And nothing is harder than learning a friend isn't real

“Lady Carrington.”

Vivian jumped when she heard herself being addressed. She whirled around to see Octavia standing in the doorway with her hand over her heart and an unreadable expression on her face like usual.

It took a second for Vivian to recover, but she did so with aplomb, her smile returning fast as could be as she relaxed and greeted her butler with a wave.

“Oh, hey there Octavia, didn’t see you,” she chirped, flashing a casual smile. “Been a minute. What have you been up to today?”

Dani frowned. She’d been in the middle of a tender moment with Vivian, and all of a sudden, the heiress had completely shifted gears, avoiding their conversation again.

She’d slipped away once more, much to the tomboy’s frustration.

“I have been waiting for you, Lady Carrington,” Octavia brusquely replied. “Until you have need of my services. That is my job, after all.”

In spite of the neutral tone of her voice, Dani couldn’t help but hear a slight tone of sarcasm. It was almost amusing… or it would have been, were it not for the critical situation she found herself in right now.

Vivian didn’t need sarcasm, she needed support.

“Sorry about that!” The heiress laughed, scratching her head. “I shouldn’ta left ya like that! But you know how it is, I was hanging around with my friends and lost track of time! But don’t worry, Octavia, you know you’re still my absolute favorite!”

She batted her eyelashes playfully, getting exactly zero response from her butler. Dani bit her lip, not sure how she should feel about the other woman’s statement.

Favorite, huh?

And Dani didn’t miss the “Is that so?” from Octavia, either; again, the sarcasm seemed to ooze out of the butler’s voice, in a way that was nearly impossible to discern objectively.

It seemed like something Vivian was used to, though.

“Vivian, we aren’t done here,” Dani said, standing up from the bed and approaching the heiress.

Vivian turned around, perplexed for a moment. “Oh, Dani, you’re still here? I thought you were going to go get dinner? I’ve already ate, so-”

“I didn’t take you for the type of person to run away from your problems,” Dani interrupted, cutting through the fancy words and attempts to defuse the situation.

Vivian’s mouth twisted in surprise and her eyes widened for a moment. She blinked several times before she regained her poker face, something Dani took as a positive sign.

“…I’m not quite sure what you mean,” the heiress bluffed, and Dani just rolled her eyes. Sure, of course she would say that. Why wasn’t Dani the least bit surprised?

“If I were in your position I would take that as granted,” Octavia calmly stated, earning her a sideway glance from the heiress. Vivian stuck out her tongue at her and Octavia ignored that, as well.

But Dani wasn’t here for the back and forth between a rich girl and her butler. She wanted to help Vivian, even if she had to drag the heiress kicking and screaming.

“I’m here trying to sincerely be your friend, Vivian,” Dani said, getting up into the other woman’s personal space before Vivian could react. The brunette looked at her, eyes open with wonder. “Are you saying you’d rather we just go our separate ways, then?”

Vivian seemed perturbed; from her reaction, someone might have assumed that Dani was making threats against her! But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“…I… I’m not quite sure what you want me to say,” she confessed, playing with her bangs as a sheepish expression slowly spread across her face. “I’m really grateful here Dani, seriously, but… I’m just not sure whatcha want from me, you know?”

She reached out and took Dani’s hands into hers, gazing deeply into her eyes. “But I really appreciate you sharing that story with me, about your time at school. It really means a lot.”

Dani’s heart thumped in her chest at the dewy look in the heiress’s eyes. “…Is that all you have to say?” She asked, her cheeks reddening as a sulky feeling spread through her breast. It stung, to see Vivian acting like this. Acting like she had no cares in the world. Like Dani opening her heart in an attempt to connect to her was just some minor thing.

Even Vivian seemed a little shaken.

“You never answered me,” Dani said. “Do you want to eat dinner together or not?”

A complex array of emotions flashed across Vivian’s face, but they were gone before Dani could isolate any particular one.

Vivian just smiled weakly at her.

