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How did they get here?Willow heaved a deep breath, compensating for the last, few, shallow intakes she had. Her chest was tight, like the little space she found herself squashed into. She stared up wearily at the moon that's sprawled outside her window, unable to recognize whether it's dawn or the dead of the night still, but there's an earthquake beneath her skin, a pleased hum from all of her sore muscles that usually indicated a time that's well spent.Her mind was reeling, still trying to catch up, but instinctively, she understood that her bed was not designed to carry two people on it.Caroline Bartley snores softly next to Willow, with her back facing the cold wall. Her hands were balled into tight fists, and in them were two points of the sheepskin blanket that secured her monopoly over it.Willow clicked her tongue in distaste and had no qualms yanking it back to reestablish her dominion, until she had a peek of the nude skin underneath. Her eyes widened, and she let go. She remembered, the past thoughts coming back like a frenzied fire throughout her body. Sure, the accident might have taken one of her legs, but what's in between them stayed intact and unblemished. Now, Willow had proof that her libido was still working as intended, and by damnation did it pulse erratically last night, when she smuggled the other woman into her bedsheets.Her white swan stirred, the topmost of her chest being exposed to the touch of cold, dry winds from the sudden blanket extraction, but it was almost all muscle; she did not so much as blink although she did babble Willow's name carelessly like a drunk.Willow gave her forehead a peck, and then whispered, "sleep, love, it isn't yet dawn."Caroline's eyebrows smoothened out at once, like a good student, and she went back to dream. Only, this time, her hands reached out and pulled at Willow's waist, taking her back under the covers. "You kicking me out when it's dawn?" she asked in her sleepy voice, surprising Willow, who was counting on her to be asleep. There was a lick of challenge in her tone, and Willow was almost certain that they could easily trade insults and jabs while their heads were half buried in the dream world, and it was easy to do so at this point, easy, like how they'd each forged the instinct to find the other's gaze across the ballet hall and read the other's weaknesses and winning moves during practice.Some things were hard to change, it seemed; Willow added it to her ever-growing list of constants, below her own arrogance and Caroline's own grit."I might just," Willow answered simply.There's a sharp intake of breath, and Caroline took a peek at her from the blanket. She had lowered her side of the blanket such that those stupidly clear, stupidly blue eyes of her showed, while the rest below were covered. "Do you regret having sex with me?" she asked casually, muffled, like she was expecting Willow to not hear it at all, like it was a question that held no weight."I should think that's an inquiry that requires my brain in full, working order," Willow said, miffed. "Not like in the dead of the night."Caroline chuckled and relaxed. She switched until her back hit the mattress, stretching languidly like a felidae critter. There are crow's nests beside her eyes as she smiled, and it served as a reminder to Willow that they were not growing any younger. She remembered her words over the cup of tea earlier. "We each had our chance in the sun. I'm content with my time under the spotlight. I suppose I'm happy," she said with a lilting smile. Willow found it important to note down the change in perspective. They were stars, so had Caroline said at a much earlier, much tumultuous time. She, the sun, and Willow, merely a star that burned too brightly and fell way too fast. Now, in her own words, she wasn't even the sun; now, she's merely a voyager that got to bask in its glory?"Anyway, there were quite a few offers coming my way, offers to become head in a prolific floor ritual center in Canada, or to become head choreographer in another institute, or to become a personal coach to a several aspiring, young ritualists," she said, listing off with her fingers in a bored manner. That whole time, she was eyeing Willow carefully, like she was waiting for her to butt in or clarify a fact. From her face, Willow didn't get the impression that she was trying to brag, but what was she expecting her to say?Willow's place was this age-old mansion that she inherited. She'd had it when the rest of her world was crumbling. She'd grown roots all around it. She'd rot here until the end of her time.Then, Willow's mind took her someplace else."I want you," Caroline told her in a hushed whisper.Willow responded with the thinning of her lips and holding her own hand back from delivering a hasty slap. "You have everything you could possibly need, either tied up in a bow or served to you on a silver platter." She narrowed her eyes; neither of them were fools about each other's background. The surname Bartley had meant affluence and a long line of political personas that were recorded in the annals of time. "Why me, an invalid?"She might have slapped Caroline with that line anyway. How come she got to be more offended than Willow, in any case?"I want to see you, Charlotte," Caroline tried again. She cocked her head delicately, hurriedly, like she would expire soon enough. "All of you. Let me love you."Willow was no stranger to want.Being thrust in the spotlight meant getting a glimpse of people's admiration for you and how deeply they ran. Willow never got a taste, not even a tincture on her tongue; she found that their candor left much to be desired in the end. Men's want prickled like a nasty scar on her skin. Unlike women, they didn't feel the need to mask their attraction. This meant that they were more often than not raking their eyes over her figure and slobbering inside at the thought of a possible conquest. Women were much better, but Willow had seen the kind of jealousy they could mask under a beguiling smile. Especially in a competitive setting like sports, ambition burned first, and people got creative with how they attempt to best top score.Caroline was like a ghost. Her want was tempered than most, though her grit was similar to all the other girls who shared her and Willow's classes. She wanted to overtake. She wanted the crown, and she strived to take it from Willow. That kind of ambition was exhilarating; Willow played into the heat, sometime in the past, this quest for domination over the rest in the realm of sports. But in the context of love, it was more daunting than it was exhilarating.
