Two Stone Angels

My sister is the sun. A face carved from pure gold, set with eyes of sunlight and gleaming hair of spun silk. She is perfect. Living, breathing beauty with a warm, golden light spilling from her soul.

Non-identical twins. And I will never forget it.

No I am not as beautiful as her. My features are dark where hers are light, and my appearance is further marred by a thick scar running from my forehead to my neck. I carry the memory of Greyback still, and it haunts me though the war ended years ago.

Emmeline was always far more beautiful than me. But it didn't matter because I was the dark passion to her gentle kindness. She was light, soft and sweet. I was loud, the centre of attention. I could turn every head with a smile, and crush a person with words as sharp as knives.

And it had always been enough for me. I had never needed the looks.

I glance down at my hands in despair. Because I was dark and so was he and we were so perfect together that it hurt. My sister was the sun, and she had cast her light over him, turning our night to day. And there, in a stunning cursive typeface is the announcement of a fall wedding.

Emmeline West and Theodore Nott

I crush it between my fingers. How many dreams have I had where my name curled elegantly over his in an invitation to our nuptials?

Cassiopeia West and Theodore Nott

I wonder briefly if she knows he is the reason I hardly see her. If every once in a while, she sees a girl in the crowd, shoulders curled and eyes downcast. And perhaps her golden eyes fill with tears at the memory of the sisters that used to love one another as extensions of themselves.

Theo was the moon. An angel of stone, carved from the finest marble with sapphire eyes and obsidian hair. Iridescent, glowing in the soft light of the stars. And when we had lain together it had felt so right. We were creatures of passion, dark and raw and on those nights, hidden away, there was no time and no place. Only he and I, and a night so thick we could feel it drape across us.

Because anything can happen under the cover of darkness.

I breathed for him. I lived for him. I loved for him.

But It was like that with us. All or nothing. When we fought there were tears and screams and words knocked like arrows aimed straight for the heart. And when we loved there were bruises and cries and kisses so passionate that they hurt. And when I woke in the night, screaming, he kissed the tears from my cheeks and held me so tightly that I could almost forget about Fenrir Greyback and the horror, the horror.

Almost.

And his hand would run down my scar, and but for him I was untouchable. But it wasn't enough.

I wasn't enough.

I could feel it during those months.

"Cass, do you ever stop being negative? Look at your sister! Em is so happy. Wouldn't you just love to be more like her?"

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Until.

"Cass it's not working."

No!

"Cass it's too hard, I can't do it anymore."

Please!

"I can't. I'm sorry, I failed you. I thought I could fix you, I thought we would be okay. But you're fucked up, Cass. Don't you want to be happy? Do you like carrying the shit from the war around on your shoulders all the time?"

I was sobbing. I fell to my knees. I pleaded, I begged. I needed him. Without him, the dark was too thick, the nights too long.

"I used to be like you, Cassiopeia. But Em, she changed me. She helped me let go, and you need to find that person. I owe it to you to find him, because I can't do it for you. I'm sorry."

I go to the wedding. And Emmeline cries and hugs me and I tell her I'm over it. But I'm not. I can't be. And he slips the ring onto her finger, and I slip away.

He appears on my doorstep later that week.

"Cass. I just...Em misses you. You can't hold onto what happened with us forever. She is your sister."

And I almost laugh at the nerve he has. Because I know why he is really here.

"You can't fool me, angel."

I'm being vindictive now. I internally rejoice when he flinches at my use of that name. The one he used to call me. His eyes narrow, and I remember how he could break someone with his words.

"Oh you think I'm here for you? How pathetic," he takes a step forward, eyeing me maliciously. "You still love me, don't you? But you aren't my angel anymore."

His words are razor sharp and I freeze, my throat constricting.

Angel. Fuck that hurts.

One look at me now, and the vindictive anger bleeds from his face until all that is left is a shell of the man I used to know.

"I thought we were past this." he whispers, slumping down onto my top step, his head in his hands.

I smile sadly.

"I still love you."

My words hover in the air, and I know he hears me because his back stiffens.

There's a bittersweet moment where he looks at me, and my heart hurts because he is so beautiful. His eyes are still blue, but they are somehow lighter, brighter. And I know that Emmeline has infected him with her blasted love and forgiveness and light.

"It could have been different, Cass. But you were too broken and I was weak. It was...we are poison together."

And we are quiet for a while before he stands and walks away. He doesn't look back and I feel my heart break all over again because he is no longer dark like me. She has made him like the sun.

Later that night I find it. That photo.

From before the war, I can tell because my face is smooth, unmarred.

And he's there, and I'm there and neither of us are smiling and we are darkness. Two stone angels, together under a blanket of night.

Hey guys, I hope you liked it. It's pretty different to my usual stuff, but I realized that I don't really have the stamina for multi-chap fics and I am better off getting my ideas out in short one-shots. I really like the idea of unrequited love, and this fic was inspired a prompt from beesha: Theodore Nott leaves his girlfriend for her twin sister, and she is left heartbroken and unable to get past it.