This is something unlike anything they were ever trained for.
❃❃❃
“You know, kid… you’re being so quiet, it’s kind of freaking me out.”
Hattie wasn’t sure how long she had been staring at the hospital’s ceiling. It could have been only a few minutes, or even the whole morning— but time was the last thing on her mind. The padded bench she lay on smelled slightly of disinfectant, mingling with the faint yet omnipresent aroma of chemical citrus, likely from another cleaning product. Combined with a uniformly white color scheme across the walls and ceiling, the entire building felt oppressively sterile.
She hated it. Everything in the hospital was too clean, too coldly impersonal, and her Semblance was picking up every bit of pain around her, no matter how small.
“Hey, Remnant to Lazuli, do you copy?” Yuen repeated.
“I heard you,” Hattie mumbled, tilting her head up to get an upside-down view of the woman seated next to her. A metal crutch rested on the wall beside Yuen, a result of the doctor’s concern for her leg wound, minor as it was. “I just… don’t feel like much right now., if it’s all the same to you.”
“Not a problem here,” Cait chimed in, their voice hoarse as they shifted in their seat across from her. Raising an arm to scratch their side, they winced in pain and muttered under their breath a complaint about their rib brace being itchy.
Yuen shrugged, taking her crutch under her arm as she stood. “Alright, whatever. I’m going to go find a decent cup of coffee. Give me a buzz if Sardion wakes up, if your Scroll’s still got any juice left.”
As she headed off, Cait gingerly rose from their chair and walked over to where Yuen had been sitting, plopping down next to Hattie’s head with a low gasp.
“I know you said you didn’t want to talk, but I just wanted to know… are you hol—?”
Cait didn’t manage to finish their question before Hattie raised her arms up and wrapped them around them, burying her face into their side. They hissed sharply as her grip tightened, “Ow, ow, ow, ow, Hattie, not so tight, not so tight.”
“S-sorry.” Hattie said quietly. “It’s just—”
“I know,” Cait said, gently placing a hand on the side of her head. “I’m not exactly feeling peaches-and-cream in my mind, either.”
“Are you feeling any better otherwise?” she asked, lowering her arms as she sat up from the bench.
She had escaped the skirmish with no physical injury to herself, but couldn’t help but concern herself with the rest of them.
“Eh, they did give me some painkiller for my ribs, so it’s not as bad as it felt at first,” Cait said. “And the cuts weren’t anything serious. Needed a couple of stitches, but my Aura’ll take care of them once it regenerates— doc said they won’t even leave scars.”
“Yeah, that’s good,” Hattie said with an almost imperceptible nod. “Do you need anything? Can I get you something to eat or some water or—”
“Nah,” Cait shook their head. “I don’t have much of an appetite right now. I just want two things - a scalding hot shower and a very long nap.”
Hattie didn’t respond at first, instead turning her attention back to the ceiling as a niggling thought at the back of her mind started to grow.
She had clearly heard Moira and Nest call themselves Cait’s sisters, but the two had borne as much resemblance to her raven-haired teammate as her top hat resembled a fried egg — to say nothing of the fact that they didn’t look anything alike either.
Then there was what Cait had yelled about their father, and that was another matter entirely— she had never heard her teammate speak two words about their family, much less speak about anyone with such vitriol in their voice.
“…I need to ask you about something, Cait, and I need you to be honest with me. Please.”
With a twinge of hesitation, Cait nodded. “I think I know what you’re about to say.”
“Who were those people?” Hattie asked, looking at Cait with an expression of concern. “They said they were your sisters… and they said that they killed Yaara and Berilo, too.”
Cait drew in a deep breath before replying, “They’re not my sisters… not by blood, at least.”
“Why would they have murdered two Huntsmen?” Hattie continued her line of questioning.
“I don’t know,” Cait replied, their tone becoming uneasy. “I don’t really want to talk about them right now—”
“Why not?” Hattie asked, pressing them further. “If you knew they were out there all along, why didn’t you tell us about them?”
