could you do a prompt where ellie comes home a bit drunky with her girlfriend and joel is just like wtf dude and ellie and dina are like whelp. we’re gay.
dina shushes her when ellie cries out, knocking her shoulder on the window frame. her shushing is louder than any sound ellie had made, ellie is pretty sure, but when she twists to tell her that, dina laughs and her face blurs a bit in ellie’s vision with like, joy and fondness and probably a decent slosh of alcohol.
‘you are not being quiet at all,’ dina laughs. ‘sorry to break it to you.’
‘i’m—what do you mean? i’m so fucking sneaky.’ ellie hitches herself higher on the sill and promptly falls in, smacking both elbows, somehow, and taking the brunt of the fall on her shoulder. once she’s landed—successfully—her legs follow, boots skidding down the wall to land with two dull thunks. ‘ow,’ she says, seeing dina’s curious, vaguely worried face in window.
‘are you gonna help me in?’
‘you don’t even check to see i’m okay?’ ellie twists her face into an appropriate scowl. ‘some girlfriend you are.’
dina rests her chin on the sill. ‘you said ow. you’ll live.’
she’s so cute and pretty, ellie thinks, staring up at her and letting the room settle around her at its epicentre, the focus of the carousel, and her stomach clenches for a moment. dina’s smile shifts.
‘i’m—yeah, i’m coming,’ she whispers, and turns to push up onto her knees and then her feet, staggers to the window. she grabs dina by the back of her shirt—ignores the ‘this is so fucking romantic’—and when her girlfriend jumps, ellie helps to haul her up into the room. she misjudges the strength needed and dina just about gets chucked clean across the room, except that ellie is standing in front of her and so what really happens is that she crashes into ellie and they both go falling to the floor again, dina on top.
ellie groans. ‘ow.’ she feels dina giggle, gets a little light headed from the sensation of dina’s soft belly pressed against her own, the way dina tucks her laugh into the side of ellie’s neck.
‘shh,’ dina reminds her, still laughing. lifting her head, she puts a finger to her lips and then, in case ellie hadn’t understood, she moves her finger over ellie’s lips. ‘we are being quiet,’
ellie blinks her understanding at her, since she’s not allowed to speak, and tries with various hand motions and expressions, to get dina to move off her.
‘what are you doing?’ dina hisses.
‘get off me, dumbass,’ Ellie hisses back, which comes out as more of a normal whisper because dina’s finger is still on her lips, tapping gently.
‘oh. right duh,’ dina laughs at herself and rolls to the side.
they stand and ellie looks around to the dark dining room-kitchen combo. there’s a covered bowl of something on the counter and ellie’s stomach rumbles.
‘is that joel’s chili?’ dina asks her, wrapping her arms around ellie’s waist from behind, setting her chin on her shoulder. ellie is pretty sure she has to be on her tiptoes but the amount of difficulty they’re going to have walking around like this is vastly outweighed by how nice it is to have dina so close, and also in prime location to drop more distracted, happy kisses to her shoulder and neck and, when ellie turns to talk to her, ellie’s cheek. ellie rests her hands over dina’s on her belly, scouting with a careful touch the landmarks of dina’s hands: follows the rise and fall of her knuckles like gentle hills; taps a trail along the bump of a long-healed scar on the back of her hand that curves around to the soft of her palm; swirls her fingers around the knock of her wrist.
‘probably. he said he was meeting up with ben. they probably “cooked”,’ ellie laughs, making the air quotes with her free hand. ‘maybe he left us a note.’
he has, in fact, left a note.
‘i’m…too drunk, i can’t read this,’ ellie decides and she flicks the note somewhere else in the kitchen. she tries to finagle the lid off but joel, either constantly paranoid or knowing she would try something like this, has secured it beyond what is necessary. ellie huffs, pulling at the duct tape—the third defence so far—but it cracks and rips with an almighty sound and dina grimaces.
‘lets leave it,’ she suggests. ‘maybe he’ll share in the morning,’
‘he won’t because he’s a jerk,’ ellie shakes her head mournfully, lets dina pull her away from the container. she turns them gently, presses dina to the kitchen counter and kisses her. still with the flutter in her belly she always gets, still with a slight tremble in her hands when she sets them on dina’s waist, still awed that she can lean in and kiss her, awed by the quiet sounds dina makes to direct her, the hums, the way her breath catches when ellie steps a little closer, pins her harder to the counter and curls her hand around the back of her neck.
