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fictionalaspect's birthday! Dearest cowriter, light of my life, I hope you have the day you want today. I believe I've told you before that I think you're marvelously talented, that it's ridiculously easy to write with you, that you make me kind of happy just in general too, not just because you agree that rare pairings can be the most fun ever. I just love the way you think, loveling, and I love how kind you are, and I love that I found you. ♥ Anyway. You'll never guess what I wrote you--no, you totally will. I hope you like, a little bit. All my love, yeah?
Title: Why Wait Any Longer
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Annie/Laena
Summary: Annie pines. High School AU, an outtake from an, um, bigger verse. Also, sort of a barista!AU with awkward girls instead of boys.
Warnings: None, really.
Word Count: 2800
Disclaimer: This particular incarnation of The Like did not go to school together, ergo, this story did not really happen.
Author's Notes: Forfictionalaspect on her birthday. ♥, darling, you are a joy, and I hope this is a little bit like how you imagined it back when you first told me to write it. Thanks to blindmouse for looking it over for me and fixing my silliness. The title is from Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay."
"So rehearsal was okay," Annie says.
Laena hums noncommittally, flicking at the switches of the espresso machine, and then she hands over Annie's mocha. It's perfect.
Annie sips at it carefully and tries not to stare too obviously at Laena where she's back at the counter, taking the order of someone who bounces too much and grins too brightly. He might go to their school, actually.
Annie hasn't figured out how to smile that big without looking ridiculous, and anyway she tries not to do it around Laena, because surely eventually Laena must figure it out.
She can't help but grin a little when Laena comes back to her between orders, ostensibly to check if she needs anything but really to say, "Hey, I forgot--that new thing you showed us, it was awesome. Made up for how other things are not so great, you know?"
"Really?" Annie's smile grows, then, because she's such a sucker, such a sucker for Laena complimenting her. "Um, I mean, the only thing sucking is, like. No drummer, that blows."
"Yeah," sighs Laena. "Also, Z and I keep going out of sync and stuff, but you, you're always really on."
She slips a cookie over the counter to Annie, who tries to look innocent when taking it but probably fails. (Laena's not supposed to give out cookies, obviously. But her boss isn't working, so it's probably okay.)
"Hey," Annie says then, possibly emboldened by the sugar. "Want to, I mean, Z has a thing, but we could get together and work on some stuff anyway?"
Laena smiles, slow. "Yeah, I was thinking--" and then she looks over at the line and makes this hilariously horrified face.
"Go work!" Annie says between giggles. "Later, we'll talk when you get off here." And she absolutely does not blush this time. Mostly.
Also, she definitely gets some work done while waiting for Laena to get off work. With an emphasis on "some." It's not her fault; Laena's just—her elbows, and her hands, how is Annie supposed to stop looking?
God, this is awkward. Also, she's convinced she keeps blushing every time Laena glances over at her, even if Z says that Annie blushes less than she thinks she does.
Speaking of Z: Annie's phone buzzes, and she looks at it. Extra rehearsal tomorrow, does that work? (Z spells everything right when she's texting, which is pretty hilarious. She complains about Ryan's texting a lot; also funny. Well, she complains about everyone's texting, but she seems to feel like Ryan should be on her side and is totally indignant that he's not.)
Annie writes, y, see you at school, and waits for Laena to hang up her apron—her shift is finally over.
"Extra rehearsal tomorrow," Annie tells her.
"Wait, again? Z does know the drums on the keyboard won't sound any better even if we rehearse more, right?"
Annie shakes her head. "I think she's just nervous. The Talent Show is coming up so soon."
"You know her better than I do," Laena says, grinning ruefully.
"We just went to camp together that one time." Really, the only person who knows Z really well is Ryan.
"As long as I play, right?" Laena sounds dry. "I just don't want Z to think I'm another Charlotte, and I don't how to act to show her I'm not."
She shakes her head. "It's not—it was bad, sure, but Charlotte's happier at that other school. For sure. And Z knows it."
