"You're unusually touchy tonight," Cosima commented as she set down her recently refilled mug of tea, glancing over at Sarah momentarily before turning her attention back to the homework on her laptop.
Sarah shrugged, drumming a light pattern against the inside of Cosima's knee as she sunk further into the couch beside her. "It's not like you'll let me talk to you while you're working on... whatever that is."
"It's one of my biggest assignments of my semester Sar," Cosima explained, pulling a hand from her keyboard to tangle her fingers through Sarah's restless ones. "But I'm almost finished this section for tonight, after that we can-"
A loud crack of thunder sounded outside their window, shaking the thin walls of their apartment and causing Sarah to jump, her jaw clenching, her grip tightening over Cosima's thigh. "Yeah sure, Cos. You do what you have to, I'll just-"
"Are you scared of thunderstorms, Sarah?" Cosima asked quietly, stroking a soothing pattern over the back of Sarah's taut hand.
"Not scared!" Sarah insisted in a way that would have been humorous – if not for expression of mingled fear and memories in her eyes. "Just.. didn't really have very many good experiences with them.
Cosima looked at her assignment blinking up at her from her screen. Not as far as she would've liked, but – Sarah's hand twitched underneath hers at another smaller crash from the world outside, and she decided that it could wait for another night.
"C'mon," she said decisively, keying the save on her word document and shutting her laptop, "Let's go snuggle, okay?"
"But, your assignment-"
"It's good enough for tonight," Cosima smiled gently at her girlfriend as she stood, keeping her hand soft in Sarah's as she encouraged her to follow with a gentle tug.
Sarah was about to protest once more, when yet another peal of thunder rattled the windows. "Sure," she agreed in a tiny voice, her shoulders slumping more than usual as she rose and followed Cosima to the bed.
Cosima immediately lifted up the covers and slid under the sheets, wiggling towards the middle of the bed and patting the empty space in front of her. Sarah took a little more time, almost self-consciously stripping of her leather jacket and jeans as Cosima watched her with care in her eyes.
Sarah eventually settled in beside Cosima, but her posture and body language communicated her discomfort without a word. Cosima slung an arm around her waist, slipped the other between the bed and Sarah's stiff shoulders and kissed her cheek. "You don't have to tell me what's wrong. But I'm here to help," Cosima whispered against her ear.
It was a testament to how far Sarah had come as a person, how far she had come in her relationship with Cosima that she didn't balk at Cosima's words, at her promise. That she actually managed to sink a little further into Cosima's hold, to breath her in and to relax as the world collapsed outside.
"Just... talk to me, Cos. Please," Sarah murmured, turning her nose into Cosima's collarbone, dropping her forehead to the top of Cosima's shoulder.
"Okay," Cosima nodded minutely, mindful not to jostle Sarah's resting position. "What do you want to hear about?"
"You," Sarah whispered, her breath ghosting across Cosima's skin, making her shiver. But the good, I-love-that-you're-near kind of shiver. "Your childhood, yenno? Just anything about you."
Cosima hummed for a moment, in quiet thought. Then, after a small pause, began talking about the first time she broke bone. "So there was this cat, right, a stray. Gross matted fur, snaggle tooth, my mom wanted me to stay, like, fifteen feet away from it at all times. But it went up tree a right, right? And I just wanted to hug it, so I..."
Sarah sighed, long and slow, evening her breathing in and out with the lilt of Cosima's storytelling. She knew one day she would tell Cosima about her abortion, how it ruined her, how she spent hours slumped in an alleyway in the pouring rain after it was over, how she cried and tried to work up the courage to call Mrs. S.
But for the time being, she just kissed Cosima's neck softly, making Cosima hum again as Sarah burrowed in deeper to her hold. And let the world outside disappear around them.