Chapter 1: Chapter one
Chapter Text
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It all started incidentally.
One of the most prestigious buildings of Zaofu towered in front of her.
Before entering, the sun made the gold and silver entangled markings on the grey marble facade shine, contrasting perfectly a livid sky where a dark gloom was about to unleash its rage on everything and everyone below.
On the lucid floor her flat patent black shoes firmly tapped, rebounding inside the huge hall when she entered. Before nearing the reception counter, the same game of green, silver and golden materials used on the facade braided together in a stunning draw where she walked, recalling a notorious family stem.
“Good evening Miss. Laghima. You are early today, last floor.”
She looked at her watch signing 2:22 pm; thirty minutes to her appointment. The woman took the badge handed by the girl sitting behind the marble desk and headed to the elevator.
As she got in the empty cabin, on her back somebody rushed in as well, almost hitting her to press the button already shining under tiny fingertips.
Doors closing, numbers indicating last floor.
“Fuck fuck fuck, it’s fucking freezing!” A high pitched voice reached her ears within soft pants and metal rustling, provoked by tiny hands shaking on a pile of baggy clothes. The woman shot a glance. It was oddly unusual to hear someone swear in a place like that, where sobriety and elegance exuded from each wall and every molecule inhaled was enriched by expensive perfumes.
The unconventionality of that situation would have made her want to mentally smile on a good day but that, unfortunately, appeared to be just a bad one as she rolled her eyes.
At a first glance it was impressive how small the girl behind was.
She smelled like pure honey, wrapped in a suede coat stopping at the knees while clinging onto a casual backpack under her arm, as she trembled due to the mid autumnal gusts of wind. A white beanie covered her head from where a bang messily sneaked beneath, framing a small bronze face and a button red nose which, every once and then, sniffled congested.
From that first impression she surely wasn’t a person who enjoyed cold weather.
“What? You never heard someone swear?” the girl scowled at her stare.
In a second the realization of that natural yet rude gesture hit, forming a lump into Kuvira’s throat. No matter if she grew used to people staring at her, she knew how uncomfortable that could be. So she averted her gaze to plant it forward, to the lift doors “If I didn’t, now I did”
“Pft, rich snob”
Kuvira frowned taken aback and shoot a firm glance. The girl on a corner behind, lifted an eyebrow in dare as to confirm her own poorly muffled statement but as their eyes eventually locked, the blood pumping in the woman’s veins increased its rush.
The light filtering inside the full glass elevator made the stranger’s doe green eyes vividly sparkle like peridots under crystal water. Then something happened. At first the woman thought it was her heart exploding but as the floor trembled a bit under her feet, she realized the elevator actually stopped.
“I can’t believe it...” the girl huffed “this is a jinx” annoyed as if she was actually used to it, or maybe just used to set backs in general. Her presence, however, evidently shrunk no matter how aggravated she looked.
Kuvira let out a breath instead and pushed the elevator alarm button “I’m sure it’ll be fixed in few”.
When she looked back, the stranger’s head was turned towards the city horizons and on her round face, dark threatening clouds engulfing the bright sun over it displayed.
The girl shrugged, “They better..”
Kuvira could do nothing but try to focus on something that wasn’t the quirky girl claiming her attention like iron attracting a magnet. Suddenly, the black turtleneck collar seemed to tighten like a fist; she wasn’t afraid of heights nor closed spaces, but there was something bothering her, perhaps due to the short-haired beauty’s sudden change.
The time on her watch gleamed at the livid daylight, 2:25 pm.
“So, since we are stuck in here...Kuvira, do you like thunderstorms?”
“How do you know my name?” The woman inquired confused while the girl got closer. A million questions crowded her mind as the honey scent powerfully flared in her nostrils, enchanting, almost tempting... familiar?
Did we ever meet?
“Nice watch, anyway.” the girl commented avoiding her question, grabbing instead her rough hand; it was haunting how soft and small the other was, cold, until the woman connected words to action. Below black feathery lashes, the stranger’s eyes moved from her name faintly finished on the watch frame to pierce into hers. There was no way she could’ve read it “I bet daddy spent a lot of money on this Rolex”
“Listen,” Kuvira withdrew her hand as if burned from that contact “today i’m not in the mood for petty conversation.” she declared harshly. Nosy brat..
How long did it take to fix an elevator?
As the short girl rose her head completely to look up at the woman, a dark brown strand fell on her parted lips “Did you just call me a brat?”
Kuvira absently bit her own at the sight, slightly aroused; she didn’t remember pronouncing that word, sure it stayed stuck in the back of her mind but yet, how else could the stranger know that was exactly what she thinking about her? She cleared her throat without any wish to take back something never said, nevertheless to deny, so she husked “Isn’t that what you are?”
Silence fell inside the cabin and then, the only thing perceived the moment after was heat emanating from that tiny hand when it violently slapped against the woman’s cheek. It felt like an eternity passing as both chests lowered and rose evidently, panting heavily while her eyes darkened into the wider ones, locked into each other’s at that burning sensation.
Instead, just a split second passed before the girl grabbed her dark green trench coat to crash their lips together, preventing her from saying anything else. Kuvira found immediately how her dry lips matched the soft plump ones perfectly but stayed still, freezing like the rest of her body under the girl’s touch. Slowly, she grasped the stranger’s small frame to end that hazardous move; yet, when their lips departed, a heated feeling instantly hit: like a fine breeze, it rolled down her back while her heart pumped in a shattering rhythm, as if awakening after an entire lifetime.
Her eyes opened finding the brilliant ones doing the same, meeting and locking in the middle, intense like the heavy breaths shared.
That pause lasted nothing before their mouths collided again in another breathless kiss. This time her lips glided on the soft ones, starting a rapturing dance in which her fingers fervently dug into the stranger’s love handles under the coat’s embrace, clawing as if trying to get inside her skin and blend into one.
Kuvira then carefully cupped the little face inducing her bottom lip to overlap hers and suck on it passionately, before their tongues met in the middle in smooth wet caresses. The friction aroused a moan to form inside the girl’s throat, expanding into her chest when their mouths barely disclosed together to change angulation and deepen that connection. At the shift, the white beanie fell on the ground forgotten.
The sensation provoked from brushing her body against the girl’s melted the lasts synapses charged with common sense, moving closer to clash feverishly.
Tiny hands then budged and rushed from her shoulders to the back in a clutching embrace when the need to get closer increased wildly. In seconds, desire ate Kuvira alive, pushing against the heating body till hitting the glass wall with a loud thud, bringing her back to reality.
Gleaming green pools resplended and reflected into Kuvira’s once again filled with pleasure and excitement.
Their mouths departed, now connected uniquely by a thin line of saliva. Her heart bumped atrociously in protest.
“We need to be quick” the girl prompted on her parted lips, with a soft voice embed with impatience while her hand lowered dangerously to stop at her crotch.
The woman retracted even when those simple words sparkled a fire within instead of stopping her but then, the stranger was the one who froze. Her brows furrowed below the messy bang, seeking for an answer in the businesswoman’s ferns, stuck in a momentary speechlessness; was there a simple way to explain something like that to a stranger? As Kuvira withdrew again to end any contact the girl’s peridots, filled with surprise, darted insistently on hers instead, grasping the bulge possessively and leaning closer. “I want it deep inside me” she whispered without hesitation, caressing her covered base.
Kuvira breathed profoundly staring at her while those uncertain brushes became warm lavish massages, hardening her sex already aroused by the kiss, dazing her mind at the enticing realization of fucking with a stranger whom didn’t seem to mind what she had between her legs without a list of questions.
She grinned and sank her face at the girl’s neck juncture, sucking the honeyed skin in warm sloppy kisses, drawing sweet wails and breathy moans from her throat.
Suddenly she wasn’t as annoying as a few minutes before, Kuvira noted, but just delightfully rushing with shaky hands at the attempt to unzip her black trousers. A badly muffled swear reached her ears as the girl tried to take her member out but failed when it stuck, until she helped her trembling hands, unbelting, unbuttoning and tugging down the cloth. “fuck, there’s no way you are this big” the girl frowned surprised as the erect length fell on her forearm while cupping her balls to massage.
At the silken touch, Kuvira let out a breathy groan on the stranger’s neck where her scent bloomed like a flower in the middle of spring, eager to explore her body with the palm of her scarred hands “you are right, I get bigger” she informed fast before burying into her covered cleavage, kissing mindlessly, discovering it free from any lingerie.
The tiny perky nipples indeed, poking underneath the sweater fabric were an exquisite distraction from the rest of the world displayed around them, but perhaps, not enough to make her forget about the gentle caresses on her most sensitive parts. She could loose her mind as her lungs burned at each breath; only focusing on the girl driving her crazy, on her moans whispered directly into her ear and her scent lulling into the most deathly trap of her warm skin, deep eyes, avid touch.
Her, the most familiar stranger she ever met in her life.
The businesswoman’s most animalistic impulses lead that urgent need to fuck, to rut until they were both senseless, contrasting a light unclear voice calling within. She however, thought it was just common sense warning her to stop before it was too late, before someone could fix the broken elevator and catch them. A scandal was the last thing she needed at the moment even if it was just a quickie after all. So the woman gave in to what instincts commanded for once, stepping back to remove both their coats followed immediately by the girl’s lips sensually skimming on her sharp jawline, until she was flipped and pressed to face the cold glass “Fuck.. yes” the girl uttered. Her sultry voice instantly sparkled a glimpse of lucidity in her brain. Damn..
They were in public, in a glass lift above the limbs of a chaotic centre, vibrant with activities among the hustle and bustle of fast cars and trains along the streets, mixing with people walking, running, chatting and wrapped in their own distinguished lives, creating a loud fumble fading into the livid crying sky.
If only someone looked up at them they could’ve clearly seen.
The first rain drops began to stripe on the wall they were leaning onto. Kuvira placed her wide palm on its smooth surface to slightly withdraw from the girl’s back “Wait,” she whispered concerned ”they can see us.”
“Let them see, I don’t care.” The stranger remarked, throwing an eloquent glance while opening invitingly her legs, arching back and grinding rear against her shaft ”Just fuck me like this.”
Kuvira’s jaw clenched at the blissful meaning of her chants. She wanted her. She couldn’t even stop her other hand from grabbing the girl’s hip proprietorially, squeezing while pressing her towards the glass with her own hips. Yet, her overly suspicious thoughts constricted her to check the lift’s corners.
“There’s no cameras in here, just two outside each floor” the girl eased hinting her hesitation.
“How do you know?”
Time passed interminably, increasing curiosity, arousing a rush of blood to dash along her adamant member. So she let it go, since time after all wasn’t on their side. Rapidly her hands worked to unbutton and tug down the girl’s high waisted jeans, uncovering her perfect round rear adorned with ridiculous yellow and white bunny panties. She smiled, taken aback by the childish pattern and slid her length to brush against the fabric, teasing with a push both covered entrance and clit where a dampen stain already soaked.
“Kuvira...” the girl’s sweet voice called in a delicate sigh sending her directly to heaven as her strokes found the wet bare skin after the ruined underwear was tucked down. Slowly she stopped to slide between her dark sensitive folds, caught up by the extremely tight, slippery squeeze exerted until the girl stiffened evidently at her girth stretching as it eventually popped in, stealing her breath away.
The woman instantly checked her eye squeezing close while trying to wrap her shaft as much as possible and adjust to it. Kuvira sweared lowly onto the girl’s neck at the arresting pressure around her member, almost pushing her out with each slight thrust in, each time even more moisten until strands of liquid dripped down her swollen base. It contracted instinctively at the girl’s louder moan.
“Is this too much?”
“Don’t fucking stop” she breathed, rocking back to encourage her movements to build a rhythm instead. Her heart pounded acclaiming that delicious sensation engulfing her hardness as it got a few inches deeper.
A scarred hand trailed down, grabbing the back of the girl’s thigh and lifted it as much as consented by the underwear to add strength to each firm lunge; the other instead, wandered around her hip and stopped on her soft lower abdomen holding protectively the more their pleasure grew.
The girl let out continuous moans of appreciation, getting louder when the woman’s broad tip stroked her g-spot and lowering whenever it glided out, tarnishing the window with condensed breath.
They both tried to keep their eyes open, barely noticing the rain outside now thudding violently like stones on the glass the shorthaired beauty was pinned onto, trying to break in and coldly soak their heated bodies. A bright lightning flashed for an instant a spot amidst dark clouds before disappearing, followed by a shattering roar of thunder that caused the stranger’s hand to evidently shake on the window. Something inside Kuvira made her loosen the grip on the girl’s thigh to cover that small hand with her bigger ones and squeeze gently.
Even if still partially outside the broad tip found its way to push against the girl’s cervix at each deepening boost, forcing air out of their lungs, respectively fusing into loud moans. Kuvira tried to unfocus from the velvety of girl’s body below her fingertips, around her cock, against her pelvis but it became nearly impossible.
She didn’t know what that was, that violent sensation bolting fast in her heart like the previous thunder in near sky, but for a second the woman felt a peaceful completeness folding her being. It was a foreign feeling, more than difficult to perceive with all the girls she had been with, left alone strangers. But no matter how annoying this one was, curling her inner organs with her light voice and razor sharp tongue, having sex was completely different with her — new, yet woundingly intimate... indescribable.
Their bodies soon rammed spasmodically, slapping soundly, growing speed unintentionally like if neither of them could control nor restrain their impulses enough and slow down but get caught into that luring, lustful mist.
“Fuck... fUckkk... fuuuck...” the girl’s breathy whines filled Kuvira’s ears like thick honey, while propping out her rear submissively and accompanying every wet slap to get more.. more.
She patted several times on the glass while creaming around her cock now pounding deep within sensitive spots, where nobody ever reached, wherever she even ignored the existence. Quickly Kuvira’s hand moved from lower abdomen to slide on her pussy, finding the twitching soaked bundle of nerves and rub in small slow circles. At the mind blowing stimulation the girl’s eyes reflected into the glass, opening to roll them up in ecstasy, clenching hard as getting dangerously closer to her climax.
The short-haired beauty’s strands tickled unceasingly Kuvira’s contracted face nearly becoming part of her neck, if that was even possible between kisses, laps and low satisfied growls. The sensation of her own cock battling against cervix, folded so tightly in silk slippery pulls, made her feel dizzy and about to loose every inhibition.
“-Vira”
Her scarred fingers fleeted faster on the girl’s sensitive clit spreading her slickness, making her scream in pleasure; then everything around them blurred. Shock after shock the girl began to convulse when her climax reached its peak, at first lightly, then more and more evidently but soundlessly.
She closed around her impossibly tight, massaging her length so hard Kuvira could do nothing but deeply gasp as she came with her.
The way that soaked pussy milked thick ropes of seed from every inch of her pulsing cock pumping profoundly, made her feel senseless for some time in which she messily kissed, breathed and bit her exposed nape in search of some kind of solace.
The gap between each scarred whitening knuckle was filled up in a perfect matching fit, tightening on the tiny hand meanwhile a copious stream of warm cum abundantly flooded the deepest spots of her contracting core.
“Vira...” she whispered again, provoking Kuvira’s heart to skip a beat at the sound. At first she thought it was just the girl’s breath cutting her name but when she repeated it again a fury blasted within her. Nobody ever called her like that, not since—
The girl buckled losing balance between her orgasm’s powerful shocks and the woman’s solid, strong shoves increased as emptying completely inside her.
“i got you. Don’t fall... don’t fall..” she huskily soothed, holding her shaking body for dear life into her own protectively “hush.. hush baby”
At every passing second the woman’s fast pumps became inconstant and weaker until ceasing completely, giving in at the exhausting orgasm, bringing them both to gasp for air till softening inside the embrace.
When they slowed down the world outside began to spin again at the rhythm of their racing hearts; the heat of their fervid movements cooled down leaving them sweating, breathless under sticky clothes lulled by the pelting sounds of that heavy rain intensifying.
Under her breath the girl’s sweet voice uttered “you are clean, right?” and panted, still trembling within her strong arms. “Yes, i swear. I’m sorry”.
With the same care the woman tugged her yellow panties and jeans back up after slowly pulling out from her cum- filled pussy, quickly covering to prevent any spill out. In the middle of the process few kisses were placed along her dressed spine each time a wail and moan was softly breathed out.
It was evident she could barely stand on her buckling legs at that point and Kuvira gave her all the time she needed to recoil, turning her into that warm embrace.
The softness of her deep red cheeks beneath scarred hands made her heart sigh with content as long as the sight of her mesmerizing eyes shining bright into her ferns made it skip several beats. Like dragged, their foreheads met in the middle; messy bang tickling her skin, button red nose brushing her straight one, deep breaths and roaring thunderstorm enraging nearby. The silence shared wasn’t as uncomfortable as she expected, just... strangely restful. She had no idea something like that could even happen with someone so she attributed that intimate moment to their fortuitous tiredness. The more Kuvira gazed at her in such vicinity though, the more she couldn’t resist that temptation to savor her pillowy lips once again and gently brush a thumb on them when they departed.
Her heart rate increased incommensurably like if she was affected by a sickness, hammering inside her chest with such aggravating insistence she thought the stranger could feel it as well on her own skin when her gleaming peridots widened. The knock became louder and louder until Kuvira understood it wasn’t just her heart but someone outside finally trying to fix the elevator they were locked in. The realization awakened her to cover up as well before anyone else could see.
“What are you sorry for?” The question reached her ears while collecting their coats on the floor.
She frowned. It took a moment to grasp what the girl was referring to.
What was she sorry for? For coming inside her? For not being able to control herself? For not calling her a brat?
There were probably too many things Kuvira should had been sorry for even if the girl’s name was still unknown, but as her mind dashed to give a reply it simply shut down when the stranger dressed her with the green coat and got so close the honey scent reached her soul; their mouths nearly brushed.
Before it could even happen anew anyway, she withdrew with a smile and walked past toward the opening elevator doors from where two men made sure everything was okay.
“That was a shitty experience,” the stranger announced striding away, followed by apologies rebounding on tall walls yet stabbing Kuvira’s heart with wounding insistence.
She followed her nonetheless, almost jogging to keep up her pace along the luxurious hallway recognizing it was the last floor.
Before disappearing behind a huge door framing ahead, the girl turned enough to lock their stare together one more time and wily add for the businesswoman’s ears alone “wasn’t it?”
The woman froze mid tracks. Heart pumping so hard each beat was the only thing felt, alienating from those surroundings dwindling around her silhouette still heated and thrilled by that brief.. intense encounter.
A loosened strand fell to escape the throroughtly braided hairstyle and tickle her own cheek when her attention focused on the watch: 2:57 pm.
The thunderstorm roared louder than her thoughts lighting the door in front, the same one behind where the girl disappeared and where Kuvira, as well, needed to be.
Chapter Text
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“As i said it doesn’t surprise me as everything reconnects to that point, to that traumatic event. That wasn’t your fault.”
The magnetic sand moving inside the geometric hourglass produced a trickling noise, so faint to be almost impossible to be caught by human ears.Yet, she was sure if she had an anxiety disorder, each shiny metal grain escaping to fall and hit the others below would’ve driven her into a panic attack the same exact way it could’ve actually calmed her down. It was strange how she could either be present in that mid lit room and simultaneously somewhere else completely, inside the broken elevator, when within her arms the small stranger trembled with pleasure, her melodious voice tingled the strings of her soul as their hands tightened, entangled together.
She could still feel in every pore her sweet scent blending with her own and wondered how that would even been possible, while her forehead embedded in her sweaty nape and short hair tickled.
“Kuvira? Are you still with me?” A soothing voice called, slightly piercing the thick mist of her mind but it wasn’t enough to bring her back to reality, like if she lingered to stay there and never come back. The turtleneck shirt she was wearing still felt too heavy, sticking over her moisten torso, suffocating. She stroked her eyelids with two fingertips in distress; I need.. I..
“Mh? Sure,” the woman exhaled deeply, trying to focus on what was beyond her steamy thoughts “of course.”
On the background of her view a warm grey wooden bookcase widely displayed, on its shelves between perfectly layered books precious stones and sculptures adorned. In front of it a designed piece of large lacquer finished desk throned with its classy grey chair behind.
Lighted by the feeble daylight coming from the wide window on the left, the woman who was trying to catch Kuvira’s attention was sitting over the desk with crossed legs. Long, slim; they were a beautiful intense shade of bronze, shiny under a dark green oversized t-shirt, barely reaching her knees, mostly in that particular position. The middle age woman, no matter the extravagant outfit embellished with metal jewels and classy slingback flats, never lost her elegance or manners. It was evident she was overly charismatic, sophisticated yet practical.
Kuvira could clearly see how beautiful she had been in her youth with her magnetic eyes contrasting the waves of her raven short hair now an enchanting shade of silver. At the curve of her bow shaped lips, or the angles of her penetrative green eyes the expressive lines of wrinkles marked the time relentlessly passing in her life.
The moment she captured her full attention though, was the same Kuvira noticed similarities with the stranger encountered not even a hour before.
Their eyes, especially, weren’t the same tonality but the hypnotic expression and natural draw were obviously there, so haunting she labored trying to keep her heart at bay, beating like if the girl herself was in that room staring at her.
Their personalities, although, were undoubtedly different if not opposite from what she knew. The perky, cheeky, annoying girl couldn’t be farther from the elegant mature woman aged like fine wine; their presumed deep incompatibility was probably meant to conflict if coming to a spontaneous interaction but still, Kuvira couldn’t stop connecting them together as if they were the same person.
“Would you like to share?” The woman’s soft voice patiently invited. Her longer curled lock swung when her head tilted on a side, almost covering her eyes, narrowing as if trying to analyze the businesswoman’s mind.
Suyin Beifong, her therapist, was indeed attractive; that kind of attractiveness that makes people turn, stop mid tracks and stare in awe at her pass, intoxicated by her enchanting vibrations. Kuvira, however, wasn’t the type of person who cared even if she noticed. There were always too many things in her head to be filled with something merely relevant like somebody else’s beauty and no matter how beautiful that woman could be, not even her words fully wakened her from her thoughts.
Why was that different then with the annoying girl met at the elevator? Was it due to the unusual situation? To their irrational hostility? Or their sudden chemistry bringing them to that point? She surely never fucked someone who slapped her before and if she thought about it, the burning feeling still lingered on her cheek like a caress more than a smack. Besides, she couldn’t deny how that unexpected gesture alone aroused her so quickly, twisting her heart rate impossibly higher. She needed to calm down.
It was just sex.
Wait... what did the woman say?
Should I tell my therapist about that girl?
“No” she asserted.
Yes... a sense of regret prevailed immediately after. Why was that so hard?
With a hand she fixed the collar around her sore neck, straightening the back on the armchair comfortably engulfing her into an embrace. She huffed, “Does having sexual encounters with strangers have anything to do with traumas?”
The first instinctive response was Suyin’s eyebrows arching at the pleasant surprise of that question. It was unusual for her to seek clarification during their sessions. The middle age woman then humidified her bottom lip with an ardent expression flaring in her eyes, focused.
“Well, everything is relative.” She started while sliding down from the desk provoking her dress to lift, generously offering the irresistible vision of her bare thighs being exposed at which Kuvira’s eyes narrowed attentively as the woman stood up and continued “It can be both a probable outlet or just a simple occasional relief”.
Yes, it was undoubtedly an occasional relief like sex has always been for her. The Spirits knew how bad she needed it in that stressful period after all, so wrapped up in her continuous conferences, paperworks and corrective check ups. Maybe that was just her brain trying to save itself from going into overload. It wasn’t the girl, neither about emotions in general. It was a primal need imploring to be soothed to disconnect for a while from the atrocious burden and obligation of being herself. When every distraction faded eventually she was always brought back to the starting point.
“Kuvira..” her therapist called to get her attention back. She didn’t even notice the woman got closer to the wide window, hands secured on her back. The rain still battered outside rhythmically, straining the light filtering through silver strands to gleam on her eyes.
“i’ll never push you, but you know i’m here to listen and help you” she assured in a polite request to share once again her thoughts. Most of their time, in fact, was spent in silence no matter if she was there to let out what concerned and worried her in oder to clarify it and eventually try to make up with her past. Yet, looking at her, the words forming in her mind couldn’t find a direct line linking to the mouth and simply slip out, blocked, hindered like it always has been in everyone else presence when it came to release her inner turmoil.
Maybe she hasn’t been to enough appointments to open up.
She swallowed, her sight jumped from the almost upper-emptied hourglass to Suyin’s stare once again. Air became heavy in her lungs; in her ears, each heart beat directly thudded when she precisely asked:
“Can a simple meeting be life changing?”
There was a brief silence in which the therapist’s eyes squinted into hers and confidentially smiled as savoring the taste of that question finally pronounced, like if she was waiting for it for long time.
“Isn’t every meeting potentially life changing if we let it be?”
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When she came back home, the tempestuous thunderstorm rustles became a tender lilting of pearls falling on moisten leaves and crowded streets. The temperature cooled down and everything felt lighter as the earth exhales, reacting to the autumnal weep by releasing an unmistakable soothing fragrance of soil and petrichor. The rain somehow reminded her how everything in life could change: a sunny warm day turn into a storm; a life reaching its end; a simple meeting unravel and twist any plan.
It was unnerving how everything inevitably escaped her jurisdiction the more she struggled to keep control; terrifying for someone whom breathed to command and schematize.
Nevertheless, every time her power was lost, life always found a way to unexpectedly gift something back like if itself thanked her for trusting even when no other choice was conceded. It happened when her parents abandoned her, it happened when Zaheer died.
The tides of her howling thoughts, however, mellowed when they reflected and eventually melted in the viscous amber malt of liquors, trailing fire to her empty stomach when it was swallowed down sore throat.
Kuvira panted, the turtleneck still suffocated her until it reached the point of unbearableness. A flash of light, then a repetitive buzz coming from the glass table though, distracted her before the fabric of her shirt was removed; her index slid on her phone screen and a familiar sandy voice playfully sparkled in the empty living room a second after the call was taken “Yo jerk, get ready, i’m gonna pick up you in a few”.
“No, you are not” the woman said sinking heavily on the black couch near, throwing her head back when the other corrected her.
“Yes, i am on my way,” she laughed “you’re gonna help me with Sami’s gift” The thought alone made her eyes roll up in frustration.
No matter how many years they passed together, the logic behind some of her best friend’s views remained a mystery. It would be Asami’s birthday —in a month— but Korra, the girl bugging her on the phone, was sometimes way too eager to wait for a decent time to buy her girlfriend a present, especially since that year she found out the trilogy her fiancé asked for wasn’t exactly the «Hunger Games» ones, after all.
Kuvira just had no idea that became her problem as well when after that unfortunate mistake, Korra started to hassle her for help, grumbling the excuse “you fancy CEOs know everything about choosing presents” and like that, she found herself trapped in that infernal cycle each year before she even realized it.
She took a sip of her liquor and grunted raspier than expected at the burn “I have stuff to do”.
“What, drinking rum and jerking off?” Korra poked, probably hearing the clinking glass tapping on the table along her low voice.
“I don’t need to, I already had sex today”
“Oh, I didn’t know you started to see Jargala outside the nightclub?” Kuvira frowned at the mention.
Jargala? Was she talking about the stripper occasionally giving her lap dances? It was sad how she barely remembered her name but sultry touches muffled by stroboscopic LEDs and the deafening music of the private club’s room.
She sighed and stroked again her eyelids when as fast as the club’s intermittent lights changing, the simple memory of the little girl’s peridot eyes flashed before them, completely overpowering any other image and noise once again “I don’t, indeed. I fucked a stranger”
“When? Today you worked and had the appointment with your therap— WAIT are you fucking your therapist?!” Korra yelps rebounded onto the wall’s hallway when she turned the speaker phone on and moved pass the other rooms to hers after getting up from the soft couch.
“She’s such a milf,” she grinned eventually getting in her own bedroom, aware that her friend couldn’t see her expression but still hinting it in her sultry tone “I guess i should thank you for suggesting her treatments.”
—“Kuvira! Spirits, I can’t believe you!.”
“What can i say, I’m flawless.” She chuckled, discarding the phone on her bed to finally tug the pullover off her head, untidying fine raven locks. The relief though, was immediate as the choking stinging feeling gave way to the cool air starting to skim on her toned torso “By the way, I had sex in the elevator before getting there. I thought the girl i was with actually had an appointment too... at first” her voice gradually faded, before throwing the sweater in the laundry basket, she stopped caught by her reflection into the floor length mirror ahead. There was something on the back of her forearm, a reddish spot big like a coin. It didn’t hurt, neither burn or anything as she tried to get a closer look, discovering a meticulous entanglement of lines creating a drawing: the flying boar.
How did I get that?
“What? Who’s she?” The girl’s tone from the phone flexed in ways she couldn’t really grasp below her own thoughts, totally absorbed by that familiar design now imprinted on her tanned skin. Instinctively, a pulse drove her to touch and follow the infamous emblem lines but the act was strained by the pullover she was still holding. Before she could toss it in the basket, something heavier fell from it landing in her palm with a faint melodious clanging. Something small, shining at the mild neon lights revealing the same figure, the origin of her imprint: a pendant.
“Kuvira?”
Her friend’s voice recovered her attention, making her feel suddenly dazed. Absently, she caressed the medal with her thumb as she finally spoke her mind “Oh i... I don’t know. She never introduced herself but tomorrow i’ll go there again to get her number from the receptionist”
“You know that’s stalking?” she was probably still caught up in her thoughts but in this moment it was evident there was something in Korra’s voice that didn’t quiet remind her of their usual perky mocking, no matter if she tried to cover it with a laugh, making her scowl.“Calm down.” She eased gravely “You know i have my ways. I just want to call, i think i have her necklace”
“wait, a necklace?”
“Yes... it has Beifong’s emblem carved,” she flipped it and mindlessly added with a whisper “a poppy on the front.”
It was strange to find out she didn’t even feel the chain pressing on her skin; for how long did she have it? Maybe it slipped in her sleeve when the girl kissed her because there was nobody else she had physical contact with but her that day. Did that also mean that the stranger she was with was actually related to her therapist? Their features similarities were obvious on the eyes but that theory could’ve still been wrong. Yet, thinking about it, who else wore a family pendant if they weren’t a part of it, unless it was a gift?
Kuvira tilted her head on a side and huffed, provoking her rebel fine strands to swing.
Unnerving; to know there were so many thoughts in her mind all related to that bratty girl. It just drove her crazy until Korra abruptly broke their flood.
“Ah, I don’t think calling is a good idea, then. Just.. leave the necklace to the receptionist” she prompted vaguely, giving off a sense of skepticism and evasion; it was incredibly odd coming from Korra, the human equivalent of a golden retriever.
That was a suggestion to take in consideration anyhow, the same kind she would’ve give if Korra was in that situation, an easy way to get over with. Yeah.. the easiest.
For a while she looked at the figure reflected onto the lucid surface in front of her, staring back with empty eyes as she’s swallowing the bitterness down “Why,” she inquired “what’s going on? You are the one who says my manners are too harsh, that’s my way to be polite” her reflection frowned before the medal on her palm captured her full attention once again between Korra’s reply was gruffled almost in warning “Yeah yeah, just.. forget about it.”
“Whatever” Kuvira, with the same tone in dismissal, marked the end of that weird conversation.
Sometimes it felt like talking with herself.
“I’ll see you outside”
When the call was closed she sat on the edge of the bed to crash her bare back on the cool soft covers. As her palms stroked on her face, the uncomfortable feeling of the chain scratching cheek subtly affirmed its presence still in her hand. The CEO focused on the medal shining under her gaze, making it run between her fingers, enjoying the delicate geography of lines with each brush on both sides, until she stopped, admiring the poppy.
Is it really hers? Is she named after a flower?
Since her best friend’s advice, it was like a boulder fell on her stomach, twisting and crashing guts while a simple question formed in the back of her head; what if she didn’t want to find the easiest way to give the stranger her necklace back? What if she even wanted to keep it? Not for its undoubtably expensiveness. It was probably kind of ancient too, the type of heirloom handed to generation after generation, becoming precious as the time chimes hoarded. It probably costed a fortune, not to mention the symbol belonged to one of the most respected and powerful family not only in the Earth Kingdom but the world. That again wasn’t the reason she would’ve preferred to keep it.
What if calling was the only possibility conceded to see that girl again? But the real question behind all that was:
Why do I even care?
Because for once someone didn’t drop on their knees for her? She was used to that; everyone she has been with, either looked at her like a goddess descending from the Spirit World to grace them with her presence or a revered dictator to be frightened of. No matter if adored or dreaded, the reasons alluring someone towards her for sex were obvious: for her fame, her bank account, her power, her exceptional beauty. These all were valid options to not mention the stroke of serendipity sleeping with someone of her importance provided and for this, nobody ever snubbed her the way that stranger did. Was she the prey instead of a predator for once?
Kuvira’s eyes gleamed at the white golden sight; there was something about having that little jewel in her scarred hands that made the corners of her mouth stretch and turn up in a wide secret smile. Perhaps it was the realization she could actually still smell on it the girl’s soothing perfume, when the pendant laid on that little divot between nose and lips.
There were no more doubt, the necklace belonged to the girl and she needed to give it back.. it was her chance to see her again.
The aggravating sensation in her stomach slowly dissolved completely, making room for a proud feeling of extreme fortune.
She closed her eyes and exhaled the sweet scent in.
Korra can wait.
.
The following morning the sun shone bright, high in the limpid blue sky, as if the roaring thunderstorm never wept all of its tears the previous evening.
The temperature as well rose up, marking a substantial difference between those autumnal days and cool nights. In Zaofu — due to the central city air pollution or the humidity of the mountainous green land where its buildings spread like crystal desert flowers — the warmth was plastering and choking.
Kuvira though wasn’t affected by it that much, obviously used to that weather, but this time she was wearing a light dress shirt under her long grey trench-coat.
When the sport Satomobile door closed behind her, the vision of the towering building with Beifong’s emblem embedded onto the Earth Nation symbol on the facade sparkling in the daylight, charged her with some kind of prideful feeling towards the imprint longly faded on her skin.
An enchanting fragrance gathered at the entrance, growing in intensity as the hall widely expanded and closed with the reception’s large metal desk, behind, a girl composedly sat. When her big brown eyes rose up to meet Kuvira’s in the middle of the peaceful hall, they squealed brighter and averted to ran on the tablet agenda before the fierce strut sound neared to the desk.
“Good morning, Miss. Laghima. Here’s your badg- uhm...” the girl hesitated while passing the card ready under her small olive palm, with an evident frown forming below her brown short bang. She nervously bit her thin lip down checking the notepad again. “Excuse me a moment Miss, it seems like your appointment wasn’t scheduled for today..” she added in an apologetic tone.
“I know, I came for you.”
When the secretary seemed to realize her words, her breath shortened for a moment and blushed. The woman smiled, clearly perceiving each response of the receptionist’s small body incited by her presence with placid smugness. With the same confidence she continued “You can call me Kuvira, if you’d let me call you Tuyen” she asserted reading aloud her name on the tag hanging on the green shirt harmoniously hugging the secretary’s delicate chest.
The girl’s eyes widened innocently “Oh.. of course!” warm into her cold sly ones.
“Tuyen is a very beautiful name.” She husked, casually sinking hands down her trousers pockets, noticing a little white spot staining on the girl’s mouth corner. Her eyes narrowed inquiring beyond the metal barrier separating them when she shyly avoided her firm gaze, finding what caused that blemish on the glassed donut bitten and quickly hidden on the desk corner between napkin folds.
She kept for herself a smile at that tender discovery, trying to not embarrass her furthermore.
“I-i took it after my grandma..” the girl timidly revealed mindlessly playing with the badge in her hands to ease anxiety.
“It must be an honor for you then”
“It.. it is!” She bit down her sweet smile furiously widening again, perhaps realizing her sudden wandering around duty “C-Can i do anything for you, Kuvira?”
The woman at the waited request grinned, enjoying the view of her cheeks reddening, livening up incredibly her brown warm eyes. Sometimes it was almost boring how easily she could get whatever she wanted. “Actually yes, if you’d like to. I have a certain urgency to talk with a girl who ran after me in the elevator yesterday, but her name and number are unknown.” she frowned.
The receptionist looked pensive for a while as well, checking on the tablet to refresh her own memory and get the eventual information “Uh, Mrs.Beifong didn’t have other visits around that hour aside yours, Miss”
That was oddly suspicious as the stranger disappearing behind the therapist’s door the previous afternoon, so quickly, that the possibility of her being a figment of imagination frighteningly nourished inside her mind. Although, questioning her reality seemed delirious at that point, when the image of her presence was still so vivid in her head, on her own body heating at the mere remembrance of the girl’s small one provoking such intense sensations.
She was indeed stressed out... but what was the limit?
The woman tried what she could to not give off her inner distress under her usual stoicism, while holding tight onto the stranger’s necklace inside her pocket. If she isn’t real, if the jewel isn’t hers, to whom does it belong to if it still smell like her? Am I becoming crazy?
“Are you sure? She was small, dark short hair, green eyes?” Kuvira grinned spontaneously “annoying”
The accidental comment slipping from her mouth anyway was welcomed with a sincere laugh and fluster “Ohh right...”
“Is there any way i can get her number?” she demanded hinting the sparkle of the stranger’s existence in the receptionist’s expression suddenly lighting up, relieving every thoughts crowding in her mind when she eventually replied “Yes, but...” her long delicate fingers curled on the desk edge to push the chair she was sitting on backwards “I don’t think i’m allowed to share that information..”
Kuvira’s brow arched and rose up slowly while rounding the reception desk with a smooth, slow shift to slightly lean on it, getting closer “Well, if you want, nobody will know” she teased.
Long strands swung and fell on the girl’s flustered face while halting, taken aback by the abrupt vicinity; in her wide open eyes Kuvira’s sharp ferns reflected, as she bent forward and lowered to focus on her parted thin lips.
With a simple taunting gesture, she brushed clean the glaze off of her mouth’s corner, before giving a bewitching smile, distancing and slowly reaching the girl’s ear “Even this can stay a secret” she warmly whispered drawing a deep sigh from in answer.
Kuvira grazed and fixed the receptionist’s long wavy hair behind her ear as she quickly wrote and handed her a little note with a number on it, accompanying the gesture with one of the most adoring gaze the woman ever witnessed in someone’s face.
At that satisfying reaction, her side grin widened the way her ferns narrowed and charmingly blinked.
“Thank you so much, Tuyen”
The walk back to her car was rapid and filled by an unusual eagerness, swaying with ease to the walking crowd.
When she sat down on the leather seat, the world outside the thick darkened glass became muffled, as her hands slipped out from pockets to reveal their contents. In her palm, the stranger’s necklace pleasantly heaved with its honey fragrance persisting on the shining surface. She let it run between her fingers while checking the note the receptionist gave her. In hasten, the black inked numbers were stroked in simple quick lines.
«Forget about it.» Korra’s words rebounded in her brain only to be overpowered by the girl’s eyes again and again until something inside her shouted I can’t.
Her heart rate grew intensely at each number spoken to the car but then it stopped when, after a few breaths, a familiar voice perkily sprinkled inside the Satomobile like morning dew on a dry ground,
...
“Hello?”
Notes:
Sometimes, even behind the simplest things, intricate and unexpected patterns can be revealed, or perhaps not?
Chapter 3: Chapter three
Chapter Text
.
.
“Hello?”
“Good morning,” a low husked voice immediately answered. The metallic call filter made her sound raspier although never lacking sensuality, like the smooth whispers breathed into her ear the day before. Her heart skipped a beat.
“i’m searching for a girl who got stuck in the elevator with me yesterday, i’m Kuvira.” Her eyes widened immediately on the pages she was trying to study, when the woman’s words confirmed her realization. Her breath shortened.
How did she get my number?
The girl’s wrist trembled on the white wooden table as her brain tried to come up with an answer. She absently looked around, gulping the sudden nervousness down and stupidly opted for “Good for you!”
The woman on the receiver snorted, then waited few seconds, as if she enjoyed listening to the silence fell between that fell them, or maybe just finding the right words “Is that you?”
The girl palmed her forehead below the messy bang and deeply exhaled, trying to be as quiet as possible in a way the receiver couldn’t hear, then snapped “..maybe, bye.”
“Wait. I called to say i have something yours.” The woman promptly informed, a bit perturbed, provoking a sense of regret growing up in her limbs.
What could she ever have of mine? Is this a joke?
Although, this kind of joking wasn’t exactly something she’d expected from the grumpy detached person she met at the elevator.
This was harder than anticipated.“Spirits,” the girl hissed and grumbled fast as if a train ran behind her “no, I didn’t give you my heart. When i fell from heaven it didn’t hurt and my father isn’t a thief” she breathed out and the beep sound marked the call closed. With a hand she instinctively covered her face feeling the warm air heating skin while she tossed the phone with the other.
What the fuck did I just say?
Two curios big brown eyes studied her from below the table shortly after peeking a look into that reality outside her own.
...I only did what is right to do. It’s for the best.
Slowly, her hands lowered to sink in the light beige fluffy fur in a caress, trying to relieve her sudden distress more than her dog’s need of cuddles, until few seconds later the phone buzzed again on the table in her dread.
Don’t take it, don’t take it, don’t take it.
A moment before the vibration stopped however, she took a breath in and answered “What?”
“I literally have something yours, material, not bland pick up lines. I’d like to give it back.” the woman’s tone became serious, slightly aggravated but not blunt, only making her even more uncomfortable by the way she instead previously snapped at her.
“Ah... shit, that’s... awkward...” the girl mumbled mostly to herself then rose her voice, “Okay. I...” she hesitated “I’m sending my location. I’ll be busy in few hours though, so if you want to come over, now is your only chance” then over-hastily ended the call again without waiting for a reply.
She stood up and sprinted towards the bedroom trying to calm down her hammering heart, followed by her lazy wagging dog. While clothes fled around her room at the desperate research of an outfit that wasn’t her pajamas, she strongly hoped the woman would’ve been weirded out by her forced bluntness and actually decided to give up on their encounter. That was however only her wish, because facing Kuvira after that little incident would’ve brought her mind to a collapse. The girl stopped midair dressing her sweater for a moment, looking at her messy reflection on the wardrobe mirror and cursing herself for giving the woman her address instead of a random one. A wave of terrifying thoughts overwhelmed, realizing she couldn’t meet Kuvira again, but if the woman had the necklace she despaired to find, it was worth a rapid try.
The possibility of calling and cancel their appointment although aroused her to the point of grabbing her phone meanwhile sitting on the clothes-covered bed finally dressed, but as soon as she was about to tap on the last call received, a smooth ringing advised her about the woman’s presence.
She palmed her face violently and sighed, discharging all the distress before getting up, settling things around the place at her pass through the entrance. As opening it ajar, a musky perfume immediately invested her senses, revealing the tall figure behind it smiling and breathing out “Hey”
“Hi..” she grasped the door frame to open it as much as her small silhouette could barely pop out “that was fast.”
“I was near” the woman nodded, causing a raven strand to swing on her perfect shaped brow contrasting the deep green of her catlike eyes staring. Instinctively the girl fixed her own short hair around the ear, glancing back in silence until its awkwardness was broken “So.. I thought you lived at the Beifong‘s penthouse”
The girl stiffened on the spot. Giving her address was so not a good move. She had to know it but she had a suspicion her mind couldn’t work properly around the woman. Maybe it was her intimidating poise, her noisy penetrating eyes inspecting like in search of something or perhaps just her infamous position daunting. She even guessed why she didn’t call someone to give her back the necklace, since her prestigious position, but then realized she probably preferred for whatever happened the day before to stay a thing between them.
The woman’s name was indeed certainly known around the whole earth kingdom and further for inheriting Metal Corp’s industry after Zaheer Laghima. Yet, the CEO standing in front of the girl’s door with hands in her casual trousers below a simple shirt and long coat had a faint smirk curving her lips. The girl humidified her own dissimulating distress,“Why would you even assume that?”
“Because the medal” she slid out from trousers’s pocket a fist in which her white gold necklace string tangled “has the Beifong’s emblem so I suppose you are part of the family” the woman explained opening her palm, the Beifong’s drawing carved red on her skin.
“So you did your homework well, I see”
Kuvira’s fierce expression lit by the window on the left profused a golden trustworthy warmth, impossible to not get lost into or even disregard before stepping closer, both halting at the brush of their skins while she collected the jewel.
“I just realized I don’t even know your name,” the woman caught her hand before it could slip away with the necklace, freezing the world around “can i offer you a drink?” in her eyes an intense light sparkled to which the girl averted, backed and slid from her hold with the jewel, signing the end of that electric contact and the start of time flowing again. She then let out a sigh to muffle a smile, looking away “Not really”
“I understand.” Kuvira cleared her throat “I know you are busy. I just want to apologize with a cup of coffee” their eyes crashed again at the word, darting in silent dare, before the girl could disappear behind the door and slam it on the woman’s face.
The wood on which her forehead pressed was cold and if she closed her eyes could feel her heart pulsing against the surface.
What just happened? Why is it so difficult? Just tell her no, just wait for her to leave.
She covered her mouth to muffle her sudden heavy breath but at the metallic inhale mixed with a smoky leathery cologne lingered on the necklace, her sight blanked. Across the wooden surface the woman sighed but no other sounds warned her moving. She couldn’t fight the smile curving her lips again and with haste she fetched her coat before opening the door “Alright, I don’t like coffee though.” she walked past the waiting woman, then turned to meet her quizzical stare with provocation written in her own “Hot chocolate will do”
.
The warm sweet fragrance of fresh baked cakes invested her senses as the CEO elegantly opened the ringing coffee shop’s door for her. She didn’t know if the businesswoman was being kind to her or just polite in general but her gesture was annoying and uselessly high flown; she knew how to open a stupid door by herself.
Yet, the welcoming atmosphere in the bakery overwhelmed every aggravation, turning into joy at the perky chatters sparkling in front a good taste of desserts and Lo-fi jazz gentle notes wrapping the shop’s intimate rooms.
It surely wasn’t Kuvira’s kind of places: she looked almost inappropriate in there; her rigid formality shouted expensive tastes smelling like fine bourbon for that cozy shop selling teas, but that bakery was the girl’s favorite to the point she moved to the apartment above. Walking down stairs till there with Kuvira then was brief and intense, folded in a silence loaded with unknown electricity but never uncomfortable.
The shop’s wooden floor cricked under their steps as getting closer to exquisite delicacies displayed behind the counters crystal cover, smelling like fruit, frostings and chocolate. She noted the woman glancing at her from time to time on the glass reflection whenever a wave of abash hit when her own eyes gleamed and smile widened. No matter how many time she tilted around the cafeteria, there was always a new cake to try.
“That cheesecake looks bomb..” she mumbled softly glancing at strawberries adorning on top of a red and white dessert but when she turned, Kuvira’s eyes by then were fixed on a free table not too far from them, close to a wide window. When they sat on comfy chairs, a waitress took note to bring them a short black coffee and hot caramel respectively. Kuvira’s eyes brightened by the sun rays were a pure green, magnetic and destabilizing to the point of self consciousness but never overlapping a judging line. The woman, the student observed, liked to analyze everything around her maybe as much as she did but with quiet attentiveness; nothing went unnoticed even when her lack of attention was dissimulated. She wondered from how Kuvira got her number, could there be a minimal chance this was unplanned? The girl knew deep down the answer, she was the first to start this thing anyway at the elevator, but if she didn’t choose to sneak from the building main entrance yesterday, maybe now they wouldn’t have even met.
She hoped at least that second encounter wasn’t completely on destiny’s hand after all.
“So what game are you playing?” The girl leaned closer, placing on the table a fist below her chin. The woman frowned while on her thin lips the small cup’s porcelain pressed “Game?” she sipped her black coffee the girl noticed she didn’t even bother to sweeten.
Her brows fell at the sight, impressed, sipping her own sugary drink. Its mellow taste remained satisfyingly viscous on her tongue, warm down her throat as she swallowed, almost salty while the whipped cream on top kissed her upper lip. That moment of heating bliss and joy turned into a halt when Kuvira, instead of answering, smirked behind her coffee.
Is she making fun of me?
“Isn’t what you are doing?”
To her surprise the woman’s fern narrowed on her lips “I don’t know what are you talking about. I’m a busy person, I don’t have time for games” then rose to her eyes again.
The girl scowled, spontaneously leaning forward as if being closer could give her some sort of clarification to that far enigma sitting comfortably right on the opposite side. “Aside for sex, of course.” she observed “You are Metal Corp’s CEO, right?” the coffee porcelain clinked on the table at the mention as the girl tilted her head on a palm “The one everyone talks about” she whispered, her gaze grew intensive with some sort of complicity inside the businesswoman’s “I bet wherever you go there’s a waiting line for you, isn’t it?”
Her own fingers quivered around the big glass mug when Kuvira leaned closer in turn. On the girl’s lips her own heart pulsed, “seems like you enjoy assuming many things about me. I’d actually like to know something about you.” the warm scent of coffee in the woman’s low, smoky voice enriched it with increasing sultriness, hitting directly on her mouth now an inch apart from hers.
“No, you don’t want to.” the girl said serious, almost in a dare, completely absorbed by the woman’s magnetic presence “Why are you wasting your time offering someone you already slept with a drink?”
Without backing out from that challenge of stares, Kuvira‘s attentive one fell again on her mouth and from a corner, the woman’s thumb brushed towards the other in a careful slow glide across the girl’s stained upper lip.
The girl’s heart throbbed in her throat, quietly allowing that slow burning touch inch after inch taking her breath away and blazing a craving fire. Her thighs clenched together when the woman’s eyes locked into her peridots as cleaning whipped cream off of her own thumb with corrosive persuasion “Maybe I don’t want to seduce you.” she eventually clarified “I wanted to give back your necklace and apologize for losing control yesterday.”
“I don’t believe you” the girl’s affirmation strongly contrasted since she couldn’t control her own eyes flickering on ferns seeking truth when the woman surprisingly assured “Then don’t”
The bakery’s low chattering dulled while the world dwindled around their insignificant distance, both leaning closer on the table toward the other with a palm under their chins, engulfed in a light bubble where breathing correctly wasn’t allowed. Not when their ardor-filled glances tacitly exchanged overpowered any attempt to keep up a conversation.
The shop’s jazz soft notes slacken and faded under the girl’s heartbeat getting louder against ribs, till the woman’s mouth moved.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“I can ask the same exact thing” the girl uttered under her breath, then backed like recoiling from a dream in daylight and prompted “let’s go before it gets too late”
“Where?”
“You know where”
“now..?” Kuvira’s eyes narrowed while she stood up, whispering “Immediately”
At the command they stormed up the stairs, after slamming a hundred of Yuans on the shop’s table between their quivering cups still filled and smoking. While trying to open her apartment’s door the woman’s hand grasped her shoulder till her back knocked against the wooden surface and their lips could finally melt together in a ferocious kiss. The girl’s small hands carded immediately through long raven hair to loosen up the businesswoman’s hairstyle, while the latter’s fell on her breasts and a knee slid between her thighs.
Their lips danced in rapid heated glides, blending perfectly the coffee’s bitterness with caramel’s sweetness, parting enough to let their tongues meet and twirl with desperation until she could do nothing but pant in Kuvira’s throat when her big hands massaged her tiny mounds over the sweater and rubbed directly where her fire burned harder. Her hips and heart halted the same way at the contact, filled with excitement and cravings growing in strength at each pass of friction until grinding their bodies together. Soaked to the point of dripping; her condition was even worse than expected. Wetting Kuvira’s knee was almost awkward if not taking in consideration the CEO’s length pressed against her hip was already hard with desire.
It was a surprise finding out that detail of her the day before, not that she cared how other people’s bodies were formed but she never met a woman with something like that between her thighs, but yet again, neither did the guy she laid with before.
The girl wasn’t used to sleeping with strangers —or anyone in general if that even mattered but there was something different, an urge.. a blinding pull toward this woman. Something she hoped to never find in someone, not even in Kuvira. A sense of rage grew inside as she moaned when the woman growled and removed the knee stroking onto her crotch, knowing there’d be no force preventing them from groping even before getting into the apartment, aside their brains recoiling.
Unfortunately, their sultry glances and scorching gestures blacked out her mind giving in at the dangerous longing built down at the shop, too solid and unremovable to be disregarded or ignored at that point. She felt already drunken by the harshness of Kuvira’s thin lips, lacking caution and moderation on a public location, but she wanted more: she needed to feel the woman’s naked body pressing against hers, heavy panting over her neck and a continuous lecherous thudding between her thighs, stretching deeply until her core was reached and drenched with pleasure.
“Touch me..” the girl mumbled between their feverish kiss but long calloused fingers sank on both her cheeks. It hurt.
The woman was now looking straight into her soul with want and resolution. “tell me your name”
The girl’s voice died in her throat, suddenly feeble before even coming out, taken aback under that breathtaking stare. Inside her mind a remote warning reminded what revealing her name would’ve meant, yet everything dissolved when in the woman’s eyes, her own reflected under a light she never witnessed. She lost herself completely the moment exhaling quieter than a breeze, less than an inch apart from her mouth, the woman’s eyes gleamed and winced as they whispered in unison “Opal”
“Opal,” Kuvira repeated with low voice like sharing a secret, brushing her name between their lips as sealing it in her memory and then sigh “i hate it”
The girl scowled, curling fingers on the back of her head “Like yours is any better” and with the woman’s grip, they pulled their faces closer to reconnect with urge. A slight pain caught at the hurl of their teeth, fading rapidly at the consuming rhythm of their heated lips blending together. Kuvira’s lips were dry, hard and incredibly warm on hers, gliding with need and panting whenever air drained in their lungs, sneaking glances as if she could disappear the moment after. The girl’s knees gave in and her heart thundered against Kuvira’s chest when she wrapped her small frame and tangled legs around her back, causing the jean skirt to tightly rise.
Slowly, the warmth of the woman’s kisses traveled to her neck while rolling hips against her exposed underwear, making her jump and whimper at each intense stroke.
Her hands dived below Kuvira’s coat to claw into her back’s tight flesh in search for a hold when her dripping sex started to clench in pleasure at the woman’s lips sucking her skin.
She sparkled with life and tingled abashed the second after, thinking she was about to have something so intimate with someone she barely knew, yet, she could do nothing against that bliss melting down all her convictions. Opal brushed her flushed cheek on Kuvira’s temple, breathing her in to distract herself from coming undone so soon but her hair argan scent only triggered a louder moan, rebounding into the empty floor. The sound shouted directly in her ear seemed to recoil Kuvira, stopping from devouring her against the wooden surface and grinding her covered bulge over Opal’s pulsing centre, focused instead on opening the door to finally get inside the apartment.
“Bedroom” the woman hurried for directions as soon as the door shut behind them but Opal cupped her face to kiss her again thus running out of air if not breathed from the woman’s lips. With haste she started to unbutton Kuvira’s shirt revealing her plain torso below, hot against her face when she sank into it. Their sexes brushed involuntary and she squeezed her eyes, “Here, i’m too close”
The parquet whistled when the businesswoman’s kneeled to land her down, fighting to undress the long coat straining every moment. Opal did the same, gazing at the tanned skin in front of her, toned breasts and carved muscles barely unveiled under the white dress shirt until daunting ferns captured her attention.
Kuvira cupped her face and bent down to seize their mouth together, their tastes now totally combined whilst settling between her thighs. She slid the skirt up her waist and tugged the yellow sweater tucked into it, messily uncovering enough skin so her tiny breasts could dwindle in cold air, making Opal gasp and flush considerably as she laid on the cold wooden floor.
Their eyes never broke contact aside when they closed to savor each kiss and it was strange. The strangest feeling she ever felt with somebody, reducing her insides into tingling air with a glance; hypnotic, mesmerizing, inducing her to crave for more and more.
So her hands ran between their plastered bodies to find and unbutton the woman’s trousers constraining her length pressing out. She tasted low groans coming out Kuvira’s throat in warm waves when she wrapped around her sex’s broad tip, before stroking it against her panties’ soaked fabric in an eloquent request. Both throbbed with want and the woman sighed, breaking the kiss while humping in agonizing tease, increasing a pressure that made Opal quiver and almost cry out with need the CEO’s name.
Kuvira bit her own lip and in her narrowing eyes pride glinted, grasping her panties to snatch them until the girl’s sensitive skin twitched bare under the woman’s starved stare. She indeed, wasted no more time in teases —maybe too worked up as well— digging fingertips in her soft thighs as sliding the tip in the warm slick entrance folding it with stubborn resistance.
Kuvira’s mouth opened above, grabbing with a hand her neck while pushing in and pressing each swollen vessels now pulsing directly against her drenched heat.
Opal gasped and her brows knitted together, “in... yes” her whole face flared up.
Her hands held on tight the bigger one as the woman rubbed a thumb up to her bottom lip, trembling when she whispered “Kuvira..”
She hoped the desperation in her voice warned how close she was to reach her peak and for a moment, a scream of frustration was about to come out her throat when the woman withdrew before getting in slightly deeper. Then two digits pressed softy against her bundle of nerves, slowly rubbing large circles and her eyes rolled back, her mouth opened wide from where her breath was pushed out with increasing pace.
Kuvira’s kisses and avid suckle at the junction of her shoulder and neck made her pussy clench around the girth incredibly tighter and when she thrusted against her g-spot, while running and closing faster each circle around her wet clit, the world became white. The more pressure the CEO applied, the more frequently Opal’s chest swelled up and shrunk down.
“Fuck” Kuvira whimpered and something in her sandy voice breathed on her skin clicked inside but she was already close, too close to resist more a torture so sublime sending her mind to the Spiritsworld and back; so she grasped the woman’s working wrist while clawing her back below the silk shirt with the other.
The argan scent dazed her senses as keeping the CEO infinitely close to her shaking body until it convulsed violently as she reached her peak when Kuvira’s voice warmed once again her wet neck and bit down the second after.
“Like this, baby”
She moaned and clasped thighs against the woman’s hips which movements were strained to give her that incommensurable pleasure, dripping down the massive length. The girl’s breath rhythm followed the woman’s massages speed on her throbbing centre, setting a fire from her lower abdomen below.
Then, something pulled her for a open-mouthed kiss, the extra warmth on her flushed cheeks from Kuvira’s squeezing hand brought her back to life along a nibble on her lip when she didn’t answer back the kiss, too lost in her delirious bliss.
The rubs pace then slowed down, when the businesswoman seemed to perceive by her decreasing pants, how much in control she could be of her body with just two fingers on the right place, making her hips jump and arch with a glide; taking her breath away or give it back while holding her life in strong arms. Perhaps Kuvira was beginning to understand she could be completely hers in a fraction of a stolen minute. Or maybe not.
However, the CEO waited for her orgasm to cool down to earn a confirmation in her liquified peridots to start thrusting inside.
“Better?” Kuvira asked lowly and she nodded softly with a faint smile braided by bliss, finally kissing back, folding arms around the woman’s neck.
After that sign, her wet wet folds were spread wider to accommodate inch after inch inside, burning like hell at the stretch nobody ever managed to exert.
The woman’s fingers little by little stopped working on her most sensitive part completely, till palms brushed up on her breasts while the rest of their lower bodies intertwined tightly.
Kuvira’s toned chest pressed over hers began to rise and fall at the bewitching pressure of her heated wetness engulfing the adamant length thrusted in with increasing passion. She lost herself in the businesswoman’s pleasure-contracted features framed by dark locks swinging at each lunge, caressing her beauty mark exactly below the green eyes, pure like untouched moss protected under long thick lashes.
Their noses nudged continuously while the woman’s breath skimmed directly on her lips when they weren’t kissing, both opening agape in whimpered moans when her quivering core was reached and thumbs encircled softly her puffy nipples.
She mentally thanked Kuvira for making her come before or she would’ve miss the opportunity to totally catch those touches. They were strangers who barely exchanged few words together, mostly teasing provocations if not vexed monosyllabic, yet their bodies together conversed fluently in a language their minds couldn’t comprehend, telling each other’s story with each moan, each grasp, each swing. It was like the world stopped for their quickie on the floor: such a fugacious moment filled with more than words could barely describe but her untamed inner flutter and violent heartbeat against Kuvira’s explained all perfectly.
So Opal wondered how that was possible if they barely knew each other, she read in many books these kind of things happened with people we fall in love with but this couldn’t be love if they barely knew their names and argued every time their mouths opened. They were nothing but strangers, meeting by accident on a stupid elevator and now she didn’t know where all of this could’ve brought them but she rooted for never seeing the woman again, the same woman watching her with such longing to shatter her soul.
Kuvira increased the pace’s speed and strength, clearly turned on by her hips rolling to meet each push although her previous orgasm blur or perhaps just eager to come and go home.
“Harder” the girl encouraged on her thin parted lips, until the warmth and soothing torture around her nipples ended when one of the woman’s rough hand clutched her hip and the other slammed on the crackling parquet in search of something helping her ramming harder inside her pulsing slit.
“Yes harder, Vira.”
The silk of her raven long strands claimed instead her touch, to cradle and curl on rebel locks stroking her face whenever Kuvira’s broad tip hit her core’s front wall, making her mewl breathlessly. “Destroy me”
If she thought pleasure was dazing her before, her screams thundering into the apartment after saying those simple words were the only thing she perceived aside the woman hiding onto her neck and hammering between her legs; her body convulsed hard again while Kuvira’s growls scorched on her skin as their climax approached like a lighting bolt in a clear blue sky. Then everything faded. Her overstimulated mind ceased to work, melting every collapsing thought inside; an emptiness filled her clutching body still tightly wrapped into a breathless embrace and something hot spilled over her inner thigh; her heart bumped untamed in her sensitive chest but after a while, every loud beat dulled softly into a quiet nothing.
.
A smooth sound reached her ears. It took a bit to decipher it but it seemed like a grave voice whispering something too intimate to be said out loud.
Then a touch, like a caress on her forehead moved her tickling bang aside “..beautiful”
Every perception mellowed under a voice soothing like a melody. She didn’t exactly define herself as beautiful but probably the compliment wasn’t even referred to her. It’s just here, in my mind..
She smiled anyway because that voice, no matter how smokey, was delightfully low and calming while, beneath her eyelids, something warm and red induced them to open before shutting the second after. When she tried again, her irises narrowed around a gentle light filtering through the window’s curtains.
She was home, warm and snuggled under a blanket. The lavender laundry detergent on it was strong but a musky perfume sneaked along. She frowned and slowly followed that close scent and as her eyes opened ajar looking up, two ferns gathered in the golden light above. A while passed between them silently, in which she took the liberty to wander her sight on the woman sitting next to her; Kuvira’s shirt was buttoned up and her hairstyle perfectly in order. Opal didn’t know what was strange about that but as waking from her slumber state, the woman’s pleasure displayed on her red face framed by rebel hair brought back the memory of them fucking on the floor.
So was that... passing out?
Her cheeks felt hot, embarrassed by herself while gazing at the woman muffling a smirk, “Vira..” she whispered and bit her own lip the second after and the moment her eyes averted, a box on the coffee table caught her full attention. She frowned and sat up “You bought me that cheesecake..!” the girl yelped, lifting brows over wide gleaming eyes while meeting the woman’s. She couldn’t contain her surprise even if she tried.
“I saw you looking passionately at it so I guessed you wanted some” the woman explained behind, as she turned to watch through the bakery’s transparent box elegantly signed: three strawberries crowned on top of a cream cheese frosting layer, framed by a deep red crunch of the most mouthwatering red velvet cheesecake she ever saw.
Some... she chuckled, Kuvira bought the entire cake without even flinching.
Then her brows fell, knitting together “Wait, you weren’t even watching..” she remembered with an inquisitive tone.
The woman looked back at her with a teasing smirk, lying comfortably on her couch, crossed legs, elbow folded on the armrest, hands on her lap, chin up; she really had something powerful in her adamant presence that lured you to stare raptured, still, her voice was always calm and smooth like velvet “I’m trained to notice everything my attention requires to focus on” but yet, Opal’s laugh sparkled in the living room perkily breaking the moment’s mood “what are you, a beagle?”
“Worse, i’m a leader” the CEO smirked.
Spirits.. her breath shortened and heart squinted. She clutched her fists trying to find a distraction by opening the box on the coffee table, making the blanket fall on the floor in the process. The white chocolate and strawberries sweet smell flooded in the room. With a finger she dipped into the cheese frosting and while bringing it between her lips, Kuvira tugged up the blanket back on the couch. She chuckled when their eyes met at the same level, sliding out her finger, then sprinted to the kitchen bringing back spoons and plates.
“Is it hard?” Opal wondered after a bit, settling with crossed legs and a small plate on her palm beside the woman as if they reached a friendship kind of confidence, although she felt like sharing a slice of cake with an enemy.
“Being a CEO?” Kuvira frowned, meanwhile denying the cake offered with a firm hand sign. Then, she nodded and the woman shifted to face her “Not anymore, it’s challenging”
“So you like challenges” she pointed out before shoving a spoonful in her mouth under her soft yet burning stare.
“I live for them”
“am I a challenge to you, now?” her voice came out slurred by the dessert sweetness, snatching a laugh from Kuvira but making herself scowl “What.. answer me!”
However, the businesswoman stayed silent. Her deep laugh faded, hauling behind a light sense of hilarity while tilting her head on a side as if to calculate or analyze her from another point of view. “I guess my answer would aggravate you either way” the CEO announced eventually.
“Spirits..” she left out a heavy, unsatisfied sigh from the root of her lungs and with a timid smile she replied the woman’s smirk “So..” she indicated the plate tilting her spoon “Is this cake another apology?”
Kuvira’s brow rose up “It depends if i’m forgiven”
She wet her lips, taking time to ponder that subtle question. How could she taste something so sweet on her tongue if what she was going to say was unjustifiably bitter? Kuvira’s eyes on hers were warm and expectantly, inducing hers to avert, burdened by the awareness of what she couldn’t give.“Maybe you don’t need to apologize.”
“What do you mean?” the woman’s features sharpened in a more serious tone when she placed the plate on the table with a soft clink.
“Listen...” Opal said, shifting to sat on her own knees “i don’t know what you want from me but.. whatever you may plan.. it won’t work between.. us anyway”
She waited a bit before rising her sight up, yet, what she found was just a quizzical stare.
“Why do you think i want something from you?”
Opal frowned, why would she even bother to be here then, after giving back my necklace? She is undoubtedly kind by reassuring that I woke up after passing out, but what was the point if she didn’t want something back? Kuvira should’ve been gone by now, yet she stayed.
So the girl thought on testing her, to earn the proof she needed to answer her doubts.
The woman’s face hardened like stone the more she leaned closer, thick brows furrowed and her eyes narrowed followed below by the beauty mark. Kuvira’s breath was slow on her lips now a strand away, and it was exactly there that Opal’s heart bumped so loud to feel it pulsing. It took a moment before Kuvira leaned closer to remove any unbearable distance but was taken aback when the girl withdrew faster instead.
“You are ridiculous” Opal mocked with a tease in her eyes, satisfaction curling lips. Still she blushed and tucked short hair behind her ear when Kuvira leaned closer once more until their foreheads touched.
Instinctively she brushed her nose tip on her straight one while the woman’s eyes inquired “No, you are” she whispered with a sly grin.
On her nape, the strong hand cradled through her messy hair, sending a chill to run down her spine.
“Better, so it’ll scare you away.” Opal swallowed before replying breathless, still less than an inch away from her face contracting again.
“Why you would you scare me?” the CEO asked lower than sound itself, darting ferns on hers in a slow dance punctuated by their heartbeats and quick breaths.
The darkened eyes then fell on something unspecified on her lips until Kuvira’s barely audible voice died completely as their mouths collided like attracted to each other.
To Opal’s surprise, there was no harshness but a soft addictive game of lips crossing and sliding over the other, making her profoundly sigh. The woman’s kisses were black holes drawing her somewhere unknown, in another dimension where nothing mattered but silk warm pushes and pulls, extremely rapturous and dizzying.
The businesswoman’s touch on her lower back dragged her closer tacitly luring to grind on her lap, confused on when she straddled her, cupping with both hands Kuvira’s well defined jaw. Opal got so lost in the forest scent she didn’t even perceived the apartment door crackled open.
“Ope, are you okay?? We had training at—” a tingle of chain falling on the parquet “—Kuvira..”
The girl withdrew immediately at the call and turned to see the source of that loud sound. Her eyes widened on the girl standing dumbfounded behind the couch, keys on the floor.
“Korra?”
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Chapter Text
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.
It took a few instants before Korra recoiled, picked up the keys on the floor and dashed out of the girl’s apartment. They shared a glance in which Opal dwindled with avoiding eyes, getting off of her lap and with a rushed apology on her lips, Kuvira stood up from the couch to follow.
“I... you shouldn’t be here” her best friend’s voice resounded into the staircase as she tapped the last step.
“Why? How are you even here?” Kuvira slammed the building doors behind. The streets concrete fumed under her stalk. To say she was about to bite was an understatement because, needless to say, a sense of betrayal stabbed her initial shock.
“You knew I was talking about Opal yesterday and didn’t say a thing.” she scoffed bitterly “Thanks”
There was a loud rumbling far away in the sky while, amidst threatening clouds, the last red lights of a setting sun hit their figures eventually stopping mid tracks, stretching their long shadows in the middle of the black rough ground smelling like smoke.
Even when fury pulsed in her veins, however, self control allowed her to keep a more defensive behavior.
Her chest swelled up and shrunk rhythmically.
It was one of the most important lessons Zaheer ever taught her: «set your emotions free if you must control». Through her childhood indeed, he was the one who waited, observed and trained her how to turn her boiling rage into peace.
