Chapter Text
The tension in the air is palpable; so thick you just might be able to cut it with a knife and package it as building material. Nobody speaks. Around the group, darkness encroaches on all sides; a small circle of light lends a comforting sense of sanctuary to the somewhat gloomy room. The crackle and snap of the flickering fireplace is very nearly the only sounds audible; outside, the wind howls and roars. But in here, everything is very, very still.
Franziska glares at Adrian, who glances at Maya, who sneaks a peak at Kay, who peers at Ema, who is staring at what she has in her hands. Slowly, slyly, she raises her eyes to look at the other girls, her face absolutely calm.
“Hurry up!” Maya demands suddenly, impatient as always. Ema just smiles a serene smile and lays down her cards.
Nobody speaks, for a moment, until-
“Damn you!” snarls Franziska von Karma, hurling down her cards. Adrian is more resigned, flopping her cards down over in mute testimony to her terrible hand. Kay makes a raspberry noise, flinging her cards onto the rug, while Maya just squeals, rocks backwards, and falls over.
“Seriously, a four of a kind?” she whines, staring up at the ceiling. “I thought my full house was a sure thing...”
“You and me both,” says Kay, looking at Ema, who snorts. “Well, you’ve just bankrupted pretty much everybody else in one fell swoop. What now, Science Girl?”
Ema shrugs, busy scooping up the huge pile of chips that had been sitting in the middle of the rug. “Well, much as I enjoy taking all your money,” she said, reaching for one last errant chip that was just out of her reach, “I was really enjoying the successful application of probability calculations, you know?”
“An informal sleepover is not the proper place to use such complex terminology!” snaps Franziska, reaching automatically for her whip. Unfortunately, she’s unable to find it, most likely because Ema has it in a pile in front of her, alongside a giant key and a little glistening jewel. Adrian mutely places one hand on Franziska’s, and the German girl calms down, just a little.
“What do you suggest?” asks Adrian, trying to keep the peace. The eldest one here, she’s clearly attempting to keep the peace; in any situation that has Franziska von Karma separated from her lash, clearly a necessary role to fill. “Another game? You give us back all our stuff?”
“Oh, you can have all your stuff back,” Ema murmurs, thinking to herself; Kay silently passes Maya a bag of chips, while Franziska eyes her whip almost hungrily. “It’s just a way of keeping score, after all. No... I was thinking we should maybe... raise the stakes. Or, as the case may be, change them”
Adrian arches her eyebrows; this isn’t the first sleepover she’s ever been to, and she’s pretty sure she’s got the measure of the oddly curious science-obsessed girl she only met today. “Are you saying...”
Ema meets her eyes with a smile. “Strip poker.”
“Ooh! I’ve always wanted to play Strip Poker!” says Kay, her face lighting up. Adrian exchanges looks with Franziska, looks which plainly say something along the lines of: Uh, should we really be allowing this? Maya just giggles, flushing as Ema suddenly shoots her a look.
“Has anybody played before?” asks Ema, pushing the pile of things to one side and slipping on her rose-red glasses. Franziska grabs her whip quickly and sits back, taking a sip of her wineglass. Adrian eyes the bottles – alcohol and strip poker? Never the best of combinations, in any circumstances – but Franziska nestles against her and the sudden warmth is very – distracting, to say the least.
“I have!” says Maya, suddenly reaching out and grabbing the deck. “Hold ‘em is fine again, right guys?”
“When did you learn to play strip poker?” asks Kay, looking the Fey girl up and down. She’s only known most of the in the room for about a day – excepting Franziska, of course, who is technically her natural enemy but in reality someone she gets along with just fine, apart from Kay’s unshakable habit of stealing her whip. She hadn’t known the prosecutrix was a lesbian, but, then again, she’d never seen her with Adrian Andrews before.
Maya just grins at her, taking a small sip from the bottle of cider by her knee. “That’s a s-e-c-r-e-t!” she giggles, suddenly dealing the cards in an almost professional manner. “Now, ladies and... ladies, please... place your bets!”