Snowbird [18+] ✔️ Complete

| XXVIII |

"You took her out to blow up your fortress." Pagan didn't sound impressed. Yuma lounged in the windowsill of his office, uncaring.

"I needed a break from beating her face in." She shrugged. "Not all of us are content waiting for the war to come to us."

Ashelin suppressed a grin from her perch by the door.

Pagan sighed. "You're both grounded," he said jovially, a parody of a stern father. "Run along now and beat each other's faces in."

It was the twenty second day, and Ashelin was on top of the world. Her fist had just connected with Yuma's jaw, and as if in slow motion, the pink haired woman staggered back with an expression of awe.

"I didn't think you'd ever get there." Yuma flexed her face.

"I had my doubts," Ashelin replied pertly, but inside she was doing backflips. Not only was she not pulp at the end of the day anymore, but she'd landed a blow on her mentor.

Nothing could stop her.

"Don't get cocky now." Yuma narrowed her eyes.

Ashelin smirked. "Oh, I wouldn't dream of it."

It was the twenty fourth day. Ashelin sat cross legged at the foot of Pagan's ridiculous golden statue with the man himself.

"You had to have known there would be a rebellion against this gaudy piece," she teased as she oiled up the barrel of the .50 caliber in her lap.

"I said I was an impulse buyer." He basked in the sunlight, leaning on his hands as if he hadn't a care in the world. A few birds chirped and landed on the wall a few feet away. "I've made an appointment with Hoyt," he said.

Ashelin tensed. "Oh?" she prompted, heartbeat quickening.

"I told him tentatively a week," he continued, not missing her stiffness at the subject. "To discuss business dealings that I don't intend to follow through with. We're going to talk again tomorrow." He left the insinuation hanging in the air.

Ashelin groaned. "I almost don't want to know. I almost want you to lie if you find out Vaas is dead, just to give me some shred of hope."

"I'm not a very good liar," Pagan admitted.

"Ignorance is bliss, right?" she rambled. "Wouldn't you be happier thinking your woman is alive instead of being hauled around the country in an urn by her son?"

"Maybe." He paused in thought. "I don't have to ask about him."

"If Vaas is alive, it's not like he's living well anyway." Her gaze darkened. "I'm selfish for hoping."

"In any case, Yuma and I are going to meet with Hoyt after we drop you off." Pagan adjusted the subject. "That way we can get a lay of the land for you."

"Why?" Her brow furrowed.

He shrugged. "I want you to see this through."

It was the twenty sixth day. Intel suggested Ajay and the rebels would be there within forty-eight hours, and the palace was abuzz. Yuma seemed more animated than usual, itching to get out of Kyrat.

Ashelin sat on the balcony railing outside of her room, legs dangling over the jagged cliff face. It was a beautiful country, but she craved palm trees and sand. Her naked back against the rough wood of a shanty in the moonlight. Calloused hands pinning her wrists, reaching between her legs...

"Don't do it, you have so much to live for." Yuma's sarcastic voice snapped Ashelin out of her reverie and she laughed dryly.

"I do, actually," the redhead replied. "For a few more days, anyway."

Yuma sighed. "At least you're prepared to die for your cause." She leaned on the railing with her back to the chasm below. "I didn't want to admit it, but I'm impressed by you. Your love has made you strong. I fully expected you to die in the past few weeks."

Ashelin didn't know what to say. She hardly expected a compliment from this hard edged warrior woman. She had thought her emotionless, but then Yuma was driven by her love for Pagan, be it familial love.

"Pagan used to be strong. He was a king," Yuma continued, turning to stare out at the mountains. "Then that bitch Ishwari came with her baby and manipulated her way into his bed, and his heart. His love for her made him weak. I thought once she left things would go back to the way they were, but it got worse. Now he's just rolled over and let Ajay take his country. Our country. It's disgusting."

"I can't imagine what he must have been like back then," Ashelin replied. Pre-love Pagan, or while he had his woman still. She couldn't picture him playing with a child, let alone pining over lost love.

"He would have fucked you raw and thrown you to the dogs." Yuma smiled bitterly.

The redhead shivered. In another life, Pagan could have been her Vaas.

"He was a tyrant. But the man who killed a child to take the throne is gone. He's a shadow of what he once was." The pink-haired woman paused. "But he's my brother. And I refuse to let him die by the spawn of the whore that ruined him." Her voice was chilling.

Ashelin let the words sink in. Pagan had killed a child King? She hadn't thought him that evil. But as his self proclaimed sister had said, he was a different man now.