May blinked down at the clothes, giggled quietly, and shook her head. “You are such a nerd,” she subvocalized through a sensorium message so as not to disturb True Name. “It is a good idea, but you are a total nerd.”
Ey shrugged helplessly, gathered up the loose lounge pants and shirt to go change.
“I have no clue how tired I even am,” ey subvocalized once ey returned. “Or if I’ll even be able to sleep here.”
-“If you need to sneak off to sleep in a real bed, you can, my dear.”
+“If you need to sneak off to sleep in a real bed, you can.”
“I’m also unwilling to sleep without you, so…”
Her expression softened. She tilted her muzzle down to whisper something to True Name, and when she received a nod in response, she signed okay and patted the bed to invite em up.
Ey nodded and climbed onto the (now much larger) bed so ey could settle down beside May in the nook of pillows. Getting eir arm around her shoulders, ey let her rest her head on eir shoulder. It was a little awkward, with True Name still slouched against her side, but it worked well enough.
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@Ioan accepted the glass from True Name once she finished, re-filling it from the pitcher they’d brought in and setting it on the windowsill near the nook so that she could get to it herself. “We can talk about that later. For now, I think it’ll work alright.”
True Name nodded and settled down into her nest of pillows.
May and Ioan stayed up a little longer, chatting through sensorium messages to let True Name process in peace. Cognizant of her mention that she felt better when not thinking about boundaries, ey kept the topics light, asking about favorite things and letting her rant about plays from her past that she’d hated.
-The only interruption from the other skunk came nearly an hour later. She yelped and sat up, scrambling back against the wall away from them. “You know!” she shouted. “Codrin knows!”
+Nearly an hour later, True Name yelped and sat up, scrambling back against the wall away from them. “You know!” she shouted. “Codrin knows!”
It took only a moment for the truth to click into place. Both ey and May sat up to give her a bit more space.
“Hush, my dear,” May said, voice soothing. “It’s okay. Remember Dear’s letter.”
“I…I cannot– It is too much!”
@@ -86,12 +86,11 @@She read it through top to bottom a few times, set it down and kneaded her paws against her face, then picked it up to read it once more.
Finally, shoulders sagging, she handed it back. “Re-secure it and destroy it, please.”
Ey did so and held up eir hands. “I’m sorry, True–“
-She patted at eir arm with a shaking paw. “Please do not apologize.” After dropping the cone of silence, she continued, “I should have…I should have learned from…I am sorry.”
+She patted eir arm with a shaking paw. “Please do not apologize.” After dropping the cone of silence, she continued, “I should have…I should have learned from…I am sorry.”
May held out a paw once more, and this time True Name took it, letting herself be guided back to the nest of pillows, where she slumped down once more, expression glassy. “Too much,” she mumbled.
“Rest, my dear. It is okay,” May said quietly. “Do you want company?”
After a moment’s silence, she shook her head. “No, I will…be fine. We will speak later.”
May nodded and crawled back over to where Ioan, nudging em to lay down so that she could tuck in against eir front. She remained tense, and when ey sent a gentle sensorium ping, she simply shook her head.
-Etc. Then later, before she goes to make coffee:
Tiredness eventually won them over, though, and, despite the room being mirrored from what ey was used to, the bed was the same, comfortable one ey’d slept in for the last century, the house held the same sense of ‘home’ as ever. May curled against eir front as she always did, and while it was strange seeing True Name just beyond her, it was still where ey belonged.
The last thing ey remembered before falling asleep was watching the way True Name had curled to face May, the two skunks holding each others’ paws, and thinking to emself, This isn’t how I pictured things winding up if I was to somehow fix them, but it could certainly be worse.
Waking brought confusion. Something about the inversion from their normal bed, of having fallen asleep on eir other side, induced a subtle sense of vertigo at first. The pajamas were also bunched up around em strangely, adding in a subtle sense of constriction. As sleep slowly seeped away, though, the feeling lessened and ey was able to relax in the warmth beneath the covers.
@@ -218,7 +217,7 @@“Of course, my dear,” May said, giving her paw a squeeze before letting go. “Go and walk. There will be time for discussions to come, especially once we are finished with this unpleasant political business.”