Basically I was doing a bit of a lame rewatch and this just jumped into my head. Hope you enjoy! I will be writing a prequel to this for Scaglicious's fic prompts over on tumblr (Twenty First Birthday of Claudia Donovan) so I'm kinda working backwards.
oxoxoxo
She'd told everybody not to come, that she needed to do this by herself. But sure enough, at 9.30pm, Claudia left the open mic night to see Leena in her car, waiting patiently to pick her up. Looking up as she sensed her, Leena waved excitedly with a smile. Claudia practically flung herself into the car, throwing her guitar case into the back. She was buzzing. The innkeeper caught the almost manic look and giggled. "You okay?"
"That was awesome," Claudia admitted with a nod.
Leena pursed her lips, "Same time again next week, then?" She smiled.
"Only if you don't mind," Claudia's eyes lowered and she felt a small blush spread up her chest at the scrutiny.
"Well good," Leena smiled brightly then, pulling out of the car park. "All that hard practice finally paying off, huh?"
"Yeah, I suppose." Claudia grinned back. They were quiet for a while before the younger woman sat up and tapped out a beat on the dashboard. "You hungry?"
"No…" Leena frowned, perplexed. "Why?" She soon smirked. "Are you?"
"God yes," Claudia chuckled and slouched back, wriggling around slightly. "Holy cow, that was insane."
"You are buzzing!" Leena laughed, turning a left instead of her usual right as she drove out of town. "So where are we going?"
"You're driving," Claudia shrugged. "Surprise me."
"But I don't know what you want to eat," Leena rolled her eyes, pulling at a stop. She craned her neck to the side to check for traffic. "Claud, pick a place or I'll turn this car around and make you fries myself."
"Okay, okay!" Claudia held up her hands, mock terror on her face. "Murdo's."
"Murdo's," Leena nodded, "Okay."
Ten minutes later and they had pulled up to the diner. Leena's eyes widened as Claudia ordered a hefty meal; grilled chicken sandwich, large fries, onion rings and a butterscotch shake. The woman would be climbing the walls from hyperactivity for the rest of the night.
"And m'lady over here will have a…" Claudia chirped and turned her head towards the innkeeper, waiting.
Leena merely spluttered and managed a shake of the head. "I'm fine." she said.
"Come on," Claudia pulled out a twenty. "On me." She waved the cash under Leena's nose until the woman had no choice but to roll her eyes and mutter out a "banana split" quietly.
Claudia's nose wrinkled and she nodded towards the waitress. "Banana split too."
After their food had been brought over, Claudia's buzz began to die down and she peered at the table introspectively, nibbling on some fries.
"You okay?" Leena asked, shovelling some ice-cream onto her spoon.
"Yeah…" Claudia let out a sheepish grin. "I was uhh…thinking. About yesterday."
Leena bit her lip. "With Fargo?"
"Hmm?" Claudia looked up. "Kinda… more about what I saw… something I didn't wanna see ever again. Guess I'm kinda bugged out."
Leena's brow furrowed, "What did you see?"
"Pyche ward stuff," Claudia didn't manage to shrug as nonchalantly as she'd hoped. She rolled her shoulders a few times before taking a bite of her sandwich.
Leena exhaled and leaned forward, taking Claudia's hand in hers, her thumb rubbing over her friend's knuckles. Claudia smiled slowly and squeezed back.
The silence between the two stretched, but no tension prevailed. Instead, Claudia giggled through her nose and eventually pulled away. "Pete was checking out the girls."
Leena took a sip of her Mountain Dew, puzzled. "Who?"
"Yours," Claudia grinned lecherously, peeking at the woman's chest to emphasize her point.
"Wh…" Leena coughed, trying to dispel the inevitable choking. Once she'd calmed, she straightened her back and blinked a few times. "I'm sorry?"
"Dude, come on… it's Pete!" She exclaimed. "One time I caught him getting an eyeful of Artie's moobs and he wasn't as horrified as I'd hoped." She shuddered.
Leena smiled shyly but couldn't help letting out a grumble. "Still, I feel kinda weird not being there," she said, crossing her arms so that her chest was covered. "Pete? Really?"
"Hey, c'mon…" Claudia held in a chuckle to try and soothe her friend. "I wasn't happy about it either." She peeled Leena's hands from her chest and held them again.
"You weren't?" Leena looked up through long lashes, smiling hopefully.
"Nuh-uh," Claudia's thumbs automatically began to rub at her friend's knuckles, reversing the previous roles. "I learnt far too much about ol' Lattimer's kinks that day. Some made me jealous."
