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When Kiden finds Laura again, it’s almost purely by accident.
She’d seen her while in the Timestream; at first, just another body to dance around while she wandered. But this one, unlike the others, had a face she remembered.
The almost part comes from the fact that she’s known Laura was in New York for the past few months (it’s relatively hard to hide the presence of the wolverine ). She hasn’t been actively seeking her out, but any flash of black hair and green eyes keeps her head on a swivel in crowds.
And the crowds have only gotten bigger now that everyone’s here for the Dazzler concert, including, apparently, Laura and her friends.
Kiden sees them as they’re about to enter the venue. She’s sure the others have made appearances in some of her circles, but she only really sees one person in the group.
Laura looks better. Healthier. She’s taller, her skin is tan. She’s smiling.
Kiden doesn’t mean to start tailing them, it just happens. She’s not even really sure what her goal is here; reveal herself to Laura and ask her where she’s been? Keep watching her as she goes about her night? Neither of these options seem particularly appealing, but still, she stays, lingering just out of sight.
For a second, after they pass security and Kiden’s left observing from a distance, Laura looks like she’s picked up on something; recognition passes over her features and Kiden thinks she might be caught. But Laura’s gaze is directed at the guy who’s shadowy figure Kiden had missed.
Then Laura’s following him, her friends in tow, and there’s a look about them that seems to mean whatever is waiting for them can’t be good.
Kiden sighs and follows, hiding away again in her Timestream.
She listens to the guy monologing, watches as Laura almost gets him. But then something switches in him; his face lights up with that grin she remembers -
She fucking hates getting involved. But that guy, Local- if he is really connected to Mr. Friend, then he’s bad news.
He’s knocking Laura and her friends around, and even though she knows they’ll be able to stop him… she can’t just stand there and watch. She needs to leave the safety of her Timestream and stop him before he can take anything else from her.
While Local’s body lays broken on the floor, Laura looks up at her, wide-eyed. She pushes herself up off the ground and Kiden has to remind herself to breathe. It’s been too long; she’s not ready yet, maybe she’ll just slip away again, the same way she had appeared. But then Laura is standing and saying that Kiden is her oldest and best friend.
And then Laura pulls her into a hug.
She’s not expecting it, but she relaxes into the embrace anyway. She doesn’t remember Laura ever being so open to initiating physical contact before; she takes it as a sign that some things have changed for the better.
She doesn’t know what she was expecting. Maybe a thank you, and a promise to get in contact that will never be fulfilled? A brief and awkward catch-up and a goodbye that’s stained with a feeling of permanence?
But she’s throwing questions at Kiden that she doesn’t quite know how to answer, and then Laura suggests skipping the show altogether, seemingly without a second thought.
Kiden offers a hand like there’s nothing more to it.
She finds a strange fear in the feeling of Laura’s hand in hers (and the knowledge it will have to remain there as long as they want to stay in her Timestream). The world goes still, and Kiden can breathe again.
For a second, they’re silent, taking in each other's presence for the first time in years. Laura’s grip on her hand gets incriminately tighter.
The questions aren’t rapid-fire like they had been before; instead, Laura seems to think about what she wants to ask, and in turn, allows Kiden to think about how she wants to answer. They’re walking with no destination in particular, just weaving around the frozen concert-goers, before reaching an area where the now-pink sky is visible.
Kiden talks about the life she’d built with Bobby and Tatiana and Lil Bro and Laura asks about each of them in turn. She replies like she actually knows the answers to Laura’s questions; the truth is, she hasn’t seen them in months.
She tells Laura about the years of Krakoa; of her own little piece of the world she’d carved out. Tries to make it sound better than it was.They pointedly avoid the subject of time, but Kiden finds that as they talk, the years between them seem to fall away. Maybe it’s an adverse effect of walking outside the flow of time; she realizes she’s lost her sense of just how long it’s been since she and Laura have seen each other. Or it might just be how overwhelmingly grateful she is to find that Laura seems to be doing much better than she was the last time they’d spoken: when Kiden had sat by Laura’s bloodied corpse as she healed herself, watching as she peeled her body from the pavement to walk off into the night- the same way she’d appeared.
“Why don’t you catch up with your friends?” She asks, mostly because a part of her doesn’t think she can keep pretending there isn’t something ugly trying to work its way up her throat. She’s not ready to say what she needs to. She just got Laura back; she’s trying so hard to be thankful and nothing else for a few moments longer.
“-can come with me,” Laura is saying, and Kiden blinks back into the conversation to realize she’s missed an invitation.
“To the concert? It’s not really my place-”
Laura stops and turns to her, making their clasped hands noticeable once more as Kiden is pulled into facing her again.
“You don’t have to. I’d be happy to stay like this for longer. But I could introduce you to them if you want?”
Is she finished with me again? Kiden wonders. Is this Laura finding a way to keep ignoring what’s between us?
Kiden smiles and nods.
“Okay.”
Sometime soon, Kiden promises herself, she will tell Laura what those empty years were like. Maybe she’ll tell her how it felt to be abandoned, or ask why Laura never once felt the need to check on them.
Eventually, she’ll say all that and more. But Kiden knows better than anyone that there is always more time to be made. For now, she keeps a hold on Laura’s hand, even as the sky fades back to blue.