«Emotions need to be felt completely, not repressed» he would continue and no matter how hard to accept them it was, it permitted her to eventually reach an inner peace until bellowing, throwing or destroying stuff to express her resentments were left to her past.
“I swear it was better this way” the girl mumbled.
When she turned, her short chestnut strands fell loose on her face darkened by indecipherable thoughts and the shadow of a secret realization. Her arms although opened in surrender, as if quietly asking for comprehension “I didn’t know you would seriously get into it, you never call a girl back after you sleep with her, so i guessed you would’ve forgotten about her too and this whole thing like it always have been”
Her deep bright blue eyes however averted the moment they met the woman’s deafening stare and turned toward her own motorbike parked along the sidewalk.
“Alright, for once i try to be decent and you get offended” Kuvira scowled, momentarily disconcerted by the reasons to keep fucking with Opal would even be a problem for her best friend; Korra obviously knew her, but for how long? The woman strutted between the girl and the motorcycle, on which she sat crossing arms to her chest “How do you know Opal?” her tone sharpened protectively at the name.
The girl’s features in front of her hardened while looking down her full face helmet’s straps. Its blue lights faintly glowed at the sudden darkness casted by clouds “I.. i give her self defense lessons” she muttered.
“Korra, this is aggravating me. Why didn’t you tell me anything?” No matter her stoicism, Kuvira felt livid every passing second. It was so sudden, yet apparently, this issue brewed on her back for an aggravatingly long time.
Is there something more she isn’t telling me?
“I’m waiting”
The girl sighed and jolted as if physically poked, while fitting into her helmet “maybe for once i’m not trying to protect you but protect her from you” eventually fastening it under her chin; the sky then throbbed loud.
“Explain” Kuvira soared on the spot. Her scowl deepened forming a wrinkle between her thick narrowed brows, her arms unwrapped to collect them behind her back when the tides in her best friend’s ocean blue eyes maddened in a tacit, dreadful storm.
“Stay away from Opal”
“A little late, isn’t it?” a brow arched up while menacingly removing any distance between them, provoking Korra to frown taken aback.
“You may be Opal’s trainer but not her mother, nevertheless mine. I never had one and surely I don’t need one now.” she hissed spitefully, hitting the girl shoulder as she passed her to leave and as glancing up to Opal’s apartment, a sudden rush crossed her boiling body while striding towards her own car. The girl’s bronze face lurking from the window was instinctively what she hoped to catch, but even if she felt watched, Opal was nowhere to be found. Another thunder roared in the sky. Few drops landed on the ground before her and like liquid pearls hit the glass wide surface above the same moment a muffled voice came from behind along jogged steps “Kuvira, wait..” her best friend shouted, but she didn’t stop walking as the girl blurted “i just don’t want to see Opal hurt”
Kuvira froze. The car door clicked open when her stare stabbed Korra’s blue obsidians in the middle of the street veiled by some sort of apology.
The woman despised her best friend’s attempt to sound even helpless while saying something so controversial, only provoking a sense of spite corroding in her liver.
The uncertain rain by then tacked on the car’s lucid finish, dulling on the grey wool coat and her hot skin below almost solemnly, but in those pungent drops hitting like shattered glass, Kuvira’s red consumed lips pursed.
Eventually, she quickly realized that unhappy outcome didn’t deserve an answer. Leaving would’ve simply explained all too well.
.
It kept on weeping for the rest of the week in a constant light downpour, following her tight schedule rhythms. Whenever she got into an incoming change for her own association, working everyday till late night was what made her go on until everything was perfectly ready, controlled and proved to the point. She was the mind, the body and soul of her company; it was her passion, what she was born and raised for but, the fact she was also using it as an excuse to avoid thinking about anything else, was just a delightful addition.
Perhaps that was what her best friend actually scolded her about: she only cared and dedicated completely to her work and that would’ve never changed, more so when it mostly benefited her.
Opportunistic or not, this was what she lived for and nothing really could take that away from her nor distract even if the thought of that girl, during the course of each day spent closed in her own office, found its route to sparkle in her brain in the most unexpected ways.
The more time passed, the more things reminded her of Opal like a series of annoying notifications popping up when you forget to turn off an app feedbacks.
Opal was the sweet thick caramel aftertaste in her early morning black coffee quickly drink, the swears shouted in her mistakes, the kids faint perky laughs playing in the park below her corporation’s tower whenever she gazed outside; the light panting of her usual afterwork jogging and the most obscene moans in her wet dreams whenever she finally found the courage to lay down.
It would have been a lie saying she didn’t pick up her phone at least once each day, mindlessly checking their blank chat in which the girl’s home location was the only text sent without a reply. She rubbed her eyes and sighed. Kuvira had no idea when she would see her again by accident but taking appointments at her mother’s office was surely a smart start. Not that she had any interest in seeing her again anyway but her therapist, whom encouraged her to talk without much success, seemed every day more concerned about her labored condition.
“Taking some breaks will help.” Suyin’s shining earrings swung while tilting her head to the side, when at their last appointment Kuvira admitted working was excessively numbing her.
“It won’t only rest you but also reinforce your focus whenever you get back to work. Taking a break isn’t just about drinking water. Get out of your office, walk around, go to a park, detach from your working place for a bit. Find new places, new people to talk to, new perspectives. Get out of the empire you created, do something you wouldn’t usually do!”
It honestly passed so long after going on a vacation that the most recent memory of something closest to a break from her job was the faintest. She didn’t need a break, she had a break when she took her day off to get laid with her therapist’s daughter and her best friend went crazy for no apparent reason; not that she cared about what Korra found irritating about her or not but it surely gave her a headache, reminding how unpredictable life was when it didn’t concern her job. It was easier when it came to that; she could plan a strategy, control and prevent every next step of her agency before anyone else but outside her career? People had their erratic mentalities, they lied, left and betrayed; too unreliable and elusive and playing a losing game wasn’t exactly her style nor ambition.
Working was safer than living. That was nothing but the most comforting fact she grasped for dear life.
It was while recoiling from her thoughts that an annoying voice made her halt as getting out her therapist’s office and instead of walking towards the elevator, stayed still in the middle of the long deserted hallway checking her phone. “What are you doing here?” she turned facing the shorter girl quizzically staring as if a robber just broke into her place.
Inhaling became incredibly difficult for a second. Then she took a step back, “Appointment” the woman pointed out to the closed door beside them, dryly gulping down. Her dilated eyes darted on the girl rising brows, shifting weight on the right foot and clutching on her casual backpack string around the shoulder “Ah.. right, my mother”
Then pursed her full lips, wetting them, marking the end of those embarrassing greetings with alluding silence.
Is she wondering where i’ve been or why I didn’t text her this week? Maybe she didn’t even mind, hoping not to run into me again in order not to have this disheartening silence. Can’t blame her after all, what else was there to say, anyway?
We’re just strangers.
The woman nodded more as accepting that outcome made up by her own mind than confirming the girl’s statement and slowly began to walk down the hallway to dismiss their brief encounter.
The girl’s unusual slow gait, however, quietly tapped behind her back till the lift “Are you following me?” Kuvira asked with a hint of mockery in her tone pushing the elevator’s button to open its doors but the moment they got inside the empty glassed space, she finally noticed how pale Opal was under natural daylight.
“Are you okay?” she asked once noting her grasping the rail trying to not crumble down as it descended. Her knees buckled, her hands shook around the metal hold, yet she was.. stiff.
Sudden low blood pressure?
“Yeah... i’m just” she sighed glancing outside the world spinning down “i had to be somewhere in an half but my friends rain checked and now.. i don’t even know how to get back home” then crackled a smile towards her “i guess i’ll take the metro or taxi”
“I’ll bring you home” Kuvira announced stepping closer, in her firm voice a clear sign any denial was not accepted.
The girl’s eyes widened again, “what? No, no..” she shook her head, retracting.
“Yes”
“No”
“It’s raining,” the woman pointed a palm towards the window and immediately after to the girl next to her gulping down “you can barely stand and you think i’ll let you wander around such dangerous places?”
She looked even smaller than the usual, now crossing arms to her chest and pouting. “Zaofu is the safest place in the world and i’m not a baby!”
“I’m not saying that”
“Then what?” Her brows quirked together as she oddly smirked, her tiny teeth barely exposed gleamed “I can make it myself”
Kuvira crossed her arms as well in dare and let a light silence fall between them after soothing with a low voice “I never doubted it“
Whenever the elevator passed each floor in its run towards the ground, neon lights rhythmically brightened white the girl’s peridots and for a moment, her heart was beating inside her ears. The world was spinning too fast and yet, she was losing herself again at that sight an inch close to her, so far it almost hurt.
The way their eyes reflected into each other was unexplainable and maybe it was just her exhausted mind curling in itself but the way her short dark hair brushed her cheeks framing her little bronze face, her doll glassy eyes, her red button up nose and slightly parted lips, Kuvira almost found her not so bad on the eyes. She kind of regretted calling her beautiful the last time they had sex, making it more than a thought while she slept beside her; yet, now if her mouth moved, keeping herself from whispering it again and again would’ve been impossible.
Her feet soared from the floor, clothes plastered on her body, Opal’s arms unwrapped and she was floating mid air with her in a never ending fall, in which no parachutes could save them from the eventual, inevitable crash.
The lift’s ding then resounded in her chest as it stopped. Its doors scrolled open. Her heartbeat thundered and their feet sealed on the ground again.
She caught her breath and let it out. “i’ll bring you home and this is my last word”
The girl shook her head and rolled her eyes before passing the elevator’s doors “You are so stubborn” and she could do nothing but muffle a smile forming furtively whenever the girl wasn’t looking at her.
Meanwhile crossing the building hall, the woman nodded towards the receptionist who replied with a smile; then opened the entrance door at Opal’s short shuffling gait, leaning closer to catch the plastic umbrella from her hands and answer victorious, putting it up above their heads once outside “not as much as you”
There was something Opal did since she opened the bakery’s door for her a week before: she bit her bottom lip.
Although the reaction sent a chill down the woman’s spine, her simple gesture didn’t seem to be very appreciated, to the point it probably aggravated Opal but if there was something Kuvira started to enjoy incommensurably, was annoying the annoying girl.
“Will paparazzi wildly appear if i get in your car?” she pouted the moment they reached the woman’s sports car and stopping amidst with reluctance, surely considering if getting inside would actually harm her while she kept the car door open. The rain thudded repeatedly against their transparent defense, the scent of petrichor cleansed their lungs sending shivers to her bones and if they kept like that for long, her car’s leather was to trash out. A sense of impatience then soared while the girl still pondered her decision but in her crystal eyes her irritation soothed.
“Is that what you fear?” Kuvira’s brow rose in amusement earning the girl’s scowl eventually sitting.
“I fear nothing” she grumbled crossing arms.
This time, she couldn’t help herself from rolling up her eyes to which the girl sunken peeved.
“Of course” she mocked shutting the car door and sighed turning around it.
There were a lot of things Kuvira didn’t imagine happening in her life and driving around the city’s streets with Opal Beifong sitting right next to her was, perhaps, the less probable.
Wait— did she prefer sitting behind?
“Will you fuck me in your car?” the girl poked as soon as the woman sat down. Her ferns widened at that unforeseen question, inhaling sophisticated perfumes mixing up with the eco-leather seats.
Nobody managed to take her aback so often and easily but being so wearily cheeky and innocent all the same had its way to mess her up.
This girl was clearly something else.
“So you can mess up my seats? No,” she admonished “we won’t have sex, i’ll just bring you home”
“Will we in my apartment, then?” Opal pressed on, candidly tilting her head on a side as if she asked to drink something together once there and for a moment, Kuvira could see her therapist in that casual gesture.
However, there was some kind of intimate pureness in the girl Suyin’s sultriness could never reach, provoking Kuvira’s guts to quiver a bit while fastening her seat belt. Then sighed to mentally slow down, actually valuing the propose, “Do you want to?”
“Honestly yes.” the girl’s eyes darted attentively in hers, “I’m not a relationship kind of person and you surely aren’t either, so... i guess we can do it more than safely”
That reasoning made her eyebrows knit together. It was true and clear like crystal water: Kuvira wasn’t made for relationships. Not that she despised having one but the worth she gave them didn’t match the actual interest she had on wasting her time finding nor nurturing it, aside for sex.
She was taught what real love was and that was enough even when she never really experienced it in first person.
But Opal, the richest daddy’s princess? Opal had to be a hopeless romantic, she should’ve been one of those kinds of people that blindly believed in love at first sight and daydreamed of marriage after an obsessive awful month of fussing. It was all written in her bright eyes and believing her words was, aside difficult, kind of destabilizing.
Surprisingly, her first impression about the small girl slowly peeled onto another unexpected reality in which Opal wasn’t already planning to buy the most expensive cashmere for their eighth newborn but enjoying naughty encounters into public elevators.
Not that she lured her into that elevator... thinking about it. She was also young and living, experiencing her best life was due.
Her short hair giggled against soft brown cheeks slightly regaining color. No, believing it was unjustifiably hard “So, are you saying you won’t catch feelings for me?” the woman smirked skeptically.
“There’s literally noooo fear for that” her hand straightening forward and oddly moved to a side, as if a gesture could help her triumphant statement sound more assertive, provoking Kuvira’s brow to arch up.
“Mmh”
“What about you?” Opal prompted after a short silence, her eyes weighing on her rough hand turning on the engine, coming to life with a smooth purr.
“impossible,” the woman husked narrowing eyes on the wet street, “you are not my type”
Kuvira then felt the heiress’s sight rose on her thin lips sending a chill down her back before a car crossed their way. The girl squinted “Good” and halted the second after ”—for the records, is it my mother or Tuyen?”
The muffled rain tapping on the car intensified along wheels drifting on the road, horns and rumbling motors until, approaching a red light she stopped, catching that moment to analyze how the girl’s torso was completely turned towards her as if to reclaim her focus as talking. Opal wasn’t really waiting for an answer, probably enjoying how that impertinent question struck the point. Kuvira smirked, swinging her head side to side “You are so ruthless”
“It’s fact:” the girl leaned incredibly closer until her light breath caressed her jaw “the receptionist looks at you like you bewitched her and my mother clearly has a weakness for you if she kisses you goodbye.” the pressure exerted by Opal’s thumb pad stroking against her cheekbone numbed her skin and mind, missing the opportunity to reply before the heiress added quickly “So... are we officially fuck buddies?”
When she withdrew, the girl’s thumb was the same warm color as her mother’s lipstick, suddenly drying Kuvira’s throat at the realization. Her ferns, from her stained finger, darted to her peridots shining with unknown light. “I guess so”
The moment after that answer escaped her mouth a hard desire to slap her own face flamed. Why was she even accepting now?! There was no time for this stuff, well yes, perhaps just for sex but what the actual fuck?
First: getting laid by someone twice was already too much and unimaginably tedious. The girl slightly leaning closer fetched a tissue from her car holder to clean her finger “Does it mean i’ll call you for sex and you’ll come wherever i am?” she pondered naively while wrapping the whole hand around the thumb with engaging pressure and for a second, the image of those fingers closing around her cockhead tingled a rush of blood between the woman’s thighs.
Okay, second: having sex with Opal?? Come on, again? The same brat who can’t stop hammering my head like a mosquito in heat? How could that even be arousing?
Opal, my sexy therapist’s daughter.
In what did I get into? How awful.
My usual target would be Suyin, not a nosy kid with the not so secret plan to ruin my life. And since when are we... friends?
Maybe she was really stressed and answering while distracted wasn’t really a great idea if she came out with those outcomes. Alright, driving and paying attention to difficult conversations was from now on banned.
There were two possibilities now: ignoring her for the rest of her life or saying explicitly she wasn’t interested as soon as they were out of the car.
“Just don’t forget i’m a busy person” she grunted and hit gas as soon the red light shifted.
“Hey, I’m busy too!” the heiress shouted slapping her own thigh.
“Right, I didn’t ask you what do you do”
“I’m getting a PhD at Zaofu’s conservatory and in my spare time i teach kids meditation”
From the crowded street, her sight sprinted to the girl “Wait, how old are you?”
“22”
“I can’t believe it.”
“Are you saying i look old?” Opal accused while randomly poking the car’s frontal touchscreen, provoking Kuvira’s nerves to explode at each tilting sound. “No, i’m saying i’m brushing the illegal just by talking to you” she growled catching her tiny hand to end that torture, firmly placing it on the seat side. The coldness of her soft hand spread by that simple quick contact made chills roll along her body.
Is she made of ice and free pettiness?
“Come on, you can’t be much older. 45?” The girl guessed returning to tap on the screen gleaming under her finger, like nothing ever happened.
This time Kuvira’s eyes narrowed ahead, “28”
Tap tap..tap..
Now, she was known for her unbreakable stoicism and «excellent problem solving skills» to quote her resume— so, an annoying situation was easy to manage even because nobody really dared to try her patience. But this girl...
Taptap tap t—
“We are definitely not illegal!” Opal squinted along the music blasting through the car speakers when the woman’s bigger hand turned it off before grasping hers and holding it still on the shifter.
All of sudden the street clearing from the traffic was incredibly interesting while between her fingers, the girl’s slim ones tangled and yet after a moment in which air heaved like hundred boulders realizing the girl wasn’t fighting her back for once, a comfortable calmness overwhelmed.
There was an unknown, tender satisfaction in clasp her smooth cold skin with no sexual innuendo nor subtle implications hidden in it. Just an immediate solution to stop her continuous tapping, as simple and easy as it appeared and perhaps eventually... kind of nice.
How many times did something like that ever happen?
It didn’t really matter now as Opal’s icy hand slowly turned warm under her palm and in the instant she took to glance at her, the girl’s cheeks were faintly colored.
“I didn’t take you for a musician.” the woman admitted after a while, “What instrument?”
“Piano,” the faint little tone was almost overpowered by the thumping rain “but I study theory, now”
“Why you say now?”—
“Why not a musician?” their opposite voices intertwined in unison and stopped at the realization, until the CEO cleared her throat,“You first”
In the silence her offer left behind, she barely squeezed the small hand one last time and retracted her own with nonchalance to land it on the steering wheel.
“‘Cause i’m graduating to teach it somedays to kids with disabilities” the girl spoke with some kind of dismissal in her tone, immediately folding her other cold hand with the warmer one.
The businesswoman pretended that shift meant nothing since the student probably didn’t really want to talk about the reasons behind her future career choices. That was a very honorable ambition, yet Opal sounded as if it was imposed on her somehow, or probably she was one of those people who preferred to achieve something before talking about it.
However the reasons, she found herself interested “You seem too impulsive for something so calm”
“That’s not true!” Opal shouted taken aback and blushing, perhaps realizing that was what she talked about.
“See?” she snorted, then turned on the left before stopping at another red light.“Is this what you always wanted to do?”
“No.. i mean,” the girl comfortably folded her own arms, “life eventually led me there. I always had in general a deep connection with music and it started when i heard my grandma playing.” the woman caught her lips drawing a sweet smile in a brief interlude.
“I fell in love,” Opal whispered probably watching the green city horizons ahead her own grandma and father confined, Kuvira though.
“she isn’t a very affectionate person but she showed me her secret love by letting me listen what she never let anyone know. Music is what connects us and although she is blind you could see a vivid story unfold at each note she played like if she had a Futurama’s Holophonor” the girl chuckled then fell silent, staring blankly outside the window.
“The first time i ever played i was five,” she kept on, less than a breath at the memory. Kuvira glanced at her again for a moment and could almost touch the nostalgia veiling her voice. The crystal greens embedded in her eyes escaped her direct sight but reflected on the glass, shining with the reminiscence mellowing their usual impel.
There was something unpredictable in Kuvira’s heart pushing her to caress the girl’s short strands behind her ear and clear up her face; an urge her mind restrained before turning into action by closing her fist tighter on the designed steering.
“she let me sit on her lap, hands over hers while she played one of the most beautiful, soothing melodies i’ve ever heard. She told me to close my eyes and focus on listening with my soul, my whole body and I forgot her condition. She says music heals, and through it, we can be whoever we want to be because --people don’t care who you are or if you use your toes to play,”
“but what you make them feel with your music” the woman ended the girl’s sentence.
“Yeah...” Opal whispered, and when Kuvira had the chance to glance at her once pulling over at their destination, the girl was mindlessly curling a short strand around her finger.
The rain thumped hard over the car matching the rhythm of the heiress’s heartbeat.
The girl’s puffy lips were barely departed before stretching in a shy smile as catching the stare. “Touched?”
“Not even a bit” Kuvira assured, eyes falling in the deepest bright of her light greens, “Would you ever let me listen?”
“No” the student said immediately with some kind of amusement before adding “Are you hungry?”
“Actually, yes. Are you?”
“Come in then, there’s a storm”
.
There were three main things she found out about Opal in those few hours spent together.
First: she was awfully humble. You could say such a wealthy girl of her age would have all her vices satisfied and commodities. A butler to help her with anything if needed in a palace of her own made of diamonds but still, she chose to live alone in a modest tiny apartment above her favorite bakery, taking the metro or walking instead of a chauffeur bringing her wherever she desired in a limousine and a personal chef serving seared elephant koi and hibiscus root salads. But Opal was a vegetarian and preferred to cook her own meals even if scarcely good at it, so Kuvira ended up chopping vegetables while the girl made noodles.
The woman barely recalled the last time she ate at home, even less cooking since she never really did it. She only ate in restaurants whenever she didn’t take just a bite of her meal at her own office. Zaheer also never really taught her what enjoying family reunions around a table full of delicacies meant, as he himself conducted a very lonely busy life and no family waited at home.
It wasn’t an issue, just a different way of living but eventually, no matter how different the woman and the girl were —constantly poking each other’s even about seasoning and salting— they managed to prepare dinner without cutting off their fingers or burning the small kitchen.
They then sat on puffy stools in front of a marble counter top where golden terrace like shelves adorned, with climbing plants on top. Between leaves, a series of warm downlight sparkled from the roof to lighten their features.
Second: Opal was a mess even with food.
She wasn’t noisy and by her perfect poise it was clear she was strictly taught to behave since a young age but by her adoring glances, her love for food was almost palpable. Even when she boiled just noodles, half of her pan and pot sets would’ve been discarded on every counter top if Kuvira didn’t stop her first, already brushing a neurotic blast the moment the girl took out of the fridge a ridiculous amount of vegetables with the brightest smile on her little face.
Third: Opal had a shadow, or well, a mountain beast by its exaggerated size, walking between her feet and threatening to make her stomp at each step. It was a lazy, grunting Tibetan Mastiff affected by rhinorrhea, smelling and terrifying as much as gentle and tender he actually was but still his name was Juicy and her owner, barely half of his stature, called him little boy. She wondered why she didn’t see him the first time at her place; such huge dog was hard to miss in a small apartment but the student mentioned her best friends used to walk him around with their other two dogs, all coming from the same litter and growing up together. She thought it was kind of odd but let the topic fall while ending their pan fried noodles.
“Do you feel better?” She husked slightly concerned when the girl standing up to get a glass of water had to hold the counter for a moment.
While cooking the girl was a bit more energized with blood rushing in her cheeks, bolting left and right and slapping her rough hands whenever she tried to stop her from adding more seasonings, but now her stare was fixed in the air like focusing on something and her hand cupping the glass trembled a bit. “Getting there” she said nonetheless while catching the phone buzzing on the marble “Oh, Kai just texted we will hang out tomorrow morning” the girl casually added after a brief silence as if she had an idea who Kai was. Kuvira frowned placing down her sticks over the bowl, soy sauce lingering in her mouth “Who’s Kai?”
“The same friend i should have hung out with today.” Opal sat down taking a sip, “What, are you jealous?”
“Not at all” the businesswoman scowled at the insinuation.
“then why that look?” the student’s laugh sparkled in the room “You are so funny”
“Stop laughing” the woman cut off annoyed, wetting her lips and narrowing her eyes on the girl’s; the more she scowled, the louder she laughed until covering her own mouth to compose after a while, in which her joy opposed perfectly the violent rain rustling outside.
She cleared her throat when glassy peridots fell on her, so intense her heart skipped a beat.
“You said i’m not your type, before. Then who’s your type of person?” Opal wondered once calm, placing a palm on her own cheek, elbow on the counter. For how long did she think about that? In the girl’s light eyes there was something beyond curiosity, tacitly asking for seriousness.
Kuvira sighed pondering that question for a second until words escaped from her mouth, “Someone that takes over my mind, someone who doesn’t want to change me but accept me for what i am”
Their eyes sealed in the middle and a sense of exposure wrapped her.
Opal’s head tilted on a side “And what are you?”
“What do you see?” She asked in return earning a deeper look.
“Well.. I met you uh.. yesterday? But by your resting bitch face you seem someone who fought a lot and just needs some peace now...” the girl narrowed her gems “lasting happiness.. maybe” then closed her mouth abruptly, gulping down, “what do you see in me?”
Resting bitch fa- how dare she?
Kuvira’s heart rate increased exponentially roaring along the rain outside. How did Opal understand such deep and intimate truths about her without even knowing her past?
She was right, they barely knew each other and the little known was enough to show their opposite personalities; the more they discovered something about them, the wider grew their differences and yet, there was something linking them in unexpected ways.
There, in the bottomless pools of her eyes, Kuvira found all the answers she still couldn’t comprehend herself; in that light, no matter the slight disappoint, she found that little girl learning life from her grandma’s lap like a reminiscence of her own and everything suddenly became clearer. “I see someone who wouldn’t back down not even if their world crumbles over their shoulders.” she assured lowly, getting closer while remembering her stubbornness, “a resilient dreamer, someone who hopes with all her heart even while keeping a moral of steel in her mind and this... deeply conflicts you”
An intimate silence then fell between them while slowly, they both analyzed what just came out off of her thoughts. There were no smiles curling up Opal’s full lips but her breath pushed intensely between them. The girl’s expression was actually unknown, enigmatic while their eyes darted into each other’s, orbiting in a endless, hypnotizing cycle.
“You said you want to have sex” Kuvira stated out of the blue when their faces neared close.
The girl’s eyes widened, her feathered eyelashes flickered for a moment at the proposal, then she nodded and whispered “i do”
Quietly, got up to lay on her lap and there, their foreheads met until the student’s bang was pressed in between. Opal wasn’t heavy but warm... so warm she didn’t even realize how cold the room was without her small body snuggling on hers. Their noses brushed closer, rough hands roamed towards the girl’s soft hips while tiny ones cupped her face. For a moment, Kuvira felt alive again under that glacial touch, for a moment everything had finally a meaning, in that moment in which their steamy breaths caressed each other’s lips before they coul—
Bzz bzz
Opal sighed profoundly and retracted while the ring tone blared in the kitchen. Then whispered after few interminable beeps “Answer, it’s okay”
But the truth was, no matter the girl’s polite invitation, she didn’t want to. Just for a split second Kuvira felt the urge to end what they couldn’t even start, to get lost in her eyes until the world blurred out. Yet, before whoever was trying to call stopped, she grasped the phone the girl handed.
“Zhu Li, what’s wrong?” she grunted, her eyes in Opal’s while her secretary’s metallic voice reminded her of the appointment made with a certain haste. No matter how concerned of her delay, however, Zhu Li always managed to stay composed and professional whenever a problem came out. Not for nothing she trusted her secretary doing her job. “Mh, alright. I’ll be there in 15 minutes, keep them”
“You have to go..” the girl stated with a glimpse of sadness stabbing Kuvira’s guts when the call ended. What was that uncomfortable feeling? She loved her job but couldn’t prevent cursing it in that precise moment. “Yes..” she mumbled catching her cold hands to help the girl stand up from her with a quizzical frown.“Is everything okay?”
No..
“Yes, my secretary scheduled an appointment with a group of journalists” their shoes tapping on the parquet echoed in the apartment as she followed the student towards the entrance “they want an interview due to new changes applied in the company” the woman explained, halting for a moment while wearing her coat “Are you sure i can leave you? Do you feel better?”
“Y-yeah” the girl’s stare fell on the living room floor, tucking her short hair behind the ear.
What’s in her mind?
A minute passed in silence in which she couldn’t help but glance continuously, giving Opal the time for an answer she never earned. Kuvira tugged close the black coat on her chest and hissed opening the door, “Alright, then. Thanks for dinner. I really liked this”
—“Vira”
“Opal”
“Thank you for bringing me home...” the girl bit her own lip still avoiding her stare before adding “d-don’t run”
Her fern eyes widened whenever Opal decided to stare back, glassy.. for the first time uncertain.
At the sight, Kuvira’s heart punched inside until it stopped, as she leaned closer to land a kiss on the girl’s soft cheek.
“I’ll be careful”
.
Notes:
Kuvira and Opal finally get to talk without jumping in each other’s lap (almost!), but what are Korra and our little Beifong hiding?
Chapter 5: Chapter five
Notes:
Hey! Things are beginning to pick up! Peace out! C:
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
.
.
«Next step? The sky! After Futures Industries collaboration, Miss. Laghima dreams big» the magazine’s words through Jinora’s delicate tone was barely audible on the busy streets they were walking on, muffled by cars and trains sprinting in the city’s core.
“Well, no matter how pretentious that sounds, she already reached the sky if she hooked up with our star”
“Kai!” Opal’s eyes widened while shooting glances between her two best friends “Jinora, Why did you buy this?”
“Isn’t it her?” she turned the newspaper pointing at the infamous woman’s face “I wanted to see her!”
Kuvira’s black and white picture stared back with a casual expression, firm and almost empty aside for an insight slight gleam, reminding her for a moment what it felt like to have those ferns linked to hers. On the gray lucid papers, she recognized the same navy blue suit she clutched onto yesterday night, before the businesswoman left her apartment and how a musky perfume hidden in each smoothened fold, greedily wore out her lungs.
Was my scent still in her suit when she took those pictures?
What in the Spirit World! Even her absence taunted an aneurysm at the mere thought.
Her sight then darted away from the magazine to turn up ahead where, on a skyscraper’s side, a billboard of the most influential CEO in all Zaofu triumphed. The sun rays that day hit on the glowing screen, caressing her face with warm shades of gold and even if it was just an advertisement along the adjacent street they were walking on, it made her grunt with rage.
How can she be so pretentious?!
“Yes but, you know” she rolled her eyes “you could look up at --like every building to see her face”
“she doesn’t lack modesty that’s for sure” Kai intervened, wrapping his girlfriend closer to sneak a glance to the magazine she was holding, then her diaphanous face and grumbled,“babe, can you please stop looking at her?”
“Why?” Jinora whispered distracted by the pages, and even if out of her sight, Opal could tell which expression was lingering on her best friend’s face by Kai’s pouting.
“Because my face is here” he pointed out hiding the CEO’s picture with his palm, provoking a sweet chuckle to sparkle as response. “She is undoubtedly handsome” her best friend covered her own smile “but i’m not drooling, am i?”
“Not yet!” Opal crossed her arms, realizing her tone came out a bit too harsh than normal. Spirits!
“Someone is jealous!” the guy mocked instantly with a grin drawn between his tanned cheeks.
“What? Are you crazy?” she stopped mid track “I could never be jealous for someone like...” she grunted vaguely pointing to the skyscraper “Kuvira! Once I even kind of heard her association’s scientific departments did some shitty tests on animals. This is cr—“
“Bullshits.” Kai cut, resuming walking “Firstly you have an apartment full of products signed by her industry. Second, it’s about metal, animals have nothing to do with it!”
“Kai is right and well...Zaheer was a visionary with pretty good intentions after all and I don’t know her personally, but from her interviews and promoting speeches i wouldn’t assume that’s something of her style. She seems a serious person” Jinora intervened provoking something inside her stomach to flip and frown. Why are they protecting Kuvira, now?
Her best friends have always been her same length, more so if it was about such delicate matters. Probably telling them what happened with the annoying woman wasn’t the most brilliant idea because it was kind of aggravating they created a reality where she was already happily married with her. Being projected as Kuvira’s girlfriend gave her a hitch underneath her skin.
What a nightmare.
Dating someone like her would be a terrible mistake.. who has the nerve to open doors and buy cake after sex? What a bullshitter! So demanding and strategical... no matter how much money Kuvira surely makes every second, it’s clear like water she has no idea what having fun means. I bet, there’s a possibility she never leaves her office because... she is always nowhere to be found. Not that I want to find her and-d..ARGH.. annoying!
“Well I do know her personally and she is too commanding and smothering to follow ideologies like Zaheer’s! Good intentions don’t always lead to good results and” she pouted looking away “metal can be used in a lot of messed up ways depending on its forms” In her walk, each step tapped loud.
“I think you just want to find a proper excuse to actually hate Kuvira because you are too good and honest to be petty with people for no reason.” Kai reflected, holding Jinora closer.
“I totally agree.” the girl cooed lightly, caressing the guy’s arm around her shoulders as they all stopped in front of their yoga building.
They are so meant for each other it’s almost infuriating. And there’s.. no way love is made for me the way it’s made for them because... I’m the one who isn’t made for love. End of the discussion.
While Opal’s arms unwrapped, her hand slightly shook as she clutched on her own backpack string, catching immediately the girl’s concerned glance on it. She backed and shrunk into herself “Jinora, you know you are a bad influence on your boyfriend with all your zen and pacific fucks n’ craps?” Opal asked grumbling, provoking a sweet general laughter out of their chests as the couple got closer to eventually squish her in the middle.
They were so warm and soothing, a urge to cry threatened to push out of her glassy peridots protection.
“Go in peace beautiful soul” Jinora smiled, her brown eyes softened into hers while her pale fingers gently tucked behind her ear black short strands. Opal’s chin trembled a bit as darting her sight between her two friends in silent admiration the second after.
“Thanks.. a-and” she withdrew from their unfolding hug till reaching backwards for the study’s door, pouting jokingly when her back pressed against its cold glass “f-fuck you both”
.
Soft little laughters and chiming voices bubbled in the clear sky framed by yellow trees branches, undressing at the mockingbirds’ chanting.
It was such a wonderful day to be wasted inside a yoga room. So she instructed the smily kids to pick a partner to hold hands with in line crossing the street, heading to the garden square right beside the building. Luckily, the grass on which they all sat in a circle after playing around a bit wasn’t humid and the unusual warmth of that late fall afternoon was perfect for a meditation session. It was so thrilling to see the kids so excited to be outside she almost missed a little girl running outside the group to catch a flying red leaf.
Kiyi!!
With her heart punching in her chest she ordered the group to stay put and sprinted on the cracking dead leaves before her small figure eventually stopped, losing balance not too far. Opal’s eyes widened, but before her little student could tumble, she was caught by the same thing that made her fall.
Someone..
“.. you is the woman on the walls!” The kid’s cheery voice reached her ears when the distance was shortened and the shape of her tiny form narrowed. Her words instead, still sounded funny in her mind; “The woman on the..” Opal repeated to herself then focused on the person near the kid.
“Opal..” an unmistakable smoky tone howled, contrasting the park’s light clean air. Her racing heart stopped for few instants after two fern eyes gathered hers. The girl’s voice died in her throat, perhaps due the run or the sudden fright. “Kuvira, what are you doing here?” She asked almost in a scold, finally remembering to breathe, frowning, placing a hand on her own chest. Please stop..
“She bumped into me” the woman and her student said in unison, both pointing at each other. Their voices though, many octaves apart, created an odd harmony she couldn’t appreciate to its fullest and laugh as her worries still crowded her mind and froze her being; she looked back to check on the other kids.
Before kneeling in front of her student, the woman’s eyes reacted, perhaps perceiving distress in her pale greens.
“Kiyi,” she breathed out apprehensively, landing her sight on the kid’s candid browns sparkling at the sun rays casted among falling leaves “will you remind me of the rules?”
“Uhmm” the kid shift the attention to the leaf in her minuscule hands as thinking of that question; her chestnut hair bun fell on a side “No strangers! stay glued to teacher but no sticky boogers!”
“Very good princess,” Opal propped up her palm in a cheerful sign “high five! Let’s go back to others now”
“Can she come with us?” Kiyi then pouted tugging on the woman’s rough hand who evidently stiffened at the unusual gesture. It was such a hilarious sight to see the pleading kid wrapping onto the serious businesswoman scowling, clearly screaming internally but finally melting Opal’s distress to make room for a spontaneous laugh. It was weird how a kid showed such interest for someone they didn’t know, much more for a timid girl like Kiyi, but the way she sparkled at Kuvira’s presence, for some reason was more than noticeable.
When Opal’s peridots rosed as she stood up, they met the CEO’s ferns instantly. No matter the scowl, however, her eyes below the thickset black brows reflected clear, pure in hers, enchanted with incredible reassurance and for a while everything around softened, in the meantime Kiyi’s shrilling voice broke between their comfortable silence as she led Kuvira with them.
“..And she is on the walls and you call her Kuvira!” The girl’s tiny hand keeping the leaf caught the woman’s rough one as well, while they neared the group of kids “mommy says Kuvira a lot too!”
“—She what?!” Opal stopped, brows knitted together.
Why would Kiyi’s mother say the woman’s name? Do they know each other? Her sight sprinted to Kuvira’s face again to find an answer but aside a slight confusion, a rather pleased expression lingered in her features.
“Wooow! You are so tall!!” A child from the little group stood up, followed by the others crowding around the businesswoman.
What is going on with them today?!
Yet, at the kids cheering tones many answers to that question came to her mind; Kuvira was an iconic presence for them more than what the woman could ever be for her because she never really took a moment to recognize how famous she exactly was, since inheriting Zaofu’s most important source of wealth: metal.
Then granny personally know her too?
Kuvira for Opal was a person like any other met on a lift, forgetting completely that the entire town in which she lived in, was made of the primal product her multi-billion Yuans companies provided; from the finest detail on a jewel worn by almost every citizen living there and around the world, to the most significant buildings erected in the city’s centers on which her face appeared, aside every newspaper, every tv station...
“like on the walls” a boy added, pointing at the woman who stabbed glances at her as a sign.
The more Opal remained quiet at the scene unfolding, thinking about the multiple reasons of her greatness, the more Kuvira’s aggravation seemed to grow making her laugh when finally recoiling.
“Can you lift me up?” the CEO’s eyes visibly widened in horror at each crease on the expensive fabric caused by sticky small hands gripping her suit.
Kuvira was overly charismatic but surely wasn’t used to kids; maybe she liked them deep down but obviously wasn’t prepared for a tiny assault that specific day. Yet, Opal had a feeling that no matter what, the woman’s pride would’ve never allowed her to seek for help, so she enjoyed that moment as much as she could, before nearing among the crowd to catch Kiyi particularly tugging those silk trousers. “Alright, kids!” she settled with a jump the girl around her waist “Let her breathe now”
“stay with us? Pweeseeee..” Kiyi mumbled almost at Kuvira’s eye level but clenching dearly onto Opal.
Her glance pinpointed between the bouncing kid in her arms and the towering woman nervously, fearing Kuvira intention to deny Kiyi’s offers.
She doesn’t have the guts to do it... right?
“I can’t—“ wrong. Motherfucker.
“What! A.. a wonderful idea!!” the teacher shouted and hopped on the spot to overcome Kuvira’s refusal to the kid’s hearing “But why don’t you go sit and prepare for the lesson now, while I explain it to Kuvira, huh?” she chanted waiting for Kiyi’s wonder to turn into a keen nod. Then smiled while putting her down before the group of perky children sat over their yoga mats on the yellow leaves carpet.
Her smile though, didn’t last more than a friction of a second as eventually turning towards the woman once alone. “I won’t babysit you and six other kids.” Kuvira uttered peeved, crossing arms on her chest “I have to work.”
“Listen you little shit. Today is Kiyi’s birthday.” She mimicked her tone with a whisper, removing any distance to poke her with a finger “On a daily basis if a kid offers you an empty cup of tea you’ll drink it all but today is even more special for her and if you won’t put a smile on hers and the other five beautiful tiny faces,” she thumbed the kids behind, lowering her voice brushing directly on thin lips “you’ll forget the sound of my pussy gripping your dick for the rest of your damn life.”
“Fine! I’ll find someone else less annoying,” the woman spat while she withdrew “perhaps your mother!”
Wow.. she really has the guts to be a dick.
It was then, Opal snorted and Kuvira’s maddened expression smothered into a quizzical stare.
“Shush, milf whisperer,” she grasped her rough hand “now come, breathe with me”
“Do I really need to remind you my outfit isn’t the most appropriate for this setting?” Kuvira grunted rolling her eyes up to the sky while following “It’ll be almost impossible for me to —“
The girl stopped, involuntarily pressing on the woman’s chest brushing against her as she turned, to tug off the jacket. “Like this will do..” she said stripping the fabric down her broad shoulders and loosening a bit the tie around her neck. Yet, while she unbuttoned the white collar, the woman’s breath caressed on her plump lips, her wrist trembled “..I’ll go easy anyway, you won’t move much, it’s just meditation for kids, not skydiving” then explained withdrawing, folding in two the jacket under the businesswoman’s blazing stare.
It didn’t take long before actually starting the lesson after they all settled in a small semicircle: kids ahead and the two of them in the middle sharing the same exercise mat. It was clear this wasn’t the first time Kuvira practiced meditation. Through her straightened back pressing against her in a perfect line, the woman was able to shift her breathing from normal to heavy, probably even better than her.
Opal opted for a couple meditation session since she never really had the help of a partner to do so and explaining figures to children without actually showing them was hard. So she tried to use the woman’s presence the best she could, drawing laughter from her little students excited to do something new. Not that Opal made them do the same thing twice, anyway. There was always something new she would find to make every lesson different than the previous one, adding games and surprises instead of teaching a plain lesson at every appointment. Meditation and kids were her passion after all and they in particular reminded her a bit too much of herself: introverted and struggling to settle in the real world.
Each lesson then, was a challenging experience for her, often revealing to be a playful and relaxing evening for the children between stretches, music and laughs.
It was a great distraction and having Kuvira with them was an unforeseen, electrifying add.
Everyone did everything as instructed perfectly, choosing a mate by sorting leaves of different color: red or yellow. It was Kuvira’s idea who apparently had a thing for administrations. Then, they started the lesson by cooling down on the ground: back to back to connect each breath.
“Now, lets take our friend’s hands and stretch them up to the sky” Opal chanted, catching the woman’s rough hands in hers to slowly straighten them up, reminding them to breathe but forgetting how to do it herself. Her cold hands then trembled in the air until Kuvira’s warm palms wrapped them gently and guided each movement she softly chimed.
“Whoever has the red leaf pull your friend’s hands forwards towards the ground” she then relaxed on Kuvira’s back who was reclined in a child pose. The blue afternoon’s sky came into vision as stretching her neck over the businesswoman’s nape. She couldn’t even fully appreciate the ticklish sensation of her hair as she immediately after stood up to lightly sprint towards every couple to adjust their positions; their little hands, shoulders, backs over the others’ and heads at the wind’s gentle breeze. Feeling Kuvira’s attentive glance, however, following her wherever she fled made her breath hitch.
Whenever she came back to the woman to explain each position, her heart sought at the feeling of her arms and hands intertwined with the CEO’s, for once not in a sexual way but in a pure, terrifying one. Yet, she was at peace as she instructed the kids to turn and face their mates, unifying palms and breaths again under her directions, calm and soft, intertwined with long moments of silence to let her little students focus.
In the quietness, enriched by rustling leaves, her peridots often met ferns in the middle, spying under narrowed eyelids one another’s movement. Kuvira was the first one to notice her stare, at first frowning at her as they pushed their arms to extend them on the sides, showing to the kids the stretch exerted with that exact position, until they pinched each other when her little students weren’t looking. They chuckled in silence before she stood up to fix the children’s posture anew and resume her position in front of the woman once done.
Opal’s heart sighed again and hands quivered as they pressed their forehead together, firstly to rise arms up, then slowly lowering them between their chests, emptying and filling heavily. The warmth of Kuvira’s soft breath on her lip’s divot send chills through the spine and she hoped the woman didn’t notice it, no matter how linked together, meanwhile the world around dwindled.
The birds in the sky or hidden among swinging tree branches stopped chirping, the ground disappeared as they floated mid air in the gentle wind, where her heart danced without any restraint.
But when her students singsonging chuckles sparkled softly around them after a while, time began to flow regularly in Kuvira’s ferns opening with hers. Their intertwined hands unwrapped while separating, catching some curious glances. Opal halted, darting her sight to the woman again, soothing every distress with a simple look.
Then sighed.
They are little, there’s no malice.
So she cleared her throat and kept her relaxing tone “now, let’s slowly stand on our legs” yet, a sense of vertigo affected her as she instructed the students to bend and stretch their knees a bit before slowly rolling up to conclude their lesson.
A rush of claps echoed in the tranquil park to mark the end, and a second after, the children’s sweet voices substituted the sound, shifting in little crowds.
“Is everything okay? Did your leg fall asleep?” Kuvira frowned wearing her suit jacket watching her roll the yoga mat on the ground.
Is it? Does it even matter? She won’t understand.
The girl sighed again, securing the smooth fabric closed, hitting Kuvira with it to hand it. “I’m surprised you didn’t make any of the kids cry with your scowl” she mocked.
“I wasn’t planning on doing yoga in the dirt in my 7,000 yuan suit this afternoon.” The woman remarked while tapping her back with the mat “Or having kids wipe boogers on it...”
“What, do you want me to pay you for not yeeting a child?”
“Why do you paint me as such an asshole all the time, Opal.”
She paused at the sudden serious tone as she stood up, slipping the hoodie on as goosebumps started to rise in the chilling air as the businesswoman’s firm tone made her halt on the spot when she called her name almost in a scold.
“I’m bringing them back to the studio, thanks for your help, the kids like you. You can come if you want to.” Opal then mumbled, avoiding that inquiring stare to plant it on the ground and tighten the grip around the rolled mat she eventually collected.
The image of the woman turning her back in a moment or another to leave the park was clear in Opal’s mind, but only in her mind the possibility remained.
Kuvira instead lingered to listen to some children stories and jokes; keeping them busy while every exercise mat was rolled closed. Although, she could feel the woman’s eyes stabbing through her from the end of the kids line when they crossed the street to get back to the studio.
There, little by little each parent presented at the front door to pick their respective child up and leave with a smile, eventually emptying the studio’s hall growing bigger until there was nobody else left but the two of them assisting the fall of a deafening silence charged with unspoken tension.
On the lucid floor the girl’s light shoes tapped, provoking the studio’s wooden surface to crack at her nervous light steps as trying to close the window but mostly keep herself busy under Kuvira’s static stare, patiently waiting. All her best efforts to avoid the CEO’s presence and earn some time to not talk with her were in vain because she knew there were plenty unanswered questions pondered by the woman, now standing in a corner of that room like she did in the back of her mind.
But the problem was... she also had a lot of questions with no answer herself; questions that perhaps didn’t require her concern, at least for a while. So she zipped her backpack closed and stopped in her bended position reflected in the wall mirror covering the entire right side of the room; in it, Kuvira stared with an indecipherable expression. For a second the thought of the night before —when the woman left her apartment— flashed back, accompanied by the same sense of emptiness she felt once alone. It was intense, inexplicable, overwhelming and she hated Kuvira for it. She hated that woman for helping her and being so patient.
Just go away, please...
“Opal” her low voice howled in the room louder than that thought. A chill ran down the girl’s spine and legs over which she was folded on quivered.
“Can you please tell me what’s wrong, now?” the woman deadpanned, her hands from behind her back unwrapped to casually sink in her trousers’s pockets.
Her poise worth a commander’s, however, remained adamant, serious, getting on Opal’s nerves even more; why does she have to be like that all the time?
Even in her lowest tone there was a hint of authority capable of drying the girl’s throat and halt her heart as if that voice bellowed within her own body.
She grunted, standing up and stuttered to her direction replying with the same intensity of that challenging stare following her movements, until any space between them in the cold room was removed.
When their bodies were an inch close, however, the girl hesitated. From there Kuvira’s green eyes were much lighter which, along the musky perfume embedded in her skin, penetrated her being in ways she couldn’t accept.
Opal couldn’t stand her perfect hairstyle, her perfectly refined brows, her long eyelashes, the shape of her catlike eyes, that mole on her perfect tanned skin, her chiseled jawline, her neck, her large shoulders tensed like a wooden table always dressed in perfect suits. Kuvira was perfect in everything she did, in everything she was... in each breathe she took, which probably, was even specifically calculated by her perfect controlling mind.
It drove her crazy, it made her jaw clench hard and hands curl into fists as if to defend herself from that harmful perfection... as if it could indirectly affect, corrode, damage her.
Yet, the increasing urge to mess up that accuracy pushed Opal to grasp the CEO’s silk jacket to help herself reach inviting thin lips.
Kuvira seemed to halt as they collided in a simple, long kiss. A beam of warmth sparkled in her being. Dry but soft, firm but gentle: the dichotomy and complexities that molded the woman in front of her were plenty, inextinguishable and the more she shared and exposed herself, the more her dissimilarities converged in a single defined point: Kuvira’s being, essence. So incredibly unpredictable even in her most calculated deeds. Yet, that kiss wasn’t controlled, it was dictated by an unbearable stream of instinctive impulses, of emotions, of uncontainable passion able to unsettle Opal’s mind at the glide of their lips, at Kuvira’s fingers digging in her hips’s soft skin.
Closer...
“Opal..” the woman’s mint whisper caressed between her lips when they departed just a glimpse as if catching air after the unforeseen contact.
Under her own palms, Kuvira’s face was warm and softer than one could expect it to be in its sharp flawless line, so flawless it was almost hard to believe it was actually alive and responsive.
“Vee...” she gasped holding everything she could to anchor herself to that reality, to not fall into the abyss of those ferns locked with her own. It was difficult... terribly difficult to resist that pull but so comforting to get lost for a while somewhere she didn’t know neither belonged to but with her fingertips, she could almost caress the phantom of that possibility in the woman’s gleaming lips.
She sighed, a thousand hurricanes spinning in her mind “i want you to pipe me down so hard..”
Kuvira frowned confused, slightly withdrawing “You want me to do what?”
“Spirits...” her forehead landed on the CEO’s chin and sighed again, then snorted.
Embarrassing. Kuvira clearly doesn’t use slang on a daily basis.
A kiss caressed Opal’s messy bang until she rose barely enough to fix her sight on those thin departed lips “just... make me forget for a while, Vira... please”
“What do you want to forget exactly?” the woman asked.
Everything, I wanna forget about everything.
In those strong arms now squeezing her closer, Opal found a staggering solace but none of those words escaped her mind, sinking down straight her throat instead, in a moment of silence framed by their soothing breaths. For a glimpse, it was like Kuvira could read the need in her eyes; “...Alright” the woman whispered, as if that would’ve been their secret to keep while slowly placing another kiss over the girl’s bang.
Briefly after, another kiss followed between her messy short hair, then her temple, cheek bone, the tip of her button nose and so on, until Opal couldn’t prevent the smile stretching her lips turning into a melodious, contagious laugh, resounding in the empty room.
With her small hands on businesswoman’s cheeks, she kept her close to eventually pull for a kiss. Her own short strands tickling the woman’s face was probably aggravating even if she didn’t give any sign of discomfort but actually leaning closer until the palm of her rough hands stroked beneath the sweater’s fabric, heating directly the skin of her lower bare back up and digging fingers furthermore as if wanting to be engraved in her and blend in just one being.
It was strange.. Opal didn’t know her and the little she knew was everything she despised; yet, an impelled need possessed her whenever they kissed, now with increasing sensuality, exploring graze after graze the depth of their warmth. Her fingers dug into raven silk hair when Kuvira departed her lips to let their tongues subtly meet in tease, deepening the kiss, blazing a fire in her lower abdomen touching with the woman’s lifting her.
Instantly, her legs wrapped around Kuvira’s hips, feeling a hardness starting to push against the inner thigh while their breaths brushing on their mouths heaved, reaching her throat, opening her lungs spasmodically.
How could a simple kiss unravel her body in such ways?
“Kuvira..” she whimpered between their kiss, dragging a sound from the back of the CEO’s throat, half growl, half moan. It was then Opal perceived her body being rocked up and down in slow dry humps, as if Kuvira was totally unbothered by her weight made of air.
Opal could feel the fire liquifying in the abdomen slowly sliding down between her sensitive folds, soaking her panties the more Kuvira’s bulge skimmed and hit against her covered entrance but sliding up to the twitching clit.
Spirits.. more..
“I want to ride your face" she panted before her mind disconnected completely every rational thought with a line of saliva still linking their parted, swollen lips together. “Wait” she then patted on her broad chest as a sign, waiting for the CEO to let her slip from strong arms before sprinting to the room’s opposite corner.
“Over here...” she explained eagerly as if she was suggesting the next toy to play with “I always wanted to use this” the blue fit-ball squeaked under her body as she playfully bounced on it with a wide smile of excitement until meeting Kuvira’s frown. Pure electricity.
Under that firm stare Opal stroked tentatively on the smooth plastic giggling, to show her intention without taking in consideration the oddly lecherous friction creating against the adherent leggings fabric. A grumble of pleasure escaped her throat. She halted and flushed in embarrassment but as the woman’s glare grew feral, the fire in her lower abdomen blazed.
Her bravado was fueled instantly, awakening the need to grind with insistence on the ball’s refinery in slow teasing movements, grasping the soft round surface to increase that contact, dripping with desire as the businesswoman leisurely neared. Her heart bumped louder along Kuvira’s expensive shoes tapping on the parquet.
With plead in her eyes, Opal bit down innocently her own bottom lip until the woman cupped her face.
“Don’t stop” Kuvira’s low command resounded in the empty room, sending shivers of pleasure and thrill down her spine accompanied by those ferns narrowing attentively.
So Opal did as requested. There was something shamefully arousing in Kuvira’s demanding tone contrasting those gentle caresses that lured her vividest fantasies to resurface from the depths of her mind.
It drove her crazy to find out what she hated the most about the woman was the same thing that made her pussy pulse outrageously: control.
Kuvira’s caress shifted into a firm grasp to tilt her head up till her heavy breath was trapped into the rough palm.
Dark ferns staring back with authority.
“Kuvira...” the girl pleaded still rubbing herself against the surface but the faint sensation provoked by that slight friction wasn’t enough, neither comparable to what the CEO made her feel with her mere presence alone.
Slowly the woman bent till her face was not even an inch apart, her eyes now so near were a deep forest green, hidden by long feathery lashes embellished with the mole dotting exactly below the left pupil.
Opal could do nothing but stare back, lost, until Kuvira roughly pulling for a kiss made even that simple action impossible. A warm intoxicating softness gathered, until a moan was dragged out of her mouth as it parted to seal with the woman’s tongue in the middle. The luscious contact, each swirl and pull blew her mind to the point her body was forced to stop grinding on the ball completely.
“Did I tell you to stop?” The woman scolded withdrawing from her swollen lips after biting them. Another whimper.
“I..”—
A hand wrapped around her thigh, burning, pulling, while the other moved on her nape. In a second the ceiling was her whole view before understanding the woman made her roll and lay back on the yoga ball.
If she doesn’t slow down i might die.
Her heart pounded against the ribcage at the sudden movement and change of perspective; Kuvira was now above her, parting her thighs to settle between them with need blazing in her darkening eyes. The CEO smirked, sending again a pure electric rush directly to her mind, shutting it down before registering her rough hands wandering between her shaky thighs to tear apart her leggings. Opal’s eyes widened at the ripping sound and gasped, the cold air immediately burned in her heated skin.
“Kuvira!” she yelped with a hint of panic, in the meantime the woman lowered between her legs, faltering her balance on the ball. Once steady, she lift her head high enough that the woman’s eyes came into view, finding a reassuring look lingered in her petrol greens.
“Relax, you won’t fall” the businesswoman rasped lowly, adjusting the slim thighs around her neck “i got you” then running her warm broad hands up her legs to explore the line of her slight toned abs, soft hips, till meeting the thick fabric of the grey gym top.
From there, the woman’s digit pressed to sneak below the band to reach and before she cupped her bare breasts with a firm grip, the girl held onto her forearms for dear life as if she could somehow both keep her own stability and guide Kuvira’s touch to linger a bit longer. The sensation of her nipples brushing directly against Kuvira’s rough palms, in fact, was so delicious it made her thighs spasm instantly, provoking the woman to turn until a pair of thin lips barely skimmed right there, where her flesh was exposed.
At first the only thing perceived against her inner thigh was warmth, hot air being exhaled from her mouth and nose gradually intensifying with the add of Kuvira’s feathery kiss.
Then another and another one was placed, shifting closer to her panties but keeping a lecherous distance as the woman’s slightly parted lips started to pull on delicate skin.
At the same time, the grip on her now exposed breasts increased until Opal’s sigh echoed in the poorly lit room, emptying her mind completely and filling her lower abdomen with need.
Kuvira wasn’t really doing anything but even those measured attentions were enough for her sex to twitch with pleasure, soaking through the underwear. Opal could swear she never felt more drenched in her life without even being touched as she was feeling in that moment and the more the businesswoman focused on marking her skin so incredibly close to her neglected sex —sucking and nipping softly— the more her own back arched on the fit-ball, causing a torturous friction on her hard nipples.
“Spirits...” she began to pant and buckle up in an explicit request but the only answer earned was Kuvira’s feral gaze never leaving her peridots. “Please” her voice cracked in a weak whisper. It was then the CEO let her skin pop out between lips, before tracing with her tongue the wide hickey just formed and slowly running it along the brief distance to her ruined underwear promptly casted aside.
Yet the woman wasn’t touching anymore. Opal moved, trembled and twitched under her serious stare and addictive grasp but nothing broke her poise until she rolled her hips high enough to almost hit her chin in desperation.
Nothing.. fuck.. I can’t stand her.
“Done?” Kuvira commented slyly.
“Kuvira i swear..” Opal’s fingers sank in the woman’s forearms just to get a brow arching up in answer.
“you swear what?”
“Fucking make me come!” her desperate voice shouted into the whole empty studio drawing a devious grin from the CEO’s face before slowly delving between her legs.
Kuvira began softly: kissing her with unnerving calm, starting to trail along her outer lips, down towards the entrance and up again, avoiding her most sensitive spot. Each kiss nonetheless, dragged a sigh from her lungs always deeper and intense but it was when those lips were substituted by the tongue lapping flat the entirety of her heated slit that she moaned and a heart-stirring pleasure finally shook, as her bundle of nerves was caressed.
Kuvira’s tongue was lava. An incandescent flood circling around her clit with a curling toes precision. Yet, it was when her warm thin lips were added in slow kisses to that wave of pleasure that the girl’s eyes rolled back and a stream of chills sailed down her spine. Those attentions, no matter how addicting, were so slow she felt dragged closer to the verge of screaming.
Tightening her grasp around the toughness in Kuvira’s forearms muscles wasn’t enough to convince her for more as the woman kept a certain intensity and relentless rhythm of steel, having total command on her emotions, on the fire divulging from her lower abdomen so vividly and rapidly to drain the air in her own lungs. Soon Opal forgot how to breathe again but once inhaling, the woman’s musky scent and the argan tangled in her long hair was everything she could perceive along the glistening bliss.
Her eyes shut closed at the sound of her wet skin being savored with engaging insistence and suddenly she felt too close to a bursting release. It was all there: in those tears forming at the corner, in her whole body beginning to quiver over the yoga ball, she could feel it in Kuvira’s hot cheeks against her thighs clenching tight and continuous pulses in her clit twitc—
SLAP
“Don’t come now.” Kuvira ordered landing a hand on her heated slit. Opal’s eyes opened wide at the loud smack provoking no apparent pain. Everything that paired ahead was Kuvira’s feral eyes capturing her dumbfounded stare. Her heart halted in her chest with deafening insistence, skipping several beats the moment after, processing, as the woman’s hands sealed around her back to lift her from the yoga ball.
Once she was kind of sitting on her chest and broad shoulders, a shiver of vertigo destabilized her to the point of rushing to clutch on Kuvira’s head even if the woman was just kneeling on the floor. Those strong hands caressing Opal’s back though, never failed at keeping her safe on top, looking up in reassurance. A palm then ran up her spine till the sweaty nape and with a gentle push it helped her lean forward in an oddly folded position to meet Kuvira’s mouth. Yet, the woman steely held her neck away before they could kiss, kept barely a breath apart from those thin lips in which she could almost savor her own salty taste but it lasted just a split second as between their mouths the CEO instead heatedly teased “You said you want to ride my face? Then use it. Grind on my tongue.”
There was some kind of eagerness in those words, shouted almost angrily. Perhaps it was just that feral look lingering behind those dark wild eyes, perhaps the possessiveness of her touch yet Opal couldn’t help but feel challenged. Before the girl could answer although, the woman made her yelp as leaning back on the floor, still keeping her steady now actually sitting and panting above. A spank.
Peridots opened wide, heart rebelling in her chest, “I fucking hate you”
“Louder” the woman dared lowering both hands on her rear to grasp passionately and push her closer to her own face until burning ferns were the only vision coming into view beyond the rise and fall of her tiny breasts.
Opal gulped down as now she was the one on her knees, sinking instinctively her fingers in Kuvira’s raven locks but quivering, still taken aback by the haste of it all. A second before she was about to come and now...
How do i do this?
So her hips rolled slightly, attempting a shy hump, barely brushing on the CEO’s mouth opening to give an encouraging lap and at the touch, a loud moan sparkled in the room signaling the start of a delirious chase.
Guided by the businesswoman’s hands in fact, her body after few more attempts began to rock back and forth with more and more need at the rhythm of the frantic breath escaping from her parted lips. But it was when Kuvira began to suck on her most sensitive spot that she threw her head back, losing control over her body completely, dancing in desperate waves. As she lowered the head again, someone matching those movements reflected inside the mirror. Wild, enchanting, rapturing; she kept staring, until her own peridots clouded with lust below a messy bang gleamed in the smooth surface.
Is that me? What’s Kuvira doing to me?
A hand slapped her rear. Her heart jumped.
Eventually, Opal’s sight fell onto the woman’s darkened eyes again about to protest, but quivering instead with pure pleasure at that scorching stare.
“ah-AH!” her thighs shook around Kuvira’s cheeks, earning a blissful possessive grip on her rear; “Vira!” she sobbed taken aback, hands curled untidying her perfect locks and Spirits, it was so sublime to screw her yet so infuriating to realize how perfect that woman still looked even in that mess it was everything she needed to explode.
Under Kuvira’s intense gaze indeed, her body gave up completely in feverish spasms as the peak finally hit in mind blowing pleasure, so intense Opal barely perceived she was the only one moving, straining Kuvira’s movements who simply stuck out her tongue to let her grind on it recklessly. Her rough hand though, warmly skimmed along her body in guidance.
A flame quickly overwhelmed at the realization, scorching her mind and soul.
“I hate you!” she panted in the middle of each shock catching that hand, still fucking her face with the woman’s stare linked into hers for dear life, until a blur overcame and she wasn’t screaming anymore but breathlessly wheezing and shaking as slowing down till stopping completely, exhausted.
In a second she felt Kuvira’s free hand cupping her cheeks, her expression filled with something she couldn’t comprehend, making her own fists unclench. The rest of her body relaxed, shifting on the woman’s chest.
“Hush... i got you babe.” the CEO mumbled rising from beneath and it was only once she brushed dry her eyes that the girl understood she was indeed crying in the empty dim lit room.
In that brief silence in which their eyes locked together, Opal found peace.
Then a voice.
...
.
Notes:
So, basically:
Opal is confused ꕤ
Chapter 6: Chapter six
Notes:
Hey there! It’s been a month since the last update but posting this chapter felt a bit off-putting since its content may be kind of a trigger for people squeamish to some topics.
If requested I can put trigger warnings at the start and the end of the part.
Other than that, i hope you’ll enjoy. Now let’s get into it. :)Warning: blood.
Chapter Text
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“Miss Beifong?”
“Uh.. please Mrs. Noriko, call me Opal! Is everything okay?”
“Of course, Kiyi told me what happened with Miss Laghima. I’m so sorry!”
“Oh there’s nothing to be sorry about! It was a very funny and instructive lesson for everyone”
Her sight blurred, air heaved in her lungs.
The smooth panel Kuvira’s forehead pressed onto was cold, adorned with a central moss-wall confining the dim lit classroom she was in, from the hall in which Opal’s light laughter sparkled. As if, not even minutes before, the girl’s hot tears weren’t dried by her attentive caresses.
The truth was, Opal’s sudden burst was destabilizing. It was intense, even over the woman’s expectations but there was a ridiculous amount of satisfaction in assisting Opal losing herself completely until cursing.
The fire blazing within was in fact barely controllable, even less possible to repress at the feeling of the half naked girl riding her face but the problem was, even when she tried to mentally go back to something calmer, the girl’s small back plastered against her own during meditation lesson, made something simple like breathing an extremely laborious task.
I need to focus.
“I can imagine! A CEO guesting a kid meditation class isn’t an everyday event!” the woman chuckled “or.. is there any chance she’ll take part in future lessons?”
Little by little the image of the swinging trees in the limpid sky sharpened like when she was sitting beneath them, accompanied by a soft voice dancing in the air like a wind chime. In the girl’s touches over her skin a flower-like delicacy limbed, while in those light verdant eyes below messy short strands a boundless pureness was embedded. It was difficult to imagine someone presumptuously daring like Opal to teach meditation. Since the first time they met on the elevator, she was nothing but brash and feisty, the exact definition of a brat; yet, as her movements were guided by Opal’s attentiveness and usual liveliness during the lesson, she could see that brat through another perspective. A perspective in which Opal was made to teach and love kids; a perspective that unraveled every certainty about the girl’s nature.
What if Opal is everything she doesn’t want to show?
“Oh uhm.. Kuvira?” the said girl’s voice inclined at her name, fazing her focus completely for a moment before a flashback sneaked in her brain. Even from the next room, in fact, Opal was still able to mess up each of her senses as a certain cinnamon scent persisted all over her skin, hands and suit, which jacket was now in the teacher’s hand to cover the hole at the front of her leggings and the hoodie tangled around soft hips to hide the exposed back. Every lustful scream and moan was cleared by her usual crystal soft tone, dulled beyond the closed door but echoing in the whole class like Kuvira’s heart did in her own body, bumping loud as if inside, hundred wild beasts rebelled to escape.
She could still feel her hair being feverishly grasped with unbearable need, while marked thighs shook against her cheeks, scorching hot, with an incredible taste on her tongue intoxicating her whole system. Although, it was in the way that little impertinent dared with words in particular, what sent a shiver down the woman’s spine, directly rushing blood along her already hard shaft.
This is too much. I need to calm down.
“Kiyi said she is your soulmate”
Kuvira’s heart stopped.
“My wha.. NO!” the girl shrieked in the other room “W-we aren’t together!”
“Ahh i see.. i’m sorry” another chuckle “you know how kids can be sometimes!”
“Y-yeah!” a moment of silence covered their voices, few taps toward the hall’s entrance until the woman’s voice submerged from the quietness with a tone narrowed by a slight allusion “i guess there’ll be more affluence from now on, then!”
Kuvira snorted imagining Opal’s expression toughening, peeved but probably trying to hide any kind of aggravation or embarrassment under a veil of redness over her cheeks “Well, it can only make me happy, class funds are donated to Zaofu’s hospitals!”
The answer and greetings that followed however, were overcome by the city traffic crowding the hall once the door was opened and the client took her opportunity to leave. Soon after, the same way the bursting sounds started they ended: with chimes tilting together and a dull thud.
A sigh, then other steps, this time slowly nearing the classroom the woman was in, but the moment the door shifted open introducing the warm sunset shades inside, Kuvira’s phone buzzed against the leg and with it, each vibration quickly converged into one exact point.
Her chest swelled and dwindled.
Reflected into the adjacent mirrors, the light casted from the hall mellowed Opal’s doe peridots gleaming with something as taking mincing steps towards her direction wearing the reddest flush all over the face the exact way the woman imagined.
Without the mirror filter once in the shadows in front of her, the teacher’s mouth opened and closed while the phone kept ringing in her trousers. Opal looked uncertain before in a matter of seconds a hand snuck right in her pocket, brushing close to her pulsing bulge.
A sigh, a beep and an oddly ominous voice then —with all her surprise— was forced off of the short girl turning on a side with her phone “Zhu Li i’m busy, sorry”, another beep and the call ended.
Kuvira scowled and blinked. What was that exactly?
“Was that supposed to be my voice?” she inquired.
Opal’s smile followed by nods didn’t take long to answer before halting when Kuvira cupped her chin with a hand, “Never do that again” steadfastness bellowed in her low assertion.
How could she even think to do something like that!?
The fact was, Opal was derailing.
Kuvira didn’t know if to burst into laughter, feel indignant or aroused while another rush of blood was pumped along her sex as pressing the girl closer to her own face, until it darkened with another shade of red, hot like pure fire under her digits.
“Then bring me home, so you can..” Opal’s voice lowered to softly become a breath of air in the mist of that scarcely lit room still soaked with the scent of sex and gulped down, averting her ferns with sparkles in her gems.
Kuvira frowned “can?” pulling closer to husk a glimpse away from the girl’s mouth now trembling at each heavy exhale.
Her own heart hammered between her lips as their eyes deeply locked again.
“..make me behave”
.
If Kuvira thought Opal was messy before, that changed when she saw the girl’s room in particular once they made it to her place. Not that it mattered in that precise moment anyway, wrapped up in the steam of their passion.
A mound of dresses over the queen bed in the middle of the room was discarded to a side with a shove, while she pushed the teacher’s slim frame on soft lavender blankets unceremoniously, both too hastened by the frenzy of their desire to explore each other’s vulnerabilities, tearing apart their clothes and entirely grasp the shudders of their flesh without anything hindering in between for the very first time.
