Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Gideon took a long drink from her water bottle as she dropped onto the park bench, Noodle sat at her feet, panting and watching the people jog by. Gideon barely had to hold his leash. He wasn’t going to move unless you told him to. She expected nothing less from Cam’s dog. The woman could probably raise a tiger to use a litter box.

"God, you're fast, bud." She leaned back and sighed. The tree behind her shielding both of them from the sun. She dug into her pocket and pulled out her phone.

"Let's see if Pash sent me anything good, huh?" she asked aloud, making Noodle look at her.

She had one email waiting from her cousin/editor. She clicked it and bypassed the usual drivel about deadlines and went straight to the meat. As if Gideon didn't meet all her deadlines.

‘Dear Ginger, 

My girlfriend and I both prefer to top and often get into arguments about who's going to get to, this has become a point of contention. Any suggestions?  ~ Two tops from Tallahassee.

Gideon rolled her eyes from behind her sunglasses at the first ask in the email. That was the most pressing issue Pash could send her? 

"Can you believe this shit, Noodle?" Gideon glanced down at the dog sitting beside her. He looked up at her, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth happily. “If your biggest problem in your relationship is that you can’t take turns topping, you A. need to learn better communication, and B. are lucky as hell!" She grunted before turning back to the screen and humming to herself, started to type. 

‘Dear Two tops, 

Glad to hear everyone in your relationship is so eager to get down to business, pitch those softballs and dive for those clams, you get my drift. As someone who primarily tops myself, I get it, really, but have you considered it’s also just nice to sit back and let someone show you they love you? If it bothers you that much, you should do some introspection and talk to your partner about why that is. If nothing else, just take nightly turns or flip a damn coin.  ~ Ginger Journalist  

“Another dollar made!” Gideon declared as she hit send on the email. “Speaking of, time to take you home, bud.” She smiled at the dog.

Noodle just wagged his tail, his whole butt vibrating with the action and making the two stumpy limbs on either side of his body shake. She reached down and ruffled his head, making his tail whip back and forth all the harder before hopping up. “Alright, let’s go!” she shouted and they both took off jogging down the sidewalk and back toward the apartment building where his owners lived. 

“Where do you get all your energy?” she wheezed when they stepped into the elevator of the building twenty minutes later, stretching her knee back and forth. Noodle just continued to stare blankly up at her and wag his tail. 

She managed to get her breathing back under control by the time it stopped on the seventeenth floor and they stepped out, Noodle practically dragging her to Cam and Pal’s door. She’d barely had a chance to knock before Cam opened it.

“I have returned with your beast!” Gideon declared, unclipping the leash and letting the Borzoi gallop off into the apartment, followed not ten seconds later by the sound of all the air being shoved out of Palamedes when he rounded the corner and Noodle jumped up, paws harpooning into his solar plexus.

“Hey, boy,” he wheezed, petting the dog.

“Thanks, Gideon,” Cam nodded.

“No prob, It’s what you pay me for. He’s a good cardio buddy anyway.” She shrugged. "Ya good there, Sexpal?" Gideon called over her shoulder to the doubled-over doctor.

He gave a trembling thumbs up.

"You all are pretty loud this morning." A dark arm suddenly dropped down over Gideon's shoulders, making her jerk and look up at Pyrrha, leaning against her, a grin pulling up at the corners of her lips. Green eyes met gold and then winked. 

"Oh, hey," she greeted, then noticed the familiar magazine rolled up in her hand. "You just carry your porn around with you everywhere?" she cocked a brow only for the magazine to smack her in the cheek.

"I was reading your column, numb nuts," she chided. "You actually made some decent points with Confused from Connecticut. I was almost impressed by the insight."

"You act awfully surprised for being the person who raised me," she tried to push her off but Pyrrha just squeezed her closer.

"I can't account for all that self-inflicted brain damage you got playing hockey." She smirked and Gideon scowled. "You stayin' outta trouble?" The older woman asked and Gideon scoffed, trying to shove her off but Pyrrha only tightened her hold.

"You're the one always causing trouble.." Gideon grumbled trying to slip her head through the flexing bicep

"Good morning, Pyrrha," Pal greeted, adjusting his glasses and totally ignoring the power struggle going on in his doorway as Pyrrha held the other kicking and squirming redhead in a chokehold. Cam casually flipped through a pile of mail while Noodle made himself comfortable on the couch.

"Ma!" Gideon snarled, just before her head slipped free and she stumbled backward across the hall and slammed into the other door.

“Oof” Gideon felt the air eject from her lungs as her back hit the solid core door, followed closely by her head cracking against it. Everyone across the hall winced.

“You okay, kid?” Pyrrha took half a step before Gideon nodded, eyes clenched shut.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m okaaaaaa-!” The door swung open and Gideon stumbled backward, crashing to the floor just on the other side. “Fuck,” she hissed, pressing a hand to her head.

“Hey! You okay?”

Gideon squinted up at the face looming over her. A woman with a sharp jaw and cheeks, black eyes, and black hair pulled into two long braids nearly brushing against Gideon’s nose from where she was leaning over her. Her eyes were immediately drawn down to the cream-colored shirt proudly advertising cheap mustache rides. ‘I need that shirt,’ Gideon thought somewhere in the back of her head.

“Why are you staring at my chest?” she asked, frowning and crossing her arms, black eyes narrowing. Only now did Gideon take note of the dented up old metal baseball bat held firmly in one hand. A well-worn warning flag in the back of Gideon’s brain started waving frantically. ‘ Danger!’ it screamed. 

“I’m not! I was looking at your shirt!” She sat up quickly.

“Who the hell are you!?” Another voice sounded through the apartment and Gideon wondered just how hard she had hit her head as a very similar woman stood in the entrance to the hallway. Her hair was much shorter, just brushing the tops of her shoulders and she was wearing all black and a sneer.

Pyrrha chose that moment to stick her head in the doorway. “Hey, sorry about the commotion, girls. Nothing to worry about. Just a knuckle-head,” she assured with a wave of her hand. 

“Pyrrha!” Braids shouted, face lighting up as she uncrossed her arms and tossed the bat onto the nearby couch. Sneer, still standing in the hall, did not look any more placated than before. 

“Hey, Nona,” Pyrrha smiled as she helped Gideon to stand. “Sorry about the noise, Harrowhark.” She looked at the other woman, who just huffed but Pyrrha was nonplussed by the attitude. 

“I thought we were being robbed,” the identified ‘Nona’ said, and Cam, popping up beside Pyrrha, frowned at that.

“Why would you open the door then?” she questioned. 

“I had a bat if it was a burglar!” she reasoned and Pyrrha and Cam glanced at each other, the former shrugged. “It was just your average pervert I guess…”

“What?!” Gideon sputtered. “I am not your average pervert!” she barked, scowling.  

“She’s a special pervert,” Pyrrha agreed with a solemn nod. 

“Thanks, Ma ,” Gideon bit out.

"Oh! Is this your daughter? The 'dip-shit'?" Nona air quoted and Gideon scowled as Pyrrha grinned.

"Sure is. My pride and joy." She reached up to pinch Gideon's cheek. The younger redhead swatted her hand away.  

"Being a pervert makes sense now…," Nona hummed, tapping a hand to her chin. 

"I would be offended if I wasn't standing here holding this porn magazine…. but I am, so… fair." Pyrrha shrugged. 

“I am not a pervert!” Gideon snapped, cutting through the other conversation. 

“Eh.” Cam wiggled her hand in a so-so motion. 

“You were looking at my chest.” Nona accused. 

“What?!” Harrowhark, as Pyrrha had called her, took a menacing step forward, or as menacing as someone who looked 5’2’’ on a good day could. 

“Really? Nona?” Pyrrha looked skeptically at Gideon.

“I was looking at her shirt!” She threw out her hands at said shirt but Harrow’s dark and menacing little eyes were staring daggers at her as she stalked across the living room toward them.

“Get out of my apartment!” she snapped and Gideon was all too happy to take two large steps back and out the open door. “And never look at my sister again.” With that, the door slammed shut in all their faces with a clattering bang.

“It is a nice shirt. Pyrrha gave it to me.” They could hear Nona’s muffled voice through the wood. Gideon stood there blinking at the door.

“What the hell was that?” She finally turned to Pyrrha as they followed Cam back into her and Pal’s apartment. 

“So, you met the Nonagesimus twins, eh?” Pal asked, not even looking up from where he was sitting at the kitchen table, a tablet and cup of coffee sitting in front of him. Gideon envied him and the easy morning he seemed to be having. 

"The NoWhozuhWhatnows?" Gideon cocked a brow and crossed her arms. Cam snorted, moving into the kitchen.

"Coffee?" she glanced between Pyrrha and Gideon. 

"Please," they both answered at the same time. She nodded and disappeared around the corner.

Pal just rolled his eyes fondly as he looked up. "The Nonagesimus twins across the hall. Actually, they’re Irish twins, three months apart but you wouldn’t know it from looking at the two of them. Harrowhark Nonagesimus, the elder, and Annabel Lee Nonagesimus, or Nona, the younger," he informed.

"And what peaches they were," Gideon grumbled, slumping into one of the dining room seats. "One called me a pervert and was going to beat my brains in with a baseball bat, while the other looked like she was trying to maul me with her eyes.

"The fact that I know exactly which is which based on that description…," Pal chuckled to himself as Pyrrha slid into the seat next to him and proceeded to flip through her magazine. "Are you looking at pornography at my kitchen table?" He asked flatly, drawing that verdant gaze over the top of the pages.

"Not right now. I'm reading the articles," she answered. Pal looked unimpressed with that as Cam came back and set mugs in front of her and Gideon.

"Thanks, Cam." Gideon nodded. Pyrrha nodded and flipped a few pages.

"This is the one Gideon writes for," she said.

"You write for a porn magazine?" Pal looked at her and Gideon shrugged as she took a sip of her drink but she didn’t look at either of her friends as she did. 

"It was Pash's idea. Her company does editing work for them and ya know I’m always looking to make some more cash. This is definitely one of my easier and better-paying jobs. I stuff most of the proceeds from it into my savings." 

"What exactly are you writing?" Pal steepled his fingers in front of him and leaned forward. There was no judgment in his gaze as Gideon would expect from certain others, just genuine curiosity. 

"It's like… a queer advice column," she said.

"Here, I'll give you an example," Pyrrha snapped her magazine and read 

"Dear Ginger,…"

"Ginger?" Cam cut her off and gave Gideon a look as her cheeks warmed 

"Look, Ginger Journalist was the best I could do in the like, 2 minutes that Pash gave me to come up with something, okay?" she pouted.

"Dear, GINGER…," Pyrrha began again, giving them all a look. They stayed quiet. " For the last few weeks, my boyfriend of two years has seemed totally checked out of our relationship. He doesn't seem interested in doing things I suggest or coming up with suggestions of his own. He's not going out without me or anything, he just spends all his time on his phone on the couch and doesn't seem all that interested in interacting with me, is my relationship over? What should I do? Neglected in Boise.’ Her answer?" Pyrrha glanced around before turning back to the magazine. "Dear, Neglected, If this is totally new behavior after 2 years, have you tried asking if something is bothering them? The fact they have just suddenly checked out one day out of the blue might indicate a problem somewhere else and if that's not the case, I'd still sit down and have a talk with them about how their recent case of space-headedness is affecting you, maybe they're just in a slump and don't realize it. I wouldn't jump to assuming your relationship is over until someone actually admits that they're done trying. Relationships don't just run on their own, they need constant maintenance, so don’t give up yet. ~ Ginger Journalist.

It was quiet around the table, at least to Gideon, who was squirming in her seat. It was always weird for people to hear her advice to other people in the magazine. She tried to come at it from the best perspective. She didn't even tell anyone she did it.

"That's actually very sound and thoughtful advice," Pal finally said and Cam nodded.

"Really?" Gideon asked and he nodded. 

"Really." He nodded and Pyrrha was smiling at her from behind the magazine. 

"Ah, thanks…" Suddenly her phone dinged in her pocket and Gideon pulled it out and glanced at the screen. "Ah, I gotta run to my next job." She took a long chug from the coffee cup before jumping up and moving toward the door. "Thanks, guys, I'll see you tomorrow when I come to get Noodle!" She called as she opened the door and skidded to a halt to find Nona standing on the other side, fist raised as if to knock. 

"Oh, hey again!" She smiled and Gideon caught sight of Harrowhark standing in the open door across the hall. She locked eyes with Gideon and frowned.

"I'm not looking!" Gideon held a hand up over her eyes as she scooted around the shorter woman and took off down the hall. Harrow closed the apartment door and Nona just shrugged.

"Good morning, Nona," Pal greeted as she waltzed right in unannounced and plopped herself into Gideon's abandoned seat. She looked into the half empty coffee mug and wrinkled her nose. Pal reached over and pulled it away. "How has the job hunt been going?" he asked and Nona pursed her lips. 

"Not too well, I wasn't a 'good fit' at the bank, apparently." she finger quoted and leaned back in the chair with a huff. 

"It's not for everyone," Pal agreed and at the woman's abysmal look, was quick to add "But I'm sure that you'll find something that suits your talents before you know it!”

"I need it now though!" She let her head flop back against the chair, braids flailing. "I can't let Harrow support me forever." 

"She would though. Your sister would murder for you. Was about to," Pyrrha reminded with a chuckle but Nona made an agreeing noise. 

"I know she would support me forever.  But I want to support myself, I'm twenty-seven!" she lamented. '"Everything I try just seems to blow up in my face. Even a temp job would be good right now, something to get me out of the house and away from Harrow even if just for a few hours a day!" 

"I suppose even you two could get on each other's nerves since Harrow works from home," Pal hummed.

"I love my sister," Nona said. "But I wanna make money and meet other people, she also needs to meet other people.

"Good luck with that," Pyrrha smirked. "The only way your sister is going to meet someone is if they break in," she laughed and the small smirk on Cam's face spoke volumes.

"Let's just start with you," Pal suggested with an uneasy smile. "What are you qualified for?” he asked and Nona frowned. 

“I dunno, what kind of qualification is dropping out of college in the second semester?” she asked with a frown and Pal made a sound.

“Nevermind that. What would you like to do?” 

She shrugged. "Anything," she said and Pal hummed.

"Well… that certainly keeps our options open…" He scratched his chin through the sparse beard he had started growing last month.

"You can come work with me,” Pyrrha suddenly announced and Nona's face lit up like a Christmas tree. Both Cam and Pal looked over at her, surprised.

"Really?" She sat up eagerly and Pyrrha nodded. 

"You'd be making minimum wage and working as my gopher essentially since you don't have any experience or a trade but…" she started, only for Nona to tackle her out of her chair to the floor where Noodle was quick to lick both their faces.

"Yes! Thank you, Pyrrha!" Nona was squealing while the dog shoved his snoot into their faces. 

"Sure, sure. Damn, Noodle, stop!" She twisted to try and get away from the dog's tongue.

"Noodle," Cam called sharply and the dog stopped, sitting back on his haunches and panting happily. 

"I can't wait to tell Harrow!" She hopped up, bouncing on her heels while Pyrrha got to her feet.

"Oh, I'm sure she'll be thrilled..."

Nona spotted the crinkled pile of pages on the floor and picked them up. "What're you reading, Pyrrha?" she asked, flipping through the pages half interested. "Oh, how to keep things interesting in the bedroom!” Nona read aloud and Pal choked on his coffee. 

"It's got some stellar articles," Pyrhha said. "Keep it and give it a read." 

"Thanks, Pyrrha." Nona grinned while Pal and Cam gave her looks. "I'm gonna go tell Harrow the good news!" She turned and bolted out of the apartment.

When she was gone and the door closed behind her did she finally deign to look at Pal and Cam, both of whom were still looking at her and she shrugged.

"Harrow already isn't going to be happy about the job thing. In for a penny in for a pound." 

"It's your funeral." Cam shrugged and turned back to her toast and eggs.

"Construction work might be a good fit for Nona," Pyrrha argued. 

"We're not saying you're wrong," Pal said looking at her over the rims of his glasses. "We're just saying that you're going to have a hell of a time convincing Harrow of that," he said.

"Well, luckily I don't have to because she's a grown woman," she said and Pal hummed. 

“Try convincing Harrow of that, ” Cam mumbled. 

Chapter Text

“This is a horrible idea,” Harrow frowned at her sister from across her desk. 

“You’re always so supportive…,” Nona said with a smile and Harrow scowled. "You like Pyrrha, so what's the problem?" Nona crossed her arms.

"I tolerate Pyrrha," Harrow corrected, flipping through some of the papers on her desk. Nona rolled her eyes but didn't bother trying to refute it. Harrowhark could deny it all she liked, but Nona knew better. "I simply don't think construction work is the solution to your employment problems," she explained.

"Well nothing else has worked, so I might as well try this," Nona argued, throwing up her hands. 

"You don't have any of the skills they use on a construction site," Harrow argued. 

"I'll learn," she countered. Near identical black eyes bore into one another for a long minute before Harrow simply scoffed and returned to her work. 

"Do whatever you like. You always do," she grumbled and Nona beamed. 

"Thank youuuuu," she sang and spun on her heel. Returning to the living room, she practically flung herself onto the couch to settle in with the magazine Pyrrha had given her. The front cover featured a busty woman falling out of a tight, vaguely space-themed military uniform with ‘Frontline Titties: Space Marine Edition’ emblazoned tastefully across her chest,

"Pyrrha's kinda kinky," she mumbled to herself as she settled back on the armrest to read.

Which was where Harrow found her an hour later when she finally came out of her room/office.

"What. Is. That?" Harrow hissed, making Nona look up over the top of the magazine she had been so thoroughly engrossed in. Nona decided that she looked like an affronted black cat.

"Oh, this? It’s called a magazine. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of them before," she said and she swore she could see a vein in her sister's forehead throb. 

"It's pornography," Harrow snapped in thoroughly scandalized tones.

"Some of it is, yes," Nona agreed. She'd have to be a complete dullard not to have noticed that the women clad in the tiniest, white, and often wet uniforms were not there to show off their military regalia. While this seemed to be a slightly more discreet publication, with only the centerfold being truly explicit. "I'm reading it for the articles, Pyrrha recommended it."

"Of course she did." She heard Harrow mutter to herself as she walked into the kitchen.

"No, really, Harrow. Listen to this!" Nona said, climbing over the back of the couch to follow her. 

“Do not read porn to me.”

“It’s not, just listen. There's a queer advice column and the writer is kinda insightful I think. 

“Dear Ginger, My fiance, after a six -year loving relationship, decided suddenly last week to be with someone else. She had recently lost a great deal of weight, bought a new car, and started to do all these new things without me.

She’s now staying in a weekly rental motel room with him. It leads me to believe they both left relationships and had nowhere else to go.

“She didn’t even give me a chance to fight for us (counseling, etc.) or even a heads-up that she was unhappy. One afternoon I got home and found a note from her saying she was sorry for not being able to tell me in person, but she was doing this for herself. This is hard for me to understand and move on from. I have never been this hurt and emotionally drained. She won’t talk to me in person, only through emails and texts. I feel desperate and lost. Please give me any encouragement that there is a light somewhere at the end of this tunnel. - Heartbroken in Little Rock.” 

Harrow made a noise in the back of her throat, which meant she was at least half listening. 

“This was her response. ‘Dear Heartbroken, Although your girl didn’t give you the chance to fight for her by getting counseling, my first bit of advice is to make an appointment with a therapist and start fighting for you.

“You may not have known your fiance as well as you thought you did. Once you regain some perspective, you may realize that something changed when she made the effort to start losing weight and cutting you out of activities. Understand that the woman you invested so much time in was dishonest, cowardly and selfish to have treated you the way she did. Honestly, my friend, you dodged a bullet. A licensed psychotherapist will help you to realize how lucky you are. Best of luck, ~ Ginger Journalist.’ ” Nona paused for dramatic effect.

“See, it’s not all porn!” she insisted and Harrow grunted. “Horny people have problems too, ya know?” Nona grinned, face hidden behind the magazine as Harrow glared at her from the corner of her eye. “Wanna hear another?” 

“Not particularly,” Harrow drawled, which wasn’t a no. So, Nona scanned the column before picking another. 

“Oh, this one’s juicy. ‘Dear Ginger, I caught my brother in bed with my boyfriend last night…” 

~ ~ ~

Gideon yawned as she shuffled out of her truck, her steel-toe boots scuffing and cracking over the broken gravel and dirt of the job site as she moved toward the bright red connex sitting at the far end by the back gate entrance. Gideon’s breath puffed out before her in delicate clouds, disturbing the brisk air. It was a cold morning and, with the golden warmth of summer long forgotten, Gideon grumbled with every step. The cold never used to bother her, but now it bothered her knee. She paused at the bottom of the steps to rub it ineffectually through the coveralls she was wearing. Even through the thick material, she could feel the thick and sinewy scar tissue that started just above her patella and ended a few inches below it. The cold made the skin tighten and it ached no matter how tightly Gideon wrapped it. No amount of rubbing was going to make it feel any better either, so she sucked it up and finished climbing the stairs.

Climbing stairs didn't exactly bother her but she did find it frustrating when her knee acted up, meaning that she had to carefully take each step at an agonizingly slow pace. Carefully placing one foot on a step before slowly raising its partner to meet it. Occasionally she would mix things up a little by switching which foot started the process. It made climbing stairs take about ten times as long and even when no one was around, she always felt a bit self-conscious about it.

Pyrrha was already waiting for her, sitting in the metal folding chair in front of her desk and looking over the blueprints with a sharp eye. She only glanced up when Gideon entered.

"Morning, kid," she greeted gruffly. Gideon grunted in response and did her best to disguise the slight hitch to her step as she shuffled over to the sputtering heater. The battered old thing was a relic, but it was doing its damnedest to keep the little metal room warm. She just hoped that Pyrrha didn't notice her limp. She didn’t want to talk about it.

With the unerring precognitive ability typical of parents everywhere, Pyrrha watched her with sharp eyes and asked, "Knee bothering you?" 

Gideon cursed under her breath, not turning around to look at her mom. She instead focused on holding her hands up in front of the heater and trying to work some warmth back into the digits. She really needed to fix the heater in her truck.

"It's fine," she grumbled and Pyrrha frowned. 

"When was the last time your doctor looked at that?" she asked, clearly deciding not to take the hint that Gideon didn't want to talk about it. 

"Six months ago. It was the same news as always," she ground out, glaring at the glowing metal coils behind the heater grate. "It's as good as it's ever going to be," she mumbled.

Pyrrha stayed silent this time and Gideon was grateful for it. She preferred to spend as little time as possible thinking or talking about her knee. She sighed to herself and then pushed those thoughts to the side before spinning around and clomping over to where her mom was standing over the blueprints.

"What do we need to work on today?" she asked. 

"I want you to get the base wall set up on the southern side but first, I hired us a new apprentice," Pyrrha told her, standing up straight and smirking. 

Gideon did not like the look of that smirk at all. It was the one that usually preceded a terrible dad joke when she was a kid. It still did.

In resigned tones of defeat, she asked, "Why do we have a new apprentice?"

Pyrrha smirked as she opened the door to let in a vaguely familiar figure, "That's Nona your business, Gideon Mary-Beth Jezebel Nav." Her long dark hair swung in pigtails around her sharp little face, which was currently lit up with a beatific smile.

"Gideon, you remember Nona, yeah?" Pyrrha asked as the smaller woman tripped slightly over the door frame before righting herself and closing the door behind her.

"To be fair, we didn't really get properly introduced." Nona smiled and held out her hand. "Annabel Lee Nonagesimus. But don't ever call me that, just Nona." 

Gideon took the tiny hand in her much larger one and wondered at how little force it might take to break all the fine and fragile bones within. "Gideon Nav.” The thought surprised her slightly, but she guessed it must be the same kind of impulse that made you want to squish kittens' little faces.

"Gotcha," Nona said with a bob of her head. 

"This is the new apprentice?" Gideon asked skeptically and Pyrrha nodded, setting a heavy hand on Nona's petite shoulder. She wobbled slightly under its weight. 

"Yup, Nona is gonna be our new gopher. She doesn't have any kind of job site experience so she's the low man on the totem pole but she's a hard worker. I'm off the job site all the time so you're going to be her direct supervisor," Pyrrha explained and Gideon made a face. "Don't give me that face, brat. She's not going to be in the way. You need a mix made? Stuff moved? Paperwork delivered? Nona is going to be your go-to girl. Sides', she needs a job and you know exactly what that's like," Pyrrha said and Gideon definitely did. Not that Pyrrha had or ever would let her go hungry or without a roof over her head. Gideon just liked to be independent. To prove that she could. And that required money.

Damn capitalism.

"Alright, fine," she grunted and Nona beamed at her. "Let's go."

"Gideon's the boss, kid." Pyrrha gave her a little pat on the back and off they went, back out into the cold morning. 

"You got gloves?" Gideon asked as they trudged across the job site, stepping over abandoned tools, hunks of broken concrete and rebar.

"Um…" Nona hesitated. Gideon huffed and it came out in a cloud of frozen air. 

"I have an extra pair in the gang box," she said as they rounded the corner. "I don't know if Ma told you, but I lay brick when I work with her, so most of what you're going to be doing today is mixing cement for me while I lay bricks. Here, I'll show you how." 

And she did. Gideon spent the next few hours showing Nona the ins and outs of making cement to the right consistency so she could start bricking up a wall and even learned how to do some herself. Her work was a lot sloppier than Gideon's practiced hand but the redhead deemed it passable after cleaning it up a little and they worked through the morning. 

"Alright, not bad," Gideon stood back, surveying the completed hip high wall of bricks, and glanced at her watch. "Lunch time," she declared, turning to Nona standing next to the cement mixer, dusty and disheveled and Gideon smirked at the pure relief that washed over her face. They washed up and retreated to the connex where Pyrrha's microwave was. The older redhead was nowhere in sight and Gideon made herself at home in her chair. While Nona sat on the floor, legs crossed.

"So how do you know Cam and SexPal? Is it just from being neighbors?" Gideon asked and Nona snorted into her veggie wrap.

"SexPal?" she asked and Gideon shrugged. 

"Ya know, take the first three letters of his first and last name and flip them around and you get SexPal." She smirked. "He loves it," Gideon said.

"Does he?" Nona asked and Gideon just smirked. "Well, that's how I know them, yeah. My sister and Pal also work at the same research facility. Though, Harrow works almost entirely remotely from our apartment," she said. "That's how we met Pyrrha too. She happened to be walking by one day when Harrow was struggling to carry in all our groceries. She took them all in one arm and carried them to our apartment even though Harrow was complaining the whole time... She's been checking in on us ever since.” 

“That sounds like Ma," Gideon agreed, nodding her head and taking a big bite of her microwave burrito. Noma stared hard at the other woman, categorizing her facial features with Pyrrha's before blurting out: 

"I don't really see the resemblance."

 Gideon nearly choked laughing, her mouth full of beans and cheese. 

"That's probably because she's my stepmom… uh sorta," Gideon said. "She and my birth mom were a thing until she died giving birth to me. Pyrrha adopted me and took care of me ever since."

"Oh, sorry…." Nona started but Gideon waved it away. 

"Don't be, even Ma will tell you that she was kind of a super bitch." She took another bite as though that were the most obvious thing in the world to say about your deceased mother. 

"So… how do you know Pal and Cam? Nona asked, deciding to switch topics.

"Oh, uh, Cam and I used to play hockey together, first in high school and then in college and Pal went there too. They’ve always been somewhat glued at the hip. He was always at our games and practices and I eventually got to know him too. Been friends ever since." She smiled. “I do jobs for them sometimes, mostly they pay me to walk Noodle four times a week.”

“Lucky! I used to walk Noodle for them… But you go on one little six hour jaunt without telling anyone and suddenly you can’t be trusted to come back,” she sighed dramatically and Gideon side-eyed her as she chewed the bite in her mouth. 

“Uh… yeah… bummer?” She wasn’t really sure how to respond to that. Nona just nodded and they returned to their lunch before getting back to work.

~

“So, how was Nona?” Pyrrha asked her at the end of the day before she left, eager to get to her next job and warm her fingers

“Weird,” she said and Pyrrha chuckled.

“Well, yeah, but she’s a good kid, so how did she do work wise?” she rephrased the question and Gideon shrugged. 

“Fine, she takes direction. I guess we can keep her.” She smirked and Pyrrha shouldered her as she walked by out the connex door. 

“So glad you approve. Since you’re in charge of her and you only work for me 3 days a week, those are gonna be her days too. It’s a good starting place,” Pyrrha said, mostly talking to herself but Gideon nodded, following along. 

“She’ll be back tomorrow then?” Gideon asked, throwing her stuff into the back of her truck and Pyrrha nodded. “She also needs boots, she’s gonna get her feet crushed,” she added before climbing inside and shutting the door. 

“She’ll get ‘em.” Pyrrha said through the glass and slapped the hood before walking off and letting Gideon drive off to her next job. Luckily, one that was inside, where it was heated.  

Luckier still, Cam was at the gym when she arrived, running on the treadmill like a racehorse and Gideon’s calves burned just watching her. Her knee in particular ached. She didn’t run anywhere if she didn’t have to. She went about changing out of her construction work clothes and into her gym shirt and some shorts. The place was mostly empty but she went about her usual routine of mopping the entry area and wiping down the equipment while Cam finished her run. She looked barely winded when she finally hopped off and walked easily over to Gideon.

“Think you have time for a spar?” Cam asked and Gideon glanced around at the abundant lack of paying customers. 

“Yeah, I think I can squeeze you in." She grinned and Cam rolled her eyes  

“So, how was Nona?” Cam asked as they traded gloved blows in the ring. 

“She’s kinda weird but good at following directions so…” She shrugged and Cam nodded before throwing a quick one-two combo that Gideon managed to dip and dodge out of the way of. "Looks like she's going to be my apprentice for a while…" 

“Don't be a dick to her. She can be a little naive and all over the place but she's sweet and always means well,” Cam confirmed what Gideon had already figured out while blocking Gideon’s next punch. 

“Yeah, yeah. What about the other one? The sister. Harrow… heart?” 

“Harrowhark,” Cam corrected. “And no, she is… not sweet. She is brilliant and Palamedes regards her as a friend and academic rival as well as his colleague. She also does research for Canaan Medical. Warm and cuddly, however, she is not.” 

“Yeah, I didn’t exactly get that impression from the look she was giving me yesterday morning,” Gideon huffed, trying to catch her breath and dodge Cam’s next series of vicious blows to her raised forearms.

“She’s protective of Nona.” 

“I wasn’t looking at her chest!” Gideon insisted, ignoring the lil smirk on Cam’s face. 

“I know. Doesn't mean Harrow doesn’t already loathe you though,” she said and Gideon stopped, frowning. This, as it turned out, was a mistake as Cam’s fist found its mark, sending her barreling to the mat. She lay flat on her back staring up at the ceiling, the wind knocked right out of her sails. While she was down there, she gave into the compulsion to rub her gloved hand over her right knee. “Ya good?” Cam asked, concern flashed in her eyes as she squatted down next to her and Gideon saw it. She just wiped the back of her glove across her face, eyes set with steely determination.

“Best two of three,” she demanded and Cam smirked before helping her to her feet.

~ ~ ~

“But the test group didn’t show any adverse effects!” Pal huffed out in frustration as he gestured harshly at the papers sitting in front of him. Nona cast him a curious glance as she strolled into the apartment she shared with her sister, but, recognizing the end of a lengthy diatribe - a wonderful word she had learned recently - when she heard it, she wisely opted not to comment.

“Be that as it may, there were nowhere near enough subjects for it to be conclusive,” Harrow argued, crossing her arms and glaring back at him before glancing up at her sister. “You’re late,” she stated and Nona nodded, not paying any heed to the tone. 

“Pyrrha took me to buy boots for work before tomorrow. They have to be steel toed.” She smiled at Pal as he took a sip of tea. “Hey, SexPal!” she greeted and he choked while Harrow blinked at her in owlish shock. The expression was gone as quickly as it had appeared, a scowl taking its place.

“This is Pyrrha’s fault.” She frowned. “Pyrrha and her filthy magazines.” 

“Pyrrha and her magazines can be blamed for many things… including this actually, however indirectly. Clearly, you have been spending time with Gideon?” he asked and Nona nodded.

“Pyrrha has me working with her. I'm a 'gopher'," she said.

"And what exactly is that?" Harrow cocked a brow at her sister, who shrugged.

"It means she's the errand runner. She will ‘go fer’ this and ‘go fer’ that," Pal explained helpfully.

"I learned how to lay bricks today, which wasn’t the most exciting, but it was nice to be out of the house and it was a workout! My arms are sore already.” She rubbed her shoulder. “Tomorrow she’s going to show me how to cut bricks for corners."

"It seems you had an eventful day," Pal noted and Nona nodded.

"Yeah, I’m gonna go take a shower,” she announced with a smile before turning and trotting down the hall. 

“Well, at least she had a good first day.” He smiled and turned back to Harrow, still frowning, lips pursed and looking at where her sister had disappeared. “You're not happy for her?” he asked, drawing Harrow’s gaze. 

“I’m simply concerned about her attention span on a construction site,” she admitted. Which Pal would admit, could fluctuate wildly “And who is Gideon ?”

“Be that as it may, your sister is a grown woman, and she is going to do what she wants. Have some faith, Harrowhark. And Gideon is Pyrrha’s daughter. You know, from yesterday?” he reminded her and Harrow scowled. Pal rolled his eyes. “She really wasn't looking at Nona's chest, you know,” he sighed. 

“How would you know?” she snapped but Pal didn't so much as flinch at the bite in her tone.

“Because Cam and I have known Gideon for years. We went to high school and college together. She and Cam played hockey together. She’s a chronic smartass and, while her sense of humor may run to the ribald, she is not actually a pervert. In fact, she is almost old fashioned in her approach to women and dating,” he assured her and it spoke highly of how Harrow viewed him that she didn’t argue, just grunted, turning her eyes back to the papers spread out between them. 

"We'll see…," she grumbled and that, Pal decided, was the best he was going to get. 

"Back to the task at hand." He held up a paper covered in numbers and charts. "The sample size was more than adequate for this test." 

Harrow's calculating gaze returned and she scowled.

"Not by half, Sextus!"

Chapter Text

Harrowhark managed to hold out for a week. A week of watching Nona come home, dirty and exhausted but content and with nothing but good things to say about her new coworkers - especially ‘Gideon’ - before curiosity finally got the better of her and she went to get the location of the jobsite out of Pyrrha, who had just smirked down at her when Harrow cornered her one day in the lobby by the mailboxes. 

Cornered was a strong word though.

"They take lunch at 12:30," she had called over her shoulder before taking her mail upstairs. Harrow huffed at the older woman's nonchalance and pretended not to hear her gleeful mutter about Cam and Pal now owing her five bucks.

Which was how Harrowhark found herself in one of her least favorite places - outside - at one of her least favorite times - late morning. The day was surprisingly warm and she regretted her choice of pants as she came up the sidewalk along the chain link fence that closed the jobsite off from the public. She pursed her lips as she stared through the fence at the crew she could see working. Most of them were men with a dizzying and unsightly array of cracks, beer guts, and fur on display and all wore eye-watering hi-vis yellow vests and helmets.

A frown creased her forehead and she glanced down at herself. Her all black ensemble was going to make her stick out like a crow in a sea of golden retrievers.  

"I was wondering when you were gonna show up to check up on your sister." 

Harrow startled when a large hand clapped down on her shoulder and she spun to find herself face to face, or rather, face to chest, with Pyrrha.

"I just happened to be on this side of town for a meeting," she insisted haughtily, raising her chin.

"Of course." Pyrrha nodded like Harrow was a toddler explaining to her how the sun was made of cinnamon candy and it set her teeth on edge. "So, are you coming in or not?" she asked, one red brow cocked in silent challenge and Harrow stood as tall and straight as her 5'3'' would allow. This was, admittedly, not very impressive next to Pyrrha's 6'2''. Even with the added inch from her Doc Martens. 

"Since I'm here… I may as well," she tried to appear disinterested but Pyrrha just smirked and pulled a scrap of neon yellow fabric out of her back pocket and tossed it at Harrow, who scrambled to catch it.

"You gotta wear that," she said before turning and walking off, boots clomping through the gravel. Harrow hurried after her, pulling on what was apparently a mesh vest of the same migraine-inducing hue. "Last I saw 'em, Nona and Gid were over there working on the west wall." She pointed at one unfinished side of the building. “Watch your step,” were her parting words before walking off, leaving Harrow standing alone in the middle of the busy jobsite. She frowned and glanced around before carefully picking her way in the direction Pyrrha had indicated.

Normally, Harrow heard her sister long before she saw her but today, she was surprised to find Nona with her face set in quiet concentration as she peered over a large hole in the ground. Suddenly, a hand popped up out of the hole and, without missing a beat, Nona picked up a brick and laid it in the open hand. She stood there and watched the process repeat itself a handful of times. She couldn’t help but be surprised that Nona was managing to remain focussed on what she was doing, even if it wasn’t much. 

“We’re out of bricks,” she finally said when the pile had dwindled to nothing. 

“Go get some more,” the unseen voice instructed and Nona gave a salute before jumping up and spinning around, eyes going wide as they landed on Harrow, standing just a few feet away, watching. 

“Harrow! She grinned and then flung herself forward. Harrow barely had time to brace herself before Nona flew into her, sending them both to the ground with a painful thud. Her whole skeleton rattled around under her when her back hit the dirty ground, sending up a cloud of dust.

“Nona!” she snarled or tried to as best she could with all the breath having been forcefully ejected from her lungs. The other woman was unbothered, grinning down at her. 

“What are you doing here?” she asked, sitting back on her haunches and letting Harrow sit herself back up, grimacing at the gravel sticking in her shoulders and back. Not to mention the dirt and concrete dust now covering her from head to toe, very apparent on the black of her clothes. She grunted as Nona popped back up to her feet with a bounce and held out her hand. 

“I was on this side of town for a meeting…,” she grumbled and with great annoyance, took the offered hand, letting Nona help her up. She dusted herself off as best she could. A futile attempt. 

“You should have told me you were coming!” Nona planted her dirty hands on her hips and frowned disapprovingly. 

“Yes, well… It was unplanned,” she mumbled, giving up on wiping away all the dusty, white streaks.  

“Nona?” the voice from the hole called and Nona jumped. 

“Oh, sorry. Gideon, my sister’s here!” she leaned over the hole with a bright grin.

“Oh, yeah?” 

When Harrow had met the other woman before, however briefly, she was wearing a loose jogging suit. So, she was unprepared for the tall, dirty, ginger in the skin-tight black sleeveless shirt showing off every bulge and hard line of her muscular arms, and a red flannel tied around her waist who hauled herself up and out of the hole, towering over both sisters in a way that unpleasantly reminded Harrow of the other woman’s mother. 

“Hey,” she said, wiping her hands off on her dirty canvas pants. “Harrowhark, right? Nona talks about you all the time.” She smiled 

Harrow looked up and a pair of golden amber eyes held her hostage. 

“Yes,” she mumbled, doing her damnedest to maintain eye contact. Gideon nodded and turned to Nona. 

“You talk to your sister, I’ll go get the bricks,” she said and Nona nodded. 

“Thanks, Gid!” she called at Gideon’s back. The other woman just waved a hand and Harrow watched the pull and flex of her shoulders beneath warm, golden brown skin as she did so. 

“So, what was the meeting for?” Nona turned back to her but Harrow’s attention was elsewhere. “Harrow?… Harrow… Earth to Harroooow, hellooooo?” Nona called, going so far as to wave a hand in front of her sister’s face. 

“Hm?” Harrow blinked and glanced back at her. “What?” she asked Nona cocked a brow and glanced in the direction her sister had been looking but all she saw was Gideon loading bricks from the palette into the wheelbarrow before turning and heading around the corner out of sight. She turned back to Harrow. Her shoulders were stiff, a vein twitching nervously along her jaw and her fingers were half curled into fist. It wouldn’t be obvious to anyone else, but her body language screamed at Nona.  

“Oh… OOOH,” she grinned. “I see.” She smirked, glancing between Harrow and the place Gideon had vanished. Harrow was quick to catch on, the tips of her ears darkening as Nona leered at her. “Personally, I don’t get the appeal of gingers. But Gideon is pretty cool,” she admitted. 

“I don’t know what you’re inferring,” Harrow snapped but her face told a very different story and Nona knew it.

“Uh huh… you definitely weren't staring so hard that you were trying to see straight through her tank.” 

“Nona!” Harrow snapped, face almost purple. With rage or embarrassment, Nona wasn’t quite sure. A little of both probably. 

“You were,” she insisted petulantly, crossing her arms and staring right back at her sister in open defiance. “I’m surprised she couldn’t feel it.” 

“I’m leaving!” Harrow declared and stomped off across the jobsite in the direction Gideon had gone.

“Aw, come on, Harrow! It’s okay. I guess, objectively, she’s attractive…,” Nona called but Harrow only walked faster.

Only for a bucket of dirty water to splash all over her, making her yelp as she turned the corner. 

“Oh, shit, I am so sorry!” Gideon reappeared, a dripping orange bucket held in one hand as she stared wide-eyed at Harrow, her clothes drenched and plastered to her, jaw hanging open in silent shock.

It did not last.

She snarled, turning her furiously blazing eyes up to Gideon, who jerked back at the death glare leveled on her. 

“You incompetent moron!” she snapped, clothes and hair sticking to her skin and completely filthy. “Do you not pay any attention to what you’re doing!?” The woman raged. 

“Hey, It was an accident, and you’re the one walking around a working construction without looking where you’re going!” Gideon snapped right back. 

“...Aw, shit,” Nona mumbled, watching the two. 

“You should watch where you’re throwing buckets of muck!” Harrow yelled before turning and walking quickly out toward the gates just in time for Pyrrha to come out of her connex and watch Harrow stomp by, throwing off the vest and Nona chasing after her. Gideon stood there holding an empty bucket, a scowl plastered across her face.

“What the hell happened?” she looked at Gideon, who just grumbled, shaking her head.

Nona wandered back about ten minutes later to find Gideon waiting for her.

“Well… she’s mad…,” she sighed.

“No kiddin’?” Gideon cocked her head, sarcasm dripping from every word. “Cam warned me that she wasn’t exactly a bundle of kittens but geez.” She crossed her arms and leaned against their completed wall. Nona worried the end of one braid between her fingers, frowning. 

“She’s not usually… well, yeah, she kinda is… but she was already mad at me… and then the bucket thing…,” she mumbled under her breath. “Harrow can be nice when she wants to be…”

“Don't take this the wrong way, but that sister of yours kinda seems like a bitch…,” Gideon scoffed. Nona’s mouth twisted up, feeling a strange protective urge and need to explain Harrow to Gideon.

“Harrowhark is… well, definitely a bitch at times but she’s been taking care of me all our lives. She’s the older one… even if only by three months…” Nona rolled her eyes. “And she can be kind of overbearing but it’s just because she cares, ya know… siblings.” Nona shrugged but Gideon didn’t look any more convinced. 

“I can’t say I do. I’m an only child,” she said and Nona frowned. 

“Well… even though I've been jumping around jobs for years now, I've never had to worry too much because Harrow was always there to help me out when I needed it…" She frowned and worried the end of her braid between her thumb and pointer finger. 

“You don’t look all that happy about it…,” Gideon pointed out, head cocked.  

“It’s not that.” Nona shook her head. “I’m grateful but even though she pretends she isn’t, she’s really protective of me… which is nice but also not…” She looked up and Gideon knew that feeling. It described her and Pyrrha to a T.  “I took Pyrrha's offer because I want to be independent. It's nice knowing my sister is there if I need her but I don't want to have to need her, ya know?" she asked and Gideon hummed and nodded.

“Yeah, I get it…" 

“Also, you did throw a bucket of cement slurry on her…,” she reminded and Gideon grunted.

“Right…” She frowned, scratching her cheek. “I didn’t know she was gonna be standing there…,” she mumbled under her breath, not looking at Nona, whose lips twitched at the embarrassed and regretful stance.  

“Don’t worry, I’ll talk to her.” 

~ ~ ~

Harrow glared at her computer screen, hitting the keys with more force than necessary when she heard the front door open and close and forced her concentration onto the email in front of her. 

Sure enough, a few minutes later, a knock came but before she even had a chance to tell her sister to go away, the door opened. 

“Are you still mad?” Nona asked, peeking her head in through the cracked door. Harrow felt herself frown.

“Why would I be mad?” she bit out, mad. 

“So, yes…,” Nona hummed, slipping into her sister’s room. Harrow glared at her. “Are you mad about the bucket thing or the me catching you eye-fucking Gideon thing?” she asked and Harrow made a choked noise in the back of her throat, head whipping up to glare at her. 

“I was not…doing that !” she growled and Nona just made a disbelieving face as her sister flushed.  

“Okay… you weren’t doing that,” she said with absolutely zero sincerity. Harrow could feel herself grinding her back molars to dust.

“I dunno why you’re being so defensive. You do know it’s okay to find people attractive, right?” she asked, standing in the open door. Harrow turned her gaze back to the screen, adamantly refusing to look at her sister. “I’m not judging you.” Nona added after several seconds of silence save for the sound of Harrow abusing her keyboard. Harrow glared up at her sister but there was nothing but sincerity on her face now and Harrow sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes. She knew her sister was not going to let this go until she got what she wanted. Another way in which they were aggravatingly alike. 

“I may… may ,” she emphasized, glaring at Nona, who had the audacity to smile. “...have found your boss somewhat… attractive,” she managed to choke out, though her gaze flickered away when she said it.

“See? Was that so hard, Harrowhark?” Nona asked with a cheerful smile. She received a dark glare that clearly said, yes, yes it was that hard. Nona knew from years of experience, when to stop pushing her luck with Harrow. She just often chose not to. “I’m going to go clean up, but before I do: I think you need to consider why that was so difficult for you. Here are some words of advice.” She tossed something onto the desk and Harrow looked down at the glossy magazine sitting open on the advice column of one ‘Ginger Journalist’ . She flipped it closed to look at the buxom blonde bursting out of the top of her flight suit. 

‘Frontline Tities: Aroused Aerodynamics’    

Harrow stood abruptly but Nona was already tearing off down the hall, giggling madly. Harrow sighed and sank back into her chair, glaring at the publication and pushing it off to the side, out of her sight. 

“Who writes such drivel?” she grumbled to herself, turning back to her computer.

~ ~ 

Gideon chewed her lips, staring at her phone as she scrolled through her emails from Pash. The gym was dead that night and she leaned back on the back to legs of the chair, balancing precariously as she perused her mail, including the one from Pash saying she was coming to have dinner with her and Pyrrha on Sunday. She forwarded it to Pyrrha before moving on to her work emails.

"Dear Ginger,

       Ever since puberty, I noticed that one of my breasts is a decent size bigger than the other and I wasn't bothered until an ex told me it was 'really weird'. I've been super self-conscious of it ever since. It’s been years now since the last time I let someone see, let alone touch, my chest.. I don’t know what to do. Help? - Uneven in Havana.

Gideon frowned at the screen. Who even did that? Big, small, uneven. All were good in her opinion, also, why be a jerk? She hummed to herself, thinking as the rock music in the gym played in the background. FInally, she started to type. 

Dear Uneven,

As a self-proclaimed lover of tits - a titty aficionado, if you will - I can firmly say that your ex was not only just straight up wrong, but also a major asshole!

First of all, boobs, much like every other part of our bodies, are not symmetrical - nor are they meant to be! So I'm super stoked that your ex is an ex, they are stupid and don't deserve you.

Now, personal confession time: I think tits are great. I like 'em big, I like 'em small, I like 'em droopy, I like 'em perky. I think they are wonderful, so soft, squishy... sorry, where was I?

But let me tell you a secret. The only person whose opinion about your tits that should ever matter, is you.

So, if you feel like your boobs are too big or too small or uneven or shouldn't be there at all (I got you my trans masc and nonbinary fam), the only person who can decide what will make you happy is the one looking back at you in the mirror. Of course, beauty standards will have an impact on you, on us all, so the first thing I always advise is to look into therapy!

Believe me, it's the most cost effective solution for life's problems.

But if you still feel unhappy with your body, the good news is there are lots of other options available to you. I suggest discussing them with a therapist or doctor, but surgery, implants, and prosthetics are just a few options that could be looked into.

But make sure any changes you make, you make for you.

Like they say, the kind of people who mind, don't matter and those who matter, won't mind.

~Ginger Journalist

P.S. If the ex saying that shit to you sported a penis then boy do I have news for them about the appearance of that particular appendage .

Satisfied, she set her phone down and sighed. God, she was tired but at least it was Friday, so all she had to do tomorrow was walk Noodle and then her weekend was free and clear and that was less a chore than it was a good time with Noodle.   

She spent the better part of the next 2 hours zoning out after finishing her emails and cleaning off the gym equipment. She had thought working the night shift at the gym would be easy and that she could answer her emails and work out in peace.

Which was all true, but she hadn't accounted for how terribly boring it would be. One could only work out so much and it didn't take more than an hour to work through her emails.

She grumbled to herself as she lost yet another round of cards on her phone when the door chime jingled, making her look up.

"Hey, Cam!" Gideon perked as her friend strolled inside, but she wasn't alone. "And Nona?" She blinked.

"Hey!" She smiled and bounced in after the stoic Cam. 

"What's up?" she glanced at Cam curiously. 

"Nona wants to try weight lifting," Cam said.

"Oh, yeah?" Gideon asked, amusement lighting up her eyes as she looked at Nona's rail thin arms and… well, the rest of her. "You got the perfect teacher in Cam."

"You're going to help her," Cam said and Gifeon blinked. 

"Huh? You're the personal trainer."

"I came to run. You're the meat head," she said with a smirk and Gideon pressed a hand to her chest in mock affront. 

"First off, rude. Second, technically, I'm a glorified receptionist, not a trainer…like you. " Gideon reminded. “I’m not supposed to show anyone anything.” 

"Are you saying you can't show Nona proper curl technique?" Cam cocked a brow at her and the two stared each other down, Nona watching them before Gideon broke with a sigh. 

"Alright, come on," Gideon jerked her head over toward the weights. Nona followed, catching Cam's eye as she did. Cam winked and Nona giggled under her breath. 

"Okay, let's start with… 15’s?" Gideon handed over the weights and Nona's arms tried to flop down. "Too heavy?" Gideon questioned but Nona shook her head and gave a sloppy curl for good measure.

"Okay, follow along with me," Gideon said, picking up two 45’s.

By the end of the next hour, Nona’s arms were destroyed. She wasn’t even sure she had arms anymore. Instead, she just had these lifeless, limp noodley-things attached to her shoulders.

But at least she got to hang out with Gideon and Cam, plus she managed to score something even better.

~ ~ 

Harrow was picking through her bowl of plain Wheaties and jotting down notes, eyes flickering back and forth between her computer screen and the pad of paper when her phone jingled with a familiar tone. The one set specifically for Nona. She picked it up mindlessly and flicked it open with her thumb. What awaited her was a photo of her sister flexing in front of a floor-length mirror, all skin over bone in her t-shirt and leggings. Camilla stood beside her, looking as austere as ever. 

She rolled her eyes as her phone dinged a second time and now it was Cam's turn to flex for the camera, most certainly at Nona’s instance. Her lean and lithe frame showed off the perfectly lean and corded muscle of an endurance athlete. In the background, a somewhat familiar ginger head was peeking around the corner.

She sighed as her phone went off a third time and she took a long sip of her water as she clicked it.

Then sprayed her entire desk with it.

She hacked and choked at the open image of Nona and Cam, now flanking a smarmy looking, flexing Gideon in the tightest tank top she had ever seen on anyone. God almighty above, her biceps had to be the size of Harrow's head! She could feel the blood rising to the surface of her face. 

There was another ding and this time it was just Gideon and Nona, the latter hanging off the ground from the former’s flexed arm like she weighed nothing. A message accompanied this one. ‘She’s super strong! ;]’ Harrow slapped her phone facedown on the desk with more force than was strictly necessary and glared at it with all the intensity she could muster. 

This. This was why she couldn't tell her sister anything!

Chapter Text

Noodle was ready and waiting to go when Gideon arrived at 8am on Saturday morning. 

But he wasn’t alone.

“Can I come with you?” Nona asked as Gideon clipped on his harness. 

“What? Don’t you have anything else to do?” she asked. 

“No” 

Gideon made a face.

“Please?” Nona clapped her hands together staring up at Gideon with big, wide, black eyes. It was almost like looking into Noodle’s long, pleading face staring up at her. She looked up at Cam and Pal, both looking at her from the kitchen table, clear amusement in their faces. They didn’t even try to hide it. “Gideon?” she looked back down at a waiting Nona and sighed. 

“Fine,” she grumbled and Nona squealed. 

That was how she ended up spending her Saturday morning with both Noodle and Nona, jogging around the park. 

“This was a mistake.” Gideon sniffed, wiping at her nose with the back of her arm as they made another leisurely lap around the park.

“I’m keeping up!” Nona cried but Gideon shook her head.

“Not you. The trees an shit.” She gestured to the towering trees and shrubbery all around them in full springtime bloom. “Stupid horny flowers killin’ my allergies,” she grumbled.  

“Oh, yeah. Harrow gets hay fever so bad. She was still in bed when I left this morning,” Nona said as they turned the corner. “Never has bothered me.” She shrugged.

Gideon grumbled under her breath. “Lucky.”   

Finally, they seemed to have run off most of the Borzoi’s extra energy and he slowed to a more sedate pace, which reminded Gideon, as it did 4 times a week, why she didn’t run if she could help it. Her knee was aching. “Here, you wanna run him around in the grass?” she nodded to where people were running around with their dogs, throwing frisbees and sticks.

“Sure!” Nona took the leash and led Noodle away while Gideon plopped down onto the nearest bench and reached down to rub her stupid knee. Her fingers brushed over every familiar bumb and ridge of the long, ugly scar there. She frowned and pulled it up to her chest, stretching the muscle with a grimace. It was tight. She’d been neglecting her stretches as of late. She sighed, resting her chin on her knee and closing her eyes, holding it there, letting it pull and eventually loosen. 

“Whoa, that’s a big scar.” 

Gideon opened an eye to find Nona standing a few feet away with a panting Noodle. She grunted. She knew it was.  

“You get in a fight?” she asked and Gideon couldn’t help the bark of laughter that came out of her. 

“No, I wish,” she grinned ruefully, amber eyes flickering away and Nona frowned as she gave it a final rub before setting her foot down and standing. “Ya ready to head back to Cam and SexPal’s?” she asked, taking the leash back and Nona nodded.

“We’re back!” Nona announced to the apartment when she waltzed in without so much as a knock and Gideon just shook her head. 

“Sup,” Gideon held up a hand before unhooking the dog from his harness so he could jump up on the couch where Nona had sat herself. 

Pal looked up from his laptop, eyes red and puffy around the edges and Gideon knew he was feeling even worse then she was. He glanced at his watch and frowned before digging into his pocket and pulling out a twenty and handing it to a smirking Cam. “I really thought she’d end up dragging you on another all day run around,” he said looking up at Gideon, voice thick and nasally with congestion. 

“You had a bet going?” she asked. 

“I knew you wouldn’t let me down.” Cam smiled as she stood from the table and walked into the kitchen. 

“Glad to be of service?” Gideon said, then shook her head. “You feelin’ spring too, huh?” Gideon asked, turning back to Pal, who sniffled and nodded his head morosely. 

“The pollen is among us,” he said gravely. Gideon nodded sympathetically before hooking her thumb over her shoulder at the door.   

“I’m gonna head out.” 

“You don’t wanna stay for breakfast?” Pal offered but Gideon shook her head. 

“Naw, but thanks. I need to go home and do some chores and all that stuff. Also take my damn allergy pills,” she grumbled, sniffling and Pal nodded knowingly. 

“I should check on Harrow,” Nona hummed, leaning her head back on the couch to look at them upside down. 

“Have fun with that. See ya.” Gideon waved over her shoulder as she turned toward the door. 

“We’ll see you Tuesday,” Pal called before the door shut. “I really thought I’d win that bet.” He glanced over at Nona, who stuck her tongue out and he chuckled. “How was the run?”

“Good, it’s nice outside,”

“Debatable,” Pal sniffled and Cam ran a comforting hand through his hair as she walked by.

“Hey, Cam?” Nona called, drawing the older woman’s attention. “How’d Gideon get the big scar on her knee?” she asked and that made them both look at her before they shared a glance with each other. 

“Why do you ask?” Cam asked carefully and Nona just shrugged. 

“Just curious is all. She stopped during our run to rub and stretch it.” Nona glanced between them. Cam pursed her lips and Pal was frowning at his wife, worried almost?  

“It’s an old hockey injury,” Cam finally said.

“Oh? What happened?” she asked and Cam looked oddly torn. 

“If you don’t tell her she might ask Gideon,” Pal mumbled, wiping at his nose with a tissue and Cam sighed. 

“To keep it short, Gideon and I played hockey together in high school and the first three years of college. She had a full scholarship and was very good. She’d been scouted to play professionally already but turned it down for a different career after college,” Cam told her and Nona sat on the edge of her seat. “One of the last games of our junior year, there was a… freak accident on the ice and her knee was mangled afterward. She could never play again, and lost her full ride scholarship on top of it. She had to drop out because she couldn’t afford school anymore,” she said frankly and Nona winced. “It’s a very sore subject even now, don’t mention it to her.” Cam warned, face serious as a grave. Something rippled beneath that stony facade for a moment, then was gone. 

“Right, I won’t.” She nodded, running her fingers through Noodle's fur. It grew quiet in the apartment after that and Nona stood from the couch. “I need to go check on Harrow.” 

“Hopefully she’s doing better than me,” Pal grumbled as he tapped away at his computer screen. 

“I doubt it,” Nona hummed before crossing the hall to her own apartment. 

It was quiet, the living room empty and the television off. It was just how she’d left it, the blinds wide open, letting in the bright spring sunshine. Which meant that Harrow hadn’t left her room since she’d been gone. She crept quietly down the hall and pressed her ear to Harrow’s bedroom door. Perhaps, predictably, all she heard was the sound of quick, precise typing. She rolled her eyes before throwing open the door without preamble. 

“Harrow, it’s Saturday,” she said, eyes adjusting to the dim gloom of the bedroom. The lights were off and the blinds drawn. The only light in the room was the glow of the computer screen on the desk, highlighting her sister's face in a sickly shade of blue and white as she scrolled through whatever she was looking at.

"You have a calendar, congratulations," was the reedy and stuffed-up reply. Nona frowned.

"You look terrible." She moved closer and could see how red and swollen Harrow’s eyes were. The skin beneath her nose was also red and flakey from constant rubbing no doubt. Harrow just grunted at her and wiped at her eyes with the back of her arm.

“I’m fine…,” she lied through her teeth and Nona scowled. 

“No you aren’t, you look like your allergies curb-stomped you,” she said, crossing her arms and Harrow finally glanced up to look at her. 

“Did you pick that phrase up at work?” she only asked and Nona pouted. 

“Yes, I did,” she huffed. “You need to rest your eyes, the screens are only irritating them more.” 

