Work Text:
(i)
“You’ve kept it real nice in here, Miss Cordelia” Misty sighs as she trails a hand over the wooden desk littered with bottles and vials. Cordelia smiles softly, her hands clasped loosely in front of her.
“I try my best” she says simply. Misty grins and turns back to the work surface and some of the tools Cordelia has clearly been using most recently. She picks up a heavy stone pestle and lazily taps it into the remnants of ground passionflower roots which sit in the bottom of the mortar and briefly wonders why Cordelia had been working with the plant often used to relive anxiety and insomnia. She can feel Cordelia’s gaze on her, an almost nervousness settling about the woman, as if she is unsure how Misty will react to being back in the greenhouse. It had been a couple of days since Nan had taken Misty’s hand and lead her home, and in that time, Cordelia had been cautious not to overwhelm her friend with information and memories. They had only ended up there as, over a mug of herbal tea, Misty had looked up and so quietly asked if they could go and see the greenhouse. Cordelia had agreed with only a minimal hesitation.
“Do you still come down here often?” Misty asked throwing the question over her shoulder. Cordelia hummed faintly before answering.
“I try to come down as often as I can, but it’s not been as often as I would like recently. It tends to be late at night when most of the girls have gone to bed”.
“That’s the best time, anyway”. Cordelia lowers her gaze to her hands and smiles softly.
“I guess you’re right”.
Having Misty back has been a little overwhelming after so long without her walking the corridors of the academy, sheer fabrics and tasseled shawls flowing behind every step. It had taken an awfully long time for Cordelia to not wince every time she came down for her morning coffee and not see Misty sat at the kitchen table with some form of herbal tea in her hands, coffee pot ready and waiting for Cordelia. But no matter how difficult that had been, it was also proving hard to readjust to having Misty back, right in front of her and so beautifully alive.
“Well, the plants are lookin’ great” Misty said, having moved to look at some of the larger plants which stood in the corner of the greenhouse, her fingers moving over one of the luscious green leaves. Cordelia felt her words sounded a little too much like small talk for her liking.
“They missed you, Misty” Cordelia said, finally moving away from the greenhouse door and further into the building. Misty turned and looked as Cordelia came closer and then perched on the edge of a worn wooden stool. Her fingers still absently playing with the plant leaf, Misty looked at Cordelia for a moment, taking in the soft fall of her hair over one side of her face, the sincere smile playing at the corner of her lips, and the quiet intensity that had formed in her eyes. She paused.
“I’ve missed them too” she finally says, knowing that neither of them are solely speaking about the plants, but it will do for now. Misty glances back to the plant for a second, moving the greenery between her forefinger and thumb again, tapping it once and then sighing heavily. She then decides that maybe it won’t do. She’s been stuck there for so long, and she’s had enough of not being able to say or do what she wants of her own free will. Stepping over to Cordelia on her perch, she wraps her arms around her and brings her into a tight hug. Cordelia’s eyes widen at the action momentarily, her face pressed into Misty’s shoulder as the necromancer stands above her, and she chuckles gently.
“Misty…” she mumbles through her light laugher, but brings her hands up and returns the hug, her hands landing on Misty’s sharp shoulder blades.
Misty pulls back, entirely unabashed by her sudden display of emotion, and smiles down at Cordelia brightly.
“I’ve missed you too, Miss ‘Delia, not just the plants and this place.” She raises her hands and gestures around her, bouncing on her toes slightly. “I’m just real glad to be back.” Cordelia stands, slightly overwhelmed with the sheer amount of joy Misty seems to be radiating, and she’s hit with the urge to laugh. For a moment, she feels some of the weight of the Supremacy has been lifted from her shoulders and she’s just here with her friend, amongst their plants like the world didn’t possess so much darkness and she’d never been lost. Instead, she steps closer to Misty and raises a hand to her face, gently tracing a finger down the back of her cheek, and then brings both hands up to clasp her face in her palms. She thinks about saying how much she’s missed Misty too. Thinks about telling her how many times she had tried to pull her back from where she was, how she’d been distraught when she’d crumbled to dust and how she’d often wondered if becoming Supreme would have been easier if she’d had her nearby with all her glorious pure goodness and light. But she decides against it all. Instead, she just ever so briefly pressing their foreheads together and then pulls back.
There’s a beat as Cordelia’s thumb runs over Misty’s cheekbone, and Misty plays lightly with the fabric at Cordelia’s elbow. Cordelia then drops her hands to Misty’s shoulders, running her fingers over biceps as she lowers her arms, breaking their connection.
“There’s a couple stubborn plants over on the other side that don’t seem to like me. Want to see if you can give them a new lease of life?” Cordelia asks, her voice lower than she had intended, but Misty either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care. Her face lights up at the thought of getting her hands back in the earth, and she beams, nodding her head vigorously.
“Yes!” she grins “where are they?” she asks, glancing around her. Cordelia simply smiles back at her and points over to several plants, leaves tipped with brown and very few flowers blooming. Misty immediately turns to make her way over to them, but then stops, and looks back over her shoulder to Cordelia who hasn’t moved. “You are going to help me, ain’t you?” she asks, suddenly unsure if Cordelia will stay with her to revive the plants and unwilling to be left alone in the greenhouse now that she’s back here after so long. Cordelia smiles, and moves over to where Misty is standing.
“Course”.
(ii)
Hearing voices as she walked into the greenhouse, Cordelia paused briefly. She had thought that Misty would have been finished with teaching and would have left by now, although she had been known to hang around the greenhouse after her classes, pottering around amongst the plants.
Misty had been unwilling to teach a regular class, but she had so much knowledge and was such a natural when it came to passing it onto the students in a way they understood that Cordelia had managed to convince her to hold the occasional ad hoc session for the girls that were interested in learning from Misty. She’s suspected there would be quite a bit of take up when offered, but she’d not expected the sign-up sheet to be filled within the day as it had been. She’s been thrilled for Misty, who had insisted no one would want to learn from a swamp witch, and loved seeing the blonde growing from an apprehensive teacher to enthusiastically announcing she’d be hosting a session whenever she felt she had something new she could share. The girls hung off her every word and Cordelia wasn’t sure if that was down to the pure enthusiasm she had for the topic, or the infectious charm of Misty Day which meant many of the girls were simply enthralled with her.
Coming into the greenhouse now, Misty looked up from where she was crouched over a small pot of aloe vera with one of the younger students who had clearly stayed behind to ask a couple questions.
“Hey Miss Cordelia” Misty grinned, sending her a wave. Cordelia raised both her hands in a defensive sign, and shook her head with a smile, moving past the two girls.
“Sorry, sorry. Pretend I’m not even here. Do carry on”. She moved over to the workbench that was littered with her notes now mixed among papers with Misty’s scrawl. As she began to flick through them and look for the documents she was searching for, she smiled to herself. She picked up a stack of papers - most of them with writing only covering half a sheet of paper before going onto the next piece - and smiled as she saw Misty’s notes for her session on swamp mud. There were reams and reams of half-considered notes, in no logical order, with a couple of rough diagrams scattered in between. As she turned a page over, she laughed lightly at a splash of brown right across one page which had caused the ink to bleed, rendering the writing nearly completely illegible.
Cordelia jumped as she felt a weight press onto her shoulder and a “whatcha lookin’ at?” was murmured into her ear. Cordelia hadn’t noticed that Misty had tied up her conversation with the young student and the girl had left, leaving the two witches entirely alone. Misty giggled, her chin resting over Cordelia’s right shoulder and one hand gently placed on the back of her left elbow to steady herself as she leant over the Supreme and looked down at the papers in her hand. Cordelia smiled and waved a hand over the mess of papers.
“I was trying to find a document, but… to no avail”. Leaning her head back slightly so she could turn her head and look at Misty who was still resting on her shoulder, she waved the paper with the brown splatter across it in front of her friend’s face.
“What happened here?” she asked with a smirk. Misty grimaced and then laughed lightly, both hands falling to Cordelia’s waist and jabbed the tips of her fingers into her waist as if to punish her for raising Misty’s clumsy actions. Cordelia squealed briefly at the poking and then raised an eyebrow, encouraging Misty to explain.
She’d been tense under Misty’s constant touches at first, her whole body stiffening as a hand was laid on her hip to softly nudge her out the way as the Cajun passed her, or landed heavily on her knee and grasped when something she said was deemed so funny the swamp witch almost doubled over and reached out without thinking, or as fingertips grasped her wrist to examine her tattoo so closely that breath fell over the sensitive skin sending shivers down her spine. But she was becoming more and more used to the constant closeness and it was starting to feel entirely natural to have her body teased and poked by Misty Day.
