Hello, everybody! I am in the mood to write some lesbian fanfic right now so here we go. Enjoy your fire and water duo!
Also here's a little playlist to go with this video. Why not, am I right?
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✩Marella's POV✩
I paced back in forth in my bedroom nervously. Why was I so nervous? It was just Linh's Winnowing Gala! A normal day, everything was fine! The sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, Linh's gonna go off and date a guy and I'll never see her again-wait, what?
I shook my head. No, now was not the time to worry about Linh meeting other guys. It was good if she meets a guy she likes! That'll just give me an excuse to leave her alone, to let her dance with a random guy that doesn't know her a fraction of the amount I do.
Oh my god, why is my brain like...THIS?! I needed help, obviously. So I called the first person that popped into my head. Well, more like second. Linh was, and has always been, the first.
The screen on my Imparter flashed with the sunny image of a strawberry blonde boy with periwinkle eyes smiling at me happily. Aw, he was in a good mood today.
"Hey, Marella!" Dex said happily. "What's up?"'
"Okay, you need to come over. Right. Now," I urged desperately, causing an expression of panic to flicker across his face.
"Why, what's wrong?" he asked with concern, his eyebrows furrowed together with worry in a way that somehow made me feel even more queasy.
"Everything's fine," I said a little too quickly. "No, okay, fine, everything is not fine, Dex. I'll tell you when you come over."
Dex nodded at me determinedly as his screen flashed back to the blank black rectangle reflecting my panicking face back to me. I sighed, flopping down on my bed and burying my head into the blankets.
Oh my god, why did I have to be such a gay disaster?
Within a couple minutes of fidgeting with my hands anxiously and staring at the ceiling, Dex burst through the door with a huge cardboard box heroically, making me sigh with relief.
"Thank you for coming," I thanked Dex as he closed the door behind him. "I just have no idea what I'm doing right now."
"Okay, well, first of all, you need to get ready. Linh's Winnowing Gala is in about one hour. Luckily, I have this box of cool clothes Biana gave me that she thought I might wear. Suits or dresses?"
I shrugged with indifference. "I don't really care."
Dex opened the cardboard box and instantly took out a flowing red dress that faded into orange, and then yellow at the bottom. The dress was extremely thin at the waist and had sleeves that hung off the shoulders. "First we have this. Then we have-" Dex reached into the box again, pulling out a bright blue dress with a much more modest look, with less cleavage and long sleeves, but still maintaining the flowy, waterfall-like skirt. Okay, that one was definitely a big NO.
"They both like kind of meh," I said hopelessly. "I want something that Linh would like."
Dex's eyebrows raised up slightly. "Well, why didn't you say so? Cause now we have..." Dex dramatically pulled out a fancy feminine tuxedo and a white button-up suit from the box. My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets at the sight of the magnificence of the outfit.
"That one," I said instinctively. Dex nodded again, putting the dresses away and throwing the suit at me.
"I gotta go get ready myself now," Dex told me. "See you there!" He waved goodbye to me cheerfully as I closed my bathroom door with the suit draped over my arm.
I stepped into the shower, turning the knob to the reddish area of the faucet, causing steaming red water to pour out of the head. I relaxed into the warmth of the water, melting into it like butter in a pan. Part of me wished I could stay here forever, trapped in the soothing droplets of water on my skin. But the salty ocean smell of Linh's long, silky hair and her sweet, calming smile and her soft, glossy, pink lips felt too much of a reason to go to ignore. So I quickly rubbed my citrus cherry shampoo into my long blonde hair that was partially curled from all the times I braided it with cobalt beads to match my eyes and stepped out of the shower reluctantly, drying myself with a warm towel.
"You can do this, Marella," I muttered to myself as I slipped on the white button-up shirt and tuxedo pants, pairing them with a sharp, tall pair of black cage heels. I looked up from my outfit, to myself in the mirror. I stared into my own eyes with uncertainty and hopelessness.
Because deep down, I knew that this night would be one of the most painful experiences of my life.
But nevertheless, I still wanted to go. To see Linh's beautiful smile and hear her ethereal laugh, even though I knew it would never be mine.
I sighed with sadness as I tore my gaze away from itself, forcing my legs to take each step to the Leap Master. The queasy pit of dread in my stomach that had been growing ever since I woke up this morning churned violently as I found myself standing in front of Havenfield for the party. Linh told me a couple days earlier that Sophie volunteered her house for the party, since Linh confessed she didn't want to have her Winnowing Gala at her parents' house. I couldn't blame her for that; from what I've heard about her parents, they sucked. She deserves better.
My mind wandered to my thoughts about my mother, about how much she loved me despite her unstable state. I was lucky to have her, and it was almost too clear to see that when comparing my mom to Linh's.
"Hey, Marella!" a familiar, sweet voice called to me. My heart leaped with joy as a tall girl with long silky hair came barreling towards me, being quite fast despite wearing heels.
I sucked in a breath as I looked at her. Her light blue eyes twinkled with silver glints of happiness as she looked at me, and her cheeks held a rosy tint to them that made her look even cuter than she already was. And her dress was a twirly dark blue gown lacking of sleeves, fading into a lighter shade of blue at the bottom and sparkling with silver glitter. She wore a shimmering diamond necklace around her soft neck that emphasized the silver sparks in her irises. To say she was beautiful would be an understatement.
