A/N:
Hey guys, I want to thank you all immensely for your patience. I know it's been absolutely ages. It's just been one health nightmare after another for me right now. My main issues at the moment are that I've had an infection for months that hasn't responded to medications, my chronic pain has reached mammoth new levels and spread into my shoulders (this makes typing extremely difficult) and I now have blurred vision even though my eyes are healthy so the doctor thinks it might be neurological (still waiting for MRI results). The blurred vision is the most frustrating because it makes writing/proof-reading really hard because I'm concentrating so much on trying to see the words that it's hard to actually take in what I'm reading/writing - and since it's not my eyes, glasses don't help. So I've been working on this story in tiny increments and that's why it's taking so long. Thankfully, I already had the drafts for the next ten chapters written up so I haven't been starting from scratch but I proofread a chapter about 10-13 times before posting and rework a lot. But because of my vision problems (and some serious brain fog) it's taking twenty times as long to do that and it's not going as smoothly. I'm not sure what the quality of my writing is going to be like from here on out, especially after we get past those drafts. But long story short, I don't know how frequent updates will be. I don't think it'll be months like with this one but I seem to be getting a new health problem every week so I can't be certain of anything right now. I was so close to posting this chapter a while ago and then my vision got a lot worse and I couldn't manage it, so I've realized that I can't really plan anything anymore. Real sorry about this.
On another note, I've been going back through the older chapters and attempting to proofread/tighten them up a little because I needed to remind myself of everything that's happened (my memory has completely gone so that has also made writing very hard). I haven't made it through the whole fic yet but I'm up to the 20s so everything before then has been proofread. It's something that I like to do with all my stories after a while because I pick up mistakes that I missed the first time around and sometimes think of better ways of saying things. And I did add a new paragraph or so in one of the earlier chapters but nothing consequential or that needs to be read.
On a brighter note, this chapter is a bit lighter than the last few.
so originally, this was meant to be one chapter but I've ended up splitting it into three parts since it's taking me longer to write/proofread at the moment and this way I can update quicker.
Again, thankyou all so much for your patience.
"Raven? I need your help with something."
"Sure thing, what's - ah, woah!" Raven's eyes widened as soon as she looked up. "Holy hell."
Luna's mouth twitched. "That seems something of an oxymoron."
Raven was too busy staring to register. "What happened to your clothes?" Sure, she was wearing a towel but it really wasn't doing all that much for what remained of Raven's sanity.
Luna's amusement seemed to be growing by the second. "Well, I wasn't going to shower in them."
Right, shower. Towel. That made sense.
A hell of a lot more sense than her brain was making at the moment.
Clothes were not shower compatible.
Or they were, if you were determined enough, but. . .
Her eyes tracked the scoop of Luna's collarbone, following the path lower, lower. . . until she came to the very edge of the towel, unable to look away from the deceptively benign material that rose and fell, straining against the flesh within. This was unbearable enough but then Raven made the mistake of letting her gaze drift even lower, to the bare skin just above Luna's knees and-
She blinked, snapping her attention back up.
Fuck.
Come on, Reyes, what the hell is wrong with you? You've seen people in way less.
And the towel was a pretty long one (thank god) so, really, there was no excuse for her reaction.
She just. . .
Really needed to get laid.
Clearly.
"You said you needed my help with something?" It was at this point that Raven's wonderful brain took the opportunity to assault her mind with all the ways she could 'help' Luna.
Now would be a really good time for one of those seizures.
The other woman nodded, not seeming nearly as bothered by their current predicament (it was fucking annoying), and glanced back towards the direction she'd come. "The controls, they're. . . confusing."
"Right. Of course." That also made sense. Luna was still going through a sharp learning curve when it came to technology and whilst the control panel in the shower wasn't too different from what they'd had on the Ark, Raven could easily see how foreign it would appear to someone who'd grown up without that kind of technology.
It wasn't like you could just twist a tap and - hallelujah! - nice warm shower of water at your service.
Hell, she'd caught Jackson helping Miller out with it the other day - though, that might have just been an excuse to flirt.
"I can help with that." Unfortunately.
Luna didn't seem as confident of this - probably because Raven had been malfunctioning ever since she'd entered the room - but nodded and turned to leave. "Thankyou."
