Work Text:
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Nights are not hers.
Typically, Amelia gets off work early enough to catch dinner. It’d be a shame to miss it. She’s also a tiny bit jealous of missing out on any time with her girls. It doesn’t help when they send cute pictures of themselves at a candlelit table making kissy faces at the camera. Luckily, it’s rare when she has to stay late. If she’s being stingy about it, all she has to do is set her watch back a tick and she’s home with no one the wiser.
Tonight is going to be a long night.
There’s a fan in her office that she wasted time attaching little strips of paper to. It crinkles loudly, the only noise aside from her pencil scratching away at the report in front of her. The only light is from her desk lamp. It’s making her eyes heavy and her drive to finish this blasted thing nonexistent. Kisses, she thinks forlornly, all those kisses.
Right now, it was out of spite. Her recent case involved a stupid degree of corporation bullshit. Illegal stock and trading, the usual. They had no idea she was investigating them the whole time. The number of speeches they gave her about service and happiness had given her a headache. She’d been cackling like a maniac when she’d started out this report. Now, hours later, she’s trying to keep her head from dropping onto her desk.
Kisses are waiting at home, a traitorous thought reminds her.
She rubs her eyes sleepily, “Alright. Revenge tomorrow.”
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It’s cold.
Amelia bundles her coat tighter around her as she walks. Her breath mists in front of her. Wearing a skirt felt like a good idea earlier when the sun was out and the day was warm. Her legs are freezing by the time their apartment comes into view.
When Amelia gets home, all the lights are off.
Any thoughts of kisses fizzle up and die. She exhales quietly, taking off her shoes and hanging up her coat with less energy than before. Her girlfriends were asleep. Disappointing, but her watch tells her it's just a smidge past midnight. She glowers at it. A childish part of her wants to reset time a bit, but if her girls didn’t stay up for her that meant they were tired.
Time to sleep with the fishes, Amelia snorts.
The apartment is a furnace. It’s nice, at first, but Amelia hates the idea of sweating in her sleep. She finds the thermometer and turns it down. She wonders who was messing with it. Probably Gura.
She grabs a quick snack from the kitchen before prowling her way to their bedroom. She quietly cracks open the door. The lights are off inside which makes her hesitant to even go and join them. She can see the vague shape of their bed in the dark. Ina’s hair is an inky smudge across their pillows. She can barely make out Gura’s snowy hair wrapped in her arms. Amelia smiles and gently closes the door.
I won’t wake them up, she stretches. She has to wonder how tired her girls were to head to bed this early. Well, early. Without fail, her girls will wait for her. Whether it's Ina or Gura or the both of them, they like to greet her when she gets home. Amelia pouts as she digs around in the closet for a spare blanket. She’s not upset about this. There’s no way she’s upset about not getting welcome home kisses and not spending her night cuddling with her girls.
Maybe a little upset.
“I’m a saint,” Amelia whispers to herself as she snatches a pillow from the armchair. The living room feels empty with only her there to occupy it. “It is not the end of the world to sleep alone. On the couch. Without kisses.” She pauses. The silence feels like it’s judging her. She adds on forcefully. “It’s not.”
She’s still pouting even when she crawls under the covers. The couch is cold. She huffs, turning on her side and burying her face into her pillow. She wants to groan about her problems and kick her feet. A long day at work has her sinking bonelessly onto the couch. She doesn’t have the energy to be petulant about her situation.
Whatever, she sighs, I’ll just one up them both and make breakfast for them before they get up. Beat that.
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Something cold is touching her cheek.
Amelia’s first thought is of a bug with forty wings and a stinger the size of Gura’s trident. She does what any reasonable person would do when confronted with a sleep-deprived hallucination and tries to punch it.
Gura hisses in her ear, “Ame!”
Amelia falters. She rubs her eyes and turns her head to squint into the dark. She can make out the vague shape of her girlfriend crouched low to the couch. It was Gura’s hand that was prodding her. Her icy cold still-touching-her-cheek hand.
“Get off,” Amelia grumbles, swatting her away. “What is it?”
Gura leans closer and slides her hand up Amelia’s shirt. Amelia bristles like a cat. Gura’s skin feels like she’s touching cold metal. She squirms and tries to push her away.
“Gura!” She hisses, mindful of how late it is. “Paws off, the hell are you doin-”
“I’m freezing!” Gura hisses back. She’s shakily crawling onto the couch after Amelia, snuggling as close as possible. Amelia winces at the icebox now pressed against her. She can feel Gura’s arms trembling. There’s a stutter in her voice when she says, “You’re warm, let me have some.”
Amelia mumbles, “It’s not even that cold. Don’t you have Ina?”
“She’s freezing too.” Gura buries her head into her shirt. She makes an unhappy noise, “Come to bed, please.”
“Is Ina awake?”
“Yeah.”
