Porrim's dreams were… restless. In the crowded white rooms that plagued her dreams, Roxy always seemed to just be a voice or a stranger that did not know her. She pursued her love, only to be shoved back by torrents of her own fears and insecurities. The blonde gal never looked back. When she finally snatched her hand, there was a flash of those gorgeous electric pink eyes and then darkness. The jade woman rubbed her eyes, messing up the makeup from the night before as she formulated her bearings. Their LuckyCat clock read 9:05AM and Porrim could only groan and flop back on Roxy, who snored softly like a baby piglet. She coughed a bit and rubbed her own eyes, blinded by the light. "Hnn? What's the big idea, Rim?" She asked as she sat up, an apologetic glance sweeping across Porrim's face as she realized what she had done. "Sorry, I thought you were a body pillow there for a second."

"So you flop on them?"

"Sorry." She straddled her naked lover and kissed her good morning, also apologizing for the flop. There was a smug grin on her face, a mix of thankfulness and playfulness. "Thanks for still being here." She mumbled, her words flowing somberly over those white teeth.

"No problem, hot stuff. Told you I'd still be here. I mean, look at this. Not even wearing a bra." She snickered, nuzzling foreheads with Porrim. She could only smirk in return and give Roxy's arm a light squeeze before propping herself up on her elbows to wake up a bit more. She never really had a fixed agenda, so sleep was a sluggish thing with Porrim. Not to say that Roxy didn't thoroughly enjoy her restful hours of sleep. Last night was damn near the best night of her life, and not because she had a real bed to sleep on. The jade woman slacked her neck to look at Roxy, who was now propped up on the dark headboard. Like yesterday, they simply stared and stared at one another, memorizing the evidence that they indeed existed and that this was not a dream. "You're beautiful, babe." Roxy smiled tenderly and bopped her nose with a blackened finger nail.

"I love you even if you are this sappy so early. And you are gorgeous." Porrim stuck out her pierced tongue at her with a small smile. "Oh shush." Almost if as if on cue, their stomachs growled at the tantalizing smells of bacon and sliced fruit that seeped under the doorway. "Looks like darling Kanaya is back from work." Porrim sighed, thinking about that poor girl. Roxy would find out later. "Shall we go receive bacon and absolution?" In all honesty, they probably left a stain or two on the couch. Not their best decision to make love on the family couch, but they would laugh about it months from now over a nice glass of wine. Too bad Kanaya probably came home to the stains. "I kinda feel sorry for her." Roxy smiled sheepishly, knowing that Kanaya would probably have some choice words for the two women.

"Ugh, I need a shower." Porrim sighed, really wanting to avoid going to a stern, probably angry Kanaya. Roxy ears perked at this, finding an opportunity to waste time. "We should really do it together." Porrim reacted differently than what Roxy expected. She only wanted to save water, was she really that touchy about water? "What's wrong, babe?"
"Nothing." She mumbled, getting up to slip a dress on. Roxy followed, hugging around her waist. "Nah, somethin's up. Spill it." The jade woman furrowed her brows and looked at Roxy, her expression weakening. "I... I don't. Can't shower with you." Porrim's body was getting progressively pinker and it was obvious that she didn't want to do this. "Come on, Rimmy. I won't take any pictures."
"No."
"Yes."
"No!"
"Please?" Roxy pouted once she recovered from the outburst and gave her puppy dog eyes, pouting her bottom lip. "Come on, it'll be great." The resisting party looked around, crossing her arms and fidgeting until she couldn't stand it anymore. With what seemed to be the threats of tears in her smudged eyes, she began taking out her piercings, all the way down to her tongue piercing. At least she couldn't take off her dark, spiraling tattoos. Even if she lost her armor, she still had this gorgeous dark hide to hide behind. She went to the bathroom and scrubbed her face until it was pink and sighed before approaching her original position. She now stood naked before her lover. Completely and for the first time; no piercings, no clothes, no nail polish or pins in her hair. Most of all, no makeup. What was once full and shiny was now dark and flat, hardly curling around her face like it used to. Her face looked so plain without make up and she even looked a bit sleepy with the way her eyes squinted only slightly from years of reading and drawing. Porrim had learned to squint just a bit so that her dark, smoky make up would work well with the rest of her body. Her eyebrows were lighter after having the filling scrubbed away and Porrim wanted to cry. While Roxy looked over her in all of her beauty, Porrim felt like a stretchmark covered cougar that held no beauty. When it all came down to it, she felt inadequate. In every way. How could this beautiful blonde babe love an unattractive thing like her?

