Chapter Text
Waverly was nervous that first night.
Nicole was still visibly shaken, and Waverly feared that any misstep would make her change her mind again.
There was a disconnect in how they touched each other. Too much thought put into it. Too much fear getting through. And the longer they failed to find their usual rhythm, the more terrified Waverly got that that disconnection would be the misstep to end them once and for all.
“Sorry,” came Nicole’s apology – maybe finally, maybe too soon, though it was clear neither of them would be able to come that night. Unexpectedly, Waverly’s body felt heavier without Nicole’s on top of her.
“It’s okay.” It was, but Waverly wouldn’t mind if they were to keep trying, if only so she had an excuse to keep touching Nicole. “My head isn’t in the right place for this either. We can try again another time. Right?”
“Yea,” Nicole offered, with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Maybe I should go.”
“No,” Waverly opposed in a small voice, almost as small as she felt, with sudden panic gripping at her chest. “We just need to ease into it again. Stay, sleep with me.”
“I… Won’t it be weird?” Nicole was laying on her back, her eyes expectant on Waverly’s.
Waverly pushed herself up to better watch Nicole. She traced her jawline, touched her bottom lip. “Not if we don’t make it weird.”
“I don’t think it’s that simple.”
“Turn around,” Waverly asked, wrapping herself around Nicole as she did as she’d been told. “See?” Waverly moved her lips against Nicole’s shoulder in a half kiss – “Not weird at all.”
Nicole exhaled, her chest relaxing underneath Waverly’s palm, though there was still some tension in her body. Waverly knew so well what a relaxed Nicole felt like within her arms, and this wasn’t it.
“Did you know that Wynonna once got a five thousand fine for flipping the bird at a judge?” Waverly asked. She could bring Nicole out of her own head.
Nicole turned to her suddenly, her eyes wide. “No!”
“Yep.”
“In court?”
“In court.”
Nicole shook her head in amused disapproval, her smile big enough that Waverly’s apprehensive heart started beating a little easier.
“You Earp women are wild.”
“I think that that’s more the Gibson in us than the Earp, to be fair.”
“Your mom?” Nicole asked.
“My mom’s the wildest of us all.”
“I hope I can meet her one day.”
Waverly stared into warm brown eyes that twinkled at her, and brushed a thumb against the small beauty mark right below the corner of Nicole’s left eye. “That can be arranged.” Her words felt suspended in time as she studied Nicole and was studied in return. A promise that shouldn’t be made blurring their just reestablished lines.
“She’d like you, you know,” Waverly continued, deciding to ignore the underlying implications of their conversation. “Mama always had a thing for the charming ones.”
“Huh, so I might be able to romance two Gibson women?”
Waverly bit Nicole’s shoulder, earning herself a hiss, and squeezed her into her body again, resetting their spooning. “Don’t you dare,” she warned.
“Scared Mama Gibson would take me up on my offer?”
Waverly huffed, but relented – “Yes. Cause I know she would.”
“Fine,” Nicole said in a yawn, stretching her back and arms and adjusting herself to get more comfortable. “I won’t romance your mom.”
“Thank you.”
Waverly kissed Nicole’s neck, felt her further easing into the pillow and into her embrace, the lighter air between them finally allowing for the emotional exhaustion of the day to catch up with them.
A good night was whispered, answered only by a hum.
Waverly fought sleep just long enough to be able to watch Nicole Haught asleep in her arms again.
It was luck and work that brought them together time and again the next couple of weeks. Between meetings for a new settlement, schedule-related coincidences at the courthouse and a bar that had made regulars out of them, Waverly found herself pulling Nicole to hidden corners more often than she’d like to admit.
And it wasn’t so much a conscious choice as it was… inevitable. Nicole would extend her hand to her in good-bye after an afternoon of work, and Waverly would just be unable to let go. She’d hold Nicole’s hand instead of shaking it, bring Nicole closer instead of letting go – lock her office’s door when Nicole was about to walk out.
But those rushed sessions weren’t exactly ideal for them to go much further than heated kisses and needy grasps, and the fear of what a rerun of their last time might mean to their relatio- situation could only keep Waverly from having Nicole fully for so long.
In the end, it didn’t take long at all. 13 days seemed to be her limit.
The music coming from the bar sounded softer by the time it reached the bathroom and was made even less noticeable to Waverly when Nicole was pining her to the door, her lips gentle but demanding on Waverly’s, and her teeth sharp. Other than that kiss, Waverly was only aware of the heavy bass that trembled against her back every now and then.
Lips pressed to her cheek, her jaw – where she gladly suffered a light bite – and trapped her heartbeat right where it jumped on the left side of her neck.
“Come over,” Waverly invited, before the thought had even been fully formed in her mind.
