Aru Shah Oneshots (requests!)

[3] • I'm Sorry

Yep, so I've decided to continue the little AU. Let's see how long it takes for me to lose interest.

☆☆☆Hira☆☆☆

Hira examined the drawings Brynne handed her frantically that morning. It was another one of her nightmarish visions. This time, the first sketch resembled a dark entity hovering over a cowering woman. The woman's face was stuck in a scream as tendrils of light escaped her body. 

The second drawing showed the same two figures, but the woman's body had gone limp and lifeless, as the tendrils rose from her chest, forming the same woman's shadow. The dark entity had gotten bigger in this picture.

Hira looked between the two pictures. Obviously, the big, dark thing was Takshaka because of the snakey tail behind him. But who was the woman?

"Kanna," she called to her wife, concerned. "Who is the girl?"

"I don't know!" Brynne groaned from the dining table, her head down, resting on her elbow. "I told you, Hira. How many times will you ask me?" She pounded her fist on the table with each word, "I. Don't. Know."

For the past two months, Brynne had been stuck in a mindless loop of hallucinations, visions, anger, and denial. Hira did all she could to help her wife make sense of what she was seeing by making Brynne draw out her visions. Now, Brynne couldn't eat or sleep. All she did was pace around the apartment rapidly and mutter incoherent things to herself. It took all Hira's strength to get Brynne to talk to her or even eat.

Hira carefully slipped into the seat next to her wife, like she was sitting next to a ticking time bomb, just waiting to explode. "Okay, kanna." She slung her arm around Brynne and bent down to look at her. "Could you try to remember, at least? It would really help."

Truthfully, her wife's new attitude was scaring the poor rakshasi. Brynne was on an edge. Just two months before, she took Hira to a nice restaurant. Of course, Brynne ended up raging about the taste contrast, but it was enough for Hira to take her mind off her father's recent death...

"Why are you making me do this?" Brynne complained weakly.

"It clears your mind and helps you make sense of what's---"

Knock, knock, knock!

Someone rapped aggressively at the door.

"Don't you know we have a doorbell?" yelled Brynne at whoever was outside.

Hira shushed her and made her way over to the door. She peeked into the peephole to see it was two familiar across from her.

The knocking stopped as the rakshasi swung the door open. Aru Shah and Aiden Acharya stared back at Hira. 

From behind her, Brynne groaned, "Who is it?"

Aru left her heeled boots outside and stepped in gracefully. She was dressed in a stunning black coat, and her eyes twinkled playfully. Still, she wore a serious expression.

Aiden followed her, his face grim. He looked pale and thin, and his jaws were clamped like he was tense. He completely ignored Hira and walked in. "Brynne, it's us."

The asura shot up from the dining table and craned her neck over Hira. She gasped and let out a sob and ran to the door. Brynne wrapped Aiden in a bear hug, and he smiled, gripping her just as tightly.

"Where the hell have you been?" Brynne laughed.

It stung Hira that Aiden made Brynne laugh and not her. But she was happy Brynne was laughing nonetheless.