CHAPTER ELEVEN
Just Friends

It was one month, two women of Parker's, and many 'platonic' kisses later that Nate broke his promise and started drinking again. The day that Sophie came over with a black eye was the day Parker retaliated, not being able to take it anymore.

So she was hardly surprised when Sophie burst though her apartment door the next day, now having a key, slamming it against the wall as she looked at Parker accusingly, "His car?"

"Yup," is all Parker says as she pops a piece of popcorn into her mouth.

"You set his car on fire!?" Sophie exclaims as she walks towards her and started making erratic hand gestures that in no way made any sense to Parker.

"Yup," she says again, putting the bowl back on the table and looking at her finally.

"Parker, that was a two thousand eight Ferrari Telsa Roadster for shits sake!" Sophie cries, and then slumps down next to her on the couch, with her head in her hands. Parker blinks and looks over at her, Sophie looks absolutely distraught over the loss of the vehicle.

"Are you mourning the car?" she asks her, tilting her head to look at her curiously. "Why? Look what he did to you."

"It was pretty though…" Sophie mumbles into her hands. "And I already shot him in the foot for it, did you really have to murder something so…" she sighed and took her head out of her hands and instead decided to collapse against Parker heavily. "It was so pretty," she repeated in a sad voice.

"You're relationship with him is really fucked up," Parker tells her finally. Because it was. They were happy for two months, then he goes back to hitting her, but it's okay because Sophie shot him in the foot for it? How did that even make sense?

"The car…" is all Sophie sighs and bangs her forehead against Parker's shoulder a bit.

"Ow," Parker says and shrugs her off of her. Sophie looks disgruntled at being shoved off of Parker in that way, and looks at her. But Parker looks a bit angry.

"What's wrong with you?"

"You're welcome," is all Parker says before folding her arms into herself in a huff and stares at the far wall. Jeez, go through all the trouble to hurt someone because of what they did to someone she care about, and this is the thanks she gets? She singed part of her hair doing that.

"No, Parker… I didn't mean to make you think I…" Sophie started, looking at the thief. She put her hand on her leg. "I am glad you stuck up for me, Parker. But I just wish you didn't have to involve that beautiful car…"

Parker made a face but looked over at her, feeling her heart sink at the sight of her eye. She touched her face gently, before putting down her hand heavy against the couch. "You're dumb, you could have someone who would treat you so much better."

"Like who?" Sophie asks with a scoff. "I'm a grifter, it's not safe for anyone to know who I really am outside of you guys."

Parker doesn't answer, but that wasn't because she didn't know who.

The problem was, throughout the past month she came to the very bad realization that she liked Sophie. A lot, actually. Like more than what she was supposed to. Even more than just sex. And that was bad for one of three reasons. One, Sophie was stuck in an abusive relationship with Nate. Two, Parker was afraid that the same thing that happened with Hardison would happen with her. And three, she was pretty sure Sophie wasn't interested in her like that.

So all she says is, "Someone who will protect you."

Sophie smiles a bit and responds, "But I have you for that." Parker looks at her pointedly, but Sophie still doesn't get it, so Parker just sighs and leans her head back against the couch, feeling stupid. She hated that she liked Sophie, it was so bad.

"What's wrong?" Sophie asks, and prods her gently with her finger in her rib, making Parker giggle because it tickles.

"Nothing!" she exclaims, swatting at Sophie's hand.

"You're ticklish?" Sophie asks, with a devious surprised grin. Parker doesn't like that look, and she shouldn't, because the next minute Sophie's hands are all over her, and not in a way she would usually like them to be.

"Stop!" Parker cries, giggling helplessly. She swatted at the other woman in vain, just trying to get her off of her. But Sophie's laughing too now, getting on top of her and tickling her with no mercy. "Sophie! Stop!!" Parker tries again, and finally grabs both of her wrists, holding them out to the side so Sophie drops on top of her chest heavily.