Waverly felt consumed by Nicole – her whole being so focused on every touch and smell, she couldn’t say the exact steps that’d taken the two of them to her bed, Nicole on top of her, inside her. And it was unlikely, because they were touching everywhere, but the touch that really did her in was that of Nicole’s hair tickling her face, shielding them in their own world as Nicole’s warm breathing ghosted on her lips, dark eyes so sweet on her own.
“Oh, god,” Waverly moaned as her eyes fell closed. Her jaw slacked then, making her incapable of forming new words, and a deep groan escaped her throat. I love you.
Her eyes snapped open.
“Stop. Nicole, stop.” Waverly was suddenly over-ventilating, pulling air into lungs that were already at full capacity. Her hands met Nicole’s, stopping that delicious push and pull as she struggled to sit up.
“What? Why?” Nicole asked, now sat still in the middle of the bed as Waverly moved away from her, almost falling on her way out of the bed, her body still suffering the whiplash her mind had imposed on it, but now able to release some air.
“What’s wrong? I could tell you were almost-”
“Stop. Just stop talking.” Waverly was looking around the bedroom for her clothes, but mostly she looked away from Nicole.
“What did I do? Did I hurt you?”
“No. No. You didn’t hurt me. You-” the image of Nicole on top of her came to her mind again, red strands caught in the light and reaching her face. The almost-kiss that followed. The way Nicole looked at her when their lips stopped touching. Oh, god. Her heart squeezed. “I have to go.”
The city was nothing more than rushing lights on Waverly’s drive home, lights that did little to distract her from the unsatisfied wetness between her thighs and the fearful tremble of her heart. If Waverly stopped at any street signs, she didn’t register it.
It that headspace, it was no wonder that it took her a moment to compute Wynonna on her couch when she arrived home.
“Why- What are you doing here?” Waverly asked, more confused than troubled.
“Can’t I pay my dearly missed baby sister a visit?”
“We work together, and you spend the night here almost every time we go out drinking.”
“Exactly. This is my home away from home,” Wynonna said, but her eyes were more aware on Waverly now. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” Waverly answered as she turned back to the door to lock it for the night. Turning again, the bottle in Wynonna’s hand caught her attention. Yea. That would do it. “Give me that.”
Though the alcohol did give her a small headache and some queasiness in the following morning, it didn’t manage to erase the previous night. Nor did it prevent her schedule from crashing with Nicole’s again that afternoon.
Nicole was staring at her before they went into their neighboring courtrooms, her gaze communicating a mess of worry and guilt and confusion. And, by the end of Waverly’s hearing, Nicole was there again, waiting for her outside those same courtrooms.
She could walk away, but there was not much sense in running when Waverly had already been caught where it mattered the most.
“Are you okay?” Nicole asked, still that worry tensioning her lips and brow.
“Yea, I’m fine.”
“I-” Nicole paused and looked around them, no privacy to be found. “I hurt you, didn’t I?”
Waverly shook her head. She didn’t know how to start, didn’t even know if she wanted to have this conversation. Couldn’t form the words in her head. So, she pushed her height up on the tips of her toes and kissed Nicole roughly. She just wanted simple. Easy. It was just sex. It was just sex. How could she have been so stupid?
The kiss broke soon enough given the surprise of it, doubt coloring Nicole’s eyes a darker shade of brown. Warm air teased her lips right before Nicole initiated the kiss again, softer, and Waverly felt herself falling forward, faint with how tender the touch was. Her heart felt like it was falling too. Her whole body. She was falling, had been for some time now. She just wished she’d had more of a warning.
She’d known she had feelings for Nicole, but there were so many of them – annoyance and amusement and jealousy and anger wrapped all so tightly into joy and fun and pleasure. How could one look at that mess and have a clear picture?
Nicole pulled away from the kiss and nuzzled her cheek, and that alone was enough to hitch her breathing and melt her further.
Stop and Don’t ever stop were cried out in her head, both voices in despair. Both voices her own.
“Tell me what happened. I don’t understand what I did.”
Waverly’s heart was beating so hard, had been ever since the day before, in a rhythm that was forceful and painful, gaining and losing size in aching stretches and contractions.
She brought Nicole in, just enough to hide her face in Nicole’s chest, her muscles relaxing under the pressure of Nicole’s arms around her.
“Take me home? I don’t want to do this here.”
The drive was quiet and peaceful despite the questions Waverly could see festering in Nicole’s eyes.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” Waverly finally said, unwilling to have Nicole believe she’d hurt her for any longer than she’d already had. “You did it… too right. I got overwhelmed.”
