Both Holly and Gail decide to surprise the other by visiting for valentine's day but obviously miss seeing each other. They end up meeting up halfway at a little diner and spend the night at a cheesy motel with themed honeymoon rooms.

Twenty minutes into this journey and Gail was already bored out of her mind. She'd been so excited, so pre-occupied with trying to remember her lingerie and her… well, mainly just her lingerie, but lingerie was important, and it was so pre-occupying she had forgotten how incredibly dull this one hour, fifteen minute train journey could be. And so she had nothing with her to distract herself from the mind numbing boredom. Nothing but lingerie.

She unlocked her phone, re-reading for the fiftieth time the last message from her girlfriend an hour and a half previously. She was at a study group, as she was every Tuesday and Thursday, and Holly's peers had long since banned her from checking her phone during their study time.

Not that Holly would be expecting Gail to engage in much conversation any way, given that as far as she knew Gail wasn't due to finish her shift at the coffee shop for another two hours.

This was it; their first holiday kept apart by their clashing schedules. She had work, Holly had to study. And it wasn't even a real holiday, they'd both agreed on that one. Valentine's day was not something they wantedto make a big deal about, even if they could spend it together, and especially when it was on a Thursday and they were going to be seeing each other at the weekend anyway. So they had decided not to be too upset about it. If they had to be apart, they would be apart.

Except that Gail's supervisor had let her go home half way through her shift, and they no longer had to be apart.

It had only taken half an hour of sitting in her dorm room with nothing to do, for Gail to decide that she needed to get the next train to Toronto.

Her phone lit up in her hands, Holly's name flashing across the screen.

Gail smiled and brought it to her ear. "Hey."

"Are you on a Train to Toronto?"

Gail frowned at her girlfriend's unusual skipping over of greetings. "Happy Valentines to you too, nerd."

"Sorry, happy Valentines. Are you? On the train?"

"Would it be a problem if I was?" Gail asked, defensively.

"No. Well, yes, but no. It's just I'm not in the city."

"Where are you? Don't tell me you have two out of town girlfriends and you're with the other one this year."

"No, no, I'm outside your dorm room." Gail heard the other girl sigh into the phone.

"What are you doing there?"

"I wanted to surprise you when you got home from work. I was waiting outside your door and one of the girls on your corridor walked by and said she thought you'd already left for Toronto for the weekend."

"Oh. Yeah, I have, I finished work early and I figured I could skip class tomorrow and come up early."

"Ah."

"Yeah."

"Sorry, I should have told you I was planning on coming to Hamilton, instead of trying to surprise you, I know you hate surprises."

"Yeah, kind of. But I wouldn't have hated that, you know, if it had worked." Gail sighed, disappointed and slightly confuse "Can you drive back to Toronto?"

Gail heard Holly exhale slowly. "I told Sam she could have the apartment to herself for the night, with her boyfriend."

"Oh."

"Yeah." Holly said slowly. "Can you get off the next stop and get the next train back here?"

"Yeah, I guess. I was kind of hoping to do something nice, though. I suppose now I've got myself set on actually doing Valentines day with you, the idea of eating the crap from my freezer then having sex on my shitty, small, uncomfortable dorm bed is a bit… I don't know…" Gail noticed a slight scowl flicked across the features of the man sat across the carriage from her.

"Underwhelming?"

Gail sighed. "Well, yeah. I mean, not because of you, obviously I'd take being somewhere shitty with you over somewhere nice without, any day. But I kind of had all these things I wanted to do, special things, because it's Valentines…"

"We can still do special things." Gail could almost hear Holly's reassuring smile through the phone, and cursed herself silently for her comparatively unaccommodating attitude towards their evening.

"I know, but my res always smells slightly of puke and it's not very romantic." She took a breath, hoping Holly will cut her off but apparently her girlfriend could sense there was more to be said. "I just… I wanted to do things certain things withyou, and they're the sort of things that we've already found really need more mattress space than my bed provides. One of them, especially." The surly man shots her a glare which Gail matched with equal venom.

