"I always thought seeking solace in a shrine built in your honor was a bit narcissistic."
Miranda groaned, pulling the thin blanket up over her eyes. "What can I say? The people love me."
The woman beside her laughed. "Do they?"
"You are just jealous that no one built a temple in your honor, sister." Miranda smiled, pulling down the blanket just enough to take her in.
She was as strikingly beautiful as she had always been. Tall. Slim. Her posture perfect even as she leaned back on her palms, legs stretched down the steps in front of them. Her hair was pulled up in an intricate wrap that Miranda couldn't even begin to fathom how it was achieved.
"This was built out of love, huh?" She asked, leaning her head back to take in the arching ceilings. The plaster had long ago begun to crack. Some sections crumbled from the walls revealing the brickwork that lay beneath.
"You know exactly why it was built." Miranda said bitterly, scrubbing at tired eyes. "A temple built in service to an angry god in hopes that their lives might be spared at the end of time."
"The end of time..." The woman repeated quietly.
"What are you doing here, Aristelle?"
"Well, is it not reasonable for one to question why their favorite sister is sleeping on the grubby floor of an abandoned church? It's not reassuring, I can tell you that."
"Favorite sister..." Miranda repeated wryly, pulling at a loose string on the blanket binding.
"Mor, the rest of our family is insane. You were the obvious choice," Aristelle winked at her. Miranda had little humor to spare. The smile on Aristelle's burgundy painted lips faded quickly.
"Ara," Miranda said, sitting up. "You don't have to worry. I have everything under control."
"Really?" Aristelle looked over at her, one slim blonde brow raised.
"Mhm," Miranda said, neatly folding the blanket and setting it down beside her.
"Is that why I haven't heard a word from you in weeks?"
"I'm busy." Miranda got to her feet, brushing off her jeans. "I'm in the big leagues now. If you haven't heard."
"Mor. Eiko called me."
Miranda stilled. "Eiko should mind her own business and do what she's been employed to do."
"She is doing her job. Keeping tabs on you. Helping you."
"If I want her help, I ask for it. I didn't ask her to run to you like some kind of tattling toddler."
"She's worried about you!"
"No one worries about me."
"You know that's not true."
"Tell me this," Miranda snarled, moving in close to stand over her sister. "Did you come to check on me because you are worried about my well being, or are you worried about my 'mindset'?"
"I-I" She recoiled stightly. "I was worried. Of course, I was worried. About you!"
Miranda hissed out a breath and spun away from her. Aristelle pushed to her feet and grasped Miranda's arm, wrenching her backwards. Miranda twisted in her grasp, striking out with a fist. Aristelle caught her hand, grimacing at the force of it in her palm.
"You know, we are all in this together." Aristelle forced out through gritted teeth. "You don't have to be so damn determined to do this on your own!"
"No!" Miranda jerked backwards, breaking her hold. "We are not all in this together. Because at the end of it all, none of you will be the catalyst that makes it all come crumbling down." Miranda gasped out a breath, her hands grasping the sides of her head, fingers raking curls. "It wasn't supposed to go like this."
She could hear Aristelle's heavy breaths, the sound of hesitant footsteps. "Why now?"
Miranda looked back at her through dark lashes. "What?"
"Why do you care so much now?" Slowly she moved closer, hands up to shield her face if Miranda struck out again. "This has been hanging over our heads for decades. Centuries. You've always done your duty. You've been a good soldier. But you've never really cared who lived or died. I was always the one who cared… So why now?"
Miranda took in a shaky breath, her fingers slowly falling away. The world around her lost focus and she saw blue eyes. A kind smile. The echo of her own elusive laugh.
"Oh my god." Aristelle straightened, realization lighting her fine features.
Miranda let out an uneven breath. "What?"
A small smile pulled at the corner of Aristelle's lips. "You've fallen in love."
Miranda scoffed, trying to throw out all the spite and malice she could muster, but it sounded just as unsteady as she felt.
"It's not love," Miranda said bitterly.
"Maybe not yet. But to even see the twilight of it on your face. To see that it is possible. I had always worried that...maybe…"
Miranda wrapped her arms tightly around herself. "That I was not capable of it."
"Mor. That's not what I meant."
"Isn't it though?" Miranda said quietly, thinking of the hours she had lain awake having that exact thought. And to hear that it had been echoed in someone else's mind made her feel entirely hopeless.
