#chlodinefics

[nadiineross]

chlorine:) hi been a while and this is ooc just been mentally ill so i forced this outta myself, its short and very much unedited

“Isn’t it weird that the laugh emoji has tears?”

Chloe presses her arm down on Nadine’s shoulder, glancing over her puff of hair to squint at Nadine’s phone screen. “I think I’m funny enough to make you cry from laughter.”

Nadine rolls her eyes. Deletes her laugh emoji. Sends a heart instead to her mother. “Your ego knows no bounds.”

“Why should it,” Chloe mumbles into Nadine’s hoodie.

Nadine huffs and drops her phone in her lap, wiggling around in her position half-sprawled in Chloe’s lap to wind her arms around her girlfriend’s waist.

“How else would they denote laughter in an emoji anyway? Without the tears, it might just look like a big smile.”

Nadine hums, conceding to the point.

“Anyway, you cried when I kicked Nate off the pier.”

“Sometimes you make me laugh.”

“Sometimes,” Chloe replies, dry, near derisive. “I’m glad to hear I can provoke such emotion from you. And on such regular basis.”

“I keep you around for a reason,” Nadine agrees with a giggle.

Chloe doesn’t respond for a moment, grinning too wide over Nadine’s head. Nadine giggles, she thinks. It’s been a few months since Nadine came clean about her feelings and even fewer since Chloe pulled her head out of her arse and admitted to reciprocating them. Over a year since their professional partnership. Still, Chloe finds herself marvelling over the smallest things.

A younger version of herself would howl and sob at her now, at her downright softness. Whatever happened to her unflappable image. Her bad girl image.

She wouldn’t go back if her life depended on it.

Because Nadine giggles when Chloe is charming. Chuckles when Chloe says something clever. Erupts into laughter at harmless misfortunes that befall Chloe. That’s worth more than anything Chloe can mentally conceive.

Soft.

She sighs, dragging Nadine up higher until Nadine cooperates and properly hugs her, so she can dump her nose into Nadine’s neck instead.

“Thanks for keeping me around,” she mumbles.

Nadine’s chest vibrates against her own when she laughs again and speaks: “No problem.”

“Happy Hanukkah. Sorry you couldn’t spend it with your mum.”

“S’all right,” Nadine says into the cotton of Chloe’s sweatshirt. “Told you a million times-“

“Yeah, yeah.”

Nadine squeezes her sides. “Don’t interrupt me.”

“Sorry for being naughty,” Chloe teases, “but no take-backs on the gift.”

“Not sure if refund is an option anyway.”

“Definitely not,” Chloe says with a wicked edge to her voice. Not after the naughty, naughty things they did with it a few precious hours previous. “If only you’d kept the receipt.”

“Hey,” Nadine huffs. “I’m happy to banter with you but don’t go blaming things on me. I’m not the one who squirted all o-“

“Stop!” Chloe groans. “Utterly filthy.”

Chloe slumps into the couch, enveloped in Nadine’s body heat, and keeps thinking about the way Nadine laughs. Keeps thinking about ways to make her do it again. Make her stay for more holidays to come.

Nadine just snickers.

[chlodines]

gasps. . . a prompt, fic, about the times where chloe was always late-

real quick, gotta write an essay due yday 

WAIT I DIDNT KNOTHIS WAS MY MAIN-

Nadine considers herself to be a good judge of character and, within about 3 minutes of knowing Chloe, she already knows Chloe’s trouble.

“You’re late, Frazer.”

“Nice to see you, too!”

She better not make it a habit.

//

She does. 

“You’re–”

“Yes, yes, I’m late,” Chloe says, bulldozing through a crowd with her 4-wheel suitcase and forcing Nadine to whirl around to catch up. “Let’s go!”

Rolling her eyes, Nadine follows suit towards the check-in desk where they weigh their suitcases. Of course, Chloe’s suitcase is a single gram off the limit and she’s very clearly smug about it, humming in satisfaction as the attendant sticks the tag on. Nadine has a suitcase and a duffel bag, both of which are a reasonable weight and decidedly under the limit. 

Nadine checks her watch. They have 45 minutes to get through security and get to their gate, very conveniently located on the other side of the airport. Chloe just grins at Nadine’s clear annoyance.

“Race you there?”

“I won’t ask them to wait if you’re late for boarding.”

Chloe just grins wider, says, “I’m touched,” and yanks her towards security. 

//

The necklace, an ugly thing, is right within her grasp. She cautiously tries the floor… nothing happens. So, she takes one step, two, and reaches out and–

Click of a disabled safety. 

“Ah, ah,” comes a deep voice, too pleased, too familiar. “I wouldn’t.”

Nadine tilts her head and lets out a long-suffering sigh. Just her luck. “Shame you aren’t dead.”

Rafe laughs like the movie villain that he is. “You never were good at finishing the job.”

“No,” Nadine says, shrugging, “I suppose not.”

“Well, then, what’s another failure?” He moves, rotates to her 3, and she sees him. A petty part of her enjoys the fact that he had not, at least, escaped the ship unscathed. There is scar tissue. A lot of it. “Oh, how the tables have turned.”

Nadine narrows her eyes. “Remember how I let you live?”

Rafe’s eye twitches. Again, the petty part of her relishes in the fact that he looks on the outside as unhinged as he is on the inside. “You left me to die.”

“To-may-to, to-mah-to.”

“This is going to feel so good,” he sneers.

Sarcastically, she says, “Would it help to know that I’m a changed woman?”

He flushes a deep shade of red, his lips twisting into a scowl. 

And, then, BANG! 

Blood spatters across her face and arm. Ah, there’s the change to her woman.

“I wish you wouldn’t provoke a man pointing a gun to your head,” Chloe huffs, stomping in just as Nadine mutters, “excellent timing as always.”

“You’re late,” she says, grimacing and wiping delicately at herself with the hem of her shirt.

Chloe snorts and yanks the necklace off the pedestal. “Some things never change.”

“I think some things do,” Nadine says, lightly. 

//

“Really?”

Nadine doesn’t turn around. Waits. 

Chloe approaches until Nadine can see her from the corner of her eye. She lifts her phone up, opens her texts, and reads: “You’re late.”

“Was I wrong?”

Pocketing her phone with a huff, Chloe leans an arm against the railing and regards Nadine’s profile. After a moment, Nadine turns her head, a smile playing at the corners of her lips. “…No, you weren’t.”

Nadine sighs, putting on a false air of indignation. “When am I ever?”

“Oi, no one ever holds me to it when I say meet me outside in 5 minutes. It just isn’t done. It’s a suggestion. An estimate.” Chloe sniffs and lifts up the arm behind her back, revealing a bottle of wine. “And, anyway, it was worth it.”

“I’m sure.”

“Well?”

“Well, what?”

Chloe huffs again but her eyes light up with mirth. “If you’re holding me to throwaway lines I’ve said, I’m holding you to yours.”

Nadine lifts an eyebrow. “And what exactly have I said to you that I have not followed through on?”

“You said, and I quote: just steal something and get me out of here, I’ll kiss you, have your firstborn.” Chloe shakes the bottle as if Nadine had somehow forgotten it was there. “I don’t care too much for children, but I stole something and here you are, outside, and, well, I’m waiting.”

“Retributive justice,” Nadine says, smoothly, unashamed, and grabs Chloe by the front of her shirt and yanks her down. 

//

On her ascent, 2 men go screaming over the edge of the cliff above her. When she finally hauls herself over, Nadine’s got a boot upon a rock, retying her laces. Behind her, a man lies prone. She has barely broken a sweat. 

“You’re late.”

“…you’re attractive.”

Nadine stops, looks up at Chloe through her lashes as Chloe makes a beeline for her. “Okay, I forgive you,” she says into Chloe’s mouth.

//

They’re on the pier again, dressed down this time. It had been an accident, really. They were just taking a walk, winding down from their last job, and had found themselves here. 

“I’m late.”

Nadine rolls her eyes and accepts the cotton candy Chloe passes over. “What’s new?”

Chloe hums, steps between her legs, and puts a hand on Nadine’s cheek, the other behind her neck. She kisses Nadine, ardently, into the railing. 

“You tell me,” she says once she’s satisfied and pulls away. 

Nadine laughs, eyes crinkled around the edges. “Never pegged you as a romantic.”

“I love to defy expectations.” When Nadine prods her in the stomach, she just smiles, obliging. “It would’ve been more romantic if I brought you here–our sweet, little place–in, like, 4 months. A whole year since you first threw yourself at me.”

“You coerced me.”

“It’s not my fault you’re so easily convinced.”

Nadine squints, organizes her face into as much of a pout as Nadine Ross could physically get it into. “Name one other occasion.”

“No, I’ll do you one better,” Chloe says, cockily. “Watch this: meet me here in 4 months, 8 o’clock.” She leans in as Nadine opens her mouth to reply which is the perfect opportunity to lay one very salacious, very public kiss on her. It takes all her willpower to slant her forehead against Nadine’s and pull away. When she does, she grins. “See you there.”

“Don’t be late–” Chloe laughs. “Eish, this doesn’t prove anything.”

//

The jeep comes crashing through the foliage, horn and guns blazing. Chloe jumps out, practically hurls her whole body in Nadine’s direction, and grabs her arm– 

Only, Nadine jerks away and shoots the last remaining merc in the head. 

“Look, Nadine, it’s not what you think. I had a plan. I have a plan.” She tries again, reaching out. Nadine pulls her arm to her chest and glares. “Really, it’s not–”

“What?” Nadine bites out. “It’s not what?”

Chloe’s about to respond, but Nadine’s really had enough of Chloe’s excuses. 

“What is it, then? Enlighten me.” She bunches her fists up but does not move them voluntarily. The shaking, she cannot help. “What plan could possibly involve making a deal with Shoreline? And without telling me shit?”

“I was going to–”

“Oh, fok off.” Nadine breathes out roughly, lifts her fist, the butt of her gun, to her temple and tries to rub away the headache. “You should’ve known. You know.”

“Nadine–”

“I said,” she says, quietly, turning away, “fuck. off.”

“Please. Just– Please–”

“It’s always the same with you. Too little, too late.” She’s hopping onto her motorbike, revving the engine, before Chloe can come up with a response. 

And then she’s gone.

//

Nadine doesn’t know why she’s here. She wasn’t going to come even before the Shoreline mess but, then, she was just messing with Chloe. She was going to make up for it, make Chloe laugh, and now, well. She doesn’t know. 

She doesn’t know. 

The details, she does know. She has friends, still, associated with Shoreline, and they had told her when she had gotten spectacularly drunk, thanks to a different friend, and sent a terse email to those very Shoreline friends. 

They had threatened her. Her mother. Her friends. Her–Nadine looks up at the sky and sighs–her girlfriend. Ja, there are so many things she could have done better but Nadine can understand, sort of. Nadine can sympathise. Most of all, Nadine just hurts. 

Below her, the water rises and falls, pushes in and pulls away. She looks down into the dark, swirling depths. Catches, in her peripheries, the time: 8:32. She shakes her head, at herself, at this whole situation, and stands fully. She turns, the side of the pier reaching out for the dark ocean is empty, and she leaves.

Then, she misses a step and almost stumbles. 

At the other end, leaning against a pillar, Chloe watches her. 

Approaching, Nadine gathers her wits and puts on her perfected poker face. When she’s close enough, Chloe pushes off the pillar and takes a few uncertain steps closer. They stop a good meter apart, silent for a few moments. 

“How long were you there?” Nadine finally asks. So unimportant, but it was her first thought. 

Chloe smiles, fond, wry, sad. “Yes, I was late. I, um.”

This time, Nadine waits for Chloe to explain.

“I was sitting in my car. Since 7:00.” Embarrassed, she glances over her shoulder and points over to the carpark. Looks back. 

“Ah,” is all Nadine says. 

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” She takes another step closer but doesn’t try to touch Nadine. Just so she can speak quieter. “I knew. But I did it anyway and I… I am so sorry. I–” She seems to be at a loss for words, rubbing at her neck.

“What do you want?” Nadine asks, not harshly, just prompting. 

“I’m not asking for anything, for forgiveness. I just want to make it right.”

“That’s what you want?”

Chloe smiles again, this time it is just rueful. “You know what I want.”

Nadine does know. She’s just not ready. At least, she doesn’t think she is. 

After a long time, she opens her arms and it feels like everything from the past few months washes off her, disappearing with the tide, when Chloe collapses into her. “Will you wait?”

Chloe tucks her face into Nadine’s shoulder, lets out a shuddering breath. “I will.”

//

It’s been just over half a year.

Nadine doesn’t think she’s arrogant but she will take credit for Chloe’s new policy of showing up on time. (Of course, she hasn’t done a total 180°. She still refuses to believe Nadine when she tells Chloe that 15 minutes early is on time and on time is late.)

She does think she is quite forgiving. 

Chloe’s late, but only by a few minutes. 

Then, classic Chloe, she comes charging in and scoops Nadine’s hand into her own. “Sorry for keeping you waiting.”

Nadine shrugs. “It’s alright.”

Chloe laughs. “Of course it is, you don’t even want to be here.”

“So you did it for me.”

“Well, yes, in a way; I was texting Nate to tell Sam to keep his trap shut about Shoreline.” Nadine’s face darkens, but Chloe starts to pull her towards the Fisher-Drake house and continues on: “Anyway, I think we should move in together.”

Nadine gapes.

//

It’s been over 3 years.

Nadine, drunk, adjusts her ill-fitting tuxedo and hums an old favourite. The man taps his foot, checks the clock on the wall. 

“Um,” he starts. 

Nadine smiles, blandly. “She’ll come.”

“Are you sure–”

“Ja.”

