Recovery (For Riley)

[bewitchinghaze]

Val got the text from Alfie about Tristan's death and immediately went into overdrive. Abandoning the repotting she was in the middle of, she washed her arms of soil and tossed her apron to the side as she rushed into the main part of the house. She slid into Riley's bedroom and pulled down the covers, hauling out her favourite pyjamas and fluffing up her pillows. A quick sleep charm on her pillow, and she was out the door again, gathering her medical herbs and brewing an extremely strong pot of lavender and valerian root tea.

Pausing, she ran to her room and changed into a comfortable hoodie, figuring she'd be doing a lot of holding once her sister got back and wanting her to have the most comfortable surface to rest against possible. Chewing on her lip, she sits at the kitchen table and runs through a list of things she might need. Knocking her out and letting her sleep through her initial grief may be the best choice, she figures. The lavender tea would help with that but she stuffed a bit of dried chamomile into a pouch and shoved it under her pillow to infuse it through the room.

She sighs, feeling useless as she finishes what she can prepare before Ji-Yun arrives, and sits down on the corner of her bed. Wringing her hands, she waits and tries to prepare herself for the state her sister might be in.

Comments

[jiyunnies]

She's honestly unsure of how she's now back home, even though the drive felt like an eternity. Everything's a blur right now. At one point, she's in a car and now she's in her home. Riley rubs her face, her eyes throbbing. All she wants right now is her sister.

[bewitchinghaze]

Val hears the car pull into the drive, setting off her magical alerts, and she flies to her feet. Throwing herself out the door, she sprints to the passenger side, flinging it open and reaching in to embrace her sister.

"Oh, unnie..." she whispers, stroking her hair. "I heard what happened. Come on, let's get you inside."

[jiyunnies]

She's crying again as soon as Val wraps her up in her arms. She follows Val into the house, holding onto her sister for support. "It happened so fast, there was nothing I could do," Riley explains, as if she even had a chance to save Tristan.

[bewitchinghaze]

"I know, unnie. I know," she soothes, leading her to her bedroom. She picks up the pyjamas from the bed and offers them to her. "Here, change into these and I'll get you some tea, okay?"

[jiyunnies]

Riley does as her sister says, changing into her pyjamas before crawling into bed. She feels the soothing mix of herbs under her pillow and knows immediately it was Val's doing. Nothing made sense right now.

[bewitchinghaze]

Val comes back with the tea once Riley's changed, handing it to her as she climbs into the bed next to her. "Drink this okay? It will help you calm down," she explains, snuggling against her like they used to do when one of them would have a nightmare as children. "Do you want to talk? Or just sleep?"

[jiyunnies]

Riley takes the tea, sipping on it and feeling the warmth run through her body. She takes a few drinks then sets it on the nightstand, curling up into her sister. "I just want to sleep, Soo-Yun. Make me sleep."

[bewitchinghaze]

"All right," she murmurs, reaching up and resting her fingers against her sister's temples. Breathing in and out evenly, she lets a shimmer of magic flow from her into Riley, reaching out to the sleep inducing part of her brain and tweaking it. "You should be getting sleepy now... That spell will give you a good, dreamless sleep."

Holding her close and half-rocking her, she starts singing quietly under her breath, nothing meaningful, just something soft to lull her to sleep.

[jiyunnies]

Riley feels her eyes closing, a very welcoming feeling as her sister's voice echoes in her ears. The magic is just strong enough to suppress her initial reaction to wake up, and she wraps her arms around Val, slowly dozing off until she's completely unconscious to the world. Thank God.

[bewitchinghaze]

Val carefully lays back next to her, dozing off herself, determined to be there if she wakes up in a panic or disoriented.

[jiyunnies]

Riley ends up sleeping for a good twelve hours. She doesn't wake up once, nor is she disturbed by nightmares or memories. She shifts in the bed, cracking an eye open as it registers in her brain that the sun is up. The sun. Half of her wants to get up and the other half realizes just how heavy her entire body is. She sighs and stares out the window, wondering briefly what happened after Alfie took her home.

[bewitchinghaze]

Val feels her sister shift and pulls herself awake, surprised at how long she'd slept. While Riley had slept, Val had been up a few times to tidy up the house and put together a meal that she could give her once she was up. Once that was all done, she'd crawled back in beside her sister and slept.

"Ji-Yun?" she mumbles, yawning. "How are you feeling?"

[jiyunnies]

It takes awhile for Riley to answer her sister. Honestly, how is she feeling? Numb. She feels numb. The events of the night before like some kind of distant memory that haunt her. Her eyes hurt, her face hurts, her teeth even hurt. Normally, she'd hide her tears, put on a smile, and tell Val she's fine. But Val's never believe those white lies, she won't even attempt it now.

"Numb," she answers. She's never felt grief before. How do people get through this?

[bewitchinghaze]

She leans over, running her fingers through Ji-Yun's hair. "I know it doesn't feel like it right now, but it will get better eventually," she says, worried. "It probably won't ever go away, but it'll become easier to deal with."

[jiyunnies]

Riley wants to believe her sister. But it's honestly too hard to even think about anything other than today. Today she realizes she'll never see Tristan again, and it hurts. The fact that she'll have to talk about him in the past tense is too painful.

She relaxes a bit has Val runs a hand through her hair. "I don't know what to do, Soo-Yun."

[bewitchinghaze]

Feeling Riley relax, she keeps up with her ministrations, humming softly. "Just... don't bottle it up, unnie. Okay? It's not healthy. And eat something... I ordered pizza and I can reheat it, if you're up for it."

[jiyunnies]

"I'll try not to," she says, snuggling up to Val. "I'll talk to you about it, I promise. It's just too soon right now." She nods her head at the pizza. Riley isn't hungry, but she knows her sister will worry endlessly if she doesn't at least try to eat.

[bewitchinghaze]

"That's okay," she says, giving her a tiny smile. She gets up long enough to reheat the pizza and brings it back to the bed.

Scooching back under the covers, she hands her a plate. "It's like when we had 'sleepovers' as kids, remember? Except umma would absolutely kill us for eating greasy pizza in bed..."

[jiyunnies]

Riley sits up to take the pizza, taking a few bites just for her sister's sake. She smiles at the memories of their sleepovers. "Mom would kill us for a lot of things we've pulled since they left."

[bewitchinghaze]

Val frowns slightly as how small the bites were, but says nothing. "I'm thinking she wouldn't approve of me turning my bedroom into basically another greenhouse... Or of that time you mixed an unstable potion and blew a hole in the floor."

[jiyunnies]

"Hey," she smiles, brightly, for the first time since everything went down. "That was for science."

[bewitchinghaze]

"What science was that?" she grins. "The science of destroying our kitchen?"

[jiyunnies]

"Now I have a perfect potion for destroying our enemies' floors. Sacrifices must be made."

[bewitchinghaze]

Val snorts, shaking her head. "At least we got a nice renovation out of it, I guess. Although I think I'd prefer you test floor destroying potions outside next time."

[jiyunnies]

"Last time I took my potions outside you nearly knocked me out trying to get me away from your garden which, by the way, is everywhere."