Alpha Assignment (GL) Chapter 38 (Early Access) (Patreon)

Where Quinn's morning alarm forced her awake, Remi managed to sleep straight through the noise. Tapping the clock, she shut off the blaring beeps. She needed to pry her little lover off, but she looked so warm and so comfortable and so kissable. Quinn attacked Remi's round face with smooches, and only managed to half-rouse her.

"Good morning," Quinn whispered.

Remi smiled. Her eyes closed again but the smile remained. She burrowed deeper into the duvet after Quinn climbed out and into the chilly morning air. Shower, clothes, bag packed, breakfast made, Remi's wrapped up and left in the fridge with a sappy note. Too soon, it was time to leave. Quinn didn't wake Remi up a second time.

Her productivity had been on a decline for the last week, but at least today Jordan was just as distracted. Not a single task on their team to-do list had been completed when they were both broken from their thoughts by Quinn's phone vibrating.

Just a message, but from Assistant.

Tell her I miss her.

Quinn's heart squeezed. Work couldn't possibly be so important that she needed to be anywhere but with Remi right then...

"Cute background."

They both looked up from the screen. Under the notification block was the photo from Sunday: Remi, bundled in brown and green wool and corduroy, smiling in front of a monstrous pumpkin. Muddy boots and a lopsided topknot completed Remi's naturally adorable appearance. Zero effort needed. Any additional effort now might actually be too much for Quinn's heart to handle.

"Thanks," Quinn replied. The screen went black again.

"Things are going well then?"

Quinn nodded, unable to keep her smile away. "What about you and, uh-"

"Jay, yeah, it's good."

"I'm glad."

"Me too."

Jordan snickered, and it set off Quinn, and then they were both laughing over nothing, drawing looks from any person that passed.

"Why are we being so awkward?"

"I don't know," Quinn chuckled. "It's so stupid."

"I'm happy for you, and you're happy for me so let's stop being uncomfortable." Jordan flopped back in her chair with an exasperated sigh. "Please."

"Deal."

An email notification popped up in the corner of her screen:

THANK YOU FOR JOINING OUR WAITLIST - RESERVATIONS NOW AVAILABLE

Quinn hunched forward over her keyboard. "Lauto just emailed me, they've got reservations available!"

"That place we went to for the work dinner?"

"Yeah." She was already scrolling through the reservation slots. "I want to take Remi."

Jordan whistled. "Very fancy, is she used to that?"

She was right, it was one of the most formal places Quinn had ever eaten in, and she’d been invited to plenty of work dinners and events. The kind of place with a dress code… she scribbled a note on a post-it to remember to order Remi something that would be allowed in.

Quinn shook her head. "I doubt she's experienced any kind of sit-in dining."

"And you don't think the chaos of Mcdonalds would build character?"

Beeping cooking timers and shrill children’s screams filled Quinn’s memory. She had tried fast food, because she wanted something… fast. The side of trauma had negated the speed advantage and she had never tried to hurry her lunch again.

"More like cause cardiac arrest, and that's before taking a bite." Quinn chuckled to herself as she filled in the reservation form. Jordan joined in. With a thump of her enter key, she sent off the booking.  "This is actually great timing..."

"How come?" Chin in hands, Jordan’s curious grin teased her from across their desks.

For some reason, the question embarrassed Quinn a little. "I want to ask her to be... official?” She shrugged, awkwardness returning. “If that's what you call it…"

"Oh!" Jordan's face lit up. So happy for her, it instantly relieved a little of the uncomfortable energy in Quinn’s stomach. "Serious."

"Yeah, and I think that kind of question should be asked at a nice place." Or after a nice place, out of earshot of humans…

"Definitely." Jordan was fizzing in her seat with excitement. "And afterwards you have to tell me everything!"

Quinn promised she would.

The warming waft of cinnamon welcomed Quinn home when she stepped over the threshold. She sniffed her way to the kitchen and found a sweet sight: Remi, flour-dusted. Oh, and a rack of orange cookies sprinkled with icing sugar. Quinn knew which she’d rather take a bite out of.

“Cookies?” she said in greeting.

Remi grinned. “Pumpkin cookies!”

