This is to ysabetwordsmith‘s prompt to this January card for origfic_bingo.

It fills the “love at first sight” slot, and is in no established verse – although Holly MIGHT end up being in my Episodes ‘verse

They first ran into each other at a tiny regional sci-fi con. Holly was doing her favorite Bleach cosplay; Grace was wearing an extravagant medium-length dress and a pair of knee-high boots. She had an overcoat atop, the yellow frogs standing out in stark contrast to the black of the rest of her outfit.

They observed each other for a moment between the roleplaying-book booth and the tinted-contacts table. Grace spoke first, a little frown creasing her white-powdered forehead.

“Yoruichi Shihōin, right? From… Bleach.”

“Right!” Holly found herself grinning.

Grace made the gesture equivalent of a flourish. “My roommate loves anime. And thus, because it is a small room and a loud tv, I have begun to learn to love anime, too. Have you seen Death Note?“

“Have I? Have I…!” And thus, they were off and running. Cons were little pockets of existence away from reality, and so it was easy to talk to a stranger, easy for Holly to invite Grace to breakfast so they could keep talking

IRL was trickier, but there was always gchat and twitter and soon they were talking every night, @GraceFired, what do you think of this idea for the next con; @TheBerry, OMG, I found a new lipstick that mimics the color of corpse lips.

It was late one night, on gchat, 100 times more private than twitter even if Google was reading everything, when Holly finally was brave enough to say “Gray… I think I love you.”

She stared at the words for a moment, and then typed hurriedly below that “I mean, not, not in a … I don’t want to… shit.”

“Chill, Hall. <3 I get it." There was a pause, the little grey line that said "Grace is typing…" And then, as if Grace wanted to whisper it: "I love you too."

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