Stellvia : When I Fall

Stellvia was something of an unusual series. Despite the fact that the central pair of characters (and, indeed, their relationship) was as dull as ditchwater, several of the secondary characters managed to quietly involve themselves in ways which more than redeemed the entire story.

For some reason this remains just about the only Yayoi/Ayaka story on the net, which I can't help but feel is rather a shame (feel free to prove me wrong in the comments). I still harbour half-formed plans to write a sequel at some point in the future.

Adult content. You know the drill.

Uchuu no Stellvia : When I Fall

Squinting slightly beneath the brightness of a row of spotlights,
Commander Jinrai Shirogane surveyed the vast crowd assembled in front
of him. The surviving pilots and crews of all six Foundations were
crowded into Vision's great hall, and right now it seemed as though
every single one of them was staring intently at him. Fortunately for
his nerves, he had managed to convince command to keep the cameras
away from this evening's proceedings. Some things were too private to
share with the rest of the world just yet.

From the seat to his right, Admiral James nodded slightly.
Nervously, he stood up and approached the podium. The loud susurrus
of conversations beneath dropped slowly into a whispering calm.
Glancing down at the notes on the screen in front of him for
reassurance, he cleared his throat sharply.

"Before anything else is said," he began, "I ask you all to join me
in a minute of silence, in honor of all those... of the too many who
cannot be with us tonight."

At this, he bowed his head, and the entire assembly fell quiet.
It seemed in that moment as though even the low rumble of the
Foundation's great engines had faded into the stillness. The seconds
stretched, solemn and unbroken.

At last, he raised his head and, once more, looked out over the
gathered crowd.

"Thank you. I know that many, perhaps all of us here tonight have lost
people dear to us today. In the days and months and years to come,
we will mourn their passing, and we will miss them all the more.
But tonight... Tonight, we celebrate. We celebrate the gift that
they have given us. We celebrate the greatest achievement that
humankind has ever known.

"Let the Genesis Mission be a new beginning for us all. Tomorrow we
will face new challenges - a world to rebuild, new alliances to be
forged - and perhaps great sadness as well. But because of you,
we will face them with hope in our hearts - a hope that none of us
will ever forget.

"You are heroes, each and every one. Remember it."

He closed his eyes and let out a long, slow breath. A ripple of
applause spread through the hall, gathering and regathering upon
itself in a crescendo of noise. Smiling sadly to himself, he turned
away and walked back to where his friends were waiting.

Behind him, the crowd gradually dissolved into excited knots, their
voices rising, a clamour of gossip and laughter.

On the floor below, joyful confusion soon reigned. Arisa Glennorth
found herself struggling to corral her friends amid the press of
the mob.

"Hey, Akira, have you seen Shipon?"

"Shima-chan?" The dark-haired girl shook her head. "No."

"Yayoi?"

"Sorry, Arisa. I haven't seen her for quite a while."

"I guess life's a bit busy for the heroes of the hour, eh?"

"Actually, come to think of it," Yayoi mused, "I haven't seen
Otoyama-kun anywhere either..."

"Gah. That girl!" Arisa sighed in exasperation. "She'd--" She
stopped suddenly, her brain catching up with her mouth. Her eyes
grew wide. "Wait a second! Yayoi-chan! You..."

Yayoi favoured her with a quiet smile, whilst Akira turned red and
pointedly busied herself in an examination of her fingernails.

"I think," she said slowly, "that their relationship might be about
to improve quite a bit. Whether or not Shima-chan is expecting it."

Arisa stamped her foot in mock indignation. "Yeesh! Is there anyone
in this whole darned fleet that isn't spending tonight trying to
get horizontal?"

Akira's fingernails were, she decided, really very interesting indeed.

An evil smile flickered across Arisa's face. "Speaking of which..."
She turned to Yayoi, her eyes gleaming. The dark-haired girl raised
her hands defensively in front of her chest.

Now safely out of harm's way, Akira perked up sharply. Arisa's arm
insinuated its way around Yayoi's shoulders.

"Yayoi-chan, you little fox! How come you never told us?"

"W-what?" Yayoi stammered.

"About you and Machida-sempai!" Akira nodded. Arisa giggled slightly.
"Poor Pierre was devastated..."

