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At twelve, Waverly fell in love for her first and only time.
Wynonna had brought home a friend of hers who was new in town and that was it. All it took was pretty dimples and bright red hair and Waverly couldn't seem to stop smiling around the new girl, couldn't hold her excitement whenever Nicole and Wynonna ended the day at their aunt's place.
Her sister never kicked her out when she tried to spend time with them in her room. Wynonna had held her close ever since Waverly could remember, always a little standoffish and a bit harsh with her words, but somehow managing to keep Waverly nearby.
Nicole didn't seem to mind her presence either, though every now and then she'd shush Wynonna, something Waverly came to learn, later on, had to do with drugs. Or sex. Or possibly both.
“ What? She's almost fourteen, she probably hears way worse from her classmates.”
“It's for my benefit too, I don't need to hear that many gross details, thank you,” Nicole said, pillow already halfway in its trajectory toward Wynonna’s face.
At sixteen, Waverly got herself a boyfriend.
She had been reluctantly leaving to go to a party despite Nicole being at her place (hence her reluctance) and her asshole of a sister found it funny to comment, as she left, how “cute” her crush on Nicole was.
Waverly refused to be seen as a child any longer.
Champ wasn't smart or even that funny and, honestly, he wasn't nearly as cute as all the other girls seemed to think. Their relationship didn't last long, just enough for her not to be a virgin anymore and to get Wynonna off her case.
Though she did hook up every now and then after that and even managed to make a few relationships last a bit longer (if you counted six consecutive weekends a relationship, which Waverly did), the fact remained that she would always prefer spending time with Nicole and her sister than with any of the boys Purgatory had to offer her.
At seventeen, Waverly would walk around the house with only a bra and her shorts in the hopes that Nicole would look at her.
And she did.
Nicole always noticed her, just not how she wanted her to.
“I have nothing to wear. That’s it, I'm going to Stephanie's with my best jeans and a black bra.”
“Whatever floats your boat, baby girl.”
“Wynonna,” Nicole chastised as she took off her flannel. “Here, Waves, maybe if you tie the ends around your waist it will fit.” Nicole started undoing the last three buttons of the shirt. Waverly's cheeks heated in awareness of Nicole's fingers grazing her skin, freeing each button of its case, her knuckles brushing her belly when tying the ends of the shirt together. Nicole noticed how her stomach jumped at the contact. “Are you ticklish?” She didn't answer, just let herself be turned around so both of them could look at her reflection in the mirror. “Let me fix the sleeves. What do you think? Not Prada, but it beats going with only a bra to a party filled with drunk, hormonal teenagers, huh?”
Waverly had never felt so comfortably warm in her life.
“Prada is for shoes and purses, Nicole.”
“Right,” Nicole smiled, “my bad.”
At 21 Waverly moved back with her sister into their family homestead, just about the same time Nicole became one of Purgatory's finest.
Waverly had never known she had a thing for uniforms until she saw Nicole wearing one.
That was how Wynonna caught her. That was always how Wynonna caught her – staring at Nicole or at her picture or at the ghost of her squad car minutes after the deputy had left their land.
“I see that that crush on Nicole is still holding strong, huh?”
Waverly took a deep breath as she tried to resign herself to her sister's usual teasing. “Shut up.”
“It was cute when you were 13, maybe even when you were 16, but now it's just plain-
“It's not a fucking crush, Wynonna. God. Only you could be blind enough to think that what I feel for Nicole is nothing but a stupid crush.”
“Waves-”
“Well, you and Nicole, I suppose. She thinks it's cute, too, right?” Waverly's voice trembled and gained strength at the same time. “This is great. Wonderful. Just the best feeling in the world, being made fun of by your sister and knowing that the woman you- you- sees you like a child. It's just fucking great.” Waverly entered the house just long enough to grab her coat and slammed the door on her way out. “By the way, go fuck yourself”.
Waverly took a deep pull from the bottle of whiskey Wynonna had thankfully forgotten in her car as she prepared herself for what she was about to do. This is straight out of porn or those noir movies, she thought as she left her seat and tightened the belt that marked the waist of her coat.
When Nicole opened the door she was already wearing what the younger woman knew to be her sleeping clothes – a warm pullover that the redhead would take off once she was under her blankets and a pair of thin cotton pants that hung low on her hips.
“Are you alone?”
“Yes,” Nicole said, frowning as she pulled her inside. “What happened?”
Apparently the minutes she took to calm down driving through the few streets of Purgatory and to ready herself in her car in front of Nicole's place weren't enough to mask how upset she'd been after talking to Wynonna.
