cinderlea | (no subject)

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[ Riku disappears first. Vanished in her sleep, in the middle of the night, collapsing in on herself in a shimmer of starlights. This isn't like last time. No warnings, no chances to say goodbye, no hesitation or resistance. She just isn't there.

Lea goes minutes after Riku, in the same way. But she's awake, lounging on her couch, having a conversation as she flips through her phone. Here and then gone, like a flame. This isn't the first time either of them have gone home, but it's the first time it's so abrupt. At least it isn't death. The last time Riku went home was seven years ago. She was gone for a month, and she came back with shorter hair and the Mark of Mastery. The last time Lea went home, no one really noticed. She thought she was used to it by now.

Things are different this time. Disorienting. Lea meets Kai in the training, for real this time. Riku has her memories, or at least most of them. They're hazy, dreamlike, but real. She has them all. She remembers how old she really is and how long she's been gone. She remembers everyone she cares about, and everyone that won't change here. She keeps her ice magic and takes what she's learned here to use there. But time is fluid. She doesn't feel like she's been gone for seven years.

Lea's are gone, for now. She lives everything new and fresh, with the dressing room appearing only in dreams vivid enough to unsettle her.

Things aren't the same for every world.

Things go better than expected.

The core story is the same. The heroes rescue the ones that need it, they bring everyone back, they defeat the darkness, and they go home. How and when and who — these things vary, but they do it all together and they go home together. And then their story is over, at least for now, and they come back.

Unlike how they went out, Lea and Riku reappear together on the beach. Coming back is just as disorienting, and neither has their phone, so they get their bearings and confirm memories with each other, of the dressing room and of home, and then separate to find their friends.

They've been gone two months. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Isa's gone all shivery-quiet in a way Lea's never had the chance to see, so that's probably a yes on the sensitive. she's trying to tell herself it's just from the lack of relevant activities, but it hasn't been that long. the truth is that having someone ask to do something is one of the hottest things she's ever experienced. she was never unwilling with Xemnas, but there was a lot of assuming going on and this is just. nice.]

Sh-shut up.

[she'll kill you. (ง’̀-‘́)ง ]

What, it's the truth.

[ Here, less gentle tracing and more gentle massage. ]

They're soft. Pretty nice, too.

[ She could invite Isa to touch hers, too, to make this a little less awkward in a friendlier way, but she's also kind of an asshole and can tell that this is flustering her more than it is Lea. At least for now. And what better way to make herself less flustered than to tease? ]

What else can I do with them?

[that was definitely Isa's hands twitching where they're resting against Lea's waist as she doesn't bring her hands up to cover her face, which is bright red at this point. she's so flustered, and Lea's in for some sort of horrible payback much later, when she least expects it.]

I- oh god. Whatever you want, just.

[there would normally be something after that, but she can't, her words are gone. have mercy, blease.]

[ She has done it. She has flustered Isa. She has won, and no future embarrassment will tarnish this victory. Lea has to laugh, a little, but it's quiet and good-natured, and breathy against Isa's skin. This is soft gay exploration, but it's also revenge, in a way. She's touching and gently massaging the breast on the opposite side of her face, but she'll lower her face a little to kiss near the top of the closer one. ]

[to be fair, it's not actually that hard to fluster Isa, it's just that she knows how to defend against all the methods Lea's tried apart from this. revenge against who, also.

Isa's trying to just focus on breathing and getting her blood to go back where it belongs, but she shivers when Lea does that, and smacks her on the shoulder, gently.]

You suck.

[ Against her! For seducing Lea, obviously, and turning her on before she was prepared to process why that was. This isn't a time for making decisions about things to say, maybe she should back off and behave herself— ]

Is that an insult or a request?

[that was an exaggeratedly disbelieving snort that just escaped Isa. you have no ground to stand on here, Lea, we've been over this already.]

May I remind you that not even two hours ago you were flailing over even talking about these activities? But both, since you asked.

[get wrecked.]

Hey, not all of us can be as worldly as you.

