Nisha had thought of visiting Scarlett as she recovered, but Nisha was never one for clinics. Too many unpleasant memories of her sister, the lingering scent of bleach and piss that permeated the halls, the sinister hiss of the respirator. That, and Scarlett had lost a lot of blood. Driving her from the wreckage of the Underdome to Nina's clinic on the outskirts was bad enough. She tried to keep her eyes on the dirt road, but her gaze always drifted back to Scarlett; her haphazardly bandaged stump propped up on the dashboard; her body slumped over against the window; her face ghoulish and pallid. She wasn't sure she'd be able to face looking at her lying in a cot, hooked up to an IV, wondering if that was the last time she'd ever see her.

She'd thought of leaving while Scarlett recovered, too. More than thought about it, even. She had made it about ten miles down the road before jerking the wheel into a sharp U-turn. Something in her told her she couldn't let that be her last memory of Scarlett.

Nisha strolls up to the cliffside boardwalk at the outer limits of town. It overlooks a wide stretch of desert valley shimmering under the setting Pandoran sun. She wonders why the hell Scarlett can't just drink in a bar like a normal person.

"Ah, the woman of the hour!" Scarlett beams up at her from her seat at the edge of the boardwalk, legs – leg, now – dangling over the edge of the wooden overlook. She picks up a bottle resting by her side, and pours into two glasses, one of them already half-full.

Nisha raises an eyebrow. Scarlett's color has returned. Nisha releases a tension in her shoulders she didn't realize she was carrying. A second look shows Scarlett's nose is a few shades redder than usual. "Hobbled out of the clinic barely a few hours ago, and you're already drinking."

Scarlett scoffs and brushes aside Nisha's comment with a wave of her hand. "Brilliant thing about losing a limb. Less blood in the alcohol system." With a bubbly giggle, she picks up a glass and holds it out to Nisha. "To saving each other's lives, yet again! By my count, I think I'm still up one."

Nisha takes a seat in a worn wooden rocking chair to Scarlett's side, then takes the glass from her outstretched hand. She'll let Scarlett have her moment for now, but by her count, they're dead even.

After Scarlett takes a drink, she glances up at Nisha. "Always glad to have your company. Would've been nice to have it as I recovered in the clinic, though." She lowers her voice, though not so quiet that Nisha can't hear her. "Alone."

Nisha takes a sip of Scarlett's brandy, then absentmindedly rubs the crook of her elbow. She never was one for doctors' offices. Or needles, for that matter. But Nina had made it clear: Scarlett had lost a lot of blood. She didn't even hesitate. O negative, universal donor. Something she'd learned when her sister got sick. She never figured she'd need, or even want, to use that knowledge again.

She clears her throat, glancing down at the glint where Scarlett's right knee used to be. Scarlett is rubbing the back of her thigh, just above the prosthetic. "Hope losing the second limb was easier than the first."

"Ah, what doesn't kill you hurts like a bitch." Scarlett lifts her right leg. The pant leg is cut off at mid-thigh, revealing the hunk of metal attached to her bandaged stump. A steel peg only a few inches around hangs from the artificial knee joint, ending in a small wedge for stability. "Rather gauche, isn't it?"

Gauche, maybe, but it fits her. Scarlett gingerly lowers her leg, and Nisha's gaze travels to the crutches beside her. "Take it you won't be off to try and mutiny yourself into captaining another ship anytime soon."

"I've got other things I should attend to, first."

Other things, sure. Despite her penchant for honesty, getting a straight answer out of Scarlett sometimes could be like pulling teeth. Or maybe amputating a limb. "Yeah, your dad's still out there, after all."

Scarlett tilts her head to the side. "Well, learning to walk again would top my list. Baby steps, you know." She chuckles at her own joke. "But, yes, I'll have to pay Daddy another visit at some point." Anybody who didn't know Scarlett would think she was planning a family reunion on Aquator.

"Sucks he got away. Must piss you off, seeing him slip between your fingers."

"A little bit. But it's not all that bad."

Nisha gives a sideways glance that Scarlett can't see. Not all that bad? If this is Scarlett's idea of a plan going well, Nisha would hate to see one backfire.

