Author's Note: Guys, I typed this chapter three times trying to integrate some upcoming, important things, but all that came out was fluff. So much fluff. I hope you're not opposed. Please review! I'm glad you all enjoyed their sexy times! : )
Helena hazily shuddered her eyes open, perplexed, as she was certain that a moment ago she had been dreaming of something positively delightful. She lay on her stomach and tried to recall it, but as she attempted to focus her eyes, she fathomed that the dream had been lost as she had grappled to hold onto her reality.
She hummed contently, though, when a moment later she felt a stroke of warmth against her back, and she was suddenly certain that whatever she had dreamt of, it couldn't possibly have been any grander than this.
"Myka, darling," she purred over her shoulder through a sleepy fog, as her lover breathed another soft kiss against her spine, "that's divine."
"You're awake," Myka murmured into her skin.
"And more than pleased to be, if this is my reward," Helena replied lightly.
Myka skated up the length of Helena's frame, and slanted her lips against Helena's shoulder.
"I was rather enjoying that, darling," Helena lamented with a small sigh.
"Maybe," Myka said, smiling uncertainly. "But I don't think you would have enjoyed it for much longer."
"There, I find I must beg to differ," Helena asserted, offering a lazy, demonstrative smile. "I could relish in that touch for eternity, my love."
Myka leaned forward and brushed a tender kiss against that smile, and nuzzled Helena's nose briefly before she laid her head down on Helena's pillow. "Does it hurt?" Myka asked, and Helena was sure that there was some trace of distress in there somewhere.
"Does what hurt, darling?" She asked kindly, stretching languorously and rotating onto her side, finding herself no more than an inch from Myka's face as she rested her head against her flattened hand.
"Your back," Myka expanded.
"Should it?" Helena asked curiously.
She felt Myka's fingers at her side, and then her nails, very deliberately raking upward, but just enough for Helena to feel it, and nowhere near roughly enough to cause pain. Helena purred again, savoring Myka's nimble, morning caresses.
"It's scratched," Myka informed. Then she paused, before she added, "Helena, it's scratched a lot."
"Ah," Helena said, chuckling with comprehension. "Well, I'd certainly imagine that it is."
"I'm sorry," Myka muttered gently.
"Dear Myka, you need never apologize to me for expressing your passions," Helena admonished, taking Myka's cheek in her palm. "And if you'll take a moment to recollect, I believe you'll find that I rather appreciated your more aggressive touches," she disclosed flirtatiously. "But as we seem to be lingering on the subject of sexual injury, it appears that I did quite a number on your collar," Helena said evenly, brushing her fingers beneath Myka's ear and over a particularly colorful bruise.
"I was pretty sure you'd left a mark," Myka told her softly.
"I quite hoped I would," Helena admitted, taking little care to conceal a satisfied smirk. "Very few things could conceivably name you mine more adeptly than that, darling."
"Oh, I see," Myka said slowly, smiling playfully. "So, this was intentional?"
Grinning, Helena surged overtop of Myka, using her arms to hold her up as she coyly asked, "And if it was?"
Myka wrapped her legs around Helena, and overturned her with apparent ease. "Was it?" Myka asked friskily.
"Oh!" Helena exclaimed, briefly alarmed as Myka successfully pinned her beneath her slender figure, and then she laughed, because she was so dearly enchanted with this woman. "Perhaps a bit," she admitted, in answer to Myka's question. "Although, by that point in time, some might have gone so far as to call it self-defense," she teased, easing her hands over Myka's hips.
"Alright," Myka chuckled and rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, honey."
"Mm," Helena hummed, "I find I quite like it when you identify me with that particular endearment."
"You can be such a softy sometimes," Myka smiled caringly, stroking the fingers of one hand down Helena's cheek, and keeping herself raised with the other.
When it was clear that Helena didn't understand her meaning, Myka shook her head before saying, "Nevermind." And then she cheekily added, "You'd be offended by it anyway."
And then Myka bent low to cover Helena's mouth for a fond, lethargic kiss, which Helena folded into blithely, matching every languid motion with another of her own.
When they parted, Helena murmured, "I so enjoy waking to you, Myka, darling."
"Me too," Myka sighed against her mouth. "And I really want to show you how much I enjoy it," she said, pressing another fleeting kiss to Helena's lips before she finished, "but I think it'll have to wait."
