Fic-a-Day #21: New Toys
Title: New Toys
Author: JoeHundredaire (joehundredaire@tthfanfic.com)
Rating: R/FR18.
Pairings: Kit Holburn/Nico Minoru
Disclaimer: Brian K. Vaughn is the mastermind behind Runaways (which is a better comic than, if not as funny as, Young Avengers) and someone who's not me (but may be Joss Whedon) owns Buffy.
Joe's Note: Not an FFA, but setting up for future stories. This series will run into the New Days Dawning universe after a bit longer, so I'm adding a bit more depth to what was initially just a fluff series.
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Sitting on the edge of their shared bed, Nico peered down at the box Kit was fiddling with on the floor. With Kit bent at the waist as she wrestled with the twine binding the package shut, it gave her an excellent view down the brunette’s shirt. She licked her lips and brought one hand up to tug idly at her newly-dyed dark red hair. “So… what’s so important that you had to run out for early mail pick-up?”
Kit looked up before sliding out her silver knife and slashing through the twine. “Other than your really nasty-smelling hair dye? Dawn sent us new staves.”
“What, like as a replacement to the Staff of One?” Nico wondered. Kit opened the box, causing Nico’s thoughts to jump from ‘Mmm Kit…’ to ‘Ooooh, shiny!’. Inside the long, slim package were two black staves, each topped with a large emblem. Nestled together in the box, the emblems interlocked to form a yin yang. “Oh cool…”
Kit lifted yin staff from the box and handed it to Nico. “Not a replacement,” she informed her lover. “Think of it as… carrying a second gun. They’re not as powerful as the Staff of One… nothing Dawn could find is. So remember that before you whack people in the head with it. But there’s one for each of us and, most importantly, they can cast the same spell over and over again.”
Blinking, Nico rolled the staff in her hands, examining it from all angles. “No offense, but I have the Staff of One. Why don’t you take one and give the other one to Gert? She’s always in the fights because of Old Lace, and she could use an extra weapon…”
Kit shook her head as she lifted her own from the box. “Doesn’t work like that,” she replied. “The Gemini Staves require two people, at least one of which has to be a witch, who are sibs or lovers. Not sure if there’s some kind of West Virginia bonus…”
“West Virginia bonus?” Nico wondered, furrowing her brow. Really, Kit came up with some of the weirdest sayings…
Kit grinned. “You know, if you’re siblings AND lovers.”
Grimacing, Nico rolled the staff again. “So how do we know if they’ll even work for us?” she asked. “We’re definitely not siblings… thank God because that’d make the sex really creepy… but what counts as lovers? No offense, but I don’t know if I’m in love with you. Does lovers mean two people who fuck a lot, two people who are deeply in love, or what?”
Standing up, Kit spun gracefully and leveled her staff at the nightstand. “Roses are red,” she incanted, “violets are blue, life is confusing and so are you.” A burst of rainbow-colored energy sailed from the end of the staff to the table, where it formed into a vase full of flowers. “That answer your question?”
“Yeah, I guess it does,” Nico said. She stared at Kit, waiting for the inevitable explosion of her declaration of not-love. And waited. And waited. Finally, she decided to broach the matter herself. “Does it bother you?”
Kit raised an eyebrow and tapped her Gemini Staff against her left wrist. “That you don’t love me?” she asked. The black and silver rod turned into a roiling blob of energy that wrapped itself around the brunette’s wrist, turning into a beautiful white bracelet. “No. I don’t love you either. I like you as a friend, I care about you as a girlfriend, and you better believe I enjoy the sex… but love? I’d be lying it I told you I loved you. That’s why I don’t.”
The pair fell into silence before Kit abruptly grabbed some clothes out of their laundry basket and headed for the bathroom. Nico sighed before tapping her Gemini Staff against her left wrist. Nothing. She tried the right wrist, and it reshaped itself into a glossy obsidian bracelet.
’I wonder if Karolina and I could use the staves?’ she mused. Although she was pretty sure a part of Karolina’s interest in her was that she was the only single girl in the group (other than Molly, which would be squicky), the two got along well and she liked the blonde. Sure, the kiss out of nowhere had freaked her out… but it was the suddenness, not that it was Karolina.
Though, come to think of it, Nico doubted it would have gone very far past kissing. Spending time with Kit, even clothed, made her hands itch to touch the brunette. Which had gotten them in trouble a few times already, like that time their half an hour errand for the group had taken six hours that included a tour of three mall dressing rooms and two dark alleys. With Karolina… that feeling just wasn’t there. Every time she tried to picture herself doing the same things with Karolina that she did with Kit, her best friend would inevitably morph into the brunette in her mind. ’Do I want to be with a girl I like and have passion with but doesn’t love me, or a girl is in love with me but I don’t feel passion for?’
Nico slid off the edge of the bed, crossing the room to reach into their laundry basket. Lifting out the plaid skirt from her naughty schoolgirl costume, she stared at it. ’I like Kit as a person and we have a lot in common. And the sex is incredible. Karolina’s my best friend and loves me. Love or lust? Lust or love?’
She spent the entirety of Kit’s shower pondering the question and when the brunette hugged her from behind and pressed a kiss to her neck, she still didn’t know.
However, she began to lean towards the ‘lust’ option sometime around when Kit ran one hand up the inside of her thigh before sliding into her panties.
Three hours later, Kit curled up and resting her head on her chest, Nico couldn’t remember the question.