Work Text:
Fear is a complicated emotion for Amicia. It’s something that needs to be heeded, warning her of imminent danger to herself and her friends. Failing to react to fear’s call so often led to disaster. Fear is also something that needs to be overcome, which Amicia had to overcome hesitation more than once on this journey with her little brother to keep him safe, often leaving her with an overwhelming feeling of shame and hands soaked in sin.
This time simply acknowledging the growing anxiousness within her was enough to ignite an immense wave of guilt.
It’s all because her mother has finally awakened after two days of sleeping. All the torture and pain she endured during her imprisonment took its toll on her body; and ever since the adrenaline from the previous days drained and the family found relative safety on the road, the woman has been resting nearly non-stop due to her injuries.
When Amicia first reunited with her mother, there was an incredible light breaking the shadow that continuously cast itself over her life. Now, she always seems to be floating between calm waters of relief and waves of absolute dread when interacting with her; and though her hands are clean, the sensation of shame is still there, weighing her down to where she can’t bring herself to react when Beatrice sits up on her own, albeit settled on the cart wall for support, and examines her surroundings. When her mother’s eyes find her through the obvious haze in them, the young girl can finally convince herself to move forward, whether that’s out of love or obligation she isn’t sure anymore.
Her mother says her name softly and slides nearly frozen fingertips along her cheek. Amicia gently meets her back, offering some warmth to the back of her palm. It’s a bit surreal but this touch finally makes it clear that this is actually real and that their futures are realigned once more. It's somehow not as comforting as she'd imagined. Beatrice lowers her arm in no doubt an effort to pull Amicia closer, but Amicia flinches away without so much an explanation to explain why her body would not accept the simple act of affection when mere days ago she was risking her life and those of her friends to save her mother.
If Beatrice noticed her hesitation, Amicia wouldn’t know because Hugo is immediately on his feet and rushing into the woman, who nearly topples at his strong embrace. Amicia smiles at the joyous occasion. All back together. But her smile feels forced, and she can’t seem to find the answer to why.
Thankful for the distraction, Amicia takes the opportunity to crawl to the front of the cart and alert Lucas to the fact that Beatrice had awoken from her slumber. He quickly finds a place on the road to stop the horses, trades his position at the reins with Amicia, and climbs into the back with the others.
For the past few days, he’s been playing the role of doctor for their mother. Amicia is positive Beatrice wouldn’t be doing as well if not for him.
“I don’t know if you remember me. I mean we’ve had a short introduction earlier, but-” Lucas starts, trying to open a way into easing any worries she may have as he moves closer to her. It’s the first time that they’re really able to talk to one another since everything with the Grand Inquisitor, at least properly. “We’ve met once or twice long before now.”
“I remember. You’re Laurentius' apprentice.”
Lucas nods with satisfaction that she seems to be able to recall events from so long ago. “Yes.”
“I take it this means Laurentius is no longer with us?”
“He passed from the plague, but I’m here to help in his place,” Lucas answers, and Amicia must remember to thank him for not bringing up the full details of what happened at the farm. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to take a look at your wounds now.”
Lucas sets to work examining her, paying extra attention to the poorly healing gash on her head. It was obviously from blunt force and definitely left untreated by whoever imprisoned her. He was only relieved that it didn’t wind up infected or she would have really been in trouble.
Amicia waits up front, listening to Lucas quickly fill Beatrice in on their past and current situation. All the while Hugo holds Beatrice, forcing Lucas to work around him. The sight makes Amicia’s heart feel uneasy, so she focuses her view ahead to avoid addressing the pain in her chest.
Amicia reinforces her grip on the reins and tries to block out the sound of her mother’s voice as she continues on in discussion with Lucas for the duration of her checkup. It always pains Amicia to hear her mother speak of a life that she had no idea about until just months earlier. It only helps build the irritation in her. The more she tries to pinpoint the reason for this frustration, the more her stomach whirlwinds despite being empty of everything besides whatever fruit in their supplies that have yet to rot. The only thing that stops her from becoming overwhelmed is the thickness of the reins as she rolls the braided hide in her hands and the shuffling of the horses in front of her as they await her command.
When Beatrice’s examination is finally complete, she nods back off to sleep, much to Hugo’s concern. “She fell back asleep,” Hugo comments, and he anxiously clenches his vest in his fist.
