An: Cos I might not say it back.

Vastra strode idly from room to room as she waited for Jenny to return, reflecting back on the past few days. Part of her was glad Jenny had left; it gave her time to think of how to respond. The Doctor's advice echoed in her mind. "You let 'er get away once. Don't be stupid again…Be careful ey?" This time, if she was not careful, Jenny would leave. But there were things she had to make sure Jenny understood. Not least that if Vastra decided to be with her, the Silurian would be leaving much behind.

But in a way, hadn't she already? Living with Jenny like this. The legal declarations. All those kisses. Vastra could not claim ignorance on the meaning of kisses within ape society; she knew precisely what she was doing kissing Jenny. And her society was a million years away or gone. And Jenny was…not gone. Just getting tea. Not gone. But she had been gone. Had so very nearly ended up gone.

Vastra keened nervously, moving back to the kitchen, agitatedly walking up and down the hallway. In the past, such conversations had not gone well and she was now anxious that she would, as the Doctor had warned her against, be stupid again.

Jenny dawdled over buying the tea. She hadn't really expected Vastra to say it back but she'd expected some kind of response. Something. Even a refusal. The Silurian hadn't even blustered. Using the tea as an excuse to escape was childish in a way, but she couldn't have stood there waiting. She wondered if she'd finally disgusted Vastra. A part of her had been waiting for a while for that to happen. And apes already disgusted Vastra. An ape falling in love with her might well do it. But what about a Silurian falling in love with an ape? Vastra had read poetry at her. Kissed her. Jenny was an exception to Vastra's rule; the Silurian had told her that in Japan. And she'd gotten upset at Jenny calling her a friend. Jenny had said quite truthfully there wasn't really a word for what they were. She wondered briefly if there was a word in Silurian society. Perhaps she'd ask. But Vastra hated questions about Silurians, getting angry every time Jenny questioned her. Jenny had given up in the end and the Silurian never explained voluntarily.

That was Vastra's problem, Jenny thought as she paid for the tin. She just did things. She never explained any of it. Vastra had the advantage of having lived among apes. Jenny still had no clue about how Silurian society worked. And even after nearly a year together, Jenny still struggled to read Vastra instinctively, hampered by a sheer lack of knowledge of where the Silurian was coming from.

The only thing she did know for certain was that, having watched Jenny walk out again, Vastra would be worried. So she hurried home.

Vastra was sitting stiffly at the kitchen table looking uncomfortable when Jenny burst through the door. The Silurian didn't like upright chairs, she was a natural lounger. Jenny swallowed and moved into the kitchen. She'd rushed all the way back and hadn't left any time for sorting out what she was going to say. At a loss she clattered around making tea once more. After all, she'd made her declaration; it was Vastra's turn to say something. Maybe this time the Silurian would explain.

"Jenny." Vastra said quietly, once Jenny was struggling to find things to clink.

"Yes?" Jenny turned round, nervously twisted a tea towel in her hands. She threw it onto the side in irritation but her hands merely twisted into her apron instead.

"Do you understand what that means?"

"What?"

"When you say that…"

Jenny went very still and narrowed her eyes. "What d'yer mean, do I understand?" she asked in cold, quiet voice.

"I am a Silurian. I am over two hundred years old."

"I sort of gathered that, yeah."

"I am not human, Jenny."

"No! There was me thinkin' you just had a skin problem." Jenny bit back sarcastically.

"Jenny!" Vastra's unexpectedly stern tone brought the young woman up sharp. "I need you to understand this."

"I do!"

"Do you?" Vastra snorted.

"So yer different. So yer a Silurian. So what?" Jenny prodded, trying to get an explanation. Jess's words came back to her. "Unless they don't 'ave love in Silurian Land."

"So I am not an ape. I cannot love you in an ape way. And among Silurians, apes are little more than food."

"I ain't an ape." Jenny said through gritted teeth.

"To them, you would be."

"To them! And you?"

"I lived among Silurians for over two hundred years. I AM a Silurian."

"Right." Jenny spat, turning away from Vastra and gripping the sink edge with her hands. "Right. I think I understand now."

"Don't sulk! I'm trying to explain."

"An' you've made yerself pretty damn clear!" Jenny spun around, knocking a cup onto the floor in anger. "What more d'you want me to do? Listen to you endlessly recite all the reasons why Silurians hate apes so you can't be with me? A simple thanks but no thanks woulda done! Yer don't need to stand there like a statue of someone who got slapped in the face with a fish y'know? Jus' cos an ape said they loved you." She stormed towards the doorway, jaw clenched to stop herself from crying.

"It is not as simple as that!" Vastra cried out as she got up, her chair clattering to the flagstones as she grabbed Jenny's arm. "I care about you. Deeply. But I have two hundred years telling me this," she gestured between them, "is an abomination. I would be locked up, as your friends were locked up in an asylum for being together."

"But you ain't livin' there no more." Jenny shrugged her arm out of Vastra's grasp. "This ain't Silurian Land!"

