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~*~
This was a bad idea.
It was a bad idea the very first time Swire had visited Rhodes Island in the wake of the Chernobog Incident, when Rhodes took Talulah into custody and fled across the wastes with Lungmen and Ursus none the wiser. It was a bad idea every single time after that, when Swire used her precious vacation hours to leave the LGD for an off-the-record night away.
It was still a bad idea now.
But Ch’en tried not to think about that. Frankly, it was hard to think about anything when she had a tipsy Swire sprawled across her lap, hugging her arm to her chest. Right now, there were only two things that really came to mind.
One: Beatrix Schwire was a cuddly drunk.
Two…
...she missed this. So, so much.
She wouldn’t admit that out loud, of course. She wasn’t a child .
Swire tipped her head back and chugged down the rest of her beer. She slammed the can down onto Ch’en’s coffee table, burped in decidedly unladylike fashion, and fell back onto the couch in a fit of giggles.
“Take it easy,” Ch’en chided, rolling her eyes with a weary fondness. “And, hey. Next time you drink me out of house and home, bring your own beer.”
“If I had known Rhodes only carried this watered-down Victorian swill, I would have,” Swire huffed. She crossed her legs on the couch. Her stockinged foot sent a trio of beer cans clattering noisily onto the floor and sent Swire into another giggle fit.
“You’re the worst,” Ch’en shook her head.
“You love it.”
Ch’en didn’t dignify that with a verbal response. But her arm, draped across the back of the couch, did slip from its perch and settle casually around Swire’s shoulders. And that said it all, really.
“...Why are you really here, Swire?” Ch’en asked quietly.
“What?” Swire smiled, playful. “Can’t a girl risk an international incident to go drinking with her bestie?”
Ch’en snorted. “Oh, so we’re ‘besties’ now?”
“Always have been,” Swire rolled her eyes. “Come on, Chieh-Chieh. We put on that snippy song and dance in front of the men, but we both know that’s BS. Can’t I just say I was worried about you after this crazy couple of months? Or would that offend your oh-so-stoic sensibilities?”
“I’m just worried about what would happen if Wei finds out where you’ve been,” Ch’en muttered.
“I’m on vacation. I can go wherever I damn well please,” Swire huffed.
“Even on a landship harboring a notorious war criminal, and her sister who went rogue to rescue her?”
“Yes, even there,” Swire jabbed a teasing elbow into Ch’en’s side. “I could go anywhere I wanted, anywhere in the world, and yet here I am on your couch. You’re the envy of every bachelor in Greater Lungmen.”
Ch’en chuckled, a fond hand in Swire’s hair. “Lucky me.”
Swire closed her eyes for a moment, leaning into Ch’en’s touch. Her ears twitched as Ch’en’s fingers brushed past.
“You look good, though,” Swire murmured.
“I don’t know,” Ch’en shrugged. She glanced over her shoulder to her new Rhodes Island-issued jacket hanging by the door; dark, coarse fabric cut through with a bright strip of cyan. “I don’t know if cyan’s my color.”
“No, I mean…” Swire said gently. “...you look happier. Less stressed out and buttoned-up. Free.”
Their eyes met; glass-green and ruby red. Ch’en’s voice caught in her throat.
“Y-You look…” she began, and then hesitated. One moment. Two.
Too long. Swire just flashed her an impish smile and tapped her on the nose with a perfectly manicured fingernail.
“Don’t fall in love with me,” Swire teased.
Ch’en snatched her gaze away, out of annoyance if nothing else. Swire just leaned into Ch’en and tucked her chin over Ch’en’s shoulder, hiding her insufferably smug grin.
Ch’en’s tail swished beside her. Swire nuzzled into Ch’en’s throat, reaching behind her and batting her tail between her hands. A childish Feline habit she'd never quite outgrown.
“I’ve always loved your tail,” Swire murmured, eyes following the tuft of crimson red fur like a lure in the deep sea. “Can I play with it?”
