Pencil_Pusher



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    When a warrior is bested, they choose between two lessons: resentment, or improvement.

    Janai is woman enough to learn from her defeats, even those by a human, and as she escorts her compelling prisoner to Lux Aurea answers are her first priority. The last thing she expects is for those answers to end with her ruling as the most renowned, precedent shattering Sunfire Queen in thousands of years; lauded and criticized, analyzed by scholars, emulated, honored, despised, but never, in all the history of Xadia, to be forgotten.

    General Amaya isn’t surprised in the slightest — that Janai would be a Queen out of legend, anyway. She had no idea they would do it together.

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    26 Jun 2025

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    “It still doesn’t feel real,” Caitlyn said as they walked. “That the worst is over, that we’re standing on the other side.”

    A flock of starlings swept free of the cliffs, and they paused to watch them go. Caitlyn adjusted the shawl again, the same wind that kicked the surface of the water into peaks blowing the hair back from her face. Vi’s breath lodged against her ribs, like a hand over her heart.

    “Maybe there is no other side,” Vi said. “Maybe it’s all one thing.”

    *

    Caitlyn's got a house in the country, and Vi's got time.

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    26 Apr 2025

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    “Say it again,” Vi all but begs. Her fingers dig into Caitlyn’s wrist and hip where she holds her close like she’ll float away in the ripples the wind makes in the grass, like the tide, like she isn’t Caitlyn’s anchor. Like she isn’t the only thing keeping Caitlyn afloat.

    “Qīn’ài de. Oh, qīn’ài de. My dearest.”

    Vi kisses her under the sunshine, the first time she’s felt it in years, and Caitlyn kisses back. Wind rustles through the trees, birds are singing, Caitlyn’s mom is dead, and she kisses Vi in the backyard she grew up in like she’s wanted to from the moment those bars between them slid open and Inmate 516 had a name again, a future again.

    “Again,” Vi breathes. Their noses brush.

    Caitlyn says it into her mouth as if Vi swallowing will keep it in her forever. “Qīn’ài de.”

    (Or, it’s not just language. There's knowing and then there's understanding.)

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    24 Apr 2025

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  4. Public Bookmark 88

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    “Hey,” Vi says, running a thumb soothingly along Caitlyn’s pulse, and though Caitlyn doesn’t break her focus, the tension she holds in her jaw relaxes. “I happen to have firsthand experience on how good you are with your hands, Cupcake.” There’s a husk across her tone that she doesn’t really mean to let out, but— well, that’s a lie. That’s exactly what she’s going for. “You can handle a little haircut.”

    Caitlyn shudders as the words meet the air. Vi tries not to smirk in satisfaction.

    “You can’t say such things while I’m holding a pair of shears so close to your neck,” Caitlyn says lowly, voice dripping down like molasses. “It’s dangerous.” Her chiding whispers dance across Vi’s cheekbone, the blunt side of the blade making contact with Vi’s skin, and— oh. Vi’s definitely the one shuddering now.

    Vi chuckles to hide the shiver curling up her spine. “I really affect you that much?”

    Caitlyn hums, dragging her fingers through Vi’s damp bangs to measure their length. “Coy isn’t a good look on you.”

     

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    vi finds small ways to navigate grief. caitlyn, of course, is there every step of the way.

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    12 Apr 2025

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    cait sorts out her priorities. vi gets a bit of that princess treatment

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    11 Apr 2025

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