A/N: Another prompt fill! The prompt in question this time was: 'Valentine's day. Romantic, platonic, childhood friendship, angsty memories, anti-Valentine's day etc. Go crazy.' Also, the usual Animorphs speech symbols don't appear to be working, so ((speech)) represents what the arrow marks usually would.
The hawk flew overhead as she cantered through the forest, carefully watching her footing so that she didn't shake her load up too much; she had secured the contents of the containers, but she'd rather not test its efficiency further than she had to. Spying the light ahead, she gradually reduced her pace, eventually walking through the last of the trees and emerging in the small clearing Tobias had found during his wanderings. She tried to reach around to unhook the bag attached to her saddle, not wanting Tobias to morph to human until things were set up; their time together was limited, and she didn't want to waste it on mundane tasks.
Apparently, the bag didn't have the same concern. It swung gently just out of her reach, propelled by the light breeze. She stretched her neck further and tried to take it between her teeth. Before the bone could reach it, however, her nose brushed it, sending it away from her. She readied herself to catch it when it swung back, but, before she could, Tobias stepped out from her blind spot and did it for her.
((I was going to do that.))
"It didn't take long for me to do it," he replied as he set to work loosening her saddle, knowing that her concern was over the morph time it would use up. "I can't believe Cassie actually talked you into wearing this."
Rachel snorted in frustration; neither could she. The process of getting saddled had felt utterly degrading and restricting, and the experience of having something on her back the whole trip wasn't much better. It wasn't that it was heavy, but it was irritating, and she had kept getting the urge to buck the thing off of her. She insisted that it was the only way to transport the food in this form.
When the weight was finally removed from her back, she shook her head in pleasure, letting her mane whip around, before visualising her human self and morphing back. Before she let herself relax, she pulled two changes of clothes and a watch from her bag. "Here, catch," was the only warning she gave before tossing one of them at Tobias' face. A hand shot out to grab them from mid-air just before the collision. "Good catch."
"It's because of all the time I spend as a hawk," he explained as he started to pull them on over his skin-tight morphsuit. "They have great reflexes."
She's pleased that he hasn't started to refer to himself as one of them yet. She knew he thought it, and that it was only a matter of time until he started referring to himself as if he really had been born a hawk, but she wanted to delay that for as long as possible. Every day he fought that mindset was another day she had to convince him that giving up morphing was better than condemning himself to this cracked life for the rest of his life, however long he had left.
I have to ask Cassie about hawk lifespans, she thought. We could all die any day, but I don't want him to die of old age at twenty.
Shaking herself from the oncoming melancholy, she set the watch to sound an alarm an hour and three quarters hence and clasped it to her wrist before donning the clothes she'd brought for herself. As she zipped herself up in the warmth of her jacket, she surveyed the sky, which was so cloudy that the bits of blue peeked out between the fluffy grey patches rather than surrounding them. The weatherman had predicted light showers in the afternoon, but fortunately the sky, while overcast, hadn't delivered in that regard. The trees were thick enough that they would be able to provide decent cover if needed, but she really didn't want to have to use them. Rachel spread the orange woollen blanket out on the ground with a flourish as Tobias started to unpack the food from their containers.
"How have you been?" Tobias asked her. He hadn't seen her much lately due to a scouting mission he and Marco had gone on. They had debriefed upon his return, but they had been focused on practical rather than personal things.
"Alright. School has been busy. I miss you," she admitted. "Nobody at school really expects anything from me, and the others think I just want to be let at something."
"They see what they have to see to live with themselves," Tobias offered as an explanation. "If they looked further than that, if they knew you weren't so straightforward, then they wouldn't be able to just leave all their dirty work to you."
"I know. And I don't mind it, usually. I just wish…" Rachel shook her head. "No. Not today. Today's for us, not for them."
She pulled a radio out of the saddlebags and turned it on, setting it so a rock CD he didn't know from a band he recognised played softly, the sound reverberating through the clearing as they ate and talked about anything and everything that came to mind. It was wonderful for both of them to just be able to rest and relax for once. In their little clearing, surrounded by trees that shielded them from any outside noise, it was easy to forget all about the Yeerks and the war and the fact that Tobias wasn't really human anymore and Rachel wasn't even sure whether she was either. It was easy for them to be themselves without worrying about who might be watching and judging and planning. It was just easy. They could forget all about that, and just focus on them.
"Alright," Rachel said once they'd both finished eating and wiped their fingers on the grass, transferring the stickiness of the butter and sugar and cream onto the little green blades. "I brought a pack of cards. Euchre?" Most people would have thought Rachel too impulsive for such games, but he knew better. He had seen her lull her opponents with her pretty-impulsive-white-girl façade before suddenly pulling a brilliant tactical play that left them crippled, on the physical and metaphorical battlefield alike. Then, they would just assume that one of her risks had paid off, and go back to underestimating her. However, what she didn't say, but they both knew, was that she hadn't brought the pack of cards because she felt the urge to play; she brought them because, while he too loved playing cards and board games, he no longer had the opportunity to do so with any degree of regularity. Instead of ruminating on the issue, however, he shuffled the deck, cutting it on half before letting the two sections merge into one. It was a skill he'd spent hours developing, back when he was human and it meant something.
