How long it was later when Kes was finally able to form words in her head again, it was impossible for her to know. She’d been breathing hard, and she was only now regaining her breath. She had her head buried in the crook of Anara’s shoulder, the scent of her hair and her skin was strong and magnetic feeling, the memories of their lovemaking feeling like they were wrapping her up inside them… She’d never appreciated her eidetic memory nearly as much as she was appreciating it since the first time she and Anara had made love, and now she appreciated it all the more… Every touch, every exquisite sensation, it was all still hers, all but that one element that could never be captured by memory – that one, that best thing that she could only feel when she and her wife touched… She kissed that skin again and again and sighed and smiled and snuggled up closer. She still felt Anara, their minds were still bridged, and she could tell Anara was still lost in a haze of desire and… awe…

She gently brushed her thoughts over her wife’s mind and cooed to her, comforting her and soothing her. She could feel Anara blink her eyes and start to come back to herself. –Anara?– Kes asked softly.

–There are no words…– She heard Anara’s thoughts answer her, turning to her and capturing her lips in soft, unhurried kisses.

Kes felt warmth and belonging wash over both of them, and just kissed her back. Kes found herself on her back again, with Anara over her, and it felt so good… she wanted to keep going, make love again… never stop… but she could tell how tired Anara was, and she knew she was tired herself, and they both needed water and food and to check on Lanam and Tresit.

Anara sighed. –How is it possible you can be so perfect?–

Kes smiled, warmed and flattered beyond words. –Likewise…— She simply replied, gazing up into Anara’s all but sightless eyes with wonder.

She felt Anara’s skin heat at the praise and felt her amazement. –How can you say that and mean it so completely?– She asked, honestly not understanding.

”…Your eyes, you mean?” Kes asked aloud. She could sense that, despite that she would not say so aloud, some part of her wife had taken it to heart when her people had cast her out as ’defective’. Her husband, before he’d died, when her loss of sight was starting to really asset itself, when Lanam had been born… He hadn’t cast his daughter out to die as many Kazon males would, hadn’t divorced her as unfit, as would have been his right – as, again, many others would have in his place, but… his desire for her had waned, and, in the quality of his voice, she had been able to tell… he’d thought less of her. Been… at least partly, ashamed of his daughter. And that had hurt, but Anara had never let that hurt show, because he had done more than many others would have in his place. He had kept her, kept Lanam, though many around him had called him a fool to do so. How could she be ungrateful for that? So she’d buried her hurt, because she knew that it was useless to do otherwise. Anara… never would have dreamed before that she would find a lover who saw her as perfect. She hadn’t really let herself believe that even Kes could look at her like that, at least, not until they’d shared their thoughts and feelings this way, not until Anara had seen and felt what was in Kes’s heart and mind for herself…