This was Eleanor's second Pride parade in Vallo, but the first she'd been able to go with Marina as her girlfriend. She'd not said anything to the other woman, but it didn't escape her that a year prior the only thing that would have made Pride better had now happened.
Marina was fucking hot, as always, and Eleanor couldn't help but smile every time she looked at her girlfriend. Forgotten, at least for the day, was any idea that they could disappear at any point. No, she was feeling carefree and happy, waving her mini pride and bi-pride flags in one hand as they ventured around, the other hand holding Marina's.
"So how many of your rules am I allowed to break today?" Eleanor asked, ready to kiss Marina if given permission. She thought that the other woman at least seemed more relaxed than usual. And she hoped that she was right about that.
Marina hadn’t actually done Pride with a significant other before. She’d been around for Pride and part of it on occasion back home, but she had a tendency to try to be single around that time. Better to find someone to at least make out with. So this was new for her.
Despite the Pride of it all, Marina was still in her classic black. But today was not the worst day. She started out a little weird about the hand holding, but she had talked herself down from the general discomfort with other people seeing a softer side of her. She liked people to know she can and will stab them. “Hmmm.” She affected a thoughtful expression and tapped her finger against her lip at Eleanor’s question.
“Mmmmmm…Do I get to punch anyone that makes it weird? Threaten to stab them?” She didn’t exactly have a knife, but she was sure she could find one.
"Obviously," Eleanor answered with a smirk. "I mean, the only people who might find it weird would be people we know, and they should know better by now than to make things weird so…" She let the sentence trail off with a shrug, not looking around but knowing that any sort of affection shown between the two of them would fit right in.
She didn't hesitate any longer, placing a teasingly soft kiss where Marina's finger had just been, both wanting to avoid pushing her luck while not passing the opportunity to toy with her girlfriend at the same time.
That was probably true, but she also didn’t trust anyone from here that she didn’t know that well to make a deal out of it. She just didn’t trust people to not be weird in general. But that was…a her thing, really. She knew that at least. “Sure, but you can never be sure. Have you met Laurence?”
PDA was definitely one of those things she had a feeling she’d eventually need to get more used to. At least on special occasions where Eleanor was feeling it. She rolled her eyes after the kiss, lightly pushing her girlfriend. “You’re stupid.”
"How is wanting to kiss my smokin' hot girlfriend stupid?" Eleanor asked, grinning ear to ear and probably looking stupid but she really didn't care. "Trust me, hot stuff, if you were here with yourself, you'd want everyone else to know too."
The comment about Laurence left her thinking. "Pride is different here. Vallo celebrates it and I have no idea what their history is like, but all those people from different points in time? That makes it even better." She hoped Laurence enjoyed it.
"Anyway, let's go get more drinks."
Marina very nearly stuck her tongue out in response, but she resisted. “Cause you’re stupid.” It was just Marina’s way of expressing affection, though. She didn’t really think that Eleanor was stupid. Even if she said it more than she needed to probably. She was reasonably sure she could make a case for being mistaken for a pod person if she didn’t ever say it, though. “If I was here with myself, that would be something. Wonder what timeline she’d be.” Cause being here with herself was actually possible. With the right timeline or even her own but without the memories of fucking Texas. Things would probably get messy for other people, though.
She shook her head. “No. He’d make dumb comments. He already did.” But she probably imagined that he would enjoy Pride. Maybe. If not also being awkward about some of it. She wondered if the dragon would come or not.
“Oh, good. I was hoping we’d be getting to that part.” She’d seen some rainbow colored drinks, which was probably as much rainbow as she’d be allowing on her own person. She made sure she had a good hold on Eleanor’s hand before dragging her over to one of the drink vendors. She ordered her drink and one for Eleanor before handing it over. “Do you want to check out anything in particular or are we just wandering around?”
"I love you too," Eleanor said, not at all upset that Marina was repeating the supposed insult. She let herself be dragged along and then happily took the drink that was handed to her. "Wandering around seeing what's here and who we know. At least until it's time to dance."
Marina made a face, but she didn’t argue about the words. She’d already said the actual words once because she’d wanted to. But she was still getting used to it. She made an even worse face before sighing at the mention of dancing. This was in retaliation for all that dance avoidance. But she was going to do her best to be relaxed about things for today. Even if dancing was just…like finding herself in a bad teen movie. Gods, she hopes she never finds herself in a bad teen movie because of that thought.
“Dancing, huh?”
"I mean, you don't have to dance with me if you don't want to," Eleanor said. "But I am going to dance tonight." She stole a quick kiss and then pulled Marina along toward some of the booths, drink in hand. "But I also think you have it in you, hot stuff, and you would probably end up enjoying yourself."
She gave her girlfriend an easy shrug before a booth caught her eye. "Hey do you want rainbow facepaint?"
Marina wasn’t necessarily the most jealous of people. She was more than aware that Eleanor wouldn’t necessarily dance with someone and then leave her. So she might just let her dance off, but she sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine. I guess I can dance with you.” She’s not so sure that she’d enjoy herself. She’s still allowed to stab someone if they say anything stupid, right?
She looked around for a moment, spotting the booth in question. She opened her mouth to argue, but let it close again before, “I guess a small one won’t kill me.”
"Unless the glitter paint is poisonous," Eleanor teased, leading Marina to the booth. Really, her girlfriend had surprised her. And Eleanor had the sneaking suspicion that if Marina wasn't careful, she'd find herself relaxing and really enjoying herself.
That was the hope, anyway. Which was looking more possible now that Marina was gonna get a rainbow on her face.