No, he thought, glancing up at Rachel's face, which was smiling with the brightness of unobstructed sunshine. Tobias returned her smile as he dealt out the cards between them – three, two, two, three. Not today. The day was supposed to be their interlude, their reprieve, from the madness of the outside world. They both could, and would, mourn for what could have been; another day. He flipped the card on the top of the deck, placing it face upwards on its perch, and then took up his hand. He had barely had time to take stock of his cards, and the fact that they really didn't work well with the face-up Ace of Spades, when he heard Rachel's voice, cocky and prepared.
"Take it up."
Drat. Still, he grinned back at her as he slid the black card into his hand and replaced it with a face-down Seven of Diamonds. Win or lose, this was going to be fun.
-t-h-
The grass was soft underfoot as they ran through the forest, laughing as they ducked under branches and jumped over tree roots. Her blonde hair streamed behind her, carried by the breeze, and Tobias chased the speck of gold. The terrain was familiar to him, although he was used to flying over it rather than running through it, but it did little to combat the advantage her speed, honed through years on the track team, gave her. She wasn't even going at her full speed, instead running fast enough to keep away from him without ever gaining significant ground; games were nowhere near as fun when they were hopeless from the start, and play-chasing wasn't fun if there was no hope of the chaser succeeding.
Ducking her head, Rachel darted around the final few trees, and emerged in the clearing once again, where she celebrated her victory with a triumphant cartwheel. She turned and watched as Tobias got clear of the forest, laughing mirthfully at the sight of his dirty blond hair strewn with leaves and twigs. "I won," she teased, pulling a hair through her own hair to rid it of the clutter she'd picked up on her run.
"You did," he agreed as they both collapsed onto the blanket. "I challenge you to a rematch in bird form. There's no way you'll be able to keep up with me."
"We'll see," she replied, before leaning in to kiss him.
-t-h-
"Stay," she implored him as she watched their entwined hands, their fingers curled around one another as if trying to keep them from ever leaving. "Don't turn back; stay human. It can be like this all the time."
"I can't. You know what the ability to morph means to me."
"You don't even like the war, or fighting."
A wry smile crossed his face, his eyes holding a sardonic glint. "I hate it, all of it. But that doesn't mean it's not necessary. I can't just walk away from it and leave you to fight alone. Hiding with my tail between my legs while you lot keep the nightmares at bay doesn't really sound like living to me. I couldn't leave you." He hadn't meant to let it show, but there was a difference in the way he said the last word. Despite his best efforts to remain stoic on this, his voice broke the tiniest bit. It was tiny, and it was well hidden, but it was there, and Rachel noticed it and knew what it meant.
"What if I came with you?"
"You know you could never do that. You couldn't leave this mess for someone else to deal with. The others would fall apart without you."
"I know," she admitted, "but I want…" Her voice trailed off. Sometimes things wanted were best left unexpressed. Tobias knew how she felt about him, and he knew she wanted more time with him. There was nothing new to share; it'd only hurt them both to continue along this train of thought.
"I do too. But, Rachel, we're one of the few who know about this and have the ability to do something about it. We can't walk away from that."
"One day, though; when we've won, or when they don't need us anymore."
"One day," he agreed, before glancing at the watch on her wrist as it started beeping. He leaned in and kissed her again. "You change first. I'll put your saddle back on."
They both stripped off their outer clothing and packed everything away. They wanted to move as slowly as they could so as to delay their parting, but both knew that they had to obey their time limit. Soon, her body was bowing and face elongating, until the tall racehorse stood before him once again, her tail flicking lightly. As he attached the saddle and saddlebags, it felt like just another burden she had to carry in his absence, one more straw on the back that would one day break. Here, she was able to just be herself. Out there, she had expectations to meet and duties to fulfil, neither of which left much time for self-expression.
Under her watchful equine gaze, he morphed back into a red-tailed hawk, revelling in the feel of the change as his arms grew feathers and his face a beak. He didn't relish being stuck in hawk form, but he still appreciated the feeling of freedom he felt whenever he returned to it. Most people only dreamed of flying; for him, it was as natural as walking.
They travelled back to the forest together, Tobias flying overhead as Rachel wove through the trees. At the forest's edge, which was near Cassie's farm, they met Cassie, who unburdened Rachel of her load. Rearing up, Rachel turned on her back feet, and she raced her way back into the cover of the trees. Once she was hidden from view, she morphed back to human, before succeeding it with an equally quick morph into her bald eagle form.
((Time to make good on that challenge of yours. Race to the other side of the forest?))
-t-h-
He beat her, of course. The sky was his domain nowadays, flying his forte. She was faster and larger, but he was more agile, more flexible, more practiced. They'd both known that she hadn't really had much of a chance to begin with.
She had, however, had enough of one to make it fun.
Once they cleared the forest, they turned back, this time allowing themselves to frolic and spin in circles and try out new evasive manoeuvres and tricks. It wasn't the same as knowing that they would both return to their shared world at the end of it. Then again, that wasn't how they wanted it, either; that world was a dangerous sandpit of crabs and worms just waiting to overtake them. Yet it was still special. There was something special o response about Rachel showing him her world, the world where rock music and cards were accessible, and Tobias showing her his, where his days were filled with feeling the rush of the wind against his feathers. It wasn't the life either of them wanted. It was, however, a life they could make do with. And, sometimes, it didn't even feel like they were making do.