Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ridiculous was how much Cami had doted over the note on her pillow, slipping it into one of the few notebooks she'd brought with her from her apartment when Camille Ryland ceased to exist. They were kept protected on a top shelf of Otto's closet in a small bag that could be grabbed in the event of quick, final exit from the dorms being a necessity. Her whole life was in that bag, at least her whole life on paper so it spoke to how special even that silly little note was to the redhead. Not that she would ever tell Maebe that but it was likely Otto would.

Still, it sounded remarkably like a date to garner the effort of such an invitation and Cami dressed accordingly. Not leggings, not shorts, not denim but a honest-to-goodness real dress that had once upon a time cost her mother a great deal of money. It was supposed to float around her body but the brown-skinned woman didn't have the kind of body that anything floated around. The fabric slid against her curves like a lover would as she moved, a bit of clever tailoring having been done once upon a time to contain Cami's over-endowments.

Hesitating in front of the door, looking down at herself, she let out a long breath. If Maebe had just wanted to hang out and gossip over popcorn she was going to feel like an idiot. Pushing it open, because knocking was silly at this point, she smiled -- always the sunshine. "Miss me, Maebe baby?"

For one singular second Cami felt like a massive idiot. An $800 dress and it was clear there'd been no plans to go anywhere or do much of anything which would have been fine if not for the fact she'd gotten polished for the occasion. She was even wearing the lightest touch of makeup, something Maebe would have seen little of until this point, for why bother wearing something you'd probably sweat off on the training field? Coral lips, smoky-edged eyes, and a blonde face in the open space between her breasts.

Perhaps they weren't going anywhere, and she'd feel foolish about it later, but in the moment that Maebe's eyes got that look in them, the rasp of her voice? It was worth it. It wasn't easy to put that sort of look in the eyes of a woman as drop-dead gorgeous and confident as Maebe but that was one of the things Cami most appreciated about her sweetheart. Maebe either didn't feel or didn't express that she was threatened by any other attractive woman in the room. She often just appreciated. What was there not to love about that sort of mentality?

Laughing at the feel of warm breath against skin, skimming fingertips up the back of Maebe's neck, she shook her head. "I'm the cheater? You left me that pretty note, so I come all pretty down to see you, and that's somehow cheating?"

Heat kindled in several places in response to the muffled voice against the chiffon. Cami could have sworn that as Maebe spoke against her skin, each movement of her mouth brushing lips against flesh, the whole room got warmer. It took no effort at all for Maebe to push her down onto the bed with the way her knees had grown weak, head light and dizzy from the heat of the room. "After." It was an agreement as, in perfect concert with what the Moon to her Sun wanted, fingers reached down to slip the hem of her skirt closer to her waist.

The dress wasn't going anywhere.

A few seams had pulled, and might need to be repaired at some point, during an especially intense moment but much, much later it was still on. Cami's lipgloss was gone, her eyeliner a bit smudged from somewhere or another, and her hair was an absolute mess. Offsetting that was the lazy, pleased contentment in her eyes as she rolled right into Maebe's arms, kissing her warmly.

"Can you think now? I'm still having trouble."

Hearing the words had color flushing from the redhead's hair into her face. Not only was Cami totally unable to prevent the wide, utterly genuine grin that stretched across her face, she wouldn't have even tried. Suppressing her smiles was an impossible task for the woman with the sunshine disposition; she'd been taught her whole life to smile no matter what!

Sliding arms tightly around Maebe the Caribbean woman buried her face against the golden silk of Maebe's hair, breath lightly tickling the small tendrils at the nape of her neck. A light kiss was placed there before the young woman's stomach began to jiggle, giggles spilling out of her mouth in the kind of silly laughter characteristic of girls perhaps six years younger than Camille. Pure, unadulterated joy and delight was muffled against Maebe's hair and skin, absorbed by them.

And then, before she was aware of it, three tears had leaked from her eyes. Subsiding in her laughter Cami raised her head enough to look down at the blonde. Neither of them had expected, wanted, or tried to pursue this. It had just happened. "You're the first person to say that to me." Cami knew that Otto loved her in his own way the same way she'd known Maebe did as well. Maebe, however, said the words.

