Story: Women of Summer (all chapters)

Authors: Omnicat

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Chapter 1

"Come, come, this way."

"My beauty sleeeeep..." Dorothy grumbled drowsily. "It’s too early to be awake, Relena."

"You can sleep some more when we get there."

The two girls padded on through the hazy light of dawn, along the gravel path and across the dew-slick lawn in their housecoats and fluffy bedroom slippers. Day had barely broken and already a sweltering heat was building between the trees.

Relena spread out a blanket and Dorothy sank onto it with a sleepy murmur of "Not even a pillow?".

 

Dorothy woke to the loudest birdsong she had ever heard and a light on her eyelids that gave the rest of the world a blue hue when she turned her head. The sun glittered in the water of the pond, as if its rays had dived in to go skinny-dipping, and on the other side of the garden the windows of the mansion lit up like candles. A fat, fuzzy bumblebee lazily zoomed along on its way to the flower beds. Every now and then, a dragonfly would emerge from the reeds lining the pond and inspect them before flitting back to its friends to report its findings.

The birds were truly deafening.

"Well?" Relena’s voice came from beside her. Dorothy looked at the girl sprawled out next to her, long hair fanning out, cheeks rosy, eyes closed and a vague smile on her face.

"Your character has just lost all its splendour I’m afraid, Miss Relena. With a backyard like this to frolic around in, who wouldn’t be a staunch defender of peace?"

"I had a feeling you’d like it."

 

The breakfast of fruit and biscuits Relena had brought hadn’t been gone long before Dorothy saw them.

"Look, we’re being invaded."

"Invaded?"

Relena followed Dorothy’s gaze to a messy line of ants making its way to a bowl of what had once been a salad of tart fruits, sprinkled liberally with sugar. With a mischievous glint of blue eyes, Dorothy tilted the bowl until the edge dug into the blanket.

"They’re coming to plunder our precious resources."

"It’s not an invasion when they’re welcome to everything we have." Relena countered with a smile, and lay down on her side to watch the ants.

"Ah, but look at how militant their march is, Miss Relena. You can almost see their little salutes. And before you know it, they’ll be marching back home all smug, bearing away arms full of our sugar diamonds and hoisting pieces of our fruit on their backs."

Relena giggled. "It looks more like a fanfare to me. They’re playing music and dancing their way to the bowl to warm up, and in a little while they’ll come out clad in glittering costumes and carrying magnificent displays of strawberry and cherry."

"Displays of the bodies of their enemies, you mean?"

Chuckling, Relena rolled onto her back and looked up at Dorothy, one hand resting on her stomach while the fingers of the other traced patterns in the silky nightgown covering Dorothy’s thigh. "You’ll agree that red isn’t only the colour of blood though, won’t you?"

"But Miss Relena, when have I ever been known to see the colour of blood and the colour of passion and love as two separate things?"

"Dorothy, if you keep calling me ‘Miss’ I am going to have to take drastic measures one of these days."

"Oooh," Dorothy crooned, pushing herself up and coiling over Relena. Strands of her hair slid forward and fell into Relena’s face; she had to keep an arm over head to keep it from blinding her. "Am I to be punished then, Miss Relena?"

"Worse." Relena wound a lock of hair around her hand and pulled Dorothy down until they were close enough to kiss. "I will save your delicate aristocrat’s skin from the sun. I’ll rub you with sun block everywhere, massage you until you forget how to speak." she whispered, and only then brushed a kiss across Dorothy’s lips. Her hooded blue eyes were at once cherishing and lustful, a mixture that never ceased to amaze and captivate Dorothy. Supposedly as an afterthought, she added: "And maybe then I’ll make you scream."

"Hm." Dorothy leaned down for another kiss, this one longer, deeper, yet not nearly enough. "Do you think you can make me scream so hard I won’t be able to work a ‘Miss’ in there?"

"We’ll just have to see, won’t we?"

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