"Hell no, you are not... you are not going to want me when you see all of me, Caroline."
Willow was sure she was going to leave. Attention and want were fickle like that. Once Caroline got a taste, she would be appeased, and then she would forget Willow and leave for good. And when she didn't and stayed - Willow remembered that she hadn't yet taken on this name then - she landed a resounding slap across Caroline's cheeks. She'd seen in slow motion how her neck lolled sideways, how the her eyes widened when the strike landed, how shock came first on her face.And then anger, and then sorrow.The dead fought for a chance to be heard again while the living trudged through their wake, in grief yet unhearing. Caroline died along with Willow's aspirations that were cut short because of the tragedy. When Willow left, that anguish she'd invoked in her rival stopped haunting her in sleep. She'd repurposed her focus. The dance never quite left her limbs like the phantom pain on her leg, but the distance made it much more bearable.Then, Caroline showed up on her porch, during the incident of the smog. Decidedly alive, livid even. Then, their paths crossed a few times thereafter.When she got too close to the sun, Willow thought to hide for safety, but Caroline easily saw through her and gave chase. She never seemed to get tired of that dance, did she?Willow almost denied her earlier this day; she pretended to have ears of steel and let the voice that called out from her porch flutter away like a page in the wind. But Caroline was the stubborn sort, and she'd sooner catch a cold- she'd plant herself among the tall, cloying weeds on the front yard and camp among the carbuncles until Willow took notice of her shivering frame.Earlier, as it had been in the memory, Willow found Caroline between her legs. Her grin had aged, but the grit in it was a permanent affix - this, Willow had come to realize belatedly. "Are we about to have that conversation again?" she had asked cheekily before the plunge, and after it, when her chin glistened with wetness, she'd said, "how I've longed to taste you, Willow. You have not an idea, have you? Utter fool." And Willow unraveled a second time from those words.Willow had expected the discomfort. She'd thrashed more the first time she saw what became of her leg and gave the nurses a hard time with her wailing. She'd had to learn to walk more than two times, and what was left of the explosion were gnarly scars and shallow, blue veins from her knee up. There was nothing else to see below, but her body tried its damnest to trick her that it was still where it should be.In Caroline's eyes, she relived all that. But when the woman blinked, all that remained in the reflection of her eyes was grit. She'd taken Willow into her arms and kissed her senseless."Now, I know you're not fond of me sticking like hot gum on your heel. You want your space. You're very protective of your home. I get it," Caroline said at present. Her hand was raised up, three fingers standing as she thought on it intently. The sky outside had gone from deep and dark to a washed-out and friendly blue. There were robins chirping in their perches. "I'm serious about you, Willow, but I'm also a very... flexible person, and I'd take whatever you can give me until you're ready."Deep inside where her heart had soared, Willow kept the spillage of joy where Caroline could not see it. Outwardly, she scoffed with disapproval. "You like to presume things, don't you, Caroline?" she sneered. "That seems to be a broad weakness of yours, and you've yet to shed it! So make it quick."Caroline scrunched up her eyebrows. "What do you mean by that?"She took a deep breath. "I'm saying that..." Willow took her hand and entwined their fingers. The first streaks of joy came as a smile, but the fool only gawked and continued to look confused. "Whatever this is between us, I'm more than willing to make it official with you."Caroline blinked a few times and then opened and closed her mouth another few times. Willow's sure it was her hearing was most important at this particular moment, but she seemed hellbent on motor-testing all her other senses first."Willow, you... I..."Willow snapped, "it's not good manners to leave the woman you're trying to date hanging!" She could get used to this squirming, knocked-out-of-her-wits Caroline. She made sure to hide a smile to see the bit through."You!"The faint silhouette of the spilling dawn latched onto her cheeks, and Willow realized that Caroline was weeping now, her face damp on either side.Caroline was still speechless when she threw herself at Willow, curling into her body and rocking gently as if to soothe herself. "Willow, I'd love to be your girlfriend!" she said eventually, crying into her shoulder.