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How it starts: "Yo, McKinnon! I'm gonna be a Ghostbuster with you!" How it starts: Kate has a girlfriend. And then she doesn't.How it starts: Last week at SNL, everyone scrambling to get the show on, rewriting late into the night. Around midnight Leslie emails her a packing list for filming, ten jokes about scientists and historians and walking into bars, and links to boston.com’s top city sports events, top city comedy clubs, top city best places to eat and drink and dance. Kate sends back a Wikipedia post on architecture distinctive to Suffolk County and a map of the Freedom Trail. Uuuuuuuuugh, Kate hears through her wall, slightly muted. Leslie’s four offices down the corridor; Kate always finds herself dawdling at her door on her way to visit Aidy. She likes the sound of her laugh. FINE, Leslie responds, a full two minutes later. You're my best girl, Jones, Kate types back.How it starts: Leslie kisses her in the women's room five hours into the party Paul's assistant organizes their last night out in LA for rehearsals and costume fittings and some light stunt training, them both hazy from nerves and excitement and the bottles and bottles of wine Kristen keeps ordering for the table, hands cradling Kate's jawline and a thumb on her cheekbone, easy, like they've done this a thousand times before.How it starts: Kate gasps, and growls, and kisses her right back.***Next morning Kate sprawls across an armchair in the hotel lobby, head pounding. Props her feet up on her suitcase and looks around ineffectually. Their car to LAX is scheduled to pick them up in ten and she needs an advil and she needs a coffee and she needs to do a better job adhering to her rules about not making out with her colleagues. Not drinking more than half a glass of anything alcoholic. Leslie walks out of the elevator bay, refreshed and cheerful, giant Starbucks cup in hand."Leslie Jones, light of my life, wife of my heart," Kate intones, serious. "No, nope, don't do that," Leslie says, dropping down into the chair next to her.Kate tenses. ”Do what?""Don't do that thing I've seen you do with other people, where you aggressively ignore the fact that we were making bedroom eyes at each other last night and next day you unilaterally decide to retreat back to the friendzone and shield yourself, all flirty and good-natured and short.""I do not—I don’t hide in my stature." Kate slumps deeper into her chair."You are literally doing exactly that right now.""I'm not--okay fine, okay fine you know what, I am." Kate sits up straighter, fiddles with her thumbs. Stares forlornly at her backpack. "I just find that it makes it less awkward, to pretend it never happened. I just find that it makes it easier for my--to my knowledge--otherwise very straight lady friends.""I don't want to pretend it never happened."Kate perks up. "You don't?""McKinnon, were you even there last night? I kissed you first!""I know, and it was lovely," Kate says, earnest, leaning forward and resting her hands on Leslie's. "But baby, darling, my love: you're straight, and I'm not, and I'm sorry, I love you, but I can't get involved in that kind of nonsense."Leslie rolls her eyes. "I'm not straight, first of all, and second of all. Don't make this weird."Kate looks down at their hands, still touching. "Okay. Let's not make this weird, then.”***They're seated next to each other on their flight home to New York. Leslie cheers her way through a teen dystopian blockbuster. Kate pops in her earbuds and turns up her music, plays the air guitar. Falls asleep somewhere over Colorado. Wakes up on final descent, her head on Leslie's shoulder.Kate hugs her goodbye at baggage claim, and tries not to feel put out that filming doesn’t start for another two weeks. That the studio booked separate cars for them to Boston. That Leslie gets there two days later.She goes home. She plays with her cat. She definitely does not read into what it means that Leslie texts her twenty things that make her smile, including good night.