"Wow, you look...amazing," I said nervously, a flaming sensation creeping up to my face as Linh's cheeks flushed a little more pink.
"Thank you," she said gratefully, fidgeting with her finger and twisting her thumbs together anxiously. "You look better, though." I noticed the way her wide eyes travelled across my body, making me blush even more.
"I highly doubt that," I joked, feeling a little less awkward as I smiled brightly at her and took her by the hand. Her skin was smooth and soft and felt cool to the touch, like a pond in the middle of a forest.
"You're the last person here," Linh told me as she intertwined my fingers with hers, sending a little spark up my arm. "I decided to just invite my friends, nobody else."
My heart soared with happiness as the truth dawned on me. Linh didn't invite any guys. And since everyone else in the group would be dancing together...maybe...
I did my best to crush the growing hope in my chest as we made our way, hand in hand, to a dimly lit clearing. Rainbow fairy lights hung over us, forming a canopy below the magenta twilight sky. Six other familiar people in fancy clothing stood together, talking in a circle. They stopped talking loudly and lowered their voices to hushed whispers as Linh and I entered the small party.
"You took your sweet time getting here," a slightly annoyed silver banged boy wearing a black suit that looked almost identical to mine, except for the glimmering silver accents, noted. "Linh was going crazy thinking you weren't going to come."
Linh blushed bright pink, but I pretended not to notice and tried not to fixate on such meaningless details. "My bad. I was just figuring out what I was going to wear."
"Wait, you're telling me Marella was worried about what she was going to wear?! What kind of world do we live in?!" a girl with teal eyes wearing a luxurious purple ball gown said, earning muffled snickers from a couple others.
"Ha ha," I muttered, rolling my eyes and hoping Linh wouldn't catch on to the reason why I wanted to look so nice for her party.
"I feel like you overdressed a little, Biana," a tall boy with striking teal eyes identical to his sister's pointed out, who was wearing a dark blue suit that brought out the deep blue waves of color in his eyes.
"We all did," a strawberry blonde boy with periwinkle eyes said next to him. He looked down at his pastel blue suit with soft pink accents and wrinkled his nose. "I thought the location would be a little more formal."
"You wouldn't have wanted to be at our parents' house when they wanted to be formal," Tam assured Dex. "Spoiler alert: it sucks."
"Same with my dad," a blonde boy with ice blue eyes that matched mine said bitterly. He was wearing a glittering ice blue suit that sparkled obnoxiously in the rainbow twinkling of the lights above. "Linh made a good call with this one."
"Winnowing Galas are stupid," a girl with long blonde hair next to Biana said, wrinkling her nose, wearing a sophisticated dark red dress and gold makeup. "I'm never having one. Ever."
"I'm with Sophie on that one," Dex muttered grumpily. "They're like, a stupid tribute to the Matchmaking system disguised as a fun party. Gross."
"Agreed," Fitz said, miming a gagging noise. "Disgusting. I can't believe I ever wanted to get matched."
"Same here," Biana agreed. "Now, shall we dance, Sophie?"
Sophie giggled nervously as her cheeks tinted a light pink, but she let Biana take her hand and guide her to a dark corner in the forest clearing. Dex, Fitz, Keefe, and Tam all went to their own designated areas, leaving Marella and I to ourselves.
Linh stared at me, her cheeks flushing a deep shade of pink as she realized that we were the only ones left. I took a deep breath, and took my chances with her.
"May I have this dance?" I asked quietly. Linh's eyes shined with surprise, instantly making my stomach churn with anxiety as she stretched out her hand and-
"Yes," she said happily, resting her hand on my shoulder. I blinked with shock, then smiled and put one hand on her waist, one hand with my fingers weaved into hers.
"When I said this was going to be a Winnowing Gala, I should've clarified it would be just us. I don't really want to marry a guy," Linh confessed, her eyes darting away from mine and back as her cheeks burned with a bright pink glow.
I blinked, making sure I heard her right before I spoke. "You don't want to marry a guy?" I asked hopefully.
Linh giggled, her laughs laced with nervousness as she nodded shyly. I grinned at her elatedly, bending one of my knees to dip her dramatically. I inched our faces closer together, feeling her hot breath on my lips and the heat from her face warming mine.
"Well, good, because I don't want to marry one either," I admitted softly, inching my lips even closer to hers. I then straightened my knee, for my sexuality would not, sending us back upright and our faces at a reasonably platonic distance.
"Really?" Linh asked me softly, her eyes shining with hope. Once again, I told myself to snap out of it and stop fixating on such details.
"Yup," I confirmed, picking her up by the bottom of her thighs and spinning her around, with her fingers digging into my shoulders.
"Well, then," Linh said mischievously. "I guess I might just do...this." Linh let go of my shoulder, leaning in and pressing her lips against mine softly. She pulled me closer to her by my tie, gripping it tightly as she pressed her lips onto mine harder. I gripped the back of her head to demolish the gap between us, smiling into the kiss. I pulled away slightly, just enough so that I could whisper to her.
"I love you," I said to her, bumping her nose with mine as I leaned into her tenderly.
"I love you too, Marella," Linh giggled softly, kissing me again more passionately.