time. what an odd concept — time had passed, years, since she had seen the likes of paxton concordas and yet things were still the same.

[break][break] her fingers press against her new badge, feeling it strange still to see the word hoenn where she had always seen kanto. her hand tightens around the plastic, teeth gritting as she pushes down the feelings that had consumed her on the entire planeride here: failure, cowardice, betrayal.

[break][break] she hadn't wanted to leave. she'd done everything in her power not to, and yet —

[break][break] her chest is tight.

[break][break] callie isn't looking up from where she's standing, not until a nearby door blows open and a woman comes rushing in. at first, the sergeant doesn't take notice. it's not unusual for officers to come billowing about, rough and tumble as they sometimes were. it's only when she glances back up again, catching a familiar glimpse of hair —

[break][break] her breath leaves her.

[break][break] "sol?"

[attr="class","notes"]@sole

[attr="class","wizzcredit"]☉

the floor drops beneath her, the air leaving her lungs and the world spins on its axis. standing in front of her is the one person that she thought she would never see again. the one woman that had once been her entire life — her sun, her stars, her sky. her comrade in arms, her best friend, her family.

[break][break] standing in front of her is none other than @sole .

[break][break] retired, kidnapped, thought to be dead.

[break][break] "hey, callie."

[break][break] she can breathe again.

[break][break] eyepatch or not, she would have recognized that voice anywhere.

[break][break] without thinking twice about it, callie breaks into a sprint and attempts to pull the other into a crushing embrace. sol. it was really her, wasn't it?

[attr="class","notes"]@sole

[attr="class","wizzcredit"]☉

her arms squeeze around the other — tight, unforgiving, unrelenting. almost as if she lessens up, she's afraid that @sole will disappear from her sight again. never to be found again.

[break][break] her eyes burn, and she burrows her face in the other's shoulder.

[break][break] fuck.

[break][break] "i - " she whispers, her voice catching. "i can't believe it's you." she pulls away, staring deeply at the other, gaze burning. "it is you, isn't it?"

[break][break] one hand reaches up to the other, the back of her hand brushing against her friend's cheek.

[attr="class","notes"]@sole

[attr="class","wizzcredit"]☉

her and @sole had always had a connection like no other. even as kids, electricity had sparked between them in form of good-natured competition and rivalry. callie had many friends in her life, but none other sparked a fire in her like the one that sol did. and when sol had been gone, all that fire had been snuffed out — and turned to ash.

[break][break] but staring in her eyes again — her single eye, that is — stirred something anew in her. like heat sparking amongst the ash.

[break][break] she swallowed, thickly, then pulled away.

[break][break] her cheeks burned with the signs of a telltale blush.

[break][break] "you're alive," she said. and it was just then, as if everything that had been building up in the last few minutes came crashing down. "you're alive!" she said, and this time it wasn't with excitement. it was accusatory.

[break][break] "since when? how long?"

[attr="class","notes"]@sole

[attr="class","wizzcredit"]☉

like someone feels in the aftermath of a horrible event, like a car accident, there had first only been a surge &mdadsh; of shock, surprise, relief. but then, once the adrenaline dies down, so does everything fall with it.

[break][break] reality was cruel, cruel thing, after all.

[break][break] "you know what i mean!" she says - no snaps. she lets @sole wriggle out of her grip, because callie's now not staring at her with all the love and relief of a friendship thought to be lost. no, she's accusing now.

[break][break] "you've been alive this whole time. have you been in hoenn? how come you never called?"

[break][break] most importantly —

[break][break] "why did you leave?"

[break][break]

[attr="class","notes"]@sole

[attr="class","wizzcredit"]☉

the words come out without meaning to. like spitting glass shards, they cut and slice on the way out.

[break][break] the other officer steps forward towards her and because callie has never been the type of person to step back, she doesn't. it hurts, but she stays still, her gaze burning into someone who she thought was her best friend, her soulmate.

[break][break] sol points to her eye, and it's nearly enough to make callie wince, to break out of the fire that is burning in her chest. nearly. but it doesn't.

[break][break] "so why didn't you call? why didn't you look for me? i could've helped, sol."

[attr="class","notes"]@sole

[attr="class","wizzcredit"]☉