Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sasha sat at the pier with the other two women. Spinning the pink drink around its glass. It was supposed to be dragon fruit, it tastes mostly of artificial coconut.

Anne was leaning over and stealing a drink out of Marcy’s glass. Sasha honestly didn’t realize how much she missed hanging out with them like this. It's been a few good years, probably, they had all gotten pretty busy honestly.

When was the last time they all hung out? She put a hand in her hair and rested the weight of her head on it. Watching the two women, Marcy had a pen in her hand tapping it on the cover of her old journal. Anne was comfortably sitting there enjoying the light warmth still provided by the setting sun.

“You know,” Marcy started. Sasha let her eyes naturally fall on her again “I think I had a massive crush on both you guys at one point.” She brought up natural conversation, cool, cool. Anne tapped her chin and nodded.

“Honestly, I know I did, like definitely after you moved.” Anne smiled, mixing her drink with her straw. Sasha remembers that, a solid week in high school where Anne confided about her massive crush on the nerd. The crush on her was a new one she didn't know. They both looked at Sasha expecting her to add on to the conversation.

Sasha distracted herself with some more drinking, looking away in flustered thought. Okay, maybe she did, at one point or another. She didn’t think about it that much, sure there were a few times in high school and more recently like even today that she's felt maybe odd but she wouldn't say that she has a crush on either of them.

Or when she realized she may be Bisexual with how fuzzy cuddling with women made her heart feel. Anne being one of those… okay no other times though. 

Okay.

Maybe that one other time. Sasha put her glass down and half hid her face with her hand “Crap.” She mumbled. More than that one other time.

Oh crud, even them preparing for that dance at Saint James.

“What Sash?” Marcy said, her voice laced with amusement. Sasha looked at her through her fingers. Both women could see how embarrassingly red the pale woman in front of them was.

“I think I'm still very screwed.” She said quietly. That comment gifted her a snorted laugh from Anne.

Chapter Text

Sasha waited outside of the school, she didn’t have cheer practice today, but she was beyond committed to waiting for them. Marcy had a chess club meeting and Anne had tennis.

It wasn’t too big of a deal, Sasha didn’t particularly want to go home yet so she would wait however long the girls needed her to. 

Which was around five before Marcy got out of the school. Marcy’s big brown eyes were brimmed with tears. Sasha wasn’t used to seeing Marcy cry in public. She knew Marcy cried, usually it was quiet and when Sasha noticed she would just silently comfort her. Unless it was really bad she and Anne would do something silly.

So the fact that something got Marcy emotional to the point of crying in public was a little alarming. Sasha knew both of them pretty well at this point and she knew the longer Marcy kept it in, the worse the cry. 

Marcy wiped her face “Sorry!” she sniffled after the words failed to actually form and left Marcy’s mouth as a sputter. Sasha sighed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. There it is, as expected. 

“It’s fine, Marce. What happened? Do I need to yell at someone?” She said and tensed slightly as Marcy hid her face into Sasha’s jean jacket. It's fine, it's just fabric. She's fine with it being used as a tissue to blot away tears.

“God no, just,” Marcy trailed off and took a deep breath, trying to steady her voice before she blubbered anymore. “It's so stupid.” she laughed tightly. Sasha gave a mostly straight-mouth frown, great.

“No, come on, you can tell me.” Sasha said softly and wiped a tear off Marcy’s cheek. Marcy smiled slightly, leaning her cheek into Sasha’s palm. Sasha felt a fuzzy feeling in her chest. Weird.

“Ugh, Marius died in Vagabondia. He was such a good character!” She complained and wiped her face. Oh, a game character. Sasha smiled slightly.

“That sucks, was that the one with the mustache?” Sasha couldn’t keep the characters straight in her mind. There were too many of them that Marcy at one point said was her favorite or she would talk about like a semi-real human. It was cute, just a lot when it came to keeping Sasha’s mind from drifting out on the thirty-eight minute rant.

Marcy squinted and thought “I mean kind of he has a fluffy mustache, he was the brother of Blunderpuss, the big guy you said looked like a gerbil.” oh that guy. Sasha didn’t know how a fighting roleplay game with weird characters like that could have major character death.

“They love killing cute characters huh?” Sasha squeezed Marcy softly. Marcy laughed softly “What?” Sasha looked at Marcy confused.

