'If I had a dollar for every time I've heard the word 'side' or one of its various, equally annoying synonyms in the last four years, I swear I could keep Kenzi in booze and shoes for life!' Bo stomps into the clubhouse, ripping the knife-strap from her thigh and hauling it onto the empty sofa along with yet another torn and bloody jacket. 'Not to mention, I would never have to take on another shitty investigating job and therefore get tangled up in Fae – or human for that matter – political bullshit, and once again be prodded and poked and pushed to pick one!'

'Bad day at the office?' Lauren continues to chop tomatoes at the kitchen island but her lopsided grin and twinkling eyes are like a soothing hug and Bo instantly mellows, gravitating towards them for a real one.

'Yeah…but it doesn't matter now because, honey, I'm home.' She wraps her arms around Lauren from behind, nuzzling into her neck until she turns her head to kiss her hello. 'Mmm…smells so good.'

'It's just some marinated chicken to go with the salad.'

'I meant you.'

'Oh.' Lauren smiles, blushing slightly and feeling ridiculous for it. Bo compliments her all the time but she's not sure she'll ever become completely accustomed to it; to how enticing Bo can make her feel. 'Actually, I used your shampoo.'

'Yet another example of my obvious good taste.' Bo moves to the side of her, winking as she reaches across in front to swipe a chunk of tomato and places a quick, playful kiss on Lauren's mouth. 'Do I have time to shower before we eat? I have Griffin gunk on me.'

'You killed a Griffin?' Lauren's voice cracks in horror, her eyes widening as a nonchalant Bo turns and head for the stairs. 'Bo do you have any idea – '

'Of the revered status and symbolism of the Griffin throughout Fae history and their importance to the continuance of blah blah blah – yes, I'm aware. I am uber-aware because I have had the exact same speech from both The Morrigan and The Ash today, who, despite actually wanting the same thing for once, still stubbornly refused to work together to achieve it. Instead, they dragged me in and proceeded with the old Succubus tug-of-war, of which I am so very beyond sick. You'd think Trick would get it but – '

'The Griffin, Bo? Did you...?'

'Knock off one of the few things the Light and Dark both hold dear to teach them a lesson? No. I was tempted though. And the feathered-furry one wasn't exactly a charmer.'

Lauren exhales heavily, releasing the white-knuckle grip she'd had on the countertop. 'So the gunk?'

'Is from saving his flying Lion-Kingness, and thus single-handedly restoring the peace once again.' Bo takes a sardonic bow, twirling her hand through the air with an exaggerated flourish.

'You are a superhero,' Lauren teases. 'But next time could you start with the part where you didn't maim and kill such an important iconic creature, starting a political war and putting a record-breaking bounty on your head?'

Bo smiles endearingly at her still pale girlfriend, head nodding once in capitulation as she moves slowly towards her again, intent on kissing the colour back into her cheeks.

'I'm sorry, babe. You know politics isn't my thing. All this team stuff just drives me nuts.'

'I know.'

Lauren has spent months considering these next words - extensive periods of time ruminating on their intent and meaning, every plausible repercussion, and the best possible way and time and place to bring them into their lives. She likes to think she's pretty thorough in her thinking – methodical and regimented in a way that doesn't exclude - but this particular scenario hadn't once crossed her mind, and as she watches Bo advance on her, the statement just tumbles from her mouth without warning.

'We will have to choose soon, you know.'

Bo stops within arm's reach, her mind racing from confused to frustrated to oddly hopeful in just a few seconds. 'We?'

'Well yes, the choice is kind of dependent on there being a we.'

'Of course there's a we. That's not even a choice, it just is.'

Lauren visibly relaxes, releasing the rigidity in her upper body and leaning lighter on her hands. For a few unsure seconds there, she'd been braced for extremes, for this to go every kind of bad she'd been able to envision and then some because she'd fallen in without plan, without prediction. She doesn't even know where she stands with this yet, has no real starting point from which to lead them, and that unsettles her almost as much as the decision itself. But Bo's gaze hasn't faltered; the surety of feeling in her eyes is unwavering, and Lauren can sense her coaxing her out from under the looming shadow.

