Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Kate stared at the entrance to the Blackwell dorms as the snow slowly buried her shoes.

She had a bag of her stuff hanging from her tiny hand. At the hospital she'd felt fine but actually returning... it was still scary.

The doctors had all claimed that she'd be happy to be back. That it would feel like a homecoming. They were wrong. She felt so scared and smaller than ever. Max had insisted that it had all blown over but was everyone just making sure she wasn't around when they started talking?

Speaking of, where was her friend? She'd texted Max on the way over but hadn't heard from her.

She heard giggling.

She looked around for the source but saw nothing but footprints in the snow.

Max must be wrong.

Her eyes stung and her hand hurt as she gripped her bag tighter.

She shook her head, steeling herself. Even if Max had been incorrect about everything blowing over she was right about something else. Kate couldn't let the bullies win.

Putting her head down she stomped into the dorm. She flung the door open, narrowly missing Alyssa before being nearly knocked on her butt by an ear shattering, "WELCOME HOME, KATE!"

She stood like a deer in headlights, awkwardly holding her bag like a slingshot ready to fly.

The entire hallway was crammed full of the entire student body and almost every teacher. They were holding a massive sign that read what they had just screamed at her.

Kate was still frozen in place as a loud crashing came from one of the dorms. The door flung open as a familiar blue haired girl yelled a belated, "Welcome home, Kate!"

The teachers looked ready to kick the intruder out before Max stepped forward holding a plate of cupcakes loving shaped like little bunnies.

"M-Max?" Kate stuttered awkwardly.

"I hope we didn't scare you too much," Max said carefully balancing the plate as she handed Kate a cupcake. Chloe lurked up behind her to steal one before being batted away.

Before Kate could answer another familiar figure stepped forward. One she was less happy to see than Max and Chloe.

Victoria.

The blonde girl gave what felt like a very fake smile and held her arms out to Kate for a hug. Too dumbstruck by all of this to protest she found her face smushed into the other girl's soft sweater.

Once freed from fluffy purgatory Kate finally was aware enough to speak, "I... thank you so much."

As everyone had expected her response was demure but the soft smile slowly creeping across her face spoke volumes.

She started licking the frosting of her cupcake as she was escorted by the three other girls through the crowd.

She looked at them. Max was smiling as she handed a cupcake to the grabby hand of Chloe. It was out of her hand and half in her mouth, half smeared across her face in a heartbeat. Max laughed, Chloe looked proud of herself.

Max had brought her girlfriend along to the hospital a lot. They'd grown close and Chloe had grown extremely protective of her. Kate laughed too as she felt her plant a cupcake laden kiss on the top of her head.

On her other side walked Victoria. Kate couldn't read her face. It looked fake. Her smile didn't extend to her eyes. The whole not talking thing was also unnerving. She also didn’t know what to do about the fact the popular girl was practically hanging off her arm.

Victoria didn't even react when a second cupcake that Chloe managed to obtain was smushed into the general area of Max's mouth.

Before Max and Chloe could instigate a full fledged cupcake war they reached the crossroads of the hallway. One side was filled with food, the other with presents.

Kate was handed a small portable microphone, to her shock. She lifted it carefully to her mouth as Chloe chanted 'speech' in the background.

"Thank you all so much. I-I don't know what to say. I was so scared to come back... just... thank you all so much."

She smiled awkwardly until Victoria took the microphone from her. She felt her hand be accosted by the other girl's carefully manicured hand as the taller girl made eye contact for that first time.

"Kate we are so, so, so, so, so sorry for everything. I personally am going to do everything in my power to make the rest of your year here the best time of your life!"

Victoria paused, expecting a reply from the girl who had gone right back into deer-in-headlights mode. Kate searched the other girl's face for signs of deception but other than her smile seeming a bit forced she could find none. Before the pause could get more awkward Victoria continued.

"As of such I, Victoria Chase, will be your date to the Vortex Club's Annual Winter Formal!"

The smile on her face had gotten less fake as her little speech went on but Kate was still wary. Another pause started growing before Kate realized that Victoria was waiting for her to accept her invitation.

Kate took a quick glance around the room. Most of the people in attendance looked excited and were cheering her on. She made eye contact with Max who just shrugged, giving a half hearted smile. Chloe was surreptitiously making rude hand gestures at Victoria.

Kate looked back at Victoria whose smile was fading back to forced at the growing awkwardness of the pause.

Finally Kate opened her mouth to respond, "Uhh... sure... I'd love to go to the dance... with you..."

The smile’s fakeness faded again and the crowd cheered.

The next few hours were a blur of sugar and cutesy gifts. She idly wondered if she even had enough room in her dorm for everything.

Eventually the party started showing down. The teachers had dispersed early. They wanted to support Kate but knew the kids would want to be alone. The boys left next. Between the bunny theme and all the cute decorations they felt out of place.

Everyone else slipped off one by one as the night wore away. Eventually Kate found herself in the food hallway with just three others. Max, Chloe and Victoria.

Chloe was still going at the cookie plate as Victoria silently started cleaning up with the help of Max. The latter had to carefully pry her girlfriend's fingers off each platter with the promise that Kate wouldn't be able to eat it all herself. Kate made a mental note to leave her window unlocked so Chloe could sneak in and get her sugar on.

She smiled as the other girls finished cleaning up and helped her carry everything to her room. It was the only time Kate had ever seen Victoria do some manual.

In no time her room was awash in gifts and sweets. Chloe blindsided her with a hug from behind while Max made it into a Kate sandwich from the front. She smiled, wishing them both a goodnight as they left. She overheard Chloe demand to stay the night. She'd surprise them in the morning with a bag of leftover candy or maybe some more cupcakes.

As her thoughts turned from her friends she turned from the door. She jumped a little. Victoria was still standing there. Damn she could be quiet when she wanted to.

Victoria mimicked Kate's deer-in-headlights act for a second before speaking.

"I'm... I really am sorry Kate..."

