Here it finally is, sorry for the delay <3
The thing with Cathy and Anne from that one Parrmour story is back, just a bit.. different ;)
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Catalina zoned out, looking down at her untouched plate with a flushed face, she thought about Jane.
Oh Jane.. She was perfect. Beautiful, kind, charming, sweet and... out of reach to Lina.
Absentmindedly, she poked the sandwich that was on the plate, Jane was just so amazing, one time Jane lent her a pen when her own ran out during an exam. Their hands had brushed and Jane smiled at her, Lina wasn't even sure how she managed to not mess that exam up because for the rest of month she couldn't calm down about Jane's soft hand.
A lovesick sigh left her lips as she thought about Jane.
"Geez, you know you can just eat the food, right? No need to flirt with it-" Cathy grinned, tearing Catalina out of her daze.
Lina scoffed playfully, she smacked Cathy's shoulder, "shut it."
After Cathy had decided that she was done making fun of Catalina, she leaned back in her seat, "who're you drooling over?"
"It's boring, basic crush," Lina tried to distract, "do you want my sandwich?"
"Define 'basic crush', is it like on of the more popular people? Or one of the pretty introverted guys?" Cathy pressed, "come on, you can't leave me hanging like this!"
Catalina took a bite of her sandwich, when Cathy figured out that Lina wouldn't respond, she rolled her eyes, "alright, guess I'll just leave you be the hopeless simp you are."
The word 'hopeless' hit Catalina a bit stronger than she would have liked, it was unfortunately true, as far as she knew, Jane didn't even know she existed. Before Catalina even knew it, she was in tears.
Cathy's face fell, "wait, hold on, I'm sorry..! I didn't know you w- I'm so sorry," she pulled Catalina into a tight embrace. Lina laughed wryly, "you don't need to comfort me, I'm okay. I just don't like being reminded that I am indeed hopeless. But you didn't know, so it doesn't matter."
Cathy shushed her quietly, holding her closer, "You don't know that for certain. Who is it anyway? Maybe I can eavesdrop in on some conversations, I can blend in really well." (Short-)
"I don't want you to do that," Lina moved away, "it's not that deep, at least I don't want it to be, I just kind of am content with not thinking about her not liking me too much, you know?"
"Her?" Cathy wondered, surprised by the sudden realisation of Catalina being not into guys, "you-"
Catalina covered her mouth with a hand, "quiet, I don't want that out," she whispered, "please don't tell anyone."
"I mean sure, but.. who is it?" Cathy agreed, just as quiet as Catalina had spoken before.
Catalina hid her mouth while admitting to Cathy, "she's sitting on a table around us... Jane."
Cathy's eyes widened, everything else about her kept calm though, to not draw attention to them.
"What made you like her? I mean- not that there is anything wrong with it, but I'm curious. Why her?"
Catalina decided to talk at a normal volume so that they didn't look all too suspicious. "They're amazing, shorter than me, so definitely a plus. And they're really nice, like really really nice. Their lips too, just makes me wonder what it'd feel like to just kiss them forever. I swear, I like them so so so much, like the biggest crush I've ever had," Catalina kept on rambling, but Cathy just let her be, except for light encouragement from time to time.
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Jane frowned at her journal, she wrote down what she heard and saw, as she always did. She saw Catalina almost crying, then being comforted. Then when she had calmed down, Jane could hear the words 'lips', 'like' and 'crush'.
She felt jealous, her stomach almost hurt, she didn't want Catalina to have a boyfriend, Jane wanted to fill that role, she's been wanting to fill that role since 7th grade. But since, obviously, she couldn't actually muster the courage to walk up to Lina and introduce herself, she just wrote everything down. Like a notebook full of someone else's life (kind of).
"You okay there?" Anne elbowed Jane. With a squeak, Jane closed the book with way too much force to hide her writing.
"Oh?" Anne wondered, grinning teasingly at the book.
"Just leave it, Anne, I'm thinking," Jane stared the hard cover, not wanting to look at Anne's stupid smile.
Anne stretched, "thinking of who?" she casually asked.
At Anne's calm tone, a relaxed one, she almost responded without considering the consequences, "I- None of your concerns."
Anne smirks smugly, "whatever, I know you like her anyway."
