A New Beginning

"I can't believe it's actually ours." Anne said as she held the keys to their first home. The three of them hesitated before the large front door. Marcy reached out to turn the handle and they all stepped inside. Despite having toured the home several times they stared around as if seeing it for the first time.

"It's so big." Marcy said, slightly overwhelmed stepping into the spacious living room.

"I'm sure it will feel a little more cozy once we move all our stuff in." Sasha said as she tried to imagine potential layouts. Anne broke away from them to explore the rest of the house. The living room led directly into a combined kitchen and dining room. To her right was their master bedroom and to the left three smaller rooms. She went to the left and peaked into each room. She closed her eyes and envisioned their children choosing a room and decorating it to match their personalities. Sasha and Marcy wandered over and found her.

"I wonder which one the little guy will want." Sasha said, looking into the identically blank rooms.

"I'm thinking neutral colors for three of the walls and then one accent wall." Marcy said, considering how she would paint each one. "It might be easier to choose if they have different colored accent walls."

"You're the artist." Sasha shrugged. Marcy stepped into one of the rooms and tried to picture how the light from the window would play into it. She frowned slightly as she pulled out her phone and started taking notes.

"I'm going to start moving stuff in." Sasha said, jerking her thumb back to the front door.

"I'll help in just a minute." Anne promised before Sasha left. The light from the early morning sun was just starting to creep through the windows. Marcy had suggested that they move in early so that they could have the place mostly set up before her parents dropped off their kid. Anne headed to the master bedroom. She looked at the doorframe and wondered how they would fit their new overlarge mattress through it. She glanced out the window to see Sasha opening the back of the moving van.

"Hey Anne?" Marcy asked as she knocked on the doorframe. Anne turned around. "Do you mind if I help you two later? I think I found the wall for our mural."

"Which one?" Anne asked as she followed her out. She pointed to the living room wall across from their bedroom door.

"I hope it's not too much. It's the biggest wall and we'll get to see it every morning." Marcy said, chewing her lip. Anne wrapped an arm around her and gave her a squeeze as she kissed her on the cheek.

"I think it's perfect." Anne grinned, making her blush. Sasha walked in with the first couple of boxes. She set them down on the kitchen counter and glanced over at them.

"What are we looking at?" She asked, joining them.

"That wall for Marcy's mural." Anne said pointing. Sasha stared at it for a minute before nodding.

"Perfect spot. It'll be nice to see every morning." Sasha commented, making Marcy beam.

"That's what I thought." Marcy said, beckoning her closer for a quick kiss. Sasha smiled and looked pleased with herself.

"You know, I said it'd look good first." Anne teased as she tickled Marcy. She giggled and tried to escape Anne.

"Oh my god. You two can be cute later." Sasha said, rolling her eyes. "But first help me bring stuff in you dorks." Anne stopped chasing Marcy to gasp in mock offense.

"Language!" Anne pretended to scold. Sasha narrowed her eyes. In one swift movement she lifted Anne's arms, squatted down, wrapped her arms under her buttocks, and hoisted her over her shoulder. It happened so fast that Anne was confused how she ended up in this position.

"Great, you're going to help me bring boxes in." Sasha said as she marched to the front door with Anne over her shoulder. Sasha turned back to face Marcy before she exited. "You're next." She said with a wink and a smirk. Marcy felt flustered as her temperature rose.

"Okay, you can put me down now." Anne laughed nervously. Sasha ignored her and carried her to the backdoor of the moving van. She gently set her down on her feet and climbed into the back. A moment later she started piling boxes into Anne's arms.

"These go in the kitchen. The next load will be for the family room. I gotta get these boxes out of the way so we can get to the couch." Sasha said and kissed her on the cheek.

"Right, got it." Anne said blushing. After a while Anne returned to see a fair amount of boxes sitting on their driveway. Sasha hopped out with another set. She set them down and stretched.

"I got them semi-sorted." She explained as she motioned to two small piles. "Help me grab the couch and then we can bring these in." She lifted the hem of her shirt and pulled it up to wipe the sweat from her brow. Anne sputtered as she saw Sasha's sculpted abs and black sports bra. "You good?" Sasha asked as she let it fall back down. She noticed Anne's gaze and cocked an eyebrow.

