Chapter Text
When Aubrey opens her eyes next, it’s dark. She sleepily deduces after a few moments that she’s in her bed, rolls over and goes back to sleep.
When she wakes up again, it’s to weak sunlight shining through the window and spilling onto the floor. She blinks, events of the previous night coming back to her, and grimaces a little as she realizes she’s still got her jacket on. Sitting up, she stretches her arms over her head, eyes landing first on Dr. Bonkers, asleep in his bed, then on a piece of paper on the bedside table. Reaching for it, she finds the first side empty and flips it over.
Her own eyes stare up at her, and Aubrey’s mouth falls open a little as she takes in the drawing. It’s pretty unmistakably her, from the shoulders up, complete with piercings, dyed hair, and a grin in charcoal, smudged in places but still striking. She’s half-sure her actual face doesn’t look this good. There’s no signature other than a little smiley face in the corner, and something that looks like it was scribbled out and then erased. She can guess, though, that it’s from Dani.
“Wow,” she whispers.
She carefully folds it and tucks it into the pocket of her jacket with Mama’s letter, then slides off the bed and casts Dr. Bonkers a last glance before heading out the door.
Moira is sitting the wrong way on the piano bench, glancing up from her bagel as Aubrey enters and raising her eyebrows. “I heard you had a bit of an unfortunate encounter last night. You don’t look particularly dead.”
“No, I promised I wouldn’t die. I don’t feel all that great, though.” The tips of Aubrey’s fingers have taken on a dull buzzing sensation, as well as her palms, and her entire body feels like when she was a kid staying up too far into the night. She tries to put it out of her mind and goes to find something to eat in the kitchen. As she opens a cupboard, she calls back, “Who told you I died?”
“Oh, no one. But some of them were certainly acting like you might. It was a whole lot of drama. I thought you looked quite peaceful sleeping.”
“Zero concern, huh?”
Moira laughs. “I am more or less physically unkillable. Sometimes I forget that others do not share such perks. And you’re fine now, aren’t you?”
“Well —”
She’s cut off by the door swinging open, and she glances to see Jake shaking snow out of his hair and stomping it off his boots. Aubrey sighs and starts looking for yogurt to go with the granola she found while Jake mumbles to himself and stomps his way inside.
“What happened to you?” Moira asks him. Jake snorts.
“I ask a simple question and get hit in the face with a snowball. Unfair, man.”
“Well, that depends on what the question was, I suppose.”
Jake goes back to mumbling to himself and disappears down the residentiary hallway. Moira shakes her head and returns to gnawing on her bagel.
Aubrey grabs some lettuce and rinses it off before going back to her room. She gives the lettuce to Dr. Bonkers and eats her own breakfast, squinting at her reflection in a mirror. The red dye in her hair has started to fade. She glances up as footsteps approach and Mama appears in the doorway.
“Hey,” Mama says, “You feelin’ okay?”
“More or less.”
Mama comes to sit on the bed next to her, reaching to give Dr. Bonkers an absentminded pat. “What’d’you figure happened?”
Aubrey shrugs. “I’m just tired.”
“So, huh. Probably just overexerted yourself. You sure you’re alright?”
“I will be,” Aubrey says. Mama nods and stands to leave.
“Oh, before I forget,” she says, just at the doorway, “I do want to talk to you about what went down and all that. I talked with Duck and Ned last night, but I just wanna be sure of everything.”
“Now?”
“Later,” Mama says firmly, “I’ll come find you. Don’t go off into the woods in the meantime, alright?”
“Gotcha.”
Mama leaves the door open behind her, and Aubrey scoops up Dr. Bonkers and walks back out to the lobby. Moira is idling at the piano, shuffling through some papers — where else would she be — and Dora and Devin are yelling at each other over a game of chess that they must have set up while Aubrey was in her room. As she walks by the kitchen, she sees Barclay out of the corner of her eye, and he waves with his free hand, the other filling a cup of coffee. She gives him a quick wave back and then pushes open the door, pleasantly surprised by a lack of snow immediately beyond the threshold.
