Work Text:
1 New Message.
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2 New Messages.
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6 New Messages.
manz: ???
manz: soph??
manz: are u gonna debunk it
manz: you don’t have to…
manz: but everyone’s like
manz: speculating
It was a tiny video. Not even a minute long. But his hand rested on her shoulder for just a moment too long, lingering on soft and wet skin while they stood in the pool.
A pool that was seven thousand miles away.
A pool Manon would probably never step foot in.
A pool that was now infesting her twitter page.
Manon needed to get it out.
Manon needed to get out.
It was cold. So cold. And that’s exactly what Manon needed. The chilly air hitting her cheeks almost the second she stepped out of her family’s house, her scarf tucked haphazardly into her coat, stuffed there in a rush.
She felt her phone buzz in her pocket. Once. Twice.
She didn’t look at it, didn’t pull it out to see Sophia’s messages, soothing her worries. She just walked, aimlessly, through parks and empty streets.
Pausing only at a traffic light, because Manon was not about to risk her life for some stupid video she knew she was in her head about.
Her phone began ringing.
A sigh left her lips, curling into white fog in front of her.
Of course she pulled her phone out, with the tips of her fingers reddening from the cold, she unlocked it, reluctantly bringing it to her ear as she continued walking.
“Manon.” Sophia sounded out of breath, panicked. Manon had to convince herself it wasn’t her fault.
“Hi.” It was dry. She knew it was, she had usually fallen into a rant about her day by now.
“Manon- it’s not..” Sophia groaned, in something that sounded like annoyance. Not at Manon, but herself. “You know we’re just friends.”
“Does he know that?” Manon snapped. Too quick. Too harsh. Out of breath herself, only realising she had begun power walking now she stumbled over a small pebble on the sidewalk.
“Manon, that’s not fair.” She sounded strained, like she knew herself it, in fact, was. “He’s been my friend for so long-“
“Does he know that, Sophia?” No ‘Soph’, no ‘Fifi’.
Sophia.
And she was met with silence. Only for what felt like an eternity.
“No..
But manon-“
Manon didn’t wait to hear the rest of it, her phone already pulled away from her ear and stuffed back into her pocket. The call ended.
…
Manon left her phone on ‘do not disturb’. Ignoring every call, every text. It even got to a point Sophia contacted Manon’s mother.
That got her attention.
She picked up the next call from Sophia.
“Manon? Manon! Please-“ She sounded out of breath again, Manon guessed it was stress.
“Why are you texting my mom, Sophia?” Manon went with instead. She didn’t feel like addressing the elephant in the room, her heart still hurt far too much.
“What- Manon, you weren’t replying to me.”
“That doesn’t mean you text my mom.”
“Manon- please-“
“It’s obvious I don’t want to talk to you, right now. Why won’t you just accept that?”
“Because I want to talk to you! I want to make it better-“
“Making it better would be telling him that you’re taken, Sophia.”
“Manon, stop saying that.”
“Why?”
“You know he’s just a friend.”
“He doesn’t know that! He’s all over you in every fucking picture and I just have to sit here and see it on my phone!”
…
“That’s hard for me, Soph!”
“And you seem to think his obvious feelings for you will just go away.”
…
“I’ll tell him.”
“Yeah, nice one.”
“I will, Manon, I swear- I promise-“
“Call me when you do.”
…
It’s been three days.
Manon was planning to surprise Sophia with a flight to the Philippines. Was going to show up at her front door, her mother had even helped Manon keep it a secret.
And yet, Manon hadn’t received a call back.
…
Manon was at the airport, waiting in a random Starbucks with her mask and sunglasses covering the majority of her face, staring aimlessly across the room — Still no call from Sophia.
Stress lingered within her gut. Her stomach was churning more than she would like to admit.
Because this trip was meant to be fun, it was meant to be a cute surprise.
But now, Manon knew what waited for her on the other end of this 14 hour trip.
…
She was standing at her door. Her hand hovering uselessly in front of the wood (the one that wasn’t holding a small, wrapped box); she was meant to knock four times, Sophia’s mother was very specific.
