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The sun shone brightly onto Zelda’s face and she squinted viciously by reflex. For the life of her, she couldn’t think as to why she had left the curtains open, a habit she wasn’t accustomed to usually.
She gently stirred awake after violently throwing herself to face the other direction, her eyelashes fluttering open followed by her hand coming up to rest on her aching forehead.
Her eyes squinted as she looked around the room, landing on a large grey armchair in the corner of the room surrounded by cushions of every shape and size that were certainly not hers.
Reaching over to her bedside table, she grasped her glasses after fumbling about for a few moments and put them on her head and then the realisation hit her that she wasn’t in her own house.
It should have dawned on her quicker; the different bedding, the curtains being open but her head throbbed with what she could only assume was a vodka related hang over.
So where the fuck was she?
She scrambled up immediately to the top of the bed, suddenly feeling very vulnerable as she realised she wore nothing on her legs and ensured her bottom half was covered by the duvet.
Her thoughts were lost as she tried to logically trace her steps. She was definitely meant to be at home because she was meant to be with her family last night at Baxter High’s ridiculous prom function.
Getting out of bed, she located her skirt and tights which were neatly folded on a vanity, helping her identify that if she did sleep with anyone last night, at least it was a woman.
She made the bed neatly, folding the covers nicely and placing all the pillows back where she hoped they went. Hilda would of approved anyway therefore Zelda noted it a job well done.
Deciding that whoever was downstairs wouldn’t mind her staying two extra minutes to pin her hair back, she quickly sat down by the vanity and pulled her hair up into a loose ponytail, a hairstyle which styled with her glasses perfectly.
By reflex, she picked up the nearest tube of lipstick and popped it open before stopping in her tracks. The headache was still very much there so she excused herself for imagining that the shade would be her usual nude. A wave of nausea hit her hard when she seen the shade was blood red.
Not all of it, but some of last night came flooding back to her and she put the lipstick down with a thud as she reminisced her argument with Lilith down a corridor of Baxter High before she’d pulled the aggravating woman to her and kissed her senseless.
It was all very fast and hard hitting as Lilith had slammed her back into a classroom door, trying and failing to open it with her hand before giving up and magically opening it.
But she was very much sober at that point, because she had only magicked a bottle of vodka and poured it into a glass when Lilith had slammed the classroom door hard while walking out on her, just after Zelda had whispered a “I can’t do this,” onto her lips.
Zelda was trembling when she took the first swig, watching Lilith from across the hall where she was seated with another teacher, all smiles and acting as if nothing had ever happened.
The second swig burned. But the third swig came easier, as did the third bottle.
Before she braved downstairs, she promised herself that she would be ignoring her feelings and leaving as soon as she had uttered a ‘thank you’ and a definite ‘this will be the last time.’
But when she did finally brave downstairs, after much contemplation of sneaking out through the bathroom window, she found herself helplessly glued to her spot when she met Lilith’s eye’s.
“Good afternoon,” she had spoke, emphasising the fact it wasn’t the morning but Zelda glazed the words over as she drank in this incredibly domestic image of Lilith.
Donned in what she could only assume to be Mary Wardwell’s pink fluffy set of robes with matching slippers, Lilith’s own hair was scraped back into a ponytail and her curls hung lose.
“Do you only wear your green robe to seduce me?” she quipped, a pang of disappointment sweeping through her at her inability to see any cleavage.
Lilith grinned and Zelda winced, turning to face the door as she remembered her promise to herself and aimed to walk out of it before Lilith came striding over, blocking her pathway.
“I’m not in the mood to play your games,” Zelda began, trying her hardest to come across as intimidating even in the state she looked, “I have a seething headache.”
Lilith’s scoff unified with Zelda rolled eyes as she told her, “I can imagine, you were hammered.”
“Spare me the details,” she groaned, hand shooting for the door handle but Lilith grasped it with a grin.
“Oh, no. You’ll want to hear this.”
Zelda huffed in annoyance, “If I fell asleep half way through sex then I definitely don’t want to hear it.”
Lilith pulled back rather abruptly, suddenly feeling sick herself, “We didn’t have sex.”
“We didn’t?” Zelda asked genuinely, her eyes wide as Lilith knitted her eyebrows in disgust and reinforced that she was absolutely out of it and she knew she thought she was evil but she didn’t think she thought that low of her.
Zelda was suddenly all apologies, bringing her hands up to Lilith’s jaw and grabbing it as she told her firmly that she assumed wrongly and she would never doubt her.
“You told me you loved me.” Lilith suddenly blurted out, her eyes serious and her posture weak.
She had worked on this all morning, she was going to relentlessly tease her to get her to admit it soberly, not tear up in front of her. But the overwhelming smell of her perfume and the feel of her hands on her cheeks made her give up.
It was silent for a second and Zelda brought her hands down, instead choosing to clasp them together and bring them to rest in front of her.
“Vodka.” she said silently, as if Lilith would take a one word alcoholic drink as an explanation.
It was silent again until Lilith sharply breathed, almost angrily out of her nose and moved away from the door, giving her any access she wanted to leave before going into the kitchen.
Zelda faced the wooden door for a few moments before turning on her heel and walking slowly into the kitchen.
“What did you say back?”
Lilith had her back to her. She didn’t want her to see her like this. Desperate for love. Desperate for affection. Desperate for her.
“I said,” she spoke with a sad tint in her voice as she tapped a tea spoon on a mug twice, “That I love you too and then held your hair while you were violently sick into my downstairs toilet.”
They weren’t accustomed to this sort of conversation, not in the slightest. This was teenage talk and Zelda had used it in the past but she had grew more accustomed to the teasing and the bickering flirting type that her and Lilith seemed to favour.
“Didn’t have you down as a mid afternoon tea drinker.”
Lilith’s head whipped round and she quipped a, “Didn’t have you down as a Thursday night vodka drinker.”
Zelda nodded, her lips tightly shut. She deserved that.
“I don’t want to fight anymore.” she told her as Lilith’s eyes finally looked up and met her equally as sad pair.
Again, Lilith exhaled a sharp breath but didn’t shift her facial expression, leaning back on the counter and folding her eyes.
“Because I love you,” Zelda continued, “And you’re not supposed to fight with the people you love.”
Lilith blinked in surprise but silently thanked that bottle of vodka that had spurred the eldest Spellman to appear at her door at 1am this morning, rattling on about how she loved her.
“You have a bloody good go at it.” Lilith said, her voice firm but her mouth twitched into a smirk as Zelda walked over to where she was standing in the kitchen.
“Shut up.” she teased back, and Lilith found herself grinning in response before it was wiped off her face when her lover bent down to kiss her.
She immediately lead the familiar trail to land in her hair, tugging lightly at her ponytail to grab her attention again.
“What?” Zelda murmured against her lips, “I still have a headache remember.”
“Say it again.” Lilith whispered and Zelda’s eyes shot open and pierced down at her as she met Lilith’s knowing and teasing gaze.
“I love you.”
She spoke them as if they were the three easiest words to say in the world. Lilith snapped her fingers to swap Mary’s robe with her own emerald robe and pushed her girlfriend’s back into the kitchen counter, leaning down to kiss off her grin.