Work Text:
The first time Aisha starts to understand why Musa chose Riven is 4 months after the war with Rosalind. Initially, she was confused about her best friend’s choice. Sure, half the women and maybe a third of the men at Alfea could testify for his ‘technique’, goodness she hoped Musa got tested, but Aisha couldn’t wrap her head around their… odd relationship when Musa awkwardly held Riven’s hand in their makeshift living quarters and announced she was dating the bloody arse. He just smirked through it all and swung their connected hands while Terra launched into a series of stuttering questions and Stella threw her shoe at the arrogant Specialist. Rather dramatic, but after 2 years of living with Stella, it was out of concern just in the shape of drama. Bloom blinked owlishly for what felt like 3 minutes and while Aisha’s reaction wasn’t acceptance, she would say she handled the situation much better than half of the suite.
It’s 4 months after the final battle with Rosalind and Alfea is still recovering when she catches a glimpse into why. The campus was reduced to rubble, forcing the students and faculty to spend the rest of their semester in tents - magical tents, but still tents. Stella worked hard as the Solarian representative to push the reconstruction so the school could continue with their next semester, but while Dowling was still recovering from dying, resurrecting, and the war in addition to Solarian politics, the reconstruction was going slow. It wasn’t just the physical campus though, the students and faculty were still recovering. Aisha knew Musa had the worst of it. Aisha remembered when Musa would get so overwhelmed when it was just testing season, she’d once thrown up and needed to spend the rest of the day in bed with her headphones securely on. While Musa had learned to control her powers more effectively, Aisha knew the young empath still struggled and was in a worse state than Alfea’s campus on certain days. It was one of these days when Aisha first understands. Well, is at least, less confused - it is still Riven.
Aisha was in the remnants of the Greenhouse which they used as an infirmary, helping the Harveys treat the, thankfully, dwindling guest list when Riven rushed in holding an unconscious Musa. He was like a whirlwind, whipping papers and beakers to set Musa in the center of the broken-down infirmary. She remembers him hoarsely yelling for ‘help, someone fucking help her, please’. She remembers wrenching him from Musa’s side to help Terra examine her.
‘What was she doing?’ She called over her shoulder.
No answer. Aisha remembers whipping from Musa to scream for answers and hesitates for only half a second when she rounds on Riven’s catatonic face, eyes glassy.
She demands again and he jerks and breathes deeply, shakily, as though he hadn’t tasted air since he carried her limp form in.
‘We were picking up supplies and all of the sudden she collapsed.’
Musa stirs, only to seize violently against the rickety table. Aisha remembers him roughly running a hand through his moused curls and his face distorted painfully- terror, confusion, sadness before she turned to tend to Musa.
They stabilize Musa and move her back to their shared makeshift tent within the hour. After examining her and the supply area, Aisha and the Harveys suspected it was PTSD in addition to her empathic powers that overwhelmed her mind causing her collapse and seizure.
She remembers delivering Musa back to their makeshift tent, Riven hissing at the volunteers moving the empath from the gurney to her cot, Riven gently picking up Musa’s hand once the volunteers were thoroughly verbally assaulted, and herself, quietly tugging Terra away from the blanketed room as Riven brought Musa’s hand to his lips and settled on the ground beside her cot.
By the time Aisha sees them again, the waning moon shined dimly behind the clouds of that same day. She moves past their tent’s flap and glanced at Bloom and Sky who spoke in hushed tones while eating atop their plastic table they managed to snag because of Stella. The perks of living with royalty. She breezed past their common area, approaching Musa and Terra’s shared section just as Terra wearily steps out. Everyone speaks in hushed tones these days, whether from exhaustion or a leftover habit from war, Aisha doesn’t know, but she waits for Terra to respond to her imploring eyes.
‘She hasn’t woken up yet’ Terra shakes her head, diverting her attention to the various plants, not the same number as in their first-year suite though. Musa had teased her roommate about Terra’s tendency to find comfort with plants despite being surrounded by them 24/7.
Aisha slowly approached Musa’s section, peering through the flap’s crack and landing on Riven, illuminated by a dim lantern, exactly where they left him only he’s sitting on a proper stool with Musa’s hand against his lips. Upon closer examination, there’s a half-eaten bowl of whatever Sky and Bloom were eating and Aisha could slightly hear whispers. She inched closer, curious to hear what he was saying. She remembers catching bits and pieces of Riven’s whispers, promises to protect her better, jibes in hopes that she’ll respond, pleas for her to wake up. With furrowed brows, Aisha retreats again to join her suite mates at their table. They eat with occasional chats about their assignments which paled in the moonlight of the war they had just fought.
Musa wakes up the next day and nothing’s changed in the suite really, just a newfound curiosity in Aisha. When Musa had first told them of her relationship with Riven, Aisha had gone into super-sleuth mode, trying to find remnants of a hypnosis potion Riven must have used on Musa, but her investigation came up short. No, this time Aisha found quiet fascination in watching them.
