storypaint | Tomorrow Will Be Dying (Cassie/Rachel)

Title: Tomorrow Will Be Dying
Fandom: Animorphs
Length: 174 words
Prompt:

31_days 2 Jun 09 // the limit of a sweet memory;

flareonfury's The Summer of Blues & Love MULTIFANDOM Drabble-a-thon : Animorphs, Cassie/Rachel, tears
Pairing: Cassie/Rachel
Other: PG, canon character death, post-series.

Excerpt: The hawk cried out, her focus broke, the memory fled. Those days were gone.

Before they became soldiers, sometimes Rachel and Cassie had sleepovers. They weren't excuses for plotting next mission, but because they were best friends. Rachel would paint Cassie's fingernails and they'd talk about school and fall asleep around three a.m., two girls in one bed.

It was this memory that surfaced at Rachel's funeral. Cassie shut her eyes and she could hear the other girl breathing in sleep. It wasn't special back then. They didn't have a chance of dying every day. They were teenagers; they'd live forever or until their parents killed them for failing Spanish or until the guy of their dreams dumped them right before prom. And maybe even through that.

You couldn't breathe in space. Cassie shuddered back the tears, trying to remember those happy nights, gossip and fingernail polish smell and laughter.

The hawk cried out, her focus broke, the memory fled. Those days were gone.

I should have kissed her when I had the chance, she thought. But I always thought there would be time.

Teenagers always did.