pirateygoodness

This was meant to be a second

femslash09 story, but I had myself convinced that the deadline was this Wednesday instead of today, so it's this instead.

Title: Her Best Friend Leslie Says (She’s Just Being)
Fandom: High School Musical RPF
Challenge: Written for

femslash09 as a bonus ficlet for

jengrrl
Pairing: Ashley Tisdale/Vanessa Hudgens
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 807 words
Summary: even though this isn't Ashley's first show by a long shot, she's completely freaking out like it is
Notes: Thanks to

fivewhatfive for secret-keeping, and

adventurepants for beta help.

Disclaimer: The characters in this story are based on real people, but this is a work of fiction - all events and actions are completely made up. Absolutely nothing in this story should be taken as fact. This original work of fan fiction is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License; attribution should include a link to this Livejournal post.

This isn't Ashley's first show or anything. She's been doing all this for years. This isn't even Ashley's biggest show, not by a lot.

But still.

It's her first show in LA - well, her first one for the new album, which comes with new hair and a new sense of being grown up and basically feels like a whole new career, even if Headstrong wasn't that long ago at all, really.

So basically, even though this isn't Ashley's first show by a long shot, she's completely freaking out like it is. Not externally, in a diva way or anything, because that's not how Ashley gets nervous, but she stops laughing at Jacob's stupid jokes as much, stops messing up Mike’s hair like he's Zac. She just sort of hangs out, watching everyone burn off their energy with endless stupid jokes, and wishes she was in the mood to join in.

She should be in the mood to join in. They've got three full hours before they need to even think about going on, and she should be excited instead of sitting in the corner, thinking about calling her mom.

(Which she won't do, because if there's anything Ashley is really, really sure of, it's that she's not a kid anymore.)

There's a knock from outside, and one of the crew waves for her. The poor girl's hair is like, everywhere, and for a minute Ashley feels a little better because at least she's not the only person here who's feeling stressed out. Just for a minute, though. Then she's walking outside and trying not to look anxious because oh god, what if she's needed outside because Maui died, or one of their trucks is held up in traffic, or the show is cancelled.

Or something. Whatever.

Instead, the girl tells her that someone's waiting for her in her dressing room. She also sort of shoots Ashley this weird, half-curious look. Ordinarily that might bug Ashley, but the girl's hair makes her look like she's part-maltipoo and Ashley has bigger things to worry about, so she shrugs it off.

When she gets to her dressing room, she opens the door and has to bite back a happy scream because oh my god, Vanessa's inside. Which is really exciting, because even though Vanessa's not really allowed to be backstage and probably had to sweet-talk, like, four different people to get in, she's Ashley's bestie and she's here and that's totally awesome. Or it would be totally awesome, if Ashley could process it, but as soon as she's inside Vanessa pretty much pounces, pinning Ashley to the inside of the door and kissing her.

She's also giggling a little, but that actually works out because Ashley's giggling a little too, and after a while they have to stop kissing because they're both just beaming, mouths pressed together, hands on each other's shoulders. "Hi," Ashley says. She can feel Vanessa's face scrunching up like she's trying to smile even wider.

"Hey," Vanessa answers back, singsong. She takes a step back, giving Ashley a very little bit of personal space, but Ashley slides her hands down Vanessa's body to her hips and pulls her back in, just as close. Personal space is for losers.

"You're here." Ashley can't quite hide the total oh my god it's my girlfriend in her voice, and that's sort of embarrassing but she's sort of okay with it, when Vanessa's answer is to kiss her, with this little mmhmm noise that might mean yes, I am.

When Vanessa pulls away, Ashley is breathless. She barely knows what they're talking about when Vanessa leans back to get a good look at her and asks, "How are you doing?"

Then it all comes rushing back, obviously - the fact that Ashley's nervous. She's so nervous, and Vanessa being here is helping a lot, but not enough that she can cover it up when Vanessa's looking at her like that. "I'm freaking out a little."

Vanessa bites her lip, like that is a genuine tragedy. "Why are you freaking out?" Ashley shrugs, sort of embarrassed. She just is. And Vanessa gets that, she thinks, because she doesn't really push for more - she just presses kisses to Ashley's mouth, her forehead, her jaw. Then she murmurs, in this way that gets Ashley wet like, instantly, "You're a rockstar. You're going to be awesome."

“Yeah?” Ashley asks, brushing her mouth against Vanessa’s. She feels like she’s in this trance, where she’s nervous but she’s not nervous because Vanessa’s here, Vanessa’s skin is next to her skin, and so everything is just going to be okay.

Vanessa pulls her into another kiss - like the first one but more. When she pulls away, she nips at Ashley’s mouth, and that’s okay too. “Yeah.”