Chapter Text
When Marianne decided to look for a roommate off-campus, this was not the situation she had in mind. At the very least, she would talk to her housemates occasionally, and ideally they would respect some system of rules. Marianne couldn't get too picky, though. She was too broke to limit her options.
What she ended up with was a two bedroom apartment she shared with three other girls. Lysithea and Leonie ended up bunking together since they hit it off pretty early on. The third girl didn't even show up until later that evening, when everyone else was already moved in. Marianne wishes that was the most inconsiderate thing her new roommate did that day. Marianne tried not to be bothered by most things, but this girl really tested her patience.
When Hilda arrives it's hard to miss. It’s eleven at night and she scrambles into the door carrying three large bags. She huffs loudly as if she’s seeking the attention of everyone in the house when she drops them and closes the door behind her. In the process, her phone falls to the floor from her skirt pocket with a clatter and she whines, “Aww, shit. Please don't be broken.”
Hilda retrieves her phone from the floor and is happy to note minimal damage to her screen, throwing her long pink hair over her shoulder as she leans back up. It's at this point that she notices Marianne staring at her from the kitchen where she was stirring dollar store macaroni in a pan until all the noise started. Hilda’s eyes widen and she rushes over. “Oh, hi!!”
Marianne freezes as she feels herself being pulled into the plush material of the shorter girl's pink faux fur coat as she's forced into a hug. “I'm Hilda!” She says as she pulls back, and Marianne feels like Hilda’s eau de parfum is now coating her own clothes as well.
“And you are?” Hilda asks when Marianne just stares at her, though Hilda probably wouldn't have noticed her discomfort if it landed on her face.
“Marianne,” she says softly. “Nice to meet you.”
“Ooooh, your name, I like it. It’s so…” Hilda snaps her fingers as she tries to think of the words. “So, 1800’s noblesse. In a good way, of course.”
“Thanks…” Marianne says it like a question as her eyebrows pull together. Hilda doesn't even notice, as she's now staring at her phone screen, scrolling and tapping rhythmically.
Marianne pries her eyes away from the girl’s face and clicks off the stove, moving the pan to a folded dish rag on the counter as Hilda starts typing a message impossibly fast on her phone. She laughs out loud suddenly and the sound almost makes Marianne throw her plate of noodles in the air.
Marianne goes to grab another plate and sets in on the counter, looking over her shoulder at Hilda before she asks quietly, “Do you… want some?”
Hilda looks up and beams at Marianne, shoving her phone back into her pocket with a click as her lockscreen replaces her messenger app. Funny. Marianne uses the same one.
“Yes, please!” Hilda grins and holds out a hand expectantly. Marianne hands her the plate she already filled while forcing back a small smile. She thinks Hilda must see it anyway because her smile widens.
When they finish eating, Marianne moves to take their dishes to the sink and wash them, since Hilda makes no motion to do so. With a sigh, Marianne finishes up and walks back into the entryway to see Hilda going to grab her bags which she knows is going to be a struggle getting up the stairs since she made that trip this morning.
“Oh, let me help you,” Marianne offers, trying to make herself be polite for the second time that night.
“Well, if you insist!” Hilda cheers, and doesn't even hesitate to drop her burden onto the blue-haired girl. Marianne raises a brow as Hilda steps aside to let her take the suitcases. Marianne goes to lift the handles in each hand and her eyes widen. How the hell this girl walked into this place carrying these is beyond her. Somehow Marianne hikes them up over her arms and leads the way upstairs to their room.
When they make it into the doorway Marianne drops the bags immediately and digs her palms into her lower back, making small noises of complaint.
“Thank you, Marianne. You're the best!” Hilda's face gleams while Marianne is still suffering from what might as well be a broken back.
Marianne is still looking at Hilda’s face, which is slowly becoming a bad habit, when she sees Hilda’s expression falter. Hilda is staring at what appears to be nothing in particular. Really, it's just a partially empty space in the room. Marianne follows her gaze and looks back at Hilda’s face in confusion.
“What is it?” Marianne caves and finally asks.
“Uhhh, I kinda have my brother coming tomorrow with all my stuff,” Hilda says, her voice oddly laced with discomfort. Marianne looks at the large suitcases at their feet and back up at Hilda. How much more could there be?
“What's the problem then?”
Hilda looks at her eyes finally. “I don't have a bed.”
Oh.
Marianne knows shes gonna regret this somehow but she doesn't stop herself, and manages not to slap herself in the face when the words come out. “I guess we can share mine for now.”
