Awakening - original (girl/girl, 03/25/06, finished)
Original characters, about 1,475 words, rated PG, fluffy and probably crap. Just did a basic spelling check, so feel free to point out any mistakes.
---
It is the sweep of a hand, gentle and feather-light, there but not there, that wakes her up that afternoon on the beach. Honour looks up, a teenage girl working on a tan in the hot afternoon sun, and sees another girl, smiling down at her, tanned and lean and blocking the sun, so Honour can't see her face but the girl glows, and Honour is almost blinded.
"You don't want to spend too much time out in the sun," the girl tells her. "You'll get sunburned if you do and you're too pretty to end up with sunburned."
The girl disappears after that, turning and walking into the sun. Honour does not know what to say, because she was just jerked out of a nap by a touch on a part of her body she had never thought of before, other than it being there, and is still disoriented and confused and shivering from the knowledge that no one will be able to touch her back again without causing her to remember that moment.
It's her awakening to the world, Honour calls it weeks later, when she is left facing her final year in high school craving a touch that does not come. Except it does not feel exactly like an awakening, but rather a hint of what the awakening will be: a caterpillar glimpsing a butterfly in the sky and knowing that it will one day be able to fly like that.
---
Arms wrap tightly around her, a hug, not the civil hug given to social acquaintances and distant relatives, but a big hug, arms wrapping around a body and clinging for all their worth. And even though Honour doesn't know this girl hugging her, and other than a distant feeling of deja vu, Honour is not bothered by this hug. It feels strangely like home, but Honour knows that can't be right, because Honour never hugged anyone at home like she is being hugged now.
"Shaking hands is so impersonal, I dislike it," the girl tells her, pulling back to look at the shorter Honour. "I'm Kai, by the way."
The feeling of deja vu intensifies as the girl speaks, but Honour can't pinpoint why it is occurring. She lets it go, though it always lingers in the back of her mind.
---
Honour is thrashing about in her sleep, restless from a nightmare that plagues her from time to time, until a hand touches her, gentle and feather-light again, concern and care and something else radiating from the touch against her arm.
"Honour, wake up," Kai says, that concern evident in her voice, and Honour blots up right and instead of apologizing for waking up her roommate like she meant to, she says, "You're that girl!"
The feeling of deja vu leaves her then, as she is gazing up at the tanned and lean roommate she acquired six months back, at the start of college, who is now standing in front of the light in the room, glowing and golden, and Honour knows that the touch then is almost the same as the touch now, a taste of the awakening she could have but does not know how to reach.
Her arm tingles afterwards, and when someone brushes against her in the halls or while standing in a line, Honour can't control her shivers.
---
Hands rove over her back in comforting strokes as Honour cries into Kai's shoulder, not sending chills up her spine or reminding her of things she had no experience with, but offering the comfort she needs at the moment. The hands move over her back, soothing, until Honour's sobs finally calm down and she is left resting her head on Kai's shoulder, trying to get the strength to lift her head and smile and thank her roommate of the past two and a half years.
She can't, but that is okay, because Kai stretches out, pulling Honour down with her and Honour tells herself she can thank her roommate later. That's the last thought she has before she falls asleep in Kai's arms, warm and comforted. And when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she knows this is what having a close friend means. Someone to turn to and cry on and cuddle with and know that they understand.
She falls asleep again with Kai's heartbeat under her ear and Kai's hand running through her hair, another comforting gesture. Honour's lips move against Kai's shoulder, briefly, before she falls asleep, and Kai responds with a tightening of her arms. Honour knows she understands.
---
Kai's hands are hot against Honour's flesh, hot enough to threaten to burn her, and there is a moment when Honour thinks she is going to go up in flames beneath Kai's hands, as they caress her. Kai's hands, still tanned and golden even though she is far from her native Hawaii and slim and strong and soft, touch her in places she did not know could bring such excitement. But then it had been Kai's hands that had first introduced Honour to the possibility of flying, and she should not be surprised that Kai can still work miracles. It has been years since she first officially met the girl, enough for both of them to be facing impending graduations and futures and the real world, she has seen the miracles worked enough times.
Her own touches are hesitant and delicate against Kai's skin, ghosting over the girl's flesh, but Kai is still gasping and breathing heavily and Honour thinks Kai might be experiencing the same thing she is, and knows it is so when Kai buries her face into Honour's shoulder with a cry. Honour can feel Kai's breath against her skin, and a shudder rocks her again, because it is almost too much, the passion that burns between them. This is flying, Honour thinks, but not quite, because there is still something missing. She just can't put her finger on it.