“Because they’re not exactly something I want to remember, Hattie!” Cait snapped, causing Hattie to recoil slightly. Regretting their outburst at the sight of her reaction, they continued, “Sorry, sorry, it’s just… this is a piece of my past I thought I had finally gotten rid of.”
Hattie hesitated before asking her next question, “Like your… father?”
“Yeah… like him.” Cait said, their eyebrows knitting together in distaste at the mere mention. “And if you thought they were bad, well, he’s ten times worse.”
“So what do we do?” Hattie said. “Now that they know you’re here, it doesn’t sound like they’re going to stop…”
“We have to do what we’ve been trained to do,” Cait answered. “We have to fight back.”
“But didn’t you run before?”
“That time was different,” Cait said hesitantly, taking a moment to choose their next words. They were afraid, and privately cursing themself for never telling their team. They had never hoped, much less ever wanted, to drag anyone else into their conflict, but now…
“You guys are my family,” Cait said, a more affirmative swell in their tone with the declaration. “Family’s supposed to protect each other… and I’m done running away.”
They felt a gentle nudge against their shoulder, and looked up to see Hattie giving them a small, hopeful smile.
“You promise, partner?” she asked, extending her pinky.
Cait nodded, returning the smile and the pinky promise. “I do.”
“HATTIE! CAIT! WHAT HAPPENED?!”
The two of them jolted straight upright, startled out of the serene moment by an abrupt shout. Leaning over, they caught sight of Lillian and Amaryllis running up the hallway to them, Rudyard in tow right behind them. The sisters were clad in regular civvies and unarmed, while Rudyard had his uniform on and his sword at his side.
“Are you okay?” Amaryllis rushed up and knelt down, throwing an arm around each of them. “I thought you two were out late last night, so I didn’t bother to call… I’m so sorry, I should’ve checked in on you—”
“Ammy,” Lillian gently tapped her sister on the shoulder. “Let them talk so we know what’s going on.” She moved her attention to Hattie.
“Hattie, you said that Sardion and Yuen were here with you, right?”
“Y-you read my texts?” Hattie asked, still a bit flustered by the trio’s sudden arrival.
“About Manju-Shage and the killers and everything?” Rudyard said, his voice rushed and breathless. “Yeah, these two got me up to speed on the way. Where’s Sardion?”
“Intensive care unit,” Yuen said, reappearing with a fresh cup of coffee in one hand. “Surgery ended an hour or two ago, he’s probably resting off the sedative right now.”
Without paying any further attention to the underclassmen, Rudyard stole a look at a wall-mounted floor map, then hurried off down the hall a second later.
With Rudyard abruptly gone, Cait was uncomfortably aware that all eyes were now turned on them.
“So,” Yuen said as she took another sip of her coffee, her eyes narrowing. “Given everything that’s happened in the last twelve hours, I think we’re all overdue for an explanation. Start talking, Cait.”
Cait glanced nervously at Hattie.
“Go on,” she said with a gentle nudge, resting her hand on their back.
They pursed their lips, then began to speak.
“There are… some things… that I’ve been keeping from all of you…” they said tentatively. “Three years ago… I ran away from… I couldn’t tell you the name of the place for the life of me, but it was where I grew up. Gods know how many times I tried to run away before that, but I never got further than the perimeter. See, it’s built right into a plateau in the middle of nowhere with cliff faces on every exit, and even if I had managed to get down without breaking my neck, there were miles of forest around it probably teeming with Grimm—”
“Tell us about your troubled home life later.” Yuen forcefully interrupted. “What I want to know is who the hell those two last night were, and why they killed two of Mistral’s best Huntsmen.”
Cait sighed. “Well, the one Sardion offed was Moira Redoul, and the one with the wings... her name’s Nest Nerium. I didn’t see Faine or Anais with them, so that probably means—”
“Wait a second.” This time, Hattie cut them off. “Are you telling us there’s two more of whatever they were… out there?”
