Page 112 of To Fight and To Fold

Skies, Thea wanted to kiss her too.

"Aaryn," Thea whispered, and despite her light rasp, her tone was heavy with something unsaid as she forced herself to pull away—Aaryn reached out. She grabbed at the side of Thea's armor, hooking her fingers into the scales, halting her retreat. "Tonight was a lot," Thea continued, heart racing, words falling out of her mouth with no filter. "We shouldn't—I don't want to take advantage of how… raw we are."

Aaryn's cheek twitched. She was silently laughing at Thea. Thea was okay with that.

"You should've actually been a knight," Aaryn murmured bravely. Those words could be taken one of two ways. Aaryn delivered them like a dare. "You're far too honorable like one."

Thea's jaw ticked as her annoyance flared, and Aaryn looked satisfied, as if Thea was playing into her hands, though it was Aaryn's face cupped between her palms. Her thumbs slid lower, into the underside of Aaryn's jaw, short nails digging in to tilt her head up. Aaryn's breath caught.

And then Thea finally pressed their mouths together. No polite peck of the lips and wide-eyed wonder. They slotted together, two cracked pieces making a whole.

Aaryn sipped from her lips and Thea drank from hers, parched like never before. Her palms traced up Thea's sides, and Thea wished her armor wasn't in the way, wished she could feel the sensation of those hands on her own skin. They were so close the scales of their matching armor clicked together softly. Thea led the kiss, the angle, but Aaryn was the first to part her lips, to trace the shape of Thea's full bottom lip, to coax her to meet her in the middle.

She did, with a groan. Thea felt like she did in the sky, weightless and yet entirely aware of the space around her, knowing how high up she was and how far she would have to fall.

Thea broke the kiss just as her lungs began to burn.

"Okay, okay, that's enough," Thea breathed, bumping their foreheads together. "We're still covered in soot."

Aaryn laughed, and the sound stilled Thea's racing heart for a second. She could still sense the weight of Aaryn's lips on hers, the taste of her still in Thea's mouth.

"Okay."

Darkness weighed around them. The soot and ash washed from their hair and skin, the sounds of the camps outside settling down.

Thea felt like her heartbeat was loud in the room, the cot beneath her. Less of a cot and more of a thin mat. She'd grown used to it.

Aaryn's breathing was steady, and Thea assumed she'd already fallen asleep.

At least until she said, "So do you hate me?"

Thea blinked, and might have thought Aaryn was talking in her sleep, except her voice was far too pointed.

"What?"

"That's the only explanation I can come up with. Why are you on that damned cot?"

Thea sat up and peered over the edge of the bed, the shape of Aaryn suspiciously scooted toward the wall.

"I—I didn't want to presume," Thea said defensively.

In the low light of the lanterns spilling in from the night outside, Thea could just barely see the stare Aaryn leveled in her direction. She tossed the blanket aside.

"Thea," Aaryn said, revealing a Thea-sized space. "You can afford to presume a little more often."

"Oh," Thea said, and rose from the floor, managing not to trip until the mattress was within reach to catch her.

Aaryn giggled at her suaveness, a tiny squeaking noise that made Thea's horns tingle, her chest suddenly tight with the swell of growing affection.

She crawled onto the stuffed mattress, pulling the blanket over her as if it might offer protection. But then she was on the mattress, and Aaryn was right there. Pressed shoulder to hip and thigh. If Thea relaxed her foot, it would rest against Aaryn too.

"Don't laugh at me," Thea said, but even she heard the smile in her pout.

The memory of florals bloomed into a fresh field, and Thea breathed deeply as her laugh faded, as Aaryn's warmth seeped into her. A rain after a long drought. Heat after a bitter winter.

"Sorry, sorry," Aaryn breathed, voice high and light, not sounding very sorry at all. Their hands brushed, their fingers bumped.

With every breath she was entirely too aware of Aaryn's presence. Every shift, every heartbeat.