“I… I already ate, so…”

Dani’s eye twitched. That wasn’t the point and Vivian damn well knew it. “Vivian-”

“What do you want me to say, Dani?” Vivian interrupted her sharply, making Dani look at her in surprise.

“Ex-excuse me?” Dani wasn’t expecting a snappish tone like that from the heiress.

But the way Vivian was looking at her…

“What do you want me to say?” Vivian repeated herself. “I-I don’t… I don’t know what you want me to say…”

For a moment, Dani wasn’t looking at a rich and influential billionaire with a massive fashion brand, someone with enough money to buy a small country. She was looking at a woman who was looking at her.

Desperation roiled in Vivian’s eyes, and suddenly Dani didn’t know what she wanted Vivian to say. She only knew that she wanted Vivian… to not be making that face.

“I want you to tell me what you want,” Dani said weakly. “If you’ve already eaten, fine, forget that. But right now you’re putting up walls and I don’t understand why. You and I both know you really want to be my friend, so why are you acting like this is no big deal?”

“I… I’m not, I…” For the first time, Dani saw Vivian in retreat. The cool, unflappable fashionista who regarded everyone with casual coolness and acted like everything was one big joke was suddenly sweating bullets, and her eyes shifted away, landing desperately on Octavia like she was expecting her butler to somehow make everything alright.

Octavia was unmoved. For all her loyalty to her mistress, this was a situation that Vivian would need to resolve for herself.

“W-well… I…” A crooked smile slowly crept across Vivian’s face as she pulled her gaze back to Dani, looking hollow and defeated. “I guess… it just can’t be helped then, huh?”

She scratched her cheek and made a resigned expression, like she was being pressured to go along with Dani’s whims. “If you want my company so bad… I guess I could give Octavia the night off or something… I guess…”

Then Vivian’s face lit up with realization. “…Hey, wait, or, I know! What if we have Octavia cook, instead?”

Dani blinked. “Wait, huh?”

“Yeah, yeah, just think about that,” Vivian said, hyping herself up with her own idea. “It’ll be a thanks for how you cooked for me the other night, sound good? That food you made was really delicious, but Octavia’s an exceptional chef herself! You should really try her cooking. What do you think? Octavia? You up for making a meal for my friend here?”

Vivian flashed a toothy smile to her butler and sidled up next to Dani, patting her gregariously on the shoulder.

Dani was thoroughly confused. It took a couple seconds for her brain to catch up to what was going on, but when it did, she quickly shook her head. “No, wait, Vivian, that’s not what we’re talking about here,” she said, pulling away from the other girl.

Vivian looked at her, confused. “Huh? What do you mean?” She asked, frowning.

“This isn’t about you paying me back!” Dani saw what she was doing. By offering Octavia’s services as a chef, Vivian was trying to twist a gesture of companionship into something more transactional. Why, Dani couldn’t begin to understand, but she knew that letting the heiress control the flow of the conversation wasn’t the right way to go with this.

Vivian just looked confused. “Hey, Dani-”

“I don’t want your butler to cook for me,” Dani said firmly, crossing her arms over her chest. “That’s not why I invited you. I did that because I want to spend time with you, Vivian. That’s all. Alright?”

“Ah… um…” Vivian’s mouth flapped open and closed for a second as she struggled to process what she was hearing. Her smile remained fixed to her face, like it had been glued there.

Dani looked sharply into her eyes. “Well?” She asked firmly. “Do you want to eat dinner with me or not? Not as you doing me a favor for the other night by having your butler cook for me, I’m asking you if you want to stay in and keep me company while I’m eating?”

“I…” Vivian looked lost. For the first time, Dani got to see her in a social situation she didn’t know how to navigate.

Because Dani wasn’t letting her navigate it.

Vivian managed to go at her own pace only because people allowed that. She carried things with a forceful personality, and that usually led to the mood going in the direction she wanted it to go.

But this time, she was up against someone who had an even more forceful personality, and Dani wasn’t about to let the heiress have her own way.

