Chapter Text
Piggy sat across from her teammate. The unfortunate side to this program was that she had to take the classes about behind the scenes work, something she never intended to do. Their first project was to design a costume for a well-known theater character that captured their essence while also being something new and original. Piggy liked fashion, in the sense of wearing clothes. Making them? Not so much. She looked over the unfortunate soul that was forced to work with her. An incredibly well-dressed dragon, who, if she remembered correctly from the class list, was named Deadly. He had already launched headfirst into the project, trying to get her to participate in his brainstorming.
“I think we should avoid Shakespearean characters, that’s what everyone is going to be doing. We have to think of something nobody else would want to do. For example, The Crucible, perhaps.”
Piggy scoffed. “I’m not doing that. I hated The Crucible. Everyone is so annoying. And, like, even if those girls were witches? Who cares? Not everyone has to be this, like, weird puritan perfect religious person y’know? And don’t get me started on how none of the men except for that loser who cheated on his wife with a teenager ever got accused of witchcraft. Talk about sexism, right?”
Deadly blinked at her a few times before he broke the awkward silence.
“Well. You’re not wrong, I suppose. I didn’t expect you to be much of a feminist.”
Piggy’s eyes widened.
“Feminist? I’m not- I mean I don’t even. I never even think about other women. So I couldn’t be a… I couldn’t even name three women, including myself! I-”
Deadly squinted at her.
“I think you’re mixing up feminist and lesbian.”
Piggy relaxed.
“You mean… they’re not the same thing?”
Deadly grinned, his beady green eyes fixated on the girl in front of him.
“No they’re not. But now I’m starting to suspect that you’re both.”
Piggy looked around quickly to make sure no one heard. She lowered her voice to a harsh whisper.
“Will you keep it down? You can’t just go around accusing people of being… that!”
Deadly shook his head as he continued to write down some ideas.
“It’s not accusing if it’s true. And trust me, darling, it takes one to know one.”
He glanced up briefly, hoping his partner would catch on.
“You’re… a lesbian?” She asked quietly. Maybe he was like Kermit’s type of lesbian. She had spent virtually every single day in the last four weeks with Kermit, mostly at her apartment, since she didn’t have roommates. Within that timeframe he had lent her a lot of books that she had to force herself to try and read. She learned that Kermit was called a butch, and that she was a femme. Piggy had always assumed that all lesbians were somewhere in between the two of them, but apparently there was a huge spectrum of identity, and that was before gender and presentation were brought into the mix. Kermit was kind of a next level butch, to the point where he was able to pass as a man in most circumstances, which made going out in public together a bit easier, though he was still wary about holding hands while they walked down the street. She realized she had gotten so distracted thinking about her frog that she had not heard Deadly’s answer through the haze.
“I’m so sorry I was not listening at all.” She said earnestly. The dragon laughed.
“I’m not a lesbian, I’m gay.”
“Oh! Well that makes more sense then.” She said with a smile.
Deadly began sketching something.
“So. I’m going to be straightforward with you, I feel like you appreciate honesty.” He cleared his throat. “You are going to be famous, I can tell. And I’ll tell you what, I’ll do all our projects for the both of us this year, if you take me with you, wherever you may go. I could be your personal designer, your butler, I don’t care. I do not have the ‘it factor’ that you do, I know I’m not fit for the silver screen, so take me with you. Give me a chance.”
Piggy crossed her legs and leaned back in her chair.
“Deal. With one exception…” It felt pathetic, and she knew it would never be genuine, but she was desperate. “You also have to be my friend. I don’t only want you around me as an employee. And I’ll know despite anything that I’ll have someone in my corner.”
Deadly smiled softly.
“Deal.”
The two shook on it and the designer returned to his task as Piggy looked on, content.
Deadly had already begun to keep up his end of the bargain. Piggy had begun inviting him over to hang out mostly, but every now and then he’d ask for her genuine input on whatever it was he was working on. They sipped white wine out of glasses that looked fancier than they were. Piggy’s legs were propped up on Deadly’s lap, his own legs extended onto the coffee table. His white socks poked out from his brown slacks, he was dressed warm for the California fall, his two-tone blue knit sweater with the sleeves pushed up scratched against Piggy’s calves. She was dressed more fittingly, in pale orange athletic shorts and a large navy blue pullover sweater, her sports socks bunching around her ankles. Her headband was keeping her unstraightened and unruly hair out of her eyes, the colour of it matching her sweater almost exactly.
