Mina really couldn’t care less about half her cases, cheating spouses and idiots marrying eachother for money really weren’t her cup of tea, but it’s what kept up her funds for things like gas in the car and bullets in her guns when she needed them for her actual job so she didn’t complain
Still, she couldn’t help being bored, yawning as she clipped her notebook shut and rose from the cafe` table, prepared to go tell an anxious wife that her husband wasn’t cheating on her, but was actually meeting with a realtor planning to surprise her with putting an offer down on a house they liked
She’d feel better, Mina would get paid, the husband would never know, everyone won
...Until her eyes caught a glimpse of a very familiar face
She swore that for a moment, she just stopped breathing
She had never thought that she’d ever see any member of her family again, and for most of them that was more than fine, but not for--
“Holden?”
The name left her tongue like a prayer, and before she could stop herself, she had jumped over the decorative gate at the cafe`, sprinting towards her sister and practically throwing herself on her younger sibling
“Holden!”
@keepholdenon
Holden nodded, her eyes watering some more and she sniffled, answering with a choked chuckle: “Yeah, um, his name is Pillow and he’s a rescue and the goodest boy and smarter than most people in the world… He picked me at the shelter by peeing on me and falling asleep on my lap and– You remember?” Came the words full of hope and a tinge of disbelief because it had been so long and sure everybody wanted a dog but Holden remembered being that child full of wavering hope that came and went. Because dogs always loved you and never left and the only person in the world that loved her was going to leave for college soon.
“Okay, yeah… Let’s do that.” She replied with a little smile, gazing into those warm grey eyes again. As her sister wrapped her hands around hers, she could feel her cheeks flushing slightly, a little overwhelmed by the undiluted love coming from her Mina. “A cat? What’s her name?” Holden exclaimed, fascinated. She knew nothing about her sister and she wanted that to change ASAP. “Do you only have the one? Is she okay with strangers? Does she like dogs? Pillow is great with dogs…” Her words got away from her as she got into the car and buckled herself in, just so excited to know anything about her sister’s life.
Holden hadn’t changed a bit- still the energetic, amazingly sweet, incredibly innocent baby sister Mina had always loved, it was kind of refreshing to see that the harshness of adulthood hadn’t infected her the way that it had Mina, hadn’t taken her away from the soft comforts of ignorance and pumped her full of toxic reality
Maybe, just maybe, Mina could save her from some of that pain... all of it would be impossible ofcourse, not without smothering her, but... maybe some of life’s harder lessons could be softened by Mina’s presence to cushion the blow...
“Well if that doesn’t sound to me like an ‘I Choose You’ then nothing does,” she laughed in agreement, some people would be offended by getting peed on- but the Stevens sisters took the opposite approach and found it to be something of an act of appreciation
From animals, that is
“Ofcourse I remember, it’s all you would talk about the entire last year I lived at home, I spent that year and like, the two that followed, thinking that when I came to get you, I’d have the world’s freindliest dog waiting.... I’m... just sorry that never happened, but trust me, it’s not because I didn’t want to, you’ve got no idea how much I wish I could... turn back time and make it a reality,”
Turn back time, never go out that night, never let Gabrielle go...
“Yep, just the one, her name is Willow, I’d love to have more but I travel alot so I can’t justify dragging them around with me all the time and causing them to live that life, I only do it with Willow because she followed me home and wouldn’t leave,”
Not to mention the danger of her life, but Holden really didn’t need to know any of that....
“She’s totally fine with all living creatures as long as they don’t like, try to strangle me or anything, then she’ll probably bite them,” she noted as she slid into the driver’s seat, buckling her own seatbelt, taking a stray moment to take Holden’s hand and give it a light squeeze, before starting the car
Willow was very protective for a cat, she had always believed cats to be stand-offish and kind of apathetic to the people they lived with, but Willow proved that not to be the case
“I can’t wait to meet Pillow, you’ll have to bring her by ASAP, do you have any days off coming up soon? What do you do for a job anyway?” she asked curiously, officially beginning the journey to her apartment
