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In hindsight, this really was inevitable.
Pipper had been so careful to avoid it in the first couple months of hers and Katrielle’s relationship, but inevitably she had slowly started to worry about the possibility less and less until finally she made a single careless mistake and what she had been so meticulous about avoiding happened.
Mayor Pipper Lowonida seen kissing mystery woman
Pipper sat at her desk staring at the front-page headline of the tabloid paper in front of her. There was no denying it as a circumstantial rumour, the accompanying photo was a clear shot of her kissing Katrielle. There was no hope of keeping Kat’s name out of it either, as she stared at one particular quote:
The woman in question is suspected to be Katrielle Layton of the Layton Detective Agency. While Miss Layton herself was unavailable for comment, sources have confirmed that it is her in the photo.
Pipper’s phone buzzed incessantly beside the paper. Most texts were from Cesar with various methods about how they could get out in front of this, a couple were from Phineas and Liza offering support and an ear if she needed one.
None were from Katrielle.
This didn’t really come as a surprise to Pipper, she knew Kat was on a case and she rarely had the time to text her back when she was and besides, she paid no attention to the tabloids, she never knew what was going on unless someone else filled her in.
The lack of communication was still making her anxious though.
She couldn’t spend all day dwelling on this though, so she sent Kat a quick text requesting to see her after work and went back to the files in front of her, trying to focus on them as best she could.
Time crawled and Pipper was more than relieved when it finally became an acceptable hour for her to leave the office and head home, but one glance out the window told her that leaving was going to be a more difficult task than she anticipated. Various reporters were scattered around in front of Guildhall clearly all waiting for a comment on her ‘mystery woman’.
She sighed and texted Kat to meet her at her home before going and finding the head of Guildhall security to find a way out.
It had long since gotten dark when Kat arrived at Pipper’s house sporting a couple of bags of takeout from the restaurant on Chancer Lane.
Pipper forced a smile on her face, the thought of food still unappealing as her stomach continued to roll with anxiety.
Dinner felt almost normal, Kat chattering on about her case and how her investigation has been going, the only thing preventing it from being completely normal being Pipper’s lack of contribution to the conversation as she pushed her food around on her plate, not really eating.
“You alright, Pipper?” Kat asked after a while. “You’ve been awfully quiet and while you may not have my appetite you usually eat more than you have.” She reached across the table and placed a hand on top of Pipper’s. “What’s wrong?”
Pipper slowly pulled her hand away from Kat’s, feeling a pang at the hurt that flashed across Kat’s face as she did, before standing up and retrieving the paper, hesitating before sitting back down and sliding it across the table towards Kat.
Kat gave Pipper a confused look but obliged, picking up the paper and glancing over the article. “Well then.”
“That’s all you have to say?” Pipper asked her, disbelief clear on her face and in her voice.
“What else is there to say?” Kat shrugged.
“Kat, they know who you are already, there’s no keeping you out of this.” Pipper’s words came faster than she would have liked, the stress of the situation breaking through her normally calm façade. She was used to the tabloids but this was the furthest they had gone in a long time and she certainly was not okay with the whole thing, how could Kat possibly be?
“Is that really such a big deal? Alright, so it isn’t ideal, but is it really so bad?” Kat sounded nonchalant, but something about her overall demeanour didn’t sit right with Pipper.
“They had no right!” At this point Pipper was barely able to keep her temper contained. “Yes, fine, I’m somewhat used to this sort of thing because of my status as both Dragon and mayor but that doesn’t mean they have any right, and they especially don’t have right to bring you into this.”
Kat studied Pipper silently. Several seconds passed as Pipper slowly began to feel more apprehensive. She was about to ask Kat what she was thinking when the woman in question finally spoke. “Why is this really bothering you?”
Pipper stared at Kat, dumbfounded. “What do you mean? It’s bothering me for the exact reason I just laid out.”
Kat gave a noncommittal hum, glancing at the clock as it chimed. “Shoot, is that the time? Sorry Pipper, I’d love to stay but I have a rather early morning tomorrow and told Ernest we’d meet at the office, I’ll talk to you soon, okay?” Before Pipper could say anything, Kat was up and leaving, pausing only to give her a quick kiss before she was out the door.
What just happened?
“I just don’t understand why she was acting so skeptical of what I was saying, what’s so hard to believe about the fact that I simply do not like the tabloids invading my privacy like that?”
Hilda contemplated Pipper’s words. She had texted Pipper after seeing the headline and immediately Pipper had asked her if she was free for tea at any point that week. “I will admit, Katrielle does have a tendency to be cryptic but she usually reserves that for cases. Did she say anything else?”
Pipper shook her head. “She suddenly claimed she needed to leave because of an early morning, she’s never done that before, typically she’ll spend the night despite the early morning.”
Hilda hummed. “If I recall, you had yet to make your relationship public, correct?”
“Yes, but I’ve always been clear about the fact that I don’t go public until at least the six month mark, we’re only at a little over three months.” Pipper had imposed this rule on herself after a relationship while she was in school had gone extremely sideways.
“Then I’m afraid I can’t help you much,” Hilda said with a sigh. “Kat isn’t always the best at sharing what she’s thinking when it comes to her own life, you’re probably just going to have to sit her down and make her talk about it.”
“What if that makes things worse?” Pipper fretted, fiddling with her mug.
Hilda gave her a fond but somewhat exasperated look. “Pipper, you are the master of diplomacy not to mention Kat loves you. If anyone can successfully get her to talk about what she’s thinking, it’s you.”
