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Chapter Text

The six of them are sprawled out on the lounge chairs by Fabian’s pool, hair damp from the water. It’s supposed to be one of the last truly hot days of the year, so they decided to capitalize on it by showing up at Fabian’s unannounced, swimsuits in hand.

“So am I supposed to ask her to Homecoming? Like, we’re already dating, plus we all talked about it last weekend!” Fabian asks with a frown.

Adaine shrugs. “Not sure, it might be different since she’s not a student anymore. Like if you have to fill anything out to take her,”

“That’s not helpful.” Fabian sighs and flops back down onto the chair.

“This is Aguefort, not Hudol, I’m sure that you don’t need to fill anything out,” Kristen says with a laugh, sticking her tongue out at Adaine when the wizard flips her off.

Fig pushes up her sunglasses onto the top of her head, resting them right in front of her horns. “Do you think that technically I can still go to Homecoming if I don’t go to Aguefort anymore? LIke, Mazey’s going with Fabian, so obviously she can go,” she asks with a frown. “I mean I’m still coming with you, but I want to prepare for whether or not I’m gonna have to kill more of those fuckass robots that got sent after me when I dropped out,”

Adaine snorts. “Ask Gilear or Jawbone, and if it’s against the rules Kristen can just change the bylaws.”

“Yes, I would like to already abuse my power, that’s a great idea,” Kristen says flatly. She’s laying backwards on her lounge chair, head upside down as Gorgug throws popcorn into her mouth.

“Don’t worry K, I’ll ask Gilear about it. Or just sick Ayda on her dad, I feel like if she threatens to not talk to him for another three hundred years he’d change it,”

“Brutal.” Fabian says with a whistle.

She shrugs. “Not saying that’s what she’d do , just saying that if she threatens it he’ll change it. But I could also just convince one of you single fuckers to take me,” she gives Adaine and Riz a shit-eating grin.

Adaine sticks her leg out to nudge Kristen’s. The cleric glances over to her, face red since almost all the blood in her body has rushed down to it. “Do you know if you’re asking Kipperlilly or if she’s asking you?”

Kristen frowns. She honestly hasn’t really thought about it that much. “That’s a good question,”

“I already asked Mary Ann,” Gorgug says casually, nailing Kristen in the forehead with another piece of popcorn.

“Wait, when!” Fig gasps. She might not be a student anymore, but she still wants to make sure that she’s still as involved in and up to date with their lives as she was before she spent 70% of her time in the Bottomless Pit. That sometimes involves her being on speakerphone with them when she is too busy to meet them at Basrar’s, but sometimes she just appears through a fiery portal that materializes out of thin air and demands that they hang out with her.

Gorgug shrugs. “A couple days ago. I sent her a letter on Quokki Pets, seemed like her kind of vibe,”

The rest of the group awes and immediately pelts him with popcorn, laughing as he tries to shield himself with his hands.

“That’s so cute I’m gonna throw up,” Kristen teases. Gorgug gives her the finger.

“Riz, you wanna be my date?” Adaine asks the rogue, giving him an amused smile and wiggling her eyebrows. They had already made a marriage pact that if they were still single at thirty they would get married for the tax benefits, so going to a school dance together seems like the first step in that.

He glances ever so quickly over at Kristen who briefly mouths no , her head angled so that Adaine can’t see her. Unbeknownst to the wizard, Kristen had been helping Oisin in his plan to ask her to the dance, all of the other Bad Kids in on it as well. The Rat Grinders had goaded him enough to do it after last weekend, although he had backed out of it about seven times so far. 

Riz scrunches his nose. “Um—”

“But then who’ll take Fig!” Kristen interrupts loudly, already able to tell that Riz will not be able to quickly come up with a believable lie. “One of you has to so we can make sure that she can come, right?”

Fig perks up. “Yeah! Which one of you wants to take me, I’m super funny and fun and hot and promise to have a good time,” she moves from her chair over to Adaine’s, flopping on top of her.

“Get off me!” She squawks, both girls laughing as the wizard tries to push her. “Go with Riz, if we can’t get both you and Ayda in I’ll ask her so you can both come,”

“Deal!” The tiefling says cheerfully, looking at Riz and winking at him. He snorts and glances quickly over to Kristen again, nodding at her in thanks.

Boggy ribbits and hops out of the pool, calling attention to himself as he jumps over and into Adaine’s lap. Or in actuality, onto Fig’s face, since she’s currently laying on Adaine.

The group laughs as Fig tries to get the frog off her, making a noise that is definitely a mix between a shriek and a gagging sound. “His little foot went in my mouth,”

"C'mon, what happened to you not being grossed out by anything?!” Kristen cries out. Adaine grabs Boggy and puts him at her side instead, feeding him a piece of popcorn and laughing when he makes a sound that’s almost a content hum.

Fig sits up, her tongue out as she uses her towel to attempt to clean it—a completely redundant task. “I’m not grossed out by most things, but his slimy foot going in my mouth when I wasn’t expecting it wasn’t the most pleasant thing. Now, if you asked me to put his foot in my mouth? I’d do it, no problem.”

“Please don’t put my frog’s foot in your mouth,” Adaine says with a grimace. She puts a hand back out and holds him against her securely.

“I didn’t say I was going to, I just said that if someone asked me I would!”

“Why would someone ask you to do that?” Gorgug asks, an uncomfortable look on his face as he desperately tries to think about something else.

Fabian groans. “Can we please talk about something other than Fig putting the frog’s foot in her mouth again?”

Kristen gasps. “He has a name!”

He rolls his eyes and sits up to look at Boggy with an unamused expression. “You’re right. Boggy, I’m sorry I referred to you as ‘the frog’. Now can we please talk about anything else?”

“Yes, let’s talk about how Kristen is gonna ask Kipperlilly to the dance,” Fig says with a shit-eating grin.

The cleric groans and tips her head back, hitting it on the chair with a slight thud . “I don’t know , I can’t think of shit,”

“You could just ask her.” Gorgug says with a shrug.

“Thank you Gorgug, that’s something that I did not think about. I’m just gonna go over to her house right now, I’ll see you guys later,”

“Well you don’t have to be rude about it,” he comments, his frown turning into a sly smile when Kristen glares at him. 

 Boggy hops off Adaine’s lap and back into the water with a small splash. “He wants to go swimming again,” Adaine sighs, getting up and going to dip her feet in the pool.

Fabian takes that opportunity to get out of his chair and run up behind her to shove her in, the wizard screeching as she falls.

“I’m going to punch you!” She calls out when she resurfaces with a scowl on her face.

“Dude, if you get hit with Adaine’s Furious Fist you might die,” Riz says, his nose scrunched in concern.

While Fabian is turned to Riz, Adaine takes it as an opportunity to use her Mage Hand to grab Fabian’s ankle and yank him into the water.

“Unfair!” He cries out as he wipes water from his eyes. She laughs and grabs one of the pool floaties to hoist herself up.

“Hey, if you don’t want to be pulled in you shouldn’t have pushed me.” The wizard counters. She tries to hide the laugh that she knows is coming as she sees Kristen sprinting toward the pool—a bad idea, given that the stone surrounding it is extremely wet and she is extremely un-dexterous— and jumps directly onto Fabian.

There’s a clash of limbs in the water as she lands on him and Fabian comes up after a moment with Kristen clinging onto him like a backpack. 

“I’m being attacked!” He calls out, trying his hardest to push her off.

“My President!” Fig calls out when Fabian grabs at Kristen. She runs as well and very ungracefully cannonballs into the water. Soon she’s clinging onto Fabian’s front, the two girls cackling as he continues to whine.

“If Fabian drowns his mom is gonna be so mad at us!” Riz calls out to the two of them, trying to deter them from their current mission. 

Gorgug stands up, resigned, and jumps in the water while holding his nose closed. He stands in the water and wraps an arm around Kristen to yank her off of Fabian, much to her dismay.

“C’mon, man!” She cries out as he very easily picks her up. He raises his eyebrows and in a split second hoists her up and tosses her back into the water, laughing as she yelps.

Fig gasps in excitement and lets go of Fabian to quickly swim over to Gorgug. “Me next!” She cheers when he laughs and grabs her. He throws her past Kristen, making sure that she still lands well within the confines of the pool, and the water around her briefly turns boiling hot as she lands with a yelp.

“Get in, The Ball!” Fabian cries out. Riz sighs, pushes the towel off of his shoulders, and sprints into a cannonball.

Soon Gorgug is throwing all of them, everyone screaming and laughing and landing on top of each other, surely causing bruises that Kristen will heal later.

***

“Move that one a little bit to the left,” Fig calls out, waving her hand over to direct Kristen. The cleric moves a small candle a tiny bit so it’s better lined up with the others. “Perfect!”

Adaine hands Kristen another candle out of her jacket and the cleric sets that one down, once again moving it at Fig’s direction. The three girls are outside, the air just cool enough that they have on light jackets. Well, no, Adaine and Kristen are outside, Fig is leaning out Kristen’s open window and directing them. 

Very slowly, the three of them were working to spell out ‘homecoming?’ with candles on the ground. Was it cheesy? Yes. Was it kind of stupid? Yes. Was it the only thing that Kristen could come up with? Also yes.

They couldn’t do it at Kipperlilly’s house, the rogue would most definitely hear them fucking around in her yard, so they had settled on doing it outside Kristen’s window and just having Kipperlilly look out it when she comes over for dinner that night.

“Is this stupid?” Kristen asks the two of them then, candle in hand from Adaine’s jacket.

Fig frowns. “No.”

The cleric looks at them skeptically. They were her best friends, her sisters, and she simultaneously trusted them to tell her the blunt truth and also not want to do anything to hurt her feelings.

Adaine sighs and pulls another candle out of her pocket. “No, it’s not stupid, it’s incredibly cute. Now put that candle down to finish the ‘N’, because it’s cold and I have to pee.”

Kristen snorts and sets the candle down before looking up at Fig, who shoots her a thumbs up. 

It takes them another fifteen minutes to finish everything, the ‘G’ and question mark giving them more trouble than they thought, but soon enough it’s all set up. Kristen glances at her phone and sees a text from Kipperlilly sent two minutes ago that said she was just leaving her house, so they finished not a moment too soon. 

“Do we light them now, or would that just set everything on fire?” Kristen asks, glancing up at Fig as she summons a small fireball to toss around between her palms.

She hums in thought. “Maybe we wait until she gets here, and then I’ll, y’know,” she wiggles her fingers, flames coming from them once more as Kristen and Adaine both laugh.

“Just please don’t set my church on fire, that seems kind of sacreligious.”

Fig shrugs. “Cassandra would get it,”

“I mean, it’s more of your bedroom than it is a church,” Adaine points out.

Kristen shrugs. “It’s got an altar and I pray to my God in it, I’d say it’s a church.”

“I think if any God would understand it would be your gay one who is as whipped for her wife as you are for Kipperlilly,”

A strong gust of wind hit Fig and knocked her out of the window, sending her toppling to the ground with a small squawk. She sits up and scrunches her nose, glancing up at the starry sky. “And I’m as whipped for my girlfriend as my God is for you! It’s mutual!” She calls up at the sky. 

Tell Fig that while I am very much in love with my wife, I still don’t appreciate setting churches ablaze. Although Ankarna might, so I guess it would be fine.

Kristen snorts at Cassandra’s comment in her head. She glances up. “Y’know, you sound pretty whipped when you say that.”

Wow.

“What! I’m just calling it like I see it, it’s not a bad thing!” Kristen laughs. She glances back at her friends then, both of them very much trying not to stare at her as she talks—even though they know that she’s talking to Cassandra, in the moment it always just seems like she’s talking to herself. “Sorry,”

Fig waves her off. “All good, K. So do you guys want to go back inside and I’ll just like, hang out here?”

“I’m not just gonna leave you outside,” Kristen looks at the tiefling with an amused smile. Her phone buzzes at that moment and she quickly whips it out of her pocket.

Kipperlilly

Here :)

Kristen

be right there!

“Actually, yes, I am leaving you outside.” Kristen says flatly. Fig and Adaine laugh and, with a wave of her hands, the candles light up.

Kristen, true to her word, leaves the two of them in the yard, although the two girls immediately bolt after her. Fig jumps on her back and Adaine hooks an arm through the cleric’s, the two simultaneously pulling her faster toward the house and slowing her down. 

“You guys are insufferable,” Kristen says with a laugh. Fig hooks her chin over the girl’s shoulder and snorts.

“You love us!”

Kristen hums. “True. But those two things are not mutually exclusive,”

Adaine shoulders Kristen, making her wobble a little bit since Fig is on her like a backpack. “Let us know how she likes it, I want to know that the hour we’ve spent out here was worth it.”

Kristen scoffs dramatically and looks at her. “Rude!”

The wizard shrugs. “Just saying,”

“You’re the oracle, just look into the future to see if she likes it,” Fig says, glancing over at Adaine from her spot on Kristen’s shoulder.

“It doesn’t work like that, and you know it,” Adaine shoots back, rolling her eyes lovingly. She and Fig start bickering immediately, the three of them walking up the front steps of the manor. They immediately hear Jawbone’s warm, raspy voice laughing, the sound like a weighted blanket for all of them. 

They turn the corner into the living room to find Jawbone and Kipperlilly sitting on the couch, the rogue explaining something very excitedly. When the girls come in the two of them turn their attention to them, and Kipperlilly immediately grins when she locks eyes with Kristen.

She then takes in the scene, Fig on Kristen’s back and Adaine’s arm hooked through hers, and raises her eyebrows. “What were you all up to?”

Fig slides off Kristen’s back. “Just hanging out,”

“We went on a walk.” Adaine adds, rather unconvincingly. She moves to sit on the couch, trying to act casual so as to not clue Kipperlilly in on the fact that they had been planning something.

Kipperlilly hums in acknowledgement and nods, although the look she gives Kristen tells her that she isn’t buying their haphazard excuse for all being outside when it’s almost dark out.

“I was just about to get dinner started, all you kids staying here? Or are you off to Fabian’s?” 

Fig flops down on one of the armchairs, swinging her feet up over one of the armrests. “We’ll be here. I don’t think anyone else is coming over, but I’ll ask Fabian if Cathilda is home or not. We don’t need him fending for himself again,”

Jawbone huffs a laugh. “That’s for sure. Tell everyone they’re welcome, but let us know so we don’t have too many leftovers, I don’t think there’s room in the fridge.”