Marianne is starting to realize that if you gave Hilda an inch she would take a mile. Not only did she immediately accept Marianne's suggestion to open her bed, she was now taking up all the room. Marianne is forced to scoot into the wall in hopes that she could get some elbow room, but as expected, Hilda unconsciously shifts into that space too.
Speaking of her elbow, Marianne thinks that one of Hilda's boobs was pressed against hers, if the warmth enveloping her was any indicator. Marianne looks down at her side and in the dim light coming from across the hall where a light was carelessly left on, she can see Hilda illuminated in it. Her eyes follow along the dip of her chest before she can stop herself. Marianne snaps her head away the next moment and decides to flip over to face the wall even if it disturbs the other’s sleep. It doesn’t, but that doesn't ease the tension in Marianne's body by any bit.
She remembers that her phone buzzed way earlier, around the time that Hilda and her baggage arrived, and grabs it from her nightstand.
Marianne smiles to herself and thinks shortly about what she should type back.
An hour passes and she doesn’t get a reply so she assumes urpinkwetdream is asleep, wherever in the world she may be. The last thing she remembers is tucking her phone under her pillow before forcibly shutting her eyes to will herself to sleep.
“Marianne…”
“Marianne.”
“Marianne!!!!!”
The last call is punctuated by a shove to her shoulder which rouses Marianne out of her sleep. “Why the fuck are you so loud…” Marianne mumbles in her whisper-soft voice.
“Hey! Did you just curse at me??” Hilda bumps her in the arm annoyingly, which makes Marianne sink further back into her blankets. “Okay, that's not the point. Marianne! What is that?”
Hilda peeks down at her legs and Marianne shifts up on her elbows to look. At the bottom of the bed is a large lump of grey, and she frowns before giving Hilda an annoyed stare. “I didn’t think I’d have to say this, but that’s a cat, obviously.”
“Yeah, okay, genius!!! And where did it come from?????”
“That’s Dorte. He’s my cat.”
Hilda exhales and leans back into the pillow. “Okay, good. I’ve seen those stories where cats sneak into people’s homes, and he looks kinda scraggly, no offense. I thought it was a stray or something.” Hilda blinks as Marianne gives her the strongest look of disdain she can manage. “Why didn’t you tell me you had a cat?”
She’s right, Marianne realizes that she didn’t get a chance to mention it to the girl she’d be sharing a room with. She supposes that’s a pretty important detail and feels a bit guilty. “I’m sorry Hilda, I guess I forgot.” Marianne yawns and brushes her bangs down from where they were sticking up toward the ceiling. “He seems to like you though… he never does this.”
Hilda seems to like the thought that she has a new admirer and sits up to get a proper look at him. “You know what, he’s actually kind of cute! Look at these ear—oww!!”
Hilda reaches out to touch Dorte’s head and is immediately swiped at by an outstretched paw, before he hops up to stretch his legs. He leaps to the floor and disappears under the bed while Hilda whines pathetically.
“Yeah, he… doesn’t like that,” Marianne says.
“Thanks for the warning.” Hilda pouts, holding a hand over her fingers that have a few small lines running across them, quickly turning a harsh red.
“Sorry…” Marianne genuinely feels bad but hides a small smile behind her hand. Hilda looks impossibly small and Marianne stares for a little too long. "Uh, I'm gonna go take a shower, I have work soon."
Hilda nods and sits up to stretch while Marianne shuffles out of the room in her fuzzy slippers. "Cute," Hilda says absently as she watches Marianne’s depart. She yawns before grabbing her phone from the nightstand and checking her new messages. She laughs a sharp and resounding “HA!” and taps out a message back at what Marianne would consider the speed of light.
True to what she says, Marianne is gone for most of the day at work. Around two, Hilda gets her daily call from her brother, and it’s to tell her she won’t have the rest of her stuff until the end of the week. Something happened to their dad and Holst was flying out to visit him immediately, Hilda’s concern for their father being the only thing that can calm her down after the news.
Before Marianne gets home, Hilda makes sure she’s out of the house, because she doesn’t know how to bring up the news, but she’s hoping Marianne isn’t too bothered sharing her space for another couple of days. She didn't imagine she’d have to get that close to her roommate so fast, but what could she do.
Hilda decides to pick up some make-up products, since her brother wouldn’t be coming through, and a week was way too long without beauty. She makes it back home fairly late and hopes that’s enough time for Marianne to be sleeping. Marianne isn’t downstairs when she arrives, so she hopes that’s a good sign.
“Hey!” Hilda almost jumps up when Leonie calls out to her from the couch. It’s dark and there’s a mound of blankets burying their forms, so she assumes Leonie and Lysithea are having some kind of marathon. “Wanna watch scary movies with us? Lys agreed to watch them for once, so this is probably your only chance to see her like this.”