Brown eyes fell shut, pushing the panic down; because as much as she was anxious to see Sophia — she was excited nonetheless. This was her girlfriend.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Manon heard a good amount of shuffling, yelling - albeit muffled.
And then the door creaking open.
Sophia’s mother, pulling it open with a finger pressed to her lips in a silent request to be quiet.
And as she stepped aside, she saw Sophia, stood there… With Leon standing behind her and his hands over her eyes.
Couldn’t anyone else be doing that?
She pushed that thought away, letting her eyes linger on the remaining parts of Sophia’s face, her nose, her perfect hair… Her glossy lips- Focus!
Manon stepped in, hearing the girl in question’s confused voice.
“Happy birthday, Soph.” Manon spoke, sure she was a day early, but she couldn’t wait to give her girlfriend the present still sat curtly in her hands.
She saw Sophia stiffen, immediately lifting her hands to yank Leon’s hands away from her eyes.
Boba eyes met Manon’s, shimmery and perfect like they always were, her face unreadable, but a hint of shock lingered underneath.
“Manz…” She breathed out, not waiting another second before taking two large strides forward, and practically tackling Manon, resulting in the latter having to take another step back in order to limit the chance of tumbling over.
Manon chuckled quietly, her free hand winding around the familiar curve of Sophia’s waist, her nose immediately finding the little crease in the Philipina’s neck.
“I’m sorry.” It was barely audible. Manon was sure she would’ve missed it if anyone else in the room so much as scuffed their boots against the floor.
Manon exhaled quietly, pulling back enough to meet Sophia’s gaze again. “We’ll talk later.” Running her hands up and down Sophia’s arms.
…
It was a day of house tours, lots of hugs from Sophia’s relatives, and snuggles from the girl herself.
They only finally got some time alone when Sophia dragged Manon up to her room, away from her brothers that were desperately trying to teach Manon how to play on their Nintendo Switch’s.
Manon had sat herself on Sophia’s bed, and the latter had latched herself onto her side. Not that Manon minded one bit, her nose buried in black hair that smelt like flowers and something distinctly Sophia.
They hadn’t spoken in a while, just basking in each other's presence. Every so often one of them would squeeze the other, and they would both shuffle to be impossibly closer.
“I can’t believe you’re here.” Sophia eventually spoke, her voice a quiet whisper against Manon’s chest.
Manon’s hand stilled slightly in Sophia’s hair, where it was gently stroking through the top layer of the thick tresses. “Yeah,” Manon whispered, her eyes lifting to the ceiling.
“Soph- I…” Sighing quickly before continuing. “We need to talk…”
She felt Sophia still herself, pausing for a second before pushing herself up to sit beside Manon instead of laying on top of her. The latter took that opportunity to push herself against the headboard, fiddling anxiously with her hands in her lap.
It was silent for a moment, maybe two, Manon awkwardly sat there with her eyes down, locked on her hands like they were suddenly the most interesting thing on earth.
“I told him.”
Manon is startled for half a second before her head lifts, shock flashing through her features.
She pushes herself up further against the headboard.
“You- did?” She sounds in disbelief, as if what Sophia was saying was some random hymn in another language that she didn’t quite understand.
A small smile creeps its way onto those glossy lips.
“The moment you hung up, actually.” Leaning over Manon now, getting closer and closer every other second. Her smile widening along with it.
“What did…” And Manon was getting increasingly distracted. “What did he say?”
“Just… That he was sorry,” Slowly inching herself over onto Manon’s lap, her knees bracketing both of the Visual’s thighs. “I can’t really remember.”
Manon was slowly shutting down, her hands falling to Sophia’s thighs — because, you know… Gravity, or whatever.
“Okay.” Is all she managed, her hands managing to gently slide up and down the smooth skin on Sophia’s legs — Manon was silently glad Sophia wore a skirt.
“Okay?” Sophia echoed, her smile knowing, leaning forward until their noses brushed just slightly.
“Mhm…” Manon hummed, dazed already. Her brown eyes flickering down to those glossy lips she hadn’t had a taste of in a whole month.
And with that thought, she leant up, closing that small gap between them, and smiling impossibly wide against Sophia’s mouth at the startled noise she received in return.