Rules of Engagement

In my dream I’m surrounded by warmth and good smells. The scent of lavender and mint was faint in the air and my amber skin fairly tingled with sensation. I felt something trace tickling echoes of pleasure over my skin, and a voice whispered my name from a great distance away.

The voice was familiar and beautiful, and it sang the syllables of my name like a hymnal stanza.

Warmth crept up my belly and down my legs from my core and I writhed as pleasure drowned out the small, distant sensations. My legs curled and uncurled as I let out a piteous moan.

My world shuddered around me, and the sensation became indescribably intense, and after a moment my eyes fluttered open.

Above me was the blue-and-purple ceiling of Aria’s room where I had fallen asleep the night before, I vaguely recalled.

It took a moment for my brain to disengage from dreamtime and re-engage with the world, and that’s when the feedback from my body really kicked into high gear.

I let out a harsh gasp and my hands tightened into balled up fists, gripping the sheets harder as I came almost violently. My back arched and I cried out before sagging back to the bed. Blinking away my shock, I pulled the blanket and sheets away from my legs and looked down to find Aria Blaze between them, her tongue buried in my dripping snatch and her eyes staring unfocused with lust.

“N-not that I m-mind waking up like this, but-” I’d barely managed half the sentence before Aria’s eyes snapped up to me and she was suddenly in my face, our lips pressed firmly together.

“Mmph!?” Was all I managed as she tangled herself up with me, and after a moment I forced myself to pull away. “Okay, hold up! Hold up!”

I gasped for air as I tried to wrangle my still-sleepy brain to attention and get the last two responsible brain cells I had left after last night up and awake along with me.

“I’m not feeling patient, Shimmer,” Aria growled, leaning in to trail her tongue up my neck. “I want more of you… and I don’t want to wait.”

I shivered and groaned softly as her tongue touched places that were still sensitive from last night. From the way it felt I almost certainly had more than a few hickeys and love bites. That aside, I was also still a little iffy on the whole: ‘eating my emotions’ thing, but for whatever it was worth Aria had seemed to be telling the truth. I didn’t feel woozy or weak, I wasn’t staggering around like a zombie, and I didn’t feel like bowing and scraping before her as my supreme master.

I mean, not like that anyway. I’m not exactly opposed to getting on my knees for her under the right circumstances.

“Written’s Quill, Aria, are you always this hungry in the mornings,” I groaned, stretching my arms and back to the tune of a few cracks. “We can a-ah-eeeee!”

My words morphed into squeaks as Aria took advantage of me exposing my body with my stretch to dive in and fix her mouth over one of my breasts. Her fingers gripped my waist and scraped up and down my sides, and I reflexively curled in, wrapping my arms around her as she suckled and nipped gently.

“Mmm… Aria~,” I moaned softly, and she shivered again before pulling away and staring up at me.

Aria leaned in and pressed her lips to mine, more tenderly this time, but I could still taste that fire and hunger from before. I considered pushing back again but, personally, I was all out of protests for the day when it came to stopping beautiful women from kissing me.

That particular type of protest had a very low amount to begin with though, in my defense.

We parted reluctantly, I could feel her struggling not to just keep pushing forward. To keep kissing me, but I wanted something else if I were being honest.

This time I was the one who set my hands on Aria’s shoulders and gently guided her down to lay back on the bed. I felt a faint resistance, but it only lasted a second as I met her eyes, and I saw the flash of belligerence there that pushed back.

Then she relaxed, laid back, and I lowered myself to kiss down her beautiful body, paying special attention to the defined curves of her muscles, and especially her legs as I passed her waist.

I hooked my hand under the curve of her right knee, lifting it up so I could brush my lips over that smooth, flawless skin.

I wasn’t joking when said I loved Aria’s legs.

They were just as perfect to touch as they were to look at; smooth and soft, but firm and strong. I raised my gaze to meet Aria’s gem-tone eyes as I kissed up from her ankle to her inner thigh, and relished the small moans of appreciation I was getting out of her.

But this was the appetizer, and my eyes fixed with laser precision on the main course as I lifted my mouth from her thigh.

I pressed my lips to her dripping cunt and ran my tongue up the slit.

