Title: Illustrious Beginnings
Author: Janine
Fandom: Lost Girl
Pairing: Bo/Lauren
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own them.
Summary: When Bo invites Lauren over for dinner things take an unexpected, but pleasant turn. (Note: Written pre-episode 8)

Lauren rested the sweating beer in her hand on the counter and then placed her elbows on the smooth surface before putting her chin in her hands so that she could more comfortably watch Bo as she moved around the kitchen. There was music filtering into the kitchen from the living room, and as Lauren watched Bo flutter back over to the stove to begin stirring the contents of the pot on it, a gentle smile touched the doctor's lips.

With Kenzi away, Lauren was able to relax in a way that she was never quite able to with girl hopping around sitting on every surface present, touching everything in sight while grouchily asking questions and making rude observations. Lauren didn't have anything against Kenzi – though she wasn't certain that Kenzi would say the same about her – but the doctor was already feeling a certain amount of anxiousness about having dinner with Bo at the woman's house, so it was nice to not have to worry about surviving small-talk with Kenzi while also navigating the murky waters of her relationship with Bo.

"You look good in an apron," Lauren drawled slowly when Bo finally stopped fiddling and turned around to face her.

"Yeah?" Bo asked smiling before she glanced down at herself appraisingly.

"Yeah," Lauren breathed out, allowing her eyes to trace over Bo's sleek form. "You look like June Cleaver with a wild side," she explained, biting down on her bottom lip to stop herself from smiling.

Bo regarded her for a moment and then allowed a sly smile to touch her lips as she moved over to the other side of the counter and leaned on it, mirroring Lauren's position.

"Naughty," Bo replied, drawing the word out, her smile growing almost feral when a blush coloured Lauren's cheeks. "Good girls with bad streaks are really more my taste then my thing, though."

"Is that so?" Lauren asked drawing the beer bottle she had placed down earlier over to her so that she had something to occupy her hands. "I would have pegged you as more of a lover of brooding alpha-type personalities who are covered in tattoos and wear leather," she murmured as her thumb traced the damp neck of her beer bottle slowly while her eyes flickered up and meet Bo's.

"There is something to be said for that," Bo replied carefully, holding Lauren's gaze even though she felt a powerful urge to squirm like a three year old and look away. "But I have a diverse palate. I ... appreciate all types of people."

"I know," Lauren breathed out, her lips quirking up in a quick, tight smile before she let her eyes skim away from Bo's and brought her beer up to her lips to take a long pull from it.

Bo watched Lauren as the blonde avoided her eyes. She wasn't great with reading people's emotions. It wasn't a skill that she had ever had to develop in order to get what she wanted or – more often than not – what she needed from people. She could tell that Lauren was upset however, and she desperately wished that she knew what to say to put the blonde at ease like she had been earlier, but she was at a loss.

She knew what Lauren wanted from her. The doctor's romantic interest in her had been obvious from their first meeting together, and Lauren had not tried to hide or otherwise obscure how she felt about Bo in their subsequent meetings together. Sometimes Lauren's desire for her was so strong that Bo could taste it in the air between them.

It was a desire that Bo returned. She had wanted Lauren from the moment the blonde bent over her and whispered, "Please, come with me" that day months ago when Bo had first encountered the Fae.

It had been the succubus part of her that wanted Lauren then. Lauren was young and strong, she smelt fresh and healthy, and Bo had hungered for her. That initial desire was nothing compared to what she had come to feel for the doctor, however. As they spent more time around each other and she got to really know Lauren, Bo wanted her more and more. She wanted Lauren's smiles, and her pale green eyes watching her. She wanted Lauren's soft touches, and the occasional bold ones that the blonde didn't quite seem able to stop herself from sometimes giving. She wanted her lips mapping every exquisite curve of Lauren's body, and she wanted Lauren's strong fingers brushing dark strands of hair out of her face in the morning before Lauren leaned forward to wake her with a kiss.

