Sasha and Grizzop are rescued from Ancient Rome, and find themselves in quarantine in Japan with Azu and Hamid. While there, Sasha realizes some things about her feelings for Azu.
The solid bars and cold stone almost reminded Sasha of Other London. Even if she was locked up in some strange quarantine, at least the company was better, with Hamid sleeping soundly on a cot, Grizzop dozing off in a corner, and Azu sitting across from her.
Azu…
It would be easy to say nothing. Sasha was good at keeping her mouth shut. She pulled her knees up to her chest and closed her eyes tight, trying not to think on any of the feelings that rampaged around her chest.
“Sasha? Are you alright?”
“Yeah, fine. You?”
Azu cocked her head to the side and smiled ever so slightly at Sasha’s feigned apathy. “You’ve been through a lot. I want to make sure you’re okay.”
Sasha squeezed her knees tighter. “I’m just glad that you and Hamid and Einstein found a way to get me and Grizzop back to the present before we spent too long in the past. Rome wasn’t a good place, in any time.”
“Me too.”
When Azu smiled and beamed, overjoyed that they’d managed to rescue their friends, Sasha’s heart began to race again.
She was good at keeping her mouth shut. But maybe… maybe Azu deserved the truth.
Azu waited when Sasha opened her mouth to speak several times, even though no words came out right away. Eventually, Sasha said, “There’s more than the whole time-travel thing.”
“Oh?”
“I was scared.”
“I can’t blame you for that. You were nearly trapped in a strange place in a strange time.”
“It’s not just that,” Sasha snapped, more angrily than intended. She offered an apologetic look to Azu, then stared at her knees again as she continued. “I was most afraid that I’d never see you lot again. You, Hamid, Einstein, Zolf, Wilde… At least I would’ve had Grizzop, but it’s not the same.”
Azu nodded. “I understand. I can’t imagine losing everyone I know like that.” She shuddered at the thought.
“But, um… when it came to you… I missed you in a different way. Like, yeah, we were only gone for a bit, but I still missed all of you, because I thought we were gone for good. And when I missed you, it was different than how I missed Hamid.”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know, that’s why it’s so confusing!” Sasha exclaimed. Grizzop stirred at the sound, but then his head lolled forward again. The symbol of Artemis was still held tightly in his hands.
Azu started to reach out her hand, to provide Sasha some comfort, then hesitated for fear of touching Sasha when she didn’t want to be touched.
“It’s like… when I’m with you, my stomach gets all twisted up in knots, but I want to be with you, I want the weird feeling,” Sasha pondered aloud, before lifting her head and speaking at Azu directly for the first time in the whole conversation. “I really like you, Azu. And not just as contractually obligated companions, or quest buddies, or…”
“Oh…”
“Yeah, I’m sorry.” Sasha looked away again. She should’ve just kept her mouth shut.
Out of the corner of her eye, Sasha watched Azu scooch a little bit closer to her in the cell.
“Don’t be sorry. I’m flattered. And I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have feelings for you as well.”
Sasha paused. “Wait, really?”
Azu chuckled, and Sasha couldn’t help but smile. “Is it that hard to believe? You’re incredible in so many ways, and I’ve been fortunate to get to know you at all.”
“Hmm… I know you like hugs and stuff. Do you think we could do a hug?”
“Of course.”
Sasha released the grip on her knees and slowly allowed herself to be embraced by Azu. She was warm and safe, and, after a moment of hesitation, Sasha buried her face in Azu’s shoulder and held her tight.
“I don’t know how to do this,” Sasha admitted when she finally extracted herself from the hug. “This whole ‘feelings’ thing.”
“We can figure it out,” Azu said with a smile. “We’ll take it day by day. What matters is that we have the chance to try now.”
Sasha smiled, then slowly and methodically reached out her hand so that she could hold onto Azu’s.
“I haven’t looked forward to much for a long time. I always expect it to go wrong. But this?” Sasha gestured between the two of them with her free hand. “I’m really looking forward to this. To you and me.”
Curie is injured by the Cult of Mars, but when she sees Eldarion every bit of pain fades away.
Pushing aside the pain, Curie shoved open the door and rushed inside. There was no way the Cult of Mars could know about this place - it wasn’t even a Harlequin safehouse, just a place that she’d lived once, several years ago, a home she’d once shared.
