Chapter Text
Shiori is a very reserved person.
It’s something that both of her partners know, the fact that she likes to keep to herself most of the time. Add in her yellow eyes and penchant to only accept physical affection up to a certain point and you get the perfect ‘cat Shiori’ jokes that Nerissa likes to make. There’s a joke to be made there, one about cats and birds, a low hanging fruit that Shiori chooses to ignore with an eye roll and shake of the head, smile not quite able to be hidden from her smug bird.
Touch is…difficult for Shiori. Years of complete isolation from anything but the cold throne and burning chains has left her…unused to such affections. Not even the guards that occasionally visited her Cell would dare to touch her, instead using the chains as needed to drag her around. Shiori learned to become numb to it at some point, her body beginning to associate any sort of contact against her skin as danger, something to cause pain.
Even now, after years with Advent as friends and the two biggest huggers she knows as her partners, Shiori finds herself struggling to stay close for too long. Each brush of skin burns, causing goosebumps to ripple across her skin as she unintentionally tenses up. It’s not as bad as it used to be, but her girlfriends still insist on waiting for her cue to reach for her.
It’s even come to affect their smaller actions like kissing, although Shiori is also not one for that in general, at most giving her girls a quick peck on the lips. She’s seen the way Rissa and Liz fall into each other with deeper kisses. She doesn’t crave it. So they settle for kisses to her face instead, or her hands. Light brushes of the lips and love filled eyes that make her skin tingle long after they’re gone. It’s…nice, to have partners that accept her wholeheartedly, without issue.
There’s only one problem with it…
-
“Why hello, gorgeous.” Nerissa beams as Shiori pads over to her in the living room, dressed in a black tank top and a pair of Liz’s grey shorts. The raven is on a cleaning kick, long hair tied up in a bun and similarly dressed in some of Liz’s old clothes, feather duster in hand. She looks so domestic it makes Shiori’s heart shudder, something the demon easily picks up on, raising a single eyebrow as a smirk twitches at her lips.
“The house looks amazing, Rissa.” Shiori compliments her girl as she shuffles closer, shyly taking Rissa’s free hand in both of her own. An opening.
“Thank you, my Shiwowi!” Rissa beams, tossing aside the duster to instead pull Shiori into a hug. “Is our beloved kitty feeling cuddly today?” She asks, pressing a kiss to bicolored bangs.
Shiori’s response is a nod against Rissa’s soft chest, gazing up at her girlfriend with half lidded eyes. “Kiss?”
She can feel the way Nerissa bites back a squeal, smile spreading wide across her face as she giggles. “Anything for you, Shiwowi!”
Shiori leans into the hands the cup her face, her body buzzing pleasantly as Nerissa leans in to place a quick peck on her lips. And another, to her cheek. And her forehead. Kissing all over her face with exaggerated mwah noises as Shiori melts against her.
Today is one of the rare days where Shiori craves her partner's touch. Nerissa calls it being ‘touch starved’, the way Shiori will describe it is feeling terribly cold unless her girls are touching her in some form. Shiori frankly doesn’t care what it’s called as long as it gets her affection. The touch that normally scalds her skin is reduced to a pleasant buzz, warmth flowing through her inky veins.
“You’re so cute Shiori.” The raven giggles as she sways them slowly, wings wrapping around her love and cocooning her closer.
Shiori’s cheeks flush red, an unfamiliar wave of shyness washing over her as she tugs at Nerissa’s shirt, gazing up at her with sparkling eyes. “Another kiss?”
“We’re feeling extra cuddly today, huh?” Nerissa giggles as she obliges Shiori’s request, dropping another quick peck to her lips. It should be enough. Usually it is enough. Usually at this point Shiori will draw away, her touch quota filled for the next couple of hours.
She still wants more.
Nerissa is already moving away, used to Shiori drawing away around this time. It makes the Archiver frown as her skin turns cold once more, body longing for her girlfriend’s body heat. And it’s here that lies the problem.
Shiori wants more, but Nerissa knows her.
It’s not the first time that Shiori’s touch starvedness has caused her to push further, and most times it ends with her suddenly getting very overwhelmed, pleasant buzzing turning to a harsh burning sensation that leaves her aching for hours, tears pricking at golden eyes as she curls up miserably alone.
