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C.T knew she should have a bit more composure than she was displaying, but hearing Esther describe the reasons she decided to stay caused C.T's face to burn right up, she wanted to excuse herself to the restroom just so she could get a moment to calm herself, but she couldn't leave Esther alone here, if C.T was so embarrassed she could only imagine that Esther was feeling much the same. Esther was singing her praises calling her brave, describing her as someone to be admired, and for a moment, C.T forgot about her timid embarrassment and had to speak up for her girlfriend, she needed to give her the credit she deserved, because she felt that maybe Esther had forgotten or just didn't realize how much of C.T's success was because of her.

"She made me feel brave." C.T spoke up honestly, her hands twitching, itching to reach for Esther's.

Katja looked at C.T giving her a knowing smile before nodding "A good friend will do that." Katja said, and C.T shook her head, slightly flustered. "She's been more than a friend, she's done more for me than I had any right to ever ask of her." C.T remembered how mean she was to Esther when they had first met, how she didn't even view the girl as a person, Esther had just been a tool to help her get to Jacob. She also remembered how Esther had taken care of her when she had gotten sick, and how Esther agreed to stay with C.T when Connie begged to when things hadn't entirely gone according to plan. "I didn't deserve the help she gave me," C.T said softly, hanging her head a bit. "I'm pretty sure she doesn't feel the way, given all of the good things she's had to say about you." Katja said, soothingly, before giving Esther another smile. "I'm glad Connie had someone like you to help her make it through this.

"Connie... I would give up everything for you, even my own life, if it meant you were safe and happy," Connie gulped loudly, her throat seeming to tighten a bit, maybe it was just her, but things seemed to be getting really heavy, really fast. C.T didn't think she could handle it, especially with Esther talking about dying for her. It was touching, very, very touching. But C.T didn't like to think about Esther giving up her life, it made C.T want to cry, she understood that it maybe was just a saying, and that Esther had no intention of dying. But it hurt still, just to think of a world without her love. It didn't really hit C.T until Esther started to apologize for the intensity of her words that Esther may have broken the mask they had been trying to keep up. It was hard keep up the facade of really close friends, when Esther said things like that.

C.T was left to blush heavily, when Esther exited, wondering just how she would recover, but Katja spoke up, giving her a chance to do just that. Thank god. "She's very driven," C.T admitted with a nod "But our feelings are mutual." She added, no longer hiding anything, she was sure the cat was out of the bag by now, and if it somehow wasn't, it would be soon. But for now Katja wanted to know what C.T liked to do. Connie shrugged. "I don't have many hobbies. But I do like to work out, exercise, even when it was mandatory for me, has always been something I enjoyed." C.T said, clearly though she seemed a bit distracted.

"Worrying about your girlfriend." her father spoke up, knowingly. C.T gave him a look, one that told him that he was right on the money, and that told him that she was a bit annoyed that he could read her so well. "Want to go check on her?" Katja asked, smiling. That smile made C.T question just how long Katja had known the truth as well. "I do, but I think she might need a bit of space... I don't know." C.T admitted.

"I'll go!" Kia spoke up suddenly. Jumping up out of her seat. C.T looked up at her a bit shocked. She wasn't sure what Kia could accomplish, but she didn't think that sending her could hurt. "Uh...ok." C.T allowed, even though Kia was already halfway out the door. "You can count on me sis!"

(Happy NewYear)

C.T watched the empty doorway that Kia had just exited through, wondering why she had let her little sister whom she had JUST MET go and console her girl friend. But she was still a little bit in shock, she could be forgiven for being a little late on the draw right? Right?

She messed up.

C.T put her face in her hands, and groaned. I'm such an idiot. She would have sat there for a while, but Katja and her father grabbed her on either side by one of her hands each. "Come on dear, we are going to show you, your room, and you are going to stop worrying about Esther, everything will be fine."

"But-"

"No buts, up you go." Connie decided to keep her mouth shut, and stood up, and once her parents released her, she allowed herself to be lead towards the stairs of the two story home, trekking up them behind her parents slowly, not able to put to rest, the concern she felt for Esther. Hopefully she and Kia would return soon. "Here it is." Her father spoke up suddenly, snapping C.T out of her trance, as she focused on the door in front of her, her interest sparked. "Go on, open it dear. Katja urged, and C.T gaped a bit, not realizing that they had intended on giving her the honors. "Go on." C.T hesitated, before pushing the door open. What she saw inside took her breath away.