“There’s nothing to worry about. She is simply tired, a moving cart doesn’t allow the best rest after all.”
“Oh, okay,” Hugo says, relief allowing his body to relax again. He slowly shifts to lay against her side to absorb her warmth and take comfort in her presence. Lucas exits the cart to settle back in the helm next to Amicia.
Keeping her eyes focused on the dark mane in front of her, she doesn’t look at him as he fills the space next to her. “How is she?”
“Most of her bruises have gone down from what I can see. However, her head wound still hasn’t closed up much and her alertness isn’t the best but it’s definitely improving. It also looks like her memory is well and good so that’s reassuring. I’ll continue to watch the physical healing; and with time, she should recover fine.”
Amicia releases the sigh she’s been holding in all this time. “That’s a relief. It’s been a long time since we’ve actually had good news,” she responds, and she’s honestly happy at his prognosis yet her anguished heartache keeps drowning out any positivity that her mind manages to conjure.
“It is,” Lucas agrees before reaching to take the reins from her hands. Amicia doesn’t budge causing him to pause. “Amicia?” He waits for her to respond to him, do anything other than stare into the silence. "Amicia," he asks again, waving his hand in front of her line of vision. It's then that she seems to snap out of her daze.
"Oh, sorry about that," she answers. "Are you ready to go?"
"Yes, but are you okay to lead? You look pale. Maybe you should rest in the back with the others."
“I’m fine besides you’ve been steering all day, take a break.” It’s a poor excuse but Lucas makes no mention of it nor the fact that her hands are flushing red from holding onto the rawhide too roughly.
Sighing, he sits back. “If you wish.”
No matter how many days pass, Amicia can’t shake the exhausting emotions running through her, which become more and more problematic as she avoids conversations with her mother other than to ask how she was feeling and if she was hungry. She mostly keeps herself distracted and out-of-topic of conversation by leading the cart to the nearest town on their map to restock on supplies and escape the worsening cold.
Fortunately, Hugo is well and distracted by nearly everything from their mother to the bugs he finds crawling the edge of the cart and occasionally blessing the horses when they sneeze. It’s at least comforting to have someone in high spirits despite the wind violently whipping at them every night.
All seems to be going about as well as possible until the wind rustles the trees around them, spooking the horses. The cart shakes and lurches with their tantrum, one front wheel rattling as if it might disconnect. Somehow, she manages to regain control of the horses enough to pull off the road with nothing more than a racing heart and some light screaming from the back.
“Is everyone all right?”
"No!" Hugo immediately yells, and Amicia nearly topples over to run to the back.
"What happened, Hugo? Did you hit your head?"
“He's fine, Amicia, just a little scared,” Beatrice answers before she can panic. Beatrice places a hand on his back, soothing him with whispers.
Amicia stares at the scene quietly, unmoving except for her fingers spasming and clamming up at her sides until Lucas interrupts, “We should probably find shelter for the evening.”
"Right, right," Amicia agrees and once again goes to the front and stirs the horses into moving. With any luck, they might be able to find an abandoned shed or house to spend the night.
Eventually, the group comes across a farm, and Amicia walks to the entrance of the house with Hugo in hand to ask the owners for a place to rest their heads. It was a risky tactic, but she finds that people are much more inclined to help when they notice she has a small child at her side. Getting permission from the owners to use their barn as a sleeping place for the night, she heads back to the wagon to let Lucas and Beatrice know.
“The owners said we can rest in the barn,” she informs them, and Lucas moves to procure the horses so they too could avoid some of the harsh winds while Amicia helps Beatrice down from the back.
Amicia grabs her hand gently and easily helps her down. Beatrice smiles faintly at her, and Amicia becomes flustered to be under the scrutiny of her mother once again.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Amicia replies and quickly pulls in front of her to avoid the conversation from dragging on. Once in the barn, Amicia finds a clean spot for her mother to rest; and as it has been for the past few days, Hugo decides to sit under her.
Lucas is the last to join them in the barn, carrying an array of blankets and food in his arms. “They said we could have this.”
He starts to divide the supplies amongst the group, handing bread to the younger boy. Then, Hugo looks up at Lucas hopefully. “Did they give you any apples?”
“I thought you’d be tired of apples by now,” she remarks.
