Previously on Sylvievision…

The day after the audition, Sylvie's second day at her new school, she sat in history class when the teacher spoke two dreaded words: "Partner up." Those words would have been bad enough at any point, but considering she hadn't even memorized the teacher's name yet, they were horrifying.

However, before the panic truly set in, Loki's friend from rehearsal moved into the seat next to her. "Mind being my partner?" the girl asked.

Sylvie wished she remembered the girl's name as she nodded in relief. "Yeah, that'd be great."

Luckily, as the teacher wrote down the pairs, she said the names out loud. "Wanda and Sylvie…" she muttered. Right! Wanda! That was her name. Once she was done scratching on her clipboard, the teacher continued, "For this project you'll need to pick a topic and show how it's evolved over the last hundred years, and then present a powerpoint on it to the class. Have fun and be creative with it. Go ahead and spend the last few minutes of class brainstorming topics with your partner."

The class dissolved into chatter as Sylvie turned to Wanda. "Any ideas?" Wanda asked.

"I don't know. Food?" Sylvie threw out the first topic that popped in her head, probably influenced by the fact she was heading to lunch next.

"Maybe," Wanda tapped the eraser side of her pencil against her open notebook as she thought. "Maybe computers? Or is that too obvious?"

"Probably too obvious," Sylvie mused. Though she also wasn't exactly contributing any better ideas.

"Oh!" Wanda perked up. "How do you feel about sitcoms?"

"Sitcoms?" Sylvie asked.

"Yeah, like how they've changed over the years. We could start with, like, Dick Van Dyke, Bewitched, and then all the way to Modern Family!" Wanda said excitedly.

Sylvie couldn't help but grin at her excitement. "I don't really know anything about them, but I'm down."

"We could hang out and have a marathon, it'll be super fun," Wanda grinned back at her.

"Sure, my house some day after rehearsal?" Sylvie suggested.

"Perfect. I'll bring my DVD's. What's your number?" Wanda asked as she got out her cell phone, punching in Sylvie's number and then giving the other girl a call so Sylvie would have hers as well.

Which was how that Wednesday, Wanda followed Sylvie home after rehearsal with a suitcase full of DVD box sets of old sitcoms. Thankfully, they had a whole month to prepare their presentation because there was no way they could watch all the TV Wanda wanted to show Sylvie in one night. Even just picking a sampling of the best episodes from each show, there was a ton to watch, then research about the production, and discussion about what to include in the presentation. Sitcom night became a weekly event, every Wednesday after rehearsals, and this Wednesday was no different.

They had finally finished up the episodes of Full House from Wanda's list, and started on Even Stevens. "I can't decide if this one or I Dream of Genie is my favorite so far," Sylvie told her after two episodes.

"Either way, you have good taste," Wanda told her before putting another piece of popcorn in her mouth. Snacks were an integral part of sitcom night.

"Well, obviously," Sylvie teased, flipping her hair over her shoulder to make Wanda laugh. "It's getting late though, you should probably head out soon."

Wanda sighed dramatically. "Yeah, I guess. Is your mom getting home from work soon?"

"My aunt," Sylvie corrected. "But yeah, she'll be home soon," she lied.

"Okay, we should be able to finish up the list next Wednesday," Wanda said as she glanced at her phone, checking off the episodes they'd gotten through that day.

"I would hope so, it's our last sitcom night before the project's due," Sylvie pointed out.

Wanda's eyes went wide, "Shit, you're right! That's too bad, I like hanging out with you."

Sylvie really didn't know what to say. Just like she'd told Loki earlier at rehearsal, having friends was so new to her. The fact that Wanda actually liked spending time with her as much as Sylvie enjoyed her coming over was just so new. It made her cheeks warm with delight. "We can still have sitcom nights when the project is over," she shrugged, trying for nonchalance.

Wanda did not share her 'play it cool' attitude and perked right up. "Really?"

"Yeah," Sylvie smiled.

"That'd be great!" Wanda hugged her. Actually leaned over on the couch and hugged her. Unfortunately, her excited hug caused the half eaten, giant bowl of popcorn to tip over off the couch and land all over the floor with a loud crash. Wanda's eyes went wide and her mouth went flat. "...whoops."

Sylvie couldn't help but laugh. "It's fine! I'll just sweep it up. Don't worry about it."

"At least let me help sweep?" Wanda offered, her tone going more high pitched.

"How about you go put the bowl in the sink?" Sylvie offered, picking it up off the ground and handing it to Wanda, who just nodded and disappeared into the kitchen.

She grabbed the broom from the hall closet and swept up quickly.

"I'm so sorry," Wanda apologized again as she returned from the kitchen.

"Really, it's no big deal," Sylvie assured her. "I needed to sweep soon anyway."

"Well...thanks for not being mad," Wanda smiled a little.

Once all the popcorn was in a little pile, Sylvie paused before grabbing the dustpan, looking to Wanda instead. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," Wanda nodded, looking slightly concerned.

"Why did you partner up with me for the project?"

