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Kai isn’t sure how much she and the retainers have had to drink, exactly, but it’s enough that they’re standing atop a steep hill with two old carts. Altea staggers after Iseul, taking one cart from him, and Kai lurches forward, grabbing the other from August.
“What’re the rules again?” August asks, his speech slightly slurred.
“No airbags, we die like men,” Kai answers, trying to clamber up into her cart. Her limbs are uncooperative. She falls back into the grass.
Altea manages to flip herself up over the side into her own cart. “Get in…have to race. I’m not a coward.”
“Who called you a coward?”
“You.”
“Oh.”
Kai squints up at the late afternoon sky. A hawk floats on air currents high above. “August, pick me up.”
Before August can reply, a familiar voice says, “And why do you wish to be in the arms of another, my love?”
Helena’s amused face appears above her. Kai grins. Helena’s blue eyes sparkle with mirth, and her blonde hair cascades around her face, and against the colors of the late afternoon sky - or is it dusk now? - she is painfully beautiful. As if she isn’t always.
“You’re hot,” Kai says with a dopey smile. It doesn’t capture the depths of her thoughts, but it’s close enough. She thinks. Everything is a little fuzzy.
Helena’s face turns pink. “I…thank you. But that does not answer my question.”
“What is going on here?” Reiner asks, amused. He stops beside Helena, grinning down at Kai.
Kai holds up her arms to him. “Pick me up.”
Helena huffs. “Why do you suddenly desire to be in every man’s arms?”
Kai can’t tell if Helena is really put out or not. She doesn’t think so but decides to explain just in case. “Muscles. Gotta get in the cart. Need to go fast. Someone pick me up.”
Helena sighs and helps Kai stand. Wrapping an arm around her waist, she steadies Kia - which is good because it means Kai is pressed up against the most gorgeous woman she’s ever seen. Oh, and cause her legs are wobbly. That too.
Altea hangs her arms over the side of the cart and glares at Helena. “Get her in the cart,” she slurs, “need to prove I’m not a coward.”
Helena raises an eyebrow at Kai. “Why are you trying to kill yourselves?”
Kai pauses a moment, thoughtful. She can’t remember what brought them here. Finally, she remembers a glimmer of something. “Bored.” She shrugs.
Helena’s eyebrows rise higher. “Bored?”
Kai concentrates hard, trying to remember and to speak clearly. “Not much to do here. Medieval Jackass seemed the thing to do.”
Helena stares at her, bewildered. Then, shaking her head with an affectionate smile, she picks Kai up bridal style. Kai shivers, fully appreciating in that moment the muscles Helena has developed through years of fighting.
“I can’t leave you alone, can I?” Helena teases.
“You shouldn’t. You should tie me to the bed and - ”
Reiner coughs loudly. There’s a smirk on his face, and his cheeks are tinged pink. Kai glares at him for so rudely interrupting. He picks Altea up out of her cart, and August and Iseul grab the carts and regretfully start pushing them back toward the castle.
Helena’s face is bright red, but there’s a smile on her face, and her eyes are soft. “Once you are sober,” she says in a low voice, “if you still desire such, than I shall.”
Kai hums, resting her head against Helena’s shoulder and looping her arms around her neck. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”