It was like magic.

"I really love you. I keep thinking that there should be something more to it, something I've been waiting for, like a shoe to drop or an orchestra to start. But it's good, and it's comfortable, and it feels like breathing. I guess that means it's real?"

Mentally shrinking back inside of herself somewhat Cami could only bite her lip and avert her eyes as disbelief rained down around her. "I think I bounced a bit too hard every time I hit the bed. I was looking for the harps and fireworks, the Host singing above my head every time I took a step and never really thought about seeing someone more than once or twice. I'm the Queen of the Tinder hookup. Sure thing most of the time. I think there's even a sex tape out there." Cami worried, sometimes, that someone would figure out that she wasn't the good girl everyone thought she was.

Inside the smiling, brilliant shell of Cami was indeed a genuinely shining, happy, brilliant woman. But she was scarred, deeply, by the people who she'd let into her life. People had loved Cami before in the way that you had affection for a close friend, affection had been a part of her life, but not love. Not the kind she felt waking up with Otto curled around her even on the stickiest summer morning or the way she felt right now curled up to Maebe in a crumpled, too-expensive dress.

Bumping her forehead lightly against Maebe's temple she smiled. "I ran away with you, you didn't steal me, and I won't forget. I can't." It was too important. Leaning in to kiss Maebe again, to perhaps lose a little bit more time in the way pale skin rubbed against dark, she was hit with a bomb. Jerking back an inch to look down her eyes were incredulous. It was a fair imitation of the girl's face when Cami had walked into the room minus the sensual heat.

"When did you see Mimsy?! And you told her that and lived?!" It was a joke among most of the island that Camille's sister was a murderous harpy that was out for blood. Cami didn't fully believe it. She should have.

If Cami'd known she was the flame and they were the moths she would have been almost unbearable. That she wasn't already with the knowledge that she'd somehow entrapped Maebe against her better sense and usual desire was remarkable. It only surfaced sometimes, that smug gloating to get herself silenced with a kiss or even something better.

Thankfully for now there was only mild shock as they snuggled close on Maebe's small bed, even more as it seemed Mimsy...cared? Actually cared? Of course it could have had to do more with Maebe using or hurting anyone not Cami specifically but that did not seem logical for Mimsy to be concerned about. She might have been blind to her sister's more obvious disregard for what was considered to be the social norm and hurting people but nobody could be blind to the fact Mimsy cared for a small list of people. For those people she would do anything. Cami herself was the same way only her list was of people she would not do that for. It was shockingly small.

Grinning about the idea of giving Maebe a copy of her seventeen-year-old mistake (she'd lied about her age, damn right) Cami almost missed the fading at mention of Robert. "Sandwich guy? I haven't met Robert in person but he seems very keen on helping me spread the hugs." But Maebe was unhappy and thus, her sweetheart was immediately concerned. "Did something happen?"

That didn't sound good at all! Her immediate resolution was to speak to Mimsy about Robert because it wasn't acceptable to simply walk up to her brother-in-law to request that he leave Maebe alone. Of course Maebe hadn't said what he'd done (or not done, perhaps) so how could she make any real request? The frown was still on her lips when Maebe kissed them, causing giggles again to bubble up at the mention of the blonde's feelings.

Some part of her, the part that Vanessa had ruthlessly tried to craft inside of her daughter, questioned. Did Maebe really love her? It was so sudden, wasn't it? Was it possible to love someone so quickly when you'd been so afraid, so opposed? Vehemently the rest of her slammed back against Vanessa's creation, clawing at it, decimating it. Why couldn't that be why Maebe was so adamant to affirm it? It had been something she'd been resisting and, through affirmation, was owning her feelings and desires? Making herself comfortable with them?

Cami's own worst enemy was not some dickhead ginger who hated everything she was, nor was it the Horseman Queen who'd tried to kill her. It was her own damn mind.

"Mmm, I think you should just say it. A lot." Because it made the heat of blood rush into her face, because it made her giggle stupidly (which she'd done twice since the kiss), because it felt good. "I'm glad you still love me even though I'm an awful slut."