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[ this would be soft, if— 2B didn't look partially confuddled at the last word used, to address her. pod catches on, does a search, and vocalizes the information:

it is a human slang term for 'sister', pod adds, to ease her doubt and mild confusion toward the word used. but that— that just makes her eyes go a touch wider. she has no word to add for the coming moments, until she asks: ]

. . . You would call me your Sister?

[ sister in arms, is what 2B retorts to understanding the most easily. the concept of having a sister, a family . . . she didn't know what that was (but it didn't mean it couldn't exist). ]

[god. right. YoRHa wouldn't know that, and 2B doubly wouldn't—and anna's face goes red as she realizes that she'd said it out loud. embarrassing. mortifying. she freezes under pod's explanation and only reactivates once 2B actually says something, but she looks away while she's responding.]

I mean... yeah. Our bodies are mostly the same model, and I know that the B series was, like, mostly built on combat data from the A series, so it kind of makes sense, right?

[she can't bullshit tubes like this. she sighs and looks down to her lap, and though she gets through her next sentence quickly, each word is painstakingly clear in her ears.]

And you look almost exactly like my actual blood-related sister.

[ was this how jackass would look at 2B and see . . . something that peeled at remembrance? it was A2. 2B knew the details now, and even when she had first recognized the feelings on the other android's face, she didn't press or pinch her brows. she simply pretended not to notice. she's unsure if she could do the same with anna, now that she has completely spelled it out for both of them.

there are many things that keep them entwined. not just one story. ]

Do you believe Beth would have received my soul fragments, if given the chance?

[it's a simple question with an obvious answer. right? so why is it so hard for anna to come up with the right words when she's confronted with it. she can't even look directly at 2B while she thinks. while the silence reigns between them.]

[she isn't sure what she's worried about. she never wanted any of this to happen to beth no matter how prepared she'd made herself for that possibility. and with every one of rose's sisters who had ended up on the app, she'd braced herself more and more. braced herself for the time that she would see the face that's in front of her right now for the first time in a decade, maybe losing parts of her humanity, maybe being plagued with memories of killing and death and existential crises. and there was always the chance that beth wouldn't recognize her anymore, too. especially after she'd lost her eye.]

[the open, heavy quiet is going on for too long. she thinks that might be enough of an answer on its own, but there's never been a silence she hasn't ruined by talking.]

I spent a few months absolutely certain that it would happen. My ex, she had five sisters, and by the end of things four of them had started changing. One after another. I think if we had more time, it would've gotten the last one, too. [she looks up with an expression tangled up with such nostalgia and regret and fear and want and love that she wouldn't be able to decipher it with a map.] I never would've asked for it to happen to her. But if it had, I would've supported her through every last one of your memories.

[ she was glad, on one hand. she hand intrusted her memories to A2 because she could handle them, but to wish them upon beth, on anyone else— it would've been a challenging choice to make. was that why, it didn't happen? or was that another jab at god, and time not being enough to get to that point?

she wouldn't wish her suffering upon anyone, but already certain that anna would've been there— ]

It looks as if we'd find each other no matter where we'd go. [ whether that's entirely true or not, it looked closer to possible. what mattered more was 2B facing anna today rather than through the mystic, faraway veil of her memories. ] I'm glad I have the chance to meet you. Today.

[ and with a soft inhale, her hand on top of her's, ]

I would be honored to call you my Sister.

[anna thinks, however briefly, of the concept of bonds, the ritual that she's been too frightened to do with kainé. she looks at 2B, at the woman who would have become and forever is her sister. she doesn't know what to say; she blinks slowly.]

I have a couple siblings here... but they're found family, you know? People I'm close to and who I feel... responsible for. But you and me are different. We... I don't know. It feels like we have the same blood.

[she holds 2B's hand, and breathes, and tries to stop herself from overflowing with emotion. but she looks at the face of this android, listens to her voice, and she sees beth. she hears beth. and inside her chest something stirs, mixes with the emotions in her human brain, and she knows that 2B is right.]

We were always going to find each other. We're sisters in a way that's complicated and hard to explain, but all I know is that... [dammit. why does she have to be dealing with emotions right now? she swallows and it feels heavy; she's definitely not starting to cry.] All I know is that I've got 15 years of being a big sister to catch up on and I'm going to be the best one to you that anyone in Trench has ever seen.

