Every second Friday, Aria didn’t go straight home from work. She instead headed to the nearest pet store, where she typically picked out treats or toys for her beloved pit bull. She did this with a type of happiness usually reserved for comics and her wife. Aria loved her dog, so much so that she and everyone else had forgotten that he was technically Adagio’s.

Achilles’ original owner knew better than to stand between the dog and Aria. It didn’t bother Adagio much to relinquish control of the pet to Aria. She never was much for pets, but Aria was a natural pet owner. Aria could get very protective of Achilles, often yelling at people who petted him in places he didn’t like and cuddling up with him as if her own child.

This second Friday was a little different. This second Friday was also the day that Aria first got Achilles, eight years ago. To celebrate, Aria picked up a nice bag of treats, a new toy, and a collar that was as deceptively ferocious as the dog himself. As Aria was loading her cargo onto her bike, her phone rang. She answered it and put it to her ear.

“Hey, babe,” said Aria. “What’s up?”

“Um… Aria?” Sonata sounded very concerned. “I don’t want you to panic, but…”

“If this is about the piece I had up on the computer, don’t worry about it. It was just a practice doodle.”

“No, it’s not that. It’s… Well, it’s Achilles…” Aria went from carefree and even happy to downright anxious in seconds.

“What about him?” she asked, voice shaky. It took Sonata a few seconds to really put everything together.

“I think he’s sick,” answered Sonata, trying to play it delicately. “Really sick. Like, I think we should take him to the vet tomorrow.” Aria growled in frustration.

“To hell with that. Fluttershy will be there in five minutes, and I’m right behind her,” said Aria. She hung up and dialed Fluttershy’s number, talking almost before she picked up. “Yo, Fluttershy, stop whatever it is you’re doing. You have five minutes to get to my place, I’m right behind you.”

“Oh, um… O-okay?” Fluttershy, luckily, wasn’t particularly busy at the moment, but she was still concerned by her friend’s tone of voice. “Is everything-”

“Now, please,” said Aria. She hung up, hopped on her bike, and tore down the street.

He was fine. Aria was positive that Achilles must be fine. There was no need for her to be so worried. The dog was fine, she knew it.

Aria watched with tears in her eyes as Fluttershy poked and prodded at a mostly unmoving Achilles, who lay on Aria’s bed sickly. Fluttershy had remained silent since she entered the apartment, slipping into focus almost immediately. Sonata returned halfway through the examination with a glass of water for her wife, who silently and gratefully accepted the cup.

“I think I’ve seen enough,” said Fluttershy. “Aria, I’m not actually a veterinarian just yet, so you may want to get a second or even a third opinion.”

“But?”

“But… I think Achilles might be…” Fluttershy hated to be the one to say it to Aria. She clearly loved her dog, and this wasn’t easy for any pet owner. “I think Achilles might be… On his last legs.”

Something inside of Aria’s heart broke. She was swept with the fierce desire to throw up, which slowly condensed down into anger. Sonata gently grabbed her arm, only to be shaken off.

“Ari…” said Sonata softly. “Are you okay?”

“He lived a good, long life,” said Fluttershy gently. “You took good care of him.”

“I’m fine,” said Aria, her expression like stone. “I don’t need your pity or your pandering. Just give me my dog so I can take him in.”

“Er… I can make you an appointment with the clinic I intern at,” said Fluttershy. “They should be able to squeeze you in tomorrow morning.”

“I’m going for a ride, then,” said Aria. She grabbed her jacket and keys from the bed and walked out of the room. Sonata winced slightly as Aria slammed the door shut.

“Do you think we should go after her?” asked Fluttershy. Sonata shook her head decisively.

“When Ari gets worked up, she goes for a ride,” she explained. “There are two kinds. The kind where she wants to be left alone and the kind where she ends up at the comic shop. This is the first kind.”

“Will she be okay?” This time, it took Sonata a bit longer to respond.

“Whenever something bad like this happens, Aria loses a little bit of faith in being good,” said Sonata. “She’s done everything right to be a good person, and this awful thing happened anyway. She’s feeling alone and betrayed and very angry, mostly at herself. But, if we give her some space, I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Fluttershy rubbed Achilles’ stomach gently, soothingly, all the while blown away by Sonata’s insight. That girl was deceptively attentive and understanding.

