5 comments/ 42211 views/ 14 favorites Alys in Soapland By: Case21 Based on a true fantasy Alys was not a tourist in Japan. She was not a stranger stumbling down the rabbit hole into a land of bizarre customs and nonsensical sounds. No burbling jabberwocks bothered Alys: she spoke enough Japanese for small-talk, read enough kanji to skim a newspaper. She had her favourite brands and bands, her network of contacts in language schools and universities where she taught, her friends foreign and domestic. She had lived in Tokyo on and off for the past three years, and she was used to it by this time. It's true that she never quite fit in. Her porcelain-doll skin, light hair, and pale eyes, clear as still water reflecting the sky, still drew second glances at professional events. Whenever she spoke to strangers at parties, they exclaimed, "Nihongo ga o-jouzu desu ne!" That well-meant, backhanded compliment: "You're so good at Japanese!" So good, for someone who shouldn't be able to speak. Alys could speak quite well, thank you. And yet. There was still one thing she could never manage to explain: her deepest, most unspeakable desire. Alys wanted to be touched. She didn't want a boyfriend. The thought simply didn't appeal to her. She wasn't even sure she wanted to have sex, so she didn't for the most part. But at the same time, something deep under her cold skin craved contact, the heat of friction, skin on skin. She wanted a purely sensual experience, now soft, now sharp, trembling on the edge of her endurance. She tried to give it to herself with her own strong, sensitive hands, but however good it felt there was always some element of surprise lacking. She didn't want to touch herself: she wanted to be touched, passive tense. She just didn't know where to find that, when all the usual options for finding partners, the bars and parties and hook-ups through friends, only made her feel colder than ever. 'Where is the looking-glass,' she often thought, 'that leads to my Wonderland?' In fact, the door to Alys' Wonderland, with all the fascinations and humiliations it held, was mirrored, and that was what caught her attention. It was a cold day in late November, and Alys was passing through a residential street in Ikebukuro on her way to visit a friend. She had seen enough outrageous love hotels and seedy "Soapland" bath-house massage parlours by now to ignore even the strangest of them, but this one was strange in a different way. It was understated with an accent, like someone muttering to herself in her third language. There was dark mirrored glass in the heavily-framed door, so that Alys could see herself painted head-to-toe in dim tones as she looked from across the street. But the rest of the windows were papered over, making it hard to tell if the place was discreet or if it was actually closed down. And the sign wasn't in Japanese or in English. Instead it had a simple line-image of soap-bubble floating over a map. Soap + land. A soapland. But, somehow, not your usual soapland. Intrigued, Alys drifted across the street. She looked around the shop-front for a sign with the hours, services, and prices. She would never really go to a soapland, she knew that. But she was curious, and the lack of hype around the place made her curiouser and curiouser... The door opened. Two men came out, salarymen in identical suits, talking so fast they were fishtailing into each others' sentences. Still clearly excited about whatever had happened indoors, they brushed right past her in a gust of exclamations. And then, they were gone. But behind them: an open door. Alys peered in. It was very dim. She took a step inside to see better. Two steps, three. Suddenly, she came face to face with...was it her reflection? It was a woman, pale and dressed in a long white coat just like she was. But this woman was like her negative image. She had the same long, straight hair as Alys, but dark and glossy as polished stone; the same directly-staring eyes, but deep as pools of ink. No, it wasn't a mirror, it was another woman, one of the Soapland girls in a white robe, looking at her without a bow, without a flicker. The other woman matched her gaze and posture so perfectly that Alys felt she herself was the reflection, and this woman the powerful, undeniable reality. A charge ran through her entire body. Her skin began to tingle as if she had been touched lightly on the back of her neck. And still their gazes were locked. Without her even realizing it, Alys' silent voice began to hum. "Aah...ano...?" she quavered, turning her gasp into the soft Japanese sound of questioning. The woman tilted her glossy head very slightly. She was listening. "Excuse me, but could you tell me about this Soapland, please? What is this place?" Alys finally managed in her most polite language. At the sound of her voice, the sliding doors at the back of the reception area clapped open. A man in a dark jacket with a managerial air came bustling through. Seeing him, the soapland woman bowed deeply, said something in a low, liquid voice, and vanished around back. The man took one look at Alys, then installed himself deliberately behind his desk before giving her the most cursory of greetings. "Sorry, but we don't allow gaijin here." He said curtly. Alys was so affronted that she began to insist despite herself. "Excuse me, but I can speak Japanese perfectly well. I can pay in yen. Why does it make a difference if I'm a foreigner?" The manager only sniffed. "We don't allow women here, either. Our girls aren't like that." His voice held such contempt that Alys's cheeks began to burn. The man at the desk gave a patronizing smile. "I must ask you to leave now. A lady shouldn't be in here." "Well, good riddance!" Alys spat in English, unable to come up with a translation. She stalked out. The cold air hit her like a slap in the face, making her blink hard. In that moment, she felt someone seize her arm and pull her into the tight, dark crevice of an alleyway next to the shop. It was Her. "Do you want to learn about Soapland?" The woman with hair like stone asked. Alys was pinned by her eyes. "Yes," she whispered. "Then come back tonight after the shop closes at midnight. Come alone. Wear white. Understood?" "Yes, but—" The woman's black fringe flicked like a fishtail as she turned, and with that she vanished right through the wall. Alys gaped. She felt where the woman had disappeared until her fingernails found the edge of an inset door, perfectly flush with the wall. 