***The set in Boston feels like Christmas morning, the bustle of equipment and cameras and people and props. Melissa and Kristen envelop her in a giant hug and drag her over to see their Higgins lab and their Zhu's lab, to meet the costume department and the lighting department and the special effects department, any and everyone they come across. There’s a perma-grin plastered on Kate’s face she couldn’t get rid of, even if she wanted to.Get here faster, Les, she types out on her phone. Hits send.***They make plans to explore Boston together, the first weekend, once Leslie's settled. Leslie knocks on Kate's door at 10am, coffee in hand."McKinnon. You're a disaster.""What?" Kate says, defensive, looking down at herself. She's wearing cut-off fashion sweats and old sneaks and a paint-stained bowling team shirt. "You're dressed comfy too!" Gestures vaguely at Leslie's leggings and glittery t-shirt."Yeah. But I look good."Kate grins, slow. Looks her up and down. "Yeah you do.""Put on real clothes. I'm not going to get thrown out of any cultural institutions or restaurants or duck tours because one of us is dressed like a ragamuffin.""Leslie, if you want to get in my pants, all you have to do is ask," Kate drawls."Baby, when I want to get in your pants, you will know."Kate grabs a pair of shorts and a tee. Changes in the bathroom. Calls out, as she's wrestling the shirt over her head: "Hey, do you think we should've like. Invited the others?"Leslie pauses before answering. "Well, Melissa has her whole family here, and Kristen--""Kristen has her ukelele, or whatever."Kate opens the bathroom door."Yeah," Leslie agrees. Eyes her, up and down. "Kristen has her ukelele, or whatever."***Kate grabs Leslie's hand as they work their way through the crowds in Faneuil Hall, slips it into the crook of her elbow. Guides her over to an ice cream cart. Leslie doesn't let go.***Week two exhaustion sets in, working working working and sleeping too little, Kate anxious about not knowing what the fuck she’s doing, stressed about finding and maintaining and growing a character over the course of a seventy-two day shoot, worried all of her three-minute sketch comedy bones are showing. By midday Friday, all she wants to do is crawl into her bed and stay there.“What are we doing this weekend,” Leslie calls out to her during their food break, in between studying her script and checking her twitter.“We?” Kate asks, wearily.“Yep, you’re my bitch, you’ve got to entertain me. Comes with the package.”“We’re ordering room service and watching Mel Brooks movies.”Which she means as a joke. Mostly. But when Leslie shows up at her door twenty minutes after they’re dropped off at the hotel that night, she just pulls it open wider, gestures inside. “M’ lady.”Groans as Leslie staggers in and immediately flops down onto her bed. “We’ve got to start this movie immediately or I’m falling asleep.”“Mmmkay,” Kate agrees, crawling in next to her. Reaches feebly for the remote. Is asleep before she finds it.Wakes up twelve hours later half cuddled in to Leslie’s side. She’s awake, tapping away at her phone. Kate suspects she might be snapchatting.“Morning,” Leslie says. “Also hey, what in god’s name is that?” she asks, gesturing to the mess of wires and metal on her desk. "That's my soldering kit. I’m practicing.”“Well, it looks like you're building a bomb.”“It’s not a bomb. It’s an alarm system that may or may not work because I haven’t actually tested it. But I’m pretty sure it does.”They order breakfast and order a movie and mostly stay in bed, covers tangled up around their feet, though Leslie gets up to collect their food when room service knocks, and Kate gets up to pee. They settle back against the pillows and click play on the next thing ondemand. Kate wraps a tentative arm around Leslie’s shoulders. Leslie rests her hand on Kate’s knee.And it’s nice, it’s so nice, Leslie is warm and soft and every time she laughs and leans into Kate harder, there’s a low swooping feeling deep in her belly. She wants to press her face into Leslie’s neck and curl her hand around her waist and crawl into her heart and stay.Kate’s phone lights up. She feels Leslie go still.