Title: Between the Shadow and the Soul
Pairing: Frankie Anderson/Chloe Price (Crankie Muppet)
Disclaimer: Not my characters, just borrowing them from Rookie Blue for a little while.
Summary: Chloe is like her damn piri-piri marinade; hot, fiery and undeniably addictive. She makes Frankie burn and recoil slightly at her startling heat, and yet every time they interact, Frankie is always left wanting more.
A/N: This is set post season 6, but in a world where Chloe and Dov never got back together.
I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no other way
than this: where I does not exist, nor you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
― Pablo Neruda.
Chapter 1/?
Frankie likes her women easy.
Not necessarily in a sexual way – although she's not one to object to casual, consensual sex between strangers – but in the grand schemes of things.
She's not hung up on the image of beauty dictated by the media; that women must be ridiculously skinny, caked in make-up, and dressed to impress at all times in clothes that aren't even all that comfortable. She likes easy women; women who can roll out of bed, twist up their hair and throw on some jeans and a t-shirt and get their day rolling.
Frankie likes women that don't need the cliched tropes of dating. She doesn't like waiting for hours for them to get ready, and she doesn't like bringing flowers and chocolates and giving compliments just for the sake of it.
She likes her women real; raw and true and perfectly imperfect. After all, Frankie knows she's not faultless or flawless, and she doesn't pretend to be.
Neither does Gail Peck. It's why Steve Peck had suggested that they'd get along. It's why Frankie snipes and jeers and banters with her the first opportunity she gets. But it's also why Gail doesn't really take interest in her. Gail Peck isn't looking for perfect, but she's not looking for easy either, and it seems her heart has set itself up for the hard complications of true love.
Holly Stewart is Frankie's polar opposite in every way, she's soft and sassy (but not too harsh) and endlessly patient and warm, and when Frankie witnesses her walk into Gail's life – or rather back into Gail's life – she sees just how easily Gail's tough shell just melts away, her imperfections nourished beautifully in Holly's loving arms, and revealing Gail's true heart for all to see. Together they are romantic and gentle and wanting, balancing out each other's flaws and making each other complete.
They make Frankie reconsider that maybe easy doesn't necessarily mean best. Maybe difficult women are more worth her time, harder to crack but ultimately more precious.
What Gail and Holly don't warn her about is that finding love is neither easy nor complicated, but simply unexpected.
Chloe Price is a muppet. She's positive and happy, full of light and laughter and hope. She's kind and quirky, cute and goofy, and sees the good in places and people where nobody else can. She's ditzy but smart, annoying but charming. She's a grown woman with the most innocent and unassuming of hearts, seeing the world bright and beautiful and full of possibilities in ways only children who have never experienced pain or suffering can.
She's a whirlwind of emotions that pulls Frankie in and spins her around in her chaos, always leaving Frankie's head an absolute spinning mess in her wake. Frankie finds her insufferable and frustrating, forever challenging her, forever calling her out and refusing to back down or apologise for who she is.
Chloe is like her damn piri-piri marinade; hot, fiery and undeniably addictive. She makes Frankie burn and recoil slightly at her startling heat, and yet every time they interact, Frankie is always left wanting more.
Frankie has always been two steps ahead of the women she dates, that's why she's always felt superior, why she grows bored with them so quickly, and why they always leave.
Chloe is the player in life that she doesn't anticipate, the one whose moves she doesn't see sweeping past her own until she's placed her final piece and called 'checkmate' before Frankie has even had time to blink.
That muppet, Chloe Price, as it turns out, is her game changer.
It starts like this:
Another wedding, another couple – Gail and Holly this time – another day of feeling bitter and jaded and lonely.
"Don't you just love weddings?" Chloe states more than asks, plopping herself down on the couch next to Frankie. "Everybody is so happy and beautiful and just... together. I love, love, love it."
Her sudden landing jolts Frankie's body slightly, a little of her beer splashing up the side of her glass and spilling over into her lap.
She shoots Chloe a glare and gets a sheepish smile in return, Chloe's hand reaching over to her lap with a napkin to pat her dry. "You love weddings, Price, what a complete and utter surprise," Frankie drawls wryly, snatching the napkin from Chloe's hand and dabbing at herself instead.
"And what a surprise that you don't," Chloe quips back, not looking bothered by Frankie's snark at all. "Sitting alone, wallowing, and being all self-pitying at a wedding is just pathetic, even for you."
