They rested for a while under the stars while Finn gorged herself on berries and tried to stretch out her muscles without flashing Adi too much. By the time the moon was rising in the east, Finn was ready to start walking, and Adi seemed to agree.

They were able to walk for maybe six hours before Adi started to stumble dangerously along the bank edging the river. Despite not running during their flight from the humans, going through shock like she had would have been draining, and Finn suspected that she had saved all the berries for Finn. Finn had only seen her choke down half of one of those spicy roots, so she was probably running on empty.

After one particularly close call, where Finn only barely caught her by her upper arm before she tumbled into the water, Finn suggested that they hunker down for the rest of the night.

The moon had narrowed even further since the night before, barely a sliver of moon illuminating the night sky. The two young women crouched downside by side against the trunk of a tree leaning heavily toward the river. It was wide and twisted and starting to develop a hollow right in the center. In a few decades it would be a real shelter, but at that time it was more like a divot than a real hollow. Still, if they huddled close, it would work to hide them from view and protect them from the wind.

“We should try to sleep if we can,” Finn said quietly.

“Hm,” Adi grunted in agreement, rubbing her upper arms to try and generate some warmth. If they had clothes, the temperature wouldn’t have been a problem. Unfortunately, their bare skin wasn’t up to maintaining their body heat in the chill of the night.

They sat in a tense silence for a long time. They were pressed together from shoulder to knee, but it wasn't enough to warm them. For her part, Finn was weighing the merits of offering to cuddle up to Adi to help keep her warm. Finn always felt cold anyway, so it was hard to ignore how every breeze went right through her and how the dampness of the river at their back made everything worse. She eventually decided that it would sound like a come on. After all, it was unlikely they would actually freeze. It was just the tail end of summer, and the nip of fall had just begun to cool the air. Asking to cuddle would have been tilting her hand, wouldn’t it? Or, was she being too self-conscious? They were still in a life or death situation, even though they had managed to escape their captors.

In the end, Finn didn’t have to make a decision. Adi was the one who gave one large shiver and then snuggled down much closer to Finn, tucking her face into Finn’s shoulder. Taking the opportunity for what it was, Finn turned herself toward Adi, curling around her so that she could protect her from the cold as best she could. They ended up chest to chest, Adi's soft legs tossed over Finn's nicked up and tattooed thighs. Adi was so incredibly soft and warm in Finn's arms. Everything about her was soft and warm and smelled good like wood smoke. Her thighs were thick and squishy and shapely, just like her chest, but her back was tough and muscled. Her hair was a nest of soft waves and curls, and Finn happily buried the lower half of her face in it.

“Every time I think things can’t get worse, they do,” Adi muttered into Finn’s collarbone. Her breath was a wash of warm air across Finn's chest.

Finn rubbed her chin on Adi’s head and rolled that statement around in her head. She wondered if Adi wanted to share and bond. Finn could do that if that was what she wanted. She was not emotionally constipated, despite the best efforts of her father and brother. She could share. Finn could be brave. If the shivering, naked girl curled against her chest could do so, certainly Finn could do the same.

“Nothing ever goes right for me,” Finn offered in the shivering dark they were crouched in.

Adi sighed heavily and snuggled closer, telling Finn that she at least hadn’t said the wrong thing.

“Things were always tense, you know?” Adi continued. Her breath puffed damply against Finn’s collarbone. “When you live that close to a war zone, you’re always on edge. But, when you grow up in it, you get used to it. You know it’s serious, but that's normal to you.”

“Yeah,” Finn sighed into Adi’s hair. “I know the feeling,” she agreed, thinking of her dad and her brother, of growing up in a barracks, of training with a live blade before she even knew all her letters. She knew that her family was more than a little abnormal, but it was her normal.

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“Then, the war was on our doorstep, and we did what we had always talked about doing. We evacuated and moved inland. I guess Dad expected the Queen or at least our neighbors to make room for us. Except, nobody wanted us in their villages or even in their fucking fields,” Adi continued, her voice getting angrier with each word. Finn wrapped her arms around her tighter, offering what comfort she could, though she knew it wouldn’t be enough.