“Who am I to turn down something so awesome!” Hilda says, sitting on the other side of Lysithea, who scoots and offers her some blankets. “I’m sorry I haven’t been in much. I’m Hilda! Lysithea and Leonie, right?” She points at the two as she says their names and Leonie nods to indicate she’d guessed correctly.
“Yeah, do you always get home this late?” Lysithea asks, her voice dripping with judgment and Leonie nudges her.
“No! I just had a couple of things to do…” Hilda doesn’t share that she was sort of hiding out from Marianne for the majority of the day. Speaking of her, Hilda starts to wonder why she wasn’t with them. “Where’s Marianne?”
“Oh, we invited her, but she doesn’t really hang out with us. Kinda seems like she prefers to be alone.”
“Really?” Hilda suspects they were right. She recalls how Marianne had only talked to her in short sentences, always one-dimensional and about their living situation, which wasn’t exactly unprompted conversation. Hilda didn’t know much more about her roommate other than Dorte.
“I’ll let you know when I don’t have to force five words out of her,” Leonie muses and unpauses the movie. Now Hilda is extra nervous about having to impose on Marianne again. What if she starts to hate her? What if she already does?
Hilda is surprised when three hours pass by and is only reminded that she’s in the presence of people when Lysithea reaches out and grabs her arm during a jump scare, to which she mumbles an apology and retracts her hand in favor of holding them over her eyes. Hilda shakes her head absently and tries to shove down lingering thoughts about a certain blue-haired, supposed recluse.
When Hilda finally drags her aching legs up the stairs and stumbles into pajama shorts and a tank, Marianne is a lump under her bedspread. That makes this easier, Hilda thinks, as she inches toward Marianne’s bed. She lifts up the blanket to crawl in next to her roommate, and is met with a raspy voice ringing in the dark.
“Hilda. What are you doing…”
Hilda jolts in surprise, dropping down to the floor beside Marianne’s bed and curling inward like an apologetic ball. “I’m sorry Marianne… I kinda... don’t have my bed yet.”
“Yeah, clearly.” Marianne turns and looks at her side of the room pointedly. “When I said I’d share my bed, I assumed that yours was on the way.”
Hilda lifts her head. “Yeah, my brother had something important to do. I already called and cursed him out, but there’s nothing he can do...” She worries her lip between her teeth and Marianne’s eyes follow the movement. “Sorry, Mari… would you mind sharing again? Please?” Hilda puts on a cute face, lip pouting outward and all, and Marianne cracks. She’d never planned to deny her anyway, and she wants Hilda to just stop looking at her like that already.
“Fine.”
Marianne scoots to the wall and faces it as she gets comfortable. She appears standoffish and upset, but Hilda was never one to hold back so she didn’t want to start now. Hilda slides into the vacant spot under the comforter and reaches over to give Marianne a small squeeze of a hug as thanks, then flips over and settles in next to her. Marianne intentionally huffs loudly for Hilda to hear.
“Marianne.”
Hilda’s heart pounds inexplicably while she waits for a reply, and she wishes it wouldn’t do that without her permission.
“Yeah?”
“My brother said he isn’t gonna be able to get my things to me until next week.” Hilda squeezes her eyes shut in anticipation of an angry outburst, but it doesn’t come.
Marianne grips the blanket in her fists and winces. Her voice comes out evenly despite her conflicting feelings about the situation. “Okay, I'm convinced you don't even have a brother at this point.”
“I do, I do, I swear.” Hilda can’t help it as her voice slurs, like she’s nearly asleep. It takes her a couple seconds before she continues. “Just bear with me, for a little bit longer.”
Marianne doesn’t say anything as her heart drums, so loud she thinks it must be audible. She’s not sure how much longer she could take it.
Holst actually shows up after the third night, and Hilda shoots Marianne a look and points to him as proof that she isn’t a liar. Marianne scoffs and goes to the kitchen while they’re busy bringing in Hilda’s things. Which is really just Holst carrying everything up, until he needs Hilda to grab the other end of the bed to lead it up the stairs, Hilda wailing in complaint the entire time.
Marianne’s phone vibrates against the kitchen table when she gets a response a couple minutes later.
An explanation probably wouldn’t even be believable, but she types it anyway as a reply.
Hilda is exhausted and collapses on her bed after she and Holst set it down on her side of the room, curling up without the bed sheets even on it yet because she was just that tired. Her phone buzzes in her pocket and she sends a few question marks back to xxPonyGirlxx’s cryptic message. The reply comes in quickly and she slides her lockscreen open to stare at the screen.