"I mean, hell, you saw him. Erstwhile captain of the Scurvy Cur, legendary scourge of the outer reaches. Now he's fighting for pennies in gladiator combat?" Scarlett throws her head back and laughs. "Satisfying as I'm sure it would've been shooting that gold canine out of his mouth, that old bastard is ruined. And making him live in the shadow of his former glory, with no ship and no fear to his name? Oh, that's the real victory, isn't it?"

Nisha hums to herself. Leave it to Scarlett to turn what anybody else would call a decisive failure into a moral victory. "Looked like he still had loyal followers."

"D'you mean those bell-ends he was fighting with?" Scarlett scoffs. "Skagtooth Snyder was his second mate, so he was run off the ship with him. And once I killed him, Fink couldn't turn tail fast enough. That rat was loyal to nobody. He and my father deserved each other." Scarlett stretches her arm over her head, then tops off her glass. "Until I run into him again, I've just got to adjust to life without another limb."

"If he got outta that tinderbox alive, he might come and find you. 'Specially now he knows you came out of your last fight just missing an eye."

"Dunno why he would," Scarlett says, shaking her head. "I'm a derelict, too, remember? He doesn't stand to gain anything by killing me."

Nisha recalls the faded posters of Scarlett's smirking face adorning bounty boards back all over Holloran's Retreat. "I wouldn't be so sure."

"Please. My father would rather chase his lost glory than collect whatever pittance is on my head."

Scarlett would know better, Nisha supposes. Still, in her position, Nisha would be sleeping with one eye open. Maybe that's what the bionic one is for.

"So," Scarlett says with a dismissive shrug, "I'll let him languish in anonymity for a while. With any luck, he thinks I never made it out of the Underdome. So he'll never see me coming. If he lives that long."

Nisha frowns. It's unlike Scarlett to shrug off a botched murder attempt, or to be sidelined by a lost limb, but here she is, apathetic to her father living to see another day. Maybe her brush with death shook her more than she's letting on. "So until then..." Nisha knocks back the rest of her drink and sets the empty glass on the wooden deck. Both of them have danced around the heavy tension in the air long enough. "Where are you headed?"

Scarlett folds her hand and hook in her lap and quietly clears her throat. "Are you asking that because you expect me to leave, or because you want me to?"

Nisha should have known coming out here would be a waste of time. "Does it matter?"

Scarlett shakes her head. "You know, after you risked your own ass to get me out of there, I actually convinced myself things could be different? Stupid."

If either of them is stupid, Nisha figures it's her. She had thought Scarlett might not wallow in self-pity and try to pass herself off as the victim. But she thought wrong. "Watch your back, Scarlett," she says, standing up. "Next time, I won't be there to pull your ass from the fire."

"What is the matter with you?" Scarlett starts pulling herself to her feet, an ungraceful process that discomforts Nisha to watch. She straightens up and braces herself against the guardrail overlooking the cliff. "After all the times I've been there for you." She jabs an angry finger towards Nisha. "After you stay behind to save me, I can't believe you— Why even bother to save my life if you're just going to walk out on me like this? Why not just leave me to die?"

Nisha purses her lips. She thought she was ready to face her, to talk to her. She'd moved on from their night together on Peitho. Chased the horizon on whatever planet she ended up on. She'd always thought of what she might say to Scarlett if they ever met again. Some days, she thought she might kill her. Some days, that felt too easy, for all they've put each other through.

She'd always thought of what she might say to Scarlett, for all the years she'd resented her for killing her mother; for all the scars she showed her and for all the struggles they suffered together. For all the time she'd borne Scarlett's name like grief, and for all the time it took her to be able to adjust to life on her own. But her silence hangs in the air, and she's not sure she has the strength to get herself out from under its oppressive weight. It's not at all like she imagined. She'd always pictured herself collected, wiser and better for the time they had spent apart.

Her breaths come heavy and slow. This is too raw, too immediate. It's terrifying how after more than a year of being apart, all those old feelings have just come rushing back to the surface. She'd always pictured this would be like caressing the slightly rugged skin of an old scar. But it's more like jamming a finger into a fresh bullet wound.

