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Your name is Yang, and you have never touched another person. Except that's not true. You shouldn't ever touch another person, not unless you want to know how your futures intertwine. But you have. This fact of life was always just far too fascinating to you, and you were always a mischievous child.
Of course everyone touches their birth parents anyway, but no one remembers that, you’re always far too young to fully comprehend those vision, those feelings. It's not until you’re in the midst of puberty that the visions become tangible.
You remember the first time you truly touched someone - it was so different to all the other times before. You were around ten years old- no, exactly ten years old. It was your birthday and you were messing around in the garden with your friends. You were playing games and generally just being a kid, frolicking in the mud. It was a moment you remember strongly, intensely. You just wanted to feel the grass under your hands, so you took off your gloves - they were too thick, not like the fancy ones that were essentially a second skin; providing tactile feedback through the thin mesh that blocked skin to skin contact. It was a rare moment you felt peaceful and calm as a child.
Seeing you lying on the ground away from your friends, your sister, Ruby, came over. She was just about younger than you and was equally as mischievous in her own way.
“Yang, get up, come play with me,” your sister whined - she didn't much get on with your friends. You complied, seeing as you were now in double digits, you’d figure you had better be at least a little responsible for your younger sister. She’d recently garnered an interest in hunters of Grimm, having learnt more about your family, so you figured a little play fight might be suitable.
“Alright Ruby, come on, pretend like you're a huntress and I'm an ursa!”
She lept at you just as you were getting up off the ground and you turned to shield the blow. With her clothed arms around your neck and legs twining around your torso you lifted the two of you off the ground with a mighty roar! Not wanting her to fall, you moved to hold her legs in place-
you weren't wearing your gloves.
time slowed. dilated. you had never felt anything like this before. it had never been so… vivid.
your whole life with Ruby flashed before your eyes, impossibly slow yet in the blink of an eye. school, playing, exploring, training, fighting, dying, dying, dying. again and again you saw the forks of fate spell out the death of people you knew and people you had still yet to meet.
sometimes you watched her die.
more often than not, she watched you.
You dropped Ruby on the ground. And fell forwards. Sprawled on your hands and knees you searched frantically for your gloves. You put them on. Never again would you let the future burn your hands.