Gail heard Holly swallow, loudly. "Oh right. Those kinds of special things."

"And there was going to be other stuff, like chocolates and wine and that, it wasn't just dirty, there was going to be the romantic crap too."

"I thought you hated Valentines day and all associated romantic crap?" Holly teased.

"I do. I just… the more I thought about it, the more it felt like if I was making this stupid surprise, last minute trip up to see you for Valentines, we should be doing it properly."

There was a pause on the other end of the line, and Gail waited nervously for a response.

"Where's your next stop?" Holly eventually asked.

"Uh, Oakville, I think, why?"

"Ok, get off there, I'll meet you at the station. I'm going to work out a surprise that won't fall through."

"Because that's working so well for you?" Gail teased, relieved that she no longer had to be discussing her slightly soppier desires.

"Stop that, or would you rather go to Toronto and have to spend Valentine's at your parents'?"

"Ok, yes, alright. Just hurry up, if you take too long I can't guarantee I won't take solace in someone else's arms- it's cold out there."

"Then don't leave the station, smartass. I'm on my way to the car, I'll be there soon."

"You better." She pouted.

"I will."

Gail waited in Oakville station for 37 minutes before a familiar car turned into the car park. She was certain that she had never before in her life reached the velocity that carried her from the station entrance and through the passenger side door. The enthusiasm with which she threw her arms around her girlfriend's neck is returned with equal vigour, both women twisting awkwardly in their seats, with gear leavers and steering wheels digging uncomfortably into their limbs, not that they really cared.

They parted, eventually, breathless and flushed.

"Hi." Gail whispered.

"Hey you." Holly smiled back. "Happy Valentine's day."

Gail shut her eyes, forehead leant against the other woman's gently. "Happy Valentine's day." She repeated.

They allowed themselves this brief silent moment, just theirs, to breath each other in and feel each other under their hands once more. But then something else emerged at the forefront of Gail's mind.

"Fuck, it smells in this car." She murmured.

"Sorry." Holly replied, letting out a long, resigned breath as she pulled back slightly, scrunching her nose slightly. "Rob's started driving and he and his friends aren't so up on their cleanliness."

"It's ok, as long as your surprise wasn't a camp out in your car?"

Holly laughed gently. "No, that wasn't my plan. I found us somewhere that should have enough room for you to get your Valentine's day kink on."

"It's not that kinky. It could be a lot kinkier."

Holly's eyebrows shot up so fast Gail's eyes could not follow their movement. "I… yeah, ok, that's true."

As she sat, amused, watching Holly squirm, Gail's stomach took the moment to growl loudly.

"Hungry?" Holly asked.

"Just a tad. Can we put off the dirty sex for half an hour or so?"

"I think it's relatively common to have dinner together before jumping into bed together on Valentine's day, Gail. Of course we can eat first. There was a diner back up the road we can try, I think most restaurants will be booked up."

"Greasy burger and fries on Valentine's day?"

"Sorry, it's not very romantic." Holly offered sincerely.

"What, no, it sounds perfect! It's amazing. You're amazing. Thank you." Gail leans in for one more heartfelt kiss before another loud grumble from a stomach pulled her away to allow her girlfriend to drive them in the direction of food.

The diner was, as Holly predicted, not hugely romantic. She tried ordering a shared milkshake, explaining that it may make it feel more like a date, but 90% of the milkshake ended up going up Gail's straw and Holly had to order another one for herself anyway.

Then there was the fact that watching Gail eat a burger was the most inelegant, unerotic thing Holly had ever seen. Or at least that's what Holly had told her at least seven times so far in the six months they had been together, so whilst she doesn't repeat the sentiment that night, Gail knew it was the case.

But Gail knew it didn't matter, because, as usual, when the burger was gone, and she was sat there, grinning at her girlfriend, crumbs and sauce smeared across her face, Holly just laughed at her, a faux desperation across her features. Then Holly leant over and wiped the smoky sauce from her cheek using her thumb, and held it out so Gail could suck the remnants of her dinner from the tip of her girlfriend's digit. As she always did.

