Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Fall Semester, Senior Year

Kristen doesn’t try to talk to her. She doesn’t want to talk to her. Kipperlilly had spent all of last year trying to destroy them, trying to kill her, and trying to end the world. And now she’s sitting on top of a picnic table in the courtyard laughing about something with Lucy or walking down the hallway intently listening to Oisin as he excitedly explains something to her.

And yet.

Sometimes she feels eyes on her in the hallway, or the cafeteria, or in the stands during a bloodrush game, and she feels so incredibly looked at .

And Kristen just doesn’t know how to feel about it. She doesn’t know if she wants to talk to Fig about it or shove it down and keep it under lock and key. Just ignore it until that urge to pull Kipperlilly’s hair out of that tight ponytail and run her fingers through it goes away.

Needless to say, it doesn’t.

“Why does Kettlechip keep staring at you?” Adaine asks one day early into their senior year, the two standing at Kristen’s locker after the final bell. She doesn’t need to look behind her, she had felt Kipperlilly’s gaze from the moment she had come over to grab her backpack.

But she was weak to pretty girls with honey eyes and a mischievous smile, so she glances over her shoulder anyways.

She locks eyes with Kipperlilly and like always, the rogue doesn’t look away. She holds Kristen’s gaze with unmoving eyes as she listens to whatever Lucy is telling her, the other girl gesturing wildly with her hands.

And like always, Kristen can’t bring herself to not look oh so briefly down at Kipperlilly’s pink lips, quirked into a slight smirk when she notices Kristen looking back at her. Her hair is pulled back in a perfectly neat ponytail and she has traded her normal sweater vest and button down combo for a soft cream sweater over a brown plaid dress. Not that that is something Kristen notices. Because it isn’t. Her face flushes.

“Are you okay?” Adaine asks, her nose scrunched. “You look like a tomato,”

Kristen tears her eyes away from Kipperlilly and clears her throat. “Yeah, it’s just really warm in here.”

Adaine glances back over at Kipperlilly, who has since turned her attention back to Lucy like nothing had happened at all. The hallway flooded with kids filing out of classrooms at the end of the day, either going to their lockers to grab the rest of their shit or beelining out the door to escape school for the day.

She turns back to Kristen, her eyes narrowing slightly. “Okay,” she says with a hesitance that makes Kristen start sweating.

The cleric slams her locker shut more forcefully than she probably needs to, wanting to end the anxiety-inducing conversation that is definitely right around the corner relating to a certain ponytailed rogue that was now a potentially-reformed nemesis. “Courtyard? I think that Gorgug said he can drive us home,”

Adaine shrugs and the two make their way down the hallway, Kristen glancing at Kipperlilly again as she passes her. The rogue’s eyes remain on Kristen until she’s out of sight.

***

“You know, if you like her, you should just tell her.” Lucy says casually.

“What?” Kipperlilly asks, brows furrowing with a confused look on her face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” her hand twitches.

Lucy snorts. “C’mon, Kipp,” she gives her a knowing look. “You can’t stop staring at her,”

Kipperlilly scoffs, probably more forcefully than she needs to, trying to come across with an air of casualty. “I just still don’t trust her,”

“Oh sure, you completely gloss over the other five but the hot lesbian is the one you’re for some reason still intently watching,”

“She’s not…I’m not…I don’t think that I—” she stutters, clearly flustered.

Lucy grins. “You can talk to her like a normal person, y’know,”

“Oh sure, that sounds like a great idea that I haven’t thought of, thanks.” Kipperlilly snaps harshly, although there’s no real venom in her voice.

“What would it take for you to actually talk to her then?”

“Fifteen-thousand gold pieces.” The rogue says flatly.

Lucy cocks her head to the side. “I could go talk to her for you, just test the waters a bit. We are friends, it wouldn’t be weird,”

Kipperlilly chews on her lip. She’s tapping her fingers together in a rhythm that she often does, a nervous tick that makes her brain calm down a bit. “Really?”

The cleric nods, a smile on her face. 

“Do you guys ever like…talk about me?”

“I’ll only tell you that if you go talk to her,”

Kipperlilly groans and puts her head against the locker, a slight bang coming from the metal. “Do I have to?”

“You don’t have to do anything. But your senior year might be better if you’re not having really intense and homoerotic staring contests with Kristen Applebees every time you see her,”

The blonde looks back at Lucy, her mouth agape. “Lucy!”

“What! I’m not wrong , go ask literally any of our friends!”

Kipperlilly groans again. “This is my nightmare,”

“She’s just a girl!”

“She’s a mess!”

“And people say opposites attract,” Lucy adds, her lips quirked up.

It’s clear that she isn’t going to give up on this any time soon. As much as Kipperlilly hates to admit it, Lucy has always been able to read her like a fucking book. Anything that she was thinking, even if she thought that she was doing a fantastic job at masking it, Lucy would be able to figure it out. It’s why they had initially bonded in the first place. She seemed to be the only one that could ‘handle’ Kipperlilly, as Ivy so lovingly put it.

Kipperlilly sighs. “Can you just…help me come up with an excuse to talk to her? God, that sounds pathetic,” she cringes at herself, her nose scrunching up.

Lucy grins. “Of course I can. Do you want to get the group and go to Basrar’s, or do you just want my help on this?”

Kipperlilly frowns. “Do we actually think they’d be helpful in this? Because I don’t,”

“Oh, absolutely not. Ruben has absolutely no game and Oisin has been trying to hype himself up enough to talk to Adaine since freshman year. But it might be fun to have everyone’s input,”

The rogue rolls her eyes, but despite herself, a small smile slowly grows on her face. “Fine. Text them, I’ll go grab my backpack and we can meet in the parking lot at my car in five,”

The frost-genasi puts two fingers to her forehead and mock-salutes Kipperlilly with a smile. “Aye-aye, captain,”

***

“Fucking finally , Kipperlilly, it’s been months of this. If I have to hear you rant about Applebees one more time I’m going to ask her out for you,” Ivy says with a loud sigh, sliding back in their booth at Basrar’s.

They are crowded into a booth that is definitely made for four, Oisin, Ivy and Ruben shoved into one side while Kipperlilly, Lucy, Buddy and Mary Ann took the other. Ivy’s elbow kept digging into Ruben’s side, but despite his objections she refused to move it.

The rogue rolls her eyes. “Thank you Ivy, that’s exactly what I need right now,”

Oisin snorts, a small bit of smoke coming out of his nostrils as he did so. He reaches out and pats Kipperlilly’s hand, his scales slightly scratching her skin in a comforting way that she had missed last year when they were all too focused on trying to end the world rather than being friends. “Good for you, Kipp,”

Her face turns slightly red. “Yeah, okay,”

“So are we really just trying to think of a way for you to go and talk to her?” Ruben asks, fiddling with his shell necklace. His hair had gotten a bit longer over the summer, now brushing his shoulders. He had pulled it up into a bun at the request of Ivy, who was sick of him continuously whining about it getting in his face.

Kipperlilly groans and puts her head down on the table. “When you say it like that it sounds so fucking pathetic,”

“I mean, it kind of is,” Ivy says off-handedly. Kipperlilly groans again. 

“Not helping, Ivy!” Lucy says with wide eyes, looking at her and then down at Kipperlilly with a look that she hopes says ‘ shut the fuck up right now because this is not what our friend needs’ .

Buddy looks at the group with a slight frown. “Now hold on, y’all, I don’t think it’s pathetic! Kipperlilly’s just trying to find some common ground that she could use to talk to her, isn’t that right?”

Kipperlilly sighs and puts her head on Lucy’s shoulder. “I don’t even know anymore,”

“Just go up and talk to her, it’s not hard.” Mary Ann says flatly, not taking her eyes off her phone.

Lucy smiles and shakes her head. “You’re so wise, Mary Ann,”

“I mean she is the only one of us in an actual relationship,” Oisin points out.

The kobold shrugs. “Yeah,”

“There’s a true enemies-to-lovers thing going on with like half of you guys and the Bad Kids, huh?” Lucy says with a knowing smile. This was something that she and Ivy had laughed at, the ranger once again ranting about how she was going to go up and ask out both Adaine and Kristen for them since their friends couldn’t work up the nerve to do it themselves, as it was getting kind of pathetic to watch.

