as a prompt: that post about Andy and Quynh rescuing cubs or other animals and end up chilling with a full grown bear/ wild animal ;D bonus part on the prompt: they do it again during Andy's temporary mortality. Quynh says Andy knows what she's doing while Nile is mostly terrified (she warms up to the idea later)
Luckily for Andy, Quynh was more endeared than annoyed at the sight in front of them. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t complain though.
“What’s the point of owning horses if we’re not going to use them for transport?” Quynh asked her, raising an eyebrow at her lover.
“First of all, we don’t own them,” the older woman stopped petting one of the horses for one moment to raise an accusatory finger at Quynh, then continued, completely unbothered.
“And…?” Quynh tried to get the rest of the argument out of her but Andy only made a distracted noise that revealed she either forgot the rest of her defense or didn’t have one to begin with. Shaking her head and wearing a loving smile Quynh walked over and offered a hand in feeding the animals. “It’ll be just horses, right Andromache?” she asked, but the smile she got as a response wasn’t very convincing.
--
“Can you believe people are scared of this puppy?”
“Yes, I can,” Quynh replied.
She was standing beside Andy, who was kneeling on the ground, rubbing the belly of the wild wolf they had, somehow, befriended. As if being an actual wolf wasn’t intimidating enough, judging by the plenty of scars on the animal’s face and body it had been used to getting in fights with people or other beasts. When Andy and Quynh found him hurt and close to death they took care of him, healed his wounds, fed him, and in return, he never walked away from them.
“It’s harmless,” Andy defended her newest friend as he fondly licked her hand.
“It’s… charming, and nobody will let us walk into their town if you don’t put him on a leash.”
Quynh’s comment was met by an outraged gasp from Andy, but a second later Quynh was kneeling on the ground, laughing loudly while the very scary wild wolf happily tried to lick her face as a sign of love.
--
Soon enough in their relationship it became more than obvious that Quynh’s playful complaints were just a way to tease her partner when in fact she was just as likely to take in unlikely pets that stole their hearts.
“So…” Andy started with a chuckle as she sat down on the ground beside Quynh, “No comments about how this is a feral cat? A wild beast? Or how we’ll be kicked out of every city for carrying this monster with us?”
“Andromache… this is a baby,” Quynh replied, very seriously, holding up in her arms the cat that couldn’t be more than just a few weeks old and that they couldn’t identify besides a certain knowledge that it was far from a domestic kind of animal.
“Alright, fine,” Andy agreed. She reached out a hand to carefully let the tiny cat play with her finger. Someday that baby would be a big cat that would terrify entire cities, but right now it was an adorable thing that had made a home in Quynh’s arms. “But what are we going to do with the other five?” she asked, nodded her head toward the five baby cats playing with each other and stumbling around by their feet. Instead of answering, Quynh laughed, and passed her one of the cats.
--
“This has to be my favorite group of friends we’ve had in years,” Andy said, lifting up in her arms a baby panda and carrying it away from a slope that the young thing was seemingly obsessed with.
“Why is that?” Quynh replied, not without certain difficulty, considering she was pretty much wrestling two other babies that demanded so much attention, but got her laughing until her stomach hurt.
Quynh didn’t even get to hear Andy’s response, she only remembered the other woman’s presence when she deposited an extra bear in front of her. The new baby bear distracted the others enough for Quynh to get a second to look up at Andy, who didn’t waste time and immediately stole a kiss from the love of her life.
“Because they make you happy,” Andy replied, stole one more kiss and then got her attention stolen by the panda bears that needed them.
--
Centuries later, everything was different. The world, their family, themselves. But, some things never changed. Andy and Quynh’s love for each other, Quynh’s playful love, Andy’s endless kindness, and a certain weak spot they had for animals that other people would run away from.
“That can’t be safe, you know that,” Nile passionately complained to Quynh as the two of them watched Andy basically cuddle with an adult brown bear. “She could die,” the youngest member of the team emphatically waved her hand at the crazy scene in front of them.
