The Hand You've Been Dealt

*Azzurra* · 07-04-2021, 12:56 AM

Azzurra hovered somewhere between sleep and being awake, often finding it hard to sleep at night on the days where she had one of her bad days and ended up staying in the den for most of the day. This day had been a particularly hard one, keeping her contained to her bed through the entire day, hardly able to even stand so she could go eat with her family. It felt entirely random which days were good ones and which ones weren't and that was maybe the most frustrating and annoying thing of all. Some nights she would go to sleep so excited to wake up the next day and go exploring out of the den with Balthier or even just to go down to the stream again and by the time she woke up the next day her condition completely flipped around. Her bad days were few and far between these days, but they still happened and she hated it.

She felt better now, but now everyone else was asleep so she made herself stay in bed and tried to sleep just so she wouldn't bother anyone else and disturb their sleep in the process. She thought she heard a noise of some kind on the other side of the fur that hung over the doorway to her room at some point in the night, but she didn't get up to investigate. She nearly forgot all about it until Balthier slipped into her room later on, saying her name and making her blink open her blue gaze. She looked up at him drowsily with a bit of confusion. She was always happy to have her brother come visit, but he wouldn't just come in the middle of the night like this usually. He'd either start out the night with her or come in the morning instead. She was quiet as he came over to curl around her like he usually did, settling into his chest as she looked up at him with a bit of worry. She couldn't decipher what his expression meant, but she didn't like it.

Then he told her. Their father was gone. Left. He left them. At first she looked at him in disbelief, scoffing softly as she pulled away a bit with a frown. "That's not a funny joke, Balthier," she insisted, with a shake of her head. "Dad wouldn't do that! No way! He..." She looked at him again, seeing the complete seriousness in his expression and her words died on her lips. She kept waiting for him to tell her that she was right, that it was a mean prank, but he didn't. The fact that his words were truth slowly sank in and her mismatched ears fell back against her head as pain and sorrow began to sink into her chest. "He... He really left?" she whispered, her voice trembling and faint.

Tears filled her eyes and she crumbled into his chest, burying herself into his fur as if that could hide her from it all and she could pretend that none of this was happening. Her mother not showing up had been easier. She hardly remembered what Aranea was like and she had disappointed them again and again so when she hadn't shown up and when their father told them that she was never going to that had been easier to accept. But this... Their father had been with them from the very first day and almost all of her memories from the days when she had been sick were entirely of her father or Balthier. She had noticed that her father had been more distant lately after he came back from looking for their mother, but... She didn't think he'd do this. She broke down, sobbing into her brother's chest, gripping onto him tight and desperately trying to understand why any of this kept happening to them.

"Azzurra"

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