Warming up
A/N: Written for No Angst November over on Ao3.
Angela was sitting in the small café that was inside the airport, an empty cup of chocolate on her table. She was browsing her phone when someone patted her shoulder. She turned around and couldn't contain her smile when she saw who it was.
Fareeha was standing in front of her, her luggage consisted only of a duffle bag that was on the ground beside her. "Have you been waiting long?"
"Only three years." Angela stood up from the stool to embrace Fareeha in a tight hug. After a long moment, they gently pulled away from each other and Angela checked her wrist watch. "Your flight arrived early. Good thing I did too. How have you been, Fareeha?"
"I'm good. Things have been a little weird at Helix but I'll tell you with more detail later. How about you?"
"Since you said you were available to come visit and I didn't go to the Middle East right away, these last few days that I've spent here have been pretty relaxing. I feel I owe you something just for that."
Fareeha laughed. "I can settle with some food, your treat?"
Angela thought for a second. "There's a good place that you may like. And it's also on the way to my apartment."
"What? No homemade food? Or you're going to tell me that you only have instant noodles at your place?" Fareeha asked with a smirk.
Angela turned a slight shade of red before she playfully swatted her friend's arm. "I don't do that anymore! My days as an intern that functioned on an instant noodles diet are long gone. I don't know why you always have to bring that back." Angela reproached her, but with a smile.
"If I don't take care of you, who's gonna do it?" Fareeha had a cheeky grin.
Angela rolled her eyes, trying not to smile. "Fair enough. But not one more mention of instant noodles or I'll feed you only that until you return to Egypt."
Fareeha slid her index finger and thumb over her mouth, making Angela laugh. They grabbed their things and exited the airport.
: : :
"…I just wanted to help him, but he was being so obnoxious and there were more people waiting for my assistance. So I pulled the Caduceus Staff from the other room and I told him 'Your injuries require me to administer antibiotics via injection' and I'm not kidding, he turned pale so fast before he fainted." Fareeha laughed at Angela's story. "After that I treated him and carried on with the rest of the refugees."
Angela and Fareeha had a hearty meal at a nearby restaurant and now they were making their way to Angela's apartment. The day was clear and they had decided not to take a cab, the apartment wasn't far after all. They were talking, catching up on everything that had been going on with their lives when Fareeha saw a frozen lake. She gazed at it curiously and then she remembered something.
"That's the lake my mom used to take me to when I visited the base!" Fareeha ran feeling once again like a kid with Angela in tow. They stopped at the edge of the lake and Fareeha dropped her duffle bag on the ground. "My mom taught me how to skate here."
"I remember now!" Angela piped up. "You were so small then." She giggled.
"I blame the cold. As soon as I went back with my dad, puberty hit me like a truck." Fareeha didn't turn her gaze away from the lake. "I wonder if I still know how to do this." She gave a few hesitant steps on the ice.
"Be careful." Angela was watching her with a little bit of worry, although she hoped that nothing bad would happen.
Fareeha didn't have skates, so she did her best to slide on the ice a few feet at the time. First to her right, then to her left. She tried to do a small twirl but ended up just turning around, facing Angela. Nonetheless her friend clapped, mostly at the fact that she didn't fall on her ass and Fareeha blushed a little.
Not wanting to run out of luck, Fareeha decided that it was enough goofing around and gave a step forward to get off of the frozen lake. That's when the ice broke under her feet. Angela saw the face of instant regret Fareeha made a moment before she fell into the water.
Fareeha was almost at the edge of the lake, so the water only reached her up to her chest. However, the freezing temperatures almost made her collapse, but Angela had already run to her side to help her get out of there. In the end Fareeha got out of the water with little effort, but she was practically soaked, while Angela had her upper body drenched and both of them were trembling.
"M-M-My ap-apart… ment…" Angela managed to say.
Fareeha's teeth were chattering too much, so she just nodded. She picked up her bag and followed Angela as fast as she could.
: : :
As soon as they entered the apartment, Angela led Fareeha to the bathroom. "T-T-Take off you c-clothes and dry yourself w-with this." She handed Fareeha a body towel. "Leave them on t-the floor and then come to the couch." And with that, Angela closed the door, leaving a dumbfounded Fareeha with a blush that went unnoticed.
After a few seconds of hesitation, she talked to herself. "Surely s-s-she meant in my undies, right? Not completely n-n-naked?" Her chattering teeth took her out of her stupor, so she undressed completely and dried herself as best as she could. She took out another set of underwear from her duffle bag, wore it and then put the towel over her shoulders, covering herself as best as she could.
Fareeha exited the bathroom with hesitant steps and made her way to the couch. Angela had moved it so it would be right in front of the small gas fireplace. Fareeha sat and a moment later Angela appeared from her bedroom, carrying a bundle of thick blankets. Fareeha's heart skipped a beat because for a second she thought Angela was nude under the towel she was covered with. Thankfully that wasn't the case, her friend was in the same state of undress as her.
Angela placed the blankets next to Fareeha. "Cover yourself up."
Fareeha did as she was told, removing the wet towel first and putting it on the floor. Angela checked the logs that were in the fireplace and then she pressed the ignition button beside it, turning the control knob to release the gas. The logs caught fire and Angela gave a step back, giving a nod of approval a moment later.
With the fire lit, Fareeha felt better even though she was still shivering. Then she turned to Angela, who dropped her towel on the floor and Fareeha felt her stomach lurch. Her eyes couldn't help but give a quick peek at Angela's body and one word appeared in her mind: Perfect. "W-What are you doing? Were y-y-you as wet as me?"