The day Musa wakes up, Aisha is the second to find out. She wakes up at the crack-ass of dawn, as Bloom lovingly puts it, and finds Musa at their shared table sipping her coffee, wrapped in a fleece blanket, and listening to something with one earbud. The earbuds partner was held captive by Riven, also at the table, head draped against Musa’s shoulder as he straddles their table bench to face Musa’s side profile. They sit silently and Aisha remembers feeling almost bad about interrupting their time together, but one thing she learned about herself was routine kept her sane, so she worked to make her morning coffee. The inevitable clang brought Aisha to Riven’s attention who quickly readjusted himself, untangling his hidden hands which were apparently wrapped around Musa’s waist, and twisting to face the table with his hands clasped and head bowed. Clearly, he hadn’t slept at all last night, she noted with a quirked eyebrow how their shoulders still touched.
‘Off to your morning swim?’ The empath breaks the silence.
Aisha slowly pours her coffee and smiles softly ‘Gotta catch up from the days I couldn’t.’
The next time she catches another moment between the fascinating two is when the reconstruction of Alfea’s campus is finally done and Solarian cars are parked in the roundabout gravel in a feigned effort to return to normal- much less intimidating than when ex-Queen Luna first arrived. Aisha is waiting for her assigned car to pull up but spies Musa seeing Riven off who looks stressed to say the least. And, Aisha can understand why. While they would be returning to Alfea as third years, Sky, Stella, and Riven wouldn’t be. They would spend their fourth year transitioning from their general Fairy and Specialist studies to apprenticeships and both Riven and Sky had accepted apprenticeships with the Solarian Army. An apprenticeship like this was an honor, but it was a rigorous program because this wasn’t for soldiers. No, this apprenticeship was to weed out the generals in a field of soldiers.
Out of the corner of her eye, Aisha watched as her friend grabs the agitated man by the back of his neck to bring her down to her impossibly short level. He instinctively wraps his arms around her waist while she whispers something in his ear.
The water fairy can’t quite make out what Musa’s saying, but out of the corner of her eye, because she’s not a creepy onlooker, Riven throws his head back with his trademark smirk, arrogance, and pomp back. He chuckles before dropping back to his girlfriend with a glint in his eye.
‘Stay out of my head, red flag.’
Ok, rude. Aisha scrunches her face and redirects her attention to her left as they laugh in between kisses. Of course, to her left is Sky and Bloom who are also kissing, and suddenly the new gravel looks more interesting. Again, she’s not a creepy onlooker, but the wet necking sounds made her wish she wasn’t a creepy eavesdropper by situation.
There are little moments scattered throughout their third year. Musa complained about how she needed to get a part-time job because her phone bill freaked her out, but Aisha found it hard to sympathize with the empath given how often Riven managed to sneak out of his rigorous program to see her. She could afford the high phone bill. Sky tagged along on a couple of their escapades, but Bloom had wings so opted to fly to Sky herself most of the time. Riven visited almost weekly on this newest technology called a hoverbike. An air fairy with a penchant for technology, and ironically named Tecna, co-developed it with a rather nerdy specialist named Timmy. And, the only reason she knows this is because she happened to be in the common room when Riven loudly gushed about it. Hah, nerd.
Of course, that same nerd traveled from Solaria’s capital straight to Alfea all so he could deliver Stella’s sun ring to Musa when her father fell ill and traveling between realms was heavily restricted. She distinctly remembered being very annoyed, waking up in the middle of the night to Riven banging against their suite window. Musa had taken a late-night walk and Riven had just arrived in a sure-fire tizzy because the five hours between the capital and the campus wasn’t anything to scoff at. Plus, hover bikes hadn’t been decked out for comfort, more like combat so the ride was stiff to say the least.
By the end of their third year, their fourth-year friends are graduating and Aisha finally understands. It starts with the night before graduation. There’s a large party just for the students to celebrate their journey and Aisha excused herself from the group to give a campus tour to her guest, Nabu. It’s on that tour where they’re trading quips back and forth that she sees Musa and Riven on one of the training platforms by the pond. She never did get to swim in it. The floating fairy lights framed them and the pond as if it was a hallmark movie Bloom forced the suite to watch, just the two of them dressed to the nines with Musa laying her head on Riven’s outstretched legs. She doesn’t catch what they say to each other but just watches the picturesque scene as Riven leans down to kiss Musa. It’s slow and intimate and Nabu drags her away.
It’s the day of graduation that understanding fully sets in. The fourth years have grabbed their diplomas, all the speeches were read, hats thrown into the air and Aisha watches as Musa runs to congratulate the hellion of her boyfriend. Nothing too interesting but Aisha follows Musa as she and Riven part - probably because Sky forced him from her embrace. But, she began walking to the Harveys. At this moment, Aisha holds her breath as Musa reaches over to tap Sam, mid-embrace with his sister. Aisha had always been a fan of Sam because she was there when Musa first found him. She remembers the empath’s face, the relief from the absence of chaos, and love-struck googly eyes that came later in the relationship, but as Aisha watched the two exes interact, she sees. She sees friends who, after a war and the growth that comes from 3 years of life, are just that, friends. Of course, she rolls her eyes when Riven joins the two, wrapping an arm around his pixie and flipping Sam off with the other. And, of course, Sam laughs while Musa gently ribs Riven. They’re too far away to hear anything, but Aisha just watches as they walk off, partners who were changed by a devastating war, but changed together, completely content with the people they’ve become and the people they are with each other and she understands.