[This drabble is adapted from a Discord story and is co-written by Claire. All of Claire’s dialogue, action, and choices have been written by her: https://www.roleplayer.me/1427501]
“Why do you love me so much?”
Claire’s question came out of the ether. She had been out back talking to the teenage werewolves she felt responsible for before coming in, finding Andy on the couch reading a book, and resting her head in her lap. Andy wasn’t one to care where the question came from. She’d answer anything Claire asked her. She tucked some golden hair behind Claire’s ear and brushed her cheek with a gentle stroke of her thumb. “Because you’re a good person, even when you pretend not to be.”
“That’s it?” Claire said, looking up at her with curious green eyes. “Because I’m a grumpy werewolf with a heart of gold?”
“I mean, that’s not it. There’s like a thousand reasons why.” Andy shrugged. “You okay? What’s going on?”
“Yeah, I’m just curious.”
“Okay.” Andy accepted that. She smiled gently, thought for a moment, and then amended her answer. “The simplest answer might also be that I think you’re my best friend. You get me like no one else does, and I think I get you, too, mostly. What’s that if not the foundation of love?”
Claire smiled up at Andy, their eyes locked for a little while before Claire reached up and caressed Andy’s chin with two fingers and pulled her down into a kiss. When the kiss broke she whispered, “Luckiest sneeze ever.”
It was impossible not to smile when thinking about how they met, and how far they came. It started with a sneeze, a simple sneeze into enchanted moondust that happened to drift onto the right stranger. It was an act of chance, or fate, or luck, but that sneeze down near Jupiter, Florida changed everything for Andy. She had been drifting before that, lost at sea, trying to figure out her new lease on life, trying to find a purpose. She didn’t know it that day, but there was hidden purpose in that sneeze, in the ray of sunshine that caused it, in the enchanted moondust… in everything.
The two lovebirds took a brief stroll down memory lane, recalling that day they met and how it all started. It was the sort of drifting conversation that Andy adored most with Claire. They could just talk, find something—anything—to talk about and there was pure, one-hundred percent love in everything they had to say. That conversation drifted into another, and another, somehow leading to the topic of body switching, as it sometimes did around Andy, who was the only one of the two of them who had ever had a different body.
“Would you still love me if I was human?” Claire asked, still looking up from Andy’s lap.
“Claire, I’d love you if I woke up the next morning and you were suddenly a talking can of cat food,” Andy smiled.
“That… wait… how would we… you know?” Claire made a V with her fingers on both hands and sort of bashed them together, simulating sex like a sixth grader would. It only made Andy laugh more.
“My love isn’t dependent on our ability to have sex, that’s just a bonus,” Andy said. “But, if we really wanted to I’m sure we could find a way.”
“I suppose can-openers become a kink in that case,” Claire laughed a little. She smiled up at Andy and took the redhead’s hand into her own, bringing it to her lips to plant small kisses along her knuckles. In the most casual—and Claire—way ever, the blonde nonchalantly asked, “Wanna get married?”
It was so casual that Andy had a hard time realizing if it was serious or not. Her smile melted into a slight squint. “Are you teasing me?”
“No. I mean, I don’t know how we’d do it legally, since, ya know, both of us are legally dead and all. But no, I’m not teasing. We don’t need a piece of paper, do we?” It was obvious that despite it coming out in a lackadaisical way, Claire had been thinking about this. She looked up at Andy, like she was searching for something in her eyes.
“You’re serious,” Andy’s voice was a whisper. She got lost looking down at Claire. “You want to marry me?”
“Well, yeah, I wouldn’t have brought it up if I didn’t,” Claire said. “Why, is that a bad thing?”
Andy answered Claire with a kiss, leaning down and pressing her lips against hers, unsure of why her stomach was aflutter or why she could feel her heart beating in her throat. “I can’t think of anything that makes more sense than marrying you.”
“Peanut butter and jelly. Cheeseburger and fries. Cake and ice cream.” Okay, now she was teasing.
“That’s fine if that’s your list but all I want is you.” Andy beamed.
“No, I mean those are things that make more sense than us getting married,” Claire said. Her face was flat for a second before she allowed herself to grin. “Now I’m teasing.”
Andy didn’t care if she was being teased, she couldn’t stop smiling. “We’re really going to do this?”
“Yeah,” Claire nodded, looking up at Andy. “Andy Barclay, will you marry me?”
Andy didn’t realize she was tearing up until she felt a tear roll down her cheek when she nodded. “Yes, yes please, yes.”
The two pulled each other into another kiss, making a new sort of promise to one another. In that moment, like the moment before, during, and after the sneeze that started it all, things were different. It didn’t matter that they had only been doing this for four fast months. Andy was lost before she found Claire, unsure of what she was meant to do, or how she was meant to be now that she had this second lease on life. Claire was her tether, her anchor, her support, and Claire’s question had an easy answer.
