The Duet

“What do you think is the biggest lie we tell ourselves?”

Vinyl sighed and, without paying attention to the woman sitting on the sofa, tried once again to form some sort of comprehensible semblance of thought on what had happened. So far the attempt was stuck somewhere between “What was she thinking?!” and “Her lips are surprisingly soft…” Neither ideas were helping. Even though the latter was giving her a pleasant aftertaste, which tasted like… raspberry tobacco? Vinyl blinked. Was there even such a thing as raspberry tobacco?

“The biggest lie is ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’.” Octavia nodded resolutely and chugged on her beer. “We never just ‘do it tomorrow’. We go further and further into the future without doing that thing that we-”

“You kissed me.”

Octavia shut up, looking at her flatmate, who had not said a word prior to that. Had not really reacted in any way when Octavia had taken her home. Had not even lit a single cigarette. “Uh, I, I did?” The rocker scratched the back of her head. “Come on, it was a gesture of appreciation.”

“You kissed me,” Vinyl repeated, not even caring that Octavia suddenly knew the word ‘appreciation’. The violinist touched her lips. “You kissed me on the lips, Octavia. Romantically.”

“Uh…” Octavia looked around nervously - which made Vinyl just a little giddy inside. “Nohomo? Nohomo!”

“Romantically,” Vinyl emphasised, getting up. Somehow, she knew what this was all about. No, she couldn’t quite put it to words, but the scent of raspberry tobacco made her stand up and walk slowly towards Octavia, with a smile on her lips.

“If-” Octavia gulped, watching Vinyl’s every move, every slow, deliberate step she was taking towards the sofa - and her. “If you say ‘nohomo’, it’s not gay!”

Vinyl stopped in front of the sofa and leant over, lifting Octavia’s chin with her index finger. “If you say so, Octavia.” Then, the scent of raspberry tobacco made her close her eyes and lock her lips with the punk rocker. As the two women drowned in the kiss, Vinyl crawled onto the sofa, pinning the usually bold, now submissive, woman under her weight.

Just as she broke the kiss, looking into Octavia’s eyes sensually, the scent of raspberry tobacco, now intensified, made her take off her shirt. Octavia gasped, at the same time wanting to look away and drawn to Vinyl’s beautiful naked skin. “Undo my bra,” Vinyl whispered, smiling as the scent of raspberry tobacco took over her. “I know you want it.”

With trembling fingers, Octavia did just that, clumsily, from the second try, but still did it. Her eyes were drawn to Vinyl’s chest, seemingly flat, but now with two delicious breasts in the free.

Vinyl, in turn, took off Octavia’s shirt, swiftly, powerfully, ferociously. Then, she leant in and, with a motion of her hand, flicked off the lights. “Psst, Octavia.”

The rocker gulped, her eyes adjusting to the dark, the image of Vinyl’s breasts still lingering before them. “Y-yes, Vinyl?”

Vinyl grinned and dove in. “Nohomo.”

***

“I JUST HAD SEX!”

Vinyl opened her eyes. The light from the outside was tinted bordeaux red because of the thin curtains in the “den”. The woman looked to her side. The side of the sofa where Octavia had lain was still very warm.

“AND IT FELT SO GOOD!”

The sound of acoustic guitar, the loud strumming, was not lost on the violinist’s ears. She stood up and shook up. With a yawn, the woman left the den, peeking cautiously into the living room. There, a very happy Octavia was strumming her guitar and singing out loud:

“WHEN SHE LET ME PUT MY TONGUE INSIDE HE-E-ER!”

Vinyl entered the room quietly and sat down on the sofa. “Octavia?” she said softly, with a tiny smile.

“I JUST HAD SE-E-E-EX! AND I’LL NEVER GO BACK-!”

“Octavia!”

The raven-haired woman ceased her song and looked at her friend… her… friend. Octavia blinked. “Heeey, cutie.” She reached boldly for Vinyl and grabbed her by the neck. For a moment, Vinyl wanted to resist, but, remembering how tender Octavia could be, leaned in and kissed the woman on the cheek. “Sleep well?”

“Yes,” Vinyl confirmed. “Until you woke me up with that song.” She smiled, signifying that she wasn’t entirely displeased. “Getting back to your punk and bolder self?”

“Well.” Octavia shrugged. “I wanted to sing it right after we had sex, but you were snoozing so peacefully that I just d’awwed and went to sleep.” The rocker smiled.

“Octavia.” Vinyl sighed. Mind the bloody quota, Vinyl. “The sex.”

“Yes.” Octavia nodded. “Hot lesbian sex. It was good! I, uh, thank you for that?” An expression of uncertainty appeared on the rocker’s face for a moment. “Do lesbians do that? Thank each other for sex?”

“I, I don’t know.” Vinyl blushed, averting her eyes. The scent of raspberry tobacco was gone, and all her insecurities had sprung up to the front of her conscious. “I guess… We’re not really gay?”

“Are you kidding me?” Octavia grinned widely, setting the guitar aside. “You called me ‘My little Tavi’ after sex. How is that not gay?”

“What I mean is…” Vinyl opened her mouth for a sigh, but closed it at once. “Won’t it affect our publicity?” she wondered. “I mean, if we… if we begin to date and what-not?”

“Are you kidding?” Octavia huffed. “Vinyl, our country is a rainbow-fucking-fest! If people learn we’re lesbian, album sales are gonna skyrocket!”

