Work Text:
Angela has never been nervous around Amanda, she makes her feel so comfortable and they've jokingly flirted with each other as scene partners so many times. But this is different, Angela finally realizes that she has deeper feelings for Amanda than just good friends. She doesn't want to jeopardize the friendship she has with Amanda but she needs to get these feelings out or she feels like she's going to burst.
Suddenly she has an idea. It's TNTL shoot day at Smosh, since she's not comfortable outright declaring her feelings to Amanda she goes into her playbook and prepares a skit that she can perform with Amanda so she can tell Amanda how she truly feels without risking the embarrassment of rejection.
She approaches Amanda just before the shoot. "Hey Amanda", she says visibly nervous. "Hey Boo, are you alright?" Amanda clearly picks up on Angela's nerves but just chalks it up to shoot day jitters. "Yeah it's all good", Angela tries to play it cool but she can tell Amanda knows something is off about her, "I just wanted to see if you were down to perform a full skit with me instead of a quick bit like usual". "Of course I will Ang, I love your sketches they're always so funny" Angela's nerves ease a little looking at Amanda's warm smile. She hands her a few pieces of paper with her hastily written ploy on it and they begin practicing.
It's time to go. Courtney is in the hot seat as Angela and Amanda enter the stage, Angela is suddenly even more nervous than ever now that she's surrounded by cameras and coworkers so she puts on about a dozen costume items before coming out so that she could dissociate a little bit. Emily gives the signal and the skit begins. Things are going along as normal, well as normal as a TNTL can be at least. Angela is playing a man named Pimbly Nimbles and Amanda is his best friend Chugley, Courtney almost breaks immediately when Angela introduces them but they keep their composure. The skit is almost done so Angela decides it's now or never.
"Chugley, before we go I just wanted to say that I have the best times ever with you." Angela begins avoiding eye contact with Amanda trying to play off that she's not interested. Amanda is caught a little off guard by this sudden deviation from the prepared material but she's a trained improviser and she knows that Angela likes to go off script so she rolls with it." Likewise Pimbly, you're a super cool dude and I like hanging out with you". Angela is encouraged by Amanda playing along to keep going, still avoiding eye contact Angela continues on, "It's more than that Chugs, you're like the best person I've ever met and my life is so much brighter for having you in it". Amanda starts to get a confused look on her face as this dialogue is very out of character for this skit. "You make me feel so safe and comfortable and warm", Angela continues shedding the facade more and more with each passing second and meets Amanda's gaze again, "you're so smart and funny and beautiful and loyal and I fucking cherish you, I really wish I could be more than just your best friend but I know you are happily married and I would never try to disrupt that." All trace of Pimbly Nimbles is now gone as Angela bares her soul to Amanda in front of the entire Smosh crew, Courtney realizes first that this is no longer a skit but Angela's real feelings flooding out of her. "You're the New York to my Toilet Girl, Tinky Winky to my Po, Sarah Christ to my Detective Wheresmycoffee, we end up together in almost every universe except for this one and it kills me." Amanda finally clicks what is happening and her expression changes from confused to concerned. She has never seen Angela this emotionally vulnerable before and isn't sure how to handle this new development.
With tears in her eyes Angela reaches the culmination of her speech "I am drowning in your love. If I can't have you forever then let me have you for a moment, just one beautiful shining moment, a moment that will last forever in my heart. Amanda Lehan-Canto I fucking love you, please give me a moment so I can do this". With the words barely out of her mouth Angela uses Courtney as a launchpad to get up to Amanda's level and wraps her legs around her waist and plants a big kiss on Amanda's soft lips, Courtney finally spits her water from the shock and it goes all over Angela but she doesn't care. She maintains the kiss and ignores the stunned gasps from the room, she just wants to live in this moment for as long as she possibly can.
10 seconds goes by. 15. 20. Angela is calmer than she has ever been, this feels like the most perfect thing in the world to her, until suddenly reality hits her hard and she realizes exactly what she's done in front of her friends and coworkers, she separates her lips from Amanda's and hops down from her waist. A few seconds go by with nobody saying anything, nobody sure of even what to say in this surprising situation. Angela looks to Amanda trying to gleam some kind of response but seeing only confusion, Angela looks around the room deeply embarrassed and takes off running from the set straight to the Crying Bathroom, Court tries to comfort her but she's too fast and disappears.
"I should go see if she's alright", Amanda finally breaks the silence and leaves to find Angela as Emily calls for a hold and reset.
Amanda gets to the Crying Bathroom and can hear Angela sobbing through the door, "hey Boo are you okay? You wanna open the door so we can talk about it?" "What's there to talk about? I just humiliated myself in front of everyone and ruined our friendship because I'm such a fucking idiot" Angela wails from behind the door. "Ang please open the door, we need to work this out so we can get past this and move forward." Hearing Amanda's gentle caring tone Angela steels herself and unlocks the door, Amanda steps into the room and gives Angela a comforting hug to calm her down. "I don't know how we can just move on from this" Angela said in a quivering voice, "I meant all of that you know, I can't just take it all back and pretend it never happened but I also don't want to make things any weirder than I already have. I don't know why I chose to do that so publicly but I've been wrestling with these feelings for a long time and it just reached the boiling point and I had to let it out." Amanda gently pats her on the head "Listen to me, nothing you could ever do could ruin the bond we have. You should never feel like you can't just talk to me about anything I'll always hear you out."
Amanda separates from the hug and gently holds Angela's face in her hands and looks deep into her teary eyes "you know I love you very much but like you said I'm very happily married and I'm not going to leave my husband and run off into the sunset with you." Angela looks dejected but understands, as Amanda continues "but at the same time I can't lie and say I haven't had those thoughts about you too, you are an absolute ray of sunshine and you light up every room you are in. I didn't say anything back there because you caught me completely off guard but honestly I'm OK with it. So how about this?" Amanda leans in and gently kisses Angela on the lips, Angela goes wide eyed at this unexpected reciprocation, "why don't we just figure this out together? Things might be awkward with the others around the office for a while but I do want to explore this in a way that you're comfortable with. I love you little Bug." Angela smiles and wipes her tears away "I love you too Mandy".
They hug one more time and smile as they hold hands heading back to set.
