Chapter Text
She wakes up again. She doesn’t expect to.
The first feeling that comes back is around her stomach. There’s a pressure on it, a slight tingling feeling that comes with a weight. The next feeling she notices is something brushing against her cheek. A scent tickles her nose and she deems it familiar to the field of flowers Fauna had showed her.
Fauna.
She opens her eyes and sits up with a jolt. “Fau-” She chokes out, voice cracking from just having woken up and from being injured yesterday.
A grumble along her side answers her, and the weight around her stomach tightens as it pulls her back down.
“Stop moving.” A melody whispers to her ears.
Kronii’s heard this before. She relaxes again as she returns to laying on her back, her head tilting to look at green hair, a forehead rubbing onto her shoulder to hide a face.
“Fauna?” Kronii mumbles after clearing her throat.
“I don’t care if you’re not hurt anymore. I’m tired, so stay.”
Kronii smiles at the instruction. Finally, something she understands. However, when they continue to lay there for about an hour, Kronii begins to get a bit fidgety.
“What’s wrong?” Fauna tiredly mumbles.
Propping herself up slightly, Kronii moves to hover over Fauna. “Are you okay?”
The Goddess smiles as she looks up at Kronii, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. “I’m just recharging.” She fixes herself so she can use Kronii’s closer arm as a pillow, snuggling into her side.
“Oh.” Kronii allows herself to lay back down, wrapping herself around Fauna. “Recharging?”
“Mn…” Fauna hums, hiding herself in the crook of Kronii’s neck. “I spent a lot of life energy on you earlier.”
Earlier? The word makes Kronii think for a second, trying to remember.
Oh.
It was in the morning, when she had found soldiers from the king’s army, bringing in tools to cut down the trees of the forest. She had engaged in a fight, and…
The last thing she remembers is Fauna… healing her. She doesn’t know how to describe it, but Fauna made her fall asleep by…
Oh!
If Fauna needs rest then-!
Kronii moves her head back a bit, prompting Fauna to look at her.
“Kronii?”
The soldier in question shuffles wordlessly closer, and in a bit of a confused motion, presses her lips to Fauna’s forehead. She tilts back, looking at the Goddess expectantly, but she’s only met with a surprised, processing face.
“Did I… mess up?”
Fauna’s mouth opens before closing again, and she brings a hand up to cover it, turning onto her back to avoid eye contact. “N-no, it’s just…”
Arms pull her back in, Kronii pressing into her back in a warm embrace, trapping her there.
“Fauna?” Air hits the back of her ear, causing her breath to hitch for a moment. After a moment of silence, Kronii speaks up again. “I- I’m sorry, I just wanted to help you rest…”
The words click in Fauna’s head.
She covers more of her face with her hand, mainly to hide her heated cheeks. “You- you still shouldn’t do things like that.”
“Why can’t I?”
Fauna turns around quickly, a scold on her tongue. “Because-!” Their noses touch, and she immediately forgets she was in the middle of talking. She moves her head back slightly, not wanting to get stuck staring at such bright blue eyes who look at her with such innocent wonder, and ends up looking down at her hands, bunching up in Kronii’s collar.
“Because you’re only supposed to do that with people you like…” She mumbles.
She can almost see the question marks that radiate off of Kronii.
“But I like you.” Fauna almost flinches, but Kronii continues. “And didn’t you do it to me earlier?” Out of the top of her vision, she can see a smile grow. “So you like me too!”
Fauna sighs, closing her eyes with a subtle nod.
“Yeah… I do…”
“So then how come-”
“Because it’s different!” Her hands wrinkle Kronii’s collar when her grip tightens. “You don’t… know.”
Her grip loosens when a hand is put on top of them, and she looks back up with a tiny gasp.
“Then teach me.”
Fauna’s mouth opens, but no words come out. Instead, she gives another small nod but looks back down again. “Okay… just… later. Can we just rest for now?”
“Okay.” Kronii smiles at the instruction, slightly excited about the little promise and giving herself a mental reminder to hold Fauna to it. She begins to relax again, letting go of Fauna’s hand as the girl moves back into her spot.
“Kronii?” A miniscule voice whispers from under her chin.
“Hm?”
“... Can you hold me?”
Kronii happily obliges, wrapping her arms around Fauna again in a tight hug. For a second, Fauna feels a bit bad, knowing that the action was just an order that she gave, but her heart flutters when Kronii mumbles something into her hair.
“I like doing this too.”
