When Nico imagined coming back to Gibb, it was definitely under different circumstances than hanging off the balcony of the princess' room, but she guesses she cannot have everything in life.
"What in the world are you doing here?" Karolina hisses at her.
"Holding on for dear life," she grunts out as a response "Little help?"
Karolina extends a hand down, and she grabs it, a jolt going through her at the touch. Karolina's hand is soft, warm, and Nico doesn't want to think about why she likes holding it. She climbs up onto the balcony, and looks at the girl.
"Hi," she says.
"Hey," Karolina replies, her voice shy. She seems jittery somehow, her eyes darting here and there. Nico notices they're still holding hands.
"Karolina?"
"Yes?"
"You're still holding my hand."
Karolina rolls her eyes, letting go of it. Nico feels the loss immediately, but turns away, and moves into her room. Not much has changed since the last time she was here. It is still a nauseating shade of princess. The only difference is that there aren't about a million other people crowding them.
(She likes it this way)
"Nice place," she observes "Do the singing birds work on your hair here or is there another room where that happens?"
Karolina doesn't say anything, just looks at her steadily until Nico lowers her gaze.
"Okay, I'm sorry. I don't know….."
"Don't know what?"
How to talk to you, she thinks. What to say, how to say it. My mind keeps blanking every time you look at me, and all that seems to be coming out is random lunacy
"Stuff," she completes, and Karolina rolls her eyes again. Nico finds it annoyingly attractive.
"Eloquent," Karolina says, sitting down on her bed "Why are you here again?"
She casts her mind around for a good reason "Um, spying."
Karolina chuckles "Good job admitting that to your spy-ee. Is that what they taught you in Spying 101?"
"Ha ha," she deadpans "Funny. You're a lark. Is kidding around with your would-be kidnapper what they taught you in Princess 101?"
"No, that was an introductory class about the benefits of singing birds working on your hair."
Nico stifles a smirk.
"Plus," Karolina continues "You couldn't kidnap me. Wouldn't."
"My staff might work properly now," she asks, deliberately casual "How do you know that I couldn't kidnap you?"
"The same way you're sitting here, completely relaxed, in the room of a person who shoots light out of her hands and could blast you any moment. Just because."
She has to admit it's true.
"So the girl with the purple hair is Gert. The boy you knocked out is Chase. The other boy, the one with the glasses is Alex. And the last one is Molly."
"And that's your entire troupe," Nico questions her from where she's sitting on the floor. Thinking about sitting on Karolina's bed, next to her, even if the girl had offered, had made her skin feel like it was breaking out in hives, so she'd decided to set up camp on the floor. It wasn't uncomfortable, if she were being honest. There was a plushy-ass carpet and everything.
"I guess?" Karolina replies, frowning "We've just always been close. We grew up together, our families were in this…group or society or whatever you'd call it called PRIDE, and while they were off doing their grown-up adult work thingies we kind of just fell together, and started hanging out. It was…natural, to say the least."
"That's nice," she replies, automatically.
"What about you?" Karolina asks her, seeming a little self-conscious "Who are your friends?"
She shrugs "Don't have them."
"You don't have friends?"
She shakes her head, and Karolina's lips turn down at the corners "Oh."
"It's fine," she starts, in an attempt to make herself seem less pathetic somehow "I've just always been busy in training or something so it doesn't even matter. I mean, who's got time when you have to gain mastery over some stupid staff so your mother can gain mastery over an Empire, right?"
By the look on Karolina's face, it isn't exactly working.
She's about to open her mouth again when someone knocks on the door. A shout of "Open up, Princess of Sparkles" and the sound of two female voices giggling comes into the room, and for a moment both of them freeze. Then suddenly, Karolina walks towards her, her hands on her shoulders, and pushing her towards the balcony. Nico goes along with it, mostly because she's too stumped by the sensation and by the girl's proximity.
"You have to go," Karolina's voice sounds panicked "They cannot see you here."
"Oh, um, uh," is what comes out of her mouth in lieu of a reply, and Karolina suddenly realizes how close they both are. She hastily steps back, color darkening her cheeks.
"Go," she whispers again.
"Can I come back?" Nico asks her "Tomorrow, day after, any day I can sneak away. Can I come back?"
Karolina looks conflicted for a moment, then she nods.
Nico can feel her face muscles trying to smile, and she has to try hard to control them. She's sure it isn't fooling anyone, though.
"Okay," she calls out, turning away "See you around."
She does. Come back, that is.
Sometimes they sit on the balcony, in the starlight and talk. Sometimes Nico makes the guards do funny things with her staff to make Karolina laugh. Sometimes, Karolina would take off her bracelet and make the lights dance around in the room, and Nico just watches, completely in awe of her.
After about two month of clandestine meetings, these are the things Nico has realized about Karolina:
That she loves chocolate. Once, she'd come right after her lunch, and found her sobbing on her bed because the castle had run out of chocolate, and Karolina was too nice to make anyone go to the city to get it for her.
