Pick Your Battles

Emira Blight had a problem.

It started with the fact that she'd gotten an extremely cute new dress that she'd desperately wanted to wear.

The date she had with Viney this evening had seemed like the perfect opportunity to put it on for the first time.

This, in and of itself, wouldn't have been a problem... if it hadn't been a brisk fall night.

Right now, she and her girlfriend were cozily sitting on a picnic blanket atop a small hill, sharing a couple of snacks they'd brought while doing a bit of stargazing, and it would have been a perfect date—if Emira hadn't also been freezing her ass off.

Her girlfriend was wrapped up in a padded orange jacket that Emira had teased her about when Viney had picked her up because it had seemed way too warm for the somewhat moderate evening temperatures.

Now though, as the sun had set and the wind picked up, Emira was incredibly jealous.

Not that she'd ever have admitted that out loud, though.

When Viney had seen her outfit, she had—after, of course, complimenting Emira like the sweetheart she was—asked if Emira was sure that's what she wanted to wear out. If she didn't at least want to put a jacket on top of their basket just in case she felt like putting it on later.

But Emira didn't own a jacket that matched the dark blue color of her dress, and she'd really wanted to wear the dress today.

It hadn't been that cold when they'd left, anyway! So what harm was there in not bringing a jacket?

...a lot, as it turned out.

Emira was doing a very poor job trying to rub her cold, naked arms to warm them whenever she was mostly sure Viney wasn't looking.

She didn't want her girlfriend to know she was cold.

Emira was willing to do a lot of things, but admitting out loud that Viney had been right when she'd told Emira she wasn't really dressed for the weather was not one of them.

"You okay? You seem a little distracted."

"I-I'm fine," Emira replied, silently cursing her trembling lip. She had been so distracted by the cold that she'd just been staring blankly at the crabapple slice her girlfriend had been holding in front of her face for the past twenty seconds. 'Great work, me. Real subtle.'

"You sure?"

"Yeah." Emira quickly ate the slice out of Viney's hand and picked up a couple of baneberries from the bowl to feed them to her girlfriend in return. "Just a little lost in thought."

Viney raised an eyebrow. She wasn't buying it. Of course she wasn't. Damn that girl and her good instincts.

"I'd be cold if I were you," she said with a knowing lilt.

Sometimes, Emira thought, it was unfair how easily Viney could see through her. It was like the walls that had protected her for most of her life became all but transparent around the girl she loved. It was scary to be so vulnerable around someone... but there was also something incredibly special about it, something that Emira never wanted to lose again.

Handing someone else your heart to hold or break was an incredible kind of trust and a part of Emira still couldn't believe she actually had that with someone. Especially with a girl as wonderful as Viney, that was somehow willing to do the same thing in return.

It was hard to put into words just how stupidly, head over heels in love she was... just how much there was she liked about the brave, ambitious, sassy double-track witch.