“Dad would just nod and agree whenever they came out to tell us as we had to leave. No fighting, no calling in favors, just ‘yeah okay’ and we would be packing up our all our belongings and preparing to leave again.”

“That’s how we ended up on the beach, almost all the way back to our cave. But, where else were we supposed to go? The Queen wouldn’t see us, the neighboring villages wouldn’t take us in, and the farther inland we moved, the less equipped we were to fend for ourselves. I thought when we settled down on that stupid sand breaker that we had reached our lowest point. Little did I know just how bad it could get.”

Adi leaned back so that she could look Finn in the eyes. Her own big dark eyes were shadowed by angry eyebrows pulled low, and her plush mouth turned down in the corners. “Nobody cared if we settled on that stupid beach, because it wasn’t fae land. We were in human territory. Right?” she asked, her eyes shining dangerously in the faint moonlight.

Finn swallowed and gathered her thoughts. What could she say to that? She didn’t have any of the answers that Adi was looking for.

“I don’t know,” Finn admitted quietly. “I didn’t think it was human territory, but I don’t know why else they would attack you like that.”

Adi’s mouth trembled for a moment, and she pressed her face into the crook of Finn’s shoulder hurriedly, before Finn could see her tears start to fall. But, she still felt them splash against her collar bone and chest, as warm as the rest of her against Finn's chilled flesh.

“It’s just so unfair,” Adi sobbed into Finn’s shoulder. “What did we do to deserve to be abandoned during the moment we needed help the most? What do we pay taxes for, just so that the Court can ignore us? It’s not fair!” she cried, clinging to Finn, her sharp little claws digging into Finn’s sides.

Finn clutched back at her, feeling like she was trying to physically hold Adi together as her body tried to shake itself apart.

“I’m sorry,” Finn rasped around the frog that had developed in her throat.

Adi angrily pushed away from her, her eyes big and wet and accusing. “What for?” she snapped. “What are you apologizing for?”

“I-” Finn started to speak the truth and then swallowed her words. “I’m just sorry this happened to you,” she added lamely.

“Did you have anything to do with the war?” she bit out, big shining tears still rolling down her cheeks.

“Er,” Finn grunted. She was part of the army, but had never been included in any military movements having to do with the ocean kingdom.

“Did you turn us away when we needed help?” she asked instead of waiting for Finn to get her words together.

“Maybe not, but I didn't help you either!” Finn blurted out.

“Did you even know that we were in trouble?” Adi asked, more evenly. Her anger was burning out quickly and changing into despair.

Finn bit her lip hard. She did know, of course she did, she had been watching them for days, but she couldn’t admit that to Adi. She would storm off into the woods naked and helpless and who knew what would happen to her. Finn needed to keep her secrets for at least a little bit longer, at least until Adi was safe.

Adi took her silence as an admittance that Finn hadn’t and slumped against Finn, pressing her tear-stained face against Finn’s already wet shoulder.

“I don’t need apologies from someone who didn’t do anything wrong. In the few days I’ve known you, you’ve done more for me personally than anyone else I’ve ever known, except for maybe my dad and brothers,” Adi sighed, her body loose in defeat.

Finn wrapped her arms back around Adi and wished she had anything she could say to make her feel better, though she was sure there was nothing.

“Regardless,” Finn said after a long moment of thought. “I’m sorry you had to go through any of that. I wish,” Finn swallowed the rush of saliva in her mouth. “I wish we had met under better circumstances.”

Adi was quiet for a moment before she murmured, “Me too.” She snuggled closer, so close that she couldn't get any closer without climbing inside Finn's skin. Finn almost wished she could.

Finn held painfully still, terrified of shifting in a way that would cause Adi to move away from her. She was warm, heavenly warm against Finn’s front. She wondered if that was a kobold trait or an Adi trait.

Eventually, Adi’s breathing evened out and it became obvious that she was asleep.