In The Between

✧･Chapter 3 Im Claire

The smell of roasted vegetables and fresh bread hit me the moment I stepped into the house, and for a second, I froze.

Helena was moving around the kitchen, laughing quietly at something June said. I paused just long enough to take it in - the easy rhythm of their life, the way June's hand lingered on Helena's arm, the calm in Helena's posture that came from being exactly where she wanted to be.

I raised a hand, half in greeting, and Helena turned toward me. Her eyes widened for just a beat, and then that small, knowing smile tugged at her lips.

"Claire," she said softly, and it sounded like relief and disbelief wrapped up in one word.

"I'm here," I said, grinning.

Helena shook her head, laughing lightly. "You have no idea what you're walking into."

I smirked, slipping past her toward the dining area, letting my eyes roam.

The table was set perfectly, simple but thoughtful, with little place cards and fresh flowers.

And then I saw them - August, leaning against the wall with that same lazy grin I remembered, and little Faye, perched on a chair, her legs swinging like she owned the world.

God, little Faye. Her smile reached her eyes, brown and warm, framed by light, dirty-blonde hair that bounced with every swing. Freckles dotted her cheeks, subtle but perfect, and I could already tell she had June's energy and looks.

I let out a small laugh. "Well, I see the mini-Helena and mini-June situation is officially underway," I murmured to myself, shaking my head in disbelief.

"How the hell did you guys manage to clone copies of yourselves?" I then asked, turning to Helena, who only laughed, the sound warm and familiar.

"IVF, and an egg transplant for Lucia. Faye is all June," Helena explained, shrugging lightly. "I was okay with both of them being June's, but June really wanted one from me. There was no way I was going to carry, so I just had my eggs removed and we put them in June."

I raised my eyebrows. "Well, damn."

August shook his head, still leaning against the wall with that ever-present smirk. "Don't curse in front of my nieces," he warned playfully.

"No, 'Oh my God Claire, I missed you so much, welcome back!'" I said with a mocking tone, throwing my arms wide.

"Please," he said, walking over to hug me, "you know I've missed you."

When he pulled back, I heard a small voice.

"Who dat?"

I looked down to see Faye staring at me, wide-eyed and curious. Before I could even crouch, she bolted off the chair and ran straight into my legs, collapsing in a heap of giggles.

"She's going through her 'gotta run into everything' phase," August said, laughing as I bent down to scoop her up.

"This is your Aunty Claire," he added, and Faye's eyes sparkled as she clung to me.

"Cwaire?" she tried again, her little voice high and melodic.

I laughed, loud and unapologetic. "That's me, kiddo," I said, spinning her gently in my arms before setting her back down. Her laughter was contagious, and I felt some of the tension I'd carried all day dissolve in the warmth of it.

August closed his eyes, grinning. "God, you're hopeless," he muttered, shaking his head.

"And yet somehow, she adores me already," I replied, glancing at Faye who had now taken off across the room, hair bouncing, determined to test gravity on every piece of furniture. I shook my head again, laughing to myself. "Yep. Definitely too adorable for her own good."

I watched Faye dart across the room again like a tiny hurricane, narrowly missing the leg of the table before redirecting herself toward a pile of toys in the corner.

"You just... let her do that?" I asked, glancing at August.

He shrugged, completely unfazed. "Builds character. And reflexes."

"Or a concussion," I shot back.

"Eh, she's tough. Takes after me."

I snorted, crossing my arms as I leaned against the wall beside him. "That's concerning."

August bumped his shoulder lightly against mine. "You're one to talk. I remember a certain story of you, who thought jumping off the garage with an umbrella counted as a solid life plan."

"It worked, didn't it?" I said, lifting a brow.

"Helena said you sprained your wrist."

"Details." I said, rolling my eyes.

He shook his head, but he was smiling, a real smile. Not the tight, polite version I used to get, but something easy.

I studied him for a second, tilting my head. "You know... I'm glad you're not so uptight anymore."

His eyes narrowed slightly, though there was no real bite behind it. "I was never uptight."

I let out a laugh. "Oh, please. You hated Helena."

"I did not hate her," he said immediately, a little too quickly.

"You absolutely did," I pushed, grinning now. "You thought she wasn't good enough for your baby sister. You used to glare at her like you were plotting something."

"I was evaluating her," he corrected.

