Work Text:
Dakota’s mom and dad like Kristen, or at least they say they do. They don’t mind at all when Kristen takes her out or she goes over to her place. They trust her completely…or at least they say they do.
Still, the blonde sees a frown appear on her mother’s face when Kristen excuses herself to go outside and light one up. Thankfully the dark-haired girl knows better than to let the Fannings catch her smoking in the presence of their daughter. Nevertheless, Dakota knows her mother doesn’t like it and isn’t quite happy with her hanging around a smoker, however nice of a person Kristen otherwise is.
Fortunately, the Fannings haven’t heard some of the other rumours spreading about Kristen or if they have, they choose to ignore them and Dakota is glad about that. They don’t mind how much older Kristen is than Dakota, they don’t complain about her greasy hair and slouchy clothes and they don’t even gripe about the occasional- well, okay, constant string of profanity that occasionally slips out of her mouth.
The older actress has practically moved into their house over the past few months. They’re both between films and have some much welcomed free-time. She brings little gifts for Dakota’s mother and even Elle has taken a liking to Kristen. Between the endless sleepovers and late nights watching movies with the two sisters, Dakota’s older friend and fellow actor has become part of the family.
Or at least she would be…if it weren’t for the fact that Kristen and Dakota can’t keep their hands off each other.
Dakota feels her cheeks heat up when Kristen comes up behind her and slides her arms around her waist, resting her chin on her shoulder. It’s about two in the morning and they’re sitting on the edge of Dakota’s bed, watching the end of some action movie Kristen had picked. Elle had excused her a long while ago, yawning and looking adorably childlike but awkwardly gangly in pink Hello Kitty pajamas that were a bit short for her long legs, stumbling off into her own bedroom.
That left the two girls all alone, Dakota with her eyes locked on the screen, pretending to be focusing all her attention on the movie and ignoring Kristen’s own gaze roaming over her.
“Mmm…stop” She whines half-heartedly, as the ending credits appear on the screen, attempting to squirm out of Kristen’s arms, elbowing her in the ribs.
“Nuh uh” Kristen counters playfully, making her giggle in spite of herself as she holds onto her tightly, tickling her sides.
“You’re so silly” The blonde says between breaths, grabbing her arms and still trying to wriggle away from her.
Kristen uses one of her strong arms to hold her down on the bed while she grabs the remote and switches off the tv. Dakota takes advantage of this and manages to slip out of her grip, sliding over to the top of the bed. She might be smaller but she's also more agile…and God knows more graceful, than the other girl.
“Why you!” The older one lets out a laugh then crawls over her and grabs her by the wrists, pinning her down on the bed with her head against the pillow.
“Ugh…not again” The blonde protests, still giggling even though she knows she’s supposed to be acting like if she’s irritated. “What do you want?”
She immediately regrets her choice of words as Kristen smirks dangerously and her green eyes narrow as she looms over her.
“What do I want?” She repeats, flicking her brows, “That’s a loaded question”
“You are so perverted” Dakota laughs, covering her mouth with her hand with mock astonishment, and feels herself blush even though she tries her best not to.
“I know!” Kristen snickers but still sounds a little embarrassed by her statement. Her grip loosens around Dakota’s wrists and she bites down on her lip slightly, her expression mischievous and sheepish at the same time.
Dakota smiles, thinking this little game of hers is over but gasps when Kristen lays her weight on top of her, crushing her into the bed.
“Ow! Noo!” She squeals, pushing against her shoulders.
Kristen snorts but remains there for a few moments enjoying how annoyed she’s making her. Eventually she eases up a bit, placing her arms beside her head and smirks down at her, her face only an inch away.
“You just like making me angry” Dakota huffs, pouting and avoiding her eyes.
Kristen chuckles. “You’re right” She admits but then she’s silent. After a while Dakota speaks up, the tension eating away at her as she feels Kristen’s eyes boring into her.
“What?!” She spits out.
Kristen sneers back but then that familiar sheepish look comes over her face and she bites her bottom lip and gets all cutely bashful. Dakota wants to ignore how her own face feels hot when she sees Kristen act this way.
“I want to kiss you” The taller of the two says quietly.
Dakota feels her stomach flutter, her heartbeat speeding up. A few weeks ago, she and Kristen had become an item. But it was all innocent- a few kisses here and there, cuddling, holding hands. They were super discrete- especially when another member of the family was around. No one else had cottoned on to them yet.
She reaches up, touching Kristen’s face lightly, her hand shaking a little. Kristen scans her face before leaning in and meshing their lips together. She pulls away after a few seconds but Dakota puts her hand on the back of her neck and pulls her face back towards her and kisses her again.