(From that day on, she makes it a habit to get some for her every time she visits)
That Karolina is one of the sweetest people in the world, and she means that. Quite literally. She can hear it in her voice when she talks about her friends, how much she cares about them. She would absolutely die for them, no questions asked, and Nico spends most of her time hoping they'd do that for her, too.
(She spends the other half of her time wondering what the fuck happened to her that turned her into this gooey ball of fuck-knows-what)
That she might, very possibly, have a teensy bit of a crush on her.
Okay, so the crush might not be just a crush. Maybe it has blown up into a complete crisis. Maybe she thinks about Karolina all the time. Maybe she spends all the time that she's not with her, wanting to be with her. Maybe she wants Karolina to tie her hair up because damn it, it is ridiculously hard to stop her hands from brushing that one lock of hair away from her forehead. Maybe she keeps fiddling with her hands constantly so she wouldn't give in to the insane urge of holding Karolina's. Maybe, she is starting to say stupid things on purpose just so she can see her smile. Maybe it is so bad that almost every one of Karolina's friends have picked up on it by now.
Ah, yes, that's a funny story.
So it's not exactly her fault that she runs into the Fabulous Four. They have a system, Karolina and her. Karolina usually hangs this tiny black handkerchief from her balcony when she isn't alone, just so it is visible enough to Nico from far away. But on this particular day, apparently while Alex and Chase were doing something stupid, Alex managed to knock his elbow into Chase's teeth, and in her intense panic, Karolina grabbed the best thing she could find that would stem the blood flow. Which happened to be the handkerchief dangling from the roof. Which is why, about half an hour after the debacle is over, and Nico sneaks into the Kingdom, she sees a handkerchief-less balcony, and climbs up.
And comes face to face with four very confused and hostile people and Karolina.
"Um," she starts, because what else can she possibly say.
"You…..she…..her…ouch," Chase goes through all the stages of surprise, and then yowls because his nose hurts from all the facial exercises it has just gone through.
"I can explain," Karolina says, and everybody turns to her "Nico has been…..visiting me."
"Why?" Molly asks, her arms crossed.
"Because, um, she's, um, you know."
"I'm a friend," she completes for the flailing Karolina because although it is very cute to see her fumble her way through an explanation, four people are staring daggers at her right now, and she'd really like to move past this as soon as she can.
"A friend," Gert says, flatly "Your friend is a spy who was sent to kidnap you, the princess of the Dark Empire, the daughter and heir of the one woman who has more cause to want to see you die than any other person on the planet."
"I know it sounds crazy?" Karolina offers.
"It sounds more than crazy," Alex bursts out, pushing his glasses up "It's ridiculously irresponsible. And stupid. And other, equally devastating insults that I cannot think of right now because there is a dangerous spy with an equally dangerous staff in her hands."
"I mean," Gert concedes "That staff didn't really work properly at least one time out of the two she's used it, so I think we're about 50% safe."
"You wanna try that out for real?" she asks, only half-joking.
"Okay, you know what," Karolina cuts in "This is getting ridiculous. Nico isn't dangerous, believe me."
"She could be," Molly tells her, hands up for emphasis.
"Look, she's had multiple opportunities to kidnap me over the past two months, and yet she hasn't."
Over Alex's disbelieving mutter of 'Two months', Gert counters "What if she's playing the long game or something? Like, you know, gathering information to bring the Empire down?"
Okay, Nico is officially bored now.
"I am sure the fact that Chase once tinkered with his boots, put little jets on them, and hovered around calling them "Joots" might be a colossally important fact to all of you, but somehow I don't think there is anything my mother could do with that."
Karolina turns to her, surprise written all over her face "You remember that?" and Chase mutters an "Aw, she knows that" simultaneously.
She looks at Karolina "Yeah."
There is an extended pause.
"Well then," Gert breaks it softly "This is stupid, but Karolina, you're our friend, and we trust you. If you say Nico isn't dangerous, we're willing to give her the benefit of doubt. But, it'll still take us a long time to trust her."
"I understand that," Karolina smiles at her "I just want all my friends to know each other, and just, you know, be together."
Nico smirks at Gert, who just scowls back.
So maybe Gert does give her understanding looks when Chase hangs around Karolina too much. Maybe they both have their own unspoken, unacknowledged community of "People who have the hots for super-attractive oblivious dumbasses who would look great with each other instead of with them". It's alright, all things considered. Nico likes having friends. She likes Gert and Molly and Chase and even Alex. Most of all, she likes Karolina. She likes her shiny hair, and her deep blue eyes, and her way of looking at the world, but most of all, she likes being her friend. She wouldn't give that up for anything, not even her pesky feelings.
Plus, there is the question of their parents being eternal rivals and sworn enemies who in no way would accept it if she and Karolina were together.
(Not that it matters, anyway. Karolina is Karolina. She is the sun, and Nico is a mere planet helplessly stuck in her gravity, doomed to revolve around her eternally)
It's fine.
It has to be.