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Soul sits on the bottom porch step, watching Darrell peck at the ground.
He’s probably just trying to find bugs to snack on, although maybe he’s just going after the grass. There weren't any bugs, before, but now there are.
Soul grabs a watermelon slice from the tupperware container beside it and tears off a few pieces to toss to the ground. Darrell eats them up, clucking and pecking happily.
Soul watches Darrell for a while, and then looks at the sky. It’s mostly cloudless right now. It has been, since Heart and Mind started getting along again. {for now for now for now.}
The clock-like Sun shines proudly in the sky, slightly-cold rays illuminating the world. It’s somehow brighter than it was before and less harsh at the same time. Gently warm breezes blow past Soul every once in a while, caressing it.
There's flowers growing around the house now, and around the porch. Calendulas. Petunias. Hydrangeas. Zephyranthes.
Soul's seen Heart and Mind tending to them together, laughing and chatting amicably, but it doesn't know if Heart and Mind planted them, or if they sprouted themselves in the wake of their budding harmony. It hadn't asked.
Darrell's hasn't pecked at the flowers once since they appeared. Maybe she just knows not to.
Soul hears the door open behind it, but doesn't bother to check who it is. There's no incessant ticking from that clock in Mind's face, and Heart moves as silently as they always do.
“(Hey,)” Heart walks down the steps and sits next to Soul, the wings on his back folding neatly behind him. He faces straight ahead towards Darrell.
Soul ignores the blue stain on his neck. “{...Hi.}” It tears off another piece of watermelon and throws it to the happily clucking chicken.
“(What are you giving her?)” Heart asks curiously, those smaller wings on the side of their head flicking. They're more expressive now that they're not constantly folded to cover Heart’s eyes.
"{Watermelon.}" Soul doesn't have the energy to tell him to leave. {Maybe it just doesn't want to.}
”(Oh, cool.)” Heart leans over Soul with no regard for its personal space and grabs a slice of watermelon out of its tupperware container. They right themself and begin nibbling at their stolen goods.
“{If you're going to be a thief, you might as well give some to Darrell,}” Soul says. Its tail flicks behind it in irritation.
Heart obliges and picks off a piece of watermelon, holding it out to Darrell.
“(Ow!)” Heart hisses and drops the piece, shaking his hand out. Darrell pecks eagerly at her dropped treat. Soul snorts.
Heart flicks their ear towards it in acknowledgement and slight irritation as they go back to nibbling on their watermelon.
Soul watches him for a moment, before going back to watching Darrell. It shifts its leg to feel the trident shift with it.
Heart leans over Soul and steals another piece of watermelon.
“{Did you seriously come out here just to steal Darrell's watermelon?}” Soul asks them incredulously.
“(No,)” Heart says, slowly chewing on their watermelon piece. “(I also wanted to sit with you. Isn’t it nice out?)”
Soul feels another gentle gust of warm air pass the two of them. Heart’s wings flutter behind him contentedly, puffing up in the breeze. “{I guess it is,}” Soul admits, glancing up at the sky again.
Heart finishes their watermelon and tilts their head back as if they can still see the sky.
“(Tell me about the sky?)” His voice is soft, although it usually is when they're at this stage of tentative peace.
Soul knows Mind's already done this for him, shortly after they reconciled; some sort of apology, Soul thinks, for being the reason Heart would never get to see it again himself.
{Heart, clawing at his eyes like a wild animal. Clinging to Soul, begging, get it out get it out get it out—
what other choice had Soul had?}
It shakes the thought away vehemently. There's nothing to be done about it now.
It tells him about the sky anyway, even though Mind already has, even though it has the itching suspicion that Heart's motivated by something more here than just plain curiosity.
“{...The sky is blue, and bright, and eternally high.}” A pause, another breeze caressing over Soul’s skin. Heart shifts slightly closer, like he thinks Soul won’t notice.
It continues speaking instead of acknowledging him. “{The Sun’s almost right overhead, now. Watching us and ticking away. There’s a few wispy trails of clouds, but not enough to actually block out any of the light.}”
Heart is beside Soul, now. They’re not touching it, not yet, but their wing stretches out behind Soul as if framing it.
... it’s nice, even if something deep and instinctive itches inside of Soul at the motion, tells it to get up and leave Heart alone here on the porch steps. Says, don’t let the parasites get too close, lest they attempt to shake your faith, lest we fall apart again. You are meant to be alone, Atlas; the sky is solely your burden to bear. Don’t get too comfortable, lest you fall and crash and burn.
It tosses Darrell another few watermelon pieces instead, and if it's a little rougher than it needs to be tearing the pieces off, that’s not anybody’s business but its own.
“(That’s probably a good thing,)” Heart comments. “(There hasn’t been very many storms in a while either, has there?)”