“I don’t need rest,” was the stubborn reply and Nona pursed her lips at her stubborn sibling. Her eyes moved to the devices sitting on the desk.

Before Harrow could react, her hand shot out and snatched up her sister’s phone. 

“Wha-!?” Harrow turned and slapped her hand on the desk where it had been, leaving the computer unguarded. Scrabbling to slap it shut, Nona scooped that up too and dashed out of the room. 

“NONA!” Harrow croaked, hot on her tail down the hall. Not fast enough though. She slammed the door of her bedroom right in her sister’s face. The knob twisted and turned as they fought to push the door, Nona juggling the electronics in one hand and trying to hit the lock with the other. “Open this door!” Harrow shouted, pushing at the wood but she was sick and weak and when Nona rammed it closed with her shoulder, the lock finally popped in and she breathed a sigh of relief.

“ANNABEL LEE NONAGESIMUS!” 

Oh, she was in so much trouble whenever she opened this door again. Well, as Pyrrha liked to say, in for a penny, in for a pound. 

And Harrow would definitely exact her pound of flesh for this little stunt.  

“You can have them back later, when you’ve rested your eyes!” she called. Harrow continued to beat on the door for a solid five minutes before she finally stopped, panting and heaving. 

“We are going to have a talk about this later!” were her parting words before she stomped back down the hall, sneezing along the way and Nona sighed. 

Harrow slammed her bedroom door closed behind her and glanced around the room in a desperate attempt to find something that would let her keep working but she knew better already and sniffled as she walked back over and sank down into her desk chair. She thought she might be able to boot up the old laptop shoved under her bed but knew that it was a pointless endeavor without any of her current work on it. She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose in a vain attempt to release the pressure in her sinuses and silently cursed Spring and nature itself for her suffering. 

Now, what was she supposed to do?

She released her squeezing grip and stood up, moving to the other side of the room where her bookshelves covered all of one wall. She squinted at them from between allergy-swollen eyes, scanning the titles for anything that might kill some time until Nona came out of her bedroom. 

She had to eat eventually! 

She frowned at every row she scanned. She had read everything on these shelves at least three times and nothing piqued her interest today and she was not going to sleep. She also refused to go outside where the pollen was that much stronger. No, she wasn’t going to leave her apartment until it rained and knocked some of the irritants out of the air. Luckily it was supposed to do just that on Monday. She simply had to wait.

In the meanwhile…

She scoffed, finding nothing worthwhile on the shelves and moved back to slump in her desk chair, fingers tapping against the solid oak grain, thinking and fuming. Both at the lack of reading material and her sister, who was going to pay for this! She scowled to herself, staring out at nothing and sniffling. She refused to admit that her face already hurt a little less without staring into the blinding screen. Her eyes roved over her desk for anything she could work on but her notes were worthless without the reports on her laptop. While looking around, her eyes settled on a half-crumpled magazine. She stared at it as though it was a viper that might uncoil at any moment and strike out at her. 

She stared at it, unblinking… till she sneezed again. She cursed under her breath and blinked away the water that kept trying to gather in her eyes. If she couldn’t work, then she at least needed a distraction from her damnable hay fever. Still, she hesitated. Her eyes flickered to her closed bedroom door before, finally, she reached over and grabbed the magazine. Its thin pages seemed to crinkle so loudly in the quiet of the bedroom and her eyes shot again to the door, as if expecting it to slam open any second now and Nona to catch her in the act. Reading the cheap, tawdry magazine Pyrrha had given her. The door remained blissfully silent and closed. 

She flipped through the first few pages of scantily clad women in outfits that Harrow could not bring herself to call uniforms in any sense of the word. It wasn’t the worst publication she had ever seen. Not even the worst that she had ever happened to catch Pyrrha reading down in the laundry room on Wednesday evenings. Still, she flipped past them to the first page without any high-gloss photos of cleavage bursting out of jackets. 

‘The Ginger Journalist, Queer advice for your life!’ 

Obsidian eyes flickered up one last time at the still closed door before setting the magazine down and standing. She quickly crossed the room and turned the lock for good measure before moving back to her desk and curling up in her chair and picking it back up. She scanned the page, her eyes falling on one.

‘Dear Ginger, 

I’m single and probably need to move on from someone but I can’t do the apps again, what do I do? ~ Single in Tulsa’ 

‘Dear Single, who said you have to move on? These things take time, you can’t just force quit your feelings..-’

~ ~ 

Nona, finally and quietly as possible, unlocked her door a few hours later and opened it slowly. Tense and expecting her sister to jump around the corner and bludgeon her with something. The hall was silent and still. She crept out and peeked around the corner. The living room was empty, as was the kitchen and the door to their shared bathroom sat open and dark. 

That only left one place. 

Harrow’s door was closed as she approached, tiptoeing ever closer and holding her breath. She pressed her ear to the door and listened. Nothing at first, chilly silence that made her nervous. Then, a quiet, familiar sound. Nona smiled as she pulled away from the door and spun on her heel, walking back out into the living room.

Behind the door, laying in bed, magazine splayed across her chest, Harrowhark slept, the occasional, wheezy snore making its way out her open mouth. 

~ ~ ~ 

“I brought pie.” Pash declared when Gideon opened the door.

“What kind?” Gideon asked, blocking the doorway and eyeing her cousin, who scowled and blew a lock of electric blue hair out of her face. 

“Ass-kicking pie if you don’t move!” she snapped. 

“I prefer cherry. Got any of that?” Gideon’s grin grew as her cousin’s scowl deepened, both hands busy holding the ceramic pie dish. That didn’t stop her from trying to kick the smartass red head, who stepped back out of the way and stuck out her tongue when Pash kicked the door frame with a yelp.

“Don’t you two ever give it a rest?” Pyrrha called, exasperated from the kitchen. 

“No,” they echoed in unison.  

"Well, cut it out now. Even god took a damn break on Sunday!" she yelled and with a dramatic sigh, Gideon stood aside, allowing Pash in.

She shoulder checked her as she passed on her way to the kitchen. Before Gideon could rear back and punch her in the back, Pyrrha's head popped around the corner, eyeing them both warningly and Gideon threw up her open hands. 

"Stop being chuckle-fucks and set the table," she ordered.

"Yes, ma'am," they intoned, still shoving and pushing as they went. Gideon banged into the wall. A framed photo rattled against the wall. 

“Cut it out!” 

“Sorry,” echoed back and they finally did just that. 

“Beer?” Gideon glanced over her shoulder at Pash as she opened the fridge and held up three green bottles. 

“Yeah, thanks,” she nodded and Gideon handed it over the island and popped the two in her hand, setting one on the counter next to where Pyrrha, who grunted her thanks.

"Did you get my emails?" Gideon asked, sitting in the chair next to Pash as she took a swig. 

"Yeah, the head editor loves all your answers, they're getting posted to the website next week." 

"Cool." Gideon bobbed her. 

"Any good ones this week?" Pyrrha asked over her shoulder as she flipped the steaks in the pan.

"Eh, not really. There were a bunch of dating ones again. 'How do I let someone know I'm interested in them?' and 'where should I go on a first date?' common sense shit like that." She waved a hand. Pash snorted.

"I don't know if you'd be the best source of information for that, cuz," Pash said and Gideon frowned. "When was the last time you went on a date?" she gave Gideon a pointed look. 

"I went to that party with Dulcinea around Christmas," she argued and Pash rolled her eyes. Pyrrha stood at the stove, not looking at them but there was no doubt she was listening.

"You went to that party with her as a favor to Cam and Pal. No, when was the last time you actually went on a date because you liked. the. girl?" Pash emphasized each word with a tap of her finger against the tabletop.

“I don’t keep track…,” Gideon mumbled, taking another gulp from her bottle and Pash’s frown deepened. 

“Yes you do,” she said. “You haven’t been on a date since Cytherea broke up with you.” Pash accused and then the kitchen fell into silence. The only sound in the room was the sizzling of meat in the pan as Pash and Gideon stared at each other. Pyrrha did glance at them over her shoulder. “Gideon, it’s been like seven years. You need to get over it…” she started only for Gideon to make a face.

“You think I’m still hung up on Cytherea and her bullshit after all this time?” she asked, scowling. Pash blinked, looking unsure what to say to that. 

“Yes?” she said and Gideon scoffed.

“I haven’t thought about her in forever.” She lifted her drink and took another mouth full. 

“Then how come you haven’t been on a single date since?” Pyrrha finally turned around to look at her, a hand on her hip. Gideon shrugged.

“It took almost three years to get everything with my knee straightened out for one,” she said. “The last four years I’ve just been busy with work and I haven’t met anyone I even remotely liked! Maybe I just don’t want to date, either of you ever considered that?" She looked between Pyrrha and Pash.

“If that’s what you want, Gid, then that’s fine. We just don’t want the shit thing she did to affect you for the rest of your life,” Pyrrha reached out and laid a hand on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

“Yeah, you deserve to be happy. Even if you are an asshole.” Pash agreed and Gideon kicked her under the kitchen table. 

“I’m fine. If there was someone I wanted to go out with, I would, alright?” she looked between them and Pyrrha gave a single jerk of her head.

“So, you wouldn't wanna go out on a blind date with this woman I know? She’s a solid 10,” Pash tried to entice her. “Which would be kind of a step down for her with you being a 6 and all but ya know…” 

“Fucker, I am at least an 8!” Gideon reached over and punched her in the shoulder. Pash smacked her back and the table rocked and creaked as they fought over it.

“Gideon Isabella Nav, Our Lady of the Passion, enough. Food time!” Pyrrha yelled, setting two plates on the table and all fighting stopped.

“Thanks, Ma.” 

“Thanks, Pyrrha.” Pash nodded then turned back to Gideon.

“How come you never make up dumb middle names for me?” she asked and Gideon snorted.

“Nothing I come up with could ever be dumber than “Our Lady of the Passion, now eat,” Pyrrha looked at her and Pash stuck out her tongue before turning back to Gideon. 

“Whaddaya say, about the blind date?” she asked and Gideon sighed.

“If I do it will you get you off my ass about this?” she asked and Pash appeared to be thinking about it for a moment before she finally nodded.

“For now.” 

“Finnnne,” Gideon reluctantly agreed while Pash grinned at Pyrrha. 

They finally settled in to have dinner.

~

"I'll send you some more questions this week," Pash called as she left the apartment. Gideon waved 

“Love ya, kid," Pyrrha called.

"Love you too." She closed the door behind her and got a few steps before another door further down the hall opened and out stepped a woman, giving Pash pause. She was cute and walking straight toward the elevator. Surreptitiously, Pash smoothed back her hair and brushed any pie crumbs off the front of her muscle shirt.

When she stepped into the elevator, she caught the other woman’s eye and smiled. A bright smile was returned and Pash felt her insides warm.

“Evenin’,” Pash nodded her head. “Goin all the way down?” she asked, hand hesitating over the panel of buttons in front of her and the woman nodded. 

“Please,” the woman said as Pash hit the button for the ground floor. The other woman’s hands were clasped behind her back and she was bouncing back and forth on her toes. A lively little thing. “I’ve never seen you in the building before,” she said, startling Pash, who definitely had been staring. “Stealing something?” she asked so casually and Pash sputtered.

“No! No, just visiting my cousin and aunt,” she said as the woman eyed her a moment but seemed content with the answer.  

“It’s not Mrs. Gia is it?” and Pash blinked, confused but shook her head. “Oh, good. She’s kind of a bitch. She’s always banging on the wall. Now, her, you could have stolen from.” The woman said and Pash couldn’t stop the surprised snort that came out of her, which only made her smaller companion smile all the wider. Just as Pash was about to introduce herself and maybe try for a name and a number, the elevator suddenly dinged and the doors opened.  “Well, thanks for takin’ a ride with me.” The woman smiled, eyes like shining wet pools of ink staring back at Pash, and then she was walking quickly through the lobby and past some ‘tenant only’ keycarded doors, leaving Pash standing there staring at her till she disappeared. 

The elevator dinged, knocking her back to herself so she could step out before the doors closed again. She pulled her phone out as she walked through the lobby and out into the dark parking lot. 

Gideon picked up on the second ring.

“Hey, did you forget something?” she asked curiously. 

“Gid, I just met this woman!” Pash said into her phone.

“Where the hell did you meet a woman in the last like, 4 minutes?” she questioned.

“In the elevator.” 

“Oh… okay?” Gideon blinked at her phone. “Congrats?” she asked and heard her cousin make an annoyed sound through the speaker.

“No, dipshit. She came out of a door on Pyrrha’s floor. We talked in the elevator, she was cute and I wanted to ask Pyrrha if she knew her, since she’s so friendly with all her neighbors and stuff.”

“A woman on Ma’s floor?” she repeated, thinking of all the neighbors on this floor. Of which there were not many. “Not Cam, right?”

“NO NOT CAM!” Pash half shouted and Gideon pulled the phone away from her ear. 

“Alright, alright, calm your tits! What did she look like?” Gideon leaned back in her mom’s armchair, feet kicked up, and sipped on her third beer of the evening.  

“Short, long black hair in braids, deep black eyes. Real bubbly…”

Gideon started laughing even before her cousin could finish her description. Pyrrha looked up from her magazine on the couch, a brow cocked in silent question. 

“What?....What?!” Pash snapped through the phone as Gideon tried to get herself under control.

“Oh,… oh god. You met Nona,” Gideon giggled still. That really had Pyrrha’s attention. 

“She met Nona?” she whispered at Gideon who nodded. 

“Nona?” Pash asked. 

“She lives across the hall from Cam and Pal with her sister. She’s also my apprentice at work.” 

“Can you hook a cuz up?” Pash asked.

“What? You want me to introduce you to Nona?” she balked, blinking. Sure, Nona was cute in a way. She was just too bubbly and perky for Gideon personally. But hey, different strokes for different folks. She looked at Pyrrha, who shrugged. “I mean… sure, I guess I can do that.” 

“You’re the best, Gid!” Then she hung up and Gideon looked at her phone annoyed. 

“Now I’m the best, but an hour ago I was an asshole.” She looked at Pyrrha, who chuckled and flipped a page in her magazine. 

“The winds of change,” Pyrrha hummed. 

Gideon sat there, thinking for a long minute before looking at her mom. “Does Nona even like women?” she asked and Pyrrha shrugged. 

“Nona is a mystery at the best of times… I’ve definitely caught her staring a little too hard at Cam though…”

“Cam doesn’t count… Everyone's gay for Cam,” Gideon said and Pyrrha made an agreeing sound. “Guess we’ll find out...” She tipped the beer bottle back.

Chapter Text

“How's this?” Nona asked, lining her eye up with the top of the bricks, tongue poking out the corner of her mouth in concentration. Gideon leaned down next to her, eyeballing the line for a long moment. Nona held her breath.

“Yop, looks good, Nona."

“Yessss,” she pumped a fist.

“You’re getting pretty good at this,” Gideon praised and Nona smiled at her. 

“Maybe eventually I’ll be good enough that I can work more days.” She stood and brushed the dirt and concrete dust off her jeans. 

“That’s the plan,” Gideon nodded. “I have other jobs I prefer, but this one makes the best money so it’s just the three days but Ma and I know you want more hours. Once I deem you able to work on your own, you'll get full weeks," she said, scooping some excess cement off the wall with her finger and flinging it away. 

"I won't be working with you anymore?" Nona plopped herself up on the wall they had finished yesterday and kicked her feet, the backs of her boots making muted thumping noises against the masonry.

"Just on my normal Wednesday through Friday. Why? You gonna miss me?" she teased and Nona shrugged. 

"I've had worse coworkers," she said and Gideon honestly couldn't tell if she was serious, or not.

Her phone jingled in her pocket. "Lunchtime," Gideon declared while typing out a message to Pash. "You wanna go down the street and eat at the diner?" Gideon offered, already knowing the answer as Nona squealed excitedly and jumped down, throwing up a cloud of dust beneath her, not even waiting for Gideon as she jogged toward the gate. Gideon trailed along after her at a more leisurely pace.

Nona did at least stop and let her catch up with her at the street corner. "I'm getting their tortilla chips," she declared as they crossed the street and Gideon grimaced.

"God, why? They're always stale and taste like old lint," Gideon said and Noma nodded, beaming up at her. 

"I know!" 

Gideon just shook her head at her. When they stepped into the diner, she immediately caught sight of electric blue hair in her peripheral at one of the booths. She couldn't see this working out but that wasn't for her to decide.

"Hey, Gid!" They both turned and looked in Pash's direction where she was waving them over.

"You know her, Gideon?" Nona asked as Gideon raised a hand. 

"Yup, that is, unfortunately, my cousin," she said. "You mind if we go sit with her?" Gideon looked down at her and Nona shook her head.

"Hey," Gideon greeted as she slid into the booth. "Nona, this is my cousin, Our lady of the passion…Felix," Gideon was doing her best to suppress her grin, watching Pash's face redden.

"Was that… a name?" Nona cocked her head. 

"Passion Felix," Pash corrected. "Or just Pash…," She said. 

"Her parents were in a cult when she was born…," Gideon helpfully explained and Pash scowled. "This is Nona." Gideon hooked a thumb at her apprentice.

"Annabel Lee Nonagesimus, just Nona." The smaller woman smiled. "So, you were there to see Pyrrha and Gideon the other night then?

"We have Sunday dinner once a month." Pash nodded.

"Where we're forced to choke down her latest baked creation," Gideon added.

"You sure are complaining a lot for how much of that fuckin' pie you ate on Sunday!" Pash barked, glaring at her.

Nona giggled, drawing Pash's wide-eyed gaze. 

"You do eat a lot," Nona agreed, looking at Gideon, who frowned at her and Pash smirked. Before Gideon could rebuttal, their waitress appeared. 

"What can I get you all?" she asked.

"Tortilla chips," Pash and Nona ordered at the same time. Gideon looked between them with disgust.

"You both have awful taste," Gideon curled her lip in disgust.

~ ~

"I can't believe that," Gideon declared, walking into the connex. Pyrrha looked up from looking over the blueprints.

"What happened?" 

"They got along great! Nona gave Pash her number!" She threw up her hands and Pyrrha snorted.

"Really?" 

"Really."

A moment later Pash came strolling in behind her with a wide grin.

"So, Nona, huh?" Pyrrha asked her, standing from the chair and stretching her arms over her head.

"Yup! Taking her to a movie tonight." Pash grinned and Pyrrha nodded, walking over and laying a hand on Pash’s shoulder before leaning in. The smile on her face turned ominous. “You better be nice to her. Nona’s a good girl. Hear me?” she said in a low voice and Pash blinked owlishly before nodding. “Good, now, I need to go do a survey, see ya later, kids.” And just like that, she was gone. 

“Well, damn. She’s protective,” Pash mumbled and Gideon chuckled. 

"You ain't met the older sister. Better behave on your date," the redhead warned. 

“Yeah, yeah, reminds me. Here,” she handed over a little slip of paper with an address and time on it. “This is your blind date. Tonight, 6. Dress business casual, don’t be late.” Pash handed over the paper and Gideon grumbled. “Cheer up, oh cousin of mine. We both have dates tonight.”
“Joy,” Gideon mumbled under her breath.

~ ~ ~

Harrow stopped, frowning when she walked by the bathroom and saw Nona standing in front of the mirror, her customary braids were pulled loose, hanging down her back and dangling across the backs of her thighs in a single way of raven hair as she ran the brush through it, humming happily. 

“What are you doing?” she asked and Nona glanced up at her, all smiles.

“I have a date tonight,” she declared and Harrow blinked.

“A date?” she repeated, flabbergasted and Nona nodded. “With whom?” 

“This woman I met in the elevator Sunday night,” she started and Harrow immediately opened her mouth to object. Nona was quicker. “Turns out she’s Gideon’s cousin. Her name’s Passion…”

Harrow made a face at that. “Who names their child Passion ?” 

Nona glanced at her in the mirror, brow cocked. “I dunno… Harrowhark .” she threw back and Harrow scowled. “It tracks though, Gideon’s middle name is Mary-Beth Jezebel.” 

“What? You can’t be serious…” Harrow frowned.

“I heard it straight from Pyrrha, swear!” she said.

“Do you even know what a ‘Jezebel’ is?” Harrow frowned at her and Nona shrugged.  

“No, but Pyrrha must!”

“Of that, I have no doubt…,” Harrow mumbled. 

“Anyway, we’re going to the movies.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder and stood up straight.

"What do you even know about this woman?"

"She's funny." 

Harrow frowned. "That's it?" 

"And cute." 

"Nona…" Harrow glared.

"Well, a date is so you can get to know them usually," Nona hummed as she slid past Harrow and out of the bathroom. Her sister followed. 

"This seems unwise, you met this woman in an elevator."

"And then I had lunch with her and Gideon. It's fiiiine," she grabbed her ridiculous pink cross-body bag and slung it over her head as she walked toward the door.

"Nona…"

"I'll be back later, love youuu!" Then the door shut behind her, leaving Harrow standing in the entryway.

She grunted to herself before returning to her office and attempting to work. It lasted all of twenty-five minutes before she was up and pacing around the apartment. She couldn't concentrate on work. She tried to distract herself with the advice column in the magazine her sister had left on her desk but she'd read them all already and threw it down on her bed, annoyed.

She didn't know anything about this woman her sister was seeing. Neither did her sister! It made something tight and anxious knot up in her stomach.

She needed to go somewhere, anywhere. 

Which was how she wound up wandering around the grocery store, her headphones in and doing her best to ignore the world. Usually, Nona did their shopping and Harrow just provided the money and her half of the list.

But she couldn't think of anywhere else to go where she wouldn't just be uselessly wandering. 

This turned out to be a mistake. A mistake of incredible, unimaginable proportions. 

First, the store was busy for a Friday night.

Harrow pushed her cart down the aisle, taking great pains to not so much as brush any of the other shoppers clogging the aisles. Did no one have anything better to do on a Friday night?!

She pulled at the long sleeves of her black shirt, the music blasting in her earphones barely covered the sounds of people moving about and chattering but she tried. It didn’t even cover the terribly, screechy, and squeaking bum wheel of her cart.  

Just as she turned the corner. Another cart, pushed by an oblivious woman not paying any attention, rammed into hers and then the display of green beans set up precariously on the end of the aisle came tumbling down in a cacophonous ruckus. She winced, standing there, looking at the cans rolling around on the floor and everyone within fifty feet, looking at her . She quickly wheeled away her obnoxiously loud cart, face burning hot to the touch. 

It only went downhill from there. 

Apparently, there had been a remodel since the last time Harrow had done the shopping because she couldn’t find anything. She spent the better part of 10 minutes roaming up the aisles and getting progressively more annoyed in her search for simple pasta. 

When she finally found it, she was setting the boxes in her cart when someone tapped her on the shoulder. With an annoyed huff she pulled off her headphones and turned around to glare at the perpetrator. 

A middle-aged woman in a red puffer jacket was standing there, looking just as annoyed.

"Finally! I’ve been trying to get your attention for the last five minutes!” Harrow already knew that was a lie because she had walked down this aisle not two minutes ago. “You shouldn’t be wearing headphones when working!” The woman said with a huff. “Where are the chickpeas?” she demanded and Harrow could feel herself scowl at the woman. 

“In what part of your small, underdeveloped chickpea of a brain, were you allowed to entertain the notion that I, wearing headphones and pushing a cart full of groceries, worked at this establishment?!” She snapped at the woman, who reared back, hand pressed to her chest and mouth agape. 

Before she could formulate a response, Harrow spun around and wheeled off. 

In the produce department, she picked up a lemon and caused half the stand of fruits to go tumbling to the floor, leaving actual employees to glare balefully at her as she retreated. Then her phone died, leaving her with nothing but the ambient sounds of the store. She kept her headphones on to deter more people from talking to her.

She cursed under her breath as she looked up at the signs. Apparently, they had not moved them since the remodel, because they were incorrect and instead of canned vegetables and fruits on aisle 6 she found the flour, sugar, and other baking paraphernalia. Her mood only darkened as the trip wore on and while standing in the bread aisle, looking at the types of bagels her sister liked to eat for breakfast, a small child vomited a puddle that touched her shoes. 

Harrow wanted to scream, throw everything down at that moment and storm out of the store and to hell with the cart of food. By some grand miracle or perhaps even divine intervention, she managed to take a deep, staggering breath and not do that . 

Checking out took twenty minutes longer than it ever should have because of the scanner not working correctly on half of her items and then instead of paper, all they had were plastic bags.

The only way it could have possibly gotten worse was if it had been raining when she stepped out of the store. It wasn't, but she certainly glanced around for any errant lightning before actually walking to her car.

Once home, she huffed and grumbled up the walk to her building's front doors. She suddenly remembered another reason she let Nona do all the shopping. Nona and the wagon she kept in the back of her jeep. They were damn heavy. She rolled her shoulders as best she could and struggled up the steps. The handles of the plastic bags were cutting into the skin of her fingers and she cursed under her breath as the doors slid open and she took another agonizing step into the lobby and made her way to the elevator. She should have just stayed at home! 

She sighed and realized that she couldn't lift her arm to hit the button and with a grunt, set the bags in her right hand down to press the button.

“Need some help?” A voice from behind her asked and she looked over her shoulder to find a certain redhead, hair perfectly neat and combed back, standing there in a dark green button-down and dark jeans, a styrofoam container held in one hand. 

“You,” Harrow heard herself growl. Gideon cocked a brow and instead of waiting for an answer, reached down and picked up all the bags Harrow had set on the ground. “Unhand my groceries!” Harrow hissed, spinning around with a heated scowl. 

“Chill out, we’re going to the same floor. I'm not going to make off with your groceries.” Gideon rolled her eyes. “And by the looks of your hands, you were about to lose a few fingers.” She nodded down to Harrow’s near-purple fingers. “Sides, think of it as an 'I’m sorry' for the bucket thing,” she said. Before Harrow could even think to argue, the elevator dinged open and Gideon stepped inside, turning around to look at Harrow questioningly. She wasn't really leaving her much choice.

She breathed heavily out her nose and stepped inside. 

“Fine,” she grunted and Gideon smiled. The doors slid closed and they fell into an awkward silence as the elevator slowly moved upward. Gideon swayed back and forth on her heels as Harrow glared at her own reflection in the stainless steel doors, adamantly refusing to look at Gideon.

“So… did Nona tell you she was going on a date with my cousin?” she asked and suddenly those black, lightless eyes were on her.

Harrow’s mouth opened to say something but nothing came out as the elevator suddenly gave a rumbling jerk.

"Whoa!" Gideon rocked and Harrow yelped.

The lights flickered and the elevator gave another violent shake and sent them both scrabbling for something to hang onto. Gideon’s arm shot out to keep the smaller woman from tumbling forward, everything falling from her hands. Harrow fell forward, straight into the crook of Gideon’s arm. She dropped her bags and latched onto it as she was drawn into the protective cage of Gideon's chest.

The elevator gave another shudder, the lights cut and then everything was still and dark as a grave.

Harrow's breath came out in shallow, ragged pants as they stood there in the dark and still elevator. Her heart was thundering in her ears, her back pressed into something solid and warm. Somewhere in the back of her head, she noted the soft, woodsy smell that suddenly filled her nose.  

"Are you okay?" Gideon's low and breathy voice sounded somewhere in the space just above her. She felt herself nod, fingers still clutching at the soft fabric of Gideon's shirt sleeves. The muscle beneath was solid and warm. 

"Yes," she managed to force out when it belatedly occurred to her that Gideon couldn't see her.

The lights suddenly snapped back to life with a low buzzing sound and she found herself held flush to Gideon, her back pressing into her the ginger's chest and an arm wrapped around her middle and one holding the railing. Harrow's fingers dug into her forearm. She could feel the heat seeping into her back and her heartbeat quickened. 

"Unhand me!" She shoved herself out of Gideon's arms and stood clear on the other side of the elevator.

Gideon blinked, surprised, but let her go with a shake of her head as she let go of the rail.

"The elevator's stopped…," she said and Harrow felt herself scowl.

"A brilliant deduction," she grumbled, looking anywhere but at her and Gideon grunted, pulling out her phone and tapping at it before holding it up to her ear.

"Hey, I'm stuck in the elevator… yeah in the building." She frowned at whoever she was talking to. "Yeah, it just stopped, we're on…" she looked up at the sign. The digital numbers were out. "I have no damn idea, the sign is out…." She leaned against the wall and appeared to be listening. "Okay, bye." She slid it back into her pocket and turned to Harrow. "Ma is gonna call down to the lobby," she told her and Harrow sighed, crossing her arms. 

"Great…," she grumbled.

"Could be worse," Gideon shrugged.

"How could it possibly be worse?" she glared at her from the other side of the box.

"It could have plummeted 14 floors and killed us both," she said with a cheerful smile and Harrow's stomach clenched at the thought. 

Yes, it could have done that.

"I suppose…" Something rolled into her foot and she looked down at the can of broth laying at her feet. Along with all the rest of her groceries and Gideon's styrofoam container. Remarkably, still closed.

With an irritated grunt, Harrow dropped to her knees and started repacking things that had managed to escape their bags.

Gideon knelt down and helped.

"That's unnecessary," she said stiffly but Gideon just shrugged. 

"I'm here, I might as well help," she said, sliding a box of pasta back into the bag and inspecting a jar of pesto. "Amazing the stuff didn't break…"

"That would be just my luck tonight…," Harrow grumbled as they collected everything. Their fingers brushed as Gideon handed over the bags and Harrow jerked her hand back, face warm.  

Gideon plopped back on her butt and leaned against the elevator wall. 

"I feel that," she grunted.

"What are you doing?" Harrow stood over her, bags in hand. 

"Getting comfortable. It could be a little while. You know how long it takes them to get to anything in this place." She looked up at Harrow knowingly and a morose frown was her answer.

Unfortunately, Harrow did. Their hot water had gone out last December and it had been nearly February before it had been fixed. She'd had several long and heated conversations with the building manager about it. The price of water was removed from their rent for those two months. 

Harrow sighed and carefully folded her legs beneath her to sit against the wall adjacent to Gideon who was opening up her styrofoam container and popped a fry into her mouth. She glanced up to see Harrow looking at her and held it out. Inside was a whole, untouched burger of some kind and a handful of thick-cut fries.

"Want some?" She offered and Harrow's lip curled.

"No…… thank you…," she added after a beat. Suddenly aware she was being fantastically rude to someone who had only tried to help her this evening. Her irritated mood prevailed though. 

Gideon shrugged. "Suit yourself," she said and popped another in her mouth. "I was gonna give this to Ma, cause I lost my appetite on my blind date but now I'm hungry." She pulled out the burger and took a sloppy bite, sauce dripped out the back end and Harrow could feel her lip curl at the sight. "I can't think of a worse evening," Gideon grumbled after swallowing. 

Harrow scoffed, pulling her knees up to her chest and resting her chin atop them. "It couldn't possibly have been more abysmal than mine," she said, though it was more to herself than Gideon, who turned to look at her.

"Yeah?" She cocked her head and black glanced up to meet amber. "I'll show you mine if you show me yours," she said with a little smirk and took another bite of her burger. Harrow blew out an aggravated-sounding breath to cover the embarrassed sound that tried to well up in her throat. Then it was silent for several long moments and Harrow knew she was being unbearable. As was her tendency. Yes, the woman had accidentally soaked her with nasty water, but she’d also apologized and had only tried to be nice tonight. She glanced over at Gideon, looking down at her food now. 

“You first?” She offered and amber eyes snapped up to her, searching, then she smiled. 

"Well, Pash decided I needed to go on a blind date with some super bangin' woman she knew, ya know?" She shoved another fry in her mouth and at least had the good grace to finish chewing and swallowing before she continued her story. Harrow listened but turned her eyes to the doors across from her to keep from staring at every movement and dip of her shoulders and neck as she talked.

"I said fine, to get her off my ass. I got all dressed and cleaned up and show up to this restaurant at 5 till 6 and waited… and waited, and waited…," Gideon took another vicious bite of her burger and Harrow's eyes turned back to her finally, a hint of curiosity sparked in those dark little voids half buried in her knees.

"She didn't show up," Harrow said and Gideon snorted. 

“I wish. No, she showed up, about half an hour late.” She looked over at Harrow, whose brows furrowed visibly. She despised people who couldn’t be on time. Especially when they made her wait. “She showed up and introduced herself and after we got sat, didn’t look up from her phone for the next fifteen minutes, hardly responded to a thing I said, and then tried to order for me!” Gideon threw up her hand, sending the fry she had been holding flying across the elevator. They both watched it arc through the air and land across from them. “Oops. Anyway, yeah. She decided I should have something ‘light and fresh’ .” Gideon parroted nasally, in what must have been a poor imitation of the woman and Harrow glanced at the big and meaty burger in her hands. “I said hell no and got this. Then she started telling me, while not looking up from her phone mind you, about how terrible her last few dates had been, never stopped talking or asked me a single question. Then, five minutes after our food got there, she got a call, answered it, and said she’d love to come to whatstheirface’s party, told me ‘thanks’ and left me with her bill!” 

“How rude… The decency of people is frighteningly low as of late..,” Harrow said and Gideon let out a dry half chuckle and looked appreciatively at her. Harrow quickly turned her gaze away. Missing the curious and attentive look that followed.

“I’m not listening to Pash ever fuckin’ again,” she finally grumbled, shoving the rest of the burger in her mouth. 

“Tell me about your cousin,” Harrow said suddenly and Gideon blinked at her, still chewing but the single raised eyebrow was enough. “She’s on a date with my sister. I want to know,” she demanded. Gideon swallowed audibly and wiped her greasy hands off on her jeans.

“Hup-hup, I told you what happened to me tonight, now you tell me yours… then I will consider answering your questions.” She smiled and Harrow glared but Gideon was unmoved. The look on her face was very much ‘Well?’ . So, with a sigh, she related her tale of market woes. 

“What you said to the Karen was good but I probably woulda just told her to go fuck herself with some chickpeas,” Gideon hummed and Harrow snorted involuntarily, making Gideon grin.

“I suppose we can’t all be as eloquent as you,” was her retort and Gideon shrugged, still smirking. 

"It takes time. To be fair, I doubt I can death glare as well as you. I just don't have the face for it." She winked and Harrow’s body temperature must have gone up at least fifteen degrees. Somehow, she managed to keep her voice steady.

"It's a time-perfected art," she drawled and Gideon laughed. If Harrow was smiling, she would never admit it. Gideon saw it though and one was mirrored on her own lips, soft and genuine and it made a shiver run up Harrow’s spine. 

"And now we're stuck in an elevator. The perfect way to round off a lovely evening." Gideon sniffed and Harrow grunted. 

"With my soon to be not so cold food…," she said and Gideon hummed.

"I imagine they'll come soon…" she started to say just as a low rumbling noise filled the elevator. She blinked, turning to Harrow, whose face was rapidly changing color while she avoided eye contact with Gideon. It took her a good few seconds to figure out the sound and then she smirked. 

"Hungry?"

"No!" was the stubborn reply, followed by another low growl. Gideon chuckled, but without a word slid the open styrofoam box across the floor of the elevator to Harrow, who glared at it and Gideon like she had just set fire to her mother.

"It could be a while…," she sang and Harrow's glare only intensified, but so did the sudden gnawing hunger in the pit of her stomach. She could not remember the last time she'd eaten and an unknown amount of time till she could again still loomed before her. Gideon shook the box and the fries shuffled around enticingly.  

They stared at each other for what felt like forever but was in reality probably only five seconds at best before Harrow snatched the box and pulled it to her, intent to ignore Gideon’s cocky grin. 

They were salty with a hint of garlic and on any normal day would have been a bit too strong for Harrow’s palate but it was food and not so overly strong that she couldn’t stand it. 

“Anyway, fair is fair. So, you wanted to know about Pash?" she asked and Harrow nodded, a fry in her mouth. “I mean, what exactly do you wanna know?” she asked. “She’s not a creep or anything. Personally, I think she’s a prick sometimes, but she’s my cousin and we grew up together so, take that with a grain of salt.” she leaned back against the elevator wall and crossed her arms over her chest. Harrow very carefully kept her eyes from straying to the smooth line of her clavicle and throat exposed by the shirt with one too many buttons undone. 

“What does she do for a living?” Harrow asked after swallowing.

“She's a junior editor at an editorial firm. They find freelance writers for other companies to write in their magazines and websites and blah, blah, blah. Pash proofreads and edits submissions” Gideon twirled her wrist. 

"Criminal record?" Harrow asked and her face was so serious, Gideon couldn't help but laugh. 

"Uh… held overnight for drunk and disorderly conduct at Mardi gras?" she offered with a grin and Harrow grumbled. "Otherwise, no… Oh, her parents were in a cult. That's not really her fault and she never had anything to do with it but yeah. That's how you end up with 'Our lady of the passion' as your birth name," Gideon snorted.

"A cult?" Harrow asked and Gideon nodded. 

"I don't know too much about it. Just that my mom's sister joined, wound up pregnant by another member somewhere along the way, and ended up kicking it from very mysterious circumstances." She shrugged. "My mom took her in to live with us and after she died, Pyrrha took care of us both. Either way, Pash never had anything to do with it herself."

Harrow hummed and, surprised, looked down at the now empty container. Somewhere in there, she had eaten the rest of the fries.

"Also, Nona is pretty feisty," Gideon laughed and Harrow sighed through her nose. That was certainly one way of putting it. Her sister was most definitely a personality.

"I suppose I'll just have to wait and ask Nona when she returns…" 

Gideon made an agreeing sound and pulled her legs up to drape her arms over her knees. "You want to play 'I spy'?" she asked with a half-hidden grin and Harrow gave her a tired look.

"What would we even ‘spy’?" she demanded. 

“I spy… something small and dark…” Gideon offered with her shit-eating grin. Harrow just glared.

"Twenty questions?"

“No.”  

"You're no fun," Gideon mumbled, leaning her head back against the wall, eyes closed.  Harrow pursed her lips.

"Nona tells me you do other things besides construction work…" 

A single amber eye peeled open and looked at her, smile returning. 

"I do everything, Sunshine." 

"Like what?.... And don't call me sunshine." 

"Well, O' lady of darkness…" Gideon started and Harrow barely suppressed the involuntary smile that tried to force its way onto her face.

Two and a half hours later, she'd given up on trying.

"You should come with Cam and Nona to the gym. Maybe we could pack some muscle on that stick and wireframe of yours," Gideon reached over and poked her arms teasingly. Harrow slapped it away.

"My frame is perfectly suited for my chosen profession," she argued.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you have the brawniest brain this side of the equator… but what are you gonna do when you need a pickle jar opened?" she asked with faux concern. 

"I hate pickles," was the deadpan answer.

"Your Metamucil jar then…" 

Harrow reached over and slapped at her while Gideon just laughed.

Suddenly, the elevator rumbled to life and was moving upward.

"Oh, hey, we're moving again." Gideon stood and offered a hand to Harrow. She considered it for a brief moment. Before slipping her own much smaller hand into Gideon's solid and calloused one and was lifted to her feet effortlessly. She picked up her bags just as the elevator dinged on the 17th floor. The doors opened and with a relieved sigh, Harrow stepped out but paused when she realized she was alone in the hall. She glanced back at Gideon, standing in the open elevator, one hand in her pocket and the other holding the empty styrofoam box.

“You’re not getting off?” Harrow asked her and Gideon shook her head.

“Naw, I was coming up here to give this to Ma,” she motioned with the empty box. “But.. ya know.” she shook it and smiled. Harrow noted for the first time that it was crooked, raised just a little more on the right side, giving it a lackadaisical and maybe, almost, charming quality to it. “I live down on the 9th floor. I just like buggin’ her and Cam and SexPal. She pulled the hand from her pocket and reached up to tap a button on the console before giving a two-finger salute.

“Let’s get stuck in an elevator again sometime, eh?” She grinned. “G’night, Gloom Mistress,” were her parting words as the doors slid shut with a quiet ding, denying Harrow a chance of rebuttal with its cold, reflective facade 

Harrow stood there, watching the numbers until it stopped at 9 then turned, groceries in hand, and walked down the hall to her own apartment. 

It was quiet and she knew immediately that Nona hadn’t returned yet. She went about putting away the groceries, after a thorough sanitizing of her shoes that had come into contact with child vomit, and then retired to her room. Her computer sat open where she had left it, work documents still sitting open and staring back at her as she sat in her chair

She felt absolutely no desire to work on anything. Her eyes instead turned to the magazine still sitting open next to her laptop and pulled it closer. She had read everything in it that held any interest to her. She scanned the page for lack of anything better to do and noticed something she hadn’t before. At the bottom of the advice column, in small, print. 

‘For weekly updates from the Ginger Journalist, go to FrontlineTitties.com/Editoriasl/GingerJ’

She turned back to her computer and typed. 

A box popped up asking for her age and she hesitated. She couldn’t help but glance around her bedroom as if someone was watching her log into the website for a porn magazine. She typed it in and was viscerally reminded about what kind of publication it was when the margins of the page were filled with scantily clad women in provocative poses. Harrow quickly scrolled down to what she was looking for. 

‘Ask the Ginger Journalist!’  

Below the header was a page of questions and Harrow settled into her chair and read.

“Dear Ginger,

I’ve been feeling so anxious lately. I recently broke up with my girlfriend and…

She read for the better part of an hour until she heard the front door open and close and quickly she shut her computer in a panic. 

Predictably, about thirty seconds later, there was a knock on her bedroom door. Before she could even say anything, it flung open and there stood her sister, smiling from ear to ear, eyes alight and Harrow didn’t even need to ask how it went.

“You’re home,” she said and Nona smiled all the harder. 

“Are you going to ask me how it went?” she asked, skipping, literally skipping, into the room and Harrow couldn’t not roll her eyes at the display.

“I hardly think I need to with that ridiculous look on your face,” Harrow grunted, opening her laptop and quickly opening the browser with her work on it as Nona flung herself back onto her bed with a dramatic and girlish sigh that made the elder sister want to gag 

“It was great! We saw that new murder mystery movie I’ve been trying to get you to go see with me for a week…” 

“The depictions of medical procedures are inaccurate,” Harrow grumbled. Nona ignored her and continued on.

“Then we snuck into another movie across the hall, something animated, I don’t remember…” 

“How can you not remember, you just saw it?” Harrow looked up at her, frowning. 

“Well… we weren’t exactly watching it… so much as it provided lovely background noise while we.. made out,” she said.

“Nona!” Harrow chided. “You just met this woman!” 

“And now I know her even better,” Nona smirked, wagging her brows and Harrow could feel her blood pressure rising. As was often the case where her sister was involved. “Then we got pizza from the food truck by the park and hung around there for a while. We’re gonna go out again next week.” She sat up and kicked her feet gleefully. 

Harrow took a steadying breath and reminded herself of what little she had learned about this woman this evening. That, and the fact that her sister was a grown woman and there was precious little Harrow could do to stop her even if she wanted to. Unless she wanted to tie her up and lock her in her bedroom.

And eventually, Nona would gnaw herself free.

“I’m glad you're home safe,” Harrow settled for and Nona smiled at her. 

“So, how was your night? Do anything wild and crazy? Have fun?” she laughed and Harrow frowned, thinking. She wouldn’t call her extremely aggravating and tiresome trip to the market or getting stuck in the damn elevator ‘wild and crazy’, nor was it ‘fun’ by any stretch of the imagination. She opened her mouth to say abhorrent. Then, amber eyes and an asymmetrical smile flashed in her mind's eye. The taste of salt and garlic and the smell of a woodsy cologne. 

It wasn’t the worst time she had ever had…

“It was fine,” she said and Nona nodded, like that was exactly what she’d been expecting, and hopped off the bed. 

“I’m gonna head to bed,” she called over her shoulder as she left the room. “Night, Harrow!”

“Good night, Nona.” 

The door shut and Harrow turned back to her computer, closing her word documents and opening the Ginger journalist once more.

Chapter Text

“...and then we made out.”

“Okay, Nona…” Gideon stopped what she was doing and set the brick down to turn and face her apprentice, looking up at her with a bright smile. “I’m happy you and Pash had such a good time and seem to be hitting it off. Like, really, crazy happy for you and that dumbass I call a cousin…,” she said and Nona nodded. “But I do not, and I can not stress this enough, do not need to know about you and Pash making out, okay? ” she asked, stressing the word and Nona nodded. “Good, thank you. Now will you mix up some more mortar?” She nodded her head to the wheelbarrow and Nona gave a crisp salute. 

A few minutes later, Nona looked up again. “Ya know, you and Pash are a lot alike…,” she said suddenly and Gideon made an insulted sound. 

“That’s Ma’s fault.” 

“What’s my fault?” 

Speak of the devil…

“That me and Pash are how we are,” she said with an accusing lilt and Pyrrha scoffed, crossing her dark and well muscled arms over her chest. 

“I’m not taking any responsibility for the two of you's brain damage from various stunts over the years. I don’t just mean hockey and rugby either. I never made you two try to ride your bicycles off the roof of that convenient store, or try to zipline on a telephone line.” 

“As the younger cousin, those were all Pash’s fault,” Gideon asserted and Pyrrha gave her a hard, disbelieving look. 

“Just finish up this line and pack it up, it’s almost quitting time. I have to run some errands, so why don’t you go home with Gid, Nona?” she asked and the smaller woman nodded. 

“I’m fine with that,” Gideon said.

“Good, cause I wasn't asking. I’ll see you two later.” She looked at Gideon and with that, Pyrrha turned and clomped off across the jobsite. Gideon stuck out her middle fingers at the back of her head and as if knowing, Pyrrha held one up over her shoulder. Nona giggled. 

“So, you and Pash grew up together with Pyrrha, right? Pash mentioned it a little.” 

Gideon nodded. “Yup, she was already five and living with Ma and my other mom when I was born.” 

“Probably why you’re so alike,” Nona concluded and Gideon grunted.

“Didn’t you and Harrowhark grow up together? You two are nothing alike and you’re actually siblings.” Gideon accused and Nona cocked her head.

“How would you know we’re not anything alike? You’ve only met Harrow for like… a combined 5 minutes.” Nona asserted, setting a fist on her cocked hip. 

“I mean, we hung out for like almost three hours in the elevator together last week,” Gideon said. 

“What?” Nona looked at her confused and Gideon wiped her concrete dust-covered hands off on her pants, nodding. 

“Yeah, Friday night. She was coming back from grocery shopping and I was going up to see Ma after my blind date. The elevator stopped working for a bit. We talked about how shitty our nights had been and just… stuff,” she said with a strangely wistful smile. “We came out about even, I think, between her shopping trip from hell and my date that came up with it.” 

“She never mentioned it…,” Nona mumbled to herself, frowning, and Gideon shrugged. 

“Well, like I said, you two don’t seem all that much alike, including how much you talk. Though, she’s actually not half bad when she decides to play somewhat-nice,” Gideon chuckled, grabbing her tool bag and slinging it over her shoulder. “Let’s head out.” She jerked her head and Nona followed along to her truck and climbed into the passenger side. 

The ride back was mostly quiet, Nona looking thoughtful in the passenger seat and Gideon glancing at her from the corner of her eye. She was never this quiet for this long. 

“You okay?” Gideon asked and Nona nodded.

“Yeah, just thinking…,” she said, gaze fixed outside the window. Gideon left it alone. 

Gideon got off the elevator at the 9th floor with a wave and then Nona rode it all the way up to the 17th, arms crossed and foot tapping. 

The moment she stepped into the apartment, she glanced around and found the living room and kitchen empty, made a beeline for her sister’s room and entered without any warning. 

Harrow glanced up, looking more than a little unimpressed. “Have you forgotten how to knock as of late?” she snipped. 

“Did you forget to tell me that you hung out with Gideon Friday night?” Nona challenged and something flickered across Harrow’s face. Too quick for Nona to catch but she noticed the flicker nonetheless. 

“Only if you call being stuck in an elevator for nearly three hours together ‘hanging out’,” she drawled. 

“I might!” Nona planted her hands on her hips and glared at Harrow, who couldn’t not roll her eyes at whatever this was. 

“Then we hung out,” she said flatly, turning her attention back to the computer screen. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?!” Nona bemoaned and Harrow sighed.

“Tell you what? That I was stuck in the elevator with Gideon? Okay, I was stuck in the elevator with Gideon. Happy?” She didn’t even look up at Nona, who could feel herself getting more irritated with her sister by the moment.

“No, I am not happy!” Nona stamped her foot. She was aware it was childish, but she couldn’t help it. Harrow was being obtuse on purpose and she knew it. “You know exactly what I’m getting at, Harrowhark. You think Gideon is hot,” she said and only then did Harrow’s typing stop before she finally looked up at Nona. 

“I said once that I may have found her attractive and what has that got to do with this?” Harrow frowned harshly at her. 

“Are you saying you didn’t enjoy her company?” she accused.

“You mean our forced proximity in the broken elevator?” Harrow cocked a brow. “It was tolerable. Now, I have a video conference in five minutes, so if you would please…” She dismissed with a wave of her hand. 

Nona huffed but backed up toward the door, still glaring at her sister. “We’re not done talking about this Harrowhark!” she promised before turning and closing the door shut behind her with a bang. 

Nona stood on the other side of the door, contemplating. Normally, Harrow shared everything with her, at least the general goings of the day. So, the fact she had very deliberately left out that she had been stuck in the elevator with Gideon for nearly 3 hours last Friday night was ringing all her suspicion bells, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it.

~ ~ ~

"I think something is going on with my sister and Gideon," Nona announced when she walked into Cam and Pal's apartment. 

"What?" Pal asked from the couch looking up from his laptop. Cam was sitting at the kitchen table, phone in one hand and pen in the other but she too looked up at the announcement.

"What kind of something?" she asked.

"I think she has the hots for Gideon," she said and Pal choked on his own spit while Cam's eyes widened comically. 

"What?" Pal coughed, getting his breath back. "What on earth makes you think that?" 

"Well… ," she started, straddling the arm of the couch to look at them both, "when Harrow came to visit at the job site a couple of weeks ago, I caught her practically undressing Gideon with her eyes." 

An uncharacteristic laugh came from the kitchen table and Pal's eyes only widened.

"Then, apparently they got stuck in the elevator together for like, 3 hours last Friday while I was out with Pash and when I asked her what she did, she said nothing but then Gideon told me about it. Then Harrow was all cagey about it when I confronted her." She looked between the couple, as if fully expecting them to agree with her observations. 

"That's it?" Cam asked, looking at her and Nona felt herself deflate a little. "That's not exactly concrete information, Nona," Cam went on, trying to soften the blow. "Harrow is cagey about… everything," she said. Pal nodded. 

"She is notorious for withholding information just because she can… and 'undressing Gideon with her eyes ’?" he repeated, a smirk on his face. "I've never known Harrow to so much as to give someone a second glance, much less… that." He leaned back from his laptop to regard her fully. Nona puffed up her cheeks with annoyance.

"You don't understand. I know my sister. I'm sure it wouldn't have looked like anything to anyone else, but I know. And when I confronted her about it, she admitted she was attracted to her!"

Pal's eyebrows pole-vaulted up over the tops of his glasses and he shared a silent look with Cam in which Nona could see the quick and silent conversation. Then, they looked back at her.

"She actually said, word for word, that she was attracted to Gideon?" he asked and Nona nodded.

"She said that she 'may' have found her attractive," Nona repeated.

"For her, that's as good as yelling it from the rooftops," Cam quipped and Pal hummed, stroking his beard. It was coming in nicely, Nona noted. She wasn’t sure about the mustache yet. 

"What exactly are you looking to accomplish?" He looked curiously at Nona, who smiled deviously. She had been thinking about this all night.

"Well… I figure that Gideon is pretty cool… and single… and Harrow is single…," she trailed off.

"You want to set them up?" Pal's eyebrows were now all but brushing the ceiling. 

"It's not the worst idea," Cam suddenly said and Pal's head whipped over to look at his spouse in disbelief. 

"They're very… different people," he said carefully, well aware that one was Nona's sister and the other, Cam's closest friend of nearly fifteen years, not to mention his as well.

"They are," Cam agreed. "And if what Nona says is true, and Harrow is attracted to Gideon, there are worse people to try and set Gideon up with, all things considered." She and Pal had another silent conversation in which Nona watched the minute changes on their faces, unable to decipher a single thing. 

"Alright, though I’m not yet convinced… I assume you'd like our assistance in this?" Pal looked at Nona, who broke out in a wide grin and nodded. "We need to look at this rationally. Harrow is a woman of intelligence and reason, we have to go about this scientifically," he declared. 

"You have something in mind." Cam looked at him. It wasn't a question.

"Naturally.” He smiled. "Observation!"

~ ~ ~

"Here we are!" Palamedes held up a hand as he and Harrow stepped out of his car. 

The coffee shop wasn't anything special to look at. The outside was modern in design. A black front with tall glass windows but a strip of rainbow colors slashed across the door. The name was plastered across the top and on the door. ‘Rainbrew-Buddy Cafe .’  

Certainly a different take on naming conventions. 

“Is this a gay coffee shop and why did we have to leave our perfectly good apartments to come work here?” Harrow looked at him from the corner of her eye as she adjusted her bag holding her laptop over her shoulder. 

“First, it’s not, not a gay coffee shop. Second, you and I both need to get out of the house more,” he said and the sound Harrow made in response clearly said she did not agree. “Third, Magnus owns this shop and has promised us the best coffee that can be had." He smiled at her and Harrow's brows rose. 

"Magnus Quinn?" she asked. "Dr. Pent's husband?" 

Palamedes nodded as they made their way inside. It was quiet for a late Sunday afternoon and the two quickly made a beeline for the back of the shop to seclude themselves in a corner with their work. 

“Shouldn’t we order?” Harrow asked as she opened up her laptop and he shook his head.

“They actually do table side service here, someone should be coming over soon,” he said and then started arranging some papers on his side of the table. Harrow hummed and followed suit. She soon became aware of the presence standing beside their table. 

“Hey and welcome to- Oh, SexPal, and the Penumbral Lady, out in the light of day!”

Harrow’s head snapped up at the voice and the first thing she saw was that asymmetrical grin beaming down at her, then the brown apron with the rainbow pin on it bearing her name. 

“I didn’t think you came out in the sunlight.” She smirked at Harrow before looking at Pal, “And you… don't go out period,” she chuckled when Pal gave her an exasperated look. 

“I’d like it to go on record that I leave my house far more often than Harrow and in both sun up and sun down hours, thank you very much.” He sat up a little straighter and Gideon just snickered, eyes crinkling with amusement. 

“You work here as well?” Harrow asked and those amber eyes were back on her, warm and bright. They had an almost mesmerizing quality to them. Soothing, like warm tea splashed with honey. She didn’t even notice how intently Gideon was looking back into her own. 

“Eh, kinda. Magnus just opened this place last month and is still working on getting good staff. I worked as a barista for like four years when I was a teenager so I know all the ins and outs of a coffee house. I only come in maybe once a week when he’s in a tight spot or needs someone to teach the newbies things. It’s all under the table,” she leaned down to whisper conspiratorially to her. 

“How do you know Quinn?” Harrow asked her. 

“Dr. Pent was one of our professors in college. Cam, Gideon, and I enjoyed her a lot.” Pal explained, turning to Harrow. “We’ve been friends since we took her classical literature course.”

“I see…” She glanced back up at Gideon, who smiled and Harrow mentally yeeted the saccharine thoughts about how warm and inviting it was, away. 

“Anyway, what can I get two nerds? Uranium? Iodine? Maybe just a half-helping of plutonium?” she asked, the amused look on her face growing with every suggestion and Pal rolled his eyes. 

“None of those things are even remotely related to our areas of expertise.” Harrow said imperiously. 

“They do use Iodine on occasion in trial studies.” Pal scratched his chin and Gideon rolled her eyes. 

“Has anyone ever told you two that you have no senses of humor?” Gideon asked, setting a fist on her hip and looking between them.

“Constantly,” Harrow hummed, unbothered by this. 

“Cam thinks I’m funny…,” Pal mumbled.

“Only your wife would… just give me your orders.” Gideon rolled her eyes and held up her pad.

“Jasmine tea, please,” Pal said and Gideon jotted it down with a nod. 

“And you, Twilight princess?” She turned to Harrow with an easy smile and tilt of her brows, pen poised over the pad. Harrow noted the odd way she held her pen and tried to focus on something other than all the new nicknames she seemed to have acquired in the last week that made something tingle at the back of her neck.

“Coffee,” she finally managed to spit out.

“Let me guess,” Gideon cut in with a soft, amused, lilt in her voice before she could specify. “You take it black?” 

Her hands clutched the sides of her laptop, brows furrowed and hoping to god above that the warmth she could feel was not visible on her face. 

“Yes.” 

“Comin’ up!” Gideon dotted the paper with a flourish despite the lack of letters to dot, before turning and walking back up to the front. Harrow watched her go. 

“When did you become acquainted with Gideon?” Pal asked and she looked up to find her colleague bent over his laptop already, not looking at her. Harrow gave herself a quick mental shake, righting herself and nodded. 

“I'm not really. We were trapped in the elevator together last week for nearly three hours. I was forced to socialize,” she said and heard Pal make an amused sound. 

“Three hours in an elevator with Gideon? I can only imagine.” He smiled, tapping away at his computer.

Harrow glanced at the front counter where she could see the head of ginger hair moving about at the machines and chewed on her bottom lip. 

“It wasn’t the worst time I’ve ever spent in a stranger's company,” she admitted. When she glanced back at Palamedes, he was looking at her thoughtfully.   

“What?”

“Oh! Nothing.” He shook his head and focussed on his work in front of him. Harrow didn’t let his behavior occupy her mind for long and returned to the tasks at hand.

Or tried, anyway. 

For reasons she couldn’t articulate, she was hyper aware of the red head standing not 20 feet away. The store was almost empty at this time of day and there was only one other table occupied by a single young man with his headphones in and staring at his phone. She could hear Gideon humming along to the song playing over the speakers as she made their drinks and no matter how hard she tried not to, every few moments she’d glance up and see just what exactly Gideon was doing over there. At one point, she looked up, only to find she was being watched in turn. Gideon jerked and gave a shy, little wave before quickly returning to her task. 

“Harrow?” 

Her head snapped back and she met Palameds’ curious gaze across the table from her. 

“What was that, Sextus?” she asked, clearing her throat and those clear, gray water eyes watched her for what felt like longer than normal. Like she was being studied. Which, to be fair, Sextus, like herself, was observant and critical of everything around him, so this didn’t really strike her as odd. Having his keen and unwavering gaze on her though, was a new and disquieting thing. 

“I asked if you’d received the placebo results for the Quinque Trials?” he repeated and Harrow nodded, fingers flying over her keyboard as she opened documents. 

“Yes, I have the latest round of results from just this morning,” she tapped a few more keys and it was sent. “You’ll have it momentarily.” 

He nodded and opened his email. Harrow could see the screens opening in the reflection of his glasses. While he looked, she found her eyes flickering over to the counter when a splash of red popped up in the corner of her eye. Gideon was coming their way with mugs in hand. 

“Here we go!” she announced, setting Harrow’s steaming cup of black coffee down in front of her. “One coffee, black for the lady in black and one tea, jasmine, for the lady in gray.” Gideon smirked as she set the mug of tea down in front of Pal.” 

