Bad matches happen. Hope knows it. She'd almost prefer losing to a goddamn draw, though. She slams around getting undressed, avoiding looking at anyone else, showering as quickly as possible and shoving her gear into her bag. They've got practice tomorrow, and she'll be there, calmer and ready to deal with things. Right now, though, she can't be completely calm.

But Carli catches her on the way out. "Let me drive you home."

Hope doesn't snarl. That would be a little extreme even for her. "How should I get to practice tomorrow?"

"I'll pick you up," Carli says easily.

She's not getting out of this. "Fine."

"Good," Carli says, and pulls out her keys.

They're silent on the ride back to Hope's. When Carli pulls into her driveway, Hope says, "Okay, thanks," and goes to get out of the car.

Carli's hand on her shoulder stops her. "Wait."

Hope goes still, looking back over at Carli. She knows that look; she knows it well enough that she's a little embarrassed by it. It would be easy to say no.

But she's not going to. "Fine," she says shortly, and gets out of the car.

Carli pushes her back against the door as soon as it's closed, kissing her. Hope kisses back, not bothering to hide her anger, fingers digging into Carli's hips, teeth scraping Carli's lips.

"You've played your whole life," Carli says when they pull apart. "You should be used to this."

"I don't like losing," Hope says, and goes to kiss her again.

Carli tugs at Hope's ponytail till it's undone, pushing her back again and tangling her fingers in Hope's hair. It feels good, but it's better when Hope grabs Carli's neck and moves down to kiss the side of her jaw, pushing a leg between Carli's.

"Calm down," Carli says, but she slides a hand under Hope's shirt, resting at her hip.

"You don't want me to calm down." Hope kisses her again, then tugs at Carli's shirt. "Come on."

Carli pulls back, looking calculating. "Bed?"

They could just make out, and Hope would calm down and Carli would leave. Or, Hope thinks, they could fuck. She nods. "Bed."

Carli leads the way, stripping off as she goes. She glances over her shoulder a few times, smiling at Hope. Hope's not going to laugh, not yet, but it'll happen. She knows exactly how this goes.

"Hey," Carli says when Hope gets into the bedroom with her. She comes close again, tugging Hope's hair playfully. "We didn't lose."

Hope grabs Carli's hand and bends down, biting her neck lightly. "We didn't win, either."

"There's always next time." Carli pushes her down onto the bed, not quite gently, and tugging Hope's shirt off. "You didn't fuck up."

"So you're saying you did?"

Carli laughs. "We had an off day."

Hope knows Carli doesn't really believe it, isn't that fucking chill about not winning. But Carli makes it easy to believe when she gets Hope's bra off, kissing a line down her neck and playing with her nipples. "Calm down," Carli says, then fucks with her own advice by pressing closer, weighing Hope down.

Hope pushes back just because she can. "You don't like me calm," she says, and gets her own hands in Carli's ponytail.

"I like you most ways," Carli says, dragging her teeth over Hope's right nipple.

It fucking hurts. Hope arches up, almost kicking Carli. "What the - "

Carli responds by sucking, still not gently. Hope gives up, tugging Carli's hair and wishing she had some kind of leverage. But if she tries to get it, Carli will leave. She's not dumb enough to end this now. "Fine," Hope says. "Just – oh, fuck."

Carli strokes Hope's thigh with one hand and pins Hope's right wrist with the other. "I could eat you out," Carli says, like she's offering to grab a soda.

"Have I ever said no to that?"

"Plenty of times."

"That's a technicality," Hope snaps, and Carli laughs.

"Hold still," she says, nuzzling Hope's other breast and shifting her weight so she can pull at Hope's shorts.

Hope helps her, lifting her hips and wiggling till she can toss them to the floor. Carli watches, openly appreciative. She's always so fucking open, and if Hope wasn't about to get laid she'd resent her for it.

"Good," Carli says. Hope's about to tell her to go fuck herself when she pins Hope again, kissing her.

Things are moving a little too slowly for Hope to really be into it, but the kissing speeds shit up, especially when Carli slips a hand between her legs. She's moving rhythmically, so Hope knows she's into it, even before she feels how wet Hope is and groans into the kiss.

"You're the easiest girl I've ever slept with," Carli says, pulling back.

"What about that is supposed to make me want to keep going?"

"This," Carli says, pressing her thumb against Hope's clit.

Hope watches Carli's face as she braces her feet on the bed and presses against Carli's hand. She's good at this, using Carli to get off, and it's blatantly obvious that Carli likes it. Hope smiles a little when Carli bites her lip. "You can keep going, you know."

"I was getting there," Carli says, kissing her briefly before finally, fucking finally going down on her.

She takes her sweet time, kissing Hope's stomach and thighs, biting Hope's hip when she says, "Hurry the fuck up already." Hope's ready to push her off and get herself off by the time Carli licks Hope's clit.

And the thing about Carli is, she's slow and methodical when she's winding Hope up, but when she eats Hope out she's messy. She sucks Hope's clit just the right side of too hard and, when Hope tugs her hair, moves down and starts licking in earnest. She knows exactly what Hope likes and really goes for it, teasing the skin just next to her clit, sliding two fingers into her and curling them, laughing when Hope makes the stupid noises she still hasn't trained herself out of making.

"Come on," Carli says, fucking her slowly and flicking her tongue over Hope's clit. Talking breaks the rhythm so much that Hope's hips jerk without her consent, and she whimpers. "Say you want it."

"It's fucking obvious I want it," Hope says, reaching down.

Carli slaps her fingers away, so her hand settles on Carli's head instead. "I want to hear you say it."