Her voice was convincing, so convincing in fact that Jane clutched the book close to her chest, "I don't like Lina!" she whispered defensively.
Anne leaned back, nodding in silence, while she internally celebrated her win.
The realisation flashed in Jane's eyes, "wait-"
"Not so smart, are you now, Jane?" Anne snickered behind her hand.
Jane was frozen in place, her thoughts racing. Anne waved her hand, "I'm not gonna tell her, don't worry.. Iiif you do me a favour."
Already searching in her bag, "how much do you want?"
"No money, you're broke anyway."
Jane stopped, looking suspiciously at Anne, "which subjects?"
"I don't want homework either! Why so mean? I'm smart."
"Then what could you possibly want?" Jane grumbled.
"What're you always writing in that book? Is it like a diary?"
Now Jane had a decision to make, was she going to lie to Anne, who could possibly see through her. Or she could confess and have Anne know her deepest secret, which was kind of inevitable.
"I'll tell you, but not here. You're too loud."
Anne's jaw dropped in feigned offence and she held her hand to her chest, "rude."
When Jane looked at Catalina one last time before getting up, she made the uncomfortable realisation that Catalina was actually looking at her as well. This made Jane internally shut down, she wasn't aware how she looked right now, nor that Anne was dragging her out of the room.
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"See?" Catalina roughly gestured at the now empty table, "I told you. She doesn't like me in the slightest. I swear I saw Anne grin that stupid effing grin. They were looking directly at us multiple times today."
Cathy awkwardly picked at some paint that was on the cafeteria table for whatever reason, "it can't be that bad. There's got to be at least a bit of liking on her side. You're pretty cool after all."
Despite how convinced Cathy sounded in her own words, with the best will in the world Catalina couldn't imagine it actually being true. She didn't have much hope, she was perfectly okay with having to admire Jane from afar, and had been for a long time.
"..You know... I kind of always feel like she's watching me, but I never actually see it."
Cathy's attempts to comfort Catalina were gibberish at first, but she got there in the end, "don't worry about it, she isn't. Not even I ever saw it and I play spy all the time when I have a book."
That made Catalina laugh, even if it wasn't as lively as it could have been, "thanks, I guess."
For the rest of the time they spent at their table Cathy did her very best to make Catalina laugh and to lighten her mood even by the tiniest bit.
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"Holy shit! That's like everything since 8th grade!" Anne flipped through the pages of Catalina's life, documented by Jane.
Jane nodded embarrassed, "the beginning- At the beginning.. The uh.. first few years weren't as detailed as it's been getting recently."
Anne thought about this, skimming over some of the texts, "yeah, you have to do something."
Ashamed, Jane took the notebook and put it in her bag, "I know, I know, I'm being all stalkery.. but I just can't help it, she's too perfect for-"
Since this wasn't what Anne meant, she stopped Jane rather quickly, "no! No no, you should ask her out, it's seriously impressive that you know so much about her." Jane was very uncertain about Anne's advice, "are you sure? Won't she think I'm a creep?"
"Pfff," Anne waved her hand around, "no, you're not, I've seen worse people get dates, horrible people actually."
"But.." Jane began, sounding even more discouraged now, "those people are attractive."
Anne could not contain her laughter, she kept on laughing and laughing until her stomach hurt. It took her multiple minutes to catch her breath, in which Jane stood by her side, feeling incredibly uncomfortable by Anne's amusement. "You- You're so blind, Jane! How are you so-" She continued laughing, now at Jane's confused expression.
"Quit being so mean!" Jane softly hit Anne's shoulder until she stopped.
"Sorry, sorry.." Anne slowly calmed down, "half the school has hit on you, is all! Even Henry Tudor!" Jane gasped in utter shock, "what?!"
"Did you not notice?" Anne ruffled up Jane's hair, "god, how did you not-"
Daringly, Jane raised her head, "I don't believe you."
Anne's response was to grab a random student that was passing by and put her in front of Jane, with her hands holding onto her shoulders Anne asked her, "would you say that Jane is hot?"
Cautiously the girl nodded, blushing brightly, "y-yes.."
"Thank you," Jane smiled tensely, trying to tell Anne to let the poor girl leave with her eyes quite aggressively.
Anne did let her go, "see, Jane? People think you're hot."
