Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I had always kind of known. Known that there was something, I don't know, different about me? All of my friends were talking about how cute this guy was or how they wish this guy would ask them out. I never felt any of that. I looked at these guys wondering what the hell girls as lovely as my friends could possible see in them. Naturally, I kept these thoughts to myself and simply smiled and agreed with my friends' assessments over various members of the opposite sex. When I got asked out to a homecoming dance by a “handsome” guy named Jimmy I reluctantly accepted at my friends’ insistence. We coordinated my dress to his tux and my friends claimed we were an “adorable match”, but I didn’t see it. I just felt as if I was floundering and completely out of place. I spent the entire night awkwardly dancing and hoping he didn’t try to kiss me. He did. I turned my cheek and thus ended the evening. Immediately following that disaster of an evening, rumours about me began to fly amok, surely straight from the vocal cords of Jimmy. I continued to hold my head high at school, however, because I could not deny the rumours nor would I let anyone have the satisfaction of shaming me for being who I am.

Some of my friends stopped talking to me altogether and some only texted me discreetly and avoided me at school. They asked me to deny the rumours, but when I wouldn’t confirm nor deny that sealed my fate. Damned if I was going to lie to appease others. If that meant I was to spend my high school years completely alone, then so be it.

When my mother told me we were going to be moving at the end of the school year, she expected me to be sad. She expected me to tell her I would miss my friends, my school, my life. I smiled at her and said new adventures were always great. I didn’t tell her the reasons why it didn’t bother me in the slightest to move away. Sure, I was certainly nervous to be moving from the city to a small town. How could I not be? If I’d experienced such rough treatment in the large city for being myself (although I hadn't actually done a damn thing) what could it possibly be like in a small town? Small towns had a reputation, after all. Although, I reasoned with myself, perhaps it wouldn’t be so hard. I only had one year of school left. I didn’t need to hide who I am if I never advertised it at all, right? If I was able to keep my head down and my feet firmly planted on the ground I could survive ten months at a small town school. Then I would be off to university and high school would seem like a distant bad dream.

The school year ended and within two weeks we were packed up and headed away. My mother questioned why none of my “friends” came to say goodbye to me. I lied and told her they were mad at me for moving away before our senior year. I didn’t consider it would make her feel bad. I had never been a good liar, and this lie hurt her feelings. I was upset with myself but I couldn’t take it back. I smiled at her, trying to reassure her that I was perfectly okay with this move. After all, if friends get angry with you for something that is out of your control then they weren't that great to begin with. We closed the red door to our former house and we were on to a new adventure.

Our new house was on a lake. I spent a lot of hours over the summer floating by myself on the lake contemplating how I was going to make sure my final school year didn’t end up like the last. I was determined that I was going to be happy, I wouldn’t let people get me down. I would be friendly but I wouldn’t get too close to anyone. After all, they would be in my rear view mirror in ten short months. Ten short months. My mantra. I didn’t expect her.

I had my headphones in on my first day hoping it would deter people from coming up and talking to me. It wasn’t that I was trying to be anti-social or unfriendly. It’s just that I was already drawing so much attention considering I was new in a school where most of the students had been classmates since kindergarten. After a short trip to the office, I was assigned a locker and my class schedule. I made my way to my locker, thankfully avoiding anyone wanting to say hello, and began putting my things away. Unfortunately, this included my iPod and the all-protective sanctuary of my headphones. I had one headphone out when I heard a crash a bit down the hallway. I turned my head to see a girl holding far too many books, that is until she dropped half of them and they collided violently into the row of lockers. I closed my locker quickly and walked purposefully in her direction to help her out. I knelt down, helping her collect her books. When they were safely off the floor, I looked up and saw the girl who had so clumsily dropped them. She was smiling at me and, damn, if it wasn’t the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I, very eloquently, mumbled, “Uh….here you go.” Although I didn’t think it possible, her smile spread even wider and I was just left staring at her dumbfounded for words--my usual confidence fleeing me in my time of need. I shook my head a little to knock myself out of the stare and smiled a half-smile back at her.

“Thank you! That was really nice of you to come help me. I can be so clumsy sometimes.”

This girl was brighter than sunshine and I couldn't help but be drawn to her warmth.

“Yeah, sure, of course. My pleasure.”

I tried to seem nonchalant in my response, like it was no big deal, but it was becoming clear to me that meeting her was a big deal to me.

“I’m Waverly Earp.”

“Nicole, Nicole Haught.”

She extended her right hand, shifting her books into her left arm, to shake my hand. I took her hand with a firm grip. When her hand slipped out of mine, after what was probably too long to be a proper handshake of greeting, my hand keenly felt the loss of contact.

“Hot? As in “Damn, it’s HOT in here?”

My half-smile became a full blown grin.

“Uh, no. Haught as in H-A-U-G-H-T.”

“Oh! Yeah that makes more sense….”

The laughter spilling from her lips was like music to my ears. Her mirth was addicting.

“I bet you get a lot of jokes with that last name, huh?”

“Oh, just a bit.”

I replied, winking at her, desperately trying to regain some of my composure. How had she effectively rendered me so unhinged in such a short amount of time?

“Uh, hey so you’re new. Obviously. I mean...you know you’re new. So why am I telling you that you’re new here? Uh. yep! So, what class do you have now? Do you need any help finding it?”

“Advanced Placement English.”

“Oh! I’m in that class, too. Mrs. Martin, right?”

“Yep.”

“Cool. Good, because English is good. Right? It’s a good language. That we both speak. You and I...we...speak...English. One of us more than the other it seems.”

I bowed my head slightly trying to contain the smile that was threatening to spread across my lips. How cute was her nervous babbling? I couldn’t help but wonder if she was so nervous because of me in particular or if she was just this way with all new people. What I wouldn’t give to be able to read her mind at this moment. I looked up, the smile overtaking my features. She sheepishly smiled back at me and in that moment I decided there was no way this place could be bad after all.

“Well, come on then, don’t want to be late on your first day, right? ‘Cause that would be...you know..embarrassing. Plus, Martin would probably call you out on it. I hear she’s kind of the devil so the class might be hell. Which is funny because we live in Purgatory.”

I highly doubted any class I shared with this girl could be hell for me.

“Yes, yes we do. Lead the way, Waverly Earp.”

She let out a low chuckle, smirked, grabbed my wrist and tugged me down the hallway to our class.

Shit. I'm in trouble.

Chapter Text

I had, perhaps, a bit of pep in my step when I walked through the front door of my house.

“First day that good?”

“My, my aren’t we perceptive?”

“Well, when your daughter is such a complete trouble maker you kind of have to be. Honestly, Nicole, stop causing so much mischief. You’ve been there one day and your principal called me up saying he’s going to kick your ass right back to the big city.”

“How many hours into the day?” I replied, wagging my eyebrows.

“Three or four. What do you expect I have my eyes on the clock constantly?”

“Oh, well, that’s so many hours in! I should try harder for tomorrow. Whatever shall I do? I know! I could flash the entire football team. I could slash the tires of a really stuck up girl’s car. There’s this asshole named Champ Hardy…Mom! I could, I don’t know, throw him in the outhouse and lock him in? Maybe see if I could tip it while he’s inside.It’s where he belongs.”

“There’s my girl. Just don’t get caught—won’t look so great on your application to university or to the Police Academy. Nicole Haught: Life skills – stuffing assholes into toilets, slashing tires, public indecency.”

“Well, I’d hire me. I sound like a gem.”

“You’re a gem to me.”

“Ugh. Mother. Get a hold of yourself. Get a life. You need a hobby...I know, try knitting! I hear knitting needles can be valuable weapons if you need them. We could get attacked by Big Foot out here after all. Or the Sasquatch! It’s dangerous out there in the wilds.”

I wink at her as I put my bag down on the stool that’s pushed up against the island.

“What the hell am I going to do with knitting needles against Big Foot?”

“Throw them at its eye. How is your aim?”

I smile at her, because I already know the answer. My mother could not hit the broad side of a barn with a wrecking ball.

“Make sure it’s a nice funeral service, honey.”

“For sure. I’ll get you one of those pine boxes and then cremate you myself. It will cost me $10 and I’ll use the insurance money to go to strip clubs and casinos in Vegas.”

“I’d expect absolutely nothing less. Now, tell me about your first day? Do you have tons of homework? Meet anyone cool? Make any teachers want to throw you through the school windows? If so, I’ll just dye my hair and pretend I adopted you at parent/teacher conferences.”
“My first day was fine. I only have homework from my English class because that teacher is insane. She was wearing a bandana. Around her head. Like a biker. If the devil has disguised him or herself in Purgatory I am certain it is the form of my Advanced Placement English teacher.”

I could not help the half smile that was creeping across my face as I thought about that English class. Obviously not because of Martin the Martian, but because of the girl I was fortunate enough to be seated next to and the gorgeous smile she tossed my way on more then one occasion during the course of that class and the two others I was fortunate enough to have with her.

“If she’s so demonic, daughter, why are you smiling like an idiot? Did you meet your future husband? Does he come from money?! Honey, please tell me he comes from money so you can set me up for the life I so deserve.”

My smile faded a bit. I know I need to tell my mother. I also know that she will never love me any less. For some reason, though, I am worried. She has been through so much already in her life. What if having a gay daughter isn’t her ideal situation? Would I be placing one more hardship upon her shoulders? It’s the question that always tugs at me when I consider telling her. I’ve opted to tell her when I finally have a good reason, like someone to tell her about. I always convince myself it is so I don’t worry her too soon. Or I don’t get questions like, “Are you sure?” “How can you know?” The truth is, though, I know she’d never ask these questions regardless. I know she’ll love me for who I am. The idea I can’t shake is that it might make her life harder. Sometimes having a lesbian kid is harder than being the lesbian kid. While people in my generation can be cruel and intolerant of such things—people in her generation can be far worse. While I know she’ll defend me to the end of the world if it came down to it, I cannot fathom her having to do so, even if it will be a reality eventually. Hiding such a big part of me from my mother, however, is something I cannot do forever. I contemplate telling her about the smile that lit up my day—that made me think this move wouldn’t be so bad and perhaps my year is looking better than the last three had. That would be preposterous, though, wouldn’t it? Basing all my happiness on a girl just because she was nice to me and smiled at me (no matter how that smile made me squirm). I push down the urge to tell my mother, it’s far too soon. I’ll stick to the plan. I’ll tell her when I have a good reason.

“Sadly, mother, you’ll have to live in squalor for a while longer. I have not yet procured our Sugar Daddy.”

“Well, damn, I thought I trained you better. My failed protégée. We’ll need to work harder. Clearly you’re not smooth enough yet. Lessons to begin again at once!”

She declared this with a grin upon her face. I couldn’t help but recall how my confidence and swagger failed me today with Waverly. Perhaps I did need those lessons. I toss an over exaggerated exasperated sigh at my mother.

“Fineeeeeeee.. I’m all yours after I finish this paper for SheDevil.”

“What could you possibly have to write about after one lesson?”

“About who I am as a person and as a learner.”

I shrug and toss my mother a completely flummoxed look.

“Maybe you can write that you only learn if you’re allowed to play with toys like in preschool. Tell her you can only memorize poetry whilst yo-yoing. I am sure she’ll take you very seriously as a scholar.”

“Well, I am definitely not a serious scholar, mother. You saw my last report card. I am an utter failure of a human being. If only you hadn’t dropped me so often as a baby.”

“All those Cs! Nicole. You can do better. The only good C to have is a C-cup.”

“There was one C. The rest were As. I’m a freaking genius.”

“Yes, but the C was in a women’s studies elective, Nicole. You’re a woman. It shouldn’t be that hard.”

“Well…that class wasn’t exactly what I thought it would be about…Plus, I am a girl not yet a woman.”

“Okay, Britney. Simmer down. Now, let us get down to the nitty-gritty here. Since you’ve failed to hook a Sugar Daddy to make all our dreams come true, at least tell me you made a friend? Although, who could put up with you? I honestly do not know.”

I gently punch her shoulder and she smiles at me. I love moments like this with my mother.

“Well, there was a girl who threw her books violently against her locker and I thought to myself, ‘Damn, that’s the friend for me!’ so I went over and helped her pick them up. Woah Nelly was she aggressive. It’s like those books personally offended her. Turns out she’s in three of my classes, because she’s smarter than Einstein, so she’s in all the AP classes. I made a great connection, someone I can cheat off of to maintain those impossibly high grades you expect from me.”

“I am maybe rethinking the idea that all my hard work and training was lost on you. Good job, giraffe.”

It’s as if Waverly knew that she was being spoken about because just as my mother and I finished discussing her my phone pinged with a message from her.

“Guess who?”

“The Schwann’s Man? I sure hope so. I really want some cookie dough; to bake cookies, of course, not to eat the dough. Salmonella is bad.”

“Absolutely the Schwann’s Man. I’ll see about getting you that cookie dough, Salmonella Sally.”

“Waverly, it’s really rude to forget someone’s name mere hours after meeting them.”

“How did you know it was me?”

“You gave me your number, nerd.”

“Oh! Right. That…makes sense. That makes a lot of sense. For some reason I remember asking for your number but not trading numbers. But of course I would trade numbers so you would know it was me when I texted instead of being confused…like you probably are trying to follow this word vomit.”

“I think I can keep up with you and your word vomit, Waverly Earp. (;”

“….cole. Nicole. Snap out of it!”

“Wha-what? Oh! Sorry. Were you saying something?”

“Only that I am planning on becoming a stripper for some extra cash. No big deal.”

“Sounds good. Should make birthday shopping for you quite easy this year. A nice sparkly g-string should do the trick.”

“ Daughter. You know me so well! How do you know my underwear preference? Have you been snooping through the top drawer again?”

I must have taken too long to respond, wrapped up in the thought of Waverly’s musical voice and how I was looking forward to school in the morning.

“Well, since you’re off in LaLaLand, mind telling me what you want for dinner so I can get to it?”

“Pizza.”

“Dodged a bullet there, I thought you were going to make me cook. I was very worried about it.”

“Oh, never after the last time. You almost set the house on fire.”

“Correction, the oven almost set the house on fire. I had nothing to do with that evil robot appliance’s plans for world domination through arson. I’ll go order the pizza.”

With that my mother left the kitchen, leaving me to check my phone again which, thankfully, already had a reply from Waverly.

“I am not too worried about it. You seem smart enough. Anyways, any interest in proof reading my paper for Martin? I’ll return the favour.”

“Proof reading? As in you’ve already finished it? Are you a machine?”

“Yes, yes I am. I am a lean-mean writing machine. I wrote it during those “get to know you games” in History. I mean, I already know all our classmates, I don’t really need games to learn more about them.”

“You don’t know me.”

“I listened to yours, but all you said was ‘Hi, I’m Nicole. I like scarves, couches, pretty smiles, sandwiches without the crusts, and wet t-shirt competitions.”

“I thought it was a very deep and thorough assessment of my character.”

“You could have gotten detention on your first day!”

“Right. You obviously didn’t catch that Boreman (fitting name, by the way) was asleep. I could have said anything. Your concern for my detention status is endearing, though.”

“Time to stop texting me and work on your paper, I need something to proofread. Tomorrow after school work for you? We could maybe go to your house?”

“Already inviting yourself to my house, Waverly Earp? Don’t you think you’re moving a little fast?”

After several minutes without a reply from Waverly I was beginning to worry I had come on too strong. I was joking, after all, but I guess it could be seen in another manner. A slight panic set in and I shot Waverly another message.

“I’m kidding! Of course, I can drive you over from school if that works for you?”

“Sounds perfect, goodnight Haughtstuff.”

Never have I enjoyed my name being used in some ridiculous pun more. When my Mom walked back into the kitchen I had a full-blown idiotic dimpled grin plastered on my face.

“Good, Nicole, good. Show those dimples. I worked really hard chiseling those out. 8 months of work went just into those dimples. Appreciate them and use them to vanquish your enemies.”

“Well, I did just use them to convince the aforementioned very smart girl to proof read a paper I’ve not even written yet. So, guess I’d better hop to it. Holler when the pizza arrives?”

“Like a Mandrake Root.”

“I’d like to live to see my graduation so maybe you could tone it down?”

“You drive a hard bargain.”

She ruffles my hair, like she always does, and leaves to go watch some television in the living room. There’s no denying it, my first day in Purgatory was a great one. Tomorrow will probably be even better.

Chapter Text

“Waverly Earp!”

I called her down to my locker at the end of the day. She was carrying a backpack that looked as if a linebacker would have trouble lifting it, but it's heft didn’t seem to phase her. She walked my way with a smile on her face and a slight wave. We walked out towards the parking lot and ran ahead of her when we were nearing my car to open the passenger side door for her.

“My lady, your chariot awaits.”

I bowed my head slightly and moved my hand with a flourish, smiling as she softly laughed and climbed into my car. I checked that her person was safely within the vehicle; closed the door and ran around to the other side. We drove ten our of the fifteen minutes to my house in a comfortable silence. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I could say much if I tried. I was so ridiculously nervous being in a small space with Waverly. Not to mention soon she would be in my house, probably see my bedroom. Waverly Earp, the prettiest girl I’d ever seen in my bedroom…the thought was just about enough to make me feel as if I was floating off the ground with no discernible anchor. I suppose this feeling made sense, after all, isn’t that exactly what I was doing? I was certainly allowing myself to feel far too much for someone in such a short amount of time with almost no information. I knew nothing about Waverly except that she was obviously smart, caring and kind. I made it my mission to learn more about this mysterious enigma that is Waverly. Considering I had already edited my paper myself and I wasn’t concerned that her paper would require much editing—we should have time to talk and hang out. I was not about to give her an unedited paper, after all. I would hate for her to think I am some imbecile. I am perfectly capable of embarrassing myself and certainly didn’t need a paper to do it for me. The silence must have gotten to Waverly because she finally broke it.

“Your car is…very clean.”

She laughs softly. I think it’s the most wonderful melody in the world. I can’t help the knowing smile that comes across my face. I know exactly what she is too nice to say.

“You can say it, it’s a piece of crap.”

“But, it’s a very clean piece of crap. Just out of general curiosity, however, and absolutely no worry whatsoever…do you think the floorboard will give out beneath me? I think I wouldn’t look so great with road rash.”

“I bet you’d still look…”

I look over and meet her eyes and the sarcastic comment I was going to say dies on my lips.

“B-beautiful.”

I can feel the blush creeping across my chest and face. I want so desperately to look down, but I have to keep my eyes on the road. My brain is grasping at ways to remove the sudden awkwardness from the car.

“Plus, you know, I’d save you before you ended up on the road.”

I flex my arm at her, trying for my best Rosie the Riveter look and grin.

“Well…”

She raises her eyebrows at me, a mischievous grin gracing her features.

“I feel much safer now. Good to know if this…what the heck is this car anyways?”

“It’s a Ford Tempo; although the “Tem” fell off the back of the car. So now it’s a Ford POS. Yes, I added the S myself. It’s a sticker. I think these cars have been discontinued since 1994.”

“It looks like it’s been discontinued since 1994. What do you suppose the colour is supposed to be?”

“Woahla! Be kind or it will eject you from your seat. The POS has feelings, too, you know? As to the colour, I haven't the vaguest idea. Sea-foam green? A failed attempt at turquoise? It's a mystery.”

Out of the corner of my eye I catch Waverly petting the dashboard gently.

“There, there, sea-foam green POS, don’t worry I am sure you were lovely back in your day.”

She tosses me a wink. Did my heart just stutter in my chest?

“I am sure it wasn’t, actually.”

I reply, trying to keep my tone mild but confident. The exact opposite of how I feel following that wink.

“No, probably not. Don’t tell POS I said that, though. I don’t want to be violently ejected.”

“Your secret is safe with me, Waverly Earp.”

We pull into the driveway of my house and exit the car. As we’re stepping through the front door I realize, too late, I should have warned Waverly about my mother and her antics. She’s dancing in the kitchen, music so loud she surely did not hear the door open. While she’s dancing, she’s pouring some cheese puffs into a bowl. I sneak up behind her, grab her sides and shout,

“HELLO DANCING QUEEN!”

She is so startled she flings the bowl of cheese puffs into the air and they fly all over our kitchen.

She turns around, startled, and punches me gently in the shoulder.

“Heavens to Betsy, Nicole Haught, what the hell are you doing home so early? I paid that Principal off to keep you in detention for at least two hours after school.”

“Guess he must not have found any reason to detain me. I was a perfect angel, today. Didn’t want to blow my proof reading session, after all.”

“I find it really hard to believe that you were a perfect angel.”

“Okay, okay. So I just didn’t get caught. Mom, this is Waverly Earp. Waverly, this is my mother. You can call her Nicole’s Mother. She’s not allowed to have a real name.”

I wink at her and she’s smiling a brilliant smile at my mother as she extends her hand in greeting.

“Hi there, Nicole’s Mother, it’s nice to meet you.”

“Likewise, small Einstein.”

Waverly’s brilliant smile morphs into one that resembles more of a confused smile, her eyebrows drawing together. She turns to me and raises one of them, silently asking why my mother called her that.

“Ah, yes, I told my mother you are really smart and you were going to come over and whip my paper into shape so I don’t fail AP English.”

“Nicole writes like a two year old, you know.”

My mother interjects.

“Yeah, I learned from her.”

I made my hands into two hand-guns and shook them in the direction of my mother.

“She also learned her quick wit from me, though. Really, what will be more important in ten years an awesome wit and personality or the ability to write about who you are?”

“Probably the writing, Mom…It might get me into less trouble.”

“Huh, well, fine. Be that way then. Anyways, Waverly, I was going to offer you and the creature who brought you here some cheese puffs, but alas, now they are an added decoration to my kitchen floor so I guess you’re out of luck.”

“Oh, that’s alright!” Waverly beams brightly. “Thank you anyways, Ms. Haught.”

“Waverly, if you want to go to the kitchen table over there I’ll be right over, just going to clean up these cheese puffs and meet you in a moment.”

