ic All-Access Pass (IC)

[Fox]

Mara opened her mouth to say something...and closed it again. It was just too nice, quietly snuggling with Ellie on the couch; she couldn't think of anything to say that wouldn't detract from the mood for some reason she couldn't define. Instead she took a moment to consider her options, turning things over and over in her mind until, satisfied, she turned her attention outward, to the warehouse. Lights danced behind her eyes as the television, muted, flicked on - channels changed at lightning speed until she found a quiet, low-action movie. A quick thought to her computer system brought most of the warehouse lights down and another brought the television volume up, if only just; the engineer snuggled into Ellie a little, holding her hand to enjoy her company in the relative darkness as the movie played in the background.

[Gizmo]

Letting her eyes drift slowly closed and her thoughts drift into ethereal feelings of warm and close and soft. Cozy dozing inevitably gave rise to a loud yawn, however, the drawn out sound dissolving into laughter. "Ah, Marbar! Stop being so comfy," the sidekick mock scolded, nuzzling into the inventor's neck briefly before sitting up just enough to look her in the face. "I think I could get used to this pretty quickly."

[Fox]

Blinking back to being fully awake herself, Mara was fairly glad the low lighting hid the worst of her blush at the nuzzling. "Have...no complaints. It's nice," she observed, with a little smile. "Company. Closeness. Usually not...comfortable with people in my warehouse. But you aren't...I don't...."

She frowned, not nearly good enough with words to properly express herself; rather than continue to frustrate herself trying to phrase something that sounded right, she completed the thought by leaning over and brushing her lips against Ellie's.

[Gizmo]

Returning the light kiss, Ellie grinned back at Mara. "Eloquent." Biting her lower lip to contain the expression, she brushed a few loose bangs back behind her ear. "I'm actually not usually, um... well, I mostly like my personal bubble," the dark haired girl admitted with a slight, wry flush as she realized her companion hadn't seen much evidence of that. "But-you-aren't-I-don't-mwah," she imitated, punctuating the thought with another quick peck. "Speaking of eloquent, though," she continued, "you're already speaking full sentences en Español and I still only know like a dozen words en Français."

[Fox]

Mara pouted a little bit, but nodded. "Fair," she admitted, pondering. "Have an unnatural advantage there. Mmh...." She almost shifted position, but was apparently loathe to remove herself from couch and comfy companion; instead, lights danced behind her eyes and the television switched over to the computer's feed, which in turn was used to pull up Google image search. "

[Gizmo]

"Mm, love the Lite-Brite eyes," Ellie murmured happily, resting her head back on Mara's shoulder but turning her attention to the television screen, brow furrowing slightly in concentration. "Ah... " she decided after a moment, doing her best to mimic the other girl's pronunciation. Though she'd picked up a thing or two already, her French was still heavily accented and halting, as she racked her memory for each word.

[Fox]

Mara nodded, bringing up a variety of pictures in turn, some of them practical, some less so (but more interesting). She made sure to take her time, though - every image was a chance for Ellie to learn or remember a word (and, often, how it was conjugated), and old words got revisited fairly often or, if possible, tied into other words. She wasn't the greatest or most experienced teacher, but she was patient, and having learned a couple languages herself she did what she could to make the lesson less dry.

[Gizmo]

Around the third or forth time embrasser came up in the rotation of improvised flash cards, Ellie gave Mara an amused look. "I seem to be detecting an underlying motive behind this particular lesson plan," the student drawled, sitting up again and draping her free arm over her instructor's shoulders. "Let's see if I've go this, then. J'embrasse..." Illustrating the point, she kissed Mara briefly before retreating just far enough to continue, "Tu embrasses..." Interspersing each conjugation with a short, soft kiss, she remained close enough for her breath to tickle the polyglot's cheeks as she spoke. "Elle embrasse... Nous embrassons... Elles embrassent..."

[Fox]

Lightly blushing, Mara pulled Ellie closer to steal just a few more seconds out of that last kiss, a hint of a smile playing at the corners of her mouth. "C'est bon," she noted, in as teacherly a tone as she could manage. "Seemed like a useful verb. And motive clearly worked," she emphasized, feigning scolding. "Learned the verb very well. Pronunciation good. Will know the French tongue in no time."

She paused, blinking. "Not...what I meant. Exactly."

[Gizmo]

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I know what you meant," Ellie teased, looking pleased with herself. The expression faltered after a moment, turning pensive and selfconscious. "So... would I be the worst girlfriend ever if I wanted to just, y'know... do this for tonight?" She watched Mara's face intently for her reaction, clearly having trouble phrasing her thoughts. "I mean, I do want to, I..." With a sigh, she rand a hand lightly over her face. "This has just been a lot of big stuff really fast, and I want to make sure to savour it... and not screw it up."

[Fox]

Mara blankly blinked for a moment, and then looked...fairly relieved, actually; close as they were Ellie would almost certainly feel her relax a little bit, muscles becoming just a little less tense as if she'd previously been waiting for a problem that hadn't come. "That's - no. No problems," she replied, shaking her head a little. "Want to, of course, but not sure how - mean, not sure when or what...mmmmh."

She scowled, took a moment to collect her thoughts, and tried again. "It...I like this," she said, wiggling up against her girlfriend a little. "It's...comfortable. Anything else...tempting but shouldn't be rushed? Instinct versus wisdom. Not worth screwing up, for any reason. Best to err toward comfort. Besides," she added with just a hint of teasing coloring her voice, using the arm around Ellie's waist to pull their snuggling a little closer, "still need to work on some verbs. Boire is irregular. Je bois, tu bois, elle boit, mais nous buvons, vous buvez, elles boivent."

[Gizmo]

Relaxing herself, Ellie shuffled accommodatingly closer of the couch, enjoying the moment without trying to plan several steps ahead for once. "J'aime ceci, aussi," she managed to respond a little haltingly as she fumbled over pronunciation, smiling regardless of the difficulty. Turning her attention back to the lesson, she skeptically repeated, "Nous buvons? Ce n'est pas 'nous boisons'?" Clearly it was going to take a little longer to get the hang of the language but, letting her hand rest loosely in Mara's, she didn't particularly mind.