"Evaluating," I repeated, dragging the word out. "Right. Because that's totally normal behavior."

He exhaled through his nose, shaking his head like I was exhausting. "June deserved the best. I was making sure she got it."

"And?" I asked, glancing toward the kitchen where Helena and June were still moving around each other like second nature.

August followed my gaze, his expression softening almost immediately.

"And," he admitted, "I was wrong."

I hummed, nudging his arm. "Wow. I should write this down. August admitting he was wrong? Historic moment."

"Don't get used to it," he shot back, though there was no edge to it.

I smiled a little, quieter now. "They're good together."

"Yeah," he said simply. "They really are."

There was a brief pause, not awkward - just... full. The kind that came with history, with years of knowing each other in different versions of life. Then August glanced at me again, his expression shifting just slightly, something more observant creeping in.

"You good?" he asked.

I blinked, caught off guard for half a second before I shrugged it off. "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

He held my gaze a beat longer than necessary, like he was trying to read something I wasn't about to give him.

"Just checking," he said finally.

I huffed out a small laugh, pushing off the wall. "What, I leave for a few years and suddenly you care about my emotional well-being?"

"Don't flatter yourself," he said easily. "I just don't want you bringing chaos into my nieces' lives."

I grinned. "Too late. I'm already their favorite."

"Faye met you, again, thirty seconds ago."

"And?" I gestured toward her, where she was now attempting to stack something twice her size. "You saw that connection. Instant."

August shook his head again, but I caught the faint smile he tried to hide.

"Yeah," he muttered, "we're all in trouble."

Before I could say anything else, the front door swung open with a loud thud against the wall.

"I'm home, and I brought the gremlin back in one piece, barely, but we're here!"

I didn't even have to turn around to know who it was. I grinned instantly, already moving. "Lucas!"

"Claire!"

We said it at the same time, and then he was there - arms wrapping around me in a tight, bone-crushing hug that knocked the air out of my lungs.

"Jesus, you're still built like a damn truck," I coughed against his shoulder.

"And you're still dramatic," he shot back, not letting go for a second longer than necessary before finally pulling away to look at me. "You're actually here."

"I'm actually here," I echoed, smiling in a way that felt a little too real. He shook his head like he still didn't believe it, then immediately flicked my forehead. Hard.

"Ow! What the hell was that for?" I snapped, smacking his arm.

"That's for disappearing," he said easily.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, please. You act like I died."

"You might as well have," he shrugged. "Do you know how boring it's been around here without me having someone to bully?"

"Excuse you, you bully me?" I scoffed. "That's insane."

"Ask anyone in this house," he said, gesturing around like he had witnesses lined up. "They'll back me up."

"Yeah, okay," I muttered, shoving past him lightly. "You're delusional."

Behind him, Lucia stepped inside a little slower, hovering near the door like she wasn't fully committing to being here yet. Her eyes flicked to me briefly before dropping away, her shoulders slightly hunched in that quiet, guarded way I'd already noticed earlier.

My expression softened just a little.

"Hey, kiddo," I said, gentler now.

She glanced up at me again, hesitant, like she was trying to decide if I was safe or not. Then she gave a small, almost imperceptible nod before moving past us toward the living room, drawn in by the sound of Faye's chaotic energy.

"Still wary," Lucas murmured under his breath, watching her go.

"Yeah," I said quietly. "But she came over."

"That's basically a win," he replied.

I hummed, then immediately turned back to him, narrowing my eyes. "Wait - did you just call your own niece a gremlin?"

"She is a gremlin," he said without hesitation. "You didn't see her at practice. She tried to fight a kid twice her size because he wouldn't let her bat first."

I blinked. "I love her."

"I knew you would," he sighed. "You're a bad influence already."

"Already?" I repeated. "Lucas, I've been back for, what, half a day? Give me some credit - I haven't even peaked yet."

He groaned, dragging a hand down his face. "God, we're all screwed."

I grinned, bumping my shoulder into his. "You missed me."

"Don't flatter yourself," he said automatically.

"You tackled me through the door."

"That was a controlled greeting."

I snorted. "You're an idiot."

"Yeah," he said, smirking, "but I'm your favorite idiot."

I opened my mouth to argue - and then paused.

"...Okay, yeah. That's fair."

"Thank you," he said, nodding like he'd just won something.

