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Ava had fought demons and fake angels, died multiple times, and gone through a portal to another dimension only to claw her way back home through sheer determination. Still, nothing had made her fear for her life like the murderous and disappointed looks Lilith and Beatrice were respectively giving her at this very moment.
“What kind of idiotic, moronic move is that?”
“Ava, that’s not going to get you a lot of points,” Bea leans over towards her, “let me see what letters you have, maybe we can add to —” There’s a thud and Bea sucks a sharp breath through her teeth, rubbing her shin, “ow Mary! What was that for?”
“No helping. If she wants to lose, that’s her problem.”
“Hey!” She starts to protest, but then shrinks into her seat as Lilith continues to yell and Bea has her I’m not angry, just disappointed look, which might be worse. “I think I made a mistake.”
Mary snickers beside her, “I tried to warn you, baby girl.”
“It’s Scrabble!” she hisses, trying to avoid their attention. How was she supposed to know a board game could get so heated? It was a word game for fucks sake. The little wooden tiles looked so harmless sitting on top of the board. “They look like they’re about to start a fight.”
“Oh, blood has been drawn at game nights,” she says solemnly, but then gives her an amused smile and hits her shoulder playfully, “Don’t worry, we’re not there yet. You’ll know if it’s close.”
“Yet?! Mary?”
She ignores her, “alright, alright, my letters are shit so I’m going to dump them.”
“Well since Ava wasted the triple letter score space with ‘as’,” Lilith scowls in her direction, and Ava avoids her eyes, hiding behind her little row of tiles. “I can only put down the word, ‘raze’, for thirteen points.”
Bea hums in response, utterly engrossed on the board. There’s a few strands of hair that have escaped her loose bun, and a furrow in her brow that Ava wants to smooth out with a kiss. Focused, competitive Bea is definitely one of her top hottest looks. Ava would have happily watched her apply the same level of strategic detail she did for battle plans to a simple board game for the rest of the night, if not for the fact that she could still see Lilith shooting her daggers in her periphery.
She places three tiles down, “love, for seven points.”
“Aww, babe. I love you too.”
Bea rolls her eyes, but can’t stop the fond smile that spreads across her lips.
Mary mimes gagging and Lilith’s face twists in disgust.
Ava shoves Mary, “like you two don’t eye fuck every time you’re together.”
“Better than being disgustingly cute.”
Bea interrupts them, her cheeks a soft pink as she clears her throat, “Ava, it’s your turn.”
Right.
She stares at the board for a long moment.
Then at her row of completely random letter tiles.
Then back at the board.
In the corner of her eye, she can see Lilith impatiently tapping her fingers against the table, the barest hints of claws peeking through.
Well, if she’s going to lose, might as well go down swinging.
Ava takes a deep breath and slowly slides a ‘S’ tile next to her previous ‘as’, bracing herself for the fallout like a cat about to drop a dead mouse on her human’s lap.
“Ass.” She says proudly, with the biggest shiteating grin she can.
Simultaneously, Mary snorts, Bea facepalms, and Lilith’s claws fully extend.
Lilith opens her mouth to spew what would probably be an impressively colourful insult, but Mary holds her back, patting her shoulder and gesturing to breath. “Lily.” she warns.
She snaps her mouth shut with an audible click and leans back into her chair, arms crossed, taking several deep breaths to calm down enough to retract her claws.
“Well if she can put ‘ass’, then I’m going to add to that and put ‘asshole’.”
“Not you too.”
“Nice.” Ava extends her fist under the table, and Mary fist bumps her with a wink.
Lilith rolls her eyes, “how we survived the holy war is beyond comprehension.” Mary throws her an air kiss.
Lilith all but slams two tiles onto the board, shifting the rest of the tiles enough to make Bea tut at her. “Try, for ten points including the double letter score.”
“Thank you Lilith,” Bea says politely, except there’s a slight smirk tugging at her lips. And Ava, being intimately familiar with all of Bea’s smiles, knows that smile. It’s the one she has when an opponent has given her the opening she needs to win the fight, the one she has when she’s sure and enjoying it. The confident smile Ava finds incredibly attractive.
Bea adds to Lilith’s word, placing one tile and then another and then another.
