Author's Note: I joined a new fandom. Have some Selicia.
...
...
To Have and to Hold
...
...
The day after the eclipse ends, the shadows on the wall stop speaking to her.
From her little alcove above the chairs, she watches the cars go by and listens to the sounds of her mother crying into her pillow, and she knows that now… now there are two missing. Two brave ones, gone to battle without coming home again.
But she keeps going, because she is four and four-year-olds aren't supposed to have nightmares about lives they haven't lived.
Elicia smiles on the first day of kindergarten. She is wearing a pink dress and white shoes, and her mother has pulled her hair back into a single ponytail. Gracia hands her off to the teacher, kissing her goodbye on the forehead and holding her day, she meets Selim Bradley. The late Fuhrer's son, a tiny kid a year younger than her. She giggles when he pulls out her ponytail holder, but he nearly cries when he realizes that he'd destroyed her hairdo. She quickly learns that there is nothing that Selim Bradley fears more than destroying the very ground on which he walks.
Elicia brings her stuffed bear - the one her father gave her - to school for show and tell, and Selim brings something his father gave him - shadows creeping behind him as he sniffles, teeth lurking in the dark spots of his mind, eyes filling the void of his footsteps.
But when the other children run or scream or cry, Elicia stays. Eyes gleaming, she is the one that hugs him close, tries to flatten that stubborn tuft of hair in the back. Because the shadows are back, and this time, they've brought someone with them. Someone for her to have and to hold.
That's all she wants, really.