Quynh attempted a reassuring smile. “Only if the bear tried to kill her,” she replied, “We raised her since she was a baby.” She shrugged, and just to make her point she walked over to her wife and sat down beside her, their backs resting on the bear, and playfully pushing away the great paw that tried to play with them. It took a while but eventually Nile had to accept the fact that every now and then Andy and Quynh would raise an actual bear in one of their safe houses and that was part of all their lives.
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how about the 4th part of Vietnamese pronouns for Andy x Quynh: ta/nàng or ta/người. Thank you xD
Oh hey we’re getting to the slightly more poetically-romantic-stranger pair of pronouns (lemme explain)
ta/người (unisex, refers to yourself/unisex, refers to the other) is often used when the couple first meet/know each other and they don’t know each other well yet. Người literally means “human” and ta just means “myself”. Andy and Quỳnh would most likely use this when their current status and level of connection is new and they’re still getting to know each other. Interestingly enough, I also see writers use ta/người in literature when writing about couples who are already in love and/or write about their unrequited love. I nickname this pronoun set as “Stranger, I love you” because it works great in love at first sight situations.
Though I beg to differ that in andromaquynh’s first encounter, ta/ngươi (notice the ` tone mark isn’t there) is the best pair of pronouns for the situation, because ngươi (unisex, refers to the other) is often used when you still have suspicions/skepticism towards the person you first met. You don’t know who they are and what their motivations are.
ta/nàng (unisex, refers to yourself/feminine, refers to the other) is an older pair of pronouns. Can be used for couples who just meet or already start dating. Some can start with ta/người and then move up to ta/nàng as they get more intimate (marriage included).
I don’t hear people use ta/nàng anymore (even people around my grandparents and great grandparents’ age), whereas ta/người is still being used. The only time that I hear people use this pronoun pair is in entertainment media set around feudal eras. However, that’s not to say modern Vietnamese aren’t allowed to use it, we can still use it if we want people to know we are hopeless romantics (Andy I’m looking at you!). So if you write about andromaquynh set around a couple hundred years ago, this can be a possible pronoun pair.
In modern Vietnamese, nàng as a third pronoun/noun is often used to refer to females who tend to be...high maintenance (I’m still looking at you Andy). For example, Quỳnh complains to a store clerk like this, “Nhà em có một nàng hảo ngọt hay ăn hết phần của cả nhà” (There’s a nàng living in house who usually eats everyone’s share of sweets) as she is looking at Andy, who is still busy at the chocolate sample stand.
Prompt: quynh discovering (ridiculous) modern day petnames to call andy)
requested by @moonlightandromache i hope you didn’t think i had forgotten. also please know that this was way too much fun!! thank you 💕
--
It started harmlessly enough. After a long night together, Andy convinced Quynh it was time to sleep. Although they were both beyond overjoyed about their reunion, one of them was mortal now, and she desperately needed sleep. However, Andy was already half asleep, eyes closed, a content sigh leaving her lips, snuggling closer in her wife's arms, but then she heard Quynh whisper to her, “Goodnight, baby.” Andy was still blushing a little, and that seriously made it worse, or better. She wasn’t sure, but she wasn’t upset about it.
It quickly developed into something… more. As in the middle of their lunch, when Quynh said to Andy, “Babe, can you pass me the salt?” Andy complied, and she could hardly hold back her smile. That was new. She noticed their friends exchange knowing smiles, but she didn’t mind.
But, of course, there was more. There was, for example, that one morning, with everyone sitting at the table having breakfast and Quynh arriving last, apparently deciding that she now wasn’t a morning person. She walked up to Andy, kissed her cheek, and said, “Good morning, buddy.” The result was Nile nearly choking on her food trying to disguise her laughter, and Joe calling Andy buddy for the rest of the day until she nearly stabbed him.
When Quynh finally agreed to go with them on missions, it was unexpectedly a great opportunity for her to put to good use all the new words she was learning, while Andy blushed and their friends pretended this wasn’t the funniest thing they’d seen in years. On the first mission, right before jumping into action, Quynh smiled at Andy just like she’d done for thousands of years before going into battle, but then added, “Are you ready, hottie?” Andy nearly shot herself in the foot from the confusion that brought on her. And when they were done, all safe and sound, Quynh grinned proudly, clothes covered in blood and her wounds all healed. “Good job, dude,” she whispered right before kissing the bewilderment out of Andy’s lips.
