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The weight of having Molly draped over her lap was familiar to Yasha, so much that it was comforting, grounding. She idly scratched at their scalp with one hand as she sketched a sunflower into her notebook, one that would be included in a tattoo she planned to get with Molly to celebrate five years of being queer-platonic partners. The podcast Molly had put on—some comedy advice show that Yasha only half paid attention to—was occasionally being interrupted by the vibration of their phone with each Twitter notification and text they got. After the most recent one, Yasha felt them nudge her side, “Hey, Jes says to check your phone. Something about girl’s night.”
Yasha frowned and reached over Molly’s torso to grab her phone off the coffee table. Sure enough, there were a few texts from Jester waiting for her.
Jester: hey yasha youre still bringing the booze right????
Jester: hellooo??
Jester: yasha pls were at the store and gotta know if we have to buy some :’(((((
Yasha: I’ll bring it.
Jester: ok thxx!!!! :D
She couldn’t help but smile at her phone, thinking about how adorable her girlfriend was. Her eyes were only brought away from it when Yasha felt Molly shift to sit up, “Everything alright, dear?”
“Yes. She was making sure I was bringing the alcohol tonight for Beau, Nott, and I.” Yasha turned the screen off and set her phone back on the coffee table.
“Sounds like fun. Same plans as always?” Molly smiled at her, but she could easily tell it wasn’t as genuine as they intended. She knew that look. It was the same one as they wanted to say something, but knew it wasn’t the right thing to say. When they knew whatever they were feeling wouldn’t be received well.
“As far as I know. Jester got a new type of face mask from that store in the mall you two like.”
Molly nodded, “That sounds lovely. I’m sure Jes will send me plenty of flattering pictures of you all wearing it as always.”
“She will.” Yasha nodded a bit and reached out to move a lock of hair behind Molly’s horn, “Will you tell me what’s wrong?”
Their smile faltered and fell, and Molly looked down at their hands. The lock of hair fell back over their forehead once more, and Yasha moved it back again as they sighed, “I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
“I’m not.” Molly laughed without humor and looked at her again, “It just sounds nice. Spending time with them, doing nails and face masks and watching whatever shitty movie Beau puts on.” Yasha watched Molly take a deep breath and trusted them to tell her when they found the words and felt comfortable letting them out. It only took a few moments of waiting before they spoke again, voice quiet, “And I’m happy you all have that. It just…it sounds a lot more fun than guy’s night usually is. I adore those boys, but if I have to hear more drunken rants about Caleb’s coworker’s inefficiency in scanning in returned books, I may scream.”
“You love his rants. Especially the drunken ones.”
Molly smiled softly and nodded, “I do, but… Nevermind.” They looked at their hands again, chipping away at their bright green nail polish, “I just think I may stay home this time around. Get drunk on my own and watch shitty romcoms. I don’t feel like doing guy’s night.”
“Mollymauk.” Yasha gently lifted Molly’s head by the chin with two fingers and looked into their eyes. She could see there were tears already welling up, emotions they for some reason felt they couldn’t share with her even after being their rock for so long, “Would you like to join us for girl’s night?”
There was a moment where she could tell Molly was holding their breath. They were nervous, almost scared. All their friends knew Mollymauk was genderfluid. They’d all celebrated Molly’s first dose of estrogen with a huge party. Beau had once nearly killed a man for them when he insisted on yelling every insult in the book at them. This offer was a long time coming, but until now, Molly had always seemed happy to attend guy’s night like they did before coming out. Yasha felt bad that she’d missed it for this long. Molly was clearly a better liar than people gave them credit for.
A few tears fell as Molly let out the breath they were holding, “Yeah. At least… at least this time.”
Yasha gently wiped their cheeks, letting herself smile at this wonderful person, the one she loved more than anyone else, “I will let the others know. Thank you for not holding it in anymore.”
“Thank you for understanding. I mean, I know I’m not fully a girl, so if any of them are uncomfortable with me being the—”
“They won’t be. If they are, you and I will have a date night whenever they plan girl’s night and they can enjoy it without either of us.”
Molly smiled at that and held her hand, squeezing softly, “That’s not fair to you.”
Yasha shrugged, “I would rather have a good night knowing you’re happy than spend one knowing you’re lonely and hurting.”
