After taking about a week to settle into the new house and married, post honeymoon (though they still seemed to be going at it like increasingly sexually curious rabbits) life, Maris and Rory dove into one of the few home improvement projects they could do themselves: painting.

They'd gotten a lot done over the course of a few days. Every room that they were thinking of redoing was getting a fresh coat of white paint that would serve as a blank canvas for the colors they'd eventually choose themselves.

It made sense to save the nursery for last. It'd just be used for storage or maybe some sort of office, after all.

But Maris was glad they put it off for different reasons. She hadn't quite forgotten how walking into this room with Rory during their house tour felt and had sort of avoided it ever since. Her baby fever was bad enough without this empty room reminding her that it was just waiting to be filled.

Dressed in faded black leggings and a stained tee shirt she only wore when dyeing her hair at home, Maris wasn't wearing anything she didn't mind wrecking as she stood on the stepladder, doing her best to cover up one last patch of yellow. She carefully descended once she was done, then stepped back, hands on her hips as she assessed their handiwork. ""Looks good," she announced, smirking as she looked over at Rory. "Course anything is better than that godawful yellow."

Rory knew when they bought this house that she loved it. She knew that they'd be putting work into it to truly make it theirs. Yet even knowing all of that, she hadn't really anticipated this warm home feeling that overwhelmed her whenever she woke up in the morning, or when she figured out how to get the door to the bathroom to stop squeaking. Little dumb things that just made it feel like theirs.

And room by room, they were doing just that. The kitchen was going to be the big project, but the painting was first. Bit by bit, the decor was coming together, their art hung on the walls, books organized (thank you very much) in shelves and the green couch in the exact right space in the living room.

The last room gave her butterflies to think about. Not so much the painting of it now, but what it would become. They'd looked at reference pictures even, thought about what it might be like to fill it. She wanted a rocking chair in the far corner.

Wearing the jeans that were so ripped she definitely couldn't wear them out in public and a loose black t-shirt that somehow had gotten splotches of bleach on it years ago, Rory's hair was tied back out of her face as she worked on placing painter's tape back over a spot where it had come loose.

"Looks less like the inside of a beehive, you're right." She grinned, folding her arms across her chest as she gazed not really at the room, but at her wife. "You thinking the lighter gray for the top coat in here?"

"Yeah," she said softly after a beat, slightly taken aback that Rory had remembered their conversation about what colors she wanted to paint the nursery some day. "Or a nice, soft brown. Definitely neutrals all the way."

Maris reached up to peel a piece of tape that was hanging by the window away, remembering just how different this room had felt when there had been a probably staged teddy bear sitting on the windowsill. Grotesque yellow walls or not, it had done something to her.

Truth be told, she'd been feeling something for a long time. It was one thing to talk about what ifs and maybes, but chats about Keats and Jane and what their life would be like when they entered the picture were quickly becoming one of Maris' favorite things. It was a strange feeling, to long for people you hadn't even met yet, but Maris did.

Even though this particular longing was sort of getting stronger at the worst possible time. She knew they had a slight cushion, money earned from selling Rory's and her grandfather's houses, but it would hardly last forever. Maris needed a job. The house was hardly the home she wanted to bring their children into yet. She told Rory she wanted to spend some time enjoying each other and married life before adding anything else into the mix and she meant it, but...

"I want a baby." It came out of nowhere, a soft whisper she knew was heard and therefore couldn't take back. It was almost a relief to say it, but once it was out there her stomach instinctively tightened, worried as to what Rory's reaction would be. Part of her wanted to hurry up and explain herself, to tell her wife she knew it couldn't happen right now and that she wasn't entirely sure what the first steps were even if it could but she sort of felt like she'd said too much already, her eyes automatically falling on the floor, a rare show of bashfulness on her end before she forced herself to look at Rory, her voice a little steadier once she'd gathered her bearings and braced herself a bit. "I think about it a lot lately. Even when we're not talking about it."

It was unspoken, something between them in this room. They'd talked about kids before, made Keats and Jane as real as anything else between them. But this room was being painted for their future children, and whatever they used it for in the interim, that was hanging between them like this warm, inevitable thing. Rory liked the way the sunlight came in through the windows, and how it seemed to catch the warmth on even a fairly chilly day.