One of the highlights of Quynh’s discoveries came when the group learned how to use a groupchat, and Quynh got the hang of it surprisingly fast. This new form of communication brought forward the legendary day when Quynh greeted Andy as “Hey, boo!” and right after they discovered that she had Andy’s contact saved as “Bae.”
If you're still taking TOG prompts: Quynh telling the team the various animals that have killed Andy over the millennia. ( I can't stop thinking of her trying to ride an elephant)
thank you so much for this prompt!!! i laughed too much while writing it lmao also i googled the difference between poisonous and venomous... so the choices i made here were taken very seriously. anyway. this prompt is sponsored by Quynh being a little shit and the only one with the rights to make fun of Andy like this
It was a perfectly comfortable evening in the latest safe house the team was staying. Andy and Nile were half watching a nature documentary and half getting carried away talking about mildly related things, Quynh was fondly watching them as she swung her legs from her place sitting atop the kitchen’s island, and behind her Joe and Nicky were working on everyone’s dinner.
“I don’t hate frogs, who would hate frogs?! I’m just not fond of them is all. End of the conversation.”
However, Andy had already figured out that whenever she said “End of the conversation” it usually ended up with Nile asking for more information. Which, usually wasn’t so bad, until Quynh arrived and decidedly indulged the youngest member of the team with precious information.
“Of course she doesn’t hate frogs, Nile,” Quynh said, the tone of her voice a clear sign of trouble for Andy, “I mean, who could blame an entire species for the few times a poisonous frog killed her, huh?” While Nile laughed and wondered how it happened more than once, and Andy insisted she saved people’s lives, Quynh continued, “You don’t have to hate all the animals that have killed you, my love, that would be a list too long. You just have to promise to never try to ride an elephant again.”
While Nile wondered in the back of her mind if she could die laughing, Andy tried to explain that someone had to try it. When prompted by Joe and Nicky, Andy had no option but to explain, “I tried, I fell off the damn beast and it, well, it stepped on me.” That genuinely horrified her team, even if she was there to tell the tale.
“Aw, Andromache, don’t be embarrassed,” Quynh cooed playfully, finally stepping down and walking to meet her wife on the couch. “You did defeat that boa, didn’t you? I mean, it killed you first, of course, but here you are!”
“You’re very funny,” Andy shook her head and tried to hide her smile. Quynh got comfortable sitting on Andy’s lap and took her lover’s adoring eyes as permission to go on.
“Hey, Nile,” Quynh turned her face to smile at the young woman and said, “You’d think panda bears are just adorable and harmless, right?”
“Shut up!” Andy groaned, and buried her face on Quynh's neck. But there was no denying all of them were laughing with everything they had and having the just the best of times.
ohhh gosh kisses prompts! i am a sucker for cute ahot like this [though some of them were a little corny...]. can u do one or combo of these for andromaquynh 14, 17. 23, 26? thanks!
fitting four prompts into one? challenge accepted!!
Prompts: A kiss so desperate that the two wind around each other, refusing to let go until they are finished. Tucking their hands beneath the other person’s shirt, just to watch them break the kiss and gasp in surprise at the sensation of cold/warm hands on their skin. A kiss that tastes of the food/dessert they are eating. Brushing a kiss along the shell of the other person’s ear.
It was Andy’s turn to wash the dishes. She was almost done and she was just so eager to finish already, and that’s even before a gorgeous distraction and her greatest weakness arrived.
“Are you done?” Quynh asked as soon as she stepped into the kitchen, resting her hip against the counter and staring at her wife washing the dishes.
“Almost,” Andy replied without looking back, “What is it? Are you bored without me already?”
“Dreadfully bored,” Quynh exhaled dramatically.
Andy laughed, didn’t think too much of it, not until she felt Quynh walk up behind her and wrap her arms around her waist.
“Can you hurry up?” Quynh asked, resting her forehead on the back of her wife’s shoulder, and letting her fingers play with the hem of Andy’s t-shirt.
Andy hummed thoughtfully. “No, I don’t think I can,” she replied, “These dishes are extremely important business.”
