Chapter 552: Cracks
Back to Kat's perspective
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Kat completely froze. Lily's mouth on hers. Lips locked together. Kat's mind shut down at the same time as it exploded into a million questions. She would never know if she reflexively extended the moment or if the perception change was completely in her head but nothing seemed to move. Nothing could move as she desperately tried to scramble her mind into anything resembling working order. Kat.exe had crashed and wasn't willing to reboot.
Then all of a sudden the warmth on her mouth left and she started to hear sniffling. Kat's mind came aware just enough to see Lily, tears in her eyes pulling away but she couldn't make any sense of it just yet. Kat stayed staring, unmoving. Unable to properly deal with the thoughts thrust upon her as Lily backed up slowly looking Kat in the eyes the whole way as the tears started the flow further.
A deep sob came out as Lily turned and tried to spring away. At that point EVERYTHING that was Kat screamed in protest. Lily was crying and trying to run away. She was hurt and KAT WOULD FIX IT. She was a blur of movement. She was faster than she'd ever been on Earth. Faster then she'd ever been off world. But before she knew it, she was beside Lily before a second step could even be taken and Kat's hand was locked around Lily's arm.
Despite the haste though, Kat's grip was soft as a feather. A single tug from Lily would free her but now she was just as frozen as Kat had been. "I'm sorry" were the words that came out of Lily's mouth but they rang so wrong to Kat. Her mind struggling to comprehend them, and figure out why they were uttered at all.
*What's going on? Why is she apologising? She has nothing to apologise for. Why is she sad?* Kat asked herself these questions but her mind was in no state to figure any of them out. She was still trying to recover her full mental faculties from being kissed, and now she was desperately trying to figure out what was wrong with Lily, these clashing sources of confusion were doing Kat no favours.
Lily gave a light tug on Kat's hand. So light that it didn't even budge Kat's fingers the slightest. There was no weight at all behind the tug for Lily truly had no desire to escape. Still, her words repeated, "I'm sorry".
Kat decided that was enough for her. She didn't know what was wrong, or why Lily was sorry but no longer was allowing Lily to run an option. Kat brought her other arm up and around Lily before wrapping her tail around the girl as well. Once secured she carefully released Lily's arm just to lock it into place around Lily's waist. Kat, with no trouble at all, carefully pulled them both back onto the bed but as soon as they made it there, the tears started up again.
Lily curled up into Kat's embrace and just cried. *What do I do? What's wrong? Why is she so sad? I just… did I do something wrong?* Kat couldn't quite work it out, and she felt her own heart starting to burn with sadness of her own. Still, Kat fought back her own tears. Lily was crying and right now she needed to take priority. There was no other choice in Kat's mind. Of course, had Lily heard that conclusion much of the crying would have stopped.
This continued for a while. Kat was in no state to even think about the amount of time passing and Lily was the same. Eventually though Vivian opened the door with a camera and a bit smile on her face. It froze instantly when she got a proper look at the scene and that smile quickly turned into a frown. Letting the camera drop from her hands to hang on its cord she stared at the two.
At some point, Lily had fallen asleep, still sniffling occasionally and burying her face into Kat's outfit. Vivian took note of that particular detail and carefully and as quietly as possible worked her way to Kat's side. "What happened?" whispered Vivian so low no normal human could hear it properly.
"I… I don't know Vivian" said Kat, and the heartache bled into every word. She didn't know, and it was PAINFUL. As this continued Kat was starting to feel that pain overwhelming her. She knew that without an answer she'd be crying shortly as well.
Vivian let out a long sigh and looked between the two. She tried to think of scenarios for what she was seeing but the pain on both of the girls faces removed many of them as contenders. "Can you go over everything for me?" asked Vivian softly.
Kat nodded and repeated everything. She used her perfect memory to repeat the entire conversation, word for word, gesture for gesture. She left nothing out as she tried to piece her own answers together but she was too distraught to see the bigger picture. Vivian wasn't though. She just didn't exactly know what to do with that picture.
Eventually seeing the pain on Kat's face continue Vivian decided to act. She started to lightly shake Lily's shoulders until the girl woke up. When she did, Lily looked around and met Kat's eyes before her own went wide. "I'm so sorry" mumbled Lily, her speech shaking and her words barely audible.
"Now stop that both of you!" said Vivian with a soft authority. "Now. Lily. I need you to calm down and tell me what's wrong dear"
Lily swallowed and looked between the two other people in the room. "I'm sorry" said Lily, and Vivian glared straight at Lily and put a hand on her shoulder before tightening slightly. "Sorry. Um… sorry I'm… I'm sorry for falling in love with my best friend again"
Kat's eyes went wide but she wasn't in any proper state to process all the implications of the sentence right now. Vivian however was putting her full mind to the task. "Lily dear. That's not a problem. There's nothing wrong with that. Do you think you can tell me why you think you've done something wrong?"
Vivian made sure that Lily's whole focus was on her, distracting the younger girl from Kat and just trying to get her talking. A dark shadow passed over Lily's eyes as she considered it, she tried to turn away but Vivian placed a light hand on Lily's cheek and forced them to keep eye contact. Seeing the soft caring look in Vivian's eyes Lily's resistance crumbled.
"There was a girl named Stella" said Lily, her tone dead but her eyes hopeful. "We grew up next to each other. Her mother and mine became good friends. They didn't know each other before but because they got pregnant at the same time they bonded and from that point on we were nearly always together.
"I was always the quiet child, even as a baby. I hardly cried… but when I did you'd think that the world was ending. Stella cried often, even over little things, but she always tried to fight it. She was a fighter you know. She'd try her best not to make a sound. Or at least… that's what I was told later in life…"
Lily lost her thought for a few seconds but Vivian just started to lightly rub a finger around Lily's shoulder encouraging the girl to go on. "… right… um… so we were always together and never apart. We used to play together all the time. She was always more active then me, a sign of things to come I suppose. She was always dragging me into adventures you see. She'd pull me into the backyard to play in the mud or to go adventuring down the street.
"I on the other hand, would force her to sit still at story time. She'd hug me and I'd hug her as we were wrapped up in blankets and sat on someone's lap together. Normally it was Stella's mum's while mine told the stories but they swapped it out sometimes. Despite the crying we were happy little babies.
"She was the first to walk you know? She didn't abuse that though. As soon as she managed it, she toddled right up to me and tried to get me on my feet as well. I've seen the pictures and it's adorable. I didn't have my frizzy hair yet but she had tuffs of ginger that would grow out beautifully later. Um…" Lily stalled for a bit and sucked in a breath. "No I'll get to that later. The pictures… um… yes. She taught me how to walk. How to walk together."
Lily stared off past Vivian as she tried to stop the influx of memories now that she'd begun talking. They threatened to overwhelm her but she bit back more tears. She had a story now. A story to tell and she would SEE IT THROUGH. She would not break down just yet. Information needed to be shared right now and she'd do it.
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