Two Crows Watch from the Gallows Tree (part 8)

"You as well." She departed, shutting the door softly behind her.

(Hell that's a poem all by itself! Publish that XD)

(hahaha)

Ky watched the door for a long moment, half expecting Sara to come back in. It felt like their interaction wasn't quite over, and she wasn't sure why it felt incomplete. Maybe just because Ky was being infuriatingly distant. She recognized that she was. She just didn't know how to fix it. And she certainly didn't know what to do with herself now.

Sara sighed to herself as she headed back down the hall toward the stairs. She really didn't know what to do with that girl. Ky was obviously uncomfortable with attention, and Sara could understand that she was struggling with losing her uncle again, but she needed to eat. Not eating was the worst thing Ky could do right now. Gaius was living proof of what happened when you starved yourself, though Sara allowed that his situation was very different. Still, that should indicate to Ky that it just made things worse.

When Sara didn't come back, Ky tipped back over onto the bed. It was almost comically slow as she rocked to the side before falling clumsily onto her shoulder. She twisted around until the blankets were wrapped around her instead of under her, keeping her knees pulled to her chest as she laid in a fetal position.

Right, then. Half the day was already over. All she needed was to survive a couple hundred more half-days and then maybe things would improve.

Perhaps she ought to talk to Tadaaki or Pratik about it. They knew her best, after all. Sara nodded to herself; Tadaaki might be able to help.

Tadaaki was sitting in a corner of the library with a writing tablet and pencil, staring at a list of the alphabet. Ky had gone over the letters with him multiple times at this point and taught him a little jingle of how to remember them in order, so now he was trying to associate the names with the shapes on the page. That, and practice tracing them. She said that that was a good first step towards learning how to read and gave him that task to keep himself busy until she could get around to teaching everyone who wanted to learn.

And, it was unspoken, but they both sort of knew that she was prioritizing him and would continue to do so. No matter what either of them said or thought about that. It felt special. And, well, it wasn't exactly like that was hurting Tasia or Aashi -- after all, once Tadaaki knew, he could help them. So it was all working out. He just needed to master his alphabet.

Sara spent a few minutes searching before coming to the library. She smiled as she approached Tadaaki, pausing in front of him. "Hello, Tadaaki."

"Hello!" Tadaaki smiled kindly, pushing his materials to the side and standing up as he nodded to her. "How are you today?"

"I'm well! And you?" She glanced down at his tablet despite herself. "Ah, working on your letters?"

"Yes'm." Tadaaki blushed a bit but turned the tablet, revealing his shaky, uncertain attempts. "Ky said I should memorize these first before she can teach me how to read."

"That's a great start!" Sara nodded approvingly. "You're doing great."

“Thank you.” Tadaaki smiled at the praise. “What are you up to today?”

(I have improved this slightly xD shadows of my dejection)

Shady wrote:

Spoiler

lmao okay so last night I was trying to find inspo for the poem, right? well, I ended up having one of those really non-functional nights where I fell asleep with the light on, wearing my glasses, with my laptop on my abdomen. I vaguely remember waking up enough to yeet my laptop and glasses off the bed and flip off the light then going to bed for realsies. Woke up this afternoon super late because I didn't set an alarm or anything. Anyhow. Been hanging around on mobile all day bopping between here and social media and whatnot. Just now opened my laptop and found this gem:



xD If you happened to be wondering how brainstorming was going before I fell asleep hahaha

(Ohhh, that one was so eerie. I love it!)

"Oh, just having a quiet day so far, playing with my children and talking to people." She paused. "Zander left today."