Fauna smiles into Kronii’s collarbone, finally satisfied.
Kronii sits against a tree with Fauna in between her legs, holding a rabbit on her lap as the soldier’s arms hug the Goddess from behind.
She leans forward just slightly, putting her head on Fauna’s shoulder.
“How does this help you recover?” Kronii asks, shifting slightly so the rabbit doesn’t sniff her arm.
Fauna giggles at the wary movement. “It’s um, about being around… lively things. So keeping you around me is a big help, staying in the forest and being surrounded by life is also nice.”
“Oh.” Kronii mumbles, a little excited that she’s helping out. “Is there anything else I can do?”
Fauna leans back into the embrace, closing her eyes as she relaxes into the comforting feeling of being surrounded by Kronii. “Just stay with me.”
A small scoff hits her temple. “You don’t need to ask for that.” The breath makes Fauna tense up for a moment, already feeling the ghost of a touch against the side of her head. Yet, nothing ever happens, and the two stay like that for a bit.
Fauna’s own hands continue to gently pet the rabbit, but the questions in her mind finally land on her tongue.
“Hey, Kronii-” Fauna calls as she turns around slightly, but is greeted by long eyelashes on closed eyes, a still body breathing slowly.
Oh. She fell asleep. Fauna thinks to herself, not realizing she was naturally drifting towards the soldier until her lips grace Kronii’s cheek. She quickly pulls back, realizing what she just did, and leans back into place with a sigh.
She brings a hand up to her own mouth, trying to remember the feeling. A part of her wants to try again, to ask Kronii if they could do more, but the better part of her wants to wait for Kronii to figure it out herself.
All the thoughts leave her brain when she feels Kronii shift behind her before hair brushes against her cheek, the result of Kronii resting her face into Fauna’s shoulder.
“Okay…” Fauna whispers to herself. “Later then.” She gives a gentle smile as she starts to close her eyes as well.
It’s times like these where she wishes she could sleep, but she’s fine with just being at ease with Kronii for however long the soldier needs.
Kronii had apparently gotten very attached to the little rabbit. More often than not, Fauna would see her walking around with the fluffy creature on her shoulder, or sitting in the soldier’s lap while Kronii would practice making flower crowns.
She could swear, she’d even heard Kronii talk to it a few times, but when asked, neither Kronii nor the rabbit would say anything, which was weird, because Fauna could understand the creature, but Kronii couldn’t. It was like a strange little pact between the two of them.
“How’s that one look?” She can hear Kronii mumble to herself, but upon closer inspection, she can see the little bunny on her head. “Yeah… I don’t know how she does it.”
Fauna stays quiet, watching from afar.
“Do you think…? No, no, this isn’t good enough for her. She deserves better.” Kronii visibly sulks. “I’m not good enough for her-”
The rabbit suddenly smacks Kronii in the forehead, causing the soldier to flinch.
“Gwak! Hey!” More patting against her head. “Okay, okay… my bad…” She sighs to herself. “I just.. I do want to be good enough for her, good enough to stay by her side, y’know?”
She holds up the flower crown. “But how do I do that when I can’t even do something as simple as this?”
The rabbit responds by slowly turning to Fauna before jumping off Kronii’s head, causing her to need to catch herself as the rabbit kicks itself off her skull. Kronii yells after the rabbit, but stops when she realizes the rabbit runs to Fauna who stands at the edge of the flower field clearing, in the shade of trees.
“Ah…” Kronii mumbles to herself before clearing her throat and standing up. She dusts some leaves and other flower scraps off her legs and proceeds to walk over to Fauna, the remnants of a crude flower crown in hand. “Sorry… I wanted to try it again.”
Fauna gives a light giggle, looking up at Kronii with softened eyes. “You can do anything you want, Kronii.” Her heart flutters at the way the soldier brightens up.
Kronii holds the crown a bit more up in a nervous gesture. “Then… can I…?” Fauna nods, Kronii’s bright smile being absolutely contagious. “Cl-close your eyes.”
The Goddess quirks an eyebrow for a second, not knowing why she’d need to, but she humors Kronii anyways. Her eyelids fall, and she listens to the sound of rustling leaves in the back before she feels Kronii step forward a little closer.
Something nestles atop her head, but she can still feel Kronii’s hands there, like she was deciding how to place the flower crown maybe? Then, time freezes.
Fauna’s eyes open wide, realizing the feeling on her lips.
Kronii was kissing her.
