The angles were all wrong now

 It was one of those nights where she couldn't sleep and no amount of herbs was going to keep the monsters at bay. She'd carefully tried to unwind herself from Cirilla so that she could go on a walk to clear her head and hopefully tire herself out enough to get some sleep.

 She walked along the mountain paths with practiced ease, careful to walk easier trails and only going where she knew she would not run the risk of falling down into the rocky deathtrap below. It had taken months to get to this point.

 Up and up a mountain path she met. Face set into a determined frown as she placed her paws into the easiest pawholds, hauled herself up and repeated... until she reached a spot that she didn't know so well. One where the path had crumbled and made it a bit more precarious...

 She was prepared to turn around and find another way around but she turned back. She eyed the place on the other side, it wasn't too hard of a jump... when she'd had four legs. Now though? Weak... The insult played in her mind like a broken record and she inched forward... prepared to make the jump across to prove a point to herself.

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^^Ever since they’d moved south, getting a good sleep was not really something that was in Cirilla’s cards. The heat and her floof mixed as well as peanut butter and soda — they didn’t mix, not at all. Not to mention that, of course, snuggling added to the heat mix and well, snuggling in the heat of summer, in the mountains with a wolf that had lived in the tundra most of her life – it was so very uncomfortable.

It was the reason why Cirilla was always awake first. But not today. Today she woke, some time after Gyrfalcon had gone, to nuzzle her good morning — the groggy, muttered half asleep good mornin’ bee was the cutest thing ever, but today — today, Cirilla rolled over for the lovings, and found nothing. Nothing!

Their shared den was empty! Where the hell was her wife? Er - why did her mind immediately go to wife, when they weren’t married? When marriages didn’t exist between girls? An ear flickered, but the curiosity of this wasn’t enough to keep the panic rising. Had something happened? Going over their den with her nose, in search of other scents to rule out a kidnapping, Cirilla ran from the den, with her nose to the ground in the hunt.

Cirilla didn’t even like to hunt. But here she was, hunting down her girlfriend. It felt weird to acknowledge that she was actively hunting butterflies. Nonetheless, she followed the scent until she found her three legged wonder.

About to make a jump that seemed questionable (at least, to Cirilla), even for someone with four legs.

“What, no good morning kissie?”

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 “What, no good morning kissie?”

 Gyrfalcon practically leaped out of her fur. Like someone caught doing something questionably bad... hmm... really got the noggin' joggin'.

 "FUCKING SHIT!" She yelled out in surprise as she whipped around to see Cirilla standing there. Who had caught her, about to make a clearly dubious jump.

 "Heee-eey! Bumblebee! I'm sorry, did I wake you up?" She crept forward, trying to give her a little makeup kiss on the nose. Yes, yes, kisses, don't focus on what she'd been about to do, please and thank-you. "I'm sorry, I was expecting to be back before you got up. How'd you sleep?" And then, she'd try to press her forehead against Cirilla's cheek. She should have known better. The warmer atmosphere was not something that Ciralla was used to... especially not in the middle of summer. She hoped fall would come soon so it would be some relief for her.

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^^FUCKING SHIT.

No sooner than Cirilla had spoken, did Gyrfalcon jump unexpectedly — but thankfully not in the direction she had previously planned [mash] and yelling out in surprise. Which, in turn, scared Cirilla.

Her eyes widened and her hackles lifted for a brief moment; ears flattening as she watched her lover crept towards her, and thankfully away from the jump she had been very obviously planning. The kisses were given; distraction kisses, so Cirilla wouldn’t just acknowledge Gyrfalcon’s suicide attempt.

“Charaxes,.. ” Cirilla cooed softly, nuzzling into her and giving her a series of kisses. Kisses that covered her entire face. She was lucky they weren’t human, otherwise Gyrfalcon’s face would have been covered in lipstick.

“No, you didn’t wake me.. ” Cirilla said softly, offering a sad smile. “I’m always up at this hour.. ” Cirilla didn’t really… confide in Gyrfalcon. She didn’t tell her why; didn’t tell her that it was the heat, that she was so miserable down here, in the south because it looked like Gyrfalcon was more comfortable down here. And while fall was indeed approaching, nothing would compare to the tundra.

“I slept how I normally do! You.. didn’t sleep good?”

Gyrfalcon pressed her head against her cheek, and Cirilla eyed the jump she had been about to take as she did. “Is, uh, is there something you wanna tell me, hun?”

Dramatic pause, as she slowly turned her head to look Gyrfalcon in the eyes. “Liiiike why we are going to make this very risky, silly jump?”

