you may be wondering why i'm choosing to celebrate pride month with wlw ships in watership down and my answer is that i can do what i want you're not my mother. happy pride month yall!

And her light
stretches over salt sea
equally and flowerdeep fields.

And the beautiful dew is poured out
and roses bloom and frail
chervil and flowering sweetclover.

- Saphho

Hyzenthlay smells like wildflowers. Clover could stay awake in the burrow late into the night with her nose pressed against Hyzenthlay's wiry fur and count the beats of her heart and the rise of her chest. Hyzenthlay was like a gift directly from Frith. Clover could barely believe it sometimes.

Hyzenthlay was warm teasing and slow stories in the late evening, her paws wet with dew or rain and her fur ruffled from lazy mornings pressed against Clover's side. Or even countless other things, like napping in between the daisies or reciting love poems or silent side-by-side silflaying or telling Clover how much she loves her.

"Do you ever wish we weren't here?" Hyzenthlay asks one day, her head tilted upwards towards the sky.

Clover's eyes narrow at the grass she had been nibbling on, unsure of Hyzenthlay's meaning and almost too afraid to ask.

"Where would we go?" Clover questions cautiously, still not understanding Hyzenthlay.

"Anywhere. We could live like hlessi, going wherever we please, doing whatever we want."

Clover moves to Hyzenthlay's side, their fur brushing. "Oh Hyzenthlay, I don't know. It seems like a lot of work to fend for ourselves with just the two of us-"

"But imagine it Clove," She says wistfully. "Digging our own burrows, discovering a warren that we could build for just the two of us."

Clover shakes her head and nudges Hyzenthlay with her nose playfully. "I suppose it could be good," She says softly, her eyes closing, her nose pressing against Hyzenthlay's chest. "Though I haven't a clue why we'd go."

"Oh Clover," Hyzenthlay replies in such a tender tone it makes her heart beat faster and faster against her chest. "We'd go to be together."

There was a pause – a long one while Clover thought over Hyzenthlay's words. "Together?"

"Yes, together."

Hyzenthlay's big eyes were deep and affectionate in ways Clover could hardly comprehend, and Clover didn't think it was possible to love someone anymore than she did right now.

"Clover, I'd walk the whole world if it meant I'd be with you."