"You probably just scared her, everyone is scared of you," Jane excused hastily. Anne frowned, "are you kidding me? Also not everyone."
So Anne repeated what she had done before, but this time without checking who she grabbed. Unluckily Anne had pulled Catalina, out of all people, to the side and put her in front of Jane. Jane paled when she saw Catalina, Anne held a similarly surprised look. Jane was not able to blink for a solid minute, in horror she couldn't take her eyes off of her.
"Hi?" Lina asked, "is there a particular reason for this or-"
Anne regained all of her energy within a split second, excited, yet also worried about Jane's future reaction, "yes! There's this disagreement. Is Jane hot, yes or no?"
For just a split second Lina seemed to panic, but she caught herself, "personally, I'd say yes," Her voice sounded ten times calmer than she actually was. Her soul nearly left her body when she saw Jane staring at her intensely with wide eyes.
"T-thanks.." Jane stuttered out after a while.
"Alright, is that it?" Catalina asked, before leaving as fast as she possibly could without it making this any more unpleasant than it already was.
"I am going to murder you, Anne," Jane blankly said, walking closer to Anne.
"Wait! I didn't kn-!"
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Catalina caught up to Cathy, "I told you, she absolutely hates me."
"Maybe.. she was just not expecting you to respond. Maybe she likes you too."
Catalina only rolled her eyes, "haha. Very funny. Did you not see how she looked at me? Hit me if I'm wrong, but she is so straight."
Cathy hummed, thinking of a solution, "I could ask. I know that Anne likes to talk a lot, even if its mostly full of profanity."
"You don't have to do that. You don't have to help me in general. I'm fine with things as they are currently."
But Cathy had already made up her mind, she was going to ask either way because now she was curious.
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Cathy walked up to Anne and Jane, just the next day. Anne's eyes lit up at the sight of Cathy, now she wanted to leave Jane alone for a bit, so she could converse with Cathy. That didn't happen though, since Cathy talked to Jane, not Anne. "Hey, uh, Jane?" Cathy started, not missing the flash of irritation in Anne's eyes, even from the side, "I have a question."
Unaware of Anne's pissed off state, Jane smiled, "ask away."
"Are you by chance gay?" Cathy asked, looking comically well mannered for a teenager asking such questions.
Apparently that was enough to make Anne snap, she shoved Cathy to a wall, "why the fuck would you want to know!?"
Cathy smirked at Anne, "oh, it is the human urge to know things."
Anne glared at Cathy, God, if looks could kill, Cathy would be in a coffin.
"Well," Jane finally understood just how upset at Cathy Anne was, "I am bi, so.. kind of."
Cathy grinned, "that's good to know, thanks."
Anne scoffed, "okay, enough. Jane, I'll be back in a few." Anne dragged Cathy in the direction of art rooms, where she had a spare key hidden on the doorframe of one room in the far back, out of earshot.
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"Seems like you learned. Here," Anne eyed Cathy with an unreadable smile, "take the scarf, yeah?"
Cathy caught the scarf that Anne tossed at her and put it on. She didn't even bother fixing her hair, she just made her way back to the areas she was actually allowed to be in undetected.
"What happened?" Catalina appeared out of nowhere.
Flustered, Cathy pulled the scarf higher to hide herself, "uh.. Nothing?"
"Why are you wearing a scarf?"
"Because of Anne, don't worry about it."
That didn't really answer Lina's question, she glanced at Cathy's face from all different angles, puzzled. "Did she hurt you?"
Cathy giggled, "no, I'm okay. I have some news about Jane for you."
"Aw, you shouldn't have."
Excitedly, Cathy hit Catalina's arm, still doing so gently, since she wasn't actually fully right, "she's bi!"
"Oh, alright, thank you," Catalina hugged Cathy tightly, showing that she was really thankful, "you really didn't have to."
"Now get to work," Cathy squeaked, uncharacteristically energetic, "you have a girl to win!"
"Yeah..!"
Under her breath Cathy added, "I seriously thought you'd be first to get a girlfriend.."
"What?" Catalina narrowed her eyes at Cathy.
"What?"
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While she really should be paying attention to the teacher, Jane was looking at Catalina because Catalina was suspiciously distracted.
Over their distance Jane could recognise that Catalina was writing something, something that wasn't school related. The paper wasn't very clean and tidy, it wasn't colour coordinated nor was the teacher drawing anything on the board, so Jane squinted, trying to see what exactly Lina was writing.