Bo wanted Lauren so badly that it terrified her, because while she knew that it was possible for her to feed without killing the person she was feeding off of, she wasn't sure that she would always be able to control herself. So far she had only managed to feed and not kill once, and that had been off of a random stranger that she had no personal attachment to. Feeding off of the security guard a few weeks before had been clinical, impersonal. It had been a tactical move, not one borne of need, which made Bo worry that she would not be able to maintain control in a moment of passion. She was afraid that she wanted Lauren so badly that she wouldn't be able to stop once she got her hands and lips on her, so she kept her hands and lips to herself.

There was no point in saying all of that to Lauren however, because they'd already had that conversation. She'd expressed her concerns over her ability to control herself, and Lauren had expressed her belief in Bo. Lauren's voice was steady and her eyes were clear when she spoke with confidence about Bo's ability to rein herself in, but when Bo breathed in Lauren's arousal was always palpable and Bo was not convinced that Lauren's assessment of her abilities was based completely on professional judgement.

"Lauren," Bo began, voice suddenly heavy as she steeled herself to have another conversation she didn't want to have, but would endure because she cared about Lauren too much not to.

"Speaking of palate's," Lauren said placing her bottle back down on the counter as looked over at Bo again, ignoring the fact that the succubus had said her name, "what's on the menu tonight?"

She already knew what Bo was going to say and she really didn't feel like going over it again. Bo had been upfront with her about her concerns, and Lauren knew intellectually that they weren't frivolous concerns even though she didn't believe them to truly be a problem anymore. However, despite her belief in Bo's level of control, Lauren had made herself promise not to push Bo. After all, Lauren could not deny that if she was wrong about Bo, that it would be Bo and Bo alone who would have to deal with the consequences of her error in judgement because she herself would be dead.

Bo smiled, relieved to have gotten out of talking about her feelings, at least for the moment.

"I hope you like Italian," Bo began latching onto the new subject with verve.

"I've liked many Italians," Lauren drawled playfully, smirking over at the brunette.

Bo lifted an amused and intrigued eyebrow.

"I was sent to Europe for training once I became part of the Light Fae," Lauren explained as Bo gazed at her curiously. "I ended up living in Rome for a few months while I was over there."

"A pleasurable few months, I take it," Bo replied salaciously.

"An educative few months," Lauren said, rolling her eyes affectionately.

"That's a shame," Bo sighed knowing that she would have found more to do in Italy than homework.

"Is it?" Lauren asked, not trying to fight the grin turning up the corners of her lips. "Pleasure and education are not mutually exclusive you know," she continued running her thumb over the lip of her beer bottle. "I learned a lot about ... a lot while I was there," she went on holding Bo's eyes before she brought the beer bottle back up to her lips and drained it. "So what's in the pot?"

"The pot?" Bo repeated, her eyebrows scrunching together in confusion as she stared at Lauren and tried to imagine just what Lauren had learned, from whom, and how often she had lessons.

"You were telling me what's for dinner," Lauren reminded Bo.

"Oh, yeah," Bo murmured, blinking rapidly as she tried to focus her thoughts. "Spaghetti," she continued, still distracted as she stared at Lauren. "You didn't happen to meet any Satyrs when you were over there, did you?"

Lauren laughed at that and shook her head. "Satyrs are, excuse the pun, hard to come across these days," she continued, laughing softly when Bo wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "I did get to spend some time with some lovely nymphs, though."

Somewhere in Bo's mind she knew that it was unlikely that Lauren spent much time naked in a hot tub in the middle of the woods with the nymphs she'd met, but that's the image her mind conjured up which meant that it was a few seconds before she was able to formulate a response.

"That's sounds ... nice," Bo choked out, hoping that her pupils weren't obviously dilated since her in mind she was still seeing Lauren frolicking around in a hot tub full of olive-skinned supermodels feeding each other fruit.

"... too hot."