That was, unbeknownst to Lucy, an ironic thing for Ivy to say when she was still trying to work up the courage to tell the cleric the same thing.

Kipperlilly groans again, her head still on the table. Oisin’s face flushes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,”

Lucy glances at Ivy, who gives her a knowing look. Oh sure, real sly Oisin.

“Right, of course not!” She says casually.

Just then, because apparently their timing was just so impeccable, the bell on the door rings as the aforementioned Bad Kids come in with an immediate tornado of noise.

Fig was apparently on an off-day from her new full-time commitment running the Bottomless Pit, walking arm-in-arm with Kristen as the two laugh about something while shooting quips back at Gorgug to make him smile. Fabian seemed to be dramatically threatening someone over the phone, and Adaine is passionately and excitedly arguing about something with Riz.

They slide into their booth in the corner of the restaurant and smile at Basrar as he quickly comes over to greet them.

Like a sixth sense, Kristen looks up and over at the table that Kipperlilly and the other Rat Grinders are at. They lock eyes and Kipperlilly feels her stomach flip. God, this was so fucking annoying. She really wishes that she could just push it down, scoff and forget about it, but something hot and feral in her doesn’t want to rest until she has her hands tangled in Kristen’s fiery hair.

“You’re hopeless, Kipp,” Ivy says with a knowing smirk, and Kipperlilly is suddenly aware of the fact that she and Kirsten had been staring at each other, silent and uninterrupted, for the past minute.

Mary Ann finally looks up from her phone to wave back at Gorgug when he smiles shyly at her, a nonplussed look still on her face. But her friends all know her well enough to know that her body language and mood shifted slightly, the kobold perking up as she sees her boyfriend.

Lucy elbows Kipperlilly. “Talk to her,”

She looks at the cleric, her eyes wide. “Are you fucking crazy? This is definitely not the place to do that,”

“Gotta agree with her on that one, Luce,” Ivy comments.

“Yeah, even I think that’s a bad idea.” Buddy says with a wince.

Oisin’s face grows red—well, purple—as he waves to Adaine, the blonde smiling at him quickly before turning her attention back to her friends, her face flushing as well.

Lucy groans. “You’re all hopeless,”

***

“I’m just gonna wing it,” Kipperlilly says, lying on the floor of Lucy’s basement and staring at the ceiling.

The four girls had gone over to Lucy’s house after Basrar’s, their Friday night sleepovers from freshman and sophomore year becoming a tradition once again this year. After the long and painful reconciliation at the beginning of the summer, and once Lucy finally trusted them again, they had quickly settled back into their old routines.

Now they were all sprawled out in the basement, Kipperlilly and Lucy laying on the floor while Ivy lay half-off the couch and Mary Ann curled up on a chair in the corner.

“Or maybe I just won’t talk to her at all and I’ll continue trying to ignore her until we graduate,”

Mary Ann doesn’t have a reaction, instead playing Animal Crossing on her switch and making the occasional comment when she hears something relatively interesting.

Ivy groans at Kipperlilly’s comment, banging her head against the couch in frustration. “I can’t take an entire school year of you two eye fucking in public,”

Kipperlilly grabs a pillow next to her and chucks it at the other girl, hitting her square in the face. She cries out and tries to throw it back, aiming for Kipperlilly’s head as well, but the rogue quickly dodges it.

“Throwing stuff at the rogue never works for you,” Lucy says with a snort.

“I’m gonna hit you with something eventually,” Ivy grumbles.

The cleric reaches out and squeezes Kipperlilly’s arm. “We’ll figure something out, Kipp, don’t stress about it.”

“This is so stupid,” Kipperlilly groans, putting a pillow over her face. “She’s a pain in my fucking ass,”

Ivy scrunches her nose in disdain. “If you want Applebees to fuck you in the ass keep that to yourself. We don’t all need to hear about it,”

Kipperlilly throws the pillow at her again.

***

“What’s going on with you and Kipperlilly?” Fabian asks Kristen with a smirk on his face as the two lay in Kristen’s room, hanging upside down off her bed. He’d given her a ride home from school after she stayed late to heal his ankle after he’d twisted it in class, and in return he had helped her make sure her essay for her ‘Practical Applications of Cantrips’ class didn’t sound like absolute shit. Even though he wasn’t as eloquent as Adaine or Riz, the two of them had managed to scrape together a semi-comprehensive paper.

Kristen’s face flushes. “What?”

Fabian rolls his eyes and bumps her shoulder with his, a knowing look on his face. “C’mon Kris, I’m not stupid,”

She groans and tips her head back, hitting it against the mattress. “I don’t know ,”

“You mean you don’t know what your staring contests every day mean? I would have thought you did,”

Kristen snorts and rolls her eyes.

“I’ll take it you and Tracker aren’t going to…you know…”

She sighs. “I dunno. It’s just different. And hard and complicated and confusing and fifty-thousand other things. She just…she really broke my heart, y’know? I don’t know if I can do that with her again,”

Fabian hums. “Yeah, I get that. As someone who had to help physically pull you out of bed last summer, I really don’t want to have to do that again,” he cringed, remembering the (metaphorically) dark days last summer after Tracker had dumped her but before they had left on their Night Yorb quest. It had been hard to get Kristen to leave the house, let alone her bed. It involved Fabian and Adaine each grabbing an arm and pulling her out while she protested,  Fig distracting her with any and all activities she could think of, and Riz helping make sure she remembered to eat.

“Don’t get me wrong, we definitely hooked up a couple of times when she was here last time.”

“Well yeah, we all know that,” he says. Kristen rolls her eyes and whacks him on the arm.

Fabian sits up, his face red from hanging upside down for such an extended period of time. “Whatever you do, I’ll support you. Even if that means continuing to eye fuck Kippercorn in the hallway ten times a day,”

Kristen sighs and bangs her head on the bed again, secretly hoping it would knock some sense into her about what the hell to do. “Is it that obvious to everyone?”

He snorts. “Yeah, kind of,”

“Fantastic.”

“Just talk to her. Then you can either get over it or you two will have sex and get it out of your system,”

Her jaw drops. “Fabian!”

“What!”

She sits up, flopping down onto the bed instead and putting an arm over her face. “I’m gonna cast banishment on myself, oh my god,”

“I’m just saying! Maybe you two just need to have sex!”

“God, don’t let Riz hear you say that.”

Fabian grins and flops down beside her. “Oh yeah, because I’m gonna go up to The Ball and tell him that I really think that you and Copperlilly need to screw and get it out of your systems so you guys can stop staring at each other and making everyone in the vicinity uncomfortable,”

“Seems like something you might say.”

Fabian whacks her leg. “Hey!”

“Oh, so you can dish it out but you can’t take it?”

He looks at her flatly. “Yes, you’ve known me for three years, how is that surprising?”

She knocks her foot against his and smiles, happy that nowadays they can hang out and talk about things that don’t involve trying to stop some world-shattering scenario and save the world. It’s really nice to be able to have a conversation about crushes, or classes, or a stupid thing that they had seen on social media that day. If someone asked her what her favorite thing about life was nowadays, that would be it.

***

The Rat Grinders were all shoved into their lunch table once again, heads ducked down like they were in a meeting talking about some highly confidential information. Or, you know, planning on how to help their friend ask out a girl. Same thing.

“In class today she was ranting to Buddy and I about how she has to finish planning the career fair by herself because Riz is out of town this week on college tours and all her other friends are too busy with stuff for their classes,” Lucy says, eyebrows raised.

Buddy hums in agreement. “It’s true, she talked to us about it for the majority of the class period, I barely heard anything that Ms. Badgood was saying,”

“Okay, and?” Kipperlilly says flatly.

Ivy rolls her eyes. “Dumbass, that means you offer to help her,”

“Shut up, Ivy,” she sneers at the ranger, not appreciating the constant name-calling that she had been on the tail-end of recently.

“Just trying to help you,” Ivy snaps back.

