5.

By Tuesday evening Carly was fairly certain she'd managed to solve this particular dilemma. She'd been avoiding Sam the whole day in school, spending as little time as possible with her and always keeping her guard up. It had served a twofold purpose. One, it had left Sam unable to perform her arcane Jedi kiss tricks, and two, it had confirmed that avoiding Sam was not the solution. The mere thought was unbearable, and the school day alone had felt twice as long without the girl.

During the day Carly had figured out that there was no conceivable way for her to prevent Sam from kissing her again. If she couldn't stay away from the girl, the opportunity would eventually present itself and Sam would seize it. Asking or outright telling her to quit it would be pointless. While Carly was capable of not-so-subtly guiding Sam in the direction she wanted, there was no earthly way to directly control Sam's behaviour. She might obey a command temporarily, but the next day all bets were off.

So, if she couldn't prevent it, the only logical conclusion was that she had to change the effect it had on her. To do that she had to fully recognise why it did have the effect it did, in the first place. The reason couldn't be Sam, the girl was hardly an expert kisser, just awesomely efficient in making do with what she was given. So the fault had to be in Carly, herself. And by five thirty she was sure she'd eliminated all the wrong reasons and was left with the answer. She wasn't repulsed by the kissing, so it wasn't unconscious homophobia. She wasn't even bothered by the act itself, quite the contrary. Kissing Sam was exciting, it was only the end result that needed to be corrected.

So by Carly's calculations the answer was simply: She liked Sam. Very, very much, in fact. Now all that remained was to test out the theory in practice.

The knock on the door came just as Carly was putting the finishing touches on her ham and cheese sandwich. "Whoo likes sci-ence?! Aii like sci-ence!" she was chanting loudly as she headed in the living room.

Spencer was already there, though, quickly bouncing up from the couch and rushing to the entrance. "Weee like sci-ence!" he picked up Carly's ditty, and opened the front door. "Saaam like sci-ence?" he went on when the blonde girl walked inside.

"I hate science," Sam replied in a deadpan.

Spencer closed the door and turned to Carly, "Saam hates sci-ence!"

"Enough!" Carly curtly ordered from where she stood in front of the stairs.

"Aii can't stopmyself!" he just kept on singing, looking a little alarmed.

"Away!" Carly stared sternly at him and pointed a finger towards his room.

Spencer placed both hands on his mouth, still emitting muffled sounds, and quickly ran off. Carly chuckled awkwardly when she noticed Sam's puzzled look. "What the heck was that?" the girl asked, sounding more bored than curious.

Carly kept a nice smile plastered on her face and shook her head. "Who can tell?" She waited patiently for Sam to start walking towards her, keenly trying to follow where the blonde's gaze was directed. Step one of her plan was to lure Sam into using her hypnotic kiss again, but at the same time the girl could not be allowed to catch even a whiff that Carly was onto her.

"Nice looking sandwich," Sam said, stopping a few feet short of her, "Ham and cheese?"

Carly was pleased to note the hungry look in her friend's eyes. "You know it," she replied, doing her best to remain nonchalant. As she started to slowly walk towards Sam, Carly couldn't help but smile again at how the girl's stare never left the sandwich.

"Could I have a bite?"

"Noh," she breathed out the word. "I'm very hungry and want it all to myself," she said, stopping right next to the blonde. There was barely two inches between them.

"Just a tiny bite?" Sam pleaded.

"I'm afraid I can't spare even a tiny bite," Carly said, purposely directing her eyes away from her friend. She readied herself for the inevitable. Damn, but she was good. Here it came...

"All right then." Sam shrugged and made her way back around to the front of the couch.

"What?!" Carly yelped incredulously. This was not how she planned it! Sam was supposed to try and kiss her to get the sandwich! "You don't want it?!"

Sam looked at her confusedly. "You said I couldn't have any."

"And you can't," Carly quickly answered in a steadier voice, shaking off the setback before the whole caper was blown. "But we really should be getting to work on iCarly," she said, nodding to the stairs, "We need a ton of ideas."

"Shouldn't we wait for Freddie?" Sam asked, plodding herself down on the couch and picking up the remote, "Isn't he coming?"

"I'm not sure." He wasn't. Carly'd made certain of that, this operation definitely didn't need an audience.

"Well, let's just give him a minute," Sam said, clicking on the television.

