Guild Fic: Of Cons and Confessions (2/2)
Title: Of Cons and Confessions 2/2
Fandom: The Guild
Pairing: Codex/Tinkerballa
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: References to Vork getting his groove on. Still spoiler warnings for the whole show, and some slight spoilers from the "Tink" comic, but not huge plot-related ones.
Word Count: 1803
Disclaimer: The Guild is not mine, nor are the characters, or The Game. Also, from where I'm sitting, Tink/Codex are totally canon gay for each other, so I can't claim that either.
Summary: Codex comes to some realizations about herself, and it turns out they're not quite as private as she thought.
Author's Notes: Yay! My first Guild fic, completed! There's less webcammage in this one, but I think (I hope) it works, cause the show doesn't always have the same ratio of webcam-to-action in every episode anyway. Plus, there's kissing.
So, Tink logged off last night like right after she told me that I hadn't, so I didn't even get a chance to try to explain. Not that I would have known what to say, I mean, it's not every day that the girl you're crushing on hears you rambling about crushing on her- Oh, wow. Okay. So I guess I am a little bit gay?
Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that she logged off, so I couldn't even try to awkwardly backpedal and take back everything I said. I guess I could call her- oh, god, that's terrifying. Why is there such a huge difference between calling someone on the phone and voice chat online?
Oh, I know. I'll text her. Subtle, unobtrusive - damn you, character limits! That's okay, it'll just be a couple of texts instead of one.
Okay, sent. Now I just have to wait. Ugh, I hate this part.
*****
“Thanks for coming over, Zaboo,” Codex said, letting him walk past her before closing the door. She'd finally given in and called him; out of all of her fellow guildies, he was the least likely to mock her, or announce her personal drama to everyone on the internet - not that she didn't do that brilliantly all by herself last night.
"Oh, it's no problem,” Zaboo replied, flopping down onto the couch and propping his feet on the coffee table. “Vork was Skypeing with that Time Rings chick and it was getting pretty graphic in a totally gross way." He shuddered. “Anyway, what can I do for you, oh bestest buddy of mine?"
Codex groaned, sinking down onto the opposite end of the couch. “I messed up."
"Oh, you mean your tell-all lesbian confessions via guild chat?"
"How do you know about that?” Codex asked, eyes wide. She leaned over to grab his arm. “Did Tink tell you? Have you talked to her? What did she say?"
"Whoa, Codex,” Zaboo said, prying her fingers off his arm. “Calm down. I haven't talked to Tink."
Codex frowned, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Well, then how-"
"Back when all that stuff with Fawkes happened, I started logging in as invisible, to try to get some insight into how to best be your friend,” he explained, smiling proudly. “I was totally lurking."
"Oh,” Codex said. “Wait - you can't log into guild chat as invisible."
"You can if you hack into the Game servers and reconfigure your account permissions,” he said smugly. “Hack'd."
"Wow, that's...creepy,” Codex said, after an awkward pause. Shaking her head to clear it, she looked at Zaboo imploringly. “So what do I do?"
Zaboo shrugged. "Well, she totally heard you. I mean, it's not like you can control-z it."
Codex groaned, covering her face with her hands as she collapsed back into the couch. "This is horrible! We just averted a major disaster with The Game, and the guild really came together as a team, and then I have to go and destroy our new-found togetherness with my stupid mouth. How could I forget to log out?"
Resting his hand on her knee, Zaboo gave her a supportive smile. "Have you tried talking to her?"
"I texted her, like, hours ago,” Codex replied, her hands sliding down to drop into her lap as she turned to look at him. “No response."
"Well you know where her dorm is,” Zaboo offered. “Just go and talk to her, mano-a-mano - er, womano-a-womano. Face to face'd."
Codex stared at him with wide eyes. "In person?"
*****
Not that I'm a coward or anything, but the thought of instigating personal confrontation kinda terrifies me. I mean, no screen or wires or anything between you, being able to instantly see the person's reaction to what you're saying? I'd much rather give someone time to think about their reaction before having it be right there in my face.
Wow, that's kinda messed up. I mean, I basically just said that I'd rather give someone a chance to lie to me than have to see their honest reaction. Huh.
Okay, so I'm a coward. But Zaboo was right - I mean, I clearly wasn't doing well with the whole "wait for her to reply" thing. The responsible, adult thing to do was to face my problems head on.
*****
Codex blinked, startled when the door to Tink's dorm was flung open by a bubbly looking blonde girl. Codex smiled brightly, fidgeting with the front pockets of her jeans. “Um, hi, I'm a friend of Tink- I mean, April's? I don't really know what she'd have her roommates call her.”
The blonde looked back at her in surprise. “She has friends?”
“Yeah,” Codex said slowly, frowning a little as she peeked past the girl's shoulders. “Is she here?”
