Work Text:
Waverly Earp was bored.
Shorty's Scoops Ice Cream Parlor was the best job she'd ever had. It paid four dollars more per hour than the coffee shop she'd worked at during her freshman year at GRT University, her hours were reasonable and flexible to her class schedule, and her work uniform was cute. All in all, it was an ideal way to make rent while she worked on her degree.
Except for how dull it was on weekday afternoons. Once summer hit, there would be kids and families coming in all day long, but until then, her shifts were just a lot of messing around with her phone or going through flashcards. She didn't like how slammed they were most weekends either, but somehow the tedium of the empty parlor was worse.
It was a Tuesday in early April and it was cold and raining, so Waverly didn't expect anyone to come by. She didn't have any flashcards to work on, so she was scrolling through TikTok watching foster dog videos when the bell above the door rang and she almost dropped her phone in surprise. In walked a park ranger, which wasn't unusual. The ranger station was less than a five minute drive away, and she'd had an older man and a younger, nervous guy in ranger uniforms stop by a couple times. This ranger was a women, tall with short, bright red curls and big brown eyes. She was wearing a stetson instead of whatever that usual ranger hat was, and Waverly thought it was a good call. The stetson suited her.
She put her phone in her pocket and threw on her biggest customer service smile. “Welcome to Shorty’s Scoops, how can I help you?”
“Hi,” the ranger said, smiling. "I’d like a medium coffee ice cream.”
“Bowl or cone?”
“Bowl, please.”
“Alright, that’ll be five fifty.” The ranger paid and Waverly went to go get her order. “What toppings would you like? You can have two for free!”
“No toppings, thank you.”
Waverly stopped mid-scoop, surprised and not sure why she was. She didn’t hate coffee ice cream or anything, but she had tried every flavor at Shorty's at least once, and coffee was one of the handful she hadn’t gone back for seconds. It wasn’t awful, but ice cream was an indulgence; why make it taste like the thing she had to drink copious amounts of to get through her eight AM classes? At least put some chocolate syrup on it.
The ranger frowned. “Everything okay?”
Waverly shook her head and got back to scooping. “Everything’s fine. Thought I saw a bug but it’s just a sprinkle.” She stuck a plastic spoon into the ice cream and handed it over to the ranger. “Here you go! Have a scoop-tacular day!”
“Um. I will. Thanks.”
Then she left, and Waverly went back to scrolling through TikTok, and no one else came in for the next two hours.
*
“Is ordering plain coffee ice cream weird?”
Wynonna frowned as she pulled a slice of pizza from the box on their kitchen table. They lived together in a one bedroom apartment that was cheaper than the dorms and split the chores. Whenever Wynonna had dinner duty, she usually opted for things that she could make from a box or heat up in a microwave, or cheap takeout. “Weird how?”
“I don’t know. Most people get it in another flavor or with toppings, but this woman just wanted it plain. Who likes coffee ice cream like that?”
Wynonna shrugged. “It's not weirder than liking bubblegum ice cream.”
“But if she wanted to have coffee that bad, why not go a couple doors down to the bakery and buy a cup of coffee?”
“Why not just chew some bubblegum?”
“Fine, you’re right," Waverly conceded with a sigh "I just think it’s strange.”
"Let she who has never eaten cold pineapple and pepper pizza throw the first stone."
"Hey, I stand by that," Waverly said, and Wynonna laughed, and that was the end of the conversation about the ranger and her coffee ice cream.
*
The ranger showed up again two days later, a couple minutes past one in the afternoon. She was covered in streaks of dirt from her boots to her right cheek, but she smiled brightly at Waverly as she walked up to the counter.
“Welcome to Shorty’s Scoops, how can I help you?”
“Medium coffee ice cream, please.”
“Bowl again?” The ranger nodded and Waverly rung it up. “Rough day?” she asked, gesturing at the dirt.
“Oh, yeah,” the ranger said, grimacing as she looked down at herself. “A bunch of teenagers got themselves stuck ‘cause they took a trail we’d closed down after all the recent flooding. Getting them out was kind of a mess.”
“Wow. All I’ve done today is make a couple sundaes and let my sister paint my nails.”
