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She holds her head in her hands, her eyes darting mindlessly into the document that she should be studying for a big plan by the Guild. Yet, she can’t find it in her to concentrate, thinking about one thing and one thing only.
It starts with Margaret muttering one word that makes Louisa’s mind think about it dutifully for a whole month.
Darling.
What a crooked and detrimental word. It is the bane of Louisa’s existence and mental stability. The cursed two syllable word that eats up every thought of Louisa’s mind until only it remains.
And the fact that Margaret still uses it, even to this day, even after a whole month has passed since the day she used it on her, completely unaware of how much of an effect it has on Louisa, makes her lose her mind.
She tries to convince herself that Oh! She must use this on everyone, right? There is no hidden meaning to it. I am not singled out or a-anything like that… Right?
And Margaret only proves her wrong by using the wretched pet name on her and her only.
“Poe, fix your hair. An important person such as yourself should care more about their appearance.”
“Hawthorne, annoying as ever I see. You should put the same passion you give to rattling people about your God into our newest mission.”
“Montgomery, how about we go to that shop you told me about a week ago? We can even take a visit to that toy shop you like.”
But never, never darling.
And it’s absolutely mind-frying how a simple word, a simple pet name can cause her to just spontaneously combust into the reddest human tomato the Guild has ever seen.
It’s so mind-frying that she forgets the fact that the same person she’s stressing over is standing awkwardly behind Louisa’s desk chair ever since she invited herself into her room.
“Darling, is something wrong?” Margaret’s voice brings her back to reality, before her brain malfunctions once again at the feel of a warm hand on her shoulder.
She screeches an inhumane sound and her body jumps embarrassingly high at the realization, and her eyes only go wider at the surprised expression that the other woman gives her. If she wasn’t red a second ago, she was definitely red now.
“I- haha, I’m sorry, you, you-”
“Darling, breathe, you’re scaring me.” Margaret coaxes, and her voice definitely carries genuine worry.
That only serves Louisa to feel guilty, to have Margaret worry over how pathetic she is, all because she can’t take a stupid pet name.
And so she breathes, heavy and deep, and looks back to Margaret with a hopefully calmer expression. “I’m, I’m sorry, Margaret, you just caught me off guard. W-What did you approach me for?” She curses the stutter that still infects her words, but if Margaret was an ounce annoyed by it, she didn’t show it.
“Ah, I just needed some help with this document that you wrote. I couldn’t understand it very much, so I was wondering if you could better explain it to me. Of course,” Her eyes darted to the document that Louisa was supposed to be studying but only served to look at mindlessly for the past half hour, before schooling her attention back to her. “If you aren’t busy.”
Louisa blinks a bit before she thinks of a proper response to properly incorporate that Yes, I would love to. I would love to be of help to you. As long as I don’t ruin it by being turned stupid by your admittedly cute but disarming pet name for me. As long as you aren’t bothered by me turning hopelessly red when you stare at me too much for comfort, or our hands touch a bit too long or when you make me feel like I have a chance to be more than coworkers or friends with you-
“Ah, yes. Sure.” She ends up saying rather rigidly, and Margaret’s perfect eyebrow arches with how awkward it came out. But it quickly goes away with a smile, “Well, shall we get started then?”
She suddenly sits unto Louisa’s bed, her dress lands with a soft poof, and she looks expectedly to Louisa, who can only sit on her desk seat with a confused expression before it finally clicks.
“Y-You want to do it in , in my room?!” She squeaks out, her cheeks already heating up.
“Hm? I don’t see the problem.” Margaret says with a shrug, before she places the document she brought with her on the soft sheets of Louisa’s bed. “Or perhaps…” She ponders and her mouth turns into a perfect O shape, mimicking an over-the-top gasp. “Goodness, Louisa, are you perhaps hiding some, ahem, more private documents that are only for you to see? ”
Louisa absolutely explodes at that, half-shouting a string of words that were supposed to be excuses, but only came out as missing syllables. The woman across from her only laughs with the grace that one would expect from a woman of her background at the reaction, and Louisa’s face only serves to heat up by how lovely it sounds.