The words caught Rory off guard. So much so that she had to stay very still for the moment as though she were worried she'd misheard or imagined it. "Do you?" She sort of exhaled the words, unaware that she'd been holding her breath for the few seconds. Maris had said something to this affect before, and Rory had agreed. There was just something about the way she said it now that made it feel... imminent for lack of a better term.

Rory slowly lowered the roll of tape in her hands so they were free, feeling a little sluggish in everything she did because she was busy thinking. There was no doubt in her mind that she wanted a family with Maris, that even though they'd have to go through a whole process, whatever it was would be worth it because they'd get a little piece of them to build a family together.

A smile crept across her features as she stepped towards Maris, noticing the bashful way she ducked her head, the color on her cheeks. "Babe," She said gently, reaching for Maris and pulling her in close enough to press her lips to her forehead. "Do you think we're ready?" She asked earnestly, no real agenda behind her words. No, Rory thought it was a good idea. A little daunting, scary, but exhilarating to think about.

"You should know, I really can't wait to start a family with you."

"Of course we're not ready," Maris scoffed, but she sounded more harsh toward herself than Rory. "The house isn't done, we need to find work, we just got married..."

It felt good to rattle off her list of concerns, too. Part of her was expecting Rory to agree and gently talk her out of it, which is why it was her turn to be shocked at what her wife said next.

It was exactly what she didn't know she'd been waiting to hear. "Really?" she said, slightly breathless because it suddenly felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. Some of the guilt Maris had been carrying for wanting a family at the worst possible time dissipated. She thought about it so often she was beginning to think it was unfair to get so far ahead of herself.

"I can't either," she said holding on to Rory a bit tighter. "I want to...give that to you. A child." She swallowed, the next words feeling even bigger. "Our child."

But could she? She wasn't about to say so to Rory, but after years of mocking women in a frenzy over their biological clock, Maris found herself wondering if she'd have trouble getting pregnant. And if she did, would starting a little bit later in the game mean that her window would eventually run out?

She knew she'd love their children no matter how they came into the world. But she wanted to be a mother and everything that entailed. She was a bit taken aback by how badly she wanted to know what it felt like.

Well, at least the pre labor part.

Rory's lips twisted into the slightest of smiles, her reaction almost nervous, but fond just the same. Maris was right, they weren't ready. They were newlyweds still, they were building their home together, they were living in a new country, far from loved ones. Neither of them were employed.

And yet, Maris just saying it felt like she had pointed out a glaringly large elephant in the room. One that had silently been there, just waiting to be acknowledged. There was never a doubt in her mind that she wanted a family with Maris. She wanted to have children with her and raise them together. She wanted their home to be filled with the kind of joy that their children would bring them.

At the back of her mind, there was a slight raise of panic. They weren't ready, they had to go through a lot to even get to a child. What if they chose the wrong donor? What if they had trouble conceiving? All of these things nagged in overdrive at the back of her over-planning mind. Yet when she looked at her wife and the reaction Maris had to her confirmation that it's what she wanted as well, nothing else seemed to matter.

She felt a lump in her throat as Maris continued. "Ours." She repeated, feeling a little overwhelmed with the way that felt.

Rory held fast to her wife, feeling all the more clingier than usual. She needed to be touching her, holding onto her for this. "It's a whole process. That does give us a bit of time to really get to the reality of it, doesn't it?" Ever the planner, Rory had at some times or another, gotten to do a bit of research. She'd wanted to know what she was looking at for an eventual child.

The idea of starting a family in earnest was as exciting as it was scary. Things could be disappointing, things could go wrong. But the reward of expanding their family had to be worth it, it felt like they were just waiting for something big to be their next thing. Her fingers gently stroked at Maris' back as she looked at her wife. "What are you thinking now?"

"Honestly? I just told you the only secret I've kept from you in years and you didn't run away screaming. So I think I'm gonna need a minute to process." But Maris was smiling and holding Rory a little more tightly than she had moments before.

Maris fully expected Rory to think she was crazy. To throw out the same concerns she had about money and going too far too fast to try and disuade her. Maris had pictured nightmare scenarios far more than she ever had this discussion going well.

They were silent for a moment and Maris was slightly hesitant, trying to find the right words and put things delicately before speaking up again. "This doesn't mean you're not enough for me or I'm unhappy. I'm..." Maris smiled softly. "I've never been happier than I am lately, just...that makes me all the more sure that this is right? I'm greedy for even more of it, I guess. Again, not right now, just... I think about it. I don't think there's a day that goes by where I don't think about it for a minute or two and all these boredom babies popping up haven't exactly given me a break from that."