Vindication comes but 2 seconds later. The doors sweep open with a bang and in comes Chloe, stumbling over a plastic chair. 

“I’m here, I’m here, I’m here,” she says in a rush, yanking her dress from around the arm of the chair and, when she’s free, turning to flash a megawatt at Nadine. “Hello.”

“Hi,” says Nadine, lightheaded. Before Chloe can apologise for her tardiness, as she does now, Nadine beckons her over, impatient. “Yes, yes, you are forgiven.”

“I went to buy you flowers,” she points out as if she isn’t hugging a massive bouquet to her chest. “Really expensive.”

Nadine, graciously, accepts it and, in quick succession, dumps it into the officiator’s arms. 

It takes them another hour to get married. 

//

It’s been almost 50 years. 

She sits on a bench next to a weeping stranger, leans closer onto her cane to rub a hand on the person’s back. 

“Who is it?” Nadine asks after handing over a packet of tissues.

“My father,” murmurs the stranger, a girl, then sniffles. 

Nadine nods. “Did he make you happy?”

“No. Sometimes.” The girl looks down at her feet, eyes red-rimmed. “But I don’t know why I’m sad.”

“You feel what you feel,” Nadine says, sagely. The girl gives her a wobbly smile and introduces herself. 

After she gets her breathing in control, she gestures vaguely and asks, “What about you?” 

Nadine smiles. “Just thinking about her makes me happy.”

“Who is ‘her’?” she asks, frank in the way only children and teenagers can pull off without seeming rude. 

Nadine doesn’t say anything for a moment, looking out at the grass, the blue skies, Chloe’s name. Then, she looks back and laughs, so very warmly, and says, “My late wife.”

[nadiineross]

fyi heres a fic i wrote on my main, based off the homie’s brilliant art which is from 2 yrs ago yes yes whatever @lisahawkeye, as usual there is no plot and i only wrote it cos i saw a rb of it and remembered it & also im putting smth else off, namely my econ midterm (& i call that kid of pragmatic asian dad disease, i will nvr take an econ class again</3)

[nadiineross]

The Sharing of a Life

it’s storming and 3am n i don’t hv my glasses on so here’s fluff. stay safe guys

A crack of thunder wakes her up, fading into a distant rumble and then disappearing into the pitter patter of rain. Dully, the sound of Nadine’s air conditioner drones on.

Chloe rubs a hand over her eye and blinks away the heavy weight of sleep against her eyelids. The curtains are pulled back a bit, so a stuttering light comes through, pulsing with the lightning. In the dim, Chloe shifts and makes out the outline of Nadine’s face. She’s a comforting presence beneath Chloe’s prone body. Nadine’s body, while undeniably strong, is also heartachingly soft, pliant. She has no problem holding Chloe in the most gentle of ways; an arm wrapped there, a leg draped over here.

Chloe smiles, unwittingly, and reaches out to cup Nadine’s jaw. Her palm smooths over the skin there, thumb skimming over the mole on her lip. Stirring, Nadine squints down at Chloe. Almost purely on instinct, she presses a kiss to the apex of Chloe’s thumb, lips curving into a sleepy smile.

After a moment, her eyes close again and she sighs a soft breath into Chloe’s hand. Chloe trails her hand down her face, down her neck, and walks it across Nadine’s arm. There’s a pleasant, dry sort of warmth where Chloe’s skin passes across Nadine’s. She hums a raspy noise of content, closing her own eyes, and wraps her hand around Nadine’s wrist.

Touching Nadine, just being in contact with her, has become one of Chloe’s favourite things to do. Sleeping, then, is something Chloe has grown a new sort of fondness for—though, she has always enjoyed a good nap, there’s an added dimension, with Nadine.

It’s calming, in a profound sort of way, to feel the rhythm of Nadine’s breath, her pulse, echo directly into Chloe’s own body.

Even now, Chloe feels the rise and fall of Nadine’s chest under her. Feels the beat of Nadine’s heart, slow in the arteries of her wrist, against the calloused palm of Chloe’s hand.

Nadine shifts, then. Her hand slips into Chloe’s, fingers interlocking. Chloe turns her head and presses the side of her nose into her torso, inhales the smell of Nadine’s soap. Nadine’s hand squeezes once and Chloe marvels again at the feel of it in her own hand. The simple act of sharing body heat, sharing a bed, fills her up so ridiculously with happiness. A quiet kind that covers her like a blanket.

Thunder storms across the skies again, but Chloe’s already been lulled back to sleep.

[nadiineross]

chlodine banterrrrrrrrrrrr, head empty no plot 

The moment Nadine sits down, Chloe’s leaning in and curling into her. Nadine makes a disgruntled noise.

“Watch it,” she murmurs, moving her left arm away. She’s brought with her an ice cream cone.

Chloe snorts at the sight of it, breath fanning gently against the side of Nadine’s neck. “It’s freezing cold, love.”

“Ja, for the weak.”

Chloe’s arm is nestled in the space between Nadine’s side and the crook of her arm. Optimal positioning for a solid elbow to Nadine’s ribs. Nadine squirms away, shooting a scathing look down at Chloe, but she gives the ruse up fairly quickly. Chloe smiles as Nadine settles back into her side.

“I’m supporting local businesses. It’s the ethical thing to do.”

“Mhm,” Chloe agrees. “I’m sure Nestle appreciates the support.”

Nadine’s lips twitch, itching to stretch into the wide grin Chloe adores so much, though she manages to school it into a pout. “The soft-serve machine was broken. It was either a Drumstick or an entire carton of Dreyer’s chocolate chip.”

“You didn’t think to share?”

“Nope,” Nadine says and then she licks up a running streak of ice cream with a very pointed noise of contentment.

Chloe scoffs but turns her gaze away anyway, towards the building on the other side of the street.

It’s flat and ugly looking, a relic of a colonial past. The paint is a tasteful off-white, textured by the brick beneath it. The front is ribbed with architectural structures that Chloe cannot be bothered to appreciate outside of acknowledging that it would make a good foothold. Every other surface of the building is expansive, plain white brick. Lazy. Flat. Ugly.

The building is empty, blinds drawn open to reveal the vacant office space. It’s a Sunday morning. Ordinarily, Chloe would be sleeping right now. If she wanted to, if she tried hard enough, she could still fall asleep right now.

Her breath comes out in a visible puff of air. “You dragged us out here to ‘scout’, and I have yet to hear a single productive observation from you.”

When she looks up, cheek nestled comfortably on Nadine’s leather padded shoulder, she sees her girlfriend happily decimating her cone.

She can’t help the bubble of laughter that escapes her. “What happened to keeping a balanced diet?” Chloe asks. “And isn’t breakfast the most important meal of the day? You’re wasting it on ice cream.”

Nadine tongues at her lower lip, eyebrow quirked up as she does it. Chloe knows how sweet a kiss it would be if she dared to steal one right now. “Fruits for breakfast is acceptable, and also when you’re done trying to bait me into bickering with you, I have several things to go over with you.”

On impulse, she reaches up to cup Nadine’s cheek and drags her down for a kiss. It’s sticky and sweet, and cold, too, and Chloe pulls away with a satisfied smack of her lips. Nadine just smiles serenely and takes another bite out of her cone.

Burrowing back into the warmth of Nadine’s side, Chloe licks her lips and makes an approving sound. “Hardly think strawberry flavouring counts as fruit, but I’ll let it slide. It’s cheat day.”

“Can’t say I don’t share anymore, huh?” Nadine says.

She’s always been good about letting Chloe get away with hypocritical cheat day comments – Chloe treats her body well and prides herself on it. Nadine definitely appreciates her efforts, much in the same way Chloe appreciates Nadine’s efforts. Besides, they have the same cheat day; once a fortnight, reserved for gorging themselves on pizza.

Chloe harrumphs and noses at Nadine’s neck. “I’d try to steal the cone from you if I knew you wouldn’t immediately crush the entire thing just to spite me.”

When Nadine laughs, Chloe feels it rumble through her. She inches closer, halfway shoving herself onto Nadine’s lap.

Again, Nadine moves her arm away in accommodation. Probably also to prevent Chloe from attempting a swipe at her ice cream. It works because Chloe is far too comfortable to bother reaching farther out for the cone.

“Where did all the fight go?” Nadine muses. Chloe digs her elbow into her side and Nadine makes a huffing sound that twists into a laugh at the end. “Will you stop that?”

“Will you make me?”

“Will you ever stop compensating for the fact that you’re older than me by acting as if you were twelve?”

“Ouch,” Chloe says after a bark of disbelieving laughter. “You would think a girl would be glad to bag an older woman with a bunch of sexy looking cars.”

Nadine drapes her arm over Chloe’s shoulders, where before they were gripping the back of the bench. “At least you know I’m only with you for the vehicles. I was trying to think of how to break it to you.”

“Yes, thank you for considering my feelings.” Chloe’s hand sneaks under Nadine’s leather jacket and balls the fabric of her shirt up. She tugs at it, smiling guilelessly when Nadine looks down at her.

Nadine snorts and pops the last of her ice cream into her mouth. She leans over and wipes her crumbs off her fingers on top of Chloe’s jeans. In retaliation, Chloe gives her a little kick.

“Come here,” Nadine says, knowing and with a too-smug smile. Her hand comes to grab at Chloe’s chin, lifting her face up.

“Asshole,” she mutters affectionately, into the broad curve of Nadine’s lips.

They kiss for a few long moments, indulging in familiar heat. Briefly, after they’ve parted, they stay huddled close. The space between them is warm and smells like the artificial sweetness of Nadine’s ice cream, and Chloe almost chases back in for another kiss. But Nadine smiles and rubs a thumb on her cheek, and turns back to the building.

“Wanna hear my productive observations?”

Choe rolls her eyes. “I guess.”

Nadine laughs. “Okay, I won’t tell you then.”

“Don’t.”

“I said, I won’t.”

“Good.”

“Nice.”

“Don’t wake me up before eleven again.”

“No.”

“I won’t come willingly,” Chloe hisses, but the effect is lost somewhere in the cotton of Nadine’s shirt.

Nadine looks down at her, smiles. “That’s okay, I’ll drag you out and carry you around if I have to.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time.”

Her eyes are closed, the comforting weight of her almost entirely resting on Nadine’s body. Nadine cards her hand into Chloe’s hair. “You’re asleep, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” Chloe mumbles, “It’s safe to spill all your secrets now.”

“I think my girlfriend is annoying.”

Chloe doesn’t react. Nadine peers at her and waits a second. Still nothing.

“Love her, though.” Nadine combs her hand slowly, fondly, through Chloe’s hair. “I guess.”

Chloe’s fist tightens around her shirt. Nadine marvels at the way she looks in the frigid air as if she were more solid and tangible than she usually is.

The clouds have been congregating for a while now, getting angrier as the day slogs on into the morning, but snow has yet to fall. Nadine sighs and looks up at the sky, willing it not to start now. Willing it to keep up this little bubble around them for just a bit longer.

The sky rumbles dully; an acquiescence.  

[nadiineross]

Still, weeks after the incident, her midsection aches, stings sometimes if she moved too fast. So, even weeks after the incident, Chloe continues to coddle her and it’s getting to the point where Nadine would honestly rather fly back home to get away and return once she’s well.

She appreciates it, she does, she’s just unused to it. Sure, growing up, her mother doted on her. But by the time she was sustaining more of the injuries on par with her current gunshot wound, she’d been living on her own and spending more of her time in the company of her father. He cared about her, too, albeit in a more indirect way. He was never one to show too much emotion, reserved and stern in almost every aspect of his life except when it came to his wife. When Nadine was hurt on jobs, he would check in more often, gruffly offer her some snacks he’d picked up, and make extra sure that she was healthy before letting her off the bench.

After he died and even more so after Shoreline dissolved, she‘d been on her own. Her mother had, by that point, accepted her taciturn disposition. As long as Nadine continues to call on a biweekly basis, she’s happy. If Nadine forgets to mention a stab wound or two, well, her mother would never know. She is independent to a fault, she knows.

So, the way Chloe hovers constantly on the edges of the room, as if waiting to leap to her aid at a moment’s notice, unsettled Nadine, to say the least.

“I’m fine,” Nadine groans and flops around to press her face into a throw pillow.

“You’re going to suffocate,” Chloe says, exasperation edging into her voice.

A moment later, Nadine feels a hand on her shoulder. She sighs and turns her head so she can look at Chloe sideways. “Not anymore, so I’m fine now.”

“Are you—”

“Yes, I’m sure.” Nadine closes her eyes. Maybe she’ll take a nap.

Chloe sighs again and sits down on the very edge of the couch so Nadine can have space. “Nadine. You know I’m just trying to help.”

Opening her eyes to see an unnaturally forlorn-looking Chloe, she snakes an arm around Chloe’s waist and tugs her farther onto the couch, so Nadine’s basically curled around her arse. She takes a breath, blowing it out after. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“Yeah,” Chloe says with a sag to her body. “Yeah.”

“Look, I’m really not hungry but I’ll eat something later, I promise. Just... thank you, I suppose. For taking care of me.”

Chloe squints at her. “You suppose?”

Nadine huffs. “The amount of tea you’re making me is just excessive.”

“Tea is healthy!”

“In moderation!”

Grinning, Chloe leans over and brushes her hair from her face. “You’re so annoying.”

“Hm, too bad you’re attracted to me, huh,” Nadine mumbles as Chloe presses a soft kiss to her cheek.

“Yeah, it just sucks to be me.”

“Sucks,” Nadine agrees, eyes falling shut once more.

Chloe laughs a little, still pressed in, hair tickling at Nadine’s skin. She kisses Nadine once again, on her temple this time, before standing up. “All right, sleep. I’ll make some more tea.”

