memshares

[liuli]

Comments

[liuli]

when the final moments of time start to tick down, you find yourself not so much reeling. you stand quietly with your hands folded behind your back, your vote already cast, shoulder to shoulder with someone else.

you are aching - your face burns, and an injury on you throbs, and there's a twinge of pain in your hand from something that's not quite an injury, but something purposefully inflicted, but you're used to staying stone faced through pain, and this is no exception - this is nothing. just for a moment, you think back on what led you to this place. how you chose to trust someone and didn't all the same; how you made a foolish decision, but you had a safety net to catch you not of your own making, for the first time in your life. how your safety net didn't just save you, they did so with style, with aplomb. how fucking grateful you feel. how odd, how warm, how unfamiliar it feels.

the chosen name comes up. guilty. you feel the phrase more than you see it.

you lift your head for a moment, as your hand slips into someone else's. even with your senses shot - and they are shot - you feel the familiarity of the person holding your hand, incense-and-lavender-and-too-many-bathbombs-and-wine, and you relax. their fingers brush across your palm, and they spell the phrase - the name of the guilty party, and then lace their hand into yours.

someone walks by. you can smell them in the air over the burning scent of pepper - familiar, an ice cold scent, and familiar in the way they walk and move. you don't have to see it. it's dark, but you feel them walk by.

and you know this isn't over -

you find your mouth sliding into a smirk, just a blink and you'll miss it expression, as the hand in yours pulls back, and you make eye contact as they lead the accused away. long enough to let him know that you see him. (even though you don't.)

- this isn't over, but you won.

and not on his terms, but on yours.

you had no doubts, but even still; when you make promises, you deliver. you don't lose. you can't. you have a nation that needs you and...

... people who love you, too. ]