by Amazuki Kiyoe (天月清愛)

(mirrors http://s2b2.livejournal.com/24430.html)

The sudden spurt of a flare in the distance whites out the viewing window for a moment before the sensors can respond. Mayumi winces, squinting her eyes shut and waiting for the glare to diminish as she sips at her wine. The edge of the glass tastes salty against her lips; she has been cradling it for the past half hour, unwilling either to make the trip to the commissary for more or to give up and go to bed.

The window darkens rapidly as extra layers of filter are applied, just in time; when Mayumi looks up again she can see the violent upsurge of another venting flare, closer now. The viewscreen colours the corona in flame shades of orange, yellow and blue, although Mayumi knows very well that in reality the light would be blinding.

The overhead com chimes just as her wrist unit beeps a warning. Mayumi transfers her wineglass hastily to one hand, reaching for the arm of the sofa she’s currently occupying. A glance at the boards overhead shows a hold on outbound, and inbound almost clear; the flare activity is definitely increasing, and there’s a code posted to that effect.

Then the floor is suddenly shuddering and flexing beneath her as the viewing window darkens almost to black. Mayumi breathes deeply, counting the seconds until the stabilisers cut in and the upheaval stills. After a year and a half travelling between the solar generator stations, updating and recoding the gravity and life support systems, she’s used to this. She rarely even wakes, now, when flares hit the station during her off-cycle.

It takes almost five minutes for the flare to subside enough that the window returns to translucency. Mayumi spends them watching the inbound board; there are a bare handful of entries, and only two diver sign-names amid the ship and skimmer designations. Even as she watches, one of the sign-names turns from blue to green and then winks out. Mayumi bites her lip; diving through a flare can’t be much fun, but she supposes that anyone who makes a lifestyle out of falling through the solar corona must have a different perspective on risk.

There’s only one name left on the boards now: Lily, which in itself is enough to make Mayumi curious. Female divers are very rare, and the network of stations is so widespread that she’s only ever met one, a tall and haughty woman who had swanned around as though she owned the station and everyone on it. Even the normally rowdy male divers had treated her warily, Mayumi remembers.

The window clears just as the name on the board flashes to blue, and Mayumi peers through the rainbow-silver sheen of superheated sorogel to try and catch a glimpse of the diver entering the station. There’s nothing for so long that she thinks she’s missed it, or that whoever this Lily is has used the other docking bay. Then, just as she’s about to turn away, a shadow flits across the screen, arcing in towards the station.

Mayumi draws in her breath, eyes following the slight form of the diver. She’s no expert – virtual-reality simulations don’t count – but something is different, this time. The darting shadow seems much less substantial than any of the other divers Mayumi has witnessed arriving on-station. She rises from her seat, stepping curiously towards the window, but the diver has already vanished.

Probably it’s just that this Lily is a smaller person, Mayumi decides, or the angles are playing tricks with her eyes. In any case, there’s nothing left to see; she drains her wine and tosses the glass into the disposal on her way out. The overhead lighting fades off behind her, leaving the room bathed in the yellow-white flickers from the viewing window.

This section of the station is mostly populated by shift workers, and as late as it is, the corridors are almost empty. Mayumi is vaguely relieved that her posting here is almost up; the station is too far from the solar equator, and nothing much happens to break up the tedium of shift and sleep-cycle. With luck, her next station will value her enough to give her better quarters at least; she already knows that it has good studio facilities, at least.

She takes a quick detour a couple of doors before her corridor, darting into the public bathroom; her own hygiene facility is tiny and the toilet is always leaking. None of her maintenance requests have ever been answered, and there doesn’t seem much point in chasing it up now, when she’s leaving so soon. Mayumi can hear the hiss of the water in the showers as she finds herself a clean cubicle, and steam billows through the gap beneath the utilitarian grey plastic walls.

She’s on the point of leaving, drying her hands with a disposable towel, when a sound echoes around the tiled room, bringing her up short. Mayumi can feel her eyes widening; it sounds like someone moaning, and not in pain. This is a public bathroom, she thinks, vaguely scandalised for a moment, and the station is so old and cheap that the showers aren’t even enclosed. Who the hell would be that shameless?

Mayumi knows that she really should be leaving right this minute – this is very definitely none of her business, after all – but instead she finds her feet taking her to the opposite end of the room, past the row of cubicles to the shower area. She’s always been curious, enough to outweigh the potential embarrassment, and if people are actually having sex in the bathroom – in a public bathroom, a women’s bathroom! – there’s no way she’s not going to report them. Quite apart from anything, it’s unhygienic.