"Your father decided to paint it blew, because we didn't know what type of girl you would be, blue is a pretty neutral color, though I wanted Fuchsia" Katja spoke, smiling as C.T stepped into her room, looking around. C.T could tell that this had indeed once been a room meant for an infant, random toys and nicknacks decorated the dressers in a neat organized fashion, the dressers themselves were a bright blue, and everything was just so... colorful. The only thing that was slightly out of place was the double size bed in the middle of the room. "We knew that if you returned, you wouldn't be able to fit a crib anymore, so we kept upgrading bed sizes." Her mother informed. C.T nodded, stepping farther into the room, picking up one of the dolls on her dresser and looking down upon it gripped within her hands. "I don't know what to say, to all of this." C.T admitted, "I'm used to being the leader, the one that everyone goes to for direction, but lately. I don't seem to know how to handle anything. It honestly feels like I've been living a dream for the past few hours."

--

"Pft, puh-lease!" Kia scoffed, "Look, my sister looks really cool and all, but right now, her and mom and dad are doing this bonding thing, and it's like... gross ya know? It's like she's a relative that comes over every year for thanksgiving and you have to go say "Hi" to them and pretend you remember them and all that, when really you just wanna eat some turkey and relax. Get it?" Kia rambled, rolling her eyes. "Aaaanyway. I wanted to talk to ya anyway." Kia said, nodding her head in the direction that Esther had been walking in before taking off in that direction herself, expecting Esther to follow. "I wanted to ask you what it's like, Ya know..." Kia said, leaning towards Esther and whispering. "Liking girls and stuff."

(Happy New Year, and you started it.)

It's ok not to know? That's not something C.T had ever heard before, not from Bradley for sure, and she would never, ever admit to her family in the factory. Except for maybe Mag, but Mag would reassure her that she would come up with something and she usually did.

Oh

Esther had told her that it was "Ok not to know," once. Though C.T was pretty sure that was when they were having sex. C.T blushed and tried not to think to about that to much as she leaned into her mother's one armed embrace, though her father's words made it hard to keep her head out of the gutter. "Let us take care of you finally" She was sure Esther had said something like that to her before. The "us" being substituted for "Me" and ... yea.

"I have a hard time trusting people," C.T admitted shaking her head, trying to clear her thoughts. Her mother sensing that maybe her closeness was an issue, stared to unwrap herself from Connie, but C.T shook her head again, and pulled her closer. "But I want to trust you, all of you. It's just scary." C.T said.

Katja smiled at her, laughing a little. "Sometimes the best things in life are the scariest." she said.

"I've never heard that before."

--

"You like boys too?" Kia asked, missing the point a bit, as she walked with Esther. She wondered what that was like for Esther's relationship with C.T, did Esther ever feel like something was missing. She probably shouldn't ask that.... "I'm also not allowed at parties..." The girl mumbled, a little embarrassed to admit that her parents didn't let her out to parties, as she was only 16... "What do you mean by coming on too strong?"

(Fu cheeeeza, and thank you, I tried XD, Kia is like my girlfriends little cousin.)

C.T thought about marrying Esther, thought about planning it, though about sending out the invitations to all of her friends, and now even her family. She thought about what it would be like to get fitted for a suit, or more realistically get measured for a dress. Because she knew Esther would force her to wear one. She thought about writing vows, telling Esther how much she loved her and that's as far as her imagination could take her. She was blushing so hard that her face was beginning to burn, probably a clear sign that she should think about something else. But her father was right, the thought of marrying Esther was a scary one, but not something that C.T didn't want to experience. She didn't voice this to her parents however, she wasn't sure how that sort of conversation would go. Instead she let the conversation about her room take focus. "I think I'll leave it like this for now, or talk with Esther about it." C.T said "We'll probably need to move some of our stuff in here, just to have so we don't always have to pack..." C.T trailed off looking around the room.

--

That made sense, the chances of a girl being straight was a lot higher than of her being gay, and it would probably be incredibly awkward to just walk up to a girl and ask if she was a lesbian. Kia pursed her lips as she walked, stuffing her hands in her pocket and dragging her feet. "Well," She started, "How about my sister? How'd you pick her up?" Kia asked, suddenly excited, the question was now the most important thing to her, it needed an answer. "How did you know she was gay?"

C.T looked at the dresser and nodded, her stuff alone would probably fill it to the brim, and she had packed very light. She couldn't imagine trying to fit in Esther's stuff as well. "Yea, that probably needs to be addressed." C.T mused thoughtfully, though her father promising that they would get it taken care of took much of the thinking out of it, as did her mother leading her down the stairs "We don't have too many bags," C.T said as they moved through the house "Kat, Elric, come help us get your sister's bags." Alexi called, and without hesitation the two previously oldest children came out of the kitchen, and walked with them. As they filed out the door, Connie pointed the truck out to them, and they moved towards the trunk, Connie unlocking it for them while she moved to get Esther's bag out of the back seat.