Still practically draped over her, Misty groaned and then stepped back from Cordelia, moving her chin from her shoulder and standing upright. A spark darted through Cordelia as the hands were removed from her waist, and Misty turned to lean back against the workbench next to her, her arms now crossed.
“Knocked over a pot of mud, didn’t I” she explained, rolling her eyes at Cordelia’s soft “ah”.
“Well, if you could please try and avoid my papers, it would be very appreciated”. At that, Misty perked up and suddenly turned towards the desk, lifting a knee onto it, and stretching up to a shelf that had a bunch of plants on but was a little too high up to be useful. Hank had installed it years ago, and it still made Cordelia mad every time she had to stand on the workbench’s stool to retrieve anything from it. Cordelia averted her eyes as Misty’s thigh peeked out from under the lifting material of her short, draped dress and thin tassled cardigan.
“I saw these ones this morning and thought they looked important, so I put them out the way for ya” Misty explained, thumping back onto the floor with a pile of papers in her hands.
“Ah, they’re the ones I was looking for. Thank you, Misty” Cordelia grinned, mainly at how pleased Misty seemed with herself for thinking ahead. “How did the class go?” she asked as she started looking through the stack of papers in search of a particular contract.
“Yeah, ya know. The girls listen real well. They’re coming on a lot. I think they like when I give’em little tasks to do, ya know? There ain’t any complaints like when Zoe does” Misty giggled, and Cordelia looked up to her with a smile.
“They love your classes, Mist. You’re a wonderful teacher,” turning back to the papers, Cordelia adds quietly, “and I think it helps that half of the girls have a massive crush on you”. Misty stops playing with the tassels on her cardigan and sharply looks up at Cordelia with wide eyes, then snorts with laughter, clearly flustered.
“Wha – no they don’t, ‘Delia.” As Cordelia says nothing in return, Misty stands up straight and turns to face her friend more. “Oh, come on” she flushes, and Cordelia can’t keep the smirk off her face.
“Mm-hmm” she gives a non-committal hum.
“They don’t! Why would you think that?” her voice gets higher pitched as she argues back.
“Oh, come on. The way most of those girls look at you, they’d give half their powers for a minute of your attention” Cordelia can’t keep the laughter from her voice as she now looks up at Misty and takes in her endearingly flushed cheeks.
“That ain’t true! And anyway, that ain’t nothing compared to how those girls ogle after you like they ain’t ever seen anything as beautiful walkin’ the earth”. Misty thinks she might have said a little too much as Cordelia raises one eyebrow at her, but the thought is taken from her as Cordelia shrugs one shoulder and begins shuffling through papers again.
“Well, what can I say. I’m glowing. They can’t help themselves” she dead-pans. Misty looks at her for a second in silence, and the burst out laughing, reaching over to shove Cordelia’s shoulder harshly, thrilled at the small smile curling at Cordelia’s lips.
(iii)
“Are you okay, Miss Delia?” Misty asks gingerly. They’d been working side by side for most of the evening, but instead of the easy atmosphere that usually encompassed the greenhouse, she could feel tension coming from Cordelia in waves. The Supreme hadn’t put on the music that nearly always accompanied their evenings amongst the plants and Misty had gotten the feeling it wouldn’t be a good idea for her to go and put a record on, but the silence was now crushing in on her. At first, Misty had tried to make conversation, asking more questions than usual to try and coax something from the woman by her side, but after so many one-word answers and non-committal sounds, Misty had given up.
Now, as she watched out of the corner of her eye and saw the potion Cordelia was working on spit and turn black for the second time, Misty frowned. She’d rarely seen Cordelia need to make a potion more than once, especially since she became Supreme, and she’d seen her make this particular concoction numerous times before. She wasn’t sure what had happened between dinner when the coven had sat together and enjoyed the meal, the dining room full of laughter, and now when Cordelia seemed almost sullen.
With the silence that followed her question, Misty thought Cordelia was going to ignore her entirely, and the reality stung. Just as she was deciding if she should ask again or pack up what she was doing and head to bed for the night, Cordelia sighed heavily, placing her hands down on the surface of the worktop and hanging her head.
“I thought you were happy here?” she asks softly, not lifting her head. Misty’s brow creased with confusion but she doesn’t answer, entirely thrown by the question. Cordelia looks up at her, the silence stretching between them becoming thick. “I thought you were happy being back here”. This time it’s a statement and Misty is sure she can hear the words are laced with sadness.
