this is real. this is love. she is gripped so suddenly by the gravity of the confession and after they're teleported back home in an instant, she refuses to let go. and she keeps not letting go, always touching in some way, despite the shedding of over and undergarments. 

then nomi says something that makes parker blue-screen.

they're surrounded by four walls. it's a shithole apartment - more of a closet - but it's her shithole apartment and parker's first thought, when she recovers - and dumbly enough - is, i don't wanna live in the sub. 

she says that, actually. in a rush: "i don't wanna live in the sub."

and then, "duh, wait, 'course we're not gonna live in the sub. yeah. fuck, wherever you want, s'long as there's a couch 'n a bed 'n a sunny spot for maisey."

steely blue stares adoringly down at flustered cheeks, full lips, and she hears it again - i am undone with you. and she licks her lips, brows furrowing slightly in confusion. she asks, "are you wearing strawberry chapstick?" but doesn't give her enough time to answer because it's lovely and she wants more, more, more. 

Naomi Sato

☉

this time she's not running her tongue along nomi's skin to stave off angry thoughts. inner turmoil has completely fucked off, once and for all (never gone, always under the surface, always in her shadow, always behind her), and she's skirting a high from those three magic words. 

three words she knew nomi was gonna say right back to her, but that blew her fucking mind all the same. it's catching up to her now, as she tears off nomi's cozywear and strips her bare, as she kisses everywhere she can above and below her collarbone (especially below her collarbone). 

nomi thinks it and parker says it with every heated breath, every twist of her wrist, curl of her fingers, stroke of her tongue. melding of their lips and flesh and soul. hours, hours, hours, of nothing but her. 

"nomes," she groans, teeth bare on her neck, fingers twined in long hair, "i love you so much i'll even move in the sub with you."

Naomi Sato

☉

when they spend time together like this - naked, parker flung on top of her, fingers twined in her hair, limbs entangled - she knows she's home. she doesn't matter where they are. she'd sleep on the godsdamned streets if it meant sharing the sidewalk with nomi. 

better than sleeping on 'em alone - been there, done that. 

but nomi's fantasy sounds way better than sleeping on the street. she can see it now - the house she's describing. how the fuck are they gonna afford that? well, i do have - she thinks, drifting off, bottom lip stuck to the drying sweat on nomi's skin. 

all the money she's squirreled away under her mattress. she doesn't even know how much it is. just that it's there, if she ever needs it. if avery jones ever needs it. it's been there for years.

old habits die hard.

she leaves a love bite on the side of nomi's neck and rolls off the bed, grabs her by the ankles and tugs her too. 

"help me shove the mattress off the bed," she says. 

parker jones

☉

in truth, she doesn't know how much it is, just that it's slowly been collecting over years and years and years. she was smart about it. split the money from her jobs and calculated enough on paper, lived off cheap food and in this shithole apartment so she could squirrel away and scrape and one day, eventually, have enough to start a new life. 

on her own, away from rocket, but that's out of the question now, and this is as good a new life as any. she wouldn't trade it for the world.

still, nomi's awe makes her scratch the back of her neck and look a bit embarrassed. 

"yeah. useda hide bills 'n groc'ry money from our pa like this. kinda stuck."

Naomi Sato

☉

it feels too good to be true. she's staring at the money and thinking of how many faces she had to punch in to get it and then she's looking at nomi - gloriously naked, with bruises along her collarbone courtesy of parker's own lips - and she's thinking how did i get so lucky?

the jones don't have luck. the jones scrape shit off people's shoes and then have to squirrel back away to their hidey holes until something bigger and something meaner comes and forces them out. 

she doesn't realize, until this very moment, that she's been waiting for the other shoe to drop. all these years and she's waiting for the end - the same end that took her parents from her, as shitty as they were. 

and again she's looking at nomi and that bright, incandescent smile and she's thinking that's all for me. that's mine. 

so fortune and future and what-ifs be damned. she'll follow nomi into the dark if it kills her, but gods at least she'll die happy. 

"okay," she says and she closes the distance. she takes her in her arms and she spins her, laughing, saying, "okay, fuck yeah. fuck, let's go buy a house."

Naomi Sato

☉