Title: to taste the sky
Disclaimer: not my characters
Warnings: AU
Pairings: Rachel/Tobias
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 230
Point of view: third
Prompt: Animorphs, Rachel/Tobias, because the warrior she's become isn't exactly the kind of girl who wants flowers
The others don't understand, Tobias knows. The others are seasoned veterans who won a great victory, and then they went home. Back to school, back to their families, back to life before the war.
Tobias can't do that. Neither can Rachel. She wants to, sometimes; he can tell by the way she watches the horizon, stares into the sky.
Cassie stops by every few months. Yells his name, Tobias, please! Don't do this. Come back.
Wild birds stay away from humans. Especially raptors. He hasn't responded to her, and she isn't sure which territory is his. He moved after the war.
Tobias knows they think Rachel died. Knows it's cruel to let them keep believing that, but she isn't the girl they knew. Rachel died a hero in a war for the entire human race. What she is now... they wouldn't accept her. Wouldn't know what to do with her, a Rachel that is far more hawk than beauty queen with a taste for fighting.
If he was still human, if Rachel was still a teenage girl, today would be Valentine's. A day of chocolate and roses and hand-holding.
But he's not a human, and she's not a girl, and she's watching the sky, wings itching to fly.
*Rachel?* he says. *Bet I can catch dinner before you.*
*You're on,* she shoots back and arrows for the horizon.