#wwwvrly

"when did you get here?" you ask, hands finally relaxing, coming back up to your necklace. “you scared the shit out of me.”

cate grins, leaning over the sink to pat at a spot on her cheek- fixing her makeup, maybe. "just now."

you grumble, trying to hide the little shiver that racks through your body at the thought of cate searching for you as soon as she arrives. you feign irritation with a side glance and finally move to step into the tub.

cate follows you easily; you move, she moves. that's just the way things have always been.

she meets you at the tub, her hands finding your waist. “gonna shower? can i join?”

there’s no point in her asking. she’s already crowding closer and before you can even think, you switch the water on.

the water sprays all over cate’s head making her hair droop and shirt stick to her skin, some of the cold droplets catch you and you gasp, a half smile tugging at your lips.

there's a short pause, before cate snorts. a soggy mess of blue eyes gazing at you softly and clumps of blonde hair stuck together. “i didn’t mean i was ready.” she teases.

you bite back a smile, but a light puff of amusement still escapes you.

cate reaches over to turn the water off, maybe to stop the water from splashing all over the floors, you don't know. too focused on how she steps into the tub with you, still in her oversized and wet clothes.

her hands on your waist guide you to stand in front of her. she pays no mind to her soaked shirt or the way it clings heavily onto her skin. with her right behind you, she reaches around, inadvertently crowding you into her embrace.

you’re not one to complain— never one to complain when cate pulls you in. your own hands find their way to her waist, a habit you've welcomed wholeheartedly.

and it's no surprise to find some parts of the back of her shirt still dry, but she smiles like she knows a secret when you hug her waist.

besides, the shower curtain are loud when cate pulls on it, making your nose scrunch in distaste. she snorts again, amused by your reaction. some of the light in the bathroom dims and the air around you becomes more intimate.

you and cate are closer than ever, your hearts syncing in time with each others.

for one, the first week back to school was always hard, especially for someone like cate. with her telepathic powers and an overwhelming amount of students eager to reconnect with their friends, their loud thoughts always managed to seep through the cracks of cate’s formidable mind. 

some days aren’t so bad, but then there are days when she can barely hear herself think or even stand on her own. 

on those days, her own boyfriend’s hands and voice are painfully rough to her mind and body. with hands like sandpaper and a voice that cuts into her ears like razor blades, she spends most of those days wincing away from him. 

but what luke doesn’t know won’t hurt him, she tells herself. especially when he worries the way he does and all she wants is for him to stop. his fruitless attempts to make it better only prove to worsen the growing migraine and she hates feeling like she should be feeling the opposite. 

and for two, there was a spot under a big oak tree that marie and emma loved to lay out a picnic blanket under. all their friends meet there frequently. often laying with their back pressed to the earth, laughing or even arguing. 

today, emma laid, staring up at the sky, laughing at something andre had said. cate knows because emma’s thoughts are loud and she has lingering thoughts of doubling down on some inappropriate comment. beside her, sam’s hands are bunched into fists around green stems, fingers peeking out to carefully place the flowers into her hair. the flowers in her hair are all sorts of yellow, purple and green. wildflowers, cate notes, tangled between curls of platinum gold. 

like magnets though, cate’s eyes drift to her best friends. jordan is laid with their back pressed to the earth and lips spread so wide that their eyes began to smile too, laughing along with emma and andre. their sound louder than the other two, but not necessarily harsher to her ears. with their head rested on marie’s lap, marie combed her fingers through their hair in an affectionate manner. and everything about her best friends in this moment screams ‘pretty, pretty, pretty’, and cate feels the aching want in her soul to join them. 

cate stumbles, naturally. her world is tilted on its axis and her own knees buckle with every other step. luke catches her, because of course he does, but his look of worry only makes her feel worse. 

“is cate okay?” marie asks, concern evident in her frown. cate hates the way she asks luke and not cate, herself. feels wrong about the way marie’s voice was like a soothing balm to the aching in her temples. 

