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Chloe was looking at her phone, lying down on her stomach as she looked at some video about a cat. She was currently resting on her bed, the blue blanket plush and comforting underneath her form as she lost herself in the mind-numbing content that could only come with social media.
However, despite the sense of peace and calm surrounding her, she could practically feel the change in the air as something mischievous seemed to be loosed around her.
And if there was something mischievous that was going to happen, she knew that it had to have something to do with Red.
Preparing herself, Chloe glanced in Red’s direction.
Unfortunately yet unsurprisingly, the redhead was no longer sitting on her bed. She had been there just earlier, Red doing the same thing as Chloe was doing right now as she scrolled her phone and held a pillow to her stomach.
However, now, she was now just leaning against her bedpost with a feigned nonchalance that was well-practiced and that Chloe had come to be well-accustomed to.
The funny thing was that when Red was trying her hardest to look innocent was the exact times that she was definitely the stark and polar opposite of what she was attempting to appear as. When forced, something about the look just did not suit the older girl’s features.
The bluenette raised an eyebrow as she looked at the taller girl.
“What’re you doing?” Chloe asked.
Rather than awaiting her fate silently, she decided that she would go ahead and address her attacker that was silently and patiently waiting in the wings.
Red returned Chloe’s skepticism with an unimpressed expression of her own, looking at Chloe as if she were somehow in the wrong for even asking such an insane, definitely unfounded question.
“Looking at my phone. Duh,” Red told her with an unbothered huff, one arm looped around the bedpost as she pressed against it and did precisely as she told Chloe that she was doing.
However, Chloe was not born yesterday.
The younger girl eyed her for a moment more before tentatively pulling her attention away from her.
She knew this game with Red. They had played it before, after all. It was the one where Red pretended that she was not doing anything, and then when Chloe did not expect it, Red would leap onto her bed and crush her underneath her full body weight.
She could practically feel Red watching her, and knowing that it was about to come and hit her like a wrecking ball, Chloe tightened her stomach. The inevitable body slam was definitely coming after Red’s feigned nonchalance, and if she kept her stomach tight, it would not knock the breath out of her quite so badly.
However, there were a few beats of nothingness. No sudden laughter, no battle cry, no sudden weight on her.
Just nothing.
Chloe very slowly untightened her stomach, not sure what was going on and quite honestly scared to trust it.
Red did not usually play their game like this.
Chloe turned her head around again as she tried to get an idea of where Red was now, dread creeping upon her as she found herself slightly afraid that she might be turning to face Red when she was about to jump her.
To her surprise, Red was over nearby her desk with her back to Chloe, her sock-clad feet having crept over without a sound. She was still looking at her phone, and Chloe narrowed her eyes, trying to figure out what in the world that the older girl was doing.
Quite obviously, Red was still on her phone. However, Chloe knew her well enough to know that Red was a master of feigning distraction when she was really laser-focused on something.
She must have been trying to throw her off of her track.
But Chloe did not say anything this time, waiting on Red as she prepared herself for the body slam that would probably come at any given moment after this.
Red was just waiting her out, and Chloe was not about to let her catch her off-guard.
Honestly, despite the manner in which Chloe was preparing as if she were about to assaulted, Chloe really did enjoy their game. She did not always enjoy just how hard that Red could land on her and how she got the breath knocked out of her, but she nevertheless did appreciate how Red seemed to want to be near her. Plus, body slams were nice despite their initial violence because they always led to Red just laying on her with comfortable pressure or Red snuggled at her side.
But right now, they had to get through the rough part to get to the gentle.
However, despite her intense anticipation for the moment, the minutes passed and nothing happened.
And even though she had better sense than to do it, Chloe ended up untensing once again, waiting somewhat nervously as she remained uncertain of what exactly was about to happen. Or rather, when a guaranteed body slam was about to happen.
Before she could turn to try to get an idea of where Red was now, she was startled as Red spoke up.
