day 4 of 365 of ej’s deeply self-indulgent headcanons now that the fandom is p dead:
delphine’s trademark thing is overthinking. she has a whole laundry list of mental illnesses (both stemming from her childhood and also the trauma of the entirety of ob) but the reason they all affect her so much is the overthinking.
shay has similar things. she’s years ahead in her recovery, as she started therapy the instant she was discharged from the military.
they bond over delphine feeling like she’s totally alone in her survivor’s guilt and that she’s the only person who felt like this and shay being like “hey no, that’s really common here’s some ways to deal with it”
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Shay Davydov Week Day 2: Ships
Summary: delphine and shay met in the produce isle a while ago and have slowly gone from strangers to friends to lovers. their first morning after is one of glowing happiness.
prompt! the first time they say 'i love you' to each other? individually and as a group?
so uh... this got to be over 4,000 words because i love fluff. so.... I’m not even going to try and put that on tumblr in any kind of way..
here is a link to Ao3 to read Placeholder Title Part 2: ‘I Love You’
this is going to be part of my post s5 coshayphine fix it. there may be a couple of things that get changed eventually, i did try and make sure these were cohesive as singular stories as well.
anyway, thanks for the prompt and the massive break from compiling angst and planning more!!
prompt for any pairing: someone gave me a fake phone number and it’s actually yours.
Prompt me!!
Ao3 link to read more
She didn’t remember much of last night. She’d only agreed to go to the club with Cosima because she had a massive crush on her. Too bad she was not into monogamy and wasn’t ready to be tied down. Or that’s what she had said when Shay had asked her out.
So she’d taken what she could get. A wild night out adjacent to her crush and maybe hooking up with her had seemed like a good idea… Until she started calling her a beautiful spinster and vowing to find her love.
It wasn’t a wash. She didn’t wake up with just a pounding headache. She also had a napkin with a number scrawled on it. She couldn’t quite remember what the girl looked like. She just remembered the bubble gum pink dress and her laugh.
She pulled out her phone, typed in the number, and typed up a message.
hey, i know it’s kind of fast. but i was wondering if we could maybe meet up?
She didn’t expect a response right away. She threw her phone down on her bed and decided to shower before coffee so she didn’t over caffeinate and get jittery.
When she got back there was a text on her phone.
Sure. When were you thinking?
Shay smiled to herself. This girl didn’t think it was fast at all. She decided to try her luck.
later today?
It didn’t take long before she got a quick Okay. Coffee?
Shay grinned. absolutely.
So she went to the address she was sent and waited by the door in an open booth. She assumed the girl would not be wearing the same shade of pink, so she really had no idea how she was going to know it was her. She was kind of hoping that she was less inebriated last night and would recognize Shay.
After a few minutes she pulled out her phone. She didn’t want to look desperate or weird and the only way she knew how to do that was stare at her screen.
After a few more minutes, business really started to pick up. It seemed like this was the afternoon rush. Shay felt kind of bad for occupying a table but she was sure she wasn’t going to get stood up. Ninety-eight percent sure.
Just as a pit of dread opened in her stomach, a woman approached her table.
“Excuse me?” she asked.
Shay looked over and was struck with how beautiful she was; tall, curly blonde hair, and wide eyes. For a split second she hoped that this was her mystery woman but then remembered that pretty much every detail was wrong. She cleared her throat and replied, “Yeah?”
“Euh, I am waiting to meet someone. And it looks like you are too. Would you mind if I sat here while I waited? There’s nowhere else open.”
Wow. Gay thoughts streamed through her head for a few seconds before she stuttered, “Sure.”
That earned her a small smile and a quiet, “Thank you.”
“So uh,” Shay started clumsily as the mystery woman sat down, “Who are you waiting for?”
“My lab partner. We have a big project to finish by the end of the semester.”
“Oh. Wait, it’s March. When does your semester end?”
“May. I’m just as surprised as you that he wanted to get a start on it.”
Shay laughed. “A go-getter. Lucky you.”
The woman smiled, “I’m so sorry. I didn’t ask your name.”
“Shay,” she quickly responded. “God I’m so rude,” she teased herself. She reached her had out to be shaken.
“Delphine,” she smiled and shook her hand. “Enchantée.”
“Nice to meet you, too.” She quashed the butterflies in her stomach. She was meeting someone. One woman at a time. Unless they were into something else…
“So who are you meeting?” Delphine interrupted Shay’s train of equally self-scolding and giddy thought.
