#i think i might experiment with different haircuts sooner rather than later just because it’s really damaged

[spark1edog]

sometimes it’s tempting to cut my hair short again to maybe get gendered correctly in public but also i really like the mullet 😭

[sparkandwolf]

Hello! for the femslash free for all: I would love to read about Melissa McCall and Natalie Martin realizing that they are dating, or maybe the point where they have to decide one way or the other which direction their friendship is going. :)

This got... out of hand asdkjfakl;sd But I did not expect to be so inspired!! Thank you so much for requesting this pairing as I had never considered them before!! 

~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~

“Mom, Lydia is gonna be over in a half hour with Ms. Martin. Can they stay for dinner again?” Scott asked, tossing his bag next to the door before grabbing a bag of Doritos from the snack cabinet. Melissa sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. She didn’t need to say anything else for Scott to neatly put his backpack where it belonged. He walked over and pressed a gentle kiss to his mother’s cheek before smiling widely up at her. 

“Of course they can. You and Lydia still working on that chemistry project?” Melissa asked, smoothing Scott’s hair back from his forehead. She made a mental reminder to set him up with a haircut sooner rather than later. 

“Yeah, we’re almost done, though! We present in a few days so this is probably our last study session,” Scott said, eyeing Melissa carefully. She stared back at him, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. 

“What is that look for?” She asked and Scott just groaned and looked up at the ceiling. 

“You really are--” Before he could finish, Scott pressed his lips closed and backed toward the stairs, --” the best mom in the entire world?” 

“Nice save, kid,” Melissa called as he ran upstairs as quickly as he could to avoid any further conversation. As she sat down on the couch and flipped absent-mindedly through the channels, she couldn’t help but think that Scott knew about the one thing she was all too aware of and trying to avoid at all costs. 

It had only been a few months that Lydia and Scott’s friendship started growing closer and closer. Melissa was happy Scott had another friend other than Stiles and Stiles seemed happy to include Lydia in their little group, so she made sure to be as warm and welcoming as she could. To Melissa, that meant making sure Lydia’s family knew they were welcome in her home just as much as Lydia was.

She had found out that Natalie had gotten divorced from her husband a few years ago and they both clicked almost immediately. A life experience like that really bonded two people and soon, any time Lydia visited the house, Natalie trailed along with her. It was more often than not that they had dessert nights and morning coffee runs and Sunday night dinners started to include the group of three kids and their single parents. Melissa told herself they were all the best of friends who cared for each other as such, but the more time she spent with both parents, the more she realized that maybe what she felt for Stiles’ father couldn’t be compared to what she felt for Natalie. 

She cursed herself for raising such a sensitive son who seemed to understand what was going on better than she did and leaned her head back against the couch with a groan. Scott made a point to mention the end of the study sessions because that meant there wouldn’t be any more excuses for Melissa and Natalie to spend time together without any other adults and really, that wouldn’t do for her. 

When the doorbell rang what seemed like seconds later, Melissa glanced at the clock and saw that it was already almost five in the evening. She should have already started dinner for the four of them. She launched off of the couch and shouted a quick, “Come in,” then made her way to the kitchen. She heard Lydia’s petite footsteps make their way up the stairs and her skin seemed to erupt in tingles when Natalie entered the room. Melissa didn’t hear her but felt her presence every time. 

“Hey, Mel,” Natalie said, walking up to the counter as if she had already made herself at home there. The thought alone had Melissa’s heart stuttering in her chest. 

“Hi, Nat! I’m glad you could come tonight. I would have usually had dinner ready by now, but Scott distracted me when he got home and I barely have even had time to empty the dishwasher let alone start putting together the lasagne you guys like so much. I hope you don’t mind waiting a little bit to eat--” Melissa could hear herself rambling but she couldn’t stop. “I could probably find some cheese and crackers or even some toasted bread with that Italian herbed oil you taught me how to make - which is so incredibly delicious I might add--” 

“Melissa…” Natalie’s voice stopped her from talking - finally, she thought in relief - and her hands rested gently on Melissa’s shoulders, her thumbs smoothing over Melissa’s collarbones lightly. It wasn’t that Natalie hadn’t touched her before, but something felt different in the way her fingertips brushed over her skin and the look in her eyes as she tried to get Melissa to catch her gaze. 

