A/N: Post-grad AU inspired in part by this song, but mostly by conversations with sparksfly7 about Jeti and the power of Tiffany. There's some light cursing even though this isn't rated M. Read at your own discretion. 

 

//

 

Tiffany is a California girl through and through. This is precisely why she left California. With her (father’s) money, luxurious tastes, and a live fast die young mentality, it was the best option after a stint of dull unemployment proceeding college. What is meant to be nine months of soul-searching and then off to grad school quickly stretches into another year as she revels in the unknown.

 

Armed with wanderlust and Daddy’s credit card at her fingertips, she books flights, makes her memories, and flits from trip to trip with few worries. She makes friends, but her heart isn’t heavy with the typical I hope so-and-so is doing okay or I miss blah blah blah by the time she touches down somewhere new. Between drinks and dances across the globe, there is little time to dwell on feelings that she prefers to keep tucked away in sunny postcards and fading polaroids.

 

Jessica is a California girl, too- if only in residence rather than mindset. She’s not slumming it by any means, but Tiffany’s life of five-star resorts and first-class flights is worlds away from anything she can fathom. She’s just a grad student who commutes to class from her parents’ Diamond Bar home. Let it be noted that even though the Jungs own a house in a big people neighborhood, they don’t quite live in it- not completely. They’re not big people like the Hwangs, who had been in Diamond Bar long before Jessica’s parents had even set foot out of Korea. She goes stir-crazy because they don’t turn on the AC unless it’s absolutely necessary, and all of them are masters at conservation because Mrs. Jung is a tyrant when it comes to cutting down their water and electric bills. Let it also be noted that the Jungs can only afford to send their eldest to grad school because she miraculously snagged a monstrous grant through a design competition her final year of college.

 

While Tiffany rushes through life in a whirlwind of glamour and caprice, Jessica is grounded in domesticity and boring, but familiar schedules. She worries about the usual: occasionally picking up dry-cleaning for her parents, chauffeuring her teenage sister to weekend drama rehearsals, and getting the Masters that would render her employable.   

 

Their mutual friends complain to her ‘Tiff doesn’t even care about me anymore’ and ‘she never answers my messages’, but Jessica always gets a line from the younger girl. When she was on the first leg of her world tour (it feels like she’s on a victory lap by now), they spoke every day. They spoke less as time wore on, but no one at home was as in the loop with the elusive traveler as her.

 

When their midnight messages and grainy Skype calls started to wane, she wanted nothing more than to push for more- but Jessica just couldn’t push when it came to Tiffany. She wouldn’t. She had her pride, and refused to join the ranks of boys and girls desperately vying for her attention from miles and miles away. Didn’t they have anything better to do?  

 

Jessica Jung is not desperate like everyone else. Or, she trains herself not to be. She stops herself from keeping track of what timezone Tiffany is in, ignores the knots in her stomach when she waits on their Skype calls to connect, and pushes down creeping jealousy when she is regaled with tales of flings and romantic sunsets shared with other beautiful, worldly individuals. She is never petulant, never bitter that she can’t be a part of her world. How could she be? Tiffany doesn’t belong to her. Tiffany is a starry nomad, belonging to no one save the silken skies ahead of her.

 

Sometimes she thinks there would be nothing better than having her back home. But she reins in her stupidly flawed fantasy because it is selfish. She knows better than anyone that Tiffany Hwang is meant for more than Diamond Bar, California.

 

She just feels thankful that she can look at the sky with her sometimes, even if it’s just through a shaky webcam panning across the window of a hotel room.

 

Wherever she is, when Tiffany switches the camera back to her face, she swoons and says something like ‘Isn’t the view beautiful, Jessi?’

 

Sickeningly, she always wants to respond with a pathetically lovelorn ‘Yeah, I’m looking at it.’

 

She never does.

 

But even someone noble like Jessica, with all her secretive pining and tragic empathy, is prone to lapsing. So when Tiffany waves a glossy ticket to LAX in a blurry flourish in front of her webcam one night in late November, she prays after hanging up that it’s one-way.

 

 

//

 

 

November ends before she knows it and her best friend arrives along with her winter break. But Tiffany was always popular, so she has rounds to perform before they can see each other.

 

That’s the thing about being the best friend- logically, she should be first on Tiffany’s list. The only reason she’s not  is because as the best friend, she’s supposed to be the one person that understands how to be patient with the fact that about a league of people want to see Tiffany every time the girl graces their hometown with a visit.

