[member=450]Suiteheart[/member]
//retro to capture
Thea had often been spending her time away from the Observatory at night, preferring the company of the stars to the bareness and loneliness of her room. And that was where she was now, as she stretched, paws raised, as if she could catch those stars if she tried, a small smile on her face as she silently watched a star fly past.

A shooting star. She was unaware you could wish on them, and even if she did, she still wouldn't have much to wish for.

SUITE
HEART

"You know, they say you can make wishes on those," came the soft voice of Suiteheart as she neared Thea. She had made her footfalls loud so as not to startle the leopard cub. Her ocean eyes were on the stars, and she had seen the shooting star.

The white feline moved to sit down beside Thea, a soft grin upon her lips. She then laid down and rolled over so that her back graced the ground and her eyes were skyward. The stars twinkled and burned against the black, and a sudden peace enveloped Suiteheart. She moved her head towards Thea. "Do you mind if I join you?" she asked, carrying a gentleness in her voice.

© [color=black]MADI

"Really?" Thea looked to see Suiteheart there, and offered her a smile as she glanced back up, a bit disappointed to see it had already disappeared. "Any kind of wish?"

She'd probably wish to be strong, or for Mom to not have been weak, so she would still be here. But those were wishes that might've been out of the star's power, yet none of that thinking showed in Thea's eyes as she watched another pass by.

"Sure! You can join!" She chirped, scooting over to leave room for Suite.

SUITE
HEART

At the girl's excited words, Suiteheart gave a nod. "Yeah, any kind of wish," she answered with a smile of her own. Her eyes shifted again skyward, baby blues scanning the vast darkness and the tiny speckles of light. She thought a lot about shooting stars and the supposed wishes they granted. She had wished on a great many stars herself - some came true, some didn't. Maybe it was all fate or luck. Even so, why not give Thea something good to think about? Why not give her some sort of hope? "The secret to the wishes coming true is to not tell anyone what you wished for."

Wasn't that what her mother always told her? Flickers of distant memories flashed in her mind's eye: sitting on her father's shoulders as her mother explained stars and wishes and everything to her.

"How're you liking it here, Thea?" Suiteheart asked. She was always worried about newcomers and whether or not they felt like this was home. As someone who felt welcomed immediately, she wanted that for everyone else too.

© [color=black]MADI

"Really?" Thea kept her gaze onto the sky, pale blue eyes empty as she watched them. Did they really grant wishes? If so, how? They were stars.

At Suite's next question, she turned her gaze towards the feline, offering a grin. "I like it here! Everybody's nice here, so far." She paused for a few moments, before adding, "I wish Mom was here, though."

She often thought about her mother still, the person who had refused to coddle her and taught her to be strong, and had ended up being too weak in the end, in Thea's eyes. She wasn't strong enough, and while Thea missed her from time to time, death was something she didn't completely understand, and so, she didn't fear it, or grieve for her mother.

//late and rushed

SUITE
HEART

She nodded and chuckled lightly at Thea's excitement. It was good; the girl was sweet. And the cub's wonderings had been Suite's own when her mother told her that information. She couldn't wrap her tiny mind around the fact that stars could grant wishes - but then her siblings told her it was magic, and she drank that in willingly.

Suiteheart moved her ocean eyes to Thea's powder-blue stare, and a smile of her own sparked to life on her lips. "I'm glad it's good!" At the child's next words, her grin faltered ever so slightly. Parents, family in general, could be a difficult topic of conversation. "Can I tell you a secret?" she asked, pausing a beat. "I wish my mom was here too. She was a cool lady, and I bet you'd like her. What was your mom like? If you don't mind me asking?"

© [color=black]MADI

She had never had siblings, an only child, so she never really understood the relationship siblings had, sharing secrets and ratting each other out, yet no matter what, there was still some bond that kept them together when needed, and had them rely on each other. Maybe she would've turned out differently, with a brother or sister.

And so Thea listened to Suiteheart's 'secret' with wide eyes and a growing smile, which faltered a bit at Suite's question. "Mom wasn't that nice or anything. She wanted me to learn to be strong, and would always tell me how proud she was when I was. But there was other stuff, too. Sometimes, if I stayed up after bedtime long enough, I could hear her sing. She never sang around me." Her tone turned a bit bitter at her next words, barely detectable, "Mom was too weak though, since she's gone."