She still owned the small apartment though, just in case, so she knew there would be bandages in the top left cabinet. Just needed to get there, clean up the wound that pierced through her side, and she’d be fine.
But as Curie stepped toward the kitchen and the necessary medical supplies, a figure turned toward her.
“Marie? Oh no, what happened? Come here, lie down.”
She barely had enough sense to process that it was Eldarion guiding her to the couch in the living room, setting her down before darting off to get the supplies she needed to patch her up. If it had been someone else, Curie didn’t think she would have had the strength to fend them off. But once she felt Eldarion’s hand take hers, she let down her guard entirely.
“What happened?” Eldarion asked, brow creased, as she tended to Marie’s wounds.
“Cult of Mars. They somehow tracked me down,” Curie gasped. “I managed to get away, but not before they got a good hit on me.”
“I’d say so. You’re lucky you made it here at all.”
“I think I’m luckier that you were here. That I get to see you again.”
Eldarion chuckled and smiled. “You can flirt when you’re not bleeding all over our couch, alright?”
After a few moments, Curie said, “I didn’t know that you would be here. It’s been, what, a couple months since we’ve seen each other?”
“Yeah, four months.” She dabbed at the edges of Marie’s wound with some stinging antiseptic. “I needed a place to stay. Hardly expected you to come crawling in, half dead and bloodied,” she teased, but her eyes betrayed a deep concern.
“Any luck finding Sasha?”
“I heard she and her group were last spotted in Damascus. I plan to head there in the morning. Or, I had planned to. I will stay here with you as long as you need, I’m not going to leave you hurt and alone.”
“I know it’s important you find her,” Marie replied while Eldarion put away the medical supplies. Without a proper healer, there wasn’t much more she could do. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
“Don’t be stubborn.”
“Of course not. That’s your job.”
The two women grinned at each other. Eldarion pulled a chair over toward the couch so that she could sit beside Marie and hold her hand gently in her own.
“I’m sure a few days won’t hurt,” Eldarion said, softly running her thumb across the soft skin of Marie’s hand. “After all, it has been quite a while since we’ve seen each other. Even if you weren’t injured, I’m sure I would’ve been persuaded to stay with you for a couple extra days.”
“I’m glad you were here,” Marie breathed, a smile on her lips. “Not just to patch me up.”
“I know.”
Eldarion bent down so that she could kiss her, and Marie used her remaining strength to reach up and cup Eldarion’s cheek as their lips met, soft and slow. They smiled against each other, and, for a few moments, nothing hurt.
“I think I’m going to get some rest,” Marie said.
“Good idea. I’ll be here when you wake up, alright?”
Marie lifted Eldarion’s hand to her lips and gave it a kiss. “I love you.”
Day 1 of @rqgfemslashweek! The prompt for today was Celebrations
Surprise!
Sasha has been staying aboard the airship with Earhart and her crew for a few months now. To celebrate her being there, Am gets her a present to help her fit in and know that she's always welcome there.
“I have a surprise for you!”
“What? Why?” The suspicion that built up in Sasha’s gut faded when she saw the way Amelia smiled back at her, the excitement in her features as she bounded toward her captain’s cabin.
“Come on! It’s not bad, I promise.”
She held out her hand and Sasha took it, allowing herself to be dragged inside the small room.
Sasha had taken Amelia’s offer to come back and visit a few months ago, and then she just never left. Despite being twice as tall as most of the crew, she fit in well and learned both the literal and figurative ropes quickly enough. Occasionally she would take to the helm, but she preferred to spend most of her time in the mechanical rigging or the crow’s nest, watching the clouds and staring at the sky she once wondered if she’d ever be allowed to see. And the rest of the time she spent with Amelia.
Without Bertie and Zolf around arguing and bickering constantly, Sasha found herself at ease rather quickly, letting herself laugh and chat with Amelia, nothing held back. She couldn’t remember ever smiling as much as she did when they were together.
Surprises, though, scared her on principle. Every time there was a ‘surprise’ in Other London, every time a plan went off the rails, it never meant good news. But Sasha trusted Amelia, ignoring every wall she’d ever built to keep herself safe.
So, she allowed Amelia to pull her into the captain’s cabin and shut the door behind them.
“I got you a gift!”
“You did what? You didn’t have to… I don’t have anything for you.”
