2023-10-06: Mending Broken Bonds
- Cutscene: Mending Broken Bonds
- Cast: Hannah Curie, David, and Amelia
- Where: Damzen Orphanage
- Date: October 6, 2023
- Summary: Hannah's trip back home to her orphanage is met with both awkwardness and new insights as she tries to relate to people she hasn't seen in 5 years.
Hannah's homecoming had been a bit of a whirlwind of emotions. The comfort and familiarity of a home she had grown up in, the alienation that came with seeing how it had changed in her absence, seeing faces that likewise were both familiar yet different. Hannah now found herself in a role she had once envied, that of a 'cool' (as Miss Marivel would put it) drifter visiting the town, but it was a role she felt utterly unequipped to play properly: this was not a triumphant return to celebrate her victories, but a shameful return to own up to past mistakes.
The reactions she had garnered had also been mixed. Some enthusiastic welcomes, many awkward and stilted ones, and a few Hannah was sure were outright avoiding her. She seemed to fare best with the younger kids, who were more easily impressed, and those who had come to stay at the orphanage after she had left for Sielje, whom she had less history with. And while she relished making new connections, it was the old ones she missed the most, that she wasn't sure if she could ever quite recapture.
Zephyr, meanwhile, had garnered near universal adoration, and the red-tailed hawk had relished in all of it. He had even taken to showing off some of his best flying tricks developed from years of adventuring. Hanna wondered if they shouldn't be more careful; being back home revitalized the long-dormant urge to be 'normal', not to show off too much of her and Zephyr's connection, but after being alone with him for so long, and opening up about it with her other friends, it was hard to stifle that all again. To put Zephyr back in the metaphorical cage.
She hadn't told anyone about her link with Zephyr, nor her magical woes. That wasn't how she wanted everyone to view her. She desperately wanted to just be… Hannah, the girl everyone had known, that had grown up here, who'd been useful and friendly to everyone, even if she also had to swallow the bitter pill of vanishing from everyone's lives for such a long time.
… But she had told one person. She'd had to. She owed Miss Rochelle, the orphanage matron, that much.
And Miss Rochelle, of course… had taken everything in stride, and then pulled her into a tight, warm hug that was soft, accepting, and a bedrock of stability that Hannah had been missing for so, so long.
There had been tears. Mostly on Hannah's part.
They'd talked some more after that, and in the end, Hannah had realized this was exactly what she'd needed. Why had she waited so long to come back home?
Honestly, Hannah couldn't think of a single reason why. At least none that mattered anymore.
It was after that she'd tried going around to reconnect with everyone. There was one person in particular she was looking for, but he always seemed to slip out of a room just when she arrived, and someone else would inevitably get her attention and the moment would be lost.
Every time he slipped out of a room or turned the other direction when Hannah approached made the lead weight in her stomach grow heavier.
Finally, she managed to catch up to him. He was holed up in one of the common rooms, with a notebook in front of him and several open books arrayed around him. Hannah recognized some of those books: they were her reference manuals on ARMs, that she had studied from. She'd left them in Davey's care when she went to Sielje, since it was impractical to carry everything with her. She'd promised she would return for them, someday.
And she had also promised…
It made her stomach roil to think of it.
There was nobody else in the room: all of the other residents were busy elsewhere, many of them being regaled by Susanna with stories of her exploits, and Zephyr had gone out to hunt on old but familiar stomping grounds.
Hannah regarded Davey for a few moments. He'd grown quite a bit since she had last seen him. About 15 years of age now, he had shot up in height, but was still beanpole thin. Davey had dark skin and equally dark, cropped hair. Hannah couldn't see what he was working on in the notebook, but she approached and offered a quiet, "Hey, Davey. How–"
"David," interrupted the boy.
Hannah blinked and drew up short. "... I'm sorry?"
David didn't look up from his work. "Only my friends get to call me Davey. You can call me David."
Sharp pangs of guilt seized Hannah's chest. "David, please, just let me explain–"
"Explain what?!" snapped David, finally lifting his head up to look at her. "I get it. You're a big time drifter now. Living it up in a big cushy mansion. Wanted to come back to town to impress everyone. Well, congrats. Everyone's impressed. Except me."