Oisin tries to wrangle the two of them back, raising his voice slightly. “Okay, calm down. Kipperlilly, Lucy’s giving you a good opportunity,”

“Can it, Oisin,” Ivy says, rolling her eyes.

“Fuck off, Ivy!”

Lucy groans and puts her head in her hands. “None of you are being helpful, I swear to Ruvina. Kipp, after school just go and ask her if she wants help.”

“Offering my help seems stupid, why would I do that?”

“Because you actually want to talk to the girl you have a crush on,” Ivy says off-handedly, now picking at her lunch.

Kipperlilly frowns and flicks one of the croutons from her salad at the ranger, nailing her in the forehead. “Oops,” she says with a smirk when Ivy glares at her with a murderous gaze.

She tosses her water bottle at her, which Kipperlilly effortlessly dodges.

“Dude, you gotta stop trying to throw stuff at the rogue,” Ruben says with an amused grin.

“We had this conversation like, three days ago,” Lucy groans. Although she wasn’t surprised that Ivy had already discarded it, hellbent on finally being able to hit Kipperlilly with something one day.

“One day I will hit you,” Ivy says with a frown.

“I wanna see you try ,” Kipperlilly sneers.

A mini corn dog hits Ivy in the head and Lucy snorts, having flicked it at the perfect angle.

“C’mon, you too?” The ranger sighs, pure exasperation in her voice.

Lucy laughs. “I wanted to be involved!” Her smile turns into a gasp when she’s hit with another crouton, this time from Oisin. “Why’s you hit me !”

“Because no one can hit Kipperlilly, and Ivy’s already been hit!” Oisin says, defending himself.

Lucy throws another mini corn dog at Oisin in retaliation. Ivy flicks a rather large tomato from her salad at Buddy, laughing when it hits him square in the chin. They seemed to have gotten the attention of the nearby tables, because soon Max Durden stands on a table and shouts “FOOD FIGHT!” from another part of the cafeteria.

The room erupts into noise as people start throwing food at each other, yelling and laughter filling the cafeteria. Kipperlilly glances over to the table the Bad Kids were at, snorting when she sees Fabian groaning and trying to use a lunch tray as a shield while Adaine rains her salad onto his head. Kristen and Gorgug laugh and throw mini corn dogs at each other and Riz seems to be dodging and using his mage hand to intercept anything coming his way.

Kipperlilly turns her attention back to her own friends, quickly dodging the french fry Ruben throws at her and hitting him with a mini corn dog she grabs from Oisin’s tray in retaliation.

Chapter Text

“Hey,” a voice says behind Kristen. She flinches and drops the yerba mate she’s holding, the contents spilling all over the linoleum floor.

“Fucking christ, warn someone before you do that,” the cleric says, a startled hand on her chest. She turns to see Kipperlilly standing behind her, tight ponytail and polished Mary Janes and all.

Kipperlilly looks down at the spilled drink and scrunches her nose. “Sorry,”

“Nah ‘s okay, I was almost done with it anyways,”

Kipperlilly watches as liquid that’s enough to fill almost the entire can create a puddle on the floor. “Looks like it,” she comments, raising her eyebrows.

Kristen rolls her eyes. “What do you want?”

Kipperlilly’s demeanor shifts slightly. Her shoulders stiffen and she starts repetitively tapping her fingers on her leg. Something that would probably go unnoticed to most, but as someone who has been constantly staring at her since last spring—in a non-creepy way, shut up—it’s something that Kristen clocks immediately.

“I just, um, Lucy said that you were having some trouble planning the career fair, which makes sense because you’re incapable of organization, and I know that your little rogue is touring colleges right now, so I was just wondering if you—” she clears her throat. “If you wanted help,”

Kristen raises her eyebrows and looks at Kipperlilly in amusement. “Are you incapable of saying anything without throwing an insult in there?”

The other girl scoffs. “Please, that was barely an insult,”

“You’re right, telling me that I’m incapable of organization is such a nice thing to say,” she grins, her tongue between her teeth.

Kipperlilly chews on her lip. “Well?”

Kristen looks at her fidgeting in place and trying incredibly hard to appear nonchalant. She watches as Kipperlilly grows slightly antsy, picking at her watch with one hand while the other starts tapping her fingers together in a fast rhythm. Maybe it’s bad that Kristen revels in being able to rile her up like this so easily when she’s normally so polished and perfect, but she’d long given up on making sense of any of her feelings for Kipperlilly Copperkettle. She shrugs. “Yeah, sure,”

The rogue falters slightly before quickly recovering, a casual and nonplussed look back on her face. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah, why not.”

“Oh.” She straightens her posture.

Kristen raises her eyebrows and looks at Kipperlilly expectedly. When it’s clear that she doesn’t actually know what else to say, Kristen snorts and pushes a stray piece of hair behind her ear. Kipperlilly’s eyes follow her hand.

“Do you want to come over later and we can work on it? I have some ideas laid out, but someone told me that my organization skills suck ass, so I’d take some help,”

Kipperlilly tries—and fails—not to smile. “Fuck off, Applebees. Yeah, that um, that sounds fine.”

The cleric looks at her again, still trying to fully get a read on what the hell is happening. She puts out her hand. “Give me your crystal,”

Kipperlilly frowns. “What?”

“Your crystal,”

“Why?”

“How else am I supposed to give you my number? I don’t want you just showing up behind me again, it’s fucking freaky,”

The rogue rolls her eyes, but Kristen sees her ears go red and a blush creeps up her cheeks. For a mastermind, she’s really horrible at hiding her emotions. “Whatever, that’s fine,” she hands it off to Kristen and tries not to fidget with her watch while the other girl types in her number painstakingly slowly.

“How does six sound?” Kristen hands the crystal back, her fingers brushing Kipperlilly’s as she does so. They lock eyes and stare at each other for a moment before Kipperlilly jerks her hand back and clears her throat.

“Good, six sounds good,” she says with a sharp nod. She scans Kristen up and down again and, with one more quick nod, turns around on the heels of her Mary Janes.

As she starts to head out to the courtyard Kristen calls out to her. “Don’t you need my address?”

Kipperlilly glances over her shoulder, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Don’t be stupid, I know where you live,”

She turns back around, her ponytail swishing as she does so. Kristen watches her walk away and wonders what the hell she’s gotten herself into.

***

The ride home is almost painful, Kristen bouncing her leg up and down the entire time. Finally Adaine puts a hand on her knee, looking over at her with wide eyes. “Are you okay ?”

Kristen nods and clears her throat, trying not to appear too jittery. “Yeah, I just had too much caffeine today.”

Adaine snorts. “Dude, you’ve gotta stop shotgunning energy drinks in between classes,”

“Hey, I bought her those Celcius’s and she’s gonna drink them!” Fabian calls out from the front seat, turning around to give Adaine the stink eye.

She sticks her tongue out at him and turns back to her crystal, leaving Kristen to once again start bouncing her leg up and down and desperately trying not to think about the fact that Kipperlilly will be at the house in three hours. 

When she and Adaine finally get dropped off, waving to Gorgug and Fabian as they pull out of the driveway, Kristen immediately books it over to the chapel to try and organize the clusterfuck that is her bedroom. She takes a look at all the clothes on the floor and the textbooks and papers strewn across various surfaces. “Shit,” she curses under her breath.

Never has Kristen wished more than she could learn Mage Hand, because it would be really helpful in this moment. She could always go ask Adaine for help, or even ask her to summon a few unseen servants to assist her, but then she’d definitely have to tell her why she’s so frantically cleaning her room.

She starts trying to put things away, a mix of actually placing them where they go and shoving things under her bed and in the closet.

“Hey Kris?” A knock on her door and Adaine’s voice snap her out of her spiral.

She clears her throat. “Yeah, what’s up?”

The wizard cracks the door open and pops her head in. She has her glasses perched on the edge of her nose and an oversized Owlbears sweatshirt on, the sleeves rolled and pushed up to her elbows. It’s clearly one she’s stolen from either Jawbone or Gorgug, but given the grease and oil stains on the bottom that seemed to be from machines, she’d put money on Gorgug.

