Saturday morning shift at a mixed retail store was decidedly not fun, and Diana was often glad that school and work were in opposite directions from her apartment- someone she knew seeing her working would only add toppings to the humiliation sundae, and honestly the masochistic teenager didn't crave abuse that much.

Still, morning shift was definitely preferable to night shift. In the morning, Diana felt quite a bit more awake and alert without defaulting to paranoia. In the morning, she wasn't on edge with the thought she'd be shot over the markup on a cheap plastic toy. In the morning, the ravenette wasn't confusing herself with half-remembered equations and literary passages from classes earlier in the day.

However, the best part about the Saturday moring shift was the coworkers- a cute Latina who had a preference for dark undergarments beneath white blouses, two college guys who were open-minded enough to occasionally root for her, and an old conservative who rather frequently threw harmless, amusing shitfits at practically everything . . . all of whom had no reason to pry into Diana's business, and took their break out front.

This left Diana alone in the breakroom today, like most Saturdays. Well, not precisely alone.

"Here," she said softly, providing Natasha with another disacarded piece of pencil leadthat was probably ejected from a mechanical pencil, "so you can talk with me, if you want." Diana still had a few napkins left from her pizza, and had pocketed one this morning for Natasha to write on.

[Thanks. Also, I'm sorry.] The cute mute quickly printed.

"What do you have to be sorry for, Natasha?" Diana asked, bewildered. "You haven't done anything-"

[I'm the one that touched you last night and made it so you embarassed yourself,] Natasha admitted sheepishly, [so I kinda did.]

Diana flushed red immediately. "You . . . you did what?"

[I know you told me not to, but I was tempted to walk around on you, and I had a bit of fun.] Natasha explained. [To be fair, you were already having a wet dream, I didn't do anything dangerous, and I didn't get caught by the others.]

"Why would you getting caught matter?" Diana suddenly asked, feeling a strong sense of deja vu.

***NATASHA***

That stung. The implication of shame on the mute's part was definitely making the huge lesbian uncomfortable, and that in turn hurt Natasha on a real, emotional level. [Well, when the others found out about you and Val, they tried to kill her. You were only able to save her in time because she screamed. Please, Diana, believe me when I say it's not that I don't want to stake my claim on you as MY girlfriend, I'd scream it from the roof of the school if I could, but I'm terrified that I'll get killed.]

The massive ravenette narrowed her eyes. "Then how about we prove it? When we get back, you tell the others. I'll be right there to protect you if they do try to kill you, but . . . you not wanting the others to know is reminding me too much of Val for my tastes right now."

Natasha nodded quickly. [Of course! The moment we get home, I'll tell all of them that I love you. Please, let me have this chance to prove myself!]

Diana nodded with a sense of finality, and picked Natasha up once more. "I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt, because you've been good to me so far. Don't fuck this up."

Natasha allowed herself to be returned down the front of Diana's shirt without further comment, and was already beginning to imagine it: Kayla would probably disapprove, and Val would froth at the mouth, but the others hadn't shown themselves to be too bad . . . which left Natasha nearly hitting herself in disappointment with her own cowardice. One stray scared thought, one mote of fear, and she had bowed to it, proving herself to be absolutely helpless to her own emotions.

Maybe Diana had a point about her emotions, but Natasha was just frustrated, with herself and her situation. She had already shown herself to bend like grass under what had proven to be only imagined pressure, which had probably made the bigger girl start questioning how loyal she'd be once returned to size. On top of that, she honestly had yet to prove how deep her affections ran . . . but she had an idea.

***DIANA***

After work, Diana returned home to the five girls on the table, and set Natasha before them. She watched as the curvy brunette hugged each of her friends one by one to transfer heat, and then walked over to another napkin sitting on the table. Honestly, it was hard to be legitimately mad at the mute when it was obvious she was trying, and that she wasn't used to how Shrinking Violet made her feel.

