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It’s been a hell of a good day so far. Fatin had planned it all. She first managed to convince Bo to change his day off with her, so she'd have the same day off as Leah and she has been determined to have a good time. Making it like a real beach day, avoiding any kind of conversation about their current situation or the previous island.
Leah has gone along and, for the first time, Fatin has seen real glimpses of the girl she used to see at school. Cute, young, carefree. It was perfect.
Well, except for the part she hasn't confessed her feelings... but it’s fine. It can wait. The day isn't over yet. Maybe at sunset, which is pretty soon, but they need to make a pit stop at the bunker first. There’s no way Fatin is going back to taking a piss in the wild when they have perfectly functioning plumbing now.
The tension in the air is obvious as soon as they enter.
They can hear the commotion coming from the place they use as the dining room.
Fights aren't unusual between all of them, but this doesn't sound like a fight and it doesn't feel normal. She glances at Leah and just knows she’s thinking the same thing.
Leah squeezes her hand — because they might have been holding hands this entire time — and motions forward. Fatin understands the message: They are together, whatever this is, they got it. She squeezes back.
But they only manage to walk like five steps before Dot, Henry and Raf are standing in front of them, seemingly out of nowhere.
"Ok, what the fuck?"
"What's going on?"
Both of them ask at the same time.
"We thought we should warn you first before you got in there."
"Yeah? So, warn us," Fatin says impatiently, looking pointedly at Dot even if Henry was the one who spoke.
But Dot doesn’t look like she wants to respond, she just remains stoic in front of Fatin.
Raf rubs his neck nervously. "Apparently they decided to start sending loved ones? And they started with this one man… I mean, he says he's here to help but no one's buying it. Some of your girls are trying to kick his ass, but the guys are trying to figure out how and why he’s here."
Fatin hears the words but it’s Dot reaching out to her as if to stop her from doing something stupid that makes her realize. "Oh God, is it my dad? Why would they send—?"
Leah letting go of her hand stops that line of questioning real quick. You’d think she’d know that if there’s one moment she needs the comfort is this one, so Fatin reaches out again only to have Leah back away from her, which, odd. So Fatin finally looks at her. Her expression is unreadable. Her eyes aren’t focused on anything here. Almost as if she’s going dark again.
"It's Jeff," Leah says evenly and clenches her jaw and swallows before painfully whispering, "Fatin, I'm sorry," and running inside.
Fatin registers the words and sees red. She tries to go after her but Dot stops her.
"Dorothy, get the fuck off me!"
"No."
"What do you mean no?! Jeffrey fucking Galanis is here and you expect me to— to what?!"
"You need to cool off, dude. And you probably don't wanna see what's happening there."
"The hell I don't. I've been dreaming about punching this motherfucker since—"
"Fatin."
"Get your fucking hands off me or I will punch your nose again, I mean it."
Dot is probably regretting having done this with Henry and Raf instead of literally anyone else. They're both obviously terrified of Fatin. And Dorothy is smart enough to know when it's a lost battle.
She sprints the second she's free.
And yeah, she should've known Dot was right. She does not like to see Leah in his arms, with her legs around his waist and sucking his face. Well, that's understatement, she truly really hates to see that.
She storms towards them and basically yanks Leah off of him.
"Fatin," it's breathless, the kind of breathless she would love to hear if it was after a kiss with her. But it's not. There's also pain in Leah's eyes and she can't deal with that right now. She's on a fucking mission.
She turns towards Jeffrey. "Who the fuck do you think you are?!" She pushes him hard enough to send him stumbling backwards. "You suddenly don't care that she's not eighteen yet? Did it slip your pervy mind that we're still a few weeks away from her birthday? Or you're playing knight in fucking armor now because you're having a hard time finding another teenager to fuck?!"
"Leah, who is this bitch?"
Fatin laughs a manic laugh because that was so basic, or maybe she finally lost it but fuck if she's not gonna enjoy beating the crap out of him. "I'm your worst fucking nightmare, you creep! Don't talk to her, don't even look at her, and don't ever touch her again." She lands the punch right next to his eye and it hurts like a bitch but nothing has ever felt more satisfying in her entire life.
Toni shouts, "Finally! Get him, Fatin!"
And that's when she realizes all the girls are stopping the boys from intervening. They knew exactly how this was going to go down and she loves them even more for letting her have this moment.
He's on the floor just touching his eye and she kneels in front of him. "She doesn't need anyone to save her, and she certainly doesn't need a creepy old dude to—"
Leah comes to her side but instead of addressing her, she tends to him. "Are you okay?"
"Leah, what—"
"Just leave us alone, Fatin."
She wishes Jeffrey had punched her back because that surely would've hurt a lot less than this.
It's not her devotion to him that destroys her. It's that she doesn't even spare a glance her way.
"Yeah, fuck this shit.”
She doesn’t leave her room again because this whole thing is bullshit and she’s not willing to put up with any of it. She doesn’t care why they brought him here, she doesn’t dwell on why Leah apologized to her before running towards him. The only thing she cares about is that the perv is here and she’s with him.
The girls take turns bringing her food and trying to convince her to come out. Shelby tells her that he's not out and about either because all of them want to kick his ass, and that almost does it, but she can’t find the energy to get up. Dot brings her breakfast on her third day of self-isolation and forces her to stand up.
“Come on, man, I need you to come with me. We still have jobs to do.”
“Dot…”
“I know, I promise it’ll be fine, okay? Just come with me? You can come back to your pity party later.”
Dot starts walking out of there faster and it makes Fatin want to catch up just so she can respond to her, “Bitch, this is not a pity party.”