“Dickhead.” Nadine can somehow sense Chloe’s fondness. “It’s karma. This is why your life is hard.”

“You’re right.” Chloe touches her fingertips to Nadine’s face and then walks away. “The only easy part is loving you.”

Her footsteps recede toward the kitchen and Nadine slants her head into the pillow, hiding a smile.

[nadiineross]

chlodine band au

abandoned concept 

Already, Nadine feels as if she has retired. Though she has always enjoyed routine, this is something else entirely—monotony.

Every morning she wakes up at the exact same time, drinks the same coffee, rides the same bus to work. Lunch breaks, she takes alone. The street on which she works is designed to appeal to as many people as possible, so everything is generic as it is flashy. When she had first gotten here, she had devised a list of restaurants within a five minute walk which she would try, and she still uses it as a rotation. On Mondays she eats at the American-style diner, Tuesdays are for Indian food, Wednesdays, Mexican, and so on and so forth.

Work is uninspiring and unfulfilling. Head of security in the city’s biggest music hall. The paperwork is dull and the patrols even more so. The only time she feels remotely close to who she was before Shoreline collapsed is when she’s working out at the gym. Even then, it is a poor substitute.

Routine. Simple, straightforward.

Eventually, she might let go of her resentment and learn to be grateful for the fifteen years she had with Shoreline. Now, however, she can’t help but still be bitter, even two years after it had slipped from her fingers. Her father’s doing; he had grown weak and sentimental, and dissolved the company before she could even think to step in for him. He had gone as far as to forbid her from that career and she was nothing if not dutiful as a soldier and as a daughter, even if it angered her to be so.

She hasn’t spoken to him since. She had moved away so she wouldn’t be tempted to continue their never-ending argument, and found her mind-numbing, soul-sucking job working as a cockblock to crowds of groupies when the next big thing deigned to tour in her coastal city.

She had become robotic. She felt as if she were wasting her life away, doing nothing. Though she was not retired according to the official definition of the word, she had been retired from her career as a soldier and, as someone who had cobbled their entire identity around being one, it was as good as true. Retired at 36.

These are the thoughts that plague her every waking moment. It’s not like the job requires of her more than 4 braincells. She has never been good with idle time.

On top of all that, there is a big concert tonight and will be followed by one more the following night. This, she has been dreading in the months that preceded it. The band is native to the city and, no matter what Nadine thinks of them, they are successful enough for the city to treat them as if they were its crown jewels. They aren’t even a real band—there are only two of them. How they coerced anyone to like them with a name like “Drake’s Fortune,” she will never know.

Still, she doesn’t work at The Rolling Stones, isn’t paid to opine, so she keeps it all to herself and does her job: a circuit of the building, double and triple-checking the locks on all the doors, and checking in on all the guards on duty tonight via radio.

As head of security, she doesn’t have a concrete post for the night. It’s more of a rotation, ensuring the gears are in place and well-oiled, at that. Generally, with big concerts like this, she tries to linger near the backstage to stop any zealous fans her subordinates can’t handle on their own. It hasn’t been that bad tonight and even she will admit the music isn’t terrible. But, of course, the band members themselves sound smarmy and obnoxious. From the hall, she hears the lead, Nathan, try to woo the crowd with his boyish charm and she scoffs at it. Sam the drummer and backup singer tags along and she fears she might roll her eyes so hard they become permanently affixed to the back of her head.

Probably, she has just lost her tolerance for people who are unnecessarily loud about how happy they are with their careers. The irony doesn’t escape her, doing what she does. Every other week, a new band or singer parades through town to laugh and scream and flaunt themselves on a stage in fromt of thousands. And she had been tasked with making sure they make it to the next city intact enough to do it all over again.

She misses the rest of the show, called to the entrance, and she is thankful to leave behind the sounds of the brothers Drake. After that, she has to go help out at the backdoor which takes almost an hour to handle. The thick of the crowd has mostly dissipated by the time the clock hits 12:30am and none of the band members had appeared—thank god for that.

It is another hour before she’s finally finished with all her responsibilities. She immediately takes off her uniform top and ties it around her waist, sweat-stained as it is. She has a second tank top and a spare shirt in her office to change into.

It’s on the way back there that she notices she’s lost the only personal affect she takes to work: a bracelet her mother had gifted her at the airport before she’d left for this city. Immediately, she feels a headache coming on.

If her mother found out, she’d be delivered from an early retirement to an early grave.

Bordering on nauseous, she rushes to retrace her steps: backstage, entrance, backdoor. As she’d expected, she comes up empty. Really, what are the odds?

Sighing, she turns back to the backdoor and begins to unlock it. It’s then when it swings open from the inside; Nadine has to jerk back to avoid getting slammed in the face. A woman comes stumbling out, cursing as she misses the step down into the back alley. She’s in a red shirt, tight and cut just above her bellybutton, and a pair of what looks to Nadine like fashionable, upscale cargo pants. In her hand, she holds a phone which she had obviously been watching instead of her step.

Nadine scowls. “Hey, watch it.”

The woman spins around, a look of surprise flashing across her face. “Sorry.” Then, she squints at Nadine, under the neon lights, and her look of remorse fades into curiosity, and mischief, and an infuriating arrogance. “Hey there.”

Nadine only glares and makes for the door. The woman raises an eyebrow and steps in her way.

“I’m not sure you’re allowed back there, love,” the woman drawls, leaning too close into Nadine’s personal space. Ordinarily, Nadine would’ve put this woman in her place instantly, but the confidence and her apparent access to the backdoor leads her to believe she might be with the Drakes in some capacity. She isn’t interested in losing her job over this. “But I’ll be happy to show you to where you are very much welcome.”

Oh, she thinks Nadine is a groupie. She closes her eyes and tries not to fly off the handle. “Christ, I don’t know who you are but I work here and I’m not in the mood for this.”

To her credit, the woman takes it in stride. She sticks her hand out. “Chloe Frazer, touring member. I play bass.”

Nadine stares at her hand. Stares at the wrist attached to her hand. Stares at the bracelet looped around the wrist.

Slowly, Chloe’s smile fades and she drops her hand. “Look, are you lost?”

“Am I— I’m the head of fucking security,” Nadine barks out, near trembling with rage. “And you’re wearing my fucking bracelet, and you’re in my fucking way, and you’re wearing my fucking bracelet!”

Chloe steps back at the sheer outrage in Nadine’s voice.

“Well?!” Nadine thunders.

Sheepishly, Chloe takes the bracelet off and holds it out to Nadine— she snatches it back and tightens it hard enough to maybe cut off circulation.

Chloe clears her throat. “Hey, uh, I found it. I was going to bring it to lost and found.”

Nadine scowls. “Funny, I’ve worked here for ages and I’ve never heard of the back alley lost and found. Must’ve slipped my notice.”

“Actually, the thing is, I was going to make a call first—”

“Save it.”

And Nadine wrenches the door open and slams it shut behind her, and storms her way through the building with a glower so biting she thinks she spots Nathan Drake ducking behind a crate to get out of her way. As it should be.

note: so basically im incapable of giving either of them occupations that arent treasure hunting so it wouldve turned out chloes an eccentric well off treasure hunter who also plays bass sometimes for her friends cos she’s a hot girl and nadine, unhappy w her career, is offered a job by chloe (see: tll) but this is only after nadine n chloe hv been dating for a while:) i dont like this enough to continue it but here ya go

[nadiineross]

i love you so by the walters

note: hey so been gone for a while, i was struggling a lil w some personal stuff but im tryna b proactive so we good! i just wanna say that i kno life is rough n if anyone’s hving it rough too my thoughts are with u! anyway on with the fluff as usual, lmk what u think?

The sun sets, and the sky is a landscape painting of thick strokes of purple, and red, and orange. Chloe flips on the headlights and drives slower, trying to make the ride back to civilisation as smooth as she can. Beside her, Nadine props an elbow on the door, leaning her chin into her palm, and keeps a protective hand on the bejewelled box in her lap.

They’re about a third of the way from the closest town; they still have a few hours to go. The ride home is always weird, after an explosive and successful job. An abrupt calm after quite a storm. It makes her reflective and so she thinks.

Nadine, similarly, seems to be deep in thought, turned out to look at the view. The way ahead is, for once, smooth and straight-ish, so Chloe turns and watches Nadine shift uncomfortably in her seat, bruised as she is, and watches the rise and fall of her shoulders as she breathes. She’s outlined in a reddish glow, brown skin no doubt sun warm now.

A monkey-patterned bandaid is stuck onto her temple and another sits on the inside of the bicep draped over the door. Chloe had seen that in the supermarket a few months ago and had been waiting for this job to show Nadine—admittedly, to poke a little fun, not that Nadine ever really minded. Anyway, it’s not like she could complain when Chloe was patching her up.

Nadine’s eyes blink close, eyelashes on her cheek, and Chloe’s breath catches.

She turns back to the road and slows the car to a stop. With a deep breath, she says: “Hey, so.” Pauses. Gathers her wits. “...do you want to get married?”

Nervous, she picks at the wheel and looks over. After a second, Nadine’s eyes open. She hums, shrugs, and turns away from the view to finally make eye contact with Chloe. Then, she smiles a little, nonchalant, and says, “Ja, sure.”

It’s a little underwhelming but Chloe didn’t even bring a ring to her proposal so she doesn’t have a foot to stand on. She starts the car again and says, nodding, “...Great. Yes, that’s nice.”

“I agree,” Nadine says, amused. The arm on the door flops down when she twists to face Chloe.

Chloe doesn’t blush often and this won’t be one of those times but it’s damn close. She chews on a lip and then clears her throat. A distant part of her wants to know, so she asks, “Why, though?”

Nadine snorts. “Why not?”

“That’s— What? Nadine, that’s not a reason to want—” Chloe sputters out. Eventually, she gets it together and glares at her. “Fine, why not? For one, I’d make a terrible wife.”

Again, Chloe sees from the corner of her eye, Nadine shrugs. “Maybe. I don’t think you’d be and, I mean, have you been married before?”

Chloe squints at her and huffs, guessing where this is going and not appreciating the fact that she’ll probably lose this argument. “No, I have not.”

“So, how do you know you’d be a terrible wife?”

Chloe tries to suppress a smile at this ridiculous exchange. She feels a little stupid, for worrying. She’s Chloe Frazer; she’s a whole forty-year-old, and she does not get shy and insecure. She blows out a breath, laughing ruefully. Then, finally feeling more like herself, she faces Nadine and grins roguishly. “You’re right. I can cook, easily, and make you laugh, also easily, and I’ll happily fuck the life out of you five times a night.”

Fondly, with a smile, Nadine rolls her eyes. “Ja, sure.”

After a beat, she becomes serious again and reaches out to tuck a stray hair behind Chloe’s ear. Chloe leans into her hand.

Quietly, she says: “Okay, back at you: why?”

“Why do I want to marry you?” Nadine nods. Chloe just looks at her again, for a long moment and, of course, Nadine holds her gaze, evenly. Eventually, Chloe’s lips tilt into a smile. “Why not?”

Nadine laughs and nods, accepting the answer. “Okay, then.”

“Okay? We’re getting married?”

She nods. “We’re getting married.”

“Huh. Well.” Chloe feels like her face is going to break with how wide she’s grinning. “Glad that’s settled.”

And off, into the sunset, they go.

[nadiineross]

the concrete sun

Nadine's been alive for a good while, and so nothing really surprises her anymore. But Chloe has a habit of defying expectations.

(immortal chlodine au)

[nadiineross]

NHWYY1

i have a series of a generated answers from this generator that i found inspiring and will be writing very short drabbles for

i hope you all enjoy, any feedback much appreciated 

The building she sets her sights on is downtrodden and interestingly round in its design. She has not devoted enough time to ancient architecture to recognize the period in which it was constructed, nor is she interested in learning. All she knows is that it looks abandoned, free from squatters and other unsavoury people. When she opens the door, she is greeted by rows of rotten pieces of wood, overgrown. The air is stale and dotted with particles in the weak light from the windows. Behind her, the door swings shut and--

An angel appears. 

She has never seen one before though she has heard of them -- relics of a past so distant, people had lost count a millennia ago -- and instinctively knows what’s happened by the sudden warmth creeping into her. This, she has read about.

She turns and feels her heart seize. 

The angel-- She’s terrifying and entirely disarming at the same time. Her pupils seem to be made of gold: solid, hard, glinting in the light. Her eyes don’t blink under the hard line of her eyebrows. Draped over smooth brown skin, is a cloak of some kind, in a rich purple material that Chloe abruptly wants to touch. 

“Impossible,” she whispers unwittingly. 

When the angel opens her mouth, revealing a line of white teeth interrupted by two sharp canines, Chloe feels winded again. “You are trespassing.”

“You’re an angel.”

“...you are trespassing.”

Chloe inhales, steeling herself, and takes a tentative step forward. To do what? She doesn’t know, hadn’t thought that far--

Suddenly, stark white wings explode from behind the angel, each wing fully unfolding to the length and height of three adjacent doorways. 

WIde-eyed, Chloe jerks back, almost stumbling were it not for the incantation she snaps, a hand shot out behind her to catch the counterforce propelling her back onto her feet. Curious, the angel tilts her head but does not change her stern expression. “Who are you?”

“Chloe,” she manages after a moment, putting herself together long enough to smile. “I’m... a collector of sorts. And by the way, your concept of private property has long since been abandoned, angel. When were you last in my mortal realm?”

For the first time, the angel arranges her, frankly, ethereal face into an expression besides a frown; she smiles, closed-lip, nonetheless amused. “So, you are mortal. It has been a long time, indeed.”