In a matter of seconds then, the grey one-shoulder sport bra followed the hoodie on the floor once she tugged it up, messing up Opal’s bob even more in the process, uncovering the girl’s small chest brushing against her covered one at each rise and fall, increasing speed spasmodically. Her rough hands passed through the teacher’s short hair-tangles to keep her head close for a long kiss, the same way small trembling ones roamed over her broad shoulders to slide off the jacket and unbutton the dress shirt below.
In those frenzy but delicate touches and the instant chill on her heated skin, she couldn’t recall someone ever undressing her that wasn’t Opal.
Everything Kuvira did, she always did it alone even when there was someone else begging to do it, but with the care and attention Opal added, that simple gesture suddenly became too intimate to even imagine it being done by somebody else as the kiss ended and in the girl’s peridots, her ferns reflected in all their vulnerability.
Opal’s hands then blocked after unlacing her trousers down with a metallic tingle, “I-is this okay?” her shuddering whisper enriched with worry against her thin lips made the woman shiver for a moment, realizing the stare she was keeping on the girl panting beneath turned too hard, probably scaring her. Yet the CEO remained silent while her gaze couldn’t stop its shameless wandering along the girl’s body wonders. Once the businesswoman let her own trousers fall, the same leggings she ripped a hour before back in the studio were peeled off, revealing the perfect line of those shaking legs sealing together instinctively. The girl gasped.
Kuvira withdrew at that view and her heart skipped a beat.
It was difficult to admit but to describe Opal as beautiful would’ve been an euphemism; that girl was more than that, more than words could’ve described since they ceased to exist whenever it came to that velvet flesh quivering, reacting under her starved ferns as if lust in the past few encounters didn’t push them till staining those soft bronze curves with their desire, contrasting the pure green embedded in those doe tender eyes almost hidden by the short messy hair scenting like cinnamon.
After earning the consent of a tacit request to enfold the naked girl in her bare arms, Kuvira’s face delved right between the neck and shoulder gap, taking in lungfuls of honey until her mind was melted completely. Kiss after kiss she tasted life in the dark skin, making Opal whimper, tremble, arch against her chest while thighs halted and wrapped around her still covered hips.
The girl’s hands unraveling her hairstyle, falling between their faces like black lianes.
With immense delicacy, Opal shifted them from her nape to fix aside a long strand and lower on her toned breast halting and dwindling. Excited when the girl’s cold fingers timidly explored circle after circle her brown nipple, sending an uncontainable rush of shivers along her back. In the middle of sucking the teacher’s sweet sensitive neck she gasped and frowned at the unusual attention, totally taken aback by that pleasure igniting all her need towards the girl making her head spin. The problem however, was her bulge hardening ridiculously against Opal’s soaked panties. Surprisingly, it was the said girl who began to roll her hips to shyly brush covered dripping folds along her pulsing shaft constricted under the boxer’s fabric after few accidental collisions.
Each slight grind soon turned into a shameless humping once Kuvira indulged completely to that tease while bruising Opal’s skin, extracting from her the most exquisite moans resounding in the little bedroom while the headboard thudded continuously on the wall.
Her own growl followed as she guided the other cold hand to her own breast. Heated thighs clenched tight around her hips, heels pushed tentatively against her rear. Spirits.
Maybe it was the vicinity or perhaps she just imagined it, but the woman halted when in between whines, she even kind of heard the girl’s voice lower no more than a wheeze caressing in her ear saying “i need it”.
Kuvira moaned as sinking fangs in the girl’s neck.
I need it too, desperately... desperately.
Uncertain hands eventually started to fully massage and stimulate her breasts, mirroring the slow but firm movements she put on caressing the teacher’s tiny ones, so heartbreakingly tender in contrast it made the CEO’s heart stammer along the one below, both about to jump in each other’s chests and blend together.
“More” tiny hands shifted to cup her face, pulling until her mouth was met in the middle in a torrid kiss, blending together like nothing else ever mattered in a incessant glide of lips, sealing like breathing wasn’t necessary. In their greed, she kneaded Opal’s tender bosoms until sweet moans vibrated along her throat before her hands could wander down towards the girl’s hips in need; clenching, squeezing, massaging along grunts and growls at each jolt of pleasure rushing through her body caused by the breathtaking friction formed by their soaked underwear.
“I feel so sticky..” Opal mumbled in confession once their lips departed, connected by a line of saliva. Even in the twilight sneaking from the curtains above the headboard, she could perceive the girl blushing shamelessly “I-i need you inside me”
A chill, along the teacher’s cradling fingers ran down Kuvira’s nape.
Every inch between them was immediately removed until blending into one like magnets reacting to iron and fusing, so infinitely close not even air could sneak between their heated bodies but just her own hand to tug aside the girl’s panties in all their dampness. Opal mewled and by the pull, presumably threw her head backwards while Kuvira could almost feel the shiver trail creating goosebumps on her small body arching and digging nails.
So she did more, drawing the slickest sound when finally caressing the girl’s over-soaked slit, finding an incredible warmth as brushing lips apart to slowly tease up to the swollen clit and down where a thick flood spilled among her fingers.
Opal stiffened, freezing completely beneath her.
“Vira..” in her breath, hesitation deflected Kuvira’s arousal into alert as the girl’s hands uncurled from her skin to press on her bare chest and push a bit until their eyes could lock together in the dark.
They panted in unison.
Opal’s dilated pupils engorging the pure verdant irises slightly dwindled in the feeble light coming from outside, uncovering a sudden confusion shifting to surprise but ending up in shimmering horror under her sight.
“No...” a small voice cracked in disbelief, reverberated directly in her ears once those peridots disappeared from her view. The woman frowned while the girl’s breath rhythm visibly increased and her clit, as her own length, still wildly pulsed against her digits even when she stopped rubbing.
“Opal..” something then grasped her wrist before she could withdraw completely or even utter her own perplexity.
The girl sat on the bed looking between their bodies, gasping, “Spirits, no...no!”
What’s going on?!
In a moment, the grasp around her wrist tightened until she felt tugged. Her heart stopped beating. The mattress on which they laid trembled until Opal got up and her honeyed scent was substituted by the cold air smelling like something different, raw.
“Opal” She prompted standing up as well but blocking the girl with a heaved expression written in her face.
Kuvira couldn’t muster anything else in those avoiding eyes, before being dragged out of the bedroom.
“Opal! What’s wrong?”
A door cracked open and the neon light blinded her sight as soon as it was turned on. She recognized the marble green and white bathroom furniture only when the girl brought her to the sink and a rush of cold water flooded on her skin, provoking shivers to run down all over her body.
She tried to sneak a glance from the rhombus shaped mirror to understand all the fussing but no matter how much shorter the girl was, she literally curved towards the sink hindering the view while keeping her hand between hers rubbing desperately.
Why is she washing my hand?
“I’m sorry!!” her sigh was amplified by the bathroom’s narrow walls “This is... Spirits..” then shook her head messing the bob ever more.
The water was biting.
“Opal..” Kuvira growled, tugging in instinctive reaction to slide away from the cold.
The girl’s back halted a bit.
Below the whooshing water, messed sobs resounded in the room.
Damn. No.
Her free hand wrapped around the drenched one to dry and heat it up but it was so cold it burned. She was breathless, with a painful erection stretching her boxers and didn’t know how to touch Opal.
Her chest heaved, What am I supposed to do?
Kuvira wasn’t a person who minded about people crying. When she was younger and unfortunately assisted to someone bursting in tears or even just opening up, it unsettled her to the point of destabilization; the problem anyway disappeared completely as she grew up and Zaheer taught her the art of detachment when he showed her how to fire employees. Useless to say, most of them couldn’t help themselves from breaking down under her empty stare. It was... hard at first, almost cruel to be so confident to the point of indifference to others showing even a slight of their vulnerability, mostly when it came to people who worked their whole life for an association that fed them everyday. To be a CEO, though, meant to keep a clear mind and adamant control under any circumstance and she couldn’t deny that resolution however, built up the foundation of her personality.
Kuvira felt lucky to learn how to be strong but yet, right there.. right in that moment... there was something wrong in her insensitivity because she didn’t know how to breathe as the girl, shake after shake brought her back to the unsettled kid she once was before any lesson was taught to her.
The CEO’s fingers dug in her own cold knuckles to maintain a grip to her certainties, destroyed completely when the girl’s feeble legs shaking alarmingly stole her complete attention. Her heart skipped several beats until falling in an atrocious silence as her eyes widened at the sight of a line of blood rolling down Opal’s inner thigh.
“I’m so sorry!” the teacher sobbed louder, still facing away while curling infinitesimally into herself “It never happened like this! This is so embarrassing...”
—“I hurt you...” the woman’s absent statement echoed coldly between the bathroom walls. Under her stare, another thick dark red drop slowly slid along Opal’s bare skin. Her lungs drained; in moments, everything faded at the girl’s shudder.
When did it happen? How did i hurt her? I need to do something, bring her to the hospital.
Slowly everything dissolved until it became far away from the woman as that reality was happening somewhere else, to a woman that looked like her but wasn’t her, not now. Yet, it was indeed her who hurt Opal, now crying and bleeding, halting as she made contact with that hot inner thigh, exactly before those te-
—“NO! Please” the girl winced under the touch and turned to face her but to avoided the desperate glance, the sink candid marble was the only other thing coming into view where, shiny crimson drops waved down the drain. Opal’s glassy peridots guiltily gazed up at her, reddish and filled with something inexplicable below a messy bang “c-close your eyes, I don’t want for you to see this”
“Then tell me what am I supposed to do!” Kuvira barked, “I hurt you..” she pointed with a hand and a full racing heart as her empty voice howled in the bathroom, this time undoubtedly reaching the girl’s ears since it seemed to make her frown; “w-what? No.. no it’s me, silly..” she sighed averting her stare, “m-my period.. I-i..” then stopped.
Wide doe eyes fell on her before covering her own mouth and quickly hiding the whole blushing face.
The woman frowned looking down between her own legs, finding immediately a big tainted spot on the boxers, still stretched by the hard bulge and immediately, the teacher’s words finally gained a sense. Little by little she found how air could swell up her lungs again while her mind gears began to spin around that reasoning, melting her gripping worry completely but eventually, letting something else overcome her soul. Kuvira stepped closer until her body pressed against the girl’s to cup tiny freezing hands “.. Opal...”
“I’m terribly sorry...” the teacher’s trembling voice was dulled below their hands and the woman waited until she was allowed to uncover that little livid face, where —under neon light, tears shone bright as rolling down to exactly conjoin below the girl’s chin.
On Kuvira’s palms now, scorching tears doused, coming out those green pools gazing at her with helpless worry.
“Why are you even excusing yourself?” She whispered with a tenderness she didn’t even know she had, caressing sticked hair around the girl’s ears who sniffed soundly.
Yet, when Opal looked so infinitesimally small under her touch, the businesswoman could do nothing but crumble while a warm feeling spread in her chest before realizing there was a thumping running wildly right there. “It’s alright” she added lowly to comfort herself as well.
“No it’s not ‘cuz i’m gross! I’ve stained you and took sex off of the menu for the rest of the night” Opal’s chin trembled as mumbling, drawing an instinctive smile from the CEO.
“At least one of us came today” she muttered low enough away the girl’s hearing.
“Maybe for my entire life too. I guess this is the moment you make an excuse to leav- wait” the woman drew a gasp from the girl, pulling her from the hips. Opal’s glassy eyes widened into her ferns full of confusion “Wh-what are you..”
“Do you trust me?”
“No” was the last thing she heard the girl mutter before squealing and slapping her broad shoulders when she lifted her up. Pure terror lingered in those peridots locked into hers from above and the cinnamon scent flared up in her nostrils again. She took a moment to enjoy the way Opal’s flesh softened like butter in her arms now that she weighted completely against her toned body, until stepping close to the bathtub and slowly lowering her down into it.
In there, Opal was a bit higher but still shorter because her shaking breath brushed on Kuvira’s exposed neck.
Aside for her boxers, indeed, she barely registered being still naked but it didn’t matter much the moment she carefully slid the stained panties down the girl’s trembling thighs in a caress. Opal’s nervous glance anchored in her ferns.
“I won’t look” Kuvira promised in a whisper.
The vulnerability, the tenderness that arose from that allowing look in Opal’s eyes gave a completely different meaning to that gesture. When she undressed the girl for the first time, her swift touches were enriched by an uncontainable fervor, but now, when Opal looked at her like that, when even in silence her eyes spoke so loudly, another level of intimacy was undoubtedly reached. It was all there, almost palpable in the thin air dividing them without embarrassment nor judgments and Kuvira wondered for a split second if they were getting a little too comfortable. They weren't in a relationship, it was obvious, but what was the limit between occasional sex and bottomless complicity?
“Sit” the woman kneeled on the floor and instructed lowly, directing the warm water the handheld shower-head shot towards the girl’s folded legs, shivering and retracting, at first trying to hide as much as possible the blood cleaned from her skin, eventually running down the drain as she washed her. Kuvira tried to imagine what could’ve been roaming in the girl’s mind whenever Opal followed attentively with a gaze each slight movements as if she was either doing something outrageously wrong and surprisingly right, before mellowing little by little under her touch, or perhaps just under the warm stream.
Slowly the businesswoman woman got closer, placing a warm hand on the girl’s shuddering back, covered only in goosebumps, sliding lower when Opal curved toward her own legs after guiding the shower spray jet directly to her lower abdomen. By the way the girl clutched on her rough hand closer, whimpering as laying the wrinkled forehead behind the bang on her inner forearm, the woman understood the pain she must’ve felt beyond all, once the heated moment slackened and all the turmoil faded into tiredness.
“How’s this?” Kuvira’s raspy voice came out soft along the running water sound rebounding in the bathroom. Her knees began to hurt a bit pressed against the cold floor but her strokes along the girl’s back and belly stayed gentle and incredibly warm in the steam, were she found two brilliant peridots opening weakly to gaze up at her with uncontainable tenderness.
In Opal’s timid nods her heart got lost, making her sigh profoundly no matter how stoic her facade remained unaltered.
“I got you” she whispered once wrapping the girl in a soft robe, helping her climb out the bathtub. When she withdrew to give some space though, Opal followed to sink into her bare chest, holding so tight Kuvira though their bodies could melt together in the fog.
“I think you should go now” the girl’s sudden whisper stabbed her heart.
As difficult as it was for her to admit it, Kuvira didn’t want to leave. Not when Opal clutched onto her like that, hindering the air trying to get in her lungs; not when she seemed so defenseless and devastated after sharing something like that. Something protested loudly inside.
“I agree,” Kuvira cleared her throat “anyhow, i want to make sure you feel well first”, then cradled her hand through the girl’s hair, until earning a soft mumble.
“I’m ok”
“you are shaking.”
“I... “
“i’m staying until you won’t anymore.”
“W-what if it won’t stop?” It was there Opal looked up with something she never witnessed in her contracted expression. Eyebrows below the messy bang knitted together, her chin slightly trembled and a boundless worry emerged from the abyss of her eyes.
There it is, the regret. She is undoubtedly thinking we are crossing the line and this all was too much.
Kuvira sighed, caressing aside the bang away from those peridots, “I won’t stay the night, if you fear that..”
“Ah..” Opal frowned averting her stare “I..”
“Don’t worry, i also have an important meeting tomorrow, anyway.” Liar.
Whether perceiving it or not, the girl nodded as unfastening the hold on her before getting ready for bed while Kuvira, once again in the bedroom, took away her stained boxers. Before dressing her trousers however, Opal followed by a wiggling Juicy entered the room, until a blush vividly formed on the girl’s bronze cheeks.
“i’m sorry, i’ll buy new ones and i..” she handled some clothes probably a size way too small “brought you these for now”
“You don’t need to be sorry and it’s fine, I won’t stay long. Besides, I don’t think your clothes will fit though” the businesswoman commented standing up from the bed and ending up wearing her white shirt without unbuttoning it as she mentally pictured how sublimely it could have fell on the teacher’s soft curves instead of the oversized t-shirt barely covering those perfect thighs.
“Come in bed with us?” Opal whispered below the blanket with an evident uncertainty and a hint of pain in her small voice. Yet, the woman didn’t deluge longer before the mattress could delved a bit under her weight, slow, not to aggravate the huge dog who tiredly found a spot in his owner’s folded legs gap, making Kuvira smile. Juicy’s mouth watering over the girl’s knees indeed, was such a domestic and private gesture she felt like a robber breaking-in and stealing with eyes a glimpse of their daily life to swell her own heart for a while. Perhaps she was somehow a thief after all, even if she was asked to, since the CEO never had what Opal had.
Not that kind of warmth a boundless love provided.
“I don’t think i ever saw you smile like this” the girl’s voice interrupted those thoughts crowding but vanishing completely when, in the warm light the nightstand lamp casted, that little dark face snuggled on the white pillow where short hair spread.
“Like what?”
“Like if you are another person...” Opal’s smile widened “a normal one. Look at you, always so serious and all business even sitting on my bed”
“What’s wrong with that?” Kuvira stiffened and scowled once she felt a tiny hand tugging the shirt on the elbow and two big eyes staring.
“Chill, lay down with me and forget about duties for a while. We can talk ” the teacher’s voice, Kuvira recognized, mellowed the same way it did during the lesson.
So after a few moments of reluctance, the woman sighed; “Alright” rolling on a side and sliding over the blankets to mirror the small silhouette in front. In spite of everything, it was kinda peaceful if she didn’t pay attention to her own heartbeat.
“So..” the girl started to overcome the silence before their voices crowded it in unison “how do you know Korra?”
Kuvira grinned a bit surprised. “You first”
“she trains me in self defense”
“why self defense?”
“Because i had t..” the girl shook her head and stiffened as if stopping her sentence “I detest to feel a burden. She taught me a lot.”
“Why would you even be a burden?” The woman frowned “I can’t see you as someone who can’t take care of herself” it was true. Even that day she bumped into the girl outside her therapist’s office she seemed too weak to walk but Opal was still very... persistent on what she wanted. If there was a quality they both shared, it was that one.
“indeed, i can perfectly do it. I need nobody, but i owe Korra so much..”
“You talk about my best friend as if you have a crush on her” Kuvira’s crystalline sharpened to better study Opal’s expression and the very next reactions to her inquiry. Kuvira couldn’t deny the tempting desire to know more about the two’s relationship, growing inside with quiet insistence since Korra’s burst but now, Opal’s words felt... heavy with mystery...incredibly alluring.
Was there something between them? Did they..?
“I-i... n-no!” The teacher blushed violently, averting her gaze “I mean,” fidgeting hands trembled in the warm light “she is undoubtedly handsome and an incredible person, always so gentle with me but.. no”
If that was the truth or not, Kuvira wanted to believe in it even when that answer left a bitter aftertaste below her tongue and a dry tight throat. It wasn’t exactly due the verbal answer. No.. it was Opal’s unnecessary attentiveness that unnerved the CEO, almost as if she was afraid to say something too much or incautious. Why is she so nervous?
“If you say so,” the businesswoman snarked, then spat “she is taken.” and to her surprise, Opal chuckled until her little giggles revived the room’s mood.
What’s so hilarious?
“So, what about you?” The girl’s question arrived before she began to overthink about that and forced her to think of a reply that wasn’t a grunt.
“I’ve known Korra since i was little, we basically grew up together sparring and training. She is also Asami Sato’s fiancé, you surely know her, she works as—”
“—Future Industries CEO, yes. People says she is the most beautiful heiress of Republic City, is she?” Opal chimed, shifting closer.
“I never really cared to be honest.” Kuvira confessed laying on her back “I look at efficiency and Asami is the most efficient when it comes to her job. She is my best friend’s mate and we’ll soon merge our companies. Her father Hiroshi and my predecessor, Zaheer, never found an accord to a collaboration but me and Asami are working on it, so we can found a new business venture together. Korra despises us when we start talking about business”
“I already hate it too,” Opal interrupted catching her off guard “sounds boring”.
“I hate you” the woman decided to retort back, shifting with a little jump on the side again.
“Really?” the girl giggled both due the mattress sudden bounce and her laugh, sparkling with excitement as if she was about to get a compliment “What do you hate about me?”
Kuvira grunted. This is ridiculous.
“You are bossy, awfully stubborn and impulsive. You are even messier than your bedroom and I’m more than sure you don’t even plan your day. You’re surely one of those over-thinkers who still ends up with the worst decision and 95% of everything you say isn’t probably meant to be said, aside the Korra matter evidently. No matter how mean you strive to be to protect yourself, you can’t hide the softness of your heart to those who can see right through you and you hate that.”
Once she ended, silence snuck in to make room between the pride and satisfaction that rant should have made her chest ease with but it didn’t. Her breath instead stiffened because Opal was terribly quiet even if behind those peridots something flashed, glowing the golden flakes embedded in them like iridescent gemstones in an undiscovered cave. For a second, she wanted to get lost in Opal and learn everything about that forbidden language those eyes spoke so quietly... yet deafening.
“I hate when you are quiet” Kuvira hissed, leaning closer to whisper her words in that emptiness filled with everything between “I hate the way you look at me”
Opal’s expression was unreadable but her eyes, through the long feathery lashes darted in her ferns with innocent insistence.
“Why?”
Why does she have to look like this? It’s aggravating. I need...
“Because you search for details nobody would ever bother to search for. You can drive perfectionists crazy.” the woman felt her own chest heaving uncontrollably “I hate the way you say my name”
A breath of a lost reminiscence guided an overwhelming wave of shivers along her nape as the girl mumbled “Vira? why?”
“None of your business”
“Then why do you sleep with me? You can have all the girls you want, why me?”
“Because you lured me and” she averted from those peridots rolling up “as much as it aggravates me to admit, having sex with you is fine to not count i love to annoy Korra”
“Well...” the girl chuckled then huffed “whatever’s the issue, i’m sure your friendship is stronger and you’ll get over it.. you should make peace with her”
When her glance, from the roof snuck again towards the teacher’s side, she found her stroking the big dog’s fur away from his closed eyes and for a second, she felt stupid yearning for that touch on her skin. With her sight, she trailed up again to Opal’s focused face “don’t play coy, you know what’s the issue. I thought you had a clue since you two are so close and could explain what her problem is?”
“I’m... n-not sure..” Opal pursed her lips and once again that veil of avoidance wrapped those mumbled words while laying back again on the bed, closer to her.
“That’s odd then, it’s evidently something important or she wouldn’t react like that. Korra is inoffensive like a puppy but it’s clear she wants to protect you.” Kuvira tilted her head in dare once their eyes met in the middle while something tickled her own chin “Did you know?”
“From you? Of course!” A crystalline laugh chimed in the whole room.
“Why?”
“Are you even asking? You are merciless! If you could hurt an innocent Spirit you surely would.” the girl chuckled as Kuvira shivered for a caress on her face, realizing Opal was fixing her ticklish lose strands behind the ear.
“Do I need to remind you had the guts to say no to Kiyi today?”
The woman stiffened for a second “I do what’s needed to do.”
“Like calling a girl you just met a brat?”
“I never called you a brat”
“Yes you did!” on her unbuttoned dress shirt Opal’s chest brushed from below.
Wait. When did we get so near?
“I seriously don’t know what you are talking about”
“Because it doesn’t benefit you, pain in the ass.”
That touch and the warmth of that hand landing on her nape the moment after, anyway, confirmed she was almost lying on the girl’s frame.
However, whatever was the point in that issue, the girl didn’t seem willing to give her a straight answer. Opal knew something, that was sure, but she guessed that exact night wasn’t the best one to get the truth out of her furthermore. By the way Opal was dancing around the matter, it was clear for Kuvira a straightforward approach would’ve gotten her nowhere; a more delicate hand was apparently the best strategy for this case.
If i get her to ease her walls she’ll purr for me like a kitten.
She smirked above the teacher’s innocent gaze.
You’ll fall in love with me so fast..
“What?”
“Speaking of pain in the ass, did you ever try anal?” Kuvira asked drawing imaginary lines around the shape of the girl’s hip poking underneath the blanket, whose breath on her exposed neck shortened in evident surprise.
“N-no... did you ever..? Y-you want..?”
“No”
“Liar” Opal’s smile opened between her red cheeks “why? I don’t think your....thing.. would fit though, i’m too tight”
“Just asking.. your ass seems lonely, it needs to be filled with something beautiful once in a while” Kuvira grinned as her hand burned when tightening the grip on that soft covered skin until Opal halted.
“Woah, when did you take poetry lessons?”
“The same afternoon you took your deep throat course”
“Wha-“ the girl’s eyes sparkled, her mouth fell agape “asshole!” and the thud of a playful slap landing on her broad shoulder echoed in the bedroom before their laughter crowded it.
The warmth of their laughs dancing together which stuffed Kuvira’s chest was overwhelming to the point of ache; the best throb her heart felt that she could recall and for a split seconds in that peaceful night, she was sincerely happy.
Under Opal’s joyful gaze, she discovered a part of herself filled with genuineness, even when it turned into a lovely leering once the girl snuck a hand underneath her collared shirt, brushing lips against her lobe and foolishly chiming “Take off your clothes and get in the blankets, dumbass”
After a few minutes then, the electricity around them cooled down into a calming breathing once she settled below fresh scented sheets and a soothing warmth.
Lavender and honey then, swelled Kuvira’s bare chest, partially sustaining Opal’s feathery weight as a thigh folded around her hip and a hand trailed imaginary figures below her neck. With that touch, the sound of the gentle wind outside blended with their breathing lulled her.
Now in the dark, the only feeble light filtered through the curtain above the headboard casted long shadows through her lashes each time they heaved, closing into a slumbered state, until Opal’s soft voice crept in the loom.
“I like your hair down. Do you go to a hairdresser everyday?”
“No, i braid them myself.” she mumbled brushing the girl’s back over the cotton “i don’t like people touching my hair”
“like this?” Opal’s sweet smile stretched tiredly on her little face as skimming delicately her scalp and brushing down the lengths.
Perhaps it was her tiredness, yet, although the girl stroking handfuls of her long hair, it didn’t bother her as much as expected. Opal was gentle, tender.. soothing... “Mmh..”
“They are so soft.. I don’t know how to braid though”
“I’ll teach you” Kuvira grunted.
“So i can braid yours like princesses and put flowers. Would you like it?” the teacher’s high pitched voice was sweet and full of enthusiasm like those brilliant peridots gleaming in the night and she couldn’t find the courage to deny her.
So she leaned closer until their foreheads touched.
From that distance, Opal’s doe eyes were even bigger, even if drowsy and half closed while her rough hand ran up the nape to encourage her closer... closer, till any distance was removed, until their lips could graze together in a soft gentle kiss in the middle. Warm... honey…
“Vira” Opal mumbled on her lips, slightly withdrawing. Goosebumps rose along her back as she checked in those gems any kind of discomfort but the girl anticipated, laying on her completely, collecting her lips with pillowy ones.
While everything fading into black, Kuvira slowly felt pulled inside a dream.
“Don’t fall asleep..” a voice chimed in her ears and in the darkness, everything dissolved.
.
Chapter 7: Chapter seven
Chapter Text
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.
The melody of the thundering rain pitted against the window. Gently it tapped on each roof shingle, dripping down the glass, reaching the sheets unleashing the light candid scent of a lavender field swinging at the wind kind chants.
“I need you to remember” the wind— no.. a voice. A mumble between the rustling. Something grazed on her lips, soft like butterfly wings; eager, warm.
“us, perfect like this.” An impalpable caress.
The silken sheets now moved again above their heads; her heart pounded slowly, following the rhythm of the silence sneaking between each word.
“..are my love,”
“..my life..”
“...my soul”
The murmuring voice turned in lilting rain, slowly dissolving into a dulling quietness. A breeze again, a breath... warm and dense against the base of her neck. The muddy heat that blew on her skin should’ve been unpleasant to the point of insufferableness but her body mellowed completely in a heaven of intertwined slumbering limbs.
The instinct however brought her hand to lightly twitch around a softness among her fingers, curling in a fistful “Mmh..”
Warmth. Whatever lightly heaved on her side was extremely comfortable, lulling sweetly her mind awaken.
Her head turned to the side until something brushed her nose and lips. Ticklish.
She tried to move her mouth finding it pasty with a funny taste lingering.
The cold light acclaimed the lazy attempt to open her groggy heavy eyes and when she managed to keep them halfway open, it took a bit to focus on the unknown surroundings embedded in the placid dark, which silhouettes were defined approximately by the dusty morning light casted by the window above the bed she was lying on.
Her legs shifted, the sheets rustled, until the move was hindered by another pair of legs. Her arms stretched and curled close again, pulling closer the wheezing softness against her chest.
“Opal..” the woman mumbled once recognizing the cinnamon perfume enriching her lungs at every breath.
Her mouth in fact, was pressed into the girl’s messy bang while the delicate snore caressed her neck. She smiled, sinking into that delightful awareness until her mind started working.
Kuvira halted. What’s this place? When did i fell asleep?
Her heartbeat quickly livened up as she found a way to wriggle out the trap of warm limbs and blankets without waking the dozing girl but once she sat up to put on her shirt, something heavy and huge sprawled on her lap. She calmed down recognizing the shaggy, intense acrid fur smell entangled among her calloused fingers, passing through in a caress, until a nose nuzzled and sniffed leaving slimy trails on her torso. Kuvira retracted, pushing the gathering beast off of her lap. Snot? Ew.. Juicy.
In the feeble light the dog’s molten brown eyes were flushed with a lagoon-blue sheen, gazing hopefully perhaps for his morning meal. The woman cringed and grunted conflicted at the sight of Juicy lapping off his own running nose before tilting his head in plead.
“‘Alright, big boy” her voice huffed raspy while wiping her own chest and Juicy’s mouth from the sludge before standing up.
Pain.
Her knee hit the nightstand and something from it fell before she caught it mid air to avoid another loud noise. Her hand uncurled; pills clanked in the transparent bottle. On the front, a label with capital letters: LE—
A subtle metallic tilting resounded in the next room before the main door whistled open and few steps cracked down the parquet.
Followed by Juicy, she stalked toward the living room, dressing trousers in haste and zipping them closed once a figure in the morning light swung the door closed with a soft thud.
“Who are you?” She growled stepping closer, noticing Juicy waggling toward the person who slightly bended to ruff his fur. The light casted through the living room’s creamy curtains brightened the person’s dusky olive skin wrapped by a black bomber jacket. The guy wearing it, straightened his posture after one last caress on the dog’s head revealing a pair of green eyes, almost emerald, glaring at her below curly dark brown locks messily falling on skinny features. His long dark brows knitted together as he seemed to reciprocate the analyzing look, until easing up visibly.
“Hi i’m Kai, You would be Kuvira!” the guy eventually cheered with a light voice, letting Juicy nuzzle him. Although his face was unknown, his name vaguely rang a bell. Being stuck at work all the time, Kuvira didn’t prioritize knowing how large the Beifong family actually was; no matter the rest of every nation on Earth knowing perfectly well about Zaofu’s founders.
Did Opal mention him before? Is he one of her brothers? No.. I would remember her telling me that.
“You didn’t answer. Do you always get in her apartment without her knowing?” Kuvira crossed arms studying the guy’s hands lazily sinking inside the ripped jeans pockets.
“Wow, chill. I’m Opal’s best friend and” he said while taking out a keychain from the pocket “she gave me the keys, i came to pick her up for the hospital appointment.”
Hospital? Did she tell him what happened last night? Why didn’t she ask me?
“I guess she forgot,” Kuvira grunted ready to take her leave; it wasn’t her business what Opal does, yet the guy approaching towards the bedroom to wake the girl, knotted her guts tight together. If Opal should find out she had spent the night there, she shouldn’t hear about it from her stupid best friend starving for juicy gossiping. She had to do it herself.
Before Kai passed then, her palm pressed onto the guy’s shoulder, glancing quizzically at the sharpest expression she could muster that moment.
Don’t you fucking dare “hold on.” Kuvira rasped instead as turning to enter the darkness behind the bedroom door thudding close.
In there, she found everything she tried to avoid. It was all in that feeble light, sneaking from the window curtains only to unveil Opal’s delicate profile from the looming gloom, cautiously, as one would be with a bomb ready to blast.
I don’t want to do this. Her eyes shut close, lungs heaved as she pinched the bridge of her straight nose before getting close to the girl’s bed side just a few inches away. It should be better like this, since in this position it was hard to look directly at Opal’s calm face.
Under the light although, certain lines, plumpness and curves in the girl’s features gleamed without mercy, untouchable, prohibited in their inestimable innocence.
“Opal” her serious voice was crackled by an unplanned feeble hesitation once touching the sleeping girl’s shoulder. A jolt of electricity from that small uncovered spot tickled Kuvira’s fingertips, palms, to sink in, inside her nerves and veins in which blood rushed ten times faster directly to her heart.
Stop. What’s this feeling?
Instinctively she attempted to retract before losing balance when something pulled instead; Kuvira anchored on the bed headboard which ceased below her grasp while her other hand was dragged and wrapped up from Opal into a lazy hug. Now on her palm, the oversized shirt soft cotton was swelled and emptied accordingly to the girl’s chest moving peacefully underneath. Perhaps it was her imagination or her own heart thundering into her hand until she realized that intense heartbeat belonged to Opal.
How is that even possible? She isn’t awake. Can she feel me here?
The girl’s eyes were close, her features relaxed, lips slightly departed and a messy strand twisted at the corner of her mouth with chaotic precision. It was odd, like realizing that since they first met, the quirky girl stayed quiet for so long only when she was asleep. It was also tender and kind of intimate to share a moment in which every defense fell, even when she felt like she was stealing once again something so pure from Opal... underestimated.
Who else looks at you while you sleep? Who else steals from you the way i do?
For an instant, she expected the girl to answer, at least waking up as if she could hear the voice in her head.
She didn’t of course, although if possible it seemed like she curled into her hand even more, as her knuckles could now brush the girl’s chin and if Kuvira stretched them, she was sure to reach those locks covering the rest of the view.
That position anyway became weary to keep for her knees so she sank in the mattress to sit on it.
“Hey,” she tried again, striving to not sound as a general shouting orders at their cadets but actually softer, like her thumb caressing the girl’s bottom lip “we need to get ready”
At first it twitched but slowly, on Opal’s face one of the sweetest smiles brightened under her touch followed by a sleepy whimpering the woman wasn’t ready to hear.
—
“There you go, baby”
A voice, so warm and encouraging, it curled up her smile again. On it, something even gentler grazed continuously on her lips. It was kinda ticklish and soothing.
How can something be both ticklish and soothing? The instinct urged her to press on that caress until a taste, aside the heavy one inside her mouth, timidly sparkled. Salty... warm.. mmh rough. I like it.. but what..
Her eyelids were so sticky and heavy to open they felt glued. It took some attempts to keep them up, until below her eyelashes something moved before falling closed again. Then she perceived it: her heart thudding so hard it felt like either jumping or imploding in its cage.
Her breath quickened. The pulse was spreading all over her body: underneath her face, in her ears, throat, hands, tummy, legs.. No.. no.. please stop…
The mattress as well shook as she turned on it to trap the pounding heart. I need to breathe.
“Hey.. hey...” a voice again.
One, two, three, four, five: exhale. Five, four, three, two, one..: hold. One... three.. five: inhale…
Her hair was brushed away before, below her ear and sweating nape, something rested while above her lips a gentle breath was blown; it was close.. soothing.. so soothing her heartbeat was slowing down into normality.
“..i got you” that low musky voice caressed her ears like the softest lullaby. She never heard a voice so calming and familiar; not even her mother, father or grandma managed to quiet down her heart whenever it started to blaze like this when she was younger. Probably music could, but not like that... not so effectively in the instant. It was on another level completely. That voice... felt like it belonged inside her.
But it’s not mine..
“Baby... we need to get up now” Up? What..
From her nape the warm thing moved, following the curve of her spine to awaken every part of her body slowly activating in branches the way blood flooded in each vessel. Everything she knew about her body was either learned in science books, internet and obviously, the hospital. Whenever there was a problem in her body everyone was so careful to explain how it worked but never what was wrong explicitly. But the fact was... there’s nothing wrong with my body anyway.
When her eyelids finally departed, the darkness wasn’t empty as before. It was still dark, yes, but she could also catch the feeble light drawing lines in the woman’s sharp facial features pressed against the pillow beside.
Close, Kuvira’s ferns looked black like her beauty mark in the gloom, more so below those long perfectly curved eyelashes once they moved up to watch directly into her eyes.
Her heart stopped completely. What is she doing here? Was that her voice?
From her onyx strands, rebellious and alive like snakes whirring around her high cheekbones it was easy to say she probably slept here. Did i pass out again? Did we have sex?
No.. now I remember... my period. MY PERIOD!
Her cheeks immediately caught fire the exact moment she remembered bleeding in Kuvira’s hand. How could she be so unbothered!? She was so calm and it seemed so easy for her, did she ever do something like that to someone else? That wasn’t something to do with everyone! That was... the most embarrassing, private... intimate thing someone ever.. ever…
Why did i even let her... why didn’t she just go away?
She must’ve been panicking too much because Kuvira had to shift closer to wrap her in strong arms from the cloud of sheets she dwindled into. Once delving in the hold, inhaling the musky scent around the woman’s neck so intense it soothed and excited Opal in a heartbeat. How does she do that? I should hate her and she should let me hate her damnit.
“Mmh Vira..” she frowned.
A quiet moment in which she was comfortably switching into a quiet slumber passed fast, before she grasped in handfuls the back of the woman’s shirt as she felt her withdrawing. Her heart pounded again, this time while she tried to understand what was tickling on her cheek until she recognized the back of the CEO’s smooth hand caressing her.
She timidly whimpered because the sweetness of such contact was too overwhelming; impossible to be relished in complete silence, not when Kuvira’s obsidian eyes pierced into her soul as she delved into her soft palm.
Opal had no choice but to move cautiously as someone would do when facing a panther. But Kuvira wasn’t a wild animal and she wasn’t afraid to be mauled; she was worried about watching the woman sprint away when she found the courage to release the cloth and cup her sharp face.
“Kai is here for your appointment.” Kuvira then said. Her tone was difficult to comprehend and it was too dark to catch her expression even so close to her face. It was just clear her eyes darted into hers with something intense “You need to get ready.”
Damn... the check up! No no no no! Did Kai tell her?? Is that why Kuvira is acting like this now?
Yet, it took just a look into the CEO’s eyes to tell Kai indeed didn’t say anything unrequited. What upset the woman was obviously caused by something else…?
“Uh...tell Kai no, I don’t want to go.” the girl’s head shook in denial while sinking again into those broad arms to hide her own face and purr “Let me stay with you..”
“I’m here” a mumble came out from her own shoulder where Kuvira’s mouth pressed and Opal relaxed below her comforting weight again.
It felt nice to lay like that even just for a bit longer but if something was clear about Kuvira by then, stillness wasn’t her thing. The girl then sunk a hand in the businesswoman’s silky hair, deciding to enjoy every glimpse left to be cradled before coming back to real life, where everything this warmth thrived didn’t exists. “It’s okay, you told me about your meeting and I don’t want for you to be late”
“It won’t be so soon” the woman informed as Opal perceived her breathing grow heavier against her t-shirt seam and giggled.
“I’m so happy we’ll pass the day in bed then!!” she whispered against her lobe, waiting for the woman’s protest swiftly coming with a soundly huffing as she stiffened above and rose up to pull away. There she goes!
“Absolutely not. Your friend is waiting. Get dressed or i’ll do it.”
The girl crossed arms dramatically and pouted at the CEO’s eyes rolling “You wouldn’t dare! Besides there’s no suits to pick from.”
“You won’t need a suit, indeed”
Cold. With a rustle, the blankets were thrown away and her warm body was immediately exposed under the woman’s sight.
“SPIRITS KUVIRA, IT’S FREEZING!” okay, that definitely wasn’t expected. This time it was most likely Kai heard her yelp from the living room. Hold on, is Kuvira smirking??? What a bitch! Wait where is she... “Hey! You shouldn’t be nosying in someone’s wardrobe, you know? More so a lady’s!”
“I’d rather run the risk than make you miss an appointment” Kuvira’s low voice resounded in the dark almost eerily along the hangers clinking like cold chains “to tell you the truth, it’s hard to believe you’d care about these kind of cliches anyway.” that was... true, maybe the only thing that could’ve unsettled her was the mess inside the wardrobe, not because she cared but because undoubtedly Kuvira kept everything nice and perfectly tidied up at her own place. Opal chuckled, “It’s not a cliché but to be respectful.” Kuvira is definitely screaming internally now..
Yet, when the woman returned from the closet with some folded clothes, there was something different than a supposed peevishness in her relaxed features caressed by the soft light; broad hands instead, slowly unfolded the blankets in which the girl wrapped herself anew before burning on her hips. Under dark hypnotic ferns she forgot about the coldness of the room, speechless while she was dragged closer to the edge of the bed between Kuvira’s strong knees. Opal gasped; her heart stumbled when warm hands began to wander slightly along the line of her legs, before running up again on her curving hips, brushing towards the oversized cloth but stopping. As her sight dashed to the woman above again, she found her still staring with an eloquent shimmering request.
It took a simple nod to allow Kuvira to peel her t-shirt off with unexpected kindness, the same kindness used the night before to clean her.
By the way Kuvira grazed her bare skin, instantly reacting and melting, was as though nobody really ever managed to touch her. Not really, not this way. It wasn’t even comparable to something she ever experienced, pure as almost brushing a silent devotion; easy yet burning, intoxicating, profound, protective, familiar. Ours...
Opal was now almost completely naked aside for her panties but in that silence charged with unspoken words, even making eye contact as she let the woman dress her made everything a thousand times more intimate than having sex with anyone else ever felt.
A shy smile curled on her lips as she recognized the teal cropped hoodie Kuvira helped her wear with care, before tugging the sweatpants up her thighs as well and lowering slowly to press the forehead on her messy bang once done. Opal’s heart raced at the sudden vicinity, at the sensation of the woman glancing down at her and the breath brushing on her lips before whispering “You should respect my dick” picking up the conversation.
Her eyes widened in synch with the reflecting pair above.
“Opal!” Kuvira gasped.
A fire blazed in her cheeks once figuring out Kuvira’s soft bulge was now indeed heaving in her grasp. Oh my Raava.. I did it for real.
A hand cupped hers immediately but no matter that and the woman’s eyes darting to burn into hers, Opal felt bold enough to linger a bit more.
She didn’t know why but it was kind of addicting to touch. The more she followed the line of that responsive length, the easier it became to blindly recognize the head and already swelling base. Maybe it was the threatening massiveness what caught her attention at first, the curve her shaft took forced into those tight trousers or perhaps Kuvira’s expression changing completely, almost ceasing as even she could perceive in her palm the shift of that sensitive skin being slightly pulled, till uncovering the tip while attempting a few shy delicate caresses.
“Opal..” the CEO’s voice was low like a whisper but admonishing nonetheless, enough to shake her from that moment of feverish recklessness until releasing the woman’s groin and hid below her own hoodie hem in embarrassment, realizing.
The mattress, few seconds after, shook and sank where Kuvira sat keeping her head.
In the gloom, the silhouette of the woman’s back on the edge of the bed visibly rose up and soundlessly emptied down. The light ruffled on the raven hair falling down the broad shoulder, loosened, rebelling against gravity and Opal couldn’t help but connect that simple detail to each time she saw the woman losing control. In those few times her long hair wasn’t perfectly kept in the usual neat bun, Kuvira was someone else completely. Someone more genuine than the fake facade she regularly showed, never failing to hide someone kinder, apprehensive... more human. Someone Opal wasn’t ready to see even less to stand.
It was obvious in that precise instant how hard Kuvira was trying to regain control over that brief tease yet, Opal couldn’t find pity for what she caused but keep spying on that private moment as timidly grinning with some kind of pride and surprise growing inside.
Wow... I did that...
I can’t believe it’s so easy to get her.. hard...
However, unlike someone, she was too kind to even goad about it but actually sitting to shift closer to the woman in hope to show support by humbly placing a hand on her shoul—
”Don’t touch me.”
A minute passed quietly like that, with her heart bumping loud in an infinite remind of the woman’s upset tone. In her eyes she felt stinging tears swell while Kuvira’s breath audibly slacked off into normality.
“Alright...” the CEO’s voice was hoarser and heavier than usual as staring at something unknown forward “warm now?”
“Mhmh” she nodded guilty and blushed when the woman eventually turned to face her. Please tell me I didn’t fuck up... say you aren’t mad… Why am i so stupid?
Whatever lingered in Kuvira’s eyes however, it was too difficult to catch throughout the panic. The moment had been too good for too long but she wasn’t sure she wanted to see it end like that. Once again Opal cursed the appointment, that day, her own period, even Kai for coming there and waiting in the next room and then herself.
Her wrist, no, her entire body began to tremble as gazing at Kuvira standing up and assuming the usual flawless posture “Good,” the woman fixed her clothes before glancing at her over the shoulder one last time “go to the bathroom before you forget.”
The bathroom? Oh... “ r-right, thanks” her whole face was now aflame as she lowered it, burying cold hands between her thighs the moment Kuvira’s shoes stalked out the room.
.
That morning everyone looked particularly busy.
Aside the usual people’s low talking, there was a continuous coming and going between doors shutting and sliding open creating a draft. She sat squarely in the middle of that flow, curling in one of those uncomfortable blue-upholstered chairs trying to avoid getting a cold, slowly dissociating from those aseptic surroundings. At least her clothes were keeping her body warm in a plushy comfortable cloud, the same clothes Kuvira chose earlier that day.
Her teeth dipped in the fragrant pastry dough with a soft crunch. A chocolate chip melted quickly in her mouth as the image of veins pulsing underneath the woman’s rough hands wandering on her body flashed into mind.
Nobody ever dressed her. There was no reason to aside the fact Opal never let anyone do something she could perfectly do herself.
The few times it ever happened in her life, people always found a way to make her feel dumb, weak or sick so she couldn’t understand how she let Kuvira do it as her broad hands slowly gripped her from the hips, pulling until she was a breath away from her musky perfume at the base of her neck, chiseled jawline, thin lips, straight nose and deep green eyes. Opal’s heart began to pound, Kuvira’s mouth lusciously pressed before sinking into hers so vividly she could actually feel the texture of her lips, the warmth and the unmistakable pull until her own trembled open.
“So.. since when are you two dating?” at Kai’s awkward tone Kuvira’s mouth disappeared, slamming the insufferable reality back before her eyes “Yesterday you were ready to sabotage her reputation, today she wakes you after a wild night together.. when will you go for a date?”
Her heart rebelled in its cage.
“We didn’t...” she sighed “Kai..” then bit her lip, jumping up as soon as a nurse finally appeared again from the doctor’s room to save her from the embarrassing topic “it’s too early to upset me”
“You’re already upset” the guy shrugged before she could focus on the nurse sliding the dismissal paper on the counter. With a thin smile she took the pen to sign and finally leave the clinic.
“Seems like things are going very well, that’s all. I heard you two laughing” Kai insisted once doors slid close behind them.
No matter how fresh the morning air slapping her face was it was never comparable to the way the chill gusted and howled inside the sterile building’s empty rooms: the reaching bones kind of cold.
Although, as a dry leaf cracked below her shoes, she stiffened only when the guy’s statement hit. How embarrassing… I knew he could heard us—
“You know, that laugh I thought you forgot about..”
Her throat tightened. The crispy dough crunched again under her teeth after the third attempt to keep it still between her lips to dissimulate any kind of evident nervousness “Whaf are you falkin’ abof?”
She didn’t understand at first why her best friend slowed down until she turned to catch him typing on his phone. A crystalline laugh then sparkled from the speaker, dissolving with the bird’s joyful chirping nearby; it sounded like one of those contagious hearty laughs able to brighten one’s day, a laugh so uplifting her own heart lightened a bit as well.
«Kuvira, it’s freezing!» someone’s yelping was muffled as if coming from another room followed by a low smoky chuckle, wait..that’s Kuvira’s laugh, my voice!
Opal froze. “You recorded us?!”
“I had to send it to Jinora or she won’t believe me!”
“There’s nothing to believe!” her eyes widened “T-this means nothing, okay?”
Kai’s smile faded as he frowned, “Maybe for you. Did you know the CEO is protective of you?”
Is she? This sounds forced by the way she left this morning. Why would she even care? Yet, she averted the guy’s direct stare since recognizing a certain curiosity fizz inside.
“What—” she curled few strands behind the ear “what do you mean?”
“Your girlfriend was about to give me the third degree.” he shrugged, digging hands into the jeans’ pockets before resuming walking. “She’s cool though for buying you breakfast”
“Yeah, so kind. She didn’t even say goodbye..”
«Don’t touch me».
Those words…her tone… The thought alone made her stomach twist and hurt as chewing the last piece of dough before trashing its bag. She wanted to scream.
Was it so hard to even just say ‘hey tonight was fun. See ya’ after all that happened instead of just sending a pastry with a waitress? Wait, ok, maybe Kuvira didn’t like to spend the night together and perhaps touching her like that earlier wasn’t super appropriated of me but damn, if there was a problem why didn’t she tell me! Why buy me food?
I don’t get her.. “and she is not my girlfriend!” she blurted out loud making Kai snort and stop mid track now close to his motorbike.
His features relaxed before throwing a surprised glance. “Wait, is that why you’re so upset?” his tone high with a hint of tease was over irritating.
She couldn’t muster how her witty best friend of all people could be so blind regarding something so clear.
How could he even think that was the matter? How couldn’t he get she felt played with? That was a big deal and no matter her period that wasn’t being overreactive, not when Kuvira had the guts to look at her like that and be a total bitch the second after.
It was infuriating.
The mere thought of eating whatever the woman bought her would’ve been disgusting if only her stomach wasn’t begging to be filled.
It wasn’t fair. She couldn’t corrupt her with food each time to make up for something done wrong, she couldn’t kiss her to sleep and dress her in the morning only to go away without saying goodbye. She couldn’t appear in her mind like that.
Kuvira doesn’t care and neither I do.
The girl sighed, eventually noticing each second flowing without her answer made Kai almost giggle on the spot so she yanked the helmet out of the guy’s hand with a pout.
“I... n-no!” Opal popped the helmet on to cover her burning cheeks before hopping on the bike and cross her arms. “Listen... i had enough”
“Aight, let’s go before you throw hurricanes” his eyes rolled before he straddled the bike and she felt thankful the motor rumbling was loud enough to cover even the voice inside her mind.
She leaned forward until molding over the guy’s back as the world began to spin. The chill air quickly turned cold, unraveling the strands barely reaching her nape as her limbs relaxed at the peaceful vision of the sky’s color fading with the city’s skyscraper lights. Perhaps it was leaving the clinic or sitting on the bike but the farther they got, the lighter she felt. The heated smell of the road dust burning inside her nostrils was little by little replaced by the gathering roadside trees standing, spinning and swinging together; increasing as they headed to Jinora’s place. She hoped her best friends wouldn’t pick up the same topic since they were just supposed to study, so there was no reason to bring up what happened with Kuvira, right? Even because nothing happened.
Opal huffed realizing the woman was back in her mind but she wondered if Kuvira liked motorcycles or ever rode one and for a moment, imagining gripping on her carved hips while getting lost to the argan scent of her braid sneaking below the leather, felt easy like breathing. Maybe the woman didn’t like it though, for the same reason she actually loved sitting on a bike: the wind.
She clutched tighter onto Kai. The panorama changed when they got inside the main traffic filled city’s guts and the aroma of fresh baked goods and flowers enriched each street.
“Hey Ope!” the girl’s squealing peeped out from the window adorned with hanging flowers above caught her off guard. Blinded by the sun reflected on the high building lucid facade, she waved back attempting a shy smile before getting in the apartment with a lump in her throat.
Twentieth floor. Beep.
“Hey boo, you are even more beautiful today!” she scooted out of the way to let Kai pull his girlfriend for a chaste peck once they made it out the elevator.
“Shush, you saw me earlier, silly!” Jinora giggled, pushing the guy away to hide an evident blush.
Marbles and crystals embroidered together on the golden lilac mural decorating the light living room she stepped into. Opal could nearly feel the warm glimmer caressing her face as the eccentric house warming gift coming from Kya, Jinora’s aunt, never failed to pass unnoticed in a house so spacious and essential.
Her best friends in fact, were more like her: if they could live a simple life in an anonymous place it would’ve been more than fine yet Jinora descended from one of the most prestigious family known worldwide who needed to preserve a certain image and aunt Kya, on the other hand, deserved some kind of recognition since she was the reason why they avoided a scandal years prior.
It all happened when they were in their teens and her-almost-cousin began to hang out or something with Kai around the family estate whenever she could between lessons and music practices before the guy, once a little troublemaker coming from the streets, was caught stealing Tenzin’s private collections aside his daughter’s heart.
Jinora was inconsolable but no matter the disappointment Kai’s actions caused, Opal never saw her best friend smile so much like she did when Kai was around, as if the guy stole a whole constellation with the sole intention to put it in her eyes and fortunately, Kya noticed it as well.
So chances were that chief Lin Beifong, after her wife tempestuous suggestions, managed to keep the business private and graced the guy from prison by taking him under her wing with rigorous conditions.
Kai, after five long years of police service and Jinora’s warmest support, decided to settle down with her and study for a PhD in aviation.
They were living the best opportunity life could give them after building the chance to freely love each other away from any worry aside Tenzin’s sporadic bitterness.
It felt so easy to feel immensely happy for her best friends. What they shared was so powerful, so rapturing and contagious it was impossible to hide from and growing up with them, Opal couldn’t help but always feel like a part of that blissful warmth as well and for a long time, that was enough.
But now though… looking at them wrapped up into one another’s arms was… different. Painful.
A sting of jealousy twisted her guts.
Why does it have to be so complicated for me?
Nails clawed her palm as her hands curled in tight fists. Something inside was hurting… clogging her chest.
Her eyes widened; I can’t breathe….
Two big thunderous clouds of fur gathered as Lefty and Pepper ran towards their respective owners when she stumbled towards the couch.
“What’s going on?” Jinora asked.
Opal shrugged, sinking in the soft pillow as the world slowly muffled down. Swallowing became difficult but she hoped her friends wouldn’t get close enough to notice her sudden change. What’s wrong with me?... “I don’t wanna talk about it”
“Should I be worried..?”
“She’s upset about the CEO buying her breakfast” Kai said.
“What? That’s not the point!” Opal bounced, gripping the couch’s edge once realizing her voice cracked, dampened at the rhythm of her grounding heartbeat. Damn, i feel like a baby.. why can’t i just stop complaining.. why am i like this..
A cacophony of noises announcing Jinora’s steps followed by Pepper and Lefty’s feisty waggling was dulled by the fluffy carpet before she caught her best friend lowering in front of her legs tapping up and down. The girl’s usual smily expression however, fell drastically into her blurred view “Why are you upset?”
A pair of warm brown eyes gazed up at her full of tenderness and perhaps it was due the delicacy of her tone, accompanied by thin fingers fixing her short strands behind the ear, yet keeping herself from bursting shamelessly became unsustainable. I don’t want to. I must look so pathetic right now... there’s absolutely no reason to cry, damnit!
«Don’t touch me»
She gulped the aching knot down into her chest while sketching a timid smile.
Breathe in “..can we just study, please?”
“Okay but..” her best friend kept vaguely, stroking her knuckles turning white “i… we need to talk. I think it’s time for you to consider your plan isn’t as brilliant as you thought or even realistic if you ask me at this point. I heard the voice text, i heard the way she makes you laugh and Opal, by the Spirits this is a clear sign!”
“Wha-what are you talking about” Opal gasped for air “I thought you supported this... me..”
“We both do, of course! It’s just... it seems kinda..” the girl hesitated as if pondering to use the softest way to wound.
“Say it” she hissed with a heaving chest when her best friend averted her stare; the overwhelming silence at that point became disheartening.
Is this a joke? I can’t believe I thought i could trust someone with this..
“dumb—“
—“Pointless,” Jinora corrected, glancing rapidly at her boyfriend’s direction before landing her sight once again onto hers, guiltily “...not the cleverest idea you’ve had..”
Opal scowled and shrouded, yanking away the girl’s hands cutting like sandpaper around hers. “That’s because you have no idea what it means!”
“You are right, we may not” Kai’s warm touch heaved on her shoulder “but you think keeping yourself from feeling something ever will make this situation any better? Frankly… I don’t think you ever really thought about the impact such thing would actually had on you simply because before Kuvira, you never experienced it. You had no idea but it’s not your fault. Nobody knows it, neither i did when I first saw Jinora and perhaps you can’t notice it yet but we can see how fast this is happening for you too and it’s not just about you laughing like she lighted the sun inside your chest. Opal, this plan already crumbled since—“
“—No” her head shook.
She could feel how the bitter smile cut her face in one of the most hurtful she had to keep up to contain those tears. Her heart jumped with the same impel her whole body used to stand up, regretting being so impulsive the moment after. Yet, as silence fell in the living room, Opal realized how difficult it became to soothe all the sorrow overflowing like dense lava, burning to corrode from the inside what lasted of her self control.
In a second everything lost its meaning. It didn’t matter how deeply she was scratching her own palms, neither how worried her best friends looked as she stormed towards the elevator with burning lungs and a lump in her throat, because nothing mattered after all when the only people she chose to trust disappointed her.
“Ope wait! Please, you don’t need to go” Jinora’s voice cracked behind her shoulders. “We can talk about this.. we want to help”
Her cold hand sweated while reaching the lift button panel, hesitating. What was there left to say? How can they help me at this point? What need is there to talk if everything said was in vain when all the comfort they always provided now made her felt so inadequate… misunderstood.
This is necessary, i’m not being senseless, why can’t they just get it? I’m doing it for her.
“You deserve to be loved”
A scorching tear lined down her cheek.
“No, I don’t..”
.
Chapter 8: Chapter eight
Chapter Text
.
.
Her calves burned, swaying through the crowd to sprint as fast as she could. The cold air was cutting her heated cheeks but everything went too fast and loud to care and the impelling need to let out all her sorrow against something was becoming difficult to suppress.
The adrenaline was the only thing keeping her from stopping. Does it even matter if i cry right now? What if someone recognizes me and takes pictures? How do I explain it to my father, my mother…
The idea to go home flashed in her mind like a lighting bolt, if only to find Kuvira’s perfume still lingering all over the sheets, clothes and rooms
—No. I need to find a safe place.
It was useless to deny it was all the woman’s fault after all. If she didn’t stay the night, if she didn’t show up at the park nor gave her necklace back, if only she could stop showing up in her life, unraveling her whole world whenever looking at her like that, touching and breathing her as if..
«You deserve to be loved.»
No, I can’t.
How hurtful a few simple words could’ve been, coming from someone so specially dear? A word too much wasn’t a problem yet undermining the weight of something so important was defying... digging an emptiness nobody could balm neither fill.
It wasn’t her best friend’s fault. Carelessness especially, never was Jinora’s thing, although even the most careful of people sometimes could harm in unimaginable ways but Opal, no matter how mortified, couldn’t blame them.
After all that happened to her it swayed any rational explanations but her circumstances weren’t just a statement, it was her way of living, eradicated so profoundly it became a part of everything in her reality and even if they didn’t understand, there was nothing able to describe. Even if it actually existed…
I need to stop seeing Kuvira.
A light buzzed ahead and she noticed the veil of tears blurring her sight only when it took her a minute to recognize the familiar sign over the building it belonged to. Her lungs burned as they frantically swelled in her chest the more she hesitated at the front entrance and every cell in her body reacted in response as if pulled towards it… attracted.
That was the right place.
The glass doors scrolled open at her soundless pass; in the long narrow hallway the only sources of light came from the streets behind and the first room on the left, confirming there was actually someone inside.
Opal’s contracted features slowly distended at each pass. After years spent there, that place almost felt like home; safe. Perhaps because she was taught to think so or because more than anything, it wasn’t due to the building per se but the person teaching and training in those classes what made it so warm and welcoming.
Even now, the instructor’s voice softly rebounding inside her own personal studio felt like a painkiller.
Yet there was… something the other days lacked; a different scent filled the air —foreign to the gym’s harsh cleanser and sweat— warm, strong, musky, soothing a derailing part of her turmoil immediately.
No matter how the wall muffled the sound, it was evident Korra wasn’t alone although her kind cheerful tone was numbed, the joyful shade it always had was veiled to uncover instead an unknown side of it.
As long as they began her training, there wasn’t a day in which Korra didn’t greet Opal with a cocky grin and a soft touch; never in a handsy way but always kind, pleasant, respectful even when they weren’t at the trainer’s gym.
She had a spontaneous way to spread affection like a kid splashing fresh water on a summer day at the beach, making everyone feel seen and appreciated no matter what, especially whenever it came to her.
Perhaps for this reason listening to her voice reverberating like a storm about to break, so far from what Opal was used to hearing, knotted the lump already formed in her throat tighter.
Eavesdropping certainly wasn’t the wisest choice to take but moving from the safe corner found behind the door pillar to both leave or show up at this point would’ve undoubtedly broken off Korra’s speech and with it, her opportunity to understand and intervene if it was necessary.
What if she is in danger? Okay she is an ex MMA Champion, she surely knows how to deal with dangerous situations but.. what if she gets hurt?!
As shameful as it was then, curiosity had gotten the best of her when she kept her breath, succumbing to the darkness below her eyelids until that voice cleared and sharpened in her mind, charged with… with..
“…always told you i see a lot of myself in you, we both want the best” Korra hesitated, “but you do the right thing until your actions overlap the limit.”
“We may have grown up together but we are nothing alike” a voice, followed by the parquet creaking, cut sharp like a razor blade lacquered with an elegant layer of precision. It was low enough to sneak and capture her mind in an instant, compelling… familiar.
Whoever that voice belonged to they sounded proudly pissed off. “At least I accomplish my achievements instead of pitying myself about what hindered me.”
A smack, “At what cost?”
“At any if it’s important enough.” a screeching sound, low panting… what’s going on? “I went forward and became a CEO and you could have won the olympics by now if you trained more, tried again and stopped groveling as if losing a single match was the end of your career”
Wait.. a CEO? You motherfucker! I KNEW IT! I needed to talk with Korra first!
“Kuvira, sometimes it’s not…this is not about me-EH” someone grunted before a thud blasted in the room, loud, as if a deadweight hit the floor until a heavy panting hid every other noise. “listen, my point is,” Korra struggled “if you think you can play with Opal’s feelings you are wrong.”
The said girl’s eyes opened wide at her name while a tear as well, lined down her cheek. With a yank of her wrist the coat zipper scratched her skin at the attempt to dry it off. Her heart throbbed.
What..?
“As if i was some kind of monster…” Kuvira scoffed “you think i’m so stupid to believe it’s all about this? why are you protecting her from me, what’s going on between you two?”
No… this is too much!
It all happened in an instant once turned around the door pillar. Opal’s breath was taken away by the scene flashing before her eyes, becoming everything she never expected to witness.
The woman’s perfect suit was stretched at the unusual position her body took as straddling Korra’s lap to immobilize her on the ground. Her rough hands were tugging up onto her friend’s athletic top and through Kuvira’s loosen strand escaping the tight bun, Opal barely took notice of the stare shared between the two; so intense to even make her blush.
An amount of contrasting feelings overwhelmed her mind in waves until her hands curled up in fists.
How could that be the same woman buying her pastries to apologize, the same person spending the entire night with her just to make sure she was still good in the morning.
I should have intervened before. How could she..
“What are you two doing!? You are best friends!” Opal shouted alarmed, striding to pull on the woman’s shoulder. At the contact, an icy glare made her heart stumble before racing directly to her palm, retracting immediately as if touching the woman could actually scorch her skin.
“Ope it’s fine, we are just talking” Korra soothed from below, sketching a brilliant smile in her direction before Opal’s gaze could fall towards the CEO anew, rising from the floor to give a hand to her best friend.
“And sparring” Kuvira’s eyes commanded her to look back, claiming her full attention quite insistently. Arrogant, demanding, intense like the sun dragging each planet around its orbit and Opal couldn’t help but stare till slowly melting at the blistering heat.
In a glance alone every concern cleared away and weakened her legs but once she recognized how she softened at the woman’s presence, her stomach churned in anger. Her scowl tightened while crossing arms to her chest in defense; “What do you want from her?”
The woman’s stare remained adamant into hers and the girl felt rage boil inside the more hypnotized she found herself, pulled, until a golden flash gleamed beyond those ferns mellowing.
She noticed Kuvira didn’t have the jacket on; her white shirt was unbuttoned and rolled up to her elbows although she noted her wearing gloves only when the back of her covered fingers caressed few messy strands around her ear and along the smooth leather creaking, the businesswoman’s smokey tone resounded “What happened?”
How does she know? Is it so obvious i cried?
As averting her gaze, Korra’s pure ocean blue eyes came into view with a quizzical expression, so different and lighter it took just a moment to adjust, recoil and realize how overbearing the CEO’s mere presence was.
So she slapped Kuvira’s hand away as her heart hammered against its cage “It’s none of your business.” she hissed.
With adrenaline rushing in her body, Opal fled out of one of the few place she thought could wreak all her spite and disappointment only to find the major cause of it already there.
The main gym door slammed behind. How far was it possible to run and forget what grieved inside? Apparently, not even the crowded sidewalk in front of Korra’s gym before a hand wrapped around her wrist and the businesswoman’s immediately stalked ahead. “Come with me”
“No. I want to be alone, thanks” Opal pulled uselessly.
“It wasn’t a question”
“So what are you gonna do? Force me?!” few curious eyes landed on them as people passed nearby.
Rumbling cars and mumbles matched the rebellious rhythm underneath her chest.
Fuck…
“Opal” Kuvira admonished as sign to lower her voice, turning with a scowl sharpening her features when the girl’s arms crossed triumphantly once she managed to slip away.
After that, everything calmed but even if the woman seemed to notice, it left her certainly unbothered since taking a step towards her, haunting, almost terrifying.
Damn…why is she.. “Go away. You can’t control me” Opal withdrew but could do nothing when the sun was obscured by the towering CEO catching her, almost hitting someone passing behind, wrapping her with an arm to lift and place her whole weight on the shoulder.
“KuvIRA!” she yelped slapping the woman’s back before hiding her face “put me down!!!”
Spirits Spirits Spirits!!! This is fucking embarrassing!
Deep down however due to panic or simple hilarity, the dumbest need to laugh was about to betray her burst of fury as frantically kicking the air while everything around moved backwards. Yet, the only thing she could focus on was the shape of the chiseled shoulder she was laying over and the hand sinking into her hip while being lowered to sit in the car. The woman leaned infinitesimally closer to the point her musky perfume tracked off the girl’s attention from the seatbelt hugging her to the seat and disappear the second after. Wait. Whose car is this?
Once Kuvira’s forest scent dissolved, Opal inhaled the familiar scent of new car lingering around before the driver’s side door opened and softly thudded close after the businesswoman sat beside. By the intimidating body style and minimal matte interior, it was clearly one of those limited edition Satomobiles. Does she change cars every week? This is ridiculous, vulgar, pretentious! Rnghh i’m about to cry again, i know it..
“Are you crazy?! In front of everyone! What the fuck do you want from me!?” Opal shouted yanking the seatbelt away “You stopped torturing Korra only to keep giving me your third degree?! I have bad news for you because the only answer you’ll ever get is ‘this is none of your business and I thought you were better than this’!” If her face felt heated before, now it was aflame while kneeled on the seat.
“I suggest you to sit and put the belt back on.”
“What are you a stewardess?!” she mocked crossing arms to her chest anew when the engine smoothly growled alive before a lurch forward threw her back instantly to the seat.
Her heart hammered below her own hand as if she could physically stop its riot while the grey and golden city’s buildings blended with the green beyond the window.
I need to calm down.. or it might explode.
“Where are you bringing me?”
The woman’s eyes beneath the thickset brows stayed fixed on the street as she fluidly swerved in between cars.
Spirits.. why does she have to be like this?!
The seat on which Opal sunk into to dissimulate any worry instead purred when the woman swerved into the road, cutting off several cars in a row with striking simplicity, avoiding certain death by just glimpses. “Listen,” the girl huffed “if you think your silent treatment makes me talk, just know it doesn’t work because I don’t want to talk.”
“Good, I don’t want to talk either.”
“Then what do you want?!” She whined slapping her own thighs, turning completely towards the woman driving. Kuvira’s face however remained impassible like a stone, too focused on the road or the Spirits knew what to deign her attention.
Several minutes quietly passed like that accompanied by the continuous high pitched rumbling as the city’s crowded streets cleared approaching the highway’s larger ones and her heart began to race again along with the car speeding up.
Where’s she bringing me..
“Kuvira.. damn it, why so fast..” she wailed breathlessly “c-can you please just say something?!” her hand jerked instinctively in search of anything to hold, finding instead the CEO’s covered ones resting on the shifter but gathering hers immediately to hold it protectively beneath. Albeit the contact soothed her worries, she loathed the way the cold fabric reminded her of how much her skin missed Kuvira’s warmth. Why was she wearing gloves?
A thumb caressing on the back of her hand induced her gaze to shift on the woman’s face again, this time catching ferns already spying on her from their corners.
“For someone who doesn’t want to talk you do it way too much.” the woman teased.
“It’s because you are exhausting”
“You are doing it all yourself. Stop fussing”
Wow.. dick..“Sorry i’m not emotionally clogged and in need of adrenaline boosts to feel something.”
Kuvira scoffed “You think i’m emotionless?”
