Work Text:
“Do you think angels exist?“
The question startles Kanan and she stops running her hand through Mari‘s hair to look down on her. The other girl is gazing up at Kanan from her place on Kanan‘s lap, waiting for an answer.
“Where is that coming from?“ Kanan giggles, genuinely curious but also hesitant. She hopes she is not acting off.
“Don‘t know? I just wanted to know.“ Mari reaches up and taps Kanan‘s hand, a silent plea for Kanan to continue her administrations. Once she does, Mari sighs, content with their arrangement. She closes her eyes.
Kanan looks up at the night sky, though. No clouds cover the stars and the moon as they illuminate the beach in a white glow.
“Maybe they do.“ Kanan answers after several moment of silence. “We‘ll know someday.“
Oh, how she wishs they wouldn‘t.
Kanan feels the weight leaving her lap and a second later there is a pair of lips on her cheek. She feels Mari smiling against her skin.
“I know that you are my angel, Kanan.“
Kanan just smiles at that.
The bruise on Mari’s knee looks awful and if her reactions to Kanan’s examinations are any indication it hurts terribly, too.
“Kanan.” Mari calls out for her, the fifth time already. She doesn’t answer, the frown plastered on her face and on the way to be permanent.
How could she have been so careless?
“Kanan, god damnit.”
Delicate hands cup her cheek, gentle but firm, and guide her gaze upwards to meet Mari’s eyes.
“Don’t look away.” She says, stopping Kanan from doing exactly that. “It’s not your fault. Don’t be so hard on yourself.” Mari’s voice is nothing but gentle and loving as she caress Kanan’s cheeks with her thumbs.
She wants to argue, but Kanan knows it’s futile. Mari wouldn’t let her. Mari wouldn’t understand. So she stays silent.
“It’s not like you’ve committed a crime.” Mari laughs, obviously intending to joke around, to lighten the mood. Kanan smiles, albeit somewhat remorseful.
She has committed a crime. Falling in love with Mari… was the biggest crime of all.
She wakes up to the sound of a beeping machine and muffled voices that sound familiar. Her eyelids are heavy but Mari forces them open nonetheless. The moment she does people start to rush over to her, tears in their eyes but happy.
A terrible accident, the doctors tell her a couple of days later. It’s a miracle that she is still alive and that she is recovering. In that moment her memories come back, the one of a certain blue haired girl the most prominent.
She starts to panic because she hasn’t seen Kanan in all those days she has been awake. She is scared.
But that is nothing compared to the shock and the empty feeling once her family and friends stare at her after asking if Kanan was okay.
“Who is Kanan?” “Mari, dear, are you okay?”
She examines the report of the accident, she asks people involved but all of them have the same answer. She’s been alone. But Mari knows that she wasn’t.
The moment she is able to leave the hospital, that she is back home she rushes to where she knows Kanan’s home is. Her steps slow down the nearer she gets and she wants to cry.
The diving shop that used to house her best friend, her confidant and her love… run down and empty for years.
The months after the accidents, Mari starts to realize, starts to fill in the blanks and to put the pieces together.
How Kanan suddenly appeared in her life.
How Kanan said she’d always be watching over her.
How Kanan would blame herself whenever Mari got hurt.
How Kanan vanished entirely after she miraculous survived that accident.
Mari remembers the night she asked Kanan if angels were real. How could she know when she said that Kanan was her angel?
So she stays on her balcony, watching the stars how they used to do together. The feeling is not the same and to Mari, nothing will ever be the same again.
Then something catches her eye. A star so far away from the sky that it is impossible. But to Mari, the sign that undoubtedly belongs to a flashlight down on the jetty is a star. A beautiful star.
She wastes no time.
Kanan smiles. She isn’t sure if these people know what a punishment is supposed to be. But she won’t complain. Never.
Instead she stays there, flashlight in hand and determined to make this second chance of hers a beautiful one.