“Gorgug’s picking me up to go over to Fabian’s and do homework over there, do you wanna come? I think we’ll probably pick up a pizza on our way or something,”

Kristen chews on her lip. “Sorry, I really need to work on this career fair stuff,”

Adaine frowns. “Oh shit, do you want me to stay and help? Sorry, I’ve been so busy recently, and I didn’t even think that with Riz gone you’d ne—”

The cleric waves her off. “You’re fine. Really, don’t worry about it, I know that classes and oracle shit have been a lot. Flip Fabian off for me,”

Adaine snorts. “Will do. But text me if you need help or change your mind and want to come over, yeah?”

Kristen nods and feels just a little guilty that she’s already getting help and technically omitting the truth on that. She just doesn’t want Adaine to freak out. It’s fine.

She moves things around for a bit longer—well, hides things around—because her phone buzzes on the bed.

Kipperlilly

I’m here

Kipperlilly

If I park on your street will I get a ticket? Or is street parking fine

Kristen

no im p sure its free

Kristen

youll b fine

Kipperlilly

Don’t tell me that you’re someone who can’t use correct fucking grammar while texting

Kipperlilly

Of course you are, why would I be surprised by that?

Kristen

womp womp youll live

Kipperlilly

Should I come through the front?

Kristen

i mean if u dont want to have to make awkward small talk w jawbone and sandra lynn then i wouldnt recommend that

Kipperlilly

I’m not climbing through your window.

Kristen

why not!! ur a rogue!! and short!!

Kipperlilly

Fine.

Kristen

i can feel you rolling your eyes

Kipperlilly

Wow you’re so funny

Kristen

thank u <3

Kipperlilly

Be right there.

Kristen quickly sets out papers and folders that she’s already put together for the career fair after Kipperlilly texts. She wants to make it look like she’s already been working on it and hasn’t spent the last two hours trying to make her room look fairly presentable. She had successfully cleaned up all the clothes and various forgotten homework assignments, but everything else had been pushed under the bed. 

“Hi,” Kipperlilly says from behind her.

Kristen jolts. “Fuck, what did I say about sneaking up on me like that, holy shit,”

She snorts. “I texted you and told you that I would be right there,”

“Yeah but I thought I’d get a knock on the window or something, not you appearing in my room like a ghost.”

Something somber flashes over Kipperlilly’s face for a moment.

Oh right , Kristen thinks. Her deaths are a bit of a sore subject.

The rogue quickly shakes away the look and smirks, her armor back up. “Oops,”

Kristen really looks at her then, taking in the noticeably different appearance. She had put on a pair of black leggings and a fitted Owlbears long sleeve paired with white tennis shoes. Her hair was pulled back loosely in a claw clip and she had on a pair of thick glasses. It was a such a stark difference to how she normally dresses at school, so different to see her looking so casual that it catches Kristen a bit off guard.

They stare at each other for a moment and it’s clear that neither one of them really knows quite where to go from here.

“I didn’t know you wore glasses,” Kristen says finally.

Kipperlilly scrunches up her nose. “Unfortunately. My contacts were just bothering me earlier, drying out my fucking eyes,”

Kristen hums in acknowledgement. “They suit you,”

The rogue narrows her eyes. “Thanks,”

Another beat of silence. This time Kristen can’t tell if it’s uncomfortable or not.

“So,” Kipperlilly clears her throat then. “What’ve you planned so far?”

The cleric nods over to where she’s laid everything out. Kipperlilly walks over to the papers spread out on the floor and sits down cross-legged. She scans everything and hums in a quiet approval. “This looks…passable,”

Kristen rolls her eyes and sits down next to Kipperlilly, immediately feeling her stomach do somersaults when she realizes how close they’re sitting. “Wow, thanks,” she says flatly.

Kipperlilly unzips her backpack and pulls out a gigantic, heavily organized binder that would impress even Riz. “Here’s what I was thinking we could add—”

“Damn, you really care prepared,”

She smirks then, her eyes flashing with something in between amusement and mania. “Don’t I always?”

***

When Kristen’s stomach growls for the third time Kipperlilly stops what she’s writing down and looks up at her. “Did you not eat?”

Kristen thinks back to earlier in the evening, trying to think if she had eaten. When she realizes that she had done nothing but clean her room in a panicked frenzy she winces. “Um, no.”

Kipperlilly gives her a look that her friends give her a lot, one that they usually have on their faces when they tell her that she needs to remember to actually take care of herself.

“Did you eat?” Kristen counters.

At that, the rogue scrunches her nose and starts scribbling down in her notebook again, Kristen balls up a piece of scrap paper on the ground and throws it at her, the paper hitting her leg and falling to the ground.

“What?” Kipperlilly asks flatly, glancing up at her again. This time Kristen is the one giving her that look, although it is paired with a hint of amusement.

“Hey, if I have to remember to eat, so do you.” She closes her notebook and stands up. “C’mon, we’re going to get food,”

Kipperlilly frowns, looking up at Kristen from her spot still cross-legged on the floor. “Where?”

“Krom’s is across the street,”

When the rogue still looks at her hesitantly Kristen rolls her eyes and puts a hand out to help her up. Unnecessary, yes, but another way to try and convince her to leave to get dinner.

She looks at the outstretched hand for a moment before sighing and taking it, letting Kristen pull her up. Then she’s standing right in front of her, their hands still together, staring directly at each other.

Kipperlilly clears her throat. “So, food?”

Kristen nods and quickly lets go of the blonde’s hand, missing the way that Kipperlilly’s face immediately flushes.

***

“Hey Daisy!”

As expected for a Friday night, Krom’s is pretty busy. In a small town, there isn’t much for teenagers to do other than hang out at someone’s house, go to one of the cheap restaurants in town, or drive to a random parking lot and sit in the trunk of a car.

They luckily don’t have to wait for a table, like they probably would if they had come with either of their normal groups, but there’s a few two-person booths that were never really in use since Krom’s is mostly a spot for high schoolers and people stopping through town on their way to Bastion City.

The cacophony of noise throughout the diner helps not to draw attention to anyone coming into the restaurant, which definitely would have drawn some eyes to Kristen and Kipperlilly. Anyone who goes to any of the schools in Elmville knows about the feud between the Bad Kids and the Rat Grinders. 

Or, more prevalent than that, the feud between the two girls that were now seated at a booth together, a blush creeping up each of their cheeks that they were pretending not to notice.

“Kipperlilly, Kristen! What a nice surprise, I didn’t know you two were friends! How’re you girls doing?” Daisy says as she walks up to the table, a real smile growing on her face as opposed to her customer service smile she sometimes has to wear.

Kristen grins, always happy to see her or any member of the Cubby family. Oftentimes when Bud brings mail to Mordred it turns into all of them sitting on the porch for an hour while they update him on any of their adventures. And if he occasionally supplies them with molotov cocktails, that’s no one’s business but theirs.

“Hi Mrs. Cubby,” Kipperlilly says with a polite smile.

Daisy waves her off. “Sweetheart, I’ve told you that you can call me Daisy.”

“You’ve known me long enough by now that you know that’s not going to happen,” Kipperlilly says with a shrug. 

Daisy laughs, leaning over to pat Kipperlilly’s hand on the table. “How’re your parents, sweetie?”

Kipperlilly’s face immediately flushes and she presses her fingernails into the palm of her hand. “Good, they’re good. Y’know, busy as ever.”

Daisy hums. “All of you are such worker bees, it motivates me to keep trekking along with the old job!”

“You’re plenty motivated as it is, Mrs. Cubby. Don’t forget who refused to let me quit tennis in middle school,”

Daisy grins. “You had a real talent, kiddo! And look at you now, I’m happy you’ve kept up with it,”

“If you hadn’t dragged my parents and your entire family along to all of my games that year I probably wouldn’t have,”

“Always happy to help you, sweetie. Kristen, how’s the gang?”

She shrugs. “Good. Fig’s in Hell now, which is cool. Jawbone’s been really into baking recently, so there’s constantly loaves of sourdough in the house. I can bring one over if you’re working tomorrow!”

“Oh you’re just the sweetest—”

“No, we seriously have five whole loaves of sourdough in the kitchen right now. I’ll swing by tomorrow afternoon,”

Daisy smiles then and squeezes Kristen on the shoulder. “Thank you, dear. Now, can I get you girls some drinks? Food?”

