Chapter Text
.o0o.
Christmas Eve
Muffy had been wiping out the same glass for the better part of the last ten minutes.
It was well into the night, most of the valley had gone to bed in anticipation for holiday festivities the following day.
But not Muffy.
She had been desperately searching for anything to preoccupy her mind, whether it was dishes or reorganizing shelves, she had to be doing something right now. Every time she wasn’t doing something she started crying again. It was evident in the smeared mascara staining her soft cheeks that she’d run out of tasks some time ago, but that wasn’t enough to send her to bed.
Crying in bed was sadder.
More pitiful.
She was tired of being pitiful.
Yet there she stood, alone, miserably shining a glass with a rag at 12:03 am on- what was now- Christmas morning.
The definition of pitiful.
And all because of that man. Then again, that was usually the case with Muffy. She had all the right to be upset tonight though- after all, what kind of asshole breaks up with someone on Christmas Eve?
Muffy was ripped out of her despondent trance when she heard the gentle chime of the front door opening and felt the rush of freezing winter air billow in.
“We’re closed tonight.” Muffy said curtly, desperately attempting to keep her cracked voice steady enough to seem somewhat imposing as she held her back to the door.
Regardless of her stern declaration, she heard the door close and heavy footfalls shuffle deeper into the bar.
Now Muffy was angry.
She just wanted to be miserable alone and she couldn’t even get that. She all but slammed the glass down on the counter as she turned on her heel to address the intrusion on her evening. She didn’t care how she looked right then, she’d put her foot down if that’s what it took.
“I said we’re clo--” Muffy’s voice caught in her throat as her gaze met Nami’s.
Nami had shuffled her way to the opposite side of the bar and lingered near a stool. She also looked pitiful. Her icy blue eyes were reddened from irritation, puffy and dark from crying. Muffy didn’t think Nami was even capable of crying. She was probably the most emotionally unavailable person Muffy knew. Sure, she had her hot-headed side and she would raise her voice when she needed to, and she wasn’t a total stick in the mud all the time , but she never knew Nami to be vulnerable like this.
Nami lingered there with her hands tucked sheepishly into her coat pockets. She cast her eyes down towards the countertop and sniffled slightly.
“...Can I just…sit in here for a while?” Nami asked weakly, her usual gravelly voice was even more hoarse than usual. Muffy blinked in confusion for a moment before offering the tiniest of nods. Nami let out a little sigh of relief as she was permitted to sink herself down onto a barstool. She folded her arms across the countertop and burrowed her head into them, effectively hiding her tear-stained face from Muffy’s equally sob-sodden visage.
Again, Muffy just blinked. What the hell was she to do in this situation? She didn’t want to talk, and Nami never wanted to talk about herself- then again…she did choose to come here over anywhere else, so that must’ve meant something, right?
Or she…just wanted a drink.
Muffy could do that.
Nami slowly raised her head up when she heard the gentle plinking of shot glasses being set in front of her on the bar-top. Muffy loomed over her with a weak smile and a tall bottle of vodka in her hand. Nami gave her a bit of a scowl but Muffy just shrugged in return and poured them each a very, very generous shot. Muffy set the bottle down before daintily scooping up her shot with two fingers and holding it out towards Nami. Nami hesitated for a moment but relented with a grumble. She too plucked up her glass and clinked their drinks together in cheers.
The two women knocked back the shots in a single gulp. However they both winced as the bitter drink went down. Muffy sputtered a bit and shook her head, face contorting in disgust. Nami handled it a bit better but she still shuddered.
“Oh, hells bells, that stuff is nasty on its own.” Muffy huffed, cracking open the mini fridge behind the bar and pulling out a beer for herself to wash away the taste.
“Like that’s any better.” Nami deadpanned, reaching for the bottle of vodka herself and pouring another shot. Muffy pursed her lips disapprovingly but said nothing. Griffin would pitch a fit if customers were pouring their own drinks but…Muffy didn’t care tonight. Griffin left the valley for a few days to visit family over Christmas anyway, he’d never find out.
Muffy shrugged again at the jab and contentedly sipped her beer. “At least this doesn’t hurt on the way down.” She retorted.
“At least this doesn’t taste like a wet dog.” The redhead mumbled as she knocked back a second shot. It went down a bit smoother this time.
“Oh, because antiseptic is sooo much more palatable, Nami.” Muffy rolled her eyes and sauntered out from behind the bar, eventually stopping beside Nami. She hefted herself up onto the counter- another thing that would’ve made Griffin scream- and gave Nami a knowing look. The look was met with a sigh, then the gentle shake of a head.