"I... I was afraid..."

Arisa drooped slightly, then hugged the other girl tightly. "Silly!
you should've heard everyone cheer when you told her like that!"

Yayoi smiled, blushing prettily. "Thank you... all of you."

Arisa stepped back a pace, beaming proudly at her. "So, come on,
'fess up! How long have you known?"

Yayoi's blush deepened. "I... Since around Christmas, I guess.
Just after... Just after the trouble with Shima-chan."

The redhead's smile widened; she leaned closer. "Have you kissed
her yet?"

"I..." Yayoi cast around desperately for an escape route. From across
the room, Kent caught the pleading glance she gave him and nodded,
laughing.

Turning back to where his teammates were chatting, the blond broke in
cheerfully. "Hey, Ayaka! Looks like you're needed..." He inclined
his head towards the ongoing inquisition.

The others turned as one to follow his indication. Shoujin looked
round at him. "A rescue mission?"

"Looks that way."

The pale boy considered for a minute, then turned to Ayaka, his
expression unreadable behind his mask. "I'd rather you than me,"
he told her.

She laughed, stumbling awkwardly as her three friends pushed her out
across the floor.

By the time she arrived, a moment later, Yayoi looked as though she
was about to melt her way through the floor. Approaching stealthily
from behind, she took the startled girl by the hand, yanking her
bodily away from her tormentors.

Caught unaware, Yayoi stumbled, falling back into Ayaka's arms.
She looked up at the taller girl, her eyes shining. "My hero..." she
sighed. The others stared for a second, before the four of them
burst into laughter.

Giggling helplessly, Ayaka leaned down to whisper in her ear.
"You coming?" She threw a glance towards the exit. Yayoi nodded,
as Ayaka helped her to her feet.

"Please excuse us," she told the other two, who were still laughing
beside them. Taking Yayoi's hand in hers, she strode confidently
towards the exit, her demeanour hardly spoilt by the approving applause
from behind them.

When they arrived, the hangar deck was a turbulent, crowded babel
of noise. Katies and Biancas swung overhead from heavy cranes;
crates and spare parts shuttled along the gangways all around them.

After searching for several minutes, Yayoi finally spotted a familiar
figure taking charge of the repair bay beneath them. "Leila-sensei!"
she called, struggling to make herself heard above the tumult.

The dark-skinned instructor looked up from the frantically scrolling
screen of her computer, glancing around in confusion for a moment
before finally catching sight of the two of them as they made their
way down the stairs towards her.

"Hi girls!" She smiled broadly at them. "What's up?"

"Leila-sensei," Ayaka began, "do you have any idea where we're supposed
to be going?"

The taller woman sighed theatrically, casting a sidelong glance at
her screen. "To be honest, I'm not sure anyone does right now.
We're trying to fit half the fleets of five foundations into
one here... Give me a second." She turned back to the manifest,
fingers tapping pointedly at the keys.

On a whim, Ayaka slid her arm possessively around Yayoi's waist.
The smaller girl started slightly, then turned to look up at her,
stepping a little closer.

"Ah! Finally." The instructor turned back to look at them once again.
"Machida-kun, you've been assigned to the Santa Maria. Find yourself
a Katie that's not too beaten up and they'll sort you out once you
get there. Fujisawa-kun..." She glanced down towards the shorter
girl, "you and your friends have been assigned a room on the Asgard.
You--" She paused suddenly. One eyebrow rose archly as she spotted
Ayaka's hand, a grin spreading across her face. "However, I get the
impression you're not going to be needing it."

As the older woman turned away, she favoured them with an amused wink
of her eye. Yayoi was certain her blush could be seen all the way
to Earth.

Ayaka, her own cheeks flushed, turned to look at her. "Come on,"
she laughed, "let's go."

The ship's comm-link burst sharply into life. "Katie four-zero-three;
Bianca one-five-nine, you are cleared for launch. You kids play safely
out there, you hear?"

Ayaka smiled broadly. "Roger that, control. See you later." She hit
the release system, and her ship shuddered as the catapult swiveled
into position. A second's delicious tension, and then she was away,
the powerful electromagnets hurling her craft out of the launch bay,
the sudden shift into freefall thrilling through her body.