Amelia laughed. “That’s not the point. The point is that I wanted to get you something. Close your eyes.”
“Do I have to?”
“Yes!”
A faint smile on her lips, Sasha obliged and shut her eyes tight. She could hear rustling on the far side of the cabin, and then footsteps leading back over to her. From the clicking of Amelia’s boots, Sasha knew she was bouncing in place with excitement as she’d seen her do so often.
“Okay, you can open up.”
Sasha opened her eyes and was immediately greeted with the sight of an outrageously decorated aviator’s hat, similar to the one Amelia wore when she was on deck. It was covered in cogs and bits, with a gigantic feather sticking out of the top.
“You’ve been here for a couple months now, and I can’t even imagine what it would be like without you at this point. Like, for the crew, but for me, especially.” Amelia reached up and gently took Sasha’s hand in her own. Sasha didn’t resist. “As long as you want to call this ship home, you’re always welcome. And you’re welcome with me. So, I wanted to get you something to celebrate! And I know you like my hat, so it seemed a pretty obvious choice.”
“Thank you…” Sasha spent a few seconds staring at the hat, then at Amelia and that sparkle in her eyes, and then the cycle repeated. After a moment, she set the hat aside and sat down on the bed so that she was closer to Amelia’s level. “Truth is, I can’t imagine leaving. I didn’t think of the word ‘home,’ but… you’re not wrong. You make this place home.”
Amelia smiled and beamed up at Sasha, then darted forward to kiss her, smiling against her lips, while Sasha held her tightly.
After a while, Amelia tugged away, excitement still glimmering in her eyes. “C’mon, try it on!”
Sasha chuckled, but did as requested and donned the ridiculously floppy hat.
“I feel… I feel powerful? I don’t know what it is, but I love it.” Sasha examined her appearance in a mirror.
“First Mate Sasha! You look perfect!” Amelia squealed. “I mean, you know, you’re not actually my First Mate in an official sense, but-”
“I know, I know,” Sasha laughed, spinning her head around so that she could see herself and her new hat from every angle. After a moment, she teased, “I think your hat is still bigger.”
“Well, of course. I’m the captain. I always get the biggest hat.”
While Sasha had checked out the hat in the mirror, Amelia had crawled up on top her desk to stand beside her and wrap an arm around her shoulders.
“Thank you, Am,” Sasha said softly. “This is… it means a lot.”
Amelia pressed a kiss to Sasha’s cheek, which she could only barely reach due to the floppiness of the new hat. Meanwhile, Sasha couldn’t stop smiling, mesmerized by the reflection of her and Amelia together.
Maybe, she realized, not every surprise was a bad thing.
Even across the centuries, Azu and Sasha remain connected. If only they had more time...
Sasha was unconscious, practically dead from that invisible monstrosity that had attacked her. Even though it didn’t manage to kill her, the chill of Rome that permeated through everything was still giving it a good go, trying to take her from them.
Azu peeled off the few bits of her armor that she’d managed to don and pulled Sasha in close. She couldn’t heal her, couldn’t pray, so holding her tight was the best she could manage.
“Please, please, be okay,” she breathed against Sasha’s temple, even though she couldn’t hear it. The words were half for herself and half a prayer she hoped would sneak through the gaps and reach Aphrodite.
The fact that Sasha couldn’t even resist the physical contact, but instead lay motionless on the hard dirt floor, sent pangs of despair down Azu’s spine. She had to be okay. She had to.
Even if she couldn’t reach her god, Azu held onto the replica Heart of Aphrodite that Erin Fairhands had given her. Had it really only been a matter of days since Cairo, since joining up with this group, since becoming a family? It felt like years. Holding Sasha in her arms, Azu didn’t care about how long she had known them, only that she couldn’t bear to lose them.
After examining the pendant in her hand for a few moments, looking over the fine etchings that decorated its surface, Azu slipped it off and then placed it around Sasha’s neck, tucking it gently inside the outer flap of her jacket. It was silly, and Azu knew that, but she couldn’t just lay there helplessly and hope. Even if Aphrodite couldn’t reach them, or Azu’s prayers couldn’t be heard, maybe that token would be enough to help Sasha stave off the darkness. The real one had brought her back to life; maybe this one would keep her alive.
