Chapter Text
Eda runs her tongue over her new tooth again, nose to nose with her own reflection. “Weird.”
“Yeah,” Raine agrees, “suits you.”
She shoots them a playful glare through the mirror, the golden fang poking out from between her lips. “You tryna sass me, Whispers?”
They honestly aren’t, but it’s more fun to let her think otherwise. They smirk. “Maybe.”
“You’re not slick, y’know.”
They most definitely are, but they click their tongue and shake their head. “You got me, Clawthorne.”
Raine’s not sure what to call what the two of them have, but it’s something. It’s clear that they don’t have that something with anyone else, and it’s clear that they’ve had it for a while. Most of all, it’s clear that Raine wants to kiss her, though they’ll never admit it when she asks. And she’s asked a few times.
Sometimes, it’s obviously a joke. Eda teasing ‘Ooh, you wanna kiss me so bad, it makes you look stupid’ when they’re sparring, blowing over the top kisses from the field to the stands before every grudgby match. That kind of thing. The friend stuff.
Sometimes, it’s more subtle. During a rare moment of silence at lunch in sophomore year, she asked if they’d kissed anyone, even though she knew the answer was no. She told them about how Darius had kissed Alador for ‘practice’, feigning nonchalance. When they didn’t say anything, she pulled up her scroll and started cracking up over Odalia’s passive-aggressive Penstagram posts. Neither of them brought it up again.
Later, it became a little confusing because it breached so far past the point of being flirtatious that it circled all the way back to platonic. ‘If I’m not married when I’m 40,’ she said, gazing up at the stars with her back on the grass, ‘I call dibs on you’. Raine liked the idea enough that they decided not to remind her that she doesn’t care for marriage as an institution anyway.
On the days they loathe the most, their stagefright is to blame. Eda isn’t enrolled in college with them, but (of course) sneaks into parties anyway to keep them company. One time, bunch of kids in their year were sitting in a circle and spinning an empty potions vial as Raine hung by the mantle, whistling the cheap alcohol out of their even cheaper cranberry blood. Eda appeared at their shoulder and leaned down to whisper in their ear, ‘Have you thought about it?’, watching two witches kiss in the centre of the circle while their friends cheered them on. Raine’s eyes, however, remained fixed on her lips. They’re not sure what gave them the courage to swallow down their drink and reply, ‘Haven’t you?’
Eda knew parties weren’t Raine’s scene. They usually left early anyway, but Raine wonders if she had ulterior motives that night when she squeezed their waist with a low ‘Let’s blow this popsicle stand’ and whisked them away to her bedroom window. They wonder what would have happened if they hadn’t frozen up when she leaned in, prompting her to pull away apologetically and leave their skin burning from her touch.
One day, they actually managed the guts to say something flirtatious back, joining Eda in her waltz on the blurred line of what in any normal friendship, would probably be a boundary. Unfortunately, that was the day Eda lost her tooth by getting in a bar fight with a demon three times her size. She won, of course, but even Raine knew that saying, ‘Want me to kiss it better?’ when your best friend’s lips were busted wasn’t the most appropriate thing they could’ve done. It was meant to be ironic, maybe lighten the mood and get a laugh out of her. Instead, Eda’s eyes widened (as much as they could, what with the swollen black eye and all) as she gaped at them, her mouth hanging open so they could see the stains of blood across her molars. They weren’t sure if her cheeks were red from blushing or bruises. Her eyes twinkled with… curiosity? Disbelief? Hope? Whatever it was, they wanted to bottle it up in a flask and savour it for the rest of their life. Right as she opened her mouth to say something, she winced and grabbed her jaw, groaning in pain. Raine ran to the kitchen to grab a fresh ice pack.
She still makes the jokes. Raine has given up on trying because they clearly need to work on their timing. They’re not sure when or how, but at some point along the way, they knew they weren’t jokes anymore. It seems like Eda knows it, too.
Perry calls it dating. Lilith calls it a 50-year marriage. Darius calls it pathetic.
Raine is splayed across Eda’s bed, listening to her ramble about something unintelligibly as she pokes and prods at the fang that’s grown in place of the tooth that got knocked out of her mouth that day. They’ve been here before. They’ll probably be here again tomorrow.
“Birds don’t even have fangs,” she mumbles. “And why is it gold?”
“Maybe the Owl Beast thought you needed a new look,” they jest. “You should get a hook for a hand next. Really sell the whole pirate schtick.”
“That’d be sick, actually.” She turns. Her hands twist the fabric of her long ruffled skirt. “You don’t think I should shave it down, do you?”
Raine frowns. “Why would you do that?”
