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Nina had done a lot of things recently that she regretted.
Getting stupidly jealous—of Ophelia —had been dumb. Actually fighting with Ophelia about—get this— boys had been terrible. Breaking Ophelia's bracelet, the one she'd made with her dad, the one that was supposed to have magic future-seeing powers, the one that had serious sentimental value, the one that supposedly had mystical powers because she strongly believed her emotions played into the strength and nature of her magical abilities , was objectively the worst .
She felt guilty, okay? And after a week of being back at the Institute, coupled with an additional week at the beach, not talking to Ophelia, she was—god forbid— missing the weirdo.
Which is why she went to Selkie.
"You make shit, right?" Nina asks flatly, while Selkie bounces—literally, hops up and down a bit, what the hell—in excitement.
"I'm very crafty!" she crows.
"Very something," Velouria mutters from the couch where she and Selkie were cuddling(?) (Nina still doesn't know what the deal is with those two but there's something up) when Nina barged in to Selkie's room and huh, maybe she shouldn't just barge into other people's unannounced, while she's working at this self-improvement thing or whatever.
"Can you make a bracelet?" Before Selkie can respond in her usual loud, overly enthusiastic manner, she adds, "More importantly, can you teach me how to make a bracelet?"
"You want to make bracelets with me?" she practically shrieks, and oh god, this was a mistake, oh god, Velouria's sitting behind Selkie frantically shaking her head, oh why is atoning for your actions so punishing -
" Yes . Bracelets. Love 'em."
"Is it alright if they're woven? I just think beads are so jangly , and really a nice woven bracelet is so much sturdier, I think it'll hold up to more wear and tear, but if it has to be beaded I guess we could try it, I just don't think they're as good," oh, god, her tail is wagging all over. Why isn't there more fox fur all over everything in her room? Why is this happening?
"Woven is fine," Nina says, probably interrupting her, but then again, Selkie's probably used to being interrupted. "As long as I can work a few, uh, beads or whatever, something like that, into the design."
"Ooo, advanced technique. We might want to save that one, work our way up to it. Though I appreciate your eagerness-"
" No , we can just start with that." Selkie tilts her head at her, blinks, never once loses that brilliant smile. "I'm good with my hands, okay? And I'm a fast learner." Selkie's smile might actually go wider. She doesn't blink again. Oh god, this is getting creepy. "Please?"
Velouria narrows her eyes the slightest bit as Selkie ramps it up a few notches. "Okay! If you say so! Let's get started!"
Which is how Nina learns how to weave bracelets.
"You're doing crafts," Forrest deadpans from the door, and Nina jumps.
"Jesus, a little warning? I could've fucked up this kumihimo!"
"I can't believe you're learning to braid with Selkie instead of just apologizing!"
"Forrest, my ass is too dry for you to be riding me like this right now."
"Charming." She sighs and turns to Selkie. "Hi, Selkie."
"Hello! Nina's a really fast learner!"
"Is she," she answers, and Nina's focus is on her project but she can feel Forrest's eyes boring into the back of her head.
"Yep! She had this cool idea to braid beads-"
"Gemstones," Nina says, under her breath.
"-into the actual bracelet, and some of the stuff I'm having her do is really hard but she's actually halfway done!"
"Wait, halfway ? We've been at this for hours!"
"You're making a bracelet?" Forrest asks, this time with genuine surprise.
"Yeah, or whatever."
"You are going to apologize."
"No, I just think it looks cool."
"You are!" she says, delighted. "Aw, Nina, I knew you had it in you!"
"I don't ."
"Aw, is that what this is about?" Selkie chimes, and god, why did Velouria leave, Velouria could shut her up. "That's so sweet!"
"Yeah, well, I fucked up one of the last things she had from her dad and that wasn't cool of me so I'm making it up to her, okay? It's whatever. It's not a big deal." Forrest and Selkie both beam at her, which makes her self-conscious as hell, so she goes, "Ok, Selkie, what do I do now? I don't want to be at this for the next 12 hours."
"I'll leave you to it," Forrest glows, and then she's gone.
"Not a word," Nina hisses to Selkie, who mimes zipping her mouth shut before smiling toothily.
---
Forrest finds her just before lunch the next day.
