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Julep stares into the pouring rain. She's wearing the same sage vest and chocolate trousers she had at the card game days prior, much worse for wear. Her black tipped fox ears press hard against her head through the holes in her hat, the torrential rain filling its slightly raised brim and draining down her neck. Her blue green hair is wetly draped against her dark skin. The fox faunus can’t find the words she's looking for, and it makes her want to scream and tear her garments.
Her hands are filled with a pair of white flats that she had found in the mud on the way here. The dongala oxfords Julep had spent ten damned lien on, that she'd been so damned proud of just a week before, are caked in mud. She can't find it in her to care as she stares at the object of her affection and consternation.
Nerine refuses to look at her, her once stunning powder pink ball gown now soaked through and stained with mud. Her light skin turning pale from the chill and rain and her once meticulously crafted updo of black hair is a mess of tangles and loose strands. She stands barefoot in the mud, her back mostly turned to her exasperated paramour, her hands clutched into tight, shivering fists.
Julep takes a step towards her and Nerine whirls on her and screams, “How dare you come back! How dare you say it was for me!”
Julep takes a step back, dropping the flats, the young woman's anger intimidating her far more than the guns that had sent her running days ago. Despite her surprise, she finds some frustration to cling on to.
“I told you they would do this eventually! Ain't see how it's my fault you didn't take me serious.”
Nerine stomps through the mud towards her, jabbing a finger in the short gambler’s face, “You told me they would get sick of you winning! Not that they would kill you!”
Julep looks at her with a tired expression, “Rinny, what do you think a buncha rich humans do to a faunus who takes too much money from them?”
Nerine’s anger seems to cool and she looks away, ashamed, “I thought it would be like the books… You would steal me away before things became too dire.”
The fox faunus reaches out and grabs one of Nerine’s freezing hands, “But it ain't! It ain't like the books. I ain't no knight stealing away the princess. The dragon ain't coming, just your daddy and his friends with guns.”
Nerine might be crying, but the rain makes it impossible to tell. Julep pushes forward decisively.
“But I'm here now. ”
Nerine looks up, her lips twisted in a grimace of a sob. Julep speaks gently, just loud enough to be heard over the pouring rain as she draws her face within inches of Nerine's.
“Ain't got no mighty steed, no sunset to ride off into. Juss got enough lien to start us a life and a storm to run through.”
Nerine gasps out a sob, bringing her hands up to Julep’s cheeks, “Tell me we’ll make it.”
Julep shakes her head, a somber smile on her face, “Rinny, you know I can't tell you that. All I can tell you is I'd rather try with you than make it alone.”
The heiress hangs her head, her shoulders shaking with her tears. Eventually she gasps out a question.
“Aren't you afraid, Jules? They'll never let up if you take me. They'll look for you to the ends of Remnant.”
The gambler returns Nerine’s touch, holding her face in her hands and raising her gaze until they're eye to eye.
“Only thing I'm afraid of is you not coming with me, Nerine. I can't beg you. You have a life here, I don't.”
Nerine shakes her head, “You know more than anyone that what I have here can hardly be called a life. When you ran, I was so glad you escaped, and so heartbroken that my only chance at joy left with you.”
Julep smiles. Nerine's sobbing finally stops in the presence of that smile. It had been that damned smile that had drawn her to the gambler. That bright, confident smile that claimed its wearer knew far more than you. It had enticed her, and despite what she expected, learning that it had all been a front is what made her fall in love. Her dear Julep had been in over her head from the first moment, and her devil may care bravado had stolen Nerine’s heart.
To see it now, to know that Julep was making her plans up as she went even now, should terrify Nerine. She should want nothing more than to sprint back to her daddy and beg forgiveness, return to her calm, if empty, life.
Despite this, all she feels is excitement as Julep whispers, “We’ll run to Mistral or Vacuo. We’ll make a life, build a home, a family.”
Nerine smiles softly, “A family?”
Julep blushes deeply and murmurs, “You make me wanna be an honest woman, Rinny.”
Nerine flushes, a sunny smile growing on her face that makes Julep think the clouds must have finally parted. The heiress leans in, and Julep’s eyes widen and then shut as she leans up to kiss the woman she loves for the first time.
Instead of soft lips, a finger presses against her own lips. Her eyes open to an impish smile on Nerine’s face.
The ebony haired woman whispers, close enough to Julep that she flushes from the feeling of hot breath on her ear, “Then you'll need to put a ring on my finger, make an honest woman of me .”
Nerine draws back, that same impish smile on her face. It's the one that screams she was born to adventure, not to posture. Julep hadn't thought anything of Nerine until she caught a glimpse of that smile. Now she knows she'll follow that smile anywhere, and do anything she can to see it every day of her life.
Nerine smirks at her obvious lovestruck expression, “So?”
Julep frowns, “So?”
Nerine takes her hand and pulls her along.
“Let's go.”