“You can’t just come in here all…sad and not expect me to at least ask.” Muffy said softly. Nami curled her arms a bit tighter around herself and remained silent. Muffy let out a frustrated breath and stared up at the ceiling in search of the right thing to say. “I know…I know you probably don’t think of me as a friend, but, I think of you as one. You’ve been here for a while now and, while I do most of the talking in our relationship, I really do enjoy your company, Nami. I care about what you have to say.” Muffy paused to look down at her friend with an earnest smile on her face. “I care about how you feel. Other than Griffin, you’re just about the only person in this valley who gives more than half a shit about me-- and you can’t act all macho and say you don’t because I know you care about me at least a little bit.”
“What makes you say that?” Nami challenged as she ran a single finger around the rim of her shot glass.
“The first Christmas after you came to the valley.” Muffy said with certainty. Nami furrowed her brow as if trying to remember but nothing came to mind. When met with silence, Muffy continued. “You’d been in town a few months and you couldn’t stand Rock-”
“I still can’t stand Rock.” Nami interjected.
“No one can.” Muffy chuckled. She was rewarded with the faintest smile on Nami’s face. “Anyway, you came here to get away from him for a while since he wouldn’t leave you alone at the inn. There was a drifter in the bar and he was making me super uncomfortable. Griffin was busy in the back and I didn’t want to make a scene by calling for him so I was just kind of…dealing with it.” Muffy paused to tuck some of her loose wavy locks behind one ear and flash another smile over at Nami. “You came in and you sat down, didn’t say a thing, didn’t even look at either of us. I practically ran to you to take your order and that guy just kept fucking going.”
Nami’s cheeks started to grow rosy as the memory came back to her.
“After a few drinks and what felt like a lifetime of him being a creep, you stood up and told him to fuck off.” Muffy laughed. “He was so shocked, then you shouted at him again and he started getting all huffy. Before Griffin could even come back out front you--”
“Decked him in the face and called him a pig.” Nami finished, a dry laugh leaving her lips. “I remember now. That was…a long time ago.”
“Well, it was important to me.” Muffy replied. “So I remembered it. I remember you being there for me. So…c’mon, let me be here for you. Talk to me, Nami.” Muffy sat her beer down between them and leaned a bit closer towards her friend.
Nami sat up straighter and chewed her cheek in deliberation. She stole a few quick glances up at Muffy as though gauging the waters. She rubbed the back of her neck nervously and let out a shuddery sigh as she tried to keep that cool composure she was known for.
“Got a, uh, Christmas call from my mom.” Nami finally said.
Muffy nodded along, not speaking. She’d gotten Nami to say something and she couldn’t afford to mess it up. It was like trying to approach a wild animal, one wrong move and you lose her.
“She called to, y’know…say merry Christmas n' shit. I thought that maybe she’d gotten over all our bullshit but right at the end of the call she just has to pull something.” Nami’s voice grew more steady as she continued, dripping with anger now. “She asked if I had a boyfriend yet and I just blew up on her, and she blew up on me. Reminded me how much of a disappointment I am and called me everything she could think of to hurt me.”
Nami mindlessly reached out across the bar and picked up Muffy’s beer by the neck and held it to her lips. “Jokes on her, I’ve been called a dyke way too many times for it to hurt anymore.” She added quickly before taking a long sip.
Muffy was too floored to even protest the theft of her beer. She canted her head to one side in confusion as she processed Nami’s story. She knew Nami had a bad relationship with her parents, but she certainly didn’t get any details out of her in the past. This was…unexpected. Not only the severity of it but the wordage used. Was Nami…?
Nami let out a small chuckle when she saw the way Muffy’s face had furrowed while she tried to sort out what she had just been told.
“What?” Nami chuffed.
“D-Dyke?” Muffy repeated.
“...Yeah? Do you…know what that means?”
“I-I-I mean of course I do, it’s a terrible word-- I just didn’t realize that it…applied…to you.” Muffy said slowly, her face flushing bright red as she continued. “That sounded terrible.”
Nami was unbothered, if anything she was delighted. She let out a genuine laugh, the first Muffy had seen in a few weeks by then.
“You didn’t know I was gay?” Nami said sarcastically. “Look at me.”
“It’s bad to assume!” Muffy protested, seemingly quite flustered. “People assume I’m just a dumb blond from my looks, I wouldn’t want to assume you’re a lesbian just from your looks.”