Bo blinked a few times as she tried to focus her thoughts. She knew that Lauren had just said something to her, but she'd been too busy imagining Monica Bellucci feeding Lauren grapes to hear the first part of her sentence.

"I'm sure it was," Bo murmured smirking.

"No," Lauren said, unable to stop herself from laughing softly as Bo continued to gaze at her hazily. "The stove is too hot. The sauce is beginning to bubble over," Lauren said pointing the direction of the pot.

"Stove," Bo repeated slowly as her mind unsuccessfully tried to add a stove into her hot tub fantasy. "Stove!" she repeated a second later, the nymphs and hot tub disappearing from her mind as she finally put together what Lauren was saying. "Dammit!" she exclaimed whirling around quickly, automatically reaching out for the pot to take it off of the burner, only to find herself swearing loudly a second later as she dumped the pot on an empty burner and drew her hands away from the heated metal.

Bo drew her injured hands into her body automatically and squeezed her eyes shut as she tried not to swear again as her hands began to pound. From somewhere in the back of her mind came the idea of turning on the tap and running her hands under cold water for several minutes, but the thought of using one of her hands to turn on the tap nearly made her whimper. Luckily she didn't have to worry about it because a moment later she felt Lauren's fingers, cool from holding her beer bottle, brushing her cheek and automatically Bo found herself opening her eyes to see Lauren's beautiful green eyes staring at her with concern.

"Let me see," Lauren breathed out, drawing her hands down to lightly hold Bo's wrists.

Bo nodded and unfurled her fingers with wince before she turned her hands palms up so that Lauren could see the damage.

"You got them good," Lauren sighed as she looked at Bo's reddened skin. "Luckily, the damage is confined to the epidermis."

"Which means?" Bo prompted a little peevishly since she didn't appreciate Lauren using the word 'luckily' when her hands felt like they'd been cut by a thousand pieces of paper and then dusted with Frank's Red Hot Sauce.

"Which means it could have been worse," Lauren said looking over to meet Bo's eyes as she cradled her hands carefully. "They're only first degree burns."

"This doesn't feel like 'only' anything," Bo complained, blinking to contain the tears of pain that were forming in her eyes. "'Only', as a general rule, should never be used when talking about any degree of burn."

"You have a point," Lauren murmured knowing that even though the injuries weren't serious that they were hurting Bo quite a bit.

"Can you fix it?" Bo asked watching as Lauren's eyes lost focus as the blonde stared down at her hands. She'd seen Lauren's gaze go distant that way before and she knew that the doctor's big brain was whirring away deep in thought.

"I can treat it," Lauren responded sounding apologetic. "We can run cold water over your hands for a few minutes and then coat the affected areas in aloe-vera. But after that there's not much more I can do then get you a couple of Tylenols. It'll probably be a few days before you're able to handle things without discomfort, and it'll probably be five days to a week before all of the irritation is completely gone."

"A week," Bo muttered darkly looking down at her hands. They were her hands. She needed her hands to do, well, pretty much everything. A week without hands seemed an extraordinarily long amount of time.

"Modern medicine has its limitations," Lauren sighed as she gently stroked the inside of Bo's wrist with her thumb. "You could call Dyson," she whispered a few seconds later.

Bo glanced up at that, but Lauren's expression was neutral. That in itself was an indication that the blonde wasn't thrilled with the idea, but she didn't seem upset about it either. More resigned really. Bo had not been blind to the antagonism between Dyson and Lauren, but she also knew that Lauren would not want her in pain, even if it meant calling on Dyson to help. The only problem was that Bo could no longer call on Dyson to help.

"I'll muddle through," Bo exhaled tightly, blinking again as a sudden throb of pain brought tears to her eyes once more. "I think there's some aloe in the first aid kit in the bathroom. I'd get it, but ..." Bo glanced down at her hands which wouldn't be good for picking anything up for another day or two.