“You got a girl, Kate?” Leslie asks. Her voice sounds very careful.Kate swallows. Pulls back her arm. Holds her phone in both hands, not looking at it. “No, it’s just—it’s just my cat walker.”"What the fuck is a cat walker?""It's like a dog walker. But for cats.""That doesn't even--the entire point of cats is that the only thing they need humans for is to occasionally clean out their litterbox. What, does she stroll your cat around the neighborhood on a leash?""Nah. She just sits and plays quietly with him and sends me lots of photographs. Look, see.” Kate opens up her photo app, taps her Nino album. Hands her phone to Leslie. Leans closer, so she can see the screen as she flips through it, resting a reassuring hand on Leslie’s thigh. Nino on the couch. Nino on the table. Nino in the bathtub."He's cute," Leslie says, quietly."Yeah," Kate agrees. Rests her chin on Leslie's shoulder. "You want to pick the next movie?"***Kate stands on her tiptoes and kisses the side of Leslie’s mouth when she leaves to go back to her room."Should've been doing this sooner," Leslie murmurs.***"Eat my entire ass, Jones," when Leslie laughs at her, middle of the third week, Kate hunched over and winded, achy from lugging bags and carts and proton packs, which she has said in Leslie’s presence at least a dozen times throughout the years they’ve worked together but now that they’re—whatever they’re doing—it occurs to her might take on a different meaning. Kate’s pretty sure she saw Leslie checking out her rack just this morning.Whoever, someone, Paul or Katie, probably, thought it'd be funny to have Holtz always carrying twice the gear of everyone else, how petite Kate is, how science-techy Holtzmann's supposed to be. Kate is so tired even her hair hurts, so tired she almost misses the hitch in Leslie’s breath. "No one told me I should have been doing motherfucking weight training to prepare for this,” Kate adds, and swallows.Leslie stares at her, steady. "Yeah, yeah, get over here." Pulls Kate into her lap, starts rubbing her shoulders. Presses a kiss into the back of her neck.***"Are you trying to tell me you've never been with a woman before?""No. I'm trying to tell you that it has been awhile."Kate nods, slow. "Okay. What do you like?""I like dick.""Okay, well. I have a strap on."Leslie snorts. "Of fucking course you do." Pets up and down Kate's spine, fond. "I like to be touched; I like to be talked to. I like it when my partner's loud.Kate grins, crooked. "I can do loud." Leans forward, slides her hands into Leslie's hair. Kisses her, sloppy. Says against her mouth: "Can do the other things too."Leslie jostles her, just a little bit, but hums her way through a kiss. "What do you like, McKinnon?"Kate sits up, serious. Touches Leslie's jawline, her shoulders, her sternum. "I like you."***"You guys are doing a truly terrible job at hiding this," Melissa says conversationally, gesturing vaguely."We're not doing a terrible job," Kate argues. "We're being so low-key.”"You've been holding hands for forty-five minutes straight," Kristen deadpans. “At one point, your tongue was in Leslie’s ear.”"We're tactile people!""Tactile people who are totally boning, maybe.""We're not boning," Kate says. Melissa and Kristen raise their eyebrows. Leslie covers her face with her hands and groans, like she knows what's coming. "We're making love."***Kate goes looking for Leslie’s as the sun’s rising Saturday morning. They’ve been on night shoots all week and Leslie keeps sneaking into her trailer between set ups, trying to squeeze in naps. Kate finds her curled up a couch with her headphones plugged into her phone and one eye closed. Kate slides in next to her and Leslie scooches closer, rests her head in Kate’s lap. “You sleeping?” Kate asks. Rubs Leslie’s temples, gentle.“Not really. Listening to my Thrones podcast.”"How can you remember anything to do with all ten million Westeros plot threads but not remember your own character's name?”“A of all, they are not just in Westeros anymore, there are places across the Narrow Sea, and B of all. I know my own character’s name! It’s Peggy.”“It’s Patty.”