A/N: Man, I suck at crossposting... Anyway! I wrote this for Femslash February, but also for the RvB Happy Hour, for my Fem Tropes bingo card (high school AU) and for my personal to-do bingo card. It took far longer than it probably should have to wrangle this into shape, but I'm pleased with how it came out. I'm less pleased with the title, but what else is new? Enjoy!
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"Hey, Kit-Kat!"
Veronica snickers when Katie immediately perks up and looks around at the sound of the nickname like an eager puppy. Katie turns to say something– something witty, for sure– and that's what dooms her.
Well, for a certain value of doom. Being swept up into Kaikaina Grif's arms and swung around in circles isn't all too much of a hardship, actually, minus the dizziness and the nausea. And Katie has been noticing a touch of both every time Kai smiles at her these days, so she figures she actually comes out ahead this way, being in Kai's arms and all.
"O– m– g," Kai says once she's let Katie off the ride and is holding her steady by the shoulders, because of course she talks the way she texts. She's smiling full in Katie's face and Katie finds herself wondering if it's possible to throw up in a good way. "Okay, so, are you even ready for this?"
"Um," Katie manages.
"Her body is so ready," Veronica cuts in, all grin and fluttering eyelashes.
Kai's hands tighten on Katie's shoulders for a fraction of a second, the extra pressure there and gone again in the time it takes Kai to turn her grin on Veronica and giggle at the joke.
"Er," Katie says, off-balance in way that being spun around can't account for. She can't even scold Veronica for the remark, too preoccupied with trying to make sense of that squeeze; her mind gives it up for naught and instead she asks, "What am I ready for?"
"Right!" Kai chirps. She lets go of Katie with one hand to dig a sheet of paper out of the book bag hanging off her elbow, then presents the paper to Katie with a flourish. "Check this out!"
It's a school paper of some kind, that much is obvious, but Katie can't quite make sense of it through the cyclone of Kai's looping handwriting in neon gel ink and the harsh red of teacher's notations. She blinks a few times and squints, trying to find one thing to focus on. Meanwhile, Veronica cranes her neck and, as an avid user of gel pens herself, immediately cuts through the extra noise straight to the point.
"Oh, wow, a B-plus!" she cheers, raising one hand to offer a high five.
"I know, right?" Kai says, slapping Veronica's hand with perhaps more enthusiasm than is warranted. "It would've been an A, but douchebag marked me off for using the wrong color pen, can you believe it? Like there's a difference."
Ignoring Kai's continued refusal to accept that there is a big difference to most people, Katie smiles, the corners of her mouth reaching for her ears. She didn't actually get that great a look at the paper, but for Kai to have tracked her down to show it to her, it has to be the biology test Katie has been tutoring her to prepare for. Katie actually bounces a little when she says, "That is so cool, though! Congratulations, Kai! And you thought you were gonna fail."
"I totally would have if it wasn't for you," Kai says, pulling Katie into another hug but foregoing any more spinning; Katie would have appreciated the excuse for her sudden attack of jelly knees, honestly. "None of that junk made sense until you explained it."
"That's just because you listened when I explained it, though!" Katie insists. "If you'd listen to your teacher–"
"Pfffffft," Kai says, rolling her eyes Heavenward. "As if. Who wants to listen to some old jerk explain things they don't expect me to get anyway? I'd rather listen to you any day of the week."
Katie means to thank her, she really does, but it's hard to talk when she's choking on too much air and too much spit all trying to get down her throat at once. Kai and Veronica pat her back from either side, helping clear the way for breathing.
"Thanks," Katie croaks, a little at Kai for the compliment and a little at both of them for the assist.
"No prob," Kai says, ever cheerful. Her hand goes from Katie's back to her shoulder, pulling her into a one-armed side hug.
She says more after that, mouth going a mile a minute, but Katie can't hear her past the sound of her own blush rushing and rising in her face, no doubt drowning out her freckles. Katie nods and makes interested sounds where they seem to be appropriate, clawing desperately for her bearings. She's vaguely aware of Veronica piping in here and there, but can't quite make words out of those sounds either. Panic shoves her back into reality when Veronica says, "Well, see you tomorrow," and walks away without a glance back. Katie stares after her, confused and betrayed; Veronica was supposed to be her ride home.
Apparently not at all affected by this disordering of the universe, Kai calls a goodbye to Veronica, tightens her arm around Katie and marches her off toward another exit. Katie is just swallowing her embarrassment in preparation of asking where they're going when Kai speaks up again.
"So, you wanna stop anywhere before I drop you off?"
"Oh, no, I've got some stuff to do for my mom…" Katie says on automatic, trailing off when realization cuts through her confusion, making way for horror.
Somewhere in all that talk she missed, somehow as she was tossing off whatever monosyllable she guessed was right at the time, she must have agreed to a ride home from Kai.
A ride home from Kai in the infamous Grif Sibling Deathwagon, held together by hopes and dreams. Many a rumor surrounded its origins– an art project made of rescued scrap parts that fell off a truck into the Grif family driveway one morning was by far the most popular. Kai had given her the real story one day during a study break– it had been a gift to Mrs Grif from some clown she'd known back in her circus days after it was too beat up to keep using in the show. Having a functional vehicle of her own already, Mrs Grif had shrugged and passed ownership to her son on the condition that he could fix it up. Dexter Grif, according to Kai, was fully capable of fixing it, but he was also "way lazy" and had instead opted to do the bare minimum to make it run and just went with it. When he'd gone off to college, he'd passed it along to Kai since it wouldn't have survived the trip.