“I was only joking, darling.” She breathes out after practically laughing her ass off, although more classy than how others would typically do it.
And oh, would you look at that? She used the damned pet name once again.
She forces her face to cool down, nibbling nervously at her lip before she will finally ask a much needed question before her sanity quickly drains out of her by overthinking it. She hates confrontation as much as any introverted person does, but Fitzgerald did say that she should work more on that, so why not give it a try now?
“Um.” She blunders out, catching Margaret’s attention. Somehow, the gaze of those lavender eyes makes her feel so much smaller than she normally feels, and just serves to make her more nervous and cornered.
“Yes?” She asks, a soft tone that Louisa barely hears on her.
“I-I was just wondering,” She breathes in, and she looks at Margaret yet again before she continues. Her expression is schooled into a gentle patience, yet her eyes spark with a feeling that Louisa can only see as something that she half hopes, half fears.
Expectance.
“Why do you call only me darling?” She finally asks in one breath, and she feels like that truly was the last one that her lung can give her with the way Margaret’s face borns a blush of her own.
“I-I thought, that it was rather,” She clears her throat and looks at the floor as if it was the most interesting thing in the room. “Obvious, already.”
Feeling a little more daring, Louisa takes off from her chair, and walks slowly to Margaret, like a moth to flame. “No, I don’t.”
Margaret looks at her with an expression that can almost refer to betrayal, and the blush on her cheeks only serve to bloom even more at the way that the other woman came closer to her. “You’re smart, Alcott, I know you can figure it out.” She mutters out, and her breath comes into a gasp when Louisa is so close to her, half kneeling for her face to be as close as Margaret’s.
“Oh, suddenly I’m Alcott again?” Louisa tries to school her expression into a more confident and teasing one, although it falls rather short when it becomes a soft but lopsided one instead.
And they’re so close already, their breath shared by how close their proximity is. It only dawns to Louisa after a few minutes of drowning into those pleasant hues of lavender that is Margaret’s eyes, on how very close they were. “Oh God, I-I’m sorry, I, hah, I must’ve made you fe-feel awkward, did, didn’t I?” She awkwardly stutters out. Before she could increase the proximity between them, a hand is gently placed on the back of her head."
A minute passes, the silence and the tension so heavy you can cut it with a knife. Margaret finally cuts it, but her voice is so small that even with the close distance they have, Louisa still cannot hear what the other woman had to say. "I'm sorry?" She asks, and Margaret only looks at her with colored cheeks before she says it a bit louder, looking at Louisa beneath those eyelashes of hers. "It's because I desire every part of you, darling."
The words come out so reverent, so adoring, that Louisa only squeaks as the blush becomes the reddest it has ever been in her life. "Eh?" The little confidence she had before slowly drains out of her, as the sweet words that come out of Margaret's mouth only make her knees buckle. "I desire you, Louisa May Alcott, with all my body and soul. The way that you are somehow oblivious to how absolutely breathtaking you are makes me a little agitated. I want to be the one to remind you of that simple fact. The simple fact that I, Margaret Mitchell, am in love with you, Louisa May Alcott. And it is because every time I see you, you somehow take my breath away in every given second. How someone can be so... darling, is above me. That," She breathes in, before those lavender eyes come into contact with Louisa's green ones. "That is why I call you darling. "
"I'd cut up my heart for you to wear if you wanted it." She confesses, and Louisa has never felt so adored and cherished, and her eyes become a little damp with how happy she is.
“Were you not going to kiss me, darling?” Margaret breathes out, her face so uncharacteristically bashful. The fact that this, this same Margaret Mitchell was the same one she saw declaring orders to her subordinates confidently, turning into someone as shy as Louisa was when it came to her made her so giddy she could practically feel her heart jump.
“Is that what you want,” She asks, so quiet, as if she wanted Margaret to know those words were reserved for her and her alone. “Darling?”
“Yes.” She exhales, almost desperately, before their lips find each others’.