Chapter Text
"Are you watching, Beau?"
Beau turned just in time to see Yasha Jump up into the air and bring her staff down onto the last of the gnoll's they were fighting, landing again with a flourish grinning at Beau. "Pretty cool right?"
Beau smiled slightly, pulling her sword free from the body of another gnoll and looked around the clearing where they had been attacked, the nein had made camp there the night before deeming it safe enough as long as they kept watch.
"Definitely cool Yasha" she replied looking over the assimar monk, a bruise was already forming on her right eye and her knuckles were splitting due to not being wrapped before the fighting started.
"Maybe you should have Fjord look at that for you" Beau suggested gesturing to the bruise and split knuckles, she was aware that it was hardly the worst injuries Yasha had accrued in her time but still, Beau felt it better to be safe than sorry when it came to Yasha.
Though Yasha didn't look to share the same concerns, instead looking like she thought the very idea was funny "No need it's nothing serious, besides I wouldn't want to pull Fjord away from Jester she looks like she needs him" the last bit was said with a slight smirk, as Jester was currently dramatically telling the cleric about her heroics and how she might need him to check her out just to be sure she was okay. Fjord just looked amused mixed with a healthy amount of exasperation.
That was a pretty common expression when the cleric interacted with any member of the nein.
Beau looked around the clearing seeing Caleb and Nott checking over the bodies for anything of value, Nott loudly cursing when there was nothing to be found.
"So should we get moving then?" Jester's question brought Beau back to the present, noticing that Fjord had moved over to Yasha and was gently bullying her into letting him heal her, Yasha trying to argue it wasn't necessary.
They were on the way to Nicodranas to meet the woman Jester suspected was her mother and all of them knew how much it meant to her, having grown up with her father she had always been curious about who her mother could be and Jester had spent years waiting to find answers about the woman who had given birth to her.
And then just a few weeks ago while the nein were in Zadash, Jester and Caleb had stumbled across an old letter from Jester's father addressed only to someone called "his ruby". The letter had never been sent and the contents of the letter mentioned Jester and when it might be appropriate to 'let her know' and that had been enough for the nein to make their way towards the Menagerie Coast and sunny Nicodranas, to hopefully reunite Jester with her mom for the first time since she was an infant.
All of this was based on the assumption that The Gentleman's ruby was in fact The Ruby of the Sea, but really how many people could there be who want by that name and had one of the biggest crime bosses wrapped around their finger?
Beau could certainly sympathise with not really knowing who gave birth to you, even if she couldn't really relate to wanting to meet them. Her adopted mother had always been enough for Beau.
"Really not any reason to be standing around if we're already up" Yasha had managed to escape from Fjord and had come up to stand beside Jester giving her a small smile "Let's go see your mother"
Beau wasn't sure why but Yasha's face did something complicated when she said the word, mother.
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So it turned out that The Ruby of the Sea was in fact Jester's mom, after a couple of days of brewing up a plan to get close enough to confront her. (that had gone almost too well, the nein had a habit of screwing up just about any plan they ever made.) The group had split up for the evening to give Jester some time with her mom so everyone was left to their own devices.
Beau had originally planned to catch up on some sleep, as sleeping on the ground wasn't exactly the most comfortable way to rest. But she had instead ended up going looking for Yasha, the assimar had been acting more and more surly the clearer it became that The Ruby was Jester's mother and by the time the nein broke for the evening She had rushed out of the Chateau.
After almost an hour of looking Beau was getting ready to give up when she finally saw Yasha sitting far down the beach almost hidden behind some large rocks, Beau approaches her carefully making sure to make enough noise that Yasha could hear her coming and tell her to leave if need be but Yasha just kept silent, staring straight ahead.
"How are you doing?" Beau scrunched up her face at how the question came out.
"I'm fine" came the quick reply before Beau had even finished her question.
Beau kept quiet.
Yasha took a deep breath and exhaled "I'm sorry" Yasha kept staring straight ahead "I shouldn't be taking my issues out on you, it's not your fault I can't deal with my own bullshit" Yasha still wasn't looking at her so Beau decided to mirror her in staring out over the water, she couldn't be sure but she thought she saw a storm beginning to brew in the distance.
"Would it help you to talk about it?" Beau made sure not to look at Yasha since apparently, that made it easier for her to talk.
Yasha gave a heavy sigh "I don't really know what to say, or how to explain. I don't have a relationship with my family mostly because of my mother, I guess seeing Jester and Marion just fucked me up because I wasn't prepared"
"Prepared for what?"
"I don't fucking know, the realisation that not all mothers only care about how their kids can be useful for them or care about them in general.
Beau kept quiet again sensing that Yasha had been pushed far enough for one night and wanting to at least try to have a nice night alone with her before finally speaking.
"well Jester is with her mom and everyone else is off doing their own thing, do you want to just walk around with me for a while? I'm not really ready to turn in yet" Beau made sure to keep her voice casual, even with her heart trying to beat out of her chest.
Beau finally glanced at Yasha and was surprised at what she saw, Yasha was looking at her with a soft smile that Beau had never seen before and coursed feelings to grow inside her that she did not have time to deal with as Yasha had already jumped to her feet and was holding a hand out to help her up.
"I would love that"