It took a moment for her to remember that she was sort of expected to follow - she'd wasted too many precious seconds staring at the back of Luna's naked legs as she walked away. Well, not exactly wasted. . .
"Right! Um, coming."
What the fuck is wrong with you?
She'd seen plenty of legs before. A multitude of legs. So many legs she was leg-ed out. So what if she was having a little bit of trouble processing Luna's? That was only because she'd never had the chance to see her without pants that didn't cover the full length of those wonderfu- totally average legs. Not to mention, a part of Raven had half expected to find a pair of fins sticking out of there instead. Or a mermaid tail. Something appropriately fishy - and hopefully smelly - that would put her off this attraction for good.
Yep, that was it.
Absolutely.
Hell, she'd seen Clarke undress a couple of times and had never reacted like this. And you and I both know that you used to have the littlest bit of a crush on her.
Raven grumbled under her breath, not exactly happy to be reminded of that.
At least Luna still had a towel on. The same could not have been said for Clarke and her birthday suit.
And yet she'd been so much less flustered back then.
Which could only mean...
No, wait, stop it. You are not going to fall for a girl just because she beat you at chess!
Loads of girls can do that. You may not have met them yet but, still, loads!
Other than that, what does Luna have to recommend her?
She smells nice.
Wait, no-
Her hair is fucking breathtaking.
Abort-
And her hands are soft.
Abort, fucking abort-
And her voice is-
This was bad.
This was really, really bad.
What if she wasn't just attracted to Luna?
What if she actually had a whole ass crush on her?
Unacceptable.
Un-fucking-acceptable.
You're dying.
The world is ending.
You don't have time for a crush of all things.
You. Do. Not. Have. A. Crush.
You're sexually frustrated and Luna is hot.
There's a difference.
But, God, Raven hadn't even been this awkward with Finn during the fledgling stage of their romantic relationship, back when she'd first started to suspect that her feelings for him went well beyond platonic. That had been a nerve-wracking revelation but she'd weathered it well. Kept a cool head. Only blushed a few times.
Certainly hadn't walked into a door frame because she was too busy staring at his ass.
"Ow, fuck!" Raven rubbed her smarting brow as Luna turned back to look at her with startled alarm.
This was quite possibly the most humiliating thing that had ever happened to her.
"Are you alright?"
The fact that Luna actually seemed concerned made the flush rising in her cheeks all the more consuming.
Raven wanted to melt into the carpet, or shoot through the ceiling. One of the above. Anything to get her out of this embarrassing clusterfuck of a situation.
Those seizures are such assholes. Always coming at the least opportune time and not giving a fucking peep when I actually need them.
Her brain sucked.
It really, really sucked.
(never used to.
Once, it had been the only thing she could rely on)
Raven swallowed. "Fine. Uh, guess I'm just a bit distracted today."
Luna nodded, as if that made perfect sense. "You've had a lot on your mind." You have no idea. "And today was something of an adventure." If that's what you call crashing into a river and nearly drowning the girl you may or may not have a crush on because your brain decided to take a departure the moment you felt- "Here, let me see."
"Oh no, it's-"
But she was already stepping closer and reaching out with a hand, resting it against Raven's chin to angle her face better into the light. Luna's touch was impossibly gentle but sure, like she'd done this a thousand times.
She probably had.
"It's fine. Really."
"Mm," she hummed, turning Raven's head slightly to better inspect her mark of humiliation. "I think you're right. You must have a very hard head." Her lips were drawing up in faint amusement and Raven rolled her eyes.
"Ha ha. My head is brilliant. And beautiful."
That smile deepened. "Yes, it is."
Mercifully, she released Raven's chin just as her face started to become engulfed in flames. With her luck, Luna would think she had a fever and call Abby or Jackson in here to witness her in her disgrace.
"Yours is pretty okay too," she grumbled, for lack of anything better to say.
But Luna accepted the remark with an indulgent smile before turning away once more. "Thankyou, Raven."
The towel had dropped slightly during the commotion, the planes of her back creeping further into view.
Lord, kill me now.
