|
A lot of the time they hang out at Zoya's condo, the Firebirds sanctum, but it's a place where a lot of people come and go from, and it's not a place that Mei is likely ever to really feel entirely comfortable, given the extravagance of it. Sometimes she just wants to spend time somewhere more... normal.
Tonight was one of those nights, and them time she wanted to spend was with Fox, so she invited her former Master over, offered to make some dinner, maybe watch a movie or just talk, or... whatever, really.
Mei enjoys trying to introduce Fox to new things, so when she's cooking there are often surprises in store. There may be some tonight! Who knows!
Sometimes Fox is capable of coming over like a normal person and knocking on doors and things.
Tonight is not that night.
Tonight, there is a flap flap flap and then a whump against one of the windows, and when Mei looks over, there's a bat hanging cartoonishly upside down from the window frame, as if it just splatted into it like Wile E Coyote against a painted tunnel.
Mei looks up from the stove where she's cooking and over her shoulder to the window over the sink, where Fox is hanging. She laughs, wipes her hands off on the towel resting on her shoulder, and steps over to open the window for Fox. "This isn't what I had in mind when I asked you if you wanted to hang around at my apartment with me," she says, window now wide open.
The bat flop flop flop in through the window and then stretches upwards into a short, dark-haired woman who flings her arms around Mei's middle and beams up at her with big golden eyes. "Well you should have been more specific!" Fox offers cheerily. The way her eyes catch the light is completely in keeping with a fox's eyes these days, and the streetlight outside causes a brief flash of eye shine.
"Would have have stopped you?" Mei asks as she wraps her arms around Fox in kind. "I somehow doubt it. You're an incorrigible rascal sometimes, and it's one of your most endearing traits." She leans her head to one side and then the other, just a little, watching the way the eye shine changes, then just smiles a little wider and leans to kiss Fox on her forehead. "I need to make sure dinner doesn't burn," she says. "Have you ever had Hong Kong-style French toast?"
She tips her head to the side and grins her biggest, most rascally grin. There are shenanigans promised by that look, sooner or later. The Orphan's forehead wrinkles up a little bit in confusion, and then the figures out that Mei is looking at her eyes, and just flutters her lashes up at the Obrimos. "Oooh, food!" Fox chirrups happily, padding off after Mei. She reaches one hand out to grab her butt and then scampers away. hehehehehe "Oooh. No! I have not!"
Mei whirls around when her butt is grabbed, mock indignation all over her posture. "Stop, thief!' she declares, but fully in jest and with not enough volume to bother the neighbors. Laughing to herself she returns to her work. "Take a seat, the first couple of pieces will be right up. One of those things that's definitely best while it's still hot, so no need to wait for me to finish, you're welcome to dig in."
As she checks the current state of things she explains what it is. "First," she says. "You slater the bread with kaya, or if you prefer, with peanut butter. Kaya is kind of a coconut egg jam. Then you soak it in the egg batter, and fry it up in too much butter." Yep, all set, she takes the first couple of pieces off the heat and onto a plate. She cuts a bit more butter--or more than a bit--and plots a piece of it on each slice of french toast, then pours on syrup and brings the plate over to set in front of Fox.
"I hope you brought your sweet tooth."
"Ha ha! I got your butt!" cheers Fox in the same tone as 'I got your nose!' said to a toddler. Cheerful and bubbly.
She slings herself into a chair and folds her legs up underneath herself as Ratthew climbs out of her hoodie and into the hood itself, riding along like a joey in its mother's pouch. "Okay!" she agrees, putting her elbows on the table and waiting for the food to appear in front of her. "Ooooh. Kaya sounds cool. Coconut egg jam?" Her eyes get really big when the food is set in front of her, and Ratthew climbs up on top of her head, peeking over as if to see how easy it would be for him to get some. "You don't even eat food, Ratthew!" she chides.
"I brought all of my teeth," the Orphan reassures Mei. "I try not to leave them behind."
"Uh huh, and how often are you a bird?" Mei laughs. "A lot of time time your teeth don't even exist!" She heads back over to the stove while she talks, to work on the second round of food. "Kaya isn't really a Hong Kong thing directly, I think it's originally from Malaysia? I'm not sure. But I love it too, and a lot of southeast asian cuisine uses it in some manner, for some things. Sometimes I'm more in the mood for the peanut butter option, though. The saltiness, and all."
