Elowen and Afon laid together in their lookout hammock. The sun had set—not that it meant much in the Labyrinth, aside from the light level. Only tonight stood between them and freedom from the Labyrinth's 8th floor. The rest of Guild Tenebris were at the healing spring campsite, having a celebratory cookout, but Elowen and Afon stayed behind to keep a lookout.

It'd been a silent lookout, as usual, aside from monsters chittering in the distance, and shouting from the campsite (probably Momoe or Katya). As usual, neither Elowen nor Afon had much to say to one another, which was fine by both of them.

Around two hours passed. The sun had set, the noise from the campsite died down, and Elowen and Afon were preparing for their alternating night watch shifts. Afon was getting ready to practice her usual "flip down the tree" manuever, when Elowen tapped her shoulder. Afon turned around.

"Before we begin, I have an unrelated question," Elowen signed to Afon. She had come to appreciate sign language as a massive boon for communicating. Talking outside of quick strategic communications stressed Elowen out.

"Yeah, Elly?"

"This has nothing to do with the lookout, by the way. Remind me, you lost your hearing at an early age, right?"

"Not all of it, but enough that it's useless. Why do you ask?"

"I've been wondering: How did you survive in your childhood without your sense of hearing?"

Afon blinked. "...Huh? What do you mean?"

"Hearing is a core human sense. When sight fails us, hearing is what we fall back on." Elowen paused, and then tensed up a bit when she saw Afon frowning. "In general! In general," she frantically signed to her, as of late, girlfriend.

The idea of having a girlfriend still felt surreal to— Wait, no, now wasn't the time to think about this. "I ask because, well, I can't count the number of times my sense of hearing has saved me from death."

"I dunno, how many times has it done that since we started?" Afon responded. "Seems like a lot."

"Oh, I didn't mean throughout our exploration. I'm talking more about all the time I spent as a child, training in survivalism."

Afon grew slightly concerned. "Wait, when you were a kid? Your dad was, y'know, ready to save you if an animal was about to kill you or something?"

"No," Elowen signed with a straight face.

The revelation that Elowen's dad simply dumped her in the wilderness and left her to life-or-death situations stunned Afon. "Elly, if I ever see your dad, I'm gonna punch him. A lot."

"...Why? What did he do?"

"'What did he do?' Elly, don't you see something wrong with a dad leaving his kid daughter to fend for herself in the forest?"

"It was all in pursuit of survival instincts. As long as it worked, then nothing's wrong."

"Yeah, but what if it didn't work? What if you died while on one of these stupid survival training things?"

"Then I failed to learn what my dad taught me."

Afon grabbed Elowen's shoulders. "That's dumb! Elly, that kind of thinking is really, REALLY dumb! Your dad's messed up for thinking it was okay to potentially leave you to die! Wait, no, he's even more messed up for making you believe it!"

Elowen looked downwards, signing at Afon without making eye contact. "You didn't answer my question." She looked at Afon again.

"Well, long and short of it is I wasn't raised by some stupid asshole who—"

"Afon, please." Elowen couldn't deny a lot of what Afon was saying, but now wasn't the time for it.

"...Sorry, Elly." Afon paused her signing for a moment, trying to think of how to phrase her answer. "Well, I had Rick and the rest of the rogues to keep me alive. They were pretty good about compensating for my lack of hearing. Kept me from walking into super dangerous situations."

Elowen went silent for a bit, mulling on what Afon said. She definitely appreciated all the skills she learned from her dad, but... Having a parental figure backing you up and keeping you safe did sound...

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