He took it in hand, and chin held high, looked up at Gideon from over his glasses. “I am very confident in my masculinity, thank you. We are all well aware of who opens the jars in my home,” he said, plucking at the string of the tea bag.

“Cam,” Gideon said.

“Cam,” Pal confirmed before taking a sip. 

Harrow picked up her coffee and took a drink, watching the two of them over the rim.

“If you two need anything else, give me a call. I still got an hour to go and it’s boring as hell in here today,” She stretched her arms over her head, behind her shoulders, and Harrow’s eyes were involuntarily drawn to the pull of the triceps as the sleeves slid back. 

‘Is there any part of this woman not chiseled from stone?’ 

“We will, thanks, Gideon.” Pal smiled at her and she turned to walk away. Harrow’s eyes trailed after her as she went to set her mug down.

“Harrow!” Pal called as she let go of her mug and it met air. 

The crash echoed through the whole store and it was all Harrow could do not to flee the establishment, face glowing red as Gideon mopped up the spilled coffee and broken ceramics. 

~ ~ 

“I’m back,” Pal declared as he stepped into the apartment and toed off his shoes on the mat.

Nona and Cam were both sitting on the couch with Noodle between them as a movie played on the tv.  

“So, how’d it go?” Nona sat up immediately, spinning around, her knees in the couch cushion as she watched Palamedes put his bag down on the kitchen table. 

“What did you note?” Cam asked, looking over her shoulder. 

Pal turned to them and pushed his glasses up his nose and regarded Nona coolly. “You said Harrow admitted that she ‘may’ have a physical attraction to Gideon?” he asked and Nona nodded. “I see, yes, there is no may about it,” he said. Cam turned around at this. “She is completely and absolutely ‘hot under the collar’ for Gideon,” he announced like it was the title of his new thesis paper. 

“What about Gideon?” Cam asked, brow cocked and Pal’s mouth twisted thoughtfully.

“Inconclusive. We’re going to need more data but, knowing Gideon as long as I have, the prospect is good. She’s quite friendly to Harrow.” He crossed his arms and Cam nodded. “The question is, how do we proceed from here?” He looked at them. 

“Nona has some thoughts,” Cam said, looking at the younger woman, whose grin split her whole face. 

“We're going to the bar!” 

Chapter Text

“No,” Harrow said. 

“Come on, please, Harrow,” Nona wheedled. “It will be fun!” Nona smiled and Harrow glowered back.

“I can not think of a less fun way to spend my Friday night than at a smoky, grimy bar playing trivia with a host of drunken morons, you, Hect, and Sextus.” Harrow said, crossing her arms. 

“Pash is coming too,” Nona reminded but Harrow just stared. “Hey! Be nice to my baby. Pash is smart!” Nona scowled a near-identical scowl right back at her sister, who rolled her eyes. “You can finally meet her.” Nona enticed and Harrow pursed her lips. 

“You’ve been on several dates now, I’m reasonably certain you’ll be fine,” she said and went back to stirring the soup bubbling in the pot. 

“Harrooooow,” Nona dropped her head onto the counter. 

“Don’t whine. It’s unbecoming of a Nonagesimus.” She didn't even look up and Nona huffed.

“So is being a repressed priss…” 

Harrow shot a glare over her shoulder and Nona’s mouth snapped shut.

“Why do you want me to go so badly, this sounds like a double date to me. I would be a fifth wheel.”

“No, you wouldn’t! We’re just hanging out. Please, I never ask you for anything.”

“Drastically untrue,” Harrow mumbled and Nona puffed out her cheeks. Harrow had to be so damn stubborn even when she was just trying to help her!

She just didn’t know that yet… 

Alright, so her sister wanted to play this way? So be it.

“It’s my birthday, I want you to come.” Nona finally had to pull out her trump card. The ‘it’s my birthday so do it’ card. Harrow stopped stirring and without looking up from the pot sighed heavily. At that moment, Nona knew she had won.

"Fine…" Harrow bit out the word like she was spitting out shards of glass.

"Thank youuuu, Nona jumped around the counter to hug the grouchy woman from behind. Harrow grumbled but allowed it. 

"We're leaving at 7 Friday night!" Then she spun and skipped out of the room.

"Can't wait…," Harrow mumbled to the bubbling soup.

~ ~

"You came!" Pal smiled at Harrow as she sat in the empty side of the large, circular booth they had nabbed on the far side of the bar.

"Against my will," was the answer. Nona rolled her eyes and hopped on the other side on Cam's left. 

"This will be fun, Harrow," Pal tried to reassure her with a smile. Harrow's pinched little face frowned at him.

"You said the same thing about going to Quinn's coffee shop," she muttered, digging her hands into the jeans above her thigh beneath the table. 

"Hardly anyone noticed when you dropped the… mug…," Pal's voice slowly petered out as the intensity of Harrow's glare grew. "Nevermind, unimportant." 

"We're going to have fun," Cam said like it was the central directive of a mission that promised no survivors.

Pal leaned around her and gave a thumbs up.

Nona grinned and Harrow scowled.

"Hey, sorry if we're late!" 

Everyone looked up as Pash came around the corner, electric blue hair seemingly even brighter than usual. Nona lit up at the sight of her and jumped up just in time for Pash to catch her in her arms. 

"Hey, sweet thing. Happy birthday." Pash grinned before giving her a kiss. Harrow made a face.

"I'm also here if anyone cares." 

The disgusted face vanished as Gideon turned the corner, a gift bag in hand and Harrow stiffened. 

"Cam, SexPal, Lady of the Void, and of course, the Birthday girl." Gideon greeted them, smiling at them and Harrow’s gut lurched. She glanced around and no one else seemed the least bit surprised to see Gideon here. She caught her sister exchanging a mischievous look with Palamedes and something felt off. She just wasn't yet sure what it was.

Pash slid into the booth next to Nona, throwing a muscular arm over her shoulder, leaving the empty space beside Harrow for…

Gideon slid into the outer space next to Harrow, all toothy smiles. Her leg brushed Harrow's and sent a tingle all the way through her from the point of contact to the tips of her ears. 

“Let’s get this party started!” Pash grinned and waved down the nearest waitress.

“What can I get you all?” she asked, looking around with a smile plastered on her face.

She took their orders till she came to Harrow, who just muttered “Water, please.” To her credit, the waitress didn’t even bat an eye, just nodded and jotted it down before hurrying off.

“You don’t want a drink?” Gideon looked at her and Harrow occupied herself by toying with the little coaster in front of her. 

“I don’t drink,” she said, offering nothing else and prepared herself for the usual needling and question of ‘why not?’ or ‘Just one?’. 

“Oh, okay.” Gideon nodded her head and the surprise must have shown. “What? Is there something on my face already?” she reached up to paw at her cheek. 

“N-no, nothing.” Harrow shook her head and turned back to her coaster, very unaware of the other pairs of eyes on her. Cam leaned over and whispered something into Pal’s ear and he chuckled to himself and nodded. 

“What’s in the bag?” Nona leaned over to look at the gift bag sitting at Gideon’s feet. 

“Impatient, aren’t you?” she grunted but was smirking at the younger woman. “Should we go ahead and do gifts before everything else gets going?” she looked around the table and Pal nodded. 

“I think that’s a good idea, especially considering how… some people here get when they drink.”

“Lies and slander!” Nona declared, crossing her arms from where she was leaning into Pash, who cocked a brow.

“He didn’t say who,” Cam looked at her, amused as Nona huffed. 

“Still…,” she mumbled. 

“Here, this is from me and Ma, she also said to tell you sorry she didn’t come. She said, and I quote ‘I wouldn’t be caught dead hanging around with a bunch of kids.’ end quote.” Gideon rolled her eyes and handed the bag over to Nona’s gasping little hands. 

Nona wasted no time tearing out the tissue paper and coming back with a folded-up piece of fabric. Her eyes were alight and she unfolded it to behold the t-shirt. Pash laughed as soon as it came unfolded. 

A black hoodie with bold white text on the front declaring: Wine’em, Dine’em, 69’em

“Oh my god,” Pal put his face in his hand and shook it. Harrow made a scandalized face and Cam tried to look unimpressed but the barest tilt of her mouth gave her away to anyone who knew what to look for. 

“I want it to go on record that my gift is still in the bag and I had nothing to do with this,” Gideon said to the table.  

“Noted,” Cam nodded.  

“This is great!” Nona beamed as she held it up for everyone to see, including the other tables. “I’ll have to thank Pyrrha later.”

“Do not wear that out of the house!” Harrow demanded, looking at the offending garment. 

“I like it,” Pash said with a grin.

“You would,” Gideon grunted, leaning her elbows on the table while Nona pulled the other item out of the bag.

She squealed as she pulled it free. 

“Is that a blanket…?” Pal started, cocking his head.

“...made to look like a tortilla?” Cam finished and Gideon grinned. 

“Yes, yes it is,” she said.

“I love it!” Nona beamed, wrapping it around her and Gideon puffed up. 

“You are so lame,” Pash said to her and Gideon threw up both middle fingers. 

“That’s not what the birthday girl is saying!”

“Thank you, Gideon!” Nona smiled at her and Gideon nodded.

It was then that the waitress returned with their drinks. 

“Hello, Mojito,” Gideon sang to herself as she took the glass and slid Harrow her water. “And your’s, Duchess of Darkness.” 

Harrow mumbled her thanks and took the water glass. She only just managed to suppress the urge to jerk her hand back when their fingers brushed. God, what was wrong with her? So Gideon was attractive? She still had a dubious sense of humor at best and for as… very kind as she was, Harrow, for all her limited dating experience, knew that to even consider someone in a… romantic light, they needed to meet her level intellectually. Gideon did not seem the sort up for the challenge. 

“Continue your offerings!” Nona declared daiquiri in hand and her tortilla blanket wrapped around her. Cam rolled her eyes and Pash grinned behind her beer.

"You're the girlfriend now, what did you get her?" Gideon looked at her cousin.

"I'm taking her to the amusement park tomorrow…," she started to say and Nona piped up.

"We're going to ride every roller coaster on the scream-a-thon list !" She grinned.

“You?” Gideon looked at her cousin and Pash scowled. “Miss Threw up on the Teacups?” she balked.

“It’ll be fine.” Nona waved a hand and Gideon just smirked at Pash, a knowing look in her eyes. 

“Uhuh…” Gideon took a sip of her drink. “Cam, SexPal?” Gideon turned to her friends. 

“I gave mine already. A little glass terrarium with several different species of plants and a baby crocodile skull…” Pal smiled, eyes lit up, and obviously very pleased with himself.

“Nerd , ” Pash coughed into her hand, fooling not a single soul. Gideon chuckled behind her glass and a small grin was pulling even at Harrow’s face. Pall crossed his arms and huffed.

“I loved it, Palamedes,” Nona assured him and he smiled as Cam handed over her gift. A pair of black boxing gloves tied with a bow. Nona took them with eager hands. 

“Since you’ve been training with Gideon and me so much, I thought you could use your own,” she explained. 

“Oh, these are great!” Nona slid them on and gave an experimental little punch before turning in her chair and smacking her much larger and muscular girlfriend. Pash yelped and Nona giggled. 

“What have you done?” Harrow looked at Cam with dread. Cam waved a hand. 

“It'll be fine.” 

“It most certainly will not!” she snapped and Nona grinned at her sister. 

“Better watch out, Harrowhark.” She winked as she punched her fists together menacingly. Harrow leaned back in the booth. A solid and warm arm draped around her shoulders and she seized. 

“Hey, be nice. You’re getting prime training between me and Cam but the heaviest thing your sister probably ever picks up is a book. That’s not really fair ya know…” Gideon pulled Harrow in close, unaware of how the smaller woman’s heart skipped a beat or two in her embrace. Nona only seemed to grin more but lowered her fists. Harrow pulled herself together enough to lean away and Gideon took the hint, pulling her arm back to sit on the table. 

“Fine, fine…” She pulled the gloves off and set them on the table. “Thanks, Cam. Maybe we could try them out Sunday?” she asked, a lilt of pleading in her voice. Cam nodded, that small, soft smile reserved for so few people slipping onto her face. 

“Trivia starts in fifteen minutes,” Pash noted, looking up at the screen displaying the time until it started. How we doing it? As a team, pairs… what?” she asked, looking around. 

“Pairs,” Cam, Pal, and Nona announced simultaneously before Harrow could open her mouth to suggest they play as a team. 

“I got Pash!” Nona grabbed her girlfriend’s arm. 

“Cam and I of course,” Pal said, turning to look at Harrow. 

It was with dawning horror that she realized that only left one person. 

“Alright, me and you then, Night Boss.”

She looked up to find Gideon grinning and her. She jerked her head in a nod, because what other choice did she have? 

“Let’s go sign everyone up.” Pash jerked her head toward the front area and Gideon nodded, sliding out of the booth. 

“This should be fun!” Nona smirked and Harrow glowered at her sister. “What? You like trivia… and competitions…I’m sure Gideon does too,” It was said with a certain lilt to it that struck some familiar chord in Harrow. Those black eyes so similar to hers were too wide, too innocent. Nona was up to something and Harrow could feel it in her bones. 

“Can I speak to you in private for a moment, Nona?” she asked, trying not to so outrightly glare at her sister, who sat there, kicking her feet back and forth and sipping on the straw of her daiquiri. 

“No…” 

“NONA!” Harrow snapped and the birthday girl sighed and rolled her eyes. 

“We’ll be right back,” she told Cam and Pal as she slid out of the booth with Harrow right behind her, walking toward the women’s bathroom. 

“What are you doing?” Harrow hissed the second the door had closed. 

“Enjoying my birthday party?” she crossed her arms and Harrow was now outright glaring at the other woman, who sighed. “What? I’m just… helping. You like Gideon,” she said like it was an abject fact and not some delusional and asinine thing her sister had concocted out of thin ain!

“I do not like Gideon!” she snarled and Nona cocked her head.

“What's wrong with Gideon?” she asked and Harrow could feel the vein in her forehead throb. And Nona accused her of being obtuse! 

“You know precisely what I mean. Gideon is perfectly fine but I am not romantically interested in her. A physical attraction, which I now sorely regret ever admitting to you, does not necessarily correlate to a romantic one, and even if that were the case I would not need your assistance by way of some half-assed machinations! I am more than capable of doing things for myself, so just stop, Nona!” she shouted, her final words bouncing off the tile walls and fading away. 

They stood there staring at each other for a long moment, Harrow seething and Nona frowning. 

“Fine…,” Nona finally said, eyes moving to the dirty bathroom tile beneath her feet. “I’m sorry…” Her voice warbled and Harrow’s stomach dropped into her feet. “I just wanted to help. Wanted to finally be able to help with something. ” 

“What?” Harrow’s brows crinkled between her eyes. 

“You do everything!” Nona threw up her hands. “Ever since mom and dad died, you’ve taken care of it all. Their affairs, the bills, me. We both know you’ve always been the steady and stable and reliable one. What’s left for me to do? This is the first time in forever you’ve admitted even a sliver of attraction to anyone and I figured, this was where I could finally be helpful back. I know I’m not good at all the things you are, all the important, getting through adult life shit, but I know people, and I figured it was finally my turn to help you.” There was a wet shine in Nona’s eyes and Harrow’s fists clenched at her sides. 

“I… appreciate that Nona but it’s just…” Harrow grasped for the right words but she couldn’t find them. 

“I know… and I should have known better. I guess it just took me by surprise, you thinking Gideon was hot. I was starting to think you were asexual.” She grinned, though it lacked its usual vibrancy. Harrow flushed red at the ears at that.

“I assure you, I am not…”

“There's no shame in it…”

“I’m not!” she snapped. “We have already established that I am physically attracted to Gideon!” She barked just in time for the bathroom door to open and some random woman looked between the two of them for a second before backing right back out. Harrow sighed, slapping a hand to her face as Nona laughed. 

“Okay, okay. I get it. Gid’s smokin’ hot but you're not interested in her soft and tender side.” Nona nodded and Harrow sighed heavily through her nose, not looking her sister in the eye. 

“Yes, very good. If you’ll recall, I have dated once before,” she reminded and Nona made a face like she’d just eaten a rotten lemon. 

“I would prefer not to recall her .” Nona hissed. 

“That makes two of us. Now, let’s go back, shall we?” She moved toward the door with Nona on her heels. 

“Everything alright?” Pal asked when they returned. He and Cam cast worried glances their way and Nona nodded, slipping back into her spot. 

“Yeah, it’s all good.” 

“Everything is fine,” Harrow agreed and took a sip of her water. Pal and Cam looked at each other, a silent conversation passing between them before returning to their drinks. 

“Okay, we’re all signed up!” Pash set three little devices with buttons on top of them on the table. “Here's our buzzers. They wanted team names too,” she said, sliding back into the booth beside Nona, who didn’t hesitate to curl up under her arm. 

“I hesitate to ask…” Pal looked between Pash and Gideon. 

“Oh, what are we?” Nona looked up at her, eyes sparkling. 

“The Machetes!” Pash pumped a fist. 

“Hell yeah!” Nona mirrored her. 

“And us?” Cam took a sip of her hard cider. 

“Jacked and stacked, cause ya know, books for Pal and Cam is…" Pash just gestured.

“It could be worse…and I can't argue with either of those things.” Pal hummed and then looked at Gideon, who had been grinning since she sat back down and Harrow wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about that. “Gid-”

“Spooky Scary Skeletons,” she announced before the question could even be asked. 

“What?” Cam looked at her and Gideon shrugged, smiling.

“It just felt right,” was all she offered in explanation as she looked at Harrow.

“Why are you like this?” she asked and Gideon grinned at her. 

“It’s all a part of my charm,” she assured, reaching up to slick back her bright, copper locks. Harrow rolled her eyes and absolutely refused to admit how actually charming it might have been. "Besides, I have it on good authority that you like bones." 

"I can't imagine where you heard that from," Harrow looked at Nona, who was looking anywhere but her sister as she took a long sip of her drink.

“We need a battle plan.” Gideon leaned in close and Harrow blinked. 

“A battle plan?” she repeated and Gideon nodded. “For…?” 

“So we can win!” she said like it was the most obvious thing. 

“You’re delusional over there Cuz, if you think you two are gonna beat me and Nona,” Pash asserted and Nona perked, a manic grin on her face, and drew her thumb slowly across her throat

‘Going down.’ she mouthed.

“What the fuck.” Gideon blinked and Harrow scowled at them.

“I don’t mean any offense by this…,” Harrow started.

“Yes you do,” Cam mumbled and Harrow shot her a look. 

“Fine, full offense. I would have to be brain dead for the two of you to beat me at any kind of trivia game,” Harrow asserted and Nona clutched a hand to her chest, scandalized. 

“Then prepare for your backyard lobotomy, Harrowhark Nonagesimus!” The younger sister declared, pointing at her across the table.

“Yeah!” Pash shouted, wrapping her arm around Nona’s shoulders. 

“Bring it!” Gideon barked.

“Ahh… what a friendly, fun, and relaxing evening…,” Pal mumbled, sipping on his martini. Cam smiled against the mouth of her cider bottle. 

“Why don’t we make this interesting?” Pash said with a grin, looking around the table and Gideon narrowed her eyes at her cousin. “We’re gonna sing karaoke after, how about the losers have to sing one song of the winner's choosing?” she looked between Gideon and Harrow, who glanced at each other. 

“I know we’re going to beat you like an old drum, so I’m in,” Gideon said. Harrow hesitated, eyes flickering to the stage and its bright lights. Nona went in for the kill. 

“Of course, Harrow is in too,” she said and her sister shot her a sharp look. “I mean, you’d have to be brain dead for us to beat you, wasn’t that what you said?” she drawled and Harrow glared all the harder while Pash smirked. 

She was suddenly stuck between a rock and a hard place. Her pride and rubbing her sister's nose in defeat… or her intense stage fright? She dithered just long enough.

“Oh… are you starting to worry you might lose ?” Nona mock gasped and Harrow scowled.   

“Fine.” She bit out. “Battle plan,” Harrow declared, looking up at Gideon, who nodded, face set in determination. “What categories are you strongest at?” she asked.

“Sports, entertainment…” Gideon started listing off. Nothing Harrow hadn’t expected from her. “Science, anatomy… and a smidgen of law,” she finished and that caught the smaller woman off guard. 

“Science, anatomy, and law?” she repeated and Gideon nodded. 

“I’m not so good at history or math though… or geography…” She grimaced and Harrow was momentarily stunned by that revelation but managed to shake it off. 

“I can pick up the slack of those as well as more in-depth biology and music.” 

“Music?” Gideon cocked a brow and Harrow made an agreeing sound.

“I consider myself a bit of an audiophile and music buff.” 

Gideon grinned. “We’re gonna clean their clocks.” She held up a fist. Harrow stared at it for half a beat before reaching up and hesitantly bumping hers against it.

Chapter Text

“That was bullshit…,” Pash grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest as she glared at their fifth-place ranking. “How is anyone supposed to know that’s not what ‘Sexagesm’ means?!” 

“Don’t you work as an editor?” Harrow looked at her, brow raised in silent judgment and Pash scowled. 

“We did our best, Hon.” Nona patted her arm. “Let’s go get a drink before karaoke starts.” 

“Yeah, alright,” she grumbled and followed along. 

“Spooky Scary Skeletons for the win! Second place, baby!” Gideon grinned, holding up the lil plastic trophy, proudly declaring their ranking. 

“Which is not winning…,” Harrow reminded and Gideon just shrugged.  

“Maybe not technically,” Gideon bobbed her head… “But over the course of that game, I think we realized what really matters,” she said solemnly and Harrow cocked her head. “How sweet it is to beat the tar out of Pash and Nona.” She grinned and Harrow laughed quietly. “Also, no shame in losing to ‘ol Jacked and Stacked.” She nodded over to Cam and Pal standing over at the bar, holding their first-place trophies and the gift cards they had won. “They're both literally certified geniuses after all.” 

“They are,” Harrow hummed, glancing thoughtfully at Gideon from the corner of her eye. “I admit… I was surprised…” She half turned toward Gideon sitting next to her. 

“About Cam and SexPal winning? Hell, I’m not.” 

“No, You.”

“Me?” Gideon pointed at herself and Harrow nodded.

“Yes. You knew almost as much about biology and the human body as I did… and I went to medical school,” Harrow looked even closer at Gideon Nav now. That dorky, askew smile and bawdy sense of humor seemed to belie the intelligence beneath.  

“Oh, well, I did go to college for a degree in forensic science… also I just really like true crime shows and that kinda thing,” Gideon said and took a sip of her second mojito. “I was surprised by how much classic rock you knew!” Gideon countered and Harrow shrugged but silently preened inside. 

“We have an uncle who listened to that kind of stuff constantly growing up. I absorbed a lot of it.” 

“Still impressive!” She said and Harrow tingled with a strange and surprising pleasure at the praise. Gideon drained her drink and stood. “I’m gonna get another.” She glanced at Harrow’s empty water glass. “Are you sure you don’t want a ginger ale or something? My treat.”  She offered.

'No' automatically jumped to the tip of her tongue but fell short as she looked at those questioning amber eyes.

"...yes, thank you." She nodded.

"You got it, Twilight Princess." Gideon shot her a finger gun before spinning around and walking off toward the bar.

"Having fun?" 

Harrow looked up as Pal slid back into his spot next to her.

"It's not the worst…," she hedged and Pal hummed, smiling knowingly. 

"Say that to me when you haven't had a five-minute argument with the man hosting trivia about how his correct answer is not technically correct…" He smirked. Harrow scowled at him.

"His answer was not correct," she insisted, nose in the air. Pal chuckled but nodded in agreement. 

“Cam, Pal!” 

They looked up at Nona as she walked back up to the table, over at the bar, Pash and Gideon were talking. 

“I forgot to tell you. Harrow insists she’s not interested in big red…,” Nona sighed and Harrow flushed, looking at Cam and Pal, who looked skeptical at that. 

“That doesn’t seem true after what I saw at the coffee house.” Pal looked at Harrow and she scowled hotly. All three of them had been in on the plot!

“Just because I find someone attractive does not mean I am romantically interested in them!” she hissed. “And I would appreciate it if the three of you did not conspire against me in matters that do not concern you!” She hissed in a whisper. Cam and Pal glanced at each other and although Harrow wouldn’t even try to pretend she could follow along with their silent conversations, she knew skepticism when she saw it. 

“As you wish, Harrow.” Pal dipped his head in acquiescence. Cam nodded as well. 

“It’s none of our business.” She took a sip of her drink.

“Thank you!” she huffed. “I expect this from Nona but you, Sextus?” Harrow shot her friend and colleague a look. His eyes widened. 

“Alright! Beer for me and ginger ale for the Lady of Doom.” Gideon and Pash came back to the table and she set the drink in front of her. She could practically feel the couple’s eyes on her and she studiously ignored it while Nona was distracted with her girlfriend. 

"Alright, so, what are we singing?” Pash frowned at Gideon and Harrow. 

Before Harrow could think to say anything, Gideon had leaned down to whisper, in her ear, breath hot and her palms suddenly went clammy. She almost didn’t even hear what the other woman said, but when she did, a laugh burst out of her, surprising nearly everyone at the table as she nodded. 

At least until she said: “Love is an open door.”

“From ‘Frozen ’?” Pash looked scandalized and Gideon burst into laughter. 

“Oh, I love that song!” Nona squealed, grinning and Pash shot her cousin the best death glare she could muster as Nona jumped up and pulled her along toward the karaoke signup. 

“She’s going to murder you in your sleep,” Cam chuckled. Gideon shrugged.

“Not like she hasn’t tried before.” 

They settled in and gleefully, at least Gideon was, watched the two sing the duet. 

“She looks so pissed,” Gideon whispered in Harrow’s ear, making her shiver. She really wished she would stop doing that!

True enough though, Pash looked not at all happy to be up there.

“Nona looks ecstatic…,” she mumbled and Gideon snorted, shrugging. 

“You can’t win ‘em all… sides, it's her birthday.” Gideon hummed.  

“And what song should we make you and Harrow sing?” 

“Huh?” Gideon looked over at Cam, who was staring back, brow raised. “Why would I be singing?” she frowned.

“Because you lost to us,” Cam said and Gideon blinked.

“You were never part of the bet!” Harrow argued. 

“Pash was addressing everyone at the table and we never declined to take part,” Pal smirked and Harrow looked like she wanted to vault across the table and strangle his dumb bearded face. 

“You two beat Pash and Nona, you picked their song. We beat you, we pick yours. Are you trying to welch out of a bet, Gideon Nav?” Cam accused and Gideon frowned at her.  

“This feels like bullshit,” Gideon grumbled, “But fine.” 

Harrow froze beside her, eyes wide and Gideon must have felt her sudden stoniness and glanced over. 

“You okay?” she asked quietly, drawing her attention. 

“Fine…” Harrow’s eyes flickered over to the stage, her fingers tightened around her glass. Gideon looked over to where she was looking and understanding seemed to dawn in Gideon’s face.

“Do you have stage fright?” she whispered and Harrow’s shoulders rose up to her ears, lips pinched tightly together. Before she could actually make herself form the words to answer her, Gideon was turning to Cam and Pal. 

“What if I just sang them both?” 

Harrow’s eyes jerked to Gideon, she could only see half her face as she looked over at the married couple. She had a strong jaw and three piercings in her right ear that Harrow only just now noticed. She sat there, stunned, mouth ajar as Gideon offered to take hers too. 

Cam and Pal shared a brief glance and then Cam nodded.

“We find this acceptable,” she said. “I want you to sing ‘Beautiful Stranger’,” Cam declared and Gideon laughed. 

“I can do that.” She nodded. 

“Ah ah, but I want you to sing ‘Jolene’.” Pal smirked and Gideon’s smile died. 

“As both a lesbian and a redhead, that’s a hate crime and we aren’t friends anymore, Palamedes Julius Sextus.” Gideon turned her head away from them. Cam chuckled as Pal just grinned at her.

“In the interest of preserving our long-held friendship, how about ‘Gimme, gimme, gimme a man after midnight’?” he offered and Gideon perked. 

“Deal, no takebacks!” She pointed at him and he nodded. “SexPal, you’re a sucker. No one sings ‘gimme, gimme, gimme a man after midnight’ louder than a lesbian who does not in fact want a man after midnight.” 

“Drat,” he drawled with a lazy grin. 

“I’m going to get another drink,” Cam declared, still chuckling and Pal nodded, also scooting out of the booth.

“I must run to the men’s room, excuse me .” 

Once they had gone, Harrow looked up at Gideon, taking a drink of her beer.

“You didn’t need to do that…,” Harrow said quietly, trying not to sound ungrateful. Gideon shrugged. 

“No big deal… except ‘Jolene’.” She rolled her eyes and made a disgusted sound. “Honestly, you think you’re friends with someone,” she half-assed groused, shaking her head. 

“Gideon…, Thank you…” Black met glittering, golden amber, shining in the reflection of the stage lights. Something about every time she met those eyes made something warm and tingly fizzle beneath her skin. 

“You’re welcome, Harrow.” 

Pash and Nona returned from their Disney sing-along around the same time Cam and Pal came back to the table.

“You’re up.” Cam nodded toward the stage and Gideon grunted and slid out of the booth.

“What’s happening?” Nona asked. 

“Since we beat them, they're going to sing, but Gideon has elected to sing for both herself and Harrow,” Pal explained.

“Oh, I can’t wait to see this.” Pash grinned but Nona pouted, looking at her sister who had somehow wriggled out of it. 

The sound of a guitar echoed through the speakers.

“I guess she’s doing ‘Beautiful Stranger’ first,” Pal remarked. 

‘Your eyes, so crisp, so green

Sour apple baby, but you taste so sweet

You got hips like Jagger and two left feet

And I wonder if you'd like to meet’

As the first few lines rang out, it was apparent Gideon was no singer. It wasn’t bad, her voice had a certain raspy quality to it that lent itself to the music but she certainly was unpracticed. Still, Harrow found herself staring, unblinking up at the stage in surprise. 

The night had been full of surprises actually. She was far more intelligent than Harrow had given her credit for. 

She also would never admit it aloud, but she already knew after their time in the elevator that Gideon was funny. It skewed toward crass of course but she was genuinely quick-witted. 

‘Your voice is velvet through a telephone…’

Even though she wasn’t sitting next to her anymore, she still felt all tied up in knots, heat flushed beneath her skin, watching Gideon ham it up on the stage, mic stand held in both hands like a dancing partner in a sweeping dip, making Pash snort and Nona giggle. 

‘You can come to mine, but both my roommates are home…’ 

She was ridiculous… but kind…

‘Think I know a bar where they would leave us alone…’

Gideon leaned over the stage, golden eyes alight and lowering her voice to deliver the next line in a breathy smolder. 

‘And I wonder if you'd take it slow…’

Harrow didn’t hear a single line from the rest of the song as she was struck with a lightning bolt of realization that lit her every nerve fiber on fire. 

She did like Gideon Nav. 

She spent the rest of Gideon’s performance and the next song staring into space, trying to control her breathing and remember what normal people did with their hands. She jolted back to herself when Gideon returned. 

“The terms of our agreement have been carried out.” She looked at Cam and Pal as she approached the table. 

“A woman of your word, as always, Gideon.” Cam smiled as she slid back into her seat beside Harrow. 

“Who's next?” Nona asked.

“Pal, he sings like a bird," Gideon remarked, smirking at him. 

"Really?" Nona looked at him, surprised.

"Oh.. no, I don't really…," 

Gideon scoffed. "I recall a rendition of 'At Last,’ during the high school talent show our senior year that got a standing ovation."

"Oh yeah, he also sang ‘rocket man’ at that bar crawl last year!" Pash snapped her fingers. 

“And ‘Take on me’,” Cam added with a wry smile while Pal turned redder and redder behind his glasses. He looked at his wife with betrayal in his eyes. Cam just shrugged. 

“I didn’t know you could sing!” Nona was bouncing in her seat. “Come on, Pal, come do a duet with me!” 

“Oh, I couldn’t, Nona…” 

“You’re gonna deny the birthday girl?” Gideon asked in mock shock and Cam snorted while Pal shot her a look. She just grinned. 

“Please?” Nona batted her eyes at him and Pash snickered. 

“Very well…” He scooted out of the booth with Nona hot on his heels. 

~ ~ ~

Later, they filed out of the bar with Palamedes still turning down strangers' requests for encores from bar patrons. 

“I think it’s time to pack it in,” he rasped, voice strained from overuse. Cam patted his back. 

“Are you and Nona riding back with us?” Cam looked at Harrow.

“Actually, I’m going home with Pash so we can head out to the park early,” Nona cut in and Harrow looked at her, surprised. This was the first time she’d heard any of that. 

“Yeah, that’s why,” Cam mumbled under her breath to Gideon, who snorted as she slipped on her black leather jacket. It was only early spring and there was a chill in the air.  

“Harrow?” Pal looked at her and she shook herself out of her surprised stupor.

“No, thank you. It’s not far, I’ll walk. I think I could use some fresh air after being in there so long.” 

“It's late and dark…” He frowned like a worried parent.  

“I’ll walk with her if she doesn't mind. Pash picked me up on the way over, so…” Gideon shrugged. 

Harrow swallowed thickly and managed to nod. 

“Oh, hey, that hot blonde waitress wrote her number on your tab,” Pash pointed out, handing Gideon the receipt she had left on the table. 

“Ahhh…thanks…” Gideon said as she took it. 

“See ya later!” Pash and Nona waved as they walked over to her car. 

“Good night, Harrow, Gideon,” Pal bid them farewell before he and Cam walked out to the parking lot. 

“And then there were two,” Gideon said to the dark spring night. Harrow hummed, her thoughts elsewhere and eyeing the receipt in Gideon’s hand. 

Of course.  

How naive of her was it to think for one moment that… no. She stopped that thought in its tracks. It didn’t matter. 

Harrow was well aware of her strengths. She was intelligent, dependant, and successful. Maybe tall and beautiful were not words anyone would use to describe her but she had made peace with that long ago. 

Gideon on the other hand? She wasn’t just those things, she was everything else Harrow wasn’t. She was kind, fun, and easy to get along with. Someone like the waitress with her uniform shirt straining against her assets was probably more along the lines of Gideon’s type.

She was pulled from her spiraling pity party when Gideon stretched her arms over her head and yawned. 

“You ready to go?” she asked and Harrow nodded. “Cool.” She half turned and crumpled the receipt in her hand and jump shot it into the trash can just outside the bar. “Score!” She pumped a fist and then started down the sidewalk. Harrow hurried after her long strides.   

Harrow blinked. “What about the phone number on there?” 

Gideon made a face. “Not interested.” She dug her hands into her jacket pockets as they walked down the sidewalk.

“Oh…,” Harrow mumbled.

'Why, were you?’ Gideon nudged her with her elbow and Harrow sputtered indignantly.

“NO!” she snapped and Gideon laughed. “I simply assumed she was your type.” Harrow huffed and Gideon hummed. 

“And what do you assume is my type?” she asked, glancing down at Harrow with an amused tilt to her mouth. Harrow looked away to stare at the sidewalk about six feet in front of them. 

Harrow’s jaw worked soundlessly, trying to think of what to say now that she had opened her mouth. “Well endowed,” she finally said and Gideon laughed.

“I will have you know I am an appreciator of all tits, big or small.” She wore a shit-eating grin that Harrow wanted to reach up and smack off her face. “You think so lowly of me? Is that all you think it takes to attract Gideon Nav?” she asked, trying to sound affronted but Harrow knew better. 

“Beautiful,” she added without thought and Gideon’s grin mellowed into something softer, amber glinting at her as they passed under an errant street light. 

“There’s a lot of different kinds of beautiful ya know, Harrow.”  

Harrow felt a shiver run up her spine at the way the syllables of her name rolled off Gideon’s tongue as they stopped at the corner and waited for the crossing sign to change. Gideon noticed. 

“Where’s your jacket?” she asked, looking at the thin, black blouse Harrow was wearing.

“I didn’t wear one, I didn’t plan on walking anywhere…,” she started only for the words to dry up like dew in the desert as Gideon laid her jacket across Harrow’s shoulders. It smelled of pine and something earthy. 

“You need…” 

“It’s all good. I’m hot-blooded.” She winked in her tight-fitting muscle tee and suddenly Harrow was too warm beneath the leather. The traffic whizzing by created a breeze that ruffled her hair. 

"Thank you… and as to your other point about beauty, I suppose that's true," she mumbled, smoothing some loose hair behind her ear. Gideon watched her from the corner of her eye. 

"It is.” Gideon insisted. “For instance," she said as the crosswalk light lit up. “I’d say you’re beautiful.” Then she crossed the street, leaving Harrow rooted to the ground in her wake. The countdown to turn red again started and she had to jerk herself to hurry across the road before the light turned.

“That… I…” She tried to get her mouth to say something halfway intelligent when she caught back up. Gideon just smiled to herself as they walked up the sidewalk toward home. Finally, Harrow was able to spit something out. “Don’t mock me.” It was said with no small amount of bitterness as she glared.    

“I’m not,” Gideon assured. “You are. You’re not quite as mean as I thought you were either,” she grinned now and Harrow huffed, relieved at the return of that light joking tone.

“And you’re far more intelligent than I thought you were,” she countered and Gideon held a hand up to her chest. 

“You wound me, Penumbral Lady,” she bemoaned and Harrow rolled her eyes. “You thought I was all dumb muscles on a construction site? Stereotyping.” She looked accusingly at Harrow, who scoffed. “You can be smart and work construction!” 

“Why not work in the field you went to school for?” Harrow asked and Gideon went quiet, the smile falling off her face at record speed. Harrow could sense the change. “Apologies, you don’t…”

“No… it’s okay.” Gideon said but didn’t look at Harrow as they walked. “Because I didn’t finish my degree, so…” She shrugged. 

“Oh… why not?” Harrow wasn’t sure if she should ask or not. She was curious and Gideon had said it was okay. 

“Couldn’t afford it. I was on a full-ride scholarship playing hockey and… Ah, you don’t wanna hear all that,” she suddenly stopped herself. 

“Don’t decide things for me,” Harrow said gruffly, finally making Gideon look over at her. “Tell me…,” she said, softer. 

Gideon stared down at her for a second before letting out a little huff of a laugh. 

“Bossy… fine. So, in my junior year, we were playing one of our final games… three minutes left and we were killing it, a game that decided if we went to state or not and we were about to win. Then a fight breaks out, ‘cause hockey,” Gideon shrugged. “Their right winger has Cam down on the floor and is trying to punch her, so I, being closest, go rushing in to pull her off Cam, and then the rest of both teams are converging on us and it turns into a huge pile-up of two women’s hockey teams, pulling at jersey's and swinging…” She threw up her hands. “Then, someone takes me out and I fall, and then…” Gideon paused, looking out into the distance in front of them.

“Gideon?” Harrow prompted and she jerked. 

“Ah, sorry. Uh, so, I fell and then, no less than two girls, ran right over my knee with the blades of their skates.”

Harrow’s eyes widened.

“One got kinda… stuck… in my knee…I’ll be honest, it’s a lil blurry at this part cause… ya know, lotta blood… screaming… that kind of thing…” Seeing the horrified look on Harrow's face, she hurried on. “Anyway, my knee was completely mangled… I had seven surgeries on this baby in three years.” She picked up her right knee and patted it. “Never could play again, my knee doesn’t work quite right… and you know, to keep a sports scholarship you have to actually be able to play that sport….," she grumbled.

"So, you stopped a year shy?" Harrow asked and she nodded.

"Ma offered to finish paying for my last year but it would have sucked her finances dry and I couldn't do that.” Gideon shook her head. “So I started working with her and doing all kinds of other odd jobs. here and there. Someday, I’ll have enough saved up to pay for that whole last year and I will finish!” Gideon shook her fist. “But uh, yeah… that’s why I didn’t finish.”

“That’s… a lot,” Harrow admitted and Gideon grimaced, scratching the back of her head. 

“Right… sorry…”

“Don’t be. I asked… I’m sorry about your knee,” she offered and Gideon shrugged.

“Thanks… it is what it is, ya know? I loved hockey but… whatcha’ gonna do? I don’t really talk about it cause Cam still feels super guilty about it. Not sure I’ll ever convince her not to…” 

“If it’s any consolation… you seem quite good at everything you do now. Nona has nothing but good things to say about you.”

“That is nice to hear. She’s… really sweet,” Gideon settled on and Harrow made an amused sound. Gideon looked down at her.

“You can say it,” she said quietly, looking at Gideon knowingly. They stared at each other for a long, loaded moment.

“She’s really fuckin’ weird sometimes,” she finally said and Harrow laughed aloud this time. It was quiet but mirthful. 

“I know. I love my sister dearly… but I know .” 

This time Gideon laughed as they turned the corner and in front of them, at the end of the street, was the apartment building.

“She’s getting good at the construction thing though! Soon, Ma will have her working by herself.” She smiled and Harrow made a face. “She’ll be fine,” Gideon assured, seeming to know exactly what Harrow was worried about. She looked up at that easy, crooked smile and could believe it. 

“I can only hope,” she sighed and Gideon gave her a little nudge. 

“Have faith in that little weirdo. She works harder than almost anyone I know.”

“She has always been good at the tenacity aspect of things.” 

“And she has Pash now… though, I think it would be more accurate to say Pash has Nona,” she chuckled to herself. 

“You and your cousin are close?” she asked and Gideon nodded. 

“Yeah, we grew up living together, so she's essentially my older sister.” Gideon nodded. “Bit of a shithead… but yeah.” She smiled. 

The inside of the apartment building was much warmer as they walked through its doors.

“Home sweet home,” Gideon hummed as they walked through the lobby toward the elevator. “What a night,” she yawned and Harrow nodded and hit the button for the seventeenth floor. It opened with a quiet ding and they shuffled inside. 

It was quiet for a moment, Harrow chewed her lip, thinking. She glanced up at Gideon beneath her lashes and caught that amber gaze. Gideon noticed and smiled. Surely she wasn’t imagining it… 

She took a breath and opened her mouth… but nothing came out. Gideon cocked her head and Harrow’s jaw snapped shut. 

No. How foolish could she be in one night? Her eyes turned to the elevator floor. The same one she had sat on a few weeks ago when it had quit working, trapping the two of them inside. 

They stopped on the seventeenth floor and the doors opened quietly. She turned her gaze back to Gideon to say her farewells. 

“Good ni-”

“Wait, Harrow,” Gideon’s voice rang over her and Harrow blinked as she slapped the close button and the doors slid back shut, leaving them in the quiet privacy of the lift. Gideon cleared her throat. “Okay, so… I don’t know if I’m totally misreading this or just imagining I’m seeing things but… like… would you maybe wanna get dinner or something… with me?” she asked. The skin across her nose had darkened as she stared down at her.

“Are you… asking me on a date?” Harrow somehow managed to form a coherent sentence. 

“Yes. Would you go out with me?” Gideon asked.  

“Yes!” The word jumped out of her mouth before she could even think to try and stop it. Gideon’s face lit up with an iridescent smile that could have powered the whole building. 

“Great! You wanna put in your number?” She dug out her phone and held it out to Harrow, who nodded numbly and added herself as a new contact. “Sweet. I’ll text you later and we can work out a time?” She asked and Harrow nodded, feeling the smile that had worked its way onto her face

“Yeah,” she nodded. 

“Cool… I’ll let ya head home now…,” she chuckled shyly and hit the open button only for Harrow to come to a chilling realization.

“Wait, Gideon!” She reached over and slapped the close button again and Gideon blinked owlishly at her. “I… this will sound strange but… would it be alright if we didn’t tell anyone about this? Us going on a date? Not Nona, Pash, Pyrrha, Palamedes, or Camilla,” she said and Gideon’s brows furrowed. 

“Why?” she asked and Harrow sighed. 

“I.. Nona… tried to orchestrate a… setup between us,” she said with a sigh and Gideon cocked her head. “And I made a very big scene of yelling at her that I did not need her assistance and I did not harbor those kinds of feelings about you… I can not turn around and…” she made a vague, distressed motion with her hands. 

“Okay… but.. to be clear, you do, right?” she asked and Harrow’s face reddened. 

“Yes, I do…,” she admitted quietly. 

“Then why did you tell her you didn’t?” 

“Because I didn’t realize yet at the time that I did! She was basing her scheming off of…” She stopped short but Gideon’s brows just went up. 

“Basing it all off of…?” she prompted and Harrow let out a shaky breath, turning even redder by the second, much to Gideon’s amazement. She looked almost purple. 

“Based on… my admission after our first actual meeting at the construction site that I found you… conventionally attractive,” she stumbled over every word. Gideon stared at her for a second before realization dawned in her eyes and she grinned. 

“You told Nona I was hot and she ran with it.” she simplified and Harrow thought she couldn’t possibly turn any redder.

“Yes…,” she hissed. 

“And now you’d have to suck up your pride and tell her she was right even after you threw a fit.” She smirked and Harrow scowled hotly at her stupid attractive face. 

“I’m starting to suspect that I have already made a mistake,” she snapped and Gideon chuckled. 

“No, no… actually… this kinda works for me also,” she said. “I haven’t… dated in a long time and Ma and Pash have been on my ass about it for forever so I told them I just didn’t want to date. So, yeah. We’ll keep it our little secret for now.” She smiled and Harrow nodded. 

”Good… thank you.” 

Gideon nodded and hit the open button on the doors once more and Harrow stepped out. 

“I’ll text you.” She smiled and Harrow nodded, then the doors slid shut and she watched it go down to the ninth floor before stopping. Harrow released the breath she didn’t know she had been holding and turned to walk down the hall to her apartment. It was quiet when she stepped inside. 

A sharp juxtaposition to the quick beating of her heart. 

She had a date. With Gideon. 

She leaned back against the closed front door and then realized that Gideon’s leather jacket was still draped around her shoulders. She glanced around the empty apartment, hesitating before turning her head and burying her nose into the lining. 

Why did she smell so good?

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and Harrow jumped, face hot and feeling caught. She pulled it out, half expecting a text from Palamedes, watching from the peephole across the hall for her to get home safely.  

‘11:11’: Unknown: Hey =]

Harrow smirked at it. 

‘11:11’: You: Hello. 

‘11:11’: Unknown: I’m not sure what kind of texting I expected from you but that seems about right…’

Harrow rolled her eyes and tapped the new number. Nona had no qualms about going through her phone at any given time.

Or taking it. 

Her fingers hovered over the keyboard before finally typing the first thing that came to mind.

‘11:14’: You: I text just fine. 

  ‘11:14’: Griddle: uhuh…

Harrow huffed.

‘11:15’: You: Good night, Gideon. 

‘11:15’: Griddle: Night, Duchess of Dusk.

Chapter Text

Harrow woke up later than normal, with the sun shining into her bedroom curtain in thin golden strips that cut through the darkness.  It was quiet without Nona out in the kitchen making a cacophonous amount of noise making breakfast as she usually did. She snuggled deeper under her blankets and blindly reached out for her phone on the nightstand and dragged it beneath the blanket with her like a beast dragging its prey back to its den. 

She squinted one eye open to look at the screen as she tapped her thumb on it. 

‘9:34’ 

Below that though was a new notification under ‘Griddle’ and Harrow did not rush to slide it open. 

‘9:15’: Griddle: Dinner tonight sound ok? 

Harrow smiled at the screen. She didn’t waste time, did she? She typed back.

‘9:35’: You: I’m amenable to that. 

‘9:36’: Griddle: Great… I have absolutely no idea what kind of food you like to eat.… Except for your hatred of pickles. I know Nona eats almost anything. Pretty sure I saw her eat an eraser one day…You don’t do that right?”  

Harrow snorted at that. She didn’t eat like her sister, that much was true. How many times when they were small had a teacher or other adult had to pry a very inedible thing from Nona’s mouth? Too many for Harrow to remember them all. She frowned at her phone, thinking. There weren’t many restaurants she visited with any frequency. She also refused right now to acknowledge the small spark inside that had burst to life at Gideon remembering her distaste for pickles from an offhand comment. 

‘9:38’: You: No, I do not eat stationary supplies. I do have an aversion to strong flavors though. Going out to eat can be a bit difficult…

It was several minutes before the next message came. Harrow watched the bubble appear and disappear several times with growing unease before a message finally popped up.

‘9:42: Griddle:You wanna come to my apartment? I can cook.’ 

Harrow had barely finished reading the message when several more popped up.

‘9:42’: Griddle: Unless that’s just no good for you, I’d understand! 

‘9:42’: Griddle: We can figure something else out.

‘9:42’: Griddle: You just tell me what you want to do.

She couldn’t help but snort at the rambling messages as she pushed herself to sit up in bed.   

Dinner at Gideon’s… was that too forward? It certainly also prevented anyone from seeing them out together and might be a little more relaxed. Harrow hadn’t been on a date since… No, she did not want to think about her right now. This was so much more promising than that had ever been. She could still kick herself for that but what good would it do? 

She took a breath and typed out a quick message.

‘9:45’:You: Your place sounds fine.

‘9:45’: Griddle: Okay, leave it to me, Night Boss. 9th floor, Apt: 907.  6 o’clock?

‘9:46’:You: See you then. 

With that, she slid out of bed and padded down the hall to the bathroom to wash her face.

Despite the quiet and calm morning as she moved around the kitchen, silent in her socked feet, her mind was racing with thoughts. It was hardly even 9 and here she was thinking about 6 in the evening. It was going to be a long day. 

Her fingers itched to text her sister and check on her but she was probably fine. As fine as Nona could ever be when released into the wild. That was Passion’s problem today.

And god help her if anything happened to her sister. 

She picked up Gideon’s jacket that she’d left laying on the back of the couch and took it to her room. The last thing she needed was for Nona to return unexpectedly and see it there. Could she explain it away? Yes, the truth of the matter was innocent but she didn’t need to give her sister any more ammunition than she already had. 

She laid it on her bed and sat at her desk. Her work still sat open but she couldn’t have been less interested in it if she tried. There were a few things she needed to finish, but first….

She clicked the minimized tab that had been constantly open at the bottom of the screen for the last month and up popped the column.

'Ginger Journalist: Queer Advice for Your Life!’

She refreshed the page and started scanning till she found one that suited her. 

Dear Ginger, 

I never know how to dress for dates, how fancy is too fancy? How do I convey my interest to my date through my wardrobe? Help! Overdressed in Albany.

Harrow scrolled down to the answer.

Dear Overdressed, 

Unless you’re going somewhere with a specific dress code, or somewhere that requires something specific for, ie: bathing suit, coveralls, fire retardant hazmat suit, etc. (I don’t know what you’re into, no judgment!)  dress for comfort. (No I don’t mean a bathrobe or your favorite pajama pants). Wear your favorite jeans, dress, skirt, or your most rockin’ band tee! It does not matter. If someone asked you out, they already wanna get to know you, or they already like you, and the fact that you said yes, already conveys your interest to them. Personally, I’d go normal me, ‘cause that’s what they’r e getting and normal them, is what I want to see too. Tl;DR Don't sweat it! ~ Ginger Journalist

Harrow hummed to herself. 

~ ~ 

Gideon slid her phone back into her pocket with a grin and stood from the park bench, wincing at the deep twinge in her right knee as she did so. Seeing her rise, Noodle jumped to his feet, tail wagging. 

“Okay, okay, we can go…,” she grumbled, mentally reminding herself that she was supposed to stretch it with cardio. The sole reason she had taken the job from Pal and Cam. It made her get off her ass. Also, the money wasn’t nothing, weird as it was to collect payment from her two oldest friends. She highly suspected that the rate they paid her was a bit higher than normal and had everything to do with Cam’s persisting guilt over the injury but she couldn’t prove it…

Today, it had been bothering her ever since she got up.  “Stupid knee…” Gideon growled to herself as she and Noodle jogged down the street back toward home. “How do you sleep on a knee wrong?!” she spat but Noodle didn’t pay her any mind as he bound down the sidewalk and past everyone else walking down the street Saturday morning.   

Complaining to him also gave her an outlet for her nerves about her impending date. 

Now that she really thought about it, Pash was right. It had been a long time since she'd actually been on a date with someone she wanted to go out with.  

Which really just raised the stakes. At her place no less! 

She stopped suddenly as a thought struck her.

“Shit, I need to clean!” She announced, garnering some strange looks from a few passersby. Noodle looked at her curiously, panting. “Sorry.. come on,” she took off again as they headed back to the apartment, her mind running a hundred miles a minute. She needed to clean and go to the grocery store. Did she even have anything decent to wear? Add laundry to her ever-growing list of things to do. 

“What do snarky goth women eat? Bone meal?” she huffed aloud to herself with a snort. ‘An aversion to strong flavors… ’ Explained the face Harrow made eating her garlic-parmesan fries in the elevator. 

She was hit by a sudden epiphany as she remembered helping pick up Harrow’s dropped groceries. There was pesto and pasta in one bag. Logic dictated that if Harrow was buying those things, then she must eat them!

She was a damn genius! 

With at least one of her tasks mentally sorted, they jogged the rest of the way home.

“We’re back,” she announced, stepping into Cam and Pal’s apartment. 

“How was the run?” Cam looked up from her phone, standing in the kitchen with a mug in the other hand. 

“Fine. Still kinda chilly. I regret the shorts,” she said as she unclipped Noodle's harness. He took off and dive-bombed onto the couch. She ignored Cam’s eyes moving down to her knee as she turned back around to face her. 

“Where’s SexPal?” she asked. 

“Across the hall. He wanted to check on Harrow.” She set her phone down and sipped her coffee. Gideon must have made an offended face because Cam smirked. “Not that anyone had any doubt you’d get her home safely. He simply has it in his head that Harrow is upset at him.” 

“About what?” she asked. Cam’s mouth twitched. 

“Conspiring against her.” She did not elaborate.

“Oookay.” 

“We’re going to breakfast when he comes back, you wanna join us?” she asked and Gideon shook her head. 

“Thanks but naw. I have to run to the store, clean my apartment and do some laundry.” She was already moving toward the door. "Raincheck?" Cam nodded.

When she opened the door, she was greeted by Pal standing in the hall, talking to Harrow, standing in her apartment's doorway. They both looked over as she appeared. 

“Sup?” She raised her hand in a wave. Harrow’s eyes flashed up to her and Gideon unconsciously stood a little straighter.  

“Good morning, Gideon.” Pal dipped his head. “I’m glad the two of you got home alright last night,” he said and an idea sparked in Gideon’s brain.

“Naturally. This isn’t all for show.” She held up an arm and flexed. Harrow’s eyes followed the lines of her arms till she seemed to realize what she was doing and they darted off the side, looking anywhere else. Gideon’s grin only grew. Pal rolled his eyes at the posturing, not noticing the interaction going on between the two women at all. 

“The day you stop a bullet with your biceps, then I’ll stop worrying about you, but not a day sooner.” He stuck his nose in the air at her and Gideon laughed, dropping her arm. She couldn’t help but smile affectionately at the spectacled man.

“Fair enough, SexPal. I gotta run, I got some grocery shopping to do and maybe a bullet to run a test with…” She grinned at the exasperated look Pal gave her as she walked backward down the hall. As soon as he turned to walk into his own apartment, she looked at Harrow and winked. She knew the other woman had seen it by the bunch of her brows and the mighty eyeroll in her direction.

She chuckled silently to herself and spun around to get in the elevator and rode down to her floor. She needed jeans and her wallet. She let herself in and glanced around surveying the damage. It wasn’t bad. She was usually pretty tidy. She needed to vacuum. She suddenly lamented her lack of a dining table. Guess they would be sitting on the couch at the coffee table. Not ideal but it would have to do.

It also needed to be cleaned off. She doubted sincerely that Harrow would be thrilled with the stack of ‘Frontline Titties’ in the middle of it. Actually, she doubled back to the living room and scooped them all up, and took them back with her to her bedroom. 

“Where to put you…” She drummed her fingers on the magazines and looked around. This was a first date, the chances of Harrow coming back here for any reason were incredibly slim. Paper thin actually. It suddenly hit her how long it had been since she’d had sex. “... Damn…,” she grunted to herself, then shook her head and plopped them onto the nightstand. They’d be fine there. 

She chucked off her shorts and shimmied on a pair of jeans and snatched her wallet from the dresser and with a single-minded tenacity, started picking up the clothes laying on the floor and filling the laundry basket. The tiny washer-dryer combo in her bathroom couldn’t hold a hell of a lot and it made an awful racket at times but it still beat having to go to the laundromat with a sock full of quarters and stand guard over her laundry for two hours.

She dumped them in the wash and once that was going she rushed back out to the living room, making a mental note to clean the bathroom when she got back and headed to the grocery store.  

“She probably eats chicken…” Gideon scratched her chin thoughtfully as she rode down to the lobby. She had a game plan. The doors dinged open.

“Hey, kiddo,” 

“Oh, hey, Ma.” 

Pyrrha stood in front of the elevator, mail in hand. “Where you off to today?” she asked as Gideon stepped out. 

“Groceries.” She shrugged and Pyrrha nodded. 

“How was the party last night?”

“Fine, Me and Harrow ended up beating Pash and Nona at trivia and we made them sing ‘Love is an Open Door,” she said and Pyrrha snorted. “Then I had to sing ‘gimme, gimme, gimme’ for Pal ‘cause he and Cam beat us,” she grunted.

“Maybe I should have come after all… I’m going out to the bar tonight, you wanna tag along?” she asked.

“Oh, can’t, I got plans tonight.” 

“Did you get another job?” Pyrrha questioned, frowning at her. “You already work Saturday morning…,” she started.

“No, not another job… just… plans…,” Gideon said lamely, racking her brain for something to say. 

“Like… women… plans?” Pyrrha asked, both her eyebrows shot clear up her forehead and Gideon could feel her face glow warmly under that scrutinizing look. God, she did not want to lie to her Ma about this stuff. Maybe she could be chill about Gideon going on a date… Harrow would probably understand.

“Well…” 

“Hey, that’s great, Gid!” Pyrrha reached out and patted her arm. “I texted Pash this morning and she said a waitress gave you her number. You seeing her?” she asked and it was all Gideon could do not to scowl at that. Of course, a woman had given Gideon her number and Pash immediately told Ma. They were still conspiring about this shit!

“Yeah,” she nodded to Pyrrha, who continued grinning. “I gotta run though. I’ll see you later.” She took a step and Pyrrha nodded, getting on the elevator. 

“Let me know how it goes, Kid!” Then the doors closed and Gideon sighed. The two of them meant well but fuck. She was a big girl.  Shaking her head, she turned and hurried off to the store. 

~ ~ ~

Harrow stood in the kitchen, pouring boiling water into her cup and mentally cataloging the contents of her closet and what she should wear that night when the front door opened, and in stepped Nona, looking windswept and exhausted. 

“I’m home!” she called aloud as she closed the front door behind her and pulled off her jacket.   

 “How was the amusement park?” Harrow asked as she dunked her tea bag into the water before glancing over her shoulder at Nona, who was kicking off her shoes on the mat by the door. “Have fun?” Harrow specifically did not make any mention of the hickies that now decorated one whole half of her sister’s neck from just beneath her jaw to disappear beneath the neckline of her shirt for all the world to see. She very much refused to think about what all may have happened last night for the good of her sanity. 