As soon as she was clear of the docking bay, a touch of the controls
brought the gravity field engine online, and her ship leapt into
the darkness. Strong hands pressed her back against the restraints,
tugging her from side to side as she looped and spun.

Moments later, a soft beep from the DLS told her that Yayoi's ship had
joined her, matching her every move from close behind. Ayaka opened
a comm channel, her friend's face smiling at her from the corner of
her view.

"You wanted to fly with me, Yayoi?"

A small nod in response.

"Well, I hope you can keep up..." She grinned - and then she was
gone, the vibration of the engine thrumming through the cockpit as
she accelerated.

Yayoi drew alongside... and then, playfully, rolled her ship into
a tight corkscrew about Ayaka's axis, goading her into responding.
Laughing gleefully, she did so, their two craft tracing a wild double-
helix across the sky.

"Whatever happened to playing safely?" she teased.

"I guess I've fallen in with a bad crowd," Yayoi returned, laughing
softly.

Up ahead, the massive shapes of the fleet's cargo ships filled
Ayaka's view. A hundred possible paths whirled through her mind; she
chose one, and the display lit up red with proximity warnings.

Together they swerved hard around the massive engines of the
freighter Heracles, racing scant metres beneath its looming hull.
Ayaka pointedly ignored a torrent of threats from the outraged ship's
officer as she flung her Katie into a sharp, rolling dive, aiming
directly for the bridge of the Cassiopaeia below.

The collision alarm howling in her ears, she nudged the controls back
at what seemed the last possible moment, cutting directly across the
path of the larger ship. Yayoi followed close behind, their twin
engines slashing glittering trails through the darkness as they darted
beneath the vast hull of the transport.

"Not bad..." Ayaka smiled gleefully, her ship tumbling playfully from
side to side, almost dancing around the other girl. Up ahead, the
actinic glow of the Cassiopaeia's gravity drives drew rapidly nearer.

Relaxing slightly, Ayaka eased her ship into a slight climb, aiming to
skirt over the top of the generator spines. In her mind, she was
already plotting the next trick she could try.

"Ayaka?" Yayoi's voice interrupted her thoughts, a note of
unaccustomed fear chilling her blood.

"Yayoi? What's wrong?" Ayaka flicked her DLS to a reverse view,
hunting frantically for the other girl's ship. Yayoi hadn't followed
her. Every muscle in her body seemed to freeze instantly; she stared
helplessly as the tiny craft hurtled heedlessly past her.

"My controls! I can't--" There was a searing burst of light as
Yayoi's ship hit the rippling fold behind the freighter, and then it
was gone. The comm link cut off sharply.

"Yayoi?"

Acting on pure instinct, Ayaka threw her ship into a screaming turn,
forcing her leaden fingers to fight their way across the controls.
The comm channel blinked back into life; Yayoi's head was slumped down
onto her chest, her hair hanging limply over the front of her visor.

"Yayoi!"

Far ahead of her, the tiny dot representing the other girl's ship
was streaking helplessly towards the body of a supply tanker.

With a desperate cry, Ayaka slung her Katie onto an intercept course.
Alarms wailed as she red-lined the engine, the cockpit shaking wildly
under the load. She barely even noticed the tears in her eyes.

Seconds stretched into hours as she flew. Too slow, too slow.
Everything was too slow. The whole world focused on that single,
glittering point of light. Fragments of memory. A young girl; a shy,
sad smile; emotions, unfamiliar and incomprehensible.

Pain.

Hatred.

Closer now, and still too slow. Under her breath, prayers to any
gods who cared to listen.

Closer still.

Motion. Impact. Fields entangled, and tumbling wordlessly,
breathlessly into space.

Ayaka slumped in her harness, relief and fatigue flooding over her,
drowning her like waves in a silent sea. Her fingers staggered
drunkenly across the controls, gradually slowing the chaos of their
flight. She had just managed to stop them spinning when her abused,
overheated field generator finally shut down.

Her arms aching, she lifted the visor away from her eyes. Fear,
joy, sadness, emptiness... there hardly seemed a difference anymore.
There were tears inside - that was all. Alone amid the flickering
green light of the displays, she wept.

