AU - MAGNI & LAKSHMI

[mahalakshmi]

if you'll be my light, i'll be your shelter

i. first meeting | a non existent engagement and a hasty marriage ii. a tempertantrum in a thunderstorm | sticks and stones may break my bone but words will leave me with crippling anxiety (and a headcold) iii. a kindness of intimacies | nsfw, sometimes, love is like falling into an icy lake iv. just like the battle of troy, there is nothing subtle here | when the world conspires to consistently make you insecure about your wife.

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[villieldr]

Despite herself, Magni smiles a little bit at the sneeze, exhaling a little laugh because, all things considered, it's both funny and endearing. She fishes into her pocket to draw out a handkerchief to offer Rani, but— she looks at it, slightly mortified that it, too, is soaked.

Enough of that, though: Magni draws Rani closer to the currently dormant fireplace, and moves to one of the cupboards. Blankets, some spare clothes that are intended for workers who are usually male and taller than Rani, a wooly jumper with a few holes in it amongst them.

"We need to get you warm," she says softly, holding the clothes out to Rani, and tenderly kissing her forehead, before she tilts her head towards the fireplace in an explanation of what she's going to be working on. Put these on, I'll see to the fire. They can dry their own clothes, and then when the storm had abated they could travel back.

[mahalakshmi]

"Thank you," is the miserable little sniffle. Regardless of whether it's soaked or not, it's better than having to wipe at her own face with her hand. Covering herself when she predictably, goes to sneeze again.

It hits her then, really, shivering with the cold and damp. Because whilst Magni gets her dry things to ware, and - she tries with the limited privacy available, to begin peeling out of her own clothes. Turning her back on her, beginning to undo the laces at the front of her dress with shivering, shaking fingers, but she gets it done. Dropping the heavy wool dress the Magni's mother had given her. It felt like dropping a huge weight, a relief that, even with her shift below it, she is glad to be rid of for the time being.

Not that it leaves with her much otherwise. The shift half falling off one shoulder with nothing to hold it in place as she steps out of the pile of clothes, and pushes it away with her foot. Sitting down to start undoing the sturdy walking shoes she'd been given by Krogstad. Until she's not left in much of anything.

By the time she's done, there can't be much mistaking it, she's ill, felt clammy, her head throbbing. It had to happen eventually with all this cold that she just wasn't used to. A sound repayment for taking off despite Magni's good warnings. Jittering and her fingers slow in how she reaches for her the jumper to pull over her head.

[villieldr]

Carefully, respectfully, she keeps her back turned. Granted she is making the fire, so perhaps there is a degree of necessity in there as well, but her gaze stays carefully trained forward. At least this is something she is experienced enough in, and soon there is a fire crackling to life, smoke rising in wisps up the chimney.

Her own clothes are soaked, but she doesn't see to that quickly. First hangs up some of Rani's wet things on some lines so they might dry, and then goes to retrieve more dry things and blankets, banishing herself to a corner to get changed. The clothes fit her better, though some of the supplies are not designed for someone of her height, and so look slightly tragic. Claiming a place next to Rani, she brings more blankets, and wraps them around her wife's shoulders, her arm tentatively coming to rest there as well, hugging Rani to her side.

"Rest. We'll dry out and get warm, and if the rain has stopped, we'll travel back in the morning Sleeping might help your cold."

[mahalakshmi]

Too big for Lakshmi, too little for Magni, what a pair they made, as she's wrapped around. Which -

- The bed isn't fit for much, the floor is bare stone and the wind is howling with the worst of the storm outside. Beating down in sheets of water. It's a miserable night, and one, that otherwise she would feel loathe to withstand. Especially - here, where nothing is right, everything is woefully so different that she could not even trust her own judgement over the sky.

But... as she takes long, slow breathes... it isn't. Her body relaxes. Maybe, it is that she is ill, or perhaps the simplicity of being held while being so. Leaning by little amounts into Magni's side. "I do not think I will be able to do much else. My head seems to think it will either ache or sleep, no matter what I do."

[villieldr]

"I'll be here." Whatever she needs to do, Magni will be here. Maybe what she means is less immediately, as well: I am with you, I will be by your side.

Hesitantly, she leans down to kiss Rani's temple. She can feel her relaxing little by little, and it makes her ease as well, as she takes Rani's hands between her own to warm them. Sleep is teetering closer to her, as well, as she stifles a yarn.

"Next time I kiss you maybe we can skip this coldness first?"

It's a joke that mercifully escapes being too awkward - at least, on her end.

[mahalakshmi]

She looks up at her with a dazed smile, sick, definitely sick. But happy.

No, more effused than happy. Her hand smoothing over Magni's shoulder, her neck, tickling her fingers in a light curl under her jaw. Sweet, even if she sniffles in the middle of it. Unsure yet - touching. Trying. Finding out for herself what it was to be near to her and with it...

Content.

"Next time, I promise." Her legs shift close, her toes, unnoticed to her, burrow under Magni's leg, leeching her heat needily.

[villieldr]

Magni doesn't quite manage to muster her voice or more words. She feels like she has spoken a lot, though logically she is aware that she really hasn't. A slight itch in her throat, but she clears it and disregards it. Nothing to worry about, just tiredness. Definitely not her getting sick, too.

The toes might be unnoticed by Rani, but Magni notices them, huffs quiet laughter to herself, and hugs her closer. The glow of the fire is finally starting to grant the room some warmth, and it feels all the more comforting with the whistling gale outside.

Gradually, she slouches back against the pillows, brings Rani with her, and even in that sleepiness, protectively hugs her close. The rain stops, eventually, but she's still got her arms wrapped around her dear heart.