“Hey, does your deodorant have aluminum in it?” Red’s voice questioned, surprisingly close behind her.
Chloe turned her head, raising up a little as she just stared at Red blankly.
Red was eyeing her as if she were dead serious about this, her hands on Chloe’s bedposts as she leaned in and looked at her. There was an intense expression in her gaze, her light browns concentrated on Chloe as she waited for the answer to her question.
Strangely, she did not seem to be any the wiser to Chloe’s suspicions about body slams, and Chloe felt a glimmer of uncertainty as she watched her for a long moment.
Maybe Red had genuinely not planned to body slam her. After all, she really did look genuine right now, and it was not in that overly sweet way that she usually tried hard to conjure when she was plotting something.
Chloe blinked, getting her thoughts together enough to respond to her since Red was just standing there staring at her and waiting.
“Um… I have no idea,” Chloe finally replied.
Red nodded slowly, getting a look in her eye that was nothing short of determined as she glanced in the direction of the bathroom door. She lightly smacked the bedposts before pushing herself backward and away from Chloe’s bed.
“I’m gonna go check,” Red told her, proceeding to head toward the bathroom.
Chloe watched her go, feeling a bit of relief as she came to the conclusion that she would not be going through the violent part of their game just yet.
Red sometimes got weird things in her head to do and take care of. They were what Chloe affectionately liked to refer to as missions. It was like that time that Red had been so determined to help her with putting up that shelf.
They were Red’s Little Missions.
One time, Chloe had told the redhead her self-dubbed name for Red’s determined work. To no one’s surprise, Red’s reaction had been positively beyond offended.
The bluenette, of course, had laughed. A lot.
For her part, Red had just stayed sullen as she grumpily retreated to the solace and soothing embrace of her bean bag chair until Chloe managed to pull her back over to Chloe’s side of the room and comfort her after Chloe’s big, bad self made her feel embarrassed.
The bluenette relaxed finally as she had these thoughts. She felt fairly confident that Red had probably gotten lost on one of her little missions at this point, and she would most likely be distracted with that for a few minutes.
Chloe almost laughed as she once again thought of the name she had for Red’s quirk, allowing herself to get absorbed in whatever TikTok was next on her feed as she considered Red’s weird yet endearing ways.
Almost startling her, Red suddenly yelled.
“It’s got aluminum!” Red called.
Chloe hummed shortly, furrowing her brow as she did not raise her gaze from her phone.
“Okay… What does that mean?!” Chloe uncertainly responded.
Red made a noise of dissatisfaction that was muffled by the barely cracked door.
“It means we’ve got to throw it away!” Red answered her, raising her voice from where she was in the bathroom.
Chloe paused in her scrolling as she slightly angled her head in the direction of the bathroom door, thinking this through. Throwing it away was not quite what Chloe had thought was going to happen, but she was waiting to hear Red out for why that they needed to take such drastic measures.
“Wait, why are we throwing it away?!” Chloe asked her loudly.
“Because it’s not healthy!” Red argued.
Well… Admittedly, aluminum going into the body did not exactly sound like the healthiest thing in the world. However, she had not exactly wanted to throw away her deodorant since it was kind of definitely a daily staple. She was now going to have to go out and find deodorant that would pass Red’s aluminum test.
“Says the cheese puff queen,” Chloe muttered with a resigned sigh, unhappy about Red wanting to trash it but willing to let it go for the sake of Red’s happiness and for her own health. But mostly for Red’s happiness.
Moreover, she knew that Red would have the deodorant thrown away before she could say Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo, so she did not bother fighting that fight at this point.
There was silence for a few moments, and Chloe found herself immersed once again in her own little world of TikTok.
There was a strange little sound that was akin to a quick tapping, and before Chloe could even turn to look and see what was going, she was suddenly attacked with an abrupt, strong force that came crushing down on her back.
Chloe let out a sharp breath, the sudden weight crashing onto her as she found herself squished underneath what could only be Red’s form.