'What a strange building,' Alys thought. 'What a strange woman.' And then it all hit her. Her stomach went watery with sudden fear. What had she just agreed to do? The very thought of coming back here in the dead of night on some unknown woman's say-so was insane. But at the same time, she knew she couldn't back down. She was driven by curiosity. And more: she was driven by her unspeakable desire. She knew she would come back at midnight. The entire day, Alys could barely focus on anything else, so consumed was she by the prospect of what was to happen. She visited her friend in Ikebukuro, but the conversation that would have occupied her fully on a normal day seemed as dull and desultory as the wan sun behind clouds when compared to the activity humming through her nerves. When she went home to change, Alys was shocked to discover that her little black panties were streaked with white traces: fluid evidence of her excitement. But when did she get that wet? Was it in the Soapland? Or was it in the alleyway, when the woman had gripped her arm, held her face to face so close their breasts were nearly touching, and made her promise to come? "Yes," Alys whispered aloud to her mirror. "I said yes." At that, she became intensely aware of the tender flesh between her legs. How hot and slippery it was! She could see her body squirming in the glass before her. She couldn't believe this. She didn't even know what was going to happen. It was... A surprise. Yes. What would happen to her next was just what she wanted, a surprise. She had only one clue about how to handle it: wear white. So, not taking any chances, Alys changed completely. She put on her white panties and bra, a white blouse, and a knee-length eyelet lace skirt with a cotton lining. It was too cold out for a short lace-and-cotton skirt, really, but that was the only all-white bottom she had. Luckily, she also had the long white wool coat she'd been wearing earlier. On her feet, she wore her ivory heels –a shade off, but the best she could manage. Dressed all in white, she felt she would stand out like a neon light in the darkness, especially skulking around a soapland in Ikebukuro alone after hours. But she had to know. And so she had to go out dressed like this, however self-conscious it made her feel. Taking a deep breath, Alys stepped out the door. It was fifteen minutes after midnight when Alys found herself standing once again in front of the Soapland. She had arrived at the station on time, but she had trouble finding the place again, since the street seemed transformed after dark, split into a chequerboard of squares where lights shone and didn't shine. The Soapland was in a dark patch, its already-unassuming front melted away by shadows. It was only by spotting the flash of her own coat in the mirrored door that she finally found it again. The front door, however, was locked. She couldn't see inside at all. She didn't dare to knock. She looked at her pocket watch, now reading 12:18, and fretted. Perhaps the woman got fed up with waiting and went home? Alys bit her lip, berating herself for not leaving earlier. Minutes passed, and still nothing happened. Head down, she stepped back from the door to go home. A few steps to the left— "Mmmph!" she cried suddenly. Someone in the alley put an arm around her throat, a hand over her mouth, and dragged her almost off her feet into the shaft's narrow mouth. She felt her throat gripped tight from behind in a grasp powerful enough to set her head spinning. But she still had enough breath to smell, and the hand against her face was sweet as lavender, dark as musk. The body against hers was soft. A voice whispered hot and moist on her earlobe. "Little Miss Customer, you are late." The hand slipped off of her mouth. "I'm sorry...I have no excuse..." Alys gasped her apology. Ducking her head in a reflexive bow, she could see a lock of long black hair spilt over her own shoulder, running like a river down a snowy hill. "Perhaps you don't wish to learn about the Soapland after all?" The woman queried. "Yes, yes, please, Miss, I do. I have to know." The alleyway was so tight that the woman did not even have to let go of Alys to reach out one arm and touch the wall where it opened the hidden doorway. She put a hand on the back of Alys' neck and guided her into the darkness. As she drove Alys bodily forward, she spoke softly, saying, "If you truly wish to know about this place, I will show you. But--" here she stopped and turned Alys around to face her "--you have to do exactly what I tell you. Normally I serve my guests and do what they wish, but this isn't a normal soapland visit. This is something special I'm doing after hours. And so, we do it my way. Is that clear?" "Unn, yes, but..." "But?" The woman's eyes bored into her. Alys' voice, to her shame, came out a tiny whimper as she asked, "What...what are you going to do to me?" "That you will find out, if you consent now. So?" Alys stopped and weighed the moment. Her body ached with desire. She couldn't deny that she still wanted whatever it was this woman was offering. And so she nodded decisively. "Yes, I agree to your terms. I can give you my seal if you need it." "No, I'll take something more precious than that. I'll take your word. What is your name?" "Alys." "Arisu," The woman smiled as she gave Alys' name its Japanese inflection, the soft whispering 'u' at the end barely audible. "Arisu, a little White Pawn come to visit my Wonderland. Then I must be the White Queen." Alys blinked, noticing for the first time in the dimness that the woman was still wearing her white robe, the uniform of this Soapland, apparently. But she had on over it an elaborate