#ty for the prompt that I'm filling three months later oops

[birgittesilverbae]

Lilith + shannon - seafood

"No."

"Lilith," Ava whines, making those stupid puppy dog eyes at her. Beatrice might think the look is cute, but Lilith will never be weak enough to fall for it.

"Not today, Ava." She turns back to her leatherwork just in time for someone to lean over her other shoulder.

"You did promise," Shannon says, once Lilith has apologised for the elbow to the nose and Shannon has stemmed the flow of blue-flecked blood with the cuff of her hoodie. Her words are made thick by plugged nostrils. 

"I promised I would take you," Lilith corrects. "I made no mention of Ava."

Shannon sighs, but nods all the same. "Sorry, Aves. We'll bring you takeout. If we're still good to go?" she adds, laying her hand on Lilith's shoulder. "It's okay if you're too busy today, I've just gotta reschedule the reservation if that's the case."

"We can go," Lilith replies flatly, doing her best to ignore the chill that permeates through the three layers of fabric. "I'll need twenty minutes to finish the repair and then we can go." 

"Thank you." Shannon pulls back, briefly squeezes the ball of Lilith's shoulder. "I'll be out front when you're ready. Come on, Aves, let's go hunt down the rain gear. You're winning this trade-off, by the way. I checked the weather and with the wind speeds it's going to be all but raining sideways. We're gonna end up soaking wet."

"But I love being soaking wet."

"Well, you'll have to settle for being bone dry."

"Boner dry."

"You when Beatrice is away for longer than a day."

Lilith rolls her eyes as their bickering voices fade away down the hall and bends her head back over her vambrace.

//

"Did you borrow Bea's sunnies?" Shannon asks as she lays the linen napkin across her lap. 

Lilith sighs. "Heaven forbid I not want to flaunt all of this in public."

"I think it looks pretty cool, Lil."

"You think that horrific eyesore of a watch Beatrice bought you looks cool. Forgive me if I don't take your fashion sense too seriously."

Shannon flips her the bird, a smile pulling at the corner of her mouth all the same. "I'm not the one wearing sunglasses in a downpour."

"Yes, well." Lilith presses her lips together into a frown and props the menu up between them. 

"Lil–"

"I would rather not discuss it, thank you."

Shannon nods, casts about the cottage for any other possible conversational topic. Her eyes alight on the dining room's centrepiece, and she nudges Lilith's shin with the toe of her boot. "They've got a dessert table, Lil."

Lilith follows her gaze, her back going ramrod straight when she spots the spread. "Oh," she mutters, pushing her sunglasses further up the bridge of her nose. "I wish I had known that beforehand. I'm going to have to bring Ava back here at some point or I'll never hear the end of it. She loves a dessert table."

"I still don't understand why she couldn't come today."

Lilith's frown deepens. "There are days when I can't look at her without feeling… Envious, I suppose, of her wholeness."

"She's not, you know," Shannon chides gently. "She's not whole."

"None of us are."

"That's not what I mean." Shannon glances over her shoulder and leans in closer, lowering her volume. "She may have the Halo, but it doesn't work for her the way you seem to think it does. You think Reya demanded her pound of flesh from you but let Ava walk out of there untouched? She's missing pieces of herself in the same way you are. They're just not as visible externally." She sits back as the waitress approaches, the hardness in her face melting away as she turns up the charm with a megawatt smile and leaves Lilith floundering in her wake.

//

The coast unfolds before them as they climb the path above the Gut, windswept cliffs shrouded in banks of fog. Rain sleets down on them, and Lilith catches Shannon's elbow when her boot slips out from under her as they ascend through Bawdens Highlands. A quiet thanks is shared, and they snug their hoods closer about their heads, tuck their chins to their chests, and continue their trek.

They perch atop a rock at the summit, staring down at the waves breaking over the rocks, the barest hint of an iceberg cresting through the fog. 

"Come here," Lilith says abruptly when the sweat of their ascent has cooled beneath her jacket. She raises her arm and gestures stiffly for Shannon to shift beneath it.

"I'm fine."

"That would be much easier to believe if your teeth weren't chattering." She makes another curt gesture, and Shannon follows this time, presses tight to Lilith's side. "It's not like you to overlook appropriate layers."

"I still haven't got it all figured out," she admits, her nose pressed chilly into the crook of Lilith's neck.

"We can go somewhere warmer."

"No, it's… This is fine." She swallows hard, burrows further into the warmth of Lilith's embrace. "This is what I wanted."

"Sideways rain?"

"Well, not so much that. Just, the reminder that cold exists. That rain exists."

Lilith's hand flexes about Shannon's upper arm. "That you're not there anymore?"

Shannon nods, turns her face up towards the sky, receives a spray of hail to her cheek for good measure. She splutters, and Lilith can't help but chuckle.

"The Newfoundland regiment that went overseas during the Great War faced the opposite acclimatisation," she murmurs, watching rain pool in the creases of her splash pants. "They were shipped off to Egypt and issued warm weather uniforms and prepared there to be sent into Turkey. Only, the Gallipoli campaign turned into four months of punishing weather that was far more reminiscent of home than they'd been prepared for. Far more like this."

"I see you've been doing your Wikipedia deep dives again."

Lilith shakes her head, regrets the motion immediately as it sends water dripping down the neck of her jacket. "I had a tutor for military strategy when I was in my teens. He would rave about how well the Newfoundlanders could endure hardships that killed lesser soldiers." Her lip curls. "That was how he phrased it; 'lesser'. As though a military historian had any grounds upon which to make judgments of the character of men who had died a century before."

"Sounds a bit of a dick."

"He was. But there was one quote from a letter written by a man who fought and died in the Gallipoli campaign that's always stuck with me." She hunches forward, curls in on herself, her voice going quiet. "Tell dad that I would rather be in the condition I am now in, than have failed to fight for my country."

Shannon finds Lilith's hand and squeezes hard. She stares out over the ocean, Lilith's pulse thrumming hummingbird-quick beneath her fingers. "It's not quite the same thing, though, is it?" she asks quietly. "When what we fought for was a lie?"

Lilith's shoulders stiffen, her arm falling from around Shannon. "Then I'd rather be in the condition I am now than have failed to fight for my family," she replies sharply. 

Shannon nods. "I would, too. What happened to that regiment?"

"They were transferred to the Western front in early 1916."

Shannon winces. "The Somme?"

"They survived Gallipoli only for nine in every ten to die at Beaumont-Hamel. My tutor had a quote he rather enjoyed about that front, too. It was a magnificent display of trained and disciplined valour, and its assault only failed of success because dead men can advance no further."

"Sounds like a massive dick."

"He was." 

//

The mixed four pack of IPAs is still ice cold and the chip shop takeout piping hot when Lilith deposits them back in the new Cat's Cradle. She shoves the box of beer into Shannon's hand and turns to go, but is halted by a soft "Lilith."

"Yes?"

"This was really nice. I missed spending time with you."

"I did as well," Lilith replies stiffly, before nodding at Shannon's hands. "You'd better get those to Ava soon or I'll never hear the end of it for bringing her lukewarm fish and chips."

"Gotten a bit uppity with you about that before, has she?"

"Well, she is picking up on all of Beatrice's habits."

"That would do it. Thanks again, Lilith."

"Shut up." 

Shannon can't help but grin as Lilith exits the conversation in a flicker of smoke and flame. "Love you too, Lil," she whispers, and heads off to find Ava.