Work Text:
“I thought you guys hated Blaine?” Ventus asks, allowing himself to be dragged along by Lauriam’s steady, calloused hands.
Skuld turns, walking backwards with practiced ease and swinging a canvas bag by her side. “Oh, we do.”
“He’s the worst!” Ephemera calls from the front of their pack, frantically navigating with his phone.
“It’s just— he’s the worst, but he’s our worst,” Skuld continues, because that explains everything, “and it’s Rosh Hashanah, and he’s all alone—“
“And Strelitzia cried about it, even though we would’ve been,” Lauriam pitches his voice a shred louder, “perfectly fine to celebrate on our own, without someone who tried to kill you involved.”
“He was scared! And unmedicated! And his brain made him think I was going to kill him—“
“And still left you for dead in a warehouse, Litzy,” Lauriam interrupts, bopping her on the head with his free hand. He’s using the grumpy-fond tone that Ventus still isn’t quite sure the meaning of. Whatever the intention, Strelitzia blows a raspberry at him. That seems to clear everything up.
“Do you know what Capgras’ Delusion is, Ventus?” Skuld asks in that soft way she has, the one that makes him feel like he isn’t a fucking idiot for not knowing as much as he’s supposed to. She doesn’t wait for his no. “It’s when a person believes that another person close to them has been replaced with someone identical, but evil.”
“There’s an oversimplification if I’ve ever heard one,” Ephemera interrupts, stopping abruptly at a crosswalk.
“Do I look like I have a degree in this shit?” Skuld shoots back, “anyways, Ven, Blaine thought Strelitzia was replaced by a different, not-Litzy, who was identical to the real Litzy but was plotting against him and all of us and going to kill him, and had, presumably, already killed the real Strelitzia.”
Strelitzia herself pipes up. “But he’s been in jail for three years, and he just got out, so—“ She’s unfortunately interrupted by Ephemera throwing her into a loose headlock and continuing on her behalf.
“Basically, Litzy wants us to like Blaine again because she’s baby and wants to forgive her attempted murderer. So we’re meeting him in a park—“ He hands Strelitzia off to Skuld, who pops her up onto her back. “—to make her feel better, and remind us all why we don’t like him.”
Three years was shorter than Ventus’ coma had been, but simultaneously longer than his brother had gotten for genuinely killing their dad. Which was…weird, to say the least, but Ventus didn’t want to bring the mood down. Did normal friends have this much murder involved?
They’d kept the conversation up while he zoned out. “It’s not a real Rosh Hashanah celebration,” Strelitzia explains as he drifts back in, “We’re literally just eating the apples and honey with him, because somebody doesn’t want me to spend more than half an hour with Blaine.“ Lauriam grumbles at that, but it’s clear they’ve had this conversation before.
Ventus drifts in and out like that for the for the next few minutes, anchored by Lauriam’s hand until they arrive at the park. He thinks he's been here before, but he can't really be sure of much anymore.
Skuld — newly divested of her duties as Strelitzia’s chariot, he notes — tugs him to a bench, out of earshot of Lauriam’s fast-quiet talking, the kind that makes him feel like he’s going to shake out of his skin. It’s nice, the way she notices how his fists curl and his shoulders ride up around his ears from triggers Ventus himself can’t seem to pin down.
Ventus isn't sure how much time has past before there's a sudden shouting and breaking of glass. Ephemera blocks his view anyways. “Nope!” Lauriam calls over to them, scooping up the grocery bag — when had he gotten that from Skuld? Did she ever have it? — and walking-not-quite-running over to the rest of the group. “We aren’t doing this today. Maybe not ever.”
Strelitzia’s rubbing her eyes with her sleeves when she meanders over in Lauriam’s wake, and Ventus—Ventus thinks he’s done this before. Gently, telegraphing all of his movements, his hand finds his way to her shoulder with a gentle squeeze.
She smiles at him, and he thinks that maybe they’re figuring it out.