Distant light. A thread of sound. Swimming slowly upwards through
cool, black water. Yayoi stirred weakly, her head seeming far too
heavy for her body to support.

The sound was still there; strange, distant, tugging at her
consciousness. Mustering her strength, she forced her eyes to open.
Brightness; a wave of nausea washed over her. The world rippled around
her, slowly resolving into a hazy focus. The sound came to her again.

Crying?

"A... Ayaka?" she asked. Her mouth felt dry.

"Yayoi?"

The face on the screen in front of her slid suddenly back into
familiarity, the blue eyes stained with tears.

"Yayoi!" Ayaka sobbed forcefully, her words catching in her throat.
"Thank god..."

Yayoi reached up with limp arms to remove the visor from her face,
shaking her head groggily.

"Ayaka? Where are we? What--?"

Fresh tears crept to the other girl's eyes. "Oh god, I'm so sorry...
so very sorry... It's all my fault." She drew a deep, shuddering
breath. "I thought... I thought I'd lost you again."

"Ayaka." Yayoi's voice was firm, commanding her attention. "You saved
me, didn't you?"

A nod.

She smiled weakly. "And I bet you didn't hesitate for a moment,
did you?"

"No..."

"Well, then. All we have to worry about is how Leila-sensei is going
to kill us when she finds out."

Ayaka couldn't help it. A small snigger slipped between her lips,
giving way to a rush of laughter. She wiped at her eyes with her
sleeve. "No kidding..."

For a minute or so, they sat in silence as Ayaka composed herself,
taking deep, slow breaths. "Yayoi," she said, "I think my gravity
drive's dead - I guess I pushed it too hard back there. Do you think
you're up to towing me?"

"Give me a minute. I'm still feeling a bit sick. Do you know where
we are?"

"We've been drifting for a while... We might be quite a way away
from the fleet by now."

Yayoi looked down at her monitors for a moment, searching. "Ah!
I think I can see them. We might be in for a bit of a long ride,
though. Just a second."

Stretching her arms stiffly, she dropped her fingers down to
the control panel. Red lights blinked at her accusingly.

"Ayaka, I think my main maneuvering jets have gone. I'm not sure I
can still steer this thing."

"Are the auxiliaries working?"

"Yes," Yayoi nodded, "but I don't think they'll last very long."

Ayaka smiled at her. "Don't worry - they'll make it. Just take
things slowly. Can you manage to grab hold of my Katie?"

"I'll try..."

Moving slowly, still slightly unsteady, Yayoi coaxed her ship closer
to Ayaka's. The manipulator arm stretched out awkwardly, banging
against the other ship several times before finally gaining purchase.

Weighed down by the larger craft beneath it, the Bianca struggled
to respond you Yayoi's commands, but with some effort she managed
to point herself in the direction of the rest of the fleet. The two
girls drifted gently back into their safety harnesses as they slowly
began to accelerate.

In the corner of her screen, Ayaka smiled at her. "Nice flying," she
complimented. "The Biancas are hardly built for this sort of thing."

Yayoi flushed a little at her praise. "Thank you..."

For a long moment, she sat in silence, as though deep in thought.

"Ayaka?" she asked, eventually.

"Yes?"

"Can I show you something?"

"Sure." Ayaka smiled at her, intrigued. "What is it?"

Yayoi's hands danced across the control panel. "Just wait a second..."

An window flashed up at the edge of Ayaka's display, indicating a
data transfer in progress. After a few seconds, it vanished.

Moments later, all her screens went dark.

"Yayoi," she asked, a note of fear creeping into her voice, "what's
happening?"

"Just wait."

Slowly, her eyes began to adjust to the gloom. Faint pinpricks of
light began to appear all around her. When she finally realised what
she was seeing, Ayaka almost laughed at her own incomprehension. As
she looked out, a thousand stars looked back. There, up ahead in the
distance, a cloud of tiny blue motes of light marked the position of
the fleet.

After a time, she began to find the familiar constellations.
She could even, she realised, see the motion of the ships against
their background. Somehow, despite their size, they seemed almost
infinitesimally small.