"I so do not wanna have whatever conversation you're trying to have with me."
"I'm not!" Forrest protests. "I just talked to Reina." Fuck . "There's a mission—she wants eyes on some smuggler-" Shit. "-just to make sure he's not up to anything-"
"Where?" Nina asks, exasperated.
Forrest screws up her face, which means she does not want to say. "In… Vermont…"
" How far is that from here?!"
"She's letting you take the jet."
"I can't fly that thing!"
"There's an automated system. Never had an incident before."
" Why does this have to happen today?" Nina hisses, and Forrest sighs.
"He's meeting with someone—she wants you there by 10 pm, so you can get settled in before the meeting."
"For the record," Forrest already looks unimpressed, "I'm not happy about this ."
"Really. I'm shocked." When Nina scowls and turns her attention back to her phone, Forrest clears her throat.
"Dare I ask what you want now?"
"Nina." That tone is never a good sign. "How's your. Project going?"
"To repeat: I so do not wanna have whatever conversation you're trying to have with me."
"Come on! We haven't been able to do anything as a team because of your feud, I just want to know when it'll be over."
Nina throws her hands up, so over this whole thing. "Fine, okay, I finished it yesterday! And I wrote a little note and I dropped the bracelet and the note outside her door last night so she'd see it this morning only she had some stupid magical-studies thing with Rhajat today, which I didn't know about because we haven’t talked for two fucking weeks, so I was just gonna wait until she finished that up to talk to her, only it usually takes her most of the day and I'm gonna be in fucking Vermont tonight so I'll probably miss her!" She sucks in a deep breath. "Happy?"
Forrest frowns at her. "You're… actually worried about this."
"Yeah, no shit!"
"Have you missed her?"
The question, for some reason, throws Nina entirely for a loop. "What?"
"I mean," Forrest hesitates, choosing her words carefully, "are you really hoping this will fix everything? So you can go back to normal? Have you missed her?"
Nina is dumbstruck by the simple, obvious question, and she ends up blabbing out " Yes " before she can really think about it. Forrest is still giving her a searching look, so genius smart-guy Nina starts talking. "I mean, I don't think everything will just go back to normal. Because that was a dick move and I think maybe I'm trying to be a better person now?"
"Maybe?" Forrest asks, quirking an eyebrow.
"I mean, yeah, maybe. So no, I don't want things to go back to normal either. Because… I have missed her. I guess. And, I dunno, it doesn't seem cool to keep acting like she's annoying or embarrassing when, like, I actually want her around or whatever." She finally makes full-on eye contact with Forrest, hoping she's using her superior emotional intelligence to get what Nina's trying to say.
"I see," is the super-helpful response she says instead of like, deep life-changing shit, before she does a complete 180 and goes, "You should probably check in with Reina soon, get some more details. I just wanted to… make sure everything was alright, I suppose." And then she has the audacity to leave while Nina is still stewing in her emotions and wondering what the hell just happened .
So, great. Thanks, Forrest.
---
There's one upside, which is that the mission goes well.
That's it. That's the only upside, because Nina gets back at 2:30 in the goddamn morning .
"Fucking Christ ," Nina grumbles, the entire way from where the jet is on her way to the briefing room, where Reina (who, she's pretty sure, is a vampire, because she is literally always awake and projects this aura of longevity and also Nina thinks she's seen her drinking blood?) is waiting for a report. As she goes, she passes one of the common rooms-
-where there's still a light on.
She stops, contemplates, then makes the decision to stop in and see who's there. The thing was, everyone had something going on that could reasonably keep them up at night; if they're not too dreadful, Nina can lend a sympathetic ear for a bit and then get a chance to bitch about her stupid mission. Plus she gets to keep Reina up longer, which she would love because she's that bitch.
Nina enters the common room, where there's one lamp on and the tv screen has gone blue, and curled up on the couch, looking comfy as shit and also exhausted, is Ophelia.
Nina freezes in the door, but she's too late—Ophelia, as barely conscious as she is, jerks awake and whips her gaze over to the door.
And for a minute, they both stare.
