#hey m

Hello there T. You see, there’s something that you should know about me; I hoard stories and ideas like a dragon Xd Peeps here can back me up on this. I liked your idea, a LOT, but for that one to happen I still need to smooth a few things before getting to it canon-wise with what is happening and will happen on the story. I’ll do it tho, no fret, but, for now, I was talking to M the other day with some details regarding Freya that made me go: uhm, maybe I can write something out of this. And since last time I wrote for H I thought… why not. Let’s keep the chaos going :P

So, I truly hope you like this. Which is not what you asked but, oh well, I’m a troll Xd

Ah, I’m working under the impression that M sent you or at least talked about both her ring and how did it feel for Freya to feel them all die. If she hasn’t, let me know and I’ll share that one with you.

PS: Love ya, don’t hesitate on coming to scream at me. You really make my day.

PS2: Dan, I’m so sorry Xd

-.-

She couldn’t quite place what had woken her up, mid-nightmare and a dull pain at her side, just where one of the galaxies she has made it her own, painted over her body, emitted a soft glow that bled through her fingers as she checked on it. She only could remember her own voice as she had gasped and stumbled while she freed herself from the sheets that covered her body, memories of the distant sound of cawing crows shadowing her thoughts as she had glanced at her side, recognizing not only the room but the person that rested next to her, naked form covered, fingers splayed millimeters away from where her hand had been up until a second ago.

Her thoughts had been sluggish, her breathing erratic, but she had managed to pull the strength to move to the window, just below the lover’s seat that spread from it. Muscles sore from spams she didn’t quite remember having, she grabbed one of the smaller cushions the seat had and covered enough of herself as she looked beyond the titillating lights of the city below.

It had been some time, she had thought as she grazed her side once more, flinching as if expecting for blood to pour even if the skin was as flawless as the skin of an adventurer could be since she last had a nightmare so real it had almost felt as if true. She had had them, of course, every other night after the first time, when she had considered them all dead, gloom, and twisted sorrow clouding her every step. As years passed, the nightmares and visions hadn’t become softer, but she had known when they would come if they did happen to attack her while awake.

Unless it came from combat. Unless it came from memories she couldn’t quite bottle and throw away.

She was not egocentric enough to believe herself above such nightmares now and yet, as she kept on looking at the mountains, the snow that could be glimpsed in lighter grays than the rest of the rocks that guarded the valley that led up to Whitestone, she pushed the very tip of her tongue against the velum, trying to get her heartbeat to slow down once again as snores kept on creeping from her companion.

Cassie had tended to have deep sleep when she had been younger only to transform into a lighter type of one later on in life. Now, however, as they kept on trying and trading as softly as possible into something neither of them could have ever expected to happen, that ability to wake up with the mere change of air pressure, was gone and Freya knew how much the human actually needed to rest. If it weren’t for those moments, those in where the brunette got to relax, the half-elf doubted Cassie would ever keep her sanity for much longer. Plenty of things to decide, plenty more to get right for not only herself but the town itself and what laid beyond.

She had always hated, and looked with contempt, the chains her title had meant back home, and she could feel the restlessness on Cassie’s own brow. They both needed the other, balance the everyday decisions so they didn’t feel as threatening as one direct blow against one’s lungs would mean back in battle. And, sadly, they both knew what that actually felt like. And, there was the fact that they worked well together, the companionship, the inner and outer moments in where Freya eyed Cassie and knew herself safe.

Freya sighed once more while rising her free hand and glanced at the ring that was fastened around her middle finger through the contraption the silver chain usually at her neck -now hot to the touch- managed to create. The sigils written around the band of the ring itself glowed faintly as she eyed them, the magic within the metal soft and quiet in the middle of the night. Unscrewing the chain that hugged her wrist, she saw each link of the metal dissolve and reform while, in a practiced movement, she let the ring fall from her finger as she opened it, the different bands that hugged the main one opening and creating the astrolabe she had gotten to love.

