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“Igris Albaraolune”
“Moon 12 of the [ILLEGIBLE]th cycle, year [ILLEGIBLE]”
A lot of the words are difficult to make sense of, with some of them being downright impossible to read. Who wrote this?
“Today was very good. [ILLEGIBLE] made them cook our favorite meal. I can’t remember what it was called, but it’s our favorite meal. She keeps reading these weird books with words that I can’t understand. She says I can’t read them, I hope she doesn’t find out I saw what was inside in secret. What are these books about?”
“Igris Albaraolune”
“Moon 13 of the [ILLEGIBLE]th cycle, year [ILLEGIBLE]”
“Today was very good. [ILLEGIBLE] didn’t make me wear those clothes today. She keeps acting weird, saying weird things. I don’t know what she’s talking about, but it makes me scared. She makes me scared. It’s okay though. We ate our favorite food last moon.
“...”
“Igris Albaraolune
Moon 14 of the [ILLEGIBLE]th cycle, year [ILLEGIBLE]”
“Today was [ILLEGIBLE] good. [ILLEGIBLE] says I looked pretty today. I like it when she tells me I’m pretty. But I wish I could choose which clothes I wear. It’s okay though. We ate our [ILLEGIBLE] food two moons ago. But I wish I could eat my favorite food.”
…This is a diary, isn’t it?
Knock knock…
Knocking, huh? Time to play the usual game of “is it real or is it just a figment of Kaira’s blurred sense of reality?”
Groaning and setting the diary on the seat she just got up from, Kaira makes her way to the entrance door.
“hello? anyone there?”
In response, a familiar voice just outside the building says “Uh, yes,” in an admittedly confused tone. Okay, it’s just her. Taking a deep breath, Kaira opens the door.
“...Hi.”
“hi.”
“I, uh. I brought… some things.” Rummaging through her bag, Chloe checks - for what’s probably the fifth time ever since she left her home - to see if everything’s there. “To properly treat your wound. Can I have a look?”
“you should probably get in first.”
“Yes. Get in first.”
As Chloe walks inside, she notices the wild bobcat peacefully sleeping on the matted rug, which needless to say startles her more than just a little bit, forcing a high-pitched yelp out of her.
“no, no no no no, it’s fine, don’t worry. look.” Kaira jogs up to the feline, before bending down and petting it on the back. He starts purring. The sight makes the previously fearful Chloe slightly more calm, though still wary. “he’s an idiot, he’s not gonna hurt you. promise,” she looks up at Chloe.
“...Right. Promise.”
…
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“It’s healed… quite fast. Even though you took the bandage off prematurely.”
Chloe is taking a look at the wound on Kaira’s neck, who’s sitting on the main couch of the living room with her. Though really old, the furniture is still visibly luxurious, being both adorned with symbols that twist in and out of themselves and covered by beautifully woven linen upholstery.
Taking a closer look, the wound is… gross. At the core of the wound, a layer of what seems to be newly growing fleshy tissue lays just below the epidermis, making it so flaps of excess dead skin surround the wounded area. Even the dead skin itself forms… layers. It’s like this has been done multiple times, where skin would regrow only to be slashed again and go on to form another layer of dead tissue, then the wounded area would coagulate, new skin would start to grow and the whole process would be repeated again, and again, and again. What do you even do in this situation? How do you even treat this? How is this not ripe for life-threatening infections?
“What… are you? Why did you do this?”
“i dunno.” Kaira chuckles nonchalantly.
Dead silence sets in, but Chloe tries her best to keep doing her thing, whatever that would be. She’s not sure herself what that entails either. “Right,” she says, in a slightly shaky voice. “Bear with me, okay?”
Chloe starts by dabbing hydrogen peroxide on the open wound to kill any germs. It forms bubbles on the surface of the skin.
“Does this hurt?”
“it does. a lot.”
“...”
The next step is to surgically remove any dead skin, to prevent necrosis. The process is done with extreme care, in order to not cause more damage to the skin surrounding the trauma.
“...i don’t remember when it started. it just kinda did. and then it became like an itch, that i couldn’t quite scratch. makes me want to crawl inside my own skin and rip it apart.”