Hannah took a deep breath. It did little to settle the clammy dread roiling in her stomach. She hadn't meant to let slip about Eleanor, but it had come out quickly enough once she had clarified who else had been sending them money all this time. "David, you have every right to be upset, but please–"
"If you want the books back, you can have them." David cut her off again. "'Someday I'll need these back', isn't that what you said?"
The accusation was a punch to the stomach, depriving Hannah of the breath or the words to respond. "Wha–The books? No, David, I don't need the books, I just want–"
David finally stood up, slamming his notebook closed. "Just like you don't need us?" He brushed past Hannah and left, only saying "I'm heading out" to someone in the hallway.
The strength drained from Hannah all of a sudden, and she sat down heavily in the nearest chair. She buried her face in her hands and tried to decide what to do. Follow? Have Zephyr follow? Ask where he'd go? Simply wait for him to come back? Options swirled around in her thoughts, but she couldn't latch onto any of them long enough to give them due consideration. Instead, she was drowning in other thoughts, that she had been gone too long, that she could never make things up here, that this all might have been a mistake.
"No, Zephyr," she mumbled to herself. "You keep huntin'. I'll… I'll be okay."
"Still talkin' to yourself?" came a lightly teasing voice from the doorway.
Hannah looked up to see Amelia standing there, leaning against the doorframe. She was a weasel beastfolk girl, a little taller than Hannah but still lanky, with expressive ears and tail. She and Hannah were the same age, and had in fact grown up together in the orphanage. Right now, Amelia was watching her with an expression Hannah found uncharacteristically concerned.
Hannah sat up more fully when she realized it was Amelia at the door. The beastfolk girl had also been avoiding her, though there Hannah could understand why. "Oh, no, I was just–" Hannah grasped for a convenient excuse, but her mind was still swimming in doubts.
Amelia must have recognized the mild panic on her face, because her expression immediately softened, both ears laying back. "H-hey, sorry. I shouldn't have teased. Just kind of did that without thinking. I… well, I kind of overheard some of what you and Miss Rochelle were talkin' about. So I know about you'n Zephyr."
She'd heard. How much had she… Hannah felt a weight pressing on her chest and she sagged in her seat again. "You heard about…"
"Yeah…" Amelia rubbed the back of her neck. "Um… Sometimes I kinda overhear, when I'm keepin' the little'uns from eavesdroppin' themselves, so… sorry."
Hannah tensed, and her stomach twisted. She was staring down at her lap. "I… see."
Silence hung between them, tension making the air feel tight and oppressive. Amelia craned her head back a few times to look at something going on down the hall, but always brought her gaze back to the mostly-empty room.
Eventually, Amelia hazarded a quiet, "So… if you ever want to talk about it, or something…" She glanced to the side. "... I'll listen, or… whatever. No judgments."
Hannah slowly looked up to the other girl. They had grown up together, and Amelia had never been so… thoughtful. Or considerate. In fact, she had often been quite the opposite. A bit loud, a troublemaker, always lashing out and seemingly never satisfied with anything.
"You… really mean that?"
A silent nod was Amelia's only reply.
The twisting in Hannah's stomach started to unwind, and she let out a short sigh of relief. "Thanks. And, um… it's okay that you know. I know I shouldn't hide it, I'm just… scared, what people will think, once I tell them," she said in a small voice.
Amelia snorted softly, still looking away, but a rueful smile briefly touched her lips. "Yeah, tell me about it…"
"... Huh." Hannah sat up again, looking up to Amelia with fresh eyes. She watched how Amelia was still averting her gaze, the tension in her shoulders, how arms were crossed–or maybe she was hugging herself.
She thought about it, momentarily distracted from her own woes as she turned her attention to the other girl. Hannah smiled softly, and in an equally soft voice said, "So… Amelia."
Some of the tension in Amelia's shoulders went slack, and she finally looked back to Hannah, nodding. "Yeah."
"I like your dress." It was a dark red, and had white lace around the hem of the skirt, but was otherwise rather plain. "I think the red compliments your eyes." Which were a dark brown.
That made the other girl blink, and she glanced away. A faint blush colored her cheeks. "You… really mean that?"
"I do!" Hannah enthused. "I think it really suits you. Did Miss Rochelle make that for you?"
Amelia gave a quick shake of her head and then brushed a strand of hair out of her face. "No, I did, but… Miss Rochelle showed me how. It took me a lot of practice."
"Well, I think you did a great job with it."
