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Of Love and Iron Ch. 00

By: WitchOfSwords



0. Prologue

A blonde woman sat on a bed, breath whistling out through her nose.

The metal circlets wrapped around her wrists clinked as she shifted, trying to get as comfortable as possible with her arms held as they were behind her back.

Taking her mind off the discomfort of the rubber ball stretching her jaw, she focused her mind on pondering what was delaying her partner in this metaphorical dance so much.

Despite the ballgag, she found herself grinning at the thought that Ai might be delaying on purpose to build up both of their tensions.

If that was her intentions, the increasing stickiness to her thighs suggested that she was on to something.

From the doorway, an Asian woman watched Rachel squirm with a grin.

Spit shone on the blonde's chin, seeping from the holes drilled through the rubber ball.

Aiko Kai, simply Ai to her friends, found her own body responding to the string of saliva that appeared.

Her eyes followed it as gravity trapped the spit, carrying it in several long lines to coat Rachel's chest.

As Rachel's nipples tightened and grew under the touch of the liquid, Ai's own hardened further in response.

The blonde's head turned to face her at the sound of an appreciative moan, her face turning scarlet under the steady gaze locked on her.

A low chuckle escaped Ai's throat as she moved into the room, their eyes never separating.

She put her hand down on Rachel's mid-back, watching as she shivered under the soft touch.

Practically humming, she began playing slow, sensuous circles with her palm and nails along her back.

The rings began growing in size, growing ever closer to the blonde's shapely backside.

When her hands brushed along the long, golden curtain of hair hanging over the top of Rachel's back, she deviated.

She leaned forward to make use of her other hand, beginning the circles again from her mid-back.

Meanwhile, she worked her fingers through hair, luxuriating in the silky waves.

Between the slow massage of both her back and her neck, Rachel quickly found herself moaning into the ballgag as she reveled in the touches.

Grinning, Ai leaned forward until her lips rested against her ear, the exploring hands never pausing for even a moment despite the awkward position.

She pursed her lips and released a small sigh, Rachel's eyes slamming shut as her warm breath played on the shell of the ear.

Her left hand finally reached the shapely curves of her housemate's ass, and she laughed at how wet her fingertips quickly became.

"Warmed up for me already?" she asked.

Rachel nodded vigorously, her ass pressing back to receive more contact with the warm hand.

Giggling, Ai's tongue flicked out and she began laving a burning trail from the shell of her ear down.

Rachel moaned more loudly as she started occasionally sucking on her neck, though it did nothing to her mouth's already slow progress along the blonde's jaw.

When Rachel turned her head towards her, Ai pulled back some and pointedly licked her lips.

The fiery look in her eyes brought a moan from Ai then, her lips curving into a seductive smirk.

Her right hand tightened in Rachel's mane, earning her yet another moan.

"Mmmm... You look absolutely de-licious," she quipped in a throaty moan of a voice.

Rachel's eyes snapped shut again as Ai leaned forward and sent her tongue out.

She licked a slow circle around the ballgag, leaving a coat of her own saliva on every inch of Rachel's lips.

"And you taste just as good," Ai finished with a giggle.

Rachel's blush grew darker, and she forced herself to stare into the Asian's gaze.

Ai's index and ring fingers extended and she pressed down on Rachel's pussy lips.

A groan left the blonde's throat as Ai worked slow, light circles along her labia.

As her fingers became increasingly wetter, the Asian Mistress felt her clit rise from its hood to brush against her nails.

The sensation overtook Rachel, and with a snap she released a loud, wet moan.

Stars filled her vision, and she mentally cursed as her thighs were soaked, her entire body shaking from the orgasm.

"Aww, you're shivering," Ai cooed.

Rachel groaned in agreement, her body trembling at the sensations rising from her crotch even as the first orgasm subsided.

Ai leaned forward so her lips were once again on neck, just below the blonde's ear.

"Mmmm... Are you going to cum for your Mistress?" she asked in a tone that, to Rachel, was sex given voice.

"Mhmm!" she moaned, the gag not nearly muffling her energetic response.

Giggling, Ai flicked her tongue against the ear again, finding the red that was spreading through it fascinating.

"Only good girls get to cum. Are you going to be a good girl, Rachel?" she asked in more of that voice.

The blonde energetically nodded in response, her ass wiggling against Ai's palm in encouragement.

Smiling, Ai moved her mouth, burning a trail down her back until, finally, her mouth found itself in the cleft of her thighs.

She made a humming sound at all the cum she found awaiting her, Rachel's thighs shining brightly with her juices.

"Do good girls cum without asking, bitch?" she asked with a sigh that greatly warred with her victorious smirk.

After a pause, Rachel tensed and shook her head.

Her heart raced even more at Ai's tone, the moniker almost exclusively reserved for when she'd disappointed her Mistress.

"And are you telling me there's all that cum on your ass, and you haven't orgasmed yet?" Ai asked pointedly.

Rachel shook her head again, her stomach tightening in anticipation for what came next.

"Any reason you didn't try to ask? Even with the gag, you could've gotten it through," the Asian chastised.

Another shake of her head, and with an even larger grin Ai tsked at her.

"Naughty, naughty pet, what should I do with you, hmm?"

Rachel remained frozen.

Her chest heaved as she quietly sucked air in.

Ai's hand began caressing along her cheeks, the supple skin quivering under her touch.

"Bad girls should be punished, don't you think?" she practically whispered.

Feeling like a lead ball was resting in her stomach, Rachel merely nodded in agreement.

Smiling, Ai unbuckled the leather strap holding up Rachel's ballgag and slipped it free.

"Do you think you've been a bad girl, pet?" she reiterated.

With her whole body practically glowing scarlet by that point, Rachel quickly worked her jaw loose once more.

"Yes, Mistress. I've been bad. Would you please punish me, Mistress?" she asked in a voice several octaves higher than normal.

"Who am I to not grant your wishes?" Ai quipped with a giggle.

Ai quickly grabbed her desk chair and took a seat, watching Rachel quiver silently.

Patting her knee, she gestured at her with the other hand.

Without a word, the blonde rose from the bed and moved to take her new position.

If possible, she blushed even more as she bent over Ai's knees, her nipples brushing against warm skin as she moved.

Her stomach came to rest on Ai's slightly parted thighs, and she allowed a small smile at feeling her Mistress's cum on the tightened flesh.

"And to think, we could both be enjoying ourselves right now," Ai lamented when she noticed it.

Her expression hardened somewhat, and she began running her hands along her ass more firmly.

"Count out loud."

"Yes, Mistress," the blonde mumbled automatically.

Without warning, Ai brought her hand back and quickly swung.

Smack!

A dull sting immediately radiated through Rachel's ass, though it subsided into tingling warmth quickly.

"One," she moaned.

As the flesh quivered from her light swat, Ai switched targets and spanked her right cheek next.

Rachel's eyes widened at the fresh sting.

"Two!" she gasped.

Ai swatted at the same spot again, putting more force behind the swing.

Just as Rachel finished counting, the next blow landed on the other half of her ass.

Warmth began working its way through her brain then, her ass glowing slightly red from the impacts.

The fifth swing brought with it the beginnings of tears to Rachel's gaze.

When Ai spanked her a sixth time, her hand came away with a similar sting.

More interestingly, it came away slightly moist.

Grinning from ear to ear, Ai tensed her hand into a flat edge before bringing it against her left cheek again with considerably more force.

"Six!" Rachel gasped, her ass quivering.

Bringing her arm back, Ai struck her hand across Rachel's backside, sending both cheeks vibrating from the impact.

When the blonde counted off, she repeated the action, moving in the opposite direction.

There was a shrieking quality to that count.

Ai smirked at seeing Rachel wiggle her ass invitingly in preparation for the next hit.

Taking careful aim, Ai smacked her hand flat against her crotch, her palm landing squarely on her labia.

"Nine!" Rachel screeched, tears definitely welling up then.

With the tenth swing, she landed her palm on the same area, and Rachel's back end gave an enormous throb as fiery pain and pleasure twined through her genitals.

She screamed that count, making Ai glad their apartment was mostly removed from neighbors.

Rachel gasped in large gulps of air, desperately hoping to cool the fire Ai's hand so easily stoked.

The other woman looked down to see a satisfactory pink glow on the firm flesh, her ass quivering as if still waiting for the next strike.

"Oh, please, more, Mistress! I'll be a good girl," Rachel suddenly begged, willing Ai's hand back to her.

Chuckling, Ai ran an index finger over the searing flesh, her nail bringing a low hiss from the blonde.

"Insatiable. I can't call that a punishment, if you so enjoyed it, can I?"

Groaning, Rachel desperately wished that she had the handcuff keys so she could speed up Ai's delay to her pleasure.

"Maybe if you hit harder?" she asked in a coy voice, hiding her grin in Ai's thigh.

The voice sent a thrill through the Mistress, her thighs suddenly much wetter.

"Do you think that would work, pet?"

Rachel jerkily nodded.

"On the bed, then," Ai commanded.

The blonde moved on shaky legs back to the bed.

She almost threw herself down on the sheets, seeming unsure of how much longer her wobbling knees would hold her up.

She turned her head to watch Ai move around the room, grabbing up the pants she'd discarded on the floor what seemed like an eternity ago.

She slid her belt free and took several practice swings through the air to get used to the feel of the leather.

Soon afterward, she moved behind Rachel and looped the belt in her hand to form a large U.

Rachel's heart sped up as her Mistress brought the leather to her ass, placing several small, stinging taps to the flesh.

"Keep up the count, pet," she ordered.

At Rachel's nod, she brought her hand back and swatted across both cheeks.

A keening noise sounded at the burning that immediately spread through her body.

Tears began to fall from the harsh sting, and the fire quickly became liquid heat in her loins.

"Eleven," Rachel moaned.

Ai crossed back with a flick of her wrist, bringing a repeat of the sound from Rachel's lips.

She counted as her pussy began twitching, her ass jerking back and forth in invitation.

With each of the next six spanks, Rachel became increasingly wet, and her moaning mouth was open in a perpetual O.

Ai smiled at the heady smell of the blonde's arousal filling the room and the clear shine to her thighs.

With every moan that passed her lips, Ai's own arousal increased.

She swung the belt upward, slapping it against Rachel's crotch.

She was met with a breathy screech that sounded vaguely like "nineteen," and Rachel's hands fisted in the bed sheets.

Her ass swung quickly back and forth, her breaths puffing out in small squeaks.

"Are you going to cum for your Mistress?" Ai asked, her lips suddenly scant centimeters from her ear again.

"Please," Rachel moaned, her eyes shut tight.

"Please what?" Ai pressed with a giggle.

"Oh! Please, Mistress! Can I please cum!?" the blonde begged.

Ai flicked her tongue against the ear before releasing another giggle.

"Good girl. I guess it worked, after all. I'll make you cum, all right."

Rachel could only moan as Ai licked down from her neck, working slowly towards her crotch.

The second Ai's tongue touched down on her clit, the blonde screamed and began violently shaking.

Ai lapped up the juices, eagerly drinking down every bit of cum that reached her lips.

Even after the orgasm subsided, she continued licking, trying to clean every drop from Rachel's sticky thighs.

When another wave of pleasure began rising through her pet, Ai had to press her hands against the stinging flesh to keep her from bucking too hard back into her face.

"Like that?" she giggled.

Rachel's response was cut off in a loud moan when her Mistress's mouth locked on her clit.

Suddenly the bundle of nerves was being laved by a warm tongue, making a blinding light flash behind the blonde's eyes.

Ai's own arousal was quickly getting unbearable with every sound she managed to rip from Rachel.

"I bet you'd love to make your Mistress cum," she quipped with a voice she could barely recognize as her own anymore.

Rachel gave a particularly loud moan in response, and Ai wasted no time in slipping underneath the sub.

The blonde immediately began devouring Ai's pussy, her tongue quickly exploring her tunnel.

Ai whimpered at the sensation, and both women were shortly bucking and shaking.

She locked her lips on Rachel's crotch, and the blonde screeched when she hummed.

The vibrations rolled through her clit, and Ai found herself tasting more cum.

While in the throes of her own orgasm, Rachel redoubled her efforts and sped her tongue up.

It wasn't long before Ai joined her sub, reveling in having her own clit sucked on.

Finally, the women collapsed in bundles of pants and gasps, their chests heaving in their efforts to drag as much air into themselves as possible.

Heart pounding against her chest, Ai slid out from beneath Rachel and hunted for a bottle of lotion and the handcuff key.

Rachel remained immobile in a bundle of sweat and aftershocks while Ai went to work.

With the arousal fading, even as slowly as it was, the pain in her ass made itself known.

She winced at the cool, wet touch of lotion being applied to the reddened skin.

The cool soon overcame the burning, though, and a moan much less sexual in nature sounded from her as the sting began subsiding.

Once every inch of her backside was coated in the cooling liquid, Ai unlocked her cuffs.

As soon as her hands were freed, Rachel lunged at Ai with a grin.

They bounced on the bed with a deep kiss shared between the two, their tastes rolling around on their tongues.

When they got lightheaded, they pulled apart, though Rachel's arms remained locked around Ai's back.

"That was amazing," the blonde gasped.

Ai grinned at her half-lidded, dreamy expression.

"As always," she quipped with her own breathy voice.

Rachel hummed and slowly fell asleep with her head on Ai's shoulder, a hand running through her silky hair to help lull her into rest and wonderful dreams...

Of Love and Iron Ch. 01



I. Just Another Day

Quick note: This chapter's non-erotic. I'll have this note on all chapters like this, as this was originally a novel I was writing for the NaNoWriMo and therefore not centered around sex every chapter.

Ai sat in the computer lab, a series of images flickering in bright reflections across her face.

Next to her sat a man with features strikingly similar to her own.

Looking at the two together, though, there were enough differences in their features that one wouldn't suspect them to be so closely related as half-siblings.

Where his skin was the almost brownish quality of those in Southeast Asia, hers could almost be said to be Caucasian if not for the slight copper present.

Slightly slanted, amber-colored eyes stared out from her face, while his eyes were a bright shade of green bordering on cyan.

Her muscles were finely sculpted from her weekly cheerleading, while he was lanky and built not unlike a scarecrow, standing at a full six inches taller than her.

How they carried themselves, even sitting, was what made them appear vastly different to the casual observer, however.

Ai, even sitting relaxed before the computer, appeared reminiscent of a coiled predator.

It was clear to any who cared enough to look that her mind never relaxed, something constantly occupying her brain.

Her half-brother Alex, though, sat back in his chair with an easy smile, watching her work.

A camera sat on the desk between them, with a long black cable running into the back of the monitor.

She smiled softly at her project, thoroughly piquing Alex's curiosity.

"So," he started conversationally, "working on anything good?"

"You could say that," she responded distractedly.

Grinning, he leaned forward in his chair, getting a better view of the video editor in front of her.

The new view didn't help him understand it any better, though it did let him know the subject of the videos.

Grinning even wider, he sat back once again and gave a low whistle.

The sound didn't break Ai from her apparent trance, though by the slight blush that formed he knew she'd heard him.

"You seem to be in a good mood... Wouldn't have anything to do with things on that camera, would it? Maybe a bit more risqué?" he inquired.

"Yeah, no. You think I'd edit something like what you're thinking on campus?" she retorted with a narrowing of her eyes.

He smirked at her brightening blush.

"Are you going to make me guess at what's made today such a good day for you?"

"Better than good, actually," she retorts.

"Hmm... What could it be? What could it be? Oh, right, I meant to ask before, but then you got absorbed into your own world. How's the whole Rachel thing going? Are things working out well for you?"

The blush grew brighter, and he fought hard to not laugh.

"It's... um... going a lot better than I hoped it would," she muttered.

He smiled at her tone, bringing back memories of his own.

"Getting serious?"

Ai absentmindedly scratched at her scalp, her blush growing brighter by the second.

"Who knows?"

"Who knew girls were so complex, right?" Alex asked with a snort.

"Smartass," she muttered under her breath.

"It's one of my finer-tuned skills!" he responded.

His grin faded some, and his expression became considerably softer.

"Seriously, though, things're going well?"

"I think so... I mean, Rache's birthday's coming up in a few weeks and we're planning on hanging out for it."

"Not necessarily couple-y," he pointed out.

"At any rate," she continued with a cough, "I kind of, uh, wanted to give her something unique. Not just for the birthday or the fun, but for the whole saving my ass from homelessness thing, too. So I figured, I might as well put my expensive education to good use," she said with an ever-brighter blush.

"What does one make for that kind of gift? I imagine eviction-evasion isn't the biggest seller in Hallmark," he laughed.

Grinning, Ai nodded at her screen.

"Hence the unique gift!"

Alex laughed at the sight of her large grin, the sound finally bringing her eyes away from the screen.

"What?" she demanded with an embarrassed huff.

"It's a good thing, I think. Seriously," he mused.

Misinterpreting his grin, Ai almost glowed neon as her eyes narrowed.

"Hey, Laura's more than enough for your brain. Leave my housemate-"

"I meant seeing you smiling like that," he laughed. "Mind out of the gutter."

"My mind lives in the gutter," she pointed out.

"Oh, I know. You definitely got that from dad," he laughed.

She snorted at that, shaking her head in an attempt to will her skin less red.

That she made no comment on his statement wasn't missed by Alex, who merely continued smiling.

"And how's Laura doing, hmm?" she evaded, smirking as his own face took on a slightly flushed tone...

Rachel sat in the back of her classroom, studiously keeping her eyes glued on the monitor before her.

She sat alone against the wall, her hand steadily working on her current project.

Five other students occupied the room as well, all of them sitting in the rows as far separated from her as possible.

It wasn't exactly a wonder that they avoided her.

While not going out of her way to draw attention to herself, she also made the barest of efforts to conceal her interests.

Among them was her fascination with the Gothic culture.

It hadn't taken long after her move near the campus for people to notice that she wore black and silver, exclusively with a very rare exception or two.

While she hadn't put much thought into finally being free to dress how she wanted, it was an unfortunate choice to wear her club gear to orientation.

Even sitting in the back, her fishnets and leather dress, down to her calves though it had been, had earned her quite a large number of stares and whispers both.

While the college itself had many students, her degree program, unfortunately, didn't, and so being avoided had been a forgone conclusion.

And so there she sat in the room, wearing thicker-than-normal eyeliner and lightly caked on white makeup.

Combined with the thinly framed glasses resting on the bridge of her nose, her eyeliner made her hazel eyes seem to almost glow, which also unsettled the other students.

The teacher roamed the room, checking on their work.

When he came to her desk, the man made a huffing sound in preparation of whatever Lovecraftian monstrosity she'd invented for the newest project.

"Interesting," he mused on finally seeing her screen.

She could practically feel his surprise at the bright, bubbly character slowly being shaped from the pen.

