Glittering Blackness
by Deadwinglullaby

A small smile tugged at the corner of Claire's mouth, as she watched Gretchen pacing up and down the magazine isle with an indecisive look on her face, pausing every now and then to examine the same front cover she had previously looked at ten seconds ago.

It seemed like the brunette was having trouble making up her mind—so Claire decided that perhaps she was in need of some friendly advice.

"Gretch, you okay there? You seem awfully unsettled..." Claire placed a hand on her shoulder, hoping to stop Gretchen in her path. It seemed to work, as Claire felt her freeze for a slight second before turning around to face her with a slightly eccentric smile.

"I'm fine...just a tad nervous about this afternoon. Nothing to calm the nerves, like looking at magazines randomly," her eyes immediately lowered to the floor, and she began picking at a loose thread on her blue sweater.

Over time Claire had come to appreciate the little quirks that embellished Gretchen as a person—and as a wonderful companion to have besides her everyday.

The blonde chuckled to herself lightly, noticing how fidgety Gretchen had become all of a sudden. Surely it wasn't her mere presence that caused her odd behaviour?

"Hey, there's nothing to be nervous about. All we need is a bag of popcorn, a movie and maybe a bottle of Sunkist to lighten the mood," Claire reached out and grabbed Gretchen's hand softly, and gave it an affectionate squeeze, "besides, it'll just be the two of us. There's absolutely nothing to be worried about."

Claire's eyes darted over the magazine section quickly, finally realising what Gretchen was attempting to read, and blushed slightly. The brunette caught on, and her eyes widened in embarrassment.

"Claire it's not what you think, really. I just...enjoy reading magazines about 'relationships', it gives me a proper sense of what to do, and what not to do. I--" she stopped in her tracks, failing to find words to dig herself out of what felt like an enormous hole.

"I find that odd considering the numerous boyfriends' and girlfriends' you've dated. You'd think you're a pro by now," Claire teased lightly, picking up one of the magazines Gretchen had been perusing only five minutes ago.

"I never claimed to be a pro...I just, don't want to mess up this thing between us, is all," her tone completely serious now, "not that I'm defining it or anything." She added quickly.

To be honest, Claire still had no idea what she shared with Gretchen, all she knew was, she was the first person she felt like she could be herself around, and it felt so liberating, so...natural.

"Well, sorry to say, but I think these magazines lack depth. How about we head back and get ready for our movie night?" Claire placed the magazine back on the shelf, and signalled for them to leave the store.

Gretchen swallowed hard and furrowed her brows for a second. There were so many thoughts racing through her head, and she didn't know what to do with them all.

Was she speaking a language that Claire could understand? Was she the only one that experienced intense feelings of endearment?

Gretchen had dated other girls' before, but she had never developed as strong a liking for them as she did Claire. There was something particularly special about her, and it didn't bother her one bit, that she was abnormal—a freak of nature, as some would put so delicately.

She adored every quality that came packaged with the girl, and she wouldn't have it any other way.

A half hour later found the two girls alone in their dormitory, in preparation for their "movie night".

"So what movie are we gonna watch?" Gretchen asked, as she poured the Sunkist into two large glasses for the both of them.

Claire who was busy fussing over her hair in the mirror, turned to face the brunette while casually running a brush through her wavy blonde hair.

"Oh, I was hoping we could watch a horror movie or something. I brought a couple of DVD's with me; they should be in my bag…" she let out a frustrated sigh, "stupid hair!"

Her hair wasn't behaving how she had wanted it to. She was never one to care what others' thought about her appearance usually, but for some reason she found herself becoming slightly paranoid about her appearance around Gretchen.

"Heh Claire, you should really stop fussing over your hair, you look perfect the way you are," she made her way over to the mirror, and placed a hand on Claire's arm in an attempt to stop the girl's vigorous brushing. "Oh, and horror movies are fine with me."

She extended her hand, and waited patiently for Claire to hand over the hairbrush.

Claire let out a sigh of defeat and surrendered the hairbrush, "Okay fine, you can have it. But wait here, I'm gonna go make our popcorn."

Claire slipped on a pair of black flats and gave a small smile to Gretchen before heading out the door and down the hallway, popcorn bag in hand.

Gretchen gave a quick glance in the mirror, immediately scolding herself inwardly, and ran her fingers through her hair a few times, attempting to tidy her wavy hair. She then paced the room back and forth nervously for several minutes, before she remembered Claire's bag and the contents that it held.

She made her way over to Claire's bag and pulled out a dozen DVD's, curious about Claire's taste in movies, after all she used to be a cheerleader.

'Not that I'm stereotyping you…' she told herself.

"So what do we have here?" Gretchen pulled out Claire's small DVD collection, and examined the titles.

Alien, Aliens, Silence of the Lambs, Se7en, The Sixth Sense, 28 Days Later, Pan's Labyrinth, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

'Hang on…that's not a horror movie.' She mused to herself.

"Overall, not bad taste in movies though," Gretchen chuckled aloud, placing the DVD's back in the bag.

"Thanks, I wasn't too sure what else to bring," Claire responded, entering the room with a huge bowl of popcorn that was almost overflowing.

"Wow that's a lot of popcorn, who's going to eat all of that?" she beamed brightly, happy for her to have returned, and motioned for Claire to come join her on the bed.

"Well I don't know about you, but I'm famished," she placed the bowl on the bedside and took a seat next to Gretchen on the bed, their hands lightly brushing up against one another.

Their eyes met immediately—Gretchen's stomach gave a funny jolt and she could feel her cheeks beginning to glow a bright red. Her head was telling her to avert her gaze immediately, but her eyes wouldn't follow through with that plan.