“Yes” Opal rolled her eyes but looking outside, surroundings weren’t spinning at a frantic speed as before. Kuvira was driving way slower and it was definitely easier to enjoy the sun lazily sneaking through the roadside trees casting shadows on the CEO’s relaxed face.
“Just because i don’t externalize it nor whine like a child doesn’t mean I feel nothing.” the woman punctuated “I’m indeed enjoying your presence.”
“Are you calling me a baby?!”
“Of course that’s all you heard.”
Okay, where’s my Nobel peace prize for keeping it together today? I didn’t deserve to be called a baby by the most pretentious piece of shit on Earth, Spirits.
Opal sighed. Heavily, her eyes fell closed while she comfortably leaned back on the seat softly swinging at sporadic highway’s bumps. Her period cramps were gashing her insides and all the stress accumulated over the day began to be too weary to keep bottled up at the sun’s gentle lulling, so she breathed out in despair, half in pain, half in relief.
It felt as if slowly, the amount of feeling and sensation crowding and brawling to take command of her body annulled one another in a dulling torpor, a feeble dizziness tickling down the threads of her soul. Right there, where something inexplicably strong stung and caressed all the same. Defeating.
In a day alone she passed from joy to anger, sadness to shock, fear and anger again all due the same exact person without even being fully present.
What even in the Spiritworld is this woman? Being with Kuvira was exhausting like sprinting up the steepest hill chased by bulls; it was incredibly infuriating until she actually did something kind and exceptionally warm for a fraught, idyllic moment before getting even wearier in a rollercoaster of moods unable to stop and any slackening intention.
Nobody has ever had a way to overwhelm and unravel her day the way the CEO did. It didn’t matter if her whole body and soul could bear it or no, an earthquake never asked for permission.
She sighed again and smiled bitterly at the thought: there weren’t other ways to better describe the impact Kuvira had in her life and at the defeating realization, Opal couldn’t help but feeling hot tears threatening below the eyelids.
“I detest you so much i can feel it in my soul, I swear.”
“Good.” Kuvira said.
Everything quieted down after a clinking; the car stopped purring until only the wind and the woman’s breathing blended in her ears, freezing her completely. Please tell me I didn’t just say it out loud…
The touch over her hand on the shifter however, burned along the musky perfume eradicating in her lungs before she could actually get over that shameful fact but it was too late, because Kuvira’s breathing now was getting incredibly close to her face, her lips “That’s the only way i want you to feel me. Inside, insufferably deep.”
Chills rolled down her spine. The hammering in her chest intensified till the pulse rebounded all over her body, down between her thighs clasping together and up to her ears, deafening.
A thudding although, louder than her heartbeat forced her eyes open, as she caught Kuvira walking towards a tight chain of trees on the roadside.
“Wait!” Opal gasped getting out the car like a kid crying for their mother at the grocery store “W-where are you going..?!”
Glancing left and right the girl recognized how far they made it from the city in such quick time, outside one of the less crowded highway’s gates where cars passed nearby but never stopped to enjoy the nature reigning unperturbed.
Another stab throbbed in her lower abdomen.
How does Kuvira knows about this place?
No matter how easy it was to catch birds chirping inside the city, here their chants harmonized in a special way with leaves and bushes brushing one another at her pass dulled by the soft grass.
It was humid and crispy but still comfortably warm as the steep barrier of trees was trespassed and Kuvira came into view not too far away.
“Vira..” she breathed out, holding onto the wooden railing the woman was already leaning on once she got close enough. Apparently that was the edge of a cliff, not completely undiscovered, just kept wild and protected by Zaofu. The wind chided kindly.
Few meters below, flowers danced at the gentler breeze contained inside the mountains arms, and their perfumes delicately mixing with soaked soil reached her nostrils.
The sun was still high even if it wouldn’t have taken much before it kissed the peaked horizon from where water fell in burbling stripes of crystals, gleaming at the sky’s rosed shades.
“Wow..”
“I know” Kuvira whispered, giving her for a second the impression of being glanced but when the girl checked, the CEO’s light ferns were fixed on the waterfall so she did the same, letting the nature steal her thoughts.
“What’s wrong?”
Opal shrugged, hoping to turn into one of those birds high in the painted sky without the knowledge of life’s trivial and burdens but flying freely towards the sun instead of answering unrequited questions.
But she wasn’t a bird and she couldn’t fly, especially when pride weighed till sinking her into the ground.
“You could’ve said goodbye this morning.” the girl barely mumbled after storing enough courage, as if the sound of her own admission could’ve harmed more than the actual occurrence bothering her “I appreciated the pastry and i’m sorry i fucked up but damn it, at least..”
—“You didn’t fuck up.”
“Then why..?” Opal frowned and wrapped her own abdomen to alleviate the pain while glancing at the woman’s sharp expression. If touching her wasn’t the problem then what was?
“It doesn’t matter”
“It does matter!”
Her heart thumped loudly again, this time overwhelmed with worry, doubting if yelping was too excessive as it left a heavy silence behind. With a breath Opal released the tension curling her hands, tightening her shoulders; the last thing she wanted was pushing Kuvira to say something, although her low voice blended with the waterfall continuous thrumming after a few.
“I don’t like to feel vulnerable in front of people, especially strangers.” Kuvira’s eyes gleamed into hers.
Who is she talking about? It wasn’t the first time we… oh wait…“Kai?”
The businesswoman barely nodded, still staring ahead and a strand of her silken hair fell over the beauty mark.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you” Kuvira whispered and in a moment she was the same woman trying to calm her down on the edge of her bed. Maybe understanding why showing vulnerability for Kuvira wasn’t easy, resided on the simple fact the woman always showed only her most assertive, headstrong and arrogant side with so much fierceness it became almost impossible to even imagine her having fears and weak spots like every other human being.
Kuvira was perfect, formidable, dangerous and it was clear to the point that nobody dared to contrast her, except of her own self… evidently.
Now the woman was there, silently exposing a side of her vulnerability that Opal wasn’t sure many people ever had the privilege to witness; but why me?
The girl’s heart pounded while trying to give a plausible explanation for Kuvira possibly trusting her in that moment; what brought somebody to expose to someone else showing hostility? It was reckless and stupid but Kuvira as far as Opal knew, was none of the two.
She rose on her toes enough to reach the businesswoman’s contracted face and fix, with a caress on the beauty mark, Kuvira’s rebel strands back in the neat hairstyle.
“You meathead…” she pouted, noticing the woman’s intense ferns shifting to lock into her peridots as grasping her wrist midair.
«Don’t touch me»
Opal gasped and frowned at the livid hold, worried about fucking up once again before Kuvira guided it around her neck with a rude and straightforward gesture only someone unfamiliar to affection would’ve done. The girl hesitated in search of some kind of permission, yet the woman stayed adamant in stillness.
Slowly, Opal neared to lean and press a cheek onto the her chest, closing her eyes trying to forget the pain lingering in her guts as the wind, along Kuvira’s hand, caressed her nape. “What happened today?”
“How do you know?”
“You are definitely not emotionally clogged.”
“…”
“I didn’t have a good day and” Opal huffed “I-i’m tired... i’m tired of arguing. I have to study, you are a dick, i’m hungry, my belly hurts, i feel dirty but I don’t want to go home.”
“It’s okay”
“No it’s not..”
“Yes, it is.” Kuvira looked down to meet her eyes and brush her messy bang behind “Did you bring any books with you to study?”
The girl nodded with a blush, taken aback by the CEO’s simple gesture as strand after strand, her hair fell back on her forehead.
“Let’s go then”
.
Short soft strands caressed her knuckles as brushing through the messy bob till reaching the nape. Her heart grounded loudly. I need to stop.
Lungs filled up with cinnamon when she inhaled the girl’s bronze skin and the image of their first meeting on the elevator flashed in the back of her mind. She breathed out.
Heavy rain tapping on the glass, an unbearable warmth, light intermittent panting, tender slippery skin, incessant slapping, deep growls, loud moans.
Her fingers curled into a fistful of hair. A gentle whine.
I need it..
The woman’s eyes opened anew to glance outside, following the morning light filtering among dancing leaves.
As leaving the spot outside the highway the day before, she drove back home, letting the girl nosy around till allowing her to take a shower while she ordered something to eat. No matter her disapproval, Opal lured her to eat pizza on the coffee table in front of the fireplace, before falling asleep like a baby after spending the rest of the evening quietly studying on music theory books.
The tender squeaking the dozed student let out as being carried and laid down on the bed next to her once finishing working on her laptop, mellowed Kuvira’s heart in new, totally unexpected ways. Opal was groundbreaking in all her violent sweetness to the point the businesswoman felt the urge to hold her closer under the sheets.
It was the second consecutive night they shared a bed and falling asleep with the girls’s soft breathing was extremely easy, no matter how restless her nights had become at the imminent approaching of her enterprise unification.
The next week would have been the official conclusive meeting soon after followed by red carpets, interviews, gala and soirée; it was everything she planned and worked on since Zaheer’s last days and she had no idea how she could still find time to waste on babysitting a skittish rich girl.
Yet, the following morning Kuvira cursed being human enough to wake up with an erection between her thighs.
Having Opal plastered all over her body as if she had no room in the kingsize bed wasn’t certainly helping, not when the student’s inner thigh was plastered against her swelled hardness secured below the boxers’ elastic. A rush of blood flooded to condense exactly there, pulling her abs’s tendrils clenching in need.
Damn… I can’t.
.
Notes:
Ops… sorry not sorry :p
And you? What did you expect?
I hope y’all have a beautiful weekend! ꕤ
Chapter 9: Chapter nine
Chapter Text
.
.
Damn.. i can’t
Kuvira’s head yanked to the opposite side to take lungfuls far from Opal’s cinnamon scented hair before trying to stealthily escape from that plushy trap keeping her hostage and sit up.
“Mmh” a gracile arm caught her hip “no..” a huffing, the mattress shook behind her, then another arm kept her down “where are you going?”
“To get ready for work,” Kuvira growled as her erection was also accidentally wrapped in the sleepy hug “you can rest and stay if you want to study more.”
Opal’s yawning along with the rustling sheets and heavy tired footsteps instead followed her, getting up to head to the walk-in closet hidden behind the bed panel. Soft neons turned on at their passing and the oversized mirror reflected the girl’s sleepy face sneaking out of the blanket she brought with them, rubbing gently onto her back.
“You should go back to bed” Kuvira murmured, trying to avoid the view of those rosy cheeks sneaking below a wild after-sex-without-sex short hairstyle by putting all her focus on planning and combine the day’s suit and accessories together but the girl interrupted her as the gloves drawer slid open. “I should’ve expected you had a fetishism”
“It’s a necessity more than anything.” The woman’s glance shifted from the gloves sets, down to the weary peridots gazing at her with curiosity below her shoulder.
“I handle metal and sometimes i personally study some particular samples of meteorites and stones to add in the production but” she grasped the girl’s hand before it could stain the lucid furniture and turn her own in the soft light for her to see “these are too off-putting to be shown in meetings” several cuts crossed the palm and though they didn’t always sting, some were particularly deep.
Opal frowned with an unreadable expression lingering in her eyes “Why don’t you just wear protective gloves at work?”
“I want to know the product exact before i invest in it so i need to analyze each thoroughly” Kuvira explained, keeping an eye on the music student unfolding from the hug to wander around the closet, vaguely pushing buttons around the shelves, inspecting their contents and sighing deeply.
“Do you need to touch everything?” the woman frowned earning a sulking expression in answer.
What’s wrong now?
“I’m sorry i gave you blue balls yesterday.”
“Blue balls?” Kuvira’s brow arched up, noting the girl opening a glowing drawer.
“It-it’s a uhm.. a way to say when someone gets turned on but can’t… you know...” Opal shook her head “you spend way too much time at wor—ohhh hey! What’s this?”
The rustling of the lucid wrapping shone at the soft lights as the girl waved it up in her face and once recognizing the content, the woman cringed. I thought i got rid of them.
“Stockings.”
“This i can see, i mean..” she caught the student’s eyes widening and averting after peeking out her bare chest as peeling off the t-shirt to dress a freshly stirred shirt “y-you wear these kind of socks?”
“No, I bought them as gift when I visited Fire Nation Capital”
“Oh.. to a woman in particular? Can i try them?”
Even if the woman’s clothes hung loosely on Opal’s frame under the bulky blanket, it was easy to peek the sweetness of her curves hidden and revealed below the cotton of the grey shorts. For a moment, the vision of the student’s toned legs being hugged by the soft laced cloth made desire shiver down her spine to sparkle directly along her length but then, missing the possibility to help Opal wear them felt wrong.
Kuvira’s hardness twitched acclaiming the delightful thought, distracting from any other important deeds like buttoning up the shirt before confiscating the package before turning the walk-in closet’s panel hindering the way towards the bed.
“Come here.” she nodded to the spot beside once resting back against the headboard. Her sight lingered on the hesitant student carefully kneeling down on the pillows, evidently missing her intent. So Kuvira invited the girl’s bare legs onto her lap with an explicit gesture, caressing with the back of her fingers the expanse of Opal’s dark skin waiting for the unspoken consent to come. The girl’s lashes fluttered imperceptibly closer as she reassuringly held her shy gaze.
“These weren’t for a woman in particular, no,” the woman began “nobody I really cared about..”. The satin of the semitransparent stocking felt light like running-water under her digits while unrolling it from the girl’s foot to cover the thin ankle, barely folded knee and up to the smooth line of her thigh. While talking, Kuvira’s heart rate increased proportionally to the relentless roam of her hands studying each dip, softness and firmness of the student’s tender skin.
She could feel the urge, the crave coaxing her to slowly get lost in Opal’s body, threatening by each passing second to overwhelm even the bit of control left.
The CEO inhaled; “It was years ago and i never dated,” then kept as guiding, with the same cure and precision, the expensive fabric to slide along the slight curve of the other leg “never really slept with someone twice.”
Once done, she could hear Opal soundly gulping down as drawing her knee closer enough to press a kiss above the lace around the girl’s inner thigh.
“I just knew they would’ve look so good on you” Kuvira confessed.
Her face skimmed on that tender skin when she turned to lock those gleaming peridots into her ferns with a sheen of complicity. Kuvira’s heart bumped. She swore to feel fire burning down the valleys of the student’s cheeks as the warm sweet scent lingering all over her sensitive flesh, elated the woman’s soul even more while breathing her in.
Her eyes narrowed open, pondering what Opal may think of her in that precise moment.
Undressing someone was undoubtedly an intimate gesture; it was proven when she helped the girl get rid of her stained garments the night before inside the bathtub and it would’ve felt wrong to even compare something so precious to throwing away one’s clothes inside lust’s rapturing fog. No matter how beautiful and enjoyable it was.
This instead was a gesture holding a boundless tenderness, something Kuvira never ever thought to do before but Opal made it natural like breathing. Nothing, nobody ever made her feel such a level of intimacy and this, now? Helping Opal dress was beyond human explanation once again.
It required a certain delicacy to grasp the secret agreement the gesture followed, a care and sentiment impossible to understand if it wasn’t already tacitly felt.
Can she hate me right now?
In that brief moment of silence, Opal’s mouth soundlessly opened and closed several times as if for once she was out of words; “Y-you didn’t even know I existed years ago, silly” the student eventually mumbled. Her high pitched voice was tender and innocent, true to that essence hiding below the thick layers of edginess the girl protected herself with. Her thin legs scrambled to escape from her hold like a scared rabbit and a smug smile appeared on Kuvira’s face even if a glimpse of disappointment stung inside, already mourning Opal’s warmth “If i’m praised as a visionary it should be for a reason. Perhaps i knew you were coming”
“That’s not true” Opal snorted “but speaking of coming, you didn’t need all this if you wanted..” the fire the girl’s eyes trailed down her stomach alluded the end of her point.
The woman frowned, crunching forward “This wasn’t my intent, neither have time for it.”
“But i have” the student’s hand pressed onto her bare chest before she could get up. “Besides, i’m your fuck buddy” another small cold hand held her wounded one to guide it to skim over a bronze cheek, swaying through short rebel strands to settle around the student’s nape “so I-I was just wondering.. what do you like about a girl sucking your..”
—“Opal” she snapped. Her fingers curled up tightly the bob buzzcut as the said girl made room between her thighs, lowering slowly but so dangerously towards her boxers before her gleaming eyes darted onto her ferns.
There’s no way this is going to happen if she doesn’t…
“Please,” the girl pouted still keeping eye contact, her flustered face tilted on a side now resting on her abs, right beside her twitching sex “i want to know..”
“Are you serious?”
The stockings glittered at the sun rays as the girl’s legs swung back and forth. Her fingers instead, tackled faintly the line of her sex defined shape underneath the stretched cloth before tucking it down to expose the red raging tip, shamelessly twitching in the air. “Mhmhn, tell me” Opal’s heated cheek was resting on her abs so close to her hardness it took the girl a little pout for her soft full lips to smooch on the throbbing tip.
A sharp air intake was dragged out of her lungs at the contact. There were no words to describe how much Kuvira needed this after such long time. Yet, lasting more than few strokes would’ve been ideal.
Since her laid position between her thighs, Opal’s eyes were hidden by the bang although, as slowly lowering the boxers’ waistband off of her pulsing erection, Kuvira could sense the path down where the girl’s attention exactly laid. Soft parted lips indeed, began to trace down the veiny side of her length till reaching the swollen base.
Kuvira’s jaw clenched, “It depends”
Opal was delicate, so delicate the woman barely perceived her cold hand resting on her inner thigh while a mouth pressed onto her base in a soft kiss, parting subtly to barely pull on her sensitive skin.
The silk of her wet lips closing around just a specific point on her ball was tempting and cruel as Opal often proved to be, until from the inside, her tongue lushed like a wave. Thick, warm. Fuck..
For a moment even the girl’s nose exhaling over her skin made her whole hardness throb with desire, while the soft mouth pressed close to push her sensitive spot completely out. Cold hit immediately after; “Please details”
“...I like pressure” Kuvira commented slowly to keep control over her voice, nonetheless her heart thumped wildly in her chest.
“Yeah?” Opal whispered “My lips closing around? The way i suck on it?” and looked up, eventually giving the CEO the opportunity to catch those brilliant peridots for a few instants before they disappeared.
Kuvira’s heart skipped a beat at Opal’s digits digging deeper into her thigh while a mouth-opened kiss stole her breath away; the full view was once again hindered by the student’s messy hair but it was impossible to miss how tightly her lips narrowed after they enveloped the entirety of one ball to press and suckle deliciously. The woman’s fingers curled on the girl’s nape accompanying the gentle pull becoming bolder, needier, drawing a screeching sound from Opal’s wet pursing mouth.
The idea to fill it up with thick floods of release quickly ignited inside the darkest sides of her mind.
With a prolonged smack however, the girl let out her base now falling back into place darker, purplish and heavier with arousal.
“What about..” the student hesitated, keeping her hanging while lifting from her tensed abs. Please don’t stop now. “My tongue…” her warm breath instead, teased on her skin before a lavish of saliva could follow, abundantly smearing along her shaft resting and curving towards the bellybutton, careful to lacquer several vessels engrossing at her soft, irresistible pass “caressing here?”
Once at the top, the woman’s breath quivered so her thin lips seared into a line in order to keep inside any unwanted sound, “I might need a further demonstration”
The girl’s flustered cheeks adorably puffed “D-don’t tell me what to do”, a small hand swap from her inner thigh to cup the fullness of her base, caressing.
“I thought this was what you asked me” Kuvira’s voice instead came out lower than intended, hoarse with desire while her fingers threaded through Opal’s short strands. Under her digits, she could feel the student stiffening and then relaxing until her feathery eyelashes flicked open, revealing the treasure of her pure peridots gazing up into hers.
It was difficult to get over the girl’s innocence even when her tongue began to taste and study her broad tip with slow attempting laps. Kuvira was used to hungry, careless women guzzling her shaft down as if her dick was a piece of meat they starved for; it always have been chaotic and fast but with Opal was completely different. Her movements were shy, her frail hand still cupping her balls was uncertain, although the pull in her eyes was evident. Is this her first time? Perhaps she asked my opinion since she doesn’t know how to manage this. But.. is there a proper way to explain—
The heat of a open-mouth kiss grazing on her cock’s broad head took her breath away. A growl was drawn out the depths of her lungs, causing something to evidently light in Opal’s expression to resume the lecherous kiss on her shiny slit.
Once earning the effects of such captivating kisses, in fact, Opal slowly deepened the pull. The more her lips closed to sip on the top, the more enticing became the contrast of the subtle push exerted by the warm thick tongue.
“I like what’s unexpected” Kuvira commented raptured by the feeling of another kiss now pressing on the side of her erection, exactly where a multitude of vessels crossed and pulsed beneath the fine skin.
The pressure however, ended with a sounding wet pop,“Really..?”
The woman nodded, speechless when two bright, curious eyes stole her attention before Opal brushed another kiss on the top, slowly melting and delving further, until the whole crown of her cockhead was swallowed in.
“Opal..” her hips instinctively lurched up.
The girl stiffened and recoiled, holding onto Kuvira’s waist as curling, coughing.
Short hair tackled the woman’s skin while her heart hammered full of worry, “Baby..baby I’m sorry” she said as her wounded hands ran to hold up the student’s red face, evidently struggling to breathe. She fixed those black messy hair around her ears and softly blowed fresh air towards the girl’s contracted features quickly softening. Seems to work.
“I-It’s fine... my fault!” Opal’s hands gently patted on her own, “Damn, it’s huge tho..”
“How’s that your fa—“ a pair of lips landed on hers. Without hesitation, without a warning, Opal kindly kissed her and every concern melted away. It was incredibly simple when she could savor her own musky taste mixed with the girl’s honey and although the familiarity made her frown at first, it also released every tension storing in her limbs.
Perhaps, no matter the blunder, she was the only one really worrying. The student, in fact seemed focused on something different, tilting head on a side waiting for her to part her plump lips with a smooth graze.
A soft hand in the meantime, made her spine stiffen when it trailed down her hard shaft, heading straight to her base contracting in response; she hissed within Opal’s mouth as with rounded luscious movements her swelled base was stimulated again and this time, another hand wrapped up around the bulging tip.
Several growls of approval were skimmed onto the girl’s lips before they lowered down to collect spills of precum leaking out from her sex’s head slit.
As much as the woman missed their kiss already, she couldn’t help but toss back her head on the headboard when the girl’s mouth shrouded her cock and actually began to suck wantonly.
The friction, along the lewd sounds it provoked, was so delicious Kuvira believed to ascend.
The need to buck her hips again and start fuck Opal’s face was as blissful as prohibited; exactly seven, deep, well-asserted thrusts would’ve been enough for her to come undone but the Spirits knew what she would’ve done if she committed another mistake so close to her peak or worse, hurt Opal again.
No matter the worry however, Kuvira got even harder to the point of pain. Keeping some sort of control was becoming essential yet difficult, especially since the girl’s head began to bob up and down slowly. The slurping sound caused by the lascivious swallowing haunted her mind along the soft whisper that followed once she felt pulled out: “Do you prefer me to lick on the top..” hot tongue lashing around the said spot in a slow swirl “..or deep in my throat?”
Fuck.. “Here, lay down” Kuvira ordered, pushing Opal to resume the laid position between her parted thighs; “look at me.”, lifting her chin and guiding the small hand to keep upright her own erection against those shiny plump lips “do it again”
In the student’s gaze now staying completely on sight, there wasn’t room for hesitation, eager to obey but struggling to swallow almost half of her length in.
No matter that, what a vision she was. Opal’s mouth was incredibly wet… warm and at each pull her stretched lips pursed and reddened, matching the shade lingering on her cheeks.
Once the girl managed to take in her cock, her tight throat subtly swelled to adapt to the bulge pushing lower and lower until the woman felt the urge to place a hand precisely where her cockhead nudged. “Fuck… babe..”
Opal’s throat however, relaxed and flexed quickly as if trying to push her sex out —every time even more doused, gleaming with saliva— causing a copious amount of foamed wetness to overflow and drip down all over her stomach and pulsing balls.
Fuck, she is so fucking messy. Damn..
The schlickling slick sound it provoked once soft hands shifted faster barely closing around her girth however, inflamed her soul while the student’s mouth closed to press harder and pump rhythmically, till those red cheeks sunken in and her hardness was trapped by the velvety muscles in a ravenous torture. Each time the student delved deeper, she gagged louder and louder and louder…
Raava..If she keeps like this.. “Do you want to swallow?” the sheen of tears in Opal’s eyes sparkled as she attempted to nod in plead. A choked moan waved on her sex, “Then stay down”
With a rustle of sheet her knee flexed up, trying to keep the last glimpse of control left in her body to prevent any lurch.
The woman’s toes curled in silk. Her back arched as the burning pull in her abdomen became insufferable to stand and yet, the last straw was brushing away Opal’s bang to get the entire vision of those gems staring back to finally lose herself.
“Opa-ah…” her fist thundered onto the mattress as the orgasm flashed across her body and mind like a lightning bolt in a pitch black sky. For a moment everything collapsed. Perhaps it was keeping control for so long that drew all the air out of her lungs but it was worth it if it meant Opal could keep that blissful pull without getting hurt or choke before her peak. Yet, Kuvira couldn’t help it, neither recall the moment in which a blast of pleasure moved her to curl on a side and toss her head on the pillow.
The lecherous sensation of the girl’s mouth sealed around her girth, keeping on sucking and sloppily guzzling down, was so consuming all her perceptions shut, easing the aching need gathered within her balls to finally gush out in thick floods.
Among her fingers the girl’s bang tickled as she instinctively held onto it and her thighs quivered closed.. tight… Fuck.
Her thighs yanked open and between them, Opal coughed out all the seed flowing down her cock still twitching out release. “Breathe through your nose. Are you okay?”
“Spirits, Vira..“ the girl panted “a lot..” and in her glassy eyes almost hidden by knitting brows, it was clear how distressing those idyllic seconds must had felt for her.
Anyhow, in the chaos it took Kuvira a moment to recognize a soft hand running to wrap around her hardness again to coax with languid strokes, each thick warm spurt filling again her wide open mouth, while another roamed on the woman’s rear, pushing close.
Yes babe.. take it all.. it belongs to you.
Satisfaction snuck out her lungs in low moans at the powerful meaning of those shameful thoughts while fingers curled along Opal’s messy hair to keep some kind of grip on that reality sliding away as her eyes screwed close.
Once they opened, she found something beyond the sheen of tears veiling those light green gems below, sparkling with something unknown yet powerful, that dragged Kuvira’s body to react.
With a swift movement and a gasp of surprise, in fact, the woman pulled Opal close to her side and finally landed her lips on the doused ones. The taste was raw and insufferable; her nose pressed so hard onto the girl’s cheek it prevented air any chance to pass through but the desire to kiss her was harder than every displeasure it might’ve caused. She grasped desperately Opal’s face closer as soft small hands did the same before clawing her back underneath the unbuttoned shirt when she rolled over her tiny body. It wasn’t relevant to focus on how her own viscid release sticked and smeared on their faces and skin in the process nor how late she was running to work; there was time for them to clean and the whole world could’ve stopped in that exact moment for what it mattered. The phone’s vibration began to hammer on the glass nightstand yet Opal’s tongue was warm and gently caressing hers whilst their lips scraped in a slow dance.
When the woman let go of the student however, it happened gradually. Peridots opened into her ferns. Gleaming and darting to both irises at a time with breathtaking speed as if wishing to not miss a single flinch.
Kuvira panted in the fallen silence, caught by the mess plastered and staining those soft flustered features few inches away.
“You are crazy..” Opal sniffed and smiled “i didn’t expect you to breed seven generations in one blowjob”
Kuvira chuckled, “Well, I didn’t expect you to suck the soul out of my dick” her own voice came out coated with relief while rolling on the back with the girl clanged like a monkey on top.
She chuckled at that simple fact and took a moment to dry her seed and tears from the girls’s little face after brushing back the messy bang from her wet forehead. The redness still heating her puffy cheeks flared the green of her eyes in illicit ways.
How can she… even breathing became hard once her heart thumped in her chest with something bothering.
“W-What..?” Opal’s eyes darted into hers clearly confused.
How would she react if… no, I don’t want this to sound stupid. Wait, no. Who cares?! She needs to get off of me now, it’s late.
“You look so incredibly…” she huffed, averting the curious gaze but finding a folded leg in shimmering expensive socks clenching onto her side “innocent… it’s driving me crazy. You need to stop”
“I…” the girl hesitated and for a while the birds joyful chirping outside was the only sound accompanying their heavy breaths.
It was a flicker but from the corner of her eyes she caught the student’s hands moving, landing on her own bronze face contracting in a silly grimace: Opal’s mouth oddly curved up due the unnatural pinch exerted on the cheeks; her teeth poked out; curling nose; maniacal stare. “How’s now?”
“Perfect, you look awful” Kuvira snorted “with my cum still hanging on your chin too” she said passing a thumb to dry the spot but once the stain was gone, her digit lingered to follow the plump bottom lip line relaxing. It wasn’t enough though, trying to escape Opal’s haunting stare for too long was impossible and deleterious when it eventually captured hers.
“Don’t look at me like this” the woman admonished, fixing a short strand around the girl’s ear but stopped when Opal’s hands wrapped around her wrists, “Vira…”
“If you were just a figment of my imagination, your eyes are the most beautiful thing I could ever project in this reality.”
Her heart skipped a beat. Playing with Opal was becoming easy yet incredibly dangerous. It was supposed to be one of those perfect cheesy answers everyone would’ve fallen for, although it swayed her legislation how easily her tongue slid around those words; it felt like it was meant to be said, after all but the quietness following was heavier than hundreds of boulders.
Opal’s eyes were incandescent magnets about to scorch her soul before a sprinkling laugh instead, overwhelmed.
“Damn, you are getting so full of yourself to think the world spins around you, now?” after what it felt like an eternity, the crystalline sound faded into a sweet smile. Kuvira’s chuckle followed with a shiver in her heart but before she could deny her however, Opal lowered close til laying on her chest; the woman’s tensed face delved to the softness of her warm tiny palms and a whisper, sweet like a chant, caressed on her lips. “Yeah dumbass, unfortunately for you I’m real” the girl chuckled “and i need you to bring me back home before you change my address just for sucking your cock”
.
And so she did. After cleaning and spending an incredibly picky quarter of hour to get dressed, Kuvira brought her back home leaving her with a fresh baked pastry and hot chocolate before heading to work. Coming back was less dreadful than expected, maybe because compared to Kuvira’s place, the musky smell still lingering in the apartment was now just a glimpse or perhaps because she could finally enjoy a moment to herself without that pain in the ass around. Spending the night with the woman hadn’t been exactly bad but almost a nice experience.
Probably falling asleep on her books saved her from the CEO’s rambling about Spirits knows what but she had to admit catching Kuvira wearing glasses, gleaming at the laptop’s glow, left her kinda staring.
Useless to say, that little addition took nothing from her ridiculously perfect features, instead tickling a fantasy or two the woman would’ve never known about. Yet, Opal’s brain couldn’t help but wrap obsessively around Kuvira’s sharp face framed by the glasses’ simple design and few long raven locks escaping the bun to rebel against gravity; the way she clutched on her in the middle of the night when she woke up or the way her expression contracted in pure pleasure the morning after, with a sheen of lust in her ferns as her length nudged down her throat. Spirits… the way she stretched and twitched inside her mouth to unclench that sudden insatiable thirst spurt after spurt of-
Fuck… NO! Horny jail, immediately.
Opal blushed and sighed as dissolving into the golden light filling the hall. It wouldn’t have taken much before it faded into a colorful sunset, signing the end of that day charged with foreign vib—
Wait, thinking about that, it wasn’t the first blowjob ever. There was… Bolin… okay, only Bolin but that guy was exhilarating, sweet and gentle; a big goofy boy with a big heart although since being both their first experience, sex back when they used to date was mostly funny and awkward than anything else.
But Kuvira… holy shit… that woman could’ve been a dickhead so full of herself but undoubtedly knew what was doing and each effect her actions provoked.
Even just feeling her member so hard and wanting, throbbing at each swirl and lap of her tongue unlocked infinite wicked possibilities and scenarios, leaving her wanting for much more. Damn… if only there was the fucking choice to skip my period… wait no, it’s actually a good sign i have it since Kuvira came inside me. Right here.. pounding against the glass…
The thought alone forced her to stop dead in her tracks once the lift’s doors scrolled open. An electric feeling rushed directly between her legs, each rub creating an uncomfortable friction as stepping inside. Thankfully there was no one but even if she wouldn’t have been alone, nothing could’ve stop her from resting her forehead on the window’s icy surface, exactly where a month prior Kuvira pressed her to fuck her deep and mercilessly.
A lewd breath escaped from her lungs contracting and expanding spasmodically. The glass dully thudded below her crashing palm. I can’t keep like this…
—bzzzz bzzz
Her coat’s pocket vibrated at a message. At least she remembered to wear one before her mother could call the cops if she didn’t show up in less than five minutes to the penthouse. It was probably her mother but a sudden curiosity pushed her to check the phone screen for confirmation.
It’s actually from the chat group with the guys?
A picture and text from Jinora:
«Hey Ope, how do you feel? I thought you wanted to know about this if you already didn’t. Please call whenever you can.. I’m super worried and sorry for yesterday. You know how important you are to me and I do support and love you unconditionally whatever you choose, just please.. don’t let your fears numb the possibility of what it can…»
Wait, what in the Spiritworld…
She covered her mouth at the sight of the image below.
It was odd how pictures could capture what one can’t often see about themselves in reality.
Mirrors could offer a perspective if one decides to appear: they get in front of their own reflection and through their eyes play pretend to be what their mind expected them to look like and sadly, most times, even someone else.
But pictures?
Photographs were all about contrasts, exposure, angulation yet a public bad one could even sign the start of a unfortunate journey.
Sometimes they could show what ones wants to desperately keep hidden; perhaps an inoffensive wrinkle, a bad hair day, a childish gesture, a secret glance or touch, an unrequited connection with someone.
There was a sun ray crossing out the picture frame, mild enough to give a perfect vision without dazzling what was going on. Whoever took that was indeed lucky to capture exactly what they wanted, what unnerved her the most: her smile.
There was nothing wrong with her own smile in general, she actually liked the usual curve it took but the occasion in which it showed up was disappointingly unexpected, even more when she thought to be furious.
No, no mistakes… that wasn’t a grin of discomfort due the odd position nor a forced smile. I’m fucking laughing!
It was obviously from yesterday afternoon, since recognizing Korra’s gym entrance and a crowd passing by on the background while Kuvira gave her back to the camera, keeping Opal safe on top trying to cover a smile.
«Being unstoppable is a multibillionaire’s secret. Before the oncoming enterprise unification with Sato’s colossus, is Laghima already making a new kind of affair with Zaofu’s precious heiress?»
Opal’s eyes widened at the news’ titles.
What’s wrong with these people? Precious heiress?? Does Kuvira already know?
As the world around spun the higher she soared from the first floor, it took her a minute to note the woman’s chat was already opened below her eyes. The call icon was right there. It took nothing to listen to her husky voice, just a light press on the button.
Opal never called her but what if the woman was still busy at work? What if Kuvira didn’t want to hear especially from her something like that? Something like wha— oh right, the gossip! She should definitely know about it! Focus.
The girl gulped and kept her breath as the phone began to ring. It felt like an eternity while the sky colors indeed changed into a crimson red and the more she waited the more her hands sweated till the ending call sound echoed in her hears.
I shouldn’t have done this… stupid.
Thankfully at least, the lift reached its last run and now the last thing to do was talk to her mother. The thought alone although, made something churn inside, sting and poke the closer she got to her office. It wasn’t the first time a bad feeling tortured her guts before talking to her, things weren’t exactly the way they used to and leaving the penthouse years prior, only made things worse if possible.
The only reason pushing Opal to come back was her father, even if month after month he seemed to close into himself around his work and nothing more. At least Junior visited him everyday, the twins still lived there when they weren’t busy training for another power disk tournament while Huan detached the most, now frequenting Omashu’s fine arts academy.
Things indeed weren’t going pretty well and talking with her mother had became more dreadful each time she showed up back… there. By years that place stopped feeling like home but as much as she hoped the reason of those issues could depend on her, it wasn’t her fault.
Yet, after two attempts to knock at her mother’s office door, it was clear she wasn’t there to be found.
Why call to come over with so much haste if she wasn’t even there?
Wasn’t there something she wanted to tell me?
“Mom?” the doorknob clicked under her hand as stepping inside the empty office; even when it was occupied, there always have been a different kind of silence echoing inside those walls. Austere, right now almost brushing the eerie as the parquet creaked under her attempting steps, so distant from the chaos coming from the breathtaking panorama offered instead.
The sunset’s lights, however, were filtered by the curtains draped almost all the way, painting dark red shades over the wooden lacquered furnitures as well as a pill bottle on the classy desk.
My pills? Oh, there’s a note: «You’re late and I had to go places. These are the clinic’s results. You need to take a higher dosage even if the doctor said it might take a while before you get used to them. Keep me updated.
Love, mom»
Geez, thanks mom, why don’t you drug me a little more? The current ones aren’t harsh enough, uh? Fuck this. The girl sighed, grabbing the paper to check its back with the impelling need to ball it before a scribbled name on a little opened journal below caught her attention.
«Miss. Laghima today spoke mainly about her insomnia.
Confessed feeling stressed.
Patient is an engaging and charismatic conversationalist but when encouraged to vent, refuses completely to talk, mostly about her past. Probable traumas caused BPD? NPD?
Can keep eye contact for long term. Admitted to use sex as a coping mechanism. Unprotected encounters with strangers implied. Bipolar disorder? Unclear inappropriate allusions?»
You couldn’t be more subtle, huh? What did that even mean now? She already knew Kuvira was her mom’s client but what was the point to show those notes? Besides, her mother has always been very stingy about sharing her patients’s information as a therapist was obliged to be and although those weren’t obviously the official papers, Suyin never left anything to chance.
Those notes were displayed there on purpose. Was that out of protection or just the taunt classic motherly warning, as to say «I know what are you doing with my patient»?
If so, what was the issue? There was nothing between them and if Kuvira had a probable disorder or disease didn’t change the person she was.
Opal grunted, shaking her bang out her sight.
I make my own decisions mom, thank you and goodbye.
And then as she was about to leave, a note sketched in red swirled under her eyes below the page.
Zaofu’s Fla—»
A loud crash snatched the air filling Opal’s lungs. She halted and slammed the notebook closed to sprint out the office, uncertain about to follow the echoes reverberating along the long hallway connecting to her father’s adjacent atelier.
Is he home?
It was unusual; even from there no light was visibly coming from inside his office but the warm sky tones turning into dusk.
It was Saturday and at this time he was usually spending time at Junior’s on his new project or picking him up to go watch Wing and Wei’s matches together. What if it’s not dad? What if there’s a robber in the house?
Her brows knitted into a frown, a hand clutched on her chest; Raava help me…
What if they are armed? Should I warn the bodyguards? No, by the time i reach out, whoever it is can escape.
I’m enough. I can deal with it alone.
Then, aside her faint shoes tapping along the glass hallway, a light noise was muffled as it wasn’t meant to be let out loud. A quiet sobbing.
“Dad??” her breath faltered, taking in a weird smell as cautiously nearing the pivoted door opened ajar.
“Suyin…”
Thanks the Spirits…
“Daddy, no. I-It’s me… Opal” she hesitated, half relieved no robber broke inside, half worried at her father’s oddly deep voice before pressing away the door’s cold glass at her passing.
The library was perfectly settled on a side; files and papers were kept tidily as usual on the worktable; Zaofu model’s peaks in the middle of the room shone at the city lights coming to life: there was nothing wrong.
Nothing, aside the amber liquid staining the wooden floor, overflowing what remained of the glass in which evidently was initially contained.
Her father was facing the window, curled into himself to cover his face and against his palms, the faintest sound of his sobs escaped.
“Dad!” wide eyed, she darted trying to avoid scattered cutting pieces and face her dad in search of some kind of eye contact. Slowly, his callous hands yielded at her careful patient touch to uncover his sunken sharp features contracted into a strained expression.
Although the city light barely brightened the tanned-olive old skin and casted shadows on several wrinkles, his sagged green eyes stayed gray, fixed into the wall of air standing between them. He looked lost. “Opal..”
“What happened?”
Where did this alcohol come from? He never used to drink and from his breath there was no actual hint of it.
This must have been mom’s.
“Dad, please what happened? she clutched onto his arms; his shirt muffling her cracking voice “Where’s mom?”
.
Notes:
If you want, let me know what you think! Feedbacks and critics are always welcome. Have a nice Sunday ꕤ
Chapter 10: Chapter ten - first part
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
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In the meantime, the same way the sunset wrapped the Beifong’s Penthouse, it painted the huge windows of the Empire CEO’s office not too far away a brilliant red.
The more she looked at it, the more violently the sky seemed to bleed. A vision a bit too harsh for the gentle day it had been.
The morning with Opal was… a different one but even if ending and beginning the day with the girl was starting to become a habit, it wasn’t so horrible as firstly portrayed: it was only afterwards, whenever the student wasn’t there anymore that sucked.
Being friends with benefits clearly had its glorious advantages but she clearly never focused on the actual possibility of getting into one before the girl made it obscenely easy, aside insanely inviting.
There was something with the student that erased her sense of control, slipping through her hand like sand. She had tried to blame every quirky behavior Opal showed since their very first meeting to evidently push her away yet, none of those things succeeded in the intent because Kuvira was neither scared nor tired. Just amused and if possible, even intrigued by the effects the girl had on her.
How could a simple blow job ignite her desire throughout the rest of the day? It was almost brushing the pathetic. What was she, a hormonal teen? How long has it been since she took a break from work just to get off in her private bathroom? Never. It never happened. Although the image of the girl’s mouth gently teasing her balls was not only enough to rouse the rest of her cock stiffen like stone but also give it the audacity to grow during a fucking meeting.
Those simple flashbacks were so overwhelming they even stole all the drained focus remained to follow such important conventions yet, it had been easy to find out the more public and unconventional the situation evolved, the harder her member painfully pulsed in need.
It took a bite on her wrist and four stupid strokes to spill over the bathroom silver tiles like a newbie pretending to do it all over the student’s pure green eyes, her stupid bang and reddish lips until a certain realization hit while wiping everything off.
What was that? Why am i so obsessed with her?
It was like a pull. She couldn’t touch nor see what was stealing her whole essence but there was a feeling like she could either run out of air or go crazy if she couldn’t hold Opal tight and breathe her in anytime soon.
Spirits.. that girl is gonna be the death of me and I don’t even care… i absolutely need to stop acting like an idiot.
Surprisingly enough however, after getting back to her office, Zhu Li’s clean voice made the breath hitch inside her lungs. “Mrs. Beifong is here.”
Her heart skipped a beat. What were the chances for Opal to be there and why? Was the girl missing something or needed to say something important? Perhaps that was just an excuse to see her?
Any of those implications sounded like a stretch but whatever the reason, knowing Opal was there shambled her pulse rate; strange, till the point curiosity churned a hole in her insides and the only way to alleviate and find out the reason was to let the cause of her headaches explain herself.
Yet, before even entering, the distinct sound of heels stabbing the marble floor from the waiting room grew louder. Each step was like a nail forced into glass, singing the clear difference from Opal’s light pitter patter.
If the girl was a gentle breeze brushing among newborn blossoms, this person sounded like a rockfall about to destroy the city below.
Zhu Li swung the door open and an unmistakable pair of light green eyes stole her attention from the paperwork in her hands.
“Bonsoir Kuvira. I hope I’m not disturbing” at the warm, caressing voice her ferns narrowed. This is unexpected, far more unlikely than Opal visiting.
Once realizing how distracted she must’ve been to mishear and mix the women’s names, a burning spite towards herself blazed in her stomach.
In the past Zaheer continuously, exhaustingly reminded about the importance of the smallest things and that what was indeed just a detail, was also a little mistake capable to unraveling her whole presentation, making her feel unprepared… defenseless. It was all Opal’s fault. Opal, Opal, Opal, the one and only. As always.
No… who am I even kidding.. this is my responsibility, my terrible inaccuracy.
The woman’s lips wearing the sunset’s crimson shades opened in a gorgeous smile unaware of her internal turmoil, splendid as usual as if Suyin was the one gathering her inside the office. Having her there now, felt like a summer snow storm; astoundingly improbable but still possible.
What is she doing here?
“Not at all. I’m done and it’s always a delight to see you but i wonder if i missed an appointment today?” Kuvira inquired trying to dissimulate any evident nervousness by resuming fixing her files meanwhile the woman began to wander around.
“No, a missed appointment isn’t the reason why i’m in your office. Aside to admire your empire of metal,” the woman continues as she neared the only gemstone among the elite choice of polished metals adorning the desk’s glass shelf, a lightning ridge black opal, “I came here hoping to steal a glimpse of your time by inviting you to a wine tasting? Tonight?”
She subtly halted when a general shock caught her off guard, physically moving from the trousers pocket where the phone began to buzz to end in Suyin’s bracing glance clearly itching for an answer.
Is she asking me out?
Kuvira’s hands reached out to silence the call while clearing her throat in an attempt to regain some composure. “Wine tasting.” she frowned “To what do i owe the pleasure?”
“There’s a particularly influential executive interested to get to know you and proposed an advantageous offer to your company.” the woman explained, playing with her long coat metal belt hugging her waist and clinking at her slow gait. If Kuvira didn’t already know the type of person her therapist was, she would’ve seen the provocation hidden in that coquettish gesture, yet she tried to avoid any kind of unrequited staring before being miserably caught as Suyin kept; “They personally asked me to convene a more private meeting since I have contact with you and perhaps, discuss salient topics in front a glass of wine?” a thin brow rose up once she leaned on the executive’s desk where, from the opposite side, Kuvira’s grip now on its marbled edge tightened. Did she tell them she was in therapy?
How do people would else know we are in contact?
The sight of her personal space being invaded and occupied made her stomach curl no matter how undoubtedly magnetic the curve of her therapist’s rear looked as it softened on the lucid surface. Nonetheless, as if the sight left her unfazed, the businesswoman’s lips stretched in a sneer “the offer is enticing yet very… unusual. May I know the association affiliated?”
“I’m afraid it’ll stay a surprise until due time. I’ll just be a simple referral for the introductions. Is it a problem?” Suyin’s arms softly crossed as her silver hair wobbled when she tilt her head to the side. In the jade eyes, Kuvira found a glimpse of Opal’s peridots, sparkling with unknown, provoking her pulse rate to increase. Calm down, don’t rush this. Focus.
A group of wealthy, unknown executives requested an important meeting planned by Suyin.
Sounded like an entrancing tendering, perhaps a bit too smooth to be real because, although the suggestion might feel linear there was a big, huge problem.
People could’ve called it a trust issue and not be entirely wrong but Kuvira was trained to distinguish any bluff from the truth since a young age.
Developing problems in trusting others was just a bitter but safe consequence. Detecting bullshit wasn’t only about gut feelings or logic but agreeing to dive into a different empathy level in order to catch each insignificant sign coming off of a liar.
Yet, she couldn’t help but sympathize to give the benefit of the doubt to the honest and straightforward person she priorly imagined Suyin to be and accept whatever her therapist’s words implied, even because, wether there was a reason behind that appointment or not, there wasn’t any other way to find it out if she ignored the opportunity to take part.
So she breathed in some confidence and relaxed into a smirk under the jaded heedful stare weighing like lead “Of course not. Although my work is done here, I have one last meeting before i leave but after that, i’ll be glad to meet you at the place.”
“Excellent. I’ll send you the address,” her guest perked up with a smile, “21:00 sharp then. I’m sure you won’t make me wait.”
“Never.” Kuvira assured and her smirk fell once sure the woman wouldn’t turn back while taking her leave.
.
“My treasure… I can’t stand it.. I wasn’t ready for you to see me like this.”
The choked whisper slinked throughout the wave of her hair and when it reached her ear, its meaning shivered down her back like snow on bare skin.
Her father was right. He always had been a well posed person with thousands of solutions ready up his sleeve. He never made his own and other’s sensitivity a taboo, especially for her brothers, always encouraging all of them to express emotions without shame but an inexhaustible beam of pride. Yet now, seeing him crumbling down so grievously, helplessly, was profoundly destabilizing.
Perhaps he wasn’t the most courageous or a force of nature to everyone but to Opal he was the smartest under every circumstance, generous, kind, serious only when he wasn’t annoying someone with his special artful dad jokes or smiling with his typical odd grin and maybe remembering it all now was the reason why each tear rolling down his skinny features was a knife thrusted and twisted in the middle of her chest.
“What did mom do,” her voice crackled down “where’s she now?”
Her father’s head shook side to side as if he couldn’t even give a sound to his desolation; possibly his throat tightened, hardly swallowing the stinging bitterness the same way her own did but when the warmth of his hand rested on her hair, his mumbling dissolved to fade into the room “I… don’t know. It doesn’t really matter now..” the silence hanging behind those words was emptying and destroying all the same. The way it just snatched air out of her lungs to replace it with sorrow’s mist, made time slacken to a stop until even her voice came out muddy and heavy, blurred no matter the battlefield inside her chest.
The resignation in his voice.. how did we end up to this point? When?
“Please… don’t say it like this. Y-you love mommy!”
“I do, immensely… but what’s the point to keep someone who just wants to leave?” the simple motion of her father’s hand digging into his trousers’ pocket to trail out in a fist stole her attention completely. Her crystalline unfocused at the skyscrapers’s lights brightening the thin, golden ring resting on her father’s palm uncurling.
It couldn’t be real..
In that shiny jewel, she could almost see the genuine curve of her parents’s smile whenever they teased each other, their tender touches, their kisses on the shoulders, the improvised secret slow dancing without music at the latest hours of the day, their understanding glances stealthily sneaked whenever they thought to pass unobserved but as they started, they vanished when making eye contact with the reality in her dad’s absent gaze.
What would’ve remained of the family if they… the thought alone was incredibly hard to elaborate because if they gave up on each other what would’ve kept her brothers… herself from falling apart? It was a dreadfully hollow possibility about to slip off of her rationality and become tremendously true. No..
“She-she doesn’t want to leave! I’m sure it’s not how you expect, probably she didn’t mean to take it off..” her teeth chattered fast, “maybe it… it slipped or or her fingers swelled! There must be an explanation for this..”
“Opal..” his hands, still holding her mom’s ring wrapped around her arms. The gesture alone at first made the girl frown but in Baatar’s eyes, there was a certain unmistakable fret overlapping his sadness. Her chest quivered while swelling up, I know i need to calm down but I can’t.. “y-you saw her take it off, didn’t you?”
A nauseous sense taunted in her trembling mouth just by saying those words, clenching onto her father’s arms as he averted the stare to nod “She didn’t know i was in the hallway. I saw her drinking… dancing around,” he sobbed “getting dressed… and then she..”
—“No, no… It can’t be what we think. Mom may still be unjustifiably angry but would never do this to you…”
In each tremor, each pounding aching vein, in the hell of the girl’s burning brain, time moved slow and incredibly fast as her father’s jaw clenched below his tears while his stare shifted out the window.
With all the strength left within, she collapsed into his arms to sink in the abyss of his fresh shirt now hanging on the bones of a hopeless body.
If that was true, if mom was seeing someone else… what’s gonna be of him?
“Dad…” she clenched onto her father to hide away her own sorrow’s attempt to leak out through lashes but perhaps, it was only to share with him the last glimpse of hope sparkling in her heart as arms around her hugged back tighter.
“I love you so much, Opal..”
.
Zaofu’s Flare. The lights of one of the city’s wealthiest locations made the skyscraper’s top gleam like a star in the night sky. Nonetheless she was used to the elegance of such places, there was something incredibly overpowering in this one forcing her to stop mid track and take a deep breath before entering.
Suyin’s invite was as unexpected as it was suspicious. Maybe it was just her mind playing the worst scenario but the hint in her therapist voice made Kuvira think there would be no real professional meeting but still, her curiosity was strong enough to find out where that night would lead. Kuvira wasn’t easy to surprise even because nobody ever had the concern to surprise her and if her suspicion anyway revealed to be a lie, it surely would’ve been a delightful, benefiting one.
So there she was, unable to deny the twitch of excitement running through her body sitting at one of the fanciest spots in the city’s private tables, settled for five in front of the wall of windows offering a horizon constellated by city lights in all its glory.
For a moment her mind got lost at the sight of few small crystals adorning on the table, glittering the same way a little brat’s eyes would’ve surely done while making fun of that place even if deep down, she’d love every second of it. Kuvira smirked to herself imagining the small girl’s short hair swinging at her continuous giggling, the way they plastered each time on her puffy cheeks reddening and the sweet line of her heart shaped lips curling and stretching around her crystalline voice.
What would she think if she knew about this appointment? Would she mock me? Perhaps her laugh wouldn’t be so annoying to hear..
It was that simple wish disguised as a thought what brought her to check the phone, finding a call notification taking a beat from her pulse. It didn’t even pass a day without hearing from Opal so it was strange to see that name pop up on the screen, almost worrying. Opal.. It was her, then. Why did she call? Does she know about this meeting? I should call and tell her about—
“Kuvira! Already here?” a melodious tone drew her thumb away from the call option before glancing behind her back.
Suyin.
Her therapist’s presence, aside her voice, was announced by a sophisticated jasmine perfume pervading the air as she tapped her lacquered stilettos on the marble floor heading to the table holding her stare while swaying hips with unshakable confidence, slowly, making the tight black satin dress wrapped on her toned body shift in hypnotizing ways. It was impossible to dismiss the attention off of her.
The CEO hoisted up to help the woman sit while her hand clenched around the phone. “Of course”
“I apologize for my guests’ delay, I expected them to be here by now…”
“The place, the surprise and company makes the wait worth it, Mrs. Beifong, there’s no reason to apologize.” the businesswoman replied while sitting on her own side.
“Oh please, we can get over pleasantries, for you it’s Su” the therapist’s hand waved in dismissal before pointing it towards the windows “but well, you are right. Look at that view. Undoubtedly better than those shabby locations my daughter proposed, isn’t it? “
“Excuse me?” Kuvira’s brow arched up, stealing a sultry chuckle from Suyin.
.
Notes:
If this chapter may seem a bit too frantic i’m really sorry. I’m trying my best to not go insane and this story is helping a lot but in this period of my life even breathing feels thousands times difficult (no covid related, just anxiety. For everyone who is struggling too, i’m super sorry. Here’s a cookie for you 🍪, stay safe!).
So aside everything I hope you enjoyed, good stuffs anyway are coming like the second part of this chapter c;
Stay well my friends and if you feel like it, it would make me super happy to know what you think as always ꕤ
Chapter 11: Chapter ten - second part
Notes:
Hey there! Here’s part two, enjoy and have a beautiful day ꕤ
Chapter Text
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“Oh, Kuvira! I didn’t expect you to underestimate me that much!”
Her throat dried immediately. Clenching.
To say such pungent insinuation from her therapist wasn’t expected was an euphemism. Not so soon at least or not so affronting about her own daughter even though Kuvira could perfectly read in the woman’s jade eyes how much she already knew about them.
“I’m not naive. I have cameras in my building and Opal may know how to hide from them but I know she hasn’t come home from my office entrance in a long time.” Suyin’s head tilted on a side and despite a seductive smile drawn on her red lips, her glimmering eyes now narrowed with something inexplicable. “The hours and days she shows up mysteriously coincides with our appointments and a little bird once told me you asked for my daughter’s number.”
A little bird? Tuyen?
Excluding Opal, the only two people left knowing about that meeting were Korra and the secretary after all. The phone plastered on her palm again now hidden in her trousers pocket. Very predictable by the way. I bet Suyin didn’t even bother to check the hall’s cameras to enjoy the show.
“Straight to the point, indeed.” Kuvira’s lips curled into a side smirk provoking the psychologist to intensify her stare eloquently. “Kuvira, Opal isn’t the kind of person you can do something like that with. You don’t want to deal with someone like her.”
“Someone like her?”
“Don’t be so kind,” Suyin’s smile fell into a downward, different one, bitter almost. Her silver perfectly styled hair swung to the side exposing a diamond earring as the restaurant’s background slow jazz filled that brief pause full of hesitations; “you know what’s wrong with my precious gem and i do know she isn’t even your real target. Perfection seeks perfection after all and i’m sure someone ambitious like you would never settle for less.”
Kuvira’s brow curved up involuntarily. What is she talking about now?
“But of course, Opal loves to help, more so if it’s for a good cause and reason to fix things.” her therapist kept, leaning backwards on the chair without losing a glimpse of her impeccable pose while looking at a waiter, followed by two assistants with plates in their hands, nearing and bowing slightly. “I apologize for the interruption, the owner wished to thank you for your presence and hopes his choice to start the night is within your tastes” he said, showing the bottle to the woman sitting in front of her while plates adorned with cubes and slices of fresh and dry fruit, cheese and baked bread invaded her lungs as fast as being placed on the table.
Suyin’s brow knitted together at the waiter’s offer, then took her time to smell the bottle’s content and gave a slight nod in clear sign to proceed.
“Of course,” the elder woman confirmed, evidently satisfied with the golden liquor once sipping a sample of it, “Lau Gan-Lan indeed never misses to impress me with his specialities. Please, give our compliments to the owner. Also, inform him i’m personally pleased about his… generous favor”
“Of course, Mrs. Beifong… Ms. Laghima” his head lowered again in another bow after Kuvira’s crystal glass was filled as well.
At the slight swirl of wine, the alcohol light droplets flowed slowly down the glass until the CEO drew the chalice closer to her nose, then took a sip and as expected, the bouquet of floral notes hinted in the scent bloomed and fuzzed instantly on her tongue.
“Where were we?” the elder woman almost made her wince, with a glint of appeasement in her voice and perky eyes.
“Your daughter. Shouldn’t we wait for your guests?”
“They won’t mind” her therapist chuckled at her husked tone and leaned closer as if about to reveal a sensational conspiracy “I want to tell you something you may already know: It’s a natural process for daughters to go through a hating phase towards their mothers but my daughter wasn’t like that.” Suyin’s eyes narrowed, arms crossed below her breasts, “Opal has always been our angel, the kindest, sweetest girl you could ever talk with. We lived in symbiosis but since she found out my husband’s and I’s incompatibility after a lifetime together, she decided her mommy may not be the best anymore, you know?” she swirled her own glass, moving the gaze on it as if hypnotized “She took it very personally and this whole traumatic event triggered an unconscious process in her mind that pushes her to seek some kind of revenge.” then took a sip, exposing the slim bare neck at the candles dim light while the pendant tilting against her décolleté shone, remarking the amount of bare skin the dress basic line was generously offering.
That gesture alone so simple, charged with sensuality as it was, seemed almost to be made with the pure aim to distract her from the actual point of that confession. The movement accompanied by the way her therapist had with words was sincerely captivating, yet the way Kuvira was getting to know so many things about Opal felt admittedly off-putting.
It was almost like Suyin wanted to show off another side of the girl but what was the reason to slander her own daughter with a stranger in the first place? From the therapist words, the allusion of Opal using her to get her own mother’s attention was loud and clear even if in Suyin’s observation was a small flaw and missing a crucial point.
“Revenge?” Kuvira scoffed, “I undoubtedly won’t imply to know more than a mother regarding her daughter, even less a talented therapist’s knowledge but i would like to point out Opal’s adamant righteousness may be erroneously mistaken for revengefulness.” aside the simple fact Opal seems too pure and impulsive for such a subtle thing.
“I’m perfectly aware of my daughter’s morality.” the psychologist’s thin brow rose up as dropping the stare to wander across the table separating them “She always knows what’s best for everyone but herself, even if a rich young lady’s principal concern shouldn’t be morality but fun,” light gems sparkled into ferns, “you know?”
“I would agree if that wasn’t a honest concern of mine as well.” Kuvira purred before savoring the honeyed liquor warmly flowing down her throat without giving up that seizing eye-contact.
“Because you were forced into this mindset. You must’ve seen me at your age. Here, try this” her therapist husked, getting even closer to feed her a pineapple cube. Kuvira’s nose twisted as underneath her teeth, a sourness exploded at the immediate contrast of the wine’s hinted sweetness created; although, by the moan of hilarity reaching her ears, the psychologist sounded pleased with her reaction.
“I blame my husband and mother for making Opal so bitter regarding certain matters. I see a lot of her in you but the difference between you and Opal is that you seem to know what’s… interesting in this life” Suyin kept, about to withdraw but stopped as Kuvira held her from the wrist.
“It depends on what you are actually implying.” she growled in whisper.
It took a glimpse of euphoria in her therapist eyes to understand how easily a provocation could trigger a series of dangerous situations. That was the kind of attention Suyin was evidently trying to obtain since the feverishness caused by that simple touch was almost palpable.
Perhaps not everything bad came to harm after all.
Wasting a chance like this would’ve been extremely unwise especially since there were questions Kuvira still ached to find answers for. This was not only an opportunity to solve what her impatience weighing on her relationships caused, but also able to quench her thirst for knowledge thanks to the woman now looking at her with fire blazing in her green lakes.
It would’ve been a quick and harmless advantage for everyone: an equal exchange.
The psychologist sensually smirked; “You like to listen to me talk, don’t you?”
“Suyin, with all due respect, by the way you lured me here no matter evident incongruities, it’s clear you have a way with words or by now a group of ‘prestigious executives’ would sit around this table with us.” her ferns narrowed in the light greens, “We wouldn’t talk about my affair with your daughter but boring agencies matters, wouldn’t we?”
“Was that so obvious?” the woman leaned closer till the silver wavy locks brushed on her beauty mark and the jasmine scent overpowered every other sense.
“Incredibly. Especially when you implied you’ve been talking to people about our affiliation. Last time I checked it was illegal.”
“Aw, come on” Suyin smirked “don’t tell me it upset you?”
“No, but i was honestly tempted to invite my lawyer. Lying isn’t a way to get something from me.” Kuvira revealed, “You didn’t need an excuse to see me.”
“Well then, let me tell you again if it wasn’t clear enough: you don’t need to play with Opal to get what you want.”
“What makes you think i’m playing with your daughter?” her breath slightly shortened when below her bun, a warm hand wrapped around her nape, strong yet graceful along the haunting voice purring in her hears trying to charm the tendrils of her beliefs.
“I’m a specialist Kuvira, I always know what i’m talking about”
.
The heavy tapping and shuffling of her limping rebounded in the empty street. Empty, like the hollowness carried in her body. Not a car, not a soul, just a gust of wind and an unbearable blur fogging her senses. After Wing and Wei came to eat at the penthouse with their dad, clueless about the tragic situation, Opal respected the prayer in her father’s glances to say nothing. The burden of her silence weighed inside like a boulder crushing what lasted of her beating heart during dinner, before she found an excuse to fly home no matter leaving her father in those conditions and her brothers unaware was against every single cell of her being. She couldn’t stay deaf though to the impelled need to escape and hide, to cry, to lick her wounds and curl into loneliness until it was necessary, till she could recollect the courage to face another sorrow again.
To find out how egotistical her mother could be was heartbreakingly unbelievable. Has she always been like this deep down or did she think that was the best solution after blaming her father for something he wasn’t guilty about?
Both hypothesis were not only beyond disappointment but also profoundly shocking.
The whole concept per se, felt light-years foreign to what her family once used to be before everything happened, to the point Opal doubted if that was just a long, sick nightmare: mom is dating someone else and it’s all my fault.
The fire stinging in her eyes liquified, threatening to fall down until the light coming from the street lamps turned into yellow shimmering blotches; so intense to almost overcome the phone’s buzzing in her coat’s pocket.
She breathed in and frowned with all the intention to miss the call before the name glowing white on the screen sharpened under her sight.
“Kuvira…?”
“… is it too late? Were you sleeping?” the woman’s baritone vibrated directly in her veins.
“N-no, i’m awake”
“Did you call me today?”
What..? Oh damn, the call.. “I… no no sorry! Must’ve hit the wrong button.”
“I see,”
Thinking more about it, the way everything about that day slipped off of her mind since stepping into her father’s office made shivers roll down her spine. No matter what happened in the morning, bad or beautiful it was, it felt like that day started and began exclusively with her dad’s sorrow and her mom’s spite.
—“Are you alright?” the CEO interrupted “You seem distant..”
”i-i.. no it’s okay,” her voice crackled and as looking around, the street lights blurred out again “just need to breathe..” Please... not in front of her,
“..where are you?”
Opal gasped in “On my way home”
“Right now? What happened?” A knot tightened up in her throat as fast as a realization drilled in her mind. Where should I start? I want to tell her but if i start from the beginning… no I can’t.
Why had everything been so difficult? Besides, the woman must’ve been home but if only Kuvira was there, if only she could flop in her arms and cry everything out, maybe nothing of it would’ve been so frightening anymore.
.. I can’t. “.. it’s okay, I don’t really want to talk about it”
“It doesn’t sound okay. Give me your location, I’ll be there in a minute”
Her heart faltered. Please…
“N-no Vira,” she snuffed instead, trying to muffle down her shaky breath “I’m- i’m fine, i’m safe, basically around the corner”
“I’ll stay until you get home, then”
“You don’t have t—”
“—I know I don’t. I just want to.”
Opal’s hand instinctively ran to cover her mouth before a loud sob could slip from it. She froze mid track and squeezed her eyes closed to block her weeping from the start but it was too late, because a heated pearl already escaped, trailing down her cheek to fall on the ground, dangerous like a lone fire spreading in the woods.
Kuvira wasn’t pitying nor mocking her even if she was able to actually hear her or no; the woman sounded like she just genuinely wanted to stay and it was devastating.
Breathe… fucking breathe..
“We are on the news” Opal sniffled again while quickly swiping tears, thankful for remembering such detail to change the topic with.
The CEO on the other side of the phone although, sounded surprised “On the news?”
Raava.. what if she’s gonna get mad? Maybe bringing it up wasn’t the best idea but I can’t take it back now.. “I’m sending the link” she decided and in her hands the phone trembled.
If Opal was a stranger looking at that blurry image for the first time, it almost seemed like they were bounded by a normal, happy relationship but the thought alone was enough to grumble a strange feeling inside her guts. Her frown painfully tightened while resuming walking.
“Does it bother you?” Kuvira’s voice came along the same breeze of her thoughts.
“N-no… I thought it could bother you, though..”
“I don’t mind it, your ass looks bigger from the front.”
“—K-Kuvira!” the woman husked chuckling invaded the girl’s mind and no matter the tears that were still threatening to push through the crystalline’s protections, that spontaneous reaction dragged a smile between her heating cheeks as well.
“I bet you didn’t even notice i was smiling”
“Of course you were smiling. You always do”
For a moment, Kuvira’s metallic voice was followed by a perfect echo. Clearer, as if she was actually walking beside her but then, before Opal could reply or even doubt her own mental sanity, the end call sound chimed.
It felt like a punch in her lungs but it took just the time to turn the corner to make eye contact with a figure standing not too far away.
Leaning on the sport car with hands tucked in the gray double breasted suit’s pockets indeed, the CEO was waiting in front of her place with a bright side smirk; the lights that night made her braided hairstyle shine, flawlessly framing the sharp features with dedicated precision yet her expression was inexplicably soft.
Opal’s hand curled around the phone, now close to her chest where her heart ceased to beat at the woman’s impeccable presence few meters ahead. She quivered and gulped down the aching urgency to burst into a cry.
“I hardly smile when i’m with you, more so in that moment” the girl said and stomped to remove their distance enough to focalize on the phone the woman turned with an even sly grin. “This picture proves differently” pft, the audacity.
Opal pouted and crossed her arms but hopped forward till the musky cologne seized her soul and stopped, before it could actually mellow her scowl, “Listen”
“I’m listening“ the businesswoman teased back, sliding a hand below her buzzcut to let their foreheads meet in the middle for few seconds when with a rough gesture instead, the woman’s whole body pressed against her own.
Perhaps Kuvira noticed tears swelling at the corner of her eyes or maybe could just read her mind because the way she was holding her now, was beyond Opal’s needs and wishes.
It was enough to make her defenses crumble like sand, to make her let out a dry pant and shake all the tensions, the anxieties, the bad feelings away, flowing out through the tides of her tears. In her hands, the woman’s elegant jacket creased when they curled tighter into fists, holding for dear life onto the only person who seemed able to quiet down her storms. Kuvira’s heartbeat was steady against her dampening cheek in a constant reassurance so she wailed, trembled and cried out even louder, forcefully as if puking the sorrow out in the adamant silence the woman respectfully kept.
When the hand on her buzzcut threaded up through her messy hair in a firm caress, chills sealed down Opal’s spine.
There weren’t words to fully express the feeling thriving in her chest: Kuvira’s touch was so warm, so familiar it felt like coming home; how was that even possible? How was she real, standing right there every time she needed her the most?
Time passed inexorably between her yowls and sobs, turning into a feeble sniveling at the thumb keeping on gently grazing her nape. Closer.
“How.. how are you even here?” her muffled voice cracked down against the CEO’s skin.
“I was already driving your way”
“But y-you didn’t have to..” the girl’s head shook sides as heaving out a dulled sob below Kuvira’s bare neck and breathing deeply while dived lower, noticing wearing no shirt underneath the jacket made the usual musky perfume flare up directly in her nostrils, followed by a distinct hint of jasmine never caught before.
“I wanted to” Kuvira kept.
“You smell different” she hugged back tighter, lulled by those broad arms melting every distrust inside with their warmth.
