[i]The brush of Hazel's hand felt like velvet on her skin. Cold tingles buzzed on her palm, out to her fingertips, and then they warmed. And warmed. The warmth spreading up her arms and through her shoulders and into her chest, her lungs, her heart. It felt like she'd been holding her breath all along until just now. It felt like she had been looking at the world in black and white until suddenly someone turned the lights on and she got to see real colors for the first time. 

Yuki does nothing but breathe. All the anger that had been burning in her heart dissolves away in the spreading starlight, nothing but a distant memory faded to dust. What was a star dragon or a deceptive plant girl, or any of the challenges and annoyances from aches and pains and bruises in the face of pure starlight?

She should be joyous! She hadn't felt like this since she'd left Thellamie. 

She saw herself as she had been: young but already as tall as she was going to get, far too thin and gangly for a frame that was tall for a middle schooler but short for an adult and without any of the muscles she would build into it. She saw those thin arms as they pulled her sword triumphantly, freed from her chains by a foxgirl double betrayal. She saw them as she pressed down, ears alert, tail offering balance and stabbed Azaza with her sacred blade. She felt all the starlight within her crow in triumph and rush to seal Azaza within the mirrors. A star's power within a star. Fantastical celebrations and then a departure in fading golden light. She had been so happy, so relieved, so overwhelmed that she hadn't started crying until the third day home. 

She sat alone that night and looked at the night sky through her room's window where Orion's belt was shining brightly. She saw those three little stars twinkle, but she couldn't feel them or hear them and she just felt cold. She cried, too afraid to message anyone about it, and put her head on her pillow until she fell asleep, tears still on her cheeks.[/i]

She awoke from the dream to a sudden wide pressure on her chest. Tears sparkled on her eyelashes. The same tears that had flowed back then, and that had flowed again when Hazel touched her with starlight. Not hers. Never again. 

She doesn't look at Aadya, doesn't show her those tears. "yes Pasenne, it's fine!" She yawns and she makes a great motion of wiping her face with her sleeve, brushing the sleep and the tears out of her eyes, checking her tablet next to her while pretending that the woman on top of her does not exist. This was going to be a tease, but her eyes widen when she reads the tablet.

>[.snowkitten]
>@eclairespoirviolet
>sounds great, I'll look for you at the ball, if not earlier while I help with an investigation 

Then, and only then does she actually look at Aadya. "You made it Aady! A jog sounds great, let's go. Tell me all about Eclair!" 

She smiles, all sunshine and morning energy. She liked racing Aadya and it was a wonderful chance to make up for not getting to spend any time with her in Crevas. She believed Eclair, so she just needed to figure out where all this confusion was coming from. And Eclair said that Aadya had an alibi for her, so this would be a great start!