under southern skies; any

[Spear + Spark]

Change is inevitable.

Just as every sunrise and sunset is, and they all know it.

Despite the changes in all three of them;

Spear and Spark share a look that enters them into a wary truce with one another.

Something in the regal yet aloof look of her spoke of a despair and a loneliness that nothing Spear nor Spark had ever encountered or experienced, not separate nor together. It brought them together for her sake and her sake alone, and they buried the hatchets of hateful looks and more hateful words for the time being. Each of them knew that it was a only a matter of time until they all separated again, and the twins went back to their arguments and sibling strife. It felt like that’s all they knew these days, how to war with looks and words that left them both aching and alone, unsure of how to find their way back to that easy casual way of life they once had.

Both of them grow calm and indulgent in the soft touches to Lily’s skin and the way she gives those touches back to them. It feels like home, like a small cozy herd if such a thing is possible for a herd to consist of only three. Spark smiles and Spear sighs; each of them is briefly but undoubtedly happy to be back in her familiar anchoring company. She agrees to stay, and they share another look over her back - one of friendly triumph at hearing her proclaim she’ll stay with them, if only for now and they clutch greedily at those minutes, hoping they’ll turn into long hours and less loneliness, less aches and things in their eyes that move like shadows and sadness.

(They see these things in Lily’s eyes, and in her scars.)

Neither of them had ever mastered much of respectful decorum or distance; they are always quick to touch and assume that it is okay to do so. No one has ever told them it is impolite to push and poke with their long noses, or to pry into the secrets and stories of another’s life. It is just something that they do and do not really realize that it makes others uncomfortable, and no one has ever really had a problem with it but they can feel how she tenses up her muscles beneath their curious questing touches and they instantly freeze, like rabbits caught unaware by a hunter’s hound. “Lily…” Spear says her name tenderly, questioningly. Spark says, “Don’t be sorry!” in quick apology, realizing that they’ve crossed some line that was never there before. Each of them backs off a pace, to give her room to breathe and the space that she needs to regain her indomitable spirit, one that they’ve always admire and flocked to.

Their eyes find each other - red and black, mirrored in their faces is the horror they feel at her tale. Her fire came back to her, as they had always known it would but at a terrible price. Their ears pin back at the emotion choking her throat; they don’t want her to hurt like that any more, fatherless and homeless and all alone! Getting her fire back had cost her so much more than her wings, and they cannot imagine ever going through something like that and they feel small twinges of guilt at how they quarrel over less significant things than that, like Spark loving Giver and Spear always off on some adventure.

“Oh Lily!” Spark gasps out, tracing her lips along a sleek black cheek.

“That’s terrible, you shouldn’t have been alone for so long.” Spear states, bound and determined to comb his teeth through the glorious red of her mane. It is his way of apologizing for them never being there, always off elsewhere and not around when Lily needed someone - anyone - even them, bickering like they had with each other and not once did they stop to search for her, to reunite with their closest and dearest friend.

“A very long time,” she echoes more quietly, glancing back and forth between Spear and Lily. Something in the way that her brother combs his teeth through the long red mane makes her pause thoughtfully, and Spear squares himself up beneath her burning stare and lingering quiet. It is the lapse of conversation that makes him pick it back up; “Lots, and very little at all.” He tries his best at a charming boyish grin but it doesn’t belong on his grown up face any more, so it falters and he goes back to his previous task of combing out her mane.

“We’ve grown a bit apart is what he means to say.” she mutters, rubbing her check on that strong black shoulder. She felt small and slight next to the pair of them, but she didn’t really mind so much as she tucked herself up nice and neat against Lily’s side. “I’m glad you have your fire back.” she murmurs, because she is but she knew what those wings meant to Lily too - freedom, adventure, and she understood Spear a little better than, because she had always been to him what the wings had been to Lily, a representation of something more. Her lips form a little moue as she sighs, why does everything always have to be so difficult?

Spear & Spark