They place their orders, two arguably shitty burgers ordered alongside a water for Kipperlilly and a Mountain Dew for Kristen, and with another smile Daisy goes to check on another table.

“That looks like battery acid,” Kipperlilly says looking at Kristen’s drink as her nose scrunches in disgust.

Kristen flips off the rogue as she takes a sip, laughing when Kipperlilly rolls her eyes in response. “Best battery acid I’ve ever had,”

“If you had told me you had actually drinken battery acid before, I wouldn’t be surprised.” Kipperlilly says flatly.

The cleric offers her glass out to Kipperlilly, her brows raising. She rolls her eyes and tries her hardest to keep her lips from quirking up. “I’m fine, thanks,”

Kristen shrugs. “Suit yourself,” she takes another sip and brushes a stray piece of hair behind her ear. “So how do you know the Cubby’s?”

Kipperlilly looks at her with a look that she was growing pretty accustomed to by the rogue, but one that was increasingly less antagonizing than last year. “Family friends,” she says with a slightly uncomfortable expression. It seems like the one she always gets when talking about her family. “Them and my parents went to Mumple together.”

“Cool,” Kristen says with a nod. Kipperlilly narrows her eyes slightly, looking at Kristen with a look of distrust that she wasn’t mocking her for some reason, but the longer she stares at her the more she realizes that Kristen is being genuine. Her face relaxes and straightens up a bit, instead looking down to fiddle with the wrapper of her straw.

“They’re my godparents, so I’ve known them since I was born. They’re cool,”

Kristen nods. “They’re cool as hell.”

“Wait, how do you know them?” Kipperlilly asks, cocking her head to the side.

“That’s actually a funny story,” Kristen says with a snort. “We were all being chased by Johnny Spells after stealing his car in freshman year and they almost t-boned the Cubby’s car and we got them out of the way, and then after the fight Fig flipped the car and crashed it and they drove by and picked us up.”

Kipperlilly stares at her, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. “I can’t say that’s what I thought you were going to say.”

She shrugs. “They took us to get ice cream and then Bud told us that laws are threats made by the government and said some absolutely iconic anarcho socialist shit to us, it was awesome. Then a couple months later he broke us out of prison and threw a molotov cocktail at a bunch of cops,”

The rogue hums. “Oh yeah, he taught me how to make those when I was eight,”

Kristen breaks into laughter, Mountain Dew almost coming out of her nose. “Holy shit. That…that tracks,”

“Can I ask you a question?” Kipperlilly asks, fiddling with the rings on her fingers. “Do you actually like all the student government stuff?”

Kristen thinks for a moment, fidgeting with the hair band on her wrist. “Yeah, I do, actually,” she says with a shrug. “Listen, it might have not started out with the most…sincere intentions, but I’m glad I have the opportunity to try and make the school a less fucked up place for everyone.”

Kipperlilly nods. “That’s a good answer,” she scrunches her nose then. “That sounded bitchy. Not in the ‘wow good answer’ sense, but like…that makes sense,”

“I get it, don’t worry.” Kristen smiles, the look making Kipperlilly’s face flush again. She glances down at the table and opens her mouth to say something, but before she can a voice from behind them calls out Kristen’s name.

“Krissy!”

Kristen looks behind her and Kipperlilly over the cleric’s shoulder, Kristen’s face erupting in a grin when she sees Bucky behind her.

“Hey B!” She gets up immediately and grabs her brother, crushing him in a hug. He hugs her back furiously. “Are you here with your friends?”

He nods and glances over to a booth by the windows. “Yeah, they’re over there,”

She smiles and waves over to the group of sophomores, the kids waving back at her with slightly self-conscious looks on their faces at being in the direct attention of two well-known seniors, since Kipperlilly is sitting next to her.

“Oh sorry, B, this is Kipperlilly,” Kristen says, glancing back at the rogue. She smiles uncomfortably and waves at him.

Bucky nods, a hesitant look on his face. “Nice to meet you. Um, I should get back to my friends,”

Kristen frowns. “Okay, yeah, sure. Text me, okay? We can hang out soon, I wanna hear how your semester’s going,” she ruffles his hair, much to his dismay, and laughs as he tries to bat her hand away.

“ Kristen, ” he whines as she persists. She stops then and hooks an arm around his neck, pressing a kiss to the side of his head. 

“Fine, fine, go back to your friends,” she shoves his shoulder lovingly, laughing once more as he gives her a quick hug and rushes back to his friends.

She glances back down at Kipperlilly and puts a hand on the back of her neck, wincing lightly. “Sorry about that, I don’t know why he was weird about that. He’s a sweet kid,”

Kipperlilly waves her off. “It’s fine. I mean…if all he knows about me is that I tried to kill his sister a lot last year it makes sense that he wouldn’t like me very much.”

Kristen purses her lips together and nods. “Yeah.” There’s a moment of awkward silence as they both sit in that for a minute, neither quite sure what to say. She glances back at Bucky, lips quirked up when she sees him laughing with his party.

“You don’t see your brothers very much, do you?”

She shakes her head, a somber look flashing over her face. “No. I mean, Bucky sometimes, since he goes to Aguefort. But Bricker and Cork…I haven’t seen them since I fully moved out of my house during freshman year,”

Kipperlilly nods. “That sucks.”

Kristen glances up at her, her shoulders sagging slightly. “Yeah. Yeah, it does suck.”

They look at each other then, as if actually understanding each other for the first time. Both of them seeing each other beyond the facades that they’ve put up.

“Okay girls, I’ve got some food here for ya!” Daisy says cheerfully as she comes up to the table, and whatever strange moment Kristen and Kipperlilly were having passes.

***

“I’m gonna run to the bathroom, I’ll be right back,” Kipperlilly says quickly, drumming her fingers on the table before sliding out of a small booth.

Daisy comes over moments later, a tired look on her face—Kristen had just seen her trying to wrangle some kids who had decided to spread ketchup all over the jukebox. “I’ll getcha the bill, sweetie. Together or separate?”

The smile she gives Kristen makes her face flush. She shifts in her seat, not wanting to seem too visibly flustered. “Um,” she glances back over to where the bathroom is, just to make sure that Kipperlilly isn’t coming back to the table.

She digs around in her crossbody bag to find her debit card—loose in her bag, she really needs to find the wallet that Adaine bought her—and hands it to Daisy. “You can put it together,”

The woman takes the card and winks at Kirsten. “I’ll be back,”

She looks down at her crystal and laughs when she sees the unread messages she has from her friends.

the bad kids

fabian

guys gorgug just told me that he doesn’t think reindeer are real

gorgug

i didn’t say i DON’T think they’re real, i just didn’t know that they were

gorgug

but now i think and know they are, okay??????

adaine

the look on his face was so fucking funny holy shit

fig

PFFFFFFFFFF

riz

gorgug…

kristen

bro how did you not know

gorgug

okay fuck off last year you asked me if chocolate milk came from brown cows

kristen

LISTEN

adaine

AHAHAA I FORGOT ABOUT THAT FHSFKDLJHFKLD

riz

you guys give me migraines every day

riz

but like in a loving way

fig

awwwwwww

adaine

riz come back we miss you!!!!

fabian

the ball please we’re falling apart

riz

you guys cant live without me for one week?

kristen

no <3

adaine

no :)

gorgug

guys tell fabian to throw away the fried rice in his fridge it’s starting to smell

gorgug

when i tried to do it he hit me with his blanket

fabian

BATTLE SHEET

adaine

cathilda is here why are you still eating it????

fabian

listen

kristen

didn’t you guys pick up pizza why is he still eating the fried rice

fabian

i’m not eating it NOW i just still have it in the fridge

riz

listen when i get back on sunday my first stop will be to throw away the fried rice

adaine

that’s still two days away what if it becomes sentient by then

fig

i can just burn down the house

fabian

YOU NEED TO STOP SUGGESTING THAT AT ANY MINOR INCONVENIENCE

kristen

oh tight we’re setting fabian’s house on fire?

fabian

I KNOW YOU’RE JOKING BUT STOP

“Hey,” Kipperlilly says, Kristen looking up from her crystal as the rogue walks back to the table. 

