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.