“You’re going to be okay,” Azu whispered, demanding it of the universe. “You’re going to be okay.”
*
Sasha had noticed the amulet around her neck the moment she woke up, but she never had the chance to say anything while fending off Roman monsters and searching for their captured family members. If Azu had given it to her, then it was important, right? There would be time later.
But there wasn’t time. Sasha and Grizzop were lost to the past, and now Sasha was alone.
Sitting on the roof of an abandoned villa a few days walk from what was once the bustling city of Rome, now a crater of evil, Sasha pulled the heart-shaped pendant out from where she’d kept it safely tucked inside her jacket and ran her fingers over the etchings.
“Please, be okay,” she whispered into the air, fighting against tears. “Please, let her be okay. She has to be. And Hamid too, but…”
She looked over the Heart. If only there had been more time, maybe she would’ve told Azu? Maybe they could have…?
It didn’t matter now. Azu was two thousand years away, and Sasha was alone.
Holding the pendant in her hands and closing her eyes, though, she could almost pretend that Azu was still there, ready to brush her tears away and smile despite all the evil they faced.
Even if nothing else, maybe that memory could span the decades.
Modern AU where Azu is an investigator who is looking into a series of break-ins and stumbles upon a world of vampires. Sasha, who is a relatively new member of this undead community, has been using her recently acquired darkness and stealth powers to make a tidy profit as an, uh, antiques acquirer. When Azu doesn’t strike her down immediately, Sasha has to find out more about this stranger that spared her, and she and Azu wind up an unlikely tag team trying to figure out who is actually behind these thefts, and if either of them can keep their humanity in the process.
This is an idea I had a while ago, but never actually got around to writing. Hopefully I’ll sit down and write the rest of it, but for now, here’s a small snippet!
I wanted to focus on how, when Sasha was worried about turning into a lich, they all reassured her that she would still be a good person, no matter what, and to see how she would maintain her morals when actually undead.
In the whole story I have more or less planned, it is shippy between Azu and Sasha, but this chapter here is not.
Azu didn’t know where she was. She’d been in a fight, she remembered that much, but then there was nothing, save for the small apartment that surrounded her.
A familiar yet shadowy figure stepped into the room, and Azu sat bolt upright, ready to fight. Her gun was gone from her holster, so she started to reach for a lamp in case she needed a weapon, but she was interrupted before she got too far.
“Calm down, I’m not going to hurt you,” the dark stranger said. “If I’d wanted to, I would’ve done it while you were passed out on my couch.”
Azu glanced around her and noticed that she had indeed been sprawled out on a comfy couch, several blankets tossed over her sleeping form until she discarded them in her terror of waking up in an unknown locale.
“Right. Okay. Who are you? What am I doing here?”
“You got knocked out. So I dragged you back here. You’re big, you know that?”
“I saw you… at the museum. You’re a thief and a…”
“I’m a vampire, yeah.”
“Right,” Azu said again, trying to parse out the stories from the truth.
“Name’s Sasha."
"Azu."
"I know. Do you want some food?”
Azu drew back slightly. “Do you mean… blood?”
With a sigh and a roll of her eyes, Sasha replied, “No. I popped out and got a bunch of takeaway. Didn’t know what you might like, and I don’t really remember how much living people eat anymore, so I just got a few things. I figured you’d be hungry.”
“I am, yeah. Thank you,” Azu said cautiously, hoping the rumble of her stomach wasn’t too loud. She allowed Sasha to lead her to the kitchen, where nearly two dozen boxes of takeaway food were placed on the counter.
“I hope it’s enough,” Sasha added.
Azu couldn’t help but chuckle. “You’ve been a vampire a long time, then? Because this is a lot of food. Like you said, I’m big, but this is enough for several days’ worth.”
“Oh. Well, you got leftovers then.”
Azu noticed that Sasha didn’t answer how long she’d been a vampire and decided not to push it. Even though she was kind enough right now, she didn’t want to risk the ire of someone with some strange abilities, undead or otherwise, especially while in their abode and weaponless.
Instead, she picked up a box of Indian food and followed Sasha back to the living room, where she sat on the couch and dug in.
“Do you… can you… do you want some?” Azu questioned as she noticed Sasha watching her intently.
“No, no, I can’t eat that stuff anymore. Well, I can, but it’s not pretty.”