Except that when she reaches the corner and peers around, it’s not two people that she sees, but one. A woman, dark-skinned and naked as the water slicks silver rainbows of sorogel from her body, her head thrown back as she thrusts her fingers between splayed legs, over and over.

Mayumi stares, frozen on the spot and suddenly unable to breathe. There’s something both ethereal and intensely arousing about the arched body beneath the water, something that makes it too hard to step back the way she should. Heat curls, low in her belly, and her skin prickles with more than the steam in the air; it isn’t until a hand lifts, curving up and around a breast with more than just a tremor in the skin that Mayumi can move at all.

It’s like a release from paralysis; suddenly she is simply running, heedless of her feet on the tiles or the sound of the door swinging shut behind her as she flees for her quarters, far too conscious of the fabric of her uniform sliding against her skin.

She’s in the middle of her shift, checking the readouts from the gravity monitors, when it finally occurs to her. That – the woman in the shower had had sorogel on her skin. She hadn’t been wearing a suit – she’d dived without a suit!

Mayumi sits with her mouth open for so long, heedless of the graphs scrolling past on the screen, that Damic leans over from his own terminal and pokes her.

“Anyone home?”

“What?” Mayumi starts, fighting off a furious blush, then refocuses on her screens. “Shit.” There’s no telling how much data she’s missed, and nothing for it but to start over. Pay more attention, she scolds herself irritably, shrugging off the puzzled looks she’s getting from the rest of the control room. Strange naked women – that must have been the diver who’d just got in, Lily – can wait.

Hours later, she pads exhaustedly into the run-down little canteen that passes for the staff’s mess on-station, a twinge of headache starting behind her eyes. She can’t get the questions out of her head: what kind of fool would risk herself to dive naked, and why? The kind of woman who’d parade herself before the station crew – sorogel isn’t the most opaque of coverings – wouldn’t have been alone in that shower.

Mayumi flushes again, pressing her thighs primly together as she slides her ident into the reader and takes a tray. That’s the thing she really can’t get out of her head; the sight of the woman – Lily? She still isn’t certain, and she’s not sure she wants to be; the effort of checking the database is a step too far for her comfort – wholly caught up in sensation, water and sorogel slicking her skin. Two days has done nothing to make the memory less vivid.

Mayumi shivers, then ducks hastily to one side as a small knot of people enter the room, voices loud and playful. She recognises one or two of the men as divers who’ve been stuck on-station after injuries, or waiting for the scant hope of paying customers. The rest of the group are familiar enough that Mayumi supposes they must have been around for a while; the usual standard-issue jumpsuits contrasting with the pale hair that seems to be common to anyone who dives for long enough.

Their conversation is loud, and she rolls her eyes impatiently, fetching a tray and starting to pick over the food selections on offer. There isn’t much; spiced lamb, stir-fried tofu, rice and couscous, salad. By the time Mayumi has filled a plate and found herself a corner table safely out of the way, the divers are well into the beer and the canteen is threatening to turn into a party. Mayumi sighs, and picks at salad, and tries to school her thoughts to the subject of her next station reassignment – less than a week to go, and she has everything still to pack, skimmer passes to book, accommodation requisitions to put through the system.

Mayumi is starting to wish she’d brought a reader, or a vid to watch, when something in the conversation behind her catches her attention. She pauses, fork halfway to her mouth, trying to listen without being obvious.

“…Heard she came in right in the teeth of the flarestorm and didn’t even stumble the landing.” There’s envy in his voice, and also something Mayumi can’t place.

“I’ve never seen her flop. No one has. She’s damn good.”

“She’d be damn good, you mean.” A coarse laugh, and now Mayumi knows what this is about. A good majority of the guys who dive seem to sniff skirts like dogs; she’s wondered before whether it’s the scarcity of women diving or some kind of result of the risk and adrenaline.

“Shit, you wish. Lily’s too high and mighty to touch the likes of us. Never even takes out the suckers.”

“Maaan, but she’s got legs, though. And all the rest –”

“Taking my name in vain, boys?” A new voice purrs above the thread of the conversation, cutting it into dead silence for a moment before chairs are shifted to the sound of embarrassed laughs.

