#houston.

[exspiritment]

@jupiter3​ // houston

“If you could go back to the beginning, or if you had to start it all over, right now. Would you go after him again?”

[metuere-now-exspiritment]

@jupiter3​ houston.

and not in a friendly way. what the fuck.

it takes a second for houston to think of an apt response--hell, to think of anything at all. sure, there’s been something brewing for years but houston assumed it was a one and done, never talk about it again type thing. not this bubbling, gooey mess of misplaced affection.

“are you fucking serious?” this is the worst thing spirit could say to her. especially now, especially after the incident. oh, the fucking incident. or does it have to be isolated to be an incident? who knows how long this spirit and dallas nightmare has been going on.

“you can’t tell me that! you can’t fuck my dad and tell me you’re in love with me! what the fuck is wrong with you?!” she doesn’t have a better response. there’s nothing for her to say, nothing that can make this feel right.

It’s different when it’s not over text. It should be different, but it: a) should have still mattered that she fucked her best friend’s dad before being confronted in person, and it b) should matter a little more to see Houston this upset.

Houston finds ways to make Spirit feel raw and real without even meaning it. Houston finds ways to make Spirit feel ugly and fucked and pointless while sometimes meaning it. And that’s enough to put Spirit on edge as if she’s talking to a complete stranger who wants to start shit. 

(Could this upset Houston more? Probably. Is there a point in thinking about upsetting someone beyond fucking their father? Probably not.)

“You don’t have to assume all of these horrid things about loving someone.” 

Right - Spirit has just put them there, clear as day. 

“I’m not going to be able to say something you want to hear. What do you think is the best you could possibly get?”

[chimichangacongaline]

Me: -slides the entire band a c r i s p $20-

also me: maybe you come down to Austin TX on your tour? hmmmm?

[tqpannie]

[exspiritment]

@jupiter3 // houston said: it hurts to be somewhere 'cause you gotta stay there after you say what’s on your mind. 

She's brunette, on the trip. She tries to keep it up, but her hair has two clearly-defined sections: red and brown. She covers her roots with a beanie. Even through all of this, even when she is doing one of the only purely good things she's ever done in her life (and even this will eventually involve killing a man), she is remarkably vain.

She's still with Rin, at this point. Like, they're together. Spirit and Houston have — Spirit, really, has — just finished cursing out Flynn for meeting Shipley in the convenience store and never being smart enough to figure it out. Spirit still shakes with misplaced adrenaline, but Rin is the only one gentle enough — and what are the fucking odds of that — to go after Flynn.

So it is Spirit and Houston, alone in the car. And they have no idea where they're going next — no idea how to get there, now that their driver is royally pissed off.

"He'll live," she murmurs. "We'll all live. Whether we stay here or not — whether we finish this or not — we'll live. We have to. — You still want this, right?" She turns to Houston with big, imploring eyes. "I still want this. I don't even know how to want anything else anymore."

[exspiritment]

@jupiter3 // houston said: mistletoe meme

It's Juniper's idea to throw a Christmas party, and Spirit doesn't have a guest list so much as she has a plus one. It's an embarrassing notion for the girl - becoming reacquainted with her family after all these years, and all she has to show for herself is one measly friend.

Okay - Houston isn't measly. She's amazing. She's one of the best friends someone like Spirit could ask for. We're just being dramatic, here. After all, in this story, the girl is barely nineteen years old. She hasn't even ran away with Flynn yet.

Harris is working on Christmas Eve, and so he's absent. And so, Spirit thinks, everything will be perfect.

Juniper fills the party with references to Christmas movies she's watched with Lila and Burns, movies Spirit has never even heard of. And she tries not to be upset about the cookies and chocolate syrup and lamp with a department store mannequin for a base, but these things unnerve her.

And, of course, mistletoe above an unsuspecting, unassuming archway.

Spirit and Houston make drinks with the shitty liquors and liqueurs taken from various places of Harris's employment. They experiment with flavors and laugh and ignore Juniper's coworkers, Lila's friends from the laundromat (and what a weird crowd that is).

They ignore just about everyone else in the world until they can't deny Burns's laughter any longer.

Finally, Spirit turns to him to snap something about shutting the fuck up. Instead, she sees Burns pointing above them, and she finally looks up at the little plastic plant dangling oh, so harmlessly.

Even Juniper is giggling. Lila looks horrified but intrigued. Perhaps the cringe factor is still too much for her.

It's Houston who snaps out of it first. She grabs Spirit by the shoulders and plants a fat, noisy smooch on her lips. Spirit recoils, stunned.

They haven't done that since Georgia.

"Happy?" Houston asks the small crowd that had formed, but they've already begun to dissipate.

It is just Spirit and Houston, standing in the waves of what they've done.

[exspiritment]

@jupiter3 // houston asked: a kiss to end sexual tension

What are you looking at?

What are you looking at?

It has been like this, ever since the trip. Ever since Georgia. They have tried to go on similar investigations and stop similar monsters but it’s not the same. Or maybe it is the same, and that’s the problem — maybe there are too many memories. 

Spirit thinks about Houston’s hand down her panties and her lips on her neck and her hair and her voice and the way that she wanted and she took. Spirit practically fucking begins to salivate.

They’re both pouring over documents printed at the public library. They’ve finally made it back to Spirit’s apartment. They keep accidentally bumping heads, knocking shoulders. It shouldn’t be like this — and if it is like this, they should at least talk about it.

Instead of talking, Spirit wraps her arms around Houston’s neck, slots her leg between the other girl’s thighs. And she kisses her deep, kisses her hard.

And papers fall to the ground, and none of that matters, right now. Spirit kisses Houston harder and doesn’t let go.