Despite the entirely serious tone of the other woman, Quynh laughed, her entire body shaking in delight and unknowingly lighting up a smile on Andy’s face. “Please,” Quynh insisted, hugging Andy tighter and now getting on her tiptoes to comfortably reach her neck, “Hurry up,” she insisted, starting to leave soft kisses on the length of Andy’s neck, just feather like kisses, shamelessly teasing her as she perfectly knew how, “Please,” she repeated for the last time, brushing a kiss along the shell of Andy’s ear. Then she grinned victoriously when she noticed Andy was finally, finally done with the dishes.
“You win,” Andy sighed gravely, but when she turned around in Quynh’s arms to immediately kiss her she didn’t appear bothered in the slightest.
Although she had been asking for it, the intensity of Andy’s kiss took Quynh by surprise. She gasped, but she was eager to return the kiss with matching passion. Since Quynh had apparently showed up to the kitchen on a mission, Andy saw no point in trying to take things slow. Her hands quickly found their home in her wife’s hips and pulled her forward, impossibly close until their bodies were flushed together. Once she head the shorter woman hum in approval of their closeness, Andy’s hands got to work, first, sneaking under Quynh’s red blouse to find warm skin and-
“You’re cold!” Quynh yelped in surprise, breaking the kiss to gasp at the sudden feeling of Andy’s freezing hands on the small of her back. She didn’t completely pull away though. If anything she pressed her body closer to the other woman.
Andy laughed, held her tighter, and dove in for another kiss. A kiss that, slower but no less powerful, allowed her to taste just the most perfect hint of the flavor of the dessert they had finished minutes ago. “And you’re sweet,” Andy mumbled against Quynh’s lips, “Should we-”
“Yes,” Quynh interrupted Andy’s question with a kiss that, unlikely as it seemed, was even fiercer than the previous ones. She wasn’t sure if the question would lead them to their bedroom or would end with one of them sitting on top of the kitchen’s counter, but she figured she’d find out soon enough. What mattered at the moment was holding each other tighter, closer, kissing each other desperately, almost forgetting about breathing, almost forgetting about Andy’s cold hands getting more and more adventurous under Quynh’s shirt.
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Prompt: Andy regains her immortality but Quynh loses hers, may or may not be permanent.
emphasis on the “may or may not be permanent”
--
“I wouldn’t forgive you!” Andy exclaimed, swinging her axe at Quynh, “I wouldn’t forgive you if you were going easy on me, you know that?”
Quynh laughed wholeheartedly, easily blocking Andy’s attacks and pushing forward with her sword. It was a truly incredible sight, the way that pair of unmeasurably old women fought each other seamlessly. It wasn’t exactly a dance, it wasn’t perfectly orchestrated. It never lacked the thrill and intensity of a war waged between thousands of men, even if it was just the two of them. Well, it didn’t used to, not when they were both immortal, not when, worst case scenario, if Quynh’s sword pierced Andy’s abdomen, the woman would certainly rise back up from countless deaths. But that wasn’t the case anymore, was it?
“Quynh,” Andy insisted, her voice strained and not at all for the effort of the fight that still came as natural to her as breathing, “I meant it. Do not hold back for me.”
“I’m not,” Quynh replied, her voice matching her lover’s tense tone. She wasn’t being honest though.
She had tried, she had tried her damned hardest to remain neutral and true to their routinary style, but she simply couldn’t keep it up. She couldn’t, not when she knew that the smallest mistake on Andy’s part, or the smallest success on her own part, could be deadly, absolutely and irreversibly deadly. A knowledge that shook her to her core. She had tried not to think of it. She knew how much the love of her life would hate to be treated any differently now, and by Quynh, of all people! It would destroy so much of what they’d build in three thousand years. But her precautions were also a way to save that very ancient magic the two of them shared for so long. How could it be possible to find a middle ground? Somewhere with dignity that wouldn’t risk the stubborn warrior’s life?
“Quynh!” Andy yelled this time, when Quynh knocked the axe off her hands.