"I'm tired of this, Scarlett." Nisha's voice is weak and raspy.

Scarlett lets her right shoulder slump as she lets out a sigh. She rests her hook against her hip. Her voice drips with bitterness. "Then why did you even come here? What do you want from me, Nisha?"

Nisha snorts. Damn good question. Maybe she's a glutton for punishment. Maybe she was born to lose. Maybe she was hoping Scarlett would have more to say to her, more to say about that apology she started back in the Underdome. Nisha was half-tempted to let her finish it, but even that wasn't worth dying for. And if hearing Scarlett apologize wasn't worth dying over, then putting herself through this again isn't worth killing herself over, either. She and Scarlett have been through this dance before, and Nisha knows every step. "Not wanting to see you dead ain't the same as wanting to drag myself through this again."

She catches a glimpse of Scarlett's eye widening as she turns to leave. "Don't you walk away from me, Nisha!" Scarlett shouts. Her voice quakes in anger. "DON'T YOU DARE TURN YOUR FUCKING BACK ON ME AGAIN!"

Nisha stops mid-stride as Scarlett's voice breaks at the last word. Her eyes narrow, and she spins around slowly, her mouth hanging open in disbelief. "What was that?"

Scarlett is in the same spot as just a moment ago, standing rigid. Nisha can see her chest rise and fall even with some fifteen paces between them. "You heard me. If that night on Peitho was your idea of revenge for when I left Eunomia without you, then—"

"Excuse me?" Nisha starts walking forward, taking slow, deliberate strides. The absolute gall. "Oh, you precious little bitch. You wanna chat about Peitho?" She stares daggers into Scarlett's eye, her voice dripping with rancor. She gives her a curt nod. "Let's talk."

"Oh, I would love to—"

"Let's talk about how I invited you over after I found out Dad died." She keeps strolling forward, and brandishes a stiff finger towards Scarlett. "About how you came over and got me drunk—"

"Got you drunk?!"

"—waited 'til I was vulnerable—"

Scarlett's face twists in anger. "That's not how it happened!"

Nisha keeps advancing, coming up to within an arm's length of Scarlett. She raises her voice over Scarlett's shouting. "You let me pour my fucking heart out into your lap, and then you took what you wanted, didn't you?!"

"STOP IT!"

Nisha recoils, her right cheek stinging from where Scarlett backhanded her. She runs her fingers along her jaw as she turns back to face Scarlett, her mouth agape.

Scarlett stands at her full height, chest heaving, glaring down her nose at Nisha. "You got drunk. I drank with you. You were hurting and I wanted to be there for you!"

Nisha straightens up, trying in vain to make up for Scarlett's height advantage. "You expect me to believe that?"

"You kissed me back!" Scarlett hisses. "You asked me if I wanted it! How dare you?! Do you really think that's how I would've wanted my first time with you to go?"

Nisha raises her eyebrows, and Scarlett briefly glances away, knowing she's said too much. Awfully presumptuous of her to call it their first time. But Nisha can't say she doesn't have a point, either. That was far from the first time they'd gotten drunk together. Far from the first time Nisha had found herself pulled back into the past and reaching out to Scarlett as she worked through it.

"I fell asleep that night happier than I'd ever been in my life." Scarlett takes a half step towards Nisha, leaving little more than a hand's breadth between them. "Imagine how I felt when I woke up to an empty bed."

Nisha snorts. She doesn't have to imagine, exactly. She hasn't thought about the day Scarlett left Eunomia to find her father in a long time, but she's far from forgotten it. "Sucks, don't it?"

"'Sucks'? Is that all you have to say for yourself?" Scarlett scoffs and shakes her head. "You left me with nothing but your name echoing through the emptiness that you abandoned me in! Do you have any idea how long I looked for you? How many times I tried calling you, how many old contacts of ours I checked in on just to see if they'd heard a whisper of where you might've been last? My best friend, vanished like a puff of smoke. And just like smoke, I could see you everywhere I went. I'd think of you and you'd get caught in my lungs and you'd sting my eyes, and I could never wash the memory of you away.

