Work Text:
Jo talks a lot.
Normally, Raissa likes to listen.
But right now, she has something important to say.
“Okay so, you know how the next chapter starts with a huge arm wrestling tournament, I was thinking—”
Raissa stops listening. Not because she's disinterested—the opposite, if anything. It's just that Raissa knows that if she listens, she'll completely forget about her entire plan to ask Jo out.
Not again. Not this time. Raissa will ask her best friend out, and nothing will stop her.
“So, what’cha think?"
Raissa opens her mouth to speak, breathes in deep—
—and then Jo's phone rings.
“Shit, sorry. It's my agent."
Raissa's teeth click shut. Fuck. Her shoulders drop, adrenaline rushing out of her like a waterfall. Jo nods along to whatever is being said on the phone; Raissa stands by awkwardly, just… watching.
“I gotta go," Jo sighs. She sheepishly rubs the back of her neck in the way Raissa loves. It's cute.
"No problem.” She says nothing else, instead waving as Jo trots away. Jo grins at her with an aura so uniquely hers, and Raissa realizes she's falling all over again.
“Flame-O?"
Jo tilts her fork toward Raissa. Raissa stares at it with a frown. They're sitting in Raissa's dorm room, on her bed, watching some movie on Jo’s old laptop—though Raissa isn't exactly watching.
To be fair, neither is Jo. She's drawing. Raissa takes peaks over her shoulder, eyes tracing the fine lines and colors dancing across Jo’s sketchup.
She really is talented.
Raissa stares at Jo's furrowed brows and cute puckered lips. She's so focused, so determined—honestly the exact opposite of who she was before Nakali.
Raissa loves it. She loves Jo.
" Jo…”
“Andito ako!” Raissa's dormmate hollers from the other room. Raissa groans and flops back onto her bed.
"That a no?” Jo's still holding the flame-o out to her; Raissa takes it with a scowl.
“I just don't get it." Raissa paces back and forth along Nakali’s beach, fingers rubbing at her sore temples. “Why is this so hard?"
Raww sits on the sand in front of her, head tilted toward her with a hand in a bag of flame-o’s.
“I don't suppose you have any experience in asking your best friend since you were kids to be your girlfriend?"
Raissa knows the answer already, but still sighs when Raww shakes his head. Why is she even talking to him about this, anyway?
Resuming her pacing, Raissa mutters to herself. Maybe she should make a checklist? Yeah, yeah, Raissa loves checklists. Something to keep her on track while she tries to tell Jo that she's in love with her and has been for years…
Raissa bites her thumbnail. This is so stupid.
“I don't know Jo as well as you do, but what I do know is that she loves you," Raww says through a mouthful of food. “She's always asking me for advice on this kinda stuff, like friendship, which is weird because I didn't have any friends before you two…"
Raissa stops and stares at him.
“Anyway, I think you should just tell her. No silly plans, no weird beating around the bush, just say it!"
“Say… what, exactly?"
“I love you."
The sound of muffled feet against sand stops Raissa in her tracks.
“Uh, am I interrupting something?" Jo places a hand on her hip and looks between Raissa and Raww with a raised brow.
“Jo!" Raissa jumps in front of Raww, blocking him from Jo's sight. “You're back early!"
Jo looks around her with a curious expression, then looks up to face Raissa. “Yeah… Batiba didn't need as much help as I thought."
Just say it.
Now??
Yes, now?
But Raww is still here!?
So? Jo's here and she's staring at you! Say it!
“Raissa, are you… okay?"
“Just peachy!" Raissa grips Jo's wrist and pulls her forward. “Tayo na!"
“W-Wait, Raissa!"
Raissa clicks their bracelets together and pulls Jo through the portal.
Something's off with Raissa, but Jo is having a hard time explaining it.
Is she mad?
Raissa keeps avoiding her. Dodging her calls, leaving her on read, skedaddling away whenever Jo tries to talk to her about it.
Did I do something wrong?
Jo stews about it when she should be drawing. The deadline is just around the corner and she still has several pages to ink and some to sketch.
She's getting distracted.
Jo opens her sketchbook to a blank page and taps her pencil against the page.
A quick warmup won't hurt…
She connects her earbuds to her mp3 and sets it aside, allowing her hand to glide across the page in strokes of soft and sharp lines.
The curve of glass, the sharpness of manicured eyebrows. The softness of skin, the sharpness of her piercing gaze.
Raissa stares back at her. Jo blinks. She's doodling Raissa—has been doodling Raissa.
Smiling, laughing, smirking, even glowering in the way Jo finds incredibly adorable.
Jo slams her sketchbook shut and throws it across her bed.
Am I…
No. I can't—
Jo bites her lip until it hurts. I'm falling in love with my best friend.
“Jo, I have to tell you something."
Raissa clutches a piece of paper in her hands as stares at her bathroom mirror.
“I've wanted to tell you for a while."
Her hands are clammy and she's shaking. Why is this so hard?
“I… lo—” Her words caught in her throat. Raissa coughs into her fist. " Lo—ve… I lo…"
“Gah!" Raissa crumples the paper in a fit of rage and slams her fists into the counter. “Stop being a coward!" She yells at her reflection. “Just tell her! It's not that hard!"
“But it is!" Raissa clutches her hair. “What if it ruins our friendship?? I wouldn't be able to live with myself!"
“It won't ruin it." She fights with herself.
“But it could!"
“Oi, stop yelling to yourself, Raissa!" Raissa's roommate makes herself known, and Raissa groans.
