KOTLC Oneshots

Don't Be Sad

Her head hurt from crying so hard.  Why did this have to happen? They were the perfect family. They had it all: fame, fortune, beauty, power. But no amount of perfection could save them from him. Her own brother: a member of the Neverseen. The words felt wrong on her tongue.  She wanted to believe it was a lie, but it wasn't.

It had been a couple of days since the Vackers discovered who Alvar really was. She remembered how her dad crumpled to the ground when he found out. Literally collapsed. She had never seen him like that before: like all of the oxygen had been sucked out of his lungs. It felt wrong seeing a man she always seen as so strong, so unbreakable  fall apart like a stack of cards in the wind. He was always the one saying "no reason to worry." 

And outside of Everglen, the mood of misery continued.  She had always been the object of stares and rumors but this was something else.  They had all fallen. Fallen from grace.

Every Vacker had their own way of collapsing.  Obviously, Fitz took to anger. His all-too-familiar drug.  She wondered what people would say if they knew the "perfect" Vackers had holes in their glittery walls.

Alden locked himself away from everyone and consumed himself with work. He drank his poison all alone. He didn't want anyone to see how heartbroken he really was.

Della tried to keep a smile on her face.  She applied mascara every morning knowing it was bound to only run down her face along with salty tears.  She had the gnomes set the dining room table. With plates in the places of members of a family that could hardly stand to eat dinner together anymore.

And Biana....Biana just cried.  She wished she could punch walls. She wished she could pretend like it was all ok. But she couldn't. So when she was alone, she just cried. She let the tears fall. Biana stopped sobbing long enough to look into the mirror and catch her reflection.  Her eyes were red.  She watched some tears fall down her face while looking in the mirror. There was a sort of beautiful vulnerability in seeing it.  Most people cover their face with their hands when they cry but when Biana was alone, she just cried. Big, ugly sobs — gasping for breath in between. And she didn't care because no one could see it.  

Suddenly, someone knocked at the door.  She said nothing but turned her head away and faced the wall. The door opened and someone walked in.  She didn't have to be an empath to know he was disappointed when he called out her name. It was Alden. She hoped he wouldn't notice what she was doing but of course he saw right through her.

"Biana, why are you crying?"

She whipped her head around. "Isn't it obvious?"

He looked taken aback by her response.  She turned around again. He crossed the room and stood by her where she was sitting in a chair.  He waited almost a minute before saying the words she was anticipating: "Crying isn't going to fix anything."

She almost rolled her eyes. "I know."

"They why are you doing it?"

Was he serious?  She stood up and walked away from him. She sat on the floor beside her bed where she knew he couldn't see her. Her eyes burned and the tears threatened to spill out again.

"Biana, I asked you a question."

Her hands balled into fists.  "I don't know why.  I can't control it."

He took a few steps towards her.  She covered her face with her hands and started crying again. Just his presence right now made her chest feel tighter. She hated that she had to cry into her hands but she didn't want him to see her.

"Well...things could be worse"

Her jaw dropped.  "Are you serious?  How could things be worse right now?

Something dark flashed in his eyes. He walked closer to her.  He reached out his hand like he wanted to take hers but then returned it to his side.  "Things could always be worse. You could be a human child starving in the streets right now. Or sick in a hospital."

She dragged a hand down her face.  She was tired of this.  "You're so invalidating."

She looked up to see Alden's jaw clenched. "What?"

She was about to mutter an apology but instead stood up and faced him.   "You always invalidate my emotions. I can never tell you how I really feel.  Why can't you accept me?"

He shook his head. "Stop whining." He crossed the room and opened her curtains to reveal the shining sun.  "It's a beautiful day, the sun is shining. Just be happy."

She averted her eyes to the floor.  "It's not that easy, Dad. I'm just...struggling right now."

"And you think I'm not?  Everyone goes through ups and downs, it doesn't make you special."

It doesn't make you special. His words took the breath from her. He could be so cruel.  

"Biana. Just...don't be sad.  I promise you, it's really not that hard."

She kept her eyes on the ground. "Fine, you're right. Please...just leave."

He left without another word.  The moment she heard the door close, she fell to her knees. His words felt like a knife in her chest.  The disappointed tone twisted the blade. She couldn't seem to do anything right. She was never good enough for him. None of them were. That was probably why Alvar did what he did.  He was never good enough for Alden, so he found someone else to make him feel special, worthy.  She just wished it wasn't the Neverseen. She wished someone else could've gotten to him first.  Someone who understood it was ok to cry.

But that didn't happen. No one understood.  So she had to be strong. She had to bottle up her emotions and keep them locked away inside her heart. Maybe he was right. Maybe it wasn't that big of a deal. Maybe it was just all in her head. She stood up and smoothed her skirt. She grabbed a tissue and dabbed her face.  She looked in the mirror and cracked a smile. A fake smile that weighed so heavily on her face that it felt physically painful.  She grabbed a tiara from a  nearby shelf.  Her hands shook as she placed it carefully on her head. She wanted to go back to how she was. The perfect, pretty princess without all these problems in her life.   She wasted all her pennies throwing them in a fountain just for her wishes to never come true.  Because no matter how hard she wished, she couldn't make Alden understand.   Life wasn't a fairytale.

She kept her eyes on the mirror and repeated her mantra: "Don't be sad. Don't be sad. Don't be sad."

The sadness swirled in her chest.  And it grew like a tornado, begging to be set free.

I hope you liked that! The plot of this oneshot was requested by @-Cherry--blossom . I'm so sorry for how ridiculously long it took me to finish this oneshot.

Published: February 19th, 2023

Word count: 1182