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Diane leans against Nerys, who is buried in a book.
“Working on something?” She asks.
“Something like that,” Nerys says. She pulls the notebook nearby closer. Diane doesn’t question it. Nerys is intelligent, careful, and mature. But she’s also cute and… sometimes she looks so scared and tired.
Like a predator. A wolf trained to be a dog.
Or something.
“So mysterious,” Diane says. Nerys looks at her and hmms.
“You’re the real mystery,” she says. “You’re… nice. You have what you need. And you’re nice. You should be worrying about your future.”
“Why?” Diane asks. “Like you said, I know my future. And that doesn’t require me to be some power hunting bully. - it does require knowing power games, though.”
She laughs. Nerys’ gaze softens.
“Exactly,” Nerys says. “Mystery.”
She’s dancing with Nerys. It’s a class, practice. Nerys was born to lead. Commanding gaze, beauty and elegance. Maturity. Her magenta eyes only serve to make her look paler, sickly. Diane can almost see her in her mind - pained and tired and scared.
But she isn’t. She never is. She’s unshakable.
Nerys dips her, and the other girls coo in awe.
Diane is the one who won’t be able to dance forever - her issues will only worsen with time. She works herself as hard as she can now, anyways. To keep up with Nerys.
“I think you’re good for everyone,” Diane says. “If you’re the standard, everyone increases theirs - upselling all of us.”
“Not everyone would agree,” Nerys says. Diane knows if she looks behind her, the glares aimed at Nerys will be intense.
“Not everyone knows how to lead,” Diane says. “Especially girls. Does that mean…”
Policies of fairness and success have changed over the years. Women can now engage in pseudo-marriages. Men can’t, because women exist in part as currency. But women can marry, with the more successful or high ranked woman as a husband of sorts. It was most common among merchants and working upper class families - woman lead businesses were easier To control that way. It was a whole thing.
Diane’s family approves of it immensely.
“No one would hand a daughter to me,” Nerys says. “I don’t plan on getting married, either way, but not as a wife to a woman-husband. I don’t want to be...”
She shakes.
“I’d marry you,” Diane says before Nerys’ self worth and lack thereof can consume her. “My family loves you, and I’m not the heir. You can help with the trading company.”
“That sounds like you’re selling yourself short again,” Nerys says. “My mystery, you’re worth so much more.”
“So I’m yours?”
Nerys blushes.
They’re older by a few years. Nerys is in her room - they share on occasion.
She wakes from a nightmare. She cries. Diane has so rarely seen her beloved cry.
“I need you…” Nerys says. “Please, Diane… I need your light… I can go down to the darkest depths in blood-iron chains, but I need…”
No one hurt her. She never points to a person when Diane asks how she became this way, and that hurts and confuses her. A terrible childhood friend is the closest she has.
Diane would hunt them for Nerys, but Nerys can hunt. She is a wolf.
But wolves are pack animals, much like humans,
“I’ll be here,” Diane says. “To take your pain away. I will fight for you, or…”
Or keep playing the bright fool. Never ask all her questions like the hatred Nerys has for others. Give Nerys something to believe in, when she doesn’t believe in herself.
“Marry me,” Diane says. “Throw away all your plans for a second. I promise to help, if you’ll be mine.”
Nerys nods.
A week later, in view of the whole school, Nerys proposes. To everyone’s surprise but not shock, Diane says yes.