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A sliver of moonlight crept through the wide windows of the royal chambers, revealing the silhouettes of three girls. They were currently tangled up in each other, with Anne and Sasha alternating between resting and lying awake with one eye open. Only after nightfall were they able to stay together like this; just the princess, her knight, and the assassin hired to kill them both.
“Sasha.”
“Mm?”
“Your feet are cold.” Instead of moving away, Sasha opted for using her foot to blaze a trail up Anne’s leg. She smirked when Anne yelped and kicked out defensively.
“Easy now, you’ll wake the baby,” Sasha crooned, pointedly hugging a sleeping Marcy to her chest. Anne flicked Sasha’s nose in reply, and she finally relented with her teasing.
“You're lucky she's cute,” Anne grumbled, her arm tightening around both her girls.
“I'm lucky you're such a sap.” They bickered that way for a while, making sure to keep their voices low so as not to wake Marcy. Anne couldn’t remember falling back asleep, but when she awoke it was still dark, and Sasha was gone. Marcy muttered something unintelligible and rolled over, reaching for Anne in her sleep. She closed the distance just long enough to kiss Marcy’s forehead before reluctantly pulling away.
“Sorry, Marbles,” she whispered as she swung her feet from the edge of the bed. If she waited any longer, Sasha could very well have disappeared. Which wasn’t uncommon for her, but occasionally Anne was able to catch her on the balcony before she was gone. Pulling on her cloak over her nightclothes, Anne made her way across the bedroom and through the double french doors.
Even leaning casually against the railing Sasha held the posture of a bronze statue, staunch and unwavering. Anne had come to admire that about her. She and Marcy relied on her strength in the same way they relied on each other; one couldn't exist without the other. Much unlike a statue, Sasha molded easily into her arms, her shoulders relaxing as Anne’s cheek rested on her back.
“The stars look beautiful tonight.” Anne could feel toned muscles flexing in her torso as she snorted, and her fingers splayed over Sasha’s stomach experimentally.
“You would notice that, wouldn’t you, farmgirl?” The nickname had become almost welcome since Sasha started spending her nights at the castle. If anyone ever asked, the saccharine way it rolled off Sasha’s tongue had nothing to do with it.
“Don’t tell me the toads taught you nothing about astrology?” Anne queried.
“They did. They just used language that was a lot less flowery.” Sasha ignored Anne’s “Hey!” of protest. “The stars are more like tools for us. We revere them as… not gods exactly, but navigators. They guide us when the way forward is too difficult to find on our own.” She leaned forward again with her head angled towards the night sky, silent and contemplative. After a minute, Anne was whispering through the thin fabric of her shirt.
“That’s just as poetic.” Sasha offered her a smile she knew would go unseen.
“Maybe.” Anne peered over her shoulder to see Newtopia sprawling beneath them, the opaline buildings glistening in the moonlight. Sasha nearly always left under cover of night; all three of them agreed upon it being the safest option. Still, the more she came and went, the more it hurt Anne to see her go.
“You could stay.” She felt Sasha go rigid in her arms, and an all-too-familiar pang of loneliness echoed in her chest.
“I can’t stay and you know it.” Just like that, the spell that had fallen between them was broken. Anne drifted away from Sasha’s warmth, wrapping her arms protectively around herself.
“Do I? You never care to explain why you keep choosing them over us.” Sasha’s knuckles turned white against the railing. She pushed herself away, her back still facing Anne as her boots squeaked against the tile.
“What do you think happens if the toads find out I can’t kill Marcy?” In one swift movement she was looming over Anne, a finger jabbing into her chest for emphasis. Anne’s lips were pressed into a thin line, but her eyes were on fire, daring Sasha to continue. “They send someone who will.”
“We can both protect her then,” Anne countered, unyielding.
“And serve under that tyrant you call a king? Not likely.”
“Oh please, as if he’s any worse than your brute of a general!” The topic was strictly off-limits and Anne knew it, but she was pissed off enough not to care. They advanced on each other, cresting like tides beneath a full moon.
“I won’t betray Grime! Toads are loyal to one another. It’s how we stay strong.” Her words seemed to boom across the night sky despite her still attempting to whisper. Anne took another step forward, and the tip of Sasha’s boot slid instinctually into a dueling position.
“You’re not a toad, Sasha! You’re human like us!”
