Church
She doesn't know how they got here.
One moment, she's leaning against the wall, watching Piper type away at her terminal with a fondness that was almost foreign to her, with a warmth that she thought had been left dead and frozen in that vault. The blueprint that Tinker Tom had given her weighs heavily in the pocket of her coat. She had wanted to tell her, had needed to tell her the plan. Needed to tell her goodbye. That she'll miss her.
She didn't. She couldn't. And somehow they ended up here.
It could have been for reasons as shallow as the Vault Dweller not being able to stop watching the sway of the other woman's hips when she walks. It could have been the way their eyes would catch each other's for a moment too long. It could have been that Nat was out playing at Nina's house and they had actually been able to talk without bullets whizzing past them. It could have been the fact that Piper had told her bluntly, that they shouldn't be together (and somehow, Nora couldn't help but agree). That it would cost them both too much (although Nora was sure that she was already in debt due to the costs that came with loving people she shouldn't). That it would fail miserably because no relationship established in the middle of gunfire would ever work out(but then again, not many relationships work out in the wasteland anyways). It could have been that she had said all that while pointedly staring at Nora's lips. It could have been for the fact that Nora had only been half listening the entire time, too focused on how to put all of these feelings and emotions into words.
It could have started for any number of reasons, but Nora couldn't put her finger on which particular one it was.
All she really knows right now is wrapped up in her arms, all fingerless gloves and press caps, leaning up against her as if she's trying to meld the two of them together. All she knows is that her fingers are lost in thick, ebony hair as slim, nimble fingers work at the buttons of her coat. She breathes in, filling her lungs with the smell of freshly printed paper and machine oil before she lifts the smaller woman up, placing her on the desk by her terminal. All she knows is the taste of her lips, full and soft as they press against her own, over and over again. They're gentle at first, getting rougher with time, teeth tugging at her bottom lip as Nora's hands slide over the journalist's jacket, pressing at the material, fumbling with it and Piper lets out a low, heated groan as she peels it off her shoulders, her tongue sliding against hers and Nora throws the jacket across the floor. Piper tastes like caffeine and nicotine, and Nora growls in a way that's almost primal when she peels the scarf off from around the reporter's neck, she glides blunt nails over the smooth, honey coloured skin, Piper's gaze locks with hers and Nora watches for a moment, transfixed as they go from gold to green to light liquor browns, watches as they go from want, to need, to desire. She could drown in those eyes, she thinks. She could lose herself in them just as easily as she could lose herself in a radiation storm. (Lord knows they have the colour for it.) Nora dips her head down and presses fast, hard kisses against her cheek, her neck, her jaw. The reporter being pressed back further and further back onto the shabby desk beneath her. Nora's somewhere between Piper's neck and the collar of her threadbare shirt when she feels the other woman's hands press lightly against her chest. She's somewhere between losing herself in bliss and trying to make sure she isn't dreaming when she hears Piper's voice somewhere just above her, feels her vocal cords tremble just beneath her lips. "B...Blue" It's a breathless sigh as Nora pulls away just enough to catch her breath.
"Blue." It's a little bit louder this time, and about a half an octave higher, although that might be because she'd decided to graze her teeth along the front of her throat. The reporter's legs are wrapped tightly around her waist even if her hands are pressing against the taller woman's chest. "Blue....we...ah" Piper whimpers, trying to get her head on straight but it's so hard to do when there's pink lips fastened to her pulse point. "We....can't..."There's a low growl just below her jaw and she can feel her core tighten and her legs tremble just slightly. Fuck, was she in trouble. Her head is swimming as Nora whispers against her ear, something about rewards far out weighing the risks and how there's no way that she doesn't want it, but if she doesn't want it then she'll stop.
"If you need to stop, if you don't want this...tell me...Please. Just tell me." Nora's voice is terse and tight as she pulls away, taking her warmth with her. Piper whimpers, actually honest to god whimpers, Piper can feel Nora's hands, warm and steady and firm on her thighs, thumbs stroking small circles against the sides of them and Piper can feel herself drowning in each touch. She can hardly speak when Nora looks at her, eyes heavy lidded and lips bruised from their kisses. Her words swirl and spin in and out of the fog of her mind. This shouldn't be happening. She should be prying herself away and letting this woman down gently. It would be the best course of action, to brush off this entire moment because this....whatever this is...doesn't keep you safe in the wasteland. Even if Piper didn’t want to be safe.