"You did that on purpose." Anne said turning pink as she caught her eye.

"Did what?" Sasha asked amused.

"That!" Anne exclaimed as Sasha lifted it again to wipe sweat from her neck. Sasha smirked and slowly closed the gap between them.

"Work first, then play." She whispered in her ear as she reached down to palm a certain sensitive spot of Anne's shorts. Anne whimpered softly. Sasha promptly turned away as if nothing had transpired and started to push the couch out of the back of the van. "A little help?" She asked, gesturing for Anne to grab the other end. Still flustered, Anne quickly covered the new development making itself known in her shorts.

"Sasha!" She hissed in an embarrassed whisper. "What if the neighbors see?" Sasha considered her for a moment.

"You know what would help cover it? You, carrying the other end of this couch." Sasha said as she patted it. Anne frowned and huffed but moved to help her. Soon they were carrying it towards the front steps. "Speaking of work. Where's Marcy?" She asked as they maneuvered it up them successfully.

"Oh, she wanted to get started on the mural." Anne said as they made their way carefully through the front door. They set it down in the middle of the living room. Sasha looked around to see Marcy unpacking the boxes in the kitchen.

"Mar-mar, I don't think we'll be able to get to your art supplies until we finish unloading the boxes for the living room." Sasha said, walking over and wrapping her around Marcy from behind. She kissed her neck and frowned as Marcy started pulling paint brushes out of a box labeled 'kitchen utensils.'

"I kind of figured you'd want us to unpack the kitchen first, so I maybe, kind of, put my art supplies in them." Marcy said quickly.

"Is that why we have so many boxes for the kitchen?" Anne asked in realization as she strode over and started opening boxes. She started pulling paint out of a box labeled 'spices.'

"I'm sorry!" Marcy squeaked as Sasha squeezed her.

"I should've known." Sasha snorted before kissing her on the cheek. "This was probably like a game of 3D chess for you." She said letting go of her to sift through a box. She pulled out a large pot, lifted the lid, and pulled out a handful of markers. She looked at Marcy and raised her eyebrows in amusement.

"Okay but it was more like a game of Flipwart." Marcy said, trying to bite back a smile. Anne nodded in agreement and Sasha looked confused.

"Flip-what?" She asked, glancing between them. They blinked before both launching into an explanation at the same time.

"Okay, so it was this game back in-" Anne started.

"It's sort of like the chess game from Cynthia Coven where-" Marcy also said.

"-And we were in this temple and Hop Pop-"

"-Basically each piece has their own unique abilities such as-"

"I'm going to need you to stop and explain one at a time." Sasha interrupted them. She looked at Marcy. "Short answer."

"Have you heard of the 2016 strategy board game Kerak or the 1999 board game Checkers 2000?" Marcy began. Sasha turned to Anne.

"Short answer." She asked dryly.

"Do you know the meme Chess 2?" Anne said awkwardly. Sasha nodded and Marcy huffed. "It's sort of like that."

"It's way more advanced than that." Marcy muttered to herself.

"Got it. I take it you played it a lot back in Newtopia?" Sasha said to Marcy.

"It was only my favorite game ever." She said excitedly, "I was surprised Anne didn't play it sooner."

"Hop Pop tried to get me to play it once but-" Anne shrugged, "Eh." Sasha furrowed her brow.

"So this was a popular game? It wasn't just a Newtopian thing?" Sasha asked.

"I could never remember the name. There were so many games." Anne said, looking at Sasha curiously. "Locus Pocus, Cricket Land, Frogopoly-" She said counting on her fingers as she listed them off. "Drawsidoodle…" She trailed off as she recalled the memory. There was an awkward silence.

"Did the toads have a preference for any games in particular?" Marcy inquired as she tried to break the tension. Sasha rubbed her arms uncomfortably.

"I wasn't really interested in games or learning new things when I was there. I mean-" She trailed off and avoided their eyes self-consciously. Anne leaned in to kiss her on the cheek.

"It's okay Sash, we all had very different experiences." Anne reassured her.

"So, uh, maybe you could tell me about it?" Sasha said, as she looked at Marcy. Marcy smiled as she dug through a box to pull out paper. She set about drawing the board and pieces before explaining the rules.