Nami relented with a shrug and a smirk. “Fair. But yes, I’m gay, and I came from a really, really, really, uptight family. That’s why I travel. I left home to search for…I don’t know. Something. I’ll find it when I find it.” Nami cleared her throat nervously and took another sip of Muffy’s beer before sliding it back across the counter to her. “Anyway, yeah. That’s why I’m upset. Cussed out by my mom on Christmas. Now it’s your turn.”
Nami turned in her seat to face Muffy fully. She rested her head in her palm against the counter and waited expectantly for Muffy to speak. The blonde was still buffering after the conversation they’d just had, it took another shot for the both of them before she was collected enough to speak about what had happened to her.
“Well,” Muffy began, “I, again, made the foolish mistake of getting close to another man.”
Nami nodded knowingly, watching Muffy nervously toy with the rings on her fingers. “Another city boy, which was my first mistake because that always goes wrong. I found out he was married. He broke up with me today because his wife found out. She wants to make it work because she doesn’t want to ruin Christmas for their kids.” Muffy’s voice grew colder and her face more tight as she went on. “It’s kind of funny, the wife ended up contacting me and apologizing for how shitty her husband is. Nice lady. She should divorce that asshole.”
As Muffy concluded with another defeated shrug, Nami offered her sagely input; “That’s fucked.”
“H'yeah, it’s pretty fucked.” Muffy chuckled as a new wave of tears streamed down her cheeks. “We were dating for 8 months, I thought it was going somewhere. But of course it wasn’t.”
A sympathetic smirk was all Nami could offer in reply. She opted to pour them both another shot. The bottom of a bottle tended to have the best advice. Granted, they hadn’t made that much of a dent in it yet, so Nami hadn’t exactly found the right things to say yet.
“...Want me to steal his wife from him or something?”
Muffy burst into a fit of laughter, a particularly loud snort escaped her in the midst of it all, prompting Nami to laugh in turn.
“Homewrecking is my job, apparently. You stick to beating them up.” Muffy chuckled dryly.
Nami nodded, beaming at her friend. “I can work with that. But I think you should find a new niche. Homewrecking is a hard field to be in.” She joked.
“Don’t I know it.” Muffy deadpanned. “Maybe I’ll make a life out of crying. That’s the only other thing I’m good at besides being routinely dumped.”
“Nah.” Nami replied casually as she started to gather up the glasses and the bottle on the counter.
“...What do you mean ‘nah’?” Muffy sputtered as Nami rose from her seat. Nami’s cold blue eyes met Muffy’s. The contact lasted much longer than Nami would typically permit; it was a good five seconds instead of half of one.
“It doesn’t suit you.” Nami said simply. “You should be smiling.”
Muffy’s face flushed red, as did Nami’s. The two fell into an awkward silence and Nami promptly skittered off behind the bar and started cleaning up after the two of them. Now Muffy had customers behind the counter doing her job. That made 3 things tonight that would make Griffin want to rip off his ponytail.
Once Nami finished she rounded the bar once more. Instead of heading back to her seat however, she made for the door. Just as Nami went to say her goodbyes, Muffy reached out towards her and spouted out a desperate “Wait!” before she could even stop herself. Nami froze in the doorway and just stared back at her. They were both caught off guard by the sudden exclamation.
Muffy sort of shrank in on herself. “...I…don’t want to be alone.”
Nami glanced out the door into the frigid, pitch of the night outside, then back to the warmth of the bar. She chewed her cheek again as she relented.
“...Grab your coat then.”
.o0o.
Muffy frequented the inn almost every day for her lunch break, so it wasn’t an unfamiliar place to her. Being there with Nami however made it entirely foreign. On top of that, being in Nami’s room was bordering on incomprehensible. How did she end up here? No one saw the inside of Nami’s room other than Ruby and maybe Tim-- and now here Muffy was.
Nami had certainly made the room her own in the time she’d been here. The decoration choices that were made by Tim and Ruby were obvious, but the space had clearly been taken over by Nami. Trinkets and clothes were strewn about all over, general mess littered the place. The things that caught Muffy’s eye however were a worn suitcase coated in stickers and a leather guitar case that had seen decades of wear and tear. Both were placed at the foot of Nami’s unmade bed, however atop that bed sat a tiny plush dinosaur. It was small and blue, the color faded from years of love, and one of its button eyes was hanging by a thread.
Nami looked mortified when she saw the state of her room. “A-Ah, uh, sorry about the mess. I’ve been having…a rough couple of days. I haven’t even let Ruby see this shit…she’d probably beat me over the head with a spoon or something.” Nami grumbled under her breath as she started haphazardly cleaning up the room. She tossed things out of the way to at least make a path to her bed, then gestured for Muffy to sit.
