Chapter Text
Waverly still felt weird sleeping on her back.
She didn't have the wings anymore, or at least, they weren't... what? Visible? Tangible? Physical? She still wasn't sure what term really applied. They were still there. She knew it with a certainty that never really quite left her. It was definitely ephemeral, sort of like the emotion one gets from a comforting hand on their shoulder, but without the weight of a touch.
This was, in it's own way, disconcerting. It made her wiggle her shoulders and flex the muscles in her back, reaching for a sensation that just wasn't there. When she slept on her back, she felt the strange absence all the more. It was like some weird phantom limb phenomenon.
Hence the reason she was currently lying on her stomach in bed, arms curled around her pillow and staring at the block font digits of the clock on the dresser nearby.
4:43
She'd been awake for something like two hours. She sighed softly, turning her head to look away from the clock and to something much more pleasant.
Nicole, turned toward her with brows faintly knitted together, worried even in sleep. The fingers of one hand lightly resting along Waverly's arm in unconscious need for the assurance that Waverly was really still there, still home and not in the Garden.
It had been a week since she'd come home. The whole ordeal still burned in her mind, the memory raw at the edges and too sensitive to examine too closely. She remembered flashes of things. Of Doc's reassurances amidst creaking, groaning, growling bark and vines. Warm, brilliant lights and something like a whisper or a soft chorus. A booming voice that shook her very heart with every syllable. A fight. An argument. A trial for Doc's soul. Wynonna's hoarse screaming. The flash of a brilliant sword.
Then Nicole's arms. Her closeness and scent wrapping about her. Concerned chatter, apologies, questions, so many questions. But all that had mattered was the Nicole had her. She knew because Nicole said so, kept saying so, whispering it over and over.
She shook off the memories for later. Opting instead to lean forward and kiss the knuckles of Nicole's hand softly, carefully moving her arm until she could wind their fingers together, taking comfort from the contact as she watched her girlfriend doze.
Not girlfriend, she corrected herself with a soft glow blossoming in her heart. She let her touch reach to the band on Nicole's ring finger. Fiancée. She smiled as she remembered Nicole saying they'd talk about the ring later, but of course, of course it was yes.
Waverly sighed again, lighter and more content this time.
“mmyou shouldbe sleep” Nicole's voiced slurred throatily from barely parting lips. A tiny smile tugged at Waverly's expression in response to the half conscious scolding, a touch of a crinkle to her eyes. She kissed Nicole's fingers again.
“I should, hmm?”
Nicole curled in closer to her, blindly nuzzling their foreheads together. “Mhmm. Too early.”
A moment passed before the redhead slid one eye half open to glance at her lover. “you okay?”
Waverly shrugged a touch and gestured towards her back with her head. “Just uncomfortable again. Sorry I woke you up.”
“No. S'okay.” Nicole mumbled back through a sigh. She slipped her hand from Waverly's grasp and up to her back, stroking gently along her shoulder blades. A soft and happy breath of a sound escaped Waverly's lips, and she leaned into the touch. Nicole always seemed to ground her like that. Her touch distracting the brunette's mind away from the phantom wings. Soothing the absence.
“Y'just need bonus blanket.”Nicole shifted under the sheets, rolling forward and easing her form atop her fiance's with a smooth motion. Lately Waverly seemed to really like that. Feeling Nicole's weight on hers. Nicole enjoyed it too. It felt protective and warm.
“So sweet,” Waverly mumbled, feeling the warmth in her heart swell as Nicole brushed her hair to the side and slowly placed soft kisses along the back of her neck, down to the slope of her shoulders.
She indulged for a moment in the almost reverent way Nicole kissed her, lazily caught between dozing off in face of the soothing comfort and the faint strands of heat beginning to ghost through her body. It wouldn't take much to turn things one way or the other, but for now she enjoyed being at the crossroads. Just being with Nicole.
“I love you, you know.” Waverly murmured, the words feeling a little awkward still, but so Right now that she'd said them before. She'd said it a few times since she'd been back, but Nicole reacted everytime with the same genuine, warm, proud smile, and this time was no different. Waverly could feel the grin of Nicole's lips against her skin and in the sheriff's near purr of a voice.
“Oh I love you too, sweetheart,” came the response, with an accompanying kiss just under and behind Waverly's ear. “So much.”
Just like that, the strange non-touch of her phantom wings faded. Just like that, Nicole had her well and truly distracted, and things began to click back into place again. Under Nicole’s touch, the ephemeral limbs didn’t matter. Nicole’s presence, her weight, her sweet vanilla smell, all of it served to ground her, holding her firmly back in the here and now. She welcomed it with relief, pushing back against the warm body above her.
