7: Together at Last pt 3 (Patreon)

(pt 1, pt 2)

“W-wait!” Stephanie sputtered, slapping her hands across the tile of the shower for balance. “Kelly—you’re going to make me slip!”

“Whhhy, why do you smell so good?!” Tightly gripping Stephanie’s butt cheeks and pulling the girl closer, Kelly shoved her face into the plush thighs, trying to nuzzle her nose deep between them.

With a startled yelp, it was all Stephanie could do to keep herself from falling haphazardly into the tub.

“Kelly, he… I didn’t tell you what he did,” Stephanie said softly.

“What did he do?” Kelly asked eagerly. Her lips, feeling impossibly soft, were nibbling and pinching at Stephanie down there, and what must have been a tongue flashed out. “What’d he do to get you this wet?”

“We went and hid,” Stephanie explained, letting out cute little panting breaths. “Like you told us to, when you switched the other Darkmask for Brian. We went and hid together.”

“You got to be off all alone with Brian, while I was doing all of the legwork?” Kelly growled indignantly, taking a mouthful of Stephanie’s tender thigh flesh between her teeth. “What did he do to you?”

“Ah! N-no,” Stephanie jerked at the sudden sensation. She felt all of her blood seem to rush to her face in embarrassment. “He had me sit in his lap, an-and he… he fingered me. We weren’t alone at all, though! We were in a panel room— it was a room full of people!”

She felt Kelly freeze, and then the dark-haired— well, mostly dark-haired girl’s head snapped up to look at her. Kelly’s eyes lacked their usual cool clarity, they were half-lidded in a daze and looked at her in confusion.

“Brian finger-fucked you, in the middle of a room full of people?” Kelly asked in disbelief, narrowing her eyes as she regarded the other girl.

“He did, yes,” Stephanie admitted in embarrassment.

“How do you know it was actually fingering?” Kelly doubted. “You didn’t even know what going down on a girl was.”

“G-going down is really ambiguous!” Stephanie protested in a whisper. “People say things like, ah, ‘hey, I’m going down to the store to pick up some things,’ it’s— you know. It’s a common phrase!”

“It’s a really obvious euphemism.”

“Well, I don’t normally think of things in that way!”

“But, you do now?”

“I… well, he slipped his hand into my panties. His finger went… you know, inside, and he was going in and out really fast. L-like he was strumming guitar strings, except instead of music, it was… I don’t know. Heaven? Instead of music, or sound, it was like he was playing me and little notes of heaven were coming out. Coming in? Th-that doesn’t make any sense, does it?”

“And this all happened in the middle of a room full of people.”

“N-no, not in the middle. Our seat was over on one side, against one of the walls.”

“Holy fucking shit,” Kelly breathed out slowly, her fingers gripping and clenching firm handfuls of Stephanie’s ass in an antsy way. “Yeah, that’s definitely being fingered, then. I just… I never thought that he’d…”

“I didn’t, either!” Stephanie said excitedly. “I asked him to be my boyfriend right after that. I knew. Knew I had to. Couldn’t leave it to chance, after that. I had to have him. All of the… the complicated things, the everything, it all seemed to line up the right way, and everything seemed so simple and straightforward.”

“Sit down on the edge of the tub,” Kelly demanded in a husky voice. “Sit on the edge and spread your legs for me.”

“...Okay,” Stephanie agreed.

Kelly stepped back out of the tub and onto the bath floor towel in the small enclosure of the bathroom to give her room. The confident and charismatic girl peeled her own gray yoga pants partway down her thighs and let her hand wander down between her legs.

“This is part of our deal,” Kelly insisted. “I totally put in effort helping you guys ditch Chloe.”

“Chloe?” Stephanie paused, one foot out of the tub. Brian’s ex-girlfriend? When did—

“Magical Doll Himari,” Kelly explained. “That was definitely Chloe, she had to be.”

