Chapter Text
Mira swears this is the last time she takes closing shift. Fuck. Her. Life.
Its a hot and humid night in the depths of Burbank, California. Mira steps out of the now closed- finally- fast food joint still in the provided apron. Hair net half on and makeup sweat through. The lights on the empty parking lot flicker, not a car in sight. Its late, far beyond midnight and she had promised Zoey she'd be home for their friday horror marathon. Mira wanted to see Scream again. Oh, well.
Her footsteps crunch on broken glass on the way to the bus stop, the junkie who lives there offering her a joint. She wordlessly nods, handing him a burger she slipped into her pant pocket, her right hand fixing her glasses that keep falling off. The trade is quick, the smoke from the bus enough to mask the exchange.
She hopes its enough a gift to get Zoey to quit being mad at her.
Pulling the hair net off before stepping in, she makes sure to stay near the back door. Its easier to make a break for it if a creep decides she looks like easy pickings. She doesnt want to bother with punching someone's teeth in tonight.
She gets there soon enough, muscle memory making up for her muddled thoughts. The polar bear keychain jingling as she tries to work the lock. If she uses more force than necessary on the damn thing, it's no one's business but her own. It's not her fault the landlord painted the inside of the door to cover up the cracks from a break-in with far too much of the shitty, sticky paint. It just gets stuck.
"Took you a while, huh?" A voice greets her from inside their apartment.
Shit.
Mira is not a coward. She really isn't. But the freckled half-korean somehow managed to make her heart drop faster than a beating from her father ever did.
Okay, what to do, think!
"Uh... joint?" She raises it up like a white flag in no man's land. Their living space might as well be.
The small woman squints, huffing her aggression out as she stomps to her roommate - and girlfriend of five years- but those are mere details.
"You're NOT off the hook, miss Mira." She says that last bit with unretrained sass. Snatching the joint. "You." She points. "Are late and didn't even bother to tell me! Not a fucking text from you, you bitch."
"Phone's dead" Mira tries.
"Well charge it, then! Do you know how worried I was?"
And that is the start of a fifteen minute rant about communication and safety. Its... deserved. Mira thinks, though not pleasant.
Zoey lights her little gift and smokes it all before the rant is even done, letting the smoke seep into their already stained wallpaper. It won't do much, the last tenant was a smoking in bed kind of guy. He's dead now and they inherited his one bedroom apartment and old-as-rocks pet turtle.
Did Zo feed Shelley?
"Zo. Can we just sleep? Im... so tired." She runs her hand through her hair, cringing at the oil that sticks to her fingers in the process. "Mike called out last minuted because he crashed his car. They offered me overtime to take his shift. My phone died before i could call you." The apron falls to her feet, the work clothes soon following, its way too late to care about modesty.
The younger woman's eyes soften "I... okay. But we are still talking about this later. I have more to say!" Small, soft hands help Mira lift her shirt, slip off her shoes, unbutton her jeans. She ends up practically leaning her weight onto her beloved while the make their way through the cramped space, dodging piles of clothes from the donation bin hat still need to be washed and Zoey's rickety office chair. Both having to shower together to save on water (and to make sure the redhead doesn't fall).
They rest in bed in only their underwear, the bare mattress' stiff cotton rubbing against skin. It's barely anything, their life together, but it's what they have.
"How was work?" The redhead yawns.
"It was fine. Another editing job for a shitty commercial. They're trying to replace me with AI." She twirls a lock of wet red hair around her finger, her chubby cheek pressed against Mira's bony shoulder.
"Fuck those guys" Mira mumbles.
"Anywaaaaaay. I know how you can make it up to me".
Mira looks down- squinting- to see her lover wriggling her eyebrows. She eyes her girlfriends monitor to see the time, 1:45 AM.
"Love, its almost two AM-"
"Not that, pervert! You are going urban exploring with me!"
"I am?"
"Mira!"
"Fine, just tell me its not a tip from Kylar again." That girl has got something loose in her head.
"Its from Kylar."
"Goddamn it"
She decides to let it be, she'll think about it when her brain isn't melting.
They fall asleep tangled and sweaty, their table fan on blast.
She loves her life.