You learned the language fast
Who: Harley and Helena What: Honeymooning Where: Tokyo, Japan When: 1/23 Status: complete Rating: PG-13
Harley was walking a little stiffly, and yawning, but she was more than eager to keep up with Helena as they continued their honeymoon. And the stiffness was worth it, even if she thought she might have pulled a muscle in her legs from their activities that morning. Enthusiastic, much?
But she squeezed her wife’s hand as they walked up the temple steps.
Harley wasn’t the only one who was stiff, but Helena definitely wasn’t going to complain. It was all in the name of pleasure and happiness. And, well, Helena was quite enthusiastic when it came to bedroom activities, but she did enjoy the experimentation that Harley was open to. One of these days they’d get a decent amount of sleep. But that wasn’t going to be at this precise moment.
Smiling warmly, Helena squeezed Harley’s hand back, walking up the steps. It was quite the view, and despite her being a forensic archaeologist, she had gotten a bachelor’s degree Archaeology, so of course she was already on geek alert. And she had one of those grins on her face that was child-like that people tended to get when they were on the verge of geeking out.
“This place is beautiful. Extremely tiring to walk up, but it never ceases to amaze me what people left behind.”
She shifted closer to Helena, squeezing her arm around her briefly before putting some respectable space between them again. The temple was gorgeous, and Harley had a wide-eyed, childlike wonder at it. “It’s like people leave something to tell us now what it was like then. And then you gots people that explain to us so we understand.”
Helena smiled and leaned into her wife when she shifted closer. She gazed at her, taking in the look on her face and loving it. She then looked back towards the temple and the statues situated along the perimeter. “It is, they’re all pieces of a puzzle. Each remnant is one piece of a puzzle of a civilization. Put them all together and it paints a picture of how they lived.”
She paused, taking in the atmosphere. “I’m an atheist, but even I must admit there is a tranquility here that almost makes me want to pray.” It was peaceful despite being in a bustling Japanese city. It was strange how the cars and people didn’t seem to touch this temple.
“Tell me about it,” Harley asked. She hugged Helena’s arm and pointed at something. “What’s that for? And that? And I think I saw that in an anime.”
Looking at what Harley pointed out, she smiled. “Admittedly, Japanese temples are not my strongest subject so some of my details may be inaccurate. Nevertheless, while this temple is actually a Buddhist temple, that, “ she gestured with her free hand towards a smaller shrine Harley had pointed at, “is a Shinto shrine. I do not remember what it is called, but it is typically dedicated to the tutelary deity of this area. Shinto tends to be a very encompassing religion, and they sometimes blended shinto and Buddhism together in such ways. That,” she indicated the second thing Harley asked about, “is a rock garden. Most people refer to it as a zen garden. And that is a sanmon, if I recall correctly. It is a gate of a sort and stands between the outer gate of the temple, and the main hall.”
“This is so awesome!” Harley bounced in place, then let go to dance over towards the shrine to get a better look. “You’re so smart, H. I knew I married ya for a good reason. I wonder if I’d make a good buddhist, what do you think?”
She hesitated, then wriggled her fingers. “Is there something I should do?”
Helena smiled warmly and followed after Harley. She did like her wife’s enthusiasm and energy. “It is hard to say, though I think you may be a little too energetic at times to meditate for long periods of time.” It was a light tease, and she nudged her shoulder against Harley’s. “But I know you can do whatever you set your mind to, love. You’re smart too, you know.”
Looking at the shrine, Helena tried to remember the proper etiquette, but the details were a bit hazy. That’s when she spotted a couple others slip coins into a box and doing what she ascertained to be saying a prayer. “Ah, yes. Follow what they do,” she said indicating the people she saw. She pulled out a coin and put it in the box, taking a moment reflect and then she took Harley’s hand and stepped aside so others could do the same. “We may also light some incense after purchasing some. Would you like to do that?” She indicated a group of people by a large incense burner as they were performing the ritual.
“Hey, I can meditate. I learned how to so I could talk to people about that kinda thing.” She could even shut her mind up. Though that had been before the dreams and before she’d lost her marbles. She wondered if she’d ever find her marbles again.
Harley put the coin in the box, and followed Helena’s lead. She nodded. “Yeah, lets do that. It seems like the right thing to do.”
“You could probably do better at meditation than I could. My mind is far too active to slow down enough to meditate.” While that had always been the case, her genius level intellect having always craved challenges, it had been compounded by her dreams. There was also the fact Helena had inherited the lovely sleep-wake pattern problems. It wasn’t quite insomnia, but it wasn’t quite a circadian rhythm disorder either. It was somewhere in between, though it probably presented as more like insomnia.
That was all due to the whole being a conscious statue for a century. Obviously there’d be lingering problems from that. And of course the plane trip to Tokyo had done little to help her issues. Anatoly was actually probably about to prescribe her medication for it, but Helena really didn’t want to be medicated for any reason no matter what, so that was an on-going battle. She’d mentioned it to Harley, the sleep problems, though her wife had undoubtedly noticed them before she’d finally put them into words. Of course, one sure fire way to make Helena sleep was vigorous sex to tire her out enough that she could get some decent amount of sleep.
Nodding, Helena took Harley’s hand and went and bought some incense for them both. After watching someone do the ritual at the incense burner, Helena did the same, lighting the incense and fanning the smoke towards her as one was supposed to do. Once that was complete, she looked at Harley with a smile.