Kristen smiles. “Hey. You ready?”

Kipperlilly frowns, glancing over to where Daisy is talking to another table, then back at Kristen. “We haven’t paid yet,”

“All good, I paid.” Kipperlilly opens her mouth to respond but Kristen interrupts her, smiling and waving her off. “You can just get me back sometime,”

The rogue’s face flushes and she looks Kristen in the eyes, a grin on her face. “Yeah, okay, that can be arranged.”

***

It’s a little past eleven by the time that the two of them finalize their planning sheet for the career fair. They had spent a painstakingly long amount of time deciding what schools and businesses would best benefit the seniors—who everyone would want to talk to and actually learn something from.

Kipperlilly’s crystal starts ringing, the tone loud and harsh compared to the quiet environment they had been working in for the past few hours since they returned from Krom’s, the music low, speaking in slightly hushed tones due to the late hour. She glances at the screen and rolls her eyes before moving to accept the call, her crystal to her ear.

“Hey dad, yeah I’m still out. I know it’s late, I’ll be home at—” she looks at Kristen, eyebrows raised. The cleric shrugs. A truly awful idea pops into her head then, one that she might regret, and one that the rest of her friends—sans Fabian, probably—will definitely harass her for.

“You could just sleep over,”

Kipperlilly falters momentarily, looking at Kristen with a completely surprised look. She quickly recovers, schooling her expression into something more neutral. “Actually, my friend—” her voice goes up at the end, a question to both herself and Kristen. The cleric looks at her with her eyebrows raised and an amused look on her face. Kipperlilly rolls her eyes and flips her off. “She said that I can sleep over here, so I’ll be home tomorrow. Right, I forgot about that. Yeah, I’ll see you on Tuesday then. Bye,”

She hangs up and the two of them stare at each other.

“Friend, huh?” Kristen says with a shit-eating grin.

Kipperlilly rolls her eyes again. “What was I supposed to say, ‘the girl that I’m working on this student government thing with that I tried to kill a lot last year nad then killed my entire adventuring party said I can sleep over at her haunted house?’ That would be a longer conversation than I want to have with him right now,”

Kristen shrugs. “Technically you killed your entire adventuring party first,”

Kipperlilly waves her off. “Minor details,”

It is silent for an other moment, the two trying to figure out what the fuck they should say or do next.

“I uh, I am sorry about that, by the way,” Kipperlilly says hesitantly and slowly, as if it’s been something she has been practicing how to say.

Kristen cocks her head to the side. “About what?”

The rogue huffs, frustrated. “About, you know, repeatedly trying to kill you last year, I guess. I’m uh, I’m on this stupid medication now, Jawbone said that it helps with my ‘rage issues’ and ‘murderous tendencies’ or something. I don’t know,”

“We all have shit, it’s fine,” Kristen says with a shrug.

Kipperlilly looks at her blankly, if not simply confused. “What?”

“I mean we’ve all got shit we have to deal with. You have rage issues and tried to kill me and my friends a bunch of times last year, and I’m still trying to deal with my trauma of leaving my fuckass homophobic family and the religious cult they’re apart you, and then my God re-dying for almost an entire year,”

“So you’re just, what, cool with it then? It doesn’t seem like a bad idea that I’m even here right now?”

“Are you going to try to kill me again?” Kristen says with an amused smile.

“Probably not,” Kristen raises her eyebrows and Kipperlilly sighs. “No,”

“Then no.”

The rogue’s eyes narrow as she looks at Kristen like a complex puzzle she is hellbent on figuring out. “Okay,”

“Why did you offer to help me?” Kristen asks all of a sudden.

Kipperlilly frowns. “Because you’re incapable of—”

“Organization, I know,” the cleric says, cutting her off. “Sorry, but that’s bullshit.” She moves from where she had been leaning against the foot of the bed frame, uncrossing her arms and slowly walking toward Kipperlilly curiously. “I’ve always been ‘incapable of organization’, that’s nothing new. So why did you offer to help me now?”

Kipperlilly’s eyes widen slightly as Kristen walks toward her, but she shrugs and tries to downplay it. “The career fair is important to all the seniors, I didn’t want you to fuck it up.”

Kristen shakes her head. She stands in front of Kipperlilly, their legs almost bumping together. “Try again,”

The blonde looks at Kristen, gears shifting in her head as she tries to figure out what to say. When it’s clear that she doesn’t have any more excuses, she huffs and grabs the front of Kristen’s sweatshirt, surging up and kissing her hard.

She quickly pulls back when Kristen freezes, her eyes widening as a panicked look grows on her face. “Fuck, I shouldn’t have—”

Kristen cuts her off then, grabbing her face in her hands and capturing her lips once again. Kipperlilly wastes no time throwing her arms around Kristen’s neck, trying her best to pull her down comfortably to her own height.

Time seems to slow. The world could have been imploding behind them, and Kristen really wouldn’t have noticed. All she can focus on is the way Kipperlilly’s hands slide behind her neck, one hand winding up in her hair. Kipperlilly, gasping when Kristen puts a hand on her jaw and tilts her head just so, deepening the kiss.

Their stark height difference is immediately apparent, Kristen having to bend down an almost uncomfortable amount, but she quickly amends that by walking them backward until Kipperlilly’s back hits the desk. They break apart ever so briefly so Kipperlilly can hop up onto the table and a split second later Kristen is back on her.

With the adjusted angle Kipperlilly’s hands find a place on Kristen’s jaw, holding her tightly and chasing her mouth whenever they have to break away to catch their breath. Kristen’s hands start wandering immediately, one sliding around the back of Kipperlilly’s neck as the other starts trailing down.

It starts chaste enough, Kristen just moving a hand down her side, but then her hand briefly slides down further to her ass and Kipperlilly all but whines into her mouth. She takes that as a signal to keep her hands roaming up and down the rogue’s body, reveling in the small sounds that she continues to make.

When they break apart again, chests heaving, Kristen looks at Kipperlilly’s blown out pupils and slightly swollen lips. “This is—this is okay, right? Like, you’ll tell me if there’s something that you don’t want, or if you want to sto—”

“Kristen,” Kipperlilly interrupts, tightening the hand on the back of her neck. “I mean this wholeheartedly, if you stop I will go back on my promise to not try and kill you again,” she pulls the cleric back to her and captures her lips once more.

The next hour seems to flash by in moments. Kristen sliding her hands under the hem of Kipperlilly’s shirt, the rogue biting down hard on the crux of Kristen’s neck, both of them eventually tumbling onto the bed, moving away from the desk.

“Holy shit, is this thing sewn onto you?” Kipperlilly grumbles, struggling more than she cares to admit to get Kristen’s sports bra off. The cleric laughs and leans back, swatting her hand away.

“I can practically see the gears in your head turning, and if you whip a dagger out of somewhere and try to cut it off you’re buying me a new one,”

Kipperlilly frowns. “That’s not what I was going to do,”

“Oh really?” Kristen asks with a laugh. She looks at Kipperlilly knowingly until the rogue groans and flops her head back onto the bed.

“You’re in my fucking head or something,” she mutters.

Kristen hums. “In more ways than one, it seems,”

“That was cringy even for you.”

Kristen shrugs and moves a hand back up Kipperlilly’s side, tracing alongside the underwire of her bra and making her immediately start to squirm again. “I mean I can go—”

Kipperlilly grabs Kristen’s wrist and digs her nails into her skin, leaving half-moon rivets that they both know will be there for the rest of the night. “ Kristen ,”

“Yes?”

She opens her mouth to say something else but immediately yawns, eyes squeezing shut for a moment. Kristen laughs and flops down beside her.

“Tired?”

Kipperlilly frowns and looks at Kristen lying next to her. “No,”

“Okay, sure,”

“You know what, Applebees?”

“What?” Kristen counters, an amused and goading look on her face. Kipperlilly immediately yawns again, groaning after and dropping her head back against the mattress.

Kristen glances over to her, head turned toward Kipperlilly, looking at her features in the dim light of her bedroom. 

