WHO: Xavin and Karolina WHERE: Karolina's room WHEN: Right after Xavin's intro post WHAT: Reunion! It's short and sweet.
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Hours ago, Xavin was terrified for her life. She had been alone, in a foreign ship, and quietly trying to prepare herself for death. And then, out of nowhere, she had appeared in Las Vegas, alive. Not necessarily free, she was still trapped in the city, but no one was guarding her room and telling her how she was going to die. The others were here, Gert was alive, and Karolina was safe.
Safe and oblivious. Apparently, she had been here for months and was from a time period long before Xavin's departure---and long before they had settled into some semblance of comfort with their marriage and their feelings. But Karolina had said she wanted to see Xavin, so Xavin took off. Different times or none, Xavin needed to see her. Xavin needed to see her wife.
Xavin was jittery, torn between barging right in and knocking. Eventually, she knocked. She couldn't be exactly sure what Karolina was like right now.
Karolina had a bathrobe thrown over pajama shorts and a camisole, her hair in a long braid. She answered the door quickly, as if she'd been waiting by it, and she was ... breathless. Her relationship with Xavin was a strained one, a nervous one. She wasn't comfortable with her. Him. To Karolina, Xavin was a male who pretended to be female for Karolina's sake----and that was what caused the conflict.
"Xavin." Awkward. Quiet.
"Karolina." Xavin couldn't breathe. She wasn't allowed to kiss her, was she? It would probably make Karolina uncomfortable, and the idea that Karolina didn't know or love her the way she had a week ago made Xavin's stomach turn.
"I missed you," Karolina said quietly, almost ashamed to admit it. "You disappeared and left me here alone." Her response to seeing Xavin was startlingly emotional. They were an awkward couple, thrown in together with a marriage between powerful alien families to stop a war. Karolina still saw Xavin as male and that made her stomach turn. She appreciated Xavin's female body, she wanted Xavin's female body, but she didn't think Xavin was female.
"I am sorry." Xavin wasn't sure what she could have done about it, but she was still sorry.
"Come inside----" Karolina took her hand and pulled her in, closing the door. "Talk to me about ... what happened."
"VaDanti and a few other Majesdane warriors came for you, to be tried for the destruction of their planet," Xavin said quietly. "I could never let them take you, so I appeared to be you and handed myself in. I had no other choice."
Karolina frowned. She never thought of herself as Majesdanian. In heritage, yes, but she was born and raised on Earth. And yet, she made the distinction here: "My people wanted me executed...?"
"Yes. They blamed you." The war between Tarnax VII and Majesdane had ended at Karolina and Xavin's wedding---not because there had been peace, but because shortly after the ceremony, they bickering had escalated into the detonation of bombs instead. If anything, the wedding and the extremely temporary truce had been used instead to leave Majesdane vulnerable just long enough to be destroyed.
"How could----oh, my God, who are these people?!" Karolina ran her hands back through her hair, pacing. "I can't believe----That's ridiculous. That's completely... well, no freaking wonder; my parents..." Her parents weren't exactly friendly, stable people. On the surface, yes, but underneath? They were bent on world domination, too. "I----" She stopped her rant prematurely and looked over. "And you sacrificed yourself for me."
Xavin nodded. There was no sense of pride there; just duty. The idea of dying wasn't pleasant, but Xavin hadn't felt that she'd had any other choice.
"Xavin..." Karolina reached out, touching her cheek. Nervous. "I don't even... saying 'thank you' sounds so stupid. I can't believe you'd do that for me."
Xavin took Karolina's hand, hesitating for a moment before kissing her fingers. "I love you. I know you do not remember the same things that I do, but I can assure you. I love you."
Karolina watched her, swallowing hard. "Oh." God, she was beautiful. She was so beautiful. But this wasn't what Xavin really looked like. Xavin looked like this to make Karolina happy. It felt like a lie.
Pausing, Xavin let go of Karolina's hand and backed off. "I would like to stay here, if you would allow it."
"I... yes, of course, that's fine," Karolina said, somewhat bewildered. "I..." Nnnngh. She shuffled her feet. "I missed you." She put her hands on her hips and tried not to look like a fool. "I got used to having you around, and then you just... disappeared. I woke up and you were gone. No warning, no note, I searched for you for weeks."
"I---I was never here before," Xavin said apologetically. "But, I am sorry for leaving you."
"No. You were. You don't remember it. It's happened to other people... people come here and they're taken out of time and space and they don't know they've gone and they don't realize they've left." Karolina shook her head, folding her arms uncomfortably across her chest. She felt so stupid. "Weeks, I kept looking for you. Stupid of me, really, just... I should have known you were snatched and put back."
"I would never leave you without reason." Xavin was helpless to genuinely apologize for what she didn't remember. She didn't know what to do.
"No, no, it's... you don't know, you didn't know, it's not your fault." Karolina waved a dismissive hand. "It's not your fault. I'm sorry."
Xavin was quiet for a long moment before she said, "I am tired. If it would be all right with you, I would like to sleep."
"That's... sure, yeah that's more than fine with me." Karolina shifted, biting her lip. "The bed's not made. Sorry."
"An hour ago, I had no bed at all." Xavin smiled gently. "And I would have unmade it to sleep in it, anyway."
"Yeah... yeah, sorry, stupid..." Karolina blushed and looked away, rubbing her arm. She shifted from foot to foot. "I, um. I was actually heading to bed, I..." They were married. They had a suite, with another bedroom. When they were there originally, they had separate rooms. And yet----Karolina glanced up. "Can we stay together?"
Xavin, heading toward one of the bedrooms (she wasn't sure which it was, Karolina's or the empty one), paused and looked back, surprised. "Yes. I... yes, of course."
She really had been lonely. And at seventeen, mature as she tended to be, she was pretty sure that her Earthling upbringing hadn't prepared her to be married and sharing a bed at this age. But right now? She just wanted to be close. Shifting, her human form melted away into something more magnificent----or it should have been. The glow of her Majesdanian form was dull, her colors dim. However, when she smiled, the colors brightened. She held out her hand.