Soul takes a moment to remember what they were talking about, and then nods even though Heart can’t see it. “{It hasn’t properly rained in a while,}” Soul agrees. “{Only light drizzles.}”
“(Does it look nice?)” Heart asks, and when Soul glances at him, his head is turned towards it, and he’s leaning a bit closer. The closeness makes something in Soul stutter, a tightness settling in its chest. Probably anxiety, it tells itself.
“{...Yeah,}” Soul says. “{Yeah, it does.}”
Heart smiles in a soft, satisfied sort of way and then leans over Soul to grab another piece of watermelon, causing Soul to huff in offense. “(Don’t worry, don’t worry,)” Heart laughs. “(I’ll give some to Darrell.)”
They sit back upright, stretching their wing back behind Soul so the tips of their feathers just barely brush against the back of Soul’s jacket. Soul pointedly ignores it.
They sit in mostly-comfortable silence for a while, save Soul’s swirling thoughts; both occasionally tossing pieces of watermelon to Darrell. After about the fifth time Heart goes to lean over it to grab a piece of watermelon, Soul takes a piece and shoves it into his hands, instead.
“{Here,}” it huffs. “{Stop leaning over me, mate. Just ask.}”
Heart laughs like he just won some kind of game that Soul wasn't aware they were playing. Maybe he did. He begins to eat his watermelon instead of responding, and when he finishes, Soul hands him another.
They continue on like that, lapsing back into silence until Heart starts humming some soft tune under their breath. Soul listens, but can't identify the song, so it's probably one they're making up on the spot.
Heart inches closer again. Soul considers just ignoring him, but... figures if Heart’s going to get closer anyway, it should probably move the trident resting against its leg to the other side of itself. It does, going back to watching Darrell.
Darrell pecks at the grass a few more times before stretching back up, looking at Soul and tilting his head slightly with a soft noise in the back of his throat.
“{What?}”
More clucking. Darrell steps forward and she pecks at Soul's boot once, before looking back up at it.
“{You want up?}”
Darrell just stares at it, and Soul sighs before picking Darrell up and setting him on the step next to itself. Darrell immediately hops up onto Soul's lap and gets comfortable on its leg. Soul finds itself smiling softly, reaching out to pet Darrell, feeling his soft feathers under its fingers.
A weight settles itself on Soul's shoulder. Soul glances out of the corner of its eye, seeing Heart resting there with their wing still stretched out behind Soul.
Soul almost pushes him off, feels that same familiar resistance itching under its skin saying to push him away and leave him. It doesn’t.
It just doesn't want to disturb Darrell, is all. Or deal with the ensuing irritation that Heart will surely have if Soul pushes them away. It's just easier to let them more fully wrap their wing around Soul's back and side, practically hugging it. It's just easier, is all.
It's just easier for Soul to sit in silence only broken by Heart beginning to hum Spring and a Storm. It's just easier to stay there, feeling Darrell’s soft feathers under its fingers and Heart's hair spilling over its shoulder, soft and curly, and Soul does not itch to run its fingers through it the way it’s running them through Darrell’s feathers, absolutely not.
They stay like that, in easy silence except for Heart humming different songs to himself and to Soul, until Mind comes looking for them, ticking and complaining about them not being in for dinner.
Heart laughs easily, lightly, like he's not weighted down by a million things like he once was. He immediately fires back some lighthearted remark to Mind as he slowly unfolds himself, stretches his wings out, and pulls himself up.
Soul watches them, watches the way Mind's eyes drift to that blue stain still on Heart's neck as he speaks, something complicated in its eyes as Heart keeps talking to it.
Soul itches, something sharp panging in its chest.
Soul’s always known that Heart and Mind capture each other's attention far better than Soul ever could. It's one of the constants throughout every single loop, for eternity. Whether they're fighting and ignoring all of Soul's attempts to get them to stop, or whether they've reconciled and get caught up in lighthearted teasing and shared moments of softness—they’ve always orbited each other, absorbed; the black and the white, clashing and coexisting and spilling into each other with little room for the grey. It's one of the fundamental truths of their existence.
“(Hey, Starshine, you coming?)” Heart asks, and Soul startles as Heart bumps its shoulder with their hand, holding it out in a silent offer to help Soul up.
Soul stares at their hand for a moment, something stuttering in its chest.
It gathers Darrell under one arm and temporarily desummons the trident, then takes Heart's hand and lets them pull it to its feet. Heart starts walking it towards the door, Mind—holding their mostly-empty watermelon container—in tow.
Heart starts talking again, but Soul focuses more on the light, relaxed smile on his lips than his actual words, looking like he's got everything he could possibly want in the world as he squeezes Soul's hand within his own.
Something in Soul's chest tightens with painful tenderness, and it doesn't pull away.