Natasha affects innocence, fiddling with the microwave buttons as she reheats chow mein for Lucia.
When Lucia next goes to the bathroom, Sawyer urgently pulls Natasha aside, "Why the fuck didn't you tell me that Lucia was getting me something?"
"I didn't know!"
"You could have at least put my name on the tags, rather than throwing me under the bus!"
Natasha rolls her eyes, "Sawyer, it's only a book. It's the quintessential, 'What do I get for someone that I don't know?' gift."
"I still feel stupid."
Natasha shrugs, "Get her something for her birthday."
"When is it?" Sawyer says.
"Ugh, June? July? I can't remember!"
"I am literally going to choke you," laughs Sawyer, reaching her hands towards Natasha's narrow neck.
"Kinky," drawls Lucia from the doorway.
Lucia insists they watch Gone With The Wind. She takes up almost all of the space on the sofa, lies on her side with a hot water bottle pressed into her stomach. Sawyer and Natasha chat quietly as the film rumbles on. Natasha hates it. She gives up after a while and sits on the floor, swatching her new eye shadows up and down her arms.
After a while, Sawyer notices that Lucia is crying. Just a thin track of tears tracing her cheekbone, turning the couch cushion a slightly darker color.
"Luce, are you okay?" Sawyer whispers, trying to pitch it low enough that Natasha won't hear. She gets a tight nod in return. Lucia's eyes are fixed on the film, her lips just moving slightly as they copy the words on the screen. She's word perfect, lip-syncing along with Scarlett as she confronts Ashley.
"You'd rather live with that silly old fool who can't open her mouth except to say yes, no, and raise a passel of mealy-mouthed brats just like her!"
Sawyer tries to make Lucia laugh. She approximates a Southern accent and holds one of Natasha's blankets around herself, swishing it like a big crinoline skirt. It kind of works, or at least Lucia doesn't tell her to shut up.
During Scarlett and Rhett's next altercation Sawyer takes Rhett's part, seizing Lucia's hand and affecting a stern face.
"Open your eyes and look at me. No, I don't think I will kiss you - although you need kissing badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed, and often, and by someone who knows how."
Sawyer grabs Lucia's shoulders as Clark Gable does on the screen. Lucia twists away, but giggles and mouths the words to Scarlett's part.
After a while, Lucia falls silent again. The Civil War rumbles on. Lucia is pushing the hot water bottle against her stomach with some force. She's taken the fabric cover off, and the hot rubber is leaving little red lines on her skin.
Sawyer tries to engage her, "Hey, Luce, it's Atlanta you're from isn't it? You wouldn't know Atlanta was the same place as the one in the film, it looks so different now. I was there about a year -"
"That's because they fucking burnt it to the ground. As you have just fucking seen in the film."
Sawyer bites her lip. A minute later, Lucia squeezes Sawyer's finger, gives her a tentative smile.
By the intermission, Lucia has inched back over so her head is in Sawyer's lap, dark hair puddled all over Sawyer's thighs. She strokes it tenderly, teases it so she can hook it behind Lucia's ear. She's very beautiful. Sawyer likes her distinctive nose, her curved eyebrows.
Earlier, Sawyer had told Lucia she looked a bit like Vivien Leigh, and Lucia had pulled the neck of her t-shirt up over her mouth, chewing it slightly. Only the slight bulge of her cheeks showed that, under the fabric, Lucia was smiling.
"Yeah," Lucia had sniped, poking Sawyer with her feet.
Now, Lucia is so peaceful as she sleeps in Sawyer's lap. Sawyer can't help scheming; what would benefit Lucia the most? Maybe she could convince some directors she knows to co-produce with the Centre, or get Lucia some costume work with Mikaela. She smirks when she thinks of Mikaela's response to Sawyer's picture. She strokes her fingers over her new ring. The weight of the silver is still unfamiliar and a bit uncomfortable.
Natasha disrupts her thoughts, "Come to bed with me."
"I can't leave Lucia here on her own," Sawyer whispers.
Natasha crosses the room, stands behind Sawyer and bends down to whisper, "We won't go to bed for the night, we'll come back. Just, come to bed with me."
Natasha's eyes are so green, her hands so warm as they rub the back of Sawyer's neck. She wants to give in. She wants to hold Natasha so close she can feel her heartbeat, wants her world to shrink to the sanctuary of their bed.
"What if she wakes up?"
Natasha shrugs, "She's a heavy sleeper."
Sawyer shuffles a bit, and Lucia doesn't stir. She manages to wedge herself out from underneath her. Sawyer folds Natasha's throw around Lucia's body, while Natasha finds a pillow for her head. Sawyer can't resist giving her cheek a gentle kiss before she follows Natasha into her bedroom.
"What if she wakes up, wonders where we've gone and follows us in here?"
"I'll say, 'Your mommies are just being silly, go back to bed.'"
"That's disgusting! Don't you dare say that."
Natasha pulls one of her silk scarfs out of the loops on the back of her door, holds it out in front of Sawyer.
"This can help