For most of her life, Sasha believed herself forged in iron, immovable. Anne and Marcy had a special talent for proving her wrong, for exposing the porcelain heart beneath. She would never admit it out loud, but the pained look dimming her features said more than enough to Anne. She opened her mouth to speak just as the sound of padded feet advancing on tile interrupted them both.
Anne whipped around, the dagger she concealed in her bushy hair already in hand and held at the level of the vitals. Sasha had swung herself over the balcony, prepared to either ambush the intruder or start running. The entire castle had orders to shoot on sight, and Anne being seen with a still-breathing Sasha would undoubtedly be considered treason. She hung silently from the railing by one hand, her heels digging into the gaps between the stone walls.
“Um, beautiful night, isn’t it?” She heard Marcy’s bashful voice from above. Both Sasha and Anne sighed in unison.
“Marcy,” Sasha huffed as she began pulling herself up over the railing. “Don’t sneak up on us like that.” Anne was busy feeding her dagger back into her impossibly curly mane. Marcy couldn’t help but giggle as she watched her girlfriends startling like rabbits. Armed and dangerous rabbits, who loved her enough to die for her.
“Sorry. I forgot you guys don’t like surprises.” Sasha just squinted disapprovingly as she returned to standing on the balcony.
“You should be in bed,” Anne scolded her gently, her voice breaking with an unexpected rush of emotion. Sasha flinched visibly at the sound, her fists clenching nervously at her sides.
“You two weren’t, so I came looking for you.” Her smile was fond, but the skin beneath her eyes was taut with apprehension. Sasha and Anne didn’t need to ask to know she had heard everything. Without warning, Marcy rushed into Anne’s arms, nuzzling beneath her neck.
“I don’t want you guys to fight.” Anne patted Marcy’s head semi-awkwardly, but she quickly relaxed into her girlfriend’s embrace. Sensing the tension leaving Anne’s body in waves, Marcy used a hand to discreetly beckon Sasha over. The blonde hesitated at first, but eventually slinked over to take the hand offered to her. The palm of her other hand ghosted along Anne’s hip.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered into the spot behind her ear. Taking the lack of recoil as a good sign, Sasha leaned in and kissed her temple. Her fingers joined Anne’s in drawing lazy circles along Marcy’s back.
“It’s not your fault.” Neither of them believed it, but it was enough for Sasha to relax into their embrace. “I know it’s more complicated than it seems.”
“No you don’t.” Marcy appeared to be falling asleep in Anne’s arms, her head resting against her chest. Sasha reached out and brushed Marcy’s bangs from her eyes. “But I would never do anything I thought would get Marcy hurt. I can promise you that much.” Anne hummed noncommittally, but she couldn’t deny herself the pleasure of leaning back into Sasha’s low voice and warm touch. She was still mad, but Sasha proved difficult to stay mad at.
“Aren’t you going to carry us to bed?” Anne finally asked, giving in to her fondness for her girlfriend.
“Both of you?” Anne realized too late that Sasha was actually considering it. She shrugged. “I guess.”
“Wait-” Sasha didn’t wait, and really, Anne should’ve known better than to offer Sasha any sort of challenge. Their positions were awkward, but she managed to hook her arms beneath Marcy’s knees, lifting her and Anne by extension. Anne clung to Marcy for dear life as the half-asleep girl wrapped reflexively around her torso.
Thankfully, the distance from the balcony to the bedroom was short with minimal obstacles. Sasha dropped her girls as gently as she could manage, planting one knee on the edge of the bed as her center of balance shifted. Anne managed to roll off Marcy as she landed, inadvertently placing herself on Sasha’s end of the bed. Her sigh of relief was short-lived as Sasha barely caught herself by the palms of her hands, her golden bangs tickling Anne’s nose.
“Hey,” she breathed, staring down at wide brown eyes with a passive expression. Anne would later blame her sleep-deprived mind for the hands that trailed up Sasha’s neck and tugged insistently until there were soft lips moving against her own. After a minute she shoved Sasha off from the shoulders, rolling over so she could clasp her hands around a snoring Marcy’s waist.
“Go to sleep,” she whispered before burying her grin in Marcy’s tousled hair. She felt the bed shift before Sasha’s back molded against her, her muscles tensed as her arms were crossed in front of her. The heat radiating from her girlfriends had Anne yawning soon enough, and she drifted off into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.
Sometime during the night, the assassin rolled over, draping one arm protectively over the princess and her knight.