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"I don't even like horror movies," Fallon dismissed, her heels clicking across the floor towards the mirror. Leaning in and admiring her reflection for a moment, she decisively swiped something Kirby couldn't see from her cheek - an eyelash, or an invisible deposit of powder - then turned her head to begin securing her earrings in.
"I'm not asking you to come watch Rocky Horror at Lips Down on Dixie, Fallon," Kirby scoffed from where she was sprawled out on the bed. With her phone held up over her head, she squinted up at the screen and swiped through her folder of streaming apps before landing on Netflix and choosing the category-search function.
"Good, because I'd have said 'no' to that, too," Fallon replied. "Even faster, though. Same answer, but with more enthusiasm."
"Prude."
"Sorry, drag queens and sticky theater seats and people drunkenly yelling along to a movie isn't exactly my scene." Fallon turned to put her other earring in, then stood back to admire her reflection one final time.
"Everyone's supposed to do it once," Kirby reasoned, now fully distracted from her phone and enjoying the argument - unrelated to their evening plans - at hand.
"I have been, you know," Fallon replied, surprising her, before adding, "I was in high school, once, too, Kirby. You know... when it's still almost acceptable to still go to Rocky Horror shows."
"Are you going to just stand there and complain about all of the fun things I like all evening?" Kirby asked, setting her phone aside.
"No," Fallon replied, glancing at the bed through the mirror's reflection before turning around to face the other woman properly. "I'm going to leave."
With that, she pivoted on both heels and headed for the door, sliding it open and stepping out into the hallway before Kirby could protest with another word.
“Come on,” Kirby tried, getting up quickly to follow her. “It’s one movie. Maybe two. It doesn’t even feel like Halloween this year.”
“Don’t you have Sam for this kind of thing?” Fallon didn’t even look at her, staring straight down at her phone as she walked towards the stairs.
“Sam’s joining too, obviously. But we’ll have more fun with you there.” Grabbing her hand softly as she reached for the banister, Kirby tugged at her arm gently until the brunette turned to her defeatedly - she clearly wasn’t getting out of this conversation.
“If I get these end-of-month reports organized, and if there is wine , I will come to your weird… childhood-fulfilling tradition. But I can’t guarantee that I’ll pay attention or care - in fact, most likely the opposite.”
Lighting up, Kirby rocked up onto the balls of her feet and visibly tried to keep the elation from her face.
“There will be no Saw, no Final Destination , and absolutely no… weird sexually taboo overtones, okay? So that’s no Clockwork Orange, Human Centipede, or Jennifer’s Body. Are we clear? Actually… I’m picking the movie.”
“For someone who doesn’t like horror movies, you sure can name a lot at the drop of a hat.”
“Don’t be annoying.”
“You have to wear pajamas,” Kirby pressed on, letting go of the other woman’s hand and sidestepping her towards the stairs.
“Absolutely not,” Fallon sniffed, following along beside her.
“It’s the rules! Besides, you’re going to be both overdressed and uncomfortable if you come dressed like this.” She reached over and plucked at the bottom hem of Fallon’s blazer, yanking her hand back when the other woman swatted at it.
“There’s no such thing as overdressed - and I will decide on an outfit later. If you’ll excuse me, though…” They reached the bottom of the stairs, and Fallon took off for the front door, leaving Kirby in her wake. “Make sure Sam knows my terms.”
Chuckling to herself and shaking her head, Kirby watched as she pulled the massive door open and stepped out into the cool overcast atmosphere of autumn.
“You’re home late,” Sam greeted, tilting his head back as far as possible to watch Fallon wandering into the living room over the back of the couch.
Kirby followed his gaze, lighting up and then laughing as she took in the other woman’s tired appearance.
“You started without me,” Fallon noted, nodding towards the TV screen.
“All according to your plan, I assume,” Kirby teased, sitting up properly and giving her a once-over. “You going to go change?”
“Mhm,” Fallon turned on her heel to head out again, and Kirby settled comfortably back into her spot.
"We're still finishing this one, first," she promised Sam, nodding to the screen. "It's her fault for being late."
