Glory And Gore (5H AU)

Chapter 12 - Fight Club

The only feeling Lauren can accurately describe in that moment is complete and utter frustration.
She gets frustrated pretty easily, now that she thinks about it. When people don't listen, that makes her upset, because she's got a plan for everything. She could probably solve world hunger if someone would just fucking listen to her.
But no, her crusty old headmaster had to ignore the repeated warnings Lauren had given him, treating her like the five year-old child she most definitely is not and now letting someone else get captured and abducted.
She's so impossibly upset because she could have done something to prevent this from happening.
"Oh my god," Camila murmurs, letting go of their hands and coming up behind Lauren. Brown eyes trace over the contours of the captain's face, the burning eyes, the clenched jaw, the flared nostrils.
"Classes will resume as usual," the headmaster on the screen says quietly, closing his eyes as he lets out a defeated sigh. "Security will be immensely increased."
The captain doesn't even hear the rest of his commands before she storms out towards the exit, shoving past Jojo in the process with a loud, hissing exhale. "No. I'm not letting them off the hook that easily."
Ally reaches out to try and grab the girl's arm, taking a few steps to try and follow her. "Lauren..."
"You guys stay here," the captain instructs. "I have a whole lot to say to that-"
"If you're gonna curse him out, I'm not letting you do it alone," Normani assures her, coming up besides her intertwining their fingers with an encouraging nod of the head.
"We're all coming," Camila agrees, walking past the group to head downstairs.
"Dinah," Ally calls out to the phone, which is still on speaker, "meet us at the administration building."
"Affirmative. See you soon," the hybrid replies, before the screen fades to black and the team is already running across the grassy area towards the man's office. The girls make it to the building in a matter of minutes, tensions high as they simply ignore the front desk attendant and run straight for the familiar office.
Lauren can't help but feel a sense of pride in her classmates as they enter the room, which is now stuffed to maximum occupancy with several furious teams.
"Who the hell went missing?" One of them demands, and she instantly recognizes the fiery pale leader of Jade's team, Perrie Edwards. They're normally not on talking terms, but they have several classes together and she's giving her team death glares all the time, so Lauren has familiarized herself with her competition.
"Millie Thrasher. 16 years old, still unassigned," the man replies quickly, keeping his tired eyes focused on the paperwork in front of him. "Now, ladies and Mr. Styles, I have to-"
Lauren's voice is an aggressive hiss, alerting everyone in the room of Team 5's presence. "COWELL."
The man's eyes widen as he glances up, locking his gaze with the intense emerald pools of the captain. "Who let you girls in?"
"It doesn't matter, they're here for a good reason!" Harry interjects, his normally calm demeanor replaced with a sassy stance, voice thick with irritation as he crosses his arms over his chest.
"If your fucking clairvoyant could know she disappeared," Lauren starts, pushing past a few of the girls to slam her first onto his desk, "figure out where the fuck she went."
"It doesn't work like that," the headmaster explains softly, trying to tame the unruly beasts protesting in his office. "Alejandro tried, it just kind of comes and goes."
"You're saying it as if we care," Perrie interrupts, the words spewing from her mouth like hot coals. She narrows her gaze at the headmaster, who now has two sets of steely emeralds and a harsh blue trying to burn holes into his soul. "That girl was abducted and you don't think it's something to be concerned about?!"
"Cara has done her part," the man replies. "She's not going to strike again, she has no motive."
A girl with long braids from Perrie's team lets out a disappointed exhale. "You should have given her the damn beacon-seeker."
"We do not have that on location, and we haven't had that since the technology was even discovered," he tries to explain, his patience wearing thin as the exhaustion sets in. "There are countless teams at headquarters who have dedicated their entire lives to figuring out where this machine is, we would have negotiated if we were given the opportunity."
"What does the beacon even do?" One of the girls from Harry's team asks curiously.
"I am not allowed to impart this information to students. I truly wish I could," he tells them, and his apologetic shrug makes Lauren believe the man is being honest. "The best I can do is encourage all of you to stay calm and continue training."
"With the exception of Miss Edwards's team, you all graduate in 8 short weeks," he adds. "I can assure you all that this threat will be handled, and you will be as informed as soon possible once you graduate."
His voice turns harsh as he rubs at his temple, clamping his eyes shut as he leans forward over his desk. "All of you, back to your dorms immediately."
They can tell that the man isn't in the mood to mess around, so the teams comply begrudgingly. Shuffled feet and silent insults all funnel their way out of the office, Camila closing the door promptly behind her as she is the last one to exit. Since all the older kids live in the Delta and Epsilon dorms, the group moves as one giant entity across the quad to their respective massive dorm building.
"Tosser," Jade hisses under her breath, straggling back alongside Dinah, Camila, and Jesy.
"Extra security isn't going to do anything to get Millie back," one of the girls from Harry's team points out, taking one of her blood red lips between her pearly white teeth with a disappointed sigh.
"Is that who went missing?" Ally inquires, turning to face the taller girl with a curious expression. Lauren, who's towards the back of the group, can see Dinah's jaw harden, the name obviously setting off some kind of reaction within their youngest member.
"Yeah, he told us before you guys got there," the girl replies, before rubbing her face irritatedly with both hands. She groans out of exasperation, tossing her hands up into the air. "I don't get how they're so relaxed about it. It could have been a child, they could be torturing her right now."
"Guys, just don't think too hard about it," the other girl from Harry's team sighs, the first thing she's said all day. She's a particularly smart girl, who practically competes with Camila for the top rank in their Case Studies class. She's got a weird last name, which Lauren can't remember for the life of her despite hearing her teacher call it out at least three times a day. "Train to the best of your abilities, be ready for whatever will come up."
Normani tugs on Lauren's sleeve, arching an eyebrow at the captain. "There's no way we're all sleeping separately, right?"
The brunette gives an understanding nod, snapping her fingers to get the attention of her teammates once the other two teams have split off towards their own rooms. "Everyone meet up at Epsilon in 15 minutes. Team sleep over."
Dinah heads off to gather her things from the Omega dorm, while Ally and Normani take only a few minutes before they're helping to set up the makeshift beds on the floor of Camila and Lauren's room.
The eldest girl lets out a shaky breath, spreading out a fluffy duvet in front of her. "This doesn't even feel real."
"I know. I feel like this is all just part of a terrible bad dream," Normani agrees. There's an incessant buzzing coming from Camila's pager, which the girl seems to be ignoring, and that instantly concerns Lauren.
The captain glances over at her roommate, pursing her lips as she tries to be the understanding leader she aspires to grow into. "You know, if you have to-"
"No, I'm staying here with you guys," the pyrokinetic immediately objects, shaking her head furiously. She switches her pager to silent, tossing it onto her now-bare bed as she sets her comforter and sheets down onto the floor. "Ariana has her team, I have mine. I'm prioritizing."
And yeah, it feels kind of fucking awesome that Camila actually puts them first for a change, and she can't help but feel like she's just sending a giant middle finger to slap Ariana's smirky little face.
"Lauren, you actually met her," Ally tells the captain softly, trying to encourage the girl to share a bit of the experience with the other girls since she had already seen it so vividly the first time around.
"So has Dinah," Normani points out, leaning back against Lauren's bed from her sitting position on the floor.
"Yeah, but knowing that Cara is back in her life must be hard enough," Lauren finally replies, staring distantly at the glass of water in her hand as she stands by the counter. "Imagine knowing that she has the few people who are the closest thing you have to family. Imagine finding out that she killed one of them to prove a point."
Camila's voice is as soft as the melted pools of chocolate staring gently back at the captain, giving her a gentle push of encouragement. "Tell us about her."
The brunette turns to lean back against the kitchenette's counter, crossing her arms after she takes a long sip from the refreshing liquid. Her gaze is cold, distant, as she recalls every vivid moment from the memory of just a few hours earlier.
"Looking back at it, it was disturbing. She was so calm, so carefree. As if she didn't care, like it didn't matter to her that she had just killed an innocent person or her own soldier. She seemed so relaxed about it."
"She had this... ability," Lauren continues, struggling to find the proper words to explain the situation. "She literally sucked a copy of my powers out of my body and into hers. It was terrifying. I got your book though, Camz."
Camila feels a pang of guilt in her chest as the captain goes over to her bag and hands her a slightly weathered version of The Alchemist. The smaller brunette clutches it to her chest appreciatively, looking up at the raven-haired girl with furrowed eyebrows. "So how the hell did she know where you were gonna be?"
"If she has the ability to absorb powers, let's think critically," Normani advises, hugging her pillow as she tilts her head back, staring up at the ceiling. "How frequent are mental mutations, such as telekinesis or telepathy? Very frequent. If she can absorb abilities, she must have been able to find another clairvoyant. Someone who would know exactly where Lauren would be, at the exact time."
Nobody doubts Normani's intelligence, but seeing as the girl keeps to herself most of the time, hearing such a legitimate, well-thought out theory was amazing to everyone.
"And Jojo calls me a strategist," Lauren chuckles, ruffling the girl's hair as she gets up to answer the knocking on the door. "Chameleon, you're brilliant."
"Hey DJ," the girls all greet, as soon as they spot the resident hybrid standing in the doorway. The youngest team member simply waves, and Lauren can tell that something is definitely on her mind.
"I'm making soy hot cocoa," Ally announces, clapping her hands together before bouncing towards the cabinets in search of the powdered mix. "I think we all need something to warm us up after that experience."
"Do you think they're gonna cancel letting us go out for Thanksgiving?" Normani asks.
"They might," Camila shrugs, tossing her pager into the air and letting it fall into her hands over and over. She clicks her tongue, letting out a sigh. "Who knows."
Ally knows the hybrid has been quiet for far too long, considering her usual chatty nature. She redirects her focus from the stove to the tall girl sitting on Ally's blanket, biting at the nail of her thumb with a blank expression. The empath tries to keep her voice soft. "DJ, you okay?"
Dinah simply shakes her head in response, a trembling breath escaping her lips as her gaze remains focused blankly on a point on the floor. "I knew Millie."
