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It might have been possible to keep traveling through the storm, for the two of them. They had chosen otherwise.
The cave had presented itself as a ready shelter. The interior was cool and dark. Needle and pin rested together against one wall, alone. They traveled light, when they could.
Hornet sat on her knees, her claws braced there. Lace had draped herself against Hornet's back. Where Lace's arms slipped under Hornet's cloak to wrap around her middle, she felt the familiar fine threads of that shell, winding in layers and layers, into the incomparable artifice that lay against Hornet's jointed carapace.
A stray thought, itself familiar: for how long? What may happen, that you will come to forget?
Hornet hissed and leaned forward, away, to hunch over on herself. Lace caught her close, guided her to lean back again. Lace chided softly, "Be still."
Hornet only hissed again in reply; low warning of a predator, this time. But to Lace, a confirmation of what to do. She angled herself to press the side of her face to Hornet's, and Hornet did not resist this, made no effort to free herself, if she felt trapped. Still she remained taut in Lace's grip, under Lace's claws, but she remained.
"Hush, and be still."
Hornet's eyes closed. The cave was cool and dark. Outside, the storm wailed like it had lived long enough to have lost anything, or lamented that it never would.
Lace murmured, "I want you here."
Unthinkingly, Hornet's claws rose to trace over Lace's, pressing them close to her face, and Lace went on, "Yes… I wish to keep you. Stay with me."
Hornet shifted, this time to let her head rest against Lace's. She shook loose a single pedipalp, and let it brush the side of her mate's face. "I… For as long as I am able."
"I will accept nothing less."
Hornet pulled away, enough to turn and meet Lace's eyes, and spoke low and earnest over the wind's cry, "And I would ask the same of you."
Lace hummed approvingly into her ear. "Do you truly think I'd let you go? No, it's my web you're caught in."
Hornet's pedipalp flicked her again, fondly. "Then keep me. But you must hold fast, dear one."
Then she settled back, and allowed Lace to claim her wholly into that embrace.