“Quixotry.” Her smirk grows bigger and she turns to face Lilith straight on, “and I do believe it hits both the double letter score and double word score, so that will be a total of seventy four points.”
Holy. Shit. Ava definitely just fell a little more in love with her.
“Fucking private education.” Mary shakes her head in disbelief and frustration.
“Bullshit!” Lilith snarls, jumping to her feet and throwing the board across the room, scattering the wooden tiles everywhere.
Ava jumps, wide eyed, “what the fuck.”
Lilith takes a step in Bea’s direction, claws extended subconsciously, and Ava hurriedly phases through the table to get in between them just in case, “whoa easy. It’s just a game.”
“How did you know I was going to play that word?”
Bea takes a calm sip from her cup, “don’t be a sore loser, Lilith.”
Mary wraps an arm around Lilith from behind and says something Ava can’t quite catch, but whatever she says helps drain the anger out of Lilith’s lithe frame. Lilith crosses her arms, still sullen, before she begrudgingly leans into Mary’s embrace.
Bea still has a small proud smile when Ava turns back to her, “Ok, watching you kick ass at board games is fucking hot. I have no idea what quixotry even means, but I love seeing you so competitive!”
“It means behavior inspired by romantic beliefs without regard to reality.”
Ava laughs and checks behind her to make sure Mary and Lilith are still occupied before pressing a quick kiss to the corner of her mouth, “like I said, hot.”
Camila peeks over from where she and Yasmine were playing cards, “should I add this to the list?”
“What list?” Ava asks, confused.
“The list of banned board games we’re not allowed to play anymore because it ends in violence.”
Yasmine frowns, “How many games are on the list?”
“Many.” Camila frowns, “Monopoly almost ruined many friendships.”
Mary chuckles, “I’d never seen Beatrice so mad before.” And even Lilith, still in Mary’s arms, laughs lightly at the memory.
Ava twists around to look at Bea with raised eyebrows, who was doing a very bad job at looking innocent, “care to elaborate, Bea?”
Bea looks away, fidgeting with her cup. “I… may have overreacted.”
“Oh come on, I need details.” When Bea remains tightlipped, she turns back to Mary, “Mary gimme the dirt.”
“Mary, don’t —”
Mary talks over her with a wicked grin, “Shannon was a killer at Monopoly. Beatrice landed on her hotels twice in a row and lost all her money. She was so pissed, you could almost see the steam coming out of her ears.”
Ava wraps her arms around Bea with glee, “aww, did you flip the board, Bea?”
“No.” Bea replies as dignified as one can be when their cheeks are bright red.
“No, but she did stomp away like a child afterwards.” Camila chimes in and Ava bursts out laughing at Bea’s look of absolute betrayal.
“That’s adorable. I wish I could have seen it.”
“I did not. I was… taking a moment to collect myself. And I seem to recall Lilith kicking a chair down when Mary bought the property she needed.”
“You did it on purpose.” Lilith elbows Mary lightly.
“Oh yeah. You were eying it for so long, I just wanted to fuck with you.” She kisses her jaw and Lilith playfully pushes her away with an eye roll.
“Ok, ok, so no Monopoly and no Scrabble. What game should we play next?”
“Maybe we should do something that won’t get so heated.” Bea suggests.
“There has to be a game that won't throw Lilith into a rage.” Ava scans the tower of stacked board games, trying to find the perfect game. She grabs the box of Twister and presents it like she’s one of those gameshow girls, “what about Twister? It’s fun and easy.”
She absolutely ignores the way Mary mutters under her breath, “damn, you really do have a death wish.”
“Ava…” Bea starts, “I don’t think that’s the best idea.”
She pulls her best big puppy eyes and pouts. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and she knows Bea can never resist it. “Please Bea? I kept seeing it on tv as a kid and I’ve always wanted to try it.”
Yes, she’s not above playing the tragic childhood card to get what she wants.
And she can see the exact moment Bea gives in. The way her eyes narrow just slightly as she looks at her for a long second before looking away, her shoulders slumping a little as she sighs.
Check and mate.
“Fine. One game.”
“Yes!” She does a little victory dance. It’s more wiggles than dancing, but whatever. Another point for Ava, Bea zero. And it made Bea laugh, so really she should have two points.
Ten minutes into it, Ava is rethinking her choice in game.