Cockily, Chloe summons a flame in her palm. “I am a witch.”

The smile does not go away, persisting even when an eye-shaped symbol appears before Chloe, multiplying in the turn of a second and surrounding her in a cage of golden light. It burns, bordering on painful, as the eyes flash into existence, one-by-one. “And I am the thousand-eyed angel, witch.”

As quickly as they had appeared, they vanish, and Chloe feels markedly colder but no less exposed. For several long moments, Chloe gapes at the angel. There’s always been something about power that has called to Chloe, filling her up with the most pleasant heat she has ever experienced. She swallows the lump in her throat. 

Slowly, she approaches again, hands held together to stop herself from reaching out again. “Can I-- Can I have your name?”

The angel, for the first time, seems uncertain. Her wings retract with a sound like the snapping of a whip, bravado seeping out in a torrential rush. Chloe hadn’t even noticed the room had become awash with warm light until it was gone. “You’re not afraid?”

“In the most delightful ways,” Chloe says, enjoying her own sincerity for once. 

The angel seems to consider her for a moment before murmuring something under her breath and: “In the days before the extinction, I was given a name.”

Chloe comes so close, she can see the blemishes in Nadine’s skin, the way she needlessly inhales. “Did you accept it?”

The angel holds her gaze evenly. “I did.”

“What was it?” Bravely, Chloe reaches out and touches her chest where a collarbone should be. Feels how solid she is, the heat coming through the unnaturally soft fabric of her cloak. And, bravely, she moves her hand and oh-so-delicately skims the tips of her fingers along the angel’s cheek. 

The angel’s eyes don’t move from Chloe’s, but she is startlingly aware of the phantom eyes tracking every movement. Until that is, the angel closes her eyes. “Nadine.” 

[nadiineross]

Print: “How do you 'accidentally' achieve immortality?"

note: abt ur prompts.. i ….actually was planning a fic abt immortality but i dont think itll be done for ages so i slammed this one out. i also made a few posts abt superhero aus btw :’). i watched hercules for the first time in like a decade bc of ur other prompt and wow…. hades is still so funny DSJFHSKH ok anyway i prolly wont write a lot in the coming month bc semesters starting next week BUT i can type out some headcanons for prompts u give me, if u guys r interested in that?

i didnt proofread this and i dont want to because i am Lazy anyway thank u sm for continuing to talk to me abt chlodine yrs down the road. pls feel free to send in ur chlodine headcanons or if u jus wanna scream abt them

Nadine’s been alive for a long time, and so nothing really surprises her anymore. But, then again, Chloe is always her exception.

//

They first meet in India, only a passing thing. Being alive for so long, well, it gets boring. Nadine, also, could never really handle being purposeless. She enjoys having goals and working hard to achieve them, and she definitely enjoys the brief period, afterwards, where she relishes in those achievements.

It was easier, before, to find purpose: fighting. There were a lot of wars and Nadine was good at it. She was, and is, by all accounts, remarkable. However, to preserve her anonymity, she allows herself to dissolve into the unknowns of history.

She has had many names, most of which she has since forgotten. But, her first, she will not forget: Nadine. It is that name she gives to Chloe, and it is the one Chloe knows her by.

At that time, in India, she had nothing to do. It seemed the age of fighting as she knew it was coming to a close, and she grew bored.

Of course, this wasn’t a new experience; Nadine can hardly find anything she has not experienced. Usually, she travelled. She’s been to most places, but they were always changing, and this was something she appreciated on a deep level.

India, she has not visited in almost four decades.

On her first night, she eats a feast on her own. The restaurant owners were impressed, to say the least.

It is routine, her travels. During the day, she sees the sights, explores the places that have changed the most and visits those that she loved the last time she was here. When nightfalls, again, she feasts. Sometimes, when she isn’t too tired, she’ll take someone to bed.

This, she does rarely. It is, after all, hard to find a woman interested in other women in this world. Harder, even, to find one who isn’t interested in a long term investment, since Nadine is not very interested in the part where she outlives everyone. It isn’t a pressing issue, though. She has needs, sure, but she is patient, and sex did not fall very high on her list of priorities.

Besides, she understands. The consequences of being a woman like her are grave and not a lot of people would want to risk their lives for a fling.

Chloe is only her second in India.

There is a river, a half day’s walk away from where she’s staying. It is her second to last night in India, and there aren’t a lot of things she is itching to see, so she decides to make the walk.

By the time she gets there, the sun is hanging low in the sky, not yet set, but almost. She’s sweating from the heat and the oppressive humidity characteristic of the Indian climate. So, naturally, she unbuttons the first few buttons of her shirt and leans over the edge to splash water over her face.

It is a relief on her skin, and she looks up to gasp out a breath when she sees her. Chloe, shameless creature that she is, watches her.

Nadine doesn’t know how she didn’t notice the woman lounging in the water before now. Bewildered, Nadine blinks at her and feels very bare, suddenly hyper-aware of the droplets running down her face and into her shirt.

“Hello,” Nadine finally says. She is good with languages—there isn’t a lot to do when you’ve been alive for a few centuries.

“Hey.” She swims over until Nadine can see her smirk with distinct clarity, until her bare shoulders come up, but does not go farther up the shore. “Not from around here?”

Nadine raises an eyebrow. Clearly not. “No,” she says.

“Huh. Chloe, nice to meet you,” says she, extending a wet hand from the water. Nadine has to slosh into the water to take it and give it a firm, short up-down shake.

It’s a strange name, given the context, and this whole thing takes her off guard. She stupidly blurts out: “Nadine.”

Chloe’s grin becomes wider. She doesn’t try to hide the way she eyes Nadine’s open shirt. Nadine isn’t dense, either, so she knows when there is an opportunity she could take, is she wanted.

She’s not sure yet.

“And you? Are you from around here?”

Humming noncommittally, Chloe stands, abruptly, to her full height and walks around Nadine to the shore. She is naked, and Nadine has to swallow a lump in her throat.

Nadine has seen a lot of women, and she can say with certainty that Chloe is one of the most beautiful she has seen. She tries not to stare and succeeds, given that she has excellent self-control. Though she will admit, Chloe certainly tested her in that moment.

“Where are you from?” Chloe asks as she picks up a shirt strewn across a rock and slips into it. Now, Nadine notices the pair of pants and shoes hidden behind the rock.

Nadine smiles, wryly, aware that she is giving more information than she is receiving. “Africa.”

Chloe doesn’t seem to take offence at her brusqueness. Just laughs. “Ah.” Then, because Chloe is so brave and so young, barely thirty by the looks of it, she stoops and holds up her pants, and asks, “Should I bother with these or are we going to address… what should I call it? The tension?”

Oh, how they address it.

After, as Chloe disappears into the trees on the other side of the river, Nadine realizes that she is entirely, profoundly, surprised.

//

Nadine has met many bold women; she can be one herself when she wants to be. Chloe, she never really forgets, but she is filed away into a tiny corner of her mind, fading away until Nadine never really thinks about it unless she is alone at a river and has run out of things to think about.

Besides, World War II has started, and she’s occupied with killing those Nazi bastards. She doesn’t enlist in any army—can’t exactly fly under the radar there—but she has connections and resources, and works perfectly well alone.

In the face of all this, Chloe is not forgotten, but she is not remembered.

And Nadine’s life goes on, and on, and on, as it is wont to do.

//

Nadine doesn’t know why she never dies. It just happened or, more precisely, it just never happened.

Her parents did. She never really knew her father, as her mother raised her, but she does know he died. Her mother, she held as she passed. 

Years later, people began to talk. Nadine turned thirty, and that was it.

She doesn’t know if she can die at all, but she isn’t interested in testing her theories. She has avoided fatal wounds for so long; she won’t stop now.

Sure, she has suffered and has felt like she might die, but she doesn’t think she wants to die. There are so many things she wants to know.

So, she decided, a century into her life, that she would not question it. She isn’t at all old enough to have been there for the Trojan War, but she does know not to look a gift horse in the mouth.

//

It is the 2000s and Nadine begins to feel a little existential. She will not fight in wars now, given the stakes and, especially, given her moral compass. Well, at least not official ones. She has accepted that she is a little bit of a vigilante, and she’s focusing on bettering her own home.

Always levelheaded, she never bites off more than she can chew. She only takes to the streets every few weeks. In the meantime, she decides to get into academia.

If she’s so keen on learning, why wouldn’t she go to school? Human achievement is impressive!

She has one PhD already and is working on her second. She has just started, meeting her advisor for only the third time, when she sees a flash of red in the hall, heading towards the History department.

It’s a woman with jet black hair, ponytail swinging. Before Nadine can think to squint, she’s rounded the corner and is gone.

Blinking, Nadine turns away and heads to the courtyard. She likes to sit on the grass and do her research there. Small pleasures.

It’s been an hour, maybe two, when a shadow casts over. Strangely, she feels her heart start to beat faster before she even looks up.

“Hello,” she says, throwing an arm over her forehead to shade herself from the afternoon sun.

Chloe in the flesh. She puts on the same old smirk and looks down at Nadine with her hands on her hips. “Hey, you.”

Nadine raises an eyebrow as she sits down and makes herself at home on Nadine’s picnic blanket, among her sea of books.

“Well, look at you.” Chloe keeps on grinning, shark-like. “You haven’t aged a day.”

“You’re too kind,” Nadine says, thinly. “And neither have you, by the looks of it.”

Dismissively, Chloe waves a hand and tosses her ponytail over her shoulder. “No need to flatter me, you’ve already gotten into my pants.”

“I haven’t forgotten.” Much, at least, she thinks. Then, wonders if, perhaps, she is dreaming.

“That’s nice.” Chloe leans closer, growing serious but retaining her persistent underlying curiosity. “Oh, Nadine, what are you?”

Nadine snorts. “Always so bold.”

She shrugs. “Places to be, things to know, people to do. I’m a busy girl.”

Like a shark, Nadine thinks again. She keeps her mouth shut for a few moments, just watching Chloe watching her. As Nadine recalls her memories of Chloe, she notes that Chloe mostly hasn’t changed. Finally, she leans back on an arm and says, “Looks to me like you have all the time in the world.”

“Hm.” Chloe lifts a hand, maybe to touch her arm, maybe to push her hair out of her face, maybe to cup her cheek. Nadine will never know. She tenses, instinctively swaying back a little. Chloe’s hand drops down, but she keeps on smiling. “You’re immortal, then. All the time in the world.”

Nadine doesn’t say anything, just waits for Chloe to draw her conclusions.

“How long have you… been like this?”

Nadine pretends to think. “About a century or five now. You?”

“Well, I was thirty-four when I met you,” Chloe wonders aloud, tilting her head as she does the math. At this, Nadine frowns and, upon seeing this, Chloe huffs a laugh. “Yes, actually thirty-four.”

That makes her roughly two centuries old. Nadine doesn’t know how to feel about this, about everything, about Chloe. She had been, to her knowledge, alone in this for three centuries. Never once had she met someone else like this, and she didn’t want to, she doesn’t think. She had always been slow to trust.

She never tried to think about this too hard; she doesn’t know how it works—is she contagious? But none of the other women turned immortal after going to bed with her. Still, she worries at her lip and examines Chloe.

“How?”

“How am I like this?”

She nods.

Chloe raises an eyebrow. “Quid pro quo.”

Nadine rolls her eyes. “I don’t know. I just never died.” She sighs, harshly, and closes the book in her lap with a full clap. “I don’t know.”

“That’s alright,” Chloe says, gently. This time, when she reaches out, to touch her wrist, Nadine lets her. Chloe looks down at the point of contact, seemingly charmed. Then, after a beat, meets Nadine’s eyes again and smiles. “Well, I don’t know how exactly it worked, but this was an accident.”

“…what?” Nadine scoffs. “How do you ‘accidentally’ achieve immortality?”

Chloe looks sheepish now. “I went into an ancient temple and mucked around, and maybe I broke something, and… well, here I am.”

Suddenly, struck by the urge to lie down for a decade or at least go somewhere more private for this discussion, Nadine shoves her books into her bag and stands. Chloe, startled, mirrors her movements and then stills as Nadine rolls up the blanket and easily hefts everything up.

“Uh, what’s going on?”

Nadine picks up her baseball cap and puts it on, and then sweeps an arm towards the paved path. “We’re going to my apartment.”

A little dumbly, Chloe follows along. “Who’s bold now?”

Nadine gives her a look, and Chloe just smiles, looking away with a shrug. They make the journey in silence, Nadine’s is a stubborn one, and Chloe’s obliging. When they reach the apartment, Nadine lets her in first and gestures to the couch. It’s not a very big apartment, but it’s comfortable and in an alright neighbourhood. 

After Nadine puts her bag away, she comes back to see Chloe leaning over the back of the couch to look out her window. She twists back around as Nadine sits.

“You alright?”

Nadine looks up at her, eyes hooded. “Ja.”

Chloe smiles, a kind one. She has such an expressive face. Nadine wants to run her hands over the dips and curves of it. Wants to feel a little more grounded in reality—is she really not dreaming?

The urge to just ask disappears in a moment as Nadine comes back to herself, feeling safer on her own turf.

“So, this is where you’re from.” It’s not a question, but Nadine nods anyway.

“Originally. I don’t remember exactly where but I grew up farther inland and then moved to the coast later before my mother passed.” Nadine rubs a hand at her temple. Tired. “They both died. I’m the only— I was the only one. For the longest time, I was the only one.”

Chloe shifts, an unidentifiable emotion drifting across her face. “Nadine.”

She sighs and says, “I don’t want your pity.”

“You don’t have it,” she says, not ungently. “It’s been a long time.”