“Come with me next weekend” on her ear, the taller woman’s voice brushed, as if sharing an intimate secret.
“I…” Opal withdrew just enough for her confusion to reflect into Kuvira’s narrowing ferns above “where..?”
“A corporate party, nothing special but i would like to bring you somewhere next weekend” the woman informed, intended on brushing few short strands off of her wet sticky face.
“Me..? I dunno, It’s so out of the blue, i..” the girl then gasped, taken aback when the whole scarred palm cupped her cheek to dry off tears.
“I understand. Think about it,” Kuvira’s head tilted to a side “pushing it’s not exactly in my style but I need a clear answer tomorrow since it’s gonna be next Friday. I thought it could be a good excuse for you to feel better”
“I uh, appreciate your concern but I just.. don’t know if it’s the best moment. My family is going through a rough patch and I can’t leave them alone.. I don’t want to be selfish and have fun—so I can’t..”
“Breathe. You would do nothing wrong by conceding yourself a moment of distraction. Next Sunday you can come back home with a fresher mind and still call them throughout the whole time, if necessary”
The girl frowned, the logic made sense after all, it would have been more or less a full day away from home… but the problem was: what could else happen in the rest of the week before? What if something does happen when i’m away? And if it doesn’t? The guys are there and maybe if I explain to dad.. her stomach churned with bile “But… I don’t want to be selfish. I want to be there for them!”
“Opal Beifong, i’m pretty sure you would never do something selfish on purpose ever in your life and i can guarantee you, physically detaching a day from a problem you can’t immediately solve doesn’t make you selfish. Aside that, the choice is yours to take and you still have time. Sleep on it.”
Right. Sleeping couldn’t solve the situation but resting after such a day would’ve surely been better to get a different point of view on that… offer? Was that kinda a date? Okay, maybe that was her cue to actually slow down and breathe again. Tomorrow was another day but tonight, even if that moment couldn’t last forever, the lightning feeling to be in Kuvira’s arms was to enshrine and if a day could’ve been made just by mornings and nights, spending that one with the woman made it worth it.
Now, perhaps it was just an illusion but the world looked better within those arms’s protection and the softness of thin lips pressed below her messy bang.
Her face although, felt strangely warm.
“Kuvira..”
“Mh?”
“C-can we stay like this a bit longer..?”
“Of course” the CEO’s cheek brushed down to rest against her temple and whisper, directly to her ear shell, “we can stay all night long”
.
Chapter 12: Chapter eleven - first part
Notes:
Let’s get fancy, it’s time to finally meet someone who has a lot to say. 👀
Chapter Text
.
.
“The corporate party…”
“Yes”
“Are you for real?” Opal uttered in shock, “You tell me just now, on your fucking private jet to be your date at a gala in Republic City, with thousands of people taking pictures, without warning me?!”
Even if dulled by the carpet Zhu Li’s tapping shoes echoed inside the hallway, taking her leave after the businesswoman’s flute was halfway filled with fizzing champagne.
“The event is displayed everywhere” Kuvira pointed out, “I wasn’t available to talk and I didn’t find it necessary since I personally warned you about everything you needed to know beforehand.”
A hell of a week had indeed passed since the last time she showed up at the girl’s apartment.
They have probably been her career’s worst workdays after that period Zaheer gave her the corporation’s full administration during his first chemo treatment but if something was sure, every single moment the thought of Opal sinking deeper inside her arms flashed back in her mind, every distress, every big or small deets going wrong while engaged meant nothing. Somehow that memory was the only thought able to snap her out of the alienating schedule, reminding her to come back home whenever time dwindled in the night’s smallest hours for a brisk restless sleep.
Once following the plan’s steps perfectly, even fitting in the time to actually dress up after her last meeting, Kuvira barely had an idea about how keeping up without fainting was possible and yet, she never felt more ready and energized than now, sitting on her jet’s seat, facing the most irritating girl she ever met so busy debating about meaningless details.
Did she regret it? No.
Did she wish that night could end as soon as possible? Absolutely.
“Spirits… you said it was just a corporate thing! Not a...” Opal halted, edging closer on the seat ahead finally free to burst in her whispered zeal now that her assistant was gone; “I had no idea you actually wanted to show me as your date at something so important?! Why?!”
If Kuvira didn’t know her better, it looked like the girl was about to catch fire from her own fussing in a hilarious show. So she took a sip, enjoyed the viscous buzzing texture enduring on her tongue and breathed out. Even in her childish annoying pout enriched by the makeup, Opal had a strange way to play with her heartbeat; “Why not you?”
“We are not dating. I’m not a girlfriend to show off!”
“It was never implied, indeed. You are just someone i wanted close during this moment. Now calm down, I didn’t ask you to—”
“—Just someone..?” the girl winced, letting out an odd sound half laugh half sigh. “They’ll think we are something after that picture!”
“Why do you even care, Opal?” Kuvira frowned and an uncomfortable silence fell between them when the student turned towards the jet’s porthole, as if to avoid her shifting closer “You are with me and that’s all I asked for. Whoever is around doesn’t matter to me and it shouldn’t matter to you either but perhaps the idea of being mistaken for my girlfriend sounds outrageously disgusting to you.”
“I…” peridot eyes found her ferns and time melted still. They sparkled, brightened by the afternoon’s warm lights coming from outside, looking almost vitreous in a breathtaking hazel once the sun’s warm tones blended with the sweeping meadow of her irises like dew, hopping back and forth on hers, charged with such intense feeling, Kuvira found difficult to decipher. Whatever Opal was thinking about felt hurtful even if she kept it bottled up.
It was clear in her small hands balling up and her stare falling down, making Kuvira back down and clear her throat. “My apologies, I’ll bring you back home once we get there.”
The girl shook her head, hugged herself and dwindled on the spot “You’ll miss the party if you do and i’d hate myself too if i let you. I just need a moment to process it because i’m actually… pretty surprised you choose me. That’s all..” then beamed, “but i guess if you did it’s cause you thought about everything.. didn’t you? Do you want to distract me from my family or use me for something?”
Kuvira scowled, this time unable to stop her own expression from tightening up, breaking the apathetic layer.
Using? With everything she could think of, how could she ever choose to say using? Why did she even think that could be a possibility at all? It was like a slap in the face. “With whom do you think you’re speaking?”
“I want an answer!” the student’s palm slammed on the seat’s armrest making the woman growl in exasperation. “I could’ve been with my family by now!”
“Then you should’ve stayed home.”
“Too late!” Opal shouted and jumped closer, until brushing her inner thigh with the exposed knee sneaking from the dress’s split.
Kuvira’s chest fell and swiftly rose up. From her inner thigh the warmth of that simple touch pulsed, quickly radiating up her crotch, her sex and the whole blood-vessel system violently pumping at each word those glossed lips mouthed. “I’m with you in this and now i want to stay!”
Raava, the way i want to rail and choke her…
Kuvira rolled her eyes and dug her jaw into her fist.
There they were again: waiting not even a half hour to bicker over nothing. A fire fueled her body. So intense to burn down the jet, the sky, the streets and the entire city if it was necessary, never cooling down no matter if the day faded into night and the dark was brightened by the sunrise, whenever there was Opal to ignite it. That was how it went between them after all and no matter how hard to admit, among all of the thousands of things she loathed about the girl, that one reason in particular was the one keeping her hooked on that tiny boisterous brat the most.
A smirk split her cheek as a realization hit; a realization born since stepping into that damn elevator but getting clearer day by day in which that girl, in bad or good, would’ve driven her completely crazy.
“What the fuck are you smiling about?!!”
.
And so it was. Loads of flashes went off in blinding lights. The bustle of journalists and photographers crowded as soon as the limousine stopped by the red carpet they walked onto, while a gracious hand sweat cold in her own.
No matter whining about it through the whole flight indeed, it seemed like Opal actually took in consideration her words by the way her thin fingers enclosed among hers cradling into each gap, squeezing every now and then even before getting in the car once landed when no one was there to see.
Perhaps it was just instinctive because she bet Opal wasn’t so familiar with that city but at a first contact, Kuvira saw in those green gems a plead to shut up and not let her go. Therefore she swallowed her smugness and let the girl hold her tighter.
It must not have been the first gala Opal hosted either; the Beifong family was too notorious to not be involved in such gatherings once in a while around the world yet, it was evident by the girl’s fidgeting on the seat that it wasn’t exactly the kind of activity she preferred, to the point a glint of compassion crossed Kuvira’s chest whenever stealing with her sight the student’s trembling lips throughout the window’s reflection.
The limousine door clicked under the woman’s grip and swung open. The warm breeze brushed through Opal’s wavy bob, curling it over her cheeks like writhing petals in a delightful view, striking Kuvira at her beauty while offering the same hand in help.
Once the girl took it, the woman pulled her close “Count to hundred and it’s gonna be over. You don’t have to smile if you don’t feel like it” she whispered against her ear. Opal’s head shook in feverish nods until the cinnamon scent engulfed her senses completely.
“I got you the whole time, I swear”
The silent answer was written all over the student’s nervous gaze once again, so Kuvira turned to walk beside her, breathing away the wish to kiss and disappear in those heart-shaped lips before it could overwhelm any other will and stretched her thin ones in a polite smile to the cameras.
Her last name was shouted at her pass, reverberating like an echo along Opal’s through the whole hallway of people edging for interviews and pictures.
In those hundred seconds marked by flashes, she could feel the girl’s frantic pulse rate against her palm, so fierce to fuse and synchronize with her own.
Hence on top of the stairs, away from the journalists’ barrier she checked behind her shoulder, finding the panorama of Republic city at night opening in a spectacular view, lit by a game of neons brightening each bridge, skyscrapers, shops and parks reflecting on the placid sea’s black mirror.
Next to her, the cause of all her vexation was now standing, looking slightly calmer away from the gathering crowd, admiring the same horizon. The wind was playing with the dress’s long fold from where a subtle split barely allowed air the possibility to sneak and caress the girl’s dark legs while the top’s one stopped right below her breasts, revealing her cleavage in all its sweet expanse sparkling in glitters.
If the city was a jewel, Opal was the most brilliant gemstone; the only reason her breathing ever decided to freeze. The only reason why her eyes were made to see.
“W-what..”
—“Vee? Ope?” a familiar voice trailed from not too far, interrupting the girl trying to speak. At first all Kuvira could focus on were patches of color as if watching Opal made it difficult to understand everything else in the surroundings. But then her crystalline sharpened and her best friends’ silhouettes wrapped in charm became clearer. They looked like models out of a fashion atelier as they always matched in every other occurrence aside for when they invited her to their place whenever she alienated from the rest of the world for too long.
They called it ‘chilling’ but it mostly consisted of trying to keep a straight face while the two were intended on devouring each other’s. Needless to say they were generally incredibly annoying whenever hanging all together, more so when they used to do the nauseating stuff couples do, like completing one another’s sentences, using stupid pet names with a ridiculous high pitched voice and blah blah.
Notwithstanding, Kuvira couldn’t think of a better partnership than Asami’s and a personal whiner like Korra whom liked to call each strap-on in her collection after puns. Womb Raider… how can they even find that arousing?
“Opal, It’s a pleasure to finally meet you!” seriously, she had no idea how a well posed engineer like Asami could date that dork making faces.
“Oh.. Please no, it’s all mine!” the small girl squeaked “I heard so many things about you and not only from Vira! You’re truly an inspiration!”
“…Vira?” Asami’s thin brows jumped as she fizzed up and chuckled, finding her ferns before springing into Opal’s stare anew, now almost glueing to her arm in embarrassment. Alright, Asami has her amount of silliness too, after all.
Her expression was probably sharpening in annoyance too evidently since her associate cooed in fret, “You are so sweet! Thank you and, Ah!” her jasmine green eyes rolled up, “I wish i could have a conversation with my girlfriend too in these days but at least I know she’s busy teaching you self defense!”
“Babe,” the said girl shot a look “not now.”
It was in that friction of disarray Asami’s expression contracted as hugging her own hips, gently enveloped by the long red sharp shaped dress. It was obvious something was going on between them, perhaps Korra was starting to get nervous but visibly tried to wipe it all away by coughing and scratching her own nape with a sheepish smile “I can’t lie, it’s honestly odd to see you here together”
Kuvira couldn’t help but scowl as she caught the violent blush saturating Opal’s bronze cheeks. A wavy short strand swung over it as the girl slipped off of her side to chunk it around her ear, gaping and gasping maybe to simply search for an explanation to give. Each swell and fall puffing her lovely cleavage was marked by the rose gold of the dress’s plunging neckline although it was at the slight fidgeting of those small darling hands the woman’s eyes narrowed.
“W-we..—“
“—We’re not dating.” Kuvira deadpanned, catching everyone’s attention.
Opal’s surprised gaze however was the only thing that made a bitterness flourish inside since in the student’s expression neither a frown of unease nor a hint of happiness mellowed her features; she just looked taken aback. Her answer anyway was the same the girl wished to give, wasn’t it? So what was the reason for such shock?
Perhaps Opal was still trying to elaborate the whole situation the way she was striving to dissimulate the lump of anger churning and corroding her guts, tangling even tighter the more the girl dwindled in front of her best friend.
As if it was palpable, she could physically perceive the anxiety tensing and stiffing the student’s spirit like if it was connected to her own by invisible threads, now played like an instrument out of tune, stinging a haunting melody with hands made of worry.
Now, even if Korra was the one breaking the ice again, Opal’s deep peridots inexplicably lingered on her own wide and vigilant like a doe alert.
Whatever she wanted from her was intense and drew Kuvira the same way the moon pulls tides.
“—or Kuvira knows her eat-shit grin wouldn’t last around me”
“I have no time to deal with you, womb raider”
“Kuvira!?” the boxer barked before she could note Opal’s flustering cheeks blazing.
“Arhg.. uhm, girls?” Asami chuckled nervously “Whatever you two are, i would love to see you both again to know each other better, huh? At my birthday party, perhaps” and winked at Opal yet reserved the CEO a knowing look before turning on her heels.
The way Korra’s hand found Asami’s pale one along the velvety path snuck her attention as both girls showed their backs graced by an intricate pattern on her best friend’s jumpsuit and a straight cut on her new partner’s gown. Ahead of them, another audience crowded the building’s main door.
She wrapped an arm around Opal’s gentle hip and turned till her mouth could graze against the brilliant sparkling on her lobe while something kept her back closer; “See those journalists at the entrance?”
Opal stiffened, taking a moment to frown and nod.
“I promised an interview to one of them. If you don’t feel like waiting with me through all of it i can ask Korra to bring you inside.”
“N-no, it’s okay.” peridots twinkled into her ferns “I want to stay with you” and then she noticed what was keeping her. A small hand clenching onto her jacket, shaking. It took a millisecond for Kuvira to catch it in hers and caress its back, soft and smooth like pure silk.
The girl’s gaze still fixated on her made air rarefy in her throat but fueled her with uncontainable spur. “Let’s go then”
.
The fresh roses’ fragrance perfused around the whole dimly lit hall bathed in amber, swarming with a well posed and elegantly dressed crowd gathered around tables, lounging on loveseats or involved in low chittering and laughter.
Even at the top of the golden staircase above the cheerful mood oxygenating the air although, catching Opal’s small figure among the people was becoming a venture. Kuvira groaned, holding onto the handrail tighter. “Asami, I swear. If she doesn’t answer i’m gonna strangle your girlfriend. It’s 8:37”
It had been a half hour. At first thought she blessed the moment Korra eventually stole the girl away from her side before the journalists’ curiosity got too heated about their private business, yet now she couldn’t help but curse her best friend for disappearing a few minutes before the opening presentation. Still, what concerned her wasn’t the upcoming speech per se, like it seemed to worry Asami, but for them to miss it instead. Firstly because she told Opal so and her word was a kept promise; secondly to avoid Korra from doing something she would bitterly regret.
Perhaps Opal can keep an eye on her.
“Still nothing” Asami sighed, locking her phone.
“I’m gonna search for her myself, then” her jaw set hard at the watch’s pointers raising before stalking down the stairs. I don’t care if it’s late, the earlier i move the earlier i’ll find them.
“I thought you and Opal were just fucking, not falling desperately in love?” her associate snorted “I don’t understand why Korra is so furious about you and her dating, you really need someone sweet like her to soften your hardness” Asami’s heels clinking on each step covered the humming crowd below, the same instant a lone silhouette wrapped in silver dashed up the adjacent staircase adorning the other side of the room.
Wait. If Opal’s not with her, where did Korra leave her?
“Did she say something?” she asked to Asami.
“Not really,” the woman huffed behind, clearly overlooking Korra’s bustling pass by her tone “i tried to ask but every time I get around the topic she just dismisses the conversation or storms out… at first I thought you two had a fight but after what you told me this week I think something is stressing her and tonight she is acting… weird. Do you think I should be worried?”
Kuvira’s brow rosed up at the change of inflection, stopping mid steps “About Korra?”
“About Opal”
“Asami..” she frowned, climbing up “I’ve known Korra since she ate her boogers during kindergarten break. I highly doubt a person with a healthy brain would ever deliberately choose to cheat on you, especially since she breaths just to worship you.”
“Then why is she so protective of Opal?” the engineer’s luscious red lips slightly puffed “you were right, she’s even stranger in front of her—”
“—it doesn’t matter. Korra only has eyes for you.”
“How are you so sure? the way she…” a pale arm wrapped around her own skinny frame while the other leaned onto the handrail “I can see now how it makes you jealous too”
Kuvira’s jaw clenched. Yes, of course.
Did it upset her whenever Korra looked at Opal? Incredibly, but it was mainly caused by her best friends’ reactions, because if she had to rationalize it, how was it possible to be jealous over someone whom she hardly had an interest for? Someone who wasn’t even hers and wouldn’t even consider the option to get together since the girl herself made it incredibly explicit the idea alone repelled her, not even a few hours ago.
Kuvira burned and loathed for that girl with passion. So hard she wasn’t even sure all the air breathed through the course of her entire life could be enough to give the meaning behind her ardor a voice.
She recognized what connected her to Opal was attraction, yes, just bland physical attraction. Nothing more, nothing less. After all, it would’ve been a waste to fall for someone unwilling to reciprocate, wouldn’t it?
“You must know I don’t get jealous, if you remember at all who I am.”
“Come on, Let’s be honest for a second. You can keep your stoic facade as long as you want with everyone but yourself. The only reason why you’ve never been jealous is only because you hadn’t met Opal, yet. I didn’t spend much time with you two but it’s crystal clear you are all over her and i’m sure the reason Korra is acting weird is because she understood it too. Now it’s so obvious nobody ever managed to enchant you compared to Opal”
Asami’s expression stilled into stone while her eyes mellowed into her ferns feeling heavier the longer Kuvira kept them narrowed. It was somehow the only thing still giving the woman full control over her emotions pulsing at the engineer’s words, because the last thing she wanted was to admit her best friend’s mate speech struck something inside. To admit after all, she was the one to be in the wrong.
Her heartbeat was tickling below her skin, all over her whole face the more she spent keeping it still in front of that truth, making it almost hard to breathe before she shifted her stare towards the crowd to let the gold feeble shine blind her.
Although, it was then a glittering dress caught her attention through the glamorous sea of hosts like a lighthouse in the tempest and air filled her lungs once again.
She smiled. If her therapist was someone everyone turned to look at, Opal was the one who preferred to pass completely unnoticed even when she wasn’t, or well, it wasn’t possible for Kuvira anyway. The one who never cared about anyone else but herself, her career, her goals—
“—And look at you now,” Asami’s kept “thriving close to Opal and fussing to search for her whenever she is not, but no matter how much you pretend not to, your eyes don’t know how to lie.” in her voice, scorn and softness intertwined.
“I guess your breath is wasted.” Kuvira replied unable to take her eyes off of the student downstairs once her soft laughter’s trail provoked a chill to slide down her spine.
Opal was there only because she felt forced to and despite the woman having every intention to alleviate the night for her, the awareness that it was still something done out of pressure, made bile corrode her insides. So it was pointless, everything Asami was telling her were words thrown at the wind even when the woman stepped down onto the same rung to noticeably join her staring.
“No Kuvira, i think the one wasting time is you the more you spend it denying your feelings.” and withdrew until jades locked into her eyes with unmoved firmness “You need to tell her”
“It doesn’t depend on me” Kuvira’s breath faltered in her chest “for once, i have no control.”
The CEO didn’t know what made Asami snap once she found herself a spectator of a clear disillusion falling on those verdant irises, engulfing their dwindling pupils as soon as earning the meaning. If that was the woman’s reaction, Kuvira couldn’t even imagine the shape sadness would’ve took below her own stoicism once alone.
Her associate’s stare eventually dropped between them, shaking her head while a scowl furrowed thin brows.
“I’m sure it’s not like you think”
Is it so hard to believe Opal doesn’t feel the same about me?
Kuvira exhaled deeply and took a significant step down after Asami nodded towards Opal’s direction in sign.
There wasn’t much more to add now and perhaps the engineer knew it all too well, time wasn’t in their favor, trickling to sign the inexorable end of that conversation.
So Kuvira took that as her cue to leave, more than anything trying to run away from the hard truth, sprinting down the rest of the stairs to prance across the hall shaking a few hosts’ hands on the way but when two doe eyes found hers among anonymous faces, air flowed easily where before a boulder heaved upon, leaving just debris deposing in her stomach and clog at the sight of the towering army officer engaged in what seemed to be a pleasant conversation. His hawkish stare then followed his interlocutor’s.
“General Iroh.” the woman nodded promptly “It’s a honor to have you here. I see you already met my special guest.”
“Kuvira, what a pleasure. It’s a privilege being here, especially with such mesmerizing company.” he said, brushing his gaze on the student “Last time i saw Opal, she was a flower about to blossom in a summer break and now she gleams in all her splendor.”
Her thick brows curled up. Opal on her side seemed to bite down her own fleeting smile in a dull comic line, “I assume you already know each other, then” the CEO replied, conjoining both hands behind.
“Of course. Miss. Beifong and I are linked by an ancient family friendship, above all.” Above all… such futile punctuation. So unnecessary remarked by a glint in his light smoked topaz its meaning clenched around her guts in a brutal vice until Opal’s melodious chuckle cut it.
“I remember your grandparents setting up such long gatherings! Grandma detests these kind of things but whenever your grandpa was there, she was less cranky!”
The old lady’s austere face surrounded by her loving family flashed like the most bizarre image her mind could ever produce. Toph Beifong was known to be nothing but intractable, perennially annoyed like that evening she represented her family at Zaheer’s funeral along Baatar and Suyin. Still, the admiration nourished for that woman and everything she constituted for everyone was incommensurable.
Now, looking at her grandchild talking about her with sugar in her mouth made Kuvira wish to know already each anecdote, every little detail about that girl but every time the woman was sure to know something about her, Opal proved the exact opposite as a stinging remark. Why did it have to hurt, though? Why couldn’t that be the sign of a good opportunity to genuinely talk and spend more time together?
Simple. Opal doesn’t feel the same. She gulped down, realizing there was nothing more to do rather than swallowing bile and flaunt the acceptance she lacked.
“I wish this conversation would last longer yet, unfortunately i need to interrupt it since Opal’s presence is required somewhere else at the moment” from the student’s big eyes her stare shifted on the man’s sharpening expression “I hope you won’t mind, General. Besides, Miss Sato’s speech is about to start.”
“Of course, duty comes first.” the general stated with a nod, catching Opal’s hand in his to faint a kiss above “Miss Beifong”
The way those peridots widened below her knitting brows didn’t pass unnoticed under the woman’s sight but it was as soon as she wrapped a hand around Opal’s waist, the student’s back hilted stiff like wood against her palm.
Iroh’s stare dropped before flaming on her with an annoyed expression before they walked away.
Who would’ve known the general already had a weakness for Opal? The CEO scoffed and let her hand slide off of the girl only after climbing the stairs’s top where everyone’s stare was far enough. The sweet cinnamon scent though lingered in her lungs as if it owned them even when putting a distance from the girl in the long deserted hallway where the crowds’ chatter and clinking glasses were dulled into a continuous murmuring.
“Where are you bringing me?” Opal’s flout echoed within the draped walls “It was the time of my life with my newfound handsome general!”
Kuvira winced, striding with increasing rage “I suggest to fuck him during the presentation, then, so you’ll be sure nobody finds out. Better if you do it in my limousine too if you want to avoid a scandal.”
“Hey, no.” something pulled on her jacket, forcing her to turn and find the girl’s face contracted by a dense, unreadable feeling. Just imagining her with that man made pain branching out inside the woman’s brain like a fire blazing in the middle of a forest. Yet Opal was there, looking at her so intensely it almost hurt “I understand you are nervous about the speech but I don’t do stuff like that with people I’m barely friend with. I was just kidding”
“Do i need to remind you we were strangers?” Kuvira scoffed and scowled when the girl stepped closer. So close her pulse in front such firmness faltered; so close her breath stilled.
“What we had at the elevator happened with nobody but you. I never gave myself the way i did with you there, at my place.. and everywhere else” Opal kept, holding her gaze “You’ve been my one and only”
But those eyes then widened.
“—Vee!”
A rumbling was running directly into her. With a pull she stuck Opal at her safer side before her best friend’s hand landed on the opposite shoulder. It took a second to catch a pair of stormy blue eyes among the short strands’ swinging but when she did, pure panic was pinching them.
“Spirits-“ the girl panted “I don’tknowhowtodoit. I can’t do it.”
“Korra, breathe.. look at me. We’ve done this“
“What if i fuck up?” she shouted, “What if she—”
“—Stop. Don’t lose your mind, it’s gonna be alright” Kuvira assured, feeling Korra’s wet cheek directly onto her palm. Unwilling to break the eye contact, she guided the dark hand on her shoulder to press down her chest. There, where her heart bumped loudly since Opal’s words, Opal’s gaze, Opal’s scent, sure it could quaver lands with every pound, yet apparently, quieter than her best friend’s thundering ones.
Tragicomically it was the first very time she had issues keeping at bay her own heart while comforting the boxer’s, both thumping for a woman unaware of their turmoils but there they were.
She could feel Opal’s stare poking into her back, probably filled with curiosity and somehow it was that what gave her the serenity to keep a steel mettle until Korra seemed to slightly mellow.
“Keep breathing. I’ll give you the sign as we planned” she tilted a nod earning few feverish ones before untangling the contact.
“Is..is everything okay?” two green beams were what she found once glancing back at Opal and with her surprise, more than curious the girl looked taken aback.. almost terrified by Korra’s reactions. Her expression was everything Kuvira needed to understand in order to step closer and lean in till the cinnamon scent could dwell inside.
“Keep an eye on her, you’ll understand soon. It won’t take long, I promise” she whispered, placing a hand on Opal’s bare shoulder.
And then she heard it; the girl’s breath heaving before Asami’s clear voice not too far was overwhelmed by the audience’s clapping.
Her moment had come.
.
Chapter 13: Chapter eleven - second part
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
.
.
“Good evening everyone, I’m thankful for all of you hosting this event tonight and the heartfelt support Future Industries and Metal Empires Corp received through the years. We wouldn’t be where we are now without you.” Kuvira’s voice bellowed with pride, resounding in the silent hall wrapped in darkness.
The audiences’ silhouettes shimmered by the only source of light brightening the stage; behind it, a floor to ceiling glass door opened to the view of the night sky scattered with a quilt of stars above a majestic rippling fountain.
Since the CEO left her side, Korra was quickly turning into a fan, pacing restlessly on the spot, sighing and gasping continuously.
To say Opal never saw her trainer struggling that much was an understatement. It was just… so unsettling, almost incredible the way anxiety could visibly corrode the handsome perky mood Korra never failed to show off. How’s it even possible? Why? Does she need to give a speech too?
Opal could feel a chill rolling down her spine making her shake as soon as her glance landed on center stage.
On it, Kuvira was fierce and flawless in her elegant black suit, like a killer after a murder, keeping a stony coolness even in front of such icky mess, a bloody speech or her stupid confession.. «You’ve been my one and only» What the hell was that?!
Spit out something so private… Spirits.
The fact was, as soon as the woman taunted her to fuck with anyone on sight made a rage boil inside, clarifying how little Kuvira still knew about her. Even if that would’ve been the truth or the faintest possibility, if she actually had any interest in flirting with random people it was none of her business. She spent sleepless nights with her heart rate going wild, thinking how that first encounter and out of spite flirting with Kuvira could be wrapped with such haunting heat and heart-shredding passion while with Bolin it took months for a simple kiss, brushing almost the unbelievable whenever she tried to picture something even close to that with a random person at all.
And Kuvira had the nerve to fucking accuse her.
Wait, wait, wait. her eyes widened, she can’t be jealous, can she?
“Hey hey no… s-stop, you’ll smudge your make up!” she hurried, catching the rubbing hand off of her trainer’s eyes. There was so much dread and tension in those deep blue oceans a storm couldn’t compare while their stares briefly locked but there wasn’t much Opal could do without knowing the cause. So she breathed in, wishing to oxygenate her worries while fetching a tissue to dab clean every dry dot the ruined mascara left on Korra’s tensed cheekbone under an edgy stare. “Please talk to me… what’s going on? How can i help?” she wailed but all she could hear while noticing her friend’s jaw shake was her own voice blending and fading below Kuvira’s steady one.
“—This project is not only a fundamental step for our enterprise unification but also a significant cause for Miss Sato and I to bring to life what once was just an ambitious dream. Hiroshi and Zaheer’s pioneering views and grandiose works would’ve brought a whole new concept to the world without their limitations but it’s with great pleasure to affirm that thanks to our entire, formidable executive team, we developed technologies able to overcome that point, five years ago.”
A rush of claps spread around the huge hall below, rolling up the wall, reverberating inside her body as if hollow although the last thing Opal could perceive was emptiness. So many emotions and sensations filled each part of her to the hilt, pulsing and pawing to get out or tear her chest apart in the process when her hand was pushed away still working on fixing the mess on Korra’s handsome face.
“Thank you, it’s okay” the woman muttered but well, it didn’t take a psychology degree to understand it wasn’t. Her friend was clearly sweating cold in her silver jumpsuit, swinging back and forth the more she paced like a lion in a cage but then she stilled. The deep blue stare seized ahead exactly towards Kuvira and Asami’s direction while Opal felt the same cold hand pushing her away now enfolding her warmer one. Against it, Korra’s branching veins were pulsing furiously “Ok, listen. I think it’s the adrenaline talking right now but i think you should really tell Kuvira about you”
“What…” she gasped “why..?”
“She deserves to know, Opal.. and you deserve to feel better, to live this with serenity.” Korra replied, still avoiding her gawk as if engulfed in a thick wave of wisdom shielding her from reality, unfazed. Wait what the fuck, Korra isn’t The Blue Caterpillar. I swear, if Jinora told her.. “Why are you saying this? You know I can’t.”
“Because i care and love you that much and I never saw you differently after you told me.” her trainer spoke softly. “So what if you can tell her too? Life is right now, not before or after but now. Then live it without ‘what ifs’, without the weight of your worries. Just do it. Trust me. However it goes, it was meant to be but at least you can say you gave your all, always.” an encouraging squeeze, then a thumb caress at her knuckles until her friend’s eyes eventually peeled off of the stage to quickly reserve her an intense glance.
Her own lips trembled; there, where the heartbeat hammered now assailed by an urging sense of everything pushing her on the verge of tears. It took a moment, a simple fraught one to be pulled inside her friend’s strong arms in a tight embrace; her nostrils blazed with the trainer’s cocoa scent when she sank in her neck’s crook and breathed in, exhaling tension with the same speed Korra’s swift pant warmed her skin. Yet, above everything, it was Kuvira’s calm voice what kept her lucid, strong, chanting in her head low and promising, rough as she always remembered it to be. Mine..
“Now as their successors we guarantee to keep our eyes on the future and to offer the best to honor their plans along with their lives every single day—”
Korra squeezed her tighter again before releasing the grasp to move away and give a trustworthily nod. In her round gentle features a certain enthusiasm weakened the dread priorly goading while her friend headed towards the stairs in Opal’s worry. “Korra!” she bellowed the whisper, jogging behind till the gloom lights casted shadows on her friend’s adorned back.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Future Empires.”
The public’s applause tumulted as she stretched to catch something, anything belonging to her friend in vain, taking a deep breath before sprinting as quietly as possible down each curved step while Korra disappeared behind the stage. It was then the CEO’s stare slid towards them.
“Thank you” the businesswoman slightly curtsied among the clapping throng one last time, before striding off the stage to pat Korra’s shoulder and stop in front of Opal.
“K-Korra… she just.. i’m sorry!” the girl panted, glancing at Korra stalking to the middle of the platform before Kuvira stole her focus completely while folding a warm arm around her. The musky scent enveloped with fresh elation invested her senses.
“Don’t be,” the woman whispered in her ear “just look” and moved aside enough to let her refocus on Korra’s silhouette brightened beside the tall woman evidently petrifying with wide-eyed wonder.
“Wow, you’re a lot of people! Hello everyone. Thank you, Kuvira. So..” her friend cleared her throat, “I wrote a paper so i could remember everything but you know me,” she turned towards her girlfriend completely “i lost it the moment I stepped into this place. There should be no doubt at this point the brain between us has always been yours and living every single day together made it simple to rely entirely on you. I know anyway a piece of paper wouldn’t have been enough to give your beauty, your wisdom and intelligence justice, neither express my feelings since whenever i’m in front of you, Asami, words fail. Perhaps because i’m not that good with speeches and i have to admit our fine stud had to kinda help me.” a general chuckling tickled around the audience while Opal caught Kuvira rolling her eyes.
“By the way, you are here tonight marking one of the most important steps in your life, building an empire, inspiring so many people every day to do their best as you do with me and that’s why i’m standing here now to mark my own. Because you gave a purpose to my senseless drive, so i wish to make a difference, maybe not for everyone but hopefully for you, for us. Remembering my life before you is just a waste and I don’t want to waste time without your addicting presence anymore. So, if i’m lucky enough tonight like I’ve been during these past years by your side, I shouldn’t tremble while asking you this, but Raava you are so stunning it’s gonna be hard.” she tittered, slowly lowering on a knee.
With all the violence of her surprise Opal almost slapped her own mouth to cover it while the need to check two fern eyes shifting into hers at the same time, ripped a space in her soul.
“Asami Sato,” Korra kept solemnly “i’ll ask you the only way I know how to. I’m sick of calling you my girlfriend so.. will you be my wife?”
An overwhelming silence crept in the hall, so ominous every gasp and clacks of shooting cameras rebounded ten times louder against the walls preserving a quietness growing heavier each second the Future Industries’ CEO was spending it speechless.
Opal’s ears although, were deafened by a continuous buzzing the longer her gaze was held and perhaps it was due the soft lights, or… was that surprise dilating Kuvira’s pupils?
She didn’t know and had no idea because whenever the woman leaned so close, curling hair around her ear while resting her forehead on her bang to share the same breathe, time slowed in milliseconds.
There, away from the stage’s light, in a gloomy corner covered by the stairs hiding them from everyone’s sight; nobody would’ve looked in their direction any way since the attention was all focused on the proposal with hanging breath, right?
If only..
A chuckle not too far away timidly broke in as Opal attempted to stretch on her tiptoes.
“I will” Asami announced and a loud bursting echoed inside the room.
Opal froze at a powerful noise but on Kuvira’s face a sneer-like smile widened as dissembling the contact and the rest of the world began to exist again while she felt pulled away. On the stage, Asami wrapped Korra to share a sweet deep kiss in front of the journalists capturing the idyllic moment framed by the fireworks’ display shattering in thousands of sparks outside the huge door.
Claps, chuckles and general exultations livened up the hall in a fizzing joy before everything was dulled down, once outside, where on Opal’s skin the night’s crispy coolness brushed the same way each light’s colorful explosion vibrated inside her guts.
“So you knew” she professed with a bittersweet taste lingering in her mouth while Kuvira tucking both hands behind the back neared the balcony’s marbled rail in front of the rippling fountain.
“That she wanted to propose?” her low voice was almost covered by loud sounds “Of course, it took us months to prepare this, i just didn’t foresee you interfering”
“Oh right…interfering. Me: the troublemaker, homewrecker” the girl mocked sultrily trying to sashay her way to the CEO provoking the said woman’s chest to visibly quiver as she chuckled “Are you?”
Wow.
The girl rolled her eyes, crossing arms “I’m not in love with Korra, if this is what you’re thinking. I’m very happy for her and Asami” in the meantime though, swallowing became hard at the sight of the sparkling shots and whizzes glowing Kuvira’s features in gold. Two firm hands in the meantime roamed to her hips to rest and drag her closer —closer till the woman’s teasing humming rumbled directly against her chest and in the girl’s confusion, her own arms were unfolded before being guided to curl around the businesswoman’s neck.
There, once again enclosed in the embrace, the forest smoked scent powerfully flared making her pulse rate blow up yet, die every time the CEO barely shifted away. Each muscle she held onto below the tailored suit was firm and tight like stone even if Kuvira seemed to be relaxed once Opal tried to mirror the slight smooth swings offered.
“Wha-what are you doing?”
“Trying to dance with you, if you stop stepping on my shoes” Kuvira smirked removing every distance between their bodies, causing her cheeks to flare and legs to jellify. Only after she remembered to breathe, Opal recognized a slow jazzy tune coming off the building since the fireworks’ show extinguished in the dark and if Kuvira didn’t gently point out her inability to move when it regarded any kind of dancing, it could’ve been pleasing now to rest on her chest and calm down in the soothing lull. “It’s cuz you are keeping me so tight!” Opal complained with the first excuse she could find.
“I wouldn’t if you could dance properly and not like an old lady.” the woman debated “You should thank me”
“WOW, I’m not an old lady?! And I won’t thank you, ass—”
“—Listen,” a glint flashed beyond Kuvira’s eyes.
“No!” Opal yelped, hinting the meaning behind it.
A thick perfect brow arched up in tease although, was everything she could mentally register before she was dipped low till most of her dress caressed the balcony’s tiles. “I can drop you at any moment, it’s all on you.”
SPIRITS!
Her eyes squeezed shut. A gasp clogged up her throat while she squirmed, gasping to fight against gravity by clinging around the CEO’s neck when she perceived the only reason keeping her from falling was her own strength. “KUVIRA!”
A raspy chuckle tilted over the song’s smooth sound like part of the melody, reminding her she wasn’t aching but actually thriving when two broad arms caressed across her shivering spine, up to her shoulder and nape to hold her tightly in a soft hug before a whisper was skimmed over her ear shell, so warm it felt like coming back home “What’s on your mind?”
You, fucker. Always you.
No! I can’t say that! “Lift me up” she whispered back with a chuckle instead, taking lungfuls of the argan hair she dug her nose into.
“Brat” the husked voice brushed now above her lips, bribing her to look again only to find two petrol green eyes waiting to hold her stare. Haunting. There were no other way to describe that woman better without mentioning the intoxicating force she possessed to charm her continuously and Opal had a feeling Kuvira had every intention to continue until she was satisfied. But what about after? What about when she gets tired and lets me go? Will she let me fall? Let me fly? What if I won’t let go?
Well, right in that moment, neither happened as Kuvira lifted her up to a standing position. She was still close and Opal was sure the woman could feel her heart beating too as soon as she cuddled up into her chest, or maybe across her own back where her broad hands still scorched on her skin.
“I can’t wait to steal you tonight.” the CEO resumed once her breath slowed down.
“Steal me? Your party just started”
“Yes, but I can’t wait to bring you far away..”
“Like a trash can?” she asked innocently, provoking a snort from Kuvira. But then the towering frame tightened up around her “Why do you have to make it so hard to flirt with you?”
“Because we shouldn’t flirt”
“Who said that?”
“Me, myself and I” she murmured against her shoulder, “or you’ll fall in love” and although the aim was to keep up the bubbling mood, those words tasted bitter and lethal like iron blade trespassing her tongue root. The night air was beginning to pinch her eyes the longer she stared onto the fountain’s water until it blurred out in a formless matter while Kuvira’s digits barely brushed on the shoulder blade. Soft like a chill before the whole warm palm slid through her hair in gentle caresses.
And if Korra was right? Jinora, Kai.. what if they were all right and she was just making it bigger in her head, so heavy and hurtful without giving Kuvira the possibility to deny her fears and who knew.. even defy them.
“—I think you are scared you’ll be the only one falling” the woman’s voice crossed over her thoughts, louder yet soft, the necessary to stay between them.
“Ah-ah, funny!” the girl mocked, giggling side to side while shifting away enough to meet the CEO’s dark eyes again and then she gulped down, gazing at the beauty-mark shrinking above the side smirk, overwhelmed by an unknown intensity calling her closer.
“And charming too” Kuvira added, unfolding from the embrace completely.
Coldness hit her bones instantly.
“I’m sorry about earlier…” Opal panted out, averting the inquiring glance “on the jet.. I didn’t mean to yell or accuse you.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about, I put you in a situation you weren’t ready for and I should actually thank you for helping me with Korra.” the woman stated resuming the prior authoritative poise. “For a moment I thought she’d run away.”
Korra? Run away? Her forehead furrowed, noting the businesswoman turned towards the railing, eyes pierced ahead. “Why would you even think that? Korra isn’t someone who’d back down from what i know.”
“You’re right, yet, sometimes the unexpected happens to unravel plans, beliefs, certainties without our consent. Things just happen and there’s nothing you can do to stop this… force from taking over your life. A storm never asks for permission.” Low and heavy, Kuvira’s voice carried a truth Opal still struggled to get used to, shaking her like a leaf with the slight doubt those words weren’t entirely destined for their friend.
Her chin trembled, “Did it ever happened to you?”
“What do you think?” deep black eyes dug inside.
“I think you don’t have to wait until tonight to steal me, if you still want it.”
.
Notes:
From: “draw me like one of your French girls”, to: “bring me far away like a trash can” it takes just a second. But what can i say, i was inspired lol
Btw, thank you for reading, I hope y’all have a wonderful day!🌸
Chapter 14: Chapter twelve
Notes:
Hey there!
This chapter was one of the very first concepts i had about this story and posting it exactly a year after makes me feel grateful about believing in this and how pushing in general, no matter how difficult, always repays.
(Yes, this is also an encouragement for you reading this!)There’ll be a moment in the middle of this chapter in which a piano will be played.
For a lot of reasons, I wrote it imagining it to be Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata but if you have another fitting piece and would like to share, it’d make me super happy!
Either way, it’s highly recommend to accompany that part if you’d like! c:
Now let’s get into the THING lol enjoy.
Chapter Text
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She dipped a toe in the liquid void and its soothing, viscous warmth caressed in response. A smile opened her mouth at the satisfying sensation even if partially disappointed to find out the pitch black didn’t stain her skin once pulled out. Something instead wrapped and lifted her up by the hips until her legs forgot the weight they were carrying, now dangling in the crispy air. “Achoo!”
“I knew it wasn’t a good idea” Kuvira grunted below the short echo resounding in the lone dock, stealing heels off of her grasp.
“What part?” Opal sniffed and raised a brow “Driving a boat in November or carrying me bridal-style?” she curled up around her neck and gasped as the woman triggered tiny neons at her amble, revealing the suggestive tree-lined path ahead at each step along the cobbled walkway.
“Definitely letting you play in water half-naked” the CEO pointed out with a scowl making her snort soundly.
Whether she had the brilliant idea to plunge her feet in the sea or not, walking through the perfect path on heels would’ve meant getting them stuck in each gap nonetheless. Though she was lucky enough to get a ride home on a strong athletic jock after a brief, intense drive by boat through the immense quilt of the night sea.
Leaving the gala after congratulating the new brides-to-be to adventure in the dark towards unknown places was enthralling and kind of terrifying too although Kuvira seemed to know exactly where to lead. It took Opal a few stumbles along the motorboat’s wooden deck and several heart attacks before the woman’s arms closed around her frame with a coat once standing at the cockpit, guiding her hands on the panel control to make the engine roar.
Soon enough the CEO’s fierce eyes spiking the horizon encouraged her to search for its undefined line only to find it timidly lit by the city’s bridge lights twinkling and trailing stars over the black sea. The party’s lively chattering enveloped in jazz was overwhelmed by the motorboat’s rumbling and the cold winds dulling quietness dancing through her locks, fading down completely once docking at a small island not too far from the Air Temple’s one.
There, the sea silently kissed the shore, rippling feebly as lulling the lone harbor. Only a white lamp attached to its wood beamed continuously in the dark with a faint spark, looking almost eerie in the thin humidity sticking up her bones and although the day after she’ll felt like a shit, now cuddling in Kuvira’s arms was comforting.
“I’m not naked” Opal chuckled “I have your coat over mine, it’s warm enough.” and purred against the chiseled jaw, setting hard as soon as she placed a kiss.
“So, about your father..”
Pebbles crackled below elegant shoes.
“i mean, i’m sorry. You don’t have to answer if y—“
“—Zaheer wasn’t my father. I never had parents.”
She frowned, “..did he adopt you?”
“Legally, yes. I just never actually had a family” the woman’s deep voice rebounded against her chest and dispersed slowly among the trees’ whooshing leaves. “Zaheer found me after a few days spent surviving on the streets… He was traveling around the world to detach from everything after his wife P’Li died during childbirth and losing their son but then…” her head shook “we were two lost souls with nobody left to live for but ourselves when we met. He suffered of a grave depression but eventually we both regained a purpose; he was the CEO of the company but he had no heir, neither somebody trusted enough to safely assure his company’s future. He was alone the way I was. So he adopted me, trained, taught and shared everything he knew about the political environment, his ideals and ambitions since i was a kid until the day cancer corroded him.”
Kuvira cleared her throat “Clutch onto me”
A chill rolled down Opal’s spine while curling tighter into her chest when, looking around, a glass entrance appeared before her eyes. The end of the pathway.
Kuvira’s story… the way words slipped from her lips, the way the jaw clenched and relaxed at each calm intonation was like being sucked into another dimension.
Catching her surroundings to reveal a simple house hidden in the rich nature, then became a secondary concern.
Beyond the cathartic dismal, it was inexplicable how the woman’s childhood memories sounded so familiar, as if already heard, as if those had been part of hers as well but forgotten at a certain point.
Kuvira was famous, her private life wasn’t. So how’s that possible?
“What kind of person was he?” Opal mumbled, wishing to weigh like a sparrow when the warmth around her back disappeared when the woman opened the door.
“Clever and righteous,” the sound of clinking keys became clear under Kuvira’s voice “blunt but never irascible nor insolent. Incredibly spiritual. Below his surly layers he was one of the kindest people I ever met and perhaps he saw parts of his younger self in me.” with a gentle thud the main door was unlocked and the cold dampened clothes on her skin dried in the house’s still air. In the silent entrance the woman’s tone resounded “When we met i was an angry undisciplined kid but he taught me to canalize rage in pure drive towards the right direction, instead of letting it lead me into an auto-destructive behavior. He shaped me to be a leader not only for the company’s sake but for my own too.”
To be a leader… thinking about it, there wasn’t a part of Kuvira telling otherwise. Everything about the woman seemed to be molded, chosen to embody a commander. True, below layers of steel, Kuvira was still that fiery kid ready to throw hands and Opal could feel that pure energy each time the CEO kissed her, whenever the need in her grasp became more and more impatient on her body. There was an uncontainable force only the woman herself could control and maybe meeting Zaheer was what taught her the best way to give these rawest feelings a proper outlet but if Zaheer never found her, Kuvira would’ve found him anyway.
When people are destined to meet, in one way or another they always do. The same way she was destined to meet Kuvira from the very start and be there now.
Stale and sandalwood swelled up Opal’s lungs. Inside the house was indeed warmer to the point undressing the two coats became easy even if there was no sign of electricity, nor light if not coming from the moon casting through the windows silver veils on the lucid wooden floor.
“I was informed the power outage will last until tomorrow but most of the house is ran on solar energy. Is that a problem for you?” Kuvira explained, giving the hand still holding the keys to help her land on a tickling carpet.
Her frozen toes sank in the warm softness “Uh.. n-not at all”
“Don’t worry,” the woman kneeled, placing her heels on the floor “I made sure we had candles around, just in case”
Opal nodded, then hesitated “Can i ask you something?” yet, from that perspective it was easy to let her fingers run mindlessly through the businesswoman’s rebel lock to caress it back to the perfectly tided hairstyle. Her hands then stopped mid air, when the awareness of her action blazed her with embarrassment. Kuvira on the other side seemed unbothered about the gesture to the point a trustworthy smirk cut along her thin lips. “Sure”
“Did you want to be a CEO?”
“I just wanted to give a meaning to my life. Now that I understand what being in charge implies, I want to use my privileges the way Zaheer did to help and guide those who’ve been casted away, in need.” the woman clarified standing up as she leaned on her to slip heels on “I knew I could never give him the happiness he could have had with his son, but i guess I was the closest thing to it. Nonetheless, people refer to me with his last name, I never saw him as a father but a mentor whose lessons and advice still remind me how to administer his heritage the best way for everyone’s welfare.”
Again, there was something in the solemn tone, something the fern of her eyes —translucent under the moonlight shine, conveyed loudly. Yet as she held that deep gaze now around the same highness level, Opal couldn’t muster what kind of sadness blemished them. “Why are you saying that? I’m sure he loved you as a daughter..”
“Not exactly.” Kuvira averted her stare, turning in the dark until it engulfed her towering figure entirely. For a moment the girl was left alone with flickering sounds and a crippling self consciousness; vulnerable until something wrapped around her hand anew.
Her heart rate increased.
“He never showed any kind of fatherly affection towards me. There was always a limit he didn’t want to overlap to respect his son, I guess” it was then Kuvira’s eyes came to the feeble light again, enough to brighten the bitter resignation fogging them. The resignation of being destined to live a lone, loveless childhood.
Opal’s chest shrunk, suddenly sore.
How hard it must’ve been for her to grow up without tenderness…warmth? Does she even know what being loved means?
“—I don’t want your pity” Kuvira spat. “I’m fine.”
The girl’s eyes widened as another punch hit.
Perhaps the woman didn’t mean to sound harsh or scold but it stung nonetheless like one, probably because after all, that was exactly what Opal was involuntarily doing. A sense of shame twisted her guts no matter if a thumb was caressing in reassurance the back of her hand while being guided towards a wooden staircase by the windows. She was just sorry for everything, for what Kuvira had to endure without someone really loving her, for every stupid moment spent treating her bad and now for being unable to speak.
Step after step the wish to debate, to clarify what she knew, stung hard in her throat although words became a heavy mud on her tongue. Uncertain how necessary they could be at that point but yet, a part of her, probably the frailest, trembled to come out. So she stopped in the middle of the stair’s platform; the moonlight through the trees’s branches gleamed the dress’s crystals reflecting on Kuvira’s furrowing expression below “Do you miss him? Do you ever miss your parents?”
The echo of a deep sigh reverberated into her bones.
“I praise the life he gave to me and in each single day I honor the most important things he left me: his lessons. Through them he lives on. I imagine now he is happy, rejoined with his family” the CEO confessed looking deep into her “He never married neither fell in love aside for his wife and grieved the life they could’ve lived together till his last breath. I always admired his devotion… their love always haunted me.” in Kuvira’s sharp eyes a dense zeal now resided. It was all there, crude yet composed the exact way the woman spoke about it; intense, moving and profound as if it was enshrined in her own soul, shaking it when in the core of the motor charging that passion, Opal found something unexpected.
It lasted a breath and then dissolved.
She attempted to step closer but Kuvira averted her stare before she could dig further into that thought.
“Go ahead. I want to show you something” the CEO whispered softly, dulling the pain swallowed down her dry throat.
“This was P’Li’s house.” her deep voice then rose slightly enough to rebound along the staircase’s top “Zaheer gave everything he had to charities after her death but this house. He used to live and help monks at the temple nearby, staying close whenever he took some free time from work since he didn’t have his own anymore but he never really… stayed here either.”
“I can’t even imagine how hard that could be…” Opal wavered, feeling the weight of sadness weakening her tone until it dissolved along the howling wind. “it must be atrocious”
A sense of coldness tingled up her spine before actually taking a look inside the new space opening in front of her. Even in the gloom, distinguishing the piano’s elegant silhouette throning in the middle of the huge room embellished by the line of what seemed a library wall was an easy and exciting task. Lucid, its perfect black lacquer shone at the moon like a summer night sky. Eagerness tickled her fingers.
“Was it hers?” she gasped, suddenly abashed by her own excitement during such sensitive context.
“Yes.” Kuvira instead smiled, sitting on the black bench “He never allowed me to touch it for a long time and I assumed it was because his wife was the last person playing it. Before he died, he gifted it to me and explained he just… bearing the illusion his wife still played it was too painful..”
As the silence continued, heels clinked on the parquet while she nosied around. Just the thin crystal layer of the ceiling to floor windows precluded the thick nature murmuring outside to blend with the minimalistic furnishings reflecting each leaf, each spark of light to give the illusion to be part of the same matter. She wondered how it was possible to decide to live somewhere else when a place so calm existed.
Who knew how beautiful it was to spend the days creating music at the wind’s gentle chants; to bathe in the sun with a book and the smell of cookies baked by a loved one. In the glass’ reflection, the piano’s fall board shimmered open below Kuvira’s hands.
It was then Opal dreaded to understand what could possibly mean to lose a part of herself and how meaningless everything could become if the reason why her heart pumped blood in her veins disappeared completely. There’s no point in staying in a house when life decides to make you homeless. I’d rather be a nomad too.
Zaheer wasn’t to blame for his actions but treating his only family left just like a simple heiress? She would’ve never denied a child of all her love. Especially if that person was Kuvira. Wouldn’t I?
“Did you ever want to learn?” she asked and across the room Kuvira’s gaze found hers instantly, beaming with a clear answer. It was unusual to earn such enthusiasm from her but the kind of electric charge triggered from that simple exchange, rushing through Opal’s system was enough to light the whole house. The boldness pumping up her joyful swaggering unfortunately soon deflated the closer the piano appeared, until inhaling the musky forest scent melted her confidence.
It passed so long… if only….
She gulped down and the bench’s fine cushion softened under her weight.
“Can.. can I do something?” thinking aloud, pointing at Kuvira’s tie while her expression turned blank in the gloom, yet it took just a nod to stand up and shift closer.
“You can sit on me, if you want” the woman reassured, misinterpreting her quick change of mind before her shaky hands began to struggle with the businesswoman’s tie knot.
The silk slipped free.
“—Opal?” something grasped her wrist making her halt still, hesitating when reading a slight confusion darkening the CEO’s eyes as she covered them with the smooth fabric.
“Please, let me guide you just this time.” Opal then mumbled, brushing her trembling lips on the woman’s ear-shell. From this distance getting lost in Kuvira’s presence took only a breath; a simple, deeper inhale of her intoxicating argan to worship her essence. Strangely, admiring her beauty came unbelievably natural, maybe because for once the inquiring ferns weren’t preventing that from happening, stabbing everything and everyone whenever trying to linger the sight on the strong structure of her bones, the tight muscles molding the sharpness of her features or the smooth texture of her tanned skin dotted black just once, right below the left pupil. An artist’s mark left on its treasured masterpiece.
The moon in particular, was shining directly on the large lip line, thicker at the wet bottom calling her to sink in its softness to the point Opal needed to nip at her own to stop any dangerous impulse.
A deep lungful swelled her chest once the tie was knotted again before she turned and lowered to settle on the woman’s lap; the genuine collision flared a fire exactly where Kuvira’s scorching, upper thighs plastered to the back of her own.
Her stomach recoiled with burning bile.
Here we are again.. last time she had sat on someone’s lap she had no idea how to move her hands through the keys and now, not even if years passed by studying that very instrument, the same feeling was climbing inside.
If only her grandma’s rough, steady hands could be hers to lead Kuvira’s into this new experience like she deserved, maybe it could’ve helped her pretend that fear didn’t exist.
Sweat gleamed among the lines of her palms.
These hands….
I want to guide her the way grandma did with me but… what if i fail? What if she’ll feel nothing with me?
That was the very first time the woman was trusting her enough and if it didn’t turn out for the best… no.. she refused to disappoint Kuvira’s expectations.
Slithering like snakes the said woman’s arms encircled her waist until on her back, the breast’s toned shape flattened, warming Opal’s existence. With a deep inhale the same scented warmth flowed into her lungs, dissolving all the worries crowding her mind.
Perhaps Kuvira didn’t know about her storms yet but she always knew how to quieten them.
“Here,” she whispered on the CEO’s knuckles, kissing them before placing the right large hand over hers on the keyboard “relax your hands…” the left, instead, below.
No matter the advice, Kuvira was keeping the usual rigid composure, her left’s fingers were curling like a spider’s legs, hard like stone while Opal tried to unfold them. “Vira”
“Mh”
“Breathe…”
The businesswoman sighed. “I am breathing”
“Yes but… try to let your body trust mine for a while. Maybe you can, uhm…” a note beamed, timid like a request before it gently died in a soft reverb to join the quietness.
“Imagine the keyboard is an extension of my body and you wish to touch it.” her tone shamefully decreased. Pronouncing that concept set butterflies free in her belly while guiding the woman’s fingers to brush among the black and ivory keys as if to show them how to skim and wander on the mounds and valleys of her own flesh, slightly pressing until another tone bloomed. In Opal’s heart, a pulse hammered.
“Can you feel the melody rushing through your digits?”
“I do” Kuvira’s breath heated on her shoulder, lifting up goosebumps down her spine, arms, tingling under her palms where she was sure the woman could perceive them too, as if the inexorable confine separating their skin never existed.
“This is the instrument reacting to your touch, like… goosebumps. So, let’s hypothesize that you…” a major chord feebly soared, “you actually feel something deep for me and the only way to express it is by caressing…” another melody intertwined “..holding..” and a last one descended, “..cradling me”
“Wouldn’t you try a gentler touch to trigger those reactions before using a firmer one?” Opal kept, until the melody dwindled within her question.
The howling breeze outside made leaves rustle.
“I mostly would, yes.”
“Then… w-would you make love to me?”
It came out senselessly, raw and without reasons but now it was out and an incredible wave of warmth was heating up her whole face. At least she couldn’t be seen although wondering the kind of expression she’d find deep inside the woman’s eyes was beginning to chew up her mind. That was just a metaphorical question of course, Kuvira wouldn’t mind that, right? Yet, a sense of guilt was branching in her guts at the throb of pleasure that simple thought enkindled.
The last thing Opal wanted was to sound like a hypocrite; «don’t fall for me but please, let’s make love» .
Stupid… stupi—
A note. Mild and sweet, it colored the darkness like a sparkle. It was her own thumb or well, it was the woman’s one heaving upon her right hand what gave that slight caress a sound. It was then Opal realized Kuvira wasn’t just trying to reassure her but also giving an answer, as if to say: «Go on, lead me.»
And so Opal did. She breathed out each worry before following the reverb of that last note to give life to a piece treasured in her memory.
Below her palm she molded Kuvira’s hand to unfold in large, deep, solemn harmonies while the one rested on hers’, intent on braiding a lighter arpeggio filling the whole room with a restless melancholy.
Delicate. Slow enough to help Kuvira’s hand land on the accompanying chords just in time, scraping inside her soul until there was no worry anymore; in what they created, there was peace, life too and all the love the girl was asking for.
Surely the performance wasn’t excellent; a jarring note here and there was hit and even if trying to balance both hands was hard, the CEO seemed to follow her directions skillfully. Yet, the more their hands flew together, the wider the smile on Opal’s lips grew.
So long had passed since experiencing all this joy she swore she never felt it with such abundance before.
Again, being unable to see Kuvira’s face at the moment was a wasteful downside but the closeness that position provided, the sense of protection her mere towering presence folding hers was infusing, was also doing something both simple and complicated to Opal’s heartbeat.
It didn’t help when the businesswoman’s breath roaming on her skin indeed caused it to pulse ten thousand times stronger, until it focused on the bare shoulder where a kiss was left, making Opal lose it completely.
The moment the girl spun around provoked a dissonance, clashing in the cold room but staying just a dying echo once her lips found the woman’s midway. The sound slowly filling her ears now was the breezing of their eager breaths trying to blend together. Then a rustling noise.
Her eyes snapped open as the kiss broke; Kuvira’s was loosening the tie covering her sight but no matter how the desire to get lost in those ferns burned, Opal turned completely to catch her hands, cupping them on the woman’s jaw.
“K-keep it.” the girl’s voice trembled, “Please… feel me”
Now facing the CEO, she lowered to straddle her lap making the bench beneath crackle feebly until their foreheads met in the middle.
The blindfold was tickling her bang but it lasted just the fraught moment to feel the straight nose nudge over her button one, Kuvira’s head tilted on a side and her thin lips brushed over hers in a gentle appeal.
If her heart exploded, it wouldn’t have made a noise, swelling till filling all the room left in her chest the moment the woman deepened the kiss, folding her lips in pure warmth once Opal softly pecked to give her consent.
As soon as her lungs finally swelled open again with the woman’s balmy exhale, the girl found out how deeply her body missed such intimate contact, making her wonder why they ever stopped in the first place.
Perhaps because Kuvira made her soul flicker underneath her skin even when she simply perceived her imposing presence nearby, reducing every moment to a critical one where keeping control was becoming necessary but building an inexorable agony the longer it was spent apart.
It felt like an eternity since the last time but Opal remembered every instant she longed to melt in Kuvira’s blazing lips again and be englobed within her chest to stay safe and sound there.
The way Kuvira made her feel whenever she gave up pushing her away was beyond overall comprehension or maybe just her own, since Opal’s whole nervous system short circuited by just the inhale of the woman’s musky scent alone.
A series of whimpers rumbled out of her throat when the woman’s bottom lip grazed on hers in a smooth caress, deep enough to depart just a slit for a wet subtle sensation to sneak in between. A bittersweet taste sparkled in her mouth encouraging her to lap discreetly and savor more… more until the only possibility left was to sink into that hypnotizing feeling.
Hands began to wander across her body, growing eager the lower they descended to grasp her thighs, hips, her love handles.
The more she was kneaded and lavished, the hotter her flesh flared with shivers. The harder Opal craved to be kissed. Touched.
Perhaps because the touch was laced with enthralling possessiveness, rousing her with a reverent arrogance finally pointing out a flaw in the woman’s perfection; a hint of humanity sparkling through the thick steel defenses of her otherworldly identity.
Kuvira was more than that and Opal was glad enough to push her face closer for a deeper kiss, shaking hands off of her marbly cheeks to slide around her neck and claw the muscles tightening beneath the suit.
Soon, everything around fogged up. Her mind simply couldn’t bare all the sparkling sensations crossing her body the more it was tugged in feverish waves until Kuvira’s breath against her lips turned into growls. A dribble of pleasure leaked between her folds, teased continuously by an insistent peaking, growing harder underneath layers of clothes.
Thus, Opal got drunk from Kuvira’s passion like a teetotaler sipping a fine liquor for the first very time, letting it blissfully burn her interiors. Moving her to act swiftly, unbuckling the belt, zipping open the woman’s trousers, uncovering that bulge to pulse in her fist before all she perceived was the stabbing pain that pried her sex folds apart.
Her eyes and mouth hung open, producing no sound until an overbearing need punched out her lungs. Her nose bore in the jacket as she clamped for dear life around the woman’s shoulder, patting them desperately. Shouting silently, sobbing.
No matter if she guided the shaft inside her herself, Kuvira was tearing her apart. Her throbbing girth, even if not halfway inside, was stretching her entrance’s ring so wide the pain’s stun made it unbearable to understand if she was utterly full or split in two.
“Opal…” Kuvira panted, her throaty deep voice caressing her ear-shell was pure nepenthe to her overstimulated senses. Opal’s eyes swung close with stinging tears and trembled until she noted the woman’s arms were folding around her with boundless attentiveness.
The musky pine scent filled her chest, pacifying the war roaring in her heart herself caused before she had to gasp to smell that perfume once again when her face was cupped and brought to fit Kuvira’s lips.
The woman although, didn’t kiss her.
Opal frowned until the CEO’s exhaling instead, kept on skimming above her mouth divot as if to invite her to share the same breath, deepening increasingly. Therefore the girl followed that hypnotic rhythm, slacking down until it helped her loosen up her contracted muscles and melt the pain the more Kuvira took control of her body, carefully lowering her hips to take in inch after inch.
The woman’s heaving grounded against her shaky bottom lip, so warm and dense it elicited another whimper off of Opal as her pussy mellowed to accommodate the rest of the stifling sex pulsing like crazy. Alive.
When the woman seemed to find her place inside, she gave her time to adjust before pulling out to leisurely slip in deeper and after few attempting thrusts, Kuvira started to lead a gentle pace, unrushed in the steamy air.
It burned. The warmth embedded in the woman’s hands sinking in her love handles was incredibly soothing while her cock was long and massive enough to stroke every part of her, if only wanted or requested, yet her thrusts stayed tender, reverent, patient but by the Spirits. To be stuffed by the businesswoman while stealing air directly from her nostrils… —this kind of complicity with Kuvira was everything Opal ever yearned and worried for.
Beginning to drip however didn’t help; tides of bliss overflowed where pain once throbbed and she couldn’t prevent creaming around the growing girth, thus it permitted her to slouch down again and again with more facility, taking control as slightly lurching up just to glide lower on the businesswoman’s member until its base kissed her clit. Electric blasts spread right from that point. So overwhelming that when Opal began to grind her bundle of nerves on it instead of delving onto the hardness furthermore, each spark made her whole body convulse.
Her eyes widened in the middle of the shakes and short heaving, surprised to witness so clearly her own dizziness while the woman slightly rose from the seat determined to keep that friction blurring her sight out. Kuvira was just that fucking good. Whenever she moved, Opal felt her insides being unraveled. It was infuriating but also so sweet and easy to surrender in order to placate the craving eating her from the inside; the same craving the woman fed her with each rub stroking her front wall adding pressure to her uncontrollable pulse.
A hand landed on her quivering thigh. Squeezing possessively.
The woman’s hot breath crackled against Opal’s mouth falling open, joining her panting turning the room in a dense mist. Between the CEO’s thick eyebrows a frown cut, disappearing underneath the blindfold while the length crammed amidst her core twitched.
It was then the girl realized she wasn’t just avidly lapping her clit on the woman’s crotch; her folds were also rubbing against Kuvira’s thumping swells, bloated with pleasure… contracting with want. The woman was basking their sexes rocking together the same way the grinding was bringing Opal already so close.
Fuck..
She couldn’t help it. She wanted this so bad she didn’t even have a moment to worry about the mess spilling out of her wetness since breathing suddenly wasn’t sufficient anymore. Opal grasped and slapped the broad shoulders again but it was too late to stop the impelling urge to burst, thriving inside like a fever and taking control over her senses the faster they moved until they bleared as her peak struck in.
Twinkles of electricity.
When her laden eyes refocused the watch’s chain sneaking out the CEO’s vest gleamed each time it swung against her bare inner thigh. Cold. Its dulled tingling resounded with the shameless sloshing of her soaked pussy, the slapping of their bodies colliding restlessly.
Another spasm.
Her head felt weightless enough to fall back at the sensation although her climax overpowered her stimuli to a general numbness.
Her back ached against something hard and uncomfortable.
A pair of lips flared on her exposed neck, tracing kisses wherever the warm panting wasn’t scorching, damping her skin. As she looked above, Kuvira was still blinded but growling. Feral.
Pearls of sweat now dripped down her temple, sticking several strands escaped from the tight hairstyle the harder she fucked her.
From those hairs tickling over her cheeks, Opal noticed the grasp bruising her hips, dragged off of the piano’s keyboard to slam against the CEO’s lap. Her thighs rippled around the woman’s hips turning messy rubs into wild needy plunges, slumping fast into her deepest parts once again. There, where the orgasm’s trails powerfully reverberated.
Kuvira…
Before Opal’s instinct moved her mouth to soothe the woman’s seized jaw for a kiss, her inner muscles tightly fluttered, triggering what lasted of the bliss’s aftershock, until Kuvira’s shaft stilled and the second after, an unbearable emptiness dwindled the stretch it exerted. The loss made every part of Opal quiver and mourn the satiating swarming to the point in her throat a lump knotted. Although, it was there, Kuvira seemed to find shelter, fitting to her neck to hide meanwhile Opal timidly wandered a hand down between the woman’s thighs to envelop the swell of her balls in her palm. At the simple contact they felt heavy and overinflated, probably even sore because the long groan the CEO tried to choke down sounded more like a deep sigh heating Opal’s neck. It took just a few kneads before Kuvira squirmed, pumping wildly since sliding off of her slit until hot spurts splashed copiously over the girl’s inner thigh.
Opal couldn’t help but wail, feeling Kuvira’s hot seed went wasted, wishing that thick stream flooded so deep inside her that it would leak out for hours, days after, so this sense of belonging could linger for much.. much longer. Mine…
If this is what it felt like to make love to Kuvira, Opal wasn’t sure she could ever get over it. To stop craving to take care of the woman’s frailest side while letting her lead her soul into ecstasy.
No matter how she’d deny it, after tonight it was evident how selfless Kuvira always have been and not only with her. Everywhere the businesswoman went, someone gazed at her with an admiration skimming the fondness and although the sentiment was beautiful and genuine, knowing at the end of the day the CEO still chose to come home with her, made pride swell up in Opal’s chest. She knew she didn’t and could never belong to the woman but persisting into that illusion for another night wouldn’t hurt, right?
She just wanted to hold Kuvira close for a while more and breathe her in until part of their essences blended into one.