“Well,” Vinyl countered, “we don’t really have any albums. We only do concerts, remember? And,” she added reasonably, “we no longer do even that.”

“Well,” Octavia replied, “I suppose it’d do us a lot good if we brought that duet of ours to a live concert.” She pondered. “And then made out on stage.”

“That would make our concerts illegal in Stalliongrad.” Vinyl sighed. “And it’s twice as big as Manehattan.”

“Psh, audience.” Octavia waved her hand at them. “Back when I was in a punk band, I would tell the audience to fuck themselves with a stick, and they still came to our concerts.”

“Well, now you are in a band with me,” Vinyl stressed, “so we do actually care about the audience. And we will not make out on stage. Or in the street. Or in a parking lot. Or in a coffee shop.” Octavia opened her mouth. “Or in a plane toilet. Or in any public toilet. Or in a dark alley. Or anywhere outside our private flat and/or hotel room. Got it?”

Octavia blinked. “Wow, Vinyl. You sure do have a wild imagination.” For a while, the room was silent. Octavia reached for the beer bottle. Vinyl reached for the cigarettes. “So,” Octavia said after another minute of silence, during which Vinyl smoked and smiled, smiled and smoked. “Wanna go for another round?”

Vinyl stopped smoking and smiling. “I thought we were going to talk about what happened between us last night?” she suggested.

Octavia shrugged. “What are we? Characters in a shitty novel? Come on, Vinyl. You like my body. I’m obviously very, very sexy.” Vinyl laughed. “Hey, don’t laugh! I know you dig me. You like my body, I like your personality, why don’t we start dating? So that we can have sex all the time!” she concluded victoriously.

Vinyl lifted her finger and opened her mouth to argue when a thought struck her. “Wait. Why are attracted to my ‘personality’? Is there something wrong about my body?”

“Well…” Octavia drawled. “You do have a chubby tummy…” Seeing murder in Vinyl’s eyes, she quickly reshaped her statement: “Um, but that just makes me like you all the more! I mean. I mean, I’d really dig it if we could date.” She paused. “And have sex. A lot of it. All the time.”

“I guess we could date,” Vinyl agreed slowly, picking up the cigarette. “Since we already had se- feelings for each other…”

And sex, Octavia mouthed.

“But.” Vinyl raised her finger. “We won’t go public about it. I mean, we won’t necessarily conceal it but…” She sighed. Oh come on! “All right. We can date. And if it comes up, I guess, let the world know. But it’s not gonna be a celebrity kind of thing. It’s gonna be a you-and-me kinda thing,” she emphasised. “A personal union of two.”

“Yeah.” Octavia nodded in agreement. “With lots of sex. So, take Sir Morning Glory and let’s go to my bedroom.”

“Why your bedroom?” Vinyl asked a touch defensively.

“Because…” Octavia put on the shades that seemed to have materialised out of nowhere. “I like it when things get dirty.”

***

“Octavia, when I said I wanted wine and roses, I meant wine and roses. Not beer and cigarettes.”

“But these are your favourite cigarettes!” Octavia exclaimed, sitting opposite her… girlfriend at the kitchen table. The very notion of having a girlfriend was filling her with both dread and excitement. Dread that she was, after all, very much gay, or, rather, bi; and excitement that Vinyl could, for once, be so bold, so dominant… at least in bed. “And my favourite beer,” she added with a grin.

Vinyl narrowed her eyes, furrowing her brows. “Octavia. Do you want me to get out the whip?”

The rocker opened her mouth to produce a witty reply, but the only sound that came out upon her realisation of what was being said was a meek ‘eep’. “T-the whip?” Octavia confirmed, flushing furiously, angry at her body for acting so weird. “Y-you have a whip? Why would you have a whip?”

“Because,” Vinyl licked her lips, “sometimes I feel like you are a very naughty girl, my little Tavi, and that I should properly punish you. Which I will certainly - finally - do, now that we are dating.” With that, Vinyl leant back and opened the pack of, indeed, her favourite cigarettes smugly.

“Since when did you get so bold?” Octavia enquired, opening a bottle of her favourite beer. “You were never this bold.” She took a mighty swig, coughing up immediately, evoking a smirk from the woman sitting opposite her.

“Since when did you become such a chicken?” Vinyl taunted, lighting up her cigarette. “You were always the reckless one, you ‘like when things get dirty’-” the violinist emphasised with her fingers, “-and yet when we get down to bed you’re all like ‘Vinyl, can you be on top?’”

Octavia looked around hectically, as if someone could hear them. “I- I’m not a chicken! It’s just that…” She sighed, placing the beer bottle back onto the table. “Look. I… I feel something towards you, Vinyl. I mean, I like you. I really like you. More than a friend. And it’s… I’ve never felt anything like this before. I am afraid of messing up.” There was sheer honesty in the rocker’s voice. “I am afraid of commitment. I’ve never felt so at ease, so serene. I think… I think I…”

“Shh.” Vinyl smiled and leant over the table, pressing her finger against Octavia’s lips. “I know what you want to say. Don’t say it yet. Let’s make it special.”

Octavia fell silent for a moment, then smiled a shy, timid smile that was un-Octavia-like. “Romance movie under the plaid?”

Vinyl nodded. “Romance movie under the plaid.”