“ Please , no, if we shove anything else in the fridge everything is going to fall out!” Aelwyn calls out from the kitchen. She appears through the archway then, a glass of water in hand, looking exasperated. “I tried shoving something back in there yesterday and had to fight to stop leftover chicken from sliding out.”

Adaine snorts at the thought of her sister trying her hardest to shove things back into the fridge, no doubt a slightly difficult endeavor. Aelwyn narrows her eyes, immediately able to tell what’s playing in Adaine’s mind.

“Stop that.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she fires back at her sister. The other girl rolls her eyes and puts a hand on her hip as she cocks it to the side, and in response Adaine sticks her tongue out.

Aelwyn scoffs. “Well, now you’re just being childish.”

Adaine flicks her hand out to cast ‘Tasha’s Hideous Laughter’ at her sister, but unfortunately for her, Aelwyn quickly counterspells it with a scoff. “Come on , again? Adaine, that’s truly getting old.”

Instead of a response, Adaine simply narrows her eyes and tries to cast it again. This time Aelwyn is caught off guard and starts laughing maniacally while trying her best to frown and continue to berate her sister.

“C’mon girls, we’ve talked about this!” Jawbone says with a sigh, looking rather resigned. Aelwyn fires back with a small ‘Gust of Wind’, knocking Adaine clean off the couch. 

“Hey!” Adaine cries out, although she starts laughing as well. Well, Aelwyn’s laughing because of the spell, but Adaine just thinks that it’s funny. 

Kristen sighs and grabs Kipperlilly’s hand and tugs her up. “They’re gonna be doing this for a while, we can go,”

The rogue looks between the two sisters, one doubled over in painful laughter and the other flat on her back on the floor, and raises her eyebrows. “And this is normal?”

“Yes.” Kristen, Fig, and Jawbone all say simultaneously.

Jawbone glances over to Fig. “Will you make sure that they don’t…”

“Kill each other? Yeah. I’ve got ‘Counterspell’ and ‘Healing Word’, so if anything happens I’ve got’em,” the tiefling finishes, and Jawbone gives her a thumbs up and a wink before heading back toward the kitchen to get started on dinner.

Kristen pulls Kipperlilly out of the room, the rogue glancing back at the scene that’s playing out in the living room with a slightly concerned look still. Fig takes out her crystal and starts scrolling, no longer really paying attention to the Abernant sisters casting offensive first and second level spells at each other. ‘Tasha’s Hideous Laughter’ has worn off, so now the older girl is just laughing along with Adaine. 

Kipperlilly and Kristen make their way to her room, going through the long and winding halls of Mordred Manor that lead to the church. Kristen knows that her palm is sweating, knows that no matter how hard she tries to push down her nerves it’s not happening.

And it’s not like she really has anything to be nervous about. They had both talked around Homecoming, saying everything except the blatant “and we’re going together” because some dumb high school traditions are still important when it comes to relationships.

“Are you okay?” Kipperlilly asks, looking at her girlfriend and scrunching her nose. Perceptive as she is, she can read Kristen like a book. Has always been able to do it, even when Kristen hated it. When she would feel her judgemental stare and know that the rogue saw her for everything that she was, no matter how hard she tried to throw her off. Now it’s something that Kristen rather likes, having someone that can so easily see her. Except for right now. Right now it’s annoying.

She nods. “Yep!” 

Kipperlilly snorts and follows Kristen through the door to her room, content to follow her and not ask any more questions. Kristen can’t keep anything to herself for long.

Right when Kipperlilly moves to sit on Kristen’s bed, tucking her feet underneath her and smoothing out her skirt, Kristen stops in her tracks. “I forgot something in the living room, I’ll be right back,”

The rogue narrows her eyes for a moment, looking at her girlfriend trying her best not to fidget as she stands by the door. She raises her eyebrows and tries to appear casual so as to not make Kristen more weirdly anxious than she already seems to be. “Sounds good,”

She immediately knows that Kristen wasn’t going to go get something from the living room, and her theory is proven correct when the girl still isn’t back in the time that Kipperlilly knows is enough to go there and back. Right as she reaches to pull her crystal out of her pocket she hears something small thud against the window on the side of the room. She doesn’t think much of it, but then there’s another, and another, and another, until she knows that it’s not just something accidentally hitting the side of the church. 

With a sigh, Kipperlilly hops off the bed and goes over to the window. She’s not sure what she thought she was going to see, but Kristen standing outside with a handful of small rocks, standing next to what has to have been forty candles spelling out ‘Homecoming?’ isn’t what she was imagining.

Kristen has a shy smile on her face, and immediately throws the remaining rocks in her hand to the ground when Kipperlilly slides the window open.

“Stealing my move, Applebees?” Kipperlilly asks, eyebrows raised.

Kristen shrugs. “Well, it is a good way to get someone’s attention.”

Kipperlilly rolls her eyes and she can’t help the grin that quickly grows on her face. She looks at the scene in front of her again and once again finds herself thinking about how the hell she got here. Kristen looks at her with a slightly shy smile, standing in front of an incredibly cheesy, adorable setup asking her to Homecoming because they’re dating and that’s just what they do now, and pushes down the urge to kick her feet. Because that would be embarrassing.

So, instead, because this is way less embarrassing, she quickly slides the window open fully and effortlessly lands on the ground. Kristen has little time to react before Kipperlilly’s marching up to her and surging up to kiss her hard.

Her girlfriend immediately puts both hands on her face and Kipperlilly grabs at her sweatshirt, tugging her down further toward her. Once they break away for air Kristen tucks a stray piece of hair behind Kipperlilly’s ear and quirks her lips up. “So, is that a yes?”

Kipperlilly nods and bites at her lip, trying to quell the smile that’s threatening to overtake her face. But then again, it’s Kristen, so she doesn’t really need to do that. She grins then, something radiant that makes Kristen lean down to kiss her again. Because really, how could she not?

“We should probably put all these candles out though, if I set my room on fire no one will ever let me hear the end of it.” Kristen says once she pulls back.

Kipperlilly immediately bursts into laughter and leans down to help Kristen start blowing out candles, not wanting her girlfriend to once again be the target of the loving harassment of her friends and family. 

“You’re staying for dinner, right?” Kristen asks her as she finishes blowing out the first ‘O’. 

The rogue glances up at her, candle in hand. “If you want me to, then yes.”

“I mean, if you want to,”

Kipperlilly raises her eyebrows. “Would you like me to stay?”

“Yes.” Kristen says immediately, and Kipperlilly snorts at her quick answer. 

Instead of showing her mirrored eagerness, because she still does like to play some cards close to her chest, she nods once. “Then I’ll stay,”

They work in silence for another few minutes before bumping into each other when they both get to the second ‘M’. “You know,” Kristen starts, setting down the now un-lit candle and sliding a hand around Kipperlilly’s waist and hugging her from behind. “You can just sleep over if you want.”

“Oh really?” She says, trying to keep her voice cool and level even though her heart immediately starts beating wildly fast. 

Kristen nods and leans down to hook her chin over the rogue’s shoulder. “Mm-hmm,” she hums.

Kipperlilly takes the hand that Kristen has splayed across her stomach and laces their fingers together. “Yeah, that sounds fun. I just need to text my parents to let them know,”

“Tell them I say hi,” Kristen says with a snort, remembering when she had unexpectedly met them last week when she had gone over to Kipperlilly’s house after the rogue had assured her that they were both still at work. They had, unbeknownst to their daughter, each decided to come home early so that they could all have dinner together, so it was quite a surprise when Kipperlilly came in the front door with her tall, human girlfriend in tow. It had made for a slightly awkward dinner, but Kristen was a good conversationalist despite her clear uncomfortableness with adults, most definitely an effect of the weird relationships she had had with them when she was the ‘Chosen One’ of Helio, a kid that was treated like an adult.

“Will do,” Kipperlilly responds, although she doesn’t take her phone out and instead takes a moment to just appreciate the way that Kristen’s hand feels in hers, the way that she holds her so tightly from behind. In the cool September air, she still thinks that it’s kind of crazy what her life is like right now, but last year she thought that currently the world would be run by an insane barbarian/paladin hellbent on becoming a God of Rage, so this was a much better reality.

***

Dinner is nice. It’s been a while since Kipperlilly has sat down at a big family dinner, one of her parents always working late or out of town for something. It doesn’t bother her that much, it gives her the freedom to do what she wants, but it’d be nice to be able to sit down with them for an evening and not have one of them looking down at their phone. 

Mordred Manor is always loud. That’s something that she noticed immediately, the volume in the house. There’s never really silence, it’s always Jawbone’s warm voice or Lydia’s booming laugh or Fig blaring music from inside the piano that she apparently slept in. Kristen is always running around like a chicken with her head cut off, looking for her crystal or her backpack or a single piece of paper with an assignment on it that she forgot about. 

The only real quiet member of the house is Adaine, but she’ll still scream-laugh with Fig or Kristen about something or loudly fight with Aelwyn. And when all the Bad Kids are over they could very-well cause a small seismic earthquake with the volume that they exist at.

But sitting at the big dining table in the kitchen next to Kristen, Fig on the cleric’s other side while Adaine, Aelwyn and Sandra Lynn sit across from them and Jawbone and Lydia sit at the heads of the table, she thinks that the happy loudness is something that she could get used to.

“So Kipperlilly, Kristen says that you’re looking into the Society of Shadows?” Sandra Lynn says as she grabs a piece of bread from the center of the table.

The girl nods. “It’s one of the options I’m looking into, yes. It’s definitely difficult to figure out what I want to do next year, y’know, there are so many different schools and programs and then you have all the rogue-specific things, and—” she cuts herself off when she realizes she’s started talking extremely fast. She clears her throat. “So it’s a lot.”

Sandra Lynn smiles warmly. “I can imagine,”

“Penny’s still there, right?” Fig asks, mouth full of lasagna. 

“Fig, stop talking with your mouth full,”

The tiefling rolls her eyes. “In Hell no one cares.”

“Well, in Hell you’re maybe the only person that eats actual food.” Sandra Lynn counters quickly, earning a snort from Adaine and an ‘oooooh’ from Kristen.

Fig swallows and pouts. “Just saying,” she mumbles, glancing away from her mom as she looks at her with knowing eyes.

“Yeah, Riz said he’s gonna go visit her during our Thanksgiving break.” Kristen answers Fig’s question. 

“When did he say that? I told you guys that when you talk about literally anything you need to call me so I can also be a part of it!”

Adaine looks at her with furrowed brows. “I thought you were kidding?”

“We can’t possibly call you every time anything happens.” Kristen adds.

“Yes, you most definitely can!’ Fig counters, looking between the two with a mix of shock and determination that it’s definitely a reasonable request to be called whenever anything of interest happens.

Adaine snorts. “You’re the one who left school, dude. That one’s on you!”

Fig crosses her arms. “This sucks.”

“I’ll start writing you a daily summary,” Kristen says with a wink, and Fig immediately perks up.

She glares at Adaine and gestures to Kristen, eyebrows raised. “See? This is friendship!”

“No, this is trying to get you to stop whining,” The wizard grins at her comment, immediately amused with herself. Fig opens her mouth to say something else but instead just huffs.

“So Riz is going to visit Penny, huh?” Lydia says after a second, trying to steer the conversation back to something that wasn’t the three girls bickering with each other. 

Kristen nods. “Yeah, he said that he’s pretty set on all of us going to school together, but still wants to look into it. I told him that he could still adventure with us and work there, like what Penny does, but then he got all quiet for a while, so I don’t think that’s what he wanted to hear.”

“He wants to go to school with us, but the Society of Shadows is a super cool opportunity for rogues. I mean, you get that.” Adaine nods to the rogue sitting at the table.

She nods and hums in agreement. “I definitely understand the conflict that he’s feeling. It’s…hard.”

“I just wanted him to know that if he doesn’t go to college with us it wouldn’t change things. Like, Fig is in Hell now, but she still does shit with us,”

“If I ever get too busy to adventure with you guys I want you to punch me,” Fig says, now back to shoving food in her mouth. Sandra Lynn looks at her and sighs before going back to her food.

Adaine kicks her foot under the table and grins. “Deal. What level do you want?”

“As high as you got, I’ll even give you a bardic to help,” Fig winks at her and Adaine laughs.

Aelwyn sighs. “You’re all going to end up killing each other one day.”

“Please don’t kill each other, god,” Sandra Lynn groans, once again looking at the two girls with a look of resignation.

Kipperlilly leans over to Kristen, the cleric immediately ducking down slightly to be more at her height. “Is there always this much fighting at dinner with you guys?”

“Yes.” Fig answers, clearly not letting the two have a private conversation in the middle of dinner.

Kristen looks up at her with a flat expression and Fig immediately grins at her. Kristen rolls her eyes and smiles, not able to stay annoyed at Fig’s antics. She can never be upset for too long at her devoted German Shepherd.

“ Loving fighting,” Kristen corrects.

Dinner continues like this, everyone making quick jabs at each other and laughing and talking over each other to the point that there are four different conversations happening at once.

After dinner’s over, Jawbone makes quick work of clearing the table with the help of Adaine while Sandra Lynn starts on the dishes. Lydia begins handing Fig and Kristen things to put away, and Kipperlilly and Aelwyn straighten up the dining area.

“You’ve been initiated in the clusterfuck that is Mordred Manor dinners, welcome.” Aelwyn says with a smirk as she picks up the napkins on the table.

Kipperlilly looks up from the placemat she’s folding and smiles. “Thanks,”

They make quick work of cleaning everything up, and in no time the kitchen is back to its normal, fairly-clean state. With this many people in the house it’s never spotless, but it’s good enough that everyone deems it worthy enough to go on with their nights. Fig and Adaine trail off to the living room with Lydia, the three of them talking about a movie they were going to watch, and Jawbone goes upstairs to grab a couple student progress notes he needs to finish filling out. 

“I just need to run to the bathroom and then we can go hang out,” Kristen says to Kipperlilly before kissing the top of her head quickly and leaving the kitchen.

Kipperlilly and Sandra Lynn remain in the room, the rogue leaning up against the counter while Sandra Lynn digs through her purse for something. She glances up at Kipperlilly then, a thoughtful look on her face.

“Can I ask you something?” Sandra Lynn asks with an air of casualty that doesn’t make the rogue question anything. Kipperlilly nods, eyes bright and polite. “Are you serious about Kristen?”