"No, but this way we'll warm up faster, especially you." Without hesitation, Angela lifted one end of the blanket, sat next to Fareeha and covered herself with said blanket. Now Fareeha's stomach was giving somersaults. "Would you put an arm around me? I'd do it to you but you're way taller than me." Angela said with a small pout. Fareeha thought that Angela was adorable and complied with the request.
When Fareeha first started her journey to meet her best friend —and longtime crush— after not seeing her for three years, the last thing she expected was to share a blanket with her while both were practically naked… and yet here she was, cuddling with her.
"This is very relaxing, you know?" Angela said, watching the fire, stopping Fareeha's musings. "I mean, not the whole getting soaked in the frozen lake thing, but being here with you, warming up in front of the fireplace."
Fareeha didn't trust her voice at that moment, so she just squeezed Angela's shoulder gently.
"And your face when you realized you had messed up." Angela was giggling. "I mean, I feel bad that you fell into the lake, but in hindsight your expression was really funny." She started laughing and it was contagious, because Fareeha was laughing alongside her in no time.
When they calmed down, Angela turned around and examined Fareeha's face, the latter feeling the color rising to her cheeks. "Uh…"
"The color's returning to you, that's good. And you have stopped shivering." Angela returned to her original position on the couch. "But you're still cold."
Fareeha saw Angela with the deepest fondness. "Thank you for putting up with me, I don't know what would happen to me if you weren't in my life."
"You probably would have drowned in 5 feet of cold water." Angela said teasingly and Fareeha snorted.
"You're probably right."
After that they sat in comfortable silence, the whole situation a soothing one for both of them.
Fareeha's mind wandered. She thought that being almost naked beside Angela would be very uncomfortable for her, given the crush she developed a long time ago, but that wasn't the case. After her heart calmed down a bit, Fareeha realized that this felt completely natural for them, if Angela's content face was anything to go by.
Fareeha thought again for the nth time if confessing her feelings would be ok or not. The reason she hadn't done so was mostly because they lived very different lives, and their responsibilities were always in the way. But that was the path each of them had willingly chosen.
Angela nodded off and Fareeha instinctively pulled her closer. Angela rested her head on Fareeha's chest and seemed to doze off. Without being able to stop her hand, Fareeha caressed Angela's cheek, which apparently, for some reason, caused the latter to press her head harder to Fareeha's chest. Fareeha's body stiffened, not sure if she had done something wrong because clearly Angela wasn't sleeping yet.
After a few seconds Angela raised her head, looking with curiosity at her friend's face. "I wasn't imagining things, you were blushing earlier, like you are now."
Fareeha's stared at Angela wide-eyed, her mouth trying to form words that her brain refused to think, making her stutter softly.
Angela lowered her head and pressed her ear against Fareeha's chest again. "Your heart is beating even faster now." She stopped listening and turned to look intently at her friend. "Do you like me, Fareeha?"
Fareeha's mouth went dry and she gulped. She was about to panic, but then she put attention to Angela's eyes. They were soft, tender, and Fareeha knew above all that Angela would be understanding, even if her feelings were not corresponded. Besides, her heart had already betrayed her, so it was no use in denying it.
Fareeha started whispering. It was as if she wanted to exclude the world, her words only meant for Angela. "I like you a lot, you have no idea. I've had the biggest crush on you for a long time."
Angela raised her eyebrows slightly. "Since when?"
"Honestly I cannot remember. I was but a kid and I thought that it would go away as time went by, but it never did."
"Longer than mine then."
"Yes, prob—" Fareeha couldn't finish her sentence, she just looked surprised at how Angela smiled at her.
"I like you a lot too." Angela moved carefully, trying not to drop the blanket. She straddled Fareeha and placed her hands around her neck. Fareeha put her hands on Angela's hips, relishing the sensation of being able to hold her like this. "Now that we know that we like each other, I'd very much like to kiss you, is that ok?"
Fareeha nodded slowly, as if she didn't believe what was happening. She was pretty sure she drowned in the lake and was now in the hospital, hallucinating all of this. But Angela's lips proved her wrong.
Fareeha closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, her stomach in acrobatics at this point, her heart racing. The kiss was soft and slow, as if they were meeting each other all over again, but more intimately this time. After an eternity that wasn't long enough for Fareeha, Angela broke the kiss, but only because she needed to breathe.
"I've been wanting to do that for years now." A flirty smile appeared on Angela's face. "But it was worth the wait and we can do it again."
Angela leaned down for another kiss but Fareeha placed a finger on her lips, stopping her. Angela blinked twice, confused. "I've been dreaming for so long about this, you have no idea. But I need to know, is this a one time thing? Do we make out the entire week and then return to our responsibilities as if nothing happened? Or do we try to have a relationship, a real one?"
"You tell me, Fareeha. We have just acted on this lengthy crush, what do you think is the next step?" Angela asked teasingly.
Fareeha's smile reached her eyes. "We make it work."
"Yes. Even if the world's getting weirder, even with your work with Helix and mine in the Middle East, we will find a way to make it work. Besides…" Angela leaned closer to whisper in Fareeha's ear. "…you look so good in that underwear."
Fareeha blushed, self-conscious again of their current situation. "What can I say? It's made of girlfriend material." She said with a huge grin.
Despite her best effort, Angela laughed at the pun. "Ok, that one's on me. I walked right into it."
"I think I need some time to process this. Like, we're girlfriends now and…"
Angela looked quizzically at Fareeha. "And?"
"Maybe if we keep making out, my brain can take in all this. What do you say, doctor?" Fareeha asked, teasingly.
"Smooth." Was Angela's only reply.
Fareeha closed the distance and kissed Angela. Their hands wandered leisurely, feeling goosebumps on each other, despite not being cold anymore.
They kept making out, knowing each other more intimately with each kiss, warming up, and the fire was extinguished long before they were done.