fandomhighdorms | Second Floor Common Room, Monday Evening

"...I guess. Probably. Yes." Way to sound sure there, Peters. Except it wasn't that she was unsure of, it was whether she should take the easy out sitting right there in front of her, or...not. Because it was Dinah, and if she couldn't say it to Dinah, what did that say about her?

"Not..." She dropped her face along with her voice, studying her fingers and the chocolate smear just along the ridge of her thumb. "Not just my best friend."

Dinah's mouth made a soundless O, followed by a lot of blinking. She gulped, then thought, because this seemed like one of those times to really think before speaking. Several things went through her mind at once: May and the Beltane festival and Francine's reaction after; the break-up with Merlin; the way Francine had looked after Katchoo in 'Dite's shop when she was sick after the trip to pretend-Briarwood, being BFF's and how Francine worried about Katchoo, and hey, she'd wondered if Katchoo's feeling weren't strictly platonic once or twice and... "Ohhhhhhh."

Hunh. The only surprise was how much sense that made, when she thought about it. "Oh," she repeated more softly. "This is. Um. New, hunh?"

Edited 2009-11-10 20:58 (UTC)

Francine rubbed the bridge of her nose with her thumb - yes, the one with chocolate on it - and curled her mouth up a bit on one side. "That kind of depends who you ask."

Dinah blinked at her, then grinned and pulled her legs up to her chest. "What, like Rashomon? You have chocolate on your nose," she teased lightly, happy to be distracted by that while she continued to think it over. "What's your opinion?"

"Rasho-what?" Francine swiped at her nose, which gave her another chance to look down, yay. "I meant it's, yeah. New. Really really new. For me. Not so new for Katchoo."

She couldn't resist the tiny bit of petulance in thinking Or Merlin and Arthur. Everybody knew but me.

Well, and Dinah. Take comfort in that, Francine.

"I wondered," Dinah said tentatively. "After the zombies. She was pretty... wrecked." She licked her lips, and asked the most important question. "You're happy?"

It wasn't just her who'd seen Katchoo dead. Sometimes Francine had to be reminded of it. Because she obviously didn't feel guilty enough.

"I'm..." Not happy about breaking up with Merlin. Relieved not to be hurting Katchoo and Arthur anymore. And the rest of it... "Sometimes. Mostly I'm just clueless."

Dinah gave her a sympathetic look and scooted closer, thinking of what Francine had told her about the lily brand, and Katchoo's tattoo, and wondering how long this had been developing for Francine, too. "You don't have to figure it out right away, do you?"

[it helps to hit POST, grr.]

"God, I hope not, or we're totally screwed." Francine, Queen of Blurt. See conversation with Jack for arguments of royal qualification.

Dinah snickered, then elbowed Francine, and took another cookie, smiling at the chocolate still smeared on the other girl's face. "I think if Katchoo's hung in this long, she can hang in a while longer. If I'm understanding right, and this started for her earlier than for you." She took a nibble of her cookie, and then said lightly, "I'm glad you told me. And I hope it does go okay." Keep it mild. No pressure.

Francince swiped again for the chocolate, and got... most of it, this time. "You're the only person I have told. It's kind of--" Terrifying? "--new, like you said."

Dinah didn't want to go all Afterschool Special with this, so she nodded, wondering what else to say. But still. It was nice to be included in on this, not kept out. There were questions not to ask, she was guessing, about Merlin; and stuff that wasn't her business too, about Beltane, and other stuff. "When did you guys... I dunno. Get together? Change?"

She hesitated mostly because she honestly wasn't sure of the answer. "I...don't know, exactly. I mean... there were a bunch of things? You knew about some of them, but I wasn't really... getting it then, I guess." How deliberate that had been was something she only tried looking at from the corner of her eye. "And then there was the plague, and... well, it took a while. You may've noticed I'm not the fastest person around."

"Stubborn. Not un-swift." Because Francine has insight about people, and hope, and she'd never been slow about stuff with Dinah, so... "And it's not like it's an easy thing to change or think about." Look at Tony, the way his life got messed with, the second he was honest with his parents. Or maybe that was just the problem of love, too? "I mean, you always said you loved her. This is just more and a little different. Isn't it?"

"Well, kind of a lot different." Maybe. Or maybe what made it so weird was that it wasn't, not really. The way she felt hadn't changed, just the way she looked at it. Which made changing the way she acted...kind of like taking off a blindfold in a dark room. She still didn't know what the heck she was bumping into. "Sort of."

"Yeah." Dinah grinned a little, thinking inevitably of Jak, her cheeks turning pinker. Friendship going into something-else, and she couldn't tell where the dividing line was now, or when, or maybe it had always been there? Potentially? Anyway.... "I hope it makes you both happy. And, um." She frowned, then shrugged a little helplessly. "I guess you don't really need help or anything, but, if you need someone to talk to, I'm good with it."

"Are you kidding? I need all the help I can get." Francine smiled, a genuine, grateful one, muscles relaxing in her face that she hadn't even realized were tight. "Um. Merlin knows." Pause. "I guess maybe that was obvious, but I mean, you know. It's okay to talk about it to him, if it comes up. So does Arthur."

"Always. You got it."

That info made things a lot easier too, even as part of her brain went hunh about that particular combination. But speculating, while interesting, wasn't knowing, so she let that go. "Oh good." Dinah sighed, then smiled again, a little wider. "Um. Okay. This also makes something else I had to ask you way less awkward." Though not less blush inducing, no.

Francine blinked dubiously - and nervously - at her. "Er. What was that?"

If she could manage to actually say it... wow, she wished she knew non-dirty sign language now.

"Um. That bag. That Tony gave me, that I gave you... were there any, uh. Left in there?"

Facepalm.

Bag. Bag. Bag of -- Not BEES. WHAT..

OH.

Good to know they could both still blush. "Um. Probably?" Maybe. And maybe they weren't still in Merlin's room. Maybe.

Dinah had both hands over her face now, her voice even smaller and more mumbly with, "No rush or anything, and if there's none left that's fine and all, I can..." Get Tony to buy her more? "Find some. I just. Prepared is good. Yes?"

Would a wide-eyed nod suffice? How about ten of them? "Um. Good. Yes."

A tiny smile to go with a tiny voice. "Did I mention that Jak is totally my boyfriend now?"

Never let it be said that Francine had outgrown the tendency to go "Eeeeee!" and clap like a 13 year old and dive for congratulatory hugs.

Not that it hurt that this was so very understandable and dealable with and normal and taking the focus away from other topics.

Second Floor Common Room, Monday Evening

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