It takes her a while to get used to her new ability. The first time she uses her meta Canary Cry, she makes the would-be mugger's ears bleed, and Cisco has to spend a week training her to control it.
When Barry speeds Laurel back to Star City he's hesitant to leave her, until Laurel assures him she's okay, especially with the team on patrol and Felicity's reassuring presence in the bunker. She trains on the salmon ladder for hours, even after Felicity clears out at three in the morning.
(Laurel doesn't tell her or anyone else that she's a metahuman now - she figures she can tell the team later, together.)
Nyssa enters via the elevator at around three-thirty.
"What are you doing here?" Laurel says before she can stop herself. She's leaning against the salmon ladder, a towel around her neck, and she flexes her arms gingerly, deeply regretting her intense workout.
"I heard you were back in Star City," Nyssa says. "I… wanted to see you."
"Did you hear I managed to deafen a mugger with my new superpower?" Laurel says with a humourless laugh. "Yeah, he can't hear a thing now. Thanks to me. Cisco says he's working on something to help him. He said something about a friend - Hartley someone - but I don't know anymore."
"I am sorry to hear that," Nyssa says. "Less because I care about a mugger. More because of what this is doing to your conscience."
"Which is probably why you should stay as far away from me as possible."
"I'm afraid I cannot do that." Nyssa's reached the salmon ladder, now, and she reaches up, climbing the ladder rung by rung, punctuated with clangs that make Laurel's head hurt. When she reaches the top with what seems like no effort at all, she says, "I love you too much to leave your side again."
"You don't know, Nyssa. About who I am. What I am."
Nyssa jumps down, now. "I know exactly who you are. You are my -"
"Nyssa, please," Laurel whispers. "Don't."
"You are my partner," Nyssa says, despite her pleading, "with a good soul and a pure heart."
"Even after what I've done?"
"Nothing you've done is unforgivable," Nyssa tells her. "You taught me that."
"Nyssa..."
"You saved me once. Let me save you."
"How?"
"By helping you forgive yourself."
But Laurel sighs and turns away, sitting down on the chair near the monitors. "You don't understand."
"Then help me to," Nyssa insists. She follows Laurel, kneeling in front of her and for the first time tentatively touching her arm. "Laurel, you know what I have done. How many lives I have taken. What is this life, of someone as worthless -"
"That's just it, though," Laurel says. "It's still a life. And I still took it. And in the eyes of the law -"
"That is not what this is about," Nyssa says, and her eyes close as though she's just realised something - something Laurel hasn't dared even think, let alone say. But immediately Nyssa softens, and it's impossible for Laurel to tear her eyes away from Nyssa's, not when her gaze is burning into Laurel and igniting something deep inside her.
"Then what?" Laurel says finally.
"You… feel as I do," Nyssa says, and Laurel surprises herself by laughing weakly.
"I don't think it takes a genius to work out how I feel about you, Nyssa."
Nyssa smiles briefly but then shakes her head. "No, not about that. I mean - you feel the way I do about Damian Darhk. In that he deserved a lot worse and you feel no guilt about it."
"That's -" Laurel starts to say, and she means to say "not true" but she knows Nyssa's not wrong.
"And that terrifies you," Nyssa goes on, "because you have always been the pinnacle of goodness and being - righteous."
"But I don't feel any remorse," Laurel says quietly. "And that makes me feel guilty as hell."
"Ya Laurel," Nyssa says gently, and Laurel watches as she reaches up, tucks a strand of hair behind Laurel's ear.
"And I hear you. You've… taken lives before. A lot of them. But I love you anyway because that's not who you are anymore and besides - killing was all you knew, growing up, right? You were raised as an assassin. I wouldn't expect anything less. But me - things are different with me."
"They don't have to be," Nyssa tells her earnestly. "You honestly think that your agonising over what you've done is going to make me love you any less?"
"Honestly? I don't know," Laurel says, and she watches as Nyssa's face falls. But then Laurel can't help but reach up to touch Nyssa's cheek, Laurel's thumb pressing against her jaw, and it's then that she makes up her mind. "But I'm sure of one thing."
Nyssa's eyes fill with fire, so they're alight with something that looks like hope, even as Laurel's hand drops to her side.
"What's that?"
"About… what you said. About our souls being drawn to each other. I guess - you were right. Because you're here now. We're here now. Even after everything that happened, you still came. To me. And - I just… I just really love you, okay?"
And when Nyssa pulls at the front of her shirt and kisses her it's slow, but urgent at the same time, and Laurel can taste the smile on her lips as she pulls Nyssa onto her lap.
"I love you," Nyssa says softly when she pulls away, still leaning her forehead against Laurel's. "I love you, ya Laurel."
Nyssa raises her arms willingly, letting Laurel take off her shirt. Laurel presses a button on the keyboard and to her relief the bunker goes into lockdown. Laurel gets to her feet, slightly unsteadily, but still managing to keep her balance as she lowers Nyssa onto the raised platform where they normally do their training. Reaching behind her Nyssa takes off her bra, and Laurel kisses a spot just above Nyssa's left breast while kneading her right with her hand. Nyssa gasps, even before Laurel's mouth encloses Nyssa's nipple and the hand on Nyssa's breast moves down, past her abdomen to between her legs, inside her pants.
Laurel touches Nyssa through her soaked panties, moaning in time with her partner, who's already so gloriously wet for her that Laurel momentarily forgets what she's doing with her mouth. Then she parts her lips, lets her tongue flick against Nyssa's nipple before releasing it while at the same time pressing her fingers inside Nyssa through her underwear.
Then Laurel pulls down what's left of Nyssa's clothing, inhaling deeply and revelling in the sweet scent of Nyssa's arousal. She nudges her nose in between Nyssa's thighs, so the tip of her nose becomes wet, and when she lets her tongue dart out Nyssa exhales sharply.
"Too much?" Laurel says, raising her head, and Nyssa shakes hers. Still Laurel goes slower, letting just the tip of her tongue kiss Nyssa's entrance and then touching her again with her fingers. She feels Nyssa's walls clench down around them, but she doesn't stop what she's doing, not until Nyssa gets close (Laurel can tell by the way her breathing quickens and her grip on Laurel's free hand tightens and she's gotten hotter and wetter by the second), and then Laurel withdraws again, making Nyssa groan softly in protest.
And then Laurel's tongue is where her fingers were, the flat of her tongue against Nyssa's throbbing clit. Laurel laps her wetness up, licking and sucking until her jaw becomes sore and her biceps - already aching - start to hurt even more and her knees begin to go numb from where they've pressed into the cold floor of the bunker. And then Nyssa comes with a cry, showering her with unintelligible words of Arabic.
It's music to Laurel's ears.