She felt a presence against her leg, and looked down to see Bolo the family dog sniffing her, she didn't know much about dogs who weren't trained killers, so she hoped this was a good sign. "You said you like training as your past time?" Kat spoke up, carrying a bag over her shoulder, C.T recognized it as her own. "Yea." C.T said awkwardly with a nod, not knowing what else to say. "I teach judo at the req. center down the street, I was wondering if I could spare with you. You do know some Judo right?" Kat asked, a hint of challenge in her voice. C.T grinned at the girl. "Something like that." Elric who had grabbed the last bag and was already walking back to the house shook his head. "Mom, we've got another competitive one."

---

"There is this girl at school who was like that with me, I thought I hated her because she stepped on my shoe once and didn't apologize, and she was really snobby, you know, the popular type that doesn't have time for anyone who isn't in her group." Kia said making a face as she remembered the experience. "But then one day we got a school project together, and I went to her house everyday for two weeks, and she was really nice to me, and... I don't know. We aren't friends now. But I don't hate her anymore I guess." Kia ramblings was stop by her looking off to the side in thought, but her silence didn't last long as Esther's words sparked her interest again. "So you don't really have to be gay to like girls?" Kia asked, surprised, she guessed it made sense, but she had never thought of it like that.

"Why are you so curious about it, anyway?"

Kia blushed and turned away when that particular question was turned on her. "I..uh... I dunno, j-just curious y'know. Picking the mind of my sisters girlfriend. Nothing more." She sputtered, not sounding very convincing at all.

(So who has two thumbs, and didn't realize that you had posted. I'll give you a hint, it's the person in this 1x1 that's isn't you.)

"Sounds like a light workout." C.T responded to Kat's question right after their mother had scolded Elric for the response he had given. C.T was grinning, just harmless fun, but she was confident, she was sure her sister was skilled and all that. But she probably didn't have the experience that C.T did.

--

"I'm serious!" Kia insisted, detecting that Esther not believe her entirely, but she didn't press more, she just sort of pouted and let it go. But then when Esther spoke, and she found herself relating to everything that Esther had to say. Esther was answering the question that she hadn't been able to ask. "Oh" Kia said, and that was all she was able to say.

Soon they came back upon her home, and she could see her mother her father and 3 of her siblings, including C.T waiting in the yard. She first guessed that they were out waiting for Esther, but she saw that they had bags in their hand and that C.T and Katarina seemed to be talking, smiles on their faces.

--

C.T looked up when she heard two people approaching, and smiled when her eyes settled on Esther. She was a little surprised at how happy she was to see her. "Hi" Esther said to her and C.T could tell that the girl was still feeling a bit awkward, by the way she rubbed her neck. "Hi."

Kat spoke up, breaking their little moment of awkwardness by telling Esther about their plans to spar. She was happy that Esther responded positively, though a bit shocked when Esther took her bag away from her. Probably getting C.T back for taking her bag earlier. C.T shrugged, and followed everyone into the house and up the stairs to their room to put the bag down, when they reached her room door C.T stopped everyone. "Вы можете оставить сумки здесь, я хотел бы момент с Эстер пожалуйста.(You can drop the bags here, I would like a moment with Esther please.)" C.T said, and was happy that no one seemed to object, her brother and her sister lowered their bags to the floor and followed their parents back down stairs, they were talking about getting the cleaning done as they went.

When they were gone C.T picked up the two bags, and pushed the slightly ajar door open with her foot, and walked in placed her bags on her bed. "This is my room, well. Our room now." C.T said, as she gave the room another once over, still finding it hard to believe that she actually had a room. But that little bit of amazement could wait. "Are you ok?" C.T asked, stepping closer to Esther, "I'm sorry for sending Kia after you to check on you. I wanted to go myself, but she volunteered and I didn't really think it through." C.T admitted, "Though you would just need some space, I guess.

C.T wasn't completely convinced by Esther's assurances that she was indeed "Fine". Maybe it was because Esther had stuttered, or the faltering smile that she had on her face. C.T was worried, she didn't know what was bothering Esther, well she had an idea, she figured it was just minor embarrassment for what had happened at the dinner table, maybe Esther was a bit ashamed that the truth about their relationship hadn't been delivered in the smoothest way possible, C.T wanted to let Esther know that it wasn't really a problem, but didn't think just coming out and saying it was the best way to handle it. Or maybe it was, and she was just being unnecessarily cautious.

But onto brighter things it was nice to see that she hadn't committed a great error by letting Kia take her place, it seemed Kia had done a good job, and it was kind of Esther to allow her to sit with her family a bit. She really appreciated it. "I can only imagine what you two could have talked about." C.T said with a smirk, shaking her head. "But no, you didn't miss anything to big, they just showed me our room, and Kat told me she teaches Judo at the rec. center, which is how our little challenge came about." C.T said, thinking over if she had missed anything else, before suddenly seeming to remember something. "There was one other thing, that I missed." C.T said, stepping towards Esther and hooking a finger into the waist of the girls pants, pulling her closer forcefully. "You."