Chapter Text
Willow was her name.
Willow Moonflower.
She was a beautiful child—a small baby girl, coming from a woman whose name was Cameron and a man whose name was Lucian. Willow was born on the 19th of February, but not as pure as she should have been. Through her genes coursed a mutation that would cause her to inherit a fatal genetic—
“—Disease.” the words sounded drowned out to Willow’s ears. She was sitting besides her desk at the hospital, a hand tightly gripping her pencil. She stared down at the paperwork she was supposed to do. Recently curing yet another patient—as she did as a neurologist—this should have happened.
Her train of thought was cut off by the opening of the door. Moonflower instantly glanced up, eyes hidden behind the sunglasses she constantly wore. it was Amber, her best friend. A small smile flicked across her face.
“Morning, Amber.” Willow spoke up, relaxing her hold on the pencil before setting it down on the table.
Amber was carrying two cups of coffee in both arms, smiling back at Willow (her favourite neurologist!!!) as she set one down in front of her. “Good morning. I heard you got a ton of paperwork. I'll just be here for emotional support.”
“Great.” Moonflower muttered, pushing the cup closer to her and picking her pencil back up. The scribble of it started again, coursing through the room. A comfortable silence hung between the two doctors.
As Willow finished writing yet another line, she let out a tired sigh. She brought one hand up to prop her head up.
“Boring, isn’t it?” Amber West asked suddenly, taking a sip of her coffee.
“What is?”
“Paperwork, i mean.”
There was a pause of silence. Obviously, yes, it was.
“Yes, it is. Why are you asking if it’s quite obvious? Anyway, are you not supposed to be doing your job right now?” Willow questioned back, spinning around in her chair to face her best friend. She slightly quirked an eyebrow.
“Trying to make conversation.”
“But we don’t need conversation.”
There was yet another pause of silence as Amber pondered quickly.
“You’d rather sit in silence than hear your best friend’s voice?” West teased, setting her cup down into her lap. She slightly turned it so that Moonflower could see the print on it—#1 GYNAECOLOGIST. “Check yours. I also got one for you.”
Willow’s eyes flicked over to her cup and she turned it around. #1 NEUROLOGIST. This was ridiculous. Most ridiculous gift she’d ever gotten. “Why did you even get this?”
“Willow, it’s your birthday,” Amber practically cut her friend off, slightly tilting her head towards her. “What did you want me to get you?”
. . . “I don’t know. I guess it’s… not that bad.” Willow would definitely take the cup home and use it everyday. Amber could tell. And so could Willow herself. The neurologist slightly cracked a smile.
“I even made you cupcakes but I forgot them at home, I fear,” West sighed overdramatically, lifting her coffee to drink from it again. “I’ll bring them tomorrow. Promise.”
“I could come over to your house, you know. If it’s not a big deal for you.”
“Absolutely.” Amber copied her friend’s monotone voice jokingly, making Moonflower let out a tired sigh (again). Two fingers came up to rub her eyes beneath the sunglasses. “C’mon, was that not a good impression?”
“I wouldn’t know. I don’t know how I sound to you.” Willow responded in annoyance. truly, she could never be annoyed at Amber—she was far too likeable (for her). So she just tried to seem annoyed instead. She didn’t take it.
After Amber left, Moonflower’s office seemed to be filled with an annoying silence, save for the buzzing of the hospital lights. Willow had to shut her eyes and try to tone the buzzing out multiple times but to no avail.
Promptly, the only good part of her day was Amber visiting her office. The rest of it was exceptionally dull, especially after she wasn’t able to see her … friend during lunch.
***
Keeping her promise of staying over at Amber’s, Willow stood outside and waited for West to finish her stuff after packing up. As Willow waited, her gaze couldn’t help but dart around the parking lot. By the time her friend came out, she had counted the number of red cars (6), yellow cars (4) and black cars (5) in the parking lot (there were lots of white cars. She just didn’t count them).
“You're really desperate for the cupcakes, huh?” Amber commented jokingly, coming to a stop right behind Moonflower as one hand pushed into her pocket to fish for her car keys.
“Technically, I promised. I'm not really desperate.” Willow huffed in response, twirling the strap on her bag as she waited (again).
The car ride to her house wasn’t awkward, surprisingly. No silences or pauses were awkward between the two anymore. They were so close they could practically communicate without speaking.
“You like chocolate cupcakes, right?” Amber asked as they got out, locking the car and blinking at Willow as she started towards her front door.
“Yeah, they’re fine,” she responded easily, having to take a quick bigger step to fall into pace with her friend.
