(no subject)
"...Rei, then?"
The vampiress stops halfway through another stitch. She doesn't glance up, doesn't so much as blink, and the pause only lasts a moment before she tugs needle and thread through fabric.
"What, now?" She asks, voice far too smoothly crafted to be the reckless tease that is so characteristic of her.
The girl with the brown hair brown eyes twirls her pencil in rapid, flashing circles. "It's Rei, then?" After a pause, the teen clears her throat. "So you've spelt it wrong all these years. For English-speakers, I guess, but now you're telling me that you've had three names. Am I getting warmer?
Amazing silver eyes glance up through long black lashes, looking far colder and far more metallic than they often-times would. "Three?"
The girl nods. "One they gave to you, one you gave to you, and one that you--" The brunette pauses, searching for a less shattering word than 'forgot'. She bites her lip. "--don't use anymore."
The vampiress stabs her needle through her work, her lips gracefully and beautifully pressed into a stressed line. "No. No, you are mistaken on those counts."
Brows furrow over brown eyes and the pencil halts its twirling. She hates having to play the guessing game. The girl sighs.
"You had-slash-have three names?"
The pause speaks a reluctant, bitter 'yes' eons into eternity.
"You've been worried I'd figure it out since I wrote that piece? Afraid I'd edit it and finally think to ask why 'Li' isn't a Japanese name?"
Vampiress stabs her needle through fabric but does not tug it through, completely.
"...so you've had three?"
"What does it matter?" The woman says, at last. She turns brilliant, shined-silver eyes to the writer and looks softly angry. "I have myself, now, that is all that matters. Mifune Lee is her own."
"Li." The girl corrects, gently. The vampiress laughs in a sound that is more like tin than fine china.
"You people of your place spell it however you will. It does not matter to me."
"But not Rei?"
"That was the name they gave me." She spits, a short flash of fang showing behind her lips. The brunette girl flinches.
“They gave you your life, you know-”
“No one should ever have to cut their tongue and bleed out the color from their face.” She retorts, coldly, taking her needle again between her fingers. Instead of putting it back through fabric she places her project aside, sinking the metal sliver into the bamboo-thread couch. She covers her face with one hand.
“…they gave you your life…” The girl repeats.
“You once thought you wanted to train whales.” The vampires says, softer, but not shaky. She drags her fingertips across her forehead. “You changed your mind concerning what you wanted, what was important to you. So have I done this thing.”
The writer pauses long moments before twirling her pencil, once, more slowly.
“So… Li.”
“Lee.” The vampiress chuckles, but it is a sad, lost sound.
“And they named you Rei…”
“It means ‘lovely’.” The elder woman says, as if it is a humorous irony.
“Mifune?” The brunette tilts her head.
“The eldest of the elders. She never had children. Wanted her name to continue, I imagine.”
Brown eyes are shaded with a furrow, again. “I thought you didn’t want to keep the name they gave you?”
“You cannot run away from all of it.” The vampiress says, quite reasonably. The silence that follows holds enough weight to drain the moon of its light.
“…and your first name…”
“I do not remember it, anymore.”
Silver eyes look sad. The brunette turns her head back to paper and twirls her pencil as the vampiress hides searing silver eyes behind her hand.
...I realize 100% that I'm being a postwhore today.
Don't care. I just figured out why my vampiress has been quiet for more than two months.
*hugs her*