Work Text:
t/w: mentions of death (literally the whole fic i guess)
When the two ominously large doors of Calliope’s office slams open, she already knows who the intruder is going to be.
(She’d felt their death just seconds prior to the intrusion.)
“Calli! How are you?!” the energetic voice exclaims.
“Takanashi Kiara,” Calliope responds monotonously. “Welcome back. How did you die this time?”
“I don’t know,” Kiara grins widely, plopping down onto one of the chairs in front of Calliope’s desk. The phoenix shows no type of despair or sadness over her death. She’ll just walk out of Calliope’s office and into another life, anyway. Rather than stressing out over her death, she continues to talk excitedly. “Today was a normal day! I took a walk, fought some monsters, I went to sleep and then -- poof! Next thing I knew, I was dead! I guess I died peacefully in my sleep this time, Calli!”
Calliope refrains from telling the excited chicken (read: phoenix) about the truth. She’d felt a sharp pain in her gut followed by a similar pain in her heart. Kiara’d been stabbed in her sleep.
“I guess so,” Calliope mumbles. “Are you going to resurrect yourself now?”
“No,” Kiara answers, eyes widening. “I wanted to talk to you some more.”
“For what?” Death’s right-hand woman replies, trying to ignore the warmth spreading to the tips of her ears. “Don’t you have more monsters to kill?”
“They can wait,” Kiara leans forward. “How have you been, Calli? How’s training?”
“I’ve only really been doing paperwork recently…” Calliope says.
“Really?” Kiara frowns. “I thought you’d be doing more active things.”
“I thought so, too.”
“Well! What about the people you meet after they die? Anything interesting there?”
“No,” Calliope grunts. “It’s only been you so far.”
“ Only me?! ” Kiara yelps. “I can’t possibly be the only person who’s died all these years!”
“I know, but you’re the only one Death’s letting me see in the Afterlife,” Calliope sighs.
“Hehe,” Kiara giggles playfully. “Seems like Death’s trying to set us up together, right?”
“ Wrong ,” Calliope retorts with strong emphasis on the word.
“You’re stuck with me forever , Calli!” Kiara sing-songs. She stands and steps towards Calliope’s desk, hands folded behind her back as she leans forward. “Hey, hey. Don’t you think we’re soulmates, Calli?”
“I told you that those don’t exist,” Calliope tries to seem disinterested as she looks back down at the papers in front of her. She flips mindlessly through the stack.
“It’s all the rage amongst humans nowadays, though!” Kiara argues. “You can feel your soulmate’s pain, no matter how far apart you are. Even through different worlds and dimensions, you’re connected to them! Isn’t that romantic?”
“Sounds more bothersome than romantic,” Calliope murmurs under her breath. She looks up at Kiara, whose eyes are lit with a blaze brighter than the flames that erupt after her death. “You die a lot , Kiara. Don’t you think that if soulmates were real, yours would be annoyed?”
…
...
There’s a sharp twist in Calliope’s heart when she sees how Kiara’s eyes dim and how the orange-haired phoenix stands up straight. Calliope’s words seem to have struck a sad chord within Kiara, who takes the tiniest step back, eyes dropping to her feet.
“Oh…” Kiara frowns. She tries to shake it off, her lips pulling upwards into a small smile despite the lack of enthusiasm in her eyes. “I guess you’re right, Calli.”
Oh, fuck. Shit. Fuck. Shit. Fuck!
Calliope feels the guilt settle in like a ton of bricks, her stomach dropping as Kiara nods slowly.
“It would be better if I didn’t have a soulmate, in that case,” Kiara hums. Her smile widens only a little bit as she looks back at Calliope. “Well, I’ll always have you, right?! Who needs a soulmate when I have you!”
“Kiara…” Calliope starts quietly, but it seems to not be heard by the phoenix, who’s already heading towards the doors.
“I’ll see you around, Calli,” Kiara says before disappearing behind the doors, stepping into the bright white light that’ll send her right back to the Earth she’d come from.
Calliope stares at the door for another minute, waiting and seeing if Kiara would come back - but to no avail. She drops her head down onto the desk and groans.
I’m such an asshole.
-
There has to be at least another hundred years that have passed until Calliope feels a tightening around her throat before there’s a knock on her door.
“Come in,” she says loudly. That’s odd. Kiara never knocks.
The phoenix enters almost sheepishly.
“Hi, Calli…” Kiara grins, shuffling into the room. “Long time no see, huh?”
“I suppose,” Calliope replies. It had been too long. Kiara usually comes to visit her every year, living life recklessly without care because she’d always enjoyed visiting Calliope. Ten years would’ve felt like too long, but Kiara had been gone for a hundred .
Kiara stays standing and Calliope hesitates before saying her next words.
“You can sit, you know?”
The phoenix’s eyes widen almost comically as she does as she’s suggested, practically throwing her bottom down onto the chair in front of Calliope’s desk.
