Archive of Our Own ^beta

She didn’t expect to be in the final two. Being locked in a department store (that had recently closed, if the still-hanging closeout sale signs and empty shelves were an indication of anything) was not how she expected to spend a month and a half of her life in her thirties, but here she is: sprawled across her fifth bed of the challenge, her head hanging off the side so she can see a different view of the world. 

A different view of Gigi, too.

She didn’t expect to compete on television for $10,000, sure, but she was growing restless in life. Her job sucked, so she quit it. Her apartment sucked, so she sub-leased it out while she went on this show. Her usual hookup sucked, but that wasn’t a problem here—there was only one contestant she’d like to hook up with, and despite the dwindling cast allowing them to get closer and closer, it always felt wrong. 

At first, it was because there were too many castmates. Ten other contestants all locked together in the large-yet-somehow-small store didn’t make it easy for them to slip away, not that she had ever asked if Gigi even wanted to. But they left one by one—homesick, actually sick, needed to go back to work, needed to deal with a family emergency, the list went on… and then there was them. An aspiring fashion designer with artist’s block and a… whatever Crystal was, still here, after all this time. 

But suddenly—or maybe it took forever, who was she to say—they were too close. She didn’t want to just hook up with her, not when she’d much rather take her out on a nice date anywhere that wasn’t here. Maybe she would make her food, and show her around her favorite spots in the city (which she was going to do anyway, because they talked about what they would do when they got out of here constantly, and Crystal maintained that Gigi hadn’t been anywhere new in far too long).

And yeah, maybe they would hook up later. But after the dates, and hopefully it would mean something.

Gigi wasn’t someone she wanted to casually hook up with until the next person came along, not anymore. She had feelings for her, feelings that were being broadcast on TV due to the ever-present and ever-recording cameras. Her initial thoughts (that she still believed, of course) that Gigi was simply too gorgeous would be watched by a million people, probably. 

She’s even pretty upside-down. 

“Having fun?” Gigi asks, glancing over. She’s been taking time at the end of each day to work on some designs—apparently, something about being stuck in the same four walls for days and days on end was enough to kick-start her motivation. That sounded nice, but Crystal didn’t know what she could even be motivated to do, so she was just enjoying the break from… life. And everything that comes with it.

“Mhm,” Crystal hums, rolling over onto her stomach. “I think this bed will be comfier than the last one, maybe even better than the second one.”

Gigi smiles at her, and she smiles back. “You said that you’d never find a better one.”

“Well, I take it back. I think.”

Before Gigi can reply, a walkie-talkie crackles to life on a nearby table. “Girls, I’m turning out the light in fifteen. Christina will be here if you need anything after lights-out.”

Gigi puts down her pencil, flipping her sketchbook shut. “Alright, that’s another day done, then,” she groans, stretching, and flops down onto her bed. She turns her head, grinning over at Crystal. “Feel like giving up yet?”

Crystal sticks her tongue out at her, feeling the entire empty queen-sized bed between them, “You’re stuck with me until you decide you’re done.” It’s banter they’ve gone through a million times by now, but it’s nice to joke around with her like this. 

“And if I’m never done?”

Crystal throws a pillow at her, because she can. It’s one of Gigi’s pillows, actually, the one that she always uses with the Strawberry Shortcake pillowcase they had found back when most of the cast were still here. Crystal always teases her about demanding that the pillowcase goes into the laundry every time, and how she always checks that it’s actually going into the wash, but her smile when she slips it back onto the pillow makes Crystal smile too. Because she’s trapped in a department store with Gigi and a bunch of cameras, and because she’s smitten.

The pillow hits Gigi in the head, and she splutters, but Crystal can’t hear it over the sound of her laugh. “Then you’re stuck with me forever,” she says, grinning wildly at her. “What a shame.”

“Yeah, a shame,” Gigi agrees, trying for a glare but missing the mark completely. The corners of her lips are tugging up into a grin, even as she tries to fight it down, and Crystal can’t help but watch. She hopes the recordings of this won’t air, or that they’re standing at a bad angle for people to see that she’s looking at Gigi’s lips, but she won’t know until she watches it back.

And won’t that be a weird experience? Watching herself develop the world’s biggest crush on national television. That’s going to be weird.

“You sure you don’t wanna switch up your bed? Not even once?” Crystal asks, sprawling across hers again. It’s a conversation they’ve had before, but it’s been over a month—they’ve repeated so many of their conversations over the time they’ve been here. 

“No,” Gigi says, hugging her pillow to her chest and looking over it at her. “I like this one.” 

“Okay,” Crystal shrugs (as well as she can in her weird position). She takes this time to wiggle under the covers, aware that Gigi is watching her attempts—not that Gigi was doing anything to hide that fact, given the laughs that followed any fuck-up in her quest to be cozy.

It’s just as she’s finally wrapped under the duvet that the walkie-talkie crackles to life again. “Lights out!” 

“Goodnight!” Gigi calls to the open air around them. The lights turn off, bathing them in darkness as Crystal turns, curling up on one side of the bed. 

“‘Night, Gigi,” she says, quiet enough that she hopes it’s just for the two of them. It wouldn’t be the worst, if a camera of a mic picked up on it, but she’s worried that everyone will be able to hear the fondness in her words. 

“Do you think…”

“Hmm?” Crystal prompts after a second, staring at the outline of Gigi laying down and entire queen sized bed away. 

“Uh, nevermind. Sleep well, Crys.”

 And with that, Crystal lets herself doze off, comfortable in her new bed and warmed by the duvet she’s snuggled underneath.

