She takes it rather well.

THUMP THUMP THUMP.

"Jess, open up, please!" Vivian admittedly expected a less than warm welcome when she decided to come back the next day to see the Queen of Eastlake High, only taking a few minutes to check on Monica (luckily she hadn't puked in her sleep), fixing her hair and outfit as best she could, and sending a message to her dad who hadn't responded to her last text another one to let him know she'd come home later before driving over to Jessica's house. Hell, even as a fan of fairy tales and fantasy stories, Vivian doubted she'd be happy to learn that she was suddenly one of those entities from her stories.

Jess slamming the door in her face without even a word was a bit much though. At least in her opinion.

THUMP THUMP THUMP!

Okay, that was starting to hurt her hand a bit. Guess even her new body wasn't exactly going to be able to lift more than Brad or Sean, or...well, anyone of the guys on the sports teams of Eastlake. She did wish for a body like Jess' after all, not her dream body with superhuman strength or anything. Hmm....no, no! She was trying to be responsible. Of course, that was hard when Jessica Edwards was hiding from her. She had no idea if she was even near the door anymore, maybe she had fled out of the house right after seeing her.

She didn't even try to convince herself that the thought didn't hurt a little, she'd never win that battle. Instead, the goth girl just sighed.

"Jessica, please open the door. I just want to talk. Don't make me do somet-"

Finally, the door opened, and Jessica looked...miserable, really. She was still as gorgeous as ever, hourglass figure in tight clothing and bright green eyes, but they were ringed with red, and her lips quivered slightly, even if she tried to hide it.

"I...I know you don't want to talk about it," Vivian started, murmuring her words like she always did, even though she told herself not to do that on the drive here, "But...we should talk about this, what we know, and lay out some ground rules."

Jess sniffled, and Vivian almost wanted to comfort her, but she was awful with comforting other people. Always had been, she had failed her father, her friends, her grandma while she was still alive...

"What ground rules? You're my Mistress, remember? Thanks for not totally ruining my birthday, at least, but it was gonna happen anyway once that ring showed up. Go ahead, start wishing...just get it over with."

Jessica teared up again, and Vivian realized that it was all hitting her now. All the stress of yesterday, Kevin, her mother, and Vivian herself, it was all still there, just bubbling away, and it was all hitting the usually unflappable cheer captain at once. A pang of sympathy went through her, and she just muttered "oh to hell with this", then stepped forward and pulled Jessica into a tight hug. Jessica struggled, but Vivian just squeezed tighter.

"W-what're you doing?!"

"Relax, okay? I'm sorry about everything...we'll make it work, even if we're not the best team out there. I wasn't messing with you yesterday, I really don't want to see you suffer."

Vivian gently stroked Jess' blonde hair, something she did remember from her childhood that helped calm her down, but just made Jessica sob and cry on her shoulder, squeezing Vivian back. The dark-haired girl winced at the strength the genie apparently had, but just kept stroking and trying to comfort the blonde for however long this lasted.

For maybe ten or twenty minutes, Vivian just stood there and did her best to comfort Jessica, kicking the door closed sometime after maybe four minutes, and realizing just how much she could feel the cheerleader's perfectly toned body pressed against her maybe ten to twelves minutes in. She kept that particular observation to herself, no matter how nice and fit she was, and how wonderfully it contrasted with her softer figure, making her wish they were doing this in the middle of an intense makeout session. They were just starting to get along, no point in ruining it. She did make one observation out loud, though.

"You weren't kidding about just wanting to forget last night, huh?"

A teary sob that sounded sort of like a laugh escaped Jessica.

"You think?"

Vivian didn't really have a response, so she just kept her mouth shut and kept holding Jess. Finally, the sobbing stopped, and eventually even the sniffles died down. Vivian pulled back, the right shoulder of her sweater mostly soaked through, but she could just toss it in the wash when she got home. Besides, the genuine smile she got from Jess? Worth every last ache in her ribs.

"I...guess you're not that bad."

Vivian tried not to snort out a laugh, she really did, but she wasn't sure how successful she was, based on Jessica's expression. A mix of amusement of confusion that the sound came from the goth freak (not that she'd ever admit to making such a sound, or that she was a goth or a freak).

"Gee, thanks." Reaching out with her hand, Vivian paused when she realized which hand she was using, and promptly switched to the one that didn't have the ring on it. "Come on, you guys have a coffee machine or something, right? Let's get some and talk this out."

"We have a French Press, will that work?"

Vivian's brain short-circuited.

".....A what?"

A/N: I have no excuse for the absurdly long absence, I can only hope that I make some progress on this story, and that you all enjoy. Oh, and that this isn't TOO slow a slow burn.