For once, Nadine allows herself to give in. She leans over until she falls, turning her face to press her nose into the hard muscle of Chloe’s tensed thigh, just above the knee. She hugs her arms to her chest and counts her breaths. Chloe sighs, too, and puts her hand in Nadine’s hair.

Nadine’s back is to Chloe.

It’s been a long time.

//

So, this is how it happened.

She was abandoned by her mother and raised by a father who wanted a son. He loved her, regardless. He just taught her the ways of his trade.

Her childhood was spent scaling the shelves of libraries as he did his research and sitting uncomfortably still as he spoke to “experts” in their homes. When she was old enough, by his standards, he took her out to ancient ruins, and they explored.

It could be dangerous; she broke a few bones on these adventures. Most never healed properly, and so bumps and scars littered her body.

The worst, the one that almost killed her, occurred in the temple.

Her father passed a few years before, to disease. She carried on his work, suddenly alone. His life’s work: a crumbling ruin.

She had spent days scouting it out, hidden behind a waterfall, like in the legends. She was nervous. Afraid that her father’s work would amount to nothing, that the life she had led without him would’ve turned out to be a waste.

So, she spent days by the falls and walking along the river. It was there that she met Nadine.

She had thought Nadine was a figment of her imagination at first, peeking out from the top of the water. A beautiful, sweaty spirit of the wilds, dressed like an average person.

A blessing she received.

That night, she went in. There were traps, which she expected, and treasures, which she had desperately hoped for. In the centre, buried underneath layers of chambers, was the Tusk.

She got greedy.

Traps triggered—

The Tusk, she held to her chest—

She curled over, protecting it from falling rubble and—

The tip, sharp and shiny, punctured her middle. It was shallow, but still, she cried out and tripped, and the spear she landed on went too far in to be considered shallow.

She doesn’t remember the details; all she knows is that she came back to herself while crawling out the collapsing entrance, sticky with blood.

She hid the Tusk away, for later, and stumbled her way to the nearest town, broken spear sticking out from her ribs.

Half a year later, freshly healed and free from the doctor, she went back. The Tusk was still bloodied, and a gem from the tip of the Tusk had fallen out somewhere. At least, it made up for all her suffering in gold.

In the face of all that, Nadine was not forgotten, but she was not remembered.

//

Feeling awkward and uncomfortable, having been vulnerable for the first time in almost half a millennia, Nadine sits up and grimaces. Chloe opens her bleary eyes and stretches.

“What time’s it?”

Nadine could look at her watch, but she grabs hold of Chloe’s forearm. “Does it matter?”

Chloe looks down and frowns. “I suppose not. What’s happening?”

“Do you want to address the tension?”

Chloe’s muscles relax slowly. She kicks her sneakers off and, in one swift movement, shrugs Nadine’s hand off and settles into her lap. Her mouth descends onto Nadine’s.

This time is almost like the last, fast and sloppy. Except they do it three more times, at least, and afterwards Chloe settles in beside her and stays till morning.

//

Nadine also has many scars, and Chloe maps them all out just as Nadine does to her.

//

“So, am I the older woman or are you the older woman?”

Nadine bites into her skin, licking a soothing stripe along the scar tissue there.

Chloe groans and looks down. “Does that mean I should shut up?”

Nadine gives her an unimpressed look. “Yes.”

“Okay,” she breathes, hand flying to the back of Nadine’s head. “Whatever you say.”

//

South Africa is best experienced in the weeks after Summer has passed, in Chloe’s very vocal opinion, and maybe that’s why the days she spends holed up in Nadine’s apartment feels a little like paradise.

She is not the sentimental type, and Chloe even less so, but there is something to be said for attachments. She had forgotten.

Chloe even admits that she was only here because she saw Nadine’s picture and wanted to use Nadine for information on why she‘s the way she is. Nadine doesn’t take it too personally, because she would’ve done the same, probably.

It ends, of course, as all things do. Not permanently, but Chloe isn’t the type to stay still, and Nadine’s set her sights on finishing this damn degree.

They agree, in five years, they will return to the tree, the patch of grass, and try again.

//

Nadine feels like she has aged the five centuries she had powered through almost numbly in the span of those five years.

They kept in contact because neither of them is the type to make significant, corny gestures like that. Over text, Chloe echoes the sentiment.

For Nadine, it is as if Chloe had barged in, reminded Nadine that she was in control of the remote and that hitting the fast forward button on life wasn’t the only option.

//

“Why do you chase after violence?” came her voice, tinny over the phone. She was in Russia.

“Do I?”

Chloe hums. “All your wars, your crusades. You insist you don’t want to die and yet…”

Nadine raises her eyebrows and finishes typing out her sentence before pushing back on her desk chair. Her first instinct is to be defensive, but Chloe starts to hum tunelessly, and it reminds Nadine that not everything is a fight to be won and— “Ah.”

“Do you wanna talk about something else?” Chloe laughs, then, and jokes, “My abandonment issues? Inability to sit still? Maybe how I’m greedy and selfish?”

Nadine smiles softly. “It’s okay.” She clears her throat. “I think I just got scared of losing people and just, frankly, losing in general, with life and all. I took being independent to the next level. I forgot the value in doing things senselessly, and in a way that’s exactly what I did.”

“How do you mean?”

Nadine shrugs even though Chloe can’t see. “I don’t know why I’m immortal, and I didn’t want to know. What makes me deserving of eternal life and not anyone else? So, I thought only of what I would do with this and doing those things. I’m good at fighting. Why wouldn’t I fight? And I can’t die—there are causes I could give myself to.

“I mean, there were moments, in between, where my thought would wander, of course.” Nadine pauses, feeling nonsensical. “I don’t know. I don’t know how to explain it.”

“That’s alright. I get it.”

“I know. Thank you.”

“Anytime, love.” Another breathy chuckle. “Literally, anytime. From now until the rest of eternity.”

//

“Hello,” Nadine says when she feels a shadow loom over her.

There’s a rustling, and then a kiss to her cheek. “Hey there, sleeping beauty.”

It’s been five years.

Nadine opens an eye and sees Chloe peering down with her stupidly beautiful smile. Her fingers graze at Nadine’s cheek, featherlight, and Nadine’s touches over them. Warm.

“So weird how you haven’t aged a day.”

“Ja, I didn’t get a chance to develop stress wrinkles since you left.”

Head thrown back, wind blowing her hair aside, Chloe laughs. Nadine thinks there hasn’t ever been a surprise as nice as Chloe since the dawn of time.

Stooping over, Chloe kisses her.

[nadiineross]

fic: the wrong idea 

for @lisahawkeye who listens to me go on and on abt this ship from 2017 and for chlodine week day 1: misunderstanding -- in which sam rly is the idiot we’ve always known he is

[nadiineross]

a romantic night in, chlodine style

Nadine snored. It wasn’t a loud sound; it was more of a softly subdued scraping of the back of her throat as she breathed in.

Chloe hadn’t known what she expected when she took first watch back in the Ghats and Nadine got comfortable in the back seat of the jeep. In a far corner of Chloe’s mind, she had thought Nadine didn’t sleep at all. It’s silly, she knows. Nadine just seemed so composed all the time, so hard around the edges and always prepared, that the thought of her doing something as vulnerable as sleeping seemed almost unfathomable.

Still, she was predictably a very light sleeper, as Chloe had discovered early on when Nadine had jerked awake at the sound of Chloe’s muffled yelp when a bug had darted across her skin.  

As time progressed, as their relationship evolved into something more, Chloe learned to tread lightly, loosen her stance, dance around corners. Nadine was an early sleeper and an early riser, and the opposite was true for Chloe, so she often found herself tiptoeing once the clock went past eleven.

She could travel through rooms in complete darkness without bumping into anything now whereas before her apartment had simply been a place where she slept between jobs.

Technically, Nadine did not live here. There was no official moving of things and Nadine still had her own apartment in South Africa, but they travelled as a unit more often than not. When Nadine returned home, Chloe went with her.

Unofficially, Chloe’s apartment was where they stayed when they planned for jobs or needed a brief pit stop. Sure, sometimes they came when Chloe visited her mum, but it was primarily the “office apartment”. Nadine’s place was where they went when they had nothing new planned, when needed a break from adventuring.

Chloe missed it a bit. They’ve been doing back-to-back jobs for two months now. After this one, she would be packing a bikini and booking one-way tickets to Johannesburg.

She was pretty much done with her research anyway. All that was left was the execution of their plan and the selling of four sparkly pieces of jewellery once they were acquired.

She glanced at the printed out pictures of the treasure. Maybe she’d keep one for herself.

Closing her laptop, she stretched out her back and groaned her satisfaction at the low crack that sounded.

Nadine was on the couch, feet propped up on the arm, and her chest rose and fell as she snored quietly. Her face was bare – the butterfly bandage on her cheek didn’t count – and was the picture of serenity. An arm was draped over the papers on her stomach, crumpling them under its dense weight. The other was sprawled out so that her forearm was suspended over the edge.

Chloe smiled and couldn’t help but take a quick picture from where she was curled up in an armchair.

She gently set her laptop on the coffee table, turned the shutters down, and unfolded the thin blanket that was draped over the chair. The papers rustled when she tried to remove them from Nadine’s hold, prompting a wince.

Nadine didn’t move.

She sighed in relief and refrained from pressing a kiss to Nadine’s forehead.

(Last time she tried for a peck on the cheek, Nadine’s eyes shot open and Chloe had almost tripped when she reared back in surprise. Nadine had laughed and apologized in a way that sounded like she would absolutely do it again, and Chloe had rolled her eyes and huffed.)

Once gathered and straightened into a pile, the papers were left on top of Chloe’s laptop, next to two empty mugs. She turned and made to drape the blanket over Nadine, only she hesitated.

They were both dressed for a night in, so Chloe didn’t need to help her into pyjamas. Hair sprung out of Nadine’s ponytail and across her cheeks and forehead. Her lips were slightly parted and her skin looked warm from the orange-yellow lamplight.

Chloe’s mouth turned up at the corners out of pure endearment.

Suddenly, Nadine cracked open an eye and her lips tugged into a grin. “Creeper,” she croaked through the heavy sleepiness in her voice.

“How long were you awake?” Chloe huffed.

“You moved my arm.”

“Oh, it was only two seconds.”

Nadine just shrugged and shuffled deeper into the cushions. Chloe didn’t pause to think, only accepted the wordless invitation, mutedly giddy. She cherished moments like this.

Sitting, she shook out the blanket for the third time and let it float down over their bodies. Then, she nudged Nadine’s arm up and settled down on it. Nadine’s arm hooked over her middle like a protective barrier and she instantly melted deeper into Nadine’s chest.

Nadine closed her eyes again.

“I don’t know why we’re not sleeping in the actual bed,” Chloe whispered.

“We’re having a moment, you dickhead.”

“A moment? You’re basically sleeping right now.” Chloe barked a laugh when Nadine dragged her arm over Chloe’s middle to press a calloused hand to her mouth.

“What happened to romance?” she grouched, eyes squinted down at Chloe.

Chloe smiled and kissed Nadine’s palm. She pulled the blanket to their chins. “I actually think we’re great at it.”

Nadine exhaled through her nose, making adjustments when Chloe shoved her face into her neck and placing her arm back where it belonged over Chloe’s waist. Her chest rumbled with her content hum.

“Maybe,” she replied.

[nadiineross]

idk if you are still looking for prompts but I just thought of this one, so here you go: Nadine and Chloe are attending a party and have to arrive separately for some thief-y reason, and when Chloe sees Nadine walking in wearing a dapper ass bespoke suit she like, chokes on her champagne because holy shit soft butch Nadine?? Is so so hot??? Even if you can’t write it I just had to get that idea out into the world. Thx for listening!

listen……….. i actually have a wip thats set pre-tll from a year ago abt chloe meeting nadine at a fancy event and dying bc nadine looks So Good in her suit but i dunno where im gonna go with that so i just wrote a new thing so here u go:

Chloe would take mucking about in old ruins, dressed in a tattered old shirt and jeans, over attending a stuffy party in clothes that cost more than the rest of her wardrobe combined any day of the week.

She didn’t hate dressing up, she was actually rather good at it honestly, but she was the type of woman accustomed to tactile boots, ratty jeans, and heavy leather jackets. Still, she knew how to have her fun.

She took a certain joy out of shocking people in ways other than throwing a grenade at them — she’d done it with Nate when they first met, when she saved his arse not a day after kicking it, and even that first time with Flynn, before that whole Shambhala mess. (The times where she’d surprised him out of necessity didn’t count.)

The bottom line: she was bored, she looked amazing, and people were staring.

It was a corporate dinner party hosted in the biggest hall offered by the most expensive five-star hotel in England. This meant there were a lot of older white men milling around to impress which wasn’t what Chloe would call hard.

Her hair was twisted and pinned into an elaborate updo that had taken her an hour to finish. The dress she wore was burgundy and off-the-shoulder, scooping to reveal three-quarters of her wiry back. Fabric wound across her chest, exposing her collarbones, and around both her biceps. Button-sized red gems hung by intricate golden hooks from her ears, accompanied by less elaborate yet equally shiny jewellery through her second lobe piercings and her helix. In her nose, she had a single gold hoop. Her clutch was small and simple, and only contained her phone and some cash.

And, of course, she arrived barely under an hour late just to make a scene.

She’d made a beeline for the bar upon arriving and hadn’t moved an inch for the hour that she’d been there. Men and women alike had ventured near to brush by her elbows and many had attempted to strike a conversation with her, and the ones that were polite or interesting enough, she entertained.

A man, hair streaked with grey, eyed her from across the room. She fought not to roll her eyes and turned back to the bartender when she failed so he wouldn’t see.