"Oh, honey." Rory said softly, leaning in and hugging her wife a little tighter. The term was usually reserved for sweeter moments or, conversely a little ironic teasing at the word they had chosen for inside their rings. But Rory said it in a way that was guileless, a soft smile on her lips as she held her wife.

It was truly a big thing to consider, maybe even bigger than deciding to spend their lives together, to have a wedding. They wanted to make a person, someone they would willingly welcome into their family. They didn't share each other well with anyone really, but this would be vastly different. A person that was theirs.

"I know, love." She kissed her cheek, smiling as she said it. "I'm just as greedy with you. I don't take this like that at all. You want to start a family with me." She was sort of in awe with how she said it. And truly that is how she felt. She chuckled a little bit as Maris further explained, and for her part, Rory could think of nothing else to add to it for a moment so she just did the other thing she could to convey how she felt. She kissed her wife. She kissed Maris long and slow, her hands cupping her face and holding fast as she broke away for breath.

"I love you. It's really scary, but really exciting, you know?" Her voice was still quiet, as if talking too loudly would somehow spook the moment away. "There's a lot we have to figure out, and obviously look at our financials and how we want to do it but ... lucky for you, you have a wife who loves to make a plan."

"Just don't make a plan too fast," Maris warned, making a bit of a face because she knew it was a bit of a contradiction. She wanted a baby. More and more every day, really. But she also wanted to make good on her promise to Rory that they had time together on their own as a married couple. She wanted to make sure she was ready.

But it just seemed wrong to keep something from Rory, even if it was a good something that they'd technically talked about before.

"I love you too," she murmured, letting their lips brush once more. This time, she let it linger, her lips were as soft as her fingers as she let them slip into her lover's hair. She pressed tightly against her, needing to feel close as a hand slipped under Rory's shirt, lightly stroking the skin of her stomach as her tongue prodded the other woman's lower lip for entrance.

There was a bit of relief in that, these things took time. As much as Rory's mind would likely kick into over-drive and send her on a list making spree of what all they'd need to do, who they'd have to talk to, and the steps they'd need to take, it could all be done when they were sure they were ready. But Rory felt it, that the love she shared with her wife was almost too much for only two people to hold in. She used to roll her eyes at people who said anything remotely like that. Now she was the worst of them.

Rory smiled into her wife's lips, a kind of giddy feeling taking over as she slid her arms around her waist and pulled her closer. She kissed her deeply, a soft sound escaping her lips, drowning against Maris' as her own hand bunched in the fabric of her wife's shirt. Feeling close to her wife was a daily, hourly thing, but there seemed something different to this, charged with something new entirely. Her fingers made their way inside Maris' shirt, her own muscles trembling on instinct beneath her wife's touch. She giggled a little, taking a step or two and easing Maris back until her back hit the open door where it stood against the wall. After all, she couldn't undo all the work they'd done in painting the walls.

It was Maris' turn to let a laugh slip as Rory guided her toward the door. Despite the air being heavy with the thick, chemical smell of paint, she had sort of forgotten the walls were wet and they were playing a dangerous game edging too close to them. For a moment Maris thought about moving things to their room. It only seemed right that such an important moment would culminate in their bed, but something felt right about it happening here too.

She pulled Rory's shirt over her head before letting her back hit the door. There was an undeniable urgency, her kisses just as eager as her hands, but the look in Maris' eyes told Rory that she wasn't going to rush this, either. This moment, the talk they had meant something to her. Something about it felt big, there was a slight sense of tight, almost foreboding in her stomach, a sign that they'd taken some sort of ominous first step there was no going back from.

They'd had a lot of those lately. Maris was tender as she kissed Rory's jaw but her grip on her wife's lower back was nothing if not insistent, a silent plea to stay right where she was because she couldn't get her close enough, her pulse already racing even though they'd barely gotten started.

Rory just wanted her close, and if they had gotten really far ahead of themselves in the middle of the room, she might have worried they'd end up with paint everywhere or maybe worse high out of their minds on fumes. But with the door open, she wasn't very concerned, and even less concerned as their lips crashed together again.

Her own hands went to the hem of Maris' shirt, pulling it up and over her head and only breaking their lips apart to rid her of it. Her hands reached around her wife, humming a soft sound as their bare stomachs touched together. She didn't even mean to notice that, but butterflies sprung to life in her own. This was big for them, even just deciding they wanted to think about it, deciding they wanted to take steps.

