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It was Friday night, and Alec was sitting there playing video games. Nothing new there.
His entire existence could be split into two neat partitions. One role was his serious—well, more serious—high-intensity mode when he was out in costume as Regent. Jobs from the boss were few and far between, though, so most of the time was spent in chill, low-intensity Alec mode. By far his favorite of the two.
No responsibilities, no commitments. Bliss.
He didn't show it, but he enjoyed having the other Undersiders around. Even if he was doing his own thing. A visual reminder that there were people willing to put up with him.
Sometimes the dork even joined him when he played certain games. She was abysmal. Not bad—abysmal. As in, “I'm not sure I could do worse if I explicitly set out with the express purpose of doing so” abysmal. It was always entertaining to watch though.
Speaking of the dork, she and Lisa were in the middle of getting ready for their date. They hadn't told anyone they were dating, but it was obvious. They didn't even try to hide it.
Wherever one was, the other was always nearby. They were always snickering at inside jokes that only the two of them knew. And he'd had to hear them go on about how excited they were for this meal for the past week.
Apparently, they'd gotten reservations at this swanky new restaurant on the boardwalk. The kind of place that serves eight courses, each a tiny morsel located in the center of a giant white plate, decorated with the weird black, swirly, drizzle thing they did.
Rumors were you had to book months in advance if you wanted to get in. Alec suspected Lisa had pulled some strings and greased some palms to get in on short notice. Waiting for something wasn't really a philosophy she subscribed to.
Lisa and Taylor came out of Lisa's room, where they'd been getting ready—they were dressed to the nines. Alec knew that Lisa was attractive, but he had to admit that the dork cleaned up well too.
Just as they were heading to the front door, he figured he'd do his good deed for the day.
"Enjoy your date."
They both looked around at him. "Oh, it's not a date," Lisa said.
He frowned in confusion. "You're dressing up and going out to a fancy restaurant, just the two of you. How is that not a date?"
Taylor did that creepy thing she does where her face goes blank and she becomes like a statue. Lisa stepped forward, grabbed her hand, and gave it a quick squeeze. Taylor deflated again.
"Because we're not dating," Lisa said.
Alec shrugged. "Oh, sorry, it just seemed like a date to me, is all."
Lisa rolled her eyes. "You might not be aware of this seeing as two out of your"—she pretended to count on her fingers—"three and a half friends are currently in this room, but friends are allowed to leave the house together and go places. You should try it sometime."
He gasped dramatically. "The outside? Sounds horrible. Why would I want to go there?"
Taylor accidentally snorted before looking embarrassed and covering her nose and mouth with her hand, causing Lisa to grin in response.
They turned around and started toward the door again.
"Hey," he called after them. They stopped but didn't turn to look. "Enjoy your evening, both of you."
Taylor looked over her shoulder at him with a slight smile. "You too, Alec."
Alec returned to his game and heard the door close behind them as they left.
Taylor was helping Rachel clean up after the dogs. That wasn't strange. Taylor helped her out most days.
What was strange was that Lisa had also been tagging along recently. She never got her hands dirty though. She could normally be found perched on a box with her laptop, occasionally reaching down to give some attention to whichever dog was pestering her.
Rachel didn't mind her being there. Although the work would get done quicker if she actually pitched in.
Why the sudden change though?
Rachel looked over at Taylor. "Are you and Lisa fucking?"
Taylor stopped shoveling and turned her head so she could make eye contact with Rachel. “No.”
Okay then. Rachel nodded once, then she and Taylor went back to shoveling.
And that was that.
Brian had told himself he wouldn't ask. Or at least he'd wait to ask until they came clean about their relationship. That was before he'd come back to the loft and found them cuddled up, asleep under a blanket on the couch. It was a step too far. It was eating him up inside. He had to know.
He reached over and gently started to shake them awake. It wouldn't be wise to startle the living plague and the girl he strongly suspected slept with a gun under her pillow, now would it?
Their eyes started to open, and Taylor looked confusedly at him as Lisa sat up and reached her arms over her head in a big stretch.
"Is something wrong?" Taylor asked, her eyes starting to dart around, trying to identify the danger.
Brian put his hands up and spoke soothingly. "No, no, nothing wrong. Just wanted to talk, is all."
They were both fully clothed, he noted with relief. It meant there was still hope. They sat upright and looked at him expectantly
He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Look, I just want you to know: I support free love and all that, and I'm happy that you two found each other.”
