Archive of Our Own

Biarritz has the kind of beauty that makes you feel like you’re living inside a postcard. The sea was that shade of blue that photographers always oversaturate in editing, but here, it was just real. The air smelled like salt and sunscreen and expensive perfume which, honestly, was just the smell of being near Lena in general.

Miu adjusted her sunglasses and watched Lena look at the ocean. They had the afternoon to themselves before tomorrow's Chanel show, and Miu had already mentally catalogued five plus two things she wanted to buy for Lena from the shops they passed this morning.

"Lena," Miu said.

"Hmm."

"You have not touched your water in forty five minutes."

Lena didn’t bother to look at her and just rolled her eyes. "I'm fine, Miu."

"You are not fine, you are dehydrated. The weather here is different. The humidity is lower so you don't feel yourself sweating but your body is actually losing water faster than-"

"Miu."

"-normal, and we have a fitting tomorrow morning, and if you show up dehydrated your skin is going to look tired, and I know you said you trust the Chanel team but I don't fully trust anyone with your skin-"

"Miu."

"I'm asking you. As someone who lov..cares you very much. Please just drink the water."

Lena picked up the bottle. She took one sip. She put it back down. 

"There," Lena said. "Happy?"

"That was one sip."

"It was a sip."

"The recommended daily intake-"

Lena took another sip.

Miu sighed, stressed. "What can I possibly do to make you drink more water?"

Lena turned to face her properly. "What will it take," she said slowly, "for you to stop spending so much money on me?"

Miu blinked.

The ocean continued being beautiful. A seagull somewhere made a noise. Behind them a couple was arguing about something that sounded extremely dramatic.

"That's a  random question," Miu said.

"It's not a question. It's a request."

"It sounded like a question."

"Miu."

"Lena."

Lena pressed her lips together. "You had the entire hotel suite furniture rearranged this morning because you said the angle of the bed meant the morning light would hit my face."

"The window-"

"You also had them change all the pillow covers because it’s not silk"

"I had mine changed too."

Lena held up a hand. "And don't even start on what you did to Channel3."

There was a pause.

"That," Miu said carefully, "was a business decision."

"You bought the company, Miu."

"A significant share in the parent company. It's different."

"Because the air conditioning was old!"

"It was affecting your-our comfort!"

The seagull came back. It seemed to be judging them both.

Lena exhaled very slowly and looked back at the ocean. Miu looked at Lena looking at the ocean and felt the same way she had felt since she was thirteen years old, sitting in front of a television screen, watching a fifteen year old girl deliver her first lines on national broadcast and thinking, with complete and total certainty, that this person was going to be very important to her life.

She had been right. She was almost always right about Lena.

She just hadn't anticipated how expensive being right would turn out to be.

Flashback

Miu was thirteen and she was supposed to be studying.

Instead, was sitting cross legged on her bed watching a drama she had turned on mostly for background noise, but when the camera cut to a new character and Miu's hand stopped.

The character's name in the show was something forgettable. The actress playing her was not forgettable at all. 

Miu put her chips down. She watched the rest of the episode without moving.

By the time her mother called her for dinner she had already looked up the actress's name, followed every social media account available, and bookmarked three interviews.

Lena. The actress's name was Lena.

Miu’s a practical. She came from practical people. Her family ran several businesses. Practicality was in the family DNA.

So Miu, in a very practical way, decided this might be a love at first sight and that she would handle this like she would handle any long term project, with patience, a clear objective, and a realistic timeline.

The universe, it turned out, also had a sense of humor. Or maybe it approved of her plan and decided to help her. 

Miu hadn't expected to end up at the same university as Lena. She had picked her faculty based on genuine interest, a combined program in business and arts that her father had approved of because "you can inherit the businesses but you should understand the industry you want to enter." Miu had agreed with that reasoning completely and had not even considered that Lena (yes, honestly) would be there too.

She found out during orientation week.

She had been standing in line for her student ID when she heard a voice behind her that she had, over the course of the last seven years, memorized completely. From dramas and interviews and fan recorded fancams from events she had attended, technically, but always from a respectful and totally normal distance.

Miu turned around very slowly.

Lena was standing two people behind her in the same line, wearing a university shirt that was too big for her.