Rory's breath left with a little sigh, her hands greedy as she slid one down Maris' hip and gripped her thigh to guide her leg over her own hip. She leaned into her against the door, craning her neck away just to give her wife more space.

It was Maris' turn to let out a soft sound as Rory grabbed hold of her. Her kisses became a little more hungry, her tongue darting out to trace the curve of her lover's neck as she pressed against her in the new position. They couldn't gain much in the way of friction, but she shivered all the same, thriving off their current closeness as she looked up at her wife in almost awe at how even this was more intoxicating than anything she'd ever done with anyone else.

And she still hadn't quite wrapped her head around the fact that her baby fever hadn't sent Rory running for the hills. She reached behind the other woman's back, unclasping her bra and slowly pushing it away, dipping her head to softly kiss her way down her wife's breasts.

Everything in Rory felt needy, insistent right now. Any space between them at all felt too much, icy cold that had nothing to do with the chilly weather outside. She just needed her wife, needed everything that shew as feeling so deeply to come out in the physicality of touching her wife. Rory gasped softly, a moan mingling with the breathy sound so her throat rumbled against her wife's mouth. Her own fingers moved up the back of Maris' neck, tangling in her hair while the other moved to squeeze one of her wife's breasts maddeningly through her bra.

This was something Rory had always wondered about, if when the time came she'd want children, and if she'd manage to find a person that not only wanted them as well, but someone she could see that kind of a future with. The answer was so resoundingly loud that she of course saw all of it with her wife. She could imagine her as a mother, them both as mothers, their children who already had names and how they wondered over what their little personalities would be like.

They might not be able to make a baby on their own, but something felt charged in the way she held her wife, her hips rocking deliberately into her like she could garner any kind of real friction currently. She moaned louder this time, Maris' lips over her skin sending heat through her whole body. One hand moved down her wife's body, hooking her fingers in the waist of her leggings and pushing them down.

Maris lifted her hips, doing her best to help Rory get her leggings off her, but her mouth was busy. She let out a huff of breath as she caught one of her nipples into her mouth, slowly starting to suck as her own body turned to almost jelly at the way she was being held. She felt wanted. And there was no denying how much she wanted her wife. Once they got her leggings off, she pushed away from the wall, not needing to be braced against it anymore. Part of her had wanted this moment to culmunate in the nursery, the place where their child would eventually come home to in a truly full circle moment but there was simply too much she wanted to do to her wife and far too much she wanted done to her.

As much as it pained her to hit the brakes or put any space between them, she took Rory's hand and pulled her up the stairs, almost immediately backing her onto their bed.

They might not have been able to make a baby, but she had a feeling that this was what it would feel like. She moved over her quickly, kissing Rory with even more fervor than she had downstairs now that they didn't need to worry about their balance. She broke for air, but her mouth was making her way back down Rory's chest a moment later, hair tickling her wife's skin as she gave her left breast the attention the other had gotten downstairs. It was a strange mix of urgency and reverence. A feeling of fullness and an urge to be closer to her than ever before.

In the blur of clinging hands and dropping fabric from their bodies, Rory felt as though she sharply felt every grab of her wife's hands, and all the more so where her mouth was. She full on whined as Maris' mouth lavished attention to her nipple, feeling it going hard against her wife's tongue. Rory always felt acutely aware when her wife touched her, even if they were just sitting in bed together and their fingers drew random patterns over each others' skin. That thrum of want was always just right there, ready to reach this level of heat at any given second. Her whole body felt on fire, a pure being of desire for her wife.

And of course, her wife was being the wise one, directing them out of the room, stumbling a little through their still-new hallways because Rory too refused to put any more space than was absolutely necessary between them.

Before she even knew it, her back hit the bed, a little thrill of adrenaline hitting her because it took her a second to realize she was hitting the bed and not tumbling over something. So she laughed into her wife's lips, a breathy sound that quickly went away in favor of her lips parting and her tongue immediately seeking out her wife's. She let out a little hiss of sound as Maris moved down her body, her hips instinctively lifting off the bed, an insistent movement that coincided with her nipples aching under her wife's attention. "Fuck, baby." She whined, dragging her blunt nails over Maris' shoulders and up her back, tangling in her short hair.