Crystal wakes up to a sunlit store—the almost floor-to-ceiling windows along the back wall are in direct opposition to the blackout curtains she has at home, but after this long she’s used to the bright mornings. 

Whispers of a dream escape her mind, filling her with the same yearning as usual—something about Gigi coming to her for something, and she smiles and runs her fingers through Crystal’s hair, and maybe there was humming too? It escapes faster as she tries to cling on, because of course it does. How frustrating.

It’s really too bright, though, so she screws her eyes shut.

She flips in spot, still blinded and somehow not used to just rolling over onto a new part of the bed (she blames her decades of sleeping in a twin bed for that. Some things are just too ingrained in her to change). It’s only when she feels the duvet tug that she opens her eyes, jumping a little at the sight in front of her.

Gigi. Asleep in her bed, head resting on her Strawberry Shortcake pillow while sharing Crystal’s duvet.

Crystal’s eyes widen involuntarily, wracking her brain for any more information than what she can gather. They’re being recorded and their clothes are still on, so it was just sleeping, but…

Oh. There was something, something that she thought was a dream.

She had woken up to a nudge, the room still dark except for the streaks of artificial light coming through the window from the surrounding buildings. 

“Crystal,” a whisper from next to her was heard. Gigi.  

“Mmph,” she’d grumbled, to show that she was awake, lifting her head just enough to see her. Gigi was in the dream she’d just pulled her out of—maybe she’ll remember it enough to tell her in the morning. 

“Can I sleep with you tonight?” Gigi had asked, not making eye contact. She was holding her Strawberry Shortcake pillow, pretending to be more interested in toying with the ends of the pillowcase than looking at her. 

The key word was pretending—she saw the way her fingers clenched and unclenched against the bottom of the pillow. In truth, she was all too aware of the cameras pointed at them, the fact that this was being recorded, but she didn’t care. 

“C’mere,” she’d said, her voice rumbling with disuse. She flipped over, clumsily lifting up one side of the covers so Gigi could get under it with her. 

“You’re cold,” Crystal marveled, reaching back out to grab her hand. It’s almost scary how natural it felt, to just go and do it after thinking about it in so many other situations across the last few weeks, but she was too tired to overthink it. 

“I had a nightmare,” Gigi murmured gently, as if scared to wake her up more than she already had. Crystal felt her shudder just thinking about it, so she wiggled closer to her gracelessly. 

“No more nightmares,” she declared, and Gigi seemed to accept that. She accepts it well enough to let her fall back asleep, at least, because the next thing Crystal remembers is waking up a minute or two ago. 

And here she is. Face to face with Gigi, seeing her sleeping form bathed in sunlight for the first time since the rest of the contestants left. Gigi’s usually awake before she is, so it feels special to see her like this. 

It feels a little creepy to watch her sleep, though, so she rolls over and closes her eyes.

Now that she’s more awake, she can notice everything she hadn’t noticed earlier. Gigi’s huffs every once in a while, cutting between her quiet breaths. The warmth clinging to the bed, clinging to the covers, clinging to her. The way Gigi’s shifting to—

Hug her. She freezes, her eyes shooting open involuntarily. It’s a few seconds before she slowly lets out her breath, trying not to make any sudden movements. Gigi’s holding her. Gigi’s in her bed, her arm slung around her waist. 

So she lays there. She doesn’t know how long she lays there, letting her mind wander, but it always comes back to the arm wrapped around her. It always comes back to Gigi. 

And as such, she hears when Gigi starts stirring. 

“Hmm…?” Gigi hums as she wakes up. “Oh.” She doesn’t move her hand away fully, not yet, but she does lift it so it isn’t laying on her so heavily. Crystal misses the weight as soon as it’s gone. “Are you awake?”

She pauses for a second. Does she admit she’s awake? Does that mean she won’t get held like this again? She didn’t realize how touch starved she was until now—she hasn’t gotten anything more than a friendly hug in over a month, and now the person that she would love to take on a date is cuddling with her in bed. 

“Yeah,” she admits, deciding that Gigi would probably be able to tell anyway. Gigi removes her arm, and she misses it as soon as it’s gone. 

“Sorry for… all that.” Gigi shifts away slightly, shuffling behind her. 

“No, don’t—” Crystal starts, then rolls over. Gigi’s hair is mussed and she’s blushing and she’s adorable. “It’s cool. It’s good. I—don’t worry.”

“Yeah…” Gigi trails off. She doesn’t sound convinced. 

Something is in the air between them as they get ready. The usual banter is missing, replaced by blushing cheeks and shy looks. It’s weird to be here, having an awkward moment between them recorded for television, having a crush aired out for everyone to see. Cuddling like that and obviously enjoying it? Of course they’ll air it. Of course she’ll be watching this on TV.

It’s only later that morning that they talk about it. 

“Hey, Crys,” Gigi starts, coming back from getting dressed for the day and sitting down at the table next to her. She seems nervous, and it feels out of place to see someone who’s usually so confident overthinking like this. “Thanks for letting me sleep with you. In your bed. Last night.”

“You can do it more if you want,” Crystal feigns nonchalance. She thinks it works. “It’s a good bed.”

“It is better than mine,” Gigi concedes, some of the stress melting away. She smiles, a small thing, but it makes her smile back. 

“Better than the second bed. And I would know.”

Gigi’s smile gets bigger, and Crystal hopes it isn’t obvious that she can’t look away, but she finds she doesn’t care. “Only the best for us?”

Crystal can’t help but laugh, scooting forward to nudge her in the arm. “Only the best for us.”