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“I’m going to see Hal, do you want anything?” Neve asks, kissing Rana’s bare shoulder before she rolls up to put on her foot.
“Ugh,” Rana burrows her face in the pillows. “Neve, I love you but I don’t know how you can eat Hal’s fish every day.”
Neve hums cheerily and finishes testing the final fastening before standing up. “You don’t want to eat my cooking, that’s for sure.”
“I don’t know, it might give me a new appreciation for Hal,” Rana mumbles, too comfortable to move, yet not willing to go to sleep without an answer. “Come back to bed, I’ll make you something in a little bit.”
“I’d say yes, but I’m hungry, and I’ve seen you eat out just as much as I do. I don’t know if I believe you.” Neve tosses on a shirt and leaves it unbuttoned while she hunts for a pair of pants.
Rana shifts just enough to be able to watch appreciatively as Neve walks around the small apartment. “Cooking for myself seems pointless. Cooking for you is different. I’m not on the level of your Dellamorte friend but I can manage something edible for you. Come back. I’ll make it worth your while.”
Neve bumps the bed with her hip and tugs gently at Rana’s messy, half pulled-out braid. That will be a chore and a half to detangle, but that’s a problem Rana will solve later. “Aww, how sweet. That doesn’t solve the ‘I’m hungry now’ part though.” She drags a pair of pants out from under the bed with her foot. “I’ll take a rain check though.”
“It’s always raining in Dock Town,” Rana says as she runs a hand down Neve’s bare hip. “And you give that excuse to Hal too, when you don’t want to take his offer of free fish. So either I’m invited over everyday, or you’re trying to kick me out without making it seem like you’re kicking me out.”
“Rana, I…” Neve starts, before sitting down on the edge of the bed heavily. Rana flops onto her back so she can look at her better.
“I know you, Neve Gallus. I know you don’t like getting close to people, and I know you want to protect everyone in this city.” Rana doesn’t like that she’s included in that, beyond the fact that she’s the templar. Neve puts too much on herself, blames herself for other people’s choices. “Look at it this way. People already know we’re friends. Adding this, it doesn’t change that.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I know.” Neve falls backward, crosswise, head pillowed on Rana’s stomach. Rana runs a hand through Neve’s silky, not-tangled-at-all hair and feels a brief stab of envy. “And I really am hungry. But I guess I can wait a little.”
“I’ll take that to mean I’m invited over everyday,” Rana says, closing her eyes to focus on the feel of Neve’s hair between her fingers.
“Sure, Rana. I’ll take that.”