Work Text:
“Psst, get up!”
Kat stirred slightly in her sleep.
“Kit Kat!”
Nothing.
“Ka- oh forget this-”
Kat shot up in bed with a cry as someone jumped on top of her. She looked down, breathing heavily and was met by Anne grinning up at her.
“Good morning.”
The teen didn’t respond, shoving her cousin onto the floor and laying back down again.
“No! Kat, get up - remember what I said last night - we’ve got a busy day today!”
The two had settled in her bed the evening before, playing a Mario Kart marathon that had ended abruptly when Anne suddenly announced at 11pm that they needed to go to bed because they had a ‘big day tomorrow’.
She had refused to answer any questions Kat had, repeating the same phrase in response and busying herself with turning the lights off and star-fishing onto the bed, apparently having decided she was sleeping there for the night. In the end Kat had given up and shoved her over to get into bed too, trusting that Anne feared Jane’s wrath enough that she wouldn’t get them into any situation where they could get arrested or killed.
“Come on Kit Kat!” Anne had gotten off of the floor and was standing in the middle of the room putting her earrings in, looking down at her unimpressed. “I mean it, we’ve got to go.”
Kat lazily rolled over to look at her alarm clock, then turned to look at Anne in horror.
“It’s half past six!”
“I know, big day ahead.” Anne grinned in reply, repeating the same phrase she’d said the night before each time Kat had asked. Kat had no idea how long her older cousin had been up for, but by some miracle of god she had already gotten dressed and put her hair into it’s usual space buns, and was looking wide awake. Insanity.
The teen groaned into her pillow for a few seconds then begrudgingly crawled out of bed.
Anne smiled at her but seemed to be distracted listening to something out in the hallway. Kat strained her ears and could just make out the sound of computer keys tapping, a sound they were all used to considering their resident writer, however it was more of a tired slow tapping of someone who was sleep deprived and spouting garbage rather than the usual furious clicking. A sound that they were also quite worryingly accustomed to.
Anne moved across the room.
“I’m going to go make Cathy go to bed, she’s done another all nighter- meet me downstairs when you’re dressed.” She quietly shut the door behind her, leaving Kat standing half asleep in the middle of her bedroom, looking forward to but also dreading whatever plans Anne had for her.
Everyone in the household had plans that day, actually, for the first time in a while. Anne had her mysterious day trip for the two of them, Catalina and Cathy were going to a local history museum, and Anna was taking Jane to her and Lina’s favourite Wetherspoons, having been outraged when she found out she hadn’t been yet and seeing everyone going out as a perfect opportunity to fix that. Kat was interested as to how that would go.
She quickly brushed her hair and finished putting on her outfit, deciding a pink t-shirt and jeans would be a safe bet for whatever crazy plans Anne had, then tip-toed out into the hallway to go and brush her teeth. She never woke up this early in the morning, and it was weird for the house to be so eerily silent.
A crash rang out from down the stairs and she sighed.
Anne, on the other hand, appeared to be very used to being up at this hour.
She slowly crept down the stairs and sat down to put on her shoes that she’d left on the doormat, much to Catalina’s chagrin. When she finished she looked up and was met by Anne, shoes on and ready to go, staring at the bowl they all threw their keys in.
“Should we steal Lina’s car?” She pondered aloud, placing her hand over the car keys.
“No we absolutely should not.” Kat jumped up and pushed her cousin through the front door, grabbing her keys and locking it behind them. She turned around and found Anne pouting at her.
“What? You can’t have seriously been thinking we should steal her car, you can’t even drive Anne.”
“Not legally.” They started walking down the road. “I just thought it’s easier than getting the bus is all.”
“Well Lina needs her car to drive her and Cathy to the museum.”
Anne’s face lit up in understanding, or perhaps just at the mention of Cathy’s name. Odd.
“Oh yeah, you’re right - the bus doesn’t go to that museum, only the town one.”
“I… do we need the car to get to where we’re going? You still haven’t told me-“
Anne grabbed her hand and started walking faster. “Okay, got to hurry up or we’ll miss the bus - let’s go.”
“Wait where are we- Anne!”
