Disclaimer: I don't own Until Dawn.
A/N: For my sister! Who loves the Sam x Jess ship. I borrowed the title of this fic from one of her Until Dawn edits on Instagram - if you want to see the original, her account is 'untildawn DOT jess', just remove the spaces and the DOT and replace it with an actual dot since this site hates anything that looks like a link. xD
The first chapter of this covers the night that Hannah and Beth went missing, and the second covers the start of the main game a year later.
I Am Armoured in Courage, I Need Not Your Sword
Chapter One: Butterflies, and Other Delicate Things
"You can do this, Jess."
The blonde in question stares out through the glass door of the lodge's balcony and repeats the words quietly and fervently to herself. "You can do this."
The floor thuds to the bass of some techno beat and laughter drifts up the stairs. The alcohol is making her blood sing and she feels almost feverish with excitement and anticipation and nerves all at once. Get a hold of yourself, she scolds mentally, although the feelings don't recede. This isn't your first crush; you know what the hell you're doing. Get out there.
But this is different, another part of her mind points out quietly, the part making her almost sick with nerves. This is Sam.
Jess' gaze finds the other blonde unerringly. Sam sits on the far end of the balcony, just out of the snow. She's leaning on her hands and her head is tilted back, watching the white flakes whirl down; something in Jess' chest warms at the sight of her serene expression, the tiniest hint of a smile curling her lips. She wants to smooth the wayward strands of blonde hair out of Sam's face and tuck them back into place – goddamn it, stop staring and get out there, Jess!
Giving herself a shake, Jess slides open the door and steps out, shutting it again behind her. "Hey, Sam," she calls, grinning as the other girl visibly starts in surprise. "Nice view?"
"Oh jeez, Jess, you scared me." Sam's tone is a little bit scolding but mostly amused. Jess mentally celebrates and flashes her most winning smile as she pads over to the other blonde. Sam smiles back, an eyebrow quirking."What's up?"
"Oh, nothing," Jess says, as airily as possible. "It's just waaaay too hot in there – you have the right idea being out here. I brought you another cider," she adds, holding out one of the two bottles she's carrying.
"Oh," Sam looks surprised and pleased. "Thanks. I thought I was going to have to go all the way back downstairs to get more," she says, casting a rueful glance at the empty bottle beside her even as she accepts the new one from the other girl.
Jess folds herself down neatly next to Sam and they sip in companionable silence. She sees Sam's gaze wander further up the mountain's snow-covered slopes and asks teasingly, "Planning a hike? In this weather?"
Oddly enough, it had been hiking that had made Jess notice Sam to begin with. The other girl had proposed a trip to the Rockies to their group about a year ago; Mike had agreed immediately, and after Emily raised her eyebrows meaningfully a couple of times, Jess had volunteered herself and 'persuaded' Emily to go too. It had been, of course, a pretext for Emily to spend some time with Mike – which meant it was Jess' job to occupy Sam.
Ah, the things I do for friendship. Only, it had turned out to not be much of a chore at all. The opposite in fact. An unconscious smile tugs at Jess' lips as she remembers being pleasantly surprised by Sam's fitness and dedication to the hike. She'd never spent much time with the other girl before that, not one-on-one at least, and she'd had no idea exactly how much Sam enjoyed hiking and climbing. They'd left Emily and Mike far behind on the trail and stopped at an outcropping, to eat lunch and wait for the other two to catch up; it had been there that Jess had her moment of realisation. Sam had been grinning, her eyes bright, her cheeks flushed with cold and exercise, and strands of her blonde hair escaping from her bun; Jess had been just about to take the last bite of her cheese and ham sandwich when the sun caught Sam's hair just right, making it glow, and the thought had crossed her mind – she's beautiful.
Quiet and unceremonious and all the more startling for it; Jess had dropped the last of her sandwich in surprise at her own thoughts, and then been immediately distracted by the complete waste of a perfectly good bite of ham and cheese. Jess' distraught (and maybe slightly exaggerated) wails had made Sam double over laughing, and oh God, the laughter had made her eyes light up, she was even more beautiful, that was just patently unfair, Jess' belly laugh made her sound like a braying donkey –
Cue Jessica sliding into a completely embarrassing crush, which after a year of fermenting feels scarily like something more than a crush. Not to mention it's just pathetic it's taken me this long to work up the courage to actually do something about it.
Jess comes back to the present in time to hear Sam reply, "Well, the storm's due to clear tomorrow – if it does, I might go for a wander. You wanna come, hiking buddy?"
Her teasing smile does funny things to Jess' heart and wow, was it hot out here all of a sudden? "Sure," she smiles back, adding a touch of flirtatiousness. "You know I love exploring with you." She was becoming quite the adept at both climbing and hiking now, with the amount of time she was spending with Sam.