 

She’s in town a whole week before they even make plans, because she needs to appease a mass of impatient acquaintances first.

 

They laugh about it over the phone.

 

Jessica has Tiffany on speaker while she trails a pencil lightly over a sketch for the thousandth time under the glow of her desk lamp.

 

“And then he started crying! Saying how much he missed me and all that. But we weren’t even that close in college, jeez. I had no clue what to tell him so I just patted his back and pretended I missed him too. At least I got a free dinner out of it...”

 

She snorts as she works a thumb against her sketchpad to brush a shadow down the side of a lavish gown.

 

“You’re hardly worth crying over.”

 

“That’s mean, Jessi.” She can can see the pout on her face. “You didn’t cry once when I left?!”

 

“Nope, I was too busy celebrating.” She did drink copiously.

 

“Then I guess you don’t want to see me tomorrow?” A teasing lilt bleeds through the line.

 

She grunts noncommittally while darkening her sketch. “Not one bit.”

 

Something shifts on the other end and she hears another voice before Tiffany is saying “Oops. Gotta go, Jessi. We’re going to dinner. Mich says Leo’s getting antsy waiting in the car.”

 

“Okay,” she hums over the faint blaring of a distant car horn.

 

“Loooove you.”

 

She can’t stop the smile stretching across her face. “Yeah, yeah. Go, before Leo breaks the whole neighborhood’s eardrums.”

 

There’s a tinkling laugh and the call drops with a click. She stares at the call log- they’d been talking for well over an hour.  

 

She stretches against the back of her office chair, yawning a 'come in' after someone delivers three sharp knocks to her bedroom door.

 

The door opens and Soojung pokes her head through, rolling her eyes. “You’re disgusting, you know that? Hihihi, Steeeph,” she mocks with a high-pitched giggle. “Anyways, mom says come down for dinner. God, you guys were talking for so long I thought my ears would fall off.”

 

It’s Jessica’s turn to roll her eyes as she jabs, “No one told you to listen, twerp.”

 

“It’s hard not to when we share a paper-thin wall and you put a girl with the voice of ten air horns on speaker.”

 

Jessica’s phone buzzes while they're eating. Ignoring a stern glare from her mother and a wary look from her father, she peeks at the screen under the table, a wide grin forming at the text.

 

‘Don’t forget, eight tmr! :D’ accompanies an unflattering photo of Leo pigging out on expensive-looking sushi.

 

“God, you’re so whipped.” Soojung scoffs as she chases peas around her plate with her fork.

 

 

//

 

 

Jessica skims the heel of a brown boot across crumbly asphalt. Smoothing the thin fabric of her olive-green jacket against her torso, she shakes her head knowing that she should be waiting inside. Tiffany would call. It’s chilly- she knows it’s SoCal but she swears her breath showed up white in the air once in the five minutes she’s been outside. Her friend probably isn’t expecting her to be waiting for her like this on the curb by the recycling bin in the middle of a December evening.

 

A familiar car pulls up and the girl she had been waiting for waves excitedly. She ducks inside, remembering how cozy Tiffany’s two-seater is as the girl closes the tiny distance between them, fastening arms around her in a fierce hug.

 

“Jess!”

 

Jessica gently pries the girl off after giving her an affectionate squeeze. “Hey there.”

 

“I missed you sooo much. When’s the last time I saw you? Spring?”

 

“April,” she remarks offhandedly.

 

Tiffany shakes her head in disbelief. “That’s way too long. I’m sorry you had to wait when I got here, too.”

 

Jessica shrugs. “You had people to see.”

 

“Ugh, don’t I know it. I’m starting to think I need to cut down on friends. It’s stressful. I’ve only got a few really close friends- like you- but I don’t want to offend anyone by not fitting them in when I visit.”

 

She nods in understanding. If Tiffany leaving has taught her anything, it’s that ‘out of sight, out of mind’ is absolutely untrue. It seems that the longer she’s gone, the more obsessed people get with seeing her again. Her included (though that was an extremely downplayed fact).

 

“Well, I’m just glad Ms. Hwang could pencil me in.”

 

“Of course, Ms. Jung. So- what now?”

 

“Have you eaten yet?”

 

 

//

 

 

Because it’s practically impossible to snag a table at any sit-down LA eatery at eight on a Friday night without a reservation, they end up in a strip mall In-N-Out.

 

Tiffany moans over a mouthful of her cheeseburger.  “God, I forgot how good these are.”

