Ariana is essentially the ideal girlfriend. Camila will definitely give her that. Generous, funny, affectionate. They get along well, it works, and it's good. What they have is good.
One thing Camila cannot stand about her girlfriend (a quality she didn't notice until Lauren came along), is that Ariana is also incredibly passive. If Camila wants to start a debate, the older girl will simply nod along and go with whatever the younger girl feels is necessary to say. If Camila says no, Ariana will go along with it immediately. Which is exactly why they never end up really talking about what they need to. If Camila doesn't want to, Ariana won't push her.
Camila wishes sometimes she'd push her.
"Maybe we should talk about what's been happening, like, between us," the older girl finally pipes up, threading her fingers through Camila's thick hair as they lay together in her bed, steadying out their ragged breathing.
Camila instantly tenses, feeling her jaw solidify into a hard line of muscle. She gets up from the bed, letting the sheets drop against the mattress over her girlfriend's figure. The younger girl shrugs, keeping her bare back to the older girl as she searches around for her clothes on the floor. "There's nothing to talk about. Nothing's been happening."
"You sure?" Ariana questions, with a hesitant lick of her lips as she leans over to fish something out of the drawer of her nightstand.
Camila nods repeatedly, punctuating her movement with a click of her teeth. "Positive."
After a few more minutes of rummaging, Ariana materializes a black, rectangular box and sits up in the bed, keeping the sheet wrapped up around her body as she holds out the box. "This is for you."
Camila gives Ariana a questioning look before taking the box, opening it up after a few moments of holding it in her hands. The diamond necklace twinkles up at her, suddenly making Camila feel incredibly guilty. "But graduation-"
"I know. Consider this an early gift. I love you, Camila," Ariana tells her, reaching up to affectionately caress the younger girl's hand with her own.
"Right back 'atcha," the pyrokinetic replies hesitantly, flashing a smile to try and lighten the serious mood. Considering the status of their relationship, Camila really doesn't deserve half of the sweet things her girlfriend is doing for her right now. She bites her lip, trying desperately to change the topic. "Can we hang out today?"
Ariana frowns, letting out a soft groan as she stretches in the bed. "I promised I'd help Scott train some of his new recruits. I can cancel if you want-"
The younger girl shakes her head, forcing a smile to hide her disappointment. "No, don't worry about it. I know someone will be willing to hang out with me sooner or later."
"Be safe," Ariana pleads.
Camila nods softly in response. "I will."
She leaves with a quick peck to her girlfriend's cheek, tugging on one of her thick bomber jackets and hurriedly slipping on her sneakers as she searches through her contact list for her first choice of hang-out buddies. As soon as the phone stops ringing, Camila's eyebrows raise hopefully as she brings the pager to her ear and rushes down the stairs.
"Jade, my friend, do you want to do something?" She asks cheerfully, jumping down off the last three stairs to bolt outside.
"Oh, sorry, Mila!" The girl immediately apologizes, remorse evident even in her thick accent. "My team's being sent out to handle a case in Ohio, we leave tonight."
"No worries then. It's all good," Camila assures her, if not a bit dejectedly. She shakes her head, wandering aimlessly towards the middle of the quad. She uses her other hand to rub at the back of her neck, trying to sound as encouraging as possible. "Have fun, JJ."
"Thanks Mila, you too," Jade chimes back, and paired with that goofy accent, Camila can't help but find herself smiling as she hangs up. She instantly looks back down at the pager to find another potential distraction for the day.
"Z, my favorite giant, whatcha up to?" She asks playfully, as soon as her next attempt finally picks up.
"Austin, Noah, and I were about to go run on the track," Zendaya replies happily, the sound of a duffel bag zipping shut heard loudly in the background. "Do you want to join?"
"No thanks, I'm not exactly in an athletic mood," Camila replies, chewing on her bottom lip as she realizes that her options are dwindling down. "I appreciate the offer though."
"Are you sure?" The younger girl prods on.
"Yeah, Z, I'll be fine. Thanks for asking. Have fun with Mahone and Noah," Camila assures her, smiling down at the ground at her friend's obvious concern.
"Alright, Camila. Catch you later," Zendaya replies, and after a moment, Camila is left listening to the monotonous tone of a one-sided call. She drops her pager into her pocket, reaching up to start braiding her hair into a french braid. She lets her legs work on their own, mindlessly in search of an activity of some sort. She sighs to herself as soon as she finishes her braid, cracking a few joints in her neck.
"I guess I'll just do my own thing."
-
Meanwhile, as Camila heads away from the Delta-Epsilon buildings, Dinah heads towards them in search of someone to spend time with. It's relatively clear for a Saturday night, not a single cloud in sight for what seems like the first time in forever. The hybrid takes a deep inhale, happily letting the cold air invade her nostrils. Heading around the back of the building, she hears a familiar voice through an open window and can't help but curiously hone in on it with her super powered hearing. Sure, she's been told not to eavesdrop before, but the voice is upset, and Dinah completely intends to fix that.
"Troy, no, don't worry," she hears Ally say, and she can just picture the older girl rubbing her temple in an attempt to not let her true emotions show through. "No I understand, things come up."
There's a pause, and Ally lets out a good-natured laugh as she approaches the window. Dinah hides over by a tree, trying to avoid getting caught listening in on her friend's conversation.
"No, no hard feelings," the older girl assures Troy over the phone. She chuckles lightly, following it with a sigh. "I'll just take this cute outfit out somewhere else."
Dinah hears the silence and knows that Ally has set the pager down, falling down onto the bed with a creak of the mattress springs.
"Well, old girl, there's nothing wrong with watching old movies with your makeup done and hair styled," Ally tells herself softly, letting out one last sigh of disappointment.
And with that, Dinah bolts on all fours towards the quad, a plan brewing and determination sparked.
She picks up on Camila's familiar scent immediately, nearly tackling the girl as she digs her heels into the ground for a hard brake. The older girl shrieks in surprise but greets her friend with a bright smile, obviously not doing anything much more than just walking. Dinah checks first, her chest heaving up and down after the powerful sprint she had just done.
"Mila, are you busy with any current endeavors?" The hybrid asks quickly, raising both her eyebrows up in a curious stare of excitement.
The pyrokinetic grins, seeing how energetic Dinah already is. "What's up, Meat-Head?"
"Lauren calls me that too," Dinah informs her happily, allowing Camila to ruffle her hair playfully. The older girl groans, obviously not amused by this information as she gives Dinah's head a vigorous rub.
"Beef Cake?" She tries again, only to have Dinah shake her head.
"Meatloaf?"
Dinah gives her an apologetic shrug as the girl pulls her hand away, eliciting another groan of exasperation from her older friend.
"Why the hell does she take all the good ones?" Camila mutters to herself unhappily as Dinah begins to lead her in the direction of the Omega dorms.
"You can share," the younger girl suggests, obviously not understanding the problem Camila seems to have with using the same nicknames as Lauren.
The older girl rolls her eyes, tossing her braid over her shoulder as she follows the hybrid. "I share enough with her, we live together, DJ."
"The question remains unanswered," Dinah reminds her, in reference to her original inquiry.
Camila reaches up to slap a hand over her face, groaning with irritation into it to muffle the noise. "Fuck, she says that too."
"The question-" Dinah starts to repeat, before Camila uses the same hand to instead clamp over the hybrid's mouth.
"Okay, okay, what is it?" The older girl encourages, removing her hand.
Dinah pauses to pick her words, her eyes shifting constantly out of nervousness. She purses her lips before finally coming out with the question. "Would you consider yourself a specialist of sorts when it comes to handling the desires of a hopeless romantic?"
Camila blinks to process the mass of words that have just been thrown at her, before arching a curious eyebrow. "Why do you ask?"
"Mani is in the city with Harry getting her hair dyed and I have someone I want to impress," the hybrid tells her quickly. Combined with the lack of eye contact, wringing of her hands, and general jittery disposition, Camila can put the pieces together on her own. She grins widely, wrapping an arm around the hybrid's giant broad shoulders and giving her a playful clap on the back.
"Well, in that case, Terminator, say no more."
-
While Dinah's style is impressive for someone with limited social interactions, the girl sometimes takes things to the extreme.
Like now, for instance, as Camila stares at the shirt that took three minutes to try and squeeze into and is audibly ripping in certain places.
"Dinah, that shirt is like seven sizes too small," the older girl laughs, her braid swaying from side to side as her torso dangles upside down off Dinah's bed. Considering she's never been in the Omega dorms, she's amazed to find how huge the rooms actually are, which are made for one person but easily as big or bigger than her own room.
"It shows off my muscles," the younger girl pouts, turning in the full-body mirror to get a better view of the solid musculature in her back, clearly defined by the itty-bitty white shirt that is miraculously still in one piece.
"Anything you wear will show off your muscles, dummy," Camila huffs, motioning for her to try something else on. She tosses a blue and green flannel off the pile on the floor and over at the girl. "I think this one was our best bet."
Dinah strips down obediently, pulling the long-sleeved shirt over her shoulders in one smooth motion. Her pink tongue pokes out of her mouth as she focuses on getting the buttons done, furrowing her eyebrows in concentration. She pauses momentarily, then continues after casually mentioning something to the pyrokinetic.
"I had my first kiss."
At hearing these words, Camila does a full sit-up to pull her torso onto the bed, her hair slapping against her face from the speed of the movement. She stares at her friend with wide eyes, the grin on her face threatening to rip it open. "Woah, way to go, DJ! Was he cute?"
Camila notices an instant change in Dinah's disposition, the soft, serene smile that comes over her face as she closes her eyes momentarily. She opens them back up, moving to fix her collar using her reflection in the mirror, nodding once to answer Camila's question. "She's beautiful."
"Alright, another player for our team," Camila grins, getting up and nudging the girl playfully. Dinah liking girls wasn't a complete shock to the older girl, but she didn't want to assume things initially. She grins and wiggles her eyebrows at the girl, helping to roll up her sleeves. "How far did you get with this lucky lady?"
The hybrid's eyebrows knit together in confusion. "We didn't go anywhere."
Camila snorts, heading over to Dinah's dresser to fish out some other accessories. Her eyes land on a thick black folder tucked away at the very back of the drawer, as if to be hidden from sight. She continues the conversation, debating with herself as to whether she should pull it out or not. "No, I mean like... Intimacy wise."
Dinah, after spotting Camila in the mirror, clears her throat to try and indicate that she had caught her. She reaches down to slip on her sneakers, a pair of Vans Sk8-Hi's Lauren had gotten her last week, while keeping her tone casual. "None, really. She started doing this thing with her tongue but she stopped us before she progressed."
At hearing this, Camila spins around to shut the drawer, a bow tie and a white snapback in hand. Her attention is completely redirected to what Dinah had just told her, peaking her curiosity immensely. "Ooh, up until what point were you willing to go?"
"I'm not sure," the hybrid replies, shrugging softly as Camila comes over to help secure the bow tie around Dinah's neck. "Enough for me to learn properly and be ready."
"I see," the pyrokinetic nods happily, her fingers making quick work of properly straightening the bow.
There's a pause as the younger girl takes the cap from her friend's hands, holding it nervously in her own. "Mila?"
"Yes?"
"This needs to be perfect."
"You're so sweet, Dinah. Whoever this girl is, she's a lucky one," Camila gushes, clutching one hand to her chest as she playfully runs her other through the girl's hair. "The effort you're making is so amazing."
"She deserves the best, Mila," Dinah nods seriously, chewing on her bottom lip as she perches the white snapback on top of her thick ombre curls. She lowers her voice to a whisper, turning to face herself in the mirror and give herself one last look of approval. "Ally deserves the world."
The older girl's big brown eyes nearly pop out of her head at hearing these words, stumbling back onto the bed to try and support herself. "Wait, oh my god, wait!"
Dinah gives her a curious look from over her shoulder, lifting an eyebrow playfully. "I'm waiting."
"You like Ally? Yes, Dinah, fucking awesome. I knew you two had something," the older girl shrieks, pumping her fist in the air excitedly as her smile only multiplies in size as it takes up a permanent residency on Camila's lips. "So, you kissed this girl for Ally?"
Dinah furrows her eyebrows as she turns to face her friend, trying to get across the point of just how serious she is about this. "Camila, she sees me as 'just Dinah' right now. If I'm going to do this, everything about it has to be perfect. She deserves nothing less than perfection."
"You know, I like you two together. I think you're good for her, and she's good for you," Camila tells her, which draws a broad, appreciative smile from her friend. The shorter girl helps search through the piles of clothes on the floor for a good jacket to give to Dinah. She rolls her eyes, adding one last thing. "Lauren's personally more a fan of you and Normani."
Dinah glances over at her friend, giving her a playful quirk of the eyebrow. "Then I guess this has to remain between us, right?"
Camila grins and draws an X on her sternum with her finger. "Cross my heart and hope to die."
It's quiet for a few moments as Dinah finishes straightening out her shirt, fiddling with a few of the buttons. Camila, deciding the atmosphere is much too serious, decides to lighten the mood a bit. Staying out of her friend's sight, she climbs up onto the bare framework of the ceiling, bringing a handful of socks up with her. From the safety of above, she balls up one of the socks and chucks it straight at the hybrid's head, shrieking with laughter as the girl spins around in confusion.
"Was it Jade?" Camila yells, clinging to a thick scaffold as she tries to stay out of Dinah's view. "Did that little shit kiss you and not tell me?"
"Nope," the younger girl replies, smacking her lips together on the last syllable as she grins and begins her search of her friend. Camila uses this moment to stand up straight, praying that she won't fall over as she hurries along to get to the other side of the room by traversing through the framework. She throws another balled-up sock at Dinah's head, knocking her hat off for good measure.
"Was it Z?" She calls out, her giant smile hurting her chapped lips.
"Nuh-uh," Dinah calls back, hunched over in search of her friend.
"Hm," Camila grunts simply, rubbing at her chin with her free hand. She lets out a shrill squeal as Dinah leaps up and makes easy work of pulling herself up onto the same support, sitting down on the wooden bar in front of her friend and laughing at Camila's terrified reaction.
"I don't know if she wants me telling you," Dinah finally explains, reaching forward to yank one of her socks out of Camila's hand and throw it at the girl's chest playfully. The two watch it fall a few feet to the ground, still smiling happily at each other.
"Okay, I can respect that," Camila nods.
"Thanks," Dinah replies, wrinkling her nose at the older girl. "Also, how are you going to walk me through this? From what I understand, things like this are generally done best with less people."
"Yeah, I guess it'd be weird to be third-wheeling on your date with Ally-Cat," Camila chuckles, tossing her braid over her shoulder. She bites her lip in thought, before snapping the fingers of her free hand and pointing at Dinah excitedly. "We can go get earpieces and I'll talk to you through them. Keep yours in your pocket or something and I'll just talk to you regularly since you'll be able to hear me anyways."
Dinah nods happily in agreement. "Just talk to me as usual. It'll be fine."
"Okay, so where might I find a few spare earpieces just lying around?" Camila asks, pausing as she finds a crucial problem with their plan. She watches as Dinah leaps down from the framework back to the floor, heading over towards the mini fridge over by the fireplace.
"I know where," the hybrid says. "But you'd have to go on your own, I need to get this food ready to go and the candles packed."
As soon as Camila starts to realize what (or rather, who) Dinah might be referring to, her eyes nearly bug out of her head in fear. "No, Dinah Jane, you can't let me go alone-"
"She's our best bet, Mila," the younger girl argues, grabbing her hat back up off the ground and perching it back on her head as she pulls out a few containers of food that Camila had pre-picked.
"Fine," the older girl finally groans. She clumsily manages her way over to the other side of the room, eventually letting herself fall on Dinah's bed. She hops up, motioning out the window in the direction that she wants her friend to go. "Go around 30 yards past the giant tree by the fountain. Someone tried to drive it up into the woods, I think it was to carry over training dummies. It broke down, been there ever since, and you need to clean it up."
"I got it," Dinah nods, before hurrying over to envelop her friend in a giant, bone-crushing hug with a goofy kiss to the top of the shorter girl's head. "Good luck, Mila."
Camila laughs on her way out of the dorm, trying to mask the fact that she's pretty sure she'll need all the luck she can get.
After a few quick knocks, Camila lets herself in to the last place she wants to be alone.