"I know that Dyson and I don't exactly get along," Lauren began watching Bo closely, "but I don't want to see you in pain. You can call him," she said lowering her eyes, not wanting Bo to see how hard it was for her to say what she was saying in them. "Let him heal you," she went on, stroking Bo's wrist again. "There's enough spaghetti for three."

"Thank you," Bo said sincerely, knowing that it had to be difficult for Lauren to ask her to call Dyson to give her something Lauren herself would have been happy to give. "But ... Dyson's not really an option at the moment, so I'll take the best modern medicine has to offer."

"I'm not saying that you're a magnet for trouble, but a few days without the use of your hands could be an issue for you," Lauren said slowly, relieved to see Bo smile at her since she was effectively saying that Bo was a magnet for trouble. "I could talk to Dyson for you if the two of you are fighting. He's not exactly the President of my fan-club so it might not make a difference but ..."

"There's no point," Bo said shaking her head. "He ... well, he cut me off. No more healing," she went on shrugging.

Lauren's eyebrows drew together in surprise at that. She was mostly apathetic towards Dyson these days, but she couldn't deny the fact that he seemed to care about Bo deeply, to the point of irrationality really, and she couldn't understand why he would suddenly leave Bo vulnerable.

"What happened?" Lauren asked even though she was a little afraid of what the answer might be. She understood that Bo and Dyson had been intimate, a lot, but she wasn't sure she wanted to hear the details of what was happening or had happened between them.

Bo shrugged and then sighed. What had happened was that Bo had refused to be suspicious of Lauren because Dyson didn't like her, and Dyson had responded by telling her to find someone else to heal her the next time she was injured. Bo was fairly certain that if she showed up on his doorstep dying that he would acquiesce and help her, but cooking injuries were likely to get her turned away and honestly, she didn't feel much like begging him for help after their last meeting anyway.

"We just won't take any cases until my hands are better," Bo said finally, ignoring Lauren's question.

"Sometimes it doesn't matter whether you're on a case or not," Lauren replied gently.

"I know you said you weren't, but I think that you are calling me a magnet for trouble," Bo responded smiling at Lauren who blushed but didn't contradict her. "I'll just have to try extra hard to behave myself and stay under people's radar," Bo continued a moment later. "There's really nothing else I can do."

"There is another option," Lauren said softly, staring down at Bo's hands which were still cradled in her own.

"How come you never mentioned plan C before?" Bo asked frowning a little.

"Because I know you won't like it."

"Anything that stops my hands from feeling like Wyle E. Coyote took a mallet to them is a plan I'll like. What is it?" Bo asked.

"Me," Lauren said simply, staring at Bo until the succubus' eyes widened with understanding.

"No," Bo said shaking her head tugging her hands back. "Lauren," she said shaking her head again. "No. It's too dangerous."

Lauren sighed and released Bo's hands, partly because she didn't want Bo to hurt herself, and partly because she irritated with the brunette.

"If it's too dangerous then what am I doing here?" Lauren asked wearily, taking a step back from Bo so that she could lean against the island counter. "Drinks, dinner, movies, more drinks. It's not platonic, Bo. Maybe we haven't said it out loud yet, but we both know it's not platonic. I can wait ... I've waited, but if you're always going to think that 'it's too dangerous', or you just don't want to shit where you work again, then ... then just tell me. Because this is hard work Bo and I can't do it anymore without knowing what I'm working toward."

"Does the fact that you could die really not mean anything to you?" Bo asked, some of the exasperation she was feeling with being given another ultimatum showing through in her voice.

"I don't want to die Bo," Lauren said. "And if I honestly thought that my life was in danger, I wouldn't have offered or have kept offering to let you feed off of me," she continued steadily, holding Bo's eyes as she spoke. "Is there an element of risk? Yes. And I know that. But I think the risk is worth it for a chance at a relationship with you. And even if that's not what you want from me ..."

