Jane was much more of a book person than a movie person. She'd never admit that out loud, lest a certain blue haired video store Manager faint in shock, but she preferred the slow unraveling and extra details a book usually provided over a movie.
That wasn't to say she didn't like movies. She'd enjoy the occasional one from time to time, even went out to the theater if there was one she was particularly interested in. Whether she went with friends or alone didn't matter to her, though she much preferred to take on such outings alone. It allowed her to focus entirely on the plot, piecing things together one step at a time in an entirely different medium than novels.
Of course, she had the vague feeling that Belle had picked up on both of these facts and was now upset with her.
"You're joking." Belle looked at her flatly.
Jane gave her a thousand watt smile. "I'm afraid not, my dear manager."
"B-But you were reading it a few weeks ago. I saw you reading it! You told me you finished it! And yet you didn't watch the movie?!" Belle seemed flabbergasted. As if she had just been told that Jane was actually a Public Security member and their entire friendship was a lie just for Jane to study them more and create a profile on them to break them down.
Which was in fact something Jane did, just not to Belle. Never to Belle.
"Well…" Jane averted her eyes. She felt a little guilty. Both because of her thoughts and because she did remember Belle talking about it a few weeks back. "...Didn't you say we'd watch it together?"
Belle's jaw dropped. Her eyes widened and a look of realization spread slowly onto her face. It started with shock, then morphed into a great smile that pulled on the edges of her cheeks so much that Jane couldn't help but sport a tiny smile herself. The pure look of sudden joy was contagious.
"You're right. I did say that." Belle said, deathly serious. Jane was relieved that she had managed to avert disaster momentarily. "So we're going to watch it right now."
She should have expected that. "Right now?" Jane double checked.
Belle nodded. "Right now! You're free for the next few hours anyways!"
Jane frowned. She was free, but being told so bluntly made her feel a bit obstinate. "You don't know that."
"You're always free around this time. And you usually like to go out for dinner on Saturdays, so I know you'll be fine if I order take out." Belle said matter of factly.
Jane narrowed her eyes. While she certainly liked keeping things fresh and enjoyed spontaneity, Saturday was a day to relax and she generally kept it the same. But she hadn't spelled that out to Belle. Sure they had met up frequently around this time, and Belle always seemed to be mindful to invite her when they were both free but…
"Oh." Jane smiled slowly as the pieces came together. The little minx memorized her schedule. That was strangely adorable. She knew Belle wouldn't do it for anything untoward, and instead likely did it to not feel as if she were intruding or inconveniencing her when they spoke. "Well then."
"Eh? Did I get it wrong? I could have sworn you were free from the early afternoon to the late evenings on saturday…" Belle seemed a bit confused at the sudden change in tone.
Jane wrapped her tail around her thigh, enjoying the way Belle's gaze flickered to it for a brief moment. The tip of it was pointed at Belle, emphasizing the gestures that Jane was making. "No no my cute manager. You're perfectly correct. I just thought it was amusing that you memorized my schedule so you could ask me out easier." Jane teased, taking one of Belle's hands and planting a kiss on it.
"Ah-" Belle froze, her face erupted in a bloom of red. "Y-You- I-How did you know- A-A-Ask you out?"
"And here I was thinking it was strangely coincidental that you always seemed to text when I was free." Jane tutted. "I suppose I'll have to return the favor later."
Belle blinked rapidly. "Y-You aren't… weirded out?" She hesitantly asked.
"Should I be?" Jane asked rhetorically. She felt Belle squirm in an attempt to pull her hand away. Jane held onto it firmly. "I'd like to think I'm a good judge of character, Belle. If I thought you were up to no good, you wouldn't be enjoying the presence of my company. It's that simple."
There was a wave of conflicting emotions that arose on Belle's face, but most importantly was that her smile dropped. Jane wondered exactly what it was she said that caused such a thing, but she knew that she had just inadvertently stepped on a landmine.
"Which would be a shame." Jane said, feeling the need to continue. She turned her hand so they were palm to palm, and intertwined their fingers. "Because I happen to enjoy your company quite a bit."
There was a tender, shy smile that arose from the gesture. One that squeezed Jane's heart in relief. "Really?" Belle asked.
"Of course." Jane reassured her. The behavioral analyst very much doubted that any well reasoned person could dislike Belle's company. She might have been a little biased to think so, but the shorter woman was a joy to be around. "Now, why don't we head back to the store and put on that movie."
Belle gave her a blinding smile and nodded. "Okay! You wouldn't believe how the author was involved with the production of the movie. Apparently the director wanted to change the twist at the end to be more obvious for the audience but the author was heavily against it." She immediately started to ramble on about aspects of the movie that Jane would never even consider.
Jane released some tension that had built up. Her tail uncoiled itself from her thigh, where it had tightened up subconsciously. She tried not to read too hard into the reaction, but going over her words had her mulling over some things.
