It was going to be a long day.
Claire had never been much for the world of romance. Running from secret organizations and superpowered serial killers never left her much time for that kind of thing. She was always more pragmatic, trying to figure out how to survive or, when surviving wasn't an issue, how to just deal with life on a basic level. So a month or so ago when her roommate had kissed her, it wasn't just confusion because she had a girl kissing her. It was more because she had anyone kissing her at all.
Since then, things had been ... not awkward, but complicated. Gretchen had been doing a good job of giving her time ... that was something. But the more Claire thought about it, the less that was a benefit. With all the insanity from the carnival and her dad building up, it was getting to the point where she just wanted someone to be close to. She had confidants, she had people who understood her situation, she'd had them for years. What was driving her insane now was that her life was always so chaotic that she never had the time to stop and be comforted or just ignore even for a few hours that she was not and never could be normal. And considering she had exactly one friend here ... she was tired of having to keep a "minimum safe distance" from her.
It was a shitty afternoon that day: raining outside, lightning crashing. From what Claire could see from her window, walkways were starting to flood. She sighed and left the curtains open, laying down on her bed inverted to watch the storm. On top of that, it was WAY too hot and the air conditioner was broken. Clair wasn't entirely comfortable with the pink, lacey underwear (nor did she even remember when she got them), but she'd already started laundry before this day had turned into a clusterfuck. "No class today," she mumbled, less than enthused, "Whoo." She tilter her head back from the torrential downpour outside and stared at the ceiling, bored out of her mind. It'd been one of those days. The ones where she couldn't stop thinking. And with nothing to actually do, it just gets worse and worse and worse.
She bent her head back awkwardly (and, for anyone else, probably really uncomfortably) upsidedown as the door clicked. Gretchen, wearing an excessively large and soaked black poncho, slipped into the room and slammed the door behind her by leaning against it. She dropped her bag as she caught her breath, having run all the way across campus from her last class before the storm had shut the school down for the day. She opened her mouth to say something and paused, her eyes widening just a little bit as she looked down to see Claire laying down and arching herself up in her underwear. Claire immediately realized this may not have been the best way to choose to cool off at this, but it wasn't like she could throw something on. At least not without it being covered in detergent and water.
"Laundry ... day," Claire said, somewhat meekly as she turned herself around, laying stomach-down and maybe a little less provocatively.
"Oh ... right, laundry day," Gretchen answered, doing her best not to sound awkward or stare and shaking her head a little. She took off the poncho and retreated to her closet to change. Claire groaned and buried her head into her arms, feeling like a raging bitch for what she guessed she must have just put her friend through. 'I mean, it's not even like you DON'T like her,' she admitted to herself internally, 'So why can't you just be a woman and tell her?' She'd been having that fight with herself for days now on top of all the conflict, two probably-related facts, but it still was agonizing.
She looked up suddenly with determination, then threw a glance to the window again. It WAS a shitty day. It WAS a long day. Only 10:55 in the morning and she'd already been exposed, overheated, stressed-out, and frustrated. 'DO something about it, then,' she commanded herself, 'Stop being such a pussy and just ... okay, Claire. Get up. Figure something out. Do it. That easy.' She spun around to sit up and looked at the slightly ajar closet door where she could hear the slight rustling of clothing. She breathed in deeply and got up, making quick strides over to it.
Claire paused, her hand about to knock on the door. She felt warm, but not just from the broken air conditioning. She was nervous and more than a little excited. Her hand dropped lower as she thought out what she was going to do, barely realizng her impulses were acting for her. By the time her fingers had wrapped around the doorknob, she was barely moving herself at all. She looked down at her closed hand and exhaled finally, then pulled the door open slowly.
Gretchen turned around, hands pulled behind her back and on the clasp of her bra. She paused, otherwise completely undressed, and stared back at Clair for a second. "Um, can I help you?" she asked just as nervously, tilting her legs away from Claire a little. While Claire didn't mind her showing off her firm, pale ass, she couldn't help but think she was acting a little weird. Well, weirder than she thought she would in this scenario.
"If I was any good at come-ons, I'd have a one-liner about the bra," Clair said, unable to make her move away from the door or into the closet, "but I'm not. So I'm hoping that gives you an idea of why I'm in here on its own?" Gretchen tilted her head for a second in confusion, then mouthed an "Oh!" as she got to the point.
"Claire ... it's not that I don't want to?" Gretchen answered, notably blushing a little, "But ... there are some things about me you don't know. And they're things that most people get a little freaked out by. Okay, well, one of them is." She closed her eyes for a second and nodded. Claire looked her over a little apprehensively, unsure what she could be talking about.
She didn't have to wait that long to find out. Gretchen threw her bra to the side and turned around, letting Claire see all of her at once. Most of it was what she had expected: she saw her average-sized, but perky breasts, her flat stomach, the pale tone of her skin, long, graceful legs that were admittedly just a little more toned than she'd remembered them being ... and one thing she didn't. Between those legs hung what looked to be a rather large penis and a set of balls, completely shaved so there was really no mistaking what she was looking at. It was standing at attention, almost like it was staring at her.
"Yeah ... for about five years now," Gretchen made herself say after a few seconds as Claire, a little shocked, stared down, "Not the girl part, the that part. I just woke up one day and ... yeah. I'm not sure how or why ... okay, look, I'm sorry I didn't tell you in the first place, but after you turned me down, I didn't think ... I didn't think you'd ever have to know. I'm REALLY good at hiding it. Just ... not right now." She closed her eyes, wincing a little at the embarassment. She was bright red in her cheeks, wishing she was somewhere else not here right now.
Claire finally found the courage to step in right then, moving towards her. She pushed herself up a little, shorter than her roommate who now stood completely bared in front of her, and kissed her. As she put one hand on her hip and the other behind her head to pull her towards her, Claire could feel Gretchen's body tense, then relax. Her hands moved to Claire's hip and pulled her into her. Claire could feel the hard member against her sex and gasped into Gretchen's mouth, making her break the kiss.
