Hestadil One-Shots

Faithful Henchman

A/N: Yet another amazing request from dontjudgeimmafangirl

Anadil had watched her die.

She'd known it.

She could see it in her rat's eyes in the final moments.

Anadil scooped her into her hands and clutches her against her chest, tears streaming down her face.

Dot came to comfort her, along with at least one other person she didn't bother looking at, but she didn't care.

All that mattered was that she was dead.

And it felt like a piece of Anadil had died with her.

She'd lost her rats before, all three in fact, back in their first year.

She'd gone through it alone, not letting anyone see.

But she couldn't hold it in.

Not in this desolate jail cell with no hope of escape and her other rats hanging on by a thread.

If they found one, not only would the rat die but one of her friends.

Her whole body shook to her sobs, but she didn't care.

She clutched her rat, gently stroking her.

She knew she was dead, but that didn't stop her.

She heard footsteps, but she didn't acknowledge them or even register them.

That is until a hand was set on her shoulder.

It was gentle and clearly an awkward hold, but comforting nonetheless.

The hand was warm and comforting in her emotional an painful haze.

She looked up and sniffled, her eyes barely making out Hester through the tears in her eyes.

She went to wipe her eyes, guessing that Hester wouldn't want a henchman that would cry over a lost rat.

Wouldn't want... a girl that cried over a rat.

That was a thought she was used to, but it was still confusing.

She still didn't understand why Hester made her heart beat erratically and her throat dry up when they were together.

But right now it really didn't matter.

Because she had just lost...

Anadil felt more tears flowing down her cheeks.

She couldn't stop herself.

She knew she should because she was a Never, but she really couldn't.

Hester was the strongest person she knew, she still remembered when the other girl had taken a knife to the gut and not cried, and she felt like she was letting her down by showing emotion.

But she couldn't stop.

She just couldn't.

Even if that meant Hester would leave her forever.

That thought made her cry harder.

How could she lose Hester too?!

But even through her tears she could see Hester's familiar flinty black eyes.

They held a look of gentle softness that Anadil had never seen in them.

Like she was... sad? Empathetic? Apologetic?

Anadil wasn't sure it could be explained in words, so she just allowed the look in Hester's eyes to fill her until she floated on the, like a raft in her ocean of despair.

Her tears lessened and her body stopped wracking with every breath.

Hester continued to look at her with those usually cold, harsh eyes with nothing but warmth and... that same thing she couldn't describe.

She longed to, but she couldn't recognize it.

"She was so scared. She looked right at me, knowing she was going to die."

Anadil tore a bit of the tattered dress she'd been forced to wear and wrapped it around her rat's body.

"She was a faithful henchman to the end," Hester said solemnly.

Anadil felt another wave of tears and she shoved her face against Hester's uniform, seeking comfort from her friend.

Hester stood there awkwardly for a moment before she sunk down to sit beside Anadil, wrapping her arms around the other girl and allowing her to cry on her shoulder.

She stroked her white hair gently, whispering kind words into her ear and trying her hardest to comfort her even though she had no idea how to.

She had no experience at this, but she tried her hardest.

They say there for a long while, hours undoubtedly, and soon everyone else had gone to sleep.

Only then did Anadil stop crying, looking up at Hester.

The tattooed witch gently wiped her face of tears and was about to ask if she was feeling better, perhaps tactless and the wrong thing to say but she had no other ideas, when suddenly Anadil leaned forward and kissed her.

Her face was still wet from tears and Hester could even taste a little as Anadil connected her lips, but she didn't care.

Hester returned the kiss and when they pulled apart, Anadil put her head on Hester's shoulder, still sniffling.

The kiss, although at perhaps a very odd time, had been practically inevitable.

Only after such a tender display of emotion from both of them had their walls been able to fall long enough for them to whisper how they felt in that dank, disgusting dungeon.

It really was not the perfect time, with the deceased rat still clutched against Anadil's chest and then trapped, perhaps about to die.

But there never was the perfect time.

It was right for them and Anadil felt as if a part of her had been born.

A part of her had died for the rat, but a part of her was born for her new, slightly confusing and yet undefined, relationship with Hester.

It had been a long time coming, this relation, and it would be a long time that it would last, until their deathbeds.

But every anniversary, Anadil would recall the sacrifice her rat made for them as well as the first time Hester had truly, completely opened up.

A day of remembrance despair and death, but also a day for remembrance for love and birth.