Dr. Bonkers sniffs at the air and twitches his ears. Aubrey holds him a little closer to her chest. She’s pretty sure a rabbit is okay for most temperatures above zero, but being warmer can’t hurt him.
The sounds of a snow shovel reach her ears, and she turns in its direction. It sounds like it’s coming from the other side of the lodge, where the garden sits in warmer weather.
When she rounds the corner, Dani is there, clearing last night’s snow. She looks up as Aubrey approaches, eyes brightening as she smiles and straightens up, leaning on her shovel. “Hey, Aubrey. And Dr. Bonkers.”
“Hi.” She takes a look around the garden Dani’s cleared a good half of it already. “You’re good at this.”
“I do it a lot,” Dani tells her, still smiling. Her eyes soften and she adds, “You okay?”
“Yeah. People ask me that a lot.” She kicks a chunk of snow by her foot, and it crumbles as it flies some five feet.
“Well, yeah. You kind of passed out last night.”
Aubrey shrugs as best she can with a ten pound rabbit in her arms, not really sure how to respond. Truthfully, she's not all that used to concern aimed at her, or at least not this much. She doesn't need to tell Dani that, though.
Dani’s smile has faded somewhat, and Aubrey kind of wishes she didn't say anything in the first place, but then she shrugs in return and jerks her head towards a shed Aubrey never really noticed just beyond the lodge. “There’s shovels in there if you wanted to help. Though I guess you’ll have to put Dr. Bonkers somewhere first.”
“Oh, yeah, for sure. Be right back.” Dani looks surprised as she turns back towards the lodge, and Aubrey hears her say, “You don’t actually have to help!” as she turns the corner.
She negotiates with Dora and Devin to keep an eye on Dr. Bonkers while they play chess and heads back outside, breezing past a bewildered Dani on her way to the shed.
“I wanna help,” she insists after returning with shovel in hand, Dani just staring at her wordlessly. “I don't really have anything better to do.”
“You want to help me shovel — alright, I’m not stopping you. Go ahead, I guess.” She shakes her head, lips quirking back into a smile, tucking stray hair back behind her ear, and Aubrey fumbles on the handle of the shovel for a second.
They work in a kind of warm silence for a while, Aubrey occasionally swearing when snow gets into her combat boots and Dani laughing in return, until the garden is mostly cleared and Dani pauses to survey it. She smiles at nothing in particular and then at Aubrey, who grins back at her and stabs her shovel into the snow, mostly for dramatic effect.
“Hope it doesn't snow tonight,” she remarks, and Dani groans.
“Don't even say that. You'll jinx it or something.”
“Hey, you jinxed it a while ago. The trees are usually right. And then it snowed.”
Dani snorts but doesn't argue further, and Aubrey takes the opportunity to pull the paper out of her jacket. Aubrey looks up from unfolding it to see a weird expression on Dani’s face.
“Uh, this was from you, right?” she asks. Dani nods slowly.
“Sorry if it was weird,” she says after a second. “That I drew you. It's actually from, um, a while ago. Back when you first got here. Around then.” Her gaze drops to the ground.
“What? No, Dani, this is an awesome drawing. Like, it's really nice. You’re really nice.” Dani looks back up at her, lips parted slightly like she wants to say something, but all she says is, “Oh.”
She looks relieved, though, even if Aubrey isn't sure why she'd be nervous about the drawing.
“It’s really pretty,” Aubrey insists, and a small smile reappears on Dani’s face.
“Well, it is you,” she says, kind of quiet and hesitant, and Aubrey feels her face heat up. She sputters, never managing more than a few syllables for a moment, and Dani laughs, soft and sweet, eyes warm and smile just a little shy.
