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Andy was thumbing through one of Tuah’s heavy tombs, sitting on the step below where Quynh was resting, when she slightly stirred in her sleep.
She put the book down as Quynh was blinking open her heavy eyes, apparently needing a moment to remember where they were. It had been two days since Andy brought her here after what happened at the power plant.
“Hey,” Andy all but whispered, as if not to startle her. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been stabbed,” Quynh replied in her dry humour, and if Andy didn’t almost watch her bleed out in front of her, she would have at least smirked.
But the fact that Quynh was mortal now, while she had regained her own immortality was still too raw. She didn’t know how to handle it, especially in the light of how things had played out. With Booker being gone…
“My necklace, where is it?” Quynh wanted to know, disrupting Andy’s darkening thoughts.
“Here, I held onto it for you,” Andy said, taking it off to hand it back to her. She’d found it in Quynh’s trouser pocket when she had to help her change out of her blood-soaked clothes.
Quynh seemed to contemplate something for a moment, only looking at Andy’s outstretched arm, not making an attempt to reach for the necklace. Then she shook her head lightly.
“You keep it,” she finally determined, slightly baffling Andy. “I once gave it to you. I still want you to have it.”
Andy hadn’t expected that, not after the way Quynh took it back from her, ripping it off her neck mid-fight in Rome.
“I’ve been wearing it for over five-hundred years. Now it’s your turn to have it,” Andy eventually replied, feeling it was what she wanted now.
The necklace had been the sole reminder she still had of Quynh while she believed her forever gone. It was a way to remember that all those centuries she spent with Quynh had been real, that Quynh had been by her side once upon a time. But now, she had Quynh back in the flesh. She didn’t need any reminders of her, because she was right here with her.
Quynh only nodded, giving Andy the faintest of smiles. This was enough for Andy to move a little closer to Quynh, sitting down behind her.
“Let me put it on you,” she said in a quiet voice, and again, Quynh simply nodded her approval.
It was the first time in centuries that Andy was this close to Quynh while she was fully conscious, and without them fighting. Quynh just sitting there, with her back turned to Andy, showed her that she’d started to trust her again after Andy saved her.
Andy noticed how her hands slightly trembled as she reached out to place the necklace around Quynh’s neck. Her hair had been in a lazy, messy bun while she slept, multiple strands having come loose, falling down her back.
She gently brushed them aside, her fingers ghosting over Quynh’s skin ever so lightly. If she wasn’t entirely mistaken, she could feel Quynh shiver the tiniest bit at her touch.
Quynh was wearing one of Andy’s tank tops which was slightly too large for her, and that exposed part of her shoulders to Andy now.
After she securely fastened the necklace in the back, she let her hand rest against Quynh’s shoulder for a moment just placing it there in a tender touch.
To her surprise, she could see goosebumps forming on Quynh’s skin as she lightly trailed her fingertips over the side of her neck. In response, Quynh craned her neck to the side, as if to invite further connection.
At that moment, it would have been so easy for Andy to lean in further, to almost press her body against Quynh’s back, to move close enough to be able to place her lips against the soft skin of Quynh’s neck in a gentle kiss.
But she held herself back, feeling it would be too much too soon. For she didn’t want to do anything to risk driving another wedge between them if Quynh wasn’t ready yet for more.
That’s why she gently squeezed Quynh’s shoulder before pulling her hand back.
“There you go,” she said, her voice sounding too raw for her own ears.