Archive of Our Own ^beta

Everything was going well for Cassie Lang. She had a pretty awesome boyfriend (So he was a synthezoid. Big deal.) A kickass group of friends who doubled as an equally as kickass superhero team, and she was also a superhero like her dad had been. As far as she was concerned, all was right in the world, and nothing could go wrong.

Until they did.

She received a message to meet Jonas at the park near her house. No mention of why; he just said to meet him there at 4:30. She wished soon after that she hadn’t.

She didn’t remember most of the conversation. Just snippets here and there.

“Danger to you… break up… rejoin the Avengers…”

The conversation was short, and it left Cassie’s head spinning. Jonas left with a final “I’m sorry,” a look of something Cassie couldn’t really understand on his face, before he flew off, probably to the Avenger’s tower.

Cassie held it together long enough to go home. Things had finally settled down enough for her to be comfortable. Just as she had begun to feel like things were looking down, they came tumbling down again.

The shock had finally faded, and realization was setting in. Tears formed in her eyes, and she collapsed on her bed, crying. It seemed like everyone she loved left her.

The world began to grow larger around her as she shrunk, but nothing mattered to her at that moment. She was ready for the bed sheets to swallow her whole.

Her solo pity party didn’t last long. She heard the door creak open. She thought it was her mom at first until they spoke.

“Cass? Are you up here? Your mom said you were here.”

Kate.

Shit.

“Cassie?” Concern was beginning to make its way into Kate’s voice, and Cassie knew she had to do something. Knowing Kate, if she didn’t tell her she was here, she’d probably call the rest of the team. Cassie took a deep breath, wiped her eyes and returned to normal size.

“Hey Kate, I didn’t know you were coming over,” Cassie said, trying to play it off. The look on Kate’s face said she wasn’t doing a very good job. Kate crossed her arms.

“What happened?”

“What do you mean, what happened?” Kate raised an eyebrow.

“You just unshrank yourself out of your bedsheets. What happened.”

“Nothing, why.”

“Cut the shit. You’re upset. What happened?”

Cassie sighed. She knew Kate wasn’t going to leave until she told her. She fell back onto her bed and put her hands on her face. The bed shifted, and she could feel Kate next to her.

“He broke up with me.” Cassie finally said, after what felt like forever. She started to cry again.

“Oh, Cass.” Kate laid down next to her, and Cassie rolled to face her. They sat there for a while, Cassie crying quietly, Kate beside her.

Cassie’s sobs were quieted when she felt something grab her hand. Kate had taken her hand. They locked eyes, and Kate broke the silence.

“You know, he’s lost something pretty great if you ask me.”

Cassie’s cries were almost gone now. “You’re just saying that. You’re my best friend. You have to.” She said, almost laughing.

Kate gave her a strange sort of smile. “Cassandra Lang, would I ever lie to you? That android’s pretty dumb if he doesn’t see what he’s missing.”

Cassie gave her a small smile, more tears forming in her eyes. She curled into Kate’s side, and Kate pulled her in close. They stayed like that for a very long time, Cassie’s sobs eventually died down as she fell asleep in Kate’s arms. Kate pressed a light kiss into Cassie’s hair.

“I’m not gonna let anyone hurt you again

One Month Post-Break-Up

Cassie had lost track of Kate in the chaos of the battle long ago and could do nothing but hope that she was alright. The battle had been going on for hours, and Cassie wasn’t sure who or why they were fighting anymore. A flash of blue zoomed past her head, narrowly missing her head, but hitting the enemy she hadn’t seen come up behind her. Flashing Billy a quick thumbs up, she shrunk down to weave through the enemies on the field to help Eli.

She grabbed Eli’s attacker by the foot, returning to normal size as she flipped him.

Whoosh

A gust of wind blew past her face, and she looked around desperately, searching for the source of the arrow. Suddenly, there was a sharp blow to her head and everything went black.

She woke up, disoriented and confused, the team huddled around her. Kate was less than a foot away from her face.

“OhmygoddontyoueverdothatagainithoughyouDIEDifyou- “ Cassie cut off Kate’s rambling, grabbing her by the shirt and kissing her.

“Couldn’t die without doing that, now could I?” Cassie said, pulling away, leaving a stunned look on Kate’s face. She could feel the look Billy and Teddy were exchanging, but she didn’t care. “I can see we won, and I don’t think I care how. Let’s get out of here.” Cassie said, stumbling to her feet. The rest of the team in a state of shock.