"J-Jealous?" Leena licked her lips to try and wet her suddenly parched mouth. "They did?"
"Yeah…" Claudia nodded confidently. "Guess this is kind of a date, huh?" She enquired, abruptly.
Leena's eyes widened so far, the skin in her forehead wrinkled up comically. "Do you want it to be?" she wheezed.
"If you're down with it," Claudia shrugged, "I mean…" She shook her head and smiled. "Seeing Doug there… just, I dunno… things are different now. And in the game, I saved your life."
"You did?" Leena asked quietly, preferring to talk only when needed.
"Mhmm," Claudia took a swig of her shake with a free hand all the while stroking Leena's with the other, "You were cuffed to the disco ball."
"That damn thing," Leena rolled her eyes with a laugh.
"And I purple goo'd your ankle, and you gave me a boon. Basically you gave me your cell phone number in old fashioned eagle people language." Claudia rambled.
"I see," Leena smiled.
"And I was so happy, you know? When I saved you and when I saw you," she shrugged. "I dunno… things have changed, huh"?
Leena pulled away and took her last few bites of her banana split before answering. "I think they have, yes."
Claudia nodded, holding her head up with her fist as she chomped down the last of her sandwich, pocketing her onion rings for later. "You wanna get out of here?"
For the first time, a relieved smile crossed Leena's face and she nodded. "Yeah." she stood and necked back the last of her drink. "Let's go home." After waiting for Claudia to put the bill down on the table, she boldly moved to wrap an arm around the younger woman's back. She cringed slightly when Claudia tensed, and then it changed. It felt like warm chocolate with fruit, or sinking into bed to cold sheets on a hot and sweaty day. Claudia's hand settled against her belly as they walked, her other arm wrapped around the small of her back. The agent sunk into the embrace as she waved goodbye to the waitress, letting herself be guided out of the diner until they reached the car. "Wait, wait," Claudia said breathlessly, placing a hand on Leena's shoulder to stop her from getting in on her side.
"Is…something wrong?"
"No," Claudia smiled, leaning forward slowly before delivering a soft peck to Leena's mouth. "I just wanted to do that," she whispered, only an inch from the softly glossed lips. "Before it goes all wacky back at the B&B."
It took a while for Leena to open her eyes, but they eventually fluttered and she peered back in slight bewilderment, eyes now crossed. She nodded, and smiled suddenly, a big whopping grin that Claudia scarcely saw, usually only saved for holidays or special occasions. Then again, she guessed this was pretty damn special. "Can we do that again?"
"Sure," Claudia laughed, reaching up to wrap her arms around the innkeeper's neck. Pushing forward once more, she took Leena's lips against her own, half smiling when Leena's mouth automatically opened to let her in.
They'd kissed once before, on Claudia's 21st. They hadn't said a thing to anybody, but the memory of the smooch had caused them both to dance around each other until the inevitable happened. And that was happening right now.
Leena hummed at the taste of Claudia's butterscotch flavored lips, her tongue, before she pulled back with unsteady breaths, hand pressed against Claudia's chest. "We need to go home."
"Agreed." Claudia nodded, licking her lips and pulling away until she stood at her side of the car, patting the roof. "What's your dragon called?"
"Uh?" Leena looked up, still a bit floaty and having no clue as to what the woman was on about.
Claudia tried to keep a straight face for as long as she could but dissolved into a giggling mess as she yanked open the car door and sat down. "Inside Fargames joke," she smiled, pecking Leena on the cheek once the innkeeper had caught up and sat next to her. "You're cute when you're like this."
"Oh shush," Leena rolled her eyes. "Or you're walking home."
"Yes ma'am." Claudia bit on her tongue, holding in the grin as she did up her belt.
"Pssh, and none of this ma'am business. I'm not that old."
Claudia squawked defensively. "Yes, you are!"
"Wel—" Leena started, then frowned and huffed. "Ugh, shut up." As she started the car, she let out a discreet smile, only for herself. "Hey…um, Claud?" she said as they neared town.
"Hmmm," Claudia murmured, almost falling asleep to the rhythmic movements of the car and the mass amount of food in her belly.
"You… do you," Leena started, then sighed, frustrated at herself. "Would you like to stay in my room tonight?" She caught Claudia's quirk of the eyebrow and shook her head hastily. "To sleep. Just to sleep."
Claudia hefted herself up, smiling. "Yeah," she sighed peacefully, focusing on the road as they made their way back to the B&B. "That'd be nice."
The End