Jump Right In

Cast Iron Soul

They spend most of the night in the dining room, moving to the living room after the kitchen has been cleaned up. It's Rafael's turn to pick the movie and he choses 'Ghost in the Darkness'. Dinah and Layne have a pallet of blankets on the floor with a few pillows that they share. Normani and Y/n share the large couch, sitting opposite each other with their legs stretched out and mingling under the covers. The brown girl watches intently as Y/n's eyes stare at the screen - her face changing as she takes in the action on screen.

There's this subconscious thing that the brunette does every time they're like this: her hand, under the covers, will always reach for Normani's ankles and she will lightly scratch anytime she starts to get riled up about a particular scene. She relaxes, eventually, and her hands just sort of lay there - splayed out over the lowest reaches of the brown girl's legs. It's something that reminds Normani of the way Y/n used to be. How the brunette's hands would reach out, almost instinctively, for any part of her that they could touch. It wasn't sexual - not all the time - it was just simply Y/n being more the tactile type of lover that she was. It could be anything from their pinkies touching to Y/n twirling the brown girl's hair between her fingers or even Normani waking up to find her girlfriend buried under the covers, her head stilled on her lower abdomen, just above her pubic bone, with an arm protectively hung over her thighs. That was Y/n then. Now, her touch is more tentative and only comes in certain situations.

***

When they finish the movie, Daya and Rafael say their Goodnight's and wish everyone a happy sleep. Dinah and Layne make their way to his room that Daya had set up for him after the accident and Normani finds herself in Y/n's room. The brunette sits in the rolling chair at her desk, browsing videos on YouTube, while Normani lays on her stomach on the girl's bed letting her play DJ. The song changes, an Iration song called 'Time Bomb', and Normani is surprised when Y/n moves from her seat and squats at the foot of the bed with her face inches from the Normani's.

"What?" Normani asks her.

"You were staring at me..."

"I wasn't." she argues. "You must be mistaken."

"Am I?" the brunette grins. "I could have sworn you were..."

"You're the only one who's staring now.." the brown girl breathes out, trying to keep still.

Y/n's eyes stay trained on hers for a minute before wandering elsewhere - tracing every curve of her face as they settle on her lips.

"Would you let me draw you?" Normani asks, having seen what was happening. She needed a way out - a way to keep from having Y/n kiss her.

Green eyes snap back up to rest on her brown ones as she sees the brunette's brow furrow. "Draw me how?"

"However you'll let me." she rasps, trying to cover the way being this close to her ex makes her feel. "I'm just kind of a sucker for a warm body.."

"Okay." the girl agrees. "But I'm not taking my clothes off for you."

"Shut up, you ass." Normani huffs, as she rolls off the side of the bed. "Just get comfortable somewhere. Let me get my sketchbook."

When she returns to the room with her sketchbook and pencil in hand Y/n is nowhere to be found. She notices the curtain in front of the sliding glass door moving slightly, the wind blowing it back, and she realizes the door is open. She pushes past the material and walks out onto the back patio, where she finds Y/n - stripped to her boxer briefs and sports bra - in the pool looking up at her. The lights in the pool make it easy to see her body, though the water distorts its features. Normani finds a seat on the lounge chair and places her sketchbook in her lap. She takes a moment to watch the brunette swim to the side of the pool closest to her, folding her arms out over the concrete and resting her chin there. And then she begins.