The run back to the house was a cold and wet one, the rain becoming heavier and heavier until even the taste of Camila's lips couldn't distract her from the fact that they were soaking wet. They'd spent ages under that blanket until the ominous rumble of thunder in the distance had driven them from their little cocoon in search of warmth.
"Sounds like there's a storm coming, Camz" she'd said as she pulled her up to her feet, "we'd better be getting back."
"Too bad," Camila replied winking at her naughtily, her hair soaked and plastered to her head, somehow still making her look great, "things were just getting interesting."
She couldn't help a grin passing across her lips at the thought of the brunette's hand creeping up underneath her shirt, her fingers trailing gently across her dragons even as her tongue pushed hungrily into her mouth.
Things were getting slightly more than interesting, and silently, she thanked the gods for their timely intervention.
"Still," she continued, grabbing her hand as they walked towards the edge of the woods, "maybe I can convince you to scrub my back in the shower"
Lauren stopped dead on the thin gravel path that led back to the distant house, and looked at Camila, ignoring the rain that was streaming down her face and hair, dripping uncomfortably down the back of her shirt.
"It's ok, Lolo, I know. I was just teasing you," Camila said, tilting her own soaked head and smiling at her. "Things were getting a little intense in there, don't you think?"
"A little," she replied simply, squeezing her fingers before dropping her hand in case anyone happened to be staring out into the rain-soaked landscape and saw them.
"Do you think that maybe we need to calm things down a little?"
She nodded, "I don't think that would be a bad idea, Camz, especially here, you know?"
"You're probably right, at least in public anyway. It's a shame, though, the thought of getting caught with my girlfriend is quite exciting."
She goggled at Camila for a second as the brunette laughed and stamped a puddle at her.
She skipped to the side to dodge the water that came her way, failing miserably as her was spattered with mud.
"What the hell, stop that!" she yelled as Camila stuck her tongue out at her and turned, running up the path away from her.
"Hurry up, slowpoke! In case you haven't noticed, it's fucking freezing and I really do need a hot shower," she yelled over her shoulder heading off, her laughter trailing behind her. Lauren watched her as she ran a short distance ahead before pausing and turning back towards her. She couldn't help being amused, and it was with a happy smile on her face that she run after her.
Camila called her her girlfriend, and she found herself amazed by the fact that she wasn't even bothered by it. Although a tiny part of her brain was reminding her that she didn't like being labeled, she decided to ignore it. Camila Cabello had just called her her girlfriend, and the secretly sappy side of her thought that was just a little bit more than perfect.
o+o+o
"I could really get used to this," she said to herself as the heat of the water in the tub soaked into her tired muscles and swept away the chill that she'd been feeling.
"Get used to what?" she heard a shout from the bedroom, "and who are you talking to? Do you have someone in there with you, Jauregui?"
"I could get used to soaking in a tub," she said, raising her head above the lip of the roll top, "and no I don't, and why are you lurking around in my room, Miss Cabello?"
"I have to go through your room to get in and out of mine, remember? Someone broke my door lock."
She simply snorted at the response and ducked her head under the water. She had indeed broken her door lock, or at least, that's what Camila said she'd done.
She stayed under the water for what felt like ages, immersing herself in the hot water and allowing it to clear her mind. It wasn't as good as a swimming pool but it served its purpose, and after all, it was slightly warmer. When, finally she surfaced, lungs burning, she heard a frantic knocking at the door and Camila's worried voice coming from her bedroom.
"Lauren, Lauren, are you ok? Lauren?"
"I'm fine, Camz, why?" she asked a bit confused by the hint of panic in her voice.
"Thank fuck for that, you scared the shit out of me"
"I did?"
"You did!"
"Why?" she asked actually confused. She had no idea how or why she could have concerned her. She knew where she was and they'd only spoken a second or so ago.
"Because I was trying to talk to you, and then you went all silent and all I could hear was splashing, you jerk. That's why I was worried."
"I'm sorry, Camz, I only ducked my head. I didn't think that would worry you. I mean, it's only a bath, what could go wrong?"
"Well, it did worry me," she said and Lauren could imagine the grumpy pout that was probably fixed on her face right now. "You were gone for ages. I was about to kick the door in to make sure you were ok."
"Door's not locked, babe," she told her, now fighting back the urge to laugh, knowing that wouldn't be a good idea right now. "You don't have to kick anything in. Besides, that's a solid door and I don't want to see you in a leg cast as well as an arm one."
"Yeah well, my arm is nearly healed," she said, taking the bait and changing the subject.
"Hurry up, babe," Camila continued, her voice raising slightly as she replied. "It's a formal dinner tonight remember, everybody's home. With a full house like this, I know Papi will want to have fucking drinks before dinner. You need to get your shit together and get suited and booted, soldier!"