It was a move Andy herself had taught her thousands of years ago, when it was just the two of them, standing in places and speaking in languages only the two of them could remember. Quynh had maybe a whole second of looking smug after the axe and sword fell safely away from their hands. But then, of course, she had to curse under her breath and jump away from the knife that Andy had pulled to finish what they had started. This was just training, practice, a game, but it was getting dangerously close to crossing a line Quynh really didn’t want the other woman to cross.
So, of course, Quynh pulled her own knife out and got to work. It had never been easy for one of them to get the upper hand in a fight, not in normal circumstances at least. But the extraordinary circumstances of the moment made up for a desperate Andy that Quynh knew, like nobody else, how to manipulate. She allowed Andy one strike, one cut to Quynh’s shoulder that, although it made her hiss in pain, was a small price to pay really, or so she thought at the moment. The important part was that it got Andy close enough, just close enough for Quynh to knock her down and pin her to the ground, winning this round.
“What did you want so badly to prove?” Quynh whispered, her words almost burning more than the delicate but very real cut of her knife on Andy’s cheek. It was close to nothing and it wasn’t the first time it happened. A band aid would do, and Quynh would tease her about it, and they would laugh and kiss and everything would be fine.
Except, the blood stopped coming, and the little red line healed and vanished right there in front of Quynh’s eyes, leaving no scar behind on her lover’s perfect, beautiful face. However, Andy didn’t get to catch sight of the utter relief, amazement, gratitude of fate and love of her that shone brighter than the sun on Quynh’s expression. No, Andy couldn’t even look at Quynh’s face. All her attention was forever stolen by the wound on Quynh’s shoulder, the wound that wasn’t healing, the blood that kept pouring out, the damage she had done, the damage that wasn’t healing, not instantly, not as it should.
Basically that Addams family quote "how long since we waltzed?" "Oh, gomez...hours" but with Andy and Quynh
thank you so much!!! here goes a cute little dance for the immortal wives because they deserve it
--
Quynh skipped gracefully toward the kitchen of the house. The only room currently illuminated in the house. There, she found the love of her life, just putting away the wrapper of whatever candies she had sneaked out of bed in the middle of the night for.
“There you are,” Quynh cheerfully said, wrapping her arms around Andy from behind.
“Miss me already?” Andy smirked, wrapping her hands on her lover’s arms and leaning into the embrace.
“So much,” Quynh sighed and kissed Andy’s shoulder, mindlessly starting to sway and moving Andy along with her.
“Just wanted a midnight snack is all,” Andy replied, knowing that Quynh was just being playful, but that didn’t stop the taller woman from feeling guilty for leaving her alone in bed.
“What about… a midnight dance?” Quynh suggested, slowly untangling herself from Andy and stepping away, lightly dragging her fingertips over the length of Andy’s arm until she could intertwine their hands just to pull her closer again, in position to dance, “It's been… centuries!”
Quynh laughed in wholehearted delight the first time Andy spun her around. “My love, we danced right before dinner tonight,” the taller woman laughed too, mostly out of natural joy, but partially imagining the reactions of the rest of their family possibly seeing her like this, they probably thought it would be odd for her to be this light, this happy, this gleefully in love. “Still, a few hours without you is a small eternity for me,” Andy added in a whisper, when their dancing was lulled to gently swaying again. She pressed a kiss to the top of Quynh’s head, and heard the woman in her arms sigh contentedly.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
“Proof” - Andy/Quynh - The Old Guard Femslash Fortnight
@tog-femslashfortnight
Saturday Prompt: Free Choice
“Oh don’t,” Quynh weakly protested, giving back the phone, “Do not make it a habit.”
Andy grinned at Quynh’s picture on the phone’s screen, “I don’t think I can promise that, love.”
–
or, a story based on that iconic tumblr post by @justqueeerious
It all started on a rainy day not too long after their reunion. Their time apart had left a mark on each of them, but more than anything, they wanted to make the most of the time they had ahead of them, looking up at the future with loving smiles on their faces. Then there was the fact that Quynh had missed on five hundred years of history. She was curious, she was excited, she was eager to see and learn as much as she could, and Andy, well, she was happy to indulge her in anything she wanted. That’s why the ancient warrior allowed herself, if only for short periods of time. to forget about selfless missions for the betterment of the world, and instead focused on lazy mornings snuggled up in bed with the love of her life.