Scarlett's face softens, and she lets out a sigh that sounds just as tired as she looks. "I guess I always knew that you meant more to me than I ever meant to you. I knew that the day after I killed your mum. Thought I was okay with it. But fine. I get it. If you really are going to walk away, you might as well just throw me off this cliff first."

Nisha steps into Scarlett before she's even made the conscious decision to do so. Scarlett's eye widens as Nisha grabs her by the collar. She leans her backward over the railing. Grains of dust fall as the old, sun-bleached wood lets out a groan of protest. "You're too melodramatic for your own good, Red."

Scarlett's usual disguise, equal parts familiar and infuriating, is painted on her face: a lopsided smile, a pointed canine sunk into her bottom lip. Mischief glows in her eye, flickering between Nisha's hard stare and her pursed lips. "And you're too impulsive." Scarlett whispers, her chest heaving with each slow breath.

"You got some mouth on you, Red." Nisha lets out a sharp snort, but pulls Scarlett up straight all the same. It would be easy to throw her over. Should be easy, anyway. But Nisha knows she can't do it. Just like she couldn't leave her pinned under that beam. The look of calm in Scarlett's eye tells Nisha that she's not the only who knows it, either. "And please, don't take that the wrong way."

"I don't think there is a wrong way to take that," Scarlett says, running her fingers through her hair. "Anyway, your histrionics aside, you still haven't answered my question."

She tilts her head to the side. "What question?"

"Why are you here?"

She shakes her head. She's been wondering that since she got here. Something between loyalty and guilt, she thinks. "I dunno, Red. Why are you here?"

Scarlett lets out an amused hum as she looks Nisha up and down. "Odd question, considering I'm not the one running away. In any case, I realized something, back at the Underdome, when I saw my father."

Nisha rolls her eyes. Here we go. Everything always comes back to Scarlett's relationship with her father. What else could she have been expecting? They both knew that shit-sack Eunomia was too small a planet for either of them. Scarlett just had the luxury of leaving to join her father's crew.

Dirt grinds against the graying wood as Nisha steps up to the boardwalk. She leans forward, resting her forearms on the railing. "Maybe it's better you didn't kill him." She spits off the side of the cliff. "Not as easy to blame all your problems on him if he's dead. Though I doubt that'd stop you from trying."

Scarlett leans one arm on the rail, facing Nisha. Nisha avoids her stare, keeping her gaze focused straight ahead on the golden horizon. "I could've killed him, y'know. I had my chance, after the moonshots started landing. He started running as soon as the explosions and debris started raining down. I could've followed him and ended it right there. In all the chaos, he wouldn't have had a prayer."

"Bullshit. If you had the chance, you would've taken it."

Scarlett shakes her head. "Surely you must have seen him. My father once lead a crew of a hundred of the worst brigands and derelicts you've ever had the displeasure of meeting. But in that moment, I saw him for what he really was. Running for his life, abandoned by everybody who once might have felt some sort of loyalty towards him. He's every bit the man my mother told me he was. Never met somebody he couldn't betray, swindle, or murder. He'd rather put his boot on somebody's back than take the hand being offered to him. D'you want to know what I saw when I looked at him?"

Nisha's lower jaw juts forward as she purses her lips. "That the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree?"

"Me? Please." Scarlett lets out a clipped laugh and shakes her head. "I saw you."

A frown tugs at Nisha's lips. She can feel the heat and weight of Scarlett's stare, but she won't bring herself to return it.

"I chose him over you when I left Eunomia. When I saw you, skags on one side, bandits on the other, I realized I was about to make the same mistake." Scarlett glances down and clears her throat. "So I left him behind. I came for you."

Nisha lets her eyes trail down to the expanse of desert below, over the winding canyons, half steeped in shadow from the orange haze of the setting sun.

"I saw that look in your eyes when I jumped down beside you. Bewilderment with a dash of gratitude." She lets out a small laugh. "I think you forgot you were still supposed to be mad at me."

