Who: Dani and Shepard What: Snowball fights and not-being-sick happiness When: 12/18 Where: Chateau Shepard Status: complete Rating: PG-13
Dani didn’t believe in miracles, or fairy tales, or destiny, or any of that nonsense. She knew that happy endings were the product of hard work to achieve them, and miracles were things that didn’t happen to her. Ever.
But there’d been a star in the sky the night before, and Dani had wished on the thing as she’d been sitting in the car. Simply because at the time she desperately needed something to believe in. Anything. Even wishing on a star. Maybe the truth was that she actually wanted to believe in all of those things, but felt like even in Orange County, there was a limit to how far childish fantasy could take you.
She was frail and tired and worn down, and this round of chemo had really kicked her ass into humility. Not that it was killing her. She wasn’t dying, she just felt like it. And around this time of year, things were especially hard.
When the morning came, Dani fully expected to face another day where she felt like hell and screwed a smile onto her face, anyway. So it was a little odd to wake up feeling like she had more energy in one leg than she’d had in her entire body.
Then she sat up, and felt hair rolling down her back and falling over her shoulders. Hair. Her own hair. She raised her eyebrows and glanced over at the blonde woman still laying in bed next to her.
Grabbing some hair in one of her hands, she started lightly feathering it across Tyra’s face and shoulders, “Hey, sleeping beauty… wake up, we have an emergency.”
There was no wish or desire in Shepard that was stronger than what Dani had thought about, looking at that shooting star. Not Liara, not Garrus or Joker, but for her girlfriend to be healthy and whole.
The strength of her feelings terrified her, like few things did. Because there was something about cancer that made the light at the end of the tunnel seem distant and dim. You could fight a Reaper, lay waste to fleets and burn yourself to a cinder to save the galaxy but a sickness was something you could only watch and contain deep inside you. It was Dani's fight and Shepard knew it wasn't right to feel pain for herself.
Which was probably the best reason to marry Dani, and she'd been thinking about it more, and more. It had been on her mind as she'd fallen asleep. What was the point of marrying a woman who could be dead in a year if it didn't go into remission? Everything.
She shifted a little as Dani feathered her hair, and then opened one green eye. "....mmmnn?"
"Commander Shepard, I desperately need you." The words practically purred out of Dani's mouth, her tone a mixture of teasing and desire. She continued to feather her soft hair over Tyra's bare skin, paying the most attention to sensitive spots on her neck and ears.
The covers wrapped around Shepard lifted up a bit, and Dani snuggled in closer to her woman, soft bare skin against soft bare skin, but Dani's body against Tyra's was curvier than before. Then there was the hair, which had come back at a length that Dani would normally consider 'impossibly long'. It was almost like a second blanket, but she didn't think Tyra would complain too much.
"Oh..." Tyra started to writhe a little, like a cat having her ears and head scratched. She ran her hands down Dani's body, feeling the curves, feeling the hair and how soft and long it was. It was like a turn on she didn't know existed, how long it was. "Ooh...."
She didn't question it, thinking it was some kind of dream occurrence. She wasn't going to argue with it. Shepard went with the flow, and then she went with the flow.
It was afternoon by the time they'd managed to spend all of their newfound energy, and Dani had practically wrapped herself around Tyra again. Her nose snuggled in against her lover's neck, with a gigantic satisfied smirk on her face. She giggled a bit, "Oh yeah. I don't even care if I get to be like this forever or today but that was so worth it."
“I’m not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth,” Shepard admitted, arching her neck to let Dani nuzzle her more. She had so many plans and ideas for what they could do, and most of them didn’t involve sex.
One of the plans that had clearly formed in Dani's head involved escaping Shepard long enough to do some Christmas shopping. Though she had no idea what to buy the woman, and thought she'd probably have to enlist some help.
One of the things she thought she'd do once she could feel her legs again involved cooking them both a gigantic feast. They were definitely going to need the energy, after all.
She nuzzled Tyra's neck, then nipped a bit at it, "I'm going to cook you so many amazing things tonight."
“You don’t need to do anything you don’t want to,” Shepard drawled, though her stomach rumbled and betrayed her true intentions. Food sounded like the best thing ever. Second best thing. She was reluctant to let Dani go. Especially with how cold it was.
"Oh I want to. We're going to need the energy and frankly it's nice to have enough energy to really cook something fantastic," Dani replied, with a bit of a snort.
It really was unnaturally cold in the house, something that she noticed when she crawled out of the warm bed and put her feet down on the floor in Shepard's bedroom. It was such a shock that she actually let out a surprised gasp at the contact and bounced in place a bit. Goosebumps prickled across her skin, and she looked around for a robe or something that she could wrap around herself.
Her eyes caught a flash of the scene outside through the blinds as she glanced around, and she blinked, "It's snowing outside. No, really."
“Well my stomach isn’t disagreeing with this idea.” She watched Dani get out of bed and admired the way the air chilled the woman’s skin. She looked so healthy. She wasn’t pale, her body wasn’t shaking from anything but the cold. She got out of bed and walked over to the window, opening the blinds all the way. The light shone on skin marked with scars and muscles and a hard life. “Christ.”
She turned towards her girlfriend. “Guess we need to break out the Mako.”
Of course it was time to break out the Mako. They were going to need grocery supplies and it's not like anyone in California knew how to drive in the snow.
Did Shepard even know how to drive in the snow? Dani smirked a bit, biting back a groan at the entire idea, "I'm going to need to borrow some of your clothes. Mine are going to be a little too small. And we're going to want some hot chocolate."