Amelia sighs. Gura whines and leans closer to her, trying to steal as much body heat as possible. Amelia noses the top of her head.
“You’re gonna need to let me go for me to go to bed.”
Gura says with chattering teeth, “Give me a sec.”
Amelia huffs in amusement, “I have a better idea.”
It’s difficult. Gura is clinging to her like a koala. Even her trail is trying to tangle with her legs. Amelia tries to push away her hands to get her into a bridal carry but gives up on the idea when Gura sticks back to her like glue. Time to embarrass you then, Amelia smiles. She’s wrapped her arms around Gura’s waist.
“Better hold on tight.” She whispers.
Gura makes an inquisitive noise. Amelia pushes them both off the couch, using her arms hooked around Gura to lift her up. Gura is instinctively wrapping her legs around Amelia’s hips. Amelia wobbles for a moment when she stands. Gura has buried her face into her collar.
“This works.” Her shark grumbles.
Amelia breathes a laugh, “You had it coming.”
“Watson, it’s cold.” Gura’s arms are wrapping around her tighter. “Start walking or I’m taking us back down to the couch.”
“Yes ma’am.”
The bedroom door is cracked ajar. She uses Gura’s tail like a battering ram, not bothering to be quiet at all as the door thumps against the wall. She almost hits the doorframe. It was hard to balance Gura and walk in the dark at the same time. She could make out a pitiful lump curled up on their bed. The fact Ina wasn’t popping her head up to glower at them for the racket was telling of something. Amelia hesitated. She’d assumed...well, she just thought Gura was being dramatic. She’s a lot quieter as she approaches the bed.
“Ina?”
A mournful noise from under the blankets. Gura mumbles into her shirt, “I brought you a present.”
“Oh, is that what I am?” Amelia snorts. She loosens her hold on Gura threateningly. Her shark is gripping her tight enough she can feel it bruising. “C’mon. Into bed you rascal.”
Reluctantly, Gura is unsticking herself from the detective. She sinks onto the bed with a defeated sigh. The dejection in the sound alone was pulling at Amelia’s heartstrings. Amelia smiles, crawling after her. She’s quick to crawl over her shark before she can be superglued again. She has just enough time to wedge herself between Gura’s greedy hands and Ina’s cocoon.
“Okay, what’s up with you two?” Amelia opens her arms and accepts Gura trying to jump into her skin. Her shark's hands snake up under her shirt. Amelia fights down the yelp in her throat. “Gura, slower! You’re gonna make me cold too!”
Gura snorts, “Make you cold? You think you’re cold? I hate the surface.”
Amelia laughs. She knows that’s not true. “What the heck are you on right now.”
“It’s cold.” Ina’s voice is a soft rasp underneath her fort of blankets. “Sorry. It’s… a different cold.”
Amelia can feel the lightbulb popping up over her head, “Oh. I don’t think I get it one hundred percent, but I get the picture, yeah.”
“Body heat.” Gura is practically whining. Amelia digs around until she can unshackle Gura’s hands from her skin. She takes them into her own hands and rubs them soothingly. Gura is curling closer to her, a breathy sigh in her ear, “Oh yeah, that’s the stuff.”
“Hold on.” Amelia chuckles, “Let me revive Ina too.”
“C’mon, Ina.” Gura’s reaching over Amelia’s shoulder to poke at the bundle of blankets. “Come get warm.”
“No such thing.” Ina whispers. Amelia tilts her head to look at the Ina cocoon. She can see the top of her head through her blankets. She’s feeling mischievous as she reaches up and tweaks one of her ear flaps. There’s a squeak and a hand is reaching up to snatch Amelia’s wrist. “Ame! Don’t touch...th…”
Amelia smiles helplessly as her hand is eaten by the cocoon. She can feel Ina curling around her new prize, “Yeah? No touching? I should take my hand back then.”
“Tax.” Ina mumbles.
“Girlfriend tax.” Gura is laughing. She’s much more lively now that she’s bundled up with as much of Amelia as she can get. “There’s more out here, Ina. Bring your nest too, we’ll have a party.”
Ina makes a mmm noise. It sounds exhausted to Amelia’s ears. She takes pity on her girl and gently pulls her arm. As expected, Ina doesn’t let go. Her cocoon is comically pulled towards Amelia and Gura. Amelia doesn’t stop until the cocoon is almost on top of her. She works to unwrap some of the blankets until a bleary-eyed and grumpy Ina is squinting at her.
“Hello.” Amelia chirps. The way Ina is cradling her wrist like it’s a treasure is making her heart dance. “You have something that belongs to me.”
“Not anymore.” Ina moves closer. She hasn’t entirely given up on her fort. A tentacle is bringing the blankets around them. Gura is purring as the extra layers are added. When Ina crawls for her, Amelia opens her arm and drags her in until she’s being swallowed by girlfriends on both sides.