“Nothing. Nothing happened. Nothing changed.” The younger woman started pacing the living room while fidgeting with her belt buckle. “I’m 21 and you still look at me as if... I am not a child, Nicole. I haven't been for a long time. I know you and Wynonna used to talk about how cute it was that I had a crush on my sister's best friend, but this is not just a crush. It might have been when I was 12 and you'd come over to drink beer with Wynonna, but I grew up. I'm a woman,” Waverly paused and took a breath to go all in, “and I'm in love with you. So, I guess what I'm asking is, can you look at me and see that?” Waverly asked as she undid the belt holding her coat closed. “See a woman and not your best friend's baby sister?” The buttons soon followed, and the skin of her shoulders and collarbones, as well as her breasts, was shown, though her arms, still half wearing the coat and wrapped around her waist, kept her belly and legs hidden. “Do I have any chance?”
“Waves, what are you doing?” Nicole screeched, her hands already reaching for the upper part or Waverly's coat to cover her, and her eyes glued to a point above Waverly’s head.
“Don't. Don't do that.” She moved back, finally letting the coat fall to the ground. “Just look at me. Do you see a child?”
Nicole took her body in, her throat working visibly, and met Waverly's eyes again. “No.”
“Do you see somebody you might want?” Waverly's mouth felt dry and she knew a few tears had already escaped her at how exposed she felt, though it had nothing to do with her lack of clothing.
“Waves...”
“I've been waiting for you to see me as a woman for some time now. I just need to know. I need to know that you see me. And I need to know if I have a chance. Or if I should finally move on.”
Nicole moved closer to her, cradling her cheek with her left hand as the right one brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, then fell slowly to hold her waist. She studied her face and then her body, finally looking back into her eyes.
Nicole's lips on her were soft, in direct opposition to how hard her heart was beating inside her chest; the pressure was so light that Waverly had to cradle Nicole's jaw to increase it, but the redhead moved back.
“You're sure?”
Waverly chuckled at the redhead's hesitation, even through her shaking limbs and fast breathing. She felt dizzy but put on a brave face. “Nicole, I'm naked in your living room.” She tried to read what the taller woman's eyes were telling her, “are you sure, though?”
Nicole shook her head, but the grasp on Waverly's waist became tighter, keeping her close. “No.”
Waverly felt her heart stop. “Do you want me to leave?” She watched as Nicole swallowed and shook her head again. “Can I kiss you again?”
The deputy smiled and exhaled, nodding at her. “Yea.”
Waverly rested her forehead against Nicole's cheek as she let more of her weight fall on the redhead's. “Good enough for me.”
Her shaking slowed as Nicole progressively took charge of the kiss and brought Waverly's body closer to hers, descending her mouth to the younger woman's neck. Waverly felt herself clench at the sudden amount of pleasure the action elicited, gasping and locking in her muscles involuntarily.
“Too much?”
“No, no.”
“You can tell me if you want to stop, or if I'm moving too fast.”
“I'm not a virgin, Nicole.”
“Well,” the deputy's eyes shone and the humor in her voice was made explicit by the dimples marking her cheeks, “experienced women have the right to change their minds too.”
Waverly felt her lips respond to Nicole's playfulness. “I know, but I won't.”
Nicole nuzzled her and squeezed her waist, making Waverly's hips jump in reaction. “Ok, then.”
Nicole led her to her bedroom, not giving her time for embarrassment once they reached the foot of the bed. “Still okay?” She asked, inches away from kissing her.
“Still okay.”
Nicole kissed her and let herself be guided on top of Waverly as the younger woman took off her pullover. Their bodies adjusted to one another, and Waverly’s urgency when feeling Nicole pressed to her so fully rose.
She didn’t know what she had expected, but Nicole’s lips resting against the pulse point in her throat as her hands worked her nipples and scratched down her stomach weren’t it. She could feel Nicole smiling against her neck whenever her hands or thigh did something that accelerated her heartbeat. Which happened way too often. Especially when she vocalized her observations.
“You like it when I hold you down like that.”
The first orgasm overtook her despite her protests. Nicole's lips and tongue and teeth on her throat, around her earlobe, whispering dirty observations to her, her hands teasing and then bringing relief, her thigh in constant pressure between her legs... She'd tried to hold off, but it was all too much. Her hips and thighs locked Nicole in place as she rode her high.
Waverly came down to Nicole watching her. The pressure of the other woman's body on top of hers had her muscles loosening further. In the back of her mind she could hear an echo of embarrassment at coming too fast, too easy, but it got lost amidst how good she felt right then, her body relaxed and her sex still pulsing and Nicole smiling down at her.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“Everything alright?”
Waverly bit her bottom lip trying to, futilely, contain her smile. “Perfect.”
Waverly woke up in Nicole's bed the next morning, her right arm wrapped loosely around the taller woman's waist. She couldn't help herself from trailing her lips from her shoulder blade to the discreet earring hidden by red hair, successfully coaxing Nicole from sleep and into spending another twenty minutes in bed with her.
