Chapter Text
Zoey has spent the last decade of her life trying to unlearn what her parents have taught her. It's a big ticket to pay but one she is slowly and surely chipping away at. Her entire childhood they told her that she’s too much. Too eager. Too talkative. Too excitable.
“Quiet down, Zoey,” and “Keep still, Zoey.” Must have been the first words she learned. The world wanted her to stop being herself if it killed her. Zoey just wanted to be loved. She wanted to be just enough. She wanted to be the perfect amount.
It's hard to reconcile with the idea that she is the perfect amount. To Mira. Mira loves her entirely as she is and tells her as much. She likes that Zoey talks a lot, even if it is over movie audios. She likes how MUCH Zoey is. She likes Zoey just as she is. And that's scary. It's scary to be yourself after a lifetime of locking it all away.
Honestly, she’s not sure if she’s been very successful. She slips sometimes. She still tries to shove her feelings down. To keep things to herself. But Mira always drags her out of her self-depriving hole. Not only that, but Mira is a vision. She is the hottest woman Zoey has ever seen. Her muscles, stretched over her lithe frame, flex and contract most attractively. Zoey has never seen anyone or anything prettier.
Even standing in the overgrown driveway of this run-down house, wearing nothing but a sports bra and shorts that show off her long legs, Mira looks like a model just off the runway.
Zoey could drive down the highway and see Mira on a billboard holding a Carl's Jr Burger, and she would even bat an eye. It wouldn't be shocking at all because, of course, Mira would be on a billboard. She’s also probably on the front cover of Vogue as the “hottest woman alive”.
Mira is, without a doubt, every person on the planet’s phone wallpaper. Grinning up at them all, sultry and teasing, her fingers trailing over her own skin.
Mira looks especially hot in nothing but shorts and a bra. Sweat drips from her as she heaves the last of the boxes from the moving truck and plops them down on the overgrown gravel driveway. She leans back and surveys her stacks of cardboard boxes. Finger held to her lip and pulling the plump flesh down so tantalizingly. One hip popped out, and her eyes narrowed. She looks extra hot as she lifts with her legs and squats all the way down. So hot and maybe just a bit performative. There is no way Mira isn't doing this on purpose. Neurotically organizing the boxes so she has to keep picking them up and putting them down and shifting them to the side-
Zoey might be thirsting, and she doesn’t have any shame. If anything, she’s taking a little pride in it. This is her girlfriend after all. Hers. She has every right to look, stare, and admire the goddess that is the sexy love of her life. Zoey sits down on the cardboard box she should be helping haul into the house and sighs happily. Her legs are shaking, and it has nothing to do with how tired she is. She watches as Mira picks up another box and heaves it around.
Zoey is worried that she hasn't mentioned how much she loves a woman who works in hard manual labor. A woman at work. A woman with an eye for detail. Women in STEM have a special place in her heart, but nothing gets her more riled up than a woman in the trades. She would say a woman in uniform, but Mira could be doing this in a bright yellow tracksuit, and she would be just as hot.
Maybe a little Sue Sylvester, but Zoey is just a bit into that.
Zoey’s mouth is a little dry because it's hanging open. But it’s ok, she’ll start drooling soon, and that will moisten her up. If Mira doesn’t get to her first, of course.
“Are you going to help or not?” Mira asks, raising an eyebrow at her. She doesn't look very impressed with Zoey's slouched, leering. If her hands weren’t full of ‘Zoey’s kitchen supplies,’ she would probably have a judgmental hand on one of those luxurious hips.
“Not,” Zoey says, watching a bead of sweat drip slowly down Mira’s neck. The taller girl rolls her eyes with an unbelieving smile and sets her box down gently on the gravel. She has to do another squat to do so, and Zoey is so glad that Mira is so strict with her form. The plates clink together, but Zoey pays all her attention to Mira’s very, very long legs.
The way her hair flips with her walk and how her hips sway side to side like a hypnotizing-
Mira is on her like a cheetah on a gazelle, and Zoey squeals. She was hoping to be mauled with Mira's canines, but instead, she was slobbered upon. She groans and squirms as a sweaty face and neck are shoved into her own. “Mira! Gross!”