She’s taken aback for a moment, but then rights herself. “Yes.” Kipperlilly says after a second, assured and confident. “Yes, I am.”

Sandra Lynn nods slowly, but seems to size Kipperlilly up. “I’m happy that she seems happy.” She adjusts her position then, leaning against the counter as well. “We’re big believers in second chances around here. Ask Aelwyn, ask Ragh, ask Zane, hell, ask me or Jawbone. Everyone in this family has made mistakes, has done or said things that they regret. Jawbone won’t say this because he’s also your counselor, and there’s a weird blurry line there. But…Kristen’s our kid, okay? We’ve taken care of her for the past three years, she’s as much of a kid to me as Fig is, as much as Adaine is to Jawbone. Lydia too, those are her girls. And I really don’t like when people hurt my kids. So if you’re serious about this, and if you really care about Kristen, good. But if you hurt her, you’ll have all of us to deal with. Clear?”

Kipperlilly looks at her with wide eyes and nods. “Yes.”

“Good.” The ranger smiles then, one of relief that this conversation is over, one that she hopes shows Kipperlilly that she doesn’t have it out for her. She doesn’t want to kind of basically threaten the young girl, but she’s taken care of Kristen for long enough to know that she doesn’t deserve any more shit happening to her. She knows that it’s an unrealistic ask, but god damn it, that poor girl has been through the ringer.

Kristen comes back into the kitchen then, clawing her hair up in a messy half-bun. “Ready?” She asks her girlfriend. 

Kipperlilly glances up and nods, putting a calm smile back on her face even though her eyes are still wide. Kristen narrows her eyes and glances between her girlfriend and Sandra Lynn, trying to gauge the weird energy that she’s walked into. She must decide that it’s not worth asking about, at least in this moment, because she simply puts an arm on Kipperlilly’s back to guide her out of the kitchen, a look of slight confusion still on her face as she does so.

The rogue’s shoulders relax as Kristen touches her, and Sandra Lynn has to smile at the simple and small acts of care that the two show for each other. It’s all very sweet.

***

 “No, absolutely not.” Fig says, her nose scrunched in disdain when Gorgug walks out of the changing room in a powder blue tux.

“I thought it was kind of fun!” He says in defense.

Adaine snorts. She is standing in front of a mirror holding up two different dresses in front of her, a small and thoughtful frown on her face as she tries to determine which was the better color. They had all decided to hit up a couple of thrift stores around town to find things to wear to Homecoming. Everyone but Fabian has immediately shot down his suggestion of going to an actual mall, instead wanting to find a cheaper alternative that would also be a bit more fun.

“Do we have to?” Fabian whined.

They were all huddled up in Kristen’s room, the cleric having what she called a ‘spicy mental health day’, which really just meant that she had had another nightmare about being stabbed through the chest by that stupid skeletal unicorn. Whenever that happened for any of them they’d drop what they were doing and pile into someone’s room to keep them company and distract them from the memories.

Adaine moved her foot, blindly trying to kick him from where he was sitting on the floor, his back against the side of the bed. “Ow!” He cried as her foot made contact with the side of his head.

“You own a suit, I wasn’t talking about you,” she shot back.

“My suit’s too small,” Gorgug said with a frown.

Riz sighed. “My good one is still slightly singed from freshman year.”

“SO everyone but Fabian goes thrifting tomorrow?” Kristen asked. She was laying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling and trying to stop her brain from going a mile a minute.

Fabian groaned. “Fuck off, no, I want to go too. I can’t be the only one that doesn’t come and I refuse to be left alone in my house with my unborn sibling.”

Gorgug snorted. “You wouldn’t be alone, your mom would also be there.”

“Not the point, Gorgug!”

Fig cackled. “Okay, we all go thrifting tomorrow and if we don’t find something we can all just go naked.”

“I actually think I’m gonna be busy during Homecoming, I can’t go,” Gorgug said flatly.

Kristen laughed and put her head up to peer over at Fig. “It’s okay, I’ll go naked with you.”

“We’ll be wearing suits, just a different kind!” Fig laughs cheerfully.

The cleric snorts again while the other four groaned. “Stop going to school naked, oh my god I should not have to keep telling you that,” Riz said, his hands covering his face.

“It’s just a body, Riz!” Kristen shot back. She tried to tank her tank top off but the rogue tackles her, stopping her from scarring any of them any further.

“Fun color, ugly tux. We can find you a better blue one,” Fig says, already trying to push Gorgug back behind the curtain to change.

Kristen pokes her head out from behind another curtain. “How are you going to find another light blue suit?”

“Pure determination.” Fig says with a grin.

Gorgug laughs and pulls the jacket off, throwing it back into the changing room. “So, no to this one?”

“Yes, that one’s bad.” Fabian calls out from inside his changing room. After enough pestering from Fig he decided to try on a suit that all but screamed his name.

“You didn’t even see it!” Gorgug calls back.

“No, but I have ears!”

Kristen opens her curtain fully, coming out in a navy blue suit with a white button up unbuttoned just enough to appease Kristen but not enough to make everyone but Fig avoid eye contact. The jacket has silver buttons instead of plain black or navy ones, small engraved moons on them that were an absolutely perfect find.

Fig grins and claps her hands together. “See, how that’s a good suit!”

Kristen rolls her eyes at the compliment, but there’s a smile on her face. “Thanks,”

Gorgug sighs and trudges back into his dressing room. “I’m trying on the gray one.”

“Put on the purple shirt! I liked that one!” Fig calls back to him. He gives her a thumbs up and slides the curtain shut.

“So, yes to this?” Kristen asks as she looks down and examines the suit. Fig and Adaine look at her and nod emphatically, big smiles on both of their faces.

“I like it,” Riz comments, holding two pairs of loafers in his hands.

Fig sighs. “You have enough shoes, we need to find you a suit and a tie,” she stands and grabs the loafers out of Riz’s hands despite his protest.

“Hey, you can always use more shoes! They’re practical,”

“You sound like Ostentasia,” Adaine says with a snort.

Riz sighs and shoves the shoes back into Fig’s hands. “Fine, we’ll look for a tie.”

The two walk off into a different part of the store, bickering about what color he should be looking for. Adaine turns to Kristen, the two dresses still in her hands. “Which color do you like better?”

The dresses are both similar styles, a plain and soft fabric that has small translucent cap sleeves and more form-fitting at the top that flows out at the waist. One is a soft rose pink while the other is a radiant deep blue. Kristen squints at them for a moment before pointing to the blue. “That one.”

Adaine looks at them again before humming in agreement. “Thanks,” she throws the pink dress onto the return cart and goes back into the dressing room, picking up the pair of silver heels she had set on the floor on her way.

Kristen looks in the mirror again, adjusting the jacket. She had grown out of her suit from freshman and sophomore year, and although she said that she could just find something in her closet to wear, Fabian was very adamant that they all needed to look good and ‘the clothes in your closet don’t match the vibe’. Whatever vibe he was hellbent on, none of them were really sure.

Fig had found a deep red vintage dress, a satin fabric with small flowers on it and thin red straps. Paired with a black suit jacket that she had cropped herself, her ripped fishnet, and her black combat boots, Kristen thought that after a year of an identity crisis she really looked like herself again.

“I don’t know why I’m surprised to find you here, you literally told me yesterday that you guys were going thrifting,” a voice says from behind Kristen. She grins and looks at Kipperlilly, an amused smile on the rogue’s face.

Kristen shrugs. “Maybe you’re not as perceptive as you think you are,”

Kipperlilly snorts. “Ouch.” She takes in Kristen’s appearance then, looking her up and down slow enough that Kristen knows she’s making a point about her apparent lack of perceptiveness. “You, uh, look good. The suit, it looks good.” She clears her throat, her face going slightly red.

Kristen grins. “Thanks.”

They both stand there, stupid smiles on their faces.

“Did you find a dress yet? Y’know, for color shit, Fig said it was important,” she gestures flippantly in the direction that the girl had walked away with Riz before walking toward her girlfriend casually, trying not to seem too eager to be closer to ehr. Although they are dating, it wouldn’t be weird that she just wants to stand as humanly close to her as possible.

Kipperlilly’s face flushes a darker shade of red. “About the same navy as your suit, actually,”

“Oh really?”

She shrugs. “I guess it reminded me of someone.”

Kristen leans down and kisses her then. She can’t not after that—Kipperlilly squeaks in surprise before quickly returning it. Her hands slide up to Kristen’s shoulders, pulling her down further as Kristen cups her jaw.

C’mon, really? We’re in public,” Fig says behind them with a sigh.

The two break apart and Kipperlilly looks anywhere but Fig while Kristen purses her lips together in an awkward smile. “Sorry,”

“Which tie do you think Riz would look better in? Because I was telling him the blue is nice but he’s insisting on brown, which is borning,” she says, holding the two up in her hands.

Kristen tilts her head to the side and examines both of them carefully. 

“Seems like a lot of you are wearing blue, so I’d do that.” Kipperlilly says with a shrug. Fig hums in agreement and looks down at the blue tie.

“Thanks,” she turns around to go find Riz again, most likely to rub it in his face that her choice had won out.

“I’m gonna…Lucy wants my opinion on some dresses,” Kipperlilly says, looking back up at her girlfriend.

Kristen nods, but neither of them step away from each other.

“I’ll text you later,” Kipperlilly says, but it comes out as more of a question. Everything is still so new , neither of them are one hundred percent sure how to go about things.

Kristen nods, a radiant grin on her face. “Yeah, I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, good.”

“Good.”

The cleric tucks a piece of hair behind Kipperlilly’s ear, a strand that had fallen out of her neat braid. Her face flushes even more and her gaze remains on Kristen as she moves. Kristen leans down again, and Kipperlilly goes on her toes, and—

“Get a room!” Adaine calls out from behind the curtain.

That snaps the two out of whatever moment they were having, both their faces turning beet-red. Kipperlilly turns to walk back to where her friends are, but before she can Kristen grabs her arm, turns her around, and kisses her.

Kipperlilly looks up afterward, blinking slowly. She knows that she’s a bit starry-eyed, but hey, it’s not her fault that her brain seems to take a moment to reboot whenever her hot girlfriend kisses her.

“Bye,” she says quickly, turning around and booking it back to where Lucy is probably waiting for her. Kristen laughs and calls out goodbye.

Fig comes back over with Riz in tow, an amused grin on her face. Kristen groans and tips her head back, already prepping from the onslaught of heckling.

“ Don’t ,” she says, putting a finger out.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Fig says, absolute glee in her voice. “Nothing is abnormal and your face is a completely normal shade,”

Kristen sighs and puts her head in her hands. “Okay, fine, go for it.”

“You likeeeeee her,” Fig calls out in a singsong tone. Riz laughs as well, holding the blue tie in his hands. Fig comes over and pokes Kristen repeatedly in the shoulder. “You’re going to Homecoming together ,”

Gorgug pulls the curtain to his dressing room open, dawned in a gray suit over a purple dress shirt. “Kristen likes a girl!”

“Not you too,” she calls out, sitting down on a small chair. 

“You’re getting your kisses in!” Fabian calls out, coming out with a dress shirt draped over his arm and collapsing into the chair next to her.

Adaine pulls open her curtain as well. “Kristen’s whipped, guys!”

“Speaking of whipped, I’m sure Oisin is here somewhere, should I go find him?” Kristen asks, standing up and gesturing toward the rest of the store.

Adaine rushes over and grabs her arm, pushing Kristen back down into the chair. “Don’t you dare ,”

“So you can dish it out but you can’t take it?”

Adaine summons her mage hand to flip Kristen off as she goes back into the changing room.

“You can’t even do it yourself? C’mon!” Kristen calls back, a shit-eating grin on her face.

The wizard sticks her arm out from behind the curtain, middle finger up.

“So is the gray suit better?” Gorgug asks, turning to Kristen, Fig and Riz. The tiefling laughs and walks over to adjust the jacket for him, smoothing out some of the creases and agreeing with him.

Soon they’re all piled in the back of the Hangvan, bags full of clothes for Homecoming. It feels like they can just be normal teenagers again, not worrying about their grades an insane amount or saving the world or whatever mystery is going on in town. It’s nice.

Chapter Text

“Lucy thinks that you’re mad at her.” Kipperlilly says to Ivy in lieu of a greeting, plopping down at their usual lunch table. 

The ranger looks up from her crystal with a frown on her face. “What do you mean?”

Kipperlilly shrugs. “You haven’t responded to her texts since yesterday and she asked me if I knew if you were ignoring her or not.”

Ivy tries to keep her expression neutral, but she knows her emotions betray her when her cheeks begin to flush. “I’m not ignoring her,”

“Great, can you tell her that then? I don’t want to play telephone, after having to do it for you and Oisin the other week I’m tired of it.”

It was a fair statement—Ivy and Oisin didn’t get into fights often, but when they did they were absolute blow outs that made their lunch periods extremely quiet. They had been best friends for years, hell, Ivy lived with him 80% of the time, but sometimes fights were inevitable, and in this instance the two had spent a week without speaking to each other because of some comment Ivy made about Oisin’s less than great parents.

Ivy frowns. “I don’t know why she thinks I’m mad at her, there shouldn’t be anything I have to talk about.”

Kipperlilly looks at her, the one that makes Ivy’s blood boil. The one that Kipperlilly gives one of them when she sees right through their lies. “Talk to her, don’t talk to her, I just don’t want to be a mediator for this. And whatever shit you two have got going on, it might be better to actually talk about it.”

“What, you finally kiss Applebees and now you think you can give the rest of us relationship advice?”

The rogue shrugs. “Just thought you should hear it from someone.”

Ivy’s jaw ticks. “I don’t need you to give me advice, Kipp,”

Kipperlilly sighs and hesitates for a moment before deciding that whatever she’s going to say in response is something that’s actually worth saying. “As your friend, I’m just saying that it might make you happier, that’s all. You gave me advice that I didn’t want to hear, but hey, at the end of the day it was helpful.”

“I don’t—” Ivy stops for a moment. She takes a deep breath and her shoulders drop slightly. It isn’t often that she actually shares her real emotions with her friends, but she knows that she has to pick her battles, and sometimes it’s for the best that she lets people in. At least, that’s what Jawbone keeps telling her. She’s not quite sure if she believes it.

“It’s different than it is with you. You guys weren’t…friends,”

Kipperlilly hums in agreement. “True. But you won’t know if she feels the same way unless you ask, or at least talk about your feelings at all .”