Whatever it was she said had caused a very sudden decline in Belle's mood. She was lucky to have salvaged it, but still felt a little bad about being the cause. It could have been the fact that she rhetorically asked if she should be weirded out, but at that point she still seemed embarrassed from being caught memorizing her schedule. Which of course, only left the part where Jane said if Belle was up to no good, she wouldn't stick around. That wasn't exactly what Jane meant to say, but it was very easy to see how it could be taken in such a way.
Jane didn't want to hyper analyze her friend, but it wasn't as if Jane could just shut off that part of her mind. At the very least Jane could extrapolate that Belle valued their friendship. Even if that piece of data came at the cost of having to realize that the cute little video store manager that was currently holding her hand did, or was doing, something that could be considered 'bad'.
Bad enough, that they felt that Jane would cut off contact with them if found out.
She wouldn't. Not unless they were some sort of serial killer. But she'd like to think that she had enough experience profiling criminals that she'd know if a serial killer was right under her nose.
Whether or not it was actually bad, or Belle just considered it to be bad, was left to be deduced. Maybe it was bad in the eyes of the law, but Belle considered it perfectly fine. There were quite a few things that occupied that gray area.
Like jaywalking.
Somehow Jane figured it was a few magnitudes more serious than jaywalking.
And of course, this all led to a much more personal dilemma. Their blurred relationship. Because although Jane was aware of the fact that her feelings for Belle were much more complex than just 'friends', it wasn't as if she could act on it.
Not until she got to the bottom of all this.
If it was something that Belle just didn't feel comfortable sharing yet, then Jane could respect that. But there were too many loose ends. Victoria Housekeeping, Belobog, how most of the shop managers on sixth street seemed to be aware of something more regarding the siblings yet never let anything slip.
She hoped it wasn't gang related, but she could handle it if it was. If some gang was coercing Belle into working for them…
Well. She'd take a few days off and by the time she was back to work there'd be one less gang in New Eridu.
"Jane?" Belle called out, shaking the Thiren from her thoughts. Jane's hand, still intertwined with Belle's, was squeezed gently.
"Yes dear?"
"U-Uh." Belle stuttered. "You've been quiet. Am I boring you?"
Jane frowned. Had she given off such an impression? She might not have been giving the girl her full attention but she certainly wasn't ignoring her. Jane was a good multi-tasker.
"Of course not. I'm sorry if I gave off that impression." She apologized. "I was listening, I was just thinking about some other things at the same time."
"What were you thinking about?"
Jane studied Belle's face for a bit. Her mood seemed to have rebounded from earlier.
"You're not in a gang, are you? No one is threatening you?" She asked, just to make sure. "You can tell me if you are. I'll beat them up."
"Gang? What? No I'm not in a gang- Wait. You'll beat them up?" Belle frowned. The blue haired girl looked her up and down, and used her one free hand to hesitantly grab onto Jane's bicep and squeeze softly. Jane watched Belle's eyes widen almost comically before she squeezed once more. "Okay. Nevermind. I'm sorry for doubting you."
Jane was trying her hardest not to let her amusement show. She was failing. "You're just now noticing that I have a bit of muscle? Don't you saddle up to me every time we eat dinner?"
"I-I've noticed! Your legs are very nice-" Belle blanched at the freudian slip. "toned! Very toned! I just wasn't expecting you to be able to bench me."
Jane raised both of her eyebrows. "...Does that mean you thought about it before?"
"..." Belle's mouth opened but no sound came out. "Oh look! The store is right there! Let's go watch that movie!"
Despite that, Belle didn't flee from her grasp. They still kept her hand firmly connected to hers.
"You do know Thirens sometimes possess different musculature to regular humans? So even though I'm quite slim, I could in fact, bench you." Jane thought for a moment. "You're small, so it probably wouldn't even take much effort."
"Jane." Belle said suddenly. "We need to talk about something else or I might pass out from how red my face is."
Belle's face was a shade of red that Jane found quite lovely. "Certainly." The Rat Thiren chuckled mischievously.
Their hands unwound from each other to enter the video store. At the counter was Bangboo 18, their signature orange scarf decorated with an 18 on it, accompanied by Wise who was helping a customer.
Wise smiled at them before going back to work, while Belle skipped to the wall of movies and picked out the one they wanted to watch without much effort spent searching for it.
She was all but dragged upstairs by the shorter girl, disappearing from the store area and entering Belle's room.
Snooping wasn't in Jane's repertoire of habits that she wanted to enforce, but it was difficult not to. A person's room was a gateway into their view of the world. It held secrets and tells that gave way to a greater understanding of a person. For someone like Jane, whose job was behavioral analysis, it was the equivalent of a gold mine.
If it was only a purely professional interest, Jane would be able to suppress her curiosity with ease. But she had a personal investment in figuring out Belle.
There was a snowboard hanging onto the wall, it had hooks coming out of it used as a pseudo coat rack. Albums, movies, and covers to them were placed on shelves. Jane got the distinct feeling that Belle enjoyed singing.
