WonderGirls, Ch. 9: Sweeter Than Fiction
By Skyler10 Summary: Daisy is working hard on a new project on a Saturday morning, which eventually leads to a secret confession from Carol!
Notes: The lone exception to the No Telling Actors About Your Fic rule. Do not do this unless you are practically living together.
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One Saturday morning, still bleary eyed, Carol stood in adoration and amusement in the doorway to Daisy’s home office. The window’s natural light and the overstuffed furniture of the room provided a cozy atmosphere, but this morning, Daisy was typing away on her laptop at her desk. She hadn’t noticed—or at least, hadn’t acknowledged—Carol’s presence as she worked.
Far be it from Carol to interrupt such a clear state of focus, so she pushed off from the side of the doorframe she’d been leaning on and set about making the coffee and warming up some muffins. Moving about Daisy’s house was mostly second nature by now, but she still had to guess at which cabinet was which occasionally. The kitchen was just an odd layout, and a bit small, at least in comparison with her own. She didn’t think the house was as full of faults and flaws as Daisy seemed to, but looking around while the coffee brewed, she realized that the reason the house’s quirks didn’t bother her was that she assumed eventually Daisy would move in with her.
Daisy’s house was nice to visit, but secretly, Carol was grateful Daisy wasn’t overly attached to it and talked about what she wanted to change and what she liked in Carol’s. Now that Carol knew Daisy so well, she could spot the decorations that had been purchased by an interior decorator to complement a theme or trend, not Daisy’s personality or style.
The coffeepot finished and the muffins were warm on their plate, so she poured two mugs and located a tray with handles. She padded in her house slippers back to the home office, where she found Daisy reading over whatever she had been writing.
Carol paused in the doorway again until Daisy glanced back over her shoulder.
“Hi, let me just save this… Okay, done.”
“Good morning, gorgeous,” Carol flirted. “I noticed you were in here without any breakfast.”
Daisy spun around in her office chair and lit up as she saw Carol’s tray. “I’ve had dreams like this, but this feels real.”
Carol laughed and came in, setting the tray on a table between the two-seater sofa and comfy accent chairs.
“C’mon.” She sat on the sofa, and Daisy joined, sitting in the chair across from her.
Daisy hummed as she took the first sip. “Mmmm, and she makes the best coffee. Yep, girl of my dreams.”
Carol smiled in satisfaction over her own mug. “I love you too.”
Daisy winked and set down her mug in favor of a muffin.
Carol glanced to the laptop but couldn’t tell what was open on the screen besides a white document with typed black words.
“You seemed pretty into whatever you were working on, so I didn’t want to interrupt…” Carol let the sentence dangle as an unasked question.
Daisy swallowed the muffin and picked up her mug again, contemplating how to answer. Carol let her decide, watching without pushing.
“I had an idea,” Daisy said simply. “It’s probably super embarrassing or whatever, but I just went for it…”
“I’m listening.” Carol leaned in, fully attentive to whatever Daisy wanted to share. Daisy mirrored her but in a faux conspiritorial way.
“Can you keep a secret?”
The echo of their first day as friends on set warmed any trepidation in Carol’s heart about what this project might be.
“Of course. I want to keep all your secrets.”
Daisy took a deep breath. “I’m not saying it would be anything professional or ever get made, but I had an idea for a screenplay. I don’t know if it’s a movie or show or just a short or even anything at all. But I’m really excited about it. I haven’t written anything in a really long time.”
Carol put aside her surprise at the last bit to reassure Daisy’s cringing. “Babe, that’s great. I am excited you’re excited. Whatever it turns out to be, I’m here to cheer you on. Can I—”
“Not yet,” Daisy interrupted. “Sorry, I just want to get it written and edited a bit first before anyone sees, even you.”
“Oh! No, that’s fine.” Carol restarted, “I was just going to ask if I could help with anything. I’ve never been a writer myself, at least, not professionally. But maybe a research trip wherever it’s set?” Carol winked.
“Maybe,” Daisy answered cryptically. “But what do you mean at least not professionally?”
“What did you mean by ‘haven’t written anything in a really long time?’” Carol challenged in return, sipping her coffee.
“Touche.” Daisy’s lips turned up in acknowledgement. “Okay, I may have written some ideas for stuff I’d want to be in, back when I was on my show and didn’t want to get pigeonholed into that and only that. My agent suggested it so she knew what to look for in the off time from filming the show. They were never formal, just little sketches, but one of them I think could actually be something. There. I answered. What’s yours?”
“Oh man, see, yours is cool. Mine is actually embarrassing.” Carol laughed and covered her blush with a hand. She’d walked right into this, but maybe if she met Daisy’s vulnerability with something far more vulnerable, it would help her feel more confident to pursue her writerly ambition wherever it led.
“Uhn uh, no backing out. You have to now that I’ve shared, and now that you know what I’m doing in here.”
Carol was a bright pink now and swallowed as she glanced out the window to not have to meet Daisy’s bemused expression.
“I wrote… stories. On the internet. Under a pseudonym, obviously. About fictional characters I liked. It was a way of coping with all the pressure in my teen years and 20s in Hollywood. It made me feel more normal. In fandom spaces, I could just be myself. As long as I wasn’t, you know, myself. THE Carol Danvers.”
“Wait, you wrote fanfiction?”
“I know, I know.” Carol buried her head in her hands in tension-defusing giggling and missed the compassion on Daisy’s face until Daisy placed a gentle hand on her back.
“Hey, I think that makes a lot of sense with what you’ve told me, that you needed a place to feel like a human again, not just an object everyone was watching.”
“Yeah,” Carol sighed and sat up. “I took everything down though, so don't worry about me being exposed in a hack or something. Things got complicated.”
