Chapter Text
Grace had been in a few serious relationships in her life; a boyfriend in high school here, a string of ill-advised girlfriends in college there. But even before those people entered— and subsequently exited— Grace’s life, there was one constant, and that was Freddie. Freddie, her sweet, upbeat, nerdy, ever-supportive jokester of a best friend, who Grace knew was the single most wonderful person she would ever meet.
Freddie was her truest long-term relationship, and they’d been “together” since Grace was new to Freddie’s elementary school in 2nd grade and Freddie had rolled up to her on the playground and offered her a heart-shaped Silly Band. “Hi!” she’d said brightly, in typically smiley Freddie fashion. “I don’t know you yet, but you’re, like, suuuuper pretty. What music do you listen to?” And Grace had admitted she didn’t really listen to anything except what her dad happened to put on in the car, and Freddie had let out a shriek that rattled the windows and hustled her into the corner behind the play structure to listen to Taylor Swift on the portable CD player she’d smuggled into school. And since that recess, they’d been inseparable— graduating high school together, going to colleges 30 minutes apart, and moving in together after their freshman year.
They always joked they’d be together forever, and that if neither of them were married by 35, they’d marry each other for the tax benefits, because they were basically already married anyway. It took about ten years for Grace to realize that 35 wasn’t really that old, and that all the jokes they and their friends made about being a couple had an element of truth to them.
Freddie was a fixture, the only solid thing in Grace’s life when she felt so adrift, and therefore Grace didn’t have the heart to tell Freddie that she wished their casual cheek-kisses, family dinners, and cuddly weekly movie nights could be something more. She knew in her heart of hearts that Freddie wouldn’t take it badly, but she couldn’t shake the nightmare of Freddie laughing it off awkwardly and then slowly drifting away. So she stayed quiet, full-to-bursting with the offer of a life together that she knew she would never speak aloud.
And then Grace had had the craziest year in the history of crazy years. She dropped out of school and then she became an honest-to-Zeus god. And then she almost died, and then Freddie… well… she actually died. Grace didn’t like thinking about that. At all.
But Freddie had died for Grace, and then Grace had passed on her godhood to bring her back, which made everything a shitload more complicated. When Grace found out that Freddie loved her back, the words exploding out of her in that whole bout of messy confession, only common sense and the threat of impending execution prevented her from kissing Freddie and never coming up for air. She’d thought that when the trial was over, maybe they’d have a chance to be brave. But Freddie was different now, like she’d said. Grace had matured enough to hold herself back while Freddie figured everything out. She already had for upwards of 7 years, what was a few more months?
But Grace slipped a little, and so did Freddie. Both of them had pretty intense nightmares now, and it wasn’t uncommon on the nights when they were both home for one of them to jolt up in the middle of the night and pad, half-awake, to the other’s bed. Once, they’d even run into each other in the hall when they had both woken up around the same time, and the two of them had just sat against the wall, holding hands and staring resolutely ahead until they fell asleep against each other. They’d been masters of cuddling the whole time they’d been friends, rarely ever taking their hands off each other, but it felt different now, quieter, more foreign, compounded by the fact that, during that time, Freddie never mentioned the nightmares during the days when they were able to see each other. Grace didn’t blame her. They didn’t really talk about anything in this weird purgatory they lived in. Freddie didn’t even make eye contact with Grace most days. Processing was weird like that.
Eventually, that horrendous state of limbo wore itself down to the bones, and Freddie was finally able to look Grace in the eyes again, and Grace finally had permission to reach up, to take Freddie’s beautiful, familiar face in her hands and draw her down into a kiss, and it was worth every second of that 8 years, 2 months, and 12 days that she’d been waiting. And everything felt like them again, but better, because they had no secrets to keep them apart.
But the fact that the artist formerly known as Grace-and-Freddie was now Grace-and-Freddie, romantically , definitely came with its own set of challenges. Like now.
Grace had arrived home from her closing bar shift at The Underworld and passed out in Freddie’s bed immediately, which was a little bit pathetic considering that Freddie wasn’t even home— she was halfway across the country, venue-hunting and promo-ing Edge of Elysium with Persephone (now that was a fun dynamic). Grace had offered to go with, but Persephone had countered her with an insane amount of money per hour to bartend and keep the club running smoothly, and Grace, of the Bachelor’s Degree in Absolutely Nothing, couldn’t afford to turn it down.
Grace tried her best not to be codependent, but that wasn’t something she and Freddie were very good at, historically. It had only gotten worse since their brief foray into the Underworld (as in Hell, not the nightclub), this deep need to always be by each other's sides.
So the second she woke up, which was around noon, she FaceTimed Freddie before doing anything else.