The other girl completely ignored her, and that’s how she found herself stood at a bus stop at quarter-to-seven in the morning, shivering and cuddling into her annoyingly evasive cousin as they watched the sun slowly rise.
“You know Jane would kill us if she knew we’d gone out when it was still dark.”
“Yeah I know, that’s why we left before she woke up.”
“What? I - surely we could have just left later when it was light out and we wouldn’t have had a problem in the first place.”
“No.”
Kat stared at Anne. The woman was a fucking nuisance. She pulled her coat tighter around her torso.
“Are you actually going to tell me where we’re going because-“
“Oh look - bus is here!” Anne loudly spoke over her.
“I hate you.”
They stepped onto the bus as it pulled up, hailed by Anne erratically waving her arms around in a fashion that was way too energetic for any human at not-even-seven in the morning.
The bus driver didn’t return her cousin's large smile as she stepped onto the empty bus.
“Can we have… I… oh uh…”
She watched her cousin falter as she realised she had to tell the driver where they were going.
“We uh.. two returns to…”
Kat nudged her forward with a smug grin.
“Go on.”
“Shut up Kit Kat,” she sighed and turned to the driver in defeat. “Can we have two returns to town please?”
Kat stared at her as she tapped her card on the pay machine. “…We’re going to town.”
Anne sent her a dazzling smile, thanking the driver as he passed her the tickets, and ushered her forward to get on the bus.
“We’re going shopping!” She announced, a wild grin still spread across her face.
“I… why does everything have to be so dramatic with you? All of that mysterious shit for going shopping.”
Anne frowned. “What, do you not want to go shopping?”
“Of course I want to, I just wasn’t expecting it after you made out like we were taking a trip to a secret military base or something.”
Kat was worried she was sounding ungrateful - she was just exasperated by her cousin's theatrics was all - but Anne simply grinned.
“Ah you see that was my plan - you weren’t expecting it at all. I’m fantastic at keeping surprises… surprising.”
The girls lurched forward as the bus driver ran out of patience waiting for them to sit down and started driving. Kat pushed Anne onto a seat at the top of the bus and slid in next to her, suddenly feeling excited.
“Okay so what are we doing?” Anne simply looked at her and she sighed. “Come on, I know you have some big grand plan for how the day’s going to go - spill.”
“You’ll have to wait and see my dearest cousin.” Anne remarked in a snooty posh voice that she knew too well Kat hated when she spoke in. “Just know it shall be a day fit for a queen!”
“Anne…”
“Perfect for her royal highness! A day that is-”
“I’m not talking to you anymore.”
“What?” Anna’s snooty facade dropped and she pouted at her. “Why?”
“Texting Anna now.”
“Noo!” Anne whined.
“Yep.”
“What am I supposed to do then if you’re going to sit there being antisocial?”
“I don’t know, text Cathy or something. Or just stop being irritating and maybe I’ll talk to you again.”
“No, I’ll text Cathy. I see how it is. Favouritism.”
Kat rolled her eyes as Anne muttered angrily to herself, taking out her phone.
“I take her out for a nice cousins bonding day shopping but noooo, she wants to talk to stupid Anna who goes to the stupid gym and plays stupid netball and has stupid abs and-“
Kat stared at her incredulously. “Seriously?”
“What? I’m wounded, leave me alone.”
“You have abs, why are you jealous of Anna’s?”
“…Her’s are better.”
“For fuck sake.”
“No seriously!”
“I think Cathy prefers yours.”
Anne opened her mouth to retort but suddenly faltered and looked at her with wide eyes. “I… what?”
“Yeah she always looks at your abs if you’ve got a sports bra on or something.” She slid her arm behind Anne’s back and reached up to mess up her hair while she was distracted. Anne reflexively shook her off and batted her hand away, but she was staring at her looking lost in thought as she did it. Kat frowned.
“Relax, I don't think it means she’s in love with you or anything.” She joked. Anne snapped out of her daze, her body visibly relaxing, and chuckled slightly.
“Yeah.”
Kat shook the strange reaction off putting it down to it being early morning, an explanation that very pointedly ignored how wide awake Anne was.
“It’s nice that you two are like best friends now though,” She said, sending Anna a selfie of her next to Anne’s messed up hair, “Someone’s got to like you I suppose.”
