wasn’t too sure on multiple songs and i wracked my brain but couldn’t think of more, so for the final chapter, just one song :D there's also a pretty long author's note at the end, but would be great if u guys could read it! 

hei/jinqiong: noble aim (sleeping at last) 

o55

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Jinqiong woke up far earlier than usual. Jongdae had fallen asleep next to her and remained, surprisingly, sound asleep despite her movements when she got up.

She changed into clean clothing in the dark and then crept up to the mess hall to wait for Hei, aware that she was up an hour before the sun. They’d agreed for after breakfast, so Jinqiong figured she was clearly not sane.

To her surprise, Hei was also much earlier than she expected. The door of the mess hall swung open a couple minutes after she saw the sun start rising, and Hei poked a head inside. Her eyes widened when she saw Jinqiong.

“You’re early,” she noted, still hidden behind the door.

Jinqiong raised an eyebrow at her. “You’re not?”

She got a sheepish smile in return. “Well…”

She looked nervous. Hei had never been great at hiding her emotions, and Jinqiong had been able to read her like a book since the first day. Now, it felt even simpler. Still, just because Jinqiong could act like she was something she wasn’t didn’t mean she felt the same way inside, because the truth was that Jinqiong also felt ridiculously nervous.

“Do you want to eat now, or get breakfast in Hua?” Jinqiong asked.

“Hua? There’s nothing that good left in the storage anyway. I think Kyungsoo cleared it of everything remotely edible last night.”

“Alright.” Jinqiong stretched. “Let’s go, then.”

She noticed two things when she approached her sister. First of all, Hei wasn’t wearing a dress, which was new—rather, dark brown trousers and a lighter blouse, both clearly designed for someone of her build. Second of all, she was strangely fidgety, which was also unusual for her. She wasn’t the sort to express nervous energy through her movements unless she was really antsy.

“New outfit?” Jinqiong asked.

Hei glanced down at herself and let out a shaky attempt at a laugh. “Baekhyun’s pick?”

“At least we kind of match now, even though most of my clothes don’t fit.”

She saw Hei relax a bit, a more genuine smiling crossing her face. It didn’t exactly help with Jinqiong’s own nerves because she still felt absurdly apprehensive about the whole day. Baekhyun had given her enough coins to cover all the expenses they would need, along with the petition to make sure Hei didn’t strain herself. There were really no concerns, so why did going to Hua with Hei feel like it was more daunting than Hell’s Gate?

By the time they had stepped onto land and were making their way down a small dirt path towards the city, the sun was beginning to climb up from the horizon. Hei stopped walking to watch, eyes bright, and Jinqiong found herself looking at her sister instead.

Hong Chul’s gala felt like it had been a lifetime ago. Granted, Jinqiong didn’t remember much because she’d drunk her own weight in alcohol, but she had memories of Hei from when she’d been partially sober. It had been far too easy to tell how suspicious Hei had been back then. Jinqiong could remember thinking that nobody said their name—Cha Hyesun, apparently—with that degree of uncertainty, meaning that it was very clearly fake. Still, she’d been endearing enough for Jinqiong to overlook the lie. She also hadn’t frankly cared enough about whether Cha Hyesun was there on an official invite or because of other shady business.

Now, Jinqiong had a hard time reconciling her impression of Hei at the gala and the girl beside her. Maybe it was because Hei seemed much more confident now—still quiet, but more certain. Maybe it was because of herself; six months ago, she would’ve scoffed at the idea of whatever they were doing today. Maybe it was because the words sister and family had grown their roots much deeper than she ever dared think they could.

A couple minutes later, they started down the path again.

“What do you want to eat?” Jinqiong asked after a couple moments of silence. “I heard from Jongdae that Hua has really good cold noodles.”

“Cold noodles for lunch?” Hei suggested. “It’ll be hotter by noon anyway so that’ll be refreshing.”

“Wontons for breakfast, then?”

Hei’s eyes lit up. “Sounds good.”

Half an hour later, the sky had turned from indigo to red to orange and finally to blue, and they’d reached the outskirts of Hua.

Jinqiong wasn’t sure what she felt, being back in her hometown. She knew Hei mentioned coming back twice, but since Hong Chul’s gala, Jinqiong had made sure to steer clear of Hua. The city made her angry; it reminded her of the Song family’s stupid rules, of the boy and his friends who’d beat her to an inch of her life as if she asked for her family’s twisted approval of her power, of the lashes and scars from training. Of feeling unwanted and used and disposable. She wondered how Hei felt, given that she’d been viciously put down by their family for her entire life.

“Look.” Jinqiong snapped from her thoughts as Hei tugged on her arm, pointing to her right. “That’s so pretty.”