Silence, again.
A square of gauze is placed on the wound, then secured with medical tape.
“it never got this bad. sorry you have to do this.” Kaira averts her gaze. “it’s gross, isn’t it?”
After a few moments of no words being exchanged, Kaira’s gaze turns to Chloe, who’s been looking her in the eye the whole time. With both side’s gaze meeting each other, Chloe gets to have a good look at the girl’s beady amber eyes, where she sees not the eyes of a beast, but something beautiful. She’s not used to making eye contact, at all. Neither of them are. “Her eyes are mesmerizing”, both of them feel. They don’t think, both women just stare, feeling it. Chloe’s left hand is instinctively placed on the healthy side of Kaira’s neck, so she can feel her texture. The fur running between Chloe’s fingers feels like touching a fluffy, still cold blanket, the touch of Chloe’s fingers heating up Kaira’s body as they move along: first sliding through her neck, then moving to her shoulders, her arm, then finally stopping at her waist, just under her sweater.
“...You’re cold.” Chloe softly whispers, not wanting to accidentally speak too loudly at such a vulnerable moment. “...Very cold.”
Though her expression barely changed, Kaira’s deadpan look has now become… weak. Defenseless. The expression of someone who’s knowingly putting her trust in something she shouldn’t. And she really shouldn’t, but yet…
“you’re warm.” Kaira’s raspy, breathy voice resembles the texture of a lightly used nail file, with Chloe’s ears tingling during every word spoken by the woman, as if she could feel the intriguing texture in sound form. “you should take that… thing off.”
“...Right,” and so she does. Chloe strips off her jacket, her upper body being now covered only by her tank top, fully revealing both her fleshy left arm, and her metallic right arm. She then gently removes the latter from her body, placing the prosthesis on the nearby coffee table so she can go back to where she was, though now being on top of Kaira’s legs, instead of sitting on her knees in a less intimate position.
Before long, Kaira accepts the embrace, although still reluctant to take any further action. It doesn’t matter, though. Nothing matters anymore. She could stay like this forever.
“all that matters now is…” she stops for a full ten seconds – ten seconds of nothing but the puffy breaths of the two women facing each other. “fuck,” she chuckles in embarrassment. “uh, i’m not sure what to do next.”
“...Neither am I. This… is probably normal.” It is, Chloe.
“wait, i have an idea… close your eyes.”
She does as told, trusting Kaira the way a human would be told to never trust her kind. As Kaira’s warm breaths inched ever so closer to her face, Chloe could feel the woman’s hands firmly grabbing her waist. The sudden cold touch sends goosebumps all the way up Chloe’s back, stopping at the back of her neck and lingering there for a few seconds.
“sorry if this is weird, it’s just… something we do.”
Kaira readies herself for the supposedly strange act she was about to do, and that being, a traditional kiss. Before both pairs of lips can meet, however, their noses touch for a split second as a consequence of Kaira forgetting to tilt her face beforehand. Her goat nose feels very soft, cold, and slightly wet, like the one of a cat, and her lips are dry and slightly rubbery, in contrast to Chloe’s warm, soft lips that meet hers like heavenly cushions.
For a brief moment during the intimate exchange, Kaira can feel something in the back of her throat. This is… something she’s never felt before. Is it all those years of pent up frustration finally leaving her body?
“ack–”
Or, she’s just choking on excess saliva from forgetting to swallow.
“sorry, sorry,” she pleads in between all that coughing and hacking. “fuck. i didn't ruin the mood, did i?”
Chloe can’t help but let out a chuckle at the sight; a chuckle that slowly morphs into a burst of laughter, leaving Kaira unable to respond with anything other than laughing herself. Perhaps due to the absurdity of choking in the middle of a kiss? Or is Chloe’s laugh just that contagious? She doesn’t know, nor does she care to know.
“...this is nice.”
“...It is.” Chloe replies, still sporting a big dumb smile on that face of hers.
And without a second thought, they close their eyes and immediately lean in for another kiss. This is going to go on for a while, isn’t it?