Work Text:
She's the loveliest person Leah has ever seen.
She's tall, slender and graceful as a willow, and her hair, usually bundled underneath a bright scarf, tumbles in soft curls to just above her waist when it's unleashed. Long, swooping lashes lift to reveal twinkling dark eyes, sparkling with the latest joke, and curved nose and soft lips complete the picturesque face. She is kind and gentle and mischievous and clever all at once, and her visits fly past while the stretches of time in between drag more than a tired child's feet.
Before, Leah lived in darkness. But she is a ray of sunlight.
Her name is Thacia.
*
At first, Thacia doesn't know what to make of her. Who is this shadow, this mere flicker of a girl, who seems to dissolve into mist at the very hint of a footstep? She's heard rumours, of course. Everyone's heard the rumours. Possessed by the devil, they say. Satan himself cursed her on the day her mother, bless her soul, breathed her last breath.
But the girl who peeks out shyly from behind her loom does not fit at all with what Thacia's heard. She's skittish as a stray cat, but even the most timid of stray cats can be won over with kindness.
And so Thacia does just that.
She expects the girl to scatter as soon as her foot brushes the floor of the front room, but she remains, motionless, lake-blue eyes taking in this strange girl from head to toe -- and then it's like Jesus himself has cured her, for not only does she stand, she takes several curious steps forward.
"Who are you?" Her voice is so soft as to be nearly inaudible, her lips barely moving.
"I'm Thacia." Thacia hesitates a moment before adding, "Who are you?"
The dusky eyelashes flicker and the golden hair swings forward, and Thacia is expecting a hasty retreat or at least silence, but the response shocks her. "I'm Leah. Would you like to see my garden?"
*
Time passes quickly when they're alone, and Leah is always disappointed when Daniel and Joel return to the little house. There's always a long goodbye between her and Thacia, with much hugging and promising of next times, and the boys always stand impatiently tapping their feet, most likely thinking, Women. But what neither Daniel nor Joel can see is that Thacia is Leah's lifeline, her safe haven, the only place where she can belong and not be judged. And it may be weeks or months before Thacia and Joel return, so who's to say when they might next see each other?
Every time Leah peers out the window of the house to see the blue-clad figure of Thacia approaching, tall but dwarfed by her taller-still brother, she feels she could sing for joy, and her heart pounds so hard it just might beat right out of her chest. And every time they have to separate again, that heart becomes heavy and she mopes so that not even Daniel's tales of his adventures can cheer her up again...until the next time Thacia comes walking down that road.
She's always on Leah's mind, day and night.
She's the only friend Leah has ever had, after all.
*
Leah is the only real friend Thacia has ever had. Of course there's Joel, who's played with her and tolerated her since she was young, but she has the suspicion that he regards her as just a girl, his little sister who needs to be protected from harm, rather than someone to confide in and laugh with and stand on equal ground with.
But one day, something happens that forever changes Thacia's life.
She and Leah are sitting in the garden, talking. Leah is going on about the squash and the cucumbers she plans to plant in the ground as soon as it rains, gesturing with her hands as she describes exactly where she'll put them, and Thacia is sitting with her head on Leah's shoulder, just listening, content to listen to that flutelike voice forever. It's so beautiful, in fact, that she starts to nod off -- she and Joel set off early this morning for the village, and she hasn't been sleeping well lately, and this heat certainly doesn't help...
"Thace!" Leah elbows her, laughing. "Are you still awake?"
"Sorry." Thacia sits up, rubbing her eyes. "I'm just tired"
"I hope I'm not making you too sleepy with my talk of squash and cucumbers," Leah teases. Thacia laughs, and Leah laughs with her, and then all of a sudden Leah leans forward and kisses Thacia on the cheek. It's perfectly platonic and not unusual for close friends to do, but it sends shivers through Thacia's entire body, and she can feel her face flushing and she has no idea what is going on.
"Thacia, are you okay?" Leah is suddenly concerned, her blue eyes wide.
Thacia looks away, avoiding her friend's gaze. "I'm fine. It's just this heat...Come on, let's go inside where it's cooler."
They head inside and talk of other things till the boys return, but Thacia's face is still on fire, all her nerves are tingling and the whole way back to Capernaum, all that sensible, down-to-earth, intelligent Malthace Bar Hezron can think of is the feeling of Leah's lips against her cheek.
*
Leah lies in bed that night, unable to drift into sleep, her thoughts keeping her awake -- she keeps drifting back to the moment in the garden, with Thacia. All the time Thacia was resting on her shoulder, the only thing Leah could think of was kissing her. The kiss on the cheek was an impulse, a way of showing her affection for Thacia without being too forward, but now Leah wonders if she did the right thing. Thacia was acting so strange afterwards that Leah is afraid that she's damaged the girl somehow -- what if she hurt Thacia? What if Thacia doesn't want to come back? What if she's no longer Leah's friend? Will she never see Thacia again?
And then there's the fact that they're both girls. Leah has no idea if two girls are even allowed to be in love -- from what she can remember, every couple she knew when she was small was one man and one woman. Is she supposed to love a boy? She doesn't want to. She doesn't even want to talk to any boys -- not even Daniel sometimes, especially when he gets into one of his moods and stalks around the house. But Joel and Daniel are so close that they must be in love, and there was the one time that Leah caught them kissing behind the shed and afterwards Daniel threw harsh words at her and threatened that if she ever told anyone, there would be trouble, and then Leah ran to Thacia but couldn't tell her what she'd seen and why she was so upset and that's been on her mind ever since. If two boys are allowed to be in love, two girls should be, too.
Leah buries her face in her arms and drifts into an uneasy slumber.
*
The walks from Capernaum to Leah's village are long. Joel talks little during these walks, giving Thacia a lot of time to think. And think she does. About Leah. About her religion. About her feelings for Leah. About what her religion says about her feelings for Leah.
Specifically, that they're wrong.
But the negative thoughts disappear as soon as she sees Leah, waving at her from an upstairs window. The two girls embrace, and Leah stiffens for a moment, but then melts into Thacia's arms as if they haven't seen each other in years, just like she does every other time Thacia visits. Thacia's heart is fluttering at a million beats a minute, and she's so trembly that she's sure Leah can feel her shaking.
It only gets worse when Daniel slams the front door behind him and Joel, leaving her and Leah alone in the house.
"Come on, let's go sit in the garden." Leah tugs at her hand, and they go to sit on the bench, but Thacia isn't listening to a word Leah is saying. At some point, she's vaguely aware that Leah has stopped talking and has turned to look at her. She's vaguely aware that she has turned to look at Leah. And she's vaguely aware that their faces are moving closer and closer together.
And Thacia knows this is wrong, so wrong.
But if it's so wrong, then why does it feel so right?