Chapter Text
FJ and Sparkles - in their black suit and dress - were two porcelain dolls, frozen at the edge of the floral archway.
The sunlight glinted off that transparent casket on the altar, and inside lay Velvet, hairless, still, naked, eyes closed, surrounded by a sea of flowers.
Her sunflower headscarf had been gently folded and gripped on Sparkles’ small yet shaking hands, a little crown for the woman who had sung for her children with wobbly notes and untamed joy.
They couldn’t fully remember what sad speech Miss Maxine had said for their mommy. All they knew was everyone actually felt bad for their mommy for once.
Regardless of what she had done wrong, for once their mommy was acknowledged to be theirs.
Even though she wasn’t physically there for them anymore.
Sparkles firmly clutched onto FJ’s hand. Her tiny fingers were already whitening with tension, and her voice cracked before she could finish. “I… I thought… she’d… sing again…”
FJ’s stomach twisted itself into knots. Even though it was clear as day that their mommy was going to and had died, he wanted to run to her, to shake her awake, to hear the messy, terrible, beautiful singing that had always made her herself.
But she wasn’t coming back anymore.
The whispers of mourners around them blurred into a dull hum. All they could focus on was her face, serene, eyelids forever closed. FJ’s lip trembled, while Sparkles buried her face into his side, with her soft sobs breaking free.
Then Veneer - in a Prussian blue formal suit and a light lavender ascot - appeared at the casket’s side, his broad shoulders slumped under the weight of his grief. He knelt, placing a trembling hand on the edge, cracking into the silence, akin to someone cracking an eggshell.
“Velvet… what’ll I do if you’re gone?”
FJ and Sparkles froze again, hearing the desperation in Veneer’s tone. Mommy used to say that he was the boyish panic of the twin, who had always thought someone would be there to stop him from losing her.
“I… I can’t…” Veneer’s throat clenched as if he had been coiled by a python, words choking off as he sank further, his face hidden in his hands.
And then it began: the first, heavy, ugly sob. His grief exploded into the quiet air, a tidal wave that the kids couldn’t contain.
They couldn’t remember which of them cried first. Sparkles wrapped her arms tighter around FJ, both of them shaking, as unfettered tears streaking down their faces. The sound of their sobs collided with Veneer’s, being a visceral chorus of heartbreak that even the sun couldn’t warm.
FJ could barely whisper, “Mommy… please… sing for us again…!!”
And Sparkles echoed him through her own muffled cries, “We love you, Mommy…!”
Veneer’s devastated hand quivered over his sister’s casket, unable to do anything but release his anguish into the open, raw, and merciless.
The kids couldn’t make do of what he said. He was definitely apologizing to her, that was all they knew. He was crying so painfully, Gloss had to come by and get him balanced again.
And for a moment, everything - the flowers, the sunlight, the gathered mourners - had all blurred into a singular, aching reality.
She was truly gone. And unfortunately, there was no correcting the world’s crooked notes this time.
~~~
The unrelenting sobbing continued for god knows how long.
FJ and Sparkles had been clutching onto Veneer’s hands the whole time, pressing their tear-streaked faces against him, the wails of heartbreak echoing under the arches of forget-me-nots.
It wasn’t fair. They had been waiting for Mommy to be with them as a family. Yet she had to die anyway.
Until Miss Maxine, the Bergen lady who was hosting the funeral, asked. “FJ, Sparkles. Do you have something for your mommy?”
Between choked-out breaths, Sparkles dug into her pocket and pulled out a small, crumpled drawing she had made of Velvet. Then she took out the ribbon spoon to speak.
“FJ and I have this sunflower for Mommy. Can we give this to her as a goodbye gift?”
The mother she remembered laughing, singing off-key, teaching Veneer to cheat, always messy but always full of love.
FJ, noticing her gesture, opened his clenched fists to reveal a single sunflower from a bouquet near the casket, the petals still bright and cheerful against the somber black suits.
“We got a real sunflower too. I wanna give it to her.”
Miss Maxine nodded. Same with Veneer.
Together, the mourning twins placed the drawing and the sunflower gently on Velvet’s chest, pressing them close to her in the transparent casket. The scarf had been the tangible memento they got to keep from her, but now the flower and the doodle added one last personal touch from them as gratitude - tiny, imperfect, but entirely them.
She would always be their imperfect sunflower.