"Dessert?" Gail asked, greedily eying the photo of the chocolate sundae on her menu.

"I kind of already prepared some dessert."

Gail looked up over the menu. "Holly, I really mean no harm by this, because believe me I love eating you out, but I also love ice cream and they really are very different cravings that I need to satisfy separately."

Holly turned bright crimson, glancing around the diner nervously, spying any eavesdroppers in their conversation. "I didn't mean… Gail!" She batted the menu from her girlfriend's hands.

"What?!"

"I didn't mean me, Gail, I meant I got an actual, edible dessert."

"Oooh." The blonde replied slowly. Then her eyes lit up. "What did you get?!"

Holly pulled her phone from her pocket and loaded an image, before passing it over the table.

"Are those…?"

"Yep."

"From the place on Queen?"

"Yep."

"How many?"

"Twelve."

Gail's mouth fell open. "You got me donuts? For Valentine's day you brought me donuts, the best donuts in Toronto?"

Holly shifted nervously. "I know they're not exactly flowers or anything really romantic…"

"Are you kidding, these are… a million times better than flowers, these are better than jewelry, this is the best Valentine's day gift ever."

A slight blush rose up Holly's neck.

"Wow. I mean, wow." Gail looked at the girl sat opposite her, eyes deep and thankful and filled with genuine exhilaration and delight. "You are the best girlfriend, ever. The best person ever." She so nearly said it, then. That phrase that had been on the tip of her tongue for months. She was as close as she had ever been to the point where the thought of saying it didn't instill her with absolute terror, but lord be damned if she was going to say it for the first time on Valentine's day, and live with that little clichéd anniversary for the rest of her life.

She looked straight at Holly, deep into those dark, coffee brown eyes, determined to somehow express her appreciation of her girlfriend without too thorough an exposition of her innermost emotions. "You're incredible. Thank you, so much, for this, and for, well, you."

"You're incredible, you don't need to thank me for anything. I'm just a girl with access to good donuts."

"Well, thank you for letting me be the girl you buy the good donuts for." Gail, an earnest, playful smile playing at the corners of her mouth, then looked back at the phone, expression in place.

Holly sat back, watching her girlfriend gaze happily at her phone. It was apparently a few minutes before she became slightly puzzled by the degree of fascination the blonde had taken with the poorly lit photograph Holly had hurriedly snapped of her purchase.

"Are you still looking at those donuts?" She asked.

Gail glanced up at the dark eyes watching her. "Oh, no. The gallery app was on slideshow mode when you passed it to me, I'm re-watching those photos you sent me the other night."

Holly squawked slightly and grabbed the phone. "Gail! Someone could walk past and see!"

"So what? They're really hot photos, you shouldn't be ashamed of them!" Gail shrugged.

"It's got nothing to do with shame and you know that." Holly retorted. Gail just grinned.

"Sorry. You're just kind of ridiculously hot. I never really stood a chance of not watching them."

Holly just laughed slightly, an expression of equal parts embarrassment and pride sweeping across her face. She watched as Gail's eyes met her own, dropped down to her chest, then down to the menu, where they lingered. Lingered for a while.

Holly rolled her eyes. "You still want that Sundae don't you?"

"Yes." Gail whined.

"I bought you donuts." Holly sighed, but there was no genuine exasperation or disappointment in her tone.

"I know, and I love the donuts, and I want to eat them so badly. But I want the sundae too. Can't we just save the donuts as a snack for later? Eat them post-coitally? Or mid-coitally?"

"There are twelve donuts in that box; there's only a limited amount of food the human body can consume in one night."

"I know you're in Medical school and I'm just a lowly social science student but I think you're definitely wrong there, Holly."

Holly smirked. "Gail, your ability to consume food is spectacular, but even your appetite is not endless."

