A/N: This idea was given to me by @yaplaygirl - Thank you!!<3
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Y/N stood waiting in front of her Sergeant's office, wearing her recently pressed military fatigues. The Sergeant's secretary was typing away and it was the only noise that she could hear at this precise the moment, in this waiting room.
The heat was weighing down on Y/N, as she felt a bead of sweat running down her forehead. Camp Justice in Oman, where she was currently stationed, wasn't all that bad. She had it easy compared to her other colleagues who were not so fortunate being stationed in Afghanistan and faced daily risks.
"Specialist Y/L/N – Sergeant Major Morgan is ready to see you." The secretary called out, snapping Y/N out of her trance and nodding her head, indicating that she understood.
She knocked at the door, waiting for the Sergeant Major to give his approval for her coming in.
"Come in Specialist Y/L/N." A very deep voice echoed through the heavy wooden door.
Y/N opened the door and with a confident step, walked into the office.
"Good afternoon, Sergeant Major Morgan sir." Y/N politely greeted and saluted her superior. He simply smiled at her saluting motion and indicated for her to sit down in front of him.
She took a seat in silence as he took his seat at his desk, reaching down to the bottom drawer of his desk and pulling out a file out from it.
"What a sad day it is for the whole entire base. I can't believe your 4 years with us has come to and end so fast." He said opening the file and studying it very carefully.
Y/N thought that these 4 years would never end. She loved the army, she dedicated her life to it, but she was happy to go home to see her friends and family; more specifically to see one little brunette in particular that she had so dearly missed.
"Your time here has truly been impressive. Starting as a private and making your way up so fast to be assigned as a Specialist in Special Forces. You really joined the ranks of the elite we have seen come through this base." He said resuming her career very quickly.
Y/N had specialized in Special Forces, meaning she was trained in close combat, escape training, air operations and shooting, making her and her colleagues one of the most heavily relied on team when it came to very delicate and specific interventions around the country.
Y/N stayed silent as her superior was going through everything. She remained patient, longing to hear the words she knew he was bound to say eventually.
"But now your time has come to leave us." He paused and looked up at her, smiling briefly, before taking out a certificate.
"I have here your Honorable Discharge – you've exceeded the required standards for performance and personal conduct and you have my highest of ratings. What are you going to do with your time now? Are you sure we can't persuade you into staying?" He said as he slid the Honorable Discharge over to Y/N.
"It's going to be a very big change and I will have to adjust into my new lifestyle out of the army. I do need to get back to my family for a little bit, they need me." Y/N explained, not particularly mentioning that it was mostly for having a normal life again and seeing her friends.
"That's absolutely understandable." He smiled. Sergeant Major Morgan had seen a lot of people come and go over his military service, but he never would regret a soldier more than Y/N.
They both spoke some more until he indicated that she should get packing as a plane would leave the next morning to bring her and the others who had been discharged back home safely.
Ariana was stood in front of her mirror, watching Josh doing finishing touch ups on her hair. She looked at her reflection getting lost in her thoughts.
Lately things had been so hard for her and she was struggling to cope with it. She had spoken to Courtney and Victoria about it, but despite their best efforts, both of them had failed in truly understanding what Ariana was going through.
The only person who truly understood Ariana was shipped out somewhere halfway across the world and she had no idea where she was.
The military refused to disclose locations of their soldiers and therefore, communication was very limited. The times for phone calls never matched Ariana and Y/N's schedule so they never talked on the phone.
Instead, Y/N had started another way of communicating and proved to be very diligent in sending Ariana handwritten letters.
She loved that kind of attention and throwback. She wrote back several letters, really lengthy ones too, which meant that she sent letters once every two months instead of once a week like Y/N.
Despite the time it took for her to respond, Y/N never missed a week of letter in her 4 years stationed overseas. She shared her thoughts and fears, her dreams of what she was going to do when she came back, of the things they would do together once she was back.
Ariana loved that, and because of those letters never stopped thinking about Y/N.
Y/N had held on to every single letter as well, as a sort of motivation, and that's what kept her going.
She hadn't heard from Y/N last week and that was the reason she was a bit worried at this moment. Had something happened to her? She would never know until her family would show up at Ariana's door telling her if something had.