Ch’en snickered. “...Are you serious? Bea, you’re drunk.”
“I’m serious,” Swire replied. “Here, you can play with mine.”
Swire wiggled her hips, her own tail swishing in invitation. Ch’en chuckled, her hand gently tracing a path down Swire’s back before curling around the base of her tail. Swire reciprocated in kind, gripping the taut muscle at the base of Ch’en’s tail and giving it a firm squeeze.
Ch’en gasped and bucked her hips, reflexively pulling Swire onto her lap. They were flush against each other, breathless and basking in their intoxicating warmth. Swire rolled her hips, drawing an adorable whimper from Ch’en’s lips. Ch’en gazed up at her, grinning.
“...You’re not subtle, Bea,” Ch’en mused.
“Never have been,” Swire purred. She traced Ch’en’s jawline with her fingers, parting her lips with the pad of her thumb. “...May I kiss you?”
Ch’en shivered, reaching up and tangling her fingers in Swire’s blond curls.
“...I thought you said not to fall in love with you,” Ch’en argued.
“I never said I couldn’t make it a challenge ,” Swire purred.
Ch’en yanked her forward. Their lips crashed together, urgent, scalding-hot. Swire whimpered into Ch’en’s mouth, clinging to her shoulders. They parted, gasping, just long enough for Swire to pull her blouse over her head and fling it aside. Swire darted back in for another breathless kiss, only for Ch’en to trail down her neck, nipping at her throat, her collarbone, kissing a trail down her breasts. Swire unhooked her bra and casually sling-shotted it across the room, giggling at her own irreverence before Ch’en took her breasts in her hands.
“Oh, Chieh-Chieh, that feels so good…” Swire cooed. She went down the buttons on Ch’en’s dress shirt, slipping her hands inside to return the favor. She cupped Ch’en’s breasts, kneading them like a cat.
Ch’en latched onto a pert pink nipple, reaching out to tend to its twin. She rolled it until it pebbled against her palm, Ch’en giving Swire’s chest a firm squeeze.
“Mm, do you like that, Chieh-Chieh?” Swire murmured, hugging Ch’en’s face to her chest, raking her fingernails against Ch’en’s scalp. She was so close, she could hear the rumbling purr emanating from Swire’s core, rattling in her skull. Swire cradled her, petting her hair and cooing all the while. “Do you like that, Chieh-Chieh? Do you like sucking these big kitty titties?”
“Are you going to talk the whole time?” Ch’en grumbled into Swire’s chest.
Swire huffed, affronted. She palmed Ch’en through her shorts in indignation.
Ch’en let out a strangled moan. Swire smiled at her little victory, hands sliding down Ch’en’s stomach and slipping under her waistband.
“You don’t like it when I talk, do you?” Swire pouted up at Ch’en.
“I’m gonna pay for that, aren’t I?” Ch’en winced.
Swire just smiled. That impish, cat-like smile that made it so very difficult not to fall in love with her.
Ch’en gasped as Swire’s hand slipped into her shorts.
“Aww, why so stiff?” Swire teased.
“Shut up, Swire,” Ch’en shivered.
Swire snaked the fingers of her free hand under Ch’en’s waistband and tugged her shorts down to her knees, her other hand still curled tight around her. She was warm and throbbing in Swire’s hand, no doubt grateful to be freed from her fabric prison.
Swire smiled. She pursed her lips, and blew.
Ch’en shuddered, her cock twitching at the sensation. Swire gave her a languid, lazy stroke, pressing the smallest of kisses to the very tip.
“You poor thing,” Swire cooed, trailing kisses up and down Ch’en’s length. “It must have been so hot and stuffy in there. No room to breathe.”
“Sh-Shut up, Swire,” Ch’en whimpered.
“Yes, ma’am,” Swire winked, before dipping her head.
