#the little crown on Cassie's head is one of those plastic clip on crowns that you just stick into your hair

[chipistrate]

Passing The Sword

The PQ4 section changed me forever I'll never be the same ever again you don't UNDERSTAND

Ahem anyways,,, based on a little theory of mine where PQ4 was about Princess handing the sword off to Cassie and giving her the duty of freeing and protecting Glitchtraps victims. Essentially Princess passing the torch, or in this case the sword, over to Cassie<3

Alts under cut because I am forever indecisive about colors

[of-wrens-and-whirlwinds-blog]

Summer Day

Commissioned by the awesome @wombatking! I really hope I did your prompt justice! Commission info is here!

~

There were always going to be bitter days, but time with Samantha was usually less so.

Cassie woke at exactly 6AM without needing an alarm, and knew that this morning was going to bitter. The afternoon was her date with Sammy, so that would probably be alright; but she woke angry, and when Jenny, the carer her mom had hired, came in to help her get ready for the day, she couldn’t help scowling.

“Bad morning?” Jenny asked sympathetically, pulling back the blankets and checking the bed bag.

“Yeah,” Cassie muttered. She couldn’t take her anger out on Jenny, because she was nice, and knew her job, and never made Cassie feel bad about her lot in life. “Do I have any sores?”

Jenny checked her arms and legs quickly and thoroughly before starting the stretches. “Nope, and none beginning. We’ll check your back in the shower.”

Since today was going to be special, Cassie wished desperately to fuss, like she had before the jump. But Jenny didn’t fuss, and when Cassie got snappish, Jenny raised her eyebrow and said dryly, “Wow, I didn’t know it was your wedding today.”

Cassie stopped snapping, blushing. Who would want to be long-term with a quadriplegic person? she had once asked Jenny angrily. Who would want to tie themselves down to this?

Jenny had just shaken her head and replied, You never know.

That was before Samantha had told Cassie very firmly that unless something truly divisive came up, she was going to stick by her.

Cassie’s mood improved when Jenny and her mom helped her get dressed. Mom was still weird about this stuff, and cried over small things like Cassie never winning dance awards anymore, but she was mostly over herself. Cassie was forcing herself to be, if not cheerful, then at least calm, and that had seemed the help the whole house.

Today, she wanted to wear pink. So Jenny brought out her pink clothes and when Cassie had decided on an outfit, Jenny and mom helped her dress, like a life-size doll. It was embarrassing, but it got less so as the weeks passed. Almost a year, now.

Cassie really couldn’t believe it, but here it was. Almost a full year.

“Do you want help with your hair, baby?” Mom asked, looking worried.

“Nah, it’s fine. Sammy’s gonna help me.” Cassie couldn’t decide if it was humiliating or fun, that Samantha was so good at doing her hair. On the one hand, it felt nice, because Samantha was so gentle. On the other… well. Cassie looked down at her arms and willed with all her might for the left one to move. It didn’t. As usual.

At least Dad had sprung for a nice chair. A motorized one; the physical therapist had called it a “sip-and-puff” which Cassie would have found hilarious if she weren’t bound to it completely. But she was getting really good at driving it without having to think too hard about how to turn a corner or how to go up the little lip at the bottom of the front door. Mom still hovered, but Jenny, an experienced nurse, didn’t bother.

Meals were always soured by the fact that she needed help. Before, she could shovel a bowl of cereal in her mouth in a few minutes and be out the door; now she had to eat at the pace Jenny set, and couldn’t even feel if she was hungry or full. Well, it was nice to never feel hungry; but at the cost of not feeling anything else? Not worth it.

Still. She ate, and managed to get Mom to talk about things other than doctors. Then she went and practiced with that new software, Dragon, since she would still be expected to turn in essays in school. She refused to be home-schooled. She had nothing against home-schooling; but the thought of being stuck in this house, only allowed out with Jenny or mom like a dog on a leash, made her angry. She was going to do as much as she could to cling to normalcy.

Noon hit and her phone buzzed a text alert.

Jenny picked up her phone and gave her the mouth-stick that she still wasn’t that familiar with, and Cassie eagerly unlocked the phone and opened messages.

Sammy: I’ll be over soon! Shoes are on!

Cassie hit the heart emoji three times and then send. Jenny smiled as she took the stick back. “Soon?” she asked.

Cassie nodded, grinning. “Can you help me get my shoes on?”

~

Samantha was getting used to the giant van instead of Cassie’s mom’s dinky sedan, but it still made her stomach twist.