"Wow, really putting your foot down, huh?"
Snorting, she shoved his leg gently for him to be quiet, and then reached for the bowl of popcorn again just as the actress on-screen let out a scream of terror and ran down the abandoned hallway of the hotel set.
“Did she tell you what she picked?”
“Nope,” Kirby replied, eyes trained on the screen. “But knowing her it’ll probably be a classic, or something black and white, or painfully artsy. So be nice.”
They sat quietly for a few more minutes, the only sounds in the room being from the crunch of popcorn or the activity on the TV screen, until Fallon returned and promptly began to worm her way between the two of them on the couch and forcing them to both scoot aside and make room.
"How much is left of this?" Fallon nodded to the screen, one eyebrow raising.
Reaching for the remote and pausing the movie, Kirby squinted at the remaining screen time.
"About ten minutes."
"Good timing, then."
"You should have seen the beginning, it's good," Kirby insisted.
On-screen, the leading woman's scream was muffled by a hand appearing behind her out of the shadows and covering her mouth.
"No thanks," Fallon replied cooly. "I've been kidnapped. It’s sort of a one-and-done experience."
Kirby shifted, glancing at the brunette in the corner of her eye. Regret seeped over her at the thought of subjecting her to something that was going to upset her, but Fallon didn't seem bothered.
"What did you pick?"
"Will you two please shut up?" Sam groaned, reaching across Fallon and snatching the popcorn bowl out of Kirby's lap.
Rolling their eyes simultaneously, the pair of them fell quiet as Fallon leaned over and tucked her cheek on the other woman's shoulder - she recognized it as an act of boredom, not affection, but it was sweet all the same. To her credit, she didn’t complain for the remainder of the movie, but she did stand up to stretch and pour herself a glass from the bottle of wine on the table that Kirby and Sam had dragged out earlier.
“That was the longest ten minutes of my life,” she mused.
“You are so negative,” Kirby replied with a laugh, shaking her head.
“It’s all just so predictable, and stupid ,” Fallon continued.
“Famous last words,” Sam chimed in.
“Fallon’s actually above watching Scream , Sam,” Kirby explained, in a faux-serious tone. “It’s only culturally significant to the history of cinema if it’s a movie she personally likes, didn’t you hear?”
“Aw,” Sam jutted his lip out in an exaggerated pout. “Did someone live their past life as a twenty-something white film schoolboy?”
“I’m going to take this,” Fallon held the bottle up, “And leave if you two don’t shut up.”
Patting Fallon’s vacant spot between them and pulling her blanket closer, Kirby beamed encouragingly.
“You don’t mean that. C’monnnn.”
Rolling her eyes but heeding defeat, Fallon slumped back into the couch and scrolled through her phone for a few moments before pulling up the next movie and casting it to the screen before them.
“Really? You want to watch A Quiet Place?”
“What?” Fallon looked suddenly alarmed. “It came out like two years ago and I never got to see it. What’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing,” Kirby replied quickly. “I haven’t either. It’s just a little…”
“From this century?” Sam supplied.
Fallon shot him a glare before turning her attention back to the screen.
“I like Emily Blunt,” she sniffed.
“Okay,” Sam ceded. “I’m down. I didn’t see it, either. Kirby?”
Both of the brunettes turned their attention to the woman on the farthest end of the couch, eyebrows raising almost identically.
“Hm?” She felt her cheeks turn red, and resisted the urge to cover them with her hands. “No. I uh - I mean, I know about it. I didn’t get to see it.”
The other two stared at her for a beat longer than comfortable, then turned their attention back to the screen.
“Okay, let’s get this over with,” Fallon sighed.
The lights around them dimmed, and all three of them settled back in with their wine as the screen turned black.
“Sorry - sorry, can we pause this again?” Fallon reached for her phone and sat up slowly, prying Kirby’s fingers from her arm with a wince. “God, seriously - can you stop? What is wrong with you?”
Sitting up straighter, Kirby glanced between the screen and the other woman, reaching up to rub at her ear softly. It was sore from being pressed against the other woman’s shoulder - what she’d thought was a more subtle way to muffle the startling noises and bursts of music without outright plugging her ears. Apparently, she hadn’t been subtle enough.
