desiderium | m. o'hara

twenty-four

Lore dump!! Everyone's fav!!!!!

  My feet pace Miguel's pristine hallway. My fingers tug anxiously on the collar of his shirt I'm wearing as I plan my next move.

  Outside the front door Gabriel O'Hara stands - this universe's Miguel's brother, the brother who knew this version of me. The very version of me that died two years ago. The very brother I had been avoiding lest I give him a futuristic heart attack.

  I think it might already be too late for that.

  My head falls into my hands as I groan. Why didn't I think before opening the door? Of course people of this reality would react like Gabe when they see me - I'm supposed to be six feet in the ground. Miguel really did screw my brains out.

  I resist the urge to head upstairs and wake him. He's a busy, busy man, and he needs all the rest he can get. I can handle this myself.

  Besides, it's Gabriel - sure, an alternate version of him, but he's still pretty much the same guy I knew. Maybe. I hope.

  I'd always had an affinity for Miguel's younger brother. In many ways he was like a younger brother to me, too. I was distraught when he died, and so was my Mig. Seeing him alive is weird, but a good kind of weird. It's like seeing an old friend.

  I'm not sure he feels the same. I'm actually pretty sure he'd rather not see me at all.

  I bounce on the balls of my feet and gather the courage to open the door. Come on, Y/n. You've faced worse. Scary Miguel, for one. If I'm not scared of scary Miguel, then I shouldn't be scared of anything.

  But when I grab the door handle and swing it open, I'm terrified. I plant my elbow onto the frame and send Gabriel O'Hara a grimace of a smile.

  "Wassup, man?" I say shrilly. I rest my check onto my fist and sweat. "How's it hanging?"

  Gabriel's frozen. The only movement he makes is the quick rise and fall of his chest. Everything else about him is statuesque - even his eyes don't flit about my face like how mine do to his. He is thoroughly in shock.

  I can't even blame him. If I saw my version of Gabriel (who is also supposed to be dead) without warning, I'd freak out, too. In fact, I have. I did.

  "Y/n?" Gabriel says thinly. His shock transitions swiftly into disbelief. "You're meant to be dead."

  My grimace grows a thousand times more grimace-y. "I got better-?"

  Gabriel shakes his head, as if just remembering that the multiverse is a conceivable, very real thing, and that his very brother practically commands it. The hug comes unexpectedly, so swiftly that I stumble back a few steps, and Gabriel buries his face into my shoulder.

  If this Y/n and Gabe were anything like Gabe and I were, then just as I saw him as a younger brother, he saw me as an older sister. My throat grows thick. I wrap my arms tight around him.

  "I missed you, too," I murmur.

  Gabriel huffs and pulls away. His hands rest on my shoulders. "Coño, he really did it." Gabriel sends me a despairing look. "You shouldn't be here."

  By 'did it' I assume he's referring to Miguel taking the place of my husband when he died. I used to share his disbelief. I still sometimes do. As for the second part of his sentence? Well, my heart sinks. I'm not surprised by his reaction, per say, but it still hurts to hear. I grow silent.