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rainbowfic2012-05-08 12:42 am
bookblather) wrote in rainbowfic2012-05-08 12:42 am
Mountain Meadow Saturation and Blush 3: All The World To Me
Author: Kat
Title: All the World To Me
Story: In the Heart -- ALL THE AUS
Colors: Mountain meadow saturation, blush 3 (proposal) with Isana's paint-by-numbers (EPIC PIRATE AU: Ivy telling Gina she wants to spend the rest of her life with her, or vice versa.).
Supplies and Materials: Eraser (ALL THE AUS), portrait, brush (torrid), acrylic (this bracelet), oils (right beside you), fabric (this image), modeling clay (love), glitter (Fearless, Taylor Swift), graffiti, nubs (The Mountain).
Word Count: 6144.
Rating: PG-13.
Summary: I have been around the world/there's so much there to see/And the story never ends/You're all the world to me - Dar Williams, I Have Been Around the World
Warnings: character death, infectuous diseases, coercive sex/nonconsensual sexual activity, thoroughly consensual and enthusiastic sexytimes, discussion of homophobia.
Notes: No really. All of them. Including a few I had to make up just for this saturation. Thanks to Isana for all her help with that one section. Name more than 50% of them correctly and win 100 words from me of your choosing.
1. beach
Land, again. The sand shifted under her feet like a live thing, but the earth itself was remarkably steady, an uncanny combination after days aboard ship. The air smelled of greenery, growing things and hot dense forest, intermingled with the lingering ocean salt on the back of her tongue. The ocean roared behind her, Ivy's steps crunching in the sand, the other pirates calling back and forth, and somewhere in the forest, she knew there was the plashing of a waterfall.
Ivy came up even with her and took her hand, lacing their fingers together. "Ready to go?" she asked, quietly.
"Yes," Gina said, and leaned over to brush a kiss over her brow. "You said you had a surprise for me?"
Ivy smiled up at her. "Yes, but you'll have to wait. This is a special surprise and it deserves a special place."
Gina went with her, hand-in-hand along the narrow game path, overhanging leaves brushing her hair and face like a caress, like the whole landscape had reached into Ivy's heart and spoke her love for her.
The lagoon was just the same as ever, vibrantly alive, the greens so intense they hurt the eye, and the crystal-clear water rippling from the waterfall. Ivy threw off her clothes and dove in, her body flashing whitely under the water before she surfaced in the middle of the pond. "Come in," she invited, slicking her hair back, and Gina dove in too, though she kept her chemise on-- there were some things she still was not brave enough to do.
Ivy swam to her, wrapped her in her arms, her body a warm contrast to the chill of the water. "Gina," she breathed, softly. "I love you."
"I love you," she said back, and kissed Ivy, her lover's mouth smooth and hot. "What's the surprise?"
"I want to be with you," Ivy said, simply. "Forever. We can't be married, but... I want to be with you as if we were."
Overwhelmed, Gina stared at her for a moment, before she cupped Ivy's face in both hands and kissed her, hot and deep. "Yes," she said, when they broke for air. "Yes. You never even had to ask. Yes."
Ivy kissed her back, her hand sliding up Gina's leg beneath the water, and then there was nothing but yes, yes, yes.
2. mountain
They lay entwined in the moonlight after, tracing soft circles on each other's heated skin. She could hear Gina's heart beating beneath her breast, a reassuring drumbeat, steady throb-throb-throb like the rhythm of the world. Ivy closed her eyes, the better to hear it, the better to feel her lover's skin smooth against her own, to breathe in the soft scent of orange blossoms and honey and remember that taste on her tongue.
Gina stirred beneath her, lifted a hand to stroke her hair. "Is this it, then?" she asked, drowsily. "Is this what it's like?"
Ivy had no idea what was asking, but words rose to her lips unbidden. "Yes. This is what it's like."
"Good." Gina went on stroking her hair in silence for a time. "Is this us, then?"
This time, Ivy knew exactly what she was asking, and she knew the response before she even drew breath to voice it. She'd known the response her whole life. "Yes," she said. "This is us. For me, it's you. It's always been you."
"For me, it's you," Gina echoed. "Yes. It's always been you. They told me once that no man would ever have me-- I think they knew then that you would come to me."
Ivy lifted her head and pressed a kiss to the smooth soft slope of Gina's breast. "I would always have come for you," she said. "Were you wed and a mighty queen, I would have come for you nonetheless."
Gina laughed, softly. "Well, I am not wed," she said, "and I am not a mighty queen, but I am yours, and always will be."
"Forever," Ivy said. "Yes."
3. plains
Ivy flicked her fingers at the candles and they lit by themselves, illuminating her pleased look. Gina, stretched out on her belly on their shared, rumpled bed, snorted.
"You just can't resist showing off, can you?" she asked, rolling over, the candlelight dappling her breasts with shadow.
Ivy, who had difficulty resisting other things as well, leaned down and closed her mouth around Gina's nipple, sucking gently, scraping just the lightest bit with her teeth. Gina closed her eyes and arched into her, moaning-- when Ivy lifted her head, the smug look had vanished.
"Yeah," she said, and planted a kiss just between Gina's breasts. "I do like showing off. And you love it."
Gina reached up, wound a curl of Ivy's red hair around her finger. "I do," she agreed. "I love it."
Ivy flicked a flame into being at her fingertip, adjusted the temperature until it was no more than warm, and ran it around Gina's other nipple. Gina shivered, and moaned again. "Yeah, you love it," she whispered. "Marry me."
Gina's eyes flew open, and she sat up. "What?"
Damn. Ivy had been hoping to sneak-attack her into saying yes. She put out the flame and sat up herself, crossing her arms over her breasts. "Um," she said, and rephrased. "Would you consider marrying me?"
Gina looked torn between hilarity and horror. "Ivy, you're a superhero."
Ivy stared at her. "...yes. So?"
"So you're a public figure," Gina said. She reached out, took both of Ivy's hands. "If you marry me, everyone will know you're gay."
"Yes," Ivy repeated. "And?"
Gina laughed. "And that's all? You don't care?"
She shrugged. "Why would I? Everyone important knows and doesn't care. The people who will care, they don't matter. And..." She leaned forward, put her hands on Gina's shoulder, pressed her gently back down against the bed. "I love you. I want everyone to know that. I don't give a shit if they approve or not."
Gina looked up at her for a half-second, before utter joy spread across her face, transforming it completely. "I love you," she said. "And I will marry you."
Ivy kissed her, hot and hard, and flicked a flame into them both.
4. forest
The red fox woman and the woman with eyes like the sky sat together beneath a willow tree, their hands entwined. A night breeze blew soft through their hair, the scent of hydrangeas soft in their nostrils. The grass lay just as soft beneath them, the moon huge and round in the sky. With a sigh, the woman with eyes like the sky laid her head on the shoulder of the red fox woman.
"It cannot always be like this," she said, softly. "I wish that it could."
There was a silent moment, and the red fox woman shifted against her. "It could," she said, cautiously.
The woman with eyes like the sky looked up at her. "What do you mean?"
The red fox woman reached up and plucked from the branches a peach, which had not been there before. "Do you know what this?" she asked, turning it in her hand, her wrist smooth and pale as it twisted. "It is a peach of immortality. If you eat from it, you will live forever."
The woman with eyes like the sky caught her breath. "My children," she said, for they were forever the first thing in her mind."
The red fox woman smiled. "I can get one for them also," she said. "If they wish to partake. But this peach--" she turned it again, the moonlight soft on her skin. "This peach is for you. If you will take it."
The woman with eyes like the sky said nothing more, but wrapped her hand around the red fox woman's wrist, brought the peach to her mouth, and took a bite. The juices ran down their wrists, entwined, and the red fox woman pressed her mouth to her lover's wrist, sweet like inarizushi on her tongue.
The next morning, the sun shone bright in the sky through a silver curtain of rain, and the foxes had their wedding.
5. island
After the show, after she won, after all of that money and freedom was hers, Gina bought herself a new sedan (small and cheap-- some habits died hard) and drove to New York City. She took the first parking space she found, because she had actually listened to all of Ivy's stories, yes, and remembered them too, though she had pretended to forget them as soon as she heard them.
