>Huohuo hugged herself tighter. The words felt like a boulder lodged in her throat, a secret so heavy it was threatening to crack her ribs. She had practiced them in the dark, while Tail was away, but here, under his piercing gaze, they felt foolish and fragile.
>“Tail, I…” she began, her voice a fragile whisper. “There’s… there’s a reason I look… the way I do.”
>“You mean adorable? Like a startled kitten who’s seen the Borisin Warhead Hoolay? Yes, I’m aware.”
>“No, not that!” she insisted, a flash of frustration cutting through her fear. She took a shaky breath. “I mean… my body. It’s… it’s not…”
>She couldn’t say it. The words ‘wrong’ or ‘incomplete’ felt too damning, too final.
>“It’s not finished?” Tail supplied, his voice losing its razor’s edge, becoming almost… soft.
>Huohuo’s head snapped up, her wide, blue and gold eyes staring into the heliobus. Tears welled, blurring the ominous green light. “H-how did you…?”
>A low, rumbling chuckle, warmer than any sound he’d ever made, filled the space between them. “Oh, little one. Did you truly think you could hide something like that from me? I am bound to your very soul. I feel the dissonance that rings through you like a cracked bell. I have felt it since the moment we were joined.”
>He drifted closer, his form softening from a threatening specter to something resembling a protective, if bizarre, shroud. “I feel the fierce, brilliant woman screaming inside, hammering against the confines of a shape that does not fit her. Your spirit is a blazing star, Huohuo, but you feel caged in a lantern that was blown for a different flame.”
