melodiesoflife | It's my life

Who: Aoi Kurashiki, Akane Kurashiki, Duster (hopefully), any other Santa CR that wants to show up.
What: Confronting Aoi's shadow. It'll probably be fine.
When: End of November
Where: Aqures Ixen, the labs
Warnings: Language (as always), potential mentions of violence and murder, 999 spoilers

Since Halloween, or the Moogle Night or whatever shit they called it, Aoi's life had been as bad or worse than it had been for the nine years between Nonary Games. His and Akane's relationship was strained, and Duster... well, that was dead and gone now. Everything Aoi had was destined to be taken away or destroyed. That was just how it had always been and always would be.

"Pull it together. You don't gotta be happy. You just gotta get shit done so we can go home," he told himself. He was SO. FUCKING. DONE. with Crystallis and calamities and rifts. If he was gonna be sad and alone and risking his life, he might as well be doing it for his Earth.

He'd sent Crash Kupo ahead to prep for the calamity extraction and to notify Akane that he was doin' it. She'd never forgive him if he did this without her. Nobody else needed to know, though. The Kurashikis took care of themselves, just like always.

~~Unless Akane recruited anybody else to come along or somebody happened by the labs while they were getting the machinery started~~.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Akane was looking at Santa's shadow, hugging herself quietly. What they wanted seemed obvious to her. They wanted to be together, but without her to stand in the way. Maybe someone else would have been fine managing a relationship with their significant other while still caring for a sibling, but after all they'd gone through as children, that wasn't going to happen easily. If she ran off and tried to make a martyr out of herself, Aoi wouldn't be able to let her go. He'd never be able to move forward as long as he still believed that she couldn't survive without his help. Maybe back home, she did, and those sacrifices would have to be made.

Here, though...

She moved toward his Shadow, one step at a time. "All my life, you've only dedicated yourself to my needs," she spoke to him quietly. "This time I want to be the one who helps you. What do you need from me?" She reached out to touch the shadow's cheek with a quiet smile. "What will it take for you to be accepted, and give my brother peace? Should I leave? Stay? Fall in love and elope?" She didn't want to interrupt the discussion Duster and Santa were finally having, and she could at least be sure that the shadow would give her an honest answer without worrying about her feelings.

"I want..."

What did he want? He wanted Aoi to be with him, but other than that, he was good with anything. Whatever Aoi wanted, he was fine with it, and that philosophy didn't hurt him much during his life.

As Akane stood up to him, Duster realized that there wasn't much he wanted. A good boyfriend, whatever that meant. He wanted him to stop and think about what he was doing. He wanted him to be happy with both his sister and himself. Akane was doing the right thing.

He waited until Aoi looked away from Akane. "I want you to tell me what's wrong. If we're going to make this work, I want us to be together without worrying that you're unhappy. ...That's really it."

The Shadow stole a quick glance over at Aoi and Duster, then turned to Akane. He patted her on the head. "I am your brother, remember? But if you want us to actually go live our lives, we just gotta know you're ok. You gotta stop trying to save the world by yourself, stop trying to sacrifice your happiness and your future. We both gotta learn to trust people. If he thinks that you're gonna get yourself killed or you're going to die old and alone if we leave, he's never gonna accept my will."

He shrugged. It wasn't easy, but it was the truth. "You don't need to go elope with anybody 'cept Junpei, but it would help if we knew you had someone else to rely on if you needed something."

Meanwhile, the other Aoi was looking hard at Duster. "That's it, huh?" Duster made it sound so simple. Aoi snorted. If Duster really wanted the truth, he was gonna get it, probably way more than he wanted.

"Ok, here's what's been wrong. I've kept you out of the loop to protect you from the bad shit I've had to do. I thought if you saw that side of me, you'd figure I wasn't worth it. There's other people around who understand music better, that are nicer, that you think are hotter...and, you know, I was the one who asked you out. I don't think you woulda ever asked me. So I though...maybe you only went along with me because there wasn't anyone else, and if I didn't make it easy to be with me, you wouldn't want me anymore."

He shrugged. "That's what's made me hesitate and not fight when you left. But if it's not true, then yeah, I wanna be with you and work all our shit out."

Duster held his hands to his sides, but they were loosely clenched. Deep down, he knew Aoi was right. He really was a guy easily lead around by others. If someone else asked him out first, he would have--

"So what if that's true?" He blurted out before he could complete the thought. "I know you don't play music, and that you're not the nicest person around, and who's to judge how you look? Being the best isn't everything, and being perfect isn't either! You're you, and it's...it's who you are that I like."

If Duster had know who's he'd end up with if he hadn't been pulled to Crystallis, he would say that he had a type. Aoi very much fit it.

"If I didn't like you, I wouldn't have gone out with you. I thought you were kind of frustrating to be around, for a while. If you asked me out when we first met, I'd leave you behind. It's different now."

That was a lot for Akane to digest. She wanted to protest that she'd done too much ill to really deserve happiness or a shiny future. But this was Aoi's shadow. There was just no point to arguing with the truth. She looked at her feet for a moment, then back up at the shadow's burning purple eyes.

It was...somewhat comforting, really, to know that he didn't resent her as much as she'd thought. His hidden side still loved her and cared about her. She nodded once, slowly. "I understand."

She turned to look at her true brother, ready to tell him her plans, but... Yeah, now probably wasn't the best time. He needed to work things out with Duster first. So she stayed quiet by her other brother's side, and let her hand sneak into his to grip it tightly. "You know...this is kind of nice," she whispered. "Now I have two brothers." An impish little grin brightened her eyes as she beamed at him, then waited her turn.

The Shadow snorted at Akane. 'Course he still loved her. Loved her enough to push her away before he ended up hating her. "I better still be your favorite."

Aoi reached out a hand and grabbed a fistful of Duster's shirt. He tugged him closer. "You're really terrible at this," he huffed. That was about as affectionate as he was willing to get with his little sister watching.

"Ok, I'm gonna get this shit done." He let go of Duster's shirt and gave it a quick brush to smooth out the wrinkles. Aoi turned to his Shadow.

"You ready to get back here so we can start doin' our own thing?"

The Shadow gave his shoulders a casual roll. "If you're serious. And don't think I won't know."

The two Aois stalked toward one another, and in a flash of purple light, one disappeared.

Duster absentmindedly brushed the part of his shirt that was grabbed, though it didn't do much help. His attention was divided between the Shadow and that possibly-an-apology, possibly-still-upset-at-him reaction. He couldn't tell what his real intentions were, as that was the major issue he had with him the past month. He hoped that it meant something good.

His hands remained held together as he shut his eyes from the blinding light. They did it. Aoi did it. It was fine, and there was nothing left to worry about. At least, nothing related to the Calamity self.

He struggled to find something to say after all that. "...You good?"

Akane felt the tightness in her chest leave at long last. It was over. He was okay!

With no reason to hold onto her reservations, she clapped her palms together in delight. "You did it!" she laughed, and immediately darted forward to throw her arms around Aoi's neck, nestling her head under his chin with sisterly affection.

"Although I'm going to miss having two amazing big brothers," she added with a giggle, closing her eyes. He'd done a much better job of this than she had, but really, that was to be expected. There was a reason she looked up to him the way she did.

Hug complete, she stepped back and clasped her hands in front of her, because sharing was caring. "How do you feel? Do you need some rest, or something to eat?"

It's my life

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject