Chapter Text
"So, like, hypothetically, if you had to choose one from the friend group...to date...who would it be?"
Their faces are close. Fatou can't focus on anything but Kieu My. So. Close.
Now...this.
This question.
What kind of question even is that?
It sounds like...flirting.
No. Kieu My wouldn't flirt with her. Right?
Fatou stares at her eyes and actually witnesses Kieu My's gaze dropping to her lips.
This can't be happening
Okay so Kieu My is flirting.
Now, what to do with that knowledge?
A good strategy would probably be to lean back and stop this; before it ends in Kieu My realizing what she just did and inevitably breaking Fatou's heart.
Yes, good idea.
Fatou swallows and opens her mouth to say something along the lines of "Haha, I don't date friends."
Instead what comes out is: "Well that depends."
Kieu My’s eyes flicker back to Fatou's eyes.
"Depends on what?"
Fatou closes her eyes briefly. She can't back out now.
Contorting her face into what she hopes conveys brave, Fatou opens her eyes again and meets the other girl's gaze.
"If we're friends or not."
She can feel Kieu My’s breath on her face.
"What does that mean?" Kieu My leans even closer.
Trying not to look at the other girl's lips, Fatou tilts her head to the side. "You know what it means."
Okay, it's clear now.
Fatou's body tenses up in anticipation when Kieu My lifts a hand to her face.
The taller girl slowly cups her cheek, her thumb almost grazing Fatou's lower lip.
This time it's Fatou who leans in, pushing forward until their lips finally connect, tension buzzing around them.
Kieu My lets out a small gasp. Fatou can't help but smile into the kiss.
Kieu My happily reciprocates, taking Fatou's face into her hands and trying to position herself better to deepen the kiss.
Fatou's hand, which was kind of still in the bowl of popcorn, is awkwardly trapped between the bowl and Kieu My's body.
She tries to slowly move it out of this, to be honest, very uncomfortable position, but in her daze and this increasingly heated "interaction", she instead pulls her hand out quickly, which sends the bowl flying through the whole room, landing on the floor with a loud clattering sound. The missing obstacle also causes Kieu My to now basically slip and fall into Fatou's lap.
Kieu My pushes herself up with a rather dumbfounded expression.
They awkwardly look at each other. Fatou wishes she could slap herself for ruining this moment.
Fatou finally opens her mouth to end this horrifying silence, when both are startled by a groan which isn't theirs.
Then it hits her.
"Ava," she breathes out, looking at the slowly moving figure, now sprawled out across the floor.
Kieu My still in her lap, Fatou begins to giggle.
This startles them both, and after a few seconds, Kieu My joins in.
They quietly try to shush each other, and Kieu My even tries to sit up and compose herself.
Once the room is quiet again, Fatou glances at Ava, who is luckily still asleep.
"I should probably get her to bed." She looks at the other girl, who is still desperately trying to save her ice queen persona by fixing her slightly messed up hair.
"Yeah...uhm-"
There it is again.
The awkward silence.
Fatou bites her lip, thinking about what they just did.
"I-" Kieu My interrupts her
"Whatever you're about to say, we should get Ava to bed first, okay?"
Fatou nods and Kieu My smiles shyly before slowly getting up.
"So...how are we gonna do this?"
Fatou shrugs and taps Ava's back.
"Psssst, Ava!"
The girl groans and rolls on her back.
"C'mon, we’re gonna get you to bed."
After a while, Fatou manages to coax Ava from her sleep, while Kieu My cleans up the popcorn on the floor, and not too long after, Ava is lying in her bed, peacefully snoring.
Fatou steps out of Ava's room, quietly closing the door.
As she turns around, she's startled by Kieu My standing right in front of her.
"gAH!” “...hey," both try (and fail) to keep their cool.
Kieu My starts bouncing on her feet
"Soooo, what's your plan now?"
Fatou can't help looking at Kieu My's lips again, still a bit swollen from their little session.
"Uhm, how about I make us some tea? I don't think I wanna leave yet." She smiles up at the other girl, who is nodding her head excitedly.
The two of them working in the kitchen is weirdly comfortable. They are still dancing around each other and no one has said a thing about what happened earlier.
But since neither of their reactions were bad, the air around them is more so one of anticipation than of fear.
Each waiting for the other to make the next move.
Despite being two girls in a strange household, they actually manage to make tea.
Fatou suddenly remembers that Nora always stashes secret cookies in a corner of one of the cabinets.
She goes up to it and stretches but-
She's too short.
She begins turning around, "Hey, Kieu My, would you mind-"
"Don't worry, I got it."
Kieu My is already standing behind Fatou.
She reaches out one hand for the cookies in the cabinet, while resting the other on Fatou's shoulder.
Fatou is now trapped. Again. This time between Kieu My and the kitchen counter.
The close proximity gives her goosebumps and makes it practically impossible to ignore her rapidly rising heart rate.
"Thanks." She mumbles when Kieu My sets the cookies on the counter.
Fatou now has enough space to turn around.
Though doing this seems to bring her face dangerously close to Kieu My, since the other girl had apparently not considered stepping back yet.
Their gazes meet again, and this time there is no one stopping them from leaning in. So they do exactly that. Kieu My bowing down slightly and Fatou stretching to meet her halfway.
Their lips touch. They kiss softly, savouring this moment.
Kieu My's hands somehow find their way to Fatou's neck, resting there as the two of them get lost in their kiss.
Unsure of what to do with her hands, Fatou decides to place them on Kieu My's waist, after flailing them around for a bit.
The kiss turns less innocent after a while though, Kieu My successfully pinning Fatou against the kitchen counter.
Increasingly heated kissing and short breaths fill the apartment, still, things calm down after a few minutes.
Kieu My finally takes a step back and looks at Fatou with her flushed face and beautifully dishevelled hair.
Fatou has to hold on to the counter behind her, not trusting her wobbly legs.
Catching her breath, she looks up at Kieu My.
"You didn't take my hand first," she says, remembering their little flirting lesson earlier.
The other girl just grins and grabs Fatou's hand, dragging her back to the table where their, now cold, tea is waiting.
The next ten minutes are easy again.
Each of them drinking their tea, trying not to beam too much at each other.
Until, suddenly, an old fear sparks up inside Fatou.
For once, Fatou speaks up.
"Can we...not pretend this never happened?"
She looks up at Kieu My, who's sitting there with raised eyebrows.
The ice queen bites her lip and clicks her nails against her cup.
She takes a deep breath.
"I wasn't planning on doing that."
Her look is sincere. The cold distance from before is now a relic of the past.
"Okay," Fatou smiles and looks back down at her cup.
"I think I should go home soon," Kieu My says, causing her to look up again.
"But," the tall girl continues, "Can I maybe text you later tonight?"
Fatou nods, grinning again.
"I would like that," they smile at each other.
"We should do this more often," the smaller girl sips her tea and looks out the window.
For some reason, Kieu My starts choking on her tea and coughs, going completely red, "Which part do you mean exactly?"
Now it's Fatou's turn to blush, realizing what her sentence might have implied. "I was actually talking about watching a horror movie together. Apparently good things come from zombies."
They smile at each other and continue drinking their tea.
When their cups are dry, Kieu My leaves, albeit not without stealing one more kiss from Fatou and some secret cookies from Nora.
Closing the door, Fatou sighs happily. Exhausted, she enters Ava's room quietly.
Her friend is still sleeping peacefully, so Fatou steps around her things carefully and lies down on the other side of the bed to watch over her.
After a while she drifts off, barely missing her phone buzzing with the promised message from Kieu My.