"Tell us about her," Lauren encourages the hybrid, sitting down on her blanket next to the girl and giving her a soothing pat along the back.
"She lived across the hall from me," Dinah tells them, pursing her lips as stares pointedly at the empty space in the middle of the circle. "She was getting rehabilitated, she was suffering from PTSD."
"What happened?" Camila asks, turning her body to face her teammate and give her the utmost attention as she spoke.
"Oh, she had quite a difficult upbringing," the youngest girl nods. "She was kicked out at 13 and lived under an overpass in New York. She almost got killed by a policeman who found her and mistook her self defense as an attempt to attack him."
The girl pauses, playing with her thumbs before a faint smile comes to her lips.
"She liked to clean," she tells them, her eyes distant as she recalls the girl's strange habits. "She made sure everything was spotless. Sometimes she came to my room and we would be together, talking. She made me sit on the bed so she could clean everything around me. It was more than what Ally does. She wouldn't stop."
"She liked to plan things, like what she wanted to do when she died. She was prepared," Dinah informs them, before reaching into the inside breast pocket of her black bomber jacket and pulling out a weathered piece of lined paper, folded into a neat square. "She gave me this paper, I had to keep it on me no matter what. I promised to keep it with me wherever I went. I haven't broken my promise."
"What could she do?" Ally asks, taking the paper out of Dinah's hand and giving her a mug of hot chocolate in its place.
"She controlled electricity," Dinah answers easily, before breaking out into a huge, excited smile. "It was incredible."
After a beat of reading over the paper, Ally looks up from the sheet between her fingers, furrowing her eyebrows slightly. "Millie said she'd want you to sing to her for the rest of her life, and then at her funeral. Did you sing for her a lot, DJ?"
"She suffered from insomnia, like Mila," Dinah explains, before motioning over to Lauren. "If it worked for you, I thought I might was well try."
"Woah, DJ, I don't-" Lauren stammers, trying to play it off to try and distract the other two teammates who did not know about the singing, "-I don't sing..."
"Oh, calm down, Lolo," Normani laughs. "We know."
The captain pouts, always unhappy to be seen as a softie instead of the badass she tried to come off as.
Dinah speaks up again, taking her bottom lip between her teeth with a sad sigh, her eyes hardening over as she stares down at the floor. "She had a beautiful soul."
The girls remain silent, not quite sure how to comfort their friend. The hybrid had obviously grown attached to this girl, and no doubt felt angry at herself for letting her get abducted.
But then, Dinah springs up from her spot on the floor, setting her now-empty mug on the counter and grabbing Ally's blanket up off the floor. She scoops up her pillow in the same hand, plucking the list from Ally's grip and tucking it neatly back into her pocket.
"I want to go to the roof."
"Now?" Camila questions, considering it's easily 2 or 3 AM and freezing cold outside.
Dinah nods unapologetically, heading out towards the door with the duvet and the pillow under her arm. "I need to see the stars."
"Okay, okay, Dinah," Lauren immediately responds, not wanting her teammate up their alone, but knowing she won't budge. She picks up her own sheets, motioning for the rest of the girls to do the same. "We can all go up together. We'll watch over the quad as a team."
The hybrid seems satisfied with this answer and parades out the door, heading towards the stairs. Camila laughs and grabs her own things to follow her out, with Ally coming behind them with empty hands, since the youngest girl already has her blanket. Normani and Lauren tail behind, dragging their covers and pillows in one hand.
Lauren bites down on her tongue, making an unfortunate realization. "Omega isn't just for new recruits, is it?"
"Ally says there are special people in there," Normani replies quietly, shaking her head in disapproval at the inhumane segregation occurring on their own campus. "They sort of group them together to make them easier to manage. It's like the mental hospital of the Academy. It makes sense, that they're not worried. Some crazy girl starts wandering, it was only a matter of time before something happened."
Lauren clenches down on her back teeth, and it takes all the volition in her body to not go down and completely destroy the administrators right now. Just because she a person was not "normal" didn't mean their life had any less of a value. They lived on an invisible campus for a school full of mutants; "normal" shouldn't even be part of their vocabulary.
She knows that if she keeps talking about it she'll probably end up breaking something, so Lauren opts to change the conversation. She smiles faintly, shaking her head in disbelief as the pair traverse up the stairs, past the floors of the boy's dorms. "Only Dinah can see a girl, who has a traumatic past and OCD and plans her own death and still see her only for her beauty."
Normani nods in agreement, a knowing look coming over her face, as if she's been aware of this the entire time. "Dinah has a gift. She doesn't see people for their flaws. She sees them in the best light they have. Where we see the dark, she sees the moon."
"I can see why you like being around her so much," Lauren informs her, nudging the girl playfully as they go up the steps side-by-side. Normani smiles shyly, hiding her face from the captain's view as she turns away. Lauren can see that thing again, that twinkle of something more, and she knows she just can't keep ignoring it. She exhales quietly, resting her free hand on her friend's shoulder to stop them in their place.
"Mani," she begins softly, "if you have something to tell me-"
"I have just as much to tell you about Dinah as you do about Camila," Normani snaps, ripping her shoulder out from Lauren's grip with an aggressive, sharp inhale. She closes her eyes and lets out the breath slowly, trying to regain her composure after a moment of weakness. "Let's just drop it, okay?"
Lauren is stunned into silence, following behind her friend with wide eyes and her words caught in her throat. Normani has never snapped like that in the several months that Lauren has known her, so she knows she must have hit a particularly sensitive nerve by bringing something of that magnitude up.
She's immediately distracted by Camila's loud groan of irritation as a powerful breeze rips around them and even manages to make Lauren feel cold. Camila glares at her captain distastefully, but there's a faintly playful grin at the corners of her mouth.
"We have to cuddle for body warmth," the girl informs her unhappily, motioning to a shivering Ally and the goosebumps on Lauren's arm.
"It's the middle of November in Seattle. It's freezing. Don't make such a big deal out of it," Lauren chuckles, shoving the girl playfully. She points to the pile of thick blankets attempting to soften the hard concrete they're about to sleep on. "Just sit in the middle and we'll feed off that."
Camila gives her a goofy push back, lying down on the make-shift bed and leaning her head into the pillow. The girls all come down next to her, Lauren at one end next to Normani, and Dinah at the other end essentially becoming Ally's mattress. The eldest and the youngest seem to melt together by instinct, curling into one another as Ally pulls their blanket over themselves. Dinah keeps her strong arms wrapped around the older girl, looking up at the dark sky, then back down with a smile at Ally as they share a telepathic conversation.
Normani is the first to pass out, considering she's the closest to their human space-heater, and Ally follows soon afterwards. Lauren murmurs a few lines of the first song to come to mind, and before she knows it, the hybrid is left alone, staring up at the comforting dark sky with glowing amber eyes.
Lauren's back hurts like a bitch at practice the next day, and not even the stretches they do help alleviate the painful tension in her shoulders and neck. She reminds herself to never complain about the dorm mattresses again.
The trainer comes in, and each girl seems to have a multitude of things she wants to say to the woman. They swarm around her, Lauren being the first to try to call her attention. "Jojo-"
"Exceptional work yesterday, ladies," the trainer interrupts, pushing past the girls to set her things down on the bleachers. "I'm immensely proud of how each of you behaved. This pack of pickups is turning into a respectable group of fine young agents."
Normani raises an eyebrow in complete confusion. "We're not going to talk about-"
"No. It's another day of practice. Get used to it," the woman answers, snapping her fingers as she motions to the track. Dinah happily obliges and leads the group on their run, Normani and Ally trailing behind her. The other two are about to follow their teammates before the trainer adds one last thing.
"Cabello, Jauregui, you guys have been excused from your second week due to superior work yesterday with the children."
Both girls stare at her in disbelief, having expected to spend their weekend looking after the children. Camila is the first to talk, raising an untrusting eyebrow at their trainer. "Are you sure?"
The woman nods, motioning for the girls to go catch up with their teammates. "Go do your five."
The weekend passes more slowly than usual, and by the time they're back at the dorm after practice on Monday, Camila is staring out the window, biting at the skin around her fingernail.
"There's people I've never seen before just patrolling the campus," the girl says to her roommate, who is sitting in her bed, texting her girlfriend. "I know that's supposed to make me feel safe and all..."
"It's scary stuff," Lauren agrees, pinching the bridge of her nose as Tori gives her another elusive, passive-aggressive response. She turns the volume off her pager and sets it on her dresser before snuggling under the covers. She lays on her side to face Camila, watching as the girl yanks the curtains shut and heads over to turn off the light. "You're allowed to be a little freaked out."
The younger girl snorts, flopping down into her bed after setting her own pager down on her dresser as well. She pulls the covers up over her shoulders, turning to face the walls and avoid Lauren's examination. "It's not just a little."
There's a heavy pause, and Lauren's mind just goes into overdrive with the millions of things she wants to say. Camila speaks up again, her voice cracking slightly after the exasperated sigh she lets out.
"The nightmares aren't fucking going away."
Lauren purses her lips, feeling her heart ache for the poor girl's inability to feel safe. "Do you want me to-"
"No, don't sing," Camila replies hastily, nuzzling down farther into her sheets. She takes a long inhale, letting her breath out slowly in an attempt to calm herself. "I don't need your help."
Lauren isn't offended at all, rather, understanding it as a gentle bit of encouragement to get her to take matters into her own hands. As quietly as she can, she gets up, heading over to the window to pull up the curtain and reveal the calming, silver glow of the moon. The pale light pours into their room, illuminating it gently through the glass and helping to settle the mood slightly. She realizes that Camila hasn't budged other than to put her hair up into a messy bun, and decides that it's time to try and step up her game.
Moving at the slowest pace she can manage, the older girl takes silent steps towards the pyrokinetic's bed, trying not to shift the mattress too much as she lowers herself down. Camila notices, nevertheless, and lets out a hiss as she glances at Lauren from over her shoulder.
"Stop it."
But Lauren has learned to recognize her teammate's habits, the way she'll never admit she enjoys something if it involves Lauren. She knows the snarky response is habitual, so she gives the girl another chance, laying down besides her with plenty of space between them as she rests her own head into her hand. "Are you sure?"