"They're hidden then! Sneaky teeth," Fox offers, clicking her teeth together indicatively. Click click click. "I don't really understand it, but I know they don't actually go away, they're just sort of... you know. Hiding. Because this is what the Lie thinks I really am, most of the time. Though... " She pauses. "I mean it's not really magic." There's a long pause, during which Ratthew sloooowly climbs up her head, trying to lean over it to grab some of the crispy bits on the side while Fox is distracted.
"Ratthew," she scolds, and then picks up the whole piece of buttery, syrupy French toast and jams the entire thing into her mouth. "Mmmhmm," she agrees regarding peanut butter, her cheeks pooched out like a chipmunk's. That's one way to prevent your familiar from swiping your food.
"I can confirm that you have sneaky teeth, so I guess that makes sense." Mei turns to lean back against the counter while food sizzles in the pan behind her. This is in time to see Fox shove the whole piece in her mouth. "Not the traditional way of eating this food, but I guess it works. If you can even chew, still."
"Should I just make a tiny piece for Ratthew?" she asks. "I can. It's not like I'm short on bread or anything."
Her head turns back towards Mei, and she gives the Obrimos a big-eyed begging look. Please, please make this pesky familiar his own piece of toast, so he stops trying to...
... climb over Fox's head... and then lose his balance... and fall butt-first onto her plate... then scramble onto the table, leaving syrupy footprints behind.
Fox sighs heavily through her nose, and slowly chews, cheeks still pouched outward. She rolls her golden eyes a little at the rat, who sits on the table trying to clean his poor little paws.
Mei turns back around and grabs the bag of bread, then a knife, and takes both to the cutting board. She spends a short time cutting a rat-sized piece of read out of a larger slice, proportionally probably quite a big bigger, but still smaller than a whole piece, then she moves on to proceeding with the rest of the process.
"No trouble, really. It's not like it's hard to make one more piece at this point." A laugh. "It will probably take me less time than getting syrup out of rat-butt will take him."
She chew chew chew chew and then swallow. "Well that's what he gets for being so rude," Fox says primly, licking the corners of her mouth with her pink little tongue. Ratthew goes about cleaning his tail and paws and chittering annoyedly to himself. "Well it's your own fault," she repeats, and then shakes her hands absently. "If you were very nice to me, I could fix it." As she shakes her hands, there's a shimmer of Matter, and all of the stray syrup that she got on her fingers dissipates. Matter shenanigans!
Hopping up from her chair, she pap pap over to nuzzle at Mei's shoulder and look up at her with big eyes. "Thank you for inviting me over."
Into the pan goes the tiny piece of french toast, and the two pieces for Mei get flipped over. "I was going to make some turkey bacon, too, but what I had went bad. I spend enough time over at the sanctum that my grocery shopping gets neglected some times."
She turns away from the stove to put an arm around Fox. "You're welcome. I like to spend time with you, and I'd like to spend more time with just us, when we can. There's always so much going on, I know."
"I should get you some lamb bacon. I could make us some, you know." Matter Masters do love to show off, and Fox just became one, so she grins broadly at Mei. Look at me, look at me! It's funny, sometimes, to see who Fox feels like she has to, or wants to, show off for. "Well, I like that you have your own place to be, if you think you need to have it, but yeah, dead groceries are a thing."
Her arms squeeze around Mei's waist. "Yes, please."
"You could! If you want something that's not..." she looks at the french toast, "just a giant bomb of carbs. But you don't need to trouble yourself with it, either." She leans forward to rest her head against Fox's. "I think it's good for my mental health. Having a place I can go where I know things will be quiet, and I can meditate and think about things. I end up coming here less and less, I'll probably not renew my lease, but until then. I don't know. I feel out of place at the Sanctum. Not in the Firebirds, just in that place in particular, a bit, if that makes sense? It's so not me. Or... most of us, I think. I don't even get the impression it's really Zoya. Like it's a Mask, you know? I've never felt comfortable wearing masks."
She turns her face up towards Mei. "I could summon the crispiest, most delicious lamb bacon that has ever been made. I have the Forces and the Fate to make it so," Fox says solemnly. "Or we could just go to Maddy's if we wanted that. She's so nice and she buys lamb bacon so that I can have the most delicious of bacons with my waffles. They'll even make it in a pan they keep for me so that it doesn't go on the pork-covered griddle." She squeezes her arms around Mei's middle, apparently very content to just stand there and like... hug the Obrimos.
