Mine Again ( A Good Girl's Guide to Murder)

Forever

(AN) I hope you guys don't hate me for this being like almost a year late. <333

5 months later

Tonight was a special night. Pip wasn't exactly sure what was special about it, but she knew it was today was different somehow. It was a date night tonight. And not the usual kind she would have with Ravi where they would paint or read or listen to podcasts together while eating whatever snacks they could find in their pantries, no, this was a fancy date. Like a proper, let's dress up and go get dinner at a restaurant type date. Not usually Pip or Ravi's type of thing, but she wasn't complaining nonetheless. The only insight she got was a text from Ravi that read, 'might want to dress a bit fancy for tonight.'

So, of course, this time, Pip was extra meticulous with her appearance. She started on her makeup. A bit of foundation, concealer under her eyes. Set with powder, not too cakey, she reminded herself. "Mascaraaa... lipstick..." She dragged each word out as she applied each cosmetic to its respective spot on her face.

Pip was in the middle of curling her hair when she realized that 5 months prior to this she was doing this exact same thing. She blinked at her reflection and suddenly blinking back at her was a 3 month younger version of herself. She didn't look younger though. In fact, she looked a couple of seconds away from dying. By murder. There was tape on her face even though there wasn't. And even though she had a spring of happiness (or maybe it was relief?) in her face after knowing she was going to see the love of her life again, Pip could see she wasn't truly happy overall. Not yet, at least.

She blinked again and she was back in the present. Now Pip was the happiest she had ever been in life. She had her family, she had her best friend, she had Ravi, she had control. She was alive. 3 months ago she had none of those things and 3 months ago she definitely wasn't alive. She was just living. It's almost scary how much things can change in such a short period of time. Good scary though. Definitely good.

The rap of knuckles against her door brought Pip out of her trance. "Pip? You ready, love?" It was Ravi.

"Umm... am I ready?" She asked herself, "Yeah, I'm ready. Are you ready for the reveal?"

He hummed deeply, "As ready as I'll ever be."

Pip giggled before turning the knob and letting the door swing open, letting Ravi take her in. And when he did, the only expression on his face being pure awe. She was wearing a long, dark red, satin dress. Her hair was pinned into a slightly messy, semi high ponytail, her wispy bangs framed her face. Dangling from her ears were hoop earrings. His jaw dropped, then closed, only for it to drop again as he looked away to what seemed to be an imaginary audience as he pointed back at Pip with his thumb, as if to say, 'are you seeing this?' He looked back at his girlfriend, his jaw now closed again, as he gave her a once over-- twice over? Whatever. "I take it you like it?" Pip asked giddily. Her smile stretched a mile wide, smiling so hard that her cheeks were given a natural blush to go along with the cosmetic one she'd applied. She tried to hide her ecstatic reaction by covering her smile with a hand. It was doing a poor job, Ravi could still see it in her eyes.

Ravi gave his girlfriend a disturbed look, like she'd just deeply wronged him. "Pippa, seriously?" It was very seldom he'd call her by her full name instead of one of the many outrageous nicknames he had given her. "Like it? I fucking love it. Fuck." He wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her closer to him. Removing one of his hands off of her hips to lift her chin up to meet his gaze while the other moved to support her lower back. "You are fucking gorgeous." Pip couldn't do much to hide her smile that time since her lips were pressed against her boyfriend's in a matter of seconds, which is just how long the kiss had lasted.