School, for once, actually went more quickly than Mikaela had expected it to.
After the encounter with Nora, she was sure that the rest of the day was going to be pretty fucking dull and was pleasantly surprised when it was kind of enjoyable. Julchen taught her a couple of good ways to mess with the English teacher (which earned a disapproving stare from Svea) and she also pointed out some of the more interesting sharpie-marker graffiti on the locker-room walls (and when Svea and Liesel weren't looking, they added a new one to celebrate). All and all, it was a pretty good first day. It almost made her bitter to have to drive home and deal with the man and the trophy wife again. Ah, well. At least that meant she could start to decorate her room a bit.
"So you really live that close by?" Julchen asked, upon walking back to Mikaela's car. She wasn't going with her today (she had some very important matters to discuss with the trio and the others) but Svea insisted that someone help her back to her car. Julchen took the task, and against Svea's better judgment, she let her. She just hoped Julchen didn't decide to have a repeat of the 'lets-put-shaving-cream-on-the-principle's-car' incident. That wouldn't end well.
"Yeah- I didn't even know though. I actually went the long way this morning." She laughed. "Fucking back roads."
"Yeah, we have a lot of those." The Prussian said. "Sometimes I like to tell Felicia and Rosaline that there are psycho killers or zombies on them and they freak the hell out- it's pretty cute actually. I can't really do it anymore though because it pisses Liesel off."
"Gotcha." Mikaela nodded.
"Yeah- still fun though. I mean, I didn't make them up, they're the town's legends and all."
"Really?"
"Ja. Maybe I'll tell you sometime- unless you're scared." The silverette challenged, grinning.
"I like urban legends," Mikaela said. "Came from a city, we had a lot of them. Of course, I'm pretty sure mine and yours would sound way different."
"We'll have to swap some." Julchen nodded. "Hey, you got a cell phone?"
"Ja."
"Let me see it."
Shrugging, Mikaela took out the phone and handed it over to Julchen, who quickly keyed a number in and handed it back. "Awesome", it read.
"That's my number." The Prussian announced. "Pretty sure you'll get everyone else's eventually."
"Cool-" Mikaela started, and quick sent a text to Julchen's phone. "There's mine."
"Awesome."
Finally, they stopped at Mikaela's car.
"Fuck how much did you spend on this thing?" Julchen asked, jaw dropping. That was a nice car. That was a really nice car.
"Eh, a lot." Mikaela shrugged. "It's my pride 'n joy. Swear to god it's the only good thing that ever happened to me back home." She laughed, somewhat bitterly.
Julchen continued to look it over. "Seriously. That's nice."
"Thanks." Mikaela grinned. "Well, see you later."
"Yep- don't forget to text back the awesome me!" Julchen called, and Mikaela gave an okay and waved before starting her drive back to the new house.
Meanwhile, in a locked bathroom stall in what was possibly the oldest wing of the school, the sound of lips pressing against each other and hands running over skin rang against the shitty tile walls.
"Ah love you." Svea murmured softly once she broke the kiss, before planting another one on Tiina's jaw while she rubbed her waist.
Taking a shuddering breath in as her eyes fluttered closed, the Finn moaned softly and twisted her fingers into her lover's hair. "I love you too Svea- aah- so much…"
"Yer so lovely." The Swedish woman praised, kissing at the crook of her neck.
"Oh god Svea-" Tiina gasped quietly, biting her lip as the sensitive skin was brushed. "Svea I want you." She breathed.
"Wanna touch ya'." Svea murmured against her neck. "How much time do we have?"
"Dunno- hah…" Tiina replied, losing her words once the other started to nip at the fragile, pale skin.
"M'phone." The Swede mumbled, still working at the girl's neck.
"W-what?..." Tiina asked, struggling to stay coherent. Really, what she wanted to do was just stop thinking so hard and let herself go… it was just so good.
"M'phone. Go'n my pocket 'n get m'phone." Svea elaborated between kisses and nips.
