She hadn't heard that name in years.

Oni.

The nickname struck harder than hearing her own name ever could. It cracked straight through the armor she'd spent years forging, dragging memories to the surface before she could stop them. For one impossible heartbeat, she wasn't the hardened woman she'd become. She was his little sister again.

She watched him draw closer, watched recognition settle across features worn thin by hardship. He looked older than he should, tired in a way sleep could never mend. Those strange, glowing scars caught her eye, but it was his expression that rooted her in place. She knew that look, seen it reflected in herself.

His words landed with a quiet finality that chilled her more than any winter wind, followed by the sentence that died before it could live and she knew exactly how it ended. I know... voice barely above a whisper. ....so did I Silence stretched between them until he spoke again and when he sought to push her away something inside her recoiled. A bitter laugh escaping her then, she shook her head once, ears flattening as she took another cautious step. Don't do that, she insisted.

I told myself I'd come back, her voice found its resolve if only for a moment, I thought if I could just get away first... I'd find a way to get you out too, and she hadn't stopped trying. But every day I was gone... it got harder, Harder to return, to face what she'd done, to believe he'd even want to see her again.

If you want someone to blame... she said quietly, ...blame me. her tail remained low, her posture small in a way few had ever seen.

But I won't leave, I've already done that once.

A long silence followed before she met his haunted gaze without flinching.

I'm not making that mistake again

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