Nisha's gaze falls down to her hands, fingers interlaced together. At least before today, she hadn't been mad at Scarlett in a long time. She's pretty sure she would've taken anybody's help in the chaos back there, but she probably wouldn't have preferred anybody over Scarlett. Hell, she probably had a better chance of surviving alongside Scarlett with two limbs than anybody else with all four.

"I won't ever make that mistake again, Nisha," Scarlett says. "I promise you that."

The sky at the horizon shines a rich, bright orange, before fading to pink above, and ultramarine further beyond that. Rows of clouds, cast in a peach glow from the setting sun beneath, dot the sky, softening the evening glow. Nisha glances over at Scarlett, who's turned her gaze towards the cliffs below. Her tan seems deeper in this light. Or maybe that's just compared to how pallid she was last time Nisha saw her. Nisha clears her throat and glances ahead once more. "So where does this leave us?"

"Dunno why you're asking me," Scarlett says, tilting her head to the side and absent-mindedly chipping at the wood railing with her hook. "You were the one who was ready to walk away. So I suppose you can repeat your vanishing act, if you like."

Nisha chuckles to herself. If she couldn't leave Scarlett behind with a half-ton I-beam crushing her leg, if she couldn't bring herself to drive away while Scarlett was unconscious in a bed in Nina's clinic, she sure as hell can't leave like this. Something about the shadow of a smirk playing at the corner of Scarlett's mouth tells Nisha that she knew that already. Something tells her Scarlett knew that back in the Underdome, as soon as she started making that tourniquet, while she was still blubbering out her apology.

"Hey, uh..." She clears her throat and straightens up, glancing over at Scarlett. "What'd you mean back there? At the Underdome. When you told me you were sorry for everything."

Sunlight bounces off the polished surfaces of Scarlett's hook as she twirls it. She keeps her eye down and brushes a strand of hair behind her ear. "I'm sorry for never being the friend you wanted me to be. For killing your mum instead of building you up so you could do it yourself. Take your pick, I've got plenty."

Nisha quirks an eyebrow. "And Peitho?"

A wan smile spreads over Scarlett's face. "I regret what came of it. But I don't regret what we did together. I spent a long time dreaming of what that night would be. I spent a long time wishing for more. To get to feel the warm embers of your eyes again, to touch where the sun-weathered umber of your skin runs pale. You made me forget everything else with just your smile and your curiosity."

A flush of heat runs to Nisha's cheeks. She glances away, hiding the telltale glow.

"So... no, I don't exactly regret that." Scarlett clears her throat. "I've got plenty to apologize for, but never that."

For a year, most of that night only existed as dull echoes in Nisha's mind. But ever since she laid eyes on her in the Underdome, memories long since forgotten have come flooding back to her. The slow, reverential way Scarlett's hands – she glances sideways at her hook, but yes, it was hands back then – brushed over her skin. The desperation and hunger in her kisses, the peculiar rasp to her voice when she whispered her name. Standing beside her now, the memories crash harder as she smells Scarlett's aroma of sandalwood and citrus. Her knuckles whiten against the wood. She can remember kissing the tattoos all over her body. She can remember her fingers tangled in Scarlett's thick red hair, and not caring if she ever got them out.

"Sorry?" Scarlett's voice yanks her back into the present.

Nisha's eyes snap open. "Huh?"

"Sounded like you said 'You don't have to'..."

Nisha blinks. She can remember feeling the regret the morning after, but it's distant, formless. It is nothing compared to the much more immediate memories of Scarlett's body pressed against her own. Thinking back, she's not sure it ever was Scarlett that she was mad at. Maybe she was just disappointed with herself.

She was trapped, back when her mother was still alive. The old scars on her arms, from cigarette burns and broken glass; the claustrophobia of the locked closet; the degradation of her mother telling her nobody could ever love her. Telling her that once Scarlett got what she wanted out of her, she'd ditch her by the roadside like the trash she is. She vowed to herself she'd never let herself become trapped like that again. She enslaved herself to the road, letting her feet carry her wherever they would, her eyes always fixed forward, sure that whatever answers she was looking for must lay just beyond the horizon.