Oh. That made sense. With a soft smile the Finnish teen reached her hand into the other's pocket and felt around, gently brushing where she knew more sensitive skin lay under the fabric and earning a soft gasp from the Svea. Reluctantly, she eventually stopped and grasped the phone, pulling it out of the pocket and clicking the display on.
"Two-twenty four. We still have time before- hngh- everyone clears out…" She mumbled.
"We're gonna have to." Svea replied, biting now at the skin. Slowly she moved her hand to grip the inside of a soft, pale thigh, just barely brushing her fingers a little more inward. "Ah'm not leavin' without finishin' this."
"Ohfuckyou'reperfect." Tiina almost wailed, vision blurring. She yanked the Swedish woman even closer, dizzy and wanting and needing as much as she could get for that moment. There would be more later, she knew- right then they both needed a quick fix to keep going.
The cafeteria was near empty minus the Spanish girl sitting cheerfully on one of the tables, guitar case sitting behind her from music class. She had gotten there first, and therefore she chose where they would have their meeting that day. She supposed it was arbitrary really, but for some reason there was a certain thrill to picking out where everyone was to be stationed. When she saw her girlfriend walk in she waved her over, smiling wide.
"¡Hola querida!" She cooed, earning a soft blush from Maria.
"Don't yell that so loud- someone will hear it." The Italian muttered shyly.
"Aww, querida- everyone already knows that I adore you." She smiled, hopping off of the table and walking over to the other girl, resting her hands on the shorter girl's hips. "You aren't ashamed of that, are you?"
"Of course I'm not you bastard." She huffed. "You're just- so…"
"Passionate?" Anicia pressed, leaning in to that their noses touched. "Does it scare you, querida?" She crooned, their breaths mingling.
"I…" She started, but then fell at a loss for words. Anicia just smiled, leaned in and kissed her, and Maria's arms wrapped around her shoulders almost instinctively.
"I'll always be here to take care of you, querida." She soothed once they parted. "I'll always love you. Don't ever worry about me stopping."
"Don't say big things like that you idiot." Maria half-scolded, arms still wrapped around the Spaniard's shoulders. "You don't know what they mean."
"Ah, but I do querida. I'll prove it to you by always being here; and even if you don't believe me now you will one day. And then I'll just keep being there- forever." She said, and if it weren't for the dead serious expression in her eyes her smile may have made her look almost playful. "Te amo, Maria- siempre."
"…Ti amo." She finally mumbled after a long second, unsure of what else to say. Anicia always blew her away when she said these things and left her unsure of how to feel inside. All she knew was that somehow, somewhere along the line, she fell in love with her. And that really, really scared her.
Luckily, she was saved from that runaway train-of-thought by a certain silvertette.
"Woo, take it off!" The self-proclaimed Prussian yelled, clapping at the two. Her display earned a laugh from Anicia, a pout and a string of mumbled curse words from Maria, and a smack to the back of the head from Rosaline.
"Julchen, that's absolutely distasteful." The Austrian scolded, and the other girl just grinned and leaned closer to her.
"What, I can't look at other girls-" She then stopped, and a slow smirk spread across her lips "Are you jealous?" She taunted, snickering.
"Of what?" Rosaline asked. "There's nothing for me to be jealous of, you insufferable dolt."
"You're bad at lying, babe." She laughed, before swinging an arm around the Austrian girl and walking towards the other couple. While Rosaline did squirm, it was a weak attempt at escape, and she walked in step with the other as they approached.
The display made Anicia stop and think about her two friends. Sometimes she wondered when they were going to take things further, or if they were ever going to. Sure, Julchen was headstrong some- most times, come to think of it, but for some reason something always seemed to hold her back from asking the Austrian girl to be hers. If it was fear of rejection, then that was the first time that Anicia had ever seen her so scared.