black-and-white check sash, and now even the material of the robe seemed to shine like wet silk. "If you have any serious problems, call me Eiko and tell me. Otherwise, you may address me as 'Ojou-sama'...'My Lady,'" said the woman, adding the last in English. Her diction on the 'L' was good enough that Alys looked at her in surprise. "Eyes down, pawn," the Lady snapped. Alys obeyed without a second thought. She stood completely still in the dark hallway with her head bowed, eyes down. When the Lady pulled off her jacket, she compliantly held her arms back. It took a few seconds before she recalled that since she hadn't brought a purse everything she had with her –watch, cash, phone, ID, Suica train pass– was in the pockets of that coat. She literally couldn't leave without it. Her head jerked up again involuntarily, and she began to say "Wait—" At that, the Lady pushed her head back down, hard enough that Alys' shoulders caved and she stumbled to her knees. "You gave your word. We do this my way." "Yes...my Lady." And so Alys let the woman take her coat away. It seemed she knelt in the dark hallway for an eternity, listening for her Lady's footsteps. But the woman must have been trained in walking quietly, because Alys didn't hear a thing until a hand took her by the hair at her nape and pulled her sharply up. "Come along now." "Ah! Yes, My Lady!" Alys yelped, eyes watering at the pain. The woman let go of her hair and rubbed her fingers together. "Your hair is oily. Did you not shower today, pawn?" "No, not today, My Lady. I didn't have a chance." The Lady made a disapproving sound. "Unclean. You can't enter the Soapland baths like this." Alys bowed her head in embarrassed agreement. She followed the Lady without another word. Next they entered a room where Alys assumed the Lady took her clients. There were tatami mats covering the raised floor at the entrance, and a small shoe-cupboard where Alys placed her heels before stepping up barefooted into the room. But beyond that, the entire floor was tiled in waterproof black and white squares. A large bathtub was sunk into the floor, already full to the brim with steaming water. Along the wall were various shower attachments, massage tables, and bath stools. Alys looked around for a discreet place to change. She didn't see any. "You undress here, where I can see you, pawn," the Lady said. "I want to make sure you've followed my instructions to the letter. Are you dressed all in white? Everything?" Mortified, Alys nodded. "Show me. Take off your skirt and blouse. Slowly." A button at a time, Alys undid her frilled blouse-front. She started from the top, but got shy as she approached the middle, and skipped down to undo the buttons from the bottom up. The Lady seemed amused and let her do it. She seemed even more pleased, however, when Alys finally opened the middle buttons to show her unpadded white bra, with a modest little ribbon bow between the breasts. "Such an innocent girl," the Lady murmured. She gestured for Alys to take the shirt fully off. Alys did, slipping it slowly over her shoulders. She folded it neatly, and put it in a basket indicated by the Lady. "Next, your skirt," the Lady directed. Alys could not even spare herself and hide until the last minute this time: she had to pull the skirt directly down over her matching white panties, baring herself from the start. Looking down, she was horrified to see that the thin, silky fabric showed a damp stain, and had become semi-transparent where it tucked into her wet folds. "You like doing this?" the Lady taunted, eyeing Alys' cleft pointedly. Alys nodded. "Answer me properly, pawn, in full sentences. Does it make you excited, to bare yourself like this to me?" Alys blushed furiously. But still, she said, "Yes, My Lady, it makes me so, so excited." "How dirty. You do need to be cleaned up. Come over here." Alys walked over, feeling the tiles smooth under her bare feet, a sensation that made her feel all the more naked. "Stand here, facing the wall. Put your hands up by your head and don't move." The Lady commanded. Alys did as she was told. Unable to help herself, she pressed her body to the wall, flexing gently against it. The cool touch of ceramics on her porcelain skin made her shiver. She waited for whatever was to come next. There were small sounds, tappings and slitherings, behind her, but nothing happened. She couldn't even tell how near or far the Lady was. How long had it been? Five minutes? Ten? The tension began to build. Alys grew more and more desperate to turn around and see what the situation was. What was the woman doing? What did this delay mean? What---? At that moment, a jet of cold water hit Alys hard, squarely in the centre of her back. She cried out in surprise, squirming automatically to get away, pressing her belly against the now-dripping tile. "Hold still!" the Lady snapped, and aimed the jet lower, trailing it down her spine and across the seat of her panties. The jet seemed to push against the fabric like a finger trying to force its way in. Even worse, Alys knew that the water must be making the white panties entirely transparent, revealing the curves and cleft of her ass. The Lady traced the jet of water along them as if confirming exactly what Alys was thinking. She played the water up Alys's back, against her bra, and soaked her long gold hair. Then, she spoke the words Alys dreaded yet needed to hear. "Keep your hands up and turn around." The jet lowered, water splashing noisily on the floor with a sound like mocking laughter. Alys turned, eyes closed, and braced herself. The Lady's spray hit her full in the face, making her splutter. It trailed quickly down her throat to aim at each breast. The light lining in her bra did very little to protect Alys' sensitive nipples. Within moments they were hard, aching with the cold water –and, Alys had to admit, with a strange, painful yet appealing arousal. Half-opening her eyes, she could see them, pointed pink buds blossoming through white silk. She moaned in shame and pleasure. Hearing her, the Lady laughed and aimed