“It is incredibly late, we can go to bed, that’s okay,” When she sees Kipperlilly hesitate she brings a hand to brush back a piece of hair behind her ear, her hand then moving to cup the rogue’s jaw and leaning closer to her, their faces almost touching again. “We’ll just continue this again later,”

Kipperlilly’s eyes seem to darken and she pounces, rolling on top of Kristen and kissing her hard. After breaking away once they needed to catch their breath again she nods, sitting back slightly but still perched on top of the cleric, her legs bracketing Kristen’s hips.

“C’mon,” Kristen pinches her side and laughs when Kipperlilly jolts slightly. “I’ll get you something to wear,”

The rogue rolls off her with a sigh, which almost immediately turns into another yawn. Kristen laughs and gets up to dig around in one of her drawers, looking for something that Kipperlilly might not be absolutely swimming in.

“Here,” Kristen says, throwing a t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants on the bed.

Kipperlilly picks up the shirt and snorts. “Helio’s Fun in the Sun Summer Bash?”

The cleric sighs and looks at her resigned. “ Listen , it was free and it’s comfortable so why would I get rid of it?”

“No, no it makes total sense. Why would you get rid of a shirt from the cult you used to be a part of?” She laughs when Kristen gives her the finger. “Do you have an extra toothbrush I could use?”

“I think so, there should be one in the drawer under my sink. Jawbone’s taken in too many kids not to keep extras of shit everywhere,”

Kipperlilly hums. “Makes sense. I’ll uh, I’ll be right back,”

***

When she closes the door to the bathroom, clothes in her hand, she tries to do some calming breaths. Her heart is racing, the reality of everything just hitting her as Kristen threw her a pair of sweats. She tries to remember all the different things Jawbone has taught her—she is in his house, after all—and sighs, her shoulders dropping.

This is definitely not the night she thought she was going to be having, that’s for sure.

When she had asked Kristen if she needed help she honestly didn’t expect her to say yes. She thought that she’d get some half-assed excuse about why she already had it planned, or just an immediate no, so when she had agreed it had thrown her for a bit of a loop.

Kipperlilly glances around the bathroom, Jawbone’s voice in her head telling her to ‘ look for five things you can see, four things you can touch, three things you can hear, two you can smell, and one you can taste’ .

All of the clutter in the room makes it so identifiably Kristen’s, and it immediately distracts Kipperlilly from her racing heartbeat. She instead snorts at the way that the entire thing is a mess, but looks like it had been very hastily cleaned. Then she thinks that it’s probably because of her, and her heart twinges. Nothing like a slightly clean bathroom to make her dumb, stupid crush on a girl grow even more.

Her phone lights up and she sees countless notifications from Lucy, her face flushing as she remembers that she was definitely supposed to text her when she got home.

Lucy

how was it?

Lucy

you can call if you want

Lucy

or come over lol, i’m just crocheting

Lucy

debating what to make mary ann for her birthday

Lucy

i’m going between a strawberry and a cat

Lucy

or a cat in a strawberry hat

Lucy

ooooo or a strawberry in a cat hat

Lucy

or something else idk i have a lot of patterns

Lucy

kipp are you good?

Lucy

paging kipperlilly

Lucy

helloooooooooooo

Lucy

gonna keep texting until you respond lol

Lucy

partially to entertain myself

Lucy

partially to make sure you’re good

Lucy

was it good? was it bad?

Lucy

if it was bad and you’re avoiding texting on purpose you can talk to me about it :(

Lucy

or at least let me know if you’re okay!

Lucy

or maybe it was good that’s what we’re manifesting!!

Lucy

do i need to go throw rocks at your window or something

Kipperlilly

Mary Ann got a new strawberry, so you should make her a cat if you haven’t already started something else

Kipperlilly

A cat in a strawberry hat sounds like a good idea, she’d love that

Lucy

SHE LIVES!!!!!!!!

Lucy

are you okay what’s up what happened

Kipperlilly

Sorry I just saw these

Kipperlilly

It was…good

Lucy

oh?

Kipperlilly

I may or may not be but definitely am sleeping over

Kipperlilly

I’m currently changing in the bathroom

Kipperlilly

And have just now realized that there are a few extremely large hickies on my neck that I will most definitely need Kristen or you to heal

Kipperlilly

I really don’t need Ivy to shit on me for that she’s already getting too much ammo with all this shit

Lucy

i-

Lucy

oh my god

Lucy

OH MY GODDDDD

Lucy

this is my mooner yulnear

Kipperlilly

That’s a bit extreme

Lucy

you are calling me the SECOND you leave tomorrow!!!!

Lucy

and i am coming over there or you are coming over here

Lucy

i’m screaming

Lucy

i need to hear EVERYTHING

Kipperlilly

Lol

Kipperlilly

You want to hear everything?

Lucy

wait gross no

Lucy

you’re both my friends i don’t need to hear about whatever you two are doing together

Kipperlilly

She really knows how to use her tongue

Lucy

LALALALALALALALA NO NOPE I CAN’T HEAR YOU

Kipperlilly

I’ve been in here way too long I’m gonna go back

Lucy

godspeed

Lucy

tell kristen i say hi

***

After she had talked to Kristen she immediately went to find Lucy and pull her away from the conversation she was having with another senior in the cleric class. Literally.

“Woah Kipp, what’s up?” Lucy asks, quickly waving goodbye to the student as Kipperlilly drags her down the hallway by the arm.

She leads them down to the girls’ bathroom by the locker rooms, knowing that it will be empty in the middle of the day—gym classes are already finished for the day, and since it was still the school day there wouldn’t be any athletes in here. When she had finished thoroughly scanning it to make sure that they were truly the only ones in the bathroom she looks at Lucy with wide eyes.

“I need you to come over after school and help me figure out what the fuck to wear tonight,”

Lucy’s face lights up. “Oh? And where are you going that’s so important?”

Kipperlilly rolls her eyes but Lucy sees the blush that starts to creep up her cheeks, as well as the way she has started continuously fidgeting with her watch band to try and let out her nerves. “Okay, you don’t need to be smug about it,”

“I beg to differ, I think I get to be extremely smug about this,” Lucy grins, leaning against the tile wall. She knew when Kristen was mid-rant during class about how she didn’t know how she was going to get everything done in time that Kipperlilly had the perfect in, but she hadn’t been sure that her best friend was actually going to go through with it.

Kipperlilly waves her off. “I’m just going over to her house, it’s not that big of a deal,”

Lucy whacks her arm excitedly, which Kipperlilly doesn’t dodge, instead letting out a quick “Ow!” and hitting her back.

“You going over to her house is a way bigger deal than if you were just meeting somewhere else, are you kidding me?”

“Wow, thank you for calming my nerves about this, you're so helpful,” the rogue says flatly.

Lucy snorts. “It’s gonna be fine,” she slings an arm around Kipperlilly’s shoulders. “I’ll come over and help, but it’s gonna be great.”

Kipperlilly scrunches her nose and looks at Lucy hesitantly. “You think?”

“Yes! Don’t even stress about it, okay?”

She groans and tips her head back against the wall, ignoring Lucy’s laughs at her dramatics. “Fine,”

“And don’t worry, we won’t invite Ivy,” Lucy says offhandedly, laughing again as Kipperlilly tries to bang her head against the tile wall again, only stopping when Lucy jerks her away.

“But if I knock myself out I won’t have to deal with the stress of actually going over there! Or Ivy giving me shit about it!”

“Kipp, listen to me,” Lucy grabs her by the shoulders and looks at her intently. “It’s gonna be great. She agreed, didn’t she? And you have something to actually work on, so you’ll have something to do. Just talk to her, y’know, like a normal person. And then just go from there!”

Kipperlilly sighs, her shoulders dropping. “ Fine , just…can I call you after?”

Lucy grins. “I’d be upset if you didn’t,”

The rogue rolls her eyes, and Lucy’s glad that she seems to be back to her normal, irritable self.

***

“Uh, hey,” Kipperlilly says, leaning against the door frame. She doesn’t know why she feels so fucking awkward all of a sudden, but now that she’s standing in Kristen’s doorway in her borrowed pajamas she kind of feels like she’s going to throw up. 

