Archive of Our Own ^beta

Silent footfalls approach the cabin hidden in the woods. A rogue sneaks in despite the fact that she is one of the only two people that use the building.

She enters to a simple foyer. There are no pictures or clear signs of the people who visit, they didn’t want to risk their alliance being exposed if someone found the cabin. A small table with two candles stands off to the side. She grabs a match, strikes it to produce a flame, then lights the candles. She watches the candles for a few moments, admiring the flames, before blowing them out and dropping the match.

Two small trails of smoke curl up from the candles’ wicks. Cherri stays there for a few moments longer, smelling the smoke. It brings them a sense of comfort but saddens them at the same time. Maybe in another life they wouldn’t have to be blown out so soon.

With a final deep breath, Cherri draws her sword and passes through cabin until she’s made it to the open living room.

Apo sits on the couch, most of her weapons and armour sitting on the dining room table except for the dagger that she always keeps at her side. Her arms are crossed in front of her and her head hangs low. 

They’re asleep, Cherri realizes eventually. It gives her a chance to delay the inevitable, she supposes, gives her a chance to watch the knight’s peaceful face for a moment longer.

“If you need a job done our rogues will see to it.”

Right. Only a moment then.

“Apo Kuna~” they sing-song at just the right volume to wake the woman up.

She blinks awake then meets Cherri’s gaze with a surprised look. “Cherri? You’re- I didn’t realize you’d be here today,” she steels her voice, but a small bit of hopefullness slips through. She then notices the drawn sword and her eyebrows furrow. “Did… did something happen?”

Cherri shrugs. “Just completing a mission.” A second later she makes a stab at Apo. The knight, curse their fast reflexes, dodges it narrowly and the blade sinks into the cushion. Cherri makes a small noise of disappointment.

In a moment Apo is on her feet and and out of distance. She can’t get to her weapons or armour, they’re all on the other side of the couch, on the other side of Cherri but maybe she could do… something!

The sword comes out of the couch. “Cherri… we can talk about this,” they say slowly as the rogue aproaches. They take a few steps back. “Cherri please-“

Cherri swings at her leg and slices through some of the flesh. Not enough to dismember, but enough to have her falling to the ground in pain.

There’s a familiar murderous glint in Cherri’s eye as they stalk closer, kneeling down over Apo and raising their blade.

Apo doesn’t think about how it’s missing the fierce smile that it’s usually paired with.

Instead, a stupid, nostalgic part of their mind thinks of their first encounter and the fight that happened then. Simpler times before the war actually started and everything got more complicated.

Cherri had spared her life back then
(In a way, she spared Cherri’s as well)

Cherri isn’t going to spare her life this time
(She isn’t going to spare Cherri’s either)

In a fit of desperation they grab the dagger at their belt and draw it.

They don’t think about how Cherri lets them as they plunge the blade into her chest.

”Huh… you actually did it…”

Cherri falls onto their back with a thud but Apo doesn’t follow them yet. She lies on the wooden floor for a few seconds longer, catching her breath and trying to blink away tears she didn’t realize had formed. “I could just leave you here, you know. I could go back to my kingdom and no one would find you because no one knows about this place.” She tries not to think about how that was on purpose, how they didn’t tell people so that they could have a little place to themselves without the looming eyes of the kingdoms and their war.

“You can’t,” she responds and Apo hates that they can’t hear that familiar smile in her voice. “The fire has spread enough to make leaving impossible.”

What?

“And besides, you wouldn’t leave.”

That’s when Apo’s senses clear up and she finally hears the crackling of a fire and smells the smoke in the air. 

Cherri set fire to the cabin? Cherri walked into the cabin to kill her while it was on fire? Cherri walked into a burning building?

It was a suicide mission from the start.

Apo finally starts to sit up, staring at the woman lying across from her on the floor. “Cherri… what did you do?”she asks as she rushes over to the woman’s side.

