My Kind of Woman

epilogue

"Like it? Have I got a six pack yet?" Norah asks in amusement.

Mio hums. "Not yet. You smell like sweat though."

Norah grins and leans further into her, speaking slowly, "do I smell good? You like it?"

"You stink," Mio says with a false grimace, turning her head away.

Norah barks out a laugh, yanking her top back down. "I was at the gym!" Then she mumbles jokingly, "bitch."

"Cursing! I'm going to bed," Mio says, trying not to laugh, weaving to get around Norah. But Norah takes her hips gently, pinning her back against the kitchen counter.

"I'm sorry, sorry," she apologises, leaning in to pepper Mio's jaw with kisses.

The older woman melts into the touch, arms looping and closing around her waist as Norah mouths her neck. It's bliss. Everyday is bliss. Nothing ever seems to get boring, their arguments are trivial and easily sorted with kissing and favours. When Norah is mad, Mio tries to make it better by washing her hair in their bath, and washing it slowly and thoroughly so that Norah will nap when she gets out. And if Mio is mad, Norah gives her space for the day and cooks the dinner, then gives her a back massage in bed. Things just work. Their first few weeks of being together, right after Norah left college, were just giddy fun. They spent most of their time together, cuddling and watching films, and not quite knowing what to do with all the time. They had been treating it like the time they had when they ran away, like they were on a time limit before they would be ripped apart. It was only when the first year passed that they both realised this is their future. They're safe. For once, they're allowed to have one another.

In the second year, they started making routines; grocery shopping days, meal plans, laundry days. It was domestic bliss! More for Norah than Mio, only because it had been so new to her. She hadn't realised in the beginning how fun domesticity could really be. But now, in their third year, she's used to living with the woman she loves. She works, goes to the gym (when she can be bothered) and comes home.

"Am I too sweaty to kiss?" Norah asks, mouth still pressed into the crook of Mio's neck.

Mio just hums, leaning into Norah's mouth and kissing her. Things are easy.

-

Norah comes home from work the next night over, skipping the gym just to see Mio. Her thoughts had been on her all day. The bus ride home had been thinking of her, and her only. But coming through the front door, Norah sees Mio curled in a blanket on the sofa in the dark. Norah flicks on the lights and Mio groans angrily.

"Switch them off!"

Norah frowns, but obliges and flicks them back off. The room is filled with darkness once again, only the white glow of the television screen as a light source. Norah drops her bag by the door and comes up to the couch, smoothing her hand over the shape of Mio's hip under the duvet. The older woman grumbles again, eyebrows furrowed in a wince of pain or annoyance. Norah crouches by her.

"What's up? What happened?" She asks coolly. She doesn't panic, knowing that Mio could very well just be upset over a film. She often did get like that.

"Period," Mio says, "my stomach hurts so much."

"What do you need, love?" Norah asks, pushing Mio's fringe back away from her forehead and feeling the warm skin beneath. "A drink? Some painkillers? A bath?"

"You're an angel, you know?" Mio says, eyes glistening as she gazes up at Norah.

Norah hums and smiles, whisking off to the kitchen to search for the painkillers and a clean glass for water. The sink is crowded slightly with stacks of cutlery and crockery. Norah makes a note to do the washing up later on in the evening, after they've eaten she'll do a big wash.