Ch’en arched her back and bit back a moan. The wet warmth of Swire’s mouth, her tongue, her slender fingers… it was unbearable. Ch’en sat up, breathless, her hand coming to rest in Swire’s hair. The other reached out blindly, groping. Her fingers found the waistband of Swire’s skirt and she fumbled, needy and impatient, eager to return the favor. Swire unzipped her skirt and let Ch’en tug it down her legs, kicking it aside. Ch’en’s fingers, searching and ravenous, found their prey.
Swire squealed, sending a burst of sensation up through Ch’en’s cock and into her core. Ch’en cupped her mound, before plunging her fingers into the slick, radiant heat between her legs.
Swire whimpered, muffled into Ch’en’s legs. Ch’en chuckled, petting her hair, running a fingernail across the tip of her ears. Compared to how the rest of their night was going, it was a shockingly gentle, tender gesture.
“This is nice,” Ch’en teased, unable to help herself. “Nice and quiet.”
Ch’en yelped as Swire’s lips pressed down just a little too hard. Swire released her with a pop.
“Really?” Swire teased, playfully leaning her chin on one hand while the other tended to Ch’en with long, slow strokes. “You’re going to give me that attitude now, when I literally, not figuratively, have you by the balls?”
“Sorry,” Ch’en smiled, sheepish. “I couldn’t resist.”
Swire rolled her eyes. “Bitch. Hate you.”
“You love it.”
Swire sat up, pulling Ch’en into a kiss. Ch’en could taste herself on Swire’s tongue, could smell the heady, musky aroma of her sex. It was… strange. And yet intoxicating, alluring.
They leaned into each other, shivering despite the radiant heat, Swire pumping her slim fingers up Ch’en’s shaft, Ch’en knuckle-deep in Swire’s dripping folds. Swire shuddered, gasping.
“Chieh-Chieh,” she murmured, pressing a kiss to Ch’en’s shoulder.
“Mm?”
“Just… just give me one second,” Swire murmured.
She pulled away for just a moment, just long enough to make Ch’en ache for her touch again. Swire leaned over Ch’en’s shoulder and snagged her purse off a nearby table, rummaging. She emerged with a small bottle of clear, viscous fluid.
Ch’en raised an eyebrow. “Do… do you just carry that with you wherever you go?”
“No harm in being prepared,” Swire winked.
After a moment’s 'preparation', Swire gently but firmly pushed Ch’en back into her seat on the couch, before turning around, bracing herself on Ch’en’s knees.
Swire glanced away, suddenly shy. “Are, um… are you ready?”
Swire’s tail swished before her, enticing. Fire flicked across Ch’en’s cheeks as her hands came to rest on Swire’s hips. It really was a spectacular view.
Ch’en was so preoccupied that she forgot Swire had asked her a question.
“Ch’en,” Swire urged.
Ch’en blinked. “What? Yes.”
“Were you looking at my butt~?” Swire smiled, smug.
“Shut up, Swire,” Ch’en grumbled. (Swire did have a nice butt.) She glanced away, clearing her throat. “...Ready when you are.”
“Here I come,” Swire shuddered as she slowly lowered herself down, feeling Ch’en gradually fill her up. “Ah-- ah-- ah--”
“Are you okay?” Ch’en whispered, urgent, attentive.
“I’m okay,” Swire breathed, haggard. “I’m okay, I’m okay. God, Ch’en, you feel so good…”
Swire rolled her hips back into Ch’en, taking her up to the hilt. Ch’en watched, entranced, as she buried her cock in Swire’s ass. Ch’en groaned, Swire feeling her voice vibrating up into her core, and Swire lay back against her, reaching up, grabbing a fistful of Ch’en’s hair.
“Ch’en,” Swire murmured, a breathless whimper that made Ch’en’s heart flip in her chest. “Ch’en…”
“I’m right here, Bea,” Ch’en whispered, peppering Swire’s throat with kisses. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you…”
Swire took Ch’en’s hand and clamped it against her hips, keeping her steady as Ch’en thrust into her again and again. Heat rose in her core, radiant, addictive. Swire craned her head over her shoulder and captured Ch’en’s lips in a fierce kiss. Ch’en, mercifully, decided not to point out the only reason she could do so comfortably in this position was because Swire was so short.