Taylor let out a sigh.
Brian plowed on. "But I need to know for my own peace of mind." Here he goes; better to be direct and get it over with. "You haven't, you know, done anything on this couch, have you?"
Taylor frowned and looked about to say something, but Brian jumped in again, feeling the need to explain.
"And I'm sorry if that's too personal or rude, but I've become rather attached to this couch since I was forced to purchase it to replace the old one."
Lisa reached an arm around and slapped her hand over Taylor’s mouth, her face breaking into a wide grin.
"Oh we've done so many things on this couch," she said.
Brian's chest clenched. His poor couch.
"Last week I braided Tay's hair, right on this very spot. Only yesterday, in fact, we sat here and binged an entire true crime miniseries." Taylor had stopped struggling and now looked resigned to her fate. "And worst of all," Lisa leant in and brought her not-already-occupied hand up to the side of her mouth, "before you woke us up, we were having an afternoon nap together, on this couch."
Brian sighed. He should have suspected this of Lisa. "Fine, if you don't want to tell me, don't tell me," he said before mumbling, "probably better for my sanity that I live in ignorance."
As he turned away, he heard a yelp. It seemed Taylor had lost patience and bitten Lisa's hand.
I'm going to have to get a new couch, aren't I?
Taylor was half reclined on the bed in Lisa's room, a book perched on her stomach. Lisa herself was sitting at the desk next to her, scrolling through PHO on her laptop. She liked leaving snarky comments at people and would show Taylor the ones she was particularly proud of—she could be pretty brutal when she wanted to.
Taylor had been steering clear of PHO since the incident.
Skitter and Tattletale had been staking out the next location for a job they had coming up. Nothing too risky; the costumes were more there as a deterrent if any civilians spotted them. Lisa had slipped and twisted her ankle. It wasn’t anything major, but she was having trouble walking, and Taylor did the sensible thing and carried her so she wouldn’t make it worse.
Unfortunately, someone had seen them.
And even more unfortunately, that specific someone had their phone with them.
So there was now a picture of Skitter giving Tattletale a piggyback ride out there for the world to see.
And it seemed that the internet had taken this and ran with it. Out of curiosity, she’d looked into the dedicated “SmugBug” thread on PHO, and the things she saw...
She let out a shudder, and Lisa glanced over. Taylor gave her a small smile and a shake of the head, and Lisa looked back at her laptop.
She wished she could unsee things.
It's not like they could make a big announcement to correct people anyway. That would only add more fuel to the fire.
They’d tried to avoid having to explain the nature of their relationship to anyone—it would probably devolve into a whole thing. The most likely response you were to get was, "Oh, so you're just friends?"
Just. There was no just about it. They wanted to spend the rest of their lives with each other in it, sharing in their collective and individual highs and lows. Be there to support each other when necessary, and have their friendship last until they were both old and wrinkly.
They were fully committed to each other. Why should their relationship be seen as any less valid?
Just because they didn't want to have sex, just because they didn't want to kiss, just because they didn't want to have any of the romantic connotations that come with dating?
As if to imply that because what they felt for each other was platonic, it was somehow lesser. As if the only relationships worthwhile were those of romance.
You saw it all the time—people casting their multi-year-old friendships to the wayside when a new romantic relationship came along. Why was that the accepted norm?
Sometimes she wanted to grab people and shake them. Demand that they acknowledge that she wasn’t some unfeeling monster. Make them understand that the bonds and relationships she makes in her life are just as important to her as they are to anyone else.
What right do they have to tell her that she can give everything she has to give and it isn’t good enough? To make her feel like she isn’t good enough?
I’m not broken.
Taylor squawked as Lisa grabbed her sides and started mercilessly tickling her.
“P-please!” Taylor managed to get out in between her laughter and snorts, wriggling all the while to try and escape. Lisa grinned and pretended not to hear her.
After a few more torturous moments, just when Taylor was having trouble breathing, Lisa decided to be benevolent and released her.
Taylor gasped for breath as her final giggles subsided. She looked over and smiled at Lisa. “What was that for?”
“You were being all mopey, and your negative vibes were really throwing me off my game.”
Taylor rolled her eyes, to which Lisa replied by sticking out her tongue.
Ah well, what does it matter what anyone else thinks? We know the truth. And we’re happy as we are.