A/N: Warning for mild Valkuwolf, or whatever that ship is called.

Bo began fiddling with the radio dial as soon as she climbed into the Valkyrie's pickup. This truck was bigger and newer than her last one, the one she'd crashed chasing a mirage of the Wanderer standing in the road. They'd never even talked about that. Why hadn't they talked about that? Tamsin hadn't even told her; it was Dyson who'd shared the details.

Tamsin settled into the driver's seat. It was dark, but her aura was luminous as usual, perhaps a little more than it had been earlier in the evening. Bo was still reeling from the kiss they'd just shared and hoped Tamsin was thinking of it too, that this was the cause of her aura's brightness. The blonde was making some kind of small talk about her new truck's features but her words didn't register; all Bo could hear was the sound of her own heart pounding. It was rare for the succubus to feel this anxious, but here she was, barely able to make eye contact with a woman she'd seen naked countless times. Her body was practically humming -partly out of nervousness, partly because Tamsin's incredible chi was so affecting.

"We should talk," the Valkyrie announced as they pulled onto the road.

"I... okay..." Bo stuttered. She looked down at her hands and fidgeted with the leather cuff around her wrist.

"Relax, you will survive what I'm going to say to you."

"I know," the succubus said sheepishly.

"Listen: what I said in there before about not hating you... Bo, I could never hate you. Ever. And I owe you an apology for the way I acted when we talked before. You were right, I was confused, not about my feelings but about yours-"

"Tamsin-" the succubus tried to cut in.

"Let me finish, I should have said this days ago. There's no rule that you have to reciprocate. I was shocked because I misread the situation and it was humbling to realize just how wrong I was. I forgot that sometimes sex with a succubus is just sex."

"But what if you weren't wrong? What if it wasn't just sex?"

Tamsin's brows knitted together as she looked over at Bo, caught off guard by what she thought she was hinting at. Then an idea dawned on her. She let out an exasperated sigh."Trick told you I'm your Winged Guardian, didn't he?"

"Yeah," the brunette admitted, "but-"

"Bo, I see what's going on here and I'm shutting it down. I get it. You feel bad about the Guardianship and you think you ought to love me on principle. But you don't. And I would rather be alone than be with someone who only loves me because she thinks she should."

"But what if it's not like that?" Bo insisted.

The blonde sighed again and her voice began to quiver. "Bo, you made your true feelings clear before you knew about the Guardianship, when you weren't influenced by the knowledge of what that meant. And I shouldn't have been surprised. You're a succubus; you thrive on love and lust and life. I'm a Valkyrie; I carry the noble dead to their reward. I'm honourable and strong, but everything I touch grows cold. Of course I wouldn't inspire that kind of love from you."

"Tamsin, please-" Bo tried to interrupt but the other woman shook her head.

"You can tell me you've had a mysterious change of heart but I don't believe you and it'll only make things harder for me. Please don't put me through that."

Bo shuddered at the hint of pain in the Valkyrie's voice. It occurred to her that she wouldn't be able to get Tamsin to listen to her, not tonight.

"So what happens now with us?"

"What happens now is that we go back to being friends. We don't have to make a big deal out of the Guardianship. I'm just another friend who has your back, like Kenzi but with badass Valkyrie skills."

"Is that what you want?"

"What I want is to live up to my role. I know you love me like family and not in a romantic way, and I can appreciate that you've been really good to me. All dick jokes aside, I am more mature than a 17 year old boy with a crush; I can be your friend without harbouring resentment or trying to take advantage. Dark events are unravelling in your life right now. You need me, and I'm here."

"But..." Bo bit her lip, "do you still feel the way that you did?"

Tamsin looked out the window, cringing as she formed a response. "Bo, I am here for you. You can lean on me with the full weight of all the fucked up shit going on around you and I will not buckle. You know that I won't. But any discussion of how I feel is off the table."

"Okay," Bo said quietly, defeated. She spent the rest of the ride home contemplating how she might eventually make her feelings known without upsetting Tamsin. They pulled up outside the crack shack. The succubus stared at the front door and felt lonely knowing that no one would be waiting for her on the other side of it. "Thanks for the ride," she told the blonde, trying to sound cheery.

Tamsin reached over and pressed a key into her palm. "It's the spare key to Kenzi and my place. Don't be a stranger."

"You're holding back, aren't you?" Dyson accused Tamsin as she dodged another punch. After returning from his sojourn in the forest he'd texted the Valkyrie for a late-night sparring match and she took him up on it. Kenzi had already fallen asleep and after lying wide awake in bed for hours, Tamsin decided that boxing was the perfect way to work through the sexual frustration she'd been left with after Bo fed from her.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She caught him with a left hook in the chin to prove her point but he was right, she was holding back.

"You're actually a really terrible liar."

"Am not," she protested unconvincingly.

"Come on, Tamsin. I've got my wolf back, you don't have to go easy on me."

"Except that I kind of do. I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't. The best part about sparring with you is that we're evenly matched so you never know who'll win. Don't be shy."

She let him get a punch in and he shook his head, unimpressed by the gesture. "We were evenly matched, back when I was at the end of my last life. And you're a formidable fighter. But I'm a Valkyrie at the peak of my strength. I could destroy you."

"So show me," he goaded her.

Tamsin tilted her head and smirked. "You sure about this?"

Dyson nodded and motioned for her to come at him. She grabbed his waist and effortlessly lifted him off the ground, then carried him across the room before pushing him up against the wall. "How's that?' she asked, amused by the stunned look on his face.

"It's actually a huge turn-on," he admitted in a low voice.

"Oh, really?" she purred. She pulled him down and slammed his body on the mat before descending to straddle him.

"Really," he confirmed as she leaned down to kiss him.