been through, there were quite a few bad nights, when they woke up from nightmares, or couldn’t get to sleep in the first place. Eda had many as well. Raine now had a difficult time coming to terms with their own feelings, or weaknesses (oh, how the tables had turned), after their constant battle to remain without mistakes in their position, but they did have a hazy memory of Eda’s fingers stroking through their hair sometime last week, when they had woken in the middle of the night.
Eda didn’t say anything to the kids in the doorway, just moved to the side and made room for them.
“Sorry,” Luz said quietly, curled up at Eda’s side. Eda ruffled her hair in response, then wrapped an arm around her. King moved from the girl’s arms after a minute, and stumbled across the nest to Raine’s lap. Raine let out a small breath, but didn’t move, allowing him to snuggle into their chest. King was asleep within five minutes. Luz took a little longer, her eyes looking out the window at the moon, before finally shutting.
“Camila was talking about therapy, the other day. Y’know, after everything?” Eda yawned, meeting Raine’s eyes.
“That’s a good idea. Nothing is really that organized yet, but I’m sure we’ll find something.”
“And I’m sure you’ll get to organizing things at some point,” Eda smiled, “you were a good leader, Raine.”
After all of these years, Eda still had the ability to make them blush.
“So… about the talk. Are they really asleep?” Raine motioned to Luz and King.
“Uh huh. Luz does those little kicks in her sleep, which hurt, and King is a terrible fake snorer, so obviously that’s real…” Eda trailed off for a moment, “I know this probably isn’t how you pictured it.”
“You’re right,” Raine gently shifted their grasp on King, his little chest rising and falling against theirs. Luz kicked Eda’s side in her sleep, Eda letting out a muffled curse. “It’s better.”
“Okay,” Eda smiled, “let’s talk.”