The blonde shuffled her way over and plopped down onto the mattress with a shiver. Her light jacket didn’t do much to protect from their brief walk through the snowy winter night. She was trying to defrost herself by hugging herself tight as she perched on the bed. Nami rolled her eyes.
“You do realize you’re sitting on a full blanket, right?” She deadpanned.
“W-well I didn’t want to just cozy up in your bed!” Muffy countered. “...but if you insist." She quickly kicked off her little black heels however and burrowed under the plush comforter with a little squeak. Nami fought to hold in a smile but she couldn’t. Thankfully, Muffy missed it from her blanket cocoon.
“D’you want another drink?” Nami asked as she shrugged off her coat and kicked off her boots. Muffy sat up slightly, peering over at her from beyond the blanket.
Muffy’s brows knitted together once more. “...You have alcohol up here?”
Nami made a little face and shrugged as she opened up a small cabinet in the room and revealed a few half empty bottles of liquor. “Uh, yeah?”
“...Why did you come to the bar then?” Muffy questioned. “I know that you know we close on holidays.”
Nami went red again as her eyes fell to the floor. Her shoulders lofted noncommittally.
“I didn’t want to drink by myself, got a problem with that?” Was Nami’s curt reply. Muffy was at a loss and couldn’t even articulate a response before Nami continued. “D’You want a drink or not?”
“I-I…yeah. Please.”
Nami lofted her hand in exasperation as she went on to pour two more glasses of what looked like whiskey. She plopped down onto the bed and narrowly avoided crushing Muffy’s ankles as she did so. Wordlessly, Nami passed the glass over which prompted Muffy to sit up straight. If she spilled even a drop of this on the bed, not only would Nami kill her, but Ruby would skin her alive. As she settled back into the pillows she was met with a high-pitched squeak. Under her hand, being crushed, was the blue dino plush Muffy had noticed upon entering.
Nami shot up at the sound and quickly reached out to save the little toy from it's slow death. “Dude!” She exclaimed as she snatched it up into her arms.
“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t see it there.” Muffy sputtered. “I didn’t mean to…”
“I-It's fine. It’s just a toy.” Nami said through tight lips. She held it for a moment before tenderly putting it beside her. “...A…kind of important toy. I guess.”
Muffy let the silence between them hang for a moment. When Nami didn’t continue on her own, Muffy took a quick sip to bolster her attempts to break down the walls between them. “...Can I ask about it?”
Nami’s jaw went tight as the question was poised.
“You don’t have to. Just curious.” Muffy quickly retreated back to the whiskey at hand and the comforter weighing her down. Nami hung her head and stared at the floorboards for a time, then up at the ceiling, then just anything that wasn’t Muffy.
“...It was my brother’s.” She finally answered. “That’s all you’re getting.”
“Hey, I mean, that’s more than I was expecting.” Muffy tittered in an attempt at trying to lighten the mood. Regardless, Nami seemed to be back down into whatever slump she had been initially. Muffy was back to square one.
Well, at least not entirely. She’d been invited into her room, her bed-- her room. Her bed.
Okay…maybe not square one.
Muffy sat her drink aside on the nightstand and leaned closer to Nami. Nami nearly jumped when she felt delicate fingers latch themselves to her shoulder.
“Nami,” Muffy said softly as she squeezed, “Hey.”
Her blue hues darted up to meet emerald once again. Suddenly, the room didn’t feel so cold.
“Wh-What?” Nami sputtered. Muffy put on a solemn smile and squeezed her shoulder again.
“You can talk to me.” Muffy said with an earnest nod. She put all her money on the table at that moment. Her arms came up to fully snake around Nami, gripping her in a tight, warm embrace.
“Please talk to me. There’s so much hurt in you and I hate seeing it. Just talk to me.”
Nami fully malfunctioned, her jaw opening and closing without a single coherent word slipping through. Muffy stayed rooted in place for as long as she could. She probably wouldn’t get another chance to do this; to be this close with Nami, to have the possibility of getting her to open up, to be her friend. She was willing to risk getting thrown out and never seeing those beautiful blue eyes meet her own across the bar. She was willing to risk never seeing that shock of bright red hair walking down the street again.
Muffy’s tearful eyes shot wide open when she felt Nami’s warm, trembling hands snake back around her in return. Nami burrowed her face into Muffy’s shoulder, hiding in her waves of golden hair. She said nothing as she hid in those loving arms, she was too busy fighting back the urge to cry more.
