#crowuna

“Hah,” Crowe droned, articulating insincere laughter. She tore off another chunk of meat, chewing with purpose, trying to prove that it wasn’t as bad as it tasted. (It was that bad. Her eyes were starting to water.) She swallowed hard and forced on a smile, driven by spite. “If you think you can do better, Your Highness, by all means.”

She gestured at the makeshift oven/stove/grill/all-purpose cooking station that would be keeping them alive for the rest of their quest. The havens came pre-equipped with pits for fires, but not for cooking. That was for the camper to figure out, of course. Couldn’t make it too easy for the outdoorsmen of Lucis to stay alive.

Crowe had ended up planting a few sticks in the ground and tying on another, horizontally, to make a spit. She went out before night fell, seared a few sabertusks with a fire spell, and cooked up some of their stringy meat over the fire. It was bland and burnt and probably the worst thing she’d ever tasted, let alone made herself. But it was meat – food – and they were in dire need of the protein.

Breaking the princess out of Imperial custody had not gone as smoothly as Crowe had been lead to believe. Dodging her own execution – set up by and betrayed by her own brothers in arms – had left her with no money, no supplies, no safety net, and no trust for anyone other than herself. She had to start from scratch. Fine. Wouldn’t be the first time.

But once she’d ambushed Lunafreya’s convoy with nothing to lose and something to prove, she quickly realized that this was a first. When she’d started over before, she’d always been on her own. When she fell down to rock bottom, it wasn’t often that there was someone else splattered next to her, too.

Luna chewed, thoughtfully, on Crowe’s awful dinner, looking at the sloppy spit and fire. Crowe’s confidence plummeted when the princess set her skewer aside and stood. She hadn’t actually expected her to call her bluff.

“Whoa, hey, where do you think you’re going?”

Luna marched off the side of the haven without a word, into the dark, dangerous dustbowl of Leide. Crowe leapt to her feet and rushed after her, swearing under her breath.

For a woman who had spent the last decade sheltered within Imperial opulence, Luna seemed to know her way around the outdoors fairly well. For about an hour, Crowe followed her around the perimeter of their chosen haven for the night, watching her back for daemons as she foraged for ingredients Crowe had never even thought to find out here. By the time they returned, Luna had an armful of oranges, fallen from a nearby tree, and Crowe was carrying a bushel of peppers that had been growing under the scrubs of grass on the side of the road.

“Could you, what, smell those out there, or what?” Crowe asked, watching Luna show her up by taking over the cooking. “No, wait, let me guess. Oracle insight, right?”

Luna merely shrugged, her smile a secret that Crowe was dying to uncover. She was handling their squalid state far better than Crowe expected – or was handling herself, for that matter. Near-death by betrayal had shaken her resolve worse than she wanted to admit to herself, but it had only seemed to strengthen Lunafreya’s. Crowe both resented and admired her for that.

Luna tore open the oranges and squeezed their juices over the meat and peppers, not hesitating to get her hands sticky and gross by nursing the impromptu marinade into the food. With orange fingers, she delicately patterned the ingredients onto their skewers – meat, then peppers, meat, then peppers, with an occasional wedge of orange snuck in every so often too. Once she set them over the spit, the smell alone was an immediate improvement, sweet and savory fumes rising up from the fire.

“Where’d you learn how to be such a survivalist?” Crowe snorted, impressed.

“Lots and lots of reading,” Luna said. “And TV documentaries.”

“The one with the guy that jumps out an airship in the middle of nowhere and just goes?”

“That’s the one!”

They both laughed, and Crowe was surprised to hear it coming from herself. There hadn’t been a lot to laugh about lately. But Luna made it easier and easier the more time she spent with her. She could even laugh about her own horrible cooking in comparison to the new skewers that Luna handed her after they’d finished cooking. No black bits this time, and they actually tasted like food. Who knew sabertusks could taste this good?

“I hope you realize this means you’ll be doing the cooking from now on,” Crowe told her over a ravenous mouthful of peppers and oranges.

“A lot of work,” Luna mused with a coy smile. “But I think I’m up to the task.”

“A princess with something to prove. What have I gotten myself into?”

Luna had beensurprised to meet Crowe when she made it to the rendez-vous point. She’d beenunaware that women could be Kingsglaive, and she instantly had a millionquestions for Crowe about what it was like, fighting for a King instead ofexchanging simple pleasantries with one. She kept those questions to herselfthough. The timing was hardly appropriate. But, since they’d safely made itthrough the bulk of Niflheim’s more dangerous territories, Luna had snuck a fewinto casual conversation. Of all the wonderful and exciting things Luna sawalong the highways, the most intriguing was the one always sitting just infront of her.

Presently, Crowepressed a thumb beneath her lip, a gesture Luna observed often in her when shewas troubled by her thoughts. Luna had learned over the course of their travelsthat it wasn’t a good sign. She folded her arms on the table, brushing the saltand pepper shakers to the side. Luna had never visited a Crow’s Nest dinerbefore. There was “no point in her making a glutton of herself on thatpeasantry slop when you have the finest chefs in all of Eos at your fingertips,”Ravus used to say. She’d quickly learned that the Crow’s Nest fast food chainhad essentially invaded every other block of every other town in the entireworld, and even more quickly realized that she found them completely charming.