 

Jessica chuckles and leans over the table to dab a of mayonnaise from the corner of . “Slow down or you’ll choke, Speed Racer.”

 

“Mm, I’m fine with that.”

 

Jessica arches a sculpted brow as she sips at her chocolate milkshake. “.”

 

Tiffany smacks her arm as she gets up to throw the wrapping of her decimated meal in the trash.

 

Sliding back into the booth, she takes a gulp of her own drink and wrinkles her nose at the older girl. “How can you drink that when there’s this?” She raises her strawberry milkshake.

 

“You only like it because it’s pink.”

 

“But it still tastes good.”

 

“Drink more, then.” Jessica shoves the tall paper cup back towards her, laughing when Tiffany shoots her a scandalized look.   

 

The raven-haired girl returns to drinking her milkshake and they smile to each other over their straws. Jessica involuntary bites down on hers, hard, when Tiffany’s eyes curve into crescents that pierce through her bearing.

 

Luckily, Tiffany doesn’t notice because suddenly she’s pointing out of the window. “Hey, isn’t that Nichkhun?”

 

“Huh? As in your high school boyfriend, Nichkhun?”

 

She doesn’t get a response as the younger girl stands and tugs her out of the booth by the hand.

 

“Hey, I’m not finished-”

 

“Take it to go,” quips Tiffany as she hands her the chocolate milkshake from off the table.

 

Jessica follows her out, throwing her white scarf around her neck exasperatedly as Tiffany cups her hands around and calls out to a trio of men walking through the parking lot.

 

“Khun! Nichkhun!”

 

The group looks back at her and the one in question smiles, brows raising into his fringe in surprise.

 

“Tiffany?” He jogs up to them, crew in tow. “And Jessica!”

 

She gives him a small wave.

 

“These are my friends, Taecyeon and Jay. Taec, Jay, these are two friends from highschool,” he offers before turning his attention back to Tiffany. “I knew I saw your car, but I didn’t realize you were in the country!”

 

“My ride’s that hard to miss, huh?”  

 

“I’d say a pink Beamer is more than hard to miss, Tiff.”

 

“It’s great because unlike Michelle’s car, I know Leo will never ask to borrow it.”

 

They start laughing and Tiffany hits his arm, hand lingering on his coat for a moment before dropping down to her side.

 

Jessica feigns interest in the neon In-N-Out sign in the corner of her vision and tries not to grip her cup too hard as Taecyeon and Jay try to make small-talk with her and Tiffany gushes to Nichkhun.

 

“-if you want, we were just going to grab some gelato. You guys are welcome to join.”

 

In a flash, Tiffany sidles up to her, warmth pressing into her side as she wraps herself around Jessica’s arm.

 

The playful girl taps a French tip against the plastic top of the blonde’s milkshake. “Thanks for the offer, but we’ve already had dessert.” She leans in against her further with a perfectly blinding smile and coquettish wink. “Plus, I wanted some alone time with my date tonight.”

 

Jessica quietly curls her manicure against the rough inside of her denim pocket, trying to stay steady with Tiffany on her arm as her knees threaten to give out and a breath hitches in .

 

 

//

 

 

“Nichkhun’s still really sweet, right?”

 

Jessica grunts as she sinks into the leather passenger’s seat. “Yeah.”

 

Tiffany fiddles with the radio dial before settling on some generic pop song. Satisfied, she pulls out of the lot, rolling down the windows and convertible top.

 

“Christ, Stephanie. Do you want me to get pneumonia?” Jessica looks between the night sky and the wind whipping a storm out of Tiffany’s hair in bewilderment.

 

“I spent Christmas in Norway last year. If I survived that, you can handle a light desert breeze.”

 

“Who are you?”

 

Tiffany laughs. “Daddy wants me home by ten because we’re driving up to San Jose to see my aunt early tomorrow. What do you want to do til then?”

 

Jessica’s brows knit together as a frown tugs at the corner of her lips. “That’s so soon,” she murmurs disappointedly.  

 

A husky laugh bubbles from the driver’s seat. “I’ll be back Monday. And you’re crazy if you thought we were only going to see each other once before I leave.”

 

“Are you willing to promise on that?”

 

“Cross my heart. Left or right?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Today, Jess. The light’s coming up. Left or right?”

 

“Um, left?” she squeaks as Tiffany floors it to cut the turn just as the tiny green arrow gives way to red.

 

She eases off the accelerator and they amble into the suburbs, cheery pop spilling from the car speakers. The neighborhood is riddled in Christmas lights.

