Ben and Jerry's. Cherry Garcia. God tier ice cream. A pint of that, a pint of chubby hubby. A box of chocolate covered cherries. Enough to share (this is important). A card, vintage, with a train on it. She couldn't find the original the Simpsons did, so she'd made do. It wasn't a real card for Valentine's Day. This was a tribute. She'd taken a kids birthday card with Thomas the Tank engine on it, drew a line through the birthday bits with permanent marker, and scrawled I Choo Choo Choose You on the front. She'd also written something sweet and sentimental inside. And to finish off, a bouquet of roses. Classy. Classical. No black roses here.

It was Valentine's Day. She hadn't had an actual significant other on Valentine's Day for a while. So, she'd gone big with an entire grocery bag full of ice cream and candy... and a thing of vodka, and some Sprite. I mean, come on. They had gone on a few dates, since the first. Kept in contact. Lotta texting and phone calls. But still. Valentine's was important.


She had texted Serena earlier, and set things up. "You. Me. Your place. Get yourself some board games and cards. See you at 6:00."

Amelia arrived at Serena's palace on time, with all her stuff. She was wearing a red cardigan over a white shirt, with the leather jacket Serena had bought her. Red was the right color for the day, like green on St. Patrick's day. Or pink during breast cancer awareness week.

When Serena opened the door, she thrust the bouquet of roses into the blondes hands, first and foremost. "Happy Valentine's Day,"
She smiled. Then, she went into the kitchen and put the ice cream away. Very business-like. No kiss, yet. Melted ice cream is a no-go.

Truth be told, Serena hadn't thought about valentine's day as much as she probably should have. She smiled when she first received her girlfriend's text and then went through several stages of emotion. Realisation that she hadn't gotten her girlfriend anything, panic over what to wear and then full on freak out. She quickly threw stuff on that was somewhat presentable and dashed out of her building to look for something.

The board games and cards weren't a huge problem of course as Serena had way way too many. She had all kinds of games in her cupboards. Munchinkins, Werewolf, Battlestar Galactica (James' fault), some anime stuff, and even a silly cute card game by the name of exploding kittens. But she hadn't gotten Amelia anything at all yet and she was freaking out pretty hard.

She dashed around a few shops before coming to the conclusion that a hastily bought gift wasn't really something that she should be doing. It felt insincere. She sighed and returned to her apartment and flicked on the speakers to play some music and sat for an hour or so lost in thought over it, feeling pretty bad over the whole thing before an idea finally struck her. She dashed and gathered the things from around her apartment, applied some pen and then wrapped it.

Now that she wasn't feeling bad the emotional rollercoaster flipped back all the way around to butterflies and then 'OH, I've not showered today' Followed by a quick shower and getting dressed into a pair of skinny jeans and a sleeveless 'Nat 20!' shirt featuring a whole bunch of 20 sided dice all turned up as 20's.

She got her hair into a presentable state, though it was still a little damp by the time she opened the door to her girlfriend, her lips spread into an immediate grin. "thanks! They're beautiful~" She smiled and smelled them before setting them to one side. She shut the door and turned as Amelia went and stored what looked like Ice cream. She wondered what Amelia had in mind.

She walked over to her girlfriend and grinned broadly, gently running her hand along the girl's arm and chirping as she walked past. "It's good to see you love~"

As Serena passed her, a subtle smirk quirked Amelia's lips. Serena's hair looked a little damp, like she'd rushed through the shower right before she'd arrived. Her detective senses were tingling. There were many reasons one might forget to shower until the last moment. Oversleeping. Being lazy. Getting caught out shopping, and having to rush home.

The shirt was cute. Dressier than her cardigan and the leather jacket she only now suspected didn't quite match. "Good to see you too, Serena." Amelia said. "Cute shirt." She wasn't about to call the blonde on having wet hair. Even if it would have been fun to tease her about getting caught having a lazy day, and having to entertain.

"There are chocolate cherries in the bag. Ice cream in the fridge." She turned and pulled a two liter of soda from the shopping bag. "Sprite." The vodka followed it. "Vodka." She said, then turned and handed Serena the little heavily edited train card. "Card."