“What’s the time, mate?” she asked, leaning over the table on her arms.

The bartender glanced at her watch. “Almost eight,” she said, topping off her glass of champagne.

Chloe sighed.

She knew Nadine had said she might be late, but two hours was just ridiculous.

They’d been together as partners for two years now and for half that time, they’ve been together as, well, whatever you called two people who flew around the world to find some treasure and then fucked wildly in a hotel room and departed again until the next time.

This time, they had been apart for almost a month and Chloe had been getting a little antsy in Nadine’s absence. She’d been scrambling to come up with jobs in an attempt to meet her again but Nadine had blocked them all with valid reason.

Finally, she found one with a good enough payoff to danger ratio that Nadine could not refuse: they were to find an architect who was under the employment of a filthy rich collector named Gregory Scripps and with the help of the floor plan of his home, they would rob him blind.

The architect, Cole Sanders, just so happened to be under contract with one of the big corporations sponsoring the event tonight. Scripps had been invited, his brother being an executive at the company that had hired Sanders.

Chloe’s part of the job was to get a general idea of what Scripps would have locked up in his to-be-constructed fortress of a home as well as nicking Sanders’ room card off of him so Nadine could sneak in to his room and steal the plans.

The woman in question was, evidently, feeling a bit sore about Chloe leaving her to wait in a war zone when they’d first met and was dishing out some revenge.

She knew for a fact Nadine’s plane from Johannesburg had landed barely a half hour after her’s from Darwin and Chloe had spent a good hour in her hotel room scrolling through her phone. She didn’t know what Nadine was getting up to in her free time, but she decided that there would be a stern exchange of words when she decided to actually show up.

Within the hour, she’d already talked to Scripps, the slimy bloke he was, and had formed a long list of things she’d have to steal from him just to patch her soul up after spending that time in his company.

And Nadine? Nowhere to be—

“Whoa,” the bartender gaped, eyes wide.

Chloe turned just to see what the racket was about, taking a slow sip of her champagne to seem uninterested.

Then, gracefully, like the refined woman she was, she choked and sputtered and nearly dribbled.

Nadine arrived, guarded eyes already boring into Chloe’s from across the room.

“Holy shit,” she wheezed, a napkin balled up in her fist.

Nadine was dressed in a three-piece suit, probably bespoke.

The bottom layer was a pale blue dress shirt, almost white if one didn’t pay close enough attention, and was buttoned up to the top until the stiff collars wrapped around the base of Nadine’s throat. Over it was a crisp black pinstriped vest, joined in the middle by three shiny buttons. The trousers and blazer were well-fitted to Nadine’s figure and similarly black and striped. The lapels of her suit were carefully cut and the material of her suit folding in ways that looked too deliberate to count as wrinkles, the shoulders sloping.

Her hair was untied, the curls and frizzes brushing the shoulders of her suit and tickling against her neck where the top of her scar was, the rest disappearing under the collar of her shirt. Her hair was a bit longer than the last time Chloe had seen her.

As Nadine approached, Chloe noticed that the suit wasn’t black, instead, it was a very dark grey, and that she wore a silver watch on one wrist and a plain silver ring on the middle finger of her left hand.

Chloe’s eyes didn’t know where to stay, so they just continued sweeping up and down Nadine’s body.

When Nadine stopped a step away, Chloe settled on her eyes, ringed with simple eyeliner.

“You’re late,” Chloe said, voice coming out raspier than she intended. She didn’t have the nerve to attempt another swig from her champagne.

“I took the long way,” she said, eyes flickering away from Chloe’s face to her dress, then back up. She swallowed. “You look… beautiful.”

Chloe would have blushed if she were the type. She pushed herself up to her feet, off the bar, and looked curiously at Nadine. “When did you get this?”

Nadine raised her eyebrow, head tilting ever so slightly. Chloe felt herself get a little wet—correction: a little wetter.

She reached out and hooked a finger under Nadine’s lapel, dragging the finger down to the top of her breast. “The suit. When did you get it?”

“Oh,” she said, looking down to where Chloe had her suit held in her hand, her thumb rubbing circles into the material. “This is old. You said we should dress to impress.”

“I know what I said,” Chloe scoffed, incredulous. “I’m dressed to impress. You are dressed to bloody murder me.”

Nadine laughed and pushed closer so Chloe had to move back into the table, the edge cold against her skin. She was shorter right now, her polished brown shoes incomparable to Chloe’s heels, but the air of authority that came with the outfit made Chloe want to bend over backwards for her.

Chloe figured she would do just about anything to and for Nadine right about now.

Nadine held a hand out in the space between them and smirked wider when Chloe took it immediately. The ring on Nadine’s finger pressed against Chloe’s hand.

“This isn’t a dancing kind of party, love,” Chloe said, allowing herself to be led into the crowd. “We could be doing something else tonight though.”

“We’re mingling. What else is there to do?”

Chloe scowled and yanked her around before she let go entirely. “What do you think?”

Nadine gave her a cursory glance before turning back to people watching over Chloe’s shoulder. “Where’s Scripps?”

“I spoke to him already,” Chloe said after a moment. If Nadine didn’t want to talk about whatever they were doing, then she wouldn’t press. She didn’t exactly know how fragile they were and wasn’t about to accidentally break it off by forcing a discussion.

“Hm.” Nadine twisted her lips in thought. Chloe resisted the urge to wrap a hand around the back of Nadine’s neck and drag her in for a kiss. “And Sanders?”

“Your eight.”

Nadine turned them towards him with a firm hand on Chloe’s bare skin. Once she saw Sanders, they moved closer to him and then bypassed him entirely only a moment later. Without stopping, Nadine led them towards the elevators near the lobby.

“I’ll go,” Chloe said. “I’m tired of those corporate types.”

“Are you sure?”

Chloe rolled her eyes and waved the key card she’d slipped from Sanders’ pocket between her index and middle finger. “I’ve gotten this far without your help.”

The elevator arrived before Nadine could say anything smart in response.

Chloe made it quick; up to the seventh floor, into his room, and back down, the picture of the Scripps mansion layouts in her camera roll. She’d even gotten quick snaps of Sanders’ other jobs in case they were ever in a tight spot and needed a rich home or two to rob.

She shot off a quick text to Nadine, not waiting for a reply before she tucked her phone back into her purse.

Nadine was waiting for her when the elevator door opened, her blazer hanging over her shoulder, showing off her wonderfully bulging forearms from the bottoms of her folded sleeves. She jerked her head to the bathrooms.

When they were inside, Chloe moved to the sinks in the guise of touching up her lipstick while Nadine bent to look under the stalls. Empty.

She stood behind Chloe, close enough for Chloe to feel the top of her blazer brush against her back.

Chloe moved her head to the side, looking down at her own shoulder, then, to spy Nadine out the corner of her eye. “Yes?”

“Did you get it?”

Chloe rolled her eyes and shook her clutch in the air. “Yes, you doubt me?”

Nadine took it and pocketed it into her blazer, smiling. “Never.”

“Liar.”

“Makes two, hey.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Chloe. “I’ve never lied to anyone about anything ever in my life.”

Nadine snorted and reached up to rake her fingers through her hair, moving it one way, then the other.

Chloe turned suddenly. She pulled Nadine’s arm away from her own head and gripped tightly, walking them into the wall by the stalls. She used her other hand to cup Nadine’s cheek, and then she kissed her, hard and open-mouthed.

Nadine’s lips were parted and curved into a smile. She placed a warm hand on the curve of Chloe’s lower back, her thumb pushing into the skin just above her dress.

When they pulled apart, Chloe sucked in a breath and grinned. Nadine just opened her eyes and smiled back, one hand on Chloe, the other in the pocket of her trousers. Chloe wanted to laugh at the whole thing.

“Hello,” she whispered, pecking the corner of Nadine’s mouth.

“Hi.”

“How was this past month?”

“Good.”

“In the mood for single word replies, are you?” Chloe asked. Nadine looked amused at that. “I can see—feel—that you’ve been working out.”

She gave Nadine’s arm a squeeze. Nadine hummed. “Ja.” A beat. “Nice to have work to do though.”

Chloe placed both her hands on Nadine’s front, deftly working the top three buttons so she could touch Nadine’s bare chest, and leaned in. “Did you miss it?”

Nadine watched her, carefully. Then, tentatively, she stilled Chloe’s hands over her scar and gripped them gently.

“I missed you.”

Instantly, Chloe grinned and curved her fingers around Nadine’s. “Oh god, me too.” She kissed Nadine again, relieved. “Meet me outside? I have a key card to return.”

Nadine huffed a laugh when Chloe took her blazer to drape around herself and nodded her assent.

It was November at the moment, the night air harsh and frigid enough to pull a faint mist from Nadine’s mouth every time she breathed out. Chloe stared at her for a moment after she had slipped the card back into Sanders’ pocket and entered the lobby in search of Nadine.

The sleeves of her dress shirt were rolled back down to her wrists and her vest was buttoned properly up. The shirt was still left open, the collar jutting out from the smoothness of her vest. It gave her a sharper look, her profile cutting into lines and obtuse angles. Her hands were in her pockets, examining her shoes as she rolled on the balls of her feet.

She looked vaguely like a teenager waiting outside for their date to the prom, gathering the nerve to actually knock on the door.

It was then that she looked up, catching Chloe through the glinting windows, and she smiled softly with no teeth. Chloe’s heart sped up and she twiddled her fingers in a wave, joining her outside a second later. She returned Nadine’s blazer, having gotten her own coat back from coat check earlier.

Nadine offered her an arm to take, leaving her blazer unbuttoned.

The walk to Chloe’s hotel started silently, apart from the occasional car speeding by. There was a bridge they had to cross, but Chloe stopped in the middle and looked out over the river.

“Nadine.”

“Yes.”

Chloe inhaled sharply and steeled herself, and very slowly she turned with her arms held out. They weren’t too high, because Chloe felt a bit embarrassed about this to begin with, but they were high enough to look awkward if nothing happened.

Nadine wound her arms around Chloe’s middle, thank god for that. Chloe slung her own around Nadine’s neck and sighed into her hair. She was engulfed in warmth and she didn’t want to leave it.

“Can you stay in London a bit longer?” Chloe asked. “I missed you.”

She felt Nadine nod against her. Then: “We should talk. About this, I mean.”

“We will.”

“Okay.”

Chloe pulled away. “Okay,” she replied and pressed a kiss to Nadine’s cheek. “Let’s get going then. A warm and empty hotel room is waiting for us.”

“Of course.” Nadine laughed and once again gave her an arm to grab onto.

This whole dapper gentlewoman thing, well, Chloe would miss it sorely when she inevitably stripped it off Nadine later. For now, she was going to indulge herself.

[nadiineross]

note: this was gonna be for day 4 but i didnt get it in time so i guess it sucks to suck

Chloe’s hometown was once again in the strange transitional state between summer and fall where the sun still burned brightly in the day but the night air was just a touch above too cold. At sunset, the entirety of town breathed a sigh of relief like how one would upon entering an air-conditioned room after slaving about under the smothering heat all day. 

What they got was a pleasantly cool evening, fewer bugs, and the sounds of muted chatter. Townspeople took out their plates and chairs, sitting on their porches and yards to enjoy the reprieve. 

The Frazer-Ross household was one of the few who hadn’t taken to the outdoors, though their lovely semi-transparent curtains did present themselves to the town through open windows. 

The sliding door leading to the backyard was left open, living room lights swelling past the glittering curtains onto the grass. 

Inside, Nadine was placing dishes into the table, carefully straightening out the forks and spoons, and folding a napkin delicately to tuck under a plate. Chloe’s phone was plugged into the speakers, the volume turned low so that Nadine could barely make out the words of the song.

“Chloe,” she called and frowned, glancing quickly over her shoulder at the kitchen. 

“Yes, love?” came through the open doorway. 

“Louder, please.” 

Chloe complied. Billy Joel’s crooning drifted through the walls, around corners, and out into the backyard too. Nadine began to hum along to the music, enjoying the peaceful ambience. 

Suddenly, the fairy lights extended over their backyard flickered on. They glowed a soft orange, hung in uneven rows. Those that were in need of a change blinked on and off. Chloe had set it all up herself half a year ago after she had sent Nadine off with an absurdly long grocery list and surprised her with a picnic blanket under it later in the night. 

They were both well past forty, been with each other over a decade, and the way they acted with each other, the sweetness of it, sometimes still surprised even Nadine. It wasn’t to say they’d gone soft because she doubted she’d ever know how to do that. They were just in the habit of making each other smile. 

As if on cue, the music turned up even more and Nadine’s grin widened. 

The table was as neat as it was ever gonna be, so she left it alone, reaching up to undo her hastily scraped updo and pushing the loose curls away from her face. 

Perhaps it was the ambience setting the mood, perhaps this was just the kind of person she’d grown to be—she slipped her eyes closed and began to sing softly. When a warm presence hovered behind her, she broke off, eyes blinking open to see the soft glow of their fairy lights. Behind her, Chloe picked up where she left off. She wound one arm around Nadine’s middle and swept Nadine’s hair off one shoulder so she could slot her chin in. 

The whole thing was terribly cheesy; even alone, Nadine would have been mortified by the thought of doing this if she were ten years younger. 

Slowly, she relaxed into Chloe’s embrace and started again in a hum, eyes closed. Chloe pressed a grin to her neck, a kiss, and sang louder. Neither of them would ever be good enough to go for a professional singing career, but Nadine thought that they sounded pleasant enough for a pair of thieves. At least, not ear-shatteringly terrible. 

Chloe’s body lulled Nadine’s into a sway and led her away from the table in an effort to avoid potential toe-stubbings. Emboldened, Nadine joined in for the last line. 