Because if there was anything and anyone who could give Gyrfalcon the motivation to do anything — it was Cirilla.

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 "Ah... I'm sorry." Cirilla had literally just said it wasn't her fault and yet she was apologizing anyway. Reason being, she still didn't like to hear that her lovely little bumblebee wasn't sleeping well. It was ignorable in her own self but not in the love of her life. To Cirilla's question, the earthen toned lady would let out a humorless laugh. "I slept like I normally do." She said, echoing what dear Cirilla said not moments before. Nightmares, phantom pain, it was all par for the course. Granted, she was slowly starting to sleep better as time went on but it was still a fairly common occurrence for her to wake up in the middle of the night.

 She stiffened when her top tier distraction tactics didn't work.

 Damn. Cirilla was so very perceptive.

 At least she didn't seem upset.

 The lean woman stood up to her full height, then looked back at the precarious jump. "I was going to do it because... well..." I'm stubborn and wanted to prove that I can still do normal things that I could before. "I thought it'd be cool to try because I didn't want to find a way around." She actually managed to sound confident about that. "But it seems really dangerous... I don't know if we should try. I don't want you to get her." She ranked Cirilla's health far above her own.

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^^Ah, I’m sorry.

Of course Gyrfalcon knew Cirilla had always assumed that the love of her life had known about Cirilla’s broken sleep patterns. It never occurred to her that she might have been waking Gyrfalcon in the process of her tossing and turning.

That could have been her opening to talk about leaving; to finally come to terms that she just wasn’t meant for the heat of the mountains. To.. to get Gyrfalcon’s input. Her mouth opened, but then her heart got stuck in her throat, and she noticed Gyrfalcon stiffening.

Ah, she thought the kisses would distract her? Her eye narrowed softly with a smirk, tilting her head as she eyed the cliff and the jump. “I didn’t peg you the type to like bragging rights, but.. ”

Cirilla turned to nip her in the shoulder, barking loudly and twirling around. “Betcha can’t catch me!” Cirilla hollered, licking her on the nose, and then… running forward.

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 “I didn’t peg you the type to like bragging rights, but.. ” Hmm? What was she getting at? Her eyes narrowed suspiciously at her fellow wolf, wondering just where she was going with this.

 She didn't have to wonder too long because her fleetfooted mate was moved to action. First she was nipped on the shoulder, to which she'd bark an amused and pseudo-annoyed "hey". She grinned, thinking that this was going to devolve into a normal game of chase. Cirilla was about the only person in the world who she would fall into such antics with now and she felt her heart leap with excitement at the thought. Even moreso when she was licked.

 And then far less when she realized that Cirilla was running towards that cliff and drop. Her heart leaped with an entirely different emotion now. "Hey wait! You might fall!" Said the panicked falcon as she tried to catch her wayward mate before she made it to the drop.

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^^ Cirilla had almost stopped that sentence at (the word) ‘pegged’ — and she might had, if they were human or had any type of sexual relationship. They weren’t human, and Cirilla didn’t know that there was any sort of pegging to exist — but if Gyrfalcon wanted bragging rights, the only way to make her jump was if Cirilla did too..

She would jump if Cirilla had, and ended up hurting herself; Cirilla had seen how fast she could move before. What she didn’t expect was for Gyrfalcon to move so fast that she wouldn’t even be able to make a big, fancy jump!

Before she knew it, Gyrfalcon had tackled her before she had made it to the jump. “Alright, Raito.*” Cirilla chuckled, wiggling her nose as she peered up with a smirk, at her.

“So you can make jumpsies, but I can’t? How is that fair?” She said, pouting and attempting to give her best pouting performance.

---

*Raito - japanese word for "light"

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 Gyrfalcon didn't know where the speed came from but it was there when she felt panic at Cirilla falling down, down, down that cliff into those hard rocks below. The thought of never getting to cuddle or snuggle or play or even see her ever again spurred her onwards. She just knew she had to stop her, or things could go horribly bad.

 All she knew though, was that she was successful and she managed to tackle her errant bumblebee to the ground. They lay there on the earth, Gyrfalcon on top and Cirilla on bottom. At least she was safe now, safe here in her arms. She wasted no time in trying to pull her in closer with a hug. The falcon snickered and then attempted to boop her a kiss right on her wiggling nose.

 *"Hmmm..." The woman frowned as if she were really, really thinking about this hard. Then shrugged and said, "It isn't. Too bad, so sad, that's just life."** And then, she would try to cover her in kisses and use her nose to boop her in tickles while she had her lovely mate trapped. She wondered if she could keep fake-pouting while she was being kiss-tickle attacked?

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