Chapter Text
Eleanor was never one to be taken by surprise. She wasn't surprised when her goody two-shoes boyfriend dumped her, she wasn't surprised when she contracted an STI from the sleazy bartender she slept with after said break up, nor was she surprised when she ran into her former best friend at the free clinic two days later, both clutching information pamphlets about chlamydia and a prescription note for STI medication to their chests.
If there was one thing Eleanor felt mostly immune to, it was surprises.
But then Tahani came along, showed interest in her, and made Eleanor want to be a better person and Eleanor was convinced that that would be the biggest surprise she would experience in the afterlife. How could a woman so beautiful and so seemingly good fall for someone like her? Someone who spent their life making other people sick and miserable without ever giving them a second thought? Someone who never thought about anyone other than themselves?
Eleanor had begun to think that The Good Place was her second chance to right her wrongs and start over. Obviously, she knew she still had issues she needed to work on and there were still parts of her personality that needed some serious fixing, but she had believed she was on her way to becoming a better person and deserving of the woman the "system" had chosen as her perfect match.
As it turned out, everything Eleanor thought she knew was a lie. Tahani wasn't a selfless, charitable goddess; Tahani was just a normal goddess that held a lot of resentment towards her sister and a deep sadness towards her parents' lack of interest in her. Her life was spent doing great deeds not out of kindness and selflessness, but out of a desire to upstage her sister and gain her parents' approval. Chidi was just as good as Eleanor suspected he was, but he lived his life completely disregarding others and taking everyone and everything around him for granted. Jason was just an idiot who did idiotic things and Eleanor was just…Eleanor. Her life's bad deeds were known to all, so it didn't come as a shock to her when she discovered that she was right where she belonged.
Eleanor's shock came not from her being sorted into The Bad Place, but being unaware of the fact that she was in The Bad Place all along. She hated frozen yogurt, she was constantly surrounded by people who were better than her, and more than once she had thought that this place was a personal hell designed specifically for her. The only thing that made things seem worthwhile was sex with Tahani and, even then, she still felt incompetent (not because of her skills in the bedroom but because Tahani had the body of a bronzed goddess and made her feel like chunky, spoiled milk when she compared their bodies after a night together).
Michael, who had seemed like the world's most irritatingly optimistic man in the afterlife, was a demon who wanted a chance for promotion. He concocted this experiment meant to torture them by placing them in their own personal hells, except it backfired. They were placed here to make each other miserable, except Jason found love with Janet, Eleanor found something akin to love with Tahani and Chidi had begun to loosen up and enjoy the life he now had. They had made each other's afterlives worth living and Michael hadn't counted on that.
And now they were on the run.
"It was nice while it lasted…" Tahani said with a wistful sigh, staring at Eleanor with an unreadable expression.
So much had happened over the last two days and everyone was exhausted. They were spending what could possibly be their final moments together, yet their group was now divided and scattered around Eleanor and Tahani's small living room in various states of unrest. Jason was seated beside Janet, snuggling into her stiff side and asking her about the break dance competitions they had in hell; Chidi had forgone sitting in an actual seat and had settled himself into a corner where he was balled into a fetal position; and Tahani and Eleanor were seated on opposite sides of their small couch, exchanging brief glances every now and then, but not saying much.
Eleanor's attention had snapped up at Tahani's quiet admission, surprised the taller woman had spoken. It had been over an hour since either of them had said a word.
"What was?"
Tahani took a deep breath before gesturing between her and Eleanor. "This. Whatever this is."
Eleanor furrowed her brow at that. What was that supposed to mean?
"Whatever this is?" Eleanor asked incredulously.
But really, what had she expected? Tahani cared for her, that much was obvious; the fact that she had snuggled her at night, listened to her thoughts and feelings and sat with her through Chidi's ethics classes attested to that. But did Tahani love her? Probably not. Why would she? Eleanor shouldn't have been surprised that Tahani would refer to what they had as just "this", but she still found herself feeling hurt regardless. She had almost fooled herself into believing she could be loved, and she only had herself to blame. False hope was a birch.
"Us," Tahani amended. "Look, Eleanor, I really care about you. When I told you not too long ago that I fell for you, I meant it."
Eleanor held her breath, waiting for Tahani to continue. Judging by the deep breath the other woman had taken, she was preparing herself to say more.
"I love you."
Eleanor's mental pity party had ended just as soon as it begun. Tahani had said the three words that not even Eleanor had been brave enough to say. Eleanor's heart had soared at the earnest look in the other woman's eyes.
Eleanor released a shaky breath and scooted closer to Tahani, taking Tahani's hand into her own as she uttered the three words that had been fighting to escape from her mouth everyday for the last few months.
"I love you, too."
Tahani gave her a sad smile. "Pity we couldn't have said it sooner."
Eleanor's mental pity party resumed itself as she leaned forward, closed her eyes and captured Tahani's lips in a gentle kiss. Eleanor heard the door to the cottage open and knew Michael had entered the room. She knew this would be their last kiss and she had decided to savor it, not caring who saw. Eleanor deepened the kiss and felt Tahani's hands cradle both sides of her face. Eleanor had placed her hands over Tahani's, never breaking their kiss, and felt a tear drop drip onto her hand a moment later. They were both shaking and hesitant to let the other go, but when their lungs began to burn, they reluctantly brought their kiss to a halt.
As the two pulled apart, everything suddenly went black.
Eleanor gasped and sat up in bed, her body covered in a thin sheen of sweat. What the heck was that and why did it seem so real? she thought to herself. Why was she kissing Tahani and why were they confessing their love for each other? Last Eleanor checked, she and Tahani were nothing to each other. But, that dream - that dream had made it seem like they were everything to each other. Eleanor felt like she was experiencing the weirdest case of Deja vu.
"Eleanor, babe, you don't look too good. Want to come workout with me?" Chris asked from his side of the room, where Eleanor saw him standing near his weight bench doing barbell curls.
"I'm fine, but thank you so much for asking," Eleanor said with thinly veiled sarcasm.
"No problem, babe," Chris responded, obviously not detecting the sarcasm.
She smiled tightly at the air-headed man and laid back down, turning her back to her exercising "soulmate".
Eleanor closed her eyes, willing herself to go back to sleep, but all she could see was Tahani and all she could feel was a dull ache in her chest that told her something was very wrong.