Tequila & Birdcages

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Cordelia's pov
I looked at her softly, I really wished she had told me. I can't help but feel like I could've prevented this in someway. Then I heard her think: she probably thinks you'll kill yourself if she gets mad and I all but lost it. "That's not true" I say out loud, realizing that I had basically just outed myself.

"What's not true?" She asks quietly, head still buried in my chest. I decided I should just come clean at this point and try to make the best of it. "Well you know this is a place to hone your magic right?" I ask softly, she nodded. "First I want to say I'm sorry, and I understand if you're upset" I began as she lifted her head off my chest to look at me.

"Sorry for what?" She asked nervously, almost scared. And I could swear I felt my heart break into a million pieces, I never wanted her to be scared of me. "We teach you how to hone your mind powers. Being able to enter someone's thoughts, basically reading their mind. Sometimes using it as a means to communicate" she looked really confused.

Before I could even further explain, her face relaxed and she backed away. Shit I've really fucked it up. "So you've been reading my mind this whole time?" She asked surprisingly calm. "Not exactly, only sometimes. I left things alone that I knew you'd want to tell me yourself. More sensitive things..." it was silent for a few moments until she finally spoke.

"What do you know?" She asked in the verge of tears. I contemplated quickly on what I was going to say "just little things, like I can tell when you're resisting or holding back. I don't know why I just know that you are. And of course I also heard what you just said about me being nice to you... which is why I said it wasn't true" I finish.

She stares at me for a moment, I guess trying to gauge how she even felt about all of this. She slowly lifted herself from the ground and I stood up to stand next to her. She walked out of the bathroom to sit on the floor, I assumed she didn't want to sit in the white bed. I sat on the floor in front of her a good distance away.

"You know that was an invasion of privacy" she finally says. "I know... I really am sorry" I say looking down not being able to meet her gaze. "It's nice that you were concerned though" she speaks lightly. "It's actually refreshing" I looked up at her then, trying to read if it was sarcasm or not.

But she looked at me genuinely, "I mean sometimes saying the words is really hard... I guess that's an upside" she says finally. "I guess so. Can I ask you a question? Now that I can't read your mind" I say softly. "Sure" she says taking my hand in hers, I rubbed the back of her hand with my thumb. "What happened back there... downstairs I mean" I say softly so as to not upset her.

She looked down for a moment and then slowly back up at me before speaking. "My parents are heavy drinkers, especially my mom. She was drunk when the whole thing happened actually. It doesn't bother me that people drink, hell I even drink. But it was just so soon that it kind of triggered me, hence our current predicament" she said plainly as if it meant nothing to her.

I moved to sit next to her and grabbed her head to rest on my shoulder. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know" I said, "says the mind reader" she replied jokingly. I gave a light chuckle "seriously though... I am sorry. I didn't mean to trigger you" I say sincerely. "It's really ok, you didn't know. Plus it'll wear off in a bit it was just overwhelming cause it's so soon" she says into my chest.

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Reader's pov
It had been a few weeks since my last slip, Cordelia and I had been getting on well. The first thing she taught me was to control my fire of course. Then she began to give me private lessons on mind control and entering peoples thoughts. She told me to be responsible with it "so not like you" I said jokingly and we both laughed.