“No one can get tired of apples,” he argues. It’s enough to break a smile across her face to see Hugo still has time to think about fruit. “Mummy, when we get to our new castle, do you think we could plant an apple tree?”
“Of course, my dear. I’ll be sure to help you find a spot to grow it.”
Amicia decides to bury the sudden queasiness in her stomach with the bread Lucas gives to her. It’s a little hard, obviously from that morning, but it’s enough to settle her stomach for now.
As the night wears on, the wind remains heavy and loud, causing the animals to stir and shuffle in the barn. It makes it difficult for Amicia to sleep but she ignores it as she tells herself that she wouldn’t have been able to anyway. Her mind is running way too much each time she spots Hugo sleeping on one side of the barn with their mother. She’s a little jealous of how quick he can fall asleep, but she supposes if she spent all night trying to pet and name every single animal in the barn then she’d have pleasant reasons to dream as well.
Sighing, she shifts to face away from the duo to numb the loneliness eating its way into her heart. It took a while to realize but she fully recognizes what she’s feeling now, and it’s awful and too close to home. She tries to focus on anything else, the wind, the animals, the sound of Lucas flipping through pages of the small journal he keeps on him.
It’s a last resort for Amicia to trail her way to the corner he picked out for himself and sit at his side, drawing her knees to her chest to match his position. She didn’t want to bother him, but she needed someone to help keep her thoughts from spiraling. Lucas, well, he always seemed pretty good at keeping her mind on the straight and narrow. If not, he would at least be able to give her a mixture to help calm her.
“What are you reading?”
“Just studying some of my old notes,” he answers. Amicia peers over his shoulder to look at the scratches of words but decides asking for more information is useless as she understands nearly none of it aside from the names of a few materials he’s mentioned to her. “Although, I should probably make a list of things we need before we reach town.”
“How far away are we?”
“At this pace, maybe a day or two. That’s if this blasted weather clears by morning,” he complains.
“Seems to be getting worse ever since we started on the road.” Her sights settle back on Hugo, instinctively searching for him to make sure he was okay, which was unnecessary now it seems. “At least mother and Hugo are staying warm and snuggly.”
Lucas chuckles at her observation as he watches Hugo cuddle closer to her side. “If you’re cold, you should join them.”
“Oh, well, that’s not really necessary. They have one another, but you, I thought you might be cold all over here on your lonesome, so I figured we could bunk up, make this night bearable for all of us at least.”
Sighing, Lucas closes his notebook with a snap. Amicia gulps as he meets her eye. “Amicia, is this one of those things you want me to pretend to ignore, or are you going to tell me what’s wrong?”
Her eyes go wide, and heat begins to rush to her cheeks, flushing the chill from them. She clears her throat awkwardly. “It’s not, it’s not like that.”
“Come on. We’ve been living together too long for me not to notice something wrong with you. I mean look,” he says, and Amicia winces as he grabs her hands. He faces her hands upwards to reveal a distinct line of red blisters and friction burns snaking across her palms from compulsively grinding and rubbing on the reins over the last few days. Unnerved, Amicia snatches them away to wrap her arms around her knees and pins her chin to her chest to hide her embarrassment. It figures he would notice that she’s been acting out of the norm, always the perceptive one when he isn’t nose-deep in a book. She wonders if all alchemists were like that and if that means Beatrice would have noticed as well.
“It’s hard to explain. I’m not sure you’d understand.”
“We’ll never know unless you tell me.”
“I want to but-” she sighs and buries her head against her knees. The shaking in her body doesn’t calm no matter how hard she hugs her legs, let alone the stirring in her head that stops her from even beginning to know how to explain this to him. The very idea of telling anyone makes her eyes swell hot and heavy, and her voice is small, not only because she’s afraid of being overheard but also because she can’t muster any confidence in the face of what she considers selfishness. “I don’t want you to think I’m a bad person.”
It’s quiet much too long for her liking, and she’s afraid to see what expression he must be making, what he must be thinking, but his hand gently grabs her shoulder to force her to look up.
“Amicia, you’re everything short of a bad person. You always do your best to help others where you can, and you’ve saved us more than I can count,” he reassures her. “Honestly, there’s very little you could say that would make me think less of you.”
The kindness in his eyes is the thing that makes her believe him, and she slowly wipes the evidence of frustration away from her face. “Thank you. I’m alright now,” she says before finding the courage to explain the situation in a low whisper.
