Chapter Four

It had been a little over a month since Laurie had moved into her new home. Over a month since she'd met Kate. She had stayed with Kate another day before her fever broke and she had taken her home and every day since Kate had come to visit. 

At first, it had just been to talk and help Laurie unpack. But a few days in, she had taken to fixing things. And by things she meant damn near everything in her house. 

It started with small things like oiling a door hinge and helping assemble a shelf. Then two weeks ago Laurie had gotten back from the grocery store to find Kate on her roof, fixing a leak she had been complaining about for days and nearly giving her a heart attack. The irony wasn't lost on her. 

A few days after that, she had helped Laurie paint some of the rooms, and the day after, she helped Laurie fix the sink. Alright, Kate fixed the sink, she sat there and handed her whatever she asked for. At this point, Laurie wouldn't need to hire anybody to fix anything. Kate was single-handedly renovating her house.

Laurie had started to feel guilty after the roof and had offered to pay her only to be refused, again and again, being told her company was payment enough. She just about melted after that one. Laurie had since learned to pay Kate back through food.

Laurie had taken to cooking and baking and the brunette had been over almost every day for lunch. And dinner. And breakfast sometimes. 

Kate always seemed to be hungry and had taken a liking to everything Laurie made. Kate's apparent love for her cooking only enabled Laurie to spend more time in the kitchen than she ever had before. 

Laurie had always loved cooking, she found the process to be extremely relaxing, but her schedule had not afforded her the time. She lived for her job and sometimes she was in the hospital for days at a time. Her apartment in California was barely lived in. 

Now she had the time and the cooking gave her an excuse to keep inviting Kate over. If Laurie was being honest, she was getting used to having her around.

...

Laurie had woken up to the loud sound of something crashing. She bolts out of her bed, startled, not bothering to put on her robe before running down the stairs. She opens the door and is met with a smiling Kate wearing jeans and a loose flannel, holding a sledgehammer over her shoulder. Laurie would have melted over the sight had she not seen the large hole in the middle of her porch.

"Good morning!" Kate chirps. Way too happy for someone about to be murdered.

"What the hell! Kate, what did you do to my porch?" Laurie asks, stepping out of the door. 

"The steps were creaking," Kate says to her clearly baffled mate. 

"The steps were creaking." Laurie echos, unable to fully comprehend what was happening. She had just woken up and was still a little disoriented. 

"Yes." 

"So you put a hole through it?" 

Kate could sense Laurie's stressed-out tone and was quick to reassure her. "Don't worry. I'm building you a new one. The wood is old and I was worried it would break and you'd get hurt." That was a lie. The porch was fine, the wood was actually pretty strong for a house this old and there was only one creaky step that would've taken five minutes to fix. 

"Honestly, it only took one swing to do that." Kate gestures towards the sizable hole on top of the first stair on Laurie's porch. Granted, it was really a good solid swing from a werewolf, but technicalities. 

"You're build- I don't- what's happening." Laurie couldn't form words, alternating between looking at the damage and Kate who had put the hammer down.

Kate wasn't exactly proud of herself but she had been running out of reasons to see Laurie and admittedly, panicked a little. It had been over a month and she still hadn't told Laurie about herself. She didn't want to push too much too soon and end up scaring Laurie away so she had taken to spending as much time with her as the smaller woman would allow.

Kate could feel what the physical distance to Laurie was doing to her and her pack had started to notice it too. When she wasn't with Laurie or hadn't seen or heard from her for more than a few hours, she was aggressive, irritable, and short-tempered. She had snapped at poor Lucas the week before for some small reason she couldn't even remember and Isaac had been avoiding her after a particularly rough sparring session where he ended up flying through a tree. It wasn't a very big tree, but still.

On top of everything, she hadn't been getting much sleep. The tension was building inside her and she had been having a hard time getting herself under control. There had been a full moon a couple of days ago and Kate had chained herself in her basement and had given everyone strict instructions not to let her get anywhere near Laurie. She had broken free of the restraints and it had taken both Connor and Isaac to hold her down before Iris could knock her out.

Kate walks up the stairs and towards Laurie, reaching out to touch her arm. "Hey, it's okay. I'll make you a better one. It'll be done in a week. Two tops." She'd get Connor and Isaac to help her.

"Kate, you can't do that. It's too much. I can just hire someone to do it." Laurie says, leaning into Kate's touch. There has been a lot of that lately. Touching. Kate always seemed to be touching her. Whether it was a brush of her hand or the full-blown cuddle sessions that would happen whenever they had a movie night. It never went further than that but Laurie was starting to crave more. 

Laurie absolutely loved spending time with Kate and dreaded every time had to leave. It freaked her out at first, how fast she seemed to develop feelings for the brunette, but she had long since given up on trying to stop whatever was going on between them.

"No, don't get anyone. I like doing this kind of stuff, remember? I promise I'll make you a better one." Kate insists. She was already feeling guilty over the damage she caused, she wasn't about to let Laurie pay someone to fix it when she was fully capable of doing it herself. 

Plus, she didn't know how she would react to someone she didn't know spending time with Laurie; being close to her. It was best not to test it.

"Okay. Only if you're sure." Laurie says, giving up on arguing with the other woman. 

"I'm sure," Kate says, rubbing her thumb gently over Laurie's arm. 

Now that everything was sorted, Kate took the time to really look at Laurie, letting her eyes roam down her body and blushing as soon as she did. Laurie had noticed Kate's flushed face and looked down following the older woman's line of sight, blushing a bright red herself. 

In her haste to get down, she had forgotten exactly what it was she had fallen asleep in. She was wearing nothing but underwear and an oversized shirt. Her legs were on full display and she was made blatantly aware that she wasn't wearing a bra when she felt a cold breeze blow against her skin. 

Laurie was quick to wrap her arms around herself and Kate developed a sudden fascination for the door behind her. 

"I-Uh, muffins!" Was what came out of Laurie's mouth. She's pretty sure her face could not get any redder at this point. 

Kate looks at her, confused. 

"I was-muffins-baking last night. Breakfast." She wasn't making sense now. 

Laurie took a deep breath before letting herself speak again. "I made some muffins last night. Would you like some? For breakfast, I mean."

Kate nods, clearing her throat. "Yes, yeah. I'd love to eat you. With! With you!" Laurie's eyes widened, certain that her face was probably an alarming shade of red. Kate was willing the ground to swallow her up, not quite believing what just came out of her mouth.

They both looked at each other before coming to a silent agreement that neither would say anything and just move on.