"Yeah, I know. She just misses her, and I'm not her." Laena hefts her bag over her shoulder and grabs her bass. She sounds matter-of-fact and she probably is, Laena is pretty matter-of-fact about a lot of things, but Annie still can't stand it. She knows what it's like to feel like you don't fit.
"No, you're not. You play the violin." Ha, her Z impression has gotten better, and it totally does the trick: Laena starts laughing.
"I do indeed," she says. "Remember the first time I brought it to practice?"
Sure, Annie remembers. Z's eyes went all big and she started talking really really fast, and Annie, well, she sat down, right where she stood, because Laena was pretty much stupidly gorgeous all the time, but when she played the violin her face got all still and Annie couldn't—
She manages a giggle. "How could I forget?" And if Annie kicks herself internally, because really, how much can you pine before it becomes stupid, Laena doesn't notice. She just grins and says something about how Z tried to add violin to a song that required bass two weeks ago, and Laena had to explain that she couldn't play both of them at the same time.
"I think Z would have me grow an extra pair of arms if she could," Laena says. "That would actually be useful at work, too, oh man, it was pretty unbelievable today."
Annie clears her throat. "Did you get a new one?" Laena 'collects' hilarious customers, because Starbucks attracts the weird sometimes, especially this one for some reason.
"Yes, oh my god. This, like, eight feet tall guy came in with a purple—well, I thought it was a scarf, but he explained it was definitely a snake. A stuffed one. I think it had leopard print, though?"
"…that's a new one. So why was he carrying around a snake?"
Laena bites his lip. "Get this, he said it was his muse. His muse."
And then they're both laughing, and god, Annie just wants to kiss her. Ugh. Instead she keeps Laena smiling and talking, and then they iron out some transitions in the songs, which takes them an hour and a half.
After this Laena finds the pile of CDs Annie got at the Borders sale last week, and of course they have to listen to them then. Laena keeps plucking at her bass while she listens, and Annie knows she's actually learning the songs, sort of. Not all of them and not the whole songs, but she can pick things up like that.
Mostly Annie just thinks about the way Laena's fingers move slower when she's hesitant about what she's playing; they move slower and they curve softly and—
When Laena goes home, Annie sits herself down and tries to give herself a stern talk about how she really ought not to do this anymore.
--
Annie knows she comes into Laena's Starbucks a lot. Usually she's not bleeding, though, or she maybe wouldn't be on her way there for the second day in a row.
"No, it's fine, Z," she says, trying to hold her phone and roll up her pants leg at the same time. "It's just a scrape, Laena will patch me up and I'll be good to go."
"It's just that the talent show is only three days away—"
"Z."
Z doesn't stop talking: "…and I worry and what if you can't play, then we don't have a drummer or a keyboardist and I just—"
"Z. I don't play piano with my knee, I promise, and it's not going to affect my ability to use the pedal. Anyway, I gotta go, I'll see you at rehearsal."
"Uh, I hope you're okay? And yeah, see you."
She hobbles into the Starbucks (she wasn't precisely lying to Z about it impairing her ability to play, but it does hurt when she walks. She'll have to wear pants to the show, too). Luckily the café is pretty empty, so Annie doesn't feel weird about occupying the couch and, like, sitting there with only one pants leg rolled up.
"Hey, what happened to you?" Laena calls, coming out from behind the counter. "Oh, ow."
"I fell," Annie said. "Again. You think this growth spurt is ever going to stop?"
"I don't know, I'm still waiting to be less short," Laena says, carefully touching Annie's knee. "That doesn't look too bad, but I'd better wash it out and get you some bandaids."
There are a lot of tiny scrapes on Annie's knee, overlaying what feels like an enormous bruise just waiting to come out and be painful.
Laena carries a first aid kit over and sits down on the table in front of the couch.
"It's okay, I can—" Annie says hastily, because while it's really nice when Laena touches her, it's also really, um. Awkward.
