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As they set up their stall in the early dawn, Min wore the same grim look she'd had since they'd left the academy all those days ago. Noelle couldn't really blame her - neither of them were each other's first choices to complete their wandering year with. And so far, it had been fairly rough - in the towns and cities around the capital, few people had much use for a pair of journeywomen mage-smiths just out of school.
But they had managed to get passage on a river barge, headed north-east towards the sea, and now they were further from the capital than they'd ever been. Noelle was hopeful that out here, there would be more people that would have use for them.
With a flick of her wrist and a snap of her fingers, Min conjured her customary overlarge gout of flame to light their furnace. For once, Noelle was glad of her showy-ness - the loud fwoomph did a better job of announcing their presence and readiness in the market square than any hewing or crying.
For once, Noelle was glad of the heat of their furnace. More often than not, it had been punishing, in and around the capital, and they'd spent nearly all their time on the barge in its belly, working the boilers and engines. Their sheer size had struck Noelle dumb, when she'd first seen them, but they certainly produced enough heat to rival any furnace she'd known in her schooling.
Noelle shook her head, coming out of her reverie. She checked for the final time that all her tools were where they were supposed to be, then sat down to wait. The people would come, or they would not.
Noelle trudged up the stairs of the coaching inn, having barely had the energy to parse the proprietor's words about rooms and beds and breakfast. It had been a long, long day - though she supposed she should be glad, it having been long from a glut of customers rather than their lack. She remembered one of her teachers saying truth is stranger than fiction - it felt like a lifetime ago, but could properly only be measured in months - but she hadn't known just how right he'd be. Some of the pieces she'd inspected today had been older than herself, sometimes older than their current owners, proper heirloom pieces passed down through the generations that, to her mind, belonged better in a museum than in daily service.
But she'd fixed what she could, straightening bent pieces, clearing mana channels, and going over old runes and crystals with her paints and brushes, cloths and polishing compounds, as well as a touch of magic here and there, to make even the oldest pieces sing. Like new, perhaps not - she was just a journeywoman, barely past a novice, and some things she just didn't have the knowledge or expertise for. And then, of course, there had been the woman who had brought her enchanted crossbow to them, who, from the look on her face, had been aware that really what she needed was a mage-bowyer or at the very least an enchanter, but had heard that they were in town and had decided to stop by, quote, "just in case."
The malfunction she'd described was interesting in its strangeness, and as much as it was totally outside either of their wheelhouses, it would at the very least make a good story. Apparently, when the woman pressed the trigger on the bottom of it, the thing would go - the string would snap forward - but whatever was loaded into the track, from regular bolts to spoons to a very trusting local hedgewitch's wand, would simply sit there as if nothing had happened. Noelle remembers having looked across at Min, after hearing all of this, and then looking back at the woman, and withotu even needing to say anything, the woman was bowing her head and saying, "well, I tried!"
"Wait, wait, hold on," Noelle had replied, grasping for her charcoal pen and a scrap of vellum. "Master Frostpine - a teacher at our school - might have some thoughts on this. Or at least, he might know someone who will. I don't know that he'll be able to come all the way up here, as he's-" Noelle floudered.
"Terrifyingly old?" Min supplied.
Noelle glanced over her shoulder, almost expecting the man to appear behind her. "...you said it, not me," she replied. "But uh, as I was saying, he might have some thoughts. What's your name again?"
"Lalasa," the woman replied.
"Lalasa..." Noelle repeated, trailing off. The woman shrugged.
"Just Lalasa. There aren't any other Lalasas around here. Never had use for a surname."
"Huh," Noelle replied. "Lalasa of Green Harbor sound good?"
The woman shrugged again. "That works."
Lost in her reverie, Noelle has failed to notice that the last step up to the second floor was a bit higher than all the rest - or hear her companion's warning.
Just then, a warm, strong, calloused hand wrapped itself around her arm and yanked her upwards. Still off balance, and entirely unprepared for an assist, she found herself careening into the wall at the top of the stairs, carrying her erstwhile rescuer with her.