 

“Aren’t the lights so beautiful, Jessi?”

 

This sounds awfully familiar.

 

goes dry because Tiffany has those stars in her eyes now, and they’re ten times brighter in person than over Skype.

 

“Yeah, they are.”

 

 

//

 

 

There isn’t much else to do besides drive around aimlessly, since they have so little time left before Tiffany has to head home.

 

“So, I was just in India for like, two months.”

 

Jessica languidly reaches out to brush a hand across a row leaves hanging off a low-lying tree branch outside. “Were you really, though? You look like a piece of paper.”

 

Somehow, Tiffany always looks like she was cut from a sliver of the moon itself.

 

“And you’re almost as dark as Yuri, now. Do you even use sunscreen?”

 

Jessica laughs and tucks her arm back into the car. “Anyways, you were saying?”

 

“Right! Well, I was lucky enough to be there during Diwali. The lights were gorgeous. I was like, wow, early Christmas!”

 

Jessica can’t stop herself from laughing. Of course Tiffany, ever-worldly and cosmopolitan, was comparing an elaborate age-old tradition to their lawn Santas and tacky rainbow lights- a valley girl to the bone.

 

“You’re really something- you know that, Steph?”

 

The girl glances at her with a pout before focusing back on the road. “You’re laughing at me.”

 

“Yeah, of course I am.”

 

Tiffany huffs, but continues pointing out houses. “Ugh, look at that one. Who puts blue lights up with red lights right next to them? You’d be better off gluing a gigantic Pepsi logo to the side of your house. ”  

 

The vehicle is all but crawling at this point, and they’re lucky Tiffany’s car is so zany and they’re so tiny and unassuming-looking because otherwise, Jessica’s sure the neighborhood watch would have reported them for suspicious prowling a while ago.

 

“I’d still give it a solid six. They at least arranged things neatly. And they don’t have inflatable snowmen like the neighbors, so they automatically have a leg up.”

 

“You’re a fashion designer, Jess. Be a little more ruthless! I know you want to.”

 

Rounding a corner, they hit the jackpot.

 

Tiffany emits a low whistle as she pushes forward to the monstrosity. “Get a load of that.”

 

The house, practically a mansion, is wrapped head to toe in mismatched, multi-colored disaster. Hulking inflatables crowd the lawn, and a kitschy crimson ‘LAND HERE, SANTA!’  runway blinks demonically across the terracotta roof. A lawn Santa at the foot of the driveway barks ‘Ho ho ho, Meeerry Christmas!’ on a maniacal loop.

 

“Words can’t start to describe everything wrong with this,” Jessica laughs as she whips out her phone to take a photo for Snapchat.

 

“I’m really glad I got to see you,” the girl beside muses abruptly, voice dripping with such sincerity and warmth that she ends up dropping her phone in her lap like it's a burning coal.   

 

Jessica doesn’t want to look at her and feel weak all over again, so she pretends to be busy scrutinizing the nightmarish display, and furtively reaches a hand out to the younger girl without facing her. She fumbles to slip their hands together before finally chancing a look.

 

“Me too,” she says lamely as her eyes travel down to their interlocked hands.  

 

A thumb glides over the hills of her knuckles and Tiffany’s tender gaze draws Jessica dangerously close to saying something embarrassing and emotional. Fortunately for her, she doesn’t have to say anything because an industrial whoosh sounds from beside them before she has the opportunity to humiliate herself.

 

White flakes descend upon them, whirling overhead in a messy flurry.
 

 

She confusedly looks up and around while brushing the stuff out of her hair. “What the hell?”  

 

Tiffany reaches for the sky in glee. “No way!”

 

Jessica finally sees it- the owners of the holiday nightmare have installed a fake snow machine- haphazardly facing the street, at that.

 

“I give this house a three.”

 

Her companion dances in her seat, overjoyed as she presses down on the parking brake. “I give it a ten.” She gathers a fistful of fluff and flings it into the blonde’s face. “Don’t be such a killjoy, Jessi.”

 

Jessica guffaws, futilely scraping the clingy material off her jacket. “Oh, you’re gonna get it, Hwang!”  

 

She packs a ball of fuzz and throws it at the younger girl’s back as Tiffany chortles and opens her door, jumping down to the pavement. The smaller girl clambers out of the roadster to follow her and they pick shreds of ‘snow’ from the air and off the ground, shrieking with laughter as they assault each other with frothy attacks.