While still resembling Japanese cartoons in style similarly to the rest of her works, the woman on screen was already far brighter than what he'd seen throughout the semester from her.

Rachel slipped her headphones down and turned her attention to the older man.

"Thought I'd try out a different feel this time around," she explained.

"So I see. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes."

And then he was gone, taking the eyes locked on them back to the front of the room with him.

A woman leaned closer to the other student at her table, and her eye glanced back at Rachel while she whispered something or other.

The blonde somehow knew to be offended just from the man's responding laugh.

Ignoring them, she returned to bobbing her head slightly as the music blasted through her wireless headphones.

Her hand moved at her side, scenery slowly building itself before her eyes from the tablet she drew on.

The character winked back at her as she absentmindedly drew.

The song changed, and she found the electronic beats almost hypnotic.

Her hand slowed, and her eyes wandered upward.

Another laugh sounded through the quiet pulse of the electronica, and she could only sigh as her thoughts left her.

As her mind left the present, she pondered briefly on how so much could possibly change while almost everything stayed the same...

A seventeen-year-old Rachel King sat at her desk, humming quietly to herself.

A faint scratching sound filled the mostly silent classroom as she sketched.

Others sat around her, a mutual agreement to ignore each other whilst waiting for the buses to clear out sitting in the air between them.

Somehow, the idea of her art or their gossip entertaining the other party seemed utterly ridiculous to Rachel.

"Hey, did you hear about the freak show?" one of the women near her asked.

Rachel's ears perked despite her lack of interest, and she mentally smacked herself.

Her sense of curiosity prevailed through the mental tug of war, though, and she found her hand slowing as she listened in.

"You mean that new club, right?" another woman asked with a giggle.

"Yeah! Have you seen the people going there?" the third asked with a nasally voice that made Rachel wince.

Unable to help herself, Rachel turned her head and looked at the three.

"There's a new club?" she asked.

All three turned to stare at her, seeming surprised.

Whether surprised that she deigned to talk to them or surprised that she had any interest in their discussion, Rachel couldn't guess.

"It's called the Black Dead, or something," one of them, a brunette, finally answered.

"Naw, it's weird. There's a jay in it," another girl with bright scarlet hair corrected.

Rachel's eyebrow rose up at that.

"D-j-e-d?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's it. Weird," the last responded.

"Bunch of freaks. I saw them the other day, getting together on the edge of town. A whole bunch of Goths and freaks dressed up like vampires," the redhead laughed.

Rachel fought a wince, the horror novel in her purse suddenly shining like a beacon to her mind.

For a brief moment, she thought the brunette also looked uncomfortable, though the expression vanished the instant she noticed it.

"Sounds like quite a show," Rachel mused with a laugh.

Had they cared at all, they would've noticed the somewhat nervous quality to the light sound.

As it was, they returned to their conversation without another word.

As she turned back to her drawing pad, Rachel's eyes slipped over to her purse, and more importantly the Carmilla print hanging out from it.

Somehow, she doubted any of the three even knew what the story was, much less that it was a horror, but she suddenly found the book burning in her mind.

It wasn't necessarily that she cared much if they saw it, since she made no secret of her love of horror.

Still, she imagined that, given the conversation, they'd start spreading rumors in a heartbeat if they knew she had a book both Victorian and with vampires.

Shaking her head, she put her attention back on her sketch and listened quietly for the distant sound of the buses leaving.

Her mind, though, was suddenly distracted from her drawing.

She wondered about the club, debating on her thoughts of having such a club so close to her.

It wasn't even an hour later that she decided that she was going.

At the very least, she might find some good music.

She was quick to change, and she was gone again from her home with an improvised excuse to her parents.

Another half hour passed, and she found herself standing in front of the Black Djed.

It was a relatively subdued building, sitting in what could have served as a restaurant at some point.

An Egyptian symbol, made of wrought iron and painted black and gold, hung above the door.

Rachel assumed that was the 'djed' in question, and briefly stared at the strange symbol.

It was a large tower, with three curved discs on top of the stand.

Around its entirety was an ankh, designed with a strange curvature to the arms, which then each ended in three curved spikes.

Metal lettering with the same coloring were in lines directly above and below the symbol to name the club.

A thrill worked its way through the blonde, and a grin worked its way onto her lips.

Taking a deep breath, she worked her way to the door...

Rachel jerked her head to the side, sighing at the out-of-nowhere distraction.

She briefly pondered on whether she might have ADHD, but was soon distracted from the thought by her unfinished illustration.

Knowing that her brain wouldn't get back on track any time soon, she quickly went to work backing the work up so she could continue in her, hopefully, less distracting room.

With another sigh, she headed for the door.

The teacher didn't look up from his own computer as she left.

Just as she passed through the door, Rachel made an appreciative hum of the painting coming to life from his own tablet.

With the reminder that he taught the class for a good reason, she headed for the apartment.

She found herself glad that the weather reports, for once, had been correct as she started walking the short distance off campus...



Of Love and Iron Ch. 02



II. Spark

Note: To make up for last chapter's lack of sex, there's a lot of it this chapter. Enjoy, and I look forward to any feedback!

*

Rachel quickly made her way across campus, not paying much attention to the world around her.

Her lack of awareness, as it would turn out, would cost her.

She passed by the large gymnasium building, briefly wondering if Ai was out of her class yet before continuing on.

Unfortunately, while she didn't notice anything around the building, a redhead in a cheerleader uniform certainly noticed her.

Sneering, the cheerleader, Annabelle, stalked towards the oblivious blonde.

When she caught sight of her out of the corner of her eye, Rachel stopped and spun to face her.

Some people couldn't be trusted at a person's back, and to Rachel, the cheerleader was definitely one of those people.

Memories resurfaced, and she fought hard against letting her glare form.

"'Sup, freakshow?"

Rachel silently stood while Annabelle took in her appearance, a sneer curving her lips at the sight of her makeup and clothes.

For some reason, Rachel found it far more annoying coming from the redhead than her classmates.

Her black and silver stood in vast contrast to the bright pink the cheerleader wore.

Where a small, black ankh rested in Rachel's left ear, Annabelle's ears were adorned with a golden ring and cubic zirconia stud each, the jewelry glinting in the sunlight.

For a brief moment, Rachel's mind wandered over the differences between her and her squad mate.

While Ai was shorter, she held herself with much more confidence.

While she could admit, if only to herself, that Annabelle was attractive with her toned muscles and fiery hair that matched her personality, her brain focused on something that, at least to her, was important.

Even in the short, very flattering uniform, she felt nowhere near the attraction as she did when seeing Ai, period.

Shaking her head to clear away this newest random train of thought, she focused on the angry brown eyes focused on her instead.

Turning on her heels, she ignored the creeping feeling along her spine and forced herself to walk away, wondering why she'd stopped in the first place.

Staring at the Goth's back, Annabelle's anger flared as she, too, had memories brought to the surface by the blonde's presence.

"So how did you come here, anyway?" she asked in a bellowing voice.

When Rachel continued ignoring her, the redhead gave a huff and rushed to get in front of her.

"It's a serious question, King. How the hell do you afford coming here? I didn't take you as a charity case, and it's been a question I've had since I first saw you here. This place is way out of your class," she mocked.

Rachel's eyes narrowed in response, a pulse of anger running through her.

Taking a deep breath, she forced it down and went to walk once more.

Annabelle wasn't allowing it, and moved in her path after the first few steps she managed to take.

"If you don't answer, I can only go with what my brain comes up with."

Rachel laughed at that before she could stop the sound's escape.

"You're under the impression I care. I assure you I don't, any more than back home. Look at me quaking in fear of what you can imagine," she mocked.

Annabelle's eyes narrowed to slits at that, her hands clenching to fists at her side.

"Are you calling me stupid?" she hissed.

Rachel's smirk disappeared, and her own eyes narrowed.

"No, I'm calling you unimaginative. It's a pitfall of programmers, at least in my experience, but it's not necessarily a bad thing."

Annabelle's ire lessened some at that.

"Did you want something, or can I go?" Rachel continued.

And it was back, Annabelle's glare returning full-force at the blonde's tone.

"You think I'm unimaginative? How 'bout this for imagination? I'm thinking I'll spread the word that you got your tuition five dollars at a time back home. It might not stick, but there'll be at least a few asses that harass you over it. Maybe even the prez'll catch wind of it."

Rachel raised an eyebrow at that, what little mirth she had vanishing in an instant.

"I'm into women," she pointed out.

"And quiet about it. Aiko probably doesn't even know, and you live with her. At the very least, having to explain you're a lez to every person that propositions you will get old really fast, I imagine. Maybe it could even get you expelled, if someone important hears about it and doesn't want the school associated with prostitutes."

Neither woman noticed Ai leaving the gym.

She, on the other hand, immediately noticed them, and more importantly the fight that looked ready to break out between them.

She stormed towards them while they remained oblivious.

"That is imaginative. Incredibly stupid, since I'd know it was you and would be able to sue you if any damages came from it, but imaginative," Rachel admits.

"Are you new to the rumor mill? By the time it spread out, nobody'd have a clue where it started," the cheerleader mocked.

Rachel's heart skipped a beat, bad memories rising forcefully from her mind to flash before her vision.

She was about to play it off when she suddenly noticed Ai, who looked pissed.

For a very brief moment, she thought her glare was focused on her.

Then Ai reached them, and put her back protectively between herself and Annabelle.

"Hey, Belle. What's going on?" she asked.

To Annabelle, her voice was the same as usual, a strange mix of energetic and bored.

Rachel, though, stared at her back at the surprising anger she heard.

"I spotted a freak and was giving it directions back to its cage," Annabelle responded without missing a beat.

Rachel's expression darkened, and she opened her mouth to air her own anger.

Before she could speak, though, Ai chuckled.

"Uh, Belle, I don't think you should be making jokes about people in cages, given your extracurricular activities," Ai laughed.

Rachel's mind wandered, and she suddenly found herself imagining Annabelle dancing in a cage.

It certainly wasn't something she found hard to believe.

A snort left her at the red glow to Annabelle's face, earning her a look that made her skin crawl.

"Screw you," she snarled at Ai.

Unable to help herself, Rachel let her thought out before she could fully wonder on the consequences of poking the hornet's nest that was Annabelle Vaughn.

"So if I got here on five dollars at a time, what's that say about your measly ones?" she quipped.

Something in the cheerleader's expression killed any amusement to be found in her witty retort, and she again felt what people described as someone walking over her grave.

Annabelle spun and stormed off without another word, a sinking feeling forming in Rachel's stomach.

"Thanks for stepping in," she said once the redhead was gone. "I was thinking she might swing if that had gone on much longer."

Ai turned to stare at her, a brow raised in question.

"And so goading was the best decision?"

Rachel's expression became more heated, and she stepped closer to her with a smile.

"I said swing, not hit. Only you're allowed to hit," she whispered.

Both women turned red, and the sense of foreboding was, temporarily, forgotten.

Ai took the last bit of distance between the two, putting her mouth next to the blonde's ear.

As her blush darkened, her domme personality asserted itself, signaled to Rachel by the low chuckle that sounded.

"My classes are done today. And you?"

"Me too," Rachel responded brilliantly around a gulp.

"Hmm... Well, no idea about you, but all this talk about cages and, were I to guess, you on your knees, has made me glad I'm not wearing panties right now."

Rachel groaned at that, her eyes instinctively moving to her housemate's skirt while her face felt afire.

"I would oblige you, if you asked nicely, I think," Ai laughed.

"Please let me relieve you of your discomfort, Mistress," Rachel responded.

The immediate speed of her response, along with the sing-song tone she spoke with and the bright blush on her face, made Ai grin...

As soon as they entered the apartment, Rachel pulled Ai into a kiss.

Moans mixing between their lips, the cheerleader pushed them down the hall towards her room.

When they passed the threshold, Ai gently shoved.

Rachel squeaked in surprise as she went toppling down onto the bed with a small bounce.

Ai quickly followed after her, pinning the blonde beneath her.

"You were saying something about relieving me?" she asked with a giggle.

Rachel rolled her hips beneath her, the buckle of her leather belt pressing against Ai's naked core as she did.

Ai groaned at the sensation.

The heat she'd managed to push down while they'd walked home came back with a vengeance.

Seeing her blush, Rachel's own lips turned upwards in a wolfish grin.

Getting her arms underneath her, she leaned forward until her face was close enough to smell the slight strawberry scent of Ai's breath.

"Feeling a bit hot, Ai?" she quipped.

"Having no panties and a hot blonde under me tends to do that," the cheerleader retorted with an easy, if heated, smile.

"And here I thought you were just saying that to get me going," Rachel laughed.

Ai laughed as her face lowered, her lips a twitch away from Rachel's.

"Why don't you find out for yourself?" she panted.

Rachel felt her thighs getting wet at her Mistress's tone, and she crossed the last bit of space needed.

Their lips connected in a searing kiss.

A hand pressed against the hem of Ai's skirt, and a shiver ran through them both from the contact.

"Don't mind if I do," she gasped once their mouths separated.

Ai's response was interrupted by a moan as Rachel's hand slipped higher, nails lightly brushing against her wet skin in its exploration.

As her fingers danced higher and higher along Ai's leg, the cheerleader's breathing became heavier.

When an index finger slipped along the curve of her leg to reach her inner thigh, Ai felt her heart began beating against her chest like a drum.

Rachel giggled at the noticeable wet spot growing on Ai's skirt, and slowed her hand's pace to draw out the torture just a bit longer.

When Ai realized what was happening, she buried her face in the crook of Rachel's neck and groaned.

"Don't keep your Mistress waiting," she moaned.

Her breath on the blonde's neck brought a shiver through her, her belt once again brushing against exposed leg.

In her excitement, her hand moved of its own accord to the top of Ai's inner thigh.

Her fingertips found themselves pressing against smooth, wet skin, and the blonde's face flushed darker red.

"Well? Was I bluffing?" Ai laughed.

Her tongue flicked out to taste Rachel's neck, and the blonde's eyes snapped shut at the sensation.

"No, Mistress," she gasped.

She squeaked in surprise when, using her closed eyes as an opportunity, her other arm was pulled from beneath her.

They fell to the bed, and the indignant sound she had been about to make was cut off by soft lips.

Her moan vibrated through the kiss, and when a tongue lapped at her lips, hungrily demanding access, Rachel gladly accepted.

While she explored Rachel's mouth with her tongue, Ai pulled the captured hand up to her chest.

At the feeling of her nipples poking against her flattened palm through the dress, Rachel moaned again.

Ai grinned into the kiss, her heart hammering away at the feelings running through her.

When spots began dancing in her vision, she unwillingly broke the kiss, though she moved no further than that.

"Did I say panties? I meant underwear," she laughed.

"You planned this," Rachel pointed out with a small smirk.

"And if I did?" the cheerleader laughed, arcing an eyebrow in challenge.

"I'll just have to work to meet Mistress's expectations, then."

Her hand reached Ai's pussy then, and the cheerleader moaned as two fingers curved upwards inside of her, the entry incredibly easy from the building juices already there.

While her middle and ring fingers slowly worked back and forth inside Ai, she put the rest of her hand to use.

Her palm pressed firmly against the wet mound, and as she began slowly rubbing against her clit, Ai started shivering against her.

Her other hand eagerly toyed with Ai's breasts, her nipples pressing further out from the dress as she continued manipulating them.

The heat became too much, and Ai gave a loud moan as she came on Rachel's fingers.

With a huff, she grabbed the hem of her dress and tore it quickly over her head, exposing herself fully to Rachel's touch.

The blonde giggled as cum began pooling on her jeans, feeding her own arousal underneath.

"You must've been thinking about this all day, huh?" she laughed.

"M-Maybe," Ai admitted with a brilliant blush.

At the musical laughter her comment received, the cheerleader's eyes narrowed and her lips curved in a sultry grin.

Leaning closer to Rachel, she brought her own hands along her chest, reveling in the feel of a bra through the cotton under her hands.

"Why am I the only one naked, hmm?" she mused.

Not needing to be told twice, Rachel quickly began fumbling with her belt.

While she slipped it free, Ai's hands slipped beneath the edge of her shirt and, slowly, her palms began ascending her torso.

The shirt followed her journey, bunching around her hands to expose the blonde's quivering stomach.

As soon as her belt was open, Rachel wasted no time freeing herself from her jeans.

The denim was tight, and she found herself twitching in her efforts to move them down from her hips.

Her squirming beneath Ai alerted the cheerleader, and she smiled.

"Do you want me to help you with that?"

"Mmmm... Yes, please, Mistress," Rachel moaned.

Ai grabbed onto the waistband and began slipping them down the expanse of Rachel's legs.

She laid kisses down the blonde's stomach as she moved, leaving no skin untouched from her lips.

Rachel squirmed more with each kiss, and she barely recognized that her jeans were gone by the time Ai finished pulling them down.

Her movements jerky, Ai returned to her torso and finished removing her shirt.

She flicked at a nipple through her silver, silky bra, causing Rachel to buck up into her.

Her knee slid forward, pressing firmly into Rachel's groin.

At the wet feeling on her leg, she smiled and pressed her lips to the blonde's neck.

"Feeling good, pet?"

A whimper was her answer, Rachel too focused on grinding her hips against Ai's knee to come up with anything more coherent.

"I think I want to try something new today. All that talk about cages gave me an idea. What do you think?"

"C-Can I cum first? Please?" Rachel whimpered.

Ai giggled at her eagerness.

Of course, they hadn't come across a new thing yet that they both hadn't thoroughly enjoyed.

"Hmm... That wasn't very convincing," she quipped.

"Please, can I c-cum for you?" Rachel groaned.

Grinning, Ai took a handhold in her blonde hair and brought her face close.

She licked a fiery, wet trail from Rachel's jaw upward, until her mouth came to rest at her ear.

She lightly nibbled on the lobe as she continued her knee's grinding, until Rachel began bucking her ass off the bed to maintain the touch.

Ai's hand abruptly struck Rachel's cheek, just hard enough to sting her into paying attention.

Using the same hand to lightly trace circles along the impact, she smirked into the blonde's glazed expression.

"That was better, but it still didn't make me believe you really want it. I only want to let you cum for me if you're desperate for it tonight," she giggled.

Rachel's eyes snapped closed, and her mind shut off in the face of the building, torturous pressure in her pussy.

"P-Please, Mistress, make me cum for you! It feels too good, and I-I don't think I can h-hold it back much longer, Mistress. I-I'll pa-pay the ooh f-favo-or b-back, I'll eat you until you're unconscious," she babbled, her whole body jerking to follow Ai's touches.

"I think that can be arranged," her Mistress said with a chuckle.

Her head was between Rachel's legs the next moment, her lips tugging the silky obstruction down with haste.

"Ready?"

Rachel moaned at the puff of breath on her pussy, her thighs getting moister still from the single word.

