Work Text:
Kendal watched the clock strike eleven through half-lidded eyes, splayed over the couch in her apartment. The ice pack she was holding to her swollen jaw was long since abandoned on the coffee table. She’d love to be in bed right about now, but she was expecting a visitor. A very late visitor at that – maybe hoping for 9 was ambitious, but you’d think she could make it by 10. Kendal could give up, climb into bed, but she’d not been stood up just yet and that surely wasn’t going to start now. Especially after the match today.
Kendal should give up, really, she shouldn’t be doing this at all. She’d been telling herself she was going to stop, that this was the last time, for the last month and a half. Yet no matter how much vitriol she blustered, sniped, left without saying goodbye, she always came back. She shuddered to think what the rest of the locker room would think, how Wren would look at her if she knew.
Hopefully she’d never know.
The doorbell rang, and two knocks followed after. Speak of the devil, and she shall turn up at your doorstep. Kendal sat up and shakily made her way to the door, pulling it open and quickly ushering Lainey inside. “You’re awfully late.”
“I don’t remember booking an appointment,” Lainey sniped, walking in and leaning on the back of the couch.
“Wow, Lainey. First your teammate smashes my face in with your finisher, then you interfere with my match, now you turn up at my apartment at nearly midnight and give me shit? Rich, even for you.” Kendal folds her arms, following her in.
Lainey softens, breaking eye contact. “I was trying my best to get away from Fatal. You know how they are.” She reaches for Kendal’s wrist, tugging her closer. “What’s the damage?”
Thrown off by the change in demeanor, Kendal obediently tilted her head to show Lainey the massive, purpling bruise on her jawline, who inhaled sharply. “And I lost a tooth.”
“Shit, Kendal, that’s…” she trailed off, an open expression of concern on her face. Kendal feels herself heat up from the strangeness of it all. The gentle hand Lainey had placed on her jaw started feeling like the one that had yanked her up during their Gold Rush match. The familiar beginnings of adrenaline were rising through her body and squeezing in on her limbs. She jerked back, out of Lainey’s reach.
“What do you care, Lainey? You tried your best to concuss me last week, I wasn’t aware you were concerned about my health,” she snapped, rubbing at her wrist.
Lainey throws up her hands. “Well, what do you want me to say? Oh, I’m so glad Jacy smashed your face in, wish she broke it though?"
“What– It’s not about that! You’re acting weird!"
“Oh I’m sorry, is this more comfortable for you?” Lainey takes Kendal’s hair in her fist and tugs harshly. Pain fizzes through her brain, warm and delicious, washing away her thoughts and pinpointing her focus. Kendal takes a ragged inhale, threading her hand into Lainey’s scalp.
Her storm-blue eyes met Kendal’s brown, an electric tension zapping through every point of contact between them. Kendal took in the inscrutable expression on Lainey’s face, her slightly parted lips, her furrowed brow, the perfect curve of her nose. Lainey’s eyes flicked rapidly across her face, and then they were moving in, Kendal pulling her closer, bringing her other hand up to cup her cheek.
Lainey tugged her the rest of the way, teeth clacking in a bruising kiss, her fingers digging into Kendal’s hip. The heat from before had returned, radiating from Lainey’s burning touch, flooding her body when she opened her mouth to let her deepen the kiss, arching into her body. A whine tore itself from her throat as Lainey’s grip tightened, jerking Kendal’s head back to push the kiss further, overtaking her with heady pleasure.
Just as she started to run out of oxygen, Lainey pulled away, biting Kendal’s lip on the way out. Kendal’s eyes fluttered open, and she took in the sight of Lainey in front of her – pupils dilated, hair a mess, lips swollen and parted. Kendal no doubt looked the same. Lainey pulled her back in for one short, almost sweet if she didn’t know better, kiss, then pulled her by the wrist towards her bedroom.
Kendal flopped onto Lainey, the only sound in the apartment their harsh breathing. Hesitantly, as if afraid of scaring her, Lainey’s hand came up to scratch Kendal’s scalp. She felt herself go even more boneless, if such a thing was possible, eyelids drooping. They stayed like that for perhaps a minute longer, or maybe ten – Kendal had lost all sense of time – before Lainey spoke.
“Which tooth did you lose?” she whispered. Kendal reached up with a heavy hand to pull her lips back and show the gap. “Nasty.” Kendal hummed in agreement, turning her face in towards the crook of Lainey’s neck.
“They said–” she yawned “–they said I could get a fake one in tomorrow.”
“That’s good, at least,” Lainey replied, still scratching gently at her scalp. A few more moments of silence, then:
“I didn’t attack you last week, you know. I was there, obviously, but I didn’t– it was the others. For what it’s worth. Which isn’t a lot.”
That was far too many words for Kendal, only half conscious now, to process. “Not mad. ‘s fine. Just how it is,” she mumbled, her breathing evening out.
Lainey shifts beneath her. “Is that– are you falling asleep on me?”
“Mmmmaybe.”
Lainey completely tensed up at that, making to slide out of the bed. “I should– I should go.”
Instinctually, Kendal grabbed at her arm to keep her in place. “Don’t. It’s late. Just… stay.”
Though Lainey stayed stiff for a few more seconds, she eventually relaxed. “Okay. Okay. I’ll stay,” she whispered, and Kendal hummed in response, promptly falling asleep.
Tomorrow, Kendal would wake up in an already empty apartment. She’d drive to the PC alone, would film whatever TikTok Wren had concocted, Lainey would run drills with Fatal Influence, and neither would acknowledge anything had happened. But tonight, at least, they were curled up under the covers, tangled together, and everything could be fine.