For all the light-years she burned up, all the planets she'd set her boots on, it must say something that the road led her straight back to Scarlett.

For all the regret she choked on for not being the one to kill her mother, and all the shame she bore for knowing her mother was right when she said she was too damn weak to fight back, the one who let her find her strength was Scarlett.

For the nine months it's been since her last cigarette, the only thing she finds harder to quit is Scarlett.

For all the sunsets they spent walking down the railroad tracks back on Eunomia, all the blood they'd spilled for each other, and all the chances forever lost to her, the one who's kept her hope alive is Scarlett.

For the year she's spent on her own feeding her stubborn pride, for the hungover mornings she stared at her tired eyes in the mirror dreading that she'd lose in the end, for the nights she spent convincing herself she was better off alone... she came for Scarlett.

Nisha lets out a shuddering sigh, glancing over to see Scarlett drinking straight from her bottle of brandy. Scarlett sets the bottle down as Nisha turns to face her, looking up into her pale blue eye. People like them should stand no chance. She knows Scarlett is the only reason she ever survived her mother. Maybe she is the thing that's kept Scarlett alive. "I'm sorry, Red." Her mouth is dry, her voice is huskier than she expected. She clears her throat. "I didn't—"

"Nisha."

Nisha trails off, glancing off towards the canyon below, willing her eyes to stop watering. She takes a slow breath and looks back up at Scarlett, who smiles back down at her, head tilted to the side, a gentle breeze sweeping her hair away from her face.

"Shut the fuck up and kiss me."

Nisha steps into Scarlett, taking her cheeks in her hands, pouring all her passion, all her doubt, and all her regret into a desperate kiss. Scarlett's mouth is hot on hers, the metal of her lip ring a sharp contrast to her soft lips. The tip of Scarlett's hook digs into the small of Nisha's back. Nisha presses her body into Scarlett, the longing, the need building deep inside of her. She is in freefall. It should be terrifying, but it's not. It's familiar. It's exhilarating. Life-affirming. She is in freefall, but Scarlett will be waiting to catch her at the bottom.

The memories of Peitho come crashing back in waves that knock the breath out of her. The minutes went on for hours and the night lasted an eternity. Scarlett straightens up, pulling away from the kiss, laying her hand flat on Nisha's chest. Nisha looks from her eye back down to her mouth. Starving for Scarlett's kisses, she leans in, but Scarlett leans back, a teasing smile on her face.

Scarlett tilts her head down, touching her forehead to Nisha's. "We should get back to my room before we start doing it on the boardwalk. I'm just down the street."

Nisha bites the inside of her cheek, surprising herself by letting out a pitiful moan. "I don't know if I can wait that long, Scar."

Flashing a devious grin, Scarlett takes her by the hand. She turns and starts hobbling along on her new leg, pulling Nisha behind her. Nisha rolls her eyes, lets go of Scarlett's hand, and puts her hand to her shoulder, spinning her around.

Scarlett lets out a whoop as Nisha bends down, wrapping her arm around Scarlett's thighs and lifting her up, resting Scarlett's hip on her shoulder. Scarlett lets out a giddy laugh as Nisha carries her down the road in swift strides. A devilish grin crosses Nisha's face as she uses her free hand to smack Scarlett's ass. She pays no heed to the gawkers in the street.

She throws open Scarlett's bedroom door and leans forward, letting Scarlett drop onto the mattress. Scarlett takes off Nisha's hat and tosses it onto a chair in the corner of the room before moving on to her duster. Nisha shrugs it off and sets on untying the lacing on the back of Scarlett's corset. "Oughtta just tear you outta this damn thing," Nisha breathes, leaning in for a kiss.

Scarlett moans, fumbling with the buttons on Nisha's vest. Her lips smack as she tilts her head to the side. "At least you've got two bloody hands."

Nisha lets out a chuckle and sucks on Scarlett's neck as she pulls her vest off. She glances down as something heavy thunks on the floor. Scarlett's metal leg lies on the gray shag carpet. Scarlett scoots back on the bed, her right hand fumbling with the socket of her hook. Nisha purses her lips. Maybe once they get their clothes off, she can convince her to put that hook back on.

