Work Text:
“Fucking hell, you're beautiful,” William Magnusson says, and stares at Noora for another moment as though he's expecting her to-- what? Swoon right into his arms? They're not even particularly good arms.
“Listen, Wilhelm,” Eva says, taking a step closer to Noora so she's half shielding Noora behind her shoulder. Noora looks over at her in surprise, trying to tamp down the grin when Eva uses her 'nickname' for him.
“She's told you 'no' in a hundred different ways, so I'd really appreciate it if you could finally take the hint and leave my girlfriend alone. It wasn't cute the first time you ignored what she said and it certainly hasn't gotten any cuter,” Eva says.
Noora tries her very best to look like none of the information in that sentence surprises her.
“Your girlfriend?” William Magnusson repeats, like he's definitely surprised by that information.
Noora wraps her arm around Eva's in a practiced move, given that that's how they tend to walk anyway, and shuffles closer, pressing her body against Eva's.
“Yeah,” she confirms.
William scoffs.
“That's cute,” he says, “but I know your boyfriend broke up with you 'cause you couldn't keep it in your pants with Chris.”
“Wow,” Noora says. “You just called my girlfriend a slut. That definitely made me want to break up with her and date you. Honestly, you should get that inferiority complex looked at. One day someone's going to deck you for it.”
Noora pulls a slightly stunned Eva past Wilhelm and walks them right off the school grounds. It's a good thing they'd just left their last period, because there's no way Noora was going to stick around after that.
“Did you just tell William Magnusson we're dating?” she turns to Eva to ask, once they've rounded the corner.
She's still got her arm around Eva's, but Eva is warm and it feels like letting go now would send the wrong message. She's not mad at Eva she just… didn't see it coming, to put it lightly.
“Um,” Eva says, and shrugs sheepishly when Noora looks over at her again. “It's just the first thing that came to mind? Boys usually back off when you tell them you have a boyfriend. I hoped it'd work with a girlfriend too.”
Noora hums in agreement. The boyfriend does usually work.
“He didn't seem to buy it though, I'm sorry,” Eva says. “Now he probably thinks we were making it up for his attention or something. Ugh.”
Noora rolls her eyes.
“If I broke my leg falling down the stairs he'd think I did it for his attention. He's a dick,” she says. “We'll just have to convince him.”
Eva blinks at her a little owlishly like she wasn't expecting that, and Noora feels herself hesitate, heart rate spiking.
“Right?”
“Yes! Sure! Sorry, I was sure you were going to be a bit mad at me for that. But, yeah, we're going to be the girlfriendiest girlfriends to ever girlfriend,” Eva promises with a big smile, and pulls Noora closer. “How hard can it be?”
“Why did you pretend to William that you were dating Eva; that's not very nice,” Vilde says with a frown over lunch the next day.
Noora watches her push peas around her plate for a second and bites down a comment about it.
“Because he wouldn't take me saying 'no' for an answer, so I'm giving him a reason he can't refute,” she says instead.
“But it's still not very nice to lie to him,” Vilde insists.
“Vilde. I tried not lying,” Noora says. “You're not going to say anything to him, right?”
Vilde stares at her for a second or two and Noora can never figure out what that expression on her face means.
“No. Of course not,” Vilde says, and goes back to pushing her peas around.
Eva holds her hands in the hallway now. It's not actually that weird. It's not that different from how Noora used to wrap her arm around Eva's, all things considered. It's kind of nice, actually. A few people stare at them, and Noora feels like Eskild wouldn't be into them faking this, but.
Well.
But Eskild also wouldn't know about the way Noora's stomach practically plummets right to her feet when Eva kisses her on the lips, just briefly, before letting her go with a “see you later, babe” and walking off to her own class. That's a … a thing. A one time thing maybe. Yeah. An exception. Surprise. That's what it has to be.
That's what she tells herself when she ducks into the classroom without looking at anyone at least.
Jonas frowns at them where they're sitting in the courtyard, with Eva having pulled one of Noora's legs into her lap. Eva only raises her chin and stares him down, and Noora feels oddly proud of her. She always loved Eva, but there's a fire to post-Jonas Eva that she really likes. Jonas does a thing with one of his impressive eyebrows – where others have conversations with their eyebrows alone, Jonas can probably write entire novels – and Eva pokes her tongue out at him. Jonas laughs, and Noora feels her own mouth twitch up into a smile. Maybe they are the kind of exes that can be friends.