“This mat,” she huffs as she struggles to move her left foot through the tangle of limbs to the red circle, “is a lot smaller than it looks on tv.”
They’re all intertwined with each other in ways that are encroaching on uncomfortable now. Lilith’s leg is somehow twisted together with one of her own and Mary looks like she got stuck attempting to do the splits underneath Bea.
“You think?” Mary asks. Ava can’t see her face at the moment, but she can hear the sarcasm dripping off her voice. “This game is for children.”
“Then why do you even have it?” she throws back.
“It’s fun!” Camila chirps, “and we could get away with saying it was a fun training exercise.”
“I can’t believe you talked me into playing this stupid game.” Lilith says.
There’s a telltale click of a camera to the protests of everyone.
“Delete it Camila. No one can know of this humiliating night.” Lilith says.
“Nope, this is never going to happen again and I need the evidence.”
Ava mouths at her to send her a copy and Camila throws her a thumbs up.
Camila spins the wheel again, “Ok, right hand, green.”
They all groan as they all scramble to reach the closest green circle they can. Mary manages to beat her to the one she was aiming for, so Ava has to stretch over Bea’s back to touch the green circle with her fingertips. On the plus side, it puts her in the perfect position to hook her chin in the crook of Bea’s neck, which is really one of her favourite places to be.
She can’t help the surely dopey smile that spreads across her lips, “oh hi.”
She can feel her huff of laughter against her cheek, “hello.”
“Fancy meeting you here.”
“Quite a coincidence,” she indulges her with a soft smile. She turns her head so she can give Ava her full attention, nose brushing against her own, “are you having fun?”
Her smile widens, “absolutely.”
“Good.” she replies, so simply and sincerely it makes Ava’s chest fill with a wave of affection so intense she would not be surprised if she activated the halo by accident. It takes every bit of willpower not to kiss Bea then and there, and it’s only because she knows Bea’s still not the biggest fan of PDA, and she’s 75% certain that Lilith would teleport her into the Atlantic ocean if she did.
“Camila, permission to push Ava and Beatrice off the mat for making me want to vomit?” Lilith asks as if right on cue.
“Permission denied. I think it’s cute.”
“Thank you Camila. This is why you’re my favourite.”
“I know,” she grins, “left hand on yellow.”
Ava sighs as she eases into a more comfortable position.
“Lilith, I love you, but get your pointy elbow out of my ribs.” Mary grunts.
“Well, your smelly foot is in my personal space.” She jerks back in disgust as Mary wiggles her foot closer to her face in retaliation. “Mary!”
Camila snaps another picture with a laugh.
“Camila, I will destroy your camera. I have a reputation to uphold.”
“It’s cute that you think the images haven’t already been automatically backed up in at least 4 different locations.”
Lilith glowers at her, but Camila sweetly smiles back before spinning the board again, “right hand, blue.”
“Ok, I’m getting too old for this shit.” Mary groans as she ends up with her arms criss-crossed and stretched out between Ava and Beatrice. “Yasmine, switch places with me.”
Yasmine, who had just been eating popcorn and watching them make a fool of themselves with amusement, jerks up, eyes wide, “what?”
She beckons her over, “you heard me. You’re going to sub in for me.”
“Hey, that’s not allowed! You leave, you forfeit.” Ava protests.
“There’s nothing in the rules that says you can’t make a substitute.”
“Rules state once limbs are placed on circles, they cannot be moved without the direction of the referee by each spin.” Bea recites.
“Thank you Bea. See, if you move off the circles, you lose.”
“Stop being such a rules stickler, Beatrice.” Mary turns to Camila, “you’re the ref, what do you say? And keep in mind that you owe me from last month.”
Camila thinks about it for a long moment, “ok, I’ll allow it just this once. But that means we’re even!”
“Sure thing.” Mary drawls with a triumphant grin.
“Camila —” “That’s not fair —” Bea and Ava protested together.
"But what if I don't… don't I get a say?" Yasmine pleads weakly.
“Mary, do not leave me here with them.” Lilith half orders, half pleads.
“I’m right here, cheering you on.” She pats her on the shoulder before stretching with a groan, joints popping in relief, “ugh, so much better.”