“Andromache,” Quynh called her name softly, “Do not tell the others I said so but, this is just a magical little machine.” She grinned at the smartphone in the other woman’s hand.
Andy laughed affectionately. “I bet it can do more impressive things, but you’d have to ask Nile to teach you when we’re all reunited again. I only know the basics,” she shrugged.
Quynh, who had been resting her head on Andy’s shoulder, suddenly perked up and let out a small gasp of amazement. They had been texting Joe and Nicky, and Quynh was already impressed by it all, but then the phone displayed a picture the couple sent, and that was just mindblowing to her. “How?!” she wondered, looking back and forth between the phone’s screen and Andy’s smile.
“Let me show you,” Andy’s smile only grew in size. If she knew Quynh as well as she knew she did, then it was probable that in a matter of months, maybe weeks, Quynh would have a firmer grasp on modern technology than Andy herself. So, Andy was determined to enjoy these constant little moments of endearing surprise that came over the other woman’s beautiful, perfect face.
Andy, not without complaints from Quynh and regret on her part, moved away from her lover and crawled to the other end of the bed, where she fumbled with the phone for a few seconds before holding it up to take Quynh’s picture. The result, Quynh’s officially first picture, was so unmeasurably precious to Andy, that all she could do was shake her head in wonder. “I love you so much,” she sighed contentedly.
“My heart, what did you just do?”
“Take a look,” Andy passed her the phone, hoping her lover’s interest in the picture would keep her from noticing the tears filling Andy’s eyes.
Quynh gasped when she saw herself captured on that small screen. Immobile, surrounded by the fluffy whiteness of the bed covers, her hair a mess, her features relaxed, her comfortable black pajamas familiar and strange at once. “This made you cry?” she asked.
Her words made Andy’s entire body shake with laughter. “Come on, give it back, I want to take another,” she moved back to Quynh’s side.
“Oh don’t,” Quynh weakly protested, giving back the phone, “Do not make it a habit.”
Andy grinned at the phone’s screen, “I don’t think I can promise that, love.”
–
It went on and on. At first, it still came as a surprise to Quynh. Andy would call her name, she would turn to look at her in confusion, seeing her holding the phone up, and then she’d understand. However, it wasn’t too long before Quynh got used to it, and started making the most out of it. Every time Andy called her name Quynh would turn around with a perfect smile already in place. And, more often than not, she could tease her love about it. “Like what you see?” “My heart, you’re blushing again,” “Try not to cry this time,” she’d say. Only to receive a few, “Just enjoying the beautiful view,” “I can’t help it, you’re gorgeous,” and the occasional, “Shut up, I only cried once!” from Andy.
Andy was unstoppable since then, really. And Quynh only rarely pretended that she was upset by it at all. For example, when Andy was teaching her how to drive, but couldn’t let the event pass by without photographic evidence.
“Andromache, I’m going to crash the car if you don’t put down the phone,” Quynh mumbled from behind the wheel, “And one of us is not immortal, do I have to remind you that?”
After taking a picture, Andy put down the phone and laughed, “Yeah, well, I also said both hands on the wheel but who’s posing for the camera huh?” She didn’t mind at all though. How could she be bothered at all by the display of confidence, the effortless grace and unwavering determination in the other woman’s face, as Quynh expertly took over the street as if this modern car was not too far from the chariots they once were so comfortable on. That would never change, no matter how much time passed, just the two of them, passing through the world at their own speed, untouchable, completely in love.
Even when they were getting ready for training, something that even after thousands of years was never unnecessary. It kept them in shape and if they were being honest, they just loved it. It was part of who they were, and it was difficult to imagine their lives without the constant thrill of being always ready for battle, something as natural to both of them as waking up every morning. Andy had trained alongside Quynh for thousands of years but, of course, she’d never seen the love of her life wearing modern-day training clothes. It was too much. Too tight. Too little in certain places. And then there was fiery determination in Quynh’s face.