“It was great! We rode everything.. twice!” She beamed at Harrow before she walked over to flop onto the couch with a tired but happy sigh.

“I’m glad you enjoyed yourself.” She tried hard not to grimace at the double implications of that. 

“Yeah… Pash only threw up twice!” Nona praised with a chuckle. “She’s resting at home, poor baby. She’s so sweet… and attentive,” Nona sighed. 

Harrow hummed, from the kitchen counter, absolutely refusing to dissect that last statement. 

“How was the rest of your night? Gid’ get you home okay?” she asked and Harrow nodded.

She certainly did.  

“Yes, it was a nice night.” She said and Nona made a sound from the couch. Her phone dinged and Harrow glanced at it.

‘5:30’: Griddle: I just realized you still have my jacket.  

Harrow glanced over at Nona, not paying her any mind, and typed.

‘5:30’:You: I’ll bring it with me tonight. 

A thumbs up was her reply and then she locked the device and slid it into her pocket. 

“What are your plans for the evening?” Harrow asked her sister, glancing over her shoulder. 

“Sleep, mostly. I’m thinking about kicking it in early. I didn’t sleep much last night…” Finally, Nona’s head peeked up over the back of the couch, and seeing Harrow looking at her, wagged her brows. “If ya know what I mean.” 

“ Stop .” 

A giggle was her answer. 

“So, you gonna work all night?” Nona looked at her knowingly. 

“Yes, but I have to go out this evening. Mr. Quinque asked me to come in and help with some trials for a few hours.”

“It's Saturday,” Nona groaned, letting her chin flop onto the back of the couch, casting Harrow an unimpressed look. 

“I am aware. The same as you are aware that the part of my contract that allows me to work business days remotely, stipulated the occasional Saturday on-call to go in. I had some a few months ago as well, remember?” she asked and Nona made a grunting sound.

“Bleh, yeah… alright. I won’t wait up.” She stretched out on the couch with a yawn. It was silent for several minutes and Harrow thought she had fallen asleep until she hummed thoughtfully up at the ceiling. “Pash has a water bed…,” she said suddenly.

“Good for her…” Harrow picked up her cup and started walking quickly toward the hall. 

“I thought I was gonna get seasick with all the rocking…!” Nona called at her back 

“STOP!” Harrow yelled before slamming her door shut. Nona’s mad laughter echoed down the hall. 

Once the door was shut, she let out a sigh of relief and looked at the jacket laying on her bed. She wouldn’t forget it there. Hopefully, she could get out of the apartment without Nona seeing it though. 

She sipped her tea and moved to the closet, staring into the sea of black, off black, and dark gray fabric, and bit her lip, recalling the words from the column.

“Comfort…,” she mumbled to herself and dug out her favorite pair of jeans, black of course and one of the only white button-downs she owned as well as a thin black sweater with a wide neck.

She hesitated, holding the garments in her hand.

‘Don't sweat it!’

“Don’t sweat it,” she mumbled to herself and got changed. 

She slipped quietly out of her room and into the bathroom. She ran a brush through her hair and debated makeup. Not that she usually wore much anyway as someone who mostly worked from home. Eyeliner was the most effort she usually put in and Nona probably wouldn’t notice.  

She spent ten minutes carefully lining her eyes and looked at herself in the mirror. She deemed what she saw acceptable and took a steadying breath. 

“It’s just dinner,” she mumbled to herself and grabbed the jacket off the counter, and left the bathroom. She peaked around the corner. Nona was no longer in the living room and Harrow walked quickly across the floor, boots making a muted thumping as she stepped out. “Nona, I’m leaving!” 

“Byyyyyyeee, Harrowwwwww!” Echoed down the hall at her and then she shut the door, breathing a sigh of relief. 

“Evening, Harrow, going out?”

Harrow nearly jumped out of her skin at the voice, head whipping around to look at Camilla standing just in front of her door, mail in hand. 

“Good evening, Camilla.” She nodded. Those brown eyes studied her for a moment, then flickered to the leather jacket hung over her elbow. “I have a personal matter to attend to.”  

“Is that Gideon’s jacket?” she asked and Harrow sucked in a sharp but silent breath.

“Yes. She lent it to me last night on the walk home.” Harrow floundered but thought quickly. “I was just bringing it to you and Palamedes to ask that you return it to her for me if you would? You’ll see her again before I will,” she said.

“Sure,” Cam nodded and Harrow handed over the jacket.

“Thank you.” Harrow glanced at her phone and it was only five till. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to go.” She turned and hurried down the hall to the elevator. 

“Have a good night,” Cam called, and then Harrow heard the sound of her apartment door shut just as she stepped onto the elevator, breathing a sigh of relief as the doors closed and it descended to the 9th floor.  

Chapter Text

“Okay, just turn this off…” Gideon mumbled to herself, setting the pan aside and double-checking that indeed her oven was off before she glanced at her watch and seeing that it was very nearly time, made a quick pass once more through the apartment. Laundry was done, bathroom cleaned, the living room vacuumed and the coffee table cleared. Everything looked great!

She stood in the middle of the living room, fiddling with the rolled-up sleeves of her button-down. Something was irking her though. She glanced around, mouth twisted up in thought before she finally turned, speed walking into her bedroom and grabbed the stack of magazines on her bedside table, and chucked them into one half of the closet, closing the door. 

Just to be safe.

There was no way in hell Harrow would believe ‘I’m just reading the articles’. Which, to be fair, she wouldn’t have believed either normally. She liked to keep track of things she’d said before in the column. Keeping a knee-high stack of porn magazines on her coffee table though was not a great look. 

She moved back into the kitchen and again gave everything another once over. This was all very different. For all the five years she had been living on her own in this apartment, she’d never really hosted. Not anyone special anyway. Ma, Pash, and her favorite nerd couple came over sometimes but she wasn’t trying to impress them. Harrow was literally going to be the first woman Gideon had ever had over; which was a thing. 

She sure as hell didn’t count Cytherea and her and Cam’s shared dorm room.

When she heard someone knocking at exactly 6 o'clock, Gideon nearly tripped over her own feet. She threw the dish towel slung over her shoulder into the sink as she rushed through the apartment, straightening out her shirt and smoothing back her hair. 

She stopped at the door, took a calming breath, and opened it.

“Hey,” she smiled at Harrow, standing in the hall, and stepped aside to let her in. “You look cute.” Which was an understatement if you asked her but, cool. She had to be cool. 

“Thank you,” Harrow cleared her throat as she stepped into the apartment. "You look nice as well," she said, eyes flickering over Gideon.

"I try." Gideon grinned as she closed the doorway.

"I'm aware, I thought you were going to injure yourself posturing in the hallway this morning… and Nona has made mention of your habit of flexing into reflective surfaces at work." She smirked as Gideon made an embarrassed sound in the back of her throat.

"First of all, I only did that because I knew you would look and you did," she said smartly and the back of Harrow’s neck flushed. "Second, is nothing sacred between master and apprentice?" she lamented.

"If you haven't already, you will soon find that Nona holds nothing sacred… except dogs." She rolled her eyes. 

“That does explain last week when she dropped a wheelbarrow on my foot to chase a dog that ran up on-site…” Gideon scratched her chin and Harrow grimaced. “Speaking of the hall, you’re gonna hurt yourself rolling your eyes that hard,” she said.

“You know my sister, so you should know that I am well practiced,” Harrow huffed as Gideon sat on one side of the couch, half turned toward her, and held a hand out to the other side. “And if you wink at me in front of Sextus, I hardly think this will be a secret for long,” she accused, carefully folding herself onto the other side of the couch as she gave Gideon a reproachful look. She just grinned back.

“He wasn’t paying any attention to me,” she said.

"Yes, well Camilla was paying attention to me when I left my apartment and she saw your jacket, I gave it to her and asked her to give it back to you to avoid suspicion so if you're wondering where it is, it's there," she said as she glanced around the apartment.

Gideon was so glad she had cleaned. Her black couch was well loved but still in good condition, as was the freshly cleaned glass-top coffee table in front of them. The walls were a pale green that she’d picked out just after moving in. Was she supposed to paint? No, but that didn’t stop her. 

“Does it meet your lofty standards?” she cocked a brow, drawing that intense inky gaze back to her.

“I suppose,” she said, turning up her nose, voice all haughty condescension but then the corner of her lip quirked into a half smile and Gideon snorted. “Given how long you played and your self-professed love, I did expect more… sports memorabilia,” she admitted, looking around at the walls covered in frames. 

Instead, there were framed photos of her family. Ma and Pash, Cam and SexPal from over the years as well as their friend Dulcie and even one of the four of them with Abigail and Magnus. The rest were various art prints from games and movies she liked.  

“Ah, all that stuff is in storage,” she said, waving a hand.

It had all gone into a box after the first time her doctor told her without a doubt that she’d never play again and shoved into the far back of her Ma’s storage unit downtown, where it had been ever since. 

It hurt to look at.

“No use living in the past.” She shrugged and Harrow nodded in silent agreement. “Anyway, dinner’s ready, but I don’t have a kitchen table, I usually eat out here, so I hope that’s okay?” She stood from the couch and moved backward toward the kitchen, looking at Harrow. 

“I usually eat at my desk at home, truthfully, this is a step up,” she remarked and Gideon chuckled. 

“You mean you don’t eat with Nona while she gnaws on a marker?” she asked, amused. “… I saw her doing that last week… girls got teeth like a tiger shark,” she added and Harrow sighed as she disappeared around the corner into, presumably, the kitchen. 

“No…,” she sighed tiredly and pinched the bridge of her nose. “She has always had a bit of an… oral fixation,” she mumbled and heard Gideon snort from around the wall. 

“Won’t Pash be delighted to hear that,” she teased and Harrow made an affronted sound. 

“Do not,” she snapped. “I have had quite enough of that today!” She scowled and Gideon looked around the corner at her, both brows raised in silent question. “She came home making not even thinly veiled innuendos about how tired she was today and about your cousin’s… water bed.” The word ‘water bed’ slid between her teeth like it was festooned in rusty nails and Gideon had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at the face she made before letting her head dip back behind the wall that separated the two rooms.  

“I also got a few texts in a similar vein earlier today… but I just asked her how many times she threw up today and she shut up real quick.” 

“Twice, according to Nona,” Harrow said and Gideon just chuckled. 

“Knew it,” she declared, popping back around the corner with two plates in hand. “So… I made chicken fettuccine and pesto since you didn’t give me much in the way of directions and if you bought them yourself, then it should be good.” Gideon set the plates down on the coffee table. She thought it looked pretty good if she did say so herself!

Harrow’s brows furrowed and Gideon paused. “Bought them myself?” she repeated.

“In the elevator,” she reminded. “I remembered seeing this stuff when everything fell out,” she elaborated. “So I figured this was a safe choice….” She stopped, then a strange look came over her face. “Till just now when I realized that might have been Nona’s food…” She said with a heavy sigh and Harrow snorted.

“No, as your luck would have it, that was indeed for me. Nona will not eat anything ‘ green ’,” she sighed just as Gideon silently sighed with relief this time and moved back to the kitchen. 

“You want water?”

“Please.” Harrow answered, only now noticing that the tv, which took up nearly all of the adjacent wall was playing some sort of medical show? “What are you watching?” she asked as Gideon popped back around the corner with a glass of water in one hand and a beer in the other.

“Hmm?” she looked at the tv and grimaced. “Oh, uh… nothing, it's just…” Gideon stalled as Harrow scrutinized the tv with dark, narrowed eyes.

“Medically, this is abhorrent! You can not put someone with a fork in their body in an MRI,” she declared and Gideon snorted despite fidgeting embarrassingly. “How can you watch this? I know your medical knowledge is better than this.” 

“It's like… a soap opera,” Gideon finally said and sat the drinks down before sitting back on her corner of the couch. "I like to hate watch it," she admitted, picking up her fork and shoving chicken and pasta into her mouth.

"Hate watch it?" Harrow asked, taking her cue and picking up her fork, and eyeing the plate. It looked good, no signs of anything that might make her palate burst into flame or anything else. Gideon made an affirming sound and swallowed before speaking while Harrow twirled Pasta around her fork. 

“I mean, I know it’s terrible and dumb. I like to watch it to make fun of it. I mean, there's an episode where a character has sex with her dead fiance’s ghost…” Gideon threw up a hand. “What else are you supposed to do with that?” 

“What?” Harrow blinked. 

“Okay so…” 

She somehow spent the next hour explaining the stupid intricacies of the outlandish plots and pulling up compilations on her smart tv to better illustrate them. Over the course of the hour, the conversation turned to media in general. 

Their plates sat empty on the coffee table and their corners abandoned. They sat in the middle of the couch, knees brushing as Gideon showed her a clip on her phone.

“See, cool right?” Gideon asked and Harrow hummed. 

“It’s rather corny,” was her answer.

“Yeah, but that’s part of the fun. There are swords and it’s gay too,” Gideon insisted.

“It’s subtext at best, Gideon.” Harrow leaned back to look at her. 

“I’ve never heard something so blatantly hurtful about Xena before.” Gideon pouted at her and Harrow rolled her eyes. 

“If you’ll stop whining about it, we can watch one next time.” Harrow compromised and amber eyes seemed to light up. 

“Oh, a next time huh? That’s awfully presumptuous of you, Miss. Nonagesimus.” It was so hard to keep a straight face, especially watching Harrow tense up, mouth opening to say something but then her jaw simply snapped closed again. “I guess we could do that.” She smiled at her and Harrow’s whole body seemed to sag in relief and it should not have been as endearing as it was. She set her phone on the coffee table before reaching over to pick up the plates and stand. 

Her knee gave a jerk and she made a low, pained sound. 

“Are you alright?” Harrow’s eyes widened as she stared up at her, Gideon’s mouth twisted up as her knee gave another throb, then dulled. She nodded, straightening back up.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Just a little twinge,” she assured but Harrow was still frowning at her. “I slept on it wrong… which is apparently something you can do,” she grunted and shook it off, walking into the kitchen and setting the plate in the sink for later. 

When she came back, Harrow hadn’t moved, though she seemed to be deep in thought. 

“What’s up, sable sovereign?”

Harrow looked up at her with a curious look on her face and her jaw was working as her eyes darted down to Gideon’s leg. She could never have predicted what she was going to say. 

“Would you mind If I looked at your knee?” 

Gideon blinked.

“My knee?” she could feel the gobsmacked look on her face and watched some color start to creep up Harrow’s neck. “What for?” she asked, finally getting her legs to move and sat back down on the couch.

“Professional curiosity… Never mind, forgive me, that was presumptuous, apologies…”  she rushed the words out, turning her gaze to look anywhere but Gideon.

“No, no it’s fine!” Gideon quickly assured her, throwing her foot up on the coffee table. “Just not much to look at.” She pulled up the leg of her jeans over her right knee, exposing the heavily scarred skin. She did feel a little antsy as Harrow looked at it. It was quiet, the tv still playing quietly in the background but all Gideon was aware of was the beating of her own heart in her ears as Harrow’s eyes raked over her with intent.

Her nose wrinkled and her eyes narrowed and Gideon’s stomach twisted. Suddenly, pressure rose somewhere in her chest, taut and aching, and she vividly remembered all of Pyrrha’s assurances that women wouldn’t be bothered by the thick, ugly scar.

Harrow’s next words were like a dagger through the pressurized balloon of anxiety pressing against her ribs from within. 

“Your surgeon was a ham-fisted buffoon,” Harrow said, tilting her head as if to get a better view of the displeasing skin in front of her.

“Huh?” Gideon said intelligently and Harrow made an annoyed noise, mumbling something about unnecessary incisions. 

“Your entire patella was replaced,” she noted suddenly and Gideon blinked. 

“How the hell do you know that?” she asked, looking down at her knee as if someone had written it there in red marker with little arrows.  

“These scars.” She reached over and traced a finger along a particular line of healed skin on either side of her knee. Her touch sent something racing up Gideon’s spine and straight to the base of her brain where it sparked and crackled. "It's indicative of a very specific kind of surgery," she hummed thoughtfully and there was no way Harrow she realized exactly what she was doing at that moment as her finger traced over the long, sinewy scar that bisected her knee diagonally, still making displeased faces. Her skin was hot, or maybe Gideon’s was just cold. 

She shivered suddenly and Harrow looked up. She didn’t know what look was on her face but Harrow snatched her hand back, folding them both in her lap. The color that had settled around her collar rose up her neck like she was a tiny thermometer. Gideon managed to shake off the tingling of her skin and speak. 

“They told me it needs to be totally replaced eventually but they won’t do it ‘cause I’m so young. So…” shrugged and pulled her pant leg back down.

“Given the damage, I’m surprised…” 

She couldn’t help herself. “More surprised we’re playing doctor already… seems like more of a third date kinda thing.” She smirked as Harrow’s eyes shot up to her, brows bunched and looking thoroughly unimpressed, even as the red hanging out around her neck rose higher still. Which was a lot cuter than it had any right to be. It also made her next words all that more surprising. 

“What date this is heavily depends on your definition of the word,” she said cooly, and Gideon blinked, not expecting that.  

“How do you figure this could not be our first?” she cocked her head as Harrow looked at her. 

“Most people define a date by time spent together, alone, generally. I believe we recently spent nearly three hours alone together in an elevator.”

Gideon laughed at that. “I didn’t realize or I would have shared the burger too.” She was smirking and Harrow made a disgusted face.

“Unnecessary.” 

“I’ll start carrying around a sleeve of saltines for the next time we have an impromptu dinner date,” Gideon vowed with a smirk and Harrow let out an annoyed sounding breath even as she smiled. “Also, I thought Nona said you weren’t that kind of doctor?”

“I’m not. My doctorate focussed on medical research and development rather than patient practice. I didn’t do a residency but I have enough extracurricular knowledge on the subject.” 

“Don’t tell people that though, let them think you have x-ray vision like I did.” Gideon said and Harrow leveled her with a look. 

“You have very specific and standard scarring.” 

“And here I thought I was special…” 

“In the head perhaps…,” she snarked but Gideon just grinned and then Harrow’s phone buzzed. A familiar jingle. She pulled it out and glanced at the screen, then rolled her eyes. 

“Let me guess…,” Gideon hummed. “Nona?”    

“She wants me to stop on the way home and get her a snickers bar…” she sighed and Gideon couldn’t not laugh at the exasperated look on Harrow’s face. 

“Can I ask you something?” She crossed her bad knee over the good one as she looked at Harrow, who looked up from her phone, and cocked a brow in silent go ahead. “How come you and Nona live together? Just ‘cause of her holding a job problem?” she asked and Harrow leaned back against the couch cushions to regard her. She seemed to be considering what to say.

"Partially… it was much easier for me to handle one set of utility bills while I was in school and handling everything else…" 

Gideon looked at her curiously and Harrow let out a silent breath.

"Our parents died when I was in my third year of undergrad."

"Oh…," was all Gideon could say to that. There was a much louder monologue going on in her head.

'I just fucked this all up!'

"I was still in school and Nona was… not in a state to help," she breathed tiredly. "We sold our parent's house because she refused to live in it. She'd already dropped out. So she was actually living, illegally, with me in my singular dorm my last year." 

"That's… a lot," Gideon finally said. What the hell was she supposed to say to all that?! Harrow just gave a little half aborted shrug.

"As you said last night, it is what it is. She has her half of our inheritance that she could move out on if she wished. She chooses not to and I don't mind sharing space with her…"

"You sure you just don't like playing the big sister?" Gideon asked, nudging Harrow's foot with her own and smirking. Harrow looked back at her.

"Perhaps… are you going to tell me you're not at least a little protective of Passion?" She nudged Gideon's foot right back, making her smile.

"Eh… yes and no…" She wiggled a hand. "Pash and I have a very different relationship. For one she's five years older than I am and we grew up daring each other into mortal danger half the time. Like when she dared me to ride my bike off the roof of a 7-Eleven and I dared her back to run naked through a field of long horns."

Harrow sighed heavily at that.

"I love her and I wouldn't let anything actually bad happen to her… but I would alos taze her if given cause and opportunity…" 

"No doubt."

“She has that kind of face… also, you're supposed to tease the people you love,” she said. "Nona gets it. Torturing you with my cousin's water bed," she laughed and Harrow reached over to give her a shove, slipping closer. 

"They've both been a nuisance today."

“Pash is always a nuisance,” Gideon snorted and didn’t even notice the ticking of the clock as they traded anecdotes of childhood misadventures back and forth. Nona, much as Gideon had suspected, had been a holy terror. To be fair, so had she.

“But then when I turned around, mustard dripping off my head and soaking wet from the waist down, there was Ma, furious and screaming at Passion to put the spatula down.” Gideon was grinning from ear to ear as she told the story. 

“You and your cousin are horrifying…,” Harrow declared, making Gideon laugh. 

“Wait, I have a photo of it…” She dug out her phone but stopped, looking at the screen. “Huh..”

“What?” Harrow asked.

“It’s 10:35” she said and Harrow’s brow crinkled as she processed that information, then they sprung upward in surprise. For someone who spent most her time frowning and or scowling, she had one of the most expressive faces Gideon had ever seen. 

“What?” she dug out her phone and looked at her own clock to confirm. “It’s been over four hours…” she mumbled seemingly more to herself than Gideon before looking back up and seeming only now to notice how close they had become on the couch. A scant few inches kept them front touching and Harrow stood abruptly, making Gideon jerk. “I should be going…”

“Oh, um right.” Gideon nodded, standing. 

“I still need to go buy a candy bar…,” she grumbled. 

“Hold up!” Gideon turned and trotted back into her kitchen where Harrow could hear her fiddling with something. “Here…” when she came back, she deposited said candy bar into Harrow’s open palm. She looked up at the redhead confused. Gideon shrugged. “I learned quickly how to work with her. I have a couple of these in my lunchbox at any given time so I can have at least a few minutes of quiet.” 

A breathy laugh escaped Harrow without her consent. She nodded, accepting it. “Thank you… and for dinner. Tonight was… nice,” 

“My pleasure.” She nodded and ran a hand through her hair before moving to the door. 

“I’ll text you,” Harrow said. 

“Cool, maybe we’ll figure out if this was a first or second date,” she chuckled and smiled as she opened the door for Harrow, who hesitated. Gideon peered down at her. “You okay, Night Queen?” she asked and Harrow gave a sharp nod and then quicker than Gideon could make her brain work, darted up onto her toes and pressed her lips to Gideon’s cheek. It was quick and warm and soft and Gideon’s brain was filled with static and her mouth had gone dry. 

“Good night, Gideon.” Then she darted out the door and down the hall. Gideon stood there, one hand on the door and the other hanging limply at her side, eyes wide and staring at nothing.

“...Good night…” 

Chapter Text

Harrow stared at herself in the mirror as she brushed her teeth Sunday morning. It was just a little past nine and as she stood in the bathroom, hand mechanically moving the bristles against her teeth, she stared at herself. Her mind was firmly elsewhere.  

It was very busy watching a surround sound, up close, uncut, and unfiltered marathon of herself in her mind's eye, leaning up on her toes and pressing her lips to Gideon’s cheek and then practically sprinting out of the apartment. 

Why, why did she do that?? What on earth had possessed her to lean up and kiss her? Sure, she’d been wonderfully hospitable and kind… charming and smelled of clean pine and earth…

She shook herself and shifted her attention back to where it belonged. Lamenting her stupidity for kissing Gideon Nav.  

On a first date! 

Regardless of the teasing about whether or not it really was their first date. It was most likely their last date now. She groaned at herself in the mirror and set her toothbrush in its holder.

“Mornin’ Harrow!” 

Harrow glanced over at the doorway where Nona was standing in her pajama pants. 

“Morning…,” Harrow mumbled. There was nothing good about it though. She had completely and totally humiliated herself last night and in the final hurdle at that. Gideon wouldn’t want to see her again. In a split-second lapse of judgment, she had ruined the only thing she had been excited about in quite some time. She supposed if there was some good to be had from the ordeal, it was that Nona did not and never would know about any of it. Even that thought left a bitter taste in her mouth. 

“You got in awfully late last night…,” Nona yawned, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with a fist and Harrow nodded. 

“There was a lot of data to go over,” she lied easily and Nona nodded, nudging her out of the way of the sink with her hip. Harrow scoffed and moved around her out into the hall. 

“I’m going to go meet Pash for breakfast, you wanna tag along?” Nona’s voice followed her down the hall. 

“No, I do not want to be your third wheel,” she called back gruffly and started going through the motions of making herself a cup of coffee. She could not think of anything she would rather do less on a normal day but especially not today. Once the coffee machine began to work, she stopped what she was doing and stood silent and still in front of the machine, watching it and thinking. There was a tightness in her chest that she couldn’t outright identify but she had a good guess. Disappointment and remorse were seeping into her bones like water in the desert sands. She watched the dark liquid dribble into the pot, not paying any attention to anything else going on around her, much too absorbed in her own thoughts.

“What’s wrong?”

Harrow looked up to find her sister standing at the hall entrance, looking at her with that tell-tale empathetic worry that meant she was reading Harrow like an open and large print book. An uncanny ability she could use on anyone, but Harrow may as well have been a picture book to her sister, who had been long enough acquainted with her to simply know . 

Harrow knew as well that there was no point in saying ‘nothing’ because that was an unacceptable answer as far as Annabel Lee Nonagesimus was concerned. 

“I have a migraine,” she grumbled out instead and Nona nodded her head in understanding. Which gave Harrow pause. Did she truly look so miserable to the other woman as though she was in excruciating pain? 

“Take it easy today, don’t work. The screens will only make it worse,” she advised before getting a glass of water and then disappearing back into her room. Harrow grunted in response and went back to staring at her coffee pot slowly filling up. She needed caffeine. 

She was still standing there, though with coffee in her cup when Nona waltzed back through the living room, dressed. 

"I'm heading out, see ya later," Nona said softly and Harrow nodded, acknowledging her lowered volume in response to her ‘migraine’. The door closed and Harrow breathed a sigh of relief. She needed to be alone for a bit.

She poured herself some coffee and retreated to the solitude of her room. Instead of sitting at her desk, she grabbed the laptop and crawled back under the blankets, setting it in her lap and taking a sip. The last thing opened on her computer was still sitting there. The Ginger Journalist's column. Harrow clicked her tongue and moved to close the tab when the phone on her nightstand gave a low buzz.    

She sighed through her nose and picked it up. 

The name ‘Griddle’ flashed across the screen and Harrow froze solid, nearly tipped the cup of coffee in her hand over onto her lap and she hissed, only barely keeping it from sloshing onto her computer and the sheets. She set it on the bedside table with a hard thud before turning back to her phone, staring hard at the unopened message. 

What did she want? What was there left to even say?

She sucked in a breath and slid it open.

9:21: Griddle: G’ mornin’! 

Harrow stared at the two - sort of - words on the screen for a stupid amount of time as if trying to glean some hidden meaning from them. Miraculously, or perhaps not rather, nothing jumped out at her except the plain letters as they were. 

Finally, with no other idea what to do with the message, she typed back

9:29:You: Good morning.

She hit send and almost immediately the bubbles appeared.

‘9:29: Griddle: Nona just came banging on my apartment door asking if I wanted to go get breakfast with her and Pash.’ 

‘9:30: You: If you barricade the door, eventually she will leave.’ She typed back more on instinct than anything else. This felt very surreal. They were just talking… no mention of Harrow’s terrible faux pa last night or anything. 

‘9:30: Griddle: She’d pull a ‘here’s Johnny’. She already left but I was wondering if you wanted to meet for breakfast on the back patio?

Harrow paused. She knew of the patio in question. It was a large communal area in the back of the building, outfitted with a fire pit, chairs, and tables and totally closed off from the street with a high stockade fence. Nona liked to hang out there with Camilla and Pyrrha when it was warm. The voice in her head was currently shouting into her ear about Gideon wanting to see her again and she shoved the embarrassingly shrill and girlish voice that sounded suspiciously like Nona, back down into the recesses from which it came.

As she wrangled that small part of herself into gaged submission, another text came.

'9:32: Griddle: I'm gonna grab a Danish and coffee from the cafe across the street, thought we could meet out there? I'll buy you a coffee?’

Harrow stared at the message for several minutes, willing it to make some sort of sense but it sat there, unchanging, and sounding an awful lot like Gideon was asking her out again. She went so far as to close and reopen the app but still, the message remained. 

Her fingers hesitated over the keyboard for - frankly- an embarrassing amount of time before finally forcing them to move. 

‘9:36: You: I have my own coffee.’ The bubbles started again but Harrow was quicker. 

‘9:36: You: But I’ll meet you there.” 

The bubbles stopped, disappeared entirely, and then reappeared.

‘9:37: Griddle: It’s a date! ETA: 4 minutes. 

Harrow sent back an affirmative before scrabbling out of bed and back down the hall to the bathroom. She had at least a few minutes to make herself somewhat presentable. Her hair at least. She ran a brush through her sleep-frazzled locks and threw on the first black hoodie she saw hung up on the hooks by the front door when she walked back out into the living room. She was mentally counting the time down as she slid on her shoes. There wasn’t really time to change out of her pajama pants patterned with skulls and crossbones Nona had given her for Christmas. She had no idea what one should wear to coffee on the patio and she had no time to decide before getting her coffee cup and transferring the contents into a travel mug. 

She glanced out the peephole before she opened the door, wary of running into either Camilla or Palamedes. The hall appeared empty and Harrow slipped out and down to the elevator. 

The lobby was quiet and dead at this time on a Sunday morning and she was glad, not that it particularly mattered if someone else that lived in the building saw them together outside the certain few. 

There was a slight chill when she stepped out onto the back patio, but the sun had peaked over the building already, filling the space with warm, incandescent sunlight and spilled over several of the tables. She stood there, surveying the tables, and didn’t even hear the door quietly slide open behind her.

“Morning,” sounded just above her head to the left and she jerked, looking over her shoulder. Gideon smiled at her, a coffee cup in one hand and a small brown paper bag in the other. “Oh, good, I’m not alone in the pajama club.” She grinned and Harrow’s eyes flickered down to the garish rainbow-striped pajama pants she was wearing with her rusty orange zip-up hoodie.

“I was sitting in bed when you texted,” she said and Gideon hummed as she stepped around her and moved into the sunlight to sit at a table in the back, partially obscured by some shrubs with her coffee and brown paper bag. Harrow slid into the seat across from her as she slid a huge, gooey-looking pastry out of the bag with a grin. 

“Not busy I hope?” Gideon asked, popping the lid off her coffee and picking it up, looking at Harrow over the rim with that smile as Harrow took a sip of her own drink.

“No… though… to be honest, I was surprised to hear from you,” she admitted, setting it on the table and Gideon frowned. 

“Wh-thughks!” she seemed to choke on her spit just before bursting into loud, hacking laughter.  Harrow jerked back. 

“W-what?” she blinked but Gideon was just shaking her head and laughing like a loon, tears gathering in her eyes. “What?!” she snapped, scowling.

“Ar- are you trying to tell me something?”Gideon wheezed between high-pitched giggles and tapped her chest. 

Harrow glanced down and was quite sure her soul left her body as she stared at her hoodie. 

Or rather, Nona’s hoodie. 

The words ‘ Wine’em, Dine’em, 69’em’ stared back at her in blocky white letters that in Harrow’s mind could be seen from space.

She’d grabbed the wrong hoodie. Gideon continued to laugh, head lowered and whole body shaking like a paint mixer. With an indignant squawk, she pulled it off and stuffed it into her lap, leaving her in a thin black tanktop.  

“Shut up!’ Harrow snapped, red from the tips of her ears to her clavicle. “I grabbed the wrong jacket leaving the apartment!” 

With a seemingly herculean effort to get herself back under control, Gideon sucked in a sharp, shuddering breath and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. 

“Oh shit… I needed that,” she giggled and took a sip of her coffee. “Didn’t you tell Nona not to wear that out of the house? Bit of a hypocrite don’tcha think, O’ Sable Monarch?” Gideon grinned knowingly at her and Harrow’s flush only deepened as she glared hotly over at her. Gideon just smiled and pushed the little paper bag across the table to her. A dark brow rose up her forehead, though the scowl only abated into a frown.     

“This was the best they had that I figured counted as not being a ‘strong’ flavor.” She nodded to the bag. Harrow hesitated before finally pulling it over and looking inside. Half wrapped in paper, a palm-sized croissant. Onyx eyes looked back up at Gideon from beneath her lashes. Amber stared back, waiting and Harrow let out a quiet huff, her skin returning to its normal shade of brown. 

“I suppose… you didn’t need to…”

“I wanted to.” Gideon took a bite of her own sugary-looking treat and Harrow pulled the flakey pastry out of the bag. It was still warm and soft beneath her fingers. “You’re gonna get cold in just that. It’s not supposed to warm up for a while,” Gideon announced and Harrow’s scowl returned, though, not aimed at her companion per se. 

“I would rather freeze to death than put this abomination back on,” she said in no uncertain terms and Gideon snorted, rolling her eyes. She set the Danish down and wiped her hands off on her pajama pants. Not the first time Harrow had witnessed it. A habit, it seemed. Then, she pulled down the zipper of her own hoodie and slid it off, leaving her in a plain black tee. 

“Here,” she offered it across the table. 

“I’m fine, Gideon. Wear your jacket,” she sniffed.  

The ginger wouldn’t take no for an answer and tossed it the rest of the way. It flopped over Harrow’s head in a swathe of orange. She made an enraged sound, ripping it off her head, mussing her hair. She most certainly did not take a deep lungful of that scent of pine and earth that was starting to become quite familiar. 

“Gideon!” she snapped but the other woman just took an innocent sip of her coffee, staring right back. They stared back at each other, unblinking for who knew how long before finally, Harrow relented, though not without some minor grumbling beneath her breath as she slid it on. It swallowed her form, the sleeves hanging well past her fingertips. She had to bunch it up back over her wrists to use her hands. It looked absolutely ridiculous… and it was warm with Gideon’s body heat. She tried not to think too hard about that. 

“Thank you,” she mumbled, still frowning grumpily but Gideon smiled at her. 

“No problem, Lady of Gloom,” she said, leaning back in the metal chair and taking another huge bite of her food. “What were you saying earlier? About being surprised?” she questioned and Harrow stilled, eyes on the pastry in front of her.

Gideon didn’t seem at all bothered by what had happened last night. It was however still bothering her and it would until she did something about…

Normally she’d simply stuff it deep down inside and move on. 

Healthy? No, but she was nothing if not self-aware of the problem. This one, she couldn’t leave be, not if she wished to continue… this. What this was, she had yet to determine but as she watched Gideon sit across the table from her, looking at her curiously and gnawing on her pastry, she knew she wanted it to continue. 

“I…,” she paused, gathering her thoughts. “I said I was surprised to hear from you this morning,” she said.

“Oh… well, this wasn’t too soon right?” Gideon asked and there was a worried tilt to her brows. “I just figured… This is my only full day off and… were you busy? Sorry, I shouldn’t have-”

Harrow’s brows crinkled as Gideon rambled. 

“What? Gideon, I wasn’t busy,” Harrow’s voice made Gideon’s jaw snap shut with a quiet click. “I assumed you would be…” Her jaw worked silently and the heat that had faded from her face was slowly returning. “I was presumptuous and untoward last night and I should apologize…”

“Presumptuous and…” Gideon blinked. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Harrow. Apologize for what?” She cocked her head, looking more confused by the second and that just made Harrow all the redder, that she was going to have to spell out the obvious transgression of taking liberties with Gideon’s person last night.  

“Last night!” she snapped. “When I left!” she said and Gideon blinked and then, like a light switch flicking on, realization lit up behind her amber eyes and a bewildered smirk slid onto her face. 

“Are you talking about kissing me on the cheek?” she asked, laughter in her voice and Harrow’s shoulders rose up to her ears.

“Yes,” she hissed, and then much to her eternal humiliation, Gideon laughed. It wasn’t cruel or mocking, just genuine mirth, and if anything, that was more confusing for her.

“Sorry, sorry,” Gideon chuckled, putting down her food and wiping the tears out of her eyes. “Ah, god… You’re the first person who's ever apologized for kissing me… I’m not sure how to feel about that…” She was still chuckling quietly as she leaned back in her seat to regard Harrow thoughtfully. Her face was red as an overripe tomato.  

“I am apologizing because…,” she started the bite out and Gideon shook her head.

“I get it, Harrow,” she assured, smiling gently and it did terrible things to Harrow’s insides. “You really don’t need to. You didn’t do anything I… didn’t enjoy,” she settled on and it was with that statement that Harrow realized that there was a splash of color dusting Gideon’s deep golden cheeks. 

“Oh…” Harrow mumbled, both hands wrapped around her coffee cup for lack of anything better to do with them. Gideon nodded.

“Yeah… so, don’t sweat it,” she assured quietly, fidgeting in her seat. Harrow jerked her head in a nod, eyes glued to the table and the croissant still sitting in front of her, untouched. She pulled off a piece and popped it into her mouth. It was soft and buttery, melting on her tongue. It was good. She swallowed before glancing up at Gideon and found her watching her back over the rim of her coffee cup. Warmth curled in her belly. 

Why did one glimpse of those sunbeam eyes do things to her? She took a long drink of her coffee, breaking eye contact. 

“So, I’ve been thinking,” Gideon started after a minute and Harrow’s gaze turned right back to her. “Given that you almost never leave your apartment, I was thinking about how we could make this easier.” 

Harrow very much wanted to deny the allegation but they both knew it would be a lie. So, instead, she asked “The secrecy?”

“Yeah,” Gideon bobbed her head and tossed the rest of her Danish into her mouth. “I was thinking we could tell them that we’ve just kinda become friends?” she said after swallowing. “So it wouldn’t be so weird that you’re suddenly out and about or that we might be together somewhere?” she offered.

Harrow hummed, taking a sip of her coffee. Her foot tapped against the ground. “It has merit,” she admitted and Gideon grinned. “I think after what happened Friday night, Nona will believe it…” 

“And she’ll convince Pash, easy peasy,” Gideon added. 

“They’ve only been dating for a month…,” Harrow reminded and Gideon snorted. 

“Nona has Pash wrapped around her little finger, trust me.” She smirked and Harrow supposed that Gideon would know. “The only people that actually might catch on, live right across the hall from you…” 

“There’s not much that escapes Palamedes and Camilla,” Harrow agreed. “Why not just tell them?” she asked, raising a brow questioningly. “You didn't want your mother or cousin to know because they would be overbearing about it. Camilla and Palamedes have no stake in your romantic life…” 

Gideon made a pained face. 

“Well, that’s not entirely true…” Gideon hesitated, swirling the coffee around in her cup and looking down into it. “I told you I hadn’t dated in a while. Yeah?” Harrow nodded. “Well, when I first got hurt, I was seeing this woman, we’d been dating about a year?” Gideon said. “Anyway, like, a week after I got hurt, she broke up with me.” 

Harrow’s eyes narrowed at that. Surely there were better times for that than after a debilitating injury?

“Turns out… she just liked being with the big hockey player on campus and I wasn’t anymore.” Gideon shrugged. “It was.. not great... But you know. I got over it quickly enough. Thing is, I know they all think the reason I haven’t dated is because of the shitty thing she did and nothing could be farther from the truth. I had too much personal shit going on to even think about it.” 

Harrow made a disgusted noise but was already connecting the dots. 

“Camilla still feels guilty about your injury and would also be critical of any relationship you had and her husband keeps no secrets from her…,” she said and Gideon clicked her tongue, shooting her a finger gun.

“You got it, Night Boss. SexPal couldn’t keep a secret from Cam unless it meant the end of the world.” Gideon looked thoughtful for a second. “Actually, probably not even then,” she scoffed. 

"So we should play at friendship?"

"I mean, ideally we're friends too," she said. "we just don't tell anyone about the other stuff…" She smirked and Harrow seemed to think for a moment before she made an agreeing sound.

“Very well, a fake friendship.” 

“A real relationship.” Gideon held out her coffee cup and Harrow rolled her eyes fondly before tapping her own cup against Gideon’s. 

Chapter Text

“I need more bricks, Gideon!” Nona called from the scaffolding, half hanging off the bars like she was auditioning for the circus and making the redhead look up at her from behind her aviators. 

“Don’t hang off the scaffolding!"

Nona spun around to hang upside down and stuck out her tongue. Gideon grunted, frowning. Game on then.

"OSHA violation!” she yelled. ‘Not to mention a Harrowhark violation. ’ She thought. Even if they had only been dating a week and been on two (still being debated) dates, Gideon knew that Harrow would shit bricks to see her sister hanging over the scaffolding like that.

The connex door flung open and Pyrrha stepped out, looking around. “Who’s fucking around with OSHA?!” she yelled. Gideon pointed an accusing finger at Nona, who blinked back. A pointed look from the foreman had Nona placing both feet firmly back on the platform.    

"Any OSHA fine is gonna come straight outta your paycheck," Pyrrha warned and Nona saluted. "Come down, it's lunchtime and I wanna talk to both of you," she called, walking down the steps and up to Gideon.

"Whatever it is, I didn't do it." She crossed her arms and Pyrrha rolled her eyes.

"What's up, boss lady?" Nona asked as she jumped off the last ladder wrung. 

"I've been talking to Cam and Pal, we're gonna have a cookout tomorrow afternoon, you two in?" she asked.

"I'm in!" Nona bounced up and down on the balls of her feet excitedly. 

"I don't know what I'm gonna be doing yet," Gideon said. Pyrrha nodded, looking pleased by that and Gideon wanted to roll her eyes. 

"Since when do you have plans for the weekend?” Nona stopped bouncing long enough to look at her, face scrunched up in disbelief. Gideon pursed her lips and shot a look at her from behind her sunglasses.

“Look here, ya tiny rude ass!” she barked and Nona giggled. 

“Gideon started dating a waitress from that bar you all went to for your birthday,” Pyrrha explained while they made faces at each other. 

“Oh! Good for you, Gid. I’m sure she’s… okay.” The lil grin on Nona’s face told her that she was just kidding but Gideon wanted so badly to clap back something to the effect of. ‘That all you think of your sister?’ She didn’t… by some divine act of god, she didn’t, but she really wanted to. 

She just grumbled something under her breath and Nona nudged her with an elbow. 

“Find out later and let me know, okay? You could bring her-” 

“No. We’ve only been on one date.” Gideon crossed her arms. No need to mention the second she had sneaked in with Harrow Sunday morning. She still hadn’t washed that hoodie yet. The faint scent of something was mixed in there with her regular laundry detergent. Something a little more herbal but Gideon hadn’t been able to put her finger on it, it was too faint.

It wasn’t for lack of trying. Gideon would rather be thrown out a window than admit to any length of time spent standing in her living room with her face buried into the lining of her hoodie and inhaling great lungfuls, trying to decide what exactly the scent of Harrow was. 

It was weird. 

Her scalp tingled and something thrummed beneath her skin when she was with Harrow. It was hard to explain. They spent nearly three hours on the patio, just sipping coffee till it was gone and talking -long after the coffee was gone- about whatever.  She enjoyed her company, a hell of a lot more than she had expected to based on their first meeting anyway. She was small but her scathing wit and sense of humor was a blow-for-blow match with her own that kept Gideon on her toes. Every jab and parry, waiting for the other to misstep so they could bury their own rapier sharp remark into the other up to the hilt. It was fun. Harrow was funny… in a turn of events and not in the same way she herself was funny but the dismal duchess definitely had a certain sense of humor in there and for all her bluster and turning her nose up at her jokes that Gideon had taken, she also saw that little smile when Harrow thought she hadn’t been looking. Harrow thought she was funny and nothing she said to her face would change that. 

She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn’t notice Pyrrha calling her name till a finger jabbed her in the middle of the forehead. 

“Fuck, ow!” she scowled at Pyrrha, standing there frowning at her, hand still raised in the air. “What?!” she groused, rubbing a hand over the place she’d been jabbed. 

“I said fine, just figure it out and let me know soon so we can plan accordingly. I already texted Pash, who said she was in…”

“Oh, can I bring Harrow?” Nona asked. “She needs to get out more.” 

Pyrrha shrugged, crossing two dark, scarred arms over the dirty and sweaty white tank she was wearing. “If you can convince her to come out of your apartment and into the sunlight, then why the hell not.” 

“Yes!” Nona pumped a fist.

“Just don’t forget to bring something. I’m smoking pork butt and the nerds agreed to bring a side salad and coleslaw.”

“Dibs on mac and cheese!” Gideon jumped in and Ma shot her a look.

“I thought you didn’t know if you were gonna be able to come or not?” She cocked a brow and Gideon scoffed.

“If I can, I got dibs on the Mac.” 

“Fine.” She nodded. “What about you Big No?” she asked, turning to Nona, who seemed to be deep in thought. 

“Uh… I’ll think about it and get back to you!” she said and Pyrrha nodded. 

“Good enough for me.” Then she looked at her watch. “It’s lunchtime, you two get goin.” Then, without another word, spun around and tramped off across the job site. 

"Wanna get a sandwich?" Gideon looked over at her from over the tops of her aviators. 

"Yes!" Nona smiled and then she was bouncing off ahead of Gideon to the food truck that had parked itself across the street. She followed at a more languid pace, pulling out her phone and finding three unread emails from Pash, more 'Ask Ginger's' no doubt, and one unread text from Harrow.

She ignored the emails and flicked open the text. A response to a meme she'd sent when she got up this morning. 

12:16 :🦴☠️⚰️ 🦇?: Bones are not shaped like that and I know you know better.

Gideon rolled her eyes and smirked as she typed back. 

12:17:You: I know you're missing your funny bone, honeybun

She added just because she knew Harrow would hate it. Predictably, not even three seconds passed before another text popped up.

12:17:🦴☠️⚰️ 🦇?: Don't call me that.

12:17:You: Acidbun?

She grinned to herself as nothing came back and she could just imagine Harrow rolling her eyes and smiling to herself. That tiny, amused smile she made when she didn't want to admit something Gideon had said was funny. 

"What are you over there grinning about?" 

Gideon looked up at Nona who was grinning back at her. "You texting your new girlfriend?" she sang teasingly and Gideon scoffed even as pink dusted her cheeks against her will.

"We've only been on two dates. I don't think she's my 'girlfriend' yet," she mumbled, slipping her phone back into her pocket.

"Do you want her to be?" Nona asked her as they stood in line behind two electricians ordering food. 

"I…I guess…," 

Nona looked at her weirdly. 

"What?" 

"You don't sound very sure. You like her, right?" Nona peered up at her with a very familiar face.

"Yeah, I do. It just seems kinda fast, don't it? Two dates?" She looked at Nona as though she might have the answer. She shrugged.

"Maybe? No? I dunno. I've only ever been on a couple dates before Pash. She's the only girlfriend I've ever had." Nona shrugged. "How many dates did you go on with your last girlfriend before you asked her to be your girlfriend?" She asked. Gideon couldn't remember. It had been a long time ago.

"Uh…," Gideon hemmed and hawed.

"Huh… and here I thought you were some studly ladies woman. Turns out I was wrong..," Nona mumbled, seemingly to herself. Gideon looked offended as they stepped up to order their sandwiches. 

"I haven't dated 'cause I didn't want to," Gideon said and Nona shook her head, like 'of course you did '. Gideon felt her eye twitch, again fighting the urge to rub it in that it was her sister that Gideon was seeing. All tiny, dark, and glowering, barely five feet of her. 

She paid for her food and moved off to the side to wait with her apprentice. Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out to glance at. A response from Harrow.

12:23 :🦴☠️⚰️ 🦇?: Keep trying.

She chuckled and Nona shot her a look.

"So, what's she like?" 

"Huh?" She looked up from her phone and Nona rolled her eyes.

"Your 'not' girlfriend," she clarified. "What’s her name, what’s she like?"

“Oh…uh…,” Gideon thought quickly. “Her name’s… Elizabeth… and she’s cute?”

“Is that a question?” Nona smirked at her and Gideon wanted to reach out and cuff her upside the back of the head. Just wait until their boxing spar on Sunday..

“She’s cute… We have some stuff in common…” She shrugged. She probably couldn’t say a whole lot without Nona catching on that she was talking about her own sister. 

“That sounds kinda generic…,” Nona hummed and Gideon raised one closed fist. 

‘Don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it.’

“She’s not generic,” she barked. “She’s fuckin’ smart and witty, and kinda grumpy but fun to talk to… really cute…,” she trailed off.  

“Better.” Nona nodded. "Well… regardless of how many dates you've been on, do you want her to be your girlfriend?" Nona asked again and Gideon didn’t need to think about it this time.

"Yeah… I just don't know if that's a distinction she wants to make yet or not." 

"You could… ask?" Nona gave her the most smug and smart-ass look she had ever seen on the smaller woman and scowled. 

"Next time I see her in person." Gideon nodded. 

“Order up!” The guy leaned out the window with their sandwiches and Nona lunged. Gideon was glad she didn’t lose a finger in the process of trying to get her own food. 

They moved to sit on the curb, food in hand, and lapsed into comfortable silence for a little while. 

“What should I bring to the cookout?” Nona suddenly asked, looking at Gideon, who was chewing a mouthful of pastrami on rye. She shrugged.

“What can you cook?” she asked after swallowing. Nona sat there, silently contemplating. She was silent long enough that Gideon started to wonder if she hadn’t heard her.

“Chicken nuggets?” She looked at Gideon, who blinked. 

“You don’t do any cooking?” Gideon blinked. 

“I just kinda microwave stuff, okay? Harrow does most of the cooking when cooking happens and it’s usually the same handful of recipes. I just never learned…” She pouted  

“You’re 28…” Gideon continued to stare at her. 

“Oh, but you cook so well?!” she shot back, flushed.

“If I do say so myself, I’m pretty decent. It’s relaxing. Setting everything up and going through the motions.” She shrugged and took another bite of her food. 

Nona pursed her lips, staring down at her food. 

“Can you show me how to cook something for the cookout?” she asked and Gideon stopped mid-chew to look at her. She put on her most wide and pleading look. Gideon made a face as she stared at those wide and deep black eyes looking back at her. 

“What do you want to make?” she finally asked slowly and Nona broke out into a wide grin. 

“Pyrrha didn’t list any desserts, what about a cake?” she asked, bouncing on the sidewalk excitedly. 

“I mean, we could do a boxed one?” she offered but Nona made a face and Gideon sighed. “From scratch?” she offered and then the girl was beaming at her and she sighed. “Fine, but we’d have to do it tonight, ya know?” she asked and Nona nodded. “Okay… let’s figure out what kind of cake you wanna make and then what stuff you need to get.” She fished out her phone.

“I’ll go by the store on the way home, you can come to my apartment tonight. Harrow won’t mind.” 

Gideon was sure she wouldn’t.   

~ ~ ~

“I’m home!” Nona announced, stepping in the front door with two grocery bags. Harrow, sitting on the couch with her laptop in her lap, didn’t even look up. 

“You’re late.”

Nona nodded, kicking the door shut behind her and moving into the kitchen. “I had to stop and get some stuff to bake a cake.” 

Harrow did look up at that. “Bake a cake?” she parroted.

“Yup! Pyrrha invited us to a cookout tomorrow afternoon. Everyone’s bringing something.” The sounds of her moving around the kitchen followed that statement and Harrow frowned, setting her computer aside, and stood, quickly moving to the island to peer into the kitchen.

“You don’t cook,” Harrow said as a matter of fact, watching Nona pull things like flour, sugar, and the like out of her bags. 

“I know but it’s okay, I asked Gideon to help me. She’s going to shower and then come up to help me make it.”

“Gideon is coming up to help you?” Harrow repeated, eyes going wide and trying not to look down at herself in her ratty shorts and hoodie, shoulder-length hair pulled back into a little tail at the back of her neck.

“Yup. That okay?” Nona looked at her over her shoulder. Harrow snapped out of her thoughts to look at her sister and nod.

“That’s fine… I need to go...” 

Before Nona could question her, she quickly walked down the hall and threw herself into the shower.  

When she came out after drying her hair, she could hear Nona talking to someone in the kitchen. She zipped to her room and dug through her closet for something suitable to wear.  It was at this moment that she realized that she needed to do laundry. She cursed under her breath and with nothing else to wear, threw on a pair of black sweatpants and a plain black tee. She brushed her hair into some semblance of order and finally moved back out into the living room.

"But when do we get to start?" Nona questioned, exasperatedly.

"After you have everything laid out, otherwise you're going to be running around looking for stuff while cooking and before you know it, it's going to be on fire. Is that what you want? To tell your sister that you set the kitchen on fire?" 

"I would prefer you didn't," she answered, making them both jerk to turn around and look at her.

“Hey… did you take a shower and change?” Nona cocked her head, noting her sister’s freshly washed hair and clean clothes. 

“Yes…,” she carefully didn’t look at Gideon. “What are you making?” she glanced at the redhead now and noted the little grin on her mouth. 

“Plain vanilla cake,” Gideon answered and Harrow couldn’t help but cock a brow at her sister. 

“She wouldn’t let me make the triple chocolate fudge lava cake…,” Nona pouted and Gideon rolled her eyes almost in sync with Harrow.

“You’ve never baked at all, we’re not jumping straight to the hardest damn thing you can think of,” she grunted and Nona stuck out her tongue. “Now… butter?” Gideon questioned and Nona sat it on the counter. They made their way through the ingredient list, measuring everything out in different cups, bowls, and containers. 

“How was work?” Harrow asked, parking herself at the island as they worked. 

“Boring,” Nona shrugged it off and Gideon snorted, glancing at her.  

“Before or after Ma got onto you for hanging off the scaffolding like a monkey?” she asked and snickered as Harrow glared at her sister, who went wide-eyed. 

“You were doing what!? You can’t be careless on a construction site Nona. Something could happen to you!” Harrow scolded and the younger woman frowned, for once having the good grace to appear remorseful. 

“I know, I know,” she mumbled. “But Gideon was texting her girlfriend!” Nona pointed at her accusingly. 

“Not from thirty feet in the air!” she guffawed. “And she’s not my girlfriend!” 

Harrow looked at her and luckily, if anything resembling hurt flashed across her face, Nona was looking down and had missed it. She carefully schooled her expression into one of casually bored interest. 

“Yeah, yeah, but you said you were going to ask her to be,” Nona looked up and nudged her. Red was starting to crawl up Gideon’s cheeks and her golden amber gaze flickered to Harrow. Nona, luckier still, misjudged the embarrassment. “Harrow’s not gonna make fun of you,” she assured. “Just me.” She grinned. “You should have heard her, Harrow. Talking about how smart and witty and pretty her ‘not’ girlfriend was when I said she was probably generic.” she snickered and Harrow could feel her own temperature rise as Gideon’s visibly did. She was a brighter red than her hair and Nona was giggling like mad at the sight. “Aw, come on, Gid, it’s just me and Harrow, no reason to try your hand at being a fire hydrant.” 

Gideon just glared at her. “Do you want help with this cake or not, 'cause I can just leave and let you burn down your apartment,” she threatened.

“Okay, okay, I’m done!” she giggled, holding up her hands. 

Gideon looked back down at her phone and, Harrow assumed, the recipe. “One teaspoon baking powder,” she grumbled. Nona looked around through the ingredients, then moved to the cabinets and started digging. While she was preoccupied, gold and black met and Harrow cocked a brow, hoping her face wasn’t a quarter as red as Gideon’s. It felt warm though. Gideon’s eyes flickered back to the counter, too embarrassed perhaps to hold Harrow’s hot and searching gaze for another second.

“Okay… so, I forgot the baking powder,” Nona said.

“What?” Gideon turned to her. “You had a list.” 

“I forgot to put it on the list.” She grimaced and Gideon sighed. 

“We have to have that or the cake won’t rise.” Gideon crossed her arms. “Maybe go across the hall and ask Cam and Pal?” Gideon suggested.

“Oh, good idea, I’ll be back!” She turned and hurried out of the apartment. The door shut with a click and they were left in silence. 

Harrow watched her, waiting for Gideon to look at her. Finally, she did, face still red. 

“What?” she mumbled, reaching up to scratch the back of her neck. 

“Nothing at all. Just curious, are you planning on asking this woman to be your girlfriend?” the corner of her lip rose as she cocked her head ever so slightly as she watched the pale red burn across a lightly freckled nose. 

“Maybe,” she mumbled. “I dunno, she’s kinda grumpy… and has terrible taste in pet names. Doesn’t like any of mine,” she sighed exaggeratedly.

“Maybe because Acidbun is asinine,” Harrow huffed and Gideon laughed, making her smile right back. “Why were you even talking about me, to my sister no less?” she finally broke character and glanced at the still-closed door.

“I didn’t plan on it. She caught me grinning at my phone and Ma told her I was seeing the waitress that gave me her number at her birthday party.” 

“Why would Pyrrha say that?” she asked.

“Cause Pash told her about the number so when she asked, I just told her that’s what I was doing Saturday night when she asked me to go to the bar with her and I said I had plans.” She shrugged. “It makes for a good cover when I say I’m busy now or get caught grinning like a moron at my phone.” 

“It does make for some allowances,” she agreed. “Though you’re going to have to come up with better descriptors for this make-believe woman of yours.” 

Gideon rolled her eyes as she leaned over the counter toward Harrow. “Smart, witty, and pretty are pretty generic, ya know? It’s not like I said oh,…that she’s a saturnine, gothic beauty with raven hair, polished jet for eyes, and a wit sharper than a shard of broken glass...” She smirked as it was Harrow’s turn to rapidly change color. “Now that would have given it away in a heartbeat, don'tcha think?” she breathed, winking and Harrow’s mouth went dry. She was saved from having to reply by Nona, throwing open the door and walking in, not looking at either of them as she grabbed her keys off the hook by the door.

“So Cam and Pal didn’t have any baking powder and neither did Pyrrha. I’m gonna run down the street and buy some. Back in fifteen!” Then she was gone again, the door slamming shut behind her.

“I have some in my apartment…,” Gideon grumbled, pulling out her phone. “I’ll text her to come back…” Before she could though, Harrow’s hand reached out and pressed the phone down. 

“Let her go,” she said quietly and Gideon looked back up, brows furrowed in confusion. “We’re not done talking. Didn’t you have something to ask me?” she tilted her head, watching Gideon, who blinked.

“You’re really going to make me ask, huh?” She planted a hand on her hip as she looked at Harrow, who smirked. 

“I’m not a mind reader, Nav,” she said and Gideon scoffed before going quiet.  

“Is that a thing you’d want?” she finally did ask. “Being exclusive?” 

Harrow hummed, making a show of thinking about it if for no other reason than to make Gideon squirm, and she did. Harrow watched her shift from foot to foot on the other side of the island. 

“I suppose so..,” she finally answered, smiling that little smile and Gideon visibly deflated with relief. It made that warm affection that had been manifesting in her chest as of late, spark to life, especially when those glittering, warm eyes met her own. 

“So… girlfriends,” Gideon said and Harrow scoffed. A lopsided smile slid onto Gideon’s face and Harrow’s eyes flickered down to her lips. Gideon froze and Harrow could think of few things she wanted more right now than to kiss Gideon.

Who, thankfully, seemed to know exactly what the look on her face was about as she stepped around the counter to stand in front of her.