“I get feeling alone,” sighed Fluttershy. “But why angry or betrayed?” Sonata sat down next to Fluttershy, trying to properly articulate the complicated, delicate situation that was Aria’s emotional state.

“Okay, look. There are still some things she won’t say to me, so I have to make some guesses here and there,” said Sonata. “But, from what I can tell, she lost someone very dear to her heart a long time ago. That’s why it took her so long to form any type of relationship that wasn’t immediately necessary. I think she hated herself for getting attached to something that she knew wouldn’t last as long as we would. As for betrayal, Aria has some pretty intense abandonment issues. If I were to guess, she resents Achilles for leaving her. When she thinks about how crazy that is of her, that just piles on top of the self-loathing.”

“I see… That’s a tough position…” said Fluttershy. Sonata nodded in agreement.

“I just wish there was a way to remind her that she’s not alone.” Sonata chewed her fingernail nervously. “She’s so gosh darn stubborn sometimes. I wish I could get through that thick skull of hers.”

“You sound angry.”

“Scared, concerned. Probably a little peeved, too, yeah. But not at her. I feel like I’m letting her down. I hate it.”

Sonata and Fluttershy kept on talking, unaware that Aria had yet to leave. She sat outside of the bedroom door, listening intently to the two speak. She gripped her keys tightly, angrily, then stomped away. She ran outside to her bike and took off, going wherever the road would take her. Aria was done with feeling for right now. She just wanted to go away until everything stopped hurting.

Sonata knocked on her bedroom door gently, waiting for some sort of response from Aria. When she got none, she let herself in anyway, crossed the room, and took a seat next to the slightly trembling mess that her wife had devolved into. Aria didn’t say anything, for fear of breaking down into a proper fit of tears. Sonata hugged Aria tightly, letting her wife melt in her arms.

“It’s for the best,” Sonata said softly. “He was in so much pain.”

“I know…”

“It was the humane thing to do.”

“I know…” All of this knowing didn’t make anything easier for Aria, and Sonata knew it. Still, there was nothing to be done for it.

“He lived nice and long,” Sonata reminded her. Aria opened her mouth, no doubt to confirm that she knew, but nothing came out. Not at first. Then, after a second or so, she felt her resolve break, and Aria Blaze broke into tears. She buried her face into Sonata’s chest, sobbing as she did.

“It’s okay, babe,” promised Sonata. “Let it out, okay? Just let it all loose.”

“I l-loved that dog,” sobbed Aria.

“I know.” Now it was Sonata’s turn. “I know, honey, but it’ll be okay. Time will pass and it won’t hurt so much.”

“I miss my d-d-dog, Sony.”

“And he misses you,” said Sonata with a nod. “But you’re a big enough girl to understand that sometimes, bad stuff happens. We can’t just shrivel up and die with our loved ones. We have to live on in their memory. You’ll get better. If not for yourself, or for me, then for him.” Aria trembled in Sonata’s arms, feeling whatever remained of her heart leak from her body. As far as Aria was concerned, her life was now over.

But, if it was, at least there was someone there beside her.

“I’m sorry…” sniffled Aria. “I’m being a baby, I’m sorry. I just-”

“Shh… It’s ok,” promised Sonata. “It’ll be okay.”

And it was. Not for a while, not for a long while, but things did get better. It took weeks, and even then things didn’t immediately return to normal. Aria was bit unstable, emotionally, for a while. During that time, she cried more than she ever did before. But, slowly, Aria put herself back together. She returned to her tough, unchippable shield of a personality, holding the memories of her beloved dog close to her chest.

At some point, she thanked Sonata for being there for her. Sonata, of course, didn’t mind in the slightest, but she did ask Aria to promise her something. She made Aria promise to share everything that happened before and everything that will happen in the future. And so, Aria told her wife about her history with loss. The few she had loved before who had faded away before Aria could speak her mind. The only ones who were by her side on the rare instances in which her fellow Sirens were not. They were heartbreaking memories.

Aria felt much better when she was sharing them with someone else.