“i’m fine.” she hisses out, her own voice unrecognizable from the shaky anger it holds. 

luke smiles weakly, leaning over to help hold her up and she hates and hates. “she’s got another migraine.” 

“awh, c’mere.” marie’s voice is gentle, and genuine. so much so that it startles her, makes her heart stutter again when marie calls her name again. her hand squeezes luke’s bicep reflexively from the anxiety. marie’s hand finds hers, tugging gently, silently encouraging her to lay down on the picnic blanket with her and the others. 

cate resists initially, because she’s fine but then jordan is murmuring soft words and shuffling off of marie’s lap. then there’s a collective murmuring that settles around her friends for a moment and then there are too many hands collectively guiding cate. luke’s hands are large around her waist and she swallows back a growing lump in her throat, she blinks away the wetness in her eyes when jordan’s hands settle low on her hips, helping, guiding onto the picnic blanket and down onto the space jordan once occupied on marie’s lap. fingers find it’s way through her hair and she feels much like a feral cat being coaxed into a warm embrace for the first time, hissing and fidgeting when the hands touch her until her head is being scratched and rubbed in a way that has her sighing. 

“i’m fine.” cate whispers again, nevertheless it only takes jordan’s firm but soft tone to get her to cave. the same one that they tended to save for marie, and how could she ever say no when they spoke like that. but she felt herself tremble, shudder with a nervousness that she knew even marie could feel. and she didn’t know what to do with herself, didn’t know how to feel about marie acting the way she was. 

distinctly, cate acknowledges that luke moves away to sit beside his brother and best friend and jordan settles onto the blanket beside her, laid on their side, head perched up by their arm. and the wind blows over them and she feels her heart curl inward, dreams of a time where this moment was solely theirs. when her heart dreamed of marie’s fingers brushing over either side of her jaw intimately, completely unaware of the way her brows began to knit together and the soft gasp she let out, or the way she grasped at marie’s knee- wanting something to hold on to. unaware of how marie and jordan smiles when cate seems to melt under the ministrations. too lost in the moment, her heart skips another beat. she could feel it and held her breath, hoping. briefly, she wondered how marie would feel if she knew. 

cate’s eyes fluttered open in that moment, hesitantly moving her teary eyes up to marie who met her gaze with a smile. the bloodbender nodded as she mouthed two words: “it’s okay.” because cate doesn’t know what a sight she is. how her shoulders seem to relax just so at marie’s words, a long exhale leaving her parted lips as her hand squeezes marie’s knee. it’s a sweet moment, obvious to anyone in that moment how much cate enjoys the affections, the words. or how much marie hopes she could do more just to keep cate in such a state of content. 

“is it loud here?” jordan asks suddenly, their voice almost as soft as the wind. 

cate turns her head. there’s a spark in jordan’s eyes, one she’s seen before and she can’t understand why jordan is suddenly looking at her like that. 

she can’t understand why marie looks at her the same way. why her lips curve so prettily as her hands continue to play with a loose strand of her hair. and then jordan tilts their head, eyes warm and light like honey under the sunlight and the noise and throbbing in her mind seem to quiet all on it’s own. 

and oh, it’s like puzzle pieces slotting into their rightful place. it’s like the giddiness of popping bubbles when you’re young. it’s like what she imagines luke and andre feel for her, but she could never understand. 

jordan’s lip twitches into their signature smirk, yet somehow softer – more personal. and she thinks she understands, as jordan does, that they have come to a common ground. there, with their heads resting on marie’s laps, jordan before cate, and they both have a right to be there. 

so cate nods, her head turning back to gaze up at marie, eyes eventually fluttering shut under the soft ministrations of marie’s hands and the warm sunlight. “no.” she manages to whisper, because the loud voices in her mind are gone and luke’s overbearing personality is not crowding her, but it’s just the three of them on the grass under the sun.