"Hey, no, I got it," Laena says, getting out an antiseptic wipe. "I'm a total pro, older sister and champion tree climber and all." She starts carefully cleaning the cuts on Annie's knee, picking out the gravel. It's sort of agonizing, because she does it really slowly, and it hurts a little bit, but mostly it means Laena's hair brushes her bare leg every now and then, and it means she's really close, and Annie might, she's not sure, die or something. Or at least faint. Seriously.
Laena's weirdly quiet too, and she draws a quick breath every now and then, almost like she's nervous.
"There," she says finally, putting a couple of bandaids on the bigger cuts. "That should be okay, I think?"
"It's totally great," Annie says, reaching over and touching Laena's arm. "Thank you."
Laena smiles a little strangely. "Any time, really," and then she touches Annie's cheek before grabbing the first aid kit and going to put it back behind the counter.
Annie sort of touches her cheek then too, swallowing against how much she wants to just—
No, bad idea. They have rehearsal.
--
Two days later, she's waiting outside when Laena gets out. Laena is supposed to get ready at Annie's house, as is Z, because apparently they need to coordinate things right. Also Annie needs help with her eyeliner. She's not sure how Laena and Z are both so good at it; she usually ends up with lines that look like she used a toothbrush instead of a thin, thin liner.
Z's coming later, something about a makeup English exam (which is just weird, but Annie thinks it might be the one she was supposed to have taken a couple of weeks ago when Ryan was in the hospital for a night and Z blew off all her classes).
They're in Annie's room, laying out their clothes on the bed, when Annie's mom knocks. Annie reaches over and opens the door.
"Yeah, Mom?"
"Are you sure you don't want us to come tonight? It'd be nice if we could stay and watch instead of just driving you there."
Annie bites her lip. "No, mom, it's more of a student thing. And besides, it's our first gig with the new songs, I'd rather you came when we knew them better, you know?"
"Honey, you know I think you're wonderful no matter what."
"I know, I know, I'd just rather." She knows she could go up there dressed in the worst pink princess dress in the universe and play "The Entertainer," and her mom would still applaud.
Her mom ruffles her hair. "Whatever you want, sweetheart." She still does that, even though Annie's like a foot taller than her now.
Well, there went any hope Annie had of looking like an adult in front of Laena. She smiles, embarrassed.
"Sorry about that."
"Hey, no worries," Laena said. "My dad tapes every performance I let him, still. You should see the tapes, the first one is from when I was five."
Annie grins. "Awww, I bet you were adorable."
"And sulky. Don't forget sulky."
"Really?"
"Well, I didn't actually like performing at first, it was mostly about playing, and so I threw major tantrums before all the shows." Laena's unbuttoning her work shirt as she's talking, and Annie has to focus in order to keep listening to what she's saying. She's wearing this camisole underneath, the kind with built-in support, and it's totally not the sexy kind, no lace or anything, except it actually is.
She realizes she's lost track of what Laena is telling her. "What? Um, I mean, when did you start liking being on stage?"
Laena turns away to pull her camisole over her head, and that's her back, and her skin, and, and.
"Oh, when I realized it was all about loving playing, and when you were on stage you could make the audience love what you loved." Laena starts digging through the bag she brought. "I could have sworn I brought my white bra, seriously."
Annie manages a laugh. "I'd lend you mine, except it'd be too big."
Laena's hands stop moving for a second, and then they start again. "Good, here it is." She puts it on and for some reason, she can't get the clasp to close. It looks like maybe her hands are shaking a little; probably she's nervous about tonight.
"Here, let me get it," Annie says without thinking about it, and then her hands are on Laena's back, and she can't close the stupid clasp either, she's shaking so badly.
"Sorry," she mumbles, fighting with it. Laena's breathing weirdly, and Annie kind of is too, and she really can't get it to work. "Dammit, what is wrong with this bra?"
"I don't know," Laena says, and her voice is kind of low. "Let me—" and she reaches up and slides it off her shoulders, turning around, practically in Annie's arms.
Annie would back up, tries to, even, except that basically means she sits down on the bed. She looks up at Laena, whose eyes are dark.
"Your bra is really defective," she says, trying to keep her voice from wobbling.