-
"Hey, Tori," she greets cautiously, watching as the curly-haired genius glances over her shoulder at Camila with a particularly intimidating welding tool in her hands. She removes the goggles from her eyes, setting them down next to her current project along with her tool.
"Hi, Camila, what's up?" The physician replies happily, smiling fondly at the girl as she motions for her to come in. The younger girl does so, taking nervous steps towards the blonde with her hands tucked behind her back.
"I was wondering if I could rent out an earpiece or something?" She blurts out, with no real build up or anything. She clears her throat, stammering to try and clarify herself to the older girl. "You see, Dinah and I are planning something huge and we kind of need-"
"Camila, you don't need to explain yourself to me," the physician laughs, teleporting over to the other side of the lab and grabbing something out of a drawer. She zaps back in front of the younger girl, holding her hand out. "I completely trust that these will be in good hands."
"Thanks for that. I appreciate it," the younger girl smiles, taking the two pieces in her hand. She could have just left there, happily and with no added issues, but for some reason she just can't bring herself to leave. Call it guilt, but Camila feels like she has to say at least something about their entire fucked up situation. So she starts with a sigh. "Tori-"
The older girl shakes her head furiously, immediately cutting her off as she holds her hand up. "If this is going anywhere near where I think it is, let me stop you right there."
The younger girl wants to argue, to beg Tori to let her apologize for everything that's happened between them, but the older girl will have none of it.
"Camila, I'm not mad. It's not like you knew that Ariana had a girlfriend at the time... You were young. You didn't mean to. I'm okay." She pauses, smiling down at the slightly shorter girl as she rubs her shoulder encouragingly. "We're okay."
But the fact that Tori only knows the partial truth is eating Camila up from the inside. She tries again, softly this time, to try and tell the whole story. "Tori, I... I kn-"
"Camila, I'm serious. It's okay. There was no hope for a friendship between Ariana and myself anyways," the blonde shrugs, smiling kindly down at the younger girl. She waggles her finger sternly, but the soft giggle in her voice implies that she's really not all that mad. "Bring those earpieces back no later than tomorrow, okay?"
Understanding that an explanation is futile, Camila simply sighs and smiles appreciatively up at the physician. "Thank you, Tori."
"Any time," the blonde replies happily, waving as she watches the brunette slip out the door.
She jogs all the way back over to their designated meeting point outside of the Delta-Epsilon dorms, waving to Dinah as she comes into view. She activates both earpieces and slides one into the pocket on the front of Dinah's flannel, giving the girl a solid pat on the side of the face with a grin. "Ready, Terminator?"
"Affirmative," Dinah nods seriously, watching as Camila slips her earpiece into her earlobe and takes a few paces back to hide out of sight by a tree. "Commencing mission."
Camila lets out a deep breath, talking at a normal tone, knowing that Dinah can hear her even with the distance between them. "Phase one, Operation Pebble."
"Let's do this," Dinah murmurs, cracking a few of her knuckles (a bad habit learned from Lauren, no doubt.)
The older girl clears her throat, remembering the steps of the plan. She watches Dinah bend down and pick up a handful of tiny stones, positioning herself so she can clearly see the window to Ally and Normani's room. "Ready, DJ? Real nice and easy, just toss it up and hit the window."
The hybrid does so, but it's such a weak effort it doesn't even make it to the second story. The rock flies up but comes back down just as quickly.
"Too soft," Camila reprimands her, although she knows Dinah is just trying to control herself. "Again."
They stand for at least five minutes with Dinah softly throwing the tiny stones, up until Camila's patience is completely and entirely drained and she lets out an exaggerated groan.
"Oh, come on, Dinah," she hisses, tossing her head back in exasperation, "you throw like a little bitch-"
She is promptly cut off by the loud crash of shattered glass, watching as the hybrid weakly shields herself with her arm from some of the falling shards.
"Shit, holy shit!" Camila shrieks, her voice a hushed whisper as to not be associated with her friend at this moment. Dinah's inability to compromise never ceased to amaze her. Either she's all or nothing, but never in between.
"Was that wrong?" The younger girl asks innocently, blinking her big brown eyes at the pyrokinetic in confusion. Camila is about to scream at her, but someone quickly runs to the window and beats her to it.
"Oh my god, Dinah, you smashed the glass!" Ally cries out, sticking her head out the window to examine the extent of the damage. One glimpse of the girl, in full make up and her hair curled, manages to completely melt away any apprehension the hybrid may have originally had.
"Sorry," she replies sheepishly, giving a weak shrug as she continues to stare in complete awe of the beauty above her.
"It's wide open!" The eldest points out, motioning to how she can stick her entire torso out of the area where a window once covered.
"I guess I'll have to spend the night to keep you safe, then," Dinah replies smoothly, grinning up at the older girl as she watches Ally's furious pout fade into an entertained smile. "Plus, it's predicted to be cold. You can't say no to a cuddle buddy, can you?"
The older girl can't help but smile at the hybrid's smooth talking, rolling her eyes as she tries to hide her amusement. "God, Dinah Jane, you're something else."
"Wow, Princess Charming, what the hell do you need me for, then?" Camila huffs, watching the scene unfold with an impressed cross of her arms. Dinah sends her a quick wink from over her shoulder before returning her focus on the eldest member of Team 5.
"You look beautiful, Ally. Going somewhere?"
"I had a date set with Troy, but he had to cancel," the contact-telepath explains, shrugging in an attempt to hide her disappointment. She lets out a quiet sigh, trying to smile it off. "I guess that means I'm going nowhere, haha. Just me and my bed."
"It'd be a shame to let all your efforts go to waste," the hybrid tells her, motioning up towards the older girl. She tilts her head, a playful smile coming over her features as she arches an eyebrow up at the older girl. "Are you up for an adventure?"
Ally smiles brightly, tilting her head to the side. "With you? Any day."
"Meet me out by the front doors, okay, Ally?" The hybrid tells her.
"Okay, Dinah," the older girl replies happily, disappearing from view out of the window.
Camila hurries out from behind the tree and rushes over to give Dinah an encouraging pat on the back, rubbing her broad shoulders as they walk slowly together out towards the front of the building. "This is all you, Muscle Milk. You got it."
"Mila, what do I talk about?" Dinah asks in panic, her brown eyes wide in complete and total fear.
"Talk about her," the pyrokinetic encourages. "You've been doing great so far."
"I don't know how. I'm undergoing immense anxiety. I can't believe that was me back there," the hybrid admits, rubbing her hands together nervously.
"Then that's a good thing. You're stepping up your game up for a girl you like. That's called effort," Camila tells her happily. She reaches up on her tip toes to plant an encouraging kiss on her friend's forehead. "You can do it, DJ. I believe in you."
Knowing she doesn't have much time left, Camila starts her sprint over towards where the entire date is set up. Dinah, on the other hand, straightens out her hat, fixes her bow tie, and fixes the sleeves on her jacket all in an effort to make sure everything is absolutely perfect.
The moment Ally steps out the door, Dinah is hit once again by the wave of admiration for the shorter girl's beauty. The way her hair falls down in curls to frame her gorgeous face, makeup accentuating the natural beauty the girl already has. The way her dress fits her body perfectly, highlighting every curve just right. There's no way Dinah can deny that she's smitten, and very overwhelmed, which puts even more pressure on her than she had originally had.
So, she clears her throat, squares up, and holds her hand out to the shorter girl with a bright smile, glancing quickly over her shoulder at the oncoming darkness from the setting sun.
"If you'd follow me, that would be lovely," the hybrid requests, motioning with her other hand for the girl to come along. Just as Ally reaches for her hand, Dinah pulls it away, wanting to keep the entire situation a surprise.
"Dinah, where are we going?" The older girl asks hesitantly, watching as the hybrid tucks her hands into the pockets of her jacket and leads in the direction of the woods. Considering the fact that Dinah always jumps at the idea of holding hands, she knows something must be up.
"Shh, you'll see," the younger girl grins, sending a confident wink over her shoulder at the girl as she catches up. Ally walks by her side, seeming more and more nervous as Dinah leads them farther into the woods.
"Are you really taking me into the woods? In the dark?" Ally questions, her voice coming up an octave into a shriek as the trees begin to thicken and the campus is lost out of sight.