Nina takes her in. Her hair is a mess, blond strands floating around her like a halo. Her eyes are wide, assessing, but Nina can see how hard it is for her to keep them open. She's wearing pajamas, and the casual dress is bizarre, given her penchant for over-the-top fashion. She doesn't know what to say, what to do; she wonders if Ophelia had read her note, if she knew how sincere her apology had been, and if she accepted it; she is struck by this uncharacteristic softness, nothing loud and brash and excited but just quiet , an open, honest look on her face that catches her so off guard because Ophelia is always acting, always pretending to be this ancient heroine, a Chosen One, and now she's just raw . It takes her a second to realize she's staring, and she snaps her mouth shut.
Just as Nina makes the decision to leave and let this conversation lie for another day, Ophelia finally speaks up. "You're back," she says, and oh , even her voice is soft and a little hoarse, god, shouldn't she be in bed?
"I was on mission," she replies dumbly, because obviously Ophelia knew she was on mission, that's why she was gone . "You… stayed up for me?" which is a stupid assumption, and Nina has no reason to believe that's the case because she did all those awful things and still hasn't given a real apology-
"I… wanted to talk to you," Ophelia says, almost shy, and Nina's heart squeezes a little with this want to just… freeze things, right as they are, when they are actually speaking to each other, when exhaustion makes honesty so easy, when it's just the two of them and no one else to interrupt. "I got your note," she says, barely above a whisper, and Nina's heart plunges back down to the bottom of her feet.
"Ophelia," she says, just as quiet, "you don't have to say anything about that right now, we can talk about it tomorrow." She takes a few cautious steps into the room and continues, "I just want to say, to your face, that I'm sorry, and I-"
"Please, Nina, I-" she yawns, which is, okay, freaking adorable, and then she wobbles to her feet. "I am very tired ," she finishes, swaying a little where she stands. Nina hurries to her, steadies her and prepares to catch her fall.
"Of course you're tired, it's almost 3 am. Why would you stay up so late? How did you stay up so late?" She makes a split-second decision that fuck it, Reina can wait, and she starts guiding Ophelia out of the common room and up to her room.
"I saw your note this morning and I wanted to talk to you but-" she yawns again, subconsciously leaning further into Nina as she does. God, she is so warm . "I had that… thing… with Rhajat…"
"You usually call it a witch conference," Nina murmurs. Ophelia giggles a bit, almost tripping in the process.
"Yeah," she says, "our witch conference. And I couldn't talk to you because we were witching."
"Obviously," Nina snorts.
"'nd I told Rhajat that, and she said she didn't care. But then Forrest told me you had a mission tonight-"
"Right," she says, "and I needed to leave before your thing was over."
" Exactly ," Ophelia says as she wraps an arm around Nina's waist to balance herself. "'nd I said, 'Rhajat, I gotta—I just gots to talk to Nina today' and she's all, 'Then just do it' and I said, 'But she gets back late tonight and I don't wanna fall asleep' and then she cursed me." Nina chokes trying to swallow her laughter. "So I couldn't really fall asleep 'til you got back. So I'm glad you saw me."
"Yeah," Nina says, softly. "Me too."
They finally reach the main stairs, and as Nina begins the arduous process of dragging a very tired Ophelia up the staircase she begins to run over the details of her mission with her. They try to keep quiet, but it's hard, with Ophelia nearly slipping and just sliding, boneless, back down the stairs, and everything Nina says is weirdly funny to her, and Ophelia's laugh makes her laugh, so they just keep whispering and then guffawing and then shushing each other because they're too close to everyone else's rooms not to wake them up with what Ophelia calls their "buffoonery".
"And-and I have to ride in one of the stupid jets," Nina continues, once they've finally made it up the staircase and turned down the hall to their rooms.
"I hate those," Ophelia says, too loudly, and Nina shushes her. "I hate those," she whispers, and they both erupt into stifled giggles. "They can't really steer themselves."
"Exactly! And I think it hit, like, three birds, just getting back here!" Ophelia snorts, leaning against Nina again. "On my way back from fucking Vermont !"
Ophelia's giggles subside, and they fall strangely quiet as they walk the rest of the way down the hall and finally come to a halt outside Ophelia's door. She peels herself off Nina, then turns to face her. "Thanks for getting me home," she says, and then she winks. Nina snorts again.