“Fair enough.” After a moment, Azu froze, and moved a hand to her neck. “You didn’t… bite me, did you? Is that why you’re not hungry? You drank my blood?”
Sasha sighed again, but this time there was a faint smile on her lips. “I don’t just drink random people’s blood; you never know where it’s been.”
“Where do you get your blood, then?”
“Blood banks, mostly. It’s all vetted and tested. And that way there aren’t people or corpses showing up with bites on their neck. We vampires already get a bad rap, we don’t need any more people coming to look for us.”
“Makes sense.”
Azu finished eating, then closed the takeaway box and set it on the coffee table. She leaned forward toward Sasha. “I don’t understand what’s happening. Why did you rescue me? How did you even know where I was? What’s going on?”
“I mean, you saw me at the museum. You saw me… acquiring some antiques for some… appraisal…”
“You were stealing from that fancy gem exhibit, yeah.”
“If you want to put it like that,” Sasha chuckled. “But you saw me as a thief and a weird monster, but you didn’t strike me down. You could’ve shot me, you could’ve screamed, but you didn’t. I wanted to know why.”
“You weren’t the person I was looking for.”
“That’s it?”
Azu nodded. “I didn’t know much about vampires, didn’t know for sure if they were real, but it’s hardly the strangest thing out there.”
“Well… thanks, for not shooting me. So, I followed you? I was curious.”
“You were following me? How? I didn’t see you at all.”
Sasha smirked. “I’ve always been good at hiding. Since turning undead, I’ve just gotten better. Don’t feel bad. Nobody sees me coming.” She continued, “When the Hunters caught up with you and questioned you, I saw them hit you, and I had to do something. So, I lured them off, and then came back to get you. What are you looking for?”
“I’m trying to figure out who is stealing priceless ancient artifacts from across the city,” Azu explained. There wasn’t much use in hiding her mission, was there? "Some of them are important to Aphrodite, and we want to recover them." She gestured to the pink insignia on her chest.
“And yet you didn’t try to stop me?”
“You were stealing gems. There was a group of people stealing a stone tablet on the far end of the wing. I think it was clear which thief I was tasked with finding.”
Sasha let out a heavy sigh. “Mortals are looking for them too, then.”
“Who?”
“Don’t know. But they’re nicking a bunch of important things and leaving dried out bodies around. It’s bad for business. There are more Hunters running around town now than there ever were before.” She hesitated. “I want to help you.”
“Help me?”
“Yeah. I can help you on the case. I want to stop them too, most vampires do. They’re not subtle; more people are going to be looking into what they’re doing, and that means it’s more likely some innocent vampire is going to get caught and killed in the process. I want to help stop them. I can’t do it on my own.”
“I don’t know…” Azu pondered. After getting knocked out twice, once in the museum, and once by the group of Vampire Hunters that came to question her on the street, though, she figured it couldn’t hurt to have someone watching her back. “You know what, sure. Why not?”
Sasha beamed. “Alright. I’m not used to being a good guy.”
“Bad guys don’t generally offer to help cops track down a bunch of murderers and thieves.”
Thank you so much to everyone who put on this event and to everyone who participated, I can’t believe the week is over!
Neither Time Nor Gods
It had been seventeen years. Despite everything, the world was safe, or as safe as it ever could be. There was still so much to be rebuilt, but society had started to reform, and the hopeful rays of peace settled over the land.
Some days were easier than others. Some days it was impossible to push past the thought of just how many people were lost, strangers and loved ones alike. Each death hurt, stung to the core, but there were some losses that simply hurt more.
Curie set aside the portrait of an elven woman and wiped away the tears in her eyes. There was much to be done. Even on the bad days, she still had to keep fighting.
When she first heard that Eldarion went missing in another plane, her first careless thought was to go after her, throw caution and responsibility to the wind and damn the consequences. But she knew it wouldn’t work. Eldarion had been the master of planeswalking, and Curie’s talents lied elsewhere. And her responsibilities truly couldn’t be abandoned, not when so many lives were at stake. If Eldarion was still alive, she would respect that, understand that. Or at least, that’s what Marie told herself in the late, lonely nights when all the space around her seemed too much, too big, too empty without her.
*
“Uh, hellooo? Is this thing on?”
With an affectionate sigh, Curie rummaged for her mobile stone.
“Good to hear your voice.”