---
Honour is roused out of a sleep with the feeling of delicate fingers whispering over her skin, almost tickling but Honour, even half-asleep, knows the touches aren't meant to be ticklish. She pushes heavy hair out of her eyes and turns her head to look at Kai, who only smiles and presses a kiss to her forehead and resumes the soft touches, her fingers now running over the bones of Honour's face.
There is enough light in the room that Honour can see Kai's face, and she is mystified at the expression on Kai's face: it is an expression she has seen on few faces and can not identify. There are emotions in Kai's eyes that she knows, passion and a calmness and even happiness, but the mixture is something she doesn't understand, and there is something lurking behind it all that Honour doesn't even begin to comprehend.
She sleeps again, but all night, she feels the touch of her lover. It is burned into her mind, and she goes about the day and even the following week remembering it. There was something in the touch that she doesn't understand and it bothers her. She should understand her lover, after living with her, out of the dorms, for five years.
Even months later, the emotion expressed in that touch still eludes her and she almost gives up figuring it out.
---
Honour is normally a deep sleeper, but she wakes up one night, to feel Kai touching her again and turns her head to look at the other woman.
"Do you do this every night?" she asks, rolling over finally and looking at Kai.
Her only answer is a nod, but that's okay, because Kai's hands are moving over her again and Honour is remembering a conversation earlier that day -
"You mean you've said 'I love you'? Has Kai?" her cousin had asked her, an incredulous look on her face. "You two always look so... happy, so in love. You do love her, right?"
"Of course I do. I wouldn't have stayed if I didn't love her, not this long," Honour had responded.
And then she is crying, because she finally understands. Honour's arms go around Kai and she clings to her girlfriend of years, and Kai is kissing away her tears, hands still moving over Honour's body. And then Honour's hands are mimicking Kai's movements, exploring the woman's body with a touch that had been so hesitant for so long, curious and wondering and even a touch mystified, but now moved with a surety she'd hidden for so long. There is passion and attraction and concern and care in her touch, just as there is all of those in Kai's. But behind all of that, and even stronger than it all, is love.
This, Honour knows, is flying.
---
---
It is the sweep of a hand, gentle and feather-light, there but not there, that wakes her up that afternoon on the beach. Honour looks up, a teenage girl working on a tan in the hot afternoon sun, and sees another girl, smiling down at her, tanned and lean and blocking the sun, so Honour can't see her face but the girl glows, and Honour is almost blinded.
"You don't want to spend too much time out in the sun," the girl tells her. "You'll get sunburned if you do and you're too pretty to end up with sunburned."
The girl disappears after that, turning and walking into the sun. Honour does not know what to say, because she was just jerked out of a nap by a touch on a part of her body she had never thought of before, other than it being there, and is still disoriented and confused and shivering from the knowledge that no one will be able to touch her back again without causing her to remember that moment.
It's her awakening to the world, Honour calls it weeks later, when she is left facing her final year in high school craving a touch that does not come. Except it does not feel exactly like an awakening, but rather a hint of what the awakening will be: a caterpillar glimpsing a butterfly in the sky and knowing that it will one day be able to fly like that.
---
Arms wrap tightly around her, a hug, not the civil hug given to social acquaintances and distant relatives, but a big hug, arms wrapping around a body and clinging for all their worth. And even though Honour doesn't know this girl hugging her, and other than a distant feeling of deja vu, Honour is not bothered by this hug. It feels strangely like home, but Honour knows that can't be right, because Honour never hugged anyone at home like she is being hugged now.
"Shaking hands is so impersonal, I dislike it," the girl tells her, pulling back to look at the shorter Honour. "I'm Kai, by the way."
The feeling of deja vu intensifies as the girl speaks, but Honour can't pinpoint why it is occurring. She lets it go, though it always lingers in the back of her mind.
---
Honour is thrashing about in her sleep, restless from a nightmare that plagues her from time to time, until a hand touches her, gentle and feather-light again, concern and care and something else radiating from the touch against her arm.
"Honour, wake up," Kai says, that concern evident in her voice, and Honour blots up right and instead of apologizing for waking up her roommate like she meant to, she says, "You're that girl!"
