Chapter Text
Cassie may be imagining it, but between Rachel finding her Grizzly morph, and definitely after they almost lose Cassie in the Yeerk base within the same week, Rachel embraces Cassie more frequently and a little bit tighter. Even though she's totally not the huggy-type. Cassie thinks it's some sort of leftover “maternal-ism” from how she deals with her sisters. Rachel denies being scared of a lot of things but she isn't cold. Cassie knows that.
After the Yeerk base incident where Cassie nearly gets captured, Rachel is furious. The fur on her bear morph's neck visibly bristles before they all find a safe spot to go to their bird morphs and fly back to Cassie's barn. Even the flight there, Cassie can feel her anger in the absence of chatter. No cursing, no "we kicked Yeerk butt", just silence.
In the barn, Rachel stands off to the side as the rest of the team make sure Cassie's okay, Jake lingering with a hand on Cassie's shoulder before looking down at his watch and sighing that he had to go--it was a couple of hours before nightfall. They all had homework that despite slacking on, they knew they had to do to keep their parents from paying more attention to them. He looks really conflicted but glances at Rachel and nods at her before leaving.
When only Tobias is left up in the rafters, Rachel walks towards the smaller girl. Cassie turns towards her, eyes patient to whatever verbal reproach she thinks Rachel's going to dish out. Only, when Rachel furrows her brow and opens her mouth, closes it and says nothing, Cassie tilts her head, confused.
"Rach'? Are you o--"
Rachel gives up on trying to speak and wraps her arms around Cassie's shoulders, maybe a little too tight. But Cassie's arms, after a couple second's delay, wrap around Rachel's waist firmly. They're both quiet among the sound of the animals moving in their cages, Tobias's wings rustling as he preened. Rachel doesn't feel embarrassed by Tobias' presence because she knew he wouldn't tease her for showing affection (or fear, or hesitation).
She wants to ask Cassie if she's okay, or tell her it'll all be fine in the morning--that somehow the sunrise will wipe everything away but...she knew the latter wasn't true and Cassie was always better at picking just what to say anyway.
Rachel steps back and her hands linger at Cassie's shoulders, waiting for Cassie to meet her eyes. Cassie smiles, small and genuine. But cautious. This calm was temporary. They'd be thrown back into it again.
"I'm fine."
Rachel regards her dark-brown eyes carefully, her blue boring into hers before nodding and turning to Tobias.
<I'll fly home with you.> he says softly in thought-speak. He focuses his gaze on Cassie. <I know you said you're ‘fine', but if you're ever not ‘fine’...>
Cassie nods. "I know, Tobias. Thank you."
Cassie hugs her arms to her body as she watches the silhouette of an owl and a hawk disappear into the night.
--
Cassie is by no means weak, though she's smaller than All-Star-Gymnast Rachel. Cassie's arms are thicker from working in the barn for ages, wrestling open the maws of foxes and wolves. She takes more comfort in being strong-willed, or as Marco would call her:"a tree-hugging extremist". Physical strength only got you so far.
The week they found out the Yeerks were destroying the forest was a wild one. Cassie had felt like her brain was a tennis ball and Venus and Serena were playing for the championships with it.
Killer or savior? Could she ever solely be one and not the other?
Humans were too complex but at the same time so so clumsy. Nature was both blood red and verdant green--you couldn't have it's harshness without it's softness. The Andalite's Gift was double-sided; humans with the capability to morph disturbed the cycles of life and death that nature went through.
But life and death did persist in all cases. And even people--or--beings like the Ellimist had rules right?
Now, going through all this deep shit was fine in her bedroom or solid steady ground, but Cassie was on a tall ladder in the barn reaching for a bucket on a shelf.
She missteps during her internal monologue. As her foot tangles with one of the rungs and gravity acts on her tiny body, she wonders faintly how pathetic it would be to have "death-by-ladder" engraved on her tombstone. Before she hits the ground, two arms catch her abruptly around her waist with a rather feminine grunt and Cassie's boots collide much more gently with the wood of the barn floor.
Startled well enough out of her thoughts, Cassie cranes her neck up and leans back to see who caught her. Blonde hair hangs down around blue eyes, eyebrows arched.
"Fallen for me?" Rachel quips after a beat.
Cassie rolls her eyes and pushes out of Rachel's (very well toned) arms. "'Right on time,'" she hums under her breath as she rebalances herself. She knows she shouldn't have listened exclusively to The Brothers Johnson for three days straight.
"What?"
"I said,'thanks'," Cassie says, re-clipping her overall button that came unclipped in the fall.
"Are you alright?" Rachel's blue eyes are still examining her, concern winning out over the smirk on her face. A white tee and denim shorts were normally severely basic items of clothing...on anyone other than Rachel. Rachel's hair is up in a ponytail but a few strands are out on the sides. She looks strangely ready to work in a pair of Timberland's, despite the lack of missions for today.
Cassie gives her a tight smile and nods. "I'm good."
Despite Cassie's words, Rachel presses the back of her hand to Cassie's forehead and Cassie's faintly reminded of the time Rachel was sick from the crocodile morph. Rachel's hand is warm against her skin, and Cassie feels her cheeks get warm too. She grasps Rachel's hand to pull it away from her forehead but she ends up still holding onto it in the space between them.
"I said I was fine . Mother." She sees Rachel wince at the last word and squeezes her hand lightly to hopefully soften the blow. "Don't worry about me."
Rachel sets her jaw and looks like she wants to argue that she wasn't worrying about Cassie, thank you very much, but she just turns and pulls her hand away, changes the subject after clearing her throat.