Andy was surprised the picture came out alright, considering she felt herself shaking a little bit by simply staring. Maybe Quynh won most of their fights that day. And the others would never forget the one day where they saw Andy getting her ass kicked for the first time in nobody knew how long. But Andy didn’t mind, she didn’t feel like she was losing anything at all when she had Quynh pin her down to the ground and smile at her just… in that way only Quynh could.
–
When Quynh was getting just comfortable enough with life in the twenty-first century, she decided she wanted to see the world. She had explored it, again and again, while holding Andy’s hand, but now, the world had changed. There was so much novelty, it was almost an entirely new world. That thought could be a dangerous one, a troubling one. But Quynh, she chose to focus on all the opportunities this offered. She focused on Andy’s hand in hers, Andy’s delight in showing her every new wonder this world had to offer, Andy’s bright smile, Andy’s loving eyes, Andy slowly but surely leaving behind her guilt and sorrow to give herself completely to Quynh, as if it was the first time, as if she was just getting used to not being devastatingly alone for the first time in her life. This meant that in their best moments Quynh could put down the weight of pain and rage and almost forget it was there in the first place.
Those were the best moments, the ones that Andy went out of her way to keep with her forever in as many pictures as possible.
“Would you rather we were traveling on horses?” Andy asked with a smile as she watched the love of her life continuing to pout because of all the waiting they had to do at airports.
“At least back then anyone could have a horse,” Quynh rolled her eyes, “Why don’t we have a plane?”
There was a picture of Quynh in every city, almost a picture of her in every single place they visited. There was Quynh’s amazement and wonder, her confusion, and occasional distaste at the things she was discovering. Everything captured in pictures. Andy treasured every moment of course. More often than she’d like to admit she caught herself holding back tears again. She couldn’t hold back all the love she felt for this wonderful woman in front of her. Quynh could bring her to tears, could make her throw her head back laughing, could make her forget where and when they were, all with just one look.
–
All the traveling, all the missions. Andy knew she hadn’t stayed still in a single place for a long, long time. But it wasn’t until she got Quynh back that she realized it had been exactly five hundred years since she’d wanted to stay anywhere. Without Quynh, there was no home, no place where Andy would completely belong, not without her. Now, however, Andy was attacked by the realization that with the love of your life by your side, settling down for a little while at least wasn’t so bad at all. There was something nothing short of magical about the way it felt to wake up in the same bed, in the same pair of arms, again and again. She could never get tired of it, really.
Other than the lazy mornings and, well, pretty much every moment they spent together… Andy was discovering she really loved the little moments of quiet companionship with each other. It had been so long. But it still was the most natural thing. And there was a fun addition.
“You’re distracting me, my love,” Quynh mumbled on more than one occasion as she tried to focus on the book she was reading. It was just another way of seeing the new world that was around her, and she found she was starting to like it.
“I am completely quiet,” Andy replied, frowning at her phone, trying to decide if the pictures she’d just taken were good enough or if another was necessary.
“Are you really so bored you have to keep taking pictures?” Quynh asked another time, not even looking up to see that the other woman was caught.
“Yes,” Andy shrugged, “This is my desperate attempt to get your attention back.” It usually worked.
–
Their traveling continued though, through every season. In the spring, Andy’s phone threatened to collapse with the overflow of pictures of Quynh surrounded by all kinds of flowers, full of color and life. The summers weren’t their best time, and they decidedly avoided certain popular summer destinations. Instead, they made the most of the colder months of the year. They both could still remember the times when the only reason they managed to survive many brutal winters was that they were immortal. But the comforts of modern days made incredible things possible, and Quynh was delighted to make the most out of it.
“Fake fur, huh? That’s interesting. Certain much less work to do,” Quynh commented as she snuggled into her own coat.
Andy was staring at the most recent picture on her phone, a content smile on her face. But as soon as she glanced at Quynh, she found she barely cared about the picture anymore. A cold winter breeze passed by, and Andy trembled even more because of the thought that passed by her mind. For hundreds of years, she’d grieved this wonderful, gorgeous woman that now walked beside her. Andy had gripped her memories like her life depended on it, and it often wasn’t enough, her memories of Quynh never faded away, but with time they got at least a little blurry. Could it be possible that this almost desperate impulse she felt for taking her lover’s picture was just an unconscious attempt to immortalize their memories, in case they were ever separated again?
