It's my life

[21stcenturyguy]

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.

Comments

[sesenta]

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.

[21stcenturyguy]

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.

[mindofathief]

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?"

[sesenta]

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?"