Magazines littered a desk, a used scratcher was on the couch and a coffee mug was on a coaster. Belle's laptop was propped up on the coffee table, open to some music that she hadn't closed. A retro console and some controllers were left strewn about, along with some VHS tapes, cameras and polaroid photos face down.
There was a miniature crane of some sort on the far wall. Jane recognized it to be some sort of wireless bangboo charger.
"Uh… Sorry about the mess. I should have cleaned up a bit." Belle seemed embarrassed. She quickly took one of the blankets that were left messily on the couch and folded it up, creating a space for both of them to sit down on.
"It's not a mess." Jane said as she sat down onto the couch, her tail coiled around a cushion. It really wasn't. If she had to choose a way to describe it, it would be organized chaos. There was clear structure to it, if one looked beyond the immediate volume of items. "It's very clearly your room. There's organization to the chaos."
"Still. I should have been prepared." Belle muttered as she stuck the tape into the player. The movie popped to life on the TV. She sat next to Jane, leaving distinctly half a cushion of space between them.
If Jane didn't have such sensitive hearing, she might not have picked up on what Belle said. As it was, she just hid her smirk behind her hand. She teased the girl enough for one day. Any comments on the fact that Belle wanted to 'prepare' for inviting her over was shelved for another day.
The movie itself was rather well put together. It had decent production value, the acting for the main detective was enjoyable, and even though she knew exactly who the perpetrator of the entire case was by virtue of having read the book, it still gave her a delightful thrill putting together the pieces of evidence left by the movie.
And, halfway through, Belle had not so sneakily inched her way closer to her until she was practically shoulder to shoulder. A casual yawn from the blue haired girl, stretching her arms out, making sure they were behind Jane when she laid them on the backrest.
Oh Belle, she was never as subtle as she wanted to be.
Jane practically grabbed the girl and forced her into a more intimate hug when she was on the fifth minute of such a maneuver and still hadn't put her arm around her. The adorable squeak she got was very much worth it.
The movie ended with Belle laying down in Jane's lap, watching from her new cushion. It was so… domestic. A stark contrast from what she usually had in her day to day life. She could almost imagine doing such a thing regularly.
Jane's hand in Belle's soft hair. Watching a casual movie that they can half pay attention to, half just enjoy their time with each other. Maybe snack on a few things at the same time.
Hmm. Jane sighed. It would be a nice change from all the criminal work, subterfuge and analysis she usually did.
Belle's phone buzzed and the girl in her lap shuffled to check it. Her position didn't allow Jane to see what was on the phone, but she wasn't going to snoop on someone's messages in the first place.
"Oh." Belle said out loud.
"Hmm?"
"Be careful on your way back. A new hollow disaster opened up." Belle said.
Jane frowned. A new hollow disaster? That was never good.
Her own phone rang once. The special ringtone she set for emergency work related things alerted her of exactly what. She fished her phone out with her tail.
She checked it, ignoring the curious gaze up at her from Belle. The girl in her lap couldn't see the contents from where she was.
It was an alert from PubSec. Specifically to members of the force and those adjacent. A new hollow disaster had opened up, and she'd be coming in first thing in the morning to help, after the initial perimeter had been secured by the HIA.
There was also a note on how the news has yet to be broken to the public. Jane double checked this fact by searching the internet and found it to be true.
Which led to the question of how Belle knew before she did.
"Who was it to make you frown like that?" Belle asked, staring up at her with those big aquamarine eyes.
"Work. I have to come in tomorrow." Jane said.
"Aww. That sucks. Are you going to stay for dinner?"
Such an innocent question. Did the girl in her lap even realize how critical it was that she had access to information about a hollow disaster before Public Security put out a notice to their own responders?
"Yeah. I'll stay for dinner." Jane's throat felt suddenly dry. "Who- How'd you hear about the hollow disaster?"
Belle must have sensed something wrong with the probing question, because she broke off eye contact and turned away.
"Oh I… just set up a relay to forward me any news about the stuff. That's all."
Belle was never the best liar. Even without Jane's fingers laced through those soft blue locks, face turned away so she couldn't see through the windows to her soul. Jane knew she wasn't telling the truth.
It was such a nice day. Such a tender day. Even with the hiccup a few hours ago, they still managed to settle into this wonderful position. Was it truly right to continue such a relationship with the ever growing feeling of something being terribly wrong? The ever present question of who Belle is, gnawing at the back of her mind, remaining unanswered?
Letting Jane know about the hollow disaster had to come out of the goodness of her heart. Out of a place of concern for her wellbeing. And maybe if Jane was anyone else except someone who worked with Public Security, she'd be completely oblivious to how much of a slip up that was.
But she couldn't remain ignorant. Not anymore.
Tomorrow then. After she helped with search and rescue.
With luck everything would go well.
And maybe, just maybe, she'd finally have those aquamarine eyes by her side.