Rory's breasts always got the love and appreciation they deserved, but not an inch was forgotten or unclaimed as Maris made her slow but hungry descent down her wife's body. They were as beautiful as the rest of her, but somewhere in the back of Maris' mind she was aware that one day they'd become even fuller. Swelled and sacred, with the promise of something more Her stomach would too which was why she lingered there too, worshipping it the way she knew she would even though she was only high on the thrill of something that would be.

And if she had her way it would be happening to her first. Had she mentioned that? That she wanted to experience what carrying their child was like first? Maris couldn't remember much if anything in her current dizzy haze, bringing one of Rory's thighs up and over her shoulder to start lapping at her eagerly, moaning the second the taste of her hit her tongue. "Mine," she purred, gazing up at her as her mouth continued it's work. "You're so fucking mine." She needed to taste her and watching Rory watch her do just that was one of Maris' favorite things, she knew they were both too amped up to take turns. She stopped somewhat abruptly, using that same thigh to shift the position so she could settle between her life's legs, her name falling from her lips like a prayer the second their bodies started moving together as one.

Sometimes Rory and Maris were rushed and furious with their love for each other, couldn't slow down except to properly kiss, touch, fuck each other. Sometimes they were slow and languid with it, but no matter either way or the millions of ways in between, it was always unbelievably good - for an understatement. This felt like all of that, but different - more charged with something beautiful, reverent even. She felt it in her wife's kiss and the way her mouth moved over her body. She practically felt that her gasps and sighs might as well have been prayers said to her wife and their future. She was overwhelmed by the desire she felt, but then the love she had for her wife felt even more.

She felt worshiped by her wife with every kiss she pressed to her skin, so much so that the moment her mouth met her pussy, she let out an almost embarrassingly hoarse, needy whine of a sound. She was wet, eager and more than ready for her wife. She always was but again, this felt like more. "You're goddamn right I am." She hummed back, her whole body felt like a livewire at the mercy of her wife's mouth. She gasped sharply, rocking her hips into every flick of her wife's tongue. But her wife was perfect, she knew what she wanted before she had to even articulate it. "There she is." She grinned just moments before she pulled Maris down to her to kiss her. Tasting herself on her wife's lips always set her to something primal. She moaned into her mouth, stroking her tongue with her own as she rocked her hips to meet Maris. Her wife's name tore from her own lips as she angled herself just so to earn a shudder that raced up her spine.

Maris was convinced they had done their best work in this bed. Maybe they were still riding a post honeymoon high. With no jobs just yet, they really didn't have anything to do but spend some days fucking, falling asleep then repeating the process all over again. Not that work had ever stopped them before.

But deep down she knew exactly what it was. This was their marriage bed. One chosen that they'd chosen together and never shared with anyone else. The place where they and their children, whenever and however they joined them, would go to relax and feel safe.

Her lips twitched at Rory's little remark because she understood it. They both knew she thrived on a bit of control and there was nothing that made her feel more powerful than this. She fucked Rory with her entire body, gasping in almost awe as she watched the shiver her wife had angled for course through her, a fresh wave of wetness settling between her legs. She wanted to be rough, earn more of those shudders at lightning speed and in quick succession. She wanted to slow down and make this moment last. They both settled somewhere between the two. It was constant motion, constant kissing, touching and sighing as they lost themselves in each other and whatever felt right. Hands tangled in Rory's hair, Maris kissed her as deeply as she could as they moved together, shaking so hard she pressed her wife into the mattress. It wasn't just because they had found just the right angle and she found herself desperate for more pressure, her pleasure was so intense she didn't trust herself to stay upright without something to brace herself again. She broke the kiss, Rory's name coming out of her lips like a harsh sob (and there really was a bit more emotion in the equation than usual today), their foreheads automatically falling together before she said her name again. This time it was softer, far away and Rory knew what it meant. Maris was close.

Their bedroom was the first place that Rory felt they'd really made their own. The bed was the most important part (obviously), but it was the little things that made their room, their bed their oasis. There were days that she felt like she didn't even want to leave the bed. Honestly, untangling herself from her wife ever was a struggle.

Rory had sort of invited herself when she'd moved in with Maris, as much as they joked about it, they still had separate homes that they'd got very differently. In the beginning, she had stubbornly noted how much she really did love her house, but the funny thing was that now, in their home that they were building together, she couldn't even remember specifics of it. Knowing that they were going to build their family here just added a whole different element to her excitement about this place they'd fallen in love with months before.