Slowly a pair of thin lips caressed her neck, up to the jaw and cheek till the girl crunched to capture them into a kiss. Softly, Opal’s upper brim glided over the woman’s bottom one in sign of gratitude and soon she was revered with the same kindness. The same soothing, fleeting joy….
The bench screeched as the businesswoman’s flumped back into it. Against Kuvira’s, her mouth widened into a smile when she felt cradled closer… closer, so close her skin wished to melt in that heaven. Albeit, an impulse roared inside with a very specific request.
Her hands ran through the onyx strands, relishing their silkiness while freeing them from the tight bun before untangling the blindfold and when she did… oh, when she did, the most breathtaking emeralds flickered open upon her.
As soon as peering into Kuvira’s soul, warmth flourished within Opal’s chest. Something inexplicable, beyond those irises glinted with disarming insistence under the moonlight and she couldn’t muster how that sight alone could both unravel and lull her spirit every single time.
Raava.. if she could see me right now for what I really am.. but the thought alone snapped her palms to cup the businesswoman’s face in terror.
“Vira..”
The woman frowned, perhaps reacting to her slight panic but when ferns held hers to earn a reassurance, another thought visibly emerged from her expression.
“The first time you called me like that on the elevator it upset me.” Kuvira’s husked voice scratched after a while “Nobody ever called me that aside my mother”
“I’m sorry.. I’ll stop usi—”
“Never stop” the woman’s heaving calmed in the wind. Then cleared her throat while averting her stare “If the answer still matters… I don’t miss my parents anymore. I spent too much time on despising what they did and if as kid I thought about reaching out to them to throw back all the pain they gave me, now they don’t exist to me.”
“They casted me away when i was five years old.” then whispered, “i was just a monster born with a deformation for them.”
Opal frowned, “Your sex isn’t a deformation. You are not a monster”
“Their voices, their faces... they are just fog. I can’t even remember my father’s last name and nowadays i have no idea what kind of person my mother would be. So it doesn’t matter what she used to call me.” her intense stare darkened as it glided into hers anew, “It only matters the way it sounds between your lips, now…”
Air hitched in the girl’s lungs, her chest. But perhaps it wasn’t just her breath; perhaps it wasn’t just her heartbeat fueling the inflammation of swelling tears up to her eyes, blurring Kuvira’s petrol green gems into blotches of black stars or moving her need to pull the woman’s face into hers.
Opal just.. just…“Vira.. Vira… Vira..” her lips brushed on thin ones before being captured, pushed, lured back for another glide, another skim and then again and again until they sealed. Her voice was definitely stolen while those simple kisses fluttered in waves to expand into an overwhelming tidal bore twisting every doubt left in truth.
What made the girl flare up wasn’t that new revelation but how the following stare died at the mention.
Now like in the middle of the stairs, Opal could read in Kuvira’s eyes the fear of the faintest trail remained of Zaheer’s love for P’Li could be all the affection the woman would’ve known for the rest of her life.
That conviction was haunting the woman and the Spirits knew for how long.
It shattered Opal’s soul although this time she wasn’t pitying a loveless orphan, in this moment she understood how genuinely, purely she wanted to keep Kuvira safe.
Nothing else mattered.
Tomorrow would have been another day, probably full of doubts and regrets towards this assertion but right now, by the way Kuvira held her close, Opal felt unshakable and complete.
With the same confidence, her hands moved on to Kuvira’s shirt to undo each button and before they reached the vest, the music student was boosted up. Their kiss slackened.
Swift tread along the creaking parquet filled Opal’s ears and on her back a cold softness then awakened.
Her sight found the gloom of another room and apparently, Kuvira laid her on a bed. Once helping her slid the dress, she sat up and tugged down the woman’s jacket, pulling part of the shirt off of the shoulders with it. The expanse of newly uncovered flesh was enough to claim her short nails and mouth, smearing kisses on the smooth back. Salty. Musky pine. And then Opal stopped; panting.
“The very first time I saw you I was around seven.” the girl whispered “You were so focused on following your training it seemed nothing else existed for you. I remember admiring you from afar, through a glass and asked my dad if i could do stuff like you too. The way you moved inspired me to do so many things throughout my entire life, even because.. the majority of my time was spent at home playing with dolls, reading books. You always have been an earthquake cracking down all the clusters in my life. Back then, dad used to bring me around with the excuse of attending appointments and it was thus he lead me to you. I didn’t know who Zaheer was, i was a child but I remember him talking to my father. I remember him pointing at you: «she isn’t the kind of person life puts in your path when it wants to reward you but when it wants to save you.» he said,” she breathed out.
Then whispered.
"«Kuvira, my daughter.»”
In the dark, Opal never saw Kuvira crying.
Warm tears simply rolled down her spine, competing with shivers in an endless race.
.
Chapter 15: Chapter thirteen
Notes:
Every “Once more to see you” by Mitski reference was totally intentional so don’t @ at me 💀 i love that song.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
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.
In the window’s reflection, a new day’s sun set on Opal’s nape.
It peaked mild and uncertain throughout the vaporous clouds and although it warned about an incoming rain, its presence now warmed like a promise.
The slumber was letting Kuvira’s mind free to play with those newborn rays creating illusions with the girl’s short curl, leased to roam between unconsciousness and dreams in daylight at the rhythm of Opal’s faint snoring. She must’ve felt particularly tired after yesterday’s eventfulness yet Kuvira was getting used to wake up to early morning little noises and a limp body weighing entirely on her.
The woman heaved, allowing the movement of her sinking chest stroke a cheek against Opal’s puffy one. So soft…
Dwell into the student’s comforting presence was extremely easy. Warm but never scorching. Sweet without fearing a potential toothache.
It was just as simple as spending the night together, letting tears stream down Opal’s back, the same tears repressed for years to flaunt her strength only to realize the real strength resided in being free to sob into the girl’s arms for hours.
Because to be bare and helpless in front of Opal was another kind of vulnerability; an undiscovered one. An exposure the student’s gentle caresses tacitly taught Kuvira to not be ashamed about until they lulled her to a peaceful sleep.
It felt strange now. She couldn’t help but hesitate within the girl’s acceptance. Opal’s tenderness was a safe harbor to her boat wrecked by many tempests but how was she supposed to behave in this golden solace? What was she supposed to do? Nobody, not even Zaheer ever taught her how to receive this kind of warmth without fucking it up. Was he scared before losing P’Li? Or was it just her thing since being denied of love and acceptance from her own parents?
After all, Kuvira had been the repudiated one, casted away as if her life wasn’t worth much more than a street rat’s and now? Opal didn’t run away when she opened about stuff not even her best friend knew about.
Instead, the girl stayed. In the student’s comforting caresses she even felt the girl’s heed and attentiveness to prevent any possible embarrassment and Kuvira was beyond grateful for it.
It was incredible the least person to set foot in her life was the one who actually rooted out such implanted belief off of her heart with a treasured reminiscence. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense Opal knew her from so long and yet, for a reason or another, it blowed her mind to know the girl ever talked to her father.
Father… grieving Zaheer was a diurnal task; quiet and revered the way his life was cherished, and hearing his words now, far less from Opal’s mouth after all this time..
The said girl whimpered in her sleep and only after releasing her muscles, Kuvira recognized how tightly she was squeezing closer the petite body even if Opal didn’t seem to complain, nuzzling further into her neck and up to her chin in search of something.
The very first instinct was to dive into Opal’s lips and Kuvira had no intention to repress that urge back the deeper that softness folded her own.
The girl mewled again and pushed further into her mouth, breathing upon her divot almost as if gasping for air so the woman withdrew just a bit off of the pillowy lips to let her.
That however, didn’t seem Opal’s intention.
Heavily, indeed, a palm landed on the woman’s cheek; clumsier than a voluntary slap, ungracious like a sleepy movement could normally be, yet she had no time to groan in pain before being dragged into a kiss once again.
The taste of slumber plastering their lips together wasn’t exactly a minty one, although Kuvira found it intoxicating the sloppier they smeared as one, until her tongue could find Opal’s. The CEO’s breath slackened at the slick union and let a hand roam around the student’s bob undercut to push her closer.
A slight throb awakened her length from its softness.
It would’ve taken way longer to feel fully rested after the previous day drained all her energy and it was in fact still awfully early but it seemed not even her exhaustion could prevent her body from reacting.
Even if the girl was still mainly asleep as well, she kissed slow and shamelessly, with such heated impetuosity the businesswoman would need a chair if she wasn’t already laying.
Soft nipples stroke between the swells of Kuvira’s breasts at each breath while a melting hotness barely smudged just above her thigh, proving to be enough to feel it dangerously drooling down to her base, triggering another throb.
Short strands tickled among her knuckles whichever the kiss progressed into newer, deeper angulations encouraged by the change of position their bodies took as she spun the girl above to settle onto her side. After all, the fire a mere contact with Opal’s bare skin was enough to fuel Kuvira’s spirit with a verve the slumberous sensation had quietened. Even if, waking up savoring the student’s curves and leaks revealed to be not exactly helpful the moment the blissful proximity blurred the woman’s consciousness, the necessary to let her instincts prevail.
“More” the girl drawled after her emboldening nibble left Kuvira’s bottom lip throbbing. It dared her to squeeze the student closer, puffing Opal’s delicate breasts up against her firmer ones in the process, before her hands roamed down the curve of the girl’s spine to the valley of her lower back until the mounds of her plump cheeks filled Kuvira’s palms. The exquisite grip on the girl’s flesh allowed each tamed knead making the woman’s hips buck forward eagerly; the further her digits delved into the smooth rear, the needier her length stirred, impatient between their bodies.
Grudgingly, after a while she released the grasp to let a hand slide lower to follow the cheek’s roundedness and the fact Opal’s thigh was pushed all the way around her hip, gave a wider access to her curiosity to reach out for what was hidden below.
Right there, with the back of her thumb she found the slickness between the student’s swollen lips, letting a knuckle curve at the entrance pressed close before sliding up the hooded clit. She kept the movement slow, repeating it to drink at the stream of whimpers that idle teasing provoked, gathering her wetness until pressing deeper inside became effortless. So effortless she had to replace the thumb with the index, throughly plunging in the tight channel to caress its front pad. The girl sunk into her neck and panted.
“You are taking my fingers so well… so warm..” she husked against Opal’s ear after adding the middle one, “already so drenched… what were you dreaming of, to make you drip all over me, huh? You are making such a mess”
Opal’s grasp on her arm tightened.
“You make me want to fill you with everything i have” Kuvira whispered, basking in the way those dense words filled her own mouth whilst she kept on thrusting inside the clenching slit; slowly out, swiftly in. “But i need to prepare you first so I won’t hurt you like yesterday”
Teeth sunk into the woman’s neck before a pair of lips sucked in the freshly bitten skin. Opal was shy and delicate but growing desperate for the woman’s pride sake, whom rejoiced to discern what kind of effect she had on the student to leave a sign of her pleasure. She smirked and hoped it was deep enough too embed a mark in the next days for everyone to see.
The girl’s thighs quivered open even wider to let her palm join the tease and although the angulation made it hard to fully hit the bundle of nerves, Kuvira was sure every slap half landed on the inner thigh reverberated on the clit as well.
It was evident in her whimpers and mewls growing louder; by the impetuosity Opal used to claw her arm and painfully scratch her back whenever a shock of pleasure hit the student’s system.
Under many aspects after all, Kuvira couldn’t help but identify Opal’s pleasure as her own.
She was indeed enjoying way too much the plethora of different noises provoked by the idle glide of her fingers alone, drawing vicious moans off of the student’s mouth to steam up on her neck and blend in her ears with the rousing splotching. The fact that the girl’s belly occasionally bumped against the rest of her length was, obviously, a delicious addition.
“Please,” the girl wailed, reaching for her working wrist “don’t let me come like this”
Kuvira’s thrusts slackened but gained strength. “No, baby?” she feigned innocence the douser her hand became after each brawny slam and smirked. “What do you want then?”
Opal’s muscles palpitating to cling around her fingers revealed perfectly what she needed, how close she actually was to reaching her peak and by the Spirits, there wasn’t a part in the woman that wished to stop not even if begged too. Not even for those nails throbbing in her wrist.
She had to keep. She had to. She was despairing to see the student spasm for her touch until Opal herself caught her face with both hands. Two olivine pools disclosed below her sight.
“Take me… p-please… i want you. I want you!”
The woman frowned upon the glazed stare. “You have me, Opal. You have all of me” she swore once finding the glowing desire behind the wonder of the girl’s eyelids. Only then her hand escaped the sweet trap between tender thighs to hold the girl closer for dear life. It was still drenched but it didn’t matter.
Her mouth landed on the pillowy one just a glimpse away and sighed in the kiss full of gratitude for every Spirit and Goddess conspiring to bring Opal to her because there was no other way to explain why such bliss decided to grace her life if not gifted by the eternity itself.
Their lips glided in a restless rhythm interrupted exclusively by the need to lavish the slumber’s sweet aftertaste still lingering on the girl’s bottom brim before getting caught and sucked.
It was then time froze: at the brush of Opal’s tongue against hers; at the caresses of her body enveloping around the woman’s in search of warmth and protection and thus the sun rays painted the clouds’ low, glowing stripes in red when she slid into Opal.
The student gaped and furrowed violently in what Kuvira hoped to be pleasure before leaning over to disappear around her neck.
She didn’t exactly know what this could feel like for Opal but for her, even just fitting the tip inside the girl has always been an extraordinary moment. It was by the way the ring of muscles braced, making the first unsealing almost impossible, prohibited until Opal actually allowed to push through the unyielding grasp and after popping the head in, every particle of air was stolen from the woman’s lungs.
The first scratch on her back was earned when her hips eagerly jerked forward but the fact was Kuvira couldn’t help it.
Her auto-control has always been adamant but damnit. The pull of Opal’s velvet folds exerted around her girth was exactly as she remembered it to be: intense enough to draw her shaft out.
It took a few assessing thrusts to feel the girl mellow around her hardness, enough to slowly accept some more inches in, engulfing the vessels underneath her thin skin.
Kuvira whimpered, basking in the heavenly pressure while threading through the girl’s short tangles, wondering if Opal could feel those veins pulse with desire as well; if she loved this as much as she did, if this was okay.. is she okay?
“Is this okay?” she heaved, way breathier than expected against the girl’s covered temple as attempting another slightly deeper thrust. On her back, Opal’s fingers clawed in response.
“Vira..”
“Tell me” the woman encouraged, caressing some plastered locks off of the student’s blushing cheeks before stilling her hips to withdraw just enough and meet her eyes.
“Here…” a small hand caught hers to wander down the cram of their bodies until Opal placed it right below her own belly button. Kuvira frowned, carefully checking for irregularities only to find the smooth skin.
“What’s wrong? Am I hurting you?” she inquired, shifting on top to get a better view of the whole situation but aside a soft panting, Opal seemed… fine?
“N-no.. it’s just—ah.. you are in me so deep… i can feel you in my belly like this…” her hand was pushed further “can you feel it?”
Kuvira’s tension released till a smug smile grew on her face.
So that was it, huh? I’m not even all the way in…“I can stop if you want” she suggested while the urge to feel her length faintly nudging inside the squirming girl had the best of her.
“No!” Opal moaned, “N-no, please keep! I just never..”
“Never had it so deep?”
The girl’s head shook as her puffy cheeks sparkled in vivid red “Only you”
By the Spirits… Kuvira couldn’t repress the fiery urge to dive into Opal and kiss her once again and again, slotting their tongue together as she began to build up a languid pace, fluidly waving over the girl engraving her into the softest trap in return.
She loved the way Opal’s squishy thighs folded around her and even more the feeling of her back being scratched whenever she dared for more. A deeper glide. A greedier touch. A swirl of tongue.
The fiercer she was enclosed, the easier it felt to be part of the girl. It was that simple, natural; making love to Opal was all about complicity, care, about giving her an extra coat, holding her under her apartment, watching her eat with taste; to fuel her fire and catching her freezing hand from destroying something. About listening to her reminiscing… her twitching button nose, her chiming laugh, her tears, her moans.
They spent so little time together and yet Opal’s presence was already predominant in her life, essential even. She was at the mercy of a tiny brat and she wanted to tell her, it was on the edge of her tongue but when Kuvira pulled out from the kiss she had to rest on the girl’s cheek to pant for air.
Opal was squeezing her member so hard sometimes digging further into her slit was difficult if it wasn’t for the amount of arousal dripping out the girl’s folds like pure honey to stick around her enlarging girth.
“Ease” the woman moaned, but the girl’s ragged breath against her lobe was intense and gave away the imminent pleasure threatening to overwhelm her.
How could she miss that? Opal was rippling so hard.
“I’m close…” she wailed.
So Kuvira took her cues. She lingered for few more instants in the prideful feeling of her sunken cock jabbing up the girl’s belly before moving her hand from there to finally grasp Opal’s thigh. The other instead soared above them to hook up the headboard top, using it to speed up the plunges’ pace.
That was how the student’s moans got way louder, filling the room rhythmically as the CEO growled at those nails digging deeper into her back, her rear, prompting her to keep rolling her hips until the inevitable burst seemed to strike Opal still.
“Kuvira!” the girl’s shout ringed directly into her eardrum before feeling teeth draw blood from her neck.
Kuvira’s eyes rolled up as she tried to numb herself at the very fraught, intense feeling in order to prevent the pounding need contracting her low abdomen prevailing on her control.
Her hips however buckled, falling into an irregular tempo because coaxing the girl’s climax was just that arresting, engaging till dragging her out of ministrations too.
When the businesswoman collected the strength to sit on her knees and catch breath, Opal’s back arched onto the mattress. Her chest rose up below hers as her head dug deeper into the soft headboard. Her hand instead fell to caress the student’s bare throat; sweat pearls gleamed at the morning light like melting chocolate under Kuvira’s sight.
The mounds’ soft peak twinkled at each gentle thrust, each rise and fall. Mesmerizing in a hypnotizing loop, a compromising dance, drawing her palm to roam and rest at the velvet valley to feel its murmurs.
She kept thrusting slowly, enjoying the jounces they caused and the sensation of her length being lavished thoroughly and avidly sucked into such pressure.
The student’s thighs shrunk painfully around her hips, seizing her as the rhythm built up again with eager roughness.
Her whole body yearned this intensity, yearned Opal’s with feverish exigency as if it was hers and each lounge was meant to ram them into one. Mine.
The liquifying pleasure at this point was flooding copiously around her girth, on her balls, pulsing the same way the scorching lips tightly clamped her base, accompanied by the clit’s pulses.
At the increasing intensity though, claws stabbed her love handles.
The student crunched up. Two glazed gems threw open before her, raw with lust, screaming directly into the void of her mind, stealing Kuvira away from the world only to shatter into a soundless reality where the girl’s mouth trembled open to sign the explosion of another orgasm. Or perhaps another peak of the prior.
Below her knees the whole bed quavered with Opal as if actively planning to tear it apart. A frantic heartbeat tackled Kuvira’s palm but it was the girl’s livid expression crossed by an engrossing vein between knitted brow what warned her, Opal stopped breathing.
The woman’s hips stilled. The student’s cheeks burned in her eager hands.
“Calm down,” she panted “breathe with me”
Then patted lightly and attempted to blow air directly on her mouth without occluding nor weighing above her chest and slowly, the purplish shades darkening Opal’s face cleared into the usual bronze. She was following her breathing but her small hands, now over hers, were still shaking.
Eventually, Kuvira turned her attention on them, cupping both before her mouth to glide it gently among each knuckles, curled fingers and sliding down the sweaty palms.
Opal’s fists unfastened only when the trembling decreased and beyond the gaps, the student’s peridots shimmered in the first light of the day with deep fondness.
Kuvira didn’t exactly understand what else hid behind the golden flickering of her eyes but she was sure the girl’s heart pounded full and so was hers to treasure such precious moment.
“Don’t let me go. Please… please” on the other side of her own fingers the girl sobbed; her lips were close enough for her breath to sneak betwixt and condense on the woman’s mouth. Kuvira’s heart beat louder and on her behalf, she then heaved and whispered to seal her word. “I won’t”
What came after wasn’t precisely conducted by logic nor instinct. Kuvira leaned even closer to sink her lips on each tiny palm before grazing them against the thumbs’ gap to reach Opal’s in solemn acceptance. A gentle request to worship her further as the girl slithered hands around her face to allow the kiss.
Those may have been simple gestures but there was a special kind of reverence in each caress, in their breathing fusing together.
They went on until the kiss was followed by the rest of their bodies; the girl below her moved in waves and Kuvira was nothing but the foreshore gathering the current impassioned.
For once she felt the one blinded by the frenziness and let Opal take command of her impulses, rolling her on a side before slowly landing on the back. Once the student was on top she ended the kiss to straddle her lap; the woman caught how the petit body began to shake anew while hesitation clouded her soft expression.
Kuvira slid a palm below the messy bang to dry the student’s forehead, to fall toward the neck, the collarbone until it reached the flat between her tiny swinging breasts.
“Breathe out.” then said and nodded when underneath her hand she felt the girl’s chest deflect “You know how to please me, Opal. Let yourself go and keep looking me in the eyes.”
After a few nods and a bite to her own lip, the girl’s hands landed on the woman’s abs where her fire burned to burst out the most, more so when the student began to support on it to swipe further down her length with a gasp. From there, the view offered was simply magnificent. A white sheer of pleasure accumulated around the ring of their junction at each slow thrust but what gave a twitch to her stiffness was to find out the fluid had spread all over Opal’s dark swollen folds as well. Pearling the clit on top.
All that cum dripped, plastered and smeared everywhere splash after splash in magnetizing ways, provoking the lecherous sound to rebound thousands time lou—
“—W-what are you looking at?”
“You, us… the way your lips crease as i stretch them apart and the pressure, babygirl…” she panted, brushing the bouncing breast with a thumb “you are taking my breath away,”
“—Like this?” Opal purred innocently while her slit squeezed her shaft so tight, Kuvira’s first reflex was to grasp both thighs.
“Opal...” her eyes rolled in pleasure but as soon as recoiling she spanked the student when she noticed her mouth was curled in a gaped smirk. She is enjoying this way to much. What a vixen...
“Were you riding me like this in your dream?”
The girl tutted, sliding up and down calmly “You were… forcing me against a wall and.. kept filling me deep until it ran down my thighs and my belly was warm.. so full of your..” she wailed and buckled when Kuvira’s hips prodded up. The girl’s small hand grasped the woman’s as she crumbled down towards her breasts until the warm panting brushed on them in a whispered plea, “will you.. ah.. inside…?”
Kuvira let her free hand wander through the short hair tangles covering the student’s face completely until the soft cheek puffed below her fingers and with a gentle tilt up, the green gems pierced into hers. Lust was glazing them and she couldn’t help but feel proud of the puddle of mess she made of the girl with a simple jolt even if it wasn’t fully intentional. It was instinctive to react while hearing such wicked things coming from such naive mouth, more so when her instinct already craved to fuck Opal until drainage.
“I will if you keep milking my cock like this, babygirl”
“I want to” the girl mewled, nuzzling against her touch; her eyes then narrowed, gleaming “I want you”
A chill rolled down Kuvira’s back. With a push the student’s mouth was an inch away from hers. “Say it again” she husked but she didn’t let the girl start the sentence before sprinting to claim her lips. She gave another prod up and another, a little bit deeper, harder and Opal gasped onto her mouth.
Like that, she put effort on settling a faster pace, encouraging the girl’s little bounces down her member by pushing her rear. Whenever Opal sunk lower, her fingers buried deeper into her flesh to help her linger there. The tendrils’ of her abs rippled continuously at the consuming feeling, triggering a churn whenever a lunge earned a certain firmness proving how hard the girl yearned for this as well. She was close but the wish to savor their complicity for longer was even more demanding.
So the woman tried to focus on Opal’s lips grazing on hers until she was unable to reply the kiss to moan while thousands of feathery ones descended on her set jawline and neck, turning into scorching laps and sucks.
If Kuvira could die in that moment she’d go straight to the heavenlier spot in the afterworld with the lie that Opal Beifong, even just for a fraction of a second, felt something for her.
Whenever her eyes slid open, the music student was around, all over and inside her thrilling pulse. At this point, stopping her hips from rolling up to beat up the slick core was impossible, hitting powerfully because she had no other way to express how much she wanted her too; Spirits she needed her more than anything and Opal had to know it.
The mattress creased under her pushing heels, propping her rear up to strengthen every thrust, beginning a ruthless pace that provoked the girl’s moans to turn into screams. Splats, creaking bed.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!” Opal shouted on her sternum, palming her breast.
Beyond her pleasure she recognized the student’s attempt to lavish the nipple closer to her face while the other thrived under soft kneads, until pain folded Kuvira’s nape.
When she relaxed it though, the woman didn’t expect to face the window beside the bed.
Nonetheless the morning was about to bloom, the sky got gloomier on those four seconds she spent to stare at it upside down, shuddering at each thrust with vicious pleasure.
They were about to fall from the bed but it didn’t matter anymore. Not if Opal melted so deliciously on her cock while finding a way to maul her breasts oh so sweetly, she couldn’t help but fasten an arm around the student’s shoulders to keep her closer.
Feeling the lavish pull on her nipple as well, not only converged arousal to bloat her base thumping for release but to her chest too, warming it before the girl’s terrified gaze made it pound.
“We are falling!” the student’s high pitched surprise warned as on her back - already halfway down the bedside - small hands were thrown to hold her up. The friction Opal’s hips caused at the shift, however, jammed her cock in a new angulation, even tighter, till she saw stars.
Precum leaked, falling on her pulsing balls, hotly tracing down the curve of her tensed ass.
“Let us. I got you” Kuvira grunted, squeezing the girl’s shoulders “Almost there.”
From this angulation she noticed how easy it was to brush the girl’s swollen clit as hitting against the seal of her womb and the lesser they inched from the floor, the harsher Opal’s cries ringed. She was close too; her pussy was rippling restlessly and her stare was liquified by the overpowering bliss, reflecting her desperate one whenever they weren’t both screwing their eyes closed.
“Tell me. Say how bad you want to be filled.” her hips rutted forward furiously gaining an hammering pace and each time, her inner thighs slapped Opal’s bouncing ass. Hard. Loud.
“Please -Ah! Come in my pussy. Make it yours.” yes. Mine. My pussy. Let me claim it. Let me—
Her mouth hung loose. A lung-shattering cry clogged in her throat as contracting her abs feverishly, staring into Opal’s soul as she did the same.
Kuvira’s back was all the way arched over the edge of the bed when she began to thrust cum in, blasting thick floods directly into the girl’s deepest spot. Upside down the world was blurred, she was sure blood was fluxing down to her head but it only helped the pure ecstasy linger and although Opal was milking her until numbness, Kuvira wanted to keep spilling rope after rope of seed as long as her swells drained.
“Thank you.. thank you.. thank you!” Opal screamed in loop, sometimes crackling her voice with a frantic jolt and each time the woman was thanked, the sound filled her chest with pride. The soft carpet dulled the hit like a soft hug around her head, her back, when they eventually fell but she cradled the girl tighter to protect her into her chest, almost scared she could fly or dissolve in the steamy ether, leaving her gasping into the hollowness she was used to live in.
Opal instead clutched and dwindled into her arms now whimpering, still spasming in her orgasm the same way her member twitched with every slackening lunge until the CEO trembled to a stop. Finally spent.
Tiredness leaden her limbs aside for her heart beating fiercely as if healing itself, now free to synch with the one above and making her wonder if it would ever tire of being filled with so much...
“I’ve never been thanked before” Kuvira whispered in her panting. That fact somehow got her chuckling now, but it was honestly adorable coming from Opal. She felt lucky.
When her sight dropped on her own chest, however, the girl’s face reddened behind the bang until it buried between the woman’s breast and bicep.
“Hey.. what’s going on? Why so shy?”
“I..” Opal sighed “I’m not used to this. Us.. like this and.. Spirits… you, you…” Kuvira’s ferns reflected into clear pools before those closed and averted. “The first time you came inside me was… unexpected but now..” the girl smiled disappearing into her gap again. Then her short bob wobbled side to side “Never mind, it’s stupid”
“It’s not.”
The girl grunted the embarrassment, shaking her head again until it stilled when Kuvira palmed it, enjoying the silkiness gathering her fingers threading through hairs. She had no intention to push Opal regarding something so delicate. She was confident about this topic and if her assertiveness could give Opal the space to express her hesitation safely, then she’d be the surest.
A pair of lips tackled against her side boob until the student’s timid tone vibrated on it.
“Having your… cum inside me feels right, like…”
Go on.
“..belonging..“ the girl’s stare locked into hers.
“I only had sex with a guy before you, my ex boyfriend and it was nothing alike. W-we were close, yes but never this close and naked and vulnerable and i…” she snorted shyly “never really came but tried to take care of his.. pleasure you know? Not that he didn’t try the same for me but.. I couldn’t. There was always some kind of shame stopping me from enjoying or even going on.. and now with you.. The way you make me feel, Kuvira… I can’t even describe it.” she ended up whispering, resting a cheek on her bicep.
The CEO’s eyes narrowed, filled with tenderness and awe in front of such beauty before brushing strands behind the girl’s exposed ear and explained “We take care of each other.”
Opal nodded softly, “Y-yes and it’s.. so easy..” so full filling. The complicity they achieved was indeed beyond everything the woman ever experienced and knowing that this was the same for the girl…
“—Kuvira” the woman’s heart pounded loudly at the mention, momentarily distracted caressing down the student’s peachy cheek to trace with a thumb the crinkles of her fleshy lips. When her eyes rose up to hold the waiting, expecting gaze again, Opal kept. “Would it be okay if i.. we kissed more often?”
Kuvira gaped ready to answer but something told her to swallow it down and give a curt nod instead. She’d never be the one stepping away from a kiss, but Opal? Yesterday she was afraid of being mistaken for my girlfriend and now?
“What..” the student asked meekly. Furrowing.
“Nothing, it sounds.. funny after what we just had”
“Come on,” Opal’s cheeks flared “you know what i mean!”
“You know that’s my breast you’re hiding into?” the CEO’s brow quirked up in tease causing panic to light up in the doe eyes. Kuvira snorted and grasped that crimson face closer to collect the student’s lips in a kind, sealing kiss. She took lungfuls of cinnamon enjoying the boundless softness once more and drank the girl’s little whimpering, her slit squeezing in reaction until she withdrew to place a peck below the bang.
“You can kiss me whenever you desire as long as I can do the same” then whispered. And she meant it.
She liked Opal; it wasn’t just a thought created in the heat of the moment, even if making love with her had been engraving that concept even stronger in her mind. In her chest.
She liked Opal Beifong since the very first step she took in the elevator with her; everything else denying that was just a bland excuse since never liking someone scared her. Because… how much will it hurt to fall for someone who doesn’t?
Opal mocked her about it the night before and Kuvira glided her pain with a laugh but she genuinely wanted to know.
If she wants to kiss me more though, it might mean something?
The morning’s young light skimmed all over the girl’s frame like a warm blanket as she sat upon her lap with a purr, leaning back on Kuvira’s legs still draped on the bed. She mentally connected it was yet incredibly early but as she contemplated the girl stretching backwards, the woman lost herself, dazzled by the softness of each shape exposed comfortably, confidently even. So lovely, she couldn’t refrain the impulse to venerate the fullness of Opal’s small bosoms, warm upon her palm, her gentle kneads till reaching the belly filled up with her passion.
“Are you sure you could take this?” she thought out loud.
“Yes, I’m on birth control, no worries! Besides, i’m not looking forward to become a mommy, you know” the girl chuckled timidly, placing a hand over her own lingering in caresses.
“Why no?”
“I’m worried i won’t be a good mom.” she shrugged and smiled sadly, “The current situation with my family isn’t exactly easy and I wouldn’t get much help from them right now. I would be alone in the middle of my studies and.. I can’t really assure my hypothetical kid a good life if I can’t even take care of my own, or my.. problems and traumas in the first place. I’m not talking economically but mentally and I don’t want to ruin their lives with my unresolved issues. Babies needs someone strong with a steady presence to grow up with, I guess..”
“True, I completely share your point. Babies are not toys nor whims you can get rid of once they misbehave or show problems but a lifelong responsibility made in two and i’d fully take mine if the time ever comes. But don’t forget babies also need a certain kind of tenderness and comprehension you naturally have, little one.” her tone softened as threading fingers with Opal’s. Raava, what is she doing to me? “You would never be alone.”
“Kuvira Laghima, are you seriously asking me to give you a baby?”
“No—”
“—While your dick is still inside me!” the student’s accusation thrilled in the room with their chuckles and yet, her mellow length twitched as the girl gave a squeeze to assert her point before Kuvira patted her thigh and snorted.
”Stop that brat, if you don’t want to be bred again”
“Okay, but well,” Opal’s tone sweetened as she lowered on her torso with a candid smile still propping up her cheeks “maybe now i want you to, because even if I probably won’t be a good mom i’m sure you’ll be the best one for both”
Something deep inside Kuvira sparkled.
Those words warmly breathed on her lips, the blissful feeling of her hair being combed away from her face were lulling her in a state of unquantifiable serenity. Of pride. She couldn’t describe the shiver rising goosebumps up her nape; that was just too beautiful to be real… .
Her brows fell to furrow “Are you pitying me for being an orphan?”
The student’s eyes widened. Mortified. “W-wha….” then pouted, understanding the bluff only when the CEO hinted a smirk. “Does being an asshole usually works with girls?”
“Only the ones who are interested in me.”
Slap. Her shoulder tackled.
“Don’t say that” Opal chortled, wobbling comically above her lilting chest.
“Why?” Kuvira kept in her tittering “Because i’m right?” and nonetheless the girl was still smiling, her peridots rolled up.
Here we are again.
The woman wet her lip. The amusement measuredly dissolved into a denser atmosphere grasping heavily around her heart. Why does it have to be so difficult for her? Why can’t she just say it?
“Really Opal, why are you so afraid to admit it?” she murmured after the student settled down between her breasts again but this time, her stare was nowhere to be found. Kuvira didn’t sigh, didn’t try to make it remotely harder for Opal by making her feel guilty in any way but this detachment gripped her heart even tighter. She couldn’t stand it although she couldn’t help herself caressing the girl’s head.
“Listen,” she said looking up at the ceiling “I’m sorry. It’s not my intention to push you to say anything but I’m really trying my best to prove to you I won’t screw this up as you may have heard at Korra’s gym. I don’t want to play with you. I’m serious and I genuinely care to understand your point of view in regard. I’m just asking for some clarity…”
“Vira, no.. i do understand, don’t get me wrong,” the girl fretted, collecting her face. Her peridots were big, heavy with worry and something… deep “I get how frustrating this is for you too and I’m sorry. I’m just freaking out so bad about saying specific things out loud. I wish I could be braver and say.. many things to you. Things you deserved to know way earlier but it’s just… so complicated.”
“Try me. I’ll do my best to understand.” she whispered after helping them fall on a side; Opal’s legs were both draped over her now folded ones on the cloudy carpet, helping them cradling even closer in the embrace face to face, still profoundly connected while the first drops of rain tapped on the roof.
“I’m terrified to destroy what we have.” the girl admitted in her frailest voice as if worried to break the gentle sound.
“Why would you ever think this?”
“Because I already did it with my parents”
Kuvira’s hand dawdled through the short bob, steadily affirming the girl that she was there no matter what fear and sorrow tormented her mind. “What happened?”
“I’m the cause of my parents not talking anymore...” Opal uttered below the thumping rain “My mom blames my father about something he has no blame about because I caused it.”
“He took the blame for you?”
“No, it’s not something that happened on purpose… nobody expected it; it just happened and my mother never put an effort to accept it. So because of me, my father is paying the consequences.”
The woman frowned, remembering full well Suyin’s words a week before. She called it ‘incompatibility’ and blamed it to be the reason why Opal rebelled. Yet, the girl was now expressing somehow the opposite: that she was the cause of it all in her own head and for this, Kuvira had to admit her therapist might’ve had a point right.
“I hope you’ll forgive my forwardness but if you want my opinion, this is not how it works. I’m not an expert, I don’t know the dynamics but I believe that no matter if you are the main topic of their contrast, it doesn’t mean you are the cause of it.” Kuvira explained, carefully noting the swell of tears glossing the student’s olivine. Her heart shrunk. “I’m terribly sorry if they ever had the courage to put this burden on you, if they even slightly made you think you are in the wrong or the reason of their problems. You are not. You are their daughter, their concern but their misunderstanding is only theirs.”
“It’s just.. my dad always tried to reassure me too but it’s not that simple. Kuvira, if I could tell you every time my mother..” she sobbed and dwindled pitifully “I’m sorry, I’m not trying to blame her. I love her so much, she didn’t deserve what I am”
A lump knotted sorely in the woman’s throat. After everything her mother had been doing, throwing her through the afterworld’s most painful steeps, there was an everlasting love and esteem in Opal’s tone, perpetual in the pearl of woe trailing down her red cheek.
How could she be so kind? How could her heart stay so tenderly golden while, facing such spite and rage fogged even Kuvira’s mind? She had the suspicion only the Spirts knew how deeply Suyin stabbed her own daughter with things Opal still bleeds for, probably never finding the strength to talk about them out loud this way because rooted painfully in the core of her beliefs but treasured like infrangible diamonds.
Will she ever tell me? Will she ever trust me enough to let them go?
“I can’t even imagine how difficult it must’ve been for you but it’s you who never deserved to be put in such situation between them.” her voice vanished in the ominous rainfall drumming chant, splattering against the glass like bullets. She folded the girl tighter and tried to calm down her fury by making Opal’s shudders and sobs her own.
“Every single day I wake up fighting to accept this reality with all this guilt in my chest and it’s so heavy, Kuvira… it’s so heavy it barely lets me breathe sometimes…” the woman’s sight blurred at the crinkling of that sweet chiming voice, while she fixed the student’s bang off of the way to cup and dry hot tears with her thumbs.
“Opal, look at me and listen carefully.” she professed, resting her forehead against the girl’s.
“This is not your fault.”
“Kuvi—“
“—It’s not your fault.”
“Please.. stop saying that.. you don’t know..” the girl gasped and shook, rebelling in her hold but then the small hands clutched hard around her wrist loosened up when she saw nothing would’ve moved the woman.
Kuvira knew it; below her tears the girl was scared. So damn scared…
“What you said is enough to me, Opal. I’m swearing to you heart in hand. Nothing will be destroyed because no matter the issue, we will face it. Together.” she pledged and the student’s chin quivered.
Big crystal pools held her stare, understandably dithering about believing her or not but for Kuvira there was no more doubt left.
Her thumb trailed the girl’s lip line before she replaced it with her own. Each beat pulsed between their sealing kiss, mixing together until she whispered in Opal’s ragged breath.
“I swear”
.
Notes:
Hey! Whether you’re celebrating something or not, I hope these days can be kind, peaceful and delightful to y’all ❤️!
Here’s my lilo (SMUTTY) gift and plenty of cookies, my buddies! 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪 c:
Chapter 16: Chapter fourteen
Notes:
Hey there! I’m not exactly satisfied with how this chapter turned out but i’m happy i got to post today c:
Enjoy, and if you wish, let me know what you think! ꕤ
Chapter Text
.
.
They made love again as soon as they came back to her apartment that late evening. Despite being strained by the travel, it had all the tenderness of the early morning, making Opal’s heart beat with passion again and again until the night pulled them in its peaceful dreams.
The day after Kai and Jinora couldn’t stop blowing up the group chat after she visited hand in hand with the CEO to take Juicy back home, both surprised and not to finally see them so close.
Kuvira had mocked her about it once alone at the park as Juicy enjoyed the crisp air and then teasing among the dusty shelves of the bookstore where she bought the poetry novel Opal had been waiting for so long. Once at home it was easy to sink in Kuvira’s caresses, laying her head upon her chest vibrating at each chiming rhyme read out loud; to bathe in the cold sun filling the small living room, to smile with Juicy cuddled up with them on the couch and although it was Monday, the businesswoman left for work only after enjoying a lunch together.
It had been incredibly difficult to let go. The way Kuvira was making Opal feel since she allowed her to, was beyond every happiness the girl ever had the luck to experience and it was so plentiful she wondered if her heart could be able to expand or explode, until the worry to witness the end of it, left her crying on the floor.
Juicy bumped his big nose against her cheek and she hugged him closer when the memory of Kuvira’s promise filled up her mind, warmly folding each fear left.
Above all, everything was going perfectly okay between them. A honeymoon, really.
It seemed strange since no matter if being with Kuvira could be both a pain and a bliss, Opal didn’t want to ever see the end of it.
It was scary too… but for once, not paying too much attention to that worry was simple as closing her eyes.
“What if it leaks out later, at the party? I don’t want to stain them” she pouted a few days after, holding onto the woman’s broad shoulders whom heedfully slid the new lingerie up to her hips.
Although she just got out of the shower the sensation of Kuvira’s warm seed persisting in her belly made her proudly pulse all over again but the white set’s lace the businesswoman gifted her was crafted meticulously and screaming ‘expensive’.
She had no intention to ruin it and yet, Opal couldn’t help squirming when she was cupped from her crotch possessively.
“Simple.” the woman whispered “Tell me as soon as you’ll feel it dripping down your folds and I’ll take care of it”
Breath hitched up her lungs “W-what would you do?”
“I’d devour you until you’re clean” at the husked suggestion Opal shivered and her face set on fire imagining the CEO quietening her moans as being solidly ravished along one of the deserted alleyways outside the bar Korra asked them to head to that night.
She wanted Kuvira again and again.. inside… more. It was never enough no matter the time or surrounding.
She held herself up the wall when the woman spun her around to clip the strapless bra. Through the mirror, her brown areoles subtly poked underneath the lace transparencies until Kuvira’s satisfied smirk behind, caught her attention.
The silk onyx hair barely jutted out from a white cashmere turtleneck, standing out the warm sand suit with its softness, refining the statuary frame with the belt’s golden detail.
The woman had such genteel tastes it was paradoxical to ever see her scruff and somehow, it was even by the way she simply wore an outfit what charmed Opal, maintaining her femininity in the androgynous of her attire. It was as if the CEO was now showing how to cultivate such passion by dressing her up, acquainting her with the juxtaposition of different textures and layers but instead of focusing, the girl was trying her best not to shake and collapse. Fuck..
Aside her entrancing ways, the woman was surely doing something to her because she couldn’t muster out why her body and spirit caught on fire like a fever for Kuvira; how trepidation swarmed in her soul so boundlessly till starting to form a forbidden idea on its own. The reckless idea to be Kuvira’s girlfriend.
Their bound had been fastening too tight, too fast since the very beginning, to put such bland etiquette now. Calling themselves something, really meant nothing at this point but still.. it made Opal’s stomach flutter. Maybe because no matter how easy that thought could be, she fully acknowledged even just imagining it would be the only way they’d ever go that far.
I need to tell her, i need to know what would she say… how would it be. To belong to her..
“Vira..” she exploded when rough hands reached her inner thigh to fix the stocking.
Petrol green eyes crushed into hers through the mirror, as if already fully aware about the cause of her dithering.
Opal’s lips trembled, “What—..” she closed her eyes. Just let it out. “..what if i was yours, f-for a while?”
The businesswoman lowered, ending the visual contact and the girl forgot to breathe.
“Raise your feet.” then commanded before aiding the plushy brown dress fabric to slide up and hug tightly her bare curves, stopping below the shoulders.
Her heart skipped several beats when the CEO reflected her greedy staring anew during the deed. The petrol greens crinkled as if the woman was trying to calculate, to keep herself from doing or saying something prohibited. Something Opal shouldn’t known.
Kuvira used to avoid all of it for her, she knew it, but it was also driving the girl towards madness because she didn’t want to waltz around this anymore.
Now, if she could just hear about it from the wonder of those thin lips, maybe her desire would have been quenched enough for a while… if only..
Please, answer me..
“You’d never be just a while.” Kuvira mumbled, adjusting the dress hem to create a fold around her arms, over her breasts rising and falling.
“You know what i mean… i want to hear it from you”
The businesswoman heaved almost imperceptibly as she dared to step closer, until her rock-hard body warmly folded her from the back.
Piercing ferns held her gaze when the girl’s unruly strands were curled around an ear and a pair of lips reached its shell. The scent of patchouli bloomed in Opal’s nostrils. Something cold have been tinkling on her chest but she shivered intensely only when Kuvira’s balm whisper caressed her lobe.
“You’d be my eternity.”
Her lungs spasmed empty.
Kuvira was palming her neck, faintly guiding it to expose below her lips scorching on the opposite side, triggering goosebumps to thrive like dew in the breeze down her spine.
Eternity… is this what she wants?
Opal’s eyes fluttered closed, trapping tingling hot tears amidst. “More..”
“If you want to be mine although, you have to be yours before anything and anyone else.” the woman whispered between slow, thick kisses; the lavish smack of her pursing lips releasing her skin reverberated up her ear while a free hand around her hip pressed her to grind on her bulged crotch behind. Spirits… She clasped both Kuvira’s hands to show she was listening but mostly to hold onto something, anything, as her thighs surrendered at the covetous embrace and the sandy voice uttered cajoling pledges.
“You are not an object to claim and posses, nor a land to conquer”
“No..”
“You are a soul deserving of love, care and this means freedom too. So, if you do want to be mine, Opal, to belong to me then wish to be entirely yours. Choose to be with me because you crave, wish, want, believe in this… us.” Kuvira heaved, professing against her skin. “You’d be mine, you’d be my breath and I’d be the ground below your feet to push and support you. Be mine and i’d give you all of me. Completely. Inexorably.”
Opal sobbed as a long, faint kiss was placed right below her jawline. A thumb was caressing her bottom lip and she prayed with everything she had to stay in this moment forever.
A waterfall of shivers trailed along her back. This kind of sensation… belongingness.. it wasn’t the first time.
There always have been something special in Kuvira that made her blossom with the exchange of a glance alone. It was strange at first even insufferable but the way the woman spoke love to her skin, the way her promises warmed her spirit.. just went beyond.
This was Kuvira seeping slowly into her soul to sew close the wounds of her deepest fears, calcifying herself among the cracks of her faltering nervous system like iridescent crystals.
And this…
This was Opal letting her and although it made her trembling, for once she didn’t feel frail.
No, right in this moment she was protected, alive and thus, a realization thumped in her heart like a thunder splintering the clear sky in million pieces.
The woman trailed kisses towards her temple and when her eyes swung open, the white gold of her family’s necklace shone above the off shoulders dress line.
“How does it sound?” the student heard as soon as their meaningful stare clashed through the mirror.
If she only..
Opal sketched a smile because there were no words able to englobe the intensity of her feelings knotting up in her throat, making the need to burst in tears so strong.
So she turned in the embrace and pulled her back tightly, burying her face in the woman’s broad chest until the cloudy cashmere lulled her features, the familiar musk became her air; the soothing warmth her home.
The firm heartbeat pulsed against her lips and if Kuvira’s cradling was made to heal, she’d spend her whole life in those arms.
A whimper left her lips as a hand threaded through her short strands, skimming her scalp until a buzzing tackled her hearing.
It was like… a low murmuring before it slowly sharpened into distinct voices, laughter and upbeat music.
Opal frowned, taking in for one last time a lungful of patchouli and loosened up the hold. Kuvira’s gaze was way softer now but darkened by the surroundings. As the girl checked through the fog of her mind over the carved shoulders indeed, couldn’t find Kuvira’s bed in front of the walk in closet but a long bar counter lit by hanging candle jars.
Clinking glasses, burning cigars, beer taps rushing: a simple pub.
Asami Sato, the most acclaimed CEO in Republic City chose a bar to celebrate her birthday. The more she got to know rich people, the more Opal happily cringed.
Minute by minute the place packed up and fortunately, the air-hockey area they were playing at stayed relatively private, aside when the birthday girl challenged someone bold enough to pass by for a match.
What impressed her the most was that Asami barely knew the game and had Korra already so pent up for the high scores, Opal worried the boxer could burst at any moment.
She was truly impressive.
Around the table there was even Bolin playing. Yes, her ex boyfriend along his brother Mako and could recall the awkward moment in which Kuvira introduced him as Future Empires’s new media relations manager.
A slight scowl contracted the businesswoman’s features when the girl told her they were still good friends and although some time had passed since the last time they met, she was happy to know Bolin finally stopped struggling with unsatisfying jobs. Opal smiled and hoped he could still pursue his acting dream after all, as his casual sketches and poses cheered the toasty atmosphere almost distant from her own.
The only thing really grounding her back to that moment now was the woman’s hand caressing her nape but loud noises heaved in her head. Confusing, destabilizing..
“How long have we been here?” she mumbled, attracting Kuvira’s most watchful stare.
Please.. don’t let me worry you.
“Around a hour. ” the woman announced before Korra’s snorting not too far overcame her low voice.
“Hey, you two! Enough with all this eye-fucking… what in the Spiritwor—”
“—Shush, let them!” Asami nudged her ribs before throwing an alluring glance towards them “Girls, don’t mind this killjoy. You can smooch!”
Opal’s cheeks burned as Kuvira rolled her eyes.
Not even a few hours ago that sharp, flawless face was contracted with pleasure as she rammed into her and now, the desire to savor those thin lips tackled the girl’s needs even if doing so in front of others would’ve meant too much, especially since Kuvira had made very clear that night at the gala, nothing labeled them together.
It would’ve also meant something her mind wasn’t still ready to accept no matter her heart’s relentless pleading, not to mention the pain she was inflicting to both.
So now, the thought alone to rise on her tiptoes and meet the CEO’s lips in public, was surely more than forbidden but she lost it when the heiress jerked her brows maliciously.
Almighty Raava, how does she know?
She shook her head in amusement and playfully pushed herself away from the businesswoman’s chest before something fastened around her waist.
Her eyes widened as everything got darker. Her lungs emptied when a sense of falling dissolved the tiles floor underneath her feet, making her clutch tight onto Kuvira again. What the..
“Ope?” Korra’s voice reached her when the heartbeat in her ears quieted down a bit. Did i slip on something? How was i falling? It must be..
“Y-yes?” she said nonchalantly, meeting Kuvira’s eyes anew. Thankfully the woman picked her quickly, managing to hide the awkward moment from everyone and keeping a respectful silence even if her questioning stare caused Opal’s to avert in shame. It found her own hand though, the one still grasping the CEO’s arm.. Fuck, it’s shaking..
“You okay?” her friend kept, knitting brows together when she turned, finding Asami’s concerned peering as well.
“Uh, I’m fine!” Opal smiled, hooking free strands around her ear “I think it’s just my blood pressure, I’m just starving no worries!!” or perhaps my new pill dosage…
The boxer eyed to the woman freeing her from the embrace and back to her again, in sign. «Does she knows?»
The girl tutted silently.
“Alright, then! Since Ope is okay, Kuvira, no more excuses! Your turn!” the engineer whooped, throwing the paddle towards the businesswoman who caught it mid air.
The girl withdrew significantly from the CEO checking on her one last time and it was then Opal mentally slapped herself for being so obvious.
At best, Asami’s joy saved the situation, yet the more the student tried to think about ways to be more cautious, the harder it seemed.
She couldn’t really control it since her mother kind of forced her on this new medication but couldn’t even blame her if the doctor suggested so. It was just… mentally and physically draining every time a side effect acted up.
In these moments she reminded herself to breathe and be patient as she always did but when she sunk into the pub’s leather seat, Opal wondered if she could ever ask Kuvira to be patient for something like this as well.
From afar the woman smirked to Asami. Striker in hand, ready to match against the night’s champion but checked behind her back for something right before the game started, until she stopped when their eyes locked together through the cheering crowd.
Opal lifted her thumbs up and smiled but felt her face grow hotter as soon as Kuvira winked.
Her heart skipped a beat.
The fact the woman had enchanted her was undeniable by now, because she couldn’t explain in any other way why her body burned to be Kuvira’s adversary or even to spring and kiss her the best luck.
Instead, she fingered the Beifong medal and bit her own lip.
It’s not fair. I could never… I would never ask her so.
“Here” a brief screeching caught her attention. A plate of takoyaki now fumed below her nose. “If you are not gonna tell her, at least fill your belly when your take your medication.” Korra grumbled, slumping down in the seat next to her.
Right… Kuvira’s glances were already loaded with heed; it would only be worse if i give her evident reasons to concern. As if this fact didn’t make her nervous, Opal’s belly churned loud. Traitor. Now that she thought about it the soya sauce made those little toasted goods smell so delicious!
“It’s with mushrooms” her friend assured and knowing Korra remembered her vegetarian diet just made her feel so unworthy of such kindness, she just wanted to strangle the boxer in a tight hug.
“T-thank you..” she mumbled, signing Korra to help her out with them before actually biting on a glazed ball. A roll of cheering boomed from the air hockey table as they ate and for a moment she wondered if Kuvira was making Asami sweat for a change. She’d deserved that. Well, not to win against her business partner but to be happy, to live her life lightheartedly as she was supposed to do.
“I’m sorry, i’m keeping you from enjoy the matc—“
“—She’s worried..” the boxer’s humble comment instead reached her while another round of shouts thrilled in the bar.
Yeah, Kuvira does deserve better.
“I… I know.” Opal lowered her head to focus on fidgeting with the tooth pick and gulped down, “I’m working on making a decision”
.
Five, six… eleven… fifteen pages more to study. Fuck.
She sighed and slammed close the music history and literature tome, dragging her father’s attention from his own reading. Sage green eyes peered above the glasses metal frame with an unreadable wrinkle. Perhaps it was the afternoon’s soft light what made him look even more pensive, casting deep shadows in his furrowed forehead, until he snapped out a brief moment of trance.
“So, how did it go at the gala? I saw ‘the great uniter’ herself accompanying you. Was she gentle?”
Gentle… sure. “It was like… a dream” she smiled and sunk further in the couch’s embrace “everyone has like, this kind of… devotion for her and I couldn’t understand all the fuss at first but then…” she closed her eyes and basked in the warmth spreading in her chest. It was the same warmth livening up her cheeks in that crispy night while admiring the CEO standing in all her beauty before a sea of flashing lights. “I turned and she was there next to me, holding my hand, shining like a star fallen directly from the sky and it just… made sense.”
It was like clicking. At first she couldn’t feel it below the overwhelming cheering, the dazzle, but when Kuvira helped her pass the crowd to climb up the stairs, the night breeze pushed a curl to swirl free from the bun.
Quietly, the world undressed of the unnecessary and waned in the wind’s chiming blows as a deep fern forest pierced her soul.
A rush of shivers rippled down her spine. “Dad… do you think some things are destined to happen?”
He took one last sip of tea and turned to keep his research on the wall of books towering in front of him. “I believe we strive to make our life what we wish it to be.” He said passing each volume title under his calloused index “We mold it based on ourselves; our decisions, culture, efforts and beliefs but i also believe some things are meant to happen no matter if we like it or not. They may come in our life under different forms until we are willing to accept them. But of course, everyone has their own idea. Why?”
“Do you remember when Zaheer was alive, the first time we saw Kuvira?”
“I do remember very well, my love.” He mumbled, finally catching her gaze once peeling off a thin hardback from the floor to ceiling bookshelf “Me and grandma especially had contacts with her many times during the years” Really? Why didn’t we meet more often, then?
“Do you think it was meant for us to meet at all? I was thinking about it but It’s just that… since i met her after so many years, everything is moving so fast it feels like if i jumped off of a cliff without preparing myself to fly. I guessed it was because this is what Kuvira makes me feel.. protected, fearless to the point where telling her everything about me didn’t feel necessary and I’m terrified saying it now will make me crush into the ground. I don’t want to scare her but dad..” Opal sighed, “I made love to her that night and… I think I’m..” she shifted, sitting on her knees. Her heart was racing. Am I? Is it really that simple? That’s so fucked up..
This wasn’t normal.
Dating Bolin made her happy, yes, he charmed everyone with his wholesomeness and humor yet it was futile, insignificant now that her soul exploded like a firework show at the simple idea of Kuvira’s existence. The same woman who made her blood boil with rage, doubts, despair, crave and Spirits, she wanted more..
No. It wasn’t normal.
How come she must suffer for something she never asked for?
If she only wasn’t… built like this, her brain… feeling something for Kuvira would’ve never been so problematic.
She remembered the first time in which she tried her best to avoid the businesswoman’s eyes and now, since she let Kuvira hold up her frailest gaze, her heart already declared bankrupt. Stupid.
Didn’t it know it couldn’t pay more than what it possessed? It could only give but never receive.
Why have I been so uncaring?
Why do I even have to be careful?!
Why can’t I simply be normal?
«Selfish. Don’t you understand you hurt the people you love?»
A sob brought her back to reality. She covered her mouth and hoped to dissolve into nothingness, to annihilate herself completely but her father’s weight pressing down the cushion beside her, only confirmed she was still alive.
His fingers crossed over his knees. “My love… what war are you fighting inside your head? Are you ashamed about what you have to live with? Is this why you didn’t tell her?”
Is it?
“I… in a way… yes, i am. You know the things mom says, I don’t want to be a burden to Kuvira if she ever.. I don’t know what to do.” Opal whispered, stroking palms towards her forehead.
For how obvious it could be, she always tried to avoid showing herself weak. Feigning strength. She had a feeling the woman may suspect something by now or she’d be blind if she didn’t catch it already during the first days but still, if she knew it or not: Kuvira never made it a hurdle to be overcome.
“Dad..” the girl blew out once Baatar’s hand started to warm her back in slow circles.
“You have never been a burden and never will. Whatever your mother says, you shouldn’t be ashamed for what happened to you because this..” he squeezed her shoulder “it never defined who you are, Opal. you are a Beifong. A disease can’t change this.”
She shook her head. “It did. It changed me, it changed you and what we were as family. Where’s Huan?! Junior, Wing, Wei! They left because of me,” she slammed her chest “because I changed mom too… but I don’t want it to change Kuvira”
“Your brothers went away because you guys are growing up and it’s not a fault but an immense relief. It would’ve been worse if this situation between me and mom kept them all here. I’m sorry I let it even affect you in a first place.” her father seized his own lips and the silver threads on his chin shimmered at the golden hour. Opal tilted her head for a better view; her heart softened out of the blue. Does he really think this is something he could have prevented happening to me?
She reached out to his free hand and he caught it.
“Life goes on and it’s not what happened to you what pushed them to take their own decisions away from here. I’m glad you kids are growing with your own heads and I wish you could finally understand it, my love, see it without the filter of your fears distorting this reality.” he continued, trying to alleviate the pain by thumbing her knuckles. “And I’m sure this won’t change Kuvira’s decisions either, neither the way she sees you. If you want a sign to know if it’s meant to be, she won’t mind when you’ll tell her. Because that’s what you do when you love someone. You communicate with them, support and accept each other for what you are. There’s nothing your mother can ever say to change it. Nor anyone else.” Then he stiffened. His phone was buzzing on the wooden desk, yet he sat still.
“Is.. everything okay?” she asked softly, caressing his hand back as he dropped his stare and his brows followed down, knitting further.
“I don’t know. I’m afraid to believe there’s something Kuvira needs to explain to you as well..”
“To me..?” Opal frowned “What do you mean…” did something happen? What did her dad know she didn’t already?
So it wasn’t just a feeling… he had indeed something crowding in his mind this whole time; it was clear in his sunken expression, the way his sad sage eyes once-over the whole time and in an instant she felt thrown back to a few weeks prior. To when she found him peering down the street the night her mother left home her ring, as if he never suffered of vertigo.
Baatar tugged softly on her hand in encouragement while standing up making her wonder if he was the one who actually needed it at the moment. His legs were shaking. Whatever it was, he was tired and so was she to see him go through all this pain.
“Come with me.. your brother is waiting downstairs.” His utter echoed in his studio before barely filling the hallway. With it, a terrible feeling creeped up into Opal’s stomach, churning bile as her father kept ahead “I… I’m sorry this is so sudden but i really don’t know how explain it. I guess you should see it with your own eyes..”
How does it concern Kuvira?
She followed Baatar checking his phone, while her mind blanked out trying to find a reason why the CEO could be connected to her father until when passing through the hallway by her mothers office, she noticed that a thin gap in the curtains was letting the golden sun rays cross the hallway and draw a feeble line on the opposite wall.
It was barely noticeable if it wasn’t for the office drowned in the sunset’s warmest hues, and if this was a mistake, someone was already fired.
Her mother has always been indeed incredibly careful with her job in every relevant extent and this meant fixing the curtains perfectly too, before every appointment. This time, she chose to keep a window corner unveiled.
No, it was surely a mistake.
She turned to look at her father edging almost out of the penthouse entrance now, still evidently unsettled to regard such an irrelevant slip at the moment, but Opal did and it was enough to make her stop. Then wince.
Her heart jumped although she wasn’t sure of what it understood before her mind.
She stepped closer again into the office. She didn’t even have to move the damned curtain all the way; the warm light invited her to linger at the wicked scene of her mother’s cardigan pooling off of her naked back. Opal frowned.
She was… straddling someone lying on the chair and air clogged in the girl’s throat, noting someone was grasping her mother by the hips. It didn’t seem like Su was wearing pants either for what it mattered but those hands… Spirits, the way those rough hands dug possessively in her mother’s flesh made her stomach flip until the scars patterning those tanned hands made the girl withdrew as if a flamed marker scorched her eyes irreversibly.
She curled in her own chest and grasped her throat in search of air but everything was turning black and a loud buzzing drilled her mind. At least the office was soundproof, at least she couldn’t hear if they were talking, if they were moaning or not.
Please, Raava let this kill me right now. Let me die now.
A hand landed on her shoulder and from that touch, her surroundings prickled present, materializing around anew.
Her father was frowning in deep concern before she broke free from his hold to storm towards her mother’s office full of rage. The door steel knob froze her palm even though she never had the chance to push it open since Baatar wrenched her wrist to drag her on the elevator first.
“Why didn’t you let me in?! Why!” she seized his forearms once inside the descending glass cabin and screamed “Why did you do that?!”
Baatar’s clear eyes stared down at hers both severely and condescendingly; his hands were digging holes in her shoulders, striving to stop the pain charging her entire body with adrenaline.
“There’s no way i’d let you face this in your condition—“
“—I DON’T CARE. YOU SHOULD HAVE LET IT KILL ME THEN” she bellowed before yanking his jacket when her legs collapsed. Baatar grunted for the sudden weight she was submitting his body to carry and the mere fact now was too much to stop herself from burst in tears.
“Don’t pick me up!” she sniveled, clenching harder onto her father’s clothes. A burden. That’s what i am. A stupid burden. I deserved to end up like this.
The crush made her knees sting, her throat was scratched till flaming and she was shaking so bad even her father’s lucid slip-ons shook throughout her blurred view, before he kneeled to lift her from the elevator floor and wrap her into the tightest hug.
His heart was pounding as fast as hers against her cheek at the echoes of their sorrow. His spiced aftershave burned in her lungs while his breath skimmed her messy bang. “I’m still your father, Opal.” he squeezed “I can’t let you..”
“But you knew it! You knew it was her!” she wailed with what remained of the creaking of her voice, feeling sorry for punching his chest before dousing it with the tides of her weeps.
.
Chapter 17: Chapter fifteen
Summary:
Hey! Thank y’all for waiting a month for this update but this period have been… not exactly easy to me and writing this, as the next chapters is taking a lot from me. We are getting very close to the end of the story, after all and I honestly already miss it even if i’m still working on it lol.
That being said, I also wish to warn y’all that this chapter may contain triggering phrasing/imagery so please be cautious and if anything, feel free to tell me, please.
It’s gonna be a little bit rough from on out buddy.
Now, let’s get into it ꕤ
Chapter Text
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“Mrs. Beifong, it’s impossible for me to accept the offer” she stiffened as the back of her therapist’s hand skimmed her setting jawline.
“How so? I thought having my husband right beside this room would turn you on.” the woman chuckled “is this the only reason keeping you? Because it’s not for me.”
Oh, Mrs. Beifong. So ready to unravel everything and for what? To earn my interest or your daughter’s disappointment? She must’ve known the way she sounded while saying those things.
Her analyst’s eyes, indeed, shone like solid honey in the golden hour’s soft lighting of the office; a glass room which its modesty was kept from the rest of the penthouse’s sight only by thick curtains. It would’ve took a curious eye to peer through them, an earwigging to understand what was going on inside the studio or was it soundproof? It had been clear the Beifongs loved to play with their surroundings after all and Opal seemed to take after her mother.
There was an abyssal difference between them, although. Suyin could never enchant her the way Opal did for many reasons and one of those was surely the fact that her therapist was almost never spontaneous. Everything had to be the way she wanted, so it wasn’t a coincidence that she bent down towards her to show the slight opening of her kimono jacket, stopping below the knees like a pencil skirt and hugging her curves in a tight fit without exceeding into the vulgar. Yet, from there it was easy to peek at the slight cut between her breasts adorned by a small diamond and the intricate lace of her bra.
The jasmine perfume sneaked into her nostrils at each breath due the unwelcomed proximity but even if subtle, the scent was almost insufferable, tightening Kuvira’s throat. The caress on her cheek burned. What would Opal think if she ever saw them so close? Would she’d be furious? Whatever her reaction could be, she grabbed her therapist wrist earning a rather lustful glance.
“Suyin, I’m here to end our appointments” she announced, staring back confidently at the creaking in the woman’s prasiolite irises.
“Oh, really?” Suyin’s head tilted on a side, her voice thick and sultry like a siren chanting a cursed lullaby. “After what happened at Zaofu’s Flare?”
Hasn’t she been clear enough that night at the restaurant? Kuvira narrowed her eyes as she stood.“Nothing ever happened between us”
“I wouldn’t call what we had nothing. We both got what we wanted, didn’t we?” what we wanted? Was she referring at the way she lured her in a fake business dinner to query her? To belittle her own daughter and praise herself? Where was the gain? She wasn’t even adept to do her job so what was even the purpose of paying for those useless appointments? At least, at first she could use the excuse for those sessions to reach out for Opal but if she had to think about it, Suyin as a therapist did nothing but worsen her situation.
Did Opal know about her mother’s treatments? No, by the way she talked about her last time she’s probably unaware of all of it. Her heart squeezed tightly. Perhaps this all was something personal after all.
But why me?
With a swirl of the wrist, Suyin smoothly freed herself from her grasp but stared at her with such daunting zeal to make her snap out of her silence. Those wicked eyes…
“I never wanted something from you that wasn’t professional assistance, before understanding you don’t care about professionalism when it comes to your whims.”
“It wasn’t professional nor appropriate of you to propose either” She frowned. “Propose?” but the psychologist was swift, stepping forward until the loss of balance forced Kuvira to sit back again. In Suyin’s face although, a sly smile pushed up her high cheeks as taking the opportunity to block her there by straddling her.
“You won’t play coy with me, Kuvira. It was all calculated because this is what you love to do, what you live for, don’t you?” her therapist’s chuckle made her hackles rose up.
“People, relationships mean nothing to you; we are all pawns to move in your grand scheme whenever you feel too overwhelmed to cope with the disappointment your parents left by ditching you on the street like a puppy, grown too vexing to keep for its endearing appearance. And now, look at you.” she kept, unbelting her dress to let it pool down the hips. Satisfaction filled the intense golden stare once she got caught peeking at the rich expanse of her analyst’s chest, the generous mounds covered by the transparent black bralette leaving nothing to imagination but much to temptation.
Kuvira set her jaw.
“Who would want someone with a narcissistic complex if not somebody who actually understands the way to satisfy it? And you know exactly who can satisfy everything you desire.” Suyin’s breath caressed her ear-shell and she despised having a heart because it was thumbing hard, exactly there. “I remember when you mentioned about having sexual encounters during one of our sessions and as soon as you found the opportunity, you used my daughter to get my full attention. It backlashed though, you didn’t expect for my daughter to enchant you and now, you’re her property, aren’t you? Her little, obedient dog but perhaps you shouldn’t let her distract you so much from what’s really meant for you” and withdrew just enough to show her how the small jewel sewed in the lace unclasped directly from the front until the piece of lingerie could follow the rest of her therapist’s garments.
Swallowing as thinking became incredibly hard. Suyin was too fast, cutting too deep into her pride before she could notice a subtle bounce of those full breasts connecting to a movement, a glide, an effort to get even closer as her analyst’s hips began to roll above her lap.
“Enough.” she snarled, catching Su’s surprised smile as she blocked her. Her fingers although, were dipping into the tender, molding flesh of her therapist’s bare hips and the jasmine scent was just too warm and inviting to be fully disregarded. A moan.
Kuvira’s jaw clenched so hard pain wrapped her teeth but it wasn’t quite comparable to the thunderstorm clouding her senses. Many urges boiled, bellowing from many other parts of her body to be heard, to be discerned, to be done.
Opal…
“Come on Kuvira,” Suyin continued, taking advantage of her fleeting moment of stillness “this won’t be a problem, we are both consensual adults sharing a little secret” then she whispered again.
“I’m everything you desire, we both know that”
.
The door creaked open and the tanned, handsome face relaxed behind it. The soft sun rays molded her towering form, caressing her sharp features as they would with a Goddess’s statue; smug and flawless. Ethereal.
The sight made the girl internally sigh. She has been avoiding each text and call in the past 24 hours so it was only a matter of time before the woman showed up to her apartment, fresh as if the infamous afternoon never happened.
This time, instead of making butterflies flutter in her belly, Kuvira Laghima made her wish to change her address and disappear from the Earth Kingdom forever. She had no idea what stopped her from slamming the door. How could the CEO even keep a straight face? Liar.
Opal stiffened and turned away, avoiding to be greeted with a kiss on the lips by just a fortunate glimpse.