“Haha. Very funny.” Anne crossed her arms and started muttering to herself again. “It’s always the people closest to you… familial betrayal, turning my cousin against me-.”
“Yeah whatever BoLoser.”
Kat couldn’t contain her laugh at the outraged gasp she received in response.
Twenty minutes and what felt like an hour of Anne complaining later, the two got off of the bus at the city centre.
It was only around seven o’clock and the shops along the high street didn’t open until half past, so Anne grabbed Kat’s arm and pulled her towards a 24hr McDonalds, laughing somewhat manically as she joyfully chattered about how she was going to tell Lina that they had eaten at ‘sodium central’ for breakfast.
“I don’t know why she’s so against it, it’s no way near as bad as the shit they put in the food in the US - me and Cathy watched a video last week of UK vs US Mcdonads and in our chips it was just oil, salt and potatoes - and honestly Kat, I’m going to have to send you the video because the amount of chemicals and shit in the US fries-”
Kat simply nodded and hummed at the appropriate moments as Anne went off on a tangent, holding the door open so her cousin walked into the McDonald’s rather than into the glass during her passionate rant. She blinked slightly as she entered the establishment, as if she’d forgotten they were going there.
“Okay Kit Kat, what do you want?“ She got Apple Pay up on her phone.
“Uhh maybe a bacon roll or something,” She replied distractedly, pulling her purse out of her pocket. “You?”
“No no, no no.” Anna grabbed her purse out of her hand and held it above her head. It wasn’t very effective considering Kat was about two inches taller than her, but it still made her furrow her eyebrows in confusion.
“…Did you bring me here just to mug me?”
“No! Kit Kat - no, I’m paying is all.” Anne handed her her purse back and Kat accepted it limply.
“Oh, okay, thank you… are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure Kit Kat, this is your day!” She sent her a lopsided grin.
“Yeah but I can pay-“
“I think I’ll have the pancakes and syrup.” Anne loudly interrupted her, sending a pointed look not to try and argue it. Kat sighed, then widened her eyes.
“With syrup?”
“Yes. Since Lina threw away the perfectly good bottle of syrup at home for no real reason-“
“The one time you used it you covered not only your pancakes, but the sofa and the stair-bannister with syrup, then ran around on a sugar high all morning.”
“ For no real reason, ” Anne repeated firmly as they stepped into the small queue at the counter, “So as I am being deprived of certain foods under the fascist regime in our household-”
“Oh shut up Anne you’re so fucking drama-”
“Hello! Can I take your order?”
They both lapsed into silence as they turned to look at the tired looking teen worker. Kat elbowed Anne in the ribs, earning an ‘OW! What the fuck Kat?!’ in response, then pushed her older cousin forward.
“Uh hi yeah, can I have a bacon roll and some pancakes?”
“With syrup?”
“Yes-”
“No.” Kat smiled innocently as Anne turned to glare at her.
“Yes please.”
The two of them settled down in a window booth to eat their breakfast, watching as the high-street outside slowly became populated with early morning shoppers. Anne popped the last piece of pancake in her mouth then checked her phone.
“Oomf!” Anne quickly swallowed as Kat sent her a dirty look for speaking with her mouth full. “Shops are open Kat! Better get a move on, busy day ahead.”
Kat finished her roll then stood up with her cousin, walking over to the bin to throw away the packaging.
“Busy day doing what exactly? Why did we have to come out at 7am to go shopping?”
Anne just looked at her for a second, biting her lip - a sign that was a dead give away to Kat that she was trying to hold in a secret. She never lasted long before-
“Okay fine! I’ll tell you!” She suddenly burst out.
“Okay.”
“I’ve booked lunch at Bella Italia for half twelve and tickets to see the new west side story at two - we needed to get here early so we could get in a few hours of shopping beforehand.” She seemed to get a bit nervous as Kat didn’t respond. “Is that okay? I mean, you’ve been saying about wanting to see the new film since we watched the old one a month back and I know you like getting pasta so I just assumed, but I-”
She was cut off as Kat grabbed her in a tight hug which she quickly returned, mumbling a somewhat alarmed ‘It’s okay Kit Kat’.