"There's nothing dark about it," the hybrid argues, her eyes glowing to give her night vision as she approaches the designated spot for their date. Once they reach the small clearing, Dinah motions up at the sky. "We have the moon, we have the stars-"
Camila, hiding off in the distance, takes this as her cue and snaps her fingers, immediately willing the candles to ignite.
"And we have candles," Dinah finishes, motioning now to the spot she has set up for their evening.
The bright orange pickup truck that had broken down there years ago was a nightmare to clean, but the look on Ally's face is priceless and definitely worth the effort. In the bed of the truck is a soft blanket, with flickering white candles all around and on top of the car. There's a small tote bag towards the back of the truck bed, tucked behind a bunch of wildflowers Dinah had picked to present to Ally at the end of their night.
"Dinah, this is amazing!" The girl shrieks, slapping a hand over her mouth as her jaw drops at the gorgeous sight. The hybrid grins victoriously, the pearly whites of her teeth clearly exposed.
"I was hoping you'd like it," she admits, motioning for Ally to hop up in the bed of the truck with her and sit down.
"What's in the bag?" The dirty blonde asks, tilting her head as she watches Dinah pull the tote out from behind her.
"Well, even though Troy had to cancel, I wanted to make sure you'd go on that date," the hybrid tells her, setting down a few containers of food that she had grabbed from her fridge. Camila's touch was to bring a bottle of apple cider, since neither were at legal drinking age, and a pair of champagne flutes. The younger girl easily pops the cap off, pouring the bubbly drink into Ally's glass after handing it to her with a proud grin.
"To cancelled dates," Dinah toasts, holding her glass up in the air and clinking it against Ally's, who is still staring at her in complete shock. The hybrid smiles charmingly at her and takes a sip, reaching back to materialize a fork and a knife from the bag and hand them over to the older girl.
"Did you do all this for me?" Ally whispers, finally able to form words again as she truly acknowledges the astounding lengths Dinah went through to set all this up.
Chocolate brown meets soft mahogany, Dinah locking her gaze with Ally's as she takes another sip from her flute. She narrows her eyes to increase her intensity, but there's a soft light to them that radiates kindness and a gentle, longing desire to please. She leans back and smiles, getting another good look at the shorter girl as they sit together in the pleasant quiet of the nighttime woods.
Dinah lowers her voice into a sincere whisper, tilting her head at the older girl.
"I'd do anything for you, Ally."
From behind the cover of the trees, a pyrokinetic smirks happily to herself as she leans back against the trunk of an old pine, taking the earpiece out of her ear momentarily to switch ears.
"'To cancelled dates' has to be your best line to this very day, Cabello," Camila murmurs quietly to herself, knowing the hybrid would be able to focus on Ally, collect her thoughts, and take it from there. "There's no way Dinah's not getting laid tonight. But would I have to walk her though that too? Maybe I'll just have her watch a porno really quick before hand... She's a quick learner, right?"
Her mind beginning to wander, her eyes go wide as she thinks a little too hard about this. "Oh god, what if she breaks Ally?"
But then a voice that is not her own breaks this train of thought.
"Whatcha doin', Princess?"
"Shit, Lauren, you almost gave me a heart attack," Camila hisses, slamming her head back against the trunk of the tree by accident. She winces and rubs at her head, narrowing her eyes at the brunette in front of her. "What are you doing here?"
"About to go for a swim," the captain replies easily, before glancing back down at Camila with an arched eyebrow. "The question remains unanswered."
The girl's brash arrogance and cocky disposition never fail to put Camila in an aggressive, defensive mood. She crosses her arms over her chest, giving Lauren a look of complete and total disbelief. "A swim? It's the beginning of December."
"And?" The girl shoots back, unbothered by Camila's valid point. She smirks, raising her hand up and wiggling her fingers as to prove a point. "I can control the temperature of water, remember?"
"Whatever," Camila huffs, rolling her eyes as she stands up to avoid looking up at Lauren any longer. She doesn't like the submissive feeling she gets having to crane her neck to make eye contact, so she fixes it by leveling the playing field, even if the captain is two inches taller.
The green-eyed girl holds her hands up defensively, shrugging her shoulders. "It was Celine's idea, so-"
"Why do you feel the need to include that it was her idea?" Camila groans, becoming increasingly irritated with the constant mention of the girl's name. It's always 'Celine this' or 'Celine that,' and Camila is sick of it.
(She's not jealous.)
"Just so you know I'm not crazy," Lauren clarifies, letting out a soft chuckle. "Chill, Camz."
(Okay, maybe just a little.)
"Yeah, you are crazy," Camila shoots back.
"You drive me crazy, Princess. Imagine having to deal with you 24/7," Lauren grins playfully, eliciting a firm slap on the arm from the offended younger girl. She giggles and rubs at her bicep, not missing the way Camila's lips also turn up into a faint smile. "Anyways, I thought I saw some lights over there, I just wanted to check and see what it was."
If Lauren finds out about this date, Camila's not sure what the girl will do. So she takes any measure necessary to distract her, even if it means sacrificing herself in the process. She knows Dinah would do the same for her in any situation that called for it. Plus, add in the fact that Camila loves the idea of Dinah and Ally together, she doesn't think twice before standing directly in Lauren's way with bright eyes.
"Let me go swim with you."
The confused grimace that comes over Lauren's face nearly makes Camila pee her pants with laughter right there and then. "What?"
"My trial never really taught me how to swim, just how to trust you guys," Camila elaborates, rolling with the punches at this point to do whatever she can to get Lauren away from Dinah's date. "I figure it's an important skill to have."
"It is," Lauren drawls hesitantly, after a few moments of processing exactly what Camila is asking for.
"Then I should learn, shouldn't I? And who better to teach me than a tilapia on legs?" Camila grins.
Lauren clucks her tongue at the younger girl, turning on her heel to head off in the direction of the dock. "Rude."
Camila follows behind, tucking the earpiece in her hand away into the pocket of her jacket. As soon as they get to the shore, Lauren strips off into a black two-piece swimsuit, her teeth chattering as the cold wind nips at her newly exposed skin. She takes a moment to tie her hair up, and Camila decides it's now or never to go through with this.
When Lauren turns back around to find Camila in a sports bra and underwear, despite seeing the same sight a million times before, it does something to her this time around. She stands there, green eyes wide in surprise, as Camila takes confident strides towards her with the moonlight hitting her body at all the right angles. The younger girl continues, trying her very hardest not to show how truly freezing she is. She smirks as she finally comes up besides Lauren, folding her arms over her chest both to cover herself and keep warm.
"Well, are you gonna stand there and be scandalized, or are you gonna teach me how to swim?" The brunette teases, watching as Lauren snaps back to reality and shakes her head, focusing now on the shoreline in front of them.
"Yeah, no, c'mon, let's go," the captain instructs, motioning for the girl to come follow behind her.
"Wade in," Lauren tells her, as she takes a few steps into the frigid water first to be able to warm it up. "Get used to the feel of the water."
Despite every fiber of her being begging her not to, Camila takes in a deep breath and tosses her braid over one shoulder, taking slow, calculated paces towards the tide. Thanks to Lauren, the water isn't as cold as she originally thought it'd be, she only manages to go in around knee-deep before her impulses kick in and cause her to get nervous.
But Lauren is waiting expectantly for her, giving her a curious once-over at the girl's hesitancy. Not wanting to receive one of the brunette's annoyingly smirky looks, Camila hurries into the water, grabbing onto a wooden support beam on the dock.
"You have strong legs. Kick them to be able to stay up," Lauren instructs. There's progress here, since Camila is actually in the water, but using something to keep her up isn't swimming quite yet.
Looking around the dimly lit lake, Camila tries to change the focus of the conversation until it's something more desirable than letting go and potentially drowning. "Hey, you know how I have my nightmares?"
"Yeah?" Lauren quirks an eyebrow over at the girl, floating in the water on her back, her milky skin illuminated by the silvery glow of the moonlight.
Camila purses her lips, looking over at the captain with genuine curiosity. "Do you ever get those?"
Lauren shrugs, flipping backwards to disappear under the water and then come back up closer to where Camila is clinging to. She lazily pedals backwards, shifting every once in a while to swim circles around Camila. "Once. When Cara popped into my head. But not usually. I don't dream."