[ this might be the most anticlimactic shit ever, but it's what actually gets 2B anywhere close to a chuckle in her life. anna was just— she didn't know. the things she said sometimes didn't make sense (fifteen years? was beth fifteen years old?), but they're endearing. they're endearing, but most of all, they are true. they are genuine and the reason for how, even as 2B tries, she can't contain all of the smile already on her lips, attempted to be covered by the fall of her silver bangs over her eyes and cheeks. ]

I'm three years old.

[ 2B feels the ripples of emotion from anna and it tickles her in a way that feeling never has (paleblood perks haven't been catching her so off guard anymore, but they have been leaving her more sensitive and prone to dipping a touch harder into whatever emotion came strongly). they were always going to find each other. they have something strong and unyielding that it has led them here, to this moment, sitting next to each other even when they were thousands of years apart. she supposes that she could take back her desire to once bitch slap god into death for forcing her to live through that awful cycle of death for absolutely nothing. maybe it wasn't for "nothing", at all.

Their hands still link. if this is what it was like to have a sister across time . . . she squeezes it, for the first time, to show that she truly is on board. she feels the same. soul sisters, blood sisters. maybe that's it. ]

[see, there are a lot of emotions happening right now. there's the acceptance and joy of finding a sister in 2B, and the idea that even if this is still some level of found family, is it, really?, and maybe they really do have the same blood running in them in some weird, fucked up way. (there's the looming regret when she realizes she's trying to force someone who isn't beth into beth's place in her life, too, but at least with 2B it feels a good deal more natural.) and then there's the incredulity that explodes out of her in a laugh.]

You're three years old? [she had never really had a good idea of timelines, which was one of a few things that the way she had merged with A2 had failed her.] No way. So... is that just you, or is that the entire B-series? Because I was, like, certain that all of A2's stuff happened, like, decades before you came into it.

But it was three years. [she sounds amazed.] Wow. Okay, that... that makes a lot of it make a lot more sense.

[ something something insert yorha history and timeline information here because i am on mobile and yoko taro is hardly condensed with his story telling smh. although 2B doesn’t know more than she had learned at the time she met A2— a lot of her true information was redacted. she only followed the order to terminate on site.

which wasn’t a good call, but the more we learn. ]

There’s something else I want you to know.

[yeah well apparently there's gonna be even more YoRHa timeline garbage in the anime that we're both gonna have to watch once it comes out anyway. anna is not the only one who doesn't know shit about the YoRHa timeline. but she is the one who's listening intently here, and when she hears that there's more, she nods readily.]

Yeah? Go for it.

[ you could tell 2B is trying to hide how tight her lips are from trying not to smile so much when she dips her head and shadows behind her hair. it’s too bad for her— it’s still palpable in her voice. ]

I won’t be stationing in Prufrock for much longer. [ after kaine helped her out with her memory monster problem, it’s been hard to go back, made her realize something, and today . . . May have solidified it further. ] I want to be somewhere closer. To you and Kainé.

Really?

[anna doesn't seem totally surprised, but the expression on her face feels vulnerable anyway in how genuine it is. she feels younger, hearing that. hearing that her sister wants to live closer to her. everyone she loves coming closer together.]

We're in Cellar Door, and... I mean, yeah, there's always places to move in around here. The music doesn't get too loud at night, and it's a really nice neighborhood. [she keeps her smile on her face.] We have some lunar tears growing outside our house if you haven't had the chance to see them yet. And... yeah. Yeah, please, move into the neighborhood. I'll help you find a place if you need one, and you know we'd love to have you around.

[ this may be the first time she’s doing something for herself. the first time she chooses and has the ability to choose. she’s choosing her clothes. where she wants to rest, who she wants to be with. duty was not the only thing that defined her, and it did not make her. it was only a fraction of too much she hadn’t explored. ]

Alright.

[ there is also one thing that she may deliver to anna at some point throughout their house hunting: i want a tree.

let’s not question it. ]

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think this may be a good wrap! (so I may attack musical lesbians)