It was already late in the day when Chance found herself being lead into the large, newly built home of captain Coral. Three stories, tall white pillars, and the sharp smell of new wood. It practically glistened in the setting sunlight. It was disgusting.
A few days earlier she had received an invite to a welcoming party for the captain, saying something about wanting to get to know all his new neighbors.
The captain was new to the area, and Mary-Anne had insisted that they needed to get on his good side sooner rather than later. And though Chance had protested somehow she had lost that argument. So here she stood on the porch of some captain next to Mary-Anne.
That was really the only good thing about this whole situation, Mary-Anne standing at her side in the most beautiful dress Chance had ever stolen. It was almost golden, and the trim glittered and shined, reflecting across the porch where they stood. Her hair had been pulled up into two perfect braids wrapped around the top of her head, it perfectly framed her face and made it so Chance could see the small golden earrings dangling from her ears.
It was a distracting sight, distracting enough that she didn’t notice that the front door had opened until Captain Coral himself was welcoming them inside.
“Aw, ladies welcome in!” He smiled and gestured through the door. “Now you must be Chance Sequoya, I’ve heard quite a lot about you, ma’am.”
“I suppose you have. The real question is where you heard it from.”
“Chance!” Mary-Anne kicked her.
Coral laughed, “Oh it’s alright, you have quite the reputation, Miss. I’ve heard plenty of rumors and really I’d love to see how many of them are true.”
Chance laughed, “Well as long as you promise not to shoot at me maybe I’ll tell you.”
“Ha! I like you already!” He turned to Mary-Anne “And who is this?”
“My wife, Mary-Anne Sequoya.”
“Your….Wife?”
“Have a problem with that?”
“No ma’am, Just not something most people are so….open about.”
Mary-Anne grabbed Chance’s hand. “Well, we aren’t most people.”
“No, we ain’t.”
Coral smiled “Of course not, well there are appetizers in the front room where the other guests are and dinner will be ready soon.”
Mary-Anne nodded and pulled Chance behind her into the front room. The room was full of people Chance had only ever seen in passing around town, all dressed in their best. Chance didn’t often feel out of place, but here she knew she didn’t belong. Mary-Anne had tried getting her into a dress but had eventually settled for a nice suit they had seen in one of the town’s shops. Now she was regretting that decision. No amount of Mary-Anne’s fretting about appearance could have prepared her for the looks she was getting from the other guests.
Chance was used to getting looks from strangers, even the vocational nasty word was to be expected. But usually, she was too busy robbing them to pay them much attention. Now, standing in the middle of a party that she had been invited too, she didn’t know how to handle the looks being thrown her way.
Well, she knew how she wanted to handle them, but Mary-Anne usually protested to her punch first instincts. Instead, she stood there awkwardly with her wife’s hand in hers as the only thing keeping her from fleeing.
“Chance?” Mary-Anne’s voice was quiet next to her “what’s wrong?”
“Hm? Oh nothing darlin, don’t worry.” She tried to smile convincingly “Look there’s the tailor we talked to last week, let’s go say hi.”
Mary- Anne didn’t protest much, and they spent the next hour moving around the room talking to those they recognized. Chance loosed up slightly as they went, it was easier to ignore the looks if she was occupied talking to someone else. For the most part, she realized that everyone was fine with them, even liked her a little. She was even complimented on how she had taken in all the children she had.
It was nice.
Soon Coral was calling everyone into the dining room for dinner. Something fancy that Chance didn’t remember the name of was placed on her plate, everyone else seemed to be in the same position. Small towns like theirs didn’t usually get anything in the way of new delicacies. But all of them smiled and ate it all the same.
Next to her Mary-Anne was making small talk with one of the older women at the table, something about a local family about to have a baby. Chance didn’t pay too much attention, focusing on her food more than anything.
“So you’re Chance Seqoya are you?” A voice from her right asked.
Chance looked up to find one of the people who had been glaring at her earlier standing so that he could lean practically over her as he spoke. She could tell that she would tower over him if she stood up, most likely why he waited until she was sitting down.
“Yeah I am, what’s it to ya?”
“I’ve heard all about you Sequoya”
“Rumors abound”
He laughed “They sure do. Joe Nix told me about you actually, wouldn’t call those rumors so much as right from the source.”
“Did he now?”
“Yeah, he told me all about you. Told me to be careful if I ever saw you around, said you’d be up to no good. And you know, I can’t help wondering why someone like you would be at a party like this?”
