Chapter Text
Trucy eased out a breath. Predictably, even this slight noise caught the attention of the only other person in the room. On the couch near the chair Trucy was curled up on, a certain redheaded defence lawyer perked up, looking in her direction.
Athena set her phone aside. It didn’t look like she’d really been paying much attention to it; Trucy guessed she’d been flicking through pages solely to give her hands something to do while she sat in silence.
“Uh...”
It wasn’t supposed to feel like this, right? There was supposed to be a sort of... fade-out into pink, or some other warm colour. Whatever the real-world equivalent of that was, it was supposed to have happened after...
Both of them going so quiet like this was killing her. The moment had been perfect, and she hadn’t even tried to set it up; a girls’ pizza night at Athena’s cramped apartment, some foreign movie Athena loved from when she’d been living with her relatives overseas, an artfully light drizzle of rain coming down - when Athena kissed her, it had felt like a locked door in some ancient, unmapped catacomb of her heart had been smashed open to reveal the most incredible store of treasures and history the world had ever seen.
... So why did that same place now feel like nothing more than a dingy, crumbled dead end tunnel?
There had finally been a conclusive answer to all of those dubious flashes of warmth she remembered feeling from Athena when they worked, talked, and laughed together in the last three years. Yes, Athena liked her too - funny, weird, smart, clumsy, unpredictable, hardheaded, tough, short-tempered, beautiful Athena, her best friend and the most infectiously positive person she’d ever met, had made the move to kiss her, and it was like for once in her life, the locked safe she kept her pain and her messy feelings inside had been left open for perusal.
Trucy didn’t really know what she was doing when it came to kissing, but it had seemed enthusiasm was enough, going by the warm, joyous laughter Athena let out when she got her hands onto the redhead’s broad, sturdy shoulders and leaned right back into her.
So they had kissed. Actually, it had very quickly graduated to what Trucy supposed was typically called “making out”. Athena’s ridiculous quantity of hair had quickly started to become tangled everywhere it could reach as she practically fell on top of Trucy, pinning her to the couch and only detaching their bodies whenever it became strictly necessary to breathe.
It couldn’t have been even ten minutes now. Why weren’t they talking? Why had she decided to just... get off the couch and move to the uneven chair across the tiny living room? Why didn’t she feel as warm, as content, as good as she was supposed to?
“Trucy.”
She jerked, finally registering that Athena was still staring at her, her phone entirely forgotten. She bit her lip, trying to respond.
“Trucy, I’m... do you want me to give you a ride home? Your dad’s probably-”
“No!”
... Had that really been her voice? She hadn’t meant to yell... Athena’s neighbours probably had a raised eyebrow or two around all of a sudden.
“Um... A-Athena, please don’t... you were about to apologize, and that’s...” She groaned, hating how difficult it suddenly was to get simple words out. It hurt even more to see and hear Athena looking so much like she regretted what had happened just a few minutes ago.
This was all going to go to hell if she didn’t right this ship right this minute. Trucy got up, her socked feet settling on the cheap carpet, and strode over to Athena, stopping in front of her.
“Athena,” she said, “I really, really like you, and right now, I’m...”
(I’m what?)
Scared? Scared of what, exactly? Scared that Athena was about to stammer an apology, hustle to get out the door to bring her home, and then come back here to sob into her pillow and hate herself for doing exactly what Trucy had been wanting her to do for over a year?
Cursing under her breath, Trucy dropped onto the couch again, her heart an awful, twisting mass inside of her. She spotted Athena’s left hand resting on the cushion and grabbed it with both of hers, wrenching it upward a bit.
“Can we be... Look, I’m being stupid and difficult because this is terrifying, but... can we be dating now, please?”
...
The worst pause of the evening ensued, but like a geyser of relief exploding forth, Athena began to laugh. The dull-eyed, lost expression of regret she’d had up until now faded, and she let her tense shoulders go as she giggled that wonderful giggle of hers. Her other hand, with its flashy glove, settled on top of Trucy’s hands, calloused fingers running over softer ones.
“Works for me...!”