Soon, what had started as a fairly innocent kiss evolves into something more and Dakota wraps her arms around her back, pulling her closer.
Dakota feels like the room is spinning around her and she gasps when she feels hot lips on her neck. She grabs Kristen’s arm, squeezing it.
“Don’t…”
She flusters a little and Kristen smiles, pulling away and rubs soothing circles on her arm with her thumb. “It’s okay”
The taller girl moves to lie by her side, throwing an arm over her and the room is silent but for the sound of their heavy breathing.
“Kristen…” She speaks up after a long moment. She hears no answer and looks over to see the girl’s eyes closed, her mouth hanging open, clearly in deep sleep.
“Ugh…” She groans, closing her own eyes.
__________________________________________________
The next morning…well it doesn’t go so well. It’s one of those excruciatingly embarrassing moments that Dakota wishes she could erase from existence.
“Dakota?”
The blonde sits up in bed, opening her eyes as she hears the sound of her mother’s voice and feels the warmth of sunlight hitting her skin. She is surprised to see her mother looking in her direction pointedly with an eyebrow raised. She follows her line of vision and looks over to her side to see Kristen still in a deep slumber, snoring loudly, her arm still thrown around her waist.
“You girls slept together?” Her mother whispers, eyebrow still arched. Dakota blushes brightly, choking a bit even though she knows her mother isn’t speaking in that sense.
She’s so thankful Kristen isn’t awake for this…being the awkward, nervous person she is at the best of times. Between her own panic and the secondhand embarrassment she’d feel from Dakota, Kristen might have an anxiety attack.
“Yeah well, it was super late when the movie finished so we decided to just share the bed” She replies hastily, trying not to lose her cool and become a flustered mess.
“Hmm okay” Her mom says finally, though she still has that strange look on her face and Dakota wonders where it’s coming from. “Just let me know if you plan to sleep together again and I won’t bother fixing up the spare bedroom for her”
“I’ll do that” Dakota attempts to smile sweetly, trying her best not to die on the spot and act as if this is all normal and no big deal. Mrs. Fanning kisses her on the forehead before stalking off, closing the door behind her, thankfully unaware of her state of inner distress. She cringes.
The blonde breathes a sigh of relief once she’s gone. She doesn’t see why her mom would consider this a big deal. Her parents have no idea about their relationship. Plus Kristen and her are best friends and Kristen’s been sleeping over at their house many times for the past year. She’s almost like another daughter to the Fannings now. It isn't as if Kristen is some boy. But Dakota knows deep down, her parents are pretty conservative and some of the most paranoid people you could ever meet…even sharing beds with a female best friend is a huge deal for them. Sharing a bed with her dog would probably be a huge deal to them. She knows her mother disapproves a bit even if she’s pretending not to.
“Mmm” Dakota flinches when she hears Kristen’s husky voice and feels her stir against her.
She blinks, seeing Dakota for the first time and a dreamy smile comes over her face that shouldn’t make Dakota’s heart do backflips like it does as soon as she sees it. A strange thought hits her...she wants to see Kristen wake up every single day and look at her like that.
“Oh” Kristen’s smile falters and she gets a bit flustered in an almost comical way as she realizes their situation and she sits up quickly, a guilty expression crossing her face. In fact, there’s something about her reactions that make Dakota think she’s been in similar situations before. She doesn’t look too surprised but rather…like a cat caught with a canary, as she eloquently blurts out- “Oh shit…”
Dakota tries her best not to think about that though. What Kristen may or may not have done with other girls is really not something she should focus on.
“Um…we didn’t…did we?”
“No!” Dakota’s voice is shrill and her face feels hot. She slaps Kristen on the arm in a fluster.
“Ow” Kristen rubs her arm absentmindedly, still looking deeply concerned about all this. “Then why am I here- in um, bed with you?”
“You fell asleep last night, remember, Stupid?” Dakota huffs, irritated and mortified by this whole conversation and situation…everything about it is just so…ugh.
This is not what she imagined when Kristen told her she was coming for a sleepover. She imagined innocent fun, watching good movies, snacks, giggling, the occasional deep philosophical conversation and okay…maybe a few kisses…but typical innocent- emphasis on the “innocent”- fun.
And now Kristen is acting as if they had sex.
“Oh” The brunette looks as if a wave of relief has hit her. She smiles over at the younger girl. “Are you sure?”
“Yes I’m sure!” Dakota snaps, slapping her on the arm again, annoyed that she can’t seem to stop blushing. Kristen snickers and Dakota turns away from her, crossing her arms over her chest defensively.