“How about we snap a photo of ourselves out here before going inside?” Helena was probably going heavy on the picture taking, but she wanted to ensure they had proper documentation of their honeymoon, and plenty of pictures to share with Christina and their friends upon their return.
Helena was taking like a thousand pictures and Harley was ten thousand percentage points on board with that idea. She snuck a kiss, then pulled out her phone. “Selfie first then we can have someone snap a real photo.” There was something spontaneous about selfies that Harley really liked. It wasn’t just capturing the scenery but capturing a moment with a person.
She returned the kiss, then she posed with Harley for the selfie. For the amount of pictures she was taking, it was a good thing that Helena was sickeningly photogenic. And so was Harley for that matter. Once the selfie was taken, Helena saw a couple teenagers nearby. She approached and asked them, in Japanese, if they would be willing to take a picture of her and Harley. Some of those sleepless hours of late had been spent to learning some Japanese, enough to ask things like that, anyway.
Harley knew that Helena didn’t sleep well, or often. She had a plan on how to deal with that, mostly by exhausting Helena with sex, and if that didn’t fail she was fully prepared to sedate her if she went more than 72 hours without sleep.
“You learned the language fast!”
“I have my talents,” Helena responded with a playful smirk. She slid her arms around Harley and posed for the picture, then she thanked the teenagers with a smile and a little bow. There was a lot of bowing in Asian cultures sometimes. She then turned back to Harley. “And now we have a couple more photos to add to the plethora we’ve already taken,” she said with a chuckle.
“I know you’re good with your tongue.” Harley smiled innocently, then took Helena’s hand. “What do you wanna do now? Go inside? Go somewhere else?”
“I should certainly hope so,” she responded with a smile and a gleam in her eyes. “I would like to see the inside of the temple. What about you?”
Harley jerked her head towards the temple. “Lead on, Macduff.” And she watched Helena’s face, more than the temple, as they stepped inside.
Helena was more than a little awe struck once inside the temple. She looked around, more than fascinated by the architecture. She felt Harley’s gaze on her and she looked at her, a warm smile on her face. “The architecture in here is exquisite.”
She basked in Helena’s awe, finally looking around. “It’s really beautiful, Helena.” Her tone was soft, and she was using Helena’s full name which usually meant she was feeling emotional and mostly lucid. “I’m glad we got to see it, together.”
Helena had caught onto what it meant when Harley used her full name. She looked back at her wife, taking her hand in her own and giving it a squeeze. “I’m glad we got to see it together too, Harleen,” she said softly, making the distinction with her full name as she tended to do in these situations.
She was going to ruin her makeup at this rate. Harley threaded her fingers with Helena’s, leaning against her. She whispered. “I love you. I can’t imagine what it would be like without you in my life. More boring, probably.”
“I love you. I know my life would be intensely more lonely and boring without you in it.” She squeezed Harley’s hand again. “You make me happy, and you make me feel alive again.” She was probably only adding to the emotional aspect of the moment with her words, but Helena did mean it. She was in this for the long haul.
Harley threw her arms around Helena, not really caring where they were (not that she ever did but still). “I’ll make sure your life is never dull, dollface. And I’ll always come back to ya. Always.”
She wrapped her arms around Harley, holding her close. She pretty much forgot where they were. “Then it’s settled that neither of our lives will ever be boring again.” She smiled. “And I will always come back to you.” Regardless of if they added anyone else into their open relationship, Helena would always come back to Harley. She was the one she would sleep next to at night, the one who would have the honor to adopt Christina.
After some moments, she remembered they were in a temple, but she didn’t pull back from Harley yet. “Where would you like to go next, love?” It was Harley’s turn to choose.
“Lets go to Akihabara!” All of that was very important to Harley. Helena was important to Harley. Everything about Helena’s life was important to Harley. Their shared life.
“Akihabara, here we come.” Helena said with a smile, leaning in and stealing a kiss from Harley before taking her hand and heading out of the temple. Once they were outside, she looked at her. “Have you been to Akihabara before?” “Nope, not even once.” She leaned her head on Helena’s shoulder. “I’ve never even been to Japan! This is all kinds of new to me.” She tapped her lip. “Hey can we get one of those creepy anime real dolls…?”
Helena briefly pressed her cheek against Harley’s head as they walked, heading for the subway so they could get to Akihabara. Her eyebrows lifted a bit. While she’d never watched anime, she had a suspicion what was meant by ‘real doll.’ “Do you have ideas, love?” Because clearly she was curious to see if Harley had something on her mind there.
Harley just gave her a playful grin. “Why don’t we see once we get there? Some of them would be great for like halloween and dress up!” An idea occurred to her. “To display my costumes!!”
“You do need to display your costumes, I agree.” Helena smiled. From what she’d seen, Harley certainly had some interesting and cool costumes that should be displayed. Getting to a subway entrance, Helena headed underground with Harley, heading to the platform to catch the subway.
Harley stepped onto the platform, casually adding, “And you know take naughty pictures of you with them.”
“Ahh, well someone should pose with them,” she said with a bit of a smirk as she stepped up next to Harley.
Throwing her head back, Harley laughed. “I knew there was a good reason I married you.” She put her arm around her wife, and leaned against her.