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When they first met, Gigi already felt it tickling her ribs.
It was not as surprising as some would claim, she already had a good idea at what she'd find when Liz finally took her to the Lookout to join Justice. An ancient automaton that looked like a doll, working perfectly despite the age. Her beauty despite the age. Cecilia was beautiful.
But Gigi had fallen for many a beautiful woman, and she knew her heart was stupid. What mattered was the person behind the smiles and shining eyes and perfect hair.
"You'll like her," Liz had said with a knowing look. "She reminds me of you."
Gigi couldn't see it. The automaton was poised elegantly as she played the violin. Her eyes closed and feet firmly planted, she coasted through whatever was on her mind. The notes bounced around Gigi's head and the complicated riffs jumbled it further. Cecilia looked like she had just left some fairy tale, while Gigi had just left a child's drawing.
So, the gremlin expected some haunty, princess-like lady, who'd scoff at Gigi's loud hollers and whoops at the end.
Elizabeth politely clapped as Gigi beamed.
"That was cool! Can you play it on trombone?" Gigi laughed.
Cecilia blinked, startled by the noise before she laughed and bowed.
"Thank you, thank you! And... trombone?"
"Yeah! Wouldn't it be funny?"
"Oh my god," Cecilia laughed quieter. "Sadly, I can't play trombone."
"That'll make it funnier!"
"Well, you buy me a trombone and maybe!"
"Deal! I'm gonna do it when you least expect it!"
Elizabeth smiled down at her and Gigi immediately tried ducking away from the unspoken "I told you so."
"Gigi, this is Cecilia! Cecilia, this is Gigi Murin. Our Chaser."
Cecilia held out a hand with a smile.
"Nice to meet you."
"You too!" Gigi chimed before an idea quickly crossed her mind.
Not changing her expression, she took Cecilia's hand and gripped it. Not as hard as she could, but enough to break a human's hand.
Cecilia's eyes flashed with surprise before her smile turned into a smirk. In return, she gripped Gigi's hand back and surprised the gremlin with her own strength.
Elizabeth looked between the two, locked in their unspoken battle, before sighing and walking away.
"I'll leave you to it! I'm going to pick up Raora."
"Have fun!" Gigi said before gritting her teeth in a grin.
"Pick something up for dinner!" Cecilia said, her eyes narrowing.
"... Don't break anything," the queen mumbled.
Eventually, Gigi's tail flicked and she looked past Cecilia.
"Hey, what's that?!"
"Hm-?" Cecilia's attention was away for a moment, allowing Gigi to beam and put all her strength into forcing her to the ground.
Well, that was the plan but...
Cecilia's hand popped off with a strange noise.
Gigi immediately screamed and dropped it, making Cecilia jump.
"Hey!" She shouted as Gigi ran and dove behind the couch.
"Sorry! Sorry!"
"It's fine?" Cecilia tilted her head before bending down to pick up her hand. "I still need to touch up a few things. I was only recently reactivated..."
"That scared the shit out of me..." Gigi laughed, though her heart had yet to calm down. "Uh... Does it hurt?"
"No, not really," she said before popping her hand back into place. "What were you trying to do?"
"Well we didn't have a table I could slam your hand down on..." Gigi sheepishly started walking out. "So I thought I could just force you to the floor!"
"... You do realize I'm machinery?"
Gigi blinked. Cecilia looked... amused.
So, she ran with it, grinning and laughing.
"And I'm da fister! I can lift you, no problem!"
Cecilia chuckled.
"I'm good, thanks."
And Gigi's treacherous heart skipped a beat.
When they first met, Cecilia didn't know what to think of Gigi.
Loud, energetic, and lovable was how she was described to her, and of course Cecilia immediately filed that under 'nuisance', but she didn't know how to feel about getting interrupted with applause.
Well, she felt happy, but that was besides the point.
Gigi was... funny. Acting like a cat that just broke a vase by running as soon as Cecilia's hand dropped. Her laugh was incredibly infectious, and even more so, her smile. That was quickly proven when Justice's first dinner together was pretty much a food fight with Gigi.
Cecilia immediately felt the annoying ping to clean up, felt the annoyance at the person making the mess, but...
Gigi laughed and Cecilia couldn't help but smile. Elizabeth seemed used to it, at least, and asked Raora for her help cleaning up while she shooed the two away.
"You should've seen her face!" Gigi beamed as she confirmed Cecilia's pondering. "I can't believe Liz gave up and let me run away after that."