The reason for her forced smile was evident now. It had cracked, leaving behind a broken girl.

Chapter Text

Kate stared at the ceiling as her alarm went off. Briefly forgetting where she was she tried to reach for the remote for the TV that wasn’t there. She’d gotten used to having it for background noise.

Now the only background noise was in her head.

Last night was weird.

Not just the raucous homecoming and party but what had happened afterwards.

The duality of the fake, happy Victoria from the party and the real, destroyed Victoria that spent ten minutes solid crying into her shoulder was jarring. Kate patted that shoulder now, idly wondering if it was still wet. It kinda was.

Kate had lost track of how many times she’d been apologized to last night. Somehow it had ended with Kate trying to console Victoria. Eventually she succeeded though and somehow they’d ended up watching a movie together? That was weird.

Kate strained her mind, she had been so tired. How had they even gotten there?

Oh right, right. She had the copy of Jesus Christ Superstar on her side table, a welcome home gift from Warren. She’d never seen it before. She should rewatch it when she’s more awake. She had vague memories of Victoria singing along though. Kate totally took her for the musical loving type though, it wasn’t surprising.

But anyways, of all the ways she could have spent her first night back at Blackwell this was the last thing she could have expected.

She felt Victoria shift.

Kate pushed herself up onto her elbows to try and see where the other girl had ended up.

Apparently Victoria was a massive sleep flailer.

She’d started the night lying on her side next to Kate and had somehow ended with her head dangling off the far end of the bed. One leg was lying lazily over Kate’s stomach, the other was crammed between the wall the bed. Both arms were high over her head like she was on a rollercoaster.

Victoria was wearing one of Kate’s bigger nighties with a pair of shorts underneath. She hadn’t understood why she had insisted on keeping on the shorts she had under her skirt at the time. However, seeing the nightgown now twisted up and barely covering her chest she got it completely.

And damn Victoria was a heavy sleeper. She’d hit her head on the side table at some point in the night. It had woken up Kate but she’d slept right through it. She could sleep through a fucking tornado.

Kate carefully squirmed her way to freedom, carefully moving a rogue arm back to the bed so she could get to the rabbit cage and give her bunny his breakfast.

Breakfast. That’s right, Chloe’ll be in Max’s room still.

Kate looked out at the sea of cake and candy that currently filled her room. It would take her months to eat this. Or a few days if she was as diligent as feeding Chloe as she was her bunny.

She looked back at Victoria. It was still early and she had been up long after har. Kate had fallen asleep at some point, woken up long after only to find the blonde girl scrolling through something on the internet. Looked like cat pictures but it was too bright to tell.

She decided to let her sleep. She pulled out a spare piece of wrapping paper and left a little note on her pillow. ‘I’m in Max’s room if you want a cupcake breakfast!’ paired with a set of cute little sketches of the four of them and copious amounts of sweets.

Kate had to admit she was never one to hold a grudge. Not even against someone who had hurt her that much. She had a hard time even connecting the now repentant Victoria with the spiteful girl who had posted the video.

She gathered up as many cupcakes as she could possibly carry and made her way to Max’s room.

Max had gotten to the point where she didn’t knock on Kate’s hospital door so Kate assumed the same applied to Max’s room. She gently opened the door.

Max and Chloe were still fast asleep.

Kate loved Max’s room.

The two girls were lightly illuminated by the paper lamps that hung over Max’s bed. Her wall was covered with photos. She must be switching them out because when Kate had first visited way back before all that happened it'd been nothing but scenery and Max. Now the wall was more diverse. She could spot many with herself and Chloe posing for her selfies too.

She set the plates of cupcakes down, keeping just one to tempt the blue one awake. She looked at them with a smile. It was easy to forget how tiny Max was until she was bundled up in the mass of limbs that is Chloe. Speaking of the rebel girl wonder, she tiptoed up to the bed with the sweet and waved it under her nose.

Without opening her eyes her tongue blepped out to lick it. Kate giggled, which only intensified as a bony hand grabbed her arm and she was dragged down into the cuddle pile.

She found herself sandwiched between the sugar queen and a barely awake, extremely confused Max.

“Good morning,” Kate said quietly.

“Mornin’ cupcake,” Chloe said with a frosting coated smile. Kate wasn’t sure if the latter part was a new nickname for her or a statement on her breakfast.

“Hrrrnnnnnggggg,” Max mumbled, nuzzling into Kate’s back as she tried to go back to sleep.

Kate relayed her weird night to Chloe and possibly Max? She really wasn’t exactly sure how awake the latter was. Small murmurs behind her indicated she was conscious enough.

Max’s lazy squeezes indicated that she was supportive of this but Chloe was considerably less comfortable with it.

“Kate... look I’m glad you’re not gonna let your ass stay bitter because of this but what she did was really fucking fucked up. An invitation to be her date at a dance and a weird crying sleepover don’t fix what happened,” she said, brushing a stray piece of hair out of Kate’s face.

Kate was quiet for a moment before replying, “I know… but it’s on the path to fixing it right? She’s trying and that’s what matters. To me at least.”

Chloe didn’t appear to be too comforted by that but knew that it was Kate’s choice in the end. Max had chastised her for steamrolling over Kate in decision making and she was making a concerted effort to stop. But it was. So. Hard.

“Anyways she’s still asleep in my room probably. I should go wake her up. She hit her head on my side table at some point. She might have a headache.”

Chloe made a snort of amusement at this, prompting a gentle arm slap from Kate. She carefully maneuvered over Max who had returned to slumber. Or perhaps she had never truly left it. Either way Kate paused in the doorway.

“Oh by the way… I left the rest of the cupcakes on the couch.”

As Kate closed the door she heard a pair of ‘whumping’ noises as Chloe made a mad dash for the stash. It was followed soon after by a large groan from Max, presumably finding herself awake on the floor.

- - - - - - - - - -

Max lay on her floor, eyes half lidded for a few minutes before she found herself straddled by Chloe double fisting cupcakes.