Yasmine approaches the group like she’s just been chosen for the Hunger Games, “I don’t think this is a good idea. I’ve never even played this game before.”
“If Ava can do it, you can definitely do it.”
“Hey! Rude.” Mary ignores Ava’s protest as she shows Yasmine where to place her limbs, “You’ll do great. Do not let me down.”
She swallows nervously, “o-ok.”
“Ok, left foot, yellow.”
With Mary subbed out, it was time for Ava to change her gameplan. Yasmine shouldn’t be too hard to beat, but she was on the other side of Lilith. And between Lilith and Bea, she probably has a better chance of taking out Bea first.
Ava twists around in a semi-crouch, making sure her cleavage will be directly in Bea’s eyeline. She’s never been more glad she decided to wear the dark patterned crop top with a deep V she knows Bea loves on her.
Bea looks up to find herself with an eyeful of Ava’s chest inches away from her face. Her eyes linger a couple seconds longer than normal, but her expression remains unfazed as she raises an eyebrow at Ava.
“Really?”
Ava plays innocent, “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Did you really think that would work?”
“You looked.”
“It’s hard not to when you’re inches away from me.”
“They’re good boobs, you can admit it.” She already said so multiple times in the past in a much more eloquent manner, but it’s always nice to hear.
Bea rolls her eyes, “that’s beside the point. And I’m a little offended you would have thought this would faze me.”
“It did before.” Ava remembers multiple occasions Bea, red faced and unable to look her in the eye, ending training early after trying to teach her how to escape a grapple.
“That was before when…”
“When you were a very repressed gay nun with a big ol’ crush on me?” she replies with a grin.
Bea gives her a look.
“You love me.”
“I do. Unfortunately.” Bea deadpans before cracking into a soft smile.
“I’m going to figure out a way to beat you.”
“Sure.”
“Right foot, green.”
Instead of reaching for the one closest to her, Bea shifts even closer into Ava’s space, so she’s now straddling Ava’s thigh, lips brushing her ear, “But you’ll need to try harder than that, my love.”
And, oh, her voice is low and husky and teasing, a tone she only ever uses when they’re alone and Ava’s brain freezes. Her breath catches in her chest at the unexpected retaliation, Bea’s warm breath curling through her body like a lit fuse.
“Oh fuck,” she whispers, her body shivering before she can stop herself and she has to lock her limbs in place, so they don’t do something embarrassing like buckle under her words.
Bea’s smug, amused smile grows at the sight and Ava has half a mind to say screw the game and pin Bea to the nearest wall and kiss her senseless.
“Ava, you haven’t moved yet.” Yasmine’s polite reminder snaps Ava out of her haze and she swears again louder before slapping her foot onto the first free blue circle she can see. She nearly lists to the side in her haste before regaining her balance.
Mary does a terrible job of hiding her snickering and because Ava is a caring friend and mature adult who has saved the world multiple times, she does not halo pulse her across the room. Instead, she completely ignores her and focuses as intensely as she can on the stupid brightly coloured mat.
“If this whole thing is your fucked up version of foreplay, I will murder the both of you.” Lilith grits out.
"You feeling left out Lilith? Or do you prefer Lily?"
"I prefer silence."
“Hi Silence, I’m Ava.” Was it the best idea to be riling Lilith up so much? Probably not, but it’s always fun to see how much teasing she can get away with.
Lilith stares at her for a long moment, disappointment written all over her face, before looking up, adopting a thousand yard stare as she contemplates the life choices that lead her here, “your jokes are getting worse.”
“That was a classic dad joke, how dare you."
“Camila, please hurry and finish the game. I have a very nice bottle of scotch I’m going to use to forget this night ever happened.”
“Pfft, like I’m going to let you forget. This night is going to be seared into my memory.” Ava says.
“Blunt force trauma to the head does wonders for memory.” Lilith throws back with an overly sweet smile full of teeth.
“There’s no need for violence. We’re all friends. This is supposed to be fun, right?” Yasmine tries to seem nonchalant even as her voice creeps up higher in fear and concern.
Ava waves her off, “don’t worry, this is how Lilith shows affection.”
“It is not.”
“Deep down, you like me.”
“I tolerate you because of Beatrice. Even though I'm not sure what she sees in you.”
“I’m charming, fun, and incredibly hot.”