Shaking that train of thought off her mind, and shoving her phone deep in her coat’s pocket, Andy moved closer to Quynh. She wrapped her arms around the love of her life and firmly kissed Quynh’s cheek. “I love you, have I told you that today?” she asked when she moved away.
“Time has made you too soft, my heart,” Quynh shook her head at Andy, but she was smiling and she was blushing, not because of the cold.
–
Five centuries was a long time to miss. The world as Quynh had known it was entirely different now, and she was still getting acquainted with this modern version of it. But, some things never change, they can’t, they aren’t allowed to, or they just don’t want to. After leaving the ocean behind her forever, Quynh worried she would be different, that she’d changed too much. Then she worried she hadn’t changed at all and wouldn’t ever find a way to fit in anywhere again. That thought lasted up until the moment Andy first put her arms around her. Then, Quynh realized, not only she’d always have her home in those arms, where the two of them would always fit perfectly with each other. But she noticed this hadn’t changed at all. The two of them. They could grow, they could love each other even more, but never any less, that could never change.
And, there was another thing: Nature. Andy fought herself constantly for a feeling of not having been able to do enough, to keep humanity from doing itself and the world as much damage as it had. But still, there were some places, and they were nothing short of heavenly, that hadn’t changed too irrevocably these past hundreds of years. Even more, some places were still familiar from a thousand years ago. Some places were older than her and Andy put together, and they’d outlive the two of them and every person that lived on this Earth. That was the only reassuring thought that for thousands and thousands of years reminded the two immortal women that they could be extraordinary among humans, but they’ll always be just that, humans.
So, in one very special forest, a place with trees that supposedly were older than Andy, a place that they’ve visited and protected for as long as they could remember, Andy and Quynh rested. They camped for a few days, taking with them comforts of this decade, and knowledge of the past millenniums. They spent their nights wrapped around each other, staring at the stars, familiar as each other, but undoubtedly ever-changing, at the moon, a comforting presence that had never, not once, left them on their own, it was almost a part of who they were. But, during their first day there, Andy noticed her phone would die and she had no way to charge it.
Andy was sitting on the ground, her back resting against the trunk of a tree, and her arms were wrapped around Quynh, who was sitting in between her legs, with her back comfortably resting against Andy’s front. It was familiar and perfect and they wouldn’t have minded spending a hundred years or so just like that.
“That’s a shame,” Quynh said of the little number at the top corner of the screen that warned them of the phone’s dwindling power. Recently she’d gotten quite obsessed with a game on the phone and although it was incredibly endearing and at times concerning, it had stolen most of the phone’s battery.
“It’s okay,” Andy mumbled, realizing she couldn’t care about anything but the sweet scent on Quynh’s hair and the softness of her neck under Andy’s lips.
“I want one of you, one of us.”
“Hm, what?” Andy asked, begrudgingly moving her attention away from the kisses she’d dedicated herself to leaving on her lover’s neck.
“A picture, like this one,” Quynh answered. She was staring at the lockscreen of Andy’s phone, a picture of herself, as usual, one of a thousand pictures.
“I can do that, I think,” Andy said. She moved her hands to take the phone from Quynh’s hands, fumbled with it for a little bit, and then she managed exactly what Quynh wanted.
The next seconds were spent with the two of them smiling at the camera of the phone Andy held in front of them. Andy kissing her cheek. Quynh kissing her cheek in retaliation. Kissing each other’s lips because they couldn’t hold back. Grinning at the camera again. One attempt at seriousness. Another failed attempt. Picture after picture. Until the moment the phone died, making Quynh gasp a little at the sudden surprise.
“It’s fine, they’ll stay there,” Andy reassured her, tightening her arms around her and going back to her favorite activity of trailing kisses on Quynh’s neck. “Besides,” she stopped for just one second, just so Quynh could twist enough in her arms to really look at her, so they could look into each other’s eyes and understand completely and absolutely the truth of her next words, “I love the pictures, but I don’t need them. I have you here, that’s what matters. I love you, I don’t need proof of these moments, I could never forget them.”