“Hey sleeping beauty, rise and shine. Did you hear anything Kate said or do I gotta relay it for her?” she said through bites. She offered a half eaten one to her trapped girlfriend. Max lazily accepted a bite.

“I heard,” she said through her mouthful, “I get what you’re saying but I also agree with Kate.”

“Surprise, surprise, Max agreeing with Kate, not Chloe,” she griped, rolling off and flopping down next to her.

“Come on Chloe. People change under drastic circumstances. You’ve experienced that firsthand. And I mean it for both Victoria AND Kate.”

Chloe grunted, nibbling on the ear of the bunny cupcake.

“I mean it. I know you want to hold her hand through everything but Kate’s stronger now. And frankly, I think Victoria’s weaker too. They need to work through this themselves.”

She laughed a little in response, “Yo Max, you aware how much we sound like an old married couple right now?”

“Oh totally,” Max said, rolling onto her stomach to look at her, “Next thing you know we’ll be picking out some expensive private art school for her.”

“Our little girl’s growing up,” she said, wiping away a fake tear.

Max gently put her hands on Chloe’s face face and gave her frosting coated mouth a kiss.

Chapter Text

When Kate got back to her room she found it empty.

However, evidence of Victoria remained. The bed had been neatly made and the borrowed nightie lay carefully holded on her pillow. Her note was also missing, replaced by another.

‘I can’t be late for class again. Talk to you soon.’

Weirdly formal considering last night but Kate didn’t mind. It was signed with her elaborate, loopy signature. She placed it among the other cards and letters the girls had piled on her desk.

She looked at the clock. She knew the class, they’d shared it. Science with Ms. Grant.

She wasn’t going to be back in classes for another day. Her doctor had said it would be best to slowly acclimate her back to her normal life. She was extremely glad to be at a place like Blackwell for this, that would never swing in public school.

She spent the next few hours cleaning up her room and finding places for everything she’d been given. You never really realize how many people are at Blackwell until every single one of them as given you one or more gifts.

Returning her nightie to the closet she remembered that Victoria was the only one who hadn’t given her a gift.

She was a bit confused by this until she lifted her head, eyes finding her calendar with some new markings on it. The dance was in a week, presumably Victoria had circled that day and drawn little stick figures of them in fancy dresses. In between then and now three other days were circled. The first was labled ‘dress shopping’, the second was labeled ‘hair and makeup’ and the third just said ‘Surprise!’

She finally changed out of her pajamas. After a moment of rifling through her closet she pulled out the brand new big, baggy bunny sweater Chloe had gotten for her. She wasn’t sure but it looked handmade. Probably not by Chloe but maybe by her mother or another relative.

Either way she put on the soft pastel pink pullover, snuggling up into it as she pulled on the rest of her outfit. She thought a nice afternoon walk would be a good way to start her first proper day back.

After bundling herself up tighter than Randy from A Christmas Story she finally decided she was ready to adventure out into the grounds.

She didn’t even make it out of the dorms before being accosted by Chloe.

“Heyyy Cupcake,” she said, squeezing Kate’s arm to test how many layers she had on, “You realize it’s not a nuclear winter out there right? Just a regular one.”

Kate smiled, the tightly wrapped scarf was smushing her face. She guessed that ‘Cupcake’ was just her name now. She didn’t mind, Chloe loved cupcakes so it just meant that Chloe loved her.

“Yeah I’m not good with winter. Chills me to the bone you know?” she said, hugging herself to demonstrate exactly how snuggly warm she was.

Chloe laughed, it was apparent by the fact she was wearing nothing different except a leather jacket that cold wasn’t exactly on her list of concerns, “Nah, I don’t know. I love winter. I mean, not as much as fall but it’s up there. Summer’s pretty nice too. Fuck spring though.”

Chloe tossed an arm around her shoulder as she escorted her out into the courtyard, “Now where is everyone’s favorite little heavenraiser going?”

“I just wanted to go for a little walk, it should be nice and quiet out there.”

“That a cue for me to fuck off?”

“No, no, I wouldn’t mind some company. Why are you here though? Did you need something?”

Chloe shrugged, “Honestly? I was bored. Figured I’d break into Max’s room and give her a surprise when she gets back.”

“Class doesn’t end for like 5 hours though.”

“Okay maybe the surprise was going to be her cute and very sexy girlfriend asleep on her bed.”

“That’s not very surprising,” Kate said, smiling mischievously. She knew exactly how normal it was for Max to find Chloe asleep on her bed. Hell, it was normal for anyone to find Chloe asleep anywhere. She’d woken up at the hospital one day to find her draped across the end of her bed.

“Aaanyways, sassy pants, do you wanna build a snowman?” she chirped in a sing-songy voice.

Within no time they were outside hard at work on their snowpeople. They started with snow self portraits of course. A tiny little snow Kate dwarfed by the tall and skinny snow Chloe.

“Apparently Victoria has some big plans for this week.”

Chloe cocked a suspicious eyebrow, “Big plans?”

“She wrote it on my calendar. A day for dress shopping, a day for hair and makeup and a day just marked ‘surprise!’” Kate said, doing tiny jazz hands for emphasis.

Chloe managed to ignore how adorable she thought that was, “Surprise?”

Kate nodded, still smiling as she carefully stuck a little bun on her snowself. Chloe was mildly horrified. It was like watching a lamb walk face first into a lion’s gaping maw. She didn’t know what the ‘surprise’ was but a feeling in her gut told her that it wasn’t good. And Max wasn’t there to stop her runaway train of thought.

She wasn’t able to voice her concerns in time though. As Kate started rolling up some snow to start on a snow Max to join them and Chloe opened her mouth to voice her concerns they were interrupted.

“Hey… uh… you guys want help with that?”

Chloe shot a cold look over her shoulder immediately. Victoria stood there, snow up to her ankles in what looked like a very, very expensive designer coat. Fucked if either of the other two girls knew what but whenever there’s a fancy logo on Victoria’s clothes, you can bet it’s expensive.