“You’re an infuriating golden retriever that dresses like the floor of a run down bowling alley, who’s only redeeming feature is that you make Beatrice happy.” She gestures to Bea, “the fact that Beatrice finds it attractive makes her judgement questionable at best.”
“Thanks? I guess?” It was as close to a compliment Lilith would ever give her. “And Bea likes my clothes.”
“Proving my point.” She turns to Bea, “Where are your standards?”
“My standards are fine, thank you very much.”
Ava preens, “Yeah! I’m a damn snack.”
“Sure, you’re the sad little hor d'oeuvres no one wants to eat.”
“That’s not what Bea said —”
“Ava!” Bea hisses.
Mary grabs the spinner, “Alright, we gotta hurry this up before I hear something I can’t unhear. Left hand, blue.”
Lilith, lightning fast, moves into Ava’s space, forcing her to twist awkwardly to reach the only other available circle she could reach. She can see Lilith smirk in the corner of her eye as she has to strain to even touch her fingertips to the circle.
“Ready to give up?”
“Screw you.” Her muscles burn as she tries to hold her position steady.
Ava teeters precariously again before deciding fuck it. No one can see her back right now and her dark crop top should help hide most of the halo’s glow if she carefully activates it just a little.
She levitates just enough to ease the strain in her muscles while making sure her hands and feet are still touching the mat. She sighs in relief, before shooting LIlith a cheeky grin, Lilith’s eyes narrowing in response. She’s totally going to win this now.
“Right hand, red.”
In a split second, Ava clocks the circle Lilith is eying and lunges for it. Both hands reach out and using a tiny Halo boost, Ava narrowly manages to touch it first.
Just as she’s about to celebrate, she instead yelps as Lilith’s claws sink deep into her hand. She rips her hand away and jerks back instinctively, crashing into Bea, who manages to wrap an arm around her waist and twist around, so she falls onto Bea’s chest instead of the floor.
“Ava!”
“Fuck! What the fuck Lilith?” She grips her hand, trying to slow the bleeding.
“You’re cheating.”
“So you decided to tear holes into my hand? And I was not.”
“You were using the halo.”
“The rules don't say anything about using superpowers.”
“It was implied.” she says dryly.
Her hand itches something fierce as the halo hums and works to stitch torn muscle and tendons back together, “fuck, I need this hand Lilith.”
Bea shoots her a withering look, but grabs her hand, double checking that the wound has healed properly. She runs her fingers gently over newly healed skin, “are you ok?”
“Yeah, just wasn’t expecting to get stabbed over a damn game.” She shoots a glare in Lilith’s direction who glares back unflinchingly.
She presses a soft kiss to her hand, “I think we’re done for the night.”
“Hey no! We gotta finish it. I gotta get revenge and kick Lilith’s ass.”
Bea gestures to the claw marks and blood splattered on the mat, “I don’t think that’s the wisest idea.”
She pouts but leans back into her chest before perking up again, “Hey Bea?”
“Yeah?”
“I fell for you all over again.”
Bea tries to school her expression into something more exasperated, but ends up somewhere closer to overtly fond. “I told you I’d always catch you.”
“So I guess this means Yasmine won?”
Yasmine, still frozen in shock, “I did?”
“Hey, I didn’t fall!” Lilith protests.
“No, but you did attack another player —” Camila replies.
“She was cheating!”
Camila continues speaking over the interruption, “— so you’re disqualified. That leaves Yasmine as the last person standing.”
Yasmine smiles bright, fist bumping the air with both hands, “Yes! I admit I wasn’t sure I had a chance, I was up against such fierce competition, and I know I won partially because of the disqualification, but I’ve never won any game before. This is so exciting!”
Mary high fives Yasmine, “that’s my girl!”
“I feel like I shouldn’t have been eliminated,” Bea tries to appeal to Camila, “Ava fell onto me because of Lilith, and I reacted instinctively to the danger.”
“Sorry, Bea, you still fell.”
“Don’t be a sore loser, Beatrice.” Lilith repeats smugly.
“Just admit you lost.” Mary says.
“I still think we should have a rematch.” Ava quips.
Camila sighs as the bickering continues though she can’t help the fondness that tugs at her lips, “well I guess I’ll add this to the list too.”