And when Camila doesn't answer, instead lifting the sheets as a silent invitation for Lauren to slip under, the captain grins victoriously.
Their bodies fit together perfectly, like two opposite pieces of a puzzle just clicking into place. They shouldn't work, and Lauren knows that even as she presses herself into Camila's back and let's her arms wrap around the smaller girl's waist. She watches the goosebumps raise on edge along the entirety of Camila's body. They shouldn't work, fire and ice.
But they do.
"We're terrible people," Camila laughs humorlessly, her eyes fluttering shut as her body automatically leans back into Lauren's touch.
"We're not doing anything wrong," the older girl reasons, pressing her forehead up against the back of the younger girl's skull, staring down at the baby hairs at the base of her neck.
Camila's voice trembles at the feeling of the warm breath up against her nape, feeling her eyes nearly roll back in her head. She swallows down a lump in her throat, humming in agreement. "Right."
Lauren continues, noticing the way Camila's body reacts to her simple movements. Warm hands move to overlap her own, pressing them tighter against the stomach of the pyrokinetic. Lauren takes this as a grant of permission, moving in just the slightest bit closer so her lips are barely brushing against the back of Camila's neck. She speaks slowly, enunciating each word so her mouth just ghosts along the sensitive skin. "I'm just being a good friend."
The girl lets out a sharp exhale of entertainment, kicking her legs behind her to intertwine them with Lauren's. Her body is overwhelmed with the burning sensation, the tingling of every nerve in her body every time Lauren takes a deep breath. Camila smiles lazily, keeping her eyes shut as she turns her head to glance over her shoulder. "Right."
Lauren watches the way Camila's pink tongue darts out to moisten her lips, her plump, soft pair of ever so tempting-
And a sudden thud on their window, completely blacking out any of the light from the moon, sends them both screaming and flailing around in the bed.
Thankfully, Lauren recognizes the amber glow within seconds.
"DINAH!" The captain shrieks angrily, going over to open the window up for their hybrid teammate.
The girl seems unphased, poking her head of messy loose curls into the room with a wide grin, dressed in her usual practice attire with a hoodie thrown over her shoulders to keep her protected from the wind. "Go get your warmups on, we have somewhere we have to be."
Camila rubs at her arms at the sudden rush of cold air blowing into their room. She stands up, doing as her teammate instructs as she reaches into their closet to grab her suit and quickly change into it. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"You'll see. Come onnnn," the hybrid whines with a pout, reaching an arm into the room to push Lauren away to go get her own suit on. "Mani and Ally are already there."
Perched on Dinah's head is one of the snapbacks, a red one with a white brim turned backwards to keep her hair out of her face. Lauren can't help but smile as she realizes this is definitely one of Ally's little gifts to the hybrid, which the girl seems to be enjoying immensely.
The pair head outside to meet up with their teammate, being extra careful to stay quiet and avoid alerting the new night-watch guards brought in to serve as extra security. Camila takes a few paces so she's ahead of them, ensuring to keep a safe distance from her teammates as she lets her skin heat up in an attempt to warm herself.
Lauren is about to comment on the hat, but as she glances up at the hybrid, she receives the smuggest grin she's ever seen in her life.
"What're you lookin' at, Meat-Head?" The captain chuckles, giving her teammate a playful punch on the arm.
Dinah's grin only increases in size, her voice low. "You guys were doing the thing."
Within seconds, Lauren's disposition changes entirely, her eyes widening with panic. "What thing?"
"The human thing," Dinah explains, leaning in a bit as she whispers into Lauren's ear playfully. "Where you cuddle."
"You're delusional," the captain huffs, shoving the girl away with an indignified shake of the head.
"Oh. Okay. I'm delusional," the hybrid repeats with a nod, knowing this is a cue not to bring it up again.
Lauren rolls her eyes and jabs an accusing finger into the chest of the younger girl.
(Which actually really hurts, she sometimes forgets that Dinah is a solid slab of muscle.)
"This is an order from your alpha. Don't mention a single word of that. I was helping her sleep."
The girl purses her lips, lifting her eyebrows as she tries to process the words. "Like the singing?"
Lauren smiles happily, giving her teammate a nod of approval. "Like the singing," she agrees.
Camila turns around, slowing down so she can rejoin the small group. She lets the hybrid take the lead as they start to approach the edge of the quad, sending the tallest girl a nervous glance. "Dinah, where exactly are you taking us?"
"The woods. Shh, keep your voice down," the youngest warns, speaking easily. "The night patrol might spot us."
"Why the woods at 3 AM?" Lauren questions, with a quiet chuckle as she trustingly lets her friend lead them into the dark, trying not to stumble or crash into a tree. "Some of us actually need sleep, you know."
"This is the answer," Dinah replies simply, her eyes wide wish excitement as she picks up on a few voices in the distance. "This is a solution that might work."
When they emerge from the thick foliage, the girls are met by several other familiar faces, each in their respective warmups. Icy blue eyes flicker up to meet Dinah's with a distasteful look, but as soon as she spots the two girls in tow, the girl claps her hands together. Lauren realizes that Perrie had been waiting for them, as well as the others around them.
The blonde clears her throat, stepping into the middle of the small circle that had formed and raising her voice for everyone to be able to hear.
"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming. Together, we make up the top 5 teams currently studying at the Academy."
Lauren glances around, recognizing each and every person her eyes fall on.
The older girl continues, motioning to herself and the other girls behind her in pale gray warmups. "Team 277B, trained by Professor Shay Mitchell."
She points to Noah and his new trio, all wearing dark burgundy warmups. "Team 17K, trained by Ashley Benson."
Harry's team, in pale navy blue warmups, is the next to be motioned to. "Team 61, trained by Troian Bellisario."
Perrie holds her hand out towards Liam's team, and the moment Lauren makes eye contact with Ariana, the girl gives her an irritating smirk that makes her want to run up and punch her right then and there. The four wear creamy white warm ups. "Team 582A, trained by Scott Hoying."
Lauren stands a little straighter as she is the last group introduced, the girls looking incredibly cohesive and even a bit intimidating in their sleek black suits. "Team 5, trained by Jojo Levesque."
Liam takes a step forward, addressing the entire group as they stand alone by the lake. "We called you here for a reason."
"Cowell's been sitting on his ass like a little bitch, trying to tell us that we're all fine," Perrie hisses, with such passion and vigor that even Lauren feels herself getting riled up. "Well, as the strongest teams of the Academy, we need to take it upon ourselves to make sure we're prepared to fight whatever is coming for us."
"The best way to do that is to work together to get ready for this," Noah adds, stepping towards the other two captains.
Ally throws one of her hands into the air, shaking her finger in dissapproval as she speaks up.
"Oh no you don't, inter-team aggression in unsanctioned situations is strictly against the rules. We could get expelled if they find out!" She shrieks, stepping forward to get the attention of the rest of the students. "This is the same thing that got Brad and Connor kicked out! They have a little spat in the cafeteria, and next thing you know, they're heading right back home to the UK."
Leigh-Anne, who sits next to Ally in second period, gives the girl a pat on the back and a smirk. "That's why you don't say anything."
"First rule of superhero fight club," Harry chuckles, leaning over to speak quietly into the ear of one of his teammates. "Don't talk about superhero fight club."
"I can understand why everyone is so hesitant about this," Liam adds, in a calm, even tone that instantly soothes any anxiety in the group. "Especially you, Ally. But Perrie's got a point. We've got to take matters into our own hands and be ready to fight if Cara pops back up."
"Okay then, brilliant minds," Camila hisses, unhappy that her teammate's legitimate concern had simply been brushed off, "what happens if a night guard comes along and hears the ruckus?"
"One measly night guard is nothing compared to the manipulation abilities of the one and only Kylie Jenner," Noah grins, motioning exaggeratedly to the dark-haired girl standing to his right, who waves happily.
"I'll handle it," the girl assures the group, giving Noah a playful shove. "Don't worry."
Lauren nearly chokes on her own spit as she witnesses Dinah's brave move, watching as the hybrid comes up behind the shorter girl and places her hands on both of Ally's hips. The older girl tenses in surprise, but her body instantly relaxes as Dinah murmurs something into her ear, pulling the smaller girl backwards into her with a faint smirk and a gentle grip on her hips. Ally nods, letting out a sharp exhale as she leans back into the girl's incredibly intimate touch. Lauren's never seen friends do anything like that, but then she remembers that Dinah is Dinah and will find a million different ways to cuddle, even if some of those ways are a little less friendly than others. She knows Dinah's intentions are innocent, so she brushes off the move and returns to focus to Liam as the boy starts listing off the rules.
"We meet every night, from midnight to whenever the last person decides to leave. The fights will be one on one, with only one going at a time. No outside assistance will be allowed."
He turns to Zendaya, who nods and motions for everyone to take a step back. Using her abilities, she clears away some of the grass to make a perfectly flat surface, a giant circle to outline the boundaries of their "ring."
"Pick your opponent," Liam tells them, reaching behind him to hold up two re-enforced wooden poles. "Non offensive-abilities will be compensated with a bow staff."
"Loser taps out, be humane," Noah announces. "We'll intervene if the situation calls for it."
"Any questions?" Liam asks, glancing around the group to ensure he had covered all his bases. Perrie cuts him off, clapping her hands together with a massive grin as she motions to one of her teammates.
"Good. Jesy requested first pick."
All eyes of Team 5 fall on Normani, who is staring nervously at the smaller green-eyed girl on the opposing team as she grins maliciously over at them, pointing a single finger in their direction.
"I want Hamilton."
"Take a minute to prep, Nelson vs Hamilton will commence shortly," Liam tells them, handing Normani one of the bowstaffs.
Lauren groans, going up behind her friend and giving her shoulders a playful massage to try and relax her. "She's dating Brad, why the hell else would she specifically pick on Normani?"
"Was dating," Normani corrects, stretching her arms out over her head as she lets out an aggressive huff. "God, I can't believe I fell for that dick."