Oh well. She smiled as she parked and got out. She had brought those butterfly hair clips that Cassie had been eyeing at the mall on their last date, and a new pinky-peach lipstick. It would match her favorite heels.

Samantha knocked smartly on the front door. Cassie’s mom answered, plastering on a fake smile. She still didn’t approve of Samantha, but honestly, that was her own problem. Samantha just smiled and said, “Hello, Mrs. Shapiro. Can I come in?”

“Yes, of course.”

All awkward conversation was stalled by Cassie zooming out of the living room and halting sharply just a few feet away. Samantha closed the rest of the distance and hugged her, delighting in the soft scent of eucalyptus from Cassie’s hair and ignoring the stiff plastic smell of the chair. “Got you a present,” Samantha said as she let go, and took the packet with the lipstick and clips out of her packet. The look of delight on Cassie’s face made Samantha’s tummy flutter.

“Oh gosh, they’re so cute!” Cassie gushed. “Aren’t those the ones we saw at the mall?”

“Yep. I doubled back when I brought you home.”

Cassie laughed and Samantha smiled wider.

Cassie was one of those people who had a vanity in her room with all her makeup and hair stuff there. Samantha was glad of it these days; more room to maneuver. She was still so excited that Cassie trusted her to do her hair, and Samantha took care to make sure she never regretted it. It helped that Cassie’s hair was absolutely gorgeous, thick and strong, gold like wheat in the sun or watered honey or—

“Are you going to braid it or keep brushing it until the beach closes?” Cassie asked, bringing Samantha back to the present.

“Oh. Yeah. Sorry.”

Cassie smiled at her in the mirror, and Samantha smiled back, shyly.

A few gentle curls at the side of Cassie’s face, the rest braided and gathered into a flat bun, and the butterfly clips in a vague ring around Cassie’s head, like a crown.  Samantha had often thought of Cassie as a kind of royalty, and the accident hadn’t changed that thought. Makeup next. Samantha had been a disaster with it before Cassie first helped her with highlight and glittery eye shadow; now she knew exactly how to do Cassie’s makeup, and there was definitely a tenderness and level of trust in applying lipstick that made Samantha blush.

“You’re so cute,” Cassie murmured affectionately when Samantha lifted the applicator.

“And you’re the most beautiful,” Samantha retorted quietly, blushing harder.

Cassie laughed. “How long until this dries?” she asked. “I need to kiss you thank-you.”

Samantha shrugged. “Not long, I think.” She licked her thumb and gently corrected some eyebrow pencil. “There. Good. Gosh, you’re beautiful.”

“You said that already,” Cassie replied, grinning and blushing.

“Well, you are, so there.”

They were going to visit the beach. Not the sand, the chair wouldn’t work on sand; but the dock, definitely. They would get ice cream and judge old men on their dress-sense and maybe meet up with that nice older lady who wrote Harlequin novels and was so absolutely filthy that she put Samantha and Cassie’s classmates to shame. She was fun, though. And Samantha would get to see Cassie smiling at the sunset.

Cassie’s mom asked worriedly if they were sure they didn’t want her or Jenny to come to. Cassie frowned and said “No, we’ll be fine.”

“Call if you need anything,��� Cassie’s mom insisted, then got out of the way.

Samantha helped with the ramp and securing the chair in the van, then leaned up and kissed Cassie quickly before getting into the driver’s seat. Cassie giggled and Samantha blushed.

The whole drive, they talked about Samantha’s latest research hole, butterflies and moths. Cassie laughed more than she did in public. That made Samantha happy.

There was a handicap spot open at the beach parking lot. Samantha swooped in quickly, and when a little old lady slammed her horn at Samantha, she ignored it and just got to work helping Cassie out. The horn-blaring stopped when Cassie came into view.

“Mean old tart,” Cassie muttered.

“She just didn’t know,” Samantha replied, and slid Cassie’s sunglasses on her face. “Better?”

“Yeah. Let’s go!”

~

Cassie enjoyed the fresh air and smiled at the happy children, and ignored the stares. Samantha walked close, less out of obnoxious hovering and more out of shyness. She was getting more outgoing, but sometimes she just wasn’t really very extroverted. That was fine, though Cassie desperately wanted to hold her hand.

“Ice cream first?” Cassie asked brightly, smiling up at Samantha. The other girl smiled back, blushing. She’d only braided back the front locks of her hair, leaving the rest fiery and wild, and it showed off her adorable freckles.