Hilda looks down at her bed and then across at room at Marianne’s. Okay, that’s a really weird and specific coincidence. She wants to reply and mention the parallels, but something stops her. Instead she sends a line of praise emojis and keeps all other information to herself.
Hilda is now very sure that something is eerie about xxPonyGirlxx, or there’s one other explanation, but she's nervous about testing it. Hilda thinks it's going to be one hundred percent exactly what she expects, and she's not sure what to do with that information.
On top of the oddly psychic twin situation she happens to share, Marianne is actually really similar to her online friend. They at least both know a lot about cats and hardly sleep. They've never shared pictures with each other, but Hilda thinks that might be something that happens very soon.
Hilda types out a message before she can talk herself out of it and holds her phone to her chest, hyper aware of the sound of movement from upstairs where she knows Marianne is, in their room.
Her phone buzzes in her hands and when she holds it up she nearly screams. There's a picture attachment, and she shouldn't be surprised by that reply because Hilda's message was Can I see your cat aha
When she taps on the attachment, it’s a picture of him—Dorte—on her screen and Hilda’s brain feels like it breaks.
Hilda hasn’t mentioned what she knows to Marianne, but she’s noticing more about her. Hilda’s unusually curious about Marianne, watching the way she eats silently and frustratingly slow. How she tries to be quiet at night when she can’t sleep, holding her phone close to her face and sending messages that go directly to Hilda’s phone. Hilda has taken to putting her phone on silent so Marianne doesn’t suspect anything. Sometimes she’ll respond and look at Marianne for a reaction. She’s heard Marianne's little airy chuckles on occasion and they send a rush to her heart.
Marianne talks more over her messages, like she's a completely different girl with urpinkwetdream. Like she’s somehow more familiar with her online friend than her own roommate. Which is probably true, but it makes Hilda strangely jealous of the version of her that actually gets attention from Marianne, something she thought she’d never have to experience. Hilda can admit, though not out loud, that she has feelings for Marianne. She’s not sure when or how, if it was the cute texts or Marianne’s icy stares reserved for Hilda, but Marianne is all she thinks about anymore.
She tries to start conversations with Marianne but it seems like now that she has her own bed there’s no reason to communicate. Talking with Marianne usually goes like:
“Hey Marianne! What’cha doing today?”
“Class.”
When she talks to xxPonyGirlxx however, she tends to learn a lot more. On days where Marianne just has “class”, she’ll tell every detail.
From… you? Hilda can't be sure, but that kind of sounds like flirting. Hilda almost dismisses it but it keeps happening way too often and Hilda's sure that Marianne had to know what heart eyes mean. But she wouldn't send them, unless...
Hilda decides to test her theory, and starts sending openly flirty texts and she’s sure she just sounds like an idiot, but Marianne sends them back with equal sauciness and she nearly hyperventilates every time. Once she jokingly asks if she could drink Marianne's bathwater and Marianne says yeah, just give me an address. She hears Marianne giggle from her side of the room and she’s close to losing it.
Hilda knows she should have probably just run upstairs and told Marianne right away when she figured it out, but a small part of her says that would have made Marianne just pull back and treat her like Hilda, both online and off. Hilda realizes that she enjoys having it both ways. She gets good morning texts and flirty updates, and also has the benefit of seeing Marianne’s face every day.
It’s a dark thought that Hilda wishes she never brought into existence, but maybe she could use urpinkwetdream to get closer to Marianne as Hilda. Would she eventually even need her online persona anymore? Something about the thought feels very dangerous, but Hilda doesn’t argue with herself over it. It’s going to work, Hilda tells herself.
The next day Hilda gets a text that threatens to tear down her entire plan. She’s in class so she checks her phone discreetly under the table.
What does that mean? This is odd, even for Marianne. Hilda thinks of a reply and sets her phone down onto her notebook, unlocked.
A few minutes later she gets another message.
Hilda panics. She throws her phone into her bag and doesn’t fish it out until after class, and she still doesn’t know what to say. On one hand, this is exactly what she wanted. She has to admit that she really was starting to crush on Marianne. But the message wasn’t for Hilda, exactly, at least in Marianne’s mind, otherwise it would be Hilda she was talking to and not urpinkwetdream. A girl that Marianne didn’t even know truly existed, at least as she perceives.
Hilda makes up her mind as she gets to the front door to their place.
She slaps herself in the head after she sends the message. Why would she say something like that? You’re either taken or not, stupid. Hilda hopes that Marianne gets the idea, but isn’t too sad. She couldn’t look into her eyes normally ever again if she hurt Marianne’s feelings, even if it wasn’t really her. That was the complete opposite of what she wanted.