Nicole furrowed her brow further, her eyes meeting Waverly’s for a beat, distracted from the slow traffic of mid-afternoon. “Too right? I- Did you need me to slow down? Whatever you need, you can ask me. I can stop whatever you need me to stop, or start whatever-”
“No, just… The moment. You. Your hair… I-” Waverly looked at Nicole and exhaled, the car coming to a stop as the moment rose in suspension again, heavier now that the soft hum of the engine was gone. Silence echoed in the building’s parking lot.
Waverly undid her seat belt and leaned across the gear stick, her right hand guiding Nicole toward her into a gentle kiss. Waverly watched as Nicole’s eyes fell closed instantly before allowing herself to close her own. Despite how lightly their lips met, emotion crashed within her like a summer storm, whose dark clouds cautioned its arrival, but parted suddenly to allow the heavy downpour.
“Nicole.” She needed. She needed too much.
“What is it?”
Waverly adjusted herself on the seat and undid the top buttons of her blouse. The thought to be closer moved her easily onto Nicole’s lap, and she fumbled with the small zipper of her own slacks. Waverly guided Nicole’s hands onto her breasts for a harsh squeeze, and lower, down her belly and into her pants. Her body had been waiting for Nicole’s touch since the night before, or maybe longer.
Longer, for sure, Waverly thought as she breathed in air that already felt warm and humid between them.
“Stay,” Waverly muttered into Nicole’s mouth. She rolled her rips forcefully against the hand trapped between their bodies. There was no skill to it, just want. “Stay with me.”
“I promise.” Nicole was earnest. She looked like a knight pleading fealty to her queen. “For as long as you want me, you have me.”
“Promise?” Waverly asked in a breathy groan and reached up with one hand, pushing it against the ceiling of the car to power her rough riding of Nicole’s fingers further.
“Promise,” Nicole repeated, rubbing against that sensitive, swollen spot over and over and over again. “I’m yours.”
Waverly’s walls closed tightly around Nicole, turning her riding into an uncoordinated grind as her broken moans were bit into Nicole’s skin.
Waverly’s whole body held to Nicole despite her trembling muscles. Her forehead came to rest on Nicole’s left shoulder, her arms squeezing Nicole into her and her thighs clenched around Nicole’s hips as the fluttering of her walls went on, gradually losing power until she laid boneless on top of Nicole.
Messy between her thighs and sweaty all over, Waverly turned a little to let her nose trace that sweet vanilla scent on the smooth skin behind Nicole’s ear. “I like you,” she said weakly from her hiding spot, body trembling again for a whole different reason.
Nicole combed her fingers through Waverly’s hair in a soothing motion before holding onto her roots and pulling gently, guiding Waverly to look into her eyes. “Yea?”
“Yea.”
A wet laugh escaped Nicole’s perfectly swollen lips. Brown eyes held a telling shine that was complemented beautifully by a dimpled, relieved smile.
“I like you too. I’ve liked you for a long time.”
Happiness poured from Waverly, turning Nicole into a blurry mess of red and ivory and blue.
“A long time, huh?”
“Yes.”
“And what about the pretty, little wife and white picket fence you wanted?” Waverly asked.
Though she didn’t doubt Nicole’s feelings, there was still the question of where they were going with it. How could Nicole want her and that future at the same time?
“What about it?” Nicole asked distractedly, contentment painted clear on her face as she watched her fingers start to run through Waverly’s long hair again. She rolled one strand around her pointer finger as she reached mid-length before starting over.
“I mean, you said you like me. And you want that. So…” So something had to give.
Nicole frowned at first, then her lips stretched into a smirk, humor betrayed only by the fear within her eyes. “Well, you can paint the fence whatever color you’d like. I’m not particular about that.”
Oh.
Waverly let her body fall back against the wheel.
BEEEEEP – the sudden, loud noise as her elbow hit the horn startled her into hitting her head on the ceiling. Still, Nicole’s sweet laughter more than made up for the harsh interruption.
Amazed, Waverly stared into joyful honey eyes. Waverly was the wife. She was the woman Nicole liked enough to maybe one day build a family with.
“Waverly,” Nicole called her attention, as if aware that there was an inner monologue going on. “Years down the line, and assuming things turn out alright, if you don’t want to get married, that’s okay. I just want a real relationship. With you.”
“No.”
“No?”
“I mean, ok, yes, but no because, you know, just for the record, I have nothing against marriage.”
“Noted,” Nicole said, and she was glowing. Had Waverly always been one right sentence away from making her glow like that?
“Ok.” Though her cheeks were starting to hurt, Waverly found it impossible to let them rest.
“Ok,” Nicole repeated. “And the white picket fence?”
Waverly took a slow, deep breath. She let her chest fill with air and the joy of the moment and of this silly look into a possible future. “I think I prefer the natural color of wood.”
“Just varnish it is.”