Wanda's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Oh, because you seemed cool at rehearsal. I thought maybe we could be friends."

"But...why would you want to be friends with me? You're so sweet, I'm sure you have like a million friends," Sylvie said, looking down at Wanda's feet instead of at her face.

"Well thanks, but not really. Just a few close ones. I'm picky."

Sylvie raised an eyebrow at her. "And you pick me of all people?"

Wanda laughed, "You're just like Loki."

Scrunching her nose up Sylvie shook her head, "Ew. No."

"Yes!" Wanda insisted. "He asked me almost the exact same thing when we became friends. If I'm so picky, why pick him? And I'll tell you the same thing I told him: because I have good taste."

"You're crazy," Sylvie shook her head, but she was smiling.

"That's what Loki said!" Wanda laughed again. "I swear, you two just might be the same person."

Sylvie rolled her eyes good naturedly. "Just get out of my house before you make another mess," she teased, leaning down with the dustpan in one hand to sweep the spilled popcorn up.

"Fine, fine," Wanda smiled. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"See you," Sylvie replied, feeling happier than she'd felt in a long time. She'd made so many real friends in such a short time, maybe this place could be home after all.

Thursday at rehearsal, Loki found himself disappointed when Sylvie sat next to Wanda instead of in her usual spot next to him. Ever since their conversation he'd found himself unable to focus on just about anything else. The girl had invaded his mind, and he couldn't shake her as hard as he tried. He found himself constantly looking for her in the halls between classes, hearing all their conversations on repeat in his head instead of listening to teachers, his eyes trailing over to her table at lunch. It was horrible.

The worst part was knowing what scene they'd be rehearsing that day. They'd finally come to their character's first kiss. Mr. Mobius was never one to wait until closer to show time, he always wanted the actors to get over the awkwardness and get used to their stage kisses right away, so Loki was sure they wouldn't mark the kiss and carry on. No, he'd be kissing Sylvie today, and he was powerless to stop the somersaults in his stomach whenever he thought about this information. It was absolutely ridiculous. The girl had punched him for Pete's sake! She'd been nothing but rude and antagonistic and funny and gorgeous and-no, no stop that!

The inner tug-of-war had been pulling him apart all day, and now Sylvie didn't even have the decency to sit next to him like usual! Instead, she smiled at Wanda with a friendly, "Hey," to be met with Wanda's friendly, "What's up?" which led to chatter about their days. While Loki was left stewing.

And it didn't even matter. No matter what happened today with the kiss, it wouldn't matter. Sylvie was into Val of all people. While Loki could understand the attraction, it still left a bitter taste in his mouth. The only person he'd had a genuine crush on in ages was into the closest thing he had to an ex. Cruel cosmic irony.

Loki didn't say a word until rehearsal had started. Mobius had Vis and Wanda hop up on stage first to rework something he'd changed his mind about from the previous day. They made a fantastic Bianca and Lucentio, but it wasn't exactly shocking that they could play adorably in love. Still, them being called up first just brought the chasm of chairs between him and Sylvie into sharp focus. Two whole chairs away! It was ridiculous, she was supposed to be right next to him.

"Hey," Sylvie nodded, keeping her voice quiet since rehearsal had started.

Loki just gave her a cool nod back, and then opened up his script to focus on anything else, or at least pretend to. He couldn't stop himself from peeking at her with his peripheral vision as she got out a book to read while they waited for their scene. He wondered if she was nervous for their kiss at all, or if it was nothing to her. It was probably nothing to her.

It felt like ages before it was finally time for them to get on stage. When Mobius called for them, Loki stood up and jumped up and down a couple times to focus himself for the scene ahead. It usually helped if he needed to focus, though with how distracted he was today he was tempted to do a lap around the auditorium. Instead, he just went ahead up the stairs onto the stage with Sylvie. It was pretty great to see her ass as she walked up the stairs. No Loki, focus.

Starting the first run through of the scene felt like pushing a snowball down a mountain. Once this thing got rolling, there'd be no stopping it. He'd do the scene, he'd kiss her, and he'd try not to die because of it. Oh, this was ridiculous! She was just a girl. Just a girl he had to kiss for a play. There was nothing to it, really.

Until they got to that point and he didn't realize he was holding his breath as she leaned in. However, instead of kissing him, she just marked the action, making a little 'mwah' in the air in his direction and carrying on with the scene. "Hold on," Mobius called out. "Sorry, I didn't say this before, my fault, but we don't mark stage kisses here. You need to get used to it, so we go for it from the very beginning of rehearsal. Let's just start the scene from the top, okay? I'm seeing some great stuff," he assured them.

Sylvie wasn't moving as she looked at him though. "You...want me to kiss him...today?" she asked, looking not unlike a deer in the headlights. That stung.

"Yeah, it's best to get it out of the way early," Mobius nodded.

"We can't just mark it for now?" she asked.

"It's best if we don't. It's just a stage kiss, nothing to be nervous about," Mobius tried to be reassuring.

