9 Sep 2024, 20:24
No Tears When Saying Goodbye
august 12th, 2024 wc: 1k interacting with: npc
ariam | @Aston Beckett, sabrina @Sage Willows"Vos valises sont prêtes?" Are your bags ready?
"Yes."
"Bien, bien." Good, good.
Eba's apartment is bigger than the one back home. Zyair's not sure why, she lives alone and she's in the downtown part of the city, it must be insanely expensive to live there. Not to mention that she lives in a muggle apartment complex, just like in Abidjan. She told him that was why she lived there, and hadn't bought a house yet. 'Cela me rappelle la maison, Zy,' It reminds me of home, Zy. she would reply to him in letters. He kind of wished she'd move back but...
If given the chance, he'd probably join her to live there.
He didn't hate Abidjan, but often he missed the feeling of not being surrounded by his chaotic little sisters, the sounds of his mama shouting across the house because one of them broke something. Obviously his mother could just magically fix it, but she'd still get upset at them for breaking stuff. Fair, he thought, he just wished he didn't have to hear the chastising and eventual whining from being punished. Chichi would get grounded and have to stay in her room, and Mariam would be forced to go clean the kitchen or something, and then they'd get upset because they'd want to do the chores or be grounded together. It was almost rhythmic in how it always played out the same.
"Have Chi and Mariam learned more English?"
Zyair didn't know why it fell on his shoulders to teach his younger sisters another language, but he nodded anyway. "Yeah, ils sont bâclés, mais ils sonnent bien. they're sloppy, but they sound good. Do you have a present for mama?" Repetition, every time he visited Eba, she'd give him a present to bring back for his mother. The twins would cry, because they wanted a present too. That was where Zy would swoop in, handing them new toys or souvenirs for them to be thrilled by. He liked seeing them happy, even if they were a little annoying.
"Oui. Tiens, un pour toi." Yes, and one for you.
"Eba. I can speak English."
It was a small thing to get annoyed over, and Zyair wasn't even sure why he was annoyed in particular. He was just as fluent in the language as his sister was, even more now that he had spent the last few weeks in a summer camp where that was the primary spoken language. What would he prove by conversing with her in one language over the other? "I like hearing our mother tongue." She replied, handing him a few things to hold.
"But I speak English well."
"I know, frérot," her voice is calm, "I know you do. You've been learning so many new words, I remember when you were a little boy and could only say 'magic', because it sounded so similar in English and French." If someone were to compare his tone with Eba's, they could see the resemblance. "This camp must've taught you lots." Right, he had learned quite a bit. The way Casey and Scout spoke was far more casual than Zyair's proper English, but his words fell into the same structure when comparing them to Ariam's. Speaking of Scout...
"Did you meet anyone special, frérot?"
As Zyair finds himself reading people with ease, he knows where he got it from- Eba. She's always been refined, able to conjure his thoughts on paper when he couldn't discern them in his own mind. How'd she even know that he was thinking about Scout...? He wasn't interested in telling his sister about his new companion, though. There was someone else he had met, though. That girl he had met that went to Castelobruxo. "I met a girl, she's from a school in South America."
"Mignonne. Cute. Are you ready?"
"Yes."
Eba gives him a hug and makes sure that he has all of his bags, both his bags and the ones with presents for the rest of the family. When they say goodbye, there are no tears, no sad feelings, nothing, really. It feels a little emotionless, but that's how his sister (and his mother, when he thinks about it) have always been. Faces kept stagnant as they wave goodbye to one another, and a thought finds itself creeping into Zyair's mind.
'Do you want to be like that?'
Did he want to be like... what? His older sister? Kind and composed all of the time, he's never seen her be upset or have a negative reaction to anything. She's a strong woman, and her heart always seems to be in the right place, but she is never outwardly angry or sad or really anything other than mildly pleasant. Did he want to be like that? Not emotionless, because he knows he's seen her cry before, back when his dad died. But so.... stagnant.
Or his mother, who was definitely like that when Zyair was younger. Before Chi and Mariam were born, his mother also had a pristine poker-face, even going so far as to tell Zyair to never tell people anything if he didn't completely trust them. As she got older, she seemed to be more in tune with her emotions, getting annoyed at his younger sisters outwardly. But it wasn't like she was anything like Scout or-
Scout?
Right, Scout.
Someone who's emotions were always as clear as day on their face, a bright soul with a smile that shined so intently. Scout was the opposite of Zyair, in more ways than one, but she was also the opposite of Eba, of his mother, of everyone he knew. She was cartoonish and so, so bright. How many times could he reiterate the light around her? If angels were real, she'd certainly have an aura like one. If he didn't want to be like his family, the stagnant waters they hid their emotions beneath, would he have to be like her?
Maybe he could learn to find a happy medium, he had always been good at that.
End of thread
Frérot = little brother/brother
don't look at me; you can't understand, right? i'm just like a monstrous flower that bloomed too soon
scout fu-hai & zyair ona'je