SO DARKNESS I BECAME | p, delphinium

[delphinium]

[align=center][div style="borderwidth=0px; width: 55%; text-align: justify;"]☼ - The few seconds of silence that followed Delphinium's words were weighty, the recognition igniting their eyes speaking more than their words ever could. Yet the lack of vocalization sat heavy on Delphinium's heart, vision clouding as she could no longer stop tears from forming in her eyes. She watched as Iota mimicked her own motions, bristling at the kitsune's words. The anxiety coiling tightly in her gut made her stomach churn, growing restless as her tails flowed freely around her. When Iota finally spoke it drew the breath from Delphi's lungs, tears beginning to flow freely down her cheeks. It was a voice she had not heard in so long, a voice she never thought she'd hear again after being removed from the Sanctuary and isolated from her sisters. Even her voice echoed her age, no longer an innocent child sneaking out to read books in the library. The use of her code caused her ears to rotate back, slate ears pressing against her head in a very feline-like mannerism. The first thing to fall from Iota's lips were the very thing that kept them apart, a minute detail that shred her heart.

"Yes," she breathed out a confirmation, a wavering smile pulling her lips upward. Tears streamed steadily down her cheeks, whether from joy or heartbreak Delphi did not know. A melancholy sense of remembrance had wrapped itself around her heart, bittersweet and painful and worth it. "I... I go by Delphinium n-" the kitsune choked on her words as she bit down on her tongue, squeezing her eyes shut and jerking her head side to side in an unstable shake. She had intended on finishing the sentence with "now", but there had never been a time that Delphinium had not held the name close to her heart. As soon as Iota had given it to her she had announced it to the other inhabitants of Sanctuary 13, serving as a small spark that quickly led the young kitsune to nickname the other three she shared an enclosure with. Numbers alone did not fit them. Binary to explain the infinite, bright eyes and youthful smiles that deserved true names. Genista, dainty and beautiful. Argentea, eye-catching and proud. Chlorophytum, flowing and elegant. Her sisters had grown to fit their names so well, embodiments of their flora names. What had inspired 002 to name her Delphinium?

Delphi had little time to contemplate time past as Iota quickly closed the distance between them, fur ruffling out as the pink feline brushed herself against the kitsune. But this time, it was for a much different reason. Her nerves were alive, reacting to the smallest touch from Iota with a pleasant buzz that spread through her body. Delphinium immediately returned the affection, pressing her head in the crook of the smaller feline's neck as her wings flared outward to wrap around Iota and draw her even closer. The kitsune took in a heavy breath to inhale Iota's new scent, free of fear metallics but replaced with the smell of the wild. Of oak trees, wildflowers, brackish water, dusty books, of life how it was meant to be lived. Not a permanent addition to a laboratory. She released her breath with a heavy cry, pressing her head further into Iota as her body trembled. Delphinium knew how to feel, she knew of love and sorrow, of hope and heartbreak, but never before had she felt so intensely as pressing against her childhood friend.

A soft murmur of words in her ear went unregistered by Delphinium until a slender claw was prying at the collar around her neck. Her shaking ceased, temporarily replaced by fear as she was caught in the most vulnerable position she had ever been in before. Instead of blood or pain, rather, there was the soft chink of dislodged metal as her tracking collar fell into the soil. Delphinium withdrew her head from Iota's fur to slowly turn her gaze downward, focusing on the heap of metal at her paws. Her collar had been... removed. She had never known of a time when it had not been latched around her throat, measuring her vitals, tracking her location, her psychological ratings. To have the weight lifted off her neck, to see her own number stare back at her, it was an experience that was almost out of body. Slowly Delphinium's olive gaze rose to meet Iota's, wide as possible. Following a brief moment of stillness Delphinium threw herself back at Iota, openly weeping in a way she had been trying to contain before.

"I'm so glad you're okay," she gasped, reaching her forepaws out to wrap them around Iota and pull her in physically for something akin to a hug, or the closest she could achieve with her anatomy working against her. "Thank you," for removing her collar. "Thank you," for returning to her. "Thank you," for being alive, for being unharmed, for being happy.

"I missed you s- so much, 002."