Einstein exclaimed, “Ah! There you are!”
“How are you?” They didn’t keep in touch as much anymore with their time as the front-guard of the Harlequin movement come and gone, especially now that such organizations were less distinct in the new society.
“I’m good! But, I, well, I know that you don’t like me spontaneously teleporting into your home, so I’m letting you know I’m on my way!”
Before Curie could process those words, Einstein appeared in front of her, still holding onto his mobile stone and speaking into it.
“Okay, I know this is-”
“Einstein! The stone?”
“Oh, right! I don’t need that anymore.” He tucked it in a pocket where it made a dangerous clatter. “You need to come with me to Damascus.”
Curie stared at him. “Why?”
“You just, uh, just, c’mon, god!”
She rolled her eyes but stepped toward him and allowed him to lace an arm through hers. His mind remained fractured in places, but he was still the best teleporter on the planet. If he didn’t hop around, teleporting people place to place, he would’ve been bored out of his mind, even if he did take the occasional vacation to a Kenyan mountain village every few months.
Curie didn’t recognize the building in which they appeared, but she’d never spent much time in Damascus.
“What’s going on?” She asked, more firmly this time. While she trusted Einstein, she didn’t necessarily want to run off without an explanation.
He grabbed her hand, muttering some half-formed explanations, and led her through a door. There, sitting in a chair, was Eldarion.
Marie could barely breathe. Was it her? Was it really her?”
“Eldarion?”
She looked up and her eyes locked with Marie’s. A moment later, she attempted to launch herself out of the chair and toward her beloved, but her strength failed her before she could even stand, and she sank back into the seat. Instead, Marie rushed to her side, kneeling before her, sobbing, as their hands laced together in Eldarion’s lap.
“How is this possible? Is it you? How? I don’t care, you’re here, you’re back, I thought…”
Eldarion was crying too, one hand running fingers through Marie’s hair as she smiled and savored her touch.
They cried together for several minutes, holding onto each other and refusing to ever let go again.
“You have grey hair now,” Eldarion said softly, an affectionate smile on her lips.
“It has been a while. Did someone tell you how-”
“Almost seventeen years, apparently. It was barely a couple hours for me.”
“What happened?” Marie looked up at Eldarion, eyes shimmering with the tears shed over nearly two decades.
Eldarion’s lip shook. “I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get back. I knew that, to save Sasha and her friends, I would have to stay, in that other plane, with Hades and so many horrible things. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have left you, but I had to, I-”
Marie squeezed her hand tightly. “I understand. I don’t blame you. I just… I can’t believe you’re here. I’m so glad you’re safe, words can’t even begin to explain…”
“I just wish I hadn’t been gone so long. I already missed so much, and you humans with your tiny lifespans,” she teased, and Marie smiled up at her.
“We still have plenty of time. Even if it were only a single second more spent with you, it would be worth it, worth every year that we were apart.”
Marie stood and leaned forward to kiss Eldarion, holding her tightly as she practically folded into their embrace. They were crying again, but this time it was less from relief and more from joy that the bond between their souls and their hearts was so strong, so powerful, that neither time nor gods could deign to keep them apart.
“I love you. I never, ever stopped,” Marie whispered, still holding desperately to Eldarion.
“I love you, too. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.” She brushed Eldarion’s hair from her face. “You’re here. And that’s all that matters.”
Cleo awakes in the hospital after defeating the knucker, with Betty at her side. But the last words Betty had said to her before she lost consciousness were that she wasn't Betty at all.
She was Bette. Her Bette.
“Cleo! Cleo, hang on, please!”
Bette shut her eyes tight and tried to use all the strange magic she possessed to save Cleo, to bring her back from the brink of death, to seal her wounds and mend her bones.
But Cleo simply groaned, and her breath escaped in a low rattle. Bette sobbed, knowing that she couldn’t save her beloved, even if she gave up all of herself to do so.
“Cleo, I… if we die here, you have to know. I’m not Betty. I’m Bette. Your Bette. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, I… I love you, Cleo, I always have. I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…”
*
Cleo’s eyes opened wide and she practically launched herself out of the hospital bed in an instant. She looked all around her, half looking for a weapon and half looking for…
Her.
“Betty?”
“It’s okay, I’m here.” She replied in soft tones, leaning forward so that she rested close beside Cleo’s bed.