“…I… I guess?!” Vivian managed to stammer out, her eyes wide and her eyebrows raised high as she just stared at Dani in confusion.

A small smile touched Dani’s lips. This was good for a start, at least, even if Vivian was still quite stuck over how to approach the situation.

Vivian did end up giving Octavia the night off, not that that meant very much. The butler was still staying in their room, after all. The tall, silver-haired woman ended up in her own little corner of the suite, sitting in a plush armchair and elegantly reading a book as she sipped a cup of tea, practically still as a statue; a piece of decoration to add some flavor to the room.

As for Vivian herself, she seemed on edge. Dani was pretty perceptive about stuff like that, and she picked up on just how high-strung the other woman seemed to be. Like she didn’t know where to sit, or where to look.

An unusual occurrence given how comfortable the heiress tended to seem in her own bedroom. It seemed as though Vivian was feeling like a guest here, somehow.

Dani had indeed ordered in. It would have been nice to go to dinner with Carly and the others, but if she pitched that idea to Vivian she had a feeling the heiress would find some way to squirm out of it. Besides, she’d already spent all day with her girlfriend; right now, her roommate needed some support.

And even though Dani wasn’t sure if she was the right person to offer that support, she was still going to try her best. Because Vivian really needed it.

“So, Dani, uh… how’s the food?” Vivian asked, scratching her cheek awkwardly.

Dani looked up from her plate. As promised, she’d ordered in from the faeries, and she had to admit- she felt a little awkward herself, eating dinner on the small decorative coffee table in the middle of the room with Vivian sitting across from her, basically just staring at her.

But that was just something Dani had to learn to get over.

“It’s okay,” Dani replied, accepting the heiress’s awkward attempt at small talk on face value. “I don’t think they know how to make bad food here.”

Vivian nodded, accepting that answer.

An awkward silence fell over the room again, broken only by the sound of Dani chewing her steak tips and green beans.

“…Sorry, I’m usually better company than this,” Vivian apologized. “I must be having an off day or something I suppose. How embarrassing…”

Dani swallowed and brushed a napkin against her lips. “Don’t be embarrassed,” she said, sitting up straight. “I mean, I kind of strong-armed you into coming here,” she pointed out.

Vivian nodded slowly, accepting that answer. “Guess so… still…”

“I meant what I said, Vivian,” Dani informed the other woman, looking deeply into her eyes. “I wanted you to stay here.”

“…Yeah, I kinda got that, what, with your invitation and everything,” Vivian said, leaning back in her seat and flashing a wry grin. “You’re pretty insistent, you know that?”

“Is that a problem?” Dani asked.

Vivian blinked and then shook her head. “No, I… I wouldn’t call it a problem,” she said with a touch of hastiness in her voice. “Just… not something I expected, coming from you.”

Dani nodded slowly. She furrowed her brow, studying Vivian’s expression carefully.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

Vivian shrugged. “Well… wouldn’tcha rather be hangin’ out with Carly and all of them? Come on, I know I’m quite a charming young lady, but I can’t imagine little ol’ me being that interesting, compared to all the fun you can have with that girlfriend of yours.”

Dani barked out a laugh. “Well, it’s not like we need to spend every waking minute together,” she replied, tactfully dodging the heart of Vivian’s statement. “Carly and I already had plenty of fun today. In fact, I got to see a lot of surprises.”

“Oh?” Vivian raised a curious eyebrow.

Glad to see the heiress was engaging, Dani was happy to continue. “Yeah, we used her watch, you remember, the one she got as a boon from the slumber party?”

Vivian nodded. “Turned her into a shark last time, if I recall!” She laughed. “When are we getting the horse girl transformation, right?”

Dani had already been there, done that. “Well, it sadly wasn’t today. You’ll never guess what animals she DID turn into, though!”

Make a game out of it. Get Vivian guessing. Engage her. That’s probably the best way to get her to enjoy herself, Dani figured.

It seemed to be working. The heiress stroked her chin thoughtfully, leaning back in her seat and staring contemplatively at Dani.

