give her the k li
Rei has the innate & terrible ability to fit perfectly in the spaces between Li’s bones -- her body cut from the opposite half of the marble Xaoli herself had been sloughed off from, proven by how Rei can be held so tightly against Xaoli’s chest. long, pock-marked, scarred arms are laced around the young bird’s neck, fingers tangled in mousey hair. it isn’t so very often she’s allowed to hold the younger officer this close in public, this tightly in front of others --- but there was something in the older cat’s chest that had broken when she found the bird alive.
it wasn’t becoming so increasingly uncommon...
so forgive her, for holding her too close, for tilting back the young woman’s neck so she could plant gentle and reverent kisses to her pale forehead -- kiss after kiss, a trail of them as evidence of her relief. forgive her for being grateful. forgive her for being worried. she is just so very tired of finding people dead...