Marcy pursed her lips and smiled “You better not die then, Sashy.” a playful flirt. They play-flirt all the time, no big deal. Stupid giggling came from both 13 year olds. A sweet warmth filling Sasha’s heart.

“You better not either.” she snorted.

The two were still giggling when Anne came out of the school smiling as she saw her laughing friends.

Chapter Text

It was February 12th, there was a valentine’s day dance at Saint James Middle School. Marcy was already done getting dressed; she looked cute in a borrowed red dress (provided by Sasha, obvi). Anne and Sasha were not done yet. Taking themselves very seriously in looking dance ready.

Anne had her tongue sticking out from the side of her mouth as she focused on putting glitter on Sasha’s eyelids.

Sasha felt a fuzziness in her chest as she felt Anne’s fingertips patting gently.

“Are you done yet?” Sasha complained slightly. Anne very much wasn’t, she still needed to add a different pink.

“Nope,” Anne laughed, popping the “Puh” sound. Anne’s breath was really close, geeze Sasha didn’t realize that. Sasha peeked her eyes open at Anne who was going in for some dark pink.

Sasha felt warm in the face. Her heater is too high. “I think I’m good with shimmer.” Sasha mentioned. Anne hummed.

“I guess.” She smiled and wiped the makeup off her finger with a makeup wipe. Anne grabbed Sasha tinted lip balm and patted it onto Sasha’s bottom lip trying to resemble one of those makeup artists. Sasha scrunched her nose in embarrassment

“I can get that.” She took the lip balm and finished applying it. Sasha rubbed her lips together. She then looked in the mirror Anne eagerly held up, it looked good at least.

Sasha motioned for Anne to close her own eyes, Anne did. Sasha grabbed a brush and grabbed a blue eye shadow. It would look so cool with Anne’s dress. Technically the makeup was mostly Sasha’s mom that was old, but she didn’t mind when Sasha used it.

She grabbed Anne’s chin pulling her closer then let go, holding her own ankle with her non dominant hand. Anne smiled patiently. Marcy looked.

“Pretty!” Marcy complimented and watched.

“Yeah…” Sasha said quietly. Noting to turn her heater off before they leave.

Chapter Text

Sasha definitely in over her head with this scare dare. There was this abandoned house maybe a block away and Sasha had never been in it, but she's inspected it and there is a way in and no people stalking it or squatting from what she knows.

Sasha knows that's extremely not smart but it's a scare-dare. So obviously they have to do it. She's not scared though. Why would she be scared?

They snuck out which was really easy knowing which camera had gone out.

“Shh-shh-sh.” She shushed excessively as the door squeaked. “We'll be back before my mom even notices. It'll be fine. She's out like a light right now.”

Anne gave her an unsure look but didn’t protest as Marcy dragged her with them arms linked. Sasha didn’t really think of how to get around the other motion activated cameras.

She sighed “okay we have to crawl like along the wall. The gate should be unlocked. Then we go left.” Sasha explained “we will have to be in Tracy's yard for a minute, but she won't care.”

They did that but Sasha felt her heart drop when the light illuminated them. Hopefully that camera can't see them but she's ninety-eight percent sure it can. Marcy snorted “we'll just review it before your mom does if you have access to it.” She suggested. 

“Good idea, Marce.” She whispered and stood up as they made it to the other yard. Anne brushed off her pajama pants and sighed. Sasha could tell that Anne was still worried about this but it'll be fine.

“Okay. Follow me girls” She said and turned on her phone flashlight. The group made their way across the road cautiously and when they made it to the sidewalk on the other side it seemed like Anne loosened up a little bit.

It was nice out tonight so that was a plus, usually it was way too hot or hot and humid, but there was a nice breeze. They kept their arms linked together as they walked.

They made it to the house, it was one story, falling apart and a sign that said For Sale in front. Though the sign had clearly been there for a while. It probably had another year before someone bought it to replace it with a cookie cutter house. “The door's locked.” Sasha said and walked to the one car garage that was open just enough for a barely teenage girl to crawl under.

“Who wants to go in first?” Sasha smiled. Anne remained silent and Marcy just shrugged hands in her jacket pocket. Sasha rolled her eyes “Youngest first.” She patted Anne's back.

