"I got it! I got the tea!" Claudia exclaimed, rushing through the door more quickly than the cup of tea that she held could stand, even with the saucer that Claudia held beneath it. "Oh no!" She lamented as a few drops fell to the floor, but then she shook her head and resumed her determined path toward the bed. "Don't worry, I'll clean it up, Mykes, I swear! Here! I got it! I got the tea!"
Even with her insurmountable guilt, Helena couldn't help but to raise a brow at the overeager redhead. She was pleased, however, when she saw that Myka had calmed enough to smile at the girl affectionately, and reach for the tea that Claudia was so enthusiastic to present – and she was even more pleased when Myka didn't remove herself from the hold that Helena had around her waist in order to do it.
"Thank you, Claudia," she said sincerely, patting the space beside her on the bed until the small girl sat next to her. "I'm sorry I scared you."
"Oh, that?" Claudia brushed it off with a 'pfft' sound as she shrugged her shoulder, despite that her actions and words previous had endorsed her concern. "I was locked up in the Cuckoo's Nest, remember? That was nothing."
Myka smiled knowingly and reached out to grip Claudia's hand reassuringly with the hand that didn't hold her steaming cup. "Well thank you for handling it like such a pro, then."
"Yeah, sure. Anytime," Claudia grinned, knowing full well that she'd been caught in a panic and that both women were, unfortunately, very aware of it.
Helena couldn't help the soft snort that emerged afterward.
"How inelegant of you, Helena," Myka chastised, though her tone was light and teasing.
"My darling Myka, I can be quite elegant when the need arises, but even pretending that this pint-sized maniac wasn't running around like a headless chicken is plainly absurd," Helena determined firmly, subtly lulling a thumb over Myka's covered stomach.
"Hey!" Claudia objected.
"Be kind, Helena," Myka chided warmly. "She did do what you asked."
"Yeah! And I kept my cool!" Claudia winced a bit, and then reluctantly followed her statement with a small, "Kinda."
Helena bit her tongue against a torrent of responses that spoke of Claudia's ineffectuality in their previous circumstance, anticipating Myka's displeasure with said responses.
"You did great, Claude," Myka replied, leaning back as Helena shifted to sit behind her on the bed. Helena herself leaned against the headboard, reveling in the feel of Myka pressed against her in whatever way that she could take it.
Myka blew gently on the cup of tea before taking a sip, and as the heated liquid slid past her parted lips, Helena's insides churned at the soft hum that buzzed in Myka's throat.
"I know, right?" Claudia smirked, raising her eyebrows in one quick, confident gesture. "I make a bangin' cup of tea," she boasted. And then, "You doing okay over there, HG?"
Helena glowered at the redhead as she poked fun at her apparently obvious reaction to the sound that Myka had made.
Brows furrowed in concern, Myka lifted up just slightly to look over her shoulder and inspect Helena for herself. "Why wouldn't she be?" Myka frowned. "Are you okay?" She asked, suddenly pushing herself further upward into a sitting position. "Am I hurting you?"
"No, darling," Helena smiled soothingly, tucking a special glare into her back pocket for Claudia, both for being irritating, and for causing Myka to pull away from her arms. "I'm fine."
"Hah!" Claudia laughed, throwing herself back onto the bed beside Myka and exaggeratingly kicking her feet with glee.
Baffled, Myka's frown persisted, but when neither Helena nor Claudia elaborated any further, she turned her head to the side just slightly and squinted her eyes skeptically.
"You're being weird," she decided finally, her gaze planted firmly on Helena.
"I fail to understand how I'm the one behaving strangely in this situation, when that little sprite is tossing her feet into the air like a child," Helena scoffed.
"Sprite," Claudia rolled the word around on her tongue, before announcing decisively, "I like it. It's very fitting of me, right, Mykes?"
Myka chuckled, and confirmed, "Very. Claudia's a child at heart, Helena. For her, that behavior is normal. You know that. Your behavior, however…" She trailed off, raising a brow.
