Luna's story --- Luna had always been rebellious. Or, at least that was what her friends always said, the friends she remembered. Her mother would tell a different story, when Luna was very little, where Luna was always pink bows and Barbie dolls and hardly ever speaking but with a laugh that was sweet and never forced. That had all changed that day-- that one, terrible day, after her father and sister, Aadya, left for a war that wasn't supposed to last very long. A year, give or take, her father had said, and Luna clung to those words every time she missed him, even when she forgot his face, his voice, the memories she had with him before he left. Luna's obsession with being free started the day her father said he would come back, the day the opposing army tried to break down the door and capture Luna and her mother to use as bargaining chips, since Luna's culture valued family above anything. That whole day was a blur, memories Luna stuffed deep down, and the next thing she allowed herself to remember was her mother carrying her out, later going to a healer and figuring out that something - Luna refused to remember what - had caused a spinal cord injury and Luna wouldn't be able to walk until it was healed. It was an easy fix, in this world, but Luna's mother didn't have the money for it. Luna's movements became restricted by the tiny pink wheelchair her mother couldn't afford to upgrade to one that would actually fit her. By the time she finally got to a healer who could "fix" her, Luna's desire to be free was so strong that she would sneak out every night, running, walking, climbing, talking to strangers and falling in love with people who didn't deserve her heart. She would laugh at things that weren't funny, say "I love you" when she didn't mean it, and her desire to be free backfired on her so much that she tied herself down to someone she hadn't even known for a year just to be away from her mother. Luna had pictures with her husband. She didn't like to look at them. Didn't like to remember the times she had with him. There was more bad than good. Besides, at this point in her life Luna had enough bad memories to know how to hide them away and pretend they didn't exist. Now Luna was sitting on her sister's couch, accepting a cup of tea and not looking at the horrible scar from her sister's years in the war. The past few years had been hard for Aadya, too. Aadya placed a weighted blanket around her sister, something Aadya herself would never use. Had Aadya bought it just for Luna? Had Aadya tried to help Luna escape from her husband before? Luna couldn't - wouldn't - remember. But the weighted blanket grounded her, made her feel safe. Maybe that was all she ever wanted. To feel safe. She had spent most of her life chasing thrill after thrill, to get out of her mother's house, but maybe that was just her trying to feel like she had some control over her life. Aadya sat down next to Luna, saying nothing. Luna had sworn she would hate her sister when she came back, hated Aadya for leaving her. But now she felt safest knowing that her sister was there. Luna didn't hate her at all. Maybe safety was the thing she had always wanted after all.