Considering that it's her girlfriend's teammate, Ariana feels obligated to help, pushing past Lauren and staring Normani straight in the eyes as she leans in and gives the girl a few lines of advice.
"All you have to get in is a tap, Normani. A tap and you're in," Ariana tells her quietly, motioning over her shoulder at the girl being warmed up on the other side of the circle. "Jesy's fast as hell but all you have to do is tap her and she's out for the count. Turn her into someone you know you can handle."
By the time the small break is over and Normani is preparing to step into the circle, Lauren knows she has to pull Ariana to the side. The girl seems surprised, her warm brown eyes staring up at the captain with nothing but confusion. Lauren clears her throat, swallowing her pride in the process. "Thanks for helping out my teammate, Grande."
Ariana simply grins as she realizes why Lauren had pulled her aside. She wrinkles her nose, giving the girl a smirk and lowering her voice. "Don't expect the same generosity."
Lauren narrows her eyes, feeling her jaw tense immediately. "I wouldn't."
Before she can walk away, Ariana is continuing, tucking her hands into the back pockets of her warmups. She squints up at Lauren in confusion, letting out a huff of disbelief. "By the way, your girlfriend is one of the most pure-hearted people on this entire damn earth. The fact that you don't trust her is beyond my realm of comprehension."
"Don't start with me," Lauren hisses, waving the girl away dismissively.
"Why, because you know you wouldn't be able to finish it?" Ariana retorts, letting out a chuckle as she tries to provoke the younger captain. She pauses, before deciding against it, and walking away back to her team with one last comment. "You're pathetic, Lauren."
The captain rejoins her own team to encourage Normani before the match starts, rubbing at her neck in an attempt to calm herself. Dinah pops up behind her momentarily, leaning down to whisper into her captain's ear after having heard the heated exchange with her superhuman hearing.
"You know, I could probably throw her-"
"It's okay, DJ," the older girl laughs, tilting her head to nuzzle her teammate affectionately. "Thanks for looking out for me, though."
"Camila, what do you say we have a quick go at it after these two?" Becky, one of Noah's teammates asks, quirking an eyebrow playfully at the pyrokinetic.
The brunette grins widely, nodding as she begins to clap for Normani's fight as well. "You're on, Gomez!"
Long story short, Normani manages to turn Jesy into her grandmother, which makes her cringe as she kicks her to the ground, but she wins the fight anyways. Having gotten a few good licks in herself, Jesy accepts the loss graciously and gives the girl a tight hug as a peace treaty. Afterwards, Camila ends up with a black eye and Normani has to use her powers quickly to heal up the Latina girl from the other team. But they have a blast doing it, and by the end of the round, Camila's learned quite a bit about how to properly dodge a punch.
"It was exhilarating," the brunette gushes, as her and Lauren head back upstairs for another hour or two of sleep. "It's nothing like how we train, not even the simulators are like this. It's fast, it's unpredictable, it's real and it feels real."
"I'm glad you had a good time. The way Perrie was glaring over at Dinah, I think DJ might get challenged tomorrow," the captain chuckles locking the door behind them as they strip down out of their warmups.
"Can you blame her?" Camila questions excitedly, peeling off the black uniform and slipping into her sweatshirt and shorts. "Dinah's broken a bunch of Perrie's records, and pretty much stole her best friend away from her."
Lauren shrugs in agreement, before truly examining the extend of Camila's injury. She lets out a soft laugh, staring straight at the angry purple mark as she pulls on her leggings and tshirt. "God, Cupcake that shiner looks nasty."
"Really?" Camila replies, turning to examine the mark in the mirror of their closet door. She softly pokes at it, letting out a quiet gasp before breaking out into a huge grin and throwing herself into her bed. She doesn't say a single word about it, but when Lauren notices she still has the covers down, she realizes that Camila is sending her an indirect invitation to come share body heat. The captain doesn't waist a single moment slipping into the bed, assuming the same position as a couple hours earlier and humming against Camila's skin.
"Mhm. Looks pretty rough," the older girl murmurs, wrapping her arms around her roommate's waist and closing her eyes as she lets the delicious warmth from the girl's body seep into her bones.
"I think it looks kind of hot, actually," Camila admits, smiling sheepishly as she uses her free hand to reach up and poke at it. She's definitely not as tired as Lauren, despite having fought, which leads her to believe the adrenaline must still be pumping through her body. "It makes me feel tough."
The captain yawns groggily against Camila's neck, turning her head to rest her cheek along the side of it, feeling the girl's pulse beat softly against her face. Her voice is a mumble, her lips brushing against the younger girl's skin with a playful grin. "I mean, yeah, there's that too, but it's not like I was going to say anything."
Camila simply shakes her head and nestles herself farther under the covers, fighting the smile on her lips as she relaxes into the embrace and lets herself drift to sleep.
They don't talk about sleeping together.
They sort of just exist together like normal, going through their usual morning routine without a single mention of the fact that they had woken up in the same bed, with Lauren's arms keeping Camila pulled close and the two enjoying what could possibly be the best sleep they've collectively ever had.
Normani now walks with a new sense of confidence, even going so far as to pair up with Jesy during a research assignment in 6th period. Any animosity between the girls has completely disappeared after their fight last night, and Lauren is starting to think it's the best idea someone around has had in a very long time.
Camila and Dinah are excessively giddy the entire day through, both girls obviously excited to head back at night and fight someone new. Considering they've fought against holograms and bags full of fluff, it's probably an exciting change of pace for Dinah especially, who is just aching to get in that ring.
Ally agrees to come again only support, refusing to partake in any actual fighting. Lauren is about to object, until she learns a crucial bit of information about her teammate at one of her usual captain's meetings with Jojo.
"Ally's average accuracy has increased. Has she been watching any violent movies lately? Maybe seen you guys play a violent video game?" The trainer asks, popping a massive bubble with the bright pink wad of chewing gum in her mouth.
"Um, no, not that I know of. What kind of a question is that?" The captain responds, tilting her head curiously.
"Your empath is a visual learner. While the rest of your team tend to do better with a hands-on approach, Allyson actually learns best when she gets to observe. She just has a different learning style than the rest of you."
She texts the other three, after that meeting, and makes each of them promise not to give Ally any shit for just watching on the sidelines.
Tuesday night/Wednesday morning rolls around, and just when Camila's black eye is starting to fade, a well-timed kick with a leg made out of stone bruises up the socket all over again. Jade apologizes several times (that is, when Camila finally regains consciousness) but the pyrokinetic just laughs, begging her to stop apologizing because "that was the fucking coolest thing you've ever done, JJ."
(Lauren is starting to think Camila might have a bit of a masochistic side, but then she remembers that Camila's just a weirdo in general and being a masochist is pretty much nothing to worry about.)
Dinah and Perrie go at it as well, as predicted, and the fight lasts a solid half hour. It was essentially the collision of an unstoppable force and an immovable object. Perrie has a special form of regeneration that allows for her to never get tired, and when pinned against a massive 5'8 beast, she dodged practically every attack with grace and ease. Lauren ends up having to call a draw, but both girls seem satisfied with their match and even go so far as to shake hands with smiles once the fight comes to an end.
(Lauren doesn't miss the way Normani has to tear her gaze away, her hungry eyes never once having left Dinah's figure throughout the entirety of the fight.)
By the time they're done with class on Wednesday, Camila and Lauren are heading to the Colosseum after a quick lunch before practice, throwing around the idea of attending a concert with the girls sometime, when a certain goofy agent pops back up in their lives.
"Woah, what happened to your face?" He asks, standing directly in their way and motioning curiously to Camila's bruising eye.
"Got hit by a training dummy," Camila lies smoothly, quirking an eyebrow as she looks at the agent. She's not at all unhappy to see him. If anything, she wants to kiss up as much as possible to try and get a shot at working for HQ. "What are you doing here, Agent O'Brien?"
"The big guys at Headquarters are investigating this Cara character," he tells them, tucking his hands into the pockets of his pants. "She's dangerous-"
"Yeah, no shit, Sherlock," Lauren hisses aggressively, rolling her eyes at the taller man.
He gives her an apologetic shrug, knowing her capabilities would have extended to being able to help prevent this mess in the first place. "Well, I'm researching and being put as extra security."
"What the hell do you even do?" Lauren asks curiously, glancing over his scrawny figure in slight disbelief.
He doesn't seem to notice the stare, and if he does, he ignores it before replying with an excited grin. "I'm referred to as a decryptor. I recognize patterns more easily than most people. Things like heart rate, habits, computer codes- if it repeats, I'll figure it out."
"And how's that supposed to keep us safe?" Camila questions, crossing her arms over her chest with a hesitant chuckle.
"I'm coordinating the guard shifts. That way, everyone will be protected thanks to an efficient defense program. This campus has one of the most brilliant research teams in the world, I'm here to work with them and try to see if Cara's works go back or have some sort of method."
Lauren nods vigorously, giving him a strong pat on the back. "You're damn right about the brilliant part, my girlfriend's on that team."
And yeah, her heart drops just a little when she mentions the girlfriend part, because at the moment, said girlfriend is ignoring every single text, phone call, and video chat request Lauren sends her way. She knows she should probably go talk to Tori in person to get this all straightened out, and that's probably the reason why Tori has been giving her the cold shoulder, but since she's losing 2-3 hours of sleep for fighting, she's spending all her free time napping.
"The blonde one? Tori? Oh, you're a lucky girl," the man grins, waving a finger in Lauren's face playfully. "I met her this morning, she's beyond extraordinary."
Camila, who is not as obsessed with the physician as the other two are, rolls her eyes at the mention of the girl's name and grabs onto Lauren's arm, trying to pull her away back towards the Colosseum. "We'll see you around then, Agent O'Brien!"
"Guys, it's totally cool for you to just call me Dylan," he informs them, calling out with a friendly wave as the pair go back on their way to practice.
Lauren lets out a quiet groan, pinching the bridge of her nose. "So I guess we have to make sure he doesn't figure out our little fight club?"
"You got it."