To that, Helena replied haughtily, "The fact that I'm behaving myself at all is, in itself, more of a feat than you realize."
"If you say so," Myka quirked half of a charming smile at her before resuming her position against Helena's chest, much to Helena's pleasure, and taking a small sip of her tea, allowing it to relax her.
"Are you hungry?" Claudia asked, clearly still worried, despite all of her false bravado. "I should make you breakfast!"
"You don't have to do that, Claude," Myka smiled. "It's very sweet of you, but I'm actually not that hungry, anyway. Before my fit of clinginess," she flushed there, but pressed past it, wishing not to linger, "I don't think I slept very well. I'm feeling a little off."
"You had several nightmares last night, darling," Helena said softly against Myka's ear, her lips brushing against it inadvertently, but she would have sworn to have felt Myka tremble. "I thought to wake you, but they didn't last long. Their frequency was more concerning than the duration."
"What?" Claudia gasped, sitting up suddenly. "Why, HG, did you stay here last night?" She asked obnoxiously.
Myka's cheeks pinked, and Helena scowled. "Must you make everything into a scene, Claudia?"
The redhead shrugged, and grinned. "Myka's just so much fun to tease!" She defended. "Pretty sure I don't have to tell you that," she smirked.
"Claudia!" Myka protested.
"You'd best leave the teasing to those who can perform it properly, love," Helena advised. "The idea is to provoke her, not to stun her into silence. Where would be the fun in that?"
"Not being humiliated?" Myka offered, trying for a glare, but lacking success due to her clear embarrassment.
"Mm," Helena hummed thoughtfully, "perhaps, but that would imply that the provocation was for your benefit, when it is entirely for my own. I do so enjoy observing the effects of my flirtations."
"Helena," Myka cautioned, "you're toeing a line."
"When usually she sprints across it?" Claudia snorted.
"Both of you, stop," Myka halted a rather rude response that nearly tripped past Helena's lips.
"As you wish," Helena almost grumbled, her affection for Myka the only thing stopping her from spurring a comment back at Claudia, anyway.
"Yeah, sorry, Mykes," Claudia said earnestly, sensing that though she had only been teasing, Myka was, in all actuality, growing weary of she and Helena's banter.
Myka sighed and set her cup of tea against the nightstand. "The two of you are exhausting."
"You're the one who kept me up all night, darling," Helena smiled playfully, despite that Myka couldn't see it.
"So many dirty interpretations," Claudia bemoaned. "That one's just too easy."
"Claudia, go. Now," Myka said, rolling her eyes.
"Aw, c'mon, Mykes; I didn't mean it bad!"
"Claude, I love you. But I want to speak with Helena now, and that's a conversation that you don't need to be around for," Myka said meaningfully, reaching to embrace Claudia's hand again.
"Gotcha," Claudia nodded, leaning forward to wrap her arms around Myka in a surprisingly fierce hug. "I'm glad you're okay."
"Thanks," Myka smiled sincerely. "And thanks for sticking around to coddle me," she laughed lightly.
"Sure thing," Claudia nodded, and she watched as Myka shifted further back against Helena before she moved toward the door, shutting it carefully behind her with a small wave goodbye.
When she'd gone, Myka turned around, and moved herself to kneel between Helena's legs. "I'm sorry I freaked out a little," she said softly, and, after a moment of contemplation, frowning to herself. "That must leave a terrible impression of me."
Helena smiled comfortingly, and said back, "Myka, my impressions of you are anything but terrible. I do, however, hope that you know it was never my intention to leave you that way."
"I know," Myka replied. "I just – I thought you'd gone. I thought you'd – " she huffed at herself in frustration, but Helena waited patiently for her to put her thoughts in order, watching as Myka leaned back to rest against her heels and looked down to her hands. "I thought you'd decided that staying here last night was a mistake."
"Oh, darling," Helena shook her head, reaching to touch her fingers along Myka's cheek, "staying with you last night was the best decision I've made in quite some time."
Myka beamed as she glanced up at her, despite that Helena was sure she didn't intend to. "Yeah?"
