Who: Motoko and Canaan What: Feels and snow Where: a ski resort When: recently Status: complete Rating: PG-13
Motoko lounged in the lodge, her feet up on Canaan’s lap as she sipped at some hot chocolate. It was pretty delicious and something she hadn’t been used to even before her change of bodies. She didn’t holiday very often. Or at all.
And the Major drinking hot chocolate didn’t happen. She eyed Canaan and smiled softly. This had been a good idea. Their relationship had it’s rocky moments and they needed to be away from...everything.
Moments like this, it was hard to think of her cyborg girlfriend as anything but human. Canaan was tapping out some quick messages on her phone, catching up on things 'back home'. But every few seconds she glanced over at Motoko and grinned. There was some color in both of their cheeks, the hot cocoa was delicious, and she felt warmer inside than she'd felt in a while.
She tucked her phone away, looking amused as she reached for her own mug, "Sigrun told me to get off the internet and enjoy my vacation."
“We should actually try that skiiing thing, but it’s cold outside.” Motoko could operate at low temperatures but she could still ‘feel’ cold and kept her sensors active. The better to feel human. At this point the only time she turned off her touch was if she had to deal with a slimy man.
"We should. I think it might be fun, and we definitely have the skill for it. But I've also been told that there are hours of learning to do things to the skis with wax before you get to try anything else." Canaan sounded amused. She'd found a badly drawn comic about it on the internet once while she was searching for something else. It had actually made her laugh, which was rare for her.
“I thought you liked waxing,” Motoko joked and sat up to scoot closer to her girlfriend. “Or we could go to the sauna.”
"I do like waxing," Canaan replied, with a smirk. She leaned against Motoko a bit and took a sip of her cocoa, while contemplating the many things they could get up to during their vacation there. Several trips to the sauna sounded wonderful, "I like the idea of a sauna. Maybe after something a little active outside. Ice skating? It has to be easier than skiing."
“We’ll put everyone to shame with our combined grace.” Motoko laughed, then quickly finished her cocoa, ignoring how hot it was. She just had to wait for Canaan to finish. “We’ll pick up some skates. Ice skating seems like a normal thing.”
Canaan was in no rush to finish her hot cocoa, but she really did want to go do something normal and couples related while they were both in the mood for it and actually talking about it.
And before anything strange happened there to stop them.
So she picked her mug up and grinned, "I'll get this in a to-go cup and ask the woman at the counter where we can rent skates from. I think we'll want already broken in skates, new ones are apparently really stiff."
She'd learned that from a tv show, and while there were parts of it that seemed wildly inaccurate, that part seemed to make sense.
Motoko nodded. She didn’t need to worry about stiffness but she could see where Canaan was coming from. Less stiff meant they could focus more on having fun. Even if this was a kind of ‘fun’ she wasn’t at all used to. Being domestic was the craziest thing. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to it. She was still armed for fuck’s sake.
She wasn't the only one. Canaan was actually still carrying at least one weapon on her person right at that moment; Old habits were very hard to put aside. Mostly she was hoping never to need to use it, but she couldn't help being prepared.
The waitress made her a fresh hot cocoa in a to-go cup, and helpfully pointed in the direction of figure skating and skiing rentals. Canaan was warned not to bring the cocoa directly into the rink before the waitress turned her attention to someone else. The scolding tone the woman used amused Canaan, and she had a bounce in her step and a smirk on her face when she reunited with Motoko, "It's not that far from here, but we must be careful not to spill hot cocoa in the rink. I think the authorities get a lot of that, and I'd hate to be banned from the lodge."
Motoko took Canaan’s hand and threaded their fingers together for the walk to the rink. “That would be terrible considering we’re staying here for several days. And I’d like to break in that bed.” She winked.
"Oh we'll get a chance to break in that bed. Don't you worry about that." Canaan smirked a bit at Motoko. It was the kind of smirk that could have melted away the ice or stopped nearby snow from falling around them. She lowered her voice a bit - though not so low that people nearby couldn't hear her - and added, "We'll have to be careful not to actually break it."
“I can afford it,” Motoko countered, before pushing Canaan against a tree to kiss her. She murmured, low and quiet, because it’d been on her mind for weeks now. “I have something I want to tell you.”
The kiss left Canaan breathless, and her head was spinning slightly as she nodded. Motoko had something to say? Whatever it was couldn't be bad, not after a kiss like that, "Mmm...?"
“I love you.” Motoko’s voice was so faint it sounded like falling snow.
Canaan's pulse spiked a bit, and her eyes blinked. The words were so soft that she almost thought she might have imagined them. Someone else might have made a joke of it - asked her to speak up, teased the gravity of the moment away. But she couldn't.
Hako had repeated those words in a whisper softer than Motoko's, while the man she loved was too dead for them to matter. Canaan still remembered that moment, remembered it with a clarity that she thought was a little impossible given what Hako's voice did to the nervous system. She'd been the only person who could hear it. She would never, ever, forget it.
It had seemed like love was fragile thing, then. Or that it wasn't worth the cost. The words had too much power to ever say lightly, in any case. Especially with people like them.
She took Motoko's hand in hers, and looked her in the eyes. Her tone was serious, even though she was smiling as she replied, "I love you, too."