Taking the sound as acceptance, Ai crossed the distance.

Her tongue made slow circuits around Rachel's labia, burning a wet trail along the skin.

Tasting the cum on her tongue, she locked her lips on her core and began lightly sucking.

Her mouth slowly made another circuit that way, curving around until she reached Rachel's clit.

Smiling against her, Ai clamped her lips tight and began sucking on the bundle of nerves.

"Be a good girl and cum, right now," she ordered around the clit.

The blonde bucked violently and let a screech free, her hips vibrating against Ai's face.

Ai eagerly lapped at Rachel's pussy, drinking in every trace of her cum that she could.

When Rachel's cries subsided to gasps, Ai separated from her.

Licking her lips, she moved up to put their faces level, her chin shining wetly.

Smiling up at her Mistress, Rachel coiled her hand around her neck.

"Thank you, Mistress."

Ai trailed a hand along her jaw, smiling when the blonde's eyes closed and her body quivered.

"Good girls deserve rewards, naturally. Now, then, about my idea?"

"Whatever you want," Rachel moaned.

"Good to hear."

She gave her a quick kiss before Ai ran to her closet, and what they'd dubbed the treasure chest that hid within.

Rachel let herself fully enjoy the view of Ai bent over as she rummaged through the box.

It was an unspoken rule that, in her own best interest, Rachel wasn't to look inside of the box, reserved for the various implements they used in their sessions.

When she'd asked Ai in the past why, she'd gotten the impression that there were things in it that Ai wanted to keep secret until special occasions.

While wondering if this was such a time, Ai finished her hunt and made a satisfied sound.

When she turned back to Rachel, she was holding a thin, black leather collar in one hand and a long, coiled chain in the other.

Rachel felt herself turning red as a suspicion on Ai's idea began to take form.

She noticed, much to her delight, that Ai was slightly nervous, a cute blush coloring her own face and torso.

When she reached Rachel, Ai put the tools down on the bed at her side, catching her gaze.

"I feel like it's going to be an educational day," Rachel quipped.

Her humor relaxed Ai somewhat, and she smiled at the blonde.

"Uh, yeah, I kinda' didn't think about some stuff until after I'd turned around," Ai admitted sheepishly.

Rachel brought her hand up to Ai's neck, quickly running her hand through her choppy black and red mane.

"I love learning new things. And you're always such a great teacher."

While it was a definite break in the mood, Ai found herself embarrassed beyond belief.

The idea had seemed great when she had it, but she realized as Rachel caressed her that, once informed, it could possibly scare Rachel off entirely.

Blushing, she took a deep breath and forged ahead, hoping for the best.

"Okay, so collars can be, um, kind of a big thing. They can also be like the other things we've done, just a way to have a lot of fun without too much seriousness involved. But, uh, knowing you and the club back home, it'd be pretty dumb of me to just put a collar on you and not explain anything."

Noticing the Asian's discomfort, Rachel put her other hand to use as well, lightly caressing her hip while she toyed with her hair.




Of Love and Iron Ch. 02



"I don't know if I should be grateful or embarrassed," Rachel quipped. "C'mon, Ai, no need to be all serious. Educate me, and I'll decide for myself from there, just like always," she soothed.

Ai smiled in spite of herself, wondering on how lucky she'd gotten to get Rachel as a housemate and as a submissive.

That the submissive was leading things would normally be thought odd.

But like most relationships in life, BDSM took willing participation from both sides, and she'd been clear from their first session that Rachel could end things at any time with a single word.

The empowerment of that had drawn Rachel even further into Ai's lifestyle, and it hadn't taken long for the two to find the role-playing beneficial for more than just their sex lives.

Taking a steadying breath, Ai picked the collar up for Rachel to look at.

"Collars can mean a lot of different things when it comes to this kind of stuff. They can be used for a number of different play types, and they can also be a relationship symbol. There're people that use it as a kind of wedding band, even. They can show that a slave or submissive is owned. For what I had in mind, though, I wasn't really thinking about what you might think. I mean, it's been almost a year and all, and it's not like I'd be opposed to that kind of thing, but-"

"Ai, take a breath and relax. What was your idea?" Rachel interrupted with a face peppered bright scarlet.

Suddenly, the blonde fully understood Ai's embarrassment, and reciprocated it.

But more importantly, the curiosity of what Ai intended sent a thrill through her, causing her heart to speed up once again.

"Right. Um, a while back I was playing with the idea of testing whether you were up for a little exhibitionism. I kind of chickened out, but not until after I'd gotten the collar and leash. I saw you looking ready to fight, heard you talking about cages, and the idea just kind of popped in my head that maybe using them would help you relax."

Rachel's eyes widened almost comically at that, thoughts of being led, crawling, around the campus naked making her feel like her face was in the center of a fire.

The twinge running through her groin at the thought was by far more interesting to her, though.

"Um, so I was wondering if you'd want to do it. I wouldn't go walking you outside or anything, unless you'd want to try that, but I thought maybe if I walked you around the apartment for a bit, you might get a feel for whether you'd want to do more?"

Ai cursed inside, blushing at her tendency to ramble when nervous.

Somehow, though, it didn't hurt the growing mood for Rachel, the blush to Ai's face unbelievably cute to the blonde.

She slid her hand up the cheerleader's side until she reached the hand clutching the collar.

Smiling, she gently tugged at the leather to get Ai's attention.

"Why don't we see if it fits well enough to do anything, then take it from there?" she suggested.

Ai's hands trembled somewhat as she slipped the belt around Rachel's neck.

The leather felt warm on her skin, sending a pleasant thrill through her.

"Well? What do you think?" Ai asked before taking a step back to admire the blonde.

Blushing, Rachel ran her hands along the collar while her mind went to work.

"This is really comfortable. Let's go for it, and see what happens."

Ai heaved a sigh of relief at that, her lips in an almost cartoonish grin.

Rachel leaned down and clipped the leash onto the small D made of metal hanging down from the front of the collar.

"On your hands and knees, pet," she whispered.

Rachel complied quickly, lowering herself on to the plush carpet.

She shivered at the feel of the warm, coarse material on her naked skin.

"Do you want me to open the shades before we take you for your walk, pet?" Ai asked, kneeling so her pussy is nearly at Rachel's lowered mouth.

Warm air blows against her, bringing her clit even harder as her sub's breathing hitches.

While their apartment was mostly removed from other housing structures, the road in front of their home was almost always busy with both walkers and drivers.

The thought of being seen, crawling naked and leashed, in her home led by her housemate draws a moan from Rachel.

The realization surprised the blonde, who had thought until just that moment that exhibitionism was more Ai's thing than her own, as shown by her going around cheerleading without anything underneath.

"Ju-Just one of the windows, Mistress? We can open more if I enjoy it," she promises breathily.

Smiling, Ai played her hand against her housemate's back, enjoying her shiver under the touch.

She'd honestly expected a flat-out 'no' for their first attempt, and her heart skipped a beat at the blonde's surprising willingness.

"Alright. You sit pretty, and I'll get to it," she said with a grin.

Rachel stayed still while the woman disappeared from the room, her mind wandering to thoughts of being seen by strangers.

Her Mistress returned to the room to find her thighs rubbing together, mouth open in a small 'o' that released quiet, panting breaths.

The sight was incredible, and her grin grew at Rachel's unexpectedly favorable reaction to her idea.

Moving behind her, she lifted the line of leather from the blonde's back and took a firm hold of the handle.

Ai pulled her leash taut, all embarrassment gone in favor of the wetness collecting on her thighs.

When Rachel's head was lifted from her collar being pulled, she felt a fresh wave of heat shoot straight to her twitching pussy.

"Head up, back arched, and legs spread to keep your soaking pussy nice an' spread while you crawl for me," Ai intoned as she ran a hand through Rachel's mane. "Be a proud pet."

Her words sent yet another pulse through her crotch, making the sub resist the urge to rub her thighs together again.

At the sound of a mixed whimper and moan, Ai walked past the blonde, her sub easily crawling behind her as she was led from the bedroom.

Once outside, Ai stood still and smiled down at her.

"Go on, you take the lead. It's less fun for me if I can't see you crawling, after all," she said with a giggle.

Feeling her face turn even redder, Rachel slipped past the Asian and began crawling down the hall.

Ai followed behind, watching her sub's ass sway side-to-side as she moved.

The light in their house glistened and reflected off Rachel's thighs, notifying Ai to the fact that the wetness had trailed almost to her knees.

They soon reached the living room, and the uncovered window next to the door.

Rachel paused, staring at the floor-to-ceiling glass pane.

It was almost pure darkness outside, despite the occasional headlights passing by.

But she knew as she moved further into the room that if anyone happened to be jogging on the sidewalk, with the lights on inside, they would have no problem seeing her.

Especially with the warm nights that had graced them recently, it would be more unusual if nearby neighbors didn't use the opportunity to stretch their legs.

She felt her senses heighten, the carpet beneath her suddenly feeling like sandpaper to her tingling skin.

She stared out the glass, wondering if the shadows she saw were, in fact, moving people or simply imagined.

Her nipples tightened even more at the thought, and she couldn't help glancing back at the glass with every inch she moved as she crawled past.

Ai watched Rachel shiver on her way past the window, her own naked body getting more heated when she followed.

When Rachel reached the other side of the window, putting her safely out of sight, her racing heart began to calm.

As her pulse slowed, she found that she was on the edge of orgasm without Ai even touching her.

Ai knelt down at Rachel's side, her face flushed scarlet at the heady scent emanating from her sub's twitching pussy.

It seemed that the blonde was far more into exhibitionism than either had thought, she mused with a light giggle.

"Are you going to be able to crawl around a bit more, pet?" she asked aloud.

Rachel bit back a moan, turning her head to meet Ai's gaze.

"I feel so hot," she gasped.

"Aw, do you want Mistress to make it better for you?" Ai cooed, her hand grazing along her sub's tightened back.

Rachel shivered, her entire body clenching at the touch on her burning skin.

"Fffuck," she moaned.

Grinning, Ai brought her hand back and lightly brought it down on the blonde's quivering ass, releasing a pleasant moan from her.

"C'mon, be a good pet and answer properly," she whispered. "Does my pet want me to stroke her twitching, soaked pussy until she cums, or do you want to hold it off and keep crawling? I can open more shades, if you want, if you ask for that, instead."

As she spoke, her hand slid to Rachel's ass, her middle finger stroking small circles into her cheeks that slowly drew her closer to her sub's center.

Rachel heartily moaned, her whole body seeming ready to snap.

"Ohh, ffuck! P-Please, Mistress, I... I can't hold off," she moaned. "Please, may I cum?"

Ai remained silent save for a giggle, beginning her circles anew on the other cheek.

"We can d-do this again, another night... It f-feels... mmmm... sooo good... I c-can't hold on much longer, especially with you touching me like this, Mistress, it feels too good! Please, make me cum, Mistress!"

She screeched as Ai's circling finger drew closer to her pussy, and without preamble slipped inside the soaked tunnel.

Her walls immediately clamped down on the Mistress's stroking finger, drenching the digit to the knuckle.

As her cum began slipping further down to cover the rest of Ai's hand, a second finger slipped in.

And then, they curled upwards, and pressed against her as she began stroking.

It pushed Rachel over the edge, sending her collapsing onto the carpet as she was racked with orgasms.

Ai continued stroking while her sub came, sending her into more and more orgasms until her entire hand was soaked.

The blonde fell limp on the carpet, her breathing made of harsh, gasping moans, and her ass continued slightly thrusting back and forth for moments after Ai's hand leaves her.

Giggling, Ai began to lick her fingers clean.

"We'll have to do this again, sometime soon."

"Do again soon, yes, please, Mistress... uh... I think my brain broke," Rachel responded with a drunken giggle, turning a goofy and exhausted grin towards her Mistress.

Ai simply laughed and ran her hands through tousled blonde hair while Rachel came down...

Rachel and Ai sat on their couch, pressed firmly against each other.

Beneath the blanket wrapped around their naked forms, sweat shone brightly on their skin.

The leather of Rachel's collar rested as a comforting weight around her throat, and she smiled sleepily in her Mistress's arms.

Screams sounded from the television, but the monster movie went mostly ignored as they reveled in each other's warmth.

A thought occurred to Ai, and her contentedness dimmed somewhat as concern took root.

Rubbing at Rachel's shoulder, she turned her head so their eyes met.

"Rae?"

"Yeah?" the blonde asked sleepily.

"I don't know what Annabelle's problem with you is," she started.

She frowned as Rachel tensed against her, but quickly forced down the ugly jealousy that took form without any source.

"But I think you should maybe avoid her. I mean, really avoid her. You see her, bail. She's persistent and vindictive."

"I know," Rachel sighed, sounding impatient to Ai's ears.

"Look, I don't want to be on you about it. I just don't want you to get hurt," Ai said with a defensiveness that made her wince.

A soft smile formed on Rachel's lips, and she gently pulled Ai's face down until their lips met.

Their mingled tastes still remained on her breath, almost drawing a moan from Ai.

When they pulled away from the quick kiss, Rachel seemed more awake, as well.

"I know. We have history, kinda'. I shouldn't have let her get to me, but I think if I just keep away from the gym and computer lab, she'll get distracted quickly enough."

Something told her that she wasn't correct, but Rachel refused to acknowledge that tiny voice, energetically.

"Hey, Ai?" she asked while rubbing her fingers along the leather of her collar.

At Ai's answering eyebrow raise, she smiled sheepishly.

"Do you mind if I, uh, keep the collar?"

Ai grinned at her, running a hand through her blonde's hair.

"Go ahead, hun. I got it for you in the first place."

Rachel hummed in thanks before burying her head more comfortably in the crook of Ai's neck.

The rest of the night passed with comfortable silence, Rachel falling asleep under the soothing caress of Ai's fingers in her hair...



Of Love and Iron Ch. 03



III. Discovery 

Note: Another non-erotic chapter. Originally, it wasn't, but for the length of the chapter, I decided to split it into two chapters. Hopefully the next scene will more than make up for it. 

Women talked amongst themselves in the locker room. 

Ai hummed to herself quietly as she moved back to her locker, her backpack releasing rattling noises as she moved. 

She silently cursed her animation teacher, and his penchant for keeping students late. 

While it normally didn't cause her much trouble, she really wished she'd had the time to run her backpack home. 

Leaving her things in a locker, even locked, while she was in the gym doing practice always made her anxious. 

Even though the room was locked from anyone but the cheerleaders practicing while they worked, the idea that her things were unprotected was always present. 

That she hadn't thought to take her supplies for Rachel's gift out of her bag made the concern that much more embarrassing. 

She moved to the emptiest row of lockers in the room, hoping that it'd make her things that much safer. 

In her daze, she didn't notice Annabelle glaring at her from the end of her row of lockers. 

Annabelle, on the other hand, noticed when she gave her bag a nervous glance after she'd finished changing. 

An idea formed in the redhead's mind, and she slipped around the corner to finish changing herself without alerting Ai to her presence. 

She didn't know if it was just her imagination, but Annabelle found herself wondering at the reason behind her squad mate's nervousness. 

Remembering the humiliation her words caused the previous day, Annabelle found herself hoping it was something embarrassing. 

While nowhere near as bad as the ideas rolling around to get back at the Goth, she nonetheless didn't take Ai's defense of her as anything but the insult that she thought it was. 

She didn't expect her to jump in and help her haze her housemate, but that she'd been on Rachel's side pissed Annabelle off to no end. 

Ugly memories arose, and her eyes narrowed to slits as she pondered again on whether to go through with her threat. 

Ai remained oblivious to the redhead's ire, cursing as she realized she'd forgotten her lock. 

It was, again, something that she normally wouldn't have paid much attention to. 

That day, though, she found herself really wishing she'd had the time to run home. 

The sound of a locker closing snapped Annabelle out of her thoughts, and she slowly slinked around the corner to avoid being seen by Ai. 

Once Ai was in the front of the room, chatting with some of her teammates, Annabelle moved to her locker. 

Casting a quick look around herself, she pressed up as slowly as possible. 

The metal door slid free without so much as a squeak, and Annabelle took in what lay inside. 

Under a frilly blue shirt and a pair of jeans, her backpack lay partially hidden. 

Wondering if she'd thought it would hide her bag better if someone took a look, Annabelle chuckled to herself before taking her phone out. 

Snapping a picture of the exact placement of the clothes, she lifted them up and pulled the small, black bag free. 

The door to the gym opened, and suddenly she found herself in a totally silent room. 

Holding her breath, she waited to make sure she was really alone. 

When a full minute had gone by without any sound, her lungs forced her to pull new air in. 

The zipper slipping free was obnoxious in the silence, and then Annabelle was shamelessly looking for anything to embarrass Aiko. 

Shuffling the items around, Annabelle spotted the open drawing pad at the bottom of the bag and grinned. 

As soon as she lifted it up, she began reading Ai's neat handwriting mixed with multiple notes to self, the letters forming a much better picture than she'd hoped. 

Happy birthday, Rachel! 

Before you open the box, there're some things that I need to say that, if I tried to say out loud I'd probably end up having verbal diarrhea and screwing up. You could open the box now, I guess, but that'd probably just confuse you, without reading this first. 

Thank you! I want to start by thanking you. If you hadn't appeared answered my ad, I would have been on the streets. Well, maybe not, but I would definitely have had to move to someplace far less convenient for going to school. After moving here with Alex, it could've been ugly suddenly living with someone I'd never met before. 

So thank you, for being such a great housemate and friend for the last year. 

I thought that I'd celebrate in a way that wasn't just the usual stuff, so I thought I'd make this an exciting one for you. I know we kinda' went out of the usual process with all this, so keep in mind that I'm asking this not as your Mistress, but just as Ai. 

While our sessions are the best thing that happened to me in a long time, I've recently been enjoying them more than how I did when we first started. I thought it was just the escalating things and trying a lot of different things that were doing it, but then I started enjoying just having you around, almost as much. 

Too creepy! 

So, despite how fun things are, I've recently been thinking maybe I'm enjoying them too much. I started enjoying just having you around almost as much the sex. Trust me, that's saying great things about you, not bad things about the sessions. (Too cheesy?) 

So I started thinking, and I realized that I'm starting to act like Alex when he was starting to get serious about Laura. I swear I'm not trying to get too cheesy, or to scare you off. If you don't want anything more than staying in the apartment and going back to just being friends, while I won't enjoy it, I'll understand it. 

I just wrote this to make you aware of this, since it's been driving me insane. And it'd be unfair to keep going like we have been while not letting you know that it could be getting serious. You don't have to answer right away. I want you to seriously think about things. If you decide after soul-searching that you'd like to date- 

Think of better way of asking! 

Annabelle lifted her eyes from the page, her face glowing nearly bright enough to match her hair. 

