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Lin leans against the windowsill and groans in pain. She looks outside – it is raining, just like when Kya died. The horizon is the same, everything is. But everything will change tonight, when Lin finally goes home.
Mako walks in and rushes to Lin, who is struggling to stand. “Lin, please sit down before you hurt yourself,” he worries and helps the older woman sit on the bed.
“Mako, you know that this is my last night on this earth, right?” Lin says out of nowhere and makes Mako stop what he is doing.
He repeats her words in his head multiple times, before registering what she just said to him. “Are you sure? How do you know?” He sits down next to Lin and holds his hands down on his lap.
Lin lets out a dry laugh. “I would be concerned if it wasn’t. My days on this earth has come to its end and there is nothing stopping it from happening,” she says and looks at Mako’s side profile. His eyebrows are knitted together and Lin can see him battle against the tears that so badly want to get out.
She places her hand on his shoulder and all Mako can think is how weak and cold her hand is. He isn’t ready to lose someone he cares so much about. He looks at her. “How am I supposed to go on without you?”
Lin can hear his voice shake. He rarely shows this side of him to anyone – especially to her. So she takes a deep breath, before she speaks. “When you enter tomorrow without me, I want you to wipe your tears and be happy. Because my death is not worthy of grief. I am in a better place – I am in a place where pain doesn’t exist. A place, where warm summer nights are eternal. In the place I am reunited with my loved ones. I am in a safe place. I am home. Because she is there, and she has always been home to me.
And I’ve felt homesick for the past decade, because she is not here. But my time has come and I know that she is going to be there to welcome me home. She will be there, like our departion was only yesterday. And she will embrace me and caress my skin as I breathe her familiar scent in. I can’t wait to be home already.
So be happy for me. Be happy that I am no longer living in pain, and that I am finally home. We will meet soon enough too, kid. I know you’ll miss me, I’ll miss you too. But sometimes you have to let go in order to be happy. So let go of me and smile. We will see each other sooner than you can even imagine.” Her smile is soft and something Mako has never seen before. He breaks down into tears and gently pulls Lin into a hug.
“Okay… Thank you, Lin, for everything. I’m going to miss you so much.” He buries his face to her shoulder as Lin wraps her arms around him.
She presses her cheek agains his hair and chuckles. “I am so proud of you, Mako.”
Lin walks towards the sun. It is warm and her body feels alive – ironic, because she is dying.
She is not alone, no. She sees someone familiar. Someone, she has been longing to meet again for over a decade. Someone she will recognize anywhere.
Kya reaches her hands towards Lin and Lin doesn’t hesitate a moment to grab them. Kya smiles and starts walking backwards, pulling Lin with her. “Come on, Lin. Let’s go home.”
Lin can’t help herself, as tears fall down her cheeks. Oh how much she had missed Kya's voice. She follows Kya and holds tighter onto her hands. “Yeah, let’s go home, Kya.”
Only when Lin finally gets to pull Kya into a hug and feel her warm skin against her own, she feels home. The feeling is mutual – they are each other’s homes.