“I certainly hope so.” Still, Pipper couldn’t help but continue to worry until Hilda interrupted her admittedly spiraling thoughts.
“Well, look on the bright side, it could have been a lot worse.”
Pipper raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
Hilda smirked in a fashion that Pipper had learned always meant trouble. “They could have leaked a nude instead.”
Pipper groaned, letting her head fall on the table. “Why are you like this?”
Hilda laughed. “Come on, don’t act like it isn’t a possibility.” Pipper lifted her head to glare at her. “Seriously? Have you never sent a lover a nude?”
“Have you?” Pipper challenged her.
There was that smirk again. “As a matter of fact, I sent Lucy one just last week. You should try sending Kat one, it’s a great way to spice things up.”
Pipper let her head fall to the table once again with another groan. “You’re the worst,” she said to a laughing Hilda.
She had to admit though, Hilda had managed to cheer her up a bit.
Pipper finally managed to confront Katrielle a few days later.
As soon as Kat had texted her that she had wrapped up her case, Pipper had wasted no time in inviting her over, claiming she missed her. That much was true, Pipper just simply avoided the entire truth.
Pipper was nothing if not a planner. She left work as early as she could, stopping at the market on the way home to pick up ingredients for dinner, making sure she got everything to make Kat’s favourite.
Or at least one of Kat’s favourites. Armed with the ingredients for pasta sauce and salad as well as fresh bread and handmade pasta, Pipper made her way home and into the kitchen to start cooking. She had always found the process soothing and she slowly started to relax as she got the sauce simmering and started pulling items out of her pantry to make dessert. By the time Kat arrived she had managed to relax completely, moving about the kitchen with her usual calm.
At least until Kat entered and her heart rate picked up anxiously.
She managed to keep her calm façade though, greeting Kat with a wide smile and a kiss, asking her about her case as they settled down to have dinner.
“So,” she started once dinner had begun to wind down, the couple lingering at the table over mostly empty glasses of wine and the final few bites of dessert, “what’s been bothering you this past week?”
“What do you mean? Nothing’s been bothering me,” Kat replied just a bit too nonchalantly.
“Kat, you’ve been keeping me at arm’s length ever since that damn photo got published. Look, I know you didn’t sign up for this, but it happened and realistically it’s going to happen again no matter what I do to prevent it so if this is a dealbreaker for you please,” Pipper’s voice cracked, “just let me know now before we get in much deeper.” Tears stung at her eyes, but she forced them back, if their relationship really was about to end, she refused to cry before Kat left.
“No, that isn’t it at all,” Kat hastened to reassure her. “Honestly if anything it’s the opposite of that,” she continued quietly, casting her eyes towards the table.
Huh? “What do you mean?”
A light blush covered Kat’s cheeks. “It seemed as if you didn’t want anyone to know about us and it made me wonder if you were ashamed of me.”
“Oh my god, Kat, no.” Pipper stood, moving her chair around the table so she could sit next to Kat, taking her hands, their knees brushing as Kat turned to face her. “It was never anything to do with you and everything to do with the fact that we should have been able to make our relationship public on our terms and not the tabloids’. I had a whole plan in mind for that and now it’s been blown completely out of the water.”
Silence rang out for a few seconds before Kat started to laugh. “I should have known, ever the planner you are.”
Pipper couldn’t help but tense up as Kat continued to laugh. “Glad you think this is funny,” she bit out, going to withdraw her hands.
Kat gripped on to them tighter, suddenly sobering. “Pipper, no, I’m not laughing at you, I would never laugh at you. I’m simply laughing at myself for not realizing the most obvious despite the fact that, as a detective, I should have.”
“I probably should have been clearer from the start, so let me be clearer now.” Pipper met Kat’s eyes. “I love you. I have never been ashamed of you nor can I see myself ever being so. My rule about not going public until six months? I’ve had that rule for myself since long before I met you, this isn’t my first run-in with the tabloids when it comes to my relationship status.” She chuckled half-heartedly before continuing. “I know I didn’t react well to the whole situation, but that’s nothing to do with you, I promise, I just really hate when a good plan goes belly up.” She smiled, small but genuine.
That drew a laugh from Kat. “Well, maybe I can help you create a new one. Surely there must be some event coming up for which I can be your official date.”
“Guildhall’s annual charity gala,” was Pipper’s immediate answer. “It’s in about two weeks’ time. I know it’s not really your scene and I will be busy much of the evening so I’m afraid I won’t be the best company, but all the Dragons will be in attendance as will Hilda and Lucy I believe, and I’ll get a ticket for Ernest as well so you won’t be left alone.”
Kat hummed. “And I’m sure an event such as that garners the attention of many of the major media outlets.”
Pipper nodded. “It’s a tad more public than my original plan I must say, but if we arrive together, it leaves no room for misinterpretation.”
“I think it sounds perfect. I do have one question though.”
Pipper raised an eyebrow at the sudden sparkle in Kat’s eye. “Oh? What’s that?”
“Is the ticket for Ernest for my sake or for Liza’s?”
Pipper burst out laughing. “You got me, I definitely have Liza in mind more than you, though he is one of your best friends.”
“Which is precisely why I’ll be spending the evening pushing him and Liza together.” The mischievous glint in Kat’s eye spelled trouble.
“Please go easy on them.” Kat’s grin only widened. Pipper sighed. “Well, at least I can trust Hilda to help keep you in line.” They caught each other’s eye and started laughing again.
“Oh, and Pipper?” Kat said after a moment. Pipper hummed. “I love you too.”