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It was in a rushed and odd set of circumstances that Fennel found herself waiting in the small airport terminal in Nuvema.Aurea had been gone for just over two weeks if she referred to a calendar for reference, not that it made much of a difference if she was in a different region entirely or staying put in her lab; not seeing one another for weeks at a time wasn’t uncommon. They spoke on the phone often enough, and it was in the midst of a conversation the night before that the professor suggested she meet her at the airport to begin with. Fennel had agreed, maybe too eagerly, driving the half an hour or so in from Striaton to meet her when she arrived. It was an offer she had made in the past, Aurea always declining and insisting she was too tired by the time she got back to be of much use, and Fennel still couldn’t make sense as to why she’d taken her up on it now, not that she minded. The only faded conclusion she could draw was that it was a Friday, and a weekend together in the least of it wasn’t far off.The evening was young, barely seven o'clock when Fennel checked to see, and if Aurea’s flight was on time, she was in the process of disembarking. The dark haired scientist removed the small piece of paper from her coat pocket, checking over the details once again, looking at the information screens around her to double check that the flight that had come was indeed the one she had been waiting for, crumpling it back up and shoving it away.There didn’t seem to be many others waiting around her, confused for a mere moment if she was even in the correct place, though the hanging signs seemed to confirm that she was. Nor did she know what was proper- should she sit and wait, or stand and look around?Fate had decided for her, looking up to see the brunette professor descending the escalator, tugging her suitcase behind her upon reaching the floor. Her hair was tied back in a messy bun, not at all how Fennel was used to seeing it, her eyes scanning around as she walked in no particular direction.“Aurea!” Fennel stood and waved perhaps too frantically in her excitement, the professor rolling her eyes with a small smile at the sight as Fennel began to make her way towards her.“Hey, it’s good to see you,” Aurea’s voice was quiet and her eyes hung heavy, setting her bag down momentarily to wrap the other scientist in a small hug.Fennel nodded against her shoulder, holding her tighter than the professor was to her, “I missed you so much,” she whispered softly. As they separated, the dream scientist looked to her again, expecting something more to come from their reunion, though Aurea seemed to be of the mind that they were finished here.“Yeah,” she partly mumbled, brushing loose strands of hair out of her eyes and taking the handle of her suitcase again. “You ready?”Fennel smiled regardless, “Yeah, um…do you want me to take your bag?”“No, I got it.”“Okay,” she nodded, still thrown off by the awkwardness of it all, the professor seemingly distant in their greetings, for reasons Fennel couldn’t place. She had seemed eager to see her the night before, Fennel shaking her head at the anticipation of sharing a kiss she had been denied; deciding she had been unfair in expecting as much.There was a short, quiet walk to the car in the mostly empty and dark parking lot. Winter had begun to fade in to spring seemingly in the past few days, a light rain falling in place of the snow they had been accustomed to over the past few months, the warmest it had been in days. They each took their respective places in the car after throwing bags in the backseat, Fennel quickly clearing her things off of the passenger side for the other woman to take her place.“Hey,” Aurea started before Fennel had a chance to start the car, her eyes darting to meet her look. “I really missed you,” she leaned in, their lips meeting for a few seconds, Fennel feeling her face flush as they parted. “Thanks for picking me up. I, um…usually I just take a taxi home, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask, with the weekend and all.”“I’m happy to, really,” Fennel grinned now, nodding and shifting her eyes to the parking lot in front of her. “And you’re lucky Amanita didn’t have anything to do this weekend, otherwise she’d be kinda mad that I wasn’t around. She’s working on some projects, or something, so she says. Maybe she just wanted me gone.” Aurea haphazardly tossed her things next to the door when they arrived at her lab apartment and collapsed on the bed face down upon reaching the bedroom, Fennel idly taking a seat next to her on the bed. She had spent countless nights here, and in doing so had learned long ago that Aurea wasn’t one to fall asleep as quickly as she had seemed to, running a hand through the loose strands of hair and trailing it down her back.“You’re going to have to move over eventually so I have room,” Fennel chuckled, surveying over and trying to decide if she had enough room to settle in as it stood, if she really did want to turn in for the night.“I’m going to get up in a second,” Aurea pulled her arms under her head, resting her chin atop of them. “I just need a minute.”