Aunt Raisha savored the evening’s brief pause, and leaned forward to pour herself another helping of merlot. Her movements were deft, as elegant as they were careful as she plucked the bottle from the coffee table before her, tilting it so that not a drop might spill; Even here within the cozy walls of her home was she so immaculate in how she held herself, how she radiated a gentle but tangible confidence that commanded the very air around her. Raisha’s fingers moved to her collarbone, languidly readjusting a baggy red lounge shirt and pulled her feet onto the sofa beside her, that replenished glass of wine hung gracefully between her upturned fingers. Her attention returned to her lone guest.

Perched upon the cushion of a nearby armchair much too large sat a young lioness, small and lithe, and prim and proper in her poise. A similar glass rested between her cupping hands, between her jean-clad thighs, its draught half now a light buzz within her skull that caused her gaze to dip and the mind to wander; But these worries through which she meandered were not novel. She had always feared her parents’ disappointment, and the judgment of her greater family.
“Lilette.”

The little lioness’ ears twitched upon the lilt of her name, her eyes rising to meet the older chimera’s. In that gaze, someplace deep, lingered something indomitable, yet wholly encompassing and warm. And the words she spoke were true, this Lilette understood in her heart most of all.

“You know that I will always fully support you- Whoever you choose to be, and whoever you choose to love.”

Raisha offered a gentle smile. She offered her hand, her confidence, to the younger woman who feared the cruel assumptions of the world, who had spoken such worry for simply showing who she was. The fear that they were something lesser in the eyes of someone greater. But the longer-lived knew these fears for what they were, and refused her niece to feel so alone in facing them, a pivotal kindness that had once been shown to her as well, long ago.

Lilette’s entire demeanor seemed to shift, to loosen, as if a fraction of the weight that hung about her shoulders had lifted. She muttered out in a voice more timid than she meant, a thank-you as genuine as she truly was grateful. She did not smile, but basked instead in this revelation, the first of her birth family to so unconditionally accept her for who she was.

An easy silence lingered. Above them, a chandelier of tarnished brass cast a dim glow that barely illuminated the corners of the small sitting room. That bottle of merlot still sat between them, run nearly dry. Words had almost become unnecessary; But as Raisha tilted back a stately sip, she quietly noted where her niece’s gaze had wandered, and of the empty wine glass she clung between her fingers. She also knew that Lilette would likely not ask, bound to an innocence her upbringing had instilled, along with the fact that she just barely wasn’t of legal age. But the young lioness would learn someday, and better in safe company than the wildness of peers, Raisha knew. So she leaned forward with a knowing smile, offering to pour the rest.

“You may, dear… If you promise that you’ll use the guest room for tonight.”

A surprised, but thankful look settled across Lilette’s features as she offered up that empty glass, and gave a glad little nod.

“To our confidence and happiness,” Aunt Raisha playfully proclaimed, “for us, and for every wonderful person out there, that we may always know and let know the ones who love us for who we are.”