 

Jessica traps Tiffany as she reaches around her to pluck excess snippets from off the car as other girl uses her slight height advantage to sprinkle the stuff into her hair.

 

Tiffany shields her face behind her hands when Jessica retaliates. “Mercy, mercy!”

 

The blonde's palms land on the buzzing aluminum where she’s cornered the other girl against the hood of the car, still laughing.

 

The snow machine whirs to a stop, leaving them in a smaller cacophony- now it’s just a mid-tempo pop ballad pouring out of the convertible, lawn Santa’s robotic ‘Ho ho ho, Meeerry Christmas!’, and them trying to catch their breath.

 

Tiffany’s hand sneaks around Jessica to catch a piece of white drifting down to the pavement on her fingertip. “Never thought I’d see the first snow of the winter in Diamond Bar.”

 

Jessica nods mutely, now acutely aware of their proximity. She clears . “Where were you betting on this time? The frigid North? You’ve always wanted to go to Greenland…”

 

The girl pressed to the front plate smiles at her, shaking her head. “This is better than anything I was betting on.”

 

Jessica thinks that Tiffany looks nothing short of angelic bathed in the California moonlight as the last of a cascade of fake snow wafts down behind her, and words escape her.

 

“You know what they say about the first snow, right?” Tiffany hooks her pointer finger in the pocket of her jeans as if it's the most natural thing in the world, cementing her to her spot.

 

“Yeah,” she says dumbly.

 

The traveler lays her other hand over the designer’s on the warm metal. A heady jolt blooms in Jessica’s chest, setting her alight.

 

“I’m glad I'm spending the first snow with you.”

 

It’s not even really snow, and Jessica knows that she could mean anything by 'I'm glad I'm spending the first snow with you.' Maybe it means nothing, and Tiffany is just saying it because they’re friends. But Jessica has been good; she has resisted for so long that anything that sounds remotely like an invitation sends her spilling over the edges of the lines she has carefully drawn for herself in the shadow of their monumental distance.

 

She surges forward, pressing her lips against Tiffany’s.

 

The other girl stiffens for a split second and Jessica thinks ‘I’ve ruined everything’, but then the other girl is reciprocating calmly and firmly beneath her desperation, as if to say ‘slow down, I’m here.’

 

Jessica’s eyes flutter open and she splits apart from Tiffany, heartbeat thrumming wildly in her skull and the tips of her fingers. “Oh my god, I’m so-”

 

She stops when the younger girl tugs her closer by where her finger is still buried in the dip of her pocket. “Don’t be sorry.”

 

 

//

 

 

They don’t talk about it on the ride back to Jessica’s house, but it’s not awkward, either. Not for Tiffany, anyways. She does most of the talking- awkward isn’t in her vocabulary. Jessica sits through a story about a particularly eventful liquid lunch in Madrid, a song recommendation, and a gossipy jab about some girl from Berlin before they reach their destination.

 

Jessica fidgets with the buckle of her seatbelt, eyes impossibly dark as Tiffany cuts the ignition, looking at her expectantly.

 

“I guess I’ll see you, uh, next time.”

 

“I told you I’d see you when I came back from my aunt’s.”

 

Jessica looks down at her sneakers. “Listen, Tiffany-”

 

“You don’t call me that.”  

 

“Steph. I get it if you don’t want to see me again. I know I crossed a line.”

 

“Jessica.”

 

A pause.

 

“Yes?”

 

Tiffany punches her shoulder gently. “Come on! This is the part where you say ‘you don’t call me that’.”

 

“Y-you don’t call me that.” Jessica hasn’t stuttered in years, and she wants to sink straight into the ground.

 

She receives a soft smile. “Good. Jessi, I will see you first thing after this weekend.”

 

The blonde nods slowly, biting down on her lip. “I- okay. Okay. Good night, Steph.” Before she can exit the car, Tiffany tugs her back into her seat by the wrist.

 

“Hang on.” She pops open the center console and pulls out a pristinely folded piece of paper, tossing it into Jessica’s lap. “Read this.”

 

Jessica stares at it hesitantly. “What is it?”

 

“Just read it.”

 

She unfolds the paper and scans over the print silently.

 

“See, Jessi? No matter what happens, we’re going to see each other.”

 

She represses a strangled noise in as she wonders if this is a joke. “‘Dear Ms. Hwang, we are pleased to offer you admission for the Fall of 2018 as a Master’s Degree Candidate to UCLA’s School of Interior Design,’” she reads under her breath.

