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“Where’s your head at Jess?” Beau had caught her staring again, and Jester kicked herself internally for being so painfully obvious. But how could she not stare. They’d been crammed into the mini-van for four days straight from their last travel break and the first thing Beau had done after securing them a room together while the others fought an epic battle of roc-pegasus-salamander to work out the remaining rooms, was dash up the stairs and call dibs on the shower. Now here they were, Beau with her hair down and slightly damp, dressed only in her boy shorts and sports bra basking under the shitty aircon on their shared bed. (This was the last time they let Nott pick out motels and book rooms, despite only being a few years older than the rest of them, she was the most useless with technology.)
Jester was shook. She had known that Beau was buff, but hadn’t realized, or appreciated until recently that Beau was THIS buff. The thoughts she was having were far from chaste, and it made her feel insanely guilty. After all, Beau was her best friend, and roommate. Friends didn’t think about friends like that. Roommates shouldn’t think things like this about roommates, it just made things messy in the end, and usually not in the good way.
Colour rising to her cheeks Jester made a dismissive gesture with her hands in panic and felt her shoulders hunch up as they did when she was trying not to be eaten alive by embarrassment. Until very recently, the butterflies doing war with the unicorns in her stomach had only been present when Fjord was around, but after the whole Avantika thing a few weeks back, and if she was honest, probably a little bit before all that, those occasions had become less in their frequency.
Here the two of them were, lazing about in their shared bed, in their shared room, on one of the few days off they’d had in a long time. They were somewhere along about halfway on the road to their eventual destination, Clay had relatives up north, and the group had decided to do a massive three-month road trip from Jesters summer house on the coast. The butterflies and unicorns were really going to war now. She hadn’t realised until Beau, that they could go to war over girls as well as boys, so that was also something she was struggling with.
“No really, you were like…drilling holes in my face with your eyes.” Beau doesn’t know when to let things go, and it makes Jester’s life (and the rest of the Nein’s) a living hell. At the same time, it’s something that the younger girl appreciates so much. So many times, during the last college semester Beau hand managed to bail her out of an unending cycle of self-doubt and academic stress by refusing to take “no” or “nothing” for an answer. It was probably due to Beau that Jester had finally managed to graduate. Jester grizzled and hid her face in her hands, feeling her tail swish nervously and her cheeks become an even deeper shade of purple. She knew she was going to have to blurt out what was rolling around in her brain sooner or later. Especially since similar thoughts had become more and more frequent recently.
“……Jess?” now Beau is using her worried voice. The quiet, smoky sweet voice, so different from her usual abrasive bull at a gate approach she uses with the others. Jester can feel her insides melting. She thinks fuck it.
“You’re really hot ok?” A beat of stunned silence passes before Beau manages to reply.
“Well, no shit. It’s a million degrees outside and the aircon is barely functional…” Beau was now self consciously sniffing at her skin, worried that despite the horrendous amount of soap she used not ten minutes ago, she still smells like sweat, dust and the old faux leather seats from the van.
“Nooooo….” Jester wailed, “Not like that…like as in, you’re really a-a-attractive. And like, I want to t-t-touch your abs and arms a whole bunch…and maybe make out with your and be suuuuper lovey dovely or something. I dunno...” her voice peters out into a shy squeak. Jester is sure she’s on fire at this point. She can hear both Fjord’s and Molly’s voices in the back of her mind sarcastically commenting on how smooth she was.
It’s a few moments of stunned silence on Beaus end before she’s pulling Jesters hand towards her midriff. Jester is too mortified by how “I think you’re really attractive” somehow managed to become a very awkward “I want to make out with you, my best friend”.
“Well shit Jessie, all you had to do was ask.” The familiar shit eating grin on Beau’s face is somewhat offset by a very not familiar shade of blush on her cheeks. “And uh, for the record. I think you’re pretty hot too.” Her voice is soft, slightly uncertain, but very hopeful. Jester takes comfort in that, that she hasn’t completely ruined things between the two of them by being caught in a day dream.
“What, me? Hot….noooo….you really need your eyes checked. I’m plump as a pastry, and you, you’re like…solid marble and gun-show.” Jester is trying VERY hard not to explode as she lets her fingers gently trace over aforementioned marble abs. She squeaks when Beau snaps a hand down on her wrist and gently pulls her closer, tucking her against her snugly.
“Shut your mouth. You’re beautiful. We’re just different, worlds made up of all sorts and all that.” Surprised at yet another sign of softness from the usually brash older woman, Jester risks a quick peak up. Her eyes meet Beau’s, and a shiver runs down her spine, she’s never seen that look on her face before. She’s never had the kind of hunger and protectiveness in that gaze directed her way before. Any coherent sentence she’d been planning in rebuttal died in her brain before it could pass through her lips and Beau continued.
“You’re my best friend Jess." Jester winces at that, and prepares herself for the worst. Squeezes her eyes shut and tries to pull away, but is stopped by Beau's arms tightening around her. Beau makes a soft, reassuring sound and continues.
"But like, recently? Recently, I’ve been wanting more. I know it’s selfish. Cause like, you’ve had a giant crush on Fjord for as long as we’ve known each other, and I know he did you dirty with Avantika and now possibly Caleb? And like, I’ve been flirting with anyone remotely attractive since we started rooming together, but I do care a lot about you. And yeah, I want to make out with you, and yeah I want you to feel me up. There’s a reason I work out every morning you know... and I want more out of us.” She takes a moment to breathe and squeeze the other a little reassuringly, “But like, I also don’t want to make you sad, or make you regret anything…does that make sense?”
There’s a brief pause as Beau blinks and figures out what she wants to say next. “Like you’re my best friend, but I also really want to DATE you. Be intimate with you. I want us to be girlfriends. I feel like I can take on the world when we’re together you know?”
Jester is very close to full on sobs of relief in that moment, so she scoots closer into Beau, something she didn’t think was possible, and just buries her face in Beau’s shoulder. After a few moments of Beau carding her fingers through Jester’s hair and Jester clinging to Beau for dear life, the younger plucks up her courage once more to make eye contact.
“G-g-girlfirends?” She squeaks, and nearly ascends to heaven when Beau beams down at her.
“Yeah, as in date. Not like, gal pals.” Beau confirms.
“Okay, okay, okay. You’re sure???” There’s a tremor of disbelief in Jester's voice that Beau logs away for later. She’ll work on that, they’ll work on that. She’s sure of that.
“One-hundred percent sure, you nerd.” Beau snorts and tugs Jester up a little, pressing a kiss first to her forehead, then to her nose and then, Jester just about passes out as Beau’s lips are on hers and Jester is melting. All the worries and daydreams of the last few weeks finally resolving themselves in the arms of her best friend, her girlfriend. Hands on both sides appreciate firm muscles and soft skin and very quickly the two of them are a hot mess. When they finally break apart, Beau whines at the loss of contact and is pleasantly breathless. Jester's shirt is riding up around her ribs, Beau's rough but gentle hands stroking the skin there. Beau's sports bra is somewhere near the headboard, Jester drops her head a little and begins to make herself more comfortable as they settle in for the night.
"Heh, Girlfriends..." Beau mumbles, elated, crooked grin now smeared with Jester's lip-gloss.
"Girlfreinds..." Jester repeats, laying her ear against Beau's chest, listening to the racing heartbeat beneath the tanned skin there. Maybe Beau's right, maybe they can take on the world together.