From the living room, Faye's laughter rang out again, followed by Lucia's quieter voice, and for a second, everything felt loud and full and alive all at once.

Lucas glanced over toward the sound, then back at me. "They're gonna love having you around, you know."

Something in my chest tightened, just slightly.

"Yeah," I said, softer this time. "Yeah, I hope so."

Before he could respond, a knock echoed through the house. Sharp and sudden.

Everything seemed to pause for just a second, just enough to be noticed, not enough to mean anything yet.

Lucas raised his eyebrows, still laughing lightly. "You expecting anyone else?"

From the kitchen, Helena called out, "That should be-"

The door swung open easily, like it always did, like this was just another normal night.

I turned without thinking, still half caught in the warmth of laughter, and I froze.

It didn't feel real at first. My brain lagged behind my eyes, like it couldn't quite process what it was looking at - like if it waited a second longer, she might disappear, dissolve into something safer. Something imagined.

But she didn't.

Mae stood in the doorway, framed by the soft evening light from outside, and somehow she looked exactly the same and completely different all at once.

Her hair was longer, falling a little looser around her shoulders, darker at the roots.

She looked... older, maybe. Not in a bad way - just in a way that said time had moved on without me.

And still, she knocked the air clean out of my lungs.

Four years.

Four years of distance, of silence, of pretending I'd let it go, and it didn't matter. Four years of telling myself that whatever had been there had been small, fleeting, forgettable.

That I had imagined it. And yet, standing there, looking at her, none of that held up.

It hit all at once, sharp and overwhelming.

The memory of quiet mornings in that small coffee shop, tucked into the corner like it belonged to us.

The way she used to sit across from me, fingers curled around a warm mug, talking about everything and nothing for hours like time didn't exist. The way I'd learned her expressions, the subtle shifts in her voice, the way she'd look at me when she forgot to guard herself.

The way she had looked at me that night.

My chest tightened so suddenly it almost hurt. Mae looked up then, and her eyes found mine.

And there it was.

That same pull. That same impossible, magnetic thing that made it feel like the rest of the room didn't exist. Like it was just... us.

For a split second, I thought she felt it too. There was something in her expression, something that flickered across her face like surprise, maybe, or recognition, or something deeper that I couldn't quite name.

But it didn't settle, it didn't stay.

Her brows pulled together slightly, her lips parting like she was trying to place me, trying to reach for something just out of grasp.

And just like that, I knew. Or at least, I knew enough.

The air shifted as someone stepped in behind her, and my attention dragged, unwilling, to the man at her side. He moved easily, naturally, his hand brushing against her back in a way that was practiced, familiar. Intimate without trying.

A year, Helena had said. Of course he would've been here with her.

Something in my chest twisted, sharp and immediate, but I swallowed it down before it could reach the surface. I forced my shoulders to stay loose, my expression neutral, like I wasn't standing here trying to hold myself together piece by piece.

Helena's voice carried from the kitchen, warm and welcoming, filling the space like nothing had changed. Like everything was normal.

But it wasn't, not for me.

I exhaled slowly, grounding myself, and stepped forward before I could overthink it, before I could do something stupid like freeze or leave or let any of this show on my face.

"Hey," I said, my voice steady, easy and controlled.

Mae's gaze stayed on me, still searching, still unsure, and that hurt more than anything else, but I didn't let it show.

Instead, I shifted my attention slightly, turning toward the man beside her, and offered my hand with a polite, effortless smile - the kind I'd perfected over years of being exactly who people expected me to be.

"You must be the boyfriend," I said lightly, like it didn't matter, like it didn't feel like something was quietly unraveling inside me. "I'm Claire."

He took my hand without hesitation, his grip firm, his expression open and friendly.

"Hey," he said, glancing briefly at Mae before looking back at me. "I'm-"

He said his name, but it barely registered, because then he smiled, just a little wider.

"Oh- wait," he added, something clicking. "You're that Claire!"

Something cold slid down my spine and I kept my smile in place.

"Am I?" I asked, just enough humor in my voice to keep it casual.

"Mae's mentioned you," he said easily. "Not a ton, but, yeah. I've heard a bit. It's nice to finally meet you."

Finally.

The word echoed in my head, heavy and hollow.

I nodded, like that didn't feel like a punch straight to the chest. "Well," I said, my voice still smooth, still steady. "Here I am."

Beside him, Mae was still looking at me.

Is it too late to run away?