"Yayoi..." she breathed, "how did you do that?"

"You like it?"

"It's beautiful."

"When we first got here, Shima-chan was always complaining at me
about how we couldn't see the stars properly when we were flying.
It's just something I'd been working on... It's silly, really.
There's no way anyone could manage to fly like this - they didn't even
bother to build a visible-light scanner into these ships. And there
I was, spending my nights trying to work out how to fake it from the
rest of the sensor data..."

"I think," Ayaka whispered, "it was worth every minute."

The sheer wonder on her face made Yayoi's legs tremble. "So do I."

For a long time, they sat in silence together, just watching,
marvelling at the beauty of the universe around them as though it
were a secret only the two of them would ever know.

Soon they began to make out the shapes of individual ships, their
bodies vanishing into the darkness beyond the glow of their engines.
With a sigh, Yayoi switched her view back to the familiar green of
the sensor screens.

Softly, she broke the silence. "Ayaka."

"Yes?"

"Leila-sensei was right."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't think I'm going to be needing that room tonight."

The look in Ayaka's eyes as she spoke made Yayoi feel like the most
beautiful woman in the world.

The Santa Maria was not a large ship, and its docking bay had
definitely not been designed to facilitate the sort of entry Yayoi
had to perform. It took several abortive attempts before, with the
help of the ship's crew, she managed to maneuver Ayaka's broken Katie
into the hangar.

The ship's officer who greeted them was a tall, dark-skinned man with
close-cropped hair. He looked suitably impressed with Yayoi's flying,
but rather less so with the state of her craft.

"Jeez, ladies, what happened out there?" he asked, shaking his head.

Ayaka stepped forward to answer. "We were on our way over here from
the Foundation, but I think my Katie's engine must have been damaged
during the mission. It started shaking all over the place, and then
the generator went into emergency shutdown. Fujisawa-san here,"
she nodded to Yayoi, "managed to rescue me."

"I see," he murmured, dubiously. "I'm sorry, we're still in a bit
of a mess here. Can I take your names, please?"

"Fujisawa Yayoi."

"Machida Ayaka. We're both... well, we were both from Stellvia.
We were told we'd be staying with you."

The man's eyes widened in surprise. "Hang on," he said, "I'm sure
I've heard that name before... Weren't you part of their Astroball
team this year?"

Ayaka smiled, nodding.

"Well, it's a pleasure to have you aboard, miss. Both of you. If you
talk to Ensign McCraig here," he pointed to a portly young man who was
standing near the entrance doors, "he'll direct you to your quarters."

The two girls saluted neatly, breathing a shared sigh of relief as
they turned to go.

As the door hissed shut behind them, Ayaka shivered nervously.
The strange tension in the air left her skin tingling. Reluctantly,
she let go of Yayoi's hand, their fingers brushing in the darkness
as she walked across to the bed.

She turned on the small bedside reading light, then sat on the edge
of the mattress, her hands shaking. Yayoi sat facing her on a small
chair, seemingly waiting for her to make the first move.

She tried to speak. Once, twice... her lips didn't seem to want to
work properly. When, at last, she managed to gather her strength,
her voice was barely more than a fragile whisper.

"Yayoi..." she began. She stared down at her hands, clasped tightly
on her lap. She couldn't bear to meet the other girl's gaze.
"I don't know if you can ever forgive me for--"

"No." Yayoi interrupted her softly. Ayaka looked up, startled,
fearful. "That's not it."

"But...?"

"I forgave you a long time ago."

Ayaka felt tears rising within her once again. She shivered violently,
trying vainly to choke them back. "Why?" she whispered.
"I'm not... I can't..."

Yayoi watched her helplessly, trying to keep herself from crying
as well. "Ayaka..." She reached out a trembling hand towards the
taller girl's face.

"No..." A quiet sob. "Please. I need... I need to tell you."

A stray teardrop slipped down Yayoi's cheek. She let her hand fall
reluctantly back to her side as she waited patiently for the other girl
to continue.

"That girl. The part of me... the part of me that wants to hurt
you. She's still inside me." Ayaka drew a long, shuddering breath.
"But I promise. I promise I won't let her win." She raised her head,
determination flashing in her eyes. "I love you, Yayoi. And I swear,
whatever happens, whenever you fall... I'll be there. Always."