“I always said that Scott got his rambling tendencies from his father, but I think I just proved myself wrong,” Melissa said with a nervous chuckle, clearing her throat before finally looking up at Natalie. 

“Lydia told me on the way here that I have to stop pretending I don’t have feelings for you and that Scott was telling you to do the same thing. Is that what distracted you?” Natalie asked and Melissa thought her heart stopped. She nodded because even though Scott hadn’t outright said it, he knew that the insinuation would have been enough for Melissa’s mind to make the connection and spiral. 

“I’m pretty sure we’ve been dating since the beginning of this semester,” Melissa added quickly, reaching her hand up to push a stray curl away from her face. Natalie grabbed her hand before she could put it back down awkwardly at her side as it was before. Their fingers entwined slowly and Natalie’s other hand slid gently down Melissa’s arm to hold that hand, too. It would have been an almost friendly gesture if Natalie hadn’t taken another step forward. They were chest to chest and Melissa could feel Natalie’s heart beating just as fast as hers. It eased the bit of anxiety she felt bubbling in her stomach. 

“It seems we have two choices here,” Natalie began, rubbing her thumbs soothingly over the backs of Melissa’s almost trembling hands. “We can either continue on as friends in our little ‘single parents of teens’ club, or…” She trailed off and Melissa gulped nervously. 

“Or you kiss me and we pretend we haven’t been as dumb as said teens for the last few months?” Melissa guessed and Natalie’s beautiful laughter filled the air. Before she could second guess herself, Melissa leaned forward and pressed their lips together hesitantly, tugging their hands apart so she could hold Natalie’s face gently in her hands. They sighed into it, as it was a kiss that was a long time coming for both of them, and Melissa thought it couldn’t have been more perfect. 

But of course, when you have teenagers, every perfect moment is inevitably ruined. The sounds of cheerful awes and fake gagging had them breaking apart, both blushing wildly as they glared at their children. Lydia was clapping excitedly while Scott was pretending to be disgusted, but Melissa knew he was secretly happy for them. 

“It’s about damn time!” They said in unison. 

“Language!” The mom’s chastised, and it was like nothing and everything changed all at once. 

Send me WLW prompts for Femslash February

[fullbattleregalia]

(The Android 20 Universe continues with Part 4!  And, er, I’m tagging @chestnutisland and @deadlybeautydbz since you’re both interested in this story.  Yay!)

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

For the first time since leaving Gero’s lab, gray clouds were beginning to pile up and hang low in the sky.  18 stared up at the clouds.  She had joined 20, perching on the backseats next to him when 17 had whined his way back into the driver’s seat two hours earlier.  The wind riffled through her hair.  The air was soft and cool against her face with the promise of rain.  No wonder 20 seemed to be enjoying sitting back here so much.

18 glanced over at 20.  The lines of tension leftover from last night’s fuel station incident had finally smoothed away completely from around his eyes.  His chin was tilted up slightly, and a small, contented smile was pulling up the corners of his mouth.  18 looked away again.  Her cheeks felt ever so slightly warmer than usual.  It was probably just windburn – nothing important.  It didn’t occur to her that, with Gero’s modifications, windburn was likely something she would never experience.  She shifted through her memories to try and see if she could remember ever actually experiencing rain.  On the radio someone was playing a truly spectacular rift on the electric guitar.

Just as 18 was coming to the conclusion that she had no memories of what rain felt like against skin but one of a storm so violent that she had been able to hear the rain rattling against Gero’s thick metal doors, the entire car jerked to the right.  Only their superhuman reflexes kept 18 and 20 from being flung out onto the highway as the car skidded across three lanes of traffic and down an exit ramp.

