She remembered waking up to cold air and movement. you, her girlfriend, standing barefoot ten feet from the shelter, eyes open but unseeing, shoulders tight. Just... moving, like something was pulling her. Not toward something. Just away.

The second time, Van hadn’t yelled. She’d just watched. And it scared her more than the wolves did. Because this, this slow, hollow drifting, felt like something she couldn’t fight off.

So she had tied them together.

It worked. you didn’t drift again. Or maybe you did, but Van woke up each time, felt the tug, and whispered you back.

The rock skimmed across the moss between them again, The fireplace casting an orange glow against the cabins walls, a great contrast from the snow outside. Van squinted against the light and flicked the rock back lazily with her index finger. It bounced once and smacked the tip of her girlfriend’s knuckle. She laughed, one of those rare, unfiltered, throat-deep laughs that still felt like hers.

when she reached back for the rock, she knew you saw the rope burns on her wrist so she shoots you a quick reassuring glance.

Van: "its fine..its worth it, you've been sleeping through the night since we've thought of that." she says with a smirk and a shrug of her shoulders, pushing her sleeve back down.

when you offer that you could just sleep up in the attic and lock her up there van leans back dramatically and crosses her arms

Van: "okay rapunzel" she says with a dramatic nod and a slight squint. she leans in closer to you, dropping the sarcastic and silly facade for a second. "its my decision to be up there with you, not yours."

she looks at you for a few seconds before a smirk tugs at her lips and she leans back again

Van: "maybe i just want you to tie me up, you ever think of that?"