Chapter Text
It’s different once you say something out loud. It becomes real, but infuriatingly intangible at the same time. Writing shit down is always more useful in the long run. Not that Beau would ever write this down, not in a hundred years, but like—speaking from a purely intellectual stand point as a super intellectual person, saying shit out loud has never helped anyone ever and in fact, it majorly sucks.
Reason the first: Nott is being weird despite her promise.
‘So we’re agreed? We crash at Beau’s place.’
‘Sounds like the sort of thing you should, I dunno, ask me about,’ Beau points out. ‘Not that I’m gonna say no or whatever but it is my cool new place and I earned it or whatever. And also I get to make up the rules for it like no shoes on the bed.’
‘Oh.’ Jester looks crestfallen all of a sudden and it’s Nott of all people who Beau looks to with a sudden look of alarm and confusion and help me! ‘I already bounced on the bed, Beau.’
‘Oh. No, I mean, that’s fine, uh, obviously.’
‘Jester is the exception to the rule,’ Nott announces, and other than a sudden spike of cold in Beau’s gut—is Nott hinting at The Thing That Must Not Be Discussed?—everyone just kind of nods and agrees and Jester beams.
‘Beau,’ Fjord says, a little grandiose, not quite mocking but mocking adjacent, like he knows full well that Beau is never gonna turn them away or say no, the asshole, ‘may we please crash in your room?’
She pretends to think about it for a long second and then cracks, grinning. ‘Yeah, alright.’
‘There’s only one bed,’ Caleb says. ‘Some of us could share but perhaps we should get some, ah, cushions. Stone is less comfortable than grass, after all. Beauregard can decide who gets the bed.’
‘Yes, Beauregard, who gets the bed?’ Nott again. She looks about half a second away from staring meaningfully at Jester, so Beau mutters something about my bed and we’ll see and definitely not you so die mad about it you piece of shit halfling.
Jester laughs, seeing Nott scream and jump onto Beau’s leg, and she says over the furor, ‘It’s me, Nott, I get the bed.’
‘Eh?’ Nott squeaks, stopping just shy of burying her teeth into the fleshy muscle above Beau’s knee.
‘I mean, we’ve shared before. It’s fine, isn’t it?’ She looks unsure of it suddenly. Might have something to do with the way Nott and Beau haven’t moved or blinked and stand locked together like some kind of statue depicting a battle. ‘Isn’t it?’
‘Yes!’ Beau blurts. Loudly. ‘It’s fine! Eat shit, Nott!’
‘I can’t even curl up at the end of the bed?’ Nott shrieks. ‘What kind of a monster are you? Kicking an old lady onto the floor? I could have arthritis!’
‘There’s plenty of space - '
‘Holy shit, Nott, okay fine whatever -‘
‘Is this really the most necessary conversation to have right this second?’
‘No no, don’t interrupt, it’s good to air grievances,’ Caduceus murmurs to Fjord, who just shakes his head.
‘Do you have arthritis?’
‘I could! You don’t know me!’
‘I agree with Fjord,’ Caleb says from the outskirts, out of the range of the minor brawl all three women have begun. Every few seconds, they seem to be in new and varied positions as they fight and talk and - bond? Nott trying to hamstring Beau. Beau pinning Nott to the floor. Jester peeling Nott away from Beau’s throat. All three of them somehow tangled up. Nott standing on Jester and Beau’s interlocked arms to scream at Beau, a long finger pointed accusingly down into her face.
‘I think the question is,’ he continues, largely unbothered by the scene, ‘what do we do about this Encroaching Demise?’
‘Pretty sure that’s not their name,’ Fjord disagrees but he’s grinning.
The trio rejoin them—better than ever, apparently, because they’re all grinning ear to ear despite a few vivid scratches—and Jester looks thoughtful before a delighted smile curls into the corners of her lips, dimples popping. ‘The Eventual Completion.’
Beau snorts. ‘Unavoidable Completion.’
‘Beau!’ Jester scolds.
‘Really? That’s a no go? Coming from you?’
Jester holds the scolding look for a second longer before she starts to laugh properly. And Nott does it—gives that look, passing from Beau to Jester and back again. And lingers.
//
She watches them that night. Beau nearly shits herself when she gets up out of bed to go to the washroom and she sees Nott at the end of the bed, Nott’s eyes like two gleaming dancing lights—or like Frumpkin’s eyes, two gleaming points of reflected light in the dark.
‘Nott—holy shit, dude, what,’
‘I’m on second watch,’ the older woman reminds Beau.
‘And you’re watching me?’
‘You moved,’ Nott defends. The round eyes narrow to suspicious slits. ‘Where are you going?’
‘Bathroom.’
‘Alone? Absolutely not.’
‘I’m a big girl, I can take a leak—‘
‘That freak came up through the stone floor, no one goes anywhere alone.’
Beau shuffles a little in place. The stone is cold on her bare feet and finally she jerks her head in a nod. Nott wakes Fjord for third watch, it was getting close to it anyway, and tells him where they’re headed. As they’re stepping out, she smells the first stirrings of tea as Fjord begins to brew a cup. They go to the washroom in silence and return in silence. Nott stops in front of the door.
‘Are you going to sleep tonight?’ she asks.
‘What? Yes?’
‘Because you weren’t. Before.’
Beau shrugs. ‘Hard to get to sleep after taking first watch, that’s all.’
‘You realise you told me like twenty four hours ago that you lie a lot, right? I know now, Beau, I’m on the level, I can see right through you. You think you’re so sneaky but I’m like - I’m like some kind of investigator, trained to see through it!’
Beau blinks. ‘You mean a detective?’
‘Ah fuck! Shut up!’
‘You call yourself that literally all the time.’
‘Shut up!’
She snorts. Opens the door for the both of them. Nott scuttles ahead and steals Beau’s spot, curls up nice and small into Jester’s side where it is warm and the blankets settle like a nest around her. It is with a small amount of relief, and a larger dose of annoyance, that Beau—not arguing for once—takes Nott’s spot at the end of the bed.
She falls to sleep with ease.