"What do you mean, you don't dream?" The younger girl questions.
Lauren chuckles and answers as if it's the simplest thing in the world. "I stop thinking right before I fall asleep. I don't think about dreaming, I just sleep."
Camila's warm brown eyes hone in on Lauren's features, using the illumination of the moonlight to study them even further. "Are you scared of it?"
"Dreaming?"
"It has the potential to become a nightmare," Camila clarifies, her voice soft. "I understand why you wouldn't want to."
"Yeah, I guess so," Lauren responds, after a moment of consideration. "There's the possibility that I start having a nightmare and never wake up from it. I'm scared."
And she's not sure where the sudden burst of kindness comes from, maybe knowing what it's like to have such terrifying dreams, but Camila feels sympathetic. She burrows her gaze into Lauren's, and for once, the orbs of green aren't the more powerful of the two.
"Don't be. Just know I'll be here to make sure you wake up each and every time."
"Thanks, Buttercup," Lauren smiles faintly, giving a genuinely appreciative nod to the girl. She clears her throat, feeling a little too vulnerable at the moment, and motions to Camila's nearly submerged body in the water. "You have to fill your lungs with air."
Lauren sees the hesitancy in the girl's face, the way she stares at the pool of water with the same amount of fear Lauren feels when she realizes what she's doing. Her teammate's life is potentially in her hands, and the amount of trust it takes to let Lauren do this for Camila overwhelms her. The younger brunette is leaving her life in the captain's hands, and Lauren wants to make sure to not waste this trust.
She lowers her voice into a gentle whisper, coming up next to the girl with extended arms.
"Camila, let go, and I will latch on," Lauren assures her teammate, green orbs locking in on chocolate brown. "If you believe in me, I will protect you."
"I don't need to be protected," Camila immediately responds, obviously feeling too vulnerable for her liking.
"I know you don't," the captain nods. "But everyone deserves to have someone to fall back on."
"I don't," Camila snaps hurriedly, her arms flexing to help her cling even closer to the wooden beam.
"Oh, but you do, Camila," Lauren murmurs, smiling softly up at the girl. She reaches up to brush her fingers gently down the girl's spine, resting her hand at the exposed skin of her lower back to prove her support. "And I'll always be that person for you. I will never let you fall."
And with that, Camila takes a deep breath and lets go.
Lauren's powerful legs are able to kick enough to keep them both up as Camila takes to the water, panicking momentarily as her body begins to sink. But Lauren's hand is still firmly planted on her back, pushing her up, which gives her enough security to kick her own feet and be able to keep up her body in the water.
"What are you thinking?" Lauren asks, a victorious grin coming over her face as Camila's upper torso remains above the water.
"A million different things at once," the younger girl laughs, staring down at her body as it miraculously doesn't sink down, which she had honestly expected it to.
Lauren purses her lips, raising a thick eyebrow curiously as she leans just a bit closer, lowering her voice. "What's going on inside that brain of yours, Camila?"
There's a pause as the pyrokinetic chews on her bottom lip, debating as to whether or not she should actually explain herself or not. But she decides for it, and eventually lets out a small sigh as she pours out her thoughts to the captain. "I don't get why you're always here for me."
"I think I'm just drawn to you," Lauren admits, her breath staggering as Camila reaches up to wrap an arm around her neck, pulling their bodies closer to make it easier to kick and stay afloat. "I can try to leave you, but it never works."
"You always keep coming back to me," Camila acknowledges, her fingers tracing up the bumps of Lauren's spine on the back of her neck and eventually coming to play with the wet baby hairs clinging to her skin there.
The mood becomes painfully intimate, turning intense and steamy when they had originally just been having a normal conversation. The shift is tangible, and with the increasing proximity between them and the hum of the night, both are definitely affected.
Lauren's eyes drill into Camila's with a severe intensity, burning green with layers of emotion. Pools of melted chocolate receive this glare with a tilted head, soft and warm but burning just as powerfully. The captain smiles faintly, her hand still resting firmly on Camila's hip to keep her from drifting away. "I told you. I'll never let you fall, Camila."
"Promise?" The younger girl bats her eyelashes, her voice a raspy, low murmur that makes Lauren's skin erupt with an army of goosebumps. Camila's head slowly lulls forward, their foreheads now inches apart and their warm breaths reaching the other's skin.
"I promise," Lauren nods, dipping her head down to avoid Camila's intense gaze. The younger girl is about to tease the captain's shyness until she feels a pair of lips ghosting her sensitive neck, causing her to dig her fingernails into the very top of Lauren's shoulder, pulling her in even closer to share some of her increasing body heat.
The older girl takes this as a sign of success and grins against the girl's skin, trailing more faint kisses up her neck until she's at the girl's cheek. Feeling a rush of confidence, she leaves a gentle, ghosting peck at the corner of the girl's mouth, hardly making enough contact for it to even be considered a kiss. Camila is frozen in place, her big brown orbs watching every movement the older girl makes without fighting a single one. Lauren closes her eyes, leaving her lips on Camila's jaw to murmur her words, causing a shiver to rip down the girl's spine.
"I will never let you fall."
And Camila swears to god that she can taste Lauren's lips on her's before a voice cuts through their silence and effectively destroys their moment.
"Lauren, you'll never believe-"
The two practically ricochet off of each other, pulling their arms in towards their own bodies and trying to put as much distance between them as possible. While Lauren sends a death glare to her best friend, the younger girl makes a quick beeline to her clothes, evaporating the water off her skin the moment she exits the lake. In a moment of disappointment, Camila licks her lips and realizes that it's only her own chapstick she tastes.
Celine, wide eyed and with much delay, spins around and clamps her hand over her eyes, realizing what she's just interrupted. "Whoops."
"Fucking hell, Polenghi," Lauren hisses, rushing out of the water and yanking her jacket over her shoulders. She practically growls at her best friend before turning in search of her roommate, starting off with a heavy sigh. "Camz-"
But the captain is left talking to no one, and the pyrokinetic is left more confused than ever as she hurries through the thick trees in any direction.
Camila is determined to get back to helping Dinah on her date to try and forget about whatever may have just happened between her and Lauren. After a few minutes, though, she realizes that she's gone full speed in the entirely wrong direction, and is now lost in an unfamiliar part of the woods.
Not that Dinah really needs Camila's help at this point, anyways.
-
Keeping in mind the pyrokinetic's motto, inspired by the song "Chivalry is Dead" by Trevor Wesley, (which the two had blasted on repeat during their prep session) Dinah has done an exceptional job on her date so far. Ally hasn't stopped smiling, and has told the hybrid several times that she's never been pampered like this before. The younger girl is particularly proud of when Ally had shivered and Dinah happily gave up her own jacket, because she's convinced her clothes look better on Ally anyways.
So now, after having enjoyed their meal and the chocolate-covered strawberries that followed, the two are lying down side-by-side on the blanket in the truck bed, fingers interlocked to allow a silent conversation. Ally is happily curled up in Dinah's jacket, using it to provide her another layer of warmth.
"I'm absolutely certain that's Ursa Major," Dinah announces happily, pointing up at a jumble of stars up above them.
"It's not," Ally tells her telepathically, grinning widely at the hybrid's determined confidence.
"It is," Dinah continues out loud, furrowing her eyebrows as she gives the smaller girl's hand a loving squeeze.
"Alright then, let's see if the internet can answer this," Ally says as she disconnects their hands, immediately sitting up and whipping her pager out of her pocket. Dinah lets out a groan of discontent at the lack of contact, but uses this position of looking up at Ally to continue to appreciate her features.
"That's Orion the Hunter," the older girl laughs, after showing Dinah the stargazing app that had just shot her ego. She pokes the younger girl playfully, watching as the hybrid's jaw drops. "You're wrong, the internet says so."
"Impossible," Dinah grumbles, sitting up to grab the pager with her own hands. Sure enough, it had confirmed that, in fact, Dinah was incorrect. The older girl lets out a shriek of laughter as the hybrid tosses her head back and groans.
"You got it wrong, DJ!" Ally chimes, tossing her head side to side.
The hybrid grunts unhappily in response, crossing her arms over her chest with pouted lips. The older girl grins and pokes a finger into her cheek softly, pursing her lips to make fun of the hybrid's pout.