"And why is that, darling?"
"Because I'm really hungry," Myka smiled bashfully, clearly embarrassed.
"I would have sworn that I'd remembered to feed you," Helena laughed, tightening her fingers briefly around Myka's hips in a warm squeeze.
"Yeah," Myka said, rolling her eyes. "Right before you had me working off all the calories," she finished, and then she flushed abruptly, realizing a moment too late that her words had actually been reasonably bold.
Smiling affectionately, Helena allowed the comment to fade, before she mercifully offered, "Shall I make you breakfast, darling?"
"Can you cook?" Myka asked, surprised. "I've never seen you cook," she reflected skeptically.
"I was reared in the 1800s, my love," Helena reminded. "Though I still shudder at the concept, women then were virtually obligated to retain at least a rudimentary knowledge of the culinary arts."
"Right," Myka said slowly, clearly having briefly forgotten that Helena was not actually from this time.
"Come, darling," Helena encouraged, standing. "Let's satisfy that appetite of yours, and see if you can't satisfy mine when we're finished, hm?"
"I need clothes," Myka prompted, fighting a blush at Helena's rather audacious remark.
"I disagree, darling. I much prefer you without them," she trifled, winking at her lover over her shoulder.
Nevertheless, Helena rummaged through her drawers and unearthed an oversized, long-sleeved sleep shirt and a pair of grey cotton shorts for Myka to wear. After dressing, the two ambled down to the kitchen, exchanging feathery kisses on the way, and Helena set to pulling out the pans and ingredients necessary for their meal, while Myka began to make a pot of coffee.
"Tea, darling?" Helena asked, after setting some bacon in a pan, glancing to her right from her position at the stove to set eyes on her partner.
Myka bent to rest her elbows on the counter in front of the coffee maker. "I'm holding out for the good stuff," she shared, smiling, as the machine emitted a particularly loud grinding noise.
"I do seem to recall asking you for coffee, once, not long ago," Helena raised a brow and referred back to Myka's departure from Wisconsin. "You seemed rather uninterested in the notion, at the time," she recounted, flipping a strip of bacon in the frying pan, and moving beside Myka to press her back to the countertop. She rested her hands beside her hips and gripped the edge of the granite as she looked down at her lover.
"Yeah, but, come on," Myka laughed. "Saving the world is obviously a much better distraction."
"A distraction from what, darling?" Helena inquired.
Myka smiled softly when she shifted her head to face her. "From you, Helena."
Helena tilted her head to the side curiously. "The lack of distraction was the basis for my reasoning, Myka," she informed gently. "The purpose of asking you for coffee was to grant us the opportunity to spend a moment of uninterrupted time together."
"Which would have been nice," Myka said slowly. "And extremely dissatisfying."
"Oh?" Helena asked, puzzled.
"I wanted you, Helena," Myka said darkly. "Being around you was hard enough, even while we were busy saving the world. Having coffee wouldn't exactly have been a good substitute for what I wanted, and the time spent alone with you would have left me wanting it more."
Helena opened her mouth to respond, but as she did, they heard the front door creak open to reveal loud chatter, and a rowdy Pete almost instantly exclaimed, "I smell bacon!"
Helena knew that her eyes had turned dark with desire, because the reaffirmation of Myka's need for her had Helena feeling warm all over, but she felt mildly appeased when she acknowledged that similar feelings were reflecting in Myka's eyes as she looked up at her.
A moment later, however, Pete, Jinks, and Claudia burst into the kitchen with clear excitement at the idea of food, but they quieted when they caught on to the tension that they had just created.
"Uh… Are we interrupting something?" Claudia asked awkwardly.
"You always seem to be," Helena replied, momentarily frustrated as she averted her gaze from Myka's and moved back to the stove. She didn't miss Myka's private smirk at the irritation behind her comment, just before she moved to rifle through the cabinet above her for a coffee mug.
"Hey, do we get bacon, too, or does Myka just get some 'cause she gave you some?" Pete asked, grinning broadly.
"Nice," Claudia said, clenching her hand into a fist and bumping it against Pete's.
"I know, right?" He said, hooking his thumbs in his belt loops and shifting his pants up higher, clearly proud of his naughty quip.