Jane could guess, from the formatting of text, that it was a letter. It was private for sure. From the way Catalina glanced around from time to time, it was clear that she didn't want anybody to read this. She unsuccessfully tried to read even a single word, even though she knew she shouldn't.
When Catalina groaned and crumpled up the paper near the end of the lesson, Jane looked back at the blackboard, she did still see how Lina threw the letter away and against he better judgement she wanted to see everything Catalina wrote.
For the rest of class, Jane kept her eyes on the exact location of the paper ball was at, she stayed after everyone but the teacher had left, like she did occasionally. She offered to sweep the floor, which she got to do and did, silently. When the teacher wasn't looking for one second, Jane fished Catalina's letter from the trashcan, then continued to clean.
The teacher thanked her and Jane left, happy to help and to find out a new thing about her beloved Catalina.
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Jane wrote all about Catalina's letter, which she now learned was a love letter, she even scanned it to clue a small version into the journal. Never in her entire life had Jane ever this angry. Catalina had obviously struggled to find words that would describe this 'wonderful beauty'.
(The amount of jealous rants Kat had to endure should have been illegal. Poor girl was sick, she wasn't supposed to be this invested in drama, couldn't help it though.)
Jane wrote for hours, which was quite unusual for her, normally the only person writing this much was Catherine Parr, but Jane also only knew this because she observed Catalina for years. Eventually, Jane stopped midway through a word though, horrified at the realisation that she had grown possessive over someone she hadn't even talked to properly.
Scared of herself, Jane closed the book, the ten pages she had written, to calm down and not get lost in an endless cycle of overprotectiveness and irrational decisions.
That's why she leaned back in her desk chair and clears her mind of negativity, she did her best to think of a way she'd approach Lina like a normal person. She could maybe actually start a conversation in the library, Jane always went there when she saw Catalina walk in the general direction of books.
At some point Anne walked in to see Jane glare earnestly at the journal with her arms crossed, so Anne forced her help and advice onto Jane. That included watching as many slime tutorials as it took to get Jane to feel happy again, even if it was well past midnight.
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Cathy sighed in adoration, looking at Anne tossing rocks at the younger students in school. Anne was always so perfect, surprisingly considerate and caring. Like after she aggressively made out with Cathy, she gave her a scarf to cover up some evidence of their actions. So sweet..
And! Anne beat up a guy for her once too, just because he wouldn't stop asking for. her number. Literally an angel.. or a guardian demon, which may have been cooler.
Anne really didn't have a reason to do any of that. They hadn't even decided on a label. Nor did they tell anyone about their 'relationship'.
"Catherine, I need your help," Jane's voice made Cathy both flinch and grimace.
"Nobody calls me that, it's just Cathy, what can I do?" Cathy offered the currently empty seat next to herself.
Jane looked off to the side, shyly speaking, "I have a question about Catalina.."
Energy rushed through Cathy, yet she restrained herself from freaking out, "yes?"
"Do you know if-" Jane visibly regretted beginning with these words, she started over, "look, one of my friends, not close friends, a nice acquaintance, really likes her, do you know if she'd be interested in a relationship..?" The lie was painfully obvious, both of them were aware.
But Cathy didn't want. to make a mistake so she played along, "as far as I know she kind of likes someone specific, could you tell me who you're talking about?"
"I don't think I can.. Uh, just in case though, would she- I mean- she- g- girls? Yes? N-no?"
Cathy had to force herself to keep quiet and not burst out laughing, "I don't actually know, let me text her." She figured this would be the safest option.
Catalina responded instantly, 'Jane wants to know if I'm into girls? F*ck yeah I am! Don't let her spread that around tho.' Cathy chuckled, Lina always censored her texts, there was literally no point to it.
"Yep, as suspected, she is into girls, but you can't go around telling everyone," Cathy watched closely as Jane's face reddened.
It looked like Jane was about to say something, but Cathy stopped her, with a wide smirk she teased, "interesting, I wasn't aware one could be acquainted with themselves."
Jane panicked, "no no no no! I- It's not like that! I just- you don't understand, I-" she was blushing furiously at this point, Cathy held her back before she would have a full blown breakdown, "relax, I was just kidding, but I wasn't off by far as it seems."
