It was one in the morning, and Korū was obviously still awake, Kaguya curled up beside him on the bed.
Cayne also couldn't seem to sleep, which was queer, because sleep was something that would always haunt him.
Alina and Linda were in the next room, thinking over the message that the hawk had brought back:
"We will be eager to grant you an audience, if you can find us. We await your presence.
"Yours' sincerely,
"Izanami Fujihana"
They had relayed this message to the other half of their group back in Bloodmoon, where Hikari still showed no sign of discomfort, confusing all the healers. All of them were dwelling on the same thing: where do they even find a super well-known, high profile family of witches and wizards who were notorious for their curses?
"I'm worried." Alina muttered. She was lying spread eagle on her own bed, thankful that the fact that it had not disappeared was one extra piece of evidence that Richard was still alive.
"I am, too. I think we all are." Linda responded. "Hey, Korū was right about you acting weird. Want to talk about it?" She asked hesitantly.
Alina sighed, turning around on the bed to face Linda. "Well, he did say that he grew up in an environment where he risked getting killed by a bunch of hostile packmates the moment he left his home."
Linda was silent for a long while. "Alina-"
"It's okay. It's in the past. It's not your fault. AndI forgive you for what you did do." Alina said quietly.
"But it's obviously still haunting you."
"What do you expect, Linda? It's still haunting me, because the toxic people are still toxic. Not everyone changed like you." Alina paused, seemingly waiting for Linda's response. When she didn't say anything, Alina continued in a very agitated way.
"You can see it in my parent's eyes, they haven't accepted me for who I am yet. The only thing they are proud of are my visible achievements, so they get to say, 'oh, our daughter made it into the Okhrana. You probably heard her name before.'
"But they would never say, 'oh, our daughter is strong enough to push past a ruined childhood, depression and PTSD from seeing her brother, among others, die right in front of her at eleven, and now she's going to be a strong, young woman and we love her.' No! All they do is smile those fake smiles of theirs and pretend that we're a happy family."
Her voice dropped even softer, so that Linda could just catch her words.
"I thought that was enough, though. I really did. I tried hard to make them proud, I tried to pretend that we really were this happy family that everyone thought we were. The amazing pack healer, the flawless human who can live with us werewolves, and their amazing daughter who have a long list of achievements. But I stopped caring about that a while ago." Little droplets of water were sliding from her eyes, onto her pillow.
"I stopped caring about what others thought of me, Linda. At least, I'm trying to stop. But I still crave it. But that's not the point. Korū… Korū and Hikari… their pack is so messed up, Linda." Alina choked out. "It's slightly better than ours was, but it doesn't make it good. Look what it did to our friends."
Linda couldn't speak. She didn't know what to say. It was no wonder why Alina was so distressed. It hurt Linda too. And to think that she used to be one of Alina's tormentors… she could never forgive herself, despite the fact that Alina had willingly let go of any grudge.
Some of the people around her were so scarred. So, so many scars that she couldn't remove no matter how hard she tried. They had long crept into the mosaic of their being, and those scars were part of them now.
And Alina really, really wanted to prevent others from being scarred like her, like so many other people had already been.
Linda, too, cried silently for everything and everyone, the past, present and future. Most importantly, she cried with Alina, who had willingly removed her mask in front of her, revealing the pain that she still hid. Who lay in front of her, distraught from how helpless actually she was.
It hurt Linda. It really did, but she felt like she had no right to cry, when a prat of Alina's pain was her fault.
***
"Morning." Alina greeted as she emerged from the room, followed closely by Linda. The two boys were already sitting at the dining table.
"Mh." Korū was slumped in his seat, feeding Kaguya a scrap of chicken. He looked like he hadn't slept at all.
Alina and Linda ambled their way to the fridge.
"I'll make sandwiches." Alina said.
"Do you want sunny side ups?" Linda asked.
"Yes, please." Cayne said.
Korū didn't look up from Kaguya, his eyes fixed on the cat, and only the cat. The tension in his shoulders was so obvious, that even Kaguya let out a worried meow.
Cayne frowned. "Did you manage to contact her?"
"No. I don't know what the hell's going on. None of them are fucking responding." And it was too worrying.
Alina held a sandwich in one hand, a plate full of them in the other. She set the plate down on the table and held out her hand to Korū. "Phone?"
"I didn't call them, damn it! I tried mindlinking my packmates but I don't know why the hell they aren't answering!" Korū spat the words, everything weighing heavily on his mind. Kaguya nudged him comfortingly, letting out a small purr when he stroked his back.
"Pass it, I mean. I need to borrow it. My bills will explode if I call anyone on mine." Alina clarified, not at all disturbed by his aggressiveness. It was something she understood well.
Korū dumped his phone on the table. It was amazing how even the screen was still intact, considering the amount of abuse it has had to take.
Alina grabbed it, taking a seat and typing in a number before holding it a distance from her face, her elbow supported by her newly sandwich-less hand.
"Hi, Jo, this is Ali." She said as the call went through.
A pleasant, mature voice came from the phone. "Hello, A."
Linda, who was still in the kitchen and couldn't hear the tinny voice coming from the phone, mindlinked Alina. "Will you put her on speaker?"
Alina did, then asked, "Are you with Hikari?"
"Yes. Am I on speaker?" Standard protocol.
"Mhm. Linda Jones, Korū Hitagaki, and Cayne Dylan can hear you."
"I see… well, Hikari's condition is considerably stable. The poison used is meant to disorientate and distract, and is not easily fatal, especially with the small amount used. But," the voice paused for a moment, "she's going to be in a fuck ton of pain for a while. I'm doing my best to numb it, but there's only so much anyone can do."
Korū winced, a low growl forcing its way out of his throat. "Fuck," he hissed. He'd just tried to mindlink Hikari, and regretted doing that. The pain was really intense, and Hikari somehow didn't choose to keep it to herself. Anyone that tried to crack open her mental door would be assaulted.
"So, what about the other stuff?" Alina moved on, burying her worry for Hikari for the moment.
"The investigation was surprisingly quick. I was about to leave when the four of them showed up. The case isn't closed, but the Alpha had an alibi and no convincing motive, so he just got a warning to stop trying to kill people in a fit of anger."
"Who's the new suspect?" Linda asked curiously from the kitchen, her voice loud though for the phone to catch.