“Red,” she wheezed, coughing a bit.
Red’s chuckle was warm as she propped her elbow on Chloe’s shoulder nonchalantly.
“So I threw away your deodorant,” Red told her as if she had not just came and squished Chloe’s guts out and knocked all of the air out of her.
Chloe shifted underneath Red, trying to allow a bit more air to get back into her system.
“Should I thank you?” Chloe asked, her voice strained.
Taking the cue, Red moved a bit, and Chloe was able to move enough to get more air.
“Well, yeah. I just saved you from heavy metals getting in through your pits,” Red expressed, flicking Chloe’s shoulder as she relaxed on top of the shorter girl more fully.
“My hero,” Chloe mumbled, coughing one last time as she managed to finally recover at least a little.
“You’re welcome,” Red told her before scooting up a little further from where she was currently resting on Chloe’s back.
She then rested her chin on top of Chloe’s head, making a spitting noise as Chloe’s hair doubtlessly got in her mouth. Chloe just patiently looked at her phone as she waited for the redhead.
“Yuck. Your hair tastes like aluminum,” Red complained.
Chloe snorted, squinting as she tried to glance up at her best friend where she was currently perched on top of Chloe.
“What?” Chloe laughed in spite of herself.
“Must mean I need to throw away all that hair product next.”
“Look, it’s okay that you threw away the deodorant, but my hair product is where I’m drawing the line,” Chloe informed her.
She actually was serious about that. She loved her hair products, and there was no way that she was giving that up. Not unless Red found a really good replacement online or somewhere.
“So you just want to put trash in your hair?” Red questioned.
“If it makes it look this good, then maybe,” Chloe huffed with a grin. She could practically feel Red’s heavy eyeroll. Nevertheless, the redhead’s chin rested on Chloe’s head more fully, her throat pressing against the back of Chloe’s head.
“Alright, Goody. What does your TikTok feed hold today?” Red asked, and Chloe noted how Red’s hands were softly resting on Chloe’s shoulders, squeezing just slightly as her fingers gently rubbed just a bit at Chloe’s sleeves.
Chloe felt her heart warm at the affection, and despite how strange that some of Red’s behaviors could be, Chloe knew that body slams were done for the sake of being close. Especially since they tended to be one of her favorite ways to invite herself over into Chloe’s bed at night. They were always preceded or followed by some excuse, too.
“Puppies,” Chloe stated resolutely with a nod, holding up her phone a little more fully so that Red could more easily see. Currently, she had a video of several Golden Retrievers pups on a set of steps, and they were trying to figure out how to get down.
Red hummed shortly in response.
“How fitting. Any pugs?” Red questioned, a hopeful lilt in her voice as she asked despite the fact that she had begun with a deadpan reply.
“Maybe if you’re good,” Chloe answered her, and Red huffed, the puff of hair hitting the top of Chloe’s hair.
“I’m always good,” Red declared, a swagger in her voice that was playful and carried the same tone as Red’s claims of innocence to which she so often resorted.
Chloe instantly was about to reply with “that’s debatable,” but the words hung in her throat and she groaned as she rubbed her face with a hand.
“Ugh. That reminds me of Mom and Dad and Dad’s whole charming thing,” Chloe grumbled, not really giving any further of an explanation.
“Hey, your dad was charming me back in his day,” Red laughed a little, either catching onto Chloe’s original track or just choosing to roll with what she said without any further knowledge of what the bluenette was thinking.
Chloe narrowed her eyes.
“Red. That’s my dad,” Chloe reminded her, a certain amount of disgust in her voice.
Red was silent for a few beats, but Chloe could feel that there was some sort of comment incoming. Red’s thumbnail scratched at something that she had presumably seen on the seam of Chloe’s shirt.
Despite the delays, Red sure enough proceeded to speak up with the last thing that she had expected to hear.
“You in the market for a new step-mom?”
Chloe almost dropped her phone.
“Red!!!”
The older girl in question just cackled.