“Oh come on” Kristen puts on her most charming tone, “I’m only teasing you, man. Why are you so pissed at me?”
“I’m not” The blonde insists, still not looking at her.
“You are” Kristen sighs, serious now. She pushes the sheets down and edges over to the blonde, sitting with her back up against the headboard. She puts a hand on Dakota’s thigh gently and watches her flinch away from the contact. “Why are you all upset?”
The blonde sucks in a deep breath before completely exploding in an almost hysterical, uncharacteristic manner that seems to scare Kristen a little.
“Why am I all upset?!” She whisper-screams, “Well, let’s see, Kristen…we’re in bed together- we just woke up in bed together after sleeping the entire night in the same bed…my mom just walked in and saw you in my bed- anybody who wasn’t my mom who walked in here would assume we- we had sex- and did I mention that we’re in bed together?!”
Kristen appears taken aback by her sudden tirade and holds her hands out in front of herself in a protective maneover. She glances across at her, swallowing hard. “Whoa…your mom saw us?”
“Yes…she did” Dakota snarls, “And I’m sure she didn’t like it!”
The brunette looks confused, “What? But she doesn’t know about…you know”
“That doesn’t matter” Dakota sighs irritably, “I just can’t believe she…she…saw us!”
The blonde covers her face with her hands as another wave of humiliation hits her. She just wants this all to die quickly so she can forget about it.
“Dakota!” Kristen laughs, “It’s okay! It’s not the end of the world!”
“It might as well be” The blonde mumbles, her voice muffled through her hands.
Kristen puts her arm over her shoulders. “Why are you getting all worked up and fretting about this?” She whispers into her hair in a low voice. “Your mom probably thinks her daughter and her sisterly bff had a sleepover. Girls do stuff like that all the time”
“But that’s just it!” The blonde cries, “We’re not like that…we’re…you know…and-and”
“We’re girlfriend and girlfriend and I fell asleep in your bed, fully clothed. Perfectly innocent. It’s not as if we got all drunk or something and stripped naked and-“
“Stop!” Dakota puts her hands over her ears and wrenches out of her grasp, getting off of the bed. “Just stop!”
Kristen freezes and stares at her, cocking her head to the side. “What’s up with you?”
The blonde is on the verge of a panic attack.
“You’re being really inappropriate now- and I can’t handle all this and I- I”, Dakota looks up at her, bottom lip quivering and says the five words that always seem to make her girlfriend’s blood run cold. “I think I’m gonna cry…”
And sure enough she bursts into tears, going down to her knees. Kristen bristles and lurches back a bit like a startled animal. “Oh shit…”
She remains frozen, clearly dumbfounded before jumping down from the bed and rushing over to her side. She pulls her into her arms and just holds her for a few seconds and looks at her like she’s crazy and like she's worried as hell about her.
“No baby” Kristen croons, pressing her lips to the side of her head, running her fingers through her hair. “Don’t cry. Come on, it’s okay, just talk to me. Tell me what’s going on”
“W-we c-can’t just do that, Kristin” She sniffles.
“Do what?” The other girl asks softly.
“We c-can’t j-just sleep in the s-same bed like that, okay? We can’t l-let this h-happen again”
“It’s just innocent” Kristen says in the same soft voice, “Where’s all this coming from?”
“I-I’m just” Dakota hides her face in Kristen’s chest, “I’m not ready for that- for that yet”
________________________________________________
“Are we talking about sex?” Kristen finally asks, trying to hold back a smile and feels the girl flinch against her when she utters the word.
Kristen arches an eyebrow. A thought suddenly occurs to her which she finds very ironic and amusing. Dakota is more mature than she is in every area of life it seems and yet...she’s immature and childish about this one thing.
If there’s anyone who can understand how she’s feeling, it’s Kristen. She herself gets panic attacks over a lot of things- but this is one area that Dakota is weak in and she needs to give her support with instead of the other way around as usual.
It strangely makes their dynamic more…balanced somehow. Or maybe Kristen just wants someone else to join her in the "Freak-the-fuck-out" Club.
“Don’t just say it like that” The blonde mumbles against her shirt in this shy little voice that makes Kristen instinctively hug her more tightly.
Kristen smiles. “Dakota, look at me right now” The blonde slowly pulls herself away and looks into Kristen’s eyes nervously. Kristen puts her hands on her face.
“You have nothing to be afraid of” She says, “I would never, ever force you into something you’re not ready for. I will not do that. Do you hear me?”
The blonde settles a bit and nods against her, looking more relaxed as her words fully sink in. They pull apart and Kristen gives her a final kiss on the forehead before she lets go of her.