“I mean, it’d probably…” she glances at them and flushes, looking uncharacteristically nervous, “get in the way.”
They raise an eyebrow. “Of?”
“Of… stuff,” she says vaguely. “Eating.”
“Eating,” they repeat. “Has it gotten in the way of eating?”
“No,” she admits. “But it could be dangerous.”
“While you’re eating?”
“No, like… y’know. Other stuff that you need your mouth for.”
They tilt their head. “You can talk fine, can’t you?”
“I don’t mean talking.”
They rack their brain, scratching their head. “...Sex?”
“Raine!” she scolds, her cheeks pink.
“What?” they protest, feeling their face turn red. “You’re being all cryptic and shy about it, I have to assume—”
“You think I’m thinking about sex before I’ve even kissed anyone?”
That throws them off. They sit up with a frown. “Eda, you’ve kissed people before. Several people, actually. I was there for some of them.” And I wanted to jump out of the window the entire time.
She waves them off. “That was in high school. It doesn’t count.”
“It’s only been over a year since we graduated,” they reason. “Not like you’ve forgotten how to do it. If that doesn’t count, what does?”
“Those didn’t mean anything,” she argues. “It counts when you want it to. And those don’t.”
The crease in their forehead deepens. “Why’d you do it then?”
“I was waiting for it to count,” she shrugs. Suddenly, she looks restless, flexing her fingers like she’s trying to grasp something in thin air. She reaches into a basket to pull out a grudby ball, turning it over in her hands. “Some of them were dares. And I wasn’t about to back down from a dare. Especially not from Odalia. You see her wedding invite? I mean, that color scheme? Totally obnoxious. Who gets married at our age? And to that sad sack of a man? I get it, though. If I was a miserable cunt and found the one person in the Boiling Isles too spineless and braindead to call me out on my vapid bullshit, I’d lock ‘em down quick, too.”
Raine blinks, debating which part of that rant to address first. “They invited you to their wedding?”
“Oh, no, you really think they would invite me? After what happened at graduation?” she laughs, bouncing the ball on her head, her feet shuffling to keep it balanced. “I was looking through Lily’s mail. They sent it to the wrong Clawthorne again. Really pissed her off, but it’s not my fault people don’t care to check her mailing address. Don’t know why they’d invite her, though. I think they’re just trying to get cozy with the Emperor’s Coven so they can ship their brat kids off there in a few years.
“But I did manage to catch the wedding date and address.” She draws a small circle with her finger and begins levitating the ball in the air above her head like a halo. Her eyes light up. “Say, did they invite you? Do you have a plus-one? Nah, they wouldn’t give you a plus-one; they know you’d bring me. But can we crash it anyway? Please?”
“Eda—”
The ball falls to the floor as she pounces on the bed to sit next to them. “Please, Raine?” she pouts and bats her eyes. Her voice is a tad breathier when she says their name, sending a chill down their spine. They’re all too familiar with this tactic, since it’s the one she uses whenever she wants them to do something that’s definitely illegal (which is to say, quite often). It—thanks to their iron will—works every time. “I wanna crash this wedding so badly. I’ve never wanted to trespass this much in my life.”
The nervous energy is practically radiating off of her. The whole room feels warmer with her so close to them. She smells like juniper berries and fresh snow (with hints of… spray paint?). She always does, but that doesn’t mean they ever get used to it.
They let out a sigh, a small, flustered chuckle escaping along with it. “Okay, but we’re not setting any fires. Or stealing anything.”
She pouts again, her fang poking her bottom lip as she fails to keep it tucked in her mouth. Titan, they adore her.
“Stealing anything important,” they compromise. Like they said, iron will.
She claps delightedly. “This is why I love you, Whispers,” she squeals, pressing a quick kiss to their cheek.
“Ha. Yeah.” They force a smile. They can feel the residue of lipstick on their face and wonder if it left a print. Their hand absent-mindedly drifts up to their face, their fingertips coming in contact with the waxy mark of burgundy on their cheek.
For a second, the excitement on her face wavers and she looks scared, almost. Her eyebrows are knitted with concern. They momentarily wonder if it’s because she takes notice of their sudden urge to throw themself off a cliff, but that doesn’t seem to be it. Instead, she examines their jaw, as if to check for injuries. She carefully runs her finger along their cheekbone before pulling away and getting off the bed.
Raine pushes their glasses up their nose and weighs the pros and cons of killing themself. On one hand, they’ll be free from this torturous dance along a line that they hardly know how to walk. On the other, it would be quite rude of them to leave Eda dancing alone.
She rubs the tip of her fang with her thumb before bending down to pick the grudby ball off the floor. She gasps and snaps up. “Shit, do you think they invited Darius?”