It's Lauren's turn to fight that night, after all the stress of her relationship crumbling and the missing girl who could have been saved, she's sort of grateful that Harry's teammate offers to help her blow off some steam.
Her name is Celine Polenghi, and she's got this ability known as psychometry. Apparently, just by touching an object, she can immediately learn as much of it's history as she wants. It's similar to Ally's ability but slightly less invasive, and Lauren think's it's super cool.
(Or at least, it's cool before she taps Lauren on the hip and now has possession of each and every weakness and pressure point on her body.)
Her teammates all cheer her on despite the fact that she's obviously getting her ass handed to her on a silver platter with every punch, kick, and smack from the bowstaff. The blue-haired girl is minding her own business, trying to send encouraging words to her teammate, before a gentle tap on her shoulder snaps her attention away from her captain.
"Normani?"
She smiles as she recognizes the playful green eyes and the deep, slow tone of the unintentionally goofy captain of Celine's team. "Oh, hey Harry."
"Listen," he starts off, keeping a polite amount of distance between us to let her feel comfortable, "I know we haven't talked much before this, so I thought now would be a good time."
"We have two classes together. I think talking is a good step to take," she chuckles, which leads the boy to grin for a moment, before he purses his lips and lowers his voice apologetically.
"I'm sorry about everything with Brad."
"Oh, don't be sorry," she tells him, with a dismissive wave of the hand. She smiles, flattered with the boy's concern. "I'll be okay."
"The girls and I just wanted to let you know that you're free to come hit us up any time," he informs her, with a genuine kindness glowing in those soft eyes of his. "You and Celine have hand-to-hand together, we have our classes with Sydney. I know you have your team, but just know you've got a few other friends if you need them."
Any of Normani's hesitancy is immediately replaced by a sense of appreciation for the team's collective kind gesture. "That's so nice of you guys," she gushes, leaning in for a quick hug. The boy gives her a modest squeeze back, letting out a chuckle. "Thanks so much, Harry."
And then they both turn to watch Lauren officially tap out to a smiling Celine.
As the week progresses, it gets more and more difficult to hide the fight club from others. Younger students will ask curiously about their injuries. Normani offers to heal them up, but some people are stubborn and see them as enigmas of honor. People are getting more aggressive, letting off more steam through their little illegal activity. Ally disapproves at the increased lack of safety, but every trainer has noticed an immense improvement in their trainees, so the fight club continues.
Nobody seems to acknowledge how dangerous this truly can be until they reach Friday night, when reigning champion Leigh-Anne Pinnock goes head to head with Camila Cabello.
Lauren, who has just finished kicking Noah's ass in a thrilling round of combat, starts to get nervous as she truly acknowledges the extent of Leigh-Anne's ability. The girl, who can control stone, has her fists and feet made out of the solid material. With every kick or punch that Camila narrowly misses, Lauren can feel her heart thudding against her ribs.
Camila sends a bombardment of fireballs at the girl, who manages to dodge them by bringing up a makeshift shield of rocks from the ground. Camila, who is getting cornered at the end of the ring, lets out a groan and steps backwards, unwilling to lose the match.
"Cabello, step back in the boundaries," Liam tells her sternly, watching as the girl's feet hit the pebbly shore of the lake as she continues backpedaling.
"I know, I'm cheating-"
"Let her!" Leigh-Anne encourages, waving her hand dismissively at Liam. She steps forward for ever step back Camila takes, dodging the flaming fists that come her way. "In real life, people aren't going to stay inside a boundary. That's why we're training, right?"
Camila smiles appreciatively at her opponent before increasing her speed, jumping back even faster as her fists move to send fireball after fireball.
As soon as Camila steps onto wood, Ally seems to know that this will not end well. "Guys, be careful with the dock," the girl warns loudly.
The pyrokinetic simply nods, probably not even having heard the girl's advice, and keeps up her barrage of attacks on Leigh-Anne's shield of pebbles. Lauren can feel her muscles tense as the girl takes more steps back, quickly running out of room to back up. She seems to acknowledge this too late, and Leigh-Anne takes her moment of distraction to send the entire wall of stones straight at the girl, launching her backwards into the water.
Lauren lets out a horrific scream before she even realizes it.
"CAMILA!"
Before the younger girl's screams turn into gargles of water, Lauren is already bolting full-speed towards the water, kicking off her loose sneakers and tossing them behind herself. Leigh-Anne's wide eyes and frantic attempts at pulling the girl out with the pebbles drown out as soon as she sees the stones come back up empty, her teammate nowhere in sight.
The gorgeous part about her team is that she can feel the rest of Team 5 already bolting to the dock, ready to help save their teammate. Even as she dives into the frigid, murky depths, she can practically feel her teammates. Ally working to calm the frenzied crowd, Dinah waiting patiently to hear Lauren's cry for help, Normani waiting at the surface, ready to heal in case something extreme had happened to Camila.
Lauren knows it's all on her.
The water fills her lungs as if it were natural, the frigid liquid feeling just like a crisp morning breeze as she inhales sharply. Her body works without her even thinking, immediately diving deeper in search of the bubbles she knows will lead her down to Camila's sinking body.
She's counting. She knows Camila is panicked, and panicked people always drown quicker than calm people. This, paired with the fact that Camila can't swim, means Lauren has very little time to waste.
She slices through the water as soon as she spots the faint trail of bubbles, diving down even further into the depths to retrieve her unconscious teammate. She's a bit curious as to where all the creatures have gone, considering how many there were during her trial at the Breakers.
But the answer to that question finds her in a pair of horrifying yellow eyes, easily as big as her head, watching her intently as she swoops Camila up into her grasp.
She's never swam so fast in her life.
She launches out of the water and uses her body to shield Camila's as they crash against the shore, quickly turning the girl on her back as Lauren sits up on her knees.
"Fuck, c'mon, Princess," Lauren shrieks desperately, looking over the pale features of her usually vibrant roommate. "Don't do this to me..."
The collective silence of the group is enough to express the immense fear running through each and every one of them, right then and there. Realizing she needs to act fast, she snaps her head over at the bystanders, waving wildly to one on particular. "Grande, come do CPR on your girlfriend!"
The girl runs forward, falling to her knees in front of Camila's limp body and tossing her hands into the air. "I don't know how to! Can't Normani just fix her?!"
The blue-haired girl, who is standing back with the other three to give their teammate some space, shakes her head furiously, her fingers interlaced with Dinah's as they seek comfort in each other. "You can't transform someone if they're already dead, her organs are shutting down too fast for the virus to fix them."
Ally, who has been observing silently the entire time, steps forward and kneels next to Lauren, taking the girl's jaw in her hand and staring her dead in the eyes. "Just pull it out of her."
"What if I pull too much and dehydrate her? I could kill her," Lauren shrieks, feeling her breathing hasten and shallow as the fear of losing her teammate truly starts to set in.
Ally's gaze is intense, almost harsh, as she digs her nails into Lauren's cheek, motioning for her to mirror her breathing. Her tone is steely, something completely unfamiliar to hear from the girl's usually perky lips.
"Then be extra careful."
And then, with a harsh narrow of her eyes, Ally adds one last thing telepathically.
"I know you'll do anything to save her."
"Fuck," Lauren thinks to herself, although she's aware of how pointless it is, considering the fact that Ally is still holding onto her face. "She knows."
She can tell Ally wants to smile, knowing that Lauren has finally figured out the true extent of Ally's awareness, but they have a job to to, so she replies with three simple words.
"Yes, I do."
The rest blurs in Lauren's head, the way Ally leans back and watches the captain's hands move rhythmically above Camila's body. She doesn't want to think too hard, because she knows her body will do everything perfectly for her if she just doesn't overthink it, and she is definitely not willing to risk hurting her friend as she slowly draws the stream of water out of her lungs and through her mouth.
But her mind drifts to thoughts of Camila's lips, to how close she's been to kissing them before with her own. Watching the water emerge from them and the color returning as she draws out the water from her lungs. She wonders what it would have been like if she weren't gifted like this. If she would have had to touch Camila's lips with her own. She wonders-
And then she stops wondering, because Camila's breath returns to her in a gasp.
The girl starts coughing, trying her hardest to refill her lungs with the crisp night air. Everyone steps back, allowing her some room to warm herself up without the risk of hurting someone.
"Shit, Cupcake," Lauren laughs, collapsing onto her knees besides the girl. "You sank like a rock."
The girl's dark eyes go wide, her hands gripping onto the collar of the captain's warmups with a frenzied look. Her voice is hoarse from screaming underwater, coming out as a raspy shriek. "I saw it, oh my god Lauren, I saw it!"
"Okay," the captain replies, reaching out her hand to help support the weak girl as she tries to sit up. Her eyes trace over Camila's form intensely, examining each and every detail of the girl's face. "What did it look like?"
Ariana takes her hand, startling the girl a bit before she runs her thumb along the back of the girl's knuckles. "Camila, you must have hit your head, just like I did-"
This is the last straw for Lauren.
"God, Grande, just let your fucking girlfriend talk!" The girl finally snaps, raising her voice to the point that any nearby night guards could hear them if they passed close enough. "Listen to her for once in your damn life!"
"Oh, that's rich coming from you, Jauregui," Ariana retaliates, not wasting a single second before hurling insults right back at the captain. "Refusing to give your girlfriend the shred of confidence she deserves. Refusing to trust that she is a loyal, steadfast person, and letting your insecurities about being a shitty girlfriend project onto someone who's just a friend."
Lauren jumps to her feet, stepping around Camila so she can stand toe-to-toe with the older girl. She jabs a finger into the girl's chest. "You're in no position to be scrutinizing my relationship, Grande!"
"You know what, Captain?" Ariana hisses, narrowing her eyes as she shoves Lauren backwards towards the ring. "Let's settle this here and now."
"Guys-" Noah warns, glancing around nervously at the faces of pure shock.
"No, I'm more than happy to kick Ariana's ass if she's really that desperate for it," Lauren snaps, glaring at the girl with harsh steel eyes as she takes her side of the ring, hunching over into her defensive position. "This fight is long overdue anyways."