The ranger looked down at them and nodded in approval. “Well, I like the nails. Lavender glitter polish and tiny skulls is a very unique combination.”
“Thanks,” Waverly said, holding them out to admire. “I picked out the polish, Wynonna did the skulls.”
“Wynonna? Your sister is Wynonna Earp?” the ranger asked, frowning.
That was never a good sign. “You know my sister?”
“We took a couple of the same classes in college and now we box together”
“Wait, you’re Nicole?” Wynonna didn’t have a lot of friends, and fewer still that Waverly wasn’t also friends with, but Nicole seemed to qualify. Wynonna had rubbed Nicole the wrong way at first, like she did most people, and Wynonna thought she was uptight and annoying in return; but they’d gotten past it and now they even hung out sometimes.
“And you must be Waverly.” Nicole held her hand out for Waverly to shake. “Nice to finally put a face to the name.”
“Nice to put a face to your many nicknames.”
Nicole snorted. “God, I don’t know how she comes up with them all.”
“She’s got a special brand of creativity.” Waverly said, smiling fondly. “So, Ginger Spice, sure I can’t get you some gingerbread ice cream? I know it’s an unusual ice cream flavor but it’s kind of amazing.”
“I’m sure it is, but I think I’ll stick with coffee.”
Of course she would. “Coming right up.”
Nicole’s phone dinged, and as she checked it, Waverly opened up the dipping cabinet - and her shirt went with it, up and over her head. Waverly tried to wiggle herself free, but she just got more twisted up.
This was going to be embarrassing. “Um, I’m stuck.”
“What?” There was a pause, then Nicole said, softly, “Oh.”
“Yeah, I think my shirt got caught on the latch, can you -"
"Of course." She heard the little door to the back of the counter open and then felt Nicole’s heat at her side. She was jostled a bit as Nicole tried to free the shirt from the cabinet door. “It’s not coming loose.”
“Can you help me take it off?”
There was silence for a few long seconds and then Nicole’s hands were on Waverly, pushing her shirt up and off, warm fingers making trails up Waverly’s side and along her arms.
Then she was free, looking into Nicole’s smiling face. She seemed amused, but also something else, something dark in her eyes that had Waverly feeling like she was on fire.
“Thanks,” she said, crossing her arms awkwardly over her now much more exposed chest. "You're very good at saving stuck people."
“Comes with the job,” Nicole replied, her voice huskier than it had been a minute ago.
“Right. Um. I need to go put on another shirt, because health codes, and then I’ll get you your ice cream.”
Waverly lingered for another moment, caught by Nicole's gaze, before spinning on her heel and double timing it to her locker and her spare shirt.
*
“I totally should’ve guessed that Nicole was the coffee ice cream girl,” Wynonna laughed, as they scrolled through Netflix for a movie to watch. “That’s so her, picking an adult, boring ice cream flavor.”
“See, you think it’s weird, too!”
“No, I think Haught’s a straight-laced loser with a stick up her ass - and I say that with love. It’s only funny ‘cause it’s her.” Wynonna sighed. “Think we’ve watched all the good Netflix movies. I’m switching to Tubi.”
“You’ve never had Nicole over. How come?"
“She lives closer to the gym, it’s easier to go to her place. So you wanna watch the movie about a girl with a magic gun or a Merlin episode so we can watch him and Arthur pretend they aren't in love?"
"Girl with a magic gun," Waverly said. She couldn't help but add, "You could ask Nicole to come over, if you wanted."
"Why? She has a better couch and her beer's free." Wynonna started the movie and got caught up in it immediately, but Waverly kept being distracted with the memory of the way Nicole had looked at her.
*
Nicole kept coming back to Shorty's. Sometimes only once a week, sometimes two or three, but always with the same order. She still didn't hang out at their place, but she did pick up Wynonna at their apartment a couple times to carpool to the gym. As April became May and then June, Nicole became a fixture in Waverly's life.
Which was why about two months in Waverly finally felt comfortable asking, "Why coffee?"
"What do you mean?"
"Don't you want to try something new?"
Nicole frowned. "What's wrong with liking coffee ice cream?"
