“You free tomorrow?” The text read. “I’d take you out tonight, but—“

It was almost 6:00PM, on a Friday.

Amelia followed the text up with a picture of a two-year-old covered in spaghetti, sitting in a high chair. The blonde boy was shirtless, and covered in sauce.

The text after that was a picture of a baby in yet another high chair, eating sauceless microwave raviolis. In his right hand, he held an orange baby fork aloft with a ravioli speared through. His left was on the gray baby tray, smooshing some orangish fruit. Could have been peaches, could have been orange. He was only mildly less messy than the first kid.

“Babysitting bountiful bajillion baby brats.” Was her explanation, followed by “Heart emoji.” Cousins of hers. Family.

Then, a third picture. A beautiful little girl with long blonde hair. Completely spotless, in a Frozen Elsa dress. She had a quizzical look on her face, and held a fork full of spaghetti daintily before her. Her plate and tray were clean. Hell. That was no tray. She was sitting at the table like a big kid. Not tied down, nor belted. Sitting.

“Look at this fastidious ice queen. No child’s that clean! Clearly, she is plotting to color on the walls later or freeze a baby doll or something nefarious. Or at least make me watch Frozen for the 90th time.”

Not that the other 89 were necessarily the little girl’s fault.

Amelia had sent several texts, since their first date. Texts about nothing, texts about interesting things, about what they were doing and lots and lots of middle finger emojis.

They had both been busy. Adelynn had a band. And school(?). And Amelia? She had been busy, training. Practicing. Plotting. Utilizing gerunds. And, babysitting.

~Yeah, Im free 2mrw~ The reply had read; Addy was lying on her stomach in bed, not really doing much of anything but texting her girlfriend. Girlfriend. She actually had a girlfriend, and that broke through her gloomy facade and made her warm and fuzzy inside. The following texts that flooded her phone were of children. Two of them covered in foodstuffs, and an older one that was f***ing spotless, somehow. There was always one, wasn't there?

~Ew. I dont envy u, girl. Not in the slightest. Though I don't see anything wrong with Frozen. Tell any1 I said that and u will die. :heart: :kissyface: :middlefinger:~

She hadn't seen Ami since their first date, wherein they got kicked out of the Milkshake Monarch for PDA, which made her wonder was it a ban or a one time thing? She assumed a one time deal since they weren't told not to come back, but best to stay away from there for a bit just to make sure. In the time after, though, there had been several texts, and while most young, budding couples sent mostly hearts and smiley faces, Ami and Addy shared a lot of middle fingers. Affectionately, of course.

One of these days Addy was going to skip school to go see Ami, once she found out where the girl lived.

~So what u wanna do 2mrw? We always come make--I mean hang out at the house for awhile and we can share art. May-B I can play guitar? Or something else, Idc as long as I get to see u again.~

Cool. She was free.

Amelia glanced over at the messy children. It was a good thing it was bath night because they were a mess.

She’d had too much fun texting about how terrible her fate was and how she could just bemooooan it forever as she babysat brats... but she actually liked the kids. From her perspective, she had never met them. Had past and future Ami met them? Or had she neglected them? Cousins she never knew she had? Maybe. Who knows?!

Adelynn had agreed with her, no envy at all. Even if the kids were cute.

And then Adelynn defended Frozen? Heart kissy face middle finger.

Amelia smirked, and began to type a reply... but Adelynn beat her to the punch. Probably due to her having more free hands, and not dealing with two messy boys and a little girl.

Oh, there would be cleaning later. And she would not keep diverting her attention away from them to chat with Adelynn all night. That felt irresponsible.

She divided her attention between reading Adelynn’s suggest about making— hanging out, and feeding the youngest one. That was baby Benny, short for Benedict.

The girl’s suggestion was tempting. She fired back a quick “Tempting. :panda:” Then turned to plop a chopped up piece of meatball on the middle child, Conan’s plate.

Irene, she did not have to worry about. At 3, Irene was the oldest and most mature. She winked at her, and dove back into another reply.

“Phone juggling. Sry.” Engaging short-hand mode! “Want 2 see u 2. Thinking aquarium. :shark: :dolphin: :whale:”

She set the phone down and caught a thrown baby spoon, just in time. Spent a moment tending to kiddos, then sent one final text.

“Txt address. C U 2morrow. Maybe D) all above.”

Amelia put her phone away and turned her attention back to being a good babysitter. Wait. She pulled out the phone and sent one final FINAL text.

“PS. Frozen = good. Amelia = Disney :crown: :Princess: Deal with it. :shades:”

For her final final final text of the night she said “gtg Conan has entire spaghett “ and left the phone in her pocket, where it could be safe.

—

The next day, she wore a cute pair of worn out skinny jeans, a blue button up shirt, a navy infinity scarf, black down jacket, and a gray stocking cap. She tromped up to Adelynn’s front door in red and white Converse sneakers. She carried a green reusable enviro bag in one hand.

