Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was a much subdued Elke Arma who stood in the lobby of Crystal Academy. Her shoulders slumped forward, her head was bowed. Without blue or red hair, both being common colors before, she hardly looked like herself; the blond locks were plastered to her head, because the wind outside whipped rain right under her hood.

"Yes, that's right," Aysel Arma was saying to the secretary. "I need her school records, there's a dear." She leaned forward onto the edge of the counter, chin rested in one palm. Her manicured nails tattooed a sharp beat on the marble.

For her part, Elke looked very tiny, and very miserable. The floor around her was a puddle, and her jeans were soaked through.

A pathetic picture? Maybe, but not if you had thought she was dead...

If Elke had known of the Captain's death, of the roommate's death, of Nehelenia's death, she might have been even more subdued. She only glanced at the shoes of the person coming her way, thinking of the things her father had shipped to her with a letter and a check. It might have ended there. Elke might have just bypassed the Princess, never the wiser, able to completely ignore that part of her life like she wanted to. But she heard the voice, the familiar voice, felt the tug in the center of her chest, and she turned on her heel, some kind of terror and despair in her eyes.

She hadn't seen Serenade, not since Grayson's death, and the pressure of a mourning keen was bubbling in the back of her throat as she stood there in her dripping blue raincoat, her mouth open, and all that came out was a little strangled cry.

"Ma petit?" Aysel's questioning look was ignored, because Elke threw herself after the other girl, wrapped her soaked arms around the green-haired girl's shoulders. She clutched at Serenade's shoulders, held her there, crying. "Princess," she whispered, taking a deep breath. "Princess, it's me. ... Serenade..."

Bruising your princess had to be against some kind of rule. She was kind of like a precious fruit in a way, because you couldn't really handle her roughly, you were supposed to wrap her in those weird little foam jelly things. And maybe pack her in with some pillows, but the point was, Elke was clinging hard enough to bruise, her short blond hair was dripping on Serenade's jacket. "I never wanted to leave you," she choked out through her teeth, "Princess."

Her grip slackened a little, and she made a feeble attempt to fix Serenade's clothes, and then circumnavigated to stand in front of the Princess. "It's okay, I came back," as she straightened her friend's green hair. "They... it was another mistake." A smile, inviting the Princess to play along. A mistake! Right! Just like bacterial meningitis, just like the year they'd spent dead, just like Barren Pines. An organ ring, a mistake, what was the difference? "They thought I was Elanor Ansel," she explained, her hands still on Serenade's shoulders. "She is a sixteen-year-old Meadowview student. She had a scar like this," pointing to the smooth line on one side of her face. Barely noticeable. "Or she would've, except she died."

And then, quietly, "It was just a coma, Serenade."

Mature. Calm. But anyone, looking at Elke's eyes, could tell she wasn't saying something.

"Let's go up to our old room," she said.

"I'm going to my old room," she said to Aysel, back straight, shoulders stiff. When she had permission, she took Serenade's hands again, brought her up the stairs and to their room. The Princess had to unlock the door, because Elke didn't have her keys; she had her old possessions, sure, but the key had been surrendered when they'd filed her death certificate with the school. They sat in the old room, both on Serenade's bed (Elke had abandoned her dripping raincoat just inside the door like always).

Her old room, she kept saying. Aysel had wanted school records. Grades. You didn't ask for those things if you were staying in a school. That could really only mean one thing.

She was cradling Serenade's hand to her cheek, eyes half-closed as she looked around the room like she was trying to memorize it. The entire meeting was being soured by the specter of something she wasn't saying... She let go of her Princess's hand, set her own hands on her knees. "I'll still be here," she said out of nowhere. "I mean, I can come around as often as I want, long as I sign in. I don't even know if they'll let me. And..."

After a moment, she held up an arm; an invitation for Serenade to slide under it. She was wearing one of Grayson's old button-downs, black and gray checkered fabric. "I am so tired," she said, smiling a little. "So very, very tired."

She had composed the entire speech in her mind. How much had she given up for the Zodiac? And what she wanted wasn't such a big deal. It was just one thing, one little thing. She wanted to be able to go to her brother's school. She wanted to attend Meadowview. Was that so bad? To want to live with her family?...

But the Princess looked so sad. So she just snuggled up, and said, "We'll see what happens, okay, Princess?" Their fingers were laced together between them, the scars around their ring fingers next to each other. Elke's eyes were closed. "It'll get better, I promise." The words were leaden, empty, said because the old Elke, the one Serenade knew, would have said it.

If a few more tears leaked out from Elke's eyes, no one said anything.