Her eyes kept flitting over to him as she drove. It was supposed to be a happy occasion, but if she was being honest, both of them were still in too much disbelief to accept it. The process of transferring him out of prison had also taken several hours, so even if there had been some relief there, the fatigue overrode it completely.
Tony had been pardoned.
Tonight, he was coming home, and he was staying home.
That was what she had to keep telling herself.
She caught a glimpse of their daemons in the backseat. Reina was snuggled up against Raijin, the same way she had been during their prison visits. The car was dark, but Michelle was still thinking about the scratches all over Reina, the patchiness of her fur, the fear she'd seen in her eyes. It had gotten progressively worse from the early days of being in prison. Neither she nor Tony had said anything about them. Michelle had to wonder whether all of them were from the other prisoner's daemons or if some were self-inflicted.
Michelle parked the car in the garage, and Tony still hadn't spoken.
"Hey," She said softly, causing him to turn towards her from the window. "We're home."
Tony nodded and got out of the car, opening the back door to let Reina and Raijin out. Reina immediately started to nip at Tony's ankles anxiously. She was probably still so used to keeping her guard up. Raijin came to her side as she went to unlock the door.
"I...I've never seen her like this." He said quietly. "I don't understand. I thought the two of them would be happy to be home."
Michelle shrugged, keeping her voice low. "Maybe they just need some time to process it."
The four of them came inside, and Michelle switched on the lights. As she started putting her bag away and doing what she usually did when she came home, she noticed that Tony stood completely still in their living room. It took her a moment to realise that every small change that might have been made to the decor of the house, few as they were, wouldn't help the two of them feel at home. Kate had taken care of the house while she was in Seattle. Even though she hadn't known how long she'd be working there, she hadn't been able to bring herself to sell the house, their home.
"Are you alright?" She asked.
"I'm fine," Tony replied, his voice wobbling slightly.
Before she could tell him that she didn't believe him, Reina suddenly bolted from her place beside his feet towards her and leapt into her arms. Michelle felt her shake and held her snugly towards her chest, carefully minding her scars. When she started to mewl, it almost sounded like she was crying, and Michelle kissed the top of her head.
Michelle looked up at Tony. "Come here," She said, feeling tears prick the back of her eyes.
Tony obliged, and she heard him sniffle as he wrapped his arms around her as tightly as he could without squishing Reina.
"You're home now, it's okay," Michelle said reassuringly. "You're here with us."
She saw Raijin nuzzle his leg and Tony reached down to pet him, causing her own sense of overwhelm to start to surface. They walked over to the couch, so Raijin could lie across his lap and lick his face. He purred quietly and Tony stroked his fur, tentatively at first, before letting his presence help remind him that he was home. Michelle joined him, still holding Reina, and rested her head against his shoulder. While their daemons may have had contact during their prison visits, she and Tony hadn't been able to do this in such a long time. When they couldn't find their words, couldn't figure out how to express themselves, their daemons always made it known to each other how they truly felt.
And at this moment, Michelle realised that she needed to pay attention to that now more than ever.
As Tony opened his eyes, the first thing he noticed was that he was short of breath. He coughed and spluttered, frantically trying to sit up as his final memories slowly returned to him. He'd gone to kill Henderson but hesitated, and then Henderson had gotten to him first. He remembered Jack lifting him off the floor, the pain in his eyes. He remembered everything feeling very warm and fuzzy. What Tony knew now was that that feeling was gone and replaced with aching pain in his entire body. He also knew that wherever he was, it was not the medical ward at CTU.
He tried to gauge his surroundings, but all he could tell was that he was in a dark, cold bedroom. A familiar tiger caught his eyes, causing his heart to leap into his chest.
How was this possible?
Michelle was dead. There had been gold dust all over her when he'd run out of the house. There was no doubt about it.
But Raijin was here.
"Where's?" he rasped. "Where's Michelle? Raijin, where are we?" Tony whipped his head around, trying to look for her, before realising that if they'd tried to kill the two of them, then they certainly wouldn't have a problem with holding them hostage and using whatever techniques they saw fit. "Are they trying to put distance between you two? Is that… is that why Reina isn't here?" It was strange. He certainly didn't feel a pull in his chest like he would have if Reina were too far from him.
"Relax, Tony." A man suddenly spoke. "Let me explain."
Tony turned to the source of the voice, finding a man sitting on a chair, holding a red fox in his lap. He hadn't noticed him on his initial survey of the room.
"What's..." He paused to take another deep breath, finding his chest very tight. "Where's my wife? What have you done with her?"
"I haven't done anything, Tony." He denied calmly.
He mustered whatever energy he had left to harden his voice, "I am not playing games. You tell me right now where the hell my-"
"Tony." A familiar female said. "Tony, I'm not Raijin."
Tony looked back at the tiger, shaking his head in disbelief. "Reina?"
She nodded. "I… I don't know what happened either. When Henderson hurt you, I felt us fade away. I thought we were dying. But then I woke up and..." Reina made a small circle, slightly clumsily, since she was adjusting to her much larger form. "Now I look like Raijin."
The more Tony watched her, the more he realised how right she was. She hadn't just changed form into any tiger; she'd turned into Raijin. Tony could see every precise pattern from Raijin's fur, the golden colour of his eyes, and even the subtle ways that Raijin moved were being captured here.
The man from before cleared his throat. "I think I know what's happened here."
Tony faced him again, still very wary of him even though he didn't seem to mean any harm.
"They say that when someone loses their soulmate, particularly if the nature of their death is very traumatic, that person's daemon may change forms to resemble them in an effort to preserve the memory of the other's soul. It doesn't always happen straight away. Most people who have reported such a thing have seen it happen usually after their soulmate's funeral."
He nodded, believing the man's words but feeling a pit grow in his stomach. Whatever small hope he'd had that he hadn't lost her was gone now, as was the hope that, at the very least, he'd be able to join her soon. Reina immediately sensed this disappointment and surge of grief because she ran over to the bed he was lying in and jumped onto it. Tony let out a muffled groan as she tried to sit on him.
"Sorry, I'm not used to not being lap-sized anymore." She said sheepishly.
Tony couldn't care less right now about the awkwardness and hugged her tightly to him. No matter how much Reina looked like Raijin, Tony could feel it just wasn't the same.
But he could pretend, he supposed.