That finally garnered a small smile from Amelia. "Thanks."
Hannah smiled back. "So… you're helpin' Miss Rochelle now."
Amelia laughed a little self-consciously. "Yeah, I, um… know it must be surprising. But after you went to Sielje, Miss Rochelle needed someone to help, and, um… I found out it really suited me." As if sensing Hannah was about to say something, Amelia cut her off. "And don't apologize. You had every right to go. And if not for that, well… I'd still be angry and lashing out, so…"
Hannah considered those words for a long moment. Eventually she said, "I bet you would have figured it out eventually."
"Maybe," agreed Amelia.
"Heard some of the younger kids callin' you 'Miss Amelia'," commented Hannah after a moment.
Amelia laughed self-consciously. "Yeah… Still not ready for that, if I'm being honest. Like, I'm still trying to figure stuff out, I'm not ready to be thought of as an adult yet."
Letting out a groan, Hannah slumped in her chair and let her head roll back until she was staring at the ceiling. "Uggh. I know, right? Whose bright idea was to make it so we had to grow up?"
The two girls shared a moment of silence, before they shared a mutual glance. When they made eye contact, they both erupted into a small series of giggles. Afterwards, a comfortable silence settled between the two as they both considered the conversation.
The silence was still a little awkward, and Hannah still felt a great amount of tension in her chest and a lead weight in her stomach, but between her and Amelia… Hannah felt like there was something of an understanding now that had never existed before.
Amelia was the first to break the silence. "So, you were tryin' to talk to Davey, huh?"
Hannah nodded glumly. "Yeah, guess you heard him yellin', huh?"
"Tends to be one of the things to listen out for, yeah."
"I was…" Hannah sighed, and reached out to pick up one of the books, looking it over. It wasn't in any worse shape than when she'd left for Sielje. "I was going to explain. Or… I was gonna try, at least."
"He's just got a lot of complicated feelings right now," said Amelia softly. "A lot of us do, if I'm bein' honest."
Hannah sighed and nodded. "Kinda noticed that…" After a lengthy pause she looked up to Amelia. "Do you think… I can ever make it up to everyone? Make it up to David?"
Sighing, Amelia glanced into the hallway once more and then stepped inside to take a seat next to Hannah. She placed a hand on Hannah's shoulder. "Look, it's gonna take some time, okay? Just be present, okay? People will come around, eventually."
"And David?"
Amelia sighed. "He just… he held out hope for a long time, and it hit him really hard when he lost it. He really looked up to you, you know."
"I know." Hannah closed the book she had been inspecting and ran her hand over the smooth cover. "He took really good care of my books, didn't he?"
"That he did."
Hannah looked up to Amelia. "What should I do about David?"
Eyes rolling up in her head as she thought, Amelia tapped her chin. "Well, Miss Rochelle would say to give him some space to work out his feelings."
"And what do you think I should do?"
Amelia considered that a moment more. "Well… I think he still really looks up to you, so I'd say… take an interest in his projects. Let him show you what he's been working on. What he's learned."
Hannah shot Amelia a curious look. "Anything in particular I should take note of?"
"Well… some of the miners found an old mining robot in one of the tunnels a few days ago. Davey's been helping with trying to get it functional. Says he's thinks they're getting really close."
"An old mining robot…" Hannah cupped her chin in her hand, contemplating. "I suppose it's possible…"
"It's by the western mine entrance. Can't miss it." Amelia stood again, and started to gather up the books. "I'll take care of these."
Hannah quickly rose to her feet, too, and immediately turned to throw her arms around Amelia.
The other girl, startled, reflexively lifted her arms up out of the way, and had to fight the impulse to pull away. "H-hey!" But she quickly relaxed, and lowered her arms to wrap Hannah in a tight hug.
After a moment Hannah pulled away. "Thanks for the chat. And if you ever wanna talk about things, lemme know."
Amelia stacked the last of the books together and picked them up. "You know, I think I might like that…"
Together, they walked out into the hallway, where Amelia immediately turned her head and shouted, "Lucy! Sam! No running! I see you!"
Hannah playfully prodded Amelia's side. "Now, now, would Miss Rochelle go shoutin' at us like that?"
Amelia huffed, but she was grinning still. "Hey, I'm still learning. Cut me some slack."
The two sisters shared a short laugh before turning to go their separate ways.