sappy cheese

“You really think this revolution will last?” Erin asked one day, lying next to Theo. Auguste had left early again, which meant extra bed space for Erin so bonus. But she had woken up with last night’s conservation swimming in between wine and half remembered kisses. Theo propped herself on her elbow, an eyebrow raised. Her fingers played with a loose strand of hair absently.

“Are you asking seriously or in jest?” Theo said in response, in her dance of answering a question with another question. Erin wanted to throw her pillow at her sometimes.

“I’m asking seriously, for once,” she allowed. Placing her arms behind her head, lacing a net with her fingers, she looked up. “I could just be hungry so you don’t have to answer.”

Theo was silent for a while. Erin watched the small changes going on, the way she gave little sighs to herself as if Erin wasn’t there, her eyes sailing downward into the covers, and the way, her lips pouted in thought.

Bombshell dropped, Erin waited, half wanting to know the answer and half dreading it because it could become a debate like those in the palace.

“Revolution,” Theo said, tasting the word. “There will be a time when revolution, well a revolutionary government, would not be needed.” She pursed her lips, swallowing. “Not because it-well…We have made so many strides in so little time. I think that, out of the revolution itself, will last and keep going until all of us are truly free from our fetters.” The apple of her cheeks were pink and for a moment Erin thought she would have kept going, but she said nothing else. Erin turned to face her. There were probably a million more things Theo wanted to say, it was there as a storm roiling in her eyes.

“You changed the world,” Erin said, surprised at the heaviness in her tone. Theo lifted a corner of her mouth, drawing back.

“Me? Hardly.”

“Not you!” She narrowed her eyes. Fuck. “Well, yes, you, but like in a collective, with the rest of you rising up to the….yeah okay this is the last time you’re gonna hear me being serious.”

Theo laughed, warmth in her voice filling Erin with small butterflies. “As you wish.” She wrapped an arm around Erin’s waist. “I was getting worried, for a moment’s time.”

“Of what?” Mock accusation wavered under her touch.

Theo laughed again and kissed her.