They sat there together, Molly’s forehead now resting on Yasha’s shoulder as she stroked their hair. It didn’t need to be said how much Molly appreciated her saying that, how much it meant to be reminded of just how much she cared for them, even over her girlfriends at times. She knew the others would understand. Jester would be ecstatic to be able to paint Molly’s nails and share the gossip she didn’t want to tell the boys. If nothing else, it would save Molly from having to spend a night crying into a bottle of wine like Yasha knew they would the second she left.
Eventually, Molly moved to hand Yasha her phone so she could ask the others before getting up to feed Frumpkin, who had taken to yelling at his food bowl again.
Yasha: Is it okay if Molly joins us tonight?
Jester: OMG YES!!!!
Jester: OMGOMGOMG TELL THEM TO BRING THEIR NAIL POLISH I HAVE IDEAS
Beau: yeah thats fine
Beau: nott says so too
After a moment, Yasha received a text outside the group chat she’d asked in.
Beau: they alright?
Yasha: Yes. They don’t want to go to guy’s night tonight.
Beau: cant blame them, our stuff is more their speed than drinking shitty beer in a shitty bar and getting misgendered all night by a shitty bartender
Yasha: They’ll have fun. Thank you.
Beau: no prob babe
“What’d they say?” Molly asked, arms crossed over their chest as they approached Yasha again.
“They’re all fine with it. Jester is excited.”
Molly laughed a little, “I thought she would be. Thank you again.”
“Of course.” Yasha stood and kissed their head, “Go put on some comfortable clothes, I have to stop by my apartment before we go to Jester’s.”
“Slutty comfortable or snuggly comfortable?” They asked with a smirk as they backed away towards their bedroom.
Yasha smiled and shook her head, “Something you don’t mind possibly getting things spilled on.”
“No fun, but fine.” They turned with a pout and closed the door behind them, leaving Yasha to bend down and scratch behind Frumpkin’s ears.
“Looks like you’ll have the house to yourself after all.” She whispered to him. Frumpkin purred and nudged at her hand. Yasha smiled and knelt in front of him, content with keeping each other company as she waited for Molly to be ready.
~*~
“I can’t believe they’re finally gonna be here this time! I was waiting for them to ask if they could join, but I didn’t wanna assume or make them think they had to or make them uncomfortable, you know? But now Molly is gonna get to see how much fun it is to have a self-care night with the rest of us girls!” Jester ranted happily as she cut up the brownies she’d made and put them on a plate, swaying softly to the music she was listening to.
Beau dropped all the pillows and blankets she’d gathered from their bed on the floor of the living room, “Yep, it’ll be cool.” She plopped down unceremoniously on the pile, wrapping herself in the comforter, “You think they’ll end up joining permanently?”
Jester shrugged and brought the brownies and a big bowl of chips out into the living room and joining her girlfriend on the pillow pile, “I hope so! I think they’ll like it better than spending a whole night with stinky boys.” She scrunched her nose at that, “I mean, at least they’ll like having one night where they just get pampered, even if they don’t come every time.”
“Yeah, they’re all about self-care and that shit.” Beau leaned over to rest her head next to Jester’s.
“Yeah. And if they don’t feel like being called a girl all the time, we could just call it night or something.” Jester said with a giggle.
Beau turned her head to look at Jester, one eyebrow raised, “Or fem night.”
Jester shook her head and leaned forward to kiss Beau’s nose, “I like night better. It’s just night.” She giggled at her own comment.
Before Beau could say anything, there was a knock on the door and Jester had already leapt up to answer it. The tiefling squealed when she did, and Beau turned to watch as she launched herself at Molly, who laughed and hugged her tightly. Yasha squeezed by them and into the apartment, carrying a large paper bag of what Beau assumed to be the alcohol, as well as one cup of what looked to be a milkshake for Jester like she brought every time. She made her way over to Beau and leaned down to press a kiss to her forehead, “Hey.”
Beau smiled up at her, “Hey. Have a good day?”
“I did.” Yasha smiled a little back and set the bag beside the snacks, “Where’s Nott?”
“She went to pick up the pizzas.”
“By herself?” Yasha raised an eyebrow as she pulled the various bottles of wine, vodka, and brandy out of the bag.
Beau shrugged and sat up on the pile, “It’s basically next door, she said she could handle it.”