“What the hell, 17?!” 20 yelped, clinging so hard to the side of the car that he was in danger of leaving a dent.  Behind them on the highway, tires screeched, horns blared, and drivers swore.

“We are going to the aquarium,” 17 announced cheerfully.

“What?!” demanded 18 and 20 in unison.

“There was a billboard back there for an aquarium, and they have a petting tank.  I want to pat a stingray.  It said something about being able to pat jellyfish, too.”

“I thought jellyfish were poisonous,” 20 put in hesitantly.  It sounded more like a question than a statement.

“Yeah,” 17 grinned.  “It sounds like a challenge!”

“Huh.  Okay. Sure, why not,” 20 nodded.

18 considered the prospect of fish.  Bright, colorful fish.  Something old and forgotten and buried beneath programming and trauma stirred and brightened at the idea.

“Okay,” she agreed as well.

“Good,” 17’s grin widened, “because you two didn’t actually have a choice.”

20 laughed, and 18 rolled her eyes at her brother’s antics, but she wasn’t actually annoyed.  With every mile farther that they drove in the lime green convertible, the pressing need to find Son Goku seemed to wane further and further.  It was a good game, a good excuse, but 18 was starting to wonder if she just might be happy if they never quite made it to Mt. Paozu.

 The aquarium was a massive building with wide, dimly lit corridors. Most of the bright light came from the floor to ceiling glass tanks embedded in the walls where schools of exotic fish darted around reconstructed segments of coral reef and rainforest tree roots.  17 dragged them past all these without pause, following the signs to the petting tank area.

Even their first visit to the restaurant with the moo shu pork hadn’t prepared 18 for this many people.  The petting tank room was large, brightly lit, and packed.  Excited, babbling young voices practically drowned out 18’s own thoughts, and she was tempted to clamp her hands over her ears.

17 elbowed his way to the front of the crowd without care for subtlety or politeness, rolled up his sleeves, and stuck his hands in the water of the shallow, sandy-bottomed tank to touch the first thing he could reach – a horseshoe crab. His face brightened with almost childlike delight.  

20 peered at the side of the tank where tank a small ray about eight inches across was pressing its belly to the glass.

“It looks like it’s smiling.”  20 gently touched his fingers to the clear barrier.

“Be very gentle.”  A cheetah woman wearing an aquarium employee shirt was showing 17 how to touch one of the little rays.  “Just let your fingers skim over its back.  Any harder and you might hurt or stress the animal.”

18 rolled up her sleeves and plunged her hands into the cool saltwater as well.  She let her fingers trace over the back of a ray as it swam serenely past.  Rubbery sandpaper with sharp ridges of spine. Next to her, 20 had his red wrist bracers tucked under one arm and was laughing at the texture of the starfish under his hand.  18 looked from her brother’s delighted expression – possibly the most relaxed and happy she had even seen him – to 20’s massive grin as he helped a freckled little girl to pat the starfish as well.  Then 18 reached out to touch the hard, smooth shell of a horseshoe crab. This had definitely been a good idea.

The jellyfish were in a separate tank and turned out to be moon jellies and nonvenomous to humans – much to 17’s disappointment.  You didn’t so much pat them as hold your hand in the water and allow the jellyfish’s translucent white doom to bump softly into your fingers. 18 found the moon jellyfish peaceful and soothing despite the cacophony of children going on around them.

“We’re going to the jellyfish exhibit next,” announced 18 when they finally left the petting tank room.

17 blinked at her.

“But sharks.”  He pointed down a different hall.

“We have all day.  Sharks later – jellyfish now.”  18 caught 17 by the wrist and 20 by the hand and started towing them in the direction of the jellyfish exhibit.

“And then the coral reef fish,” 20 added.  His cheeks were tinted the slightest bit pink.  

“Coral reef fish and more prawn crackers,” 17 agreed.

“Haven’t you had enough of those?”

“You can never have enough prawn crackers.”