She didn't know where Ivy lived, but how many people could there be in the city named Hirschfeld-Kendall, I? Only one, according to the phone book. She memorized the address, oriented herself, and set off walking.
She worried as she walked, passing strangers, speeding up if any appeared to recognize her. Would Ivy let her in? She'd looked so betrayed, the last time they saw each other, her blue eyes huge and broken. Gina winced at the memory.
But what else could she have done? She knew the voting was going against Ivy. She knew she had to go along with everyone else, or they'd know-- her cover would be blown. No matter how she felt about Ivy, she had to do what would get her free.
But she did love Ivy. She hadn't lied about that. She only hoped that Ivy...
Gina took a deep breath, and rang the buzzer to Ivy's building.
There was silence for a heartbeat, then the speaker crackled to life. "I swear to God, Aaron, if you forgot your key again--"
Gina swallowed. "It's not Aaron," she said, and the speaker went silent, as abruptly as if the wire had been cut.
Oh. Well then.
Her heart sank in her chest, and she stared at the speaker, wondering what she should do next. Go home, to the big echoing house she'd just received? Spend the rest of her life wondering what might have happened if she'd done one thing differently? Her throat contracted around tears.
Then the door burst open and there was Ivy, her hair falling around her face, wearing an oversized plaid shirt and no shoes and looking too beautiful for words. Gina's throat closed over for an entirely different reason.
"Hello," she whispered.
"You came back," Ivy said, and flung herself at Gina, and her arms were full of soft warm Ivy and her mouth was tight against hers and everything, everything was all right.
"Oh, shit," Ivy breathed against her mouth, a moment later. "I locked us out."
"Call Aaron?" Gina suggested, and let her stand on her shoes.
6. continent
The year after the war ended, they went to France, all of them, Gina and Ivy and Joseph and Evan. The continent was more accepting than England, and they were all tired of the country, tired of pretending to be something that they weren't. They went to France, then, after the war was over, went to battle-scarred Paris to see the sights, then south to Italy and the warm Mediterranean seas.
Joseph and Evan left them there, to wander off north somewhere and perhaps tour Romania. Gina had no interest in Romania, and Ivy loved the Mediterranean, so they stayed in Venice, city of canals and women who wandered arm-in-arm in the great Square of Saint Mark, just like them.
They toured the markets, went for gondola rides with parasols twirling over their heads, bought Venetian glass in goblets and necklaces and earrings to brush against their necks. They went to a Catholic Mass in Saint Mark's Basilica and marveled at the magnificence, visited the theater and tried to follow the plays, heads together over an Italian phrasebook, giggling softly and stealing kisses in the dark of their box.
And at night they lay together in the big bed meant for Gina and Joseph, trailing their hands over one another's bodies, twining their limbs together, pressing kisses on hot skin until they no longer knew where one ended and the other began.
One night, twining together in the aftermath of loving, Gina said sleepily what she had been thinking for many days. "I love you."
"Do you?" Ivy caressed her side, sliding her fingers between Gina's ribs, under her breasts. "I love you, too."
Gina let out a breath, and slipped her leg a little higher up Ivy's hip. "You mean that?"
The fingers on her breasts stilled, then resumed their slow, caressing motion. "Of course. You don't pay me that much, mio amore."
The one phrase in Italian that Ivy knew by heart. Gina smiled. "I would like to not pay you at all," she said. "I would like to..." She paused, uncertain of what to say. "I would like to," she said again, and let it hang.
"Yes," Ivy said, and kissed her collarbone. "I would like to, too."
They held to each other, fingers interlinked and bodies entwined, and let the sweet dark speak the words they could not begin to say.
7. volcano
"I can't believe you have a secret lair under a volcano," Gina said, as the plane circled towards the runway. "That is so cliché."
"Bite me," Ivy said, cheerfully, and propped her feet up on the chair in front of her. "Volcanoes are traditional. Also, they are awesome."
Gina looked out the window as they passed over the crater, the weathered rock and the lake smooth as glass. "At least it's not an active volcano."
"Yeah, I'm not stupid." Ivy examined her nails for a moment. "Just ambitious. I'm glad I can have an obvious secret lair now, anyway."
Gina smiled. "Being evil overlord has some perks, huh?"
Ivy grinned, an unholy expression that turned Gina on far more than it should have. "Being evil overlord has all the perks. Like, oh, legalizing gay marriage immediately. For example."
Gina froze in her seat, then turned to face her girlfriend. "Are you serious?"
Ivy sat up too, her expression gone solemn. "Can you think for one moment that I wouldn't make that my first priority?"
Gina shifted, the leather of the seat smooth under her skin as the motion of the plane pressed her back into it. "I... you haven't even proposed to me yet."
"It's not about us," Ivy said. "Well, um. It is, a little bit, but mostly, it's about them, all those gay kids out in the world who think they're nothing because society treats them that way. Marriage equality won't solve everything, but it's a step." She closed her eyes, leaned back against the seat. "It's for them."
"Ah," Gina said. She let the pressure take her for a moment, closing her eyes for half a second. "Well... can it be for us, too? A little bit?"
"Gina," Ivy said, and her voice was so warm Gina opened her eyes and looked at her. "It's for us, too. Always." She reached her hand across the aisle and caught Gina's, and twined their fingers together.
8. earthquake
"Oops," Ivy said, half a second after the explosion.
Gina fought her way out from underneath the collapsed pile of cushions and glared at her girlfriend. "Oops?"
"It wasn't supposed to do that," Ivy said, frowning at what used to be Gina's best pot.
"Obviously," Gina said, and began stacking the cushions back on the couch where they belonged. "What was it supposed to do?"
Ivy opened her mouth, shut it again, and flushed. "Um. It was supposed to be a surprise."
It certainly had been that. Gina sighed, stacked the last cushion on the couch, then turned around to face Ivy and planted her hands on her hips. "You were successful in that at least. What were you trying to make it do?"
Ivy looked down at the floor, and actually nudged it with the toe of one foot, bashfully. Gina was torn between amusement and appreciating the adorable, until Ivy said, "Ask you to marry me."
Gina stared at her.
Finally, she said, "You tried to make a potion that would ask me to marry you."
"Um." Ivy leaned over the remains of the pot. "Well, no, not exactly, I was trying to make a potion that would... you know what, never mind."
Gina sighed an exasperated sigh and stalked forward to snatch the pot off the stove. "Well, I will marry you, but only on the condition that you stop doing stupid shit like this."
"Not the answer I dreamed of," Ivy said, "but okay, I'll take it."
"You'd better."
9. valley
The valley was green and alive that morning in early spring, the air softened by silvering rain drizzling down, beading the leaves like crystal, sending ripples through the clear pond between the standing stones.
"A natural circle," the sorceress said, pushing a lock of honey-gold hair from her face, and stepped between the stones, stopping at the very edge of the pond. "I can't think of a better place."
The swordswoman entered behind her, hand on the hilt of her dagger, her eyes taking in the surrounding area out of long-bred wary habit. "It's safe here?"
"It's a circle," the sorceress replied, walking from stone to stone with a loose, even stride. As she passed each one, she traced a quick symbol on each in what looked like liquid starfire; they hung glowing in the air even after she passed. "It's safe. I'm making it more so."
"All right." The swordswoman unbuckled her belt and laid it on the ground, then unslung her sword from her back and laid it beside her belt. She stood, smoothing the front of her tunic. "Should we have flowers?"
"If you like." The sorceress completed her circle, and went to her lover. She slipped the tie from the swordswoman's hair and unbraided the soft red locks. "There. I like you better this way."
"Harder to fight," the swordswoman said, but she was smiling. "What do I do?"
"Stand with me," the sorceress said, simply. "Be with me. Do as you've always done, my heart."
The swordswoman went up on her toes and kissed the sorceress, resting her hands on her lover's hips. "As I've always done," she said, "and always will do."
The sorceress smiled down at her, and twined her hands in her lover's rain-dewed hair. "That's all I've ever wanted," she whispered, and pressed her mouth to hers.
