An: 42. Appropriate as the day I was meant to be posting this was Towel Day! Do you know where your towel is? (it was also the day of the Glorious Revolution of Treacle Mine Road. Truth! Justice! Freedom! Reasonably Priced Love! And a hard-boiled egg.

Vastra woke before Jenny, a rare occurrence. The young woman was still curled up beside her but the covers had slipped and Vastra could see the outlines of her shoulder blades and the muscles that had developed from their training. She reached out to trace them but her cold fingers made Jenny twitch and roll over.

"Wot?" she asked drowsily.

"Nothing." Vastra smiled.

Jenny looked at her for a while, trying to figure out if Vastra meant that or was teasing Jenny about her own use of "Nuffin'". "You cold?" she asked, wriggling over to wrap her arms around Vastra, snuggling further under the covers, feeling chilled herself with the cold morning air on her bare skin.

"No."

"Hmph." Jenny snorted in disbelief.

"You're none too warm yourself." Vastra pointed out, having seen the goosebumps on Jenny's skin.

Jenny grunted but she was cold and snuggling into Vastra was doing nothing to preserve her body heat. She sat up, wiped at her eyes to rid them of sleep dust and then hauled a blanket around her to preserve some modesty as well as body heat.

The action amused Vastra as she curled up in the remaining blankets and watched her little ape build up the fire, fascinated as she never had been before by the small actions this required. The absent-minded brushing the hair behind the ear, the arm stretching and shovelling coal, the annoyed brushing coal dust off the blanket. She committed them all to memory.

Jenny glanced over to the bed, feeling Vastra's eyes on her. The look of intense study in Vastra's eyes reminded her of last night and the way the Silurian had gazed at her. It made her strangely uncomfortable, such frank observation.

"I'm goin' fer a bath." Jenny stood up suddenly, grabbed a towel and walked towards the door, still draped in the blanket.

"Is that an invitation?" Vastra quirked her head.

The slammed bedroom door indicated a firm no. Vastra sighed. It seemed Jenny preferred non-verbal communication after all.

By the time the Silurian made it downstairs, having finally abandoned the warmth of the blankets; Jenny was having breakfast with the urchins. Among them was a face Vastra recognised.

"You!" she spat, frozen in the doorway.

"Oi. I said she could. Invited her here in the first place din't I." Jenny said pointedly without looking at the Silurian. "Gonna be 'elpin' us out ain't yer Peggy?" she handed the newest Irregular a hard-boiled egg.

Peggy nodded furiously.

"She got you lost!" Vastra snarled.

"I got found again." Jenny shrugged. "So no eatin' 'er."

Vastra's head went back in surprise at the blasé attitude. Apparently apes could be matter of fact about being eaten but not about sex. She turned to glower at Peggy.

"I did say sorry." Peggy piped up.

Jenny sighed as Vastra slammed the kitchen door behind her. Well she supposed she deserved that one for this morning. She'd been amazed at Peggy's nerve, turning back up and asking for breakfast but she had invited Peggy to join them and someone who had a connection to Underworlds and Belows would be very handy if their cases took a supernatural turn.

After she'd sent the Irregulars off for a brief reconnoitre and induction for Peggy, she went down to the basement. Vastra would probably wish to train after all and Jenny wanted to look at those swords again. Something about the cool metal enticed her.

Vastra wasn't in the basement when Jenny went down there, dressed in her best fighting outfit. She went immediately to the table and took the short sword, drawing it out of its sheath. It was heavy in her arms but the weight felt balanced, comfortable enough. She went through a few stances in slow motion; feeling a thrill at holding something so deadly. Her mind returned to Vastra. She shook her head but it seemed impossible to stop thinking of the Silurian today. And what they'd done. She returned to a basic stance, trying to focus but a small cough made her jump and nearly drop the blade.

"I thought we were training with wooden swords first." Vastra looked at her, half amused, half severely unimpressed. "You are like a hatchling, wanting to use the 'real swords' from the start." She relieved Jenny of the blade and placed it back on the rack before moving to the cupboard and taking out two wooden ones. "These are slightly heavier, but they will build up better strength and control."

The wooden sword was a dead weight to Jenny, heavier and more cumbersome than her blade. Her eyes twitched longingly to the sword on the rack but the clack of Vastra's sword against hers brought her attention back to the task at hand.

"Ready?" The brief question was all the warning she got before Vastra began.

That night Vastra curled up behind Jenny, expecting to sleep as they had the night before but the human winced away at her touch and she retreated; hurt and puzzled. But it was a clear enough communication. She pondered as she watched Jenny's sleeping form what the ape was feeling. She remembered Jenny's shock when she'd woken in Vastra's bed for the first time. Perhaps it was an ape thing. Despite their activities down alleys, they seemed very prudish. But she did not wish to make Jenny uncomfortable.

Vastra realised her mistake four days later on New Year's Eve when she walked in on the little ape changing and saw long green-yellow bruises on her abdomen and across her ribs; the results of several days of unforgiving training by the Silurian. But Jenny hadn't complained about being in pain and Vastra was shocked that the training had hurt the ape so badly. It'd been standard Silurian training.

"Jenny!" Vastra said reprovingly as she strode across the bedroom floor.

Jenny twitched and tried to cover herself up; not in any shame at Vastra walking in on her but to try and hide the bruises.

Vastra tugged her arms away impatiently, tutting as she inspected them.

"Do they hurt?"

Jenny shrugged and then winced as Vastra ran fingers over her ribs. "A lil bit."