“Nothing!” When Nicole leveled her with a look, Waverly relented. “It's just, people usually order it with another flavor or some kind of topping. Not just plain and definitely not a couple dozen times in a row.”
“Am I getting shamed for my ice cream preferences?”
“No, not - I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to -“
Nicole laughed, interrupting Waverly’s rambling apology. “I’m kidding. I know coffee’s not the most exciting flavor -“
“It’s not bad,” Waverly insisted, feeling like kind of a jerk. “But don't most people put things in their coffee to make it taste less like coffee? And it’s like the coffee flavor is the whole draw for you.”
“It is.” Nicole swirled her ice cream around with her spoon, her face pensive. “So my parents weren’t great. They didn’t pay a lot of attention to me, and when they did, it was usually to tell me I was doing something wrong. I did a lot of rebelling as a teenager - chugging beer, smoking, drinking coffee.”
“How is drinking coffee rebelling?”
“My parents thought this country's obsession with it was part of the capitalist exploitation of workers to help them stay awake to meet the constantly escalating demands of the one percent. Which, okay, they weren’t necessarily wrong, but they also dragged me all around the country whenever they felt like it and left me alone in motel rooms for days at a time, so it was kinda hard to take their moral outrage seriously.”
“That sounds terrible," Waverly said, her chest tight at the look on Nicole's face.
Nicole gave her an awkward half-smile and a one shouldered shrug. “Yeah, well. Anyway, I’m not a kid anymore and I barely talk to my parents now, but coffee still tastes like rebellion to me.”
Waverly nodded. “Tastes like rebellion. I like that. And I get it. My dad was really against Halloween, thought it was too pagan or something. Wynonna did all the smoking and most of the drinking, so wearing a costume and eating candy on Halloween is my rebellion.”
“Your rebellion might be more fun than mine.”
"When October rolls around, we'll have to compare. Maybe we could wear matching costumes."
This time Nicole's smile was big and brilliant. "Maybe we could."
*
Waverly hadn't thought Nicole had taken any serious offense to Waverly insulting her favorite flavor, but after that conversation, Waverly didn't see Nicole for over a week. She hadn't gone more than three days without seeing her since they met, so by day nine she was starting to grow concerned.
“Have you heard from Nicole lately?” she asked her sister that night as they roasted marshmallows over their stove, chairs pulled up to it like it was a real fire.
“No, which is kinda weird,” Wynonna admitted. “I texted her some smack talk about her weak right hook and she hasn’t made any lame comebacks yet. And she’s always texts back fast, the nerd.”
“I’m worried.”
“Yeah, I can tell by the pile of crumbs on your lap.”
Waverly looked down to see that she’d broken her graham cracker into a thousand tiny pieces. “Oh. Whoops.”
Wynonna handed her a new cracker. “You want me to text her again, huh?”
“Yes, please.”
“Fine.” Wynonna put her toasting stick on the counter and grabbed her phone. “You’re such a pain in the ass when you have a crush on one of my friends. It’s Rosita all over again.”
Waverly flushed. “Who says I have a crush on Nicole?”
Wynonna snorted. “Your goofy face when you come home any day she drops by Shorty’s. Or the fact that you kept acting like coffee ice cream was the weirdest thing ever just to have an excuse to talk about her.”
“Plain coffee ice cream in a bowl,” Waverly defended; it sounded weak to her own ears.
“Uh-huh. Okay, I texted her a wellness check.” Wynonna’s phone dinged. “She’s alive. She’s got personal stuff going on.” It dinged again and Wynonna rolled her eyes. “She says to tell you ‘hi.’”
“Tell her 'hi' back,” Waverly said, pleased warmth spreading through her chest and stomach.
“Ew.” Wynonna picked up her stick again. “Happy now?”
"Yes, thank you," Waverly said, putting her perfectly toasted marshmallow on her chocolate and graham cracker. Everything was fine. Nicole would come by in the next day or two, and they'd decide on the perfect Halloween costume for Wynonna, and everything would be back to normal.
*
But it wasn't back to normal at all. Nicole didn’t come into the shop that week either and she missed her boxing class. Wynonna refused to keep being Waverly’s go between when she pestered her to text Nicole again, which was how Waverly found herself at the ranger station after her Thursday shift, holding a coffee milkshake as a ‘sorry if I’m overstepping’ peace offering.
