Pearls in the Tide - BigLady fanfic
A summer breeze slipped inside the appartement, blowing some luscious curls off the woman’s shoulder. The hair rested against her collarbones, exposed in the athleisure that highlighted her curves. In the darkness of the night, the only lights on her were that of her screen illuminating her face and the red glow of a neon sign behind her, like a halo of light. Under such lightning, even more than usual, BigLady looked ethereal. She stood there on videocall with her beloved, propped up on her elbows, face resting in her hands, gazing lovingly at you. Eyes fixated on her girlfriend’s silhouette on the screen.
She found it funny, how sometimes love makes you push away all your beliefs for the sake of something great. She wondered how you managed to convince her to try a long-distance relationship, despite all her apprehensions. Was it the way your eyes would crunch when she smiled? The excited tone in your voice whenever, just as you were currently doing, you would talk excitedly about your interests? Or maybe, and only maybe, a mix of both and more. Yes love, she had found, often had its ways where we least expect it.
Still, she loathed not being able to hug, cuddle, kiss or even just feel your warmth whenever she desired to. You had met a few times and plans had been discussed of course, to arrange ways to get closer from each other as the relationship would go on, but for the moment you simply wanted to enjoy yourselves as much as you could. That’s probably why, instead of binge-watching the last season of Killing Eve, BigLady was watching you. In the middle of one of your sentences, you thought you heard the faint whisper of three little words.
Immediately alert, stopping yourself to shoot her a puzzled look, your lips slightly agape, you asked her what she had just said. A playful chuckle came to your ears, and she denied saying anything before bringing her face slightly closer to the screen. Her piercing eyes fixed on you, corner slightly up as they always were when she wanted to tease you, she made a little disapproving noise before tilting her face to the side, head resting in one of her hands.
“What did you think you hear? Or rather, what did you want me to say, baby?” she said, playful tone igniting fire on your cheeks.
Her teasing as effective as ever, you mumbled something unintelligible, and she shook her head, darting her bottom lip with the tip of her tongue before talking again. Keeping your eyes away from her lips when you wanted to kiss her so badly seemed like an impossible challenge, and you were convinced that she was perfectly aware of it. BigLady had always been aware of the effect she has on others and you, of course, were no exception.
“Maybe you should type it out for me, then? Or is your keyboard broken from the fluster too?” she asked, lovingly mocking tone on the tongue.
You seemed to fumble a bit in your seat and tried to muster the courage you needed, before inhaling and giving eye contact a shot. You opened your mouth, and BigLady jumped. The red “GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS” neon sign on her wall suddenly switched off and your figure froze on the screen. She found herself in near pitch darkness, only lit by the screen of her Macbook and a ray of moonlight piercing through the curtains. She had almost forgotten it was a full moon, and now that she saw it, peering through to the window in quest of potential signs that the power outage wasn’t limited to her own apartment, she remembered what you had told her about it, a list of things to do during the moon phase and astrological advice.
She had never been quite interested in astrology but given you were, she was willing to give it a try. Another of your interests was the sea and as the laptop went into sleep mode, plunging her in definite darkness, she remembered that gift you had gotten for her the first time the both of you met. You were both equally as nervous, honestly. Despite you giving her frequent updates on your journey and knowing you were unable to respond while in the plane, a part of her thought you might be standing her up. Intrusive thoughts had flooded her mind on the way to pick you from the airport.
What if she was driving there for nothing? What if you realized you didn’t like her all that much after all, and turned around right as you were about to board the plane? Maybe you would block her or leave the server to never see her again. Maybe you would ask her to do it, or beg Quest to ban her, pretexting a fight. She knew he wouldn’t do it, yet the irrational fear was difficult to shake off. She had grown painfully aware of the pit in her stomach as she waited for you in the terminal, a handmade sign with your name in her hands.
Safe to say she was relieved when she saw you, chasing your own anxiety away by playing with a fidget spinner and pulling your heavy luggage behind you. She rushed to hug you and you dropped both the things you were carrying to pull your arms around her body, holding tight and hiding your face in her neck. You almost let out a whine when she pulled away and grabbed your suitcase before even asking, offering you her other hand. Grabbing it, you had sheepishly followed her all the way to her car, at a loss for words.
When you both sat in the car and you looked at her with a smile, telling her how much you had waited for this moment, her worries and heart melted.
You were staying for two whole weeks, having saved days off for this, and BigLady had planned a whole bunch of activities, in order to make your time together as enjoyable as possible. From going to shop for cute matching athleisure sets to hitting the gym and a spin class in order to put your new clothes to good use and baking apple pie together, she had carefully crafted the week to cater to your interests but also share hers with you. After all, for the both of you, being unapologetically yourselves was the best way to ensure you got along as well as you did through your online endeavors.
The high point of the trip came in the form of a surprise she had planned for you. One morning she woke you up early, told you to get dressed and to get in the car without any more information. Wear something as cute as you, she said, kissing your cheek before going back to packing the trunk. The drive was long and punctuated by your pleas for hints about the destination, but she refused firmly, all the while seeming very happy with herself. Finally, a bit before noon, the smell of iodine tickled your nose and you gasped. She had brought you to the beach.
Multiple times, you had told her about how you missed the beach. You hadn’t really gone to see the sea since you were a child, taken amid busy life. The feeling of the warm sand beneath your feet made you squeal in happiness and BigLady set up a picnic on the beach for the both of you, slowly unloading blanket, beach towels and umbrella. It was only after the meal, however, that the true surprise came. Your girlfriend revealed that the town she had brought you to was not only a seaside town, but also home to a big aquarium. Since you talked so much about wanting an aquarium date, she said.
It was surprisingly big and surprisingly quiet inside, and you found yourself marveling at the sea creatures behind the glass. BigLady followed behind you in endearment, listening at all you had to say about the different animals, until she finally decided it was time to make you take a bit of a speaking break. You teased her afterwards about how cliché and cheesy it was, but the truth is that when she kissed you in front of the shark tank, for the first time in your life, you felt like there was nowhere you would rather be than here and there, in her arms.
On your way out from the aquarium, you decided to stop at the gift shop and pick something for each other, something that would allow you to always remember this very special day as well as the other. Coincidentally, you both ended up settling for lamps. She got you a lamp that was akin to a lava lamp, only with jellyfishes inside, knowing your taste perfectly. You decided to go for a different approach and pick something original that would make her think of you instead. That’s how your partner ended up with the anglerfish lamp she was currently holding.
It had a USB cord, allowing her to plug it into her portable charger during the power outage. She plugged the metallic contraption and watched the lightbulb illuminate the room, before taking it on her knees and chuckling a bit to herself. God, she thought, even so far away, you always found a way to be her light in the dark. The electricity came back soon enough, and she rushed to explain the situation and ask you if you wanted to go back to your call.
Reassuring her that you figured something must had happened, you flashed her a smile and slowly started talking again, completely omitting what you had planned on telling her as the power cut. In your mischievous smile BigLady saw it was intentional and grinned a bit.
“By the way” she said, “I love you, starshine.”