Behind Jonas, Isak's still frowning a bit.
Eva's smile falters, and Noora grabs her hand while frowning back for good measure.
William doesn't let up, predictably. He keeps texting, though Noora stops answering, even if it's just to tell him no.
At school, Eva's taken to tugging her down a different hallway when they see him coming, demonstratively not giving him the time of day. Even Vilde is starting to frown at him when they spot him across the courtyard of cafeteria, and with how she's still trying to convince them that deep down he's actually a good guy that's really saying something.
Noora's stomach still swoops down to around her ankles whenever Eva kisses her. They're not just like that very first shy peck either. Sometimes Eva really kisses her, not quite making out but almost. Once, when William came up the stairs as they walked down, Eva pretended not to have seen him and pushed her up against the window to really, properly kiss her. Noora didn't know what to do with her hands other than to hold on to Eva's shoulders, and Eva had used that to her advantage, putting her own hands on the windowsill by Noora's hips, boxing her in and pressing their bodies flush together. Noora still blushes thinking about it, but at least William didn't interrupt them that time.
So that's… not a one time thing, then.
Probably an actual thing. The kind of thing that makes holding Eva's hand, and hearing her call Noora “babe” increasingly unpleasant because Noora slowly but surely realises that. Um. She probably wants Eva to mean it.
“Hey, Noora,” Eva says idly, feet dangling off the side of Noora's bed as she's browsing instagram, pretending to look something up for their English homework.
“Hm?” Noora says, underlining a line in the book they're reading in Norwegian right now.
“I'm almost definitely bi,” Eva says, blowing the last sentence Noora read right out of her mind and replacing it with an urgent sort of ringing.
“Oh. That's, um. Nice?” she tries.
Eva grins and looks over at her.
“It is nice,” she agrees. “Have you ever looked at girls? Like. Damn.”
Noora can't help but laugh. Eva's holding her phone a little too tightly, and her legs have stopped absent-mindedly kicking at the side of Noora's bedframe, but she's still grinning.
“I think I might know what you're talking about, actually,” Noora says, quietly. “But, um. Only girls. I think. For me.”
“That's nice,” Eva says with a teasing grin, and laughs when Noora reaches over to poke her in the side. Hard.
“Hey, no, but. If you're not sure yet, we'll figure it out, yeah?” Eva says. “Both of us. I mean, I'm pretty sure, but--”
“I get it, Eva,” Noora says with a small smile and lets Eva tangle their fingers. She watches her look down at them contemplatively and then raise them up to her face so she can press a kiss to Noora's knuckles.
“Together?” Eva asks, looking about as vulnerable as the girl in way too much makeup and very little skirt that Noora met on that first night.
“You mean…?” she asks. Probably one of them should actually say it, just to be sure they're on the same page.
“We already told the whole school, after all,” Eva tries to joke. Noora feels the corners of her mouth twitch like they're conditioned to smile whenever Eva even vaguely attempts humour.
“Got all that out of the way then,” Noora says, and grabs a firmer hold of Eva's hand so she can pull at it and make Eva shuffle closer.
“Good thinking, that was,” Eva murmurs, eyes slipping down to Noora's bright red lips.
Noora flushes hot down to the tips of her toes, her belly doing somersaults at the thought of Eva windowsill-kissing her again.
“Noora,” Eva says, tugging at her arm a bit.
Noora swallows down the noise that wants to make its way up her throat and shuffles closer, until all they'd have to do to connect their lips is tilt their heads a bit.
After another breathtaking moment, Eva does. Ducks her head, brushes her lips against Noora's too-briefly, and then comes back to press them together firm and sure.
Noora's stomach goes hot and her spine goes cold, and she literally shivers when Eva opens her mouth and prods at Noora's lips with her tongue. Doing this without the thought of an audience in the back of her mind, on her bed with her book crinkling under her when Eva rolls her over and leans over her to kiss her better, is so much better. So, so much better.
When Eva pulls away her eyes are bright and her mouth is smeared with red, matching the pretty flush on her cheeks. Noora pulls her back down for another kiss.
The End