A/N: This takes place on the eve of Kevin's return in the episode on 9/24.
"You know this is the last time we're going to be able to do this right?" Sophie sighed.
Maddie nodded that she realized and then scooped up the last of the biscuits. While Kevin was gone they had gotten into a terrible habit of late night snacking. But with Kevin and Jack coming back tomorrow they would have to change what had become a domestic routine. They would sit and discuss serious things, as well as silly things. Sitting with their hands holding across the table sometimes they said very little.
Usually, it was Sophie who got tired first and then they go to their room together. The brunette would let her girlfriend wash up first because "it takes time and night cream to keep this wrinkled face pretty." Maddie didn't bother with that stuff. Sophie just laughed and called herself an old lady, even though she was only two years older. Despite her girlfriends protestations, Maddie always waited to fall asleep until Sophie joined her. She never told Sophie this but Maddie did so mostly out of fear. She worried that one time she'd wake up and find out that Sophie Webster was just a dream.
Sitting across from her tonight, a part of her wanted to stop time. At a young age she was taught that it's dangerous to want things. The "poor and unfortunate" didn't bother with such things. It only meant disappointment and cruel lessons in heartache too often. So you learned to build sturdy walls around everything you can control. Burn down anything else that could possibly get close that you can't. "What you doing? Do one!" she learned to exclaim to any lad who dared try it on with her. When a few got too close she learned how to give them a good left. Usually it was enough, sometimes it hadn't been.
But being hard and staying hard were two different things. And her brother didn't deserve a sister who was bitchy all the time. He made her soft-that is when he was around. Now he was in Devon, but Maddie had found a reason to keep herself in check. She loved seeing how excited her girlfriend was that her dad and Jack were back. It was soppy but Sophie's smile had a light all it's own. As they had gotten closer, Maddie had come to love all of Sophie's smiles. She'd do whatever was necessary to keep that joy burning. She'd never allow anything to diminish it.
It was too hard to live without.
The radio played softly in the background. Usually Sophie prefered pop or dance music, but they chose a softer station so as not to wake the neighbors. Maddie herself liked to listen to oldies, which Sophie turned her nose at anything last century. Sophie scoffed at anything that didn't have a hip hop beat. Her nose would scrunch up just at the mention of Marvin Gaye. In return, Maddie mercilessly mocked Lady Gaga whenever it came on.
"What does that claptrap about disco sticks mean anyway?!" she'd laugh.
"Don't start! Wait are you lying about your age again? Is there an old lady possessing your teenage body?" Sophie looked at her mockingly.
"What are you on?!" Maddie playfully poked her in the side.
The slap fight that followed did not settle the issue. However she eventually explained that it had been the music that she would listen to with her mum when she wasn't sick. Those were some of the few good times that her family had ever had. And Sophie understood. She always did.
Eventually they found some music that they could agree on. After trying out a few songs for each other they discovered some songs that seemed "theirs." Maddie mocked it as a soppy notion, but again her girlfriend grinned that half smile of hers and she crumbled. She always would and Sophie knew it.
They had gotten up to start clearing away their late night dishes when one of "their" songs came on. Sophie openly squealed and placed down the plates she'd been holding. Her eyes got that come hither look as Maddie realized what song it was. They had heard it first one night shortly after Maddie and Sophie had moved into Kevin's.
"And it's dark in a cold December, but I've got you to keep me warm"
"That's us!" Sophie had exclaimed at the time.
Her hands automatically went to Maddie's cheeks as she pulled her into her lips. They had ended up missing the rest of the song as Maddie lost her clothes to Sophie's insisting hands. It was decided then and there that they had to download everything that Ed Sheeran had ever done. Maddie swore that even Sophie's Itunes started groaning as she played nothing else for at least a week.
"I'll pick you up when you're getting down"
Neither of them were great dancers, but at that moment it didn't matter, because it was just them. Neither spoke as they stood enveloped in each other. Maddie buried her head in Sophie's shoulder as she swayed following Sophie's lead. She felt Sophie's arms settled on her lower back. There was no space between them but it was an embrace of comfort rather than anything having to do with sex.
"And out of all these things I've done I think I love you better now"
Maddie had no idea what the future would bring. But as she felt the hands of her girlfriend move to clasp her own, entangling them between them, there were a few thoughts that became clear.
She wanted to show Sophie's dad that she was more than a little thief.
She wanted Carla to be impressed with how hard a worker she was and give her another chance.
She wanted Sophie to be protected and safe. Always.
She wanted.
End Note: The song quoted here is Lego House by Ed Sheeran. And I definitely think that it is a Sophie/Maddie song. :)