“Your guess is as good as ours,” a dark-skinned girl called out from where she was lounging on the couch. “We never really know if she's here or not.”
“Except when we hear all kinds of yelling and swearing coming from her room,” the blonde continued, rolling her eyes.
“Or when she's bitching about us to the RA,” the girl on the couch added, looking back at her magazine.
Suddenly a door to one of the bedrooms swung open, and Tink stormed out, offering each roommate a withering glare. Codex barely had time to remember to be nervous before Tink grabbed her wrist and dragged Codex into her room.
"Wow, your room is so...colorful," Codex said, looking around at the variety of brightly colored posters adorning the walls, and the pile of stuffed animals on the bed. Then she had to look away from the bed, because her mind was going places that were really inconvenient at the moment.
Tink slammed the door behind her, crossing her arms over her chest. "What are you doing here, Codex?"
Codex turned to look at Tink - or, more accurately, at Tink's feet - as she fidgeted with her belt loops. "You didn't answer my texts."
"What, like all twelve of them? I was in class."
"Oh,” Codex said, inwardly kicking herself for being so impatient. And for maybe rambling a little too long - like, excessive usage charges long. “I hadn't thought about that."
Tink shrugged. "Yeah, well, I just got home, so..."
An awkward silence settled over the room as Tink trailed off. Codex shifted awkwardly on her feet, finally daring to look up at the other girl's face. Tink looked almost...nervous? Codex shook her head slightly; that couldn't be right.
Taking a deep breath, Codex tried to collect her thoughts. “Look, Tink, I really wanted to apologize for last night. You weren't supposed to hear that - no one was, really, and it - it didn't really mean anything, I was just rambling to my webcam-"
"It's fine. Just forget it happened," Tink replied, looking away from Codex. Her expression was off - it almost looked like she was disappointed.
"I just- I feel like we were getting to be really good friends,” Codex continued. Maybe if she kept talking she'd eventually find the right thing to say. “And I don't want this to get in the way of that. I mean, I'm no stranger to having unrequited feelings for people- I'm not saying that I have feelings for you, I don't really know what's going on in my head right now. Not that I wouldn't have feelings for you. It's not like there would be anything wrong with that, except for the whole awkward unrequited thing-"
One minute, Tink was shaking her head, with an amused almost-smile on her lips. The next thing Codex knew, Tink was kissing her.
*****
I've been kissed before, plenty of times. I mean, always by guys, but still. Not that I didn't like kissing guys, just- this was different. It wasn't the epic, passionate kiss that you'd expect to see at the thrilling climax of a romantic blockbuster or something. It was hesitant, and soft, and kinda dry, actually, but not in a bad way, just in a way that I didn't really have time to moisten my lips or anything. It was...nice.
Wait, I'm not logged in, right? Oh, okay, good.
*****
When the kiss ended, Codex could feel the dopey smile threatening to take over her face. Tink's hand had somehow found its way to the side of her face, and soft fingertips dragged down the side of Codex's neck as Tink slowly pulled away. Codex shivered.
“Wow,” Codex breathed. “Okay, now I get the whole spark thing.”
Tink chewed on the inside of her lip, looking down away from Codex's face. She had that nervous look again - the one that looked really out of place. "I don't really do this."
"Make out with girls?” Codex joked, feeling her heart pounding in her chest. “'Cause I generally don't either."
"More like dating in general,” Tink said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Oh. Dating,” Codex said, as if the thought had just occurred to her. “Are we - do you want to be dating? I mean, we were kissing, and that is sometimes accompanied by dating, but-"
Tink sighed, causing Codex to stop mid-sentence. "Look, Codex. You might have noticed that I'm not the friendliest person in the world."
"You can be kinda mean sometimes, yeah,” Codex admitted with an apologetic shrug.
"The thing is, there's something about you that makes me want to be nice," Tink said grudgingly, still avoiding eye contact. "Which, frankly, creeps me out, but there it is."
Codex was, for once, speechless. "Oh,” she managed, eyes wide.
"I'm not saying I wanna hold hands and write our names in little hearts in my notebook," Tink said with a pointed look, finally meeting Codex's eyes. "But I wouldn't be opposed to spending more time with you outside the game."
"Oh," Codex said again, blushing giddily. "Me neither. I mean, I wouldn't mind spending time with you, not me; I spend enough time with myself. Would this time-spending involve more kissing? 'Cause that was actually kinda nice-"
Tink reached out to grip Codex's shoulders; Codex wasn't sure if she stopped talking because of the movement, or because Tink's hands were really warm and the contact made her think about kissing Tink again.
"Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?" Tink asked with a bemused smile.
"All the time,” Codex replied nervously, her eyes pretty much fixed on Tink's lips. “My therapist used to bill me for two sessions at a time-"
"Codex? Shut up."
Then Tink was kissing her again, and Codex didn't really feel like talking anymore.
end.