Gail gave her a stern look, surprising herself when she didn't burst into laughter.

It didn't take long for Holly to cave under her girlfriend's penetrating stare. "If you want the sundae, of course you can have the sundae. I don't mind."

Gail grinned and flagged down the passing waitress to order a coffee and her ice cream.

Holly raised an eyebrow inquisitively. "Coffee?"

"You yawned a couple of minutes ago."

"Did not!" Holly scoffed.

"Yeah you did, and I kind of have plans that would be somewhat hindered if you were to fall asleep soon."

"Believe me Gail, I'm not going to fall asleep any time soon."

"Yeah, well. I'm not taking any chances, so drink it."

"Feeling a little bossy tonight?" Holly cocked her eyebrow, her usually endearing, lopsided smile corrupted into a flirty, almost lascivious smirk. Not that Gail minded in the slightest. Cocky, alluring Holly was not the Holly she had fallen for when she was a smitten teenager. Aside from the occasional suggestive look that Gail couldn't even be sure she hadn't made up, it wasn't a side she had much, or any, exposure to prior to launching intrepidly into this relationship whose success at the time had seemed so inconceivable.

But as Gail had watched the doubt that had often pervaded Holly's expression during the early weeks and months of their relationship fall away, she had witnessed the emergence, slowly, and with increasing regularity, of her girlfriend's self-assured, coquettish side. And she enjoyed it. She liked the way Holly could rile her up and push her buttons, the way she could unashamedly express her lusting without making the blonde feel uncomfortable. That look of unconditional desire and adoration that lurked behind her expression, visible only in the darkness of her gentle eyes. The trust and devotion behind the salaciousness. It was passion, Gail had decided months before. Unbridled passion.

"Is that what you want?"

Holly flashed a wicked grin. "You know I don't mind."

"You say that, but I know you have your little kinks."

Holly glanced around the diner, dropping her voice. "You are hot when you top. But I couldn't ever choose either being top or bottom with you, not as an overall preference. I love riding you, and I love you riding me. I love coming under you but I love that sound you make when I…"

"Ok, shut up I get you!" Gail interrupted her, flushing. "I know you're trying to make me regret ordering that Sundae and not heading straight to your surprise dirty sex bed. But it's not working."

"Yes it is." Holly grinned, smugly.

Gail scowled at her. "Only because I'd just been looking at those photos of you. And you didn't even want me looking at them, so it's not because of you, really."

"Except that it absolutely is."

"No it's not." Gail pouted. "By the way, why did you have a photo of those donuts on your phone?"

"Because I wanted to give you your present over dinner but you're not really supposed to bring outside food into restaurants. So I figured I'd show you a picture instead."

Gail's scowl lessened and a grin emerged. Because as sexy and alluring as Holly could be, there was no escaping the fact that underneath everything there was this off-beat, socially awkward weirdo she could not escape. "You're such a dork. What were they going to do, confiscate them?"

"Maybe. It's just not something you do, Gail!"

"We're in a seedy roadside diner in Oakville, I really don't think they would have cared."

"You don't know that."

Gail feels her features form a gentle scowl. "Dork."

"Yet you're still hanging around."

"You're a good lay." Gail reasons.

Holly grins widely. "I am an excellent lay." The waitress chooses that moment to turn up at their coffee and ice cream. She eyes them both nervously as she places down their food and starts to back away.

"Can we get the bill, please?" Holly asks before she can shuffle out of sight. There is a quick nod in response and then she is out of earshot once more.

"Good timing, nerd." Gail teases through a mouthful of ice cream.

The brunette leans over to catch a drip of ice cream that is rolling down the blonde's chin with a napkin.

"Thanks, beautiful." She retorts, leaning back into her chair in time to observe her girlfriend's mocking, scrunched-up expression.

Gail was giddy with excitement by the time they reached their motel room, an unsurprising fact given that on top of the sugar she had consumed in her milkshake and ice cream, she had insisted on eating a donut in the car on the way back. And giddy Gail was a handsy Gail.