All this to say, even in her touchy moods there's an unspoken limit to the length of the affection, one that Shiori knows she’s crossed as Nerissa returns to cleaning.
Curse her girlfriends and their attentiveness to Shiori’s condition.
Luckily, Shiori has two girlfriends.
Liz is fairly easy to track down, always tucked away in that office of hers. Elizabeth looks completely in her element, dutifully working on paperwork with a pair of reading glasses perched on her nose.
“You alright, Poppet?” Liz glances up from her work, frowning slightly when Shiori doesn’t immediately answer. “I’m not late to dinner, am I?”
“No.” Shiori finally speaks, voice soft as shyness creeps on her. Liz looks so busy… “It’s nothing.” She should go.
Before she can move Elizabeth is standing, striding around her desk to stand just before her.
“Tell me what’s wrong, dearest.”
“I feel like those omegas in the books Nerissa reads.” Shiori grumbles as she shuffles closer, resting her forehead on Liz’s shoulder. “All clingy and gross.”
Elizabeth is warm, body heat radiating even through the clothes she wears and seeping into Shiori. Her familiar scent of warm cider and a hint of cinnamon fills the air, and Shiori sighs in content as she clings loosely to the front of Liz’s dress shirt.
Warm. Comfortable. Love. Mine.
Mine, mine mine— The word fills her brain as she buries her face in Liz’s neck, tension melting from her limbs as her girlfriend holds her close.
“One of these days, eh?” Liz murmurs, wrapping a strong arm around Shiori’s waist as she rubs circles against her back. Shiori nods, clutching tighter to her shirt. “Anything I can do to help?” A shrug.
“Let me crawl into your ribcage.”
“I dunno about that one.” Liz chuckles as she leans down, sinking her fingers into the plush fat of Shiori’s thighs and lifting, easily able to carry her out of the office. “How about some snuggle time instead?”
True to her word, Liz bundles her up in blankets and cuddles her, smiling softly at the way Shiori cradles her face, stealing kisses in between meaningless conversations.
“You feeling a bit better love?” Liz hums as she runs her fingers through bicolored hair, scratching gently at the nape and sending shivers down Shiori’s spine.
“Mngh.” Shiori sighs, stealing another lingering kiss from kiss swollen lips. “I’d feel a bit better if Rissa were here t—“
“Well if you insist!”
“Huh?”
“Wha-oof!”
Liz wheezes as Nerissa suddenly jumps on the bed beside them, waggling her eyebrows as she watches her shocked girlfriends cuddle.
“H-how long were you standing there?!” Shiori groans, feeling her cheeks flush a dark red.
“Long enough!” Nerissa chirps. “But nevermind that, your beloved Rissa is here, Shiwowi!” Rissa declares, immediately leaning in for a kiss that’s stopped by a hand to the face.
“Y’know what? I think i’m better now.” Shiori deadpans. It’s true, the annoying buzzing under her skin had faded the second Nerissa had shown up. Now she just feels cramped, And hot. “I’m going to the Archives. Bye.” She wiggles out of Liz’s grasp, sitting up to slide out of bed—
—only to be grabbed and dragged backwards.
“No! That’s not fair, I only just got here!”
“Augh! Unhand me, woman!”
“Not until you come cuddle us Shiwowi!”
“G-guys…you’re crushing my spleen…”
Eventually Shiori relents, allowing herself to be sandwiched between her two girlfriends. The pain of overstimulation never comes, instead settling into a blanket of warmth and fuzzy feelings that she mumbles against Rissa’s shoulder.
Liz is the first to fall asleep, one leg thrown across Shiori’s hip, calf resting against Nerissa’s thigh as her arms encircle them both. Freaking giant. Nerissa is next, her playful teasing fading into gentle, melodic breathing as her wing too wraps around her lovers.
Shiori is glad that they’re both asleep so they can’t see the goofy, lovestruck smile that refuses to leave her face.
She…
She…loves thi—
Yeah, no. She’s hot. And cramped. Lovey dovey time over.
She teleports to the Archives.