But then suddenly both of them are very aware of the position they're in, and while they're usually all over each other, it's different this time with both of them being so close to each other, and so completely out of breath. Sophie looks at Parker; with an expression that Parker isn't sure she can read. Sophie nervously licks her bottom lip, and Parker's chest is starting to rise and all more rapidly, even though the tickling had stopped.

"Sophie…" she starts in a whisper, not thinking before she spoke. "I want to…" but then she thinks about it, and stops herself.

"Want to what?" she asks her in a soft voice. Her hand falls to rest on Parker's, and Parker holds it automatically.

"Nothing," she says, looking away.

"Tell me, Parker…. please," Sophie pleads gently, knowing exactly what Parker wanted, because she wanted it to, she just didn't know why she did at that moment. She moved her face a bit closer to her, brushing her lips across Parker's lightly before closing her eyes.

"I want to kiss you," Parker admits in a quiet voice, her own eyes fluttering shut at the feel of Sophie's lips against hers. She takes a deep breath, still terrified of Sophie's answer even though Sophie was clearly thinking along the same lines as her.

"As friends?" Sophie asks her, barely above a whisper as she brushes her lips against Parker's again, just needing to feel them. She couldn't do it any other way besides friends, even if she had an asshole as a man, she was still with him.

"…As friends," Parker breathes out, her grips on Sophie's hand tightening. She didn't want it to be as friends, but she wanted to kiss her so bad that nothing else mattered.

"Okay…" Sophie finally says softly, and Parker presses her lips to the other woman, parting them to let Sophie slip her tongue in. Parker moans softly at the contact, and wraps her other arm around Sophie's neck, bringing her in closer. Sophie kisses her back tentatively, scared of all the feelings that are coming to surface, but loving every moment of it.

With each passing minute the kiss slowly becomes to turn more passionate, and now Sophie was squeezing Parkers hand as tight as she could as she gasps into her mouth, moving her hips against her slightly. Parker tangled her fingers through her dark tresses and sucked in her bottom lip lightly before kissing her chin, back to her lips, her cheek, down to her neck before sucking on it softly.

"God," Sophie breathes out as her other hand grasps at Parker's shirt and she tilts her neck to the side to give Parker more room. She had forgotten how good it felt to be with Parker in this way, even if she only experienced it for a fleeting moment during Christmas.

Parker's lips area now at the base of her ear, and her short hot bursts of breath into it before her tongue claims her earlobe is driving Sophie insane. She turns her head and crashes her lips back to Parker's, moaning hard into the other woman's mouth as she lifts up her shirt and rakes her nails against Parker's skin, making her arch her back and gasp hard.

Then it was Sophie's turn to have her lips on Parker's neck, and Parker cried out softly as Sophie bit her in just the right way, and she writhed underneath her. She wasn't expecting it to go this far, but wasn't surprised that it did either. Sophie was always touching her, always kissing her, and now that she thought about it, it was stupid to assume that didn't mean anything.

"Sophie…"she breathes out as the hand that held her hair tightened its grip, pulling her more towards her neck. She didn't know how long she had been waiting for something like this until it really happened.

But then Sophie's phone rang, making both of them jump off each other like they had just been caught doing something wrong. They both stared at each other for a moment before Sophie coughed out of the awkwardness of it and turned towards her phone, picking it up.

"Hello?" A pause, "I'm with Parker right now." Another pause then a scoff from something, "Doing friends stuff, Nate, God. I'll be home for dinner since you can't get off the damn couch, stop freaking out." Sophie gets a disgruntled look on her face before she hangs up the phone; Nate probably didn't even say goodbye.

They both looked at each other before Sophie looked down, pursing her lips together. Parker didn't like that look.

But Sophie doesn't say anything she's expecting, instead she just shyly leans in and kisses her softly on the lips. "I gotta go…" she says, like she regrets it.

Parker just nods, knowing. She looks up at Sophie before kissing her again, much more longer and much more passionate than how Sophie did, but Sophie reciprocates. "Come over tomorrow?" she asks her in a whisper after they break.

"Of course," Sophie says with a little smile. "You're my best friend…"

TBC…