"Oh, no, it's not really Zoya, except that like... " here, she pauses. "It's very Zoya to try to spoil us. That's why we have a huge place with a Hallow and a hot tub and a pigeon loft and a giant arms locker for Lesja... " Her fingers wiggle in the air. "Her daddy is a Seer. And an actual factual literal oligarch. And, last we heard, in prison. So she's got all of this money, right? And she like... spends it out of spite. On her big gay family."
Mei, standing there with her arms around Little Fox, both of them just holding one another, glances over at the skillet and the food that's going to start burning soon if she doesn't do something about it. With some thought and will applied to it she stops the power running into the stove. That should do for now, and not require her to get up.
"We could go to Maddy's, but I'd like to spend some time here with you for a bit. It's nice to take advantage of what time we manage to find for each other, you know? And... I do get that impression about Zoya, generally. I'd seen her videos before, of course. Who hasn't if they spend any time on the internet? Finding out that she's actually like that and it isn't just an on-air personality was nice. Especially since she's a Guardian."
The little Thyrsus pushes herself up onto the balls of their feet, rubbing her face against Mei's like a cat. Foxes mark their territory the same way that cats do, mostly. "Oh, it wasn't a serious suggestion. I was just saying, like, we could if we wanted that. I would prefer to stay here. I don't get enough time when it's just the two of us. Time just... goes by very fast. It makes me want to create time bubbles so I can spend time with people in them." A pause, and she frowns. "Wait. Why don't I do that? It's like... the solution for maintaining a polycule." She laughs aloud, then, shaking her head.
"She really is like that. You know it took like... a decade? For us to kiss? It's pretty funny. Like we had almost died multiple times taking care of each other before we smooched."
"I didn't know that, but it surprises me a little bit." One of Mei's hands comes up, sliding its way along Fox's back, up the back of her neck, and into her hair at the back of her head. Then Mei turns her own head and kisses Fox. Softly, slowly, steadily. She lets the kiss linger for a bit, taking a tender moment.
Eventually she pulls back from it enough to whisper, "yeah, but can you do that in a Time bubble?" As if there might be some kind of reason why not.
"Well, you know. I didn't think she liked me like that, and I can be a bit of a useless lesbian sometimes." Fox's shoulders rise and fall, and she's about to say something else, but then Mei surprises her. One hand slid up her back, and then the lingering of that kiss, and when it ends? Fox's eyelashes flutter rapidly, and she lets out a little sigh. Pink to the tops of her ears, she sighs a second time, and smiles the most beatific little smile.
"Oh yes," she breathes. "Lots and lots and lots."
Mei's grinning lips are close enough to Fox's that they brush against Fox's when the expression changes. "Oh. Well, then, that's okay I guess," she says before kissing Fox again for a little bit longer and then pulling back with a soft sigh. "I still need to eat, though. And give Ratthew his piece, too. Is there anything in particular you'd like to do after dinner?"
Swoooooon. Like, seriously, who could avoid swooning when being kissed by Mei like this? Fox drapes backwards over Mei's arm almost theatrically at the end of the second kiss, sighing winsomely. One can almost imagine the butterflies and flowers around her like a Disney princess. "Yes, that's very okay," she sighs, and then takes a handful of Mei's butt before stepping back. "Finish your food," she urges, patpatting the butt before she slips away to check on her familiar, who is still carefully cleaning syrup off of his paws and doing his best to ignore the girlsmooching. It doesn't involve pizza, sleeping in pockets, or other rats, so Ratthew is sort of indifferent.
Fox sits down in her chair again, looks sidelong at Mei, and waggles her eyebrows as only a Life Master can. It's truly cartoonish.
How can Mei not be delighted by the swooning? Her easy laughter, as much a quiet chuckle as anything, conveys that pretty clearly. "You're so cute," she says. "Cute, and very good at making me feel like I'm a sexy bitch, too." When Fox slips away to check on Ratthew, Mei returns the squeeze of her backside by flipping the towel off her shoulder and whipping Fox's butt with it. It's not wound up, just loose, and she doesn't whip hard, so it's definitely not going to hurt by any stretch.
When she turns back to the stove she tosses the towel back on her shoulder, drops the spell keeping the electricity out of the stove, and turns the dial to cut the power to the burner the correct way, while the stove protests the indignity by blinking a sullen 12:00 at her.
The pan comes off the heat, her own food goes onto a plate, and she goes into a cabinet to find a saucer for Ratthew. Butter and syrup go on both sets of dinners, and then both plates come over to the table to be set down in their respective places. "Is the eyebrow waggling your answer to what you want to do after dinner? Waggle our eyebrows at each other?" she asks, waggling back. She isn't quite as good at it, even if she's a Life master.
