(a/n – just a little idea I had this morning. Unedited, just quickly written and published.)
Weather Forecast
Many things have changed since Bernie moved in with Serena. Bernie's books are wedged onto the bookshelves, precariously balanced on top of each other and stuck into corners, almost as if they could fall at any moment, even though they never do. Serena's house (well, their house now), has never been so sturdy, given the fact that Bernie Wolfe loves doing DIY on a day off, and so Serena will often arrive home on a day when she has been on shift but Bernie has not to find that the banisters have been varnished, or the wonky kitchen cupboard door has been refitted, or the corner of the garden wall has been redone, and Bernie has a smudge of mortar along her forehead. The one thing which Serena hadn't been expecting, was the fact that she never needs to listen to a weather forecast again.
Serena knows as soon as she wakes that it is a clear day, because she will turn over in bed and find Berenice Wolfe gone, a note on her pillow which just says 'Gone running x'. Serena doesn't mind in the slightest. Bernie has always been a morning person, and Serena is thankful that Bernie allows her to sleep in, while action woman herself goes for ten kilometre jogs around the park to start the day. To Serena, ten kilometres sounds like a sound way to end your life, never mind start your day. Bernie always returns though, in tiny running shorts or, if the air is brisker, the lycra leggings Serena bought her for Christmas – strictly because she wants Bernie to stay warm, not because she likes the look of Bernie in tight clothes. Of course. Then she'll blend herself a smoothie and eat her way through half a packet of cereal, as Serena finishes the toast she was buttering as her partner came in.
Sunny days are different. Serena likes sunny days. They'll start the same as clear days: the note on the pillow, and Serena making breakfast in the kitchen while she waits for her partner to return. However, on sunny days, Bernie will open the door and bound in, drenched in sweat wearing very, very little. The first time Serena, assuming it was a clear day outside, had been sat spreading jam on her toast, and Bernie had appeared in the doorway wearing lycra shorts and a crop top, a sheen of sweat on her figure, Serena's hand had slipped and jam had gone halfway up her wrist. Her immediate thought was that Bernie should be banned from running on sunny days, because the sight of a sweaty ex-army medic with a very toned stomach and a slight tan was very much indecent that early in the morning. Serena likes sunny days best, because they always come as a surprise if she doesn't draw he curtains until Bernie is back, and just assumes it is a fair weather day outside. Also, on sunny days, Bernie always needs a shower to cool off after her morning run, which Serena is more than happy to accompany her into. Well. It's only fair. If the entire neighbourhood gets to see what Serena thinks is possibly the only serious entry there ever should be into the rear of the year competition, then it's only right that Serena should then get to peel the very tight shorts off it and spend a while admiring its firmness. It is hers to do so with, anyway, by some level of sheer luck and Sapphic revelation. Serena's thoughts as she presses Bernie up against the wall of the shower, her hands cupping that very exquisite behind, are always centred around the fact that sunny days are definitely Serena's favourite days.
That isn't to say that Serena doesn't like rainy days. In the previous chapter of her life, the one where Serena would actually listen to a potentially not very accurate weather report in the morning, she always grimaced at the news that it was a rainy day. Nowadays, however, she knows it is a rainy day because when she wakes up, Bernie Wolfe is curled up around her. Fun fact: Berenice Wolfe won't go running in the rain. Serena finds this amusing, but isn't going to complain when she gets to start the day in bed with her big macho army medic. Sometimes, on rainy days, Bernie will be awake, lazily tracing circles onto Serena's skin and looking at her as if she is some form of deity. Other days, Bernie will have dozed back off into the land of dreams, and Serena will get to stare at Bernie for a while, or, if she's feeling particularly pleased (if it has been the first rainy day after a spell of clear days, for example, or they've both been on opposing shifts all week) Serena will tease Bernie awake with her fingers and her tongue, slowly coaxing Bernie into the land of the living and other heights which Serena never thought she'd ever be reaching at six thirty on a Tuesday morning when her shift starts in two hours.
It turns out that snowy days are also very easily determined with her new weather forecasting system. The first time Serena realised this, she woke up to the shock of her life. That is, Bernie Wolfe was curled up around her, snuggled contentedly into her back, arms wrapped firmly around her middle. But instead of like on other rainy days, as Serena assumed it was, she was freezing. Serena had jolted awake, searching for a pulse, only for her partner to wiggle herself impossibly closer under the covers, and for them both to fall back asleep again. This method of forecasting a snowy day, Serena discovers, is due to the fact that when it snows, Major Berenice Wolfe of the Royal Army Medical Corps turns into an excitable puppy. Serena awoke one morning to find Bernie gone, and assumed it was a clear day (or, she hoped, a sunny day – but that seemed less likely given the fact that it was January). However, she then felt the icy blast and looked at the clock, realising it was rather early, and she must have left the window open overnight. Pulling her robe on, she opened the curtains to close the window, and felt her heart melt. Outside, in the street, a certain middle aged woman was leaping about, bobbles on her ridiculous hat swinging wildly, and wellington boots making deep footprints in the snow. Bernie looked so happy, and so carefree, that Serena could not help but smile and tap on the window. When Bernie stopped and looked up, she waved cheerfully, before dropping onto her back in the garden and flapping her arms and legs, making a snow angel. Serena raised her eyebrows as Bernie pointed up at her, mouthing the words "you are" before pointing to her creation. Soon after, she came back inside again, and traipsed up the stairs to find Serena back in bed, robe off but very warm thanks to it, and patting beside her invitingly. Bernie grinned, and peeled off her layers, before snuggling back down under the duvet with the love of her life. It was after that particular event, that Serena decides that she might like snowy days as much as sunny days, after all.
Many things have changed since Bernie moved in with Serena. Serena finds that she never liked the previous weather forecasters anyway.
/finite\\
(a/n – well would you believe it, Berena fluff written before nine o'clock on a Tuesday morning. Now maybe I can get back to my real life duties. Thank you in advance for all of your reviews, favourites and general nice feedback. You all rock.)