#valentines day

Happy Valentine’s

Day from

Orange Porridge♥️

Hope you’re all having a good February!! I forgot to post this for Valentine’s Day!!

Ash walked into the living room and Hilda just barely inclined her head away from the circuit board she was working on to get a glimpse of her. There was a bottle in each of her hands, one pink and one purple. They weren’t bottles she thought she recognized. “What are those?” Hilda asked, eyes back on the circuits but mind stuck on Ash.

“Soap, shampoo,” Ash said. Hilda didn’t need to look to know she’d lifted each bottle in turn. Absently she wondered which was which. But she guessed she’d find out when she next remembered to take a shower. Or got reminded to.

“That’s cool,” she said. A few blinks and the circuits swam back into focus. Alright… this should actually connect-

“Hilda,” Ash said, sounding fondly exasperated. Hilda hummed. The next words were leading and pointed, an explanation for the bottles when she’d never asked but she definitely apparently needed. “Come take a shower with me?”

Hilda’s head swiveled back to Ash slowly. “What?”

“A shower,” Ash said, propping the bottles up on her hips. She wasn’t wearing makeup. That was unusual for work days. Usually she waited a few more hours after getting home, something about not wanting to waste it if she bothered to put it on. “Together.”

“Oh,” Hilda swallowed. That was… intimate. Not that they weren’t intimate, but rarely like that. Ash just preferred morning showers and Hilda didn’t. Her hands fumbled against the circuit board and the pair of tweezers she’d been using. “Uh- Now?”

Ash smothered a laugh. She could see her do it and a little bit of indignation rose up in her throat, but not a lot. Ash wasn’t making fun of her. If anything, she probably thought she was adorable. Which should annoy her, but it never managed to when it was Ash. “If you can bear to separate from your project.”

Like she was actually contemplating it, Hilda looked back at the coffee table. There was a huff of amusement behind her. Of course Ash didn’t believe her. Her wife always had a talent for sussing out the truth- and not just from her. Hilda hid a small smile. “I suppose so.”

“Good,” Ash said. “I expect to see you in the bathroom in a few minutes.” And she left Hilda to clean up what she had to. This time Hilda didn’t bother to hide the smile, putting away what she absolutely had to and keeping out what she didn’t need to. She could figure out what she was doing later. Some time away from it would most likely be good, anyhow.

Especially if it was spent with Ash.

Hilda stood, brushing imaginary dirt from her pant legs. Only now did she notice her knees felt a little sore from kneeling for so long.

By the time she got into their bathroom, Ash was stripped to her underwear and her hand was under the spicket to test the temperature. Hilda undressed, not shivering despite the cold February day. At some point before she’d even asked Hilda, she must have warmed it. She sat her clothes in a pile next to Ash’s. When Ash finally looked back, apparently pleased with the water’s temperature, she smiled. Then she added the rest of her clothes to the pile and stepped into their shower, holding a hand out to Hilda. Obviously, Hilda took the hand.

She was guided in front of Ash, a short distance from the water, so they were facing each other. They washed each other with the rose shampoo and the lavender body wash Ash had picked up from somewhere just for today. (The bottles were completely full. Never been used. That’s why Hilda didn’t think she recognized them, she hadn’t.) Their touches were gentle, like working with complex circuitry. Or if she wanted to be more romantic- an urge only Ash ever put into her- like touching a god made flesh– soft and lingering. Ash tipped her head back as Hilda rinsed the shampoo from her hair and she watched water droplets run races down freckled cheeks. Cheeks that she then kissed, knowing Ash wouldn’t begrudge her it. Even after they were clean and rinsed Hilda didn’t move. Content to exist in the steam for as long as Ash kept her there.

Ash kissed her nose under the warm spray of the shower head. “Happy Valentine’s Day,” she said quietly and Hilda’s eyes widened in surprise.

“That’s today?”

“Yep,” Ash smiled at her, fond and amused. Hilda is eternally grateful she’s never been upset at her inability to remember any holiday that wasn’t Christmas. “Don’t worry, this is all I wanted.”

Hilda raised an eyebrow. “Your V-day plans were to take a shower?”

“With you,” Ash added, “Yes.” And she kissed her again.

They kissed there, under the running shower head, until the water was long past cold.

growingingreenwood:

Let us not forget the true meaning of this day, for on February 14, 3019, Gandalf the White arose from death in his true form and set out once more to walk the stones of Middle-Earth.

MERRY GANDALFMAS

Black History Month Art Challenge

Day 14: MY OWN OCS ❤❤