It took her a moment to realize what Hei was talking about. A bloom of flowers, assorted with different colours, waved in the wind at the side of the road.

“City of flowers,” Jinqiong noted. “I always forget that Hua's known for that.”

“It’s more obvious in the outer city, I think,” Hei replied. “Or I assume so. There weren’t that many flowers that I could remember in the inner city, but I never went far from my house, so I’m not sure.”

Jinqiong watched her expression carefully. She didn’t seem particularly upset talking about the past. “There weren’t that many,” she reaffirmed. “Not as much as the outer city, at least.”

Hei paused contemplatively. Then, “Do you miss Hua?”

Jinqiong did a double take at the question. “Me?”

She got a slightly teasing smile in return, the rare sort, especially coming from Hei. “There’s no one around but us, Jinqiong.”

“There really isn’t anything to miss about Hua for me. Do you?”

“Not really,” Hei admitted. “But being in the outer city made me feel… well, I don’t know if nostalgic is the right word, but it was weird because Hua was my home for so long, yet nearly the whole city was completely foreign to me. Every time I came back, I couldn’t help but want to get to know the city a bit more, on my own terms. With people that I cared about.”

“You said Baekhyun proposed in Hua?”

She didn’t miss the smile that crossed Hei’s face. “Yeah. Why, do you want Jongdae to?”

Jinqiong bristled on instinct. “No!”

“Vasileia, then? Since you met there.”

Jinqiong glared at Hei, very much thankful that her sister couldn’t tell lies from truth as easily as Jongdae could. “Who told you I even wanted him to propose?”

Hei shrugged, still smiling. By the time they had reached the city, the mood had turned much lighter and they’d struck up a conversation about the crew’s first trip to Hell’s Gate. Hei had taken to not-so-subtly focusing on Jongdae, and Jinqiong decided to pretend she didn’t notice lest she be called out for noticing if she mentioned it.

The street stalls appeared, housing becoming much more condensed when Jinqiong remembered something. She tugged out the flask from her bag, unscrewed the lid, and handed it to Hei. “Luhan’s potion,” she reminded her. “He said you’d know how it works since you and Baekhyun have used it before? Supposed to make our features look vague to anyone who hasn’t drunk the potion.”

“Right,” Hei said, taking it from her. “Would they recognize you? Do they have posters up for you in Hua?”

Jinqiong shrugged. “Haven’t been. For you?”

“Last time I checked, yes, but that was over half a year ago. They’re probably looking for you, though. You were one of the Song family’s best.”

“I doubt it,” Jinqiong replied drily, accepting the flask back from Hei and taking a swig. “We all disappeared for a long time because of Hell’s Gate, so they probably forgot I even existed.”

“Don’t think they could forgot even if they wanted to,” Hei said, but they started walking again and there was so much more to look at that Jinqiong momentarily forgot about the topic.

Hei was right about a couple of things. Firstly, the outer city really was colourful, and that was probably solely attributed to the flowers. They were everywhere; in pots hanging from roofs, in small patches grown wherever possible, in boxes resting on windowsills. Secondly, there were posters of her. For Hei and Baekhyun as well, and further off, she spotted one of Luhan. Jinqiong found herself wondering briefly whether Ezentia had any of Jongdae.

There also happened to be quite a few posters up in the small store they decided to eat breakfast at. Hei and Jinqiong sat in the corner, where directly above Hei’s head was a portrait of Jinqiong, the words wanted scribbled across the bottom. It was almost ridiculous how well Luhan’s potion worked, because the restaurant owner had sat the two of them down without the slightest inkling that she was the exact person on the poster.

Hei, clearly hungry, ate much faster than Jinqiong. Despite the speed she ate breakfast at, she refused to talk with full, which was rather amusing because she had to chew and swallow before answering Jinqiong’s occasional questions.

“It actually looks like you,” Hei finally said, stirring a chopstick in what remained of her wonton soup. “Most of the time it’s barely recognizable, but I guess it makes sense since you’ve been with the Song family for so long.”

Her family had gotten everything else relatively accurate, but the charcoal rendition of her looked far too cheerful. “I don’t smile like that.”

Hei swivelled around to get another look. “You’re not smiling too much.”

“I’m pretty sure I never smiled back home, so I’m still struggling to wrap my head around why they decided to draw me like that. Aren’t they ruining the whole purpose of finding me if they make me look like something I’m not?”

Hei let out a laugh. “True. Now, as long as you don’t smile, no one will even begin to suspect you’re Song Jinqiong.”

She opened to reply, but at the moment, the restaurant owner came by to inquire whether they liked their meal and if they needed anything else and the conversation was abruptly cut short. They both ended up drinking warm soy milk before Jinqiong paid for breakfast and they left the store.