'Hmm...so "we" were forced upon you, huh?'

'That actually sounded really romantic in my head. And you know what I mean.'

'Still, it's nice for a girl to hear it once in a while.' Lauren trails a finger along the countertop, dipping her head to look up through her lashes though she's feeling anything but coy.

'I'm a girl,' Bo mutters.

'An insatiable, sex-Goddess of a Succubus girl…' Lauren sighs, abruptly lifting her travelling finger and sweeping it pointedly between them to halt their movements towards each other. '…and that leads us nicely back from our attempts at diversion to the decision to be made.'

'You lost me at sex.'

'I don't want to lose you at all. I don't want either of us to; that's the point. And I know it's a fact of life for all kinds of life; very rarely do pairings...expire simultaneously. Although there are a number of species that are reported to practice mutual death wherein the grieved takes their own life within a specified time of the loss of their love, and there are studies that suggest that dying from a broken heart is actually a biological possibility, and –'

'Lauren, I'm not going to break your heart. And I'm not planning on dying any time soon, are you?'

'Comparatively speaking? ... Yes. As things stand, I'm going to die relatively early on in your life. I'm going to age and ail and die, and despite your often perilous endeavours, chances are you'll end up having to watch it happen. And I don't want that...for either of us.'

'We're barely in our thirties; we have time, so much time to – '

'The average life expectancy for a human female in this country is eighty-four; the average life expectancy for healthy Succubi is closer to eight thousand. In the scale of your life, my remaining decades will seem like nothing.'

'Don't ever say that again,' Bo grinds out, her eyes flashing an intense and angry blue before returning to a wounded brown. 'You are far from nothing.'

'I didn't mean it like that.' Lauren reaches out, catching Bo's fingers loosely in her own, a minimal connection with maximum impact. 'I don't doubt what we are, not anymore. But I worry about what we'll both become if we don't acknowledge what's coming.'

'It doesn't matter.' Bo closes the remaining distance between them in one step, tugging Lauren's hand behind her and holding it in the small of her back. 'We'll beat it, we always do.'

'You can't beat nature, baby.'

'I'm a re-unaligned Succubus in love with a human doctor. Nature smature.'

Lauren smiles, allowing herself to lapse momentarily into the smitten teen she so often feels like, but turning grim as her reply returns them to reality.

'Death, then. We have lost too many to deny it's merciless power. And that rebellion against nature you so eloquently described already has us at a disadvantage. Even if we both get long happy lives by the standards of our respective species, you'll have to watch me die.'

'You don't know that. As we've established, we live in a very dangerous world and I don't know if you've noticed but I have a habit of pissing people off – I could be killed at any time.'

'That's not really a comforting argument.' Lauren's forehead wrinkles in consternation and she leans back to take in the whole of Bo's face. 'Or an argument at all actually. Was there a point?'

'Again, it sounded better in my head. But my point is, anything could happen. Everything we've lost...everyone – they're proof of it. We don't know how long we're going to get – no one does - but what's important is that we stop wasting the time we do have and spend every moment possible in the pursuit and practice of happiness, of making it all count, with each other.'

Lauren gulps – a fairly feeble attempt at restraining her emotion. 'Now that was romantic.'

'Apparently I'm better off not thinking before I speak.'

'Ever the exception.'

'Mmm…flattery will get you everywhere.' Bo wraps an arm around Lauren's waist and pulls her in until their bodies are flush and their knees loosely interlocked. She walks the fingers of her other hand slowly across Lauren's bare collarbone, eliciting a delightful shiver which she takes as encouragement to move lower.

'Hmm...you're too good at this.'

'It's kind of my thing.' Bo effortlessly pops an extra button on Lauren's shirt, elongating the V of exposed flesh until it meets a hint of black lace.

'I meant distraction, though I'd be remiss to argue with the other and – oh – as you're currently demonstrating, the two often go hand in hand.'

'Speaking of hands...' Bo continues to work her mouth across Lauren's neck but takes the blonde's hands in her own and slides them under her vest.