10. desert
There was a blonde woman sitting across the subway, her nose in a book, and just looking at her was making Ivy's mouth dry.
She was just so beautiful, so poised. Her legs went on forever under a mid-length blue skirt, into short black ankle boots that fit brilliantly. She wore a blue collared shirt under a black sweater, and God did it work for her, setting off crystal blue eyes and honey-gold hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was the most beautiful woman Ivy had seen all year-- probably ever.
Her long, elegant fingers folded around the book moved suddenly, to turn the page. Ivy's heart dropped, for there was a wedding ring on one finger.
Well then.
So much for that.
She exited the subway at her stop with only one longing look back at the blonde woman, who had never once looked up from her book.
11. tundra
There was no way she'd just heard that. There was no possible way that Ivy had really just said what Gina thought she'd said.
So she carried on as if nothing had happened. "Would you like something to eat? Or... you're twenty-one now, you want a drink?"
"No," Ivy said, and circled around the island in Gina's kitchen until she was face to face with her. "I want you to kiss me."
Oh, God, she really had said that. Gina flushed immediately, and looked away, anywhere but at Ivy's sharp little face and ocean blue eyes and red, red lips. "No," she said, and walked away from the counter, away from Ivy and away from temptation.
"Why not?" Ivy demanded. Her steps rounded the island again and came closer, rapidly. Gina briefly considered fleeing into her bedroom, and then decided it was beneath her. "Why won't you kiss me?"
Gina crossed her arms tight across her abdomen, and did not turn around. "Because you just turned twenty-one."
"Last time I checked," Ivy said, "that was legal."
She held herself tighter. "I am thirty-eight, Ivy. I am seventeen years older than you! Doesn't that matter?"
"No," Ivy said, and Gina turned around in surprise. Ivy was looking up at her, her expression honestly puzzled, and a little hurt. "Why would it matter to me? You're you, and I'm me, and the I who's me loves the you who's you."
Gina shook her head, dropping her eyes again. "You won't think that, not in a year. You'll meet somebody your own age and..."
"No, I won't," Ivy said, and then, "Gina, look at me."
She raised her eyes reluctantly, to meet Ivy's.
"I've met people my own age, and there's nothing there," Ivy said, her heart in her voice. "I've met people older than me, I've met people younger than me, and there is no one in my life who means even half as much to me as you do. You make everything... different, and better, and... oh, I don't know, you just are, you make my life better, and I don't want to do this alone. I don't want anybody who isn't you."
Gina pressed both hands over her mouth, and tried not to cry. "You really mean that."
Ivy took a step forward. "I really mean that," she said, and a moment later, "I really love you, Gina. Please, please just let me love you."
Gina dropped her hands from her mouth, and kissed her.
12. mineral
They hated this part, the both of them, but Ivy especially.
The sultan had never touched her, not once, but Gina had borne him three children and the slight mound of her belly heralded a fourth, and still he demanded this of her. Of them, but she knew what it really meant.
Humiliation.
The shimmering gold veils between them and the sultan created the illusion of privacy but no more than that-- she knew perfectly well that he could see them and their stilted, painful movements.
It wasn't like this when they were alone. When it was just the two of them in their small cubby beneath the stairs, their movements were slow and liquid, skin against skin, and mouth to mouth. Here they were on show, every movement scripted, the more so when the sultan called out, demanding that one or the other do something for his delight. And soon he'd clap his hands and call for Gina, pull her away from Ivy, who really loved her, to please him, who only owned her.
To hell with that.
She reached up and tangled her hands in Gina's hair, even as the sultan clapped his hands, summoning her away. "I love you," she whispered, breathlessly, barely aloud.
"I know," Gina whispered back, and left, the veils swirling in her wake.
Ivy prostrated herself and waited, trying not to hear the sounds that followed after.
She was going to leave this place, soon. She was going to escape. She was going to get out of here.
And she was going to take Gina and her children with her.
13. swamp
Ivy was shaking in her arms-- not weeping, she seemed too shocked for weeping, just shaking like a leaf in the autumn wind. Gina held her tight against her as the taxi carried them home, and prayed for a miracle.
God. How could they suspect Ivy? Ivy wouldn't voluntarily hurt a fly, Ivy who cried even when she had to hurt the animals they brought to her to heal. How could they imagine that she'd kill anyone? And even if Ivy had been capable of it, how could they imagine that she'd kill Lars?
She could still hear Summer's hideous, shuddering sobs.
No, Ivy would never do that. Never. Gina tightened her arm around her lover, and pressed a kiss to her brow.
"Thank you," Ivy said, as the taxi rounded a corner.
Gina looked down at her, surprised. "For what?"
"For coming for me," Ivy said, in a small voice. "For staying with me. I know... I know it wasn't very fun."
No, it hadn't been very fun. The cops staring at Ivy with narrowed, suspicious eyes, the questions coming hard and fast-- if this was what it was like when she was only a person of interest, Gina was afraid to find out what it would be like if they actually arrested Ivy.
"No," she said, and tucked Ivy closer against her, "but of course I came. You're mine."
Ivy closed her eyes and pressed it against her shoulder. "Always?"
"Always," Gina said firmly, and resolved to find a good lawyer immediately.
14. bog
"Thanks for meeting me here," Ivy said brightly, plopping down next to Amanda in the corner booth she'd chosen at the coffee house. Amanda winced, and Ivy grinned. "I seriously need your help."
Whatever Amanda was thinking, she didn't say it; she just smiled, and sipped her cappuccino. "What can I do for you?"
"I want to propose to Gina," Ivy said, bluntly. "Help me figure out how."
Amanda stared at her for a moment, then shook her head, and gathered up her shoulder bag. "Well, it's been nice seeing you again, Ivy, good luck with that proposal thing."
"Oh, no, you don't," Ivy said, and put her feet up on the other side of the booth so Amanda couldn't slide out that way. "Seriously, Amanda, I need help. I'm thinking singing waiters, the ring in the champagne glass..."
Amanda stared at her for another moment. "You're not serious," she said. Ivy, who was perfectly serious, just looked at her, and a moment later, she sighed, and put her shoulder bag back down. "Okay. You do need my help. First thing, ditch the ring in the champagne glass, it's a choking hazard."
Ivy sighed. Aaron had said the same thing, so it was probably right. "Okay, fine. What else?"
"Second..." Amanda paused, and shook her head. "Why do you need singing waiters? Why do you even need champagne? You love Gina, she loves you, why don't you just give her the ring and have done with it?"
"You are so not romantic," Ivy said. "I want it to be sweet and romantic and lovely. I want it to be something Gina always remembers."
Amanda bit her lip. "Honey, you're asking her to marry you. She's going to remember that."
Ivy sighed, and leaned her chin on her hands. "I want this to be good," she said, softly, thinking of Gina's smile, of the way her eyelashes shadowed her cheeks, the way their hands fit together. "I want to do this right."
This time, Amanda smiled. "Oh, all right. Something special." She reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out a pen and pad of paper. "What were you thinking?"
15. moor
The fever came last.
Not that there was much of a last with this disease. You caught it, the swellings developed, reddened patches appeared, and you knew you were doomed. Then the coughing started, rattling your bones in your skin, then the blood spattering from every exhale, then the fever, so high you got delirious, and then.
And then.
She didn’t know when Ivy had... when Ivy. She'd been drifting in and out of hallucinations, curled against her girlfriend, waiting for the end to come like so many other people across the city. She'd hoped that she would die first, but...
Some things weren't to be.
They'd never been married. Maybe if there was a priest somewhere, if Father Arnott or someone like him had still been in the city, still making the rounds to his stricken parishioners, maybe they could have been. The world was ending, or at least their small segment of it. She knew the priests had absolved all sins-- the bishop of New York City had broadcast a citywide absolution, before he died. It seemed rather petty to deny them this one last small comfort.
Not that it mattered.
She'd heard stories; husbands leaving their wives, parents leaving their children. She hadn't left Ivy. She'd never for one moment left Ivy. It had probably cost her her life, but she had that consolation at least: she had never left Ivy.
Gina closed her eyes, held her lover's body close, and waited for the end.
