Disclaimer: I do not own iZombie. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
*****
Peyton Charles checked herself over one last time in the mirror before leaving the bedroom that she now shared with Liv Moore, her best friend turned girlfriend. Not that it was official, as they still technically had separate rooms, but they hadn't really slept in separate beds since shortly after they started dating. Which they needed to address at some point, but right now they had a more pressing issue to deal with.
One which had Liv stress cleaning, and not ready yet, even though their guests would be arriving soon. Peyton initially opened her mouth to point that out, but she paused for a minute just to enjoy the sight of her girlfriend being cute, and savouring the fact that she got to call Liv her girlfriend now.
Then Peyton slowly and cautiously approached her while asking, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Liv mumbled distractedly.
"Yeah, because that was convincing." Peyton scoffed.
Liv sighed, and then after a long pause grumbled, "I broke the bro-code."
"What?" Peyton frowned.
"I broke the bro-code!" Liv repeated in a snappy tone, abandoning her cleaning and turning away from the other girl.
"The bro-code? What is this, How I Met Your Mother?" Peyton quipped.
"I'm serious." Liv grumbled.
"I know." Peyton said softly, before gently arguing, "But Ravi and I only went out on like one date."
"Five." Liv corrected, "Five dates."
"Yeah, but I didn't enjoy them half as much as being with you. Because I love you. And if Ravi really is our friend, or at least yours, he'll get over it. And if not, screw him." Peyton said softly, closing the distance between them and gently wrapping her arms around her girlfriend, "And... and are you sure that's what this is really about?"
Liv frowned, "What do you mean?"
"It's just that..." Peyton bit her lip, hesitating for a moment before continuing, "Are you really worried about telling Ravi, or Major?"
"Both." Liv said softly, before turning around and telling her girlfriend, "I loved Major. I loved him so much I broke up with him to save him from becoming like me. It was the right thing to do at the time, and I'd do it again. But I also did it because I lost all hope. Ravi gave me hope again with his talk of a cure, and I even found happiness with Lowell."
"We're getting to a 'but' here, right?" Peyton joked.
"But..." Liv grinned, the two girlfriends laughing softly for a second before Liv cupped Peyton's face and firmly told her, "I couldn't not be with you. Granted, part of that was me eating pining best friend brain which made it hard to care about the consequences, but when that brain wore off I still wanted to be with you. I still couldn't not be. So I choose you. I choose you over him, and if he pushed me, I'd do it directly. And I'm scared he will, because I don't want to lose him. But I can't lose you. I won't lose you."
"No, you won't." Peyton agreed after a brief pause and a smile, before following it up with a kiss.
*
The next hour was nerve wracking as Ravi and Major arrived for the dinner that Liv promised them. Luckily it was almost ready to serve, so the amount of small talk was minimal, although even that couldn't prevent Ravi and Major noticing something was up and commenting on it multiple times, pushing for the truth increasingly frequently and insistently.
Peyton was ashamed of herself for it. She was a lawyer for God sakes, she should be better at hiding her feelings than this. Although at least she did her profession proud by skilfully evading her friend's questions, constantly changing the subject in keeping Ravi and Major talking about themselves as much as possible. Of course inevitably they just had to rip the Band-Aid off.
"Seriously guys, what's going on." Major said for what felt like the millionth time.
Liv and Peyton exchanged a look, and then Liv cleared her throat, stood up, and announced, "Well... it's great to see you both. It's always great. But you're right. Something is up. There's a reason we called you here. Something we need to discuss. Something-"
"Liv." Peyton mumbled softly to try and help out her girlfriend by getting them back on track, although it probably didn't help that she took her hand and squeezed it.
"Sorry." Liv apologised, hesitating for a moment as she looked at where their hands were joined, before gathering her courage again and announcing, "We're dating."
There was a brief silence and then just in case it wasn't clear Peyton added, "Each other."
"No, we got that, thanks." Major said softly.
"What the hell dude, you totally broke the bro-code!" Ravi whined.
"I know, I'm sorry." Liv apologised.
"How long?" Major asked.
"A couple of months." Peyton admitted.
"Months!" Major exclaimed.
"We wanted to wait until..." Liv began before trailing off.
"Until we were sure there was something to tell." Peyton finished for her after seeing Liv was struggling, then when both boys gave her a look she somewhat defensively added, "What? We didn't want to upset you and then find out it's just too weird and we're better off as friends. You'd do the same if the situation was reversed."
"He should be so lucky." Ravi quipped.
Clearly in no mood for quips Major turned his attention to Liv and asked accusingly, "I thought you weren't into girls?"