“Sorry, I know this is an over reaction, just… no one’s ever planned a day out for me before like all out of the blue like this,” Kat widened her eyes slightly as she heard her own words. “No - I mean - all of you girls are great and we all do stuff together and you all think of me and do stuff for me but… I don’t know - this is different. It’s nice.”
“I get it Kit Kat,” Anne spoke into her shoulder. “I just wanted the two of us to have a nice day together as cousins and to do something for you as we haven’t spent much time together lately - because…well it’s my fault but…”
She trailed off as she seemed to become acutely aware of the fact they were having an emotional embrace in the middle of a McDonald’s at the same time Kat did. They broke apart.
“You’re so sappy.” Anne remarked, definitely not looking away to wipe a stray tear from the corner of her eye.
“Yep.” Kat hooked an arm through her cousin’s. “So where are we going first?”
It turned out she was right, Anne did have a master plan for the day. She first dragged her along to Superdrug to get some new hair dye, mentioning how she’d overheard her complaining to Jane that her hair was fading. Jane’s response had been ‘You’re not dying it in my bathroom again’, and it appeared Anne had taken that as a challenge, as she stocked up on about seven different shades of pink dye.
“You never know when the fascist regime will spread to include hair dye, Kit Kat.” Had been the response she received when she realised Anne was planning to pay for everything yet again. It became apparent pretty quickly that Anne was just going to talk over her any time she wanted to pay, an effective talent that she was annoyingly good at.
They next headed to New Look. Anne insisted they both found clothes and tried them on in the changing rooms like on TV, and Kat couldn’t help the way her heart was bursting at the sisterly bond she felt as Anne came out, dressed in a leather jacket and jeans, and excitedly gushed over how Kat had to buy the black denim jacket she was wearing, going as far as to twirl her around and start doing a little dance to the quiet pop music that was ringing out from the shop speakers. Kat giggled and joined in, looking in the mirror and feeling more confident in an outfit than she had in a long time. Anne seemed to notice this as when she returned from changing back into her normal clothes, she swiped the hangar with the denim jacket off of her.
“Anne? What are you doing - no, Anne-” Kat hurried after her cousin as she headed towards the tills.
“What’s the problem Kit Kat?” Anne asked, sending her an overly sweet smile as they got in the queue.
“You can’t buy this as well, Anne.” Kat said seriously.
“Yeah I can.”
“You’ve already spent so much on today-”
“Apart from the whole feeling guilty about me buying it for you thing,” Anne looked into her eyes. “You like this jacket, yeah?”
Kat hesitated. “…Well, yeah but-“
Anne whirled around to face the counter again. “No buts. You like it so I’m getting you it. You deserve to be happy Kit Kat and I’m not going to stop until you are.”
“I am happy Anne, you don’t need to buy me things for that; I have all of you guys.”
Anne shrugged, relentless as ever. “Okay, think of it as a late Christmas present then.”
Kat opened her mouth to protest but Anne cut her off.
“Yes, yes - I know I got you a present at Christmas but you get an extra one because you’re my cousin, family and all that. Come on Kit Kat, just let me buy you this fine ass jacket.”
Kat sighed and gave in. A small smile made its way onto her face. “Thank you.”
Anne grinned. “Not a problem, don’t need to thank me Kit Kat.”
Kat did in fact thank her many more times. She thanked her at the register, before she paid, and then after. She then thanked her about five times as they walked through the store to exit. She was on her ninth ‘Thank you’, now standing on the pavement outside, when Anne jumped on her back, surprising her.
“Oof- what are you doing?”
Anne pointed an imaginary sword in front of her as Kat moved to support her into a piggy back.
“Onwards fair maiden! We have many a shop to plunder before our later reservations.”
Kat rolled her eyes and considered dropping her in the middle of the street, but she decided to humour her instead. She boosted her older - older cousin, further up her back and walked towards the next shop she was pointing to, mumbling about murdering her if she used that goddamn posh accent one more time.
Anne’s smug smile at getting a piggyback ride was quickly rubbed off her face as Kat dropped her into a large display bucket of footballs the second they entered Sports Direct.
