The Nettle Tea Chronicles

Cassandra

Cassandra had to pause in front of her fridge to breathe. Her night had not gone the way she had imagined - not in the slightest. But that certainly did not mean that she was upset by it. If anything, things had gone so much better than she had ever imagined.

She had been fully expecting one of two things. Either Zoe would respond to her message with a joke or otherwise be unable to drop by. Or, if she was really reaching, maybe Zoe would come by and they would hang out for a bit while Cassandra awkwardly tried not to do anything weird.

Instead, Zoe had not only turned up, but they had talked fairly candidly about things. Including their feelings for one another.

Admittedly, they didn't talk too in depth about any of it, mostly just confirming they liked one another. But that was still a pretty big step for them. And it was certainly the first step to talking about where they actually stood with each other.

Girlfriend.

Just thinking about it made Cass giddy. She felt almost childish as she leaned on the open fridge door and bounced on the balls of her feet as she retrieved two water bottles. Once she placed them on the table and had the popcorn in the microwave heating, she peaked up the stairs to see if the way was clear.

"Zoe," she called, "did you want anything else? Or just popcorn and water?"

"I think I'm good…Actually, no, bring up some soda too. If we're gonna have popcorn with the movie, we may as well go all the way."

"Kay." She called back. After snatching another round of cola from the fridge to join the water bottles on the table, she did a little happy dance in the kitchen, satisfied that Zoe wouldn't see her.

Once the popcorn actually started popping, she gathered an old plastic bowl to dump the popcorn in once it was done. With that settled, she slid the soda cans into her pockets, which were actually nicely sized on the pajama bottoms she wore, and took everything back up the stairs with her. She had to be careful, because the older building's staircase was remarkably thin. The steps themselves weren't very deep, only fitting around the front half of her foot, leaving it always feeling somewhat precarious.

As she made it up to the landing, she had to stop and adjust to pull her PJs up thanks to the soda cans' attempt at pulling her pants down. She grinned widely when she stepped into her room and saw Zoe perched on her bed. She had grabbed a pillow and was hugging it comfortably in her lap.

"That smells amazing." Zoe said, tossing the pillow back to the far side of the bed.

"It's just microwave popcorn. With some extra added melted butter." Cass said, grinning. She placed the water bottles into a small mini-fridge she had in her room, then picked out the soda cans from her pockets and offered one to Zoe.

"On, nice, you have a fridge in here?"

"I do. It's small though, and I completely cleaned it out while I was home today." Cass said. "Ready?"

"Yep."

Cass stepped up to her PC, and clicked into the next movie. She slid her chair out of the way so they would both have an unblocked view of the large screen, then climbed onto the bed. She crawled past Zoe to sit on the wall-side of the bed, which was where she usually slept - something about being closer to the wall felt better to her - and set up the pillows there against the headboard to sit up.

When Zoe turned to see what Cass was doing with all the shifting around, Cassandra patted the spot next to her and fluffed up the pillows for Zoe to sit against. Zoe happily slid back against the makeshift seat and pulled the popcorn up so the bowl sat between them as the opening of the movie played.

Cass had to keep her soda carefully propped up on the bed only for a little while as they ran through the popcorn and drinks remarkably fast. Zoe hadn't been kidding that she had room for the popcorn, because while Cass wouldn't have argued that a microwave bag was big, she didn't expect the two of them to polish it off in the first fifteen minutes of the movie. Neither of them were far behind on their soda either, the cans both empty shortly thereafter.

The movie was one that Cass knew well, and she had watched it regularly enough that she really didn't mind getting up to take care of clean up. When she started to move, though, Zoe stopped her, gathering up the bowl and their cans.

"I got it. You separated everything in the kitchen, but only have one bin up here?"

"You can leave the bowl on the desk and throw all the trash in the bin. I'll separate it later."

"Gotcha."

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"Wanna grab the water?"

"Yup. The butter and salt really leaves you thirsty…"

"Yeah, and the soda doesn't do much for that." Cass chuckled as Zoe retrieved the waters and returned to the bed. She was glad the bottles had tops, so she could sip at it for a while, reseal it, and worry a little less about spillage while letting the bottle just lay wherever on the bed. Zoe, at least, had access to a bedside table on her side, and she even put the coaster on it within reach to leave the water bottle on it.

From there, their little watch party continued easily. They laughed and chatted about the movie idly, both having seen it multiple times before. A few times during it, Zoe pulled out her phone to check on more responses about the holiday in the Clan chat, showing the screen to Cass so they could laugh at the group's chatter. Cass had left her phone down in the kitchen by accident, when she pulled it out to carry the sodas, but she didn't really miss it.

