User:Gnostic/Scrap Heap

This is the Scrap Heap, where I work on the shit that's not yet ready to be added to a story...

Vignette 1 (from The Diomedian Chronicles: Internal Maintenance)
It was late one night when Alvy decided to raise the stakes. She dropped down from her bunk and deftly slipped behind Gwen on her bunk.

Gwen awoke feeling arms around her waist and someone's cheek against her own. She found the experience surprisingly pleasant. "Hey," she said.

"You looked cold," Alvy whispered in her ear, "I thought I might warm you up."

Gwen snorted. "I would have thought you could come up with a better excuse to spoon me."

From the other end of the cell, Emmanuelle stirred and looked at the two girls suspiciously. Lorelei followed, though her expression was more quizzical.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" Emmanuelle asked, smirking.

"Erm..."

"Need any help, Gwen?"

Gwen blushed. "No, ma'am."

Emmanuelle rolled over to go back to sleep. "Carry on, then." She paused. "Stop staring at them, Doc." Lorelei soon returned to her own sleep, or at least appeared to.

Their privacy thus vouchsafed for the moment, Gwen turned herself around in Alvy's embrace so that they were now facing each other. "Alvy... look. I'm not..."

"A lesbian?"

"... Actually, I was going to say that I'm not sure..."

"Not sure about what?"

"About anything." Gwen sighed and looked away. "My memories only go back a couple of months. Past that, it's a whole lot of black, and then, somewhere in the distance, Mindoir." She felt a sudden pain in her chest. "I'm not even sure I'm human." It was only after she said the words that she realized how much pain had underlied those suspicions.

Alvy gently brushed Gwen's cheek with her hand. "Well, whatever you are, I like you."

It took a second for the words to sink in, but when they did, Gwen started to cry. It would later occur to her that in that moment, she'd reached back into her memory to find some precedent of being told that she was loved simply for who she was, to try and figure out how she should react, but found nothing. Not even her beloved Archangel had said those words to her.

Sensing her distress, Alvy pulled her into a tighter embrace. She clung to Alvy for dear life.

Finally, she broke the embrace, backing up against a wall. "Fuck," she cursed.

"You alright, baby?"

"I hate myself."

Alvy kissed her just then. At first, the feeling of someone else's lips pressed to hers alarmed her, and she thought to resist. But it felt good. Her heart raced, and her pulse quickened. If she were honest with herself, she would have been obligated to concede that her life to date had few pleasures.

After what seemed like a long time, Alvy broke the kiss, punctuating it with a shorter, smaller kiss. She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I probably should have asked."

"That was my first kiss, I think."

"Hopefully not the last?"

Gwen looked into Alvy's eyes, but she wasn't sure what she was looking for within them. She felt afraid and overwhelmed, but she also realized that she didn't want to face those fears alone. Finally, she made a decision.

She grabbed Alvy's collar, reeled her in, and kissed her lips. Alvy took the initiative and pinned her against the wall with one hand. Her lips strayed from Gwen's and started travelling across Gwen's cheek and down her neck. Her free hand caressed the underside of Gwen's breast through her shirt. Gwen grabbed the hand and held it against her breast. Her heart was a mad rabbit struggling against its cage. ''Oh God. Sweet, merciful God...'' She moaned.

Alvy kissed her way back up Gwen's neck until her lips were perched at her ear. "We only have a few minutes till the guards come back."