Nicole’s hands smoothed over her back, as if brushing the irritation of the phantom wings aside for good measure, before trailing lower, tugging at her waist in gentle request. She complied happily, and lifted up enough for Nicole’s fingers to dance under her top, over her abs, moving up until Nicole was palming her breast. She groaned softly. Silken kisses moved south, dotting along the neckline of Waverly’s top while skilled fingers teased her nipple to attention, and the faint strands of heat bloomed with a sharp intake of breath.
“Good?” Nicole chuckled.
“Good,” Waverly repeated. She glanced over her shoulder at her love and grinned a little, “Too many clothes though.”
“Oh, well,” Nicole moved with mischief in her voice as her hands began bunching up the fabric of Waverly’s top, “That’s easy to fix, yeah?”
The top came off easily, and Nicole’s hands returned to cup the exposed breasts, just feeling the weight of them. Of Waverly’s tangibility. Waverly turned her head, hoping to invite soft lips to her own,but Nicole moved to suck gently on her earlobe first, pulling the tiniest whimper from her lungs.
Her pyjama pants were removed next, Nicole feeling over every inch of her skin like she was worshiping it. Her hands caressed along Waverly’s hips, over her thighs and back up. Waverly tried to turn around, to press herself against the taller woman, but found herself held firmly in place.
“Nicole… I need to touch you, too.” Waverly murmured pleadingly.
“Later. I’m not ready to let you go just yet.”
There was something in Nicole’s voice that caught Waverly’s attention. Just the slightest tensing in her breath. ‘She needs this too,’ Waverly realised. ‘She needs me like this’.
“Okay… but I’m next alright?”
Nicole chuckled “Absolutely.”
“However I want.”
Long fingers dipped between Waverly’s thighs, caressing the satin skin there “Of course”
Waverly shivered, and she shifted her knees further apart, Nicole’s fingers slid to cup Waverly’s jawbone, gently guiding her to look into rich, adoring brown eyes before pulling her into an impassioned, if somewhat awkward kiss that lingered until they both had to come up for air. After a breath Nicole went right back to it, moving her kisses along Waverly’s jawline, below her ear, down the chords of her neck where she nipped and sucked, drawing a purple bloom to the surface.
“Oh Nicole….”
The redhead's hands returned to drift along sensitive skin. Over Waverly's shoulders. Down her spine.
"Uhhnn.. Nic"
Fingers curled over the edge of her panties and pulled the fabric down. Just enough to slide by. To slip along slick and heated flesh.
“Nicole…”
“Shhh. I've got you, Waves.”
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Nicole's head hit the pillow, and she gasped trying to catch her breath “Jesus, Waves...fuck.”
Waverly collapsed onto her fiance's chest, nuzzling up under the red head's chin.“God that felt... it was like I actually...”
“Yeah.”
The half-angel's voice lit up with impish pleasure “Thanks for letting me try the harness, love.”
“Anytime.” Nicole chuckled and panted, her fingers brushing through her own hair as she tried to catch her breath. She shivered pleasurably, feeling her walls pulse around the toy again. “God, that feels magical Waverly. Keep- keep flexing like that.”
“Flexing?”
“That little twitch. Yep, right there. Like that.”
Waverly leaned back a little to meet her lover's eyes, frowning a bit with a half grin “Nicole, that's all you, baby. I'm not doing anything. Feels good though”
Nicole's breath paused as she stilled for a moment. “What?”
She focused, trying hard not to move at all. Then she frowned, and propped herself up on her elbows “That's not me either”
They caught each other's confused gazes for a moment, then moved as one to asses the situation. As Waverly moved back, the toy moved with her, pulling out easily. They both felt their stomachs drop at the sight.
The harness was a little loose around the toy, framing it now instead of supporting. Because it didn't need support anymore. It was no longer the brilliant smooth purple silicone it had been. It tan and fleshy instead. Waverly's tan. Two sets of eyes watched as it's length softened and recoiled slightly back toward Waverly's hips, where it now connected seamlessly.
Nicole risked a glance at herself. She stared blankly at the whitish fluid seeping from her core. Her brain fumbled, trying to put the unlikely scenario together and failing repeatedly.
Waverly stared down at her groin, reaching a shaking hand down to touch the top of the harness first, and then lower. She yanked her hand back when she felt fingertips contact skin. Her skin. Her flesh. It couldn't be. It just.. it couldn't. Could it?
It's Purgatory, part of her brain whispered quietly. You're a little more than human.
She thought of her powers. Of things she'd done before. Little miracles.
She gulped.
Nicole licked dry lips nervously.
Their gazes met.
Waverly tried to talk, her mouth moving without making sound at first. At length she shook her head, and with a nervous half-smile and a shrug, resorted to the age old Earp coping tactic. Comedy.
“Um... happen to be on the pill?”