Reaching for the remaining wine, Sam chuckled, almost breathlessly.
“‘S’is intense. Good choice. Also John Krasinski all grimy, with the beard…? Yes.”
Fallon was still watching Kirby, though.
“Are you good?”
“Why wouldn’t I be good?” She asked, laughing as if the question were completely absurd. She laughed just a moment too long, though, having to physically cut herself off by taking a large sip from her wine - which she’d placed back on the table after nearly spilling it on herself at the first jump scare.
The slow grin spreading across Fallon's face was almost scarier than the movie itself had been, so Kirby quickly averted her gaze and set her glass back down in favour of grabbing the popcorn again.
"Can we keep watching? Or did you want a break?"
Chuckling and shaking her head, Fallon reached over accusingly, prodding at her.
"You're scared."
"Of living on a farm in dead silence? Yeah, sounds pretty shitty," Kirby deflected, leaning away from the other woman's hand as she continued to poke at her, sharp manicured nails jabbing uncomfortably into her leg and side. She didn't stop until the redhead pelted her with a few pieces of popcorn, but even then she still looked too self-satisfied for Kirby's liking as she leaned back into her own spot.
"This is too good."
"In her defense, I don't think I've been this tense in months," Sam offered from Fallon's other side. Kirby let out a tiny sigh of relief when she turned her attention away from mocking her to answer him, instead.
"Aw, nothing a massage won't fix. You're probably going to need more than that to relax, though," Fallon accused, reaching back and patting Kirby's knee blindly.
Pettily pulling away from her with a pout, Kirby rolled her eyes.
"Oh, ew." Sam crinkled his nose in distaste.
"I meant like a Xanax ," Fallon corrected, rolling her eyes at him in turn and then reaching for her own wine. "Can I play it, again, or are you going to dislocate my shoulder?"
"Oh my god, just fucking play it." Kirby hadn't meant to sound as urgent or gruff as she had, but her voice came out a little louder; a little more tense than she'd meant it to. Raising both eyebrows at the sudden rudeness, but saying nothing, Fallon turned back to the screen and hit 'play' once more.
"It's almost over anyway," she promised, as the scene in front of them started once more.
Sam sniffled loudly once as the screen turned black again and both women whirled around to look at him.
"Are you crying...?" Kirby frowned and sat up straighter to see over the top of Fallon's head, momentarily forgetting the ache in her palms from where she'd made fists so tight that her nails had left permanent marks.
"I - no! A little bit!" Wiping the back of one eye with his sleeve, Sam swigged from his wine glass before saying thickly, "It was sad."
Jutting her lip out in a caricature of a concerned pout, Fallon reached over and patted his arm before shaking her sleeve back from her wrist and peering at her watch.
"And with that, I've done my time. Goodnight - Happy Halloween, or whatever. I'm going to take a bath and go to bed."
“I - you’re leaving?” Kirby sat up further, following her with her eyes as she stood from the couch and shrugged her blanket off.
“Yes…?” Fallon glanced back at her in confusion. “I promised one movie.”
“We were going to watch Happy Death Day .”
“Sounds incredibly stupid.”
“It is,” Sam replied, having clearly self-soothed by refilling his wine. “That’s the point.”
“It’s funny,” Kirby insisted.
“Well, that sounds like fun. For the two of you. Like I said, I’m going to take a bath,” Fallon reminded them.
“You’re going to take a bath? After that ?” Sam gestured at the screen, but the playfulness was evident on his face.
Glancing at the black screen in confusion before chuckling in understanding, Fallon shook her head and began to refill her glass.
“I’m not pregnant - and there aren’t any giant monsters lurking around outside… also, the manor isn’t a quiet zone - but wow, wouldn’t that be nice?” Staring off wistfully as if picturing it in some sort of fantasy daydream, Fallon sighed dreamily and then shook herself out of it. “Goodnight.”
The pair of them watched as Fallon left, then Sam turned to Kirby again and smiled obliviously.
“One more?”
