It wasn't that her father set out with the intention of teaching Breslin to put everything and everyone ahead of herself, but instead his own behavior that led her to the conclusion that this was the proper way to move through the world. Make it better, do what you can for those who can't. If not now, when. If not me, who. It was as natural as breathing, so much that most of the time she missed her brain and body's warning signs that it was time to slow down for a while. It was much the same now, even as Amara shifted to give Breslin her full attention and gently admitted her worries. Now face-to-face, Breslin inhaled steadily and let her eyes slip closed briefly, forehead lightly resting on her wife's.
"I'm okay," she said finally, voice soft, and her lips twitched into a small, quick grin. "I've been a civil servant for two decades--it'll take a little more than some children playing mafia and a chief of police with an over-inflated ego to knock me down." She caught the gentle, soothing fingers in her hair and brought them to her lips, placing a few light kisses on her fingertips and then her knuckles before squeezing her hand and releasing it. "You would tell me if you're not handling something well, right?" A pause, eyebrows lifting. "Even if it's on my behalf?" She knew her own blind spots, much as she hated to admit it.
"You always say you're okay." It wasn't that she doubted Breslin's ability to throw up a flag if things were going south too quickly, but Amara feared that it might happen anyway while her generous, kind-hearted wife continued looking for another buoy to throw. "I'm just worried the line's comin' up on us and we're not gonna react fast enough. Objects in mirror are closer than they appear and all." The other woman's spirit and bleeding heart were only pieces of the entire wondrous picture that she'd fallen so quickly in love with; hell, Amara herself been plucked from relative disaster when Breslin entered her life.
So they were virtues of course, yet also detriments if left unchecked. Perhaps that was her role in this life together, to be the mildly selfish one who encouraged the leader of this unpredictable city to occasionally adopt the same view. "When have I ever held back from speaking my mind?" It nearly slipped out: when have I ever kept something from you? Best not to outright lie in an intimate moment like this. "I'm good. I am."



