"It is," Laena agrees, but she's not looking at the bra, she's looking at Annie.
Annie has no idea where to look, because Laena is half naked. In her room. "Can I take a look? Sometimes I'm good at fixing clasps, I did a lot of theatre at one point."
When she was ten, but she needs an excuse to look down and not at Laena. Who is still not looking away. Annie reaches out for the bra, and Laena, Laena shifts her grip on it, touching Annie's fingers.
"I just," she says, and stops.
"What?" Annie says, and can't actually keep herself from taking Laena's hand.
Laena draws a breath at that, and smiles a smile that looks like the one she wears when she's being brave, like when she walked into practice and asked them if they needed a bassist.
"Please don't hate me," she whispers, and then she leans in and kisses Annie, kisses her so lightly that Annie can barely feel it.
Annie shakes her head and tightens her grip on Laena's hand when she starts to back away. "How could I, no, no," she says, and pulls Laena closer, kissing her again.
"You too?" Laena says against her lips. This close, Annie can feel how warm she is, and she thinks about maybe pulling her closer, because it can't be comfortable to lean over Annie when she's sitting down like this. Or something. Mostly she just wants to touch, but she thinks about letting go of Laena's hand, and it's sort of terrifying.
"Me too," she says instead. "Me very too." She leans into Laena's kiss again, and manages to bring her other hand up to touch Laena's waist. It should be too much to bear, the warm shadows around them and the sun setting outside. Laena's fingers curving around her neck, so careful still. Annie thinks about how eventually they won't need to be so careful with each other; she thinks about stage lights and standing up straight and music; she thinks about not being afraid.
"We have to get ready," Laena says, except she's climbing into Annie's lap, not even pretending to move away.
"I know," Annie says, and kisses her, finally sliding her hands up Laena's back. "I know, let's just, let's just stay a little bit."
"Staying, yes," Laena says, winding her arms around Annie's neck.
Annie closes her eyes and holds on.
fictionalaspect's birthday! Dearest cowriter, light of my life, I hope you have the day you want today. I believe I've told you before that I think you're marvelously talented, that it's ridiculously easy to write with you, that you make me kind of happy just in general too, not just because you agree that rare pairings can be the most fun ever. I just love the way you think, loveling, and I love how kind you are, and I love that I found you. ♥ Anyway. You'll never guess what I wrote you--no, you totally will. I hope you like, a little bit. All my love, yeah?Title: Why Wait Any Longer
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Annie/Laena
Summary: Annie pines. High School AU, an outtake from an, um, bigger verse. Also, sort of a barista!AU with awkward girls instead of boys.
Warnings: None, really.
Word Count: 2800
Disclaimer: This particular incarnation of The Like did not go to school together, ergo, this story did not really happen.
Author's Notes: For
fictionalaspect on her birthday. ♥, darling, you are a joy, and I hope this is a little bit like how you imagined it back when you first told me to write it. Thanks to blindmouse for looking it over for me and fixing my silliness. The title is from Dylan's "Lay Lady Lay." "So rehearsal was okay," Annie says.
Laena hums noncommittally, flicking at the switches of the espresso machine, and then she hands over Annie's mocha. It's perfect.
Annie sips at it carefully and tries not to stare too obviously at Laena where she's back at the counter, taking the order of someone who bounces too much and grins too brightly. He might go to their school, actually.
Annie hasn't figured out how to smile that big without looking ridiculous, and anyway she tries not to do it around Laena, because surely eventually Laena must figure it out.
She can't help but grin a little when Laena comes back to her between orders, ostensibly to check if she needs anything but really to say, "Hey, I forgot--that new thing you showed us, it was awesome. Made up for how other things are not so great, you know?"
"Really?" Annie's smile grows, then, because she's such a sucker, such a sucker for Laena complimenting her. "Um, I mean, the only thing sucking is, like. No drummer, that blows."
"Yeah," sighs Laena. "Also, Z and I keep going out of sync and stuff, but you, you're always really on."