“Okay,” the dream researcher gave a soft laugh. “Do you want me to rub your back for you?”“Sure, if you want.”Fennel shrugged, crawling over the professor and situating herself so that her knees rest on either side of her, pulling her shirt back and kneading her hands over her muscles slowly, feeling her flinch beneath her after only a moment.“You’re really stiff,” Fennel commented, though not stopping in her motion. “Like, really stiff. You need to relax.”“I am relaxed, I’ve told you a million times, this is just what happens when I’m sleeping on the ground for two weeks. And leaned over most of the day looking at fossils.”Fennel leaned back on her haunches, careful not to put any of her weight on to the other woman, thinking outloud for a moment.“I, um…I have an idea. And it’s completely fine if you don’t want to do this…”“What?”“I have some bath oils and things…why don’t we…take a bath together? And I can rub your back for you in there. The warmth will help your muscles feel a lot better.”“Er…I guess so, if you want. I’m exhausted, Fennel, I’m sorry…I just wanted to take a shower and go to bed,” Aurea began to pull herself upright, rubbing her eyes as if to emphasize her exhaustion.“I said we didn’t have to if you didn’t want to. If you want to go to bed, it’s fine. I just think it’d be good if you relaxed a bit.”“I am going to relax, I’m going to sleep.”“That’s not what I meant,” Fennel gave a small sigh, climbing over the professor and taking her place back on the edge of the bed. “Look…I know you’re tired and I know you just want to go to sleep, but trust me, you’ll feel so much better laying down after this. The heat will help ease your pain and stiffness, and you’ll sleep a lot better. I promise.”Aurea was seemingly mulling it over in the pause before her answer, “Well, it would be nice to not wake up feeling like this.”Fennel gave her a nod, “I’m going to go run the water, come in when you’re ready.” She gathered a few bottles, her robe, among a few other items from her bag, disappearing in to the bathroom.It wasn’t but a few minutes later that the professor joined her in the bathroom, clad in a plain blue robe that Fennel had seen lying about, but never actually on her. She had tied her hair back up in a tighter bun, the loose strands that fell in her eyes and around her neck all but gone.“Warm enough for you?” the dream scientist asked to distract herself from the stare she felt she was projecting, holding her own hand under the steaming water, pulling it away after a quick instance. “It is pretty hot, but it’ll feel really nice on your skin.”Aurea leaned down and dipped her own hand in to the bathwater, shaking it off afterward and not entirely knowing why, but nodding nonetheless. “It feels nice.” Her glance was directed back towards Fennel, who had tied her hair back as well in to a bun of sorts, and she couldn’t remember the last time she had seen her with her hair up, usually preferring to wear it down even when she slept.“You get in first so I can sit behind you,” Fennel offered, unknowingly interrupting her thoughts, already in the process of kicking her skirt off to the side.The brunette hesitated momentarily, doing her best to keep her eyes off of the other woman carelessly removing her clothes next to her. Once Fennel was preoccupied arranging her various bottles around the edge of the bathtub, she slowly removed her robe and settled in to the tub, folding her knees against her chest and moving forward to give Fennel enough space to join her.“Why’d you bring all this stuff? Did you plan this?” she chuckled, wrapping her arms around her knees, hearing Fennel climb in behind her.“Not like this, no. I brought it because I figured I’d take a bath while you’re sorting through all your reports and stuff tomorrow,” Fennel said as she situated her legs around the other woman, leaning over the edge of the tub to find the bath oils she wanted. “But I saw an opportunity and I took it.”More clamoring around with the bottles, and finally, Fennel lightly touched just under her shoulders, “Now, relax. It might hurt a little, but…it’ll get better.”Aurea nodded, trying her best to relax the tension in her body that had already built from the circumstances. She had known Fennel for nearly a decade, the other woman far more relaxed about these things than she was in all the years they had known one another, nor did it bother her when they changed in front of each other in the past. Even still, their relationship had changed in the more recent past, moving in a romantic direction that the professor herself never foresaw until Fennel had confronted her with the notion, and since then had moved at the pace she allowed it to, Fennel already seemingly comfortable with things a relationship entailed. Nor did these things bother let alone offend Aurea, more, slowly was becoming comfortable with the direction their relationship had taken. Fennel didn’t seem offended by the manner she had got in to the tub, shielding herself from view more than probably necessary, nor would the dream scientist press the issue in the least of it. She was too exhausted to consider most of the details, instead concentrating on Fennel’s hands digging and kneading on her muscles, her head tilting back slightly.