 

Tiffany beams at her. “You’ll be my tour guide, right?”

 

A laugh sputters from Jessica’s lips as she shakes her head in disbelief. “Of course I will.”

 

“I knew you would say yes.”

 

“As if I can ever say no to you.”

 

The driver opens her door and crosses to the opposite side, tapping Jessica’s door and beckoning for her to come out. The older girl numbly climbs out into Tiffany’s outstretched arms, the letter flying forgotten to the interior floor.

 

Arms encircle her waist and a familiar smile draws itself in the crook of her neck as she rests her chin on the taller girl’s shoulder.

 

“I’ll see you in September,” she mutters into the light wind whistling past.

 

Tiffany rests her forehead against hers, hands climbing up to her hair to pick at stubborn leftover fluff. “Yes, silly. But you’ll see me on Monday, first.”

 

This time, Tiffany kisses Jessica.

 

 

//

 

 

Christmas goes with little fanfare; just a simple potluck with the Jungs walking over to the Hwang’s.

 

Jessica arrives early in the morning to help Tiffany help Michelle cook. They are expelled from the kitchen within an hour, and instead spend the day exchanging hot-cocoa flavored kisses.

 

At dinner, Mrs. Jung squeals over the news that the youngest Hwang will be starting at UCLA in the fall. “It’s so wonderful that you’ll be at Jessica’s school. It’ll be her last semester, but having such a good friend around is very exciting.”

 

They haven’t quite broken the dating news to her parents or Tiffany’s family yet. They’ve only told one person so far, and Jessica sorely regrets their choice.

 

“Yes. A very good friend,” Soojung sniggers beside her as she eyes the tiny tendril of a scandalous red splotch just barely peeking out of the collar of her sister’s sweater.

 

Jessica doesn’t think she can love Tiffany any more until her girlfriend, flanking the other side of her sister, shoves a heaping spoonful of food into the little snot’s mouth with an innocent smile. “Have you tried the potatoes, Soojung? They’re really yummy, right?”

 

 

//

 

 

On New Year’s Eve, they don’t share a midnight kiss. They make it a 9 p.m.-ish kiss because Tiffany has an early flight to catch in the morning. Jessica drives over and stays the night so that she can drop her off at airport the next day. She wakes up earlier than she would for anybody else to drag her girlfriend out of bed when an alarm set to an ungodly hour unceremoniously interrupts her slumber.

 

Once Tiffany is dressed, she helps her heave assorted luggage downstairs where Leo and Michelle are already waiting in the living room, staring Jessica down with -eating grins like they know something. Her girlfriend leaves her to the wolves when she dashes back upstairs to say goodbye to her father, and she is teased to infinity and back. They play dumb when Tiffany returns, looking suspiciously between Jessica's blushing face and her siblings' innocuous smiles. 

 

“Happy New Year, ya filthy animals!” Leo calls from the driveway when they pull away from the curb.

 

A secret: Tiffany is not as dauntless as she seems.

 

She giggles sleepily at her brother’s antics, and stares longingly back at the house until it slips out of view behind the sloping hill of the street. “I’m gonna miss them. I’m gonna miss my car. I’m gonna miss you.” She nods off against the window pane, and her girlfriend slows to a snail’s pace whenever they approach a bump or a sewer lid so as not to wake her.

 

With the sunrise clambering up the mountains in the corner of her windshield and the loveliest person she could have asked for snuggled in her passenger’s seat, Jessica is happy to be awake for daybreak for the first time in her life.

 

Still clad in her pyjamas, she goes through the motions of helping Tiffany with her luggage as slowly as possible when they reach the departure terminal. A flickering burn curls in the pit of her stomach as she drinks in the image of the girl, knowing it will be months before she sees her in person again. It briefly crosses her mind that a long-distance relationship might be hard to maintain. But when Tiffany presses into her embrace, murmuring that she’ll be back in September, she remembers they’ve handled distance perfectly for years and the fearful flicker in her belly is replaced by an unwavering blaze in her heart.

 

They part with smiles rather than tears; ‘see you soon’ rather than ‘goodbye’, and Jessica realizes that Tiffany’s ticket never had to be one-way for them to be together.

 

 

//

 

A/N: I had so much fun writing this, so I hope you had fun reading. I was reaaaally close to making it angsty at the end, but I couldn't bring myself to in the spirit of Christmas :') Thanks for the inspiration, Sparks!