They let the treats cool in the kitchen while they put together dinner from leftovers on the dining table. They had to eat quickly to get to painting class, and Quinn wanted to get changed into more comfortable clothes beforehand.

Remi was already dressed. Between the mushroom-patterned socks and khaki paperbag shorts, there was a lot of slender leg on show. Small green and brown garden-tending-bruises peppered her knees. If they didn't have class to attend, Quinn would trail her fingers along them... maybe venture a little higher... then, inevitably, her tongue would get involved.

She forced her eyes to her food and cleared her plate like she was starving. It was the only way to keep from doing something she shouldn't. Remi had just about finished when she came back downstairs after getting changed, and they made it out the door on time with a plastic tub filled with sweets.

Their classmates loved the cookies. Carla used hers to gesticulate as she explained the basics of proportions - they had moved onto portraits. Her face was just over three cookies long.

"You are welcome to bring up a photo on your phone, paint a class partner, or use one of the mirrors for a self portrait." Carla pointed out a cardboard box of rarely-used supplies. "Whatever you decide, let's try not to hurt our own, or other's, feelings. We are all learning here, so if you think your nose looks a little bent or your ears a bit too big - it's probably beginner's brush strokes."

They were released to begin sketching out spheres and eye lines, and Quinn and Remi chose each other. Others scrolled through their phones for references for children, lovers and friends. Quinn would love a chance to paint her pumpkin picture, but she wasn't sure what category that would fall under... Carla did always offer the option to 'paint as you please' if you didn't want to follow the weekly themes.

"Can you sit, please?"

"Hmm?" Remi's quiet question had drawn her back out of her thoughts.

A stool was dragged to her and Remi patted the top. "Sit here. I'll lower your easel."

Quinn did as she was told and watched her canvas drop to reachable height again. Now hers and Remi's were equal.

"Where's your stool?"

"If I sit too then I'll have the same issue again!"

"Issue?"

"You're too tall."

A loud and unladylike laugh burst from Quinn. "Have you considered that maybe you're too small?"

The pouty look she received made her regret her words instantly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean that. You're perfect-sized a-"

Remi laughed. "I'm not upset, Quinn. Only teasing." She leant in close, their faces almost aligned, and it brought back the previous day, when she and Remi had been eye-to-eye, forehead-to-forehead, and then joined... elsewhere. A wry smile played at Remi's lips. "Your eyes got bigger and darker," she whispered.

"Your eyes are always big and dark," Quinn replied, soft and unintentionally sultry. "I should be sketching them instead of staring into them."

Remi dropped back a step, and their bubble burst, bringing back the bustling room around them. They took up their pencils and started with basic shapes. It took a few attempts to get perfect circles, and keeping everything else symmetrical was almost impossible.

A game of peek-a-boo had begun with them both trying to catch the other unaware to hold up their pencils and measure their features. As Quinn scrubbed off a little round ear for the third time, the trail of a blunt lead tip tickled along her face. Only her eyes dared move. Remi was close, and dragging her pencil over Quinn's face as though her hand would remember the form beneath.

She held still, or tried to, until she couldn't keep the giggles at bay. When she turned, the pencil was bumped from Remi's fingers to the floor. She didn't collect it. Her fingers splayed over Quinn's cheeks, measuring up her knuckles to Quinn's nose, counting nonsense numbers and made-up measurements.

"I never get to touch your face," she murmured.

"You're always welcome to."

"I can't reach."

Quinn pursed her lips and tried not to laugh at Remi's height deficiency... again.

Fingertips tapped along her cheekbones, round her eyes, poked her earlobes, and skimmed the skin that curved down her chin. Quinn smiled under her touch, it was as delicate as the woman doing it. Tucking two fingers behind each side of her jaw, Remi pulled her closer, closed the gap, and kissed her.

Surprise held Quinn still for a second, then she pushed her lips forward, letting Remi catch them in her own and lead them deeper-

A jolt ran from Remi's body to Quinn's and the kiss broke. Quinn's eyes opened, and Remi was staring up at her, shame-faced. They glanced around the room, checking for anyone who looked like they'd just seen something they didn't ask to. If anyone had noticed them, they didn't make it obvious.

They returned their focus to the task at hand, too embarrassed to say another word. At the end of the evening they had blocks of base skin colours filling their canvases.