The coffee pot was halfway done with its daily task when Wynonna walked into Nicole's place, speaking loud enough for her voice to reach every room in the house. “Haught, hey, I saw Waverly's car. Is she- Baby girl, you scared the shit out of me! You didn't come home yesterday.” Wynonna met them in the small kitchen that connected directly to the living room.
Nicole jumped amidst cooking breakfast, and Waverly felt her face burn hot as she sat by the table where she'd been playing around with an empty cup.
“Yea, I slept here.” She cleared her throat.
“I can see that,” Wynonna said looking at Waverly's attire and then Nicole's. “Could have called me at least.” The older woman looked around, noticing Waverly's coat on the floor by the door, looking then at Waverly's clothes, which consisted exclusively of a sweatshirt that obviously didn't belong to her, and flushed cheeks. She then looked at Nicole's guilty expression.
“What the fuck, dude?” Wynonna advanced on Nicole, jaw clenched in rage, forearm on her throat as she forced the taller woman back against the refrigerator.
“Wynonna!”
“Did you fuck my sister?”
“It's not like that,” Nicole defended herself, raising her arms to lower the pressure of Wynonna's weight on her, opening space for herself to breathe.
“It sure looks a lot like that!”
“Wynonna,” Waverly tried to pull her older sister's arm away from Nicole. “You know how I feel about her. Everything that happened, happened because I wanted it to.”
“Oh, I know how you feel about her. And so does she,” she turned to the redhead. “Are you gonna date my sister now, Haught? Or were you just 'doing what she wanted' for one night to then break her heart?”
Waverly pushed her away from Nicole, this time effectively. “Enough. We haven't talked about it yet, Wynonna. How about you let us decide what happens now?”
“Wave-”
“She didn't promise me anything, okay? It was my choice. Just go.”
“Fine.” Wynonna turned, kicking and breaking a chair on her way to the door and slamming it closed.
Waverly swallowed. “We'll buy you a new chair.”
Nicole laughed, though there was no joy in it, and sat on her couch, head in hands.
“Hey,” the younger woman came closer, sitting down on the coffee table and wrapping her hands lightly around Nicole's wrists. “I meant what I said – you didn't promise me anything.” She rested her forehead on Nicole's, hoping to coax the redhead out. “I know things seem complicated right now and I know you weren't sure about what we were doing last night... and this morning. So it's okay if you need some time to think about it. But you know what I want. So just... let me know when you figure it out.”
Nicole met her eyes then, she traced her features with her fingertips, bringing Waverly to her when she reached her chin to place a chaste kiss on her lips. “Okay.”
“Okay.”
Wynonna wasn't happy to hang out with Nicole again, but Waverly had talked her into it after clarifying that them jumping into bed hadn't exactly been Nicole's idea – her showing up practically naked on her doorstep and all. Still, Waverly could feel her sister watching her interactions with Nicole with suspicion – but that would fade, she supposed. Her main focus right then was the redhead sitting by the bar and watching her dance.
Waverly had danced with half the club at this point and still Nicole sat her dumb but extremely cute ass on the bar seat. I am honestly , she thought with decided steps toward Nicole, sick of it .
“Do you want me?” The younger brunette asked, her posture looming over Nicole despite her stature.
Nicole cowered a little under Waverly's presence but seemed to realize the importance of the question in that moment. “Yes.”
“Do you really?”
“I do.”
“Then act like it. I've been dancing for you the whole night and you haven't left your seat. I even danced with some grabby guys to give you a little push so you can make up your damn mind already, but you don't react to anything I do.”
“It's just... it's your choice, you dance with whoever you want to. I didn't want to assume that because we-
“Assume? I told you what I've wanted for the past decade. Don't turn this around. It's me who has been waiting for you. And it's your turn to show me what you want. If you don't want me, then say so, cause I think I've given you enough time to figure it out.”
Waverly walked away wish harsh steps to lose herself on the dancefloor, but a gentle touch on her palm when she reached the center of the room turned her around. She stood still, waiting for Nicole to say something, but she didn't. The taller woman moved closer to her and positioned Waverly's hands on her shoulders, wrapping her arms around Waverly's waist and moving slowly to the rhythm of the music. Waverly adjusted herself into the other woman's embrace and felt her whole body sigh into the comfort of having Nicole this close to her.
“I'm still angry with you.”
“I know.” Nicole brushed her nose on Waverly's and kissed her cheekbone.
“What does this mean?”
Nicole didn't seem big on giving verbal answers right then, but the soft kiss she placed on her lips made her wonder. Nicole kept their lips close, waiting until Waverly responded to deepen it, her tongue teasing the downward dip of Waverly’s top lip to then suck it lightly between her own. Waverly's body reacted violently, her fingers wrapping tightly in red hair as her hips raised to meet the other woman's.
She broke the kiss suddenly, breath harsh after the rush of desire filling her veins. “Nicole? What does this mean?”
“Will you be my girlfriend?”