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Clementine’s eyes are as blue as the sea, shining always with a shadow of pain that Gabby will likely never truly understand.
But her smiles are like sunshine trickling down into the deep. Down in the deep like their special… grotto? Is that what Clementine calls it? Whatever, it’s their den. And Clementine’s smile, reflected in here eyes, is like the oceans where they’d first met and Gabby had spent her life in.
Blue.
Blue like the ocean.
Blue like a siren.
Blue blue blue blue blue .
Like her skin as she almost loses herself and barely is pulled back by her pod, already broken.
“G-g-g-Gabby! I-I w-w-won’t… I won’t let you die! ”
And, well…
It’s not until she almost loses herself that Gabby realizes how green Clementine’s eyes are. Green like Eden and the things she grows. Green when Gabby cups her blue hands against her love’s cheeks, blue skin next to blue-green eyes. Green green green.
(But they’re bluer underwater. And Selkies May visit the land, but they’re made for the sea, even as Gabby is now trapped there. Personally, she likes them better that way. She likes all of Clementine better, that way. Her love is safe here, and she’s free of the crushing weight of her responsibilities and the Shards calling.)
(If only It were enough.)
In the end, it doesn’t matter what color Clementine’s eyes are. Blue. Green. Blue blue green green red .
Gabby wasn’t there to see, but she’d heard. Not heard? It doesn’t matter.
She’d felt the other half of her heartsong go silent.
And all she’d been left with was pieces.
Until Claire.
Claire’s eyes are bluer, Gabby notes, immediate. Blue like the sky, above the water. Happy. Innocent.
The sweetest puppy Gabby has ever met.
If only Gabby could be closer.
(But she can’t.)
Marie thinks that Claire’s eyes are really pretty. Like, gorgeous. They reflect the sky, it seems. Light blue and sparkling in the sun and dark blue and shimmering on bright nights, the kind of nights where the stars dance and the moon is so bright it makes rainbows.
And she thinks that Claire is amazing, too. Sure, she’s still clumsy and nervous, but she seems… more sure of herself, since they’ve left the abbey.
Honestly, Marie would never have expected to be following Claire of all people, but here they are.
She can tell how worried about Catharine Claire is, though, it shimmers in her sky-blue eyes. And Claire obviously has her own worries like, oh, her pregnancy. Funny, didn’t that help start this?
There’s sadness in Claire’s eyes when Catharine yells at her, worry in Claire’s eyes when Catharine claws at herself like she wants to get Grimm out .
That stress can’t be good for Claire or the baby.
And then… well, then Catharine almost dies, and there’s that special, new determination in Claire’s eyes, and then…
The Shard. The truth.
And Marie’s running after Claire before she even realizes it.
And she finds her in front of a broken statue of the Horned One. The Bright One. Clementine.
Someone who is most certainly not Claire.
Claire’s crouched before the statue, cradling Grimm in her arms.
“Claire?” Marie calls out. Claire turns to her in surprise, and, for a moment, something flickers. Here eyes, they’re ( green green green green )… different.
And then the flicker’s gone.
Marie sits down with her back to a crumbling wall, and Claire sits next to her. Her blue blue eyes looking more lost than she’s ever seen.
And… she doesn’t ask if Claire’s okay. That’s, like, a given.
“What do you need?” she asks, but Claire doesn’t answer. In a way, she does need to. It’s obviously by, like, where they are. “You know… just because you look a lot like someone, it doesn’t mean you’re the same person.”
She’s looking away, but she can feel Claire’s eyes on her.
“Sometimes people can’t tell you apart,” she continues, “or expect you to act the same… dumb, right?”
She certainly gets it often with Rosalie. Rosie-Rosie is her best friend and there’s only a thin line between their minds, but they’re anything but the same person.
She turns back to Claire, taking her hand and looking her in the ( lost lost lost ) eyes.
“You’re super different in here,” she points to Claire’s mind, “and here.”
Her heart.
“And if people can’t understand that, well… that’s their problem!” Marie exclaims. “I don’t know much about this Clementine person, but… you’ll always be Claire to me .”
And Claire finally smiles. And she thanks her.
And they return together.
(Gabrielle watches Marie return with Claire from the water’s edge, and she finds herself thinking about a heartsong that isn’t hers.
Yes, she thinks, they’ll be good for each other.)