A Fair Trade

They've been travelling together for years.

Wren is beginning to realize that Mina will never do anything about the way Wren looks at her sometimes. And it's not like she don't realize it, Mina's damn smart and Wren is not trying to be subtle. She contemplates her options as they make camp for the night.

What she's got is herself, a whip-smart twenty something (Wren has never been sure exactly how old she is, but she stopped getting taller and got wide in the hips and chest a while back now, so she figures about twenty sounds right). She thinks she's pretty. She's not certain if Mina cares. Mina never seems to look at Wren, no matter how many times the younger woman prances around in her shortest shorts and chest binding while they get ready in the mornings.

What's working against her is Mina's aforementioned lack of looking and Skels' determination to never leave either of them alone.

Wren has a plan to help with both of these.

They get their camp set up real quick, the two humans and one dinosaur working in a rhythm developed over the years they've spent together. Wren enacts her plan as they get started on dinner.

Operation: Sleep with Mina.

The name is a work in progress.

Step one. Remove Skels from the equation. Wren waits until Mina walks off for some privacy for her business, and clicks to Skels to lead him off to the side of their campsite. He starts nosing at her pockets almost immediately, and she pulls out the strips of meat wrapped securely enough to avoid getting blood on Wren's clothes but not securely enough to hide them from a raptor's nose. "I need you to be quiet tonight, Skels," she orders, and holds a finger to her lips. "Hush, okay?"

The raptor churrs at her, the sound soft but positive. Wren trusted his intelligence enough to know that he'd gotten the message, and she unwrapped and set down the proffered treats.

Now for the Mina half of the equation.

The two of them weren't normally feelings-talkers, if that made sense. It did to them, at least, and that was all they really needed. But when talking did happen, Wren was the instigator.

This was something she'd never talked about before.

Well, she'd mentioned looking at people in general and occasionally specifically to Mina before, but she'd never talked to Mina about noticing Mina.

But damn, Wren had definitely noticed Mina. The older woman had no qualms about modesty, and look, if she didn't care if she was shirtless then she wouldn't care if Wren saw her while she was shirtless, right? That was how Wren justified herself, at least. It wasn't her fault that Mina liked to shuck her top layers while they travelled after the first sun had gone down.

It was still hot enough then to justify losing clothing, and lacked the risk of burning that there was when both suns were out.

And Mina was damn gorgeous.

Roman nose curved like a hawk and those fierce dark eyes, the way they crinkled at the edges when Wren made her laugh. That was just the beginning of how good Mina looked. The swell of her breasts, just a few shades lighter than the rest of her skin. The definition along her hips and stomach - Wren was a hell of a lot jealous of those abs.

She kinda wanted to get her tongue on them, if she was honest.

Look, Wren was an adult in the prime of her life, she was allowed to have horny thoughts sometimes, okay?

And it wasn't just that Wren thought Mina was one of the hottest things she'd ever seen. The woman was her best friend, her mentor, literally having saved her life on many occasions. But Wren had done her fair share of saving, especially as she grew smarter and stronger over the years they spent together.

She was a far cry from the brittle-boned stick-thin mess of bruises and bloodied lips that she'd been when Mina had first rescued her from those slavers. Mina didn't seem to get that, though, and Wren wasn't sure how to tell her that she wasn't that fuckin' fragile anymore.

Tonight she was gonna do her best to figure it out.

Wren couldn't lie (actually, she was pretty great at lying. Always had been). Wren didn't want to lie - she'd considered just getting her and Mina drunk and seeing what happened then, but she did not want a repeat of what happened in Thrak. Mina had at the very least a good forty or fifty pounds on Wren, and a lot more experience in holding her alcohol. Wren was not going to let this night end in her puking and Mina helping her to bed like Wren was a kid.

So she sat on the ground by their campfire, in one of Mina's big shirts that went down to her mid thigh or so, and shorts short enough that you couldn't tell she was wearing them unless she pulled up the hem of the shirt.

Mina emerged from the treeline near silently, and Wren knew her well enough to know that the 'near' silently part of that was only for her benefit.

"So, Mina," Wren began. "I wanted to ask you something."

Look, Wren had never promised she was good at this planning thing. She said what she meant and she meant what she said. Flowery words were for fancier folk than her.

Mina looked at her and cocked her head, a silent confirmation that she heard Wren's words.

Now or never.

"D'you wanna have sex with me?"

Mina sat down hard on the ground, face almost utterly blank.

Wren leaned in a little, unsure how much was okay after the question she had just asked. "You okay, Meen-bean?"

"You know I hate that nickname," Mina murmured, but she was smiling a little and Mina never smiled enough for Wren's taste, and the sight of her smile made Wren smile too.