The ring fell a few inches, still secured by the now reformed chain on her wrist, the metal sizzling as she moved it until it hit the moonlight that, as pale as silver, tinted the edges of the window’s glass. Pain still irradiating from her body, she focused on the rings of metal as she forced her breathing to even out with each spin the now dangling ring created, the sound of Cassie’s breathing another one she focused herself on while she tried to keep her mind trained on every other aspect that wasn’t the wound that should have been hers to bear.

It was difficult, she thought, hair falling around her face, devoid of her usual braids, its tips tickling her naked shoulders, to relinquish to the usual self-deprecating point of view in where she blamed herself for the death of those who now rested a few stories below, under the castle’s gallows. She had come to enjoy, to love, the moments she now had, she had created, beyond the loss and fear those very moments had once built on her heart, but there were still points of quiet darkness that made her swallow as she felt a spike on her heart, a tremor she tried to calm down as the ring spun quicker and quicker with each passing second.

She could have been better, she should…

The pain on her side started to become stronger once more, her breathing labored, cold kissing her skin as heat began to radiate from her neck, choking her in the meantime. She couldn’t quite speak now, anxious anger clouding her mind. She heard her name being called, however, at the very back of her brain in an almost sleep-like tone that turned more urgent as she was called once again. Cassie’s scent, familiar now in a way that made her focus on its very sweetness, enveloped her while the brunette came into her vision field, face masked by shadows as the woman approached her, hands up, fingers circling the point in where her veins met with her wrist.

They had talked about this, about the nightmares, about the anger and loss and defeat. Cassie’s own screams similar in form whenever those hit. Yet there was always the point of exposure that made Freya want to react against it as she had done with Jericho and Ireena so many times before. Cassie, however, white and brown locks mixing in patterns Freya’s frozen eyes focused on as her breathing grew ragged,  didn’t step down and, silently, she nodded at her with the cobwebs of sleep disappearing from her eyes the longer they kept at being half-seated at the lover’s seat, the ring between them, spinning, spinning, halting.

“The tree is glowing so strong that even I can see it.” Cassie’s voice was almost conversational as if she was expecting Freya to comment on it, and the half-elf emitted a soft laugh that didn’t quite reach beyond the back of her throat. The human’s lips, however, curved and she moved her fingers up, closer now to Freya’s inner part of the elbow, as she pressed in and out of her skin. Subconsciously, Freya started to match her breathing to the movement, remembering when she had pulled a similar trick back when she had been Argia, as Cassie protested of how she felt seasick on the little boat the half-elf had managed to get for them all. Mind still cloudy, she focused on the words, on how Cassie began to describe the vein-like patterns of the tree as the mountain breeze rattled the window’s glass, as the rugged feel of the cushion on her upper thighs grounded her. What had it been what she had told Cassie then? Something about pressure points.

Time lost its meaning until she looked up, muscles easing up with each passing second, and Cassie tilted her head in answer. She wasn’t able to see in the dark as she did but enough time had passed for the human to be able to zero on her, no rush on her pupils as she nodded and waited, strong grip around her while the ring began to spin once more.

She could see how Cassie glanced up quickly at it, at the metal, the sigils, the magic, but she remained in the same position as Freya unclenched her muscles, wishing for the chain to shorten once more as, carefully and rotating within Cassie’s hold, she turned her hand, palm up, so the ring could now rest between the soft, plush meat of her fingers. Feeling Cassie’s fingers moving down once again, writing words on her skin, Freya closed her eyes and willed for not the crow but the stale taste of dead to backtrack enough for her to blink back to what stood in front of her.

She couldn’t quite place if her body moved but Cassie smiled at her the second she opened her eyes once more, voice quieter now, a barely-there whisper as she moved forward and placed her other hand at the base of her neck, three fingers pressing against her skin, trading through the hair as a kiss was deposited on her forehead.

“Hi.”

There was still a long way to go but Freya felt her body relax, moonlight gentle as she craned her neck enough to peck her way into Cassie’s cheek.

I'm sorry, I thought "Hey we can totally handle that, right?" and proceeded to send her a photo. Well. Turns out we 'can' handle that, but we fucked ourselves in the process. So now the double date is in full swing. And we will never be the same again.

It was fun knowing all of you. But we need to get going and unfuck ourselves while searching for our panties.