They decided to move on from clothes shopping as it got to eleven o’clock, and focused more on ‘geek’ stores. They spent about an hour discussing new releases in GAME then scouring the Pop funko figures and comic book stands in Forbidden Planet. Kat found that she enjoying herself immensely, even as they got kicked out for getting a little bit too into a foam sword fight.
For the last half hour before their reservation they decided to go into Waterstones as it was only a few stores up from the restaurant. They looked at books for a bit, focusing on the history and politics section for a while then trying to hunt down the book series that Cathy and Lina were so obsessed with, to no avail. They found themselves looking through the various random nicknacks for the last ten minutes.
Kat watched as Anne’s face lit up upon spotting a blue ‘I’m plotting against you’ mug sat in the writers gifts section. She traced her finger along the quill engraved in it then gently took it off the shelf.
“I’m just gonna go buy this and then we can go over and get lunch, one second.”
She’d been doing the same thing the whole day, her fingers had twitched towards a blue bath salts jar in Superdrug that morning, and she’d seen her glancing at various blue clothing items before shaking her head and muttering about ‘savings’ in several stores, but this was the first time she’d actually gone to buy something.
Up until that point Kat had gathered it was all a part of her and Cathy’s on-going blue items joke, and this only confirmed it. However, as she watched Anne practically skip off to the counter, she realised something - and it was almost as if various Anne and Cathy shaped puzzle pieces in her brain clicked together.
The time spent together, the constant touching, the ridiculous lovestruck smiles - were Anne and Cathy dating?!
Kat’s brain was still moving at a mile a minute going over every single interaction between the two women, when Anne returned. She was holding a bag and Kat cursed internally at the strange look Anne gave her as she realised she was staring. She spread her mouth into a smile.
“Ready?”
“Yep!” Anne shook the bag slightly as a proof of purchase, “Let’s go, I’m starving.”
Anne looped their arms together as they walked down to the restaurant, rambling about something that Kat didn’t pick up as her mind continued to spiral over her cousin and housemate’s possible relationship.
“Reservation for Boleyn?”
Kat snapped out of her thoughts as Anne broke away from her and stepped forward to speak with the waiter.
“Boleyn? Huh, that’s funny, are you related to Anne Boleyn?”
“I’m not but she is.” Anne pointed a thumb behind her at Kat who rolled her eyes for about the fifteenth time that day.
The slightly confused waiter grabbed two menus and led them to their table where they settled down, this time in the middle of the restaurant rather than next to a window. They opened their menus.
“What are you going to get Kit Kat?” Anne asked, squinting at the Pizza section.
“I uhh… carbonara probably.”
“Aha! I thought so!” Anne dropped the menu down onto the table with a loud clatter. “I’m getting a ham and pineapple pizza.”
“ No .”
“Yep. Pineapple.”
“Fruit doesn’t belong on pizza.”
“What exactly is tomato then Kit Kat?”
Kat stared at her then wordlessly looked back at the menu to look at the drinks. Anne smiled smugly.
“Yep, I thought so.” She sang.
The waiter returned and they ordered their meals then lapsed into a comfortable silence. Kat got out her phone to reply to a message Jane had sent her a few hours earlier, and Anne leant down and rustled around in the bags at her feet, checking she still had all her purchases.
“You know Kit Kat, I’m really proud of you.”
Kat froze mid text and snapped her head up to look at her cousin who was still looking down at her bags.
“You… well I didn’t know you in our uh, our past lives, but… I’m just so proud of the woman you’ve become in this life, despite all the shit you’ve gone through; you’re still so kind, and - and caring, and intelligent, and quick witted.”
She still didn’t look up and it became very clear that she was using the bags as a distraction so she didn’t have to look at her younger cousin as she got sappy.
“And I'm so glad that you’re my family in this life, I mean all six of us are family now, but we’re cousins too, you know, and you’re more like my little sister… I’m really sorry if I’ve made you feel left out at all these last few weeks - I love you so much and I would never want to do anything to hurt you, I just… I’m sorry.”
She looked up to meet Kat’s teary gaze, tears streaming down her own face. Kat's heart had swelled so much during Anne’s rambles that it felt like it was going to burst.