Again Chloe’s protest was strangled as Kate answered, “Sure!”

Victoria had never made a snowman before in her life but damn it, she wasn’t going to let them know about her fairly subpar childhood.

Or at least she didn’t want them to know.

It became obvious quickly though. Instead of rolling a snowball like normal she just tried to shape it with her hands. Her face flared up bright red at a snicker from Chloe. Kate was more sympathetic though.

She gently grabbed Victoria’s hands, helping her form a snowball, “You do this first, then roll it along until it gets big enough.”

“Uh..... thanks… I guess,” Victoria muttered, face quickly turning firetruck red.

She managed to get the base down and stepped back to admire her work. A completely plain snowman. It looked bad compared to the fairly detailed snow Kate, Chloe and Max though.

Kate stepped in again, making a bunch of tiny snowballs and gently stick them on snow Victoria’s neck, “Here, let’s make your necklace next.”

Victoria followed suit. The silence was awkward as Chloe observed them from a few feet away, suspiciously working on a snow Max to keep her snowself company.

“Why are you even here, Victoria?” Chloe said, unable to hide the edge in her voice.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” she shot back, Kate already starting to shrink down into her oversized coat.

Chloe desperately wanted to shred her then and there but dialed it back for Kate’s sake, forcing a softer tone, “I mean, like, aren’t you supposed to be in class?”

Victoria looked surprised, she retracted her mental claws, “Oh! Uh… well I kinda fell asleep in class and got kicked out. You used to go here, right? Mr. Smith the history teacher? Yeah his panties got so in a twist they ripped right off. Kicked me out of class.”

Chloe nodded, more genuine than before, “Yeah I had the same thing happen like the week before they expelled me. At that point I just didn’t care.”

Victoria nodded in agreement, “He needs to get the log out of his ass.”

Kate untensed, smiling and returning to making little snowballs for the necklace.

Before long their snowselves were done and the rest of the students swarmed in. After a second of staring at the four snowmen already gracing the courtyard they all joined in. In no time the whole place was full of giggling teenagers carefully sculpting out their likeness.

Kate smiled as people walked by, complimenting her work as they grabbed things from their dorms to complete their own.

Max walked up, smiling from ear to ear, “Wow guys, way to start a trend.”

“Not like that’s unusual for ME,” Victoria cut in, grandly gesturing to herself and provoking an exaggerated eye roll from Chloe.

Before Chloe could protest that Kate and her had started it Max cut in, sensing the tension and looking to diffuse it before it could really blow up, “Hey Chloe, I’ve got one of your beanies in my room, I’m gonna go grab it for yours. Maybe some other stuff too, I’ve practically got half your closet in there by now.”

“Hey, we can add to that collection later tonight if you want,” Chloe said, miming a striptease with a wink. Victoria’s turn to roll her eyes.

Kate clapped her hands together, “I want to get some of the stuff from my room too! Snow Me needs a sweater.”

Max grabbed her hand, “Awesome, let’s go get some clothes. We’ll be right back!”

Max plodded off through the snow with Kate in tow as Victoria absentmindedly worked on fixing her snowself’s hair before crouching down and beginning to make another snowball. Chloe was much more situationally aware. There was a few moments of silence before she spoke up though.

“So. What’s the surprise?” it was less a question than a demand.

Victoria paused, hands full of snow, “What?”

“The surprise. Kate said you wrote ‘surprise!’ on her calendar. What’s the surprise?”

“Uhm, hello, that’s the fucking point of a surprise. People not knowing,” she answered abruptly before attempting to return to whatever it was she was doing.

“Okay listen blondie. I really don’t get what game you’re playing but if you hurt Kate again I’ll beat your face in so far that your nose will be stick out your ass. You hear me?”

“Oh em eff gee, what is your fucking damage?!” she yelled, briefly contemplating chucking the snowball at her.

Chloe pointed at it, “Don’t even think about it!”

“Wow you just fucking love pointing fingers, don’t you? Literally??” she spat at her, carefully arranging two snowballs on the ground.

“You sure love posting horrible videos, don’t you?” he mimicked back in a poor imitation of her voice.

Victoria was practically shaking with rage at this point as she carefully molded some more snow unto the smaller snowball, “I fucking apologized what do you want me to do? It’s not like I can turn back time or anything. Don’t you think I would if I could?!”

Chloe paused for a second, remembering she couldn’t exactly make a joke about Max’s powers no matter how much she wanted to.

The silence grew between them, the only sound was the deafening screaming and laughter around them.

It was the only reason these two’s little fight hadn’t caused a scene.

Victoria refuse to even look up at Chloe.

After a few seconds Victoria stood up and walked briskly away, towards Taylor and her snowself on the other side of the courtyard.

Chloe looked down.

Victoria had made a little snow bunny at snow Kate’s feet.

Chapter Text

Kate sat outside on the dorms step, clutching her purse.

She’d received the text from Victoria after her last class. Just a simple ‘meet me on the steps at 6PM.’

She was late.

Kate nervously dug through her bag. She was frankly horrified that she was going shopping with Victoria. The Marsh family was well off of course, I mean she was going to Blackwell but the level at which the Chases could toss down? She couldn’t even get close.

Maybe she could find something nice and cheap wherever Victoria took her. Maybe it wouldn’t be her entire year’s allowance. Maybe she could continue to afford food.

Probably not.

She was pulled out of calculating whether she could afford college after this by a sharp tap on her shoulder.

“Hey, I don’t think the tree is mad at you. You can stop staring it down,” Victoria quipped.

Kate blushed, “I was just… uh… nevermind… where are we going?”

“Oh, you KNOW we’re going to Elite. I wouldn’t dream of shopping elsewhere because it would be a nightmare then. Come on, if it gets too late the fucking cougars come out and try to prey on the male models that serve as mannequins.”

Kate was going to pass out. The cheapest thing there was going to cost her arm. Just cut it off.