Freddie picked up on the second ring with a bright “Hello, gorgeous, gorgeous girl!” which may have sounded like a very couple-y thing to say, but was really a very typical greeting for the two of them, and also a lie, since showering was the last thing on Grace’s mind after getting off work at 3 A.M. Freddie’s bed-head rivaled Grace’s, and she looked happy, genuinely happy, which coaxed a tired smile out of Grace. The view behind Freddie was a rather expensive-looking hotel room. “What’s up?”
“Nothing much, I just wanted to see your face. I had an insane close,” Grace sighed.
“I hope you’re taking care of my club,” Persephone’s voice came from out of view of the camera, and Freddie turned it slightly so Persephone was visible sitting on the hotel dresser.
“Leave her alone, Persnickety.” Grace stifled a laugh at the look on Persephone’s face. “If anyone can meet your insane standards, it’s Grace! She’s, like, the capablest person ever.” Freddie’s face scrunched up. “Is that a word? Capablest?”
“I have no idea,” Grace admitted. “And, look, it’s not my fault. Just some assholes picking fights. No,” she cut in as Persephone opened her mouth. “I was not one of the assholes this time. Eros booted them out for me.”
“Did they hurt you?” Freddie’s eyebrows narrowed. “I swear I’ll sing ‘em to death if they did.”
“I’m fine, it just took a few years off my life.”
“Noooo, you need those years!” Freddie whined.
“There are worse ways of dying than being sung to death, you know.” Persephone cracked her knuckles quite impressively.
“Both of you need to chill out,” Grace said, exasperated, but she was giggling now, the stress of the shift effectively forgotten at their antics. “What’s on the agenda today?”
Freddie grinned. “We’re checking out the venues in sunny—“ She glanced back at Persephone. “What city are we in again?”
“Johnson City,” supplied Persephone.
“Johnson City! They’ve got some really cool places here. If only Seph could stop threatening the club owners who don’t have any room on their schedules…” A rolled pair of socks came zinging at Freddie from offscreen. “DUDE. Keep your undergarments to YOURSELF.”
“That sounds fun,” Grace said. “Even if Persephone is being a shit. But what’s new there?” She was a bit jealous that Freddie was traveling the country while Grace was breaking up fights between drunk frat bros and wiping down a bar that stayed sticky no matter how many times you cleaned it, but it plied her to know that she’d be out there with Freddie and their friends soon, taking their shitshow on the road.
“You’re both lucky I can’t smite you,” Persephone said meditatively.
“Sure. ‘Lucky’.” Freddie made air quotes. “So what about you? What are you up to today? High priestess things?”
“Grocery shopping, maybe?” Grace said. “Braving the DMV? Rearranging the fridge magnets if I’m feeling especially adventurous.”
“That’s sexy, say it again,” Freddie said, lowering her forehead towards the camera. Persephone groaned in disgust, and Grace heard the clinking of hotel ice in the background as she poured herself a drink.
Grace cracked up. “God, I miss you.”
“And I miss you, my favorite ex-god! Even though I’ve only been gone for two days,” Freddie said, squishing her face close to the camera and kissing Grace through the screen, making loud mwah-mwah-mwah noises.
“You ridiculous woman.” Grace smiled and pretended to kiss her back. It was the closest they’d get for the rest of the week, and even though they’d only kissed twice so far, Grace had grown a dependency on it. Freddie was a hell of a drug.
Freddie pulled back, a giant grin on her face. Grace took a moment to admire her maybe-kinda-girlfriend, definitely best friend, bedhead and all. “Hey, will you help me touch up my highlights when I get home? The situation is… dire ,” Freddie said, setting the phone down in front of her on the floor. She was wearing her favorite pajama pants, the ones printed with Halloween Hello Kitty that were about three inches too long for her already long legs.
“I mean, they look fine to me,” Grace said.
“Two words. Love. Goggles,” Freddie responded, raising an eyebrow.
“Fine, fine, but only if you help me with my roots. Now that’s a situation.”
“We’ll have a day!” Freddie said cheerfully. “Make some grilled cheeses and eat them on the floor of the bathroom with bags on our heads. Cute gay activities.”
“That sounds… kind of amazing,” Grace admitted.
“I think you just miss me.”
“Could you tell?”
“We should head out,” Persephone said, still sitting on the dresser, taking a long swig of her drink. “The venues will not book themselves, despite what you seem to think. And Grace, do tell your garrulous girlfriend that she is not allowed to teach my ferryman how to play Dungeons and Dragons.”
Freddie turned back to the camera and made a pouty face. “No rest for the wicked. But I’ll call tonight, ‘kay?”
“No problem. Go do your thing.”
“I love you!” Freddie said, waving. It was the most normal thing in the world, but Grace froze, stricken. The bearing of saying “I love you” in their very new sorta-relationship, even though they’d been saying it platonically for years, suddenly weighed on her. Of course she felt it, but… weren’t there, like, rules? Freddie seemed to notice and peered closer. “Hey. Are you good?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. I just…” Grace shook her head, exhaling. “Are we allowed to say that now? Since we’re, you know, a thing?”
