The Stray

Still Kicking (Omake B1-1)

"You sure you're alright, mom?" Kate's eldest daughter eyed her. "I can stick around if you need a hand." The dragoness smiled gently at Maisie.

"I'll be alright, Mais. I just need to breathe a little while."

Maisie, of course, was old enough to've seen her trashed before. She gave an I'll leave her to you I guess kind of look to Rue, before giving a slow nod. "Fine, then. I'll be next door. If you need me, you'd better call."

"Count on it." Kate promised. Finally, Maisie wobbled off. Whew. To Kate's experience, what she was feeling was painfully normal. After a fight this big, a night this awful, a brush this close with death, there was an awful sense of unreality when she returned somewhere safe. The fact that she was home, surrounded by her loving family, and safe at last, it needed a little while to become more real than the lingering terror of the fight, and the awful day before it. But it was real, and she'd survived the worst day she— or the town, probably— had had in five years. Somethin' to be proud of.

Kate— finally not Cpt. Ashborne, but Kate— managed to smile and tap her nose. "Our kids really showed what they're made of today. I'm so damn proud."

"Same here, darling." Her wife smiled at her gently. "We've raised some amazing children, you and I." She placed a hand gently on Kate's. "Which means I know you pretty well too. Are you ready to talk?"

D'oh. "Can't slip anything past you, can I?"

"Darling, you didn't even slip it past Maisie. You think you can hide things from me?" Ugh, no fair! Rue was giving her those warm, tender doe eyes. And her tone was soft and sweet, not pressing, just inviting. "I think you'll feel better if you get it all off your chest."

Oof, bad choice of words. Kate winced. The dragoness's ears twitched, just to make sure their children and the witch had moved on. They were alone. Kate breathed a long, tired sigh. "I feel fried and breaded, babe. Like burned schnitzel that got dropped in the dirt." The captain's armor was scorched through or melted in several dangerous places, and she was missing several scales in awkward patches. Not only that, but she was filthy with soot and ash from her armor and clothes getting scorched by the Voltcage. ...And, she was kidding herself if she said it was just the armor that looked battered to bits. She shook her head. "Mat looked me over, so that's the worst of it, but still... ugh. Armor's melted all over me." Rue bit her lip in worry.

Kate couldn't keep up the reassuring front for her wife, and Rue wouldn't want her to, either. The exhausted dragoness all but collapsed over the nice, soft tablecloth. Her wings were so sore, and now that she could do so, she let them hang limp by her sides like wilted fronds. Her wife sat down beside her, pulling a chair so close she could rest her hand on Kate's shoulder. She wasn't just doing it to steady her, though. "Alright then. Let's start on that armor, dear."

The dragoness rolled her head to look at her. "Aw, babe, y'don't gotta—"

"The sooner you get it off you, the sooner you'll feel better. Get that 'breading' off you." And she fixed her with those eyes again, and Kate knew there was no arguing.

"Okay..." Kate dragged herself to a sitting position. "I kinda had to field weld it, so it's gonna take some doing..."

The watch armor was usually pretty easy to put on, especially compared to some of the crap active soldiers or mercs wore. Rue knew how to undo its straps and buckles, and Kate helped too, but tonight that's where the easy part ended. The boiled chitin plates had sloughed and fused into each other, where they hadn't just burned away. Some of that was her own doing, having to get the suit combat ready in a hurry after V and Mat hacked it off the first time. Soon, it was less stripping her armor off and more scraping chitinous sludge off of her, chunking away huge lumps where possible. Going too fast hurt, because the chitin goo had melted to her scales. Poor Rue was getting filthy with bug scraps, but it didn't slow her down none. If anything, that made her set her jaw and form a knife of light to help hack the mess apart. "Ugh, between battle damage and my hack job, this thing's had it. Gonna have to take it to the Scrubbis for recycling. Sucks."