…
…
Kiara’s never this quiet when she visits.
“Is something the matter, Kiara?” Calliope asks. “Not that I care, but you’re usually talking nonstop when you get here.”
“No, no,” Kiara shakes her head. “Nothing’s wrong! I just…”
She trails off, leading them both into another bout of silence.
Calliope clears her throat. “You just…?”
Kiara bites her bottom lip nervously. “I was wondering if I could stay here a while.”
“What?” Calliope blinks.
“If… If I’m dead then my soulmate won’t have to feel my pain anymore,” Kiara reasons. She stands and reaches over Calliope’s desk, taking both of Calliope’s hands into her own. Her eyes are wide with desperation. “I tried so hard to live a peaceful life last time, but I still ended up dying to a stupid, stupid monster that invaded the village I was living in!”
The guilt that Calliope spent years burying suddenly bubbles to the surface and she’s smacked in the face with countless emotions.
She doesn’t show any sort of emotional change on her face as Kiara continues to talk.
“Maybe if I stay here with you, my soulmate will be at ease.”
Dammit.
“Kiara, I told you that soulmates don’t exist,” Calliope speaks through slightly-gritted teeth. She’s trying very hard not to pull her hands away from Kiara’s.
“But I’ve seen them with my own eyes, Calli. They exist. They do ,” Kiara squeezes Calliope’s hands. “I know you’re not much of a romanticist but trust me! They do! And… and… I don’t want to hurt my soulmate, you know? That’s the last thing I’d want to do.”
“Wouldn’t your soulmate be dead by now, though?” Calliope tries to reason with the phoenix. “You’re an eternal being, after all. What if your soulmate’s human?”
“Multiple soulmates exist,” Kiara replies easily. “Calli, I swear I won’t interrupt your work. I’ll just sit in the corner and sleep!”
“You’re going to lose your mind if that’s all you do, Kiara,” Calliope replies dryly. “What happened to wanting to explore the world and fight monsters and go on ambitious adventures?”
“Well.. I…” Kiara frowns. “I can do that once I figure out who my soulmates are and whether they’re alive or not!”
She squeezes Calliope’s hands again.
“So, will you help me?” Kiara stares deeply into Calliope’s eyes and it makes Calliope’s dead, dead heart skip a beat. The phoenix looks so incredibly desperate and her intentions are so incredibly pure that Calliope really just wants to grab her face and kiss --
Dammit.
“Kiara.”
“Yes?”
Calliope pulls her hands away from the phoenix, placing them in her lap as she looks away, not wanting to see Kiara’s dejected face.
“I have something to tell you,” Calliope says as she struggles to keep her tone steady, “but you need to promise me you won’t flip out.”
“What is it, Calli?” Kiara asks worriedly. Calliope’s always serious, but she’s never this serious. And her cheeks are also red, so Kiara thinks maybe she’s come down with some sort of sickness -- can Calli even get sick?
“When you died in your last life, were you hurt around your neck?”
“Uhm… yes, I do remember pain around my throat,” Kiara hums, “but how did you…”
She trails off as she gasps. And then she registers Calliope’s red cheeks as blushing , and she gasps even louder.
“Calli,” Kiara calls out.
Calliope’s still avoiding eye contact.
“Y-Yes…?”
“Are you my soulmate?” Kiara asks, straight to the point.
“Mmm…” Calliope nods. “I believe so. Yes.”
…
…
Calliope thinks Kiara’s definitely mad at her.
She thinks Kiara’s going to leave through the door she’d entered and never return.
It’d be understandable, really. Kiara’s always gone on and on about soulmates and Calliope’s kept this big secret from her.
Of course Kiara has a right to be angry.
..
…
……
As the silence goes on, however, Calliope’s nervousness dwindles into confusion.
She looks back towards the phoenix who’s now standing in front of her desk.
Kiara has the gentlest smile Calliope’s ever seen on her face.
“Finally you look at me,” Kiara whispers.
Calliope feels her face burn up as her eyes begin to sting. “Aren’t you mad at me?”
“Why would I be mad at you?” Kiara frowns.
“Because I kept this from you for so long!” Calliope finally explodes, angry and disappointed at herself. “You confided in me about your worries for your soulmate and I kept silent, Kiara. I went far enough to lie to your face, Kiara. I hurt you, Kiara!”
“Hey,” Kiara hurries around the desk to kneel down in front of Calliope, taking Calliope’s shaky hands into her own. “I’m not mad, Calli. I promise. I’m not mad.”
“Well, you should be!” Calliope mutters angrily.
“But I’m not,” Kiara laughs, raising one hand to wipe the tears off of Calliope’s cheeks. “I’m beyond happy right now, actually. Although seeing you cry does pain me a bit.”
Calliope sniffles, doing her best to regain control of her emotions.
