Rescued (unpublished)

The Crow's Tale - Part 1 (100k special)

Corva was mortified. There was no other word for it.

Of course the flower had fallen in her hair; of course she'd blushed and looked anywhere but at Rayne, at their stupid beautiful face, and visibly avoided looking at them.

She was trying to read a book on concealment and camouflage, but it wasn't working. For once, her impenetrable and virtually infinite concentration span was wearing thin as her thoughts were plagued by yesterday's events at Dream and Technoblade's wedding.

What kind of crappy spy was she? Not giving away emotions was meant to be her strong suit. She'd done so many missions, had so many emotional attachments, both real and fake and not one blink had been misplaced; never had she given away so much as a smile by accident.

So why had her skills failed her this time? She was only eighteen, sure - she wasn't a textbook, old-heterosexual-white-male-hardened-spy. But she was bloody good at her job - at least usually - that was why Philza had appointed her in charge the second he'd seen her in action.

Why the hell had she blushed? Why had she been so stupid, avoiding their eyes so obviously?

Rayne was... an enigma to Corva. From the moment they'd joined the team, a seventeen-year-old whirlwind of energy that sometimes Corva frankly just didn't understand, they'd been keen to do everything, overexcited about every aspect of training and even guard duty, which Corva had personally found to be a dull waste of her skills and intelligence. Their enthusiasm was infectious and admirable, and had been something Corva hadn't known she and the rest of them had needed.

When they wanted to, Rayne could certainly hide their emotions and become blank as a slate, but usually (and this Corva found very confusing) they chose to hide their face with a curtain of soft oak-brown hair when they were embarrassed or upset, and the rest of the time left their emotions on display for the world to see.

This was strange. Corva simply did not understand why one would choose to show emotion, having the ability to hide it.

Growing up, she'd had to hide the fact she was going to school from her parents from a young age (something they considered unsuitable for a girl), and later (at sixteen) that she'd kissed a woman, as well as two men who had not been deemed appropriate for marriage by her parents. As such, lies came as easily to her as breathing, and keeping a blank face and hiding emotion had quickly become a skill, especially when her parents had found out about her and a past boyfriend and she'd had to deny it with all she had (with some skill and much success, she would like to add). Of course, her father had moved the family away anyway, changed flocks yet again so that Corva would likely never find somewhere she belonged.

But this was better for her being a spy, she told herself. Not lingering too long or having attachment to places gave her an advantage in that she could blend in anywhere.

Corva looked up from her book as she heard the faint sound of footsteps on the wood floor of her small cabin. She knew the step pattern well - and sure enough, Rayne was quick to open the door, peeking around the crack.

"It'd be nice if you knocked," Corva remarked drily. Rayne held little regard for the rules unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Good morning you too, Corv," they replied brightly, utterly unfazed. Corva couldn't help the corners of her mouth turning up at the nickname. "You haven't got a spare pen by any chance?"

"No." Maybe if she kept this interaction short and strictly professional, Rayne would think they'd imagined what had happened at the wedding. She let her face relax back into the calm, cool mask she reserved for serious occasions.

"Really? Ah, that sucks. I finally chewed off the ink part of mine and now it doesn't work."

Corva felt the beginnings of a smile and pushed it down, into the deep pit where she shoved everything she didn't want to feel. I told you so, she might have laughed, had her feelings not recently been made painfully obvious. "Why did you feel the need to come all the way to my secluded cabin to ask for a pen?" She asked instead.