"Why don't you fix it?" Katie had asked. "I mean, you tested out of auto-shop, right?"
Kai had shrugged and said, "Eh. I'm way lazy too."
It's hard to think of Kai as any kind of lazy, never mind way lazy, when one had her muscles rippling against them. Since Kai hadn't wasted time taking them from "we see each other in the halls sometimes" to "all of the hugging all of the time" after Katie was assigned as her tutor, it was a point that constantly took Katie by surprise when it was brought to her attention.
It's a fact that's brought to her attention in a big way as Kai leads them out to the student parking lot and walks them to what could charitably be called her vehicle.
"Um, are you sure this isn't an inconvenience?" Katie squeaks, stomach flipping with every step she took closer to it. "I can probably still catch Veronica and I don't want to put you out if you've got stuff to do–"
"Pft, nah, it's fine," Kai says, cheerfully oblivious. She grins down at Katie and adds, "I've nothing better to do than you."
"If you're sure," Katie says reluctantly. Then the rest of what Kai said catches up and she sputters, "Wait, what?"
Laughing, Kai gives Katie a little shake before releasing her to climb into the driver's seat of what had once been a jeep and is now most of the parts of a jeep slapped together in mostly the right ways. When Katie hesitates instead of rounding to the passanger's side, she smiles expectantly and says, "All aboard, Kit-Kat! That means you too."
"Right," Katie mutters. Feeling trapped, she drags herself to the other side and then enters gingerly, afraid that breathing too heavily in the wrong direction would make the whole thing collapse. "Um, seat belt?"
"On the seat," Kai says on a giggle like Katie is being silly.
Looking down, Katie sees that two halves of an actual belt have been duct taped to either side of the seat. Whimpering, she buckles the two halves in front of her and quietly says her prayers as Kai starts the thing up and roars out of the parking lot like the Grim Reaper is on her bumper, finally come to collect on the jeep's contract.
In the end, it isn't too bad, where "too bad" would have meant "fatal." The only radio station the jeep picks up plays what seems to be a loop of what Katie thinks might be some kind of Spanish polka, which Kai gets tired of about five minutes into the twenty-minute drive, to Katie's relief. Kai chatters happily for the whole trip, as unconcerned as if she was in a road-worthy vehicle. It's only this lack of concern from the person now in charge of the vehicle's maintenance that keeps Katie conscious. Even then, she spends the ride trying to become one with her seat.
"Here we go!" Kai cheers as she comes to a screeching halt in Katie's driveway.
"Oh, thank God," Katie breaths– she thinks it might be her first breath since the ignition kicked on. "Er, um. Thank you. For the ride."
"Seriously, thank you," Kai says, emphatic and sincere, leaning over into Katie's space to clap a hand to her shoulder. "I thought a tutor would, like, do my work for me in exchange for me doing work for them, if you get what I'm saying." She pauses, then, "I'm saying they'd expect sex stuff for–"
"I knew what you were saying," Katie assures her, face burning all over again. "You're welcome, really, I'm glad I could help–"
"Okay, but, see– I totally thought that would be the only way stuff would get done or it wouldn't get done because I didn't get it– but then you totally helped me out and I totally did get it and that was just really cool, y'know?"
Affection floods Katie, making her feel warm in a way similar to but different from the way Kai usually makes her feel warm. She reaches out and sets a friendly– but not too friendly– hand on Kai's thigh, the first time she can ever remember initiating contact between them. She's still trying to think of something to say when Kai's grin goes sly and the hand on Katie's shoulder strokes down her back and then up to her other shoulder, pulling her close.
Ducking in, Kai whispers into Katie's ear, "Of course, now that you've gotten me that good grade, y'know– I don't really have any way to pay you ba–"
"You don't have to pay," Katie squeaks, eyes wide in panic. "I'm a school-appointed tutor, you literally don't have to pay anything!"
"Oh," Kai saya, pulling back but not letting go. She pouts at her dashboard, considering, then flashes Katie another smile and asks, "You wanna hook up anyway?"
"What!?"
"Or, like, make out if you're not up for running all the bases."
"I– wha– I don't–"
"Ohhh, okay– no, I gotacha," Kai saya, smile never slipping. She's back in her own space except for the hand that's found its way back to the shoulder nearest her, almost casual. "You're one of those date and dine first type, huh? That's cool, I'm good for it."
"Y-you are?" Katie asks, only half-aware of what was going on. Her head spins even though she was sitting still.
"Sure," Kai says, squeezing Katie's shoulder and then releasing it. "We'll do dinner and a movie tomorrow, how's that sound?"
"Sounds– sounds good," Katie says, feeling like she's in a dream. Unbuckling and getting out of the jeep seems to happen to someone else. "I'll see you then?"
"Yep!" Kai chirps, gunning the engine. "I'll text later when I'll pick you up, okay? Bye!"
"Bye," Katie says, definietly too quiet for Kai to hear as she peels out of the driveway and down the street. She stands there and stares after her even after she's gone, then shakes herself and stumbles zombie-like to the door.
Dinner and a movie, she thinks, giddiness bubbling in her belly. A date. A date with Kai…
The bubbles promptly burst as the rest of it catches up with her. A date with Kai that Kai is going to pick her up for. In that deathtrap she calls a vehicle–
But Katie sighs and smiles, brushing aside the worry for now. Even if her first dates ends up in literal flames, what a way to go.y?"