She's right. Raissa needs to calm down.
“Aye, Jo's here, by the way."
Jo? Raissa scrambles. She's not dressed, her hair is a mess—
“Raissa, you good?" Jo knocks on her door, soft lilts of worry in her voice. “Can I come in?"
“One second!" Raissa trips over a pile of notebooks as she runs to her closet. She flips through clothing, trying to find something better than shorts and a tank top. She’s never worried about what she looks like with Jo before… This is stupid.
“Alright, I'm coming in!”
Raissa has less than two seconds to decide what to wear and to change. She has no time at all.
“Raissa?”
Jo looks beautiful as always. Raissa’s hair is sticking up, her clothes are wrinkled from sleep, and she can feel tears welling in her eyes.
Why? Why am I…
“Raissa, anong nangyari?” Jo’s eyebrows furrow with worry. She approaches quickly, hands outreached to cup Raissa’s cheeks, soft thumbs wiping away warm tears. “Ba’t ka umiiyak?”
Raissa wants to say it’s nothing. She wants to brush it off like normal. But she can’t. More tears replace the ones Jo wipes away and she’s not even sure where they’re coming from.
“I…” Raissa’s throat clenches. Her lungs shudder in her quaking chest. Is now the right time? Now? While she’s falling apart in Jo’s arms because she’s so in love with her best friend?
What better time is there?
I can’t.
Why not?
It’ll ruin everything—
“Raissa…” Jo’s voice is so soft, so calming. “I have one thing to ask you…”
Is she seriously going to—
“Who let the dogs out?”
Raissa’s lips part in astonishment. Jo’s smiling at her—grinning all confidently and shittily, and despite Raissa’s clear distraught, she can’t help but laugh.
“Who,” she huffs. Jo repeats it. Raissa’s heart loosens with each breath. Tears of anger and sadness are replaced with laughter, pure and light and shared between them until they can’t breathe.
“You’re incorrigible,” Raissa mutters. She presses her forehead against Jo’s, still giggling like a lovesick schoolgirl.
“You love me,” Jo snickers back. Raissa’s eyes dart toward Jo’s.
“Yes… gusto kita, Jo.”
It comes as naturally as breathing. It’s easy, as if Raissa is just describing the weather. Sunshine, rainbows, green grass and tall trees. It’s everything and nothing all at the same time. Perhaps it just is, and Raissa doesn’t need to describe it.
“Oh.”
Raissa’s smile falters a bit. The looseness of her chest twists unexpectedly.
“Sorry, I shouldn’t have—” Raissa moves away. Idiot. She shouldn’t have—
“No, wait.” Jo grips her arm tightly and pulls Raissa back into her. There’s a bit more force than Raissa is expecting, and she falls forward into Jo’s embrace with a yelp.
Jo’s body is like a wall. A warm, soft wall. She holds Raissa up easily, arms coming around her waist and hugging her tight. Raissa buries her face into Jo’s shoulder, embracing her with as much desperation as she feels in her heart.
“Mahal din kita,” Jo whispers. Raissa can barely hear her. “Alam ko na.”
Raissa’s heart is in her throat. She’s flying—soaring—even with her feet flat on the ground. She giggles, part happiness and part disbelief. All this fretting, all this plotting, only for it to be as simple as a few words.
“Really?” Raissa can’t believe it, so she has to ask. She has to ask, and she’ll ask and ask until it sinks in.
Jo knows this. Raissa knows she does because Raissa knows Jo and Jo knows Raissa. They can speak without talking, hug without touching, and none of that will change.
“I’m in love with you, Raissa.” Jo gets onto her tippy toes and presses a kiss to Raissa’s forehead. “I love you.” She kisses her temple, soft and sweet, and Raissa giggles. “Mahal kita.” Jo’s lips brush against Raissa’s cheek as softly as her words in Raissa’s ears. “In love ako sa’yo.”
“Okay, okay,” Raissa breathes through sickeningly sweet laughs, “I get it, I get it!”
Jo leans back and stares at her. Raissa stares back. Her eyes dart to Jo’s lips and back to her eyes. Take the next step.
Now?
Always.
“Can I kiss you?” Jo says it first because of course she does. There’s worry in her voice.
“I’ve never kissed anyone before.” Raissa moves her hands from Jo’s shoulders to her nape.
“Me neither.”
“It might be bad?”
“Only one way to find out.”
Raissa chuckles. Her smile couldn’t be any wider.
Kiss her.
Jo cups her cheeks, and Raissa pulls her close. Their foreheads touch first, a mutual agreement. Their breaths mingle, noses touch, and Raissa stares into her best friend’s eyes as their lips meet as softly as the wind blows through her hair.
It’s so light that Raissa has reasonable doubt that it even happened. The taste of Jo’s chapstick removes that doubt entirely.
“Tayo na?” Jo whispers against Raissa’s lips.
“Tayo na.”
Raissa presses her lips against Jo’s and it’s as magical as she had always dreamed it’d be. It’s powerful yet timid, hard yet soft—it’s Josephine Cleopatra Yuson.
Her fingers tangle in Jo’s hair and push her closer. Raissa is wholly inexperienced and so is Jo, but they’ll figure it out.
Raissa breaks away to breathe. It’ll just take practice. Lots and lots of practice.
“That was nice.”
Raissa snorts. Jo’s ability to ruin the mood should be studied.
“It was.” Raissa’s thumb brushes the corner of Jo’s bottom lip. “Want to do it again?”
“Siyempre,” Jo grins. Raissa rolls her eyes. Cute.