“You're not gonna freak out about being too forward again, are you?” she teased gently and Harrow let out a heavy breath through her nose.

“No…”

“Just checking…,” she murmured, leaning down. Harrow leaned up into it and then Gideon’s lips were pressing softly over her own, a whisper of contact at first, the brief press of skin. Then it was firmer, a tangible pressure against her mouth. She reached up, laying her hands on Gideon’s shoulders and tugging her closer. The hint was taken. Gideon tilted her head to better slot her mouth against Harrow’s, who made a low sound in the back of her throat as the pressure increased. Then a hand pressed to her cheek, featherlight, the tips of her fingers braced against her cheekbone. It was tender and gentle and all the things she supposed a first kiss was supposed to be for most people. Not for Harrowhark.  

“Gideon…” It was a whisper of a breath between their lips but seemed to be the right combination of syllables to make the lock click open. 

Gideon’s hand slid back to wrap around the back of her neck and then Gideon was really kissing her, firm and warm.  

Heat was bubbling up like a suddenly boiling pot, threatening to froth over somewhere inside Harrow by the time Gideon pulled back, leaving them both sucking in air. Black met amber and both were glazed over as they caught their breath. 

“Was that okay?” Gideon mumbled and Harrow hummed an affirmative before leaning back in to press another kiss against her mouth, then another… and another. They must have stayed there for at least five minutes, trading kisses that only started to grow sloppier and longer as they went on. Harrow made a sound, quiet and high-pitched, goading Gideon into stepping closer, her grip on the back of Harrow’s neck tightening.    

Harrow's fingers dug into the redhead’s green and white striped tank top, pulling her closer still and she gasped when teeth grazed her bottom lip. Her tongue swiped against Gideon’s lips in response and the next thing she knew, there was a flurry of movement and then she was laying flat on her back on the couch with Gideon hovering over her, kissing the life out of her and she didn’t mind at all. Her fingers had a white-knuckle grip on the back of her shirt and the smell of pine filled her senses. There was a decidedly, wet smacking sound when they parted and Gideon pressed another to the corner of her mouth, Harrow panted as they trailed across the edge of her jaw. Somewhere, in the far back of her mind, common sense was having a screaming fit. Even as arousal and desire tried to smother it with a pillow.   

“When di-did Nona leave?” she gasped when Gideon laid a soft kiss on the underside of her jaw. Gideon grunted against her skin. 

“Dunno, not thinking about your sister…” 

Harrow barked a laugh and pushed on her shoulder. Gideon went, albeit reluctantly, and Harrow smirked up at her, chest still rising and falling rapidly with quick breaths. “While that is good to know, I meant, she should be back any minute now, and getting caught making out on the couch is not conducive to keeping our secret,” she reminded. Gideon grunted, frowning but nodded and sat up, rising off her knees to stand by the couch as Harrow sat up and tried to smooth her hair back into some semblance of order. Gideon reached up and brushed a stray strand behind her ear and Harrow watched her. 

She smiled and offered her a hand. Harrow took it and when she was standing once again, Gideon leaned down and pressed a last, chaste kiss to her lips.

“Are you gonna come to the cookout tomorrow or do you wanna do something with me?” she asked.

“Tempting as the offer is, if we want any of them to believe we’ve become friends, we do need to be seen together at least on occasion,” she hummed, straightening out her clothes. “I’ll be there.”

Gideon hummed. “I’m making mac and cheese, Ma is smoking pork, and Cam and Pal are making a salad, can you eat any of that? Should I make and bring something you can eat?” she offered and Harrow’s stomach gave a little flip at the concern on her face as she asked.  

“No, I’ll be alright with that.” She leaned up on her toes and pressed a quick, featherlight kiss to her cheek. “Thank you.” 

They managed to part and situate themselves back in the kitchen, not a scant minute before Nona burst back into the apartment unannounced. 

“Okay! I am back and I have the baking soda!” She set the box on the counter triumphantly.

Gideon looked down at it for a long moment, then sighed. 

“Baking powder,” she said. Nona blinked back at her, black eyes narrowing.

“Well, fuck.” 

“It’s fine, it’s fine. I have some in my apartment, I’ll be right back.” She turned and walked out as Nona cursed under her breath and threw the new box of baking soda into the cabinet. 

“What did you two talk about while I was gone?” she asked, turning to look at Harrow, who shrugged.

“Work and such, her new girlfriend… you.” She tossed in as she stood and moved down the hall.

“Wait… me? What about me? Harrow?” Nona called after her. “Harrow!?”   

Chapter Text

Gideon pulled into the parking lot in front of the park a few blocks down the street from their apartment building and climbed out. She could see the little section with the picnic table that Cam and Pal had arrived early to claim. Harrow was sitting with them much to her surprise.

“Hey,” she called, walking over, covered dish in hand, smiling at the three of them. 

“Good afternoon, Gideon.” Pal nodded his head at her as she set the bowl on the table next to their salad. 

“Sup, just us so far?” she asked and Cam nodded from where she was tinkering with some poles and a net on the ground. Noodle lay next to her, watching some kids play a little ways away. Gideon caught Harrow's eye and winked, smirking. The expected eye roll was her answer. Harrow did, however, tap Gideon's foot with her own under the bench when she sat down, and that made her smile.

She got the distinct feeling that Harrow would be just as cagey with her affections even if they weren't keeping their dating secret. There was something kind of fun about it.

Even if it meant she couldn't lean across the table and kiss her. Sacrifices .

"Where's Nona?"

"She went to pick up Passion," Harrow said, sipping on a bottle of water.

"How is that going? Nona and Pash?” Pal asked and watched both Gideon and Harrow make faces at the same time. He smiled, looking back and forth between them.”That well, hm?”

“I wish Pash would cut the lovey-dovey, mushy shit but I would just be happy if I didn’t get the weird commentary from Nona out of nowhere during lunch about how… ya know what, no, I’m not repeating it. You are all welcome!” She waved a finger around at them.   

“I know far too much about Passion and a port wine birthmark …,” Harrow mumbled, looking off into the middle distance over Gideon’s shoulder. 

“Oh yea… I forget she has that since it’s on her…”

“Don’t!” Harrow snapped and Gideon jerked back, holding up her hands. 

“Thank you…,” Pal sighed in relief, rubbing his temple. 

“I need the tool kit from the car," Camilla called over and Palamedes l jumped up, nodding.

“Be right back.”

Gideon glanced at Cam, not paying them any mind as she fiddled with whatever it was and turned her head back to see Harrow already watching her. She grinned and wagged her eyebrows. Harrow released an audible breath through her nose at the face she was making and gave her a little kick under the table. Gideon just grinned as she watched Harrow pull out her phone. She typed a message and then looked up at Gideon as her phone buzzed in her pocket.

1:12 :🦴☠️⚰️ 🦇?: You are not half as subtle as you think you are. Your face gives you away. 

Gideon clicked her tongue. 

1:12: You: Oh, but you’re so stony faced? 

Harrow glanced at the message before looking back up at Gideon, her raised brow was all the answer Gideon needed. Her eyes narrowed and her foot started to tap beneath the table. She had an idea. Was it a good idea? Probably not. Not at all really and it also hinged on Harrow consenting to the game. 

1:13: You: Care to test that theory, sugarlips?

Harrow’s brows furrowed as she read the message, not looking up at Gideon. 

1:13 :🦴☠️⚰️ 🦇?: What did you have in mind?

1:13: You: A little… competition. If I can make you crack (someone notices) before the cookout’s over, you lose. Stakes, dinner next weekend. Unless you’re not so confident in your affectation...

She watched Harrow’s eyes narrow at the screen before glancing over to SexPal, who had returned with the tool kit but instead of sitting back in his abandoned spot, joined his wife on the ground as she worked on whatever it was. The phone buzzed in her hand. 

1:14 :🦴☠️⚰️ 🦇?: Deal. What’s the competition?

1:14: You: Don’t be so quick to agree. 

1:14: You: Sexting.

Harrow’s eyes shot up from her screen, brows shot up into her hairline as she looked at Gideon, who merely raised a brow at her, she tapped a message, barely looking, her gaze still locked with Harrow’s

1:15: You: If you’ve changed your mind, it’s all good. We’re not gonna do anything you’re on the fence or unsure about. I know we made out a little yesterday but we still can’t agree if we’ve been on two or three dates yet...

The next message came without hesitation.

1:15 :🦴☠️⚰️ 🦇?: My mind hasn’t changed. Do your worst.

Gideon looked up at her and their eyes met. The black depths of Harrow's eyes were steady and sure. Gideon grinned and it was all teeth as she tapped back.

1:15: You: You’re on. 

Gideon noticed A familiar black Jeep pull up and a flash of electric blue hair in the passenger seat. She had about one minute to get off her first shot… so to speak. 

1:15: You: Hope you like getting wet.

She quickly slipped her phone into her pocket as she watched Nona and Pash approach from the parking lot.

Harrow looked at her phone and Gideon glimpsed the brief flare of her nostrils and the color crawling up her neck. She looked up at Gideon, an unreadable look in her eyes just before Nona pounced.

"We're here!" she announced and Gideon snickered under her breath as she watched her girlfriend nearly jump out of her skin.

"What's up?" Gideon greeted casually, half watching Harrow hastily shove her phone into her pocket. "Whatcha bring?" 

"Baked beans." She set the pot on the table next to Nona's covered cake. "You?"

"Cheesy mac." 

"Oooh" Pash tried to look in the covered bowl but Gideon slapped at her hand. 

"Trying to keep it hot," she scolded and Pash grumbled. "Ma isn't here yet either." 

"Looks like her pulling up now." Pash nodded to the parking lot. 

"Let's go see if she needs any help." Gideon stood and moved around the bench, pulling out her phone once she was out of Harrow's sight and typing out another text.

1:18: You: I’m curious. Did you get wet last night on the couch? 

She slipped it back into her pocket and glanced over her shoulder at the picnic table. Harrow was talking to Nona, but watched as she slipped her phone out of her pocket to glance at the screen, then immediately slapped it face down on the table. Gideon grinned to herself before turning back around. 

"Need any help?" she asked, watching Pyrrha dig around in the backseat of her truck.

"Yeah, take this." She leaned back and handed over a large aluminum pan covered in tin foil. It was warm against her hands. “And you take this.” She tossed a folded-up blanket to Pash. “Everyone else here?” she asked, adjusting the baseball cap she wore, proudly bearing ‘Women want me, fish fear me.’

Someday, Gideon would inherit that hat. It was her birthright. 

“Yeah, we were just waiting on you.” She nodded over to the area they had claimed. 

“Oh, hey, you brought it.” Pyrrha smiled, nodding to the pieces of metal pipe Cam was screwing together on the ground. She moved over to have a closer look as Pash unfolded the blanket with Nona’s help. Gideon set the food on the table just as her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out. 

1:20 :🦴☠️⚰️ 🦇?: Yes.

The single word made an immediate heat spark to life in the pit of her stomach. She glanced over at Harrow, who was still sitting at the table, one hand in her lap and the other on her phone in front of her. One dark eye was watching Gideon from the corner. 

1:20 :🦴☠️⚰️ 🦇?: Weirdly, your tongue in my mouth has that effect. 

The second message popped up almost immediately after the first and Gideon sat down next to her on the bench before her legs could fold on her. Everyone else was too preoccupied to pay the two of them any mind with Pyrrha and Pal trying to help Cam while Pash and Nona cuddled up together on the blanket with Noodle.  

“You didn’t say you were gonna play back…,” she mumbled under her breath. 

“You never said I couldn’t,” was the smooth and cheeky reply. Her mouth twisted up into a smile or at least half of one from what Gideon could see without looking at her directly.

“Fair enough," she hummed, then leaned down to rest her chin in her palm and bring her mouth more level with Harrow's ear. "Are you getting wet now?" Her voice was barely even a whisper but she knew she'd been heard from the way Harrow suddenly tensed beside her.

Then viciously pinched her thigh.

She had to bite her tongue to keep from crying out and attracting everyone else's attention. She shot Harrow a look and found herself being glared back at, cheeks lightly flushed. 

“Play fair, or not at all,” was the sharply whispered reprimand.

“Sorry…," she mumbled. "Texts only." She bobbed her head and turned her attention over to the three adults clustered around on the ground. "Whatcha got, Cam?" she called. 

"Volleyball net," was the reply as she and Pyrrha slotted two pieces together.

"Oh, sweet, you ready for another ass-kicking?" She twisted around to look at Pash, who scowled and flipped her off with both hands. 

"Stop being a shit and come help," Pyrrha called at her. Gideon rolled her eyes but stood and ambled over to help them tie the net to each pole and then set it upright.

"Well, since that's done, shall we eat?" Pal asked, standing and brushing off his pants.

He didn't need to ask Gideon or Pash twice. They descended on the table of food as though they had never eaten before. Cam and Pyrrha followed them. Though they filled their plates with greater grace and restraint than the cousins, they were no less full. Once the four had moved through, laying siege to the meal, the rest of the party picked over the rest. Harrow and Nona picked through the proffered bowls with Pal.

"Come on, Mistress of Melancholy." Gideon slapped her hand on the empty space beside her at the table. "Sit here so I can bug you." 

Harrow made a face but sat down next to her. Cam cocked a silent but accusing brow.

“Since when are you two so chummy?” Pyrrha looked between her and Harrow, saying what everyone else at the table seemed to be thinking. Gideon shrugged after spooning a heaping helping of mac and cheese and shredded pork into her mouth.

“Since we got stuck in the elevator together and then cleaned Nona and Pash’s clocks at trivia together. Sides, she needed more friends.” Gideon grinned and jerked her head at Harrow, who grunted.

"You're okay with this?" Pyrrha asked and Harrow shrugged.

“She’s not the most annoying.”

"Sounds fake," Pash mumbled. Gideon flipped her off.

"Her company is preferable to yours…," Harrow cocked a brow and Pash leaned back. Nona patted her arm consolingly and Gideon couldn’t decide if Harrow was protective or Pash simply annoyed her. Probably both.

“See, that’s practically a glowing endorsement!” Gideon threw an arm over Harrow’s shoulder and tugged her in close. Keeping up with the act, or maybe out of real annoyance at her show, Harrow elbowed her in the gut. 

“She’s not wrong about that,” Cam said and Pal chuckled. 

"You could always use more friends if nothing else." Nona nodded in agreement. Harrow sniffed disdainfully and Gideon smirked before turning her attention back to her food. She became deaf to the conversation going on around her as she tucked into her food. It was so good. The mac and cheese especially, if she did say so herself  

"You eat voraciously…," Harrow noted and Gideon looked up, still chewing. She shrugged, then pulled her phone surreptitiously out of her pocket and contemplated only for a second before typing out a quick message.

1:35:You: Not the only thing I eat voraciously . 

Then slid it back into her pocket before returning to her food. Harrow, the little devil didn't so much as acknowledge that her phone had gone off as she finished picking at her food and then got into a conversation (argument) with Pal about the semantics of something or another. Gideon's foot tapped impatiently against the grass before her attention was diverted to Cam.

"Pyrrha said you started dating someone?" 

"Oh, yeah. Waitress from the bar. Names Elizabeth "

"Oh, what's she like?" Pal perked upon hearing and she quickly cobbled together a woman in her brain. One that just so happened to have been the centerfold for last month's Frontline Titties issue… but it was good enough.

"Blonde, about my height, stacked…" she trailed off and Pal pressed a hand to his face while Cam rolled her eyes.

"I meant…," he exhaled loudly. "Her personality”.

"Oh, why didn't you say so? Smart, clever, fun." She shrugged. “We've only been on one date."

"But you like her?" Cam prompted and Gideon had to stop herself from turning to look at Harrow. 

"Yeah, I like her a lot." 

"That's great news." SexPal smiled.

"We were starting to worry you’d die alone." Pash tossed in and Gideon made an offended sound.

"Not true. You'd always have us." Pal reached over and patted her forearm.

"Wow… I'm touched… truly," she drawled. Pash snicked and if she were closer Gideon would reach over and punch her. She settled for a heart-felt, fist-shaking flip-off. 

"Are we gonna play, or did you spend all that time setting up the net for nothing?" Pyrrha looked over at Cam, who had finished eating and stood.

"Pyrrha and I will be captains," Cam declared. "I want Palamedes." 

"Yes! It took fifteen years and I had to marry her, but I'm finally picked first for a sports team!" He laughingly declared as he stood from the bench to join Cam, who just rolled her eyes fondly at her husband. 

Once her conversation partner was gone, Gideon watched as Harrow finally pulled her phone out and glanced at the screen. She stared at it for a long couple of seconds before her finger flicked across the screen and then she put it back in her pocket.

Gideon felt it vibrate against her thigh and had to fight the urge to pull it out immediately and look at it. She needed plausible deniability.

"Get over here, Gid." Pyrrha waved her over. Gideon nodded and trotted over. 

“Pash,” Cam nodded and the other woman grinned.

“That leaves you, Big No.” Pyrrha jerked her head. 

“Yes!” Nona jumped up and skipped over to stand with Pyrrha and Gideon. 

“What about the Lamentable Lady?” Gideon jerked her thumb at Harrow. 

“I’m content to watch.” She leaned her arms on the table and made to do just that. 

“Don’t worry about her. She’s not sporty anyway.” Nona waved a hand.

“Oh? and you are?” Harrow sneered.

“Just watch.” She stuck her tongue out.  

Watch they all did as the game of volleyball commenced and Nona smacked herself in the face with the ball no less than three times within the first five minutes of the game. 

After the third, Harrow snorted and dropped her chin into her hand, grinning at the bright red spot in the middle of her sister’s face. 

“I’ve been watching, at what point do you score a point or actually hit it over the net?” she called and Nona’s lips pursed, glaring. Over at the table, Harrow smiled and Gideon wondered if that evil, self-satisfied little smile should be that attractive…

Probably not. 

She ran and slid, saving the ball and popping it up and over to Nona, who did finally manage to smack it over the net.

Only for Cam to jump up and spike it back into the ground. Nona screeched, jumping out of the way of the hurtling projectile. 

“Point,” she declared.

“Okay, my serve.” Gideon gave a little bounce and smacked it over the net where Sexpal all 6’1’’ of his noodly limbs jumped up and slapped it over the net only for Pyrrha to make the save. 

It bounced back and forth, Pash sliding through the grass only to miss it.

“Whoop!” Gideon high-fived Nona. 

“Lucky,” her cousin growled. 

She could practically feel that pair of little black eyes burning holes in her back as she played. Her phone burned a hole in her pocket, Harrow’s last message sitting unanswered and unread. 

“Game point!” Cam shouted, leaping up and smacking the ball over the net. Gideon ran and slid onto her knees. Something twinged and she hissed, hands clasping around her bad knee and the ball smacked the ground not a foot in front of her.

“Gideon!” Several voices called. 

“I’m fine,” she heard herself shouting before she even knew if it was true or not. Cam and Pyrrha were already standing over her before she even looked up.

“What happened, are you bleeding, is a bone sticking out?” Pyrrha knelt down and examined her dirt and grass-stained covered knee. It was whole and intact.

“No, no it’s fine!” She rubbed it. It stung but it didn’t really hurt any more than usual when she gave it an experimental bend. 

“Are you sure?” Cam asked, holding out a hand and Gideon nodded, accepting it and letting Cam and Pyrrha pull her to her feet. She took a few cautionary steps. 

“It’s all good,” she assured them. “Maybe I’ll just sit out the next game…” she offered and they nodded. 

“That leaves us with uneven teams.” Pash planted her hands on her hips. 

“No, you can play two on two. There’s a reason I was never chosen for teams,” Pal chuckled, wiping at the sweat on his brow. “I’ll never have the right constitution.” He ambled off their makeshift court with Gideon while the four remaining players rearranged. “Are you sure you’re alright?” He looked at her and she nodded. 

“Yeah, no worries. Just didn’t expect the slide,” she chuckled. Pal sat under the shade of a nearby tree while she settled onto the bench with Harrow. 

Gideon looked at her and caught the look in her eyes. Concern looked vastly out of place on her normally pinched little face but she couldn’t say she didn’t appreciate it.

“I’m fine,” she said and Harrow hummed before just giving a nod and turning her eyes back to the game that had already started between Nona and Pash vs Cam and Pyrrha. 

“Fifteen bucks on team worry wart.” Gideon smiled and Harrow snorted. 

“I’d never take a fool’s bet.” She glanced back over at Gideon and smirked. Gideon chuckled as they went back to watching in silence.    

She finally had the chance to pull out her phone and check Harrow’s last message.

Her last one above it. 

1:35:You: Not the only thing I eat voraciously . 

1:39:🦴☠️⚰️ 🦇?: Prove it.

She sucked in a violently sharp breath through her nose and it took all her willpower not to look up at Harrow. She didn't think she would be able to keep her composure if she did. She calmed herself before typing out a message. 

2:01:You: I’d be happy to. Name a time and a place and I’ll gladly take you up on that meal… and seconds and thirds… 

Harrow, with her phone sitting flat on the table in front of her, didn’t hesitate to open the message. She scanned it only a moment before her finger slid around the keyboard. 

2:02:🦴☠️⚰️ 🦇?: I’m not so sure you have anything worth offering…  

It took every last ounce of her willpower not to turn to Harrow and make the most insulted face she had ever made in her life. Meanwhile, the gothic gremlin was smirking to herself, eyes glued to the volleyball game in front of them as though she was actually watching it. Gideon grunted. She knew better. It was time to end this. Turned out that Harrow could give as good as she got - which was good to know for future reference - but Gideon knew what she had to do. She smirked to herself as she scrolled leisurely through her photos before tapping one of herself in front of her bathroom mirror, shirtless and tongue sticking out and added the message of ‘I’m gonna suck a hickey right on the side of your neck for everyone to see and run my tongue over it for starters if you keep it up.’ Then hit send. 

Harrow, took her eyes off the game and looked down at her phone, still sitting open on their chat. Gideon could see the photo pop up. There was a pause before Harrow’s face turned beet red and she turned and gave Gideon a shove before scabbling out of the booth. Gideon bit her cheek to keep from laughing as Harrow stomped away, fuming.

Pal looked up from where he was sitting in the grass beneath the shade of a tree watching his wife and Pyrrha school Nona and Pash. 

“What did you do?” he sighed as Gideon giggled, already typing out a message to her girlfriend standing several yards away and pacing with a frown on her red hot face. 

2:15:You: Pal noticed. You lose, sweetheart. You lost your composure.

“Just teasing the Lady of the Night.” She smiled at him as she hit send and then plopped onto the blanket beside him. 

Pal made a face, looking over at Harrow, and then pulled out his own phone and typed out a message of his own. 

Only a minute went by before Pal’s phone buzzed and he picked it up. Gideon glanced at him and frowned. His eyes were blown wide behind his glasses as he stared at the screen.  

“What?” Gideon asked, concerned. 

“Um… I don’t…” 

“AUTOCORRECT!” 

The two of them, and everyone else jerked up at the high-pitched shriek. Harrow was standing just a few feet away from them now, face red as a cooked lobster. 

“That’s not what it was meant to say!” 

“What’s wrong?” Nona wandered over and Harrow only seemed to grow more agitated. 

“Nothing.” Pal shoved his phone into his pocket before Gideon could get a look at it. “I simply sent a worktext to Harrow and her reply autocorrected to something ridiculous.” He waved a hand. Nona didn’t look convinced but Pal glanced at Cam, who seemed to get an entire conversation from it. 

“Are we going to finish playing or not? Pyrrha and I can beat the two of you another time if that’s what you want…” She set a hand on her hip, brow cocked and Nona jerked. 

“No, no, we’re coming!” she turned and hurried back over to the net. Cam cast a curious glance over all of them before turning and heading back.

“Sextus, I am so sorry…” Harrow, mumbled pressing a hand to her face as if to hide from his eyes. 

“It’s alright Harrow, autocorrects happen. Though, I am curious as to what exactly it was supposed to say that autocorrected to… that.” He adjusted his glasses and Harrow slowly drug her hand down her still boiling red face.

“It was meant to say ‘you breathing down my neck tends to do that’ and it was both rude and made me look like a fool,” she grumbled and Pal chuckled. 

“It’s alright. No worries, Harrow.” He smiled and Harrow jerked a nod, still not looking at him. She moved over to sit back at the bench and watch Pash and Nona try to mount a resistance to the dynamic duo that was Pyrrha and Cam scoring point after point while Pash made saving dives that didn’t save anything. She refused to look at Pal or Gideon.

Gideon stared at her back for a long minute before Pal nudged her. 

“Maybe you should apologize for whatever it is you said or did.” He cocked his head and she pursed her lips, trying to appear as if she was trying to put up at least a token resistance to the idea. She really wanted to go over and ask what had happened, though she had at least an inkling. Finally, after he nudged her again, she got up and ambled over, plopping onto the seat beside her.

“What happened?” she asked quietly. Harrow was still red, though not as ultra violently as before. She grumbled something so quietly that Gideon couldn’t hear her.

“What?” 

Harrow let out a violent sigh before pulling out her phone, opening it, and sliding it over to Gideon, who picked it up. 

Her text history with Palamedes.

2:16:Sextus: Hey, are you alright, you seem upset.

2:17:You: Your tongue on my neck will do that.

“Oh noooo,” Gideon mumbled. She felt embarrassed for Harrow.  

“His text came just after yours and I didn’t notice the sender…” She pressed her hands to her face.

“Yikes…” 

“This is your fault,” she hissed and Gideon jerked back, blinking. 

“My fault?” She pointed to herself. “You agreed to play, sugarlips. It’s not my fault you didn’t read the sender!” she said quietly. Harrow just scowled and turned back to watch the others, pointedly not looking at her. Gideon wanted to reach over and take her hand but knew that would not be well received with so many people around. “Hey.” she nudged Harrow’s knee with her own. A grunt was her answer. “At least it was just Pal… he won’t go around saying anything.”

“Except to Camilla…,” she argued.

“Well, yeah but you may as well just think of them as the same person really so… just CamPal saw it.” she chuckled quietly and Harrow grumbled. “No more game. We’re gonna get in trouble,” she chuckled as if Harrow hadn’t just already embarrassed herself beyond reason. 

She grunted in agreement. 

“Pash told me that Nona is going home with her tonight. You wanna come home with me?” she asked.

Harrow glanced at her from the corner of her eye. 

“Could watch a movie… or I could give you that hickey…,” she offered under her breath. 

“Absolutely not,” Harrow huffed and Gideon frowned, was she really that mad about it?  “You can’t leave marks,” Harrow grumbled and Gideon blinked before chuckling. 

“Not where people can see anyway…,” she said quietly and Harrow hummed. 

“Arghh!”

They both looked up to Pash, head down in the grass and making an agonized sound. Nona knelt beside her, patting her back as Pyrrha and Cam stood triumphantly over them.

“Now who’s old!” Pyrrha leaned over Pash. 

“Wanna head out?” Gideon cocked her head. Harrow nodded. “Hey, The Misery Maiden here’s had enough sun and I’m supposed to meet Elizabeth in a few hours so we’re gonna head out,” she lied effortlessly. 

“Aw, already?” Nona left her girlfriend to grovel at her aunt’s feet and trotted over. Harrow nodded.

“I have some work things I need to organize as well.” Harrow stood from the bench. Nona made a face but didn’t try to stop her. Maybe she, like everyone else, with the exception of Gideon knew what a miracle it was to get her out here in the first place. 

“Fiiiine. I’m gonna spend the night with Pash, so I’ll be home tomorrow afternoonish sometime,” she said and Harrow nodded. 

“See ya later.” Gideon waved to everyone else. “I parked over here.” She nodded toward her car and as soon as they had driven out of the lot, Harrow leaned her head back in the seat and groaned, long and low. Gideon just nodded.

“I can’t believe I did that… I can’t believe I let you talk me into that.” She grumbled.

“Now you sound like Pash,” Gideon grunted. “I hardly had to twist your arm any,” she reminded. 

Harrow huffed. 

“I still won though,” she reminded with a grin and Harrow scowled. Though to be honest, it felt more like a loss with the absolute, brutal murder of the mood that texting Pal instead had caused.

Oh well. Another time. 

They spent the rest of the afternoon and evening snuggled together on her couch watching the absolute worst movies Gideon could find and listening to Harrow’s running commentary of their flaws or the insanity of the plot lines.

When she fell asleep leaned into Gideon’s chest, The taller woman shook her awake only to be told she couldn’t be bothered to return to her own apartment, which was how Gideon found herself tucking Harrow under the sheets of the other side of her bed before climbing in herself. Harrow snuggled into her chest. 

Chapter Text

It was dark and warm and she was vaguely aware of a familiar pine smell coming from somewhere. She was comfortable and Harrow had no intention of removing herself from these conditions this morning. 

Not even when the warmth wrapped around her tried to pull away. She pulled it back in, burying her face in deeper. 

The warmth stilled and after another minute, slowly tried to slide away and Harrowhark wasn't having it. Her grip tightened and she grunted. 

"I like a good cuddle as much as the next person, but I really have to pee, babe…" 

Harrow's eyes popped open and she was met with warm brown skin and a black tank top.

She leaned back, squinting to find Gideon smirking at her, head a disheveled mess and looking half asleep herself. 

“Good morning, my Lamentable Lady.” She closed the handful of inches left between them to press a kiss to Harrow’s mouth. “Sleep alright?”

Harrow grunted and buried her face back into Gideon’s neck, her grip tightening. 

“Harrow… please…” Gideon whined and with a huff, Harrow let her go and buried her face in the pillow. She could feel the bed dip as Gideon climbed out of bed and vanished down the hall. She stayed there and realized where the smell was coming from.

Everywhere. Gideon’s entire bedroom but the sheets and pillow especially seemed to radiate the warm, woodsy smell she associated with her girlfriend. The laundry detergent maybe?

She didn’t have too long to contemplate before Gideon came back and jumped on the bed, bouncing her out of the pillow with a squeal. 

“Ya good?” she laughed before Harrow slapped her in the arm with a hiss. 

“You’re an oaf,” she grumbled even as she let Gideon wrap her arms around her and pull her back in close. 

“Did you know you snore?” Gideon countered and Harrow shoved her away and sat up. 

“I’m going home,” she declared.

“Nooo!” Gideon grabbed her and pulled her back. Harrow put up token resistance at best. 

“I have to be home before Nona,” she reminded even as she let Gideon rest her chin in the crook of her neck.

“I know but it's only like, 9:30. She said she’d be back in the afternoon-ish,” she countered. 

“Nona says a lot of things,” she grumbled and Gideon hummed but she didn’t show any signs of even attempting to get up again anytime soon. 

At least not until Gideon’s stomach growled loud enough for both of them to hear. 

“Breakfast?” Gideon mumbled in her ear and Harrow sighed through her nose but sat up. 

“Where did you put my clothes?” she asked, adjusting the collar of the shirt Gideon had given to her to wear last night. It was hanging almost entirely off one shoulder. Not to mention the front proudly declared in bright, rainbow letters ‘licked it, so it’s mine.’ ’. The sooner she could put her own shirt back on the better. 

“I hung ‘em up in the closet,” Gideon yawned, giving a mighty stretch that made the tank top ride up over her abdomen. Harrow watched from the corner of her eye as she sat on the edge of the bed. 

“Whatcha doin’?” 

She looked up at Gideon, laying there and grinning knowingly at her.

“Nothing,” she huffed and stood, walking quickly over to the closet.

“No, other side…!” Gideon called but too late. Harrow yanked open the other side and out from the closet spilled a parchment waterfall of glossy magazine covers all bearing different women in what one might be hard pressed to call ‘uniforms’. Their ample cleavage created a sea of tits across the carpet at her feet. 

Several Frontline Titties models stared up at her with wide, fake smiles and Harrow blinked before glancing back at Gideon over her shoulder. 

“Uh…” Gideon scratched the back of her neck sheepishly. 

“I can’t outright say I’m surprised, perhaps just disappointed…”

“Lots of people have skin magazines…” Gideon tried lamely. 

“This is a library’s worth,” Harrow said flatly.

“Okay, it’s a lot… but I can explain them.” Gideon stood from the bed and moved over to the closet. Harrow moved to the side as she scooped up, what ended up being, the knee-high stack of magazines. 

“If you say you read the articles…,” she said warningly and Gideon chuckled as she sat them on the bedside table. 

“I mean, I do. I’m just rechecking my own work.

“Your own work!?” Harrow’s eyes went wide as she imagined just what that meant. Gideon seemed to be able to read her face.

“I am not a porn magazine model.” She cut off that thought at the pass. “I mean the articles. I write an article in Frontline. I got the job through Pash and her editorial firm,” Gideon explained, turning to face her again. 

“You write an article for a pornography magazine?” Harrow repeated and Gideon nodded. “What kind of article?” Harrow’s eyes narrowed and Gideon’s rolled. 

“It’s just like… a queer advice column… nothing terribly excit-”

“You’re the ‘Ginger Journalist’?” Harrow interrupted and Gideon blinked, mouth still open mid-word. Harrow knew the moment it left her mouth that she’d fucked up. 

“...how do you know that name?” Gideon asked. Before she could even formulate a believable response, a wide, toothy grin was spreading across her girlfriend’s face. “Harrowhark…,” she started slowly and knowingly. Harrow frowned at her. “You read my column…,” she said with something akin to awe in her voice. 

“I…” Harrow grasped for something to say. 

“You read Frontline Titties?!” Gideon guffawed and Harrow’s whole face became blazing hot.

“I most certainly do not!” she spat. “I read the column on the website!” 

“So you do read it?” Gideon was grinning like a crazed jackal at her before darting forward and wrapping her arms around Harrow “I can’t believe it.” She laughed even as Harrow struggled in her grip. “You like my column!” 

The answer was more akin to that of a sound from a wild cat than anything intelligible as human.

“Come on, just admit it!” Gideon teased and Harrow snarled. Then, searching fingers brushed against her ribs. The reaction was immediate, volatile, and reflexive. 

“Fuck!” Gideon wailed. 

~ ~ 

“It doesn't look that bad,” Gideon mumbled, pulling the ice pack away from her partially blacked eye and looking into the hall mirror. Harrow covered her face and groaned into her hands from where she was sitting, perched on the couch. 

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled. 

“Don’t worry about it. Duly noted now though, don’t tickle you,” she chuckled, moving to sit on the couch beside her. “You have sharp elbows…” Harrow grumbled under her breath. “Come on, tell me.” Gideon nudged her knee with her own. “You read Frontline, don't you? I won’t tell anyone.” She was grinning and Harrow scowled at her.  

“I do not read that magazine,” she insisted with a huff. “Your mother gave one to Nona, who insisted on reading the articles aloud to me. They were…” She caught Gideon’s raised brows and glanced away.  “...Not bad,” she said and Gideon chuckled.

“My, my, with praise like that, you’re gonna make me flush, Miss Nonagesimus,” Gideon said with a high, syrupy southern belle accent. She fanned herself with a hand and batted her eyes at her. Harrow rolled her eyes and had to bite the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing. 

“You’re rather insightful,” she admitted and Gideon lowered her hand. smiling. 

“I just try to answer their questions as best I can.” She shrugged and then stood. “I’m gonna make breakfast.” She moved into the kitchen and the sound of pots and pans clinking together echoed out of the kitchen a moment later.  

"Do you eat eggs?" Gideon called. 

"Yes… but I'm going to head home." Harrow stood as Gideon poked her head back out of the kitchen, spatula in hand.

"But breakfast is the most important meal of the day…," Gideon said.

"I appreciate the thought but I should go..."

She walked over to the door but before she could even grab the handle, a pair of arms wrapped around her waist and she was pulled back against Gideon's chest.

"Do you really have to go right this minute or are you just embarrassed about elbowing me in the eye?" she challenged, her mouth near Harrow's ear.  

Harrow pursed her lips as the guess hit the bullseye dead on.

"It was… less than ideal," she admitted quietly. 

"It'll heal, babe. Don't worry about it.."  Gideon pressed a kiss to Harrow's temple and warmth curled into a tight ball in her belly. 

Harrow grumbled something under her breath and Gideon snorted. "It's fine, Harrowhark. Probably won't even be the last time," she chuckled and pressed another kiss to her cheek. Harrow reached back and smacked her thigh. 

"Shut up…" 

Gideon did just that by dipping her head and pressing a third kiss to the side of her neck this time. Harrow's skin quivered beneath Gideon's lips. Her hand, still hovering by Gideon’s leg, reached back and squeezed the same thigh. The ginger stilled and Harrow frowned, worried she’d misinterpreted the sudden touchiness. Her anxiety evaporated like mist when Gideon tightened her grip, pulling her more snuggly into the cage of her arms.

"Stay. Please?" she murmured, another kiss found its mark below her ear. Harrow wrapped her hands around the forearms crossed over her middle and held them there as Gideon's mouth continued to roam across the pillar of her neck. She let out a long, slow breath and then sucked in so sharply she nearly choked as teeth grazed her skin. Her grip tightened and she let the same breath out in a jagged huff.

"Is this okay?" Gideon murmured, her teeth remained pressed against Harrow's neck, a whisper of pressure as if to make sure she knew they were still there.

"Yes," she pressed her back insistently into Gideon's front and the teeth sank down, quick and sharp, making her gasp, fingernails digging into solid forearms. 

Then they were gone just as quickly as they'd come and Gideon's tongue lathed across the mark, a silent atonement. 

Harrow managed to pry the fingers of her right hand from Gideon's forearm and reached up, wrapping them around the back of her neck. Her fingers threaded through the shorter hairs there and yanked her closer every time Gideon's teeth moved elsewhere. 

"No marks," Harrow managed to hiss between breaths. 

"Might be a little late for this one…," Gideon breathed, “Sorry, babe.” It still tingled. She pressed a kiss there instead as her fingers slid beneath the hem of Harrow's shirt. Her fingers were cold and Harrow shivered as they trailed lazily across her abdomen, not daring to go any higher, just swiping lazily back and forth while she moved to maul Harrow's shoulder with her mouth.

"Higher," Harrow mumbled. It was little more than a breathy whisper but Gideon didn't need to be asked twice. Her hand slid up the soft plains of skin to her chest. fingers brushed the edge of her bra only a moment before she cupped Harrow's right breast in her hand and kneaded it gently. Harrow's breathing was growing heavier and her back arched into Gideon's touch. She was starting to feel too hot in her own skin and everywhere Gideon's fingers trailed left lines of scorching fire in their wake.

"Sensitive?" Gideon mumbled against her ear before drawing the lobe into her mouth. Her gauge clicked against the redhead’s teeth. 

"Very…," Harrow admitted with a gasp. Her short nails were digging crescent moons into the skin of Gideon's arm, but she didn't seem to notice.

"If you want to stop, just say the word," Gideon reminded. Her breath puffed against the shell of her ear.

"Don't stop..." Harrow tugged sharply at Gideon's hair. A low grunting sound answered her and then Gideon's hand pulled away.

Before Harrow could even think to protest the loss, that same hand was rucking her bra up over her chest and then catching a pebbled nipple between thumb and finger. Harrow made a high-pitched sound and pressed back, unconsciously trying to shove more of her chest into Gideon's hand. Her other hand finally moved, sliding up beneath her shirt to join the other.

She gently pulled and twisted both sensitive peaks between her fingers, her face buried in Harrow's neck.

Harrow’s knees wobbled and she yanked on the red hair in her hand. "Gideon…," she gasped. 

“Hmm?” 

Harrow didn’t know what she wanted to say though, her mouth refused to make any comprehensive sounds. Instead, she finally just made a low keening sound, which seemed to have the desired effect. 

“Bed?” Gideon asked and she nodded. 

Then squealed when Gideon pulled back entirely and then swept her up into her arms in a bridal carry. 

“Gideon!” she snarled.

“What?” she just grinned at her. Harrow scowled back and grabbed a fistful of red hair at the back of her neck. Gideon yelped just before Harrow jerked her head down into a bruising kiss. Teeth clicked together and someone groaned painfully but no one broke it and Gideon’s tongue ran across her teeth 

“You wanted a time and a place? Here and now.” Harrow breathed against her lips when she finally released her. Gideon blinked, and then Harrow watched understanding flash in her eyes. Their little game from yesterday.

“You’re on, sugarlips.” Gideon smirked and then was walking quickly back down the hall to her bedroom.

They fell on the bed, Harrow already wiggling out of her shirt and Gideon helping. It got tossed somewhere behind her. She didn’t even have time to contemplate kicking off her shoes before a flick of Gideon’s fingers unhooked her bra.

“Still got it.” She grinned down at her, all too pleased with herself and Harrow couldn’t stop from rolling her eyes as she slid it off her arms and dropped it over the side of the bed. 

“Yes,” she started, voice heavy with sarcasm. “You sssss-” Her voice cut into a hiss when Gideon ducked down and sucked a dusky colored nipple into her mouth. Harrow could practically feel the grin against her skin and dutifully ignored it in favor of threading her fingers through Gideon’s hair and tugging every time Gideon’s teeth grazed her skin, pinching and rolling her nipple between her teeth just on this side of pain. Her hand reached up and found the other, rubbing the sensitive flesh beneath her calloused palm. Electricity was shooting through Harrow and pooled, wet, and sticky between her legs.  

She squeezed her thighs together and the friction created offered nothing but more fuel to the fire starting to burn her up inside.

“Gideon…” she moaned, burying her nose into red hair and giving another tug. 

“Hmm?” The hum vibrated against her and she squeezed her eyes shut, letting out a shuddering breath. God above, it was so much more intense than doing it herself. Her skin was buzzing and flushed and she was absolutely certain she had ruined these underwear beyond washing. They’d probably need to be burned. 

Gideon gave a final suck to the nipple in her mouth before moving to deliver the same treatment to the other. The hand didn’t follow but Harrow hardly noticed till it slid between her clenched thighs and over her jeans. Harrow bucked into the sudden touch, making a sound she’d never made before. 

“Ya okay? I’ve never heard anyone make a sound like that before.” Gideon popped up from what she was doing to smirk at her but Harrow could hear the concern in her voice and nodded.

“Fine… just… surprised me…” She sucked in a sharp breath when Gideon’s hand pressed harder and the seam of her jeans pressed agonizingly into her clit. Reflexively, her hips jerked off the bed.  

“Surprised again?” Gideon asked with a knowing smirk and she couldn’t even make her tongue form any sort of response before Gideon leaned down to kiss her. Harrow bit her lip, digging her fingers into the solid plane of her back through her shirt. 

“Hold on,” Gideon panted, leaning back and pulling her shirt and bra over her head in one go. Her torso was much softer than her arms but still solid and Harrow ran her hands over the soft pudge of her abdomen, digging her nails lightly into her skin as she did. Gideon watched her intently from her knees, bright amber had darkened to a smoldering gold. She flexed and Harrow’s breath did a funny thing in her lungs feeling the muscle move beneath her hand.

“Having fun?” Gideon smirked, brow cocked. 

Harrow answered by reaching up and tweaking a nipple hard between her thin fingers. Gideon’s breath hitched and Harrow could feel it beneath the hand laid flat against her. The muscles spasmed beneath fat and skin and Harrow wanted nothing more than to map Gideon’s entire body with her hands and mouth. 

“Yes,” she hummed, smirking right back and giving an experimental squeeze. Gideon’s breasts weren’t what even Harrow would call large. Larger than her own for certain and still spilled out from around her tiny hand but not large. They were soft and warm and Gideon let out a breathy noise when she held both in her hands and squeezed. "Are you?" She batted the question right back.

“Yes… but I think I’ll be having even more fun in a second…” Her hand reached down and popped open the button of Harrow’s jeans and pulled down the zipper. “Raise your hips,” Her voice was low and throaty and Harrow felt another rush of liquid dribble against her thighs. Fuck, these pants might have to join her underwear in the fire at this rate. She did as she was told and Gideon pulled them down to her knees.

She toed off her shoes and let Gideon pull them the rest of the way down her skinny legs, leaving her laying there in uncomfortably wet -and ruined - boy shorts. 

“Still good?” Gideon mumbled, leaning down and peppering kisses across her neck, hands smoothing down both Harrow’s outer thighs.

“If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have let you take my pants off,” she grunted into her ear and heard Gideon snort against her throat. 

“Fair,” she murmured, making her way slowly down Harrow’s body, leaving wet, open-mouthed kisses against her warm skin and pausing only to suck a purple bruise into the divot of her hip and then leave an accompanying bite to the other side. Harrow threaded her fingers back through the familiar red strands, tugging and prompting her onward. Something that sounded suspiciously like ‘impatient’ was breathed against her thigh as Gideon finally settled between her knees. Maddeningly, she continued to nip and suck bruises onto the tender skin of Harrow’s thighs.

“Gideon,” Harrow finally hissed with frustration. She was doing this on purpose, she knew it.

Instead of answering, Gideon ran a knuckle up the sopping wet material, barely a brush but it made Harrow full-body twitch. 

“You weren’t kidding… you do get wet…,” Gideon mumbled and Harrow’s face would have burned red if it hadn’t been already. She gave an admonishing tug and then Gideon pressed her lips to the wet fabric, making her jerk, shoving her clothed and sopping wet sex into Gideon’s face. 

"God," she groaned.

Gideon didn’t seem to mind if her mouthing at Harrow’s clit and making her whole body tremble was anything to go by. 

“G-Gideon…,” she breathed. Amber eyes flickered up to look at her, mouth still pressed against her destroyed underwear. “Please…,” she whimpered 

“All you had to do was ask…,” Gideon hummed and slid her fingers into the waistband. Harrow died a little inside at the way the fabric tried to cling to her skin but her embarrassment was short lived. The second they cleared her ankles, Gideon dived back between her legs, hands wrapped around her thighs. Harrow choked at the feeling of her tongue sliding between sticky and wet folds and her hips stuttered upward but Gideon held them still in a nearly bruising grip.

“G-Gid-” She bit her lip to keep from crying out when Gideon’s tongue flicked over her throbbing clit, a whisper of what could be before dragging her tongue up the entire length of her cunt. The obscenely wet lapping and smacking sounds being made accompanied every electric jolt shooting through her. 

“You taste so good…,” Gideon mumbled, stopping only long enough to lick her lips. Harrow’s thighs clenched and felt another slough of slick dribble out of her as her stomach tied itself in a tight knot. She was feverish, sparks sizzled, ready to ignite at any moment and Gideon seemed content to stoke the smoldering embers beneath her skin till she combusted. 

“God, Gideon…” Harrow choked when her tongue returned, drawing slow circles all around her clit, promising but staying just shy of the pressure she needed. She growled and dug her nails into her girlfriend's bare shoulders, ankles digging into her shoulder blades. Amber flicked up to look at her and she swore she could almost read the redhead's thoughts by the sudden tilt of her brows. 

A single finger swiped gently through her folds, gathering wetness, and then pressed, slowly and gently inside her. Harrow let out a shuddering breath, adjusting to the intrusion. It was new and different but good. So damn good. 

Then Gideon sucked her clit between her lips and stars burst into life behind her eyes. Her back arched off the bed and her nails dug deeper into Gideon’s shoulders as she thrust her finger inside her. It was good and she could feel something inside her tighten but it wasn’t enough.

“More…,” she moaned and Gideon obliged, slowly working a second finger in to join the first. It stretched, a sharp twinge made her wince and Gideon slowed, still watching her. “Don’t stop.” The twinge had already faded and that something inside her continued to wind tighter and tighter. Her toes curled and sweat was beading up at the back of her neck. It was coming, fast and hard, she could feel it. Everything was hot and bright and just too much. 

She was fast approaching the cliff’s edge and she wanted to topple over with Gideon’s name in her mouth. 

“G-Gideon… Gideon,” she cried, flinging her head back and squeezing her eyes shut as the pressure built. 

Gideon’s fingers curled, pressing hard into the hard ridge inside, and sucked hard on her clit and Harrow came completely unraveled beneath her. 

“Gideon !” she sobbed. Her back arched off the bed and her whole body jerked and spasmed but Gideon only continued to flick her tongue Harrow’s poor abused clit, prolonging the jerks and shaking. She fell back to the bed, limp and panting, tears in her eyes. Everything was too much now and the pleasure of before had turned to needles pricking her nerve endings.

“Stop…,” her voice came out high and tight, unrecognizable. 

 She waved a limp hand at Gideon. She felt weirdly empty when Gideon pulled her fingers out. 

The bed shifted and she cracked an eye open, still panting, to look at Gideon hovering over her smiling, chin and cheeks shiny and wet. 

“You okay, sweetheart?” she asked, reaching up and brushing some black hair away from her sweat damp forehead. Harrow nodded, she felt drunk, her heartbeat thundering in her ears but slowly quieting. Gideon wiped her face on the back of her arm before leaning down to kiss her, soft and sweet. “Did I prove my ‘voraciousness’ to you?” she asked, smirking. Harrow grunted.

“I think further testing will be required,” she said, pulling Gideon back down into another kiss. An amused hum was her answer.  

“Still, good though?” she mumbled, after Harrow let her go. “It’s been a while…,” she flopped down atop Harrow, who wheezed and Gideon hovered to keep from crushing her. 

“Your magazines proved their usefulness,” she teased and Gideon huffed.

“I’ll have you know that I didn’t learn anything from those magazines, that was all straight ‘Gideon Nav’ Thank you very much.” She turned up her nose and Harrow chuckled under her breath.   

“It was good,” she assured, running a hand through Gideon’s mussed hair. “I don’t have anything to compare it to, but it was very good,” she admitted and Gideon looked at her, brows furrowed for a long moment before realization dawned on her face, wide and surprised.

“You’re a virgin?!” she asked, raising up on her hands to look down at her. 

“Technically, not now,” she said, cocking a brow. “Is that a problem?” 

“No, no, I’m just… surprised…” She laid her head on Harrow’s chest, still looking at her curiously. “Have you never dated before?” she asked and Harrow frowned. 

“Once. It was a mistake and I don’t want to talk about it right this moment.” She didn’t leave any room for argument and Gideon nodded. 

“Sure…” She pressed a kiss to the corner of Harrow’s mouth. “Considering how long it’s been, I might as well be one too…”  

“You are not a born-again virgin just because it’s ‘been a while’.” Harrow rolled her eyes and Gideon laughed. It sputtered out into a yelp when Harrow leaned up and sharp little teeth latched onto her neck and sucked. When she finally released her, swiping her tongue over the large purple welt now marring the golden pillar of Gideon’s throat, she smirked.

“You said no marks!” she pouted. “I have to have dinner with Ma and Pash tonight!” 

“On me, not you. You’re dating ‘Elizabeth’ and had a date last night, remember?” She smirked and Gideon grunted. 

“That was one good thing those mags are good for,” she said and Harrow looked at her curiously. “When I had to describe her to Cam, I just picked the model from the front of my favorite issue.” She reached over and with one hand, flipped through the stack till she pulled one out, turning it to Harrow. A woman in a tight blue naval uniform, and Harrow used that word loosely, with long blonde hair and breasts that looked like they might function as life saving devices in the event of an emergency at sea. 

“I see…,” she said and Gideon tossed it back onto the stack. “And why is it your favorite?” she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer. 

“Because, my Tenebrous Sweetie. I had some newly turned 18 year old kid come out to me in it and ask what he should do and how to tell people. I think it was some of the best advice I ever gave,” she preened and Harrow’s face softened. “Nevermind that though… wanna go again? I’m feeling all kinds of extra inspired knowing you were a virgin before today… you wanna try my strap?” she asked, cocking her head as she looked down at Harrow, who felt the heat returning to her cheeks at the word ‘strap’. 

“Perhaps we save that for another time…,” she offered. Gideon smirked but nodded.

“Whatever you want, Harrow.” 

Harrow smirked back at her this time. 

“I want these off.” She reached down and tugged at Gideon’s shorts. 

“You’re the boss…”  

~ ~ ~

“Where have you been?” Nona looked up from the tv when Harrow walked into their apartment fifteen minutes after 1pm. She silently cursed to herself but she had been prepared for this.

“I went out for a walk at the park. Gideon came by. She decided she needed some morning air and that I needed to ‘get out more and enjoy the sun ’. I, for some reason, let her drag me with her,” she grunted. 

“That makes sense… you look kinda tired and sweaty… and I can smell you from here…” Nona wrinkled her nose and Harrow turned beet red at that.  “Hey, it’s okay. You're getting exercise, I’m thrilled! I’m glad you and Gid have become friends too. You need more of those.”

Harrow grumbled to herself under her breath as she walked down the hall to her bedroom and grabbed some clothes. She needed a shower. She had no doubt in her mind that she reeked of sex and sweat. The limping would just have to resolve itself. 

Nona was waiting for her on her bed when she got out of the shower. 

“What?” she asked, running the towel through her hair.

“Did Gideon talk to you about her date at all? I’m curious about this woman she’s dating.”

“Oh… Elizabeth… A little.” Harrow muttered, sitting at her desk and throwing her towel over the back of her chair before she started brushing out her hair. Her scalp was a little sore. Gideon had tried not to pull so hard but Harrow didn’t mind. She could still taste 'Gideon' at the back of her tongue and savored it, along with the hard, jagged way her name sounded when Gideon came. She felt like she suddenly had a better understanding of why some people spent all their time chasing that high.

“Harrow!”

Harrow jerked and looked at her sister, sitting on the edge of her bed and frowning at her.

“Apologies, I was lost in thought. What were you saying?” she asked and Nona huffed. 

“I said I’m so curious, Pash told me that Gideon hasn’t dated in like, ten years or something crazy like that after someone in college did a really shitty thing to her…” 

Harrow frowned at that. Right, the woman that broke up with her after she’d gotten hurt. She wasn’t supposed to know about that though.

“Based on what Gideon has said, she seems… delightful,” Harrow drawled, remembering the model on the front of the magazine. “And buoyant…” she mumbled and Nona blinked, cocking her head. “She seems… fine,” Harrow forced herself to say, doing her best not to let her lips curl into a scowl as she tried to figure out how best to describe Gideon’s imaginary girlfriend that didn’t cross with herself in any way. “Vain… with far too large breasts…,” she grunted and Nona frowned at her. 

Her phone went off and Harrow pulled it out to glance at the new text.

‘Griddle’ It was a picture.

“Nona, I need to get some things done, if you would mind?” she nodded to the door and Nona nodded, standing. She spared Harrow one more curious glance before leaving.

Harrow opened the photo. 

Gideon, shirtless in front of the bathroom mirror, her entire torso littered with purple and red spots that started at her throat and disappeared beneath the waistband of her jeans. 

1:43: Griddle: You’re a little vampire!

Harrow laughed to herself and contemplated what to say back for a moment before finally hitting a single key.

1:44: You: ❤️

Chapter Text

There was the tiniest sliver of light shining on her face and it was annoying. No matter where she turned it continued to shine consistently onto her closed eyes. She grunted, annoyed. Then a feather-light kiss was pressed to the side of her neck, followed by several more. Gideon hummed and squeezed the hot little body that lay beside hers closer, wrapping her arms around a familiar waist and burying her nose in soft hair.

"Mornin’," she mumbled, pressing a kiss to the head without even opening her eyes.

"You have to go soon…," Harrow mumbled, pressing her face into Gideon's neck. Gideon was sure she was smelling her. If she'd learned anything over the last couple of months dating Harrow, it was that she seemed to like the way she smelled and passed up no opportunity to shove her nose in her neck. 

Which was better than not in Gideon's humble opinion. Harrow also didn't know that she knew and she wanted to keep it that way.

"No, I just have to put on clothes and get out of your bed soon… unless you just want me to go?" She finally cracked an eye open and craned her neck to look down at Harrow's face. She was frowning, eyes still closed.

"I don't know why you insist on asking questions you already know the answer to…," she grumbled, clinging tighter to Gideon, who chuckled.

"To make you answer them." She leaned her head down to capture Harrow's lips in a kiss. She hummed in answer. 

Gideon's hands wandered down the slope of her back, tracing the knobs of her spine. Harrow shivered but pushed them away.

"No, no time. The other night was too close for comfort. Get dressed." She pulled away and sat up in bed. Gideon grunted, watching her climb out of bed. She made no move to leave the warm black sheets. She settled for laying on her side, watching Harrow root around for her clothes.

"Does watching me get dressed really interest you that much?" Harrow glanced over her shoulder as she slipped on her underwear.

"Not as much as watching you get undressed but it's still pretty good." She chuckled, finally sitting up and yawning, stretching her arms overhead. She could feel all the muscles in her torso pull tight.

She could also feel Harrow's eyes on her. Little black voids with a gravitational pull all their own. She couldn't help but flex a little and Harrow scoffed. Then her shorts smacked her in the face. 

"Yes, your muscles are very impressive, now get dressed." 

Gideon pulled them off to find Harrow smirking at her. 

"You like them," Gideon accused. Harrow grunted but didn't deny it as she finished getting dressed. Gideon slipped on her shorts and let out another yawn as she scooted to sit on the side of the bed, scratching a hand through her wild bedhead.

When she looked back up, Harrow was standing in front of her, watching her.

"Yes, my tenebrific temptress?" She asked, resting her hands on Harrow's hips. She let out a breath that sounded equal parts annoyed and amused.

"I'm convinced you talk simply to hear yourself talk at times." She reached up and wrapped her arms around Gideon's neck, the fingers of one hand dragging through the short hair at the back of her head. 

"Sometimes!" She grinned. Harrow rolled her eyes before she leaned in to kiss her. Gideon hummed against her lips and reeled her in to stand between her knees, flush against her. 

Gideon just held her close even after the kiss ended and she just buried her face in Harrow's neck while she ran her fingers through Gideon's hair.

A lingering kiss was pressed to the side of her head and then Harrow pulled out of her grip. Gideon let her go, if reluctantly. 

"Get dressed," she said, more softly this time before leaving the room. 

Gideon made quick work of getting dressed and headed out into the living room.

"Coffee?" Harrow asked when she poked her head into the kitchen. 

"Yeah, thanks. When's Nona supposed to be back?" she asked, pulling up a chair to the counter.

"Sometime this morning was all she said," Harrow grunted.

"She comes and goes with the wind," Gideon chuckled and Harrow made a noise of agreement. 

"She's been very secretive the last few days," she said and Gideon couldn't help but snort.

"As opposed to you for the last three months?" she asked with a grin and Harrow glared back at her. 

"That is different," she insisted.

"How?" Gideon challenged.

"This is new," she said as a matter of fact. "That, and my sister is an open book, it's very rare for her to keep anything to herself. As much as I sometimes wish she would…," Harrow trailed off.

"What kind of secretive?" Gideon asked.

"For starters, she's been coming home very late the last two days."

"She must be having an affair," Gideon laughed and Harrow reached over and smacked her arm, scowling.

Gideon cocked her head. Her girlfriend seemed legitimately worried and Gideon reached across the counter to wrap her hand in hers. 

"Sorry. What else?"

Harrow seemed reluctant to say anything more but then Gideon squeezed her hand and she sighed.

"She's just been very cagey about things. Where she's been, what she's doing…" 

"Well, she hasn't been acting any differently at work and Pash hasn't mentioned anything, so I wouldn't be too worried. Besides, you said it's only been a couple of days she cannot keep a secret for very long. Just can't help herself." Gideon shrugged and Harrow hummed.

"That's true enough," Harrow agreed.

