Ivory Hill had spent the majority of her adult life running. Throughout her twenties and the first part of her thirties it was from bombs and bullets. Now, at thirty six years old Ivory was running from something that she could never truly escape fr...
Ivory groaned as she and Grace finally finished pushing the closet into place. "Did you pick the heaviest pieces of furniture possible on purpose?" She asked, tugging off her blue bandana that was now soaked in sweat.
"Maybe I just like watching you sweat." Grace grinned.
Ivory flung her bandana at her girlfriend, unable to hold in her laughter. "Come on, let's get this lot finished before midnight if we can." She pulled the closet doors open and picked up the clothes rail, climbing inside the closet to slot it into place. "Hey it's like I'm fifteen again." Ivory pushed the rail in then got out of the closet, closing the doors.
"Let's wait until tomorrow to put the stuff in the closet and on the shelves, if I see one more piece of wood tonight I think I'll scream."
"Sure." Ivory immediately flopped down on the floor, holding her arms out to Tigger.
Grace sank down beside Ivory, wrapping an arm loosely around her waist. "How old were you when you came out to your parents?"
"I never came out to them, they walked in on me when I was seventeen having a sleepover with my 'friend.' They were pretty cool about the whole me liking girls thing but they were pissed that we were shagging instead of studying like I'd said."
Grace snorted.
"How old were you?" Ivory asked.
"I never came out to my parents properly. I just told them I was engaged to a woman and they accepted it." Grace bit her lip. "Do you want to get married?"
"I'd rather lick Jake's gym top." Ivory said immediately. "I do love you Grace. A lot. And I don't want to think about my life without you in it but I don't think a piece of paper is going to make me feel any stronger for you than I do right now. I'm going to love you more than anyone else in my life wether we're married or not. I don't want to be with anyone else but you but I don't want to be married to you."
Grace nodded. "We're on the same page then. Marriage is overrated, just look at what happened with mine." She ran a hand through her hair. "Although if marriage was something that you had wanted to do I'd have done it again."
Ivory closed her eyes, leaning against Grace. "I appreciate that but you don't ever need to do something that'll make you miserable for me unless it's something that's going to keep you safe or alive."
"I love you. So much." Grace's voice was serious.
"I love you too."
Ivory's phone burst into life, Waylon Jennings singing loudly through it's speakers. She tugged her mobile out of her pocket and answered the call. "Hi Norm."
"Hey, are you and Grace busy?" Norm's voice crackled through the phone.
"No. What's up?" Ivory asked anxiously, moving to get up off of the floor.
"We're fine don't worry. We just wondered if you wanted to come over. It doesn't feel right not seeing you every day like we did on... well, you know."
"Just a second, I'll ask Grace." Ivory pulled the phone away from her ear and muted herself on the call. "Norm and Trudy want to know if we want to go visit them." She explained.
"Now?" Grace asked.
"Now."
"Sure."
Ivory unmuted herself and pressed her mobile back to her ear. "Yeah we'll come. Be there soon."
"Great, we can start the next Star Wars film." Norm said gleefully. "See you later." He put the phone down.
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Ivory was curled up on Norm and Trudy's living room floor, half dozing as Return of the Jedi played in the background.
"Are you alright?" Grace murmured, running a hand through Ivory's hair.
"Mhm." Ivory murmured, sitting up properly. "Where's Norm gone?" She asked, looking at the empty spot beside her.
"They're in the kitchen." Trudy said, rolling off of the sofa. "I hate being on earth. I want my Samson back."
"I miss having a job," Ivory grumbled.
Norm bounded back into the living room dressed in an oversized Batman jumper, laden with another two bowls of popcorn. "I was thinking we could watch The Phantom Menace next."
"It's getting late-" Grace began.
"You can stay the night it's no problem." Norm said hopefully.
Ivory looked at Trudy who shrugged her shoulders. "Stay if you want, there's a spare room." Trudy lowered her voice so that only Grace and Ivory could hear her "The next film is even fuckin' longer though."
Ivory and Grace exchanged a look.
"We can stay." Grace said decisively.
Ivory couldn't help but smile. It wasn't the same as being crowded together at Site Twenty Six with Jake cracking rude jokes, Trudy struggling to close a ginormous sandwich, Norm singing Disney songs at the top of his lungs and Grace somehow managing to work despite the din but it was good enough.
