The pile of papers seemed never ending. No matter how many she read over and marked, the pile just seemed to stay the same. It was boring. Monotonous even. Just the same few points muddled together, again and again, often half formed and completely lacking in sense and grammar. Occasionally one was far better than the rest but it reminded her exactly why she hated being an English teacher. The excessive essay marking, it always took so long and ate into the hours. It didn't help that her written English wasn't always the greatest.

"What are you doing?"

Rita looked up. Veridia was standing in the doorway, wearing the aqua dress and her long hair loose and curly.

Rita set her pen down onto the quite frankly appalling essay, easily the worst she'd ever had to mark. The brief action gave her a second to try to hide how big her smile was. Seeing Veridia was always the best part of her day.

"I'm working," she replied. She was covering an English class while Miss Clarke was off on maternity leave. They hadn't managed to find a replacement for her yet and the school was still short staffed. They'd been short staffed since before she started there. And that was five years ago.

"Weren't you at work today?" Veridia asked.

"Sometimes there aren't enough hours in the day to do everything."

"Remind me again why you do this?" Veridia walked over to the table.

"Gives me something to do."

Veridia sat down on the empty chair on the short side of the table.

"Don't say it," Rita said, anticipating Veridia's response, which would have been something along the lines of "come back to the pod, then you'll have something to do." She was bored of that conversation. She knew Veridia understood her point of view but patience was not her strong suit.

"I wasn't going to say anything about the Pod."

Rita gave her a look.

"Okay, maybe I was. It's just I don't get to see you that often because you're at work all day and I'm with the Pod."

That was true. It was hard to find time. She was busy a lot, Veridia was busy a lot and then the girls were almost always around accompanied by Zac and Evie more often than not.

"So we make time."

Or tell the others. Actually, no. She hated keeping their relationship a secret but somehow the thought of anyone else knowing about them made her uneasy. They would keep it between them until they were both ready to tell people.

"When? You always say that and then you're always busy."

"Tomorrow. Let me finish marking these tonight and tomorrow, I'll be all yours." Rita smiled.

"I should go then, leave you to it." Veridia made a move to stand, shifting her chair back slightly.

"No, stay," Rita said, "I want you to."

"Rita placed her hand on top of Veridia's. Veridia moved her hand so their fingers interlocked.

"I miss you when I'm at work," Rita said, "I hate not being able to see you and then when I can see you there's always someone else here."

"Is there someone else here just now?"

"No. It's just us."

"That's good to know."

Rita laughed. She leaned in and her lips met Veridia's. Veridia always tasted like the sea, the lingering hints of salt on soft lips.

"I should get back to this," Rita whispered against Veridia's lips. She kissed Veridia again, quick and fleeting, before pulling away.

""Any chance you could finish your work tomorrow night and we could keep doing that?" Veridia asked, smiling softly.

Rita laughed. It was in that moment, looking at Veridia smiling and happy, that she felt it again. Love. Romantic love. She loved Veridia. There was no doubt about that.

"I have to get these done for tomorrow."

She wasn't going to say anything about her feelings, not yet. They'd only been back together one Moon cycle, it was too fast. Way too fast.

"What is it you're actually doing?" Veridia asked slowly, looking at the pile of essays scribbled in red ink and the ones Rita had yet to mark.

"Marking essays. All these students have read the same book and then they have to write about the book, analysing things like themes, symbols, imagery, language, narrative style," Rita explained.

"Why?"

"I have no idea. There is no point to these things."

"So why do they do them, if there's no point?"

"I honestly don't know."

The rest of the marking took another three hours. She finished the last terrible essay a little after one am. Her hand was cramping and sleeping at the table felt preferable to getting up and walking up the stairs. Rita had made Veridia go to bed after an hour. The other Mermaid had been exhausted and close to falling asleep sitting up at the table. For that first hour Rita had sat holding Veridia's hand while Veridia listened to her many complaints about the essays. There had been many, many complaints and most ended up being in Spanish, which Veridia only spoke a few words of.

Rita left her stuff sitting out and walked slowly to her room, Poseidon following. Once outside her room she opened the door carefully and slipped quietly in. Poseidon darting in ahead of her before padding calmly over to her bed, and settling on his own bed underneath her's.

Veridia was lying sleeping on her side facing the far wall. Rita smiled, glad Veridia was asleep. Veridia didn't need to see her stupid smile as she looked at the woman she loved. Rita kicked her slippers off, each landing a little ways in front of her. She kneeled down and sorted them out so they sat perfectly aligned with each other.

She carefully walked over to the bed, the thick carpet hiding her footfalls. Once at the edge of the bed she lifted the duvet and climbed in. Rita turned onto her side to face Veridia. She lifted her hand and lightly traced Veridia's cheekbone. The Mermaid stirred and opened her eyes.

"Sorry," Rita whispered.

Veridia moved, leaning up against the pillows. Rita always had them in an L shape against the headboard and wall. Veridia held out her arm. Rita shifted in close and rested her head on Veridia's chest, her arm across Veridia's stomach resting on her hip. Veridia wrapped her arm around Rita.

"Goodnight," Rita whispered. She closed her eyes and focused on Veridia's steady breathing. The other Mermaid was already sleeping again. She was always like that, able to fall asleep in an instant while Rita tended to struggle to get to sleep. It was easier when Veridia was there, a lot of things were easier when Veridia was there.

She fell asleep not much later listening to Veridia's heartbeat and one repeating thought.

"I love you."

See, I can write light hearted stuff. Not often but I can.

Happy Pride Month, and I hope you enjoyed this latest one-shot.

I have posted this on my tumblr, (mako-and-tails- and-stuff) in case anyone's also seen it on there