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“I honestly cannot believe you were so bad at this!” Helen laughed, bringing Liv closer and planting a soft kiss on her forehead, right above a little bump she got from unexpectedly colliding with a low tree branch.
“Why thank you!” Liv replied snarkily, clearly not impressed. Still, she made no move to leave her wife’s half-embrace, snuggling even more into her side. “It’s not like I was seeing snow for only the third time in my life. By which I mean that much snow!”
“Fair enough,” Helen chuckled. “But it’s not snow I was talking about. Of course you said skiing wasn’t looking safe from your point of view but these–” she wracked her brain to search for the word “–snowboards were definitely looking similar in use to surfboards, didn’t you say?”
“I might have done. Doesn’t mean I was right,” she huffed and Helen couldn’t help an amused smile.
“Now don’t be grumpy, Liv,” she teased. “We had a good time anyway, didn’t we?”
“Uh definitely,” Liv snorted but more out of pretence than because she actually didn’t like it.
Helen remembered how excited Liv looked when they drove the cable car, lifting them and all their gear further and further up the snowy mountains they decided to spend their little holiday in. They were still getting used to doing things the conventional and linear way. It was their second attempt, and their previous – beach – holiday proved they could even enjoy it – for a short period of time. In any case, it wasn't healthy to keep running all the time like they had done with the Doctor.
They’ve been travelling on their own for a while now, making the universe better and righting wrongs wherever they went. They just couldn’t help it. Another promise of many they'd made to each other was to try out something new once in a while. Not what their hectic lives brought to them, but choosing it rationally, deliberately and – as everything they did – together.
So here they were. In a hut high up the snowy mountains that the database suggested was one of the best, almost untouched by people, skiing spots this side of the galaxy.
“I had fun,” Helen admitted with a smile. “Didn’t you?”
“‘Course I did,” Liv snorted, sneaking her still somehow cold hands under Helen’s sweater and making the linguist shiver and giggle. “I wish only the snow wasn’t so cold and wet...”
“It wouldn’t be snow otherwise,” Helen chuckled softly and moved both of them a little closer to the fire, logs cheerfully cracking in the fireplace. She wouldn’t tease Liv by saying the water was usually just as cold and wet too. “Besides, I was under the impression you were much more dexterous than that. You would enjoy it more if you hadn’t landed face first in said snow every other minute! How ever did you manage to fall so many times?”
“And thank you for support, love!” Liv snickered but then elaborated, “It is just so weird when both of your legs are stuck to a board you have no idea how to control. It still looks better than those you had on your legs. And those sticks too! How do you think about all of them at the same time?”
“Not every one of us has the coordination of a newborn lamb, Liv,” she laughed. “Sorry. Sorry, I just thought you’ll be a natural with it all, seeing how you took to surfing last time. I always assumed falling over face first was more of the Doctor’s thing.”
“Well, can’t be helped,” Liv nuzzled in the crook of her wife’s neck. “Besides, he’s my best friend and we’ve travelled so long together – I think maybe he might have rubbed off on me.”
“I don’t seem to have any other explanations here,” Helen chuckled, “so I’ll have to take your words for it.”
“The only downside of falling so much,” Liv continued, unphased, “is not that I hurt everywhere, nah, that I can live with. But I think I had bloody snow everywhere. Even in my pants!”
“Then it’s good we popped into the shower before, huh?” Helen murmured in her ear, running a hand down her back, as Liv's cheeks got a lovely shade of pink.
It was amazing how after all these years they both were still able to blush like teenagers and get that giddy sense of excitement every time they so much as looked at each other. Helen wouldn’t lie to say she was absolutely smitten and had been for a very very long time. She was certain it would never cease, too. Not with the absolute enigma that was her lovely wife, not with the most amazing and unpredictable life they were leading. Sometimes Helen hoped she could go back in time and tell her younger self that it all would be worth it in the end. She could have done with a reassurance back then. She wished she once had any hope at all to keep her silent fight against the whole world and most of all, end a fruitless one against herself, her nature, her thoughts, too.
“Most definitely,” Liv smiled, a blush still in place, remembering everything they got up to earlier under the warm shower. She placed a soft kiss on Helen’s neck, driving her back from spiralling thoughts to the blissful present. “Mind you, I would love to go another round, but don’t wanna move. This is nice too,” Liv yawned, betraying how tired she was.
“Then come here.” Helen drove her wife even closer, letting her settle comfortably in her arms, listening to her soft breathing. There was no changing the past, and she wouldn’t want to, not if it eventually had led her to where she was now.
“Can we just go hiking tomorrow?” Liv asked a bit later, cracking one eye open, and Helen couldn’t suppress a soft little smile. “I think my pride is wounded enough for now to try snowboarding again.”
“Of course we can. I wanted to suggest the same, actually,” Helen nodded. “We can maybe stay the night up there too, if you want. I’ve heard it’s the season of the meteor showers, and the view must be quite spectacular.”
“Mhm, sounds really nice,” Liv murmured. “Miss hiking.”
“I know you do, dear.”
Helen was getting sleepy too, but it was warmer there by the fire, and the soft plaid draped over the sofa was just within her arm’s reach, big enough to wrap both of them in a big cocoon. So she did just that, drawing a soft content hum from her wife. She watched the flames dancing and shifting in the fireplace, licking at the dry logs. It was rather mesmerising.
These little quiet moments were precious, and Helen was set on committing every last detail to memory. All the other world could wait. Tucking a loose strand of hair behind Liv’s ear and watching her sleep soundly in her embrace, Helen decided she could carry Liv back to their bed just a bit later.