“The thing is…it’s been so long since I’ve been with mother, and for the longest time I thought she was dead. Now that I know she’s alive, I should be happy that we’re finally all together again, a happy family, right? But…the idea of her being here terrifies me.”
Confused, Lucas tilts his head. “Are you not happy she’s alive?”
“No, no, of course, I’m happy that she is alive and breathing and well,” Amicia lists off airily, almost like she’s still dreaming of the day she first saw her again then it all melts into distress. “Yet now that she’s here and stable, I have no idea how to approach her. What if she doesn’t approve of what I’ve done?”
“She’s your mother. I’m sure she’s happy that the two of you are simply alive and healthy, well, relatively I suppose considering the last few days.”
“You don’t understand,” Amicia reiterates. She takes a deep breath, knowing that she’ll need to explain better. “Maybe I’m not explaining it right. But when I was younger, before we met you, Hugo was very sick because of the Macula. Mother was always busy trying to cure him, and she would lock herself away with him practically since the day he was born. I hardly had contact with her, and when I did we always fought. Then when all of this happened, I was suddenly responsible for Hugo, and all of these things she kept from me were suddenly becoming real. All on my own, I kept fighting to keep him safe and to be with him, but now that she’s here, he’s been attached to her the entire time like I barely exist.”
“I think that’s natural," Lucas begins, trying to think of the most delicate way to give his opinion. "He’s missed her all this time, and he’s catching up on months without her. I’m sure as soon as he realizes that she isn’t going to be taken away again then it’ll be like it was before.”
“That’s what bothers me. What if everything goes back to like it was back home?” she asks him. “Father is no longer here, and Hugo doesn’t need me anymore. If Mother starts to concern herself only with him again, I don’t, I don’t know what to do if that happens. I wouldn’t be able to bear it. Not after all this.”
Lucas understands her troubles now. He believed maybe it was simply jealousy and not her depressing herself over the chance that she’d be pushed aside by her only remaining family again. “Do you want my advice?”
“…Please,” she hoarsely croaks.
“Talk to her.”
She shakes her head. “I can’t.”
His solution isn't something that hasn't crossed her mind. She's thought for years, tried for years to be able to connect, and it always failed. Why should this be any different?
“Amicia, you’re doing nothing but worrying yourself sick over what you think she might be thinking when you can hear it directly from her. This is a new situation, a fresh start, and you know just as much about his condition as she does now. There’s no need for her to hide it from you anymore, and you’ve proven more than enough that she can rely on you so if there’s ever the time to resolve this then it is now.”
“I know you’re right, you’re right but I don’t even know where to start.”
“How about this?” Lucas begins, “Clear your head for now, get some rest, and we’ll wake up early tomorrow and work out what you want to say. Then, when Hugo wakes up, I’ll take him to look for some herbs so that you can talk with your mother.” When she doesn’t respond, he adds, “Unless you want me there.”
Amicia considers his offer. It’s certainly better than what she’s been doing by a long shot. She quietly mulls over her options. Luckily, he doesn’t rush her to answer. There are really only two paths to take, let things simmer like this or try to at least talk to her like he suggested. Plus, Lucas has always been better with wording things than her so maybe mother would be more likely to listen if Lucas helped her figure out what to say in a more digestible manner. “I think practicing is a good idea but talking to her should be something I do on my own.”
Lucas nods. “Of course. Any how we have a plan then.”
Amicia sighs softly as an inkling of relief starts to fill her heart. A plan. There’s a plan. She’s relieved that the situation isn’t totally lost even more so that she’s finally able to get this weight off her chest and actually breathe nice and deep.
“Thank you for listening. It makes all this a little easier.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m always here if you need it.” It’s a simple and friendly promise, and it makes her happy to have someone there to call her friend and ease her mind through all the chaos of the world. “You should rest. We have an early day tomorrow.”
"What about you?"
"I'm going to stay up a bit longer and work on some things," he explains. “Just try to focus on having a good sleep, Amicia.”
Remaining close enough to feel the heat from his presence, Amicia decides to lie down and make the most of her small blanket by curling up. As he instructed, she tries to steady her mind and will herself to rest, intertwining her fingers and praying silently under her breath for enough calm to get to sleep. Unfortunately, it’s still a struggle to completely relax her anxiety.