Ariana smirks and picks up a bowstaff, mirroring the girl's movements as she starts to bounce up and down on the balls of her feet. "I'm gonna destroy you, Fishcake."
Lauren lets out a roar of anger and charges head-on at the older girl, encasing her arms with ice to soften the repeated blows from the painful stick that Ariana repeatedly strikes her with. She recognizes the technique, the same one that Camila uses: fast, quick attacks with no opportunity to let the other person land a hit. But knowing this meant she also knew how to beat her: patience.
She takes the beating, wincing each time the stick makes contact with a rib or her knee when she isn't fast enough to dodge it. Ariana is relentless, obviously letting out months of pent up aggression in her unkind attacks. Everyone wants to intervene at first, but after watching the fight progress, they know they have to let the girls sort themselves out on their own.
And then Ariana hesitates for a split second, and Lauren takes her shot.
She's never used her foot to shoot ice, but there's a first for everything. She kicks up her foot, moving in a quick, harsh motion as the flying disk of solid water collides with the girl's chin and sends her flying backwards. Within seconds, Lauren is straddling her, pinning her down by the shoulder with one hand and using the other to deliver blow after blow after blow to the girl's perfect fucking face. She wants to destroy it, to finally get rid of that smirk once and for all, but every time Ariana's nose breaks out of place or her face starts to bruise, it's only moments before her body starts to fix itself and set everything back in place.
"Only my trainer gets to call me derogatory fish-themed nicknames!" The captain screams, landing another punch directly to the girl's face.
She doesn't care that Ariana keeps regenerating, because if that means she gets to keep punching her, that's just fine by her.
"Both of you, STOP."
Lauren feels the strong hands prying her away, shoving her several feet away from the body on the ground, who is struggling to catch her breath as she practically chokes on her own blood.
But Lauren doesn't care. She'll admit that she liked beating Ariana into a pulp. She'll even admit that she loved it. Because Lauren's enraged right now, and it's not going to get fixed with a few bloody knuckles. Her words flow like venom, spewing from her lips without a single moment to filter, consider, or process them.
"Oh yeah, Cupcake, I should probably let you know that your knight in shining armor is a complete piece of shit!" Lauren screams, turning to point to Ariana before facing her roommate. "She has the most incredible girl by her side and she still feels the need to go sneaking around with someone that's not hers."
The girl stands, frail and fragile, her giant doe-eyes staring at Lauren in disbelief. She shakes her head, furrowing her eyebrows as her voice comes out in a weak croak. "Ariana would never-"
"Oh, come on, Princess," the captain snaps, tossing her head back with a groan at the girl's naivety. "If she cheated with you, she sure as hell will cheat on you.
Celine comes up behind her, grabbing the girl's arm and yanking her towards her to whisper lowly into the girl's ear. "You need to leave, Jauregui. You're making a fool of yourself."
But Lauren doesn't care.
She turns to face her opponent, who has now managed to sit up with Zendaya's support. Her eyes are wide with complete and utter terror as she brings her hands up to try and stop the blood spewing from her nose, which has ruined her warmup and stains her hair, her mouth, chin, and almost all of her neck.
"Fuck you, Ariana," Lauren spits in disgust, narrowing her harsh gaze at the older girl before turning on her heel. Before she can get anywhere, she bumps into the person who had first grabbed her.
When Dinah Jane Hansen, of all people, is staring at her like she's a monster, Lauren looks down at her bloodstained hands, not a single spot of pale skin in sight. It's then she realizes that, wow, she really does care.
And then she runs.
She runs, and she tries not to think about the person she's just become and the things she just did. She leaves her shoes there, she's got a million other Vans in her closet, and honestly, she doesn't want to spend a minute longer around those people.
She stays in the shower for what feels like forever, so in shock she can't even manage to cry. She just sits there, leaning her head against the cool tile of the wall as she watches the reddish water pool at her feet and then disappear down the drain.
She steps out, changes into her pijamas, and slumps into her bed, her body going numb as a sickening realization comes over her.
Did she just try to kill someone?
There's a quiet knock on the door, before it creaks open slowly to reveal a very timid-looking Camila stepping into the room. "Lauren, I'm back."
The captain is so mentally exhausted she can't even be bothered to say "hello", instead just immediately going forward to speak her mind. "Why are you even with her, Camz? God, she's just so-"
"Considerate? Stable? Thoughtful? Charming?" Camila finishes aggressively, crossing her arms over her chest as sshe narrows her dark gaze at the captain irritatedly. "Have you ever stopped to think that maybe, just maybe, there's a side to her that you don't get to see that is actually not all that bad?"
Lauren clenches her jaw, letting out a tiny sigh. "I just don't want to see you get hurt."
"You're the last person who can be talking about cheating, you hypocrite," Camila scoffs, laughing humorlessly as she rolls her eyes and heads over to grab a few things from her dresser.
"What?" Lauren asks in confusion, arching an eyebrow at the girl.
Camila throws her hands in the air, glaring at the captain with as much irritation as she can muster in her gaze and her voice. "You tried to seduce me!"
"And it worked! But that was strictly a joke, I just wanted to see how many of your buttons I could push," Lauren explains, holding her hands up defensively.
Camila laughs in disbelief, moving closer so she can lower her voice. "You told me I deserved to get fucked against a wall. That's not feeling very platonic to me."
"It was a joke," the older girl repeats more harshly, clinging to her justification for dear life.
Camila's jaw hardens as she stuffs her clothes angrily into her backpack, laughing caustically at the captain before turning her back on her."You're a fucking joke, Lauren."
"I don't get why you're so pissy about this, Princess-"
"Listen, I would be okay with it if you weren't such a massive hypocrite about it," Camila instantly responds, surprisingly vulnerable as her voice softens for the next part. "But you're messing with everybody's head, and you're going to end up hurting someone."
"You can talk to me when you decide to be congruent," Camila hisses, tossing her bag over her shoulder and heading into the bathroom to retrieve some things. "I'm not in the mood to be involved with such a destructive person."
"What the hell does that mean, be involved?" Lauren demands, now fully sitting up in her bed as she tries to figure out what the hell Camila actually means. "You're already involved with me, we're roommates. We're teammates."
The younger girl pauses after Lauren speaks, taking a moment to toss her head back and stare at the ceiling with an impossibly irritated laugh of disbelief.
"You're such a clueless, completely unbelievable person. God, I hate you," Camila spits, and yeah, that one definitely hurts. "Go confuse someone else, I'm done."
Needless to say, Camila sleeps at Ariana's dorm that night.
But yeah, Lauren still sleeps in Camila's bed.
She hopes that when she wakes up, it'll just feel like Camila is in the bathroom or already downstairs, like the girl had woken up earlier than she had and gotten out of bed first. She hopes it won't feel like she's just ruined whatever she may have had with someone she cares about way more than she'd like to admit.
The next day, she wakes up early to an empty room, and it hurts just as badly as she thought it would. But her head is clearer now, and she knows the first thing she has to do after quickly scarfing down her breakfast and changing out of her pajamas.
As she walks across the nearly empty quad, nodding at a few of the security guards she passes by. She can't help but feel completely guilty for not having done this before, but the events and words exchanged from last night seriously affected the poor captain.
She moves through Kelly Hall and gets to the lab before she hears laughing from outside the door. She peeks in through the window and spots her girlfriend (cute as ever) and Dylan, giggling their heads off after something they had said. Lauren knocks once, then twice, before turning the door handle and stepping inside.
Both smiles immediately fade as soon as they trail up to meet the forest green gaze of the younger girl. Dylan clears his throat and stands up, dusting his hands off on his pants as he gives both Lauren and Tori a quick wave. "I guess I'll be going, I'll see you guys around."
As soon as they hear the click of the door behind them, Lauren turns to truly take in her girlfriend's appearance for the first time in a week. The girl looks tired, her messy curls pinned into a bun and held back by a bandana, her eyes dull and with faint, puffy bags underneath from when she had been crying. The leggings and sneakers are nothing new, but the sweatshirt is what kills Lauren. The sweatshirt belongs to Jojo, since she's worn it to practices before and Tori doesn't have any of her own, and Lauren can't help but feel horrible knowing her girlfriend refused to even wear her clothes while she was mad at her.
Did she really mess up that badly?
So she starts slow, taking a cautious step towards her girlfriend with a sharp inhale. "Tori-"
"She's having a graduation party soon," the blonde immediately responds, tearing her gaze away to focus down at her lap as she plays absentmindedly with her fingers. Her voice is soft, but honest, and even if she is avoiding Lauren's stare, she can feel just how warm those big brown eyes are. "She wanted my help in picking out a gift for Camila. I couldn't tell you because you'd probably tell her. But I care about you too much to let you think that I wanted anyone else."
Lauren clamps down on her bottom lip, shaking her head in disappointment for how absolutely horribly she had been acting. Overwhelmed with the need to hold her girlfriend, Lauren throws away all hesitancy and takes quickened steps towards her. Tori glances up and meets Lauren's enthusiasm with her own, teleporting from her seat until she's standing right in front of Lauren. They crash into each other, the younger girl's arms pulling her girlfriend's body into a desperate hug as the girl hides her face in the crook of her neck.
"I'm so sorry for overreacting," Lauren murmurs into her ear, her fingernails clutching at every square inch of the physician's back as she squeezes her even closer.
Tori lets out a faint laugh, sniffling a bit as she plants frantic kisses onto the pale skin of her girlfriend's shoulder before leaning back. She cups Lauren's face with both hands, her pools of gentle mahogany tracing over every feature of the captain's face with a tiny smile. "It's okay. I just don't want you being mad at me any more."
"I'm not mad, I'm so sorry," the brunette repeats, shaking her head as she leans in hungrily to bridge the gap between their lips.
The way they kiss is gentle, with an edge of ferocity and desperation that makes Lauren feel even more guilty for blowing the whole situation out of proportion. Soft hands snake around her neck, stroking softly at her nape as Lauren's hands work their way around the blonde's hips to pull her even closer.
"I forgive you," Tori manages to giggle out, in between smiling kisses. She pulls away, not particularly in the mood to make out in the middle of her lab, but Lauren doesn't care as long as she's at least with Tori.