“Did we… did we kill it?”
“You did,” Bette replied with a proud smile. “The town suffered a lot of damage and several casualties, but all things considered, not our worst job. Do you remember what happened?”
“Sort of? I lost an arm?" She looked down at her side. "I was kind of hoping I'd dreamed that part. But no, I... really don't have an arm anymore. That's... a lot." She grimaced and looked away, back up at Bette. "Didn’t the knucker… eat me?”
Bette scrunched her face up. “Yeah, that’s… more or less what happened. And you sliced it up from the inside, and then you…”
“I fell. I…”
“You were really, really badly injured. You almost…”
“You healed me,” Cleo said as she put the pieces together. “You gave up more and more of yourself to heal me. And you said… you said you were…” She creased her brow as she tried to remember through the pain and blood loss, staring through Bette’s now more transparent form. “You told me you were Bette. That if we died, you wanted me to know. And that you were sorry? How is that… I don’t understand.”
“I’m Bette. Your Bette,” she stated quickly, her incorporeal hands still able to shake. “When the cultists killed me, Malphas-”
“The demon.”
“Yes. He… he brought me back somehow. I was supposed to serve him, but I didn’t care about that. I cared about finding you again. But I saw… I saw what happened to you when I died. You… you slaughtered all those people.”
“They killed her! You! Bette! What was I supposed to do!?”
“I don’t know. But, you have to understand, after you did that, after I saw how your heart broke and filled with rage, how was I supposed to tell you who I was? I followed you for months, trying to find the right moment to tell you the truth. It wasn’t until Sam noticed me and tried to run me over that I couldn’t just hide anymore, but I was still so scared… I didn’t want to hurt you anymore.”
Cleo’s brows were furrowed as she listened to Bette’s words, trying to parse out the truth. “Why should I believe you? How can I believe that you’re actually Bette?”
“The first time you told me you loved me was that night when we sat on that hill to watch the full moon and the stars. I had packed a whole picnic, but you didn’t eat anything, you were so nervous. You said you were scared that I still didn’t see you as a lover, not seriously, but I just-”
“-you laughed.” Cleo interrupted, her eyes now wide and glistening. “You laughed and said you loved me too. And that nothing could break us apart, not prejudice, not our families, not time, none of it.” She took a deep breath and the tears started to fall down her face. “Oh, Bette, I… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
Bette used all of her focus to reach for Cleo’s hand and set hers on top of it. It took more effort now to interact with the real world, but she would use every ounce of strength she had to hold onto Cleo.
“I’m sorry too. I should’ve told you.”
“No, you were probably right. If you’d just come to me right after you died, I… I don’t think I would’ve reacted well. Waiting until we almost died, well, maybe not ideal either, but I can’t say I blame you,” she teased, and Bette laughed. “I always thought your laugh sounded familiar, but I didn’t want to admit it. I thought I was making up memories of her, of you.”
“I understand that this is a lot to take in. And I also understand if, after some time has passed, if you want nothing to do with me, least of all in the way we were before I died. I’m a monster now, and I wouldn’t want to-”
“You’re a monster?” Cleo gasped, incredulous.
“I mean, I am a ghost.”
“I’m a murderer, Bette. I have hurt so, so many people, some of them that didn’t even come close to deserving it. For goodness sake, I helped a teenager run away from home and trained them to kill otherworldly horrors! If anyone is a monster here, I think it’s me.”
“Cleo…” Bette sighed, but it wasn’t as if she could refute it outright either. “We’ve both changed a lot, is what I mean to say. And it’s going to take time to figure out where we fit, and if we learn that we don’t fit, then…”
Cleo flipped her hand around to hold Bette’s in her own. Her form was almost see-through now, but Cleo could still feel the warmth of her skin, the softness of her fingers as if nothing had ever come between them.
“I know. And we’ll see. But for now… I’m just glad to have you back. You’re here, oh my god, you’re here, Bette…” Another bout of tears poured forth.
“I haven’t seen you cry in ages,” Bette said with a somber smile, her thumb gently brushing along Cleo’s skin as best she could manage.
“I wouldn’t let myself. I had to be strong. I had to keep fighting. You were the only person I let see me weak, because you were always strong enough for the two of us.”
“We’ve always been at our best when we’re together.”