Several things were running through the cheerleader's mind as she reread the letter. 

Evidently, saying that Rachel probably kept her roomy in the dark about her liking women had been more wrong than she thought possible. 

Much more interesting was the "Mistress" bit. 

She wasn't surprised that Rachel was into that kind of thing, after the stories she'd managed to get from a very drunken Zoe about her escapades with the blonde back home. 

That Ai was into it was much more surprising. 

She'd heard stories ever since she'd met Ai about her father, Bochi Kai. 

From everything she knew, Ai was very much striving to be the opposite of the party-nut rockstar in every way except for being artistic. 

If she was getting freaky with Rachel, though, her theory on that was clearly wrong. 

Giggling, Annabelle snapped a few photos of the letter with her phone. 

She may have just found a way to get back at them both. 

A memory surfaced as she finished her impromptu photo session, and her smirk morphed into an ugly expression. 

"If it's Rachel, this'll probably be better for Ai in the long run, anyway," she growled to no one. 

Shaking her head in disgust, she bent down to get Ai's things back in order. 

Before she slipped the book back into the bag, though, a thought occurred to her and she began flipping through the numerous pages before the one containing the letter. 

With each page she flipped, her eyes grew wider and wider open, her face turning almost pure scarlet. 

Annabelle had only ever seen Ai's short movie projects when she'd deigned to join the other cheerleaders and humor her. 

Her assumption that Ai couldn't draw was shattered with each page. 

More importantly, the subject of each image became more and more detailed. 

While she wouldn't have been able to accurately guess what most of the items drawn were before, Ai's letter allowed her to fully discern the various bondage tools she found illustrated. 

Annabelle wondered on why she hadn't decided to be a fashion designer, with the amount of incredible detail she'd put into the corsets, collars, and restraints she found drawn. 

What was disturbing, though, was that each and every one had a model drawn under them that resembled, in great likeness, Rachel King. 

She'd never pondered what the blonde looked like naked, but she felt with each drawing like she was being forced to imagine it. 

Blushing, she started snapping more photos, going through the images while trying to will her face back to a normal skin tone. 

Finally, she finished up, and as she slipped Ai's clothes back into perfect position, a giggle left her throat. 

She was going to save Ai some pain, even as she screwed Rachel back with interest. 

A brief thought on whether Zoe would approve of the plan appeared to dampen her giddiness, but with a shake of her head, she shoved the thought down. 

When she showed up in the gym, spouting an excuse for being late, none of her squad mates questioned it. 

She held off on grinning through the entire practice, but just barely... 

Ai sat at her desk, humming a soft tune to herself as she worked. 

The scenes came to life in the video editor, bringing an even bigger smile to her lips. 

Seeing everything the way she wanted, she gave a satisfied nod to herself and popped the CD at her elbow into the computer. 

As the video began rendering to the disc, she brought her letter closer to her side and got to work on typing it out. 

With the more she typed and edited her sincere words, the more she blushed. 

She wondered on how Rachel would react. 

While she knew how she felt, or was at least beginning to suspect on it, she only had a guess on what Rachel would think about being asked out. 

A thoughtful frown on her face, she found her mind wandering before she could put any effort into focusing... 

Ai stared at the box in her hands. 

Looking up at her grinning brother, she raised an eyebrow in question. 

"You're buttering me up for something, Al," she quipped. 

Grinning sheepishly, Alex's eyes moved up to the roof. 

"No easy way to tell you this. I'm, uh, moving out at the end of next month." 

Ai's smile dropped in an instant, her heart skipping a beat. 

"What!?" 

"Okay, that sounded bad. Let me back up," he quickly responded upon seeing her shocked expression. "Laura and I have been getting serious lately." 

"I noticed," Ai quipped as her heart started calming down. 

When she'd first met her brother's girlfriend, she'd known right away how serious Alex was about her. 

That she'd hit it off immediately with the good doctor made it that much better, and she'd gotten to know her quite well in the two years she'd known her. 

Thinking on it, she should have seen the new development coming sooner or later. 

That didn't stop her mind from running at Mach 5, though. 

Seeing the expression on her face, Alex put a comforting hand on her shoulder. 

"I mean really serious, Ai. Marriage and stuff really isn't my style, but we were talking recently." 

"Whoa, you are serious," Ai laughed. "Don't let Bo hear you talk like that. He might send you to whatever the party equivalent of boot camp is." 

He winced at the tone to her voice. 

They'd met under, what Alex considered at least, to be pretty ugly circumstances. 

The first time he'd learned he had a sister was when his mother went postal on Bochi when she'd found out. 

It had been an awkward affair, when the man had decided that his children should get to know each other, and neither had expected to see each other afterwards. 

When her father had found out that Ai was going to the Philadelphia school to learn filmmaking, he'd been more than happy to point out that Alex was already planning on going there himself for advertising. 

While not exactly pleased with the development, he hadn't complained to being able to move into a bigger apartment than originally planned with her help. 

He'd been more than happy that, after being in each other's living space for a while, they'd been able to reach what he would almost call happy siblinghood. 

As much as he tried to argue in his father's favor, though, he understood that chances were incredibly tiny he'd ever give her a better impression of Bochi. 

Sighing, he shook his head at her. 

"Anyway, Laura and I decided to do a trial run. So I'm moving in with her, to see how we'd fare if we ever did decide to tie the knot," he explained. 

Despite her panic, Ai smiled at her brother. 

While she could still probably manage the apartment by herself by cutting out most forms of entertainment, it wouldn't be anything resembling the comfort of having to only pay half the rent. 

Ignoring the building worry, Ai clapped her brother on the shoulder and grinned, deciding to freak out once he wasn't there to see it. 

"That's shockingly adult of you, Al! Congratulations." 

His eyes narrowed as he scrutinized her, seeming to see straight through her façade. 

"I know it's pretty short-notice, so I'm really sorry. I don't want to screw up college for you, so I can figure something out with Laura if-" 

"Nope," Ai refused, thoughts of how awkward it would be living with her brother's girlfriend. "Absolutely not. This is a good thing, Alex. It's cool. Sorta'. I'll figure out how to handle it." 

He grinned at that, appreciating her gesture more than he could put into words. 

"I've got a little over a half a month," she continued. "Who knows? I might end up with some hot blonde thing to ogle in place of your mug." 

He chuckled at that, pulling her into a one-armed hug. 

"Always looking on the bright side, huh? Well, I'll hope for your sake that you get your wish, then!" 

Something beeped, and with a curse he pulled his phone out. 

"Looks like the clock's run out. Laura's probably eagerly waiting for me to arrive so she can be fashionably late to dinner, so I should get going. How do I look?" 

She stepped back and gave him an appraising look. 

"Yeah, I think Laura'd be fine even if you showed up in a dress, so you don't really have much to worry about there. Still, you should probably get going. Don't want to keep the lady waiting for her grand entrance," she joked. 

Grinning, he sounded his thanks before rushing out the door. 

As soon as the door clicked shut, her smile dropped. 

Not one to revel in her panic, she ran to her room and jammed the power switch for her computer. 

As soon as she was logged in, her fingers began flying across the keys. 

She began writing out lists and thoughts, all in the name of finding an ideal housemate. 

While she hadn't loved living with Alex to start with, she didn't like the idea of having to deal all over again with living with someone she didn't know, especially after they'd hashed things out and started acting like a family. 

An hour later found a fully written ad noisily being inked from the printer at her side. 

As the sheets began dropping, she allowed herself a sigh. 

If someone could fit what she was asking for, then everything would work out just fine... 

Rachel's hands flew across her monitor, the pen-like device in her hands blurring with her quick movements. 

A grin curled her lips as her housemate appeared line by line in front of her. 

While Ai might not appreciate the incredibly anime clone of herself, Rachel found herself giggling at the image. 

As she sketched into the computer, she found herself wondering if she could talk Ai into posing for her. 

Her hand slowed as her mind detoured firmly into the gutter. 

As her face grew steadily warmer, her eyes slipped away from the digital tablet to the rest of her desk. 

Her gaze locked on the collar, and she felt her blush blossom fully in an instant. 

A goofy grin spread across her lips, and she ran her finger along the leather as if coaxing the memories to resurface. 

The previous night, she hadn't really thought too deeply on what Ai might think, after having explained what the simple ring of leather could mean, when she'd asked to keep it. 

Somehow, she couldn't seem to worry too much about it. 

It had been an impulsive decision. 

A short walk on her hands and knees around the apartment in the thing, and she'd been almost ready to cum again without Ai even touching her. 

They'd both been surprised with the discovery, but Rachel had eagerly agreed to work out something that would last longer while being lead on the leash. 

Until she'd started crawling, the blonde had been pretty sure that her interests had almost exclusively been in bondage. 

Something had struck with the collar. 

Her legs clenched together as she continued staring at it. 

Every time that Ai had called her pet before, it had always made her feel dirty, though in an entirely enjoyable way. 

With the collar on, though, it was different, somehow. 

It had at least in part been the cause for how close to orgasm she'd been by the end of their short walk. 

As she went over the details of the previous night again and again, she found herself wondering at how much self-discovery could happen in a year. 

Her eyes glazed over as she zoned out then, her mind following the train of thought as her illustration sat unfinished before her once again... 

Rachel pulled into the driveway with a sigh. 

For some reason, the teachers didn't partake in the students' glee over being done shortly. 

She couldn't fathom how she had so much homework despite being only a month from graduation. 

As she trudged dazedly through the house, she almost missed the pile of mail sitting just inside their door. 

With a sigh, she went through the pile in search of the spam that surely awaited her. 

She flipped through with a bored sigh, until she found a small white envelope among the fliers and bills. 

Seeing the small insignia on the envelope, her heart skipped a beat. 

"Anything interesting?" a masculine voice inquired. 

With a nod, she handed the pile over to her father before tearing the paper open. 

Holding her breath, she started reading the college letter. 

Grinning, she handed the letter over while almost dancing with excitement. 

"I got in!" 

Raising a brow at her, her father read the letter over himself. 

"You applied to an art college?" 

Rachel continued grinning despite his skeptical tone, not letting him ruin her good mood. 

"Yuh-huh. A pretty big one. Which I had to apply for with a portfolio, so take that into account while explaining why it's a bad idea," she quipped. 

His expression became thoughtful at that. 

"You do realize this is in Philly, right?" 

"Better than somewhere out of state entirely." 

A thought occurred to her as she figured out the path her father's thoughts had taken, and her smile dimmed. 




Of Love and Iron Ch. 03



Her mother appeared then at his side with a sympathetic smile of her own. 

"Looks like you'll be home-hunting," she stated. "That's way too far to drive." 

Rachel's smile dropped then as her mind went to work. 

Her first realization was that she knew nobody anywhere near that part of Pennsylvania. 

"Well, I'll be shelling out for college anyway, so paying rent shouldn't be too much of a stretch." 

She spared a brief, thankful thought to any deities that listened that her job was currently online. 

With the sudden stresses of coming down from the high of being accepted into her school of choice, having to hunt for another job would have made her panic. 

Her father stared incredulously at his wife, seeming aghast with her easy acceptance. 

"You're an easily swayed one, aren't you?" 

"Who do you think helped her put the portfolio together?" she retorted with a small smirk. 

Her father only groaned as they headed into the kitchen to have a long chat. 

As the three hashed out all the details, though, Rachel was sure that all the apparent issues would be solved. 

It only took a week of her looking at ads to be proven correct. 

Just as her enthusiasm began to fall from so many dead ends, she hit a stroke of phenomenal luck. 

While she wasn't against the idea of dorms, she felt that living with so many people she didn't know would probably not end well. 

She'd happened upon a classifieds website in her search for off-campus housing, and one ad in particular caught her eye. 

The cost was a bit more than what a two-bedroom dorm room would cost, but the listed size of the apartment and what went with it for the price was astounding. 

Whoever posted the ad seemed to have standards as well, given the list of qualifications for any applicants. 

She'd sent an email to the address given, and found the poster, apparently a woman named Aiko, to be very well-spoken in the phone conversation that shortly followed. 

That very weekend found her meeting Ai for the first time. 

It was clear that Ai was nervous from the moment she was invited inside. 

From the beginning, Rachel had the impression that Ai was forced to get a housemate, rather than wanting one. 

For Rachel's part, she hadn't been expecting Ai to be quite as pleasing to the eyes as she was. 

She fought to keep her eyes up as she moved behind the slightly smaller Asian, but felt a blush creep onto her face when, for just a moment, she swore Ai caught her. 

When they took their seats to hash details out, Rachel removed her jacket, and that was when things changed. 

She'd decided to just be herself for the meeting, rather than selling a perfect housemate to Ai that would vanish as soon as the papers were signed. 

As such, she'd thought nothing of wearing some of her more Goth-styled clothes. 

She wondered how bad of a decision that had been when Ai's gaze locked onto her silver shirt. 

A pattern of grinning skulls wrapped around the edges, changing from black and red along the shirt. They worked into a small spiral moving into the center of the shirt, where a horrific creature was illustrated tipping a red liquid from one of the skulls into its fanged maw. 

Text made to look like rusted metal scrawled around the creature, spelling out the name of a gruesome horror film, which fell into obscurity decades earlier. 

She realized, on thinking about it, that the shirt painted a darker picture than she would've thought. 

Then Ai's gaze moved up to meet her own, and a grin split her lips. 

"I didn't know anyone else even saw that movie," she mused. 

That was all it took to break the ice, and the women spent much longer on conversation than either had been expecting. 

By the time Rachel left, the deal was struck, happily for both sides. 

She was graduated and moved into her new home scant weeks later, almost a month before her first semester of college began. 

As she'd expected, she and Ai got on surprisingly well, mostly from a shared love of all things scary and bloody. 

They got into a routine quickly, trading off chores weekly. 

It was the second month into her college life that things, once again, changed. 

It had been Rachel's turn to clean the apartment, and Ai had made the mistake of leaving the hallway closet she used open. 

When Rachel was maneuvering the vacuum around the ajar closet door, she spotted a large, open box on the floor. 

Her cleaning paused as she stared in utter incomprehension at the various items she saw in the box. 

Some things were blatantly obvious as to what their uses were, causing the blonde's face to take on a tomato's coloring. 

The others were more mysterious, until she connected them with the ones she could identify. 

The vacuum continued screeching into the air as her mind wandered. 

Thanks at least in part to being a frequenter of the club back home, it wasn't overly shocking to see BDSM paraphernalia. 

She'd seen more than a few people fully dressed in fetish gear at the Djed, and after the first few times, the shock value had worn off for her. 

A keen interest had taken its place instead, only growing with the more time she'd spent at the club over the year. 

She'd never found any women to try any of the interesting ideas rolling around in her mind out with, but she had learned a lot from those few she conversed with. 

While the items themselves weren't anything overly impressive for her, it was surprising that Aiko had them, since she seemed relatively straight-arrow, despite who her brother Alex had told her their father was. 

A crystal-clear image of herself kneeling down to Ai suddenly appeared in her mind, and the blonde felt heat pool between her thighs. 

Shaking her head, she pushed herself into returning to her cleaning. 

Unfortunately, the damage had already been done, the same moment that Ai noticed her staring at her gear. 

Flushing bright red, a pulse of anger worked its way through the Asian as she moved to the oblivious woman. 

When Rachel turned the vacuum around, she jumped at how close the very irate Ai was to her. 

Feeling the heat still pulsing through her, she switched it off so the apartment was suddenly flooded with an oppressive silence. 

Thinking she was on the way to her room, Rachel pressed against the wall to allow her passage. 

Aiko's lack of movement furthered her confusion, as did the angry glare focused on her. 

"Uh, Ai-?" 

"What're you snooping in my stuff for?" she demanded. 

Rachel stared in confusion at her while her mind worked out that she'd been caught staring at her housemate's sex toys. 

Turning an even brighter red, she opened her mouth to respond- 

A knocking sound broke Rachel from her revelry, and she violently shook her head to clear the memory and blush both away. 

She turned to find Ai leaning against her doorframe, smirking at her. 

"You must've been enjoying wherever your brain detoured to," she laughed. 

Shrugging, Rachel switched the monitor off and made her way over to Ai, throwing in an exaggerated sway to her steps. 

When she came to a stop in front of her, her eyes were glazed over and her lips were in a seductive smile. 

"Very much so. Curious?" she whispered. 

Ai shivered at the feel of breath on her ear, making her own face redden. 

At some point during her reminiscing, Rachel had unconsciously slipped her collar back on. 

She hadn't noticed the weight before then. 

When Ai wrapped her index finger into the D-ring and pulled her head down into a hot kiss, though, she was glad she had...



Of Love and Iron Ch. 04



IV. Magic Touch

They pulled apart once spots began dancing across their visions, heavy panting flooding the otherwise silent air.

Ai grinned at her and curled her finger, taking a more firm hold on the D-ring.

"So you like the collar?"

"A lot," Rachel returned with her own grin. "You've got my tastes down."

Smirking, Ai began taking small steps backward, gently tugging her housemate along with her.

"You have no idea," she chuckled.

"I have work to do," Rachel complained, though with great reluctance.

Ai stopped moving, confidence radiating from her amused expression.

She slowly stepped close to Rachel, eyes locking together while she removed all space between them.

"I was going to ask if you wanted to take a break, and found you totally spaced out and about a second from playing with yourself. Clearly, your head's not on working right now. Or are you saying that you'd rather memories over the real thing?"

A small, completely insincere pout curved her lips downward as Ai's hands slipped to the blonde's waist.

Something tightened in Rachel's stomach as her housemate's hands continued sliding until they both took a firm hold of her ass.

"How do you know I was reminiscing about you?" the blonde retorted breathily.

Ai raised a brow in challenge, her hold tightening in response.

"Were you thinking of someone else?"

Rachel's face burned hot, her skin quickly turning dark red the longer she was in her housemate's hold.

"N-No," she finally muttered.

One of Ai's hands slipped up to cup the blonde's cheek, a thumb lightly caressing her lower lip.

"Good girl."

Rachel turned her head slightly, taking the finger into her mouth and lightly playing her tongue across the skin.

"So what did your break idea entail, exactly?" she inquired.

Ai's breath played across her neck, sending shivers through the blonde's body.

"Well," the cheerleader practically purred into her housemate's warm pulse point, "I was thinking of giving you a nice surprise. Something we haven't tried before."

Her hand moved from slightly parted lips, tracing light, feathery circles along her body on its way to Rachel's left wrist.

"First, I would blindfold you, and make your senses go wild while I stripped you down, piece by piece, drawing it out until you were ready to jump out of your skin."

As she spoke, she began moving back once more, again pulling Rachel along without any resistance.

"Then, I was thinking I would tie you down, nice and tight, onto my bed, so all you could do was squirm for me."

"S-sounds good so f-far," Rachel practically moaned.