"Well, anyways," the girl continues, pulling away to zap over to one of the tables, "I'm having issues because now I'm working completely on my own."
Lauren's eyes light up at the mere mention of her girlfriend's struggles. It's not much, but she knows exactly the kind gesture she wants to make. She motions for Tori to stay in her spot as she practically runs out the door with a massive grin. "Wait here. I'm going to start making up for how horribly I acted."
The giggles of two girls and the nervous mumblings of one other can be heard as Lauren enters the room, her eyes locking down on the tailor sitting at his workbench with a focused glare at his sewing machine.
Lauren doesn't even open with a greeting, deciding to get straight to the point instead as she rushes towards the man. "Louis, I know you love each of your girls dearly, but I-"
"If you're here because of Bea, I know," he answers easily, glancing over his shoulder at the back room with a sigh. He pulls his glasses onto the top of his head, looking back over at Lauren. "Designing suits is fun for her, but it's not her passion. She's just so shy and so timid, she got used to it here. It scared me to think of letting her go. But there's this team that's been inspiring her, a team that's been telling her to follow her dreams and not be so afraid."
He winks at Lauren, watching as the girl's heart practically swells out of her chest at the kind words, before sighing once more and clapping his hands on his thighs. "I'm gonna miss that kid. But at the end of the day, I want to do what's best for her."
And it's a few minutes later when the captain is holding the door open for a tiny wide-eyed blonde, who has a hand clamped over her mouth as she tries mot to cry right then and there. Lauren clears her throat, catching her girlfriend's attention as she enters the room with the tailor's former assistant.
"Tori, this is Bea. Bea, meet Tori."
"It's an honor to be here," the girl shrieks, shaking Tori's hand vigorously the moment she zaps over and holds it out to her. "I've admired you since the moment I got here, I've read all your work a million times!"
Tori sends an approving grin over to her girlfriend before smiling back down at the bubbly blonde. "Well aren't you the cutest thing? It's lovely to meet you, Bea, I'm glad you like my research. What can you do?"
"I've got a weird gift, but I'm talented with a microscope and with building things and I'm great with anatomy from the years of tailor-work!" The girl motions to the pair of glasses dangling from the collar of her shirt, plucking them with her dainty fingers and handing them over to the physician to try on. "I designed these glasses to help zoom in for some intricate work on the suits-"
"You designed this?" The eldest asks, eyes widening in surprise as she takes them off and hands them back to the younger girl.
Bea nods excitedly, taking them back from the taller girl. "And built it from scratch. It took a while, but I did it, and I'm proud of them."
"You have a right to be, those are incredible," Tori gushes, which only makes the tiny girl blush and grin even brighter. "Well Bea, I'll make sure you get your title transferred from stationary to researcher, okay?"
"Researcher?" Bea asks, quirking an eyebrow up at the older two girls in confusion.
"Oh, I didn't tell you?" Lauren grins. "Tori's kind of looking for a research assistant, and you fit that role like a glove."
"I've always wanted a protege," the physician nods happily. Bea lets out a squeal of excitement, clamping the two taller girls into a tight group hug. She bolts out of the room, whipping out her pager from her pocket.
"Diamond and Carly are never going to believe this!"
The couple laugh and watch as the girl sprints down the hall, holding the device to her ear with a smile so wide, their own cheeks hurt just from watching.
Tori smiles and turns her head to face her girlfriend, speaking softly to catch her attention. "Lauren."
"Yeah?"
Tori doesn't hesitate, or even seem nervous before licking her lips and softly letting out three very important words.
"I love you."
Lauren can feel her face fall, the smile fading as she tries to figure out how to respond. "Tori..."
"I'm not expecting you to say it back," the older girl informs her, with a playful grin as she steps back to lean against one of her workbenches. "But I wanted you to know exactly how I feel."
"It's been 2 months," Lauren murmurs, as if it's an excuse or a reason to make Tori's words any less meaningful.
"I know," she answers softly. "And they've been the happiest two months I've had in a very long time, even if it hasn't been entirely smooth sailing."
She pauses to let Lauren have some time to process, biting her lip as she gives her girlfriend a feeble smile.
"Promise me we're okay?"
Lauren knows she can't keep letting things get ignored, as if there aren't serious things they need to point out. But she smiles back softly, nodding her head once. "I think we're gonna have to sit down and talk some things through. But we're okay."
Tori leans in to press a soft kiss to Lauren's cheek, her hands gently pushing her towards the door. "Now go fix things with everyone else."
Lauren furrows her eyebrows, allowing herself to get pushed back. "Did Ariana tell you?"
"I can tell when things are wrong too, you know?" Tori chuckles. She nods her head towards the exit. "Go. You've done your part here, I've said what I've had to. I'll see you another time."
So she goes to practice, and even then, her teammate refuses to even acknowledge her existence. They're practically back to square one, and even having Dinah treating her weirdly hurts like hell. No matter how many times Normani manages to make her smile or Ally assures her it's okay, Lauren's miserable at practice, knowing she's royally fucked up when her own roommate refuses to walk home with her and instead retreats to Jade's dorm for the time being. Lauren spends the rest of the day in the gym, beating on a training dummy on her own as Dinah opts to lift weights somewhere else. She's a pariah, exiled from society, and all because she got jealous and let it get the best of her.
She keeps her gaze down as she exits the gym several hours later, refusing to meet the nervous stares of Noah's team training there who had witnessed Lauren's meltdown the night before. She decides to start with the important people first, knowing she'll be much more ready to fix her public image when she gets her private life in check.
The entire "knock before you enter" rule hasn't really been a problem lately, so when Lauren bursts through the door, it doesn't give the younger girl enough time to shove the book under her pillow.
"Camila-"
And then the pair of emeralds catch sight of the bent-out copy of The Alchemist in Camila's fingers, recognizing the copy immediately, even as the younger girl hurries to shove it under her covers. She gets up from her bed, shaking her head furiously as she tries to walk past Lauren, completely avoiding her gaze.
"Oh no, I'm not dealing with you right now," the girl hisses, before Lauren groans and steps in front of her to keep her from leaving.
"Fucking hell, Camz, just hear me out."
Camila's hard mahogany eyes flicker up at glare at Lauren, popping her waist out impatiently as she places one of her hands onto her own hip and lets out an irritated huff. Knowing her time is limited, Lauren nods appreciatively and starts her monologue immediately.
"I want to be friends. I'll stop with the inapropriate things, the teasing, the joking, I'll stop touching you all together if that's what it takes. But I figured we're better together than we are separate. I can't stand the idea of you being mad at me like this all the time. I want you in my life and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish that."
Camila looks visibly conflicted, chewing on the soft pink flesh of her lip as she processes the proper response. Lauren watches her nervously, hoping she hasn't ruined their friendship to the point of no repair.
But then Camila lets out a groan, and the smile hinting at her lips fills Lauren with one of the most beautiful feelings in the world: hope.
"Everyone is right. We are good together," Camila sighs disappointedly, but a playful twinkle dances in her eyes as the words leave her mouth. "And when you're not being a dick, I actually don't hate spending time with you."
Lauren lets out an exhale of relief, unable to stop smiling as she heads over to stand in the doorway of their bathroom. "Alright then, are we good?"
"We're good," Camila confirms happily, tossing herself back into her bed with a grin as she pulls out her book.
By the time Lauren is out of the shower, the lights have already been turned off, their window wide open and a frosty breeze blowing through their room. She works desperately to warm the moisture around her, trying to keep herself warm as she heads over to grab a quick glass of water.
"You don't have to sing to me, tonight," Camila informs her, sitting calmly in her bed with a curious quirk of the eyebrow as she watches Lauren shiver helplessly. "Plus, I'm not going to the fight club."
"Wait, why?" The older girl asks, before downing the contents of the cup in one smooth gulp.
Camila slides over discreetly, keeping her tone nonchalant as her eyes flicker over to the now empty right side of her bed. She coughs, trying to play off the subtle movements. "It's going to be cold tonight, I'm not in the mood to go. Plus, I'm just feeling so much chillier than usual, I think I need to warm up."
Lauren instantly realizes what Camila is trying to do, but before she goes with her instinct of making fun of the girl relentlessly, she decides she wants to use this upper hand to her advantage. She turns away to set the glass back onto the counter, using her body to shield the grin threatening to split her cheeks open. She keeps her tone even, as if she's just having a normal conversation.
"Then close the window."
She can practically hear Camila's face fall into a pout. "But the moon is so pretty."
"Then just pull up the blinds."
"God dammit, Lauren," the pyrokinetic finally snaps, furrowing her eyebrows as the older girl simply starts laughing. "I'm trying to get us back into our little habit without being obvious."
Lauren turns on her heel and takes a few bounds forward before launching herself into Camila's bed, landing next to the girl with a thud. The younger girl grins happily, tossing the sheets over the captain's shoulder, smiling happily up at her as the two turn on their sides to face each other head-on, leaving a modest amount of space between their bodies.
"So I get a body warmer and you get a nightmare repellant. This is totally fair," Lauren jokes, her body already starting to tingle just by staring into the warm orbs staring right back at her, big and wide with a soft twinkle that makes Lauren hate herself for ever causing any drama between them.
"It is," Camila agrees, wrinkling her nose with a playful grin as Lauren simply rolls her eyes.
"I wanna be the big spoon," the older girl announces, her body already aching to wrap the smaller girl up in her arms and never let go.
"We're not spooning," Camila corrects her, with a mock-serious tone and a furrow of her eyebrows that just makes Lauren smile even wider. "This is cooperative resting formation."
The older girl shakes her head as she lets out a laugh, unable to resist the distance and lack of warmth any longer. "Shut up and turn around."
Camila grins and does as she's told, and within seconds, the two are bundled up together with no space between them, Lauren's nose nuzzling softly into Camila's shoulder and inhaling the comforting scent of vanilla and cinnamon. The younger girl lets out a content sigh and lets her eyelids droop shut, leaning into the touch. She smiles hazily, her words coming out softly as she places her own hands over the captain's.