The two startled as the door slammed behind Molly and Jester, the latter of whom was tugging the other towards the living room, “So I got a lot of that new mint face mask that’s supposed to deep clean your face really really well, we can do that after Nott comes back and we’re finished with the pizza. You brought your nail polish, right?” Jester spoke as she nudged Beau off the pillow pile and started spreading them all out around the living room floor.
“Not all of it, I don’t think I have a bag big enough to carry it all.” Molly chuckled and set down a large bag full of bottles which they could hear clinking together with every movement. Despite there being probably over fifty bottles on various colors and shades, they had plenty more left at home that they’d collected over the past couple years. The large collection came in handy when they spent every Sunday painting elaborate and intricate designs on their nails.
“You could’ve just brought the whole box, you know.” Jester huffed as she sat on a particularly soft pillow, pouting with her arms crossed.
“Oh, you’ll survive. There’s still plenty here to pick from.” They pouted back teasingly and sat down next to her on the couch.
Jester rested her head on their knees with a whine, “But there could be even more…”
Molly stroked Jester’s hair and cooed to her, “Poor Jes. I know not having the perfect shade of pink will ruin your entire week.”
“It will!” She shot them an attempt at an evil look before the door swung open suddenly and Nott walked in carrying enough pizzas to nearly cover her eyes as she trudged into the apartment.
“We need ta move into a building with an elevator.” The goblin grumbled as she set the pizzas down with the rest of the food, “I nearly tripped.”
The pizzas were barely on the ground before Beau was already surging forward to grab herself a slice, “You got elevator money?” She raised an eyebrow at her as she took a large bite of pizza.
Nott closed the door and sat down to pull off her boots, “I could, but someone—” She glared at Molly, “—won’t let me steal from anyone in this neighborhood.”
“Feel free to travel a few miles north and steal from someone in one of those gated neighborhoods if you can manage it. Everyone here is struggling just like the rest of us, there wouldn’t even be much to take anyway.” Molly patted Jester’s head to get her to sit up, then took a slice of pizza for themself.
“I might one of these days.” The rest of the girls served themselves, Jester first pulling Molly down to sit on the ground with the rest of them.
As they ate, happily chatting about how their week was, Beau set up the TV with some new heist movie that she said was “the gayest shit she’s ever seen in her life.” Yasha found herself glancing over at Molly every so often, watching as they laughed with Jester and served themself their first (presumably of many) glass of wine and nearly shoved Beau over when she made some comment Yasha didn’t hear but made Molly giggle a little through their teasing. Seeing how happy being with them made Molly was heartwarming to say the least. It wasn’t much different from when the entire group hung out, but the fact that they were being included in something they felt they couldn’t be part of seemed to lift a weight off their shoulders, and it made Yasha happier than she could put into words.
“Okay, face mask time!” Jester exclaimed and shot up from the ground, practically running to the fridge. She returned with a large container of what looked like green sludge and plopped down in front of Molly to pry open the lid, “I think this should be enough for all of us, I wasn’t expecting to have you here when I bought it, but we usually have a little extra.”
“I don’t have to use it if you don’t think there’ll be enough.” Molly smiled as they helped Nott pull her hair back into a messy bun.
“Hush! We’ll make sure there’s enough!” Jester huffed and pulled her bangs back in a large cloth headband.
Beau leaned back against the couch, “I can skip it this time around, no worries. I don’t like that stuff anyway.” Jester shot her girlfriend a scowl at that, but Beau just shrugged, “Seriously, I’m good. Give ‘em a full girl’s night experience.”
Jester kept scowling as she pinned Molly’s bangs back and smeared a few fingers full of the mask on their face, making them laugh. Soon, everyone but Beau had on a full face mask, although it was barely noticeable on Nott’s face, with the mask blending in well with her skin color. When they found that there was enough left over for one last face mask, Jester and Molly pounced on Beau to cover her face in it. She put on a front of struggling against them, but let them smear it on until they agreed it was enough and got up from where they had pinned her.
“How long do we have to keep this one on, Jessie?” Nott asked as she clutched her flask, clearly attempting to keep herself from taking a swig and ruining the portion of the mask around her mouth.
“Ummm…” Jester hummed as she read the label on the container, “Ten minutes for this one. We can pick out the colors for our nails while we wait.”