[ She's like a great big cat, smug as she is. They both are, in ways, but also who was it that brought up playing gay chicken before? Is she being told to put her money where her mouth is? Make her sweat, Isa. ]

Anyway, you... wanted to do this, right?

[oh she'll make sweating happen, just watch. now that her brain's through being fried, it's like when you push through exercising and hit a second wind, she's effectively immune to further flustering, at least for this situation. how does Lea feel about being rolled onto her back so that Isa's suddenly on top of her? it's not the easiest thing to do on a couch, but Lea's a giant stick and Isa has stronk arms. as if nothing just happened:]

Very much so. But I'm not doing anything unless you're sure you want to.

[there's a lot happening in that statement, compared to what Lea just asked.]

[ Mayday. Isa is too strong. This backfired on her completely. Lea's stuck in gay panic for at least a couple seconds, pink across the nose and frazzled, but then she looks away and focuses really hard on the fabric of the couch. She feels a little bad, like she was teasing Isa too much without full intent to do anything.

Is she sure she wants to? She has to think about it. There are no cons to this situation, only pros, but it's a level of emotional intimacy she's only really just gotten back to with Isa (past where it was, really, but she doesn't see it that way) and a level of physical intimacy she's never experienced before. Is she sure? ]

Yeah? The only thing I'm not sure about is what I wanna do.

[shit, that was maybe too much, now Isa feels bad too. there's a good chance she's going to just blurt something out that'll shed far more light onto what she got up to with Xemnas than Lea's interested in hearing right now (or ever), but every part of her wants things to be different between the two relationships. also, limits, or something.]

You don't have to do anything, if you don't want to. If any of this is more than you're comfortable with—

[and she just cut herself off because she knows she's overthinking basically everything at this point, and she's visibly pulling away because uncertainty, and aaaaaa. how the fuck do regular people do this.]

[ Fuck. Nope. Lea reaches up to put her hands on either side of Isa's face, so she can... well, kind of make each of them look at each other. A joint forcing, if you will. ]

I'll let you know. I'm a big girl, I can remember that much. Relax, okay? I said yes.

[yes, okay, that helps, a little. she was very close to a full freakout, but you didn't hear that from me. she's all tense now, ugh, and she definitely has some real issues that they should talk about at some point, but she's fine. she'll be fine. she brings her hands up and puts them over Lea's and holds them there for reassurance, though she's gentler with the bruised one.]

Okay. Yes. I'm— okay. If— fuck.

[now she feels like hiding, which she definitely did right after recompleting, she let her hair stay in her face because she didn't want to see her scar, and didn't want anyone else to see it either. how did she end up such a mess, whose fault is this and can she kill them for it.]

[ Stop that. No hidings are allowed among her friends, everybody knows that. What if she just barnacles on her, then? It's not very sexy, but... She's gonna do it, wrapping her arms around Isa's neck and wiggling her legs around so she can hook at least one of them around her waist. No escape. Also no shirts, but that's irrelevant. ]

What're you doing getting on top of me for if you're gonna stop? It's like you're more nervous than I am.

[Isa doesn't fight it, at least, and works her arms under Lea for a hug, tucking her head under Lea's chin for a moment and then placing a kiss right over her heart.]

I kind of am, actually. I'm sorry, I'm a mess. It's just- this part is. Less familiar to me. But I'm okay if you are.

[which part does she mean? it is a mystery.]

'm fine, trust me. Wait, which part?

[ Unless otherwise specified she will just assume Isa means being on top. ]

[i mean, that too.]

Oh, um. The uh. The part where I'm the one doing stuff. Besides kissing.

[Isa's face is so hot right now, temperature-wise, and she's mentally kicking herself for maybe making this weird again and maybe killing the mood, and for continuing to bring things back around to Xemnas at the worst times. but that's the only experience she has with any of this! she can't help it!]

[ You can see the slow process on Lea's face as she digests this information, from confusion to deeper confusion, and then her brow furrows as she gets it, and she cycles into skeptical and deadpan. It's hard to tell if she's shocked or judging her because Isa's so far portrayed herself as large and in charge. She can't believe they're both bottoms, basically, although she doesn't know the terminology. ]

Really?