Chloe exhaled softly. It could’ve been a huffed laugh or a simple expression of happiness, Nadine couldn’t tell. 

The next song, something acoustic, played after the saxophone faded out. They slowed to a stop. Smiling, Nadine turned her head, eyes downcast to watch Chloe push her head against her neck, and brushed the corner of her lips against Chloe’s temple. Contented, Chloe hummed tunelessly against the heat of her skin. 

Before she pulled away, she stooped impossibly closer and gave the meat of Nadine’s neck a playful tug with her teeth. It was jarring, that and the sudden absence of Chloe flush against her. 

Nadine hissed, swivelling around to give her an admonishing glare. 

Chloe simply smiled over her shoulder, halfway to the kitchen door already. Then, although it was said like a flippant line, she said sincerely: “Wait one second please.”

Huffing, she waited. 

Mid-word, the song changed to something she didn’t recognise. It was faster than the other two but not overly so, and the voice was low and smooth. The volume jacked up suddenly and Chloe came skidding out a beat later. 

Nadine couldn’t stop the wide grin at the mere sight of Chloe’s giddiness, dropping the huffy attitude in favour of opening her stance so Chloe could barrel into her. She swung around Nadine’s middle, picking her up into the air for a spin. 

“Come on,” Chloe said, glee making her almost giggly. She would be appalled if Nadine voiced this so she didn’t. “Dance with me.” 

Her enthusiasm was infectious, and Nadine found herself laughing along. Chloe set her down on the other side of the table and drew her by her the hand into their backyard. Their feet were bare against the grass and dirt, and Nadine knew she’d have to shower again just to get the muck out between her toes but she couldn’t find it in herself to mind. Chloe was, after all, beaming like she’d won the lottery or landed a heart-dropping leap, and what else was Nadine to do except indulge her. 

Chloe smoothed her hands over the top of Nadine’s airy blouse and then back up to her shoulders. Without further prompting, Nadine snaked her arms around Chloe’s middle and settled them at the small of her back. 

Washed in orange, they danced and stared at each other and tried not to crack up when their eyes met. 

Nadine felt faintly like a lovestruck teenager enjoying a domestic moment with her high school sweetheart. She wondered then, briefly, what young Chloe would’ve been like and in quick succession, thanked God for blessing her with an adult one. She doubts her former self would enjoy the company of a bratty teenage Chloe, the uppity kid she was, always seeking her father’s approval. 

The song changed again, to something classical this time. Chloe immediately adopted a stern face and, rather dramatically, stepped away to bow. 

“You queued this to do this specifically, didn’t you,” Nadine said as she took Chloe’s hand anyway and let herself be swept into a wide waltz. 

“Absolutely,” she replied, readily. 

“Ridiculous.” 

Chloe laughed and smiled, charmingly. “You bring it out of me.” 

“You too,” Nadine said, softer. 

They bumped into a flower pot, but neither of them was particularly stringent about garden maintenance and Nadine led them off to the other end of their backyard. 

“What else do I bring out of you?” Chloe asked, coyly. 

Before Nadine could reply, Chloe spun her with some flair and yanked her closer. Using the momentum, Chloe backed them up the single step into their home and fell into the couch a short stumble away. Nadine’s laugh dissipated into a short huff as she landed on top of Chloe, propping herself on her elbows so she didn’t crush her wife completely. Chloe watched her, carefully, eyes gleaming in the light, and pushed a palm up to cover Nadine’s cheek. A smile teased at her lips. 

They were quiet for a moment, the sound of violins filling in the calm. 

Finally, Nadine dipped her head down for a languid, tongueless kiss. When she backed up, Chloe followed her for a moment until she relaxed back into the cushion. Nadine hovered only an inch away, eyes crinkled with her grin. 

“Hi.” 

Chloe rubbed a thumb against her cheek. “Hey.” 

“Did you have fun?” she asked, indulging. 

“I did.” Chloe nodded, nose brushing against Nadine’s as she did. “Did you?” 

“Ja,” she said with a laugh. Nadine kissed her again, sighing through her nose when Chloe returned it with enthusiasm. 

The music had returned to their Billy Joel playlist in the time spent making out and whispering silly things to each other. 

Eventually, Nadine let up, hoisting Chloe to her feet by the single arm she’d wound around her back. Chloe lay her hands on Nadine’s collar bones and aimed sloppily for her cheek, getting her jaw instead. She patted Nadine’s cheek before she stepped away with a laugh. 

“God,” Chloe exhaled, “I’m in love with you.” 

Nadine blinked, smiled, then went a bit red. This wasn’t exactly news to her, seeing as they were married and all, but they weren’t the type to be so candid with their affection. Usually, they were a show-don’t-tell kind of couple, and it suited them just fine. 

“Thanks, wife, I’d hope so,” Nadine said, lieu of replying in kind. 

Chloe pouted. “Come on, I’ve been so romantic all night.” 

Huffing a laugh, Nadine steered her to the kitchen and gave a gentle shove. Inside, the dishes Chloe had been preparing were waiting in steaming plates on the counter. A bottle of wine stood uncorked. 

Before Nadine could make for the plates, Chloe shot out to grab her wrist and hauled her closer. 

“Really?” 

“Yes,” Chloe said, deathly serious, and then nestled her head in the crook of Nadine’s neck, sighing into the hollow at the base of her throat. 

Nadine pressed her head into Chloe’s temple and failed spectacularly in suppressing her grin. “I married you, dickhead.” 

Chloe nodded against her. “That, you did.”

A beat later, Nadine brushed her lips against Chloe’s forehead, murmured a quiet “love you,” and untangled herself from their impromptu hug.

They made quick work of setting the table and dug in. 

Out of nowhere, Chloe poked Nadine’s calf with her toe and waited for her to glance up. 

“It’s good.”

“What’s good?” 

“That you love me. That I love you.” 

“Are you on something?” Nadine raised her eyebrows and bounced a fork in her hand. “What’s gotten into you? You alright?”

Chloe scoffed. “Wow. Meet a girl in a war zone and woo her so thoroughly, she goes and forgets all about the rocky start.”

Nadine stared at her for a drawn-out second.

Chloe raised her eyebrows.

She speared some food onto her fork, attempting for nonchalant. “We don’t celebrate this anniversary.” 

“Yes, we do,” Chloe insisted. “We do the decades.” 

“The dec—?” 

Nadine stopped short. Her fork hovered in the air until she slowly put it down. 

Ten whole years, she’d known and grown to love this infuriatingly gorgeous, cunningly intelligent woman. Chloe smiled as she watched realisation dawn on Nadine. She looked ethereal, grinning like she’d won the lottery and outlined by a faint orange glow from their fairy lights.

Nadine was overcome by the urge to hold Chloe again and, never one to shy away from going after what she wanted, she put down her fork and stood. 

Chloe made a sound of protest. “Oi, I made us this and you’d better eat it.” 

“Half of this is microwaved leftovers that I cooked,” Nadine pointed out. 

“Yes, and I microwaved it,” Chloe started, but then stopped when Nadine dragged her chair back and settled into her lap. “Oh.”

“You’re so annoying.” 

“You were always a sweet talker.” 

Nadine forwent a response, pulling Chloe closer by the back of her neck. They stayed together for several long seconds before parting. Her eyes were a stormy grey, her swollen lower lip squeezed between a row of white teeth. 

“Happy anniversary,” Chloe murmured, arching up to lick into Nadine’s mouth.

Breathless and grinning wildly, Nadine cupped Chloe’s neck in both palms to keep her from straying. Not that she had any intention of doing so. 

Against her lips, Nadine returned the sentiment, “Happy anniversary.” 

[nadiineross]

Chlodine with kids!!!!!! Maybe Nadine’s little siblings I can imagine her having a huge family. Or Chloe having a secret son or daughter from her more wild days and Nadine not finding out for like years and being like !!!

imma do nadines family bc my thoughts on chlodine + kids are Complicated and also someone else wrote a fic abt chloe w/ a secret kid im waiting on an update !!! lots of e•mo•tions

this got rly long

Chloe Frazer is, without a doubt, an only child. Nadine had never assumed anything else and would’ve been very surprised if she learned otherwise, but as it stands, this is not the case. 

Nadine, on the other hand, has four siblings. She’s the oldest, having the responsibility of inheriting Shoreline and bearing the brunt of her father’s expectations. He wasn’t a bad father, all things considered. Sure, he had his faults like everyone does, but he never neglected her nor did he seek to pressure Nadine into a future with Shoreline. That was all on her and, upon realizing this, he had only tried to push her into it further, to support her. 

In the end, it didn’t really pan out, huh? 

No one in her family blamed her for the loss of Shoreline. In fact, they had all tried to pitch in when Nadine had truly hit rock bottom and did their best to make her feel better. The incessant phone calls and hugging, she accepted. Their money? She did not.

Now, two years after the fact, she finds that she’s much happier, lighter, in her new career path and her family seems to agree.

“Nadine!” her brother, Junior, hollers the moment she steps through the door. “You look great!”

He’s the second child, only two years younger than her at 30, and the one she is the closest to because of it.

She barely manages a greeting before she’s engulfed in a tight bear hug. Quickly, another weight is wrapped around her back and one of her legs is ensnared by a pair of smaller arms. Like moths to a light, her family.

The compulsory family reunion in their old family home in South Africa is something Nadine secretly looks forward to, though she would never say that aloud, lest she wants to be razzed to death by her siblings.

After Junior comes Mia, who turned 29 only last week (Nadine had flowers delivered and mailed her a beautiful bracelet she’d found snooping through old Greek ruins), and finally Grace, 24.

As it turns out, it’s Grace that barreled into her first. Behind her, her mother fusses with her hair and around her leg is Junior’s 6-year-old son, Blessing.

“Ma,” Nadine croaks out around a mouthful of Grace’s hair. “Leave me alone, I’m going to the barber next week.”

Her mother does not leave her alone. “You don’t call for three weeks and this is the first thing you say to me?”

Grace lets go, snickering at Nadine’s apprehension. Nadine glares.

After Junior and Mia get their turns hugging her, she ducks away from her mother’s grabbing, muttering a quick “love you!”, and scoops Blessing up into her arms. He instantly shrieks with glee, trying to claw up her arms and settle on her shoulders.

Junior’s wife, Vivienne, a plump Filipina with enough wit to beat Grace in an argument, presses a brief kiss to Nadine’s cheek as she passes by.

“Don’t mess with Auntie’s hair, boy,” she says, sternly. “Grandma will make you do the dishes.”

Blessing giggles, clearly unaware of what’s going on. Nadine rolls her eyes. “All right, all right. Where’s Rose?”

“She’s at a friend’s birthday party. It’s a sleepover. Apparently turning 10 is a really, really big deal.”

“2 months until you have to throw that party for her,” Nadine says with a laugh.

“Ugh, don’t remind me.”

It’s then that Mia cuts in, only pausing to poke Blessing on the nose, and stands directly in front of Nadine just to annoy her. “Viv, I need pregnancy advice. Is it normal having to pee this much? I hate it. This is why I didn’t drink enough water when I was in high school.”

Well, that’s her cue. She elbows Mia sharply in the back before hurrying into the kitchen where her mother and Junior are to avoid retaliation.

They’re preparing to set the table, so she makes to hand Blessing off to Junior except he does an impressive job of wrapping himself around her back like a sloth on a branch. Junior bellows out a laugh.

“He likes you more than me.”

Nadine pulls a face. “Ma likes you more than me, so it evens out.”

Nadine’s mother thwacks her over the head. “I don’t play favourites.” Grace whisks by, picking up the plates as she does. Her mother follows after her with the rest of the plates. “Never mind, Grace is my favourite.”

Junior makes an indignant sound from the back of his throat.

“Can—Can you take a picture?” Nadine asks, gently removing Blessing’s entire hand from her face. “I’d like to show my— Chloe.”

“Sure,” Junior says, raising an eyebrow. “Your Chloe?”

“Shut up,” she huffs.

Blessing chooses this exact moment to sling himself over her shoulder, making her yelp and grab onto his arms to steady him. He laughs, waving his fists in the air like he has won something.

Chloe will love that picture.

“Eish, what are you feeding him?”

Junior tucks his phone away and grins a boyish grin. “Love.” Nadine wrinkles her nose. “Viv learned how to make some kind of pasta and he’s obsessed with it. We have leftovers still in our fridge.”

He stops disjointedly, in a way that makes it clear he expects a reaction from Nadine.

She frowns. “Okay?”

“Where’s Chloe?”

“Australia, with her mum. She flies in on Sunday.”

Junior hums and pushes a salt shaker with a single finger, looking too nonchalant to actually be nonchalant. “You and Chloe are welcome to come over for pasta, if you want and if you’re still around next weekend.”

Nadine, jaded from years of being the oldest sibling, is instantly wary, narrowing her eyes at him. “What’s the catch?”

“There is no catch.”

“Liar.”

Junior huffs, plucking Blessing out of her arms and setting him onto the island. “Seriously. No catch.”

“Okay,” she says slowly, cautiously, “We’ll come over for dinner next Friday?”

“Great! Show up at 6:00.” He claps his hands together. “Reheat the pasta and have a glass of wine, on me. Rose needs help with math homework and Blessing likes to watch Kim Possible, we have DVDs. Bedtimes at 8:30; Blessing usually passes out earlier. We’ll be back midnight at the latest.”

“You said there was no catch!”

“Does spending time with your beloved niece and nephew really count as a ‘catch’?” he asks, snooty, with air quotes to top it all off.

Nadine sighs. “Yes, but we’ll be there.”