She slips a cookie over the counter to Annie, who tries to look innocent when taking it but probably fails. (Laena's not supposed to give out cookies, obviously. But her boss isn't working, so it's probably okay.)
"Hey," Annie says then, possibly emboldened by the sugar. "Want to, I mean, Z has a thing, but we could get together and work on some stuff anyway?"
Laena smiles, slow. "Yeah, I was thinking--" and then she looks over at the line and makes this hilariously horrified face.
"Go work!" Annie says between giggles. "Later, we'll talk when you get off here." And she absolutely does not blush this time. Mostly.
Also, she definitely gets some work done while waiting for Laena to get off work. With an emphasis on "some." It's not her fault; Laena's just—her elbows, and her hands, how is Annie supposed to stop looking?
God, this is awkward. Also, she's convinced she keeps blushing every time Laena glances over at her, even if Z says that Annie blushes less than she thinks she does.
Speaking of Z: Annie's phone buzzes, and she looks at it. Extra rehearsal tomorrow, does that work? (Z spells everything right when she's texting, which is pretty hilarious. She complains about Ryan's texting a lot; also funny. Well, she complains about everyone's texting, but she seems to feel like Ryan should be on her side and is totally indignant that he's not.)
Annie writes, y, see you at school, and waits for Laena to hang up her apron—her shift is finally over.
"Extra rehearsal tomorrow," Annie tells her.
"Wait, again? Z does know the drums on the keyboard won't sound any better even if we rehearse more, right?"
Annie shakes her head. "I think she's just nervous. The Talent Show is coming up so soon."
"You know her better than I do," Laena says, grinning ruefully.
"We just went to camp together that one time." Really, the only person who knows Z really well is Ryan.
"As long as I play, right?" Laena sounds dry. "I just don't want Z to think I'm another Charlotte, and I don't how to act to show her I'm not."
She shakes her head. "It's not—it was bad, sure, but Charlotte's happier at that other school. For sure. And Z knows it."
"Yeah, I know. She just misses her, and I'm not her." Laena hefts her bag over her shoulder and grabs her bass. She sounds matter-of-fact and she probably is, Laena is pretty matter-of-fact about a lot of things, but Annie still can't stand it. She knows what it's like to feel like you don't fit.
"No, you're not. You play the violin." Ha, her Z impression has gotten better, and it totally does the trick: Laena starts laughing.
"I do indeed," she says. "Remember the first time I brought it to practice?"
Sure, Annie remembers. Z's eyes went all big and she started talking really really fast, and Annie, well, she sat down, right where she stood, because Laena was pretty much stupidly gorgeous all the time, but when she played the violin her face got all still and Annie couldn't—
She manages a giggle. "How could I forget?" And if Annie kicks herself internally, because really, how much can you pine before it becomes stupid, Laena doesn't notice. She just grins and says something about how Z tried to add violin to a song that required bass two weeks ago, and Laena had to explain that she couldn't play both of them at the same time.
"I think Z would have me grow an extra pair of arms if she could," Laena says. "That would actually be useful at work, too, oh man, it was pretty unbelievable today."
Annie clears her throat. "Did you get a new one?" Laena 'collects' hilarious customers, because Starbucks attracts the weird sometimes, especially this one for some reason.
"Yes, oh my god. This, like, eight feet tall guy came in with a purple—well, I thought it was a scarf, but he explained it was definitely a snake. A stuffed one. I think it had leopard print, though?"
"…that's a new one. So why was he carrying around a snake?"
Laena bites his lip. "Get this, he said it was his muse. His muse."
And then they're both laughing, and god, Annie just wants to kiss her. Ugh. Instead she keeps Laena smiling and talking, and then they iron out some transitions in the songs, which takes them an hour and a half.
After this Laena finds the pile of CDs Annie got at the Borders sale last week, and of course they have to listen to them then. Laena keeps plucking at her bass while she listens, and Annie knows she's actually learning the songs, sort of. Not all of them and not the whole songs, but she can pick things up like that.