"Aw, what's wrong? Baby Dinah throwing a hissy fit?" The eldest banters, donning a condescending tone as she pinches one of the younger girl's cheeks playfully.
"I'm not throwing a hissy fit," Dinah mumbles through her pout, her eyebrows knitting together as she hugs her arms even tighter to her body.
"Baby Dinah doesn't like being wrong," Ally continues, grinning as she sees the effect her banter is having on the younger girl. After a few moments of painful silence, the older girl starts to worry that she may have pushed too far and gone out of line.
But in the blink of an eye, she's shrieking with laughter again as the hybrid roars and flips to tackle Ally down, grinning widely as she now hovers above the older girl, Dinah's knees situated on either side of Ally's hips.
"I'm not a child!" Dinah growls playfully, grabbing the shorter girl's wrists and pinning them down above her head with a goofy laugh.
Something about their position instantly triggers something in the both of them, as brown eyes lock with brown and start a catalyst of something neither can truly describe.
"No," the older girl replies, her giggles fading down into a faint smile as she loses her thoughts in Dinah's eyes. "You definitely aren't."
"Ally..." The hybrid starts, her lips now back to their naturally plump and pursed position, until the dirty-blonde promptly cuts her off with a completely unrelated, irrelevant question.
"Have you ever kissed anyone, DJ?"
"Once," the younger girl admits readily, reading the signs of Ally's face with studious eyes. She tilts her head to the left ever so slightly, only adding to the child-like curiosity in her gaze. "Have you?"
The older girl chuckles, their position feeling more and more intimate by the moment. "I've kissed plenty of people."
And then Dinah asks an innocent question that changes everything.
"Have you ever kissed a girl?"
Ally's eyebrows furrow together as she lets out a huff. "I'm not supposed to. I'm straight."
"You're not supposed to? Does that mean you've never wanted to?" Dinah questions, tilting her head curiously as she works her way around the older girl's words. Had it been anyone else, the answer would have been satisfactory, but Dinah doesn't give up so easily. Her attention to detail leads for her to dissect every word that comes out of Ally's mouth, which is a kind of attention the older girl is definitely not used to.
Ally's jaw hesitates up and down, stammering a bit as she tries to come up with a satisfactory answer. "Well..."
And then Dinah makes an innocent offer that changes everything.
"You could kiss me," the hybrid suggests, shrugging from her hovering position. Big brown eyes observing Ally's every move, she bites her lower lip, a nervous habit learned from Camila. "Just to see if you actually want to kiss girls, or if you truly just prefer kissing boys."
The offer is so sudden and so completely unexpected, Ally sits in shock for a few moments, wide-eyed as she blinks up at the younger girl essentially straddling her. Before she can even think, the question leaves her lips.
"Do you want me to kiss you, Dinah Jane?"
The younger girl answers softly, with no edge of cockiness or arrogance that Ally has been used to with some of the guys she's dated. Dinah is sweet, innocent in nature, and staring at her with the biggest brown eyes that it makes it hard to even think.
"It depends. Would you want me to kiss you back?"
Ally laughs, shaking her head as she starts her answer. "I'm not..."
There's hitch in her train of thought as she meets those pools of dark, observant chocolate brown, so Ally tries again. "I'm not..."
And even if she wanted to, she wouldn't be able to read Dinah's mind in that moment. In that moment, she's incapable of processing her own thoughts, much less someone else's. She tries one last time, clamping her eyes shut with a soft shake of her head. "I'm not..."
And then Ally does something that changes everything.
She doesn't realize that they're both leaning in until their lips meet in a slow, burning collision of desire and curiosity, Ally's torso lifting off the floor of the truck bed to gain easier access to the hybrid hovering above her. She wraps her hands around Dinah's neck, cupping the girl's nape to pull her down closer, allowing their kisses to increase in intensity as Dinah gets the idea of how heated the situation is quickly becoming.
Ally is too overwhelmed with every nerve firing in her body to be able to even consider reading Dinah's mind right now. All she can focus on is salted caramel on her lips, unfamiliar and exciting all at once, and two giant hands exploring her body, trailing down her sides and gripping her hips in a way that makes her breath hitch in her throat.
But something in Ally is begging her for more.
"I want this off," the older girl orders in a low, raspy whisper, tugging at the collar of Dinah's flannel. The younger girl eagerly obliges, ripping her bow tie off and flinging it away. Her fingers make quick work of getting the first top buttons undone, but before long, her impatience overtakes her and leads her to sit up and peel the shirt off her body.
Ally has seen Dinah half-naked millions of times before, but that doesn't make this time any less significant. If anything, the situation just continues to turn her on. She feels her body heat up as she pulls away from the kiss, staring down at the defined lines of musculature now free from their confines. Ally's hand gently trails down the hard lines of Dinah's back muscles, making their way around to her sternum as the older girl traces them down the hybrid's abs. She feels every dip and hard plane of Dinah's well-defined stomach, easily admitting to herself that no guy she's ever been with was as physically built as this one girl.
Dinah shifts, having watched Ally's hands for the past few moments, and the older girl is about to complain about the break of contact. But then she feels another hard kiss on her lips, quick and frenzied, before Dinah's tongue pokes out and swipes cautiously against Ally's bottom lip. The older girl moans at the sensation, arching her back into Dinah's body as she grants the younger girl permission to deepen the kiss.
Desperate to grab onto something, one of Ally's hands takes a fist full of hair at the base of Dinah's neck. The other boldly reaches down and grips the waistband of the girl's pants, earning a low growl from Dinah's throat at the sensation of Ally's nails digging pleasurably into her stomach. It's already a lot, but Ally wants more.
"This too," the older girl hisses, trailing hot kisses down the hybrid's jaw as she takes the girl's hand and places it firmly on the back of her own dress, letting Dinah's fingers rest on the zipper. The younger girl quickly obeys and brings her hand up to unclasp the top of the zipper and make quick work of Ally's demands, leaning all her weight on her knees and her other hand. She shifts forward from where Ally is sitting up, paying very close attention to how the older girl likes to be kissed.
The moment Ally feels Dinah's fingertips run down her newly exposed spine, she's thrown back into reality.
"Oh my god," she croaks, yanking away from Dinah's mouth as her head fully wraps around what's happening. Her eyes nearly bug out of her head as she realizes what she's doing, as well as what she might have done had she not stopped. She slips out from under the hybrid, hurriedly going to grab her shoes with massive eyes and flailing limbs. "Oh my god."
Dinah immediately senses the older girl's distress and tries to soothe the situation, removing her hands from the girl's body respectfully. She reaches blindly for her flannel, trying to cover up to hopefully help calm the situation. "Ally, wait-"
"I have to go," the telepath explains softly, her voice catching as a croak in her throat. She avoids Dinah's eyes until this point, maneuvering her way off the truck and back down onto the ground. As she sheds the jacket off her back and prepares to toss it back to the hybrid, she's met with the biggest pair of brown eyes to ever exist.
Ally feels every piece of her heart break with the vulnerability in Dinah's voice.
"Please don't run away from me, Ally," she pleads, reaching out to softly grip the girl's wrist, orbs of melted chocolate boring into the older girl's soul. Her voice quivers. "Please stay."
The apology formulates in her brain but somehow never finds a way to her lips, leaving her with her mouth open and completely silent. There's nothing she can say, so Ally just yanks her arm away and bolts in the opposite direction.
-
Meanwhile, Camila only continues to wander in circles until she's exhausted herself, and eventually decides to just lean up against a giant boulder and take a break. She entertains herself by bouncing a small flame along her knuckles, watching it weave between her fingers like a snake. More than 15 minutes alone have passed until she hears a voice from a person she knows, but the tone is so aggressive, she doesn't recognize it.
"Where are you?"
There's a pause, and Camila makes the connection that the girl is on her phone.
"We need to talk."
She's not sure whether she should reveal herself or not at this point, but she obviously spends a significant time debating it. By the time she comes back down to Earth, she hears a set of footsteps approaching, light and dainty behind them. Camila remains crouched quietly behind her boulder, tying to steady out her breaths to keep hidden.
Ally's voice is tense, thick with irritation as she hisses at the new person joining them. "What took you so long? You said you were on your way!"