“Oh for fuck sake, this was supposed to be a fun day and it just keeps getting so emotional.” Anne rolled her eyes and hastily wiped her eyes. “Sorry about that.”
Kat laughed shakily. “I love you too you know and… it’s fine. You could never hurt me… Boloser.”
Anne gave her a watery smile and grabbed her hand before ducking her head to look down at the bags again, obviously overcome by the display of emotions. Kat tentatively returned to her phone to finish her message to Jane. She then slowly put it down and just sat and watched her cousin.
She liked watching Anne. She liked people watching full stop, but Anne was always interesting. The woman could be the most annoying, erratic, hyper gremlin alive at one moment, then become a serious, rambling, intelligent dork the next, painfully observant under her facade.
Anne smiled softly as she lifted up the bubble wrapped mug then leant back under the table, and Kat couldn’t contain herself any more.
“Are you and Cathy dating?”
BANG!
Kat’s hands flew to her mouth as Anne whacked her head on the underneath of the table then quickly sat up, staring at her with wide eyes and rubbing the crown of her head.
Upon seeing the fear on her cousin's face, Kat quickly started to backtrack.
“Sorry, I - I just noticed you’re always together and getting blue things for her and you’re very touchy feely and I’m sorry for assuming-”
“It’s okay Kit Kat, don’t be sorry.” Anne cut her off, her voice surprisingly gentle and quiet. She let out a shaky breath. “I…I wasn’t expecting to say it today but yeah, Cathy and I…well, I don’t know if we’re dating but I lo…oh my god, am I in love with her?” Anne’s voice slowly rose into hysterics as she spoke and she stared down at the table breathing heavily.
Kat placed her hand back over hers and squeezed it, hoping it could ground her in some way.
“Whether you love her that way yet or not, the fact that she’s someone you know you definitely could love and someone who makes you that happy is just as good as the definition of the word.” She scrunched up her nose. “I… I’m not sure if that makes sense.”
Anne had been staring at their hands, but as she finished speaking she looked up and stared desperately into Kat’s eyes.
“Are you okay with it?”
Kat was taken aback.
“I- of course I am Annie.”
Her heart broke slightly at how uncharacteristically vulnerable and afraid her older cousin looked.
“You don’t have to worry about any of us not accepting it Anne,” She spoke slowly, “We love you both, and we want you to be happy.”
Anne nodded slowly. “Yeah… that’s what Lina said.”
“Well she was right - wait what?! Lina knows?”
Anne looked like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
“I… uh yeah, she kinda walked in on me and Cathy making out for New Years and we couldn’t really-“
“NEW YEARS?”
Anne grinned slightly. “Yeah, believe me, all she’s wanted these last three weeks is for the rest of you to know, she hates being the only one who does. I’ve started being as affectionate with Cathy as I can just to see how long it takes her to leave the room.” She laughed.
Kat shook her head. “I can’t believe you told Lina first.”
“I didn’t tell her Kit Kat. Believe me, the plan was to tell you first. Well, that was my plan, Cathy is alright with Lina being the first because of the whole godmother thing,” She waved her hand in the air dismissively, “I’m glad you’re alright with it though I’ve been kind of worried about it - people knowing. Well actually, no, I love Cathy and that’s not going to change no matter if people are fine with it or not so-”
Kat grinned. “You do love her.”
“Oh my god.” Anne dropped her forehead onto the table.
“What do you two actually do together? Just sit and talk about history and philosophical shit?” She gasped with a wicked grin. “All the time you spend together in Cathy’s room blasting Horrible Histories songs - do you two have sexy time to horrib-“
Anne quickly sat up. “NO Kat - no! What the hell is wrong with you?!”
Kat cackled. “Oh my god you totally do.”
“No I… it was one time,” Kat’s laughter increased tenfold as Anne desperately tried to explain herself. “It wasn’t like we heard it and were like ‘Oh yeah let’s make out to Charles II, it just happened to be on - Kat stop it!”
It took her a few minutes to stop laughing - she started up again every time she saw Anne’s unamused facial expression. She finally started to calm down.
“Are you done?” She asked, arms folded.
“Yep.”