Fandom: The Guild
Pairing: Codex/Tinkerballa
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: References to Vork getting his groove on. Still spoiler warnings for the whole show, and some slight spoilers from the "Tink" comic, but not huge plot-related ones.
Word Count: 1803
Disclaimer: The Guild is not mine, nor are the characters, or The Game. Also, from where I'm sitting, Tink/Codex are totally canon gay for each other, so I can't claim that either.
Summary: Codex comes to some realizations about herself, and it turns out they're not quite as private as she thought.
Author's Notes: Yay! My first Guild fic, completed! There's less webcammage in this one, but I think (I hope) it works, cause the show doesn't always have the same ratio of webcam-to-action in every episode anyway. Plus, there's kissing.
So, Tink logged off last night like right after she told me that I hadn't, so I didn't even get a chance to try to explain. Not that I would have known what to say, I mean, it's not every day that the girl you're crushing on hears you rambling about crushing on her- Oh, wow. Okay. So I guess I am a little bit gay?
Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that she logged off, so I couldn't even try to awkwardly backpedal and take back everything I said. I guess I could call her- oh, god, that's terrifying. Why is there such a huge difference between calling someone on the phone and voice chat online?
Oh, I know. I'll text her. Subtle, unobtrusive - damn you, character limits! That's okay, it'll just be a couple of texts instead of one.
Okay, sent. Now I just have to wait. Ugh, I hate this part.
*****
“Thanks for coming over, Zaboo,” Codex said, letting him walk past her before closing the door. She'd finally given in and called him; out of all of her fellow guildies, he was the least likely to mock her, or announce her personal drama to everyone on the internet - not that she didn't do that brilliantly all by herself last night.
"Oh, it's no problem,” Zaboo replied, flopping down onto the couch and propping his feet on the coffee table. “Vork was Skypeing with that Time Rings chick and it was getting pretty graphic in a totally gross way." He shuddered. “Anyway, what can I do for you, oh bestest buddy of mine?"
Codex groaned, sinking down onto the opposite end of the couch. “I messed up."
"Oh, you mean your tell-all lesbian confessions via guild chat?"
"How do you know about that?” Codex asked, eyes wide. She leaned over to grab his arm. “Did Tink tell you? Have you talked to her? What did she say?"
"Whoa, Codex,” Zaboo said, prying her fingers off his arm. “Calm down. I haven't talked to Tink."
Codex frowned, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Well, then how-"
"Back when all that stuff with Fawkes happened, I started logging in as invisible, to try to get some insight into how to best be your friend,” he explained, smiling proudly. “I was totally lurking."
"Oh,” Codex said. “Wait - you can't log into guild chat as invisible."
"You can if you hack into the Game servers and reconfigure your account permissions,” he said smugly. “Hack'd."
"Wow, that's...creepy,” Codex said, after an awkward pause. Shaking her head to clear it, she looked at Zaboo imploringly. “So what do I do?"
Zaboo shrugged. "Well, she totally heard you. I mean, it's not like you can control-z it."
Codex groaned, covering her face with her hands as she collapsed back into the couch. "This is horrible! We just averted a major disaster with The Game, and the guild really came together as a team, and then I have to go and destroy our new-found togetherness with my stupid mouth. How could I forget to log out?"
Resting his hand on her knee, Zaboo gave her a supportive smile. "Have you tried talking to her?"
"I texted her, like, hours ago,” Codex replied, her hands sliding down to drop into her lap as she turned to look at him. “No response."
"Well you know where her dorm is,” Zaboo offered. “Just go and talk to her, mano-a-mano - er, womano-a-womano. Face to face'd."
Codex stared at him with wide eyes. "In person?"
*****
Not that I'm a coward or anything, but the thought of instigating personal confrontation kinda terrifies me. I mean, no screen or wires or anything between you, being able to instantly see the person's reaction to what you're saying? I'd much rather give someone time to think about their reaction before having it be right there in my face.
Wow, that's kinda messed up. I mean, I basically just said that I'd rather give someone a chance to lie to me than have to see their honest reaction. Huh.
Okay, so I'm a coward. But Zaboo was right - I mean, I clearly wasn't doing well with the whole "wait for her to reply" thing. The responsible, adult thing to do was to face my problems head on.
*****
Codex blinked, startled when the door to Tink's dorm was flung open by a bubbly looking blonde girl. Codex smiled brightly, fidgeting with the front pockets of her jeans. “Um, hi, I'm a friend of Tink- I mean, April's? I don't really know what she'd have her roommates call her.”
The blonde looked back at her in surprise. “She has friends?”
“Yeah,” Codex said slowly, frowning a little as she peeked past the girl's shoulders. “Is she here?”
“Your guess is as good as ours,” a dark-skinned girl called out from where she was lounging on the couch. “We never really know if she's here or not.”