It apparently didn't work, because Sylvie dashed off the side of the stage and through the door into the hallway. That stung too.

Mobius started to stand to go talk to her when Loki held up his hand. "Give me a moment." Mobius nodded and sat back down as Loki headed out the door after Sylvie.

He found her on the steps, the same place they'd talked the previous day. She was staring out the window, but her eyes seemed much further away. Loki sat down next to her quietly, not on the other side of the stairs this time, next to her. Though he didn't say anything for a long moment. "Is kissing me really that bad?" he finally asked.

Sylvie jumped like she hadn't realized he was there until he made noise. "What?"

"Is kissing me really that bad?" he repeated.

"No," she muttered, shaking her head, "this isn't about you."

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked gently.

Sylvie sighed. "Not really, no."

They sunk into another silence, him not knowing what to say to make it better even though he wanted to. He wanted to find the right words to make everything okay, to make her okay, but he didn't have the faintest idea what they'd be.

Finally, she was the one to break the silence. "I've never kissed anyone before."

"Never?" he asked, surprised.

"What?" she said a bit defensively, looking over to him.

"It's just you're, well, well I figured surely someone would have wanted to kiss you," he answered, praying his cheeks weren't turning red.

"Nope," she muttered, looking back towards the window. "I always wanted it to be special, you know? A first kiss should be special, not just any old kiss at a play rehearsal. Even if it was just a friend or something, you know? Someone to share the moment with, someone who thinks it's special too."

Loki wanted to tell her how special it would be to him. How badly he wanted to kiss her. How he'd been thinking about it all day. Oh geeze, if he'd known it was her first kiss he would have been even more out of it. He desperately wanted to be her first kiss, wanted to make it special for her.

But he couldn't. Even if it was special to him, he wasn't someone who would be special to her. So instead he told her to, "Wait right here," and got up to go back into the auditorium.

Sylvie didn't have the faintest idea what he was going to do, it wasn't like he could fix the situation, but when she heard footsteps coming back out she turned to see not Loki, but Wanda coming to sit next to her. Sylvie just stared at her in confusion. "What are you…?" she trailed off.

"Don't be mad at him, but Loki told me what's wrong," Wanda said gently.

"Oh," Sylvie answered, not sure what else to say. How could this fix anything?

"Well, um," Wanda bit her lip as she turned her head to look out the window, "you see, I'm bi. But I've never kissed a girl before," she blurted out. "And it's something I've wanted to try, you know? But it would have to be the right person, and they'd have to be a good friend, someone I could trust because I love Vis and it would be just a kiss, but...it would be special…"

"Are you offering to be my first kiss?" Sylvie asked.

"Only if you want me to be," Wanda responded quickly, nervously assuring her. "If that would be special enough?"

Sylvie had a tight lipped smile as she tried not to cry. Since when did she have such amazing friends? Friends who would listen to her problems and try to fix them. Friends who cared about her and what she wanted. A friend who thought she was special enough to be her first kiss with a girl. Sylvie had to take a deep breath before she could speak. "I would be honored to be your first kiss with a girl."

Wanda smiled brightly back at her. "And I'd be honored to be your first kiss at all."

"Well, um, okay then," Sylvie said nervously, scooting a little bit closer to Wanda. "Let's do this then. Uh, what do we do?"

Wanda couldn't help but laugh at that. "Oh come on, you've at least seen this in sitcoms! Just kinda lean in," she instructed more confidently than she felt.

Sylvie straightened her shoulders, took another deep breath, and did as Wanda instructed, closing her eyes slowly as their lips got closer.

And then they were kissing. It was nice. Wanda's lips were soft and tasted like watermelon chapstick. It was a simple press, but it was so, so special. Everything Sylvie had wanted it to be.

They both pulled back smiling. "Well?" Wanda asked.

"Very special," Sylvie answered, and gave her friend a hug. "Thank you."

"Thank you," Wanda said, giggling a bit nervously. "I kissed a girl."

"You did. Did you like it, Katy Perry?" Sylvie laughed.

"For sure," Wanda grinned, Sylvie noticed she was blushing slightly.

"Okay," Sylvie nodded, standing up. "I'm ready to get back in there."

The two girls walked back into the auditorium together, but while Wanda went back to the seats, Sylvie went up the stairs onto the stage where Loki was standing. She marched right up to him, grabbed him by the shoulders, leaned in, and kissed him right on the lips.

He was clearly surprised by it, freezing at first, but relaxing after a second. She felt his hands on her waist, the skin going hot at his touch. This kiss was different from her first one. There was an electricity she couldn't explain and hadn't been expecting. It was a longer kiss, him moving his lips against hers, and it felt like the most natural thing in the world to mimic his motions. The whole world seemed to shrink down to just the two of them. At one point she pulled back slightly, but his lips chased hers and she was kissing him again and it was just as wonderful.

When they pulled apart, Sylvie felt slightly dazed. Her first kiss had not prepared her for that. She shook her head slightly to pull herself out of it, and looked out at the audience where Mr. Mobius was sitting.

"Like that?"