Miu turned back around. She stared at the wall and smiled to herself.

Weeks later, she finally got the chance to introduce herself.

Lena had smiled at her with warmth, the kind that is genuine and also completely oblivious. She called Miu cute. She said she hoped they'd see each other around. She ruffled her hair.

Miu fell in love with her again, completely and totally, like it was the first time.

The difference now was that she could see the problem clearly, Lena saw her as a little sister.

Months turned into years, and their relationship evolved from strangers to acquaintances, then close friends. They knew of each other, hung out on a few occasions (always with other people), and exchanged messages from time to time, but they had never been intimately close, much to Miu's disappointment.

Life happens, Miu thought. But loving Lena had been a great motivation for her, it made her want to become better. Miu improved herself, focused on her studies, picked up hobbies, and joined extracurricular activities. She placed Lena on a high pedestal, and if she was going to stand next to her, she needed to become someone worthy of being by Lena's side.

Then a call came on a perfectly ordinary day.

Miu was in her room going over a script for a small Channel One31 project when Lena's name appeared on her phone. This was unusua.

"Miu," Lena said when she picked up. "Are you busy?" 

Miu thinks Lena sounded nervous and it made her heart skip a beat "Not really. What’s up?"

"I want to talk to you about something. Can we meet?"

Miu's brain, which had been loyal to her for a decade, chose this moment to completely malfunction.

‘Is it the butterfly necklace?’ she thought immediately. Lena had recently sent a butterfly necklace to a small circle of people and Miu had received one and she had been trying very hard not to read into it but she had been mostly failing at that. ‘Did Lena find out I have feelings for her? Did someone tell her? Was it P'Ton? I never told P'Ton. I told Ginny. Ginny wouldn't say anything. Or maybe Lena is finally- no. Don't do that. Don't set yourself up-‘

"Miu? You went quiet."

"I'm here. Yes, let's meet."

Miu went to Channel 3's building, just as Lena had told her to. She arrived five plus two minutes early and felt a bit nervous when people, likely staff members, from the way they looked at her, began staring. Lena hadn't given her the exact details of the meeting, which only added to her confusion. Then she saw Lena, and her nervousness eased. She greeted Lena, who welcomed her warmly.

Lena pulled her into a corner and apologized for surprising her.

"So the role I want to talk to you about," Lena said.

Everything Miu had been spiraling about for the last hours instantly reshuffled itself.

"Yeah?," Miu said.

"For you, It’s you. Opposite me." Lena holds her hand . "It's a GL series. The character they're looking for is younger, more energetic, the kind of person who's very-"

"A GL series," Miu said.

"Yes. The character-"

"So we'd play," Miu said, very carefully, "a couple."

"That's generally what GL means, yes." Lena smiled. "There are some love scenes, nothing too intense maybe, but some moments that do require-"

"Love scenes," Miu said.

"Miu, are you going to repeat everything I say?"

"No. Sorry. Go ahead."

"There are also kiss scenes. A lot, actually. The director wants to do them properly, not the kind where the camera conveniently cuts away. Real ones." Lena tilted her head slightly. "The company executive saw your account and saw that we are mutual and she thought maybe we might work and I agree,” She paused. "We do have chemistry, don't you think?"

Miu's entire brain left her body for several seconds and then came back in the wrong order.

"Chemistry?," she said. "We have chemistry?."

She agreed to read the audition script. She agreed to run lines with Lena, which she did in a room while Lena coached her through the scenes. She agreed to a quick chemistry test, which she did on an actual set with actual cameras, and it had apparently gone very well because three different people had pulled her aside to say so.

She had looked at the camera. She had looked at Lena. She had said the lines.

She had not been acting. She had simply been looking at Lena and saying how she felt and apparently that read extremely well on camera, which, in hindsight, probably should have told her something about herself.

"That was incredible," the director said. "You're a natural. Have you done this before?"

"No," Miu said.

"You've never played a character in love?"

"I've never needed to."

The director looked at her strangely and then went to speak with Lena about something. Lena looked back at Miu from across the room with that hopeful expression, and Miu's chest did the usual thing it did when Lena looked at her like that.