"Good night, Lauren."
The older girl smiles into the pyrokinetic's skin, pulling the girl as close as she can get her with her hands resting protectively on the girl's stomach.
"Good night, Princess."
The moment she drifts to sleep, Lauren knows something is up, and it's something not good at all. Lauren doesn't dream, and she hasn't since the second grade, so when a single blonde figure appears fuzzily in her sight, she feels her body tense.
"Hello again, Lauren!" The girl greets, waving happily over at the captain standing so far away from her.
The brunette is frozen in place, completely unable to move in this strange dream world. She hisses at the smirking villain, wasting no time in asking the questions that had been plaguing her for the past week.
"What the hell did you do to me, last time?" The captain shrieks, watching as Cara easily manages to stride towards her, playful as ever.
"I'm a Conduit, dear, one of only a handful left on this planet," the blonde answers easily with a grin that's much too calm for the situation. "We all come from a special lineage, a tree that is dying out and needs to end with me."
"A Conduit?" Lauren repeats, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion at the new term, which is clumsy and unfamiliar to her lips.
"Why, I sucked an exact duplication of your powers right out of your body! I thought it'd be obvious?" Cara questions, arching a thick eyebrow at the captain. She pauses, before coming up with a satisfactory analogy to give the girl a quick explanation. "You know how, as a kid, when you'd play superheroes and you picked the power to absorb all other powers?" She snaps her fingers. "Exactly."
"How did you find me at the bookstore?"
Cara gives a cocky, lobsided smirk as she starts to play with her nails. "You're not the only one with a clairvoyant, Lauren."
"I won't be bothering you again," the blonde continues, tucking her hands behind her back as she continues to stroll towards Lauren. "This gentleman, what a kind soul. He can enter dreams, he was kind enough to let me use his ability to get in contact with you."
Within seconds, Cara is there, gripping Lauren's face in one hand and digging her nails into the girl's jaw as she stares her straight in the eyes. Lauren can feel everything, from the pressure of the girl's nails to the harsh gaze scaring the scap out of her with it's unwavering focus and painfully sharp intensity.
"I can find mutants anywhere, Lauren," Cara tells her, lowering her voice into a low, bone-chilling murmur. "If you don't listen, I'll find a way to do terrible, terrible things. I will always be able to find you eventually."
But then she grins again, letting go of Lauren's face as she turns to run a hand through her silky blonde locks.
"Don't come looking for us," she tells her pleasantly, confirming Lauren's suspicions that Cara is absolutely insane. "We're going on a bit of a tour. Do some sight-seeing, you know, enjoy what the cities have to offer, kill off any other mutants. Millie will be okay, I promise." She winks. "Who knows, she might even like it here."
Lauren simply spits in Cara's direction, the rest of her body still frozen in place. The blonde watches the saliva launch towards her but stop a few feet short of her shoes. She seems entirely unaffected by the gesture, looking up to tilt her head at Lauren curiously.
"Have you told Dinah we say hi yet?"
Lauren snorts, clenching her jaw as she tries to will the rest of her body into moving. "Hearing from you would send her into a spiral."
"Huh. How considerate of you," Cara nods, pursing her lips as she glances over Lauren's features one last time. "Well then, give her our best regards in less explicit terms, in that case."
She turns on her heel, adding one last thing over her shoulder with that sickening grin. "Enjoy your night, Lauren."
She wakes up with a sputtering gasp, digging her nails sharply into the soft skin of Camila's stomach out of pure reaction. It isn't until the smaller girl lets out a soft whimper and nuzzles back farther into Lauren's grip that the captain realizes she's safe, that nobody is actually hurting her, and that she has her teammate by her side to confirm how real this is.
Cara is not here. She chants to herself. Cara is not here.
So she plants a gentle kiss to the back of the sleeping girl's neck and molds their bodies together even closer, slipping off into a calm sleep after a few moments of melting into Camila's soft, secure embrace.
Cara is not here. She repeats. Cara is not here.
None of Team 5 is really too eager to return to the fight club after the occurrences of the night before, and the unspoken banishment of their team captain leads to a general feeling of unwelcomeness from the other teams. So when Normani's pager buzzes at her in the middle of the night (didn't she set it to silent?), she's not really all that excited at what the news might be.
But after her eyes adjust to the bright light of the screen, the sender of the message brings an instant smile to her lips.
Dinah: Normani.
Normani: yes that is my name
Dinah: Are you awake?
Normani: no im sleep texting
Dinah: I can't detect sarcasm over message.
Dinah: Maybe you should open the window?
And yeah, it's kind of precious to see Dinah's goofy grin through the cracks in the curtain, smiling happily as she makes eye contact with her teammate. She quietly gets up from her bed, trying to keep from waking the blisfully unconscious older girl in the room. She slides open the window just a crack, smiling back up at Dinah as the girl uses her claws to cling to the frame of the window and keep herself up.
"What's up, Furball?" Normani whispers, quirking a playful eyebrow up at her friend.
"I miss fighting at night. It gets lonely being awake for so long, it was nice having some people to join me," Dinah pouts, furrowin her eyebrows together as she keeps her voice just as low. Her gaze softens, those big puppy eyes just melting through Normani's heart without even trying. "I started thinking about you."
The older girl feels her smile multiply in size as she crosses her arms over her chest, trying to fight off the chill running through her body from the cool outside wind. "And?"
"I'm not sure what more to add. I just wanted to talk to you," Dinah admits, giving a sheepish shrug before glancing upwards. She looks back over at her teammate, raising her eyebrows with a goofy, hopeful excitement. "Would you like to go howling again? I'll keep you warm, I promise."
"You're such a cuddle bug, DJ," Normani laughs, reaching her hand out the window to give the girl a loving caress on the cheek. She nods, glancing back over at her slumbering roommate. "I'll meet you on the roof in a few minutes. Let me get a jacket and my blanket."
The two lay together and sing to the moon for what feels like forever, simply basking in each other's presence and living without a single care in the world. Dinah ends up lying down with her head in Normani's lap, chattering animatedly, talking about anything and everything she can come up with. She talks about Lauren, how the girl's complete loss of humanity had scared the crap out of Dinah, how guilty she feels for having to give her some space like Ally had suggested. She talks about food, and about her body, to which Normani simply rolls her eyes and continues to play with the younger girl's hair, using one hand to prop her upper body up and the other to trace gentle circles into the hybrid's scalp. Dinah reacts with a quiet sigh every time Normani's nails rake against her scalp deliciously, letting her eyes flutter shut for a moment as she leans into the touch. The older girl is ready to suggest going to sleep, until Dinah asks something that throws her completely off guard.
"Mani, what is love?"
Despite being around such eloquent people most of the time, Normani still finds a bit if difficulty expressing herself through words. She pauses, before letting the honest admittance leave her lips. "I don't know, DJ. What is love to you?"
The hybrid opens her eyes, although they do droop every time Normani drags her fingertips just right. She stares up at the dark sky, watching as her breath turns to vapor after opening her mouth. She takes a moment to choose her words wisely.
"Love is the way Tori looks at Lauren."
Considering the fact that Dinah couldn't tell happiness from sadness just a few months ago, Normani is beyond impressed by the accurate description of the particularly complex emotion. "Very good, Dinah."
But the girl isn't done yet, closing her eyes as she thinks a little harder about the definition she's given.
"It's also the way Lauren looks at Camila."
Normani's eyes widen, not quite sure how to reply to the girl. But the more thought she gave it, the more she realized the fact that Dinah wasn't actually wrong.
But then the younger girl smiles, leaning her head into Normani's hand again as her fingernails rake against her scalp particularly pleasurably. Her voice comes out as a murmur, as she tries to push harder in encouragement for Normani to scratch again, just like she had done before.
"And it's especially the way Camila looks back when Lauren's not paying attention."
Realizing that her hands are working as encouragement, Normani sits up a little straighter to tangle both hands into Dinah's hair, hoping to get the girl to elaborate a bit more on her interesting responses. The hybrid lets out a muffled moan as Normani starts to massage the girl's skull gently, clenching her fists with a grin of pure elation.
"There's different levels of love too. You can be in love with someone, you can just love someone, you can have feelings for them, you can like them."
"So when you start to have feelings for someone-" Normani starts, curious to see if Dinah actually grasps and understands such a complex human concept.
"That's when you know that this person is special," the younger girl finishes easily, turning to press her ear against the older girl's thigh, using her leg as a pillow. Her smile starts to fade, as she opens her eyes and eventually lets out a hesitant sigh.
"Mani, I have to tell you something."
"I'm all ears," the older girl encourages, stroking her thumb gently against the hybrids cheek and letting the other one softly trace over the girl's exposed earlobe.
"Mila says important confessions like this can destroy friendships, so you need to promise me that nothing will change," the younger girl warns, suddenly sitting up with the most serious expression Normani has seen on that face in a very long time. It takes her a moment to find her words, after her brain slowly starts to process just what is going on.
"I promise, DJ," the blue-haired girl croaks, finally putting all the pieces together. The cuddles, the howling, the questions, the friendship in general, everything is starting to make sense to Normani as she slowly starts to figure out how the conversation might just go.
The hybrid looks down at her hands, twiddling her thumbs nervously like she knows Zendaya does out of pure habit. She bites her lip (learned from Camila) and leans in the slightest bit, lowering her voice into a soft, vulnerable whisper. "Mani, I don't know how to say something like this, I'm not even sure where I'm supposed to start."
"Just, go ahead and say it. Don't be be nervous, just..." The girl encourages, until the proximity of the big brown eyes makes her realize just how close they are, the way Dinah's warm breath gently brushes against her cheeks as she stares at her with the utmost intensity in her eyes. Normani completely loses any train of thought, shaking her head as she allows her body to just move in even closer, desperation evident in her voice. "Dinah, I-"
But before she can get anywhere, the hybrid has already taken the girl's advice and lets out a quiet whisper, which, to Normani, might as well be gunshots right besides her ear as her heart sinks with each word that leave's the hybrid's lips.
"I think I have feelings for Ally."