A/N: Based on a prompt I got months ago about flying whales. I forgot who sent it, so my apologies for not giving credit. I started this, never finished it, and based on previews and whatnot... set in the future after a Reamy break-up.

It's the whales. That's what does it. That's what tells them all that Amy is as high as a fucking kite.

Or would tell them. If they weren't all just as baked.

Amy sits up suddenly, swinging her feet down off Reagan's couch and almost kicking Liam in the head

(totally accidentally)

and she's got this look on her face like she's just solved every crisis in the world. She's going to bring peace to the Middle East, solve global warming, end world hunger, and figure out a way for Carmilla and Laura to be together.

Or…

She might just ask about the whales.

"What if," she starts, "and go with me on this… what it the whales - and only the whales - started to fly?"

It's the single most ridiculous thing any of them has ever heard.

Which doesn't mean every one of them isn't thinking about it right now.

It's the day after prom, which means it's really the night after prom because most of them spent the day after prom passed out, recovering, and trying to figure out which of the relationships they'd fucked up the most. Someone, probably Karma

(it seems like a Karma thing to do)

made them all agree they'd get back together and have, to quote Shane, a 'group hang'.

Amy suspects it had something to do with Karma wanting Liam to see her with Wade. Or Wade to see her with Liam. Or someone - anyone, really - to see her with someone, the perfect evidence of the perfect, fairy-tale, all as it should be in Karma-land prom experience.

Originally, they'd planned on Amy's house, but now Karma's trying to talk Amy into hosting an end of the school year party

(she has a pool after all and Amy knows Karma's always dreamed of under the stars kisses in a pool)

so, instead, Reagan, for some reason only she will ever understand, has let them all gather at her place. She barely remembers making the suggestion but, apparently, it was the one thing sad and drunk and all 'I kissed a boy and I didn't like it' Amy held onto from the nearly three hour conversation they had when sad and drunk Amy showed up unannounced at four am.

It was the first time they'd talked since the break up, save for a couple of 'how you doing?' texts and Reagan probably only said it stop Amy from crying and because, break-up aside, she's missed Amy.

She might have skipped that part when explaining things to Nicole, her new girlfriend, right after said new girlfriend found ex-girlfriend sleeping on the couch at seven in the morning, and might have focused on how much fun a little impromptu party would be.

And now, it's a little awkward, to say the least, having them all under one roof - Reagan's lost count of how many love triangles, squares, parallelograms, rhombuses

(rhombi?)

and other assorted geometric shapes are sitting around her living room. But, so far, there's been minimal drama

(Lauren might have voiced some concerns over having weed around a former cop)

(Theo might have assuaged those concerns by taking the first - and second and third - hits)

and peace has reigned. Peace and a whole lot of weed - thank you Mr. and Mrs. Ashcroft for missing that stash of the good stuff during the move to the Good Karma truck - and even if Reagan doubts it will stay this mellow, she still can't help but be curious.

She just wants to see how it's all gonna end.

Hence, Amy and the weed and the whales.

After Amy says it, they all just sit there for a moment. A couple of them

(a very quickly stoned Felix and a mellowed out but totally gone Theo)

stare up at the ceiling of Reagan's apartment like they can actually, you know, see the whales.

"Woah," Karma says, leaning back against an ottoman next to Felix. She's struck suddenly, by the image of a giant whale, majestically floating through the clouds like a huge mammalian zeppelin.

"I know," Amy says, nodding her head. "The whales." She whispers that last bit, like she's the 'I see dead people' kid.

"Wait," Lauren says, straightening up, her back pressing against Theo's chest as she sits between his outstretched legs. No one, not even Amy, has been able to get a straight answer as to whether they're back together, but they're the only ones acting couply

(except for Reagan and Nicole, who Amy didn't even know existed until four that morning, but she's happy Reagan's found her and they seem really happy and Amy's just decided, right this very second, that she totally hates her, just on principle)

(yup, just on principle)

so everyone is just going with it, mostly because Lauren seems happy and because no one wants to be the one to make her unhappy. No one is that dumb.

Not even Liam.

"The whales?" Lauren asks. She cocks her head thoughtfully when Amy nods. "But whales don't fly."

Even high Lauren has a sense of logic.

"Exactly!" Amy says. She bounces in place on the couch and her bottle of water tips, pouring some out over Liam's shoulder. But he hardly notices.

He's too busy staring at Karma.

Who is staring at Wade.

