Ava gets drunk on their first night in Singapore.
Beatrice knows she didn't mean to, but they've been at the rooftop bar for only five minutes before some guy starts grandstanding about Adriel, and Ava ends up having a few too many Singapore Slings.
It gets slightly out of hand, some other people in the bar disagreeing with him, and Beatrice ends up caught in a brawl that breaks out, and she's forced to punch a handful of people before she and Ava can escape.
Ava finds it all deathly amusing, and Beatrice does not. By the time they return to their hotel room, Ava has sobered enough to notice, sitting on the edge of their bed and asking, "What do you think would have happened if he won?"
Beatrice peels off her jersey, wet from the remnants of a thrown drink. "We would have not let that happen."
"I know," Ava says. "But what if we really had gone to the Alps? What do you think would have happened?"
Beatrice sets her jersey aside, reaching for a towel. Maybe she should just shower. "Why are you asking?"
"I think about it," Ava says, swaying slightly, even seated. "Our world's demise. If I could have just watched it happen. If I would have regretted it."
"Whatever life we ended up with wouldn't have been worth much," Beatrice says. "I don't think we ever could have truly escaped."
"But didn't you want to?" Ava asks; almost demands.
Beatrice turns to face her, noting the glassiness of her eyes and the pout of her mouth. She looks so young like this. Just a girl, the weight of the world in her back. The one thing keeping her living at a hefty price.
"Do you really think I said no because I didn't want to?" Beatrice asks, because this definitely isn't the first time Ava has brought this up. She seems stuck here, as if she believes Beatrice would have wanted to be apart from her at any time in her life.
"You said no," Ava reminds her, and there's the slightest whine in her voice. Maybe from the alcohol, but maybe also from finally revealing her feelings on the matter. It hurt her to hear Beatrice say no.
Beatrice audibly swallows, and then moves to kneel in front of Ava, a hand on her knee. "Ava Silva," she murmurs, "Look at me."
It takes a moment, but Ava eventually does.
"I love you," Beatrice says, because it's getting easier and easier to say but harder and harder not to hear said back. "I have loved you for a long time. I did not tell you no because I don't want to spend my life with you. I did not tell you no because I was in any way disappointed in the fact we failed that time. I did not tell you no because I was mad at you." She takes a breath. "Ava, I said no, because it was my duty, my privilege, and my honour to continue to fight. To stand forth and be counted, for my fallen Sisters, for God, for myself, and for you. For the entire stupid world."
Ava lets out a watery laugh. "The world is pretty dumb, isn't it?"
"So dumb."
Ava touches Beatrice's face now, fingers gentle. "I don't know why it bothers me so much."
"Before, the old Ava, before we wormed our way into your beautiful heart, you would have taken off, anyway," Beatrice points out. "It wouldn't have mattered what I said. Maybe you wouldn't have even asked, so I think you're hung up on it mostly because of what it says about you and not what it says about our relationship."
Ava spends a few moments turning that over, and then she sighs. "I couldn't leave without you," she says. "I wanted to take you all with me."
"Your family."