When she walks in the house, she sees Marianne heading upstairs. “Hey!” Hilda shouts impulsively, hoping to gauge her reaction to her message, or at least figure out if Marianne has seen it. Marianne turns and Hilda can see a large tub of chocolate ice cream tucked under her arm. She has a feeling Marianne isn’t taking it that well. “What’s that for?”
“Not sure. To cure depression, maybe?”
Hilda gnaws on her lip guiltily. “Got room for one more?” She asks tentatively, expecting to be flat out rejected as Marianne probably wanted to be alone, especially in such a vulnerable state. Marianne seems to genuinely consider it and nods, much to Hilda’s surprise.
“Oh! I-I mean cool!” Hilda shuffles up the stairs to catch up as Marianne continues up to their room. “Sorry, I just didn’t expect you to say yes.”
Marianne stops in the hallway and gives Hilda a hard stare. “And why is that?”
Hilda’s eyes widen and Marianne’s expression turns expectant. Does she want her to tell her the truth? “Uh...well… You know...”
To Hilda’s surprise, Marianne cracks a smile. “I know. I’m not the friendliest person. I was just messing with you.”
Hilda is frozen in place and its not until Marianne takes a seat on the floor in front of the tv and calls her over that she finally follows. Hilda drops down next to her and the chill from the laminate floor seeps through her joggers. She's not sure if it's the cold or Marianne's impossibly soft skin that brushes hers when she shifts to lean back onto her hand, but it sends a shiver through Hilda and goosebumps rise on her exposed stomach which she hopes isn't noticeable. Hilda isn't saying much, for once. Marianne frowns. She'd hoped for a distraction yet, here she was pulling her phone out of her pocket and staring at the same message on her screen.
Hilda peeks over and wishes she hadn't, but Marianne catches her looking. Hilda thinks it'd be rude to just ignore Marianne's sighs and mopey disposition. Holding back a pained groan, she asks, “Are you okay?”
Marianne lets out another breath. “I will be... I hope so.”
It’s so like Marianne to be so vague but Hilda is almost thankful for it now. She knows Marianne must really be bothered if she was revealing this much, in person at least. She has to be in pain, and it’s Hilda’s fault. Hilda’s screaming at herself in her head but she inches closer, her hand hovering over Marianne’s. Hilda’s hand closes over Marianne’s and it’s still cold from holding the ice cream but it’s everything Hilda wants right now. Marianne meets her gaze and Hilda hopes she doesn’t look too emotional when she says, “I know you will be.”
Marianne’s eyes stay locked on Hilda’s and she’s not sure what she sees. It’s not the first time she’s stared at Hilda, though now it seems appropriate. It is the first time that Hilda is looking back at her and her expression is genuine and vulnerable, her eyes almost glossy. She actually feels bad.
“Thank you, Hilda.” She means it, and against her better judgment she adds, “I think I was too quick to judge you.” Marianne squeezes Hilda’s hand back and smiles, before pulling it away to pick up the remote because there has to be a Halloween marathon on one of these channels.
Hilda blinks, still staring between her hand that can still feel Marianne’s and the tiny grin on Marianne’s face. “Hey, what does that mean?”
“Just that I didn’t think you actually cared.” Marianne admits as she flips between channels. She spares a glance at Hilda and she looks like she’s about to explode, cheeks puffed up and flushed scarlet.
“Wow, that actually hurts, Marianne,—Ooh! Halloweentown!!—Like, I’m such a good friend.” Marianne stops on the channel, finally letting out a laugh as Hilda uses her whiniest voice. She should probably take Hilda more seriously but it feels good to actually smile. This only serves to irritate Hilda even more and she crawls over to smack Marianne with both hands anywhere she could reach.
“Okay, okay! I’m sorry!” Marianne keeps an arm raised to block Hilda’s attacks. The apology seems to calm her down and Hilda sits back on her feet, huffing as she crosses her arms. The two catch their breath in silence before Marianne speaks again. “I know you are. I’m starting to see that.”
If Hilda wasn’t already red, her blush would have made her face the color of a tomato. “Thank you,” she says snidely. Secretly, she’s very happy to see the smile on Marianne’s face, and directed at her of all people. And now Marianne thinks of her as a friend? Hilda expected Marianne to close off or speak with her usual brashness, but this was an extremely pleasant surprise. And in the back of her mind she thinks, maybe, just maybe, she could get Marianne to see that Hilda was every bit of the girl she likes, too.
Later that night when Marianne otherwise looks like a sleeping form on her side of the room, Hilda finally gets a message.
She can almost hear the sassy lilt of Marianne’s voice as she reads it, and Hilda smirks, holding the phone to her chest.