16. mesa
The redheaded woman was back, three small children toddling after and a baby on her hip. She bent her knee at the door, crossed herself quickly with her free hand, then rose, and walked towards Gina, hips swaying.
Gina caught her breath, and lowered her eyes, her fingers fumbling over her rosary. The redheaded woman came once or twice a month, always bringing children-- orphans, she said, of the fever or the plague, all of them healthy. She brought them to the nuns, she said, because she knew the nuns would care for them and keep them safe.
She sometimes wondered if the redheaded woman had a different motive, but she could hardly ask.
"Sister Angelica," the redheaded woman said, and Gina rose hastily to her feet, dropping her rosary to swing against her robe. The redheaded woman smiled, and bounced the baby on her hip. "I've brought you some more orphans."
"Thank you," Gina said, smiling, and reached out to take the baby. The redheaded woman transferred it gently, patting its cheek once Gina had it safely in her arms.
"That's Giorgio," she said, referring to the baby. "And these are Cesare, Lucia, and Antonio. Lucia and Giorgio are brother and sister," she added, resting a hand on the tousled dark curls of the little girl.
"Hello," Gina said, smiling at them all. "I am Sister Angelica. You'll be safe here, never fear."
The little girl hid shyly behind the redheaded woman's skirts, while the two older boys stepped cautiously forward and bowed. Not bad, Gina thought. Educated for certain. Where the redheaded woman had got them...
"Well," the redheaded woman began, and was it Gina's imagination, or did her voice sound reluctant? "I must be going."
"Yes," Gina said, and herded the children back towards the convent door. She looked back only once, and bit her lip when she saw the redheaded woman poised at the door to the church, watching her.
No, she thought, and turned away. No. She was a bride of Christ, not for any mortal man or woman to touch.
And yet...
17. canyon
"I can't believe you," Gina said, flatly.
Ivy blinked at her from her berth in the medical bay. She was on the good drugs, evidently, because she couldn't feel a thing; not pain, not fear, nothing but a slurred and drifting sense of well-being. "Why not?" she asked, and was pleased when her words came out only a little bit slurred.
Gina stared at her for a moment, then sat back, her expression full of utter incredulity. "You seriously don't know. Ivy, that was the stupidest stunt I can imagine!"
Ivy thought about it, then said, seriously, "I can think of stupider ones."
"Don't," Gina said, sharply, leaning forward and shaking her finger for emphasis. "Even. Think. About. It."
Ivy widened her eyes deliberately, though the drugs probably helped. "I would never," she insisted.
Gina sighed. "You would never do something like, oh, I don't know, fly your damned fighter through a canyon barely wider than it, tear your damned wing off and break your damned arm? You were lucky you weren't killed!"
"Nah," Ivy said, brightly. "I ejected. Nothing lucky about it. Anyway I got the drone."
Gina leaned very close to her, until she was practically nose-to-nose with Ivy. "If you ever do something so utterly stupid again I will disown you."
Ivy smiled sleepily at Gina's lips, so close to hers. "Kiss me?"
Gina sat back with a huff. "No. You don't deserve it."
Blah. Ivy rolled her head back and forth. "Oh well."
"But," Gina added, a moment later, "I will marry you. Someone has to keep an eye on you."
"Oh." Ivy thought about that for a moment, then smiled, brilliantly. "Good. Love you."
She closed her eyes, and just as she was drifting off, she heard Gina sigh, and whisper, "Love you too," in a tone of exasperated fondness.
Good.
18. glade
"You know, you never said yes," Ivy pointed out on the taxi ride home.
Gina, who was desperately trying to keep her hands off her girlfriend--no, fiancée, now, God, that was still a miracle-- blinked. "What?"
"You never said yes," Ivy said. "You put the ring on and everything, but you never said yes."
"You're delusional," Gina said, positively, "because I definitely said yes. I damn near tackled you across the table, remember?"
Ivy giggled. "I am not delusional, and you never actually said it. We were kind of too busy making out and making the waiters laugh."
Gina smiled, reached over, and slid an arm around Ivy's waist. "Well, then," she said, edging closer on the seat. "I'll have to fix that, won't I?"
Ivy put her own arms around Gina's waist, and sneaked one hand down the back of Gina's skirt. "I'd appreciate it."
"Ask me again," Gina said, and moved as close as she could to Ivy's mouth, without actually kissing her.
"Marry me," Ivy whispered, her breath hot against Gina's lips.
"Yes," Gina said, and kissed her. "Yes," she said, when she pulled away, and kissed the soft hollows between the end of Ivy's jawline and her ears. "Yes," she said, and kissed Ivy's eyes, and forehead, and nose. "Yes."
She did not succeed in keeping her hands off her fiancée, and the taxi driver was severely discomfited by the time they arrived at their apartment.
Gina left him a generous tip. Just in case.
19. oasis
Ivy lay with her head in Gina's lap, her eyes closed, Gina's hands circling softly over her temples. She was exhausted, drained to the core, but she'd passed the goddamn certification test and now she was a fully qualified veterinarian, and she wanted to sleep for the rest of her life.
"Poor darling," Gina murmured, stroking her hands into Ivy's hair. "Go to sleep, love, it's all right."
"Hmm." There was more than a bit of the frustrated caretaker in Gina, Ivy thought; right now she was glad to take advantage of it. She curled up around Gina, tucking her legs behind her-- Gina obligingly leaned forward-- and pressed her forehead into Gina's belly. "Mmkay."
Gina made a soft sound that wasn't quite a laugh, then bent down and brushed a kiss along Ivy's hairline. "I love you so much. You know that, right?"
"Yeah." Ivy stretched her arms, then wrapped them both around Gina's waist, pulling herself closer. "I love you too."
"Good," Gina said, and went on stroking Ivy's hair until she fell asleep.
20. rain forest
"Oh my God he is so cute," Ivy said.
Gina had to agree with her. Matthew Marhenke was possibly the most adorable child she'd seen, cuddled on his sister's lap, his hands atop hers as she played a simple lullaby on the piano. He giggled, and even that was musical, a sweet baby sound that tugged at Gina's heart.
Ivy turned to her, took both her hands, and looked up at her with her most melting eyes. Gina sighed, and as her girlfriend opened her mouth, said, "What do you want."
Ivy blinked, and her melting expression turned to one of extreme innocence. "What do you mean, what do I want?"
Gina arched an eyebrow. "Sweetheart, I know you. We've been together for four years. You want something, so spit it out."
Ivy shrugged, and obliged. "I want kids."
If Gina had been drinking something, she would have choked.
She was not drinking something, so all she did was snatch her hands away from Ivy, put her hands on her girlfriend's shoulders, and say, "What, now?"
"No, not now, obviously," Ivy said, "but soon. Three years is good, we're pretty stable, I'll be out of school soon and making decent money, give it a year or so and we can have kids, right? I want kids."
Gina looked at her for a moment. "I always thought I'd be married before I had children," she said, at length.
Ivy shrugged again. "Okay, let's get married then. And have kids."
Gina couldn't help herself; she laughed. "Just like that? Get married, have kids? You're so romantic."
"Remind me to tell you the story of my parents' engagement," Ivy said, and then, "So is that a yes?"
Gina leaned over and kissed her. "Yes. It's a yes."
It would always be a yes.
Title: All the World To Me
Story: In the Heart -- ALL THE AUS
Colors: Mountain meadow saturation, blush 3 (proposal) with Isana's paint-by-numbers (EPIC PIRATE AU: Ivy telling Gina she wants to spend the rest of her life with her, or vice versa.).
Supplies and Materials: Eraser (ALL THE AUS), portrait, brush (torrid), acrylic (this bracelet), oils (right beside you), fabric (this image), modeling clay (love), glitter (Fearless, Taylor Swift), graffiti, nubs (The Mountain).
Word Count: 6144.
Rating: PG-13.
Summary: I have been around the world/there's so much there to see/And the story never ends/You're all the world to me - Dar Williams, I Have Been Around the World
Warnings: character death, infectuous diseases, coercive sex/nonconsensual sexual activity, thoroughly consensual and enthusiastic sexytimes, discussion of homophobia.
