I Got You, Babe

Vanya took her lower lip in her teeth as her heart suddenly picked up its pace, keenly aware of his eyes on her now. This isn’t Northaven, and this is Ronin, she reminded herself, and glanced down at her wrist as if to assure herself that there was no golden cuff gleaming up at her. The damned thing had been a shackle, a brand of things she had never chosen. She swallowed took a heavy breath, looking back up at Ronin with a flicker of a smile. His eyes were blue enough to make her forget for a moment that the sea was very far away. There was a flutter of feathers, then beating wings, and then Vanya was flying. The sea bird let out a shrill call as she moved her wings, climbing up and up and up, and for the first time in so long, she was weightless. Another sharp cry left her, and Vanya felt like her heart might burst with the way the wind lifted her. She’d forgotten how much she loved to fly, no matter how she’d felt about her abilities to in the first place. She didn’t turn back to the Guildhall yet, instead doing a few loops - higher and higher and higher until she could see the entirety of the settlement, until Ronin was very small below her. She kept climbing the currents of air, one yellow eye always locked sharply on the man she loved where he stood. Then she banked low and began to rapidly descend once more, wind roaring as her wings effortlessly cut through it. She let out another sharp chirp as she swooped low now, flying close enough past Ronin that one of her flight feathers brushed against his shoulder. Then she was moving up once more, and by the Ocean, not a soul was looking at her with disdain, with sneers or sighs. She was no one second-class here, not condemned for a choice she never made. Here she was both Vanya the woman and Vanya the osprey, and there was no hiding either one. At the first sight of an open window, she tilted her wings and tucked them close, sweeping into the building. Freedom to fly.. Always, he’d said. She glided downwards towards the door, to the ground, to Ronin. There was another flutter of feathers, and then two feet thumped lightly to the floor. Vanya stood breathlessly, wordlessly, eyes gleaming with a wide grin on her face as she raked a hand through wild curls. vanya i will leave a light on.