"I thought it might," Ai giggled.

"What next?"

"Next is where the surprise comes in, when you can do nothing but guess at what will be happening to you," she purred to her housemate.

She reached her door and gently kicked, sending it silently curving inward to reveal her room.

Her attention so focused on her Mistress, Rachel entirely missed the items resting on Ai's desk near the doorway.

Ai, however, grabbed a piece of fabric from among the pile as they moved past the desk.

Rachel shuddered as the black cloth covered her eyes, the room going completely dark around her.

Ai gently gathered Rachel's hair into a tight horsetail before coiling the cloth around her head several times with the other hand.

The silky mane cascaded down against Ai's skin as she moved to tie a knot, sealing her sub's vision off.

She gave herself a satisfied nod as soon as her tools for the night were safely hidden from Rachel, the surprises kept to the blonde's very active imagination.

Stepping behind Rachel, the Asian began lightly running her hands from thigh to neck, caressing everything in between.

When soft pants began to leave Rachel's parted lips, Ai ran her hands beneath her shirt.

Her touch sent vibrations across the flat stomach, the flesh trembling as she made her way higher.

Rachel's nightwear was incredibly light that evening, and for how thin the cotton shirt loosely wrapped around her torso was, Ai thought she may as well have just gone topless.

She reached the beginnings of lovely, twin swells, then, and discovered that her housemate had apparently been in a very similar mindset.

Her hands pressed against nothing but warm flesh, and wetness spread across her inner thighs.

"It's almost less fun, when you already do half the work for me," she quipped.

She grins as Rachel reacts to the warm breath on her ear, her soft body pressing back into her hard in reaction.

"I think more fun would make this end too early," the blonde moaned as she felt warm palms toying with her breasts.

Smirking, Ai released her hold and slipped her palms back down, until she reached the hem of Rachel's shirt.

Before it even hit the floor, Ai's hands were clamped on her hips.

Rachel had decided to go with a well-worn pair of short shorts that evening, the cotton feeling incredibly warm under her Mistress's roaming hands.

The blonde's heart began racing even harder the longer Ai kneaded her ass, the Asian enjoying the feel of every bit of covered flesh she could get her hands on.

Her touches gradually went lower along Rachel's thighs, the thin cotton doing almost nothing to dim the sensation for the blonde.

When she reached the bottom of the shorts, Ai stepped slightly closer and slid her hands around to Rachel's front.

The blonde's breathing hitched when her Mistress began retracing her progress upward.

Ai stopped short when she reached the tops of Rachel's thighs, relishing the expected warmth she found there.

She hummed into her sub's ear, a grin curving her lips as she kept them a scant twitch away from the sensitive organ.

"Is my pet already wet?"

As she asked, her hands slipped into the curve of Rachel's thighs, coming to rest at the soaked fabric resting between.

Rachel's breath hissed out between clenched teeth, her entire body tightening in anticipation.

"M-maybe," she muttered in another near-moan.

"Only maybe? I think I should check. So we can be sure," Ai mused before running her tongue along the heated shell of the blonde's ear.

Rachel shuddered, her body vibrating against her Mistress's own.

"B-Being sure's good," she agreed breathily.

With her vision sealed, Rachel couldn't see the cheerleader as she promptly slid around her and lowered to her knees.

She did, however, realize the shift when she felt a puff of warm breath against her thin shorts.

The heat added to the burning sensations already running through her crotch, and she squirmed as the fabric grew uncomfortably wetter.

Ai stifled a moan as the heady scent of her housemate's arousal reaches her.

She grinned at the dark spot covering the grey material, Rachel's thighs noticeably shining wetly around.

"Oh, my! Poor pet. If I strip your little pussy bare right now, you might make a mess on my carpet," Ai purred with a low chuckle.

To add to her speech, she pressed an index finger against the soaked crotch and rubbed gently.

The words, combined with the touch, sent another hard spike of fire through Rachel, her entire body tightening.

She almost doubled over, her twitching stomach coming to rest on Ai's shoulder.

Her mouth parted, but any retort she planned to make was interrupted by the very loud, very wanton moan that ripped its way free instead.

Ai grinned at the blonde, her index finger slowly slipping upward.

Rachel hissed as a nail flicked over her barely cushioned clit, her hips bucking forward and nearly sending her toppling over.

And then, the finger reached the top of the shorts, and with one swift motion, they were down.

The blonde shuddered at the trail of wetness now coating most of her legs, her pussy clenching at the cool air suddenly hitting it.

Ai watched the blonde's pussy clenching, begging for her touch.

Not that it needed to, given Rachel's more than vocal requests along the same lines.

"I told you, I have plans. Patience, pet, is a virtue," Ai purred.

Grabbing up the drenched shorts, Ai rose, pushing the blonde back to a standing position as she did.

Seeing that her whole body was twitching and looking decidedly unsteady, Ai decided to take pity on her.

Her touch on Rachel's arm drew a whimper, and she led her pet the three short steps needed to reach her bed.

As soon as the sub felt the bed at her knees, she flopped forward like a limp doll.

Ai moved quickly, flipping her pet onto her back on the bed and pressing her reaching hands into the soft bed.

"Do not touch yourself, Rachel. This is for the both of us, and if you cum before I tell you that you can, the punishment will be as unpleasant as what I plan will be fantastic," the cheerleader warned.

Rachel whimpered, but her hands didn't so much as twitch when they were released.

The blonde had gotten very used to the various tones when her housemate was domming her, and she knew better than to resist when she used the very clear 'don't fuck with me' tone she'd just been warned with.

Ai moved to her desk quickly, a satisfied smile forming when she didn't hear any shifting sheets.

She nonetheless hurried, grabbing the implements for the next stage of her plans.

Her own clothes fell silently to the floor as she moved, the fabric suddenly swelteringly warm on her sweating body.

Rachel shivered when the bed dipped, marking her Mistress's return.

Something incredibly soft and cool played across her wrists, drawing more twitches from her.

"W-what's that?" she whimpered.

Ai's hand reached her left breast, a fingernail lightly tracing a circle around her painfully stretched bud.

"That," Ai whispered with her mouth suddenly hovering over the sub's ear, "is step two. I know you want to be a good girl for me-"

"So much, Mistress!"

She hissed through clamped teeth when Ai pinched her nipple, not overly painful, but hard enough to let her know interrupting again would result in something worse.

"-but I can't trust your self-restraint," Ai finished. "Because what comes next will have you squirming a lot, and I really don't want to punish you for fucking yourself while I'm still playing."

The strange sensation again played over Rachel's wrists, her hands clenching tight to prevent herself from grabbing at the mystery.

Suddenly, she found her right arm yanked to the side, and tightness added itself to the soft, cool touch.

When she instinctively jerked back, she found her arm completely locked in place by whatever it was.

Ai watched the scarf, satisfied when Rachel's pull did nothing with the slack she had only barely given the blonde.

She quickly slipped over to Rachel's other side, her wet pussy brushing against a twitching stomach as she ties a second scarf off.

Rachel was again too distracted to notice the scarf being tied to her remaining wrist, this time by the wet warmth spreading along her stomach.

Rachel whimpered when her other arm was pulled tight, effectively sealing her torso from moving.

With her senses of heightened by her lack of sight, the cool silk played on her senses incredibly.

"I t-think you m-might be right to be worried," she moaned while her thighs clenched together.

Seeing the movement, Ai slid her ass down Rachel's stomach, enjoying the sight of her wetness on the clenching muscles as she went.

When she reached damp thighs, she promptly slid them apart and sat between them.

Heat radiated from Rachel's naked pussy, the bed beneath shining from her juices.

"You're utterly drenched, you poor thing," she cooed.

The blonde twitched and released a wet moan in response, her legs clenching around Ai's waist.

"Please! Fuck! I'm... so fucking hot," she whimpered. "Please, Mistress, fuck me before I lose my mind!"

Giggling, Ai placed her hands on Rachel's twitching hips and dragged her hands downward.

"So enthusiastic. I'll tell you what, pet. If you really want to cum now, I'll show mercy. But I promise you that if I let you loose now, what's coming won't be as amazing as planned. It will be torture on the way, but the reward will be utterly amazing."

Her hands reached Rachel's thighs, and she slowly pushed them out until Rachel's body was spread-eagle.

The blonde bit her lip, her mind clearly locked in a strong internal war.

With her sub's mind so distracted, Ai finds no trouble at all as she ties her legs tightly to the other end of her bed.

By the time Rachel's mind was back to her, she found that her legs were just as helplessly tied as her arms, and that her entire body was utterly vulnerable.

"I-I don't know how long I can hold off," she whispered.

Even bound as she was, her legs still attempted to press together, to cause some pressure to relieve the fire burning in her abdomen.

Ai leaned close to the blonde's face, careful not to touch her and send her over the edge while balancing on one hand.

In her other hand, Rachel's small shorts caused a wet sensation to her palm, and she smirked at the thought of the scent remaining.

Rachel sucked in a gulp of air at the wet touch that suddenly registered to her mind, her shorts pressing gently to her cheek and slowly migrating.

"I know you'll do your best. But I thought of a good way to kill two birds here. I don't want to get the desk or carpet wet, so I thought that maybe your mouth would make for a good place to keep these deliciously drenched shorts of yours. And if you're feeling like you're about to lose it, just distract yourself by focusing on the lovely taste that biting on these will fill your mouth with."

A brilliant, scarlet glow overtakes Rachel's face, and Ai wondered if she was actually hearing the blonde's heartbeat just then, or if it was her own.

Slowly, the blonde's mouth parted, and with a smile, Ai deposited the soaked material inside.

With her cheeks expanded, Rachel's moans were effectively quieted, and her blush grew even brighter as her taste slowly seeped onto her tongue.

Ai reached to the last tool she'd grabbed, slowly moving up Rachel's body.

The blonde instinctively clutched her hand around the small square pressed into her palm.

She felt a small dial on the box, and her blush further intensified as she recognized it.

"I have a little gadget set up. You can't exactly use a safeword right now, all trussed up and with you mouth so stuffed, so if I do anything you're against, turn the dial. I'll know immediately. And that doesn't include me drawing your pleasure out," she quickly added.

Rachel warmed in a different way, the amount of thought put into the session drawing a fresh wave of heat from her.

She cried out her agreement, though the speech was entirely stunted by the cloth locking her vowels to mere mumbled slurs.

"And now, pet, we start the surprise," Ai whispered before moving back to her desk.

Grabbing her supplies, she turned back and took a moment to marvel at the goddess bound to her bed.

Muscles twitched as her body attempted to alleviate the sensations in her pussy, and sweat mingled with her pre-cum to give her entire form a seeming glow.

Taking a large lungful of air, Ai moved back towards the bed with her new tools in hand.

She laid them on the edge, out of the range of Rachel's feet, and crawled up her body until their faces were level.

"So, do you want to know what the surprise is, now, pet?" she whispered.

More shivers rippled through Rachel, who emphatically nodded in agreement.

A puff of breath reached the blonde's ear, and she bucked as liquid heat arced through her entire body.

"The surprise is that, like you are, you're going to feel everything more," Ai whispered. "Like, for example, I bet that my breath just then felt really good, didn't it?"

Another nod, and Ai slipped down until their bodies were just barely touching.

"Not unusual, but if you aren't able to see, all your other senses will compensate and intensify to make up for it."

Her finger gently brushed down the blonde's chest, coming to a stop as she gently circled a nail around a pebbled nipple.

"My touches-" Ai giggled when Rachel's whole body twitched.

She flicked her tongue against feather-soft lips, tasting traces of Rachel's juices there.

"-your taste-"

Rachel's ears strained, an abrupt silence reaching her at the same time her heat vanished from above her.

She couldn't even hear the Asian's breathing, but she managed to pick up on the sound of soft brushing noises.

The blonde whimpered when Ai suddenly reappeared to her senses, as she released a loud, wanton moan into her ear that set her skin aflame.

"-your hearing-" Ai giggled, enjoying watching the blonde squirm desperately.

A much lighter moan sounded, followed by something making a squishing noise.

Before Rachel could ponder what it was, she felt something warm placed on her lips, and an incredible, familiar scent reached her nose.

"-and the smell of me close to you. I'm about 95% sure that everything I do is going to drive you wild. And when I finally let you go, you're going to cum so much," she purred.

More muffled moans reached her ears as she let her tongue gently flick against Rachel's neck, a wet trail burning at the skin in her wake.

"I might need to get new sheets after this," Ai giggled.

Ai shifted her body back over Rachel's, placing her lips directly on the blonde's ear.

A slow, long breath passed her lips, drawing an even brighter shade of scarlet from the sensitive skin there.

Her body slowly moved downward, more warm breaths burning at the cooling trail of saliva left previously.

Rachel shivered as Ai continued downward, her whole body seemingly turning to gooseflesh.

The Mistress took meticulous care, working her way down every bit of skin from the blonde's head to her calves.

When her vision began to fill with spots, her breathing becoming labored, she took the teasing pleasure up with gentle, nearly nonexistent caresses with her barely-present nails.

By the time she worked her way back to Rachel's other ear, the blonde was writhing in her restraints.

The bed around her twitching ass was turned dark with her copious juices, and the air was filled with gasping, muffled moans.

Ai noticed with some amusement that her housemate's chin was covered in a mixture of saliva and cum, having long-since overflowed from her attempts to distract herself.

A cooing noise left her as she played her tongue across, another whimper leaving Rachel at the new contact.

Leaning backward, Ai grabbed up her next tool, the feather soft between her fingers.

"You know, I'd been wanting to do this kind of thing for a while. I'm glad it's turning out so well, aren't you?"

Rachel's head jerked back and forth, even the sounds of her breaths quivering.

Taking note of the sound, Ai leaned down until she was nearly kissing the blonde.

"Everything alright, pet?"

Her speech was unintelligible through the soaked cloth, but Ai breathed easier when she could vaguely make out the words 'so horny' as the explanation for the blonde's breathing.

"Hold on, pet. You're almost there," Ai soothed.

Rachel groaned in response, and the blonde briefly worried that she was going to bite right through the wet material of the shorts.

Every action that her Mistress was taking added more and more heat to her already addled mind, and by that point she considered herself lucky to be able to think at all.

When Ai lightly brought the tip of the feather down on her labia, and began trailing soft circles around the engorged lips, that, too vanished.

Ai giggled when she found that, very quickly, the feather began to bend under the weight of the blonde's absorbed wetness.




Of Love and Iron Ch. 04



"Oh, wow," she laughed.

Rachel made a strange, almost-squealing sound when Ai brushed three small circles on each of her nipples with the soaked feather, and then it played across her cheek.

Her scent hit the blonde hard when her Mistress brushed the feather over her lips on the way to the opposite cheek.

"It's a good thing you're naked, right now, pet. If you were wearing panties right now, they'd be ruined," Ai breathed into the blonde's ear.

She heard only animalistic grunts as her response, and Ai slowly slid down Rachel's body.

Her face came to rest before a very red and powerfully twitching pussy.

She gave a strong shudder of her own at the incredible smell rising from her pet's groin.

She grabbed her final tool with a quick twitch of her arm, a wicked grin curving her lips.

"I think it's time for you to get rewarded for doing such a good job, pet."

Rachel's hips bucked upward in response, nearly hitting Ai's face.

Giggling, the Mistress put a hand down on a quivering thigh and leaned even closer.

She quickly put the brush's head in her mouth, thoroughly wetting the bristles.

Her face then pressed forward, and Rachel squealed as a long tongue slipped into her pussy.

Ai moaned at the taste that completely covered her mouth, her pet's arousal taking all of the cheerleader's attention.

She began with slow, torturous licks around the inside of the blonde's clenching walls, her chin quickly becoming covered in pre-cum.

As Rachel began bucking into her face, the started lapping circuits around the inside, her tongue pressing as far into the blonde as possible.

Ai could practically feel the end of Rachel's resistance, her sub's entire body coiling tight despite the bindings still holding her apart.

She briefly pulled free, leaving her lips just hovering over the glistening labia.

"Cum, pet," she commanded.

She dove back into her oral ministrations, and just as Rachel's body began jerking back and forth, Ai brought the brush up.

The feel of the soft, wet bristles insistently pressing into her clit, paired with Ai's skilled tongue, drew a screech from the blonde that was audible regardless of her gag.

Ai grinned into Rachel's pussy, following the blonde's circling hips and not breaking her contact for a moment.

Cum suddenly filled her mouth, the sweet taste drawing a moan from the cheerleader.

She was too addled in her pleasure to pay much attention to the purposeful movements of the cheerleader's tongue, as though she were writing messages into her tunnel.

The Mistress redoubled her efforts with the brush, and just as Rachel's body had begun to relax, a fresh wave of wetness rose in the wake of the previous.

She quickly shifted position, wanting to draw the pleasure out for her sub for as long as possible.

The brush began playing over hard nipples, while a pair of fingers started sawing rapidly into a clenching pussy.

Rachel came again when soft lips locked around her clit and a strong sucking sensation hit the bundle of nerves.

It was when Ai was building up a third orgasm that Rachel's fists clenched tight.

Something suddenly sparked into Ai's awareness, and a loud humming sound reached the blonde's ears.

A wet moan came from between her legs, and suddenly the sensations stopped.

With the vibrator pulsing rapidly in her own drenched pussy, Ai looked up worriedly at Rachel's face.

She released a relieved sigh when she realized the blonde hadn't hit her 'panic button' on purpose, though there was a worrisome shade of color to her face.

She twitched at the vibrations running through her, and gave a final kiss to the blonde's pussy.

Another small orgasm rocked through Rachel at the touch, and she sighed as she felt Ai sliding upward.

Fingers gently pulled Rachel's lips apart, and she took gasping gulps of oxygen when the shorts were removed from her clenched jaw.

Rachel's body pulsed with heat with every erratic heartbeat, and the blonde wondered if she would be able to see through the spots if she weren't blindfolded.

Ai grinned down at her pet, the sounds of her soft breaths causing her own pussy to clench around the pulsing toy within.

Rachel's arms flopped limply at her sides when the scarves were untied.

Ai placed a soft kiss to each wrist, glad that the skin was barely reddened, before moving onto release the blonde's legs.

When her housemate's body was completely released, Ai laid down at her side.

The blonde's stomach twitched slightly when Ai put her hand down on it, her finger rubbing gentle circles there.

Rachel raised a shaky hand to her head, quickly slipping the blindfold off before the burst of strength left her.

She found Ai to be staring at her with an unreadable expression, the sound of her harsh breaths filling the air after the cheerleader switched her vibrator off.

"How do you feel?" Ai asked with a smile.

"Fucking amazing," Rachel whispered.

Ai giggled, pressing a bit more into the blonde's side.

"Good to hear."

She leaned forward slightly, and took the blonde's breath away anew with a soft but incredibly sweet kiss.