Notes: No really. All of them. Including a few I had to make up just for this saturation. Thanks to Isana for all her help with that one section. Name more than 50% of them correctly and win 100 words from me of your choosing.
1. beach
Land, again. The sand shifted under her feet like a live thing, but the earth itself was remarkably steady, an uncanny combination after days aboard ship. The air smelled of greenery, growing things and hot dense forest, intermingled with the lingering ocean salt on the back of her tongue. The ocean roared behind her, Ivy's steps crunching in the sand, the other pirates calling back and forth, and somewhere in the forest, she knew there was the plashing of a waterfall.
Ivy came up even with her and took her hand, lacing their fingers together. "Ready to go?" she asked, quietly.
"Yes," Gina said, and leaned over to brush a kiss over her brow. "You said you had a surprise for me?"
Ivy smiled up at her. "Yes, but you'll have to wait. This is a special surprise and it deserves a special place."
Gina went with her, hand-in-hand along the narrow game path, overhanging leaves brushing her hair and face like a caress, like the whole landscape had reached into Ivy's heart and spoke her love for her.
The lagoon was just the same as ever, vibrantly alive, the greens so intense they hurt the eye, and the crystal-clear water rippling from the waterfall. Ivy threw off her clothes and dove in, her body flashing whitely under the water before she surfaced in the middle of the pond. "Come in," she invited, slicking her hair back, and Gina dove in too, though she kept her chemise on-- there were some things she still was not brave enough to do.
Ivy swam to her, wrapped her in her arms, her body a warm contrast to the chill of the water. "Gina," she breathed, softly. "I love you."
"I love you," she said back, and kissed Ivy, her lover's mouth smooth and hot. "What's the surprise?"
"I want to be with you," Ivy said, simply. "Forever. We can't be married, but... I want to be with you as if we were."
Overwhelmed, Gina stared at her for a moment, before she cupped Ivy's face in both hands and kissed her, hot and deep. "Yes," she said, when they broke for air. "Yes. You never even had to ask. Yes."
Ivy kissed her back, her hand sliding up Gina's leg beneath the water, and then there was nothing but yes, yes, yes.
2. mountain
They lay entwined in the moonlight after, tracing soft circles on each other's heated skin. She could hear Gina's heart beating beneath her breast, a reassuring drumbeat, steady throb-throb-throb like the rhythm of the world. Ivy closed her eyes, the better to hear it, the better to feel her lover's skin smooth against her own, to breathe in the soft scent of orange blossoms and honey and remember that taste on her tongue.
Gina stirred beneath her, lifted a hand to stroke her hair. "Is this it, then?" she asked, drowsily. "Is this what it's like?"
Ivy had no idea what was asking, but words rose to her lips unbidden. "Yes. This is what it's like."
"Good." Gina went on stroking her hair in silence for a time. "Is this us, then?"
This time, Ivy knew exactly what she was asking, and she knew the response before she even drew breath to voice it. She'd known the response her whole life. "Yes," she said. "This is us. For me, it's you. It's always been you."
"For me, it's you," Gina echoed. "Yes. It's always been you. They told me once that no man would ever have me-- I think they knew then that you would come to me."
Ivy lifted her head and pressed a kiss to the smooth soft slope of Gina's breast. "I would always have come for you," she said. "Were you wed and a mighty queen, I would have come for you nonetheless."
Gina laughed, softly. "Well, I am not wed," she said, "and I am not a mighty queen, but I am yours, and always will be."
"Forever," Ivy said. "Yes."
3. plains
Ivy flicked her fingers at the candles and they lit by themselves, illuminating her pleased look. Gina, stretched out on her belly on their shared, rumpled bed, snorted.
"You just can't resist showing off, can you?" she asked, rolling over, the candlelight dappling her breasts with shadow.
Ivy, who had difficulty resisting other things as well, leaned down and closed her mouth around Gina's nipple, sucking gently, scraping just the lightest bit with her teeth. Gina closed her eyes and arched into her, moaning-- when Ivy lifted her head, the smug look had vanished.
"Yeah," she said, and planted a kiss just between Gina's breasts. "I do like showing off. And you love it."
Gina reached up, wound a curl of Ivy's red hair around her finger. "I do," she agreed. "I love it."
Ivy flicked a flame into being at her fingertip, adjusted the temperature until it was no more than warm, and ran it around Gina's other nipple. Gina shivered, and moaned again. "Yeah, you love it," she whispered. "Marry me."
Gina's eyes flew open, and she sat up. "What?"
Damn. Ivy had been hoping to sneak-attack her into saying yes. She put out the flame and sat up herself, crossing her arms over her breasts. "Um," she said, and rephrased. "Would you consider marrying me?"
Gina looked torn between hilarity and horror. "Ivy, you're a superhero."
Ivy stared at her. "...yes. So?"
"So you're a public figure," Gina said. She reached out, took both of Ivy's hands. "If you marry me, everyone will know you're gay."
"Yes," Ivy repeated. "And?"
Gina laughed. "And that's all? You don't care?"
She shrugged. "Why would I? Everyone important knows and doesn't care. The people who will care, they don't matter. And..." She leaned forward, put her hands on Gina's shoulder, pressed her gently back down against the bed. "I love you. I want everyone to know that. I don't give a shit if they approve or not."
Gina looked up at her for a half-second, before utter joy spread across her face, transforming it completely. "I love you," she said. "And I will marry you."
Ivy kissed her, hot and hard, and flicked a flame into them both.
4. forest
The red fox woman and the woman with eyes like the sky sat together beneath a willow tree, their hands entwined. A night breeze blew soft through their hair, the scent of hydrangeas soft in their nostrils. The grass lay just as soft beneath them, the moon huge and round in the sky. With a sigh, the woman with eyes like the sky laid her head on the shoulder of the red fox woman.
"It cannot always be like this," she said, softly. "I wish that it could."
There was a silent moment, and the red fox woman shifted against her. "It could," she said, cautiously.
The woman with eyes like the sky looked up at her. "What do you mean?"
The red fox woman reached up and plucked from the branches a peach, which had not been there before. "Do you know what this?" she asked, turning it in her hand, her wrist smooth and pale as it twisted. "It is a peach of immortality. If you eat from it, you will live forever."
The woman with eyes like the sky caught her breath. "My children," she said, for they were forever the first thing in her mind."
The red fox woman smiled. "I can get one for them also," she said. "If they wish to partake. But this peach--" she turned it again, the moonlight soft on her skin. "This peach is for you. If you will take it."
The woman with eyes like the sky said nothing more, but wrapped her hand around the red fox woman's wrist, brought the peach to her mouth, and took a bite. The juices ran down their wrists, entwined, and the red fox woman pressed her mouth to her lover's wrist, sweet like inarizushi on her tongue.
The next morning, the sun shone bright in the sky through a silver curtain of rain, and the foxes had their wedding.
5. island
After the show, after she won, after all of that money and freedom was hers, Gina bought herself a new sedan (small and cheap-- some habits died hard) and drove to New York City. She took the first parking space she found, because she had actually listened to all of Ivy's stories, yes, and remembered them too, though she had pretended to forget them as soon as she heard them.
She didn't know where Ivy lived, but how many people could there be in the city named Hirschfeld-Kendall, I? Only one, according to the phone book. She memorized the address, oriented herself, and set off walking.
She worried as she walked, passing strangers, speeding up if any appeared to recognize her. Would Ivy let her in? She'd looked so betrayed, the last time they saw each other, her blue eyes huge and broken. Gina winced at the memory.
But what else could she have done? She knew the voting was going against Ivy. She knew she had to go along with everyone else, or they'd know-- her cover would be blown. No matter how she felt about Ivy, she had to do what would get her free.
But she did love Ivy. She hadn't lied about that. She only hoped that Ivy...
Gina took a deep breath, and rang the buzzer to Ivy's building.
There was silence for a heartbeat, then the speaker crackled to life. "I swear to God, Aaron, if you forgot your key again--"
Gina swallowed. "It's not Aaron," she said, and the speaker went silent, as abruptly as if the wire had been cut.
Oh. Well then.