Nodding in relief, Kirby reached for Fallon’s abandoned throw blanket and pulled it over her legs. The couch felt a lot emptier and colder without her there, but something lighthearted and admittedly idiotic was much-needed to help dissolve some of the terrified tension making its home in her shoulders and neck.
"You're still in here," Kirby observed, making her way into the en-suite bathroom slowly. She'd nursed her wine fairly slowly, but she and Sam had gone through quite a bit before finally retiring for the night and heading their separate ways to bed.
Glancing up from her phone screen and tilting her head back, Fallon chuckled from her spot in the large bubble-filled bathtub.
"Yeah, I got distracted." She held her phone up in gesture before going back to it.
"You're working?" Kirby asked incredulously. "It's the middle of the night. On a weekend."
"Are you still going to be acting surprised fifty years from now?"
"Hopefully, you'll be retired fifty years from now," Kirby pointed out. Fallon made a noncommittal noise of dismissal in the back of her throat.
"You getting out soon?"
"Why, you have plans?" Fallon teased, finally glancing up again as the redhead approached the tub and sat down on the floor beside it.
"No, just sleeping," Kirby replied, one elbow coming to rest on the ledge so she could cradle her chin in the palm of her hand.
"Mm," Fallon nodded slowly, leaning back against the pillow-lined edge. "I mean, you could always go to bed without me. It’s late."
"It is," Kirby agreed. "But that wouldn't be very nice."
"For you," Fallon hummed. "Wouldn't be nice for you, having to tuck yourself in in the dark with all those monsters lurking around."
"That isn't funny," the redhead huffed.
Fallon giggled, and despite her annoyance, Kirby felt the corner of her lips trying to tug up into a smile at the sound of it.
"That really got under your skin, huh?"
"It was a good movie," Kirby replied instead of answering directly - it wasn't a lie.
"Mhm," Fallon nodded and then sunk into the bubbles a little further. "Scared the shit out of you . And I'll be so heartbroken if that was the last time you were ever going to invite me to movie night."
"There's no way you did that on purpose. You wouldn't even have known it was going to be that scary," Kirby replied, rolling her eyes.
"No," Fallon mused. "I did want to see it. You being terrified was a bonus."
"That's cruel."
"Oh please," she laughed. "It was supposed to be scary movies - isn't being scared the point?"
"Were you scared, then?"
"By Prom Queen ? A Quiet Place ? No," Fallon waved a hand dismissively. "But like I said - not really my speed."
“Whatever,” Kirby huffed. “Are you getting out, now?”
“Maybe,” Fallon replied. “If -”
“ If ?”
“If you ask me very nicely to come check for monsters and tuck you in.”
“Fallon!”
The brunette laughed again before squealing in protest when Kirby reached over and flicked the drain open to begin emptying the tub.
“Out, now. We have brunch tomorrow, anyway.”
"You're right," Fallon admitted, sighing as she reached for her towel and stood up. "It's going to take you a long time to live this down, though."
"Yeah, yeah," Kirby groaned, feeling the blush climbing up her neck to her cheeks once more.
"I mean," Fallon continued, "Monsters? You're Australian - you've probably found worse in your own mudroom back home."
"Oh my god," Kirby whirled around in the doorway, "Will you stop ?"
She watched Fallon's face shift from amused to apologetic in a split second before she closed the distance between them and pouted up at her.
"I'm sorry," she promised.
"I - I'm not mad," Kirby started, not getting to explain any further before the brunette rocked up onto the balls of her feet and kissed her soundly, silencing the rest of her protest in its tracks.
"I know," Fallon replied. "Sorry. I'll make it up to you."
She slid past the redhead towards the door to the bedroom, and Kirby couldn't help but roll her eyes at the apology in amusement. Turning to follow the brunette's path, her assurance trailed off.
"Seriously, you don't have to make anything - oh."
Fallon dropped the towel to the floor between them and glanced back over her shoulder before cocking her head.
"Coming?"
Grinning to herself, Kirby leaned over to blow out the aromatherapy candle on the bathroom vanity counter and nearly chased her girlfriend to the bed; movies, mocking, and monsters forgotten for the time being.