DomKat: Stolen Moments

The Selfish Thing

A/N: I just raised the rating on the story because of Chapter 3, so if that's what you're looking for, jump there. ; ) Enjoy!

_______________________________________________________

If you give a girl a guitar, she'll pluck your heartstrings to the breaking.

When Kat was fifteen, she wrote that line. Back then she'd fancied herself a poet as many teenagers often do. Looking back now, it was hard to ignore the queerness she'd felt but dismissed for so long. Her angst erupted in her writing because she'd always prided herself on outwardly retaining her poise and control. Her calm affect allowed Kat the ability to freak out on the inside and sort through the tangle of her feelings at the speed she needed to. However, it had also meant she hadn't given herself an outlet for her feelings. Except maybe in her poetry.

Being outwardly controlled certainly cut both ways because when people didn't know she needed help—they didn't offer. It led Kat to spend a long time learning to sort things herself, a skill acquired as an only child, and something only enhanced as the years passed. She'd gotten really good at burying things until she could deal with them, and it was rare the issues arose without her permission.

However, the poetic line and its sentiment forced their way to her awareness like a bolt from blue skies because of Dominique.

Guitar in hand, Dominique strummed softly, her fingers running along the strings with casual grace. Kat blocked out the chatter going on around the sound stage to listen as various friends celebrated a job well done. She couldn't help a wistful smile with the way the notes and motions did things to her heart.

It was the sweetest torture.

She loved Dominique, deeply, and without reservation. She was a treasured friend and a woman Kat had complete and absolute faith in. They trusted one another and held tightly to their mutual respect and adoration. It was in part because of this that Kat agonized over the evolution of her feelings. Her enjoyment of intimate moments between them--experience through their characters--was unprofessional at best and she didn't want to think about what the worst-case meant. Kat prided herself on being a morally and ethically right person, and her forbidden enjoyment didn't align with that.

Kat looked away, swigging her beer as Melanie dropped into the chair next to her.

"Hey, Mel."

"Hey, Kitty Kat." Melanie reached out and clinked her beer against Kat's before settling in. "Really amazing work this year. It was a tour de force performance."

"Thanks, you too. I think everyone's gonna love it."

"The fans? Pfft. They'd be crazy not to." Melanie glanced away, distracted by the loud peel of laughter as Tom and a couple of sound guys party-fouled a silo cup of bourbon onto the ground. "What the hell guys? This is why we can't have nice things!" She yelled, generating laughter all around.

Melanie was the kind of woman who liked being seen. She claimed to be more introverted than extroverted, but there was no way that was possible, not in Kat's mind anyway. She was too comfortable, too willing to jump into a conversation or start verbal sparring that would end in hysterics. She was funny, dazzling, and the consummate professional as soon as the cameras started rolling.

"Sorry," Melanie laughed a little, casting a sidelong glance at Dominique. The other woman was humming and strumming, between softly chatting with Claire from the costume department. "How's Dom?"

"I don't know." Kat allowed herself to look back over at her friend, trying hard to look at her without looking at her in the way she always feared she did. It wasn't lost on her that Melanie had assumed she would know how Dominique was doing.