“Not fair!” Anne gasped.

“What? Are you scared?” She smirked. Anne pouted and huffed.

“No.” she mumbled and ducked under the garage door into the creepy building. Sasha went next very soon after Anne and moved her flashlight around the garage before moving out of the way for Marcy. “smells like crap.” Anne scrunched her nose before yelping at the sound of a mouse scattering out into the night.

“Calm down Anne, it's just a mouse.” She teased. Marcy snorted despite already feeling on edge after smelling the inside of the house. Anne turned on her flashlight to provide them more vision. “Wonder if they pay for the electric bill in this place.” she mumbled and searched for a switch.

Marcy grabbed her hand “I wouldn't, if they do they'd probably find it weird if it's more this month.” She smiled softly. Sasha nodded. Marcy’s hand was warm.

“Fine, let's go explore this place.” Sasha sighed.

Anne was staying closer to the girls when anything settled around them. For a place that hadn't been owned for so long there was a lot of junk.

They didn't get far before there was a rustle behind them after entering the main house. Both Marcy and Anne (admittedly Sasha too) all tensed up at the sound. Marcy turned Anne's phone towards the sound and there crawling out of the displaced floorboards was a fat Raccoon. It stared at them before running behind the old dusty couch. They all released their breaths. Anne's grip tightened on her arm as Marcy’s loosened.

“Pfft- I knew that.” Sasha lied. They all knew it was a lie nevertheless Marcy laughed quietly. They started walking through the house finding the old kitchen. Even before they entered they all decided to not go further in there cause holy crap did it smell like rotten everything. 

“I don't want to be here anymore. We already made it in, that's the dare over.” Anne said quietly. Marcy agreed.

“I guess. This place is boring.” She said quietly. They all left the way they came.

They walked and laughed about it. Mostly just how they went in expecting it to be scarier. The scariest thing that happened was the possibility of tetanus and rabies.

They snuck back in completely forgetting about the possibility of being caught earlier and settled down in bed. None of them put their names in the book of losers.

In the morning Sasha got a brief scolding from her mom, but it wasn't that big of a deal.

Chapter Text

Admittedly Sasha was pretty tired. She couldn’t sleep though for whatever reason, which was frustrating. She grabbed her phone and flinched at the bright light. It was only 10 P.m so not super late. Super annoying though.

She opened up the group chat and saw Anne had texted:

-

Anna-Banana: Would u guys date me if I was a guy?

Anna-Banana: Not a guy that looks like me but a guy that is me

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Marcy had texted back:

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Mar-Mar: Probably not, you would still be you

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Sasha had to add on:

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Sashy: Like would you be hot?

Anna-Banana: Sasha, ofc i would be

Sashy: then yeah

Mar-Mar: What about me Sash?

Sashy: Marce, you’d be a cute guy

Mar-Mar: aw thanks Sashy!

Anna-Banana: hmm I think I would think ab it

Anna-Banana: I would also think ab it if Sasha was a guy

Mar-Mar: oh definitely Sasha would be a great Boyfriend

Anna-Banana: Sasha?

Mar-Mar: Sashaaa???

-

Okay, that was flattering. Maybe she should sleep now.

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Sashy: Goodnight girls!

-

It’s Anne’s Birthday tomorrow. She needs to sleep too. She can totally sleep.

She can't sleep... It's been three and a half hours and she just keeps rereading that stuff in her mind. Get out of her head!

6:30 in the morning, that’s four hours of sleep. She's fine.

Chapter Text

It’s been a week maybe since she made it into Amphibia. She’s not really sure. Grime, the ugly toad leader has her in this stupid cell and she’s under almost constant supervision and every time she pulls out her phone one of the toads annoyingly asks her to hand it over and she always convinces them that she needs it to live or something like that. They only believe her cause they need her alive for some idiotic reason.

Besides the point she’s gotten under three of the toad’s tough skin so far. One of which was Braddock, a spicy and pink toad, honestly she was so cool that if she wasn’t one of Sasha’s jailers she totally (toadally) would think about sticking with her.

 At this point. It was just trying to get them to quit one by one till either Grime kills her – She hasn’t showered in a week she wants nothing more to not feel the grease build up – or till he chooses to let her out, she’s not counting on it.

