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[birdsinthecage]

It really did seem to have progressed into full summer already, despite the fact that it was only late April, and Miach was taking advantage of the heat and fair weather to get out more, taking time between classes to stroll aimlessly around campus

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[breakartist]

Meanwhile, as one Devin (or Miach) was walking on top of all, a Sadhbh (or perhaps, if you preferred, an Airmed) was kneeling in front of patch of herbs, trying to judge if they could be harvested soon. She needed to restock up on some of her stores. One never knew when someone might need to be (secretly) healed.

After coming to the conclusion that it would be a couple weeks still, Airmed stood up and stretched, taking off her gardening gloves as she moved. She faced the sun, her eyes closed, and just basked in the sun. Slowly opening her eyes, she turned away from the sun only to spot a figure on the wall separating the gardens used for study and the rest of the school.

Somehow, he seemed familiar, so she inched closer and closer and closer until she could see his face. As soon as she could, she dropped her gloves, her mouth opening slightly in surprise.

"Mi--" she started but stopped herself. It wouldn't do to say that name when people could overhear. "Bro--" Again, she stopped herself because he might not be.

"Um!" she called after the boy. "Pardon me!"

[birdsinthecage]

Devin had been concentrating on the wall and keeping his balance, so much so that he hadn't really taken notice of the person in the gardens; certainly he wouldn't be doing something as childish as walking over a wall if he had thought that someone was watching.

Hearing the voice though (oddly familiar - yet not, like a memory from a long, long time ago, or perhaps a dream) he turned a little. "Yes?"

Then he took in her face and stopped still. For a moment it felt like he was caught up in a time far from here, but he forced himself to shrug that off quickly.

Not every small girl with brown hair is her, he told himself, but remained uneasy, frozen in place.

[breakartist]

He spoke, and she smiled. Even if he wasn't her brother, he sounded like him, and that evoked happy memories within her.

She noticed his uneasiness, so she continued smiling in what she hoped was a comforting way and asked after a very small pause, "Is it okay if you're up there?"

She asked that instead of what she really wanted to ask because she didn't want to scare him away. She had to tread carefully because she still had hope, and she didn't want it to start to die. She couldn't ask, Are you my brother? because it had been so long.

[birdsinthecage]

"I..." he trailed off at her smile. They had the same eyes, this girl and his sister, the very same eyes. The same smile, too.

It felt, for a few moments, as though he'd been standing in the dark for a long while, and with her smile came the sunlight, too bright to look at. He looked away to keep from being blinded and hopped off the short wall, watching her from the other side of it. "Is this better?"

His heart was thudding so hard against his ribs it seemed to hurt.

[breakartist]

Sadhbh nodded, smiling. She kept smiling because she didn't know if she would start crying or not if she stopped smiling. He was just too much like her brother, if maybe not a bit sadder. And if he were her brother, then he had a reason to be sadder even if she didn't wish it were so.

"Yes, it is," she said. "Can you - wait a moment, please?"

And without waiting for an answer, she all but sprinted to the door in the short wall that was a little ways off and to the side, ran through it, and then ran up to where Devin was.

She held out her hand, smiled (because she had to smile), and said once she regained her breath, "I'm Sadhbh Quinn."

[birdsinthecage]

While Sadhbh smiled, Devin's own expression stayed as it was; close to mournful as his mind played out the day he'd left over and over again, filling his heart with sorrow.

He reached out and grasped her offered hand tightly and found that he didn't want to let go. "Devin," he said after a pause, remembering that he should probably introduce himself. "My name is Devin Conall."

There was an emotion he didn't know the name of welling up in his chest, threatening to drown him as he stared at their clasped hands. This touch felt comforting; familiar.

It was her, wasn't it? It really was - it had to be.

[breakartist]

All Sadhbh could do was stare at their tightly clasped hands, too. She didn't even move to shake their hands properly because he--

He felt like her brother, too. He had to be. He was a spirit. How many people -- spirit, human, or otherwise -- could be so similar to Miach?

She wanted to hug him. She wanted to hug him, she wanted to hug him, she wanted to hug him; she had waited so long to hug her brother again. Could she hug him again?

"It's nice to meet you," she said softly after she remembered that he introduced himself. She didn't move.

And then -- on a limb because hope welled up within her, she asked in an even softer voice, "May I call you brother?"

[birdsinthecage]

It was at this point that he reached up to touch her cheek, cup her face with his free hand. Hoping to get across things, emotions that he couldn't quite put words to in the motion.

"Sister," he said, softly, and then nothing else because he felt as though he were choking.

Instead (still holding her hand) he pulled her closer, wrapping his arm around her and burying his face into her hair. Trapping their grasped hands between them, because after millenniums of not being able to touch he didn't want to let go.

"I'm sorry."

[breakartist]

When he touched her cheek, she felt her smile slip. It said so much, and she was overcome with emotion. When he pulled her closer, she laughed and felt the tears well up and spill over. She used her other arm to embrace Devin.

"Brother," she said, the word feeling so at home on her lips even after millennia. "Miach." Her smile now was brilliant. "I'm so glad you're alive. So, so glad." And then the second thing he said penetrated her cloud of happiness and relief, and her brows furrowed in confusion and worry. "Why are you sorry?"

[birdsinthecage]

"I abandoned you," he said, not moving. "I failed you as a brother."

He pulled away a little, staring at his feet. His too-large tennis shoes were scuffed up, and immediately felt too scruffy for her presence.

"I'm not-- I don't deserve anyone to call me brother."

[breakartist]

Airmed frowned and immediately brought Devin back closer for another hug.

"You didn't fail me," she said firmly. "If anyone failed, it was him. And," she added in a more uncertain voice, "if you don't deserve to be called brother, I don't deserve to be called sister, either, as I've failed you, too."

[birdsinthecage]

"How could you ever fail me?" Devin asked, quietly pulling away again, only to rest his forehead against hers, gripping her hand tightly. "You're my beloved sister."

[breakartist]

She closed her eyes and said slowly with a pause in between almost every other word, "If you were alive, I could have searched harder for you, found you sooner, so we could be together again."

She rested her free hand over his hand that was gripping hers, breathed deeply, and opened her eyes and looked at him directly. "You're my beloved brother."

[birdsinthecage]

"That's nothing to be sorry for," he told her quietly. "I- after I ran like that, I didn't want to be found." He dropped his hands back to his side, turning away.

"I'm sorry. Your brother is nothing but a coward."

[breakartist]

"Please don't say that," she said, almost pleading. "Don't say that after I've just found you."

Reaching for and clasping one of his hands in both of hers, she held it to her chest and looked up at him earnestly. "I should have -- we. We can learn to be strong together." As a family.

[birdsinthecage]

He couldn't think of anything to say to that. Again, that unknown emotion raged inside his chest and he squeezed her hand.

"If you can accept me," he said finally.