[SE] Evergreen (open)

Aurelia

and that the world is always our fault
when we did nothing, how did we do wrong?

Aurelia shrugged and shook her head, not knowing much about sea creatures herself. But, what she did know of animals, she applied to her answer, "Temperamental animals are usually driven by instincts instead of grudges, so... there must be something they're trying to keep us away from. Even if it's just... themselves or their territory." She shrugged again, to emphasize that her answer wasn't exactly an end-all-be-all. She could've been wrong.

His sympathy wasn't entirely needed, but if Aurelia was honest with herself it made the tight, roiling feeling in her chest relax a bit. His question caught her off guard, her eyes widening a little and her mouth opening and shutting in an empty answer.

"I don't know... Probably. They looked up to me, so..." she looked away again, thinking about it more because, truthfully, she had not considered how her sisters would feel about her moving on with her life or the way she was choosing to. "They always told me they wanted me to be happy and to stop worrying so much about them. So... I guess, if I can do that, then... that's one last thing I can do for them and myself."

She looked sharply back up at Theo, brows threading, trying to combat the heaviness she felt weighing her down. She began to step away. "I'd better get going, 'ship doesn't clean itself,' as Jack would say," she offered a brief smile and swallowed down her feelings. "It was nice to meet you, Theo. I'll... see you around."

and I've been thinking that when we thought
the world would break us, that we weren't wrong

Theo nodded at Aurelia's description of the ghost whales, but didn't comment. He was an urban creature, really; aggressive fauna was outside his area of expertise.

Making people feel better was more in his wheelhouse, and he smiled to realize that as ill-considered as they'd been, his words had actually cheered Aurelia up -- given her a new perspective on her loss. "I know it won't stop you from missing them, but since a version of you does remain to take care of them ... Perhaps you could view this as the opportunity they would have wanted for you to find your own path."

Or maybe not. Theo nodded as Aurelia bade him farewell. "Better get back and get to work ... See you around."

She seemed hard to trick, but still, could be a good person to know.

{FIN}

Theo

"Poker" by ND Strupler is licensed with CC BY 2.0.