She shuffled terrified behind Victoria who had all the situational awareness of a blind and deaf turtle. In no time her terrified shuffling went from the concrete of the parking lot to the pristine tile of Elite.

Kate looked severely out of place desperately hanging off of Victoria’s arm.

“Oh Miss Chaaaase I haven’t see you in here since forever!” chirped a waif of a woman as she and Victoria did that weird french double cheek kiss thing.

"It's been a fucking weirdo few months, Tiff," she replied, straightening her sleeve as if she'd just gotten out of a fight.

"Not financially I hope," the saleswoman said with a cheeky wink.

Victoria laughed, holding up a platinum credit card, "Fuck no! Like we'd have issues with THAT."

They both laughed at their mutual wealth while Kate had a series of small panic attacks looking at the nearby price tags. That particular dress probably cost more than her dad’s car.

“And, ehm… who’s… your little friend there?” Tiff asked, perfect french tipped finger pointing at the absolutely mortified Kate. There was barely concealed contempt in her tone. Kate cringed at that, feeling even more out of place.

Victoria got a bit defensive at that as she curled her claws around Kate’s shoulders and pointed the tiny girl at the saleswoman, “This is Kate Marsh, she’s my date to the Vortex Club Winter Formal. We’re here to buy our dresses. Or rather I’LL be buying the dresses.”

Kate nearly melted in relief. Victoria was paying. It was like seeing the gates of heaven open.

Tiff looked apprehensive at this, tossing her thick curly brown hair over her shoulder with a deeply judgemental top-to-bottom of Kate. She wilted though as Victoria’s glare intensified. The last thing she wanted to do was piss off one of their highrollers.

“Well, what are you two looking for exactly?” she said uncertainly, nearly bowing to Victoria.

“Well, you KNOW what I like. Make it modern, make it edgy. High fashion. Preferably something winter themed? Icicles would suit me.”

Tiff nodded before carefully gesturing to Kate, “And you?”

Kate stuttered out an answer, “Uhm… I… I’m not sure…

Victoria took over having apparently thought this out fully, “Oh I know what for you. Something white, frilly, maybe even a hoop skirt. Classic cut. Like a princess. Hopefully also winter themed. Snow instead of icicles though.”

Both of the other women were impressed, Kate briefly wondered why Victoria hadn’t ever considered fashion design.

In a heartbeat Tiff was off in a flash, grabbing two other associates to help her track down suitable dresses. Initially Kate intended to follow them before being pulled into the waiting room by Victoria.

“Don’t worry, we don’t have to work. That’s THEIR job,” she said, pulling Kate unto a loveseat that was flanked by two living mannequins. The two men didn’t even look at them, remaining perfectly still.

Kate looked around. The room was extravagant. There were around five human mannequins around the room, periodically leaving and changing into a different outfit. Three women, two men.

She could see some of the dresses from here as well as the salespeople grabbing some for them.

Despite herself and her fear she was getting a little excited. Some of the dresses looked downright like wedding dresses. Kate loved weddings. She’d started a little scrapbook as a child about her dream wedding full of dresses, cakes, decorations… she was ready should someone ever pop the question.

Victoria quietly watched Kate’s face lighting up. She really hadn’t ever thought about it but the conservative girl really was quite cute. I mean, her clothes and hair needed some help but her face itself was like a little china doll. Big, bright blue eyes. Perpetually rosy cheeks. A tiny little mouth.

Kate caught Victoria looking at her and gave her a big smile, a small jolt went off in Victoria's chest, “I really can’t thank you enough for buying me my dress.”

Victoria waved a hand, a well manicured distraction from her blushing, “Don’t worry about it. It’s like, the LEAST I can do after…”

Kate gingerly put a hand on Victoria’s before she could launch into another round of crying and apologies, “It’s okay Victoria… we’re teenagers. Teenagers do stupid things. It hurt but I’m really trying to move past it. Could you maybe stop bringing it up?”

Victoria closed up immediately, recrossing her legs and pulling her hand away from the other girl’s and into her own grasp.

Kate carefully regrabbed her hand, capturing in both of hers before continuing, “I didn’t say that to make you feel bad. There's just no changing the past. We can only focus on our future."

Victoria blushed more at that. 'Our future.' That sounded much more romantic than she knew the quiet girl meant. But in this moment surrounded by white frilly dresses and holding hands...

"You're a good person, Kate," she finally said, giving her hand a squeeze.

She was taken a bit back by how forward the compliment was, "Thank... Thank you."

They sat in silence holding each other's hand until Tiff returned with two other associates. Their arms brimmed with disturbingly expensive dresses.

Kate's face grew bright red as Victoria led her into one of the gigantic changing rooms with her.

The room was truly a room. Not the changing stalls Kate was used to. They'd separated the piles of dresses. One blue and sparkly with sharp edges. The other white and fluffy like the ground outside.

"Let's take turns, that way we can have a fresh perspective on each dress," Victoria said. It was like she had the process down to a science. Kate had to admit it was almost impressive.

Her embarrassment only surged more as Victoria shamelessly started pulling off her sweater.

Kate was embarrassed enough at the concept of changing in the same room as someone else but she hasn't expected it to be so blatant.

She let out a small noise of surprise and covered her eyes.

Sweater now in hand, Victoria looked at her completely confused. It slowly dawned on her that Kate probably didn't change in front of her friends. She was so used to walking around practically naked with Taylor and Courtney.

She giggled.

Kate looked up sharply, embarrassment seemingly forgotten. Replaced by panic. Laughter... Laughter wasn't good to Kate.

Victoria waved her hand trying to dispel that, "Oh em gee calm down. I just laughed. Have you like, never seen anyone else in their underwear?"

The rapidly growing blush on her face said it all.

It somehow managed to grow tenfold more as Victoria wiggled out of her skirt and leggings.

Tossing it casually to the side Victoria posed a little with a wink, "It's not weird unless you make it weird."

Well it certainly made her FEEL weird. Kate tried not to stare but this was, in fact, the first time she'd ever seen anyone else in their underwear. Let alone the fact the underwear was skimpy, black and lacy.