It was actually… kind of cute; small and expertly shaved, and slightly swollen with arousal. Although with that said, I had the distinct impression that if I ever dared to voice that thought out loud I would get punched in the mouth.

I hummed in delight at her flavor which, aside from the usual taste, was vaguely sweet which surprised me. Maybe it’s just my impression of her but I always figured that, between the three sisters, she’d be the bitter one.

“So you are sweet somewhere,” I shot Aria a teasing smile from between her legs.

I saw a flash of embarrassment cross her face and her eyes widened with anger, but before she could speak I dove in, sliding my tongue between her folds and turning whatever it was she was about to say into a long, drawn-out moan. As for me, my attention became solely focused on what I’d been after all last night. It didn’t seem fair that I was the only one who got, ahem, serviced, and besides… Aria currently had those gorgeous legs of hers locked around my head and, frankly, that was exactly where I wanted them at that moment.

Her slender hips bucked and rolled against my face as I slid my tongue in and out, my hands fixed firmly on her thighs as I felt her squirm with every motion. I let her body tell me where she wanted me, each sensitive spot earning another twist and writhe as Aria gasped out her pleasure.

It might have been a while for me, but I was still damn good. I’m Sunset goddamn Shimmer and I am the best there is at what I do.

And who.

Honestly? I’d have been happy staying right where I was for the next hour or so, but all good things and all that, right? Aria’s graceful back arched and she let out a cry as liquid splashed across my mouth and chin, still distantly sweet, and I lapped up every drop I could.

Somewhere in the back of my mind it occurred to me how strange this was; even Rainbow and I hadn’t been like this and our entire relationship, toxic though it may have become, was defined by passion. Yet whatever this was with Aria was so much more intense, and a small part of me was terrified that it would end the same way: with shouting and fighting and bitter, hard words.

I pulled away as Aria’s legs went slack around me, her knees draped neatly over my shoulders as I licked my lips.

It wouldn’t end that way, because it couldn’t, right? There was nothing to end, after all. Aria and I weren’t dating, hell we probably weren’t even friends although, honestly, I wouldn’t mind it. I had a feeling we’d get along.

We were both breathing hard, both sweaty and flushed as I crawled up over her and curled around her. Aria cupped my cheeks in a manner I would dare to call warm and caring, as if she were afraid she would hurt me if she gripped too hard, and pulled me into a soft kiss.

For someone who had an entire rule that was literally: no kissing, Aria sure was bad at keeping to it.

“Aria?” Her name came out of my mouth as a question, and she raised an eyebrow as she met my gaze. “What’s… what’s going on here? Seriously, because… I’m getting some really mixed signals.”

Aria scowled, which somehow made her prettier. It’s like she had a face that was made for frowning which is really weird to think about.

“We fucked and that’s it,” Aria answered a little stiffly, but somehow her words didn’t seem to reach her eyes. “That’s all that’s going on here, Shimmer.”

“Yeah, I’m not buying that,” I said, taking a risk and pressing what I knew was Aria’s very thin patience. “You said: no kissing, and then you kissed me. You kissed me, and… I didn’t question it last night but were you just, like… screwing with me with that rule of yours? Just teasing? Or what?” Aria opened her mouth, but no answer came out, so I kept going. “And then there’s what happened after!”

“Nothing happened after,” Aria said, her mouth twisting up a little. “We slept!”

“Exactly!” I leaned in a little closer, taking a breath of her scent.

Lavender and mint, it was such a paradoxically calming scent to belong to such a belligerent person.

“Maybe I’m wrong but I get the distinct impression you don’t actually sleep with the people you ‘sleep with’,” I said pointedly after a moment, and the widening of her eyes and the flush of her cheeks practically screamed that I had hit the nail on the head.

It was actually sort of adorable how bad her poker face was, given that she was supposedly some centuries–old temptress.

“That’s-” Aria started to snarl, but she was saved from having to respond by a sharp rapping at her bedroom door.

Aria’s eyes flew wide and she pulled away from me sharply, struggling to her feet which was a little clumsy given what we’d just been up to. Apparently not all the feeling had gotten back to her extremities because she’d barely made it off the bed before she toppled to the ground with a string syllabic curses.

