Work Text:
Beau's hands curl around a mug of hot chocolate, the steam swirling and warming the tip of her nose. She burrows further under the blanket, wishing the owner of the house had invested in one of those electric ones that plugged into the wall. As it stands, snow is falling from the sky outside, and yet the air conditioning has been cranked all the way up. Apparently, the human is enjoying some time with Airyn. Damn her and her beautiful, airy body! Why do all the rest of them have to suffer?
"I’m cold,” Beau whines, grip tightening on the mug.
“Hold yer horses,” Gaia calls from the other room. “I’ll be there now the once!”
Beau shakes her head. She still doesn’t fully understand all of Gaia’s, well… Gaia-isms, but she’d be lying if she said they weren’t incredibly endearing. They warm her up from the inside out, just a little.
She blows softly on her hot chocolate, watching as the mini marshmallows seem to dance across the surface. This elicits a small laugh from Beau, before she takes a long sip. The hot chocolate does an even better job of warming her, and as Gaia finally enters the room, clutching a large book to her chest, Beau dares to pull the blanket aside and expose her skin to the cold as she pats the space beside her.
Gaia, however, seems distracted; even the flirty look on Beau’s face isn’t enough for her. She’s there, physically, in the same room as Beau, but her mind seems to be in a different house entirely. “Hey.” Beau sets down her hot chocolate. “Something wrong, baby?”
“Wah?” Gaia says, her eyes wide as globes. “No, nothin’s wrong. I was just… thinkin’.” Her expression softens into a smile, and Beau practically feels her heart melt. “Actually, I was hopin’ I could show ya somethin’.”
“Well, don’t leave me hanging in suspense!” Beau opens her arms wide, practically begging Gaia to join her under the blanket. Finally, finally, Gaia obliges, book still hugged tight to her chest as she settles in beside her girlfriend. Beau wraps a careful arm around her, body already warming to Gaia’s touch. She was made in Newfoundland – she’s used to this kind of weather in the way so many of the rest of them aren’t.
“Now, you gotta promise that you aren’t gonna laugh at me,” Gaia says, her head coming to rest against Beau’s shoulders.
“I would never laugh at you!” Beau assures her. “Ever!” There are many of the others around the house that she’ll always take the opportunity to laugh at – Captain Jacques being her favourite target – but not Gaia. Never Gaia.
“Oh, I know that,” Gaia says, deflating with a small sigh. “It’s just… This is somethin’ I’ve never shared with anyone before. Ever.”
Beau’s eyes widen slightly. “Not even the human?”
“Oh, well, they sorta helped me put it together I guess,” Gaia admits, “but I’ve still never shown it to ‘em. I always thought of it as something special, just for me.” Gaia pauses then nuzzles her nose against Beau’s cheeks. Beau is surprised to find her cheeks flushing – who knew that she could blush when it was so darn cold?
“But there’s not really just a ‘me’ anymore, is there?” Gaia continues, her voice so much softer than Beau has ever heard it before. Gaia is normally so full of life, so loud – almost too loud, many of the others would have told you just a few months ago – that her tone of voice takes Beau by surprise. “There’s a ‘we’ and, well… I wanna share this part of me with you.”
They’re still getting a hang of this whole relationship thing. It’s only been a few weeks since Beau finally vanquished Isolde, freed Rongomaiwhenua, and realized that her life no longer held a purpose. She’d spent so long thinking about her one great quest, and suddenly the quest was complete.
She’d found solace in Gaia, one of the few others who had been there when her life forever changed. Beau had meant every word she’d said about Gaia before the quest – she really did find her fun, and curious, and swell – and after the quest those feelings had only grown. Bloomed and blossomed, until they made her chest feel all warm in a way that only a new adventure ever had before.
And Beau was apparently the luckiest girl in the world, because Gaia had felt the same.
Gaia pulls the book away from her chest, and Beau gazes down at it with a certain reverence. She’s never been much of a reader. What’s the point in merely reading about adventures when you can just grab life by the horns and experience one for real?
But this book… She knows it’s something special. That it will be the greatest book she’s ever read. The cover is leatherbound, almost the exact same shade as the hot chocolate in their mugs, and bears a golden embossed globe in the center. Gaia opens the cover to a hand drawn title page, the words “Gaia’s Travel Logs” written in an assortment of colours that could have only come from Penelope.