"I want it," Hope says. "Come on, of course I want it, can't you just -"

Carli flicks her clit and thrusts her fingers hard. It's more than enough: Hope gasps, muscles tensing.

She's still thinking about the match. She doesn't want to be, and she feels like an idiot, but the total futility of her work is in the front of her mind, even as Carli fucks her steadily and she gets closer and closer. "Stop it," Carli says quietly. She pulls back, bracing a hand on Hope's stomach when Hope tries to follow her. "Hope."

Hope goes still and looks at her. Carli should look stupid with two fingers in Hope and her lips shiny and wet, but instead she's one of the hotter things Hope's ever seen. "What?" Hope says irritably.

"Calm the fuck down," Carli says, and twists her hand so that she can press her thumb against Hope's clit again.

Hope rocks against her, but she doesn't close her eyes. She knows how this works. She lets Carli watch her, instead, going from fucking around with her to concentrating on getting her off.

And it works. Carli circles her clit, rubs her fingers all over Hope's cunt and kisses her dirtily, and Hope comes, gasping against her.

"I can go again," Carli says as she's coming down from it, slipping her fingers back into Hope.

"In a minute," Hope says. "Let me do you."

"I'm pretty sure there's not a single language that would sound sexy in." Carli pulls her fingers out and licks them clean.

"Oh, fuck you," Hope says. "Get your clothes off."

Carli laughs and obeys. When she's naked, Hope pushes her back. She's always careful with Carli, more than she thinks Carli even likes. She can't help it; she still feels kind of stupid when they do this. Hope doesn't normally sleep with girls, and Carli's good at it, and no matter how easy she is to please, Hope usually ends up feeling awkward anyway.

Right now, though, Carli's holding herself still, waiting for Hope to touch her. Hope kisses her, then says, "I have – I mean, if you want, I could. With a toy?" She gestures expansively.

Carli tilts her head. "What's gotten into you?"

They've only done it a few times. Hope flushes, half pissed and half embarrassed. "Never mind, then."

"No, no. Definitely yes." Carli leans back, reaching down and playing with herself. If Hope didn't know Carli as well as she did, she'd think it was casual.

"Okay," Hope says stupidly, and goes to grab the toy. She keeps her sex shit in the nightstand like a normal person. Carli stores it all in a bin under her bed, which Hope honestly kind of judges, and -

And she's distracting herself from the issue at hand, which is Carli rubbing herself and looking way too happy with just continuing until she's finished. "Stop," Hope says, pushing her hands away and rubbing the vibrator over her.

Carli tilts her hips and smiles a little. The vibrator's kind of aggressively normal looking, slim and light blue. She still feels awkward turning it on.

She feels a hell of a lot less awkward when all the smugness falls off Carli's face. She reaches out and grabs Hope's wrist, trying to get her to press harder with the vibrator, but the angle's all wrong and she can't budge Hope's hand. Hope traces the tip of the vibrator over her, teasingly passing just over her clit, getting her wet all over.

When Carli starts rocking against nothing, Hope turns the intensity up a little and slips just the tip in. She ate Carli out once like this, and it wasn't that great on her end because the buzzing was fucking annoying, but Carli loved it. She's not going to do that now – she wants to be able to watch Carli as she plays with her, and it's easiest like this.

"Good," Carli says as Hope starts fucking her shallowly with the toy, alternating thrusts with light strokes of her clit. "That's really good, Hope, that's - "

"It's your turn to not talk," Hope says, leaning down and kissing her.

When she gets over her embarrassment she can admit that she loves this. Carli spreads her legs completely shamelessly, fucking herself on the vibrator, letting Hope see her get closer and closer to the edge. Hope's on her knees and she has to press her own thighs together, fighting the urge to get herself off too.

But Carli sees, of course. Carli always sees. "You can't multitask like that."

"Fuck off," Hope says, turning red. "I –"

Carli reaches out and nudges at Hope's thighs. "Here. Spread out a little."

She does, and Carli slips a hand between her legs. Hope looks down and then quickly focuses on Carli's face again. She's too late, though; she's just made it blatantly obvious what seeing Carli's hand disappearing between her legs does to her.

"Go," Carli says, wiggling her hips a little.

After that it's just both of them panting a little and the buzzing of the vibrator. Hope can't be methodical anymore, not with Carli shallowly finger-fucking her and throwing her own head back against the bed. Carli doesn't seem to mind, though; she moves more and more quickly until she's so close that Hope knows exactly what to do. She presses the vibe in deep and rubs Carli's clit, and Carli comes, making a choked-off noise and squeezing her eyes shut, her own hand going still against Hope.

"Fuck," she says when she's done. She moves her fingers a little. "Wow, you're into that."

"You should be glad," Hope says, pulling the vibrator out and turning it off. She has to shift a little, but Carli moves her hand with her, very deliberately flicking Hope's clit.

Hope leans forward, covering Carli's body with her own, kissing Carli and holding herself up as Carli gets her off again. When she falls to the side, Carli shifts so she's a little less under Hope, but doesn't push her away.

"Better?" Carli says, her tone saying she already knows the answer.

Hope humors her. "Sure. I still wish we'd won."

"So do I. Which you know." Carli grabs the vibrator and puts it on the nightstand, then turns to look at Hope. "And we'll get it back next time. Which you also know."

"Sure," Hope says. Carli's hair is tangled. They'll both wind up bitching at each other about it.

Carli takes advantage of her distraction, pulling her closer and kissing her. "I should go," she says, but she doesn't move.

"Stay for a bit." Hope shrugs, hoping it looks like she doesn't care what Carli does.

"Yeah," Carli says after a second. "Yeah, okay."

She stays.