“You okay?” Fennel piqued, halting her movements.“I’m fine,” the professor breathed, “I’m just, um…”“Aurea…are you sure you’re okay? You’re comfortable with this? We can stop if you want,” she lye her hands flat against her back, inching back slightly as if she was threatening to leave.The professor stumbled over her thoughts and in turn her words, trying to place what she was making of this. She was far from uncomfortable with the scenario, maybe not the way she had expected the evening to play out, but not troubled by it in the least, though somehow wondering if Fennel had been. “No, no, it’s not that, it’s just…I don’t…want you to think I’m, uh..that I don’t want to see you. I just don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable.”“I’m comfortable with whatever you are comfortable with. And…to be honest, I think there will be a different time and place for that, but not now. You’re tired, and sore, and once I’m done, we’re going to go to bed, because that is what you need to do. This wasn’t about anything more than me taking care of you in the best way I knew how.”“Oh,” was all she could manage at that, not quite what she had expected to hear from the long haired scientist, but then, she wasn’t sure what Fennel had been making of it up until that point. She couldn’t place why Fennel had made it her priority to care for her in the manner she had, as she had fully expected for the other woman to have passed out shortly after they arrived at the apartment. If Fennel was tired herself, she wasn’t doing much to show it. “Thanks, I guess,” she allowed a small smile to work its way across her lips, leaning back and allowing Fennel to finish whatever it was she had been doing, now pouring the warm water down her back and over her shoulders, pushing the stray strands of hair out of the way at intervals.Their conversation remained light, Fennel attempting to preoccupy the professor’s thoughts with discussing her most recent research trip, both becoming slowly more relaxed as the minutes passed. At some point, Fennel had stopped massaging her back, placing her arms light around the professor’s waist instead, resting her chin softly on her shoulder, trying not to succumb to her own exhaustion. The water had begun to lose its temperature, the deciding factor in that it was time for them to find warmth under the covers instead.“I took a shower before I left to get you, so I’ll leave you go for a bit to freshen up since I know that’s what you wanted to do. I’m going to change and get in bed,” she pressed a few lines of kisses along her shoulders and down her back before climbing out, wrapping herself tightly in a towel and shutting the door behind her.“You feel better now?” Fennel asked from her place on the bed when Aurea reappeared, already dried off and changed in to her pajamas.“Yeah…thanks,” Aurea smiled a bit as she climbed in to her bed and situated the covers over herself. “I really do feel better. About a lot of things, I guess.”“That was nice, and we should do it again,” the other woman offered and winked, pulling the comforter around herself, snuggling up closer to the brunette.“Yeah, it was nice,” Aurea could feel herself fading; now that she was in bed, the exhaustion she felt earlier had begun to creep back up on her, not much feel like she could get up even if she wanted to. A long flight on which she hadn’t been comfortable enough to sleep only after a morning of packing up lab equipment and dissembling tents seemed far behind her now, resting easy. As eventful as the evening had been, there weren’t any loose thoughts conjuring beyond feeling content in the present.The professor shifted, finding comfort in wrapping her arm around the woman next to her, Fennel seemingly mimicking her movements. Without thinking much on the weight her words carried, her loose thoughts in the dwindling minutes of her consciousness before sleep claimed her seem to come together, “Hmmm…I love you, good night,” she whispered softly, her eyes already shut.Fennel wrapped her arms tighter around the other woman’s waist, pressing her forehead under her neck. “That’s the first time you told me you loved me, you know?”“I swear I had said it before,” her voice was heavy, hearing and understanding what Fennel was saying to her, though lacking any motivation to find what probably would have been the right thing to say.The dark haired scientist closed her eyes in turn, “Hmm…maybe you thought it, but…no…but I’m glad. Really, really glad. Because you meant it.” Fennel planted a kiss on her temple, breathing a happy sigh. “I mean, I’m sure you’ve said it in a platonic way, maybe, but not like that. And…I love you, too. I think I have for a while, not that it matters now.”Aurea gave a slight nod of understanding in response, tired as she was, there wasn’t much else left to contemplate, and was sure Fennel would elaborate on it more in the morning. The evening had taken its course in a direction far from what she had anticipated, apprehensive at the idea of coming home to someone pressing her with questions, but it was in that moment she had decided that perhaps coming home to her was something she could get used to.