Carly grinned a little wickedly behind the blonde's back. "Sam..." she said, trying to sound put upon, and followed her around to the couch. "We have no time for dilly-dallying."

"Dilly-dallying?" Sam grinned, glancing up at Carly when she arrived.

"It's a word," Carly protested the mocking tone in Sam's voice. She set the sandwich on the coffee table and took a seat right next to the girl, so close in fact that their legs were touching each other. "We need to get to work, Sams," she said, looking intently at her.

"Come on, Carly. Just a minute of telly." Sam said, her eyes glued to the screen. "I'll be much more productive afterwards."

"No telly!" Carly stated firmly, grabbing the remote from Sam and turning the television off. "Now, come on." She nudged her head towards the stairs again, but taking care to keep her stare fixed on the girl.

Sam's pouty face looked back at her, and then she leaned forward slightly. All right! Attempt number two was going to work. But instead of going for the kiss, Sam just pushed herself off the couch. "Fine," she said in a disappointed voice, and stood up.

Carly groaned aloud in frustration, but followed suit. The failure was much easier to accept the second time.

She was prepared to follow Sam to the stairs, but the girl wasn't moving. Instead her eyes were fixed on the sandwich again. "You gona eat that or not?" Sam asked.

What'd be the point, Carly wasn't even really hungry. "No," she grumbled, "Go ahead."

"Awesome!" Sam's face lit up as she snapped up the sandwich and took a huge bite out of it immediately. "You're such a good friend, Carlsberg," she muttered, mouth full of food.

"I know." Carly sighed heavily, and turned around to lead the way instead of following.

This was turning out to be more difficult than anticipated, Carly thought as they headed upstairs. Sam was caving much too easily. She hardly put up a fight at all! If she could just get this first part out of the way, the rest would be much easier since it only relied on herself. No stupid other people to mess up her perfectly organised plan.

At the top floor Carly paused to wait and let Sam go in first. The girl passed her, swallowing down the last of the sandwich, having wolfed it all down on the way up, and walked to the middle of the room. Pointing at the wall monitor, she turned back to Carly. "What's that?" On display was a close up still image of Lewbert's famous mole.

"That," Carly said, slowly toddling in and swaying her arms back and forth, "Is a new prank me and Freddie pulled on Lewbert on Sunday."

"Yeah?" Sam smiled excitedly. "Is it good?"

Carly shrugged and tried to suppress her own smile, not quite succeeding. "It's okay, I guess," she said, coming to a stop in front of Sam.

"Let's watch it!" Sam said, trying to brush past her and back to the computer desk.

Carly grabbed her arm and gently pushed her back. "Not so fast," she said, smirking, "It's your reward, for when we're done."

"Oh, come on. Please?" Sam frowned, trying to shake free of Carly's hold.

"Nope." She shook her head.

"Why are you being such a hard-ass today?"

"Hard-ass?! I just gave you my sandwich!" Carly was a little offended, even though her whole plan relied on her being inflexible, and so the accusation wasn't without its merits.

"Yeah, after I asked for it for like a hundred times," Sam muttered under her breath.

"You can see the video AFTER we're done," Carly said.

Sam stared defiantly at her for a moment, and again Carly dared to get her hopes up. Perhaps this time the girl would make her move. Just wait her out, she thought, bowing her head slightly and turning her eyes to the floor. Gently Sam took hold of Carly's arm and removed it from her own, where Carly was still gripping it. "Fine. Whatever," the blonde drawled, dropping down on one of the two beanbag chairs laid side by side on the floor.

Carly sighed in disappointment. "Fine, whatever," she mumbled mockingly, sitting down on the other beanbag. What a spineless cretin her friend had transformed into all of a sudden. It made her wonder if the whole thing was even worth the effort. Well, all of her traps had been sprung already, so there was nothing else she could do tonight.

"What'd you say?" Sam asked, laughing shortly.

Carly only waived it off and picked up two folders and a blanket from the floor. She tossed one of the folders to Sam and then, because she felt a little chilly, covered herself with the blanket. She opened her own folder and buried her face in it. "Any thoughts off the top of your head?" Carly muttered, so depressed by the fiasco she couldn't even find the energy to get interested in iCarly.

"Can I have the blanket?" Sam's question came from surprisingly close.

Carly lowered the folder down to find the girl's face right behind it. "No." She sneered. "I'm co...mmmph!"

