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Laura thought that Zenith looked rather pathetic, standing in the rain like she was. Her helmet was nowhere to be seen and her mask was retracted, allowing Laura to see that the gundam woman was biting her lip anxiously. Her black hair had come undone from its bun, and her piercing yellow eyes looked at Laura with all the sadness of a kicked puppy.
She sighed shakily, and pushed down what remained of her ugly feelings. "Come in. you'll be lucky if you don't catch a cold after being out in this rain." The blonde left the front room, hearing Zenith step inside and close the door behind her, cutting off most of the rainstorm's noise.
Was she still upset? A little, but mostly at herself. It hadn't been a big problem at all, but she had been getting tired of her lover dodging questions about her family. Laura only knew the basics - what Zenith had told her when they were both only strangers to each other - and as their relationship continued to deepen, she felt like she deserved to know more.
So Laura had asked, then pushed, and this time she had pushed too far and Zenith had fled outside on the verge of tears. When Laura followed after her, Zenith had pleaded for her to give her some space.
Laura had never seen the gundam so upset before, and retreated to the house, stewing in her shame as her partner stayed outside for several hours, even after the rain started.
When Laura returned to the front room with a couple of towels, she found Zenith standing there awkwardly, water dripping from her hair and cape as she shivered.
"Take your armour off," Laura told her, "and let's get you dry."
Zenith began to pull at her pauldrons, setting them down on the floor. When she lets her chestplate go, Laura loops one towel over her shoulders, a finger brushing across Zenith's soulstone. The gundam shivered as it did so.
Off went Zenith's waist and leg armour, her shivering increasing as she did. She pulled the towel closer around her shoulders, as Laura moved behind her to dry her hair.
The gundam quietly slipped off her boots, leaving her barefoot on the wood floor. Now fully naked, she began to rub herself dry, which helped her feel only a little bit warmer.
Laura had gotten Zenith's hair mostly dry, at the cost of the towel becoming too wet to use, so she hung it up by the fire and retrieved one of her nightgowns for Zenith, who exchanged it for her own towel.
Zenith slipped on the nightgown, watching Laura adjust the towels on their hangers. The gundam almost looked like any human woman while wearing it.
Laura moved, and Zenith blinked herself awake, feeling soothed to sleepiness between the rain and crackling of the fire, despite the fact she'd been feeling cold since the rain had started with her outside.
Laura stepped up close to Zenith, so close their noses almost touched, and put her hands on either side of her lover's face. "I'm sorry I pushed about your family," she said. "I should have been happy to wait for you to tell me on your own."
Zenith dropped eye contact with her for a moment, turning her face away from Laura's. ". . . I'm sorry as well, for not being willing to tell you just yet," she replied, voice thick with emotion.
The two women stared at each other for a moment more, but when Zenith tried to pull away Laura stopped her, and suddenly pulled her into a kiss. Zenith let out a muffled noise of surprise before returning it, looping her arms loosely around Laura.
The first time Laura had touched the flexible metal that made up Zenith's face and the other exposed parts of her body, she'd been surprised by just how much it acted like human skin, equal parts intrigued and unnerved. It could be poked, pulled, and pinched in the same way as a human's. By now she'd long gotten used to it, though, and the feel of Zenith's lips on her own was. . . hard to describe. Soothing? Electrifying? Both?
They broke the kiss, coming up for air, and Zenith's arms tightened around her. Laura rested her head on Zenith's shoulder, Zenith letting her own head rest on top.
"I love you, Zeni," Laura whispered.
Zenith started to purr, a soft vibrating rumble, as her thumb stroked Laura's back. "I love you too, doll."