lower. The water on her belly pricked and tickled so much that she almost doubled up. But she summoned her willpower and forced herself to stay standing straight, even to arch into the spray. "Good, Arisu!" the Lady called. And with that, she directed the spray between Alys' legs. The pressure, already sharp on her belly, was overwhelming against her flushed, sensitive sex. Alys screamed despite herself and tried to close her legs, to twist her hips and escape the water's needles. Her hands clenched spasmodically. "I can't--I can't take it!" she wailed. And all of a sudden, the water stopped. "That," said the Lady "is quite enough...for a first rinse." Alys sagged, panting, against the wall. "If you are tired, come sit. Your bath stool is prepared." Relieved, Alys made her way over to the Lady. She had taken many a Japanese-style bath, and was familiar with the bath stool you sat on to wash before getting in. But this stool, it turned out, was not like any she'd ever seen. Instead of a solid seat, it had a wide gap down the middle, open nearly to the floor, so that while she could sit on the rims, it would leave her slit and ass completely bared. "May I know what this is, My Lady?" Alys asked in her most deferential polite language. "This is a 'sukebe isu,'" the Lady replied. "A 'pervert chair.' Perfectly suited for a perverse creature like yourself. Now, take off your panties and bra, and sit." Alys in Soapland "I, oh, hazukashii! It's so embarrassing!" "Sit!" "Yes, My Lady." Alys pulled at her panties. They were soaked, so she had to roll them down her thighs to get them off. The wet bra was equally a struggle to get off, though the Lady seemed to enjoy her efforts. Finally she sat, legs spread, completely exposed, on the chair. "Hands behind your back," the Lady ordered. Alys crossed her arms at the small of her back. In that pose, her back arched just slightly and her hips opened wider. She was so hot with embarrassment she fancied the water might steam off of her; but she remained dripping wet all the same. And she was about to get wetter. Taking a rough sea-sponge, the Lady applied a scented gel soap and began to scrub Alys' body. She worked hard at her breastbone and down to her belly, between her breasts. Next she moved around behind her to wash Alys' shoulders and back, instructing her on when and how to lift her arms. She scrubbed at Alys' face, then her legs and delicate feet, all the while leaving her most sensitive areas untouched. Only after her entire body was scrubbed clean did the Lady return to Alys' bared throat, and this time worked down from it to her breasts. Her nipples, already hard, chafed intolerably against the rough sponge. The Lady began to work them, round and round, moving out from each nipple to scour her entire breast, pumping hard enough to hurt. In response, Alys' hips quivered and thrust. "How many times must I tell you to stay still?" the Lady demanded, and gave Alys an up-handed smack on the back of her head. "I'm sorry, my Lady. You're just so skilled...I respond to..." "To being washed like a child?" "Yes," Alys blushed to admit. "And you want it here?" The sponge touched lightly, so very lightly, between her legs. "Oh, yes!" "Beg me for it." "Please, please, My Lady! Wash me down, wash me everywhere, even my...my private places. I need to be clean to enter Soapland. Please make me fit to enter your land!" "Better." With that the Lady pressed the sponge down hard and deep along the full length of her sex, starting from and returning to her flushed pink clit. She gave one, two, three strokes up and down, hard and slow as a ritual, that made Alys moan involuntarily with tingling pleasure. Then she moved into a brisk, hot, circular scrubbing motion around Alys' tight asshole, and up between her cheeks. She kept working, alternating strokes, slow to fast and back again, letting her fingertips brush and prod both holes until Alys was nearly frantic with her need for orgasm. But just as the tormented girl began to gasp hard on the edge of cresting, the Lady stopped and stood. "Now," she announced, "You may enter the baths." Alys rose on trembling legs, barely able to contain the force of her denied orgasm. The Lady was already striding imperiously ahead, dropping her billowing robe without an ounce of self-consciousness along the way. Alys followed. Unable to let such a beautiful thing lie on the damp floor, she fetched the Lady's robe, folded it, and placed it like sacred offering on a washstand near the bath's edge. "Good. Now, come here." The Lady said softly. Alys turned and looked. The woman who commanded her stood already thigh-deep in the water, her bearing proud and regal as any Queen's. Alys could not believe how long and sleek this woman looked –and yet, how very similar their bodies were. Her breasts, dewed with steam, were rather small, but high and firm. Her waist and hips were narrow yet curvy, slim yet maturely fleshy. They were so much like Alys' own that she found she was stroking her own body, feeling the voluptuous comparison in their curving waists. Her hands rose to caress her own breasts. "Did I say you could touch yourself, pawn?" The Lady snapped. But then, seeing the obvious adoration that guided Alys' hands, she added wryly, "Just wait, Arisu. Leave that to me." She beckoned. As if in a dream, Alys stepped forward into the fragrant bath. The water was hot as a steamy mountain onsen, but much clearer, so that she could see the Lady's lovely body, as the Lady could see hers. Where moments ago Alys had been shamed by her nakedness, now, suddenly, she was aroused and almost proud to display herself through the water's reflective ripple. Her body was mirrored and perfected by the Lady's so close to hers. After a long moment of gazing, however, the Lady reached over and brushed her hand over Alys' eyes, closing them. Her liquid voice, edged with irony, said, "You have to close your eyes, or you won't see anything." And then, the Lady's fingertips began to trail down Alys' cheek. She pressed her thumb slowly and forcefully against Alys' lips, prying