“You too,” Aubrey manages after a minute, and then adds, “I mean, you're really pretty too. I mean, shit —” she fumbles the shovel again and it falls into the snow. She continues swearing as she retrieves it, snow melting under her fingers, and when she looks back up, Dani looks like she’s holding in laughter, shoulders shaking a little bit and hand over her mouth.
“Oh my God,” Aubrey mutters.
“You’re pretty when you're embarrassed too,” Dani giggles.
“Okay, now you're making fun of me.” Despite herself, Aubrey is grinning again. If it was true that smiles were infectious, she never wanted to stop, if it meant Dani would too.
“I’m not!” Dani lets her shovel clatter to the ground as she nears, but she doesn't seem to know what to do once she's there. She just crosses her arms and looks down the half foot or so that separates them. Aubrey holds her gaze, waiting to see if she has anything else to say.
“I'm not,” she repeats slowly, “You’re cute. And funny, and brave, and cheerful.”
Aubrey stares at her, and after a few seconds Dani continues, voice quiet and a little shaky.
“Honestly, Aubrey?” She huffs out a laugh. “I kind of have a crush on you. You're… really great.”
Oh.
And then, out loud, Aubrey repeats, “Oh.”
Dani is staring at her, smile gone, and Aubrey doesn’t put a lot of thought into her next words.
“That's convenient,” she says.
“What?”
“Uh. I kind of. Also. Yes.” Aubrey shuts her mouth and tries again. “I’m gay.”
“Well —”
“That wasn't what I meant to say,” Aubrey squeaks. She presses a hand to her face and groans. “Okay. Jesus. I think I got it.”
Dani offers, “Are you trying to say that you also —”
“Yes, holy shit. Yeah. A lot. I like you a lot.” She takes her hand away from her face and catches Dani’s eyes, wide and bright.
“That is convenient,” she says.
There's maybe half a foot of space between them, and the way Dani is looking at her right now, with a soft, surprised smile, Aubrey wants so badly to close it and kiss her.
She inhales and takes a step forward, and Mama’s voice comes from the front end of the lodge.
“Aubrey, I dunno where you are, but we should have that talk now. Anytime.”
Aubrey sighs and starts to walk in the direction of the lodge. She stops at Dani’s hand on her arm, and freezes at the ghost of her lips on her cheek.
“Talk later?” Dani offers. Aubrey nods quickly and takes off, stopping just outside the door and patting her cheek a few times, sure she must be grinning like an idiot but not really caring.
—
All Mama seems to want is a summary of what Aubrey remembers from the night before, which is most of it. When she leaves the office, Mama is muttering about plants and rustling through some papers on her desk.
Aubrey stays in her room for a while, idly practicing with her magic tools, accidentally singing a few cards while she waits for something she's not sure of. Dr. Bonkers mostly sleeps, but he twitches his ears at the sound of footsteps coming down the hall. Aubrey looks up to see Dani in the doorway and sits up, clearing some of her stuff from the bed and patting the empty space. Dani sits down after a moment's hesitation, and says, “So.”
“Yeah,” Aubrey says.
There's a good thirty seconds of silence, until finally Aubrey asks, “So, do you want to like, hang out in town or something? Sometime?”
“...You mean a date?”
“Yes. That.”
“You can just say date, you know.” Dani’s eyes have a glint of amusement to them, but she continues, a little softer, “Yeah, I would like to.”
“Nice. Cool. Great.” Aubrey taps a nervous rhythm on the bed with her fingers. “Um, where?”
Dani hums thoughtfully. “Maybe we can figure it out as we go. It could be fun.”
“That's the intent of a date,” Aubrey agrees, “Is fun.”
“When should we go?”
“Anytime’s okay,” Aubrey says immediately. She honestly would go wander the town with Dani at ten minutes to midnight as long as they were calling it a date.
“Tomorrow?” Dani suggests.
Aubrey nods, and Dani smiles as she stands up. “It’s a date, then.”
Aubrey can’t help but grin herself at that, and she says, “I guess it is.”