"Yeah well, not all of us believe in fairytales, Doll-face," Frankie retorts snottily. "So why don't you take your obnoxious ideals of happiness elsewhere and leave me be. Go find your prince charming or something."
Her insulting suggestion only makes Chloe smile even brighter, a puff of laughter escaping past her lips. "You really don't know me at all," she says genuinely, no hint of smugness in her voice as she holds Frankie's gaze. "My loves have all been epically messy and painful but at the same time, I still think they were kind of beautiful. Love's supposed to bowl you over and leave you breathless and damaged. Embrace the change, you know?"
Frankie scoffs at her this time, her eyebrow arching disbelievingly. "I'm really supposed to believe that you don't think love is all rainbows and goodness and happily ever afters? Cut me some slack, I've seen you moon over sappy shit hundreds of times this past year... I mean you were even just mooning over those two lovesick fools."
Chloe follows her gaze over to where Gail and Holly are pressed together on the dance-floor, completely lost in each other like they have been all evening, smiling softly and trading kisses like they can't get enough of one another.
"I think love is what love is," Chloe replies with a shrug. "Kinda like that line from that movie with Tom Hanks. You know the one," she says snapping her fingers in front of Frankie's face as if that's going to help her figure it out.
Frankie slaps her hand away, feeling annoyance prickle down her spine. "Tom Hanks has been in dozens of movies, you fruitloop. How the hell I am supposed to know what one you mean."
Chloe sticks her tongue out at her in retaliation and then, a few seconds later, clicking her fingers together again and pointing at Frankie, says in a terrible accent, "'Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get'."
"Forrest Gump?" Frankie huffs in exasperation, her eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "How the hell is love anything like that stupid line from Forrest Gump? That makes literally no sense, at all."
"Yes it does," Chloe fires back, shuffling closer to Frankie on the couch as she draws her knees up to press into Frankie's thigh. "'Cos in a box of chocolates you get the ones you like and the ones you don't like, right?" Frankie nods slowly, deciding it's probably best at this point to just let herself go with the crazy. "Well sometimes you have to eat a few of the ones you don't like so much to get to one that you do. Love's like that, you have to date a few people that don't work out before you find the one that does; the one that's your most favourite flavour of all."
Frankie narrows her eyes at her. "You really are a fucking muppet, Price, you know that?"
"Maybe," Chloe grins toothily, pushing to her feet all of a sudden and holding her hand out to Frankie. "But I think you should come dance with me because I really love this song."
Frankie eyes her hand wearily in return. "I don't dance."
"Everybody dances," Chloe retorts merrily. "Good, bad, ugly, it doesn't matter, just stop moping and come have a dance with me, it won't kill you."
"It might," Frankie quips back, not moving, and glowering as Chloe reaches down and grasps her wrist, tugging her up. "Ow, what the hell, Price?"
"Don't be a baby, I'm barely touching you," Chloe replies with a laugh that makes her eyes twinkle daringly. "Come dance with me," she echoes unwaveringly.
"Give me one good reason why I should," Frankie answers, not understanding why she feels herself getting swept away in Chloe's dark, enchanting eyes.
Chloe simply steps into her, much to Frankie's surprise, their bodies suddenly so close that she can breathe in the sweet, floral smell of Chloe's perfume, and see the constellation of freckles scattered across her cheeks, and feel the warmth of her breath against her own lips as Chloe leans in to her and whispers, "Because, Frankie, I just might end up being the flavour you didn't expect, the one you didn't know you craved until you tried it."
It shouldn't be so appealing but it is, it so is, and Frankie finds the confident sliver of arrogance in Chloe's proposal unbearably sexy. It's a challenge that she has no intention of backing down from.
She holds her hand out and lets Chloe lead her to the dance floor without another word, and as Chloe takes her hands and places them dangerously low on her hips, her own hands coming up to loop around Frankie's neck and letting her teasing fingers scratch lightly at the nape of Frankie's neck, Frankie feels a fire erupt inside of her chest.
It blazes through her swiftly, awakening a hungry desire that she hasn't felt for a long time, and when Chloe, without warning, kisses her goodnight, slow and deep and full of promise, parting with a stinging nip to her bottom lip, Frankie feels the flames consume her.
It bowls her over completely and leaves her breathless and damaged, forever changed with the hot, fiery and undeniably addictive flavour of Chloe Price lingering on her lips, and begging Frankie to taste it again, and again and again.