Thousands of years of repressed feelings would do that to you, I guess.
“It’s okay, Calli,” Kiara’s thumb softly rubs Calliope’s cheek as she cups her face. “I forgive you.”
“You shouldn’t forgive me so easily,” Calliope sniffles continue. “I deserve to be punished.”
“Mmm,” Kiara makes a thinking face. “Should I go back to Earth for a couple thousand more years, then?”
Calliope’s heart stops. “ No! ” she nearly shouts without thinking.
Kiara laughs loudly at this, eyes twinkling with joy.
“I’m just kidding,” she says. “So… you really are my soulmate, Calli?”
“Yes,” Calliope nods. “I felt your death before you’d walk into my office.”
“Wow,” Kiara mumbles. She pulls her hand away as if suddenly burned. “Did it hurt you? ... Did I hurt you?”
“No, no,” Calliope is quick to shake her head and calm Kiara’s worries. “I barely felt a thing. It’s nothing I couldn’t handle.”
It takes a moment for Calliope’s words to sink in. And then Kiara hums, nodding slowly to herself and then to Calliope.
“Then you’re a really good actress, Calli!” Kiara exclaims. Her energy level goes from zero to a hundred. “I had no clue you were my soulmate! I mean, I know I joked about it all the time and sometimes I really wanted to believe you were my soulmate because I really did have a crush on you for - I don’t know - eternity , but you were always so adamant about soulmates not being real and even though it hurt to be shot down so many times -- wait, where was I going with this? ”
Calliope simply stares at the woman who’s down on one knee in front of her, watching adoringly as the phoenix rambles and rambles about all the times she’d thought Calliope was her soulmate.
“And, jeez! It’s not like I even had the chance to figure out you were my soulmate because you’ve technically been dead the second I met you! That’s not fair!” Kiara complains. She lightly smacks Calliope’s knee twice. “You know? Now I am mad at you!”
“Aww, no,” Calliope drawls unenthusiastically.
“Yes,” Kiara replies with a pout. She gets up from the ground and crosses her arms over her chest, closing her eyes as she juts her chin up to the ceiling. “This was rigged from the start.”
Calliope looks up at the phoenix with a slowly growing smile on her lips. She pokes Kiara’s hip.
“Is there anything I can do to make you forgive me?”
Kiara opens one eye to peek over at Calliope.
“ Anything ?” Kiara squeaks.
“Within reason,” Calliope specifies.
“What’s within reason for a soulmate to do?” Kiara asks.
“I’ll hold your hand.”
Kiara closes both eyes again and turns away from Calliope. “No deal!”
Calliope already knows what Kiara wants her to do, and it fills her with nervousness as she stands from her chair.
“We could hug…?” Calliope suggests weakly towards the back of Kiara’s head.
The phoenix turns to face Kiara, eyes opening. There’s a hint of mischievousness in them.
“Not enough,” Kiara hums. “Getting warmer, though!”
“You know, this isn’t fair,” Calliope argues.
“How come?” Kiara teases.
“I’ve never kissed anybody before.”
Kiara lets out a gasp. “Who said anything about kissing ?! That’s too scandalous, Miss Mori!”
Wait...
…
What?
...
WHAT?
Calliope sputters out fragments of words and sentences and sounds as her face flames right up.
“But - you… I mean, uh, wasn’t that…? Were you not…?” Calliope’s really struggling here. Really struggling.
Kiara giggles, stepping forward to get directly into Calliope’s personal space just as her right hand reaches up to cup the side of Calliope’s neck.
Calliope feels Kiara pull her closer and her eyes flutter closed.
“I was just teasing you, Calli,” Kiara whispers as her breath fans across Calliope’s own lips just before they finally kiss.
When they pull away, Calliope’s stomach is doing all sorts of flips and flops and the brightness of Kiara’s smile is blinding.
“Who would’ve thought? An immortal reaper and an immortal phoenix being soulmates,” Kiara wraps both arms around Calliope’s shoulders, fingers interlocking loosely behind her neck. “A match made in heaven, isn’t it?”
Calliope doesn’t get to say anything because Kiara lets out a whooping laugh, hiding her face into Calliope’s shoulder.
“More like a match made in hell !”
“Oh jeez...” Calliope sighs out in dramatic disappointment. Her words don’t match her actions because she loops her own arms around Kiara’s waist and pulls her snug against her own body.
Kiara continues laughing, held in Calliope’s arms.
-
“ Fucking finally ,” comes a sigh from the elegant lady sat in front of a glowing orb. There’s the faintest image of an orange-haired phoenix and a pink-haired reaper-in-training. “Took them long enough.”
The light emitted from the orb dissipates with a swipe of her hand, just seconds before there’s a poof of smoke in the room that indicates newcomers.
The chair spins around as the lady dressed in all-black meets her guests.
“Welcome to the Afterlife,” she says. “I’m Death.”