"I bet before you know it, she's gonna run in here and tell you all about whatever it is. She's just been biding her time," Gideon assured. 

"Perhaps…," she said and handed Gideon a mug of coffee. 

"I'm sure." Gideon nodded and took a sip just as the front door flung open and she choked on the hot liquid in her mouth.

"Hey, Harrow! Oh, hey, Gideon. What are you doing here?"

"Just… making a mess…," she coughed, wiping coffee off her chin with the back of her hand.

"She stopped by to talk on her way home from her… date last night," she said and Gideon could see the buffering wheel of her brain trying to come up with something but she just looked mad and maybe a little constipated. She did her best not to laugh at the thought.

"Oh, I see." Nona frowned. "How is Elizabeth, how are things going?" she asked, looking at Gideon.

"Good!" She smiled. "Things are going… really good." It took all her willpower not to look at Harrow, especially when she could feel her eyes on her. Nona nodded.

"When are we gonna get to meet her? It's been months…" Nona glared and Gideon scratched the back of her head. 

"I mean… soon, I think? She's just really busy, ya know?" she asked and Nona did not seem impressed. 

"Uhuh, well, I'm glad you're here. Pash was going to text you but since you're already here. I've been planning something for the last few days." She looked between them and Gideon cast Harrow a 'told you so' glance. "A camping trip!" she declared. 

"Camping?" Harrow parroted and Nona nodded. 

"Yup, and I want the two of you to come with us!"

"No"

"Hell yeah!"

Gideon and Harrow looked at each other.

"You want to go?" Harrow asked.

"Yeah, I love camping. Fishing, swimming, hiking. All good in my book. I can't believe you don't… no, actually, I very much believe you don't want to go," she laughed and Harrow scowled.

"Outside in the middle of nowhere with no amenities?" She shook her head. "No, thank you."

"No, see, we got a great campground. It has bathrooms and showers, so we wouldn't exactly be roughing it," Nona said. Harrow still didn't look convinced 

"Come on, it'll be fun!" Gideon said.

"You and I have very different definitions of fun," she sniffed. Gideon decided this was one of those times she could use her 'girlfriend power' to twist Harrow’s arm a little.

"Please?" Gideon pleaded, batting her eyes. They stared at each other for several seconds before Harrow sighed.

"Fine."

"Yes!" Nona threw up her hands. "I'll tell Pash." 

Harrow sighed and Gideon grinned. 

"I think you have been the best influence on her ever." Nona shook the ginger's arm, making her laugh. "Okay, I need to take a shower and do some shopping but I'll see you tonight." Then Nona started down the hall.

"Tonight?" Gideon blinked.

"Yup, Pash invited me to dinner with you and Pyrrha tonight!"

"Oh, cool." 

"Yup, shower time!" Then she disappeared down the hall and into the bathroom. 

"This'll be fun." She smiled, turning to look at Harrow as she sipped on her coffee.

"I'm elated…" The look on her face was anything but and Gideon snorted into her coffee.

"Come on, it will be. Just open up your mind a little, babe." 

"I am very open-minded, thank you." 

"Mhmm…" Gideon hummed and Harrow shot her a look. Gideon chuckled and stood. "I'm going to get out of here while she's in the shower." She moved to the door and Harrow followed. "I'll text you later," she said before leaning down to kiss her.

"Bye," Harrow mumbled against her mouth. 

Then she slipped out the door and into the hall.  She stood there for a second before she decided to slip across the hall and knock on Cam and Pal's door. 

"Oh, Good morning Gideon!" Pal greeted her, stepping aside to let her in. "To what do we owe the pleasure of your company this morning?" he asked. 

"Ah, I was across the hall talking to Nona and Harrow, but I figured I would come by and see you two while I was in the neighborhood." She shrugged and Pall nodded.

"Well, Cam is in the shower right now but have a seat." He gestured to the couch. 

"How was your date last night?" he asked.

"Good, we saw the movie and went back to her place…"

"Say no more." He held up his hand and Gideon grinned. "You've been seeing this woman for a while now. You must really like her." He leaned back in his armchair and regarded her over the tops of his glasses curiously.

Gideon stared back, thinking. She had been thinking about this a lot lately actually. It kept her up some nights but she'd finally figured it out

"I think… 'like' really doesn't cut it anymore, SexPal," she said and then watched his eyebrows shoot up into his hairline.

"Are you saying you're in lo-"

"Stop! Don't say it."

His jaw snapped shut.

"I haven't… said it out loud yet," she finally admitted. "That sounds even dumber out aloud than I thought," she sighed and ran a hand through her hair.

"No, not at all. I understand. Once you acknowledge it, say it out loud, it becomes real." He nodded.

"I think it's already real," she admitted. "Whether I say it or not." 

Pal gave a little 'well, yes' shrug of his shoulders. She let out a heavy breath, leaning back, and dragged her hands slowly down her face.

"Shit… I'm in love…," she laughed quietly.

"You're what?"

They both looked over at Cam standing in the hall with a towel around her shoulders and her eyes wide.

"Sup, Cam," she greeted.

"Don't change the subject. Did you say you're in love?" she asked and Gideon sighed but nodded.

"Yeah."

"Have you told her yet?" she asked and Gideon shook her head.

"Not yet, there hasn't been a good time and I just now said it aloud for the first time to myself."

Cam hummed disbelievingly.

"You still won't introduce her to us…," she said. 

"It's not that I won't! We just decided to… keep things on the down low for a while…" 

Cam's eyes just narrowed and Gideon did her best not to flinch. She had been avoiding these conversations for over a month now. Everyone was chomping at the bit to meet her first girlfriend in seven years that also seemed to be sticking.

Which was still a secret… It was kinda fun playing secret, except the whole family wanted to know and it was getting harder and harder to come up with excuses for it. It was starting to occur to her that they couldn't keep this up forever. 

They were both keeping the secret but she was the only one having to keep up with a fake girlfriend. She was going to have to talk to Harrow about this. She’d meant to last night. Then sex happened and it - and everything else- completely left her mind, as it often did when Harrow was hovering over her with those big, lightless eyes so full of want. 

Her mind had wandered off to that very look right now and she didn't realize she had been staring into space until Cam snapped her fingers in front of her face.

“Huh?” she blinked up at her best friend.

“I said when, Gideon,” Cam demanded. 

“What, you gonna vet her?” she asked with a chuckle and the look on Cam’s face said that was exactly what she was going to do. The idea was a little funny to her. She could imagine Cam and Harrow glaring at each other from across a table. 

"I'll talk to her soon about it, promise," Gideon said and Cam stared at her with narrowed eyes just a little longer before finally nodding.

"Fine," she accepted and moved into the kitchen. "You love her?" Her voice echoed out to them.

"Yeah…" She glanced at Pal, who shrugged. 

"What do you love about her?" she asked and Gideon thought about it for a second. It wasn't that she didn't know the answer, it was that she wasn't entirely sure how to phrase it. 

Finally, she said, "She makes me happy… weirdly…," she mumbled the last part, thinking about that pointed and severe little face she always wanted to wake up next to and kiss. "And I like going out of my way to make her happy…like that new documentary at the movies we watched last night. It was all I could do to keep my eyes open but she was riveted." 

"Oh, the one about DNA being extracted from the marrow of ancient bones?" Pal perked and she nodded. “How was it?” he asked and Gideon gave him a tired look. “Ah, right, I’ll just have to see it myself. Maybe Harrow would be interested in seeing it with me.” He scratched his bearded chin. Gideon was sure that she would want to see it again actually. 

"Your waitress girlfriend is interested in bones and science?" Cam asked, cocking a brow.

"Hey, people contain multitudes, you know?" She crossed her arms. Cam made a quiet sound through her nose that Gideon knew damn well was a quiet laugh.

“Fair enough. Are you gonna tell her?” she asked and Gideon nodded.

“I just… don't know when yet. When would be a good time to drop that kind of bomb? I don’t know how she feels.”

“You shouldn’t let that stop you, Gideon.” Pal sat forward in his chair. “Perhaps she doesn’t feel the same…,” he started and that made something sharp and painful lance through Gideon’s chest unexpectedly. “That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tell her how you feel. She may very well feel that way and be holding back for the same reasons you are.”

She grunted, rubbing her hands together. He had a point. Something she had quickly learned about Harrow was that she did not offer up her feelings easily. Getting how she really felt about something out of her was like pulling teeth at times.

Which Gideon was starting to suspect she would prefer. She definitely didn’t like to be and or perceived as vulnerable. She was like a tiny, dour hedgehog. The thought of which made her laugh inside. 

“Yeah.. I’ll try to find a good time to tell her.” She nodded and stood. “I gotta get outta here though. I need a shower and do laundry. Not to mention I haven't even touched any of my questions for the column.”

Pal nodded. “I thought your advice last week to the young woman who didn’t know how to come out to her family was very well thought out,” he said as he headed to the door.

“Oh, thanks. I had to think about that one for a while. I hope it helped.”

“I’m sure it did. The actual work depends on her.” Cam said and Gideon nodded, heading toward the door.

“Oh, did Nona tell you about the camping trip she’s been secretly planning?” she asked and Pal chuckled, nodding.

“Yes. I take it you agreed?” he asked and Gideon nodded.

“Yeah I did, you know I love camping and all the stuff that goes with it.” 

“Did she manage to convince Harrow?” Cam cocked a brow at her and Gideon scoffed. 

“Not really, but I got her.” She grinned and Cam hummed. “I’ll see you guys later.” She hurried out the front door, leaving the couple alone. Cam sat on the couch and gently scratched Noodle’s head.

“I can’t tell if it’s funny or sad that she thinks she’s subtle at all,” Cam hummed and Palamedes smirked. 

“To be fair, we are the only people who have caught on. I am surprised Pyrrha hasn’t.” He looked at her and Cam shrugged.

“I think she’s too thrilled that Gideon has finally started dating again to question the particulars.” She carefully folded one leg over the other and Noodle nudged his head back under her hand. She went back to scratching. 

“True. At least they're happy. Harrow has been the most upbeat I’ve ever seen her… though I admit, it's not that much. It’s still considerable for her!” He grinned and Cam chuckled under her breath. 

“Any happier and you might get another sext,” she said slyly and Palamedes made a noise.

“God, please, no,” he mumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose. “How long do you think they can keep this up for?”

Cam shrugged.

“Time is ticking.”

Chapter Text

“We brought cake!” Nona declared when Pyrrha opened the door to her and Pash. “Pash and I baked it together.” She smiled. Gideon peeked out the doorway at their cake.

Three sumptuous tiers of chocolate cake with a rich buttercream icing if you asked Nona. If you asked anyone else, it was a slightly lopsided three-tier monstrosity with icing dyed an eye-watering magenta. 

“I did most of the work,” she reported proudly.

“You don’t say,” Gideon mumbled over Pyrrha’s shoulder. Her mom elbowed her. 

“Come on in you two.” She stepped aside to let the two in.”Dinner should be done soon. Gid made lasagna.” 

“Ooh, fancy,” Nona sang as she skipped past them to lay the cake on the counter. 

“Are you ever going to answer any of my emails or are you too busy with your secret girlfriend?” Pash asked, giving her a look.

“First of all, she’s not a secret, ya douche-canoe. Second, I did several this afternoon. I've just been busy… shit-stick,” she threw in like an afterthought. Like forgetting to close the door after walking into a house.

“Stop being mean to my baby, Gideon,” Nona scolded, moving back into the living room to sit on the couch. Pash plopped down next to her and Gideon rolled her eyes. 

“She was my shithead cousin before she was your baby. I always get to be mean to her,” Gideon asserted, sitting in the recliner. Pash flipped her off. “So, did you have a hand in this camping trip?” she asked and Pash nodded. 

“It was Nona’s idea but I found the campsite. It’s really nice, close to all the trails, right next to the lake and the showers and all that…”

“How’d you get that at this time of year?” Gideon asked.

“My boss. He had it on reserve but has to go to some kind of family function instead that weekend. He knows I hike and shit so he asked If I wanted it. I said yeah and when I told Nona she decided we needed to go camping,” she explained and Nona nodded her head enthusiastically. 

“It's been forever since I’ve been able to go! Harrow’s not much of an outdoorsy person…”

“No shit?” Pyrrha chuckled from in the kitchen where she was listening.

“... and It’s not as much fun to go alone.”

“Not to mention dangerous,” Gideon said. “You weigh like, 90 lbs soaking wet.” She waved a hand at her and Pash snorted.

“Don’t underestimate her. She can take me. I have no doubt that she could take you.” Pash smirked and Gideon scoffed. 

“Please.”

“You wanna go punk?” Nona glared at her, leaning forward. Gideon laughed. 

“You don’t want to fight with me, Nona. I couldn’t throw a punch at you… your sister would disembowel me with a spork…” 

“No one’s throwing any punches of course, but go have a grapple with her.” Pash egged on with a knowing grin. 

“Are you crazy, I’m twice her weight and a foot taller?” Gideon gave her cousin a hard look. 

“Then you shouldn’t have any problem.” She smirked and Nona hopped off the couch and crouched down, both hands thrown up, fingers curling like claws.

“Let’s fucking go, princess,” Nona growled around a feral grin. 

Gideon huffed and stood from the chair. “Fine, if it will get you two off my back.” 

“To the floor?” Pash offered and they both nodded. “Ready… go!” 

Gideon was not at all prepared for the violent whirlwind of absolute feral spider-monkyness that was Annabel Lee Nonagesimus. 

Pyrrha looked up at the sounds of crashing and banging coming out of her living room.

“She’s fucking biting me!” Gideon squealed and Pash cackled maniacally. 

“It’s a love bite!” she called back. 

She sighed and went back to cutting up tomatoes for the salad. This was her family. 

She wasn’t sure if she should curse or thank Wake’s spirit.  

 ~ ~ ~

“You’re replacing that coffee table.” Pyrrha looked at the three of them as they sat at the table to finally eat after forcing a stop to the hybrid abomination of Wrestlemania and UFC that had just taken place in her living room. “Are you sure your knee is okay?” Pyrrha looked at her daughter who nodded.

“It’s all good. Been feeling better than usual lately actually. Harrow gave me some of that medical grade pain relieving salve she got from work. I’ve been putting it on my knee on bad days,” she said and Pyrrha nodded. 

“That’s nice of her,” she said and Nona could see the easing of the tension in Pyrrha’s brows at that. It seemed so obvious to her how deeply Pyrrha cared about Gideon and Pash. Even if in her own unconventional and gruff way. The fall of her shoulders and loosening tightness in her neck spoke volumes to Nona.

Most of the dinner went by without a hitch, casual conversation of Nona talking about their camping trip and all the things she needed to get together this weekend, while Pyrrha asked questions. 

“Do you still have our fishing poles in storage?” Gideon asked Pyrrha, who nodded. 

“I’ll give you the key to the storage locker, you can go get ‘em sometime this week.

"Cool."

"So, Pash is bringing Nona to dinner now…," she started and Gideon knew exactly where this was going. "When are you gonna bring Elizabeth?” she asked and Nona could tell that Gideon was deliberately taking her time chewing the bite of lasagna in her mouth. 

She just shrugged and Pyrrha sighed. 

Movement beside her made her glance over at her girlfriend. Pash had a tight grip on her fork and her leg had started to bounce beneath the table. Nona frowned. She knew what that leg jostle meant. She reached beneath the table and laid a gentle hand on her thigh. The jiggling stopped but Nona knew that Passion was still getting angrier by the second. They had talked at length about Gideon’s reluctance to introduce anyone to her new partner. 

“Well, why don’t you decide on a time and a place that would work for her?” Pyrrha offered and Gideon’s mouth twisted up a little.

“I can talk to her but I wouldn’t get your hopes up about it,” 

The leg bouncing began again. 

“Honey…,” Nona muttered under her breath. 

“I don’t get it with the secrecy, Gid.” Pyrrha frowned.  

“We just aren’t introducing each other to anyone yet, that’s all… personal reasons.” 

“Why, what’s wrong with her?” Pash asked, almost casually and Nona grimaced. She’d been hoping to avoid this. Pash had just been getting more and more annoyed with Gideon as of late about this topic. She was really hoping it wasn’t going to come to a head tonight.

Gideon looked over at her, blinking wide, surprised eyes. Then, her brows slowly lowered over her eyes and she frowned. 

“Nothing is ‘wrong’ with her,” she said. 

“You two sure have been working awfully hard to keep her from meeting anyone, something’s gotta be wrong with her.” There was something decidedly acidic in her words and Nona could tell by the other two women’s changing postures, that they all knew it. She hunched over her plate, anxiety bubbling in her belly. 

"Pash," Pyrrha called soft but steely, a mother's warning tone.

“Passion,” Nona pleaded quietly. Pash glanced at her but her eyes quickly pivoted back to Gideon, whose face was contorting into a glare.

“It’s been for personal reasons and it’s not for much longer.” Gideon calmly explained but Nona was watching every line in her body grow tight and loaded like a coiling spring.

“What, is she wanted by the FBI? What the fuck does she think is going to happen?” Pash threw up a hand, scowling. 

“It doesn’t matter, it’s none of your business!” Gideon finally snapped

“Okay, girls, drop it,” Pyrrha held up a hand. “It’s not a big deal, Passion. Gideon will bring her when they’re ready,” Pyrrha, always the stoic voice of reason, said and Nona was so glad but her girlfriend dashed those hopes on the rocks like an ill-steered ship.

“No! This is bullshit, Pyrrha and you know it!” Pash tossed down her fork. “It’s been months now!” She turned away from her aunt and back to her now glowering cousin. “What, what is the bitch’s problem?”

“Don’t call her that!” Gideon snarled, slamming her hands down on the table. The whole thing jiggled and everyone jerked back. The surprise on Pash’s face was short-lived and she sneered right back. 

“Oh, so now she’s so much more important than us? Why, why is some faceless girl you won’t let us meet so fucking important?!” Pash demanded.

“Because I love her!” Gideon shouted back and the whole table went quiet, eyes wide with silent shock but not for long. Gideon’s rage only seemed to be building and she jumped up. Her chair skittered back and fell over with a clattering bang. Her face was a furious red as she glared at Pash. “I love her and she’s not the only one with reasons. This is fucking exactly why I didn’t wanna tell any of you all the truth of it, cause you don’t know how to leave me the fuck alone and mind your own business. It’s not enough that I’m happy, you have to shove your nose into it like I’m a child just because I haven’t dated since Cyth. Well, I'm not, so just leave it alone!” She turned and stomped out of the room.

“Gideon, wait!” Pyrrha called after her, jumping up but then the front door slammed shut behind her. She slumped back down into her chair with a tired sigh and the kitchen lapsed into awkward silence. 

Nona glanced up at Pash, her jaw clenched tight, hands fisted atop the table.

“Sorry, Pyrrha,” Pash mumbled. 

“I’ll try to talk to her when she cools off…,” the older redhead mumbled, dragging her fork through her dinner. 

Nona squirmed in the loaded silence till she just couldn’t take it anymore. It was clawing at her from beneath her skin. It felt too much like other family dinners she had been to…

“I think I’m gonna head home, if it’s alright, Pyrrha.” She stood from the table and looked at the older woman, who nodded her head. 

“Sorry this was your introduction to family dinners, kid.” 

“Nona…” Pash looked at her. 

“I’ll text you later.” She looked at her girlfriend before moving toward the door. The sound of a chair skidding across the floor echoed behind her and Pash was walking quickly after her. 

“Hey, wait. You don’t have to go, baby…” 

“Yeah, I do. Everything is…” She wiggled her fingers at everything in the room. Pash sagged.

“I’m sorry, Nona.” 

She looked up into Pash’s hazel eyes and sighed. “Pash, honey… Why did you have to start a fight with Gideon? I know you know that yelling at her was not going to get the results you wanted.” She crossed her arms and Passion ran a hand over the shaved side of her undercut with a grunt.

“I dunno, baby… I just don’t get why she doesn’t seem to trust me about this. I know we're not like you and your sister but Gid and I are tight. It just…” She grasped for words.

“Hurts your feelings that someone who’s practically your sister is hiding something from you?” Nona guessed and Pash scowled, looking away. Nona stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Pash’s waist. “I know you’re frustrated but you know screaming at her and asking her what’s wrong with her girlfriend is not gonna help, Our Lady of the Passion,” she said sternly and Pash grunted. 

“I know.”

“Just… talk to her later… I’m gonna go.” She leaned up on her toes and pressed a quick kiss to Pash’s lips. “Love you.”

“Love you too.”

Then she slipped out of the apartment and back down the hall to her own.

“You’re back earlier than expected,” Harrow said, not looking up from her computer from where she sat perched on the couch when Nona walked in. “How was dinner?” 

“Not good… bad actually,” Nona sighed. “Gideon and Pash got into a big yelling argument and everything was pretty damn awkward after that so I made an escape. She walked over and plopped down onto the couch next to her sister, flopping back against the backrest. 

Harrow looked up at that, eyes filled with worry, unbeknownst to Nona. “From how I understand it, they hardly ever actually fight. Mostly just sling insults at each other. What were they arguing about?” she asked and Nona’s head lolled to the side to look at her.

“Gideon’s girlfriend,” she said and Harrow froze. “Pash is frustrated that Gideon won’t introduce her to them. She won’t even show pictures.”

“Perhaps she has her reasons,” Harrow finally said and reached over to pick her steaming cup of tea off the coffee table and Nona made a face. 

“I guess. Honestly. Pash was starting to think that Gideon made her up until tonight. She’s just upset that Gideon doesn’t seem to trust her… I guess I would be too if you were dating someone and wouldn’t tell me anything about them,” she mused. 

Harrow hummed… looking anywhere but her sister as she took a long sip of her drink.

“It was pretty bad though, Harrow. Pash was being… ya know and when she asked why this woman was so important, Gideon yelled that she loved her and…” 

A crash echoed through the room, followed by hissed cursing as hot tea spilled all over the floor. They both jumped up and Nona sprinted into the kitchen to get some towels. “You okay?” she asked Harrow, still standing there, looking down at the puddle at her feet, eyes wide and looking shocked.

“Y-yes. Yes, I’m fine. I was just… surprised,” she said, looking up at Nona and that was the understatement of the century. Nona could read her sister better than anyone and she was definitely surprised, shocked, flabbergasted even. 

“I can tell,” she laughed a little. “You and Gid have become pretty good buds, she hasn’t talked to you about her girlfriend any?” Nona asked and Harrow shook her head silently, still looking shell-shocked. 

“Not really…” she mumbled to herself. 

“I can’t say I’m surprised or anything, ya know?” Nona asked as she finished wiping up the tea. “She’s always got this goofy grin on her face when she looks at her phone and I just know it’s her girlfriend. She looks so dopily head over heels in love,” she rambled, walking back into the kitchen with the soaked towel. “I wonder what she’s like…” she mumbled as she walked back into the room and stopped. Harrow was still standing where she left her, in front of the couch, eyes wide and mouth ajar. Nona would almost say she looked devastated at the news.

Which only served to solidify the theory that Nona had been mulling over for months now.

Harrow did like Gideon and she was jealous of Elizabeth. 

All the signs were there. Harrow’s forced nonchalance whenever the woman was brought up, all the time she started spending with Gideon, it was textbook! 

Now she just felt terrible though. Making Harrow come along with Gideon on the camping trip knowing her sister was pinning for the other woman. It was practically torture! Especially knowing now that Gideon was in love with her girlfriend and Harrow’s chances had officially fallen to zero. 

“Are you okay?” she asked and Harrow suddenly jerked out of her shocked state to look at her sister. She nodded.

“Yes…, yes I just… I feel like some air, I think I’m going to go for a walk.” She walked quickly over to the door and started pulling on her shoes.

“Do you want me to come with you?” Nona asked and Harrow shook her head. 

“No, thank you. I’ll be back soon.” Then she was gone and Nona sighed.

“Poor Harrow…” Nona pursed her lips before making a decision and followed her sister out the door but instead of heading toward the elevator, she walked across the hall and knocked.

Cam answered, looking at her curiously.

“Can I talk to you guys?” she asked and Cam simply stood aside, allowing her in. 

Pal was seated on the couch with Noodle’s head in his lap as he scrolled through a tablet. He glanced up at Nona as she entered.

“Evening, Nona.”

“Hey. Can I talk to you guys about something?” she asked, plopping down cross-legged on the floor in front of the couch. Cam sat next to Pal, who nodded.

“Of course. What is it?” he asked curiously. 

“I think Harrow really likes Gideon after all and is jealous of Elizabeth.”

Cam made an unidentifiable sound in her throat and Pal pressed his lips tightly together. There was a strange look on their faces that she couldn’t place. 

“...what makes you say that?” Pal asked.

Nona carefully explained her evening at Pyrrha's and her brief conversation with Harrow and her reasoning and the two nodded along, listening. Though there was a flicker of something across their faces when she mentioned that she'd told Harrow about Gideon's declaration of love at dinner. The two looked at each other for a long moment before Pal turned to her.

"Nona…," Pal started, carefully folding his hands together over his lap, his words carefully weighed and measured before they left his lips.

"I don't think Harrow is jealous of Gideon's girlfriend. I think she was just…," He hesitated.

"Surprised," Camilla supplied and he nodded. 

"Yes, surprised. They have after all become such… good friends." There was a minute twitch in the corners of his lips that Nona couldn't place. 

"I mean, she was definitely surprised but it seemed like something else too." She frowned. She was sure. Pal and Cam were smart and gave great advice but they didn't know Harrow like she did. There was definitely something else besides surprise going on. She was sure that she was right.

"Surprised for certain," Cam mumbled, glancing knowingly at her husband.

~ ~ ~ 

Harrow did walk around for a time, wandering around the building long enough to let the information really sink in.

Gideon loved her .

The thought alone made blood pump harder through her veins and a warm pressure built in her chest, constant and unignorable. 

Shocking as it had been to hear at first, it had quickly and smoothly sunk its way beneath her skin and buzzed pleasantly there. She didn’t need to think overly much about how she felt. She already knew she loved Gideon. For a couple of weeks now, Admittedly those errant thoughts and feelings had been bouncing around in her head. It was, frankly, hard not to love her. She was oftentimes a crass smart-ass but she was achingly sweet and caring in a way Harrow had never been treated before and sometimes felt herself not good enough for but Gideon persisted anyway.

She needed to talk to her and she already knew where to look.

Harrow rode the elevator down to the lobby and swiped her building card on the gate leading out to the patio. It was dark and quiet but the lights shining in the fence from the street backlit a familiar head of red hair sitting on one of the benches, sipping on a beer. She approached, shoes tapping on the cement and Gideon glanced over her shoulder.

“Hey, short, dark, and beautiful,” she called quietly. Harrow reached up and rested a gentle hand on her shoulder as she stopped at her side. “How’d you know I was here?”

“You’ve remarked before that you like to sit out here when you’re upset…” 

“You talked to Nona I'm guessing?” 

“Yes, she told me about dinner and fighting with Passion,” she said, slipping onto the bench beside Gideon, who sighed and ran a hand over her face. 

"What else did she say?" she asked, not looking at Harrow.

"She… might have repeated some things you probably didn't want her to…," she admitted and Gideon sighed heavily through her nose and finally took her hand off her face and looked at Harrow.

"I really would have preferred you heard that from me first…," she admitted. The lights from the street shined in through the fence and made Gideon's amber eyes glitter in the headlights of every passing car. 

"I would also have preferred to hear it from you but here we are," Harrow said. "What's done is done… that doesn't, of course, prohibit you from saying it to me now…," she trailed off and Gideon chuckled quietly before turning to face her on the bench and leaned in close. Harrow's heart began thumping quickly in her chest. Her lips brushed the shell of Harrow’s ear. Her next words were hot on her skin.

"I'm going to get the fishing poles out of storage and teach you to fish," she whispered and then there was a drawn-out moment of silence before Harrow jerked back with with a loud, aggravated sound and shoved her, prompting Gideon to start laughing.

"Gideon Mary-Beth Jezebel Nav!" Harrow snarled and Gideon choked and sputtered.

"What!?" She was laughing so hard she could barely speak. "Wh- where the fuck did you get that?!" She was crying, she was laughing so hard, her beer tipped over and what was left splashed out onto the sidewalk. Harrow sat there, red-faced and scowling.

"Is that not your middle name?!" she snapped and Gideon continued to cry laughing as she shook her head. "That's what your mother said!"

Gideon sucked in a sharp breath. "Oh, oh god my sides," she wheezed. "No, no it is not, babycakes." She was still chuckling as she set the empty bottle down at her feet and wiped the tears out of her eyes. "I don't have a middle name, so Ma just likes to make up dumb things to call me in middle name situations. You or Nona must have heard that one somewhere." She grinned and Harrow scowled. "Hearing you say Jezebel is one of the funniest things I ever heard…"

"You're a dick," Harrow said plainly and Gideon laughed again. With a huff, Harrow moved to stand but Gideon grabbed her and pulled Harrow flush against her chest, wrapped in thick, unyielding arms. Harrow struggled - half heartedly - but Gideon didn't relent, in fact, she scooped her up and dragged her into her lap to better anaconda herself around her small black-draped lover.  

Harrow squirmed until she was looking into those amused amber eyes. Except there was no amusement in them now, only something tender and fond that took Harrow's breath away. 

"I love you, Harrowhark," Gideon murmured into the tiny amount of empty space left between them. Harrow's fingers curled into Gideon's shirt, grounding herself as the sentence shot through her like a bullet, small and quick but the exit wound was a gaping hole in her back. Apparently, it was one thing to know and another to actually hear it said aloud to her. 

"I love you too, Gideon." It was quiet but she knew Gideon heard it because then she was kissing her breathlessly. Harrow's grip on her shirt released to slip around her neck. When Gideon released her liplock on her, Harrow laid her head against Gideon's chest.

"We have to tell everyone," she said finally and Gideon leaned back to look at her.

"Yeah?" she asked and Harrow nodded. "What about your poor wounded pride when you have to go sniveling to Nona and tell her she was right?" she asked and Harrow scoffed

"It's becoming increasingly hard to keep things quiet and see each other and my pride is not so important as to willfully cause hostility and division between you and your family. Nona will not be pleased the longer this goes on either..." She looked up at Gideon, who kissed her cheek in response. 

"Thank you," she mumbled. "When should we tell 'em?" 

"Next week." 

"Next week?" Gideon repeated and Harrow nodded.

"If we tell Nona and Passion before this camping trip, they will both be insufferable the entire time," she said and Gideon nodded. Yes, they would be. 

"Okay, next week," she agreed but paused and Harrow, sensing her wanting to say something more, watched her expectantly. "I feel like I owe my mom an apology and explanation, especially for the way I acted tonight… would it be okay if I told her now?” she asked. "She won't tell them," Gideon quickly assured. 

"If you feel like you must, I won't stop you," Harrow said, laying her head back on Gideon's shoulder.

"Thanks, my Midnight Mistress." She kissed her forehead and Harrow hummed. Then, she blinked. There was a dark red spot on the side of Gideon's neck that she did not have earlier that morning and Harrow did not give her.

"What happened to your neck?" Her eyes narrowed 

"Oh! You're crazy ass sister bit me tonight!" Gideon said.

"What!?"

~ ~

Gideon mentally prepared herself for this conversation as she stood outside her Mom's apartment door. It wasn’t very late yet so she knew she’d still be awake and she knew that Pash was gone already. She’d poked her head out front and hadn’t seen her car. 

She knocked and shifted from foot to foot as she waited. Finally, the door opened and Pyrrha stood there in pajama pants and a tank top.

“Gid?” she looked at her curiously.

“Hey, can we talk?” she asked and Pyrrha nodded, standing aside to let her in. Pyrrha padded back to her armchair and sat, gesturing to the couch. “What’s up, kid?”

“I’m sorry… about earlier…” she started but Pyrrha was already shaking her head. 

“You don’t need to apologize to me, Gideon. Everything you said to Pash was true. It’s none of our business. If you don’t wanna bring her around, that’s fine. So long as you’re happy, that’s all that matters to me. Pash will get over herself.” Pyrrha waved a hand and with the other, picked up the beer sitting on the tv tray next to her chair. 

“Still, I’m sorry about storming out… and it’s not that I don’t want to bring her around, which is also what I wanted to talk to you about.” She leaned back on the couch and Pyrrha watched her as she took a sip. “We agreed when we started dating to keep it secret for a while for reasons… but we just talked and we’re gonna tell everyone next week. Pash and Nona and Cam and SexPal,” she said and Pyrrha’s eyes narrowed. 

“Just what’s going on, Gid?” she asked.

“Well…” Gideon scratched the back of her neck. “There is no ‘Elizabeth’ I made her up,” she admitted. Pyrrha’s face only seemed to become more confused.

“So… who are you dating?” 

Gideon squirmed in her chair, those intense green eyes watching and waiting.

"Harrow," she finally said and watched her mom's eyes widen comically.

"I'm sorry, I think I heard you wrong. Did you just say, Harrow? As in Harrowhark? As in Nona's Harrowhark? Harrowhark Nonagesimus?" she asked, blinking.

"Yup." 

"You've been dating Harrow all these months?”

"Yop."

"And you're in love with her?"

"Yep.”

They stared at each other for a moment before Pyrrha took a long swig of her beer.

"Well, why the hell didn't you just say so?" she asked with an annoyed grunt. Gideon glanced down at the floor.

"Harrow wanted to keep it a secret because months ago, at her birthday party, Nona tried to set us up before she felt that way about me, and when she found out she made a big deal about it and Nona minding her own business. She didn't want to turn right around and tell her she was right." Gideon shrugged 

"And why did you want to keep it a secret?" Pyrrha asked. Gideon looked up to find those knowing green eyes looking at her. Her mouth twisted and she rubbed a hand over her knee anxiously.

“Because… I didn’t want our relationship to be under everyone’s microscope…,” she finally said. “Between you and Pash and Cam always being so concerned about my lack of dating I figured the first time I started dating again after so long, you three would just be all fucking over it and I didn’t need that on top of having my first relationship in forever. So we kept it a secret.”

Pyrrha didn’t say anything at first, just took another long drink, regarding Gideon calmly over the bottle. Once she’d swallowed, she shrugged. “That’s fair.” 

“Th- that’s it? That’s all you have to say?” she asked and Pyrrha snorted. 

“Shit, Gid. What do you want me to say? You’re right. Me and Pash and the nerds have been worried about you for a while in terms of romance. Like I said, I’m just glad you're happy. Though, I still can’t believe it’s Harrow,” she chuckled and Gideon snorted. 

“Me neither sometimes… but she’s soft and gooey under that prickly, hard and thick… thick , shell.”

“I’ll take your word for it. So, you’re gonna tell ‘em after this camping trip then?” she asked and Gideon nodded.

“We don’t wanna be stuck in the woods with them, right after we tell them. They’d be a pain in the ass all weekend.” She crossed her arms. 

“Probably,” Pyrrha agreed. “Well, I’m happy for you and Harrowhark, kid.” 

“I’m sorry for not telling you…”

Pyrrha shook her head. “I told you, don’t be. You were right.” 

“Hopefully everyone else feels the same as you…,” Gideon mumbled, leaning back on the couch and sliding out her phone, sending Harrow a thumbs-up text and then put it back in her pocket.

“You wanna finish watching this game with me? The oilers are getting their asses handed to them by the sharks.” 

Gindon glanced at the TV and finally took notice of the hockey game playing.

“Sure,” she settled in. Soon the conversation turned to hat tricks and slapshots. 

Chapter Text

Gideon hummed along to the radio as they drove down the street toward the storage units where Pyrrha kept their old things. It was a bright and warm day, sunshine cast across them in bright waves.

Harrow sat in the passenger seat of the car, watching the late Monday morning traffic go by, thinking. Pyrrha hadn’t blinked an eye when Gideon told her the truth and she was starting to wonder if she had misjudged this entire situation.   

“You wanna get breakfast after this?” 

Harrow looked up to find Gideon glancing at her before turning her eyes back to the road. She hummed noncommittally. 

“You like omelets,” Gideon tried. 

“I like your omelets,” she corrected and Gideon made an amused sound. 

“Okay, do you want to go back to my apartment and have breakfast after this?” she tried again. 

“I should head home and actually start working, I may work remotely and you don’t work till evening but I still need to get things done.”

“But breakfast is the most important meal of the day…” Gideon pouted and Harrow propped her elbow on the door and leaned her head against it, giving Gideon a half-amused look. 

“If memory serves, the last time you said that we still didn’t have breakfast, we had sex.”

“... And If my memory serves, I had breakfast,” Gideon said. She managed to keep her voice level but nothing could hide that shit-eating grin on her face. Harrow pinched her arm. 

“We can have breakfast… and only breakfast,” she said pointedly and Gideon stuck her tongue out at her. 

Finally, they pulled up in front of the storage unit and Gideon hopped out. “Alright, here we are.” She flicked through the keys before finding the right one and then sliding up the metal door. Dust fell, glittering in the late morning sunlight.

"Your mother has… a lot of stuff," Harrow said, looking around at all the boxes.

"Yeah, she's a fuckin' packrat. Though some of this stuff is me and Pash's from over the years." Gideon stepped inside and started turning boxes, trying to read the time faded scribble of Sharpie on the sides.

"Have you spoken to Passion since last night?" Harrow asked. Gideon had seemed quite mad recounting the story to her.

"Nope," she said, sharply popping the 'P' between her lips. It lacked its usual playfulness and smacked of something sharp.

"Have you tried?" she asked carefully. An angry Gideon was not something she had learned to handle yet. Annoyed or hungry Gideon? Easy enough. Bored or sleepy? Child's play. Horny Gideon? She literally only had to lay there if she wanted. Angry, she had rarely encountered and it usually had to do with work, not her cousin.

"Nope," she said again.

"You don't think you should?" she prodded, testing the limits of where Gideon would tell her to leave it alone. Surprisingly, she never did.

"Pash was the one being a jerk last night. If she wants to talk then she can start by apologizing for being a prick," Gideon grumbled, disappearing around a stack of boxes.

"I agree, her comments were unnecessary… though you probably didn't need to scream at her," she said. Gideon grunted loudly from somewhere in the storage unit.

"I guess…," she mumbled. "She started it."

"Oh, well, I thought you were twenty-eight not eight," Harrow snipped and Gideon's head poked back around a stack of boxes.

"Hey, she was yelling at me, so I yelled back. She only proved my point in not telling her because she can't keep her nose out of my business… and I'll be 29 soon so there!" she called and Harrow rolled her eyes.

"I suppose so, yes," she nodded. "We are leaving Friday morning with her and Nona both for this camping trip, however. I am not going to spend an entire weekend helping Nona fill awkward silences," she warned.

"Don't get your bloomers in a bunch. We'll work it out before then… or murder each other by Saturday morning." She shrugged. Harrow turned and looked through an open box.

"So long as there's a contingency plan," she hummed, smirking as Gideon made an affronted noise. "The poles wouldn't be in the boxes, would they?" she asked.

"They could be, they come apart but Ma couldn't remember if she packed them away or just shoved them in a corner so I'll check there first."

Harrow pulled a musty cloth off the top of another box and found herself staring at a framed photo of an obviously much younger Pyrrha and a muscular, dark-skinned man with closely cropped rust-colored hair and stubble. His arm draped around Pyrrha's shoulders. Her own arm was around his waist. 

“Who is this man with your mother?” Harrow asked, holding up a photo and Gideon came over, stepping around a box to have a look.

“Oh! Uncle G1!” She grinned and took the photo from her. 

“You have an uncle named G1?” Harrow asked flatly and her girlfriend chuckled. 

“No, I have an Uncle named Gideon, but that’s confusing so G1, or Original Flavor,” she explained. “Though I guess he’s not really my uncle, he’s Ma’s best friend. I’m named after him…” 

Harrow didn’t bother even trying to point out all the other ways he wasn’t Gideon’s uncle, like Pyrrha not being her blood mother but she knew better. She’d heard about Gideon jumping all down someone’s throat for saying Pyrrha wasn’t her mother before. 

“My bio mom slept with him too… I don’t know anything about that deal and I don’t want to. Everyone was out here spading her apparently,” Gideon huffed and tucked the photo under her arm. “I wanna hang this in my apartment.” 

“And he and your mother are still friends?” she asked and Gideon nodded. "After they both slept with the same woman?"

“I’ve tried very hard not to know too much about that whole situation because, well, who wants to hear about the weird sex triangle between their parental figures? And then I have some bio dad out there somewhere who fits into that… somehow. They worked it out though and that's enough for me. First edition lives in New Zealand. He’s coming for Christmas this year, I’ll introduce you then.” She grinned and Harrow’s heart thumped. Christmas was six months away. That was some planning Gideon was doing… not that she could say she minded. She just nodded and Gideon went back to digging through the boxes. 

They spent the next twenty minutes working their way through varying boxes. It would have been mind-numbing to Harrow if not for the things she kept finding. Photos of Gideon spanning back through her teenage years and childhood, usually with Pash or Pyrrha. Camilla and Palamedes began appearing in what seemed to be her early teen years. She'd only thought Palamedes Sextus was gangly before. Looking at him as perhaps a fifteen or sixteen-year-old was ridiculous. It looked like it was taken for prom. Gideon in a tux, grinning at the camera, her arm wrapped around some teenage girl, and next to her, Palamedes, in a powder blue suit that should have been illegal. He appeared like a stretched out piece of taffy. Limbs too long for his body and a face covered in acne and a peach fuzz mustache. He had his arm wrapped around a slightly less austere looking Camilla dressed in a matching cocktail dress and corsage. She couldn't help but laugh, drawing Gideon's attention.

She peered over and snorted when she saw what Harrow was looking at.

"Let's take that and give it to Cam. She'll love it and he'll hate it." She grinned.

"Camilla Hect would love this?" She held up the photo. Gideon nodded.

"Cam's sentimental like that. Also, she may not outwardly show it, but she loves that nerdy string bean more than words could ever describe. I've always been kinda jealous of them, to be honest…" She took the photo from Harrow, looking at it intently. "I know it's not. I know all relationships have ups and downs and all that good and bad shit but they always made it seem so easy…," she trailed off.

Harrow watched her eyes flicker over the photo.

"Gideon?"

"Hmm?" she looked up.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"I'm guessing it's not gonna be what we are having for brunch?" she asked and Harrow shook her head. "Hit me, Sweetheart," she said anyway.

"Was the reason you didn't date for so long really because you weren't interested in anyone or because of what your ex did after you got hurt?" she asked and Gideon turned her eyes back to the photo in her hands as if she was having a hard time looking at Harrow.

"A little of both maybe," she finally said after seeming to think about it. "There were very few people I felt I had any kind of connection with between then and meeting you, i was also super busy with work and knee stuff… but I can't say the idea of getting close to someone again, only for them to leave me the second I really needed them didn't give me some reservations…"

"I understand. It's hard to trust again after you've been burned." She nodded. 

"Yeah… glad I took the chance on you." She winked, reaching out to hold Harrow's chin gently between her thumb and finger.

"Why did you?" she asked, simply curious and Gideon smiled that soft, crooked smile that never failed to make her melt inside.

"I really like you," she said simply before leaning forward to press a chaste kiss to her mouth. Harrow hummed against her, chasing the warmth. "What about you, my Lamenting Lady?"

“Hmm?" Harrow cocked a brow. 

"Sounds like experience and you told me that you had dated before. Finally gonna tell me about it?" she asked and Harrow frowned. "You don't have to, Harrow," Gideon quickly assured.

"It's alright. Yes, when I was in undergrad I made the grievous mistake of accepting the advances of one of my classmates," she started. "We were in many of the same medical-based classes and had a number of common interests… she was wickedly intelligent… but also just… wicked."

"Whaddaya mean?" Gideon cocked her head. "You're a mean little thing too, ya know?"

"Not the same way Ianthe was. I may be ‘mean ’, but I am also direct and honest."

"To a fault," Gideon agreed and Harrow poked her in the ribs.

"Hush. Ianthe was a snake. She was a master liar and manipulator. She would say whatever she needed to your face and then say or do something else later when it suited her. It was not a trait I found attractive but they were usually minor offenses and to other people, not me…" She paused, lips pursed. "Till it was." Her eyes flickered to the floor. "It was a couple of months into us seeing each other that my parents died and… Nona took it very poorly."

"I doubt you took it great, Harrow." Gideon reached down and took her hand in hers and gave a gentle squeeze. Harrow squeezed back 

"I took it better than Nona." She hesitated. "Gideon… my parents killed themselves… hung themselves, specifically. I was at school but Nona lived at home… she found them." 

"Oh.. oh shit…" Gideon's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.

"She was… unwell, for a time and she refused to step foot in the house again." 

"That's when she was living with you in your dorm, yea?" Gideon asked and she nodded. 

"Between school and Nona and taking care of all the things that were left to do in the wake of my parent's deaths, my relationship with Ianthe was put on the back burner, understandably."

"Well, shit, yeah."

"Ianthe did not feel that way and she very much hated Nona in my dorm. They got along like…" 

"Oil and water?" Gideon supplied and Harrow snorted.

"Very apt, yes. They despised each other. Ianthe had a sharp tongue and was constantly making two-faced comments to Nona, mostly when I wasn't around. It reached a boiling point when she told Nona that she and her mental instability were nothing but a burden to me."

"That's so…so… god that's so shitty!" Gideon scowled. "You broke up with her?" 

"I stabbed her."

Gideon choked. "What?!"

"She was sitting right next to me in the library when she said that she 'told Nona the truth' for me. I stabbed her in the hand with a pencil… then we broke up." 

"That story is so fucked up… but knowing that you stabbed a bitch, makes me more attracted to you I think…," she admitted thoughtfully and Harrow sputtered before turning up to look at Gideon with a smirk.

"You're incorrigible," she chuckled.

"I know…. Hey, you said you dated for a couple months, how come you never slept with her? I’m just curious,” she said and Harrow frowned.

“She was always so insistent and pushy about it, initiating physical intimacy… it was very off-putting. I wasn’t ready at first and then everything else happened and…”

“Not exactly an aphrodisiac, yea…”

“Precisely….”  

“I'm sorry all that shit happened to both of you." 

"Thank you, but yes. That was the last time I dated. I’ve had other things too take up my time."

"All that's been taken care of for quite a while though, right?" Gideon asked and she nodded. "So even after all that, you still didn't date. So, what made you change your mind?" she asked.

Harrow smirked. "I suppose I just really like you..," she said and Gideon chuckled, till Harrow pulled their still threaded-together hands up to her mouth and laid a kiss on the back of Gideon's hand. She watched, amused as her face turned the same bright red shade of her hair. "Fishing poles," she reminded, still smirking as she let go of Gideon's hand

"Fishing poles…," Gideon repeated distractedly. 

They made their way through another quarter of the boxes when Harrow found something interesting. A large box with ‘Hockey stuff’ scribbled haphazardly on the side. She could hear Gideon somewhere behind her digging through boxes, distracted. She settled on her knees and started looking through the box.

Trophies, medals, and plaques, all bearing Gideon’s name. Trophies for MVP, good sportsmanship, coach’s pick, and recognition of skills. Framed photos of Gideon and Cam in their gear, holding awards, on the ice, and in what looked like padding. There were so many. A lifetime of achievements all shoved into a box and at the bottom, a folded-up swathe of black and white material. She pulled it out and let it come unfolded. A jersey, Gideon’s she assumed. 

‘Drearburh Cavaliers’ was emblazoned across the front and on the back, ‘Nav’ with a big number nine. 

“Hey, I found the-” Gideon stopped, standing there holding two fishing poles up in her hand and Harrow jerked, looking over her shoulder at Gideon, who was staring at the box with wide eyes. “Well, found my old hockey stuff, huh?” She walked over and sat on the floor of the unit next to Harrow. There was a look in Gideon’s eyes that Harrow couldn’t right off describe. Something just to the left of melancholy.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t-”

“No, don’t be. It’s been… geez, seven years since I saw any of this stuff.” She dug around in the box and looked at some of the plaques and awards. “Check this out.” She held up a photo of her and Camilla in full uniform, arms thrown across each other’s shoulders and both grinning at the camera. Camilla had a back eye and Gideon had a bloody nose. Her teeth were stained a grisly red as she grinned at the camera. “We won that game.”

“You look like you were both beat up…,” Harrow said and Gideon nodded. 

"In hockey, that means you did great, babe.” She went back to looking at various things in the box and Harrow watched her, watched the minute shifting of her face. She could see the bitter-sweetness in her every expression. An entire life, so loved, ripped away by one accident and reduced to a box of memories. 

“We went to the same college,” she said suddenly and Gideon looked up.

“Huh?” 

“Drearburh University,” she said. “That’s where I went for undergrad. You’re only a year older than I am, we must have been there at the same time for a little bit.” 

“Huh… Yeah, we must have. That’s funny,” she smiled. “I should probably get rid of most of this stuff…” She turned back to the box.

“Don’t do anything you might regret, beloved,” she warned, still messing with the jersey. When the unit grew deathly quiet, Harrow looked up to find Gideon looking at her with wide eyes. “What?” she blinked.

“What did you just call me?” Gideon asked, leaning forward and Harrow frowned, then realization struck her like lightning. She’d been keeping that name in her head for some days now but it really had just snuck its way past her lips.

“Nothing!” she scowled hotly and a wide grin stretched across Gideon’s face as she rose up on her knees, wincing only a little.

“No, no! It sure as hell sounded like you just called me ‘beloved’, Harrowhark.” 

She could feel the heat creeping up her neck and face.

“You are mistaken!” she hissed.

“Oh, I don’t think so…” Gideon was grinning so widely that her face was threatening to split.

“Don’t you have things to throw away and fishing poles to find?” she snapped and Gideon chuckled, turning back to the box. 

“Right… I’m gonna take this home too,” she held up the photo of her and Cam. “I’ll take that,” she held her hand out for the jersey and Harrow hesitated, gripping it tightly in her fingers and glancing at it. Gideon cocked her head before a smirk took its place. “Do you want my jersey, babe?” she asked and Harrow pursed her lips. 

“Why would I want your old hockey jersey?” she asked, sticking up her nose.

“Then give it to me to throw away.” Gideon held out her hand and Harrow jerked it back, making her laugh. “If you want it, all you have to do is ask, Harrow,” she said and Harrow hesitated.

“If you’re only going to dispose of it anyway…” she began and watched Gideon roll her eyes. “I assume it would be alright for me to take it off your hands…”

“You can have it.” Gideon nodded and Harrow perked. “If you say the thing again…” She grinned and Harrow scowled. 

“Fuck you” 

“Maybe later, the other thing.”

“You are childish,” Harrow grumbled as Gideon leaned in close. 

“Perhaps, but you love me, so what does that say about you, sweet thing?” she smirked and Harrow grunted. “I ask so little of you, Harrowhark.” She batted her eyes and Harrow let out a heavy sigh, looking anywhere but Gideon as she tried to puppy-dog eye Harrow into speaking honeyed words to her. 

“May I have the jersey…. Beloved?” she managed to say while those ember-like eyes burned her up inside. 

“Why of course you can, my Darling Dark Sorceress.” She leaned forward and pressed a sloppy wet kiss on Harrow’s cheek. Harrow cried out, slapping at the laughing ginger, who carefully hopped to her feet, then nearly buckled, wincing and reaching down to grab at her bad knee. Harrow’s annoyance slipped away instantly.

“Are you alright?” she asked, jumping up and grabbing her arm. Gideon nodded, still wincing.

“Yeah, yeah… sat on it for too long,” she grumbled, rubbing it. “You’re lucky,” she said suddenly and Harrow looked at her, confused. “You’re the only person I get on my knees for.” She winked, though the effect was somewhat lost in her wincing. Harrow rolled her eyes and slung the jersey over the crook of her arm. 

“We found what we came for, let’s head home.” 

Gideon nodded and they finished putting the other boxes back where they got them and climbed back in the truck with their things. 

Anytime they stopped too hard, Harrow watched Gideon wince from the corner of her eye. 

“Are you sure your knee is okay?” she asked and Gideon nodded. 

“I just irritated it by being on my knees on the concrete for too long. It’ll ease up in a day or two,” she said and Harrow hummed. 

Gideon made a beeline for her couch the moment they entered the apartment, setting the photos and fishing poles on the coffee table and stretching her leg out with a grunt. Harrow sat the jersey in her chair and took the direct route to the bathroom and found exactly what she was looking for on the bathroom counter and grabbed it.

“Whatcha got?” Gideon looked up at her as she walked back into the living room. 

“The salve I gave you, pull up the leg of your shorts,” she ordered.

“I don’t need that right now, Harrow. I try to just use it when I’m having a bad day…”

“This is not a bad day?” she challenged, a thick black brow raised in silent judgment. 

“I can do it…” She sat up on her elbows and held out a hand for the jar. Harrow just waved it away and sat on the couch by Gideon’s shins. 

“Just pull up your shorts, don’t make me repeat myself,” she huffed and Gideon scoffed but did as she was told, revealing the thick ugly scar. Harrow dipped her fingers into the goopy, pale blue salve and set the jar on the table before carefully applying it to Gideon’s leg, thumbs rubbing gently over the bumpy and rough skin. The thick and pungent smell of mentholatum filled the air. Her fingers worked it all the way to the back of the bend where Gideon admitted before to getting tight in compensation. Gideon shivered and Harrow looked up at her. 

“I’m not hurting you, am I?” she asked and Gideon shook her head, letting her head fall back to the couch. 

“No, not at all… it feels good,” she whispered and a tingling sensation sizzled along Harrow’s spine at the words. A certain pleased feeling at being able to take care of Gideon, who normally was the one lifting, moving, and opening things for her. She sat there for a good five minutes, working the ointment into Gideon’s skin and working her fingers into the tight muscle around it. She could feel it getting hot already and Gideon let out a contented sigh with every press of her fingers. Finally, she stopped and stood. Gideon whined. 

"Noooo, don't stop," she groaned.

"You said the same thing the other night," Harrow mumbled and Gideon snorted.

"Did you just make a 'that's what she said' joke?" she asked, grinning. 

“I’m sure I don't know what you mean," she said but the smirk on her face told a different story. “I'm going to wash my hands.” 

Gideon nodded drowsily and when she came back a few minutes later, her girlfriend had yet to move. Harrow sat on the cushion next to Gideon’s head, looking down at her. An amber eye peeked open to gaze back and Gideon, tongue poking out in concentration, squirmed a little closer to lay her head in Harrow’s lap. Harrow laughed under her breath and ran a hand through Gideon’s hair, smoothing the soft red strands back.

“How does that feel?” she asked. 

“Not the thickest thigh I’ve put my head on but I like it.” She smirked and Harrow smacked her chest, making her chuckle. “Better, thanks.” She took Harrow’s free hand and pulled it up to her mouth and laid a kiss on the underside of her wrist, over her pulse point. Her lips were warm, if a little chapped and those drowsy amber eyes were looking up at her with unfettered affection. It was like an injection of fire had just been shot into her veins there and it rushed straight to her heart.

“I need to go home and work…,” she said but made no move to get up, still softly scratching Gideon's scalp with blunt nails. Gideon nodded, humming contently. 

“You could do that… or, since Nona is at work… you could just snuggle up with me here and we could have a nap,” she suggested.

“I admit… it’s tempting,” she said and Gideon smiled, sitting up and scooting back just enough for her face to be level with Harrow’s. 

“You never take breaks from work. Just for today,” she murmured. “Stay with me a little longer, Sweetheart.” Her forehead pressed against Harrow’s and she could feel the warm breath of the request on her skin. 

How could she say no to that?

“Scoot over,” she mumbled and Gideon was quick to comply, scooting her back against the back of the couch and opening her arms in invitation to Harrow, who crawled into her embrace. Gideon held her firm, front pressed against Harrow’s back and her face buried in her shoulder. 

“You’re always so warm,” Gideon mumbled against her neck. Harrow hummed, letting that comforting pine scent lull her into a light sleep.

Chapter Text

"Well, well, I see we're putting that key I gave you to good use," Gideon called as she walked into her apartment to find her girlfriend sitting cross legged on the couch in leggings and her old jersey, laptop perched atop her knees. “Whatcha doing here, babe?” Gideon set her lunchbox down and walked over to drape herself over the back of the couch, arms wrapping around Harrow’s shoulders and pressing a kiss to her temple. 

“Nona is loudly ransacking the apartment as she gets ready for tomorrow and I needed a quiet place to work. I told her I was going to the coffee shop. I hope you don’t mind.” She typed out the last few sentences of her emailing before setting her laptop aside, and turning to properly kiss Gideon.

“I never mind you coming over. I gotta get through a bunch of my asks before we go too, I’ve been putting them off.” 

She disappeared down the hall to her bedroom. Harrow watched her go.

“You still haven’t talked to your cousin then?” 

“Haven’t heard from her,” Gideon called back from down the hall. She didn’t hear Harrow reply but she could imagine the unhappy look on her face, knowing that despite  dawn thirty in the morning departure time, the two of them were still not talking. She threw her dirty work clothes into the hamper and pulled on a tanktop and shorts before grabbing her own laptop and heading back out into the living room. Harrowlooked up when Gideon returned, plopping down onto the other end of her black couch. “Did you really go and find that in my dryer?” she asked, looking at the jersey that was more like a wide-necked dress on Harrow’s small frame.   

Harrow’s head remained bent toward her computer, but her eyes did flicker over to look at Gideon’s smirk and she grunted. “You said I could have it,” was all she said.

“Oh, I know. I just figured I’d wash it for you since it’s been sitting in storage so long. I just think it’s funny that I know I didn’t tell you that, so also I know you went searching for it.” She grinned toothily at Harrow

“Shut up,” Harrow grumbled and Gideon chuckled to herself and opened her laptop and started working through her emails from last week. They sat and worked in companionable silence for about an hour before Gideon leaned back, humming thoughtfully.

“Something interesting?” Harrow asked, not looking up, fingers still flying across the keyboard. 

“Moderately, you want me to read it to you?” she asked.

“Sure.” 

“Dear Ginger,...” 

Harrow made a breathy sound that Gideon knew was her only just barely not laughing. She always found the ‘ginger’ bit so amusing. Gideon shot her a look before turning back to the screen. 

“I have been dating an amazing man for the past six months. We are still at the ‘sleeping over several times a week’ stage. We are absolutely incapable of sharing a bed and getting enough sleep. We have sex and cuddle a while, then he slips off to my guest room and sleeps there for the night. He says my bed is too soft. When I stay at his place, I think his bed is too hard. Our sleep styles are wildly different, and we’re both in our mid-30s and a bit set in our ways. He burritos himself in the bedclothes; I insist that the sheets must be tucked in order for me to feel secure. We both snore like chainsaws. We’ve talked about it, and I told him I was seriously bummed that we could not spend the night together, but I have to admit that we are much more rested when we sleep apart. His parents sleep apart for the same reasons, so he is much less bothered by this than I am. Is this a cause for concern in this budding but very promising relationship (I can see us getting married), or is it just the reasonable accommodations adults must make? - Solo sleeping in Nantucket.” 

She looked back up to find Harrow regarding her silently. “What about that one was so interesting to you?” she asked and Gideon shrugged. 