"You don't have to decide today," Lena said, coming back over. "Take your time, seriously. No pressure at all. If you want it the role they said it’s basically yours, but I know your situation with your current channel complicates things and I don't want you feeling like you have to-"

"I'll think about it," Miu said.

Lena smiled.

"Thank you for coming," Lena said. "Really. It means a lot."

Miu went home. She opened her laptop. 

She thought about everything and then opened PowerPoint.

The family group chat message was sent at 7:25 PM.

"I need to hold a serious family meeting. Please be available tonight. I have a presentation."

Her brother replied first.

"Presentation? Is this a pitch? Are you starting a business?"

Her mother replied second.

"Are you sick? Are you in trouble? Do I need to call someone? Why is this so late?"

Her father replied last.

"Okay, I will prepare snacks."

As due, Miu's family was assembled in the living room. Her brother brought himself. Her mother had brought tea. Her father had, true to his word, prepared snacks.

Miu connected her laptop to the television. She had prepared twenty five slides. The title slide read: “New Opportunities: A Review of Benefits, Costs, and My Future."

Her brother looked at the title for a moment. "The girl," he said. "This is about a girl."

"There's a girl?" their mother said.

"There has always been a girl," Her brother said.

"This is a professional matter," Miu said, and clicked to the next slide.

The next slide was titled: “Background: The Opportunity." It covered, in organized bullet points, the nature of the role, the production company, the series premise, and the fact that her co-star would be Lena, actress, Channel 3 artist.

Slide three: " Career Benefits." The advantages of having an experienced senior co star as a partner in her first leading role, the reach of Channel 3's platform, the potential boost to her own profile, and several points about long-term.

Slide four made her mother put down her tea.

It was titled: "Personal Motivation."

The first bullet read: "Lena is someone I admire." The second: "This is my best opportunity to spend extended quality time with her in a professional setting while showing my commitment and suitability as a her future partner." 

"Oh," her mother said quietly.

"She's been in love with the actress since she was thirteen," Her brother told their father.

"I know," her father said, eating a cracker.

Everyone looked at him.

"You knew?" Miu's mother said.

"She saved a photo on the family computer. I found it during a backup." He shrugged. "I thought it was a phase. Then it wasn't a phase. So I waited."

"You never said anything," Miu said.

"Neither did you," he said, completely reasonably. "Go on. Continue."

Miu continued the presentation. Slides five through nine covered the financial implications: the contract with Channel One31, the estimated early termination fee, her current projects and their status, the transition timeline, and a projected budget broken down into categories.

The categories were: Legal and Contract Fees, Career Transition Costs, General Production Expenses, and Other.

"What is 'other'?" Her brother asked.

Miu clicked to the next slide. It was titled: "Other: Budget for Strategic Gestures." Underneath, in tidy sub bullets: gifts (general), food and dining preferences, comfort items, and miscellaneous support.

Silence in the room.

"You budgeted for buying her things," Her brother said.

"It is an investment."

"In what exactly?"

"In her happiness and in consistently demonstrating that I am someone who pays attention to what she needs."

Her mother looked worried "Honey, I think this is very sweet, but isn't it a little-"

"I love her," Miu said simply. "I have loved her for nine years. I am not going to be careless about it."

Her mother closed her mouth.

Her father was quiet for a moment. He looked at the budget number on the screen. He looked at the number listed under "Other." He looked at Miu.

"This number," he said, pointing at the screen. "Is this what you think is enough?"

"It's a reasonable starting point-"

"It is not enough." He held up one finger. "I will give you three times this. But." Another pause. "I want to meet her first. I need to see this person who has had my daughter's heart for nine years without knowing it."

Miu stared at him.

"Daddy, you can't interview the woman I like-"

"I'm not interviewing her. I'm having a meal with her. There is a difference." He looked very sure about this. "I want to see how she treats people when she thinks no one important is watching. That tells you everything."

"He's right about that," her mother said immediately.

"Mommy?" Miu looked at her.

Her mother had the grace to look slightly apologetic. "I do have concerns about the contract situation and what it means for your relationship with Channel One31 long term. Those are real concerns, Miu." She paused. "But I also want you to be happy. And if this is what makes you happy then I want to understand it better before I have a full opinion."

"I support it completely," Will said.