Ivy grimaces at another mention of actually telling Lucy how she feels, and Kipperlilly doubles down. “Right now Lucy thinks that you’re mad at her, and if you’re not , you should tell her. If you’re ignoring her because of, you know, a different reason, you should tell her that.”

“It’s really fucking annoying when you’re actually being genuine, you know that, right?”

She snorts. “Yeah, it’s fucking weird.”

“Go back to being a bitch, I don’t know if I like you being nice to me,” Ivy says with a frown, her nose scrunches in disdain.

Kipperlilly rolls her eyes . “If you think that this is going to be a normal thing, you’re sorely mistaken. I just think that we’ve fucked up Lucy enough as it is, and she doesn’t deserve to be confused about this.”

“Yeah,” Ivy sighs. “Yeah, I know. I’ll go talk to her. Just at least to let her know that I’m not mad at her or anything,”

“Good.” Kipperlilly says with a nod. “I’m gonna go eat lunch with Kristen in the courtyard, text me if you need me to play the role of your fucked up concious again,”

“Doubtful, but thanks.” Ivy calls out after her, the rogue already turning to walk out of the cafeteria.

Ivy pulls out her crystal, holding it in her hand and staring at it for a moment before biting the bullet and opening Lucy’s messages. She looks at the ones that she hasn’t responded to and sighs.

Lucy

no i know right???

Lucy

but they seem really happy so i’m happy for them :))

Lucy

our hoco group is gonna be wayyyyyy bigger now lol i’m excited

Lucy

we need to make sure that oisin actually asks adaine tho, he keeps chickening out of it but i believe in us

Lucy

also thinking more about homecoming stuff, i didn’t find anything i liked last weekend so do you want to come look at dresses with me? i think kipp has plans w/ kristen and i’m sure that mary ann is doing something with gorgug, but the two of us can go!

Lucy

maybe we can match haha

Her thumb hesitates over the keyboard, not quite sure what she should say. Not sure if she should say something about not responding to the messages that were sent yesterday morning or just responding normally to them or a secret third thing that she really can’t think of.

It’s clear that their lunch table is going to be broken up today anyways, and if Lucy thinks that she’s mad at her she’ll most likely be sitting with Kristen and the other Bad Kids anyways. She really doesn’t want Kipperlilly to see her embarrassing herself by trying to talk about her feelings more, but she’s right—Lucy doesn’t deserve to be fucked around with any more than she already has been. It’s the least that they can do after…everything. 

She passes Oisin when she leaves and he gives her a slightly confused look. 

You good?

She points a finger back as she leaves, knowing that it’s at least in the general direction of the wizard.

Yeah, I just have some shit to do.

It’s quiet for a moment and Ivy thinks that the answer she gave was good enough for him to drop it. But, Oisin being who he is, and knowing her as well as he does, doesn’t give up at that. Some Lucy related stuff?

Possibly.

Update me later?

Obviously.

She feels the message cut off then. And she should be glad, be relieved that she can just focus on going to talk to Lucy, but not having Oisin’s voice in her head means that she actually has to think about what she’s going to say, and she’s really not sure about what that’s going to be.

Ivy pushes open the doors to the courtyard and scans through the hordes of kids eating lunch outside, the weather still nice enough to do so, and her gaze lands on the Bad Kids plus Kipperlilly and Lucy.

Like a weird sixth sense, Lucy looks right up at her, their eyes meeting. Ivy, even with her cool exterior and blasé attitude, feels herself freeze from what Kristen so lovingly refers to as ‘absolute gay panic’. Fantastic. Great. Wonderful. This is exactly what she wanted right now.

All she does is raise her eyebrows and keep looking at the cleric, and eventually the girl sighs and moves to stand up. She hears her telling the rest of the group that she needs to go to the bathroom, but everyone has already not-so-subtly glanced at Ivy when Lucy started staring, so none of them actually believe her. But they don’t want to call her out on anything, so they all keep talking and briefly acknowledge Lucy, knowing that anything else would be a weird response for someone just telling them they were running to the bathroom.

“Don’t fall in,” Kristen says as she shoves a fry into her mouth. Kipperlilly scrunches her nose and puts a finger under Kristen’s jaw to close her mouth, muttering something to her girlfriend about how she really shouldn’t talk with food in her mouth. 

Lucy approaches her and she tries to ignore the way that her stomach flips nervously. “Hey,” Ivy says casually, trying to do anything but cause attention to the weirdness that’s between them.

“Hey.” Lucy responds, equally unemotive. 

“Um,” Ivy starts, clearing her throat. She glances around at all of the people in the courtyard, at all of the possible eavesdroppers, and then back at Lucy. “Can we go somewhere to talk?”

Lucy frowns slightly, but nods. “Yeah, yeah sure.”

“Fleetfoot’s out today, if we want to use her office. It’s an easy lock to pick, I’ve done it a bunch.”

“Oh?” Lucy says, her eyebrows raised. “And why would you be breaking into your teacher’s office, hmm?”

Ivy shrugs. “For fun.”

Lucy snorts and heads back inside, Ivy right behind her. “How rebellious,”

The walk to the office is awkwardly quiet, Lucy not really knowing what Ivy’s going to say to her and Ivy equally unsure of what the hell she’s going to do.

The lock to Ms. Fleetfoot’s office is, like Ivy said, incredibly easy to pick. She flicks the light on and sits down in one of the chairs in front of her desk. Lucy sits down in the other after a moment of hesitation. 

“So…” The cleric says, trailing off.

So,” Ivy repeats back to her, staring anywhere but her.

Lucy takes a deep breath, steels her shoulders, and looks at the ranger. “Are you ignoring me? Because I feel like you are, and I don’t know what happened that would make you thi—”

“I’m not ignoring you.” Ivy says quickly, interrupting her. Lucy shuts her mouth and looks at Ivy, slightly surprised. “I promise, I’m not. I just…” she squeezes her eyes shut, trying to find the words that she’s trying to say.

Lucy taps her foot against Ivy’s. “Good.” She waits a moment, letting Ivy try to gather her thoughts, but when she continues not making eye contact she sighs. “You wanna tell me why you didn’t respond to any of my texts, then? And don’t say it’s because you’re a shitty texter, that might be true in the group chat, but you always respond to me.”

God damn Lucy and her ability to call Ivy out on her shit, even before she says it. “I just freaked out a bit is all,” she starts, not really sure where she’s going at all. “When you said, y’know, that we can match. It’s stupid.”

The cleric frowns and leads forward in her chair, elbows resting on her knees. “No, it’s not stupid. Your emotions aren’t stupid, and stop rolling your eyes when I say shit like that, you’re being your own worst critic. I’m sorry that it freaked you out, I just thought it’d be fun,” she says with a shrug and a slightly sad smile.

And that just makes Ivy feel like shit. It makes her feel like shit that one of her best friends is apologizing for something that isn’t her fault, that’s just caused by Ivy’s inability to actually confront any real feelings she has. She hears Jawbone’s voice telling her that she won’t be able to progress, won’t be able to get anywhere if she doesn’t stop listening to the voice in her head that tells her to stop, the one that tells her to retreat before she gets hurt. 

“You don’t have anything to apologize about.” She says before she can psych herself out to not say anything. And then she keeps going, because fuck it. “Do you want to do something this weekend? I mean, other than looking at dresses, which I can help you with. Something without everyone else. Just, you know, the two of us.”

Ivy knows that she isn’t imagining the blush that creeps up Lucy’s blue cheeks. “Like…” she hesitates then, looking down at the ground and then back up at Ivy. “Like a date?”

She nods. “Yeah, like a date.”

“Okay.” Lucy says incredibly quickly, jumping on the end of Ivy’s sentence. “Yes, yeah, that sounds, um, good. That sounds good. We can do that.”

“Good.” 

They look at each other then, matching small smiles, sitting in front of each other in this unoccupied teacher’s office. 

The bell rings then, bringing them back to the fact that it’s the middle of the school day and they have a lot more shit to do today. Ivy clears her throat and stands before putting the chair back how it was when they came in. Lucy follows, adjusting the chair and nervously running a hand through her short hair.

“Um,” she starts. “I’ll see you later.” She waits for Ivy to nod before bolting out of the room, both knowing that she has to make it across the entire school to get to the cleric classroom before the next bell rings, but also not wanting Ivy to see the gigantic grin that erupts on her face.

***

Adaine knows that she needs to bite the bullet and ask him out. Because, as obvious as his feelings are for her, he also seems like he’s never actually going to ask her out. She understands why he’d be hesitant to, but god , the amount of signals that she’s put out in the last few weeks that have gone completely unnoticed is a little infuriating. When she made the move to sit next to him in class, to move from the spot that she’s sat in every day for the past three years, she thought that would at least give him a little bit of a hint that she was into him. Instead it had just led to him trying to make painfully casual conversation to show that he was totally, super cool about her sitting next to him. Yeah right.

She also kind of maybe sort of knows that everyone was trying to convince him to ask her to Homecoming. She is the Oracle, after all. (Plus Kristen had butt-dialed her the other day when they were all talking about it). But she doesn’t need to wait for a boy to ask her out, so once again she’s back to thinking that she really just needs to ask him out herself.

All of this to say, when Tibera tells them that they have a paper due next week on a bunch of incredibly intricate runes that she already knows a lot about, but also definitely knows are tattooed somewhere on Oisin, she knows that she has an in.

“Do you wanna work on this together? Being able to talk through everything with someone else might make me want to fling myself out the window less.” Adaine asks, her smirk growing into an amused smile when Oisin looks briefly horrified.

“Yeah,” he says quickly, his voice cracking slightly. He clears his throat and looks back down at his notebook, trying to hide his blush. “Yes, that’d be cool.”

“Cool,” Adaine parrots back, tapping her fingers nervously on her desk. “You can come over after school, if you want. Gorgug usually drives me home, but we can squeeze you in the Hangvan too.”

He looks up sheepishly. “I mean, I drove here, so I could give you a ride. Or not, if you don’t want to I can just also drive and meet you there, I’m n—”

“Okay.” Adaine agrees, interrupting him before he can dig himself into a hole. He’s usually pretty eloquent, but when it comes to her it seems like he’s always putting his foot in his mouth. It’s a little flattering. “You wanna just meet at my locker after school?”

He nods, probably too enthusiastically, and then tries to play it cool again. “Sounds good.”

Tiberia calls everyone’s attention back then, their time for talking with each other about the assignment closing. Adaine quickly tears a scrap of paper off the side of her notebook and scribbles something down before sliding it over to Oisin.

He takes it subtly and looks down to see A-30 written on it and my locker number :) underneath in a neat script. He glances back up at her, but her attention is on Tibera now, her gaze on the board. 

When the final bell rings, the day having trudged by so incredibly slowly, he beelines to Adaine’s locker. Although he doesn't want to seem too eager, so he forces himself to slow down a little but so he doesn’t get there before her—that would be incredibly embarrassing. Not that he hasn’t already embarrassed himself enough for a thousand lifetimes in front of her.

Adaine’s shoving books into her backpack, laughing at something that Kristen is telling her, the cleric leaning against her own locker with her beaten up backpack hanging loosely in her hand. Fabian appears then, slinging an arm around Kristen’s shoulders and laughing as she tries to wiggle away from him.

He hesitates slightly—Adaine is intimidating as it is, and the more Bad Kids he’s alone with the more anxious he gets. They may all be friendly now, but he’s still just a little bit nervous that they’re going to change their minds about them now and kill them again. Not that he didn’t deserve it the first time, there was a rage crystal in his chest and he was actively trying to kill them and end the world, but the distrustful looks they had given him until about a month ago still sound alarms in his head.

The oracle looks up then and sees him and his heart skips a beat at the slightly shy smile she gives him. She jerks her head over and he doesn’t know how she does that, how she seems to know what he’s thinking and what he’s overthinking about. And he knows it’s not ‘Detect Thoughts’, she’s just good at reading him.

He approaches and basically sighs in relief when he’s casually and warmly greeted by Kristen and Fabian, both briefly stopping their impromptu wrestling match to say hello.

Adaine rolls her eyes when the two immediately start fighting each other again and looks to Oisin with a resigned look. “You ready?”

“Yeah, should we—” he looks at the other two, wondering if they should make sure that whatever’s going on is broken up before they leave.

Adaine waves him off. “No, this could go on for a while, they’re fine. Plus Riz will probably be here soon, and he always manages to get them to stop. And if Kipperlilly shows up Kristen will immediately just follow her around blindly, so it’s all good.

He snorts, a small amount of smoke coming out of his nostrils. “Makes sense. C’mon, I’m parked this way,”

She warns him in the car that everyone at home will probably make stupid jokes and be really embarrassing when he comes over, but that he shouldn’t let it worry him. That, of course, immediately worries him, but then Adaine laughs at his nervous expression and he forgets all about it.

“We can just go upstairs,” Adaine starts when they get through the front door, immediately steering him toward the winding stairs of her tower. “Otherwise everyone will get home and we won’t get anything done.”

They get up to her room and Oisin spends a good amount of time looking in awe at the hundreds of runes on the walls, the ward placed by Aelwyn last summer still intact. He traces a finger over some of them, feeling the way that they’re carved into the wall, and doesn’t notice Adaine staring at him from behind, her lips quirked up.

She’s surprised by how absolutely in-place he looks in her room, surrounded by all the books and scrolls and runes. 

“My sister made it.” She says then, breaking the silence because she knows that’s what he’s about to ask her. She doesn’t need to look into the future to do that—not that that’s how being the Oracle works, but still. 

He hums in acknowledgement as he looks around the room, seeing the runes that travel up to and across the ceiling. “She did a good job. It’s a protection ward, yeah?”

“Yeah. She originally moved out when we were gone with all the Night Yorb stuff, so she left me this. She’s back in the top bunk now, but she’s at work right now.”

He nods. “Yeah, she works at Oakshield, right?”

Adaine snorts and sits down on her bed. “God no, and thank goodness for that, she’s a nightmare with kids. She works at Compass Points now. Much better at dealing with thieving pirates than she is with middle schoolers,”

Oisin laughs and tentatively puts his bag on the ground. When Adaine raises her eyebrows that shy smile returns on his face. 

“So are we gonna review these runes or what?” Adaine asks, grinning and scooting over on her bed. Oisin’s face reddens—as much as it can for him—and he sits very pointedly on the floor, his back leaning up against her bed. She stares at him for a moment in slight disbelief before huffing and sliding down on the floor next to him. She sits close enough that their legs press together, and when she looks up at him now she sees the way his eyes nervously flutter, sees him swallow and try to look away.

