"Truth or dare."
"Dare," Kate replied without hesitation. Her tone was indifferent, as though the risk of skinny dipping in the campus fountain or scaling the Bursar's office to grab the campus flag or chugging a gallon of milk didn't scare her in the least.
A wave of 'oohs' drifted through the group as Dan Choi rubbed his hands together excitedly. No one else had yet been brave - or stupid - enough to take on a dare.
"Dare her clean the bathrooms!"
"Oh, how about she has to sneak into Lieutenant Reyes' office!"
"Make her finish the rum!"
Sometimes Sophie couldn't decide if Kate was fearless or just an idiot. For as much as Sophie's opinion of Kate had been tainted by the year prior, she'd become amenable to at least trying to build a friendship with the cadet - especially if it meant not having to spend another year dodging their dorm room to avoid Kate. The problem with this approach was that she still fundamentally couldn't stand Kate Kane. Already two weeks into the fall term of their second year and Kate was carrying on with her usual antics. Sophie tried to play along, realizing that resisting only made her more frustrated.
The suggestions continued for a minute, getting wilder and wilder while fighting for attention over each other until Dan waved his hands downward to silence the popcorn crowd.
"All right, all right… Kate Kane," he began, "I dare you… to kiss the most attractive person in this room."
A mix of cheers and boos followed Dan's chance to embarrass Kate. Sophie rolled her eyes, disappointed but humored by Dan's ingenuity. He was arguably the most attractive cadet in their year: he had the height, build, and symmetry of a magazine cover, and his hidden agenda was rather obvious. But he lacked foresight, and, as much as she hated to know it, Sophie knew Kate wasn't that easy to pin down.
"All right," Kate shrugged indifferently, getting up from her chair to circle the room. Sophie tried to conceal a smirk as Dan's shoulders strained almost in anticipation of what was coming. Kate took her sweet time surveying the options, navigating around the various couches and chairs of cadets before wandering toward the third-hand pool table littered with a group of onlookers. Sophie restrained an eye-roll as Dan's composure faltered slightly the further Kate got from him, only for it to return as Kate veered back to the group. She could practically see the inhale of anticipation and the exhale of confusion when Kate sidestepped him toward the piece of glass behind him cast in nightfall.
Scowls of confusion mixed with shouts of disapproval when Kate approached the glass, mockingly struck by her reflection and slowly sidling up to it before pressing her lips lightly to it.
"I said person!" Dan cried.
"In this room," Kate said, nodding in understanding, glancing back at Dan's look of distress through the glass.
"What? No, you can't-"
"Am I not in this room?" Kate interrupted, turning back toward his appalled expression with a smirk of amusement.
"Yea, but-"
"It's not my fault none of you can match all of these," she said dryly, gesturing up and down her body.
"You should have just made her finish the rum," a voice scoffed from the group.
Dan huffed, collapsing into his original seat as Kate went off and asked Molly Winston if she'd ever cheated on a test before. She had. Twice.
The cushion next to Sophie moved under Kate's weight as she took a seat and the room filled with chatter over the cheating transgressions of their peers.
"Nice loophole," Sophie muttered dryly, unable to hide the smirk of humor at Kate's latest stunt.
"He didn't stipulate," Kate shrugged. "Does that make me an ass?"
"Now more than ever."
"At least that hasn't changed," Kate said, and Sophie noticed the pair of green eyes glowed bright with a genuine smile.
"Agent Moore?"
The sound jerked Sophie from her thoughts and she turned to see a nameless face nodding toward her.
"Good to have you back," he said with a quick smile.
"Thanks," Sophie replied. She quickly turned back to her computer screen to avoid any additional small talk. It had been two days since she'd returned to headquarters, and in that time she had been about as effective as the GCPD at picking up any leads on, well, anything.
She stared at the lines of text scrolling past her, unable to comprehend any of it. Now that her last mission had been laid to rest, she found little else to be motivated by.
"Sophie, wait."
"Ye-woa." She turned back from the door to find Kate inches from her; her eyes glowing back at her in the dark. They had an unfamiliar quality about them that Sophie couldn't place. "Wh-"
"I lied. Earlier," Kate whispered.
Before Sophie could piece together the confession she felt Kate's hands cup her face and the softness of her lips brush against Sophie's. The sensation sent her into a limbo: the kiss was just brief enough to falter a full reaction but long enough to stir… something in her.
A blink later and it was done; Kate's fingers slipped away, and she stepped back. It had happened so quickly that Sophie half-wondered if she'd imagined it entirely. The only evidence was the way her cheeks flushed, the way her brain glitched into chaos, and the way a warmth she'd never felt before burned at her core.
"Wh-..." Sophie stuttered, unable to put thought to words. Even that was an understatement: she could hardly put thought to thought. She gaped at the mischievous smirk staring back at her and felt a bolt of anger surge through her. "What?"
"The dare. When Dan asked-"
"Is this just all some giant game to you?" Sophie asked, barreling into the feeling of outrage and embarrassment boiling at the surface.
"What? No, I-"
"And don't lie, Kate," Sophie scowled. "Just... God, why is it always a game with you? Do you get off on the thrill of it all or something? This is... " Sophie sighed in exasperation. "What did you think? That you'd do this and get a kick out of… out of making me uncomfortable or something?"
"I did it because you're the most attractive person in the room."
"That makes absolutely no sense. I'm the only person in the room," Sophie hissed, her cheeks ablaze with anger.
"You know what I meant," Kate scoffed, "In the other room," she said, nodding toward the lounge down the corridor.
"God you are unbelievable. Just when I started thinking you weren't a complete ass you prove me wrong-"
"I don't understand why you're getting so upset about this," Kate interrupted.
"Y-you… you don't understand why?" Sophie said, an uncomfortable laugh catching in her throat. "Do you ever think of anyone but yourself?"
"Sometimes?" Kate offered, clearly becoming more and more uncomfortable at Sophie's verbal frustrations.
"And what about just now?"
"I… I don't know? I guess… I guess not," Kate said, and it felt honest. The look of surprise that flashed across Kate's eyes caused Sophie's thoughts to stumble.
"Really?"
"Are you homophobic or something?"
"What? No, I… I just…" Sophie stuttered, struggling to articulate her reservations.
"Then what's the big deal?"
"The big deal is that this isn't something you do. You don't just kiss someone."
"But Dan dared me, and I lied so I figured-?"
"That's your logic?"
"Well what's yours?"
"You're a woman," Sophie practically shouted, "and I'm a woman. It's not acceptable behavior."
The words left her mouth before she could associate them with the rantings of Diane Moore over the years. She felt her palm cup her mouth and her eyes fall wide in surprise.
"That was… that wasn't-"
"Sounds like someone went to Sunday school," Kate replied dryly, but Sophie could see a dimness in Kate's eyes. They didn't glow with the endless green she'd become familiar with, and in that moment, Sophie didn't care to understand why. Instead she collected her things and rushed off to the bathroom.