Work Text:
Nehn's mother, the tall woman with a soft angled face like her only child's, had been a familiar presence her whole life. Nirwen had known Nehn since they were small. As part of the same clan, and around the same age, it was inevitable. With her mother, Dar'alan, over the years, becoming one of the busiest, most productive provisioners Lavellan had, she was also known to everyone else as well. Nirwen gained a particular fondness for the sap sweets that endured for some time after the harvest, and Dar'alan happily provided for her giggly daughter and her closest friend many times over the years.
Coming before her familiar brown eyes shot through with golden flecks, as not just her daughter's friend, training partner, and closest of allies, but as two that were en extension of one another. Two who had learned what the ache of worry when they were each apart on different duties meant, the emptiness that arose in your chest when someone else wasn't around, the stinging heat that accompanied the faintest catch of the way her hair smelled, and, for Nirwen, the charm of the dirt spots Nehn always got on her cheek when she shot. This was more than their bond had been. Something surprising, at once the scariest and the most welcoming thing in the world. Most things, when they were frightening, didn't also fill you with abandon in wanting to plunge into them whole.
Dar'alan scrunched her brow, looking each of them over. Nirwen darted her eyes to Nehn for a split second, noting her quick breaths. Defiantly, she touched Nehn's back, offering a caress.
"Nehn," she said, looking to her daughter, "I knew, had thought I imagined, that perhaps else might be true. Maybe there was something I mistook in those small glances. I'm just...I'm glad it's you, Nirwen."
Nehn had been right. Her mother knew. Stated in a way that still held hesitation, a sense that brought back her own parents' words; words that lent support, but seemed to focus on the immediate. What of the future? she wondered, before sending those thoughts away. Nehn's fingers found hers.
"Mamae, I....we, we plan a life...." Nehn, always so precise, except in those moments Nirwen delighted in creating when they were alone, uncertainly trailed off.
Dar'alan nodded, then reached out arms to embrace both of them. "Nehn, you are one of our clan, soon to begin a journey that will mean my child is a child no longer. There will be time for these decisions later." Her eyes held something Nirwen couldn't quite interpret. Love, yes, and maybe some of the lingering fear in her own parents' eyes, but something more. "Nirwen," Dar'alan continued, drawing back from both girls, "you've been as a second daughter to me. Nehn is my greatest blessing. If you're hers, be true."
Nehn lifted their joined hands before her mother. "We are." No further words were needed.