“Aria what’s wrong?” I sat up, brushing my hair out of the way which was a glorious post-sex mess.

“You’re still here is what’s wrong!” Aria snapped as she clambered to her feet and started snatching up my clothes. “You’re not supposed to still be here!”

“Why?” I asked, slinging my legs over the bed and getting up, intent on making my way over to the door since whoever was there was still knocking.

I imagined it was Adagio. There was something distinctly imperious about the way the knock sounded that made me certain it wasn’t Sonata, anyway. I had to think that if it were Sonata it might be a gentle tapping or, alternatively, she would have just barged into the room sans any knocking at all.

And if it were locked, face-planted into the door.

Aria saw me move and she made a sharp, wordless hiss of anger that stopped me in my tracks. I looked over and got a face full of my own clothes, all except-

“Get dressed!” Aria snapped, keeping her voice low. “And where the hell is your shirt?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” I replied testily. “Are you going to tell me why I’m getting kicked out like last night's garbage?”

Aria let out a growl of frustration in response and she continued scouring the room for my last bit of clothing as I put on my bra, pulled on my panties, and started shimmying into my jeans.

“Fuck it!” Aria said angrily and dove for her dresser, pulling out a purple crop top and throwing it at me. “Just use this!”

I raised an eyebrow as I held it up. It was purple, like most of Aria’s clothes, and across the breasts it read in bold, sequined letters: ‘DIS BITCH (emotionally) EMPTY’.

“Classy,” I muttered before pulling it on and turning to Aria. “Next question: there’s no other way out of here, isn’t this moot?”

Aria didn’t answer me. She was over at the body-length wall mirror, grumbling as she fumbled at something at its base. She made a small sound of triumph as a soft clicking sound issued from it, and the mirror swung slowly open.

“You have a secret exit?” I asked dryly. “I’m probably going to regret asking this but: why?”

“We all do,” Aria replied as she shot me a withering glare. “In case you and your band of love-drunk pastel nut-jobs came for us, duh.”

I rolled my eyes as she rushed over to me.

“Aria wake the fuck up!” Adagio’s tense and angry voice called from the other side of the door. “I know you’re ignoring me.”

“Move, Shimmer, she has a master key and I’m actually kinda surprised she hasn’t used it yet,” Aria hissed as she pushed me towards the secret door. “But she won’t wait much longer so get out!”

“Oh c’mon,” I groaned as she pushed me into the cool stone passage, “I’m still… ugh… I smell like sex and bad decisions, can’t I take a quick shower?”

“NO!” Aria snapped before slamming the secret door shut on me.

I sighed, feeling a little like a dirty secret. I guess I technically was but that didn’t help matters.

She could have at least given me a kiss goodby-

The door clicked and snapped open again and Aria surged forward, seizing me by the collar of the shirt she’d loaned me, and pulled me in, pressing her soft, perfect lips to mine.

I smiled against the kiss, humming in delight as she aggressively claimed my mouth.

Then, without a word, she was gone and the door slammed shut once more, leaving me panting for breath and flushed. Aria was a conundrum, no doubt about it, and saying she was sending ‘mixed signals’ was a dire understatement.

But it was over now, as far as I knew. At the end of the day, or night I guess, it was still a one-night stand. A really good one, sure, but that’s all it was.

As I turned on my heel to walk down the cool passage, trying my best to use my fingers to tame the mess of tangles my red and gold hair had become, I had to wonder about that.

Aria Blaze, Lady Blaze, star of the Last Note Lounge, and Siren…

What the hell was I doing?

No, I decided, Aria had the right idea. A one night stand: mutually fun sex that was good for both of us, and that was all it was. No need to make it more complicated than it had to be, and no need to read into something that wasn’t there.

I was just overthinking things. What had happened had happened and it was fun, but it was over.

Right?

The computer lab at CCU was dimly lit, which made sense since only half the lights were on. It was close to nine at night and the lab was almost empty but for two students, myself being one of them, who were burning the midnight oil on projects.

I leaned back from the computer I was at, rubbing at my eyes which were starting to hurt from staring at the screen for hours on end.