“I…am?” and she is. She really is. She’s not sure where this is coming from. Cordelia gives a small huff of dry laughter and pokes absentmindedly at the rim of the glass tube she had been using for the potion she’d been working on. “Cordelia?” Misty pushes when it becomes clear she’s getting nothing else. She lays a hand on the Supreme’s arm to gently get her attention and is surprised when her friend jerks back. Cordelia turns to her sharply.
“You said at dinner you were going back to your swamp” she says shortly, her body facing Misty but her gaze lowered. It does nothing to clear up Misty’s confusion.
“…yeah?” she nudges.
“I thought you were happy here” Cordelia repeats and Misty sighs, realising she’s going to have to take a bit of control of the conversation if she’s going to get any further.
“’Delia, I am happy here. You know I am, it’s my home. But I’ve been back for weeks now and haven’t seen my swamp, and I miss it something dreadful. I wanna make sure hunters ain’t taken it over and burnt it to the ground” she says with a wry smile. Cordelia looks up at her through her lashes momentarily.
“They haven’t” she says softly. Again, Misty is puzzled.
“How can you know that?” Cordelia turns back to the work surface and picks up a pipette, idly squeezing a couple of drops of lavender extract into a tube. They both know the addition will do nothing.
“I’d go down and check a couple of times a year while you were away” she confesses. “I wanted to make sure your plants were alive for when you came back.” Misty is struck by the lack of question in her voice, as if she never doubted that somehow, she’d return.
“That’s… that’s awful kind of you” Misty says dumbly. Cordelia seems slightly emboldened, and the tension is still hanging low in the room, but Misty thinks for the first time that she had a good chance of dispersing it at some point.
“I checked on your shack, too. Kept it clean for you. I…I may have upgraded a couple of bits and pieces. There’s a new record player, and I got you a bigger bed. That kind of thing.” She gives a small dismissive shrug and seems almost shy about the confession, but Misty is blown away by the generosity of her friend.
“You didn’t need to do that” she tells the blonde but is then struck by something. “But if you kept it all nice for me, why are you upset that I wanna go and see it?” she asks, unsure how her question will be greeted. Cordelia frowns slightly.
“I just thought you were happy here after you came back. I didn’t realise you would want to move back to your shack”. She shakes her head as if clearing her thought, drops the pipette she still had in her hand onto the table, and straightens her spine, turning to look directly at Misty for the first time since dinner. When she speaks, her voice is stronger, back to being Supreme and not the surly woman who had replaced her all evening. “But you should go, Misty. You belong out there among the animals and earth. I understand”. Misty continues to frown at her.
“You…want me to go?” she asks, feeling like she’d been punched in the gut by the change of Cordelia’s demeanour and her words. Cordelia sighs.
“You need to go wherever you feel is best for you, Misty.”
“Miss Cordelia, I don’t want to leave.” She states and can hear the edge of a plea in her words. Cordelia pauses, searching her eyes, a small crinkle of confusion between her eyebrows.
“I thought you wanted to go?” Misty shakes her head slowly, starting to slowly piece together where their crossed wires had come from.
“Nah, I love it here. This is my home. But Zoe asked me what I was gonna do over the next week seein’ as the girls are on break, and I said I told her I was gonna go back to my shack. I didn’t mean forever, ‘Delia. A couple days at the most. I just wanna spend a bit of time out in the wild, ya know?” she can almost see tension releasing from Cordelia’s shoulders.
“I thought you were moving back for good” Cordelia says simply, taking in that she had completely misunderstood the conversation she had half overheard across the dinner table between listening to Madison scold one of her students. Misty shook her head.
“Is that why you’ve been so cranky all evening? Thought I’d upset ya real bad” Cordelia sighed. She’d not meant to take it out on her friend, but she had been particularly put out that after coming back and seeming so happy, Misty had made the decision to move back out to the swamp and away from the academy and Cordelia.
“I’m sorry, I was just thrown off by the thought of you leaving us”.
“And leavin’ you?” Misty asked, trying to lighten the atmosphere by teasing her friend and nudging her shoulder lightly. But instead of the smile she had hoped to raise, Cordelia looked at her with the same serious face and nodded.