“I just don’t get why you’re so attached to that hat, D, it’s an eyesore. Everything else is awesome, but that hat, I just, I really don’t think it modernizes Gwendolen Fairfax at all, it just looks like it comes straight from the 1800s anyways.”
“I was going for a sort of royal family inspiration.” He sighed as he erased it frantically.
“I know, but you know, besides that new princess or whatever, they all still dress like they haven’t opened a fashion magazine in at least a century. If they want us to modernize I don’t think that’s the route we should go. I’m sorry, I know you're the brains of this operation, but I can’t let you make a fashion disaster.”
Deadly laughed lightly as he tried to design a whole new concept from scratch, sketching on his pad that was placed precariously on the legs of his peer.
“No you’re right, much to my dismay you know a lot more about fashion than you initially led on.”
Piggy smiled as she sipped her wine. This was their second time meeting up for the project and she already felt more comfortable with him than she ever had with any potential friendships prior. She wondered what the secret ingredient was, she had tried endlessly to form a bond like this her whole life and all it took was a couple of conversations and now she’d entrust this dragon with her whole life.
“Hey Deadly.”
“Yes, dear?” he practically hummed the words as he sketched. Piggy’s heart melted at the term of endearment. As middle school as it sounded, she wanted to be friends with him forever.
“I think you’re like, my best friend. I know it was part of our deal, but. Do you really consider me a friend?” she picked at a loose stitch on the back cushion of the couch. “Like, you like spending time with me? For real?”
Deadly paused his sketching and smiled at Piggy.
“You’re wine drunk. You aren’t going to remember this tomorrow.”
And it was a little true, the pig was probably a smidge tipsy. The wine bottle stared at her from the coffee table, barely enough left for two glasses sloshing around the base of the bottle whenever a large car or a truck rattled by outside. She knew what she was feeling wasn’t the wine though. She wished he could understand that. She laughed lightly, maybe he didn’t feel that way about her.
“You got another best friend you can’t cheat on?” she said, teasingly. Deadly had already returned to sketching, one of his sleeves slipping back down his arm as his hand moved across the page.
“Don’t have friends. Only connections.”
Piggy frowned.
“Well. You have me.”
“You don’t mean that.” He smiled, though the sadness in his beady green eyes cut through any attempts to appear at ease. Piggy took another sip of wine. “You think that. Because I agreed to do things for you. And even if I spent my whole life thinking we were best friends, you don’t need me as much as I need you, Piggy, there’s always going to be a power imbalance.”
Piggy rolled her eyes. She was a queen at self-deprecating thoughts, but she often kept them as thoughts, because on some level she knew that, chances were, things weren’t as bad as she thought they were. She readjusted herself, quickly pulling her legs out from under the sketchbook, toppling it over. She set her glass down so she could lift herself up a bit, tucking her legs under her bum. She leaned forward and grabbed Deadly’s face before he could bend down to bury his nose back in the sketch.
“See this is your problem, D, you're imagining this scenario. 10, maybe 20 years down the line, where I’m this rich famous multi-talented actress, model, singer, dancer. And while I love that that’s how you see my career progressing, none of that is actually set in stone, and the worst part of it all is that you can’t even fathom success for yourself in this totally fictional scenario. You imagine yourself as my servant or a lap dog. So here’s what I’m going to say. When I imagine us in the future. We’re both famous. You have your own clothing line, and you’re my plus one to just about every function-”
“What about Kermit?” The dragon cuts in. Piggy rolls her eyes once more.
“Kermit’s a famous actor, he gets a regular invite, he doesn’t need to be my plus one. And frankly, you might not have to either. But if you do then it’s you. Always you, and again. This is all one big what-if. As much as I like to pretend it’s a given. Right now we’re here. At the same school. Taking the same classes. I’m not even remotely close to being better than you in any way. You’re the one with the big ideas. Your creativity is unmatched. I am not just calling you my best friend because I’m wine drunk. Or because I pity you. I’d never do that. I’m saying it because I mean it, because I really think this can last forever, that we can build careers together, no matter anything else. I’m serious.”
Deadly’s face contorted. It began as confusion, and slowly Piggy could see tears forming, falling. The girl pressed her snout against her friends and let out a couple of sobs herself.
“Don’t cry, you’re gonna make me cry.” She said, letting out a wet laugh. Deadly reciprocated and pulled her into a hug so tight she thought she might suffocate.
“Thank you, Piggy. Really.”
The blonde buried her head deep into his shoulder.
“Anytime.”
Deadly stayed the night, and a subsequent six nights, and after some time, without even realizing it, Piggy had gotten herself a roommate.