open her mouth. Alys shuddered at the invasive yet compelling sensation of this woman's fingers, long and slick and hard, sliding one after the other into her mouth, against the full length of her flexing tongue. Unable to help herself, she licked and sucked them with blind passion. After a few moments of this, the Lady began to guide Alys by the throat with her free hand, holding the girl's fast-beating life in her grip. Never had Alys been so completely controlled. She could feel the Lady's hand on her flexing windpipe when she swallowed, and she almost yearned to be choked. But just as Alys pressed her throat forward, the hand dropped playfully, teasing, trailing around her collar bones and shoulders. The finger that was in her mouth also withdrew and trailed down. With both hands together, the Lady finally, finally began to stroke Alys's body full on, skin on slippery skin. It was like electricity in water: the being-touched she had always wanted and never been able to admit. "Mmm, please," she moaned, unable to tell what she was begging for. The Lady laughed at her and brought her hands up to cup Alys' breasts. She rubbed their tips with her palms and gave them a hard squeeze before continuing to stroke down Alys' quivering flanks and belly. The Lady paused with both hands on Alys' hips, holding her floating body down in a grip even more vividly hot and tactile underwater than in air. And then, behind the dark of her closed eyes, something inside of Alys finally let go: a wall that she had been hiding behind, a weight on her desire. Leaning her head back, she opened herself wide, and in that moment she felt as if she had surrendered not only her body, but her soul as well. She felt downcast, abased, and yet sublimely uplifted in her prostration. She slipped into her Wonderland: the place that unfolded her fantasy and held her suspended, at the mercy of the Lady she served. She wanted nothing but to please her Lady, and to feel that pleasure flowing into herself. "Lady," she whispered "How can I...I want to..." "You want to serve me?" "Yes! Oh yes, yes!" "Well then," the Lady's voice brimmed with intrigued pleasure. "Open your eyes and look at me." When Alys opened her eyes, she found that the Lady had dimmed the room's lights, not so much that Alys couldn't see, but enough to cast them in gauzy twilight. The Lady's stony hair and piercing eyes looked even darker in the wet haze, like open doors into dark rooms. "If you want to serve me, you need to show me a sign of your respect and devotion first. All you have to do, little pawn, is kiss me. Kiss me here." She touched her lips with one elegant finger. "And here." She touched her breasts, at the water's edge. "And here." She touched her sex, deep below the surface. And then she looked at Alys, confronting and challenging with her eyes. A dare. It was a dare. It was as if this woman knew that Alys had never been a good swimmer and hated the feeling of water getting in her nose, making her feel like drowning. Still, how could Alys back down from the challenge, if it would give her the chance to kiss this woman whose hands were still so intimately pressed against her skin? "Yes, My Lady," she breathed. "I'll try. I mean, I'll do it." Drawing nearer, she leaned forward and let her lips meet her Lady's. The kiss was chaste as worship at first, until the Lady opened her lips and parted Alys' own with her tongue. Their embrace grew deeper, more sensual. With a vibrant shiver of pleasure, Alys realized that as the Lady parted the lips of her mouth with her tongue, she had also parted the lips of Alys' cunt with her hand, and was sliding a finger up and down between them, intimating penetration without quite pushing in. Alys surged forward, kissing more deeply in a desperate attempt to draw the Lady's fingers further into her pulsing sex. "Ah, ah!" The Lady's lips –and, frustratingly, her fingers– pulled back. "Not yet. You're not finished yet." She withdrew and settled back, sliding down against the wall of the tub so that her nipples were under the water's silken surface. She opened her arms invitingly and said, "Continue. Drink me in, girl." Alys took a deep, shaky breath. Her arousal had her nearly panting already. Even on a good day she couldn't hold her breath for long, and now this? She tried to calm her breath for as long as she dared, until the Lady began to look impatient. "Yes, My Lady," Alys said, delaying one more moment. And then, taking a gulp of air, she ducked her face under the water. She closed her eyes at first, but she couldn't tell where she was going and didn't want to butt the Lady's chest rudely with her face. So she opened them enough to spot the lady's pert pink nipple, large as a lifetime. She pressed her closed lips to it in a gentle kiss. Suddenly, something came down on her head. The Lady's hand. She was holding Alys' face underwater. In the same movement, she pressed her chest out, encouraging Alys to open her mouth wider. Shocked, Alys jetted bubbles out of her nose. She let her tongue-tip tap the wet flesh being pressed to it, but she was out of air. She began to buck in protest, to panic-- She broke the surface, spluttering up into air that seemed very cold. "Why did you do that?!" Alys demanded angrily. "I could drown!" "You could," the Lady drawled. "If you wished. But." Her voice hardened. "Do you think I would like that very much? Do you think I want a useless dead pawn?" "No," Alys conceded. "I guess not." "Then put yourself in my hands. And put your lips where they belong." The words were harsh, but the caress the lady gave Alys then, down her centre line to the sweet, aching pearl of her clit, was firm and comforting and full of care. It was a touch that said, 'Don't worry, I have you in hand and you will be safe with me.' Alys arched into it, feeling her desire to please pulling her under like the suction of the tide. "Oh, yes, Mistress, My Lady," she breathed. The second time she went down, she was prepared for the Lady's hand on her head, holding her down. Though bubbles trickled one by one and detached