“Yeah.” Pausing for a moment, Misty wasn’t sure how to take the answer, so simply smiled, then turned to the work surface and looked over the scattered bottles, vials and plant matter for a distraction. She hummed softly, reaching across Cordelia to take the glass filled with the black liquid that still bubbled over the small flame in front of the headmistress. She could feel Cordelia’s eyes racking over her face and her cheeks grew pink under the gaze.
The eyes on her are all she can think about as she turns the small clamp system keeping the glass in place over the flame, and she doesn’t have a good enough hold on the glass as it tips and pours the hot liquid over the back of her hand. Her screech causes Cordelia to tear her eyes away from Misty’s face down to the mess that is now her desk and Misty’s hand with liquid that had started to bubble on her skin.
“My god, Misty” Cordelia yells, jumping to her feet to avoid the liquid dripping in her lap, and grabbing Misty’s wrist. She pulls the girl away from the table and looks down at the damage. Reaching the hand that isn’t clasping Misty’s shaking wrist out behind her towards where she knows there are some towels, she spreads her fingers and a cloth hurtles across the room and into her waiting hand. She instantly uses it to wipe the liquid off of the cursing blonde’s hand.
“Shit, Delia. That really hurts” she states the obvious as Cordelia works to get rid of all the black liquid, revealing burnt red skin underneath that makes her wince.
“I know, I know, Mist. Hold on, sweetheart” she sooths, and feels Misty’s spare hand come to cover her own fingers that are clasping her wrist and squeezing with her teeth gritted against the pain each pass of the cloth over her hand causes. Cordelia’s heart is hammering with adrenaline in her chest at the sudden change in atmosphere in the greenhouse.
With Misty’s hand clear of the burning substance, Cordelia tosses the cloth onto the table, and coaxes Misty to let go of the hand on her wrist so she can hover both hands over the girl’s damaged skin. With her eyes closed and heart hammering, she starts to mutter a quiet incantation. Misty hisses as the skin that has burnt and peeled from her hand begins to unfurl and stitch itself back together, and the sudden noise distracts the Supreme momentarily, causing the healing to stop.
“Stronger intent” Misty mutters the joke more to take her mind of the searing pain, but the small smile Cordelia gives her as her eyes flicker up to meet hers, the words not faltering from her lips, gives her a tiny and welcome distraction.
The pain begins to fade a little as the wound closes and her skin knits back together. As Cordelia finishes, she lowers her hands and scoops them underneath Misty’s to clasp it gently and bring it up so she can inspect her work. Misty is left with angry red welt over the back of her hand but as she flexes her fingers, it feels much better than it had done moments before.
“Healing’s more your thing, but I did my best” Cordelia says shyly, disappointed that it was still causing Misty to wince every time she moved her fingers.
“You did great, Delia” she reassured her, poking ever so gently at the sorest looking part of the wound. “A bit of mud will clear that up in no time”. She considers mentioning she’s all out of mud in the greenhouse and would need to head back to her swamp to get some more but feels like it’s not quite the right time to bring her shack up again. Silence fills the air for a moment as both women stare down at Misty’s hand and let the adrenaline leave their bodies,
“I’m sorry I overreacted earlier” Cordelia then said with a quiet sigh. Misty shrugs in a way she hopes comes across as nonchalant.
“S’alright. I’d be sad if I thought you were up and leaving too”. Cordelia meets her eyes.
“Yeah?” Misty nods.
“Course I would.” She pauses as Cordelia smiles softly. “Hey, Miss Cordelia,” she starts hesitantly, “you reckon you’d wanna come with me when I go? Show me what you’ve done with the place?” She’s not sure if Cordelia is going to want to come with her considering all the work she has at the academy, not to mention the fact she can barely picture the Supreme in her fancy clothes and sky-high shoes stomping through swamp mud. But before she can retract her question with a dismissive laugh, Cordelia is nodding at her.
“I’d like that very much, Misty.”
(iv)
Misty gasps as she comes into the greenhouse in a hurry, slamming the door with her back against it.
“God, I didn’t see you there, Miss Cordelia. Thought you’d be in bed by now” she laughs at the surprise of not being alone, lifting one hand up to shake through her damp curls that are now all over the place. Cordelia smiles over at her friend as she continues to move across the greenhouse, a thriving Echinacea plant in her hands that she is relocating to the other side of the room.
