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“Hi firefly!” Ace says.
Betty immediately finds her words tangle up in her mouth, leaving her stuck giggling uselessly for a moment. “Um. Hi. Hi.”
“Hiii.” Ace pulls her into a hug, head on her shoulder, and Betty relaxes into the hold until there’s a sudden paw on her shoulder, one of Ace’s dogs pushing the two of them apart, and Betty’s instead got an armful of fluff and armadillo armour and a wet nose jabbed into her cheek, trying to smother her with licks.
“Hey buddy,” she manages to say, muffled, as Ace switches between laughter and scolding and trying to make Lazarus sit.
It works… eventually.
“I’m sorry!” Ace says, still giggling. “They’re all a bit too friendly -”
“It’s okay, he’s a sweetheart,” Betty says, scooping the slightly-more-calm dog into her arms again and resting her face against the top of his head. “Aren’t you, buddy?”
Ace tilts her head. “Honestly, I think it’s because they know I love you so much. So they love you too!”
Betty freezes, unnaturally still for half a second before carefully placing Lazarus back on the ground.
“You -” she begins. Words are so - “I love you too. Gods. Ace.”
“Bettyyy.”
Betty covers her face in her hands. “You’re so sweet.”
Ace is enjoying this far too much, gently pulling Betty’s hands away to press their foreheads together with a small laugh. “So are you, firefly!”
Betty whimpers something unintelligible, then, unwillingly, steps back. “We should not be at spawn.” She doesn’t let go of Ace’s hands, just starts tugging her towards the portal. “Come on!”
Neither of them has a location in mind, so instead they just… wander. It’s been a while since they’ve done that. There’s something about sharing the time with someone else that makes you look at the landscape anew.
Eventually, they end up at an allium field - Betty picks one while Ace is watching the dogs run through the flowers and gently spins her round so they’re face to face, tucking it behind Ace’s ear.
“It’s a bit less visible because your hair is purple but -”
“It’s cute!” Ace says, using the screen of her communicator to look at her reflection, beaming. Betty adores her. “Thank youuu Betty.”
“You have the most lovely smile,” Betty blurts out instead of a real response, then covers her face again. “Okay I’m gay sorry -”
“Awww,” Ace says, giggling.
Betty can’t do this. “Let’s keep walking!” she says, spinning to face the horizon.
It’s getting close to sundown when they find themselves at the bank of a river, but there are dark clouds covering the sky, only the faintest gold line at the horizon telling of the time. That and -
“Look, fireflies!” Ace says, pointing at the bushes by the waters edge. She runs over, the tiny lights fluttering around her like tiny stars. “Like you!”
“Yeah!” Betty sits on the ground and looks up at the darkening sky. “Do you think they’ll land on us if we stay here long enough?”
“Oh! I hope so. We gotta try.”
“Surely…” Betty says.
Ace glances up at the clouds. “If it doesn’t start raining on us at least.”
“Yeahhhh.”
“We gotta try!”
They’re quiet for a little while, watching the river and the fireflies in the slowly fading, cloud-dimmed sunlight. Eventually -
“Look,” Ace says, hushed, tilting her head at her hand, where a tiny insect is crawling up her finger.
“Aww,” Betty whispers.
“It’s so beautiful.”
“Yeah…”
It flies away after a long moment, and Betty lets out a breath she hadn’t realised she was holding.
“That was cute,” Ace says, staring out into the dark. Beside her, one of the dogs whines, jealous, and Betty holds back a laugh.
“It was.”
“We should go before it rains.” Ace turns back to Betty and grabs her hand. “Where to, firefly?”