Soft | Kaede

February 13, 1921
6:00 PM
A Random Dungeon Corridor

Rosalie leaned her head against the cold stone walls, her back already rigid against them as she curled her legs beneath her. She was quiet, studying her even quieter friend who was busy with her pencils, sketching away what Rosalie assumed was her frame.

It was one of many drawings Kaede had done of her over the years, and each one always seemed to be better than the last, all with a little special touch of magic that only the Slytherin could invoke. She was sweet, delicate in all the right ways, and someone that intrigued people but very rarely let them into her world.

Rosie felt privileged to be one of the few who had.

"I think it'd be great if your father lets you come visit for a few days this summer," Rosie said softly, never liking the way her voice echoed down here. "It'd keep me company until we get to go to the conservatorium." She tilted her head a little, the soft sounds of pencil on parchment filling the easy quiet betweeen them.

"Cass and I are doing better, I think. I still can't believe we almost broke up. I don't think I'd know what to do without him." She dropped her eyes, tracing shapes on her knee with her finger. "How are you feeling? You've been a little extra quiet lately."

Her head hung low as she tried to capture every detail of Rosalie’s features—the way her lower lip rounded, fuller than the upper one, or how her blonde locks cascaded down her back, framing her oval-shaped face.

She had drawn, too, peonies blooming all around her head—as Kaede liked to draw the world as her imagination showed it to her, instead of as how it was. And Rosalie had, since the first day they met, reminded her of a flower.

“He’ll agree,” she said quietly, her tone level.

There wasn’t a need for more words, so she didn’t add any. Instead, she kept on meticulously detailing the way Rosalie’s long eyelashes framed her eyes with her pencil, slightly biting her lip in concentration.

“You won’t break up, you love each other.”

Kaede had always had a way of saying things—like it was final. Just like her mother, she believed that things happened because they were meant to be, she believed the world had a sense, an equilibrium. And, for her, the love her friends shared was part of that delicate balance.

Despite her lack of words, she was far from being pragmatic—she was a dreamer.

For a moment, she wondered what it would be like to love someone like Rosalie loved Cassian. She had never even liked someone, never felt the desire to lean and kiss someone on the lips. Maybe it was because she didn’t see a point, knowing she would only inflict pain—knowing her days were numbered.

She shook her head. Kaede doubted that there would ever be someone who caught her attention the way her father had caught her mother’s. It was simply not in her cards.

Or so she believed. And it didn’t despair her, it relieved her.

“I’m good,” she said earnestly, knowing it was one of her good days. She had woken up fresh, without a trace of her fevers. It was the reason she had dragged Rosie out there in the first place. “I’m just thoughtful.”

“He’ll agree.”

It was that easy, was it? Rosalie felt an eyebrow lift in tandem with the smile at the edge of her lips. Kaede never had a ton to say, making Rosie always seem like the social butterfly between the two of them. Truly a feat in its own right. "I'm glad," she said, sighing deeply as her eyes flitted to an old portrait a little further down the hall. In it, a crotchety-looking man hissed and barked, glaring at the two girls for disturbing his space.

Her friend Maggie would also be visiting during the summer, so if the two's visits overlapped, it would be a nice way for Kaede to socialize. Not that the girl was ever very preoccupied with socializing.

“You won’t break up, you love each other.”

Rosie's smile widened as pink flushed her cheeks, her blue eyes resting on her friend again. It was funny how even now, after all this time, declarations like that from others could still make her bashful. "Yeah, I guess we do," she said softly. Kaede had never had a boyfriend in the time Rosie had known her - or even a crush that she could recall. The girl preferred the company of her sketchbook or the select few she had chosen. Usually that was Rosie or Cass.

Sometimes Benji, surprisingly enough.

"Thoughtful?" she asked, her eyes lighting up a bit with interest. "In what way?" She waited until Kaede's eyes caught her own again and she smirked. "You know I'm always interested in what goes on in that head of yours."

“You do,” Kaede confirmed, as if it wasn’t either good or bad—just a fact of life. She would’ve said it the same way, if she had to state the sky was blue.

It was just the way she talked about things, when she believed them to be true.

She was finishing one last detail around Rosalie’s eyelashes, when her question caught her attention. Not lifting her gaze up until she was done with it, it took her a minute to finally meet her friend’s eyes.

“I know something is going to change,” she explained quietly, tucking a strand of ink-coloured hair behind her ear. “I don’t know what, though.”

She shrugged it off, looking back down.

Sometimes, it happened. She would just get a feeling, but she could rarely explain them—she was no Seer. And even if she could, she wouldn’t have wanted to. There was no use in sharing what went through her head, even if she trusted Rosalie completely.

It hadn’t been in her plans—to make a friend.

(Let alone three.)

Kaede wondered what Rosalie would think, if she told her about her sickness. Her and Cassian cared enough to try and find a cure, but she already knew better than to look for something that didn’t exist. Yet, she was too attached to both of them to just turn herself invisible.

She could only hope, they would get so entangled in their adult lives together, they would’ve long forgotten about her when death came knocking on her door.

“Tell me about your family,” she asked then.