Victoria felt her face starting to match the other girl's as Kate stared at her. She... well she certainly was paying close attention. Not that the blonde was complaining. She may or may not have picked these out with Kate in mind. Granted not with the intent to enhance the girl. Just used to keeping up appearances as a fashion plate.

She almost wondered if it was a bit too much as Kate slowly raised her hands to begin unbuttoning her own shirt.

It was much less theatrical than Victoria's unveiling but same end result. They both stood there in their underwear awkwardly staring for a moment.

Kate's were certainly less sexy. Plain white with small bows. They could be uglier though.

Victoria broke the silence, "Alright, let's try on some dresses already!"

Chapter Text

"Oh my god you're going to be more dress than human! Night of the Living Cupcake. Raaaaawwwrrrrrr!!" Chloe laughed, carefully playing with the fluffy white sleeves.

The thing was massive. Absolutely massive. She could smuggle up to two people into the dance under all that tulle if she wanted to.

"It's really pretty, Kate. It must have cost a fortune though. It looks more like a wedding dress than a party dress," Max said, examining some faux pearl beading. Or, jeez, she HOPED it was faux. Could Kate afford food anymore? She felt the urge to prevent Chloe from eating anymore of her candy.

"Victoria paid for it, she wouldn't even let me look at the price tag."

"What, did she also pop the question while you were there or somethin'? Is our sweet little Kate a gold digger?"

Kate's face went bright red. She didn't even want to think what her family would say if she was engaged to the girl who released that video. Hell, they would even be happy it was a girl in general let alone that one.

Chloe papped her face with both hands, "Calm down, I'm just joshin' yer taters."

"It totally DOES look like a wedding dress though," Max said with a smile, holding it up to Kate's neck.

"BEST MAN!! Called it. All mine. Dibs." Chloe said, miming tying a tie and tipping a hat.

Kate's face flushed even more.

"What does that make me then?"

"The Max of Honor. Also the wedding photographer."

Max put a hand on Kate's shoulder, "Don't worry. I'll make sure your bachelorette party is tasteful."

Chloe copied that and put her hand on Kate's other shoulder, "And I'll make sure it gets crashed by like fifty strippers."

Kate sputtered, trying to come up with words to stop the barrage. Chloe and Max laughed pulling her into a slightly protested hug. She was still trying to explain away their runaway marriage joke as they let go and looked at her calendar.

"Hair and makeup? How can you do that any day other than THE day?" Chloe said with suspicion returning to her face.

"Haircuts and nails, Chloe. Take a chill pill."

"I don't want to cut my hair..."

Max fooled around with Kate's bangs for a second, "Have you ever tried anything different with your hair?"

"No it's always been this way..."

Max gave her a sympathetic smile, "It never hurts to try something new. If you don't like it it'll grow back."

She looked uncertain as the two girlfriends aligned themselves shoulder to shoulder, looking at her and thinking.

"Pixie cut. She'd look soooo cute with a pixie cut," Chloe hypothesized.

"All of it in one go might scare her. I think cut a little and get French braids. Also Victoria had a pixie cut."

"What's wrong with matching? You can never have enough pixie cuts."

Kate found herself making the same argument the next day.

At the hair salon the hair dresser insisted on taking out the bun first and foremost. Victoria was a bit surprised exactly how long Kate's hair was. To her butt and practically made of split ends. However it was incredibly thick and once free of its bonds had a slight curl to it.

"What would you like dear?" the portly hairdresser asked, eyeing the amount of hair like a hungry lioness.

"I... I don't know I've never had my hair cut professionally..."

Victoria nearly choked cramming down a comment to the tune of 'obviously.' Being not mean was hard.

"Why don't you try something totally new, Kate? This is like, the best hair salon in Arcadia Bay and I'm paying," Victoria said, waving the platinum card around.

Kate looked down at the book of hairstyles she was handed. She flipped through it vacantly. All these hairstyles looked daunting. Both Victoria and the hairstylist excitedly pointed at haircuts Kate would never want.

She flipped to the 'long hair' section of the book to their disappointment.

However what she picked was cute. It was a curly haircut with blunt bangs that looked like it belonged on a little girl's doll. It was halfway down the back but not too much shorter.

Victoria approved it, sitting back and looking proud of herself as the light brown hair fell to the ground.

The woman's scissors were quick and Kate soon found herself trapped in curlers and her hands held by the manicure lady. She looked at Victoria next to her. Pointed nails were being painted light blue with jagged white tips to match her dress. They glittered slightly in the light.

She looked down at her own. She'd refused fake nails so her short, well maintained real ones were being painted with sparkly white polish. After finishing each nail the lady stopped to carefully stick a little blue snowflake decal into each nail.

In no time she found herself being rushed back to Blackwell without getting to look at the results.

Victoria insisted she see the whole package at once.

Victoria enjoyed the stares they were getting as they walked to the dormitory. Kate was much less certain. She saw people talking behind their hands. She found herself grabbing onto Victoria's arm like it was a life raft.

Victoria was proud of the result. She stole a look at the tiny girl hanging off her arm. She looked adorable. The new hair complimented her meek personality nicely. Victoria found herself walking a little taller. She really liked having a cute girl to walk arm in arm with, it seemed.

Chloe flagged them down at the door, cooing like she'd found a kitten, "Ohhhhh noooooo you're too cute now!"

She shoved the door open, yelling to presumably Max, "Get the scalpel! We're going to have to give her an emergency cutectomy!!"

Victoria ignored her as she walked into the building with her sparkly new arm accessory. Passing Max who was running confused out of her room.

She raised a finger to her mouth to the other two, "We're not quite 100% done you know? You two just wait out here."

Chloe let out an annoyed groan as she glared Victoria down. Her glare was matched in intensity by the blonde girl until Max opted to just push her and Kate towards the room.