Vastra must've been practicing unimpressed glares because that was one to rival her own, Jenny thought.

"Tell me next time." Vastra retrieved a small pot of some odious goo from her chest and instructed Jenny to hold her arms above her head as she smeared it on Jenny's ribs. "I know you want to progress onto using the real swords as soon as possible but this," she gestured with goo-covered fingers, "will not help you to that goal. You're hardly progressing slowly that you need to worry. I did not realise apes bruised so easily." Vastra sighed, feeling no small amount of guilt at having hurt Jenny.

Jenny was silent, struck by the fact that Vastra was so worried and also distracted by the feel of Vastra's fingers.

"Jenny, communication is not only vital during…"

"I know." Jenny cut her off, moving away to the wardrobe.

Vastra quirked her head having been left kneeling on the floor. "You do not like the word."

"S'not somethin' that gets mentioned that casually."

"I see." Vastra got up, brushing off her dress. "You are…ashamed?"

"Not of you!" Jenny said hastily. "Never of you. But me…I mean, what am I even like ey? That I just…what does that make me?" She sighed and got dressed ready to go about her duties for the day. Parker was still on an extended holiday and the urchins were only willing to help out so much around the house. Or indeed were able to without making more of a mess.

Vastra sat on the bed, thinking. To act, consensually, on desire was a matter of fact thing for a Silurian but it seemed to an ape, it was something to be ashamed of, hidden away or treated with disgust.

And of course, with apes, they were meant to be married before sex happened, she remembered as she made tea for herself. Vastra had found that out when a member of the circus had had to go on emergency leave and then there had been a wedding. George had made the wedding clothes and had explained to Vastra what the fuss was about. But Jenny had said, for people like her, marriage was not something that could happen. Same sex unions were not allowed. The two friends of Jenny's who had been locked up for being together. Vastra wondered whether the image of the asylum was haunting Jenny or whether it was more that they weren't officially together. The Silurian sipped tea thoughtfully as she contemplated what she could do to reassure the ape. There was little she could do about the asylum. Bank accounts and legal assurances hadn't done much it appeared to convince Jenny they were together. Her hand idly fingered her beads and a thought struck her. She grinned, calling out to Jenny that she was going out and flinging her veil on, walked out into the market.

Jenny wiped sweat from her forehead. Vastra had forbidden her to do much more than basic stretches and exercises but even they, done properly, were enough to work up a sweat. She hissed as she stretched her ribs. The goo had helped but they were still tender. She had a bath, wondering where Vastra had got to. The house seemed far too big with just one person in it. She'd noticed that when Vastra had gone to Egypt. How the space echoed and time echoed with it, minutes drawing out ever more slowly into hours. It had gotten dark a long while back and she hoped Vastra hadn't got too cold.

The Silurian burst through the door, shivering violently and Jenny leapt up to guide her through to the dining room fire, relieving her of a soaked cloak.

When she returned from hanging it up in the hallway she spotted a small parcel underneath the Christmas tree. Vastra flashed a toothy grin at her when she saw Jenny had noticed it.

"Wos that then? S'New Year's Eve, not Christmas." Jenny frowned.

"A present." Vastra said in a light-hearted tone. She was freezing, a very pale shade of yellow but it had been worth it. If Jenny liked it.

"Another one? Thought the swords…"

"This is a special present. A better present than cold metal." Vastra gratefully took the blankets Jenny proffered and curled into them. The cloak she'd bought when they moved to Paternoster Row was a decent enough one and had kept most of the damp off her clothes that she didn't need to change them.

"I like me swords." Jenny protested. "If I ever get to use 'em."

"Patience, my dear." Vastra rolled her eyes towards the ceiling. "Well?"

Jenny gave in and picked up the package, undoing it to reveal a small piece of flint on a cord of leather.

Mixed emotions filled her. Happiness at a piece of flint, sadness at the lost original piece, touched that Vastra had thought to buy her a new one but guilty knowing it wasn't the same.

"I know this cannot replace your flint. That it had been on journeys with you that cannot be replaced." The Silurian got up to stand by her. "But I wished to get you a new piece. For the new journeys. Together." She quirked her head, an earnest expression on her face, hoping that Jenny understood.

Tears filled Jenny's eyes and she flung her arms around Vastra, to the Silurian's delight. Vastra hugged her back fiercely, causing a muffled squeak of pain from Jenny.

"Me ribs." She explained, not releasing Vastra as the Silurian made to move away.

"Do you like it?" Vastra moved back, draping her blankets round Jenny as well.

"I love it. Thank you."

Jenny's voice was rather muffled by the blankets but Vastra still heard her and she grinned, smug and satisfied.

"I wished to give you something. To remind you that you are a Flint, as ever." She explained. "But that this particular Flint…" she hooked a finger into the necklace and held the stone between her fingers. "…is mine." She whispered, before kissing Jenny.

"Oi." But Jenny couldn't be that displeased at being called Vastra's and kissed her back.

Jenny woke up in the middle of the night and looked down at the shadowy figure of the Silurian tucked into her side, head nuzzled against her breast, nose almost touching the flint around Jenny's neck and a scaled hand clutching her nightgown. The human eating formidable warrior lizard woman looked…cute. The thought that only she got to see Vastra in such a defenceless state made her feel possessive. She pressed a cheek firmly against Vastra's head crests.

"Mine." She whispered.

An: Akin to the seagulls in Finding Nemo… Mine.