He reaches into his bag and opens his spellbook, turning to the page marked with the runes that they really do need to be studying, and Adaine rests her head against the bed with a small and slightly disappointed sigh. 

They review for a good few hours, long enough that she hears the other Bad Kids and residents of Mordred get home, hears them all talking incredibly loudly in the living room and hears Lydia get started on dinner. Her friends are most definitely avoiding their homework right now and she’s up here in her tower and Oisin still won’t stop looking directly at the stupid book.

And she really likes him. And it’s annoying. And Homecoming’s in two weeks and he hasn’t asked her yet and she doesn’t know why it’s taken so long and she really just needs to rip the band-aid off.

“Hey, what do you think that this mea—”

“Are you ever going to ask me out?” She interrupts him, not really wanting to continue talking about the runes because yes they’re interesting, but at this moment there’s really nothing she wants to be talking about less than conjuration runes.

His face flushes and he stares at her, eyes wide. His mouth opens but nothing comes out, he just blinks at her and grows increasingly flushed. Coming back to himself after probably a moment too long, he clears his throat and straightens up a little bit.

“Um, I uh…I just wasn't sure if yo—”

“I do. Like you.

He blinks, a bit taken aback. “Oh.”

She purses her lips together and nods, not really sure what else there is to say that would make it clearer to him that she does like him. “Yeah, so…”

The smile he gives her is radiant. It fills her stomach with butterflies, it makes her want to scream excitedly into her pillow. It makes her smile back, brighter than ever before.

Oisin turns to face her fully then, setting the book aside so he can actually be fully present, fully in front of her. “Adaine, could I—”

She interrupts him again, this time basically flinging herself at him, not waiting another moment when she knows that he’s going to continue nervously asking to kiss her and it’ll be another year before it actually happens. 

She wraps her arms around his neck and he oh so carefully cups her face, careful of his claws, and holds her closely. 

They break away, twin grins on their faces. “So do you want to go to Homecoming with me?” Adaine asks, raising her eyebrows.

He snorts and gently tucks a piece of hair behind her ear. “Yes, I would like that very much.”

“Oh, good.” She replies, and leaning back to him is the easiest thing in the world.

Chapter Text

“You’re poking it in my eye!” Fabian cries out, trying to wiggle away from Fig as she rims his one eye in eyeliner. He had okay-ed a small amount after vetoing Fig’s suggestion of a full winged look, but now he was slightly regretting even this.

Fig groans. “Stop moving, you’re the one making me poke you!”

“I will not be gaslit, guys, Fig is attacking me,” he whines, once again trying to wiggle away from the girl as she goes at his eye with a deep purple eyeliner pencil.

“Fabian, if you stop moving she’ll be done faster.” Adaine says as she sits cross legged on the floor and leans closer to Fig’s floor length mirror to tediously apply her eyeshadow. She groans and throws her brush back onto the ground. “Fig, when you’re done can you help me with this? It’s not blending right,”

“She can help you now!” Fabian calls out as he tries to move. 

Gorgug laughs and comes up behind him, putting his hands on the half-elf’s shoulders and holding him in place. “Dude, you’ve gotta stop moving.”

Fabian groans and sits still, allowing Fig to quickly finish his eyeliner. She moves back and hums, approving her work. The boy moves quickly, getting off the floor and going over to collapse on the couch on top of Kristen. She scrunches her nose and tries to push him off of her but he dead-weights on her lap, laughing.

“You’re heavy ,” she groans, shoving at his shoulder.

Fabian rolls his eye. “You lift so much, you’re fine.” 

Gorgug, now done holding down Fabian, goes back over to sit down on the floor in front of Riz, who had been in the process of tying his tie for him.

“One day you actually need to learn how to do that.”

Gorgug puts his hand back to flip Fabian off. “I’ve learned , I just keep forgetting.”

“Kristen also can’t tie one, so you’re not alone there,” Fig comments, now working on Adaine’s eyeshadow.

“Hey!” Kristen cries out, lifting her head to look at Fig. “I can so tie a tie.”

Fig glances over and looks at the loose tie hanging around Kristen’s neck, her eyebrows raised. “Sure, Kris.”

Kristen groans and tips her head back on the couch again. “Fuck off, it’s confusing,” She pulls it off her neck and wads it up into a ball before throwing it at Fig, laughing when it hits her in the head.

Riz finishes off Gorgug’s tie and then works on his own, quickly and effortlessly tying it.

“Now you’re just showing off,” Gorgug grumbles, but then thanks Riz before going to sit with Fabian and Kristen. He hugs his knees to his chest, clearly not bothered by the fact that it’s definitely going to wrinkle his suit.

Kristen’s crystal buzzes and she quickly glances at the screen, not wanting to call attention to herself and let her friends heckle her yet again.

Kipperlilly

We’ll be there in ten!

Kipperlilly

Well, ten-ish

Kipperlilly

I don’t trust that Oisin won’t get lost

Kristen

lol

She clears her throat and glances up at the rest of the group. “They’ll be here in ten,”

Fig swipes Adaine’s eyelashes with mascara one more time before hanging her the tube and instead grabbing the phoenix feather out of her hair. “Ayda Aguefort!” She calls, the feather glowing brightly immediately. A portal opens up and the wizard steps through immediately.

“My darling paramour, you look as stunning as ever,” she says with a radiant smile. Fig blushes, her face turning an even deeper shade of red. She goes up on her toes to give Ayda a quick kiss in response.

Ayda greets the group then, commenting on Adaine’s sparkly eyeshadow, then turning to Fig in awe again when the tiefling proudly says that she’s the one who did it. “You’re so immensely talented,”

“Get a room!” Fabian groans. Like clockwork, his crystal rings then and his face lights up. “Mazey’s calling, I bet she’s almost here!” He runs out of the room before anyone can make fun of him, too excited that his girlfriend’s home for the weekend.

Kristen grins, happy that Fabian’s so incredibly happy (and whipped, good god), and glances down at her crystal again.

Kipperlilly

Ruben is workshopping new songs right now

Kipperlilly

Kill me now

Kipperlilly

I’m gonna take the wheel from Oisin

Kristen

lmao

Kristen

anything but that

Kipperlilly

Kristen.

Kipperlilly

They’re awful

Kipperlilly

So bad

Kristen

that’s tragic for u

Kipperlilly

He plugged his crystal into the speaker and is playing us voice memos of his demos

Kipperlilly

I’m gonna throw it out the window

Kristen

i’d pay you to do that

Kipperlilly

How much are we talking?

Kristen

20g

Kipperlilly

C’mon Applebees, that’s nothing!

Kristen

fine 50g

Kipperlilly

I’m tempted…

Kristen

if u do it video it

Kipperlilly

Oh never mind Ivy has taken his crystal hostage

Kipperlilly

She told him that if he doesn’t turn on something else she’s gonna delete all the voice recordings

Kristen

savage

Kipperlilly

Thank god he’s just putting on a mix now

Kipperlilly

Lol it’s the mix called “Saturday Night” and it immediately started playing Dawn of Justice, tell Fig that Ruben’s giving her a stream right now

Kristen

lmao will do

The six of them make quick work putting the finishing touches on their outfits, which is really just Fig fixing some of her eyeliner and Gorgug trying to straighten the tie that he already fucked up. Adaine grabs Kristen’s head, ignoring her squawk of protest, and runs a brush through it again. 

“It’s fine ! I actually styled it!”

Adaine snorts. “Yes, but then you laid down on the couch and fucked up the back of it. Don’t worry, it looks good now.” 

Kristen grumbles, but then thanks Adaine for helping. She may wear a tracksuit almost every day, but when push comes to shove she thinks that she can clean up pretty well.

They all basically tumble down the stairs, the six of them traveling almost on top of each other with Ayda and Mazey trailing behind them to go wait in the living room for everyone else. The Thistlespring’s, Sklonda, Hillariel, Gilear, Cathilda, Jawbone, Sandra Lynn and Lydia were all waiting in there, and their faces lit up when all of the kids came in.

“You all look adorable!” Wilma cries out, clapping her hands together. 

Gorgug groans. “ Mom ,”

“You kids look great, you clean up nice!” Jawbone says with a laugh. 

There’s a knock at the door and Gorgug, Kristen and Adaine all rush to the door to open it, simultaneously batting each other's hands away. 

“You don’t live here!” Adaine shoots at Gorgug. He laughs and puts his hands back, letting the two girls continue to fight for it. Fig sighs and quickly pushes Kristen and Adaine out of the way to grab the door handle.

She opens it quickly and the two girls immediately clear their throats and smooth out their outfits, trying to appear casual and like they hadn’t just been wrestling.

The Rat Grinders are on the porch, all dressed in their Homecoming outfits and looking a bit nervous.

“Hey guys, what’s up?” Fig says casually, definitely a stark contrast from the buzzing energy radiating from Kristen and Adaine. Gorgug simply waves at Mary Ann, who immediately pushes past all of her friends to go over to her boyfriend.

“Yes, please, come into our house.” Kristen says flatly, although she immediately grins and steps further aside so that everyone can come in. They file in, Oisin immediately going to Adaine with wide eyes and nervously telling her that she looks nice. 

Ruben immediately starts asking Fig questions about her newly founded record label, the two of them already starting to work out a contract so that he can get away from the dumpster fire that is Lola Ember’s management style. 

Lucy, seeing Buddy not really know who to file off with, loops her arm through his and pulls him along with her and Ivy, laughing at the immediate look of relief on his face at someone telling him where to go. Lucy immediately starts asking Mazey questions about college, giving all of them an actual thing to talk about to ease any residual tension. Fabian stands with them, an arm around Mazey’s waist, listening intently even though he’s heard all of this many times before.

Fig calls out then that they’re all going to take pictures, leading everyone outside while still talking to Ruben and answering his insistent questions. She grabs Ayda’s hand and drags her along as well, the wizard immediately following her girlfriend while smiling with pride as she listens to her discuss all of her hell escapades with Ruben.

Kipperlilly looks at Kristen, eyebrows raised as the cleric simply stares at her with wide eyes and a slightly dropped jaw. She’s wearing a midnight blue dress with a velvet bodice that hugs her frame with small straps that tie in bows at her shoulders. The skirt fans out from her waist, dark blue tulle scattered with small sparkles that almost resemble the night sky. Her black platform heels give her another four or so inches, so their height difference is a little less drastic.

She walks up to Kristen and puts a finger on her jaw, pushing it closed. Kristen immediately smiles sheepishly. “You grew,” Kristen comments, smiling as Kipperlilly rolled her eyes. Even now she still loves to annoy her. It’s one of her favorite hobbies; hanging out with her friends, working out, building up the pantheon, and annoying the everloving shit out of her girlfriend.

“Yes, I’ve surgically attached these to my feet.” Kipperlilly replies, looking down at her heels.

Kristen hums. “That sounds painful,”

“Well, luckily I know a pretty good healer, so,”

“Buddy’s fine , I don’t know if I’d call him pretty good.”

Kipperlilly snorts. “Ah yes, my mistake,” she slowly looks Kristen up and down the same way she did in the thrift store when Kristen had called her unobservant. She had paired her navy suit with a similarly colored navy button up, and had decided to forgo the tie completely, instead leaving the shirt unbuttoned just enough for Fig to catcall her but not enough to make Gorgug avoid eye contact with her. “You look nice.”

Kristen clears her throat. “You look really fucking good.”

The rogue grins then, a blush creeping up her cheeks. She goes up on her toes, leaning in closer toward her girlfriend and wrapping her arms around her neck. “Sorry, let me amend my previous statement. You in this suit is really doing something for me and I would really like to skip the dance and go to your room instead, but I think that we probably have to go.”

“I mean, would anyone really miss us?”

“ Kristen ,”

She sighs. “ Fine , you’re right.” She leans down to kiss Kipperlilly then, something chaste that quickly escalates because apparently that’s a theme with them.

“C’mon guys, really?” Riz says behind them with a sigh. They quickly turn around, both their faces flushed.

“Sorry man,”

He huffs. “I was told to come get you guys for pictures, so come out to the backyard. Seriously guys, keep it in your pants.”

Kipperlilly laughs and turns to Kristen and rests her head against her side. “Let’s go,” 

***

Everyone is jumping around to the music that Fig had queued up after shoving Arthur Aguefort off the stage, who up until about fifteen minutes ago was acting as the DJ for the dance.

“He’s so embarrassing,” Ayda had said with a wince, watching as her dad danced awfully up on the stage. Fig laughed, tipping her head back, and Ayda immediately lit up as she did so, focused instead on her girlfriend rather than her father.

Fig kissed her girlfriend on the cheek. “I’ll fix it,” she had disappeared then, quickly making her way up to the stage. She fully pushed him aside to grab hold of the DJ equipment, the two bickering back and forth before Fig won out. She had quickly typed something in and pulled up one of her playlists and the rowdy teenagers immediately cheered when better music came on.

Now they’re all sweating bullets, dancing in close proximity to the other 300-something students shoved into the gym. They’re all bumping into each other, Kristen, Fig and Fabian pointedly and repeatedly body-checking each other and laughing.

Gorgug had gone up on stage to help Fig DJ—she had, from who knows where, procured a drum set on stage, so he went back and forth between helping her pick new songs and drumming along to whatever was playing. They eventually got enough songs queued up alongside her already-fire playlist, and pulled Max Durden up to take over DJ duty, making sure that Aguefort didn’t take hold of the music again and put on Ruben’s god awful ‘song of the summer’ from last year. It had played when they were first walking in and the Bad Kids and the Rat Grinders all immediately agreed that the song should never be played again—it was just too bad.

Kristen watches the Rat Grinders all laugh and smile and crack stupid jokes as they all jump around the gym and can’t help but smile at how happy they all look. Can’t help but smile at how nice it is that her friend group is starting to include seven more. After last year she had thought that they were going to be enemies forever, but now she’s surprisingly grateful that that’s not the case.

Ivy pulls Lucy to her, the ranger’s arms around her neck while the cleric has hers loosely hooked around her waist, the two laughing and simultaneously jumping with the rest of them and slow dancing. Oisin spins Adaine and beams when she throws her head back laughing. He looks so proud of himself for making her laugh, for being the cause of her joy in that moment.