"That's my job," the Thyrsus says solemnly. "To be cute enough that no one kills me for my shenaniganry." When you get high enough levels of shenanigans, you need an entirely new word to describe them. Shenaniganry. She yelps - mostly for effect - when Mei flicks the towel at her butt, and scampers back to her chair, curling up into it.
Absent-mindedly, and from across the room, the Matter Master draws a mudra in the air with one hand and fixes the clock's sullen blinking. (Fox will never have Wisdom 8. Magic is simply Far Too Cool.)
Ratthew finally cleans all of the syrup off of his paws in time to get his own little piece! Oh, he's so excited, he runs around in circles three times on the table before he scampers over to claim his prize. Fox, on the other hand, giggles brightly and sticks her tongue out at Mei. "No. I was being silly." As usual. "I thought maybe we could snuggle and talk to each other and if that gets boring we could try smooching and if that gets boring we can try smooching but without pants and if that gets boring we can turn into owls and fly around and look at things."
"Oh! That's what a Lorekeeper does? Cuteness?" Mei goes right to the wrong job, of course, because she's teasing fox a little, not being serious. "What about the rest of us? Do you have to be cute enough that nobody kills us for our shenaniganry? Or is that my job?"
She slides onto a seat across from Fox and reaches her foot out under the little table to poke it against Fox's, playing a little footsie.
"ברוך אתה יי אלוהינו מלך העולם המוציא לחם מן הארץ"
Mei offers up a blessing before she starts eating, and then does so enthusiastically, while also watching Ratthew dive into his own food. It's too cute not to be paying attention to, really. "Some snuggling and talking, and maybe some of the rest of that, would be pretty nice, actually," she says. "You know, though, that if we go flying around as owls, that also involves not wearing pants. It seems like maybe you're just trying to get me out of my pants," she jokes.
"I'm not Lorekeeper! I was never Lorekeeper. I was Farseeker once, but it turns out that I'm Hearthmaster and I'm very good at that and actually yes that's not a bad way of putting one of my jobs though technically think our Doorwarden is responsible for not getting our butts kicked."
Fox waits through the blessing and then until Mei is drinking to solemnly intone, "Mei, my darling, I have been trying to get you out of your pants for a year."
Mei pauses a moment, shakes her head. "I was overlapping your job with the Children of the Tree and our cadre in my head. Sorry." She smiles. "Am I allowed to make sure nobody kicks our butts by being cute, instead of fighting them off?"
She smiles across the table at Fox while she's eating, but thankfully, she smiles with her mouth closed. When her mouth isn't full of food again she smiles more fully. "I know," she says. "And I also actually really appreciate the fact that you've been trying without being pushy or annoying about it. Enough to make me know that you find me attractive and would love to go further than we have, while also making it clear that it's fine if we don't. Thank you."
She shrugs her shoulders, then. "It's okay," Fox agrees, and then she tips her head to the side as if seriously considering it. "Yes, I think that is allowed. Good news: you're always cute. Even when you just woke up and have the worst morning breath on the planet and also you have like, crusty drool at the corner of your mouth? Still cute."
Swinging one of her feet under the chair she sits on, there's a little shrug. "I went, like, fully hypersexual for a little while after I Awakened. Life magic and a lack of dysphoria made my libido turn up over nine thousand. But I also know that I felt gaslit by the universe, and that took me a while to reconcile." A wave of her hand. "It is okay, whatever our sex life or lack of sex life looks like, from now until the end of time. Yeah, it would be, like, fun? I'm sure? But like... " She spreads her fingers out. "We've gone flying together as crows, and I've sat on your head as a cloud of butterflies."
"You are hot," she appends. "To be clear."
"Dragon's breath," Mei says with a grin, before pausing and repeating it in Cantonese. "I would never, though. I am a perfect flower of womanhood." She says, while slouching a bit, legs spread a bit, nudging Fox's foot under the table, eating like it's going out of style, and perfectly content with who and what she is at that moment. Definitely a woman, not most people's definition of perfect womanhood. Totally okay with that. Also, who DOESN'T actually get morning breath? Nobody. Clearly the whole thing is a joke aimed at that kind of thinking.