Dark thoughts out of the way. Braddock actually believes she’s as young as she says she is. Day by day Braddock discusses how weird it is that she’s 13 and they have her in a jail cell. This afternoon Braddock sat down in front of her cell and rolled her a fruit.

“I got it from my garden, didn’t you say bell peppers from your world were small? I hope it’s okay, it's not fully ripe, it should still taste good.” The older woman said having a riper version of the pepper in her hand that she was cutting with her hopefully clean dagger. 

Sasha didn’t usually like bell peppers unless they were cooked, but it’s better than mystery slop that squirms, she shivered and crunched into the pepper, oh she could cry.

“Back at home Anne used to pick them off her pizza, especially when it was cold, the peppers were always too soft and Anne hated it.” She said softly and removed the core. Braddock took it and put it in a pouch on her belt.

“Toads don’t usually like soft food, they don’t benefit our teeth.” Braddock said as she ate a slice of her tougher pepper. “We remove the softer stuff and, I shouldn’t tell you that.” Braddock smiled. Usually it would peeve Sasha for someone to hide stuff from her but last time Sasha asked her to continue stuff she shouldn’t be told Sasha found out how they used the failure toads from when training to be soldiers. Once again Sasha shivered.

That fly trap was not hungry.

“Anyway, Sash, you don’t talk a lot about your friends. I’ll listen if you want to talk about it.” She said nicely. Sasha smiled slightly and ate more of the pepper.

“Yeah. God, where to start. Well uh, Marcy is a super nerd. It’s like in a cute way, When we had homework she helped us. She loved this one movie, crap I can’t remember the name of it.” Sasha combed a hand through her bangs. 

“The day before we got here uh, we all hung out in the library and even if it super like cringe or whatever Marcy and I read these mangas together. They always had cute anime boys. Reading them always makes my head hurt but like we sit close to each other and just share the book.” Sasha explained, it was normal it felt embarrassing explaining it though. She crunched again.

Braddock was still listening. Wow, she was a much better listener than Sasha was.

“Then Anne, she's younger than us, like barely.” Sasha kept talking about the girls. She didn’t even realize how long till the heavy metal door creaked open, scraping against the dirty stone.

“Braddock.” the old toad croaked, great, Grime. Sasha rolled her eyes finishing the last bit of her pepper. “What are you discussing with that creature?” He bit out. Braddock stood up giving a quick look to Sasha and straightened up.

“I was um.. Pressing her for information. She has friends.” Braddock saluted him.

Sasha snorted and poked at the slop. “Very well. Leave us.” The toad said stone faced.

Percy was fidgeting with one of the bells of his cap during lunch (wasn’t so much lunch than a quick bite between training). Usually Percy was very talkative so the silence was unusual. the jingling of the bells and the occasional smacking of food, that at this point Sasha had gotten used to with the toads, was the only noise Sasha could hear from Percy.

“What is it, Percy?” She asked, it clearly had been distracting him whatever this was. Percy looked at her and sighed.

“It’s Braddock. I don’t know what I’m doing with this love stuff, and I expected to die during the heron attack so I didn’t think that far ahead. I don’t even know what a woman like Braddock would like.” he scratched the base of his scalp.

“Well Braddock is a tough toad. I don’t know the Toad dating culture but me and my friends always watched these dating shows, flowers would definitely work. Especially with Braddock’s green thumb she would love something like that.” Sasha said. Sasha has been eating a lot of vegetables lately.

She usually was never a vegetable girl, it must be how little nutrients she lived on for like a month. Percy nodded “oh I know a perfect one! Hm…” he thought “might be dangerous though.” He sighed. 

“Perfect, make it a date.” She shrugged and ate some of the “fried rice” it wasn't exactly how she described, admittedly she probably did a bad job saying short little grains, egg, and extra protein.

He looked at her a little confused “how would that be a date? Getting a flower.” He laughed quietly. 

“Like a domestic slice of life date, Marcy talked about it a lot. They go out and pick flowers for each other. It's also like a friend thing.” She shrugged “can help you learn more about each other, you're tough toads.”

Percy laughed, a full loud laugh “picking flowers like that like frogs?” He snickered. Sasha rolled her eyes.

