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Kiana doesn’t like the cold.
It reminds her too much of those first few days after her father left. It had always been cold, but the biting frost felt more real when she was all alone. Before, she had the warmth of love to stave off the worst of it. A home.
And then, in an instant, all that came crumbling down. Kiana was alone, the cold her only companion as she trudged through the snow and ice, determined to survive and find something worth fighting for.
Those days were so far gone, now, but that didn’t make the cold any more palatable to Kiana. It gives her the excuse to cuddle more closely with her partners, sure, but she always finds an excuse for that.
The cold reminds Kiana of those lonely days without anyone but herself. It reminds her of the lab where she Sirin died, and the Herrscher of the Void was born. The cold has too many bitter memories tied to it. Kiana much prefers summer, where the company is plentiful and the sun is the only thing in the sky.
Kiana doesn’t like the cold.
…
…
It’s dark and cold.
Neither of which are a major hindrance to Kiana, being able to conjure fire at will, but it irks her. She doesn’t have to see the clock to know it’s late.
It’s dark and cold, and Kiana just woke up from a bad dream. She can’t remember it now, and for once she didn’t wake up crying or sweating, so she figures that’s an improvement. More to the point, however, she notices a distinct lack of warm bodies smothering her. The lump behind her that she fell asleep with is gone, as is the lump to her front she was formerly curled around.
It seemed to be a restless night for all three of them.
Kiana was going to fix that.
Slowly and reluctantly, the Kaslana girl shuffled her way out of bed, dragging a blanket with her and throwing it around her shoulders like a cloak. She carefully navigated the room, her eyes taking some time to adjust, and set out to find her girlfriends to bring them back to bed.
Finding them was probably the hardest part, even if that too wasn’t particularly difficult. They had their usual spots, but it was rare for both Mei and Fu Hua to be up at the same time. She wondered if one of them felt the other leave and went to coax them back, same as her.
When she found Mei reading, however, she pieced things together pretty quickly. All of them were roused separately from their slumber, and Kiana took it upon herself to rectify that.
The ruler of thunder did not so much as flinch as Kiana approached. Raiden Mei was, in fact, so engrossed in her novel that she only noticed her white-haired girlfriend when a darkened figure promptly straddled her lap.
“Ah, Kiana?” Mei said with mild surprise. Said surprise shifted to warm affection as the Kaslana laid her head onto the raven-haired woman’s collarbone. “Did we wake you up? I’m sorry.”
“Mmm.” Kiana shook her head groggily. “Just noticed it was cold. You okay?”
Mei smiled sadly and kissed her lover’s forehead. “Sort of. I wasn’t earlier, but the book helped. You helped more, though.”
“Where’s Hua?”
“Not sure. She was there when I woke up, but I heard her leaving when I tried to go back to sleep.”
“Hmm.” Kiana shifted in Mei’s lap and wrapped her arms around the other woman. “She’s prolly meditating.”
“I thought so, too.” Mei put her book aside and reciprocated her girlfriend’s embrace. “All the more reason for me to have left her alone for a bit. I don’t like disturbing her.”
Kiana hummed again in acknowledgement, content to snuggle for a little while. Eventually, however, she could feel her drowsiness weighing down her eyelids. As much as she would have loved to fall asleep in her girlfriend’s lap, she knew that firstly, they would wake up really sore from the position and second, she wanted to fall asleep with both of her girlfriends.
Shifting, Kiana made her intent known. Mei smiled and gave her one last kiss on the forehead before she got up, following not long after. Wordlessly Mei retreated back to their bedroom, presumably to fix the covers while Kiana went off in search of their girlfriend.
By now, Kiana was an expert at finding Fu Hua, to the extent that Mei often joked that the girl had a built-in ‘Phoenix Detector.’ The reality of it was far more mundane, but watching the Kaslana girl sniff their feathery partner out of a crowd was still an endless source of amusement to the former Herrscher of Thunder.
There were no crowds in their home, of course. Kiana simply knew all of Hua’s favorite spots, and thus was able to narrow down her location rather easily. She didn’t even need to check all of them to find their Phoenix.
Fu Hua was sitting cross-legged in front of the window. It wasn’t open, but the mere sight of the starry skies were enough for the martial artist. She hadn’t bothered to change out of her night clothes or find so much as a jacket, meaning that she probably hadn’t intended to stay for very long.
However, the candle beside her told a different story; it was very nearly burnt out, and Kiana remembered vividly when it was still brand-new.
That, of course, being just before they went to bed.
Kiana approached her, unsurprised that her presence went unacknowledged. She was accustomed to Fu Hua losing herself to her meditation. As the Kaslana closed the gap, she confirmed her suspicions that her partner was unaware of her with just a glance; the ancient martial-artist’s eyes were closed shut, and she uttered nary a peep at her girlfriend’s proximity.
Mei was always hesitant to draw Fu Hua out of states like these, but Kiana was not.
The snowy-haired woman sat beside her lover and tipped over, laying her head in the latter’s lap. It took less than an instant for Fu Hua to register her presence after that. Her eyes opened in a precise, calculated way, blinking twice before looking down at the weight that had suddenly appeared on her thigh.
“Kiana.” Fu Hua’s expression softened from focused to tender when she laid her gaze on her partner. “We woke you didn’t we? Sorry.”
Kiana practically purred as Fu Hua’s fingers gently brushed through her hair. She shook her head in spite of it. “Mei said the same. I woke up on my own.”
“Still.” I don’t like leaving you alone. That went unsaid, naturally. “I’m guessing she’s fixing the bed?”
“Mm-hm.” Kiana nodded sleepily. She shifted so she was on her back, able to look up at her girlfriend were her eyes not drooping shut.
“Well, we shouldn’t keep her waiting.”
Fu Hua made to pick Kiana up until she protested, citing she could walk on her own. Instead she resolved to merely help the Kaslana girl stand, rolling her eyes when the girl wrapped her arms around her stomach from behind and forced the duo to waddle back to their room. Predictably, Mei was busy flattening out the sheets when her girlfriends arrived.
Her hard work was spoiled almost instantly when Kiana unceremoniously flopped face-first onto the bed. Mei stifled a giggle while Fu Hua sighed and shook her head, smiling all the while. Kiana rolled over and made grabby-hands at them both, rolling again onto her side as they joined her.
There were a few murmured “I love you”s and “good night”s, to which Kiana responded as best she could with as quickly as she was falling back asleep. Surprisingly, before she drifted off, she noticed that both her partners had passed out before her in record time. She knew them well enough to tell when they were still awake, so the gentle exhales and slackened arms around her waist were proof enough that they were fast asleep.
Kiana followed them not long after with a contented smile on her lips.
…
Kiana doesn’t like the cold.
It’s still dark.
But it’s not cold anymore.