Molly instantly moved to drag their bag towards the center of their little circle, turning it over and allowing the contents to spill out into a large pile. Jester and Nott’s eyes both went wide and before Nott’s hand reached the pile, Molly had quickly but gently grabbed her wrist, “Don’t even think about pocketing too many. You can have one, so choose wisely.”
Nott narrowed her eyes and frowned at them, “How do you know I was going to take one?”
“I know you.” They leaned in close to her face, “Just like I’ll know if you take more than one.”
“There are so many, though, you couldn’t possi—”
“Try me.” Molly smirked and leaned back again, “Jes, you can pick my colors for me.”
Jester gasped excitedly and started digging through the pile, “Ooh, we can match! Maybe a pastel pink! Or yours can be blue and mine can be purple!”
Molly watched out of the corner of their eye as Nott chose a dark gray for herself, not yet sneaking anything into her pocket, “Whatever you think is best, dear.” They glanced down at their phone momentarily to find that Caleb had texted to ask how things were going so far. Molly opened the camera and quickly snapped a picture of themself smiling, sending it with the caption, ‘everything is great, my face will be so soft <3’.
Yasha plucked a bottle of black polish for herself out of the pile, “Your second idea sounded nice.”
“Okay!” Jester dug through the pile until she found just the right shades of blue and lavender to match each other’s skin tones, “Maybe next time we can do matching pink. Oh, but first we gotta wait to be done with the face masks, I don’t wanna mess up my nails before anyone can even see them.” She set the two bottles aside and looked to Beau, “Are you gonna paint your nails this week?”
“Nah, I don’t think so.” Beau shrugged, looking down to check her phone, “They’ll just get messed up at work anyway.”
“Yeah, but it would still look so pretty while it lasts!” Jester pouted, but Beau simply glanced at her and she sighed, “You’re really no fun at all.”
Beau rolled her eyes, but smiled fondly, “You and I both know that’s bullshit, but alright.”
Jester giggled at that, “I didn’t mean like that, Beau.” She shook her head a little and gently touched her face to test the hardness of the face mask.
Nott made a choking noise, “Please don’t talk about my children’s sex lives.”
“Damn, I was just about to tell everyone about how good Caleb is in bed.” Molly smirked and narrowly dodged the pillow that was promptly flung as their face.
“Do not talk about my son like that!” Nott screeched and nearly lunged at them, only to be held back easily by Yasha.
Molly laughed as she struggled in the other woman’s arms, “Okay, okay. Maybe next time.” Nott screamed at that, making them laugh harder.
When the time came, two at a time crowded around the bathroom sink to wash off the face masks, then they all communed once again on the floor of the living room to paint each other’s nails. Molly volunteered to paint detailed designs on those of anyone interested, and Jester and Nott promptly took them up on their offer. Jester squealed when they added small hearts and rainbows with the deft hands of someone who carefully colored in intricate tattoo designs daily. They added the small touches of what looked like lace on Nott’s in a slightly lighter shade of gray. She smiled softly as she watched them work and stared at it long after they had finished it up. As she moved to climb onto the couch and lean against Yasha as she liked to while watching movies, Nott felt Molly slip the bottle of dark gray nail polish into her pocket; when she looked at them, they simply winked at her and leaned back against the couch and opened their arms for Jester to cuddle into their side.
Another text lit up Molly’s phone when the movie was almost over. They reached over for it, trying not to disturb Jester, who had fallen asleep against them. There was a picture from Caleb, one of himself, Caduceus, and Fjord sitting in a booth at a bar and smiling at the camera. The caption read, ‘I am glad. <3’
Molly sent a picture of themself carefully kissing the top of Jester’s sleeping head, then set their phone aside again to enjoy the end of the movie. Yasha nudged their shoulder with her leg, and they smiled up at her. She leaned down to kiss Molly’s forehead. Molly hummed happily and rested their head on her knee as she reached down to run her fingers through their long hair.
As they started to doze off, Molly felt contentment settle into their bones and warm them. They truly felt happy.
~*~
It took Molly almost five minutes to pry Jester off themself the next morning.
“I’m so glad you came last night, it was so much fun! You’re gonna join us again next month, right?” Jester looked up at them and pouted.
“We’ll see.” When she only pouted more, Molly sighed and smiled, brushing her bangs aside a bit, “I did have fun, I don’t see why not.”
