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“Ouch!” Rahn stopped carving to inspect his hand while wincing. It seemed a splinter had snuck its way under his glove.
“You need to be more careful, little brother,” said Sunflower from across the room. “What are you making, anyway? It doesn’t take you days to work on something like that, not anymore.”
Rahn gingerly pulled off his glove and saw the splinter. “If you must know, I’m making a pair of earrings.” Probably the finest he had ever made, in fact.
His sister came over and inspected the jewelry in question. “Not for yourself, I’m assuming.” She didn’t touch anything, but she nodded at them. “You don’t usually carve a V into your things.”
He froze and looked up from his tweezers. I should have known she’d catch that. “No, they’re not for me. It’s really just practice.”
It was also too much to hope his oldest sister wouldn’t notice he was lying. “Don’t give me that. Who are they for? And if you say you’re selling them, I will tell our parents and let them have you.”
He used taking the splinter out as an excuse not to look her in the eye. “They’re for a friend of mine. There, are you happy, Sunflower?” Rahn hissed when he nudged the splinter but still couldn’t get it out.
Sunflower took the tweezers and gently held his hand. “This friend must be very special, for you to be spending so much time away from home.”
“She’s not… she’s not just a friend. Not to me.” Rahn turned bright red and still wouldn’t meet her eyes.
“Why, Rahn! You have a sweetheart and never told us?” Her red eyes fairly sparkled with delight. “What’s she like?”
He shook his head and stared at the unfinished earrings. “She’s not—I’m not—that is to say, I like her very much, but Violet isn’t ready for that kind of thing, for reasons I can’t tell you.” His heart fell and he sighed. “It’s not that I will wait until she’s ready—I just want her to know that I care about her. I haven’t said anything about feelings.”
“Oh dear, you really are smitten,” she said, and plucked out the splinter. “You’ve never even been half as in love as you are now. Violet would be a silly girl if she didn’t see how wonderful you are.” Sunflower tested the rest of his hand to see if he had any other hiding splinters, and when she found none, she pressed a cloth against the wound.
“Even if she saw it, there’s no telling she’d like what she saw,” he pointed out, although it hurt to say it. “Besides, what would anyone see in me? Thanks to our father, I’m tiny.”
Sunflower bopped his nose and ignored his resulting protest. “We’re miqo’te, doofus. We’re supposed to be small. Besides, people would be more than willing to ignore it if they knew the real you. Do you think height matters to Violet?”
He looked away, sullen. “Okay, no, but she… she’s too beautiful. I never thought hyuran women could look like her.”
Her mouth closed with an audible click. Then, gently, she asked, “What does she look like?”
“Like Menphina breathed snow to life,” he answered dreamily. “She has eyes that look like frosted violets, and hair white as snow tipped in black ice… Violet hardly ever makes noise, too, so it’s like she brought the stillness of a winter’s night with her when she was born. Father said that when he met Mother, it was like he saw a princess made of moonbeams, but to me, it was snow. Snow and ice that had come alive.”
His sister was silent and he hardly noticed. “I don’t think you should say ‘I like her very much’ anymore, Rahn. You are very, very in love.” Her smile was bittersweet. “And here I thought you were talking about a mystel in the Crystarium somewhere. Well, it may be a bit unusual, but it’s not like hyurs never marry people like us—wait.”
Rahn felt his heart sink as realization dawned on his sister’s face. He didn’t want to hear her say it, but she would, he knew she would. Sunflower was the oldest by a full ten minutes before Daffodil, she would only try to protect him.
“You said hyur. As in Eorzea.” Her eyes narrowed. “Didn’t you?”
“Yes,” he answered, miserable now.
“Oh, Rahn, my poor, poor brother…” She drew him into a hug. “No wonder you won’t say anything! Eorzea is horrible about this sort of thing! And who knows what your babies would look like.”
“Who said anything about babies?!” he gasped in horror.
“I’m your older sister, I know full well you want to marry her, and we both know how loving couples behave with parents like ours, now hush.” She leaned back and petted his ears, which relaxed him and made stress he didn’t know he had disappear. “You already had a lack of self esteem with one green eye growing up, so I can only imagine how any children of yours would feel if one got a tail and the other didn’t.”
“I—Sunflower, I don’t feel comfortable with this conversation.” He just wanted to make Violet some earrings, and now his sister was talking about babies. He wasn’t even twenty-one yet, not for two more months!
And he was definitely not thinking about how he’d already made flawless bands but hadn’t gathered the courage to ask Violet if she’d consider being his sweetheart. Not at all.
“Very well. But I wish you luck in wooing her, Rahn. I’m sure she’ll love the earrings. Neo-Ishgardian, yes?”
“Earrings of Fending, correct.” He breathed in relief. “Besides, I was serious when I said there were reasons I couldn’t tell you about why she’s not ready for romance. I don’t want to hurt her.” I’d be happy just to see her smile.
“And that’s why you’re such a good man,” she said, ruffling his faded red hair. “There’s no way she’ll resist you forever! Anyway, your hand’s okay now, so you can get back to it.” She got to her feet and smoothed out her dress. “You should bring her home sometime; I’d like to meet someone who makes you smile so.”
“Maybe someday,” he answered noncommittally. He picked up the earrings and went back to carving, but when she shut the door behind her, he stopped.
How was he meant to tell his family that when he fell out of time into the past, he’d fallen in love with a girl there?