Along the hallway towards the kitchen, Kuvira’s low voice covered the taps of her stalk. “Where’s my kiss?”
“I dunno” Opal grumbled before snatching a freshly baked brownie from the tray on the counter. She winced while leaning back upon the stove. The weed taste was just too intense, intoxicating, covering the cocoa aroma but the more sweets she swallowed down, the better.
If that’s what it takes… “Want some?”
The woman neared the counter isle and her thick brow arched up “They smell like weed” then fell to knit with its twin “are these..?” she inquired, holding her stare for a fraction of second in which the girl tried the best to convey all her annoyance.
The CEO indeed frowned, grabbing the countertop’s edge while attempting what seemed to be a patient approach “Care to elaborate?”
“I’m trying to forget” she shrugged.
“Forget about what?”
“About you.” Opal tilted her head on a side, chomping on another bite. “Since when are you fucking my mother?”
The chocolate’s bitterness was almost impossible to swallow down her dry throat and the fact those ferns had the nerve to lock into hers without any trace of guilt, didn’t help.
Rage rushed up her mind like a full river. How can she be so unbothered?!
“Excuse me?” Kuvira smirked with a hint of hilarity in her tone. She actually had the fucking nerve to play innocent. “Where did this come from?”
“Because you clearly had fun the other day at her office!”
“So you admit you do spy me” the businesswoman straightened proudly, meandering around the isle to overcome the physical separation. What are her priorities?!
Wait. Is she making fun of me? “I just saw you together, that’s it” the girl looked away, crossing arms not only to prevent any frontal contact but to force herself steady. She’s too close..
The woman though didn’t dare to touch, just invaded her personal space by placing hands on the stove handle she was leaning onto. Then husked, stealing all the oxygen from the kitchen “What did you exactly see, then?”
“You two.. close”
“How close?”
Opal gulped. The familiar musky forest scent flared up her nose as she nudged it against the CEO’s, just a thread away for their lips to skim into one.
Kuvira however, didn’t move further, neither did the girl when she whispered “like this” and for a moment, it was difficult to remember why she was holding a grudge against the woman tilting her chin up.
Her pulse rate pumped like crazy. How could this person be the same Vira?
“So this is you being jealous?” Kuvira jerked a brow up.
“Jealous?” Opal scoffed, shoving the woman’s wrist away to show off her phone. Zaofu’s Flare dim candles made the picture in it just a bit blurred but the CEO’s hand wrapped around her mother’s wrist was more than clear. They were close and alone in that damned restaurant hall.“Tell me this isn’t you dating her”
Kuvira eyes narrowed to the phone screen, “when did you get this?”
Does it even matter?! “Are you two fucking or no?”
“What if we do?”
“Are you or no?!” Opal bellowed hysterically, whisking the phone away to yank on the suit collar. Her eyes stung, wide and red reflected into the apparent quietness of the fern forest piercing into her soul and instead of soothing her burst of rage assuring that never happened or taking her own fucking responsibilities, the woman snorted.
Does she think this is funny?
Opal snarled and Kuvira began to chuckle when she tried to use all her fury to throw her chest off of the way and slip out that nightmare. Although, it was useless. The woman seemed to be built with reinforced iron and hinted not even a slight step back.
“I thought you and I were nothing, just friends with benefits” her complacent tone itched the girl’s spirit but left her agape.
“Is this what you think?” she asked, clenching her shaking fists.
“That’s what I, recall you saying.” Kuvira answered resolute, withdrawing. Slow and clear as if to remark the mistake was clearly hers for assuming their relationship was… exclusive..?
After everything she told me, everything we had, this is her excuse? This all was meaningless to her because I once said we had to be friends with benefits? Is this a joke?!
It was almost funny. Almost. Since of course, that was her own fault, not even Kuvira’s because, how could she be so stupid to believe she could trust someone like her?
Opal knew it already, no? She fucking knew it was a waste of time just.. not like this! That woman was playing with her from the start and she simply let her whims unravel what she had most sacred instead of protecting it.
What was fucking her mother, anyway?! Destroying her family, her trust. Just a stupid.. fucking game!
She should have been laughing and so she did. This time it took no effort to escape from Kuvira’s imposing presence, until her laugh exploded, echoing along the hallway.
Perhaps it was the brownies working their odd magic but once free to wander in the house, her actions didn’t quite make any sense. She wanted to kick Kuvira out of the apartment and yet, a devious thought was sneaking inside her brain when she heard her name being called out from behind.
So Opal peeled the overall’s strap off of her shoulder and then the other once entering the living room, continuing to walk towards the windows to let the baggy clothes slide down her legs.
“What are you doing?” she heard when she kicked the piece away, helping her hips swing side to side almost voluptuously before climbing to sit on the console table. What a stupid question for a startups visionary, really.
“Show me how you fucked her” Opal explained, caressing her own knees apart as the woman neared cautiously.
“Opal.” Kuvira rasped with another calculated step, focused, like a feline about to leap on its target, provoking the spot underneath the student’s thin panties to actually churn for attention.
“I said fuck me.” the girl repeated, fueling her own arousal by rising her sweater slowly just enough for her breasts to poke below “Rail me. If this is a game for you, I want to play till I’m satisfied too. I look like her, don’t I?” she tilted on a side as her mom would do “Like my mother bending for you obediently on her office table. Or maybe she prefers to be taken on all fours during your appointments?” then whispered, stroking the CEO’s chest once a step away from the console.
Under her touch the woman’s frame was tensing up and her eyes, oh… those emeralds, brightened by the light outside, were scalding into her soul, hinting danger when she dared to unfasten her tie. Although the sight made her shiver, Opal purred “did you already nut inside her? Will you give me a little brother, daddy?”
“You are being insane” Kuvira growled, tugging the gray sweater down her belly again.
“It’s ‘cause you drive me crazy. You make me sick! AM I NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU?!” the girl snarled, pushing back the woman to take off the sweater and hurl it away “NOT GOOD, NOT HEALTHY ENOUGH?”
Her bare chest rose and lowered drastically when she noticed the traffic outside almost covered her own panting. She was shaking. It was suddenly too cold and maybe reacting like that was excessive because the woman’s glare was boring inside her, engorged with such profound desolation, Opal never had the courage to face it. Was this what Kuvira was thinking? That she wasn’t enough like her mother? Or was she disappointed to find out how immature she could be? A wave of shame crept inside when a sense of self consciousness hit.
She was dazed, shuddering and crying out to be loved without any restraint. How embarrassing… to be physically and mentally naked in front of the one who had the guts to sleep with her mother, until she saw the same woman turn towards the couches, collecting something from one and coming back to handle the sweater. “Get dressed.”
No… I can’t step back now.. Opal swallowed bitterness and caught the shirt to yank it asi—
“—I said GET DRESSED.” Kuvira bawled, digging fingers in her cheekbones as plucking her closer to frighten her with a show of dominance before the girl actually took advantage of that powerful drive to mash their mouths in a kiss.
The impact was devastating. Even rawer than the grip. Her teeth slightly throbbed, her nose tingled against Kuvira’s cheek until with relief, the woman’s head inclined on a side to slot deeper into her mouth, dragging a moan out of her throat.
She closed her eyes, breathing Kuvira in to allow the warmth to flow in her heart and no matter how disgusting the CEO’s actions have been, Opal couldn’t find a way to be grossed out when she let the businesswoman’s lips explore and savor hers with need. As if their tastes never mixed up into one.
The world slackened, thriving into that caress.
Her arms slithered around the sculpted shoulders underneath the jacket to press her closer and while the woman heaved in her mouth, wandering hands through her scalp messing up her bob, she wished that could’ve been more than just mere passion.
What a foolish, destructive idea. Wishing to be loved by the only person able to make her feel worth the world just to kick it down the second after.
The painful reminder was enough to encourage her slide off of the kiss and shove the woman away, who glowered at the change of mind.
But time restarted in its usual speed just to bolt before her eyes.
The last thing she saw was indeed the rage fueling the deep petrol green eyes, then the cream wallpaper when she was spun around and the stars of the pitch black inside her own eyelids after a metal clinking, a grunt.
Perhaps she really crossed a line by stirring up Kuvira this time.
Sharp fangs stabbed just above her collarbone, surging air hitched in her lungs to explode out in a cry. Yet, nothing came out of her throat if not a feeble wail, since it was forced back by a rough squeezing hand. And then the pain expanded.
Opal held into the grip around her neck when from there down, she noticed Kuvira took total control of her whole body, constricted to stand and arch backwards. Her panties strings stretched to their limit nipped her parted thighs while something massive, sprawling her sex wide open to the hilt sent her brain in overload.
“Take all of me, Opal. Isn’t this what you want? Being used like a toy to forget reality? My little, precious toy.” Kuvira husked in between her shrieking; her member twitching deep inside her front wall before pulling it a few inches out “I’ll give you a reason to hate me.”
Fuck. “I don’t need any more. Keep pretending i’m her.” the girl growled breathlessly until a raw, brutal thrust snapped a guttural cry out her throat. It stung. Raava, if it stung.
“Is this what you think i’m doing? Considering us a game?” the sandy voice scorched on her lobe smooth like a threat. ”I want you to listen carefully, Opal.” the woman kept, making her guts knot with arousal.
Her head was dragged back until her forehead could skim on the white dress shirt and the impenetrable abyss of Kuvira’s gunmetal stare dug into the back of her mind. “I never lied about the person I am and I particularly hate when my word is put into question because it weighs with its own value, my feelings, especially when I say you are the only one i ever wanted.”
“You don’t care about me! This is about my mother!” the girl cried out, surprised how instead her own voice could sound like a feeble breeze now due Kuvira’s choking grip.
Opal squeezed at it, thinking about what the CEO could do to her next. She was stuck, forced to obey, to take everything inside under a lethal glare growing each instant more feral and yet, the hostility of such situation roused a pang of pleasure in her lower abdomen to melt and copiously drip down her inner thighs.
The risk, the unknown hereafter. Spirits.. more.
But there was something that was clear at that point no matter how terrifying was it to admit: Kuvira was speaking the truth. The woman never showed to not care and it was obvious whenever she brought her back home, whenever she made sure she was okay or by asking why she had been crying, mindful to never indulge instead on why was she shaking.
Opal knew all too well the businesswoman cared, but it was just otherworldly infuriating to not know how much she cared about her mother as well.
Since when were her mom and the CEO a thing?
Since when did she stop being important for Kuvira?
That might’ve been a selfish thought but it didn’t matter now, because it killed her to know she wasn’t the only one for her.
“If i wanted your mother I wouldn’t play around.” the woman growled after another assessing shove, “I never had time for games, let alone disturb myself to get to know you. But surprisingly, you are the only one I’ve ever been interested in. The only one I ever craved.” Opal skipped a beat. “You are intoxicating to the point getting over this addiction for you became impossible” Kuvira kept, gripping on her hip with her free hand until the toned chest jammed against her back at each breath.
Was that the truth? She shivered, having no idea how to take those words.
Fortunately, the vicious grip slowly released enough to allow her body return in a natural posture and collapse on the shelf; the woman’s hand was still wrapped around her neck but so were her lips now, massaging her sensitive skin with warm, open mouthed kisses.
“Vira..” Opal wailed, swaying from inertia by being rocked against the console, hitting the wall until the vase over it shattered on the floor. The sound echoed coldly in her soul.
The woman’s cockhead began to batter into her cervix but this also meant the base slapped on her clit repeatedly, quickly turning any trace of pain into a dense pleasure.
Soon, even Kuvira’s hoarse moaning pooled a warm spot on her nape, perhaps because each slam coaxed her slit to contract on its own accord and in this wild dance the woman dictated, her mind as well was bound to melt.
Engrossing to a delirious degree. Kuvira gave and took with the same exact rapturous intensity whenever she made love to her and yet, Opal never experienced what it meant to be caught in the woman’s wrath until her skin burned to dizziness.
With tears of pleasure veiling her sight, she honestly never imagined this could happen. There has always been something in the CEO’s temperament that threatened ‘DANGER!’ making her both fret and jump in excitement and now, that was the proof this wild side could actually snap out of Kuvira’s adamant control.
Her rawest part.
The girl could do nothing but moan out loud, troubled and worried to hold onto something, anything but being fucked so intensely was overpowering. Staggering.
When the reckless thrusting stopped, Opal slacked only when she was suddenly empty. Her entire, jelly weight was picked up in the mountainous chain of the CEO’s arms and thin lips found hers before her back was lied on the couch’s isle.
Her hands were sweating in anticipation to help Kuvira strip out of the suit with what lasted of her energy, to find her smooth tanned skin wrapping over hers like a warm quilt. That contact… by the Spirits, their bare flesh fitting, sealing into one perfectly always sent Opal’s senses to a state of pure bliss. It wasn’t comparable to the fervid orgasm thrills but to what she imagined love could be. Intense, comforting.
“Can’t you feel it, right now? Us.” the woman whispered after penetrating her again. This time slower, calmly drawing the deepest sighs from her lungs while the sight of her focused face framed by rebel locks made blood swarm in the girl’s cheeks.
Her heart in fact shivered as she folded up into Kuvira’s back anew and the forest musk lulled her home.
“I do..” she whimpered in her loosening bun.
“I’m yours, Opal” the low, sandy voice tingled in her ear-shell to reverberate in the depth of her soul, drawing tears to well up her eyes. Mine..
She frowned wishing that pledge could be true, that she never caught her with her mother but still.. Kuvira sounded so sure and devout, so vulnerable… not believing her felt wrong.
Opal sunk deeper into the embrace in reassurance while being pushed on the side until her back was pressed against the couch’s backrest.
A hand guided her thigh to fasten around the woman’s hip before it slid between their crammed bodies where two digits found their way to brush on her bundle of palpitating nerves.
Her lungs spasmed empty. The gentle rubbing combined with the deep, passionate prodding was too incredible to bear, let alone reciprocate it or rationally register it in her mind..
A pair of lips found Opal’s ones craving to be kissed and lavished as if breathing was possible only throughout the mouth. Each moan, feeble grunt and wail coming out of it was avidly drunk by the woman and thus, soon the threads of the girl’s climax started to pull at her senses. At her lower abdomen.
The pleasure began to push from there, inflaming down her inner walls to ripple around the outsized girth.
The fact Kuvira buried her length so profoundly within while taking direct command of her bliss by rubbing faster on her sensitive bud, didn’t leave the girl any other chance but to stop the kiss and clench relentlessly.
The world beyond the CEO’s shoulder blurred out until her voice obliged her to linger for longer.
“Could you trust me?” Opal’s thighs shuddered, snapping harder around the woman’s hips at the mention, shaky as her breath whenever Kuvira moaned into it. “How could you think i’d ever choose to be with someone else when we have this?”
Because i saw you, she wished to answer. Kuvira’s narrowed eyes although, were soused with liquid lust drawn by fucking her tight slit so viscerally it made Opal cry as reaching the peak.
Her mind buzzed for a fraught moment before the image of that wicked evening flashed back. The tight grip on her mother’s hips made her instantly imagine Kuvira throwing her head back over the office chair as her shaft pulsed hard whenever Suyin milked it tighter. Tighter the more she sat lower on it, sucking it inside until the CEO’s testicles squirmed emptier each time she pressed them against her mom’s rear.
Oh Raava. I saw you. I saw you. Opal squeezed her eyes close finding them already wet with tears.
She scratched the woman’s broad shoulders in order to cling onto them starting to spasm as well, enclasping her body back in a deathly embrace as shots of warm cum flowed copiously into her core. Mine.
Kuvira grabbed a fistful of her flesh and panted against her temple at the rhythm of each firm, punishing thrust the more her slit convulsed with the lasts trails of her orgasm, coaxing the thick rush filling her to the hilt until it leaked out in weak dribbles. Mine.
A short wail of surprise pressed out Opal’s lungs when, with a growl, the businesswoman tried to plug the seep by slamming herself deeper.
Did her raunchy moans echo in her mother’s office the same as brushing now so tenderly on her sweated skin?
The saline taste of tears sneaked in the girl’s mouth when their streams burned down her cheeks until a digit brushed them dry and two liquid diamonds among long feathery lashes, glistened with questions. The woman was probably worried if the slam hurt but the most painful thing was this sense of restlessness living in her beating heart.
“I never doubted… this until I saw you and her..” she sobbed as Kuvira’s thumb reached her shaky chin. “..do you get it?”
She uttered it so feebly she wondered if the woman heard it. The wrinkles between her brows deepened slightly until they flattened against her bang and Spirits, holding her stare turning into a void by a hair’s breadth, shrunk Opal’s heart.
“You drain sanity out of my mind” Kuvira grumbled slowly while caressing the rim of her parted lips and she could hear all the anger consuming her words, feel the disappointment caustic her guts before the woman withdrew, unfastening their limbs and it hurt so bad to be torn away from what—whom she belonged to, the girl only wished to scream.
Kuvira had made it clear in the past days but every time she heard the woman let out her own… feelings.. just made Opal’s head combust and now. Now, the woman was visibly hurt by her lack of trust and this meant one thing.
So if there was a chance, if there was the glimpse of a chance Kuvira and mom never got intimate, if what she saw wasn’t all that she had seen, Opal needed to know it.
“Please, wait.” the girl panted in panic grasping at a shoulder, a bicep, whatever she could reach first and shuddered violently when she placed her palm above the woman’s bosom. Her heart was hammering recklessly in its cage like her own did.
“I just need you to say it..”
.
If someone ever asked, Kuvira’d known for sure what made her heart drill the most about Opal, was her determination. Obstinate like a bull. Resolute and caring no matter how hurtful her thoughtfulness could sometimes be for her own self.
Raava.. how beautiful was she whenever fury lit the golden flakes of her peridots like a thousand suns. She wanted that little girl to push her limits, to overwhelm her again, to dare. Dare say she slept with her mother, dare take her again loud and rough as she just did. But Kuvira was tired.
Not physically nor mentally. She was just tired of being doubted by the only person she ever had the courage to be completely genuine with. It sucked out all her confidence until hollowness weighted like a boulder on her bones.
If Opal never understood her honesty, then nobody else ever would because Kuvira never felt so open in her entire life as when she was with her. That was probably an understatement but that was what the girl made everyone feel with her pureness: safely vulnerable.
Since the first very day in the elevator, the music student dug fingers in her chest to tear the skin in half, crossing through muscles, cracking her ribcage ajar to slip inside the emptiness it protected and gave it a meaning, a real purpose.
The woman always praised that spot, only pulsed with dedication for her hard work, her ambitions but those beats were so flimsy and shallow compared to when Opal had the power to cradle her heart till it exploded and flourished with life, making her feel, feel, feel, feel. Damn her.
Damn Opal for stripping her to the most genuine version of herself and stabbing it with wariness. Damn Opal for looking at her as if she killed someone, even if perhaps she indeed slaughtered her trust by letting her assume.
Ache stung Kuvira’s forehead after keeping it flexed in a frown. Opal’s palm against her heartbeat trembled for an answer, the truth she already provided her with over and over. But no; the girl wanted to scope for any lie, for uncertainties or any detail left unsaid because the obvious truth was Opal couldn’t afford to accept that what she saw that afternoon wasn’t everything.
Pain clasped her heart tight to witness the desperate look in those doused gems and yet, she couldn’t say much more if the girl couldn’t hear beyond her conviction.
If only she could trust me..
She covered the small hand with her own and pressed it further in her chest. Nonetheless Opal’s mind was already set, it wasn’t enough to stop her.
“I never had sex with your mother. Nothing ever happened.” she swore, knowing her pulse wouldn’t falter.
Opal’s peridots darted back and forth from a pupil to the other and sunk deeper. “Not even a kiss?”
“No” she deadpanned and the girl dwindled and recoiled as if a bullet bore into a vital organ. Tears turned those hard rocks into green pools but she could advert how hard the girl was trying to keep them from passing through the eyelids rim like a crystal barrier.
It would’ve took just a wrong answer to break through that veil.
“Then why did you have to play with me like that before?” the student sniveled from her red nose with an impatience coloring her creaked tone.
She was so brave and didn’t even know it. The mere fact spread warmly in Kuvira’s chest but she didn’t allow that sensation to curl her mouth in a smile before Opal could mistake it with denigration.
“Because i just found out how deep your jealousy can be” she confessed while fixing few strands behind the girl’s ear, “That night at Zaofu’s Flare she made up an appointment to talk to me about you because she thought I was using you to get something from her—”
“—Are you?” the student’s eyes widened as she scowled, withdrawing enough to straddle up her thigh.
What? “No!” the CEO spat and sat up as well “I opened up to you about stuff I’ve told nobody else. I told you about my parents, my feelings, I cried in front of you, I swore to you things. Don’t you think I’d be more cautious if everything we are was fiction?” do you think i’d show you my desperation so willingly if our relationship meant nothing? Can’t you understand you are the only one who’s worth it?!
Her pulse rate raced wildly; the spot on her thigh warmed by Opal’s feathery weight turned into ice when the girl shifted away, draping legs over the edge of the couch. She always has been the one withdrawing, trailing off or pushing away and no matter the student’s first suggestion to label them as friends with benefits, Kuvira felt her sensations pushing incessantly beyond that blurred line.
She never considered them friends. Opal was a ray of sunshine everyone felt sincerely pulled to and it was disarmingly simple to be affected by her sweet, shy, easygoing personality and get acquainted, yet the girl never showed her that side exclusively.
She had witnessed the student’s rage taking fistfuls of her skin, her fears, her need, her sorrow, her passion, her lust! How was it possible to consider that girl a ‘friend’ whenever the contact of their bodies made electric jolts sparkle like bolts in her system? It was incredibly exhausting to pretend again none of this effected her while Opal was stubborn enough to still define this as… friendship?
No. She refused to believe that at this point, because she had felt in her soul the pull the girl had towards her. Whatever that was, it surely wasn’t friendship what bounded them together if some limits were obviously crossed from the start. Not that Kuvira had many people to consider friend in her life but among the few she cultivated through the course of it, nobody ever requested to be filled with her passion, to be kissed, to be loved the way Opal asked, neither anyone had the nerve to be jealous once erroneously assuming she slept with somebody else; her own mother of all people. It took a stupid picture and a glance to doubt her commitment but there they were.
“Then why was my mother sitting on your lap?” Opal’s feeble tone broke in the train of her thoughts “Why did you have to grab her hips the way you grab mine…” the profile of her small back ignited her need to remove any distance and fold into it till the warm honey scent cradled her lungs full, although everything Kuvira ended up doing was edging the isle to fetch her trousers.
“I never grabbed you to push you away” she commented drearily, slipping the cloth up her legs.
“That’s your excuse?” the girl snapped, catching her buckling close the tingling belt and for some instants, that was the only sound adding to the city’s traffic outside. Kuvira tsked.
She had no intentions to beg for forgiveness about something she had no faults about, no matter if Opal thought she owed her that. Without any doubts, she was fully responsible of her own behavior but controlling other’s people actions and reactions, as her therapist’s impulses, wasn’t under her ministrations.
She never responded to how Suyin decided to generally approach people, not even when her daughter accused her of eliciting such responses. That’s why when she turned to face the student she had to gather all the patience she could muster.
“Listen, I apologize. Touching your mother was inappropriate of me but that’s all that happened, Opal. She sat on my lap and I warned her to stop before I actually grabbed her to stand up and leave”
“And that time at the restaurant?” the girl retorted, grabbing something below the coffee table in her fist. It rattled when she stood and hit her own chest “I’m not stupid. There must be a reason why my mother chose to do something like that! You might’ve not slept with her yet, but you are so close, huh, aren’t you?”
It didn’t take much reasoning before removing the distance to catch Opal’s free hand but once she clenched it in her own to push it in her chest, she hoped the girl could understand how sincere she was being.
What she didn’t foresee nor calculated though, was that tiny hand slipping off of her grasp and a shaking head.
“Opal, feel my heart again.” she explained and devastated by the rejection, her tone grew harsher when the girl simply kept giving her shaking back “We were talking that night, she implied something I didn’t know if I could believe or not, so I tried to pull her closer to cajole some truth out of her. Now tell me,” she lowered her voice “do you really think I’d be here making love to you if your mother and I were fucking or had a minimum of interest for her?” she sighed. “If you are still here with me to talk about it, doesn’t that mean something?”
Her lungs burned. Her sorrow however, seemed to fall on deaf ears because the girl kept avoiding any frontal confrontation. She slumped on the couch again, pulling a blanket from the headrest to her bare form but even from that point, it was incredibly difficult to understand Opal’s reactions if she curled into herself as if to hide something with her body while the rattling sound rupturing in the living room scratched Kuvira’s pelting pulse.
“You should be with her. You are perfect for my mom.” the girl’s voice crackled in nothing more than a frail wail of weariness after a while but for some reason, those words were loud and overwhelming. Clear.
Opal was crying. “I know you are getting sick of me…”
It was then, Kuvira felt it; that terrible sensation occluding in her chest and probably, being stabbed would’ve hurt less.
The woman hesitated to recoil some sort of mettle before stepping into the girl’s personal space anew and let her knuckles skim across the valley of her bronze, exposed nape peppered in a trail of hickeys and love-bites, turning into reddish scrapes along the spine. The sign of their passion was fresh and all there so how could she ever think something like that? “I’m not sick of you, Opal” she said lowly. “I could never.”
Under her soft caresses the student’s skin rippled in goosebumps and her heart squeezed in pain as she peered beyond the lean shoulder line. Opal’s jerks where morphing into spams. It wasn’t just a simple movement swirling her hands or wrists… it was spreading to the arms and chest so violently Kuvira had to sit down behind as shuddering at the mere sight while mentally battling if folding her in an embrace would make the panic attack worse.
She gulped down. “Babe,” her tone calm and reassuring “give it to me..” then indicated, her stare stayed fixed to the pill bottle in the student’s seizing grasp but as soon as gently covering Opal’s whitening knuckles with a palm—
“—I CAN DO IT” the girl’s bawl froze her soul. Kuvira jolted back. Her lungs burned and the hand stung sorely at the electrocuting yank.
“I can do it” Opal puled softly through the sharp lurch up of her back until she eventually found a way to release that tension by bursting in tears. The loud sobs thundering in the silent apartment made the woman’s heart pound in her throat and quake her bones apart. Zaheer, give me the strength to help her. Tell me how to not fuck this up.
The girl then shivered under her palm.
Kuvira frowned.
Without even realizing it, her own hand was already seated between Opal’s contracted shoulder blades, stroking up and down the curved back vigorously enough to soothe the violent convulsions in subtle flutters.
Slowly, learning the girl had no intentions to withdraw anymore, the woman bent forward to move the thick curtain of shaggy hair off of the student’s damp cheek, before encircling her small frame to reach the drug bottle. With a simple tap, the cap unlocked to swirl under Opal’s hand.
Against Kuvira’s chest, the girl’s back dwindled as letting out an impatient heavy sigh and it made sense how crucial taking those pills was for her.
Opal had no control without them. That, obviously, wasn’t the first time she’d witnessed the effects those medications had; the girl used to bring them with her everywhere after all, always cautious to hide them from her sight, probably afraid of eventual questions but no matter how much concern corroded her mind, Kuvira never failed to break that silent accord established with few glances. It was a matter of respect.
Yet, she couldn’t help noticing every single time Opal turned around or hid to quickly gulp those pills down, making it hard to understand at first that the provision actually followed a pattern.
One in the morning, one at night.
Presumably those pills where strong and required to be added before or after meals because every time the girl took them, she showed clear weakness signs. The same weakness debilitating Opal that afternoon she drove her there after the appointment with Suyin or that time she ran out of Korra’s gym or not even few days ago, during Asami’s party.
Once she connected the dots the other night, the woman mentally recommended herself to stuff a pack of crackers in the suit pocket for every eventuality because she never saw Opal following a proper alimentation order. Opal ate whenever she wanted to, not when she had to and this small, insignificant detail was enough to turn on an alarm in her head.
If she doesn’t think she has to eat when she had to take her pills, would it mean she unconsciously refuses the reason why she needs to take them? Does she even skip them?
She flinched at the memory of Suyin’s words at Zaofu’s Flare before turning the said girl in her chest to cradle and massage her back while propping a pill between her lips.
She didn’t put much attention in her therapist “warning” about Opal because it seemed like the specialist said them out of spite and honestly, her daughter never gave off any sign of such urging disease, aside for… well, what was normally mistaken for anxiety’s symptoms. Or at least, that’s what she deducted based on what the girl showed because it wasn’t so evidently ambiguous until now.
“Please, don’t worry. No hospital, no doctors” Opal’s wary fumbling reached her hearing as if she could perceive the apprehension in her heartbeat. Although, the girl was keeping her eyes closed; her long lashes were still embedded with pearling tears but gave her feeding hand a feeble squeeze. What lasted of the prior paroxysm was a general tremor, sign the pill was swiftly doing its job but Kuvira didn’t feel like letting her go before she remembered that the student did in fact need something to sustain the medication.
So she dried her tears, wrapped her minute body in the cozy blanket and once Opal seemed to doze off, the businesswoman decided to let her lay on the couch. She got up to put on her buttoned shirt; then tapped the window closed, turned the apartment heating on and headed to the kitchen in order to put it to good use.
Half hour later the pumpkin spice scent diffused in the small apartment; the girl was wheezing faintly in her sleep and it took few caresses and a kiss on her toasty cheek to finally see her gemstones shimmering through the squint of the drowsy eyelids.
There was a soft grunt but Kuvira earned no complaint about the soup she fed the girl with, neither something was said when she carried and dressed her for bed.
Opal gently cuddled up against her bosom until her balmy breath grew heavier over it. She must have been exhausted but the earlier argument’s yelling still echoed in Kuvira’s mind.
Opal’s spasms…
Could that be Suyin had said the truth? Well, that would’ve been probably the first time and at this point, there was only a way to confirm it.
She knew she had to wait for when Opal was ready to confess it and she didn’t want to overlap the kind of understanding they built until now but it was exactly now that she needed to recognize how.. perilous the situation could devolve. Because if what happened before wasn’t due Opal’s anxiety, it meant they had to be even more careful.
The way the student’s limbs contorted… convulsed.. by the Spirits, she wanted to protect her. She wanted to be important enough for the girl to know how to help and if possible, how to prevent all of this but Opal…
Opal doesn’t want to.
Perhaps… she glanced to her phone on the nightstand. Then to the girl’s parted lips. Her breath was regular, slow; her body completely relaxed aside for that little hand resting on the valley between her mounds. That slight, continuous twitch…
«Not good, not healthy enough?» what was the reason to bring it up if everything was okay?
That was the sign. She had to get her confirmation to protect Opal either if she wanted it or not, because her wellness mattered more than any possible future dispute. They could go through that together and if she had to keep it a secret, then she’d obliged as long as she could.
So she collected the phone and the pill box careful to not let it rattle and typed the pharmaceutical name on the research tab.
The blank screen blinded her until a list of medical sites filled it.
Carbidopa-levodopa
DOPA decarboxylase inhibitor/DA precursor.
Side effects: Nausea, dizziness, orthostatic hypotension, anxiety, dyskinesia, confusion, hallucinations, somnolence.
The combination of levodopa and carbidopa is used to treat…
Kuvira’s heart fell in a void.
.
Chapter 18: Chapter sixteen
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
.
.
She didn’t understand why, but the morning after when she woke up under the woman’s drowsy stare, Opal understood something was wrong.
It was still gloomy. Few faint rays shone through the curtains making clear it was already morning, perhaps it was early, perhaps cloudy too because the light lining Kuvira’s taut features was incredibly cold.
She shivered.
The pile of blankets lightly rustled as Opal sunk further in the embrace in search of the heat the woman was unerring to provide; indeed, a smile pulled instinctually on the girl’s cheeks when Kuvira pushed her enough to roll onto her back before gently crushing her.
She chuckled and drowned in the sweet warmth under the sheets, scented with the businesswoman’s skin melting into her own and although she couldn’t keep her eyes open due to the tiredness, it didn’t matter, Kuvira was kissing her slowly… softly.
It didn’t matter whatever happened yesterday. Kuvira was there.
She never asked to be helped, to be fed, to be dressed and lulled to sleep, yet the CEO did it anyway and that was exactly what surprised her each time: Kuvira’s persistency.
That woman never stopped being with her, engraved in her soul since the very first time she saw her so young with steel determination rocking in her fern eyes.
But now, aside her usual glint, those same eyes drifted open slowly, encircled by dark marks and a sunken expression.
Yesterday’s fight had been in fact rough and a suffocating sense of guilt heaved on her chest for letting jealousy turn things even more… deranged.
Reacting like that wasn’t what she was used to doing. Perhaps because nobody had such a grasp on her heart the way Kuvira did and even thinking the woman could possibly do something like that just… destroyed her.
It didn’t even matter if it happened with her mother at this point, well yes, it was particularly infuriating and a terrifying possibility but Kuvira… «If you are still here with me to talk about it, doesn’t it mean something?» It does only if you said the truth.
The gunmetal green eyes held her stare intensely and again, in their crinkling there was something Opal couldn’t wrap her finger on. So she looped her arms around the woman’s waist once sitting up on the edge of the bed.
This time she has been the one dressing the CEO of her suit, climbing onto her lap to button up the shirt, fixing the charcoal jacket and collar before skillful hands guided hers to knot the tie around it. Stares locked together.
She palmed Kuvira’s wide shoulders and pressed them against her chest to lull the woman with the prayer she could stay in the embrace, in her life longer, hiding in her covered bosom before reality could catch her unprepared.
Kuvira swore, her heart was steady yesterday, so why is she so quiet today? Is she just tired or is she actually sick of me? Wait… what if i freaked her out with that crisis and doesn’t know how to say a proper farewell? What if—
A kiss. A pair of lips pressed onto her forehead while a palm brushed back her bang the way the businesswoman was used to doing and her beat calmed instantly.
Breakfast followed placidly. Comfortably numb more than anything. None of the things crowding her mind found a way to get out and seemed not even Kuvira’s.
The woman was instead absorbed in reading something on her phone and sipping on her bitter coffee, treading fingers with hers on the counter while she munched on peachy granola.
It was easy to miss Juicy’s heavy tapping on the wooden floor whenever her friends let him stay over with Lefty and Pepper; if anything, by now her loud crunching wouldn’t be the only thing filling the kitchen.
Although… no matter what, Opal relished every moment with the woman. Comfortable or not.
“Hey..” she mumbled on the stool and continued when Kuvira didn’t raise her eyes while soaping the dishes. “Are we.. okay?”
A curt nod was all she got before the burbling of the running water broke the ominous silence.
The lump clogging her throat didn’t vanish as she swallowed; the CEO was still pale, few onyx strands escaping the braid dangled over her slightly furrowed brows, her lips seized in a thin line.
Is she thinking about yesterday?
Opal’s vision blurred and burned at the green ceramic in the woman’s wet hands. Please look at me, look at me and tell me you still don’t know. Look at me as you always do.
As if summoned, the thickset black lashes swooned and below them, those deep ferns caught hers with an uncharacteristic frail, fleeting glance. Guilt.
Opal’s heart flinched and shrunk in pain.
That’s what was wrong. That stare… it was all there, all written in those gemstones. «I know»
No matter how many times she had prayed for that moment to never come, it was useless because now… now Kuvira knew. Now she was looking at her like everyone else did once they..
“Tell me how did you find out. Was it because of yesterday?” the girl asked, palming her mouth when her words came out with a feeble creaking.
“Find out what?” Kuvira frowned but it was useless. Unseeing the truth in her averting gaze was impossible until tears eventually blurred everything out.
“Oh, Raava. Just say it...” the heartbeat pounding in her throat reduced her tone into a whisper. On her cheeks something hot trailed down before her sigh caught the woman’s stare from the dishes.
“Opal” her low voice called and if possible, it made everything even more difficult because the woman’s dejected tone alone, set off the sparkles of her trembles.
Please, not again… you shouldn’t see me like this or you’ll..
“Get out. I want you to go away.”
The water kept rushing on the empty sink.
Kuvira’s frown fell into a deep scowl as if she couldn’t believe her words, as if she just took a knife from the drawer to stab her chest. «Are you serious?»
Opal stayed still, blinking whenever hot tears became too heavy, racing with the others till falling from her shaking chin. I just want to protect you, Vira….
The woman in question slammed the sink off, collecting the kitchen cloth to dry her hands while her eyes averted to focus somewhere unknown. “It’s been a while since I’ve known.” then admitted. “Your mother told me at Zaofu’s Flare, the night that picture was taken. The same night i came to your place. I asked her myself since she kept on hinting at it but I honestly didn’t believe her because I had no reasons nor clues to and then yesterday, you were… last night I searched the pills you take, I thought it was just a panic attack—”
“—Parkinson’s isn’t so subtle in me anymore, is it?” the girl cut, earning again the mournful stare. A sense of nausea swarmed in Opal’s chest. Raava, I’m not sick, I’m not dying. It’s me, Kuvira… I’m okay as always.. please.
“Don’t” the woman’s gaze shifted into hers while springing around the isle to remove any distance.
“Don’t what?” Opal stepped back and sniffled “Go away. Whatever this is, what we have is over, we are done.”
The CEO stiffened on the spot, her jaw clenched visibly but her nostrils flared; her ferns were wide open in disbelief and she didn’t have the guts to blame the woman because she couldn’t believe it either. She just took another step back when Kuvira rose her hand in sign to calm down but the flat of the cold wall behind, froze the student’s entire body.
“Breathe before saying something we can’t come back from.” the businesswoman guaranteed softly, landing a palm on the girl’s shoulder.
Opal bit her bottom lip while swallowing the hard lump. Kuvira’s hand shifted up her nape until it rustled through her short hair, tacitly ordering her to bore the attention deeply into the forest of her catlike-eyes.
A promised land. Kuvira looked at her and eternity graced her spirit, yet Opal found the only way to tarnish them with half-truths pitch and now those woods have burned so hard, a thick smoke swallowed the wreckage left.
She was the cause of that desolation. If only she had the strength to say the truth from the start, the woman probably would’ve never got so concerned by now or even bothered searching for her in a first place. That, however, wasn’t how things went.
Kuvira stayed and filled her life, fortifying her until a sense of invincibility and protection folded.
Yeah, but what did I give back to you? Lies, sorrow and worries…
“I told you we wouldn’t make it.” Opal puckered her lips in a sad smile and gulped down. Kuvira’s stoicism was faltering. “Did you really think I could want something serious with you?” the girl whispered and bent forward, avoiding the iron stare and raising her voice over the hammering of her pulse “Do you think I would’ve been happy to know you asked my mother and not me?!”
“What does it matter how I found out?!” the woman snarled above and she couldn’t collect the courage to lift her stinking gaze from the kitchen’s tiles.
“You didn’t respect me!”
“Bullshit. Was this the precious secret you and Korra wanted to keep from me so desperately? Now you’re acting like this because you didn’t have the guts to tell me yourself and blame your mother for doing so? Because I remind you of the disappointment of those lies you swore to never tell? This is the limit you didn’t want to overlap, wasn’t it?” the woman beseeched, holding her shoulders back against the wall’s bricks ensuring the frontal confrontation but no matter how hard the girl wished to refuge in that stare, it hurt too much.
“Look at me when I talk to you, Opal.” Kuvira demanded with irritation shading her tone and yet, the urge to do the opposite had the best. Opal squinted her eyes and few strands stuck on her wet cheeks when she twisted her head to the side.
“I couldn’t care less if you have Parkinson’s.”
Air hitched in Opal’s throat.
“I feel nothing for you”
.
Nothing… is it?
Among everything the girl could've said, she chose that.
In a second, a month spent together with Opal reduced in that moment, in an abstract concept with a multitude of feelings roaring of their own lights. In each image casted by that light, the girl’s purest glances and smiles were a constant.
Nothing, she says…
Kuvira scoffed, because she could burst in the ire chewing up her guts, laughing or drowning in the deepest hole of her desperation but unfortunately, she had been taught how to preserve her pride and desist. So yes, she withdrew and scoffed in disbelief. “What I have to hear… this is what you tell yourself?” now it all made sense.. “All this time, you strived to bring out the worst of me just to find an excuse to hate me because it was easier for you than admitting your disease and despite it, you fell in love with me...”
“—I’m not!” the student snapped as if a sore spot was poked and that very reaction was enough to churn something inside, tormenting the woman from the very first day.
So it was true… all this time she felt something for me but said nothing. Opal would rather push her away, shutting her feelings off just to hide how sick she had been. But why..?
Kuvira stepped back and the sound of her flat heel hitting the tiles was barely audible, muffled; her hearing was already deafened by Opal’s umpteenth denial.
She rubbed her eyes by pinching the bridge of her nose before gliding the rest of the palm up to fix the loose strands back in the bun and let out the boulder weighing in her lungs. The girl however, was still facing the rest of the kitchen, panting and shaking on the spot as if she just ran her legs off for hours.
In that moment especially, there was something that made the student look even smaller, incredibly frailer than she used to be not even 24 hours ago and despite that, the terrible feeling that Opal would reject her no matter what she had to say, clawed into Kuvira’s deepest fears.
The student’s lips wobbled in an elfin pout.
The sight alone unsheathed the boundless tenderness the woman had always nurtured for the girl in spite of the untamable rage currently consuming every part of her. And screw it. The desire to wrap her up into an embrace, to protect Opal from the tacit battle evidently tormenting her mind was too fierce to discard, if only the girl wouldn’t just reject her again. Kicking and stabbing her heart raw.
How much more could it take before it crumbled?
“Do us both a favor and spare yourself.” she deadpanned holding venom in the back of her tongue, withdrawing enough to stop being fazed by the student’s seething presence only to find it impossible. Whether she was, in fact, overlooking Opal’s true feelings wasn’t an option since those clung onto hers like a thick mist, slowly solidifying to be engraved deep in her soul. “The way you reacted yesterday was loud and clear enough to make me understand you can’t even control what you feel at this point and it’s driving you crazy. You are driving me crazy pretending it’s only me.” her heart tumbled, Opal’s frame blurred out ”It’s me, isn’t it? It’s all on me! All my fault!”
“Yes!” the girl cried out, pulling nerves up in her skin “I told you nothing about my disease because I knew you’d pity me. What are you trying to prove anyway?! Are you trying to show yourself to be a good person because you pity fuck a sick girl or think you are here to save me now by controlling me?” her voice quavered yet her hands balled in shaking fists. “That I can’t take care of myself because once I let you help me? You think you can bully me into feeling something for you, that we are so in love, I can’t make it without you, when the truth is we are nothing and I couldn’t care less if you are here or not as it always has been.”
Kuvira leapt closer until Opal’s chest plastered her own.
The movement was brisk and sufficient to bring the girl’s head up again but it still wasn’t enough to lure those dodging eyes into her stare so she hissed against her cheek “Don’t you fucking dare accuse me of gaslighting you to have feelings for me and pretend that you didn’t want this as well, when yesterday you laughed and put on a fucking show when I provoked you to be just friends with benefits. —Or when not even a week ago you BEGGED me to be forever.”
At the girl’s whine, the woman recoiled swiftly with the trail of her rage still scratching like a burnt rocket in her throat because what had been said and done in the tenderness shared wasn’t something bound to be forgotten and Opal of all people should have known it. She fucking knew it, she’s just shooting bullshit to push me away now… she just..—
Her eyes.
For a fraught, fleeting instant the girl’s peridots flashed into view. Panic, ache, fear… sorrow.
Taken off guard, Kuvira barely perceived the coldness of two palms sinking through her suit pressing violently, enough to make her buckle backwards. “I could never love someone so wretched!” the student screamed before slipping away but as fast as instincts usually ordered to pull away, Kuvira instead grasped Opal’s wrist to haul her back and turn.
“Then say it to my fucking face!” she bellowed.
It hovered in the room, scraping into the air the same way it lacerated her pulse.
She didn’t know what to expect by exploding in such a rush of fury. It wasn’t calculated. Reacting without second thought wasn’t… her anymore, neither what she has been taught but Opal.. Opal proved every single time to be able to drag out the best and worst out of her. Her pulse raced.
That sense of freedom the girl provided her with was joyfully soothing as much as it could be dangerous whenever wrath broke through at her behest. And Spirits, if Opal could make her loose it.
It was thus, Opal reserved a gaze full of dismay before bursting in tears. In those eyes, the reflection of such gruesomeness was what brought Kuvira to realize it was too late to pretend that conversation never took such an awful twist, not even when she let go of the girl’s wrist whom instead of reaching out to help her calm down, Opal stepped backwards in fear, burying tears in her own hands.
She fears me and has all the reasons to.
This was her real form after all; the same raw, angry child Zaheer fetched from the miserable streets was now standing in front of someone who wasn’t willing to reciprocate her feelings, shooing her away because this was what people were used to doing with wild beasts.
«So wretched»… her parents knew something about it.
Suyin was right, what a fool…
For a month it seemed possible, for that fleeting while it was easy to believe she could be loved without screwing it up, yet now…
Even if Opal still felt something for her at this point it wasn’t relevant because the girl wasn’t ready to have it and Kuvira, anyway, found a way to end it as she has done with everything else in her life.
The girl’s sobs blared in the chasm breaking between them, warning to get out of there before she could fall into it or do worse, way worse.
My coat. I need to get it and leave. Now. Kuvira swallowed the knot further down her throat but her feet were sealed to the tiles. Her palm still tingled at the loss of the music student’s skin, her lungs burned and shrunk at the absence of that honeyed scent reminding her why it was essential to breathe, now that everything around her smelled like mourning and tears.
Suyin was right and it was incredibly unjust because she thought she was better than that, that Opal could really see her as someone worth it, someone she’d never push away with fears fueling her words, her eyes.
Opal detested to be pitied, to be regarded like a frail piece of porcelain and admittedly there were times the urge to treat her as such thrived inside, although it was never connected to the fact the girl was affected by an incurable disease.
Everything concerning Opal wasn’t defined by her sickness, and probably that’s why the student didn’t say it before because she wanted to be considered for the smart, stubborn, gentle girl she was, not like the helpless damsel waiting to be saved like everyone made her feel.
Opal never needed to be saved.
That’s why she despises me now.. that’s where i fucked up.
Through her narrowed, blurred view the music student’s body folded into a sighing ball impressed in her mind. The hanker to lift and cradle Opal battled with the excessive sense of chastisement their fight just gave birth to.
How shameful and wicked it was to reduce like this someone she..
Someone she…
It was then her legs shook, adverting they were still there, weak but existing and ready to finally pass the girl sitting on the floor. They brought her out of the kitchen and in the hallway until reaching the coat on the holder limply waiting for her, in that living room that witnessed their continuous bursts of love, in that same place where the girl’s weeping now still echoed loud and didn’t stop. It couldn’t stop because even if Opal did, Kuvira had the impression that sound would’ve haunted each sleepless night she’d pass without her.
Before it gave in under the pressure, the main door handle froze her palm as a wave of regret assailed. Thus, she found the might to stalk towards the bedroom, collecting the pillbox to then enter the natural cold light swallowing the kitchen.
A feeble rain had begun to tap on the wide glass and when courage bloomed in her guts to look down, each droplet’s shadow reflected on the student’s dark skin.
At the sight of the girl’s shaking fists, her own tightened around the box until some pills inside it rattled, catching Opal’s hasty doe eyes.
If that was the last time she’d see the girl, there was a certainty the heat of those tears would’ve scarred on her own skin for life. No… However it ended, that would haven’t been the last thing to remember about Opal.
Therefore, the student’s liquid stare drifted somewhere else once again proving that twinging point, provoking pain to branch up Kuvira’s teeth as setting the jaw.
What was the purpose to get to this point, anyway? With all said and done, this wasn’t the outcome she’d ever expect while the lingering desire to make it last, still shattered her soul.
That’s not fair. She needs time...
Yet, if that was really the last time, it also meant Opal had to know everything. It didn’t matter how tight the strings connecting the girl to her family were.
There were too many things left unsaid and she couldn’t allow any more spiteful games to hurt the only person who warranted to be freed by such wretched manipulations.
And if that was the only way to help her find out…
“I suggest you have a nice chat with your mother” the woman cleared her throat with the hope to relieve the rasp in her voice, although fruitlessly. It stayed low and violent, full of a resentment Opal didn’t deserve to receive.
A quavered breathing made it clear there were ears listening despite the quietness brushed by the rain and the shuffle of shoes as she moved to tap the pill box on the counter. She wet her lip. “Ask her about the fake association, about ‘adults sharing secrets’. You’ll be surprised about what you can learn from it”
“What are you talking about?” the girl muttered before sniffling “Y-you want to put the blame on her for your mistakes?” how can you even believe what you’re saying?
“How can you be so cruel?” Opal then whispered. Her voice although broke in half with a mouthful of contempt enough to pierce her soul in an everlasting winter.
“Cruel, Indeed..” she sneered in surprise, unable to shift her stare from the marble turning into a formless matter. “You said only one thing right. We are done.”
With a void in her chest she spun and cursed herself for coming back where her heart broke in the first place. At least everything she had to say was said no matter if her voice ceased at last and no matter if Opal shouted her to stop, she didn’t.
She couldn’t, because everything inside bellowed to cut, to sprint away the same exact moment she let the main door slam behind her before a loud crashing noise echoed from the kitchen. Then a thumping, a scream.
An atrocious buzzing deafened the rest. With the dread Opal got physically hurt, breath hitched in Kuvira’s throat; her chest rose and fell spasmodically and although her pulse exploded, it made no sound before the whirring slowly cleared out into the girl’s bawling.
Don’t go back in. Don’t do it. Don’t.
The blood’s coppery taste dampened her lips as she bit it hard until a salty one washed it away.
«How can you be so cruel?»
She halted and slapped her mouth before the sob escaped from it could turn into scream.
.
Notes:
Here we are. The moment of truth has finally come, exploding (as some of you imagined) in the worst way possible (or perhaps not? I mean nobody died at least👀).
What I know is that sometimes, hard times happen to teach us something or reveal what we didn’t want to see but where this storm will lead our gurlz is still left to be seen!
The final chapters are surely gonna be… intense >:3____________ꕤ
Little disclaimer!
Since this period is gonna be personally busy for me, I decided it would be better to stop posting for few months so i can fully dedicate to the end of this story (which is gonna take 3/4 chapters more) but no worries!
You’ll still see me around posting new little works for the incoming opalvira week!
Some of the fandom indeed, are currently working on setting up prompts, days, etc and of course, if anyone would like to join the chat both to contribute or just have fun moments/conversations, we’d love to have you in the discord server!
You can find/dm me both on Tumblr (Naeevin) and Twitter (@Naeevin_) ꕤStay well, stay tuned ♡!
Chapter 19: Chapter seventeen
Notes:
Hey! Guess who’s back with a chapter full of drama?!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
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“Bye!” Opal waved as the last kid left scurrying towards their parent. The lesson was over. The gym’s door creaked closed and the deep thumping resonated inside her guts.
The wind-chime jingled.
A void.
Since it ended, stopping to think about the last conversation with Kuvira became impossible and whenever the echoes of their fight didn’t shatter her soul, an absolute silence overwhelmed. Like now in this empty room, within these hollow walls containing nothing but the sparks of her past joy.
Nobody could tell that not a few minutes ago music filled this place while a group of children peacefully giggled on their small yoga mats. Nobody could even tell she once made love right over there to the only woman her heart ever beat loud for either.
Opal sighed and switched the light off.
Perhaps the best thing to do now was collect her bag and leave as she was supposed to; her limbs were sore… too fragile. Everything felt harder on her since Kuvira wasn’t around anymore.
Yet… coming back home didn’t seem the best option.
There were too many memories there and at the thought, a sense of weakness heaved her head down, blurring the sight for a while long enough to make her fret for a solid surface to lean on.
She had been trying to forget, to delete the business woman's voice scratching the confines of her mind but it was useless because, among all the things that stung the most, there was what she yelled to Kuvira.
It was cruel, every insult she addressed to the CEO were bullets she didn’t deserve to be shot with.
How could those horrible words be said out loud anyway? Not even the shadow of their meaning ever crossed Opal’s consciousness whenever she thought about Kuvira, not even when she thought she did unforgivable things with her mother.. and still, they sprawled out her throat without restraint that day.
She only wished for Kuvira to leave before it was too late. But things ended up getting worse anyway.
Her hand curled into a fist against the wall.
«You should have a nice chat with your mother»
Right… that. Her lips trembled open. Whatever her mother had to say she wasn’t sure to be ready to hear it; although, if Kuvira came back only to tell her that the day they argued, it must’ve been important.
The need to know more was indeed impelling but an inexplicable fear fought back.
Accusing her mother of something… damn it, even opening a discussion with her was usually too unpredictable and harmful because Suyin knew all too well how to enrage her, specifically, psychoanalyzing until touching the most vulnerable spots just to make her feel… nothing.
Yet this time there was an urgent reason why she had to face her mother.
So Opal locked the gym’s main door and gathered the courage to head to the penthouse. Cars rumbled behind her as she crossed the streets, rolling down the metro to hop on the first race towards the City’s center.
Her old house’s building almost disappeared among low clouds that day. A feeble ray of sun shone on the crystal elevator, in particular, while it descended the moment she climbed up the metro stairs, making a feeling grumble in her stomach. A sense of nausea then hit the back of her throat.
I need to know… or else…
As dashing in the building to sneak inside the elevator, the vent’s warm breeze mellowed November’s coldness. She swayed among the people already crowding the lift to reach the back since she had to go through each floor anyway so she sighed and waited.
The low yatter filled her ears and it was an inconvenience because she needed some kind of quietness to focus on what she had to say to her mom but…why, after all?
Whether I talk to her or not, what I had with Kuvira is over. She won’t come back and I won’t run to find her and hope she’ll stay in my life if it means doing this would ruin her own. I just don’t deserve her; it’s over.
A layer of tears swelled up her eyelids and every sound around, no matter being stifled with people entering and exiting, dulled into silence.
In front of her, the reflection of the business woman appeared on the lift’s glass. Opal’s breath hitched.
No… even if we are over I want to do this for you. For what we were together. Because I need to know what we had wasn’t made of empty words, that you weren’t lying and didn’t tell me to talk to her as an excuse to hurt me.
You told me that for a specific reason, didn’t you? But Raava if that’s real… if mom was actually the one causing all of this, I..
In the glass, Kuvira’s stare softened.
Opal took a lungful of air at the memory before checking around, worried to find someone caught that. There were two people left looking down at their respective phone screens; the penthouse was in the next five stops.
She turned towards the glass with the words left unsaid shaking her chest and sniffed.
I’m so sorry for everything I said and did to you. I wish I knew better ways to help you stay away from me starting from this elevator. You never deserved to be treated like that nor pushed away. I never deserved you. Bu—
The lift’s doors dinged open until they closed behind the last person leaving so she took the liberty to sob out loud, palming the icy glass to hold onto something, to feel closer to a mere reflection without any shame.
“If I had the possibility to go back to the day we met, exactly here, Kuvira… I would do everything again just to feel you close once more. I would tell you the truth from the very start and how strongly I wish I could be normal, at least for you.”
Ding .
“I hope you can forgive me.” a tear rolled down her cheek, “I know that if i only gave you the chance, you’d be here by now because you promised me we’d go through this together. I won’t apologize though because no matter what I said or did, I’ll keep you in my heart.”
.
Her fist burned as another blow was dulled by the punching bag. The chains holding it on the ceiling clanked forcefully in the gym but it didn’t matter: there was nobody there.
She shouldn’t have been there either truthfully. Since the two corporations were unified, work wasn’t as hectic as before but Kuvira would’ve lied if she said there had been a moment in which she could actually focus on it.
It was all consuming. She thought she could get over it but at this point, even surviving another day with what happened with Opal seemed barely possible.
Breathing was impossible.
Another punch, a kick.
Even this felt stupid; she used to training and sparring but mindlessly punching a bag until her knuckles scorched was something her childhood self would’ve appreciated more.
As she grew up, everything that required tactics and logic interested her but essentially, nothing would’ve caught her interest right now because nothing made sense anymore.
She’d woke up every morning after a restless night and for what? To live as if nothing happened; heading to a job she couldn’t do, scheduling meetings, paperwork, then coming back home except for the fact now she had to blur Opal’s voice with liquor. The fight.. the screams.
Last night sleeping didn’t seem a possibility so she tried to go somewhere else instead. One of those nightclubs she used to go to before they ever met; she sat with a drink freezing her hand as the black floor shone below the neon lights. Many people walked on it but nobody had that feathery walk.. it was useless even to mention it.
She headed home before even finishing what was in the glass without the minimal desire to look up at someone else, feeling ridiculous for even trying to believe she could simply hook up with a stranger and go back to what once was. As if all that happened didn’t change her completely.
Pathetic…
Ironically, it appeared now she was «in need of adrenaline boosts to feel something» if it wasn’t for the fact she didn’t even care to feel. If she had to, the replay of the sweet curve of the music student’s smile in her mind would've been enough for a while.. almost .
She framed her perfectly, however. The girl understood her better than anyone ever did, better than Zaheer himself.
Her shoulders flamed with adrenaline hurting at each contraction, each push and thump landing on that soft surface and yet it was almost perverse the way pain could detonate such strong pleasure. The desire to…. ah…
Yes, Opal was right and among all the spite she threw at her -purposely or not- it was true she unconsciously pitied the girl from the very moment Suyin told her.
Opal was alright, how couldn’t she be?
Her eyes shot close. Thin fingers quivered on the lift’s window; around the bakery’s mug; intertwined with hers then opened: in each gap Opal’s lips, Opal’s red cheeks, a pair of green gems dotted with golden flakes stared below a layer of tears. Love. «Don’t let me go. Please… please»
I won’t I won’t I won’t. I swear.
«You make me sick! AM I NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU?! NOT GOOD, NOT HEALTHY ENOUGH?»
«I told you nothing about my disease because I knew you’d pity me. What are you trying to prove anyway?!»
«You don’t care about me!» «You didn’t respect me!»
«Go away. Whatever this is, what we have is over, we are done.»
«Did you really think I could want something serious with you?»
A monster, an abomination…
“HEY!” someone shouted as she threw on the floor to keep on pouring fury onto the fallen bag. Opal couldn’t be sick. Although, if she was, it changed nothing because she was stronger than that, no matter how miserable her mother made her feel nor how much those pills weakened her -- another strike.
She was stronger than the low blood pressure, more than the inability to swallow correctly, the stiffness, those trembles and spas—
— Ouch . Pain branched from her elbow like a thunderbolt.
Something was trying to hold her back or lift her up because blow after blow the range of action dwindled and her fists began to hit air. Air was everything her lungs craved, everything her heart talked about but if she had to live in apnea —if Opal pushed her away— it wasn’t completely her fault. Yes, perhaps her ways haven’t been the best but her intentions towards the only girl she ever loved were.
The way things escalated.. not even Opal seemed to believe in her own accusations and it was obvious the main problem wasn’t due to her pity because it hadn't been difficult to accept the disease. That never had been an issue but the way it sounded coming from her therapist’s merciless lips for the first time was just… unbelievable.
Suyin was there, looking, incredibly close to her face, breathing acrid wine against her skin in the midlit restaurant room filled with swinging, slow tunes and instead of feeling a pull towards that woman as she usually would in presence of such endearing energy, a sense of repulsion occluded Kuvira’s chest.
“If you’re the specialist you flaunt to be, it won’t be hard to mention the reason why I wouldn’t want to deal with someone like your daughter” the CEO snarked, taking away the hand wrapped around her nape. Her therapist’s brow arched up at the sudden change of behavior and smirked.
At first it was just a silent giggle adding physical distance between them before the old woman cocked her head to turn it into a snicker; “you really like to play with me, Kuvira! I didn’t expect you to be such a sanctimonious person but Parkinson’s isn’t a disease you can deflate with your stale virtue. Nobody knows it better than me and Opal herself, so save your pietism for someone else.” her therapist’s tone sharpened like a blade to cut deep.
Although, the pain Kuvira was expecting to feel never came. Some kind of warmth instead spread in her insides and heart till reaching the brain, making her eyes widen under the old woman’s stare. It was then that it became clear; what she felt was surprise.
“Oh?” Suyin placed her chin above her own knuckles, tilting her head but leering and smiling so viciously a chill ran down Kuvira’s nape.
Then snapped on her feet.
“Don’t tell me she hasn't told you, yet?”
…she hasn’t…
“STOP AT ONCE!” the same male voice boomed out of the blue. Her body paralyzed. The gym…
There was a man in front of her: a tall bald man fuming in rage.
Having someone so close, although, wasn’t the shocking part. No… She panted.
Little by little pain began to crawl around each part of her to throb insistently.
A pair of hailstones froze the back of her mind, staring in warning before registering the hem of the master’s tunic was balled in her fist, stretched to its limits while the other bended one stopped mid air —flayed— coated in blood and ready to strike.
.
The bang of the door blared in the room.
“We need to talk.” Raava, it’s actually happening.
She never had the courage to slam her mother’s office door before, nor any other door in her presence; it was kinda prohibited in her family to show passive aggressiveness although her mother was the only one exempted to do it —but, anyway.
Slamming doors was disrespectful and Opal imagined it to be the most effective way to earn the attention required to the situation’s urgency and yet…
“Tell me” her mother kept staring at her laptop. “The dosage isn’t working?”
Yes, that too!
“No,” her arms crossed, “I’m referring to ‘adults sharing secrets’.”
A grey thin brow arched up “Is this supposed to suggest something to me?”
“I don’t know, does it?”
Eventually, her mother glanced over her glasses with annoyance dulling her eyes.
She didn’t seem to care, which was infuriating because Kuvira made it kind of clear that was one of the salient topics to ask her. The therapist however sat at her desk; the light coming through the floor to ceiling windows caressed her dark hand as she gestured towards the closest seat “I guess you should take a break, you seem upset.”
“I’ll be even more if you don’t tell me what that means. What’s going on between you and Kuvira?”
“Opal,” she huffed, sitting back while taking off the glasses. “I tried to warn you about that woman. She’s manipulating you.”
“How?”
“Isn’t it clear?” the woman asked while rubbing each lens with a cloth “By pitting you against me.”
The girl’s expression curled “What in the Spirit World are you talking about? Why would she?”
“Because she is clearly not getting what she wants from me so she messes with you.”
What was that about, now? Manipulating? Messing? Was it right, then, when I accused her of doing that all for my mother? Kuvira made it obvious it wasn’t like that, she said she had no time to play around and it felt… real somehow. Everytime she wasn’t around, Kuvira was working.
Why would she have spent so much spare time and nights together if she had no real purpose nor care? To earn my trust..
Wait, no. No, no… impossible. She would never do that, right? Mom’s just playing with me.
That’s why that evening she left her work journal open besides the pills. As a warning. But what about?
About Kuvira’s tendency to have sex with strangers? This didn’t mean the woman was a manipulative person though, it was nobody’s business. Her guts contorted at the thought.
«Inappropriate allusions» was also written in the journal; did it refer to something specific? Allusion to what? Sex?
Did she ask mom to..?
“W-what would she want from you…” her breath hitched, “what do you mean?”
“I think you need to sit—“
She slapped the desk “I don’t wanna sit! Talk! What about the association?” her palm tangled.
“Oh, Kuvira… seriously?” her mother chuckled.
It was as if air inside the office diminished just to give life to that stupid laugh; it echoed in her brain along the CEO’s name coming from her mouth. Her mother talked about the businesswoman with unbelievable entente, the same naturalness one would use to speak about a bosom person, not a simple client and it hurt.. damn it hurt.
It was likely her doubts and fears were about to be confirmed and perhaps that was, in fact, all about mom and her “client” after all.
It seemed like she had been just a pawn to move wherever was more convenient for them to play.
The therapist then sighed. The chair creaked under her weight, composing only when she finally gathered her stare anew. “Alright, I planned a fake encounter so I could talk to her.”
“At Zaofu’s Flare..” Opal added, “Why not during your sessions? Why didn’t you tell dad?”
“Because he would’ve been hurt and knowing him, he would’ve never let me do something like that, nevertheless here but” the woman leaned closer “I needed to understand what her plan was and tell her to stop hurting you.”
“Really…?” she mumbled dismissively. Hurt me..
Her gaze fell on the floor, catching the wrist to make it stop shaking so visibly before her mother could do it.
Suyin’s voice although, softened, misunderstanding her quietness, “Of course, my love…” her hand in the meantime, didn’t miss to come into view, igniting the need to step backwards and rage to boil Opal’s blood.
“If your intentions were genuine, why did you take off your ring that night? Why were you sitting half-naked on her lap the other day? Do you know how much me, dad… everyone is suffering?” she shouted “Do you even care?”
“Kuvira forced me!”
“Forced you to do what?!”
“She threatened me to tell her what you were keeping from her.“
Her eyes widened. What…
That couldn’t be real. Kuvira would never threaten someone. She was persistent, stubborn and could be very persuasive and yet there still was a distinct line between asking and threatening. Did she harm her mother?
Come on, now.. I may not know her that well but mom isn’t easy to bend… I ndeed… and perhaps that was what made Kuvira snap. After all, she already threatened Korra at the gym even if that wasn’t the same situation, the same relatio—
“—She didn’t know you have Parkinson’s…” her mother went on “why didn’t you tell her?”
Opal flinched; the wish to take a step away from that desk and leave pulled like crazy because that— all that conversation— was becoming unbearable.
There was too much to elaborate and think about. The heart rate didn’t help since it was so high every part of her trembled to explode and yet, anger petrified her on the spot while opening the door.
Her jaw then clenched till her temples throbbed as she crossed the line when she whispered “It’s none of your business.”
Suyin’s eyes narrowed. “Neither is what I do with my client.”
“IT IS MY BUSINESS IF MY MOTHER IS SLEEPING WITH THE ONLY PERSON I EVER FELL FOR!” the door slammed open as she hit her chest. Kuvira is my business. My person!
“Opal, you know that woman since when, yesterday? A month? You know nothing about Kuvira! How many times do I need to tell you you can’t fall for the first person who shows you some kindness or you think you have a simple connection with? And even if,” her mother glowered in reprimand “how can you underestimate how selfish your behavior—“
“—No! No… you’re done with this!” she cried out through her blurred sight “I know what it means to live with myself, with my disability, without you reminding me every single time. I know! I know… I know it already… ” her hand curled into a fist as it cashed again against her own chest. It hurt a lot; her heart, her chest, her fist, her mother’s scolding and the possibility that Kuvira didn’t have exactly the best intentions when the last possibility was to be hurt by her.
“What’s going on here?!” a new voice howled in the office. It was familiar even though at that point she couldn’t even recognize her own hands where tears and sobs were burying.
It was probably her father however, because he was keeping her close to his chest and nobody wore that spicy after shave except for him. He was talking, he surely was but at that point her heartbeat overcame every other sound and she was probably shaking hard; skipping pills for days didn’t exactly help.
“I want to go home.. I want to go home…please” she managed to mumble out when it became clear her father’s heart was pounding too. It was unbearable to go through all that and it always had been incredibly treacherous for everyone to have a conversation with her mother; she knew this one would’ve ended this way, she feared it but Kuvira… she wanted to understand if what the businesswoman told her was true and her mother found every way to prove the opposite.
Confusion crowded Opal’s brain like a thick fog while her father moved her, perhaps outside the office to head downstairs. The elevator itself was unrecognizable aside its high pitched dinging drumming into each tympanum before a few words reached her consciousness.
“Alright”…
It was indeed all incredibly confusing and still, the fact the CEO was the one sending her there to talk to Suyin directly should’ve meant that the woman had a reason and surely it wasn’t to be slandered.
Kuvira was better, smarter than that.
… “ Breathe”
She also never blamed her, she didn’t care about the disease nor made it a burden while her mother was so obsessed that everything was inexplicably connected to it.
Parkinson’s, according to her mother, was the essential reason why Opal couldn’t live somewhere else outside the penthouse, couldn’t travel, couldn’t get attached to someone aside from her family to which she had to completely rely on because it would have been too cruel and dangerous if she fell in love and leaned on someone. As if she had no other option but to reckon.
This is what her mother kept pressing on her since the very day the doctor discussed the prognosis and only got worse as symptoms began to show more frequently as years passed by. Her whole life revolved around the disease, the pills she had to take, how rigid her diet should’ve been, blood work, medical tests, family discussions, repeat.
“Better”..
At seventeen her mother pushed her to take self defense lessons from Korra, once known as the “Avatar”, the worldwide MMA Champion who moved to Zaofu to become a simple trainer after a disastrous incident.
At first it was hard to get motivated and follow up with the lessons but Korra made it such a joyful experience each time that breathing felt simple again.
Being close to the trainer was like a dream in which everything felt less wrong and difficult; Korra was also very understanding since she had to go through a rehab program after the incident herself and although the situation was different, she knew what having a disability meant.
They shared that and honestly, for a while, Opal hoped to share something more with the ocean eyed girl until it turned out she was already dating and well… Bolin eventually showed up.
It was then things intertwined in complicated ways: her mother found out they were dating and started to freak out, saying that Bolin could never taken care of her no matter how thoughtful and kind; that he was still a dumb kid and her condition would’ve just…
It was crazy. She didn’t mean to spend the rest of her life with Bolin, she was just young, wishing to have fun like every other girl her age but that event ending her relationship with Bolin, was able to destroy that thin thread linking her to the therapist.
Her father and brothers, from there, helped her move out, supporting her in every single way they could even if it was against her mother’s will, especially then.
When Kuvira showed up, she dreaded it. From the start it was clear things between them couldn’t bloom because being close to her felt like another dream, completely different from what Korra made her once feel. With Kuvira she had done and felt things nobody could ever understand which was a tragedy because her mother wouldn’t have taken that well, blaming it on Parkinson’s and yet this time, Suyin found a way to preceed her instead.