She kneels on the ground, unbuckling her own boots before starting on Scarlett's. She pauses as Scarlett leans over to set her hook on the end table. She looks at what remains of Scarlett's left forearm. On the inside, by the crook of her elbow, is a tattoo of a single lavender rose. Nisha quirks an eyebrow. "What's that?"

Scarlett blinks, looking from Nisha to her tattoo. "Oh. Nothing. Just something I wear for myself. A reminder not to take anything for granted." Scarlett dips her chin to her chest.

"Uh huh." Nisha smirks, pulling off Scarlett's boot and letting it drop to the floor with a thud. "For yourself, huh?"

Scarlett snorts and pushes Nisha's face away with her bare foot. "If I were trying to impress you with it, I could think of about a half dozen places I'd put it before my stump."

Nisha leans her head back, letting out a sigh as Scarlett slides her soft, sweat-kissed foot down along her neck. Her pulse pounds, the aching need to feel Scarlett against her building to a fever pitch. Scarlett unzips her top, revealing a simple black briefer, her albatross tattoo peeking out from underneath. Nisha pulls her boots off, then crawls forward onto the bed, lying on Scarlett's legs, her hands finding the buckle of Scarlett's belt.

"Nisha..." Scarlett's hand lays on top of hers. "Promise me something."

"Anything." Nisha looks up into Scarlett's eye, her slow, heavy breaths hanging in the air.

"Promise me you'll be here when I wake up."

Nisha blinks. She lays her hands on either side of Scarlett's waist, slides forward, and plants a soft kiss on Scarlett's lips. She pulls apart, but only just, so that her lips brush against Scarlett's as she whispers. "I come crawling back like this and you think I'm strong enough to leave again?"

Scarlett whimpers as she slides her hand underneath Nisha's crop top, up her back. "Nisha..."

Nisha nods. Scarlett needs her to say it. She needs to say it. "I'm not goin' anywhere, Scarlett. I promise." She leans down, kissing Scarlett deeper, needing to taste more of her. She couldn't leave if her life depended on it. "I want this. I want you. Wish I knew how after all this time... how I need you this bad."

A suggestive chuckle spills from Scarlett's lips. "I know why. Figured that one out a long time ago."

Nisha pulls apart, her fingers tracing down the length of Scarlett's neck. "That right?"

Scarlett's eye, hotter than any sun, burns with desire. "Because once you've tasted blood, wine just seems so thin."

Nisha narrows her eyes, a grin slowly spreading over her lips. She lets out a dark, quiet laugh and loses her fingers in Scarlett's hair.

"I suppose that's not all, though," Scarlett murmurs, brushing the backs of her fingers down over Nisha's cheek.

Nisha tilts her head to the side, watching the mischievous flicker in Scarlett's eye. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I love you, you pillock." Scarlett brushes her fingers along Nisha's cheek, and Nisha closes her eyes at the contact. "Like an oasis in the desert. Like the jolt of adrenaline from getting shot. Like the headrush from the first breath after you've been nearly strangled to death. I love you because you love me in a way nobody else can."

Scarlett's fingertips brush over the shell of Nisha's ear. Nisha opens her eyes to look down at her. It wasn't long ago that she would have bristled at Scarlett saying those words. But not now. She drinks in the sight of Scarlett underneath her: Scarlett, as hard as the steel that makes up most of her right leg and left arm, as soft as the warm caress of her thumb on Nisha's lower lip. She'd realized it back when she made up her mind to get Scarlett out of the Underdome, with or without her leg. Even if she can only admit it now. "How's that?"

Scarlett grins back at her, pulling her down into a slow, deep kiss. Nisha swallows a groan and arches her back. Her hand finds the buckle on Scarlett's belt as they pull apart. Scarlett beams with desire. Plunging her fingers through Nisha's hair, she whispers her answer:

"Mercilessly."

⁂ ⁂ ⁂

"I would have drowned twice to save you sinking, dear, if I could only have covered your eyes so you wouldn't have seen the water."

— Emily Dickinson