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Eula certainly is prettiest after dark. There is almost an otherworldly quality to her when even the faintest shard of filtered moonlight catches on alabaster skin. Perhaps it is a by-product of her noble blood: even as she does something as mundane as adjusting the straps of her thigh-high boots, she looks like a stone figure cut carefully and painstakingly under the hands of an accomplished artisan – which is to say cold, regal, and very, very lonely.
“You’re already regretting it, aren’t you?” suggests Lisa.
“Of course not,” Eula refutes hastily. “It was… wholly enjoyable.”
Lisa raises an eyebrow and retorts, “You say that but you’re trying to leave before I’ve even caught my breath proper. Is that really any way to treat a lady?”
The chiding makes Eula’s ears goes pink, but she continues to sit on the far side of the bed.
Lisa clucks her tongue. “Really, Eula, must you be so difficult? I’m asking you to stay the night, not make an honest woman out of me. Honestly, you’re quite as bad as—”
A sharp inhale. Lisa’s calculated words had indeed found their mark. Conflict now brewed in those ametrine eyes.
“Stay,” Lisa insists, lifting the coverlet in invitation. Eula’s reflexive averting of her gaze is as endearing as it is baffling. It makes Lisa roll her eyes and say, “How precious. You act as if you’ve never seen breasts before.”
“I’ve never met anyone quite as forward as you,” Eula replies coolly. As if to prove her point, Eula keeps her eyes on Lisa as she retrieves a fresh set of underclothes.
“Please,” Lisa complains as she slips on her knickers. “If left to your own devices, we both wouldn’t be here right now, would we?”
“You’re terrible,” Eula says, shaking her head. The bed dips when Lisa takes a seat next to her, and an arm snakes its way around Eula’s elbow.
“I do want to talk to you,” puts Lisa bluntly.
“About this evening?”
Lisa chuckles. “Heaven’s no. This— This was just sex, wasn’t it? There’s no mistake there.”
But then her fingers come to brush lightly across the strap on Eula’s left thigh – the very same one that Eula had fiddled with in a distracted stupor just moments earlier.
“But it brought about some sort of realisation, didn’t it?” continues Lisa, purposefully. She gives Eula’s arm an encouraging squeeze.
Instead, Eula pulls away.
Now, Lisa has never counted herself a patient woman but she does make an effort for her nearest and dearest. Unfortunately, those efforts are oftentimes limited in their effectiveness.
Eula is quick to pick up the smell of ozone in the air and heed its warning. A ribbed deflection rises but she is wise enough to hold her tongue.
But the storm is over as abruptly as it broke, and when Lisa places her hand on Eula’s arm again, the touch is surprisingly gentle. There is no ire left in those green eyes; only quiet imploration.
The word rips its way past gritted teeth: “Yes.”
And there it is, that sole, monosyllabic word bearing the weight of a thousand others, laid bare to be scrutinised and torn asunder. It marks an acknowledgement of an unseen actor, the one who had set all things in motion.
Eula knows it is a callous admission, even if Lisa is the one who pried. Fury is to be expected; or, at the very least, offence taken. Yet, the tenderness with which Lisa laces her fingers through Eula’s betrays no malice.
“I understand,” says Lisa, simply. And Eula believes her – for who else would be more familiar with this ridiculous entanglement if not Lisa?
Eula shakes her head but she squeezes Lisa’s hand all the same. “You may think it mercy but your sympathy is insulting. It would do well to keep your adversary at arm’s length.”
Lisa laughs.
“Darling,” she starts, “I am much too busy a woman to entertain my so-called rivals as earnestly as you do. Frankly put, I haven’t the energy to spare playing the long game, as you are wont to do.”
“You really are quite the meddlesome one,” Eula complains. “But also much too good. I suppose you may expect a reasonably cushioned downfall.”
The declaration draws a snort from Lisa. “Do your worst.”
They stay that way, leaning on one another, for some time before Lisa declares it time for bed. This time, Eula undresses and slips under the covers without protest.
“You know, in putting up with you for— never mind. Just know that I’ve come to care for you – reluctantly, but genuinely.”
The quiet confession is met with purposeful silence.