“What have we said about the ‘miss’, Misty?” she scolds lightly. It’s not that it bothers her that Misty calls her the name, it’s just that she doesn’t consider herself Misty’s teacher or elder or anything else that comes with the respectful title. She considers herself Misty’s friend and although the nickname amuses her no end, she’d much rather the loving “’Delia” that Misty goes to when she’s not using the title.
“Sorry” Misty says with a grin, knowing she’s not really being told off. She steps further into the greenhouse and hoists herself up onto the desk, kicking her feet playfully. “Quite a storm out there, huh?” she says, her face tilted up to the ceiling as she watches the rain hammer down on the glass. Cordelia hums in agreement. She’d intended to sort through some applications and then get an early night, but there was something about the storm that was building outside that made her restless and she’d found herself pottering around in the greenhouse with music playing softly in the background.
“I think it’s only going to get worse” she told the blonde, and Misty nodded as she kicked her feet. Hearing the music above the rain, she smiled to herself started to sway her shoulders along to the beat. It always sent a surge of joy through her when she found Cordelia listening to her music. There was a stack of other records kept at the back of the greenhouse, but more often than not she found Cordelia’s preference was one of the album’s Misty had added to the collection. She watched Cordelia calmly moving plants across the room, carefully picking through which ones she wanted and which ones could stay where they were. As she observed her friend, she sang along quietly.
“Well there is magic all around you if I do say so myself.
I have known this much longer than I have known you”.
Cordelia glanced over as she heard Misty singing and beamed, a smile that reached and lit her eyes.
“You like this one?” Misty nodded enthusiastically.
“Course I do”. Cordelia nodded with a soft laugh, placing the last plant down and the making her way over to Misty.
“Silly me.” She giggled. The track was coming to an end and the music faded away as the side of the record finished, leaving only the hammering of the rain outside filling the silence. Cordelia stood leaning against the desk next to Misty close enough that their hips touched. With her arms crossed over her chest, Cordelia glanced up at the roof for a moment, listening to the storm.
“Beautiful, ain’t it” Misty said quietly, and Cordelia nodded.
“I wouldn’t like to be outside in it though” Cordelia said. “There’s something about storms that unsettle me”. Misty looks at her curiously and Cordelia quickly clarifies. “I mean in my spirit. I love storms, but I get so restless when they roll in. It’s like all my plans go out the window and I feel there’s just such a level on uncertainty. It’s like anything can happen.”
“Maybe it can” Misty says softly. Cordelia keeps her eyes cast up to the ceiling but shuts them briefly, giving a small puff of laughter.
“Maybe it can” she repeats. The pair sit in comfortable silence for a moment as they listen. A flash of lightening shortly followed by a loud crack of thunder fills the greenhouse and they instinctively glance over at one another and then smile.
“I think storms remind me of my mother” Cordelia muses and Misty is surprised at the sudden mention of Fiona. Cordelia rarely mentions the old Supreme, and Misty feels privileged that it seems Cordelia is choosing to open up to her.
“Yeah?” Misty nudges when Cordelia doesn’t continue, and the older blonde nods.
“She was quite the hurricane” Cordelia jokes, and Misty chuckles with a raised eyebrow.
“You can say that again”.
“I think it’s the destruction they cause. You know it’s coming, and you think you know what you’re going to be greeted with when it’s blown over, but you never really know what damage you’re going to be met with when you come out the other side. Sometimes it’s not so bad, but sometimes…” she pauses.
“Deadly” Misty offers and Cordelia nods in agreement, glad that Misty seems to be following her train of thought.
“But god, it’s so beautiful to watch what they do, you know?” Cordelia continues, finally lowering her gaze and turning to look directly at Misty who nods for her to continue. “Fiona was everything this coven didn’t need, and we all knew she brought nothing but chaos, but no one could look away. She pulled everything and everyone into her orbit. I suppose that’s how she managed to destroy everything close to her”.
“She didn’t manage to destroy you” Misty said, and Cordelia looked at her with curiosity.
“What do you mean?” Mistry shrugged, reaching out to play distractedly with the ends of Cordelia’s hair.
“She didn’t destroy you and you were the closest thing to her. I think she taught you how to be your very own storm”. Cordelia frowned and laughed without any humour.
“Great” she dead panned.