Not so bad. Amelia muses, feeling a smug satisfaction at having Gura’s nose pressed to her neck and Ina’s breath ghosting on her ear. The priestess’s arms were draped over her waist and hooked onto Gura’s, drawing the three of them closer. Amelia can’t tell where her legs end and their legs begin. It’s a nice feeling, being surrounded like this. Don’t feel so bad about missing out on kisses now.
“You didn’t wake us up,” Ina mutters. Amelia startles, having no idea what she’s talking about for a moment. She’d been too focused on the way Gura’s hands were journeying around her stomach.
“Uh.” Amelia exhales. “Didn’t want to wake you two up. You looked pretty wiped out.”
“Got cold and went to bed,” Gura says. “Sorry, we didn’t wait up.”
“It’s okay. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have turned down the thermometer.”
As one, her girlfriends groan. Amelia laughs, “Jeez, okay, sorry. I won’t touch it next time.”
“Maybe you should-” Ina starts mumbling, but a shiver racks her body and she’s curling close to Amelia. There’s a whine in her voice when she says, “Warm.”
Amelia melts, “C’mere you big baby.”
She’s got one arm curled around Gura and the other around Ina. The shivering bites at her anxiety. It does seem to be going away with every moment they spend nestled against her. Gura is being extra greedy and is trying to find her way into Ina’s arms too.
“I’m gonna be crushed,” Amelia complains half-heartedly. It’s never a bad day to be pinned to the bed by her girlfriends.
Gura knows this and ignores her entirely as the shark uses her as a bed and tries to worm her way into an Ina shaped hug. The priestess laughs breathlessly. She’s as weak to shark cuddles as Amelia is. She opens her arms and Gura whispers score as she dives right in.
“Can’t believe you left Ina by herself.” Amelia tsks , hoping to get a jab in. “You abandoned her and everything.”
“Shut up, stupid.” Gura mumbles. Her tail is slapping Amelia’s leg. “I brought her you.”
“My hero,” Ina whispers, pressing a kiss to Gura’s nose. Gura preens, tilting her head up and hunting for more. Amelia’s earlier no-kisses deprivation is roaring back. She snags Gura by the back of her shirt and drags her away from a giggling Ina. Gura is yowling like a cat being thrown into a bathtub.
“If anyone is getting kissed, it’s me.” Amelia declares. “I’m low on kiss energy, you get me?”
“I’m going to get you alright.” Gura snarls. The shark turns on her, her hands pinning Amelia’s shoulders to the bed. Amelia has only a second to wiggle her eyebrows slyly before Gura is descending on her. It’s not the best kiss. Gura’s lips are shaky and her jaw jumps awkwardly. She’s too tense. Amelia runs her hands up Gura’s arms, soothing away the goosebumps there.
“Too cold.” Gura whispers, “Sorry, Ame.”
“Shh.” Amelia ropes her in, dragging her down until her head is in the crook of her neck. “I’m tired, you’re tired. Let’s get some sleep. I can get kisses in the morning. Ina is already out.”
“I’m here.” Ina mumbles. Her chin was on Amelia’s shoulder, her expression relaxed. Their pocket underneath the blankets was getting warmer. She can see the tension falling from the priestess minute by minute. “Mh...awake…”
“Yeah?” Amelia smirks in amusement, “Is that right?”
Ina peeks one eye open to look at her pointedly, “Comfy.”
“Why thank you.”
“Oh shut up.” Gura sounds just as gone as Ina. She’s laying bonelessly on top of Amelia, her voice a sleepy murmur, “Your big head…is loud…”
“Alright.” Amelia kisses the top of her head, “I’ll shut up. Get some sleep.”
“You too. Yeah.” Gura mumbles a few indistinct things before managing to say, “I love you.”
Amelia laughs noiselessly, “I love you too, dummy.”
She waits until she can feel Gura’s breathes even out. Ina isn’t asleep just yet. She can see her girlfriend clinging to consciousness, her fingers brushing Gura’s bangs delicately.
“You’ll wake her up,” Amelia whispers. She can't take her eyes off the tender way Ina touches along Gura's hair. She wants to watch it all night, but Ina's hand is falling back to curl around Amelia's shoulders.
“Mmh.” Ina closes her eyes, “I like her sleeping face.”
Amelia softens at that. She tilts her head as far as she can without disturbing her shark. She gets to kiss her priestess on the forehead. The content sigh from her swims in Amelia’s head. It’s a wonderful sound.
“Goodnight, Ina.” Amelia whispers. She doesn’t get a goodnight in return, but the way Ina unconsciously nuzzles closer to her in her sleep has her grinning like a giddy fool. It’s hard to fall asleep with Gura’s weight and Ina’s breath on her ear, but she can’t complain. She draws them closer and exhales happiness.
Better than kisses, she decides, way better.
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END