“I like you in skimpy.” She wrapped her arms around Dani and rubbed at her, then pulled away before they didn’t get anywhere at all. “Take whatever you want out of the closet, except the armor.” She winked, and pulled out some jeans and a sweater.
"But the armor's the coolest thing," Dani protested, while retrieving her undergarments from the floor. She made a mental note to head back home and retrieve some clean clothing if they were going to get snowed in like this, then reached over and swiped another pair of jeans out of Shepard's closet.
She pulled out a red tank top and tossed it on without bothering to put a bra on, then winked saucily at Tyra before tossing on her flannel shirt like it was a jacket.
"I'll make us up a couple of thermoses of something hot to drink while you warm up the Mako."
Shepard grinned, watching her dress while pulling her own clothing on. “Sounds good to me, honey.” She laced up her boots then headed to the garage where her SUV and the Mako both awaited. Oh. This was going to be fun.
It would have been nauseating just a day ago. If Dani was honest with herself, it was actually going to be pretty exciting. She was going to revel in every minute of it, even while she was mentally screaming for Shepard to stop trying to climb up the side of a building.
Because undoubtedly, there'd be something like that. Building climbing, or mountain climbing.
She decided to put together a basket of provisions, too, along with thermoses of coffee and hot cocoa. Things were pretty sparse and pickings were slim, but she managed to dig up a box of twinkies and some ding dongs. "Well, it'll have to do."
Maybe a hundred foot snowbank if they were lucky. Shepard looked a little sheepish. “I’ve been partaking in your food so much lately I haven’t been stocking up here. And when i’m home I just get takeout.”
Because it was easier and you didn’t want to trust Shepard with cooking anyway. She was better with cooking than with dancing or driving, but not by much. She kissed Dani against the side of the vehicle, then let her in.
"My cooking is probably safer anyway," Dani replied, when Shepard let her up for air. She nipped Tyra's lower lip a bit and smirked at her before hopping inside the Mako and parking herself in the Mako's passenger seat.
She secured the basket of eats with some straps and rope, then buckled herself down and grinned, "Alright. Let's make people with ordinary cars jealous."
“Shut up,” she replied, then slammed the door with a laugh. She hopped in and started the vehicle. “Hold onto that tight ass of yours.” She tore out of the garage and onto the street, moving through the snow like it was an inch of water.
"Just don't make me spill coffee all over everything. That's too precious a resource to waste," Dani joked. She did brace herself, though, for the start of their journey.
Being a passenger in the Mako was always an experience one needed to steel oneself for. She knew she'd get used to the movement of the thing eventually, but for the first few miutes she sat there, enjoying the view through the slits of windows in the front.
It was only after fifteen minutes that she finally felt brave enough to actually get a thermos out and pour them something to drink, "Doesn't this thing come with heat? Our toes are going to freeze off. Here, have a sip of coffee."
“Right.” Shepard turned the heat on and it blasted almost instantly. She was content to just drive around for a bit with Dani, but supposed they needed to hit a store before they all closed. She pulled into a parking lot, and carefully parked, somehow managing to crush only one cart.
Dani thought it was kind of ironic that she got to enjoy the heat in the Mako for all of five minutes before the thing was parked in front of a grocery store.
The Mako easily took up twelve or so parking spots, but that was alright, since the lot was practically empty. Only a few other cars dotted the lot. Dani thought they must belong to the employees who were stuck working during all of this. She took one last glug of coffee out of the thermos, then stepped out into the snow.
There was that familiar crunch under her boots, and Dani actually let out a bit of a squee in delight. Then she took off, bouncing around in the snow, running, doing a quick somersault even. The last time she'd seen snow had been a very low place in her life, and the idea that she could enjoy this now while being perfectly healthy, with the woman of her dreams by her side...
Well, it made her bend towards the ground and scoop up a bunch of snow to throw at Shepard.
Poor employees. Shepard hopped out of the Mako and watched Dani bounce around like a lunatic. She dodged the snowball and tackled Dani into a snow drift. “Oh you naughty little…” She grabbed some and shoved it down Dani’s shirt, then vaulted away laughing.
"GAH!" The snow was freezing cold, of course, and Dani flailed her arms around, trying to brush it off of her skin and get out of the snow drift at the same time.
She eventually got to her feet, cheeks blazing red, and shoved some snow down the back of Shepard's shirt, "Payback!"
The Commander shrieked like a fifteen year old girl and squirmed around until she got the snow out of her shirt. She nearly fell over from laughing too hard, then tripped over something and landed face first in the snow.
Dani couldn't help but giggle a bit at that, though she squatted down next to Shepard soon after that and offered her a hand up, "They're staring at us like we're insane and my boobs are going to cut glass now, I think we're set to go inside and make fools of ourselves."
“Mm...” Shepard took Dani’s hand and let her help her up, then put her arm around the woman’s shoulders. She liked the contrast of their skin together. Shepard tended to love a woman’s skin. “I don’t mind being a fool in love.”
"Well, let's be sickeningly in love all over each other while we grocery shop. How do you feel about a big prime rib roast?" Dani wrapped an arm around Shepard's waist, and started heading inside, grinning nearly ear-to-ear and still blushing a bit.
Today was seriously the best day.
“Keep in mind I can eat one all by myself. I’m a Marine, remember?” She kissed Dani’s cheek, then whispered something sweet in her ear. Every day felt like the last, and she was going to just treat it like that.