“Brilliant.”
“I can’t believe I never saw it coming.”
“Yeah to be honest you probably should have seen it coming, we haven’t exactly been discreet.”
“Wait, the will on Christmas Day-“
“Wasn’t a will, Kit Kat.” She grinned proudly. “I wrote her a poem.”
“Oh wow. And that’s what made her get with you? I can’t believe that worked.”
“What are you talking about? Cathy loves poems.”
“Yeah but knowing you it was just a desperate collection of Girl in red quotes.”
“…”
“Oh my god, Anne, you didn’t.”
“… She commended me for my proper Italian sonnet form.”
Kat started laughing again. “That- that right there is peak Boloser behaviour. Lina knew what she was talking about.”
Anne scowled. “I hate the fact she came up with that, fucking Boloser , no respect.”
“Aha, no, Lina will have my eternal respect for that one, I couldn’t believe it came out of her mouth when she said it.”
“Yeah… great.”
“Who ordered the Carbonara?” The waiter arrived and they both dug into their dinner.
As she swirled up some spaghetti on her fork, Kat’s mind played over the events of the last half hour. They’d gone back to normal so quickly, but she felt closer to her cousin than ever.
After they finished and paid they ran to the cinema. They weren’t in a rush - there was a whole half hour or adverts after all, but in peak British fashion it had started to rain, and Kat wasn’t too eager to get her new jacket wet as the two of them hadn’t thought to bring coats. Anne seemed similarly worried about Cathy’s mug, checking the bag repeatedly in an action Kat teased her relentlessly for, immensely grateful for some new ammo on her cousin.
“A mug’s function is literally to hold liquid in it Anne.”
“Shut up Kat.”
They arrived at the cinema at quarter past two so Kat only had to endure Anne complaining about adverts for five minutes before she shut up and instead excitedly tapped her on the arm and insisted they ‘had to see’ each movie that appeared in the trailers.
She had insisted on buying Kat a tango ice blast as well as one for herself, excited by the prospect of trying the drink as ‘Lina the fun police’ would never get them one as they’re ‘too overpriced’. The two were also sharing a massive bucket of popcorn and a packet of Haribo strawberries. By the time the film started Anne was bouncing in her seat, and Lina’s ‘Facist regime’ disallowing sweets, and slowly expanding to exclude sugar of any kind, suddenly made a lot more sense to Kat.
The film lasted about two and a half hours, and as everyone slowly left at the end, Anne scrambled up to the top of the theatre and stood in front of the projector, performing a scarily good shadow Catalina impression on the screen as Kat laughed and took a video to send to the group chat.
By the time the cleaners came in and kicked them out, it was five-o’clock and getting dark out. Anne had received a poorly typed text from Jane, who appeared to have enjoyed spoons a little too much, saying to come home for dinner because they were getting fish and chips at Anna’s request.
“At least it’s not pizza or McDonald’s.” Kat said.
“Let’s just not tell Jane and Lina how much we’ve already eaten today, yeah?”
The two excitedly discussed the movie as they walked to the bus stop - Kat could admit she had cried a few times, Anne couldn’t.
It didn’t take long for the bus to arrive, and as they sat down Kat placed her head on Anne’s shoulder, tired out from the early start. She thought back to the revelations of the day and glanced up at Anne who was quietly looking out of the window into the darkness.
“I look up to you a lot, you know.” Kat spoke up before she even realised it, and quickly watched for her cousin's reaction. Anne didn't reply but tensed slightly, like she was surprised by the announcement and didn’t think Kat should look up to her at all. Kat decided to continue.
“Just… what you were saying at lunch about me being like your sister and stuff. I just wanted to say I’m proud of you too. That’s all.”
Silence. Then-
“Thanks Kit Kat.” Anne’s voice was low, perhaps from tiredness, but more likely from being choked up with emotion. Kat butted her head gently into her shoulder in response.
“So… you and Cathy.”
“Kit Kat…” A warning tone.
“Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me. But if you don’t think I’m going to tease the shit out of the two of you at any given opportunity, you are sorely mistaken.”
Anne sighed.
“Yeah…”
Then begrudgingly:
“I guess I wouldn’t have it any other way.”