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(Abby immediately tries to think about it and nearly misses the next bit. She says,) Huh? (Then,) Oh.

Oh my god. Spill.

It went— it went very well,

( with a quiet laugh, mostly at herself. what if he was just being polite. what about him suggested that was a thing he would be. )

We talked last night— he's in my bath, now, I'm making coffee. ( this is a process that takes longer when you don't have modern innovations like electricity and coffee machines, and it had seemed like abby would probably be awake, so. it had seemed like a good time to call. )

Talked more, this morning. He's recovered from accidentally making full eye contact with the bear.

(She can picture Gwen as she says this: her waiting for water to boil and reaching for her crystal at the same time to send Abby a message, being excited to tell her everything. That makes her feel really good; she realises she's smiling, and hooks a hand around the back of her neck.)

Wow. Just like that, huh?

(Her, Stephen Strange and the bearskin — she bursts out laughing.) You left it on the bed??

( whatever she'd been about to say, what she does say is: )

It lives on the bed! And I wasn't thinking about bedding, I was thinking he'd forgotten we were standing in the infirmary and we needed to leave—

(She starts talking over the end of that sentence,) Woooow that's so romantic—

( the kitchen on the boat is far enough away from the bath that stephen is not going to hear her dissolving into giggles (again), )

We were both incredibly romantic, fuck you, ( through her laughter, )

I don't know how to fucking act when people are being romantic at me, ( more of a sigh, ) it undoes me, you know, sincerity. He said being in love with me is the easy part.

( like, has he met her, even. )

(Abby does a little gasp.) He said he loves you?

(No, that's so different!) I thought you guys were only fucking, I didn't — that's so cool.

I said it first and he said thank you,

( but she sounds smug, so it might not have been the only thing she said that shorted out his brain at the time, )

I fucked him about it when he said it, so. No, I mean—

( an exhale. she sounds lighter than she has done; happy. )

He said— that when I died at Granitefell it was unbearable. That he decided not to bear it. We've... he's been essential to me. Before I blew him.

( but don't worry, she got to that. )

(Abby is trying to construct the timeline in her head, but only for a moment. She gives up quickly. The Granitefell thing... that is actual romance. Just hearing it makes her feel kinda funny, it's so private, like something out of a book. She doesn't know what to say for a moment; before she was reacting to something almost insubstantial and now, suddenly, it's a whole thing. It's I love you and it was unbearable when you died at Granitefell, what the hell.)

So — a spring wedding?

(this is what you get)

( it makes her laugh again, which probably at least means they're not going to dwell on that time they died. )

Lexie had to keep me drunk enough not to run and not so drunk I fell over at the last one.

( had to tell her she's allowed to let her heart stop hurting, too; that she's allowed this. )

Edited (everything doesn't need an emdash) 2024-03-21 09:58 (UTC)

(Abby so wants to know more about all of that, but she is savvy enough to know it isn't the right time to be asking about it. Maybe later, maybe never, doesn't really matter. She's started walking again as she talks, by the way, to keep her muscles warm.)

Are you guys gonna go public?

It's not a secret, ( thoughtfully, ) though I'm not planning a grand crystal announcement.

Bit much.

I wanted to tell you. Lexie. Loxley, so he can tell me he told me so for all the times he's told me to stop being dramatic and unkind to myself.

Maybe not Loxley, ( mostly a joke. )