Title: Everywhere to Me
Author: OpheliacAngel
Pairings: Morgan/Sue
Genres: Romance/Friendship
Rating: Teen
Summary: Sue's heart swells and it almost betrays her, a pulse that threatens to jump outside the barriers of her rib cage.
A/N: Written for femslashficlets for prompt #049 TV Tropes. This is mainly for the trope 'I Love You Because I Can't Control You,' but also contains 'Holding Hands' and 'I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship.'
Soundtrack: Bran Van 3000's 'Everywhere'
Everywhere you sing your smile and
Every time you're not around
It doesn't matter
'Cause you're everywhere to me
Everyone you've ever known counts on you
Waits for you to come through
Don't you know that you're gonna break through?~
Sue's morning starts off with unhooking her braces from her woven blanket and disentangling the brush from her hair. It usually takes her a little while to wake up in the morning, to string a series of words together to form thoughts and try to remember the day of the week, but walking out to the living room to see Morgan sitting on the couch has her running back to the bathroom to double-check her hair and change her shirt for the third time that morning.
Morgan looks her up and down when Sue feels decent enough, yet not with disdain. Morgan's been nothing but sweet and talkative and loving since she asked Sue out not even a day after dumping Axl.
Now Sue's on an uphill climb on a roller coaster that is all too set to go down soon, and hopefully in a thrilling and totally awesome way and not in a crash and burn way.
Morgan opens her beautiful mouth and gets right into it. "Hey, Sue. Listen. I…." Sue's hanging on Morgan's every word because the cheerleader is never speechless. "I don't want to jump head-first into this. Not like with Axl. I… I want us to be friends first and foremost." Morgan adjusts the strap of her purse on her shoulder. "You get that, right?"
Morgan cringes somewhat but Sue barely notices it. And god, she should have known. Her mom always told her that guys left and right would be breaking her heart someday, and Morgan was such an obvious choice because of the two dozen times she had been on and off with Axl, but she never thought Morgan would do it to her.
It's no wonder that Sue gets angry. "Are you breaking up with me?" She practically stomps her feet but she can be adult about this. "I can't believe this! Just when I started sharing my fries with you and let you borrow my lip gloss you do this!"
"Everyone okay in here?" Sue's mom pokes her head into the room and Sue wants to scream at her to leave, but technically her and Morgan are in the living room anyway, which means no privacy. Sue huffs and stomps outside, surprised when Morgan follows her.
And then all the anger leaks out of Sue and all that's left is a big, messy ball of hurt and disbelief and all she wants to do is sink to the ground and sob and have her mother comfort her like she's so good at doing. Morgan takes a frantic step forward and takes Sue's hand, squeezing it, brushing a strand of Sue's hair out of her face and gingerly pulling another out of her braces. "Thanks," Sue sniffs.
Morgan nods in understanding. "It's my fault. I should have explained myself."
"What?" Sue glances up and doesn't see one ounce of apology in Morgan's eyes, and that's not like her. Even when Morgan breaks things off, Sue can always see a brief flick of wretchedness cross over her face, like she hates to break people but only wants what's best for her. Sue wants what's best for Morgan too.
"That's the thing, Sue. You're the one person who doesn't listen to me, the one person who makes me feel good loving you. It makes me so irritated sometimes, when I tell you to do something and you do the exact opposite, but then I remember that you're you, Sue, and that's better than anything I've ever known. You're the strongest person I know."
A warm, gooey feeling starts in Sue's chest and hurries up to her head, making her feel dizzy for a second until her vision hones in on one thing and one thing only: Morgan's blindingly white, amazingly perfect smile. Sue always asks Morgan how she does it, how she can be so perfect, but to Sue there's so much more to Morgan. There's Morgan complaining about her calculus homework and Morgan's obsession with cheese fries with extra ranch, which she always spills on Sue's bed, and there's Sue talking about something until she can't even remember what she was talking about and Morgan still taking in every single word.
Morgan's always been nice, but in the past week she's been Sue's whole world. Sue can ignore the glares from Axl and the threats to oust her to Mom, and she can ignore just how much her dad doesn't care about her love life even when she has so much to ask, so much to tell him, but she can't ignore the way she feels when Morgan's listening to her or just there.
"Ooh, hang tight," Morgan reaches for Sue's open mouth and her fingernail scrubs in between Sue's teeth. "There," she pulls back. "Must have been a piece of popcorn."
Sue's heart swells and it almost betrays her, a pulse that threatens to jump outside the barriers of her rib cage. "I don't want to stop being friends either. If that ever stops, then I don't know what I'll do."
"See, I know, because we value the same things. Friendship, family, hard work, trying to get somewhere even if we never make it." And god, Sue wants to hug Morgan so tight then that she can't breathe, and she definitely can't breathe when Morgan wraps her arms around her and she smells like the best perfume on earth and Morgan's fingernails are sorta digging into Sue's back but she doesn't care.
"God!" Axl complains, slamming the door behind him. "Your hugging is too loud!"
Morgan takes Sue's face in her hands and kisses her, and even though the cheerleader's probably disappointed because she can't move her tongue much, otherwise it'll get torn up in Sue's braces, Sue can feel every ounce of that friendship and love and admiration.
That Saturday, while Morgan and Sue sit in the bleachers sharing cheese fries and watching the other cheerleaders, Sue grabs for Morgan's hand on a whim and holds tight.
FIN