Dreaming of You

A/N: This is set about a month or so after 'if you love me, don't let go' and just sort of assumes that the characters have taken a break from mortal peril. The whisperers are still a threat, but the group's settled down again. In this universe, Yumiko didn't leave (frankly cos it wouldn't fit the timeline of what I'm creating with this fic series) but also because I couldn't see her leaving without Magna after just getting her back and I don't think Magna would want to go anywhere until they find Connie or at least know her fate. Think of this as the peace before the storm.

Some of you already know but I'm working on a multi chap fic where magna gets bit but doesn't turn into a walker (I got inspired after watching spring) and that will be angsty as fuck (has a happy ending though I promise) but I've got a a lot of oneshots to get through before I reach the timeline of that fic and there will be fluffy ones. So enjoy it while it lasts.

...

"You've been awfully quiet the last half hour," Yumiko noted, watching the other woman carefully. "What's wrong?"

It was possible that she was a little too vigilant whenever it came to any slight alterations in Magna's behavior lately, after she'd been so oblivious to her discontent over a month ago, and how rapidly that had snowballed into a nearly insurmountable conflict between them. She didn't want to miss any signs, not again.

Or, perhaps 'oblivious' wasn't the right term. She'd sensed the change in Magna, her withdrawal, but she hadn't acted on that knowledge, hadn't pushed.

She'd learned from experience that pushing Magna all too often led to disaster.

She'd thought if she just waited it out. . .

Or let the other woman come to her, when she was ready. . .

Well, she wasn't keen to try that again. In the past, she'd been able to let things slide, but how close they'd come to losing everything had made that all but impossible in the last month. She was wary, cautious - and she knew Magna had sensed that shift in her (Yumiko had seen the irritation warring with guilt on her face every time this change in their dynamic revealed itself).

They were healing, they were going to be okay.

She knew that. Had to believe it.

But the wounds were still there. They probably would be for a long time to come.

Whatever the reasoning behind Magna's actions, Yumiko's trust had been broken. For thirteen years, it had been broken. And she'd had no clue. Absolutely none. Finding that out had made her feel like a fool, a complete idiot - and the hurt that had come with it. . .

That was hard to get past. Her love for the other woman overrode those feelings but it didn't erase them. It couldn't.

And on Magna's end, she knew that she was still wrestling with the insecurities she'd built up over all those years, the doubt.

Yumiko couldn't change how she'd responded the first time the truth had been revealed. Couldn't change thirteen years of believing in the younger woman's innocence, insisting on it even, and the way that had scratched away at Magna's confidence and trust in Yumiko's feelings for her.

Just like Magna couldn't change the lies. The deceit. The way the memory of it all would still sometimes hit Yumiko like a punch to the gut, steal her breath away.

In a way, they were both learning to trust each other again. To believe in each other.

It wasn't without its struggles. But there had also been progress. Enough that some of the hurt and resentment was starting to fade, on both sides.