“Hey, Lily. Come to mingle with the rabble?”

“Putting yourself down again, Jay?” Her voice is low and throaty, and Mayumi tucks in her shoulders, trying to make herself invisible as she concentrates on her food. This is nothing to do with her, and she’s not going to look, and the sound of the woman laughing isn’t making her spine curl at all.

Inevitably, eventually, her plate is empty. Mayumi stares at her fork for a long moment, trying to tune out the noise, then takes a deep breath and pushes her chair back. It feels like she’s back at school, which is just stupid, but she keeps her eyes on the ground anyway as she makes her way to the disposal. One of the guys gets up with the empty bottles and glasses, but he waits for her to pass and Mayumi shoves her plate in quickly, heading for the exit.

“Here, I’ll get the next round –” A chair is pushed back, right into her path, and Mayumi jumps aside hastily, swearing under her breath.

“Fuck, sorry…” He tries to be solicitous, but Mayumi shakes her head, smiling politely.

“It’s fine.” Despite herself, her eyes flick to the side, confirming what she’d already known; dark skin, radiation-white hair, the familiar line of the throat as she – Lily – tips her head back to drink from a bottle. Even her clothing stands out, the jumpsuit laced tight around her body with straps and ribbons; she’s lean but curvy, and Mayumi swallows because her mind is right back there in that shower room.

She nods to the divers and makes for the door as fast as she can without running, and it’s only her luck that a glance back as she leaves the room shows Lily’s eyes fixed on her as she licks the last drops from the bottle’s neck.

Three days to go, Mayumi thinks, checking the final readouts one last time as she prepares to leave the control room. The rest of the shift are already gone for the day, but the lure of finishing now and not needing to come in to work tomorrow had been too strong. Mayumi flexes her shoulders absently, yawning a little, and runs her eye down the column of figures. Everything is as it should be.

She breathes a sigh of relief, and reaches to lock down the workstation, but a cough from behind her startles her rigid. Mayumi whips round, about to make a vicious remark about making some noise so as not to startle people into screwing up the system, but chokes on it. Lily is standing in the entrance, arms folded beneath her breasts and one hip thrust out as she leans against the doorframe, one eyebrow cocked enquiringly. Something about the expression on her face makes Mayumi’s skin tingle; she suppresses a shiver.

“Hi.” Lily eyes her up and down without a trace of shame. “Got a copy of the flare readouts? The public office is closed.”

“Huh?” Mayumi realises her mouth is open, and shuts it with a snap. Lily must mean the predictive coronal readings, and she can certainly see why a diver would want to check those. “Sure –” she glances around, realising that all the other terminals are already locked, then shrugs, pressing a few keys and scooting her chair backwards. “Here you go – want a hardcopy?”

“Nah.” Lily pushes off the doorframe and stalks into the room, all lazy elegance and long legs, and Mayumi swallows, pushing a little further away from the desk. Lily shoots a sideways glance at her from dark eyes, and smirks, bending forward from the waist to examine the screen. She’s close enough that Mayumi can’t quite seem to breathe properly, and the air tastes of skin and sorogel and something deeper and muskier. Desperate for something to distract her attention, she focuses on the screen, rereading the familiar information – flare patterns mostly minimal in this sector, with the next heavy bombardment not due for a week. At least it means she’ll have an easy skimmer ride to her next post, she thinks.

“Hey, not bad.” Lily straightens up, pushing helmet-short white hair out of her face, and glances down at Mayumi with a grin. “You ever dived?”

Mayumi blinks, wondering where that had come from. “No – simulators don’t count, right?”

“They’re not even close.” Lily pauses for a moment, and as close as she is, Mayumi can see the languorous tremor that runs through her body. Her mouth goes dry, and then Lily has turned away, examining the notices pinned to the wall. “What the hell do you do around here for fun, then?”

Mayumi shrugs, tacitly agreeing that this station is about as far from the action as it can get. “Depends – VR, gaming, whatever. I know a guy who makes his own vid-dramas with dolls.”

Lily blinks, plainly startled, then laughs. “This place is definitely way too dull. But what do you do?” There’s a tone to her voice that makes it more than a polite inquiry, and Mayumi’s breath catches again.

“I dance.” She shrugs, trying for nonchalance and just hoping that Lily doesn’t ask for a demonstration. She’s been so busy these last few weeks that she’s had barely any time off-duty, let alone the hours to spend in the studio, and she knows her muscle tone is already suffering for it. That’s another reason that the three free days are such a godsend, because Mayumi knows that once she reports to her new posting she’ll be inundated with work.