“I guess I like getting ones like this sometimes, first world problem-esqe shit. Like, yeah, I see where they’re coming from but it’s not really a problem.” She watched Harrow’s brows furrow, confused and she smiled. “A lot of the questions I get are either really stupid or just plain… tough, sometimes and heartbreaking at others. It’s nice sometimes to answer ones that aren’t.” Again, she shrugged and Harrow nodded. 

Gideon bent back over he laptop and started typing. When she was happy with what she’d written, she tapped enter and sent it off. 

“What did you tell them?”

She looked at Harrow, staring back at her, curious. 

“Oh, uh…” She hesitated. 

“You know I’ll just read it on the website next week…,” she reminded and Gideon frowned.

“Right, I forgot you were a ‘Frontline Titties’ patron…” She smirked as Harrow glared. 

“I am not. I just enjoy your column.” 

“I’m flattered… I guess we could say you’re just a ‘Ginger Titty Fan’ then?” she asked and Harrow, instead of getting annoyed or mad, looked very stoically at her chest, studying almost - Gideon almost wanted to cross her arms over them - and then returned to her screen. 

“They’re alright,” she finally said and Gideon gasped. 

“I don’t think you’ve ever said something so hurtful to me,” her bottom lip quivered and Harrow rolled her eyes but didn’t try to hide her grin. 

“Are you going to read your answer or not?” she asked. 

“I guess… despite that terrible thing you just said about the girls… who may not wanna talk to you after this, just so you know…,” she sniffed and Harrow snorted. “ Dear Solo, Lots of couples sleep apart, like your boyfriend’s parents and if you’re worried that it’s hinting at some deeper compatibility issues, don’t sweat it. You might be bummed about it but you’re both unconscious, you’re really not missing out on much. There are also plenty of fixes available to you if you start living together, but for now, this accommodation sounds like the only one that won’t drive you both crazy. They also make those mattresses now that have separately adjustable sides. As far as snoring goes, you get used to it, my girlfriend also snores. You may occasionally miss waking up next to him, but I promise it’s better to miss him than to want to kick him out of bed after he’s messed up your fitted sheets for the ninth time. - Ginger Journalist. ” 

“I told you, I do not snore!” Harrow protested vehemently. 

“Yeah ya do,” Gideon said. “It’s not like… loud or obnoxious. Actually, it’s kinda cute but yeah, you do.” 

Harrow turned back to her computer in a huff and Gideon set hers aside and scooted down the couch till she was sitting right next to Harrow, steadfastly ignoring her. 

“Aw, come on. It’s not a bad thing, Sweetheart.” She leaned over, resting her head on Harrow’s shoulder. Still, she received silence. The only sound in the room was the clacking of her keyboard. Gideon smirked.

Without warning, she pressed a kiss to the soft spot at the top of Harrow's jaw, just behind her ear. She didn't even flinch. Ouch. She wanted to play hard to get, huh?

She mentally cracked her knuckles.

She reached over and laid a hand on Harrow's knee. There was no reaction, she expected as much. She pressed another open mouth kiss on the side of Harrow's neck, her front teeth gently scraping the skin. There was a brief pause in typing before it resumed and Gideon's lips quirked against her skin. Her hand trailed up off her knee to the inside of her thigh and squeezed. Harrow jerked and the keyboard made an awful clattering noise as her lips latched around her throat and sucked.

“No marks…,” was hissed breathily and Gideon let her skin go with a defiant pop before leaning back. 

“Oh, you’re talking to me now?” she smirked.  

Night met day and Harrow growled, making the hair on Gideon’s arms stand on end right before  Harrow, carefully and intently, set her laptop on the coffee table and pounced. Gideon’s back hit the couch with a definitive ‘poomf’ as Harrow straddled her, knees on either side of her hips. 

“Since you are determined to be so insistent, I’ll do more than talk…,” Harrow said, voice rumbling low in her throat and tingles shot straight between Gideon’s legs. 

“You gonna sing me a song?” She smirked up at Harrow, who cocked a brow. She made an undignified squealing sound as Harrow shot down and bit her shoulder, hard. Just as fast as it happened, it was over and Harrow’s tongue pressed softly over the stinging bite mark.

“Fucking A, Harrow… I swear you’re a vampire,” she grunted while her girlfriend took the opportunity to lay a series of bites and kisses down her neck. “Not that I’m complaining when you’re sucking…”

“Finish that sentence, and I’ll leave,” Harrow said as she sat back and pulled the jersey off, dropping it to the floor. There was nothing on beneath it and Gideon came to a sudden realization.

“You planned this,” she said, eyes narrowed and Harrow smirked.

“Maybe…” 

“You think you’re so sly… well you’re right. Sly and sexy!” She jerked up and Harrow laughed as she tried to kiss her. “How’d I get so lucky?” Gideon asked under her breath and Harrow smiled, leaning down the rest of the way to kiss her back. 

In lieu of an answer, small, lithe fingers reached down and popped the elastic on Gideon’s shorts, grinning devilishly. Gideon raised up just enough to pull them down to let them be pulled down to her knees.

Halfway down her calves, someone knocked on the front door. They ignored it but five seconds later the front door swung open. 

“Hey, Gid, can we taaaAhhhhh!” Pash yelled and then Harrow yelled and then Gideon yelled. “What the fuck!” Pash stared wide eyed at Harrow, who sitting on Gideon's thighs, was totally, and completely visible from the waist up over the back of the couch. “Oh, god, I’m sorry!” Pash slapped her hands over her eyes.

“Close the fucking door!” Gideon jerked up, throwing Harrow onto her back and out of sight. She jerked out from under her and grabbed the jersey off the floor, tossing it to Harrow. “You just walk into people’s fucking apartments?!” She tried to stand, only to trip on the shorts still slung about her shins while Harrow pulled on the jersey. 

“I’m sorry, I…! What is even going on here?!” She peeked between her fingers at the two as Gideon pulled up her shorts and Harrow stood there, dressed, arms crossed over her chest and cheeks a bright red, refusing to look at Pash. “You…” she gestured to her cousin.  “And you…” she gestured to Harrow, seemingly not knowing what to say. “I’m confused…” she finally said pitifully.

Gideon sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose tiredly. 

“Sit down, Pash.” She pointed to the couch. 

Pash sat, still looking at the two of them with utter bewilderment. Or rather, looking at Gideon and seemingly doing her damndest not to make eye contact with Harrow, who was still covering her chest like Pash was staring at her still. 

"I'm confused… Are you cheating on your girlfriend with my girlfriend's sister?" 

"No one is cheating, Pash," Gideon sighed. "There is no Elizabeth, there never was."

"Huh?" 

"Harrow is my girlfriend," she said. 

"... Huh?" Pash looked at her like she'd just said the moon was full of cheese whiz and she was going on a one woman mission with nothing but her wits and a package of crackers.

With an exasperated grunting sound, Harrow spun around and walked down the hall. Gideon heard the bedroom door slam shut a few seconds later.

She sat on the couch with a heavy sigh. 

"Listen. I never went out with the waitress from the bar. The night of Nona's birthday I asked Harrow out, we've been dating ever since…"

She spent the next five minutes explaining it all to her cousin, who sat, hands on her knees and squinty eyed as Gideon walked her through it.

By the end of it all she was staring at the floor. As Gideon finished, her cousin sighed, dragging a hand tiredly over her face.

"Did exactly what you thought we would…," she grumbled more to herself then to Gideon. She leaned back against the couch and looked at Gideon. "I came over here to apologize about Sunday… you were right… obviously." She held up her hands in a half shrug. " We got all nosy about shit that didn't have anything to do with us…"

"Yeah, ya did." Gideon frowned and Pash sighed heavily. 

"Look, Pyrrha and I have just been worried about you. For years you've been burying yourself in work and ignoring any woman that looked at you twice… I know it sounds like an excuse but that's how it is."

"I know, Ma said the same thing Sunday when I talked to her about it… but I can take care of myself. I am happier than ever!" She threw out her hands and Pash nodded.

"So… it's Harrow you've been all gaga for all this time," she asked and Gideon nodded. "Why?" Pash cocked her head.

Gideon punched her in the arm. "Whaddaya mean why?" 

"Jesus, Gid," She rubbed her arm. "I mean…" She gestured down the hall where Harrow had disappeared. "She's not exactly warm and fluffy…"

"She has her moments but not usually, no," Gideon agreed. "She's all sharp angles and smart remarks but she cares, even if she pretends she doesn’t. She makes me happy and I do my damndest to make her happy back. I love her." It was said with a finality that made Pash throw up her hands.

"Alright, alright. I'm not gonna try to dissuade you, even if I don't get your hard-on for grumpy pants in there. Nona says the same thing… that she's softer than she looks. Just have to take the two of you for your word."

"Oh, like your marker eating Nonagesimus is better than my slightly prickly one," Gideon scoffed.

"She didn't eat it, she just likes to chew on the caps!" 

"I never saw that cap come back out of her mouth…," Gideon grumbled. 

"Speaking of… Nona doesn't know?" Pash asked and Gideon shook her head. 

"And don't tell her." 

They both looked up as Harrow came out of the hall, wearing her own shirt. Pash's face pinked at the sight of her. She did her best not to even look at her. 

"Stop thinking about my girlfriend's tits," Gideon hissed at her and Pash choked.

"I'm trying not to! I'm sorry!" 

Harrow smacked Gideon's shoulder before sitting in the chair across from them.

"We plan to tell everyone next week. The only people who know are Pyrrha and now you. Do not tell my sister." 

"I'm just supposed to pretend I don't know all weekend?!" Pash protested, looking between them. 

"Yes." Harrow glared. 

"It's just for a couple of days, then we're going to tell her and Cam and SexPal." Gideon added, attempting some consolation. Pash was not consoled.

"She's not going to be happy you kept this from her for so long." She looked pointedly at Harrow.

"I know my sister and I am aware, but it will be even worse if she hears it from you!" Harrow snapped and Pash leaned back, holding up her hands to fend off the elder Nonagesimus sister. Gideon laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Just act like you know nothing, Pash. It's not a big deal. We leave in the morning and come back Sunday afternoon and we're having dinner at Pal and Cam's that night. Harrow and I are gonna tell everyone everything then," Gideon explained.

"I don't want to lie to Nona. I don't like this…," Pash grunted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Then you should learn to not walk into people’s homes without being let in," Harrow growled and Pash had the decency to look somewhat abashed about that.

"Knocking is so I know you're there, not you warning me before you come in." Gideon frowned.

"I didn't think small and spiteful would be taking you to pound town in the living room!" she huffed and Harrow scowled.

"Pash…," Gideon started.

"I never took you for a bottom…" She scratched her chin.

"Pash…" Gideon growled.

"In my defense, I still think of you like a little baby who doesn't even know what sex is, much less has it…"

Gideon snarled, jumping across the couch. Pash howled before the two started wailing on each other.

Harrow just sighed, shaking her head.

~ ~ 

"I won't tell her," Pash assured as she stepped toward the door. "but only- " she stopped and spun around holding up a finger at the two of them. "If you promise that you will tell them Sunday night. I'm not going to lie to my girlfriend for any longer than that. Get me?" She looked between the two of them. 

Harrow and Gideon shared a glance and then she nodded at her cousin. 

"Yeah, yeah. We have every intention of telling them Sunday. It's getting to be too big of a pain in the butt to pretend anyway." 

"Good. I'll see both of you in the morning." With that, she turned and left, leaving Gideon and Harrow alone at last.

“Jeez,” Gideon sighed, flopping bonelessly onto the couch. Harrow sat beside her, carefully folding her legs beneath her and leaning on Gideon, who wrapped a comforting arm around her. “You okay, Harrow?” she asked and Harrow grunted. Which didn’t answer any of Gideon’s questions. “Sorry my cousin saw your tits…?”

“It was not ideal,” she grumbled, turning to bury her face in Gideon’s shoulder.

“If it makes you feel any better, with how similar you and Nona look, it’s kinda like she’s already seen ‘em…” 

Slowly, Harrow leaned back away from her to give her the driest look she could muster. Which was Sahara fucking dry in Gideon’s opinion.

“Oh… wait, no. Cause then it’s like I’ve seen Nona’s tits… this didn’t go the way I thought it would…” She made a scrunched up face.

“Stop thinking about my sister’s tits,” Harrow said, poking her in the ribs and Gideon couldn’t help but laugh.

“I would never, my Lascivious Lover. I only think about your tits… and sometimes my own.” She grinned and Harrow let her head fall back to Gideon’s shoulder. It did not smother her laugh half as well as she must have thought it would. Gideon smiled, letting her head drop to rest on Harrow’s.

"I need to head home soon…" 

"Soon…," Gideon agreed but neither made any move to get up.

They sat there a while in comfortable silence when Harrow shifted.

“Gideon?” she called quietly.

“Hm?”

“I’m… worried….,” she said quietly. 

Gideon leaned up to look at Harrow, her tiny mouth pulled down into a tight frown and her brows wrinkled with the weight of her thoughts. Gideon reached up and rubbed her thumb gently over the deep furrow in her brow, it eased when those starless voids looked up at her. 

“About?” she promoted, wrapping her arms around Harrow and pulled her close. Harrow tucked her head against Gideon’s chest, beneath her chin. 

“Telling everyone…,” she said.

“Everyone… or your sister?” Gideon asked quietly and Harrow was silent, telling her that she’d hit it dead on. "I wouldn't worry about it. There's nothing to be done about it now. 'Sides, I don't think she'd be unhappy about us being together… Do you?" she asked. 

"Nona adores you," she huffed and Gideon smiled. That was nice to know. As weird as she could be at times, Nona had become a good friend

"Must be a Nonagesimus family trait," she said slyly. She felt Harrow's quick and heavy breath on her neck. A silent laugh. Then her nose was pressed gently into the hollow of Gideon's throat. 

"I suppose it is…," she agreed quietly and Gideon gave her a gentle squeeze. 

"It'll be okay, my Tiny Terror. I'll be there with you. I agreed to all the secrecy stuff, I'm not gonna let you take the brunt of it," she said.

There was another soft exhale against her throat and Harrow's arm wrapped around her chest, squeezing. 

"I love you," she mumbled and Gideon's heart gave a heavy thump in the confines of her ribs. Her every nerve and tender emotion lit up whenever she heard those words. She gave another squeeze.

"I love you too." She kissed the head of black hair, taking a deep inhale of… herbs maybe. The jury was still out.

Chapter Text

Harrow's eyes flung open when her door banged open, slamming against the wall with a clattering racket.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Nona bounced up and down on the balls of her feet. She was already fully dressed and vibrating with energy. 

Harrow squinted at her in the bright light that back lit her from the hallway. Even if she was hiding Gideon from Nona, she still did not deserve this particular torture. She made a low growling sound, pulling the blankets up higher over her head. Outside of the fabric, Nona grunted..

Harrow’s only warning was the quick tip tap of feet on the carpet. Her eyes shot back open just as Nona flung herself onto the bed, smashing all the air from her lungs.

“Get up, Harrowhark!” 

"Arhgh!" Harrow snarled. The two kicked and scrambled and Nona squealed when teeth sank into her arm. 

They scuffled another minute before Nona was kicked off the bed with a quiet shriek. She hit the floor with a dull thump. 

“I’m okay!” 

"I'm sure the downstairs neighbors loved that." Harrow sat up, scowling and throwing back the blankets. When she did, a familiar but faint pine smell wafted into her nose. She hadn't washed them since the last time Gideon had been over. It was barely a whiff, but it was readily apparent, taking the place of the missing scent in her own odorless detergent. The smell had a Pavlovian response on her, though, and the edge was immediately shaved off her annoyance. She sighed, slipping out of bed and carefully stepping over Nona. 

“Well? Get up,” she said and Nona scoffed, picking herself up off the floor. 

"Come on, Pash already texted me that she's on her way. We gotta get down to the lobby and load up. Gideon said she’d meet us there. 

“Yes, yes, let me get dressed.” She waved her hand at the door and Nona took the hint, and skipped out of the room. Harrow could still hear her humming loudly from the kitchen. 

Her bag was already sitting packed and ready by the front door, she just needed to get herself dressed. 

Jeans, a light, long sleeve shirt, and the hiking boots Gideon had taken her to buy. They were quite comfortable really… and Gideon called them ‘peak lesbian chic’ before kissing her in the store, much to her embarrassment. Though she hadn’t stopped it. 

Her phone buzzed and she glanced down at the screen.

5:10: Griddle: Gooood Morning~! <3 

5:10: Griddle: I’m down in the lobby. 

5:11: You: Be down in a minute.

She closed her bedroom door and walked out into the living room where Nona was kneeling on the floor, digging through her bag. 

“Ready? Gideon texted me, she’s in the lobby already.”  

“Yup!” Nona zipped her bag closed and popped up. “Ready when you are!” she said and left, locking the door behind them. Nona bounced excitedly on her toes, especially once her phone buzzed with a text from Pash saying she was waiting in the lobby with Gideon. 

“Good morning!” She announced to the dead quiet lobby as she sprinted toward the cousins talking quietly by the doors and took a flying leap into her girlfriend's arms. Pash chuckled before Nona pulled her into a kiss.

“Gross,” Gideon grimaced, watching them. Her eyes flickered over to Harrow and she watched as those amber pools lit up like miniature suns as she smiled at her. Gideon smiling at her like that should not make her stomach somersault the way it did… but it did. She was starting to accept that her reactions to Gideon, which had been a constant for three months now, might never fade. She didn’t terribly mind if that was going to be the case. 

She did, however, mind the horrendous shirt her girlfriend was wearing. In typical Gideon fashion, it was black, the sleeves cut off to show off the solid and sharp lines of her arms. A drawing of a tent was plastered across the front and in bright green font, proudly declared ‘Camping’ at the top and at the bottom, ‘It’s fucking in-tents.’ 

Subtle.

“I’m gonna go get the car, come on, Pash.” Nona all but sprinted out the front door. Pash glanced at the two of them knowingly before following with her bag slung over her shoulder. 

“Hey.” Gideon smiled at her. “Quite the lackluster greeting this morning,” she huffed playfully and folded her arms over her chest. Harrow just smirked. 

“I am awake before the sun’s come up, you’ll have to forgive the curtness, beloved,” she said, having learned that those three syllables could make Gideon melt into pliable putty in her hands. 

Predictably, there was a minute change in Gideon’s face but she said nothing as she unfolded her arms and leaned down, kissing her hello. Though it didn’t take but half a second for Gideon to wrap her arms around her waist and deepen it. If Harrow hadn’t been awake before she was now, with Gideon nipping at her bottom lip. 

“I wish you could have stayed last night,” Gideon mumbled and Harrow hummed in agreement. As of late, it seemed that anytime she left Gideon’s presence not knowing when exactly they would be alone together again, a dull ache grew somewhere in her chest. An emotional ache - not medically treatable, she’d kept track of her own symptoms for a few days - that left her wishing Gideon were with her. She didn’t like it. The physical ache that manifested itself whenever she couldn’t be with Gideon the way she wanted to for a few days. Like now. Between getting ready for this trip, Passion bursting in last night, and taking up all their time, it had been four days since the two of them had managed to be alone long enough to be intimate.    

She hated and loved it in - nearly - equal measure. This craving for physical intimacy, or even intimacy of any kind at all, was so foreign and new but so addicting.

She took this brief and all too short moment to bury her face in Gideon's chest and let herself be held, firm, and gentle. 

For as strange and vulnerable as it made her feel at times, being so nakedly honest with Gideon, she'd be lying if she said she didn't enjoy having someone to hear her feelings, her burdens and grievances - when she could stand to say them aloud- and not only validate them but be willing to help her hold them up. For so long, during the worst time of their lives, she had held herself and Nona up by sheer will power, knowing that if she let go they would both drown. 

How did she even begin to communicate that to Nona without making her feel like she’d been a burden during that time… or even now?

“You okay?” 

Harrow blinked, coming out of her thoughts to realize Gideon was looking at her with concern. She nodded.

“Yes, I was just lost in thought…”

Gideon glanced at the doors leading out of the building and then back at Harrow, looking torn between wanting to ask her what she was thinking about so intently and getting outside before Nona came looking for them.  

“We best hurry, before Nona drives her jeep into the building,” she huffed, picking up her bag and Gideon snorted. 

“Yeah…,” she agreed.

“And just what is that shirt?” she hissed and Gideon grinned, wide and knowing. 

“Like it?”

“No, I do not like it!” 

They walked out into the cool, dark morning just as Nona pulled up to the curb with a grin, Pash in the passenger seat.

“Get in losers, we're going camping.” Pash jerked her thumb to the backseat. 

Gideon grabbed both Harrow’s and her own bag and tossed them into the back before climbing into the back of the jeep. She offered a hand to Harrow, who took it, letting herself be pulled into the seat beside her.

“We’re off!” Nona declared and floored it. Everyone else screamed as they skidded out of the parking lot and onto the road.

“Nona!” Harrow barked and they finally slowed. 

“Yeah, yeah, buzzkill,” she muttered under her breath. “Stop and get breakfast burritos at Sonic?” 

“Yes!” Gideon and Pash both shouted. Harrow made a face. 

“They might have something you can eat…,” Nona offered, looking at her sister in the rearview mirror.

“Tater tots for tiny,” Pash laughed and Harrow glared hard enough at the back of her head that she hoped she might burn holes straight through her skull and into her occipital lobe. 

“I got something,” Gideon declared, spinning around in her seat and pulling out her lunch box tied to her backpack. She unzipped it and pulled out a plastic bag full of granola and vanilla yogurt. Harrow blinked as they were placed in her hands.

"Hey, you’ll eat that!” Nona chirped. “Perfect, and burritos for the rest of us!” she said and Pash whooped. 

A spoon was held out to Harrow and her gaze flickered up to catch Gideon’s eyes in the dimness of the car. Her girlfriend smiled at her, and warmth seeped in her every pore.

“Thank you,” she mumbled quietly, not that it would have been strange to thank her for it but she was terrified Nona might pick up on the overt and adoring tone she was certain laced between every letter of the words. 

“No prob, my Twilight Terror.” She winked. 

In the dark of the jeep, she ate her breakfast, listening to Nona and Pash talk about some show they had been watching at night at her apartment. It reminded her of another counterpoint she’d come up with for that ridiculous show Gideon loved to hate-watch… and had somehow sucked her into watching as well, even if they both just bitched about it to the other the entire time. 

She wanted to turn to Gideon and lay out the entire argument she’d made in regards to the last few episodes they’d watched but knew immediately that Nona would start asking questions about when they had the time to watch so much of one show together. No, she would just have to save it for after Sunday night when they finally let the cloak fall from their charade. 

It had become quite tiresome. 

She didn’t realize how much energy it would take to pretend not to be dating someone. Nevermind how much energy and strain it took to not pretend to be stupidly in love with someone. Much more than she ever could have accounted for, even if she had thought to.  

Or as Gideon had so aptly put it the other day: ‘If I want to kiss you, I don't want to have to check around every corner for someone we know first!’  

Like now. It was a two-hour drive and she really just wanted to lean her head on Gideon’s shoulder, let her wrap a solid arm around her, and go back to sleep… but she couldn’t. She’d never felt so resentful of something before, especially as she glanced up at the front seat, where Nona had her fingers tangled with Pash’s on the center console. It was her own fault, of course, but she was still going to be mad about it. 

“Is that okay? You’re glaring at it…” Gideon’s whisper in her ear nearly made her jump. She glanced up at Gideon, tuning out the conversation Nona and Pash were having in front of them.  

“It is. I’m just thinking,” she said quietly and Gideon hummed. Then a hand on her thigh gave a quick and gentle squeeze. 

“Something you want to talk about?” she asked softly and Harrow shook her head. 

“Later.” 

Gideon nodded and they lapsed back into silence, though Gideon’s hand didn’t move till the sun had risen enough to fill the back of the jeep with light. 

She had to admit, the view from the window was beautiful as they drove past wide open fields, and mountains reaching up toward the sky on the distant horizon. She was gazing out at the view when Pash’s voice drifted to the back seat.

“You packed the poles right?” she asked.

“Yeah, they're in my bag.”

“Oh, I’m excited. I’ve never been fishing before.” Nona looked at her girlfriend, who smiled.

“Well, don’t you worry. I am a master fisherman. I’ll teach you… and I guess Harrow since Gid is shit at it.”

“ExCuSe Me?!” Gideon jerked forward, her seatbelt probably being the only thing keeping her from crawling into the front seat to punch her cousin in the crotch.   

“You heard me.” Pash grinned at her over her shoulder. 

“The only thing you're a master at is a master-baiter!” Gideon snapped. 

“Oh, she never has to do that anymore,” Nona remarked casually and Gideon made a disgusted sound while Pash turned red. 

“I already hate and regret this.” Harrow sighed, looking out the window.

“And after only thirty minutes!” Gideon piped up with false cheer, a sneer still plastered to her face. 

She decided right then and there it would be a miracle if they all made it to the lake alive.

God must have been listening because an hour and a half later, they pulled up to the campsite, whole and in one piece. 

Not for lack of Gideon and Pash picking and jabbing at each other at every given opportunity. Sometimes it seemed like they were more like siblings than herself and Nona. It continued all through the early morning as they unpacked the jeep and set up camp. 

“They sure can pick on each other, huh?” Nona asked as she plopped down onto the ground next to Harrow and watched Gideon and Pash snip at each other while they put the tents together.

“It must be in their blood…,” she grumbled and Nona nodded. 

“Redheads be like that,” she sagely announced and Harrow frowned.

“Passion is not…” She stopped, thinking, and looked over at her girlfriend’s cousin with her electric blue dyed hair. “Is Passion a redhead? I’ve never seen her without her hair dyed…”

“Oh yeah, total hot tamale.” Nona grinned. 

“How could you possibly know…?” Harrow regretted it the moment it came out of her mouth, but especially when she saw the shit-eating grin on her sister’s face. 

“The carpet doesn’t exactly match the drapes, ya know?” she asked, giggling. 

Harrow dropped her bag into the dirt right there and stood.

“I’m going for a walk,” she declared. 

“Come on, Harrow!” Nona called at her back but the giggling only made her walk faster. She only got a few yards before the sound of feet running on grass was at her back. 

“Ya know, ya shouldn’t go wandering the woods alone.” 

She glanced up at Gideon and grunted.

“What’s the matter, babe?” she asked once they were out of earshot. 

“Nothing… except now I know your cousin is also a redhead..”

“Oh! Yeah… she is. She’s been doing the blue thing so long, I honestly forget… Why does that make you upset?” she cocked a brow and Harrow made an aggravated noise.

“Because I did not need this information relayed to me via Nona talking about the color of the rest of her body hair…,” she ground out, stomping down the path. 

“Oh… gross… There’s something I never wanted to think about.” Gideon made a face, shoving her hands into her pockets as they walked down the path past the lake and the other campsites. 

“I could have happily gone my entire life without ever having to even consider that…”

“Well, try to forget about that… god knows I am,” grumbled. They walked silently for a minute before Gideon piped up. “Hey, there's something I need to tell you.” 

Harrow looked quizzically up at her. 

“I was talking to Pash this morning while we were waiting for you two and… she’s going to ask Nona to move in with her this weekend and she wanted me to tell you...” 

“What?!” Harrow stopped and spun to look at her. She nodded.

“Nona spends more nights over there than not these days anyway, so Pash figures she’ll at least ask.” She shrugged. 

“They’ve only been dating for about four months!” Harrow said, her voice turning shrill. Gideon nodded and stood there, hands still in her pockets, watching her girlfriend start to pace back and forth in front of her. “Nona has never even lived on her own before! She can’t cook to save her life…” she continued to rant. Gideon just waited till she seemed to run out of steam, coming to an eventual stop in the middle of the path looking lost. Her jaw worked like she wanted to say something else but no words were coming out. 

“You okay?” Gideon asked, and Harrow finally looked at her. She blinked rapidly, eyes taking on a distinct shine. 

Gideon pulled her hands out of her pockets and held open her arms, knowing better by now than to just grab a Harrowhark having an emotional moment. She didn’t hesitate long. She took the two steps to close the distance and pressed herself into Gideon’s embrace. Gideon held her tightly. 

“She still won’t be alone, she’ll be with Pash, who can kinda cook… and who I know is a total douche bag at times, trust me, but ya know she loves Nona a lot…” Gideon said, running a soothing hand through fine black hair.

“I know…,” she mumbled into Gideon’s stupid tee shirt. She did know too. Passion took Nona out at any given opportunity, sent her flowers - most of which made Harrow sneeze- and little knick-knacks and baubles the younger Nonagesimus adored, and in general seemed so wrapped around her sister’s little finger that it wasn’t even funny. She only hoped she and Gideon didn’t appear so grossly infatuated with each other when they were together… even if they in fact were. She mumbled something else and Gideon leaned back to look down at the face pressed between her tits. 

“Say again, honeybun?” she asked and Harrow huffed.

“I said…” she hesitated, eyes darting away from Gideon’s. “But I will be…,” she muttered, her eyes flickered back to Gideon, who blinked but then her face softened. 

“You’ll be living alone technically, yeah… but you know you are so far from alone. Cam and Sexpal are just across the hall and I’m always a short elevator ride away… and hey, after we tell everyone I can come over whenever I want!” she sang.

“You mean whenever I want?” Harrow cocked a brow and Gideon’s smile turned into a grin. 

“No…,” she chuckled as Harrow gave her a gentle, half-hearted shove but she didn’t let go, she just squeezed her tighter. “You gotta let her go, Sweetheart.”    

Harrow huffed against her. “I know…” 

Gideon pressed a kiss to the top of her head and stood back. “Ready to go back?” she asked.

“Not yet,” Harrow said, taking her hand and giving a little tug. Gideon happily followed her down the dirt path, fingers laced with hers. “Why did Passion want you to tell me?” She frowned. 

“So you wouldn't murder her in her sleep when you found out later," Gideon chuckled and Harrow exhaled loudly through her nose.

"As if that would stop me…," she mumbled while Gideon smirked, giving her the side eye. 

“If you murder her, I will help you hide the body… but I will bitch about it the whole time, fair warning,” she said and Harrow grunted.

“Not worth it then.”

Gideon laughed.

By the time they returned to camp, the tents were set up and Pash was leaning over the firepit, arranging some wood. She looked up as they approached, glancing back and forth between the two of them. Gideon glanced at her cousin before turning and making her way to where Nona was digging through the bags for something.

“Need some help Big No?” she called, leaving Harrow standing next to the fire pit, looking hard at Pash. 

“Uh… so… I guess she told you?” Pash stood and wiped her hands off on her pants. 

“She did…” Harrow frowned and Pash fidgeted, looking unsure before finally taking a deep breath. “Look, I probably shoulda just grown some and told you myself but that’s neither here nor there now. I love Nona and I want her to live with me… so I’m gonna ask... But like... My apartment is only ten minutes away from yours. It’s not like you’re never going to see her again and you’re welcome to come over…,” she babbled while Harrow continued to stare. Finally, she sighed loudly and Pash’s mouth snapped shut.  

“I hope you like being woken at the crack of dawn by blasting anime intro music…,” Harrow finally said before turning and walking over to where her bag was, leaving Pash staring confused at her back.    

“Who’s sleeping where?” Gideon called. 

“Well, we didn’t realize we only had two tents till we got here… so why don’t Harrow and I bunk together and Pash and Gideon can share?” Nona offered. The cousins eyed each other before looking at their girlfriends. Harrow could practically see the thoughts going on in - both, apparently - ginger heads. 

“I think Pash would rather bunk with you, Nons, and Harrow and I don’t mind sharing digs,” Gideon said and Pash quickly nodded in agreement. 

"What about your girlfriend?” Nona asked Gideon, hesitant. “And wouldn't that be weird for you two?" she asked, frowning and looking at her sister, completely missing the ‘yeah right’   face Pash was making. It was short lived - Gideon elbowed her in the side. 

“She wouldn’t mind,” Gideon said. 

"It's only for two nights, and Gideon and I get on well enough. You and Passion can have one tent,” she said but Nona still looked unsure. 

“Dibs!” Gideon threw her bag into the slightly bigger of the two tents without a second thought and crawled inside. Pash jerked and ran over, jumping inside.

“No way, fuck-stick! Nona and I should get this one. Harrow is small!” The tent rustled and jerked, followed by the sound of the two scuffling inside.

“Nona is small too, ya dip-shit!” Gideon snarled back.

“If you rip it, you’re both sleeping on the dirt!” Harrow yelled. The tent jerked and swayed as the two fought out of sight. Harrow sighed and stood, preparing to separate the children that were her and her sister’s girlfriends. Before she could stomp over and order them, both out of the tent, a hand wrapped around her wrist and Harrow looked back at her sister, surprised.

“Can I talk to you for a sec?” she asked and Harrow’s stomach dropped into her feet. Her sister looked so uncharacteristically serious. She could only nod and then Nona was dragging her across camp toward the jeep. Once they were on the other side of it, out of sight, she spun around to face her sister.  “Look, I know about you and Gideon,” she said and Harrow’s mouth went totally dry. 

“You- you know?” she repeated and Nona nodded solemnly. 

“Yeah and until recently, it was fine, I know you were just holding out hope they might break up but Gideon is totally in love with her girlfriend, Harrow. You’re only gonna get hurt if you don’t let it go.” Nona reached up and held her by the shoulders. Harrow frowned, brows crinkled between her brows.

“What?” she asked and Nona sighed.

“I know you’re jealous of Gid’s girlfriend,” she said and Harrow’s brows jumped into her hairline. 

“Nona, I’m not jealous,” she said and Nona smiled sadly at her.

“Come on, Harrow. Every time Elizabeth comes up, you get all cagey and avoidant and don’t wanna talk about her…”  

She did do that. Nona could spot her in most blatant lies, so Harrow had thought it would be easier to avoid lying about Gideon altogether. Apparently that had raised her sister’s alarms anyway.

“I simply don’t care for her…,” she lied. “I’m not jealous.” 

“Uhuh,” Nona’s eyes sparked and Harrow knew she’d picked up on the initial lie. “Look, Gid is great, and I did try to help you get a piece of that…” 

Harrow made a face at that bit.  

“But now it’s too late and she’s in love with her girlfriend. You gotta let it go, Harrow.” Nona reached up and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. Harrow wanted very much to roll her eyes at this. She somehow managed to not, and only reached up to take Nona’s hand off her shoulder.

“Nona. I am not jealous of Gideon’s girlfriend.” She stared back at her sister, whose dark eyes flickered over her face thoughtfully. 

“You don’t like Gideon?” she asked and Harrow chewed the inside of her cheek and glanced back in the direction they had left the two. She could lie. But then she’d be once more lying right to her sister’s face, and there had been far too much of that the last few months. 

“I… didn’t say that…,” she mumbled and Nona gasped so loudly she was surprised Pash didn’t rush over to see what was going on. “Nona,” she said, slapping a hand over her mouth before could start going off. “We will talk about this Sunday, alright? Just know that I am not jealous of Gideon’s girlfriend and  I’m not trying to steal her from anyone, alright?” she asked and Nona’s brow crinkled. “Alright?” Harrow pressed, staring back into near-identical black eyes. Finally, Nona nodded and Harrow removed her hand. “Good… We’ll be fine sharing the tent. Stay with Pash, we both know that’s where you want to be anyway.”

“We’re talking about this as soon as we get home Sunday.” Nona pointed an accusing finger at her. 

“Yes, yes. Now let's go before they murder each other.”

Chapter Text

When Harrow and Nona came back out from behind the jeep, the cousins seemed to have settled the matter as Gideon was in the process of crawling out of the slightly larger red tent. She had changed, apparently, and was no longer in her dumb shirt and jeans but in dark blue swimming trunks with little green palm trees and a dark blue bikini top. She grinned at the two of them from behind her aviators. Harrow did not stare at the hard line of her arms and shoulder… 

“Hey, you two good?” she asked and Harrow nodded. “Wanna take a dip?” she jerked her thumb at the large, clean lake sparkling beneath the sun behind her. 

“Oh! I want to… but Pash wanted to go on a little walk around the campgrounds and asked me to come with her,” Nona pouted. “Later though?” she asked and Gideon nodded. 

“How bout you, O’ Lady of the Night?” she asked and Harrow pursed her lips. “Aw, come on, I know you might melt but…,” she trailed off, grinning and Harrow scoffed. 

“I will come and sit on the dock…,” she compromised and Gideon rolled her eyes. 

“I guess I’ll take it…”

“It’s that or nothing.” Harrow turned up her nose. 

“Hey, baby, ya ready?” Pash called from across camp. 

“See you guys in a little bit!” Nona said before she turned and trotted off toward Pash. Once the two of them had disappeared around the bend, Gideon nudged her. 

“Ready?” she asked and jerked her head toward the water. Harrow nodded and they walked down to the dock. The boards groaned and creaked under her feet but held solid. 

“Comin’ through!” Gideon ran past her, throwing her towel down on the dock and taking a running leap off the end. She hit the water in a loud splash, disappearing beneath the surface. Harrow watched the bubbles float up as she sat herself on the edge. She pulled off her shoes, setting her phone safely inside one, and let her feet dangle in the water just as Gideon finally resurfaced, glasses still perched on her nose and dripping. All that thick, wavy red hair atop her head was plastered to her skull, water running down the freshly shaved sides. Harrow wanted to reach out and smooth the strands back out of her face. 

“So, what did Nona pull ya over for?” she asked, floating over to the dock and looking up at Harrow over the top of her sunglasses. Harrow sighed heavily and explained their brief conversation, making Gideon chuckle. “Man… she’s got you pegged. It’s honestly impressive.” Gideon quickly swam back out of reach of Harrow’s foot before she could get kicked and stuck her tongue out in triumph. 

“My sister’s ability to read me like a highway sign is far less amusing when trying to keep something from her…,” she huffed. 

“True that. She’s like a bloodhound. I’m surprised we made it this long… I feel like you haven’t been the most subtle…,” Gideon trailed off, doing breaststrokes in front of the dock. 

“Me?” Harrow slapped a hand to her chest and stared at her girlfriend in disbelief.  

“Yeah, I mean, suddenly you went from being a recluse one day to leaving the house all the time. Not exactly nonchalant…” She was smirking. Harrow needed for her to float just a little closer, so that she might kick her in the head. Gideon stayed knowingly out of range.

“Because your secret girlfriend that you won’t let anyone meet or even show pictures of to prove her existence is so very discreet and unassuming,” she drawled contemptuously. 

“But it’s worked!” Gideon sang, backstroking away from her. Harrow rolled her eyes and leaned back on her hands, watching Gideon make laps in front of the dock, watching the water drop slide and drip off the lines of all her hard-worked musculature. An errant thought came sneaking in and once it had taken root, she couldn’t ignore it.

“Gideon?” she called.

“Yes, my Tenebrous Overlord?” she answered distractedly. 

“Why do you think it’s worked?” she asked suddenly and Gideon stopped swimming to look at her.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I mean, I think with everything going on, my sudden extrovertedness and your ‘secret’ girlfriend that what’s going on should seem obvious…,” she said and Gideon shrugged. 

“I dunno about that, I wasn’t a huge oversharer before anyway and I know damn well you weren’t… no one is exactly calling you an extrovert, Harrow…” She swam closer and Harrow glanced at her before turning her eyes to the water just to her right. 

“It seems obvious what’s going on… unless the fact that it’s me simply suspends all common reason…” she muttered and Gideon blinked wide eyes at her from behind her sunglasses.  

“Why would it being ‘you’ make them totally throw out the idea?” Gideon asked and Harrow scowled hotly at the water, not looking at Gideon but she could feel those eyes on her.

“I think it’s very obvious, Gideon,” she snapped and Gideon frowned at her, lifting her sunglasses up off her face for an unimpeded view of her. 

“Well, I guess I’m just dumb, so explain it to me,” she said stiffly. Harrow pursed her lips together tightly. She could feel those amber eyes burning holes in her but she had such a hard time looking at her. 

“You are… conventionally attractive and I’m not… and don’t say I am because we both know I am not!” she snapped the second she saw Gideon’s mouth start to open. It snapped back closed, but she was still staring back at Harrow intensely. “More than any cover we could come up with, people are hard-pressed to believe you and I could be together. Short, flat chested and ill-tempered Harrowhark Nonagesimus and tall, well-loved, adonis, Gideon Nav…” She had barely finished the thought when Gideon made a loud, annoyed sound and hauled herself up onto the dock, dripping water everywhere as she sat next to Harrow.

“Alright…,” she said, all but glaring at Harrow when she turned to look at her. “First of all, I am a habitual smart-ass, ginger, butch lesbian with weird ass eyes and a knee that looks like it got put through a sausage grinder, Harrow, I am not ‘conventionally’ attractive.” She held up her hands and finger quoted. “And even if that were the case, so what?” she asked, throwing up her hands, flinging droplets of water everywhere, and staring definitely back at Harrow. “You’re beautiful, if prickly,” she counted on her fingers, “Witty, brainiac with more esprit than anyone I’ve ever known. The street of disbelief runs both way, sugarlips.”  

Under that intense amber gaze, all Harrow could make her mouth do was mumble “I like your eyes…”

All the wind seemed to fall out of Gideon’s sails as her tensed shoulders slumped and she let out an amused sounding huff. “That’s my point, my Mistress of the Macabre. Who cares what everyone else thinks? I think you’re the sexiest thing around.” She leaned over, still dripping and puckering her lips at Harrow, who scoffed, even as her mouth twisted into a grin, doubt dropping off her shoulders.

“You’re wet…” She leaned back out of reach of her lips. 

“You always have that effect on me, sugarlips.” She wagged her brows at her. 

Harrow shoved her off the dock with a splash.   

A hand burst from the water and grabbed her ankle. Harrow screamed and then there was another loud splash.

“GIDEON!” 

~ ~

“You decided to go for a dip anyway?” Nona asked when she and Pash returned half an hour later, hand in hand. Harrow scowled, sitting at one of the benches scattered round the area, damp and seething in her swimsuit of black board-shorts and a black rash guard. 

“Against my will,” she grumbled. 

Gideon grinned. “She started it.”  

“Uh-huh… well we’re gonna get changed and get in, you wanna come back out with us? Nona is dying to play chicken.” 

“Oh, I’m in.” Gideon nodded. 

“Chicken?” Harrow cocked a brow. 

“Yeah, it’s a game where you sit on your partner’s shoulders and try to knock over or separate the other team. You play in the water. We have to have four to even play so…” She looked pleadingly at Harrow, who just sighed silently to herself. She knew the moment she agreed to go on this trip that she was going to have to participate in activities. 

“Fine.” 

“Yes! I call Gideon!” 

“What?!” Pash yelled, drowning out Harrow’s protest as well.

“I’m in.” Gideon held up her hand and Nona high-fived it. 

“Wha- why?” Pash finally spit out and Nona shrugged. 

“She’s stronger than you, Honey.” 

Gideon started laughing and Pash sputtered indignantly. 

“Welp, you heard the lady.” Gideon stood and flexed obnoxiously at her cousin, who scowled hotly back at her. “Harrow and I will meet you guys down at the water.”

Pash continued to glare as she followed Nona into their tent to change. 

“All the Nonagesimus women want me.” She grinned at Harrow, who rolled her eyes at her girlfriend before standing from the bench and moved toward the shore. Gideon followed after her, giggling to herself. 

When they made it down to the water’s edge, Gideon pulled a yellow tube of sunscreen out of her pocket and squirted some into her hand. “Come here, my sun-deprived darling,” she said and started smudging it across Harrow’s nose and cheeks. She huffed but it was mostly for show and submitted to Gideon rubbing sunscreen into her skin. 

“I admit,” Harrow started, thinking aloud more than anything now that Gideon had her thinking about it. “The two of you seem to have more in common than us. I’m surprised you didn’t hit it off romantically.” Her eyes looked up at Gideon, who blinked down at her, still smudging sunscreen across the bridge of her nose.

“Who? Me and Nona?” she asked and Harrow nodded. “Naw. Nona’s great, love her. But not even close to the same way I love you,” she said, punctuating the statement by tapping her finger to the tip of Harrow’s nose, and Harrow would be a damn liar if she said that she didn’t make her happy to hear. Gideon snapped the lid closed on the bottle and threw it down in the sand. “I also don’t have to worry about you eating the lids off all my markers… Nona owes me a whole box already.” 

Harrow sighed and shook her head. “Of course,” she mumbled. 

“Forget about that though, ya ready for a butt kickin’?” Gideon bumped her hip and Harrow scoffed. She couldn’t say she was thrilled to be playing with Passion, but if anything was true, it was that Harrow was competitive, no matter the game nor her partner.

"We'll see about that," she scoffed.

"Ready?" 

They both looked up as Nona came running toward them in her dark green bikini, braids slapping against her back, Pash trotted along behind her. Harrow watched Gideon blink and then her eyes narrow. She was staring at the inked image on the outside of Nona’s thigh. 

“Is that… Noodle?” she asked, blinking at the tattoo of Cam and Pal’s dog. 

“Oh, sure is!” She grinned, stopping in front of them as Pash caught up.

“...Why?” Gideon asked.  

“Cause he’s the best and I love him!”

“I…”

“Just don’t,” Harrow told her with a sigh. “I couldn’t talk her out of it.” 

“You’re just jealous.” Nona stuck her tongue out at her sister, who gave her a flat look in turn.  

“Is that the only one you have?” Gideon asked and Nona’s face lit up. 

“No, I also have some jellyfish, check it out!” She spun around and grabbed the top of her bikini bottoms. 

Harrow jumped up, slapping her hands over Gideon's eyes.

“Wh- Harrow!?” 

“Gid doesn’t need to see the jellyfish on your ass, baby!” Pash grabbed her before she pulled the bottoms down and pushed her toward the water. “Everyone in the water!” 

“Why is she like this?” Gideon whispered to Harrow, who just shook her head. Nona was just Nona to her. There was nothing to explain. That being said, she was well aware that Nona did not, and most likely, never would, ‘conform’ to the average social standard.   

Once waded in, Nona wasted no time hauling herself onto Gideon’s shoulders. 

“Ow, ow, watch the hair, girl!” Gideon grunted as she settled on her shoulders.

“Ya ready?” she asked, leaning over to look at Gideon, who gave a thumbs up before wrapping her arms around Nona’s calves. 

“Let’s do it!” She bounced her shoulders and Nona giggled. 

Pash and Harrow stared at each other, unsure, before Pash finally grunted and leaned down. 

“Let’s just do this already...” 

Harrow sighed to herself but climbed on, settling herself across Pash’s shoulders.

“Did you get all the rules Harrow?” Gideon asked and she nodded. “Alright… ready?” she grinned at her cousin, who glared back, while Nona held up her arms.

“Go!”

The air was filled with yelling and splashing and cursing. Then a bigger splash as Harrow and Pash toppled over. 

“Whoop, point for us!” Nona raised a hand and then high-fived Gideon. 

Harrow sputtered, spitting water out of her mouth and Pash surfaced with a cough. 

“The losers rise from their watery grave!” Gideon remarked with gravitas and Nona giggled. 

Harrow glared at the two of them, with their wide, toothy grins, then turned and caught Pash’s hazel gaze and came to a silent understanding.

“Again!” Harrow demanded, climbing back on Pash’s shoulders.

“Let’s get it on,” Gideon said with a wink Nona couldn’t see. Pash scoffed and mumbled something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like ‘subtle’ to Harrow. 

“Go!” Nona called.

More yelling and splashing.

Nona squealed. 

“No biting, Harrow!” Gideon yelled.

~ ~ ~

The fire popped and crackled, the meat sizzling overtop the metal grate above it. Gideon sprinkled some salt over the kabobs with a happy hum and Harrow watched her from the other side of their campsite. Her hair had been haphazardly brushed back out of her face and left to air dry after they climbed out of the lake. The natural wavy, almost curliness of it without her usual pomade was an admittedly attractive look and Harrow was possessed by the need to run her fingers through it. To run her blunt nails over her scalp and be the cause of that pleasurable humming sound Gideon made when she did. That sound did terrible things to her insides.

"It's not going to be a secret for long if you keep staring at her like you want to eat her whole…,"  Pash leaned down and whispered in Harrow's ear, making her jerk and scowl at the taller woman standing behind her. 

“No one asked you,” she snapped. “Where’s Nona?” she asked, glancing around and not seeing her sister. 

“In the shower.” She nodded her head over toward the facilities as she plopped down at the table next to Harrow, who frowned at her as she was jostled about. “So, what’s the deal? With you and Gid, I mean,” she asked. “Are you planning on using her as a blood sacrifice to Satan or something?” she asked and Harrow sneered.

“I’m Catholic…,” Harrow grumbled. “So no, I’m not planning to use her as a blood sacrifice. The deal…,” she drawled. “...is that we are dating, as you well know.” 

“That’s it?” Pash cocked a brow and Harrow frowned.

“What exactly are you looking for?” she asked and Pash gave a nonchalant shrug, though Harrow knew damn well better. There was nothing nonchalant about this! This was a subtle interrogation. 

“I dunno, I asked Gid and got a whole little speech about how much she loves you and how happy you make her and blah blah blah. I guess I was just wondering what you’d say when I asked you…,” she said and Harrow could feel her face flush at that. 

“My feelings about Gideon are none of your concern…," she grumbled, then jerked back when a finger whipped up into her face, almost touching her nose.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Crypt Keeper,” Pash whispered harshly, well aware of Gideon only fifteen feet away. “You feel all protective of Nona cause she’s your little sister? Well, Gid is essentially mine and that dipshit has always worn her heart open on her sleeve for everyone to see and have a good poke at. The way she looks at you all heart-eyes is so fucking obvious, I’m kicking myself in the ass for not noticing sooner. I’m not gonna let someone stomp all over my baby cousin’s heart again and not do anything, so I’m asking you, how do you feel about Gideon?” she finished, hazel eyes staring like daggers into Harrow’s eyes.   

Harrow stared back silently. The last thing she liked was being backed into a corner… but, she could also, begrudgingly, respect where it was coming from. She’d quite literally stabbed people in the past for her sister and she got the distinct impression that if she hurt Gideon, Pash too would be going in with a knife. Probably not just at the hand either. 

Her eyes flickered over to Gideon, backlit by the warmth of the setting sun. Her hair cast a lambent halo of red around her head as she cooked their dinner and Harrow’s heart clenched almost painfully with affection between the confines of her ribs. Her eyes turned back to Pash's expectant gaze.

“I love Gideon more than I thought it possible to care about anyone but my sister… and I’m tired of pretending for others that I don’t. Gideon deserves more than that," she said, staring back at Pash unblinkingly. 

After what felt like an eternity, but was at best, a handful of seconds, Pash leaned back with a grunt. 

"Alright then," she nodded and then stood and ambled over to where Gideon was kneeling in the grass. Harrow frowned at her back. 

"Whatcha doin, enjoying the view?" 

Harrow glanced over at Nona as she plopped herself onto the bench seat her girlfriend had just abandoned, wet hair wrapped in a towel between her hands as she wrung out the water.

“The lake?” Harrow asked and Nona smirked. 

“Not quite.” She turned back to the firepit, where Gideon and Pash were fussing with the food and the fire in their shorts and tank tops. 

“Oh… no,” she grunted and Nona hummed disbelievingly and nudged Harrow’s leg beneath the table as she pulled off the towel. 

“Are you having fun?” she asked instead, pulling a brush out of her pocket and Harrow caught her sister’s eyes, wide and hopeful. 

“More than I thought I would,” she conceded and Nona beamed at her as she brushed out the long black strands.

“See? I told you this would be fun!” Nona said knowingly. Harrow didn’t try to argue with her. It had been more enjoyable then she had anticipated so far.  She turned her attention back to the cousins, though Pash had disappeared, leaving Gideon, sitting cross-legged by the fire. 

“I’m going to go see if Gideon needs any help…,” she said, standing from the bench. Nona cast her a knowing look as she worked the brush through her ridiculously long hair.

“Uhuh…,” she said with a smirk. Harrow ignored her and made her way over to the fire where Gideon was sitting. 

“Where did Passion go?” she asked, folding herself onto her knees beside Gideon.

“Looking for something in the tent,” she shrugged. “How you holding up? Finally dry?” she asked and started to lift her arm but quickly tucked it neatly back against her side. Harrow caught the aborted movement and knew that arm had been about to sling itself over her shoulders. That knowledge caused a pit of disappointment to open up in her belly.  This was exactly what she had meant when she’d said that she was tired of pretending she didn’t love Gideon. She longed for that warm and heavy arm to drape casually across her shoulders and hold her, badly, the way you wanted something that you knew you couldn’t have.

Not yet .

But soon . 

“Yes, I’m fine… tired,” she admitted and Gideon nodded knowingly. 

“You expended more energy today than I’ve ever seen… actually that’s not true… but close!” she chuckled and Harrow could read that perverse grin like a book. “You work pretty hard when you ride…,” she murmured. Harrow felt her face flush and a rush of heat shoot straight between her legs. She reached over and slapped Gideon’s leg.

“Shut up,” she snapped and Gideon snickered quietly. 

“Not what you said bouncing up and down on my strap…” Her voice was barely a whisper but she may as well have screamed it for everyone to hear by the way she could practically feel steam coming out of her ears and her face turning fluorescent.     

“ Gideon …,” Harrow hissed, voice pitching against her will. The flickering fire cast hardlined shadows across the planes of Gideon’s face and the sharp facets of her grin.  

“That’s spot on,” was the cocky reply. 

“I’m going to shove you in the firepit…” 

“Kinky.”   

Harrow growled and Gideon just winked, grinning so hard her face might split apart at any moment as she turned back to the firepit.

“Food time!” she turned and called over her shoulder. 

"Finally!" Nona jumped up and hurried over as Pash's head popped out of the tent.

"Here, salt and pepper only chicken and veggie kabob for the queen of darkness… and food with spices for everyone else." She handed Harrow her plate before letting Nona and Pash grab theirs off the grate. Harrow nodded her head in thanks as they sat down to eat. 

Nona babbled about everything under the sun, with Pash keeping pace between bites and Harrow throwing in her opinion when Nona stopped to take a breath. Gideon was too busy stuffing her face to really engage but nodded or shook her head in response to any questions thrown her way. 

The sun had long since set and left them sitting in the lone light of the fire when dinner was done and Pash pulled a rolled up magazine out of her pocket.

“Whatcha got?” Gideon asked, taking a sip of her beer.

“Frontline Titties: Air Force Edition.” Pash held it up and Gideon cocked a brow at the cover of a busty brunette wearing aviators and a flight suit undone almost to her navel. Harrow grimaced and Nona just looked curious.

“Why?” Gideon asked. 

“I’m so glad you asked, O’ cousin of mine. This just came out last week and is a special quiz edition.”

“Quiz edition?” Gideon repeated, leaning back on the log they’d pushed up to the firepit. Harrow sat on the other end, legs crossed.  

“Yup!” Pash flipped it open. “Featuring such academic inquiries as ‘ What’s your sexual deal breaker? ’, ‘Top, bottom or switch?’ , and, ‘How hairy do you like it? ’” 

Gideon choked and beer shot out her nose. Harrow made sure she didn’t die. 

“Oh, I wanna play,” Nona clapped her hands.

“No.” Harrow shot that down immediately and Nona pouted. “You two may play on your own, not in front of me…” 

“You don’t wanna answer: ‘Is your bedroom gushing like Niagra falls or dusty as the Sahara? ’, Harrow?” Pash asked innocently but the tilt of her lips gave her away. 

“I hated every one of those words,” she growled.   

“There are some things I don’t wanna know about my cousin… or her girlfriend,” Gideon mumbled, looking at Nona, who shrugged. 

“You two are no fun,” Pash huffed while Gideon threw back the rest of her beer.

“I’m going to go brush my teeth,” Harrow announced, then stood. 

“I'll come with you. I’m ‘bout ready to hit the hay too.” Gideon rocked onto her feet and tossed the bottle in the nearest trash can before going to get her toothbrush. 

“I wanna take the quiz, Hon,” Nona said and Harrow rolled her eyes, leaving them to quizzing each other.

“I’m actually pretty tired,” Gideon yawned as they walked the short distance to the bathroom. Harrow nodded. The small building was empty when they stepped inside. Gideon made quick work of brushing her teeth while Harrow washed her face. 

When she finally got to brushing her teeth, Harrow could see Gideon leaning against the wall behind her, watching her in the mirror. She cocked a brow in silent question back at the ginger’s reflection. Gideon kicked off the wall and with two steps, closed the distance between them, wrapping her arms around Harrow’s waist and resting her chin on her shoulder.

“I’ve been thinking about you all day,” she hummed and Harrow tensed, tingly anticipation buzzing up her spine at the tone of the words that were breathed against her ear. 

She’d be a liar if she said she hadn’t desperately wanted Gideon to touch her. She’d squandered her chance on the dock and there hadn’t really been any alone time since. She finished brushing her teeth before catching Gideon’s eye in the mirror.

“Oh?” 

“Mhmm.” Gideon pressed a kiss to the sensitive place behind her ear and her skin twitched as fingers brushed beneath the hem of her shirt and up her ribs. Harrow melted beneath the touch but had to pull herself together long enough to spin around.

“Stop.”

“Stop?” Gideon blinked but pulled back completely. “I’m sor-”

“No, don’t apologize,” Harrow quickly cut her off. “I’ve been thinking about it all day… about you as well,” she admitted. Off and on all day, all she wanted was Gideon to touch her. 

“But….?” Gideon drawled. 

“But if you think we’re going to have sex in this unsanitary and public campsite bathroom, you’ve lost your damn mind,” she snapped. Gideon glanced around thoughtfully.

“Fair…,” she sighed.

“Let’s head back,” Harrow grumbled. She was frustrated, yes, but there was nothing to be done about it right now. 

When they got back to their campsite, the fire was doused and Nona and Pash were coming out of their tent.

“Hey, we’re gonna head over and tidy up for the night and turn in.” Pash jerked her head toward the bathrooms. 

“Sure, night.” Gideon gave a little wave and then followed Harrow into the tent, zipping the door shut behind them. The flashlight on her phone lit up the tent, She turned it over so only the barest hint of light seeped out, allowing them to - sort of- see each other’s shapes moving about in the darkness.

"Night, guys!” Nona called before the sound of their footsteps grew distant. 

Harrow had barely gotten her shoes off and set aside when she heard Gideon breathe "Finally." Then her familiar arms wrapped around Harrow and dragged her back into her lap, making Harrow yelp as her back hit Gideon's chest.

"Gideon," she hissed, making her chuckle.

"Sorry, ya good?" Gideon asked. In response, Harrow wiggled around until she was slotted more comfortably between Gideon's thighs and reclined comfortably against her torso.

"I'm good." She nodded and Gideon gave a little squeeze, resting her chin on Harrow's shoulder.

"Fun as camping is, Pash and Nona are exhausting… especially together," she grunted and Harrow chuckled quietly. 

"Nona? Exhausting? Perish the thought, beloved." She grinned. Gideon's laughter rang low and quiet against her ear, then she sighed and Harrow felt the body beneath hers relax fully. They just sat there for a while, quiet in each other's presence and listened to the sounds outside the tent. Eventually, they heard Pash and Nona return, giggling to each other as they slipped inside their own tent and settled in. 

Harrow made a sound and she felt Gideon shift to try and look at her from where he sat, draped over Harrow. 

