❛ some people are so good at disappearing that you start to doubt your memories that they were ever there. ❜
A softer world sentence starters
It’sa rare, intimate exchange their having on Kate’s couch, their morose expressionshalf in shadow, and half bathed in the glow from the redhead’s TV, in a waythat might almost be comical, Jack-o-Lantern like as they are, if the exchangehad been something other than all the people they’ve lost. Still, it’s nice. FeelingKate’s heart beating against her collarbone, her own matching its slow, steadyrhythm… The arms wrapped around her waist, periodically tightening to draw herin close against her chest… The quiet and the dark and the unique glimpse she’sgetting into Kate’s life… It’s melancholia pregnant with acceptance and understanding.She might not be a fellow X-Man, or even a fellow mutant, but there aresimilarities there regardless, and a depth that Kitty had expected at thatfirst meeting.
Andwith that, with her eyes on the shaggy carpet on the floor and fingers absentlytwisting in Kate’s shirt, she finds the strength to confess, “I can’t rememberwhat he sounds like anymore. I have a recording. Of his last moments before… Hewas looking right at the camera, as if he knew I would be watching… There’s nosound, but he’s saying he loves me, that he’s proud of me… I’ve watched it somany times it’s burned on my brain, but I can’t remember what he sounds like.”
“Fora while I didn’t want to remember, but I had these dreams… Now I just want toknow what his voice sounded like, and I get nothing,” she sighs, the bitternessseeped into her voice and the wet, reflective glaze that’s come to her eyes belyingthe gentle rumination they’ve found in the living room. While the bitternesspasses in the silent seconds that follow, drowned under a wave of regret, a hottear slips across her temple, soaked up by her hair and the other woman’s abusedshirt.
Itdoesn’t keep her for long.
Sheshifts slightly, arms folding under her chin and head angling to meet Kate’seyes. Some things are easier shared with gazes averted, but for this, she needsthe other woman to know how genuine she is, and that’s all in the eyes, “Tellme about them. That’s one way to keep the memory alive.”