For Reela, the rest was a blur.
After a while, she began struggling to hear things correctly. Now that she knows more about how her magic works, she understands that the Dark made it feel like a hazy dream.
Past the ringing in her ears and in her dazed mind, she heard Regan ask her if she wanted to go home.
She let herself dream and said yes.
She couldn't think clearly at all. She didn't even try to fight the Dark. She just wanted so badly for him to be real, even though she knew deep down he wasn't. It wasn't really him.
It was Avinalyn.
For them, they stood and watched Reela collapse in their arms.
They take a drink of wine, struggling to either stop thinking about it or to remember it all so vividly.
They felt her tears bleed into their shoulder. They felt her fists gripping the collar of their shirt but she physically couldn't bring herself to push them away.
So she embraced them.
Another drink. The wine glass shakes in their hand.
It was innocent. She was innocent.
They heard her repeating over and over that she was sorry. Even if the words were meant for someone else, they were the one that heard it.
Who were her words meant for?
They didn't know what they were supposed to do. Last night went nothing like they planned. Maybe that's something they should expect from now on.
Reela is unpredictable. Last night, after she fell into their arms, they anticipated a tender knife in their back.
But she just cried.
They raise the glass to their lips again, but they stop before taking the drink. They glance over to the window. The sun is coming up.
With a sigh, they set the glass back on their end table before leaning forward in their red-cushioned armchair and holding their hands together over their lips as if they intend to pray to the fires dancing in front of them in the fireplace.
They don't know what they were thinking. They don't know what she was thinking.
All they knew was that they couldn't let her go.
When they asked her to come home with them, they didn't know what they were planning on doing. She even agreed to come with and smiled at them. The smile was broken and her eyes were still black, but teary. It was like she was in a trance.
Or was it them who was entranced?
Whatever the case may be, here they are now. Back home. With Reela.
They imagine she'll be a mess when she wakes up. There's a fair chance she will try to kill them when she realizes what happened last night. In truth, even they are still trying to wrap their head around it.
For once, they didn't even know their own intentions. After Reela laid down in bed, they left her there and went to their own room to sleep, but the night was restless. They lost count of how many times they woke up and fell back asleep until eventually, they gave up to have a glass of wine and think.
Perhaps they should be preparing for a fight when Reela wakes up. She'll likely have her strength back and be able to throw real punches again. They hope so. They didn't get their fill of her fire last night.
How rude of her.
Avinalyn looks up at the mirror above the fire to stare at that scar left by Reela. They noticed Reela's face was a mess last night. Her normally beautiful makeup was all smeared and ruined by her tears, which they found unfortunate. Such a disheveled look for a perfect painting.
They wonder if Reela is careful when she does her makeup. If she is, then maybe her way of apologizing to them for the scar could be to cover it up. After it's healed of course. Unfortunately, they can't keep her long enough to wait.
Oh well. Perhaps one day.
They close their eyes and take a slow, calming deep breath in. As they breathe out, they lift their hand to rub the knot in the back of their neck. They need to relax. All this stress is weighing on them. They can't remember the last time they had a knot in their neck. Maybe they should have gone to Narvadin with M'Venaas. If you ignore the slavery, Narvadin has the loveliest spas.
Disrupting their thoughts, they hear faint clanging from down the hall.
Avinalyn opens their eyes and lowers their hand from their neck to glance back at the door to their room. Curious, they slowly stand up, bringing their wine glass with them.
They make their way down the dimly lit hall with their glass held lazily in their hand. Could Reela be awake already? The sun is just coming up. They didn't take her for a morning person. They arrive at the guest room to find the door open a crack.
Avinalyn slowly pushes the door open wider to peek into the room. The bed is unmade, but empty. Glancing around, they don't see her anywhere. They hear the clanging again, coming from further down the hallway.
They arch a brow and take a small sip of wine before following the sound to the kitchen, where they find Reela standing on their counter with her head in an open cabinet. Every single cabinet in the substantial kitchen is wide open, including the refrigerator.
"I swear to the lord, Mazenya the Dense and every cursed rat that has been dropkicked in her ludicrous name, if I don't find a single fucking bag of chips or a microwavable ramen package, I am going to lose my goddamned mind!" she exclaims, but the sound is muffled with her head in the cabinet.
She almost doesn't hear the low chuckle, but she does hear their voice. "From what it sounds like, I think you already have," Avinalyn says.
Reela gasps and hits her head on the shelf of the cabinet with a loud thud. "Fuck!" she blurts and her knee slips off the edge of the smooth, polished wooden countertop. She squeals as she falls backwards off the counter, landing flat on her ass which gets her to yelp.