She had forgotten that when you opened the card, it made train noises. Forgotten for about a minute.

She turned and smiled at Amelia as she finished putting things away, Serena leaned against a nearby counter with a broad grin. Once upon a time she'd have had a much more sheepish look in this situation, but even after a relatively small space of time together she felt very at ease around Amelia.

"Thanks! I got it at an event run at the university, charity gaming and all that. It was fun." She really needed to get involved in more of that stuff, but oh were was the time. It all just melted away. Mind you, she was in her final year and also writing novels and also dating a lovely police officer. (Not that she minded that last one so much)

She thanked her girlfriend again and took the card, opening it whilst being impressed with the thoughtfulness of Amelia in what she'd brought with her. It played a little Thomas the tank engine noise, and then she saw what was on the inside and laughed. "That is funny, thoughtful and incredibly cheesy." she chimed, moving over to her girlfriend and setting it down on the side of the counter.

She leaned towards the brunette and gently placed her arms over the other girl's shoulders and smiled. "I like it." She then leaned in to kiss her girlfriend.

Choo choo m-fers . The blondes face had lit up at the card. Amelia had watched her read it, watched blue eyes track over each word and the thoughts behind them. And as she did, Amelia snuck open the box of chocolates she had lied about still being in the bag... and palmed a chocolate-covered cherry. She'd had foresight and already removed the crinkly plastic wrap before sneakily leaving the box out where Serena could have seen it... if she hadn't been so distracted by her stunning good looks. When Serena went in for a kiss, Amelia popped the chocolate-covered cherry into the blonde's mouth, instead. And then she had kissed her, playful smile on her face from her little prank.

Once they were finished, Amelia grinned at her. "I specifically got a big box of chocolates." She stated with a straight face. "Enough to share."

"I was thinking we could have some drinks, eat some candy or ice cream or candy and ice cream, and watch something or play cards." That was a good selection of options. Amelia yawned, stretching one arm behind her head with the other. "It's Valentine's Day," she said. "My first with someone in a while. And I mean to enjoy it." She smiled a little smile at Serena. "And we have vodka." She added helpfully. "Vanilla vodka."

Serena hadn't seen the little prank coming. In hindsight it was very very cute, but in the moment Serena was a little shocked at going in to kiss her girlfriend and suddenly having chocolate. But then she got kissed anyway, it was very sweet and she had a bit of a blush going from the embarrassment of not having seen it coming. She chewed and swallowed the cherry. It was good.

Serena chuckled at her girlfriend's antics. "You have a very unique sense of humour~" she chirped in a complimenting tone.

"I'm down for all of these things~" She grinned. "I have cards galore, and games. And video games, and movies. And I don't get to share them with someone nearly as often as I'd like to. Let alone someone as special as you." She meant that, all of it. She needed to invite more people over for these sorts of things, but if she only got to do most of it with her girlfriend, this was fine also.

She smiled sheepishly at then next few comments and played with the hem of her shirt a little. "I noticed~" She looked up at her girlfriend again. "I think this is actually my first valentines with a girlfriend..." She giggled at a thought. "Good thing you brought drinks, that'll loosen my awkward bad habits."

It was Serena's first Valentine's Day with a girlfriend. Hey. Hers too! Amelia smiled at the sentiment. And then Serena said something that brought out an evil teasing side Amelia rarely embraced. Okay. Maybe she embraced it occasionally, but rarely if ever with a bad British accent.

"Bad habits?" Amelia asked. The British accent was really terrible. She should have been ashamed. "You don't have any?"