When the girls were all finally next to one another they took their respective seats, chattering idly about the lectures of that day, the teachers, homework, what would be on T.V that night, and other meaningless nonsense. They were all ignoring the elephant in the room, but it was with good reason- they had to wait for the entire group to get there to discuss that one.
Eventually, the others did begin to file in. Amelia, Alice and Matilda all came in together, followed minutes after by Anya Eliisabet and Raiva. Keiko escorted a half-sleeping Hera to her seat, and Marianna and Jeanne came to the table hand and hand as per usual. Liesel and Felicia came only after they had a snack on the Italian's insistence, and Tori and Felicyta were running slightly late because Felicyta wanted to change clothes. Svea and Tiina were the last to arrive, clothing disheveled and cheeks flushed. The Swede's hair was still tousled in the back from where the Finnish girl had tangled her fingers in it, and the marks on Tiina's neck were already darkening significantly.
"Aww, Svea, next time tell us when there's time for a quickie!" Anicia grinned. Maria blushed wildly, and Svea only nodded her usual, composed nod and gave an affirmative hum. The others quieted down quickly, and once the room was silent she spoke.
"Ah think we all know why we're 'ere." She started. The group nodded slowly, and she continued.
"S'been a while since we've taken a new… member in." She continued, not sure if she had used the right terminology for the unspoken group. It had been a long time, though. Could one blame her? It had been such a long time. The silence in the room let everyone just try and remember the last time, but no one seemed to be able.
"But, s'a necessity. 'F anyone needs to speak she must speak now. 'N we all know we'll listen." Svea assured. "On tha' note, Mikaela Densen- anyone have thoughts?"
"I like her." Julchen grinned. "Girl's got swa-a-ag." She drawled, with a chuckle.
"Use proper language." Rosaline whined, but Alice interjected before Julchen could respond.
"If nothing else, that girl is brave- or maybe a daredevil, but if we are using flattery I suppose brave would be the best term. Did you see what she did with Nora?" The Brit asked.
"Fuck yeah!" Amelia cheered. "That was so cool! She got so-o-o close!"
"It was like, totally awesome! She like totally didn't even flinch!" Felicyta exclaimed, before shrinking back behind Tori nervously at Anya's stare.
"She did seem nice." Matilda offered, timidly after her sister's outburst. "I don't see why she shouldn't stay with us. I think she'd be a good friend."
Anya wrinkled her nose a little, but spoke. "If she can respect boundaries I shall like her, da?"
Svea responded to that. "Ah think she's just a flir' in general, but she seems to stop if ya' tell 'er to. Didn't know anythin' 'bout who's taken, an' she respected a relationship if ya' told her it was there. She jus' wans one too, jus' like any other of us."
Anya seemed to take the statement into seriously consideration, and stayed silent as Julchen chuckled almost bitterly.
"I hear that." She mumbled, earning a concerned glance from Rosaline. Felicia spoke.
"It makes sense, ve! I don't think it's bad! Besides, what if she and Nora start dating?" The Italian babbled.
"You're setting high expectations of this girl." Hera yawned, tired eyes fixed on the other.
"Ve, but did you see how long they talked?" Felicia asked. Liesel nodded.
"That was impressive. Usually Nora will completely shut out any strangers, which must mean that she found Mikaela attractive or at least saw something that she liked in her." The German said, helping her girlfriend.
"So now we're just using Mik to get to the ice-bitch?" Julchen asked, slightly annoyed.
"No one said tha', Julchen, it's jus' somethin' to think 'bout. Has nothin' to do with whether or not we keep her, though." Svea said. "Let's focus on our feelins' on her." She redirected gently.
Julchen still wore a scowl. "I like her. We're bros." She declared, almost defiant.
"Oui, she was indeed interesting. I would like to see her around more." Marianna chimed in to help her friend, looking to Anicia to prompt her to speak, too.
"Sí, sí, she was cool~. We should let her in."