"I fully understand what you mean about being gaslit by the universe," she says. "Any time I start talking about trans topics with someone who doesn't really understand, might not be able to actually believe it... or who I can't even tell... it's difficult. Because I'm a trans woman, I have that experience, I've gone through those struggles, but also, you know... I haven't? And it feels wrong to claim it, sometimes."
"I know I'm hot, though," she says, partly playful cockiness, partly acknowledgement of the fact that... she is. Maybe not to everyone, but to plenty of people's definition. And she does know it.
A little snort there from Fox, who repeats the phrase in Cantonese. Her pronunciation might sound a little too perfect for her to have never heard that before, which she underlines by adding on an entire sentence in the language: "A perfect flower of womanhood with dragon breath and drool is what you are after a nap." Her golden eyes glitter with delighted playfulness, and she nudges her foot back against Mei's, plopping her chin in her hands and watching the Obrimos eat like it's the greatest thing ever.
"Because the universe doesn't remember the things that you do, but you did experience them. It's one of those things I haven't really had the heart to explain to Simone. She remembers things that I don't, and vice versa. But both of our lives are fully real and valid."
A big, winsome sigh. "Yeah, you are."
Mei's a little surprised by the Cantonese, but reacts to the surprise with amused laughter. "Yeah, that sounds about right," she agrees. "Sounds like me when I wake up." She does eat, and she's not a particular dainty eater. It's something she does like a lot of the rest of the things she does, like she's making it all a conscious decision, and part of that is to do it with confidence. It's why she has a bit of a swagger when she walks, and why she eats like she's decided to enjoy every step of the process.
"Yeah," she says between bites. "You probably should talk to her about that. She's not a baby any more, mage or otherwise, and I, in my great and expansive wisdom, am actually pretty sure that the outcome of that conversation is that you'll have a stronger relationship for it." She prepares another bite on her fork, but doesn't put it in her mouth because she has more to say. "You might be afraid it will be a wedge, those differences in experience, but I think she'll appreciate you opening up to her."
Now she takes the bite.
She blushes brightly up to her ears when Mei is surprised, and reacts with amused laughter. "When you can make a bubble in Time, it's easier to study," explains Fox, swapping lazily over to Mandarin, her eyes glittering as she Shows The Fuck Off. Oh, Fox. Chin in her hands, she watches Mei with a delighted expression. Fox loves watching people enjoy things, really. People having Experiences are interesting to her.
"I will," Fox says, shifting uncomfortably. "At... some point. It's... " She waves one of her hands in the air, then tucks it back under her chin. "In the past, like, week, it's been 'oh I think I'm going to become an Archmaster' and 'oh, by the way, I'm seeing things that aren't there' and it's just been like -- a lot."
"Yeah. Fair. Fair." Mei says between forks full of her food. She doesn't take long to finish things off and push her plate away a couple of inches. For a couple of seconds she just leans back, slouching a bit, legs comfortably splayed a bit, being content in her own skin and smiling at Fox, enjoying her enjoying Mei. Then she pushes the chair back a little further, sits forward, and then stands up.
"Come on," she says, holding out one arm to invite Fox closer while beckoning with one hand. "I had something I wanted to talk about with you tonight, and I'm pretty sure it's not going to be anything uncomfortable for you, but you also seem like you could use a hug. Or just being held, for a few minutes."
She just ... watches Mei. From someone else, that might be kind of creepy, but Fox has sort of perfected Wholesome Staring. She kicks her bare feet under the chair, the soles of same papping softly against the chair's rungs. It's easier to deflect one's feelings when you have a cute girl to watch. A happy little sigh.
When the invitation is given, Fox slips out from her chair, glancing aside at Proper Ratthew, who is very happy to eat his food and is pointedly ignoring the two humans being cute at each other. "I could pretty much always use that, unless I want to run around in circles, which I don't." The extended arm soon has a Fox in it, as is only right and proper. "What do you want to talk about?"
Oops! Mei Lifes herself a little stronger as she pulls Fox in close to her, and then she just sweeps Fox right off her feet and into a bridal carry. She pauses there long enough to kiss Fox, briefly but affectionately. "I'll get to that in a second," she says, carrying Fox over to the couch, where she sits down with Fox on her lap, holding the Thyrsus against her.
This is the kind of thing that some people might approach more hesitantly, but apparently Mei made up her mind, and once she did, she's not shy about it. "I've realized I do actually want to try having sex as who I am now," she says, smiling a little impishly considering how she expects Fox to react. "And there's only one person who I'm both interested in enough to consider it with, and who I trust to understand why it's even a question, and know how the universe's gaslighting might have left me unsure about whether I considered myself ace because of dysphoria, or if I really am. That person is, of course, you."
