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“Let me do your hair.” Claudia looks up from her book on Magical Creatures Of The Northern Isles In Xadia and the detailed description of a tiger seal, to where Rayla is smiling at her from across the desk.
“Now?” she asks.
“Yes, now,” Rayla answers as she rounds the desk and shuts the thick book before Claudia can protest or bookmark. Which she would, if Rayla’s hand didn’t suddenly run through her hair, fingers getting tangled in the strands still wet from the bath Claudia took after dinner. “It’ll dry nicely that way.” And who is Claudia to object to that?
“Okay,” she says, almost breathlessly, as she follows Rayla to the bed in her room. Though Ezran hadn’t hesitated to give Rayla her own quarters, Claudia had noticed the elf preferred to spend time with others, primarily with the young princes and herself. And though Claudia had never felt alone in the castle before, she found she preferred the company, now. “So,” Claudia says as she plops down on the mattress, next to Rayla. “What exactly are you going to do to my hair?”
“I’m just going to braid it,” she answers. Her steely lavender eyes are fixed on the streak of white in Claudia’s hair and as she reaches out to brush it out of her face, Claudia can feel her cheeks heat up.
“Sounds good,” she says, as she quickly turns her back to Rayla.
Rayla’s hands are steady and experienced as they comb through Claudia’s long, black hair and part it in different strands. Claudia stays silent, her eyes on the candles that are already burning low and the clutter on her desk. It’s a companionable silence, offset by noises of the wind roaring outside the castle walls, and Claudia revels in the comfort of it all. Rayla must feel the same way, because unprompted, she begins to speak.
“Some Skywing Elves cut off their braids when they lose a fight,” she says in a soft voice, while her knuckles brush lightly against Claudia’s shoulders. “Some believe there lies a power in them.”
“I must be really strong, then,” Claudia jokes, but it feels a little awkward. But Rayla chuckles and just like that, it doesn’t, anymore.
“Oh, yeah,” Rayla says. Claudia doesn’t have to see her face to know she’s wearing a grin. “They would be amazed at your battle prowess and lay down their arms without a fight. Imagine that—”
“A human beating a bunch of elves,” Claudia finishes. “Unheard of, of course.” Rayla chuckles again, louder this time.
“I’m just joking,” she says. “You lot aren’t all bad.” Raising an eyebrow, Claudia turns around to face the elf, careful not to pull on the braid too much.
“I suppose I should take that as a compliment?” She was right before—Rayla is sporting that same smug grin she gets when she beats Claudia in one of their chess matches.
“You suppose right,” she answers. Claudia only rolls her eyes fondly, and turns back around. It doesn’t take long for silence to settle over the room again. It’s late and outside, twilight has made way for total darkness, and the soothing, repetitive motion of Rayla twisting her hair into a braid is lulling Claudia to sleep. She doesn’t even notice how her eyes fall shut, or how she’s leaning more and more of her weight against Rayla, until the other girl speaks up again. “Tired?” she asks softly, the voice impossibly close to her ear.
“Only a little,” Claudia answers. She looks at the faded scars on her hands and thinks about the streak of white in her hair; both reminders of her darker past. “Maybe I should cut it all off.”
“Your hair?” Rayla asks, surprised. Claudia can feel her fingers twisting her hair down at her lower back now. She must almost be finished.
“Yes,” Claudia answers. “I think I need to do it. It’s just a reminder of who I used to be, I don’t know.”
“I think it’s beautiful like this,” Rayla says seriously, as she finished the brain and runs a hand over it; the black interlaced with white, ending in a bright purple. “But if that’s what you want to do…” A tiny smile starts playing around her lips at the casual compliment, before Claudia turns around and faces her.
“I think it’ll be cathartic. Like a fresh start,” she says. “Skywing Elves aren’t the only ones for whom hair can mean something more, you know?” Rayla just looks at her blankly, making Claudia giggle.
“They aren’t?”
“Humans cut their hair to signify change,” Claudia explains. “It’s not that common, but I’ve read about it in Love Amongst the Dragons—when the Dragon Emperor, cursed by the Dark Water Spirit to be a mortal, falls so deeply in love with a human girl he decides to leave his past behind forever.”
“Oh,” Rayla says, softly. “Huh.” Her gaze falls from Claudia’s down to her hands and Claudia get’s the sinking feeling that the elf has just gotten a realization.
“What?” There’s a chance she’s imagining the blush on Rayla’s cheeks, in the dim candlelight.
“Just—is that why you want to do it?” Rayla asks, still not meeting her gaze, and the pieces of the puzzle fall into place. Claudia smiles, a small grin that’s a manifestation of the barely contained excitement that has suddenly erupted within her chest, and covers Rayla’s hands with her own.
“I hadn’t thought about it like that,” she says, rubbing over the dark skin of Rayla’s hands with her thumbs. “But yeah. I’m like an entirely different person, now. No more dark magic…” Claudia glances at Rayla’s face and finds wide, steely lavender eyes observing her. “…and no longer alone.” Finally, Rayla’s lips form into a tentative smile. She turns her hands around in Claudia’s and links her fingers together. Despite the uneven amount of digits, their hands fit together perfectly.
“Yeah,” Rayla says, smiling, as she brings their joined hands to her face and presses a kiss to Claudia’s knuckles. It feels well-known in spite of the relative newness of their relationship, and Claudia realizes she’s exactly like the Dragon Emperor in the story.
She’s left her past behind, definitively. And she fell in love in the most unexpected way, Claudia thinks as she mirrors Rayla’s movement from earlier, placing a tender kiss to her fingers.