Kipperlilly has an air of casualty and enjoyment that Kristen is still getting used to seeing. It’s nice to see her so effortlessly happy like this, to see her enjoying herself with all of the other students and not either anxious or mad beyond belief.

Kristen keeps leaning down to make stupid jokes to her, one that will either get an eye roll or an amused grin, and Kipperlilly will snake up beside her to either make a comment or something interesting that she had overheard from another teenager yelling to talk to their friends. Kristen is pretty proud of herself that she has been managing not to step on Kipperlilly’s toes, although that could have been because of her platform heels.

Eventually Kipperlilly slides up to her again, Kristen leaning down so her girlfriend can speak almost directly into her ear to avoid yelling like everyone else. “You want to get something to drink? I need a break.”

Kristen smiles and nods, quickly grabbing her hand and slipping away from the rest of the rowdy group. 

She grabs some punch from the table that Fig had most definitely spiked when they got there—unless she had slipped away holding a flask for a different reason. She had mentioned earlier when they were getting ready that homecoming was definitely an occasion for them all to drink and that she wouldn’t abide by her rule of being straight-edge except for drugs tonight. Kristen hands a cup to Kipperlilly, who immediately hops up on the table since no one else is around.

She takes a sip then and winces, coughing slightly. “Holy shit, that’s awful,”

Kristen snorts and hums in agreement. “Truly disgusting. I think Fig may be trying to give all of us alcohol poisoning,”

“Nothing says ‘happy homecoming’ like alcohol poisoning,” Kipperlilly says flatly. 

Kristen glances out at the crowd and sees Fig and Riz screaming the lyrics to a song that Kristen only faintly knows, hearing it blaring from Fig’s room a couple times throughout the last year. The rogue had, at the request of Fig, taken a shot with her right before they went in, the two of them knocking it back in the Hangvan. She laughs as Fig tries—and fails—to spin Riz, the boy swatting away her hand before rolling his eyes when she pouts and putting his hand out for her to grab. The grin on her face is radiant as she spins him, and although he has a look of resignation on his face, Kristen knows that she sees a faint smile.

She looks back to Kipperlilly and raises her eyebrows when she notices that her girlfriend is just staring at her with a small smile on her face. “What?”

Kipperlilly shrugs. “Just happy,”

The music shifts then, the bass-heavy electro beat changing into something slower and more indie-pop, and Kristen grins. She grabs Kipperlilly’s hand in hers and tugs, pulling her off of her perch on the table. “C’mon, I promise to try my hardest not to step on your feet,”

“You’ve been doing a good job so far,” Kipperlilly says, eyebrows raised in amusement.

Kristen shrugs. “Listen, I’m more coordinated than people give me credit for.”

Her girlfriend narrows her eyes and hums, and Kristen rolls her eyes. “Okay, fuck off,”

“Wow, you say the sweetest things to me.” Kipperlilly says in a wistful voice that makes Kristen try—and fail—to stifle a laugh.

“Holy shit,” she says with another laugh, glancing at her girlfriend and seeing her shit-eating grin. 

Kipperlilly tugs Kristen toward the hoard of teenagers again. “C’mon, before the song changes back to something that Ruben would have listened to freshman year.”

They go back toward the rest of their group, everyone either dancing with their partner or finding solace in their singleness. Oisin has his hands very hesitantly and respectfully around Adaine’s waist, but she wastes no time wrapping hers tightly around his neck and pulling them closer together, smirking at the way his eyes widen slightly before holding her more surely.

Fig and Ayda are in a world of their own, the tiefling explaining something to her girlfriend while the wizard looks at her intently, listening to every word she says with a focus that only she has. When Fig sees that Riz is moving to leave the dance floor she frowns and grabs his arm, quickly pulling him into a small circle with her and Ayda. He rolls his eyes, but laughs when Fig very loudly says something about how he’s stuck with her and might as well give up if his goal is not to dance with her. Fabian holds Mazey closely, happy to have her back from college for the weekend. Her visits are few and far between now that her course load is getting heavier, so he’s excited for every moment he gets with her.

Gorgug and Mary Ann have seemingly disappeared, and Kristen really doesn’t want to know where they went off to. The more that she observed her and Gorgug’s relationship the more she saw how absolutely whipped he was for her. If someone had told any of them that last year, none of them would believe them. Well, scratch that. Fig would.

Lucy laughs at something that Ivy whispers to her, most likely a snarky comment about another classmate. Ivy grins as well, Lucy’s laugh infectious, and soon they’re both laughing together. Lucy mutters something then that quickly makes a blush creep up Ivy’s neck.

“You know,” Kristen starts, looking down at Kipperlilly with a coy smile. “You keep telling me that I’m a bad influence on you, but I think it might be the other way around.”

“Oh?” Kipperlilly responds, her eyebrows raised. “And why is that?”

“Because now I’m like, actually an active member of the student body.”

Kipperlilly snorts. “You’re the student body president.”

“Okay, and?”

The rogue rolls her eyes. “Yes, my bad influence is making you a better student, lock me up.”

Kristen grins and leans down to kiss her quickly, nothing more than a peck but something that makes Kipperlilly smile all the same. “I’m like, super smart now.”

“Oh are you now?”

Kristen nods. “Mm-hmm. Gonna go to college and everything. Probably. I mean it’s pretty much entirely Riz that’s making sure that I get into college, but still. My point still stands,”

Kipperlilly laughs again and moves a hand from Kristen’s shoulders to straighten one of the lapels of her suit jacket. “And what college would that be?”

“I dunno, which ones are you applying to?”

She gives her a look that Kristen’s often on the receiving end of, one that says Come on. “Kristen, you can’t apply to a school solely because I am.”

She grins. “I mean I assume that Riz is gonna want to send applications everywhere, and we already made a pact that we’re going together. You being there would also be something in the pro’s column.”

“And what would be in the con’s column?”

Kristen plays with the ribbon on of the straps of Kipperlilly’s dress and frowns. “Four more years of school.”

Kipperlilly laughs, bright and loud and Kristen immediately lights up. “You’ll survive.”

“Just barely,” the cleric mutters.

“Well if we go to the same school you’ll have a pretty good tutor there.”

Kristen raises her eyebrows, her hand sliding down from her girlfriend’s shoulder to her back. “Oh, will I now?”

Kipperlilly nods. “Mm-hmm.”

“Then maybe college will be a good thing, after all.”

The rogue rolls her eyes, but there’s still a stupid smile on her face. “You’re ridiculous.”

“You love it,” Kristen grins, and Kipperlilly knows that her face flushes.

She shrugs, trying to play it off. “Maybe.”

The song ends and another upbeat, fast-paced one starts, everyone immediately grabbing each other and jumping around while they loudly scream the lyrics. Kristen glances down at Kipperlilly as she leans into her side, and the rogue looks up at her with a soft smile. She ducks down and kisses her once more before standing up right as Fig body-checks her, laughing as she rams into the tiefling in response.

Chapter Text

The dance technically ends at eleven, but, as is the Aguefort way, they’re there past midnight. At about twelve-thirty they all finally agree to leave, most people leaving around the same time or having already left.

“Are you guys coming?” Fig calls out to the Rat Grinders, most of them congregating with each other as they all walk out.

“What?” Oisin asks, the seven of them looking at her slightly confused.

The Bad Kids all look at each other, brows furrowed, and Fig has a quick shift on her face before speaking out to them again. “Oh shit, did we not tell you to come back over after? We’re all going back to Mordred, ordering some arguably shitty pizza, and definitely not going to sleep until like, five. You guys wanna come?”

“And that’s…okay?” Ivy asks, slightly hesitant.

Gorgug shrugs. “I mean, we asked.”

Oisin smiles. “Yeah, sounds fun.” The other six mutter agreements, and Kristen is quick to intertwine her hands with Kipperlilly’s again and pull her toward the parking lot.

“C’mon,” she says with a grin.

“We’ve got two cars, russian roulette for who goes in each one!” Fig calls out, running toward the Hangvan and dragging Ayda with her, not willing to let go of her girlfriend’s hand for even a moment.

Ayda, who had until that moment been talking with Adaine, shouts out a quick “I’m leaving now, goodbye!” before being pulled away, a grin on her face as she watches Fig laugh.

“I don’t think that Fig knows what russian roulette means,” Kipperlilly mutters, and Kristen snorts and agrees.

Adaine hangs back to walk in tandem with Oisin, leaning up against him and ducking under his arm when he immediately moves it to go around her shoulders as they go toward his car.

They all make their way to the parking lot where the Hangvan, the Hangman, and Oisin’s SUV are all parked next to each other.

Fabian drags Mazey to the bike and they quickly dart off down the street toward Mordred Manor. Gorgug, Mary Ann, Riz, Fig, Ayda, Buddy and Ruben get into the Hangman, while Oisin, Adaine, Kristen, Kipperlilly, Ivy and Lucy squeeze into his car.

Everyone drives back to Mordred Manor, the cars full of laughter and stupid jokes that make the last three years seem like a distant memory, as if they're all just old friends catching up instead of whatever the hell they all describe the blending of their friend groups that they're trying to do right now.

***

“We have like a thousand blankets, so everyone will be fine,” Fig says, waving Oisin off when he asks her about it. They’re all back at Mordred now, everyone piled into the living room and failing to be at least a little quiet so as to not wake up the adults. “Do you wanna help Adaine go get some? Most of them are in the closet by her tower.”

“Uh, sure,” Oisin says, turning in the direction that Fig had pointed him in. As he turns away Adaine flips her sister off, the tiefling cackling as the wizard’s face grows bright red.

“Take your time!” Fig calls out to them and Adaine groans before stomping off toward Oisin, who’s trying his hardest not to laugh at her grumpy frown.

Kristen goes off to her room to grab more blankets and pillows, as well as to change out of her suit. She drags Kipperlilly along with her, the two sneaking out while Fig and Fabian bicker about what kind of pizza they should order. Riz had gone to grab some more clothes from Fig’s room since hers is where they keep the spare clothes for the boys, given that they sleep over at least twice a week, if not more.

Kipperlilly immediately collapses onto the bed with an exhausted sigh. Kristen, wasting absolutely no time, flops down next to her and looks at her girlfriend with a mischievous grin. “Hi,”

Kipperlilly laughs. “You do realize that everyone saw us leave and if we’re gone for more than like, ten minutes, are never going to let us hear the end of it, right?”

Kristen shrugs. “That’s a later problem.” She leans over to Kipperlilly and the rogue laughs before pushing at her shoulder. 

“ Kristen, ”

The cleric sighs dramatically and stands up. “You’re right, you’re right. C’mon, I’ll get you something to wear.”

“Trying to get me out of my dress already, Applebees?”

Kristen glances over and raises her eyebrows, a smirk on her face “That’s what I’ve been trying to do all day, yes.”

Kipperlilly rolls her eyes. “You’re ridiculous,”

“And you’re incredibly hot, sue me.”

The rogue snorts and grabs the sweatshirt from Kristen’s outstretched hand, using it to tug her close to her and kiss her. She laughs against Kristen when she immediately throws the clothes down and cups Kipperlilly’s face in her hands.

“We need to get back downstairs,” she says, laughing again when Kristen groans and flops back down on the bed.

“You’re killing me, you know that, right?”

She shrugs and grins. “You’ll live.” 

***

The fifteen of them are shoved into the living room together, laughing loudly at the story that Kristen is telling them. The other five Bad Kids had, of course, experienced it with her, but it is still just as funny the fifteenth time they talk about it.

“Wait, rewind, you what ?” Mazey asks, her jaw dropping. She’s tucked under Fabian’s arm, the two sharing a blanket together on the couch.

“I jumped ten stories down the middle of a staircase with a dance ribbon, what’s so confusing about that?” Kristen asks very matter-of-factly.

Oisin has his head in his hands and Ivy sits beside him staring at her in absolute shock. “Applebees, what the fuck.”

Fig bursts out laughing and leans into Ayda’s side. “It was so fucking funny watching her just jump off the edge so confident in her ability to use a ribbon to fly ,”

“Funny now, yes, but seeing her absolutely fucked legs when we got to the bottom really wasn’t.” Adaine says with a grimace.

Ayda nods. “Yes, it was quite shocking.”

Kristen waves them both off. “I healed myself, it was fine.”

“You didn’t heal yourself until everyone got back to the Hangvan,” Riz comments, huddled up in a blanket of his own.

Kipperlilly bites down on her lip, trying her hardest not to laugh even more than she already has, wiping tears from her eyes as Kristen had described, in detail, her quick descent down the stairs in Fallinel.

“Okay, maybe not, but listen, I didn’t think that I would break both of my legs!”

“How!” Ruben cries out, sitting with his knees to his chest and a blanket wrapped around him.

“No, not break, eviscerated! ” Fabian corrects Kristen with a laugh.

Kristen puts her face in her hand and sighs. “Listen, it was in the middle of battle and I didn’t want Adaine’s fuckass dad to get away, and there was a ribbon in my pocket!”

“So your first thought was to try and FLY with it?” Kipperlilly shrieks, now unable to stop herself from bursting into laughter again.

“I don’t know how to explain it any better!” Kristen cries out before moving from having her head in her hands to putting it in Kipperlilly’s lap, her girlfriend still laughing but putting a hand on the back of her head in comfort.

Adaine cackles. “She’s truly innovative.”

“A genius!” Fabian cries out.

“Nothing but respect for my president,” Fig says, putting her soda can up in cheers.

Ivy snorts. “You should have run on that platform.”

Kristen brings her head up again, instead resting her chin on the top of Kipperlilly’s head. “What, that I would jump down ten flights of stairs again?”

“No, that you had previously used a dance ribbon to fly,” the ranger says flatly. “You instead chose to talk almost exclusively about a steelworkers union that didn’t vote in the school election.”

Kipperlilly knocks her foot against Kristen’s leg. “If you had run on that platform maybe I would have voted for you,”

Kristen gasps dramatically and looks down at her girlfriend. “You’re saying that you didn’t vote for me? Kipp, I’m hurt!”

The rogue hums and shrugs. “Too late.”

“I don’t think that any other story is going to top that, honestly,” Oisin says with a smile, sitting on the floor with his back resting against the couch and Adaine tucked under his arm.

“How about never have I ever?” Ruben asks with a grin, looking around at the group and their varied expressions. Some excited, some slightly pained, some not fully paying attention to him.

Fig claps her hands together. “I am down ! I want to learn everything I can about you fuckers. Respectfully,” she looks at all the Rat Grinders and grins, something mischievous and excited that makes them all laugh.