“I’m serious”, Misty said. “’Delia, you’re everything good about your mother. Sure, she was hell, but boy did she command a room. She demanded respect. She knew exactly what she was doin’ even if it weren’t good, but she was smart as a whip, and Jesus was she powerful. You’re justa different type of hurricane”. Misty shrugged again, and her fingers gently tucked the piece of hair she had been touching behind Cordelia’s ear where it usually fell, before bringing her hands back to her sides and tucking her fingers under her thighs. Cordelia noticed the action and briefly wondered if Misty was trying to keep herself from reaching out.
“You’re the good kind. You’re the exciting one. The dance-in-the-rain kind”. Cordelia smiled.
“We’re not dancing in this, Misty” she said gently, more to disperse the thick atmosphere that had started to build as Misty had been speaking. The Cajun chuckled and shook her head.
“I wouldn’t dare risk ruining ya fancy shirt” she grinned, and then became serious again. It’s not a look Cordelia had seen on her very often, and there’s something about it that made her stomach flip. “But you’re the kind of storm your mamma could only wish she were. You’re the one that washes away the bad things. The one that brings new mornings and new starts and that air that ya just can’t stop breathin’ in”. Misty smiled and looked down at her knees. “And for what it’s worth,” she said much softer, “you’re real beautiful to watch doing it, too”. The wind outside whipped around the greenhouse and it seemed to be growing louder by the second and it is crushing. Cordelia isn’t sure if it’s the reason she can hear her heartbeat hammering in her ears or if there’s another reason entirely. She’s left almost breathless by Misty’s words and she’s not sure what to do with herself. For a second she stands there, her eyes scanning Misty’s face as she still sits on her hands and seems incredibly interested in the pattern of lace falling over her knee.
Cordelia shifts slightly so one hand comes over Misty’s lap to land next to her right hip. The other softly reaches up and a finger hooks under her chin, slowly directing her face so she’s looking at Cordelia. Misty’s eyes remain downcast despite the movement, but Cordelia hears a small intake of breath as she sees Cordelia moving slowly towards her and pressing a gentle kiss to her lips. She lingers for a moment, the stretch of her body ever so slightly uncomfortable as she had to lean up to capture Misty’s lips from her position sat on the table. After a moment, Cordelia pulls back but leans her head forward against the younger woman’s.
“Thank you” she says and hopes that the blonde can hear the sincerity in her words. She sees a slow smile spread across Misty’s face until she’s grinning from ear to ear and it’s startling in its beauty. Misty nods slightly against her.
“Any time. Really” she says with a small giggle, and then shifts her hands out from underneath her to gently pull Cordelia to her by the back of the neck for another kiss, this time a little longer and a little deeper, but just as tender. The smile is still on her face as she pulls back and starts to swing her legs to the rhythm of the rain, and Cordelia is reminded of a child who is overcome by excitement, unable to sit still.
The pair look at each other for a moment as the storm rages on, neither of them sure what to say. They smile, and Cordelia chuckles quietly, glancing down to her hands with a blush forming in her cheeks. Misty finds it obscenely endearing.
“I guess anything really can happen when there’s a storm ragin’” Misty quips and Cordelia raises an eyebrow. She laughs lightly, glad there’s no awkwardness between the pair. If anything, Misty seems jubilant.
“I guess so”. Misty grins, and then throws her legs forward as she jumps down from the table.
“I guess I’d better be heading off to bed” she says, swinging from side-to-side ever so slightly and Cordelia nods.
“Thank you again for tonight, Misty”, she says.
“Ya welcome”. Misty smiles, and then reaches up to run the length of Cordelia’s hair through her fingers one more time, tugging slightly on the end before letting go.
“Storm Dee”, she muses, and it seems like a thought she hadn’t meant to voice. She gives a soft ‘huh’ with a chuckle as she lets Cordelia’s hair fall back to her shoulder and then turns towards the door to the greenhouse. As she reaches for the door handle, she turns back and sees Cordelia watching her, her hands clasped together serenely, but a huge smile on her face that Misty can see lights her eyes as another flash of lightening fills the room. Misty looks at her for a moment, taking in the older woman.
“Did I ever mention storms are my favourite thing?” she asks, and Cordelia shakes her head slowly. Misty quirks an eyebrow and laughs lightly. “Well, fancy that”, she says as she turns back to the greenhouse door, yanks it open, and steps through.
Cordelia is left standing alone, and she crosses her arms over her chest, hugging herself and playing with the fabric at her elbow. She takes a moment to listen to the rain pelting on the glass and the wind howling past her sanctuary, and she wonders if tomorrow morning really will bring new things.
Fin.