Expectations were the enemy of happiness. With the ease of a young man who was born knowing that single piece of wisdom, Dominik accepted the lavish gift Fate put in his arms with only delight and gratitude. There were no preconceptions of what this reunion was supposed to look like, no questions of how or why, and most importantly no sticky ideas like “I thought I’d never see you again” muddying the shine of the moment.
As her shoes crunched against the loose gravel, Dominik knew what was important. She still smelled like the dust that gathered on books everyone else had forgotten. Her speech was still chosen as carefully as a rabbit chooses its steps near a coyote’s den. She still needed him to throw a curve in his back to reach her, and her mouth still made the same shape as his when she smiled.
“Are you waiting for a dramatic thunderclap?“ he asked, beaming as he withdrew. "Shit, I’ll fucking get one for you, you watch!”
She did not feel full to bursting with laughter like he did, preferring the distance. She hesitated to tell him everything the way that he would have, determined not to dwell.
They were still so different and so alike.
He touched her cheeks, tipping her head playfully from side to side to check for signs of injury or change. “I’m just assuming no face tattoo means you’re okay, so you better say so right now if you’re not.”
As she grasped her small hands around his wrists, and felt the urge to squint at the sunshine that seemed to be beaming off of his face, Mia felt her laugh envelop her words, still soft as she replied. “I’m okay.”
It sounded like a promise, careful, as even thought she knew- there was a definite possibility he’d forgotten her as easily as a running sink, she was still drowning in the affection of her cousin, of someone she knew she’d never have to flinch away from.
She repeated, biting at the inside of her cheek as she retreated from the hold, selfishly keeping one of his hands in hers. Her fingers were small on his, still, and it felt strange as their fingers twined on reflex, his own enveloping her like a breaking wave. “Kai is my only story. Do you-“ she hesitated slightly. “Do you remember Kai? She’s here. With me. We’ve been everywhere and no where at the same time.”
Her mouth felt too full, too suddenly, years of silence making her feel choked with all the things she wanted to say. How she wanted to tell him about how she’d stood under the Bean at Chicago and saw him for a moment behind her in the reflection, or gone to the Smithsonian and thought of how much history he was missing, of all the things he’d tell her. How she’d stood at the edge of a ferry and stared into the sea and saw all the beauty he’d always spoken of. Or simply of all the times Kai had taught her that the universe wasn’t just an expanse of star dust and burning gas- it was inside people, people like Dominik and Kai- and maybe her, and she wanted to say so much, but the words didn’t seem to want to come out in fear of leaving her chest empty, dust caking the insides of her lungs like all the forgotten books she saw herself in.
“Do you want to go eat? Or — coffee? Something.” She felt the cold frame her eyes, slight tears frosting on her eye lashes, and even through Kai’s jacket, the bite was as pointed as needle pricks.
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