with tiny pops from her nose and lips, she kept kissing and sucking the Lady's hardening nipple until her lust for air and her lust for pleasure together grew so intense she thought she would black out. When Alys broke the surface this time, the Lady drew her gasping head to her breast and cradled Alys there, rubbing her back until she could breathe freely again. "You are doing very well, Arisu," the Lady murmured. "One more test, now. The ultimate sign of your devotion." "Yes, my Lady." Alys nodded. She was shaking again. So far down to go...and then... But before she could frighten herself any more, Alys took another saving lungful of air and submerged herself hard and fast. She sank faster under the Lady's iron hands, which pushed and guided her into place. It took just seconds to get down there. Once she was down, however, time stretched itself out, expanded into slow fluid currents, and Alys stretched with them. There, in the dimness at the bottom, was the Lady's smooth, shaven sex. Alys crouched on her hands and knees on the tub's floor, letting the Lady hold her buoyant body down. Her legs were spread for balance, and she could feel the flow of water jets stroking her intimately. But she had to focus. She stretched her neck, bent her head down like a cat lapping milk, and strove to service her Lady. Her lips met soft flesh. She kissed deeply, then pressed her tongue up to her Lady's clit. A squirm of hips told Alys that the Lady, too, was most sensitive there. 'Of course,' she thought, 'of course. To please her I must become her, and yet still be so far below her. I am her reflection, mirror-bound, transformed, and oh my Queen, my Queen, I love it...' The Lady was moving against her. Alys' body moved in time. Held down, submerged, breathless, she nonetheless felt flooded anew with pleasure. She felt her arousal beginning to rise, her flexing hips stirring still water, stirring her up so, no, no, not yet--! Alys clenched all over, trying to stop the tide of an impending orgasm, and gulped a mouthful of water. She choked. She was sinking, drowning! In one great spasm, she threw off the hands on her back and thrust herself upright, her upper body out of the water. Without even thinking of it, she spat out the mouthful of water she had taken...directly into her dark-haired Lady's face. Immediately, even immersed in hot water, Alys felt the chill strike. She had just one thought. 'Oh no. What have I done?' The Lady was already standing up from the water, towering above Alys in cold, controlled anger. "This is how you show respect?" she asked. Her voice was a level blade aimed straight at Alys' heart. "No! Oh my Lady, please, my Queen, I didn't mean to, I was choking, it was an accident! Please, I'm so sorry, forgive me!" Alys clutched imploringly at the Lady's legs, but the woman withdrew, stepping out of the water. Hot tears ran down Alys' cheeks and dripped into the tub, miring her in a pool of regret. The Lady was quiet, letting Alys writhe. Then, finally, she beckoned Alys over to her and had her kneel. She raised Alys' face with one finger. She said in a softer tone, "I forgive you, Arisu. But still, there are consequences for what you've done. I was going to touch you all over, just the way you wanted, in reward for serving me. Now, before I do, I think you need one more lesson on how to treat a woman's body with respect. Since this is your first time with me, I will be generous and give you another chance to earn your marks. Understood?" "Yes, teach me how, please! Anything you ask!" Alys stammered. It was undignified, but she couldn't help herself. "Very good." The Lady turned and fetched a plastic tube filled with thick, clear gel. "This," she said "is nuru gel, a lubricant. In fact, it's a special blend of nuru gel and my own signature scent. Smell it." She held it before Alys' nose. Alys inhaled the heady scent of lavender and musk, the same intoxicating fragrance she'd smelt when the Lady pulled her into the alley. "Now open your mouth." Hesitating, Alys did it. She tilted her head back and held out her tongue. The Lady squeezed a cold dollop of gel onto it, then held Alys' jaw to make sure she didn't close her mouth and swallow. "You are going to massage this gel into my skin, Alys, and you are going to do it with your tongue. I warn you, do not swallow. The gel is technically non-toxic, but I don't want you to eat it. I want you to eat me and learn my scent, my flavour." Alys bent towards the Lady's cleft, thinking she wanted to be eaten out. But the Lady pushed her head down, saying, "Do be thorough, pawn. Start with my feet." Alys flushed with humiliation. Already, saliva was starting to brim in her open, gel-filled mouth and her throat flexed with the aching desire to swallow. But at the same time, she could feel her excitement rising again at the prospect of being so sensually obedient. Anything to get closer to this woman, to be touched by her. And so, Alys lowered her head and began to lap, using her tongue to spread the gel across the Lady's feet, between her toes and along her sensitive arch. Though her feet twitched once or twice, as if ticklish, the Lady also seemed to be enjoying what Alys did a great deal, and that made the effort worthwhile. She licked and licked until her tongue began to rasp on the Lady's wet flesh, empty of gel. The Lady noticed too, and tapped Alys' head with the bottle. "Kneel and open," she commanded lightly. Alys knelt like a begging dog and tilted her head back, opening her mouth to receive the gel on her tongue. How vulnerable and embarrassed it made her feel, and yet how perversely charged! Alys returned to the Lady's legs, tracing long lines up her calves, around and around her kneecaps. She circled, crawling around to lick the backs of her Lady's knees. Receiving more gel, she lapped around her Lady's thighs, her hips. She quailed at the thought of licking her ass, however. She paused to plead, "Must I? There?" "Of course you don't have to lick my ass...if you wish to be less than thorough. How committed are you to me, in this moment?" "Completely," Alys replied, distantly shocked at how much she meant it. "Then how thoroughly should you worship my body?" "Completely." Alys admitted. 