Hours swirled by in colorful splashes and sparkles of chaotic, breathtaking life.  There was a massive oval tank that you could walk down the center of like you were swimming with the fish themselves, and on the level below that sharks drifted by with graceful menace.  Jellyfish trailed tentacles like ribbon and lace streamers beneath ruffled skirts, and silver hatchet fish flashed along the bottom of a fake rainforest riverbed.

They had been at the aquarium for almost four hours when 18 caught sight of her reflection in the glass of a dark, underwater shipwreck display.  She hadn’t thought much about her appearance in a long time, because until now it hadn’t been hers.  The image in the glass was shadowy and a little fuzzy.  The low lighting caught her face oddly and made half her hair look shorter than it actually was.  In her earliest memories, 18’s hair was long, falling past her shoulder blades.  Then between one awakening from stasis and then next her hair had been clipped to above shoulder length to match 17’s.  18 considered her distorted reflection.  She looked… good with short hair.  Less like Gero’s doll in a box.  She wasn’t in a box anymore.  If she wanted to cut her hair so it didn’t match her brother’s, she could. It was a surprisingly liberating thought.

20’s reflection joined hers in the darkened glass.  The strange cast of shadows made his face look solemn.  It didn’t suit him.  She looked away from the glass and down at 20.  He gave her a smile.  She gave him a small smile in return.  

“I’m getting a haircut,” 18 told him just so that she could hear the words out loud.

20’s eyebrows furrowed together slightly,

“I don’t think that’s something you can do at the aquarium.”

18 snorted and then, after a moment’s hesitation, reached out and bumped 20 lightly in the shoulder with her fist like she had seen him do to 17.

“I meant after we leave the aquarium.”

“In that case,” said 17, leaning in and startling them both, “I want a hat.”

“A hat?” asked 20 skeptically.

“Yup.  A hat. It saw a sign that says souvenirs, and I want a souvenir, and that souvenir is going to be a hat.”

17 could not be talked out of buying a hat, though thankfully 18 did manage to convince him to buy the baseball cap with the stylized shark rather than the stupidly grinning purple fish.  Somewhere in the melee of the gift shop, 17 acquired another wallet since their current one was almost out of zenni.

 18 stared at her reflection in the mirror as the hairdresser removed the drape from around her shoulders.  A ‘pixie cut,’ the hairdresser had called it.  18 didn’t think much of the name, but she did like how it looked on her. She ran her hands through her hair, enjoying the sudden feel of air on her fingers so much sooner than expected. Her head felt lighter.

“Huh.”  17 was peering around the corner at her.  Apparently he’d acquired a new bag of prawn crackers while he’d been waiting.  “Now you and 20 match.”

“We do not,” 18 scowled, crossing her arms.

“Yeah,” agreed 20, leaning around 17, “hers is way longer and doesn’t stick up in the front.  You look really nice, 18.”

“Thank you, 20.  And for that comment, 17, I’m driving next.”

“Awww,” 17 pouted, but she ignored him.

18 glanced at her image in the mirror one more time before turning to go. The different hairstyle made her look a touch older, and for some reason, her eyes seemed a little brighter. There was a light to them that she didn’t remember seeing before.

She headed for the door.

 Around dawn the next morning 18 finally relented and let 17 have the steering wheel back.  They were getting steadily closer to Mt. Paozu.  Even on the meandering backroads 17 had taken them back onto, they should be there by tomorrow.  18 had stopped trying to direct 17 using their map.  She wasn’t reluctant to find Son Goku but- but-

Well, whatever the reason, she was content to just let 17 take them in more or less the right direction.

20 was flipping through radio stations, pausing on one for barely a few seconds before switching to the next.  17 finally caught 20’s wrist before he could press the button again.

“Yeah, no.  That is both annoying and distracting.”

“You’re hardly one to talk,” 20 shot back good-naturedly.  17 made a ‘this is true’ face.  “Besides,” 20 commented off-handedly, “I’m supposed to be distracting.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked 18, twisting to look at him from the passenger seat.

“Hm?  Oh, it was just something Gero said once,” 20 shrugged.

For some reason, that comment left a bad taste in 18’s mouth.