Swire caught a glimpse of azure scales. Ch’en’s tail swished in front of her eyes. She snatched it out of the air, impulsive, taking the sinuous appendage between her slim fingers.
“Ch’en,” Swire breathed, smiling that impish grin of hers. “Mind if I try something a little different?”
“It’s not going to work,” Ch’en chided, pumping in and out. “It’s too thin, and there’s that tuft of fur on the end--”
“Just let me try it! Come on, please...?”
“Alright, alright…”
Swire pulled Ch’en’s tail in front of her. The furred tip swished against her, tickling her thighs, making her gasp as it brushed past her heat.
“Tell me if this gets too weird, okay?” Swire grinned. Ch’en kissed her on the cheek.
She gently coaxed the tip of Ch’en’s tail inside herself. Immediately, Swire threw her head back with a moan.
“Bea?!” Ch’en gasped, concerned.
“Oh. Oh... wow…” Swire murmured, slowly sliding more and more of Ch’en’s tail into her. The sensation was strange, but electrifying-- she could feel it flexing within her, feel it slither and thrash.
Something bubbled up within Swire’s core. She yowled like a cat in heat, filled to bursting. She could feel Ch’en inside her, both of her, one thrusting with a steady rhythm and the other dancing wild and free. She could feel the heat rising, feel it building, about to explode--
Swire yanked Ch’en’s tail out of herself with a shout, her fingers swiping frantically at her slick. Swire came laughing, blissful, euphoric. A geyser of her juices sprayed out and soaked herself, Ch’en’s legs, and the carpet below.
Ch’en held her tight, her arms wrapped around her waist. She pressed a kiss to Swire’s shoulder, her skin still scalding to the touch. Swire slumped forward and stumbled onto her knees on the carpet, her thighs shaking. She braced herself on the coffee table and slowly caught her breath, coming back to her senses, slowly taking in the mess she’d made of the carpet and Ch’en’s couch.
“...Oh. Shit. Sorry…” Swire smiled, dazed. “I’ll, uh… I’ll pay for that…”
"You will," Ch'en grinned.
Swire felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned and met Ch’en’s smoky red gaze as she shoved the coffee table aside and gently but firmly eased Swire onto the floor.
What a sight she was. Panting, chest heaving, slick with sweat and her own juices, her brilliant green eyes blown out and unfocused with desire. In that moment, Ch’en truly felt like the envy of Greater Lungmen. The luckiest woman in the city. Maybe the world.
“You are so beautiful,” Ch’en whispered, shocking even herself with her sincerity.
“Don’t fall in love with me,” Swire chided.
“You’re really not making it easy,” Ch’en said dryly.
They laughed together. Swire reached up and pulled Ch’en into a kiss, sliding her stockinged feet up against Ch’en’s hips. Their eyes met, glass green and ruby red.
“...Take me, Chieh-Chieh,” Swire whispered.
Ch’en smiled. “Yes, ma’am.”
Ch’en’s cock parted her folds and slipped inside without the slightest resistance. Swire shuddered, locking her legs tight around Ch’en’s waist.
Ch’en dipped her head and met Swire’s lips in a kiss. She touched their foreheads together, and they locked eyes.
“Look at me,” Ch’en commanded. “Don’t look away.”
“I won’t,” Swire breathed.
Swire reached up, her fingers curling around one of Ch’en’s horns. Ch’en tenderly brushed her fingers against her cheek, before nestling in Swire’s hair. Their hands met above their heads, pressed into the carpet. Their fingers laced together with a squeeze.
Ch’en took her, and Swire didn’t look away.
The entire world dissolved into sweat and light and kinetic heat.
Ch’en let out a haggard breath.
“B-Bea,” she choked out. “I-I’m--”
“Go on,” Swire purred. “Give it to me.”
