Chapter Text
Arachne’s flesh gave easily beneath the blade as Brandy dragged the blade across her throat. Her large, grey eyes widened, full of agony and betrayal as they stared up at Brandy. Her warm blood flooded past Brandy’s fingers down to her forearm, as she gently shoved Arachne away from the bars.
The sandwich tasted the way she’d imagine television static to taste, almost as if she’d bitten into nothing, or like her mouth had been numbed. Brandy watched blankly as Arachne fell to her knees. Arachne’s hands were almost entirely coated with her own blood, matching the red of the ridiculous uniform she wore; it looked like she was wearing some sort of strange gloves.
The buzzing of the crowd outside the cage turned panicked. Their panicked screams were muffled, like Brandy was underwater and they were all above the surface. She wondered why no one was trying to help Arachne, who was currently lying on her side making little strangled whimpering sounds.
Another red uniform had just come into Brandy’s view when the gunshots rang out behind her. The bullets left a numb, tingling feeling in their wake as they slammed her towards the bars.
______
Brandy jerked awake, pushing herself up onto her elbows and glancing around her bedroom. Her television cast a greenish glow over the room. Of course Arachne was the type of sadistic freak to fall asleep watching Saw.
Arachne’s hair was spread out across the pillow next to her, slightly spilling over onto Brandy’s pillow too. Brandy rolled onto her side, wrapping an arm around Arachne’s waist. She shuffled closer, pressing a kiss to Arachne’s shoulder before burying her face in the back of her neck. Brandy could smell the expensive lotion she always wore, the one that smelled like caramel and flowers.
“I thought we said ‘no cuddling’.” Arachne mumbled groggily.
“We also said ‘no sleepovers’ but you’re still here, taking up half my bed.” Brandy retorted.
“I was waiting for you to kick me out.” Arachne twisted around to face her.
“Hm.”
It was odd. They’d been meeting up like this for years and Arachne had always gone home as soon as they’d finished up. Just as Brandy had always done whenever they decided to meet at Arachne’s place. Brandy didn’t have time to ponder any further before Arachne’s lips were on her own. One hand found the back of Arachne’s head, grabbing a fistful of her hair, while the other cradled her cheek. Arachne slipped a hand under Brandy’s tank top. Her fingers on the bare skin of her waist made Brandy shiver as she took Arachne’s bottom lip between her teeth.
Arachne was the first to pull away. “What’s gotten into you?” She murmured against Brandy’s lips.
“I don’t know.” Brandy sighed, closing her eyes. “I just had a dream about you.”
“Hm, like a sexy dream?” Arachne asked. Brandy could hear the smirk in her voice.
“Not really, more weird and scary.” Brandy confessed.
“That’s my kind of sexy.” Arachne tilted Brandy’s chin up with her index finger, allowing herself enough access to leave a trail of soft, teasing kisses from her jawline down to her collarbone. Her other hand was still wandering under Brandy’s shirt, forcing her to bite her lip to stifle a moan as she squeezed her thighs together.
“You’re a morbid weirdo.” Brandy grabbed Arachne’s thigh, hitching it up over her hip.
“Well tell me about it then.” Arachne prodded her side and leaned back enough for Brandy to see her face.
“I don’t remember all of it, but I was in some weird prison thing and you came to visit me.” Brandy started.
“Well that doesn’t sound like the start of a porno at all.” Arachne said dryly as she raked a hand through Brandy’s hair.
“Hey! Let me finish, dumbass.”
“Alright, sorry ma’am.”
“So you were on the other side of the bars and you offered me a sandwich.”
“Mhm, yeah. Okay.” Arachne nodded.
For fuck’s sake. Did she ever stop talking? Even when she was listening, she was still talking. “Stop active listening.” Brandy said, exasperatedly.
“You complain when I don’t listen and now you’re complaining that I’m listening too much?” Arachne said incredulously.
“I mean stop talking over me and let me finish before I forget the rest of the dream.”
Arachne - finally - stayed silent, going back to scratching the back of Brandy’s head (which Brandy was very grateful for).
“So you were offering me a sandwich through the prison bars, but, every time I tried to take it, you’d pull it out of the way. Then you took a bite out of it instead of giving it to me so I slit your throat.” Brandy explained flatly. She wished she remembered enough of the dream to know why she was behind the bars or what Arachne had been doing there, but even the small part of the dream that she remembered was becoming foggier with every passing second.
Arachne cackled loudly.
“Shh! Are you trying to wake Tanner up?” Brandy hissed, slapping a hand over Arachne’s mouth. Unlike Brandy, Tanner had always gotten along well enough with Arachne. However, he was not yet aware of her’s and Arachne’s arrangement, and Brandy was not at all prepared to try and explain their relationship - or whatever it was - to him. She was happier to let everyone around them think they were sworn enemies - which they were, of course - but Brandy figured her friends were too vanilla to understand the appeal of hate sex.
“Sorry! But what the fuck?” Arachne giggled, more quietly after Brandy removed her hand.
“It’s not funny!” Brandy fought a smile, despite her best efforts.
“I finally, after all this time and like a million hookups, trust you enough to sleep in front of you. And you’re having dreams of murdering me?”
“Bro, I can’t control my dreams. Leave me alone.” Brandy groaned.
“I am never letting you share my edibles again.”
“Yeah that might have been a bad idea.” Brandy agreed. Brandy had enough tolerance to smoke at parties without making a fool of herself, but as she found out, ingesting marijuana makes the effects a lot more potent; which makes for unforgettable sex but has the potential to ruin the stoic, cool-girl reputation she’d managed to develop. Luckily, she’d passed out as soon as they’d finished having sex. She was sure that, had she done anything embarrassing, Arachne would never let her forget it.
“The sex was unbelievable though.” Arachne said, as if she’d just read her mind. “Definitely worth having nightmares for.”
“Yeah I suppose so.” Unbelievable was definitely the right word to describe the night they’d had. Brandy’s skin still tingled, although they’d finished having sex hours ago. Her heart picked up a little as she blushed at the memory, grateful that the dim, green light of the television would hide any pinkness on her face.
“If I’d known you were capable of murder, I would not have taken the last slice of pizza.” Arachne said.
“Thank you. That’s good to know.” Brandy chuckled sarcastically. She wound an arm around Arachne’s waist and let her fingers drift up and down her back as she allowed the sensation of Arachne absentmindedly stroking her hair to lull her to sleep.