Private The Trenches What We Are To Each Other

[Morgan Liu]

Morgan started at mention of Vihma coming up here with a male, wondering if the weasel had caught on to Morgan's feelings and was trying to gently warn her away. As she listened, she found herself over-thinking, over-analyzing, trying to assess just what message was conveyed in those statements and reaching no conclusions.

Finally, she risked a response. "An' now?" she inquired, her voice hushed. "Are y' still wonderin'?"

 

[Vihmastaja]

Vihma frowned.

"Maybe a lil bit," the weasel admitted.

She turned to face the ferret, staying silent as she fished something from her satchel. It was the telescope from Piper's crossbow - expensive government property, not that Vihma particularly cared. It was of more use here than on the weapons rack back on the Hide.

"I uh, well..."

She fiddled with it, as though it was somehow some important task requiring her distraction.

"Y'know, I keep thinkin' about you. About us, I mean. Up in the crow's nest... Even there on the shore, when we were 'bout t'be overrun by the... y'know, the shrews... I remember thinking..."

Vihma trailed off. She remembered thinking about all she'd dragged herself into. All she'd dragged Morgan into. Thinking of how things would be if one of the Urk warriors had just been a little faster, just a little stronger, just a little bit better with their aim.

"Lot'v jacks I've liked, I jus' sorta... drove 'em away, I guess. Mayhaps they weren't really interested t'begin with. Who knows, neh? But... they - they always knew where I stood, at least."

The weasel coughed as if to clear her throat. It felt dry again. She wished on the stars she'd have brought some booze with her, more, now, just to make herself brave.

"Any'ow, I just means t'say I... I really care about ye, an' I... I wanted ye t'know that... just in case..."

Vihma couldn't bear to look at Morgan, already imagining the puzzled reaction to her words, the sheepish, delicate platitudes and clarifications she'd get back in response. The ferret wasn't the type to mock her, she was pretty sure of that. Maybe things would be awkward for a while, but... the ferret wouldn't hurt her, at least not meaning to. She could be sure of that, at least.

 

[Morgan Liu]

Morgan's breath caught in her chest, unable to believe her ears. Had she misread Vihma so badly? She'd been sure that the weasel didn't see her as anything more than a friend, a sister even, but...

Morgan quietly paced to one of the crenellations and sat herself down in them, resting her elbows on the stone struts. "Y'know," she said quietly, "when I was on that operatin' table, strugglin' t' breathe, drownin' in m' own blood, I was thinkin' 'bout givin' up. Jus' lettin' it end. I figger'd Mum an' Mother woul' be sad, but 'ey'd get a flag an' a medal, an' those at leas' can't disappoint 'em like I do. The crew'd ferget me quick enough. Th' only one I couldn' bear t' leave was you."

She looked up at Vihma, tears in her eyes. "I really like ya, Vim," she confessed. "I think yer smart, yer pretty, and yer good. Yer a good beast through an' through, nah in spite a' what ye been through, but 'cuz ye chose t' be good even after all a' it. When I'm wiv' ya, I feel more alive, more... more me 'n I 'ave m' 'ole life. Around ye, I don' spend every momen' hatin' m'self anymore."

She took a deep breath before admitting, "I know I'm a lot, even on a good day, an' I wouldn' blame ye if ye wan'ed t' jes' keep thin's as 'ey are. But, if ye don', well..." She got up and, approaching Vihma, offered her paws, hope in her eyes. "...'En I'd really like t' try wiv' ya."

 

[Vihmastaja]

The weasel had looked away, too humbled by her expectations to face Morgan, even as the words came back more and more hopeful. When she turned back to her, the emotion in her eyes matched the ferret's, relief running off from her burning facefur in warm, gentle streaks.

Vihma almost dropped the scope to Piper's crossbow, right then and there. She set it down on the parapet with the last of her concentration, the last of her struggling willpower, already drained by forcing herself to become so vulnerable, by baring her heart as she had for this moment.

Her eyes caught Morgan's paws stretched out for her. With a suddenly careful, wilting step, as though floating through a dream she knew might end at any moment, the weasel drew near to her, the tawny fur of her paws a dark contrast against the ferret's paler coloration.

It took but a touch of fur, and then the weasel was against Morgan's chest, arms around the ferret's strong body, her muzzle against her shoulder as it had been before, when they'd been stuck alone in the cold up on the top of the Hide's tallest mast. She felt her warmth against her, like then, like she'd had any time she dared to draw so close.

"I-I love ye, Morgan. I..."

She sniffled, unable to speak, unable to find the words for what she was feeling, to follow such an admission. Fear fought desperation for control of her body, as though refusing to believe this moment could be real. As though, any moment, it could be ripped away, that she would be cast off again, alone again, that all she'd hoped for would go to ruin, to leave her cold and longing as she'd pretended not to be for so very long before. Some tears still welled in her eyes, though Morgan returned to her vision after every blink.

"I never want t'let ye go..."

 

[Morgan Liu]

For a moment, as Vihma embraced Morgan, holding her tightly, Morgan felt a fear of her own wash over her, partner to and opposite of that gripping Vihma. She'd screwed up everything in her life again and again; she'd been so unlovable that her parents had left, abandoning her on the docks of Blackbone Isle. The only things anyone had ever cared about her for were what they could get from her: her muscle, her time, her body. Everyone who genuinely cared, she taxed and tested until they gave up on her, like Bezine all but had done at this point. Would she do the same to Vihma? Would one day she lose the weasel too, driving her away with the same exhausting behavior?

Slowly the ferret embraced Vihma, holding her tight. "I love ya too, Vim," she said softly, the pet name she'd adopted for the weasel as soft as a caress on the lips. "I ain' goin' nowhere. I can't promise I won' be an idiot sometimes - ye know me, ain' got any common sense in m' noggin," she chuckled, daring to plant a soft kiss atop Vihma's head. "Bu' I ain' gonna be reckless no more. I got summon t' live fer, after all."

Abruptly she laughed as a thought entered her head. "Oh, Mum's gonna be insufferable. Y'know, 'fore we went off t' Urk, she was sayin' 'at we shoul' get t'gether. She's gonna be so smug 'en she finds ou'."