“I can help.”

Waverly bends down and starts collecting cheese puffs.

“Nonsense, dear, this is what I pay Nicole absolutely no money for. I also don’t make her friends start cleaning my house until their second visit over. So prepare yourself for next time, that is, if you can handle Nicole again.”

Waverly throws the three or four cheese puffs she’s collected into the trash can beside her before she looks up again at my mother.

“I am not too worried, cleaning isn’t so bad and Nicole seems far better than that. I mean of course she’s better than cleaning. Uh, she’s cool. I like…her. She’s nice. I’m…. going to go to the table now.”

The blush that touches her cheeks at the end of her ramble is very endearing. When she walks, quite briskly I might add, out of the room my mother looks down at me as I diligently clean up the cheese puffs.

“She’s cute!”

She tosses me two thumbs up and walks out of the kitchen, leaving me with a face that is on fire.

Chapter Text

“Your paper is top shelf. I love being a critical jerkwad sometimes, but I can’t even figure out one thing to falsely complain about. You’ve ruined the whole night for me with your perfection.”

I chide Waverly with a teasing smile on my lips whilst handing her paper back to her.

“Well, I couldn’t find anything wrong with your paper, either. So we’re even. I was hoping it would need a ton of work so I had a reason to stay out longer.”

She smiles at the end of her words, but it doesn’t touch her eyes. Her eyes seem…sad and her body language is suddenly rigid. In an instant she transforms from the carefree girl I’ve come to recognize as Waverly in our very short time together to something altogether different. I reach my hand out and gently put it on top of her arm, smiling softly to reassure her that I mean what I am about to say.

“Hey…you don’t need a reason to stay, you know? You can stay as long as you’d like. Stay for dinner? I think we’re having Chinese. My mother isn’t allowed to use the kitchen because I don’t want you to die in a house fire.”

From the other room the booming voice of my mother can be heard clearly.

“Hey, I heard that!”

“You were supposed to!”

Waverly’s shoulders visibly relax and the smile finally reaches her eyes.

“Thanks. I’d really like that I just…don’t want to go home yet.”

She finishes the sentence softly and I see the sadness settle over her again. I find myself very worried about what could make this wonderful person not feel at peace in her own home. I already feel so protective over her because her sad smile stirred something in me I have yet to identify. I wanted to know what is so bad about her house, but I would never pry. She can tell me in her own time, when she feels comfortable with me. Furthermore, I certainly do not want to prolong the sadness that has washed over her so discernably.

“Hey, do you like video games?”

I wince, uncertain. It was the first thing I could think of.

“I haven’t really played them much, to be honest, I am much more of a book nerd. I do like puzzle games…like those Lara Croft games. Those are really fun. Old tombs, puzzles, ancient things; they’re really interesting.”

“Yeah, the Tomb Raider games are great. Lara Croft is…lovely.”

It’s the polygons, to be honest.

“However, I was thinking maybe we could play a co-op game together. How do you think your aim is against zombies?”

“Really great if I get a flamethrower!”

Her face lights up at this and if it isn’t the cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen I don’t know what is.

“We’ll, um, have to go upstairs to my bedroom. I hope that’s okay with you?”

I was suddenly so ridiculously nervous about having her in my bedroom. My mouth was dry and my hands were shaking a little. It was really hard to portray of air of confidence when I was so nervous, but I had to try; swagger, don’t fail me now! It’s not that I thought anything would happen. That was the furthest thing from my mind. Yet, one can learn so much about a person from seeing their bedroom. What if she doesn’t like what she sees? I may never be able to have a relationship with her the way I know I want, but I’d like to at least have her in my life as a friend.

“Sure, sounds good.”

“Great. Should be fun. Mom! We’re going upstairs.”

“Okay, no hanky panky you two.”

She chuckles.

“And by hanky panky I mean no playing that ridiculous game. Oh what was it? Leisure Suit Harry?”

“It was Leisure Suit Larry, Mom, and you know that stupid game wasn’t my idea it was Christopher’s. It’s haunted me ever since.’

“Sure Nicole, I totally believe you.”

I hear the sarcasm in her voice and decide to leave this ludicrous conversation here.

“Alright, byeeeeee mother. Call us for food?”

“No, I am going to let you starve. It’s my new parenting method. See how much you’ll do for me to get a morsel of food. We’ll begin tonight. Sorry, Waverly!”

Waverly actually burst into laughter. I had yet to hear her laugh so heartily. A huge grin plastered her face.

“I really like your Mom.”

“Not me. Can’t stand the woman, would ship her off to Boston if I could.”

I wink at Waverly and focus on the rest of the climb up the stairs. At the top of the stairs we turn left, where the hallway ends with my bedroom. I open the door nervously and let her enter before me. I see her eyes appraising the room, but not judgmentally, so I relax.

“You don’t have any pictures from your last school?”

“I didn’t leave anything behind there that I’ll miss.”

“Mmm, I’m sorry to hear that.”

She sounds sorry. Her voice is low and her eyes are downcast. Somehow even though I know she’s lived here her whole life I feel like she understands my statement more than I could possibly imagine.

“It’s okay.”

“Why did you and your mother move here?”

“Actually, I am not entirely sure. She just decided it was time for a change. I couldn’t really disagree. So she began to apply for jobs all over and landed one here. So here we are.”

“I’m glad you ended up here.”

It was spoken barely above a whisper. Was I just imagining it or had she actually said it? Not knowing how to respond, as I wasn’t sure she had said anything, I smiled at her and went over to set up my PS3.

“I only have this one chair here, which I will give you happily and I can sit on the floor. Or we can sit on the bed, if you’d prefer.”

“It doesn’t matter, the bed is fine! Now, how the heck do I play this game? Also, please explain to me who is the Resident Evil and why there are 5 of them? I need to know the lore behind this so I can feel justified killing these zombies.”

“Nerd.”

I smile, good-naturedly at her, and hand her a controller. When our hands graze one another’s I feel a jolt up my arm. It takes me a moment to realize I need to release the controller to her grasp. I do so, taking a breath to steady myself, and fill her in regarding the lore of the games and what the controls are.

“Well to be honest Biohazard seems like a more fitting name. I hope this stuff doesn’t end up in our water supply. Sheesh.”

Waverly lets out a sigh; as if she’s actually worried we’re going to become zombies by drinking the water. I’m pretty sure we’d probably be just fine here as long as she was here to figure out how to solve the problem.

“I think we’re probably safe, but if we become zombies I’ll eat your brain first, Waverly, because it will be the biggest and smartest one I’ll ever find so I’ll become the super zombie.”

“Why thank you, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“As you should.”

I start up the game and we play together for about an hour before my mother calls us down for dinner.

“I liked that game! I was really good at it. I am sad I didn’t get a flamethrower, but the shotgun is the best. I think if I were a gun-toting girl I’d use a shotgun. They’re beastly.”

“Yes, they are. I think you’d look mighty fine with your shotgun, Waverly Earp.”

“Yeah, you do?”

She smiles so brightly it could eclipse the sun.

“Me, too.”

She finishes her statement enthusiastically and we head down to dinner because my mother is threatening to eat all the fried rice and I just can’t have that.

“How was your game, girls? Did she trick you into playing Leisure Suit Harry with her, Waverly? If so, I am so sorry. I should have raised her better.”

“No! It isn’t even Harry it’s Larry!”

I stated, exasperation lacing my tone.

“It should be Harry. It makes it sound far more despicable.”

My mother grins widely at me; she knows she’s winning this squabble. I don’t think there’s anything on Earth that brings her more glee than that.

“Actually we played Resident Evil 5. I learned I really like shooting evil things with a shotgun.”

Waverly is so proud of herself. It’s great to see the sadness that fell over her earlier dissipate so completely.

“Well, who doesn’t? Here, dear, have some fried rice before this one gets ahold of it.”

She tosses an accusatory nod my way.

“Or you won’t get any at all. She’s an addict. I am thinking I might need to schedule an intervention.”

I smile sheepishly and shrug my shoulders at Waverly. She scoops a small portion onto her plate and hands the container to me, smiling.

“There are worse things to be addicted to.”

There it is, that sadness again; the smile that doesn’t touch her downcast eyes. It’s brief, but I catch it. I wonder if some sort of addict ruins her home life and that’s why she doesn’t want to go home.

Dinner is spent with my mother amicably asking Waverly questions about her life and interests. It makes me really happy that my mother seems to like her so much. Talking to my mother has also seemed to elevate Waverly’s spirits once again and I am certainly thankful for that. It’s nice to simply get to sit back and watch her quietly as she interacts with another person. Not in a stalker, way, of course, but sometimes it’s easier to learn about people by watching them as they interact with another person rather than directly with you.

After dinner is finished and cleaned up my mother asks Waverly if she’d like to stay and watch some TV.

She sits very close to me on the couch. I can smell the scent of her honey shampoo. I see the rise and fall of her chest. To be honest, I have no idea what was happening on the TV the entire time. She glances over to me when the program is over and displays another sad smile. I cannot help but match her sad half-smile because I know this night is about to end.

“I’d better get Waverly home, Mom. It’s getting late.”

“Thanks so much for letting me come over and study and hang out with Nicole, Ms. Haught. Oh, and for dinner! Even if I hardly got any fried rice.”

“I warned you!”

My mother smiles happily at her.

“Come back any time, I mean it. It was lovely to meet you.”

Waverly surprises her by giving her a hug.

“Thank you.”

It comes out almost as a whisper; the smile gracing her face is light and genuine though.

“Now, Nicole don’t you go drivin’ like a rodeo clown and get this poor girl in an accident. She’s not too horrible to be around and she makes you more bearable so try not to get her killed.”

My mother wags her eyebrows and waves goodbye as we head towards the door.

“Don’t worry, Mom. I’ll make sure to keep your new best friend perfectly safe.”

“Praise Athena for that! See you soon, giraffe.”

I open the car door for Waverly again.

“Chivalry isn’t dead!”

“My mother would be very disappointed in me if I wasn’t respectful and open the door to my POS for you.”

“I’ll be sure to let her know you were perfectly well-mannered.”

“Thanks!”

I laugh.

“She’ll probably never believe you though.”

Waverly grabs my hand on the gearshift gently and briefly. I have to swallow hard to force the nervous lump in my throat down.

“Yeah, she seems like a skeptic, but I’ll make sure to show her she raised you right.”

I beam under the praise. I’ve never been one to seek praise, always relying on my on confidence to guide me and also keep me even-keeled against negativity that can sometimes enter from various sources. Yet I seemed to crave this girl’s compliments and praise.

The rest of the drive was quiet, the silence only interrupted when Waverly needed to tell me directions. We finally turned into the drive of her family’s homestead and pulled to a stop. Waverly heaved an audible sigh, about to say something when a bottle crashed on the hood of my car. I looked out the window, straining my eyes against the dark to see who had thrown it. I could just make out the silhouette on the porch under a dim yellow bulb. It must be Waverly’s father. My first thought was for Waverly’s safety.

“Nic-Nicole I am so sorry.”

She seemed embarrassed, of course, but scared. It broke me a little to see the fear in her eyes.

“Nonsense, it wasn’t you. Come home with me? I don’t want you going in there.”

“I…I couldn’t possibly impose. I don’t even have a change of clothes.”

“You wouldn’t be imposing. How could you rightfully tell my mother she raised me right if I let you go home to…that.”

I gestured towards the porch, where her father was now drunkenly yelling things at us.

“Are you sure it’s okay?”

“I’m positive. Come home with me, I need to know you’re safe. I promise I’ll wash your clothes myself and loan you a fresh shirt for tomorrow. Please, come?”

The sound of my own voice startled me a bit; I was pleading with her and almost sounded desperate. I couldn’t bear the thought of this beautiful, kind and caring girl walking into that. Although I am positive she’s done it hundreds of times before. I would give anything to protect her.

I grabbed her hand, squeezing it gently, and rested our joined hands on her thigh.

“Please?”

“That would be…great. Thank you, and I am so sorry you had to witness this.”

I back us out of the driveway and get the car a good ways down the road before I reply.

“You don’t ever have to apologize to me for that, do you understand? You can stay over any time you need to or you want to. Anytime you feel unsafe, just come to me. My mother is so ridiculous she’ll cheer you right up, after all.

I smile gently at and give her and a light squeeze before continuing.

“Look, Waverly, I know we just met each other but you’ll always have a friend in me and I promise I’ll eternally try my best to make you feel safe as well as to keep you safe. Don’t ever hesitate to leave that place and come over.”

I could see tears welling up in her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall. More than anything, I admired this girl’s strength and her kindness in the face of adversity. I don’t think she even realizes how wonderful she is, but I do. I knew it the first time I spoke to her, which seemed like years ago now but it was only yesterday. I would do exactly what I said I would do, my absolute best to keep her safe and make her feel safe. However, I would also try to make her see that she is a wonderful person and she deserves much better than a drunken father who clearly doesn’t understand her brilliance.

“I am really glad you moved here, Nicole.”

“Yeah? That makes two of us.”

Her hand didn’t leave mine the entire way back to my house.

Chapter Text

We walked in the front door to my house. Waverly looks absolutely drained and exhausted. She unceremoniously drops her heavy bag at her feet.

“Hey,”

I offer gently.

“Why don’t you go upstairs? I’ll meet you in my room. I just need to talk to my Mom really quickly, okay? Then I’ll get you all set up for a shower.”

“Sure, thanks. A shower would be great.”

“Don’t worry about your bag, I’ll bring it up with me. You look far too tired to lug that boulder around.”

“Thanks, Nicole.”

She flashes me a sleepy smile and passes me, leaving the small entrance atrium to head up the stairs directly to the left of her. I make my way by the stairs, following the hallway to the living room where I find my mother.

“Hey you, get Waverly home safe and sound?”

“Actually, she’s here.”

I sit down flush up against my mother on the couch.

“I couldn’t let her…Mom, I couldn’t let her go into that house. Her father was absolutely wasted. He threw a bottle at my car and he was screaming at us. It scares me that she probably has to return home to that often. She didn’t seem at all surprised by his actions, she just seemed…”

I hesitate, trying to find the correct words. My mother’s face softens watching me struggle to collect my thoughts.

“I don’t know, Mom, she seemed resigned. As if maybe she thought this is what she deserved or this was what her life was supposed to be like. Can she not see she deserves much better than the fear I saw in her eyes when he threw the bottle? Or the embarrassment she experienced because a new friend had to witness that scene just by bringing her to her own home? I don’t…how can I not worry now every time she has to go home? I wish there was some way I could protect her…I just…”

I sag against my mother and she wraps me in a hug. When she speaks, her voice is calm and quiet—her usually teasing tone completely vacant.

“Honey, I understand. You’re a protector, you always have been. You need to remember, however, that Waverly is a strong girl. She has to be to be the person she’s shown us in such a short amount of time despite that type of home life. I know you worry, love, but I am sure she can hold her own. She can come here anytime she needs to, you know that, right?”

“Of course I do…I…I already told her as much. My problem is that she has to go back there, ever. What if he…what if he hits her?”

My mind is racing, seized with uneasiness. Logically I know that I don’t have enough information. Maybe he just yells and throws things at strangers and leaves her alone to her room when he’s like this. It’s the fright I saw in her eyes I cannot shake from my mind. She’s a resilient person, of course, but resiliency can only carry one so far.

“Nicole, my best advice is to talk to her. Be her friend. Let her know she has a safe place she can always come to. Let her know it’s okay to contact authorities if it ever escalates. That decision has to be hers; you cannot simply contact them on a whim out of worry. If only it worked that way…”

Her voice trails off quietly. She squeezes me in a tighter embrace.

“You better check up on her. I’ll come up in a bit to say goodnight to both of you.”

“Thanks, Mom. It means a lot to me that you’re letting her stay here.”

“Of course, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

I smile at her, disengage from the hug and make my way towards my bedroom. I find Waverly sitting on my bed holding one of my pillows tightly. I smile softly at her and go to my dresser to pull her out some pajamas, plaid shorts and a white v-neck t-shirt. I grab her hand gently, indicating that she should follow me to the bathroom. She lets go of the pillow, despite seeming reluctant to do so, and follows.

“Okay, so I’ll set up the tap for you since it’s kind of tricky. When you’ve taken your clothes off just open the door a crack and toss them out. I’ll get them in the wash straight away.”

I grab a new-in-the-package toothbrush from a drawer under the bathroom counter and place it by the sink along with my toothpaste and hair brush.

“Don’t use the fancy French shampoo in there, my mother is insane and spends $80 a bottle on that stuff. She protects it like a kid protects a new toy. It’s best not to incur her wrath.”

Despite herself, Waverly’s face contorts into a smile.

“Oooh, I’d never want to do that. Seems dangerous.”

“Right you are! I did it once, but I laugh in the face of danger.”

I wink at her, watching as she draws her eyebrows together, clearly trying to place the reference. The realization dawns on her face and brings a fresh smile.

“Nicole Haught, did you just quote Simba at me?”

“You can’t prove anything.”

I say as I toss a fresh towel at her.

“Make sure to toss your clothes out when you’re um…”

Do not think about her naked. Do not think about her naked. Too late.

“Naked?”

She offers helpfully. I can hear the laugh dance on the outer edges of her tone, but she manages to stifle it.

“Yep, that’s the word. Thanks. I must be more tired than I thought…”

That’s it, Nicole. Pass the gay off as sleep deprivation. Win.

“Well, I’ll make this hot and steamy shower a quickie so you can get in and we can both go to sleep.”

Hot. Steamy. Quickie. Is she trying to kill me?

I clear my throat.

“Right uh, good. Awesome. I’m… dirty? I definitely need a shower. W-when you’re done. Not…right now, of course. Anyways! Enjoy. I’ll be right outside waiting for the clothes; Just…there on the other side of the door. So…have a good shower.”

“Nicole…”

My name spills from her lips, her tone a bit thicker than usual.

“You’re dirty?”

She’s teasing me; mischievous grin, sparkling eyes. Did I mention I’m in trouble?

“Yeah, totally forgot to shower for the last…week or so? I’m super gross.”

“Is that why your hair smells like cherry blossoms, then?”

“I rolled in them outside, no big deal.”

“Uh-huh, I see. You know it’s September, right? They’re not in bloom. Plus, you know, personal hygiene is kind of a big deal. You should keep up with it.”

“They are where I go. It’s a secret magical cherry blossom land. As to the personal hygiene issue, I’ll try harder from now on, I promise. I think it would be an accomplishment to get up to twice a week. Don’t you? It’s good to start small.”

“If you don’t stop babbling like that I am going to think you’ve turned into me.”

“Well, Waverly, my smooth one-liners tend to dissipate when I’m…”

Thinking about you in my shower.

“Really tired. I promise it won’t happen again.”

I grin confidently, dimples on sufficient display. The smile that plays at Waverly’s lips is genuine and her eyes brighten. I can’t help but feel a little proud that I was able to make her smile after she had an emotionally taxing hour or so. I step out and pull the door closed behind me. I lean up against the wall to the left of the door and let out a sigh.

You’ve got to pull yourself together. You cannot become so unhinged every time you’re around her. Keep your head down, get through these ten months. Don’t let this place become a repeat of the last.

Somehow I knew, though, that her smile would always unhinge me and that her laugh would always demand a return laugh from me.

Shit.

A moment later the door creaks open and clothes come flying out all over the floor.

“Thanks for washing them!”

Yep. She’s naked. So that…happened.

The door shuts again and I gather up Waverly’s clothes, rushing them down to the washing machine. The wash would only take about 30 minutes, so I would be able to get them in the dryer before bed easily.

I finish loading up the washer with Waverly’s clothes as well as my small amount of dirty laundry and pop into the living room to talk to my mother again.

“Hey, Mom, I just put Waverly’s clothes from today into the wash so she has fresh underwear and jeans she can fit into—I’ll loan her a t-shirt tomorrow so she isn’t wearing the same shirt to school. I was wondering, if I miss the buzzer, could you possibly throw the load into the dryer, pretty please?”

I draw the “please” out with an annoyingly squeaky tone.

“Ugh, yes, only if you never made that awful noise again. What was that even? You sounded like a dying animal. Also, side note, imagining petite little Waverly in your jeans is hilarious. Your shirt might be a dress on her, Nicole.”

She laughs whole-heartedly.

“Like a pony in a giraffe’s clothing.”

She laughs even harder. She’s actually clutching at her stomach. I roll my eyes at her, but I can’t help but smile.

“I’ll take that as a yes, then? You wouldn’t want Waverly going to school in a complete set of clothes that’s so large on her she trips, would you?”

I smile sweetly at her.

“Fine, but not because I want to help you out. I just don’t want Waverly to have to deal with the embarrassment of being in your quite large and out of fashion clothes.”

“Well, if only I had a mother that bought me better clothes. Friendly reminder that everything I do wrong reflects poorly on you.”

She narrows her eyes at me.

“If you weren’t my greatest accomplishment I’d tell you were my favourite failure.”

“Aw, shucks! Thanks, Mom. I’d be happy to be your favourite failure.”

“Consider it done.”

“Well, person clearly going for nicest mother of the year award, I’d better get back upstairs to get Waverly settled. I imagine she’ll be out of the shower soon.”

“Sounds good. How’s she doing by the way?”

“Better, it seems. She was laughing and smiling before she got into the shower.”

“Probably at your face, giraffe.”

“Probably, but who can blame her?”

I toss my mother a dimpled grin and a slight wave then jog away to head back upstairs. As I pass the bathroom door to go to my room I can hear the shower shut off. Waverly pads into my room a few minutes later. I can’t help but chuckle a little. My pajama shorts are more like pajama capris on her.

“Did you enjoy your time in secret magical cherry blossom land?”

“You’re laughing about the shorts, aren’t you? Whatever, I look awesome in them and you’re just jealous. Secret magical cherry blossom land was great, thanks.”

“100% true. So, hey, the bed is all yours, of course. Make yourself at home. I can either sleep on the floor if you’d prefer me in here or I can sleep downstairs on the couch. Whatever makes you more comfortable.”