Swire pulled Ch’en into a soft, sweet kiss, before Ch’en sat up and hoisted her onto her lap. Ch’en picked up the pace, hammering into her for the home stretch. They could feel it building, a frisson in heat rising in their cores. Swire bit down into Ch’en’s shoulder, stifling a scream. Light burst behind Ch’en’s eyes. She gasped, bucked her hips--
Ch’en came without a sound, stunned into silence. She let out a low, shuddering groan, clinging to Swire and trembling, as all the tension fled her body and left only a blissful, radiant warmth. Swire held her, pressing a kiss to the angry red bite marks she’d left on Ch’en’s shoulder, and they slithered down onto the floor, trembling, basking in the welcoming heat.
They spent a long moment together, tangled in one another, boneless and limp on the carpet. When they glanced up and saw that they were still holding hands, they broke apart in faux-disgust, laughing together. Even then, their tails curled around each other. Fingers, tails, lives. Tangled together in every way that mattered.
“I love you,” Swire murmured, into the warm quiet, nuzzling into Ch’en’s shoulder.
Ch’en blinked. She turned, leaning up on her elbow, and studied her carefully, as if she suspected this to be some kind of elaborate practical joke.
“...You love me?” Ch’en wondered.
“You think I’d let just anybody take me raw right on the floor like that?” Swire chuckled. “...Relax, Chieh-Chieh. I’m an adult. It’s not like we fuck once and I expect us to be married in the morning. But I meant what I said. I love you. And I thought I should say it out loud, at least once.”
“I thought you said not to fall in love,” Ch’en said.
“I warned you not to fall in love,” Swire smiled, impish. “It’s too late for me.”
Swire paused, suddenly somber. She blew out a sigh.
“...It’s too late for... all of us, really.”
Ch’en’s expression darkened. “...Don’t say that.”
“It’s true,” Swire shrugged. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this. It was supposed to be you, me, Hoshi, Yuhsia. The four of us, running Lungmen together, the four baddest bitches in the city. The four of us, forever. Not like this. Not like this.”
“Maybe it still can be,” Ch’en said softly. “Someday.”
Their eyes met. Glass green and ruby red. Swire searched her eyes, trying to find some hint of sarcasm, of bitterness, or irony, and was surprised to find none. Just Ch’en, her Ch’en, and a stubborn, defiant hope.
Swire darted forward and stole one more kiss. Something softer, sweeter, without the fire but still full of light. A prayer. A promise.
“You better blush when you say fairy tale shit like that,” Swire laughed. “You’re at Rhodes three months and now you’re a big softie.”
“Give me a break.” Ch’en said dryly. “Maybe I’m just feeling sentimental because my ‘bestie’ has apparently been in love with me all along.”
“Not ‘all along’. I’m not that desperate.”
“How long, then?”
Swire glanced away, shyly tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.
“...Since the Academy.”
“Oh, wow,” Ch’en blinked, a smirk growing on her lips. “So… when Veronica said we looked like a cute couple--”
Swire clapped a hand over Ch’en’s face and swatted her away, laughing.
“Shut up. Hate you.”
“You love it.”
“Whatever,” Swire said, wiggling her hips. “Anyway, did Rhodes give you a dorm with its own shower or are you stuck sharing with the whole block?”
“I’ve got my own,” Ch’en grinned. “But if you want to go first, it’ll cost you.”
“Oh yeah? How much?”
“Ten thousand LMD.”
“What, no discount for your bestie~?”
“Ten thousand LMD. Cash.”
Ch’en helped Swire to her feet, laughing when her knees wobbled beneath her. Swire gave her a peck on the cheek. She stopped by the side table, rummaging through her purse.
She shoved a wrapped stack of bills into Ch’en’s chest, before walking off with her trademark grin.
Ch’en watched her sashay out the door, Swire’s tail waving goodbye. She counted out the bills-- ten thousand LMD, as promised-- and just shook her head with a smile.
~*~