Yayoi smiled then, the beautiful, shy, sad smile that made her
heart ache. She stood slowly, stepping forwards.

"Ayaka... I've been falling for a long time."

She knelt down in front of the other girl, wiping a tear from her
cheek with the tip of her finger.

"But right here..." her fingers slipped around to tangle in Ayaka's
hair "...and right now..." Yayoi's breath was warm on her face,
their lips almost touching "...you've caught me."

Ayaka let her eyes drift closed. The kiss was soft, delicate, and
wonderfully, deliciously warm.

"I love you, Machida Ayaka."

As she spoke, Yayoi's eyes seemed almost to glow from within.
Ayaka reached out to her with trembling hands, sliding her fingers
into her hair and pulling the shorter girl towards her once more.

In their second kiss, there was nothing uncertain.

As they parted, Ayaka's hand slipped down towards the catch of Yayoi's
flight suit. With a soft hiss, the seal parted, the fabric falling
suddenly limp. Yayoi's eyes widened in surprise.

"Ayak-aahhh..." Her protest dissolved into an enticing moan as Ayaka
nipped hungrily at the side of her neck.

Encouraged, Ayaka continued to tease her. The girl's skin was soft
and warm beneath the cool of her fingertips as her suit slipped,
unnoticed, down her body. They kissed again - harder now, an edge
of need creeping into their embrace.

"Are you sure about this?" she whispered.

Yayoi took a step backwards, standing slowly upright; her smile
was brilliant. The flight suit dropped sharply to the floor.

"More than anything."

Ayaka pushed herself unsteadily to her feet. Her legs trembling,
she grabbed the smaller girl tightly in her arms, kissing her lips,
her face, her neck, longing to share the shivering heat that rushed
through her veins.

A quiet click, and Yayoi divested her of the smothering warmth of
her suit, leaving it crumpled messily on the carpet. Light, dancing
fingers traced the curves of her body... her sides, her hips... up,
slowly, so very slowly across her stomach, flitting over her breasts
and around her back.

Pausing in her exploration for a moment, Ayaka reached down to take
off Yayoi's glasses, dropping them onto the bedside table.

"That's better," she murmured, cupping the shorter girl's face in
her hands. "I want to see your eyes."

Their lips met once more, parting instinctively. As Ayaka pulled her
closer, Yayoi's hands flicked open the catch on her bra, returning
to brush roughly over the taller girl's nipples as she pushed it up
out of the way.

Ayaka's head fell back, breaking their kiss as she gasped sharply.
Yayoi hesitated for a moment, then leaned in to plant small, teasing
kisses across her breast. She smiled to herself as Ayaka's hands flew
up to tangle around her head, pulling her closer. Every tiny catch
in the other girl's breathing felt startlingly, powerfully erotic.

Keeping one hand to caress Ayaka's breast as she flicked at it with her
tongue, she let the other trail lazily down her back, fingers catching
in the waistband of her underwear. Ayaka whimpered imploringly,
tugging at her hair, and Yayoi was only too happy to comply, dragging
the offending fabric steadily downwards, leaving gossamer trails of
warmth in her wake.

Trembling with excitement, Ayaka took a tiny step backwards, fixing
Yayoi with a smouldering stare. "You," she breathed, "are such
a tease..."

At that, she dropped backwards, dragging the smaller girl down on top
of her as they fell onto the bed. They landed in a hot, surprised
tangle of limbs and dishevelled hair.

Taking advantage of the confusion, Ayaka shrugged her bra off her
shoulders and flung it carelessly away across the room. Yayoi,
however, had no intention of allowing her to escape, falling upon
her exposed neck with a shower of butterfly kisses.

Ayaka found herself practically purring at her touch, desire blossoming
frantically within her. Reaching up, she unhooked Yayoi's bra,
helping her to pull it down over her arms. It soon joined the rest
of their clothes, littering the floor.

The sight of the smaller girl sat astride her overwhelmed her senses.
She tried to speak, and the sheer physical need in her voice shocked
even her. "Please..." she begged. "Please..."