“Don’t be silly, there’s plenty of room for both of us on the bed, Nicole, you have a Queen sized bed.”

“Oh. Okay. Yeah. Sure, if that’s what you want. I’ll be back in after my shower.”

As I grab my fresh clothes all I am thinking is:

Holy shit I am going to share a bed with Waverly Earp. Waverly will be in my bed. My bed. I am not okay.

I shower quickly, very quickly and complete my nightly hygiene routine just as hastily. I walk back into my room to find Waverly already tucked under my covers, reading a book from her bag.

I swallow hard and make my way towards the bed climbing into the spot Waverly left open.

“I didn’t know what side of the bed you usually slept on, but I uh, didn’t want to get in the way so I took the side by the wall but if you prefer the wall side we can switch! I didn’t mean to assume that you…”

“Waverly.”

I interrupt her, placing my hand on her arm briefly.

“It’s okay, you’re fine. You can sleep on whatever side you want.”

“You-you’re sure?”

She seemed so unsure of herself, a nervous energy swirling around her. It was so unlike the Waverly I’d seen so far. Yes, she gets caught up in rambles but, usually ,it seems the rambles were spurred by excitement over the topic or a slight embarrassment that she had gotten so wrapped up in something she thought that maybe the other person didn’t share an interest in. Luckily for her, she needn’t worry that I wouldn’t be interested in what she was saying—I could listen to her talk forever.

“I’m positive.”

I smile at her and am delighted to see her return smile light up her features. I can hear my Mom coming down the hallway to say goodnight.
“You gals decent in there? No pornography shoot I should be aware of?”

“Nah, just finished that, we’re going to be porn superstars in no time. Come on in.”

“I expect checks for discovering you.”

“I’ll definitely work that into the contract, Mom.”

She comes over to the bed and leans over me to kiss Waverly on the forehead.

“Goodnight, doll.”

“Night. Thanks so much, again, for letting me stay here.”

“Anytime. And goodnight to you, giraffe.”

“Goodnight, Calamity Jane. Don’t stay up too late causin’ trouble.”

“I would never.”

She winks and walks out of the room, closing the door and shutting the light off as she exits. Waverly rolls on her side to face me.

“Why does your Mom call you 'giraffe'?”

“When I was a baby, my nursery was decorated with giraffes. I had a stuffed giraffe I carried around with me everywhere I went. My first word was 'giraffe' when I was distressed because I dropped him and couldn’t reach him. Of course, I didn’t actually manage to say giraffe it was more like… ‘grrr-aff’, but I digress. So she’s called me that since I was a baby.”

“Well, it’s official, that’s the cutest story I’ve ever heard.”

I blush under her stare.

“So it’s just a bonus that you’re tall now?”

“A happy coincidence, it would seem.”

“She comes in here every night to say goodnight to you?”

“Every night, yep.”

With downcast eyes and a sad smile Waverly softly says,

“I wish I had that.”

My heart breaks for her.

“I’ll share! Do you want a weirdo in your life?

“ I think I’d like two.”

“Hey now!”

Her sad smile morphs into her signature beautiful smile.

“I see what you did there. Two it is, then.”

“Great. I’m glad. Goodnight, Nicole”

Her voice is barely above a whisper, and as she moves her body closer to mine heating rolling off her to graze my skin, yet she is not close enough for our skin to touch. Her breathing begins to slow and becomes steady—she’s already in the early clutches of sleep.

“Goodnight. Sweet dreams.”

I say tenderly, pulling the comforter up to her chin and swiping my hand across her cheek to remove a stray bit of hair that has fallen there.

I didn’t think I’d be getting much sleep this night.

Chapter Text

I awake with the sun shining through the curtains, which briefly startles me because I usually fully close my blackout curtains before going to bed. As lovely as the morning sunshine is, it does not need to sear my retinas at 06:45. When the haze of sleep lifts a bit, I tilt my head down and notice that Waverly Earp is in my bed. She is facing me and my arm is slung over her hip, my hand placed gently on the dimples of her lower back. As startling as these things were, they were not the icing on the cake this morning. I’m chilly. Why? Waverly has cocooned herself in all of the blankets on my bed. Somehow the only skin showing is the small sliver of her back that my hand is on, her neck, and her face. She looks strangely like the cutest enchilada you’ve ever seen. There is one part of my body that feels like it was absolutely on fire, however. My eyes trail down my body and I notice that Waverly’s arm is up my shirt. I guess I mistook the amount of Waverly’s body that has slipped through the cracks between the layers of covers. Fun fact, do you know what arms tend to end with? Hands! Yep, hands. Hands. Or, in this case, hand. Just singular, not plural. A nice hand, even. It is on my chest. Just, right there, right there on my chest. Probably searing a handprint that will last there forever. Maybe I don’t mind. I lie there for a moment, completely unable to move. Waverly doesn’t seem to be experiencing the same paralysis as me. She shifts. Guess what happens when someone shifts? Oh, that’s right their appendages move. So her’s shift. Specifically her hand. Not much, but just enough. Just enough to create a strangled moan in my throat. Strangled, specifically, because I try so hard to keep it from rising. Yet rise it does, and its release I cannot stop. It tumbles out my mouth, low and choked. Apparently not low enough to keep Waverly in her reverie, though. She stirs even more, her hand shifting. My teeth biting my lower lip.

A small well of panic begins to form into the pit of my stomach. I have to get her hand out from under my shirt before she fully awakes. How terribly awkward would that be? So, so awkward. So…okay. Need to form a plan. I extract my arm from the small of her back. Okay, step one. All done. I begin slowly wiggling my entire body down to slip her hand out from under my shirt. I need to screw my level head back on right now. I close my eyes for a moment to prepare myself for the loss of contact, reach under my own shirt and take Waverly’s arm as gently as possible. I begin to slowly slide it down my torso to remove it from my shirt when I hear Waverly. Holy…holy shit.

“Nicole?”

“Mmmhm, uh, good morning.”

“Nicole, I hate to alarm you but it appears my hand is up your shirt.”

“I, um…”

I clear my throat. My mind is so muddled because she hasn’t moved her hand yet. Why wasn’t she moving her hand? It was derailing my entire brain despite my desperate attempts to make the damn thing work.

“…hadn’t realized.”

Biggest lie of the century.

“I should probably move it, huh?”

Her voice is so sleepy and adorable, almost ethereal. It comes out as a breathy whisper. Which, of course, bats any composure I’d built up right out of the park.

“But you’re so warm.”

At that, I had to laugh.

“Waverly, you stole every bit of comforter, sheet and blanket on my bed. Also, you leeched me for body heat. How can you possibly be cold?”

“It’s a secret petite talent of all short people. Don’t let it slip to anyone, it’s confidential.”

“Ah, well, in that case be my guest. Take all the body heat you need. Your secret is safe with me.”

Her grin is lopsided and her eyes are laden with sleep. She starts to doze off again, hand still firmly up my shirt.

“Wave…we have to get up. You know that prison we go to 8 hours a day…well…I’d hate to bring you late. What will everyone think if I bring you, the goody-two-shoes, in late? They’ll think I am a horrible influence!”

“Well, let them talk, I’m warm and comfy.”

She’s warm, and comfy…pressed up against me. With her hand up my shirt.

Shit. I’m in trouble.

“Well, if you don’t get up I fear my mother will come with pots and pans. She might even crank up the A/C to freeze us out of the room, so we’d probably better get up.”

“Are you sure it’s time to get up?”

She’s pouting, actually pouting. Is there anything this girl does that I won’t find endearing?

“Pretty sure, yep.”

“That’s super unfortunate.”

I laugh, quite heartily.

“Waverly Earp, you told me you were a morning person.”

A grin spreads slowly and sloppily across her face.

“Not this morning.”

Not this morning.

She leans in to brush a stray hair off my face and her hand lingers for a moment too long before she draws it back, a sigh brushing past her lips.

As I look into her eyes there is something in the depths I hadn’t seen there before. Could it be that she is in as much trouble as me? It seems odd, of course. We haven’t known each other but 24 hours now. My mother always told me, though, that sometimes chemistry bubbles in a beaker and blows up in your face when you least expect it. Not too eloquent, of course, but that’s not exactly our style. I never understood it before, I thought she just meant two people could be chemicals that don’t mix well and blow up. I’d seen that happen. Shouldn’t people be two chemicals that mix well and create a good solution? Isn’t that better? Right in this moment, with Waverly pressed against me, that look in her eyes…I finally understand what my Mom meant. Chemistry is an explosion, it causes sparks and I feel them crackling along my skin where Waverly is fused against my side.

“You have a scar?”

“Huh, what?”

I scrunch my eyebrows together, confusion washing over my face was Waverly’s voice drags me out of my thoughts.

“On your face, you have a scar.”

She gently runs her finger along the length of the scar, which starts close to the edge of my face by my eye, and jumps a bit to streak for a short while diagonally near my cheek, and I can’t help myself, my face leans into her hand.

“Yep, I’ve had it as long as I can…remember.”

My voice trails off and my eyes drop down as I recall how I received this particular scar.

“How’d you get it?

I was hoping she wouldn’t ask, but of course she would. Waverly’s inquisitive and caring. She wants to know more about me.

“Oh, you know, my Mom’s clumsy she…well, she dropped me on my head a lot as a kid. That’s why I am the way I am.”

I wink at her, trying to deter talk of this subject from continuing. I’m hoping she doesn’t realize I just lied to her. Not out of malice, of course. I didn’t want to remind her of last night, and this story was quite similar.
I hope my smile is reassuring. My mother always told me my dimples could get me out of anything. Hopefully she would buy the lie that I already felt guilty for peddling. When I catch Waverly’s eyes again, they’re on my lips. My tongue darts out to wet my lips and I bite my lower lip nervously.

Shit.

Chapter Text

“W-Waverly…if you don’t stop looking at me like that I’ll probably do something we’re both going to regret.”

“Like what?”

She breathes it out, barely audible. Her breath tickles my face we’re so close.

“Why are you…why are you looking at me like that?”

I’m trying to give her an out. I desperately want to kiss the lips she has slightly pursed.

“Nicole, why did you leave your other school? Why are there no pictures of people from your old school? You’re too great to not have had any friends.”

She says the last bit so quietly I can barely hear it. Did I imagine it? I seem to feel I imagine most things she says. I chew nervously on the inside of my cheek. Should I tell her the truth? I’ve never been very good at lying, the guilt always eats at me until I blurt the truth out ten seconds after the lie I’ve tried to spin it. It’s always a disaster.

“My friends pressured me into going to a dance with this guy. He tried to kiss me, I denied him. He spread a nasty rumour that I wasn’t into guys and that’s why I wouldn’t kiss him. Everyone believed him, nobody cared to hear my side.”

“Your side? Why didn’t you just deny it?”

“I’ve never been good at lying.”

I turn my face away from her's, terrified to see her reaction. I've known her one day and I've told her something I've never even said aloud to myself.

“You’ve never…”

The realization dawns on her, and her face shifts from confused to something I can't quite place. I’m holding my breath, so worried she’s going to freak out. So worried she’s going to leave me like all my other friends did.

“Nicole…”

Please, please, please don’t leave me.

“Yes?”

“Have you ever met someone and immediately felt as if you’ve known them forever?”

My face screws in confusion. Sometimes Waverly’s segues were hard to follow, but I would always try. Always.

“Y-yes…?”

“Plato once wrote in his Symposium that humans were born connected, two humans created one with four feet, four hands, one head and two faces. Zeus feared the power of humans. He concocted a plan to reduce their power. He decided that if he split them in two, they would be half as powerful. Thus, the humans would be forced to spend an eternity trying to find their other half, the missing piece that would make them whole. Whether that other half be romantic or platonic. That’s how he described the existence of soulmates. Someone in your life you searched for because you were once connected to them. A…a spark. Someone you just…click with.”

“Do you believe in Plato’s theory, Waverly Earp?”

“I don’t know, I’ve always enjoyed reading Plato. I’ve always loved Greek Mythology. Which can pretty much be summed up as all the gods telling Zeus to not have sex with this person, that person, that swan, etc…but Zeus always thinking it’s a great idea...which…why? Why was it a great idea. He became King of the gods by killing his own father who became King by killing his father. Why, then, would Zeus want to create sons who could go on to usurp his power? It makes no sense…What a nymphomaniac. Except "nymphomaniac" is a term only used for women. How preposterous is that, honestly? Men should have a word, too because...

“Waverly.”

“Uh, yes?”

“As endearing as I find your babbling, and believe me I do find it adorable, do you have a point with this?”

“Yes, I…I have a point. It’s you. I think. I’ve never met anyone that I immediately thought “Oh, hey, I just met this person but I feel like I’ve known them for many lifetimes.”

“ Many lifetimes? Like a reincarnation thing?”

“Well, I am not sure I believe in that, entirely, but if it exists I know for certain I’ve known you in all my lifetimes.”

She’s looking at my lips again. My mind is totally derailed and when I finally manage to compose my thoughts enough to answer her, it is with a shaky voice.

“You…you do?”

“Yes, Nicole Haught, I’m certain of it. I actually had a dream about it last night.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah…”

She drawls the word at far longer than it needs to be and a blush creeps across her cheeks. She bows her head ever so slightly, staring down at our joined bodies. I chuckle at how adorable she’s being.

“Tell me?”

“Well, we lived in the Middle Ages. I was a princess and you were a knight. You had the shiniest armour but it was so weird because instead of a helmet you wore a white Stetson hat.”

My chuckle escalates into a full blown laugh and a grin stretches from ear to ear.

“A Stetson hat…in the Middle Ages?”

“Shut up!”

She swats me gently before continuing to tell me about her dream.

“Yes, a Stetson. Now hush up and listen, you.”

“My lips are sealed.”

I make the gesture of sealing my lips and throwing away the key.

“Anyways, I was in danger. There was an undead attack on our lands and one kidnapped me. You were the captain of the knights in the land. And as I was in the cell busting my butt to try to get out of there I knew you’d come for me. Not because you’d didn’t believe I could rescue myself, but because you would do anything to protect me. I was three fourths of the way to getting out of the cell when you showed up, just you. You explained that the rest of the knights went on another hunch, but you came to where I was. Only you. You were the only one who figured out where I was. As the doors to the dark dungeon opened, I saw your silhouette and I knew it was you automatically. Who else would it be? I sat in that dungeon thinking about all the lifetimes we'd been together in before, waiting for you. I think maybe I was always waiting for you. I guess that’s kind of how it feels now, meeting you, especially after last night. I never thanked you for last night, for bringing me here, for not freaking out.”

“Waverly...”

My voice is soft and, I hope, reassuring. I remove my hand from the small of her back to take her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze.

Anytime and always."

She smiles at me, bowing her head a bit before she looks up a tad sheepishly.

“You’re not totally weirded out by my dream?”

“Of course I’m not, because in a million lifetimes I’d always find a way to help you out. I know you don’t need rescuing, you’re too strong for that, but everyone needs someone to lean on sometimes. I’ll always be happy to be that person for you, you know?”

“Nicole…”

Her voice is so breathy and soft it sends shivers straight down my spine. I’m struggling to figure out a way to diffuse the tension between us. I glance at the alarm clock.

“Uh, Waverly?

“Yeah?”

“We’ve kind of…missed school.”

“Firetruck! Really?”

She tilts her head behind her to look at the clock.

“I thought you said your Mom would come up here with pots and pans and stuff to make sure we weren’t late!”

Her eyes are showing a slight panic, missing school seems to be a big deal for Waverly.

“Wave, it’s only one period. I can have you there by second period.”

I gently rub thumb against the back of her hand. She seems to melt into the touch. When she speaks, the panic in her voice is lost.

“Missing Martin’s class isn’t too big of a deal, I mean, our paper is already done and it’s not due yet so what could we miss, honestly?”

“Definitely not much, probably just more bandannas.”

“Yeah, she looked a little ridiculous.”

“A little?”

I smirk at Waverly’s attempt to be kind.

“Okay, maybe a lot.”

She returns my smile and before long I’m swallowing hard and trying not to stare down at her lips. All I want to do is kiss her. The idea is completely clouding my mind. I can’t kiss her, though, I can’t scare her away. With the way she’s looking at me, though, I almost wonder if the same thoughts aren’t running through her mind.

“Nicole..”

“Waverly?”

“What about if I tried to kiss you…would you deny me?”

The blush as stretched from her face down her neck, and a blush was suddenly burning hot on my own face.

“I…never. I would never deny you anything.”

I knew in that moment, right there lying in my bed with her that I never meant words more than I meant those.

Chapter Text

“Well, that’s good to know. You know. If it ever comes up, in the…future or something. I like, knowing things. Knowing things so I can plan…or not plan. Or avoid planning. If that’s necessary.”

Something in her eyes shifts. Where they were blazing with a brazen confidence mere moments ago, they now look unsteady and unsure. I lick my lower lip and suck it into my mouth, biting down on it gently to compose myself. I could swear it looked as if she was going to kiss me. My heart is absolutely thundering in my chest. I close my eyes for a moment, trying to pull myself together. I don’t want to sound disappointed when I speak.

“So you’re a planner, then?”

I breathe a sigh of relief, my tone reveals nothing of what is going on in my head. I loosen my grip on her, pulling away. If we want to make it to school in time for second period we’d better get a move on.

“Yeah, I’m a planner. I like to know what I’m doing at least two…or three days in advance.”

“Alright, I’ll keep that in mind.”

I smile at her, but I know it’s tense, and start to get up.

“Where are you going?”

“Well, you see, I heard this rumour that you actually like school and probably don’t want to miss the entire day.”

“Oh, right…school. I’d forgotten. That’s, smart….we should definitely get up and get ready for that joyous occasion.”

She sounds almost, I don’t know, disappointed? In any case, she follows suit and gets up off my bed.

“Oh, hey! Your clothes are downstairs. Let me just go grab those for you.”

I exit the room hastily, more hastily than I’d actually intended. I get to the middle of the stairwell and stop for a second, hoping a moment alone will clarify some things for me. My mind is so disquieted and disorderly. I feel like I am drifting out into the deep waters of the ocean without even so much as a life jacket after everything that had happened last night and this morning. I think maybe Waverly must feel something, right? I mean, why would she ask if I would deny her kiss if she didn’t actually want to kiss me? That doesn’t make any sense. Except if she just…wanted to know…for knowledge’s sake. Which is bad for me, since I answered that I wouldn’t. Maybe I made her feel incredibly uncomfortable when I told her I’d let her kiss me. I didn’t want to make things so terribly awkward so early in…I didn’t want to screw up our budding friendship. What if I ruined everything?

Fuck. What have done?

Realizing I was probably taking far too much time for such a simple task, I hurry to the dryer, pull her clothes out and rush back upstairs. I set them on the bed without looking at Waverly and walk to my closet to collect my own clothes for the day.

“Bedroom is all yours, I’ll go change in the bathroom. Meet me downstairs and I’ll get you some breakfast.”

I walk out of the room with my clothes before she has a chance to respond.

I quickly change and complete the rest of my morning routine, holler to Waverly that the bathroom is free, before heading back downstairs. I find my mother sitting in the kitchen.

“Why didn’t you get us up?”

I ask her with a bit of panic in my voice. She probably attributes it to our tardiness, which I am thankful for.

“You guys had a crummy night. Missing one class your senior year to get some extra sleep probably won’t kill either of you.”

“It might kill Waverly, Mom, she’s really into school.”

There must be something off in my voice even though I am trying so damn hard to keep it steady.

“You okay, giraffe? Is Waverly okay?”

“All good! We’re all good. Everyone is fine. How are you?”

She takes my hand and squeezes it lightly.

“If you say so, Nicole.”

“I only speak the truth.”

I smile at her, hoping to diffuse the tension. I hear Waverly’s footsteps on the stairs and take a deep breath.

“Good morning, Waverly. How did you sleep? Did Nicole beat you up? Steal all the covers? She’s a terror.”

“Good morning, actually I think it was the other way around.”

A light pink blush appears on her cheeks and I force myself to look away.

“Do you like Cheerios. I like Cheerios. I’m having some, if you want some. We also have a fruit salad.”

I speak to her, without looking up. My Mom is looking at me curiously. Waverly looks at the floor, as well, when she answers.

“Cheerios would be great, thanks.”

I walk into the pantry and out of range of whatever conversation my mother and Waverly are partaking in. I need to pull my shit together this morning. I grab the Cheerios, focusing on the task of getting breakfast ready so that I can be distracted from the thoughts of this morning. I pour the Cheerios and milk in two bowls, grab some spoons and set them on the island. Stalking away again to get two small dishes of the fruit salad. Waverly sits down at her bowl and waits for me to sit down before eating.

“Can I get you anything, Mom?”

“No, lazy bones, I ate while you were still sleeping.”

Shit flashes me a shit-eating grin.

“So, Nicole, I heard some interesting noises from your room this morning. Do I have to make your friends sleep on the couch from now on?”

“I-interesting noises?”

My mind immediately goes to the few moans I let escape when sleeping Waverly’s hand moved over my chest. Panic. I’m panicking. How would she have heard that? Does she have super-sonic hearing or something? If anyone on Earth had super hearing it would be my mother.

“Yeah, you were laughing!”

She turns to Waverly.

“She’s so cranky these days, you find?”

Waverly’s voice is small.

“I hadn’t noticed.”

“I’m kidding, I just like teasing Nicole especially when she’s acting so weird.”

She swats me gently.

“I am not acting weird! I’m just…tired.”

“Okie dokie, artichokie.”

An awkward silence falls over the room. My mom engages Waverly in conversation, asking her all sorts of questions about school and what she wants to do with her life. I see the tension that is so evident in Waverly’s body loosen at my Mom’s interest. My Mom has always been really good at finding a way to diffuse tension and let people move at their own pace. Sure, she’ll always tease you and try to get answers out of you. Yet she always knows when to stop so she’s not pushing it. It’s one of my favourite things about her. My ears hone in on the sound of my name.