[Diana, can you kneel down and put your face by the table? I want you to be as close as possible when I do something.] Natasha's request was simple, and Diana complied out of curiousity.

"Alright, Natasha . . . are you going to tell them about-" Diana started, smiling slightly as the doll-sized girl blushed.

[Yes, yes, let me tell them!] Natasha wrote quickly.

"Tell us about what?" Tamara asked curiously, and the others walked over with comments in a similar vein.

[I'm in love with Diana, and I want you all to know that she's mine.] Natasha wrote bluntly, the emotion raw in the way she did so.

Diana was shocked, letting out a gasp that nearly knocked some of the girls over. She had a feeling that the mute was committed to doing this, but . . . she hadn't expected the announcement to be so direct.

The others were apparently just as shocked. "Natasha . . . you don't have to lie," Kayla nervously laughed. "Doesn't she have a girlfriend anyway?"

[Yes. Me.] Natasha was all smiles, and honestly Diana beamed at the thought that the concept of dating her had been what made the smaller girl so happy. [This isn't a lie, Kayla. Diana's nice, and cool, and she gets me off more than I want to admit,] the mute continued writing, [so I hope you guys support us.]

Kayla seemed caught between her conservative values and her loyalty to her friends, and said nothing.

Tamara laughed, and said, "Just don't turn on us, and I won't care, at least. I'm gonna tease the shit out of you, though, so far warning."

Becky looked notably suspicious, and said a cautious, "Are you sure? This is kinda fishy to me."

Paris was surprisingly vocal, and carried on Becky's point. "Not just kinda- it's very fishy. Honestly, sorry for not believing you, but I don't. I just . . . don't. You never showed any interest in girls before, and we all spent a part of each day screwing with people Anne didn't like. Like, if you are, whatever, it was Anne that had a thing against Diana anyway . . . but . . . I don't know. It just seems . . . what do you call it?"

"Convenient?" Tamara suggested with a shrug.

"There we go. It seems convenient that you just happen to like Diana," Paris finished.

As expected, however, Val was completely livid. The little blonde positively trembled and went red in rage, and Diana flinched the tiniest bit in response. She made various strangled noises and stammered incoherently, and probably would have charged and tackled Natasha were it not for her broken ankles.

"She just went straight from one kind of broken to another," Kayla murmured, half in shock, half as a quip to inject some levity into the situation.

Diana nervously picked Natasha up again, and fidgeted. "Well, um . . . about the convenience of her thing for me, as you put it, remember how I said that Shrinking Violet will amplify and distort your emotions? That's what I think is going on here. We . . . actually kinda have a deal going on. If I bring her back to normal and she still likes me, we date and I have to buy her something nice. If it turns out all of it was just the perfume, she'll apologize for getting my hopes up by kissing my ass, literally."

Tamara was surprisingly taking all this in stride. "Seems like a win-win for you, Diana. Either you get a girlfriend, finally, or a popular girl makes out with your behind."

[I came up with the terms, actually.] Natasha apparently felt the need to clarify. [I'm absolutely positive I'll still love her when I go back to normal, so I'd be getting a girlfriend who's easy to wrap around my finger, and getting a gift on top of it all will be icing on the cake.]

"What do you mean, I'm easy to wrap around your finger?" Diana asked, mildly offended.

[What would you do for the opportunity to have sex with me, even once?] Natasha wrote, smirking like a minx all the while.

Diana opened her mouth to retort . . . before slowly thinking it over. Finally, she said, "Point taken." Before the discussion could continue, she quickly took Natasha to her room and left her on the pseuo-nightstand.

"You have Val's old grappling hook, so you're free to explore my apartment," Diana said, gesturing to the tool in question lying on the wooden surface of the ripped-out piece of cabinetry. "Just try not to get into too much trouble. I need a nap . . . and try not to get me off this time. I'd rather not have you die by masturbation."

[I make no promises, except to try.] Natasha responds cheekily.