Rising Sun Valley Ears ring and teeth click and

We don't have to. Reverie blinked up at Everett, drawn momentarily from her frantic haze. He stumbled closer, closer, and she let him. He reached out to help, and she let him. She wondered if it had been that simple all along, or if it was only that they were different now. Theirs was a murky glass-domed world, ash-stained from fires long ago reduced to smoldering memory; their light came through in cracks and glowing patches where, through careful work and a gentle touch, the ash was swept away. That was their fate, to steal those beautiful moments like trying to capture sunlight in their hands.
Until they dared to reach up, until they were brave enough that even the threat of falling shards couldn't hold them back.
And the glass ceiling shattered.
And the light flooded in.
Do you feel that? She wanted to ask, but she only pulled Everett into a tight embrace, and blood be damned. Hers, theirs, Medeiros in their veins like a golden curse; it didn't matter. I love you, She whispered into his fur, thinking for some reason that she might not get to say it again. It felt important that he knew. And then the moment slipped away, as they all did.
Ophelia!
No, Tybault, don't - Too late, it was always too late. She pulled away from Everett, prepared to run, but Tybault was already there. Stiff in his embrace, she only stood and grasped with a desperate slipping grip for here and now. It was fading, fast. She looked at Everett, pleading with her eyes because the words wouldn't come. Don't leave me with him. Don't let him -
Dark.