I have nothing constructive to say, except you all are still the greatest, and I love that you like this story so much. Seriously. The. Best. Also, there will probs be a lot more bromance happening in this story from here on out. I mean, Cophine is awesome and super fun to write, but I just love all of these characters.
These kids are all such troublemakers in my head, I'm loving getting to write it and hopefully you'll love getting to read it. Enjoy!
Cosima lifted a leg over the bike's seat as it coasted, slowly, toward the door to her apartment building and dropped to the ground a few feet away, stumbling her and the machine to a stop in front of it. She tugged her bag over her shoulder and started to rummage for her keys, finding them settled neatly below her notebook at the bottom of it. Just as she moved to unlock the old wooden door, it swung open.
"Oh. Hey. You scared me." Cal was there, smiling, Alison right behind him.
"Hey. Yeah. Late. As always." She smiled back, still puffing for air from the hill a block before. "Where are you going? Did you end the meeting without me?"
Alison pushed past the two of them, shooting out "plausible deniability" in the perfect way she had of speaking everything, perfectly enunciated, perfectly unaccented, like a newscaster.
Cal laughed at her, at Cosima's frown. Cal was undyingly positive in a way that somehow didn't bother Cosima in the least. "Yeah, I'm jetting, too. Kira having one parent in prison would be tragic, but both is just tacky."
"Oh, yeah. Definitely can't have that." Cosima quipped back, reaching down to pick her bike up and rest the frame on her shoulder, getting ready to carry it up the stairs.
Cal ran a hand through his hair, always perfectly tousled. "Whoa, hold up. I think someone's looking for you."
"What?" She followed his gaze to a car parked in front of the building. A very familiar car, with a very familiar driver. "Oh."
"Good luck, buddy." He patted her on the shoulder, then turned and followed Alison, who was waiting on the corner for him, posture screaming indignant.
"Thanks." She dropped her bike just inside the door and headed back out to the car, leaning into the open window. "Hey there, stranger." She smiled, resting her chin on her folded arms. "Did you come here to talk to me, or do I have a new stalker?"
Delphine smiled, turning and leaning her head sideways against the headrest. "No, I'm not stalking you. Not yet, at least. Would you like to get in?"
"Sure. Or you could, you know, come up to my apartment." She pointed her thumb vaguely behind her. "But Sarah and Felix are there, so you can't jump my bones or anything."
"The car is fine." The doors unlocked with a crisp, coordinated snap and Cosima let herself in.
"Okay. What's up, buttercup?" She intentionally popped her P's, and Delphine smiled an off-kilter smile that twinkled in her eyes.
"Well, I was having a terrible evening." She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and began to unfold it. "And then I came home and found this stuck in my door."
"Oh. Yeah. That." Cosima rubbed the back of her neck. "Was that, like, bad boundaries? 'Cause I was listening to the song, and it just made me think of you, and I started drawing, and I just thought you should have it." Delphine cocked an eyebrow. "To be fair, your boundaries are, like, super hard to keep track of."
"Yes. I'm sorry about that." Delphine's smile faded slightly, and she glanced down at the drawing in her hand, the lyrics staring hard and firm back at her. "But actually, I came because it made me smile. And because I wanted to thank you, in person."
Cosima nodded. "Right on. It was no problem, you're a great inspiration."
"I'm not sure if that's a compliment or an insult."
She laughed, pushing her glasses back up her nose. "Good point, good point. I'm inclined to say it's a good thing, but it's kinda hard to tell sometimes."
Delphine's hand moved, from her own knee to Cosima's thigh, tracing patterns that fluttered from hem to skin and back. "I'm sorry." She said quietly, watching her own thumb as though it were moving without her. "You are so wonderful, and I have been such an—an-"
"Asshole." Cosima supplied, smiling. "It's okay, Delphine."
"No, it's not." She finally glanced up to meet her eyes, hair brushing her cheeks as she shook her head. "You make me happy. I want to make you happy, too." She slipped her thumb beneath the hem of Cosima's shorts, just to feel the strong thigh flex beneath her, then back out, back to the pattern it had been tracing before.
"You do make me happy, Delphine." Cosima shifted, the small slip not going unnoticed in the least. "Totally, stupidly happy."
Her hand moved from thigh to cheek, tracing the hollow of it, loving the soft bristle of peach fuzz against her skin. It was past her consciousness, at that point, what would happen. She did not will it, as was often—perhaps always—the case with Cosima, but she had brushed forward in a rush of stale air and passion and pressed their lips together, sighing into her. Cosima traced the crest of Delphine's upper lip with her tongue. Cosima's fingers were tangled into the belt loop at her hip. Cosima was pressing her upper body forward into Delphine, trying to get as close to her as she could. And it had all set a steady beat in Delphine's head. Cosima, Cosima, Cosima.
She pulled back, breathing shakily, turning back to face the steering wheel and placing her hands on it, anchoring herself to her vehicle, her life. "I'm sorry." She breathed.
"I'm not."
Delphine shook her head, hands tightening on the wheel. "Why can't I stop kissing you?"
"Well," Cosima was all pomp and cocky smile and soft intense eyes now, shifted still to face Delphine. "If you experience our kisses even remotely the same way I do, it's because it's good. Fucking spectacular, Delphine."
She nodded, agreeing silently. The words bounced in her head. Cosima likes kissing me. Thinks kissing me is spectacular. "Can I—Could we—again?" She glanced up from the corner of her eye, tilting her chin just slightly, suddenly feeling like a teenager out on a first date.