“Don’t pretend like you don’t like it.” Mira growls. She wraps her arms around Zoey’s hips and lifts her into the air with her abdominal muscles. She’s thrown over a shoulder, forcing the air out of Zoey's lungs, and now Zoey’s mouth is dry for another reason.
A very sexy reason.
Mira’s ass. Zoey is staring at Mira’s ass.
“I like to watch you get sweaty, not feel you get sweaty.” Zoey groans, shifting her hips side to side and trying to tickle Mira even though she isn't ticklish.
“Oh, I know that's a lie.” Mira teases. "You had no issues about how sweaty I was last night." Mira tilts her face into the side of Zoey's thigh and gently bites. a tease more than anything, but Zoey suddenly has issues swallowing. Her face has gone red, and not because she's hanging upside down. "You had no issues trying to lick it off me either." Mira chuckles at Zoey's whimper and jostles her as she walks up the steps, groaning porch steps. They bend under their combined weight, and Mira quickens her pace. Zoey has a great view of the back of her long thighs and calves. She rests her chin in her hand and sighs longingly. This isn't so bad.
“We are homeowners!” Mira decrees with uncharacteristic joy, spinning Zoey around in the foyer until the shorter girl giggles and holds on to her girlfriend's hips as she gets increasingly dizzier. “And you're choosing to stare at my rippling abs instead of helping me furnish it.”
“I just think we should christen the land before we do anything else.” Zoey teases, she grunts as Mira heaves her off her shoulder and sets her down against the high wooden paneling. Zoey's sweaty back is going shockingly cold against the wall, but her front is warm against Mira's bare torso.
Mira leans in close and brushes her lips against her ear. Zoey is lost in the sensation, her entire being focused on where she makes contact with Mira. “We barely got here, and you’re already staring at me like I'm a tall glass of water and you're in a desert.” She pulls away slightly, just until their lips are nearly touching, “Help me bring the bed frame in and-”
Mira jumps hard. Pulling away from Zoey quickly and turning in a circle with her eyes on the floorboards. It drenches Zoey cold, and she quickly stumbles away from the wall.
“What? “ Zoey asks, shaking off the haze of her girlfriend’s lithe body pressed into her own and watches Mira turn in a slower circle. Mira doesn’t respond right away, her eyes fluttering across the floor. “What is it?”
“Did they tell you why the price was so low?” Mira asks, she hugs her arms to her chest, and Zoey takes a closer look. Mira is turning pale, and goosebumps are crawling up her arms.
“Nope,” Zoey reaches out a hand and touches Mira’s warm shoulder. “Baby, what’s wrong?”
“Really?” Mira dead panns, turning to Zoey with wide eyes, “You found us a fucking mansion within our budget, and you didn’t ask them why the price was so low?”
“No…” Zoey asked confusedly, “Was that something I was supposed to be worried about?”
“Yes! That’s something-” Mira cuts herself off and sighs between her teeth. Letting her head hang. “That's the first thing you should be worried about! Why weren't you worried about that?"
Zoey frowns, quite offended, and plants her hands on her hips to look down her nose at Mira. Mira swallows and backs up as Zoey advances on her. A pink tongue parts out to wet her lips. Zoey forces the taller girl up against the wall. “Excuse me, but I quite like our new decrepit castle. Now, why are you freaking out-”
*squeak
Zoey jumps and turns towards the hallways. There was a squawk, there was most definitely a squawk, or a squeak or a creak. A creak in an old home means ghosts. They're haunted- they have to be haunted. There is no way-
“Did you hear it?” Mira asks, grabbing her arms and pulling herself off the wall and almost onto Zoey’s shoulders. “Did you hear that? It’s a rat, I know it’s a rat. Oh my god, I hate rats.”
Zoey starts to laugh, shoulders dropping at her own relief and at Mira’s frantic rambling. Of course it’s a rat. She lets herself enjoy the way Mira seeks comfort in her arms.
The Mira she met three years ago in college would never have been able to be this vulnerable with her. She would have just turned and walked right out of the house without looking back. But Mira was also a bit more goth back then and a lot more angry. Zoey was also too shy and quiet, or trying to be, to have been able to walk out the door after her and calm her down. Now, though, Mira’s practically jumping into Zoey’s hands like a damsel in distress, and Zoey is more than comfortable enough to tease her for it.