She loves family reunions, really. Especially the fact that it’s only compulsory once a year, barring Hanukkah.

Chloe has met her siblings and her mother before. Not during the family reunion due to unfortunate timing, but on separate occasions over the year and a half they’ve been working together. She has never met Rose or Blessing.

Junior and Viv like her enough to have a group chat with her (one that Nadine has tried to join, but had been ruthlessly denied entry by her partner after a sharp cackle), so she’s not surprised that the first thing Chloe says to her after catapulting herself into Nadine’s arms at the airport is: “Heard I’m a babysitter. Try not to crush on me, china.”

Nadine had laughed into her neck at that, made a quip about how she smelled like an aeroplane.

Now, they’re on Junior’s porch, seeing the happy couple off on their date night.

“What are your intentions with Viv?” Chloe jokes, nudging Junior with a conspiratorial wink. Viv snorts.

“Curfew’s eleven,” Nadine calls after them.

“They grow up so fast.”

“Ja.” Nadine smiles then, leaning against the door so Chloe can pass through first. “Ready?”

“To eat good food, drink, and watch 2 kids for a couple of hours? Not that hard, is it?”

Nadine bends to take off her shoes, about to reply with something smart, but Blessing comes pounding down the hallway, blowing right past Chloe and taking an impressive leap onto Nadine’s back. He snakes his arms around her neck and wiggles his legs until she stands.

Nadine gives Chloe a look.

“All right, maybe I misjudged.” Chloe leans closer in, curious, face startlingly close to Nadine’s. “Hey, I’m Chloe. You’re Blessing, right?”

Blessing squints, puckers his lips, then gives one decisive nod, chin digging into Nadine’s shoulder. “This is Auntie.”

Chloe’s face dissolves into an endeared beam. “I know her!”

Nadine tries very hard not to flush out of pure adoration. She’s not sure if it works because Chloe doesn’t mention it.

“Where’s your sister, B?”

“Here,” Rose says, skidding down the hallway in her socks. “Who’re you?”

Chloe holds out a hand which Rose takes and shakes enthusiastically. “Chloe. I work with your Auntie.”

When she turns, Nadine furrows her eyebrows, hands tightening imperceptibly under Blessing’s legs. She tilts her head when Nadine brushes by, suddenly feeling bereft.

Before Nadine can disappear into a room, Chloe stops her with a hand on her stomach.

“Don’t tell, but I think she has a crush on me,” Chloe stage whispers to Rose. “I told her not to.”

Rose’s eyes grow wider. “Do you like her back?”

Chloe stands then, smiling at Nadine brilliantly. “I do.”

This time, Nadine’s certain she’s blushing and judging by how Chloe’s started to leer at her, she must look redder than usual.

Before Rose can ask any more questions, Nadine hikes Blessing higher up and moves towards the end of the hallway.

“C’mon, Rose. Let’s watch some TV while Chloe heats dinner up,” she says, jerking her head towards the kitchen door for Chloe. “Your dad said you need help with math?”

Rose lets out a very loud and long groan at that.

After Nadine is directed to the collection of Kim Possible DVDs and sets it up, she sends Rose off to grab her homework. Then, she pries Blessing away from his Barbies and props him against one hip.

Chloe’s humming a tune and opening random drawers when Nadine finds her in the kitchen. She’s got an apron hanging from her neck, even though she’s literally just popping something into the microwave and opening a bottle.

Blessing reaches for the counter, so she sets him down. “Chloe, I’m hungry!”

Chloe spins and catches Nadine’s eye briefly. “Yes, yes,” she says, “give me a minute, love. Impatience runs in the family, I guess.”

Nadine chuckles, crossing the distance and tugging the loose ends of the apron. “You’re one to talk.”

“Oh, hush.” She leans back a little, into Nadine’s warmth.

She turns after a beat, corners of her mouth tipped up, and catches Nadine’s mouth in a kiss. It’s nice, for about two seconds, then Blessing starts drawing out an “eww” and smacking his palms on the table.

Chloe pulls away, eyes still half-lidded. “I was gonna say they were adorable, but…”

Nadine huffs a laugh and narrows her eyes at Blessing. “What are you complaining about?”

“Rose does that when mama kisses daddy,” he says matter-of-factly.

“Hm,” she says, “keep doing that, champ.”

Chloe barks out a laugh, lightly slapping Nadine’s arm. Nadine grabs her wrists, kissing her chastely before pulling away completely.

“The forks are behind you.”

“Thanks,” Chloe says, not moving and hauling her back in. Nadine looks unimpressed.

Blessing groans again.

“What does the apron say, soldier?” KISS THE COOK. That’s probably Junior’s. She grimaces at it with great disdain. “So?”

In response, Nadine untangles herself from Chloe and places Blessing into his usual spot at her hip.

“Ah, figures.”

Rose is waiting in the living room when they all return, pasta in hand; one bowl each for the kids and a big plate for Chloe and Nadine to share. Fewer dishes to do this way. Plus, Nadine only has one hand to spare, the other keeping Blessing from wriggling onto the floor.

After setting the bowls down, Chloe presses play on the first episode and puts the volume lower so Rose can concentrate.

Poised over the couch, Nadine cranes her neck to watch Blessing tuck his face into her back, holding on stubbornly.

”Off! Off, off, off.” After a moment, he grabs tighter onto her shoulders. “No?”

Blessing shakes his head. “No.”

“You asked for it.” She grabs onto his legs for safety and starts to hop in place—once, twice, three times. Blessing squeals in her ear. On the fourth time, she drops into a squat, so that his legs are on the couch and scrapes him off her back. “Time for dinner, B.”

He pouts, eyes wide. “Aw, boo.” It takes her a hot second to resist that. Atrocious.

She pushes the lime green bowl and matching plastic fork into his hands. “If you want to grow taller than your sister, you gotta eat up.”

When she looks over to Chloe, she’s on the floor next to Rose with her homework out on the coffee table some ways away from the couch. She’s watching Nadine, jaw cupped in her palm, with a soft look.

Nadine, self-conscious, looks away and scoots closer to Rose’s other side. “What?”

“Nothing,” Chloe says after a beat, bending closer to look at Rose’s paper. Almost immediately after, she touches Rose’s hand before she can write something down and quietly points out her mistake.

They get through two episodes in relative peace before Blessing decides that he’s done with his dinner and bonks the bottom of the bowl lightly on Nadine’s head. Chloe stifles a laugh at Nadine’s exaggerated outrage.

She takes the bowl from Blessing, towering over him as he giggles madly into a pillow.

“This is my shield,” he declares.

Nadine crosses her arms. “That’s not fair. I don’t have a sword.”

“Victory!”

Chloe doesn’t try hiding her delight this time.

It’s only another Kim Possible episode later that Blessing calms down enough to sit still on the couch. Nadine scrapes his leftovers onto their shared plate.

Rose has picked her entire bowl clean and has been sipping at a glass of milk Chloe had gotten for her when Nadine had been busy entertaining Blessing. When Nadine offers her a second serving, she just shakes her head, brows furrowed at the question on her paper.

Finally, she turns her attention to Chloe who is, funnily enough, engrossed with the Kim Possible episode playing.

She jerks her head up when Nadine places her hand on her back, startled.

“Go eat on the couch, I’ll watch Rose.” She promptly shoves the plate into Chloe’s hands and plops down onto the ground, leaving no room for argument.

“Last one,” Rose says, tapping her pencil on the table.

Nadine leans over her arm to look at the paper. “Do you need any help?”

“Nope,” she replies, popping the p. She scribbles something down, then crosses it out. “Auntie?”

“Ja?”

“I think Chloe likes you,” she whispers, glancing back at Chloe who’s using Blessing’s head as an armrest while he squirms under her, mouth open in his best attempt at a roar.

Nadine tries not to smile, turning back to Rose. She fails. “You mean like-like?”

Rose puts her pencil down and scowls at her. “I’m not 8. I can say love.”

“You’re 9.”

Rose scoffs, pointedly going back to her homework.

Nadine feels nervous all of a sudden, and bizarrely, embarrassed. She’s 32, Chloe 35, and they have yet to say the L-word. Not that she can presume to know how Chloe feels, but she knows how she feels.

They’ve been officially together just over a year now. The months before it, they had spent sleeping with each other sporadically when they met up for a job. Back then, Nadine knew how she felt too. Her feelings hadn’t been quite as deep as they were now — maybe fondness. She felt that whatever they had, if they both allowed it, would last and for a very long time.

A year, they’ve lasted so far. She knows all the little things now. Chloe’s morning routine, her weird figures of speech, which side she sleeps on. She knows the important things and the unimportant things that Nadine cherishes equally to the former.

They have lasted and strengthened, taking Nadine’s feelings lightyears past simple fondness. She wonders sometimes, considering the trajectory, if she can find the words to describe it if her feelings stretched past love. For now, that word will do.

She loves Chloe, this she has known for months. Chloe certainly likes her in a way that extends past the shallow.

She drags a hand down her forehead. It’s one thing to think it, another to confront it head-on, but Nadine Ross has never been a coward. Cautious, yes, but not cowardly.

She puts her chin on the table, watching the top of Rose’s pencil wave in the air as she writes.

“I like Chloe too,” Nadine says, voice low because if Chloe overheard, she would never hear the end of it.

Rose finishes what she’s written with a flourish, then copies Nadine, putting her chin on the table. “Only like?”

“More than,” Nadine replies, pausing to gather her courage. Then, scandalously: “Love.”

“Ooh, Auntie,” Rose teases, mocking, in a whiny tone that you’d expect from a pre-teen boy sneering “cooties!”

“I thought you were mature,” says Nadine, reaching out to poke Rose’s cheek.

Rose turns her nose up. “I’m only 9.”

Nadine laughs. Rose is so obviously Junior and Viv’s child, she can’t help the sudden urge to hug her.

She gets away with swinging Rose into the air and carrying her over her shoulder, running twice around the room as she laughs and lets Nadine do this without complaint. Afterwards, they collapse onto the couch where Chloe’s got Blessing in her lap, the both of them watching the screen intently.

Rose gets comfortable, settled between Chloe and Nadine, while Nadine tries to sneak pictures of them all together.

She gets away with two before Chloe cuts away from Ron Stoppable in his tree house and looks directly at the camera. She gives Nadine a winning grin, tightening her arms around Blessing’s middle.

By 8:30, Blessing’s dozing off on Chloe’s sternum, snoring lightly. Similarly, Rose is nodding off against Nadine’s arm.

Sharing a look, they both get up, carrying a Ross in their arms. Nadine shushes Rose when she jolts awake, instinctively rocking on the balls of her feet in an attempt to get Rose to fall back asleep.

They go up the stairs to another hallway, Nadine leading Chloe to a door that has the letter R painted on it in baby blue. She sets Rose down in her bed, pulling the blanket over her shoulders and turning the A/C off in case it gets colder at night.

“The night light,” Chloe whispers. Nadine flips it on before ushering Chloe out, towards the door with B painted in mauve.

Chloe does the motions: tucking Blessing in, checking the A/C, and finding the night light.

Nadine leans against the doorframe, waiting for her to finish with the curtains. It’s weird, seeing Chloe like this. Not in a bad way, no. Nadine finds that she can watch Chloe do this for hours, fascinated.

There’s a warmth blossoming in her chest, the kind she feels when she’s come home for the first time in a while for Hanukkah and her family is gathered around the room, closer together because it’s cold outside.

Nadine is not entirely sure what she’s supposed to do with this.

In the end, Chloe finishes up and interrupts her introspection, shooing her away so she can close the door. As is natural by now, Chloe grabs her hand and gives it a pull towards the stairs. Nadine grips back before she can drop her hand away.

They don’t speak until they’re back in the living room, Kim Possible still playing on low volume. They won’t leave until Junior and Viv get back, in case the kids wake up again.

Out of nowhere, Chloe makes a thoughtful noise after easing onto the couch with a sigh.

Nadine examines her face, eyebrows hiking up when Chloe’s eyes flick to meet hers and discovers that they are arrestingly determined.

She uses her free hand to pull Nadine in for a languid kiss. It’s fairly innocent for them, so Nadine’s unsurprised when Chloe settles back into the couch after they part, focused on the TV.

“Liefie,” she says, waiting for Chloe to look over. “I think I like the babysitter.”

Chloe chuckles, pressing into Nadine’s side. “That’s convenient. I think I like the babysitter, too.”

It’s quiet then. Nadine’s content like this.

They get through three and a half episodes of Kim Possible before Chloe makes a really undignified noise at something that happens on screen and Nadine has to hide a laugh behind a cough. Chloe catches it and scowls at her.

“Hey now, Ross, that wasn’t—”

“Calm down, I won’t tell anyone that you’re a die hard Kim Possible fan.”

Chloe harrumphs, sprawling onto Nadine more so that she’s half on top of her.

Nadine winds her arm around Chloe’s waist and turns so her nose brushes Chloe’s cheek.

“Liefie,” she says again.

“Mhm,” Chloe replies distractedly.

“I love you.”

Chloe stiffens, and in quick succession, relaxes, tenses, and relaxes again.

She turns her head, swaying back so she can see Nadine’s face properly. Then, she smiles, eyes wrinkled at the corners and all, and says, “I love you too.”

Nadine can’t help but kiss her. This one is longer, more earnest.

And Chloe pulls away, sucking in a breath. “We should pick this up when we go back to the apartment.”

“Self-control? For once?” Nadine says against her jaw.

“I want to watch my favourite show: Kim Possible,” Chloe replies, voice light with mirth. “You’re just here for the commercial breaks.”

“It’s a DVD.”

Chloe blindly pats her face, mhms absentmindedly, and accepts a kiss to her cheek.

Nadine loves her for it.