She went on. Still in the accent. "You're practically perfect in every way. No nervous ticks. No fist clenching when you want to act serious. Not many ums or wells or you know? Like, totally." She was on a roll. "You don't get embarrassed easily, or get scared or nervous. And when something needs doing, well, love, you do it. You don't put it off until anothah day. You palace is spotless, your taste in movies, tip top. Music. If it's got a tune, you can sing it like Anna Kendrick, dear. You're pitch perfect. And as for fashion. You always dress to the nines. Except in this case, today. You're to the twenties. Critical hit. Unless we're talking old editions where a 1 is critical...for something or other. My brother was always more a law nerd than a dungeon master. It was his lawyer friends in college that tried to teach me that game. Good thing he isn't a dungeon master." She slipped out of the accent at the thought, and shuddered, "That's WEIRD!"

She had not let Serena interrupt her little escapade while she was rolling. Nope. Not one bit. She had smiled the entire while.

Serena... did not like the look of that facial expression. She sensed inbound teasing. What was... Oh. Oh no. The accent came out and Serena's expression just fell. God, it was so bad. As she went on with the teasing Serena shook her head in a half smile. Bad accents were just the worst.

She went on and rambled in the accent at hyper speed. Serena picked up on the teasing, and then the rambling went into a story about D&D. Kind of? "Ami..." She began. "Has anybody ever told you that you can be a little quirky?" She had a smirk plastered across her lips. The other girl was cute and weird and entertaining.

A thought struck her suddenly. "Oh!" She spun around and dashed past Ami, foraging through the mess on her desk and picking up a package. "I forgot something." She meandered over to her girlfriend and held out a wrapped package. "This. Is for you."

"Quirky?" She could sense Serena hadn't dug the bad accent. Part of her wanted to continue it, just to drive the joke into the ground. But the other part of her realized that would have been beating a dead horse. So, she spoke normally. "I guess I have bad habits. Nice that at least one of us does." She laughed.

Serena exploded into motion at some realization. She dug through a disorganized thing one might at some point have referred to as a writing desk, and retrieved a package. It was wrapped in brown paper. Amelia took it, turning it over in her hands.

"Oh!" Amelia exclaimed... in what may have been an accurate, if inadvertent, replication of Serena's oh! from 1 second before. "Thank you. Let's see here." She began to unwrap.

Serena smiled as the other girl took the package in her hands, glad that the stint of awful accent was over (Though she didn't actually voice this thought out loud). As the other girl unwrapped the paper it would reveal a neatly bound manuscript. She didn't have a printed copy with the art yet, but this was the final version of her next novel, which was still a few months away thanks to the way that publisher release schedules worked.

She smiled at the other girl. She'd signed it to "An inspiration of strength, and a most wonderful Girlfriend."

Truth be told she was quite nervous. Serena wasn't typically very confident in her writing. Like, she didn't think it was bad, but she still got extremely nauseous at the prospect of the release getting closer. But if anybody would be the first to read the entirety of the full completed work 'Heavy storm' was the second in the series that she still wasn't entirely sure of the length of.

It was still following the same themes of urban fantasy of the first, but exploring a different ground of people in the same situation. Inspired by books she'd read in the urban fantasy genre like the Dresden books, and more mystery riddled stories like the X-files. "Uhm. You'd be the first to read it."

The thought behind the gift was really deep. Did she even know how deep it ran? Yeah, it was something that, a few months from now, might not be as special. Other people would get their copies. It would be discussed on forums, and in book clubs. Joe Blow on the street could talk to anyone about his new book. They'd be available at book stores. The story itself would be something others would share in shortly. But as it stood, it was incredibly special. A first read. And signed. An original manuscript. A first peek into Serena's next book. A peek into her mind. Before anyone else. She was giving Amelia a lot of power here, a lot of trust. A less trustworthy person could spoil it for everyone. Post snips on message boards. Ruin the ending. But Amelia was not that kind of person.

All Amelia could say to the whole thing was "Wow." She held in her hands a chunk of Serena's heart. And Serena was trusting her with it. Trusting her with her livelihood. There were multiple levels here. Many that might not be readily apparent. Amelia looked up and met Serena's eyes, emphasizing her words. "Thank you." She said. "This is amazing."

She looked down, and to the left. "And here, I just got you roses and chocolates. This is really special, Serena. Seriously."

