Work Text:
The afternoon sunshine was turning the Berkshire meadow to a shimmering golden green, the soft air still warm from the gentle summer morning. Rosemary and Laura had been recruited to chisel out a couple of beds and get a few things started for a new community garden, and right now, they were having a crisis.
Correction, Laura was having a crisis. Rosemary was content to watch and admire, and admiring she was.
Rosemary had been in an extraordinary good mood that day. She’d woken up on the right side of the bed to begin with, gotten dressed, brushed her teeth, and emerged into the kitchen to discover Laura, already up and dressed and cooking Rosemary breakfast.
It was something that had happened probably a thousand times before, but that it morning in particular, it’d struck Rosemary just how bloody lucky she was to have found Laura. She’d looked at her and seen all the jokes and the laughter, the quarrels and the kerfuffles, the near death experiences, the hours of working together side by side, chattering like magpies or simply enjoying each other’s company. Rosemary looked at Laura and saw happiness. Her happiness.
So yes, she was in a good mood that day. She had Laura, and that was all it took.
They went to work, they bickered, they chatted, and at every interaction, Rosemary was left feeling more than a little giddy.
Laura frowned at a particularly stubborn weed, and Rosemary found herself beaming. A brush of Laura’s shoulder against hers, and Rosemary found herself leaning into her, quite willing to throw caution to the wind and pour herself into Laura’s embrace to show her just how much cared.
It was at this point that Rosemary began seriously wondering if she’d been drugged. She was positive she didn’t usually behave like this much of a loon. But then Laura stood up to stretch, and Rosemary’s thoughts were taken up by something else entirely.
That Laura Thyme was simply the most beautiful person to ever live was a fact of life, always had been. Now in particular, though... She had dirt on her face and mud in her hair, and by all accounts, she should have looked like she’d been hit by a bus. And in a way, she did. But that wasn’t accounting for the sparkle in her eyes, nor the pink in her cheeks, nor the softness of her smile. It wasn’t accounting for the gentle curves of her body or the warmth of her gaze. And it certainly wasn’t accounting for the particular shade of blue of her eyes that drew one to her like a magnet.
Yes, Rosemary was admiring her. And it occurred to Rosemary in the back of her mind, very nearly subconsciously, though not quite, that she wanted to do something about it. That she wanted to act on her feelings. That she had feelings to begin with. Feelings for Laura. Something clicked solidly into place. Rosemary had not accidentally ingested a narcotic, she was in love…
Rosemary laughed to the sky.
“Oi, what’s so funny?” said Laura. “You’re not helping.” This was where their crisis came in. “You’re supposed to be telling me where to put these bloody tomatoes.” She crossed her arms and looked around her in a huff, the tomato plants hanging miserably from one hand. “They can’t go in the south corner, they’ll be in the shade from that tree. They can’t go in the north corner because that’s taken by the carrots, and east and west are out because this is England and they’re not going to get nearly enough sun to grow anyway. I mean honestly. No place we put them is going to be good enough.” She sighed, and eyed Rosemary warily. “Stop grinning like a stuffed duck and tell me what you think.”
“I think,” said Rosemary, the sheer devoted affection for her friend spilling over into uncontainable territory, “I think that you’re the loveliest creature in the world.”
Laura stared at her, waiting, perhaps for a punchline. Rosemary held her ground. She had no punchline. She’d been perfectly serious.
Laura was getting steadily redder by the moment. She looked perplexed. “Erm…” she said eventually. “Well, alright, the feeling is mutual. Decidedly so. But it what brought this on?”
Rosemary grinned. The world was a bright and wonderful place. “Drugs,” said she, and laughed when Laura’s eyes widened in alarm. “Not that sort of drug, Laura.”
“You haven’t answered my question about the tomatoes.”
“Oh, plant them anywhere, if they’re going to die anyway,” said Rosemary. “Someone is just going to have to learn that this is not Central America.” And then, because she was delighted enough to temporarily believe that nothing could go wrong, she said, “Laura, go out with me.”
“What? Where?” Asked Laura, still looking rather perplexed.
Rosemary held her gaze.
Laura blanched. “What, you mean, on a date?” Rosemary waited, while Laura’s face went on a journey from shock, to skepticism, to something between amusement and cheer, which was when she shrugged. “Where did you have in mind?” And Rosemary nearly burst with delight. She settled for helping Laura plant the tomatoes. They could discuss the details later.