"Absolutely." Instead of rushing in for the kiss as most people might, she grabbed one of Delphine's hands, easing it from the steering wheel to her own shoulder, and tilted her head so she could look at her. Her eyes traced the sharp juts and soft curves of Delphine's face for a minute, her tongue coming out to moisten her lips.
Delphine had the strange feeling that she was waiting for something. A sign neither of them knew the shape or design of, just that it was coming, just that it should be anticipated. She began looking around the car for what it might be, what could possibly be standing in the way of this kiss she wanted so intensely it crawled around on her skin. "Cosima, what-"
"Shh." Cosima shushed her, their eyes reconnecting. "Patience."
Delphine eased into the seat, into her skin, still not sure what was happening but willing to accept whatever ritual Cosima was acting out. She felt her muscles, ones she hadn't been aware were tense, release and settle into their places. She let the moment settle, let her mind settle until she did not care when Cosima kissed her, until a kiss would be nice, but this was good, too. Just having this moment with her.
"I'm gonna kiss you now." Cosima said, quietly, like she might startle her.
Delphine nodded, and their lips brushed, gently, Cosima's parting just enough to tease lightly at Delphine's bottom lip with her tongue. The muscle disappeared, lips closing and repositioning over her top lip, repeating its same pattern, then closing again. She was varying the pressure of their lips, nodding forward and pulling back, lapping like the tides against the shore. It was slow, measured, but no less passionate than any other they'd shared. Delphine opened her lips and slipped her tongue out to meet Cosima's, briefly, just enough to send a jolt through her.
"Cosima." The word tumbled lazily out of her mouth, all breath and want, making her realize the breadth of her desire. The lips against hers pressed harder now, spurred forward, pulling Delphine closer.
"Fuck. Shit. Fuck." Cosima staggered, then jolted, sitting upright suddenly in her seat.
"Qu'est-ce que-" Delphine tried to shake the fog from her brain, tried to translate. "What's wrong?"
But Cosima had already tugged her phone free from the tight fabric at her hip, holding it up to her ear. "What, Sarah?"
She shot Delphine an apologetic smile, reaching a hand up to trace her lips.
"I'm kind of in the middle of something."
Delphine nipped at her thumb, then smoothed over the tip with her tongue.
"Shit, is it really that late?" Cosima's eyes fluttered shut, encouraging Delphine to action, and she took the digit into her mouth up to the first knuckle. "Okay. Yeah, I'll be there in a-" the word came out in a breathy whimper when Delphine dragged her tongue up along the underside of her finger. "-minute." She smirked at Delphine, an expression about ready to burst at its seams. "Yeah, I'm fine. I gotta go. See ya." She hung up the phone and pulled Delphine back into her, into one final, impatient kiss.
"What are you doing later?" Delphine murmured, wanting an invitation, wanting this moment to go on indefinitely.
"Usually, these meetings go on forever. How about this weekend?"
"I can't this weekend."
Cosima groaned, leaning back against the seat. "Fuck. Fuck Rimbaud. Fuck Sarah." She rubbed at her forehead. "Okay. Well, soon. Right?"
"Yes, of course." Delphine tried to smile convincingly, tried to feel grateful that Sarah and Felix were there to stop her from doing something she could potentially regret, but she just couldn't muster it.
"All right. Then... bye." Cosima leaned in for another peck, then swung herself out the car door.
"Well, it's about bloody time." Felix snapped when the door clicked shut behind her.
"I know, I know. I'm hella late. Sorry." She dropped her bike in the corner of the apartment, up against the far wall, and pulled her wine and three glasses from the cupboard.
"You wanna tell us what you were up to that was so important you had to keep us waiting half an hour?" It was Sarah's turn to lay into her.
She laid the glasses on the desk, filling them and shaking her head. "It wasn't anything."
"Oh, my god." Realization dawned over Felix, and he covered his gaping mouth with his hand in a billow of melodrama. "It was Delphine, wasn't it?"
"No. Not everything in my life revolves around her, believe it or not." She pulled a spare chair up to the desk and sat, crossing one leg over the other. "Can we talk about-"
"We already know, Cos. Cal told us." Sarah's face had softened into something resembling concern, and Cosima felt it like a tidal wave of cold ocean water. "What happened? Why aren't you telling us?"
"Okay. Yeah, it was her. We were just talking, it's not important. Now can we start the-"
"Talking about what?" Felix again, leaned forward, glass of wine casually in his hand, feigning disinterest.
"Can we talk about it after the meeting, please?" She was exasperated, and honestly a little freaked out, by their concern. Felix gossiping was no big surprise, but Sarah's soft revelation hinted at the gravity of the situation. A gravity she'd rather not deal with right now. She dropped her hand from the air by her head to the table, her fingers spread wide and facing the ceiling. "Can we be professional for like, ten minutes? This action is a big deal."
Sarah and Felix made eye contact across the table, and Sarah nodded. "Yeah." She reached down into her bag, laying out a blueprint across the desk. "Tony came through, got us the specs."
Felix and Cosima leaned forward, twisting to get a better view, to get their bearings on the diagram. "That looks like it could be a good access point." Cosima dropped her hand to a door, and all eyes followed.
"Holy shit, we're really gonna do this, aren't we?" Felix's eyes flickered from Sarah to Cosima and back again. "This is the ballsiest thing we've ever tried."
The two women next to him nodded in solemnity, all of them taking in one anothers' countenance. Sarah was the first to crack. "It's gonna be fucking wicked."