“My house isn’t far from here, just about five minutes.” West smiled lightly, turning her gaze away from Willow. “What do you wanna talk about?”
“What do you value in a romantic partner?” Willow practically interrupted, her gaze—which was previously fixed on the ground—flicking up towards Amber.
Amber paused, thinking her answer over. There was a long pause.
“I like communication.” Moonflower followed up, noticing that her friend wasn’t speaking. “I find it important. Nonverbal communication even more so. It’s great for partners to deeply understand each other.”
“Yes! Yes, that’s good.” West exclaimed in agreement, pulling her bag up and letting it drop to the inner arm (???).
Willow smiled faintly, her sunglasses slightly slipping off her nose. Amber noticed so and pushed them up herself with a smile. The neurologist felt her face flush slightly. She always felt like this around her friend, for some reason (did she really see her as a friend?).
At Amber’s house, as the two were eating the cupcakes Amber baked for them, Willow kept thinking about how she felt towards the gynaecologist. She'd been acting weirdly around Amber recently, not like she used to. more awkward, more… flustered, even. She was so deep in thought she hadn’t noticed Amber start speaking. She finally refocused on reality to listen to her voice.
“...and then the patient told me ‘oh, but you have such a pretty face!’—”
“—What?” Moonflower cut in, furrowing her eyebrows in anger.
“Lovely, could you let me finish?” Amber replied, her tone a little annoyed.
Willow instantly shut her mouth, willing her face to not heat up embarrassingly hot. “...sorry.”
There was a moment of silence as the pair stared at each other and the world faded away. The cars outside felt drowned out, the footsteps of passerby’s muffled. Amber’s face felt closer to the neurologist than she liked to remember. Then Amber chuckled airily and pushed away from Willow, picking up her cupcake.
Willow gritted her teeth.
A bit later in the evening it started raining and, as Willow hadn’t brought her car and maybe just didn’t want to leave, she stayed over at Amber’s. Amber lent her some sleep clothes and they slept in the same bed.
***
Willow woke up with a better sleep than usual. She had practically forgotten she wasn’t sleeping alone and extended a hand across the mattress to stretch just to feel the warmth of another body. Her hand recoiled instantly and she turned to her side in embarrassment.
Amber stirred at the sudden movement, her eyes fluttering open as she turned over to her back and sat up. “Morning,” she muttered sleepily. “We haven’t overslept, have we?”
No, they haven’t. It was about 5 in the morning and it was still dark outside. They'd have work in a few hours.
There was a moment of silence as both women rubbed their eyes and stretched.
“Should I make breakfast?” Willow questioned, reaching for her sunglasses on the nightstand.
“Sure.”
***
Arriving at the same time in the same car was a little suspicious. As soon as the pair walked through the door at the hospital holding hands, multiple eyes turned towards them, But they didn’t notice. They were too absorbed in their own conversation to pay attention, eyes locked on each other—at least Amber’s eyes were. Willow still wore the sunglasses.
***
Work that day was… less boring. Small stolen glances. Short conversations passed in between breaks. Hand squeezes. Every time they passed each other, something happened. That whole day to Amber felt agonisingly slow. The hit of dopamine she got whenever talking with Willow didn’t compare to anything else she’d done that day.
Amber couldn’t take her mind off of Willow every single time she was left alone. In her office, on a case, reading a file, working through symptoms—all she could think of was Willow. She had even accidentally started talking about her to a co-worker over break.
But one of the most interesting conversations happened at lunch, which went something like this:
Willow was seated near the corner of a cafe, digging through her fourth coffee of the day and eating a sandwich she’d prepared at Amber’s (Amber had one as well). The cafe being the nearest to the hospital, that is where Amber went as well, her eye catching her favourite neurologist and instantly beelining over to her.
“Willow!” She smiled, sitting down in front of Willow. She folded her hands over the table after taking out her own sandwich.
After swallowing quickly Moonflower replied. “Yes. Hello. How are you?” She asked politely.
“My day’s been a bit bleak. I’m glad I get to see you, though.” Echo replied with a small chuckle, unwrapping her sandwich.
“Same thing here. It’s not been the best.”
Comfortable silence wasn’t new between them. It happened quite frequently. And as the two ate, their sense of communication was glances back and forth. This silence didn’t feel suffocating, or forced. It just felt calm. Together. This was something Willow found almost magical about her best friend. She’d only ever been like this around her.
Something warm went through her around Amber. Like heat pooling in her chest. One thought that had never come before went through her mind, one that may be an answer to how she felt—was she in love?