Thankfully Kate kept her mirror outside the closet covered so she couldn't see as Victoria quickly but carefully stripped her of her normal clothes and tugged on the dress. It was weird to have someone else pull off her clothes but she quietly obeyed. It flashed in her mind that she didn't mind it and in fact kind of LIKED it. She was hit with a wave of shame and unease.

Victoria gently fixed small finishing touches before speaking, "There. Some stuff is still missing like we're not gonna bother with full makeup right now but here's a pretty good idea of how you'll look."

She whirled Kate around to face the full length mirror in her closet.

Kate gasped, barely even recognizing the girl in the mirror.

She really DID look like a princess. Straight out of a Disney movie. The dress billowed around her, carefully accented by pearls. The skirt was a massive sea of tulle. The bodice fit her without going too low. Puffy shoulders gave way to long translucent sleeves.

Her hair looked great. It hung in big curls down her back, finally free of the usual split ends. Her bangs were immaculate as well.

Both of the girls were blushing like mad.

"I... I don't... I look like royalty," Kate finally sputtered out.

Victoria was speechless.

"Do you... Do you like it?" Kate cautiously asked, turning to face her head on.

She still was at a loss for words as Kate grabbed her hands, gently shaking them, "Are you alright? Does... Does it look bad?"

Neither girl expected Victoria's answer to be a kiss on the lips.

It was a quick peck before Victoria pulled away, surprised at herself. Both froze like statues and stared at each other blankly.

"I... I have to go. You uhh... It. It looks great, Kate," she stumbled and oh god had she really RHYMED there?

She was still reeling as she took a few awkward steps towards the door, Kate still motionless by the closet.

"I-I'll see you on two days. For the. For the surprise. Uhm. Yeah uhh show Chloe and Max they'll love it!!" Victoria said maybe a little louder than need be before bolting out of the room. She nearly took out Chloe at the knees with her mad dash to her own dorm.

Chloe and Max stood there shocked for a minute before catching a glimpse of Kate all dressed up.

They rushed in to gush over her, only briefly forgetting Victoria's weird departure.

Chapter Text

"She KISSED you?" Max asked, completely incredulous.

Kate nodded.

Chloe's face was inscrutable. The other two couldn't tell if she was angry or just confused. She was glaring at the poor innocent corner nonetheless.

" Are you... How do you feel about that?" Max asked, guiding the small girl to sit next to her.

Kate was silent for a moment before speaking, "I don't know."

Chloe's eyes narrowed.

"Did it make you uncomfortable?"

Kate shook her head. Max could sit there and shuffled through all the emotions and she still wouldn't know. She silently tried to organize her thoughts in a desperate attempt to come up with a better answer.

Max looked to Chloe then to Kate, wishing Kate would at least express if she was okay with it or not. If Chloe was going to go on an asskicking rampage against Victoria she’d at least like to know if it was a deserved one.

Kate finally spoke up, “I’m… not… I don’t wish it hadn’t happened.”

Chloe and Max blinked in mutual confusion for a second working out the double negative.

Well, at least she was okay with it.

Didn’t stop Chloe from getting up and walking out of the room to the protest of Max, “Chloe if I hear screaming you’re sleeping on the couch tonight!”

Max nearly had to make good on that threat but Victoria suppressed her screech, holding her half off shirt against her, “Holy shit, what the fuck?! I’m changing!!”

“No, YOU what the fuck!” Chloe yelled back.

“That doesn’t make any sense, dumbass!”

“Y… you don’t make any sense!”

“Why are you even here?” Victoria yelled, pulling her shirt back on.

“Kate told me what happened!” she hissed, starting to approach the smaller girl like a one hell of a pissed off mama bear.

Victoria was slack jawed for a second before snapping to attention, “..... so what?! Why the hell do you care? This literally couldn’t affect you less!”

Despite the bravado in her voice she was backing up against her wall of photos. She’d never actually been in a real fight and had a pretty damn good feeling that Chloe had. Or at least had more rage pent up than herself.

She flinched as Chloe slammed the wall next to her head.

"I swear to god if this is all some weird ass game you're playing or if you break her heart? I'll break YOU."

At that she left a stammering Victoria alone in her room, leaving as abruptly as she came.

Speaking of said room she barely left it the next day and a half. She only graced everyone else with her presence in class, arriving exactly on time and leaving the second the bell rang. Kate made several attempts at contacting her but she could never keep up.

She didn't hear anything until the day of 'the surprise.'

Once again it was a simple text. Meet me at my room. Kate protested as Chloe forced her to hand over the phone.

"I'm coming with," she asserted as she handed the meek girl her phone back.

"No you aren't. This has nothing to do with you. Kate's a grown up she can handle this herself," Max said with a slap on her girlfriend's arm.

"You're not my supervisor. I'll go if I want to. Besides-"

"You're not coming," Kate affirmed, smoothing out her skirt as she stood up.

Chloe's rampage jerked to a halt.

She wasn’t able to collect her thoughts in time as Kate drifted out of the room. Max anchored her before she could even think about following. Chloe was honestly too impressed that Kate stood up to her to attempt to follow.

Kate carefully rapped her knuckles on Victoria’s door before it slowly opened.

Victoria was peeking a bit meekly from behind it, “Uh… hey Kate.”

“Hey,” she said, raising a hand awkwardly.

There was a beat of silence.

“Uhm… are you going to invite me in? Are we going out?”

Victoria jerked back into reality, “Oh uhm. Well it was going to be like, a bigger deal but… here just come in.”

She opened the door. Kate hadn’t been in there before but it was very darkly lit. Lots of pictures on the wall, mostly of Victoria herself. She marveled at the hypocrisy of the popular girl’s previous disdain for Max’s selfies.

However her attention was pulled to a table pulled into the center with two dinners on it. Victoria had obtained a few candles and have stuck them in the middle.

“I was going to take you out to an actual restaurant but IDK things just… I’m sorry… that I... you know. Kissed you,” Victoria said, looking down and avoiding eye contact. She carefully pulled out one chair for her.