“Hah…Lord.”
Hearing her rasp, Lucas brings his hand over her trembling fists to help see her through it, and she’s reminded that she wasn't going to go into this alone like she always had. He'd helped her make a plan. All she had to do was trust it. Believing in their promise, she rearranges her hands to clasp around his like an anchor for good dreams.
That morning, she and Lucas talked out as much as they could before Hugo woke up. As the two boys prepare to leave, Lucas reaches into his pack and hands a small container of thick green gritty goop as she can best describe it, and she hates how she never learns her lesson to not sniff the weird creations he offers her.
“Ugh, what is this?”
“It’s medicine for her head,” he explains, opening the container and scooping some of the material in his hand. “You need to rub it in your hands to melt it a bit then put it directly over her wound like this,” he says and mirrors the instructions on her own hands as an example.
Amicia releases a small gasp as her nerves begin to tickle. “It tingles a bit.”
“Means it’s working, works equally as well on burns.”
It doesn’t take long for her to realize that he used his demonstration as the chance to treat the wound on her hands, which the skin was already feeling a little less irritated as she flexes. “Oh, thank you.”
“Lucas, you’re taking too long!” A cry interrupts. “It’s freezing out here.”
Amicia smiles sheepishly. “You should hurry to your boys’ trip. Be careful."
“Don't worry. I won't take him far. Alright, Hugo,” Lucas calls out. “Let’s see if we can find something useful.”
Seeing the two go off into the distance, Amicia turns, clutches the medicine to her chest, and breathes rhythmically to calm the butterflies fluttering in her stomach. She had to remember to remain calm and not let her emotions overtake her too much, just like traversing the rat hordes. With as much confidence as she could muster, she heads towards her mother with the poultice, hoping it would be the icebreaker she needed to speak to the woman.
“Good morning, mother,” she greets, kneeling in front of her. “How are you?”
“Much better than I have been lately."
Beatrice sits up taller than she has in the past few days. Amicia notes that her skin has taken a much healthier color, and her eyes are bright and alert, which means that this would be a good time as any to talk to her.
“That’s good. I got your medicine for you. Hope you don’t mind me being your doctor today.”
“Not at all. It’s nice to see you so early in the morning.”
Amicia flushes lightly at the attention, unsure what to say in the face of pleasantries from her mother, and she hates how her mind dares to question if her mother is being sincere. She leans towards her, brushing brunette hair until she can make a part to the wound on her head. She prepares the medicine like Lucas instructed and begins to treat the wound. Amicia pays no attention to her mother examining her as well, the armor over her chest, the sling at her side, the hardening in her face that shows layers of strength, growth, and everything that shows a young woman having to mature much too suddenly. Yet, Amicia did it. Amicia rescued her, made a cure for her brother, and now she was taking care of her.
"You’ve gotten strong.”
Amicia feels her heart flutter at the compliment. She wasn’t expecting it, and it isn’t something the two of them practiced, but it was similar. “I had to.”
“I bet," she replies, proud yet sad. "I can’t imagine what you’ve been through.”
“Compared to what you must've endured, it wasn’t too difficult,” Amicia answers as she finally finishes re-dressing her mother’s wound. It was an ugly sight to see, and Amicia doesn’t want to know how bad it was before Lucas got to it as he's obviously been downplaying the damage. And that's only the damage Amicia can see. “I’m sorry, mother, for not coming to rescue you sooner. We thought you died…” Amicia realizes that’s not quite right. Hugo never stopped believing even when she did, and even that hurts to think about. She lowers her head. “I thought you died, but Hugo, he always had hope. He’s really who saved you.”
Beatrice’s eyes soften. “Amicia, you don’t have to apologize. Even if you knew, children storming a fortress to rescue someone would be way too dangerous, and I must admit that I was surprised to see you two come for me even after discovering where I was though grateful you did,” she confesses, her brow scrunches as she thinks back on the worry in her heart watching her two children and their friends fight an army for her. “Even so, as long as the two of you were safe and happy that would have been enough for me to be without regrets in the end.”
It's just as Lucas said. Beatrice was only focused on the knowledge that her children were alive, but Amicia doesn't know if she would still agree once she knew everything, once Amicia reminded her of everything that's always been between them since she was a child. “That’s the thing. It wasn’t happy,” Amicia explains, holding back her anger and resentment in exchange for the ability to keep her heart open. “I made so many mistakes. Hugo and I fought constantly, and I said so many awful things to him because of it.”
