She had been quiet all the way through their hunt, as well as a little more deadly and savage than he was accustomed to from her, and he couldn’t help but feel proud at the sight of her doing so well taking down their meal, which she had done more or less by herself. He had a wrap for himself and one of her favorite dresses, a thick and rather coarse brown which, for some reason, she really loved even though it was nothing like the things she’d once worn as a prisoner.
“Here, you missed a bit.” He took a rag from her and started cleaning the back of her legs, himself still completely filthy. It was a common enough ritual after hunting, but not exactly one that they had shared terribly often.
Candra didn’t say anything for a while as he helped her, but she let out a heavy sigh. “We can’t survive against them. There’s no way.”
“Huh.” He said simply, and didn’t respond for a while afterwards. “Well, thanks for the vote of confidence there, sweetheart.”
She sighed again and turned around to look at him. “There are so many of them. They have ties with everyone that you could possibly think of. And…that Heartborn…I saw her before. All the time. She could be leading us to our death, for all we know.”
“On that, we agree. But if Nick has any brains, he’ll leave her at home when it’s time to get busy fighting. Heartborn are worthless in a scrap.”
“I don’t know how to fight. All it would take is one bullet to the heart and I’m dead.” Candra countered, since she flinched and winced at even an argument.
“That would mean someone would have to get a look at you, which I’m going to make sure doesn’t happen.” He finished with her leg and stood up with the same rag to get the dirt and mud off his arms. “You and I stay behind the vanguard and wait for them to draw out the Forestborn. Then you and I…do some thundering. The second anybody’s within sight of you, they’ll be twitching too bad to pull the trigger. Or anything else, for that matter.”
Candra grabbed another rag and dipped it into the water to soak it so that she could help him too. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because I’ve been doing this for a while.” He said with a comforting smile. “You keep forgetting that.”
“I’m just so scared, Orlando.” She whimpered as she continued wiping gently at his arm, looking down as she did so. “We’ve only had a few months together and I don’t want to lose you.”
“We’re going to have longer than these few months.” He put a mostly-clean hand to her chin and kissed her for the first time that day as humans. “I won’t say don’t be scared. Scared means you still have a healthy appreciation of the situation.” He kissed her again. “I’m scared too. But I’ll keep you safe.”
She kissed him several times before she pressed her forehead to his. “I can’t survive without you. I just can’t.”
He dropped the rag and rubbed noses with her once. “I know you grew up reading life through books, hon, but you don’t have to worry about that particular plot twist. I don’t think you could get rid of me at this point even if you wanted to.”
It was comforting to hear his confidence, so she smiled and kissed him a few more times. “Good. Because I certainly don’t want you going anywhere.” She slid down his body to get the rag he had dropped, then she moved slowly upwards and dropped it in the water before she finished off the movement with a kiss. “I want you right here.”
He looked around the bathroom they stood in, close quarters as it was, and looked back down at her. “Well, it is the one room in the house we haven’t tried yet.”
Candra growled softly against his lips as she ran her fingers up and down his back. “You know, it’s a good thing that we only have to worry about Fulnesses. Otherwise we’d really be in trouble. I’m surprised we’re not.”
“So am I, honestly.” He grabbed the wrap he was going to wear and used it instead to dry her off, not meeting her eyes as he spoke. “There was a time when I didn’t think I would even be able to be with anyone.” He looked up at her with a grin. “Obviously that changed.” Orlando went back to drying her off slowly. “But I still might not be capable of having children. It’s not like there’s any others like me that I can just call up and ask.”
“Why do you think that you aren’t capable? I never read anything about that.”
He leaned back against the wall away from her, looking slightly condescending, but it was a look that was more and more rare from him in recent days. “Everything you read about me before we met was about how my kind steals people’s souls, destroys continents with a single howl, or how we’re - you and I - destined to be together for life. I doubt the legends were particularly specific about my reproductive capacity.”
She narrowed her eyes at him as she held him against the wall. “I don’t like that look. Listen, if you’re not sure, then I guess we’ll just have to keep trying.” She never thought she would ever be with anyone either, so if he