She opened her eyes to a far closer view of Min's face than she'd ever thought to get, and realized that the warmth she was pressed into from thigh to chest was the selfsame woman. Her face began to burn as if lit aflame, and she shoved herself forcefully away from the woman, heart hammering, unheeding of the flight of stairs still close behind her.
Ever quick on the uptake, Min once more grabbed Noelle's arm. "Meera's tits Noelle," she swore, "watch where you're going! Diya'd never forgive me if you died of a broken neck in a fucking coaching inn in the middle of nowhere."
Noelle swallowed, nodding mutely, heart hammering in her chest. Of course, it was just for Diya's sake. Of course. Why would it be anything else? It wasn't like they were- friends.
Min turned, heading towards their room. She didn't let go of her arm. She tugged on it, once, then stopped and turned back to look at her. Noelle stared at her. There was a look on her face, that on anyone else Noelle would have called scared, softening into something like concern, but that couldn't be right, because they hated each other. Min hated her. Right?
Min tugged again, and Noelle had no choice but to follow. She didn't let of her arm. Why wasn't she letting go?
Noelle woke to her teeth chattering. She had the vague sense that it hadn't been long since she fell asleep, but she had no way to tell - it got so dark, so early here, and the inside of their room was as black as pitch. She sat up, with the vague recollection of a chest that had been in their room - maybe that would have an extra blanket or two. She slipped out, immediately missing the relative warmth of her sheets, and immediately stumbled over her bag and boots, crashing headlong into the wall. She swore.
"Noelle?"
Min's voice was quiet, thick and clumsy with sleep. It made Noelle's heart squeeze.
"I'm fine," she replied. "Just looking for an extra blanket or two."
"There 'sn't any," Min mumbled. "Already got us one from the guy. 's all they had, he said."
"The guy?"
Min hummed. "Downstairs," she answered.
"Oh."
Noelle sat down on her bed, slipping back under the covers. The sheets, so recently warm, now seemed as cold as ice. She curled up, trying desperately to get warm. Nothing worked. Her teeth wouldn't stop chattering. It was cold. So cold.
"Noelle," Min mumbled, once more.
"Y-yeah?"
"Get over here."
"Huh?"
Noelle turned over, looking at the vague shape in the darkness that was Min. As if she could see the woman's face, discern her intentions.
"Can't sleep with all that noise."
"Oh," Noelle replied, teeth still chattering. "Sorry. I c-c-can't help it."
"Get over here," Min repeated, more insistently.
"Fine!"
Noelle threw back her covers, getting up and - carefully - taking the handful of steps over to Min's bed. Before she could say anything further, Min's hand snaked out from under the covers and pulled her down. It took all of Noelle's willpower not to shriek - instead, she froze.
"C'mon. Idiot. Get under here," Min mumbled.
"Uh," Noelle said. "Um. Wait. Let me get my sheets and stuff. We can... pool our resources."
Min paused, seeming to think for a moment. Then, with a grumble, she released her hold on Noelle's collar. Noelle turned, grabbed her sheets, and tossed them over Min, quickly climbing in next to her before she thought better of it. Because apparently, this was happening, and as much as Noelle disliked it, she had to admit that it was a logical course of action.
As soon as she lay down, though, Min's hand once more reached for her, this time wrapping itself around the far side of Noelle's torso and pulling them flush together. Noelle tensed instinctively, lying there as stiff as a board while the still half-asleep woman made herself comfortable, turning over and pillowing her head on Noelle's shoulder. Even through their sleepwear, Noelle felt the warmth of the other woman burning into her like she had been thrust into a furnace. But like a bar of metal, Noelle found herself powerless before the heat, and couldn't help the sigh that escaped her as all the tension leaked out of her.
Oh, Noelle thought, she's warm. She's so warm.
Before sleep took her, she felt a few tears track their way down her face.