“It happens, siblings fight, but siblings who care for each other always make up in the end. And it’s obvious the two of you do.”
It's a tender notion, and Amicia has done all she can to make amends with him, falling in love with her little brother in less than a year of knowing him but the strain of their travels, no, of all those early years is still something she needs to speak on. She had to in order to have any hope of letting go of this anger and bitterness towards her mother. That way she could start making amends with all parts of the past.
“It was more serious than that. It still is more serious than that,” Amicia says, falling onto both knees and gripping angrily at the straw underneath her. “I was so angry having to care for someone who was basically a stranger and who always seemed to take from me, especially you.” And she feels her shame returning, and it burns to think about how awful she was to him back then. “Hugo always got to have you to himself, and he kept crying and whining over you from day one. It made me hate him so much for being so difficult just because it had been a day since he last saw you when I wasn’t able to see you for years.”
Unable to finish it in one breath, Amicia takes a deep, shaky breath. When her mother doesn't stop her, she takes it as a sign to continue.
“Then, I realized I wasn’t angry at him for missing you so dreadfully. I was angry because I was never going to have the chance to have the relationship he does with you since you were gone. And now that you’re back, I still can’t figure out if I’ll have that chance or if things will return to the way they were when you and Hugo didn’t need me.”
Her lungs are empty by the time she finishes, and they burn painfully as they rapidly refill with icy air. She can’t sense anything around her, not even the tears escaping down her cheeks until Beatrice caresses her skin and cleans the wetness away with the brush of her thumb. Softly, she begins shushing Amicia like she’s so often seen her do for Hugo.
“Amicia, my love, listen to me,” she coos soothingly. It almost seems silly to Amicia for her to be comforted like a child after so long of being the adult in her own life, but it works to stop her from crying more. Beatrice tilts Amicia's head up and forces glossed eyes to look at her.
It's different from the many times she's been rejected and scolded for demanding the attention that others got for free. Amicia has seen this look before when she looked in the mirror, the shimmer of regret.
Beatrice exhales softly at the sight of Amicia's bare face, taking in the vulnerability spreading across her features. It seems she missed so much, including her daughter becoming such an amazing, resourceful young woman because she forgot years too soon that Amicia was and is also still a child. “I’m sorry. I’ve been putting you through more than I realized, and I know I haven’t been there since your brother has been sick, but I am here now for the both of you.”
Sniffing, Amicia presses her hand over her mother’s hand to relish in the smallest amount of intimacy given to her with a desperate squeeze. She’d forgotten how gentle her mother’s touch was after all these years, and she didn’t want to let it go. “It was so hard without you, not just with the rats but with everything,” her voice cracks on the final word.
“I know, darling." Amicia can hardly believe how easily her mother accepts her feelings when every other interaction in the past always seemed to lead to a fight between the two of them. It’s more than she could ask for, and it feels like a fever dream to finally be together, truly, and openly together. “I thought you wouldn’t be able to understand but I was clearly mistaken. You’ve done such a good job, and I’m so proud of what you’ve done for yourself and for your little brother.”
“There were so many times I thought we wouldn’t make it, and I was so scared to lose him and disappoint you," Amicia confesses, her voice beginning to strain and crack under the pressure of her own fluttering happiness.
“I could never be disappointed in you," Beatrice comforts, sweeping the loose strands that escaped Amicia's braid behind her ear. "Your brother has been telling me so much about what’s happened, and all you’ve done to keep him safe. All he does is speak of you.”
Amicia blinks away her stubborn tears. He hadn’t forgotten her. “I-I didn’t realize.”
Beatrice smiles. “It seems I missed you growing up into such a strong and beautiful young woman, but I will do my best not to miss anymore. We’ll all be in this together from now on.”
Her restraint cracking, Amicia tosses all her thoughts away and throws her arms around her mother, embracing her hard as if she’d disappear if let go. Amicia buries her head against Beatrice's shoulder and melts into a granted childhood wish to simply be by her mother’s side. “I’ve missed you so much!” She sobs for the years she couldn't, and the ice around her heart begins to chip and thaw when her mother strokes her head and places a kiss at her temple.
“And I, you.”