Sure, in the moment Kristen had made it sound like she didn’t want this to be a one time thing, but now she had started internally panicking again, not entirely sure what Kirsten wanted or didn’t want.

She knows that she should just ask, but she really doesn’t want to immediately fuck this up, especially given everything it had taken for her to be standing here right now.

Kristen is sitting on her bed scrolling on her crystal but she looks up and a smile grows on her face, like it was something she couldn’t stop if she tried. “Hey,”

They look at each other and it’s clear that neither really knows what to say next. Which seemed to be a common thing.

“…we’re good, right?” Kristen asks, nervously fidgeting with crystal in her hand. Kipperlilly immediately recognizes the anxious tick, and as messed up as it probably is, it gives her a little bit of a confidence boost to know that Kristen was just as anxious as she was right now.

She smiles softly then, coming back into the room and over to the bed, letting Kristen pull her closer, her arms around her waist. One of Kipperlilly hands moves to brush back Kristen’s bangs, and fuck, she really likes the way that Kristen is looking at her now. A very happy change from the distrustful and spiteful looks she got last year. Although she was also giving those looks tenfold, and she had also been trying to kill her, so those were all warranted.

“Yeah,” the rogue says with a nod. Her hands went down to rest against Kristen’s jaw, appreciating the way that the other girls’ arms wound tighter around her in response.

“Good.” Kristen looks at her with that radiant grin that she was oh so grateful to be on the receiving end of. She thinks, oh so briefly, that she could look at that smile forever. She then tries not to think too much into that. “So…”

And Kipperlilly really doesn’t know what Kristen wants from this. Given everything she said earlier she doesn’t think that Kristen wants this to be a one time thing, but what she doesn’t know is if she just wants it to be a slightly-friends with benefits thing, or if she wants something real—she knows that she just has to bite the bullet and ask.

“I really like you,” Kipperlily blurts out. Okay, not how she thought this conversation was going to start. But she shoves away her spiral of thoughts, instead focusing on telling Kristen how she’s feeling and what she wants. “And I don’t know what you’re thinking, or if you were thinking about it at all, but I just—”

Kristen interrupts her then, using the grip that she already had on the rogue’s waist to pull her closer and kiss her. And in that moment, Kristen’s lips on hers as she holds her like she’s something precious, Kipperlilly really hopes that what Kristen wants isn’t to just make out in her bedroom once and then never talk about it again.

They break away from each other, twin grins on their faces. “It might seem surprising, since you tried to kill me like, a lot last year, but I really like you too.”

“Oh really?”

“Mm hmm,”

Kipperlilly hums and tucks a stray piece of hair behind Kristen’s ear. “I think we can probably do something about that,”

The cleric pulls her back onto the bed, Kipperlilly laughing as she lets herself fall on top of Kristen.

***

“Turn it off, kill it,” Kipperlilly groans, her voice muffled by the pillow she had shoved her head into to tune out the shrill sound of the alarm.

Kristen blindly slaps around her nightstand until she finds the alarm, smacking it enough times that it eventually turns off.

She opens her eyes, putting a hand on her forehead to shade her eyes from the sun that was streaming through the stained glass windows of the chapel. She looks over at the girl next to her, head shoved into the pillow, her leg slung over Kristen’s hip, and her heart skips a beat.

Kristen had immediately shut down Kipperlilly’s slight awkwardness last night when they had finally gone to bed. 

“You’re not sleeping on my stupid bean bag chair, this bed is plenty big. C’mon, I don’t bite,” Kristen said with a grin.

Kipperlilly raised her eyebrows. “I can personally say that that’s not true.”

“Morning,” Kristen mutters then, her voice still rough with sleep.

Kipperlilly peers up from the pillow, her eyes squinting. “I literally cannot see you right now,”

“Jeez, how blind are you?” Kristen reaches over to the nightstand again and grabs Kipperlilly’s glasses. She peers quickly through the frames and pulls them back quickly, blinking wildly. “Holy shit, you’re like, blind blind,”

“Fuck off,” Kipperlilly grumbles, taking them from her and sliding them on.

“D’you sleep okay?” The cleric asks, yawning mid-sentence.

Kipperlilly stifles a laugh. “Yeah, I slept pretty well. You’re a good weighted blanket,”

“Oh really ?”

“Yep,”

Kristen grins and pounces, rolling on top of Kipperlilly and pinning her to the bed. She kisses her again, reveling in the way that the rogue seems to gasp every time.

There’s a quick knock on the door then followed by Jawbone’s raspy voice. “Kristen, you up? Breakfast is ready if you want any, kiddo,”

She groans and buries her head in the crux of Kipperlilly’s neck, the other girl trying not to laugh too loudly so as to not alert Jawbone that she was there.

“Thanks, I’ll be down soon,” Kristen calls back, her voice slightly muffled from her current position.

Kipperlilly sighs. “I should probably go,”

Kristen deadweights on top of her. “No, stay,”

The other girl snorts and runs a hand through Kristen’s hair. “I’m supposed to pick Lucy up anyway, and you should go show face downstairs,”

“Tell her I say hi,”

Kipperlilly smiles. “Will do.” Kristen looks up then, a similar smile on her face. She leans in and kisses Kipperlilly again, slow and sweet.

“But I’ll see you Monday, right? I think I’m gonna need help with, like, way more stuff.” Kristen says dramatically.

“Oh really?” The rogue asks, her eyebrows raised. She sighs. “Well, then I guess I’ll have to help. It wouldn’t seem fair not to,”

Kristen hums. “Right, of course. Because of, you know, my awful organization skills,”

“Yes, that’s clearly the only reason. You wouldn’t have any ulterior motives asking for my help or anything,”

“No, of course not!”

Kipperlilly rolls her eyes at Kristen’s antics and leans up, kissing her again. Kristen’s hand begins to trail down her side and she’s quick to put a hand around her wrist. “Nope, if we start that again we’re gonna be here all day, and you need to go downstairs while I sneak out your window.”

They stare at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter, the absurdity of that statement not lost on them.

Kristen gets off her with an exaggerated sigh. She looks around the room and frowns. “I can’t say that I actually know where your clothes are,”

The rogue snorts. She scans Kristen’s room for a second before walking over to the space between her desk and the wall, crouching down and grabbing her discarded shirt.

“How the fuck did you just do that?” Kristen asks, partially in amusement, partially in awe.

Kipperlilly shrugs. “I dunno, how do you connect to your God and cast spells? We’ve all got skills, Kristen.”

“I really don’t think that me communing with Cassandra and casting spells and you finding your shirt on my bedroom floor is a fair comparison,”

“What, do you want me to go outside and throw a dagger to a specific shot on your wall? I’ll do it,”

Kristen snorts. “Yes, perfect, that’s exactly what I want.”

Kipperlilly shakes her head, a smile still on her face, and goes over to grab her leggings from their spot folded on Kristen’s desk chair. “Should I go to your bathroom, or…”

“I’ve seen you half naked, you can change here,” Kristen says with an amusing lilt to her voice.

“C’mon, creep, you’re not just gonna stare at me while I change,”

Kristen raises her eyebrows. “That’s not what I was suggesting, but I mean, if you’re into that—”

“Fuck off and get changed, Applebees,”

Kristen gives her a two-fingered salute and goes to grab clothes out of her dresser. She can’t help but glance over at Kipperlilly once or twice, earning an eye roll from the rogue, but soon both girls are dressed and ready to get on with their days.

“Okay, I’m gonna…I’ll see you on Monday,” Kipperlilly says then, pulling her hair back into her signature tight ponytail.

“I’ll see you on Monday,” Kristen parrots back to her with a nod. They both stare at each other again, grinning like idiots, and Kristen quickly bends down to kiss her again, unable to stop herself.

“ Go ,” Kipperlilly says with a laugh, pushing Kristen toward the door. She slides the window open, and with another stupid smile, swiftly and expertly leaves Mordred Manor via window.

Kristen stares at the open window, a million thoughts racing through her head.

What the fuck just happened?

Should I immediately tell my friends about it?

How do we interact at school now?

But above all other thoughts, one is louder than the rest.

She likes you back.