“Did someone suspect…?”
“No, no, nothing like that. I just started being in things that developed their own fandoms that started to overlap with my own, and my blocklists and filters and everything I could to avoid it failed, and it snuck in. And things got mean and creepy, and suddenly it wasn’t my safe space anymore, even though no one knew I was seeing the things they were saying about me. Let’s just say I’m glad I wasn’t out yet. They had plenty of fuel without that.”
“Shit, I’m so sorry. That sucks.” Daisy’s concern made Carol fall even deeper for her. The one friend at the time who knew as it happened had thought it was hilarious and served her right.
“Yeah.” Carol shrugged. She battled between avoiding meeting Daisy’s eyes and being unable to look away. “Haven’t written since, plus the fandom really changed anyway once it got popular.”
She had intended this to be a closed door, brushing off the subject, but Daisy knew her too well. Quiet fell between them as they finished the last of their breakfast, but eventually Daisy broke the silence.
“What?” Daisy prodded gently verbally and with a fuzzy sock clad foot against Carol’s slipper. “You’re still looking at me weird. Was there something else?”
Carol pressed her lips tight. “Mm, nope. No, I think I answered, and oh, look, empty mugs, we can get more coffee…”
Daisy cracked a smile. “Uh huh, I see you, Danvers.”
She moved over to sit on Carol’s lap to prevent her from getting up to pace or dash out of the room. Daisy began to stroke Carol’s bedhead hair as Carol’s hands found their natural resting place on Daisy’s hips.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but if you do, know that there’s nothing too cringe or kinky or bizarre that I haven’t heard. I may not have written fanfiction, but I’ve read it, and even some about myself, which was a strange but oddly validating very drunken sleepover night with friends on my 21st birthday. Point being, I’m in too deep at this point to be turned off by anything you used to write, and the first thing I said when I met you was how much of a fangirl I was about you.”
Carol opened her mouth and closed it in indecision. “You really want to know?”
“Now I do, yeah!”
“You might remember when we met I said I was also a fan of yours?”
“Yeah! You really meant it too, which impressed me. Not many people we meet in our business do.”
“I did mean it, yes.” Carol nodded, hoping Daisy would catch on. She played with the waistband of Daisy’s sleep shorts. “I was a big fan of the show, and your character, and may have…”
Daisy gasped as the puzzle pieces fell into place. “You didn’t! You wrote me, I mean, my character?”
Carol couldn’t speak. She closed her eyes and nodded, but Daisy waited in delight above her, bouncing on Carol’s knees. “It was years before we met…”
“Sure, but what kind was it?”
Carol knew exactly what she meant. “All kinds, I guess. I saw a lot of potential for the character, and there was a lot shipping her with…”
“Mmhm Natalie, yes, the former child spy who joined them in Russia.”
Carol’s heart was pounding. “You said it was your 21st and you were drunk, but I have to ask something while we’re talking about it and then we never have to again. I just need to know. When you read fic about your show, do you remember any of it?”
Daisy grinned like the Cheshire cat. “Some of it, vaguely.”
Carol scrunched her eyes closed again. “There was also one crossover fic with my movie, Department of Enchantment, about the magic witch school? It was, uh, kind of long?”
Daisy’s jaw dropped. “It was explicit, right? I swore I wouldn’t read any of the sexy ones but that one got me before I realized… Okay, so maybe I read some after that party, but just to finish the story because I had to know where our characters ended up.”
“Together,” Carol said, confessing with a resigned guilty smile. “Maybe that’s the weirdest, creepiest, stalker thing you’ve heard, but I just wasn’t ready to let my little witch go when we were done and she just seemed like a good fit… God, I shouldn’t have told you, I’m so sorry, please forget you know any of this.”
“Hey.” Daisy stopped her with a sincere kiss. “That fic was really good. It’s probably the only one I remember and definitely the only one I kept reading. I mean, with anyone else, it would be weird for sure, yes, but with you now, and the way you wrote your character, it just makes sense. It didn’t feel like I was reading about my performance or job; you made them both real.”
“Good,” Carol exhaled in relief. “I don’t miss writing now, but it feels better not carrying that secret now that you know and are so cool about it.”
Daisy wriggled in Carol’s lap. Carol’s fingers had been fidgeting and were now tracing light circles over her lower back under her shirt with one hand and over her thigh with the other.
“Maybe I’m not just cool with it, but I could be hot with it too.”
Carol blinked in surprise. “You want to role play our characters from that long ago?”
Daisy laughed. “No, no, I mean… if you were going to write an erotic fanfic about us, the real us, what would you write?”
Carol scrunched her nose. “Oh god, I just realized those probably exist.”
“Obviously! We’re very shippable,” Daisy defended, not letting Carol get icked out or change the subject. “I don’t want to know what anyone else would say. What would you write?”
“Is this your way of asking me about how I fantasize about you?”
“You brought it up. I could have asked how you’d write an erotic fic for Dani and Skye in this movie, but thinking about them feels more like our jobs than a creative escape at this point in the press tour.”
“Yeah, ask me about them after all this is over.” Carol crossed her eyes playfully. “For now, you and me… hmm… I think we need to go back to bed for this activity. You good in here?”
She nodded to the laptop as Daisy climbed off of her and grabbed the now-empty breakfast dishes and tray.
“All good. I’ve done my writing for the morning; now it’s your turn to tell a story. A very naughty one, please.” She bit her lip and waggled her eyebrows in humorous suggestiveness. “I’ll clean this up and meet you in the bedroom.”
Carol watched her go, in awe of the miracle that they had found each other. Two perfectly matched nerds in their little sapphic love-nest paradise, at least for the day.
------------------------ Author's Note: This is the next to last chapter!
