It's six o'clock, and Cosima and Delphine are sprawled across the brunette's bed, surrounded by a sea of papers that Cosima swears have a very deliberate order to them, I promise. Cosima is lying across the bed with her head in Delphine's lap, who is absent-mindedly playing with one of her girlfriend's dreads as she reads a paper about the transcription of gene sequences relating to reproduction on the X-chromosome. Cosima is supposed to be going through her sequenced genome, but instead is entirely distracted by watching the French woman scrunch her nose in concentration whenever she encounters a particularly dense part of the article.
"Hey, Delphine," the clone says. "It's hella distracting how you look so cute when you're researching. You gotta stop that or we'll never be able to make crazy science." She grins up at the blonde.
"You are cheeky," Delphine replies, "but this paper is very important Cosima, we have to figure out what is wrong with—"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Cosima interrupts. "It's all doom and gloom and messed up genetic science experiments, and I'm sick of it. You know what our problem is?"
"What?" Delphine cautiously asks.
"It's Friday night, and we're just shut in here doing research like we always do. I'm tired of being the 'geek monkey' all the time."
"Geek…monkey?" Delphine looks confused. "Is that some American slang I am unfamiliar with? Like the 'cold turkey'?"
"Ha, no, it's just…you know that's not the point," Cosima answers. She sits up, and turns around to face the other woman. "Delphine, will you go on a date with me? Like, a real date where we can forget all these problems and clones and monitors and just be normal people, for a while?" As casual as she keeps her words, there's real vulnerability in the brunette's tone.
"Oui," Delphine answers, smiling. "Cosima, I would love to go out on a date with you. Did you have anywhere in mind?"
The clone is grinning big again. "As a matter of fact, I did."
…
Delphine looks quite unsure about the slightly shabby building in front of her. "Game Over?" she asks.
Cosima answers her. "You can pick the next one. But I think you'll love this. It's a combo arcade/pizza parlor, and they've got the best pies in town." Off her girlfriend's confused look, Cosima quickly adds. "Um, an arcade is like, a place where you go to play games. You pay money for tokens and it's totally dangerous because the games are addictive, and the tokens make you forget it's real money. But it's also a total blast. There was an arcade in San Fran that was my favorite place to go as a teenager."
"Oh, I cannot imagine the trouble you got into at that age," Delphine says. "You are a handful now. But this arcade sounds like fun." She smiles mischievously. "Maybe I will even 'kick your ass' at a game."
"I should have never taught you that phrase," Cosima laughs. "It sounds wrong coming from you. But if you beat me, I'll let you pick a favor later tonight." She looks up at the blonde flirtatiously. "That's a pretty big if, though."
"Oh, now you are in for it," Delphine answers, looking determined. She takes Cosima's hand, and pulls her to the door. The scientist stops soon after she's gone inside, mouth agape. The large room is full of flashing lights, and very very loud.
"Cool, huh?" Cosima half-shouts at her. "C'mon, I'll show you one of my favorites." She stops at a large machine with joysticks and multiple buttons, 'Tekken Streetfighter' emblazoned in glowing letters across the top. "This is a seriously dope fighter. Way better than Capcom."
"How do you play?" Delphine asks, investigating the controls. "The buttons just say punch and kick, but there are two of each and they are the same color."
"Well, you wanna do combos," the shorter woman explains. "Like, the left button is the left arm and the right button is the right arm. Up-left-left arm-right arm-down is a pretty good one. Uh, or, you could just button-mash," she finishes, seeing Delphine looking lost. "Just like hit 'em all fast and hope for something good."
What follows is an embarrassingly uneven series of matches. Delphine hurriedly pushes all the buttons she can while yanking the joystick every which way, while Cosima coolly goes through the combos she's long since honed with hours of practice. The blonde does get in a few hits when she lucks out and makes a combo, and then sometimes a few more after Cosima is distracted by the cute way she jumps in surprise and delight when she hits it. However, it still doesn't take long for her to lose.
"I think that we should try a new game," she concludes, looking at the highly mismatched score. "What about that one, over there?" She points to a game with balls and rings which no one appears to be playing.
"Skee-ball?" Cosima asks. "I mean, it's a classic, but it's also kinda lame."
"Well how can it be a classic if it is lame?" Delphine argues. "I think I would like it better than a video game." She looks at Cosima with wide eyes.
The clone sighs. The puppy-dog look gets her every time. "Okay, alright, skee-ball it is."
"So, how do you play?" Delphine asks. Cosima lights up, suddenly seeing an opportunity.