“Except when we hear all kinds of yelling and swearing coming from her room,” the blonde continued, rolling her eyes.
“Or when she's bitching about us to the RA,” the girl on the couch added, looking back at her magazine.
Suddenly a door to one of the bedrooms swung open, and Tink stormed out, offering each roommate a withering glare. Codex barely had time to remember to be nervous before Tink grabbed her wrist and dragged Codex into her room.
"Wow, your room is so...colorful," Codex said, looking around at the variety of brightly colored posters adorning the walls, and the pile of stuffed animals on the bed. Then she had to look away from the bed, because her mind was going places that were really inconvenient at the moment.
Tink slammed the door behind her, crossing her arms over her chest. "What are you doing here, Codex?"
Codex turned to look at Tink - or, more accurately, at Tink's feet - as she fidgeted with her belt loops. "You didn't answer my texts."
"What, like all twelve of them? I was in class."
"Oh,” Codex said, inwardly kicking herself for being so impatient. And for maybe rambling a little too long - like, excessive usage charges long. “I hadn't thought about that."
Tink shrugged. "Yeah, well, I just got home, so..."
An awkward silence settled over the room as Tink trailed off. Codex shifted awkwardly on her feet, finally daring to look up at the other girl's face. Tink looked almost...nervous? Codex shook her head slightly; that couldn't be right.
Taking a deep breath, Codex tried to collect her thoughts. “Look, Tink, I really wanted to apologize for last night. You weren't supposed to hear that - no one was, really, and it - it didn't really mean anything, I was just rambling to my webcam-"
"It's fine. Just forget it happened," Tink replied, looking away from Codex. Her expression was off - it almost looked like she was disappointed.
"I just- I feel like we were getting to be really good friends,” Codex continued. Maybe if she kept talking she'd eventually find the right thing to say. “And I don't want this to get in the way of that. I mean, I'm no stranger to having unrequited feelings for people- I'm not saying that I have feelings for you, I don't really know what's going on in my head right now. Not that I wouldn't have feelings for you. It's not like there would be anything wrong with that, except for the whole awkward unrequited thing-"
One minute, Tink was shaking her head, with an amused almost-smile on her lips. The next thing Codex knew, Tink was kissing her.
*****
I've been kissed before, plenty of times. I mean, always by guys, but still. Not that I didn't like kissing guys, just- this was different. It wasn't the epic, passionate kiss that you'd expect to see at the thrilling climax of a romantic blockbuster or something. It was hesitant, and soft, and kinda dry, actually, but not in a bad way, just in a way that I didn't really have time to moisten my lips or anything. It was...nice.
Wait, I'm not logged in, right? Oh, okay, good.
*****
When the kiss ended, Codex could feel the dopey smile threatening to take over her face. Tink's hand had somehow found its way to the side of her face, and soft fingertips dragged down the side of Codex's neck as Tink slowly pulled away. Codex shivered.
“Wow,” Codex breathed. “Okay, now I get the whole spark thing.”
Tink chewed on the inside of her lip, looking down away from Codex's face. She had that nervous look again - the one that looked really out of place. "I don't really do this."
"Make out with girls?” Codex joked, feeling her heart pounding in her chest. “'Cause I generally don't either."
"More like dating in general,” Tink said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Oh. Dating,” Codex said, as if the thought had just occurred to her. “Are we - do you want to be dating? I mean, we were kissing, and that is sometimes accompanied by dating, but-"
Tink sighed, causing Codex to stop mid-sentence. "Look, Codex. You might have noticed that I'm not the friendliest person in the world."
"You can be kinda mean sometimes, yeah,” Codex admitted with an apologetic shrug.
"The thing is, there's something about you that makes me want to be nice," Tink said grudgingly, still avoiding eye contact. "Which, frankly, creeps me out, but there it is."
Codex was, for once, speechless. "Oh,” she managed, eyes wide.
"I'm not saying I wanna hold hands and write our names in little hearts in my notebook," Tink said with a pointed look, finally meeting Codex's eyes. "But I wouldn't be opposed to spending more time with you outside the game."
"Oh," Codex said again, blushing giddily. "Me neither. I mean, I wouldn't mind spending time with you, not me; I spend enough time with myself. Would this time-spending involve more kissing? 'Cause that was actually kinda nice-"
Tink reached out to grip Codex's shoulders; Codex wasn't sure if she stopped talking because of the movement, or because Tink's hands were really warm and the contact made her think about kissing Tink again.
"Has anyone ever told you that you talk too much?" Tink asked with a bemused smile.
"All the time,” Codex replied nervously, her eyes pretty much fixed on Tink's lips. “My therapist used to bill me for two sessions at a time-"
"Codex? Shut up."
Then Tink was kissing her again, and Codex didn't really feel like talking anymore.
end.