“Oh?” Lily’s eyes sharpen for a moment before she relaxes. “So are you going to the party thing at the weekend?”

What party thing? Mayumi wonders, curious. If anyone is planning anything, they haven’t told her, but then again why would they? “I’m moving to SCNX32 in three days.”

“So that’d be a no, then.” Lily tosses her head, but her eyes are amused and thoughtful. “Well, maybe I’ll see you around, anyway. Later.” She lifts one hand in a lazy wave and saunters out of the room without a backward glance. Mayumi watches the slow sway of her hips for a long moment, mouth opening to call out, then sighs and turns away resolutely, locking down her terminal.

She can feel the burn in her muscles as she stretches out the elevated leg, holding the position while the music winds down and cycles to the next section. It’s not quite an ache, yet, but it’s a definite reprimand for all those days at a desk. Mayumi takes deep, even breaths, and tilts her head back, completing the arch of her spine as she waits for the music to begin. This is one of her older discs, and she knows the choreography by heart, but it’s complex enough to be a workout that she sorely needs.

The next piece begins, lower and much faster, and she twists into a spin, then a jump that ends with her supported on her hands for a moment of balance before whirling into the familiar pattern of her footwork. It’s easier, far easier, to fall into the well-known steps, the harsh breathing and driving beat, than it is to think about anything right now. Too little sleep, too many dreams, too many times waking fever-hot to the remembered sound of throaty laughter.

Mayumi doesn’t realise she’s being watched until the music finally fades, and she slumps out of the final pose, breathing hard. Definitely too much time at a desk. She rearranges the shoulder straps of her bodysuit, and looks up with a strange kind of inevitability to see Lily watching her from the doorway, again, with a heat in her eyes that doesn’t match her amused expression.

“Hi,” Mayumi manages, bending over and planting her hands on her knees as she tries to catch her breath, and only realising too late that she’s giving Lily a splendid view of her cleavage. It’s probably a good thing that she’s already flushed with the exertion, Mayumi thinks in exasperation, but she relaxes after a second. Let Lily look if she wants to; it’s not as though there’s all that much to look at.

“Hey.” Lily pushes off the wall, smirking. “You never told me your name, you know.”

Mayumi blinks, startled, then chokes on a resigned laugh at the sheer obviousness of the line. “Makimoto Mayumi.”

“Huh.” Lily frowns, padding slowly towards her, and Mayumi realises that she isn’t wearing any shoes at all; there is a pair of tall boots sitting by the door, next to her own pile of clothing. It gives her an odd, warm sensation, as though Lily cares enough to respect her life, but that’s just stupid and she shakes it off, straightening and feeling her back muscles protest a little.

“You’re – Lily, right?”

“Yeah.” Lily shrugs, graceful and expressive. “It’s way easier than the real thing – Alexandra Lilith Marcassi.”

Mayumi feels her lips twitch into a reluctant smile, despite the nervousness fluttering in her belly, because that certainly is a mouthful and Lily looks as though she knows it. But now the silence is growing uncomfortable as Lily watches her; the air seems thin and heated, and Mayumi gropes for something to say, anything to stave off what is beginning to feel inevitable.

“Do you really dive naked?”

It takes the widening of Lily’s eyes to make her realise just what has come out of her mouth. Mayumi inhales sharply, biting down on her tongue and certain that her face must be bright red. Curiosity killed the cat, she thinks weakly; there’s no way in hell that Lily can mistake this, and Mayumi can already see the realisation dawning in her eyes. Along with a healthy dose of what can only be desire.

“So it was you,” Lily murmurs after a long moment, tone throaty and suddenly deeper. “I wondered.” There is no embarrassment in her voice at all, and despite her better sense, Mayumi acknowledges to herself finally, she is fascinated.

“How can you dive without a suit?” she asks, curiosity already winning out again. It’s a step back, away from the risky ground, and Lily’s smile says that she knows it. She looks almost predatory, and Mayumi fights back a shiver, trying to ignore the heat that’s already building in the pit of her belly.

“Double sorogel layers and luck.” Lily tosses her head, pale hair feathering against her cheekbones. “The suits don’t do all that much to begin with – it’s the sorogel that protects you. Us.”