'Bo, I'm serious,' Lauren groans, part pleasure, part frustration, equally sexual. 'We need to talk.'

'Four words nobody ever wants to hear.' She pulls her lips from Lauren's skin, pouting and flexing her fingers across her hips in protest. 'Ever.'

'Usually because the people hearing them have avoided hearing other, wholly necessary, words for too long. This is important.'

Bo suddenly pulls away completely, striding purposely towards the front door.

'Bo please don't run away from this, we can't keep avoiding the inevitable, we need to at least discuss it.'

Bo locks the front door, turns back around and points to one of the kitchen stools.

'Then sit down. If you want focus and logic and any kind of sense out of me, we need a minimum safe distance and no interruptions. So I'll be over here.' She moves to lean against the precarious partition leading into the lounge, hears a crack before any real weight is applied and promptly changes her mind. 'Or over here on the battered thrift store sofa that worrying has more strength than the walls holding this place up.'

Lauren is watching her with a look of total adoration on her face, so overwhelmed by the intensity of feeling that tears are pooling in her eyes and clogging her throat. 'God, I love you.'

'Not helping your cause, babe,' Bo jokes softly, perching on the arm of the threadbare couch.

Lauren shakes her head almost imperceptibly, her features lightening and lighting up. 'Well sometimes I can't help myself either. It must be your influence rubbing off on me.'

'Nice choice of words. Are you sure this conversation can't wait, say, an hour?'

'Perhaps. But we both know it wouldn't just be an hour, whereas this could be and then we'd have the rest of the evening for whatever is running through your head right now.'

'Then I am all ears.' Bo sits up straighter, clasping her hands together and resting them on her knees. 'And mouth and tongue when you want them.'

Lauren raises an eyebrow.

'For participating in the conversation, Dr Lewis. Gosh, you have such a filthy mind...Okay, okay, holding the innuendo. But you might want to talk fast. And fasten your top button.'

'Babe...'

'Okay, Succubus, calm thyself. Patience clearly not a virtue for my kind.' Bo cocks a perfectly shaped eyebrow in genuine curiosity. 'I wonder if that's a general Fae thing? Have you conducted studies? I bet you have. Is your lab coat still upstairs?'

'Bo!'

'It's not me, it's…inner-me. Also, not our fault you look so hot in white. Wouldn't it be ironic though?'

'Now I'm lost,' Lauren sighs.

'If it was a Fae thing, I mean – the fixation on immediate gratification. We have these long lives but we don't want to wait for anything.'

'And once again - I don't know how - but you've managed to circle back to where we need to be.'

'Totally my intention all along, oh ye of little faith.' Bo flashes that stunning, sinful smile and it takes every ounce of Lauren's willpower to stay on track.

'Okay. It's not a choice we have to make right now, but after everything that's happened in the last year, I think it should be soon. Too late could be any time and I don't think we should leave anything else to chance. We barely got you back after Kenzi...'

Bo completely sobers, swallowing the last remnants of distraction and focusing intently on Lauren's eyes.

'After she died. You can say it. Kenzi and Hale – they died. And it will never be okay, but in some ways Kenzi went when Hale did, and now they're together, and I can deal with that. And we can say their names without the world ending.'

Bo's brave sorrowful smile almost breaks her - almost convinces her to risk putting this away for another time - but the heady mixture of love and pride and gratitude it elicits spurs her on.

'And that's why we need to make this choice...I can take us either way now; we have real options. But neither is without issue or risk, and I don't know which would be best, or if the long term effects of either would be more or less desirable. What I do know is that either will give us a better shot. And we deserve that. After everything, we at least deserve a real shot.'

Bo looks at her with reluctant understanding, scared to jump on the train before being fully sure of its destination and fearful even if she does know.

'The time is coming for us to choose,' Lauren continues. 'And we have to be united on this. It's the only way we can be together; the only way we can even dream of having it all.'

'The house and the kids and the picket fence,' Bo murmurs through the lump forming in her throat, hope diffusing into that small smile and up into her shimmering eyes.

'Our future.' Lauren gets up off the stool and walks over, taking Bo's hands in her own. 'So what will it be? Human or Fae?'