"Don't mention," she whispers. "Get some sleep, I gotta go check in with Reina."
Ophelia's eyes go wide. "You haven't talked to her yet? Go! Get out of here, don't let me hold you up any longer."
Nina laughs as Ophelia shoos her away. "Alright, alright, I'm going." She only makes it a few doors down when she is stopped by a whisper-shout from Ophelia.
"Nina!" she hisses, and when Nina turns to face her, she looks a bit sheepish. "I, um, just wanted to thank you. For getting me back safe and sound." Which is such a dumb thing, to be thanking her for basically leading her through two hallways and one staircase, but Nina doesn't have much time on that train of thought before Ophelia has her jumping tracks, because she reaches up to brush a strand of hair from her face when her sleeve falls down her arm and Nina sees-
Her bracelet. Right there, on Ophelia's wrist.
Nina feels herself go red, feels the soaring in her chest and the weird bubbly feeling in her stomach and her heartbeat picking up steam. Before she can collect herself, she blurts, "That's my bracelet."
Ophelia looks surprised. "Yes, ah—I got it, with your note, and I know you must've worked really hard on it-" Nina stares, agape, at her bracelet , on Ophelia's wrist - "-um, it's not a perfect replacement. But there's something to be said for the extra time it took to weave it, like this, instead of just—stringing some beads on some elastic, I suppose. Not to mention the, uh-" she peers shyly at Nina, through her lashes, "-the emotional attachment of it. All this to say, it will do nicely, for spells and, um, future-seeing. And horoscopes. And the like." She takes a fortifying breath, and finishes, "And I accept your apology because it was really heartfelt, and this is so sweet and Selkie told me you worked really hard on it. So, thank you for this. And getting me back to my room."
Nina blinks, dumbstruck. "You're… welcome," she says, finally, to Ophelia's bracelet.
"Yes. Well. Good night," Ophelia finishes awkwardly, and before Nina can reply, she vanishes back into her room.
Nina stares for a few minutes, then turns to finally meet with Reina, practically floating down the hall.
---
Nina finishes the debrief and is back in her room in no time, but she doesn't go to bed.
She tries, for a few minutes before she realizes that she will not be sleeping, and then she gets up and sits on the window seat.
She looks up at the night sky and thinks.
Her thoughts are all Ophelia, smiling at her, Ophelia laughing at her dumb jokes because they both need sleep, Ophelia, leaning into her and smelling so—so good , and feeling so soft, and warm-
She thinks about her arm, around her waist, and then the arm she had encircling Ophelia's shoulders to steady her, and the warmth and the goodness she felt, and how natural it felt to fit together like that-
Her mind sticks for a bit on the bracelet she spent hours making, fit perfectly on Ophelia's wrist, an apology accepted. The words emotional attachment , in Ophelia's quiet, shy voice keep bouncing around in her head, and the idea of the bracelet she made even approaching the emotional ties that Ophelia had to the one she'd made with her father, one of her last mementos of him-
Her yawns. Then, her sneezes. The way her nose wrinkled when she got confused. The light in her eyes when she talked about being the Chosen One, even though she and everyone else knew it meant nothing. Her staying up to the wee hours of the morning, just to talk to her-
She thinks for a minute about that sick feeling she'd gotten, standing on the pier and watching as all those strangers just— glowed , and looked so enriched by her presence, and the sick thought that she was jealous , but why should be jealous of Ophelia, when those guys were just—nobodies, who couldn't even see how brightly Ophelia shined, how she filled the world and everyone around her with light, and she thinks-
She thinks that being without her is terrible. That two weeks without speaking or even really looking at each other made her miserable, and the thought of being without her again makes her stomach churn, and she knows that she'd do anything not to lose that spark.
Mostly, she thinks about the two of them, standing in the hall, just looking at each other and taking each other in, as Nina's heart races and her cheeks go red, and everything around them is just silent and still because the moment is theirs, and no one else's, and Nina realizes that she'd give anything for more of those moments where the world just fades away and it's just the two of them and the stars watching over them
Nina realizes a lot of things, and they scare her, but in so many ways it all just feels right , like nothing made sense before but it'll be already because now she's come home.
More importantly, Nina realizes she might be in love with her best friend.