Chasing Loose Threads

Rachel

It's weird, Rachel thinks as she follows Reyna into her room in the praetorium, how different she feels revisiting this place. The room, never lavishly furnished, is now void of Reyna's personality. All of Reyna's belongings fit into two suitcases which sit by the door.

Reyna takes her hand and pulls her so they stand face to face, almost an embrace. Her eyes are intense this close up, and the emotions Rachel reads in them send shivers down her spine. Worry, fear, hope, and desire seem to flash in equal measure in the dark brown.

"I missed you," Reyna says, sounding as if she's trying to hold onto her usual determination, but is also uncertain.

"I missed you too," Rachel says. She brushes the side of Reyna's face with her thumb. "What's the matter? You look worried."

The creases in Reyna's forehead soften as she smiles. "Come and sit with me on the bed?"

"Of course."

The air between them feels off, like the disconnected feeling that had settled between herself and Piper in the car is here has clung to Rachel. She rubs her arms, then climbs onto the bed and settles in next to Reyna.

"Sorry, Reyna. I – I know I seem a little bit off right now. It's not you, this tension, the weirdness in the air; it happened in the car with Piper too. I think it's got to do with the vision I had this morning. I always feel a little disconnected when the Oracle does her thing, but it's never hung around so long before. I keep thinking I'm back to normal and then it comes back."

"Tell me about it," Reyna says, drawing Rachel back. "Any of it, all of it. It's been a long time since you've had a vision, and Piper said you repeated the prophecy?"

Rachel nods and Reyna holds her, slipping an arm over her shoulders. She sighs, leaning against Reyna's warm body. Putting words to the experience, the way she feels after having a vision is hard, but she's going to try to share it with Reyna. Talking it out, putting it into words might be what it takes to get rid of the feeling.

"Having a vision is weird, and this one happened while I was sleeping, so it was even more disorienting. Okay, I'm going to try to just tell you what it feels like."

Reyna hums her understanding and Rachel takes a couple of relaxing breaths before starting. "It's like being in a different realm. No, wait. More like I'm still here on Earth, but I've slipped into another layer of reality, if that makes any sense at all. So, say there are multiple layers of existence. You have the shadow realm, where Nico goes when he shadow-travels. You've described it before."

Reyna bobs her head and crosses her ankles. They're sitting side by side, backs against the wall, legs stretched out.

Rachel focuses on her feet as she talks, brow creasing as her thoughts slot into order and she translates them into words to share with Reyna. "Then there's the layer behind the Mist. I think that's closer to where I go when the Oracle hijacks my body. Like I'm still there, but I lose myself a little bit, like I'm out of time and space, out of the present, and when I come back, I recall the words of whatever prophecy happened, but I don't have much in the way of insights for interpreting them unless the Oracle thinks it's important and clues me in. Sometimes she whispers in my head and it feels just like a random thought occurred to me, or if somebody asks a question and then the answer just falls out when I couldn't have known it before. But that's not what this last vision was like."

She stops talking for a moment. Talking helps. She's already starting to feel more in control of her body again, more normal.

"What was different about this time?" Reyna prompts.

Rachel turns to meet Reyna's eyes, a small smile playing on her lips. She looks back at her feet, the smile slipping again, like she's going back to the place she's trying to describe. It isn't the sort of place smiles happen.

"This time, I was there … physically, only it wasn't really physically, because I was asleep." She stops, then starts again. "Damn it. It's hard to explain without sounding stupid."

Reyna gives Rachel's bicep a squeeze of encouragement. "I'm not judging. Feel free to sound as stupid as it takes to tell it like it is."

Rachel nods, though she frowns. The sensation starts creeping back as she remembers being in the dark corridor of Hades palace, the darkness behind her, malevolent and intelligent. "Okay. It was like a dream. I was there, but not. I couldn't interact with what was happening around me, like I was just witnessing it. Maybe like a ghost feels when it's around people who can't sense it?" She shakes her head, still falling short at explaining herself. "Okay, so I was in Hades' palace, and then the darkness behind me started growing and I was scared. I ran until I reached the throne room and Hermes was there with Hades. They were having some sort of argument and they didn't notice me run past them. But they noticed when the darkness followed me." She takes a shuddering breath. "Then, the Oracle told me to pay attention, that it was prophetic dream and that was different, too. See, she's never directly talked to me before. Like in her own creepy voice. Anyway, afterwards I was back in the real world, I remember watching myself walk to the bathroom where Piper was, but I was still in my body, still aware, and at the same time outside. I witnessed the Oracle recite the prophecy again. And then I passed out."

A cold tickle at the base of her neck distracts Rachel for a minute. She stops talking and sits forward, rubbing at it. Then Reyna's warm hands take over and Rachel drops hers into her lap.

Reyna massages Rachel's back, waiting for her to keep going.

"So then I came to, and Piper was there texting you, and I just felt out of alignment with the world. I hated having that happen right when we should have been coming for the ceremony, and … and then … In the car, when we finally made it on the road, my dad called."

Reyna's hands stop rubbing, then start again, but with more force.

"He didn't say anything he hasn't already. But talking to him … it kind of reminded me that I come from this world, that I'm part of it, and the weird feeling between me and Piper lifted after we talked about the call, about our fathers …" She giggles, glad to be talking it out, glad to be spending time with Reyna again. "I got a little philosophical."

Reyna chuckles lightly, her thumb pressing a hard knot of muscle. It relaxes with a pleasing twinge and Rachel sighs into it, letting the warmth flood her system, chasing down her arms, back, and legs.

"You like that?" Reyna asks. The breathiness in her voice, the timbre deeper than normal, it's arousing.

Rachel nods. "Yeah. It feels really good."

Reyna leans in closer and softly kisses Rachel's back where the knot had been, then whispers next to her ear. "Lie down on your stomach. I'll do the rest of your back and you can keep talking."

"Yeah," Rachel says, warming up all over as Reyna brushes her neck with another soft kiss. "Definitely." She leans forward on her hands so she can reposition her legs, and then lies down, her face near the foot of the bed. Reyna straddles the backs of Rachel's thighs, her hands hot on Rachel's back even through her T-shirt.

It's tempting to just give up under the sensations of Reyna's hands on her body, to stop trying to make sense of the stupid prophetic dream and how it makes her feel, to just roll over and enjoy Reyna's body.

"Tell me more," Reyna says. "The weirdness in the car, you said it keeps coming back?"

Rachel groans as Reyna starts in on a really tight knot right behind her shoulder blade. Reyna leans forward again to apply more pressure. The ends of her ponytail brush the back of Rachel's arm, making her break out in goosebumps. The sensation chases an idea into her brain, the perfect way to describe the sensation she's been trying to explain. "Stop a sec," she says and lifts her head, rising on her elbows.

Reyna stops massaging, then flops onto her side next to Rachel, looking up. Her eyes are bright, her lips twitching as she waits for Rachel to go on.

"I just thought of a way to put it. The weird feeling. It's like walking through a spider's web. When I was in that space, I was trapped. I felt like all of my senses were alert for danger, and now that it's passed, they start creeping back. Like, I keep trying to swipe the stray threads away, and I think I got them all, but then I find another one clinging to me, trying to drag me back. I think it's okay though. I can brush them off; I just have to deal with each one as I find it."

Reyna holds Rachel in place with her eyes, smoldering, deep, and Rachel can't help but fall into her gaze. She leans forward, drawn to Reyna as if to a siren's song, and when their lips meet, the last of the tendrils of her vision seem to finally fall away. She's present now, in this moment, in the warm caress of soft lips against lips, the comfort of smiles and strong arms embracing her – she's home again.