Who is making a real effort not to stare at anyone - especially not Karma or Shane

(former threesome partners totally equals avoiding eye contact)

and if he wasn't so high, he'd probably be wondering what the hell he's doing here

(besides adding more drama to the star-crossed love / bullshit affair that is Kiam)

since he's only known most of these people for like ten minutes, even if it feels like weeks.

Amy puts a finger to her nose - Reagan grinning at how adorable high Amy is - and points at Lauren. "You got it," she says. "That's the whole point. They don't fly. But what if, one day, out of the blue, they did?"

A quick glance around the room confirms for Reagan that she's the only one who's even remotely picked up on the sub-text.

Something that doesn't do something, suddenly does it. And it changes everything.

Hmmm… what on Earth could make Amy think of something like that?

"Flying whales?" Liam asks, suddenly noticing his damp shirt and then, just as quickly, forgetting it. "That's deep."

Everyone waits for him to follow up, but all he does is go back to staring at Karma which makes everyone, except Karma, vaguely uncomfortable, but he's not talking about integrity and true love and his sacrifice so that's an improvement.

"Which?" Karma asks, finally pulling her eyes away from Wade but then they land on Liam so she just as quickly turns the other way and sees Shane and so another shift and there's Amy

(and for fuck's sake, is there anyone here she hasn't kissed?)

before she finally turns, right next to her, to find Felix sprawled out, his head slowly tipping toward her shoulder because, clearly, Felix is a big a lightweight as he is a black hole of boring.

"Which what," he mumbles, slipping ever closer to Karma and completely oblivious to the death glare Liam's fixed him with.

"Which whales?" Karma asks, putting both hands on his shoulders and slowly steering him back upright. "Which whales are flying? Sperm? Killer? Humpback?"

Shane snorts next to Liam. "She said sperm."

They all ignore him which, truthfully, most have them been doing that since the week leading up to prom anyway. That was when his obsession with Wade - and with not letting Karma get him, at least not alone - reached a fever pitch.

But, when aren't things with Shane at a fever pitch. Besides, if he's joking about sperm at least he's too busy to out anyone.

Amy shakes her head, exasperated with Karma. "It doesn't matter which," she says. "All the whales, they're all flying. Everywhere. Wherever they have to go, they fly."

"But where do whales have to go?" Nicole asks from her spot on Reagan's lap and the only thing Reagan can think is oh, baby, don't talk.

Every eye in the room - even Felix's near closed ones - turns on her, all of them wondering the same thing.

Who the hell are you, again?

"Whales," Liam says, nodding and staring at Nicole just a bit too long

(she's a lesbian, he has no choice)

and then he turns to Theo with an outstretched fist. "Gimme a little dap for the whales," he says. "Am I right?"

Theo just stares at him, all glassy eyed and lost and oh if his former Captain could see him now.

Lauren reaches out and slowly guides Liam's hand back down. "No," she says, shaking her head. "Just… no."

Liam nods again, unfazed by the rejection. "Riiiiight." He nudges Shane with his shoulder, nearly knocking his best friend over. "What's up?"

"The whales are," Wade says and immediately regrets it because now the synchronized side eyeing is aimed at him. "Cause," he says, trying - and failing - to make it better, "they're flying."

They fall into silence for a moment - everyone else afraid to speak after that - until Karma finally breaks it.

"But why?" she asks, using a shoulder to push Felix back up again. "Why would they just suddenly fly? What's wrong with swimming? They've been swimming all their lives. And it's always been good enough."

"Yeah," Liam says, nodding like the world's straightest bobble-head.

Reagan waits, wondering if anyone else is going to get it or if Amy will have to take the bait.

"Maybe they just thought flying sounded better," Amy says, shifting slightly on the couch and spilling more water on Liam. "Or maybe they realized flying was what they were meant to do."

"Fuckin' A!" Liam yells as Reagan snaps her eyes back to Karma.

"They just realized?" Karma asks. "Or maybe they just thought they realized. I mean, maybe they flew once and thought 'wow, this is awesome' but in the end, they'll totally get that swimming is what's best. Swimming is where it's at."

"Damn straight," Liam says and Reagan notices that the higher he gets, the more and more he sounds like a British fuckboy.

"And maybe," Amy says, "they only swam for all that time because that's what everyone says whales are supposed to do. So they did it. And they even tried really, really hard to like it, but in the end it was just wet and cold and… ugh."