Then, Roxy did the unthinkable. At first, she winced whenever those lips pressed against her skin. Porrim only read those as, "Aha! I found another flaw." After what felt like hundreds of kisses, Roxy held her plain, beautiful face in her hands and looked in her eyes, her smudged lips stretching into another smile. "You get more beautiful every time I look at you. Don't think for a moment that you aren't enough for me." Porrim's hand melded against hers and she felt like crying a little bit. Roxy was so perfect and wonderful for her. No one had ever said that about her. Years of hiding who she was melted away, the guilt dripped from her in the form of tears and a wet nose. Her blonde lover held her as long as she needed, waiting for the post-crying sniffles before speaking again. "You are seriously the sexiest of beasts any time I see you. I'd totally tap all of this if you were okay with it." That made Porrim giggle a little bit before she turned away to start the water for them.

Rox was right. This was great.

Once Porrim relaxed enough to step into the shower, she did what she could to just cling to Roxy so she couldn't see her face. Whenever Roxy would back up to look at her, she would plant kisses on the alcoholic's pale skin just so Roxy couldn't see her. Unfortunately, she caught up to this pretty early and hugged her close. It was nice to just take a shower like this and not worry about the taboo of being naked and not screwing. Just another memory Roxy would cherish for the rest of her life. Even when she hid, she showed beauty to the world.
Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Porrim finally opened her eyes, accepting the idea of trust. Roxy would love her this way. She knew in her heart that Roxy would always love her and she would do the same. Once she accepted that, they had the comfiest, back-scrubbiest shower either woman could ever ask for. Once they rinsed and were dried off, Roxy volunteered to go out first while Porrim reapplied that precious armour to her strengthened body.

As she stepped out of her babe's room, she could see that Kanaya had gotten taller, for one. The nervous girl was tossing some kind of egg and bacon mixture that held a rainbow of colours. She really was a master with food and she patted herself on the back for pointing Kanaya in the right direction. In the few months before Kanaya graduated college for fashion, she had a total meltdown. Maryam had piled so much work on herself that Roxy had saved her from an emotion-driven pseudo heart attack. After a long conversation and a little wine to loosen Kanaya's bolts, she helped her girlfriend's cousin apply for cooking school. She vividly remembered Kanaya coming home and hugging her with the biggest of smiles on her face. Culinary Arts made her happier than any piece of clothing could. Now, if only she could stay genial for now…

"Ahem."

