The Orville Fic: what it was that made you strong, and what it was that made you weak

[peppermintpuppet]

Title: what it was that made you strong, and what it was that made you weak
Fandom: The Orville
Relationship: Alara Kitan/Solana Kitan
Warnings: Incest
Word count: 523

The night before Alara left for Union Point, she kissed her own sister. A real, big cinematic kiss, Alara tearing her soul right out of her and handing it to Solana on pure impulse. There weren’t any consequences. She was leaving, she’d be fast-tracked through classes and placed on a ship before any of the other cadets would, she’d get away for good if it all went wrong. She didn’t think things could ever get worse; her family already hated that she wasn’t trying, that she was “giving up” on academics. She could act on the way she’s felt for years, slip out forever, and that, she thought, would be that.

It didn’t go well, of course. Solana took the soul Alara gave her and crushed it into little shards of sad. She didn’t expect anything else. Solana being her one haven from judgement in childhood only lasted long enough for Solana to get her Ph.D., and after that Solana was the shining pride of the family, the one always praised while Alara was left running behind the rest of the group, panting and gasping to catch up, conformity always just a little bit too far out of reach. Alara still can’t hate her for it, and now that she is home, Alara still can’t stop loving her.

She also still cannot conform, because normal people don’t love their siblings. She never thought it would end up like this: away from the Orville for good, stuck recovering from illness at home, her sister taking care of her dutifully before she returns to Jintann as if nothing even happened that night. She wonders if Solana even remembers it. The look on her face when she said of course I’m going to see my baby sister was so innocent, so full of joy.

Considering their last in-person interaction, she was way too pleased to see Alara. They did talk when she was in the Union, sometimes, but only about work--what Alara had seen in her exploratory ship and what Solana was discovering with her research and never anything personal. Their mother must have told Solana about Alara’s return as soon as she knew about it.

Solana came back for her. Solana’s long blonde hair is pushed out of her face by painted dark rose-colored fingernails, the emerald greens of her outfit bursting with a patterned mixture of brown and red, her beauty expanding over all of Xeleyah. When she was younger she used to exaggerate her lack of understanding so Solana would go into her room and sit down close next to her and help her with her homework. Now she is in her mid twenties and she is exaggerating the lengths of her gravity illness to feel Solana touch her as she guides Alara with care around the house. She loves Solana so, so much. She loves Solana so much that she hates her, and that’s the way it has always been, but now that she’s home the hate is beginning to convert itself back into love like a cell mechanism. Now it is almost all that remains. She’s sick. She’s sick.