Her heart sank in her chest, and she stared at the speaker, wondering what she should do next. Go home, to the big echoing house she'd just received? Spend the rest of her life wondering what might have happened if she'd done one thing differently? Her throat contracted around tears.
Then the door burst open and there was Ivy, her hair falling around her face, wearing an oversized plaid shirt and no shoes and looking too beautiful for words. Gina's throat closed over for an entirely different reason.
"Hello," she whispered.
"You came back," Ivy said, and flung herself at Gina, and her arms were full of soft warm Ivy and her mouth was tight against hers and everything, everything was all right.
"Oh, shit," Ivy breathed against her mouth, a moment later. "I locked us out."
"Call Aaron?" Gina suggested, and let her stand on her shoes.
6. continent
The year after the war ended, they went to France, all of them, Gina and Ivy and Joseph and Evan. The continent was more accepting than England, and they were all tired of the country, tired of pretending to be something that they weren't. They went to France, then, after the war was over, went to battle-scarred Paris to see the sights, then south to Italy and the warm Mediterranean seas.
Joseph and Evan left them there, to wander off north somewhere and perhaps tour Romania. Gina had no interest in Romania, and Ivy loved the Mediterranean, so they stayed in Venice, city of canals and women who wandered arm-in-arm in the great Square of Saint Mark, just like them.
They toured the markets, went for gondola rides with parasols twirling over their heads, bought Venetian glass in goblets and necklaces and earrings to brush against their necks. They went to a Catholic Mass in Saint Mark's Basilica and marveled at the magnificence, visited the theater and tried to follow the plays, heads together over an Italian phrasebook, giggling softly and stealing kisses in the dark of their box.
And at night they lay together in the big bed meant for Gina and Joseph, trailing their hands over one another's bodies, twining their limbs together, pressing kisses on hot skin until they no longer knew where one ended and the other began.
One night, twining together in the aftermath of loving, Gina said sleepily what she had been thinking for many days. "I love you."
"Do you?" Ivy caressed her side, sliding her fingers between Gina's ribs, under her breasts. "I love you, too."
Gina let out a breath, and slipped her leg a little higher up Ivy's hip. "You mean that?"
The fingers on her breasts stilled, then resumed their slow, caressing motion. "Of course. You don't pay me that much, mio amore."
The one phrase in Italian that Ivy knew by heart. Gina smiled. "I would like to not pay you at all," she said. "I would like to..." She paused, uncertain of what to say. "I would like to," she said again, and let it hang.
"Yes," Ivy said, and kissed her collarbone. "I would like to, too."
They held to each other, fingers interlinked and bodies entwined, and let the sweet dark speak the words they could not begin to say.
7. volcano
"I can't believe you have a secret lair under a volcano," Gina said, as the plane circled towards the runway. "That is so cliché."
"Bite me," Ivy said, cheerfully, and propped her feet up on the chair in front of her. "Volcanoes are traditional. Also, they are awesome."
Gina looked out the window as they passed over the crater, the weathered rock and the lake smooth as glass. "At least it's not an active volcano."
"Yeah, I'm not stupid." Ivy examined her nails for a moment. "Just ambitious. I'm glad I can have an obvious secret lair now, anyway."
Gina smiled. "Being evil overlord has some perks, huh?"
Ivy grinned, an unholy expression that turned Gina on far more than it should have. "Being evil overlord has all the perks. Like, oh, legalizing gay marriage immediately. For example."
Gina froze in her seat, then turned to face her girlfriend. "Are you serious?"
Ivy sat up too, her expression gone solemn. "Can you think for one moment that I wouldn't make that my first priority?"
Gina shifted, the leather of the seat smooth under her skin as the motion of the plane pressed her back into it. "I... you haven't even proposed to me yet."
"It's not about us," Ivy said. "Well, um. It is, a little bit, but mostly, it's about them, all those gay kids out in the world who think they're nothing because society treats them that way. Marriage equality won't solve everything, but it's a step." She closed her eyes, leaned back against the seat. "It's for them."
"Ah," Gina said. She let the pressure take her for a moment, closing her eyes for half a second. "Well... can it be for us, too? A little bit?"
"Gina," Ivy said, and her voice was so warm Gina opened her eyes and looked at her. "It's for us, too. Always." She reached her hand across the aisle and caught Gina's, and twined their fingers together.
8. earthquake
"Oops," Ivy said, half a second after the explosion.
Gina fought her way out from underneath the collapsed pile of cushions and glared at her girlfriend. "Oops?"
"It wasn't supposed to do that," Ivy said, frowning at what used to be Gina's best pot.
"Obviously," Gina said, and began stacking the cushions back on the couch where they belonged. "What was it supposed to do?"
Ivy opened her mouth, shut it again, and flushed. "Um. It was supposed to be a surprise."
It certainly had been that. Gina sighed, stacked the last cushion on the couch, then turned around to face Ivy and planted her hands on her hips. "You were successful in that at least. What were you trying to make it do?"
Ivy looked down at the floor, and actually nudged it with the toe of one foot, bashfully. Gina was torn between amusement and appreciating the adorable, until Ivy said, "Ask you to marry me."
Gina stared at her.
Finally, she said, "You tried to make a potion that would ask me to marry you."
"Um." Ivy leaned over the remains of the pot. "Well, no, not exactly, I was trying to make a potion that would... you know what, never mind."
Gina sighed an exasperated sigh and stalked forward to snatch the pot off the stove. "Well, I will marry you, but only on the condition that you stop doing stupid shit like this."
"Not the answer I dreamed of," Ivy said, "but okay, I'll take it."
"You'd better."
9. valley
The valley was green and alive that morning in early spring, the air softened by silvering rain drizzling down, beading the leaves like crystal, sending ripples through the clear pond between the standing stones.
"A natural circle," the sorceress said, pushing a lock of honey-gold hair from her face, and stepped between the stones, stopping at the very edge of the pond. "I can't think of a better place."
The swordswoman entered behind her, hand on the hilt of her dagger, her eyes taking in the surrounding area out of long-bred wary habit. "It's safe here?"
"It's a circle," the sorceress replied, walking from stone to stone with a loose, even stride. As she passed each one, she traced a quick symbol on each in what looked like liquid starfire; they hung glowing in the air even after she passed. "It's safe. I'm making it more so."
"All right." The swordswoman unbuckled her belt and laid it on the ground, then unslung her sword from her back and laid it beside her belt. She stood, smoothing the front of her tunic. "Should we have flowers?"
"If you like." The sorceress completed her circle, and went to her lover. She slipped the tie from the swordswoman's hair and unbraided the soft red locks. "There. I like you better this way."
"Harder to fight," the swordswoman said, but she was smiling. "What do I do?"
"Stand with me," the sorceress said, simply. "Be with me. Do as you've always done, my heart."
The swordswoman went up on her toes and kissed the sorceress, resting her hands on her lover's hips. "As I've always done," she said, "and always will do."
The sorceress smiled down at her, and twined her hands in her lover's rain-dewed hair. "That's all I've ever wanted," she whispered, and pressed her mouth to hers.
10. desert
There was a blonde woman sitting across the subway, her nose in a book, and just looking at her was making Ivy's mouth dry.
She was just so beautiful, so poised. Her legs went on forever under a mid-length blue skirt, into short black ankle boots that fit brilliantly. She wore a blue collared shirt under a black sweater, and God did it work for her, setting off crystal blue eyes and honey-gold hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was the most beautiful woman Ivy had seen all year-- probably ever.
Her long, elegant fingers folded around the book moved suddenly, to turn the page. Ivy's heart dropped, for there was a wedding ring on one finger.
Well then.
So much for that.
She exited the subway at her stop with only one longing look back at the blonde woman, who had never once looked up from her book.
11. tundra
There was no way she'd just heard that. There was no possible way that Ivy had really just said what Gina thought she'd said.
So she carried on as if nothing had happened. "Would you like something to eat? Or... you're twenty-one now, you want a drink?"
"No," Ivy said, and circled around the island in Gina's kitchen until she was face to face with her. "I want you to kiss me."