"I'm very proud of you. You held on phenomenally."

"Thank you," Rachel mumbled with a brilliant blush. "And you were right. That was... I mean... wow..."

"Of course I was right," Ai laughed. "So do we put this on the repeat list?"

"Absolutely! Just, uh, not too often, 'kay? I don't think my brain can take it," Rachel giggled breathily.

"Sounds good to me."

Neither knew how long they lay there, before the heavy smell of their session began to reach them.

Rachel grimaced when she realized her legs were beginning to stick together, and Ai smirked when she noticed.

"I think we could both use a shower," the cheerleader mused.

"I... don't think I could stand that long," Rachel admitted.

"A bath, then. I'll go run it, and you stay here and relax til' I come get you."

Rachel noticed the grin curving her Mistress's lips, and frowned slightly while blushing.

"D-Don't be so cocky. Next time, I'll make sure that you're the one who can't move anything," she threatened.

Chuckling, Ai placed another kiss on the blonde before standing up.

"Good to have ambitions, pet."

Rachel stuck her tongue out at her laughing housemate's retreating back...

On the other side of the town, removed from the comfortably sleeping and completely sated couple, Annabelle giggled to herself as she typed.

The email she'd built was made up of fifteen photos, and while her phone's camera wasn't the best quality, she knew whoever saw the pictures would be able to figure out what they were seeing.

She'd taken Rachel's threat to heart, and while she knew as soon as the fire started both women would immediately know it was her, nobody else would.

A bulk email server, set up to work with a dummy email she'd set up in fifteen minutes, and she was more than ready to screw both of their lives royally.

As she uploaded the last photo, her smile dimmed somewhat.

It was a shame she only had the emails of a few gossips.

She would love to see the fallout if she'd been able to find any kind of email associated with Rachel's parents.

They were far more religious than she was, and the idea of letting them know what their girl was doing would've been a truly amazing revenge.

She quickly got over her funk, though, when she again read the contact list for the server.

She knew that from just the ten people she was sending the email, the news would travel fast.

Most wouldn't care, but it was going to reach quite a few of the girls' classmates.

The campus wasn't that large.

Sneering, she hit send.

Her heartbeat sped up as the message marking her note sent popped up, and she allowed herself another giggle... 



Of Love and Iron Ch. 05



V. Wildfire 

Rachel woke up in the early morning, smiling a contented smile at the feel of Ai's arms wrapped securely around her stomach. 

The cheerleader's face was resting on her shoulder, her sleeping expression utterly adorable. 

She found herself fighting the urge to kiss her housemate awake, soft and slightly parted lips seeming to draw her to them. 

At the rising memories of the previous night, her body clenched, and she bit back a soft moan. 

It never ceased to amaze her, how much effort her housemate always put into making their play incredible. 

The previous night, though, while Ai had been meticulously scrubbing her clean in their bathtub, she'd felt that something had shifted, and she thought it was something other than just wishful thinking. 

She didn't know what, exactly, it was, but she could feel it in every touch that Ai had laid on her. 

She vaguely remembered the Asian giving a soft murmur to her as they'd drifted to sleep together, but she couldn't remember what it had been. 

Despite not being sure of what she'd heard, the memory caused her body to warm, and she found her heart to suddenly be beating faster. 

She must have made some sound or another, because soon, Ai's face scrunched cutely together and she slowly opened her eyes. 

The same expression colored her features as the previous night, but before Rachel could analyze it, it was gone. 

In its place was a soft smile, and her stomach tightened when Ai began to lightly caress circles into the skin. 

"Morning, beautiful," Ai mumbled with hints of drowsiness thickening her voice. "How'd you sleep?" 

"Well," Rachel returned with a smile of her own, and a definite blush. 

"I'll bet. I mean, you must have been so tired," Ai offered with a light chuckle. 

Rachel's blush intensified, and she met the cheerleader's cocky smirk with a raised brow. 

"Seriously. When you least expect it. Be prepared to be laid out on your sexy ass," Rachel warned. 

Ai hummed in agreement, clearly not worried. 

Her expression softened, then, and she leaned in to place a chaste kiss on the blonde's lips. 

"I'll look forward to it. I've got morning practice, so I should probably get ready." 

"I don't mind. Just gives me more time to plot." 

"I don't plot. I strategize," Ai offered with a laugh. "Very well, if needing to practically carry you to the tub last night was any indication." 

Rachel blushed into Ai's next kiss, which quickly became hot and hungry. 

Feeling the cheerleader's smirk in the kiss, Rachel fought the building moan down. 

Her housemate gave a grunt of surprise when she pushed herself over, putting Ai firmly beneath her. 

She then broke the kiss, grinning down at Ai. 

Ai seemed to pick something up in her expression, because she became decidedly nervous even as intense heat filled her gaze. 

"Rache, I need to get to practice," she groaned. 

Rachel simply flicked a nail against one of Ai's hard nipples in response, drawing a hiss from her. 

"Hey, I'm not stopping you. All you need to do is flip little me over, and then you can be on your way." 

Even as she said that, she lowered her head towards Ai's chest. 

A mix between a groan and a whimper lifted from Ai's throat in response. 

Rachel kept their eyes locked together as she sucked a nipple into her mouth. 

When her tongue began twirling around the bud, Ai's eyes slammed closed. 

A spike of arousal moved through Ai's body, making sure she was fully awake then. 

Hearing a whine rising from Ai's throat, Rachel sucked hard enough that her cheeks hollowed. 

At the same time, she pressed her tongue flat against the skin and began dragging in languid licks upward and back. 

She felt Ai's thighs rubbing strongly together beneath her own heated core, and felt a definite satisfaction in the response. 

With her eyes closed, Ai didn't feel Rachel's hand moving until two fingers were firmly inside of her twitching lips. 

"Fuck, Rachel." 

The blonde pulled away from Ai's breast with a wet pop, then, her lips curved in a large grin. 

"Nope. There was plenty of that last night. Right now, I'm letting you know better than to take my threats lightly." 

Ai's retort was cut off when the fingers curved expertly upward, hitting a particularly pleasurable spot. 

Then, her hand pressed forward, and her palm was gently rolling overtop Ai's clit. 

The cheerleader's back arched, desperately pressing herself more firmly into Rachel's hand. 

Rachel felt her own pussy getting uncomfortably warm at the sounds she was drawing from Ai. 

The longer she toyed with Ai, the more she found her hips jerking slightly, until finally she gave in and began rubbing herself against the cheerleader's thigh. 

The scent of arousal quickly filled the room as they continued grinding against each other, both women unable to hold in their moans for very long. 

Remembering the point, though, Rachel bit her lip hard, and the brief burst of pain gave her mind some more clarity. 

"Isn't this a much better reason to get sweaty?" she gasped. 

Ai tried responding with sarcasm. 

The attempt was quickly derailed by her loud moan. 

Her legs wrapped around Rachel's thigh, and she began bucking in earnest. 

Rachel smiled at the incredibly sexy expression on the cheerleader's face. 

She moved in for the kill, her lips latching on Ai's neck, just above the pulse point. 

Her free hand moved into position, then, gently clamping onto Ai's un-licked nipple. 

Ai's stomach tightened as she realized what was coming. 

As Rachel lightly pulled upward on the nipple, a pulse of slight pain accompanied the arousal that coursed outward from her breast. 

Rachel then clamped her lips tightly together and sucked. 

While both actions were taking place, she slid her fingers from inside of Ai's pussy and began rolling her clit between the wet digits. 

Without her hand obstructing, her knee was pulled firmly ground into the cheerleader's thighs. 

Ai's mouth fell open as a wet scream left her. 

Her entire body coiled tight, firmly trapping Rachel against her as she came. 

Incoherent murmurs left Ai's lips as Rachel kept up her ministrations. 

Even as her first orgasm ended, Rachel drew the next wave out of her. 

The cheerleader fell into a limp, whimpering pile on the bed by her fourth orgasm. 

Sweating and panting, Rachel slowly extricated herself from clutching legs. 

Ai's gaze locked on her as she slowly brought her soaked hand to her lips and began sucking it clean one finger at a time. 

"Best breakfast ever," she murmured around her pointer finger. 

Seeing Ai's stare, she brought her hand forward until her middle finger touched slightly bruised lips. 

"Want a taste?" 

Ai didn't give any thought to it as she slowly sucked the finger into her mouth. 

Her own taste, she thought, wasn't quite as enjoyable as Rachel's, but she enjoyed it nonetheless. 

She gasped when Rachel pulled the digit free, giving the finger one last lick before letting her arm fall back to the bed. 

"Will you be a little worried about my threat, now, please?" Rachel gasped. 

Despite her heaving chest, Ai felt her lips curving into its cocky grin as she sat up. 

"That was a pretty great warm-up, Rachel." 

Rachel's eyes narrowed, even as she felt her own smirk grow larger. 

Despite Ai's boasting, her entire body was flushed red, and there was an incredible hunger showing in her eyes. 

"Oh, we haven't even started." 

Before she could grab the cheerleader and make her strongly consider bailing on practice altogether, though, Ai was up from the bed. 

She stared dumbly as her lips were suddenly pressed to the Asian's, her breath utterly stolen. 

When her mind cleared of its sudden fog, Ai was already almost dressed and wearing an incredibly smug smile. 

"See you later, babe," the cheerleader offered in a sing-song voice on her way out the door. 

Rachel warmed at her body's interesting reaction to the endearment. 

As Ai headed out, she found herself swearing that next time they were together, she would give as good as she'd gotten the previous night. 

Her stomach was still churning even as she heard the front door close behind Ai's departure... 

The rest of the day after that was entirely downhill. 

When Rachel showed up to class, she knew something was wrong immediately. 

Even appearing late, she had grown accustomed to being studiously ignored by her classmates, and her teacher for the most part as well. 

When all eyes were locked on her as she made her way to the back of the class, she knew something was off. 

Even more bizarre was the fact that three of the students were a full two rows further back than they usually occupied, putting them right by her seat. 

Ignoring them as best she could, she booted her computer up and fell into her routine of pulsing music and drawing on the digital tablet. 

She felt the eyes on her throughout the class, and the sensation began to grate on her nerves quickly. 

Gritting her teeth, she raised her eyes from the screen and met the first pair of eyes she found. 

The woman was usually in the front, on the other side of the room, and Rachel found it very suspicious to find her sitting on the other side of her table. 

The second their eyes met, the woman blushed and locked her eyes onto her screen. 

As she did, a group on the other side of the aisle began whispering back and forth, with one of them gesturing to her. 

Memories began to surface fast, and Rachel forced her eyes back down to her screen... 

Rachel walked into the school, humming softly to herself. 

The Djed had been particularly lively over the weekend, and Zoe had introduced her to one of the band members that had played for the night. 

It had been one of her favorite bands, and she'd almost fainted at meeting the guitarist. 

Zoe had found it all very entertaining, as had the guitarist, as she'd immediately asked him to sign her shirt, which had happened to be of the very same band. 

That her girlfriend had suggested she wear it was, she was sure, no coincidence at all. 

Her humming stopped though, when she found herself the center of attention the further she walked into the halls. 

She heard her name in low, hushed conversations several times, and felt the weight of a lot of hostile stares as she made her way to her locker. 

She studiously ignored them all as she walked, though a ball of dread was quickly forming as a hard ball in her stomach. 

When she got to her locker, she vaguely noticed that the slats were more colorful than the dark interior should've been. 

In her daze, though, she didn't think too much on it. 

When she opened the locker and the colorful notes spilled in a small wave to fall around her feet, though, she knew something was off. 

She was a relatively anonymous student, and she tried to stay as far off the radar as possible, in no small part thanks to her frequent visits to the Black Djed. 

When she'd started dating Zoe Agnes, it had been inevitable that she'd started gravitating around her more in school, though. 

Her girlfriend was popular enough that her presence was noticed, and had gradually caused a stir. 

The number of notes around her feet, though, was far more than the number of people she'd met in the previous months, though. 

Her chest tightening, she dug her books out before crouching down to scoop the notes up. 

It didn't take more than three for her to notice a distinct pattern to what they were about. 

Several of the authors had been creative, writing out full notes on what a freak she was. 

Others were far too lazy to put that kind of energy into their hate, instead writing a vile word or two. 

Her confusion grew with each note she read, until she found one in a familiar handwriting. 

"Saw you and Zoe with the freaks. Spread the word. Have fun." 

Three sentences, and it fell into place. 

She finished collecting the notes, and a façade of perfect calm overtook her expression. 

Several students had gathered to watch her while she'd read them, so they could tell the fakeness of her expression. 

Anger and humiliation burned in her eyes as she collected the papers into one hand and casually tossed the ball of insults into a nearby trash bin. 

Taking a steadying breath, she pushed through the small throng of people and made her way to her classroom. 

The urge to cry was strong, but the urge to give none of them the satisfaction of witnessing that was stronger. 

More eyes were on her as she made her way into her homeroom. 

She found more notes waiting for her in her desk, and a few had been carved in. 

While the notes further angered her, the vandalism tempered the feeling enough for some therapeutic sarcasm to slip through. 

"That's going to be really confusing to whatever person sits there later," she quipped, raising a brow at a group of gawking students. 

One of the women nearby snickered at that, pointing to the boy next to her. 

"That's what I said! It's not like you sit there all day." 

The boy glared at her, his face reddening. 

"Doesn't matter. It's clear. We don't want fags around here," he sneered, turning his glare to Rachel. 

The blonde felt her heart skip a beat, but she again fought the rising tears down. 

"I'm bi, dumbass," she quipped. "You might want to ditch whatever you used to do that, because I'm pretty sure that money will matter helluva' lot more." 

His face further reddened in anger at that. 

"Think they'll listen to you tellin' em' it was me?" he sneered. 

"Well, I didn't do it, and they'll figure out pretty quickly that, since I just got here, it had to be someone in this room. People cowardly enough to leave anonymous notes on my desk aren't going to take the hit for you." 

Several amused expressions turned angry at that, but Rachel was glad to take her anger out on someone, especially a deserving target. 

"Enough of us say it was you, and they'll think it was you somehow," he retorted, though he was a lot less confident then. 

"Maybe true. Of course, there's nothing on me that could cut into wood and I would have no reason to insult myself or anyone in that seat through the day, which might be a bit of a kink in that plan... There're cameras in the classrooms that will show you doing it, too, so there's also that," she said with a gesture to the red, blinking light on the roof. 

His eyes went up to it, and Rachel felt some of her anger vanish at the chalky cast to his complexion that formed. 

"Same for everyone who put these lovely notes on my desk, too," she added while gesturing to the pile of paper. 

More of their faces took on the same color, and Rachel took a vacant seat in satisfaction when many of them turned around and refused to look back at her again. 

Looking around the room, she found about a quarter of the room to have that reaction. 

With her heart slowly returning to its normal pace, and her mind returning from the overwhelming emotions, she began to think on the situation. 

Of the thirty-two students, twelve seemed to be in the group of people that had given her the notes. 

Ten more seemed utterly uninterested in all of the drama. 

There were six students in the remainder that were clearly amused by it all, some by her sarcasm and some with pointed laughs at the note-writers and the student who'd carved her desk. 

The last four were sending her sympathetic looks that made her well aware of this not being the end of her day by a long shot. 

If it was any kind of reflection on the students who were aware of Rachel and Zoe's night out, she thought, about a third would be hateful asses while the rest would pretty much leave her alone. 

Thinking of the numbers calmed her further, and she released a relieved sigh when class started and her teacher didn't make any mention of her seat change, or her actual seat. 

Her calm vanished, though, when her thoughts turned Zoe's direction. 

Her girlfriend knew a lot more people in the school than herself. 

Even if the numbers were still the same for Zoe, that meant a lot more harassment for her. 

As soon as class let out, she sped off to track her down. 

It was in Zoe's third usual hangout that she found the girl. 

She'd never seen Zoe as angry as she was then. 

Her glare was focused on a group of boys, who were smirking at one of their friends. 

The boy in question had a bright handprint on his cheek and was glaring harshly at Zoe. 

"What I do is my own damn business. Who I spend my time with is my own business. I would think, given this news, you'd be less inclined to bother me, not more." 

With a huff, she turned on her heels and stalked away from the group. 

While his friends laughed, the one that had apparently insulted Zoe glared at her retreating back and muttered to himself. 

Rachel wasn't sure what he said, but it gave her a bad feeling nonetheless. 

She wanted to go to Zoe's side, but several thoughts stopped her. 

Zoe had gone to the Djed when she hadn't been planning to because she'd insisted on going to see the band. 

It wasn't a leap to think that it was mostly her fault for any harassment Zoe received. 

Further, if Zoe thought the same way, then going to her could cause things to get even worse. 

Especially if she was seen going to her- 

Rachel harshly jerked her head to snap herself out of the train of thoughts, focusing instead on the eerily similar present. 

Slipping her headphones down, she locked eyes with the woman across from herself once again. 

"Is there something I can help you with?" 

The woman blushed again and dropped any façade of not staring. 

"Is it true?" 

"Is what true?" Rachel demanded. 

The similarities struck her, and she knew before the woman responded that she wasn't going to like the answer. 

"That you, uh, l-like women?" 

"That's true enough," Rachel sighed in resignation. 

The woman seemed surprised, as if she'd assumed it was just a false rumor. 

The way she kept staring suggested it wasn't over with yet, though. 

"Oh... And does that mean the other stuff's true, too?" 

"And what's the other stuff?" 

"That you're all kinky and stuff. With your housemate." 

Rachel felt her heart skip a painful, unpleasant beat. 

"Whoa. Where'd Ai come into this?" 

The woman shrugged in response, still staring intently at her. 

"All I know is that there's a chainmail going around with some letter and some pictures that like a lot like you. Someone put your actual names on it, though... I thought it was a prank til' a second ago." 

Rachel's eyes narrowed at that, her mind immediately returning to Annabelle and her threat. 

If the mentioned drawings were the ones she'd posed for at Ai's request, then her classmates, and a lot of other people she probably didn't even know, knew in great detail how she looked naked. 

She remembered the feelings of going through the same thing before, though she found that she didn't care as much in the new instance. 




Of Love and Iron Ch. 05



Her face burned scarlet, nonetheless, and she realized that at that moment, she would gladly have laid Annabelle flat on her ass if she had the luck to see her. 

The violent urge shocked her, and with it her mind slowly calmed down. 

Focusing on the woman, she let out a deep sigh. 

"I have no idea what kind of stuff was in this email, but you can ignore it. I'm bisexual, but it sounds like someone was making crap up to mess with me, or with Aiko." 

"That a fact?" the woman retorted with a smirk. 

Her levity vanished under Rachel's harsh glare. 

"Yeah. We're in a class all about making images up, whether they exist or not. You should know better than to trust anything you see in some email." 