She would always marvel at this, revel in the way their bodies seemed to know instinctively what they needed from each other. The way she fucked her wife and moreover was fucked by Maris in return had always been, and still was something that she could hardly believe was even real. Feeling this good, and knowing she felt as good right back? That was what she thrived on. Rory eagerly kissed her wife, that breathless, needy kind of kiss as her hips moved roughly beneath her to grind herself against her wife's pussy. A sharp cry sounded from her as Maris pressed her into the mattress, a fresh wave of wet heat flooding between her thighs at the way it felt. Rory was a willful person in a lot of ways, but there was no denying she loved when her wife got like this. Rory's hands moved to Maris' waist, but didn't say long as one gripped behind her thigh and the other gripped her ass, harder than she even meant to. Her body began to shake, her head dizzy and kisses all the more sloppy as she felt her own orgasm start to build to a breaking point. "Maris, fuck that's it." She cried her name, encouragement she knew her wife didn't need, and yet incapable of keeping her name from her lips. She repeated it in hoarse, breathy sounds, rocking harder, pulling her tighter. They didn't always come together, but something about today felt like she needed it.

There was something primal, but undeniably soft about this moment. Maris' eyes were dark with desire as she struggled to keep them open, but she looked at her wife with a certain sort of tenderness, the sounds she made almost awestruck because she knew full well just how good being with her felt, especially since their wedding had apparently been some sort of ritual that cranked up their already intense chemistry to eleven. Her body bucked, her breath starting to catch in her chest as her heart pounded hard enough to make her dizzy.

"I...."

I love you? I'm close? I need you? I really do want to have your babies? Any would have worked. They were all true but Maris couldn't speak, not anything resembling a full, coherent sentence anyway. She came hard, groaning as her body fell forward with the full intensity of it. She shivered as she finally let her eyes flutter shut, allowing herself to believe and not for the first time, that she really was coming inside her wife, a delicious (and again, somehow soft) thought that made her groan just a little bit louder, teeth scraping Rory's shoulder as she rode out her last few aftershocks, letting out a soft sigh every time she felt Rory's pussy pulsing against her own. Her strength was waning, but each little vibration had her clutching her closer and more desperately, letting out a very breathy and uncharacteristically girly, "Don't stop..." because this kind of completely shared pleasure was rare and had to be savored for all it was worth.

However they gravitated towards each other, be it the first time she felt her now wife's body pressed against hers or moments like this one, there was nothing that seemed to come against how strong their connection really was. It was unlike anything had ever experienced, even still, and probably why after all the time spent in those "dark years" they came together so seamlessly again. Rory hadn't been someone to believe that there was exactly one right person out there everyone, but she had to believe in a certain kind of kismet that brought her and Maris together. That made them wives. She was dizzy off the adrenaline and pleasure of her wife's body, drunk on the love that seemed to be bursting out of her. She was an English teacher who didn't even have all of the words to articulate how incredible her wife made her feel, and how much she loved her.

Rory simply nodded when Maris spoke, her word tapered off and Rory understood it entirely. "Yes," She gasped, a whine rumbling from deep in her throat as she clung to her wife. She marveled at the way Maris looked as she came, her own eyes half lidded as she moaned, taking her in. The force of it had Rory trembling harder, her body heat spiking as she rocked into her with a newfound rush of energy. "Fuck fuck yes!" She cried, the force and throbbing of their pussies together sending her over the edge mere seconds after her wife. She was rocking hard into her, fighting the way she shook because she wanted to chase after the feeling a little longer, a little more. "Right there," It was her turn for her voice to sound like a sob, her fingers digging into Maris' skin as she rocked into her, fucking her wife through both of their orgasms.

Not a single pulse or shudder was unappreciated. Each was keenly felt, earning a soft sigh or occasional sharp cry until her body couldn't seem to stay upright anymore. Maris' hips may have been spent, but her lips never stopped moving, brushing Rory's breasts, her shoulders, her collarbone before they made their way upward and they found themselves staring face to face. She felt almost shy, unsure of what she could possibly say to her wife after her body seemed to have said it all, but their lips brushed automatically, soft and tender but quickly hungry as her fingers slid into Rory's hair again.

"More," she murmured, only a split second passing before Maris slowly slid down her wife's body and settled between her legs, letting out the lowest of purrs as she began to lick her like she'd originally planned, only this time she was greeted by their shared taste on her tongue.