“...this video of Nicole. She was four years old and she’s got all the plastic sports accouterments like a plastic golf club, a plastic wiffle ball spread out around her. She was trying to convince me she was going to be a sports star by hitting the wiffle ball with the golf club instead of the plastic bat she had. That’s when I knew that I’d dropped her too much and the damage was complete.”

My Mom winks at Waverly, and the sound of Waverly’s melodious laughter fills my ears.

“Oh yeah? Any other stories I need to know about?”

“Well, you’ll be safe with her driving, for sure. In the same video she was in one of this plastic motorized Jeeps with her cousin. He’s a year older, so he was driving. He kept backing into everything in the yard. He ran over the flower garden, he ran into trees, he must have hit everything in the yard. Meanwhile, the whole time tiny little Nicole is trying to direct him so they would stop hitting things. I just heard her shrill little voice yelling at him at the end because he wasn’t listening. So she took over, and she didn’t hit a damn thing.”

“Yep, because I’m the best.”

I boast, proudly. Trying to cover up my embarrassment at my mother telling Waverly these stories. Granted these were really innocent stories compared to what she could tell her, and for that I was thankful.

“Woah there, don’t go getting a big head. I wouldn’t say you’re the best. The best is definitely Cole Trickle from Days of Thunder. I mean, he drove, fast and managed to get curly haired Nicole Kidman. If you ever can drive like that and snag yourself curly haired Nicole Kidman, I’ll rename you champion of driving.”

“My Mom has a thing for 1980s-1990s Tom Cruise. It makes no sense to me. However, mother, I’ll take your bet. Curly haired Nicole Kidman in a race car will soon be at your door.”

“He was hot back then, okay? How was I supposed to know he’d turn out like he did? I can’t be blamed for inability to see into the future, Nicole. She better be at my door by the end of the school day or I’ll finally fail you as my protégée.”

“Tough love, mother.”

“Gotta rule this family with an iron fist.”

“Okay there, Danny Rand, settle down.”

“Nicole, I didn’t say I was going to rule AS Iron Fist I said I was going to rule with AN iron fist. I need to get your hearing checked out. Remind me to make an appointment immediately.”

“Yeah, sure, I’ll get right on that.”

I smile sweetly to her and then look at Waverly, who has been quiet for some time. She’s finished eating and she is smiling in the direction of my mother and myself, clearly amused by our ridiculous banter. I stand up and sweep away our dishes to the sink and wash them.

“Okay, Iron Fist, we have to get going. My mother would probably frown on me skipping an entire day of school because she’s so uptight.”

I grin at her and grab Waverly’s hand to drag her upstairs to brush our teeth and collect our bags. We manage to make it out of the kitchen before my mother can form a reply. We brush our teeth and head back to my room to grab our bags. When we walk through the doorway, Waverly shuts the door behind us.

“Nicole..”

She whispers my name out and my heartbeat spikes. She’s looking up, searching my eyes for something. She must find it, because she shifts her gaze down to my lips.

“I have to do something because I know you won’t, your chivalry won’t allow you. I need to be brazen and do it right now and if you want me to stop just push me away.”

Before I even have a chance to really process what she’s said, much less formulate a reply, her body is pressed up against mine with her hands linked behind my neck pulling me down towards her. It’s all so fast and yet so slow. The eye of the storm. Her lips reach mine and for a second, just the tiniest second, I am too stunned at the sensation to move my lips. She begins to pull away but I lock my left hand around her forearm just around her wrist to hold her in place and I kiss her back. My right hand slides up the side of her body and back down to rest on the small of her back. I just wanted to hold her closer to me. Even though we were flush up against one another, it didn’t feel close enough. She pulls away from the kiss and I open my eyes to investigate the loss of contact.

“So I just did…that. My Aunt Gus always told me to be honest with myself and do things that scare me.”

“I scare you?”

I knit my eyebrows together, in concern, but the soft smile on my face doesn’t leave. It can’t leave.

“Yes.”

She’s breathless, her lips a little redder than usual. I can’t help but smile when I realize I’m the one that caused her to look this disheveled and this fucking beautiful. It almost seems as if a slight panic is rising within her. The ten seconds of intense bravery are gone and she’s left exposed. I lift my hand from her lower back and bring it to her lips, gently running my thumb over her bottom lip before placing a chaste kiss upon her lips. My touch seems to ease the panic and her tense body melts a bit.

“Nicole….could you tell me what you’re thinking? I just need to know what you’re thinking. My mind is racing and I’m freaking out a bit and you seem so calm. How are you so calm?”

“I’m a calm person.”

She looks down at her toes and when she speaks her voice is shaky and unsure.

“Do you not…want this?”

I tilt her head up gently with my hand on her chin. I see the uncertainty in her eyes and something in me cracks a little. I lean in and kiss her fervently, showing her I’m not always calm and more than anything, I want her. My tongue darts out and licks gently at her lips, with a slight moan she allows my tongue to meet hers. I think I am going to fall apart. I refuse to use any of those clichés about what a great kiss feels like, the connection, seeing stars are fireworks, etc. While those are valid I’m sure, in my experience it is so much more. She’s soft, yet firm. Slow, yet insistent. When she pulls away, her eyes are the colour of warm amber. Her breathing is ragged. Mine, maybe even more so. Every nerve ending in my body was responding to her kiss.

“Plato’s theory…”

It stumbles from my lips, my voice is foreign to me. She knits her eyebrows together, giving me the look I usually reserve for her after an odd segue.

“I believe it now.”

My voice is barely above a whisper. The smile that crosses her face is her most beautiful smile yet, because I know it’s just for me.

I extract myself from her for a brief moment to open the door and call down to my mother.

“Okay if we don’t go? We’re already late.”

“Finally! I thought this day would never come. You really ARE my daughter. I raised you right! Come down in few minutes and we’ll do a girl’s day with movies! I may even paint your nails, because you’re my favourite daughter, and Waverly’s nails too because she seems to be a good influence on you!”

She sounds so excited and Waverly and I laugh at her enthusiasm.

“I’m your only daughter!”

“Then you don’t have to do much to be my favourite. I’ll go pick a flick!”

We hear her leave the kitchen and I shut my door again to steal a few more moments with Waverly.

“Are you sure?”

I whisper, examining her eyes, which are so clear and her smile is so bright. I know she means what she is about to say.

“I don’t know what it is about you, Nicole Haught, but I knew I wanted to kiss you from the moment I saw you by my locker, leaning down to help me pick up my books, those damn dimples accentuating the smile on your beautiful face. I’m sure, more than sure. I’m positive. I may have not planned for you but I am finding you’re my favourite unplanned occurrence.”

It is with a smile on my lips that I lean in to kiss her again. She returns the kiss as I am floating off into space, only to be brought back down to Earth by the sound of my mother’s shout from downstairs.

“DAYS OF THUNDERRRRRRRRRRR!”

Waverly laughs, wholeheartedly, and grabs my hand to drag me downstairs.

Chapter Text

Following our first kiss, the months flew by with haste. Winter break has just begun and I was looking forward to spending more time with Waverly than usual (the term “inseparable” has been thrown around a lot by my mother these last couple of months, especially after we insisted we go out on one outing for both of our eighteenth birthdays which were a week apart at the beginning of December). Despite this closeness, we never put a label on our relationship. We were just us. The lack of the label didn’t seem to bother either of us. The only thing that nagged at my mind was that I still hadn’t told my mother, and we don’t keep secrets from one another. Hiding from the rest of the world, at this stage in life, was fine. It was maybe even necessary. High school kids could be cruel. Our, whatever this was, well that was just for us. Just ours. Our privacy was paramount. Not telling my mother, however? It’s starting to crush me a little. I guess it’s time Waverly and I figure out what we are, what we are doing, where we are going. We need to be filling out university applications, so it would be great to understand where we stand before that whole rigmarole.

We are laying in my bed and she’s pressed up against my body with her head on my shoulder. She’s running her hands deliciously up and down my side as a play in her hair. I finally muster the courage to have this conversation with her. My mother always told me if I could muster up 10 seconds of insane courage I could get through anything. Lying here with Waverly, looking into her gorgeous eyes, I manage. I need to know where we are at. I need to know it all. Right now.

“Wave?”

“Mmmhm?”

“What are we?”

Her brows knit together, understandably, the question is out of the blue and with no context. My bravery is failing me, however, and it was hard enough to mutter those three simple words.

“I mean, um, where do you see this going…this thing between us? We’ve been in this secret little world of our own for four months now and that’s fine. That’s perfectly okay. I lo...like this little bubble we are in. I ‘m not asking because I want to go shout it from the rooftops. I just need to know, for me…I need to know what you’re thinking.”

I lick my bottom lip and gently suck it into my mouth, my quite obvious nervous tell. Waverly’s staring into my eyes, but her eyes are unreadable to me which makes me feel more vulnerable than I have in a very long time. I lower my eyes to break away from the scrutiny of her gaze. The silence seems to extend for a millennia before she speaks. Her voice is soft and so is the hand that is raising my chin again to meet her eyes.

“I don’t know what we are, Nicole. That’s something we need to figure out together. What I do know is that the only place I feel safe and at home in this entire world is right here with you. You’re the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about before I go to sleep. You’re in every single one of my dreams, including my day dreams when I am fully awake. You’re the only person in this whole world I trust with everything and the only person I let my guard down around. I’ve always felt I needed to hide things from people to protect myself. It was always the most logical choice and it consistently served me well. When I look into your eyes, though, and I see that smile I can’t help but let you in. You told me really early in our relationship that you would never ask me to be something I’m not. You never have and you’re the only person in my life who hasn’t. You’re the most incredibly patient person I’ve ever met and you’ve been wonderful as I’ve fumbled through all these new realizations about myself. See, you’ve known for a while, who you are and what you want, but I only just figured it out when I met you, and it was sealed when we kissed. So I’ve been fumbling through this, and what a beautiful fumble it’s been.”

She takes a breath, collecting her thoughts and I wait, knowing she needs the silence to work out whatever is going on in that beautiful brain of hers.

“I guess that was a lot of words to say something I could have said with four. Nicole…”

She breathes my name out, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard my name spoken so exquisitely.

“I love you. I have for a bit now. I knew it, I just…I could see it in your eyes, that you loved me. I could tell by all the little things you’ve said and done unless I am totally out of line here…”

She looks at me, and suddenly she’s so nervous. I can tell she’s holding her breath, waiting to see if she’s said too much. Waiting to see if she was wrong about my feelings for her. The swell inside my chest and the lump in my throat after hearing she loves me…there aren’t any words that could ever be sufficient to describe what I’m feeling now. I imagine this what be nirvana feels like. I need her to feel the same thing, I need her to know that she’s not wrong. I break my brain out of its reverie, finally managing to respond.

“Baby, I would have waited forever for you to figure it out as long as that meant I got to spend my time with you and make you smile. Of course I love you, Waverly Earp, how could I not?”

Waverly lets out the breath in a sigh of relief. She kisses me then, long, deep, and slow. If there was a single other person on this Earth at that moment I don’t think either of us realized it.

“It took me a little to realize I trusted you so completely and that everything I was feeling soaring inside of me was love. I felt safe to take that time to figure it out because I knew you’d never rush me, you’d just love me quietly and wait for me to catch up at my own pace, like you’ve always done. When I think about where I want my life to be tomorrow, ten days from now, a year from now, ten years from now…I don’t envision a single circumstance that doesn’t feature you prominently. You’re the only person I want to be with. I hope that’s an okay answer...”

The small, hopeful, smile that has been gracing my lips since the beginning of this conversation now stretches the entirety of my face.

“I couldn’t think of a better answer if I tried.”

She’s kissing me again, rolling herself on top of me. I promptly shift my weight so I am back on top, grinning at her and tossing a wink before returning to the kiss. The kiss is nothing like the ones we’ve shared previously. While they’ve always had fire it was nothing to compare to this. They were a heavily controlled camp fire and this was a raging forest fire spreading in a wind storm. When I kiss and gently nip at the pulse point on her neck she lets out a soft moan. It intensifies the small but delicious thrumming in my lower body tenfold. Her hands are up my shirt, urgently seeking purchase on my skin as mine slide up hers. She has the softest and warmest skin I’ve ever felt and my hand melds to it as I drag my hand up under her bra, tugging lightly at the centre. She lets out a moan of pure desperation and grabs my head forcefully to bring my lips back upon hers. I am more than happy to acquiesce. We only break the kiss when she demands removal of my shirt with her hands. Feeling it was only fair to be in the same state of undress, I remove hers as well and gasp at the sight of her. It is with trembling hands that Waverly reaches around me to remove my bra. I clear the haze in my mind, just for a moment, just to make sure she’s certain. I pull up from her a bit, pulling her hands out of reach of my bra.

“Wave…? Are you sure? Baby, you’re trembling. We can stop…”

“Nicole Haught if you do not bring your unbelievably sexy body down here to me again you’re going to be in a world of trouble.”

“Well, I wouldn’t want that.”

I grin at her and lower myself back on top of her. As she reaches behind me again, her hands are steady, her kisses are passionate but sure. When I wrap my arms around her to remove her bra, mine already discarded on the floor, our abdomens touch and the contact sends a blazing trail straight to my core. Waverly staring at me wolfishly, I let out a sigh as the bra falls away from her. My hands are roaming, further and further south while I’m kissing her with every ounce of passion I have inside me for this girl. When I reach the waistband and of her pants and she nods at me I know I’m about to come completely undone by this incredible girl.

Shit, I’m in trouble, but it’s the most delectable kind.

Chapter Text

The following day, I was driving Waverly back home. She thought she probably needed to check in with her father as she hasn’t been spending hardly any time at all at home—which made me exceedingly happy, by the way. So, here we are, in my car headed back to the homestead. Waverly’s hand is over mine on the gear shit and she’s holding onto it more tightly than usual. I shift my eyes off the road to catch a momentary glimpse of her face and it looks tense.

“Wave, everything is going to be alright.”

I squeeze her hand and am rewarded by her smile.

“Plus, you know, if you need anything at any hour do not hesitate to call and I’ll be here, I promise. I’ll leave my phone on super loud. It will probably wake the dead, and by the dead I mean my mother.”

“Sounds dangerous, love. I don’t think you should wake that scary monster.”

“Well, technically I won’t be faulted because it would be you waking her up, not me. So prepare for her wrath if you have to call.”

I wink at her to keep the conversation light. I know Waverly is aware that she does not need to fear the wrath of my mother—the only wrath one has to fear with my mother is her relentless teasing.

“Speaking of my mother…”

I clear my throat.

“Would it be okay with you if I told her. About…this.”

I point to her and then back at me.

“Us? It feels wrong keeping it from her.”

“Of course you should tell your mother. When are you going to do it?”

“Probably tonight since you won’t be over.”

“Are you nervous about it?”

“Only a little. It’s my mother, after all.”

“I am sure she’ll be 100% okay with it. I told my sister about us.”

She blushes a bit.

“Over a text message, of course. She hasn’t responded. I am sure that’s just because she’s in a place with spotty service, though. Wynonna is always in a place with bad reception these days it seems.”

Waverly always tried her best to hide it, but it is obvious her sister being gone hasn’t been easy for her. How could it be, after all, living in that house alone with her father? Sometimes I wish I could find Wynonna and kick her ass until she came home to see her sister. It makes me incredibly sad that Waverly didn’t have a blood relative she could truly count on. Her Aunt and Uncle seem nice enough, and she always speaks of them fondly. However, if they know what is going on with her father, then they certainly didn’t speak of it and didn’t do anything to change it. I am still reserving an opinion on them accordingly.

“I’m sure she won’t care, you’re still the same wonderful person you’ve always been. Loving who you love won’t change that.”

I beam a bright smile at her and she returns it, the tension dissipating from her posture ever so slightly. I love that I have the ability to put Waverly at ease. I know she desperately needs something and someone stable her in her life. I would try my hardest everyday to be exactly that for her—her safe haven.

We are pulling into her drive and the tension returns, the look on her face so serene a moment ago…it’s tight now, features all hard and constricted lines. It’s not an expression I see on her face when she is around me. I stop at the end of the drive, putting the car in park. I know nobody in the house could see what is going on in the car at this distance. I place my hand on her cheek and gently stroke it before leaning over the centre console and kissing her gently.

“Don’t worry, it’s only a short time. I’ll be over here first thing tomorrow morning to pick you up for shenanigans.”

“What ‘shenanigans’ are we getting into tomorrow, beautiful girl?”

My mind still spins every time she calls me beautiful, even after a quarter of a year together.

“Ice skating.”

“Ice skating…?”

She looks at me incredulously.

“You know I am really pretty clumsy, right? This will be a total disaster. I’ll wobble all over and bring you down like it is a game of dominoes.”

“You see, I know how clumsy you are.”

I bow my head and smile before slowly raising it to look up at her.

“But I could teach you. You know, skate behind you and hold your waist to keep you upright. That way, if you stumble, I’ll be there to catch you. Then, even if your clumsiness exceeds my ability to hold you up, well, you’ll just fall on top of me and I’ll break your fall.”

I smile my most charming smile at her.

“You’re right, this ice skating thing seems like an excellent idea. If you bring your pretty self to my door tomorrow, I’ll bring a thermos of hot cocoa. Deal?”

“Deal. Shall we do this?”

She looks down at the gearshift and sighs before clutching my hand and helping me move the car into drive. We creep up the driveway at a glacial pace and when we arrive at the house I squeeze Waverly’s hand tightly.

“Call me.”

“I will, I like hearing your voice before I fall asleep.”

“Well, yours isn’t so bad either, Waverly Earp.”

I smile at her, lifting our joint hands and bending my head to hers below the line of the dashboard to kiss her hand.

“Just contact me in the morning when you’re ready to go and I’ll be here in a jiffy.”

Her hand is on the door handle and she’s pulling at it slowly.

“Wave…”

“Mmm?”

“Be safe, darling.”

“Always.”

She opens the door and climbs out, shutting it gently. When she gets to the porch she turns, giving me the smile she reserves just for me and a little wave to accompany it. I wave back. When she is safely in the house my phone buzzes.

I forgot to tell you…drive carefully. Let me know when you get home.

I will! (:

And Nicole…thanks for being you.

I smile at the last message and turn my car towards home.

I pull into the driveway of my house fifteen minutes later and shoot Waverly a quick text.

Safe and sound. Going in to tell my mother now. Wish me luck.

Good luck, love. Let me know how it goes.

I turn the car off and head towards the front door, taking a large breath of fresh air before entering the house.

“Mom, I’m home!”

“In the living room!”

I make my way slowly to the living room and sit down on the couch beside my mother.

“Mini Einstein safely home?”

“That she is. What are you watching?”

“Top Gun.”

“You’re fully aware, of course, that we have that on BluRay so you don’t actually need to watch it on TV with commercials.”

“Yeah, but it was on.”

“But you could be watching it…without commercials…”

“Maybe I like commercials.”

“You hate commercials.”

“Maybe I need to know that I can get prescription Viagra. Maybe I really need to switch my bar soap and that Irish Spring commercial will suggest a fresh scent to me that I’ll just be dying to have.”

“You don’t even use bar soap, you use body wash, and you get the same kind every single time.”

“Exactly! Maybe it’s time to switch to Dove. I hear they have some moisture lock technology. It seems important or impressive, or something. They seemed really proud of it.”

“You were just too lazy to get up and put the BluRay in, weren’t you?”

“Well, you hit that nail right on the head, Detective Haught.”

“Do you want me to go put the BluRay in?”

“Would you? If I see one more Viagra commercial I’m going to break the television.”

I get up and put the BluRay in for her.

“On a Tom Cruise kick again?”

“It happens, no shame!”

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to make fun of you.”

She pokes, pinches my cheek and then runs her hand all over my face.

“Looks like my daughter, feels like my daughter, sounds like my daughter… and yet you must be an imposter.”

“Nope, I can assure you it’s 100% me. I just have something I need to tell you so I don’t have time to make fun of you over Tom Cruise.”

“Well, this must be important. Is this a conversation we need to have with me out of jammies and in real adult clothes? Is it one of those?”

“No I think your “Rock Star” jammies are just fine for this conversation.”

They’re literally a cartoon rock wearing sunglasses and a mullet wig. I don’t know where she found these damn jammies but they’re ridiculous and they’re her favourite.

“I might’ve known. My rock star jammies are suitable for anything.”

“Yeah, sure, go to a black and white gala and see what they have to say about those jammies.”

“Well, they are black and white mostly. What more do they want from me?”

The Top Gun Anthem begins to play as the movie starts and I figure with this epic music in the background this is probably my best time to tell her.

“Mom, I need to tell you something.”

“What’s up, kid?”

I intake a breath. 10 seconds of insane bravery, come to me now.

“I’ve known something about myself for awhile now. A long while. I know we don’t keep secrets but I was scared to tell you, and I don’t know why. I don’t know why at all because you’re my best friend. So I am going to tell you now and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. I don’t know why I didn’t…”

I think Waverly’s ability to ramble is wearing off on me.

“Nicole…?”

My mother interrupts gently, clearly wanting to spur this conversation along before I repeat myself a million times but never actually tell her.

“Mom, I’m gay.”

She’s quiet for a minute, and then ten seconds of bravery are over and I’m left feeling the nervousness I’d pushed away.

“Oh, honey, I know.”

“…You knew?”

“Why do you think we moved?”

“We moved because of me?”

She scoots closer to me and puts her arm around me to pull me close.

“Your friends stopped coming around and you seemed sad all the time. You were acting completely unlike yourself. So I called Christopher’s mother and she told me about the rumour going around at school and how you wouldn’t deny it or say anything about it at all. You’ve never been one to hide who you are or what you wanted so I knew it was true. I know you could have stuck it out, giraffe, but I figured we’d outgrown that place and should get out of there. When you wanted to go so willingly, I made the plans. I’m proud of you for being exactly who you are despite what those horrible kids did to you for it.”