“If you think thisis good, you should try this place I go to in Insomnia,” Crowe said once andLuna felt her eyes light up, hoping that one day she would be able to take herup on that.

With the way Crowewas looking at the map now, Luna felt that hope slowly slipping away. “If I hadthree more men we might be able to take that blockade and breeze right through…”Crowe muttered to herself, tapping at one of the marked spots.

Luna didn’tinterrupt her while she thought, instead casting her gaze around the smalldiner. A couple in the booth ahead of them, a man sleeping at the bar with asoda loosely clutched in his hand, a man leaning beside the radio next to him,just barely catching Luna’s eye before switching them to the newspaper in hishands. Another man by the pinball machines, his hands toggling at the buttons,but not actually playing.

“Crowe.”

She grunted,distractedly. Luna squeezed her arm. Crowe’s brown eyes shot up instantly,meeting hers. Luna mouthed the words “two men” forcing herself to keep her eyeson Crowe’s and not stare at the pair. Crowe inclined her head in a nod andglanced over Luna’s shoulder, squinting to find the reflection of the room inthe diner window.

“Leave a tip,” shesaid, analyzing the room from the reflection and folding up the road-map.

Luna did as she wastold, quelling the trembling in her hands while she fished through her purse.Quieter this time, Crowe instructed, “Keep your eyes on me and respond towhatever I say. Get up and start walking.”

Luna slid from thebooth, going through the motions – slipping the strap of her purse over hershoulder, smoothing out the skirt of her dress, smiling at the owner behind thebar and thanking him for the meal. She started walking and Crowe slid into stepalongside her, slipping the map in front of her face and pointing at nothing onit.

“Hey, there’s achocobo outpost a couple miles from here!” she beamed. “Wanna swing by there?See if we can afford a ride?”

“I don’t know, I’venever ridden a chocobo before,” Luna replied, nothing false about her statement– although it was difficult to smile without feeling like a toothpasteadvertisement.

“That’s settledthen!” Crowe said, holding the diner door for her.

It was all Lunacould do not to run to the motorcycle, but it was right that she didn’t. Shesaw him the same instant Crowe did, another suspicious-looking man getting outof his truck in the parking spot next to Crowe’s bike.

“Wait, no, we parkedover here!” Crowe said in a teasing tone to Luna, taking her arm and leadingher in another direction.

Luna’s pulsethrobbed in her neck, eyes glued on whatever was in front of her wherever Crowedirected her. She felt the glaive’s hand against her back, firm and guiding,but it couldn’t guide Luna’s terror outside of her body.

“Stay calm,” Crowemurmured. “We’re fine.”

Luna wasn’t entirelysure the words were meant for her. The diner had been located in a small,clustered city, built of close buildings and narrow alleys, and if Crowe had neverbeen to this city before, it was difficult to tell. She led Luna down alleysand around corners with the confidence of someone who knew exactly where theywere going, but Luna knew for a fact that she did not.

The whole time theywalked, Luna could hear footsteps behind them. It started as one set, then two,then three, maybe even four, she didn’t know if that was real or just thepounding of her blood in her ears. With each addition, Crowe pushed their pacea little faster. The footsteps mimicked them. Faster and faster they walkeduntil they were finally running, bolting through damp, dark alleys, a stampedeof cruel boots rushing after them.

Crowe gripped Luna’shand hard, jerking her in a million different directions, never looking back.Part of Luna was desperate to see just how close they were. Another didn’t wantto know, wanted to believe that they were far, far behind, that they weren’t going to catch them.

“Crowe…”

“Keep running. Trustme!”

Luna swallowed herdoubt and did as she said. Following her orders had kept her alive so far. Noreason to stop believing they would keep her safe now. They ran for so longthat Luna was sure they were lost and that the men in pursuit of them weregoing to bear down on them at any moment. They’d drag her away, kicking andscreaming, and they’d kill Crowe and they’d just leave her there in the dirtyalley to rot and there would be nothing Luna could do, nothing that she couldbeseech the Gods to do, to have mercy on them both and rescue them fromcapture.

She felt like herheart was going to burst out of her chest when light suddenly washed across thelane ahead of them. She could hear voices, music, a public space. She hardlyhad a second to register the sights and sounds of the little square full ofpeople before Crowe shoved her into the tight space between two food vendors’stalls. Crowe pulled the hood of her jacket over her head and gave her an intenselook.

“Pretend that youlove me.”

Luna blinked inconfusion. Crowe shoved her against the wall and kissed her. Luna stiffened inshock, uncomprehending until Crowe shifted, adjusting her body so it coveredmost of Luna’s from the view of the square. When Luna heard the footstepsthundering out of the alley, she understood and wrapped her arms around Crowe,hiding her face in the brunette’s hood. She tried not to focus on the fear, onhow close those boot-slaps on the cobblestones were, obliviously passing themby, looking everywhere but in this tiny, trapped space.

She squeezed hereyes shut, willing them to just leave and give up. She focused on the otherwoman’s lips, a taste of iron and sweat in her mouth. Crowe cupped a handaround her shoulder, a comfort and an order in the slight tightening of herfingers. Almost gone. A little longer.Time felt infinite. By the time they were gone, Luna could hardly rememberwhere they’d started. She knew it was over when Crowe pulled away, crouchingaround the walls of the vendor stalls and scanning the crowded square.

“Clear,” she said,voice terse and heavy with the erratic rise and fall of her chest.