Once they were really and truly spent, Maris was tired, covered in a thin layer of sweat that wasn't doing her already unwashed hair any favors, but she was content. Though her slight shyness about today's events (or at least its particular topic) hadn't quite left her completely. Her fingers lazily danced along her wife's stomach as she bit her lip, looking over at her. "I need a London doctor. I think I only have like one refill left on all my prescriptions so... maybe, when I do find one, I can ask her to check me out? To see if I can..."

Maris trailed off, not quite wanting to say the words "get pregnant" In truth, she wasn't exactly sure what checking for fertility entailed. She figured the process was probably even more invasive and uncomfortable than normal gynecologist visits, but she'd figure it out. She'd endure it. Just like she'd have to endure the results if they weren't exactly what she wanted to hear.

Rory always felt like this moment in particular, whenever it came, no matter how similar or different it felt, had with it some power to make time itself slow down. She was a blur of pleasure - both her own and her wife's, but she could feel every breath, every shudder, every pulse of pleasure so sharply. Rory worked relentlessly to buck and grind herself with her wife, shuddering with increasing strength as her orgasm pulsed with her wife's. Her gaze was hazy as she looked up at her wife, her fingers trembling a little as she brushed her fingers over her temples, and down her neck. She didn't need to say anything either, it was all there.

"What?" She laughed aloud, her giggles breathless as her fingers slid up the back of Maris' neck and through her hair. Her stomach tightened, a shuddering of her muscles as Maris passed down and found her soaking wet with her mouth. "Ohfuck," She hissed, her hips lifting sharply off the bed at the contact to her overly sensitive pussy.

Rory felt like she couldn't move, and when she tried her arm flopped inelegantly over Maris, knowing she felt the same way. This is how she loved to settle in, lost count of orgasms, their bodies instinctively curled into each other because they couldn't stand being even an inch apart. It felt even more so now. With everything that was in their minds. "Yeah, I think that's a really good idea." She smiled, biting her lip as she ran her fingers through Maris' hair, tugging gently on the ends. "Wouldn't hurt for us both to get checked out." She said quietly, feeling oddly vulnerable, despite everything they'd just done.

It made sense to her that they should both get checked, but also so they could both be there together to experience it with each other. But maybe also it had the same hesitation to it because it was easier to be supportive of each other when only one was experiencing it. Her fingertips traced over Maris' jaw and then brushed over her lips. "Either way, I'm holding your hand through all of it, and I know you'll be doing the same."

"Exactly. It wouldn't hurt." But Maris was sort of trying to convince herself more than Rory. It felt good to have everything out in the open and a rough idea of how to go forward but a tiny seed of doubt had been planted in the pit of her stomach.

She wasn't too concerned about having any trouble. If anything her period came with annoying regularity each month, which was bound to be a good sign, if only because it would be easy to track.

No, Maris couldn't shake the feeling she'd opened up a different can of worms, invited the shadow of the woman who had been her mother to creep into her thoughts now that she was (tentatively) on her way to becoming one. There were still hard conversations to be had and a long dreaded one with her father had to be next on her list. She wasn't sure if her mother's medical history would factor into her appointment, or even genetics had any bearing on a woman's ability to get pregnant, but it seemed important to know. If they were really going to do this, the last thing Maris wanted to do was show up at a doctor's office unprepared.

Though she would never admit it, there was more to it than that. Maris' interest in her mother wasn't just scientific. Now, more than ever, she was confused to how someone could go through the entire process of having a baby, get undoubtedly attached (because she had stayed a year or two) and just walk away. Though she was obviously very glad she had, Maris was sort of confused as to why she'd bothered going through the pregnancy at all.

She knew the circumstances couldn't be good ones. It was a story she didn't want to hear, undeniably personal even though she was sure her family and Rory would assure her the whole thing had been very much a Christina problem and therefore not her fault but...how could it not sting? It always had, even though she'd pushed it to the back of her mind and thrived in spite of a slightly rocky start.

Ignorance couldn't be bliss anymore and that was the scary part. Not the tests or the fear of the unknown, the worry she'd be terrible or that a baby might change entirely too much. Facing motherhood meant finally reflecting on someone else's.

But her mother, never a pleasant or common topic, even with the woman she told everything, was the last thing she wanted to talk about right now. She nuzzled her wife's neck. "I know you will," she murmured. "That's why I wouldn't do this with anyone else but you."