Lauren couldn't help but laugh at that. She knows Camila will probably be annoyed but her attempt at giving her orders like a proper little officer was just that, laughable. She was still chuckling to herself after drying off and walking into her room with a towel wrapped around her body and rubbing at her hair with a hand towel she'd found.
"Can you stop that?" Camila huffed as she walked into the room, curlers in her hair. "It wasn't that funn..."
Her voice trailed off as she stopped to stare at her.
"Jesus, babe, what the fuck is that?"
"That's my war wound, Camz" she said looking down as Camila's finger traced the lines of her scar.
"I thought you'd seen it before."
"Christ, is that where you got shot?"
"One of the places," she replied enigmatically, thinking that despite the upturn in their relationship, the wound in her thigh was probably a little too intimate to share, especially given that she was only wearing a towel.
"It's not very nice, right?" she babbled as the woman stared at it, "I'm actually pretty lucky, the bullet only grazed me really. If it had hit me properly, it could have shattered my shoulder. The nurses told me that I could have died from the blood loss if that had happened"
"Because of this?" Camila asked, gently pushing at the puckered skin as if fascinated by its raised surface.
"No, I got hit in the leg too, that one nearly hit my femoral artery; and if it had, I wouldn't be talking to you now"
She smiled as Camila's brown eyes flicked down to her legs before flicking away, "and before you ask, there's no way I'm showing you that one," she teased. "Not yet anyway."
She saw the corners of her lips twitch slightly as she looked up at her, "Damn," Camila said, her sly grin back on her face. "I think those scars are kind of hot, just like your tattoos"
"You find my scars hot?" Lauren asked, somewhat surprised by the admission.
"Lolo, I find almost everything about you hot, but yes, I really do. If you must know, I sort of have a thing for the bad girl, you know. Bad attitude, dominant, covered in tattoos. The scars are a bonus and it's such a pity that you can't ride a motorcycle."
She felt the fingers of Camila's right hand roll over her shoulder and make their way down the skin of her back, unconsciously tracing the spines of her dragons.
"What makes you think I can't drive a bike, Camz?" she asked, thinking of all the fun she'd had on one when she did her driver training in the Army.
"Oh, well doesn't that just make you perfect," the brunette said, smiling warmly.
"Far from it, Camz" she said, without wanting to sound conceited, "I think I used to look pretty good, but that was before the ambush in Gereshk. I didn't have many scars then, now I've got some really ugly ones."
"There's nothing ugly about them, Lo," she said gently but firmly shaking Lauren by the hips. "Don't you ever think that. They're a part of you and I love all of them... even those other tattoos that I haven't seen... yet!"
To her surprise, Camila stepped up onto her tiptoes and kissed her squarely on the bullet wound, before slipping her arms around her waist and squeezing hard.
"It's going to be tough tonight, you know?" she said pressing her head against Lauren, wrapping her into a hug, "being at dinner with you, but not with you, you know?"
"With me but not with me?" Lauren asked, trying for the tongue in cheek response.
"Yeah," Camila said sadly, "we haven't had much time for each other recently, you know? Being alone with you this afternoon sort of brought that home to me."
"Camz," she started before being cut off as Camila continued.
"I need to try harder, Lolo, I know that. Everything is so new and fragile between us, and all I'm doing is going to work, preparing for this fucking Expo, and dragging you around behind me like some kind of a servant. I need to make time for us, time like this afternoon, just you and me together somewhere. Time for us to be a couple away from all of the Cabello family bullshit."
"Babe," she tried again, squeezing Camila's shoulders tightly until she looked up at her. "It's fine. I know you're busy. Hell, I've been busy too and when you get home from work, I always seem to be at Joanna's or in a meeting at the office or something."
"Yeah, but I feel like I've been neglecting you and that's not fair"
"Camila, you've done everything for me over the last few weeks. Starting with arranging that lovely Italian dinner we had and ending with you arranging that shooting range for me today. You haven't been neglecting me. If anything, it's the other way around."
She got a tight squeeze back from those deceptively powerful arms, wincing slightly as the hard edge of the plaster cast pressed into her back; maybe it would be good if it got removed soon.
"We're both fucking useless, aren't we?" Camila said smiling, a warm loving smile that reached deep into those beautiful brown eyes. "Why don't we just agree that we've both been neglecting us and try to do better in the future?"
She smiled down at her, "Yes, Miss Cabello," she said playfully, "why don't we do that?"
"Shut up and kiss me, Jauregui" Camila insisted pulling at her hips and kissing her lovingly.
o+o+o
An hour later, she was about to finish dressing up for the family dinner that Camila and her mother insisted that she join in. She opted for minimal makeup again, just enough to do the job and decided to do nothing with her hair.
