I didn’t think I’d ever be thanked for this.

Timeline/World: Porcelain Lives
Characters: Tokali Calae
Race: Angel – War
Age: 29, physically 24
Final Word Count: 570 words

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My life was a roller coaster. I was alive, I was free, I was chained and beaten, I was released. I was healthy, I became sick, I healed. I had found companionship, I was left, I died of a broken heart. I was reborn into something that had had nothing at all to do with my previous life and I did not really know what to do about it. How to handle it, what was expected of me.

My mate returned not long after my death and rebirth, I cannot say that I never blamed him for leaving me. In a way, I did, despite the fact that he had left me for a good reason and he had suffered enough without needing the extra weight of my blaming him for everything. In a way, I thanked him for leaving as this death and rebirth had given me strength I had never had before. An emotional and physical strength that I do not imagine the old me would have ever been able to possess.

He looked baffled, of course. I am sure everyone would be baffled for abandoning their lover without much of a word, especially as it would lead to their deaths but I was different, at this point. We reunited, I showed him just how grateful I was for his return and with our joining we washed away the scent of death from our home.

I wish I could say that we still are together to this day but at the very least, we parted on good terms, it broke both of our hearts but we know it was for the better that we go our separate ways. There were others who needed him and while I also felt as though I needed him, I knew it was an illusion. I did not so much need him at my side as I desperately wanted him there but we both worked it out as well as we could.

I have no true idea as to where he is at this point. I know he still lives, this link I share with him still thrums with life but that is all I have left of him. I have made a new life for myself, a somewhat lonely one but it is by my own design, not wishing to have anyone else approach me and then leave me because someone else might need them more. I admit that this parting of ways we did, has left a small, bitter tendril around my heart and it might be why I have trouble with letting myself be approached by anyone for this sort of thing.

None of it matters, does it? I live and I am well, I do have a few acquaintances I could almost call my friends, my power remains mostly dormant in its own way as there is no true need for it right now though I am sure it will come to surface before too long. The world is restless, souls are wandering left and right, some aching for action and violence and while I know of my title, I will make it my job to keep those of bloodlust under control. I refuse for there to be another war and no one has ever said that I had to be the cause of one. My title pertains to war and I can do as I will with it.

It’s a pain that goes bone-deep.

Timeline/World: Foreign Living
Characters: Favian Bach
Race: Human
Age: 31
Final Word Count: 551 words

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I don’t know that Emma really got over her miscarriage, especially not as it had been caused and had not simply been accidental. I wish she’d never met him, I wish they’d never been together but they’re still together now, they do have a beautiful and healthy son together but I know that her pain about the first miscarriage has never left her, it struck her bone-deep and remains to this day though it is faded now, not as present.

I can see it in her eyes when we talk about how terrifying her second pregnancy was and how she spent pretty much all nine months on near-complete bed rest because she was so stressed out about it. Not even because the first had been difficult, no. Her first pregnancy had gone so smoothly you’d have wondered if she hadn’t been born to carry children. Her then mother-in-law, however, oh the wicked witch, just wanting to keep her ‘baby’ safe, her son safe from the evils of the world. She’d pushed Emma down the stairs when my sister had been almost eight months along and that had been that. A broken ankle, a seriously bad concussion and the loss of beautiful life.

He cut ties with his parents after that, his mother took it hardest but it was for the best, she was an unhealthy presence for everyone around them. He and Emma found a little but comfortable apartment not far from where they both worked and did just that, they made it work. It wasn’t an easy living at first but as it turns out, they’re both pretty good at budgeting and before long, they were moving into a house not far and they’ve been there since.

When she found out she was pregnant the second time—not because they’d been trying, she told me it’d likely been an issue with protection—she was terrified, her eyes were huge and round and I could tell she didn’t know what to do about it all. Thankfully, her work could be done from home at this point and her employer was more than understanding. The first few months she’d work her full hours but as pregnancy really started to settle into its cycle, she slowed down, started stressing a little more so she was scripted some relaxants and she worked just a few hours a week. It wasn’t much of an issue for their income and I admit that Joshua was handling every moment of it well.

I spent a lot of time over there, my training as a nurse, though I’d veered back towards physical rehabilitation once the base had been done, proved useful enough a few times, just to blabber medical stuff at her to calm her down. Most of the time what I was saying was completely unrelated to her pregnancy but she believed in it and I don’t regret doing it. If my little check-ups did her good, then it was the only thing that really mattered, wasn’t it?

Their son is healthy as could be, there weren’t even any issues with the deliveries, and he almost came out too quickly, actually. Emma was relieved, I’m pretty sure so was Joshua and I was just happy to have been there for the moment.