Chapter Text
Space touched down on soft sand, feet sinking into the dunes as she padded toward the ocean. Sana knew it was a tricky thing to get water on a planet. A balance of temperature and elements, time and luck and hope leading to the support of life. Of all the worlds she had seen, Earth was one of the few to have a surface mostly covered in ocean.
She saw Gura's head bobbing in the water, a bright spot of white in the teal and foam. The shark swam ferociously, cutting a line through the waves, back and forth like threading a needle. Sana sat down to watch.
She hadn't ever really swam before. She never really found the time. Gura's tail whipped out of the water and slapped against the choppy surface, making a splash. Faintly, Sana felt the sensation of being smiled at, Gura's signature shark toothed grin from beneath the waves. Sana couldn't see it, but she smiled back. She knew Gura could feel it.
-
Sana drove them back, hands tight on the wheel of Gura's beat up car. Every so often, the shark would yell at her to hit the brake, or step on the gas, or for god's bright blue ocean use the turn signal! It made Sana laugh. So she just switched places with a towel covered, still damp Gura, and watched the other weave to traffic rather expertly.
They pulled into a supermarket parking lot. Sana had to press her shoulder roughly against the door to get it to open, stumbling out onto the asphalt. It was getting dark, street lamps turning on to illuminate the place. Yellow and buzzing above their heads, Gura pulled her towel tighter around her shoulders, and Sana followed her inside.
It was cold, freezer aisles working overtime and blowing refrigerated air into the rest of the store. Gura didn't shiver, but her tail did do a little shimmy. Sana regretted her choice of bright blue tank top and shorts.
"What are we getting, sharky?" Sana asked, running a hand over the rows of boxes; pasta and oats and meal and other dry goods. Earth was a strange place with all its variety of life. Sana loved it desperately.
Gura shrugged, picking up a bag of chocolate chips and inspecting them. "Dunno."
Sana grinned. "So we're winging it?"
Space's energy was infectious, livewire current sparking through the air, you couldn't not smile back. Gura's teeth glinted in the artificial light, one of them wiggling as she stuck her tongue out through the gaps between. Sana knew shark teeth fell out often. Gura liked to hand them out as gag jokes. The shark didn't know that Sana kept each one she was given in a little box in her nightstand. Little bit creepy, Sana knew, but weren't you supposed to treasure a gift.
"We're winging it."
-
This time, Sana wasn't even allowed in the front, exiled to the backseat to pout dramatically.
"I paid for the stuff, Gura, didn't I?" Sana looked out the window, bottom lip still sticking out in a gesture of petulance. "I deserve to sit in the front."
"And I deserve to live," Gura replied, turning onto a dirt path, car groaning ominously as it began the trek up a rough hill. "So I don't want you anywhere near the wheel."
"Cruel and unusual punishment."
Birds chirped outside, their numbers lessening as night fell. An owl took up the chant. Sana smiled at the thought of it being Mumei.
"Do you think that's her?" Gura said, practically reading Sana's mind. "I haven't seen her in a bit."
"She's with Calli and Kronii right now," Sana rubbed the worn leather of Gura's seat. "Something about renewing marriage vows."
"Mumei's a priest?!" Gura squawked.
"I mean, she's Civilization. She probably invented a few religions."
The radio turned to static in the background, trees obscuring the signal.
"That's cool," Gura finally said. Her tail flopped over the center console, fin rough against Sana's knee. Space absentmindedly patted it.
"All our girlfriends are cool."
They finally crested the hill. A rather large house loomed before them; two stories with lots of windows and many plants curling around the drain pipes and roof shingles. Fauna had insisted on the plants. Kiara had insisted on the windows. Sana thought them both to be excellent decisions.
Gura sneezed as they parked the car in the garage, sniffling and wiping his nose with a mildly irritated expression.
"Allergies?" Sana asked.
"No," Gura slid the cover over his car, "I told Fauna to not put the angel's trumpets so close to the house; they smell too strong." Gura's hands paused for a moment as she inspected Calli's motorcycle where it was propped up against the wall, an almost imperceptible stilling. "Sensitive nose, and all that."
Sana blinked. With a subtle flick of her hand, the bush laden down with bright orange flowers suddenly shifted to over a hundred feet away from where it had been previously, space telescoping in a way that made Gura's eyes hurt.
"Thank you," Gura said softly, pressing a kiss to Sana's bicep. She was still warm from the sun, absorbed light against her lips.
Sana giggled, helping Gura lift their groceries up and out of the garage. "Why did you kiss me there?"
Gura's tail almost smacked against the wall as she blushed. "I didn't want to ask you to lean down." She muttered, placing her four bags on the kitchen table easily. Sana felt her arms tremble from the weight of the single one she carried.
"Gura," Sana moved in closer, Gura's eyes widening a bit before fluttering closed as Sana kissed him. He tasted like salt, smelled of seawater brine and joyful exhaustion. Sana cupped his cheek, felt the hummingbird flutter of his heartbeat against her palm. "-you don't have to ask me to kiss you." She smiled against his lips, felt his shaky hands curl into her belt loops. "I like doing it."
"I like it too," He muttered, in a daze. Sana could feel the heat in his cheeks radiating outward. "I like, uh, kissing you too."
"I know." Sana chirped, and kissed Gura again.
-
Sana watched Gura work, hair still damp from her hasty shower and t-shirt hanging almost beyond her knees. She was a small thing shrouded in light grey fabric, the scent of its detergent marking it as Irys'. She had found a special one on sale, one that had a scent that she had known wouldn't irritate Gura's skin or nose. From then on, Irys started finding a lot of her shirts missing.
Gura mixed salt, flour, and oil together. The yeast bubbled in a small bowl set to the side before Gura added it in as well. There was a beautiful way to how Gura moved; the confident kneading of the resulting dough, biceps bulging slightly as she worked. It was firm and elastic between her hands, molded into a beautiful ball plopped back down in the bowl for it to proof. Gura washed her hands clean of oil and remaining flour, humming a little tune.
She sat down next to Sana on the couch, sighing happily and resting her head on Sana's shoulder. They sat there for a minute or two.
"Why do you like cooking so much?" Sana asked.
"Why do you like bread so much?" Gura countered.
"Because it tastes good," Sana waited for Gura to respond.
The timer rang for the bread to be placed in the oven. It hadn't felt like half an hour had passed. Sana needed to have a serious talk with Kronii about how she did her job.
Gura got up to bake the bread, and Sana found herself missing the warm weight on her shoulder, the rough sensation of Gura's tail thrown over her lap. Then she was no longer missing it as Gura sat back down, this time on her lap so she could settle her chin on Sana's shoulder.
Sana was now more aware of how time flowed by as they sat there; how it ebbed and flowed around them, Gura's steady breathing and occasional shifting of her tail.
"I like cooking because I like seeing you guys happy," Gura mumbled into the crook of Sana's neck. Her breath was hot on Sana's skin. She smelled like Ina's shampoo.
Sana smiled. She knew Gura could feel it, could feel the shark's own lips pull into a grin against her collarbone. "Love you too, baby."
The oven dinged.