"You said that before I even finished the presentation."

"I've watched you be in love with someone from a distance for almost a decade. I'm not going to be the person who stands in the way of this." He paused. "Also I've seen her in social media. You have very good taste."

Miu looked at her family. They were all, in their own specific ways, completely unhinged. She had always known this but some moments just confirmed it more clearly than others.

"Thank you," she said. "I'll call Lena tomorrow and tell her I accept."

"And the meeting with me?" her father asked.

"And I will arrange for you to embarrass me over dinner at some point, yes."

He looked satisfied. He topped up his tea. "Good. Also," he added, very casually, "increase the 'other' budget. If you're going to do something, do it properly."

During the Filming

Lena walked into the side table on the corner near the breakroom door. It was positioned slightly awkwardly and she caught her toe on it, made a small sound then pretended it didn't happen, said "I'm fine" to no one in particular, and kept walking.

Miu noticed. Miu said nothing.

Miu also said nothing the next morning when every sharp corner on set had been fitted with padding. She said nothing when the side table had been moved several entimeters to the left. She said nothing when the path from Lena's dressing room to the main set had been subtly reconfigured to remove any and all possible obstacles.

Lena walked through the set that afternoon, moved around without any trouble, and remarked that it felt more open lately. Miu said she hadn't noticed any difference. Miu smiled at a wall.

"The pork in that dish was a bit tough today," Lena said to no one in particular, at lunch, at the long table the production had set up near the set.

She moved on immediately to talking about the afternoon scenes. Miu finished her meal and didn't say anything.

The next day the catering was different. Not dramatically different. Just the kind of different where everything was exactly right, the meat perfectly tender, the vegetables cooked properly, and it stayed exactly like this every single day from then on.

"Did the catering company change?" one of the crew asked on Friday.

"No," said the catering manager, who had received a detailed document earlier that week about preparation standards along with a payment that made him consider raising his standards for all his clients, not just this production.

Lena ate her lunch and said the food had been really good lately. Miu said she hadn't noticed any difference. Miu grins to herself.

"They sent the schedule late again," Lena said, not even particularly annoyed, just making an observation to their manager on the phone while Miu happened to be nearby. "I got it at eleven last night. You know I need it by seven so I can actually prepare."

She ended the call, forgot she had said it within few minutes, and moved on to asking Miu something about blocking.

Miu did not forget.

Miu sent a polite, professional, thoroughly detailed email to the office that afternoon. It was two pages. It covered expected communication standards, best practices.

The schedule started arriving at 6:30 AM every day from then on.

This was the one that changed everything or atleast one of the biggest thing that happened.

They weren't on set that day. They were at Channel 3's main building for a meeting about promotional strategy, in a room with an air conditioning unit that was, objectively, not doing its job. It was the specific kind of bad air conditioner that ran constantly as if to prove it was trying, made noise to back that up, and still accomplished nothing. Not cold enough to be refreshing, not comfortable enough to ignore.

Lena had pulled her cardigan tighter during the meeting. Afterwards she mentioned to the channel's production coordinator, pleasantly, not as a complaint, more just as an observation passing through her mind, that the building's system was probably due for an upgrade. Then she left to go have coffee with Miu.

Miu had been standing right there for that remark.

Three days passed. Then a week. Miu watched Lena return to that building twice more and quietly adjust her outfits to compensate. She watched Lena not complain about it again. She watched Lena adapt.

Miu went home and stared at the ceiling for a while.

The next day, she called her father.

"The building" Miu said.

"Yes?" her father said, in the tone of a man who was already prepared for wherever this was going.

"The air conditioning system is old. It's affecting her comfort and the quality of the environment she spends a lot of her time in."

"I see."

"I want to do something about it."

"Replacing an appliances in a building you don't own," her father said, "is not really something you can just do unless you have some kind of connection to the property or the company."

"Is there a way we can have that connection?," Miu said.

There was a pause.

"You want me to help you buy into the company," her father said.

"I want to look at the options available."

Her father was quiet for a moment. Then, "Funny enough, I've been watching Channel 3's parent company for a while now. There are some interesting positions to take there from a portfolio perspective."

"Is that actually true?"

"True enough," he said. "Give me two weeks."