There's a tension between them then, both women searching the other's face for something that they just can't put into words.
Piper's yanking the taller woman down in an instant, tanned fingers shaking on the collar of her shirt, struggling to undo buttons, a throaty moan bubbling out her throat and through her lips as she pulls the other woman into another heated kiss, teeth and tongues clashing, feeling the thumbs that Nora had so gently been using to rub circles in her thighs suddenly pressing down into the muscle and she gasps as Nora slides her hands up, tricky thumbs sliding through the belt loop of her pants before they're tossed to the side. She shivers as the cool night air touches her legs and Piper tightens them slightly as the vault dwellers finger slide back up her thighs, dull fingernails leaving soft red trails against her skin and when Nora breaks the kiss and she whines, hips bucking slightly as heat pools between her thighs. The journalist's stomach twitches slightly, she tries not to feel self conscious as Nora's hands move over curves and softness that she knows not many girls have. Nora's pupils are blown as she watches the woman beneath her take shallow, fleeting breaths and she pushes the fabric of her threadbare shirt up. Her fingers tease along the edge of her bra as she presses it up, fingers inching over each part of newly exposed flesh. Rough and calloused fingertips brush against her skin, plucking at the soft, rosy buds at the peak of each breast and Piper lifts her head up just enough to watch as one hand glides down the dip of her stomach, following the trail of freckled skin before they come to a stop, pausing just above the button of her pants. Nora looks at her, really looks at her and Piper gulps. The look in her eyes isn't as heated as it was before. Instead she's looking at her like she's something precious, like she's something fragile. There's no words when they kiss again. And when Nora's mouth sears a trail where her fingers once played, mouth sucking at the freckles scattered about her stomach. Piper can't help but thread her fingers through her hair.
Nora is kneeling before her now, like she's some kind of wasteland deity and this shabby desk is an altar, nose nudging between her legs and when her tongue darts out and traces a wet line up along her thighs Piper's grip tightens on her hair and she lets out a hiss. Nora's eyes dart up and for a moment she wonders if this sacrilege, to have a woman who was so clearly a goddess falling apart at the seams around her. She pushes that thought out of her head as her tongue traces the edges of that one last piece of resistance. Piper lets out a cry above her, loud and keening and Nora takes that as all the incentive she needs to press that damned, damp piece of fabric out of the way. And finally, finally, she tastes her. The flavor rushes over her and she drinks from her like she's an oasis and she'd been dying of thirst. Her tongue rasps against hot, wet folds until she reaches that small bundle of nerves. She kisses her clit slowly, peering up at Piper from beneath her eyelashes and she can hear her let out a quiet, strained exhalation of "oh Blue." Her nails are digging into her scalp as she starts to suck at the bud, thighs trembling around her ears and she's saying her name like a hymn. The pitch changing as she adds a finger, the speed of her words increasing with the speed of her tongue.
They hold church on the edge of her desk, against the wall, and on her bed when Piper, shaking and spent and exhausted, collapses against her.
She's asleep immediately and Nora, Nora lays there. Her mind busy, her body still buzzing from her lack of release, her fingertips, still slick, trace along the constellations of freckles on the reporter's shoulder. She tries to write I love you's into the skin, thinking that maybe if she connects freckles to each letter, it'll stay. Even when the bite marks on her neck start to fade. Even if she has to leave. She leans in one last time, takes in the smell of machine oil and press paper, trying to commit it to memory as she slowly presses her lips against the sleeping woman's temple. She shuts her eyes, trying to commit all of this to memory because she knows, even if she makes it out of the Institute, things won't be the same. She shuts her eyes to the unfairness of it all. How none of this happened the way she had wanted. How she knows that this really won't end in anything but disaster.
When Nora opens her eyes, they drift from the sleeping goddess in her arms to her coat, long abandoned on the floor. She wants so badly to be selfish. To stay in this moment for as long as she can, until this world that she knows comes to yet another end.
But the blueprint in the pocket of her coat says otherwise.
When Piper wakes up in the morning, Nora will be gone.