Yayoi looked nervously into her eyes, seeking reassurance. "I...
I've never done this before."

Ayaka gazed up at her, her own fear clearly visible. "Me neither,"
she replied, smiling.

Yayoi leaned down, kissing her with a delicate, aching sweetness.
Then again, more hungrily. Her lips traced burning points down
Ayaka's body, each moving inexorably beyond the last.

Another kiss, tingling at her waist.

Another, lower still.

Another, parting soft hair over trembling skin.

Writhing sensuously, Ayaka let her legs fall languidly apart,
delighting in Yayoi's muted gasp of desire as she did so.

Inch by inch, Yayoi let her lips fall softly along the inside of
Ayaka's thigh, the faint scent of the other girl's arousal swirling
dizzily through her mind.

The taller girl squirmed beneath her, cries of pleasure giving way
suddenly to a burst of helpless laughter

"Hey! That tickles!"

Yayoi giggled, an impish smile creeping across her lips.

"Oh? How about this?" Another kiss.

"Aaa! And that!"

She changed position slightly. "What about this, then?" She trailed
her tongue lightly over Ayaka's exposed lips, marvelling at the
delicate texture of her flesh. A wave of sudden tension made the
taller girl arch beneath her.

"Ohhhhh..."

Yayoi revelled in the exquisite, intoxicating power of the moment.
Tentatively, she reached out once more with her tongue, tracing the
contours of her lover's skin, flicking lightly over the shrouded nub
of her clitoris.

From above her, Ayaka moaned softly in appreciation. "That feels
wonderful..." she gasped, wrapping her legs around Yayoi's body,
urging her on.

Encouraged, Yayoi drew two of her fingers softly across the length of
Ayaka's lips, then again, more firmly, caressing, trailing warmth and
wetness in their wake. She dipped her tongue delicately between
them, tasting salt and sweetness, the sharp trembling of the other
girl's legs quivering through her body.

Ayaka tossed her head from side to side, whimpering plaintively, her
hands clutching weakly at the sheets around her as Yayoi's tongue
drew maddening circles around the core of her desire. The sheer
physicality of want scattered any hope of thought. A part of her
wanted to beg, to plead... but there were no words, only sensation,
bright, consuming fire, gentle pressure...

She froze. In an instant, the world, her body was focused on a single,
glittering point as Yayoi's fingers pushed slowly - oh, so cruelly
slowly - inside her. Her chest tightened. She couldn't breathe;
every muscle in her body sang with tension, rising, floating in an
endless, indescribable moment--

Falling.

The world crashed in upon her. She was drowning, and she wished that
it would never, never end...

Yayoi heard the sharp catch in Ayaka's breathing, transfixed between
fear and desire, terrified that she might have hurt her somehow.
The taller girl's legs stiffened around her shoulders, pinning her in
place... and then Ayaka was gasping something which might have been her
name, her whole body shivering wildly around her. Weak with relief,
Yayoi could only kiss gently at Ayaka's thighs, resting her head on
her lover's leg as her soft cries subsided.

They laid a while in silence, the rush of their twin heartbeats
pounding in Yayoi's ears as she tried to gather the will to speak.

"Ayaka?"

The only reply was a quiet, tired murmur.

"Ayaka? I didn't... I mean, was that--?"

With a groan, Ayaka forced herself unsteadily upright, her arms still
trembling in protest. The smile on her face made Yayoi feel like
the queen of the world.

She reached down, stroking Yayoi's hair, and then cradling her face
between her hands.

"Do you," she breathed, "have any idea how wonderful you are?"

"You... liked that?"

In reply, Ayaka pulled her upwards, tugging at Yayoi's shoulders until
she fell full-length atop the taller girl, their legs entangled.
One of Ayaka's hands slid down Yayoi's back, insinuating its way
inside the waistband of her underwear. She pressed the shorter girl
into a hard, searing kiss.

"You mean you couldn't tell?"

Yayoi smiled innocently, shaking her head.

Ayaka couldn't help but giggle. "Well, then... I guess I'll have
to show you, won't I?" She began slowly, teasingly, to kiss her way
down the other girl's neck.

Yayoi's only answer was a breathless purr. After that, there were
no words at all.

FIN