He didn't need two weeks. He needed nine days.

And then, another one happened again.

Miu was sitting on her bedroom floor with her laptop. She also had her lawyer on a video call. 

"Khun Miu," he said, "you want me to find out if you can buy part of Chanel because your friend looked at a store window for a few seconds?"

"She's not my friend," Miu said. "And it was two and a half seconds."

"That doesn't make it better."

"It makes it more specific."

The lawyer rubbed his face. "Why do you need to own part of Chanel?"

Miu turned her laptop around. She had made a PowerPoint slide. It said: "If I own Chanel, then giving her Chanel is not a gift. It is just sharing what I have."

The lawyer stared at the screen. "That is not how anything works."

"She has pride. She won't let me buy her expensive things. So I need to remove the concept of expensive things."

"By buying a fashion house."

"A small part of one."

"That's still insane."

"Can you help me or not."

The lawyer sighed. "I'll send you the paperwork. But I want you to know I'm billing you for this conversation."

"That's fair."

She called her father at 11 PM. 

"Daddy."

"Which building now?"

"Not a building. Chanel."

There was a long silence. Then her father said, very quietly, "The fashion brand?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Lena looked at a bag."

"That's it?"

"She sighed at it."

Another long silence. Then: "I saw her Instagram story. She posted a bag emoji and a sighing emoji."

"You follow Lena?"

"Your mother made me. She said if you were going to spend all our money on love, the least we could do is like the posts."

"That's not fair. I'm not spending all our money."

"The air conditioning at Channel 3 cost more than your brother's education."

"Love is expensive. You taught me that."

Her father was quiet for a moment. "I'll make some calls. But Miu. We are not buying the whole thing. A small piece. The kind that gets you a newsletter and maybe a calendar."

"And fashion week tickets."

Her father sighed. "And fashion week tickets."

Two weeks later, Lena opened her mail. Inside were a VIP pass to Paris Fashion Week. Chanel Spring Summer show. There was a small note in Miu's handwriting.

It said: "For the architecture. Love, Miu."

Lena turned the passes over. In small gold letters, it said "Corporate Guest of Shareholder."

She called Miu immediately.

"Miu."

"Lena."

"Why do this say shareholder?"

"Interesting story."

"And that is?”

“Oh no, it’s late. I need to go Lalee”

“Wait! Miu!”

Back in Biarritz

The seagull was gone. A boat horn sounded somewhere on the water. 

Miu was still sitting next to Lena on the small wall above the water. The water bottle was still mostly full. Lena was still looking at Miu with that expression she had been slowly developing over the past few years, the one that was part exasperation, part deep and genuine affection, and part something else that Miu had been spending considerable energy trying to correctly identify.

"You know," Lena said, once the silence had stretched to a comfortable length, "I've been thinking."

"That sounds dangerous," Miu said.

"I'm serious. I've been thinking about all of it. The changes around me, all the blessings, all the positive ones. It’s like I have had all the luck in the world ever since I started walking with you."

"Isn’t that a good thing?"

"Your father bought a media conglomerate because I made one comment about a warm room, Miu."

"A poorly air conditioned room. There's a difference. And it has nothing to do with you, purely business you know"

Lena pressed on. "And before that there was the schedule thing, and before that the food, and before that you reorganized the entire set so I wouldn't bump my toe on a table again."

"Workplace safety-"

"You turned the set “baby proof”!"

"Yes."

Lena looked at the ocean. Miu waited. She was good at waiting. She had been practicing it for years.

"I want to tell you something," Lena said.

"Okay," Miu said.

“I have a system” Lena starts and Miu looked at her in confusion.

Flashback

Lena had a system.

She had built the system when she was seventeen years old and had just received her first real good money paycheck and her mother had sat her down and said, very seriously, "This industry is not stable. You have to be smarter than the money." Lena had taken that to heart in the way she took most things to heart, completely and thoroughly, and she had built a system that had not changed in eight years.

Her income was divided before she could spend any of it emotionally. Expenses first, fixed and non negotiable. Then savings, a specific percentage, also non negotiable. Then insurance, then emergency fund, Then investments, And then, last and smallest, leisure. The fun money. The portion that existed to remind her she was a person and not just a career.