"Oh yes," Helena replied, chuckling as her heart warmed. "And you shouldn't feel badly for what happened. Despite a brief moment of terror, I find myself egotistically pleased that you were disappointed with my absence."
"Did you really question that I would be?" Myka asked shyly, twisting her fingers together. "I thought I'd made myself clear about what I feel for you."
"I recall," Helena smiled. "However, it's a different thing entirely to witness said feelings at work, isn't it?"
Helena watched, with great curiosity, as Myka's eyes darkened several shades. "Helena," she husked, and Helena felt her insides coil as she recognized the sudden desire in Myka's tone as it rasped over her name, "my disappointment with your absence was a shadow of my fear. When my feelings for you are at their fullest, I promise you, terror is the last thing I've imagined you to feel."
"That's something you've imagined quite a bit, then?" Helena asked, desperately hoping to keep her tone light, in spite of the hormones that had begun to riot inside her.
"More than you'd think," Myka replied hoarsely.
"As have I," Helena admitted, her voice thicker than she'd wanted. "But I fear that discussing all the ways in which I've envisioned you will lead to something we're not yet prepared for."
A puff of air escaped Myka's lips, before a pout overtook them. "I've gone so long thinking I was the only one who'd imagined it," she confessed. "I guess I enjoy hearing you admit to inappropriate feelings, too."
"My feelings for you are anything but inappropriate, Myka," Helena argued. "My imagination, however, has produced more than a few scenarios in which I've acted upon my resilient emotions – and I feel those are what have proved to be unsuitable."
"Dirty?" Myka asked, flushing, clearly seeking an answer to a question that she immediately realized she shouldn't have asked.
"That's putting it kindly," Helena replied, longing evident in her declaration.
"Helena – " Myka breathed darkly.
"Myka, I strongly advise against pressing upon that line of thought any further. I've spent all night denying my impulses, and I must admit, I'm not certain that I can contain them much longer if you continue to look at me that way."
"I can't help it," Myka professed on a whisper. "You make me just… want you."
Helena leaned forward and swiftly captured Myka's lips with her own, as though she'd been urgently possessed. She knew she shouldn't, but she had warned her companion, and hearing Myka confess that she not only loved Helena, but yearned for her, as well… Helena's body had flushed with overwhelming desire.
Myka moaned against her mouth, startled despite Helena's caveat. She, too, leaned forward, just enough to topple Helena backwards against the bed, but Helena had restrained herself from dominating Myka once before, and she could not do so again. She wrapped her legs around Myka's waist and, with a move that she couldn't have fought, even if she'd thought to, she turned the woman over.
She swallowed a gasp of surprise as it emerged from Myka's mouth, and recklessly slid her tongue inside as Myka's lips parted under hers. Helena fisted one hand into the bit of robe at Myka's stomach, and felt the fingers of her opposite hand skate against smooth silk as she grazed the length of Myka's side.
It was Helena who moaned, then, unable to squelch the sound as one of Myka's hands slid beneath the top that she wore, seeking out the flesh that covered Helena's spine with nimble, heated fingers. She felt Myka arch into her as she released the noise, and Helena couldn't stop her hips from bearing down against the woman's as she struggled to keep her still, because, God, if Myka kept moving that way, Helena was sure she'd take her.
When Myka's lips tore from hers, panting, Helena's mouth furiously shifted down her chin, and against her neck. The cry that spilt from Myka's lips spawned a hot jolt of need in Helena's stomach, and she grinded her hips against Myka's another time, desperate for deeper contact.
Myka scraped her nails roughly over Helena's back, and Helena returned the sting of pain with a sharp bite to Myka's shoulder. "You oughtn't tease me, darling," she breathed unforgivingly into Myka's neck, before she moved to lick the lobe of Myka's ear and whisper into it, "I'm having a difficult time resisting the urge to strip you, as it is."
A whimper, then, and Helena's fingers twitched.
"I can't help but to think, right at this moment, that I wish you would," Myka murmured defenselessly, sifting a hand through Helena's hair, and holding her loosely against her neck.