She was a bit bitter about it, to be honest. The fact that her mother taught her all her life strength was what mattered, and if Thea was strong enough, nothing would be able to stop her. Never taught her the meaning of death, and never made her realize that death was something horrible. Yet those memories of her mother's voice if the cub had pressed her ear against the wall hard enough stayed, for some reason.

It took a few moments, before Thea asked, "What was your mom like? Since she was a cool lady." She was curious, after all, since Suite seemed so different, and she did say Thea would probably have liked her mom.

And maybe she would. She had raised Suite, and Suite seemed like a nice person, somebody Thea trusted, and somebody the Fireball felt she could turn to.

What kind of person did it take to raise somebody like Suite?

SUITE
HEART

Suiteheart had always surrounded herself with others. She was not bred to be a lone individual. No, by design, she was a social creature. Even when she ventured away from the safety of her home, her parents, her siblings, she found protection in the arms of others. She had believed it was that at the time anyway. Had she been left to her own devices, she knew she would have been vastly different: bolder, more foolish, sharper, more dangerous. While she wasn't anything close to perfect or even close to being truly happy with herself, she knew she could be worse. Though content might not be the best word, it was pretty damn close to how she felt with who she was. But that confidence was only in fleeting moments.

Thea's smile was a good one - the type that showed in one's eyes whenever it was true. However, as quickly as it surfaced, it collapsed. A concerned look bled into Suiteheart's features as she listened to Thea's answer. Her last words were perhaps the saddest of all. The white feline was quiet for a few heartbeats. "'m sorry, Thea," she finally said. "It's good to be strong in this world, but you don't always have to be, you know? And strength isn't just a physical thing; it can be a mental thing too. Some of the best strength we have is here-" she gently tapped her own chest, where her heart resided, "Sorry, that was kinda cheesy... I hope she was proud of you for other things too. I'm proud of you for a lot of things, kiddo." There was another beat in between her thoughts. "I'm sorry your mom's not around anymore. It's hard to be strong forever, and as much as it hurts, we can't stop fate... I wish she would've sang for you too." Her voice was soft.

The question tossed her way caused her to purse her lips. Her mother? Aside from tiny flashes of memory, she had not thought much about her own mother. It was a part of her life that hurt to remember. "She was... soft. Tender. Delicate. But Thea, she was strong, too, and brave and smart... She had a big heart." A bittersweet smile pressed itself against her lips. "'Chérie, calme-toi, s'il te plait,' she used to say, 'honey, take it easy, please.' The French rolled easily offer her tongue. "She taught me French. And my mom used to sing too - French lullabies."

She inhaled softly. "I want to be like her. Gentle and tough when I need to be... She would've really gotten a kick out of you, Thea."

Baby blues returned to look at the moon, and a gentle song floated to her. She was surprised she remembered it. "'Au clair de la lune: 'mon ami, Pierrot, prête-moi ta plume, pour écrire un mot,''" Suiteheart spoke, voice taking on a slight sing-song quality.

© [color=black]MADI

Thea, on the other hand, while she strongly preferred the company of others, could tolerate being alone. Maybe due to the fact her mother rarely spent time with her, her father had never been around much to begin with, and really never had a healthy parental figure to look up to. Naturally, since her mother spent more time with her, just barely a bit more than her father, that she looked up to her. Maybe that's why she was always looking for her mother's approval, even after her death.

"That does sound cheesy." Thea grinned at her words, not quite understanding how one's heart could be strong. Then again, maybe her warped belief that if you smiled, everything would be alright, had the heart play a role in it. Because if she hadn't clung to that belief for so long, she might've crumbled under the pressure.

"I do remember a bit from one song. I had to press my ear against the wall really hard to hear it, though." The pine bends over the trembling thing so only the vine can hear her sing... Bits and pieces floated through her mind, something stored away in her head, no matter how hard she tried to get rid of it. Her mother's voice never sounded that soft, that relaxed and... content when she was around Thea.

What shall you fear when I am here?

At Suiteheart's answer to her question, the words that had flitted through her mind were quick to hide in the depths of her mind once again, as if chased away by Suite's soothing tone, the song slipping off her tongue like honey.

"I like the sound of that." Thea murmured, "I think I would've liked your mom too."

"She would've gotten a kick out of you, Thea."

"What do you mean by that?" Thea couldn't understand what was so funny.