It was a good system. It had served her well for eight years.

Then Miu happened.

It started small. Lena saw something in a shop window, something Miu had mentioned once, just a passing comment in the middle of a conversation about something else entirely, and Lena went in, bought it, and didn't think much of it. Fine. Just leisure.

Then she was walking through the mall with Miu, Miu pointed at something, and Lena was already reaching for her wallet.

Then she started researching the trips and activities Miu liked, calculating how much she'd need.

Then, before she realized it, her whole system broke. She had created a budget line for a person. She had voluntarily reduced her savings contribution, something she hadn't done in years, not once, not for anything, for anyone, for a person. She had taken the column she used to use for things like spa days and nice dinners and that one jacket she'd wanted for six months.

"This is fine," Lena said to her empty apartment.

Back to present

"Lena," Miu started, "are you… what are you trying to say?"

"I guess I shouldn't have started with that, but I wanted to make a point," Lena replied.

"And that is?" Miu asked.

"I know you've been spending a considerably large amount on me, Miu. And while my expenses for you aren't as big as yours, I've set aside a portion of what I have for you. That's a lot for me, even if the -amount isn't as much."

Miu frowned in confusion. "You-"

"And I'm doing it for the same reason you're doing it for me," Lena said.

Miu looked up and straight ahead, struggling a bit to hold back a grin.

"When did you figure me out?" Miu asked.

Lena exhaled. "Four months ago."

"I kept trying to figure out how to bring it up correctly," Lena said, and her voice was quieter now, different. "I didn't want to get it wrong. I wanted to actually say it properly for once." She looked down at her hands. "I'm not great at this kind of thing. The real kind. You know how I am."

"I know how you are," Miu said softly.

"I needed time to understand my own feelings first, which took longer than it should have. And then once I understood them I didn't know what to do with them." She looked up. "And I also needed to come to terms with the fact that the person I have feelings for had her father purchase my workplace because of a complant I made once."

"That part is reasonable to need time for," Miu admitted.

"It is very a lot, Miu."

"I know."

"It's the most anyone has ever- I don't even have a reference point for this. I've been in this industry ten years, people have been generous, but you and your family, you just go completely overboard about everything and somehow it doesn't feel overwhelming, it just feels-"

"Like too much?" Miu asked.

Lena shook her head. "Like you actually mean it," she said quietly. "Like you're not performing caring about me, you're just- that's how you are. That's how you love people."

Miu looked at her. The light was doing something completely unfair to Lena's face right now and Miu was just going to have to live with that.

"I have loved you," Miu said, "since I was thirteen years old watching you on TV. And I know how that sounds. I know it sounds like I built something in my head that isn't real. But I know you now as a real person, not as a screen. I know you hate when schedules change last minute. I know you always give the better half of something to other people before you take your own portion. I know the exact sound of your laugh when something is actually funny versus the polished one you use at events. I even know how lazy you can be or when you are too stubborn when you refuse what is good for you." She paused. "I'm in love with you. Your perfection, your flaws, I'm not confused about my feelings."

Lena was very still.

"I want to say something now," she said.

"Okay," Miu said.

"I realized I had feelings for you during filming. Episode four." Lena's voice was steady but careful. "The scene where your character tells mine that she's been watching over her. You weren't acting." She held Miu's gaze. "I know your acting face. I've watched you act. That wasn't it. That was just your face. And I thought, oh. And then I thought oh no. And then I thought, oh wait." She took a small breath. "And then I didn't know what to do with any of it for a very long time."

"Episode four," Miu said. "That was a year ago."

"Yes."

"You've had feelings for me for almost a year."

"I've been figuring them out for months. There's a difference-"

"Lena."

"Yes?"

"I've been in love with you for a decade."

"I'm aware this isn't a competition-"

"It's a little bit of a competition."

"It really isn't-"

"You win on depth of realization but I win on time and self-awareness," Miu said. "I knew exactly what I felt since I was thirteen."

Lena looked at her for a moment. Then she laughed, the real one, the actual funny one, the unguarded one. "You are so impossible."

"Yes," Miu said. "But you knew that already."