Wren was opening her mouth to make a retort that would have been witty and amazing and perfect, and then Mina's big hand was on her cheek all rough with calluses and careful with restrained strength, and it was pulling her forward until Mina's lips were almost touching her.

"May I kiss you?" Mina asked, barely audible. Wren could feel her breath hot against her face. Mina's eyelashes were so long, they framed her eyes in a way that the rich ladies out in big cities put on expensive pastes to try and do.

Wren was enraptured, so much so that she forgot to say anything for a second.

"If you would like to have sex without kissing, we can do that," Mina was saying, but Wren had snapped back to the present by that point and threw herself forward into Mina's arms and crushing their lips together. Mina was solid under Wren's thighs, all muscle and sinew and hard work.

Her lips, though. Chapped and catching against Wren's though they were, they were softer than Wren had ever imagined. She bit down hard on Mina's lower lip on impulse, and the little gasping sound Mina made was probably the best thing Wren had ever heard.

Wren hadn't had a lot of experience kissing folks, but Mina didn't seem to mind. She seemed to even less than mind, honestly, panting and sighing into Wren's sloppy kisses, letting Wren have her way almost completely.

"We coulda," Wren panted. "We coulda been doing this all along and you never said a fucking word?"

"Such language, Wren," Mina teased, and Wren was thoroughly enjoying the way Mina was looking up at her from under lashes right now. She was enjoying it so much, in fact, that she tipped her head down to bite under Mina's ear, a little harsher than maybe wise but Mina fucking moaned and Wren had never heard her make a sound like that and she wanted to hear her make that sound for the rest of her fucking life. "Shit, shit, Wren," Mina gasped.

"How's that for language," Wren said, lips still pressed against Mina's neck. She was laughing, she couldn't help it, and the two of them were so close that she knew Mina would feel the way her body trembled as she giggled.

"I'll show you language," Mina murmured darkly, and then one hand was in Wren's hair and the other was under Wren's shirt, hot and heavy against her ribs. She pulled Wren's head back gently but firmly, and when Mina set her teeth against Wren's neck Wren felt like she was about to explode with the feeling. "May I touch-"

"Do whatever you fucking want, Mina, Mina, please, just don't stop," Wren begged, and she'd never been able to stop talking before so why would she be able to now? She babbled strings of endearments and curse words and Mina's name like a prayer, like a miracle, like a fire, like anything Wren had never believed in until this moment. Wren had shifted and she was straddling one of Mina's thighs and Mina's hand under her shirt had slipped up to untie Wren's breast bindings and this was the best possible way this night could have gone.

Wren ground down on Mina's thigh, wet through the thin material of her shorts, knowing Mina could feel it and not giving a damn.

Mina was barely in better shape herself, little sounds and gasps bursting from her whenever Wren touched her and a fire in those dark eyes that far passed any spark that had ever been there before.

And, and, it wasn't like Wren hadn't had experiences with people before, but this. This was different. This was Mina, who wouldn't be gone in the morning and who wouldn't be rough unless Wren asked her for it but would always be rough when Wren begged for it. Wren was sure of it, as much as she was sure of the suns in the sky.

Mina's hands tweaked her nipple and she bit hard on Wren's collarbone, probably bruising, and Wren almost bent in half with the rush of pleasure that rolled over her. She rocked herself through it on Mina's thigh, grinding and moving and unable to stop fucking talking all through it.

Mina was talking too, sounding nothing like Wren had ever heard her sound. Raw, desperate, something almost like fragility in her voice and Wren realized Mina must be as close as Wren had been a few moments earlier. She let go of where she'd been clutching the lapels of Mina's jacket and let her hands fall to begin undoing the tie on Mina's pants.

"Oh, Wren," Mina got out. "You don't have to if you don't want-"

"Mina," Wren said, and she tipped her head forward so their foreheads met. "I want. I really fucking want."

"That's, that's good," Mina breathed, and then Mina stopped talking when Wren got her hands into Mina's pants.

Mina was gasping, making tiny, delicate sounds as Wren rubbed that spot between her legs that she'd figured out on herself and a couple other gals felt damn good. Her hips rolled upwards into Wren's hands, almost on their own volition, and it was barely more than a few moments before she was whining, keening, and collapsing forward against Wren's shoulders.

"You have ruined me," she whispered.

Wren didn't say anything, just withdrew her hands from Mina's pants - subtly wiping them off along the way - and reached up to gently pet Mina's hair. "I been ruined for a long time, Mina," she murmured. "S'a fair trade."

Later, they'd get cleaned up and fall asleep wrapped around each other. Even later than that, Wren would flirt and Mina would smile quietly and they'd spend another day in this desert with no company but each other and Skels until they reached the next town.

It was the perfect life, and Wren couldn't wait to keep living it.

For now, though, that life would wait, and Mina and Wren would sit with each other and breathe and slowly calm down. Together. Like they would always be.