“I know.” She’s a life-support tech, Mayumi thinks, and you don’t work in the coronal Web for long without developing a healthy appreciation for what sorogel can do. “But why?” It’s a hell of a risk to take, surely?

“Oh, it’s worth it.” Lily’s face is intent, and her eyes gleam wickedly. “There are a few… properties… of superheated sorogel that aren’t such common knowledge.” She looks Mayumi up and down for a long, considering moment, then grins. “Want to try it?”

Something about that avid, anticipatory expression has Mayumi opening her mouth before she can even consider the proposal – the proposition, because she isn’t stupid enough to think that Lily’s interest is in any way innocent. The thought of being under that shower with her… Mayumi’s mouth goes dry, and heat coils in her bones. “Yes.” She does.

Two days later, she’s wondering whether to regret her decision. She feels ridiculously vulnerable, standing in the divers’ locker room off the launch bay in nothing but her skin, and the way Lily is eyeing her isn’t helping matters. Yesterday’s simulated tandem dives had been interesting, but nothing to the nervousness that roils through her now. Mayumi grimaces, scraping her hair back from her face with hands that aren’t quite shaking, and lets Lily settle the helmet over her head.

Instantly the world goes dim, and Mayumi widens her eyes, waiting to adjust. This feels worse than weird, because all the simulations use suits. She clenches her fists at her sides, reminding herself that her luggage has already made the skimmer trip, and is waiting for her at the next station. This has to be the strangest way of travelling to a new job posting that anyone has ever tried, but there’s no way to back out now.

“Here.” Lily has her own helmet on, her face hidden behind black thermo-resistant fabric and the golden bubbles of the polarising eyepieces. She is effortless in her nudity, which would be a distraction if Mayumi weren’t so knotted with nerves. She has to steel herself to accept the breather that Lily offers her, but it fits between her teeth so comfortably that she belatedly realises that Lily must have had it custom modified. The cool of it is familiar yet not, although she knows that simulations are nothing to reality.

“Okay.” Lily grins reassuringly, her own breather in hand. “You ready? Just follow my lead.”

Mayumi takes a deep breath, feeling the strain and then sudden release as the recycler kicks into overdrive, and then nods as firmly as she can manage. Lily flashes her one last too-bright grin, then inserts her own breather, wriggling her jaw to settle it. One hand fastens around Mayumi’s wrist in a grip that’s strangely comforting for how strong it is, and the other palms the control plate on the wall. Instantly, at the end of the room, a vent opens, spilling a rippling curtain of bluish-translucent sorogel that forms a thick skin from floor to ceiling.

Mayumi lets herself be tugged forward, but she can’t quite suppress a startled jump as the stuff touches her skin; it seems to move of its own accord as she moves through it, flowing across her body until it meets itself, forming a protective layer that thickens, slowly, as Lily turns them under the stream. Mayumi is vaguely startled by the way the stuff adheres to her skin; she has always thought that it would be somehow sticky, sludgy, but this feels like being encased in glass – flexible glass that moves with her.

Lily hold them beneath the flow of sorogel for much longer than Mayumi would have thought necessary, and she watches in bemused, detached fascination as the coating builds and thickens over her forearms. It doesn’t feel unpleasant at all, and Mayumi realises with surprise that her skin is barely visible at all beneath the layers of sorogel. Funnily enough, that eases a large part of her apprehension.

Stepping into the launch bay behind Lily, her vision blacks out for a second as the eyepieces cope with the radiance of the corona behind the veil of electromagnetic field and sorogel that covers the opening. The launch gate is open, and the only way is forward. Mayumi wonders, absently, whether diving will really feel like burning to ashes. Far too many of the divers she’s met have used cliched variations on the phoenix as sign-names.

Three feet from the white-gold window, she halts, stretching out her arms as she’s been taught and feeling Lily catch hold of her, securing the bracelets of the tandem harness around her wrists. Mayumi can’t look away from the vision before her, and the eyepieces cut out so much that it seems the launch bay and station are nothing but darkness. Pressure on her arms prompts her into moving forward, slowly as Lily’s footsteps follow hers, and then the veil is a tingle around her that melts into the most intense heat she has ever felt.

Mayumi gasps and stiffens, feeling her body begin to shake as sensation blinds her to everything else. She’s only dimly aware that Lily has hold of her hands, their fingers interlaced, and is moving her into position on the edge of the platform, poised for what feels like an eternity.