"Oh, please don't tell her! I'll give you whatever you want! No limits, I swear!"
Cathy couldn't contain her laugher any longer, "just tell her how you feel!"
"Are you sure?" Jane worried that Cathy was aiming to point fun at her.
"Definitely. I'd die to see that."
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Jane ran to Anne for more help, Anne listened intently, she made sure not to miss any detail. "So Cathy told you that?"
Jane nodded sharply, "yes."
"And she told you to confess."
"Correct, she told me she'd die to see it.
Anne nodded, "that either means your Lina likes you too and she'll be as awkward or worse than you and it'd be hilarious seeing you dumbly try to flirt, or it could mean that she doesn't like you at all and Cathy's a shithead," she stated the outcomes that were most obvious to Jane.
"Helpful," Jane grumbled.
"Sarcasm! I'm so proud!"
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"Whatever," Jane chugged Anne's energy drink, earning a surprised noise from Anne, "I'm just going to do it. Today. Parr's not here, this is my chance."
Anne cheered, "exactly! Go shoot your shot! And if it doesn't work out, we're skipping the rest of the day and watching Disney stuff with Kat."
"Okay," Jane took a deep breath, "now I just need to decide on how to-"
A paper plane hit Jane's head, confused, she looked over to where it had came from. Anna, Kat's girlfriend and best friend, grinned back at her and vaguely gestured at the distracted Catalina.
Jane unfolded the plane, the words she read were familiar. This was a neater and more poetically written version of the letter Catalina had written a few days prior. And sure enough, it was signed Lina and addressed to Jane. The handwriting was undoubtedly Catalina's.
Jane gathered up the extra courage necessary and walked over to Catalina and Anna.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Jane looked directly up into Catalina's eyes.
Without saying anything else Catalina followed Jane around the corner, to a hall that was normally locked off during breaks.
"What did you want to tal-"
Jane shushed her with a small smile, "shut up, darling."
Lina's eyes fell to Jane's lips, even for just a second. She would have internally freaked out, but couldn't even really think anymore because Jane had pulled her into a firm kiss.
Catalina was slowly backed against a wall by Jane, who was notably shorter might I mention. Jane would not give her space, but Catalina was very happy that way, she really wanted to be closer to Jane, no matter what she needed to do to achieve the ultimate closeness. She was willing to do anything in the world to kiss Jane closer.
Catalina just pulled Jane tighter by the waist, holding her as close as was possible without breaking any bones.
"You.. are so.. sweet," Jane whispered between kisses. Those words made Catalina squeeze at Jane's hips.
Almost as a reflex, Jane swapped their positions, so that she herself was up at the wall. Catalina cupped Jane's cheek, while softening the kiss.
"Lina..." Jane hummed, with her eyes closed, "I need to tell you that I really really like you."
Catalina smiled at her excitedly, "really?"
Jane connected their lips once again, for a short moment, "mhm. Will you be my girlfriend?"
Tearing up, Lina nodded, "of course! I've liked you for ages."
"You want to bet I've liked you longer?" Jane tested with a flustered grin.
Thinking Jane couldn't possibly have liked her for longer than two years, Lina giggled, "how long?"
While kissing her one more time, Jane mumbled against her lips, "since 7th grade." Catalina gasped softly, "are you serious? I didn't think you even knew I existed up until a few weeks ago!"
"Well yeah, you've always been important to me. Sorry by the way for how much big stuff I'm saying out of nowhere, I've just been holding back for a while."
"Do you remember when you gave me a pen a while back?" Catalina asked, "because since about a month before that I began crushing on you. But.. where is all of this coming from in the first place?" Lina ran a hand through Jane's hair.
Jane pecked Catalina's nose, "a little German birdie told me.." she giggled, "by throwing your letter at me."
Catalina groaned in frustration, "Anna. Shit, I'm not even surprised."
Jane leaned in close to whisper into Lina's ear, "I also really liked the version in which you called me an ethereal being."
"Wha-"
"HEY!" their amazing moment was interrupted, "YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!"
Since neither of them really wanted to deal with the economics teacher, they rushed away, giggling like little kids while doing so.
No stupid teacher was going to stop them now!
But Anne reading the letter out loud to them in a mocking voice did.