Muffy shushed her and rubbed slow circles along her back, nuzzling back into her in return.
“You don’t have to talk to me now…” Muffy continued. “But…try to do it before you leave the valley again? For me?”
A feverish nod was her reply, rousing a soft chuckle from the blonde. “Thank you.”
Eventually their hug broke off. Nami’s eyes had puffed up with irritation again and Muffy’s shoulder had been slightly dampened, it didn’t bother her though. If anything she treasured it.
Nami haphazardly wiped the tears from her face with the back of her hand, then sought out the drink she had set aside on the floor. The redhead was quick to knock back the last of her drink- which was certainly more than a shot’s worth- and set the glass back to rest on the ground. Nami turned and clambered awkwardly up the other side of the bed, just beside Muffy, and plopped face down into the pillows. Muffy flushed as Nami settled in. She reverted to her usual tactics of playing it safe and didn’t move from her spot.
Tentatively, she spoke up. “Should I…leave you alone now?”
“No.” Came Nami’s muffled reply.
“You sure you want me to stay?”
“If you wanna go you can.” Nami huffed, craning her neck up just long enough to cast a grumpy little look up at Muffy.
Muffy held up her hands defensively. “No, no!” She sputtered. “I just…Didn’t want to push my luck, I guess.”
Half of a chuckle made it's way through the pillow suffocating the redhead. That was comfort enough for Muffy to lay back down into the mattress. Their limbs pressed ever so slightly together every time one of them shifted, they both flinched instinctually but slowly the tension passed. After half an hour of quiet contemplation, Nami rolled over onto her back and sighed.
She gently bonked her thigh into Muffy’s to catch her attention.
“My brother…” Nami muttered, “He was the baby. I’m twelve years older than him. My parents…he was their favorite. Then again, I didn’t make it much of a competition. I was a hellraiser.” A dry laugh left Nami’s chapped lips. “But uh, he was really a special kid. Always stuck by me, even when I did stupid shit, even when mom and dad got on my case. But he uh…He died when he was ten. Car crash.”
Muffy couldn’t stop herself from lacing her fingers into Nami’s, desperate to comfort her more. Shockingly, she was met with a little squeeze in return as Nami continued.
“I left home the day after his funeral. I stole that little dinosaur from his room and left. I had two bags, my guitar, and that. Barely any money in my pocket, just turned 22.”
“Where did you go?” Muffy questioned as she pulled the blankets up around them.
“Anywhere.” Nami chuckled. “I wandered the streets for a few days. Caught a bus out of town, ended up in Nevada for a while. Spent some time there, made some cash, kept moving.”
Muffy slowly rolled over onto her side, her hand remaining interlocked with her friend’s.
“What’d you do for work?” She questioned, glancing over Nami’s features. She was unique, Nami. Beautiful was certainly a word to describe her but handsome wasn’t far off either.
“Whatever I could find.” Nami replied and Muffy found her eyes locked on her lips, watching every word pour out. “Manual labor mostly. Dirty work. Dug ditches, painted buildings. I wasn’t really built for…customer service. I worked at a diner for a few days and ended up getting fired because I got in an argument with a customer.”
Laughter flitted out of the two of them. “Sounds like you.” Muffy purred.
“Yeah…I guess so.” Nami sighed, the faintest hint of a smile lurked on her face.
“...You’ve been on the road for a while right?” Muffy asked, snuggling closer. Nami arched a brow down at her, but nodded. “Never found somewhere worth staying?”
“Not really…I guess I never found what I was looking for. There wasn’t a place that really had something to keep me there.” Nami shrugged a bit.
Muffy’s hands slid from Nami’s finally, wrapping themselves around the subtle curve of the redhead’s bicep. “What’s keeping you here then?” She asked.
Nami blinked as she turned fully to look over at Muffy’s bright, glassy eyes staring back up at her. She felt her heart tighten in her chest as she trailed over every frayed lock of golden hair and as she stared deep into those sad, emerald hues.
“I…Nothing’s keeping me here. I’ve left before.” Nami sputtered in reply.
A coy smile slid across Muffy’s lipstick-stained lips. “You’ve been here a while though. And even when you leave you come back here.” She chirped.
“I guess I…do end up coming back here in the end.” Nami relented.
Muffy hesitated before speaking up again, as if her question was too taboo to speak aloud. “Y'think you found what you’re looking for?”
There was a thudding in the air, the pounding of their hearts in their ears as the space between them started to close. They were moving before they knew it, suddenly their faces were inches apart.
“...Maybe.”
.o0o.