A few minutes later, they stood outside the shower, Luna running her through what exactly the problem was. "The first attempt spat out this funny smelling air." Yeah, the perfume assault. She'd fallen victim to it too. "The second attempt only shot out water from down there." She pointed to a couple of spots on the floor - Raven had her own suspicions about what those could have been engineered for. Naughty Becca. "I know technology. I lived on an oil rig for years. But this is. . ." Luna shook her head. "I don't understand why there have to be so many buttons just to make water come out of that." She pointed up to the showerhead.
It was a fair question.
"Oh yeah. Human beings - we love to make things complicated." Still better than our love for destroying everything in sight. Raven turned away from the object of frustration to regard the other woman. "Have you used any kind of shower before?"
She didn't want to make any assumptions and she needed to know what she was working with.
Luna nodded. "There was a room on the oil rig that had many."
"Like a communal type thing?"
Another nod. "It wasn't anything as elaborate as this," she gestured at the shower, "but it took the water from the sea and filtered it."
Raven couldn't help but be impressed. "Desalination. Cool. Can't believe it was still working after all these years."
"It wasn't. But we fiddled around and eventually got it operational again." Luna grew silent.
The look on her face was one Raven had grown far too familiar with in the time she'd known her. It was a look of both longing and grief, and Luna only succumbed to it when she was talking about her clan or former home. She suspected it was probably a good idea not to push the subject any further. She didn't enjoy bearing witness to the other woman's pain and she doubted it was much fun on Luna's end either.
In her experience, the best defense against pain was pretending like hell it didn't exist. Unhealthy, maybe, but it had gotten her this far.
Raven cleared her throat. "Well, there's a lot going on in this particular shower," she said, turning back to face the source of her troubles tonight, "but once you know how it works, it's pretty simple."
"I'll take your word for it." Luna seemed amused but far from convinced and Raven shrugged, spending the next five minutes taking her through each step - and yelping every time a jet of water decided to assault her head (Luna smiled a little too obscenely in those instances, apparently delighting in her misfortune - and if Raven sometimes pressed a few buttons accidentally on purpose just to get that smile to come out a little more, she would never admit to it).
"Thankyou for this," she murmured once Raven had finally succeeded in her struggle against the impertinent faucet.
Drawing back from the shower, the mechanic rubbed her hands together awkwardly, running through the best ways to beat a hasty retreat - though a part of her didn't want to leave.
Raven still didn't know why she was this flustered. Even if what she felt for Luna qualified as a crush - which it very emphatically did not - she'd experienced plenty of crushes before. None of them had left her a bumbling idiot, near incapable of performing coherent speech. On the contrary, she could be downright suave and flirtatious when the moment called for it.
But Raven wasn't delusional enough to believe she would ever achieve the same around Luna.
What the fuck are you doing to me?
"Yeah, don't mention it," she said, looking away. She didn't want to risk Luna reading the conflict on her face, or worse, detecting the cause of it. A thought occurred to Raven, interrupting her agitation. "Wait, how have you been washing all this time then?"
Luna shrugged. "The showers at the lab are far simpler and I've spent more time there." It didn't escape Raven's notice that the reason she had been spending so much time at the lab lately was because of her. "This is the first time I've attempted one of these."
Made sense. Raven had been using the showers at the lab, too. More convenient. But on her first night here in the mansion she hadn't been able to resist the temptation posed by the haven of wet heat in her own bedroom - and she couldn't deny that it had been a holy experience.
Raven's eyes flickered towards the large tub also contained in the bathroom, wondering why Luna hadn't just used that upon growing frustrated with the shower's overly complicated control system.
But maybe she was just a shower girl. Raven could get that.
Okay granted she'd never actually had a bath in her life - showers all the way on the Ark - but they seemed tedious as hell. Also boring as fuck. Way too long. Like what were you even supposed to do in them? Just sit around twiddling your thumbs? Like she had that kind of time - or patience. She was more of a hop-in, hop-out kind of girl.
Plus, the thought of seeing all the grime that would eventually accumulate, floating in the water around her, made Raven's stomach turn. Bathing in your own filth would never be appealing to her. Not in a thousand years.
Nah, showers were superior.
And Luna was superior for apparently sharing this understanding.
"Anyway, I'll leave you to it." Raven clapped her hands together, all but darting out of the room as fast as her leg would allow.
Luna didn't stop her. Thank god.
She was going to need a cold shower after this.
A fucking freezing one.
