To be with you

She stumbled in the direction of the sharp sound that had woken her, hit her toe against the cabinet that had been standing there for ages, and cursed at her own stupidity as she opened the door.

The harsh 'What?!' directed towards the person who had dared to ring her doorbell at this hour, died on the verge of Bette Porters lips as she made out the silhouette she would recognize above all others.

'T...'

She merely whispered, as the woman turned around to face her...

'The weather is awful'

The blonde shivered as she made her way passed her best friend, trying to sound casually as if she wasn't barging in, in the middle of the night...

She had had no idea who to turn to as she had closed the door of the apartment in which she and Eric had spend 3 years of living together...

Well, closed...

Slammed more like...

But she thought herself allowed that little indiscretion under the circumstances in which she had found him... Or maybe she should say... Them...

Yet her feet had brought her to the only place that made sense, and as she had stood in front of the building, she knew she longed for nothing more than to see those deerlike eyes in compassion...

They had been best friends forever, since the moment Bette's father had moved into the house next to theirs when they had been 9, and they could tell each other everything... In fact it had been Bette who had warned her that Eric might be cheating on her, a thought she had discarded with a wave of her hand as if scaring away an annoying bug.

She shook her head, as if she was a dog, the droplets of water that she had collected in her hair and on her skin swirling around as her brown-haired friend tried to wrap her sleepy mind around what was happening...

'T?'

She repeated the one-syllable nickname she had given her friend so long ago, and her heart made the familiar air-loop as she saw the curve of the womans neck, the shape of her cheek, the color of her eyes, all combined together in the beauty that stood, dripping from the rain, in front of her...

'Do you have a towel for me or something?'

Trying to put off telling Bette about the reason of her visit, Tina Kennard's eyes avoided to meet those of her friends...

But when the requested cloth was handed to her, she glanced up and their gazes locked, causing Bette's sleepy brown eyes to widen, as she noticed the face before her, the face she dreamed of every night, was not only drenched by rain, but also by tears.

'T! What happened?'

Somehow the recurrent sound of her nickname made Tina smile, a smile which turned into a giggle, a giggle which turned into a laugh and a laugh that ended in tears...

Bette approached her, as if she would do a hurt animal, with caution and fully aware of all her senses being at their sharpest, as she stretched out her hand to touch the soft cheek... She tried to anticipate, but knew it was a futile attempt, because she had never managed to do so in all those years she had secretly loved her friend, even before she realized what the shiver, that went through her with every touch, meant.

Worried eyes, those holding the compassion she had longed for, looked into Tina's, allowing her to break fully into the tears of humiliation that were burning inside her chest. And in an automatic gesture, the blonde reached out and placed her hand over the tanned one, making it cup her cheek in a tender movement...

Bette felt the pace of her heart pick up quickly, and cursed herself for the assumed intimacy of the gesture, for she knew Tina had no intentions with it.

'What’s wrong?'

Leading her best friend to the couch, her palm still caressing the softness of her cheek, Bette felt the muscles in her abdomen contract in worry, slowly sitting down beside her...