It was mid morning when Waverly woke. The sun was making its way up the sky, shining a hushed ray of yellow through the cracks of Nicole's shades. She was warm, a little too warm to be completely comfortable and sweating where her skin touched the redheads, but it was nice. It was right. Waking up, sweating from the heat of the one next to her or freezing from lack of blanks, it was right, she belonged right there in that bed with that woman.
She turned over and laid her head in the crook of her elbow and looked at her girlfriend. Nicole was a sight for sore eyes. Drool trailed from the corner of her open mouth down to a small pool soaked into the bed sheet, her hair a fiery red mess, but as peaceful as a fluffy cloud. Waverly smiled to herself. She loved waking up first, loved to see the usually stoic cop all disheveled and peaceful. It brought such an innocents to her and she loved that she got to see it. And so she lived for the mornings she got up before Nicole. She brushed a curl out of Nicole's face up onto mattress with the most of her hair.
She hadn't a clue how her girlfriend could sleep the way she did, no pillow and on her belly, she'd tried it one time and it only served to question it more. But even with the odd position Nicole found ways to hold her and snuggle into her back, and she found ways to do so too.
Five minutes passed before her bladder cried for release and she shimmied out of the sheet they'd used as a blanket the night before. Nicole didn't have an air conditioner, just one crappy fan that she moved from room to room, so once the bedroom door was opened Waverly was hit with a gust of mid summer heat. She groaned internally.
Navigating Nicole's apartment was easy. She could do it with her eyes closed she spent so much time there. Many of those times being middle of the night where she practically did walk it with her eyes closed (and sometimes backwards). The same familiarity went with all of her utilities. The kitchen sink would either be scalding hot or ice cold, the shower took five minutes to heat up, there was a light switch in the hall that connected to nothing (or so Nicole said Waverly just hadn't proven her wrong yet), and the stove made an odd clicking that worried her sometimes.
"Morning Xena," Waverly cheerily greeted the other resident of the apartment. Xena replied in kind, leaping from her spot on the back of the couch and trotting over to the brunette. She bent down as the cat began rubbing up against her ankles and yielded to her wishes, petting her and stopping to scratch all of her favourite spots.
The black cat had warmed up to her in recent weeks, a complete contrast to when they first met. Xena had been nice, a little wary but over all pretty friendly. Until Nicole's attention was seemingly all Waverly and no Xena. That was when Xena got cold. She would grumble (a mix between a meow and a growl) and pout, she used her nails when crossing Waverly's lap to get to Nicole's, and once there and settled she would glare. Honest to god glare at Waverly. Waverly wouldn't have it, a cat not liking her was one thing but this was her girlfriend's cat and there was no way she would live without it's approval. Nicole found the whole thing hilarious. Never before had Xena displayed any hate when the person wasn't a man, and the fact that it was due to jealousy was beyond amusing.
Suddenly satisfied Xena ran to the door and pawed at it. Waverly giggled, the cat looked back at her impatiently.
"Want out?"
Xena continued to stare at her, unmoving and still purring from her pets. Waverly smiled, walked over to the door and opened it, calling for the cat to not get into trouble while she was out. Closing the door her stomach growled. She wondered to the tiny kitchen thinking of what to make when her promise came to mind.
Pancakes. She'd promised to make Nicole pancakes the night before, prove just how good they were.
She was twirling about grabbing the needed ingredients from their prospective places when she noticed Nicole's iPod set on the little speaker she kept on the counter. Her girlfriend refused to cook without music, something about it being the secret ingredient. With a small smile she turned it on and pressed play without bothering to check what song it would play.
A saxophone sings a familiar intro, bringing her back to a night months prior.
She'd nabbed Nicole's phone out of her hands, giggling at the faux offence on the redheads face, and began scrolling through her music library. Most was normal stuff she'd figured would be on there, old and new, some popped out as ones she hadn't seen the cop to be interested in, but then she hit one artist. One artist Nicole had easily a dozen songs by. Ella Fitzgerald. The redhead had blushed and explained how her Pop had loved Ella and Lois Armstrong and she'd always been really close with her Pop. It was the cutest most heart warming thing Waverly had ever seen.