"Fuck me!" she curses and grits her teeth against her probably broken ass. Right on the goddamned tailbone too. "How much punishment do I have to endure before I can get a godsforsaken motherfucking hamburger?!" she holds her ass and her face tightens. She feels like she just got kicked in her nonexistent dick.
Avinalyn laughs and takes a sip of their wine. "As much as you want, little bird," they sigh contentedly and purse their lips almost coyly. When they anticipated Reela to be a mess when she woke up, this is far from what they were expecting. Not that they're complaining. They love a good show.
Reela snaps her eyes open and whips her attention back to the doorway to see that it's them. With a growl, she pushes herself off the ground and storms over to throw a punch at them, but they calmly step out of the way and turn to face her with an arrogant wink. "Please, Reela. There will be plenty of time for that later. No need to risk wasting good wine," they say and smile as they take a drink.
"Where the fuck am I?" Reela demands. "What did you do?"
Avinalyn shrugs carelessly and leans back against the doorframe. "Me? I would hardly call this my doing. I think you're giving me too much credit," they take another sip and lightly chuckle again at seeing the anger flare up in her eyes. There it is. The fire. "As for where you are," they motion to their surroundings with the glass. "You're in my home."
Reela's eyes widen and she looks around frantically. The dark wooden cabinets and counters. Gold trimming on the dark furniture. Everything looks very dark, gothic and antique, even for normal Aramora standards. Aside from the refrigerator of course. Must have been a recent addition in the past ten years since the barriers fell.
She whips her glare back to Avinalyn just as they're about to take another drink, and she slaps the glass out of their hand before grabbing them by the collar of their open satin robe and shoving them back against the wall.
They flash a cocky grin and look her over. "Straight to it, are you?" they tisk. "You're lucky I have plenty more wine where that came from. Otherwise I might just be upset with you, and we don't want that now do we?"
"Why the fuck am I at your house?!" Reela snaps. "You are really bad at this kidnapping thing!"
Avinalyn calmly holds up their hands. "Actually, I'm quite good at it. But this time, I didn't kidnap you. You agreed to come with me," they grab her wrists and slowly move them away. She's still gripping their robe so she quickly lets go so they don't accidentally make her literally disrobe them.
Reela scoffs and crosses her arms. "Why the fuck would I do that?" she says, but starts trying to remember what all happened last night anyway.
"You tell me," Avinalyn says while they straighten their robe and start to clean up the wine and broken glass from the floor as Reela thinks.
It's still a blur. She doesn't think her emotions have ever gotten as erratic as they were last night after learning about how the Dark really works. Realizing that she was the one who was wrong about Regan this whole time hit her harder than thinking he was using her did. Now she's just filled with guilt and anger and regret and so much fucking hatred for herself that she almost can't even think straight.
That must have been what happened last night. Her own hatred for herself made her see Avinalyn as a saint in comparison. She let herself let her guard down and saw Regan instead of Avinalyn. All she wanted was to tell him how sorry she was and to go home. So when the offer rose, she couldn't refuse.
"Why the fuck would you even want to bring me here?" she questions as they finish cleaning up the mess. "You catch me in the middle of a mental fucking breakdown and decide it's a good time to have a fucking sleepover?"
The night was more of a blur the longer it went on. She doesn't remember ever getting here. It all felt so dreamlike. In her mind, she thought she was back in Sage and fell asleep in her room. She thought it was Regan tucking her into bed. But she guesses it was actually... Avinalyn?
"What..." she tenses and takes a step back from them. "...What did you... do...?"
Avinalyn starts going around the kitchen, closing the refrigerator and every open cabinet. They shrug with their back still to her. "Again. I simply brought you here."
"What happened after?!" Reela shouts. She's starting to breathe faster and her hands slightly shake. "I... I remember you being there when I fell asleep... What did you...? I swear, if you..." she growls and takes another step back, towards the door.
Hearing her voice quiver, Avinalyn stops what they're doing to glance back at her over their shoulder. They see the hatred and anger in her eyes, but also the fear. Knowing what they do about her, fear often leads her to lash out. They may find joy in seeing her get angry, but a fight caused by fear doesn't hold the same appeal.
They slowly turn around to face her and see her slightly flinch back. She's preparing herself to have to fight, but they calmly raise their hand with a sigh. "You are wondering if I took advantage of you," they say carefully and see her fists ball up at her sides. They narrow their eyes at her as they lower their hand and tilt their head. "Do you really think so little of me?"
Reela scoffs again and shakes her head. "Well, considering the fact that you almost killed one of my best friends, it's not like I'm without good reason," she snaps.
"Reela, whatever assumptions you may have about me, I would never force myself onto someone," Avinalyn states and reaches up to one of the upper cabinets, retrieving a wine bottle and a new glass. "Despite what you may think, even I have standards," they pour themself a glass and take a sip.