My stomach gurgled, reminding me that I hadn’t had dinner yet either.

“You heading out soon?”

I looked up and shot a grin at Flash Sentry, who was standing up from his own desk.

He wasn’t majoring in the computer sciences like Twilight and I but he still took a couple of the classes to satisfy some of his grad requirements. He reasoned that it wasn’t any worse than any of the other courses he could’ve taken and that, at the very least, he and I could hang out and if he started falling behind I could give him a hand.

He was right, too, on both accounts, and I did help him. Flash was always a fast learner, though, and I knew him well enough to know how to teach him something. We’d been friends, or at least known one another, for almost a decade by this point so I should hope that would be the case anyway.

“Nah,” I replied with a tired smile, “I’m still running simulations on my model, I can get a few dozen more in before I call it a night.”

“Have you eaten?” Flash asked wryly, raising an eyebrow, and I gave him an uneasy sort of smirk.

“Ehhhh, not as such,” I answered, and he rolled his eyes.

“C’mon, Sunset, this isn’t healthy,” Flash admonished me. It was friendly but I could hear the genuine concern behind his voice. “A girl's gotta eat.”

I felt my stomach drop at his words. Something about them tickled my memory.

Aria.

It had been a week, precisely, since the night at the lounge, and I hadn’t heard from her. Not that I had made any attempt to contact her myself.

It was a one night stand, I reminded myself, and nothing else. I wasn’t her girlfriend and she wasn’t mine.

“Sunset?” Flash’s voice called me out of my mental wanderings and I looked up.

I gave him what I hoped was a nonchalant grin. “Sorry, spaced out, I’ll get something from the machines in the hall, okay? Or failing that I'll get something delivered, I promise.”

Flash looked for a moment like he wanted to say something more, but then shook his head and nodded.

“Okay,” he said finally, before giving me the evil eye, “I’ll be checking, though, alright? Worse comes to worst just swing by our place, Ditzy always makes tons of food and our fridge is leftover central.”

“Sure thing,” I said, and I was honestly tempted.

Ditzy Doo was a phenomenal cook and if she’d been gay I would’ve snapped her up in a heartbeat on that alone.

But she and Flash had been dating since senior year, living together for the past three years, and just a few months ago the big dolt had actually worked up the courage to propose to her.

A tiny part of me was jealous, but I was absolutely happy for her and Flash. They worked together so well. They were both patient, gentle creatures, and all you had to do was be in the room with them for a minute to see how much they loved each other.

A match made in Elysium, I guess.

I suppressed a sigh.

“Nice shirt, by the way,” Flash said with a grin.

I glanced down and grimaced. It was Aria’s crop top, although I had another shirt under it to make wearing it a little less.. hoeish. It still smelled like her, probably because I hadn’t washed it yet, and it occurred to me that I should probably return it at some point.

Maybe she and I could talk then.

“Thanks,” I replied with a smirk, “it’s a loaner, though. Anyways you should haul off, I’m sure Ditzy is waiting for you.”

“Yeah, I got a text from her a minute ago, actually,” Flash said, blushing as he smiled like a dope. “See you tomorrow?”

“Probably,” I said with a shrug. “Now go home to your wife.”

Flash’s blush deepened. “We’re not married yet.”

“You two have been married since senior year,” I said with a laugh. “You just didn’t know it. You remember the winter gala? When Trixie hit on you?”

“Uh, vaguely?” Flash replied with a shrug. “Why?”

“Because before then,” I answered with a smirk, “I had never seen Ditzy growl at someone.”

Flash blinked in surprise. “She didn’t… wait, did she?”

“Ditzy has had her flag planted firmly on your ass for years you dummy,” I said, leaning my chin on my fist. “Now shoo, go home.”

He chuckled and nodded. “Sure thing, stay safe, Shimmer.”

“You too, Sentry,” I shot back before turning back to my computer.

I had barely managed to start up the next cycle of simulations before I heard shouting from out in the hallways, and I furrowed my brow in concern. As I got up from my desk the shouting grew louder, and I heard the tail end of an angry female voice followed by the familiar tone of Flash capitulating.