Camila furrows her eyebrows, confused as to who exactly her teammate would be talking to. Normani is off campus, Lauren is more than likely with Celine, and her date with Dinah must have ended at some point. Ally never really talks about her close friends outside of the team, which now begs the question- who is that?
The question quickly seems to answer itself as a second voice comes into the equation.
"I got stuck."
That's my girlfriend, Camila realizes, her eyes widening in surprise. This is an interesting development.
She's surprised at how friendly the two are, especially considering just how easily the nickname seems to roll off her girlfriend's tongue. "What happened, Al?"
There's a pause, and Camila desperately wishes she could peek over to watch their conversation. But she knows that if she's caught, it's a whole can of worms she'll be opening. Especially with the things she's about to learn.
"She kissed me."
Camila probably should not have heard that.
"She kissed you?" Ariana practically squeals, her voice raising in pitch by an octave.
Ally lets out a hesitant breath, before she sighs and lowers her voice. "And I kissed her back."
Camila probably should not have heard that either.
"Things started to get pretty... unholy," Ally admits, her PG way of saying that things went a little past PG.
"Nice," Ariana congratulates, which leads Camila to snort at her girlfriend's asshole-sense of humor. "Well, things kind of got unholy when you were born a freak of nature and just kept going downhill from there. You might need to explain what exactly you did, because you can't get much more unholy than kissing a sin against nature, who also happens to be a girl-"
"I shouldn't have."
Ariana pauses, before her voice turns soft and very serious. "Ally, you can't keep feeling guilty over something that happened forever ago."
"Two years is not forever," Ally quickly snaps back, before a quiver in her voice leads Camila to infer that this something must have been significant for her teammate. Her theory is confirmed when Ally adds a quiet, painful comment.
"I miss her."
"And what, you think I don't?" Ariana replies, almost offended, but still caring. "She was my best friend, too, Allyson."
There's a rustle, and Camila can hear Ally taking a few steps away. She begins to fear her discovery, until the conversation shifts and her attention is caught immediately. "I still think you need to tell Camila."
What is it that you need to tell Camila, hm? She thinks to herself, raising an eyebrow as she listens more intently to their talk.
"About what?" Ariana hisses back, immediately defensive. "We fell in love eventually."
"About the fact that she was a rebound, Ariana," Ally tells her harshly, and Camila can feel her heart stop for a second or two inside her chest.
Ouch.
"Camila was not a rebound," Ariana immediately corrects her, until the Team 5 member only continues with her attack.
"Well, then she was something to get your mind off of what had happened that summer. That you were hurting because of what happened, you were bored with your perfect little girlfriend, and you started your thing up with Camila as a game. You have to say something and make sure she knows, Ariana," Ally tells her, voice softer to try and get her point across to the girl.
"Our relationship may have started like that, but it sure as hell isn't ending like it," Ariana snaps in defense. "I ended up falling in love with her anyways."
"Yeah, and, in the process, you broke Tori's heart," Ally reminds her, before letting out an irritated huff as she realizes that her attempts at getting through to her friend are pointless. "I guess Camila has a type too, destructive and reckless."
"What the hell do you mean, have a type? I'm her type. We're in love," Ariana quickly defends, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion at the comment.
"You don't see the way she..." Ally starts, before she trails off and switches gears. "No, fine, whatever."
Camila is left wondering how exactly Ally had planned to finish off that sentence.
"Also, you don't have to pretend you don't know me in public," Ariana tells her, and Camila is surprised to hear just how hurt her girlfriend actually sounds.
"In case you can't tell, you don't exactly get along with the rest of us. I think Dinah is the only one who doesn't hate you," Ally responds, with a chuckle of disbelief.
"I'm sorry for being overconfident," Ariana shoots back, holding her hands up to defend herself. "But I'm either overconfident or on the verge of a breakdown. I still hate myself for what happened that summer."
"I hate myself even more. I should have stayed quiet," Ally mutters, before her voice cracks and she lets out a quiet whimper. "She could have come out on her own."
Camila is now completely lost in the middle of their conversation, hidden behind a boulder with no chance of moving until the other two decide to leave. But one thing she understands, while coming as a complete shock, is that Ally must have forced someone out of the closet.
"You were just trying to... You thought you were helping, Ally," Ariana tells her, trying to soothe her friend's obvious distress from their conversation. "You wanted to help. You didn't mean to just out her like that."
The dirty blonde's voice goes caustic, as she hisses at the other girl with an irritated, fake laugh. "Well, now she's dead. Didn't do much help, did I?"
"Al, just because she ran away doesn't mean-"
"No, Ariana, don't try to make me feel like I didn't ruin this," Ally shrieks, startling Camila where she stood crouched. She's never seen Ally snap like this, nor did she think the girl was capable of being so angry. She jumps in her skin as a tree gets smashed into from the side, until she realizes that Ally is launching forcefields left and right in her fit of rage as she screams at her friend.
"I was the one who got scared!"
It smashes against another tree.
"I was the one who outed her!"
A forcefield smacks up against the boulder, causing Camila to nearly scream at the surprise of the impact.
"I was the one who couldn't do it!"
Ally lets out a howling yell up at the dark night sky to try and release some of the pent up tension, and by the time she's done, Camila can hear her whimpering as the tears threaten to overflow.
"I was the reason she disappeared. I didn't care enough and she ran away."
The way her voice trembles makes Camila's heart ache. She wants to come out from behind the rock and just wrap her friend in an embrace, assuring her that everything's okay and that whatever happened, she can't keep blaming herself.
But she knows she can't, because this conversation is one meant to be between two people. She's not supposed to be there. She's not supposed to hear about how she's a rebound, or how Ariana and Ally are actually close friends.
And she's especially sure that she wasn't supposed to hear about this girl Ally outed, who sounds a little too important to have just been her "friend."
"Now, I care about everyone. Everyone is important to me."
"Allyson-" the other girl finally tries, until she's promptly cut off.
"There's this guy I met, named Troy, and he's so lovely, Ari. He has a big heart and he cares about me, he's perfect. But because he's normal and I'm not, I just have to let him go."
The brunette tries again, and as she speaks, Camila realizes that she's referring to Ally's date with Dinah.
"Ally, there is someone out here who obviously cares about you to the point that she's going out on a limb to try and show it. And I think I might know who that may be. All you have to do is just take a leap of faith and be open with her-"
"If you're talking about you-know-who, stop," the dark blonde hisses, and Camila hears a stumble like someone has been pushed away. "You know how that works, so stop trying. I'm not going to fall in love with a girl."
"Allyson, literally half the students that go here are gay as hell. The other half are at least a little gay- why are you fighting this? Wasn't Selena a lesson to you?"
"A lesson of what, Ariana?" Ally snaps, her voice a harsh attack that makes even Camila feel hurt. "That sometimes, girls fall in love with other girls and then they mess up, and one runs away and leaves the other heartbroken? All because the other one didn't want to be gay, all because the other one can't be gay."
"She isn't gay," she pauses, taking a deep breath to finally stop referring to herself in the third person. "I'm not gay. That's that."
"You don't have to label yourself, Ally. Just please don't let your idea of perfection keep you from seeing something beautiful right in front of you, please," Ariana begs, a quick glimpse of compassionate empathy that she saves for only those most important to her.
But Ally refuses to budge.
"I'm not gay. I don't like that girl. I kissed her for fun. That's the end of it."
"Allyson-" Ariana tries again, before she's cut off once more
"You need to tell Camila," the girl replies.
"I love her."
Ariana says it as if it's an explanation.
"And you love Tori, too," Ally huffs, and yes, Camila definitely feels the sting from that one. "Hell, you'll 'love' any girl who lets you into their panties."
Camila has known Ally for quite some time now but has never seen this side of her. And she's grateful, because this is honestly the scariest thing she's ever dealt with.
(And she's been put underwater in a glass coffin, for christ's sake.)
"That was uncalled for," Ariana replies, her voice cold and monotone with obvious offense taken from the insult.
"I'm leaving."
The brunette snorts. "Not fast enough."
"Go to hell, Ariana."
Camila hears footsteps, and soon enough, a second pair follow behind it. "Ally, wait, I'm sorry."
"Some best friend you are," the blonde hums sarcastically.