As she saw herself in the dress that Camila demanded she wear, she smiled and thought that she would have looked fantastic in it with her old look. To be perfectly honest, she wasn't even sure if the hair and the tattoo and elegant black satin dress worked together, but her fears evaporated as Camila entered the bedroom. It took only a look from her for Lauren to know that; in her eyes, at least.
"Wow, that really suits you, Lolo" Camila said, confirming her thoughts, "I told you you'd look amazing in that dress."
"I feel ridiculous, Camz. It's like I'm not wearing anything at all."
"Well, having only seen you almost naked once, babe, I'm not sure you look that good... but you really look hot"
"Thanks, Camz, but I'm nothing compared to you, though," she said, getting a warm smile in return for her compliment.
Camila was wearing a simple black dress tonight. She really doesn't know how the woman could put on any outfit and still look stunning effortlessly. But a sudden realization hit her, "Wait, what do you mean you've seen me almost naked?"
Camila blushed and lowered her eyes to the floor in what looked suspiciously like embarrassment and Lauren's curiosity was sparked. "Come on, Cabello," she said jokingly, "spill!"
"It was that first night, back at your apartment," she replied, still not looking at her. "When Dinah and Normani were there, I don't think you remember but..."
"...my towel slipped," she said, remembering the moment. "...but you had your eyes screwed shut when that happened. I remember thinking that you were being all stuck up and uptight"
Camila simply bit her lip and continued to examine the floor.
"You peeked!" Lauren exclaimed, "there was me thinking that you were horrified that it had happened and you peeked! Camila Cabello, you totally perved on me."
"I did not peek," she said, finally looking up at her, her cheeks still glowing with embarrassment, "I may have noticed you when it happened, but I did not peek!"
"Did you like what you noticed, then?" she asked as she stepped over to the huffy little fireball and put her hands on her hips.
"I might have," she replied enigmatically, firmly removing Lauren's hands from her hips and putting them behind her back, slipping her arms around her as she clasped their hands together. "...and stop teasing me, Miss Jauregui. You know that I liked you from that first day. I couldn't stop myself from looking,"
"Well, as long as you realize that's as much as you're going to get to see for a while, Cabello," she told her leaning down to rest their foreheads together. "I'm not that kind of girl."
"I know you're not, Lolo. For that matter, neither am I," Camila said pulling back and lifting her head for a kiss.
She's wrong, though. Lauren had totally been that kind of girl in the past, but for some reason, she's not, with her. For some reason, this feels too important to mess up for just a quick sex, and she's pretty sure, Camila feels the same way too.
Lauren's pretty sure, though, when they finally do it, choirs will sing and fireworks will go off. Camila is that kind of girl.
"We need to go, babe, time to put our professional faces on and brave the masses."
She nodded, pulling reluctantly away from the beautiful woman and checking herself in the mirror again, running her hands over her hips, smoothing down the dress and re-checking her makeup.
"How do I look, then? Will I pass the standards of Don Cabello?" she asked jokingly.
"Almost, babe," Camila replied cocking her head and regarding her seriously. "There's just one more thing you need to make that outfit perfect."
She squinted at her as she walked across to her travel bag and unzipped a pouch she didn't remember packed anything into. "I hope you don't mind, Lauren, but I slipped this into your bag when we were at your flat earlier. I told you that I thought it would go with that dress, please don't be mad at me"
Camila handed me a familiar looking royal blue box, piped with silver braid and she opened it to see the necklace and earrings that her mom had given her all those years ago. She felt the slight clench of her heart as the memories came flooding back and smiled at her weakly.
"I'm sure she wanted you to wear them, Lo. Put them on, babe, and know that she'd be proud of how beautiful you look wearing them."
"May I?" Camila continued, gesturing at the box.
She nodded again as she slipped the pearl drop earrings on.
Camila carefully lifted the necklace from the box and unclasped it. Lauren leaned her head forward as she slipped it around her neck, reaching back to pull the strands of her hair out of the way. She heard a faint click and a slight chill as the unfamiliar material draped itself across her shoulders and chest as the brunette settled the necklace into place.
Lauren took a look at herself in the mirror on the dressing table. She did look good wearing the old family heirloom. Camila was right. It did go with this dress.
"You look beautiful, Lolo," said the girl who stood behind her, her hair falling in delicate curls over her shoulder as she leaned in to kiss her on the cheek, "absolutely perfect"
"Do you know how hard it's going to be sitting at dinner tonight and not thinking about taking that dress off you?" she followed.
"You don't want to do that, Camz. I'm not wearing anything underneath"
"Fuck," Camila exclaimed, running her hands over Lauren's hips and pinching her butt.