This Is the Safest Place I've Ever Known

12

A/N: Hello, I am back with another chapter.

Maybe read and enjoy? :)

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Lauren ran into Camila's room and scrambled onto the bed and under the blankets. It probably wasn't the best hiding spot considering she had told Normani where she was going, but it would work.

Camila, who had only just woken from a nap and was still partly buried under blankets, blinked confusedly. "Uh, hello," she greeted with a slightly raspy voice. "What are you doing?"

"Hiding," Lauren answered before proceeding to turn to lay on her stomach and press her face into her Simba plush.

"Uhhhh, who and/or what are you hiding from?"

"Normani," Lauren answered, slightly muffled from the plush covering her face.

Camila blinked slowly. "What did Normani do?"

"Doesn't matter."

The younger nodded slowly, confusion still evident on her face. "If it wasn't for the fact I just woke up and my brain takes an hour to process anything, I would be asking more questions."

Lauren rolled onto her side and shook her head. "It doesn't matter. It's not anything bad. I just don't want to talk about it."

"Right, well, as long as I don't have to yell at her, I guess I can let it slide."

Lauren nodded as relief flooded through her. She was slightly embarrassed that she had been caught in the hallway playing with her stuffed animals. She supposed it was probably wasn't a problem and the three women had seen Camila doing the same, but that was Camila, not her.

Before either of them could say anything else, a knock on the bedroom door sounded. Camila threw her blanket aside, and both girls looked to see Ally standing in the doorway.

"Hey, Lauren, do you mind if I talk to Mila for a minute?"

Lauren shook her head and rolled off the bed. She wasn't entirely sure where she was going to go, but it sounded like the older woman wanted to speak with her friend privately. Hopefully, if Normani was downstairs, she wouldn't say anything about what she saw.

Camila watched as Lauren left the room with a frown. "What's up? Does Lauren need to leave? Do both of us need to leave?"

"Oh, no no, nothing like that," Ally assured as she moved to sit on the bed. "Actually, possibly the opposite. Depending on your feelings."

Camila titled her head to the side slightly and her brows furrowed in confusion. "What does that mean?"

She suspected she knew what it meant, but she also didn't want to make any assumptions. It was best to hear directly from Ally.

Ally smiled softly. "Well, I wanted to talk to you about your thoughts on Lauren potentially also being our Little," she explained. "Or, at the very least, having us as a safe place to figure out if that's what she really wants."

Camila's brain raced with a dozen different questions, but excitement quickly built up, too. "What do Normani and Dinah think?" she finally settled on asking. She knew that if Ally was here talking to her, that the other two must have agreed, but she needed to know for sure.

"They both agreed on the idea," Ally promised. "They would have been up here with me, but I don't entirely trust Dinah to take the conversation seriously." Camila noted the older woman couldn't quite keep a straight face or a laugh from escaping, so she figured that statement was meant as a joke. "Mani I trust most of the time, but also, if all three of us were up here talking with you, I suspect we might have caused Lauren to panic slightly. I wanted to avoid that."