And here's a new one! This one hasn't been posted on Tumblr beforehand. Enjoy your Thursday kiss :)
Kisses On Falling Tears
His fingers raked through her hair and across her scalp, pushing back blonde bangs over and over again. They fell back across her forehead after every stroke through them, the movement quickened by the quaking in her shoulders.
Her sobs were soft, and they tore through his heart like a hundred little paper cuts. He leaned his head back against his couch with a painful sigh, glaring at the ceiling, and kept stroking.
Her fists were kneaded into his pants, fingernails curling and scratching into fabric. He trembled with the force of her slow anguish, her thick tears in his lap, and that he couldn't take the grief away from her.
Swallowing thickly, he stooped; bent over in a way that was uncomfortable and yet comforting all at the same time, and pressed his lips against her hair.
"We'll see her again," he promised for the millionth time.
But it was different this time. For all the times she had left only to return, this time it was final. 'Just you wait,' Usagi had joked after the pink fog dissipated, attempting to cheer up the mood. 'She'll be back in 4 days tops!'
Their emotions had still been so raw. Only days ago, Usagi had held her as she'd disappeared from existence, back to stardust in Usagi's broken frame (his fault his fault his fault). It had been hard to let go this time in the first place.
Setsuna's sad, answering shake of her head had felt like falling out of the sky.
"But you'll see her again, of course..." Setsuna had trailed off awkwardly, apologetically.
They would. Of course they would... As her parents.
"It won't be the same," Usagi sobbed into his lap. "And I didn't know. I said goodbye to Chibiusa and I didn't know it would be the l-last t-time," she hiccuped into his lap, shaking her head beneath his lips, and he stroked one hand down her back, her arms, trying to hold her together.
And maybe himself too.
Usagi leapt in his embrace. He was pushed back into his couch and she shifted in his lap to straddle him - her arms tight around his shoulders in a heartbeat.
"We could make her right now," she hushed against the shell of his ear, as if it was the best, most comforting of all ideas she'd ever had.
Of course it was ludicrous. They were far too young, it wasn't time. There was an envelope from Harvard in his mailbox he was too nervous to even bring up into his apartment, nevermind opening.
"Don't be silly," he whispered into the crook of her neck, but his fingers dug into the fabric of her shirt much the same as hers had into his pants. Clinging.
His voice broke saying it.
She leaned back, her face wet and studying him in scrutiny, eyes intense and somehow calming even when her tears still came.
And then she leaned back in, her fingers pushing into his scalp this time, returning the favor in almost mirrored movements. He only noticed his own face was just as wet as hers when she started to kiss the falling tears off his face with the warm, tender, lingering press of pink lips.
"We'll see her again," she mirrored his words, soft and heartbroken.
It was his time to break into a sob, and he clung. Buried himself into her embrace and broke apart.
It would be different. Beautiful. He knew it would be. But he also loved the family he already had, and it was now a little smaller.
Obvious Setting Tag (for those scrolling): Stars, between the arcs.
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