"Maura!" Jane called from the bedroom.
"Yes?" her girlfriend replied as she scurried into the room, worried that Jane had hurt herself or something. When she entered the room, however, Jane was standing in a mass of her own clothes as they were strewn across the bed and floor. "What are you doing?"
"Where are my pants that I was wearing the other day?"
"What 'other day'?"
"When I was cleaning my apartment; you haven't washed them have you?" Jane said as her arms came down to her side, a pair of wrinkled jeans hanging in her hand.
"I think they're in the basket to be washed; why?"
"There's something in the pocket."
"Oh, do you want me to get it?"
"It's okay," Jane said as she dropped the pants in her hand and dashed past Maura to the laundry. "I'll get them!" Maura was left standing in Jane's clothing chaos, confused by the whole situation. As a loud clap of thunder rang in her ears, the blonde bent down to pick up the many pairs of pants around her room and began folding them or hanging them back in the closet.
There hadn't been a heavy downpour in weeks, and so it was delightfully refreshing to hear the rain hitting the ground like steaks sizzling on a barbeque. The loud thunder that rocked through the air, however, was a tad too loud and would make Maura tense up every time it rumbled. When she passed through the kitchen on her way to Jane, she'd seen Jo at the kitchen door, seemingly wanting to go out and splash in the puddles. Bass was content in his corner of the kitchen, but Jo bounded around protectively whenever the thunder reached her little ears.
Maura folded and placed away the last pair of sweatpants as Jane came back into the room waving a piece of card. "Found it!" the brunette exclaimed as she came in and flopped onto the bed, her hair spreading out on the pillows behind her head. "Come see." Maura walked over to Jane and gently crawled onto the bed beside her and saw that the piece of card was in fact a photograph. "Remember this?" Jane asked as she handed the photo to Maura.
"Is this one of the photos you found?"
"Yeah. This was of the first time I took you to the Dirty Robber."
"You made me blush."
"Yes I did."
"And you still do."
"Yes I do," Jane said with a sheepishly happy look on her face. "You were so nerdy."
"I still am."
"Touché; and so cute," she said as Maura handed her back the photo.
"You thought I was cute."
"Well, maybe not then. I probably just thought you were such a dork, which you still are, but now I know the real you, and... gosh, you're cute."
"A cuteness which just made you say 'gosh'," Maura pointed out as she nudged into Jane's shoulder. The taller woman lifted up her arm and placed it back down around Maura's shoulders and pulled her in. She turned her head and pressed a kiss to the other woman's forehead. Maura hummed in contentment as her eyes drifted shut and her arm snaked around Jane's tummy. She nuzzled into the brunette's wild hair before her nose reached Jane's neck. She used her nose to then brush aside Jane's hair before pressing feather light kisses to the skin beneath her lips. As her lips tickled Jane's neck in the sweetest of ways, her hand around Jane's waist gently began to bring up her top.
Jane reached over and placed the photo on the bedside table before bringing her hand up to Maura's cheek as she continued to kiss and nuzzle. She gently cupped the blonde's chin and stroked her cheek with the soft pad of her thumb, almost soothing her to sleep. She felt Maura stop and when she looked down to see why she noticed that Maura was smiling. Not a big cheesy grin, nor just a little one, but a tight lipped one that made her cheeks puffy. All of a sudden her nose crinkled as her smile widened, showing that inside, she was practically giddy. Jane continued her gentle touch for a few moments more before slowly tilting Maura's head up towards her and leaning in.
Maura kissed Jane back as softly, yet as passionately as she dared, not wanting to spoil this tender loving moment, even if it was with sex. Something in her gut (not that she listened to her intestines much) made her want just this; the comfort of Jane's body around hers, caressing her cheek and kissing her lips as the rain fell outside. Even the loudest of thunders couldn't ruin it, for she knew that Jane would only hold her closer and kiss that sensitive spot behind her ear before she whispered "it's okay; I'm here." Jane pecked her lips one more time before she carefully pulled away and left the room. She looked over at the clock as she left and saw that it was only 7:45, but still, bed didn't sound like a bad thing right now.
She locked up and turned off all the lights save the kitchen one, and then bent down to see Jo. "I'll take you out again later," she whispered, although 'later' might be more like 3 in the morning when she re-woke. Jo seemed to understand though, because she nudged into Jane's knee for a pat and then walked herself to bed. Jane stood up and turned off the light and then walked back to Maura, who was now under the covers in a baggy t-shirt and her panties. Jane pulled off her own pants and slid in, gingerly wrapping her body around Maura's.
Once Jane was spooned behind her, Maura reached over and switched off the lamp and rested back into her pillow. She'd opened her curtains just a little allowing the night to spill in. The sound of the rain soothed their stressed minds, and the cool blue night calmed their anxieties. Jane pressed her face into the softness of Maura's hair and breathed it in, almost as if the smell of it could knock her out, but Maura continued to look around her blue-lit room and out the window. The rain cast a sheet of blur over everything, allowing the drops hanging off the roof to stand out. They hung on, then began shaking in the breeze making it look like their muscles were giving out on them before they dropped to the ground.
Maura had always thought the rain was a nice thing; not depressing as some might perceive, but calming, almost therapeutic. Its constant wash of sound could drown out any thoughts from a mind cluttered with them, and the cool breeze it could bring would make a body cool enough for it to crawl under a blanket and sleep. Snow was nice, of course, because of the fun Maura could have in it, but snow was silent as it fell. Rain let Maura know it was there for her enjoyment. The odd rumble of thunder would also make it just that little bit more interesting. She didn't know why it would, but it was like a splash of colour against the white canvas that was rain.
She held out her hand and could see the shadows from raindrops on her window against her skin and it calmed her even more still, because now it was touching her. As the rain drop slid down the glass, and the shadow down her skin, it caressed her to sleep; it soothed her nerves. For a long time, rain had been her closest friend, her sole companion. Whenever she was blue, a pre-recorded tape of rain falling could ease her into a sleep which she would wake from in a more cheery mood. But slowly, over the years, the shadow's touch was replaced with Jane's hug, the thunder's colour was replaced with Jane's smile or her laugh, and the recording of its sound was replaced with Jane's voice whispering 'I love you.'
It was at that moment that Maura realised that Jane would be that constant in her life; the constant that the rain always was, but now wasn't; that constant that would hold her when she was down and inspire her when she was alive with emotion. Jane was the constant that would see her through life.