Cicatrix
By SMYGO4EVA
Mai spooned up against Ishizu's back, one arm thrown loosely over her waist, face buried in her sweet-smelling hair. She reflected for a moment. She had no pressing desire to be anywhere but right there, in this place.
This was unusual, because Mai was not someone who liked to be held after having relations. She was most certainly not someone who liked to embrace. She preferred to drift off to sleep, or, more simply, to leave and never look back.
And yet, there she was.
"Why are you doing this?" Ishizu asked, twisting Mai's fingers through her own. Mai took a breath, but Ishizu didn't wait for a reply, asking, "Do you have feelings for anyone?"
"I don't know," Mai answered, because it really was the truth, both simple and complicated. "Have you?"
"I believed I was." Ishizu slipped out of Mai's arms. She turned over to face her, gaze clear but considered, almost thoughtful. "But now I don't think any of it was real. Not me, not to any one of them."
"Love can be like that," Mai remarked, her eyes cast down, "Just an illusion."
Ishizu nodded. "What about this?" she then asked, one finger trailing wonderingly over the blonde's lips. "Is this just an illusion?"
Mai resisted the comforting untruth, because Ishizu was a woman who had been deceived and led astray enough times already. "I don't know," she answered.
Ishizu looked away until Mai added, quietly, "I would like for it to be real, though."
"Yes," Ishizu said, her voice careful, hesitant. "I would like that too."
"Perhaps," Mai soon responded, stronger now, "between us, we could easily make it real."
"Yes," Ishizu replied, "Between us."
She smiled, the sadness that clouded her eyes lifting, just a little, just enough that Mai felt something inside herself fall, and then opened like wings.
It was faded, like a scar from a healed wound.