‘wait wait wait,’ dina pats at her chest and ellie leans back, licks her lips and tastes the charcoal sweet-burn of the whiskey they had traded back in the bar. ‘i’m too drunk,’ dina laughs, and ellie grins down at her, nods. she twines their hands together instead, pulls her after her down the hallway to her bedroom.
they’re almost there when the hallway light clicks on.
ellie yanks dina forward and behind her, arms spread to protect her. the lights flicker, whirring and popping overhead, before they settle.
‘joel,’ she breathes, sagging with relief. ‘goddammit, i thought you were a raider or something.’
‘i thought you were a raccoon,’ he says, scratching at his beard. he blinks the sleep out of his eyes, squints over. ‘hello ellie’s friend dina.’
dina waves sheepishly from behind ellie, pops her chin on ellie’s shoulder again. ‘hi joel. did we wake you? we were being quiet,’
‘ah.’ his lips twitch. ‘nah, you didn’t wake me.’
his eyes flick to where dina is holding ellie, her arms comfortably around her waist. up to her face again. down to her arms, up to ellie’s now reddening face.
‘alright then,’ he drawls. ‘don’t stay up the whole night, alright?’ ellie nods. ‘i’m gonna go lock the window since i reckon y’all forgot.’
ellie ushers dina into her room and they pile into the narrow bed, big enough for two only if they cuddle, they both seem to understand. warm and hazed and struck dumb by the way it feels to lie together in the same bed and share the same warmth and the way dina shivers when ellie curls her knees up a little, ellie misses what dina says and has to hum a ‘what?’ against the back of her neck, kisses a tiny scar there.
‘do you think he knows?’ dina asks quietly, shuffling around until she can look back at ellie, though laying on her back means that half of her is off the bed. ellie curls an arm around dina’s waist to help her if she falls.
‘nah, i think we were pretty casual.’
dina nods. ‘quiet too,’ she assures ellie, words slurring a little. ‘ellie?’
come morning, three things are readily apparent: they forgot to brush their teeth, they had not been quiet, and joel definitely, definitely knows.
ellie peels the post-it note from her throbbing forehead, smacks her lips. it takes a minute for her swimming vision to settle and she groans.
WAKE YOUR GF & COME HAVE BREAKFAST
‘dina,’ ellie groans, eyes slamming shut and vision blessedly dark again.
‘dina, wake up.’ ellie smacks the post-it note to dina’s cheek, laughs when her girlfriend squawks, hits her back.
‘oh shit,’ dina laughs, then groans. ‘i need…a shower.’
ellie shuffles around, opens her eyes. dina’s hair falls in wild tangles and red pillow lines crinkle her right cheek. her face is flushed from the warmth of sleeping under two blankets and pressed to ellie and there’s a chunk of sleep dust in the corner of her eye and,
‘you’re staring,’ dina grumbles.
‘god, save it for after coffee,’ dina huffs, smacks her shoulder. she swings her legs out of bed and they both laugh a little when they see that at some point dina had shucked her jeans but not her socks. ‘this is a look, this is fashion.’
‘you horn dog!’ dina laughs appreciatively before holding her head. ‘shower. i need one. can i borrow some clothes?’
‘of course, yeah, of course.’ ellie braces herself to stand, shuffles across her room to her dresser. she waits for a second then, ‘uh, pick whatever you want?’
‘my hero,’ dina grins, and picks out a shirt and underwear, finds her jeans where she flung them.
once she’s gone, ellie collapses back onto her bed, dozing, until there’s a rap at the door.
‘breakfast is almost ready,’ joel says through the door, creaking it open an inch or two. ‘how’d you sleep?’
ellie groans, sits up yet again. her head throbs and she figures she’s had enough of up and down for one day. ‘good.’ she tilts her head, smiles. ‘sorry for waking you.’
joel barks a laugh. ‘you two were not quiet. heard y’all when you were trying to get in. forget your key?’
ellie flushes. ‘yeah. how, uh, that is—how much did you hear, exactly?’
‘did my best not to.’ joel leans against the doorframe, folds his arms. ‘something you want to tell me?’
‘nothing you don’t seem to know already. dina is—i’m—we’re dating.’
joel’s grin softens a fraction. ‘congratulations, kid. she’s a good one.’
‘yeah.’ ellie scrapes her hair back from her head, sends him a shy smile. ‘yeah, she is.’
‘keep the kissing out of the kitchen, though,’
‘i may have accidentally seen that.’
‘joel! also,’ ellie squints over at him, half a scowl, half a grin, ‘hypocrite much? i know how your “cooking lessons” turn out.’
joel grins, unrepentant. ‘that’s different.’
‘because i’m an adult and i said so.’
snowghoul
kaledo-art
2087
turnnoffyourmind
vaporwave