"Ugh?" Felix lifts his head for just a moment and Reagan almost feels bad for him

(but she remembers the way Amy described his kiss and damn, she can't feel that bad because really, how does anyone screw up kissing Amy Raudenfeld?)

"Maybe not totally ugh," Amy says, clearly taking some pity on the boy. "Like they could do it, if they had to." She glances over at Reagan. "But why would they?"

Nicole tenses in Reagan's lap and Liam yells "Preach on!" and Reagan makes a silent vow to never get high with him again.

"But what about the other sea creatures?" Karma asks. She scoots forward so Felix's head slips off her shoulder and he topples over behind her, his head resting on the ottoman. "What about the ones the whales just leave behind? What about them?"

"Yeah, Amy," Liam chimes in. "What about them?"

Amy shrugs and Reagan can see it in her eyes. She's sobered up. And the fun's gone.

"Maybe they'd like flying too," Amy says. "But even if they didn't… it doesn't matter. They're all too busy swimming and swimming and swimming and swimming to ever even notice the whales are gone."

Nicole leans in close and whispers in Reagan's ear. "I don't think they're really talking about whales."

Reagan smiles and thanks God Nicole's good with her tongue.

"Well…. well…" Karma's lost and floundering and Amy's in no mood to help her out.

"Yeah, babe. Right. Fucking. On." Liam says and Karma smiles, shyly

(or as shy as you can smile at someone you've basically fucked in a car)

and Amt stands, suddenly, picking up her bottle of water and dumping it directly over his head before stalking off to the kitchen.

Shane wobbles his way back into the conversation when some of the water splashes off Liam and onto him. "Dude," he says. "You're wet. Were you swimming with the whales?"

Amy's standing over the sink, washing a glass when Reagan catches up to her.

"So…" Reagan says. "That was interesting."

Amy scrubs the inside of the glass and rinses it, then takes the sponge to the outside.

"It's kinda cool, you know," Reagan says, "having all your friends here. We never spent all that much time with them when we were…"

She trails off as Amy glares at her and then returns to the glass.

"Yeah, sorry, my bad," Reagan says realizing a little belatedly that maybe the breakup is still something of a sore subject. She glances out over her little breakfast bar at the living room, Nicole smiling back at her.

"It is," Amy says after a minute. "Cool, I mean," she says. "Having them all together."

Amy's never had much in the way of friends outside of Karma. And while she's not entirely sure she'd count Wade or Liam as friends

(and Felix is… well… the less said, the better)

it's still a far cry from the days when the only people she spoke to were her mother, Karma, and Irma the lunch lady.

"It's like we're all a big group now," she says. "Like a team or a club or an…"

"Ensemble?" Reagan offers and Amy nods. "I get that," she says. "That must be nice for you, maybe take a little of the pressure off. Now it doesn't always have to be the Karma and Amy show."

Nice. Yeah. That's exactly the word for it. Except for when it isn't so nice, like all those times when Amy finds herself wishing it was always just the Karma and Amy show.

Too many times, she's wished for that, especially lately.

"Or the Karma and Amy and Liam show," Amy says even though they both know she means the Kiam and Amy show because, let's face it, since the moment she agreed to faking it, Amy's been third-wheeling that shit like a four-year-old on their first Big Wheel.

She rinses the glass and then starts washing the inside again, but Reagan doesn't mention it.

"So… you and… what's his name? Felix?"

The glass slips from Amy's hand but she catches it before it hits the sink and breaks. "Yeah," she says, "about that…"

"It's OK, Shrimps," Reagan says. She knows what Amy's worried about, the impression her hooking up with a boy might give. "I know I wasn't a phase to you."

She covers one of Amy's hands with her own and Amy can only hope Reagan doesn't feel the tremble.

"So, Nicole seems nice."

Inwardly, Amy groans. She doesn't have all that much relationship experience but even she knows that when the ex says the new GF 'seems nice' that totally translates to 'she's a fucking bitch faced whore and I want her to die."

Reagan laughs and squeezes Amy's hand. "Nicole is nice," she says.

And then there's a pause, an opening, and both of them wonder, for a moment, if 'but she's not you' would fit neatly into that pause.

It would. It really would.

But Reagan knows - and has always known, even if she didn't want to admit it - that Amy isn't ready for that and, while there's a lot of reasons for that, a certain redheaded reason is sitting in the living room.

But still. There's that pause.

And maybe, for right now, that's enough.

Both girls speak at the same time, Amy saying 'I'm being stupid aren't I?' and Reagan asking 'it's Karma, isn't it?'.

