"I could always dye my hair red again."
Naomi Fitch-Campbell pulled off her glasses and looked at her wife of 50-something years. Emily was standing in front of the mirror in their room and studying her hair, turning side to side as though that was going to change the image in the mirror. As Naomi watched she lifted up a piece and ran her fingers through the silver strands.
"Why would you do that?" she asked. "I happen to like your hair like it is right now."
"You liked my hair red," Emily huffed.
"When we were sixteen," Naomi agreed. She tried to keep the smile off her face and failed. She wasn't quite sure how her wife could remain insanely cute after so many years but she wasn't going to question it. "And I also liked your hair when it was brown, and when it was pink for a little bit –"
"One Halloween party," Emily mumbled exasperatedly.
"- and I like your hair now too. I love you, it doesn't matter what hair color you have."
Emily stopped eyeing herself in the mirror and glanced at Naomi sideways. "I never should have let you study journalism," she said. "You've gotten far too good with words."
"Oh please," Naomi grinned and sat up straighter in bed. "I was always good with words."
"'Naomi – get to know me'?" Emily teased, but she finally turned away from the mirror completely and ignored herself in favor of making fun of her wife.
"I said I was good with words, not slogans."
Emily laughed.
"Hey!" Naomi protested. "I won you back with words didn't I? Twice!"
Emily thought back to the two weeks they'd broken up during university and frowned at her wife. "Way to kill the mood, Naoms."
Naomi raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware there was a mood to kill, Ems."
"There isn't now," Emily crossed her arms and turned back to the mirror.
Naomi sighed. "Is this because Katie dyed her hair the other day?"
"I am way past the point where I do anything simply because my twin did it," Emily said, but the way she went back to running her hands over her hair made that statement a lie.
"Should I take that as a yes then?"
"I hope you're not getting comfortable on that bed," Emily glared at Naomi from the mirror. "Because the way you're heading you're not going to be sleeping in it tonight."
Naomi rolled her eyes. "Aren't we a little old to be threatening each other with sleeping on the couch?"
"We are never too old for me to threaten to make you sleep on the couch."
"Emily," Naomi sighed and threw off the covers.
The house was so absurdly quiet now that the kids and grandkids had left. Sundays were family day in the Fitch-Campbell house, and usually they were joined by Katie and various other members of the group as well. Today Katie had shown up with her hair dyed a nice, rich brown and no one had dared to tell her that it looked a little ridiculous, because no matter how old she got Katie Fitch still had a sharp tongue and a solid right hook.
But now that everyone was gone the only noises were the creaks and pops of a settling house, the breeze blowing outside the open window, and the radio playing softly in the corner. Naomi stood up and walked up behind Emily, slipping her arms around her wife and resting her head on her shoulder. Their eyes met through the mirror.
"You are just as gorgeous right now as you were the day you stormed into my room and told me that your first thought when you saw me wasn't that you wanted to 'fuck that girl'," she said sincerely. "And you're always going to be that gorgeous. Stop fussing? For me?"
The annoyance slowly drained from Emily's face and she leaned back into the embrace. "Easy for you to say," she grumbled, but it was less distressed and more good-natured now. "You could hardly even tell when your hair went white. Besides, that wasn't a complete lie. It wasn't my first thought." She paused for a minute and grinned. "It was my second."
Naomi smiled and kissed the side of Emily's neck affectionately. If she was joking then she wasn't upset anymore, or at least not upset enough to let it bother her. She opened her mouth to say something snarky in reply and stopped when she properly heard the song on the radio.
"What?" Emily asked when she saw the look on her face, and then when Naomi moved away, "Where do you think you're going?"
Naomi ignored her and went over to turn up the radio. Emily's face lit up the minute the music started playing louder in the room. She laughed when Naomi bowed a little and held out her hand. "May I have this dance?" she asked formally.
"You may," Emily answered in the same tone of voice and slipped her hand into Naomi's.
Naomi immediately tugged her closer until her wife was completely wrapped up in her arms and they started to sway together. Naomi started to sing quietly into her ear: "I think about the years I spent just passing through, I'd like to have the time I lost and give it back to you…"
Emily brought her hands up to the back of Naomi's neck and pressed her face into her shoulder. "That's playing dirty, by the way," she said. "Getting the universe to throw you a bone like that."
"Right," Naomi grinned as her lips brushed the shell of Emily's ear. "As you know I anticipate all of our fights and make sure that the local radio stations play our wedding song accordingly."
"Hmmm," Emily hummed happily. "It's a good plan."
Naomi just shook her head slightly, tightened her arms around Emily, and kept dancing.
Every long lost dream led me to where you are, others who broke my heart they were like northern stars, pointing me on my way into your loving arms, this much I know is true…that God bless the broken road that led me straight to you.