She recognized the older ranger, who was standing behind the main desk and stuffing things into a backpack. She knocked on the desk to get his attention. “Hi, I’m looking for Nicole Haught?”
“Ranger Haught isn’t in right now. You’ll have to come back later. Lonnie!” he bellowed over his shoulder. “We need to get going or we'll be looking in the dark!”
“Okay, um, can I leave this here for her?” Waverly said, holding up the milkshake. “And maybe my number? I’ve just been a little worried about her and I wanted to make sure she's okay.”
Nedley paused from whatever he was doing with his backpack and studied Waverly. “You’re Waverly, aren't you? The ice cream shop girl.”
“Nicole’s talked about me?” Waverly asked, unable to stop herself from smiling.
“Never shuts up about you, more like,” the younger, nervous ranger said as he walked into the office.
“You could also learn to shut your mouth more, Lonnie,” Nedley said, unimpressed, before turning back to Waverly. “You can leave that but I don't know when Nicole will get it. We're not exactly sure where she is right now."
Waverly stomach twisted in a knot. "What do you mean, you don't know where she is?"
"She went into the woods during her lunch break and that was almost two hours ago. She’s not answering her phone and we can't reach her on her radio, so me and Lonnie are gonna go out and search for her.”
“Then I’m coming, too.”
“I don't advise that. With all the rain we’ve been getting there’s a lot of mud and unstable ground. It can be dangerous if you don’t know how to handle it.”
“My daddy used to take me and my sisters on extreme survival camping trips, so trust me, I can handle it. You got any spare hiking boots I can use?”
Nedley studied the stubborn set of her jaw for a few seconds before relenting. “I think Nicole has an extra pair in her bottom desk drawer. We’ll take the trails to the west and east, you look up north. Keep an eye out for soft ground, and when the paths go up the hills, stay away from the edge. If any parts of the trail that are flooded or too unstable to keep going, stay put and radio me.” He handed her a walkie. “Come back before dark no matter what. We’ll have to get the sheriff department involved if we don’t find her by sundown.”
“We’ll find her,” Waverly said, determined. Then she remembered the milkshake. “Do you have a freezer in here?"
*
The path Waverly chose to go down first was pretty but also very muddy. She had slipped a couple times and had her slightly too large hiking boot kept getting stuck. But she persisted, and soon she was rewarded by the telltale bright red curls sticking out among all the green and brown. "Nicole!"
The ranger was leaning against a tree, but she almost fell down in surprise at the sound of Waverly's voice, looking even more surprised to see her trudging through the mud towards her. “Waverly! What are you doing here?”
“Looking for you!" Waverly said as she finally reached her. "Your boss and Lonnie are looking, too. You didn’t radio, you didn’t call -“
“There’s no cell reception out here and I dropped my walkie when I fell off the cliff.”
“You fell off a cliff?!?”
Nicole winced. “More slid than fell. And it wasn’t even that far.”
“Then why are you hugging that tree? You’re hurt,” Waverly realized.
“I’m okay, my ankle’s just twisted.”
“Are you sure? I can radio them and get them to bring a stretcher -“
“Nope, no way. I’m still new and Lonnie’ll never let me hear the end of it.”
“Fine, but we’re going slow, okay? And you need to let them know you’re okay before we go anywhere.”
“Fair enough.” Waverly handed over the walkie and Nicole hit the button. "Ranger Nedley, this Ranger Haught. Do you copy?"
There was static and then Nedley said, "I copy. Good to hear from ya. You okay?"
"Busted my ankle, but it's not broken. Waverly found me and we're making our way to the ranger's station."
"Meet you there. Over and out."
Waverly took back the walkie then put her arm around Nicole’s waist. “Lean on me.”
Nicole worried her lip. “Um …”
“What?”
“You’re kinda small and I’m kinda tall, and if I lean on you, I might topple us both over.”
Waverly huffed out an annoyed breath. “What is with everyone thinking I can’t handle stuff today? I grew up helping out at my uncle and aunt's farm; if their cows couldn’t knock me over, you’re not going to.”