“Sure it’s not.”
They get to a place in the woods she doesn’t know and before she can ask, she sees her sitting against a rock.
“Oh absolutely not.”
“Just listen to her, okay?” Dorothy fucking whispers before leaving.
She wants to yell at Dot, run after her and go back to her room. But before she can react she notices that Leah hasn’t looked her way yet, probably didn’t even see them arrive. One hand is twisting her eyebrow and the other is clenching and unclenching constantly. She hasn’t seen her like that in a while, it’s unnerving.
She’s standing right next to her before she even knows it. Because even if she’s hurt and angry, Leah's wellbeing comes first. “Stop that.”
And she does, instantly looking up and— fuck her, the worst thing besides the fact that Leah’s been crying is how fucking blue her eyes look with all that red around them.
Leah stands up as she brokenly says, “Fatin.”
She quickly steps back. “I don’t wanna hear it.”
“This is a blind spot.”
“Excuse me?” That was not what she was expecting to hear, but then again, what was she expecting?
“I mean, we’re almost sure this is a blind spot. We’ve spent the last two days searching for one because there has to be one, right? There’s no way they have cameras and mics on this entire island.”
“Okay, sure, but why?”
“Because I needed to talk to you.”
“Some secret information your boyfriend passed along?”
“That’s not—”
Leah reaches out and as soon as she brushes her arm, Fatin flinches and snaps. “Shit, you know what? I don’t get it! I really thought you were over him. I thought w— No, I guess it doesn’t fucking matter what I thought. Just say whatever it is and we can go back to our rooms.”
“Fatin, I’m in love with you. And I get that you probably don't want a relationship, I’m not asking for anything from you. I just needed you to know I hate that I’ve been kissing him, but I’ve been playing the lovesick girl ever since we arrived at the bunker and I can’t stop now that they brought him here. I need to find out why. I mean, I know it’s in part because they think it will distract me, which means I’m getting close to something, so I need to make them believe—”
“What?” she asks in a breath that she can’t hold any longer.
“I need them to believe I love him—”
“Not that, I got that. The first part?” Fatin steps closer and puts a hand on Leah’s cheek.
Leah leans into it, takes a deep breath and rests her forehead against hers. Fatin closes her eyes for a second, taking the feeling in.
“I love you, you idiot,” it’s barely audible, it’s raspy, it’s so very Leah that it disarms her.
“Leah…”
“You don’t have to say anything, I know—”
She separates their heads abruptly. “You don’t know shit because obviously I love you too. And for the record, I do want a relationship with you, I want fucking everything with you. I want us to be more disgusting than Shoni.”
Leah laughs, maybe because that was funny, but there’s also a lot of relief that flows out of her. Then, she cups Fatin’s face with her hands and kisses her like nobody has ever kissed her before: slowly, cautiously, deeply, with so much feeling behind it, it’s impossible to ignore.
She’s relishing in the tight embrace that comes right after the kiss when Leah breaks the silence, “We can’t, though. They can’t find out about us. Whatever they’re planning next, we can’t let them use this against us.”
“I guess we’re lucky you found us a blind spot, then.”
There’s a soft but lingering kiss in her head before Leah breaks the hug to look her in the eyes but keeps her hands in Fatin’s arms, it’s like she doesn’t want to fully part from her and Fatin understands the feeling.
“Yes, but Fatin…”
“Yeah, I know fucking Jeffrey is still in there, please don’t remind me of that creep after I had the best kiss of my life.”
“Wait, really?”
“Don’t let it go to your head, maybe it’s because I haven’t kissed anyone in months.”
Leah just raises an eyebrow with a cocky smile, and this version of her will be the death of Fatin. But what a way to go.
She leans in again to wipe that smirk off her face, but mainly just because she can. And it most definitely is the first time in her life she felt like this while kissing someone.
Leah tugs at her shirt once they part, sits down against the rock and opens her arms. Fatin doesn’t waste one second in huddling up to her.
“I’m sorry you had to see us kiss, and that it has to keep happening.”
“It’s okay. Well, no, it’s not, but I get it now. I’m not sorry I punched him.”
Leah chuckles. “Me neither.”
“I can’t promise it won’t happen again.”
“Hey, as long as it comes across as you defending your friend, go ahead.”
Fatin turns her head to study her, the sincerity in her eyes and the way she keeps a firm hold on her should probably be all the evidence she needs. But still. “You really are over him, aren’t you?”
“It literally makes me nauseous to kiss him.”
“I’m glad to hear that, and you shouldn’t have to do that if you don’t want to. We can find another way, you know? You’re not alone anymore.”
Leah stares at her, as if she’s trying to look into her soul to find out how truthful she’s being, or maybe it’s just the fact that these past few days she forgot she has people on her side now. “You’re right. Sorry.”
Fatin’s lips reach Leah’s eyebrow before her hand does. “Don’t be.” She places another kiss on the other eyebrow. On her forehead. On the tip of her nose. “I love you.” And it feels so damn good to be able to say it, to be able to show it. She kisses her lips again and this is insane because she’s never been this addicted to simply kissing.
She feels Leah relaxing and if she’d known this was all it took, she would’ve done it a lot sooner. Hell, she should’ve done it a lot sooner regardless.
She has no idea how much time they spend making out, and she couldn’t care less. This is all she needs to do from now on.
“Yeah, no, I’ll admit it to anyone who asks. Best kisses ever.”
Leah laughs and buries her face on her neck and Fatin holds on tighter. She never wants to let her go. And the best thing is that she won’t have to.