"You've known her for a while?"
"Mhm! She's my first friend! That's why I came here!" She shrugged. "I dunno about justice or order or whatever, but what Liz wants, I'll help!"
Cecilia blinked.
"That's... incredibly nice of you."
"I have my moments~" She giggled, stopping at her new bedroom door. "What about you?"
"Hm?"
"What are you here for?"
Cecilia paused.
She had never really thought about it. She was just there to do chores for the defenders of the multiverse. But... Cecilia Immergreen...
"... I dunno." She shrugged. "I guess I'll just help out however I can?"
"If you want to, maybe work on that hand!" Gigi laughed. "Don't want a criminal to get away 'cause it pops off!"
"Yeah... Goodnight, Gigi."
"G'night!"
Cecilia walked to her own room, eyes fixed on her hand.
Truly, she didn't know what to think.
Now, Gigi wasn't the smartest grem in the shoebox, but she had crushes before. How could she not? Women were pretty and talented and there was that one time Nerissa flirted back with her on a mission and Cecilia got mad and hoo boy.
Gigi still heated up just thinking about it.
Yeah, she had a crush on Cecilia. It was kinda impossible not to, she was just so... Ceci! The way Cecilia kept taking her hand now whenever they went out truly made her feel giddy. The knowing glances, the smiles... hell, maybe Ceci had a crush on her too?
But the thought stopped there, Gigi pulled the brakes on the train. Her stupid heart was always led to the edge of a cliff by dumb puppy love. She had no clue if Cecilia liked her. Everything could be written off as being friendly, caring for a teammate, or, just in general, being a good person. She didn't know.
And... it was scary.
If she told Ceci, and she didn't like Gigi like that... what then? Would they stop being friends? Too awkward to be alone together again? They'd stop their movie nights, their games, their playful banter...
Gigi was very, very, very scared to lose that.
So, for the first time ever, she forced herself to keep her mouth shut! Maybe if she ignored it, kept it quiet, it would eventually go away! Then she and Ceci could continue on like nothing had happened.
Haha
Ha.
...
But she was Gigi. Gigi was Gigi and couldn't keep it inside forever. She didn't even have an inside voice! She just wanted to scream about how cute Ceci was.
So it slipped. Like porcelain from her fingertips, it crashed to the ground.
"I love you," slipped. Immediately, Gigi tensed and quickly snapped her mouth closed. Thankfully, Cecilia just rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, yeah." She's saved.
But...
No, of course she wouldn't say it back. That wasn't Ceci. She didn't openly say that stuff and it'd be foolish to think otherwise.
To dream otherwise.
Gigi managed to play off the conflict in her heart as a stomach bug, threatening to throw up on the automaton before they were both laughing it off and wrestling for the remote.
Yet her stupid heart sang its head off, begging to be let out of its cage.
And Gigi refused. The last time she opened up...
Well, it didn't end well. She'd rather just have them be friends and let the love pass.
... maybe.
Cecilia was relatively new to the whole spectrum of emotion, but she liked to think she adapted well. She understood happiness and sadness, but also was learning about the things in between.
But whatever the hell was wrong with Gigi was very, very unfamiliar.
She almost seemed afraid of Cecilia, flinching away whenever they got close and nervously making excuses. Very unlike the gremlin, who relished in social interaction and closeness.
It wasn't like Cecilia was a stranger or an enemy, she was her friend! Her very good friend at that. She felt a bond with Gigi that she couldn't describe no matter how hard she tried. So... why was she acting so strange?
With little else to do, she tried bothering Raora and Liz for answers. Surely Gigi would have to spill it to one of them. But...
"I noticed but..." Elizabeth chewed on her words, thinking it over. "Perhaps you should ask Gigi herself?"
"But she..." Cecilia huffed. "She's being difficult. She won't tell me."
"Hm. Then you'll have to wait until she's ready to tell you."
"How long will that take?!"
Cecilia jumped as Elizabeth's hand rested on her head, a smile across the queen's face.
"Not long. This is Gigi we're talking about."
She was going to explode.
There was no way she could keep going like that. Her heart felt broken, too fast and falling apart at the seams. Every time she saw a flash of green, it whispered insistently: "tell her, tell her, tell her!"
Well, it was more an internal scream, but she shook the jar containing her heart to get it to shut up. Still, it was really, really getting bad.