Shit. Julchen wasn't making this easy. Sure, Svea respected what she had to say, but sometimes the Prussian girl pushed her point so hard that some of the more timid girls had a hard time speaking their mind. With a sigh she realized that she would have to do this the hard way and read faces.
"Keiko." She addressed the Japanese girl "What did ya' think?"
"She was very friendly. I do believe that she should stay a while." The girl said, softly. Though her head was bowed as usual, her face showed no signs of her lying. So, the Swede nodded to her and moved down the table.
"Tori, Felicyta? Yer thoughts?"
The Polish girl whispered something to her girlfriend, who nodded a little. "Well, she doesn't like that she doesn't know her…" Tori started. That was typical of Felicyta, so Svea let it pass. "But she said that she seemed alright. I think so, too."
Another nod. "Eliisabet, Raiva?"
"She was fun." The Estonian girl smiled. Raiva nodded in agreement. Svea could almost feel them both thinking about the almost-fight earlier, and she wondered if there was anything else they would have said had Anya not been so near. But, there was no way of knowing what it would be, and quite frankly there was no good way to find out. She moved on.
"Rosaline?"
"She was a good enough person. I believe I could tolerate her." The Austrian responded simply. Svea watched her expression as she talked and determined that she was half-genuine and half-siding with Julchen, which was as much as the Swede was going to get out of her.
"Heraclea, ya' have thoughts?" She asked. The sleepy eyed girl, though she may have looked inattentive, was incredibly aware and very wise. Whenever there was a significant decision to be made they consulted her for a good, solid answer.
With a yawn and a stretch, chest pressed outward as she reached her arms out, she shifted in her chair and looked just as likely to fall asleep now as she had before. "She has been through a lot." She said, tucking a few rogue strands of hair behind her ear.
"Why d'ya say that?" Svea asked, curious.
"Because she has. It's in the way she carries herself, and it's in the way she smiles. You can see it." She insisted.
"That a bad thing?" The Swede asked.
"Why would it be? Haven't you, too, been through quite an ordeal?" She yawned.
At that Tiina stiffened and took her lover's hand abruptly, squeezing it tightly as her face lost some of its colour. Svea returned the gesture before responding. "Ah have. But ah dun understand what yer getting' at."
"I mean to say that you should know that she is a human, with a past and with scars and with flaws, but that is no reason to cast her out. I believe that she is basically good." The Greek girl declared, allowing herself to relax her posture. She seemed to be finished speaking for the moment.
"Alright." Svea agreed. Heraclea spoke somewhat cryptically, bringing up other subjects to point people in the direction of the answer she was trying to give, but by now Svea was good enough at deciphering what she meant to figure out that she was in favour of Mikaela staying.
At that, she turned her attention to Tiina. "What 'bout yoo?" She asked, quietly.
"I'm fine with whatever you decide." She said softly. She still looked uncomfortable and the Swedish girl's heart panged. Poor thing. Whenever someone mentioned it she always looked even more broken than she usually was. Though she knew that Heraclea meant no harm, she found herself feeling upset that she had chosen to bring it up. Trying to calm herself and coax Tiina into giving her thoughts, she took the Finn's hand in both of her own and rubbed gently.
"Baby, jus' tell me what ya' think." Svea urged gently.
Tiina's eyes met her own, tentatively, and her lips just barely parted when she spoke. "I think that she can stay." She said simply. Svea pulled her hand to her lips and pressed a kiss against it gently before speaking again.
"Ya' sure?" She asked, gently. "If yer not we can continue this some other day." She assured. There were perks to being the unspoken leader's lover, and they all knew it. Time stopped for Tiina if Svea thought it needed too. While Svea was an honest leader, and a good one, it was no secret that sometimes her decisions were biased in Tiina's favour.
"Yeah." She said in an almost whisper, with a frail smile. Looking into her eyes Svea could plainly see that she was too far gone for this right now. Her mind was somewhere else, a place that made them both feel ill and needy, and it wouldn't be resolved until later into the night when they were together, in a room with a locked door and on a bed with sweat drenched sheets.