Billy was the first to snap out of it.

“Cassie is right. We’ve done our job. S.H.I.E.L.D will be here soon enough to do theirs.” He said, standing up beside her. It was Billy’s superhero-esque rant that snapped the rest out of their trance.

Tommy appeared next to them in a flash. “If everyone is done being gay now, can we go get food?” Billy rolled his eyes.

“While I agree with Tommy, I think we should make sure Cassie’s going to be alright first. Make sure there’s no brain damage” Eli said, standing up.

“Nah. Probably a concussion. I’ll be fine.” Cassie said. “You two coming?” She asked Teddy, who was helping a still shocked Kate to her feet.

“Yeah. Where are we going?”

---

A week passed before Kate and Cassie mentioned the kiss.

Cassie had been home from school for maybe two minutes when there was a knock at the door. She opened it to reveal a frazzled looking Kate Bishop.

“We need to talk.” She said, pushing her way in. “Is anyone home?”

“Nope, just me. Why, what’s up?”

Kate avoided her question. “Can we go to your room? In case someone does come home.”

She didn’t wait for Cassie to answer, grabbing her by the hand and pulling her. They entered Cassie’s room, and Kate closed the door.

“Are you gonna tell me why you’re so upset now?” She asked, taking a seat on the bed.

“Why’d you kiss me after the battle last week?”

Cassie was caught off guard. A heavy silence filled the room. An eternity passed before Cassie finally answered.

“I’m a lesbian.”

It was Kate’s turn to be caught off guard, and the silence was longer now. Kate’s face was unreadable, and Cassie’s breath caught in her chest. She continued.

“It’s a recent realization I guess, but I think I always knew. I guess, after everything that happened with Jonas it became more obvious. It was weird, you know? Because I was upset for the first day. But I woke up the next day and I felt okay. And I didn’t understand. Because I had just been dumped. I should be, like, bawling my eyes out or whatever. But I wasn’t. I didn’t really care. So, I did some soul searching or whatever. Lots of thinking. And I realized that I didn’t want to date boys. I wanted to date girls. And I panicked a little bit but looking back to my childhood, it was always obvious. So, uh, there’s that, I guess.”

The words came flooding out. Cassie began to panic, feeling like the walls were going to close in on her. Finally, Kate spoke.

“Cass…” Kate sat down next to her, gently.

“I… think I know what you mean.” Cassie looked at her, confused. She continued.

“I’ve been doing some thinking. Since it happened, yeah. But even before then. I still wanna date boys, but I think I wanna date girls too. I’m still figuring it out, I guess.”

“So, you’re not mad I kissed you?”

Kate laughed and shook her head. “Not at all. Actually, I’d like to do it again.” She added quickly “If that’s okay.”

Cassie was taken back. Her head felt like it was spinning.

“I mean, only if you-” Kate began to stutter. Cassie cut her off, pulling her in close, kissing her.

“This isn’t how I expected this to go.” She said, pulling away.

“To be honest, me either,” Kate said, a smile making its way up her face. “I’m glad it did, though.”

Cassie laughed, pulling Kate in close, smothering her face in kisses. The two collapsed on the bed, laughing.

The two settled eventually, Kate resting her head on Cassie’s chest. They laid like that for a while, in a peaceful silence neither of them wanted to break. They wanted to stay there forever, tangled in each other’s warmth. Tangled in that moment forever. Both girls eventually drifted off into a comfortable sleep.

It was Kate who woke up first. Cassie followed not long after.

“Afternoon, sleeping beauty,” Kate teased, placing a small kiss on her nose.

“What time is it?” Cassie asked, yawning. Kate shrugged, putting her head back on Cassie’s shoulder.

“Katie?”

“Hmm?”

“What are we?”

Kate sat up again, and they shifted until they were face to face. There was a pause.

“I don’t know. What do you want us to be?” Kate answered finally.

“Girlfriends?” Cassie suggested, her voice barely a whisper.

“Girlfriends. I like that.” Kate said with a smile

Everything was going well for Cassie Lang. She had a pretty awesome girlfriend, a kickass group of friends who doubled as an equally as kickass superhero team, and she was also a superhero like her dad had been. As far as she was concerned, all was right in the world, and nothing could go wrong.

And she was right.