“I didn’t know you were such an artist,” Beau teases, nudging Gaia lightly with her shoulder.
“Oh, I know it’s not much to look at,” Gaia says, resting her open palm against the title page, “but I–”
“No,” Beau cuts in quickly, resting her hand against Gaia’s. “I like it. I mean… It’s better than anything I could ever draw.” She offers Gaia a kind, almost shy smile. Gaia’s opening up to her, sharing something deeply personal. She has to allow herself to be equally open to receiving it.
“You’re just sayin’ that.” Gaia’s cheeks are flushed, highlighting the freckles that dot across her pale skin. Beau resists the urge to reach out and kiss each one, instead gesturing for Gaia to continue.
“I know there’s not much travelling we can do these days,” Gaia continues. “Unless you count moving from the living room to the attic.”
“I heard a rumour they’ve got a ghost up there,” Beau whispers, voice dropping low.
Gaia smiles, but ignores her. “What I’m trying to say, love, is that I want to explore. I was made to explore.” She reaches towards the map that covers her jacket, finger tracing along the African coast. “And one day… I’ll be able to do that. Like, do that for real.”
“When the human Realizes you,” Beau says, nodding her head.
“Exactly right! And I’ve already made lists of all the places I want to see.” Gaia begins to turn the page of her book, revealing beautifully crafted two page spreads about places all around the world. Singapore, Mexico, Taiwan, Norway, England… Each page features facts and figures, suggestions of places to visit and foods to eat. And among it all, Gaia has left perfectly spaced empty places for photographs.
“Whoa, you weren’t kidding,” Beau says, reaching out to delicately touch the note about the Queen’s Head. “Gaia, this is… This is incredible!”
“G’wan, you really think so?” Her entire face is flushed now, and she’s smiling wider than Beau’s ever seen. “It’s just, ya know, all my hopes and dreams compiled into a single book, that’s all.”
“Not all your hopes and dreams, I hope.”
Gaia’s brows furrow. She stares down in puzzlement at the book. “Do ya think I’m missing a country? I was thinkin’ about adding Greece but I don’t know any travellers from–”
“No,” Beau says, placing a hand against Gaia’s warm cheek. Despite her hands surely being freezing, Gaia leans into the touch. She closes her eyes, a peaceful expression taking over her face. “I meant… Me. I was kinda thinking maybe I was one of your hopes and dreams?”
Beau’s heart thumps in her chest as she finishes speaking, and as the weight of her own words finally hit her she winces. “Unless that’s stupid. I mean, it probably is stupid. I wouldn’t want to force you to keep adventuring with me once we’re both able to go wherever we please.”
“Now don’t go actin’ like a doorknob,” Gaia says, lightly bopping Beau on the top of her head. “I wouldn’t have showed this to you if I didn’t want to share it with you.”
“Oh.” Beau feels herself flush now. “Right.”
“I want to see the world with you, my love.” Gaia presses a kiss against Beau’s cheek, which doesn’t do anything to help her blush.
“Yeah. Me too.” Beau feels her heart swell as she sits there beside Gaia, talking about her future – their future. “I already know where I’d like to go first.”
“G’wan then.”
“Fiji,” Beau says, a twinkle in her brown eyes. “Or– Or maybe Hawaii! Or Egypt!”
“So somewhere warm is what you’re sayin’,” Gaia replies with a laugh.
“I’m only made of cardboard,” Beau reminds her, pulling Gaia closer under the blanket. “I’m not meant for the cold.” And besides, she’s always wanted to walk along a beach, to feel the water lapping at her toes. It just isn’t the same sticking her toes in the bathtub. “But maybe when the weather is a bit nicer… we could visit Newfoundland.”
Gaia lights up at that, her whole presence seeming to radiate in Beau’s arms. “You’d make for a right nice Come From Away,” she says, and even if Beau only understands half of what Gaia is saying, she finds that she doesn’t mind at all.
She reaches for their mugs of hot chocolate, handing one to Gaia before lightly clinking them together. “Cheers, then!” she says, her smile wide. “To new adventures!”
“To new adventures!” Gaia agrees. “And to hopes and dreams!”
Beau drinks to that happily.
Maybe it’s not the most conventional of adventures, but Beau knows that she’s found her next one. She’s sitting right next to her, cuddled under the blanket for warmth, their hearts beating in tandem as they sip their hot chocolates and dream about sunnier days.