The winter soldier (Rachel, Zoe, Danny, Cai) WARNING - rape flashbacks

[lightningseed.insanejournal.com]

Rachel and Zoe both showered at Rachel's house, because it was much closer to the cinema where they were meeting the boys. Though Zoe had bought her own change of clothes, Rachel pleaded with Zoe to let her dress her.

"Seriously?" Zoe asked, very sceptical about this arrangement.

"Pleeaaase," Rachel pleaded. "Come on, the number of times I've stolen your clothes, or Danny's. It's only fair."

"Are you going to put me in skinny jeans?" Zoe asked.

"My jeans would stop half way down your calves," Rachel said, taking Zoe's question as an absolute yes. "And they would never fit over your butt." She rifled through her wardrobe till she found a dress, bright sunny yellow and belted in black.

"No," said Zoe.

Rachel smiled, and threw the dress at Zoe's face.

"I'm under the impression you still think today is a double date," Zoe said, giving Rachel a very serious look. "It very much isn't."

"I heard you!" Rachel was still in her closet, finding something for herself. "You can think whatever you like. But you should still wear that dress. Because you are my friend and that is a gift."

"It's so bright," Zoe complained.

"Yup, it doesn't suit me at all. I will never ever wear it in a million years because it belongs to you now."

Hell, thought Zoe. Why not?

She did have to admit, once the dress was on, that it looked pretty great. "I look like a Hufflepuff," she said, instead.

"No one is going to mistake you for a Hufflepuff," Rachel said. She was pulling on dark skinny jeans, so tight it made her legs look like pipe cleaners. "Can I peer pressure you into some make up?" she asked, her tongue out as her fingers forced the buttons of her fly through the stiff fabric.

Zoe laughed. "Thought not," grumbled Rachel. At least she knew when to pick her battles.

They made it to the cinema before the boys, even though Rachel had spent so much time getting her lips right. Zoe kept brushing her hands over her skirt while they waited; she hadn't worn a skirt that wasn't part of the school uniform in a long time. Almost as long as she'd last been to the movies, probably.

She felt weird to be here. Out of place. Like she was playing at being a normal teenager but everyone could see right through her.

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[itsajesusthing.insanejournal.com]

"Absolutely," Cai said, calling his bluff and ordering a bucket of popcorn to match Danny's, and a mixed bag of lollies big enough to bulge out of his pocket.

Rachel felt a solid jolt of excitement shoot right through her body when Danny took her hand. She wished she was telepathic with Zoe. Zoe look! she tried to get her attention without rousing Danny's, but Zoe was buying ice cream. Zoe I feel like throwing up oh my god look.

Sure, they'd slept in the same bed, they'd kissed in that bed, but this was different. This was in public. She really did feel like throwing up, but in a good way.

She wasn't quite distracted enough to forget her mission, however, and when they piled into the cinema she made sure that she and Danny went in first so Cai and Zoe would have to sit together. Zoe sat down next to Rachel, and gave her a suspicious look, to which Rachel smiled as innocent at Zoe had been a few moments ago and lay her head against Danny's shoulder as the trailers began.

Cai was glad the theatre wasn't too crowded, and he could fairly easily dodge around people without brushing up against them. Dom had given him a pat on the arm when he left that morning, and Cai had got a flash of Dom at work, arguing with a colleague about something that was stressing Dom out. He didn't like it - both because he wasn't happy with the idea that Dom was stressed, and because it left Cai with a feeling of secondhand stress deep in his own belly.

The movie distracted him from his worry, though, and eating always made him feel more grounded. He actually made it to the bottom of the popcorn bucket, and by the end of the credits ("No," he'd said, putting his arm across the aisle to keep Zoe from leaving. "We have to stay right till the end, it's important") he was balancing the bucket on his head.

"Heey," Rachel said thoughtfully, as they left the theater, blinking back out into the daylight. "Do you guys think brainwashing is real?"