"I'm hopeless," she said out loud to herself at one of those early hours in the morning when she doubted everything while staring at the ceiling. "I'm down bad."
Gigi struggled with the next words, wrestling them with her tongue until she could speak it to confirm: "I love her."
Sure enough, saying it out loud made her feel giddy, it made her feel warm, made her kick her feet and smile stupidly. It also sent her heart into a weird rhythm, spiraling down until she buried her face in her hands. "Come on... You're a big grem! You got this."
Flirting should be as easy as breathing. Gigi lived to compliment cute girls, it was her favorite pastime. Cecilia was pretty, she was smart, she was cute, she was...
Okay, too many options. Reel back, Gigi.
"Ough, why is it like this?" She groaned into a pillow.
Bang
"Gi-!"
"AAAAAH!" She swore she leaped into the air a few feet, twisting around to look at her door wide open with Cecilia. "CECI!"
"Sorry! It didn't even look like you were in here!" Cecilia frowned and lowered the arm that forced open the door. "What are you doing?"
"God, stop giving me heart attacks!" Gigi laughed, trying to will her heartbeat to its usual rhythm. "Do we have a mission or something?"
"N-no, I..." She trailed off, leaving Gigi to tilt her head at the silence.
Was she... nervous? Ceci? Why?
“… What’s up?”
“What’s up? What’s up with you ?” Cecilia frowned, crossing her arms. “You’ve been avoiding me.”
Immediately, Gigi’s heart began hammering.
“Wh-what?! N-no I haven’t!” She was pretty sure she had been slick about it.
“ You haven’t been slick!” Damn. “You’ve been acting weird.” She began walking towards her. “What is it?”
“ UH.” Gigi cleared her throat, backing away from her as well as she could on the bed. “Nothing!”
“Did I do something?”
“No…”
“Did something happen?”
“Not really…” She mumbled as she stumbled back, climbing off of the bed as Cecilia reached it. If she could only make it to the door…
“Then what…” Cecilia sighed heavily. She didn’t even need to breathe, but Gigi knew she was used to doing it to give across her emotions. “What is it?”
And Gigi…
paused.
Was Cecilia… sad? Was she frustrated?
… Did Gigi do that?
Her tail drooped, her eyes lowering to her messy bed.
“… Gigi… Just tell me.”
It felt as if the automaton had reached in and squeezed the gremlin’s heart, forcing it out of her lungs and strangling her with how much she felt. Such strong emotions formed cracks in her skin as she spoke,
“I love you.”
Cecilia blinked.
“… What?”
“I love you,” Gigi repeated as her heart broke from the strain, as sobs shook her, “I love you.”
“Gigi-”
“I’m sorry,” she whimpered, hiding her eyes with her hands as she stepped back. “I’m sorry…”
“What? Gigi, don’t apologize.”
She tugged her hood down over her face as a small whine escaped her throat. In her panic, she nearly tripped over something that had been lying on the floor, but a hand grabbed her before she could fall.
“Gigi! Careful!” Cecilia frowned, but Gigi couldn’t meet her eyes. “Why are you saying that? Why are you apologizing?”
“ ’Cause… cause…” She sniffed. “I dunno… It’s weird…”
“What is?”
“Falling for your best friend…”
“I mean, I keep telling you to clean up your room before you trip…” Cecilia mumbled halfheartedly. “… It’s not weird.”
“But…”
“It’s not weird. Because I did it too.”
Gigi carefully peered below the edge of her hood, catching Cecilia’s eyes just barely.
“… You mean…?”
“You’re hard to not love, Gigi,” she chuckled. “You weirdo.”
“I’m not weird!”
“You just said it was weird to fall for me , I get to call you weird!”
“ You’re weird!”
“Says you!”
Gigi burst out laughing, getting her balance again as Cecilia joined her. Her laugh soothed over the cracks of her skin.
“… Are you sure?”
“I mean…” Cecilia paused. “… I’m… new to this. But… I think so. I… It hurt a lot to have you run away from me.”
“Sorry,” she laughed. “… Can I hear you say it?”
“What?”
“I love you.”
“That’s…” Cecilia’s touch warmed, a sure sign of overheating, and she looked away. Gigi grinned. “Well…”
“I said it.”
“Shut up,” she laughed, but something about it bubbled in Gigi’s chest. “… Fine.”
Gigi beamed as Cecilia looked back at her, smiling softly.
“I love you, Gigi.”