I pulled her in for a hug and didn’t let go.

“Why didn’t you tell me you knew?”

I whisper the words out quietly.

“It’s something you had to tell me in your own time, Nicole, I couldn’t make the decision for you. Did you tell me now because of Waverly?”

“Waverly?”

“You look at her as if the sun rises and sets on her.”

“Doesn’t it?”

Her face breaks into a great grin and she pulls back from me a little.

“She’s a great kid, giraffe, you sure know how to pick ‘em.”

“I learned from my mother. She’d kill me if I picked an imbecile.”

“Glad I could make mistakes so you would learn never to make them.”

“I got really lucky when you were chosen as my mother.”

“Don’t get all sappy on me now.”

“She looks up at the screen as Maverick is requesting a tower flyby.

“Hey remember when you wanted to be Maverick for Halloween?”

“Wanted! You told me I had to be Maverick for Halloween because you’d already made the little helmet and flight suit and then fitted the suspenders to me to hold up the little plane you made!”

“Pretty sure it was all your idea.”

“Not even in the slightest. I wanted to be an FBI agent that year.”

“Black suits with black ties are boring Nicole. You’re lucky I nixed that idea and gave you the coolest Halloween costume imaginable.”

“Well…it was pretty cool.”

I offer reluctantly. She’s still smiling at me and her arm hasn’t left my shoulders. I drop my head to her shoulder and we watch the movie in silence for a few minutes.

“Hey, now that I know you and Waverly are a thing I can finally share with her all the embarrassing pictures of you growing up. I am so excited! I’ve been waiting 18 years to embarrass you like this.”

“Of course you have.”

“What other reason is there to have a kid?”

“None, I guess.”

“So when is she coming over again?”

“Never.”

“Aw, come on! Don’t take this away from me!”

She’s pouting now, lower lip jutting out, and puppy dog eyes. The look no longer works on me and I just laugh at her.

“Mom, what if she sees your awful pictures and thinks I am too much of a handful and leaves me forever?”

“I am 100% certain that won’t happen, she’ll just laugh a little at your expense. And so will I. It will be great fun for all!”

“Except for me.”

“Well, sometimes you have to let the other kids have some fun, Nicole.”

She ruffles my hair again, and I bring my hand up to smooth it over as I respond.

“I guess so. Have all the fun you want, but how are you sure your antics won’t force her to run from the hills thinking I was a crazy kid and will end up being a crazy adult?”

“Because she looks at you like the sun rises and sets because of you, same as you look at her. That’s how I know.”

The grin her statement caused didn’t leave my face the rest of the movie. My mother and I kept up our banter, judging different aspects of the movie like we did with everything we watched together. I felt like every last thing weighing me down had been lifted and I was truly and completely happy. I had Waverly in my life, and my mother knew about Waverly and me and was genuinely happy for us. My life here seemed so much more than a 10 months and done, and I couldn’t be more grateful for that or for my mother moving us here. How did I get so lucky? This feeling of euphoria persisted through a few movies with my mother as we stayed up together late into the night.

It all came crashing down when Waverly called me shortly after 2 A.M. panic lacing her voice…begging me to come get her.

Chapter Text

I hang up the phone and stand up, tearing through my house to grab my keys and bag. My mother notices how terribly frantic I am.

“Nicole, what is going on?”

“I need to get to Waverly’s right now. She sounded frightened and completely in a panic. I have to go.”

“It’s late, let me go with you.”

She’s already in the foyer putting her shoes and coat on before I can even respond and we are running towards the POS. I peel out of our driveway and am making it towards Waverly’s at a break neck pace. My mother is trying to calm me down, but her words aren’t reaching my ears, much less my brain. They are simply a sound dancing around the corners of my consciousness. Waverly’s in trouble. My brain keeps repeating it like a broken record. I know I need to calm down. I need to be my usual level-headed self, Waverly would need that. She wouldn’t need her panic increased because of my own. It was hard to silence the broken record, however, Waverly’s in trouble The person I am in love with, the person I would do anything for…is in trouble. The worst part is, I didn’t even know how bad the situation is. My mind is conjuring up all sorts of horrible scenarios I will find when I arrive at her homestead. I am absolutely petrified.

My Mom grabs my hand on the gear shift and squeezes it, trying to pull my mind away from worry and back to Earth.

“Honey, you need to slow down. It won’t do for us to get into an accident. How will you get to Waverly then?”

I look down at the speedometer, I’m going far, far over the speed limit. I mumble out an apology and reduce my speed to only ten over. It’s the best I can do, it’s all I can do. If I go any slower….what if I’m not quick enough? What if I don’t get there in time?

“I’m supposed to protect her, Mom.”

I choke out the words and my voice breaks at the end. Tears are pooling in my eyes but I won’t let them fall. I bite down on my bottom lip so hard I’m certain I might puncture it. I need to be brave, and for a hell of a lot longer than ten seconds this time.

“Nicole…” my mother says softly.

“You are. Waverly is a strong girl, tough enough to handle herself. Yet as soon as she was in trouble the first person she called was you. Which means she trusts you, and she trusts you’ll protect her and get her out of there. It means she trusts that you’re someone she can lean on when the weight of everything is bearing down on her. Don’t you forget that.”

I nod slowly, trying to believe her words. Trying to not feel as if I failed my beautiful girl somehow.

We speed into the driveway and I have the door open before the car is fully at a stop. I slam it into park, despite my transmission’s disgruntled noise, and I run towards the front door. It’s locked. I start knocking wildly, but there is no answer, which sends me spiraling into another panic. My mother is finally behind me.

“I don’t know. Should I break it down? I don’t know what to do.”

She knocks on the door calling Waverly’s name, but there is no answer. She nods to me and I kick the door with all my strength, it splinters slightly and creaks open ever so slightly. I shove it with my and it flies open the rest of the way as I run into the house calling Waverly’s name. I hear her reply faintly from upstairs and take the stairs two at a time to get to her. I call her name again and follow her voice as she calls mine back like some horrid game of Marco Polo. I knock on the door gently and say her name quietly. I hear a rustling behind the door and it opens slowly.

I see her face and my stomach plummets. The right side of her face is heavily bruised, a small laceration runs along her cheek bone. I'd be surprised if she doesn't end up with a black eye. I reach for her hand and pull her into my arms, wrapping them tightly and protectively around her.

“Baby…” I breathe the word out softly belying the white hot rage that’s boiling inside of me. I’ve never been a person capable of anger. I never got too heated over anything. I always took everything in stride. My mother always joked that she’d love to see what it would look like if I ‘lost my shit’. So the rage I felt right now, while not surprising for the circumstance surprises me nonetheless.

“Wave, where is he?”

“I…I don’t know. I don’t know. I came up to Willa’s room to hide. He doesn’t…he doesn’t come up here. I knew I’d be safe up here.”

Waverly never talked about Willa except to say her eldest sister died when she was only six. I look around and the room doesn’t appear to have changed at all. The bed isn’t even made, as if it was left as a shrine exactly the way it was the last time Willa was in it.

I kiss Waverly’s forehead tenderly.

“Let’s get you out of here, darling.”

The stairway is narrow, so Waverly steps behind me but keeps her hand in mine. We reach the bottom of the stairs and hear shouting. Her father’s, to be precise. I hear my mother’s voice, raised but not shouting; firm, calm and in command. I look back at Waverly, squeezing her hand.

“Stay here, I need to go make sure my Mom is okay.”

Waverly nods slowly and I make my way towards the voices.

When I walk into the kitchen, her father’s arm is back like he intends to strike my mother and I quickly step between them and knee him where the sun doesn’t shine. He keels over and my Mom flashes me a tense smile, but she looks a little proud.
“Nicole, why don’t you go take Waverly to the car. I need to have a few words with Mr. Earp here.”

“Mom…”

“Nicole. Now. It will be fine. I don’t think he’ll be getting up for a few minutes anyways. Get Waverly to the car. I’ll be right out.”

I nod and step backwards towards Waverly, not taking my eyes off her father. When they’re out of my sight I turn and walk quickly towards Waverly, whisking her out through her broken front door and into the front seat of my car. I shut the door gently so metal on metal won’t startle her and quickly round the car to the driver’s side to climb in. Waverly turns her to me when I’m safely in the car and I run my fingers gingerly over the swelling on her face.

“We should get you to the hospital.”

“Nicole, I’m fine, I don’t need medical attention. Just an ice pack and your arms…”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m positive…I just want to go home.”

She looks down, sadly.

“I’m sorry your home isn’t safe for you.”

My heart is breaking for her, the rage at her father intensifying.

“This isn’t my home, Nicole, you are.”

I move my left hand up to play in her hair gently and bring her head forward, meeting her halfway for a kiss as she grabs my right hand in her own.

“One of the things he said to me…he said I wasn’t an Earp. He said I’m not his kid. I think he meant to insult me, to make me feel as if I am inferior in some way because I’m not an Earp. The thing is, it would be the greatest gift in the world if that were true. I can think of nothing I want to be less than his daughter. I don’t want to be anything like that…monster.”

Her shoulders slump as the weariness sets in.

“Oh, baby, you could never be anything like that. You’re nothing like him, whether what he says is true or not.”

I look up to see my mother coming out of the house. As she makes her way to the car I pull away from Waverly and crank the engine over. She climbs into the back seat, closes the door, and we are on our way. Away from this hell hole.

“Tomorrow we’ll come back and get your things, Waverly, and then you don’t ever have to come back here again if you don’t want to, honey.”

I swallow hard at my mother’s words. Waverly will be safe. Not only safe, but she’ll be living with us. I squeeze her hand and a smile touches her slightly broken but still incredibly beautiful face.

“What happened, Mom?”

“I’ll tell you later, giraffe. Let’s get Waverly home.”

Home.

Chapter Text

We arrive back at my house from picking up Waverly’s belongings around dinnertime. My mother tells Waverly to go get settled in my room so she can talk to me for a few moments. Waverly nods silently, looking thankful for the alone time and heads up the stairs. When she moves out of ear shot I ask my Mom what occurred between her and Mr. Earp.

“What did you say to him after we left last night? I didn’t get a chance to ask you since we were all so exhausted.”

“I told him to do what was good for his daughter once in his miserable life and let her leave his house so she could finish school and start applying to universities without the distraction he provided.”

“Oh. How did that go over?”

“Mostly there was a lot of indistinguishable slurred shouting that sounded as if he wasn’t going to let it go so easily.”

“And…?”

“And so I told him I would call the police if he didn’t let Waverly come live with us. I told him it would be easier on him and on Waverly, so they didn’t have to go through with dealing with the law, if he just let her go. I reminded him that she’s 18 now and doesn’t need his permission, anyways, but that I was informing him, nonetheless, because he is her father. He proceeded to say some nasty things. I pulled out my cell phone to make as if I was dialing 911 and he finally agreed. I gave him a time that we would be by today to collect Waverly’s belongings and told him if he happened home when we arrived I would not hesitate to call the police immediately. I also told him if he contacts Waverly I would do the same. So we’ll see, I guess. He wasn’t there so that’s a good sign.”

I rush to my mother and hug her tightly. I knew she didn’t need a verbal thank you but my heart felt as if it was swelling with enough gratitude to burst.

“Have I ever told you that you’re the most badass mother in history?”

“Once or twice.”

“Well, let’s make it a three times, shall we? You’re the most badass mother in history and I cannot thank you enough for doing this…”

“Nicole, she’s the person you love. If she suffers, you suffer. If you suffer, I suffer. It’s the very least I could do.”

“How’d you know I love her?”

“Your puppy dog heart eyes. Really, I could tape hand cut construction paper hearts over your eyes and you might be less obvious.”

I grin, impossibly wide despite the circumstances.

“Yeah, I’ve never been super great at hiding things.”

“Nope, but that’s what makes you exactly who you are. She’s a great kid, Nicole. Now get your butt on up to her and take an ice pack or two for her face. I’ll order us some Chinese food and get Waverly a whole carton of fried rice for herself. If you try to eat it you can sleep on an air mattress on the lake.”

“That sounds like fun.”

“Naked.”

“None of Waverly’s fried rice for me. Got it!”

I run away from my mother before she makes any more threats, like sending me to a nudist colony (which she’s threatened to do before because she’s bizarre) to grab the ice packs and check on Waverly. When I get to the door of my room, it’s closed. As odd as it feels to knock on my own bedroom door, I do so. Waverly’s voice is soft when she invites me in and I find her sitting on my bed clutching my pillow to her chest. I make my way towards her, kissing her forehead briefly before sitting down beside her.

“Hey, you okay?”

“Okay as I can be, I suppose.”

“Could you please lay down so I can hold this ice pack to your face?”

“Only if you kiss it better first.”

A small smile appears on her face that reminds me of how resilient she is. Waverly has told me all about her past. Her mother running away, her sister Willa’s death, her sister Wynonna up and leaving in the middle of the night without word and, of course, her father. She said she felt so lonely growing up because she was a lot younger than Willa and Wynonna so they never wanted her around. They were thick as thieves and she was completely alone living in the pages of books. Yet all of this hardship has just made her an incredibly kind and caring person. How easy would it have been for it to harden her heart? Yet Waverly has the softest and most compassionate heart I’ve ever seen. There is absolutely nothing about her that isn’t strong and beautiful. She moves herself to the crook of my arm and we slide down together. I lean over, gently peppering kisses all over the damage marring her gorgeous face. When I’ve finished her smile is as bright as a 100-watt bulb. I twist myself just enough to hold the ice pack to her face and look into her eyes.

“And what are you smilin’ about, my gorgeous darling?”

“What do you think your patronus would be?”

She blurts it out so quickly and randomly I have to ask her again.

“Like in Harry Potter if you had a patronus charm to protect you, what would the animal be?”

“Uhhh…”

“Never mind, yours would be a giraffe. I was just thinking I’d like a patronus charm so when I was scared or in danger I could summon it to feel safe. I always thought they were so cool when I was a kid.”

“Did you ever think about what yours would be?”

“An otter, like Hermione’s. Hermione is my favourite character; I wanted to be just like her when I was younger. Pretty cool that in a lot of ways I am, huh? You know, I read J.K. Rowling made Hermione’s patronus and otter and Ron’s a Jack Russell Terrior because they chase otters. I always thought that was cute."

“Nerd.”

She smiles at me before continuing.

“But giraffes don’t chase otters, those two animals don’t interact at all.”

She frowns slightly, as if this really bothers her.

“Maybe in the wizarding world they do. Maybe the giraffe sees the tiny cute little otter and decides it hasn’t seen anything more adorable in its entire life and resolves then and there that it needs to protect the otter at all costs.”

“Do think the giraffe gives the otter rides around the magical zoo?”

“Why, Miss Waverly, are you saying want to ride me?”

I grin at her, my dimples on full display. I must admit, I’m pretty proud of myself for that comeback.

“I…”

A slight moan escapes her lips and she slides her eyes down to stare at mine. Too bad before I get a chance to kiss her she’s back to her rambling.

“You know what else just occurred to me? I get to come home with you every day. At the end of the night, I don’t have to leave. I just get to climb into this bed and fall asleep in your arms and I can’t think of anything more perfect than that.”

I lean down and kiss her to convey that I feel the very same way. She breaks the kiss shortly thereafter and is beaming at me again.

“Plus, you know what?”

“What’s that?”

“Now I can kiss you anytime I want!”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yep!”

“Prove it.”

I smirk at her, but she must see the challenge in my eyes because she moves on top of me, forcing my hand with the ice pack to slip from her face. By the time my mother calls us down for food twenty minutes later, Waverly’s hands are up my shirt and the button and zipper to my jeans is undone. Her breathing is ragged as she grinds her hips down on my thigh.

“Coming!”

I announce to my mother and reluctantly pull away from Waverly. She leans down to my ear and whispers into it while climbing off me.

“Not now, but later.”

With a wink she’s fully off of me and headed towards the bedroom door. I scramble to follow her, nearly tripping on the rug on my floor because my legs feel like jello. She chuckles at my expense and dashes down the stairs. I stop in the bathroom before heading down to button my pants back up and splash some cold water on my face. The last thing I need is my overly perceptive mother connecting any dots because of what she sees in the expression on my face. When I arrive at the table my mother is handing Waverly her very own carton of fried rice.

“I told Nicole if she tries to take any of your fried rice I’d make her sleep out on the lake.”

“Well, it’s mostly frozen now so maybe she wouldn’t fall through the ice.” Waverly interjects.

“Naked.”

“Oh, yikes! Stay away from the fried rice I don’t want you to get hypothermia and die.”

I scoff at her and take my seat beside her, quietly listening as her and my mother talk comfortably amongst themselves.

“Do you want me to sleep on the couch, Ms. Haught? Now that you know about…well... ”

She moves her hand back and forth between the two of us and smiles bashfully. It’s the cutest damned thing.

“Don’t be silly. It’s fine for you to sleep in Nicole’s room. You’re both 18 and you can’t get her pregnant so I’m golden with that arrangement.”

Waverly laughs when my mother winks at her. It makes me so happy to see Waverly so at ease after the events of yesterday. Suddenly Waverly’s tone grows very serious and I look up at her to make sure she’s okay. When she meets my eyes she gives me a small smile before looking at my mother.

“I didn’t get a chance to thank you for everything you’re doing for me… I don’t even have the words. Which is funny since I’m usually a talker. Yep…I babble. Babbling won’t do this time, though, and I…”

Without finishing her sentence Waverly gets up and darts at my mother colliding into her with a big hug. My mother mouths “Help me!” over her shoulder to me, but she smiles and tightens her grip around Waverly. I shrug at my mother, silently telling her she’s out of luck and she rolls her eyes at me. When Waverly breaks the hug and steps back they share a smile.

“Finally! I have two people to slave away to take care of me now. I’ll never have to clean another particle of dust in my life! No dishes for me! No laundry! I’m so brilliant.”

“We hardly ever have dishes, you don’t cook.”

“You won’t let me!”

“I’d like to keep living for a few more years, Mom.”

She flings a forkful of rice at me.

“Hey!”

“You know what’s great about that, Nicole? I’m not the one that has to clean all that rice up!”

With that she gets up and skips off to the living room.

“Your Mom is something else, love...”

“Yeah, like another species. Come on, we’d better get this all cleaned up so we can see what Tom Cruise movie the alien has in store for us this evening.”

“I kind hope it’s The Firm!”

Waverly proclaims with a grin, the excitement for the events of the evening evident in her bubbly tone. Living with these two was going to be a handful, that’s for sure.

“It’s probably going to be Risky Business.”

“Care to make a wager on that?”

“You’re on, Waverly. What are the stakes?”

“Well, if I win we finish what we were doing upstairs before we were called down to dinner and I get to call the shots. If you win, you call the shots.”

The breath catches in my throat and my heart starts racing.

“Y-you’re on.”

I take a moment to steady my breathing before finishing cleaning up the Chinese containers. We head to the living room and sit down on the couch beside my Mom.

“What are we watching tonight, Mom?”

“Risky Business.”

“Ha! Called it…I….”

The rest of my triumphant words die on my lips when I see the lust burning in Waverly’s eyes. She leans in, brushing her lips against my ear whispers her reply, her breath is tickling my ear and sending sparks down my body.

“I was hoping you’d win.”

She pulls back and winks at me. She grabs my hand and starts running her forefinger and middle finger up and down the length of my palm.

This was going to be the longest 98 minutes of my life.

Chapter Text

Living with Waverly was comfortable. At first, I was mixed with both a flood of excitement as well as anxiety. I worried that our relationship, still relatively fresh at the time, would be strained by the closeness. What if I didn’t fold clothes the way she liked? What if she enjoyed clutter, which I did not, etc? Yet, we just seemed to fit together like pieces of a puzzle. We quickly fell into a rhythm that suited both of our needs. By now, we’d watched every 80s and 90s Tom Cruise movie with my mother. She and Waverly got along famously. Despite my mother’s teasing remarks, we all cleaned the house together. For the first time if my life, everything seemed great and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t flying high.
The first argument hit me like a tonne of bricks. Waverly wanted to talk to her father for the first time in nearly five months. I understood both her need and her desire to talk to a member of her family, especially her own father, but having been in her shoes before I was incredibly worried for her. I was worried he would make promises he wouldn’t keep. I was worried he’d find new ways of hurting her; of crushing this happiness she’d allowed herself to feel recently. I suppose I didn’t act as supportively as I should.

“Nicole, if I want to call my father I am going to call my father! If I want to see him for lunch, I am going to see him for lunch. I do not need, want, nor invite you to protect me. I am perfectly capable of protecting myself.”

Her tone was heated and short, her face set in anger. It was something that in eight months together I’d never seen from her. I understand that relationships cannot go forever without a fight, of course, but that didn’t make this any easier. It didn’t make the twisted sound of her voice any less harsh to my ears. How could I articulate to her that I wasn’t saying she needed my protection? It is my own fears, after all, that want me to keep her in a safe bubble away from his abuse.

“I know that, of course. Waverly, I know you don’t need me to protect you. I told you before; I only want to stand by your side, never in front of you and never behind you. You don’t need someone to catch you when you fall. I understand that. I am sorry I allowed my past experiences to cloud my judgment. I am sorry I tried to tell you that you couldn’t do something. You can, and should, do as you wish.”

“What do you mean your ‘past experiences’?”

She spits the words out at me and it’s clear my words have done nothing to assuage her anger.

I hang my head low, unable to look at her when I tell her something I’ve kept to myself for the last eight months.

“The morning after the first night you stayed over, you asked about the scar on my face.”

Instinctively my hand reaches up and I run my finger along the length of the scar.

“I told you I got it because my mother was clumsy and she dropped me on my head too many times. While I’m sure that’s absolutely true that isn’t how I got this scar.”

I tilt my head up enough to give her a small smile that she doesn’t return so I quickly lower my face to my lap again.

