Ren laughs, a harsh sound that echoes oddly in the valley.
"I didn't need you to explain! I know what I saw, and you would have been making a bunch of godsdamned excuses for what happened! It's your fault I left!" she says, the mini-rant ending in screaming.
Cleo flinched as Ren raised her voice. "Did you even as Fer'Rey about what happened?" she asked. "That kiss wasn't supposed to happen. I'm not making excuses, I'm fucking apologizing! Why can't you just hear me out?"
Ren looks like she's about to either laugh, scream, cry or take a swing at Cleo. Possibly all three.
"Fer'rey is dead now, Cleo. I can't ask him." she snorts.
Cleo staggered back a step. "H-He's dead?" she asked quietly. "What happened to him?"
Ren sighs, but grudgingly gives her the information. "He was killed by these… rebels. Against magic."
She snorts. "Serves him right. Antagonizing everyone like he did."
"Oh, and you're no different?" Cleo blurted. "What do you call what you just did up there?" She motioned to the base Ren had just attacked. "What do you call what you did to me?"
Ren snorts.
"What I did up there was starting to finish what we started. What I did to you-" she pauses and smirks. "Practicality, I suppose. To keep myself from saying anything that I wouldn't regret. I'm not sure why I cared, though."
Cleo blinked quickly. "You abandoned me," she whispered, trying desperately to keep the shake out of her voice. "I love you, Ren…"
Ren looks annoyed. "Save it."
She turns away, her mind working furiously. Annoyed, she tosses over her shoulder "If you're up to it, get some armor on and follow me."
"I do love you!" Cleo protests. "And I don't have any armor. I haven't needed to fight in years. Our battle together was my last. Or don't you remember?"
Ren snorts. "I remember. Get some armor, then."
She stalks away. What is it with her, exactly, that she still loves me? I've done everything to make sure she doesn't, and yet…
Cleo hurries to follow her. "From where?" she asks, carrying her sword in her right hand.
(Okay, but tell me why I'm getting "boyfriend" by dove cameron vibes from them…?)
Ren shrugs. "Try looking in that city…? You know, where I just killed a bunch of armored people?"
(I don't know, but it's true, lol!)
Cleo scoffs. "Right. And you murdered them all why, exactly? Please enlighten me, I'm very intrigued."
(I know, it's so weird!)
Ren looks bemused. "The last war we fought together, we did not succeed in eradicating this menace. Therefore, I came back to kill the rest."
Cleo's eyes widened. "We didn't finish? You dragged me into that sea of people for nothing?" she asked.
Ren snaps. "Okay, if you want to do this on your own, go ahead. Because I distinctly remember being the one that killed most of that army. And being the one that saved your ass."
"You're a fucking demigod, of course you were going to be the one to kill most of them!" Cleo retorted. "And I never said I wanted to go at this alone, so stop putting words in my mouth."
Ren snorts. "Oh, so it's my fault at this point. Good to know. I'll keep that in mind when I'm saving your ass again. And doing most of the work. All I was saying is that no, we didn't kill all of them. Do you even remember the size of that damn army? It was massive. And I was rapidly losing power, trying to keep both of us alive."
Cleo narrowed her eyes and took Ren's chin firmly in her fingers. While she was shorter and weaker than her demigod counterpart, she was no less aggressive. "Thank you for saving me," she muttered, slowly and surely. "But I've been on my own for how many years without you, still loving you for the gods know what reason, and now you're back and I don't know what to do with myself."
Ren narrows her eyes at Cleo's touch, but doesn't slap her hand away or tell her not to touch her. Instead, she sighed, and her face softened from granite to concrete. "For what it's worth, I guess I'm sorry. But this does not change anything between us."
She draws herself away, her heart fluttering. Gods damn it.
Slowly, Ren makes her way to the cabin.
Cleo let her hand fall to her side limply when Ren drew away and headed off. She tried to ignore the feeling of loss she felt, but it was strong. Forcefully, she pushed it down and followed Ren back toward her cabin. "Don't go in there," she called.
Ren looks back. "Wasn't planning on it."
She passes the cabin, and continues walking. After a few hundred feet, she finds what she's looking for: a concealed cave in the mountains at ground level.
"Or, I have armor in here you can use." she says.
Cleo couldn’t help but sigh with relief as Ren passed by her little cottage without nearing it. She trotted along behind the demigoddess, wondering where they were going until she saw the cave, and her eyes boggled. “You never told me you had this here!”
Ren snorts. "Why would I? I have a lot of these mini armories scattered across various worlds. And besides, I only just remembered this one."
She pushes Cleo in, then produces a Light for the place. "We have platemail, half mail, chainmail, scale mail, leather. . . anything you could ever want."
She pauses. "Take two sets: one for true battles, one for sneaking around in the night."