Cold, true cold, she hadn't known it for a long time. Cinder left, not by loud argument or bitter goodbye. But by solitude note left on the dresser. Lila gripped her pillow so tight. How in the gods' light or dark was she going to go on? How had she before? Cinder was like a brief candle for her. She must have at some point understood that. Lila was just a simple farm girl from Mistral's endless sprawling land.
How could Lila compare to people who whipped magic and flame as if the air they tread was nothing? Spurts of magic, pillars of ice, and cities blistered from the presence of just a few people. Lila could barely fix her sink from dropping every few months.
Now, she held that letter tight, afraid that if it slicked from her fingers, it would evaporate into the floor. This was the last tangible thing she had left of the woman. Fire and smoke, that's what this smelt of, this damnable parchment which laid crushed between her fingers.
Cinder promised she'd return, hadn't she? Then it was a certainty. But that inkling, the one her father had when the crops spoiled back home. Lila could feel it growing. Cinder was naturally guarded. Nothing about her seemed open. It took Lila weeks to get an honest answer to some of the more straightforward questions. That's how she found out Cinder's preferred tea, her love of the colour gold, and her utter disparity at taking care of her hair. All of which Lila took to mean they were building something together.
Something, yeah, Lila knew what that something was. An alibi, Cinder needed a place to lay low while whatever she was off to do now happened. Lila's heartbeat was heavy for her own foolishness. Obviously, this was the end result. She had been duped by one of the best in the business and the most damaged.
It was hard not to fall for a woman like Cinder. Just physically, something was enticing in it for her: that burning eye, the erratic nature of her puffy hair. The mystery of her was the part to which Lila was drawn.
Everywhere Lila looked, she would see those scars. The etchings in the wood, the stains on the coffee mugs. Each brought a new spring of pain came to her. Lila spent hours cleaning and mending those wounds. She feared what would happen to them now without her there. Cinder was never good at fixing and not breaking her stitches, and she left before Lila could take these ones out. What if Cinder got an infection?
Lila had a list of songs she could not bear to hear now. The soft sputtering of strings from her scroll forced her hand. She remembered washing Cinder to the tune of a strumming guitar she had loved since her childhood. Now when it came on, it summoned so many memories. Her hands shook as she turned the whole music player off.
The rain never ceased. Of course, Cinder had to leave the time of year where more hands would have helped. Even one calussed and strong hand would have made all the difference in setting up the fences.
Lila barely had enough strength in her to heave up these heavy posts, wanting to improve the 'walls' of the grotto. These large woodblocks would be planted a few inches into the ground, then bound by rope to fence around the tree line. Just to offer a little bit more privacy for the woman, to which much of the village still recognized as a witch. Lila realized that Cinder's sudden disappearance and her isolation would not be helping that, but she couldn't find the time to care for the villagers' opinions.
Her hands trembled on the wooden block, splinters jutting out from it rippled into her gloved hands. The downpour of rain made her sink back into the mud as she worked. The brown slop slinked up her robe's back, freezing and heavy. The log slumped down into the ground finally, though it brought Lila fully into the land with a slump. Mud splashing high as the tired and addled Lila heaved tired breaths, her clothes drenched with water. This would have been much easier if she had a walking space heater to pick up some pace.
The stone wall behind the garden was another of these small projects. Lila worked tirelessly to affix the grating. The rock was set to cut the route to the river off, just if any of those more mangy forest beasts were to take a stroll. It would prove an obstacle for people actually coming from that direction. Though Lila was not too worried about that, no one was that dumb to come from the southwest toward her cottage. All the same, the consistent downpour forced Lila to crouch and winge the large boulders up before laying the metal. The strain on her back, the burning of her legs. But the slipping of her hands from one of the boulders hurt more.
Large and heavy, one of the rocks slipped from Lila's rain-soaked hands, tumbling down onto the flower bed below. "No!" She had barked out, fighting with the rock to halt to little avail. Instead, the stone tumbled faster. Landing square onto a patch of chrysanthemums, ones Lila vividly remembered planting with one feral woman. The squash of the plants and smashing of the stone froze Lila atop the wall. Already tired, wet, cold, the destruction of some of the only things Cinder had left her was just too much.
The ebbing of the wet season was upon Lila. However, the calmness of the morning beyond her early morning window had done little for the woman. Instead, her mind wracked over the same things it had for the months prior. She had heard through the grapevine about something happening in Atlas and Vacuo. Though still, the woman was far too removed from the village to listen to anything beyond that. Hell, even Sepia had to fight to come and actually talk to Lila when she delivered her food. She was isolated, completely. Some part of her wanted to move on. But a small string held onto hope. Should she have gone looking? Cinder's world was vast and powerful, but it was the absolute least she could do?