Helena sighed at the softer touch, and pressed a briefer kiss under Myka's ear that still was not without heat.
"Darling, I can't," Helena's voice grated from her throat reluctantly, as she took advantage of the short moment of tenderness in order to stifle the strongest edges of her desire.
"I know," Myka lamented.
Helena lifted herself above Myka's taut frame, and fought against yet another scorch of need as she looked down at her partner. Myka's cheeks were red, her eyes dark, and her robe had slipped (or had been tugged, Helena thought to herself proudly) to reveal more of her lovely skin to Helena's fiery eyes.
"You're breathtaking," she breathed against Myka's mouth.
Myka laughed huskily, and replied, "You're devastating."
"Curious choice of words," Helena whispered softly, and she was suddenly sure that her voice couldn't yet reach a higher decibel.
Myka shook her head, and allowed her eyes to drift to a close, before she sighed, "You're everything I've imagined, and then some. And I find it so devastatingly frustrating that I've finally gotten a taste, and still can't have all of you."
"Darling Myka, I'm more than certain that you will," Helena cooed. "But we have many things to sort out together, first."
"Helena," Myka murmured, stroking Helena's face with a touch so gentle that her eyes watered, "I love you. All that I need is to know that you'll stay."
But Helena shook her head. "Myka, darling, I haven't given you half of what you deserve from me. I'm doing my best to change that. I will stay," she assured. "But what I want from you, and from this, is to name you mine."
"Yours?" Myka swallowed tightly.
"Mm," Helena confirmed with a needy hum from the back of her throat, rubbing against Myka's nose with her own. "I wish to court you."
And then Myka laughed, though it was low and heady, and Helena noticed the cloud of lust that hovered beneath it. "You do know that's an outdated term now, right?"
Helena sighed. "It seems I still have a few things to adjust to in this time. What is the appropriate phrasing, then?"
"Date," Myka whispered.
Nodding decisively, Helena corrected, "Then I wish to date you. Exclusively, of course."
Myka breathed out her contentment. "I want that, too."
"Then, as would be considered proper, I would like to take you out before anything ah – untoward occurs," Helena voiced softly. "I believe that's suitable even outside of the 1800s?" She raised a brow in question.
"Then it should be soon," Myka huffed unexpectedly. "Because the untoward part of me wants you. A lot."
"What did I say about the teasing, love?" Helena asked, her voice agonizingly muted.
Myka frowned, before words erupted from her mouth, "You do know there are much more satisfying ways to claim me as yours, right?" Myka seemed unable fight the temptation that Helena presented.
"Myka, please," Helena begged, her eyes darkening to a color that approached black.
"I told you," Myka sighed touchily, gently raking her nails across Helena's back again, "I can't help it. I want you. And despite that it's been a while, I remember well enough how to tell that the sentiments are returned. That makes this very difficult for me."
"Do you think it isn't difficult for me, darling?"
"It would be more than unfair if it wasn't," Myka returned bluntly.
"Exhibiting restraint is not my strongest suit, Myka," Helena informed. "Sexually speaking, I'm not very practiced at denying my desires. But this," she said, holding Myka's cheek in her palm, "is too important to rush. I do want you, darling. My body aches for you – particularly now that I've stolen a glimpse of your passion. I just want to do this properly. I want to give you what you deserve, and a hasty coupling built on longing and impatience just won't do. When I make love to you, darling, I intend to do it well," she continued, eyes growing impossibly darker. "I intend to love every inch of you, Myka, and mercilessly demonstrate how powerless I am to your affections."
Helena studied her partner carefully when she made no immediate response, unsure if she had overstepped a boundary that had not yet been discussed.
"I… need a shower," Myka said breathlessly. "And you need to go."
"Myka – "
"I am trying very hard to respect your intentions, Helena," Myka warned. "But my want for you is pushing a limit that I don't think I've ever reached before. So if waiting is what you want – and I'm sure that it's what we need, even if I can't see it right now – then you need to leave before I do something stupid."