Ariana and Y/N had been friends due to their parents. Her mom and Y/N's parents had met over a dinner when both of them were just children. They grew up in the same neighbourhood and spent a lot of days playing together outside and at each other's homes.
As they grew up, they became two very different people; Ariana made her debut in television and Y/N got in trouble a lot.
She was sent to a boarding school and Ariana went to California.
They were, therefore, no strangers to writing letters. It had been their only way of communication for a long time.
Once Y/N graduated and got her life back on track and Ariana was starting her music career, they hung out more, grew closer than they already were.
Ariana found herself developing a secret crush on her friend during that time, which she was too afraid to reveal to Y/N.
When Y/N would look at her, she needed to look away in order not to blush or have her figure out her secret. She knew of Y/N's sexual orientation, but she wasn't quite sure of hers and therefore didn't want to ruin their friendship by taking that step and not being sure.
Y/N found herself to be more overprotective of her musically talented friend. When she would smile and laugh, she would get that feeling in the pit of her stomach, a fluttery feeling which she could not shake off.
They both lived with their secret crush on each other in silence.
They watched each other date other people over the years.
Both of them would comfort one another when their hearts got broken.
When Ariana got into a long term relationship with Mac, she genuinely thought she had found the one that could get Y/N off her mind.
Y/N felt herself get pushed away and decided to let Ariana live her life with someone else.
It came to a huge shock for Ariana when Y/N announced to her that she had enlisted in the military and was going to get sent overseas for 4 years.
She hated Y/N with all her being at that very moment. She cried that night in her room, from sadness, from fear of not knowing where she was going and what she was getting herself into.
"Ariana, you're scaring me. You've been staring at yourself for the past 5 minutes without batting an eyelid. Are you okay?" Josh snapped her out of her recollection of memories, while brushing her long ponytail, making sure she was looking flawless for her upcoming performance.
"Yeah, I'm just trying to meditate before going on stage." Ariana lied.
Meditating was definitely not meant to be this emotional and thought ridden.
On the other side of the venue, Y/N pulled up on the VIP side parking. Joan had granted her access to the parking where all the tour buses were parked and agreed to meet Y/N there.
Y/N's parents had announced the lovely news of Y/N's return five days ago to Joan.
Joan, just like Ariana, knew Y/N since she was a child and it therefore also came as wonderful news to her.
Joan had always figured out that there was chemistry in between her daughter and Y/N, and that her daughter was in the closet. Lately, she had not been herself. She was distant, always forcing smiles and just isolated herself a lot.
Y/N had agreed with Joan that Ariana needed a surprise and that was exactly what they were going to do tonight after the show.
Ariana got herself ready underneath the stage, on the pulley that would place her on stage after the introduction. She could hear the fans screaming and it made everything better.
If it hadn't been for them and the letters from Y/N, Ariana would have truly lost it with everything that had happened to her over the past 2 years. The attacks, the loss of Mac, this messy thing she had gotten into with Pete.
She breathed out, focusing on the going on stage and seeing her children again, as she liked to call them.
Y/N hid and blended in very well in the VIP part of the crowd where she could see Ariana. In order not to give up the surprise, Joan and Y/N had agreed that they would not be standing next to each other as Ariana always turned to her mom in the crowd when she knew she was there.
Instead, Y/N stood in the middle of a group of label executives and admired Ariana from a distance. She really had missed this breathtakingly beautiful girl. She had missed her dimples as she smiled a whole and genuine smile; the one she did when she was truly happy. She also had missed that little light in her eye when she was truly amazed and marvelled at things, the way she moved, but most of all, her voice and laugh.
There was no more denying that Y/N was truly in love with her best friend.
The show went by way too fast, for everyone in the venue it seemed, even Ariana herself. If she could spend her entire life on stage without ever leaving it, she would.
Joan had left the crowd, followed at a distance by Y/N, to get into place to surprise Ariana. They decided that Ariana's changing room would be the best place as it offered more intimacy for the two friends to rekindle their relationship.