Among these thoughts, Lila found herself staring down into a burnt stew. The meat skewered incorrectly, the vegetables were floppy, the broth too salty. She was a wreck, and she could see that in the murky reflection the slop offered her. Her eyes were heavy, red, and underlined by purple bags. The brown gunk of hair was still ragged from days of looping in and out of the downpour. Her skin was considerably paler, too, from poor nutrition. Breathing was growing easier to handle. Lila considered it was because she was growing to accept the truth that had been staring her in the face this whole time.
Cinder was never coming-.
Crash!
Lila's head spun to the window, the loud and snapping crash startling the hideaway. Heart racing as she looked all over the immediate window, Lila's breath took up speed just before the long and wounded cry met the windowed barrier. "Lily!"
The shrill, broken, and shriek of a voice sent Lila into movement far faster than her mind could comprehend. It had come from the garden, evident by the thrashing mass of black on the ground she could see amongst the flowers there. The wooden thwack of the door bellowed over the empty grotto. "Cinder!" Lila's throat burned to call that name for so long. Lila's body struggled, but the feeling of the wet grass against her socks carried her.
The gate to the garden flew open wide, likely breaking from the snap it made, but it lay in her way to the thrashing mass of black fabric. Sprinting, Lila's legs turned to liquid, making her slide through the flower bed to Cinder's side. Lila barely looked over the woman before she had thrown the black cape from her beloved's face.
That perfect face, sharp, intense, and powerful. Marred by dirt, tree pine, and sweat. Her eye patch was gone, in its place a smattering of tree raisin that slunk the woman's face into a squint. Thin was the smile Cinder offered Lila, tired and exasperated, Lila clutched the woman in her arms. "Y-you came back." In a defiantly broken whisper. Cinder's voice, so melodic even in her broken state, croaked back, "O-of course I did. I promised."
Lila barely hesitated after that. Tears spilled from her as she used her tired form to pick Cinder aloft. Making sure her partner's head was leaned against her chest. Her steps were laboured, lethargic, uncaring if she stepped improperly in the garden around her. She was sure that she had likely destroyed much of it getting in anyway; it would be their thing to fix.
Cinder's soft gasps at her chest pushed Lila ever onward, the Fall Maiden's sole arm snapping and grasping at the robes. Warmth had left Cinder, it seemed. The usually fiery woman was frosty to the touch. The soft muttering into her chest only pushed Lila on quicker.
The frozen form in her arms shuddered as they entered the cottage. Lila pressed the pair to the fireplace, carefully setting Cinder down there on her back. The tired woman wheezed coldly in Lila's embrace there.
In a broken laugh, Cinder's one arm swung to reciprocate the hug. Lila's ear felt her cold lips as Cinder mumbled to her, "I was so scared." Lila nodded furiously, "Of course, you must have been through-." But Cinder's voice, through a cough, cut her off. "N-no," The bony chin planted itself on Lila's collar, "I was scared, you wouldn't wait." Cinder's hand at Lila's back, clutching the robe tighter as she spoke. The voice made Lila's breath hitch, "O-of course I waited, dork." She muttered, tears brimming in her eyes.
The pair sat like that, Cinder on the ground with Lila holding onto her to the side. But the more Lila teared up, and the warmer Cinder grew, the more the question on Lila's lips fought to get out. It did when Cinder's eyes were better opened from the sap, Lila cooley dabbing at them with a wet cloth. "Why didn't you tell me you were leaving?" She asked with a broken gasp.
A moment of stunted breathing filled Lila's ear, Cinder struggling for a moment before releasing Lila. The Fall Maiden fought to sit up, making the two look each other in the face. The brilliance of the fireplace beside them, the soft crackle of the flame giving splendid background for Lila's view. The dullness of Cinder's skin was outdone in the light. Her paleness marvelled Lila with a fiery hue. Dirt highlighted the thinness of her cheeks, their sallow nature showing how little she had eaten.
Cinder's mouth opened, "I…" Shutting for a moment, biting her lip before she continued, "If I came to you." Lila watched as Cinder's lips twitched closed, her scarred eye reflecting brokenly in the fire. "I wouldn't have been able to leave." She huffed out, the inkling of tears at the back of Cinder's voice. Though tears were on the precipice of Lila's regardless, Cinder's mere reasoning made Lila move forth, collapsing the pair of disgustingly chapped lips against her own. Cinder's eyes flew open in shock before batting closed, enthusiastically returning the kiss.