"It is," Bo interjected softly before Lauren could continue. "I care about you a lot. I want you," she whispered, voice rough with passion, "constantly. The wanting I'm used to, the caring is new. If you were anyone else I would have tried long ago, but you're not, you're you ... and I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't," Lauren whispered moving towards Bo until she was so close she could feel the heat from the succubus' body.

"I could," Bo hedged even though all she wanted to do was sway into Lauren's body and capture the doctor's lips with her own.

"A lot of things could happen, Bo," Lauren breathed out. "I could get hit by a bus tomorrow. I could choke on a peanut and end up in a coma for thirty years. We can't live our lives being afraid of 'coulds'. We also can't keep going on like this. I've already decided you're worth the risk," Lauren went on sighing deeply. "Now you need to decide if I am."

Bo closed her eyes and angled her head away from Lauren. She had known the moment would come when she would have to make a decision, but that didn't make it any easier to do so. Lauren was right, they couldn't continue dating like chaste teenagers forever, and even though Bo had avoided using the word she knew that they had been dating. She was a succubus, sex was her life and she wouldn't be able to control herself around Lauren forever. Not to mention the fact that Lauren was a grown woman with her own needs, needs she wanted Bo to take care of. Sooner or later she was going to have risk her heart and kiss Lauren, or she was going to have to let the blonde go. She couldn't fathom letting Lauren go, which meant that sooner had arrived and she was going to have to act.

"You are," Bo said opening her eyes as she turned back to face Lauren.

Lauren's eyes fluttered closed for a moment and she released a deep breath before allowing her hand to lift to Bo's face, which she gently cradled.

"I'm going to kiss you," Lauren whispered, holding Bo's eyes with her own desire darkened orbs.

"I want you to kiss me," Bo rasped back, her as her dark eyes beginning to shine with supernatural energy as she gazed back at Lauren. "I've wanted to taste you since the moment we met."

Lauren's lips parted, but she had no words to speak. Words had left her, leaving only desire. So with no words left to obscure or thwart her passion, Lauren simply leaned forward and brought her lips to Bo's, her other hand lifting to hold Bo's face steady as Lauren unleashed months of repressed desire upon her.

Bo moaned into the kiss, Lauren's desire washing over her like a wave as the blonde's tongue caressed her own and Lauren's thumb stroked her cheeks.

At first there was only the sensation of Lauren's lips and tongue, but as her passion mounted she began to feel Lauren's life energy flowing into her as well, Bo pushed herself more forcefully against Lauren and began to attack her mouth, seeking to take control of the kiss. They battled for a moment, but then Lauren sighed and sagged against Bo, giving herself over to the succubus.

Bo's hands began roam as she possessed Lauren's mouth. Her hands settled on Lauren's hips, but as the kiss went on and Lauren continued to emit tiny sounds of pleasure, Bo's hands trailed behind her. She cupped and kneaded Lauren's ass, drawing a deep moan from the blonde and then her fingers moved to trail up Lauren's back, teasing along her spine before Bo finally drew her hands back to the front and took Lauren breasts in her hands through the doctor's shirt.

The feel of the warm, sound mounds in her hands helped focus Bo, and as she ran her thumb over nipple she realized that she was touching Lauren without any discomfort.

Bo dropped her healed hands back to Lauren's hips and planted one last kiss on Lauren's lips before she forced herself to pull away from the blonde's mouth. Her body pulsed with desire, but through force of will she did not return her lips to Lauren's. Closing her eyes, Bo simply dropped her head to Lauren's shoulder and burrowed into the warm nook where Lauren's neck met her shoulders.

"Are you okay?" Lauren asked softly, using her fingers to gently comb through Bo's hair as the succubus' breath teased and warmed her throat.

"Mm," Bo hummed into Lauren's warm, sweet-smelling flesh. "I just need a moment to gather myself, or I'll start feeding off of you again," she murmured knowing that it was dangerous to have her lips anywhere near Lauren's at that moment.

