listen... Michaela Pratt is a lesbian and she will continue to be a lesbian regardless of how many heterosexual relationships she engineers for herself and one day she will come to terms with this and be happy and free and also possibly in jail but that’s unrelated
Idk if you’d be willing to write laurel and michaela but I love their friendship so if you wanted to write something...:)
The first time Laurel and Michaela hang out outside of class or work is kind of an accident.
Michaela is just about to leave her apartment when her phone buzzes, forcing her to stop in the doorway of her building.
“What do you want, Castillo?” Michaela huffs, attempting to balance her keys and her giant stack of files and hold the phone to her ear with her shoulder as she opens the door to her car .
“Do you have jumper cables?” asks Laurel, sounding equally annoyed on the other end.
“Uh, no. Why?”
“Oh, no reason, just that my car decided that the day of our first trial with Annalise was the perfect day to not start.”
“Ooh that sucks,” says Michaela with feigned sympathy as she buckles her seatbelt. “What are you gonna do?”
“Well…” Laurel starts, “I was kind of wondering if maybe you –”
“No, not happening,” Michaela cuts her off before she can finish. She worked with this witness for weeks; being late was not an option.
“Michaela.”
“Nope, that trophy is mine. Find another ride.”
“Michaela, please,” Laurel practically begs, “Wes doesn’t have a car and the others live all the way across town. It’ll literally take five minutes. I’ll buy you breakfast after or something.”
“Ugh fine,” says Michaela, a rare twinge of sympathy getting the best of her. She hears Laurel let out a sigh of relief. “But you’re buying breakfast. And if we’re late and Professor Keating gets pissed I will throw you under the bus so hard– “
“It’ll all be my fault. Got it. Fine by me, just get here,” says Laurel. Michaela can practically hear her rolling her eyes through the phone. “See you in five minutes.”
The ride to the courthouse is quiet yet uneventful, and while they were not as early as Michaela would’ve liked, they were able to enter the courtroom with ten minutes to spare. They still managed to beat Asher, who slipped into his seat with exactly ten seconds to spare.
“You’re so busted,” Michaela whispers as he sits down beside her, not daring to take her eyes off the front of the room.
“Au contraire, mon amie,” says Asher, a smug grin on his face. “A little birdy told me the witness you were put in charge of hasn’t showed. If anyone is getting busted, it’s you.”
Michaela glares at him, causing him to shut up surprisingly fast.
Unfortunately, Asher is right; the witness never shows and Michaela is, in fact, busted; Annalise makes this abundantly clear when she all but yells at her on the courthouse steps. The boys are able to escape before she unleashes the worst of it, but seeing as Michaela is her ride home, Laurel gets stuck hearing the entire thing. She tries to stay a respectful distance away, to be the wallflower she’s constantly teased for, but even so she still can still hear snippets of the conversation.
“I expected more from you, Ms. Pratt,” says Annalise, glaring down at Michaela. “Now, at least, I know to lower my standards.”
As much as she hates Michaela, in that moment Laurel can’t help but feel sorry for her. She looks so vulnerable, almost fragile. So against her better judgment she takes a deep breath, puffing out her cheeks before walking over and taking Michaela by the arm. Michaela jumps before wiping her eyes.
“Come on,” Laurel says gently as she pulls the other girl away from the step she’s currently glued to. “You need a distraction.”
Michaela just nods, following Laurel back to the car. They walk in silence, and Michaela lets Laurel carry her bag and now tepid coffee, however she draws the line when she attempts to put her in the passenger seat (“I can still drive, thank you very much!”).
So instead Laurel rattles off instructions, leading Michaela to a small but relatively clean bakery just down the street from her place.
“I assume you like bagels?” Laurel asks as Michaela parks. Michaela lets out a sigh.
“Is that your magic trick to make me feel better? Carbs?” she asks, letting out a fake, drawn out gasp. “Don’t tell me Laurel Castillo is secretly just another basic bitch?”
Laurel narrows her eyes at her before opening the passenger door. “I already owe you breakfast, and after Annalise’s little stunt I figured the least I could do is let you in on the best kept secret in Philly. Now shut up before I change my mind.”
“Alright, but you do know it’s New York that’s known for bagels, right?”
“That’s why this is a secret,” says Laurel as she walks to the entrance and opens the door.
“Welcome to Scotty’s,” she says, gesturing around as they make their way to the counter. “Home of the world’s best bagels. However, it’s also open 24/7, there are plenty of outlets and comfy chairs for studying, AND it’s just far enough away from campus that you never have to deal with undergrads slowing down the wifi.” Laurel pauses at the “Order here!” sign, gazing over to see Michaela still looking around at the mostly empty cafe. “You’re free to use it, too. But if you tell the others I will have to kill you.”
Michaela nods, before bringing her gaze back to Laurel.
“Why are you showing me this?” she asks cautiously. “We’re not friends.”
“Because,” Laurel says with a shrug, “You just had a two bagel kind of day.”
“A what?” Michaela scoffs.
“A day that only multiple bagels can make better,” says Laurel, as if it’s obvious. “Now what are you gonna get?”
(Michaela panics and gets two plain bagels with regular cream cheese, Laurel gets one cinnamon toast crunch and one blueberry, and the two of them spend the next hour ranting about Annalise and how she isn’t even that good of a lawyer anyway.)
When you get this, respond with five things that make you happy! Then, send this to ten people in your notifications. Spread the positivity. 💕
this is so beautiful! Thanks for sending it my way. I'll go with banana bread, beachcombing for seashells, christmas songs, the color dark green, and peonies
re: that half-second of pure joy during the most soul-crushing episode of htgawm yet,
laurel didn’t even have anything to celebrate she already had a guaranteed A she literally just joined in on michaela’s celebration like nOW’S MY CHANCE :’)
After the Keating Five bury Sam, Michaela blacks out and Laurel takes her to her apartment. Michaela relives the moment she realizes she is only a human and why she had such a bad reaction to the events of that night. Laurel slowly forms a bond with Michaela through her pain, and tries to ease it.