Her words seemed to strike a chord with the students listening, since they all looked properly chastised. 

"Were the drawings fake, too?" a man asked with a tone of disappointment. 

"They were drawings. Anyone in this program with a good imagination could probably do that," Rachel responded. 

The quickly piling up lies tasted bitter on her tongue, but she ignored the guilty sensation. 

She didn't particularly care what kind of stupidity went on regarding herself, but admitting anything meant implicating Aiko, which was unacceptable to the blonde. 

Fortunately, a thought seemed to occur to the woman that made her much more concerned and sympathetic to Rachel. 

"If they weren't a girlfriend's, you've got someone seriously creepy trying to mess with you, Blondie." 

"Something like that," Rachel muttered. "Anyway, you can all go back to pretending I don't exist now, yeah? No more mysteries to solve here," she continued with a vague hand gesture towards herself. 

And, thankfully, they did just that, at least everyone but the woman, who remained in her seat... 

When Ai walked into the locker room, she felt a strange, inexplicable tension in the air. 

Deciding to ignore it as something imagined, she began to change. 

Only when she was halfway through slipping into her cheerleading uniform did she notice that the women in the same aisle as her had moved to the opposite side of the lockers from her. 

It would have likely seemed odd even in normal circumstances. 

What made it worrying was the fact that of the three women, two had wrapped a towel around themselves and were changing while seeming to use it as a shield of some kind. 

The third woman just glared at the others and gave a huff of irritation before she herself finished changing. 

Something about how the two were occasionally glaring at Ai and blushing made a ball of tension form in the pit of her stomach. 

Shaking it off, she finished hastily and headed out to the gym. 

She found more of the same reaction with her other squad mates when she joined them. 

One of them in particular glared at her from the moment she stepped through the doors, and Ai felt her blood pressure spiking as she met the stare. 

"Something I can help you with?" 

"Fuck no, I don't want any kind of help from someone like you," the woman spat. 

Ai blinked in surprise at that, though the dread grew stronger in her gut. 

"The hell does that mean? Look, I'm not in the mood for this, so why don't you all tell me why I'm getting stared at like I have a new head," she groused. 

"We want you off the team. None of us want you lookin' up our skirts," the woman retorted with several agreeing nods accompanying the statement. 

Ai raised a brow in question at that, though she was starting to figure out the basics of the situation. 

"The hell?" 

"Now that we know you get off on that shit, it'd feel really creepy," another of them supplied with just as vehement a glare in her eyes. 

"Ooookay... I reiterate, what the hell?" Ai demanded with her own gaze narrowing. 

One of the women shook her head before making her way over to Ai, her phone in hand. 

Flipping it open, she pressed several keys before turning the phone to Ai's gaze. 

Her heart skipped a beat at the sight of a photo of her letter, with all its notes. 

The woman pressed her thumb onto the screen and slipped up, and Ai watched as several of her illustrations of Rachel scrolled through her gaze. 

She'd been caught up in the moment for each and every one of them, and had been more than happy to reward Rachel for her help posing for them. 

They'd all been very thoroughly enjoyable for both women. 

Now, though, the sight of them caused her chest to squeeze as she cursed her stupidity. 

Outwardly, though, she seemed calm, if very pale, to the other cheerleaders. 

Lifting her gaze, she met the woman's own. 

"And this is...?" 

"We all got this email. And I've seen your handwriting, Ai, and that letter's definitely it," the woman explained. 

She, though, didn't have the glare of many of the others, her expression far softer. 

She slipped further down the email, and showed Ai the last part of the email. 

Beneath all of the photos was a single sentence, and it made her vision turn red. 

"Portraits of Rachel King taken courtesy of the notebook of Aiko Kai," the note read. 

Having typed out and shredded the draft she was seeing, it had to have been when she'd left her bag unattended. 

She hadn't brought her supplies for Rachel's gift anywhere near the campus since then, and neither she nor the blonde would send them out. 

Rachel... 

Her eyes widened as her mind wandered to her lover, wondering if she was going through anything similar. 

She felt her heart squeeze at the thought of Rachel reading the letter, in a circumstance like that. 

"You said we all got that? How many people is we?" she demanded. 

"Word spreads fast," one of the glaring women answered. "The contact list this morning was, like, twenty when I got it." 

Several of her squad mates didn't seem to find it nearly as amusing as the others, with a few even glaring on Ai's behalf at the smirking ones. 

Others were staring at her with disgust, and it was they that caused Ai to straighten to her full height and take a calming breath. 

In the background of it all stood Annabelle, giggling to herself as she watched the Asian grow angrier than she'd honestly thought was possible. 

Ai's chastisement of the women stopped short when she noticed the redhead's mirth. 

The mystery solved itself in her head, and she turned her gaze fully to her. 

A shudder ran through Annabelle's spine at the feel of eyes on her, and she reluctantly met Ai's gaze. 

She briefly wondered, while staring into the burning, amber-colored eyes, if this sensation was anything like what others had described feeling when she glared at them. 

If it was, she suddenly sympathized with all previous victims of her ire. 

When Annabelle's eyes flinched away, Ai nodded to herself before spinning around. 

"Fine. A lot of you seem to have some issue. Either that I like women, or that I like my roommate, I don't know and really, I don't care. I'll take the rest of the day off. No problem. See you next week. In the meantime, you all need to get the fuck over it, because I'm not quitting because of this." 

With that, she stormed off without another glance back. 

And she didn't spare another glance back towards the campus, nor the many staring eyes, the entire way home... 

When Ai stomped through the door, she found Rachel sitting on the couch. 

The blonde was sitting with her head on her knees and her arms wrapped around her ankles. 

Ai quietly slipped the door closed and slid to a seat next to her, not saying anything. 

The blonde was known to take the somewhat bizarre position whenever she was deep in thought. 

She'd once explained that it was a defense mechanism so that her brother would leave her alone whenever she wanted to figure things out growing up. 

Ai stayed motionless at her side for what seemed like an eternity before the blonde's face slowly peeked up from her knees. 

Guilt hit Ai hard...



Of Love and Iron Ch. 06



Note: Another non-erotic chapter. 

***** 

Guilt 

"How was your day?" Rachel quipped. 

Ai met her gaze steadily, trying to gauge the blonde's mood and utterly failing. 

"It was... alright, I guess. Yours?" she returned. 

Rachel snorted at that, running a hand through her hair. 

"Alright. Anything weird happen?" 

"Yeah, okay, fuck this," Ai blurted. "Are you alright?" 

Rachel raised a brow at that, not used to Ai cursing outside of the bedroom. 

The thought almost derailed her for a moment, but a violent shake of her head stopped that. 

"I'm fine. Just... going through some... unpleasant memories, I guess," she sighed. 

Ai frowned at that, and put a comforting hand on Rachel's shoulder. 

"Look, I'm sorry. If I'd known anything like this would've happened, I wouldn't have brought the damn notebook, but I swear I didn't mean for anything like this to happen! It was just bad luck that I didn't think about getting out of class late, and that I forgot a damn lock, and I know I should've been more careful with it, but-" 

Rachel's finger appeared on Ai's lips, sealing her rambling off. 

"Ai, relax. It's not your fault. I mean, yeah, I'm not overly thrilled that half my classmates now have a pretty good idea of what I look like naked and decked out in fetish gear, but it's not like being outed to people I give zero damns about should bother me." 

"Should?" Ai emphasized with a frown. 

Rachel grimaced, and her gaze left her lover's. 

"Yeah. It's not so much them, as it is that I had this shit happen before. Almost exactly the same way. That didn't end well, and it's bringing up some stuff I'd rather forget... but I don't blame you. You didn't decide to photograph all that and email it around the whole school." 

Ai's expression darkened at that, her jaw pressing together. 

She forced her mind to leave Annabelle in favor of comforting her possibly soon-to-be-ex-lover. 

"Do you want to talk about it? I mean, you don't have to if you just want to work this out on your own, but I can listen. If you'd want." 

Rachel's gaze went unfocused in thought, and she stayed that way for almost a full minute before returning it to meet Ai's own. 

"Maybe talking about it would help me sort this out and figure out why it's bothering me." 

She began to speak as memories rose in seemingly random waves through her mind... 

Rachel headed into the Black Djed, and was immediately in love with the club. 

Everything, from the music pumping through the walls to the various types of costumes and fashion styles strewn around the massive rooms told her she'd made the correct decision. 

The setting was surprisingly mundane compared to what she'd been expecting. 

While the color scheme was a mixture of blacks, silvers, and reds in varying combinations, the décor was the same as the other clubs she'd been to before. 

Except for the stage, where a group dressed as bloody vampires were flooding the whole club with enough bass to vibrate the floor beneath her feet. 

Behind the guitarist stood what she was positive to be a coffin, with a large, fanged skull etched with silver into the wood. 

The band's name was written out in red velvet beneath the skull, doing a decent job of imitating blood. 

Moving her eyes around the rest of the club, she found that what seemed to be a restaurant and bar was in an alcove on the next floor up, overlooking the dance floor. 

Her stomach chose then to remind her that she hadn't eaten lunch that day, and she sighed in relief at having brought her wallet along. 

She found the bar unexpectedly empty for a Friday night, and had the waiter's full attention when she sauntered up to the long stand of black wood. 

"No drinks, kid," the man behind the bar sighed as he took in the sight of her. 

"Fine by me. Any chance you can make a Virgin Mudslide?" she asked with a shrug. 

The sweet drink was soon in her hand, and she headed over to the restaurant portion of the floor. 

She felt eyes on her as soon as she took an empty booth. 

She found a small group sitting across from her, with two of the trio eyeing her curiously. 

Of them, she felt something strangely familiar about a brunette woman, though for the life of her she couldn't figure out what would cause the sensation. 

She had white makeup caked on to cover whatever her normal complexion was, and in the dim lighting it made her look a bit sickly. 

Fishnets wrapped from her wrists up her arm, disappearing when they reached under her dark grey T-shirt. 

Staring from the shirt seemingly right at Rachel was a grinning grim reaper, garbed in a shredded purple cloak and wielding a long, curved scythe. All around the creature, black and red flames curled and danced along the fabric to draw more attention to it. 

What was probably long, brown hair was worn in a horsetail that curled down over her left shoulder and continued to her stomach. 

Yet more hair curled over the front, obscuring the left side of her face from view. 

The eye that was visible through the hair was staring with a strange expression at Rachel, who locked onto the gaze with a brow raised in inquisition. 

Noticing that her stare had been caught, the brunette woman blushed and snapped her eyes down to her own drink. 

Rachel felt that she knew the woman, somehow, despite her not looking at all familiar. 

Shrugging it off, she let her attention wander to the music and her menu. 

That night had been an incredibly fun one, once she'd gotten full and worked up the nerve to join the throng of dancers. 

Several times, she bumped into the brunette, and each time the woman had gawked at her for a few seconds before blushing through her makeup and vanishing back into the crowd. 

She quickly made a habit of visiting the Djed every Friday night. 

It was always a fun way of decompressing from her various classmates. 

What's more, every time she found the brunette there. 

When the woman had figured out she was going to be a recurring sight at the club, her avoidance became almost playful. 

At least to Rachel, it seemed as though the brunette was enjoying keeping just out of her sight for as long as possible. 

It was a strange game, but the blonde's attraction to the brunette itself was odd, so she didn't pay it much mind. 

She'd figured out fairly early on that while her classmates had grown to gush over boys, she didn't have the same interests. 

She'd spent months wondering on why she found women just as attractive as men, and she wouldn't dare bring the thought up anywhere near her often holier-than-thou parents. 

It took one game of Truth or Dare at a party she'd basically been forced into attending to finally solve the puzzle for herself, and after her initial freak-out in her room, she'd gotten comfortable with the idea that she was bisexual. 

What was odd to Rachel about the attraction was that usually intelligent conversation had been required to get her libido started over the years. 

She'd yet to pin the brunette down long enough to even get a name, much less any kind of conversation. 

After almost a full month of visits, she finally won their strange game of cat-and-mouse. 

She was getting into the rhythm of the band on the last week of the month when she spotted the brunette with her usual group. 

When the woman spotted the blonde, she'd said something to the others, given her a small smirk, and vanished into the crowd. 

Rachel's feet carried her quickly after her, and she thanked her luck. 

While most clothes on the dance floor reflected the dark colors of the club, or were bright neon, the brunette had decided to wear mute, earth-toned clothes that day. 

While she could almost blend in as she weaved through the crowd, the color difference was enough for Rachel to keep her eyes on her. 

She caught up to her quickly, and she smiled triumphantly as she finally met her. 

A quick spin put her around the brunette's back and directly in front of her, the grin even larger at seeing her surprise-widened eyes. 

Slowly, the brunette's lips curved into a smile, and she grabbed Rachel's hand. 

They quickly fell into the pulsing beats around them, their eyes locked and both of them grinning. 

"I was wondering when you'd catch me," the brunette giggled. 

Rachel blushed as, to be heard, the woman practically had her lips on her ear. 

Something about her voice struck her as incredibly familiar, and Rachel frowned in thought as she tried to place it. 

Her heart sped up at the distracting feel of breath on the sensitive skin, and she quickly moved to put herself at the mystery woman's back. 

"So it was a game," Rachel quipped with the same proximity. 

Grinning, the brunette bent her head back and stared into Rachel's hazel eyes. 

"Something like that... Want to head up where you can hear me?" 

Rachel's expression turned more seductive at that, and she pressed closer to the brunette by two steps. 

"You don't think it's more interesting like this?" she laughed. 

The brunette blushed darkly, and she grabbed onto Rachel's wrist. 

The blonde laughed as she was pulled away from the dance floor and up to the restaurant. 

While the noise was still loud, something about the elevation dampened the noise enough that Rachel could hear the woman talking normally. 

With the brunette sitting directly across from her, she found that, up close, there was something that was absolutely familiar to her mind. 

She ordered a small dinner without giving her mind pause at working it out. 

Suddenly, an image appeared in her mind of the classroom several weeks ago. 

Annabelle Vaughn's brunette friend hadn't looked any more comfortable with the redhead mocking everyone going to the club than she herself had been. 

Narrowing her eyes in scrutiny, she compared the features, and her heart skipped a beat. 

If they weren't the same person under the cosmetics, she was the girl's doppelgänger. 

"Um... this is going to sound weird, but, uh, your name wouldn't be Zoe, would it?" she awkwardly inquired. 

The brunette paled, but she didn't seem confused or surprised in the least. 

"And that's why I was pretty much avoiding you," she sighed. 

Rachel blinked in confusion at the statement, trying to decipher what she was talking about. 

"Because we're classmates?" she ventured. 

"Because we're classmates. And you were talking to Annabelle right before you came here that first time. I dunno', I thought she'd put you up to coming here to give her gossip, or something," Zoe sighed. 

While slightly insulted, Rachel found the idea rather amusing. 

"Oh, yeah, because I have so many reasons to talk to Vaughn, right?" 

Her eyes widened as she realized that Zoe was Annabelle's friend, even if she apparently wanted to keep her clubbing activities from the redhead. 

"Well, I mean-" 

She was stalled from giving her excuse by a raised hand, and she found Zoe's lips curved into a large smirk. 

"I know. Annabelle's Annabelle. I don't exactly go around gushing to her about all the newest leather gear I got or how awesome the newest death metal band here is, either, so I get it. Sorry for making assumptions." 

"They are awesome, right? Er, well, clearly you figured some of this out, or you would've put a bit more effort into just avoiding me, right?" 

"Kind of figured it out when you showed up finally looking the part," Zoe quipped. 

Rachel looked down at herself with a blush. 

She'd decided that, after a month of curiosity, she'd wanted to try out some of the gear she'd seen worn around the Djed for weeks. 

If she hadn't changed after leaving her house, she was sure at least one of her parents would've had a heart attack at the sight of the lacy, red and black corset and leather pants wrapping tightly around her figure. 

"Thanks?" 

"It's definitely a compliment," Zoe said with a hungry look to her gaze. "So, when I figured you'd be around for a while, I decided I may as well get it over with before you ended up figuring it out and asking me about it at school or something." 

"Is that your way of saying I wasn't as good at following you as I thought?" Rachel huffed. 

"Well... maybe? I was thinking you'd catch me up here, but you were pretty on the ball tonight," she admitted with a smirk. 

"You're just not as smooth as you think," Rachel teased. 

"I've got very good eyes," she added with a gesture to her face. 

Zoe grinned at that, leaning closer to the blonde over the small table. 

Rachel turned red at the proximity, making Zoe's lips curve even more. 

"Well, since we've gotten the formalities out of the way, how about I show you how smooth I can be?" she challenged. 

Rachel shivered at the tone in her voice. 

While she didn't make it a habit of checking out every classmate she came across, she'd definitely noticed, and appreciated what she saw of, Zoe Agnes over the past years of classes together. 

She wasn't the top of their class, but she was definitely as high up, if not higher, in the rankings as herself. 

It had certainly helped her initial attraction, that, since intelligence always helped her libido act up. 

While she was soft-spoken and small in stature, she'd long had a presence in class on top of being smart and for some unfathomable reason being friends with the school gossip. 

Looking at her then, clothed to reveal well-toned muscles as she was, Rachel had no problem believing that she was every bit the athlete she'd heard claimed. 

Having her practically on top of herself was causing interesting reactions throughout her body. 

"Hmm... Well, I gotta' say that you're pretty up front. Careful, or people might think you're flirting," she quipped. 

Zoe's smile took on a dangerous edge, and Rachel felt her entire body flush as she slowly dragged her eyes first down and then back up every bit of her that was visible above the table. 

Granted that she hadn't had much interaction with the brunette in classes, but Rachel had never gotten any kind of impression that she wasn't as straight as an arrow. 

As she practically drank in her outfit for the night, though, the blonde wondered if maybe she'd prejudged based on the woman being friends with Annabelle. 

When their eyes met again, both of them had glazed expressions, and Zoe's blush would likely have matched the blonde's if not for her makeup. 

"Some people might not be wrong, though evidently I wasn't being clear enough." 

"Or maybe I'm playing hard to get," Rachel retorted with a smile that revealed none of her inner quivering. 

Smirking, Zoe began to say something when she caught sight of the approaching waiter. 

"You don't know how much I love a good challenge," she quipped before leaning back. 

When the waiter arrived, both of them were flushed bright red, and he just gave a knowing smile when they sent him off to "give them a few more minutes to decide." 

"If I'd known you were like this, I would've struck up a conversation years ago," Rachel mused. 

"Don't blame me! I tried several times over the years to get you looking at me," the brunette retorted with a huff. 

Rachel's eyes traveled outward as a series of memories flashed before her mind. She certainly had tried a few times, though she'd always more or less run at seeing her queen-among-gossips friend nearby. 

"Fair enough," she sighed. "In my defense, I had a good reason to turn tail-" 

"Annabelle?" Zoe guessed with an easy smirk. 