Reela crosses her arms and looks away. "Clearly the bar is set low..." she mutters.
"On the contrary," Avinalyn chuckles and leans against the counter with their glass in their hand. "I'd say my standards are quite high."
Reela rolls her eyes. "Well, good to know you're not above day drinking," she huffs and looks around the kitchen. "But your hosting skills could use some work. I just cried a lot last night and I haven't had any potato chips to take my anger out on. So either leave me to my devices, or tell me where the fuck you're hiding the junk food," she demands.
Avinalyn cocks a brow. "Junk food?"
She nods sharply. "Yes!" she exclaims but they just slowly shake their head so she scoffs. "What, do your 'very high standards' exclude eating like a fucking trash panda every time you have the pleasure of a mental breakdown?"
Avinalyn grins and emits a soft chuckle. "Trash panda? Never heard of such a thing. Is that a creature you have over in Utopia?" they tease and Reela growls.
"Your mom is a creature in Utopia..." she mutters.
"...Pardon?"
Reela groans and throws her head back. "Cut the bullshit! Where's the fucking food?!" she shouts to the ceiling. If she yells any louder, she swears that fancy chandelier's gonna fall.
Avinalyn sighs and takes a quick sip before they set the glass on the counter and walk over to her. She rolls her head to the side to not look at them, but they gently grab her shoulders.
"Tell you what—"
Reela aggressively shrugs to try shrinking away from their hands. "Why the fuck are you touching me again?" she gripes and keeps trying to shirk away, but Avinalyn just sighs again and lets out an amused chuckle.
"If you sit still and stop..." they glance around the kitchen, "raiding my house," they smile down at her. "I'll make you breakfast."
Reela narrows her eyes up at them. "You can cook?" she asks skeptically and they nod.
"I can. Quite well in fact," they say and slowly release her shoulders. She takes a small step back but just backs into the counter which was apparently just a couple inches behind her so it really made no fucking difference.
Reela crosses her arms tighter and her face scrunches in a pout. "I... really want to say no..." she holds her breath for a second before releasing it like ripping off a bandage. "...But I am so fucking hungry that it might warrant another breakdown on its own if I don't eat something soon," she growls.
Avinalyn contentedly chuckles again and slowly nods. "Good," they hum. "And in the meantime..." Slowly, they bring their hand up to delicately grab her chin and make her look up at them. She again tries to flinch away, but all they do is look over her face.
They meet her eyes with a smile. "Why don't you go wash up that pretty face of yours?"
Reela tenses when that reminds her that she never did clean herself up after her cry session last night. Her makeup is still all smeared which probably makes her look like the fucking grudge. Thank god she can't see herself right now because holy hell is she a messy crier.
Fucking hell, did she really have her breakdown in front of Avinalyn? Her mind is still catching up to everything that's happened since last night. Once she snapped, all sense went out the window and she just couldn't keep it in. Another thing she probably shouldn't mention to Cree. He always taught her that it's okay to cry in front of people she loves, but never show weakness to her enemies.
And apparently, she fucking hugged them.
When that dawns on her, she feels her face slightly warm up. What the fuck was she thinking? Dark or not, why the hell would she not stop herself from hugging Avinalyn? She doesn't care if they looked like Regan. She gave them a perfect opportunity to stab her in the back.
She quickly looks away from them and clears her throat. Fuck, and now she was blankly staring at them while having a bit of an internal crisis. Cool. Glad this is where she currently is in her life.
"...Fine. But only because I have enough dignity to want to be presentable and it has nothing to do with you suggesting it, jackass," she says with a huff.
Avinalyn bites their lip and slowly nods. "Of course..." they say and take a step back from her. "And... If you'd like, feel free to use my makeup. Since I know you don't have your own on you," they offer which at first, out of instinct alone, piques Reela's interest. She has always been a makeup gremlin, constantly trying to steal from Regan's supply but eventually she started stealing from Data since they have similar color pallets. That woman loves her purple.
Reela huffs and steps off to the side to move away from them. "...I don't need your pity makeup!" she snaps and turns to storm away down the hall.
What the fuck is wrong with her today? She must really be hungry because normally, she'd have let loose on them with far more colorful insults and frustrated them into leaving again. Who the fuck do they think they are, speaking to her like she's a new fucking puppy? She must be off her game. Or are they the one that's different?
Whatever the case, she needs to stay alert. She's literally in the house of the person who's been terrorizing her since she arrived in Letroseli. She has felt her guard slipping a few times today which is very unlike her. She doesn't like it one bit.
Right now, she just focuses on getting herself cleaned up.
When she realizes she has no fucking clue where the bathroom is.
Avinalyn is just getting started on making breakfast when they hear an echoed "Fuck!" from down the hall. They snicker to themself and bite their lip as they await Reela's return to ask them for directions.