Oh, God, she really had said that. Gina flushed immediately, and looked away, anywhere but at Ivy's sharp little face and ocean blue eyes and red, red lips. "No," she said, and walked away from the counter, away from Ivy and away from temptation.
"Why not?" Ivy demanded. Her steps rounded the island again and came closer, rapidly. Gina briefly considered fleeing into her bedroom, and then decided it was beneath her. "Why won't you kiss me?"
Gina crossed her arms tight across her abdomen, and did not turn around. "Because you just turned twenty-one."
"Last time I checked," Ivy said, "that was legal."
She held herself tighter. "I am thirty-eight, Ivy. I am seventeen years older than you! Doesn't that matter?"
"No," Ivy said, and Gina turned around in surprise. Ivy was looking up at her, her expression honestly puzzled, and a little hurt. "Why would it matter to me? You're you, and I'm me, and the I who's me loves the you who's you."
Gina shook her head, dropping her eyes again. "You won't think that, not in a year. You'll meet somebody your own age and..."
"No, I won't," Ivy said, and then, "Gina, look at me."
She raised her eyes reluctantly, to meet Ivy's.
"I've met people my own age, and there's nothing there," Ivy said, her heart in her voice. "I've met people older than me, I've met people younger than me, and there is no one in my life who means even half as much to me as you do. You make everything... different, and better, and... oh, I don't know, you just are, you make my life better, and I don't want to do this alone. I don't want anybody who isn't you."
Gina pressed both hands over her mouth, and tried not to cry. "You really mean that."
Ivy took a step forward. "I really mean that," she said, and a moment later, "I really love you, Gina. Please, please just let me love you."
Gina dropped her hands from her mouth, and kissed her.
12. mineral
They hated this part, the both of them, but Ivy especially.
The sultan had never touched her, not once, but Gina had borne him three children and the slight mound of her belly heralded a fourth, and still he demanded this of her. Of them, but she knew what it really meant.
Humiliation.
The shimmering gold veils between them and the sultan created the illusion of privacy but no more than that-- she knew perfectly well that he could see them and their stilted, painful movements.
It wasn't like this when they were alone. When it was just the two of them in their small cubby beneath the stairs, their movements were slow and liquid, skin against skin, and mouth to mouth. Here they were on show, every movement scripted, the more so when the sultan called out, demanding that one or the other do something for his delight. And soon he'd clap his hands and call for Gina, pull her away from Ivy, who really loved her, to please him, who only owned her.
To hell with that.
She reached up and tangled her hands in Gina's hair, even as the sultan clapped his hands, summoning her away. "I love you," she whispered, breathlessly, barely aloud.
"I know," Gina whispered back, and left, the veils swirling in her wake.
Ivy prostrated herself and waited, trying not to hear the sounds that followed after.
She was going to leave this place, soon. She was going to escape. She was going to get out of here.
And she was going to take Gina and her children with her.
13. swamp
Ivy was shaking in her arms-- not weeping, she seemed too shocked for weeping, just shaking like a leaf in the autumn wind. Gina held her tight against her as the taxi carried them home, and prayed for a miracle.
God. How could they suspect Ivy? Ivy wouldn't voluntarily hurt a fly, Ivy who cried even when she had to hurt the animals they brought to her to heal. How could they imagine that she'd kill anyone? And even if Ivy had been capable of it, how could they imagine that she'd kill Lars?
She could still hear Summer's hideous, shuddering sobs.
No, Ivy would never do that. Never. Gina tightened her arm around her lover, and pressed a kiss to her brow.
"Thank you," Ivy said, as the taxi rounded a corner.
Gina looked down at her, surprised. "For what?"
"For coming for me," Ivy said, in a small voice. "For staying with me. I know... I know it wasn't very fun."
No, it hadn't been very fun. The cops staring at Ivy with narrowed, suspicious eyes, the questions coming hard and fast-- if this was what it was like when she was only a person of interest, Gina was afraid to find out what it would be like if they actually arrested Ivy.
"No," she said, and tucked Ivy closer against her, "but of course I came. You're mine."
Ivy closed her eyes and pressed it against her shoulder. "Always?"
"Always," Gina said firmly, and resolved to find a good lawyer immediately.
14. bog
"Thanks for meeting me here," Ivy said brightly, plopping down next to Amanda in the corner booth she'd chosen at the coffee house. Amanda winced, and Ivy grinned. "I seriously need your help."
Whatever Amanda was thinking, she didn't say it; she just smiled, and sipped her cappuccino. "What can I do for you?"
"I want to propose to Gina," Ivy said, bluntly. "Help me figure out how."
Amanda stared at her for a moment, then shook her head, and gathered up her shoulder bag. "Well, it's been nice seeing you again, Ivy, good luck with that proposal thing."
"Oh, no, you don't," Ivy said, and put her feet up on the other side of the booth so Amanda couldn't slide out that way. "Seriously, Amanda, I need help. I'm thinking singing waiters, the ring in the champagne glass..."
Amanda stared at her for another moment. "You're not serious," she said. Ivy, who was perfectly serious, just looked at her, and a moment later, she sighed, and put her shoulder bag back down. "Okay. You do need my help. First thing, ditch the ring in the champagne glass, it's a choking hazard."
Ivy sighed. Aaron had said the same thing, so it was probably right. "Okay, fine. What else?"
"Second..." Amanda paused, and shook her head. "Why do you need singing waiters? Why do you even need champagne? You love Gina, she loves you, why don't you just give her the ring and have done with it?"
"You are so not romantic," Ivy said. "I want it to be sweet and romantic and lovely. I want it to be something Gina always remembers."
Amanda bit her lip. "Honey, you're asking her to marry you. She's going to remember that."
Ivy sighed, and leaned her chin on her hands. "I want this to be good," she said, softly, thinking of Gina's smile, of the way her eyelashes shadowed her cheeks, the way their hands fit together. "I want to do this right."
This time, Amanda smiled. "Oh, all right. Something special." She reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out a pen and pad of paper. "What were you thinking?"
15. moor
The fever came last.
Not that there was much of a last with this disease. You caught it, the swellings developed, reddened patches appeared, and you knew you were doomed. Then the coughing started, rattling your bones in your skin, then the blood spattering from every exhale, then the fever, so high you got delirious, and then.
And then.
She didn’t know when Ivy had... when Ivy. She'd been drifting in and out of hallucinations, curled against her girlfriend, waiting for the end to come like so many other people across the city. She'd hoped that she would die first, but...
Some things weren't to be.
They'd never been married. Maybe if there was a priest somewhere, if Father Arnott or someone like him had still been in the city, still making the rounds to his stricken parishioners, maybe they could have been. The world was ending, or at least their small segment of it. She knew the priests had absolved all sins-- the bishop of New York City had broadcast a citywide absolution, before he died. It seemed rather petty to deny them this one last small comfort.
Not that it mattered.
She'd heard stories; husbands leaving their wives, parents leaving their children. She hadn't left Ivy. She'd never for one moment left Ivy. It had probably cost her her life, but she had that consolation at least: she had never left Ivy.
Gina closed her eyes, held her lover's body close, and waited for the end.
16. mesa
The redheaded woman was back, three small children toddling after and a baby on her hip. She bent her knee at the door, crossed herself quickly with her free hand, then rose, and walked towards Gina, hips swaying.
Gina caught her breath, and lowered her eyes, her fingers fumbling over her rosary. The redheaded woman came once or twice a month, always bringing children-- orphans, she said, of the fever or the plague, all of them healthy. She brought them to the nuns, she said, because she knew the nuns would care for them and keep them safe.
She sometimes wondered if the redheaded woman had a different motive, but she could hardly ask.
"Sister Angelica," the redheaded woman said, and Gina rose hastily to her feet, dropping her rosary to swing against her robe. The redheaded woman smiled, and bounced the baby on her hip. "I've brought you some more orphans."
"Thank you," Gina said, smiling, and reached out to take the baby. The redheaded woman transferred it gently, patting its cheek once Gina had it safely in her arms.
"That's Giorgio," she said, referring to the baby. "And these are Cesare, Lucia, and Antonio. Lucia and Giorgio are brother and sister," she added, resting a hand on the tousled dark curls of the little girl.
