Work Text:
INTERLUDE
The moment Janai walks out of the tent, Amaya groans and lets herself fall backward on the cot.
She is lucky Janai doesn’t understand sign language that well, but she can’t really allow herself to slip like that again, especially considering how fast Janai is seeming to learn.
Amaya’s seen clearly how much easier it is to communicate with the Sunfire Elf than it was when they first met.
Janai has paid close attention to Kazi’s translations, and she must’ve done some research of her own as well.
When she’d asked her why she’d done what she did, Amaya had let herself slip.
It would’ve hurt more to lose you.
One would think that communicating through hand gestures would prevent her from spatting out the wrongest things, and yet it’s something that Amaya still has some problems with.
Around pretty girls especially, apparently.
Luckily for her, Janai hadn’t managed to catch her confession.
Amaya is sincerely impressed by how much Janai has learned in such a little amount of time, and she feels once again a surge of gratefulness toward the other woman.
When she’d blown up half of the Breach, she’d done so expecting to be killed right there and then.
And Janai had captured her, sure; imprisoned her, too. And then had kept her safe and alive until that very moment.
Amaya had given her the time of day, refusing to cooperate with that stupid interrogation, and yet Janai had never shown the same disgust that the late Queen Khessa had given her.
Amaya knows herself too well.
She knows she’s not just grateful.
She knows very well she’s falling hard for Janai.
And it’s not anything recent either.
Since the very first time they’ve fought, Amaya has found herself attracted to this person who could match her skills strike by strike.
And once again, she’s not blind.
Janai is stupidly attractive, with those chocolate eyes and those red hair done in dreadlocks, and those long fingers and...
Amaya scoffs at herself, shaking her head hard to try and change the course of her thoughts.
As she does, she feels a soft tremor of the ground, just like something that has fallen nearby.
She looks around, trying to pin point where and what fell.
Her eyes stop on the side of the tent, where Janai’s bag rests.
She sits up.
She remembers seeing Janai checking the bag a few minutes earlier, and how relieved she’d looked at the sight of a book that was resting inside.
Now that same book is open on the ground, in full display.
Amaya gets up to pick it up, and she notices immediately what the pictures on the inside represent.
It’s a dictionary of the Katolis sign language.
Her heart jumps in her chest.
She checks the entrance of the tent once again, and when she’s sure that Janai is not back yet, she looks at the pages.
Falling, the book had opened right at the end of the C words, on the left side, and the beginning of the D ones on the right.
Amaya frowns.
The C page has a folded corner, just like the type that she does when she doesn’t have a bookmark on hand.
The words on the page are Cut and Cute, while the D side simply contains a finger spelling of the letter D, then the words Dad and Dam.
Once again, her heart somersaults at the thought that pops in her head, but she closes the book.
Holding it with the good hand, she extends it in front of her. Then drops it on the ground again.
For the second time, the book opens, and when Amaya picks it up, her suspicions are confirmed.
The volume is still open on the same two pages, just like it would happen to any old book like that one if she were to crack the spine on the same page every time.
She hides a smile.
Somehow, she doubts that the word that Janai is studying over and over again is Dad, or Dam.
She carefully places the book back inside the bag, and makes sure that the objects are just like she’s found them.
Her heart is beating like crazy in her chest.
She’s spent so long trying to convince herself that Janai is really not that interested in her in that way that having a small hint that it might be the exact opposite is actually a little overwhelming.
Amaya is not easily impressed. Ever since they were kids, her and her sister had been very similar on many things.
So when Sarai had found Harrow and had fallen in love, Amaya had found it very amusing and fitting that the only person capable to impress her sister had been a future King. Sarai had always joked on the fact that Amaya would have probably married the first person good enough to beat her in combat.
Then Sarai had died, and no one had been able to actually beat her, and Amaya had shied away from any sort of romantic affair.
Until...
Amaya shakes her head at herself.
Janai has not beaten her, yet.
Slowly, she lowers herself back on the cot, sitting with her hands in her lap, and the flaps of the tent open again in front of her.
Janai walks in, looking exhausted, and Amaya thinks of the dictionary and can’t keep the smile off her face.
Janai’s frown smoothens just so, and the Sunfire Elf smiles back with the softest of smiles.
Amaya doesn’t remember the last time she’s kissed someone, but she knows she would really want to find out what it feels like to kiss Janai of Lux Aurea.
She is so, so screwed.