“My father came in drunk one night. He used to spend all his nights out with his buddies. Which suited my Mom and I just fine because then we didn’t have to see him. However, he was still my father, you know? So I wanted to see him sometimes, wanted him to show me he cared. Anyways, he came in one and grabbed a beer out of the fridge. I was supposed to be asleep already, but I heard him come in from my bedroom. I hadn’t seen him at all that week so I snuck out of my room and barreled towards him. I knocked into him from behind, which sent him careening forwards and he smacked his head on the kitchen cabinet and smacked the beer bottle on the counter in the process of trying to catch himself. The bottom half of the bottle shattered all over the place and he was left holding the neck of the busted bottle in his hand. He turned on me with the broken shards of the bottle and this…”

I indicate to the scar on my face.

“This is the gift he left me. It was bleeding so badly my mother had to rush me to the hospital. Within the week she’d packed up all of our things and we left his house forever in the dead of the night. I was only 11 years old. When I see my face, sometimes, I am reminded of that night. And seeing your father, and seeing your face bruised and lacerated after what he did to you…it was a reminder. Except the face that was broken that night wasn’t mine, it was yours, and that terrifies me more than anything; the thought of someone hurting you.”

I feel drained after telling her the story and I release a long sigh, not daring to catch her eyes.

“Baby, I am so sorry. I am sorry, okay? I didn’t mean to make you feel like I was trying to control you. I didn’t mean to make you feel like I think you’re too weak to defend or protect yourself. You’re one of the strongest people I know, Waverly. Please, forgive me? I let my own insecurities and fear shine through in a negative way. It was never my intention to upset you.”

I feel her hand on my chin and she’s bringing my head up to her level. When I meet her eyes there are tears in them. She traces her hand up my face and draws her forefinger down the length of my scar.

“This scar? This doesn’t make you any less beautiful. In fact, it makes you perhaps even more beautiful. You’ve always told me that the adversity I’ve faced has turned me into the person I am today; that it has made me compassionate and kind. I wasn’t just now, and I’m sorry. People like our fathers who give us scars and try to break our spirit? You’re right, Nicole, they don’t deserve us. He doesn’t deserve to see me. I’m really sorry I mistook your fear for my safety as a sign that you didn’t believe I could handle myself. It was stupid because I know there’s nobody in the world that believes in me more than you. I should be the one telling you that I’m sorry, and I am. Forgive me?

Using my left hand to clear the remaining tears from her face, I take her arm forearm in my right hand to anchor myself as I kiss her.

“Of course,”

I whisper the words and my voice breaks a little at the end.

If she notices, she doesn’t say anything.

//

A few weeks pass by and everything has returned to normal between us, the fight all but forgotten. We are on the couch watching Netflix and discussing what to do about senior prom, as it is this weekend. I know Waverly doesn’t want to miss the prom, but I also know that’s she’s nervous to out our relationship so publicly. We’d managed to keep it completely under wraps at school, preferring to keep our private lives private. She’s flipping back and forth from “Yes we should go! It would be a shame to miss this rite of passage!” to “No, no it’s not a big deal!” To be honest, I could care less about going to prom. Of course, I will go, though, if it’s important to her.

On Thursday, she made the final decision that she didn’t want to go to Prom. Her shoulders slumped and her eyes didn’t show resolve for this answer. So I discreetly went to the ticket table and bought two tickets for prom. I looked online during my lunch break to find a dress and sent a picture of it and the address of the store it’s at to my mother and she promised to pick the dress and the corsage I ordered for Waverly up from their respective stores. I know Waverly already has a very beautiful dress, I’ve seen it in the closet. I didn’t think to ask her why she had such a gown, but I figured it was all well and good if it helped me along with the prom surprise.

Prom Night arrives and Waverly is looking glum, clearly regretting her decision to abstain from going to the dance. My mother keeps her occupied in the living room watching The Firm while I get ready to go. I put on the purple one shoulder dress I picked and find I really like the way that it fits. I softly curl my hair and apply a touch of makeup. Deeming myself worthy of going to prom with a girl as beautiful as Waverly Earp, I place her gown in a bag along with the corsage and shoot a text to my mother.

I’m ready! Bring her to the bottom of the stairs, please?

Yeah, yeah, hold your horses boss lady.

I swallow the nervous lump in my throat and head down the stairs, as I make it around the curve in the stairwell I see Waverly at the bottom and smile as the confused look on her face morphs into the smile she reserves only for me.

“W-Wow you look…stunning. Beautiful. You look stunningly beautiful.”

“Yeah, not too shabby kid!”

I shoot my Mom a look, telling her to hush up and she smiles broadly.

“Waverly Earp, would you do me the immense honour of accompanying me to our senior prom?”

I hand her the bag and as she pulls the corsage out she flings herself at me, wrapping her arms around my neck and coming up on her toes to kiss me. She kisses me so long it’s borderline inappropriate in front of my mother and I break it laughing.

“Yeesh! Get a room you two, honestly.”

I shoot my mother another look and she simply shrugs at me, eyes sparkling.

“I would love, more than anything, to go to prom with you!”

She kisses my cheek and runs up the stairs, two at a time, to get ready.

“Who knew you’d be able to manage to get a date to prom? We might have to have that girl tested! What could she possibly see in you? You’re such a weirdo.”

“Blame my mother, she raised me poorly.”

“Sometimes a bad apple is a bad apple, Nicole, nothing the farmer can do.”

“So you’re a farmer now?”

I wink at her.

“I didn’t think that one through, did I?”

“Not in the slightest, it would appear. So, just about how many pictures do you intend on taking?”

“I’d say a million or so. I’ll have to chuck out about 999,975 of them because you’ll somehow manage to ruin them. Better to be safe than sorry.”

“I’ll make sure to try my hardest to ruin all one million, just to make you proud.”

“Now there’s the kid I raised!”

She comes up to me with a smile on her face and hugs me.

“You look wonderful giraffe.”

“Thanks, Mom, got all the good genes from you.”

“Damn right you did!”

When Waverly finally comes down the stairs I forget to breathe.

Moments tick by before I can even manage to speak.

My mother nudges me softly and whispers in my ear.

“Now is the time you’re probably supposed to say something.”

“You are the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”

A smile breaks across Waverly’s face and she rushes down the stairs into my arms, kissing me deeply.

“Right, you two do that and I’ll go get the camera! Please be done and ready to be photogenic when I get back.”

We aren’t done by the time she returns, I could drown in Waverly’s kiss and I’d never realize I’d run out of air.

“You two had one task! Sheesh.”

I break from her kiss reluctantly and whisper into Waverly’s ear.

“Alright, baby, let’s get this over with.”

We both strike a Charlie’s Angels pose and my mother groans at us.

“You two are impossible!”

By the time she lets us leave the house I am convinced she actually managed her one million pictures. I open the car door for Waverly.

“Shall we?”

She smiles and climbs in.

Off we go to our big gay announcement.

Chapter Text

Halfway to the school I abruptly pull the car over to the side of the road. I am kind of freaking out. I’ve just spent the first half of the drive freaking out. Did Waverly actually want to go to this dance? Did she want to boldly announce to everyone our relationship status? I trusted my gut—she seemed to really be disappointed when we talked about going and she said no. My gut could be wrong, though. I should have asked her. I shouldn’t have sprung this on her. What if she was only acting like she wanted to go because she thought I want to go because I decided to surprise her? What if she's just too nice to tell me my surprise sucks?

“Nicole? Why are we stopping?”

“Well, I was just driving and thinking that, you know, do you want to go?”

“Nicole? What’s going on?”

“Well, I’m worried that you’re only going because you think I want to go. That’s not it, you just seemed down that you weren’t getting to go to prom. So I tried to surprise you, but I’m freaking out a little now. I know this is a huge thing, a huge step, a huge…well, it’s huge. Is this something you’re ready to do? I’m sorry, I should have asked.”

Waverly squeezes our clasped hands on the gearshift and smiles at me.

“Love, stop freaking out, take a breath. Of course, I want to go. I only said I didn’t because I felt like you didn’t want to go; I know the troubles you had at your former school. I didn’t want to pressure you. I don’t give a crap what those idiots at Purgatory High may think of our relationship, Nicole. You’re my favourite person, and when I’m dancing with you at our prom, you’re going to be the only person I am looking at. If anyone at that school as a problem with this then that problem is their's alone.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m as sure about this as I am about you.”

"So... Not at all?" I wink at her.

"Precisely."

She leans over and kisses me softly, eliciting a huge grin to form on my face.

“Now, Nicole Haught, would you do me the honour of taking me to our prom?”

Her smile is soft and sweet and it warms my heart immensely and calms me down even further. Yet my worries about some of the idiots causing trouble at prom had certainly not abated. However, I could not deny Waverly’s logic and, after all, school ends in two weeks. Even if the kids were rude morons we’d be free of them in two weeks.

Waverly and I had applied to several schools and decided on the closest university to Purgatory—which happened to be four hours away. It filled her need to be away from here and my need to not be too far away so I’d be close enough to see my mother. In two weeks we’d be liberated and after the summer we would be on a new adventure with one another. So I would take Waverly to our prom, and I wouldn’t let any negativity ruin the night. After all, I would be with the most beautiful girl in the room, no, the whole world. I mean, I’ve not seen every girl in the world but I highly doubt there is anyone that could be more beautiful to me than Waverly Earp.

“It would be my pleasure.”

I smile at her and turn the car back onto the road heading towards the prom. We arrive at the school a short while later and I spend a few moments trying to locate a parking space. Once we’re parked and I’ve run out of the car to open Waverly’s door for her I take a deep breath and walk arm-in-arm with her towards the school. When we arrive at the front doors I look over to her and smile.

“You ready?”

“I am.”

We walk through the open double doors and head towards the ticket booth. I hand our tickets to the girl sitting at the table.

“Okay, so the theme is Night at the Opera so all the guys get these Phantom of the Opera masks. You girls don't have dates?"

“We sure do.” I reply with a grin.

“Are they coming later? Do you need a mask?”

“Sure! She’ll take a mask, thanks!”

Waverly’s voice sounds very chipper and I can tell she’s amused with this conversation. She drags me away from the table and secures the mask on my face.

“Well, half of your face looks absolutely gorgeous, Nicole.”

“Oh yeah, which side?”

“The masked side, obviously.”

She grins teasingly and kisses my uncovered cheek.

We walk into the gym and the first thing I notice is how ridiculously it’s decorated. Black velvet everywhere. There’s a disco ball at an Opera themed dance. I am pretty sure whoever decided on these decorations has no idea what the heck an opera actually is.

“Purgatory High at its finest.”

“At least they have white cloth table cloths? That’s…nice?”

“Yeah, really classy. Classy place this is.”

“Wave, let’s just hope the music isn’t as bad as the decorations.”

“If it is we’ll run for the hills, and by the hills I mean anywhere with good food.”

“Sounds good to me, babe.”

The music begins and it’s…. awful; absolutely atrocious. It’s like they hired a DJ who actually has no idea how to use the equipment.

“So the music is awful but we’re going to dance to it anyways because we came here to dance and by golly so we shall! Then when it gets too unbearable we can escape and get some food. ”

Waverly announces excitedly as she drags me to the dance floor. We are a few dances in, Waverly’s body slowly grinding up against mine causing the usual thrumming down between my thighs. Thankfully, the tension is released when a slow song begins and Waverly spins me around and pulls me close. When she reaches up and wraps her arms around my neck, I can’t imagine being anywhere else than right here with her in this gaudily decorated room with the disco ball reflections dancing on her face. She leans up to my ear and whispers in it, her breath tickling my ear and sending goosebumps down my arm.

“Nicole, thanks for bringing me tonight I’m really glad we didn’t miss this.”

The song ends and we pull away our smiles matching one another’s. At that moment Champ Hardy saunters up to us eyeing Waverly.

“Care to have the next dance with a handsome man?”

Pfft. As if he’s handsome. Waverly smiles sweetly at him, too sweetly, so sweetly it’s sour and it makes me grin.

“I don’t really see one around here.”

She’s turning her head and looking around the room.

“Plus, I already have a date.”

“What? You mean with her?”

He gestures at me disgustedly and I roll my eyes.

“Absolutely with her. Are you just jealous because you couldn’t manage to get a date, Champ?”

“Of course I could get a date!”

He scoffs, giving Waverly a look I only imagine should come from a petulant child.

“I just chose to keep my options open for the night.”

“Well, Champ, I’m not one of those options so move on.”

“So you’d rather dance with ginger over here? A friend instead of a guy? Totally weird, Waverly.”

“Yes, a good friend. Best friend.”

Waverly teases, pulling my by the arm until I am flush up against her body. She pulls me in for a deep kiss. Breaking it and leaving me stunned, she looks back at Champ.

“Gal pals. Now, saunter back on off and find yourself another girl to dance with, won’t you? I bet Steph is just dying for you to ask her.”

“Dancing with her would be far less disgusting than dancing with you.”

He leaves without another comment and Waverly bursts into laughter.

“Champ Hardy is such a dick.”

“That he is, but you handled that jackass wonderfully.”

“It’s a skill.”

“One of many.”

“You’re so sweet to me, Nicole. Now stop talking and start dancing, I like the way your body feels against mine. Plus, if you’re really good I’ll make sure you get really lucky after the all the dancing.”

She has to literally drag me back to the dance floor because all I want to do is go home and get her out of that beautiful dress.

As always, I’m in trouble.

Chapter Text

“So, spill the beans! How as the dance? Any little assholes I need to go crack over the head with a pipe mob style?”

My Mom swings her arm up in the air then back down, mimicking the action of swinging the aforementioned pipe. We’re all sitting at the table eating breakfast together the morning following the prom.

“Aren’t mob men more privy to ice picks?”

“Or guns…or really any weapon I imagine,” Waverly interjects.

“I could ice pick them, should you prefer that method, Nicole. Ice pick lobotomy. I’ll even steal $25 from them afterwards.”

“Okay, simmer down there down there Dr. Freeman. There is no need for any ice pick lobotomies, sadly for you, Waverly pretty much handled all the idiots with her own brilliant, and non-violent, methods.”

I smile at Waverly over my bowl of Cheerios before dipping my head down to continue eating. She beams at my mother with pride and a little milk escapes her mouth dribbling down the corner of her chin. I lean my hand to her face and scoop up the dribble with my index finger. She flashes me an embarrassed smile as I let my hand linger on her cheek.

“Okay you two, enough. Enough. Are you waiting for the suspense to kill me? I’ve already been waiting for…”

She looks down at her wrist to check her watch and her face shifts into what I call her “calculating face” which she only ever uses while doing math. So not often, because my mother abhors math and tries to avoid it at all costs.

“12 hours, 26 minutes and 32…33…34…etc. seconds! Give me the goods. Now. This is not a request.”

“It’s not a democracy, it’s a dictatorship?” I offer, grinning at her impatience.

“Exactly! Finally you bother to understand this. It’s only taken 18 years. You’re so slow in grasping important concepts. Now, stop stalling and tell me everything.”

“Well,” Waverly begins. “Our first sign of trouble was with the class idiot and rodeo clown Champ Hardy.”

She goes on to explain to my mother the incident between us and Champ.

“So to shut him up I just leaned in and kissed Nicole like he wasn’t even in the room.”

“Oooh, drama! I bet that pissed him off. Nice job, kid.”

“Yep! He’s had a thing for me for a while, I think, but he can shove off. I don’t date morons who think I need to turn my brain off simply because they cannot turn their brains on.”

“A good life philosophy. Anything else happen?”

“Yeah, we were accosted by several more dingleberries with either rude or leering remarks. I just handled them all the same way by grabbing Nicole and kissing her. It’s stupid to let disrespectful people ruin what should be a great night. At least one person didn’t seem to care that we were a couple. My friend Chrissy came over and patted my back telling me she’s glad we finally admitted we are together.”

“She knew?”

“Yep, apparently. She said we looked at each other with ‘heart eyes’ and she was surprised the rest of the school was too dumb to realize. My guess is that they were just too bigoted to consider it a possibility.”

Waverly shrugs, as if she has no idea what it means to give “heart eyes”. I am sure somewhere in her big and beautiful brain she’s trying to figure out a way to describe “heart eyes” logically and with chemicals.

“I’m glad you two had a good night, though, and that you didn’t let the negativity of small minded people ruin your evening. What did you do after the dance, unless it’s all dirty, then please feel free to spare me. In fact, I insist you spare me if that’s the case.”

“We actually cut out of the dance pretty early, not because of the other student’s reactions, but because the music was so horrid.”

“Oh my gosh, Mom, it was so bad. The junior class was supposed to do fundraisers and stuff to cover the senior prom. I think the junior class at Purgatory High are a bunch of lazy jerkwads because the decorations were literally nothing but swatches of black velvet strewn haphazardly about. As well as a disco ball…at the 'opera' . Oh, and there were these cheap plastic Phantom of the Opera masks. Waverly made me wear mine almost the entire evening and I am really surprised I didn’t wake up with a rash. The music was the worst. I think they just had one of the kids from the AV club come try to DJ. He was way too into it, though, and instead of just allowing a crappy song to play over the speakers in its natural state he would scratch on the record table and try to remix it. Which really just made the whole thing squeal and screech through the speakers. Did I mention none of the music was from an opera at all? Not that I am a particular fan of opera music, per se, but it would have been a hell of a lot better than what we got. For example, the last slow dance song we were there for was Every Rose Has Its Thorns by Poison. Which ended up sounding like so,”

I catch my breath from my winded rant about prom to sing her the lovely version of the song we heard last night.

“Evvvverrryyy roseee chicka chicka chicka screeeeeeech hassss it’s squealllllll thorns!”

“Waverly,” my mother looks over at her “please tell me that the actual song wasn’t as bad as Nicole’s rendition? Please? My ear drums have burst. I am bleeding from the ears. You’ll soon see the trickles of blood.”

“I’m afraid I have to tell you it was actually far, far worse. It might be the most awful thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Yikes,” my mother covers her ears as if the thought of the horrors of this song will be enough to make her deaf for life. “So I assuming this is why you escaped?”

“Pretty much, we ran for the hills and went bowling.”

“Bowling? Nicole. You took your girlfriend in her beautiful dress bowling on prom night? I did not raise you right. I need a mulligan. We need to time travel back early enough so that I have a chance at fixing you.”

She swats at me before turning her full attention to Waverly.

“You let her take you bowling?!”

“We needed something to do, and they were one of the few places open that also served food,” Waverly responds, sheepishly.

“Please, please, please tell me you have pictures with you two weirdos in those beautiful dresses and the ridiculous clown bowling shoes?”

“Of course, Mom, took them just for you.”

“Maybe there is some hope for you, after all. Jury is out. Show me the pictures and they can give their deliberation afterwards.”

She reaches out towards my phone making a grabbing motion with her hands.

“Be patient, mother! I have to pull up the folder. You’re like a child sometimes, I swear. Maybe I should have raised you better.”

“Eh,” she shrugs “Maybe, but it’s too late to mend my ways now.”

When I have the folder with the prom pictures up on my phone my mother hastily and greedily grabs the phone from my hand and it almost drops between us but she catches it at the last moment.

“I should be an Olympian with my quick reflexes,” she boasts.

“I’ll put you forward as a candidate as soon as I have my phone back.”

“Awesome, I’ll bring us the gold. 100% confidence.”

She starts flipping through the pictures and smiling at the selfies Waverly and I took at the dance, laughing about the shots I collected of the shoddy decorations and the kid sitting at the DJ table. She must have finally reached the bowling pictures because her laugh goes from a chuckle into full blown hunched over laughter.

“The jury is back, Nicole. There is hope for you yet! You two look so outrageous.”

“What picture is it?”

She turns the phone towards me and I let out a laugh remembering the moment that picture was taken. Waverly had run up to one of the attendants asking if he could take a picture for us so we could get the full body shot for my mother. We’d thrown our hands up in the air and were looking at one another with the biggest grins on our faces. We looked like the happiest two people in the whole word, in the middle of the bowling alley with fancy dresses and red, white and blue bowling shoes. I think it might be my favourite photo.

“Please take this and get me a printed copy, at least a 5x7, but I’d prefer an 8x10. This little gem needs to go on up in the living room immediately. I’ll tell everyone who comes over you two were too cheap to buy nice heels to match your dresses so you stole shoes from a bowling alley for your prom night. It’s perfect.”

“That sounds like something we would do.”

I look over at Waverly and she nods at my statement and smiles.

“In all seriousness, though, did you girls have a good night?”

A grin breaks across my face, dimples in full display when I take a moment to think back on the night.

“I can think of only a few that top last night, actually.”

I look over at Waverly again and her eyes darken as she sucks her lower lip into her mouth, something she seems to have picked up from me as of late.

“Me either,” she said without breaking eye contact.

“No eye sex at the kitchen table, you two! Gross. Get a room.”

“Oh, we already have one,” I say to her with a wink and a grin.

Waverly is blushing now, all the way from her cheeks up the tip of her ears, but her eyes are still dark and stormy and her lower lip is still safely tucked into her mouth. I know she’s thinking about the night we had when we finally got back home, just as I am. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of thinking about the way Waverly’s face changed as she came apart beneath me. She always moved her hand from the tangled sheets to grab my mine just as she is diving over the edge, desperately seeking a full connection. Last night was no exception, and the squeezing of her hand and her body around me was nirvana for me, and the only place I ever wanted to be. At the same time, when I was under her tongue, well, that was….something else entirely but just as delicious and mind blowing. Everything about being with her made me feel like I was at home and that my home was a palace floating on cloud nine.

“Woah now,” my mother’s voice cuts into my thoughts. “Maybe you two should go take a very, very cold shower separately and then come down here afterwards and we’ll go shopping.”

“S-shopping?”

My mind is struggling to leave the gutter, which I find I don’t mind. It could live there forever for all I care.

“Yes, you know that thing where we go to a building that has a vast collection of varying stores, we look at pretty things and then we exchange sheaves of government issued paper for the goods we find really pretty?”

“Right. Shopping. Why exactly are we going shopping?”