Reagan hops up onto the counter next to the sink, never letting go of Amy's hand, and takes the glass from her before she washes it into non-existence.

"I'm starting to have feelings for her again," Amy says. She keeps her eyes down, like she's embarrassed or ashamed or - most likely - thinks it's sort of mean to say that to Reagan of all people, which is why she makes a point of emphasizing 'starting'.

A part of Reagan wants - really, really wants - to ask Amy if she's sure she ever stopped having them. But she doesn't. Because she believes Amy did stop, at least to an extent, as much as anyone can with their first love and their first heartbreak.

And she'll sleep better tonight if she keeps on believing that.

"I take it those are flying whale kind of feelings?"

Amy smiles, a little. "Yeah. Big whales," she says. "Lots of flying. Big stupid fucking whales flying aimlessly across the sky." She squeezes the sponge in her other hand, letting the water run out over her fingers. "And they just keep flying and flying and flying and going fucking nowhere."

Reagan looks out to the living room. Theo, Shane, and Wade are having some kind of dance contest, Lauren's on the couch looking unimpressed, and Felix is passed out on the floor, basically forgotten. And Karma and Liam are…

Nowhere to be found.

"It's not her fault," Amy says, though right now Reagan might tend to disagree. "I told her once she can't control her feelings any more than I can control mine. So, really, I can't be mad at her."

Reagan thinks Amy might have some more grounds for being mad than she thinks, but she also knows the blonde has a point.

Life's too short to be chasing someone who's chasing someone else

"But that doesn't change the fact that I'm… miserable," Amy says. "Not being mad at her doesn't make it it any easier to know it will never happen or ignore it when she does things that make me… that fool me into thinking it might. Or to see her chasing after Wade or whoever's next."

Reagan glances back out at the still-no-Kiam-in-sight living room.

She doesn't think there's going to be a next whoever. Not for a while. Not until Karma gets hottie fucking doucheface out of her system.

"I'm sorry," Amy says, dropping the sponge in the sink and blinking back tears. "I shouldn't be dumping all this on you. It's not fair. I mean, until I showed up here last night, I didn't even know if were friends and now -"

Reagan slips off the counter and pulls Amy to her, holding her tight and not caring - not even for a second - that she can feel Nicole's eyes burning into her.

"Of course we're friends, Shrimps," Reagan says. She means it to be soothing but it only seems to make Amy cry harder. "You think I just stopped caring when we broke up?"

Amy shrugs against Reagan's chest. Her only other breakup was with Karma and look how well that turned out.

"We broke up because of timing," Reagan says. "You weren't ready to be what I wanted and I wasn't ready to be what you needed." She wraps her arms a little tighter and tries to ignore the part of her that doesn't want to let go. "You didn't cheat, you didn't lie, you didn't break my heart," she whispers in Amy's ear. "And I'm sorry I disappeared on you, but…"

"But you needed to," Amy says softly and Reagan nods.

"I was never going to get over you, Shrimps. Not with you in my face and my world and my heart… every day," Reagan says. "Saying it was over, that was only half the battle."

Amy tips her head back to look at her and Reagan feels like the air's just gone right out of the room.

"I needed space," she says, "to finish the job."

Reagan steps back and Amy lets herself slowly slip from her ex's arms.

"Maybe that's something you ought to think about," Reagan says. "You know? Look at us. We're hanging out, getting high." They both laugh and Reagan squelches the urge to comment on how much she missed that sound. "Maybe that could work for whales too," she says.

Reagan turns to head back toward the living room, but stops short when Amy calls out to her.

"Did it work?" she asks. "The space. Did it finish the job?"

Reagan glances out at Nicole, who's trying so hard to look at them without looking like she's looking at them and weighs her words carefully. "It's a work in progress," she says softly and then heads back to the living room, slipping back down onto the chair as Nicole scoots back into her lap, kissing her

you may as well have peed on her

and Reagan doesn't look back at the kitchen. Not once.

No matter how much she wants to.

Karma and Liam finally rejoin the fun twenty minutes later. Everyone's highs are just about gone and as their memories kick back in, the laughter has been mostly replaced by uncomfortable chit chat and the occasional silence.

Karma takes a quick look around and then turns to Reagan.

"Where's Amy?"

Reagan smiles and it's this odd cross between happy and sad and something Karma can't quite put her finger on.

"Amy?" Reagan asks, her eyes darting to the door. "Oh. She said to tell you she'd see you later, she had to fly."