Claire's heart rate sped up--noticing the girl that had proclaimed she had a huge crush on her, blushing profusely.

Claire had given them a lot of thought, over the last few weeks. She would lay awake late at night, playing scenarios of them two together over in her head—and she had to admit, she enjoyed it.

Claire had never dated another girl before, and to be honest, hadn't given it too much thought—until Gretchen had kissed her that night. She had only ever had one semi-serious relationship before, and that was with West.

That night when Gretchen had kissed her, she was surprised to find that she found herself enjoying the brunette's lips pressed up against her own.

And now…

"Gretch…" heart beating faster now, not entirely sure of what to say, "I think we should…pick a movie to watch." She averted her gaze, and picked up her bag from besides the bed, and emptied the contents onto the mattress.

Flustered still, Gretchen snapped out of the moment, "Ah, yes. How about we watch 28 Days Later? I heard that's pretty scary."

"Sure no problem," Claire removed the DVD from the case and made her way over to the curtains, and drew them across, the room instantly enveloping in darkness.

She woke the laptop up, and propped it up against the desk chair and wheeled it forward, closer to the bed.

"We should really invest in a TV, huh?" Gretchen chuckled, as Claire clicked through the DVD menu's on the laptop, and finally sat back down on the bed.

"Yeah I know, but this will have to do," she brushed her hair behind her ear and laid back slightly, "besides, this very moment feels a lot more comfortable than it would if I were sitting at home on a sofa."

Gretchen smiled to herself, and followed Claire's lead, and laid back as well, attention suddenly captured by the movie that had begun playing.

They laid in silence for forty-five minutes, every now and then jumping at the sudden appearance of a Zombie, and absentmindedly taking handfuls of popcorn.

By now Claire's mind was racing. No matter how engaging the movie was, she always found Gretchen to be more fascinating to watch.

The way she inhaled and exhaled, making her hair gently push forward to frame her face elegantly.

She also found it endearing to watch her knuckles white as she gripped onto the sheets tightly in fear or anticipation.

Without thinking, Claire felt her hand reaching out to find Gretchen's. Her hand gently grazed over, and she knew Gretchen felt it, for her body tensed for a slight second before realising what was happening.

And then there was warmth.

Gretchen smiled to herself, and entwined her fingers with Claire's and gave her hand a small squeeze of affection. She knew Claire was feeling extremely nervous about the thing between them, and she didn't mind waiting—after all she was a very patient girl, and definitely worth waiting for.

Claire's gaze travelled upwards slowly, and was met halfway by Gretchen, who seemed somewhat closer in proximity all of a sudden. Her ears were burning, and at this very moment she wanted nothing more than to say something to the girl, to tell her how much her presence meant to her.

Claire couldn't take much more. She had to say something…or do something.

Without thinking, her grip tightened on Gretchen's hand, and with her free hand she reached out in the darkness of the room and cupped her chin gently. Claire ran her hand slowly up and down the side of her face, taking in the smoothness and warmth of her skin, and began to edge closer to her face.

The only light making an attempt to illuminate the darkness of the room, dimmed on the laptop screen as it went into "sleep mode", and any silhouette in the dormitory room faded.

Gretchen wanted to kiss Claire more than anything right now, but restrained herself, as she wanted to know if Claire yearned for it as much as she did. She needed to know if she wanted this.

She could barely make out Claire's figure in the darkness now, but she could tell she was inches away from her face now, her warm breath trailing across her skin. It sent a shiver down Gretchen's spine, and she could feel the sexual tension rising.

This was it. Claire knew it was. She had to take a chance now, or it would haunt her in her sleep for the next few weeks. She had silently been praying for an opportunity to be alone like this with Gretchen for a while now.

She was still uncertain of where this would go, or how to even have a relationship with a girl, but she was willing to give it a shot.

Claire closed the small gap between them, and paused for a slight second, hovering less than an inch from Gretchen's hopeful lips now—and then she took the leap she had been wanting to.

Their lips met rather clumsily at first, not being able to see as well as in broad daylight. Claire pulled Gretchen in closer, and steadied herself by placing a firm hand on her shoulder.

They parted for a brief second, before their lips clashed together hungrily once more. Claire could taste the strawberry lip-gloss on Gretchen's soft lips, and she couldn't help but smile slightly.

"What are you smiling at?" Gretchen asked, slightly out of breath.

"You…are an amazing kisser, and you taste wonderful," she blushed, but remembered Gretchen probably couldn't see this so well.

"Well you don't taste too bad yourself Bennet," she reached forward and caressed Claire's face gently, "I hope…I'm not scaring you away Claire, I really like you."

"I really like you too. I'm just…new to this. I don't know what to do, you probably think I'm a moron or something," she exhaled in frustration and fell backwards onto the pillow.

"Claire I think a lot of things about you, but moron is definitely not one of them," Gretchen replied softly, and lay besides her.

Claire tilted her head to the side slightly, to face Gretchen and surprised her with a chaste kiss. "Thank you Gretch, I needed to hear that. Do you think we can lie here for the rest of the night like this? Unless you wanted to finish watching the movie…"

Gretchen reached for Claire's hand and gave it a squeeze of approval, "you know, after being in the dark for so long, my eyes have finally adjusted. I think I can see you blushing too," she grinned cheekily.

Claire coughed in an attempt to cover up her embarrassment, but was only met with Gretchen's arms wrapped around her waist. Claire let out a contented sigh and closed her eyes.

At this very moment Claire had never felt more normal.