I frowned, reflecting on how Ditzy and I really needed to teach that boy how to grow a spine one of these days.

Flash poked his head back into the lab sheepishly.

“Hey, uh, Sunset?” Flash began, a concerned look on his face.

“Y~es?” I said, raising an eyebrow.

“Did uh,” Flash coughed and cleared his throat, “did you like, piss off a stripper or something? Because there’s a chick out here rocking some strong ‘angry hoe’ energy, and she’s on the warpath for you.”

My mouth went dry, but before I could respond Flash was shoved roughly out of the way as a familiar shape shouldered past him.

She was wearing her punky lime green ball cap, pulled low to cover her face, and a top that amounted to a collection of fabric strings that creatively covered her breasts. Her jacket was the black denim one from her performance, badged up like before, and, thankfully, her lower half was now clad in what I supposed passed for a miniskirt if one had a generous definition of ‘skirt’ and a conservative definition of ‘belt’.

Aria Blaze glowered at me from under her cap, and I realised there were bags beneath her furious eyes, and she looked as if she hadn’t slept in a while.

Without looking away from me, she pointed at the door and said. “Out!”

“W-What?” I stammered, “I-”

“Not you, Shimmer,” Aria hissed. “Him.” She pointed at Flash. “Get. Out.”

Flash shot me a look that told me he desperately did not want to get in the middle of whatever this was but that he would if I needed him to.

Bless his heart.

“It’s okay,” I said, looking over at him and nodding. “I’m fine, go home Flash.”

“Uh, sure thing,” Flash said, looking relieved. “Seeya!”

“And lock the door behind you!” Aria snapped through gritted teeth.

There was a dull scrabbling as the door cracked open again, followed by the sound of a lock clicking as he fumbled for the inner latch, then Flash was gone. All the better, I supposed, I don’t know what I had done to piss Aria off but apparently I had and it was better not to catch Flash in the fallout.

“You were lucky he didn’t recognize you,” I said, looking back at her. “I know it’s been years but still…”

Aria didn’t respond.

She was breathing hard and fast, and her shoulders were hunched and tense with anger as she slowly raised a hand, gripped the bill of her cap, and ripped it off of her head to glare up at me with incandescent fury.

“What,” she began, “the FUCK, Shimmer!?”

I worked my jaw wordlessly in confusion. Aria was, by default, gorgeous, but even I had to admit she looked pretty rough if only be her standards. She was pale and her face had a pinched look to it like she was in pain. There was a slightly sallow and sunken look to her eyes that I hadn’t fully been able to appreciate with her face mostly covered by her cap.

“Aria? Are you okay?” I asked, suddenly worried. “You look-”

“-like I haven’t eaten in a week?!” Aria spat, her voice cracking with a hint of hysteria. “Funny how that works, isn’t it?”

“What?!” I felt like I was missing something crucial as Aria built up steam.

“Where the fuck have you been?” Aria said angrily. “I figured you’d lay low for a day or two but ghosting me? Are you trying to starve me?”

“I don’t… what?!” I was confused, but Aria didn’t give me any answers, nor any opportunity to ask for them.

Aria’s denim jacket hit the floor the same instant she hit me, her arms wrapping around me with desperate strength and her long, dancer’s legs locking around my waist as she latched onto me, her lips sealing against mine.

I kissed back as her scent was suddenly all around me. I wanted answers, yeah, but at the moment all I really wanted was Aria. Our tongues met and tangled, and we both moaned softly against one another. My arms were around her, although I can’t really account for when that had happened, and my hands were gripping her incredibly nice ass under her skirt, supporting her against me.

No seriously, I cannot stress hard enough how nice her ass was to get a grip on.

I shivered as I realised just how good this felt. How good she felt.

Aria’s hands snaked up my neck to tangle into my mane of red and gold as she kissed me with rabid desperation, as if she were starving and parched at the same time and I was her only source of sustenance.

We separated eventually, both of our faces flushed as I leaned my forehead against hers, the tips of our noses touching faintly, and I stared into her eyes, which were half-closed in a kind of dazed satisfaction.

They were mesmerising, and not in the magical sense. More like in the romantic, goopy sense that made me just want to keep looking until the world fell away.