Lauren made a soft sound of understanding in her throat and then simply continued to hold Bo and gently pet her head until Bo finally shifted against her and pulled back enough that they could see each other properly.

"Still alive," Bo murmured lifting her hand up to stroke Lauren's face looking awed even as her lips spread into a huge smile.

"Still alive," Lauren agreed matching Bo's smile. "What about you?" she continued a moment later grasping Bo's hand with own. "All better?" she asked as she took at look at Bo's skin, pleased to find the colouring back to normal.

"Better than better," Bo murmured dopily, grinning at Lauren for a second before she leaned in and kissed her, though she was careful to keep the contact light. She had managed to feed off of Lauren without killing her, but she didn't want to push her luck. It had taken her a lot of time and practice to get to the point where she could feed without killing, and she knew that it was going to take time before she and Lauren could do more than kiss safely as well.

"Are you sure?" Lauren asked when Bo's lips left hers again. "We could do another round of treatment just to make sure we got it all."

"So thorough," Bo murmured leaning forward again to meet Lauren for a series of small kisses. "Let's get some food into you first, though," she continued taking a step back from Lauren to control the urge to keep kissing her. Desire was clouding Lauren's brain at the moment, Bo could taste it and smell it in the air, but she had taken energy from her and Lauren needed to fuel up.

Lauren licked her lips and then nodded before drawing in a deep breath. Bo was right, she needed to eat. She was feeling a little light-headed and while she would have liked to blame that entirely on the fact that she had just kissed Bo, she knew that most of it was due to the fact that Bo had fed from her and her body was demanding that the energy be replenished.

"Right," Lauren said, breathing in deeply to center herself as she looked over at Bo, her skin still flushed though her breathing had returned almost too normal. "I'll set the table."

Bo grinned at her, feeling positively giddy.

"How civilized," Bo drawled watching as Lauren crossed over to where she had set aside some plates and cutlery. "You're going to spoil me. Kenzi usual just eats over the sink."

Lauren laughed and Bo grinned again as she reached over to turn off the burner the sauce had been heating on. She'd managed to dump the pot off to the side after it had burned her, but pain and then Lauren had distracted her from turning off the burner.

"You like red, right?" Bo called out a moment later as Lauren headed over to the kitchen table with the plates in her hands.

"Good memory," Lauren called back smiling, sounding as pleased as she felt. When they'd gone out drinking in the past they'd mostly stuck to hard liquor and beer. Lauren could only remember drinking wine once around Bo, and it was flattering to know that Bo had been paying enough attention to remember.

Bo chuckled as she began to put the pasta and sauce into servicing bowls.

"Maybe I was planning on taking advantage of you," she called out as the clink of silverware told her Lauren was laying out the cutlery.

"You don't need to get me drunk to do that," Lauren replied, pausing to glance over at Bo.

Bo picked up the bottle of merlot to her left and hoisted it in the air, tilting it in Lauren's direction in a joking toast. Lauren smirked at that, and Bo smiled back at her winsomely before they both returned to their tasks, working as efficiently as possible so that they could sit down together.

Once everything was on the table, Bo quickly moved over to where Lauren was standing and managed to pull out the blonde's chair just before Lauren moved to do it herself.

"What?" Bo said smiling when Lauren looked over at her questioningly. "I may be a succubus, but I can be genteel."

"I never thought otherwise," Lauren responded, taking a seat and then smiling up at Bo as the succubus pushed her chair in. "It's just that pulling out a chair is usually reserved for dates. It's what's known as courting behaviour," she continued watching as Bo moved over to the other chair and sat down.

"Good," Bo murmured reaching for the serving fork, "then I'm doing it right," she continued holding Lauren's eyes for a moment before she began to serve her.

"Oh," Lauren breathed out, unable to help the pleased smile that touched her lips as Bo dished out the food.

"To ... illustrious beginnings," Bo began a few seconds later once they both had full glasses of wine resting in front of them.

"Here, here," Lauren replied smiling as they clinked their glasses together.

The End