"It's easy," she says, stepping behind her partner and handing her a ball. She presses close, guiding Delphine's arm. "You throw it, just like this." Delphine blushes a little, feeling Cosima's curves flush against her back.
"I think you like skee-ball after all," she says after Cosima steps away.
"Maybe," Cosima allows. "Now, you're on!"
Both women surprise themselves as they get into the game. "Hey!" Cosima yelps. "That's cheating! You knocked my arm away!"
"All's fair in love and war, mon amor," Delphine laughs. "I believe I win."
"It doesn't count," Cosima pouts. "You cheated. Cheater."
"Fine," Delphine says, cocky. "I will beat you in something else then."
"Now who's cheeky?" Cosima asks, pulling her deeper into the arcade, before stopping suddenly and almost causing Delphine to run into her. "Oh my god! They have a Star Trek game!" She's practically bouncing with excitement.
"Oh, I remember that show!" Delphine exclaims. "They were always having those adventures, in space."
"You don't even know!" Cosima starts. "Star Trek was part of what got me into science! I used to watch it, as a kid. It was always talking about exploration, and pushing the frontiers of mankind. It made me realize I wanted to try to understand the mysteries of the universe, too."
"That is adorable," Delphine says, kissing her girlfriend's nose. "We should definitely play this game."
"You're perfect," Cosima replies, pecking her on the lips. "Last one to their phaser is a Romulan!" She dashes off, and Delphine chases her. With her longer legs, she actually manages to beat the brunette to the game.
"Guess I'm the asshole alien, then," Cosima concedes, settling into her seat. "But I'm definitely down to blast my own kind in this thing."
"You are very silly," Delphine giggles, and then settles into concentration as the game starts. As it turns out, the pair spend a lot more time fighting the Borg than the Romulans aboard the USS Voyager. Delphine finds herself becoming surprisingly engrossed, although not as much as Cosima, who apparently likes to exclaim things like "pew pew, motherfuckers!" when she gets excited. After they finish their fourth mission, the couple decides to call it quits.
"What a trip!" Cosima gestures her hands excitedly. "That was so great!"
"You know what else will be great?" Delphine asks. "Table hockey!" She points at the lit-up game.
"Oh, you mean air hockey," Cosima corrects. "You're on!" She pushes the last of their tokens into the slot.
If she thought this was going to be another easy win, Cosima was much surprised. She finds she's working up a sweat as she works to deflect Delphine's lightning-fast moves. "How do you keep doing that?" she gasps.
"I have good reflexes," Delphine says smugly. "And I played lacrosse in high school instead of video games." She wiggles her fingers. "Good hand-eye coordination too."
"Show-off," Cosima mutters. "Okay, one last point left before you beat me. But I can totally come back from this."
As it turns out, she can't. Cosima tries valiantly, but with a well-timed bank off the side of the table Delphine scores her winning point."
"I win!" she cheers. "You know what this means." The taller woman walks over and bends down slightly to whisper something in her lover's ear.
"Oh. Oh," Cosima says, flushing. "I think I'm glad you won, Dr. Cormier."
"I know that I am glad I won," Delphine replies. "And I also know that I am hungry. You said there was good pizza."
"Totes," Cosima says. "I recommend the barbeque chicken."
The couple goes up to the parlor counter and gets their food. Delphine looks skeptical, but they both order the pizza Cosima recommended. Her skepticism turns into delight after she takes a bite.
"Oh! This is really good," she says. "This is delicious. They do not have pizza like this in France."
"Well you know," Cosima deadpans, "I think you're figuring out you prefer things made in America." She winks at the blonde after she says it.
"You are a brat," Delphine replies, "but you are a cute brat, so I suppose it evens out."
"You only suppose?" Cosima pretends to be affronted. "Why, I'm insulted."
"I cannot have you getting too full of yourself," Delphine laughs. "You would be insufferable, ma chérie."
"Glad I'm not," Cosima smiles. And the pair lapses into a comfortable silence as they finish their meal.
"Ready to go home?" Cosima asks as she gets up.
"I am very ready." Delphine grabs her arm and leans close. "I remember what I have waiting for me when we get there."
Cosima blushes as red as her coat. "I think we should hurry," she says, her voice a little rough as they step outside. "And I think we should definitely go on more dates."
"Oui," Delphine agrees, kissing Cosima deeply when they get to the car. "I know we have many more to look forward to."
…
A/N: I stole Game Over's name from a vintage video game store in Houston, TX, where I grew up. The Tekken combo is totally made up, but the Star Trek Voyager game is real! And Star Trek really was syndicated in France.
I'm taking suggestions for other dates for Cophine to go on!