I look over to Waverly, but she’s still quite lost in her thoughts, which brings a small smile to my face.

“Because, daughter, neither of you have a suitable outfit for graduation in two weeks. Furthermore, I want to. Bonus, we can go to the food court and buy one dish from each place. It will be a total delight. We can see who will get food poisoning first.”

“That sounds really healthy, Mom.”

“It is, trust me, I’m an adult. I know these things. Plus, I do what I want.”

“Oh yeah, you’re the realest adult I’ve ever met,” I scoff at her.

“You bet I am. Waverly!”

My mother, the adult, flings a soggy Cheerio at Waverly hitting her square on the forehead.

“Snap out of it, kid!”

“Huh…Oh. Sorry, I was thinking about…”

“I know what you were thinking about, Waverly Earp!”

Waverly’s blush turns from light pink to crimson and I flash a shit-eating grin at her silently mouthing “busted!” She blows out a sigh and won’t meet my mother’s eyes.

“Now, you get upstairs and take a cold shower immediately. We are going shopping and I don’t need you going off to sex land while we’re in public.”

“Sex Land? Really, Mom?”

“It’s a totally appropriate name, I think.”

Waverly silent gets up, running her bowl to the sink before purposefully retreating up the stairs.

My mother laughs and tosses her thumb over her shoulder indicating to the area where Waverly had just been.

“I got her good! I bet she comes downstairs still blushing.”

“A bet I will not be taking”

“Wuss.”

“I don’t like losing.”

“Touché, kid. You and me both. Hey, giraffe?”

“Yeah, Mom?”

“You happy?”

I look at her, wondering. What an odd question. I know she can see that I’m really happy here, and immeasurably happy with Waverly. I figure if she needs verbal reassurance, then it’s the very least I can do for her after everything she’s done for Waverly and me the last several months.

“Happier than I can put into words, Mom, thanks.”

“Good idea to move?”

“Best idea to move.”

She reaches out and ruffles my hair, quickly changing the subject again.

“I bet it’s going to be you that goes all Linda Blair in The Exorcist after our food court shenanigans.”

“No way, I was trained to eat by you. It won’t be me, for sure.”

“Yeah, but you’re all weird now and you go exercise at the gym and you willingly eat salads. What happened to the kid I raised who removed the lettuce and tomato off her burger so as not to taint the essence of a wonderful bacon cheeseburger?”

“I guess she grew up a little, but I promise to remove them next time I have a bacon cheeseburger, deal?”

“Deal. I’ll finally recognize you again.”

“It’s been 84 years…”

“Can you still smell the fresh paint, Rose? Has the china never been used? Have the sheets never been slept in? I must know! The suspense is killing me!”

“I’ll never tell,” I say as I make a gesture of sealing my lips with my hand over my mouth.

“Nicole! I have a brilliant plan. When we get home we should make Waverly watch Titanic with us. If she doesn’t leave you after you’ve done your usual reenactment of the ship sinking and the rest of the Titanic Haught-style experience you’ll know you’re safe forever.”

“Alright, let’s put her to the test. If she survives a shopping and mall food court extravaganza with you on top Titanic she’ll one hundred percent prove that she’s a keeper, even though I already know she is.”

“Such a sap. Ew.”

“I learned from you,” I shout as I grab my dishesl and make a beeline towards the sink, quickly washing them.

“Ugh. Don’t get caught up doing any extracurricular activities, Nicole. You both better be down here and ready to depart in twenty minutes or I am coming up there with the frying pans.”

“Twenty minutes, got it. Scout’s honour.”

“Or the frying pans,” I hear her shout as I bound up the stairs.

I hurry up stairs to the bathroom, stripping in record time and climb into the shower with Waverly."

"So," I grin at her wolfishly. "We have about fifteen minutes before we need to get out of here to get dressed."

"Did she threaten to come up with the pans again?"

"You bet your beautifully sexy ass she did."

"They were really loud last time."

"Mmm, yes they were," I acknowledge as I lean in to kiss her. She moans into the kiss and kisses me back fervently.

"Fourteen minutes," I say, my voice nearly choking in my throat as Waverly's hand travels down my body.

"Then we better make the best of all fourteen of them," she whispers in my ear as her hand finds purchase exactly where I need it to be.

Twenty-one minutes later has Waverly and I nearly ready, but not quite. As it turns out, putting jeans on shaky legs is no easy task.

We both groan as we hear the frying pans smacking together. The noise is drawing closer and closer to our bedroom door and we know we are busted. We hustle through the door and my mother grins widely at us, smacking the pans together one last time.

I hope Waverly and I survive this day.

Chapter Text

I had just come in from a long run and I was feeling refreshed and exhilarated. I make my way up the stairs and down the hallway to my bedroom to grab a fresh towel and clothes to bring to the bathroom so I can take a shower. When I arrive at the door I find it slightly ajar. Through the crack I see Waverly dancing and a smile comes to my face.

She has her iPod in her hand, the bright red headphone cord extending from it to the buds placed in her ears. The lyrics have obviously just started because Waverly begins to sing along.

Ho! Hey! Ho! Hey!

She moves the iPod in her hand up towards her lips using it as a makeshift microphone and I laugh silently at how adorable she’s being.

I’ve been trying to do it right
(Hey!) I’ve been living a lonely life
(Ho!) I’ve been sleeping here instead
(Hey!) I’ve been sleeping in my bed.
(Ho!) Sleeping in my bed.
(Hey!)

Her hips are moving back and forth so fluidly and perfectly in sync with the flow and ebb of the song. I, for my part, am absolutely mesmerized by the amazing girl I get to share my life with.

So show me family

She takes her “microphone” and points it at a picture on our nightstand, one of her, my mother and me. My heart melts at the idea that Waverly thinks of us as her family now. I certainly consider her part of mine and I have for a while.

(Hey!) All the blood that I would bleed
(Ho!) I don’t know where I belong
(Hey!) I don’t know where I went wrong
(Ho!) But I can write a song.
(Hey!)

The beat of the song begins to pick up and, thus, so does Waverly’s movements. She incorporates her shoulders into the actions and soon her whole body is swaying with the beat of the song. She moves the iPod right up to her mouth and belts out the chorus.

1, 2, 3
I belong with you, you belong with me you’re my sweetheart.
I belong with you, you belong with me you’re my sweet.

It was wonderful listening to Waverly’s voice like this. Of course I’d heard her sing before. Generally, however, it was in the car along with the track playing. Hearing her with no distractions singing freely and dancing like nobody was watching (which, of course, in her mind nobody was) I couldn’t help falling more in love with her. Her free spirit was something I admired immensely and it shined through so brilliantly in her melodic singing and rhythmic dancing. She fit so perfectly in this moment that it took my breath away. It’s as if this one moment encompassed all of her and yet nothing at all.

I don’t think you’re right for him.
(Hey!) Look at what it might have been
(Ho!) Took a bus to China Town
(Hey!) I’d be standing on Canal
(Ho!) And Bowery
(Hey!)
(Ho!) And she’d be standing next to me
(Hey!)

Suddenly the enormous desire to have Waverly in my arms as she dances and sings along with the remainder of the song washes over me like a tidal wave. I finally push the door all the way open and enter our bedroom. She doesn’t notice, the music in her ears much too loud. As I wrap my arms around her waist from behind she jumps up in the air causing her iPod to fly out of her hand on onto the floor, ripping the headphones out of her ears and the iPod in the process.

“Oh my gosh, babe, I am so sorry I didn’t mean to startle you like that,” I say between bouts of laughter.

“Nicole, my goodness, you scared the livin’ daylights outta me.”

Her hand is over her heart, as if simply placing it there can calm the roaring thunder.

“I know, baby, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to, honest ,” I respond with my most soft and soothing voice.

I lean down and place a long kiss on her forehead before bending over further and collecting her iPod. I push play and the song begins again.

“Dance with me, Waverly Earp?”

Her smile matches my own as she takes my extended hand and I pull her flush against my body I bow my head down to her ear, brush my lips against it in a brief kiss and whisper out the chorus which causes goosebumps to run down the length of her arm.

I belong with you, you belong with me you’re my sweetheart.
I belong with you, you belong with me you’re my sweet.

I pull my lips away from her ear when she shivers and smile at her. She steps up on her toes a bit in and kisses the dimple on my cheek. She begins to rock her body more steadily against mine and my mind goes blank. It’s absolutely exquisite the way her body melds against my own. It’s as if every nerve ending in my body is screaming for her touch. She commences to sing along with me.

Love. We need it now.
Let’s hope for some
‘Cause, oh, we’re bleeding out
We both belt out the last part of the chorus at the top of our lungs, huge smiles plastering our faces.
I belong with you, you belong with me, you’re my sweetheart.
I belong with you, you belong with me, you’re my sweet.
(Ho!)
(Hey!)
(Ho!)
(The last one)
(Hey!)

I extend my arm out over our heads and spin Waverly around before pulling her and her musical laughter back into my body.

“Dare I ask you how long you were watching at the door, you creep?”

“Just about….the entire time.”

“The entire time…right. Of course.”

She dips her head low. She’s clearly a bit embarrassed. I raise my right hand from where it’s wrapped around her waist and nudge her chin up gently so I can see her eyes.

“Don’t be embarrassed. It was beautiful,” I let out a small sigh. “You…you are beautiful.”

As the blush darkens on her cheeks I lean down to kiss her, gently walking us both back towards the bed. Her legs hit the bed and she falls into a seated position breaking our kiss. She looks up at me with a delirious smile. Her eyes drift down my face to my lips as she reaches out and pulls me down to her by my waist, effectively dragging me on top of her. As we move together further onto the bed, Waverly’s lips never leaving mine I can’t help but think…

Damn if I’m not the luckiest girl in the world.

Chapter Text

“Yeah, baby girl!”

I scan the crowd for the shouting voice that interrupts Waverly’s Valedictorian speech. Not finding it, I glance over to Waverly on the podium and she looks at me. The smile that plays on her lips briefly before she continues her speech tells me she knows exactly who that voice belongs to.

Waverly’s speech is brilliant, of course, because Waverly wrote and she’s speaking it with her adorable eloquence. It’s witty, moving and in certain sections an underhanded but poignant “fuck you” to Purgatory High and the majority of our classmates. If they notice, they don’t react. I suspect the overall IQ of the population of this school is too miniscule to notice Waverly’s comments as anything but sincere and sweet—what they’ve come to expect from the girl herself. I, however, see the smirk the quirks up the corner of her lips as she says them and know differently. I couldn’t be more proud of her than I am in this moment.

Apparently, neither can the female voice coming from the crowed. Whoops and hollers are coming after every snarky remark Waverly dishes out. Yet the person is hidden amongst the crowd, much to my chagrin. It seems to me now that Waverly’s voice is progressing through words faster and faster as if she’s desperately trying to finish the speech to get off that stage and into the crowd to find the voice. She’s the last keynote speaker before we are supposed to throw our caps up and get the hell out of this school for good.

She finishes the speech and the principal comes up briefly to say we’ve all graduated (I thought the empty diploma cover we’d already received indicated that) and we toss our hats into the air. Everyone except Waverly, who simply runs off the stage in the direction she heard the voice. I grab my cap quickly and rush after her.

When I arrive at Waverly she’s excitedly hugging a dark haired girl who is slightly taller than her. When she breaks the hug and notices me she waves me over and grabs my hand to pull me the last couple of feet.

“Wynonna, this is my girlfriend Nicole the one I wrote to you about. Nicole, this is my sister Wynonna.”

Oh shit, so this was the infamous sister. I extend my hand towards her and she shakes it with a firm grip before looking back over to Waverly.

“Well, she’s sure polite.”

Had I offended her? Her tone would suggest yes but the sparkle in her eyes would suggest she’s pulling my chain.

“Well, my mother is here and if she caught me being rude to Waverly’s sister she’d throw me in the Trunchbull’s chokey for a week.”

A grin breaks across Wynonna’s features, accentuating a small dimple and she looks down at Waverly.

“You would pick a girl who uses Matilda references in a first meeting.”

She gently punches Waverly’s shoulder and I know I’m in the clear, releasing a small sigh of relief.

“So, where have you been all this time?”

“Greece,” Wynonna responds slowly as if she knows the answer will shake Waverly a bit. Waverly has always dreamed of going to Greece. If she’s bothered by her sister’s whereabouts, she doesn’t let on, keeping a steady smile on her face.

"Πώς ήταν η Ελλάδα"

Waverly asks, and both Wynonna and I stare at one another blankly.

“Jeez, Wave I was there for the beach and the booze not the language. Mind helping a girl out?”

Wynonna juts her bottom lip out in the most exaggeratedly fake pout I’ve ever seen and I have to stifle a laugh at the image.

“How was Greece?”

“Did I mention the beaches and the booze?”

“You didn’t, I don’t know, go to Athens and see the Parthenon or go to the ruins at Delphi…nothing?”

Waverly looked flabbergasted at her sister and the expression on her face was absolutely delightful.

“Hmm…ancient ruins….or staring at hot guys on the beach…with lots of booze? Which sounds more like me, baby girl?”

“Beaches and booze,” Waverly mumbles sadly.

I squeeze Waverly’s hand and flash a reassuring smile at her as we’re all called back to our seats by the principal to view the senior video. Weeks ago we had to submit our senior photo as well as a baby picture to be presented in said video. My mother had a great time suggesting photos of me for the video.

“Why not turn this one in?”

The mischievous grin on her face had made me laugh. I was, of course, only in a diaper, sucking my thumb, flaming red hair all over, the spitting image of Albert Einstein’s, and I washolding onto my stuffed giraffe for dear life, stunned look on my face.

“No!”

“Aw, come on! It looks just like you. This is the expression your face always has to date! At least you outgrew the thumb sucking.”

“You sucked your thumb?” Waverly asked with a chuckle. My mother proceeded to shove the photographic evidence into her hand with a conspiratorial grin.

“Also, check out her right thumb. Have you ever noticed she has a hitchhiker’s thumb on her left hand but her right hand thumb is poker straight? That’s right, she sucked the damn thumb straight. Which, laughably enough, is the only straight thing about my kid.”

I curled both my thumbs into the fists of my hand and put them behind my back away from Waverly as she reached her relatively short arms out to try to pull my hands back in front of me.

“I’ll never let you see my hands again, Waverly Earp.”

“Well, that’s a cryin’ shame.”

She winked at me and my mouth went dry.

“Okay, children, still right here. Right here! Let’s keep this G rated as there is no adult here to parentally guide you.”

In the end we settled for a picture that was outrageous, but at least I was wearing a shirt and wasn’t sucking my thumb. My mother insisted the giraffe was in the picture, not that it was hard, that stuffed giraffe was in all my kid pictures.

Waverly had picked a photo of her looking absolutely charming. She was less than a year old but that trademark Waverly Earp grin was plastered on her face. Also on her face was a huge pair of Ray Bans and, I shit you not, she had two thumbs sticking way up like the Fonz. Damn if I didn’t love this girl to pieces even more after seeing that photo.

So you can imagine my disappointment when I didn’t see that awesome photo in our senior video. Mine wasn’t there, either, as if we’d purposefully been left out together. I wasn’t too upset, after all, I’d only been in this school and in this school district for a year. I was incredibly angry, however, that Waverly had been left out of her own senior video. Waverly, who charmed everyone with a smile and wave, and had been doing so in this school district her entire life. Of course, since it is Stephanie the bitch that is editor of the journalism class who was tasked at putting this video together, I knew our absence was completely deliberate. It appears Wynonna realized this too, as not one second after the video ended she was storming towards Stephanie’s direction with a fiery look in her eyes. I was waiting for Stephanie to self-immolate on the spot and Waverly was rushing over, presumably to stop Wynonna before she got herself into trouble.

We arrived behind Wynonna as she had her arm pulled back, hand in a fist.

“Hey so, guys, mind dropping by the police station to bail me out in a few hours?”

She said it with a grin, clearly not phased at the prospect of being arrested.

Before Waverly could get out her full protest, Stephanie was flat on her back on the gym floor clutching her jaw and security was coming over to detain Wynonna.

My mom arrived just as Wynonna was being hauled off.

“That your sister?”
“Yep….”

“She punch the girl because you two weren’t in the video?”

“Yep…”

“Good for her. I think I’m gonna like that girl already. So I guess you two don’t wanna go to that senior party after all, do ya?”

“Nope.”

“Alrighty then. Guess we oughta go bail her out.”

“Yep,” Waverly stated with a resigned sigh and grabbed my hand dragging me towards the exit of our high school careers.

That is how Waverly Earp and I spent our graduation night sitting at the police station.

Chapter Text

To say spending the evening of your high school graduation in the waiting room of a police station is strange would be an understatement. I imagine most kids spend it at the senior party, totally wasted, or burning cardboard cutouts of their least favourite teachers. Then again, Waverly and I have never been like most kids, so this seems improbably fitting.

Nearly a half an hour into our waiting experience, Waverly whips out a To-Go version of Scrabble and I know I am doomed. Meanwhile, my mother is watching The Last Starfighter on her phone. So, naturally, to distract myself by how horribly I am losing at this game of Scrabble, I poke fun at her.

“The Last Starfighter Mom, really? How did you even get a digital copy of that movie?”

She looks at me thoughtfully for a moment before a grin slowly spreads across her features. Shit.

“Let me educate you, my child. In the 1960s research began in the world of computing, the foundations for said research had already been laid, of course, but this is when they really started looking into how to connect computers together. By the 1980s, that research was put into use in a glorious way that allowed for connectivity between computers. It’s astounding! I believe you kids call it THE INTERNET these days. So, me being the tech savvy lady I am, I went into THE GOOGLE and searched for “awesome movie” and voila, I am now watching this gem on my little internet connected device here.”

She waves her phone at me for emphasis and I roll my eyes at her.

“Do you watch anything that was put out after the 1980s?”

“Well, kid, I try not to. Why would I bother when I wouldn’t be able to see hairstyles like this in those new-fangled films?”

She turns her phone around to me with a freeze frame of a close-up of the main character Alex Rogan’s face and crazy mane of curly hair.

“You have a point,” I concede.

“Waverly, darling, please tell me you are kicking Nicole’s butt?”

I grunt in response to her question and stare down at the tiny Scrabble board as Waverly turns her head to my mother and smiles brightly.

“Just a little bit,” she winks at her and turns to see my face looking, I imagine, quite sullen.

“I am convinced some of the words she’s used aren’t actually real,” I mumble out.

Waverly then reaches into her backpack and pulls out a tome of a dictionary and hands it over to me with a smug grin on her face.

“See for yourself, Haught-shot.”

“Ugh, really? What is that name, even? You have come up with a lot of names involving my last name but that one has to be the worst.”

Her grin only grows wider and I put the dictionary down on my lap, knowing I’ve been defeated.

I smile brilliantly at her and my mother.

“She may be winning, however, she has not managed this epic feat!” I point down at the board where on one side of the word scramble I have placed the word “Puppy” and on the other side the word “Dog”.

“Oh, congratulations Nicole. 12 years of schooling and you’ve managed to come up with ‘puppy dog’, you sure know how to make a mother proud.”

I take a small bow, which makes Waverly laugh as she is placing down yet another insane word.

“Well, Nicole IS a puppy dog, so it’s kinda fitting,” she supplies helpfully to my mother.

My retort is cut off by an officer dragging someone down the hallway. Turning my head I see that it is Champ Hardy, looking very obviously drunk.

“Booked for drunk and disorderly already, Hardy? How did you even manage that? Graduation hasn’t even been over that long.”

He smiles stupidly and opens his graduation gown to reveal a little pocket sewn in which holds a flask.

“Well, that certainly explains everything,” Waverly states flatly. “Hope they don’t put that idiot in the cage with Wynonna or she’ll deck him, too, and we’ll really be here forever.”

Several hours later has us all back at home, Wynonna bailed out and snoring softly on our couch following a movie. To say that Wynonna and Waverly have vastly differing dispositions would certainly be an understatement. However, their connection seems quite deep despite the distance between them and the time they’ve spent apart. It warms my heart to see Waverly so happy, despite how our graduation night unfolded.

We’re now lying in bed, Waverly’s head placed gently on the crook of my shoulder, her bare leg crossing both of mine. I’m playing in her beautiful hair and smiling contentedly.

“You have an okay day, Waverly Earp?” I ask her, barely above a whisper.

“I bet some people would consider the day we’ve had to be a crappy, but for me, it was perfect. I know it seems weird, but the whole thing just seems so fitting and certainly unlike other people’s experiences. It feels like it is entirely ours, I guess. Is that peculiar?”

I kiss the top of her head before responding.

“Not weird at all, love.”

“You want to know my favourite part of the whole day?”

“What’s that, Wave?”

“This moment right here. I’ve been spending a lot of time looking forward to getting away from this town, to moving on to university, to seeing more of the world. I guess that’s only the natural thing to do on graduation day—look ahead. I’ve lived here my entire life, I’ve literally never left the county. Yet, this place has never felt like home to me. Laying here right now, however, I just realized that sometimes ‘home’ isn’t a place, it’s a person, it’s a sound, it is an idea. Well, my home is the sound of your heart beat, the crook of your shoulder, the feel of your skin, the beauty of your smile, the way you anchor me to Earth with your hand on my forearm when we kiss, it’s the colour of your hair which always reminds me of a gorgeous sunset. I thought having my sister back in town would make this place feel more like home, it would remind me of our childhood or something, and don’t get me wrong, I am so excited she’s here…but it doesn’t make this town feel more like home to me because my home is you and that’s all I need.”

Even in the dim light of the bedroom, illuminated only by a light outside, I can see the blush creeping across her beautiful cheeks.

“I guess that was a lot of words to say such a simple thing; that it’s you, Nicole, you’re my home. You’re my safe space. So this day has been perfect, because it’s entirely ours and I can’t imagine sharing its oddity with anyone else.”

I pull her closer to me and entwine the fingers of my free hand with hers. Her words make me feel as if I am going to float up into the atmosphere any second now, I allow her hand to be an anchor. I place a kiss on her forehead. Staring down at her lips I whisper my response to her softly.

