Anara didn’t say anything back right away, but she smiled a little shyly and moved to kiss her again, yearning to continue their intimacy. -I love you.- She told her as they kissed, and that really said everything.

After a few more lazy minutes of making out, they stopped and Kes sighed. ”We have to get ready and set out soon, before we lose more of the day.”

Anara nodded. Without words, they agreed to split up. Kes went to gather their things for the task ahead while Anara went outside to explain to Tresit that she was going with Kes and Artem into the city, and that he would be responsible for Lanam while they were away. Kes knew this was both a worry for Anara, because she’d hardly ever been parted beyond speaking distance from Lanam before, and it was also a… a renewal. A return to a state of being she’d thought never to experience again. A return to being able to… even just to walk without care, being able to see where she was going. To being able to go out into the city and find food for her children without… without having to beg or plead for it from a largely uncaring people.

Kes smiled to herself at that. Feeling astonishment and pride in herself that she’d been the one who’d been able to give that feeling back to her. She was tucking her knives into their usual places, and she considered that Anara would be carrying them too now. They had more than enough to go around. Neither Artem nor Lingen had brought energy weapons with them, but they’d had blades, and not the kind that were made for preparing food. Artem was going to use what he’d come with (including a set of small throwing knives that he was apparently talented at using), and Kes had chosen one of Lingen’s for her own, a blade that was a longer than her forearm that had a sheath that could be strapped over her shoulder under her pack. Anara knew how to fight, though she’d had little practical experience. Many Kazon families still remembered the days of enslavement, and the days of rebellion, where everyone, male and female, had needed to fight to win. Anara had been taught with other female children, but had never fought a male, and hadn’t been allowed to continue her training once she’d been married. Still, even now, she and Kes were working together in harmony to bring forward those memories so they were fresh for her, and Anara was sharing what she’d learned with Kes to what extent Kes could manage to absorb it. It might or might not be as effective as learning a language that way had been, Kes considered, but any small advantages they could gain, they needed to be prepared to use. Just the thought that Anara was going with her into danger this time, that those two men who’d tied her up and put her in a room to sell as if she were a non-sentient object instead of a living being were still out there in that city somewhere, the city where she and Anara were heading soon, had her on edge and more willing than ever to do whatever she had to do to make sure her wife would be kept safe from men like that.