Sarah Paulson Character One-shots

Thank you - Cordelia Goode

dedicated to stayevildarling

The pounding in your head due to last night's drinking only becoming worse as you step into the livingroom. Cup of tea in hand, you set the mug down on the coffee table, the daylight seeping through the open blinds and you groan to yourself as you slump down onto the couch, tucking your feet underneath yourself. You stare blankly at the tv screen as if you're watching it but it's turned off, only the black screen allowing you to see your reflection and as you take a look at yourself, you roll your eyes. You look tired; you feel tired. You must have been staring for a while because when you pick your tea back up and begin to drink it, only cold tea touches your lips. You groan to yourself in frustration again, quietly, so you don't make your headache worse, before getting back up, wanting this day to be over with already. You hear the pitter-patter of rain from outside and turn your head, watching as the coldness in contrast to how warm it is inside your apartment begins to fog up your window.

You begin to get ready for work, ignoring the letters scattered on the entry table on the way back to your bedroom. Your bills can wait. You get yourself dressed, brush your hair, was about to go into the bathroom to brush your teeth when the lights suddenly turn off. Okay, maybe they can't wait after all. Why did you even get out of bed today? You skip the bathroom, realising you're going to be late so you head straight to your car and hop in. Thankfully, your headache is now beginning to subside so the day is only starting to get better.

You roll the window down and light up a cigarette on the way, but you then get caught in traffic. "Fucking hell," you groan, flicking away the end, preparing yourself for the worst.

When you enter the building you head straight for the office, hoping your coworker doesn't notice you're late. But of course, they're going to notice, idiot. You need to do the shift take over.

"You're late." she says as she hands you the file for the day, she rolls her eyes at you when you don't say anything, "You look tired, not get much sleep last night?" she says with a smirk as she picks up her bag, "Christian is having the nightshift tonight so you can go home, get some proper rest, Y/N, it looks like you're not going to last the day."

"Thanks for that, Beth," you say opening the file to see the incident reports from yesterday, thankfully the kids haven't been up to much and there wasn't anything to report except for a fight. "Is there anything that's not in here that I should know?"

"No, the kids are eating lunch now, the older ones would be back from school soon," she says before waving bye and wishing you luck.

You sit down at the desk and sign into the computer. Thinking back to a very special day.

You know witches exist, they must exist, right? But you were only certain of their existence when two young girls got brought in by their social worker, "This is Layla and Lily James," the social worker stated before telling you a bit about them and handing you their file before leaving.

"Hey," you say, bending down to the young girls' height, "I'm Y/N," you smile "I know it's scary but I promise you you're safe here," one of the girl's sniffles subside as she looks up at you and she holds her hand out to grasp yours, the other, however, looked scared, angry. Her little fists begin shaking, her breathing becoming heavier, "Hey, Layla?" you reach out to the girl to try to calm her but then, suddenly the whole room goes black. And there's a knock at the door.

The first time you met her you were absolutely blown away by her beauty. She only radiated such kindness and only showed adoration to the twins as she met them and introduced herself "I'm Cordelia Goode," she says sweetly. Cordelia. The name meaning heart. And by only meeting her for five minutes you could tell she has the most biggest and purest heart of all. You were thinking of leaving this job, that it wasn't right for you. But since meeting her, maybe it wasn't so bad.

-

You look at the desktop wallpaper with a smile on your face. Of you and Cordelia on your third date. You took her to some beautiful botanical garden that she absolutely loved. She is smiling so dearly at the camera, her eyes glowing up as she looks at you behind it. You can't believe you met her almost three years ago now.

Nearing the end of your dastardly shift you get a call on your phone, your face lighting up when you see her name, "Hello," you say, a blush to your cheeks as you bring the phone to your ear

"Hello darling, bad time?" her voice sounding through the speaker, immediately blowing away the clouded, foggy darkness in your mind and you smile. Smile that just her voice alone can bring so much happiness to you

"Uh, no." you say, the smile still playing on your lips as you flick through the pages of a Wellness magazine your coworker had left behind, "I'm just waiting for the shift takeover,"

"Okay." she says and you can tell she's smiling. God, you love her smile. How it can light up any room she's in, her mere presence able to bring so much sunshine and happiness to even the darkest of days "I have plans tonight, I've made us dinner, the girls are all in bed sound asleep, and the older ones shouldn't disturb us,"

"Sounds good, baby," You hear the rattle of keys and you shoot your head up as you spot Christian pop his head through the door.

You hear her shifting as she sighs, "I've missed you,"

"Sorry, he's here," You almost whisper as you stand up, grabbing your bag, "I'll see you at home,"

"Okay, bye Y/N" The dial tone rings obnoxiously and the sound of rain continues to splatter against the window panes, but none of it seems to matter anymore. For your head is now filled with only her, a bright, glowing rainbow bringing joy to even your gloomiest days.

-

You push through the doors at the academy happy you're home at last. You see Cordelia standing in the foyer holding a towel out towards you, "Sweetheart, you're soaking!" she chuckles, wrapping the towel over your shoulders before you pull her in for a kiss. Butterflies erupting through your body as if it was the first time you've done this. Her soft lips move with yours in sync as you hold into the collar of her shirt.

"Thank you," you say as you pull apart, face still in close proximity to hers and you bite your lip as her smile widens

"What for?" she asks, wrapping her arms around you. All you see in that moment is her. She's your home. Your apartment could blow up any minute now and you wouldn't even know, wouldn't even care. Her soft brown eyes searching for yours but instead, you kiss her cheek, looping your arms around her neck.

"For giving me the best years of my life," you whisper "And no matter what life throws at me, as long as at the end of the day I can come home to you it will always remind me that it's not so bad at all"

As you rest your head on Cordelia's shoulder, your arms holding her close, you allow your eyes to drift to the grey skies beyond the academy windows. Only they're now no longer grey, with the first beams of sunlight breaking through. As you settle deeper into Cordelia's embrace you realise that the storm had passed and your sun had returned.