Suddenly Sam pounced forward, planting her lips on Carly's, again managing to take her by surprise, despite all her preparations. It all happened too fast, she felt herself slipping away again, just as before. But when she noticed the blanket start sliding off her, something inside Carly began to scream in protest. This was so ridiculously pathetic, no way could she let Sam keep getting away with it. And then finally, when Sam was about to pull away, escape with her booty, Carly grabbed hold of her head with both hands, not letting the girl end the kiss.

Quickly taking advantage of the surprise, she rolled their bodies off the beanbag and to the floor, ending on top of Sam herself. The jolt broke their contact for a moment and Carly saw the confusion in Sam's eyes. "Umm, what's going on, Carly?" the girl asked timidly.

"I don't know," Carly said, a little out of breath. "You started it."

And then they were kissing again. Carly wasn't sure who initiated it this time, but it was the first time they were both into it. Sliding her tongue in through Sam's parted lips, tasting coconut along the way again, she more felt than heard her moan. Carly was starting to lose herself in the kiss again. But it was different now, she wasn't the only one, they were both lost for the moment, together.

Then suddenly there was a sharp pain in Carly's scalp as her hair was being pulled. "Ow," she muttered a little angrily, pulling away from Sam and glaring down at her face, "What are you doing?"

"I have to know what's going on, Carly," Sam said. She looked fearful, an expression that really didn't fit her face at all. "This doesn't feel like a game anymore."

"A game?" Carly huffed, sitting up and turning away from the girl. "So kissing me was just a game to you?"

There was a brief silence, then Sam sat up too and placed a hand on Carly's shoulder. "Well, I mean..." she hesitated a moment, "Obviously?"

"Well, it's not a game to me," Carly said, looking down at her lap where her hands were playing with the hem of her shirt. She'd never been so vulnerable, it felt like Sam held her life in her hands, and that was not a safe feeling. "I love you, Sam. More than as a friend," she whispered, upgrading the 'like', she'd previously admitted to herself, to 'love'. It had a nicer ring to it.

"All right, I can deal with that," Sam whispered back immediately.

"I don't want you to deal with it," Carly said, frustrated. "I want you to want me, too."

Sam sighed, and then her arms came around Carly and she felt herself being pulled into a hug from behind. Carly struggled weakly to pull away, but Sam wouldn't let go. Instead her head landed on Carly's shoulder. "Look, Carls. I'm messed up in the head, you know that. Half the time I don't know what I want. I mean, sometimes when we're sleeping together, or you're sleeping and I'm awake watching you, I think about just eating you up..."

"Too creepy!" Carly yelped through a laugh, even as she felt tears glistening in her eyes.

"... because it'd combine my two passions: Food and you." Sam finished.

"But do you love me? In that way?" Carly asked, quickly wiping the tears away with the back of her hand.

"I love you in every possible way, Carly Shay." Sam said quietly, pausing for a while. All through the silence all Carly could think about was Sam's tickling, warm breath on her neck. "I just don't know if I love you that way enough. Because you seem really intense about this."

"I'm intense?" Carly replied incredulously, "At least you don't have to go to sleep, wondering whether you'll wake up with a chunk of your arm missing." She took a hold of Sam's arms and pulled away from the hug, turning half way around so she could see the girl's face. "I won't be like this all the time," Carly said more seriously, "I swear I won't. Nothing has to change, except we'll just be even closer than before."

"You sure?" Sam quirked an eyebrow.

Carly nodded. "I'm sure. We'll just go on, day at a time, and soon you'll realise it's as natural part of you as shoving Freddie in a locker. And before you know it, we're off in college, sharing a dorm, totally in love, and everything's still the same."

"I'm not going to college." Sam frowned.

"Scratch college." Carly swiftly shook her head. "You're in jail, and I'll visit on visiting days, and when you get out I'll be waiting in my Cadillac, and we'll drive off to the sunset." She was talking fast, just saying anything and everything that popped in her head.

Sam was smiling now. "I think they usually let you out in the morning."

"Why do you know that?!" Carly laughed.

Sam shrugged, bowing her head for a moment. When she lifted her eyes back to Carly there was a determined look on her face. "Fine. Let's go for it."

"Eep!" Carly screeched, throwing her arms around the girl and hugging her tightly to her chest.

"But if it doesn't work out, I'll get to have a bite."

Carly giggled quietly. When she felt Sam return the hug with only a little less enthusiasm, she rubbed her cheek against the blonde curls, closing her eyes in contentment. She really was in love.

-- end --