Room 505, Friday before the dance

[thatsamilkshake]

Things had been.... sort of relentlessly, intentionally, shakily normal for the past couple days, but Francine still felt like she ought to get ready for the dance and be out of here before Katchoo got back, just to avoid...something. Awkwardness maybe. Something.

Of course, when 'get out of here soon' meets 'Francine getting ready for anything,' well. There's bound to be a rumble in a dark alley and you can probably guess who comes out alive.

All of which meant she'd managed to get her dress on and her hair up, but was still hunting for her earrings when the door opened.

[OOC: For the roomie!]

Comments

[thatsamilkshake]

Ow, ow, ow. How did that manage to make her feel guilty and hurt at the same time? There was nothing wrong with doing...whatever might happen after the dance... with her boyfriend, and until Katchoo said it, she hadn't even been thinking about that.

And now, of course, she couldn't think of anything but.

No, thanks, she was going to say, but it came out, "Could you get the top of my zipper? I can reach it by myself but it kind of takes turning into a pretzel."

Why did I say that? she thought, and the answer came back so fast that she wanted to yell at her brain IT WAS A RHETORICAL QUESTION, DAMMIT. Because I want her to touch me.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo hadn't meant for her to hear that, dammit.

. . . dammit.

"Yeah, sure," she said, stepping away from the closet and moving toward Francine, and how guilt managed to soften her voice instead of making it rougher, she had no goddamn idea.

This wasn't the art store, and there wasn't spandex, and there wasn't any magic pollen, but -- god. Taking hold of that zipper carefully with just her thumb and forefinger was hard.

[thatsamilkshake]

Funny how the art store and spandex were on Francine's mind too, and how she wasn't supposed to be missing the heat of Katchoo's fingers against her back, but she was.

No one said that anything but was limited to what Katchoo was thinking of.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Zipping up a dress should not be this hard, but Katchoo kept wavering -- not a state of mind she liked or was used to -- between trying to keep her hands exactly where they were in the no-touching zone and smoothing down the fabric of Francine's dress, wishing it wasn't so easy to imagine the play of light over skin as the muscle beneath made it move. "Stop worrying, Francie. You're going to -- you look amazing."

[thatsamilkshake]

That's not what I'm worried about. Or, well, not anymore. It was hard to remember what she was worried about with Katchoo's warm breath on the back of her neck.

"You know you do too, don't you? Like pretty much all the time without trying." It was the smile. And the hair, but mostly the smile.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Most people didn't get to see that outside of the sardonic variety.

And now, after the talk they'd had on Monday, that observation left Katchoo completely flat-footed.

"Thanks," she said gruffly, and gave in to the impulse to smooth away a wrinkle that wasn't really there. "But you're the one they're gonna see tonight."

[thatsamilkshake]

Just that touch, even through shiny gold fabric, was enough to distract Francine into holding her breath and forgetting what she was going to say. Or to use common sense when she finally did say it. "Why just me? You should come."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Hanging out in the corners making fun of people's gotten way too popular now," Katchoo pretended to grouse, and maybe, just maybe, her hand was lingering where it was. "And I don't like to dance. I think I'll sit this one out."

[thatsamilkshake]

"Are you s--" Francine shut up, suddenly fairly sure why she wouldn't want to come. The same reason why Francine hadn't wanted Merlin to pick her up here.

Saying I wish you would wouldn't be fair, even if right now Francine didn't really want to move away from that hand, which would sort of require Katchoo to come along if she wanted to avoid it.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I'm sure." She didn't mean to let her fingers twitch like that. "You should go out and have fun. Merlin's probably waiting for you."

[thatsamilkshake]

He was. But...

Sigh.

Francine moved away at last, reaching for her bag. "Yeah, he is. I told him I'd meet him there." Why did her back feel so cold?

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo's fingers curled around . . . empty air. Stupid apt metaphor.

"Shouldn't keep him waiting, honey," she finally said, moving toward the door.

[thatsamilkshake]

"Right."

Right.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo raised her head to look at Francine and canted her head slightly in the direction of the hallway. "Go on. Knock 'em dead."