Kate accepted it, letting her push her in, “I’m not upset by it.”

Victoria finally made eye contact, “Wait… really?”

“Why does that surprise you?”

She paused for a second, trying to find a way to politely bring up the common correlation between religiousness and homophobia. Or at least without the cold sarcasm she was used to. The second she thought it she immediately realized how stupid it was to apply that to Kate. All she did all day every day was get sandwiched between Chloe and Max. Those two practically vomited rainbows.

“I just... “ she motioned vaguely with her hands before sitting down, “Like the whole. You're just super conservative about... kissing and stuff."

Kate nodded, she wouldn't say it to any of the involved parties but she really would have rather had her first (remembered) kiss be in the context of a long term relationship.

"It's fine. I'm not really upset or anything."

Victoria was a little taken aback by how casually and well Kate was taking this.

“Well that’s. That’s good. Uh, yeah.”

Kate looked down at her plate. Spaghetti and meatballs. She doubted that Victoria knew it but that’s been her favorite food since she was a little girl. She could hear quiet clinking as Victoria started swirling some around her fork, still looking down.

Kate thought she looked pretty in the candlelight. It really suited her. Dark, dramatic lighting accented her personality well even though her face was much softer than usual right now. Despite Kate accepting her apology she could tell the blonde was still beating herself up over it.

Kate started curling the spaghetti around her fork as well before speaking up, “I really love spaghetti, this is a nice surprise.”

“Thanks. I’ve… never actually cooked before,” Victoria said, staring down intently at it. She fiddled around with the velvet box sitting on her lap, feeling weird. She’d already felt awkward about the last gift and the whole kiss thing…

She stopped. She’s Victoria fucking Chase. She’s not gonna let a little kiss ruin all her plans. Kate wasn’t even upset.

Without a second of pomp and circumstance she set the box on the table, “Here Kate, this is for you.”

Chapter Text

The snow drifted gently down on the courtyard outside the main building of Blackwell Academy as the students started filing in.

It was a flurry of white tulle and pale tuxedos all around as the invited few brushed in and others tried to bargain or bribe their way in. The tickets had been expensive and not everyone wanted to cough it up.

Kate had wanted to get there early, she didn’t want to admit to the sin of vanity but she was quite proud of how much like a princess she looked in the dress. However, Victoria had insisted on being fashionably late.

They sat in the limousine just out of view of the school for what felt like ages.

Kate was nearly bouncing on her seat, all poofy and white and sparkly and excited. Victoria hid a small smile behind her hand. She looked so cute and she was more than happy to be the one escorting her to the dance. Her invitation had started off exclusively for Kate’s benefit, she really hadn’t expected it to be beneficial to herself as well.

Last night had gone over extremely well. All awkwardness between the two had been dissolved again. While Kate was nervous about the idea of having feelings for a girl she wasn’t fighting it either. Victoria found herself timid about it too but more out of fear of the unknown than anything else.

As Kate nearly trembled with excitement, Victoria’s gift hanging off her neck was bouncing gently on her sternum. A pristine white gold cross adorned with small diamonds.

When she’d opened the box she’d picked it up with the most delicate care possible.

She’d almost seemed afraid to break it putting it on, still staring at it like it was a fragile fabergé egg as Victoria helped her get it on for the dance.

Kate looked at Victoria. She had helped her get dressed as well but was still struck by exactly how much like a movie star she looked. Her dress has formfitting and layered like icicles, flaring out at the bottom. The entire thing was a pale blue and glittering so beautifully. She had on long gloves and matching silver jewelry as well.

‘My ice queen,’ Kate briefly thought, surprising herself with how intimate that was as much as how comfortable she was with it.

Victoria looked at the clock up by the driver, “Okay Kate, are you ready?”

The look on the tiny girl’s face said it all but she quickly replaced it with a very serious face, “One thing first.”

Victoria’s face dropped in confusion, “What?”

With some difficulty due to the sheer mass of her dress Kate scooted over to Victoria before carefully taking her face in her hands and kissing her gently.

As she lingered for a second she felt Victoria’s gloved hands hook around her waist.

When she pulled away they both smiled.

Victoria gently took her hand, “Come on, we want to be fashionably late not miss the whole thing. We can… we can do more of that later if you want.”

Kate nodded, silently accepting her offer as they slid out of the limousine.

Chapter Text

It was a month after the dance.

Kate woke up with a familiar weight on her stomach.

Turns out the one thing that could soothe the savage heart of the sleep flailer was someone to cuddle with. Unlike their first night together every night after ended up with Victoria curled around her like a large cat.

Kate looked over at her bedside table. The Winter Formal Snow Queen crown still sat there.
She’d won that whilst Victoria had won Frost King, to the griping of the men in the room. Victoria had claimed she hadn’t rigged the elections and Kate believed her. Afterwards she’d learned that the entire school had been abuzz about their date, in a positive way though.

While Kate had feared coming out to her parents it had gone over better than she’d thought. Although her mother great disapproved of the choice in girlfriend initially she found herself charmed by the humble and apologetic Victoria when they visited for Christmas.

Chloe had slowly backed off on Victoria’s case after a while. The popular girl found herself slowly being integrated into their friend group. It sped up a little when she procured the gift of sugar for the two.

It was still a bit of a surprise the first time she was dragged into a cuddle pile with the lanky girl and her small, freckled other as well as her own girlfriend. She didn’t object though. She didn’t object at all.

Although she had objected to the fact Kate had smuggled the two girls into the dance last month under her massive dress.

Kate looked back at Victoria. The blonde girl was still dead asleep as she often was. Not a morning person at all as the grimace on her face indicated.

She tried to carefully remove the arm to feed her rabbit and as expected, found herself squeezed tighter in place by her girlfriend’s iron grasp.

Kate giggled a little, kissing her on the forehead.

Victoria’s frown melted into a smile as she nuzzled against her neck, still out cold.

“My ice queen…” Kate mumbled before slowly drifting back to sleep.

They could sleep in, it was a snow day after all.