Himari is Chloe? It suddenly felt as if the temperature dropped several degrees. That’s… that’s…

It wasn’t a connection Stephanie would have made on her own. All at once, the day’s series of circumstance and confusion seemed to align together to paint a very different picture of the events. The cosplayer telling her Brian wanted to meet her somewhere wasn’t an accident or a mistake. The girl, the same girl, having Brian’s phone afterwards wasn’t coincidence. Stephanie had wondered, but hadn’t ever suspected that all the dots were connected with malicious intent, and she cursed her own naivete.

It was all deliberate, Stephanie realized, a foreign feeling—anger—rising up uncomfortably within her. Hot pink fire roiled and roared throughout her mind. If it was Chloe, if all of that was done on purpose—all of it was meant just to hurt Brian! That’s completely horrible!

“I... hate her,” Stephanie realized, beside herself with shock. It’s unforgivable. “I hate her!”

That stupid… awful… bitch! Stephanie felt livid, wishing she was more familiar with the swear words to express how she felt in this moment. She’d never hated someone before, and scarcely understood how people could hate one another. Now, she knew. This is what it felt like. She wanted bad things to happen to Chloe, wanted it so much that it felt like she could almost will them to happen with the strange new feeling of her blood boiling in rage. The very fact that Chloe existed beneath the same sky as her seemed unacceptable.

“I know, right?” Kelly’s eyes flashed with understanding. “I’m like, ninety-nine percent sure. You won’t believe what she tried to do after she followed me.”

“What happened?!” Stephanie’s voice sounded out in the tiled confines of the tiny bathroom. “Are you okay?”

“Ssh, ssh,” Kelly tapped a finger to her lips, glancing toward the door. “I don’t wanna tell Brian yet, but… get this. All the Darkmasks, they head outside the con a ways away over to one of the big parking garages for their photoshoot. She follows us there, ‘cause I’ve got that other Darkmask on my arm—the one with the plastic helmet like Brian’s.

Once they’re all getting set up for their photos and shit, she comes up to me and asks if I know the guy, and I’m like, nah, not really. She doesn’t say anything to that, and we’re kinda just standing there watching the doofus cosplayers clown around for a second. And then, I see in this car window reflection that she points something at me...”

Stephanie’s eyes widened.

“I spin ‘round—just in time—and just barely manage to catch it, while at this same time she’s already turning and trying to brush past me to make a getaway.”

“What was it?!” Stephanie asked.

“Mustard,” Kelly made a face. “She had like, a dozen little opened packets of mustard and she squirt them at me. She came this close to fucking ruining Brian’s gothic lolita outfit before I could sell it. For serious, that was a close fucking call.”

Letting out an uneasy sigh of relief, Stephanie took Kelly by the shoulders to steady herself.

“Did she get away?”

“Well, I don’t think anyone else saw her do it, if that’s what you mean,” Kelly grinned. “But, me? I had a palm full of mustard. So, I step after her, she turns around and is all like whaaat? when she sees my outfit’s still untouched, and I slapped her in the fucking face with the messy hand. Got some of it on her Himari cosplay too, I think.”

Before she realized what she was doing, Stephanie found herself lunging in to kiss Kelly. Surprised at herself, elated at Kelly’s story, proud of her friend, excited and turned on all at the same time, she wrapped her arms around her best friend as they locked lips. More than a sexual gesture it was an intimate one, an exchange of all the out of control emotion Stephanie felt filled to bursting with.

I… kissed her! Stephanie blushed as she pulled her face away, unable to stop smiling. I wasn’t dared to, and it wasn’t something I planned or thought about… it just HAPPENED. The connection they’d formed simply made it feel right, and she’d acted unbidden, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Whoa,” Kelly said, impressed.

“I… yeah,” Stephanie smiled. “Sorry. I really wish I could’ve been there to see it.”

“Wish I coulda sat through the panel with you guys,” Kelly countered, bringing a hand up to cup Stephanie’s breast as they hugged. “Next time?”