“Yeah, that works,” Samantha said. “And then we can check if there’s anything new at Gigi’s giftshop.”

“Oh, yes, perfect!”

They strolled down the boardwalk, talking. Samantha had started researching all kinds of bugs, but was also researching plants, and Cassie loved to watch Samantha’s face light up as she talked about specialized relationships between insects and plants. They reached the ice cream shop without incident, and Samantha bought two bowls of vanilla ice cream, one smothered in chocolate and the other smothered in caramel. They claimed one of the few tables and Samantha fed Cassie her ice cream slowly, both of them giggling. With helpers at meals, Cassie felt a deep resentment; when it was fun with Samantha, who legitimately only saw her as a girlfriend, not someone to take care of, it was a lovely time.

Little kids were staring. Cassie ignored them, and focused on telling Samantha about all the advancements Jenny had told her about. How her uncle had bought her speech-to-text software, and she was getting better at it, and how eventually her mom was going to replace the creaky shoddy temporary ramp with a nice solid one with proper tread. Samantha was encouraging, and never got uncomfortable or tried to turn the subject. This was Cassie’s life, now. There was no point pretending it wasn’t.

They were just starting to talk about the coming school year (gosh it was so cute when Samantha put her chin in her hand like that and just looked at Cassie) when an older woman walking by asked, in truly confused tone, “You’re going to school? Like that?”

Samantha tensed, her fingers curling and her face going hard. Cassie smiled at the lady sweetly, putting as much anger into her eyes as she could.

“Yes, I am,” she said. “I don’t see why I shouldn’t.”

“Well, you—I—” The woman realized she had well and truly fucked up, and flushed, looking guilty. “I’m sorry,” she muttered, and hurried away.

“Bitch,” Samantha muttered at the woman’s retreating back.

Cassie didn’t reply.

Gigi’s giftshop wasn’t as crowded as usual. There were new gewgaws on display, though; pottery, mostly, probably made by Gigi’s siblings’ children. There were some very nice stone-chip bracelets, and Cassie insisted on purchasing two matching ones. Samantha blushed and was very tender, fastening the bracelet around Cassie’s unresponsive wrist.

They went to grab snacks as they slowly went down the boardwalk, looking out at the ocean and the beach. It was getting cold; people were packing up and leaving. They paused by the rail, to watch the sunset. Cassie’s breath caught in her throat at the fiery sky touching the dark ocean with brightness. The raw glory of another day by the ocean seized her throat, reminding her that there was more to this world than one small human body, one small human life. The reds and oranges looked like Samantha’s hair. The blue waves looked like her favorite necklace, the once Cassie had made for her three days before the accident. Cassie looked up at Samantha, and caught her staring at Cassie with the tenderest expression. A bit excited, a bit reverent, a bit hopeful, a bit sad—and so loving that Cassie felt like crying.

The sunset played golden on Samantha’s cheek and woke the amber highlights in her hair.

“You’re really beautiful,” Samantha said softly.

“Not as beautiful as you,” Cassie replied, just as softly.

~

Samantha didn’t want to go home. She wanted to stay over at Cassie’s and cuddle and watch dumb Netflix shows. But her own parents were expecting her for dinner, and Cassie admitted that her mom was going through a weird phase of keeping mealtimes strict, and she wouldn’t have planned for a fifth person at dinner.

So they drove back to Cassie’s, talking softly and sparingly. Samantha greatly enjoyed the quiet times, just being near Cassie with nothing to do or say. She wasn’t sure if Cassie liked those times, but she snatched them when she could.

It was very selfish of her. But she told herself it wasn’t as selfish as forcing her company and talking on Cassie when she was quiet of her own volition.

“I want you to stay the night,” Cassie said very softly, when Samantha had parked the van.

“Our parents will be annoyed,” Samantha pointed out reluctantly, turning in her seat to look up at Cassie. Her curls had straightened from the dampness of the sea air, but they still looked adorable on her, as did the mulish look. “And I didn’t bring any pajamas.”

“You can borrow mine,” Cassie replied. “And mom and dad can get over it.”

Samantha thought for a moment, looking into Cassie’s face. And she realized that Cassie was more important than the scolding she’d get from her own parents.

“Okay,” she said. “But I’m not explaining to your mom why I’m still here. She’s scary.”

Cassie laughed. Samantha couldn’t stop a grin. “Fair enough! Let’s get inside. What do you want to watch after dinner?”