Ariana followed her security as she removed her equipment from behind her outfit and handed it to the sound technicians following closely behind. She was sad that this night had gone by so quick and the only thing on her mind now was to go home and sleep as she was trying to avoid overthinking the situation with Y/N.
What if she had been killed in action? She found herself finding instantly sad as her lips quivered by the sheer sadness of that thought. What would she do?
The security team stood in front of her changing room, as she walked in and turned on the lights.
She couldn't believe her eyes. She froze on sight, literally not able to feel anything else but her heartbeat.
There stood Y/N.
Was she seeing her ghost?
Her mom was standing next to her with a wide smile, clearly happy that she had managed to genuinely surprise her daughter.
"You look like you've seen a ghost." Was the first thing that came out of Y/N's mouth and Ariana couldn't help but feel that she just read her thoughts.
That's another thing she loved about her best friend. She could read her mind. Anything she thought or was running through her mind, Y/N always seemed to know.
Ariana broke into a quick run as she dashed for her best friend, longing to feel her embrace again. The two of them did just that; embrace in the most innocent sense of that word.
Their hearts screaming in delight as they were reunited again.
Ariana felt a sudden feeling of being whole, while Y/N felt a sudden feeling of being home.
Joan exited the room, wanting to leave them their privacy that they desperately needed.
Her job here was done.
Ariana swore that she could even feel Y/N's heartbeat as it was beating out of control.
"I really thought you were a ghost. You didn't send me your weekly letter and I thought something bad happened to you." Ariana finally spoke out and Y/N felt herself having goosebumps from Ariana's voice being so close to her ear.
"I'm sorry, I would have probably given away the surprise of me coming back home if I had." Y/N said laughing and sincerely apologizing, being very self conscious of the fact that she was terrible at keeping secrets.
"Just don't do it again. I really didn't like where my mind was going when I hadn't heard from you." Ariana said, pulling away from the hug and looking at her friend with a very serious look.
Y/N hadn't even thought of the lack of correspondence being a possibility of her thinking she was killed in action, and instantly felt guilty that she had let Ariana's mind wander to that place.
"It won't ever happen again because I've been honourably discharged." Y/N broke out the news to Ariana.
Ariana couldn't be any happier, as she let out a squeal of excitement and led her to hug Y/N even tighter, unable to contain her excitement.
This meant that Y/N could stay close to her and they would never have to write another letter to each other.
"So you won't ever have to go back?" Ariana asked, wanting a full confirmation again that she could allow herself to be truly happy.
"No. Unless I want to re-enlist." Y/N said, smiling at the concerning look she was getting from Ariana.
"Over my dead body." Ariana couldn't help but scold her for even thinking of re-enlisting and leaving her alone again.
"I didn't know you felt so strongly about me being in the army." Y/N laughed at the snappy tone of voice Ariana was projecting towards her. She kept smiling, wondering if Ariana felt the same way towards her as she did for her.
Ariana hesitated in her next choice of words. She had thought so much about Y/N, not in the way a friend thinks of another friend. The way a heart thinks of something that it's missing; with the feeling of happiness, longing, void and sadness at the same time.
"I feel strongly about anything that takes your heart away from mine." Ariana softly said, wishing she would have sounded more assertive in her confession.
Assertive or not, Y/N stood still at Ariana's soft declaration. There was definitely a big cloud of romantic tension hanging over their heads. It was so silent, the only thing they could hear were each other breathing.
Y/N made the first moved and leaned in to catch her lips and covered Ariana's lips with her own. Ariana responded almost immediately to the kiss. She had always wondered what Y/N's lips felt like against her own and she was not disappointed. Her mouth was warm, the caress of her lips moving against her own, in perfect synchronicity, was softer than she could have ever imagined.
When they pulled apart, Y/N felt a sudden urge to kiss her again, longer than before this time, but she stopped herself, realizing what she had just done.
Ariana could see the look of concern on Y/N's face. She knew that look as she had felt that concern too; what if acting on her feeling would ruin their friendship.
She was quick to put Y/N's worries to rest as shewas the one to initiate the kiss this time, answering Y/N's wish for a secondkiss. This time the kiss was more passionate, had more force in it, had morelonging.
This kiss was trying to make up for all the years of kissingthey had missed out on.