“Oh.. A girl I met last night at a bar,” Shay blushed.
Delphine grinned. “Lucky girl,” she said with a knowing smirk and a teasing glint in her eye.
Shay looked up through her lashes. “Me or her?”
Delphine shrugged, “Why not both?”
“Well I don’t know if that’s what’s happening still… I’ve been waiting here for a while,” Shay frowned and looked around the shop again. “And to be perfectly honest I don’t really remember what her face looks like.”
Delphine giggled, “That kind of night?”
Shay rolled her eyes at herself. “I was trying to impress my crush and she parties way harder than I do, so…” she sighed at herself, “Yeah.”
“Your life sounds very exciting,” Delphine teased.
Shay snorted, “More like stressful and headache-y.”
Delphine laughed. “Well, why don’t you call her?”
“My crush?”
“No. The girl you’re meeting. I’m sure she’d understand if you said it was dark,” Delphine shrugged. “Or if she was just as drunk as you maybe you’ll just have to tell her what your ringtone is. Or jump up and down and wave.”
Shay laughed. “I’m going to try texting her first.”
“I guess that could work,” Delphine sighed, lacing her words with playful sarcasm.
Shay typed out a quick i’m at the shop. did i miss you on the way in?
“There,” Shay put her phone down. “Hopefully she doesn’t think I’m desperate.”
Delphine smiled, “I’m sure she won’t.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out her buzzing phone. She read the text she’d just received. “I guess my lab partner is here,” she turned and looked around puzzled. “I do not see him, though.” She typed out a quick text.
Just as Delphine put her phone away Shay got a text that read Probably. I am sitting at a booth right next to the door.
Shay looked around. The only other booth by the door was occupied by an older couple, clearly in their fifth or sixth decade of marriage. She looked back across the table at Delphine peering around the shop. “Delphine, what’s your phone number?” Shay asked on a whim.
Delphine turned back to her more perplexed than before. “Why?”
Shay smirked and threw caution to the wind. ooga booga she typed.
Delphine looked down at her phone and read a text. “What?”
Shay laughed, “Oh my God!” she cackled.
“I don’t understand,” Delphine looked like was she was about to have an aneurysm.
Shay turned her phone around and showed Delphine, “Somehow I got your number from my bar girl last night.”
Delphine’s jaw dropped. She covered her face and started laughing, “And I thought you were my lab partner?”
Shay laughed even more. “It’s a good thing for you I’m not some kind of serial killer.”
Delphine rested her face in her hand and her elbow on the table, still laughing at herself. “Well Shay, it looks like you are my coffee date. Would you like to go up and order?”
“Sure,” Shay smirked.
As they stood in line Delphine turned to her abruptly. “The girl who gave you my number…” she trailed off.
“What about her?” Shay prompted her.
“Was she about your height, bleach blonde, kind of a girly girl?” Delphine listed off characteristics, sounding as if she didn’t want Shay to confirm any of them.
Shay sucked in a breath through her teeth and grimaced, “I guess? I’m sorry, I don’t really remember anything except a highlighter pink dress. Everything else is foggy.”
Delphine smacked her palm to her forehead. “Krystal,” she growled.
“What?”
“My friend, Krystal,” Delphine explained on a weary sigh, “She says I study too much.”
“Well, what were you doing last night?”
“Studying. But this time was different! I had a test today!”
Shay laughed before her brow crinkled. “Why would she give your number away like that?”
Delphine rolled her eyes. “She says that because I am bisexual I have twice the dating pool that she has and that it’s a shame that I’m wasting away in my apartment when I could be out meeting people.”
“That’s funny,” Shay said with a small smile.
“Why’s that?”
Shay laughed. “My crush. She was going on and on last night about finding me a girlfriend.”
Delphine smiled. “That is funny.”
Shay cocked her head and grinned up at Delphine. “Did we get set up? Are we on our first date?”
Delphine blushed and looked down. “I hope not. I’m wearing running shoes and my lazy day sweatshirt.”
“So a pre-date? I mean… we did get set up by the universe and chance.”
Delphine nodded. “It would be dangerous to defy that.”
They laughed at each other and themselves. Their whole encounter being something so ridiculous that it had to be fate. What were the odds that Shay would run into Delphine’s friend? What were the odds that it was on a night that Delphine was studying? What were the odds that they would run into each other before they discovered that they were there meeting each other?
Astronomical.
What were the odds that they were going to end up spending the rest of their lives together?