“I guess we stalked you guys for like a year, you can learn some shit about us.” Ivy sighs, earning an eye roll from Lucy and a snort from Oisin.

“Okay,” Fig says as she sits up more. “Look alive, people. We’ll start with ten fingers, put one down if you’ve done it, keep it up if you haven’t. The game is simple. Ruben, you suggested it, so you can start.”

Fabian whistles. “You really got down to business there, didn’t you?”

The tiefling shrugs. “I live for party games.”

The Bad Kids all laugh and mutter agreements, having many years and sleepovers of experience with Fig and her passion for group games. Their sleepovers the summer after freshman year had included countless games of truth or dare.

“Okay, okay,” Ruben says. He thinks for a moment before a mischievous smile appears on his face. “Never have I ever…kissed someone else in my adventuring party.”

Kipperlilly and Lucy put a finger down, faces red and looking anywhere but at each other as Ivy cackles and immediately puts one down as well. With a sigh, all six of the Bad Kids put a finger down.

All the Rat Grinders’ jaws drop as they look between the six of them. “What kind of incestual shit is going on with you guys?” Ivy asks bluntly, her nose scrunched.

Riz sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Kristen kissed all of us, it was a weird day.”

“And I’d do it again!” The cleric shoots back. Kipperlilly sighs and then tries not to laugh when Kristen pulls her closer and kisses the side of her head.

“Can I ask why Kristen kissed everyone?” Oisin asks hesitantly, not quite sure if he actually wants the answer.

Fig cackles. “She was shitfaced and talking about relationships and kisses and then kissed all of us in the middle of the hallway.”

“It was freshman year!” Kristen shoots back as if that’s a reasonable defense.

“You were shitfaced at school ?” Kipperlilly asks with wide eyes, peering up at her girlfriend. In lieu of an answer, Kristen sighs dramatically and flops backward into the bean bag they’re on, pulling Kipperlilly down with her as the rogue squeaks.

“I believe that was the day you brought a bloody mary to school.” Fabian so helpfully adds.

Kristen groans. “I was fifteen and was just realizing that everything I had known about my life was a lie, okay!”

“So was Kristen everyone’s first kiss?” Ruben asks with a laugh.

Adaine sighs. “Yes.”

“No, my first kiss was Doctor Asha!” Fig corrects, pointing to Adaine with a mixture of determination and amusement on her face.

Now it’s Ayda that sighs and puts her head in her hands. All of the Bad Kids groan, ignoring the way that Fig bursts into laughter again.

“Do I want to know who Doctor Asha is?” Ivy asks, eyes narrowing as she looks at Fig.

“Fig used to moonlight as a resident at St. Owens to make out with one of the adult doctors when she was a freshman.” Gorgug says with an exhausted sigh.

“You WHAT ?” Lucy screeches, her eyes wide.

Riz groans. “I was there for their first kiss, it was incredibly uncomfortable.”

“What the fuck are you guys doing in your free time?” Kipperlilly asks, eyes darting to each of the Bad Kids.

“We’re living!” Fig calls out before flopping backward onto the floor, both hands up in the air flashing the rock ‘n’ roll sign.

Everyone starts yelling at her again, and it takes a solid two minutes to quiet everyone down so that someone can ask another question. Buddy’s up next, and everyone is already preparing to put a finger down. 

“Never have I ever killed someone.”

They all groan and put a finger down, jeering and heckling him as he laughs and shrugs. “You gotta play to your audience, everyone!”

“He’s smart, I’ll give him that.” Adaine grumbles, and Oisin laughs quietly.

***

Buddy is the first one asleep, so obviously, everyone draws on him.

They’re all laughing and shushing each other as they try not to be too loud. Fig draws a mustache while Ivy is carefully drawing glasses around his eyes. Fig laughs too hard and her hand slips slightly, drawing a line across Buddy’s cheek.

“You’re not coordinated enough to do this!” Kristen whispers, trying to calm her laughter.

“Says you !” Fig shoots back, sticking her tongue out at the cleric.

She tosses the marker to Kipperlilly, who immediately starts drawing a unibrow, making everyone silently cackle again.

Once they’re finally satisfied with their living art piece Adaine puts the markers back in one of the kitchen drawers, hiding the evidence of their work.

“Now that we’ve given Buddy the ‘first to fall asleep’ treatment, does that mean we can all go to bed now?” Gorgug asks, cutting his sentence off with a yawn.

“Fig once told me that at a sleepover you are not supposed to sleep.” Ayda replies, frowning and looking down at her girlfriend.

The tiefling rests her head against Ayda’s shoulder. “You can sometimes, it just depends. But we did go ape shit at the dance, and I’m worried that the sun is going to rise soon, so I could definitely sleep.”

Ayda hums in agreement and nods. “Will you just let me know when the times are that I should fall asleep versus when I should not?” She asks, looking down at Fig and wrapping an arm around her.

She nods and yawns. “Yeah, definitely. I think now is a time where we sleep,” she raises her head slightly to look around at the rest of the group. “Everyone in agreement?”

They all murmur sleepy agreements as everyone begins to move to find a comfortable position or spot to sleep in. Riz has curled himself up in one of the chairs, a blanket wrapped around him. Gorgug’s sprawled out on the floor with Mary Ann curled against his side.

Fabian and Mazey are on the couch sharing a large blanket, and Adaine’s cocooned herself in a giant fuzzy blanket on the ground next to Oisin, the two using separate blankets but facing each other and smiling shyly. Ivy and Lucy are on the other side of Oisin, Ivy collapsing on top of the cleric with a blanket covering them both.

Fig and Ayda are curled up together on the other side of Gorgug, Ayda using both her arms and wings to wrap around her girlfriend, almost giving her a secondary blanket on top of the thin one that was draped over them. Both run incredibly hot, so they don’t need anything more than that. Ruben has, similarly to Riz, fallen asleep in the other chair, curled up in an old Owlbears blanket.

Kristen and Kipperlilly have situated themselves on the far side of the room, sharing a large blanket from Kristen’s room. Having had sleepovers a few times already, they assume their now-comfortable positions of Kristen with her chin hooked over Kipperlilly shoulder, holding her from behind, and Kipperlilly burrowing into her arms.

As exhausted as Kristen is, she really can’t fall asleep. She tries, really, but she still has so much energy from the day that she just can’t. She doesn’t know how long she lays there, but the room has gone silent from the quiet whispers that had been filling it when everyone laid down, so she has to assume it’s been a while.

“Are you still awake?” Kipperlilly whispers, snapping Kristen out of her train of thought.

She nods. “Yeah,”

Kipperlilly hums. “Same.”

“Yeah, I know.”

Kristen can practically feel her rolling her eyes before her girlfriend turns her head to look up at her. “Fuck off,” she says with a slightly amused smile and no malice in her voice.

They’re silent then, Kristen waiting to see what Kipperlilly is going to tell her. When it’s clear that she actually has no idea, Kristen inches impossibly closer to her.

“Do you wanna go somewhere more private?” She asks softly, her lips brushing against the shell of Kipperlilly’s ear. She feels her girlfriend shiver, a chill going down her spine as Kristen’s breath hits her skin.

Kipperlilly turns around to fully face her, a dark and hungry look in her eyes. “Yes.”

They very slowly and carefully slip out of the living room—or more accurately, Kristen attempts to do so while Kipperlilly immediately stealths down the winding hallway to the church.

Kristen doesn’t see the other girl until she’s almost to her room, trusting that she is either in front of or behind her. Kipperlilly appears almost out of thin air then, coming out of the shadows of the hallway with a grin on her face.

The door is already open, Kristen not bothering to close it when they had left earlier that night. Secretly she had hoped that they would be back at some point, and as Kipperlilly grabs her by the collar of her sweatshirt and yanks her through the doorway, she’s happy that she had been right.

Kristen wastes no time shutting the door behind her, probably too loud, but then Kipperlilly’s hands are in her hair and she doesn't think about the noise at all. She focuses on the girl in front of her, a determined and slightly frustrated look on her face at their sheer height difference, something that is once again more apparent now that Kipperlilly’s not wearing the platform heels from earlier.

Not beating around the bush at all, Kristen slides her hands down underneath Kipperlilly’s thighs and picks her up before walking them over to the bed, appreciating the squeak of surprise that she makes at the quickness of Kristen’s actions. Frankly, she would have been more than happy to not go back downstairs when they were up here earlier, but that would have been subjecting them to way too much torment from their friends.

The moonlight shines through the stained glass of the church, beams of twilight dancing across the room. Hues of purple and blue flit across Kipperlilly’s skin as Kristen stares at her and her hair is fanning out around her and she’s really never looked more beautiful.

So Kristen really has no choice but to tell her that. They’ve already had a conversation about open communication and saying what they’re actually thinking, so it’s only right that she communicates her feelings right now. “You’re so beautiful,” she says softly, although it comes out as more of a choked whisper.

Kipperlilly’s face flushes. Kristen tucks a stray piece of hair behind the rogue’s ear and watches as she once again shivers. Her own body feels like a livewire, and from Kipperlilly’s reactions so far it’s clear that she’s feeling the same.

The rogue surges up and kisses her then, threading her hands in Kristen’s hair and pulling her back down so that she’s fully on top of her, bracketing her elbows on either side of Kipperlilly’s face.

A soft groan comes from Kristen’s lips as Kipperlilly quickly slips a hand under the girl’s sweatshirt and trails a hand up the bare skin of her back.

“Can I—” the rogue starts, pulling back to look Kristen in the eyes. She nods immediately and emphatically, and before she can even take another deep and shaky breath her sweatshirt is  over her head and she can see the way that Kipperlilly’s eyes darken immediately.

The cleric raises her eyebrows and gives Kipperlilly a mischievous grin. She snorts in response and quickly pulls off her own sweatshirt. And Kristen’s seen Kipperlilly without a shirt on before. She knows the way that her soft skin feels underneath her rough hands, but it feels different this time.

She knows it’s different this time, and she touches Kipperlilly with a gentleness like it’s the first time, sliding a hand up and down her side before moving to focus on her chest. She dips her head down and kisses her way down Kipperlilly’s neck and chest and revels in the soft whimper that her girlfriend makes, the way that she immediately arches her back and rakes her nails through Kristen’s hair.

“ Shit , fuck, do that again,” Kipperlilly says breathlessly as Kristen nips at the soft skin under her breast. Kristen tries to stop herself from grinning at the expletives that the rogue continues to spout out, knowing that if she was thinking clearer she would be a bit embarrassed by what’s coming out of her mouth.

Kristen, however, thrives in it. In knowing what affects her, what keeps her squirming underneath her and raking her hands through Kristen’s hair. What keeps the wild look in her eyes as she hauls Kristen back up to her and kisses her breathlessly.

Kristen’s hands trail further down Kipperlilly’s body but she hesitates when her fingers skim the skin above her waistband, not wanting to go too far without her explicit consent. She doesn’t want to push her to do anything that she’s not ready for, doesn’t want to do anything that would make her uncomfortable in any way. Because Kristen is, well, Kristen, but she’s also just a bit terrified of fucking this all up in some way.

Kipperlilly immediately notices her hesitation and takes her hands from Kristen’s shoulders to cup her jaw, pulling back to look her in the eyes. “You can keep going,” she says softly.

Kristen chews on her lip. “I don’t want to do anything that you’re uncomfortable wi—”

“Kristen,” Kipperlilly interrupts, saying her name with a sweet sigh that immediately makes her relax. She puts a finger under Kristen’s chin to fully tilt her head back to meet her gaze. “Don’t tell me that you’re all bark and no bite?” She says with a teasing tone, and this is just what Kristen needs. That playfulness and confirmation that Kipperlilly wants this as much as she does.

She grins and immediately kisses Kipperlilly again before nipping at her lower lip. A little on the nose, yes, but the groan that Kipperlilly makes is more than enough to weigh out the eye roll that would have been coming otherwise.

Now getting the okay, Kristen dips her fingers under the waistband of Kipperlilly’s sweats—her sweats, really—and slowly pulls them down, letting her fingers just barely graze the skin of her legs.

When she starts very slowly tracing up and down her inner thighs Kipperlilly whines again and Kristen thinks that she might drop dead on the spot. She hasn’t even touched her yet, not really, and the sounds that she’s making are already threatening to put Kristen in the hospital. It’s going to kill her, and her tombstone will read Kristen Applebees: Died from getting some.

And really, what a way to go.

She trails her lips down Kipperlilly’s body and hums in approval when Kipperlilly’s hands find purchase in her hair as she travels together. She sucks at the sensitive skin above her hip bone and Kipperlilly tightens her hold.

As she slowly pushes her legs apart she feels Kipperlilly’s hand shake slightly as she holds onto Kristen, and the cleric looks up at her again, pupils blown but eyes laced with concern. “Are you okay? This is okay, right? If you want to stop, we can.”

Kipperlilly stops chewing on her lip and smiles softly and all the worry leaves Kristen’s body. “Yes. It’s very sweet how concerned you are, but I promise that I’m fine. I’ve just, you know, never done this before.”

Something slightly feral inside Kristen hums at that, the thought that no one else has seen her like this. That she’s the only one who’s touched her like this. “I know.” She says, and Kipperlilly’s hand twitches in her hair. 

“You may, um, proceed.” Kipperlilly says, immediately scrunching her nose at the formality that definitely does not belong in this moment.

Kristen, of course, bursts into laughter. The rogue huffs and takes one hand out of Kristen’s hair to prop herself up on her elbow and glare at her girlfriend. “You know, if you’re just going to laugh at me I can—”

She cuts herself off with a sharp moan when Kristen, clearly not wanting to let Kipperlilly get too in her head about things, dips down and slowly licks a stripe through her folds. Both hands shoot back down to find purchase in Kristen’s tangled hair and she throws her head back against the mattress.

Spurred on by the small gasps that she keeps making, Kristen pushes on. Kipperlilly can’t stop moaning and gasping and cursing long expletives that make even Kristen raise an eyebrow.

Her bed may as well be another altar in her room, the way that Kristen worships her. How easily she gets on her knees to whisper passages of a holy creed against her warm skin.

She removes the hand that’s been holding down Kipperlilly’s hips and trails a finger through her folds before pushing it in as she sucks on her clit. Kipperlilly whines and Kristen begins slowly pumping her finger in and out before adding a second, and then a third, and her new goal becomes getting her girlfriend to keep making those sounds for as long as she can.

