Chapter Text
Prompt: “You remove your clothes from the machine and find an object that doesn't belong to you.”
...
Understandably, she was pretty pissed.
Nicole Haught was, domestically, very good. She cooked like a pro, cleaned like a pro and washed up like a pro. In almost every circumstance, she was anybody's dream wife, she could do almost everything. But the one thing that always seemed to beat her, was cleaning her damn clothes.
She stared at her washing machine irritably, examining the thick foam coming from the contraption with distain. She felt hopeless, it was clear that the machine was broken, she'd have to figure something else out otherwise she’d be wearing the same gross clothes for three weeks straight waiting for her useless excuse for a friend Jeremy to find time to fix it alongside his fifteen other fix-up projects.
She rubbed at her forehead anxiously, trying to think up a solution to her problem, before settling on her only option- the launderette. She looked at the washing machine angrily, grumbling at it before gathering her clothes up in a bag and heading out the door.
**
When Nicole arrived at the launderette, she felt a wave of anxiety hit her, it was bad enough breaking her own machine, but breaking one she didn't own was a whole other matter entirely. She vowed to focus her full attention on the task at hand, so she wouldn't mess this up.
With a determined nod, she headed over to one of the dreaded machines. She threw her clothes in, making sure every article of clothing was white, before throwing some softener in, then some money, before pressing the start button. After checking three times that she had done everything right, she was satisfied that she had in fact correctly done it.
She was advised to come back an hour later, so she waited it out at a coffee shop around the corner. She felt pretty satisfied with herself, proud to have found a solution to her problem on her own. She was so used to doing everything else herself, so why should this have been any different?
**
When she made her way back to the launderette, she made a beeline for her machine, humming happily to herself as she went. Her happy tune faded away gradually with every step that brought her closer to the machine. Her clothes didn’t look white anymore. Nicole started to panic, but she had checked every piece of clothing to make sure she didn’t accidentally mix her colours up, there was no way that she had messed that up. She was certain. She began pulling her clothes out, each one as pink as the other. She didn’t even like pink all that much. It was a disaster.
When she had pulled the last of her pink clothes out with a sad huff, she slumped onto her knees in frustration, before taking another look inside. She frowned when she noticed something else inside the machine. She reached in, pulling out the item. Her eyes bulged open in horror when she realised what she was holding. A bright red, frilly thong. Nicole blushed, her cheeks turning the same colour as the underwear in her hand.
“Oh!” she heard beside her, causing her to jump and scrunch up the underwear in her hand in embarrassment, before shooting her eyes up to look in the direction the noise came in. She was faced with the most beautiful girl she had ever laid her eyes on, she was a tiny brunette with big dimples and an even bigger smile. She looked flustered, staring down at Nicole. “That.. uh, those are.. they’re mine.. Sorry.” She stuttered, before pointing down. Nicole followed her eyes until she was staring down at her own hand. She sprung up in shock, practically shoving the offending item into the other woman’s hands. Nicole had turned crimson with embarrassment, completely thrown off.
“Sorry” was all she could manage to say, her voice seemed to have disappeared, along with her breath.
“Oh, it’s okay! I’m just glad I caught it before..” the woman trailed off, noticing Nicole’s bag for the first time. “Fudge nuggets! Your clothes are destroyed!” She cried out in despair, completely devastated to have ruined the other woman’s clothes.
Nicole was struggling to find some composure, the woman in front of her had knocked her off her feet with not only her beauty but her bubbly personality. “It’s nothing, really. I don’t even like those clothes very much! And half of it is towels, so I can still use them.” Nicole stated, attempting to reassure the panicked woman.
“Do you like pink?” the woman asked, worry etched on her face. Nicole's eyebrows shot up, before she chuckled nervously, scratching the back of her head.
“I mean, who doesn’t?” she said, before attempting to change the subject. “So, are they for a big date or something?” she asked, getting a confused look in return. She pointed to the underwear in the woman’s hand, “The, uh.. Those.. are they for a date?” she mumbled, stumbling over her words like a child. She sounded pathetic.
“Oh, I actually just went through a break up. My sister told me we were going out, she threw some clothes at me and told me to dress ‘as sexy as physically possible’ so..” she ranted, trailing off with a shy grin. Nicole looked at her and thought to herself 'that won't be hard’. Her eyebrows practically hit her hairline when she realised that she had spoken the same words out loud though. She glanced at the woman, who looked equally as shocked, before frantically looking at anything but her.
“I-I just.. I meant that you're a very attractive woman, I'm sure you could turn up in your pyjamas and have the eye of every person in the room.” She rushed out, feeling the sudden urge to throw up. The woman seemed confused, then curious. She almost looked like she was sizing Nicole up, before she smiled brightly and extended her hand.
“I'm Waverly.” She greeted, and her name was just as beautiful as her. Nicole smiled shakily, taking her hand and shaking it softly.
“Nicole.” She introduced. Their eyes locked for a moment, and this feeling of intensity washed over Nicole like a storm. She felt her heart flutter in anticipation. The emotion became so intense that she felt the overwhelming need to look away.
She pulled her hand back gently, before grabbing her bag. “I should get going.” She muttered, reluctantly. She looked expectantly at the other women, hoping for some kind of response, but she seemed a little lost in thought. When the silence started to feel tense, she made a move to leave.
In that moment, Waverly seemed to snap out of whatever daydream she had gotten caught up in, rushing to catch the other woman's attention again. “Oh, um, hey! Maybe I'll see you later, at Shorty's? It's the bar on the other side of town, if you're interested?” Waverly called out, causing Nicole to pause.
That absolutely sounded like she was hitting on her. She turned round to face the woman once more, studying her slightly, before smirking ever so slightly, a playful twinkle in her eyes.
“Oh, I'm interested.”