Serena's face lit up as her girlfriend unwrapped the book and seemed to contemplate it. She hoped that it would seem like a good gift. She'd only had the idea a few hours ago and even now it seemed a little... corny.

When the other girl looked up into her eyes and proclaimed what an awesome gift it was her smile blossomed into full. She felt a little blush tugging at her cheeks as the brunette spoke. She grinned in spite of it though. Amelia liked it. She really liked it, and that was worth all of the embarrassing blushes and goofy grins in the world as far as the young smitten Haemokinetic was concerned.

Serena's hand's trailed down her girlfriend's arms, gently plucking the book and setting it down on the table next to them, smiling at her again, now turning a shade of salmon. "Your gifts were lovely, and the biggest and best gift you could have given me was a lovely evening off with you." Her hands trembled just a smidge. "I really really like you, and the thought of you coming over to my apartment filled me with equal parts giddy excitement and freak out panic looking for a gift. I'm glad it was appropriate. She gave Ami's hands a gentle squeeze.

Amelia squeezed back. "More than appropriate." She said.

The brit's description of events put things in a different light. The once-damp hair now made perfect sense. It had not been laziness or neglect. She had run around like a mad woman, looking for gift ideas. Probably done some rapid cleaning. And the last thing she had cleaned had been... herself. Amelia was suddenly glad she hadn't teased the woman about it. Serena got teased enough, as it was.

Amelia leaned forward on the balls of her feet, and gave the blonde a kiss. As she pulled away, she smiled lightly. "Me being the first to read it is kind of like giving me a chunk of you." She said. "I get to share my thoughts, and comment on all the little things. And you'll hear what I say before anyone else. It's kind of like you're putting yourself out there. Sharing your heart. And yeah." She broke the contact, turning to nab the bottle of vodka and rummaging in Serena's cabinets for some glasses. "I most certainly want a piece of that. So do you like your drinks neat, or mixed? Do we have cranberry juice?" She continued on as if she most certainly had not just said what she'd said. She wasn't even blushing.

On occasion, Serena wished she was an empath, or a telepath. Not because she didn't like her power, because she'd actually grown to like and accept it as a part of her personality. But it would be cool to never picked up mixed signals or get lead into confusing situations with people occasionally, she found herself contemplating this as she looked into her girlfriend's eyes, pondering the mental cogs moving behind them.

Serena met Ami's kiss intently, enjoying the simple pure affection of it, basking in those thoughts and feelings. However the follow up dialogue turned out to embarass her more than before. Had she really been thinking along those lines when she'd packaged up the pages for her girlfriend?

Yes, kind of. She'd wanted to show it to her as an example of the level of trust that she held the other girl in, along with another muddled up pile of excited floaty feelings.

She blushed, most profusely. And smiled in spite of it again. "God damn." She leaned forwards and pulled Amelia into another kiss, skating right over her question for just a few moments. "You make me feel all kinds of silly floaty elating, wonderful feelings and I adore you for it." She grinned, her blush fading a little.

"I have cranberry, and Pepsi. And some rum, and wine if you decide you're in the mood for that later." She chimed, feeling quite high on the mood.

The reaction was exactly what she had wanted. The blush, the somewhat exasperated and flustered (yet loving) exclamation. And the kiss. For a moment, Amelia's mind blanked. The search for glasses was abandoned. The vodka bottle sat sturdily on the counter where she had set it. But those were ignored. All that mattered was the kiss. God damn, indeed. Serena's comment afterwards was just icing on the cake.

The girl had stopped blushing. Well no, it was still there. Serena's blush had only faded -a little- as she soldiered on, answering Amelia's question. She had cranberry juice and Pepsi and some rum and some wine, if they felt like that later.

"Love ya' too, Blondie." The playful smile tugged her face like two dogs fighting over a sock. What? Was anyone confused by the sudden confession? Adore is practically the same as love in French. Je adore. 'Serena had said it!' Amelia's mind pointed out vigorously. 'She made the first move!' What was Amelia gonna do, leave her hanging? Not a chance.

They had gone on several dates since the first. Such confessions were hardly out of line.