It was still unbelievable. Now it turned out Kuvira didn’t have the guts to talk about what she had with her therapist? Really?
«How could you think I'd ever choose to be with someone else when we have this?» the woman whispered.
«I want you to listen carefully, Opal. I never lied about the person I am and I particularly hate when my word is put into question because it weighs with its own value, my feelings, especially when I say you are the only one I ever wanted.»…
Her warm, wide palm brushed against the cheek.
«You’d be my breath and I’d be the ground below your feet to push and support you. Be mine and I'd give you all of me. Completely. Inexorably.»
«I’m yours»
“..head to the hospital”
No..
A white light burned her corneas as the elevator doors opened. A heaviness weighed on her head as if someone was pressing it or lead was laid on top of it but no matter the pain, the confusion, the panic attack occluding her senses, a powerful pull helped her step out the building.
Something wet began to tap on her skin repeatedly; the street was slippery. A strange zulfur scent burned up her nostrils, her lungs and the noises.. those damn, crowding noises reverberated in her mind like bombs until someone… those green eyes…
Kuvira,
Kuvira…
“OPAL!”
.
Notes:
I’m super sorry for the long wait buuut it seems like summer is over so I may get more free time to just sit and focus on actually finishing the story!
I can’t promise i’ll be fast but i’m definitely working on it 😜
Chapter 20: Chapter eighteen
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
.
.
Eventually, she hasn’t punched that man. It was a relief of course, the intention to hurt him never sparkled in the back of her mind but the situation was alarming: since when did control become so difficult to keep?
There were no words to explain the kind of beast the whole situation was turning her into and it was utterly appalling; feeling so hard was a problem.
Zaheer would’ve been ashamed of her actions.
Losing control that way —again— Spirits.
The punching bag however was squandered. The chain keeping it attached to the ceiling ceased completely under the hits but that was perhaps the minor problem since she managed to rip the cover and well.. fixing it wasn’t an option anymore.
Needless to say, Kuvira paid for the damage and apologized profusely to the man she realized to be her father’s old friend.
Master Tenzin; the middle aged man running the gym had been mentioned by her father just a few times but on every single occasion, Zaheer made sure to talk the least about him. Overall the relationship between them stayed unknown, the admiration the old CEO used to -unconsciously or not- express about his acquaintance with Tenzin was never missed.
The old man, although, made sure to check on her, handing a piece of paper before she headed to the car.
«It may be useful for the next time»
“The White Lotus” at the light invading the car, the title’s silver font shone on the card’s front followed by just a phone number below. Kuvira frowned and turned it «New growth cannot exist without first the destruction of the old».
She sighed, grabbing the phone to check out the name on the internet but as the screen glowed, it took only a second to notice four missed calls from Korra before her name popped up on the darkening background.
“Kuvira” her friend’s voice thrilled in relief, making her frown.
“What do you want?”
“It’s about Opal. I..”
Her jaw clenched. “I don’t care.”
“—No wait!” Korra bellowed before she could press the end button. “Listen, it’s urgent.”
“What part of ‘I don’t care’ don’t you get?”
“Opal is at the hospital, she asked about y—” beep.
Air rushed out her lungs.
For a second, the white stripes dividing the roadway smudged and waved until melting with the rough asphalt. Desolated.
«Opal is at the hospital»
A buzzing overcame Korra’s voice; it sounded weird like an old broken record because she kept on repeating the same thing but the call ended a while ago and each word put together didn’t make sense.
Perhaps she misspoke or…? The awareness that something had to be done with that information, although, ringed and yet for a reason or another, her logic refused to collaborate.
Something then grabbed her fist wrapped around the shifter to seize it, «Kuvira.. damn it,» a familiar voice whined. «are you gonna melt your brain about it?» she turned around and a pair of green eyes pierced her soul. Peridots…
«Yes, I'm at the hospital. It’s not that difficult»
Air hitched in her lungs. “It’s difficult for me” and for what mattered, even discerning that mutter as her own voice, was already devastating.
«Come on now,» the girl jumped on the seat to straddle and poke her heaved chest, «it’s kinda pathetic for a woman like you to be paralysed by this. Show some balls and accept it»
“I can’t just accept it.” she whispered while catching the student’s index.. then the whole hand. The wish to feel its usual coldness against her palm as their fingers intertwined, sparkled in Kuvira’s heart and even if Opal was just in her mind, she understood, tilting her head to the side.
«why not?»
“Because it’s already too hard to breathe without you and if you are in a dangerous situation… if there’s a minimal chance that something happened to you because of me, while I wasn’t there…” she gulped down before her voice could break completely. The way Opal was looking at her evoked memories impossible to repress so she found herself doing what she used to do on these occasions. She swirled strands of short hair around the girl’s ear and kept “I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive myself”
«So what? Are you gonna go back home to pretend that never happened or you’ll sulk in self deprecation? Is this the best you can do?!» Opal spat, taking away every chance to debate as she was grabbed by the face «You said you wanted to help those in need and well, guess what?! I need you, stupid!»
The girl yelped less than an inch away from her mouth and for some desperate reason, that closeness, that whole scold felt real like a punch. And Raava, she needed that hit more than anything.
I need her more than anything… even if there’s the possibility that she’s gonna reject me again and again.
Opal’s peridots shone at the afternoon’s light. They might’ve been mere memory projections and couldn’t compare to the infinity the girl’s real eyes always promised but admitting her heart didn’t flicker at the faint reminiscence, would’ve been a lie.
Eyes like those were worth killing for.
No, eyes like those are worth fighting and living for.
«Come and face me however I might be..» on the girl’s face a tender smile grew. Her raging voice had mellowed into a breeze the same way the grip turned into a caress down her cheekbone and as Kuvira followed the wrist slim line, the phone’s screen shone again. Her brows knitted.
A text with an address from Korra.
«You promised, Kuvira..»
.
As she stalked along the hallway, her patent leather shoes thumped harder.
Due to the sporadic traffic or her ability to run through all of it, the ride towards the address had been incredibly short.
A private clinic…
A modest structure outside the city’s chaotic centre hid among Zaofu’s prosperous verdure. The air was undoubtedly cleaner, the halls minutiously decorated in metals and courtesies while the sunlight entered through the wide windows to resplend on the green walls and draw long lines on lucid floors.
However you’d put it, a hospital was still a hospital and none of them was immune to the awful scent of death and sterilizers.
Last time she exited one, the corpse of what was left of her family followed.
As the umptheent hallway doors slammed, they revealed a small group of people crowding its opposite end. Many of them turned to check out the banging, whispering to each other before someone actually stepped out, hindering the way towards room 57.
“If you are here to see my mother, know that it’s incredibly inappropriate.” a young man commented.
He was tall, probably one of the tallest people over there but aside from his rage, his meek gestures and green bottle eyes didn’t betray someone who used to argue nor affront strangers on a daily basis.
He wasn’t a complete stranger anyway; that must’ve been the Beifong’s eldest son.
Everyone who referred to the guy never missed the chance to describe him as “his father’s shadow” and he had crossed her path many times, on many occasions proving that; always pushing the round glasses on the nose bridge, a clear sign he wasn’t exactly comfortable around people but he was definitely trying.
Now, his father was behind, looking at him with pride and apprehension like one would do with a kid on his first bicycle lessons and yet Baatar jr. was in her way. Confronting.
He never had a reason to before and still, today he seemed to be determined in what he was doing —which was a good thing for him but it wasn't the right day.
So she breathed in, set her jaw and put all her effort to stay polite before crushing her way towards the room. “I’m here for Opal.”
“After you broke her heart and my father’s? Go away, Kuvira. Nobody here wants to see you. Your presence is only an insult to my family.” the guy shouted out, causing the other people to drop their tattles with gasps. At the ominous, tensed atmosphere her eyes narrowed. It was clear that reprimand opened a slim window of action in which she had to play it sharp and clean or else...
The tap of her stepping in resounded loudly. There wasn’t time for these hinders. “Listen, I have no idea who told you such things but whatever it is, your accusation is firstly incorrect and secondly, none of your business. I’m not here to argue nor explain myself. I’m here to see your sister.”
“None of my business?” Junior scowled, “You sleep with my mother and send my sister to the hospital and this is not my concern?”
“Whoever is your source, Baatar, is lying.” she growled, swelling her chest as tucking hands behind her back “Now if you may be so kind to move—“
“—I was the one who saw you that night. I showed Opal the picture while you were upstairs with my mother two weeks ago.” the guy stressed, striving to block every chance to advance with his own body and if it wasn’t for the annoying fact he was surrounded by people dear to Opal, the desire to choke him crawled up her palm.
The woman sighed in irritation. By the Spirits, he is such a Beifong…“You don’t even know what happened and why. You just took a picture and assumed what you saw was everything you needed to know. Whoever you sent this, you didn’t only spread false information but you can also be denounced for defamation.”
The guy’s face paled before taking a step back long enough to almost trip on his father’s feet “You think you can win a case against me?” then bared his teeth “A Beifong?”
Kuvira’s brow arched up. Threatening, huh?
She fought the impulse to smirk when Opal’s father met her gaze in worry. «Don’t do it» .
“Baatar,” she admonished, sliding her stare into the son’s hectic one anew and this time, pressing forward. “I'm done with this conversation and if you don’t move aside, the next time you’ll see me is with your lawyer at court.”
“Junior..” Baatar sr. mumbled in reassurance, planting a hand on the guy’s shoulder—
“—but dad..” the guy snarled behind him and if she focused hard enough she’d swear Junior’s teeth grinding sounded like an electric saw until he eventually dragged himself out of the way.
After what felt like an eternity, the hallway cleared out; the CEO nodded to the old man in acknowledgment and while passing, a spicy aftershave invaded her lungs.
.
With everything that happened that day and among all the ways she’d imagine Opal to be, this wasn’t expected. As the door opened and tucked behind her, a feeble gust of air soused with disinfectant invested her senses, so intense the acrid taste emerged on the back of her tongue.
The view, although, was what discombobulated the most, tightening around her heart.
Balled on a side, the girl appeared so petite even the small bed looked immense; the afternoon’s sun was caressing her face below a shapeless bunch of messy hair, almost chestnut at light. The same light however, made the needle stuck in her hand resting on a hip shone in a bright line the same way the oxygen tube glowed above her lips.
Opal’s chest swelled and shrunk slowly, calm and yet her brows were furrowed under the creased forehead.
She’s in pain..
Raava knew for how long she was and during all this time she was alone.
I left her alone…
My “Opal...” her disbelief escaped in a whisper over the beeping.
“Baatar said she had a very bad episode while she was talking to Su and then…” a murmur came from nowhere, almost causing a heart attack. She had been so focused on the music student, Korra and Asami’s presence inside the room made her wince. “They went downstairs to bring her to the hospital” Korra kept, “but she ran away towards the street, fell and hit her head”
The tightness around her heart squeezed at the image. Hard. So hard, breathing too hurt in inconceivable ways.
And it’s all my fault..
“… it’s been days since the last time she talked with any of us and you were… back to bastard so we assumed..” her best friend’s hands split eloquently under her narrowing eyes. “She is stable now by the way but kind of delirious… and kept calling out your name the last two days she’s been here...”
What…
Opal had been in pain and she was the last person to know about it. The last one…and nobody would’ve said a thing if Opal didn’t only ask but insisted for days. Nobody!
The girl could’ve been in a coma or died and no one would’ve made a miserable call. Not even her closest friends…
It happened again. For the upteenth time, she has been casted away and it didn’t even matter who did it at this point because everyone in her life had done it, except for Opal. And yes, the music student too had tried to do quite the same not even a week prior but did so with empty words while her eyes and soul begged for comprehension... for love.
She was scared, hoping to do the best thing. The girl’s behavior after all, as ambiguous as it might have seemed, has always been clear: she was the only one who cared.
“Kuvira…” Asami interceded her thoughts. A heartfelt apology fogged her light green eyes but as Korra followed after fixing the sheets Opal was wrapped up in, Kuvira’s hands clenched hard. Her wounds tingled.
“It’s been days and you tell me just now?”
At the harshness of her tone her best friend’s face contracted, a bit surprised. “We thought it was for the best sinc—”
“—Leave us.” she hissed.
“Vee.. I'm sorry.” the trainer instead whined, stepping awfully close to touch her shoulder in reassurance before her wrist was yanked away. The instant after, Korra’s leather jacket squeaked into her fists. Deep blue eyes widened an inch away.
“GET. THE FUCK. OUT.”
Her voice thundered in the private room with such fury and impetus the only sound left was the electrocardiogram’s beeping.
Her fists around the collar then snapped open. Once free, Korra glanced over one last time before taking the clue to grab her fiancée’s hand and leave.
When Kuvira exhaled, her whole body shook.
The warm, bitter taste of bile spread in her mouth, urging her to swallow one, two times as a thick flow of dizziness took over her senses.
She circled the bed and for a solid moment, the girl’s frame rifted into two identical bodies, one of which brushed her needleless hand against the back of her wounded one.
A wave of shivers rolled up her spine in full rush. Opal’s hand was cold. Kuvira’s heart pulsed alive in a chest filled with tremors and at each lungful… Spirits, at each lungful of oxygen the whole world heaved on it. Slowly, her hand wrapped the girl’s one: palm against palm.
What a fool… believing to be able to live without this, pretending the absence wouldn’t tear up her soul in thousands pieces was not only incredibly stupid and wrong but physically inconceivable too.
There hasn't been an atom, a particle of her body that wasn’t healing at that touch.
At the same moment, although, each piece of her became lead and glass; the more air flowed into her system, the harder the need to explode ringed.
“I’m sorry..” a feeble voice chimed in.
Below a thickset of lashes, two peridots bathed in the sunlight. Mesmerizing. Surreal.
Weakly, Opal’s fingers squeezed her hand igniting another deafening rumble of beats; so powerful the movement spread like an earthquake from the ribcage to her head, provoking the debris and dust of her pain to fog her sight.
“I shouldn’t have listened to you” the CEO choked back tears, once leaning on the bed’s headboard. It should’ve sounded like a reprimand but the truth was she must’ve looked pathetic, storing the leak and letting it throb against her temples like nails transfixing the skull.
“You wouldn’t feel all this pain, by now. If I didn’t listen to you yelling at me to go, today you wouldn’t even have a reason to be here but Opal,” Kuvira gasped, slamming her own chest “you are so stubborn, by the Spirits! You preferred to hurt yourself and do everything alone for wha—” a loud sob cut out her voice. Instinctively, she lowered her head trying to cover as much as possible from the girl’s sight, from herself..uselessly.
A quilt of tears already warmed her cheeks while a series of wheezes and pants made her back spasm until Opal squeezed her hand harder.
“I can’t understand why you did it” she stifled, then sniveled. “Because you thought you had to prove something to yourself, to your mother? That this would’ve been for the best?! How in the world could this be the best outcome for us?” Amongst their panting, the beeping sound increased in power and frequency so Kuvira halted.
“Should I call a nurse?”
Through the smudge of her weeping, she noticed how Opal had covered her eyes below her free hand. Her cheeks underneath, were flushed in a healthier shade of red, substituting the paleness although above her fingers, a stream of tears crossed her temples.
The girl’s head feebly shook side to side.
The clinic’s bed groaned under Kuvira’s weight, for once loaded with uncertainty but as she sat, collecting the girl’s wrist to gently move it closer till her mouth could find the wet pillowy palm, felt like a start.
The instant she kissed it indeed, the music student’s cinnamon filled her soul. It was dense and intense, sneaking inside every pore the way her liquid stare did, flooding her complete attention and for that mere fact alone, a boundless gratitude embraced.
People often complained about how losing someone was the only way to reveal their importance but the truth was another.
How was it even possible to pass over someone so important when one has the chance to experience it? Because to pass over Opal’s eyes from the first very time they reflected hers, to pass over her laugh, her quirky and intoxicating presence was never plausible.
Being deprived of her vicinity never taught how essential the girl had always been in her life, it was already incredibly tangible.
Oh.. no, being deprived of it only taught new ways to destroy herself and everyone left around because it didn’t matter at that point, if Opal wasn’t one of those people.
Her thumb took the liberty to caress once more the girl’s hand —avoiding the needle— before tucking it onto her side. She must’ve been incredibly tired. The fact she hadn’t said a word was already kind of shocking considering Opal had always something to add or debate but not this time and probably, accusing her in a moment like this wasn’t exactly fair.
For that, a sense of shame gripped Kuvira's guts.
It didn’t matter if those past few days had been restless or that day especially seemed to test out her tolerance limits in every way possible.
Opal had presumably a head concussion; she wasn’t in condition to face such topics but still, there was something pushing from the inside, too whacked and torned to stay hidden anymore.
By the Spirits…
The woman turned towards the window determined to avoid those feelings and their immediate source still gazing at her —and what was left of her dignity— but when Opal didn’t waste a second to block her from moving away by curling around her hips and sneaking an arm over the belly, something inside Kuvira’s heart snapped.
“Each second spent away from you has been a torture.” she muttered as cradling the girl’s hand against the coat. “I hated it. I even hate to sound and look so desperate for you but damn, I HATED being apart from you so much I couldn’t find a way to be indifferent about it because you’ve been rooted inside me so viscerally deep, you gave me no other choice but to love you with everything I have.”
The coat tightened up into Opal’s fist.
“And Raava,” Kuvira panted out, facing the girl “I want to be so mad at you now… I want to scream how much I wish to hate you for saying you feel nothing for me… but—” she pushed the small hand up, exactly where her heart lurched. The music student's eyes widened and in those tears now lining her trembling chin, it was possible to read surprise… tenderness, warmth.
“I can only feel this warmth, right here.” the woman admitted in a whisper, each word spelled was thick like honey poured from her lips to Opal’s parted ones. “I can only feel you..”
The hammering of her pulse slackened time in which the girl blinked once, twice with the daintiness of feathers dampened in dew before a gloom overcame. Something was heaving on her nape, pulling her lower till a softness enfolded her mouth. The same warmth then, a boundless amount of it, wrapped her essence mellowing the wrath stored in the last week into a loving breeze.
The oxygen tube crammed below her nose as Opal’s upper lip melted hers; it made her scowl while a groan of pain actually escaped from the girl’s throat. Therefore, the tube came off effortlessly like undressing a mask once unhooking it from the music student’s ears but the impatience to reconnect with the missing half of her lips made it seem like the most challenging deed so a loud sighing crowded the room when sealed again.
She breathed in the girl’s syrupy skin as if wanting to steal all the air in the room just to exhale it back into Opal’s lungs.
It was so needed, so wanted, only Raava knew how much at that point and nothing could’ve been more fulfilling than this incommensurable feeling, this slow continuous chase made of grasps and rubs.
Whenever the girl’s lips pushed asking for more, she obliged, deepening each knead until a heated wetness followed to tease the brim before finding her tongue.
She basked the kiss into oblivion, almost forgetting to own a body if it wasn’t for Opal’s flaming cheeks burning hers; Opal’s whimpers and popping kisses blooming in her ears; Opal’s fingers skimming her scalp. Even her heart was beating frantically against her coat and the mere possibility of feeling something like this again just a few hours prior would’ve sounded like a cruel joke but this… well this —now— wasn’t a figment of her imagination nor memory. This moment was real and they were there, kissing as if to become one. To become love.
Quickly enough, though, the chase slowed down, stumbling between increasing windings until the Beifong daughter’s nose attached to her own with the attempt to breathe directly from it.
The woman fretted to kiss one long last time her stiffening mouth, concerned about the thumping against her chest echoed by the electrocardiogram, before fixing the oxygen tube below the girl’s nostrils and around her ears without neglecting her short rebel strands.
In the golden light, the girl held her stare with soft hazel eyes, limping each second closer as if they carried loads of lead.
At the sight Kuvira’s mouth dried up, already missing the velvety caress until finding refuge in brushing Opal’s dampen temple while her heart calmed down with the contedness of the bliss just experienced.
She then buried her face into the bush of hair and in there, her lungs filled up with cinnamon.
In there she found peace;
in there, Kuvira’s eyes shut.
.
Notes:
Thank you for getting till here! c:
Comments, thoughts and (constructive) criticisms are always welcome ꕤ
Chapter 21: Chapter nineteen
Notes:
Extra super sorry for updating so late but i had to take some time not only due to lessons and stuffs but also because I honestly dreaded to write this chapter.
I don’t wanna end this story🥲Btw, aside the DRAMA™️ i need to warn y’all about possibly triggering parts in this chapter.
That being said i hope you’ll enjoy❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
.
.
In the glare of the clinic’s warm lamp, Kuvira sat on the chair next to the bed.
Her silhouette limped to the side, leaning on a palm with her elbow dug into the mattress while staring at Spirits knew what. Maybe an undetermined spot in the darkness had caught her unconsciousness, finding it safe enough to get lost in thoughts or maybe her eyes were even closed at that point.
She must’ve been exhausted because each time the drowsiness cleared out letting her eyes open, the woman was there; no matter if the light came from inside or outside that room, Kuvira styled the same unraveled hair clipped in the metal hairpin, wearing the same coat, the same clothes scenting of musk empowered by a long gone sweat.
Her injured hands, though, had been taken care of and carefully bandaged perhaps by a nurse from the clinic itself because the last time she was fully conscious, the CEO’s knuckles bled.
How long must’ve passed?
It was hard to tell due to the pain the dizziness provoked but one thing was certain: Kuvira never left that place.
If her mind could put an effort to remember outside the fog, it was faintly possible to recall Huan’s visit; Kuvira’s surreptitious caresses and being fed applesauce at breakfast by Jinora while the woman paced back and forth from one corner to another, her phone plastered to an ear as she imparted orders to Zhu Li or whoever’s unfortunate soul who tried to call.
It must’ve been a comical scene to witness but having a head concussion was a fucked up deal if not healed in time and since Parkinson’s was slowing down the process already, the majority of time decayed in a dreamless rest.
So basically, the hit wasn’t particularly damaging and after a TAC test the injury was —fortunately—
classified a light one. The low arterial pressure caused by the disease, although, was the reason why the issue tangled because the injury couldn’t get oxygen and nutrients enough to have a speedy recovery or well.. at least not as fast as a normal one would usually take.
Little mattered how much this ache would have lingered as long as the woman was there, breathing quietly as if daring to make a sound would’ve caused more pain. The truth was.. Kuvira’s absence would’ve been the most insurmountable suffering above everything. These past days had been proof…
The blanket below the wool comforters pile heaved as if stuffed with rocks while trying to sneak a hand out of it to reach the woman’s elbow but with little effort, she managed to catch the back of the sleeve and tugged softly; “Vira..”
The businesswoman stiffened on the seat and turned just enough to notice her drowsy emeralds shine in chartreuse underneath the lamp.
“Hey..” a sheer veil of concern furrowed her brows, “What’s wrong?”
The moment her calloused hand dug in the bed, she pulled the other closer till the rough palm warmed her cheek; this simple touch alone was enough to gladden her heart’s existence. She smiled as her eyelids slumped, “Lay with me”
A sigh; “I can’t”
“What time is it..?”
“Eleven forty-two”
almost midnight… nobody is gonna come anymore.
It must’ve been safe for her to climb on the bed at this time, no doubt. Not even the nurses would’ve checked without a real cause.
The reasoning made sense. Now, it just required to be taken out of her mind and shared and yet, fatigue must have had a powerful grip on her senses because even whispering felt draining like screaming.
Her lungs extended and shrinked a few times. “Please…” then slobbered but it must’ve been too quiet because when her eyes opened again, Kuvira was brightened by the moon outside.
Her face rested placidly above her forearms; a line crossed the gap between her brows.. furrowed as if some kind of discomfort pained her. It made sense since she wasn’t sleeping on a bed but on a chair for at least two days in a row and if she just wasn’t so stubborn…
damn it…
“My love…”
She curled on a side until the business woman's small space conquered on the bed was circumscribed; she curled until it was possible to brush her taut face with her own, unclasping the metal hair tie before laying on her shoulder and letting the desire to caress a silk strand out of the CEO’s cheek —skimming the beauty mark in the process— prevail.
“My life…”
The scent of argan tore a place in her chest, exactly where it belonged, before pulling the blankets enough to wrap the woman’s shoulders in a warm embrace. At least coldness wouldn’t have been a problem tonight. At least… she’s here with me.
“My soul”
…
The lilting of the rain in her dream dissolved as a cold graze on her forehead became less and less faint. The scent of petrichor was substituted with nail polish smell which drilled through the nostrils, so forceful it throbbed directly into her brain awakening to the soothed pain. A moan grumbled in her throat.
Something then tapped boldly on the floor while a brightness hit her eyelids.
“You must be either brave or incredibly stupid to show up in front of me and my husband after breaking our daughter’s heart.” from behind someone taunted, “They know about us. I told them how you threatened me.”
That voice…
mom’s here…
Opal’s pulse thundered. Her whole body stiffened the more it stirred from the slumber and it was terrifying becau—
where’s Kuvira?
She fought against the headache to unstuck each eye but the wider they opened to that reality the harder pain transfixed.
The light coming from the window especially, was insufferable, turning everything into a white fog aside for a blotch of black preventing it from happening. Her sight zeroed and sharpened a few times around that shadow gaining shape and consistency until recognizing those square shoulders facing the light lulled the storm in her chest.
“You have nothing to say, do you? After all, recognizing the time for one to step aside is a rare quality, nowadays.”
A glint crossed the metal hairpin keeping the CEO’s bun fit and secure as she clutched a wrist on her own back “Indeed, you keep on talking.“
Her mother scoffed, “You should show some respect.”
“
Respect
,” the woman turned “would be mutual but I guess this is a far-fetched concept for you, too used to playing with your own family.. your own daughter.” her ferns burned in reprimand as slowly yet firmly striking the way next to her. The devil’s lawyer.
Even air seemed to rarify close to the businesswoman; powerfully tensing like an instrument’s cord to match her mother’s ruthless one perfectly.
A battlefield. Waking up in their presence felt like being pulled in the middle of a war she had no intention to fight but every reason to conduct to an end.
“I even regret sending her to you to not blemish the immaculate image Opal always had of you. I preferred for her to hate me to protect her from your games. I was ready to step aside for her wellness but you showed no pity anyway, did you?” Kuvira snickered “Because it didn’t matter. This was all planned; a cost you were willing to pay at the expense of others.”
The mattress shook a bit when, from the other side, her mom hissed “You think you know me?”
By the Spirits…
Giving the back made it difficult to understand… to properly discern her mother’s emotions and the entire dynamic even if trying to keep her eyes ajar was a venture per se but at least from there, it was possible to note Kuvira’s eyes narrowing in slits full of warnings.
For how long have they been talking?
The businesswoman lowered to sit on the bed, carefully giving her therapist the back as well although she didn’t seem to specifically notice her efforts to stay awake neither that she was indeed.. awake.
Kuvira’s face was stone, emotionless and far while her eyes were loudly crowded; that’s why when a hand actually slithered to fold hers, Opal halted.
“I know enough to understand you feel irremediably alone. More than I was and will ever be because..” the CEO’s stare met the sun outside “everything I did, Suyin, everything I did was for your daughter but it filled me back completely. No matter if one day we’ll stop talking, no matter if she won’t choose to forgive me, the kind of love Opal taught me will remain. Because it’s pure.. it’s true and authentic and with it, I’ll never be alone.”
“Vira..” she whispered with a riot in her chest, gathering every ounce of strength in her body to squeeze the wide hand back. It made Kuvira’s brows knit together as she twisted enough to check, concerned.
A palm cradled her forehead, her temple and cheek in a trail of warmth “Rest, my love.” the businesswoman assured with a softness destined to be treasured between them alone.
Her heart.. damn her heart though, was being too loud through the electrocardiogram’s beeping.
Now, whether her mother was watching or not, Kuvira’s closeness and her reaction didn’t give any sign to move her. She was… surely farther now because her presence wasn’t looming on the bed, on her spirit like before.
Surprisingly, the analyst was quiet, somewhere in the room but honestly… honestly it didn’t matter much anymore. Whatever they had to say to each other… this wasn’t the right moment; not there, not with her brain incapable of grasping all of it nor when her energies weren’t enough to let her talk back and at least defend Kuvira or herself. If she wasn’t so dazed she knew anger would’ve boiled in her veins— but again, that wasn’t the case because now it almost felt safe enough to close her eyes again under Kuvira’s lull.
“During her first months her head was so small Baatar could hold it in his palm.” her mother started quietly “Opal used to sleep like that, like a mouse resting in a flower. She never cried too much, she was rather calm for a baby but all the tears she didn’t shed, I did for her the day she was diagnosed with Parkinson’s, around her 17th year. I knew the disease ran in my husband’s family but we thought we hadn’t seen anything with Junior and Huan already… so we didn’t foresee that coming, more so since Wing and Wei were still two babies. We were scared it could happen at any moment to her brothers too and I couldn't help but feel betrayed by my husband the more he put the blame on me for being overprotective. He..” she sighed out, “… his family genes are the cause of my daughter’s disease and I promised to cure and protect her but the more I tried to, the more it tore us apart until one day she moved away.”
The machine tuned the heaviness of her pulse.
The businesswoman’s stare sunk into her soul as her mother’s voice began to falter. “Kuvira, nobody, not even Opal understands how grave this is, how invalidating… she needs to come back home for her own safet—“
“—Is that why you put me in the middle?” the CEO voiced out “You thought if everything could’ve played out as you wished she’d come back after feeling betrayed by me? That this would have pushed you closer and earned her trust in you again?”
In Kuvira’s eyes she found the reflection of her own widening in horror. Now… her mother should’ve been debating that right? Saying it wasn’t true, that Kuvira had no idea of what she was insinuating and that she… she’d never do something like that because how can
I… a mother… do all of this because I think it must be a good—no, a great idea to bring back my daughter?
Kuvira’s ferns though were wrinkling in disgust, in that ominous silence because her mother… her mother….
She didn't say anything to deny that.
Raava… “Mom,” Opal mumbled.
“please leave.”
“Opal..” Suyin’s voice rushed and when the courage to turn around and face her ushered, surprise was painted in her mother’s old, tired features.
Mom indeed looked older than she usually did, curled in the shaggy blue chair —surely hating it.
It reminded her of those days she was telling Kuvira about, when hospitals became a second house. A routine.
Her mother… with those fading indented eyes, her sunken cheekbones and downturned mouth was perhaps even more afraid than she should’ve been. Lost.. in her convictions, in her foolish absurd machinations.
How could you do it? Was it worth it?
Was all this buffoonery to keep Kuvira away necessary? Now it made sense. All that spite.. that…
“Leave…” Opal breathed out with that last bit of air left after sitting up. Her shaking hand still intertwined with Kuvira’s one behind.
Her sight quickly burned and blurred during the interminable stage of refusal her mother went through to actually give up and slowly rise, standing in front of the bed for a few long instants more…clutching on her bag, interdicted, before leaning to place a kiss on her cheek.
At the soft pressure, the hand cupping the other side of her face and the sweet folding scent of jasmine, a tear burned down Opal’s chin.
Her mother then pursed her lips together while taking a step back and left with a snivel, gently tudding the door close before any of those tears swelling up her sage eyes could be visibly shed.
A heavy, deep breath left out Opal’s lungs. It was so powerful it forced her to pat the bed in search of support but something, fortunately wrapped her chest preventing a complete fall forward.
She stayed like that, with a sense of nausea surging in tides up her throat, a blinding pulsing behind her eyes while her head limped forward, aching with all the sorrow her mother was able to stuff it with, feeling a flush of embarrassment and stupidity for being played like a pawn in the chessboard of her mother’s mind. And damn at a certain point she even succeeded in letting her believe Kuvira could lower to her games; she made her believe Kuvira was bad, ill and willing to cheat on her just because she hoped…
she hoped i could go back to her to vent and cry on her shoulder… as if we still had a healthy relationship. She was so desperate to bring me back I let her ruin the most beautiful…
“I’m sorry” the girl panted and sobbed out “I’m sorry”
Kuvira palmed her heart as if trying to physically grab and soothe it.
That poor woman must’ve felt incredibly uncomfortable about this whole situation, to be put in the middle of this chaos.. this… this insanity because Kuvira surely didn’t know what she was signing up for the moment she began to stay in her life but right in that one she was there, cradling her before the wave of tears could pull her apart.
How long would've passed before she slipped away, now?
“Listen to me.” the woman’s voice slithered in her earshell like liquid metal “You have nothing to feel sorry or apologize for. I know right now it’s difficult to accept but you should be proud of what you did.” in between wheezes, Opal’s hackles rose. She breathed in and Kuvira exhaled “I am proud of you.”
The veil of tears smeared at each flutter of lashes turning the clinic’s lucid floor in solid tiles and then the business woman’s irises, behind, into a woodland.
A sob; a full rush of goosebumps swelled down Opal’s spine, triggered by the pull that secret forest had on her and each time she roamed among its ferns changing shade at the breeze’s continuous whispers, her soul found peace as it was slowly absorbed inside its home. That was what looking into those eyes felt like, so unbearably delightful it was barely possible to contain the impulse to get closer until foreheads meeting didn’t delineate a hindrance but a possibility to slot her nose bridge into Kuvira’s gap perfectly.
«I’m proud of you»
“Kuvira…” she blew out her pulse. Her stomach lurched uncomfortably but her digits and palm in the meantime wallowed the CEO’s tanned skin smoothness from the high cheekbone to the jawline and chin. “I had to… you deserved better than whatever my mo—”
—“We.” Kuvira corrected, “We deserve better and we are gonna have it even if it means we’ll have to create it with our own hands” the gentle stroke warmed up her cheeks and for a moment.. the possibility everything would’ve turned out for the best no matter how many things interposed between and against, sparkled vividly.
Perhaps it was by the way Kuvira asserted it, as an indissoluble truth but the urge to hold onto that certainty felt necessary… indispensab—
Another blast of nausea bursted from her guts so powerfully this time she had to retract, jerking as slamming a hand on her mouth before.. By the Spirits… is it due to the headache or… please don’t let it be guilt.. I’ve been played by her! My own mother! Yes, perhaps she just wanted to restore our relationship, okay, but she made a mess and put us against each other and
“What’s wrong?” the CEO’s stare sprang attentive, squeezing.. no, rubbing her arm to coax an answer but damn, everything was rumbling so loud inside it felt dangerous to open her mouth. So she put an effort to take lungfuls of air and focus on it without overanalyzing the amount of time she had to swallow down the same load of saliva.
Her brain was bumping against the skull so hard the world began to be unbearable. The electrocardiogram’s dinging, fuck, even the oxygen tube was burning her skin, her nostrils..
“Please” she moaned as ripping the needle off of the vein. “…take me out. I need..I” she panted.
The bed whimpered when her deadweight was lifted from it. The oxygen mask was removed before she curled into the woman whose arms never missed to make her feel incredibly small and light, protected and for those few instants spent tucked against her chest, breathing argan, the sense of nausea was quieted down along with the rest of the world.
That’s why when Kuvira lowered her to the window’s seat, it felt like a cold shower. The discomfort, though, went away quickly as the businesswoman then opened the panel with a firm thud so November’s wind could blow immediately on her cheeks still striped by tears; the girl closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. The throbbing pain tightened around her brain loosened. She tapped her lips.
Everything was going too fast and all those days passed into that aseptic room had been exhausting but among the swinging beechwoods, beyond the clinic’s yard line, birds were singing .
“I’m gonna bring you some water, do you want me to call a nurse on the way?” Kuvira husked, curling locks around her ear after covering her with the long coat. She shrunk inside it until its pleasant warmth wrapped and nodded.
The door creaked open and closed. The only noise left now was the flow of her breathing slowing down.
Nonetheless the sun was weak that morning, it caressed her face before burying half of it in the coat’s collar. It smelled of her.
“Miss Beifong?“ the nurse’s chestnut curls poked into the room, evidently looking towards the bed.
“I-I’m here” Opal sketched a smile when the door screeched wider and behind it, brown surprised eyes found hers. “I was wondering if it’s..” she panted out before gulping down “is it possible to run a specific test?”
.
As diving in the pool gathered in her hands, Kuvira expected the water to solidify in shreds of crystals and scratch her face. At this point even getting clean was more a mental need than body necessity not only because more than three days had passed since the last time she hit an actual shower, preferably at home, but also for the amount of distress her brain was fed each day spent in that detrimental clinic.
Besides, she wasn’t in the position to complain. Opal was getting better. That was all that mattered, so whether her suit needed a wash or her system craved to shut, it was a secondary concern.
It was a surprise although, to find out her condition could be someone else’s concern --aside Opal’s— even less Korra’s.
The most shocking part however wasn’t even about the ex MMA champion handing her a bag of clothes but the fact she simply took it after reading in Opal’s eyes the plea to accept that as an olive branch. Whether the girl had expressly asked it though, wasn’t exactly clear, so it could either be to fix their friendship or for her own little nose’s sake.
Kuvira grumbled on the way to the hospital restroom like an old train and recognized it only when the stall's narrow walls echoed back the noise.
Korra’s shirt was tight around the shoulders but —again— she couldn’t complain because at least she shared similar sizes with the boxer and her own shirt… well.. smelled like trash and sweat. Her pride was thoroughly wounded.
“Vee.. you need to rest. Let us bring you home..” her friend patted her shoulder after spending probably a quarter bent to dry out into the sink which, for a reason or another, reflected the light above with hypnotic intensity.
“I’m not moving from here.” she ended up mumbling and the ceramic gathered the low sound like an amplifier.
“Please.. when was last time you ate?”
That morning, probably. Opal was served something disgusting at lunch and since the girl was nauseous there was a high possibility she had to end it for her so, yes? Maybe lunch’s leftover veggie soup had been her meal. But that wasn’t relevant. “She is getting way better,” then exhaled, straightening her back “the doctor said she’ll be dismissed tomorrow.”
“Yes, but if you go to rest tonight, tomorrow you can bring her home with more energy..”
“You don’t understand.” she sighed, yanking wet strands beyond the hairline “I can’t.. I don’t want to lose her ever again..”
“Kuvira…”
She is the light of my eyes.. the air in my lungs. Nobody can understand… “Listen, I can't and won’t.” Kuvira spat, “I left her when she needed me the most.” and won’t happen again she swore as leaving the bathroom.
The boxer’s gait followed “You only did what she asked you to.”
“—And I shouldn’t have listened to her. To none of you… especially you.” inside the hallway, her voice expanded, ragging in reprimand towards her childhood friend whose stare hesitated below her daggering one. No matter all the anger fueled for so long by Korra’s secretiveness, now it felt almost futile to argue with her about it as she sank in the first seat outside Opal’s room. Nothing else mattered anymore and not only because her muscles crinkled in pain “I should’ve stayed and fought for her.. I only hope she can forgive me..”
“She already did, Vee… it’s Opal and honestly” Korra shrugged after plonking into the seat beside “you didn’t do anything bad for once. But also… I need to apologize for not telling you before about her disease. The thing is.. she made me promise to keep it between us since it wasn’t particularly noticeable and so it has always been like this. It became my first priority and nobody really knew it, not even Bolin.”
Tsk..
“In a childish way… protecting her secret had made me feel closer to her and… damn it…”
“Say it.”
Korra’s eyes widened and dwindled within a second —as if caught red handed— flashing powerfully under the ill neons. Then she panted out. “Please, don’t tell Asami but.. Opal… she’s really dear to me, perhaps even more than what I ever liked to admit to myself. I only want her best and at the gala.. at Sami’s party and even now… I can see how strongly she feels for you. It's crystal clear and I'm very happy for you two...”
But…?
The innuendo floated in the air like a threatening fog.. potentially lethal into its apparent innocence. What was the utility of that knowledge?
It was conspicuously irrelevant whether others approved or not her relationship with Opal, even less if they were happy about it. As long as the girl was happy nobody else's opinion mattered.
Her heart sank. Then why….
Even when Suyin interposed didn’t bother as much as Korra lying to her did but that was essentially because her therapist had been a stranger while Korra…
My direst friend, my dearest ire.
“You have no idea how betrayed you made me feel. I'm not even mad anymore, Korra, believe it or not but I still wish you know how much you fucked up with this whole situation. I trusted you while you couldn’t even tell me what was going on with Opal. My lifelong friend .” she spewed slowly. “Opal’s disease wasn’t something to play with and it wasn’t your place to play pretend to be Opal’s exclusive just because you shared a secret like 5 year olds while your fiancée and I were sincerely concerned you two were in a fucking relationship.”
“You know I could never cheat on Asami.”
“This is not the point.” Kuvira sprang up. Korra’s contracted features smoothed and perhaps it gave off that impression due the light shining directly into her irises before they averted. “I trusted you as friend and you didn’t only brush it away as if it wasn’t a big deal, but treated and threatened me like a fucking villain, as if you always have been the hero.”
Her knuckles turned white. “I wasn’t playing the hero, i was trying to be a good frie—“
“—You were trying to steal what’s mine” she snarled as hitting the wall behind Korra who scowled, hiking up from her seat.
Her short breath now cut her skin “Opal isn’t an object to steal and I never thought you could get so attached..”
“No, your miscalculation never regarded me because in the first place, you never thought you’d get so attached to her the way it happened to me, you fucking bastard. Such a shame you were already take—” a fist bolted to her face like a lightning and if it wasn’t for her brisk reflexes to grab and twist that wrist before dragging her towards the 57th room, pain would’ve spread from her cheekbone in a fraction of second by now.
Instead, Korra whimpered as the door slammed under her hit, revealing Opal’s pale but joyful face curling into confusion.
“Look at her and tell me it isn’t true.” she hissed.
The boxer pulled off of her grip. The blue ocean currents in Korra’s eyes swelled in high waves as they flowed from her to Opal’s direction. Then probably her fiancée sitting on the bed caught her attention because the current rushed into a tsunami before slowing down and disappearing behind eyeli—
“—Please, once and for all. Forgive her…” the music student ordered, her fist quivering over the blanket with wounding fragility.
Time hitched in Kuvira’s lungs. The Goddess alone knew about the fervid impel rumbling in her chest to hold that hand. “Whatever she might’ve said, I was the only one who caused this. She was just trying to help me, I swear...”
“No..” Korra bursted “no. Kuvira.. I'm sorry.” her dark hand grabbed her forearm “I was just trying to be loyal and keep our promise, I never meant to come less to our friendship or favoring hers by doing so but… I was wrong and… even if I know it’s hard right now, I hope someday you’ll be able to forgive me”
Forgive… forgive what, exactly?
Forgive being completely left out about Opal’s disease or Korra’s feelings?
How long has this been going on? Did the boxer fall for the girl the same way she did or it took time? Did they spar, talked about their lives till twilight painted their lips indigo and felt their hearts combine?
Did Opal ever look at her the way she gazed at Korra?
Did she ever feel something for me at all?
The girl hadn’t said anything the other day. She didn’t even reply when she opened her heart so shamefully and told her how rawly she was loved.
It wasn’t even a matter of falling anymore, because beginning to fall for Opal happened without any doubt that damned day at the Beifong’s estate or the Spirits knew when… perhaps even before, in a dream or in a nimble moment in her youth in which Zaheer was still alive and there in his glassed office shining in the late spring’s warm light, green eyes found hers.
Was that the cause? The reason why Opal hadn’t said it back? How stupid was it to believe the only issue torning that relationship could be Suyin.
There was more.. oh so much more the floor began to fade below her feet. It was there although, it was clearly there shining in wide tiled squares even if the room was drowned in the dark and damn.. the same darkness was climbing up her shins and knees and everyone’s stare was pinned on her —transfixing her body in a ominous quietness, waiting for an indulgence missing in her brain, her abilities. Her heart.
“What am I doing here, I wonder..” her voice narrowed in a lifeless susurrus under scowls and frowns and even if she had every right to keep her chin up, Opal’s eyes made it impossible.
The coat and phone resting on the chair instead, sucked all the attention, begging to be collected before stalking out of the room without feeling the necessity to voice out a proper dismissal.
“Kuvira, no.. no, no please” the muffled yelping was the only sound following, along her tapping shoes. As the door got closer ahead, on the hallway’s opposite side something squeaked and banged.
Then a light pattering pounded quickly across it, like bare feet hitting marble until slim arms wrapped and dug into the waist while on her back, a force rammed her forward.
“Vira…” a warm deep breath pooled betwixt her scapulas “don’t leave me”
Small hands trembled below her breast and it was hard to tell if it was due the adrenaline, nervousness or the disease.
The first instinct, the proudest one, commanded her to escape but everything living inside her died to touch them again and so she did, sliding both hands on the cooling skin of Opal’s hairy forearms to hold her tighter… closer till the girl’s tiny form could plaster completely on her back. The need to feel her like that, to assimilate her into each bone, each muscle and vein was as strong as the emptiness caving in.
She panted.
“I wish you never had to defend yourself from me” then mumbled letting her mouth agape just to find out how difficult swelling her chest could be when a tear fell from the eyelid’s protection. It was aflame, loaded like a bullet scratching down her flesh. Opal’s palms were warm too, creasing the coat until it was trapped in her fists so tight the wish for it to be the girl’s way to express love, soothed her fears for a moment. Her pulse echoed in the ribcage.
Because if this isn’t love.. then who even am I?
“I know,” the girl sobbed, rubbing her face onto her “I knew it from the very start. You didn’t deserve all of that but I understood it just too late.”
“I made the worst mistake of my life, Vira”
.
Notes:
||🍪🍪🍪 free comfort cookies for whoever needs them! 🍪🍪🍪||
Chapter 22: Chapter twenty
Notes:
Guys, who would’ve said writing could shatter an author’s soul so much?
Writing and reading this story was such a roller coaster I don’t think I will ever completely recover from it.
This chapter’s conversation was probably the first one I had ready before even writing the actual first chapter.
It was around this period (a year ago) I thought to actually write down this long fic.
Before I started this one though, my original plan was to post a smaller (almost completed) one but somehow I ditched that idea and thought… what if?
What if I start to write this crazy plot down? And so I did it and published it after I wrote down the first 5 chapters.
I thought, daydreamed and wrote it month after month; I wrote it until I cried, until I smiled, laughed, came, and yawned. I wrote until it turned me crazy but still, I loved it.
Perhaps because this story helped me canalyze many feelings, many situations that today —when I read back some parts of it— I can't only read the actual scenes but what happened in my life too and what version of me I was while I wrote them. Sometimes instead, I even forget I wrote some parts of it and I’m surprised.
This story —like this pairing— means a lot to me, so please whoever you are, please. Even if you won’t care about it, even if you won’t like this story it’s okay but please, try to read this story with all your heart because that’s how i did it.That being said, let’s get to the final chapter!
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
.
.
“Hey uh.. I was thinking..”
The morning light resplended inside the clinic room.
It was a cold shade; yes, outside was probably freezing and yet, the way it snuck through Opal’s shaggy hair to glow on her caramel face was warm… impalpably soft. Definitely healthier than the first day.
Since she had spent the last few days being sick it was unlikely but from that perspective, kneeled before the bed to tie the girl’s sneakers, Opal herself seemed to be radiating a vibe of sweetness.
Between her small hands, the white gold pendant gleamed like a diamond. The music student was fortunate it fell directly onto her lap instead of losing it unintentionally among the hospital’s sheets; so fortunate it was almost a mystery she hadn’t already lost it after all those times it dropped off of her neck.
Opal could be clumsy but her clumsiness had been a serendipity after the first encounter at the elevator.
If it wasn’t for that chain slipping into her turtleneck the first time she had made love to her, in fact, there would’ve probably never been another excuse to meet the yoga teacher.
The Beifong emblem sneaking between the girl’s fingers made Kuvira’s heart thump twice at the same moment. She could recall that day —a month prior— in which the design imprinted against her skin had made her smile: nobody had told her how lucky she had been in that instant but her soul… her soul somehow knew because for the first time it was lighter than ever. To know there was a possibility to reconnect with that nameless girl who had stolen her mind at a first glance, at the vicious smacking of their lips, at that hand shaking against the lift glass.
It felt like it had passed a second and a century since that moment. A lifetime either way had happened in the meantime and still it wasn’t enough because there was still so much to know and find out about Opal and about the person herself kept on evolving into, day after day, just by standing close to that brat.
Under her digits the shoelaces tensed in a secure knot. The rest was tucked into the shoe while Opal’s voice chimed on.
“I’m very attached to this necklace. It was my grandma mother’s and grandma gave it to me when I was little but.. recently I've been losing it way too many times around you and I..” her opaline gems fell into hers. Then on her own palms again, reconsidering. “I know it may sound stupid and that you don’t believe in these things but…what if it doesn’t want to be worn by me anymore because it chose you?”
Chose?.. “What do you mean?”
“I-I mean that it can be a sign!” the girl’s face bursted in crimson “Some things happen for a reason and if you’ll have it, I'll be sure you’ll never lose it. And.. and this way I’ll still be able to look at it if you decide to wear it often. If it’s okay with you, of course!”
Nonetheless it brought her to Opal in the past, reckoning a necklace could bring luck and possessed a will of its own was way too hard to believe to not say foolish. Yet again, everything with her was unexpected and inexplicable. So no matter her beliefs, there wasn’t any harm in doing her a favor since the girl’s proposal seemed to be more like one than an actual gift. Or perhaps, that was Opal’s way to give something; that still had to be defined.
“So if I lose it you’ll get mad at me, instead.” she husked a chuckle as she towered above the gawking girl.
“N-no!” from the widened expression, the girl’s features shrunk into a dramatic scowl “I’d probably be mad at you anyway. I just know you’d never lose it, that’s all”
How quickly things have changed.
Not even yesterday the worry Opal never felt for her more than she did for Korra, sliced her guts open.
Today, the same girl was asking her to keep her most precious heirloom just because, instead.
There must’ve been a reason, no? It must’ve meant something when yesterday the girl pleaded to stay. She did it, stupidly and without any pride she stayed and yet, there was no regret. Today she would have brought her back home and after a day full of resting, she’d put in question which kind of intentions were pushing this relationship forward.
The need to know, to clarify what Opal really felt towards her was immense and a spiking itch.
Speaking frankly, each fiber in her heart and logic died to get answers right in that moment but still: calmness was a strong willed person’s virtue and asking for clarifications she wasn’t sure she’d get now, wasn’t exactly the best approach.
It was also to take into consideration that moment wouldn’t have lasted forever because as long as her love for Opal bursted inside her blood, she couldn’t lose her dignity for it.
If Opal didn’t love her back and didn’t even have the courage to say it out loud, then staying would’ve meant self harm.
Her eyes narrowed as tilting the teacher’s chin up, “If you help me wear it, I won’t take it off unless the chain breaks.” she whispered, noting how the sound of that deal gradually cleared that little face up again in relief. At the sight, it was barely possible to restrain the desire to caress it.
The wind blowing through the meadow in Opal’s eyes made it flail into a dance; “I-I.. I would appreciate it immensely.”
There was nothing else she could do. Really. She could act as strong as she wished but when push came to shove, her mouth dried out at that request and nothing else existed outside Opal.
She collected the necklace and with it, guided her small hands around her neck, helping them hook the chain while dipping lips into the vein protruding from the girl's one. A whimper of surprise made blood pulse into her ears.
“I’ll take care of it as long as you wish” she breathed out the pledge and she meant it with all her heart while Opal’s hands tightened the grasp onto hers.
“Then keep it forever,” the mutter barely existed between their skins as the mouth it escaped from, molded onto her temple and peppered kisses on the way down to catch hers.
The scent of cinnamon thrived into her lungs.
And there she died. In that gentle pressure, her heart threw itself without reservations and it yelled how it didn’t matter if Opal didn’t love her; it could have been beating enough for the both of them and damn, it was pathetic. Nothing could’ve forgiven Opal for making her such a weak-kneed softy. Where’s your integrity Kuvira?! You used to terrify people —making them cry at your passing, fucking imbecile.
The grunt rumbling out of her throat made Opal’s lips withdraw.
Her face, nonetheless shriveled in apprehension, was softened by something: a feeling exquisitely difficult to read. Her eyes were big, wide without worry but framed with wings and loaded with a care shimmering in gold creaking the green of her peridots.
Her breath warmly caressed, asking for a permission already granted and yet, as skimming the smoothness of her cheek to convey all the reassurance Opal needed to keep going, her logic was once again sent to fuck itself. It didn’t matter how destructive this would’ve been.
She was unable to arrest the impulse to press onto those petals herself, to taste, to feel them grow and bloom against hers.
.
The hardness of that collision made her heart fibrillate like a star coming to life.
Kuvira took the initiative but the impel to fold her thin lips seemed to take the woman unprepared, encapsulating a gasp onto her flesh although her fingers threaded through short strands to curl and pull. It didn’t hurt, or well, the pull was intense enough to blow a whimper of surprise between the folds of the CEO’s bottom lip but not to scream in pain. And damn it, she wanted more. She needed everything she denied Kuvira to give and beyond. She clung on the woman’s shoulders for dear life while the straight nose now engraved upon her nostril, inclining to a side to make it possible for thin lips to delve further, opening her mouth with a languid lap until she could do nothing but oblige, until the business woman's breath combined with her own.
Unexpectedly and without restraint, Opal moaned and detested the sound of it still echoing in the room. The wish to be out of the clinic had been so vibrant in her mind she could already smell patchoulis inhabiting Kuvira’s house, missing to even take in consideration her own place because going back there and depart from the same woman now melting into the heat of her cheeks, didn’t feel right.
Not a particle in her body wished to detach from her, not even for a second, not even for a blink.
Kuvira was part of her life —her everything— but still as the woman pulled away from the kiss, the realization of how unfair and selfish she had been to keep her there, hit.
Kuvira’s fern definitely caught that, before the girl hopped up to steal another kiss from those hesitant lips. This time it was wet with shared saliva, almost sticky while the smacking tingled beneath her whole face. It was a joyful sensation but she was probably blushing too hard by the time she retracted, letting that collision last less than what was hoped. Then trapped the bottom lip in a bite and lapped at the mint taste Kuvira left.
How much has she been missing this… her .
A thumb traced from her lip’s cupid curve to the angle just below where Kuvira’s warm ones molded, before slinking up to the cheekbone, almost caressing the temple and then down —clearing a few strands out of the way— just to husk against her lobe “Let’s get out of here”
“Y-yes” she uttered, overwhelmed by the sudden rush of chills springing up the nape.
She sighed and let her arms unfold the woman’s frame slowly and unwillingly until her magnetic stare slid somewhere else into the room.
Damn it.
A ringtone made her halt on the spot; it didn’t even take a moment to turn to catch the CEO gathering both her bag and backpack with one hand while the other brought her phone to an ear.
Oh, wait.. she bounced off of the bed to rush towards the hallway in which the woman strode and once she got beside to snatch one of the bags off of her hold, Kuvira yanked her hand away with a taunting glance.
I knew it, Opal pouted and scowled back.
The walk, by the way, didn’t last much before the CEO’s voice echoing throughout the hallways dispersed into the clinic’s hall; she then excused herself, gesturing the phone and went towards the exit and perhaps a work call was the best thing that could happen at the moment because as the nurse called out her name, a wave of nausea surged up her throat in remind.
Her body squirmed into her coat.
Spirits. Spirits. Spirits..
“Miss Beifong, happy to get back home?” the brown haired nurse smiled, handing the discharge paperworks to sign.
“Y-yes, I.. uhm.. how did the..”
“Well! Er— I mean..” the nurse’s eyes averted and widened behind the glasses as if what she said was inappropriate. She seemed to school her expressions by clearing her throat, then sliding a folded paper on the desk with a more professional smile “here’s the results of your latest bloodwork. Make sure to follow up with your regular doctor, please.” Fuck… fuck fuck what did that mean now?! Is it supposed to be opened here? Should I..?
She glanced behind the shoulders. The entrance’s scrolling doors reflected Kuvira’s curled features as mouthing something unintelligible from that distance.
“Okay, thank you..” the girl then blew out, signing the papers in haste and fumbling a goodbye. On the way outside she swiped the folded paper into the coat pocket and there her fist stayed, shaking and afraid to come out to November’s frigid temperature.
That day was even cooler than the others but still, even if not even two weeks passed, she didn’t have much to compare that coldness with, since staying for so long inside the clinic didn’t prepare her for such a change of climate.
Her nose began to tingle softly as she pointed it towards the sky and breathed. It was covered with a quilt of clouds, yet it was calm, quiet and unexpectedly bright. Like a dream..
“Are you alright?”
“Yes, i just..” she tried to smile until Kuvira’s eyes, turning almost aquamarine at light, found hers.
Air hitched into her lungs at that abiding gaze, at the woman’s presence alone while some kind of possibilities screamed through the ink staining the paper into her fist.
Her grip tightened while gulping down a knot.
“Listen, I know it’s probably not the right time but we… I , need to stop delaying this…You don’t deserve to wait any longer..” she confessed once reaching the parked sports car. A layer of ice coated its entire body, making the black matte varnish shimmer in extraordinary pieces the moment Kuvira clicked open one of its doors. “Delaying what?” she bent to place the bags inside. Then turned.
“Us..”
Light greens widened and glazed in the still cold air. “Listen, as much as I’d love to have this conversation as soon as possible, we don’t need to have it now. We are both exhausted and I think it’s wise if we go back home and rest. We’ll have our time to talk”
“No please, I want to do this now, I need to take it off of my chest before we… (“before we?” Kuvira frowned) before we decide to take different paths or actually go home… together.”
Kuvira grabbed the door and nonetheless she looked away, her knuckles whitened “I don’t think you want to have this conversation, now..”
“Please.. I do. J-just let me finish what i have to say first”
“Opal..” the CEO pronounced with some sort of alertness and it was atrocious to notice she was probably triggered into a defensive approach once again, because that was the same tone the woman used to warn her with a few weeks ago, before she began to yell back stupid lies. «Breathe before saying something we can’t come back from»
I will. This time I'll tell the truth, I promise. I promise.
“I understand if you want to go..” coldness swelled Opal’s shaking chest. “First of all, I really wish to apologize but I understand I'm in no position to ask for your forgiveness, since I've worked so hard to push you away and now I can’t really blame you if you choose to go. Since we met I tried to scare you so you would have wanted nothing to do with me but no matter how bad I tried to treat you, you stayed. I was scared because I didn’t want for you to fall in love with me the way I was already doing with you. The first day you came here, when you said you loved me… I said nothing back because I didn’t want to ruin that moment because I couldn’t believe among all people I could be so lucky it could be you to love me. But the fact is…” she blew out; Kuvira’s jaw clenched visibly “no matter how much I tried to not believe that, you.. you were with me to prove me wrong every single time and the look you have in your eyes whenever you look at me Kuvira, shows someone I desperately wanted to be. You saw me like someone strong, someone healthy, capable and independent who could do anything she wants but I’m not like this”
“Yes, you are.”
“No,” a painful smile cut through her cheeks “Kuvira... I'm not. Let’s face it. I don’t even know how you didn’t notice after all this time. I can’t get up without my heart exploding each morning, I can't dress myself sometimes, I can’t hold a pen or play the piano as I wish anymore, I can’t do most things you normally do without any effort. Spirits, I can’t even open a pill box without having a crisis! But” she sobbed out “whenever I looked at you I didn’t see myself like that, I didn’t see myself weak until you found it out. Pretending I was someone not affected by Parkinson's with you is so easy, even when I was trembling in your hands a-and.. and it gave me so much hope my chest couldn’t even bear it but the truth is... it’s not fair. “ her voice creaked into a thread before another sob pushed it in a trembling gasp “It’s not fair that I’m condemned to live like this and need to condemn you by my side.”
“Did you ever think that maybe I'm the one who needs you, Opal? Because I do. I fucking do need you.” She snarked, beating her chest loudly.
“Love isn’t about needing.” and damn she hated the way her voice failed her as she breathed out “I don’t want to need you”
“We both know this but I love and need you with the same intensity and Raava knows how difficult it is for me to admit that aloud.”
“No, you don’t need me. I need you because this sickness can’t make me be normal-“
Kuvira shot the door behind and stomped closer, til her breath froze her cheeks soaked with tears. “I need you because I can't imagine a future without you.” below thick curved brows, her stare flamed. “I never found someone who thought I was worth something as a human being aside from my father's name, until I met you and now I believe it too. Surely I can live without you, I’ve done this my whole life but I don’t want to. I don’t want to since you came into my life and showed me I wasn’t living.. I was just trying to survive, I was holding tight onto myself and my convictions because if I didn’t I would’ve crumbled and in my position I couldn’t permit myself to do it but I can’t hide I was indeed dying. But you,” the woman sighed out.
A palm warmly cradled her face until the girl’s heart leapt to follow Kuvira’s voice slowing down, now flowing softer.. enriched with hope. “Since you.. I breathe, I'm joyful, I feel like I live my life to its fullest, I feel my heart wanting to live and love you. If I made you stronger you made me weaker for my own sake. Weaker enough to defy those walls that prevented me to fully live.”
By the Spirits…
She winded and kneaded her face into Kuvira’s hand, making a mess by smearing everywhere the inexorable flood of tears gushing out directly from her core.
Shelovesme, shelovesme, shelovesme.
The gentler the woman folded her trembling frame in wide arms, the deeper her wept shattered into the quiet public parking lot.
It wasn’t fair, she should’ve been ashamed for treating Kuvira that way and now crying like a spoiled baby unable to get the fanciest toy of the moment between small, intrepid hands with the slight difference that she already had everything she desired, everything she ever wished and beyond —hanging onto her in handfuls— breathing against her flesh and loving each inch, each hair, each liquid and will contained in that essence of love made into person. And still, still, like most spoiled kids, she didn’t deserve this because she.. she herself was the broken one...
It’s not fair, it’s not fair.. what can I give her back? What can she possibly have with me if everything I gave her were rejections? I did it because I knew! I knew I could never deserve her and still she’s here, and still… “It’s not fair…”
“I know it’s not fair” a hand caressed her nape and the world collapsed, screwing into itself.
“No, you don’t know!” Opal hollered but the businesswoman deleted every distance by resting her forehead upon her bang. Then whispered with a velvety, a tenderness humanity itself wasn’t able to discern yet, even less to handle because she alone wasn’t able to bear the sound, melting in shame and thriving at the vibration at the same exact time. “Explain it to me then, make me understand”
“This is not something I can explain with words Kuvira, and even if I had a chance to do so, I would never want you to know what it means to be sick because you were right.” the woman’s wrists pulsed into her heedless fists “I fucking love you and I’m sorry. I’m sorry for what I did.” she finally confessed.
Kuvira’s eyes were reduced into green water wells through the thick film of wetness so Opal had to blink twice, then again before their blurred patch of pure color defined into sharp points surrounded by a plot of capillaries. She never looked so devastated, so raw and defeated as she did now, on the verge of tears. And if it was possible, Opal’s heart filled till its brim just to overflow at each pulse with love and love and love.
“I have loved you since the first time I rushed into you in the elevator a month ago.” then puled “I hoped you’d forgotten about me because you were so unreachable but so gentle to me, I forgot who you were and you didn’t even know me. I should’ve stopped you since the first time you came to my place.”
“Do you regret what we had?” the CEO’s eyes cut through an iris to the other with indecipherable precision “Do you regret us?”
How is it even possible…
Compassion sweetened her lips into a sad smile. Nothing could make her blame Kuvira for being so wary.. guarded, so uncertain about her words after every moment she had provoked, diminished, rejected the woman against her own will, but those —in that precise instant— were the truest feelings overpowering her self-sabotaging logic. For once, each part of her wasn’t trying to fight itself in front of the love of her life but seemed to concord in spilling out all her weaknesses for good. The hope Kuvira could acknowledge and accept that for what it… she was, was strong.
Opal gulped down and lowered the woman’s wrists between their bodies. If what she suspected from a few days now was true, or well , even if that chance wasn’t going to be revealed as such, what she was feeling as guiding Kuvira’s hands on her own belly beneath the coat, still held immense importance. However, that wasn't the reason why she was telling her all those things. Those things were being said because they were exploding now, as they were profoundly felt all along.
The warmth spreading from those big palms was igniting foreign chills and for a moment her whole body startled, interdicted with this rush of sensations.
“I would never regret you or us. I just wanted for you to have a chance to not know what it means to be with someone with Parkinson’s” she tried to explain as the business woman’s light emeralds began to melt.
“You would never ruin my life” her hoarse voice, as well, mellowed again in a tired reprimand but her thumbs… oh her fingers were brushing so slowly above the sweater.
Another stream of tears doused silently her burning cheeks.
“I already did! This is not temporary, Kuvira! You can’t see it now, but I’m frightened about the day you’ll wake up and realize you don’t love me but you are stuck with someone who can’t even walk sometimes and you’ll hate everything I do because I’m actually a burden— I won’t stop fucking shaking someday and there’s no cure—“
“Opal!”
“This is why I never wanted to find somebody to love, to have a life with and kids and and...build.. build a-a family. This is why I told you nobody wanted you because I knew by hurting you and crushing your hopes, you would’ve hated me before it was too late, because there’s no future with me!”
“Stop.” the woman wrenched her arms already spasming on their own, perhaps to try to make her snap out of it or perhaps.. perhaps that paroxysm was scaring her too.
A sense of shame and stupidity washed over; Opal dwindled. “I’m sorry I love you so much it’s tearing me apart... I..I ruined everything”
“Enough.” Kuvira pinched her face up with a hand, “Look at me.”
And she did it. Wide ferns stared back preoccupied, mirroring exactly what her fears sang about but then the coat of wetness welled to its limits, escaping the eyelids' protection unable to keep them further. It was the first time Kuvira cried in front of her in daylight. Beyond those tears lining in half her iron features, although, the CEO stayed fierce and resolute as the music student found herself to be —reflected in those eyes once again— before her mouth was crushed into a kiss.
It was hard and raw and painful but just for a bit, a few seconds were enough to feel that throb fade into a pleasant tingling while her lips began to be pulled and pushed steadily until they were grazed with infinite finesse and in that moment, Opal felt her soul ascend and fall back just to intertwine with the woman’s whose she belonged to.
The businesswoman withdrew her face; then kissed her again and again and in those intervals of apnea and respiration the girl caught her face in her hands and whimpered, saturated with an affection she’d never get tired to receive and give back, even if it meant to feel Kuvira’s tears soaking her skin because anyway it was a privilege to be the one to witness such intense emotions pouring out from the same person she insensately taunted to be… well, emotionless. Damn me.
It hurt to see and feel her cry.
“You’ll get tired of me” she puffed out against thin swollen lips. The beauty mark disappeared below her digit.
“Yes. I will definitely get tired of you and you will get tired of me.” their lips met again “We will get sick of each other because that’s what we do everyday with or without a sickness, but what matters is the effort we put in to stay together. We are here now and we will be here even in eighty years because you are the love of my life... my soul, I can’t give up on you, Opal. I want to spend the rest of my days and over with you. I want to live you forever and beyond. Give yourself this chance, give me the chance to show you.” Kuvira breathed out, “Give it to us”
Blood hammered into her tympanums.
For a moment, the flicker meaning of time was marked by a snowflake whirling down slowly and unperturbed until it dissolved between their breaths.
In that same moment, in all their warmth against her cheeks, Opal swore to feel the woman’s rough hands shake.
“If you ever knew I was sick.. if you knew me and all my problems, my flaws since when we met at the elevator… would you still choose to stay in it till the end?”
“Would you love me all the same?”
Notes:
Inspired by Love And Other Drugs somewhat and other favorite old movies.
A huge, astronomical, juicy thanks goes to K, @dreamsindaylight who didn’t only believe in me and this story before it even existed and not only for her incredible patience to edit all of this but also for literally writing along with me some parts of it, for providing me with the quinciest ideas and actually giving a logic to this story when sometimes i just wanted to fill it with silliness.
K, this story also belongs to you and I'm beyond words to express how grateful I've been to have had your boundless help. Thank you for spending hours and hours of brainstorming, for making me laugh, for making me curious, for making me angry (in the best way!), for teaching/helping me with English and mostly for keeping me on track, reminding me that I could make it. And guess what? 😜
Another stellar, important thanks goes to @honestlygirlsthough who taught me what it means to appreciate what I create through the longest, most heartfelt comments I ever read and the nights and days spent together to over analyze everything about writing styles, the feelings about this story and everything else concerning it and this pairing in general.
Thank you for your brilliant ideas. Thank you for your golden heart. Thank you immensely for clearing up my mind when it was the most crowded. You inspired me to get better in writing with your own works. You also inspire me everyday to be the best version of myself. I’m unutterably grateful.
Thanks to @Tea_is_good_for_depression for supporting and giving me some of the most intriguing and particular ideas, like Kuvira and Suyin’s wine date!! eheh I appreciated it a lot and never forgot.
Also super thanks to the talented @Panditart who made such ADORABLE!! and beautiful fanarts for this story: https://at.tumblr.com/panditart/show-chapter-archive/ec1dtvmz9zxi
https://at.tumblr.com/panditart/show-chapter-archive/3usnqst18rll
https://at.tumblr.com/panditart/show-chapter-archive/joxegjzqinly
And last but not least, thanks to each one of you who kept reading this story, anonymously and not! (@XIIIDuran i’m looking at you, chica!! eheh)
I’ve been incredibly amazed by every comment and kudos and hits it got and I have no idea how to actually express how crucial your enthusiasm had been to not only help me publish into this small, beloved fandom but also filled and hearten me with love and motivation whenever I felt like giving up. I can never be thankful enough for each one of you.
I’ll miss you with all my heart.Now… who wants a cookie 🍪?
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