The chef jumped a bit and looked to Roxy with wide eyes, immediately relaxing. "Oh, you're back. How was your trip?" She asked, turning so her god-awful appearance could not be seen by her friend.
"Just fine. I wish you could have been there for the trip. Lots of great stuff…" She laughed a bit to herself, remembering the adventure of traveling through a quickly crumbling tomb with Jakey boy. They almost died that day, but the partnership had sworn an oath to never speak of it, not even to their coworkers. "How are you doing?" She asked when she returned from her memories. Kanaya looked over and took a breath, only to be interrupted by her phone. The song that played was "Spider8reath" and that was all that needed to be said. She slammed a firm finger onto the touch screen and slid it to "ignore" before going back to the food and serving up healthy amounts of food for Roxy. The blonde flinched in response to the stressed avoidance of the caller and knitted her brows in worry. "You doin' okay, doll?"
"No." She chirped with annoyance, huffing through her nose while she made two more plates and set Roxy's plate at the four person table. Kanaya went to her bottle cap reading chair and settled in it, a plate of food in her own lap. She watched her food with introverted silence, only because Porrim wasn't exactly the best person to talk to when it came to matters of the heart and she wasn't about to include Roxy in this mess. Rox knew it was Vriska calling and Rimmy had mentioned that Kanaya was trying to date for the first time. Roxy looked over the poor girl and kind of just solved the dilemma herself, but it was polite to hear Kanaya's side before she went Mama Bear on Vriska.
"What's up with the spiderbabe?"
Kanaya looked around, reluctant to speak. "She's exhausting and pushy." Roxy frowned with half of her mouth while chewing a chunk of hash browns with the other. "Mmm, great grub. How so, Sweet Pea?"
Her slender fingers went into the black pixie cut. "She's just intolerable. She won't stop bothering me about-…" She blushed and went to inhaling her food as politely as possible. Roxy broke into a grin that she hid behind her glass of orange juice. Poor baby Kanaya was finally getting frisked. Get the camera, this was something she would scrapbook sixty years from now.
"Well, have you tried reasoning with her? I mean, she isn't that bad. She may be a bit rough around the edges, but you guys get along, right?"
"Well, Porrim said that, if anything, use her for relief. I'm confident that you understand my difference in values." She responded with red features as her fingers played with the vintage bottle caps dotting the eccentric green leather armchair.
Roxy thought on this for a moment. Kanaya would certainly relax if she had a partner for the all glorious practice of heels to Jesus. She was certainly old enough. She was already halfway to a forty year-old virgin for Pete's sake. Then again, poor baby could hardly go through Porrim's laundry to get her chef coat without getting a nosebleed. "How's Porrim treating you?" The chef finally asked after a few moments in a desperate attempt to get off of the topic of sex. "She's okay." Roxy smiled at the thought of the night before and finished her scrambled eggs with two bites. "Well, more than okay. Perfect. Fantastic. And between you and me and the great little state of Cali…" She wiggled her bare fingers as if pantomiming a ring. "I'm thinking it's time." Kanaya looked to her with that silent concern. She loved those two to bits and she couldn't stand to see them hurt one another again. God, that was the worst event in the history of Maryamkind.

"It will be nice to see you two ride into the sunset together." She finally smiled, taking her plate to the kitchen and rummaging through the cupboards for something. "I assume you haven't been drinking since you came back?" Kanny left Roxy to wonder before a dusty, crystal clear bottle of Vodka was placed before her. It was a huge bottle of Ruskova Vodka, right from Russia and over twenty years old. Roxy gaped, her black-rimmed mouth wide open. "Holy shit, Kanny." She popped the cork and took a whiff, coughing from the intensity. This was before they started watering the stuff down and god did it smell delicious. She made a mental note to only imbibe on this baby on special nights while Kanaya beamed over the praise. "How did you even. Wow." Porrim waved Kanaya over and they spoke in hushed voices for a minute before Kanaya waved her off with annoyance. Not that Roxy was watching them. "Any plans for today? Your significant other wants to know." Roxy nodded as she experimentally dunked a piece of bacon into the small martini glass she had poured for herself and took a bite. Hot damn. If there was one thing that Roxy was good for, it was mixing drinks. "I'm gonna take her to that amusement park. If it's still up that is." Kanaya nodded in validation and Porrim came out to eat, already dressed in her best. "Excuse me…" Kanaya said as she begrudgingly took her yelling phone into her room. Porrim watched the door with a forlorn look in her eyes as Kanaya fought with an obviously victorious-from-the-start Vriska. Roxy and Porrim shared a glance before Kanaya came back; looking like someone had tried to hike up her skirt or something. "I'll give you guys some space." Roxy left the room and went to go get all prettified for their day on the town.

Both girls sat next to each other on the couch, just staying quiet. When Porrim finally spoke, the tension both melted and steeled itself.
"You know, it's okay to want pleasure and to give pleasure, Kanaya."
"It's… It's just hard. I don't know how and… Vriska has had previous partners..."
Her cousin gave her a concerned look and held her hand. "Well, I'll save the torture of a lesson. Just do what you feel is right and listen to each other." She knew Kanaya would not think it was so easy, but sometimes it really was. It certainly wasn't goddamn rocket science. After about fifteen minutes of text correspondence between Kanaya and Vriska, she smiled and hugged her older cousin. "Thank you, Rim."
Porrim smiled happily. Her cousin was growing up and the thought of it made her heart soar.

"Um, can you guys stay out until I call?" She asked nervously, her breath a little shaky as she tried calming down for the exhilarating adventure before you.
"Of course, doll."