Jester squealed at that and hugged them tighter before finally letting them go, “Okay! I’ll see you later, I love you!”
“Love you, too, Jes.” Molly hefted their bag of nail polish further up on their shoulder and waved to Nott and Beau behind Jester, “See you all later.”
Molly headed down the stairs with Yasha after she had kissed Beau and Jester goodbye, practically skipping down the several flights. Yasha watched them with a small smile on her face. She hadn’t seen them this happy since after their first date with Caleb and it warmed her heart to see how good being with the girls for the night had made them feel.
Once she had unlocked the car and they were both buckled in, Yasha started driving them to Molly’s apartment. She reached over to hold their hand and felt them squeeze it softly in return. Molly looked at her, a shy smile on their lips, “Thank you again. I really had a good time.”
“I’m glad. You’re free to join us any time you want. I think Jester likes having you there for it.” Yasha squeezed their hand with that.
Molly chuckled, “Yeah, I could tell. I think I may take you all up on that offer.” They winked and looked back out the window, watching the various storefronts and office buildings of Zadash fly past until they finally reached Molly’s apartment building. They hopped out of the car and grabbed their bag from the backseat, but paused to lean through the window and kiss Yasha’s cheek, “I’d invite you up, but I think Caleb will probably want a day for just the two of us.”
“I understand. Say hello to him for me.”
“Of course. Let me know when you get home.” They flipped off a car that passed by a bit to close to where they were leaning against the car and started up towards the door, buzzing themself in and waving, “Love you!”
“You too.” Yasha called and made sure they were inside the building with the door closed behind them before driving home.
When Molly got up to the apartment, they were greeted by a loud howl from Frumpkin, who raced from where he was sitting on the couch with Caleb to brush against Molly’s legs. They bent down to scoop him up and kiss his head, “Hello, my sweet little asshole. I hope you weren’t too lonely without me.”
“I was with him most of the night.” Caleb frowned a bit at that and paused the movie he was watching. Molly set their bag down, one arm still cradling Frumpkin, and smiled when they saw how comfortable Caleb looked. He was curled up on the couch under the softest blanket in the apartment, nursing a cup of coffee in the mug Molly had given to him last Winter’s Crest that had simple art of kittens playing on it. As Molly plopped down on the couch and brought their legs up, Frumpkin immediately cuddling into their thighs with his head resting against their chest.
“Yeah, but you were asleep most of the time.” Molly scratched Frumpkin’s head with one long nail, “He didn’t get to cuddle with his momma.”
Caleb rolled his eyes at that and shifted to rest his head on Molly’s shoulder, “Did you enjoy yourself last night?”
Molly leaned their head against Caleb’s, careful to not rest on their horns, “I did. It was very fun. How was it with Fjord and Caddy?”
“Gut.” Caleb yawned, “We had to tell Caduceus that going to lunch with Pumat the other day was actually a date and not simply spending time with a friend.”
“Maybe it was just a friendship lunch.” Molly hummed.
Caleb shook his head a little, “I do not think friend lunches end with a kiss and asking for another date soon. His exact words.”
That made Molly laugh a little, carefully so as not to disturb where Frumpkin was already nodding off, “Huh. It’s about time. Pumat’s been obviously pining after him for a while.”
“Ja, it has been a long time coming.” Caleb glanced down at Molly’s nails, “Those look nice. Did Jester do them?”
Molly straightened their fingers out so Caleb could see them better, the small bit of sparkles she added to them shimmering in the light, “Yeah, she did. We’re matching. She has lavender with little blue hearts.”
“That is cute.” Caleb turned his head to kiss Molly’s shoulder, “I would like to finish this movie, then maybe we could take a nap?”
“I would love that. I adore those girls, but Beau’s snoring nearly made me smother her in her sleep.”
“You would do that anyway.” Caleb chuckled and pressed ‘play’ on the movie, cuddling a bit closer to Molly.
“Mm, you’re right. I absolutely would.” Molly kissed the top of Caleb’s head and leaned closer to their boyfriend, only vaguely paying attention to the movie as they thought about how much they loved their friends and appreciated their support. They closed their eyes and started to nod off within a few minutes, contentment settling in their chest alongside all the love they held for the ragtag group of idiots they were happy to call family.