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The visit to Beauregard's parents had been... well, it had been awful to be quite honest. They were just as shitty as he had thought they would be and watching the way she shrank in on herself had been horrible. He knew that a lot of her bravado was compensation, he had always known that, but in the time they had travelled together she had grown so much. He loved her; she was his sister in everything but blood. Watching someone who was supposed to love her just as much as the Nein did treat her with such a dismissive attitude had set his blood boiling. He knew the others were just as angry, but no one in the Nein was particularly good at expressing themselves.
He found her before bed, sitting as though in meditation, but glaring out over the vineyards. She stood when he walked over, stretching and feigning ease in a way he recognized too well.
“So...” he started, watching her expression carefully “that was... certainly something”
“Yeah, they’re dicks, I know” she was clearly trying to play it off, but the hard set of her shoulders gave her away “except the kid, I guess”
“TJ?” She flinched, and he frowned “you can talk to me Beauregard, I... well, I know something is up”
She seemed to freeze for a moment, lighter blue eyes meeting his briefly before fixing on the vines again. He waited, letting her decide what and just how much she wanted to share. He wouldn’t push too hard; these sorts of things were hard on a person. Finally, her shoulders drooped, one hand coming to rest on the opposite bicep as she turned to face him.
“I just...” she paused, looking for the right words “I’m tired of being everyone’s second choice! I wanted someone to actually care about me for once. I wanted...”
Caleb’s heart cracked in his chest as she trailed off, eyes downcast and jaw set tight and stubborn. Her arms, always moving, had come to rest wrapped around her torso as if to hold herself together. He reached out, tugging gently at one wrist and trying to hide his surprise when (after a moments hesitation) she allowed herself to be pulled forward. He wrapped his arms around her, squeezing tight as her hands came up to grip the back of his coat.
“Now...” he mumbled into her hair “I am not the best at this sort of thing, you know that, but... but you are wrong here ja ?” she shook her head where it was pressed to his shoulder, but he continued anyway “your parents, they are... well, they are idiots, and Arschlöcher... assholes” (he clarified, feeling her head tilt at the Zemnian word) “and they have made a great mistake in not seeing how you are”
“We’re assholes too” she sniffed, “all of us”
“ Ja , yes we are. But we are assholes who love you, and who would choose you any day, all the days”
He felt her hands clenching and unclenching against his back and knew his ribs would ache later from how tightly she held on, but he wouldn’t complain. For all their teasing and good-natured ribbing, she was his family, his sister. He would take some bruised ribs any day to show her that.
“I feel like I should hate him” she murmured, and he knew she meant TJ “because they want him, they love him... but he’s just a baby, he doesn’t...”
“He does not know” Caleb finished softly “that they have made that choice”
“Right”
“One day he will, and if he has any brains at all he will choose as we have. He will choose you, as we do” he squeezed her again, holding tight “as we always will”
They stood a while longer, silent and holding tightly to each other, before she pulled away with a sniff. He didn’t mention the red rim around her eyes, or comment on how close she stayed for the rest of the evening. He saw no reason to, he had meant what he said, and would stand by it. He would choose her, out of everyone else in this cursed Empire and beyond, he would choose his sister, first and always.