“Maybe?” Freezing stiff at the sensation, Stephanie averted her eyes in a fluster. Her personal space was seldom entered, and no one had ever taken liberties with her chest before—she wasn’t sure how it felt or how to feel about it.

“Sorry,” Kelly laughed in a low, husky voice. “Uh, too soon?” She hefted Stephanie’s small breast in her hand a few times, feeling the weight of it, and gave it an experimental squeeze.

“I… it’s, ah, this is new to me,” Stephanie mumbled. “I don’t know if I dislike it, or if I like it or… um, I don’t know anything, really.”

“Tell you what,” Kelly leaned in and playfully flicked her tongue across Stephanie’s lips. “Why don’t you sit down on the edge of the tub, spread your legs for me, and I’ll show you what I know?”

“....No,” Stephanie smiled softly, shaking her head.

“No?”

“I don’t want to. Not here, like this,” Stephanie explained, taking the initiative to reach down and start pulling Kelly’s leggings back up into place. “We came in here just to freshen up. I—I don’t think I’ve ever felt so freshened up. Whatever else happens… I think we should do with Brian. Not, um, off on our own like this.”

“Fuck,” Kelly mouthed, blinking at Stephanie. “Right, you’re so fucking smart sometimes.”

“No, I’m not,” Stephanie laughed. “Not on my own. But, we’re not alone! Was there anything else we should do to, ah, freshen up?”

“Uh,” Kelly’s eyes came back to focus and she seemed to look around at them seriously. “Leave your panties and bra in here—when we go back out, you’ll wear the dress and just the dress. How’s that sound?”

“I can do that,” Stephanie breathed in anticipation. “I’m so nervous, hah. I’m shaking a little bit.”

“My legs are about to shake I’m so fucking horny,” Kelly sighed in exasperation, running her hands down her body. “What do you think? Should I leave the leggings in here and go out in just the shirt, kinda like you did last night?”

“Um,” Stephanie considered for a second, taking another look at what Kelly wore. “I like the leggings. I think they look, you know—form-fitting. It’s sexy.”

“Thanks,” Kelly said honestly. “You need a hand?”

With Kelly’s help, the pink-and-red gijinka sundress Stephanie wore was pulled up and over the girl’s head, leaving her in only her faded white bra. Nervously unclasping it, she slid the undergarment off her arms, incredibly conscious of the close scrutiny she was receiving as she revealed herself, completely naked, to someone else for the very first time. As silly as it was after everything that had happened between them, Stephanie reflexively covered her chest with one arm, only hesitantly allowing it to drop down to her side at Kelly’s expectant look.

“Th-they’re not very big,” Stephanie said with a wince.

“They’re fine,” Kelly assured her, keeping her hands to herself for once. “Brian’ll love ‘em playin’ with them just as they are. Are they real sensitive?”

“Sensitive to what?” Stephanie looked perplexed. Sunlight? I don’t tan or—

“Attention,” Kelly gave her an incredulous look.

“I don’t… think so?” Stephanie replied.

“Guess we’ll find out as we go,” Kelly chuckled, holding up the cosplay dress for Stephanie to don once again. “You ready for a very different kinda game out there? I have some things in mind…”

(pt 4)

/// I know, I know. A recap episode? Well, to be fair, none of you have read a teaser since all the way back in 2018. There's a lot of parts here I can (and will likely) try expanding on through descriptions or Stephanie's thoughts, but as it is I don't want them freshening up for TOO long.

/// For our New Years Eve date, my girlfriend and I watched Aisle of Dogs, which she got for Christmas. God-tier soundtrack and some pretty great direction, but the writing, characters, and celebrity voices were weak enough that it felt like a waste. I remember All Dogs Go to Heaven being in a similar vein but having much more oomph to it, somehow.

Worth watching at least once for the soundtrack alone, though.