The feeling of deja vu leaves her then, as she is gazing up at the tanned and lean roommate she acquired six months back, at the start of college, who is now standing in front of the light in the room, glowing and golden, and Honour knows that the touch then is almost the same as the touch now, a taste of the awakening she could have but does not know how to reach.
Her arm tingles afterwards, and when someone brushes against her in the halls or while standing in a line, Honour can't control her shivers.
---
Hands rove over her back in comforting strokes as Honour cries into Kai's shoulder, not sending chills up her spine or reminding her of things she had no experience with, but offering the comfort she needs at the moment. The hands move over her back, soothing, until Honour's sobs finally calm down and she is left resting her head on Kai's shoulder, trying to get the strength to lift her head and smile and thank her roommate of the past two and a half years.
She can't, but that is okay, because Kai stretches out, pulling Honour down with her and Honour tells herself she can thank her roommate later. That's the last thought she has before she falls asleep in Kai's arms, warm and comforted. And when she wakes up in the middle of the night, she knows this is what having a close friend means. Someone to turn to and cry on and cuddle with and know that they understand.
She falls asleep again with Kai's heartbeat under her ear and Kai's hand running through her hair, another comforting gesture. Honour's lips move against Kai's shoulder, briefly, before she falls asleep, and Kai responds with a tightening of her arms. Honour knows she understands.
---
Kai's hands are hot against Honour's flesh, hot enough to threaten to burn her, and there is a moment when Honour thinks she is going to go up in flames beneath Kai's hands, as they caress her. Kai's hands, still tanned and golden even though she is far from her native Hawaii and slim and strong and soft, touch her in places she did not know could bring such excitement. But then it had been Kai's hands that had first introduced Honour to the possibility of flying, and she should not be surprised that Kai can still work miracles. It has been years since she first officially met the girl, enough for both of them to be facing impending graduations and futures and the real world, she has seen the miracles worked enough times.
Her own touches are hesitant and delicate against Kai's skin, ghosting over the girl's flesh, but Kai is still gasping and breathing heavily and Honour thinks Kai might be experiencing the same thing she is, and knows it is so when Kai buries her face into Honour's shoulder with a cry. Honour can feel Kai's breath against her skin, and a shudder rocks her again, because it is almost too much, the passion that burns between them. This is flying, Honour thinks, but not quite, because there is still something missing. She just can't put her finger on it.
---
Honour is roused out of a sleep with the feeling of delicate fingers whispering over her skin, almost tickling but Honour, even half-asleep, knows the touches aren't meant to be ticklish. She pushes heavy hair out of her eyes and turns her head to look at Kai, who only smiles and presses a kiss to her forehead and resumes the soft touches, her fingers now running over the bones of Honour's face.
There is enough light in the room that Honour can see Kai's face, and she is mystified at the expression on Kai's face: it is an expression she has seen on few faces and can not identify. There are emotions in Kai's eyes that she knows, passion and a calmness and even happiness, but the mixture is something she doesn't understand, and there is something lurking behind it all that Honour doesn't even begin to comprehend.
She sleeps again, but all night, she feels the touch of her lover. It is burned into her mind, and she goes about the day and even the following week remembering it. There was something in the touch that she doesn't understand and it bothers her. She should understand her lover, after living with her, out of the dorms, for five years.
Even months later, the emotion expressed in that touch still eludes her and she almost gives up figuring it out.
---
Honour is normally a deep sleeper, but she wakes up one night, to feel Kai touching her again and turns her head to look at the other woman.
"Do you do this every night?" she asks, rolling over finally and looking at Kai.
Her only answer is a nod, but that's okay, because Kai's hands are moving over her again and Honour is remembering a conversation earlier that day -
"You mean you've said 'I love you'? Has Kai?" her cousin had asked her, an incredulous look on her face. "You two always look so... happy, so in love. You do love her, right?"
"Of course I do. I wouldn't have stayed if I didn't love her, not this long," Honour had responded.
And then she is crying, because she finally understands. Honour's arms go around Kai and she clings to her girlfriend of years, and Kai is kissing away her tears, hands still moving over Honour's body. And then Honour's hands are mimicking Kai's movements, exploring the woman's body with a touch that had been so hesitant for so long, curious and wondering and even a touch mystified, but now moved with a surety she'd hidden for so long. There is passion and attraction and concern and care in her touch, just as there is all of those in Kai's. But behind all of that, and even stronger than it all, is love.
This, Honour knows, is flying.
---