“There is no way that was a rat. If anything, it was a mouse. A very small, quiet, and timid mouse.”
Zoey could almost swear she hears a small quiet. “Rude,” but of course she doesn’t, because Mira is too busy swearing beneath her breath to say anything. It must have been a gust of wind wafting through the musty house.
Zoey, reluctantly, pushes Mira away from her, flipping the light switch, and is pleasantly surprised when the bulb flickers on. It’s bare and buzzes like a fly, but it’s just bright enough to light the hallway. Of course, it lights the hallway with dark writhing shadows behind every nook and cranny, but who can be scared when they have a Mira crawling into their arms?
Now, Zoey has spent a lot of her adult life trying to become more secure in her own self but Mira might be right. They probably shouldn’t have trusted Zoey to find the house. But the mansion looked so cute on Zillow, and it was very far away from both their families. The Beach is less than an hour away, and there were entire damn gargoyles on the rooftops. scary, Korean folklore gargoyles, but Zoey wouldn't want them any other way. The price was so low, and the castle was a…
It’s a fucking castle. How could she say no? How was anyone saying no? The listing had been on the market for over ten years. Zoey had been shocked to learn that no Fixer Upper had even attempted to flip it for a profit. Shocked and unbelievably lucky.
Her bank account could have said no, but that’s beyond the point. Debt is temporary; hopefully, castle aesthetic is forever. Those Gargoyles are definitely forever.
The castle is nestled in a forest of overgrown trees. It makes Zoey feel like Dracula as she stalks the halls with her phone flashlight on, searching for little white mice. She debates whether the purchase of a cape would be too much for Mira. Of course, it wouldn't. Mira would just laugh and pretend to hate it and then steal it the second Zoey lets it go. The floor boards creek under foot, and Mira whines.
Zoey really doesn’t have a problem with mice. She thinks they’re cute. Fluffy. She sees the feeder mice at Petco and wants to take one home and take care of them. But Mira is deathly afraid. In their first apartment together, she swore she saw one crawl underneath the bed and wouldn't get off the nightstand until Zoey pulled out a white sock from beneath the mattress and raised an unimpressed eyebrow.
This isn't an apartment in the middle of Seoul. It's in a castle in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by a forest that is probably infested with mice. Zoey knows Mira will feel better if she watches Zoey release it at the end of the driveway.
So a mouse hunt it is. if Mira feels the need to attach herself to Zoey’s back and peek over her shoulder every once in a while. Zoey won’t complain. She might even hold out her hand for Mira to death grip in her own. Zoey grins when Mira squeezes her fingers, hard. She might lose circulation. But she enjoys being the thing that brings the tough girl comfort. She’s rarely a knight in shining armor even if Mira makes her feel like one always.
The house looks great. It's her second time walking through it, and Mira's first. Zoey was expecting worse for a house so cheap. The only catch was the realtor had refused to give them a personal tour. Stating that the blurry photos, obviously taken in the middle of the night on a night vision camera, were more than enough. They weren't even allowed to enter the property until they got the keys this morning.
Though the realtor had given her a shaky, shifty-eyed tour of the outside. Of the overgrown front yard and breezy pine and oak trees. Zoey took one look at the back porch with the oldest porch swing known to man and told the realtor she would buy it. Let’s not mention how the man had practically cried with joy, already digging through his cell phone to get the paperwork ready.
Tears were streaming down his face this morning when he had parked at the bottom of the hill, refusing to cross the property line or pass the Hungsolmun gate. He had given her the entrée packet and thanked her profusely. Zoey had shrugged and taken the keys. Mira didn't need to know all that. She was a few miles down the road in the U-Haul, trying not to drive the truck off the edge of a cliff while Zoey had driven ahead to get the keys.
Though she did curse out the crazed man speeding down the mountain, who looked especially like a real estate agent when she met Zoey in the driveway. She didn't need to know any of that at all. Especially now that they are creeping through the house, using their phone flashlights to look for mice in places the overhead light doesn’t reach.
The house is fully furnished in Victorian dark wood. It’s horribly gothic in a way Mira already loves, and Zoey itches to cover in green plants. There are alcoves dug out of the wall here and there for dusty paintings that have long since faded and sculptures of horses and birds. Their eyes seem to follow them in the flickering light of the hallway, watching them suspiciously.