It was apparently making Holly's attempts to open their motel room door somewhat difficult. Gail's hipbones dug into her ass, her breasts into her back, her pale cool hands stroked her stomach and her tongue traced her neck.

When she finally opened the door, what they found was somewhat surprising.

Gail scanned the rose petal covered bed, the heart-shaped neon light over its headboard, the fake electric candles, the 'Just Married' sign over the television. "Fuck Hols, I know you said you had a surprise, but..."

"I… I didn't do this!"

"Are you sure? The neon is very you…" Gail stood in the middle of the room, looking around eagerly at the tacky décor.

"I swear, I only asked for a last minute room for me and my partner!" Holly responded as she closed the door.

Gail looked amused. "Did they ask if you were coming from Niagara?"

"Yeah…"

"And you said…?"

"Well, yes, but I was coming from the direction of Niagara. I never thought… who elopes in Niagara and then spends the wedding night in Oakville?"

Gail giggled. "Well there must be some kind of market for it."

Holly glared around the room before spinning around towards the door. "I'll go ask for a normal room."

Gail grabbed her arm. "Don't worry about it. I bet the honeymoon rooms have the nicest beds. And it's not like you got me any flowers so the rose petals are a nice touch." She teased.

Holly poked her in the ribs. "You want flowers, eh Peck? I can start sending them to your dorm if you want. Weekly."

Gail pulled a face. "Ok, fine, you made the right call on the flowers. But this is fine, all I wanted for tonight was a double bed and look… double bed. And cable. And donuts."

"You're an easy lay, you know that?"

"Only for you." Gail replied, and immediately grimaced. "And that is the only sappy thing I will be saying this evening."

Holly wrapped her arms around the blonde's shoulders. "It's ok, I don't really go for sappy. But I appreciate the sentiment."

"Yeah?" Gail whispered against the other woman's lips.

"Yeah. Now if I'm not mistaken we were about to really get into something before we got distracted by the ornamentation?"

"What would that have been?"

"I have no idea, you'll have to show me." Holly smirked.

Gail pulled back slightly. "So you do want me to top?"

Holly simply rolled her eyes as she pulled the blonde into a fierce kiss. Gail's pedanticism had never evaporated more quickly.

An hour or so later, Gail watched as her girlfriend emerged from the bathroom, revelling in the opportunity for Holly to freely walk around naked outside the constraints of their bedroom walls.

It apparently took a few seconds for Holly to notice that Gail had arranged the few rose petals they had not already accidently kicked from the bed over her nipples and centre, and had positioned herself in the classic seductive pose, head propped up on her elbow and other hand on hip, but when she did she let out a low laugh. "You're insane."

"I'm sexy, is what I am." Gail fought to refrain from grinning. "And I forgot to give you your present."

Holly climbed onto the bed, holding out a donut for Gail to bite into. "You don't need to get me a present."

Gail chewed on the donut for a few moments before swallowing. "Well, I did. Remember, I got you chocolates because it's Valentines." She reached behind her, grabbing five bars of chocolate and presenting them to her girlfriend.

Holly laughed. "You got me Caramilk bars?"

"Full disclosure, I had to buy your present from the train station because I only decided to come see you at the last minute. But in a way this is perfect, because Caramilks are your favourite anyway. More than crappy, overpriced heart-shaped chocolates."

"I do love Caramilks." Holly agreed, placing the chocolates on her bedside table. "Best Valentine's ever."

"Mm-hm." Gail nodded. "You should probably fuel up on those chocolates babe, I didn't make myself all pretty with these roses so we could lie here and chat about our amazing present-buying abilities." She gestured to the petals still lying delicately across her breasts.

Holly fell onto her side to lie face to face with the younger woman. "I reckon I have enough fuel in my tank to get me through the next round."

Gail raised a hand to Holly's cheek, leaning in for a kiss. "If you're sure."

Holly smiled against her lips. "Positive."