Freddie placed a hand to her chest, affronted. “I see. So I’m nothing but a thing to you?”
“That’s not what I—”
“I never took you for a homophobe, Grace,” Freddie continued on dramatically.
The worried knot in Grace’s chest dissolved as she laughed. “Freddie, stop it.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll stop. Listen.” Freddie lowered her voice, a bit more serious. “You do, right? Love me?”
“I do, Fred. You know I love you. More than anything,” Grace said softly. She had to admit, it felt really wonderful to say aloud, and even more wonderful to see the way Freddie’s face brightened.
“Including but not limited to… my amma’s honey snacks?”
“Mmmm… sure,” Grace said.
“Just Dance?”
“Maybe.”
“Pierce the Veil?”
“Okay, now you’re pushing it,” Grace giggled.
“Well, clearly, since you love me almost as much as Pierce the Veil, you should be allowed to say it. I mean, you gave up godhood for me, Grace. I think we’re past any arbitrary rules people might put on relationships.”
“She makes an excellent point,” Persephone said.
Freddie jumped, nearly dropping the phone. “Zeus on a cracker, I forgot you were there.”
“Her hair is bright pink.” Grace pointed out. “She’s kind of hard to miss.”
“But she’s as quiet as the dead,” Freddie protested. Persephone rolled her eyes and headed into the adjoining room. “… Anyways. Hey, I get it. It’s weird, right? We’ve been a couple— kind of— for a week, and we already live together. We’re saying we love each other, and we haven’t even been on a real date. I don’t wanna invoke the stereotype, but…”
“Would you want to?” Grace burst out before she could stop herself. “Go on a date, I mean.”
Freddie’s eyes widened. “A date?” Her voice was uncharacteristically soft. “Yeah. Yeah, I wanna go on a date with you. That sounds really nice.”
“A first date,” Grace said, a note of reverence in her voice. “More normal than we’re used to.”
“I’m guessing it’ll be a higher-class event than grilled cheese on the bathroom floor,” Freddie joked. She picked up her phone and started heading into the other room, presumably to bother Persephone. “You better plan something good, girl, because I get home on Friday and we're gonna date SO hard.”
Grace gave her a jokey salute, giggling at the way she’d phrased it. “So the takeaway from this is that the order we do things in doesn’t really matter?”
“As long as I get to do all those things with you,” Freddie mused, a sparkle dancing in her eyes, and Grace’s heart melted. “Me and Grace, going on a date. Huh. Who would have thought? On a completely unrelated note, my amma owes me 20 bucks.”
“Apollo owes me one hundred,” Persephone said proudly, from somewhere to the left of the camera.
Freddie turned towards her, raising an eyebrow. “I can’t believe Grace and I confessing our tragic sapphic love for each other was the one thing that could bring you two together.” Grace snickered at the thought of Persephone and Apollo grudgingly exchanging bets about her love life.
“To be completely fair, he likely won’t talk to me for another century when he finds out that he’s lost,” Persephone admitted.
Freddie looked back down at Grace, crossing her eyes and sticking out her tongue. Most of their FaceTime calls ended up with them exchanging ridiculous faces in silence. “This is a super attractive angle for you, trust me,” Grace told her.
“Oh, yeah?” Freddie tilted the phone back, so Grace could get the perfect view of the inside of her nostrils. “What, like this?”
“You’ve got a booger.”
“Can you two focus?” Persephone snapped. “We have to be at the venue in an hour.”
“Oooops, forgot about that,” Freddie said, blinking innocently. “Grace, my long-distance love, I’ll send you pics of this place. You’re gonna straight explode when you see it.”
“Hopefully I won’t explode. I have a full day of very exciting errands to get to, you know.” Grace didn’t know how she was going to focus on her menial tasks alone when she was so used to having Freddie around; sitting in the cart at the grocery store, folding socks as Grace folded pants, bitching about the line at the bank. She made a mental note to Google how much codependency is too much? later.
“Don’t get too excited without me. Oh, and I think we’re out of pancake mix. Okay…. also, Iloveyou,” Freddie said, words all squished together with hesitancy.
Grace blew a kiss to the camera. “I love you, too, Fredster. Talk soon.”
Freddie’s face split into a grin, and without looking away from the phone, flipped an eye-rolling Persephone the finger. Grace smiled back at Freddie, feeling like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
“Wait a second.” Freddie narrowed her eyes at Grace. “Are you in my bed?”
“Okay, goodbye!” Grace chirped, and hung up the phone before Freddie could get another word in. She flopped back down onto Freddie’s bed and pulled the duvet up to her chin giddily. If only she could tell her hopelessly pining high school self that she, Grace, was going on a real date with Freddie.
And, you know, all the other stuff too.