"Allez, ma chérie! We will be late! Why are you taking so long anyway? You don't even need to do your hair. I don't want everyone else to get a bad impression of me because of you being late", Delphine Cormier called from outside the bathroom, hands on her hips, peeking to see Cosima bent towards the mirror, fully concentrated on applying her eyeliner.
"I'll have you know that just 'cos you can look good effortlessly, that doesn't mean that it applies to we mere mortals, okay Delphine? My eyeliner game totes needs to be on point. Without it, I'm just Helena in dreads and a freakin' nose ring"
"I do not look good effortlessly, Cosima. You know I spend my bonus bulk-buying Kinky Curly from Costco"
"Delphine, sweetie, while I do know that. That doesn't mean that I can listen to you saying that without ripping my ass open in laughter. And laughing is totes the last thing I wanna do if I don't want to smudge this crap and end up looking like Sarah with dreads and a freakin' nose ring. I mean like the last thing I want is Rachel hunting me down for an oophorectomy - which is totes a code word for some weird, kinky kinda bang, but don't tell her I said that."
"… I think I'll just wait outside, Cosima"
"Heya, Alison!"
"Hello, Cosima. You're eighteen minutes late"
"Yeah, yeah I know. Totally sorry, got kinda held up", Cosima muttered, hands waving arcs in the air before reaching out to hug Alison.
"This is Delphine. Delphine, Alison"
"Enchantée, Alison"
"Nice to meet you too, Delphine", Alison greeted politely as Delphine leaned in to kiss her cheeks.
"Ah, you've finally made it!", Felix exclaimed a bit too happily the moment he saw Cosima and Delphine walking towards the living room.
"Oh dearie me, honey, you're way more beautiful than I imagined", Felix remarked as he affectionately leaned in to kiss Delphine's cheeks.
After Delphine finished greeting Sarah and Rachel, Beth walked up to her.
"Hi. I'm Beth. Great to finally meet you"
"Enchantée, Beth", Delphine greets as she leans in to give her customary kiss on the cheeks.
"Hop, hop, moi, c'est quatre", Beth gestures to her cheeks, indicating the cheek kiss to be four times instead of the usual two.
Delphine tilts her head back in laughter before kissing Beth's cheeks four times.
"Et pourquoi ça?"
"Well, I was sent to Normandy for a couple of weeks where kisses were four instead of two and I found out that it was totally legit to ask other people to kiss you four times instead of two when I visited the other regions in France. So that's what I ended up doing to get beautiful French women to kiss me more"
"Hey, watch it Childs!", Cosima shouted from the other end of the room.
"Relax, Niehaus. I'm just joking", Beth grins cheekily at Cosima to which Cosima flips a bird in response.
"So, is that where you learnt French?", Delphine asks amused.
"Ouais. My police partner and I had this bet going on on who could get a French kiss from a French girl first. So that was a huge motivator for me to learn - "
"Beth Childs!"
" - but that was before I met the lovely, lovely Alison Hendrix here", Beth quickly added, pulling Alison towards them, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and kissing her hair.
"Hey, Alison, a little top-up, please?", Sarah called from the sofa, one hand raising her glass, the other wrapped around Rachel whom was sitting primly with her legs crossed. "And a little somethin' for Rachel here as well? Stick still up her arse", to which Rachel glared at Sarah before leaning in to whisper something in Sarah's ear which made the colour rise in her cheeks.
Alison winced at Sarah's choice of words before pulling away from Beth and making her way to the kitchen. But not before making a gesture with two fingers from her eyes to Beth's direction with a stern look.
For a moment, Beth's eyes widened in fear before she recovered her confidence, no thanks to the drinks she had while waiting for Cosima and Delphine to arrive.
"You have great hair, by the way. Qu'est-ce que ton secret?"
"Euh, c'est Kinky Curly"
"C'est kinky pour Cosima aussi, ouais?"
"Childs!"
"Beth!", both Cosima and Alison yelled at the same time.
"Right, I gotta go. Your girlfriend wants me to beat it and Alison needs me in the kitchen", Beth said apologetically before making her way to a glaring Alison.
"So, that was quite the party", Delphine said as she climbed onto the bed beside Cosima.
"Hella. I hope they didn't freak you out too much though", Cosima looked up, smiling nervously at Delphine.
"No, of course not, chérie", Delphine reached out to hold Cosima's hand. "I actually find them all very fascinating. Because genetically you are all identical but each of you have such different personalities. It really makes you think about the nurture/nature question. Like obviously, your personality is influenced by the environment you grow up in, but at the same time, we could be genetically predisposed to some behaviours. Which makes you wonder what kind of traits do all of you share in common…", Delphine trailed off when she realises that Cosima is grinning teasingly, tongue poking slightly out between her teeth.
"Sorry, I did not mean to ruin the mood", Delphine looked down, embarrassed.
"That was… oddly romantic", a seductive smile slowly taking over Cosima's face as she leans in closer to Delphine.
"Mm, really?", Delphine whispers, hands reaching out to cradle Cosima's face.
"Yes, really", Cosima stops, face inches away from Delphine's.
Delphine stares deep into Cosima's eyes, before looking down at her lips. She wets her lips and leans in to press a soft kiss to Cosima's lips, eyelids fluttering shut, inhaling Cosima's scent and enjoying their close proximity.
Cosima slowly pulls away, cups a hand on Delphine's cheek before lowering them both onto the bed.
"Cosima?"
"Yeah, Delphine?"
"Do you want to uh, do an oophorectomy with me?"
"Yes but you have to promise never to say that again"