“You’re my home, too, Waverly Earp.
”
I slide my hand from hers and run it up to her forearm as I kiss her, grounding us both, and thinking I’ve never been happier than I am in this moment. Perfection.

Chapter Text

I wish I could say Waverly and I had as beautiful a summer as we had hoped on our graduation night. Unfortunately, long stretches of time oftentimes leave their undesired mark across the fabric of people’s lives.

She got into the ivy league university she applied to, of course, why wouldn’t she with a brain like hers? Yet she was willing to settle for a smaller university to remain with me, which weighed heavily on my mind. Why should she give up a full-ride and a chance to soar simply to be held down by an anchor?

To say I love Waverly Earp more than I imagined I could ever love anyone or anything would be an understatement. I would give up the entire world and more just to see a smile on her face for five seconds. I also know over the summer I was unable to show her that. So concerned was I with feeling like I was dragging her down rather than helping her to soar that I felt myself unintentionally pulling away from her. It was almost as if I was DARING her to leave me. I was showing her the worst version of myself. Was I mean to her? No. Was I abusive in anyway? No. Did I think any less of her beautiful soul, generous heart, or gorgeous body? Heavens no, I never would be able to do that. At the same time, I knew I was being distant. This overwhelming fear I had in me that I would be her last great adventure took hold so deep in me I couldn’t see anything else. I never wanted to be a person that dragged her down, I wanted to be the helium that made her soar. I wanted to be the reason she smiled in the morning and the reason she had sweet dreams at night. I could have been. I still could be. Now that I have lost it all, I see so clearly the things I could have done differently to make sure she felt supported and make sure she had the life she deserved.

Now she’s at that Ivy League school and I am a thousand miles away wishing I hadn’t messed everything up so royally. It’s terrifying what fear can do to a person. How it can make you shy away. How it can make you feel like you aren’t what is best for a person even though you know in your heart you are. You know you are because once it’s done and over the haze is lifted from your eyes and you see so vividly what you’ve done. That’s what hurts the most. I see so clearly everything I did, and I know it’s not me. I am not that person. I am the person who would give up everything to support her. I am the person who believes she’s the centre of the universe and the rest of the world revolves around her. I am the person who will love her until my dying breath. But I failed. I failed so badly at showing her this because I was so entrenched in fear that I wasn’t good enough, that I would be holding her back, that she wouldn’t have the life she deserved if I was part of it, that I didn’t show her these things. I didn’t show her how important she was and is to me. I stopped showing her she was the centre of the universe and I let this black cloud that hung around me engulf me and lead me to believe that it was the centre of the universe, essentially replacing the sun of her with the black hole of how far I’d fallen.

I’ve managed to crawl out, and I see everything with such clarity now. I feel it so strongly...and it is crushing me. She doesn’t see the light in me anymore, she only sees the darkness and believes that is all I am and all I am capable of now. The problem is, I do not know where to begin to show her I am through that and I will never make that mistake again. Part of me worries, and maybe even knows, that it’s too late to show her this. It’s too late to fix the mistakes I’ve made, even though they were never intentional. It’s too late to show her I am the person she fell for, not the person she left. I’ve ruined everything.

And she’s a thousand miles away and I don’t know how to fix it.

She’s a thousand miles away, with my heart in her hand.

And I don’t know how to fix it.

All I know is I wish I’d never fallen into that rut.

Because now that I’ve dug myself out, it’s too late.

Because she’s a thousand miles away.

And I’m here without my home.

Chapter Text

The months dragged on and on and I was nearly finished with my first year of university. I hadn't heard from or seen Waverly since the day I watched her walk away in the pouring rain. I'd be lying to myself if I said it got easier. I'd be lying to myself if I said it didn't. The searing pain of the beginning was simply replaced with a dull ache that mostly found me during late night study sessions.

I didn't connect with anyone at university. I put everything I had into my studies and found when they weren't there to distract me my mind was full with thoughts I couldn't quite cope with despite the passing of time. Troubling me chiefly now, of course, was that Waverly would soon be returning from her first year. Returning to this small town where there certainly wasn't enough space for both of us to breathe. My mother had informed me that Waverly's father had skipped town and Waverly had contacted her asking, in her bubbly Waverly manner, her to move Waverly's meager belongings that she didn't bring to university back to the house she grew up in. The house crammed with bad memories. It hurt my brain to consider that perhaps her most painful memories no longer lay within that house, but within mine.

I've struggled to put a finger on what the exact feeling swirling around me was, but after many nights of quiet contemplation, I figured out it must be shame.

Shame.

Something I'd never really experienced. I'd always been so sure of myself, so steadfast, oozing confidence. Most people managed five seconds of insane courage and I could manage five minutes. I realized, though, that I ran away. Long before it was actually over. For the life of me I can't recall the reasons I thought it so imperative to escape the happiness and the warmth of Waverly's embrace. Some idiotic notion of doing the right thing, not holding her back. I never asked her, though. Not once. That's where the shame comes in. My mother never taught me to be a selfish person and yet, on a cold rainy night I was, and I crushed the happiness of two people. Maybe even three. I've not seen my mother watch a Tom Cruise movie since. No doubt she misses Waverly constantly chiding her about it, but she won't say that to me.

My mind is clouded in a way I hoped it wouldn't be as I walk to my last final of the year, New Order blaring in my headphones.

But Waverly would be home soon, and it was only a matter of time before I ran into her.

--

And run into her I literally did.

Two weeks later in the middle of the produce aisle at the grocery store.

Singing along Just Like Heaven a little too loudly to be a considered a whisper.

Maybe even dancing a little, but I'll never tell.

Just a little.

Daylight licked me into shape
I must have been asleep for days
And moving lips to breathe her name
I opened up my eyes
And found myself alone, alone, alone above a raging sea
That stole the only girl I loved and drowned her deep inside of me

And with those words on my lips, I ran into the only girl I ever loved. And proceeded to drop apples all over the aisle and, maybe just maybe I tripped on one.

Just a little.

I might have fallen flat on my ass, dragging her down with me. As light as she is, I felt like her weight cracked my pelvis. It took us both a second to recognize who we'd collided with. Both our eyes going wide. I'd argue that the fall knocked the wind of of me, but I'd be lying to myself. It was her. My god, she looked so goddamn beautiful. Her hair was shorter now, cut just above her shoulders and falling in soft curls. She was wearing those high waisted jeans and floral midriff shirts she's always been so fond of on hot days, but despite how captivating that was, my eyes were caught in the swirl of hers. For a moment they were open books, the pages flying by. I'll forever curse myself for blinking, because that brief moment is all it took for that book to close and her eyes to turn indifferent.

Indifference.

Always her coping mechanism.

"S-sorry, so you're...so I'm...beautiful."

That's what came out of my mouth. That garbled fucking mess. Mentally, I was slapping the shit out of myself.

"You're beautiful?" she quirked her eyebrow up.

"I...no. That's...I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I knocked you over. And you...you're beautiful. Not me. I'm...a mess. I'm s-sorry."

Nice going. Confidence level 0. Awkwardness level 5,000.

It occurred to me that this very moment that were both still sprawled out on the, probably very dirty, linoleum floor. Her warmth was settling over me, though, and I had a hard time convincing myself that I should get up.

"It's no problem," she said, seeming to lack my inability to remove myself from the floor. She stood up hastily and I was left looking up at her as if she hung the stars in the sky (and I am fairly certain she did).

"Uh huh...okay, yeah, sorry. Sorry."

"Nicole. It's fine. Now would you get up off the floor, please?"

"R-right, floor." I so eloquently presented, as I slowly stood up and brushed my shorts off.

“How are-”

“How are-”

She smiles, a bit bashfully, but it doesn't reach her eyes and I feel that clawing at me.

“I...good. You?” It wasn’t a small like, but a huge one that was probably the size of a black fucking hole.

“Great!” She exclaims this, perhaps a pinch too enthusiastically to be entirely truthful but I let it settle over me, nonetheless, and it doesn’t feel all that great. Selfish. That’s what I am. Because, of course, I wouldn’t want her to be happy in a span that had her miles and miles away from me. I shook my head, trying to shake my perspective. My selfishness is why she deserves better, I remind myself.

“Oh. Good, yeah. Great. I’m so happy to hear that.” I muster up the best smile I can, I try to force it to reach my eyes, but it doesn’t even really reach my cheeks as my dimples stay hidden. If she notices, she doesn’t say anything and I am grateful.

“Hey, but listen, it was lovely to bump into you, but I’m afraid I have to go. Meeting up with someone. Have a good day.”

I don’t think there is a mean bone in her body. She genuinely wants the best for everyone, even if they’ve busted her. It makes me feel guilty, because well hell, I am guilty.

“Yeah, you too, Waves.”

The name slips off my tongue before I can hold it and and her eyebrows draw together momentarily. So briefly. Enough to show the pain, ever so slightly. She pulls together beautifully, because she’s Waverly and she’s tough as nails and she deserves the moon lassoed to her.

But I guess I never had a long enough rope.

Or maybe I did, but I sliced it in half and used too much to hang myself with when I let her slip away. Let her? I let out a small chuckle at my brain's way of phrasing what I did. I didn’t let her, I might as well have shoved her out a six story building with how hastily I ran away.

She walks away and I am left starting at her, utterly dumbfounded. As I watch her form retreating, I realized one important thing that I had tried to suppress for the last nine months. I was so uselessly in love with her I’d never survive it. Even though she’s home now, she’s still a million miles from me.

Later when I plopped my sore ass down on the couch next to my mother and sighed loudly she called me out on my shit, as per usual.

“What did the doctor say, fertile myrtle, is that eggo preggo?”

“What the hell does that even mean?”

“Oh my stars, Nicole Haught, that language. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

“No,” I deadpan back as I flip through the channels aimlessly.

“I saw her today,” my voice is barely above the whisper. “Waverly,” I say, with reverence. Her name a prayer on my tongue.

The teasing smile on my mother’s face disappears.

“Oh, honey…”

“She’s so beautiful and I am such an idiot.”

“You done fucked up, kid.”

“I know…”

The trouble is, I knew all along.

Where am I going to go from here?

Chapter Text

The summer was dragging on slowly as I passed moment by moment wishing I’d run into Waverly. Which I did, frequently.

I spent my summer interning at the police station, and she worked at the only decent coffee shop in town. Naturally, I was sent there to retrieve coffee orders often.

I both reveled in it and dreaded it at the same time.

Because she looked so damn cute in that little apron.

Too damn cute

More often than not I found myself wondering what she’d look like wearing only that apron, then chastised myself because I had absolutely no right to think that what about her any longer.

It was just over a month since our literal run-in at the grocery store and our meetings had yet to get any less awkward. I wished more than anything to hop in a time machine and return to happier times, where we had no awkwardness to speak of between us, before I’d ruined everything.

Instead I just dwelled in the present and how much it sucked.

Like an idiot.

I’d heard rumours around our very small town that Waverly had begun dating someone new. As much as I wished I could be happy for her, I wasn’t, which made me even more miserable because I realized how selfish I was being. I’d told her we couldn’t be together, yet I wanted her to be alone because I couldn’t imagine her with anyone but me.

Two months into summer found me in horrible black hole of my own creation. I felt as if I couldn’t breathe any longer. Yet, I held onto this stubborn notion that she was better off without me. Which made everything worse, because a smile, that didn’t look quite so pained, shown on her face more often than not and I wasn’t the cause of that smile any longer.

Two and a half months later had my mother finally blowing up on me. I deserved it after the hell I put her through, believe me.

I came home from work one day, tired after a long day. Lamenting about seeing Waverly at the coffee shop, stomping through the house like a petulant child.

My mother heaved a great sigh and I knew I was done for.

“Nicole Haught! You listen to me and you listen well. When you were three years old you asked me about soul mates. THREE YEARS OLD,” she emphasized. “I don’t even know where you got the idiotic notion that these things exist, but you did, and you were hooked on it. You used to write this little stories about them. You told me you were going to grow up and be happy and you’d bring someone home who you’d love and cherish and that I would think was so awesome, too, so neither of us had to be alone like we were. I always thought it was great that you were so positive about it all, considering you’d always seen me alone and, oftentimes, bitter.”

She paused to collect her thoughts, and I dared not interrupt her because the storm that had been brewing had finally arrived and I knew it was my time to listen.

“And then you brought home a literal ball of sunshine that lit up your life. I finally realized that everything you’d wished for your whole life could be found in that girl. You were right. She brightened both of our lives and she made you so incredibly happy. That’s all I want, as a mother, you know? For you to be happy. So much so that I am forced to reduce myself into saying this sappy shit to you. Which is awful, by the way, and if you make me do it more than once I am going to kick your ass. I don’t care what you have to do, Nicole, but get our head out of your ass and get that girl back. The time for being a fool is over. All you’ve done is waste your time and her time. Not to mention the fact because of you I haven’t been able to watch an 80s Tom Cruise movie in a long time. So for the sake of all of our sanities, do whatever you have to do to get that girl back...because that soulmate you dreamed about your whole life is Waverly. I think you know that.”

I did know it, too, if the tears pouring down my face were anything to go by.

“B-but, she’s with someone else now,” I said, weakly, through sobs. “What if whoever that is makes her happier than I could?”

My mom levelled a stare at me that told me volumes about how mornic she found that comment, but her face softened when I was wracked by yet another set of sobs. She came over and wrapped her arms around me, allowing me to tuck my head under her chin.

“Nicole, you’re smart enough to know that isn’t true. Next time you see her, look at her smile. If it’s the same one that lit up her face when she was with you, then maybe she is happy, and maybe your actions have made this irrecoverable. However, if it isn’t, and believe me, honey, I am 100% sure it isn’t….then do whatever you need to do to get her back.”

We sat like that the rest of the night until I’d cried myself to sleep with my head in her lap, her hands playing through my hair. When I woke up the next morning and saw she hadn’t left me, her words played over and over again in my head. My mind was finally made up.

My life was infinitely worse without Waverly Earp in it.

And I’d put everything on the line to have her back in my life again.

I just hoped it wasn’t too late.

Chapter Text

The coffee shop bell chimed overhead, sounding louder than it ever had before. My palms were slick with sweat as I pushed through the door, my heart pounding so hard it drowned out the low hum of conversations around me.

There she was.

Waverly Earp.
Still too damn cute in that apron.

And, mercifully, she was alone behind the counter, tying her hair up into a messy bun, humming under her breath. That tiny, unconscious joy that used to fill up all the empty parts of me.

I took one shaking step forward. Then another. And another. Until finally, somehow, I was at the counter.

Her eyes landed on me, and for a brief second, her whole face lit up in recognition—before a flicker of uncertainty dimmed it. Like she didn’t know what version of me she was about to get.

I didn’t blame her. I hardly knew myself lately.

“Hey, Nicole,” she said, her voice careful. Like she was bracing herself for polite small talk and an awkward retreat.

Not today.

“Can we talk?” I asked, the words tumbling out before I lost my nerve.

Waverly glanced over her shoulder. The shop was mostly empty, just a few regulars nursing their lattes and tapping on laptops. She bit her lip, then gave a tiny nod. “Yeah. Let me grab my break.”

Minutes stretched out like hours until she slipped around the counter and stood in front of me, arms crossed tight over her chest. Defensive. Guarded.

I hated that I’d put that there.

I swallowed hard. “I’ve been...an idiot,” I began, voice cracking. “The biggest idiot to ever idiot.”

A startled laugh puffed out of her before she caught herself, the ghost of a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth. I took it as a good sign and pressed on.

“I thought I was doing the right thing. Letting you go. Trying to convince myself you were better off without me. But it turns out that all I did was make both of us miserable.” I shoved my hands into my pockets to stop them from shaking. “You’re my soulmate, Waverly. You always have been. And I'm not just saying that because I miss you — though God knows I do — I'm saying it because life without you isn’t life. It’s just...existing. And I don’t want to just exist anymore.”

Her eyes were glassy now, but she still didn’t move toward me.

I took a shuddering breath. "If you're happy — really happy — with someone else, I’ll back off. I’ll find a way to live with it. I’ll be cheering for you from the sidelines, even if it kills me. But if there’s any part of you that still misses me...any part that still wants this...please, Waverly, give me another chance."

The coffee shop faded away. The chatter, the clinking of cups, the whir of the espresso machine—it all disappeared under the deafening silence between us.

Finally, Waverly spoke, her voice barely above a whisper.

"I never stopped wanting you, Nicole."

I froze, hardly daring to breathe.

Her arms dropped to her sides and she took a step closer. "I tried. I tried so hard to move on. To be with someone who wanted me, even if it wasn’t the same. But it never felt right. It never felt like you.” Her lip trembled. “No one else ever made me feel like home."

A tear slipped down her cheek and I moved on instinct, reaching out, brushing it away with my thumb. She leaned into my touch, and it was like oxygen finally filling my lungs after months underwater.

"I’m still mad at you," she said, smiling through the tears. "You’re gonna have to work for it."

I laughed — choked, wet, overwhelmed — and nodded so hard my neck ached. "Anything. Everything. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it up to you if you’ll let me."

She reached up and cupped my face between her small, strong hands. “Start by kissing me, Haught.”

I didn’t need to be told twice.

I bent down and pressed my lips to hers, and the world finally, finally clicked back into place. It was like coming home after the longest journey.

And just like that, summer didn’t feel endless anymore.

It felt like it was only just beginning.

Chapter Text

It wasn’t easy.

Nothing about falling back into each other’s lives was effortless — not the way I’d foolishly dreamed it would be after that coffee shop kiss.

There were old hurts we had to tend to, stubborn scars we had to acknowledge. Trust, once cracked, isn’t something that just stitches itself back together overnight. It took patience, hard conversations, and more than a few nights lying awake, tangled together but feeling the enormity of the space we still had to cross.

But the thing was, we wanted to do the work. Both of us. We wanted to fight for what we had, what we could still build together. And that made all the difference.

Little by little, we found our way back to each other.

The laughter came back first — easier, freer each time. The little touches followed: a hand brushing down a back, fingers lacing together under the table, forehead kisses just because. Apologies were whispered between them — not just once, but often, until they lost their weight and became part of how we loved each other.

By the end of that fall, we were us again. Maybe even better than before.

That winter, we bought a tiny, crooked cottage on the edge of town. White paint peeling at the edges, a garden overrun with wildflowers and weeds. It was perfect. Ours.

We named our rescue cat Winchester — after a particularly hilarious argument over classic movie heroes and a broken-down "Supernatural" DVD set we found buried in one of the moving boxes. He ruled the house with an iron paw and a very judgmental stare.

And then, in December, at the base of Pine Hollow Mountain dusted in new snow, with the sky stretched wide and clear overhead, I knelt down — hands shaking, heart hammering — and asked Waverly Earp to marry me.

The ring caught the sunlight as I opened the box, but it was nothing compared to the way her eyes lit up. She said yes through a waterfall of happy tears, pulling me into a kiss that made me forget the cold entirely.

We married the following September, in a sun-dappled forest clearing not far from our cottage. Friends and family gathered under the trees, fairy lights strung from the branches, wildflowers in every color blooming along the aisle.

Wynonna — grinning like she owned the whole damn world and blinking back tears she pretended she wasn’t shedding — walked Waverly down the aisle. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as beautiful as that moment: Waverly, radiant and beaming, her hand gripping her sister’s, walking toward me like she was coming home.

We said our vows in front of everyone we loved. Honest, tear-streaked promises about choosing each other every day, about fighting for the life we'd built, about laughter and forgiveness and love in all its messy, magnificent forms.

When we kissed — wife and wife, finally — the whole forest seemed to exhale around us.

And there, under the towering pines and the open sky, with my soulmate’s hand in mine and the future wide open ahead of us, I knew — without a doubt — that every hard moment, every wrong turn, every second spent fighting my own stubborn heart, had been worth it.

We were worth it.

We always had been.

And now, we always would be.

Chapter Text

The late summer sun dipped low over the horizon, casting the world in that golden haze that made everything feel like a memory before it even finished happening.

I leaned back in the old rocking chair on our front porch, a glass of lemonade sweating onto the wood beside me, and watched as Waverly stroked Winchester’s fur, her fingers moving in slow, lazy circles. He purred like a little engine, stretched luxuriously across her lap like he owned her — which, to be fair, he probably did.

The garden we’d wrestled into shape over two summers was still blooming wildly around us. Lavender and sunflowers swayed in the warm breeze, their scents filling the air along with the low hum of bees drifting lazily from bloom to bloom.

Waverly caught me staring and gave me that smile — the one that was just for me, that still made my chest ache with how much I loved her.

“What?” she asked, laughing softly.

I shrugged, grinning so hard it almost hurt. “Just...taking it all in.”

She set Winchester gently on the porch and crossed over to me, slipping into my lap without hesitation, like she’d done a thousand times before. Her arms wound around my neck, and mine wrapped tight around her waist, pulling her close enough that I could feel the steady beat of her heart against my own.

“This life we built?” I said, pressing a kiss to her temple. “It’s even better than I ever dreamed it would be.”

She pulled back just enough to look at me, her eyes shining with that same stubborn fire that had first drawn me to her all those years ago.

“Well, get ready,” she said, voice trembling with excitement, “because I think it’s about to get even better.”

I blinked. “Oh yeah?”

She bit her lip, then pulled something from her pocket — a small, worn envelope. Inside was a picture of a little white house, all peeling paint and promise, tucked into a wild meadow at the edge of town.

“Our next project,” she whispered. "A bed-and-breakfast. A real one. You and me. Making a home for other people who need a place to land."

For a second, I was too stunned to speak. Then I laughed, the kind of laugh that shook right out of my chest.

Of course Waverly Earp would find a way to make our already beautiful life even bigger, even fuller.

I pulled her in for a kiss, the sun setting behind us, the future bright and wide open ahead.

“Let’s do it,” I murmured against her lips.

And just like that, we started dreaming all over again.