“…More like one and a half, I’d say.” Cait said. “Then again, while Anais might only count for half, Faine is good enough to be two on her own… thank the gods she’s the one that prefers to stick with dad.”
“Well, hell.” Yuen slumped back against the wall, letting out a low whistle.
“I’m sorry,” Cait said, lowering their head. “I honestly thought they’d given up trying to find me… but now I’ve led them to all of you.”
“No… you couldn’t have known that they’d follow you this far,” Lillian said. “But why would they have gone after Yaara and Berilo in the first place?”
“I don’t know,” Cait said glumly. “I honestly don’t know.”
Yuen let out a long, exasperated huff, looking away.
“…I’m going to go talk to Rudyard. If he’s waiting for ICU clearance, maybe I’ll have time to fill him in on the rest of this.” She took one more chug of her coffee, then threw it into a trashcan and hobbled off, crutch still in hand.
“She’s mad at me, isn’t she?” Cait asked with a wince.
“It’s just everything happening so fast,” Amaryllis said reassuringly. “She’ll come around.”
“I hope so,” Cait said. “Are you two mad at me?”
Lillian shook her head, taking a seat next to Cait. “We’re definitely going to have more questions for you about this, like it or not, but we’re not going to give you grief about it.”
“…You know they’ll come back, right?” Cait said.
“Who? Rudyard and Yuen?”
“Nest and… whoever else dad’s still got with him. This won’t be the last we see of them, now that they know where I am.”
“Yeah, we know.” Lillian shifted in her seat, but her expression remained unchanging.
“All of us are right beside you.” It was Amaryllis who spoke this time. “We’re a team, aren’t we? And correct me if I’m wrong, Lilly, but I think we can count on Rudyard to back us up too.”
“You know it,” Lillian replied. “First Yaara and Berilo, now this? He’s not going anywhere.”
“…Thanks, guys,” Cait replied simply, their tone grateful but dulled by the gnawing dread of all the ways everything could still go wrong.
The conversation trailed off with that, and the four of them were met with several seconds of awkward silence.
“So… uh… you two want some ice cream?” Lillian spoke up. “There’s a cafeteria on the first floor. It’s open, and I saw they had a sign for Fen & Berry’s.”
“Ice cream in the morning? For breakfast?” Cait said, mirth creeping back into their tone. “We nearly get killed, and you’re spoiling us. We should do this more often.”
“Eh, after the night you two’ve had, I’ll let this one slide. Hattie? You want some?” Lillian asked, turning to her other, uncharacteristically quiet teammate.
“…Can you get Hunka Helia Burning Fudge from them?” Hattie asked, looking a bit sheepish.
“That can probably be arranged,” Lillian said with a soft chuckle. She held out her hand to her sister, a Lien note of low denomination clasped between forefinger and thumb. “Two servings of the biggest size they have, Ammy.”
“Wha—why do I have to go get it?!” Amaryllis said indignantly. “You’re the one who suggested it, why don’t you go get it!”
“Because A, I’m your leader, and B, I’m your older sister.” Lillian blithely answered, without turning around. “And I am going to make up for my absence during our teammates’ very stressful night by emotionally supporting them right now, while you go get them some comfort food.”
“We’re TWINS, Lillian!”
“Yes, and I’m four minutes older. Now, chop-chop.”
“Hrmph,” Amaryllis huffed, taking the note from her sister. “Four minutes older… I’ll give you ‘four minutes older’ one of these days, musclehead…” she muttered under her breath as she strode off for the cafeteria.
sketched this pose back in january and only just now got around to finishing it. not 100% certain if i like how it turned out with the shading but i had fun with it
never stops being wild to me that there is someone else on this very website with an OC named harriet lazuli. i wonder if they ever search the harriet lazuli tag and see a bunch of art of a weird rabbit girl with the same name
and if they do happen to search and see this: hi what's up. i think it's funny we both have girls named harriet lazuli
