Page 14 of Battle of Hearts

The second the pair stepped out into the freezing, wind-whipped night, the cold hit them like a wall.

Mirren felt anxious the second the chill began to nip at her skin. She had already begun to shiver five minutes into their walk. She tried to fight the cold, but her thoughts were tooconsumed by the woman walking beside her, the one who’d somehow managed to break through all the walls she’d built around her.

And as they trudged through the snow, side by side, Mirren couldn’t help but wonder where they would go from here.

The weather was horrific. Already their hair was starting to clump together and cover with frost. Sawyer kept her head down, her breath coming in short bursts, misting in the air as she trudged through the deep snow. Mirren followed closely behind, her footsteps crunching softly. The wind howled, whipping snowflakes into their faces and making it nearly impossible to see, but they pressed on toward the small storage shed near the edge of the outpost.

As they reached the shed, Sawyer stopped to unlock the door, fumbling with the key in her gloved hands. Mirren stood beside her, silent but watchful, her gaze occasionally flitting toward Sawyer as though she was about to speak but then thought better of it. The awkwardness from earlier had eased, but there was still an unspoken weight between them—a tension neither could quite define.

Sawyer swung open the shed door, revealing stacks of firewood neatly piled along the back wall. She stepped inside, the cramped space offering temporary relief from the wind. She coughed a few times, and began gathering logs into her arms.

“So,” Mirren’s voice broke the silence, tentative but clear, “I’ve been thinking…”

Sawyer glanced up, raising an eyebrow. “About what?”

Mirren shifted her weight, her hands tugging at the edges of her coat. She didn’t know what had compelled her to start speaking, but it was almost as if she was out of her control. “About last night. And about us.”

There it was. The thing neither of them had really wanted to fully address, and yet, it had been hanging over them all morning.

“Mirren, look, I?—”

“No, wait.” Mirren held up a hand, stopping Sawyer mid sentence. Her heart battered furiously against her ribcage. “Let me finish.”

Sawyer closed her mouth, nodding for her to continue.

“I don’t regret what happened,” Mirren said, her voice steady but soft. She felt her throat threaten to close up, but she pushed through it. “Not even for a second. I’ve been thinking about it, and I know it’s complicated. We’re stuck out here, we’re on a mission, and there are a million reasons why this could get messy. But…” She trailed off, her gaze falling to the ground for a moment before meeting Sawyer’s eyes again. “But I don’t want to pretend it didn’t mean something. At least, not to me.”

Sawyer’s throat tightened. Her mind raced. The same thoughts had been plaguing her all morning, the same push and pull between her duty as a soldier and the undeniable connection she felt toward Mirren. Part of her wanted to shut it down, to keep things professional, to stay in control. But another part of her—one that was growing louder by the second—didn’t want to lose what they’d unexpectedly found in each other.

“I don’t want to pretend either,” Sawyer finally said, her voice low but firm. “I just…I don’t know what this means for us. For the mission.”

Mirren took a step closer, her breath misting in the cold air between them. “We’ll figure it out. Together. We’ve already made it through worse, haven’t we?”

Sawyer’s lips twitched into a small smile.

“Yeah,” Sawyer agreed, her voice softening. “We have.”

For a moment, they just stood there, the cold air swirling around them, but Mirren didn’t feel the chill anymore. All shefelt was the warmth in Sawyer’s eyes, the unspoken promise between them. It was a strange, fragile thing—this connection they had—but it was real.

And despite her instincts to protect herself, to keep her guard up, to focus on nothing other than her work, Mirren realized she didn’t want to let it go.

“Come on,” Sawyer said, breaking the moment with a gentle nudge. “Let’s get this firewood inside before we freeze out here.”

Mirren smiled, her cheeks flushed pink from both their conversation and the cold. “Good idea.”

They gathered the rest of the logs in silence, working together in the small, cramped shed. The awkwardness from earlier had faded completely now, replaced by something quieter, more comfortable. Mirren had to resist the urge to grin widely, pleased with the conversation going better than she thought, going perfectly.

They made it back to the cabin, their boots tracking snow across the floor as they stacked the firewood near the stove. Sawyer busied herself with lighting the fire while Mirren lingered in the quiet, blowing hot air into her cold hands.

When the fire finally crackled to life, casting a warm glow across the room, Sawyer stood up and turned to face her. Mirren was standing near the window, staring out at the snow-covered wilderness, her arms wrapped around herself.

“You okay?” Sawyer asked, her voice softer now.

Mirren turned, offering a small smile. “Yeah. Just…thinking.”

Sawyer crossed the room and stood beside her, following her gaze out the window. The storm was relentless, the wind whipping snow in all directions, but inside the cabin, it was quiet. Safe.

“What are you thinking about?” Sawyer asked, keeping her voice low.

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