"I came to help you out here in the barn," she says, back to Cassie as she looks at the clipboards hung up on the barn wall with the tasks of the day. "I was still feeling restless after I flew around with Tobias this morning. So."
"So you came to help me? My hero," Cassie says sweetly, if not a bit distractedly as she goes back up the ladder for the bucket. Once she grabs it she grins down at Rachel who's already looking up at her with trepidation. "I was JUST about to clean the poop out of Raccoon Number Two's cage."
Rachel grimaces and eyes the bucket then Cassie's feet on the rungs of the ladder. "Here, I'll do it. Just get down from there." She takes the bucket. "Making me nervous," she mutters.
Cassie's hides her smile when she turns to get Raccoon number one for its daily medicine dose, but warmth sparks in her chest.
--
Sometime after the Buffa-Human incident (Cassie shudders) Rachel goes on a summer trip with her father that she can't get out of for two weeks or so, which leaves the Animorphs without their Warrior Queen.
Marco and Cassie try to channel Rachel when they dive-bomb as ospreys into a battle against Human-Controllers but Marco just remarks after the battle when they've demorphed that it just...isn't the same. Cassie smiles morosefully.
She busied herself with barn-work, when she wasn't out avoiding death by Dracon Beam, and she works enough to the point that her mom and dad usher her out of the barn and over to Marco or Jake's. She goes with them to the mall arcade a couple of times but can't find it within herself to focus on the joystick controls. She ends up pulling out her reading homework and actually finishing it before Erek calls them up with an emergency. The human-controllers and Hork-Bajirs seem to be even more jumpy when the Animorphs show up without a giant Grizzly Bear in tow; they're all on edge because they expect it to barrel out of nowhere. Cassie finds herself half hoping this, that it would be very Rachel-esque, but the battle drags on with no bear in sight.
Cassie walks into the barn one evening, expecting it to be empty except for the animals. But there's a creak and a hushed whisper, putting her on high alert. She steps in carefully, setting her bag to the side.
"Hello?"
At first she doesn't spot anyone, save for Tobias sitting perched in the rafters.
<Hey, Cassie.>
"Hey, Tobias...," Cassie says carefully, still looking around. She knows hawks can't whisper. "There's someone else here...isn't there?" Cassie continues. If it was someone dangerous, Tobias wouldn't seem so relaxed.
<Uhhh...>
"Tobias--" she warns but she's cut off by someone slamming into her side and folding her into a hug that makes her stagger backwards. "What the he--" There's blonde hair and a familiar perfume.
"Rachel!"
Rachel pulls away but keeps her hands on Cassie's shoulders. "What's up?" she grins, smile bright as the sun. She's in a denim jacket and black shorts this time, a yellow shirt under the jacket that
brings out her golden locks.
Cassie's torn between being annoyed that Rachel just tackled her and gave her a heart attack, and being elated that she's back. It comes out in a breathless laugh and Cassie puts a hand over her chest, trying to settle her pulse.
"Way to send me to an early grave, you butt." She wraps her arms around Rachel's waist to reassure herself: YES, Rachel is actually HERE. She sighs in contentment. Rachel only hesitates a moment before putting her arms back around Cassie's shoulders. When Cassie lays her head on Rachel's collarbone she notices that the top of Rachel's shoulder is harder for her to reach. She'd have to stand on her tip-toes.
She snorts into the fabric of Rachel's jacket, her sentence muffled.
"You got taller, didn't you?"
Rachel sits her chin on top of Cassie's head as an answer and a light fluttery feeling goes from Cassie's chest through to her toes.
The farm-girl laughs then mutters, "Everyone is taller than me now."
Rachel looks down at her, "Even Marco?" She looks legitimately surprised at this.
Cassie huffs. "Not really. It's barely noticeable." She knows her voice escalated in pitch through that whole sentence. She looks up to see Rachel's one eyebrow raised silently calling bullshit, then the eyebrow went back down, a smile curling at her lips.
"No, no! I totally believe you. Marco is forever stuck at five-foot-four."
"I am five-foot-SIX, thank you!"
They turn slightly to see Marco stroll in with Jake and Ax, in his human morph.
The farm-girl moves away from Rachel but straightens out the lapel of Rachel's jacket before turning to sit on one of the empty overturned boxes. She may not like shopping for clothes but she knows how Rachel is about rumpled clothing. Rachel shoots her one of her softer smiles before turning to the guys.
"Glad to see that Xena and Gabby are reunited once more," Marco says in a sickly-sweet tone. Rachel punches him in the shoulder and he puts up his hands in surrender. "Hey! I meant it in good fun! Sheesh. You get taller and stronger every month don't you? You sure you aren't She-Hulk ?"
They squabble some more, Jake trying to play peacekeeper with a smile on his face. Ax seems to be trying to assist him but keeps getting distracted by the sounds his words make, so it's not too effective. Cassie only faintly gets the "Xena & Gabby" reference in that she's seen the show a couple of times before. But she doesn't watch TV too much these days.
Tobias hops down to a crate near Cassie. <It's good that they're fighting...right?>
Cassie shrugs, nods. "They're happy to see each other. It's only normal."
Rachel threatens to hurl Marco out the window.
<Oh.You mean our 'normal'.>
Cassie smiles. The warmth that was in her chest several times before slowly spreads to her stomach. She wonders if she should get it checked out but she's distracted by the sound of one the animals rustling in its cage and it’s back to work she goes.
--