Then I realised something else.

Aria was looking significantly better than she had been a moment ago.

“Aria?” I pulled away as I said her name, looking up and down her body.

She wasn’t pale or drawn anymore, and if anything she looked revitalized like she’d just had a full night's rest and a good meal.

A meal.

My eyes narrowed into a glare and I pushed her off of me. Aria stumbled, barely catching herself before glaring back up at me.

“Hey! What the hell, Shimmer?” Aria’s mouth twisted in an angry snarl. “What’s your problem?”

“My problem,” I snapped, meeting her angry glare with a furious one of my own that actually put her back a step, “is that I am not your fucking refrigerator! Nor am I your goddamn snack bar!”

Aria flinched and had the good grace to look ashamed.

“What’s the big deal?!” Aria shot back, rallying her glare and stepping up to me, “You want me, I want you, so what’s the problem here?!”

“I am not your takeout, is the problem!” I hissed angrily, pushing her away. “You treat me like fast food, not a person, and I don’t have to fucking take that!”

Aria looked like she was on a razor's edge, practically vibrating in place as her wide, amethyst eyes burned.

“Fast food?” Aria breathed the words in disbelief, chuckling in a low, hollow voice, “did you just compare yourself to fast food?”

Of all the things I’d expected her to latch onto that hadn’t been it, and I raised an eyebrow.

“Uh… I…” I began, but Aria closed the distance again and gripped me by the collar of the shirt.

“Imagine for a second,” Aria began, a weak, slightly mad cackle coloring her words, “that in your entire life all you’d ever eaten was various flavors of spam,” she practically spat the word out at me, and I could feel her shaking, “and had nothing but stagnant tap water to wash it down.”

“Uh, okay,” I said, nodding along with her. There was a feverish light in her eyes that had me caught in place. “That, uh, that sounds awful, but I guess I’m following you.”

“Now imagine that, one evening, you go down to the dinner table,” Aria continued, her voice taking on a shiver of delight, “and you expect, oh, maybe tonight a slightly more exotic flavor of spam… except when you get there, instead of spam, you find yourself faced with a fucking filet mignon and a glass of eighteen-eighty-six Syrah.”

I licked my lips, swallowing a little as I did, and nodded. “So I’m-”

“I can’t eat anymore, Shimmer!” Aria said the words like they were being dragged out of her as she shook me by my collar. “Not any of that… that garbage that my sisters eat! I just can't! I’m not just being dramatic about this, Red, when you didn’t come back after five days I was hungry enough to try and I almost threw it all up!”

I winced. “That sounds pretty bad.”

“You have no idea,” Aria hissed, dropping her grip on me and sagging like the weight of the world had just settled over her shoulders. “When a Siren gets… ugh, food poisoning, for lack of a better term, and ‘throw up’ we make psychic backwash, and it’s exactly as disgusting and toxic as it sounds.”

“Alright, fair enough, so what are you saying then?” I asked quietly. “You need me?”

I could practically hear Aria gritting her teeth, grinding them together as she glared furiously at the ground.

“Don’t ask me to beg, Shimmer,” Aria spat, never raising her head. “I’ll starve to death before I beg for anything from anyone, understand? Especially from you... I will never-”

I didn’t let her finish.

Grabbing Aria by what passed for the collar of her ‘shirt’, I jerked her up til she was standing to her full five foot and two.

Then she was in my arms, and I was kissing her. I felt her body tense like corded wire, then melt and relax against me as I ran my hands over her back, traveling over the firm curves of muscle on either side of her spine down to the small dimples lower down.

Aria moaned softly as her hands slid under my shirt, her fingers teasing and touching with a hungry ache I could practically feel.

“Lay back,” Aria whispered, her voice husky with desire as she pressed her lips to my collar and up my neck, “just relax…”

I sighed out my relief as she pushed me back a little until I was leaning heavily against the desk. Maybe I was just a meal to Aria, but if I was being honest with myself... was I treating her as anything more than that to me? Wasn't I just trying to satisfy my own libido here? How did that make me any different from her, really?

'I want you and you want me' Aria had said... and she was right.

I did want her. Might as well lean into it.