Each time Zoe pulled out her phone to look at the messages, she shifted a little closer to Cass to help her see. It was incremental at first, and Cassandra didn't think much of it. But when Zoe kept checking her phone - far more than necessary - taking every opportunity to lean a little closer, Cass caught on.

There was still another hour or so in the movie when Zoe pulled out her phone to check on the chat for the umpteenth time, prompting Cass to roll her eyes.

"Just come here already."

Cass grabbed Zoe by the shoulders and pulled her almost into her lap. The bed was big enough that the smaller woman was half reclined across Cassandra's middle, propped up on Cass' arm. Cassandra had to fight the urge to slip her arm under Zoe's knees and pull Zoe fully into her lap.

Zoe looked up at her, the shock clear in her widened eyes, but nothing in her expression read as bothered or uncomfortable. If anything, the soft expression told Cass that she was more than happy in their current position.

"I have to admit, I didn't expect that." Zoe laughed, and angled her phone screen so they could both read the messages. Firo was apparently having an argument with Bisky over the best baked treats. Mostly, it was Firo arguing in favor of cookies, while Bisky was arguing for more bready treats like croissants.

"No? Are you about to tell me the way you've slowly been inching closer all night wasn't on purpose?" Cass smiled, reaching around Zoe with her free arm to clasp her own hands, essentially placing Zoe in a loose embrace.

Cass watched as Zoe's eyes slowly rose up to the side innocently. She said "No…?" but it was entirely unconvincing.

"Alright, then, would you prefer I let you go and help you sit back up?"

Zoe appeared to consider the question for a moment before she nodded assertively. "Yes, I think I would prefer that."

Cass did her best not to look a little hurt as she helped Zoe sit back upright and settle back into her spot against the pillows at the head of the bed. She clasped her hands together and let them sit in her lap to keep herself in check.

She wanted to at least sling an arm around Zoe or something, but she also wanted to be sure that Zoe was as comfortable as she could be, considering Cass felt pretty sure that Zoe's acceptance of their potential new relationship was on shaky ground. Or, at least, she definitely had gotten the vibe that Zoe was unsure of her own decision to move forward with a relationship somehow.

As Cass settled into her spot to just watch the movie and hopefully keep Zoe comfortable, Zoe did a lot of moving around instead. She leaned over to put her phone on the table beside the water bottle, then snatched the bottle to take a few long pulls of water. She let out an extremely satisfied 'ah' after the sixth gulp, capped the bottle and put it back, but still left her phone.

Then she pulled out her car keys, which had evidently been in her pockets the whole time, and dropped those beside her phone, along with a chapstick that had also been in her pocket. With that sorted, Zoe slid back over to sit beside Cass, their hips touching.

"You alright?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah." Zoe answered, as she wiggled her bottom around, trying to get comfortable. Cass did her best to simply ignore Zoe's wiggling around until eventually Zoe just sighed. "I can't get comfy. Give me your arm."

"Which - oh." Cass chuckled as Zoe grabbed the closer arm, lifted it, and inserted herself neatly against Cass' side. Cass let her arm fall on top of the pillows they were resting against, which made for a convenient ledge to rest her arm on, keeping it from sitting awkwardly behind Zoe's neck or head.

"Better." Zoe asserted, snuggling into Cass' side for a moment. Cass was struggling not to laugh as Zoe seemed completely determined to get comfy, but still seemed dissatisfied, pouting a little while trying to decide what was missing. She shifted against Cass in a few different ways, trying to make up her mind as to which was the best way to cuddle.

"May I suggest an option?" Cass asked, "If you're not opposed to moving some more?"

Zoe glanced up at her, a distinct glint in her eye that read to Cass like she was mostly playing around. That honestly suited Cass just fine. "You have a better idea?"

"Potentially. As long as you aren't lap adverse."

"Hit me with it." Zoe said, then added, "But just tell me where to go, don't pull me around."

"I can do that. Get up for a sec." Cass said, and Zoe followed the instruction without objection, scrambling up to her knees on the bed. Cassandra slid some of the pillows around to fit snugly in the corner where the headboard met the wall, and really made a nice cushion with them. Then she leaned back against them, facing almost directly toward the monitor with the movie, and spread her legs enough to give Zoe a spot to sit against her, patting the comforter.

Zoe beamed and nodded, shuffling into the spot prepared just for her. Once she settled in, Cass put her arms around Zoe again, holding her lightly in place against her front, while Zoe leaned back lazily.

"How's that?"

Cass felt a smile spread across her face as Zoe's head tilted up as far as she could manage against Cass' chest, looking up to try to meet gazes. Zoe had a similarly bright smile on her face as she said, "Perfect."

As they sat together and watched the movie, Zoe's hands wandered about, eventually finding their way under each of Cass' knees, snugly wedged there. The arrangement had felt a little strange at first, but as the movie continued, Cass found the position to be quite comfortable.