“What?” she asked quietly, now that Pash and Nona were in the vicinity. Harrow shook her head but Gideon bumped hers against Harrow’s, entreating.

“This is nice…,” she started, and it was. Gideon's solid and warm presence wrapped around her like a security blanket was soothing. “.. but it’s not quite what I had in mind when I said I’d been thinking about you all day…,” she trailed off and Gideon hummed.

“And just what did you have in mind?” she asked softly - knowingly -  as a hand trailed away from her waist and slid agonizingly slowly up the pillar of Harrow’s throat, firm but gentle. Harrow’s breath caught sharply as Gideon’s thumb pressed against her pulse point, then hand stilled. She felt Gideon shift, as if trying to see her face.

“Do you like that?” she asked, cautiously giving a light, experimental squeeze to Harrow’s throat. Harrow’s answer was a sharp inhale as a rush of heat and wetness pooled between her thighs. She reached back and dug her hands into the fabric of Gideon’s shorts. 

“Gotta use your words, Sweetheart,” Gideon murmured against her ear. 

“Yes…,” Harrow whispered. “… I like it…” she managed and Gideon’s grip tightened incrementally, sending a jolt of excitement straight from her brain to her pussy. Gideon was always good at that. Then, the pressure was gone entirely and Harrow couldn’t help but whimper.

“You really do like that…,” Gideon remarked with quiet awe. “I never expected you to be a ‘Choke me, Daddy.’ type,” she hummed and Harrow slapped her thigh.

“I do not call anyone ‘Daddy’ , Gideon Nav,” she hissed under her breath and Gideon chuckled. 

“How about a ‘Choke me, Gideon ’ type?” she asked with an amused and knowing lilt. Harrow had nothing to say to that. “Ya know, with our time together being so limited most of the time, we haven’t ventured into that territory… you need a safeword,” Gideon declared and Harrow tensed up, mind immediately conjuring up images of ropes and gags and shiny silver clasps on cuffs. 

“I’m not sure those kinds of things are for me…,” she trailed off and Gideon snorted, seeming to know exactly what she was thinking. 

“Having a safeword doesn’t necessarily mean I’m gonna suspend you from the ceiling by nipple clamps, Harrow,” she chuckled in her ear and Harrow flushed crimson. “It varies greatly and a lot of people just use it as a hard stop.” 

“Does ‘stop’ not suffice?” she asked, already knowing the answer for Gideon, who all but jumped back earlier at the utterance of the word.

“Sure, if that’s how you want it to be, but for some people, asking to stop is part of the act. Just because you say something, doesn’t mean you mean it… like how you tell me to shut up even though we both know you think whatever I said was funny,” she explained and Harrow hummed as the fingers of Gideon’s other hand on her abdomen made slow, lazy circles against her skin. 

“Ya wanna have a go at something light?” she asked and Harrow thought about it only for a moment. Reasonably sure that Gideon didn’t pack any such things as ‘nipple clamps’, she nodded, no longer even thinking about the fact that this was probably not the right time - camping with her sister and her girlfriend- to be experimenting with their sex life.  

“What’s yours? Your safe word?” she asked, turning her head to try and glimpse Gideon behind her.

“Pomegranate,” she replied without missing a beat. 

“Pomegranate,” Harrow repeated. “Why?” 

Gideon shrugged. “It has to be something you’d never accidentally say during sex but also easy to remember when your brain has been fucked to mush,” she said and Harrow snorted. 

“I see…” Then she lapsed into a thoughtful quiet. 

“Are you trying to think of one?” Gideon asked, her voice tinted with amusement. 

“Yes…,” Harrow grumbled.

“You don’t need to think of one right this second, babe. If you say stop, that will be good enough for me and if you can't manage that, just tap your hand on my leg three times,” Gideon murmured in her ear as the hand resting on her collar slid back up to her throat but just held, exerting no pressure. Even so, Harrow stilled, her breath hitching beneath Gideon’s fingers. “Okay?” She asked and Harrow licked her dry lips.

“Yes.”

Gideon’s fingers squeezed gently as she placed a kiss on Harrow’s shoulder sending tingles through her. The hand on her belly slid upward and gave a sudden, vicious pinch to her left nipple. Harrow gasped but it was quickly strangled by the tightening pressure around her throat. 

“Shhh,” Gideon breathed in her ear. “You have to be quiet, Harrowhark.” The syllables of her name rolled off Gideon’s tongue with sharp precision as she twisted her nipple between her fingers making Harrow squirm and jerk in her grasp. “Can’t let them hear…” She then sunk her teeth harder than ever before into Harrow’s shoulder, still exerting pressure on her throat. 

Harrow clamped her lips shut to keep from making any sound. Her hips jerked automatically, searching for friction and finding none as the slick continued to seep into her underwear. Pain and pleasure twisted beyond separable recognition in the pathways of her nerves.  

Gideon gave the abused nipple between her fingers another tug and Harrow couldn’t bite down completely on the sound that came out of her throat.

“Too hard?” Gideon asked softly, releasing her teeth from the skin of her shoulder and Harrow shook her head emphatically. 

“Harder,” she managed to choke quietly and then nearly swallowed her own tongue when Gideon complied with a vicious twist of her fingers.

“I’m starting to think you’re a masochist, babe…,” Gideon grunted under her breath before leaving open mouth kisses against the back of her neck and shoulders. 

Harrow was starting to think so too… especially when Gideon dug her teeth into the soft meat of her shoulder on the other side, making her pant shallowly as the hand around her neck gave another little squeeze, constricting her air ever so slightly more. Gideon was working her in small increments, a slow and steady climb that made something buzz beneath her skin louder and louder and caused her hips twitch involuntarily. 

“Gi-Gideon…, ” she croaked. Gideon lathed her tongue over the mark on the back of Harrow’s shoulder, her left hand switching to maul Harrow’s other nipple. She wriggled helplessly in Gideon’s grasp. 

“Hmm?” Gideon hummed.

“ Please .” It was little more than a breath of a word. Gideon's thumb, nestled into the hollow of Harrow's throat, above her pulse point suddenly pressed quick and hard and spots flashed behind Harrow’s eyes. Her nails dug sharply into the meat of Gideon’s thighs as she bit her lip hard enough to draw blood to keep from making any noise.  

“Please what?” Gideon’s voice rumbled in her ear, low and smoldering; dangerous. Harrow couldn't help the whimper that slipped out. 

“Please, fuck me…,” she simpered. 

“I love it when you beg.” She could feel Gideon’s cheshire grin against her skin.

The world tipped forward furiously and Harrow found herself flung onto her hands and knees on their bedding. Before she could mentally right herself, Gideon’s body weight was pressed heavily against her back, shoving her to her forearms as a large hand wrapped back around her throat from behind. Her knees bracketed Harrow’s on either side, completely encompassing Harrow beneath her bulk. 

“Can you breathe?” Gideon mumbled into her ear and Harrow, who found her tongue suddenly too heavy to make words, nodded. “Can you still reach my leg?” 

Harrow reached back and her hand slapped Gideon’s thigh. 

“Good… and if you want to stop and can’t speak?”

Harrow’s hand tapped against her leg three times.

“Good, girl,” Gideon mumbled and Harrow hated how it caused a sudden and unexpected mini flood between her thighs. She was not calling anyone daddy !

Gideon’s missing hand suddenly pressed against her lower belly, fingers wiggling beneath the waistband of her shorts and underwear. Harrow’s breath hitched as those searching fingers slid through damp curls and slipped between her folds. 

Gideon groaned into the back of Harrow’s neck at the same time the smaller body beneath hers keened sharply. “You’re so fucking wet, Harrow,” she growled, curling her fingers through the slick mess of her cunt, pressing and rubbing the smooth inner walls with her fingertips. Harrow shuddered, digging her fingers into the blankets. Gideon’s grip on her throat tightened and that was all the warning she got before Gideon’s middle and ring finger plunged inside her to the hilt and her palm pressed against her clit.    

The thrashing wail was choked down to little more than a high pitched whimper by Gideon’s hand squeezing her throat tight enough to actually choke out the sound, which only amplified the pleasure pulsating around Gideon’s fingers already thrusting inside her. 

“You gotta be quieter than that, babe,” Gideon growled in her ear, fingers speeding up and her palm rubbing viciously against her clit. Harrow was quickly hurtling toward the edge already, she could feel it in the tight coil of every muscle in her body and the scream that was lodged in her throat, cinched between Gideon’s ever tightening grip on her larynx. She abandoned her grip on the pillows to reach back and dig her nails as hard as she could into the meat of Gideon’s thighs, her face dropping into the pillow and her breath coming out in hot, wet gasps. She was barely conscious of the fact she was drooling on them. Her whole body was busy convulsing around Gideon’s fingers curling up inside her with every thrust that made her muscles clench. 

“ Gid -e-on!“ she choked out every syllable rising in volume before Gideon’s hand finally released her abused throat to clamp tightly over her mouth.

“I never realized how loud you fucking are,” Gideon growled quietly as Harrow continued to cry and whimper. “We can’t let them hear you getting your brains fucked out...” Then she bit Harrow’s ear.  

Harrow wailed loudly into Gideon’s hand, muffled more by the pillow. Her breath came out in quicker and quicker pants, muscles coiled, ready to pop.  

“You’re so close, aren’t you?” Gideon cooed and Harrow groaned in answer. “I know, Honey…just a little more.” A third finger worked its way inside and the sting of the stretch melted quickly into delicious ecstasy. Gideon ground her clit hard and it was so much. Harrow exploded, digging her nails into Gideon, her hand catching most of the scream that ripped out of Harrow’s throat. The pillows caught the rest as Gideon shoved her face down into them, negating most of the sound.

Her body convulsed and shook, hips jerking violently and all she could do was hold on and sob out sounds that tried to sound something like ‘Gideon’ as she came undone.

“There ya go, just let it go,” Gideon’s voice murmured in her ear. “You’re okay, Sweetheart…” She continued to mumble sweet nothings in her ear until the shaking stopped and Harrow fell limp onto her stomach. The sobbing turned to quiet tears. As Gideon carefully slid her fingers out and pulled her hand away from Harrow’s mouth. 

"Are you okay?" Gideon asked, running her hands gently over Harrow's back. Harrow nodded into the wet pillow, unable to make her mouth move just yet. "Okay." Gideon continued to run her hands softly over her for five, maybe ten minutes before she finally felt like she could move. Slowly, she pushed herself up onto her forearms and took her first deep breath in a while. A hand reached around and ran gentle fingers over the front of her throat in a soothing gesture, rubbing her sore skin. “Need anything? Water?” Gideon asked, finally moving to the side where Harrow could see her as she wiped the tears off Harrow’s cheeks with the back of her other hand. 

“No,” she croaked, even as she reached out for Gideon, who dropped onto her side to lay next to her. Harrow shuffled closer and buried her face in Gideon’s chest, hands clinging to the back of her shirt. Gideon squeezed her gently with one arm and ran her other hand through Harrow’s sweaty hair.

“So… good?” she asked and a sudden and quiet bark of laughter burst out of Harrow’s throat against Gideon's chest before she peeled her face back to look at her in the darkness of the tent. The light from the phone, still laying light-side down in the blankets, was negligible but enough that she could just make out Gideon’s face. 

“Incredible,” she mumbled, leaning up to kiss her. Her whole body felt like jello.

“Good,” Gideon hummed through another kiss. “We can circle back around to this again when we get home…” She then fell over onto her back with a pained groan.

“Are you alright?” she asked and Gideon grunted. 

“Too long on my knees,” was the answer and Harrow frowned at that. “Also, I think you broke the skin on my legs…” She reached out and grabbed her phone to shine on her legs. Harrow blinked, eyes adjusting then gasped. Dried blood was running down the sides of both her legs from the five crescent-shaped cuts on either side.

“God, Gideon, I’m sorry!” Harrow muttered, wincing at the look of them. She glanced at her hands and found blood on each finger and caked beneath her nails.  

“Naw, don’t be, Sweetheart. Battlewounds,” Gideon chuckled. “It’s dry… I’ll clean it up in the morning..” 

“No, it’s dirty out here, we’ll clean it now.” Harrow managed to sit herself up and Gideon whined, making grabby hands at her.

“But cuddling…Aftercare is a must, Harrow…”

“You’re the one bleeding. This is aftercare,” she mumbled, rising herself up onto her still wobbly knees and dug through her bag, coming back with a first aid kit. Gideon sighed and relented to letting Harrow clean and bandage the cuts. She stared at Gideon's knee and frowned. There was not much she could do for that. She hadn’t thought to bring the salve. 

“Hey, forget about that, it’ll be fine. Now can we cuddle?” she asked and Harrow dropped back into her arms without a huff, grunt or eyeroll.

“Now we can cuddle,” she mumbled, burying herself in Gideon’s arms beneath the blankets. Gideon kissed her forehead.

Chapter Text

“Wakey wakey!”  Nona's voice jarringly came from just outside their tent.

“Ugh, she’s so loud…” Gideon grumbled lowly in Harrow's ear. An agreeing sound came from the vicinity of her neck and without opening her eyes, Gideon leaned down and pressed a kiss to Harrow’s head. “We better get moving before she decides to come in…” 

Harrow made another sound but made no move to extract herself from her arms. In fact, she snuggled deeper into Gideon's chest.

"Gideon! Harrow!" Then a hand slapped the side of the tent loudly.

"We're up, we're up!" Gideon called with a groan. "Gimme a minute!" 

"Pash just started cooking breakfast and then we are going for a hike so no rush… but hurry up!" Then her footfalls faded and Gideon, with a groan, sat herself up. A jaw-cracking yawn erupted from her.

"You good down there, babe?" She murmured and Harrow made an annoyed sound but sat up anyway Her shoulder-length hair was a floppy mess sticking up in odd angles as it did every morning and Gideon would never get tired of it.

"Define 'good'," she grumbled and Gideon chuckled to herself, brushing the hair out of her face to lean down and plant a soft kiss against her lips. "Hmm, slightly better now," she murmured against Gideon's lips, making her smile before she leaned back, allowing herself to ogle her girlfriend as much as she wanted before they left the privacy of their tent. Though she was still fully clothed in her shorts and sleeping shirt, the neckline was hanging low around her shoulders and Gideon's eyes traced the fine line of her collar only half a second before her eyes nearly popped out of her damn skull.

"Oh, shit…," she hissed and Harrow blinked drowsily at her, brow winkling at the look that Gideon could feel on her face but for the life of her couldn’t get rid of.

"What?" she gurgled tiredly.

"Uh… you got.. a.. um…," Gideon made vague gestures around her neck, grimacing the whole time.

"What?" Harrow frowned and immediately went fumbling for her phone.

“It’s not that bad!” Gideon hurriedly tried to say, which was not relieving in the least to her girlfriend.

Harrow turned on her camera and gasped loud enough that she was surprised Nona wasn’t cutting open the tent with a machete several seconds later. She watched helplessly as Harrow’s mouth hung open in shock as she stared at the dark blue and purplish hand-shaped bruise that wrapped perfectly around the entirety of the delicate curve of her throat. She stared at it in silent shock for what felt like a long time before finally, she was able to coerce her mouth into moving

“Wh- You.. How do I-” Everything coming out of her mouth was short blips and half aborted words. Gideon, likewise, didn't know what to say… but that didn't mean she didn’t try.

“God, you bruise like an overripe peach…” 

“GIDEON!” she hissed furiously, eyes whipping up to her. “What are we going to do?!” she hissed. Time was ticking and they were both quickly coming to the conclusion that there wasn’t much they could do.

“You don’t have like… a sweater or something?” Gideon asked desperately and Harrow sneered at her.

“Oh, yes, let me just get out my fucking summer hiking turtleneck! ” she snapped. “Are you totally stupid?” she growled and Gideon flinched back at the searing vitriol there. Harrow’s frown lessened greatly and the furrow in her brow shifted as she sighed heavily, running a hand down her face. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.… this is just as much my fault as yours… god. I have literally nothing I can cover this up with!” she covered her face with her hands and groaned. Gideon pursed her lips and then rocked forward onto her knees, trying not to wince at her still sore bad knee.  

“Okay, listen to me, sweetheart.” Gideon pulled Harrow’s hands away from her face and forced those black eyes to look up at her. “We’re gonna Gideon Nav this shit,” she said with the utmost seriousness.

“...fuck shit up?” Harrow blinked, confused and Gideon wanted to laugh.

“No, babe, fake it till we make it,” she said. “We’re gonna go out there like nothing is wrong and lie our asses off till our pants catch on fire.”   

“There has to be a better way then… ‘faking it till we make it.’, Gideon…”

“Are you guys coming out or what?!” Nona called and Harrow winced.

“Well, you have five seconds to think of one…. Well? No? Go time then.” She leaned forward and gave Harrow a hard kiss. “See you on the other side, baby.” She then unzipped the tent and slipped out. “We’re coming, we’re coming. The zipper was caught, chill,” she, looking at Nona, standing over by the firepit with Pash and her hands on her hips.

“Why didn’t you just say so, we could have come helped,” she sighed and Gideon shrugged. 

“We got it, no worries. How’d you two sleep?” she asked.

“Like the dead,” Pash grunted, still looking halfway there herself. “Nona woke me up at the crack of dawn to watch the sunrise with her.” She yawned. 

“Sounds romantic,” Gideon drawled and Nona beamed while Pash nodded. Behind her, Gideon could hear the tent rustle and mentally steeled herself for whatever came next, willing her face into neutrality and hopefully to keep it there. 

“Morning, Harrooooooooh my god! What happened to your neck?!” Nona screeched and that made Pash jerk up to look as Nona dashed past Gideon to grab her sister’s head in her hands, craning it this way and that to try and get a good look at the big bruise. 

“Nona, Nona! It’s okay!” Harrow insisted, trying to get out of her sister’s grip. Pash took one hard look at the ugly hand-shaped bruise and then whipped around to face Gideon, throwing up her hands in a very ‘WTF?’ motion, followed by a fist and a questioning look. 

Gideon silently shook her head emphatically, scowling at the accusation that she might have been trying to hurt Harrow, and held up her hands, grimacing, and then wrapped her own hand around her neck and gave her hips a few hard thrusts.

Pash slapped a hand to her face, glaring at Gideon from between her fingers as she just held her hands up in a shrug. 

“Nona!” Harrow finally shoved her hands off her and took a step back out of their reach. “I’m fine, really.” 

“You look like you were mauled!” she cried, throwing up her hands and paying no attention to the two cousins playing charades behind her. Harrow, however, was, and Gideon happened to catch the hard eyed look she was giving her as she mimed to her cousin.

“I know. It was an accident...” 

Nona whipped around to glare balefully at Gideon. Both cousins jerked to a halt.

“What did you do?!” she demanded, getting all of two steps toward Gideon before Harrow grabbed her by the shoulder.

“No, no. Gideon didn’t do it!” she insisted before Nona could get within pouncing range. “Not intentionally anyway…”

“What?” Nona turned back around to face her and Gideon glanced at Pash, who wore the same bewildered expression as herself. She couldn't wait to hear what Harrow came up with.

"She tripped…in the dark and when she fell, she happened to catch herself on my throat… and.. well, bruise.” She gestured to the bruise. Gideon could feel herself making the world’s most disbelieving face.

‘What!?’ Gideon mouthed at her while Pash just shook her head.

“I know you bruise easily but damn, Harrow.” Nona shook her head, then turned and looked at Gideon. "You two gotta be more careful!" she said and Gideon nodded. She turned back to Harrow to inspect the bruise. "She got you good."

‘She bought that?!’  Gideon threw up her hands. 

Pash just tilted her head back and looked at the sky, as if beseeching god before turning away back to the fire, still shaking her head and mumbling under her breath. Gideon just shot Harrow a bewildered thumbs up. 

"I'm gonna run to the bathroom,"  she announced and quickly turned and made her way to the bathroom.

When she came out of the stall, Harrow was there, standing in front of the mirrors, washing her face. Gideon saddled up next to her and bumped her hip as she started washing her hands.

"That big brain of yours came up with that shit quickly," she said and Harrow nodded, patting her face dry with her towel and then rearing back and punching Gideon in the arm.

"Ow!" she yelped. "Hell was that for?" she grumbled, rubbing the meat of her arm where Harrow's boney knuckles had struck.

"I saw you thrusting your hips at Passion," she scolded.

"What was I supposed to say?! She thought I was abusing you in that tent! Would you rather she know we were having sex or think I'm beating you up?"

"Neither, preferably, but if one must be chosen then I suppose… ," she grumbled, moving past Gideon and into the stall. Gideon arranged her hair out of her face and stared thoughtfully at herself in the mirror. 

"Hey," she said, getting Harrow's attention as she came out. 

Harrow hummed as she washed her hands.

"I'm sorry," she said and Harrow looked up at her, frowning. 

"I’ll excuse the humping charades just this once…,” she said, drying off her hands.

"No, not that.” She shook her head and Harrow’s brow furrowed. “The purple, continent-size necklace you can't take off." She gestured to Harrow's throat and she scoffed.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, Gideon. You did exactly what I asked of you… and very… very well,” she hummed, a tinge of color coming to her face. Gideon wanted to preserve that face in her mind forever. “This was… an unfortunate miscalculation on both our parts. Next time I can be better prepared,” she said. 

“Really tickled your fancy, did it?” she asked with a smirk and Harrow merely huffed at her but denied nothing. “Can I see?” she asked, holding up her hands questioningly and Harrow turned to face her, chin raised and Gideon gently ran her fingers over the slope of her throat. “Does it hurt any?” she asked softly, a tinge of worry seeping into her voice. Harrow reached up and wrapped her hands around Gideon’s wrists. Her thumbs swiped back and forth over the pulse point of her wrist. 

“Not at all, beloved,” Harrow assured her and Gideon hummed, pulling her hands away only to lean forward and place several feather-light kisses against the discolored skin. She could feel the arrest of Harrow’s breath beneath her lips.  

“I still can’t help but feel bad… I’ll see if I can’t figure something out to use that won’t leave a big bruise next time,” she said as she leaned back to meet Harrow's half-lidded gaze. 

“Maybe I don’t mind the bruises,” Harrow’s voice was quiet and it made the hair on the back of Gideon’s neck stand on end and her heartbeat gave a lone pulse between her thighs. Gideon shuffled her feet and Harrow had the gall to smirk. 

“I never did get the chance to return the favor last night…,” she said loftily like it was a minor thing she had forgotten. Gideon made a quiet, throaty sound and then Harrow stepped away from her, that devilish little smirk still pulling at her mouth. “Ahh, well. No time at the present I’m afraid.” Then she stepped around Gideon and headed for the door. “Tonight… perhaps. We really ought not play with fire again like that. Nona may catch on,” she threw over her shoulder. Then she was gone, leaving Gideon standing there, mouth hanging open and arms limp at her sides. 

“She’s such a bitch… god I love her.” Gideon managed to mutter before finally pulling herself together and heading back to their campsite. 

“Breakfast!” Pash announced, handing out hot breakfast burritos.

“Oh, the legendary burritos.” Gideon grinned, plopping herself down on the log and accepting a plate with a forearm-sized burrito nearly hanging off both ends. She didn’t hesitate to cram it into her mouth.

“That looks revolting… obscene.” Harrow curled her lips at the giant thing as Nona sat down next to her. 

“Look here, picky-ass…,” Pash started and Harrow glowered at her. 

“There’s more granola and yogurt in my lunch box for you, Bab-but it might not be super cold anymore!” Gideon managed to cut off the pet name. She coughed into her hand like she was trying to dislodge something as everyone looked at her. Pash’s face had fallen flat and Harrow’s eyes had widened to the size of saucers. Nona just gave her an odd look as she chewed a mouth full of burrito. She cleared her throat. “Yeah, in my bag,” she mumbled and then took a giant bite of her own food to avoid having to say another damn thing. 

“There ya go, Harrow.” Nona nodded toward the tent. “Yogurt and nuts.”  

“It’s granola,” she grunted, standing and moving toward the tent, shooting Gideon another warning look from the side of her eye as she did. 

“So, what’s the plan for the hike?” Gideon mumbled around her mouthful of burrito. 

“We’re going to go up the south trail, it takes us about halfway up the mountain to a really cool overlook that I heard about,” Pash said between bites and Nona nodded.

“An overview of the lake and all that stuff,” she piped up.

“Oh, cool, how far is it?” Gideon asked.

“Just two miles,” Pash said, then stuffed her mouth with another bite.

“What is two miles?” Harrow asked when she reappeared out of the tent, yogurt and a tiny bag of granola in hand. 

“The hike.”

“Two miles?” She balked and Pash nodded. 

“Don’t worry, it’ll go by like that!” She snapped her fingers. Gideon carefully didn’t say anything. She was quite familiar with Harrow’s constitution and she wasn’t sure a robust hike was in the cards. It must have shown on her face because Harrow frowned at her, eyes narrowing. 

“Less talky, more eaty, we’re burning daylight!” Pash declared, shoving the rest of the burrito into her mouth and standing. “I’m going to get my bag!” She turned and hustled off to her and Nona’s tent. Her girlfriend likewise shoved the rest of her breakfast into her mouth and stood, hurrying after her.

“Is she always so intense about hiking?” Harrow asked, scooping yogurt up onto her spoon. 

“Yeah.” Gideon bobbed her head, taking another leisurely bite, not at all bothered by Pash’s pushiness. “It was the only thing she ever did with her mom before she kicked it from those mysterious circumstances. At least that’s what Ma told me,” she said under her breath.  

“Very nice save, earlier…” Harrow mumbled sarcastically and Gideon grimaced. 

“I know, I know. This shit is getting too hard,” she grumbled and Harrow nodded. 

“We only need to maintain the charade till tomorrow evening,” she reminded as she poured the rest of her granola into the little yogurt cup. Gideon sighed, nodding as she finished her breakfast. 

“Are we ready to go?” Pash asked when she came back with a little bag hung over her shoulder and a bandana tied around her forehead.

“What, are you a fuckin’ park ranger now?” Gideon chuckled and stood. Pash grunted, nostrils flaring, but rather than pick a fight, she spun on heel and started off toward the jeep without another word. Gideon rolled her eyes and followed. 

“We have to drive there?” Harrow asked as she too stood from the log, still eating the last of her breakfast. 

“Yeah, the trail starts on the other side of the lake, we have to drive around,” Nona said as she swung herself into the driver’s seat. Gideon held out a hand and helped Harrow into the back. 

They drove around to the other side of the lake, but somewhere Nona must have taken a wrong turn because within ten minutes they found themselves at the end of the dirt road with an orange, ‘Road Closed’ sign blocking their path. Nona hit the brakes, a moment later than Gideon would have liked her to.

“Is it not open?” Gideon stood and poked her head out the open moonroof, trying to see down the road. 

“Gideon, get down.” Gideon looked up at her, half her torso hanging out of the vehicle. She glanced down and stuck her tongue out at her girlfriend. 

“No, it is, we just went the wrong way,” Pash mumbled, looking at the paper map she’d snagged from the park office. “We’re here.” She pointed to a road and we should be…” Her finger moved across the paper carefully. “Here.” she tapped it and then looked up. “Which is over there.” She pointed and they all looked at the road. It was down hill, maybe a hundred yards away through a field thick with brush and hills. 

“We’ll have to back track,” Harrow mumbled and Nona brightened. 

“Oh, ya know what we should do, honey?” Nona looked at Passion with a glowing, toothy grin. Pash didn’t say a word, just reached up and secured her seatbelt before a smirk worked its way onto her own face. Gideon and Harrow both frowned at those looks. Before either of them could so much as inhale to speak, the engine revved loudly.

“OFF ROAD IT” Nona shouted over the engine and Pash whooped as the vehicle lurched forward, spitting dirt and gravel as they flew off the path and into the grass. 

Gideon’s whole body propelled backward and slammed into the edge of the moon roof. She wheezed and dropped back down into the car, flopping into the seat.

“Gideon!” 

She felt Harrow’s hand on her arm, squeezing tightly but she was too busy grabbing the aptly named ‘oh shit’ handle with her right hand and grabbing Harrow to her chest with the left. 

“Whoo!” Nona was punching the clutch and shifting gears while they bounced around like they were in a pinball machine in the backseat, smacking the back of the front seats. 

“We’re gonna fucking die!” Gideon yelled, clutching her buckled-in girlfriend to her for dear life and Harrow clung back just as tightly, fingers digging into Gideon’s shirt. The jeep jumped and bounced, violently chugging along over every bump and hill by the sheer force of its engine. They left the ground a few brief times and every one of them made Gideon's stomach flip nauseatingly. Pash was holding onto the oh shit handle with her left hand and half hanging out the doorless jeep, hair and bandana whipping in the air. “I fucking hate both of you!” Gideon yelled and the couple up front had the nerve to laugh at her. Gideon decided then and there that if she lived she was going to shave Pash’s head in vengeance. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow or next year, but someday, when she least expected it, Gideon would have her vengeance! 

With a final, skull rattling bounce, the jeep's tires hit the dirt and then they were rolling smoothly down the open road. 

“Well, if you weren’t awake before, you are now.” Pash turned around and grinned at the two of them, clinging to each other, eyes wide and Gideon was sure she could feel the hummingbird wingbeat of Harrow’s heart against her chest even over the sound of her own pounding in her ears. 

“I’m gonna suffocate you in your sleep,” Gideon sneered, trying to get her arm to unlock from around Harrow, who remained stiff and unmoving against her. Pash smirked.

“I’ve seen how good you are at that,” she glanced at Harrow’s neck for emphasis and Gideon wanted to climb into the front seat and beat the blue-haired idiot that was her cousin senseless. It must have shown on her face because Pash turned back around to face the front.

"Ya good?" She turned back to Harrow, who seemed to be untensing now as they drove down the road.

She nodded, though she still hadn't let go of Gideon, who glanced at the front seat and Nona, watching the road and talking with Pash. She took Harrow's clawed hands and managed to pry them out of her shirt and gave them a soft, reassuring squeeze. Harrow squeezed back, then let go of her completely to lean forward and dig her fingers into Nona's shoulder.

"Harrow!" she squealed.

"Do not. Ever. Do that again if I am in this vehicle." She hissed into her ear, then let go.

"You are no fun," Nona pouted, reaching up to rub her shoulder. 

"That was not fun," Gideon grunted, rubbing her back where she'd smashed against the moon roof opening.

"Agree to disagree," Pash called back to them.

Gideon glanced at Harrow and they shared an annoyed look.

They pulled to a stop next to a wooden sign reading ‘Southern Trail’ in faded white paint. An arrow beside it pointed up toward a dirt trail

“Alright, let’s go!” Pash swung out of the jeep and Nona jumped out right after. It took Gideon and Harrow a moment longer to peel themselves out of their seats and climb out. Gideon breathed a sigh of relief when her feet hit solid ground. 

“Come on, you two are so slow today!” Nona called, turning and trotting quickly after Pash, who hadn’t bothered to wait for them before taking off down the trail. Gideon shot a glare at their backs and flipped them both off.

“I changed my mind," Harrow declared, watching Pash and her sister, hand in hand, disappear further down the way without so much as looking back.

“Hm?” Gideon looked at her.

“They deserve each other, I’ll help her pack when we get home,” she growled and Gideon laughed. 

“We both know you don’t mean that.” Gideon nudged her knowingly and Harrow huffed but didn't argue. "Come on, it'll be relaxing!" she said and nodded toward the trail. She glanced at Harrow’s hand and wanted to take it in hand and walk with her, but she knew she couldn’t. Harrow caught her look and knew.

She passed by, close enough that she could briefly wrap her finger around Gideon’s, and gave a brief tug before moving past her down the path, with a brief backward glance. 

Gideon followed along behind. 

Chapter Text

“This is not…relaxing,” Harrow grunted as they climbed up the hill. The sun was bearing down on them even between the scattered leaves of the trees. The June heat was fierce already and although Gideon was a little warm in her shorts and sleeveless shirt, Harrow in her black clothes looked even hotter. 

“It will be when we get to the top!” she offered. “Besides, you’re getting some exercise,” Gideon chuckled and Harrow flipped her off. “You oughta start coming with Nona and Cam to the gym. I don’t see any reason you can’t be just as fierce a little fighter as Nona,” she said, climbing up on some rocks.

“I did a lot more sports and outdoorsy stuff than Harrow did as a kid,” Nona called back at them over her shoulder. “She never had the constitution and she was always getting overheated.” She hopped over a log with a happy hum. 

“With that much black, no shit,” Pash called back at them, grumbling and trying to keep pace with Nona, who was jumping around the path with visible ease. 

“I was not born… swaddled in occult robes…” Harrow huffed and puffed, stopping to catch her breath as they finally hit a plateau.

“Why do you wear all the black?” Gideon asked curiously. “Just your favorite color or what?” It occurred to her she had never bothered asking why ninety percent of Harrow’s wardrobe was black and the other ten was blacker. She’d assumed Harrow was just hardcore committed to her aesthetic, which Gideon could respect. 

“Black goes with everything, first of all,” she brushed her sweaty hair back out of her face and wiped the back of her arm across her brow. “I also prefer not to be perceived if it can be helped.”

“What?” Gideon cocked her head.

“Black is very form-concealing,” she explained and Gideon chuckled.

“You’re so fucking weird, Harrowhark.” She smiled and she knew it must look all kinds of dopey saccharine but she couldn’t help herself. 

“Stop looking at me like that,” she hissed under her breath as she walked past her. 

“Make me,” she mumbled, turning to follow and just by the little shake of her head, she knew Harrow was rolling her eyes. 

“It’s a wonder we’ve been able to keep anything secret this long with as terribly conspicuous as you are.” She glanced over her shoulder at Gideon, who grinned and winked. She knew she was only proving Harrow’s point but she couldn’t help herself.

“I think I’ve done a pretty damn good job the last few months if I do say so myself. No one found out until we told them… I mean, except Pash, and her shithead tendency to just walk into people’s homes could never have been accounted for…,” Gideon argued, slowing her pace to walk in tandem with Harrow. Pash and Nona had already all but disappeared around the bend at the end of the tail.

“Be that as it may…,” Harrow mumbled. “Still, I don’t want Nona to find out like Passion. I need her to hear it from me.” She looked beseechingly at Gideon, who nodded.

“I get it, Harrow, really. Don’t worry. We just gotta make it a little while longer. We’re leaving tomorrow afternoon, it’s all a downhill slide from there,” she assured. “I’m honestly surprised that Nona has just.. taken you at your word for everything. Like you said yesterday, it does kinda feel like we’re being obvious… but who knows.” 

“My sister trusts me…” It was little more than a mumble but Gideon caught it. 

“Well, why wouldn’t she? You’ve been taking care of her forever, you’ve never steered her wrong… based on the way she drives, I’m thinking she’d be dead already if not for you!” 

Harrow muttered something under her breath. 

"What?" Gideon cocked her head and Harrow shook hers.

"Nothing," she mumbled, not looking at her.

As they turned the bend, they found themselves alone at a crossroads. The sign in front of them had arrows pointing both left and right. On the left, ‘Lover’s precipice’ and on the right, ‘Devil’s overhang’. 

“Where the hell did they go?” Gideon planted a hand on her hip, annoyed. 

“Which way is it?” Harrow asked, looking down both thick and overgrown paths and seeing neither Nona nor Pash down either one. Likewise, they couldn’t hear them anymore. The only sound in the air was the gentle rustle of leaves in the wind and the screaming of the cicadas in every direction.

“Uh,” Gideon brushed some sweaty hair out of her face. She couldn’t remember for the life of her where Pash had said they were going and the dumb bitch had gone off and left them behind, taking the only map with them. “I dunno…,” she finally admitted after a long minute of racking her brain and staring at the sign.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Harrow looked up at her, scowling and Gideon frowned. 

“I mean that I do not know which direction it is, Harrow. I don’t have the map and I don’t think Pash ever said…” 

“That’s fucking perfect,” she grumbled, turning her head and looking more annoyed by the second. 

“Relax, let’s just pick one and we’ll either find them, or another cliff and then we can just backtrack, problem solved.” She waved a hand and Harrow grunted. 

“Then, again, I ask you, which way?” she snapped impatiently and Gideon tried not to snap back at her as she felt sweat drip down her back beneath her shirt in the June sun.

“You’re extra bitchy when you’re hot,” she grunted. Before Harrow could even think to retort she started walking to the left. She sure as hell didn’t wanna take her grumpy-ass girlfriend to somewhere named ‘ Devil’s Overhang ’. She also didn’t stop to check and see if Harrow was following her, not that she needed to. She could hear the sound of feet quickly moving behind her, trying to keep up. They fell into a not so comfortable silence as they moved along the path, still catching no sight of Pash and Nona and growing increasingly hot as the day wore on. To make matters worse, they had given Pash their water to store in her bag, which Gideon she was now regretting immensely. 

Gideon moved ahead resolutely and she soon started being able to hear Harrow’s breathing and the sound of her steps falling a little further and further behind. When she heard the quick, telltale shuffle of feet that meant Harrow had nearly just tripped, she stopped and turned to face her. 

“Hey, you good?” she asked, holding out a hand. Harrow didn’t even look at it, only scowled before quickly shouldering past Gideon on the trail, leaving the bewildered ginger to stare at her back. 

“I’m fine,” was the short reply. 

“What the fuck is your problem Harrow!?” she called before hurrying after her. She caught up in three quick strides. 

“I do not have a problem,” was the curt reply, and Gideon scowled at the back of Harrow’s head.

“You sure as shit do, I dunno why your mad at me all of a sudden, I didn’t run off with the fucking map and leave us behind.” 

“I am not mad at you.” Harrow bit out, still not even looking at her and she could just tell by the sound of it, low and hissing that Harrow was addressing her between clenched teeth. 

“Sure… that’s why you’re snapping at me…”

“Not everything is about you!” Harrow spun around to glare at her and Gideon stared back, stunned and speechless. She watched Harrow’s face twist briefly before she turned back around and carried on down the path without another word. Gideon stood there, watching her trod off through the brush before finally, reluctantly, following along behind her and making no attempt to catch up.

They walked in silence for at least five, agonizing minutes when finally the trees thinned to nothing and they both found themselves standing on a large, rocky outcropping, the valley stretched out in front of them in a spectacular view. The lake sparkled like diamonds far below.

Gideon couldn’t even appreciate it because she was too busy stewing in her resentment for being yelled at for no fucking reason ! Seriously, one minute everything was right as damn rain and the next, Harrow was biting her head off for seemingly no reason and she did not need this shit. On top of that, Nona and Pash were nowhere to be seen. 

“They went the other way,” Harrow huffed and turned to move back the way they came, Gideon stepped out of the way and planted her back against a large rock and slid down onto her butt with a quiet grunt, and listened to her girlfriend’s footsteps start to move away before stopping. A moment passed and then they were moving back toward her.

“What are you doing?” she asked tersely as Gideon pulled up the bottom of her shirt and used it to wipe off the sweat slowly dripping down her face.

“Resting,” was the short answer, to which Harrow made a disapproving noise but she could kiss Gideon’s ass right now. It had to be over ninety-five degrees and they had no water. 

“We need to find them.”

“Then go find them. You know which direction now,” she shot back hotly, looking up at her finally just as Harrow’s eyes widened. 

“You…,” Harrow barely started before Gideon was cutting her off.

“Not everything is about me,” she repeated glibly and Harrow’s hands clenched into fists at her sides as she stood there, seemingly rooted to the ground, her lips pressed so tightly together it seemed they might never part again and glaring at Gideon with those stygian eyes that most times Gideon adored. 

She turned away to look at the view, if for no other reason than to avoid looking at Harrow, who continued to stand there silently for a long minute before she let out an angry sounding sigh and slid to the ground a few feet away, her knees pulled up to her chest, arms wrapped around them.

“What, you don’t know the way? There were only two…,” She bit out, still feeling spiteful.

Harrow didn’t say anything and wasn’t even looking at her. Whatever, that was fine with her. She leaned back fully against the rocks. She didn’t even realize she’d reached up and was rubbing her bad knee till Harrow’s quiet voice broke the silence.

“Is your knee hurting?” she asked, barely above a whisper. 

“No,” Gideon grunted, pulling her hand away. She didn’t have to look to know Harrow was watching her. 

They lapsed into silence again only for a handful of moments.

"I'm sorry…" It was quiet and for a moment, Gideon briefly entertained the thought of ignoring her. She always had harbored a bit of a petty streak inside but she stomped down on that and glanced at Harrow, staring into her knees. 

“Ya gonna tell me what crawled up your ass now?” she asked, head lolling in Harrow's direction to look at her. Those eyes flickered up and caught Gideon’s briefly before turning back to her knees. 

“I… am just concerned,” she admitted. Gideon waited, and sure enough, Harrow picked it up again. “About telling everyone tomorrow,” she said and Gideon frowned.

“I thought we already talked about that…”

“Yes, I know!” Harrow hissed, looking at her but then her shoulders slumped and she sighed. “I know… it’s just, I’m still worried about it… and we keep very nearly slipping and it’s so fucking hot!” she snapped, uncurling enough to pull her shirt over her head, leaving her in her pale blue camisole while she used the shirt to swab the sweat off her face and neck. 

“It is humid up here,” Gideon grunted with a nod before scooting the two feet closer to sit next to her. “I know you’re bent out of shape about it but there's nothing to do about it now but wait. We’ll tell ‘em all tomorrow and finally knock this burden off our shoulders.” Gideon tried to comfort and Harrow sighed.

“I know… I’m sorry, Gideon. For taking my frustrations out on you…” 

“You’re hot and tired and stressed out,” she shrugged.

“Regardless… I’m sorry for being short with you…” 

“You’re always short, Sugarlips…” 

Harrow‘s gaze whipped up to her and Gideon grinned. Harrow scoffed at her but she knew better by the way Harrow immediately turned her head away and leaned a little closer. 

“Alright,” Gideon slapped hands on her knees and stood. “Let’s go find those dumbasses.” She held her hand out to Harrow, who didn’t hesitate to slip her hand into Gideon’s this time. “That blue-haired asshole has my water,” she grunted. “Oh, hold on.” She dug her phone out of her pocket and held it up to the view and snapped a picture. “You wanna take one quick one together before we go find ‘em?” she asked.

“Very well…”  She stood next to Gideon near the overhang’s edge as she held the phone up, camera turned towards them. 

“Come on, I know you know how to smile…” Gideon prodded her gently in the ribs, ducking out of the way of the reflexive jerk of Harrow’s arm. Once bitten and all that. 

“I will tickle you…,” Gideon threatened and Harrow scowled. 

“On your head be the consequences,” was the menacing reply, even as she smirked.

They had enough bruises already that they had a hard time explaining. 

Gideon leaned down and pressed a kiss to her cheek at the same time she hit the button on the camera. “That’ll do,” she said, satisfied as she leaned back and smiled at the photo. 

“Wait, Gideon.” Harrow’s hand fisting into her shirt stopped her from turning around. She grabbed the camera in one hand and then reached up, releasing her shirt just to take hold of her chin with those thin, bony fingers. She pulled her down and kissed her full on the mouth. It was a little salty with sweat but Gideon was not going to complain. She heard the tell-tale snap of her camera and then Harrow leaned back, letting go of her face and dropping her phone back into her open hand. 

“There, now let’s go. Those two might die without us and I’m thirsty.” She turned and headed back down the path they had come from. 

“Aye aye, Capn’.” 

It was halfway down the path back to the fork when something besides the cicadas broke the silence of the forest.

“Gideon! Harrow!” the familiar voice called through the woods. 

“Sounds like…,” Gideon started.

“Nona,” Harrow agreed, taking off quickly, Gideon jogged after her and when they came around the bend, they nearly ran straight into the other Nonagesimus.

“There you two are! I’ve been looking for you for twenty minutes!” Nona threw up her hands. 

“We went the wrong way when you and Pash left us behind,” Gideon grunted.

“Right, sorry, but you gotta come quick, Pash hurt herself…”

“What?!” Gideon barked and then took off down the way Nona had come from without even waiting for anyone. 

“What happened to Passion?” She vaguely heard Harrow ask but then she was out of earshot, jumping over fallen logs and rocks, sweat dripping down her face and kicking up a cloud of dirt in her wake. Soon enough a familiar electric blue head of hair came into view. 

“Bout time you showed up,” Pash groused from where she sat beneath a tree, covered in dirt.

“You’re the one who went ahead and left us behind, you shit-head. What happened?” She knelt down, trying not to wince at the strain in her knee as she did so. Nona and Harrow finally caught up to her.

“I stepped between two rocks and twisted my ankle,” she grunted, nodding to her left.

“She was trying to keep up with me…” Nona frowned guiltily. 

“It looks a little swollen, twinkle toes,” Gideon mumbled, carefully moving Pash’s sock and looking at it. “We better get you back to camp. Can you put weight on it?” she asked and Pash shook her head. “Alright, ya ready?” she asked and held out her arm. Pash grabbed it and then Gideon hauled her to her feet. “One arm over my shoulder… okay, let’s head back down,” she grunted.

“Can you support her all that way?” Harrow frowned, watching Gideon hold up her cousin, eyes flickering to the knee she had been rubbing earlier. 

“Not much choice here. You and Tiny Tim can’t do it,” she jerked her head at Nona. The two looked at each other and seemed to conclude that this was an unfortunate truth of the matter. Pash was just as tall and thickly built as Gideon, just with a little less muscular definition. 

“Let’s get going,” she grunted.

The one hour hike up the trail became a two-hour hike back down, by the end of which Gideon was also limping. The sisters just shared worried glances, knowing neither of them could be of much help. 

“Oh thank god,” Gideon wheezed when she saw the jeep.

They quickly loaded up into it and Nona drove them back to their campsite with, thankfully, less off-roading than before. 

“Do you think we should pack up and go home?” Nona looked at Gideon and Harrow after they sat Pash down by the firepit.    

“What? No! It’s fine!” Pash insisted.

“You can’t walk on your own, Honey.” Nona looked at her. 

“But we never got to go fishing!” Pash threw up her arms and Gideon sighed.

“Well… fishing can be done sitting, why don’t we teach Harrow and Nona to fish and then we can head out tonight?” she offered, looking at them. 

“That sounds good to me,” Nona smiled and Harrow nodded.

“I guess…,” Pash pouted. 

“Let’s pack up, then we can just head home when we’re done fishing.” Gideon nodded to the tents.

The next hour was spent taking down and stowing away the tents, food, and other gear, all while Pash sat and watched, arms folded and frowning. Nona walked by to offer a consoling kiss on the head.

“Okay,” Gideon grunted when everything had been packed up except the two fishing poles. “You two take these… I’m gonna get Sunshine over there.” She nodded over to Pash, looking as grumpy as ever.  “Ready?” she asked walking up to Pash, who nodded and let herself be pulled to standing. Gideon nearly buckled and Pash jerked. 

“Gid?” She looked at her and then down at her knee. 

“Just tired,” she assured, hoping Harrow hadn’t seen her flinch. They got down to the water and sat with a heavy sigh.

“How is this supposed to work?” Harrow asked, fumbling with the line of her pole and the jiggling little lure attached to the end. 

“That one, you throw out and slowly reel in to try and attract fish,” Gideon explained while Pash gave Nona a crash course on her own pole. “Here, I’ll show ya.” She took the pole and with a practiced flick of her wrist, cast the line before handing it back to Harrow. “Then just reel, slow and even… yup, just like that.” she praised with a nod. 

“How long do I do it for?” Harrow asked, reeling it in all the way and then, carefully, like Gideon had shown her, recasting the line. 

“Till you catch some fish, or you just decide to give up.” She shrugged. “It’s called fishing, not catching after all,” she said with a smarmy grin and nearby, Pash groaned. 

“Ugh, you sound like Pyrrha,” she grunted and Gideon only smiled harder. 

“That’s the best thing you ever said to me,” Gideon announced and Pash rolled her eyes.

“Watch out!” 

Everyone managed to duck as Nona’s lure went whizzing through the air over their heads. 

“Nona!” Harrow scolded. A laugh was her answer. 

“I'm not pulling a hook out of you or Pash,” Gideon warned, laying back in the warm sand and closing her eyes. Her knee was aching, dull and constant. She’d really been over-exerting it lately and needed to stop. 

She wasn’t sure how long she lay there, eyes closed and soaking up the sun. Down here by the lake, a gentle breeze kept her cool. She could also feel Harrow’s presence at her side, calm and quiet, peaceful. 

She half listened to the sound of Nona becoming increasingly frustrated as she reeled back nothing. 

“Sometimes you just don’t catch anything, Nona,” she said without opening her eyes and Nona growled in reply. “How you doin'?” she turned her head in the direction of Harrow, who hummed. 

“The monotony of this is strangely relaxing…,” she said thoughtfully and Gideon smiled. 

“I got a bite!” Nona yelled, making everyone jump as she rocketed to her feet and gave the pole a hard tug.

“Reel it in!” Pash yelled as Nona yanked and reeled. The line made a low whirring noise as whatever was on the other end pulled and tugged back. 

“Get it Nona!” Gideon pushed herself up onto her elbows and hollered. The younger Nonagesimus gave another hard jerk as she tried to reel it in. 

“Come on, Baby!” Pash shouted and then, without warning, Nona shoved the pole into her girlfriend's hands and sprinted toward the water.

“Keep reeling!” she yelled.

“Nona…!” Harrow yelled at her sister’s back but she didn't so much as acknowledge Harrow. 

“Is she really gonna…!?” Gideon watched as, sure enough, Nona ran straight into the water and dove in without so much as a pause, disappearing beneath the surface. “What the fuck, Nona!” she shouted. 

Pash kept spinning the reel, trying to pull it closer to shore, then the line gave a violent jerk. “I think she’s on the other end…?!” she pulled the pole up, keeping the line taut. 

“Gideon!” Harrow turned to her with a wordless plea and Gideon jumped up and got all of five steps toward the water when up from the watery depths with a mighty splash, Nona surfaced and held up her arms. 

“Success!” she shouted, holding the wriggling and squirming fish in her grip overhead.

“Are you shittin’ me?” Gideon stared at the soaked woman standing in knee-high water, fish aloft and triumphant.

“Good job, baby!” Pash called over and Nona grinned at her. Gideon just shook her head and went and plopped herself back down beside Harrow.

“We can’t take them anywhere,” she mumbled and Harrow agreed as Nona trudged out of the water. sopping wet with her catch to Pash, who just beamed at her.

Chapter Text

Gideon was dead to the world, asleep not even halfway home. Harrow watched as slowly, her eyes would droop and her head would fall slowly forward to her chest, only to suddenly jerk back awake. Then the process would repeat with more and more time between the fall and jerking awake again until she stayed there, silently dozing. Her head bent forward to her chest, arms crossed loosely, and making little grunting noises with every exhale. 

She must have been quite tired. Harrow had noticed over the months that Gideon only snored when she was exhausted.

Much to her annoyance, because Harrow had decided to record herself sleeping and discovered she did, in fact, snore, every night. 

She glanced up at the front seats where Pash was sitting with her foot up on the dashboard and talking quietly to Nona, who was actually driving reasonably for once. 

She leaned back in the seat and felt her own eyes starting to droop with exhaustion. The hike alone had really taken it out of her. Her eyes started to flutter shut.

“Harrow?” 

Her head jerked up and she made eye contact with Nona in the rearview mirror. 

“Yes?” she asked as Nona’s eyes turned back to the road. 

“So… while we were walking ahead of you guys, Pash and I were talking and… um.” she trailed off and Pash reached over and patted her thigh.

“She knows, baby.”

“Oh… you talked to her about it?” Nona looked surprised and Harrow snorted.

“If we’re talking about what I think we’re talking about, no. She had Gideon talk to me about it.” Harrow crossed her arms and Nona nodded.

“That makes more sense… she’s a little scared of you.” Nona looked at her in the rearview and it did Harrow’s heart good to know it. 

“Hey!” Pash jerked. “I am not scared , I am… respectful.

“Respectful of the fact she makes you shit your pants a little,” Gideon mumbled sleepily, drawing Harrow’s gaze. 

“I thought you were asleep…” she said as Gideon yawned and stretched her neck, though she didn’t bother opening her eyes. 

“How could anyone sleep with dipshit yelling up there?” She jerked her head in Pash’s direction. 

Pash grumbled and Nona tapped her leg comfortingly.

“Anyway,” she said, getting the conversation back on track. “Pash asked me to move in with her…” she said and Harrow caught her gaze once more in the mirror. Harrow knew that look. Nervous… scared. She already knew what Nona’s answer had been. 

“So, when are you leaving?” Harrow asked and Nona blinked. “Eyes on the road,” Harrow reminded and her sister’s black eyes flickered back to the asphalt.  

"Why are you so sure I said yes?" she asked and Harrow couldn't help but snort.

"Did you not?" she asked, already knowing full well the answer but decided she would humor her sister. 

Nona scoffed, shooting her sister a dirty look.

"That's not the point…," she said and Gideon chuckled under her breath.

"So I ask again," Harrow said with patience. "When are you leaving?"

Nona and Pash glanced at each other. 

"This week… I'm going to start packing tomorrow," she said and Harrow nodded. Gideon unfolded her arms and reached over and squeezed Harrow's thigh comfortingly.

"I'm happy for you," Harrow said and surprised herself by how much she actually meant it. 

"Really?" Nona asked, voice tinged with worry and Harrow nodded.

“I am.” 

“That is such a relief,” she breathed, shoulders unbunching.

Harrow glanced at Pash, and because she had to save face somewhere… “I still don’t like you though,” she said and Pash sputtered while Gideon choked on her laughter. 

Nona just smiled at her in the rearview.

~ ~ 

“I need a shower,” Gideon declared, climbing out of the jeep with her bags. Harrow nodded in agreement. She was no longer sweaty but she felt gross and sticky in all the wrong places. Not that there was a right place to be gross and sticky necessarily.

“I’m going to take Pash home and stay with her tonight,” Nona declared from the driver seat and Harrow nodded. “I'll be back in the morning sometime,” she said, and then, with a wave, she drove out of the apartment parking lot. 

“You wanna come stay with me?” Gideon turned to her and Harrow nodded.

“I need to take a shower first…”

“You can come shower with me…” she offered as they moved into the building. The air conditioner going full blast was the best thing Harrow had felt all day. 

“No, because when you say ‘shower with me’ you mean have sex in the shower and I need an actual shower,” Harrow glanced at her as they stepped into the elevator. 

“You always get clean in the end,” Gideon pouted and Harrow rolled her eyes. 

“I’ll shower in my own apartment and then come down, satisfied?” she asked. 

“I guess,” Gideon mumbled as the elevator dinged and stopped on the ninth floor. “I’ll leave the door open for ya, Sugarlips,” she said before stepping out.  And moving down the hall. Harrow caught the slight limp in her step and frowned as the doors closed and carried on up to the seventeenth floor. 

The apartment was cool and quiet and Harrow didn’t even bother with unpacking. She dropped her bag on the floor and made a beeline for the bathroom. 

Sweet, sweet running water.

She spent far longer than usual in the shower, just enjoying the feeling of warm water running across her shoulders and down her back. The feeling of being clean was vastly underrated by most people if you asked Harrow, especially at this moment. When she finally came out, the steam was so thick she could hardly see her hand in front of her face. The rest of the apartment was downright chilly in comparison to the steamy bathroom and she made quick work of getting dressed and drying her hair before heading back out in sweatpants and a shirt. 

She wanted the comfort of Gideon’s old jersey. It had, in the brief span of a few days, become perhaps her favorite item of clothing… but on the off chance Nona might find it, she’d left it safely stashed at Gideon’s place.

As promised, the front door was unlocked when she twisted the knob and stepped inside. Everything was quiet save the sound of running water drifting out of the bathroom. 

She tapped her knuckles on the door as she passed on her way to the bedroom.

“Are you nearly finished in there, beloved?” she called.

“Oh thank fuck you’re here. Come in here.” 

Harrow’s first reaction was to repeat that she was not getting in the shower with her but there was something in the tone of Gideon’s voice that had her pushing open the door and stepping into the bathroom. The water was running but Gideon’s head was peeking out from behind the curtain… from much lower than expected.

“I fell and…” she started and that was enough for Harrow to rip back the curtain and turn off the water. 

“Is it your knee? Are you alright?” Her voice pitched with concern, eyes raking over her for any outward sign of injury. 

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” Gideon assured, sitting wet and naked on the floor of her shower. “I overdid it this weekend with the hiking and then helping carry Pash. Damn thing buckled and I couldn’t get back up. It’s happened before…,” she grumbled to herself, glaring at the knee in question. 

Harrow took her hands and carefully, straining more than she let show, helped her to stand and wrapped the towel sitting on the counter around her.

“How long have you been on the floor?” Harrow asked, helping her carefully step out of the tub.

“Not long…”  she hedged as Harrow walked her out of the bathroom and she sat on the bed with a tired sigh. 

“Gideon…” It was as much concern as it was warning.

“Maybe twenty minutes…,” she admitted and Harrow made a sound she couldn’t even explain. A cross between worry and exasperation and so many other things all jumbled together. 

“Are you okay now? Should I go get Pyrrha?” 

“NO! God no, don’t get my mom. She’ll be breathing down my neck for the next month. No, I’m okay now, really.” She stood, albeit slowly, to prove her point. “I just gotta rest it,” she sighed, and started drying herself off. Harrow hummed disbelievingly but didn't argue with her. "I'm gonna plant my ass on that bed and stay there for the rest of the night. You are of course welcome to join me…” She wagged her brows and Harrow gave her a tired look but nodded nonetheless. 

"Get dressed and I’ll put some salve on your knee,” she said and Gideon made a low groaning sound in her throat.

“You have no idea how fucking good that sounds right now…” 

“Is it hurting?” she asked and she could see the hesitation in Gideon’s eyes when they met but after a moment, she nodded.

“Yeah… not, bad. It’s a deep ache… but ya know, I don’t think any pain will ever compare to some college girl shoving the blade of her skate straight through my patella and mangling my meniscus and everything else to kingdom come…,” she chuckled mirthlessly. 

Harrow chose not to say anything to that. Instead, she moved to Gideon’s dresser and pulled out some clothes, tossing them onto the bed. 

“Get dressed and get off your leg,” she ordered.

“You don’t want me like this?” she grinned, still standing naked by the bed while she dried off.

“No.” 

“That hurt a little…” 

“You need to relax…”

“Orgasms are relaxing,” she argued but got dressed anyway. 

"You're insatiable," Harrow groused.

"Not true!" Gideon held up a finger. "I would simply like the court to acknowledge that you're the only one who got off last night and the night before that you had to stay in your apartment and the night before that, Pash walked in and saw your tits. I’m just saying, it’s been a week since I got off ” 

“You don’t take care of it yourself?” Harrow cocked a brow as she regarded Gideon pulling on her shorts and then flopping shirtless onto the bed with a grunt. 

“Not usually anymore. It’s more fun to save it up for you.” She winked and Harrow rolled her eyes but found herself smiling. 

“How fortunate I am,” she drawled through her smirk and Gideon grinned back, then she turned and walked into the bathroom. She came back a moment later with a familiar little jar and sat on the side of the bed. “Here…” She unscrewed it and already the thick smell of menthol pervaded the room. Gideon sighed shakily as she rubbed it on.

“I love this shit…,” she sighed wistfully.