Mostly Annie just thinks about the way Laena's fingers move slower when she's hesitant about what she's playing; they move slower and they curve softly and—
When Laena goes home, Annie sits herself down and tries to give herself a stern talk about how she really ought not to do this anymore.
--
Annie knows she comes into Laena's Starbucks a lot. Usually she's not bleeding, though, or she maybe wouldn't be on her way there for the second day in a row.
"No, it's fine, Z," she says, trying to hold her phone and roll up her pants leg at the same time. "It's just a scrape, Laena will patch me up and I'll be good to go."
"It's just that the talent show is only three days away—"
"Z."
Z doesn't stop talking: "…and I worry and what if you can't play, then we don't have a drummer or a keyboardist and I just—"
"Z. I don't play piano with my knee, I promise, and it's not going to affect my ability to use the pedal. Anyway, I gotta go, I'll see you at rehearsal."
"Uh, I hope you're okay? And yeah, see you."
She hobbles into the Starbucks (she wasn't precisely lying to Z about it impairing her ability to play, but it does hurt when she walks. She'll have to wear pants to the show, too). Luckily the café is pretty empty, so Annie doesn't feel weird about occupying the couch and, like, sitting there with only one pants leg rolled up.
"Hey, what happened to you?" Laena calls, coming out from behind the counter. "Oh, ow."
"I fell," Annie said. "Again. You think this growth spurt is ever going to stop?"
"I don't know, I'm still waiting to be less short," Laena says, carefully touching Annie's knee. "That doesn't look too bad, but I'd better wash it out and get you some bandaids."
There are a lot of tiny scrapes on Annie's knee, overlaying what feels like an enormous bruise just waiting to come out and be painful.
Laena carries a first aid kit over and sits down on the table in front of the couch.
"It's okay, I can—" Annie says hastily, because while it's really nice when Laena touches her, it's also really, um. Awkward.
"Hey, no, I got it," Laena says, getting out an antiseptic wipe. "I'm a total pro, older sister and champion tree climber and all." She starts carefully cleaning the cuts on Annie's knee, picking out the gravel. It's sort of agonizing, because she does it really slowly, and it hurts a little bit, but mostly it means Laena's hair brushes her bare leg every now and then, and it means she's really close, and Annie might, she's not sure, die or something. Or at least faint. Seriously.
Laena's weirdly quiet too, and she draws a quick breath every now and then, almost like she's nervous.
"There," she says finally, putting a couple of bandaids on the bigger cuts. "That should be okay, I think?"
"It's totally great," Annie says, reaching over and touching Laena's arm. "Thank you."
Laena smiles a little strangely. "Any time, really," and then she touches Annie's cheek before grabbing the first aid kit and going to put it back behind the counter.
Annie sort of touches her cheek then too, swallowing against how much she wants to just—
No, bad idea. They have rehearsal.
--
Two days later, she's waiting outside when Laena gets out. Laena is supposed to get ready at Annie's house, as is Z, because apparently they need to coordinate things right. Also Annie needs help with her eyeliner. She's not sure how Laena and Z are both so good at it; she usually ends up with lines that look like she used a toothbrush instead of a thin, thin liner.
Z's coming later, something about a makeup English exam (which is just weird, but Annie thinks it might be the one she was supposed to have taken a couple of weeks ago when Ryan was in the hospital for a night and Z blew off all her classes).
They're in Annie's room, laying out their clothes on the bed, when Annie's mom knocks. Annie reaches over and opens the door.
"Yeah, Mom?"
"Are you sure you don't want us to come tonight? It'd be nice if we could stay and watch instead of just driving you there."
Annie bites her lip. "No, mom, it's more of a student thing. And besides, it's our first gig with the new songs, I'd rather you came when we knew them better, you know?"
"Honey, you know I think you're wonderful no matter what."
"I know, I know, I'd just rather." She knows she could go up there dressed in the worst pink princess dress in the universe and play "The Entertainer," and her mom would still applaud.
Her mom ruffles her hair. "Whatever you want, sweetheart." She still does that, even though Annie's like a foot taller than her now.