“Alright.” Nicole still looked dubious, but she draped her arm across Waverly’s shoulders and ever-so-slightly leaned into her. Slowly, they took their first steps down the path.
“How’re you doing?” Waverly asked after a minute of their dragging, ponderous pace.
“It hurts, but not bad enough to stop.”
“Anything I can do to make it feel better?”
“Distract me. Tell me something that’ll take my mind off it. Like why you were out here searching for me.”
“I told you -“
“No, you told me why Nedley and Lonnie are looking for me. It’s not like either of them would know you to ask you to help find me, so you must have gone to them.”
“You haven’t come by Shorty's in over two weeks,” Waverly said, hoping Nicole didn't notice her blush. “Wynonna said you missed your boxing class. I was worried.”
“You were checking up on me,” Nicole said, sounding pleased. “That’s so sweet.”
As Waverly helped Nicole around a fallen branch, she gathered up her courage to ask, “Why did you stop coming? Were you just busy or was it … did something else make you not want to come by?”
“It was family stuff. Remember what I told you about my parents?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Well, my mom called. She wanted to wish me a happy birthday.”
“It was your birthday?”
Nicole laughed humorlessly. “No, my birthday’s in January. I guess it’s hard for her to keep the J months straight. Anyway, she really just wanted money. When I wouldn’t give her any, she said some … not so nice things to me.”
Waverly's heart hurt at how sad she sounded. “I’m sorry, Nicole."
“Yeah, well, that’s what I get for taking her call in the first place. Anyway, I got in my head about it and I started walking the trails during my lunch breaks to try and clear it, and instead I haven’t seen you in two weeks and fell down a cliff on my ass.”
“Kinda worked. At least you’ll have something else to think about now,” Waverly said cheerfully, surprising a laugh out of Nicole.
“Even a twisted ankle has a bright side.”
“That’s the spirit.” Waverly worried her lip before asking, “So ... you missed me?”
“Of course I did,” Nicole said, her eyes soft when Waverly chanced a glance at her. “Seems like you missed me, too. You came looking for me. You saved me.”
“Well, I owed you for saving me from some poor kid walking in on me with my shirt over my head.”
“Hey, I’m happy to help you out of your shirt anytime,” Nicole said, her voice teasing.
“Maybe when your ankle heals up, I’ll let you,” Waverly said, her eyes focused on the path in front of her.
“It’s a date.”
She looked up at Nicole again and smiled, and Nicole smiled back; and then they both looked away, giddy and still a little nervous, and also trying not to slide in the mud.
“Almost there,” Waverly said as the light filtered through the trees ahead. Soon they could see the place where the tree line ended, and just beyond it, the ranger station. “And there’s a milkshake waiting for you when we get there.”
*
A week later, Waverly dropped by Nicole's place. It wasn't the first time either; she'd helped Nicole get home after she'd found her in the woods, and she'd come by to check on her almost every day since. They planned on going on their first date as soon as Nicole could manage to walk further than the mailbox without her ankle aching, but Waverly liked just hanging out and spending time with her.
“I come with gifts!” Waverly said in a sing-song voice, plopping her tote bag on Nicole’s coffee table and sitting next to her on the couch. She pulled out a Shorty’s Scoops pint. “First, coffee ice cream.”
“Aw, thank you.”
“Second, toppings,” she said, pulling out a variety of sauces, fruits, chocolate, nuts, and crumbled cookies, as well as a couple of bowls and spoons.
Nicole pursed her lips as she opened the pint and started spooning out the ice cream. “I’m feeling judged for my ice cream preferences again.”
“No judgement, the toppings are mostly for me. And you, but only if you want them.”
Nicole pondered the spread before reaching for the M&Ms and pouring them onto her ice cream. “Halloween candy is your rebellion, right?”
“Right,” Waverly said, smiling as Nicole took a bite. “If you’re looking for costume ideas, may I suggest Xena?”
“I’ll consider it. Would you be Gabrielle?"
"Maybe. I might be a ladybug, I haven't decided yet."
"Well, I can't wait to find out."
When Nicole kissed her, she tasted like mocha, coffee and chocolate combined.
Waverly thought it might become her favorite flavor.