Cleo nodded, then wiped away her tears. “I don’t know if… can I… can I kiss you?”
Bette couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’m not sure how well that will work anymore, but we can definitely try it.”
She leaned in close, focusing on Cleo’s lips and hoping beyond hope that she would be able to feel her again.
Whether it was that hope or something greater entirely, their lips met, and it felt like nothing had changed, as if Bette was still corporeal and Cleo’s face wasn’t bedecked with new scars. They were hesitant at first, unsure of how well this would work or how it would feel, but when they realized that their connection was as strong as ever, they kissed again, more desperately, making up for so much lost time.
“I never thought I’d get to kiss you again,” Cleo breathed.
“Me neither,” Bette admitted. “But I’d hoped…”
They found themselves leaning in again, begging for another kiss to pass between them, when the door to the hospital room burst open.
“Cleo! You’re awake!” Sam exclaimed, a bouquet of half-smashed flowers in their hands and a grin on their face. “I thought you were dead for sure! Oh!” They noticed how close Cleo and Bette – Betty – were, and slowly began to back out of the room. “Aaaand I am interrupting something, I will come back later. Bye!” And then they disappeared.
“How am I going to tell them that I’m a different me?” Bette asked rhetorically, staring into the empty space where Sam had stood.
“We can figure that out later. For now, I believe we were in the middle of something?”
Day 6 of @rqgfemslashweek: Rare Pair - Muriel Cheedlehume and Ella Cowen from the Trail of Cthulhu Special!
No Canvas to Contain Us
Stepping into the world of Carcosa was strange at first, but when Muriel saw Ella there, she realized it was right where she was meant to be.
“Darling, I can’t paint you properly if you keep moving.”
“How am I supposed to stay still when such a divine being is standing so close to me?” Ella teased, smirking.
“You can move plenty once I’m done.”
“You’re no fun.” She pouted.
“You cannot rush the oils, dear,” Muriel replied, shaking her paintbrush at Ella in a mocking and chastising manner. “And I would hate to have any detail of your beauty go untreasured.”
“You already treasure me so. But, I suppose, I’ll cease my whining, for now. After all, this world was made so that we could be free to pursue our art, and it would be cruel of me to try and stop you, even for a moment.”
With twin suns overhead, Muriel bowed back over her canvas, painting every detail of Ella’s beauty. Her oils worked differently now, since the night of The King in Yellow; her brushstrokes blended seamlessly together and as long as she thought hard enough, her visions would manifest on the canvas, a combination of the passion in her soul and the power of this new world.
Others of Muriel’s friends and associates had a harder time adapting to the streets of Carcosa, but she found herself immediately at home the moment she saw Ella. The strangeness she possessed when they spoke to her during the interval was gone, and instead she was bathed in a radiant light. When she smiled and spoke to Muriel, it was like the first time they met, laughing over brandy and talking about art and complaining about society and leaning in toward each other until their lips were mere millimeters apart…
Not that it was simple to immediately start fresh in a foreign world, a magical land that was so different than London. But it was easier for Muriel to manage, now that she could work on her art with no restrictions, and now that she had Ella, her muse, at her side.
“What do you think?” Muriel asked, turning her easel around for Ella to see.
“Oh, love, it’s wonderful. You’ve truly outdone yourself.” Ella stood and came to examine the painting closer, smiling the whole time, before lacing an arm around Muriel’s waist. “I suppose it was more than worth the wait.”
Muriel grinned at the praise, then pressed a quick kiss to Ella’s cheek. “Thankfully, we have all the time in the world here.”
“Nothing to stop us, nothing to stand in our way. Just art, the art we create together.” Ella reached out to take Muriel’s hands and look up at her, filled with bliss.
A few seconds later, Muriel gasped. “It’s almost first sunset! Darling, we have to get to the pier, you know how I love the way the hues dance over the water.”
Ella glanced up at the sky through the window, then pouted again, a mischievous glint in her eye. “We still have a little time before the sun gets that low. I’ve been sitting in one place all day while you’ve been painting me. What do you say you help me stretch out first?”
“I suppose it’s the least I can do for my muse.”
Muriel tugged Ella in closer to kiss her while Ella wrapped her arms tight around Muriel’s waist. Their bodies pressed together with two suns overhead, they were free to create their own masterpieces, with no limitations holding them back.
