Stavanger Bay than a breeze next to this night

She couldn't tell what Erzulie's relief was for - her assurance that this was enough or her offer to part ways should the harlot deign it necessary.  But Rosalyn had a way of being, and it was one she'd had a good many years; enjoy what you had while it lasted, because it never lasted long.  

But she would not call herself broken; she didn't close herself off from the world, nor did she harden her heart against entrance.  Her crew always gained a place there, no matter how small, and the family she'd accepted over the years had been a revolving line of entrances and exits.  First her own mother, then Sarai and the others of her first crew.  Kitten, Vlad, Red, Smokestep, Daikini, Raptor.  The last of them was still fresh.  

Hearing Erzulie's soft words, though, showed her just how different the two of them were.  Again, they weren't words she liked hearing, and she stayed quiet a minute, touching her nose to the tears that ran down her lover's cheeks.  "I've learned to take what love I can, when I can."  she finally said, "else you might never get any.  And that's worse, to me."  She might not have loved all of them, but she'd definitely given pieces of herself she wouldn't get back.  And she'd continue to do so, over and over again, willing to make the trade to even feel like she belonged for a while.  "And to give it too, whether or not it's returned."

She gave the other a long look then, wonder what she would make of that.  What she had with Erzulie had surpassed the simplicity of former affairs a good while ago.  It was waters she hadn't seen herself navigating back into, and it made her nervous, sure.  But she was a pirate.