"Annabelle," Rachel confirmed with a sheepish smile. "She and I, uh... Well, we don't get along, so I tend to avoid-" 

"No need to explain. I get it," Zoe interrupted with a smile. "She isn't always like how she is in school, but I definitely don't ignore her flaws. But you want to know a secret?" 

Rachel raised a brow in question at her. 

"Annabelle's not here to scare you off. So what do you say we make up for lost time and get to know each other over dinner?" 

"Are you always this quick with women or did I win a contest?" Rachel quipped. 

"How many women around here do you think I could both find in a goth club and flirt with without getting preached at? This place is like sanity wrapped in moats of Alabama, so the pickings are slim and really hard to peg down safely," she retorted. 

"I'd imagine at least a few dancing down there," Rachel responded with a blush. 

Zoe's smile grew, and she leaned forward again. 

"I guess you're right. But why pass up an opportunity to put the moves on someone I see five days a week? You're not exactly a gossip, and you seem like the kind of person who doesn't like those who are, so I figured what do I have to lose, right?" she finished. 

Rachel could almost swear her face was on actual fire from how hot it felt, and she found her gaze gravitating to Zoe's darkly painted lips. 

"I really wish I hadn't ran before now," she muttered. 

Zoe simply grinned as she sat back once more. 

"I've gotta' say, I really didn't peg you for my type, Zoe. Tonight's full of surprises." 

"Oh? Well, I guess I was being too subtle, then," Zoe giggled. 

Rachel hid her scarlet face in the menu as she saw the waiter approaching once more. 

When he arrived, she blurted the first appetizing thing she saw out, causing both the waiter and Zoe to smile at her fluster. 

Zoe just ordered "the usual" and sent him on his way, her eyes never leaving Rachel. 

Dinner proved to be a very relaxing experience for Rachel, and the two quickly fell into chatting about any random topic that came up. 

While there was mutual flirting throughout the entire conversation, they found themselves wondering how they hadn't become friends before with how many interests they had in common. 

When their plates were taken, Zoe pulled Rachel by the hand back to the dance floor, where they passed almost an hour goofing around. 

At the end of the night, Rachel changed back to her prude-approved clothes and headed for her car only to find Zoe leaning against the side. 

She giggled at the blonde's surprised expression and quickly approached her. 

"So, what do you think of our first date?" she quipped with a grin. 

"Was this a date?" Rachel challenged even while her heart skipped a beat. 

"Well, I guess it depends on perspective. I certainly want it to have been, because that implies there will be more. It felt like one, at least later on." 




Of Love and Iron Ch. 06



There was no denying that Rachel had started wondering as the night had gone on. 

It had certainly been more fun than her last attempt at dating, even if they'd skipped over the invitation part of the process. 

She found herself suddenly wanting to spend more time with the brunette, if only to see what came of it. 

"I can't disagree with that logic," she admitted with a smile of her own. "I definitely want to hang out again, anyway." 

Zoe leaned closer to her with an even larger grin. 

"Glad to hear that. How about you promise not to bail just because Anne's there, and we'll see how things go from there?" 

"I think I can manage that, now that I've got a reason," Rachel responded with a brilliant blush. 

"Well, I guess you need to get going, then, huh?" Zoe inquired with a glance at Rachel's car. 

"Probably," Rachel sighed. "Not going to lie, I'm not even really sure what time it is right now. May have gotten a bit carried away." 

Zoe's eyes widened at that. 

"I didn't mean to get you in trouble!" 

"It won't be that bad. 'Sides, I can't really say it wasn't worth it. I apparently had a hot date tonight," she quipped. 

"You think I'm hot?" Zoe teased with a grin. "Right back at you. Though I will say I prefer the other clothes, but I'm just a fan of attractive women wearing lace and leather and am probably biased." 

Rachel felt her face burning once again, and she briefly wondered how often it would keep happening until her skin simply became red. 

"Then you've got something to look forward to on Fridays, don't you?" she retorted with a breathy tone. 

Zoe pressed even closer, her lips now a scant inch from Rachel's. 

"Yes, I do. But you know, if we're going to keep going at this insane pace I've set, and this really was our first date, there's still something left to do before you can head home." 

Rachel's heart skipped a beat as she followed the brunette's logic. 

"Oh? And w-what might that be?" 

Smirking, Zoe closed the remaining distance. 

When she finally pulled back, Rachel was shivering and both of them were gasping desperately for air. 

Rachel stared at Zoe as she tried to blink the growing spots away. 

Zoe, for her part, licked her lips and smiled softly at her even as she still gasped and panted. 

"You okay?" she finally asked after a full minute of the routine. 

"I, uh, er... that felt... wow," Rachel mumbled intelligently as her brain gained oxygen once again. 

"Why thank you," Zoe laughed. 

"I... uh... wow... Why didn't I try to hang out with you before, again?" the blonde mumbled in confusion. 

Zoe simply grinned even larger and planted a considerably more chaste peck on her cheek. 

When she pulled away, Rachel was calmer, and she gave her own matching smile. 

"And just think," Zoe quipped while backing towards the three other vehicles still in the lot, "there's more where that came from. So let's do this again soon?" 

Rachel just nodded as Zoe climbed onto a large, green motorcycle. 

She hadn't pegged Zoe for a bike kind of girl, but the night had broken most of her preconceptions about the brunette soundly. 

She simply smiled as the roar of the cycle disappeared into the night... 

Many months followed with the women growing closer. 

While Zoe was considerably more visible in the school populace than herself, Rachel found herself gravitating more and more towards her even during the day. 

With each week that passed, Rachel grew bolder both in their friendship and in her growing involvement with the Black Djed's culture. 

Unfortunately, this meant that people got curious about her sudden attachment to the brunette. 

A full four months into dating, and just things went south. 

Rachel pushed through the Djed's doors with a content sigh. 

The air was warm outside the club, but not uncomfortably so. 

It worked out for her, considering the heavy leather she was wrapped in overtop of her now signed band shirt. 

Zoe followed her outside with a grin. 

"I was a complete spaz back there, wasn't I?" Rachel asked with a sheepish grin. 

"Nah. Compared to some of the people Jay deals with, I think he found you perfectly adorkable," Zoe joked. 

Rachel raised a brow at that as she felt her face fire up. 

"That's supposed to make me feel better somehow?" she groused. 

Grinning, Zoe threw her arm around the blonde's shoulder and leaned heavily against her. 

"Well, yeah, but if it didn't work, the night's still young. Y'know, relatively speaking. I could come up with something to make you feel better if you're saying that didn't work for you," she practically purred into Rachel's ear. 

"And what would do that when your skill with words wouldn't, hmm?" Rachel teased. 

Smirking, Zoe spun her around and pulled her into a kiss. 

Rachel's mind blanked out as she savored the sensation. 

Just as she was beginning to find spots appearing in her sight, a loud honking sounded near them. 

Rachel turned to glare at the speeding car, and for a brief moment, she swore she could recognize the three men within. 

Ignoring the sensation, she merely flipped them off before turning her attention back to the heavily blushing brunette. 

"You were right, that did just the thing," Rachel laughed before pecking her again on the lips. 

She'd found out three days later why she'd recognized the people in the car. 

Halfway through her day, she was finding herself more amused than upset. 

More people were getting on her case about being seen in Goth makeup outside the Djed than the fact that she'd been there with Zoe. 

She chalked it up to most either not believing Zoe had been the other woman, or even that it was possible that there had been another woman. 

The people who were attempting to argue with her over her taste in clubs rather than gender helped her deal with those who did take issue with her having a girlfriend. 

She finally had the courage by the end of the day to track Zoe down once more, and she found, much to her surprise, that the brunette found it even more amusing than herself. 

They decided that what the rest thought of them really didn't matter. 

And Rachel had truly meant it when she'd made that agreement. 

Until she watched weeks pass by with Zoe becoming more and more ragged as the bullying didn't disappear as expected. 

They had put too much faith in how quickly the school would become bored with the topic, and it had bitten them. 

While Zoe was adamant about how little she cared what others thought, it became clear quickly to Rachel that she was taking the brunt of the harassment. 

After a full month of the treatment, when she found Zoe in the bathroom, seeming on the verge of breakdown, Rachel had had enough. 

She met her between classes that same day and had broken it off with Zoe. 

The dam that the brunette had held shattered, and she'd begun sobbing. 

The blonde's heart broke at seeing it, but more importantly, the gawkers in the hallway witnessed the unintentionally public breakup. 

Rachel walked away taking the brunt of the harassment onto herself, the people previously bullying the brunette finding no enjoyment any more in kicking her while she was down. 

Zoe had seen the shift, and understood what the blonde had done. 

Even if she didn't agree with it, she respected Rachel's decision. 

While the brunette's school life went back to normal, if lonely, Rachel's became hellish. 

And she took it all, knowing that she had been the cause for the problem in the first place... 

Ai stared at Rachel in disbelief. 

It took her a long time to come up with a way to respond to the tale she'd just heard. 

As she considered her options, a sinking feeling began to form in her gut. 

"Have you, uh, talked to her since then?" 

Rachel released a harsh bark of laughter at that, giving Ai an incredulous stare. 

"She tried. She texted me and stuff, but really, if I was seen talking to her we would've been back to her being bullied, and hurting her would've been completely pointless, so I just kind of... lost her number and avoided eye contact for the rest of the school year." 

"And this would be the history you mentioned that you had with Annabelle?" 

"Yep. She did this, didn't she?" Rachel sighed. 

"I'm pretty positive, yeah... She must've snuck into my locker," Ai groaned. "I knew she was kind of messed up, but this is pretty shitty, even for her." 

Rachel shook her head at that, her gaze becoming distant. 

"Not so much, really. She wasn't originally this kind of a horrid bitch. I mean, yeah, she was always a gossip, and I should've known better than to take her threat as idle bull, but... She was different. When I broke up with Zee, she lost her shit." 

Ai wrapped an arm around the blonde at the quivering sound to her voice, and gently pulled her to lie against her side. 

"What'd she do?" 

Rachel's eyes narrowed at that, and Ai winced in regret for having asked. 

"She kept it going. I mean, even she could only keep them interested in harassing me for so long, but it lasted at least a month longer than it should've, thanks to her. The weird thing is that she told me that she blamed me for Zoe being into the Goth scene and for being a lesbian. And she was pissed that I hurt Zoe, which was correct enough that it was the only thing that kept me from slugging someone for the first time in my life when I found out from a couple girls that were screwing with me that she'd put them up to it." 

Ai's own gaze narrowed at that, and she fought hard to keep the growing anger out of her voice. 

"I can see why this would all strike a nerve, then... I don't have to tell you that this situation's different, do I? I don't give a shit what people think of us. We're in college, and-" 

"I know," Rachel interrupted. "And I'm pretty sure that the harassment's going to be minimal, on the whole me being a bisexual front, anyway... The other stuff's going to probably be a pain, though." 

Ai winced, guilt burning hot in her chest. 

"I'm so sorry, Rachel-" 

She stopped at the blonde's raised hand, an unreadable expression facing her. 

"It's not your fault. I was more than happy to pose for you, and I stand by it. I'm a little baffled on why you'd bring them to school with you, but I'm not going to blame you for Annabelle using them like this." 

"Doesn't make me feel any less guilty... It was stupid of me, and I screwed up, too. Is there anything I can do?" 

"Nothing to be done," Rachel returned with a shrug. "Just going to have to weather it out. And keep away from Annabelle, because I can't guess how that would end if I was in a room alone with her right now." 

Ai found herself sharing the sentiment. 

Rachel turned suddenly, forcing their gazes to meet with an intense stare. 

"I want... Do you mind if we don't do anything rough tonight?" 

"You make me sound like a brute," Ai quipped. 

"Hey, I'm good with rough. Usually. Just... not tonight." 

Ai gently grabbed the blonde's chin and dipped her head forward. 

The kiss was incredibly sweet, and neither woman broke away until both were seeing black spots. 

"Rachel, I'm fine with whatever you want to do. Honestly, I'd be amazed if you were in the mood, given the reason your day's sucked." 

"Are you sure? I mean, we've been going at it a lot more recently than-" 

Ai kissed her again, just a brief peck, but it was enough to cut her rambling off. 

"It's fine, Rache. Not only would I be a total bitch if I tried to push you into anything, but I'd really suck at what I do if I just wanted to screw for only my own pleasure." 

"Mmm... You definitely don't suck, I admit," Rachel mused. 

Ai chuckled, her hand twining gently in blonde locks. 

"Flatterer. Alright, what do you say we get a horror and pizza marathon going? I think there's a movie where a bunch of cheerleaders get stalked by a pissed Goth that's got your name on it." 

"Sounds like a plan. Also, aren't you a cheerleader?" 

"Yeah, but I'm also on the Goth's side," Ai assured with another laugh. 

"All's fair in love and horror. Favoritism doesn't guarantee you live to the end," the blonde countered with a laugh of her own. 

And so the banter continued until the pizza was delivered. 

By the end of the night, Rachel found herself in a much better frame of mind. 

"There was a reason," Ai stated, seemingly from nowhere. 

"Hmm?" Rachel responded distractedly, watching a redhead chopped in half on screen in a spray of terribly done fake blood. 

"For the book... Why I had it. I didn't just carry it around to get my jollies if I got bored in class. I had a reason. It wasn't necessarily a smart reason, but there was a reason." 

Rachel turned her attention away from the gorefest, her heart beating slightly faster. 

"Ai, it's fine. I don't blame you." 

"But I blame me. I should've just run it back home and taken a few points from the teacher. I shouldn't have left something that sensitive just lying in my locker, especially when I didn't have a lock. Granted, I'm not the one who did all that with it, but I gave her all she needed." 

Rachel briefly wanted to tell her to just let it go. 

The look of guilt, mixing with something she couldn't comprehend, though, stopped her. 

"What was it? The reason?" 

"I have a lot of good memories in that book, related to you. Having the book helped me when I was... I was writing a letter. Something to go with the birthday gift I have planned for you." 

"They mentioned a letter, come to think of it," Rachel said with a confused frown. 

Ai stifled the sigh of relief at realizing the blonde's classmates hadn't been the one to show her. 

"I'm... I think the letter is probably what got Annabelle to do what she did. There was a lot of personal stuff that I was writing while brainstorming for it." 

"I want to see it." 

Ai winced at the sharp tone in Rachel's voice, though she didn't detect any real anger, per se, in the response. 

"Give me a minute," she agreed. 

Rachel said nothing as she slinked off to her room, the loud buzz of a printer filling the apartment. 

When she came back, a single sheet of paper hung in Ai's shaking hand. 

Rachel felt almost bad taking the sheet, but it didn't stop her from doing so. 

It didn't take her long to understand how people had figured out so much so easily. 

The letter was well written, and incredibly sweet. 

Several times, she felt her chest tightening and her lungs freezing, before she finally reached the end. 

And then she read it again, practically feeling Ai's nervous fidgeting on the other side of the couch. 

"How long have you been thinking like this?" 

Ai stared at her, the blonde giving nothing she was feeling away. 

"When we went to the city for that premiere... After that, I just started to see you differently, somehow. For a while, I just figured that it was just natural progression of everything." 

"But?" Rachel prompted, her voice startlingly breathy. 

"But then, like I said in the letter, it started getting more intense. So I planned to lay everything out on your birthday, and see how it went from there." 

"You'd really just give up the whole thing that easily?" Rachel asked incredulously. 

"Easily? Fuck no, not easily. It would suck. But I don't want either of us getting hurt, and friends with benefits doesn't work when there's serious feelings involved. It would be unfair to both of us if I just bottled it up until something exploded." 

"So are you... I mean... Do you love me?" 

"Of course I love you," Ai scoffed with a blush. "As for if I'm in love with you, I don't know. I think I might be, or at least might be getting there. And it would be very bad to just let that kind of thing sit ignored, right?" 

"No doubt..." 

Rachel went quiet after that, her mind reeling as she read the letter again. 

Ai forced her gaze to stay locked forward, refusing to face whatever she'd see in the blonde's expression. 

Despite her efforts, her eyes immediately moved to Rachel when the blonde cleared her throat. 

"You're kind of oblivious." 

Ai's jaw dropped, the response utterly unexpected. 

Her shock was cut off by Rachel turning bodily towards her. 

"You actually thought I'd turn down dating you?" 

Rachel almost laughed at the way Ai's mouth bobbed without a sound coming out for several seconds. 

"What? But, I mean... When we started doing what we do, you said you weren't interested in relationships." 

"Yeah. Almost a year ago, right after the whole fiasco I'd just gone through. Roughly three months before we started frequently sleeping in each others' beds even when we weren't getting it on. Not to mention how affectionate I've been whenever we're just vegging out for, what? Like, half a year now? Seriously. Oblivious," she quipped with a shake of her head. 

Ai felt her face burning, due especially to how right her housemate was. 

It had been a long time, and she'd still had the upfront statement in the depths of her mind. 

"So I'm oblivious," she groaned. 

"Yes. Yes, you are. It's almost surprising, how oblivious, really," Rachel responded with a growing smirk. 

"Well why didn't you get pro-active, then?" Ai nearly growled in her growing embarrassment. 

"I did. Remember? I mean, I know that we're hooking up, but would a sex friend really be as... touchy-feely? I'd thought you just weren't interested, because no way could someone be so oblivious to actually overlook-" 

"Okay, I get it! I'm Super Oblivious, leaping obvious clues and logical conclusions in a single bound. I'm sorry, okay?" 

"Forgiven," Rachel said around body-shaking laughter. 

When Ai felt the blonde could sufficiently breathe again, she grabbed her hand to gain her attention. 

"So?" 

"So what?" Rachel returned with a cocky smirk that Ai had worn several times before. 

Seeing it, the Asian wondered if she induced a similar stomach-flipping sensation when the positions were reversed. 

"So, will you be my girlfriend?" 

"There you go. See, we could've saved lots of time and stress if we'd done this months ago." 

Ai's response was interrupted that time, her snarky retort trapped in the gasp that Rachel's lips drew from her. 

"Yes, I want to be your girlfriend, Aiko. Don't think this means I want you to suddenly go soft on me, though," she warned. 

Her hand fisted loosely in Ai's hair, drawing a light moan from her. 

"I just happen to want my girlfriend to also be my Mistress, when the mood's right. Which would sound really weird to anyone who's vanilla," she added with a giggle. 

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of it. You make such a cute pet, you've ruined me for all others," Ai returned before returning Rachel's action and pulling the gasping blonde in for another kiss. 

Rachel found herself falling asleep on the couch several hours later, surrounded by her lover's incredibly comfortable warmth. 




Of Love and Iron Ch. 06



Ai, likewise, took comfort in the closeness, and found herself joining the blonde quickly afterward...