“Goddamnit.”Kate grins. “So close. Hey, remember when you thought my name was Middleton.""That was one time!""It was an entire year.” Leslie halfheartedly moves her shoulders a little bit, unapologetic but she’s beaming up at her, and christ, Kate fucking loves her smile.Kate clears her throat. "Hey. Hey? Want to have dinner with me tonight?""Yeah, of course, I just figured we were already. We always do. Tonight’s the weekend, yeah? We’re not working”Kate feels her face getting pink. "No, yeah, I just mean--""Oh," Leslie says. Smiles. Opens her eyes. "Oh, you mean like a date?"Kate huffs, flustered, and sighs. “Yes, Leslie, like a date, don't make this weird.""Yes, Kate, I want to have dinner with you, like a date. But, baby--you realize we essentially have been dating already for like a month, yeah?"Kate shrugs. "Well, no, not really, we never specifically talked about--" she cuts herself off. Tries to make her voice sounds as honest, as sincere as possible. "I wanted to be. I just wasn't sure.""You buy me dinner every time we go out. You have had your fingers inside of me. Hell, I sat on your face the other night."***So. Kate puts on real pants and a blazer and knocks on Leslie’s door at seven sharp. Kate buys her dinner and they sit on a patio overlooking the water and when they get back to the hotel, Leslie pulls Kate into her room and lets her slide her hands up under her sundress, lets her pull down the zipper and lay her out on the bed and work a shoulder underneath her thigh, lets Kate eat her out, again and again and again.***"I dropped my phone in the toilet," she whispers to Leslie, sheepish. "I might be drunk.” Melissa had a giant proton pack-shaped cake and thirty cases of champagne delivered to set for an impromptu holy shit can you believe Bill Murray actually showed up party and jesus christ, the ghostbusters crew can drink.Leslie laughs at her, loudly, for a full thirty seconds. "Why are you all of a sudden trying to be this huge lush?”"I'm building my tolerance. I wanna go on Drunk History and talk about cool shit, string theory and its applications in queer improvisational comedy, or watercolors in 1880s Gloucester.”“You’re ridiculous.”Kate scrunches her nose. Thinks a minute. Touches Leslie’s mouth. “I’m your girlfriend.”Leslie curls a hand around Kate’s ribs. “Yeah you are.” Kate’s mouth falls open, delighted. “That okay with you?” Leslie asks.Kate nods. Bites her neck. Says, “Yes.”***It’s winding down, the shoot. Only a few weeks left. Kate crowds into Leslie's space, trying to get close, trying to stay close.Pulls her into her lap.“Baby, I’ve got like. Twenty years and six inches on you.""You've got sixteen years and seven and a half inches on me, and I love you," Kate says, easily.Leslie's face does a serious, heartbreaking thing. Kate's heart jumps into her throat. Loops her arms around Leslie’s neck. Adds, quieter: "I do, for real, you know. Love you."***"How many times are you going to get asked about Hemsworth's level of hotness?" Leslie asks, touching up her lipstick. It’s press day on set, handfuls of journalists milling around and asking them about their gear and their jumpsuits and their characters. Asking about what it’s like to work with Paul and Chris and each other.”Approximately half as often as I’ll manage to make lesbian jokes, I'd estimate.""Kate," Leslie says, helpless, eyes dancing. Crosses her arms in front of her and tries to look solemn. “Kathryn.”"I'll be good! Ish."***Four days from wrapping. Kate wakes up to her phone alarm, soreness in her calves, and Leslie’s arm slung around her waist. Leslie yawns against her shoulder, says, sleepily: “Want to have dinner with me? When we get home to New York.”Kate rolls over, faces her. Leslie’s eyes are still closed but the corners of her mouth are turned up and she feels her hands moving, slightly, rubbing small slow circles in the small of her back. Kate tips her head up and kisses her chin and says, “Leslie, yes, of course.”Leslie hums something like pleasure, like relief, and kisses her cheekbone, her nose, the hollow at the base of her neck. Eases Kate onto her back and works her way down her chest, mouth on her breast, and Kate gasps, and growls, and clutches at Leslie's body. Arches her back.