Well, there went any hope Annie had of looking like an adult in front of Laena. She smiles, embarrassed.
"Sorry about that."
"Hey, no worries," Laena said. "My dad tapes every performance I let him, still. You should see the tapes, the first one is from when I was five."
Annie grins. "Awww, I bet you were adorable."
"And sulky. Don't forget sulky."
"Really?"
"Well, I didn't actually like performing at first, it was mostly about playing, and so I threw major tantrums before all the shows." Laena's unbuttoning her work shirt as she's talking, and Annie has to focus in order to keep listening to what she's saying. She's wearing this camisole underneath, the kind with built-in support, and it's totally not the sexy kind, no lace or anything, except it actually is.
She realizes she's lost track of what Laena is telling her. "What? Um, I mean, when did you start liking being on stage?"
Laena turns away to pull her camisole over her head, and that's her back, and her skin, and, and.
"Oh, when I realized it was all about loving playing, and when you were on stage you could make the audience love what you loved." Laena starts digging through the bag she brought. "I could have sworn I brought my white bra, seriously."
Annie manages a laugh. "I'd lend you mine, except it'd be too big."
Laena's hands stop moving for a second, and then they start again. "Good, here it is." She puts it on and for some reason, she can't get the clasp to close. It looks like maybe her hands are shaking a little; probably she's nervous about tonight.
"Here, let me get it," Annie says without thinking about it, and then her hands are on Laena's back, and she can't close the stupid clasp either, she's shaking so badly.
"Sorry," she mumbles, fighting with it. Laena's breathing weirdly, and Annie kind of is too, and she really can't get it to work. "Dammit, what is wrong with this bra?"
"I don't know," Laena says, and her voice is kind of low. "Let me—" and she reaches up and slides it off her shoulders, turning around, practically in Annie's arms.
Annie would back up, tries to, even, except that basically means she sits down on the bed. She looks up at Laena, whose eyes are dark.
"Your bra is really defective," she says, trying to keep her voice from wobbling.
"It is," Laena agrees, but she's not looking at the bra, she's looking at Annie.
Annie has no idea where to look, because Laena is half naked. In her room. "Can I take a look? Sometimes I'm good at fixing clasps, I did a lot of theatre at one point."
When she was ten, but she needs an excuse to look down and not at Laena. Who is still not looking away. Annie reaches out for the bra, and Laena, Laena shifts her grip on it, touching Annie's fingers.
"I just," she says, and stops.
"What?" Annie says, and can't actually keep herself from taking Laena's hand.
Laena draws a breath at that, and smiles a smile that looks like the one she wears when she's being brave, like when she walked into practice and asked them if they needed a bassist.
"Please don't hate me," she whispers, and then she leans in and kisses Annie, kisses her so lightly that Annie can barely feel it.
Annie shakes her head and tightens her grip on Laena's hand when she starts to back away. "How could I, no, no," she says, and pulls Laena closer, kissing her again.
"You too?" Laena says against her lips. This close, Annie can feel how warm she is, and she thinks about maybe pulling her closer, because it can't be comfortable to lean over Annie when she's sitting down like this. Or something. Mostly she just wants to touch, but she thinks about letting go of Laena's hand, and it's sort of terrifying.
"Me too," she says instead. "Me very too." She leans into Laena's kiss again, and manages to bring her other hand up to touch Laena's waist. It should be too much to bear, the warm shadows around them and the sun setting outside. Laena's fingers curving around her neck, so careful still. Annie thinks about how eventually they won't need to be so careful with each other; she thinks about stage lights and standing up straight and music; she thinks about not being afraid.
"We have to get ready," Laena says, except she's climbing into Annie's lap, not even pretending to move away.
"I know," Annie says, and kisses her, finally sliding her hands up Laena's back. "I know, let's just, let's just stay a little bit."
"Staying, yes," Laena says, winding her arms around Annie's neck.
Annie closes her eyes and holds on.
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(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-23 04:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-06-23 09:09 pm (UTC)