Zoey pushes that thought out of her mind. She will not convince herself that their brand new fantastic house is haunted.
“Mira, really. I’m not seeing any mice” Zoey says, straightening and turning off her phone flashlight. “I’m sure it was just a squeaky floorboard-”
“Mreooow”
Zoey jumps with a scream, but she doesn’t react as strongly as Mira, who fully shoves herself into Zoey’s arms and nearly makes the younger girl drop to the hardwood from her weight. Zoey staggers and swears, her legs shaking. Zoey is very glad she let Mira drag her to the gym. She would be a Zoey pancake right now if she hadn’t.
Zoey turns, heaving Mira with her and-
She gasps. “Oh my god! That thing is so fluffy and cute.”
“It's so ugly.” Mira sobs in fear.
It really is the ugliest cat she’s ever seen. It's scraggled like a well-loved stuffed animal, and a large fang sticks out of the bottom of its mouth like a tusk.
Zoey unceremoniously drops Mira to the floor, the taller girl only barely getting her feet beneath her in time with a grunt. Zoey rushes towards the animal with open arms. Surprisingly, it doesn't sprint away in fear like cats usually do when Zoey runs at them full speed. It sits its fluffy butt down and waits for Zoey to scoop it up in a cuddle.
“Oh my god, it’s so ugly and old looking.” Zoey turns to tell Mira, who is looking at her in disgust. The cat looks half dead. It’s more of a ball of fur, and its face is shaped in a way to suggest a large, creepy smile. This might be the cat that the Cheshire Cat is based on. How adorable.
“Zoey, don’t touch that wild animal, holy cow. Why is it blue?” Mira says, bending to stare at it in its unfocused eyes. One seems to be trying to focus on Mira, and the other is staring off to the side, tracking nothing.
“Actually, the real question is, why does it look like it’s a thousand years old?” Mira says, she reaches out a tentative hand, and when it doesn’t try to scratch her, she pets his forehead hesitantly.
Zoey looks up at her in fake offense, “Never comment on a lady's age.”
“This thing is obviously a man,” Mira points to his massive balls. He is very well endowed. It's almost revolting. Zoey thinks about all the kittens he must have sired over the years. Are there even female cats up here?
“Oh! Congrats, man.” Zoey awards him with a kiss to the head, and Mira groans,
"I am not kissing you after that.”
Zoey's head jerks up from where she was digging her nose in the cat's fur and sucking in deep breaths. “Wait, what?”
“You have no idea where that thing has been. We have to take him to the shelter.” Mira curls a lip at the way Zoey cuddles the critter to her chest; she turns and looks at the floor with thinly veiled anticipation. She’s still looking for a rat. Only she would see a fat cat wandering the halls of a mansion and still be worried about stray rats. Zoey watches her fondly before she registers what her girlfriend implied.
“No! He came with the house! Obviously, we are destined to take care of him.” Zoey holds him up for her to see. He immediately stretches like a batch of warm taffy and sways side to side in Zoey's hands. The blue monstrosity starts to purr contentedly.
A huffed grunt, and Mira rolls her eyes. “Look at him, he’s literally blue. He probably has some kind of disease!”
“He probably has an owner up here! Our neighbors are pretty far, but you know how cats are. We can’t give someone’s pet cat to the animal shelter to be put down. We can't kill our new cat! I bet they dyed him blue so someone wouldn't steal him.”
“Zoey, we cannot take care of a cat right now; we can barely take care of ourselves.” Mira gestures to the empty kitchen and the stained windows. "We don't have money anymore!" Zoey pouts.
“But we’re homeowners!”
“Of a decrepit, rat-infested castle.” Mira groans. Strangely enough, Mira’s voice seems to echo through the house. But it’s only the word ‘decrepit,’ and for some reason, the echoed voice sounds overly offended. The taller girl collapses on a dark wood bar stool and puts her head in her hands. “I hate rats. My life is over. We need to leave right away. ”
“We just got here!” Zoey jiggles the cat back and forth and giggles at the way he sways like a bag of sand. "And Derpy will eat all the mice.”
"We're definitely not going to keep him if that's the name you're choosing.