Steve laughed, though the guilty look on his face expressed that he did so reluctantly, and then he shook his head and said apologetically, "I tried to keep them out of the house for a little longer, but – "
"We got excited!" Pete jumped to defend himself before Jinks had even finished blaming him.
"Yeah, we just wanted to know how it went!" Claudia insisted. "Jeez, Jinksy, you big tattletale," she added, pinching him on the arm sharply.
"Ow," Steve grumbled, shifting away from her with an almost indiscernible pout.
"It was so much quieter when you were gone," Myka jested, smiling at them over her cup of coffee.
"I'm not entirely sure that that's true, darling," Helena argued offhandedly, drawing her spatula across a pan over the stove to flip an egg. "I find you can be reasonably communicative, with the proper provocation."
"Hello!" Pete said, rearing his head backward with surprise.
Myka's cheeks had flared red, and she lobbed a sugar packet at Helena's head, at which the British woman laughed liberally.
Claudia mouthed a 'wow' at Jinks, and with wide eyes, he offered a slow, emphatic nod in return.
"You know what," Myka returned defensively. "I don't really remember you embracing the silence, either, okay?" She said, and though she'd launched with testiness, she was laughing by the end.
"I rarely do, darling," Helena admitted cheekily, and tossed a couple slices of bacon and an over-medium egg onto a plate, before moving to the toaster and, with excellent timing, withdrawing the slices of bread that had just popped up.
"Okay," Claudia said, dragging out the 'oh' sound gracelessly. "So, last night went well, huh?" She grinned, clapping her hands together delightedly.
Helena handed Myka the plate of food that she held, and she watched, entertained, as Myka swiftly struck Pete's hand while he reached for a sliver of her bacon.
"Quite well, indeed," Helena smiled, rather pleased with herself for arranging an evening that Myka had so obviously enjoyed.
"We had a great time," Myka said honestly, smiling as she sunk her teeth into a piece of toast.
"Did you get your present?" Pete asked excitably.
"Yeah, what is it?" Claudia asked, bouncing on her heels.
Myka's smile turned fond as she recalled her gift, but she nodded, and said simply, "I got it."
"And?" Claudia asked eagerly.
"Come on, Mykes!" Pete pleaded agitatedly. "HG wouldn't tell us what the doohickey does!"
"It isn't a doohickey," Myka shook her head at him, and Helena shut her mouth against the same response, pleased that she didn't have to spit back the reply herself. "It's more like a widget," Myka expanded, seating herself at the table with her breakfast.
"Ohhhh," Pete said, as though truly having a revelation about the integrity of the item. "Sorry, HG," he said, shrugging sheepishly. "It looked like a doohickey."
"There's a difference?" Steve asked, perplexed.
"Apparently there is when you speak Pete," Claudia replied, shrugging helplessly.
"Doohickeys have much less science-y stuff," Pete explained. "Widgets are way cooler."
Helena raised her brow at the clarification, and placed two slices of bacon onto a plate with some toast and eggs, wordlessly handing it to Pete.
"Seriously?" He grinned exuberantly. "Aw, man, thanks, HG!" He paused, and then leaned forward to sniff it. "It's not poisoned or anything, right?" He asked, suddenly squinting at it suspiciously as he sat at the table next to Myka.
"You might be surprised, on occasion, what you can earn with an apology, Agent Lattimer," Helena replied didactically.
Myka smiled over at her with blatant affection, and, besotted, Helena tenderly grazed her fingers over Myka's back as she passed her to make her way back to the cooking area.
"Although I loathe to give you the impression that this is an activity I often engage in," Helena sighed, turning to Steve and Claudia, "shall I make a plate for you, as well?"
"Oh, you don't have to do that," Steve declined politely, shaking his head.
Speaking loudly, and intentionally overriding Steve, Claudia nearly shouted, "Yes, breakfast would be amazing, HG, thank you!" She elbowed Steve to the gut.
"Ooph," Steve hunched over.
"What is it with the women in this place, man?" Pete scratched his head, bewildered. "You're all so violent…"
"Shut up, Pete," Myka and Claudia chimed in synchrony, and Helena chuckled her amusement.
Though she'd planned to ravish Myka after their breakfast, Helena found herself reluctantly admitting that their day had only been improved by the return of their little family. It had thus far been a perfect morning, and Helena marveled at her good fortune.