If one watches closely, one can see the moment where multiple important parts of Fox's brain simply ... fuse together. First, she's literally swept off of her feet, and she slings her arms around Mei's neck, giggling and burying her face into the side of the Obrimos' neck, rather shy and blushing up to her ears again. That bright laughter of hers curls down into quiet as she kicks her feet delightedly. "Okay," she agrees, and Proper Ratthew mutters to himself, finishing up his waffle and scampering off to the edge of the table before discorporating. Look, he's bound to Fox and can see through her eyes if he wants to, that doesn't mean that he needs to hang out in the room while the humans are being schmoopy.
Second, Mei settles the Thyrsus in her lap, and says that. And Fox just... TILT. Total bluescreen. She picks up her head from Mei's shoulder, still blushing brilliantly, and her mouth forms into a perfect o. She blinks a few times and "... okay." It is the tiniest little sound. "Thank you."
"Um."
Mei seems quite amused by the bluescreen reaction that her words get from Fox, and it only makes her grin more widely. "Not necessarily right now, or tonight, and of course it should go without saying but needs to be said anyway that it's entirely up to you whether that's something you're actually interested in," she goes on to say. "But if that does interest you, and you would like to be a part of my experimenting there to see what does and does not interest me... you're the person I would most want to undertake that journey of discovery with." At which point she leans in for a short kiss. "You're welcome."
"Well, if tonight, then I really need a shower, because I was flying around and I'm all sweaty and stinky." And she is sweaty and stinky, so that, at least, is true. Mei will just have to deal with it. She peppers Mei's face with kisses, and laughs. "Yes, I am interested in it. Of course. How could I not be?" More giggling, more blushing. "I mean, I appreciate you saying so, but I was literally just suggesting 'smooches without pants.'" She sticks out her tongue. "But I think we should, like. Talk. Quite a bit first."
The words 'journey of discovery' make her gold eyes glitter. "Oh, you know how to turn a girl's engine over," Fox teases.
"I don't want to assume or take anything for granted!" Mei protests with a laugh. "I'm also very happy to talk about things first, that's fine. And expected. But it's also entirely possible that you could have been interested in smooches without pants, but not interested in actually fucking, right? I mean... smooches without pants has always sounded pretty nice to me, it's just the more than smooching thing that i'm less certain about."
With another laugh she adds, "I mean, at least a girl is definitely someone that trick is going to work on. I don't know about others, but they're not here, and a girl is."
She bumps her nose against Mei's, arms happily looped around her neck, and steals a kiss in between sentences. "I'm glad that you don't take anything for granted. Sometimes people do take me for granted, I think. I don't like that, but I don't always know how to tell them to not to." A vague little shrug, and Fox just moves right on from that, as if it doesn't matter. "Mmm, that's true," she agrees. "I thought it was implied, but you are right. That's me taking things for granted."
Fox clears her throat, makes her face solemn and still, and says, "A girl is interested in a journey of sexual discovery," in the same sort of monotone seriousness used by Jaquen Hagar.
"There is something to be said for the idea of having a relationship so familiar that you can take certain things for granted," Mei admits with a crooked smile. "But the actually taking things for granted? I dunno. I try not to do that. I'm sure it will happen at some point. If you feel like it is, just tell me, okay? I'd rather know if you're feeling that way, and I don't want to cause it, so I'd actually appreciate if you just said it outright."
She leans in for a smooch. "But should we talk about quite a bit, as you put it? Or do you want to shower first?"
"Well, yes. There is. I do like that kind of a relationship, where some things are just understood. But you have to get there, and also like... " Fox's voice trails off and she looks up at the ceiling for a minute. "Yeah, there's a difference between that and feeling taken for granted." She leans in and nips at Mei's jawline playfully. "I wlll tell you," she agrees, with that very solemn tone that Fox gets sometimes when she is saying something almost like a promise. Fate Adepts are careful about what they say, and how they say it.
She screws her mouth to the side thoughtfully. "I am stinky. I should be less stinky."
"Yes," Mei agrees while tilting her head a bit for nipping. "There is a difference. And I would want to know if I crossed that line." She pats Fox's hip with one hand and urges, "go take a shower, then. I'll clean up from dinner. When we're both done, we can to lay down and talk about things, and see what we can figure out will work for us both, alright?"
|