Work Text:
“We were never supposed to be here,” Laura Lee says from behind Jackie, startling her.
No one has ever said out loud that this place is forbidden, but it is known. This little hollow where the antler headpiece is kept. No one even acknowledges its existence, its meaning, who wears it when or why. It just exists, and neither Jackie nor Laura Lee has ever come close to wearing it.
When everyone else is busy, Jackie comes here and stares and tells herself she doesn’t want it. She doesn’t want that power. But the thought of someone placing it on her head, feeling the foreign weight on her hair, seeing the girls bow to her…
Something throbs in her tummy, low and hot.
“Of course we weren’t supposed to be here,” Jackie sighs, slumping down into the grass. The headpiece looms, keeping watch.
“I mean us,” Laura Lee says, sitting next to Jackie. “Me and you. We weren’t made for this place.” She doesn’t look at the headpiece, like she’s afraid to make eye contact with it. Her fingers find Jackie’s in the grass, her knees slope inwards.
Jackie nudges Laura Lee’s shoulder with her own. Presses her lips to the bony slope of her collarbone. Lets her lips slide up, coaxing Laura Lee into something comforting and secret and theirs. Lets the antlers witness it, limned in light.
Jackie has always known they weren’t meant to be in the wilderness. But maybe they can be something to each other.