Written for @flashfictionfridayofficial prompt 246, "Pinprick"
Ao3: Here!
Two pinpricks of light, poking from the undergrowth. They’re red, for a moment, piercing through the night.
Then, they blink. Gold replaces one of the lights — one of the eyes. The other is void.
Should’ve known better than to come out at night. A plague is in these areas, singing, calling, beckoning. Her teeth spell change. Death without slumber. A death that drags you along, one thing on your mind — but you have a mind. Sometimes, the eyes of the infected twitch in recognition, met with those they love most.
But there’s only so long they can go without blood. The infection has to feed. The infection has to spread.
Her eyes lock onto yours and you try to back away. But she’s not alone. She is never alone.
Two by two, flecks of light blink open around you. Brown and blue glow at each of her sides, watchful.
After days away from Eboshi, Lin’s tension was making her clumsy. The takeout bag, her briefcase, and her key all felt huge and heavy. Both of them had been looking forward to an evening with no obligations, and they had intended to relax at Eboshi’s apartment.
Lin was running late as usual. Adding insult to injury, her briefcase slipped from her fingers and dropped on her boot.
It wasn’t the first time she was glad for her uniform boots protecting her from the heavy metal case Tenzin had given her for her promotion to captain. She took a moment to smooth out the scratch with her thumb.
The case wasn’t worth repairing.
With it on the floor where it fell, she twisted the key in the lock and opened the door. A quick glance told her that Eboshi wasn’t in the living room, which meant she was in her workshop. Lin sighed. Clearly, her evening wasn’t going to plan, either.
At least she could bend off her armor and stash it in the chair by the door. The case floated inside from the hallway, landing with a loud thunk on the floor.
“Lin?” came Eboshi’s voice. “Please stop knocking around out there. You nearly made me miss a stitch.” Lin’s mood deflated just a little more.
This sigh carried her all the way to the kitchen, where she saw what had to be Eboshi’s bowl in the sink.
“You ate already?” she called over her shoulder.
“I had to. Li Peng made a mess out of this commission and we are nearly out of time to finish. Leave me alone so I can work.”
The weight settled a little more heavily across her shoulders as she placed the bag on the table and removed the container with Eboshi’s arctic hen order. Once it was in the fridge, Lin reached out to call her briefcase to herself, and the chopsticks from the drawer.
She lifted her eyes to the window, but could only see the periodic flash of the R3 lighthouse on Yue Bay, a faraway pinprick of light. She shook herself and removed a communications plan for the upcoming Founders’ Day festival.
Some time later, Eboshi huffed in annoyance, yanking Lin’s chopsticks out from where she had stuck them in the container. “Lin, you know better than to stick your chopsticks in your noodles that way. It’s a good thing it’s only me to see you being rude.”
Lin’s attention shattered. She twisted up to look at Eboshi. “Rude? We had planned to listen to your radio show tonight and spend some time together. I brought that arctic hen order you like so much, but find out you had already eaten without waiting for me. I’m not the only one being rude.”
Eboshi flounced across the kitchen to pull out a glass and fill it with water. She drank it down without stopping for a breath. When she set it down in the sink, she continued in the same aggravated tone. “I would have called you, but you told me never to call you at work. Something about us both needing our privacy.” She whirled away, keeping her back to Lin before stomping her way back to her office.
Sighing yet again, Lin closed her paperwork and shoved it back inside the case. The food container joined its companion in the icebox, and Lin washed Eboshi’s bowl before replacing it in the spot she thought it belonged.
As much as it rankled her, she gave some consideration to trying to craft an apology.
I’m sorry for trying to consider your reputation.
I’m sorry for trying to protect you from the scrutiny I get all the time.
I’m sorry for trying to keep you safe from people who want to hurt me.
She bent over the sink and splashed water on her face. She leaned her elbows against the edge of the sink and held her face in her hands. A long list of colorful language ran through her mind until all she could say to herself was, “Spirits.”
A slow, measured breath helped her square her shoulders and rub her face. The towel had her dried off and presentable with just a quick swipe.
Lin rapped her fingertips gently against the door, the way Eboshi had demonstrated on their first visit to her apartment. “I know this seems absurd to you, but when I’m concentrating on my stitching, it can be catastrophic for me to have you jerk my attention away.” After knocking for almost a whole minute, Lin knew it was safe to enter.
An impressively bright array of lights lined the far wall, hanging above the plane of Eboshi’s work surface, but below her face. Lin had listened, torn between fascination and boredom as Eboshi had described her work area. She could admit to herself that it had been Eboshi’s sparkling interest that had truly won her over that evening.
Approaching from Eboshi’s left was always preferable, when possible. Lin would block the minimum amount of light, and not run the risk of jolting Eboshi’s sewing hand.
Tonight’s project was a gossamer-light hanfu. The pale lavender fabric was almost hard to see it was so thin. The pattern Eboshi was embroidering along the hem was barely darker than the fabric itself. Lin tried to understand the folds she was looking at, but knew it was entirely outside her skillset.
It was just so beautiful that Lin found herself reaching for the fabric.
“Lady Wang asked me to finish this tonight to deliver tomorrow. You might even see who’s wearing it at that gala you told me you didn’t want to attend for the art museum. At least you’ll get to see it in its final form. I’m not going to be helping with the fitting in the morning.”
Lin had to use her eyes to convince herself she was actually touching the fabric because it barely registered on her stone-toughened fingertips.
But the pinprick of the needle made her jerk her hand back.
When she shook her hand in irritation, she couldn’t understand why Eboshi gasped.
Until she saw the bloodstain spread along the delicate weave.
