Shimmer, Glimmer, & Gleam - A Quest of Loss & Gain

You look around for a moment. Nothing. Fuck. Hop gently up and down on your tiptoes, no dice. You make a little whining sound deep in your throat, how're you supposed to -

"...Orchid, honey, if you're unsure the answer is 'no'," Diamond says gently.

"Thats!" you wave your arms. "Not! It! I'm trying to be all spontaneous and kiss you first as my answer but I come up to your bellybutton I'm so fucking short!"

Diamond laughs a long, hard belly laugh that turns you red in the face, but she also graciously bows to lower herself so that you can reach her face. Finally! You grab her face a little too hard probably and come in hot; blessedly, Diamond puts her hand on your chest to stop you from literally crashing into her, and you're able to reign in the excitement of victory (among other kinds of excitement) enough to slow down, and meet her...

...Her lips taste like cherries...

You find yourself pressing against her, the rush gone, replaced by a sort of warm safety and, paradoxically, protectiveness. You should be going with her, you shouldn't be here, the two of you have been into battle together already and how do you know she's going to be safe -

When Diamond tries to pull away you catch her lip in your teeth, and she makes a soft, needy little sound, and sinks back into the kiss with you until you yourself have to come up for air. You press your cheek against her chest, shaking softly. And you tell her: "Come back to me. No matter who has to die, okay? Come back."

Clawed fingers comb through your hair, sharp, and deadly, and they would never, ever hurt you. "I'll do my best," Diamond murmurs, her rich voice vaguely dazed. "I promise."

Good fuckin' morning world! It's a great day to swear a lot more in your head than you do out loud! You caught cursing off Peepaw like a cold and it never quite left ya, but a lady keeps a civil tongue. If city girls think it's cute, well...

Well nothing, actually, your last serious relationship was like two years ago. You'd think the lacrosse team woulda helped with the whole 'dating' thing but for reasons unknown to you a remarkable number of straight women also have a deep, needy well of violent rage inside them. Who woulda guessed?

First on the agenda this morning, go get breakfa -

"Orchid why on the gods' beautiful world are you bleeding from the eyes?" you demand, too tired to be properly mad but boy, mad is sure comin'. Orchid gestures vaguely at, oh, that's, that's a new greenhouse, okay, and then its hand keeps moving and alright, those are potatoes and carrots and - oh. "...Please tell me you talked to the doctors."

"Yep," Orchid says with a weak, red-toothed little smile. It then pulls extremely stale pre-packaged cookies out of its many pockets and starts eating like it's gonna die, which, in fairness, yeah, sure. "Mornin' Jill."

You open your mouth to say 'mornin'' back, but Kayleigh comes shambling up behind Orchid also looking like the living dead, though you're more familiar with this version. Your friend-slash-massive-crush seems to have the caffeine tolerance of a living god; Kayleigh, on the other hand, looks like she will absolutely kill again if the small paper cup in her hands gets dropped, and honestly you'd probably help her. So you wave to Kayleigh and you get the traditional reply of the living dead, that being a low grunting moan followed by the noisy slurping of coffee.

"Gonna be one of those mornings huh," you comment.

"Yeah," Orchid admits, between bites of cookie. Well. 'Bites'. Orchid does everything short of unhinging its jaw to swallow the damn thing whole. "I gotta talk to the assault team after I wash up, and then I had another idea for Diamond and her girls so I gotta catch them before they leave tomorrow, an' Heller needed something, got a thing with the kids later..."

"We still on for this evening?" you press.

"Yeah," Orchid says vaguely. "Yeah, definitely. You might have to chase me down but um. I dunno, have Wheelwright yell at me, she's good at yelling. If you gotta."

Ah, your little flower. In almost anyone else that would be a deadly insult, a deep sign of inconsideration, but in Orchid? Orchid of all people? That's Orchid saying 'if I can't, make me', and that's just...

Mmm.

"What's your day looking like?" Orchid asks. "I've given up on keeping track of the rotas, there's so damn many, someone'll tell me if I need to change something."

"Flower," you say patiently. "Your job isn't to keep personal track of the rotas. We've got people for that. I am people for that. Which, speakin' of..."

First I gotta...
[ ] Teach somea my fellow jocks other useful skills
[ ] Cover for that stunt you pulled with the kids
[ ] Solve a dispute about some of the entertainment

...And then...
[ ] A shift in the gardens
[ ] Some time in the pickets
[ ] I weaseled my way into fishing duty

& of course our evening...
[ ] Going over somea your notes
[ ] Trying out that new (well, for you) game
[ ] Explaining about...well, about Dad, downtown...