She smiled uncontrollably at the memory and began to hum along with Ella. She swayed from side to side, pouring the mix in the pan, getting lost in the wistful melody.
"Night breezes seem to whisper I love you," she sang into a spatula.
"Little early for food and a show don't ya think?"
Waverly startled, dropping the utensil. She spun around to find her girlfriend smiling amusingly at her, sleep present in every one of her features, and couldn't repress one of her own.
"Did I wake you," she asked with a hint of guilt. She hadn't thought of the thin walls and the sleeping officer when she turned the music on.
"No," Nicole answered with a small shake of her head. Waverly could see the fib in her honey eyes, the twinkle of not wanting her to feel bad, so she didn't say any further.
Instead bent down and picked up the dropped spatula. She went to run it under the tap to get the cat hair off when a hand slipped into hers, with a quick pull and twirl she found herself breathlessly face to face with a not-so-tired Nicole Haught. Nicole wrapped one arm around Waverly's small frame, hand respectably resting at the small of her back. She plucked the spatula with two fingers and tossed it into the nearest counter top before lacing their fingers together. Waverly felt she was about to have a heart with the way it was squishing in her chest as Nicole began dancing them around the tiny floor space.
She was smiling so adorably as she sang along, "dream a little dream of me." Nicole gazed at her as she finished the line, a smile of her own making her lips all the more tempting to kiss. Waverly had never craved kisses from someone until she saw Nicole's smile for the first time. And her eyes. Those honey warm eyes would be the death of her if the dimples didn't do her in first. "Stars fading but I linger on dear," Nicole sang with Louis, trying to lower her voice to match his gravelly one.
"Oh how you linger on," Waverly took her turn in the duet, singing with the voice of the 'sweetest Disney princess' as the redhead had put it.
"Still craving your kiss," Nicole bit her lip, her soft warm bottom lip that looked more and more delicious with every glance. Oh how those lyrics rang in her rib cage, sang from the tips of her toes to the tips of her ears.
"How you crave my kiss," she continued a note behind Ella, entranced, convinced the roles in the duet should be flipped.
"Now I'm longing to linger till dawn dear-"
Waverly interrupted before she could finish the line. Unable to hold it in any longer Waverly pulled her girlfriend in with the hand at the back of her neck and pressed their lips together in a hungry kiss. She held her there, not because she thought Nicole would oppose or anything, she just wanted to make sure she got her fill till the next time she blew up. And Nicole was all too happy to oblige as she let go of her hand in favour of picking her up high enough they were the same height. Swoon wasn't a word she'd use outside of poking fun at her older sister, but swoon she did every time Officer Haught was around.
Beep beep beep! The couple broke apart as the screeching of the fire alarm went off. Both confusingly looked at the alarm and back at each other, silently asking the same question.
"Shit, the pancakes!" Waverly yelled and jumped to the stove and fumbled with the drawer to get something to take the burning pancake out.
"I love you, but I'm not eating that," Nicole commented as she left to wave something under the alarm to get it to stop.
She stared at the failure sadly, pouty lip and all. She let the pancake drop into the trash, sending it an apology on it's drop. That was not her intentions for it, it was meant to be beautiful, to show her girlfriend what the perfect pancake looked like. Arms snaked around her waist as she was pulled in for a hug from behind. She sighed contently.
"Take two?" Nicole joked optimistically.
Waverly grinned at that, instantly feeling better about the pancakes death. "I do have a promise to keep after all," she played along.
Nicole hummed in agreement. "I'll leave you to it then since I'm such a distraction you almost burn the place down," she teased.
Waverly hit her hand. "Way to ruin the moment."
"Sorry babe, but safety first."
She rolled her eyes but grinned at her dork of a girlfriend. "You are the worst."
"Lucky for me you love it," she kissed just under Waverly's ear. And with one last squeeze she was off to get ready for the day.
Waverly watched as she went, nothing but wild red hair and a Haught-ass. "I'm the lucky one," she whispered her herself.
A/N: So happy I finally finished this one, it's been sitting in my drafts for months. I hope you liked it. Thanks for reading!