It didn’t even truly hit Jinqiong fully that she was back in Hua until she and Hei were making their way up the sloping path towards the central marketplace. Even then, the fact seemed oddly surreal. Maybe it was because of the outer city; away from the walls and coldness, Hua was the opposite: colourful, warm, bustling in a way that seemed full of life. Maybe the gap in differences was so wide that her mind hadn’t reconciled the city she grew up in to the clearly different one they were walking through. Or maybe it was Hei’s wide-eyed enthusiasm, the way she stopped to admire flowers, the way she always included Jinqiong when she wanted to point out something interesting.

Little sister. The only siblings she’d known back at Hua had looked at her with indifference or jealousy. Not awe. Not excitement. Jinqiong herself had felt similarly; they were, at best, strangers. At worst, threats. Now, the girl beside her was so utterly different from the definition of sister Jinqiong had carried for her entire life.

And as they walked down the path with no concrete destination in mind, Jinqiong thought that perhaps Hua didn’t have to be a place she dreaded and missed and hated and loved all at once. Perhaps it could be something new altogether, like the notion of family could be. And for once, the thought didn’t upset her as much as she was afraid it would.

***

Jinqiong was surprisingly attentive.

Hei knew it shouldn’t have been anything shocking, because Jinqiong often noticed the smallest details most people would’ve missed. She’d quite literally trained for such things. But she wasn’t expecting the constant suggestions to rest, or her sister silently handing her water, or the way Jinqiong let her walk near the side of the road, so she wasn’t bumping into anyone on the busier streets. And only Jinqiong could make it all seem like nothing at all. 

For a good part of the day, they threaded through the streets of Hua with no apparent destination in mind. It was similar to what she and Baekhyun had done months ago, except both of them were quiet and there were long spans of time where it was just comfortable silence as Hei took in her surroundings.

There was also the fact that Hei was pretty certain Jinqiong had something to say to her—something that she hadn’t had the chance to almost two weeks ago in front of her cabin, and something her sister had been avoiding since then. But bringing that up when things felt so lighthearted seemed wrong, so, in a quite frankly astonishing display of self-control, Hei refrained from asking about it.

By midday, they had found a small corner store that was advertising apparently authentic cold noodles. “I don’t know what authentic is supposed to taste like,” Hei admitted. “I’ve never had them before.”

“I don’t think either of us have,” Jinqiong replied drily. “There’s a decent amount of people inside, though, so I would assume that means this shop is good?”

Hei was too hungry to care either way. They were soon seated and given a menu, and Hei busied herself in looking at the list of dishes. In the end, they’d ordered one too many dishes and Hei was certain she never wanted to eat another bite by the time they finished.

The sun blazed overhead and Hei was very much thankful that Baekhyun had made her wear a thinner outfit. Too hot to stand under direct heat, they weaved in and out of stores to look at displays.

An hour must’ve passed after lunch when Jinqiong suddenly said, “Can we go somewhere?”

Hei blinked at her. Somewhere wasn’t specific, but the entire day had been pretty spontaneous, so even an ambiguous destination seemed pretty specific.

“Sure,” she replied slowly, trying to figure out if Jinqiong’s expression looked more serious than before. It was too hard to tell when it came to her. “Where?”

Jinqiong raised a hand to her face, squinting at the direct sunlight. “Somewhere.”

They kept to the shade as Jinqiong led her down the streets. Sometimes they would pause and Jinqiong would look around like she was orienting herself, then start walking again in an unknown direction. Hei could only follow.

It was around fifteen minutes later that Jinqiong reached her destination. It was a small square, less busier than a few they had gone by. There weren’t any street stalls, but one restaurant at the opposite end had set up tables outside, where a small group of people were eating. To Hei’s left, she could see a clocktower made of red bricks, ivy climbing up the sides. It rose a couple stories before sloping into a pointed roof, under which she could make out the dulling gleam of a giant bell.

Jinqiong headed straight towards it. The entryway was arched, with no actual doors. As they ducked under the shade once more, Hei saw a set of stairs leading up.

She paused at the first step. “What is this?” she asked Jinqiong.

“A clocktower,” Jinqiong supplied drily, already having mounted a few steps. She extended a hand. “Come on. It’s not actually too far of a climb.”

Hei took Jinqiong’s hand carefully. Her fingers and palms were calloused, grip steady, as she gave her a light tug up the stairs.

Jinqiong was right that it wasn’t too far of a climb, but Hei still felt tired by the time they reached the top. She was certain Jinqiong had purposefully gone slow, or she would’ve been much more out of breath. Jinqiong, looking as if the climb had been no harder than a stroll, stretched languidly when they reached the top. In the very center of the small room lay the bell, a faded gold that had its shine worn down by weather and time. Railings with peeling paint surrounded t