“But this is something we should be talking about” Kristen continues, in a calm voice, sending her a serious look, “If we’re in a relationship, we need to discuss things like that”
It’s about time she acts like the mature partner in this relationship, Kristen thinks.
“Now we don’t…I can’t”
“Don’t be silly” Kristen laughs, “It’s only natural. Sex is the most natural, normal thing”
“Stop talking about that”
“What, are you planning to be a virgin forever?” The taller girl snorts, “I can hear it now…Dakota Fanning the forty year-old virgin”
“I said shut up!” Dakota shouts, “You’re being a total jerk right now!”
“I’m sorry” Kristen says but laughs much louder than before. She leans in closer, her expression playful and a bit devious. “Dakota Fanning…one of these days, when you’re ready and you tell me so, we’re going to have wild, hot amazing sex and you will love it”
Dakota just glares at her in response but her eyes are a little unfocused and she’s deeply flushed and Kristen can't stop laughing. When she finally recovers she looks at Kristen and yells, “You are unbelievable!”
“That’s what you’ll say after I’ve had my way with you” The dark-haired girl winks, flicking her eyebrows suggestively and jumping away before the other girl can punch her.
Dakota stalks off and slams the bedroom door behind her before Kristen can utter another word.
__________________________________________
“Hey…Dakota” Kristen says hesitantly, approaching her after a very awkward breakfast with the rest of the Fannings. She sits beside her cautiously on the living room couch but the blonde only flicks through the channels, her expression never changing and makes no sign that she notices her presence.
“Look, I know you hate me right now” Kristen bites her lip, hanging her head, “And I know I was really insensitive and okay…kind of a douche just now”
“Language” Dakota reprimands, firmly.
“I’m sorry okay” She runs a hand through her hair, trying to figure out how she can explain this without making a worse mess than she already has, “I don’t mean to seem like I’m some sex-crazed pervert- and I don’t want you to think that I don’t respect your views on the whole sex thing-“
“-Look” Dakota interrupts, taking Kristen by surprise, “I don’t think you understand how hard it is for me sometimes…especially when you get like that- because well…we’ve grown up in opposite worlds, Kristen. Your parents- your family- all of them are liberals- your parents love the hippie lifestyle, love eccentricity. They work in Hollywood. My parents…well let’s just say…we went to church and they never explained sex to us. It’s just something that we don’t talk about and I’m sure they don’t want me to even think about it until I’m an adult and married to some respectable gentleman. You know I don’t agree but…it’s just hard for me to adjust sometimes to the way you think so casually about those things”
Kristen pondered all this for a moment, taking time to digest it all. “That’s okay…just because our upbringings have been well…different…doesn’t mean we can’t work this out. I respect that you have certain views about that stuff. I already expected that we’d have opposing views on a lot of stuff when we started this”
She thinks that what she has said is reasonable and surprisingly comprehensive for something that has come out of her own mouth but Dakota looks at her hard, her eyes suddenly glassy and her voice choked. Kristen cringes a bit, swallowing hard and sinks down in her seat. Oh fuck…she thinks.
“Maybe we should break up…”
Kristen’s jaw drops.
“What?!”
Dakota avoids her eyes. “You want to have sex and I don’t…I can’t just…do that to you.”
Kristen stares at her. “What are you talking about? You don’t fucking owe it to me to let me fuck you! Dakota…for cripes sake…you make me sound like some asshole!”
“I know but…I guess sometimes I feel so…weird” Dakota admits in a choked voice, “I feel like you’re the normal, cool one and I’m just your weird, childish, dorky, virgin girlfriend and you’re just gonna get fed up one day and leave me for some hot, older hipster girl who loves all those underground bands you like and smokes pot and is ready to have sex with you all day long”
Kristen sputters like a fish out of water at this and it takes a while for her to compose herself.
“What?!” She moves closer and wraps an arm around the shorter girl’s waist, “Why the hell would you think that? You are the best thing that ever happened to me…I’m lucky just to have you…I’m so in awe of you Dakota- you’re the most intelligent person I know, you’re kind, classy, talented, moral…adorable…and you know what, we’re going to wait until you’re ready to talk about sex- when you feel comfortable about it and on your terms”
“Really?” The blonde whispers, uncharacteristically shy and soft.
Kristen just smiles and squeezes her. “But if I do or say anything that makes you uncomfortable you have to let me know. Anything at all”
The blonde goes quiet then.
“I want you to kiss me now” She admits.
“Well Baby why didn’t you say so sooner?” Kristen smirks but complies, pulling her into her arms.