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“Aww,” Katie coos after tucking Pandora’s duvet under her chin.
She stood beside Effy at the edge of the blonde’s bed, watching her sleep peacefully. It’d been a real struggle trying to drag her from her comfortable position, drooling on Effy’s shoulder.
“We should turn in too, y’know,” Effy comments, briefly glancing at the two ‘beds’ Panda’s mum had made for them on the bedroom floor. Naomi and Emily were so selfless to graciously offer to sleep in the living room together, leaving the three of them in the bedroom.
Soon, the only noise in the house was the clunking of Effy removing her thousands of necklaces and bracelets. As Effy took off her jewellery, she watched Katie out of the corner of her eye. Wiping the flawlessly applied makeup off her face. Carefully pulling out her tiny polka-dot hairbows. Brushing the loose curl from her perfectly styled hair. Katie pretended to be too focused to notice.
-
Effy’s eyes flicker open only a few minutes after shutting them. The only light now is the blue haze from the night sky through the window just above Pandora’s bed. Across the cold wooden floor, she can hear the ruffling of Katie’s ‘bed’. Panda’s mum was very gracious to offer both a duvet and a blanket, though the redhead found that the both of them was far too hot, just a blanket was far too freezing, and the duvet was far too itchy to sleep under on its own.
“You alright Goldilocks?” Katie hears a tired voice murmur. She pulls the covers over her face, as though Effy would be able to see her blush in the dark anyway.
“Shut up,” She laughs. There’s a pause.
“Can’t get comfortable?” Effy asks, and Katie can hear her wicked grin even without seeing it.
“No,”
“Come here, then,”
Katie freezes. “What?”
“Well, come on.”
When Katie sits up, she sees that Effy’s already sat up, watching her expectantly. She sees the fuzzy movement of Effy patting half of her baby pink pillow. She lets out a nervous laugh. Effy just waits.
Katie doesn’t see the point in standing up just to lay down again, so she crawls on her hands and knees, not realising how amusing Effy would find this until she hears the chuckle from her nicotine-abused lungs. Effy shuffles to the far end of the ‘bed’, laying on her side, propping her head up with a slender elbow on the pillow. Katie kneels on the other end, hesitating. She meets Effy’s impossibly glow-in-the-dark eyes, and crawls under the pastel coloured bedsheets. Effy lets out a pleased hum.
“Thought you’d insist on going top-and-tail,” Effy jokes, eliciting a giggle from Katie. She copies Effy’s position. Effy’s eyelids grow heavier, and she turns around to lay on her front, head facing the other way. For whatever reason, this action makes Katie’s heart sink. She figures it’s just because no one likes to be the last one awake at the slumber party. Right?
She twists her arm a little, letting her head rest in the crook of her elbow. She places her other hand on the pillow, letting the brunette’s hair fall through her fingers.
“What?” A sleepy, but not annoyed voice whispers. Katie doesn’t answer, just smiles at the broken silence. Effy turns around, laying on her side once again. She matches Katie’s soft smile with her own. “Go to sleep, Katie.”
The shorter girl gingerly tucks a strand of brown hair behind the other’s ear. She notices a spark in Effy’s blue eyes, the one she knows means that she had an idea. When she feels a slender hand sneak its way to her back, pulling her closer, she furrows her brows slightly.
Effy’s expression doesn’t change. She wonders if Effy ever gets embarrassed. “C’mon.”
Tentatively, she shuffles a little closer where the arm guides her, her nose mere millimetres from Effy’s collarbone. She feels her hand move to the back of her head, where it nestles into her hair. A thumb caresses her scalp. She does not like this at all.
She hears Effy’s perfect, low voice mutter “Goodnight,” and she hates it. She hates it, she hates it, she hates it. She hates it so much that she repeats it to her. She hates it so much that she nuzzles her face into Effy’s neck, hearing an amused chuckle that makes her sick to her stomach. She hates it so much that she drifts off in Effy’s arms.
-
Katie woke up to the sound of Pandora snoring lightly, and the feeling of Effy’s hand on her bare stomach.
Shit.
She blinked, now opening her tired eyes much wider.
She had woken up in Effy Stonem’s arms. She had woken up with Effy’s arm under her cheek as an extra pillow, her other arm thrown around the girl’s side, loosely pushing up the fabric of her pyjama top. Katie’s back pressed into Effy’s torso, holding Effy’s arms as she cuddled her. God, if someone saw them they’d have thought she’d gone full lesbo.
“Shut up,” a tired, faint voice muttered.
“What?”
“You’re overthinking too loud.” Katie felt Effy’s cheek push against the back of her head a little as she broke into a smug smile. Katie couldn’t see it, but she could feel it.
Quick and embarrassed, Katie separated herself from Effy’s warm embrace, and of course their legs were tangled up too. God this is humiliating. They both laid facing each other.
“Good morning,” Effy grinned. Katie could not speak. Her face contorted into an expression of pure embarrassment. Even disgust.
She tried to get up, but Effy groaned, “No, no,” and Katie paused, “Come back. It’s too early.”
Katie returned to laying on her side. Effy pushed Katie gently down, so that she’d turn over, instead facing Pandora's bed. And then, if you can believe it, Effy pulled her back, thin hand splayed across her now-clothed stomach. Katie did not take kindly to her role as the little spoon, but she didn’t try to leave again either.
“I’m not-”
“Shh, shh, shhh,” Effy repeated. Okay, now Katie shifted closer to the brunette, who nuzzled her nose into the other girl's red-wine hair. Their eyes shut once more.