Work Text:
That night Katarina woke up with her belly rumbling and her mind confused. She was pretty sure this wasn't her room at the academy or the one the ancestral home of the house Claes. Gradually her eyes got used to the darkness and she saw that she was in Sophia's room and she was not alone.
Slowly the memories from before falling asleep came, of the slumber party with her friends, of laughter and secrets told between the pillows.
She moved cautiously, with the plan of perhaps stealing a late night snack from the kitchen, but such plans immediately vanished from her mind when she noticed that she wasn't the only girl awake in the room at the time.
Maria was sitting by the window and there were tears in her eyes.
"Maria?"
The other girl looked at her, seeming a mixture of surprised and embarrassed. She immediately wiped the tears from her eyes with the sleeve of her nightgown.
"I'm sorry, did I wake you up?"
“No, but what happened? Why are you crying?"
Maria didn't say anything, she looked down.
Katarina walked to the window and sat down beside her.
"Please tell me what's wrong."
"It's silly, it's selfish."
“It's okay to be silly and selfish sometimes. Please tell me what's on your mind. I'm worried."
“Just earlier today you were telling stories from your childhood. And don't get me wrong I loved listening to them, but after you guys went to sleep thinking about them made me sad. My childhood was very different from yours, much more lonely.”
"Why do you think this counts as being selfish?"
“It's selfish because I envy them. Not just Sophia and Mary. I envy your brother, the princes and Sophia's brother. They spent their entire lives with you, you have so many memories and history with them. Sometimes I fear that I will never catch up to them. I'll always be so many steps behind them in your affection, and maybe that's the way it should be, but I wish it wasn't.”
For a moment Katarina did not know what to say.
She couldn't say that since the day she woke up in this world there hadn't been a day that Maria wasn't in her thoughts. But looking at Maria's face, another truth came to her, one that had never occurred to her until that moment.
“Maria, there has always been a place for you in my life, yes I had other friends, but none of them were you. Your place was empty and your absence was felt. You are not behind anyone. I've missed you all my life.”
Katarina looked away for a moment, thinking that perhaps she had said too much. And when she turned this again to Maria's face, she found tears in her eyes.
"I'm sorry! I didn't want to make you cry again!"
Maria smiled through her tears.
“Please don't apologize, those are good tears. I've missed you all my life too.”
Maria then took Katarina's hand between hers, and brought her lips to it, giving a light kiss on her fingertips.
Katarina felt grateful for the darkness, because if it weren't for that, the blush on her face caused by this gesture would be quite noticeable.
That was the moment her belly rumbled again.
Maria laughed. And Katarina turned even redder, maybe even enough to be noticed through the darkness by the other girl.
"I'm a bit hungry." Katarina confessed.
"I noticed."
"What do you think of us having a night snack in the kitchen?"
“I don't know if we should, we are invited here after all. I wouldn't want to offend Sophia's parents when they were so kind to welcome me.”
“Come on, it's going to be a new memory. One that will belong to just the two of us.”
And when Katarina put it that way, Maria found out she couldn't say no.