Sam is about to reply when a sudden burst of muffled laughter and whooping is audible through the floorboards. "Chris and Josh are such idiots," she says with a fond smile.
"I doubt that's them; when I left to come up here they looked on the verge of passing out," Jess says, rolling her eyes. "I think Emily and Mike are doing shots now. It looked serious – I don't think Emily will forgive Mike if he wins."
Sam shakes her head. "I've never understood their relationship. But if it makes them happy, that's what counts, I guess."
"Yeah…" Jess' chest gives a painful little twinge. "Speaking of which…"
Sam's looking at her now, head tilted inquisitively, and Jess summons all of her courage (because, damnit, she's always prided herself on being brave and she's not going to put this off any more than she already has) and slides closer to Sam, looking up at the other girl from under her lashes. "How would you feel about dating me?"
The words are out there, floating in the wind, as brazen as Jess can make them when her heart is in her throat. Sam blinks, looking absolutely stunned. The breeze stirs the strands of blonde hair around her face; her hazel eyes are wide with surprise. "I –" her voice cracks and she clears her throat. "I –"
Jess forces her smile to remain bright and flirty, despite the way it feels like a fist is closing around her heart. "Ah – if you're not interested, it's okay. I –" She starts to move away a little, wanting to retreat to nurse her wounds in private, when Sam's hand shoots out and closes around her wrist.
"No, wait!" the other blonde blurts out, looking panicked. "I didn't mean – I wasn't expecting – I like you too, damnit!" Jess can only stare and Sam flushes scarlet. "I didn't think – didn't think you'd ever be interested. I didn't even know you swung that way."
The relief and joy flooding through her makes Jess' grin come out twice as blinding as normal. And twice as suggestive. "Oh darling, why on earth would I restrict myself to one gender? It's a big world out there and there's a lot of beautiful people, men and women. But –" she shifts closer and flutters her eyelashes exaggeratedly. "None as beautiful as you."
Sam bursts out laughing, just as Jess had intended and she beams smugly at her success. "That was awful," Sam says, her eyes creased at the corners with laughter.
"I know," Jess admits shamelessly, shifting even closer. Her heart is lighter than it's ever been and Sam is here and watching her out of hazel eyes, warm with amusement, and she's not moving away. "I mean it though. You're beautiful. And clever. And strong. And –"
Sam huffs. "Okay, okay, I get it. You're not bad yourself." The light in her eyes says she's teasing and Jess wonders if it's possible to die from overwhelming happiness, even as she opens her mouth to protest in mock-indignation –
And is promptly silenced when Sam pulls her in for a kiss. Jess freezes for a moment, taken by surprise, before she relaxes into the kiss. Sam is warm and soft and her lips taste faintly of strawberries and cider; after a few seconds, Jess gives into temptation and reaches up to pull out the other girl's hairband. Blonde hair falls in shining waves around her face and Sam makes a brief noise of surprise, before Jess runs her fingers gently through the other girl's hair and the noise turns into a contented purr.
The rush of heat Jess feels at the sound actually makes her weak at the knees and she spares a brief moment to be thankful she's already sitting down, before fully devoting her attention to the girl in front of her.
Jess honestly has no idea how much time passes before the sound of a door slamming loudly makes them jerk away from each other, startled. Jess is pleased (part of her near purring in satisfaction actually) to see Sam looking so dazed, hair ruffled, lips reddened and eyes unfocused in pleasure. She's actually on the verge of reaching out and pulling the other blonde into another kiss, when the bang of another door slamming open echoes up to them.
"You jerks!" Beth's shout is loud and ringing. "Hannah! Hannah!"
"What the hell?" Sam is rapidly losing her unfocused look, much to Jess' displeasure.
"Damnit," she sighs, climbing to her feet and offering Sam her hand. As much as she'd like to let the others sort out their own messes, she knows Sam's conscious won't let her sit up here and kiss Jess silly when there is clearly some sort of fight going on downstairs. It's one of the things I like so much about her, even if it's incredibly inconvenient right now. "Can we come back up later, once things are sorted out?"
Sam flashes her a cheeky smile and Jess is so distracted by the sight she nearly trips over one of the potted plants on the balcony. "Of course. I'm looking forward to continuing our conversation." Her smile turns a shade more mischievous and flirtatious and Jess nearly swallows her tongue in shock because she's never seen Sam flirt, ever.
"So am I," Jess manages to purr back and Sam laughs before slipping inside. Jess follows, so happy that it almost hurts.
(In the morning, when the police arrive and the warmth that they shared on the balcony feels like a distant memory, Sam's hand still finds Jess' as they wait to be interviewed, and some part of Jess can't help but be selfishly glad that something good at least came out of what turned out to be one of the worst nights of their lives.)
A/N: Thanks for reading! The second part will be up immediately (for once xD). If you liked, please leave me a comment. :) Thanks again!