That was when I felt, and heard, her unzip my jeans and pull at them with practiced hands. The smooth denim slid down around my thighs, and I blinked in shock as I suddenly realized what was happening and looked down to lodge a protest.

Instead, I felt my breath lodge like a stone in my throat.

Aria was on her knees, nudging my panties aside with her nose, her tongue trailed out to tease me in the best possible way. I shivered and moaned as she pressed her lips to me and began licking and sucking with skill and care.

“Ah-Aria~,” I cried out softly, burying my hands in her hair. “C-c'mon... w-we can’t… not here.”

She dragged her tongue in a single long stroke up to my clit and then grinned up at me from between my legs.

“Why not?” Aria teased, before burying her face back into my folds.

“S-shit, Aria~, someone could come in!” I said breathlessly, my legs squirming around her as she tongued me relentlessly. “They could see-”

“Let them,” Aria replied, panting, “maybe they’ll learn something.”

The air was filled with the lewd sounds of what Aria was doing to me, and I didn’t have any more protests left in me. My legs shuddered and shivered, restricted by the jeans that were pulled halfway down them. My breath came out in stiff, ragged gasps as I gripped the edges of the deck helplessly, and Aria’s hands slid over my thighs and around to my ass, kneading and squeezing wherever they traveled.

“Oh fuck,” I spat, my whole body clenching up, “A-A-ARIA~!”

I drenched her mouth and chin, but Aria never moved away, never stopped her dedicated licking as my thighs clamped around her head and my fingers dug into her hair, trying to force the source of that deafening pleasure closer.

Then it passed like an ocean storm, and I sagged, my legs wobbled and before I knew it I was sliding down to the floor.

I didn’t make it there. Aria caught me in her arms which I vaguely noted were surprisingly strong for her size. Since I wasn’t busy holding myself up, I did have time to recognise what a hot mess I was.

My hair was matted down with sweat and my inner shirt clung to my skin. My jeans were still halfway down my legs, and my panties were skewed to the side where they’d been unceremoniously pushed out of the way.

And Aria was cradling me in her arms where she knelt.

That feeling was back, the same feeling I'd had when we’d been lying in bed that morning when I’d left the lounge... when we had been laying in bed together, curled up, and she had put her hands over my cheeks so delicately.

Aria was holding onto me like I was the most delicate, most precious thing in the world.

I glanced up, my eyes half-lidded with a sudden weariness, and I was abruptly made aware that I hadn’t eaten in almost eight hours by a loud gurgling from my stomach.

I flushed with embarrassment as I sat up using Aria’s surprisingly firm arms for leverage.

She let me, and her eyes followed me like two amethyst stars set into fields of clear white.

“You’re hungry,” Aria said simply.

I swallowed, wetting my throat and tongue again, and nodded.

“I uh, I may have missed dinner,” I admitted with a sheepish smile. “And I may or may not have had a large mocha frappuchino for lunch.”

Aria narrowed her eyes, then began to speak, but was interrupted by a faint clicking sound followed by a shocked and startled ‘EEP’.

We both glanced over to see Roseluck having stopped after stepping halfway into the lab, one outstretched hand holding the key to the door, and her eyes as wide as dinner plates staring at us.

“I’ll uh… I’ll just use lab two,” she stammered, and then vanished back into the hallway.

“Cool,” I muttered a little sullenly, “that’s gonna be all over campus by tomorrow.”

Aria didn’t say anything, she just held onto me and buried her face against my neck. She didn’t nip or bite, or anything else, she just… rested there, and I found I didn’t mind it in the slightest.

It felt… right.

Slowly, I felt Aria fix my pants situation until I was decent, and then help me to my feet. My head swam… Flash had been right, I really needed to eat something.

“I’m taking you back to your dorm,” Aria said pulling her hat back on and getting under my arm.

I leaned on her for support, a little more than I’m comfortable admitting actually. Memo to me: do not have sex on an empty stomach.

Despite my brain being mostly checked out, I had enough forethought to close down the sim I’d started and retrieve my things, shutting down the computer rather than leaving my student profile up.

Then we left, me leaning on Aria, and my nose filled with the scent of lavender and mint.