Author's Note: For The Dark Things Competition and The Kisses Competition, prompts "Black" and "Letter Kiss". Also, for the If You Dare Challenge, prompt 650. Broken Heart.
Letter Kiss
(Dominique sends Roxanne letter kisses. It escalates from there.)
Dear Roxanne, Dominique writes, because only she starts letters with a salutation like that and only she calls Roxy Roxanne, How are you?
Then she stalls, because she doesn't know what she's really writing for. They speak in person all the time, but she just wants more of her favorite cousin.
But of course, Roxy is more than a cousin in her mind.
I like receiving letters, so I thought you might like receiving letters.
She looks at the other piece of parchment in her hand. It's her drawing of Roxy playing Quidditch, hitting a Bludger. Dominique doesn't play Quidditch but she appreciates the beauty of the move, the beauty of her cousin—
I've included a drawing of you, by me, just because.
Because she's in love with her cousin, who's six years younger than her, who's also a girl. And Roxy might like girls, but maybe she's not a creep like Dominique thinks of herself as, maybe she doesn't like her cousin who's so much older.
I hope you like it.
(I hope you like me.) She doesn't write that.
She goes on to talk about how her Herbology work is going, and offers some more advice on life after Hogwarts because Roxy recently turned eighteen. (She's not a child anymore, Dominique should get over the age difference—and they're not reproducing, she should be over them being related, she should be over so many things—)
How's the girl hunt going? she can't resist writing. Roxy's single and she's not one of those people who's good at being single and Dominique could fix that but….
She decides to end the letter soon.
Love,
Dominique xx
And then it's off to Roxy.
xx
Roxy's practicing Quidditch with Fred when the letter comes.
"Hey, sis, try hitting the Bludgers vaguely towards the target, eh?"
"I'm doing better than you, loser," she says, and then their mother, who she looks so much like, is calling: "Roxy! Letter for you, from Dominique!"
Maybe it's just the Quidditch adrenaline, but Roxy's heart flutters a little. She lands and runs to get the letter. "Thanks, Mom," she says, and by the time the words are out of her mouth, she's read half the letter.
She's puzzled as to why Dominique is sending her a letter when they've talked so recently, but she's happy.
Three things in the letter throw her off.
One: the drawing. Who goes around drawing pictures of people like that? She knows Dominique would, but it seems a bit… personal. And the Roxy staring back at her from the drawing is even more beautiful than she herself is.
Two: the girl hunt question. She knows Dominique. And Dominique couldn't care less about the romantic pursuits of anyone else. So why does she care about Roxy's?
And third: the kisses at the end. It seems like an odd thing to end a letter with for family.
But Roxy writes back.
She thanks Dominique for the picture, which she hangs in her room amongst her Quidditch posters and stares at constantly. She says that the girl hunt is unsuccessful, and after a moment of hesitation, puts a winking face next to it. And at the end, she signs:
xoxo,
Roxy
xx
Dominique is painting when she gets the response.
She's been worrying about it for a while, and her art shows it: she goes abstract, swirls of black paint across the canvases. She only paints with black like this when she's depressed. It's one of the first signs that her sister knows to look for.
The paint has also gotten over everything in the room, showing her lack of caring—it's even on her clothes, in her red hair, on her pale skin.
Everywhere.
But Vicki walks into the room and says, "Letter for you," and the happy if fretful Dominique is back. She bolts away from her painting and takes the letter from Vicki.
Then, she sheepishly apologizes, and waits with baited breath until Vicki's left to read the letter.
Heyyyy Minnie, it begins, because only Roxy starts letters with a salutation like that and only she calls Dominique Minnie, (and only sometimes).
The letter has everything that Dominique could've wanted: Roxy's good, she liked the letter, the picture, she's still single, and she even sends kisses back.
So Dominique gets daring.
She includes another drawing of Roxy, this time one of her and Dominique herself, each with an arm around the other. She says, So you've had no success with girls lately? and uncharacteristically includes a winking face of her own. And she signs with three kisses at the end.
Then, PS: Are you getting the hint?
xx
Roxy gets the letter while practicing gymnastics. She sighs at it. She'd been flirting, yes, but… but… Dominique was her cousin. She couldn't be in love with her cousin. Roxy'd just been… playing, being playful, something like that. Did she like Dominique, normally and romantically? Yes. Did she love Dominique as a cousin? Yes. Did she love her romantically?
Maybe not. She just doesn't have it in her.
So she takes the issue head on in her letter back.
We can't be together.
She tries to be gentle. She's kind but not gentle in nature, but here she tries to be.
Do you really wanna do this? Screw up our lives so we can, what, have more of a relationship?
I don't.
I'm sorry.
She writes uncharacteristically with no winking faces, and doesn't include any kisses, this time.
Just:
Love,
Roxy
xx
Dominique gets the letter and doesn't respond for a few days. Instead she paints. She paints Roxy, mostly. She uses up all of her black paint in swirls and messes and lets some of her plants die and cries.
Vicki and everyone else is concerned, but they don't know what's going on and they don't get it out of either her or Roxy.
Dominique slowly pulls herself together enough to write a letter back. The black paint smudges from her fingers onto the parchment.
She accepts what she has to write.
But she still signs:
Love,
Dominique xx
END