"I did," Lena said. She was still smiling but softly now, the kind of soft that wasn't for cameras or events or anyone watching. "I love you. I'm in love with you. I don't know the exact moment it changed from one thing into the other but I know it did and I've been scared to say it out loud because I wanted it to come out right. But I want to say it now, while we're here and the light is nice and the seagull is gone."

"The seagull did leave," Miu confirmed.

"So with the seagull gone: I love you, Miu. I want to be with you. I want to do this properly."

Miu looked at her for a moment. Years of watching from a distance, then from a closer distance, then from the distance of almost-family, and now here. A small wall in France. Golden hour. Being looked at by Lena like that.

"Okay," Miu said.

"Okay?"

"I have been waiting since I was thirteen. I was prepared to keep waiting. But if you're telling me I don't have to anymore, then yes. Okay. I want to be with you too. Properly."

Lena reached over and took her hand.

They sat like that for a while. The ocean was still beautiful. The light was still unfair. Somewhere behind them French people were living their lives completely unaware that something very significant had just happened on this specific wall.

Then Lena said: "I want you to know that I've also been doing some other things."

"What kind of things?"

"Things in the same category as your things."

Miu turned to look at her. "What does that mean?"

"It means the hotel we're staying at right now?" Lena said. "I called ahead to check your preferred room temperature and to make sure your specific shampoo brand was in stock. I also told them your preferences. And I asked them to put extra blankets in the closet because I know you get cold at night even when the room is fine."

Miu stared at her.

"You," Miu said.

"Yes," Lena said pleasantly.

"You've been- how long have you been doing this kind of thing?"

"Since episode four?," Lena said.

Miu looked at her. Lena looked back. They were in the south of France in beautiful light holding hands and both of them had apparently been quietly, independently, going absolutely insane about each other for an overlapping stretch of time of combined pining and caretaking and careful, enormous, completely unreasonable love.

"I was going to buy you a necklace tomorrow," Miu said. "I already arranged it. The shop is holding it."

"Which necklace?"

"The one you looked at for three seconds on Port this morning."

Lena blinked. "Three seconds, Miu."

"You touched the glass case with two fingers. That means you liked it."

"I was jus-"

"You do that specific touch when you like something and don't want to make it obvious. I have been watching you for twelve years. I know all of your touches."

Lena opened her mouth. Closed it. "I already bought you something," she said.

"What?"

"That bag at the market yesterday. The old you picked it up, examined the handle, and put it down."

"You bought it."

"It's in my room right now."

They looked at each other.

"We are," Miu said, "exactly the same amount of insane."

"We really are," Lena agreed.

"This is going to be a problem."

"Probably."

"We're going to try to one-up each other forever."

"Almost certainly," Lena said.

"Then we one-up each other forever," Miu said. "Together."

Lena laughed, the real one. She squeezed Miu's hand. "Together."

"Starting tonight," Miu said. "But first you need to drink your water."

"Miu-"

"You can love me and also drink your water. These are not mutually exclusive things."

Lena picked up the bottle. She took a long drink this time, a real one, and looked at Miu with the expression that Miu had been dreaming for years..

It was love. Very simply and completely love. The kind that knows all your corners and chooses you anyway.

"Better?" Lena asked.

"Much better," Miu said.

Epilogue

The thing about being with someone who loved you the way Miu loved people was that you always had enough blankets.

Lena had learned this within the first week of them being officially together. There were always extra blankets. There was always the right temperature in whatever room they were in. There was always, somehow, exactly what she needed before she had fully finished the thought.

Which was why the current situation was a little funny.

They were in Miu's place, two months into being together, having what was technically their first sleepover except it was not very romantic because they had spent most of the evening arguing about a drama and then they had both fallen asleep mid argument and now it was two in the morning and Lena was awake and cold and Miu was on the complete opposite side of the bed like she had rolled there with purpose.

"Miu," Lena whispered.

Nothing.

"Miu," she tried again, louder.

Miu made a small sleepy sound and did not move.

Lena reached over and poked Miu's shoulder. "I'm cold."

Miu groaned and pulled the comforter tighter around herself. "Then get more blankets. There are like six in the closet."

"I don't want more blankets."

"Then stop being cold," Miu mumbled into her pillow.

Lena huffed and grabbed the edge of the comforter. She tugged.