She crooks her fingers in a certain way and Kipperlilly moans beneath her, digs her heels into Kristen’s back. If she wasn’t already a cleric, if she hadn’t already revived a God and devoted her life to that deity, Kristen would have sworn that she’d found religion in this moment.

“You’ve gotta stay a little quiet, baby,” Kristen mutters, leaning back slightly so that she can glance up at Kipperlilly. She kind of wishes that she hadn’t, because when she sees Kipperlilly staring back, bare chest heaving and face red and pupils blown, she kind of wants to keep her in her bed forever.

But maybe Kristen’s a little bit mean too, because she goes back to stroking Kipperlilly’s thigh and trying not to smile when she immediately starts squirming again. “Can you do that for me?” Kristen asks, and this is a very dangerous game that they’re playing.

But then Kipperlilly’s breath hitches again and she nods and Kirsten knows that she’s really happy that she invited Kipperlilly over a month ago.

She runs her tongue through Kipperlilly’s cunt again before timing the thrust of her fingers with flicks of her tongue. The whimper that Kipperlilly lets out then and the way that she bucks her hips against Kristen is something that she wants to tattoo in her brain, something that she’s going to see every time she closes her eyes for the rest of eternity.

“Fuck, Kristen, don’t stop that, please ,” Kipperlilly chokes out that sounds somewhere between a plea and a sob, her hands tightening in Kristen’s hair.

The cleric has no plans to, but telling her that would mean taking her mouth off of her, and there’s no way in hell that she’s doing that now. Not when Kipperlilly tastes so sweetly on her tongue, when she’s starting to figure out exactly what to do to make her scream.

Kipperlilly’s pleas become more incoherent until she’s resolved solely to whines and whimpers. Kristen feels her tightening around her fingers and knows that she’s getting close.

She does take her mouth off her then, but continues assaulting her cunt with her fingers. “Are you close, baby?” She asks softly, glancing up at Kipperlilly, the rogue’s eyes squeezed shut in pleasure.

She shoves her fingers in just the right spot, because Kipperlilly slaps a hand over her mouth as she moans loudly and bucks her hips up again. “ Please ,”

It’s not long before Kipperlilly breaks, reaching her peak with another moan as her hand clenches in Kristen’s hair, pulling as the cleric helps her ride it out, slowly working her through her orgasm.

When she finally pulls away and sits back on the bed, the blissed out look that Kipperlilly gives her makes Kristen grin, a shit eating look on her face that the rogue would normally roll her eyes at.

In the blink of an eye Kristen is pushed back as Kipperlilly lunges, pushing her shoulders back to lean over her and kiss her hard.

***

Ivy is technically the first one awake, given that she just needs to trance rather than get a full eight hours. By that logic Adaine should be awake too, but when Ivy glances over at where she’s asleep on the floor she sees that the wizard is still passed out.

That’s happened to Ivy a few times, fully falling asleep instead of tracing, and she always feels insanely groggy and slightly hungover afterware. And given that everyone is definitely going to wake up with a killer hangover—Ivy already feels a bit nauseous—she thinks that Adaine will probably have a real rough time when she finally gets up.

She scans the room, looking around at all of her friends and enemies-turned-kind of friends who are sacked out throughout the living room before zeroing in on the limp blanket where Kristen and Kipperlilly had been last night. She snorts and adjusts slowly to grab her crystal, careful not to wake Lucy up. She’s really looking forward for when everyone else wakes up and can heckle the two girls for their notable absence.

Fig is the next one up, immediately leaving to go to the bathroom before padding back in mid-yawn. She nods to Ivy, a silent hello. The ranger nods in return before jerking her head over to the space where Kristen and Kipperlilly had been, alerting Fig to the fact that they were gone to see her reaction.

She doesn’t disappoint, her jaw dropping before looking back at Ivy with wide eyes. Her expression quickly turns into a shit-eating grin, knowing that they had some stellar material to use to make fun of their friends.

Fig mouths something to her and Ivy narrows her eyes, not understanding what the other girl is trying to say. Fig huffs and holds up her crystal instead, tapping it before raising her eyebrows.

Recognition crosses Ivy’s face and she nods before signing Fig her crystal number.

Fig

were they up when u woke up????

Ivy

yep

Ivy

i have no idea how long they’ve been gone, maybe all night????

Fig

damn

Fig

the tea

Ivy

i mean are we really surprised

Fig

kind of surprised that they would straight up leave the living room lol

Fig

well surprised at kristen? no. surprised at kipperlilly? yes.

Fig

like yeah they were basically unable to keep it in their pants yesterday but i thought they would at least wait until everyone who doesn’t live here went home

Ivy

well we’ll find out soon enough

Ivy

this is gonna be GOOD

Ivy

always love it when i have something to make fun of kipp for

Fig

lol

Fig

i love all the lore that we’re getting for u guys

Ivy

i mean like i said last night, you guys are probably entitled to some shit about us whether i like it or not

Fig

don’t lie u had fun!!!!

Ivy

yeah sure

Fig

k don’t admit it!! but when we keep hanging out we’ll see who’s right!!

Ivy

yeah yeah okay okay

Fig

haha

Fig

what do u think everyone will want for breakfast

Fig

we make pancakes a lot

Ivy

that’ll be fine

Fig

sick

Fig

we’ll wait for more ppl to wake up and then can start doing what we usually do which is jump on whoever is still asleep

Ivy

brutal

Fig

it’s usually just kris and fabian

Fig

so i guess that would involve breaking down kristen’s door

Fig

but idk if i want to do that

Fig

i don’t want to…see anything

Ivy

lmao

Fig

not trying to be scarred or anything

Fig

it’s too early for that shit

Ivy

it’s noon

Riz sits up then, blinking wildly and rubbing his eyes before he blindly fumbles around for his glasses. He slides them on and looks around, seeing who else is up. When he sees Fig smile and wave and Ivy nod to him he raises his eyebrows and whips out his crystal to text Fig.

Riz

no one else is up?

Fig

nope

Fig

i’ve been telling ivy that we’ll wait until more ppl are up to start jumping on them xx

Riz

haha okay

Riz

so it’s just us three right now? kinda surprised

Fig

well we’re not sure if kris and kipperlilly are up but we’re also not sure where they are

Fig

or if they’re…yknow…fully clothes

Riz

gross

Riz

really didn’t need to know that part

Fig

lol

Fig

we’re gonna make pancakes :)

Riz

k

Slowly everyone else starts to wake up, Gorgug jolting awake when Fabian accidentally kicks him in the head while trying to get off the couch. Everyone tries to stifle their laughs, not wanting to immediately wake up the ones that are still asleep, but then Adaine cackles and soon no one is able to stay silent.

Ruben, Ayda and Oisin wake up to everyone’s laughter, a loud but nice alarm, better than anyone jumping on top of them or being kicked in the head. Ivy and Fig immediately make it clear to everyone that Kipperlilly and Kristen are gone, prompting a lot of groans and more laughter from the other teenagers, a mixture of wanting to make fun of their friends and wanting to vehemently ignore it.

“Do we need to wait for them to eat? I’m hungry, ” Adaine groans, slumping against Oisin’s side.

The dragonborn shrugs. “Should someone just try to get them?”

“I’ll do it!” Fig calls out, immediately bolting up and down the hallway before she can even finish her sentence. The group laughs again and makes their way into the kitchen, a loud cacophony of noise following them.

Fig bangs on the door to Kristen’s chapel, not caring about gently knocking first. “Wake up, we’re making breakfast!” She calls out loudly, putting her mouth right up to the door.

It’s silent for just a second before she bangs on it again. “KRISTEN! KIPPERLILLY! WE’RE HUNGRY AND ARE MAKING FOOD, IF YOU DON’T JOIN US IN THE KITCHEN WE ARE EATING WITHOUT YOU!” She yells, and afterward immediately bounds back down the hallway.

“I let them know,” Fig says casually when she comes back into the kitchen.

Gorgug snorts and looks up from the mixing bowl, taking an egg from Riz’s outstretched hand. “We know, we could all hear you.”

“It’s like you were screaming in our fucking ears,” Ivy adds.

The tiefling shrugs. “I wanted to make sure they heard me.”

“I think everyone in Elmville heard you,” Adaine says, knocking her head against Fig’s when the girl comes up behind her at the kitchen counter and hooks her chin over the wizard’s shoulder.

She hums in agreement. “Want some help?”

The wizard slides over the bowl of strawberries that she had been taking the leaves out of. “You take these off, I’ll slice.”

A few minutes later Kristen pads into the kitchen, hair pulled back into a shitty half-bun. Kipperlilly trails in behind her wearing a too-big sweatshirt with remnants of eye makeup rimmed around her eyes, clearly not getting it all off with the makeup remover that Fig had passed around last night.

Then again, no one did. Everyone that had been wearing any sort of eye makeup look slightly like raccoons, eyeliner and mascara smudged around their eyes.

“Well, good morning you two!” Fabian says cheerfully with a shit-eating grin.

Kristen flips him off as she grabs a glass from one of the cabinets and fills it with water. “Not one word,” she says, looking first at him and then at everyone else. They all snicker and look at each other before turning back to the two girls, feigning innocence.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Lucy says with a shrug.

Fig snorts. “Yeah Kris, we have no idea what you mean. Anyways, we were all just talking about how we fell asleep pretty quickly last night. Kris, Kipperlilly, how’d you guys go down?”

The group bursts into laughter then as Kristen groans and Kipperlilly flips everyone off, leaning into the cleric and burrowing her head into her side, Kristen throwing an arm around her.

“What’d I say? I’m just concerned for your wellbeing, I just asked how you two slept together?” Fig adds with a completely straight face.

Adaine nods. “We all slept for a few hours. How about you two? How long did you last?”

Kristen rolls her eyes and flips Adaine off, the wizard laughing and returning the middle finger. Fabian flips her off as well and cackles. “Get fucked, Kristen!”

“I think that Kipperlilly was the one that got—”

“Okay!” The rogue interrupts loudly, cutting Ivy off.

Lucy laughs and chokes on the water that she’s drinking and Oisin has to hit her on the back a few times until she coughs and successfully wheezes. “Holy shit, that was good.”

Ivy’s amused smirk quickly turns into a shy smile as Lucy nudges her and leans into her slightly.

The kitchen table is definitely not meant for fifteen people, so they drag a couple of side tables and over various objects they can use as seats, shoving them all around the table. That, paired with a few people sitting on other’s laps, means that they are all eventually crowded around the table eating breakfast.

Fig is happily sitting on Ayda while Riz grumbles that he’s being squished, the boy sitting in between Gorgug and Oisin, with Mary Ann on the other side of the other barbarian. Ivy leans slightly onto Lucy’s chair and Adaine has taken the seat next to Oisin, blushing as he rests his arm on the back of her chair. Kipperlilly sits on Kristen’s lap, Ruben and Buddy taking the two chairs next to them. Mazey and Fabian take one of the chairs at the head of the table, and after unsuccessfully trying to share it, Fabian perches on Mazey’s leg with a sigh of embarrassment. Because, really, it’s the most comfortable way for both of them to sit there.

“Morning kiddos,” Jawbone says, walking into the kitchen to see all of them crowding around the table and laughing at something Oisin is saying. It is definitely still an odd sight, but a happy one. Sandra Lynn trails in behind him, a cup of coffee in her hands, clearly made before any of them were awake. It was, after all, almost one o’clock

“Morning Jawbone,” they all echo back, some briefly turning to look at him and smile with others—mainly the kids that lived here—just respond while still engaged in the story.

The conversation turns back to school, and everyone makes plans to eat in the courtyard together on Monday if the weather is nice enough, since they doubt that they can all squeeze into a lunch table together without a similar set up to the one they’ve got going on right now, which doesn’t seem too comfortable for school.

Fig winks at Ivy as they make the plan, emphasizing that she was right about them all continuing to hang out, and the ranger just rolls her eyes but smiles back.

***

“KRISTEN! KIPPERLILLY! WE’RE HUNGRY AND ARE MAKING FOOD, IF YOU DON’T JOIN US IN THE KITCHEN WE ARE EATING WITHOUT YOU!” Fig yells through the door, immediately jolting Kristen and Kipperlilly awake.

Kipperlilly is lying partially on top of Kristen, a leg slung over her waist and her head tucked into the crux of Kristen’s shoulder. Her head shoots up and she blinks widely, trying to wake up and look around the room. Kristen simply groans and hugs the rogue closer to her, still half asleep.

“Hey,” Kipperlilly says gently, nudging Kristen with the arm that isn’t bracketed by her grasp.

The cleric opens her eyes, slowly squinting as she adjusts to the sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows. “Morning,”

“We fell asleep here last night.” Kipperlilly says with a grimace. Kristen’s eyes widen as she realizes what exactly the blonde is saying—that they had forgotten to sneak back into the living room so that their friends didn’t immediately know that they had snuck away to her room.

“Oh fuck,” she curses, her voice slightly raspy from a shitty nights sleep.

Kipperlilly moves to get out of bed, laughing when Kristen refuses to let her go. “C’mon, we’ve gotta get up and go show our faces before we get even more made fun of,”

Kristen groans. “But we’re already up here, can’t we just go back to bed?”

She successfully tugs the rogue back down onto the mattress, tucking her head in her neck and nipping lightly under her jaw.

Kipperlilly sighs contently, but after a moment snaps back to herself and knows that they really should go downstairs. She pushes slightly on Kristen’s shoulder and her girlfriend gets the idea, sighing but letting the rogue pull her up. 

“ Fine ,” she groans, leaning down to grab her discarded sweatshirt off of the floor. “But you should totally sleep over tonight. You know, because…I honestly can’t think of an excuse other than I don’t want you to go home yet.”

The rogue blushes and grins, still not used to Kristen’s incredibly sweet bluntness. “Pinky promise,” she says, putting her finger out.

Kristen laughs and hooks their pinkies together, using the hold on her to lean down and press another kiss to her lips, lingering until Kipperlilly laughs and pushes her away again. “ Kristen ,”

“Fine, fine, I get it. Lets go get the shit roasted out of us,”

“You don’t think that they’ll just let it go, do you?”

The cleric gives her a look of disbelief. “Do you know our friends? No, they’ll be on this topic for a good half hour.”

Kipperlilly sighs and follows Kristen out of her room, dragging her feet slightly as they go toward the kitchen. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”