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[enthunder]

[ OOC: Use this post for threads that're too small for the comms, for little incidents or for handwaves and discussions on how interactions would go without actually RPing through them! Also for when I time out on backtags I'm so sorry. ]

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Backtag - for Wen Qing

[enthunder]

If Light regrets one thing, it's that she didn't grab Wen Qing the moment she saw the woman's brother making that familiar crossing to the exit of the station, into the fog beyond. She's tried to stop people before, to get in their way or knock them out or get through to them, and she's felt how shitty it was to fail.

She doesn't want to think about how it would feel to try with someone she knew and loved. With family.

So, she hesitated, and Wen Qing ran, and she's been... what, avoiding her? Light's not sure. She's definitely making herself scarce, or she's busy, or the door is shut. Projecting an air that's kept Light uncertain.

She's had enough of being a coward about it by the third day.

"Qing!" There's a half-full bottle of liquor under her arm, along with a blanket and a bottle of water (full). She's prepared. "Talk to me!" A rap on the door again, and she leans her head against it for a moment. "... Or, to someone. I guess."

[radishlobbyist]

Maybe it would have helped to confront her right away or maybe not, Wen Qing had spent the time licking her wounds and being quite grateful that she had been given the space to try and put herself back together.

It was nobody's fault that by now, she had spent so many months continuously trying to put herself back together that she felt like she had run out of glue for good.

She was sitting on her bed again, looking at a book she wasn't even reading. Slowly, she stood up and went to the door, book still in hand. She knew the sight of her would likely alarm Lightning more, looking wan and pale and while not strictly speaking unkempt, only as far from it as she could go without worrying her roommates overly much.

"Light." Her eyes softened a little, though a smile was beyond her. Her eyes dipped to the supplies she had brought. "I guess you know."

[enthunder]

"Hard to miss... I'm sorry," she agreed, quieter now, the relief in the door opening softening her own expression from its previous braced determination. She gave Wen Qing a look up and down, the tables turning from the usual inspections levelled at her, and narrowed her eyes.

Both bottles it was.

"This is some kind of booze Reno made me buy," she declared flatly, holding out the first bottle. And then the second, which she only had the hand free to wiggle, the rest of her arm occupied keeping the blanket tucked against her side. "This is water. We're finishing the first one for A-Ning, and the second one's for you."

[radishlobbyist]

She opened her mouth, ready to tell Lightning that she was fine, that she didn't need anyone to comfort or coddle her... Then snapped it shut again, shoulders slumping, and simply gave a small nod.

She stepped back into the cabin to let Light join her and sat on her bottom bunk bed, leaving enough room for Light and the two bottles to join her.

"Thank you," she said quietly as she reached for the first bottle, the one with the alcohol. She took a deep breath, eyes lowered to the bottle she was holding far too tightly. "I suppose I should be grateful I got to see him at all but..."

[enthunder]

She also braced, ready to retort, but the moment passed, and then she was taking the two paltry steps it took to reach as far as you could go into a sleeper cabin before Wen Qing could change her mind.

The alcohol changed hands without protest. It was some kind of fruit liquor, surprisingly smooth, which was why Light had claimed it as payment for providing Reno with the other bottle. Now it could serve a purpose higher than getting some smug asshole drunk.

"Seeing him leave... It's the worst kind of feeling, huh?" she completed, thinking of how she'd feel seeing Serah's back disappearing into the fog. Setting the water bottle on the little table, and draping half of the blanket over Qing's lap as she settled down beside her.

Her final action was to pull two glasses from the centre of where she'd wrapped the blanket around them, and hold them out. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I got to meet him, but you two deserved to stay together."

[radishlobbyist]

"We did," Wen Qing agreed and then paused, a little surprised by how firm she had sounded. She gave a small, bitter laugh. "Funny... I never used to think much about what I deserve to have, or what life owes me. There really wasn't any time to get fussy about such things."

For too long, life had been all about survival of one sort or another. First at a hostile court, then the simpler battle for survival consisting of empty bellies and cold nights.

"But it's always been with A-Ning at my side. It's always been for him." She accepted one of the glasses from Light's hand, letting her fingers linger on hers for a while before withdrawing with the glass. She poured them both a drink from the bottle she had claimed for herself and put it down between them. "I knew there's a chance we wouldn't have long together, and I'm grateful, too, it's just..." She gulped the liquor down. It burned hot down her throat, warming her after she had felt cold for too long, just like having Light at her side did. "I don't know. I don't know what I was thinking."

[enthunder]

Light listened silently, nursing her own drink and the slight, residual warmth of Wen Qing's hand against hers. The doctor's life had been a series of battles of an entirely different nature to hers, she knew, but their feelings for their siblings were, at least, something universal.

"You thought you'd never get to see him again... and then there he was. After one miracle, why not hope for another? Maybe..." she trailed off, took a sip of the liquor. Let the taste and warmth of it settle against her tongue. "At least now he knows you're safe here. Even if you can't see him, you're connected."

[radishlobbyist]

"Maybe," she agreed, though right now it was hard to believe there could be another miracle. "Even being reunited once already feels like far more than I deserve. But if I get another miracle I'll be grateful."

And it was true, she did know that he was out there, that he was happy and healthy. She had been able to see it for herself.

"It just... hurts anyway." She leaned against Lightning, her head resting against her shoulder. "And you haven't had your sister back at all. I'm being terribly selfish here."