"You can change yer mind whenever ya' need." Svea assured her love gently, causing Julchen to frown. The Swedish woman disregarded it though and turned to address the group, as calm and collected as always.
"Mikaela will stay with us fer now. Ahm sure that she'll be jus' fine, an' if any problems arise in the next week 'er so we'll go from there." She declared.
Everyone present seemed satisfied with the current decision, and very quickly the atmosphere became far more relaxed as the usual conversation picked up. Julchen, however, was left brooding. Why the hell couldn't they have just made this easy? She got along well with the Danish girl- she could just see them checking out girls together, being drinking buddies, messing with Liesel… being lonely together. It would be nice to finally have someone to talk to about that, maybe, after five or seven drinks. Still though, without everyone's consent friendship could be problematic. She was so close! Why couldn't Tiina just suck it up and say "yes Svea, listen to Julchen, she has an awesome idea!"?
Why the fuck did that Finnish bitch always get all of that special attention? The world didn't revolve around her pretty little head or anything. Sometimes, she wondered what the hell Svea could see in the girl. It pissed her off. She was Julchen, the awesome- she could make far better decisions, especially concerning who else was awesome and who was not. She'd make sure Mikaela stuck around, even if Svea's little princess didn't like it. She'd just have to deal- she could always bring up what the Finn had done to Svea, after all. That was a surefire way to get her to shut up fast.
"Nothing will happen." The Prussian said aloud and to herself, with complete conviction. Rosaline looked at her and furrowed her brow, pouting slightly.
"Why do you care so much what happens to her?" She clipped, glossy lips illustrating every word.
"Cause she was cool." Julchen said. "Gotta have cool bros, you know?" She grinned.
"She wasn't that special." Rosaline insisted. "Besides, you have Marianna and Anicia. Isn't that enough?"
"Of course they are- but I mean, Mik's awesome too. The more the merrier, they always say." Julchen shrugged.
Rosaline fell silent for the moment, staring off somewhere. Her shoulders looked tense, and her jaw was set firm, and Julchen found it strange enough that she almost asked what was wrong- she would have, had Anicia not cut her off.
"Julchen, Maria and I are going to get food, wanna come?" She asked, cheerfully. "Marianna and Joan are coming too."
"Hell yeah." Julchen grinned. "Fucking starving." She added. She almost got up before she remembered that Rosaline was still frozen in position.
"Uh… Rosaline?" She asked, a little less loud than usual. The girl gave her a sidelong glance, some hair obscuring her cheek from sight.
"Do you wanna come and get food?" She asked, knowing that she had her attention. "Come on, you can sit in the awesome me's lap all the way there." She grinned, playfully, hoping for a reaction.
"You're a narcissist." She said, more weakly than usual, but stood up and stood next to Julchen.
"I know babe." The Prussian laughed, sliding an arm around her waist. This time the darker haired girl didn't struggle, and she allowed herself to be held and led out to the parking lot by the other. Anicia and Marianna met each other's eyes, and the look they gave was some mix between wondering if their other dearest friend was oblivious and attempting to predict how much longer it would be before something finally happened between the two.
Author's Note: Hey guys! It's been a while, I know. I tried to make this at least a little quicker than the last one. Anyway, so here is the next installment of Gangrene, I hope that there was enough substance here to at least entertain you guys. I swear this is moving along, it really is. I'm quite glad about that, actually.
I chickened out on the smutty bit here. There will be smut eventually, just a heads up, but it just didn't make it into this chapter. In my mind, Sweden and Finland are nymphomaniacs. Or maybe everyone is. I don't really know. They all like sex, what else can be said? No judging!
I am totally incoherent right now. I'm going to stop that little tangent right there, before I say any other bad sounding things. Moving on. I have left a couple of hints to stuff that happened and stuff that will happen here and there, so hopefully I have piqued your interest.
Reviews are much loved, but as always be moderately gentle. I would appreciate it.