Knock knock knock.

Addy's lips pulled into a genuine smile as she texted Ami the address. Her last text of the night:

~Night! Good luck with the cute little gremlins! :kissyface:~ Attached was a selfie of Addy in her night shirt, tongue sticking out and the hand that wasn't holding the phone was holding up the middle finger.

----

Between her mutation being pretty well charged, and the excitement about tomorrow, Addy didn't get any sleep that night, opting to watch TV or play guitar without an amp instead. She didn't need much sleep, so missing out didn't really affect her that much. After what seemed like forever--though it was several hours so to a sixteen year old girl waiting on a date it was--there was finally a knock on the door, and Addy made her way downstairs wearing a pair of ripped skinny jeans with flannel leggings underneath, a dark blue low cut sleeveless shirt with a leather jacket over it, and black tennis shoes. Her blonde hair had very recent red highlights in it--she'd been bored and done a lot more than just TV and guitar, apparently.

She opened the door with a smile. "Well hey there. My room's just upstairs and to the right, unless you wanted to go straight to the aquarium. I have no idea what you have planned today, honestly," she said with a shrug.

Amelia grinned at the selfie, then sent back a kissy face middle finger. Okay. That was her real real real final text. Now, it was time to focus her undivided attention on the gremlins. Even if they were more like Jawas.

—

When Adelynn opened the door, Amelia couldn’t help but smile. Yep. Still as awesome as she had remembered. The smile only grew, as the girl spoke.

Her room was upstairs? Heh.

“You, are too cute.” She said, slipping past the girl through the front door.

When she was firmly inside, she set her bag down on the floor and stepped up to Adelynn, resting her hands on her sides. She kissed her. Away from prying eyes.

Yep. Still as awesome.

At an appropriate break, she murmured “Cab is set to pick us up here in 45 minutes. We e got time... so lead the way.”

“Love the hair, BTW. Very hot.”

Surely, they would talk at some point during that 45 minutes. Right then, talk was far from the teens mind.

"Yeah," Addy said with a roll of her eyes, "'Cute' is totally what I try to emulate," she said with a dry sarcasm and a bit of a scoff. Once inside, Addy shut the door behind her, and before she knew it, Ami's bag was on the floor, hands on Addy's  sides, and their lips met. 

Addy gasped, arms wrapping around Ami as she returned the kiss; to her knowledge, nobody else was home so they didn't have much to worry about. Besides she really didn't care whether Veronica saw or not.

She shuddered, smirking. "Hot is more like it by the way," she said, leaning in and giving Ami another kiss before taking her hand and leading her quite eagerly upstairs. The door was already cracked, so she just nudged it open with her foot, and practically dragged her girlfriend inside. The room itself was...lived in. There was a pile of clothes in the chair, the bed was unmade, and honestly the most well kept part of the room was where she kept her electric guitar and amp. Aside from that, the room was nice; her parents obviously had some money. There was a TV on the wall, and a a few uncharacteristic stuffed animals strewn about.

But once they were fully inside and Ami had time to take in the sights, Addy was kissing her again. One hand slipped behind the other girl's neck, the charge of electricity likely causing little tingles or making the little hairs on her neck stand upright.

The sarcasm Adelynn dropped on her over the ‘too cute’ comment... only made her cuter. Compelled her to lay on the kissy face even sooner! She lumped it in with Adelynn’s nefarious kissy face designs, and Amelia... had no problems with it, at all. Adelynn had no problems with the sudden kissy face, either. Which was predictable, what with those designs and all.

Amelia... grinned at Adelynn and her smirk and her shudder, and her.

She had learned from the last time. No big requests and lead up. Just, POW! Right on the kisser. And she had called her hot. Which she was, and was very appreciative of the comment about. And, heh— her mind was sort of all over the place. They’d kissed again, and now Adelynn was leading her by the hand, upstairs. Into her room.

Amelia... did not notice much of the room in the moments between entering the room, and Adelynn’s antics. She was totally focused on the other girl.

The kissing was... intense. And surprising. What was that— tingling? Like static. It was... fuzzy was a word. But maybe not the word.

“Heh,” Amelia murmured. “What are you—“ Eh. Whatever it was, she wouldn’t object. It was nice~

She tried to cover up any replies with kisses. And the time, it just got away.

—

Some ten to fifteen minutes later, something traced its way down Adelynn’s spine like a finger. Except, both of Amelia’s hands were already occupied. One on Adelynn’s arm, and one in her hair. So what was the phantom feeling of pressure Amelia sensed, in the back of her brain?

There was nothing there behind Adelynn. Nothing visible, at least. Maybe some sort of... ghost thing. Like warm air off concrete on a hot day. Heat haze? What it was, was unclear... not that she’d paused the kissing to check it out.