new directions | glee

7. SONGBIRD ☑️

CHAPTER SEVEN |
songbird

***

KAYLA LOVES WEDDINGS. Now, yes, she has only been to one wedding in her life (Mr. Slut's runaway bride didn't count) and that was Burt and Carole's, but she loved it. Some of it had been overshadowed by Rachel dropping her love confession and having to watch the love of her life be happy with Finn, but the experience in and of itself was great. The idea of weddings had always warmed her cold heart—sharing the next step in your commitment to your partner with all your friends and family? It was just so romantic and beautiful and Kayla honestly couldn't wait to get married one day. Of course, her love life was a bit shit at the moment, so who knew when that would happen?

Either way, she was very excited to celebrate Santana and Brittany's wedding. Maybe it was the narcissism talking, but she felt like she had a large hand in helping the girls find each other. After all, Kayla was there to help Santana come to terms with her sexuality and steered her in Brittany's direction. Not that there weren't speed bumps along the way. She didn't necessarily have fond memories of her sophomore year.

All the girls were at the last alterations for their bridesmaid dresses. She didn't know whose bright idea it was to put her and Rachel in the same dressing room, but she was having serious flashbacks to getting ready before the Hudmel wedding and she was not okay.

She was turned away from Rachel, but the mirror was right in front of her, so she could see her reflection, and she couldn't help the chuckle that came out of her as Rachel's underwear came into view.

"What?" Rachel asks bemused.

Kayla grins. "Sorry. It's just... you're wearing your laundry day undies."

Rachel looks down at the polka dot panties she's wearing and blushes. There were a few too many memories involving this pair and the memories were doing nothing to calm down their affection for each other. There were days that Kayla caught Rachel dancing around the loft in her underwear thinking nobody would be home for hours and she would surprise her and wrap her arms around her waist and drop onto the bed and kiss the living daylights out of her and that pair would find a spot on the floor while they made love. It was so simple, then.

"Right," Rachel chuckles awkwardly and Kayla decides to drop it, focusing on getting her dress on and making it fit right. But she can't reach the zipper.

"Rach, can you do my zipper?" she asks and she watches Rachel nod in the reflection from the mirror.

She can feel Rachel's palm on her back as she pulls the zipper up slowly. Their eyes are focused on one another and Kayla feels shivers run through her. This wedding keeps bringing her back to where she was when Burt and Carole were getting married. It feels like she and Rachel are just picking up where they left off at that wedding.

When Rachel finishes, she turns around and pulls her hair to the side so Kayla can fix her zipper too. She does it quickly because she fears if she does it slowly she might cave in and kiss her, and despite the fact that she knows her thing with Sam is a temporary thing, she doesn't want to hurt him. She knows he wouldn't just kiss Mercedes without talking to her about it, so she has to show him the same amount of respect.

"How does it look?" Rachel asks, twirling to give Kayla the full view. Kayla could cry at any moment. She knows how beautiful Rachel is and she'd love nothing more than to show her exactly how much, but she can't—and it's killing her.

Kayla wears a tight smile as she pulls the dressing room curtain back. "You look great."

Their silence is done and once they exit the room Kayla can breathe a little bit better. They get their approval from Brittany who says they look like pretty bicorns, and semi-approval from Santana who calls them a slur but at least adds pretty to the context. The dresses are honestly almost identical to the ones they wore for Rachel and Finn's nuptials. She felt pretty in it. She didn't often gravitate towards dresses. She pretty much only ever wore them for competitions and weddings, but this one she could get behind for the moment. She had no idea how she might feel about it on the day.