[it's a shame neither of them has the terminology, because the notion of Isa somehow topping Xemnas, while extremely appealing, is hilarious. Isa's assuming the skepticism is due to Lea thinking, idk, that Isa was being coerced into pleasuring her boss or something. also when Isa said "less familiar" what she actually meant was:]

I never actually did anything besides the kissing. Um. To her, I mean. She wouldn't let me.

[there it is. Isa would like to be consumed by the couch now, Lea said she didn't want to hear anything else and about all Isa's done since then is talk about it, and her Heart is so chaotic right now that she feels like she might burst. she's unconsciously recoiling again and seems unwilling to actually look at Lea, like this statement is some sort of personal failing.]

[ Oh. Well. Okay. Uhhh. Wait, what? This is brand new information. It's also extremely shocking to her, although she's doing a good job of just looking completely flummoxed. ]

Why?

[ Honestly, yeah, she did assume a more negative opinion of Xemnas in regards to this, in particular, so she's surprised and confused about why Isa wasn't a sex slave, basically. ]

[isn't this all a nice distraction from how neither of them has a shirt on? Isa thinks so. she's also thinking about living under the couch from now on. she shrugs a little, now positive she's killed the mood, and sits back on her heels unless Lea's arms keep her from doing so.]

Dunno. I didn't really question it when she was so willing to just.

[come on, we're both women here, just say it.]

Get me off, and lavish me with attention just for being there and having a dumb crush on her.

[do you see how fucked up this has made her, Lea, because she sure doesn't, not entirely. how did any of this work with no hearts (except there totally were after a point), and why her, for any of it, and oh no is she tearing up. no, it's a trick of the light.]

[ I mean... She's not going to pretend it's not awkward, but at least it makes her less embarrassed to be shirtless. Less than before, anyway. She doesn't restrict Isa from sitting up, and follows her, propping her own body up with her elbows as she listens. Fuck. No. Why. Why does she have to consider Xemnas as a person and not as a villain now. Fuck. ]

Maybe she didn't want to... come across like that, I guess.

[ Even if that's how it was, or how it started, and it was creepy and inappropriate considering everything. The point is that she's trying to defend Xemnas, and not immediately cast it in a negative light, for Isa's sake. She tried. ⭐ ]

I don't know. We were all feeling weird shit by the end, even when we were pretending not to. Maybe she felt lonely. Maybe she felt like... she didn't want you to feel like you had to.

[ This is uncomfortable for her, but she's earning that fucking gold star. ]

Don't think we'll ever understand it unless we find one here. But I get it. You had... something, no matter how it was.

[(the problem is that Xemnas was a villain a lot of the time, Isa just can't see that because she was never allowed to see that.

there's a full Isa wibble going by the time Lea's finished, because it's not fair that Lea's actually getting it and being understanding and sympathetic and realistic and several other things that Lea often isn't, and here's Isa falling apart over her dead boss when she should be continuing to seduce Lea.

she rubs a hand over her eyes, which are definitely damp, and then sighs. she wants a hug and a nap and to get Lea off and forget about this conversation, not in that particular order.]

I'm sorry. I killed the mood again, I keep doing that, but... thank you. For getting it. You didn't have to, I know you had no love for her.

[ Yeah, well, we help our girlfriends cope with trauma over time, or something. Speaking of. ]

I know, I'm the best best friend.

[ And a dumbass, but go with what you know works, amirite? If she's too serious it'll just help Isa dwell, or something. She's gonna sit up proper, to touch foreheads or something. ]

Sometimes things are... more important than old grudges. 'Sides, I won. I've got you here now.

Honestly I think that's more of a win for me, but yeah. I wouldn't have anyone to clean up after, otherwise.

[or make out with and then overshare with and sometimes fight with. she leans appreciatively into the forehead touch, and hesitantly drapes her arms over Lea's shoulders.]

Are things totally ruined for tonight or should we try and get back into it? I could go either way, I think, so it's up to you.