Aristelle reached forward toward Miranda, her fingers settling gently on her neck. "You don't have to look like someone just shot you in the stomach. This is a good thing, Mor. A beautiful thing!"
Miranda shook her head swallowing hard.. "How?"
"How is it not?" She exclaimed, opening her arms as though the dark building around them held the answers to all of her doubts. "Finally you are experiencing what it is in this world that I have felt so wholeheartedly is worth saving. Why I convinced you to help me in the first place."
"Convinced?" Miranda said wryly.
Guilt flickered over Aristelle's face but was gone as quickly as it came. "It's not so bad. Why is it so bad?"
Every bit of tiredness and overbearing stress pulled Miranda down, down like she was drowning. "Because. If this is really what you say it is..." She pulled a curl behind her ear. "For the first time, in the whole, entirety of my worthless existence...I have something to lose."
"Oh Mor."
Miranda leaned forward, her forehead resting on her sister's shoulder. Aristelle went perfectly still. Her hands we held out hesitantly at her sides before coming up to hover over Miranda's shoulders. Taking a breath, Aristelle settled them on her back. Then she pressed in, drawing her close.
"What about me? Aren't you worried about losing me?" Aristelle joked in a weak attempt to break the bleak weight of her worries.
Miranda laughed, the sound holding no humor. "You know why I don't worry about you."
She could hear the smile in the other girl's voice. "Still. Even a little concern would be nice."
Miranda straightened, closed her eyes and took in a long breath. A small smile worked its way onto her lips. "We don't buy your bullshit here. Try next door."
"I just want you to experience what it is about humanity that is so wonderful." Aristelle said quietly. "We both know what's coming. We need something to fight for, Mortekaia. There is a difference between fighting when you have nothing to lose, and fighting because you have everything to lose."
"And what do you have to lose, Ara? What was it that you were so terrified of losing when you set us down this path all those years?"
Aristelle looked down at her hands, her lips moving as if to form words but she stayed quiet for a long time. "I don't think you would understand. Not yet."
The moon was strung high overhead when Miranda finally returned to the compound. Exhaustion still weighted her movements, but she was far more clear headed than she had been when the day had started.
She quietly opened the front door and stepped into the entry hall. Silence. She pressed the door shut and moved down the hall. She was like a ghost in the night, passing through the shrouded world, unbeknownst the sleeping souls around her.
"Where have you been?"
Well. All but one.
He leaned against a doorway that she thought led out into the lounge area. A dim blue glow flickered in the hallways behind him. A television maybe. Had he waited up for her? Or had he simply been up as well. It had been clear from the beginning that he was a terrible sleeper. Second only to her.
"Out."
"You wouldn't answer your phone. We were worried about you."
Miranda slid her phone from her pocket and cradled it in her hand. "I guess it died. Since...everything, I haven't had a chance to charge it."
He nodded slowly. "What about last night spooked you so hard?"
The question weighed heavy with double meaning, but she refused to let herself stare down into its depths.
"You are a SHIELD sniper. I imagine you have seen far worse than this. But when I saw you earlier...you were a bit...unhinged." There was guilt on his face. He reached a hand up to scuff the back of his neck. "Look, I'm sorry. About earlier. I shouldn't have pushed."
Memories ignited like a flash bomb. His fingers on her skin. That breathless curse. His lips on hers. A blush heated Miranda's face and she turned her head to the side, hoping to hide it from him. "It's okay. I kind of started it, I guess. At the club."
When she looked over at him, he was watching her. The expression on his face was incredibly soft. Her heart thumped hard against her rib cage.
You've fallen in love…
"What a pair we are." He laughed, a hushed sound in an even quieter night.
"Are we a pair?" Miranda asked quietly, running the nail of one thumb under the other.
Get a grip, she scolded herself. Remember who you are dammit. But in this moment she felt entirely too small and too insignificant. She had stepped into uncharted water and maybe it was the enormity of it, or maybe it was how her visit with her sister had left her, but it had crushed the barbed front she had worked so hard to construct in his presence.
He shifted from one foot to the other. The motion drew her eyes upwards to his face. His typically clean shaved jaw was shadowed with stubble. Dark smudges clouded the area beneath his eyes. He looked so tired.
"Have dinner with me."