Of Love and Iron

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.