Miu tugged back without even opening her eyes. "No."

"Miu."

"No. This is my side now."

"You don't have a side. You stole the whole thing."

"I will kick you," Miu said, her voice still sleepy but definitely smiling now.

"You wouldn't."

"Try me."

Lena tugged harder. Miu hooked her foot around Lena's ankle under the blanket. "Last wrning," Miu said. "I will push you."

"You wouldn't dare."

"I absolutely would."

They both pulled at the same time. The comforter slid sideways. Neither let go.

Then Lena stopped pulling. She let the fabric go slack in her hands. "Miu."

Miu paused, suspicious. "What?"

"I don't want the comforter."

"But you just said you were cold."

Lena looked at her in the dark. "I just want you to come closer."

Miu went completely still. Then, very slowly, her cheeks turned pink. A tiny giggle escaped her before she could stop it. She tried to hide it by burying her face into the pillow, but Lena saw. Lena saw everything.

"Come here," Lena said softly.

Miu shuffled across the bed in the most dramatic way possible, dragging the comforter with her like she was still making a point. But when she reached Lena, she stopped pretending.

Lena wrapped her arms around Miu and pulled her close. Miu was warm and soft and still blushing. Lena tucked Miu's head under her chin and held her there.

"You're so red," Lena whispered.

"Shut up."

"I can feel how warm your face is."

"I said shut up."

Lena smiled into Miu's hair. She kissed the top of her head. Miu made a small happy sound and pressed closer.

They lay there in the quiet for a long moment. The comforter was bunched around them both, more than enough, exactly right.

"Miu," Lena said softly.

"Hmm," said Miu, almost fully asleep, her face still tucked against Lena's chest.

"Thank you for staying close."

A pause. Then, quietly: "Always."

Another Epilogue 

Lena was sitting in the dressing room when her phone rang. She picked it up without looking at the screen.

"Hello?"

"Hi honey. The land up in the mountains that you wanted is already for sale. Do you want me to bid on it? Also Will said the contractor for the coffee shop already has a design. I told him to email you a copy."

Lena blinked. "Uhm, Aunti..Mom?"

"Yes sweetie."

"Mom, this is Lena. Miu is on set right now. She's filming."

There was a pause. Then Miu's mom laughed. "Oh no. Honey, I am so sorry. I meant to call you actually."

"You meant to call me?"

"Yes. Dear”

Lena frowned. "You said a land I wanted?."

"Ah. Silly me. Lena, you did not tell me. But I figured since you are already dating my daughter, we can just talk to you directly now instead of buying everything behind your back."

Lena stood up slowly. "Buying everything behind my back?"

"The land up in the mountains. There’s already a house but we can still renovate. It has a greenhouse and a mini farm. You and Miu can go there to unwind from time to time. Maybe live there someday."

Lena pressed her free hand to her forehead. "A house?" She muttered.

Lena started walking toward the set. She needed to find Miu. She needed to make eye contact with someone who understood what was happening right now.

"Are you still there sweetie?" Miu's mom asked.

"Yes. I'm still here. What about the coffee shop?"

"I am not sure about that one. Will is handling it. But I think he mentioned a book corner and a mini painting area."

"A book corner."

"And a painting area. For when you want to paint."

Lena stopped walking. She watched Miu through the glass window of the set. Miu was doing a scene. Miu looked very calm. Miu had no idea what was happening on the phone right now.

"Mom, This seems like a lot," Lena said. "Is this a dowry?" She laughed a little. She was not actually sure if she was joking anymore.

There was a sharp gasp on the other end of the line.

"Lena! Do not say that. You will cause problems in the family."

"What problems?"

"Do you know Miu's grandparents are already arguing about what they will prepare for you?"

"For me?"

"For when you come see them. There's also a talk about buying a kangaroo farm because they saw a video of you talking about those. And there's some other business they think you might want. It's a very big fight right now."

Lena sat down on a chair near the shooting area.

"Please do not do all of this," Lena said. "It might pressure my family. My mom will feel she has to match everything."

"Don't worry honey. Just take the love. Also your father already called us."

Lena straightened up. "My father?"

"Yes. He offered us a land in Canada."

Lena's voice came out very loud. "He did WHAT?"