She quickly pulls back though, a panicked expression flooding her face. “S-Sorry, I just-! You said I could do what I wanted and-”
Fauna grabs her by the collar and pulls her close. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
Tears began to well in the corner of Kronii’s eyes. She’s never been so scared, so terrified for her life. “I-I’m sorry-”
Another tug closer shuts her up again, and she winces in fear.
“You shouldn’t have done that, because I don’t think I can hold myself back anymore.” Fauna mumbles, closing the distance.
For a second, she can feel Kronii still trembling, but it recedes as a wave of realization washes over her. Soon, instead of the shaking against her lips, she feels hands roam to her waist, pulling her in for more as the mouth against her own pushes back. Fauna’s own hands wander upwards, draping themselves across broad shoulders as one even entangles itself in her hair, looking for something- anything to grab, to pull her closer.
Eventually, Fauna finds a way to pull herself off, and she can’t help but laugh at Kronii trying to chase for more, landing on her red cheeks, her cold nose, her forehead full of thoughts that all revolve around the human.
“Kronii, Kronii-!” Fauna yelps between getting peppered with kisses, patting the back of the soldier’s neck to try and calm her down enough to let go. “We’re not going anywhere, calm down!”
Hesitantly, Kroniii obliges, keeping her close. With Fauna’s back slightly arched as she looks up at Kronii, she remembers just how tall the girl is.
“I like you.” Kronii mumbles in a low voice, laced with desperation. “Like… really like you… I wanna learn everything about you, and I want to learn everything about the entire world just to tell you. I wanna be good enough for you.”
Fauna stares, speechless at the confession. She closes the distance again for a second, and mutters against Kronii’s lips. “You already are so much more than I deserve.”
Kronii’s hands tighten around Fauna’s back. “What does that mean?”
A little chuckle. “Nature isn’t always rainbows and sunshine, Kronii.”
“R-rainbows-?”
The flicker of golden eyes makes Kronii choke on her words. “You wanna learn everything about me?” A quick nod answers her. “Okay.” Fauna mutters, leaning her forehead against the soldier. “Then stay with me.”
This time Kronii laughs. “I already told you I would.”
She’s amazing, breathtaking, and all around perfect.
She has the warmth of the sun, yet the hidden ferocity of a thundering storm.
In the daytime, the colors reflect off of her like amazing fractals of rainbow stained raindrops, and in the night, the stars shine in her eyes as if she was one of them.
Which, to Kronii, she is.
The ex-soldier has managed to learn all of these over the years, and every day, no, every second , she falls for Fauna a little more.
She’s also learned this is called love.
Her favorite parts?
“Kronii!” Fauna calls, running up behind the human to throw her arms around from her back, colliding. Anyone else would’ve probably fallen, but Kronii stands her ground, turning around to accept Fauna into her arms. “What’re you up to?”
Around them, a beautiful sight of flowers that they cultivated together, the sunset in the sky framing the horizon perfectly. It’s the height of spring, a small breeze in the sky blowing a few fresh leaves.
Yet, Kronii’s gaze is locked onto the Goddess before her.
“I was thinking about how much I love you.”
Fauna’s cheeks warm with slight embarrassment, her ears turning red as she hides herself in Kronii’s shoulder.
“Uuu, you’re doing that on purpose.”
“Doing what?”
“Just… blurting it out like that.”
Kronii chuckles, the stress and tiredness of years ago having long faded from her thanks to her time with Fauna. “It’s true though. I can do this on purpose, too.”
Fauna yelps as she’s suddenly lifted into the air, Kronii having locked her arms from under her thighs and lifting her up with ease. “Kronii!”
The ex-soldier only smiles in response, full of complete adoration and loving for the Goddess in her arms. “Yes?” She responds, waiting for instructions.
Somethings never change, especially the way Fauna surrenders by cupping her hands around Kronii’s cheeks, gently poking her nose with her own as she whispers against her smile.
“I love you, too.” She says before sealing their lovestruck grins together.
Then, it’s time to sleep soon. Although, sleep is a bit of a stretch. Instead, they’ve grown into this routine of always talking about nothing and everything to each other, under the stars that dimly light up the way their intertwined with each other.
But her all time favorite part is when she wakes up every morning, always happy to see Fauna resting next to her, knowing that it will always happen without fail.
Kronii goes to sleep comfortably, knowing that Fauna will always be there when she wakes up. It’s something she expects to happen, and it’s something that always does.
The fun part is figuring out how Fauna will choose to wake her up this time.