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Like most really great bad ideas, it started with a text late at night. Her phone vibrated twice on the bedside desk, abrupt and sharp in the silent night. It was downright embarrassing how fast Trini moved to grab the phone. Only one person ever texted her at this time of night.
Still up? Short. Had she been having nightmares? It wouldn’t be the first time.
Yeah. You good? That was neutral enough, right? Concern for a friend...and nothing more. No matter how goddamned pretty Kim might be, how stupidly attractive she was physically and otherwise, she was a friend to Kim first, hopelessly romantic gay for her second.
Hah. Trini wished.
Can’t sleep. Too hot.
The night was fairly warm, the sky cloudless with no breeze to ruffle the leaves. In truth, the warmth of the night was uncomfortable; the kind of warmth which is perfect outdoors but makes bedsheets sticky and skin sweaty as the humidity just swirls and collects within the room.
I hear that. Good thing its Sunday tomorrow, or I wouldn’t be able to stay on my feet in school.
That was...achingly normal. When was the last time Trini had sent something like that? Something which wasn’t related to the Rangers or impeding doom or training or-
You get the point.
Resigned yourself to staying up too then?
Well, Trini had spent her nights in worse ways than musing on Kim.
Guess so.
Want to do something?
If Trini wasn’t sleeping before, she certainly wasn’t going to now. There were a billion reasons she should have said no, namely being that she was tired and probably had less control over herself than she should have if she didn’t want to do anything stupid as shit around Kim. She could blab, scare her off by saying something idiotic, worse, kiss-
Got anything in mind?
Trini held her hand up against the moonlight, scowling.
‘Traitors,’ she murmured to her fingers.
I just feel like walking. Enjoy the quiet, you know?
That doesn’t sound like you.
Yeah, well, piloting a massive fucking mech tends to take any attraction away from big city noise given all the madness that came with the noise.
Couldn’t blame her there. That had just made Trini appreciate the quiet moments all the more.
I’m sorry. That sounded bitchier than I meant it to
No worries. Meet you at the school yeah?
Yeah.
‘The fuck you getting yourself into now Trini?’ she murmured to herself as she threw the covers aside and began searching for her jeans.
Trini had the good foresight to scribble a note on her bed about going out early, in case her luck kept on going the way it had been and her parents spontaneously woke up early. Good job too, because frankly, the second she was out her window she knew she wasn’t coming back while the sky was dark and glittering with stars.
It didn’t take long to find Kim outside the school entry, leaning against a wall on the other side of the street, earphones on and head bowed. Looked to Trini like she was just locking and unlocking the screen, it’s light illuminating and darkening her pretty face in equal measure.
Shakespeare eat your heart out. Let it never be said Trini never paid attention in English. Most of the time.
As she got closer, Kim’s unfocused eyes flickered upwards. A small, subdued smile passed over her lips and she knocked one earphone out with a flick of her finger. Still, she seemed...tense, somehow. Shoulders a touch too hunched up, foot tapping nervously.
Goddamn, Sherlock eat your heart out as well.
‘Hey.’
‘Hey.’ Trini leaned against the wall next to Kim after a moments pause, shoulder brushing Kim’s bare shoulder. She tried not to shiver, really, she did. It wasn’t her fault tank tops where the only thing she had on hand (it was; she’d placed a perfectly fine yellow shirt in the wash by accident the day before) and all Kim seemed to wear was tank tops (she didn’t really care about that though. She dug those arms.)
There was silence for a time. Not the uncomfortable, on edge kind. The comfortable, slow paced kind which usually preceded those deep sort of conversations you have with your closest friends. The kind of silence where everything is quiet-the world, the mind. Trini found herself having to force herself to think, rather than be lulled in by the comforting atmosphere.
‘You sure your good?’
‘Yeah. At least, I should be after tonight anyway.’
Trini cocked an eyebrow at that but kept looking straight ahead. She was cool, damn it. Cool as ice. She hoped.
‘Very mysterious. You got plans for me princess? Gonna shove me down a cliff again?’
This earned Trini a huff of laughter, making her chest feel just that much warmer. A hand lightly tugged on her wrist as Kim set off at a slow walk (fuck, no, come back cool, I need you), and they set off, walking the silent streets side by side.
‘Seriously, if your gonna shove me off that cliff again, you can be the one to explain to mi madre why I walked in soaking wet.’
Kim held up her hands in an exaggerated surrendering gesture. ‘No cliff shoving plans. Promise.’
They go on in silence again. And again, Trini finds that she doesn’t feel any obligation to speak. Just by being there, Kim has helped her. She’d like to think that one goes both ways.
‘I used to be a half decent singer, you know.’ Kim tells her this as they go past the Krispy Kreme, just recently rebuilt. The pavement in front of it shows the story though, cracked, broken but still usable. Still fixable.
Of course she was, Trini thinks because this girl looks good, smells good, fights even better and is generally good at most things she does. Why not singing?
‘Used to be?’
‘Haven’t tried for a while now. I dunno, it just...lost it’s appeal outside of shower singing, you know?’ Trini nodded.
‘Well, I used to be like, the opposite of Elvis. Probably still am.’
That small smile appears on Kim’s lips again and Trini can’t help but wonder how many others see that smile. Part of her hopes that it’s just for her.
‘And why is that?’
‘I sang and girls ran, just like they did with Elvis. Problem was, they ran away not towards me.’
