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Pâté’s new name for Laudna hadn’t come as a shock to her, really. She had been his creator, after all. She loved the little guy to death, no matter how much he infuriated her. And, if she was truly honest with herself, the first time he uttered ‘mum’ made her chest flutter with an emotion she hadn’t quite yet placed; one that made her warm and fuzzy, protective of the mangy little rat.
She hadn’t ever expected it to come to this. Laudna created Pâté to combat the lonely nights, to express herself in ways she couldn’t bring herself to otherwise. But here he was, floating unsteadily in front of her, rumbling dully as he swayed in place.
“—was crazy! Shoulda seen him, mum!”
The name had become more frequent, since the first time it was uttered. Like the floodgates had opened, and there was nothing Laudna could do about it — not that she really wanted it to stop.
“I’m sure, buddy.” Laudna reached her palm out, waited for him to plop down on it. His tail curled around his body and he settled down. “Why don’t we go find Imogen? See what she’s up to?”
“Imogen’s pretty.” He said in his low, gravelly tone. Laudna almost rolled her eyes at what she expected to come next, but the words didn’t leave him. Instead, he whispered (as best he could), “I see why you kissed her.”
Laudna looked around the room to see if anyone had heard. They were alone, of course. The abandoned building had so many rooms, enough for each of Bells Hells to get their own and then some. She had found herself in the large library, checking out what little books remained. It wasn’t often that the group had down time anymore, but they needed a few days to re-evaluate their plans, and wait for their contacts to get in touch. So, they hunkered down in an old, abandoned building on the outskirts of the little town they found themselves in.
Laudna’s footsteps echoed in the hall as she wandered, admiring the art on the wall. It depicted so many different stages of life, but the one that drew her the most was the one towards the end of the hall. A dark, skeletal set of hands dug into the shoulders of a woman from behind, her face impassive to the intrusion. Smoke bellowed from behind her and into her peripheral, but she kept her eyes forward.
“I like that one too.” The familiar southern draw had Laudna turning to face Imogen as she approached.
“We were just about to come find you.” Laudna softened, a smile growing as she took Imogen’s hand, rubbing her palm gently with her thumb.
“Hi Imogen!” Pâté shouted, his voice carrying through the corridors. Laudna slightly winced, shushing him, and Imogen just shook her head with a fond smile.
She reached out to stroke the little bird skull, and Pâté nuzzled into her fingers. “Hi, Pâté. Did you find anything while scouting?”
“Here we go,” Laudna muttered as Pâté launched into the same rant he gave earlier. Imogen met her eye and a faint pink rose to her cheeks, one that Laudna wanted to bring out as much as she could.
As Pâté’s rant continued, he buzzed over to Imogen’s shoulder, settling between lavender strands. Imogen helped him adjust and Laudna felt her heart flutter at the interaction. Pâté had really grown on Imogen in the past months, she noticed. She loved nothing more than to see her favorite people (well, person and dead rat) adore each other just as much as she adored them.
“Come on, Pâté, I think Chetney is telling another story to Fearne. Maybe we can listen in.” Imogen grabbed Laudna’s hand and dragged her along as Pâté and she conversed about something Laudna couldn’t make out, not when her mind was full of visions of the future they’d have together.
-
Imogen gasped the air she had been desperate for moments ago, clutching her throat and stomach. The dream had hurt this time, bad, so much so that she thought this was it. She glanced over to the left side of the bed, and it was empty. Imogen’s stomach dropped. She curled her knees to her chest, breaths coming in fast and shallow.
“Imogen?”
It wasn’t the voice she expected to hear. Crawling out from the little backpack house on the end table, was Pâté. He looked timid, for once, his movements slow and unsure. “You alright?”
“Where’s—“ she breathed hard. “Where’s Laudna?”
“On watch,” he started, then perked up. “Oh! She told me to let her know if you had a bad dream. Oh mu—“
“No, Pâté! It’s fine. I promise.”
The scrunkly creature pattered onto the bed and over to Imogen, climbing onto her lap. He looked up at her with those hollow eyes that somehow conveyed concern.
“You sure, Imogen?”
“Yeah. It wasn’t that bad,” she lied. It had been one of the worst ones yet. Her heart still beat against her chest so hard she was afraid it would burst. But Laudna had been through enough, they both had. Pretending nothing was wrong seemed like a perfect idea right now.
“Your marks were a bit glowy,” Pâté commented, “Lit up the room all pretty like.”
Imogen ran her fingers through his greasy fur; the motion soothed her tingling skin and gave her something to focus on. It was nice, the quiet they settled into. It wasn’t often that word could be used to describe a room Pâté was in, but now that they were here, Imogen found herself relaxing into the mattress again. Pâté moved his way up to her chest, curling up so he could still look at her. He seemed soothed by the motion, his form slumping further into Imogen with each pass of her fingers.
“You’re not goin’ away, right?”
Imogen paused. She never considered that Pâté would, could, have those worries. He was an extension of Laudna, and although she hadn’t yet brought it up, Imogen knew her girlfriend was scared. If she was honest, Imogen was too.
“No, Pâté. I’m here.”
“Good. I think mum loves you.”
Although they had said it to each other before, multiple times in fact, hearing it from someone else still made Imogen’s heart race, differently than it had earlier.
“I love her too. And you.”
Pâté let out what sounded like a satisfied huff. His wheezing breaths settled into the silence and Imogen found her eyes closing. “Night.”
“G’night, other mum.”
She’d worry about that in the morning.