“Would weak little frogs pick flowers from a dangerous spot for a partner? I don't think so. You guys like doing reckless dangerous stuff, why not do it together.” Sasha may not completely understand this systemic racism problem between the amphibians here but like.

He quieted down and nodded “you have a point… okay! Thanks, Sasha.” He said. They both got up. They have to get back to training.

Chapter Text

It kind of felt bizarre, it's been close to a month without seeing either of her friends and now they were preparing to go to Wartwood. Sure they were gonna do other things but Grime said she would have plenty of time to catch up with Anne while dealing with business.

Now that they were finally gonna be reunited she couldn’t help but consider what Anne could look like now. She probably has let her hair grow out now. Sasha's has grown a little but not too much, but Anne's hair was super short when they got here so that little bit of growth probably seems like a lot.

Sasha honestly misses Anne's long hair, it was fun to style and put up. Frog, she really does miss Anne. She also misses Marcy, but she doesn't for the life of her know where that nerd could be. They have so much to talk about.

The trip to Wartwood won't take long so hopefully that's even less waiting, honestly she might go insane if she goes any longer without seeing her because ever since Sasha found out Anne could be located in Wartwood and they have to go there for some renegade frog she's been counting every day and hour till that.

Damn is she too obsessive? Marcy and Anne usually would gloss it and say no. I mean of course she wants the best for both of them. They're her best friends.

“Grime, would you say I'm obsessive?” Sasha asked, looking at Grime from her post over her diary. 

Grime looked back at her like he wasn't sure if she was actually asking. He nodded “Yes Sasha, that is one of the words I would use for you.”

“Aw Grimesy,” She smiled and sighed “I'm just used to protecting them. I don't think Anne is in danger anymore, but Marcy still could be. Hell, she could be dead and eaten somewhere! Last time we were told Anne's location she was defending them, and that was a while ago. Something could've also gotten her by now.”

Grime took a deep breath “Sasha, that girl sent three of my strongest tax toads retreating unpunished, I'm sure she's fine.” the older Toad said.

“Okay, but what if-!” Sasha started. 

“Sasha. Go to bed, Lieutenant. It's a busy day tomorrow.” He commanded her, stopping her from spiraling all of her thoughts out loud. 

Sasha got up and saluted him, though she usually meant it looser than the other toads “Yes, Captain Grime.” she said as she went to her quarters.

Damn she really is obsessive. She undid her hair and abandoned her armor by the door of her room. Going around the fancy statue of herself, then flopping face first into the most comfortable bed she could get.

Was this a new development?

Probably.

Chapter Text

Sasha stared up at the sky. Frog she's so mad. No amount of slicing Anne and the Plantar shaped training dummies are quelling her emotions right now. She doesn’t want to be mad at Anne but she was!

The swelling on her cheek has gone down. Who knew being caked in dirt with a face wound would infect it. Sure she was sick for a week but she's fine now. Just wounded emotionally.

It's probably a bad thing but a part of her did feel like she deserved that. Another part of her wished she got a wound on Anne. Something that made her feel like she won at least a little bit.

Grime said she needs to take a break. So she is, only for an hour, but she's taking a break. Writing out fighting techniques, she cannot risk to flunk like that again because if she does… would Anne spare her again?

Oof, she is bad at drawing. She kind of forgot about that. This isn't working. Her taking a break would still count if she wasn’t exerting herself? Plus she needs to make these dummies tougher.

Sasha sighed and lazily chopped off the fake frog head. Not right now though. She headed inside the hut. Flopping on the bed, the mattress sinking with her weight, and consuming her.

“Are you good, Lieutenant?” Grime said from his place on the raggedy recliner across from her.

The teen groaned “I'm mad.” She said pulling the dagger from her ponytail and stabbed it into the bad drawing of the little pink frog that stole her best friend.

Grime laughed a bit. “What else is new lately?” He then sighed “I'm sorry, Sasha. How about you take a nap and we'll train tomorrow?” He said quietly. 

“Really?” She asked, pushing herself to a position to look at him “you'd train with me?”

He rolled his shoulder “sure.. I don't want to get rusty, though this annoyance has been leaning a little like toad courting…” he teased. Sasha scoffed and threw her pillow at him. He tossed it back laughing “I'm kidding. Goodnight, Lieutenant.”

“Goodnight, Captain.”