A lone pale orange leaf swayed on a low-hanging branch, and she could tell it was fighting for it's right to stay connected to the tree. The wind was soft - barely a whisper - so she thought, the leaf may very well stand a chance. She noted how that singular branch had but that one leaf, and as she looked up she saw more leaves - vibrant and grouped together - and strong, but they didn't matter much. They didn't tell her story the same way this one had.
At one point, she was that pale orange, lonely leaf, swaying in the wind and just waiting for life to take her. She chuckled; a strange thought, and a mildly pathetic poetic one at that, but a truth nonetheless. Tiramisu had been born in Autumn, and while other foals were using the piles of leaves to play hide-and-seek, she would just use them to hide. Alone in this world, with a mother who hated her, and a father who vanished with the son, never to be heard from again. Her mother would chastise her for playing in the 'dirty nature' making her feel less than. But momma, she'd say, I wasn't playing, I was hiding, and her mother would chastise her about hiding. It was a never ending cycle. The older sibling - Bertie, as they now go by - would come home caked from ear to hoof in days worth of mud, and her mother would say, 'see, do you really want to end up like that? Absolutely disgusting, and Tira would think, well....yes. Bertie was free. Bertie didn't care.
Bertie would have faced the world head-on, dive deep into the madness and only come out when they could no longer breath. Tiramisu had always been jealous of that.
It wasn't like Bertie had left her with their mother; they did always come back - but Tiramisu felt completely alone whenever Bertie did run off. No one was there to be the buffer, no one was there to tell her she wasn't alone.
That had been years, ago, however. And like the seasons always changing, the relationships too had changed. Vanilla Swirl was no longer the evil shrill she had been when Tiramisu was growing up; they had since repaired whatever could be repaired, and Vanilla admitted she did indeed love her daughter. If the trees can come back to life every spring & the flowers bloom, she could forgive a few heartbreaks. It also had helped, she reflected, that Cas was in the picture, and like her, Cas had his own demons. They had helped each other realize that it was okay to struggle and be lost, because you were not the only one. You could file solace and comfort in the arms of someone who knew what you were going through. He called himself a monster, she called herself worthless, and together they had slashed those beasts.
It had taken them a while to open up to each other completely, but when they did - when she did - she felt herself overcome with an emotion that was completely foreign but she was not stupid. She knew what it was. Love. The kind of love that parents and siblings have for one another wasn't somethin she had experienced, but this love, with Cas, this was different, and she knew it. Real love. To have someone outside of your circle, someone who wasn't there by design, but CHOSE to be there - that was the kind of love she knew she had. They were each others soul's mates. Whatever either of them had done to deserve a soul's mate was beyond her, but she knew better than to question it. They both did. She could hear his voice in her head even now, 'Tira my love, what good did I do to deserve you?', and it made her smile as she stood, still watching the lonely little leaf. Everything, Cas - everything you had done in your life and everything I had done in mine was by design. You - and the kids - are the only things that matter. It had only been a short walk away from them this evening, but already her heart was sick with longing for her family. Mental note - no more short walks without Cas. He'd have laughed at her, but would have agreed, they should not go out without each other.
Which brought her thoughts to their now grown children. Ask the Tiramisu hiding in the leaf piles as a foal if one day she'd be a mother and she would have stared up at you with big, blue eyes of horror. Her? A mother? She'd be terrible! Her own mother had told her so once, long ago (and has since retracted), and she has always believed it to be true. She could barely even take care of herself, what in the heavens' green earth did she think she was doing raising foals? But Casimir's love for her, and the love she was able to find within herself had helped her to realize that the children, whatever and whomever they were, would love her simply if she loved them.
So years after having gotten together (Tiramisu had always blamed herself for having it take so long, but she strongly suspected Cas blamed himself, and just never told her) three beautiful, wonderful children had been born. Matcha Mochi, Nikolai, and Iskander. Her greatest achievement - Cas's greatest achievement. They were two lost souls, who had found each other in their darkest days, built each other up, and had now given life to three life-changing creatures.
Tiramisu knew one day they'd change the world. They were her heroes.
In all this reflecting, Tira blinked and noticed the little leaf was no longer hanging from the branch, and it had gotten lost in the pile below. It's okay little leaf, she thought, on to the next part of life.