"Hello," Gina said, smiling at them all. "I am Sister Angelica. You'll be safe here, never fear."
The little girl hid shyly behind the redheaded woman's skirts, while the two older boys stepped cautiously forward and bowed. Not bad, Gina thought. Educated for certain. Where the redheaded woman had got them...
"Well," the redheaded woman began, and was it Gina's imagination, or did her voice sound reluctant? "I must be going."
"Yes," Gina said, and herded the children back towards the convent door. She looked back only once, and bit her lip when she saw the redheaded woman poised at the door to the church, watching her.
No, she thought, and turned away. No. She was a bride of Christ, not for any mortal man or woman to touch.
And yet...
17. canyon
"I can't believe you," Gina said, flatly.
Ivy blinked at her from her berth in the medical bay. She was on the good drugs, evidently, because she couldn't feel a thing; not pain, not fear, nothing but a slurred and drifting sense of well-being. "Why not?" she asked, and was pleased when her words came out only a little bit slurred.
Gina stared at her for a moment, then sat back, her expression full of utter incredulity. "You seriously don't know. Ivy, that was the stupidest stunt I can imagine!"
Ivy thought about it, then said, seriously, "I can think of stupider ones."
"Don't," Gina said, sharply, leaning forward and shaking her finger for emphasis. "Even. Think. About. It."
Ivy widened her eyes deliberately, though the drugs probably helped. "I would never," she insisted.
Gina sighed. "You would never do something like, oh, I don't know, fly your damned fighter through a canyon barely wider than it, tear your damned wing off and break your damned arm? You were lucky you weren't killed!"
"Nah," Ivy said, brightly. "I ejected. Nothing lucky about it. Anyway I got the drone."
Gina leaned very close to her, until she was practically nose-to-nose with Ivy. "If you ever do something so utterly stupid again I will disown you."
Ivy smiled sleepily at Gina's lips, so close to hers. "Kiss me?"
Gina sat back with a huff. "No. You don't deserve it."
Blah. Ivy rolled her head back and forth. "Oh well."
"But," Gina added, a moment later, "I will marry you. Someone has to keep an eye on you."
"Oh." Ivy thought about that for a moment, then smiled, brilliantly. "Good. Love you."
She closed her eyes, and just as she was drifting off, she heard Gina sigh, and whisper, "Love you too," in a tone of exasperated fondness.
Good.
18. glade
"You know, you never said yes," Ivy pointed out on the taxi ride home.
Gina, who was desperately trying to keep her hands off her girlfriend--no, fiancée, now, God, that was still a miracle-- blinked. "What?"
"You never said yes," Ivy said. "You put the ring on and everything, but you never said yes."
"You're delusional," Gina said, positively, "because I definitely said yes. I damn near tackled you across the table, remember?"
Ivy giggled. "I am not delusional, and you never actually said it. We were kind of too busy making out and making the waiters laugh."
Gina smiled, reached over, and slid an arm around Ivy's waist. "Well, then," she said, edging closer on the seat. "I'll have to fix that, won't I?"
Ivy put her own arms around Gina's waist, and sneaked one hand down the back of Gina's skirt. "I'd appreciate it."
"Ask me again," Gina said, and moved as close as she could to Ivy's mouth, without actually kissing her.
"Marry me," Ivy whispered, her breath hot against Gina's lips.
"Yes," Gina said, and kissed her. "Yes," she said, when she pulled away, and kissed the soft hollows between the end of Ivy's jawline and her ears. "Yes," she said, and kissed Ivy's eyes, and forehead, and nose. "Yes."
She did not succeed in keeping her hands off her fiancée, and the taxi driver was severely discomfited by the time they arrived at their apartment.
Gina left him a generous tip. Just in case.
19. oasis
Ivy lay with her head in Gina's lap, her eyes closed, Gina's hands circling softly over her temples. She was exhausted, drained to the core, but she'd passed the goddamn certification test and now she was a fully qualified veterinarian, and she wanted to sleep for the rest of her life.
"Poor darling," Gina murmured, stroking her hands into Ivy's hair. "Go to sleep, love, it's all right."
"Hmm." There was more than a bit of the frustrated caretaker in Gina, Ivy thought; right now she was glad to take advantage of it. She curled up around Gina, tucking her legs behind her-- Gina obligingly leaned forward-- and pressed her forehead into Gina's belly. "Mmkay."
Gina made a soft sound that wasn't quite a laugh, then bent down and brushed a kiss along Ivy's hairline. "I love you so much. You know that, right?"
"Yeah." Ivy stretched her arms, then wrapped them both around Gina's waist, pulling herself closer. "I love you too."
"Good," Gina said, and went on stroking Ivy's hair until she fell asleep.
20. rain forest
"Oh my God he is so cute," Ivy said.
Gina had to agree with her. Matthew Marhenke was possibly the most adorable child she'd seen, cuddled on his sister's lap, his hands atop hers as she played a simple lullaby on the piano. He giggled, and even that was musical, a sweet baby sound that tugged at Gina's heart.
Ivy turned to her, took both her hands, and looked up at her with her most melting eyes. Gina sighed, and as her girlfriend opened her mouth, said, "What do you want."
Ivy blinked, and her melting expression turned to one of extreme innocence. "What do you mean, what do I want?"
Gina arched an eyebrow. "Sweetheart, I know you. We've been together for four years. You want something, so spit it out."
Ivy shrugged, and obliged. "I want kids."
If Gina had been drinking something, she would have choked.
She was not drinking something, so all she did was snatch her hands away from Ivy, put her hands on her girlfriend's shoulders, and say, "What, now?"
"No, not now, obviously," Ivy said, "but soon. Three years is good, we're pretty stable, I'll be out of school soon and making decent money, give it a year or so and we can have kids, right? I want kids."
Gina looked at her for a moment. "I always thought I'd be married before I had children," she said, at length.
Ivy shrugged again. "Okay, let's get married then. And have kids."
Gina couldn't help herself; she laughed. "Just like that? Get married, have kids? You're so romantic."
"Remind me to tell you the story of my parents' engagement," Ivy said, and then, "So is that a yes?"
Gina leaned over and kissed her. "Yes. It's a yes."
It would always be a yes.
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Oh, man. I love this. I love the new AUs, I love the old ones, and I love how everything brings something a little new to the table but still has that same magnetic pull between these two. The timelessness of this pairing, my goodness!
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Thank you! It's all about commitment, this piece, and what it means to these two characters in a myriad of worlds. I'm glad that came through.
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I can never resist a challenge. ;-)
#1: pirate AU
#3: superhero AU
#4: kitsune AU
#5: reality show AU
#6: Regency AU
#7: mad scientist AU
#8: fantasy AU
#9: fairy tale AU
#10: Straight AU
#12: harem AU - is this new?
#13: Sociopathic Besties AU
#15: end of the world AU
#16: nun AU - is this new, too?
#17: IN SPAAACE AU
#20: George?
#2: idk, all I can see are the Lord of the Rings echoes
#14: no idea
#11: well, obviously it's an age-difference AU, but idk if it has a name?
#18: no idea
#19: ditto
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OKAY.
They're basically all right except for 9, which is the sword and sorcery AU (which is new), and yes, the nun and harem AUs are new. 2 is actually the fairy tale AU, while 14 is the Sisters AU (an AU in which Jake's sisters lived; Amanda is his older sister), 11 is the Regrets AU/AU FULL OF LULZ (I can explain if you like but it'll take more than I have space for here), 18 is canon (trick question!) and 19 is the Sunny AU, but nobody was going to get that one.
You have earned your hundred words! Let me know what you want me to write.
And thank you for reading this whole thing! <3333
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1: Aaron and/or Joy IN SPAAAACE.
2: ...I was originally just going to go with that, but I was researching AU FULL OF LULZ (your tags are brilliant), and this line:
'If he [Aaron] had not made her [Joy] swear on her mother's grave not to tell anyone that she'd taught him how to pole dance'...
!!! *wants this story*
3: Or if you wanted you could fic my characters (with yours or alone). I admit, I'm nervous as hell saying that, but it might be interesting... :-)
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So cute! I love it!
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Thanks!