That got Kim off laughing and Trini couldn’t help but laugh herself as she felt just a little bit prouder. Little victories and all that.
‘Here,’ Kim says once their finished laughing and she’s switched to Trini’s right. ‘Put this in.’ An earphone is offered to her and suddenly, Trini’s self control is put to an unexpected test as she has to walk, shoulder to shoulder with Kim because of the wire length. What was that smell? Strawberries? No, wait, raspberri-
I’m only human, after all...
The music surprises Trini for a second. The acoustic guitar sounds...raw somehow and the man’s voice is deep and rich, booming when it counted. Not something she would usually listen to, but it was still good music. The part that surprises her the most though is the soft, pleasant voice that carries with the song. It’s far more quiet, far more...tentative compared to the singer’s confident baritone but it still sets goose bumps down Trini’s arms. It takes her a second or two to realise it’s Kim singing, not some back up artist on the track.
Damn, the girl was half-decent. Better than half-decent. If Trini wasn’t already head over heels for Kim, she might have swooned. As it was, she had a hard time walking without tripping herself up.
Don’t put the blame on me, I’m only human, I make mistakes...
Trini opted to walk in silence, enjoying the moment. Maybe she nudged the earphone out just a bit so she could hear Kim a little better, maybe not. The song ended, another came on and before she could help herself, her big mouth opened.
‘Arctic Monkeys? Kim, you’ve been holding out on me with your music!’
Kim smiled again, walked a little taller and kept on singing without stopping.
Stop and wait a sec...when you look at me like that my darling, what did you expect?
Kim stopped first, in between two streetlights on some nondescript street, grabbing Trini by the wrist again to make her stop. She didn’t let go this time. The wire length meant that Trini had to take a step forward to keep the earphone from falling out.
(That was what Trini told herself anyway. Definitely wasn’t the way Kim was biting her lip nervously and looking at her.)
‘Kim?’
‘Your turn.’ The nervous lip biting turned into a nervous smile.
Wait. What?
‘My...turn?’
‘Come on, I just started singing. I wouldn’t mind hearing you before I completely screw this all up.’
To say Trini was confused is an understatement. Hope filled her up, along with a very fucking noticeable current of fear. She’d be lying if she said her stomach didn’t tense up and her hands never started shaking slightly.
‘Did you, er...miss that part about me being awful at singing?’
‘I’m sure you’re fine. You’re great at most other things you do.’
Fuck, if that didn’t send her heart going a few beats faster then she didn’t know what would.
‘Start that song again then. Lucky it’s a song I know.’ Just as Kim pulls her phone out her pocket, Trini has the bright idea of grabbing the other earphone from her and jamming it in her ear. ‘Just so I don’t murder my own eardrums.’ She mutters at the look Kim gives her, shuffling her feet this way and that.
The earphone is plucked out again. Earphones. Kim dangles them in front of Trini before plucking the wire out the phone and turning the volume up.
‘Please?’
Trini huffed and started to pace up and down as the song began. It took a few lyrics for her to get the nerve to start and before she could lose it, words came tumbling out of her mouth.
I’d probably still adore you with your hands around my neck, or I did last time I checked.
Trini’s voice was rawer than Kim’s had been...throatier somehow, although not unpleasantly so. She sung quietly, ignored the high notes in favour of sticking to the low ones. Nerves had her all jittery, feet taking her to the wall, back to Kim, to the wall...
And the guitar was picking up, louder and faster as the song hit its peak. She kept up, voice unconsciously rising with the one on the track as Kim took one tentative step forward, then another, and another. Before she really knew what was happening, Trini was against the wall, one hand soft at her hip, another planted on the wall beside her head. Trini’s breath hitched and her singing trailed off as she processed what was going on.
This is you...and Kim...and she’s holding your hip...now she’s leaning in...don’t fuck this up Trini...
Trini registered Kim breath out slowly, throat bobbing a bit as she swallowed thickly.
‘Fuck it. Please don’t hate me, yeah?’
When Kim’s lips met her own, most other thoughts went out her head. It was one of those slow, sweet kisses, the kind that made time stretch and bend and melt, the kind that made it hard to breathe, harder to stand up straight. Lips moved slow and cautiously against her own for a second before Trini responded in kind, heart thudding like a jackhammer as she tried really hard not to melt at the knees.
They broke apart with a little gasp and almost immediately, Trini began to miss those lips, their softness and gentle warmth, began to miss the peacefully pleasant haze she had started to drift into as she had kissed back. There was a terrifying moment as they looked each other in the eye, unsure of what came next. For half a second, Trini had a daunting image of Kim apologising, saying it was a mistake, leaving and-
Stupid brain.
‘Well. That’s certainly the best fucking thing to happen to me all year.’ Trini tries to contain her rambling gayness, she really does. Given the situation, she thinks she’s handling it pretty well. She leans her head back against the wall, breathing out a little, ‘Holy shit,’ as she does so.
‘Are you gonna do that again? I really wouldn’t mind if you did that again.’ Kim’s face lights up as Trini says this, a big smile forming on her lips (shit, she was kissing those a moment ago) as Trini feels a lazy, content sort of smirk slip onto her face.
‘That good, huh?’ A bit of swagger and confidence peeked into Kim’s voice now the nerve wracking part was over. That just wouldn’t do.
‘Kiss me again and you might find out.’
Kim does just that.