“Good question,” she mused. “What animals would she turn into? Well, I can’t imagine there’d be a lot of redundancy; after all, part of the point of that watch was to give her a lot of different abilities or so, right? So if she had a shark transformation, I don’t think they’d also give her a dolphin one.”

Dani nodded. That was a good way to think about it.

“So… I’d have to guess… horse?”

Vivian flashed a cheeky smile. “She didn’t have a speedy one, right?”

Dani rolled her eyes, amused. “Why am I not surprised? I already told you, not today.”

“Can’t blame a girl for trying,” Vivian giggled. “No… I’m no good at guessing,” she admitted, shaking her head. “Why don’tcha stop teasing and just tell me? It’s all getting me so worked up! You’re just no fair, Dani!”

She pouted and crossed her arms over her chest with a sulky expression on her face. But it was just a playful one. Dani could tell the shift in the heiress’s mood, and saw that she was genuinely enjoying herself here.

“What about her cosplay today?” Vivian questioned, changing the subject. “Give me a hint, at least! You’re no fair!”

Again, that smile of hers. Dani mirrored it back to her.

“Carly’s cosplay today was a weird one,” Dani informed her. “She was wearing furs, like a barbarian, it was pretty awesome. But it didn’t have any impact on her transformations that I could tell.”

Dani was underselling it a little. It was actually a fur bikini, and Carly had looked phenomenal in it. Whether it was from a comic or an anime, Dani couldn’t begin to guess, but it definitely looked amazing on her.

But knowing that didn’t help Vivian make an informed guess. Seeing the heiress give up, Dani decided that she might as well have mercy on her.

“Okay, I’ll tell you, since you seem stuck,” Dani teased. “The first one was a lion.” Dani thought back on Carly’s first transformation that day. It had been so cool and imposing, one of her favorite transformations she’d seen from the watch.

Vivian nodded, pleased by her own mental picture of it. “Lions are pretty cool,” she agreed. “Strong, noble creatures. So what came next? You said you got three transformations out of the watch today, is that right?”

“What, you’re not gonna try some more guesses?” Dani chuckled.

Vivian shook her head. “I give, I give!” She held up her hands in surrender, laughing the whole time. “You’re too much for me, Dani, I just want to know!”

The two of them shared a look.

“…Well, to be fair, I doubt you’d guess the next one,” Dani conceded. “It was a mole.”

Vivian twisted her expression into a look of surprise. “…A mole? …Yeah. You’re right, no way would I have guessed that one. Why a mole?”

“I guess the idea is that moles are really good at digging,” Dani said, shrugging. “I wouldn’t be able to guess. But if you ask me, it wasn’t particularly weird or unusual. It was almost kind of cute, actually, she had these big clawed gloves. We actually experimented with it, to see if she could get some digging done!”

Vivian laughed. “Now THERE’S a sight! Digging like a mole, huh? Let me guess- the last transformation, then, what, a bird one or something? So she could fly?”

The heiress’s eyes slipped to Dani’s arms and the feathers covering them.

Dani shook her head. “No flying transformation yet, either. Actually, this last one was pretty unusual though. I think it was supposed to be a mountain goat or something. She had hooves, and these big, curved horns jutting out of her head. It was pretty cool.”

Vivian pouted and puffed out her cheeks. “Ah, I see how it is! A mountain goat is fine, but no horse transformation?”

She shook her fist in playful frustration. “What’s it gonna take, Dakota? You’re having fun with this, aren’t you!?”

Dani laughed. “Well… she’s not the only one.”

Vivian noticed the dreamy smile on the other woman’s face. Dani always seemed to change when she was talking about Carly. It was so sweet… and it made her feel strange herself.

It’s nice, to have someone you think about like that. Not like me, though. Acknowledging that stung, just a bit. But at the same time, Vivian felt a strange sense of joy, at the feeling in her breast. Dani sharing all this with her… it actually made her feel better, somehow.

How strange was that?