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
“Oh, nothing much, just that you’re a lying, cheating, untrustworthy, bitc-”
-----
“I don’t see why you had to hit him!”
“You didn’t talk to him!”
“No, I didn’t, I was busy talking to our very kind neighbors from town!”
Mary-Anne was standing in the middle of the kitchen, hands on her hips as she glared up at Chance. It was late, and hopefully, all of the children were fast asleep so none of them could hear them yelling.
“Well while you were busy having such a wonderful conversation, I was dealing with that no good piece of-”
“Dealing with and hitting are two very different things!”
“Well, they don’t have to be! I had him handled until Coral butted in.”
“Coral stopped you two from starting a brawl in the middle of his home. And you better be nice to him, he was nothing but pleasant to both of us. I just don’t see why you had to get into a fight right in the middle of dessert, we were having a wonderful evening.”
Chance mumbled under her breath. “You might have had a wonderful evening.”
“Excuse me?”
“I said, you may have had a ‘wonderful evening’ but some of us didn’t!”
Mary-Anne deflated slightly at that, “I didn’t notice.”
“No, you didn’t. Now I know you’re used to parading around the homes of a new captain and eating dinner with the townsfolk. But I’m not. I’ve never done this sort of thing, and everyone there knew it. And I know it’s important, and heck I liked some of it. But that doesn’t mean I was comfortable.”
“Chance, I’m…”
“I think I’m gonna go to bed.”
-----
From the first day that Mary-Anne had moved in, there had been changed to Chance’s home. It had started with little things, Mary-Anne would spend days cleaning up where Chance never had time to, she would reorganize rooms and even redecorated in the children’s rooms. But the place where Chance felt it the most had been in her own bedroom.
It had taken them a few weeks to really adjust to one another’s presence, Chance had never spent so much time around another adult and wasn’t used to having someone in her space all the time. Now walking into her bedroom she could see all the changes Mary-Anne had made.
The blanket she had bought for them for Christmas, her dresses that she had washed the day before and hadn’t put away yet. Their bed, that had used to be just Chance’s bed, but now it was theirs, covered in their blankets and their pillows.
Chance undressed quickly and lied down on what had become her side of the bed. Through the window, she could see the moon where it hung. It’s bright light shone directly into the room and down on Chance, she just closed her eyes and laid there.
Soon enough the door to the bedroom opened, Mary-Anne’s careful footsteps made their way across the room. She stopped at the dresser, Chance could hear as she most likely changed into a nightdress and then moved to the foot of the bed. Mary-Anne stood there, her hand just hovering above Chance’s leg and watching her carefully.
“Are you gonna stand there gawking, or are you gonna go to sleep?”
“I didn’t know if you-”
“Well, I am.” Chance grumbled though it came out more like a whine. “Now are you gonna come to bed or not?”
Mary-Anne sighed and walked over to her side of the bed. Instead of laying down though she sat facing Chance, placing her hand on her hip.
“You know, I can’t help if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”
“Nothings wrong.”
“Right, that why you stomped off to bed like you had been scolded.”
Chance turned around at that “I did not!”
“Oh come one, You’re upset. Please, talk to me about it.”
“I’m not, upset. I just...I don’t like being talked to like that. He had no right to say those things and I did the only thing I could.”
Mary-Anne rubbed Chance’s back gently, “I know I sometimes struggle to relate to these sort of thing, we bother grew up very differently. But I want you to know you can always come to me with these things, you don’t always have to be the one throwing punches. I can hit just as hard when I want to.”
Chance chuckled “I know you can.”
“You just have to give me the opportunity.”
Mary-Anne finally laid down, now able to face Chance. She smiled, reaching up to run her hand through her hair. It was these moments that Chance knew she loved Mary-Anne more than anything in the world. The way the moon shone onto her face as she smiled, her hand, softer than Chances would ever be, playing with her hair.
“What are you thinking about now?” Mary-Anne asked.
“Hm? Oh, how much I love you.”
Mary-Anne laughed, “Shut up.”
“Mm, No I don’t think I will. I think I’m going to lay here and talk about how beautiful you are, and how wonderful you are, and how much I love you. I think I’m going to spend all night telling you hmph-”
Mary-Anne pushed her onto her back, kissing her gently. Chance had decided a long time ago that nothing was better than Mary-Anne’s kisses, and this one didn’t disappoint.
They kissed for a while before Mary-Anne pushed back. “I think, we should go to bed.”
“You’re no fun.”
“No, I’m not.”