JuleRose Oneshots

You gave her your sweater (it's just polyester)

Rose remembers that night like the palm of her hand.

The feeling of the oversized sweater against her quivering form, wrapping her in its warm embrace. The way Juleka pulled her closer, trying to warm her despite her own shivering. Walking home in a daze, her hand in Juleka's cold hand. Juleka walking her to her door and giving her a quick goodbye, knowing the risk of Rose's parents seeing them together. She remembers Juleka's soft reassurance when she tried to give the sweater back, saying she would be fine without it and that she could keep it for the night and return it in the morning. She remembers it all. 

So it's to say the least that it hurt to see Zoe wearing that exact same sweater.

She knew it was coming. She saw the stolen glances between the two and the way Juleka's eyes would light up when she caught a glimpse of her in the hallways. It was only a matter of time, really.

It doesn't make it hurt any less, though.

Rose's eyes dart down to their interlocked hands, feeling disgusted at the gut-wrenching jealousy brewing inside her. She should be happy. She should be happy that Juleka's finally getting the love she deserves. But she isn't.

She has to force a smile when Juleka wraps her arm around Zoe and pulls her closer.

Rose has always been described as a princess. By her classmates, by her parents. An innocent little princess who sees no bad in the world and can do no wrong. She knows this. She's heard the way they talk about her. She loves princesses; don't get her wrong, she used to pretend to be one all the time when she was little. But she's not a child anymore. She's not naive. She knows how fucked and unfair the world is. She knows how her parents are; she knows that they just barely care enough about her to take her to the hospital when her illness starts flaring up again. She knows that they would never accept her if she came out.

Rose is a princess, but what she's feeling right now reminds her more of the villains in the fairy tales she used to obsess over.

Rose wishes she could hate Zoe, but how could she? Zoe's an angel.

It only makes the pain worse.

The feeling bubbling in her stomach only worsens the more Juleka's attention is on Zoe, and she can't help but desperately want Juleka's attention. It's selfish. It's obsessive. This feeling is eating her alive.

She remembers that sweater.

She wonders if Zoe feels the same way in it that she did. She wonders if Juleka thinks Zoe looks better in it than she did.

She wishes she could be Zoe. Dress like her, smell like her, do everything she does. But most of all, she wishes she could kiss her. So that maybe, just maybe, she could see why Juleka loves her so much.

Is it because of her looks? Zoe is gorgeous—much more than Rose could ever be. Maybe her personality? Is Rose not nice enough? Not caring enough? Is she too clingy? Should she put more distance between her and Juleka? Would that make Juleka look her way? Would that make Juleka love her?

But there's no changing anything. It's too far gone. She's too far gone. As much as her heart may break, Rose is okay admiring from afar. As long as Juleka is in her life, that's all that should matter. Right? As long as her best friend is happy, she'll be fine. This feeling will pass, and then she can go back to being around Juleka and Zoe just like before. When this feeling wasn't consuming all her thoughts.

A/N: Happy December 3rd! This is very much inspired by Heather by Conan Gray. I apologize if this isn't the best, I'm tired and pretty new to writing fanfiction. Feel free to give me constructive criticism and correct any spelling errors I make, I don't have a beta reader or anything. I'm also sorry if somethings don't make the most sense, again I'm very tired plus somethings that make sense to me don't make sense to others. This originally wasn't going to be the first chapter of this fic, but I got this done faster than the actually first chapter so yeah. I don't know how correct my characterization is in this, I haven't watched the series in a while and my characterization of Rose (and Juleka normally) often diverges from canon a decent bit. The ending may seem rushed and that's because it is, I wanted to get this out tonight. I choose Zoe because it was the first character that came to mind, no other reason honestly. Also posted on AO3 under the same user.