Sooraya and Sharon

[xp_dust]

Sharon visits Sooraya and meaningful conversation is shared. 

TW: Parental loss 

The knock at the suite door was very polite, insofar as it had occurred at all. The caller on the other side of it was not known for seeking invitation. Or, frankly, permission.

Sooraya put her laptop on the table and rose, quickly making her way to the door and pulling it open. "Hey Sharon." She greeted the young woman outside the door who had a large stuffed tiger firmly tucked in her hands. "Everything okay? Is something wrong with the tiger?"

"Wrong with the tiger?" The taller girl glanced down at the tiger clasped to her chest, then shook her head. "No. I only love it." Sharon hugged the massive toy closer even as she peered over its head to scan the suite beyond.

"You are alone?" she asked. The question was deceptively casual.

"I'm alone. Come one in." Sooraya stepped aside to let Sharon in, then headed to the couch to close the laptop. "I'm glad you really like the tiger." She offered.

"It is my favorite," Sharon declared as she entered. Despite Sooraya's assurances the girl's eyes continued to skim the room suspiciously.

"I thought you had company already, maybe," she continued virtuously. She added, with shameless falsehood, "I did not wish to interrupt."

"Well, Alani will probably come back later, but otherwise I'm alone." Sooraya reassured Sharon as she took a seat on the couch. "What's up?" She patted the pillow next to her, inviting Sharon to take a seat.

"Is nothing especially." Finally assured Hope Summers was not lying in wait for an ambush, Sharon dropped onto the couch next to Sooraya. She gathered the tiger onto her lap like a mother holding her toddler.

"I have been using materials offered to me by Shatterstar to address my Behavioral Issues," Sharon continued. "These are very helpful. Explanations are clear and concise. Strategies also."

"Good they've been so helpful. Sounds like you've been putting in some hard work." Sooraya complimented Sharon, smiling as she leaned back into the couch. "What kind of things have you learned from Shatterstar's papers that have been really helpful?"

"Is from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy. Triggers and subsequent emotional responses are analyzed, and concrete strategies are offered as a means of coping with same. A number of useful acronyms are offered. 'STOP', for example, this is very helpful during intense emotional response. Stop, Take a step back, Observe, Proceed mindfully." Sharon's tail twined primly around one calf. "I am Regulating my Emotions."

"STOP you said? I haven't heard of that one before. It can't always be easy to remember it in the heat of the moment though?" She asked curiously.

Sharon scowled and pulled the tiger up beneath her chin. "Is easier when I am irritated on my own than with others," she admitted. "But intent of this exercise is to prevent impulsive action. Observe, this step is good. Is not only to observe others, but self. The what and the why I feel, like you said."

"It takes practice. But bit by bit you'll start getting better at it." Sooraya's smile broadened and she reached out to wrap an arm around Sharon's shoulders. "I am proud of you, you know. You've taken this very seriously and you've been working hard at it, finding ways that work for you."  

Sharon accepted both the hug and the warm glow of praise. She leaned into Sooraya and butted the top of her head gently against the older woman's cheek in a very cat-like fashion. "I have been in no more fights," she said. "Differences have been settled between Liam and I. You have seen the cat tree in the Rec Room? This he built for us. Others are allowed also," she added, generously.

"I've seen it when I passed by, but  haven't had the chance to take a closer look. Why don't you show me later?" Sooraya pulled back a little from the hug, though she left her around Sharon's shoulders. "I heard Liam made the whole thing, but that several people had input on how?"

"Design was Liam's. Some assistance from his father, maybe. Carpentry, this is a skill they share. Was parental bonding." Sharon settled back into the couch, peering curiously at Sooraya. "Did you have such things with your parents? For my mother and me, this was cooking and languages."

"I lost my parents when I was pretty young, so I don't think it's quite the same. But let's see..." Sooraya fell silent, pondering. "My father taught me to ride. Our clan was nomadic, so we traveled around by camel and horse. But that was always a bit of a special time together, when he'd teach me so I could manage a horse on my own. And for my mom I always love the time when she taught me to cook, especially with trying out all the spices. I still do both quite a lot and I always remember them when I do so."

The girl was still for a moment, her face blank. "You have lost them both?" Sharon asked.  

"I did." Sooraya simply confirmed. "My father died when I was about eight... his horse slipped during a mountain crossing. With my mom it's a little different... I was taken by slavers a few years after my father died and I haven't seen her since. She might still be alive but after twenty years..." A faint grimace flashed over her face. "There is a good chance she is gone too."

"You were close?" Sharon knew about Felicia's father, but otherwise she had never really considered that others at the mansion might also have lost their parents -- or wondered much about their lives before the mansion at all. Particularly not about the adults. There had been the sense they came with the mansion, like furniture.

Sooraya tilted her head, pondering. "The life I led there was so different, Sharon, and I was so young. But I think we were close, though a little bit different from how you might picture. I remember he would sometimes take me to where the men were chatting and have me sit with him. That was something really not done... or the time he'd spent with me to teach me to ride. Usually girls stayed more with their mothers. But I was their only child..."  

"He was unusual, then, your father." Sharon began to worry at her lip. "Your mother?" she asked, hesitant. "She was unusual also?"

"Oh she was. I never really realized it as a child because she just did what all the other women did..." A sad smile flashed over her face for a moment. "...  but somehow she stayed with the band even as a widow, a single woman basically. I never understood how she managed that."  

"My mother raised me alone also." Sharon's tail curled against her leg at the older woman's sadness. The girl wrapped her arms more tightly around the tiger, thinking.

"There is no way she can be found?" Sharon ventured. "Has been some time, maybe, but is not like with me. She did not die, you were taken only. If she lives surely she wishes for reunion."  Her tail lashed once, then relaxed. "If it were me I would wish this, also."

Sooraya let out another slow breath, closing her eyes for a moment. "Maybe... maybe some time in the future." She simply allowed.  

Sharon stared at her knees, unhappy but unable to articulate it. At first she thought it was jealousy. After all, wasn't a mother who might be alive better than one confirmed to be dead? Yet as she thought about it, Sharon realized that perhaps the possibility made it worse. Sharon couldn't hope that her mother was alive, not after seeing her body, but there was at least a certainty in that knowledge. Sooraya didn't even have that.

It felt wrong that Sooraya, who took care of so many, had no one to take care of her. 

The change was instinctive. Sharon shifted her weight towards Sooraya, shifting her body as she did so, and an instant later a great purple cat sat in her place. In a brief gesture of affection, the shapeshifter brushed her head beneath Sooraya's chin before settling across her lap like a comforter. 

"I'm okay though, Sharon." Sooraya scratched Sharon's head. "Remember when I told you about people having space in their hearts to love more than one person? Because I met many people here who found a place for me in their heart and who became my family." 

The cat said nothing. For all that the exercises encouraged her to put words to thought, there were some situations in which they could only do harm -- particularly Sharon's. Instead, Sharon simply leaned into Sooraya's hand and began to issue a low purr, insistent as distant thunder, powerful enough to fill the world.