'At least I know she's clean from that bath,' she added mentally to herself. And so, Alys received an extra-large dollop of gel on her tongue, and ran her tongue up the Lady's curving buttocks, and deep between them, against her delicately puckered flesh. She was rewarded to feel the Lady tense and quiver ever so slightly with pleasure. 'Mmm, she likes it!' Alys thought. Her body begin to tingle in shared sensation. After that, everywhere that Alys licked, she felt the strokes on her own flesh, through some irresistible sympathy of imagination. Caressing the Lady's firm belly made Alys' belly twitch. Licking her breasts and clavicles nearly brought Alys to a state of bliss. Even licking her Lady's armpits —which made her cringe in embarrassment—still generated a sweet, ticklish sensation under her own arms. When Alys licked her Lady's face, she looked into her eyes and saw approval, delight, and excitement there. Wonderland. They both knew that Alys was not finished. They both knew where she still had to go. "Open up, Arisu," the Lady murmured in command. Alys opened her mouth wide to receive more gel, and then bowed a final time. This time, she wouldn't fail. With slow, sensuous strokes, she lapped into the Lady's vagina, spreading gel in between her labia. The Lady spread her legs wider, letting Alys get down deep into her hole. Alys did all the things she wished would be done to herself. She pulled gently on the dark-haired woman's hood, then circled and tipped and teased her clit. She had never done this before, and yet she felt she knew just what to do as she responded to the slightest changes in the Lady's reactions –a tiny wavering breath, a minute shift in her hips– in order to guide and correct herself. 'So much alike in our pleasure,' she thought, 'Oh, love me like this, like I love you!' "Now," the Lady said thickly, "Now, Arisu, I want to see it. Do it to yourself. Show me what you've learned on your own body. Copy out the lesson." "Mmm?" Alys inquired, still lapping lavishly. Suddenly, the Lady pulled away. With masterful self-control, she was no longer even breathing too hard. She repeated, "Copy out the lesson in your own book. Do it to yourself, with your tongue and your hands. I want to see that you've understood it." Alys could barely believe what she was being asked to do. Perform her most private practices of self-pleasure, here, now? "Yes, my pawn." The Lady affirmed her unspoken thought. "Yes, my Lady," Alys echoed. "Stand and hold out your hands. You may use hands and tongue for this." "Thank you, my Lady." Alys cupped her hands and held them out to receive the gel. Then, slowly and sensually, swaying to her own rhythm, she began to slather the Lady's scent across her body, starting with her feet and moving slowly up her legs. Alys in Soapland 'I'm being marked,' she thought half-rationally. 'I'm being claimed. And she's using my own hands to do it. I'm giving myself to her with my own hands.' Alys accepted more gel and pressed in between her own curving buttocks with her fingers, shivering at the intensity of touching herself there under this woman's eyes. And that was only the beginning. She strained to coat her own back in gel. She used her tongue to smooth it across her arms, then stroked hands wet with gel and saliva across her high, firm breasts. Her nipples were already achingly erect, and she couldn't help but pinch and tweak them as she lubed herself up. The Lady smiled knowingly at that. Alys wondered if she could feel the sharp, delicious pain in her breasts too, the same way Alys had imagined the Lady's pleasure while servicing her. She thought so. It only made her more avid to stimulate herself, to share the sensation. She caressed her throat and cheeks, then let her hands slip smoothly down her breasts, her sides and belly, along her abdomen, and in one fluid stroke deep between her legs. "Aaah!" She gasped aloud. The Lady breathed in sharply with her. Driven by some urge to bare herself, Alys spread her labia and let her Lady see everything, her most private place glistening with more than gel. She let this woman, before today unknown to her, see her wetness, her body's desperation, her shameful, shameless desire. It was almost like a form of begging, to display herself so clearly. Like begging, and like surrender. Her voice burst from her before she could stop herself. "Mmmnn, my Lady, it feels so good! Please let me come! Please!" Alys moaned. She wanted to plunge her fingers into herself, to trail her own juices up and finger her clit until she came right there before her Lady. She curved her wrist, telegraphing the movement, letting her Lady see it... "Wait." Alys nearly screamed at yet another delay when she was so close to release. The Lady smiled and continued, "Say you'll work for me, and you'll have your sweet rewards. The payment for those in my service is jam every other day. You get jam tomorrow, and jam yesterday. Will you do it?" "Yes, whatever you want! Anything! Please, I need this!" Alys cried again. Some part of her foggy brain wondered what this strange woman meant by jam tomorrow and jam yesterday. Did that mean it would never come to "jam today," that she would never get the release she needed so badly? "Good, Arisu." The dark liquid voice cooed. Then, she added, "Well, there always has to be a first payment...so come this way." She seized Alys by the wrist, pulling her fingers from her sex. Alys gave a yelp that was half frustration and half eagerness, and picked up her feet to follow the Lady's swift steps. It was not many steps at all before the couple came to a little room attached to the main bathing room. In it was another sight Alys had never seen before. It seemed to be an inflatable air mattress, but with a rim. It was rubber. It was yellow. It was... "A life raft?" Alys asked aloud in puzzlement. "'Life raft'?" The Lady repeated in English. Alys realized she'd slipped out of Japanese, and tried