I'm going to stop hanging out with her.

You let a small apology part from your lips as you glance over at Delilah, oblivious to the fact you’re about to cut off your relationship with her. You’ll bring it up on your journey back, hopefully, to clear any confusion about your decision…

The morning is brief. You try your best to make sure Delilah is in a good mood before you leave the Sage Lodge, but she knows you well enough to know there’s something else behind your agenda. Over breakfast, she humors you with small talk. She even offered a few vague details about her life as a kid. Internally, you curse because if she’s gotten to the point of trusting you to mention that part of her life, you deciding to no longer be intimate with her will only make this worse…

Halfway back to Tiny’s Tavern, you sigh. And look back. Delilah’s gaze is downward, tracing your footsteps in the mud with her own. You look forward and adjust your rucksack.

“Delilah, I’ve been thinking,” you begin. “Maybe we should stop seeing each other.”

There’s an immediate stop to her following, and she asks what you mean by that. You try to continue walking, but she grabs you gently from behind, causing you to come to an abrupt stop. When you turn to face her, there’s only confusion behind her eyes. Failing to follow up with her question, she repeats herself.

“I…when I first left where I came from, I hurt someone that I really liked being around,” you start saying, becoming more personal than you first intended. “But even before I left, it just about killed her knowing I was out doing something that could eventually get me killed. Then, to make matters worse, when people found out she and I were serious, she started to become a target.”

“I can handle myself,” she says. “Plus, you know…no one is out here that could hurt you.”

You make a face and shake your head. “That girl I mentioned, she was like, my best friend. I couldn’t bear the thought of someone hurting her, so I chose to sleep with other women to make others think she was just… a piece of meat. But, unfortunately, she found out about it, and it really….really hurt her.”

Delilah is silent for a couple of seconds, considering the situation with more than just her emotions. When she doesn’t say anything, you continue. “I guess what I’m saying is, it isn’t you. It’s me and everything I do. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Delilah says, clearly lying. “I’m…I just wish…you know…you could try to make it work. You know I’d try to make things better, no matter what. I know you and I could make it work, and if something were to happen, then we’d see a way to get it to work still.”

“How would you feel if I started to sleep with other women, though?”

Delilah scoffs. “You wouldn’t do that to me.”

There’s a pause. “Well…”

Delilah’s eyes widen, and then she looks down. “Oh, my God…”

Delilah pushes past you to continue down the path you took to get here, no longer wanting to talk to you. You guess you shouldn’t have expected anything else from her, but it doesn’t make you feel any less guilty.

Back at Tiny’s Tavern, you hoped to maintain some kind of relationship with her, and you suppose there are still fragments of your friendship you manage to salvage together, but most of her interactions with you are forced.

...

....

As winter settles in, you’re forced to stay inside most of the time, only leaving the tavern when it’s sunny outside, which isn’t often. It seems you’ve completely blown everything with Delilah, so when it’s December, you find yourself alone with the fox girls, chatting and getting to know each other instead. However, since you haven't been intimate with that, they don't seem to try anything with you, so they kind of act like distant relatives that you haven't seen in ages. It's awkward for the first few days, but after a while, when they come in to join you in your room, you get into a regular routine and get used to each other's company.

You're in bed with Arabella, both of you are reading. The twins are in the corner, tinkering with your guns and gear, silently studying what you have.