Ariana lets out a huff of entertainment. "Coming from someone who doesn't even acknowledge I exist? Interesting."
The footsteps disappear, and before long, Camila is left alone again. She uses the moon to gage her direction as she continues on a straight path, eventually popping up in the parking lot. A wave of relief comes over her as she starts her journey back to the dorm, sending a text to Dinah on her way over. The girl replies that she's at the gym and she'll tell Camila about her night tomorrow, so the pyrokinetic settles for taking a long shower immediately after arriving to her own room.
Camila gets six calls from Ariana that night and ignores each and every one of them.
Lauren shows up a half hour later, and the two fall into their usual routine of ignoring anything that happened that may ruin their friendship. They don't talk about the lake, or the swim, or the almost kiss. They don't mention anything that could potentially make things weird between them, which is a way of life for Camila and a habit Lauren is quickly learning.
"How was dinner with Celine?" The younger girl asks, watching as her roommate drops a bag of take-out boxes down on the counter.
"It was good," Lauren nods happily. "Harry and Mani joined up and wouldn't stop talking about the light show they had over at Town Square. Mani got her hair dyed back to black. Looks good."
"That's nice," Camila replies absently from the bed, staring at her book but unable to focus on the words. Her mind is overwhelmed with thoughts of what she had just witnessed, the secret history of her teammate that nobody had really known. Nobody, except for the one person that Camila had least expected.
Lauren comes out of the bathroom with her toothbrush in her mouth, leaning up against the frame of the doorway.
"So, am I gonna see you at the lake again?" She asks, mouth full of white foam as she pulls her sweatpants up over her legs and searches around for a clean shirt on her side of the room, which is considerably messier than Camila's (an impressive feat when you acknowledge just how messy Camila is.)
The pryokinetic chuckles, leaning forward to set the book down on her dresser. "That was good experience for a one-time thing, but for now, I think a single lesson was satisfactory."
Lauren nods in understanding, heading back into the bathroom to spit and rinse her mouth once she plucks a sweatshirt off the floor.
"Okay. You have a point," the girl agrees, coming out to turn off the light of their room. "Good night."
Camila bleakly stares at the wall until she feels a pair of strong arms wrap around her waist, and instantly melts into the embrace. Her eyes close immediately, and she lets out a soft exhale as Lauren only pulls her closer. "Are you going to try to let yourself dream tonight?"
"I don't think I have much of a choice now, do I?" The captain whispers, a playful grin on her lips as they barely brush up against the sensitive skin of Camila's earlobe.
The younger brunette smiles lazily, leaning back into the touch with her eyes still closed. "I'd appreciate if you tried."
"Anything for you, Princess," Lauren murmurs happily, ghosting a kiss to the girl's jaw before nestling herself into the proper big spoon position and allowing them both to drift to sleep.
-
Based on the position of the moon, Camila assumes it's past midnight at the very least when she's suddenly woken up. She hears a whimpering noise, and notices that Lauren feels frighteningly cold to the touch.
"D-don't," the captain croaks, mumbling into Camila's back.
The pyrokinetic's blood runs cold as she grows increasingly worried about her teammate's current state. "Lauren?"
The girl continues to mumble with her eyes clamped shut, her body now beginning to shake as she only keeps getting colder. "L-leave them alone... Don't t-touch-"
Camila recognizes the reaction that the captain is having, and after remembering their conversation from earlier, makes the connection. She pulls away from the girl's grip, sitting up in the bed and raising her voice significantly. "Lauren, wake up. It's just a bad dream!"
The girl continues to squirm, her chest heaving as her breaths pick up in ferocity and frequency.
"Please, please wake up," the younger girl pleads, gripping onto Lauren's shoulders to try and shake her out of her sleep.
Finally, she's met with a pair of frenzied electric eyes, bright green and wide with panic. It's then that she realizes that Lauren is crying, the tears pouring from her eyes and staining her cheeks as the girl hyperventilates in Camila's arms.
"Camz, it's Cara, it's Cara, she's in my head, she's hurting me-" Lauren squeaks, her words catching in her throat through the sobs.
"No, it's not, Lauren, you're safe," the pyrokinetic assures her, trying to rub the girl's arm in an attempt to soothe her. The captain only cries out again, bawling her eyes out as she clings to Camila's shirt.
"I don't even know what's real any more," Lauren sobs, her voice weak and whimpering as she continues her shallow breathing. "She has you, she has Mani, she has Dinah, she has Ally, she's hurting you-"
"No, that's not real!" Camila tells her, bringing her hand up to tilt Lauren's head to face her. She drills her gaze into the green eyes in front of her, staring straight into the complete and total vulnerable fear in her captain's eyes.
"Normani can defend herself, she's safe and that's real."
"Dinah is capable of taking care of herself, she's safe and that's real."
"Ally can handle any danger that heads for her, she's safe and that's real."
She pauses, before reaching down to grab Lauren's hand and give it a firm squeeze, staring deep into her eyes with a glare of determination.
"I'm real, and I'm not letting anything happen to you, Lauren."
"Camila, I don't even know what 'real' feels like any more," Lauren admits, terror evident in her voice as she continues to cry her eyes out. Her skin is freezing to the touch, and her chest is still heaving in an attempt to catch her breath. "You're just-"
"I'm here-" Camila begins to assure her, before Lauren twists in the bed and shakes her head furiously.
"You might just be my brain-" Lauren starts again, flailing her limbs in an attempt to get Camila away from her.
"I'm not just your brain-" the younger girl tries to fight back, the frustration beginning to build in her body as Lauren refuses to listen.
"You could be Cara-"
"God dammit, Lauren, I'm right here!" Camila finally snaps, screaming at the top of her lungs. "I am real!"
In an attempt to prove her existence to her friend, she firmly plants one knee on either side of Lauren's hips, grips her face to hold it up, and sucks in a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself. Lauren's body still thrashing, Camila keeps her voice loud as she feels the panic overtake her body.
"I'm fucking real!"
Camila has never been known to make the best decisions, well, ever. It's part of the reason she wasn't elected as captain of Team 5, it's part of the reason people tend to watch out for her behavior- she's impulsive. Unpredictable. Like the fires she starts, nobody can really tell what will happen, they just hope she doesn't burn everything down.
In this very second, Camila's impulsive nature in a moment of panic leads to a mistake that starts one of the biggest, messiest fires she's ever made.
(One her abilities can't help her control.)
Their lips crash together in an attack of fire meeting ice, the warm heat of Camila's mouth clashing violently against the cool chill of Lauren's. The sobs stop immediately as the older girl freezes in place, caught completely off guard by Camila's attack. In seconds, Lauren is pushing up against the pillow, leaning back on her hands to lift herself up to meet Camila's lips more easily.
Camila can taste the salt of Lauren's tears as they mix with the green apple of the girl's chapstick, her lips soft and intoxicating and absolutely everything she's ever dreamed of. Her mind is screaming at her, reminding her of the brunette she's been with for two whole years, but all thoughts of Ariana are forgotten when Lauren's arms wrap around Camila's hips to pull her in closer, crushing their fronts together as the soft kiss only grows in ferocity.
There's something indescribable about the way their lips meet, hot and cold clashing as the kiss deepens in intensity and becomes more passionate. Lauren's lips are something Camila can't understand: cold but soft, hard but gentle, aggressive but affectionate. Her head is hazy every time Lauren separates their mouths for a millisecond, coming back each time with a new angle of contact that makes Camila's stomach flutter. The way they touch sends electricity through her veins, and kissing her sends her into nirvana.
She doesn't know what in her body possessed her to kiss Lauren, but she's grateful for it.
It's everything she never knew she wanted.
It's everything she never knew she needed.
But then Lauren pulls away, keeping the contact intimately close with their foreheads pressed together. With every word that leaves her mouth, the shape of a few letters will cause her lips to just barely brush up against the younger girl's, making her body tingle at the contact. Her voice is a soft whisper, obviously just as overwhelmed as the girl in her arms.
"Are we real, Camila?"
The younger girl doesn't even need a moment to think before making the realization.
Fuck.
Her feelings are real.
Camila has started a fire, and it's certain to burn down everything she knows.
ESTÁS LEYENDO
Glory And Gore (5H AU)
FanficAll credits go to the original author! Copied from 5hfanfiction on tumblr.