The rogue smiles. “I was told to kill you, given the order by someone. And it wasn’t even the worst thing to me which was a surprise at first,” they say, chuckling under their breath. “But the more I thought about it, the better I liked it.”

”Cherri-“

”They’re fighting a war, Apo! They’re fighting a stupid, stupid war, everyone’s dying and we were going to die too. I didn’t want to die out there, fighting you on a meaningless battlefield. I’d rather die here, in our hidden little cabin, with you. So I dropped a match when I entered. A fire seemed like a fitting way to go.”

Apo wraps an arm under Cherri’s body, bringing her close to their chest. Their head falls and tucks itself into the crook of her neck. “I hate you…”Apo murmurs against her skin.

Cherri laughs and the fact that it sounds so genuine despite the pain in it is what hurts the knight the most. “Do you disagree? Would you have rathered die out there?” 

“Of course not!” Apo shouts, removing herself from the safety of Cherri’s neck. “I just… I’d rather not die at all! I’d rather you not die at all!”

The air is hotter now, the fire closer. Somewhere in the back of the knight’s mind they think about the poeticness of the growing fire around them and the dying Fire in their arms. They hate it.

”…You have a pretty neck,” Cherri mutters randomly instead of responding. They’re growing delirious from blood loss and both can tell. It loosens their lips, lets them say things they never would have said otherwise.

Apo laughs despite herself. “You keep on saying tha-“

”A pretty face too. Pretty eyes, pretty hair, pretty voice,” they continue. “Everything about you is beautiful, Apo Kuna.”

Once upon a time, Apo would have blamed the flush that spreads across her face on adrenaline or the heat around them. She doesn’t need to lie to herself now, not when a weak hand threads itself into her hair and she begins to lean down.

When their lips touch, Apo desperately tries to convey every single unspoken ‘I love you’ into it. And when Cherri begins to smile into the kiss, they know she understands.

They part eventually and Cherri still wears a smile on their lips despite the blood that leaks out. “So beautiful…” they mutter, gazing at Apo. “I love you,” they finally whisper, an admission to themself as much as it is one to Apo. “I love you so much.” Apo doesn’t get to respond before tears well up in Cherri’s eyes, their smile twisting into a grimace as they hide their face against Apo’s chest. “I'm sorry our story is like this…”

Apo’s arms squeeze around Cherri’s body. “I’m not,” they say, voice unwavering. “Even if I don’t want us to die, I won’t apologize for the way our story is because it has me as I am and you as you are. Our story is a product of us as people and I wouldn’t want my story to be with anyone else.”

“Even though I’ve cut it short?” Cherri croaks out, staining Apo’s shirt with her tears and blood.

“Even though you’ve cut it short,” she responds, pressing a kiss into their hair. “But I promise you this, my love; we’ll have more stories. Longer stories that won’t end in tragedy. Stories where we pick fruit in an orchard and ride off into the sunset to explore the world together. Stories where we live with two dogs in a cabin I will have made for us where I will always return home to you, no matter how far I must go. Stories where you are my lady and I am your knight, where I can stand on the battlefield knowing that I fight for the most precious and important person I will ever know. All of these stories and more will come to pass, I will find you in every single one, and I will love you with every ounce of my being. That is my promise.”

Cherri doesn’t respond verbally, her energy draining from Apo’s dagger in her chest, but Apo knows she can hear. She doesn’t know how she knows, but she does.

“I love you, Cherri Fire. And I always will.”

There are no more words after that. The only sound that Apo makes is a quiet shift as they move to lay Cherri on the ground and lie down next to them.

They die eventually, together in the roaring fire.

(Their remains will be found one day, somewhere down the line. Two skeletons tangled together amongst the scorched dirt and debris of what once may have been a cozy home, no signs of red or blue cloth, no hints tying them to the two rival kingdoms. Historians will find them and call them lovers.)

(The historians will be correct.)