Then something tilts, and she is falling, arching forward into the inferno with Lily’s body pressed tight against her back, guiding her. Flame flares around them, and through slitted eyes Mayumi can see sorogel echoing rainbows against the white heat. Something changes then, a faint sensation solidifying, and she gasps helplessly as all her nerves seem to catch fire, pleasure signals intensifying and catching at her body until she’s certain that she must be on the edge of orgasm. Behind – above – her, she can feel Lily’s body mirroring the tremors that are running though her, spasms that seem to catch at her bones without ever allowing her relief or release. Mayumi has never felt anything like this, never even imagined anything close, and Lily’s throaty purr echoes in her mind like a beacon: There are a few… properties… of superheated sorogel that aren’t such common knowledge.

She barely feels the movement of Lily’s body altering their course, too caught up in the exquisite rush of sensation, but the sudden change in the pull and direction of gravity registers, and even through her haze Mayumi’s training kicks in; she lets Lily pull her into position, reshaping their bodies into a streamlined form in preparation for landing. Some part of her mind regrets that this will be over so soon, the pleasure already ebbing a little, but then everything is happening at once again and there’s no time for thought, only confused and obedient movement as the dark bulk of the station looms out of the coronal glow.

The sudden resumption of station gravity makes Mayumi stagger, and the deckplates beneath her feet are almost painful. She slumps in Lily’s hold, feeling what can only be laughter against her back as she tries to breathe through the lingering rush. There is a tingling wetness between her legs that has nothing to do with the sorogel coating, and she jerks in protest as Lily finally pulls away from her, unfastening the harness bracelets. The need for touch overwhelms everything; she grabs pleadingly for Lily’s hand, something close to a moan stopped in her throat by the breather.

She sees Lily’s head turn back towards her, briefly, and then she is being pulled into a stumbling run, out of the bay and into a room so dim that Mayumi is sure for a moment that she is blind before the eyepieces begin to adapt. She sees Lily snatch something from a locker, and then they are into the corridors of the station, weaving around corners at such a speed that Mayumi can feel her heart beating through her whole body, throbbing beneath her breasts and between her legs. Lily pulls her onwards, stumbling more than a little herself, and eventually, finally stops to palm open a door and drag Mayumi inside.

It’s a standard transient’s accommodation, designed for two and larger than Mayumi is used to, but she has barely glanced around before Lily is yanking her into the bathroom and turning the shower full-blast on both of them.

Almost instantly, the sorogel turns from rainbowy-white to silver, and begins to slick away from her face and skin. Mayumi wrenches the helmet carelessly off, spitting out the breather and inhaling steam, and then Lily has her pressed against the wall, tiles cold against her back and mouth hot-wet-needy against her own. Mayumi gasps into the kiss, opening her mouth to Lily’s tongue and squirming against her body, craving touch with a desperation that she doesn’t know how to articulate. There are hands on her skin, palms slick over hard nipples and then fingers sliding too-quick between her legs, pressing into her; Mayumi arches into it, fumbling to reciprocate and not really registering much beyond slick warm flesh as she finally, finally tips over the edge, coming in shuddering spasms as Lily presses tight and shaking against her.

When she comes back to herself, Lily is laughing breathlessly against her neck and only the shower wall is keeping her upright. Mayumi struggles to stand on shaky legs, then gasps as Lily’s fingers move again, sliding against her too-sensitive clit and then pressing hard into her. She tilts her head back, gasping for breath and trying to protest, but Lily just moves with her, fingers thrusting gently at first and then harder. Her other hand is curled around Mayumi’s thigh, lifting and splaying her, and then Mayumi gasps again as Lily slides to her knees, leaning in to lick a teasing path up the inside of Mayumi’s thigh.

“Did you enjoy yourself?” she purrs, breath hot and tingling against sensitive flesh, and Mayumi shudders, staring down helplessly at her. Both their skins are still swirled with sorogel, and it makes this seem something from a dream, or a fantasy. Lily pulls her fingers free with a wet sound, and slides them down between her own thighs as she leans in, tongue flicking maddeningly as Mayumi gasps.

“God – yes –”

She feels Lily’s laughter more than hears it, breathless against her body and making her shake with the need for touch, sensation, more. Mayumi already knows the next question Lily will ask, and there is no doubt in her mind as to her answer. Their next dive cannot come soon enough.