"I know. But that is still a part of me." Vastra covered her face with her hand. "You said it was scary. The idea of telling me. Because I am, and I quote, 'an ape-eating, ape-hating lizard'. You said you love me. That part too?"

Jenny's head jerked in surprise as she finally realised what Vastra was getting at. "Oh you stupid bloody lizard!" she almost laughed. "I've lived with yer nigh on a bleedin' year now Vastra, s'not like I din't know. An' yeah it was scary. Not cos yer a lizard an' I thought yer might eat me." She stepped closer to Vastra, gently tugging down the Silurian's arm and staring her in the eyes. "But cos I thought I'd lose yer. An' thas the scariest thing in the world ter me, more'n dogs or Kraal or cybermen, the thought of losing you."

"Oh." Vastra blinked, attempting to look as if this were not news to her. The admission touched her deeply, more so in some ways than the confession of love.

"S'not like you tellin' me that yer different and yer a Silurian and that you eat apes…s'hardly disillusionin' me y'know? I still don't know nuffin' about Silurians, but I know that much about you at least. An' I still don't care. Like you said in Japan. My morality is flawed. You're an exception to a rule."

"It will still be different from what you are expecting. The differences…" Vastra began.

"'old up." Jenny held up her hands to stop Vastra. "Firstly, 'oo says I'm expectin' anythin' let alone what I'm expectin'? And secondly, "will"?"

"Well, I mean any relationship would obviously…for Silurians, it is not…relationships do not happen the same way as they do for apes…"

And here was the bluster, thought Jenny. Her lips quirked. It was cute in a way.

"…partners can be as close as they wish to be, sex is based off of mutual attraction…"

Sex. Now there was a thought. Jenny's mind wandered.

"…there is no linear progression involving marriage and children…"

"Wot?" The words jerked Jenny's attention back to Vastra's rambling. "Marriage?"

Something of her shock must've shown in her face for Vastra asked "You do not wish to be married?"

Jenny gaped wordlessly at Vastra as she tried to think of a response that didn't include the word "no" but wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the idea either.

"Maybe we should try y'know…courtin' or somethin' first." Her voice had gone strangely high pitched again. "Fer a bit say. Try it out like. Y'know. Bein' together. Officially. Sort of." Her bluster wasn't half as good as Vastra's, she thought miserably.

"Oh! Courting. As in mating rituals?" Vastra's expression cleared.

Something about the way Vastra said mating rituals reminded Jenny that she still didn't know anything about Silurian society. "Possibly." She hedged warily. "More like…we live together."

"We already do that."

"An' y'know…share stuff."

"We do that too. Legally now."

"An' we're special to each other."

"I have already told you that you are special to me."

"Well then maybe we've bin steppin' out fer the past year and never realised it." Jenny said, piqued. "I mean there's never really bin much...linear progression fer people like me either. Carn't get married. Carn't 'ave kids. An' it's difficult livin' together without raisin' suspicion."

"Hence the maid and mistress set up."

"Yeah. So I ain't got a clue is what I'm sayin'." Jenny sighed, slumping forward slightly.

"Hm." Vastra hummed. "In this…being together. Can there be kissing?"

"If you want."

"No mistletoe?"

"You burnt it."

"No excuses?"

"'ow about we kiss jus' cos we like kissin' each other."

Vastra grinned. It was her "I've been plotting and you've just cottoned on" grin. "Yes." She said, sticking her chin in the air. "I think that would be acceptable."

Jenny got the feeling Vastra had been waiting for her to say that, as she'd been waiting for Jenny to voice the idea of robbing the bank.

"D'yer like kissin' me then?" It slipped out.

"As an 'ape-hating lizard' do you think I would if I didn't?"

"So all this time…"

"I have lived among apes for a while now. Your excuses were…amusing." Vastra was still grinning.

Jenny wanted to wipe it off her face. "You said that in Silurian society, people c'ld be as close or as far apart as they liked. With bein' together, 'ow close would yer like to be?" she asked, taking a step forward, thinking the Silurian would retreat and start blustering again.

Vastra once again felt that strange tug within her. She stepped forward until she was almost touching Jenny and then leaned over and whispered in her ear

"I would like to be very close indeed…little ape." She stood upright to observe Jenny's expression, her grin showing all her teeth.

It was Jenny's turn to look somewhat akin to a statue of someone who'd been slapped in the face by a fish. Possibly something the size of shark. She tried to say something but her mouth had gone very dry all of a sudden. Sex had been a thought. A brief meander. But Vastra's voice made into a vivid novel, the type that might get serialised in the Strand. Well not in the Strand. Not this type of novel. Jenny was a Flint and the way Vastra had whispered struck something within her that had started a small fire.

"Oh." Her voice had gone strange again.

Vastra must've misread her because the Silurian did retreat now. "Unless you do not wish to of course. I understand. I am not…human. There will be differences. And I…"

Jenny tugged her close again, looking straight into Vastra's blue eyes as she placed her hands gently on the Silurian's cheeks.

"It'll be you. That'll do me."

An: Literally.