to translate. "A...living boat? A ship of life? No, that's not right." But the Lady only laughed. "You will come alive here, and it will transport you. Yes, a ship of life, that's what it is." Alys couldn't tell if she was being mocked, and she didn't get much chance to think about it after that. Without warning, the Lady hooked her feet out from under her and dropped her backwards onto the mattress so hard it took her breath away. She felt her body, prone, helpless, and slippery against the warm rubber. The Lady used one elegant foot to spread Alys' legs and expose her completely. To add insult to injury, she slipped Alys' ankles into two straps on the bottom of the mattress. She raised Alys' arms too, and bound her wrists using matching straps at the top. Then she just stood and looked down at her for a long minute, savouring the sight. Alys felt at once powerless and incredibly desirable. She felt beautiful and valuable and vulnerable all at once. Again, that desperate, objectless plea escaped her lips: "Please...please, my Lady..." she panted in heat. The Lady spoke but one word. "Now." At that, she arced her own graceful body down and slid, surface to surface, across Alys' oversensitive, overstimulated skin. With her entire body, her breasts and her strong thighs, the Lady began to massage Alys. Or perhaps "massage" was not quite what she did. Rather than serving Alys, it was as if she were using Alys' bound limbs as props for her pleasure. She rubbed her sex against Alys' legs and hips in a way that made the bound girl feel used in the most erotic way possible. Alys spasmed as she thought, 'My entire body is her toy, her playground. I can't do anything more now, I can only submit and be used, and oh, feel it, feel it!' At what the Lady did next, even such wild and incoherent thoughts were completely driven from her mind by the sheer overload of sensation. As the stony-haired woman slipped her entire body up and down against Alys', she began to dig harder and arch deeper into Alys' centre line, flexing her hips in increasingly small and fast waves. As she did so, she slid something down between their slick bodies: the narrow, ridged plastic handle of something, curved and hooked in such a way that it caught at Alys' clit –and by the sound of it, at the Lady's too. Alys gave tiny cries, high and breathlessly faint as a skylark, over and over as the Lady rocked her hips, pressed down, and pulled up on the curving thing between them. The Lady's breasts ground exquisitely into her own. The handle caught between their legs hard enough to make them both jerk up, pulled by their twinned clits so deep that their lips met around the plastic. As one woman they cried out the pleasure of an orgasm denied so long as to become an unstoppable tide. Alys came hard once, then again, and a third time all in a row, each wave following and amplifying the last. She felt the Lady regain control of her body first, but to her mixed embarrassment and ecstasy, she was lost in such a state of release that all the Lady had to do was shift the baton minutely, and she would come again. All the pleasure she had hoarded for so many years was finally released, and it took her over completely. The Lady kept her going, wringing the pleasure out of her, building her up again and again after each orgasm, until finally she screamed one last time in total abandon and went totally, deliciously slack, cradled in the ship of life. Alys cried, afterwards. She had never experienced such a powerful release, and with her physical barriers broken down, there was nothing to hold back the torrent of her emotions. In fact, she couldn't have said whether she was crying or laughing: it was simply the flow of pure intensity. The Lady held her as she shook and stroked her, whispering countless times, "Oh, Arisu. Oh, my good girl, my Arisu." Alys lost all sense of time. She might have been held like that for twenty minutes or two hours. It didn't matter. All that mattered was her Lady's body, warm and softened with her own exhaustion, but steady as her even breath against Alys' tearful face. When Alys was more or less calm again, the Lady washed them both off with a soft cloth and a flexible showerhead set to a warm, gentle stream. She put on her slick white robe and toweled Alys down. Then, while Alys was still quite naked and fresh, the Lady took her hand. In a distinct, formal tone, she said "Alys. Welcome to Soapland." Very slightly, she bowed. Alys bowed back deeply. When Alys straightened again, the Lady turned and handed her something: the basket with her clothes. She didn't say a word, but Alys understood what the gesture meant. It was time to go back through the looking glass. Time to wake up. She opened her mouth to beg a few more minutes, but the other woman looked away, and Alys couldn't bear to break the delicate surface tension between joy and sadness. And so she pulled on her still-damp panties and bra, her skirt and blouse, in bittersweet silence. The Lady guided her, equally quiet, out through the convoluted hallways. Alys caught tantalizing glimpses of other rooms with other equipment: tables with bars inset into the ceiling above them, massager machines, stranger things that she couldn't identify. They flashed by like fragmented wisps of dream on the cusp of waking and were gone. At the door, the Lady handed Alys her white coat, her passport back into the outer world. Alys' trembling arm dipped under the weight of her phone and keys in the pockets. The everyday seemed to rush back into her world, recalling all the solitude she faced there. "No. I can't." She said, almost inaudibly. Then her voice rose. "I can't go back to that silence!" "Don't be silent, then." The Lady replied. "Sing. Sing about the Soapland. About touch. About me. Sing my praises. I'll hear them. And they will lead you back to me." "I can come back?" The Lady looked at her, head tilted, as if it were patently obvious. "Always. You belong here now. Because you belong to me." Then she opened the door. Alys stepped out with a glad heart into the chequered night.