Archive of Our Own

Rey watched as her own lips awkwardly, stiffly, kissed “Mr. Prachat” over and over again. Print seemed to be struggling a bit with the scene.

I could do it better.

The words bounced on the corners of her mind and kept coming back to her.

The technique was lacking. The hands were too still. The lips barely moved, although some directors didn’t mind that.

But Rey knew that she could do better, that her body could do better, because she had done it better before. Her kiss on the Hot And Icy series two years prior had been voted by the fans as Kiss of the Year.

Rey sighed deeply through her nose as she watched through another 15 minutes of awkward kissing between Print and Auer for the film.

At least it was the week to be at her condo. Rey really needed a long shower.

She got out of the shower, putting on full pajamas but rehearsing tomorrow’s lines in her head as she got ready for bed. Rey waddled quietly to the living room and saw Print looking at her phone, the script thrown to the side on the coffee table.

“Hey, you.”

Print looked up from her phone as if she had been burned.

“Uh, yes?”

“I told you not to be so stiff during love scenes, didn’t I? That includes kissing scenes.”

Print furrowed her brow and looked at the floor.

“Did I do it poorly? The director said it was okay.”

Rey plopped on the sofa next to her and took the phone. She looked up the clip of her kiss of the year on Youtube and extended it to Print.

“See this? It can be better. It needs to be more dynamic. I don’t expect you to win me awards like this but I need you to do your best.”

Print watched the clip a second time before putting the phone down a bit awkwardly.

“So... What should I do?”

Rey sighed through her nose.

“Maybe it’s easier if I just show you.”

Rey scooched closer to Print and put a hand behind her neck, which made Print tense up.

“What did I teach you before? You need to let yourself relax. It needs to come from within or it won’t look natural.”

Rey let her hand slide down Print’s arm and back up, slowly, trying to make her relax. It worked to some degree, until Rey moved her lips close to Print’s.

“What- What are you doing?”

“I thought my instructions had been clear, but it seems like you need some actual practice.”

Print swallowed dryly but she didn’t move away, so Rey moved closer until their lips were a millimeter away.

“Focus this time. I don’t like repeating myself everyday.”

With her eyes closed, it was easy for Rey to forget that it was her own lips that she was kissing. She did take some pride in that they were nice and soft, but at first Print didn’t react to the kiss. She seemed frozen in shock. But after a beat, Print parted her lips and breathed into it.

It became clearer than ever to Rey that Print didn’t have experience kissing people, so she guided them through it, letting the warmth of the kiss start from within her. As she was about to part away, Print put both hands on Rey’s back and pulled them closer, until their chests heaved against one another. This startled Rey and her heart started beating like crazy.

This was a lesson. Just a lesson in kissing. But the way Print was suddenly driving the motion of their mouths was making Rey lose control. Rey hated losing control. She pushed Print away.

“Enough. Just-” Rey gulped. “Just do that for the cameras, okay? I’m going to sleep.”

Rey got up and left for the sanctum that was her bedroom. She closed the door behind her and put her hands over her face. Her heart was racing like never before. What was wrong with her?

Rey did her best to shake the thoughts away as she went to bed. They had a long day ahead.

The next day, Print in Rey’s body had to film a love scene, which of course started with more kissing. Rey watched from behind the cameras as Print did a better job this time, although still with some stiffness to it. But, somehow, it still annoyed her a bit to watch those takes being filmed.

I could do it better.

Those persistent words kept surfacing in her mind.

But as the kissing turned into the love scene, it felt quite uncomfortable to watch her own body being caressed by this actor, while being on the outside. Rey wanted to turn away, but she couldn’t. She had to make sure that it was fine, respectable, artistic, for the whole world to see her like that. But something deep within her wanted P’Auer to stop.

Print was pretty stiff at first, but then she seemed to remember Rey’s tips on how to breathe, moving the hands around, the whole conjunction of body language to make it look like she actually wanted it... Rey couldn’t help feeling proud of Print for it, even if she really wanted them to finish shooting soon.

It took a few takes, a small break between them, and Rey becoming nervous as time went on, but it was over before long. Rey still had some of her own scenes to film that afternoon and she felt nervous for no good reason, so she went to the bathroom to splash her face a bit before the makeup and outfit change. Print appeared as Rey gently patted the water droplets on her face.

“How did I do?”

“You still have a lot to improve,” Rey saw how Print’s face fell at those words and finished more softly, “but it’s a start.”

Print beamed at her.

“Aha! Coming from Khun Rey, I’ll take that as a big compliment.”

Rey rolled her eyes at Print’s excitement, but she was actually relieved that Print had pulled through that scene.

That evening, during dinner, even though Print was being her happy self and not even bothering her too much, Rey still felt a tinge of the annoyance she had felt during the shooting. She didn’t want to think too much about the “why.” She just needed her rest and to be stronger the next day, as she always did.

Rey let them take the scripts to her bed that time because she was really tired too. At first, they just quietly read through their lines, mouthing with no sound. The time came to practice the most emotionally taxing scene of tomorrow, which was actually both their characters having a big fight over Mr. Prachat in which only Print would have to get tearful.

“Fighting between us? It shouldn’t be that hard.” Print chuckled, until she saw Rey’s serious face. “Don’t you agree? It comes pretty naturally to us.”

Rey puckered her lips, frowned. It didn’t feel right. She had been cast as the protagonist, not the antagonist. She should be the one doing the love scenes and getting tearful, not the one yelling a load of unfairness at the protagonist. It didn’t feel right. It should be her. She could do it better.

But as her mind slipped into this tantrum, she kept staring at Print behind her own eyes, making that stupid lost puppy face that she always did, like all of this situation was fine by her. No way Print could be a better Rey than the actual Rey. Right..?

Rey looked at Print worriedly pouting with Rey’s own lips. She leaned in.

Rey could do it better.

As their mouths joined and their lips naturally parted into the motion, Rey realised: she could do better than Auer on those kisses, not better than Print. That’s what annoyed her.

Print didn’t seem to question it as they embraced each other and kept kissing, letting themselves be taken by the heat of the moment. Rey’s heart was beating like a drum, but she could barely hear it through the intensity of the warmth of their mouths together, their roaming hands.

She could do it better.

Or could she? As things kept heating up and neither of them seemed eager to stop, doubts started creeping into Rey’s mind. She had done kissing scenes, sure. Those were easy enough. She had done two love scenes, right? But she hadn’t actually...

And the fire burning within her at that moment wasn’t stopping because of her doubts. Print was not only not stopping, she seemed to be losing control even more than Rey. Her hands started going places that made Rey’s heart skip a beat, but she wanted to see where it would lead. For what felt like the first time in her life, Rey was eager to let herself lose control.

Print tentatively ran hands from under Rey’s bra down towards the bum, until one of the hands moved slowly towards the top of Rey’s pajama pants. Rey grabbed her wrist and broke the kiss.

“Sorry.”

Print pulled the arm back but Rey pulled it back to where it was.

“Are you sure you know how to..?” Rey mumbled.

Print smirked and put her mouth right next to Rey’s ear to whisper.

“Nobody knows that body better than I do.”

Rey just nodded. Words escaped her. It was time to let their bodies do the talking.

Despite the bravado, Print did seem a bit nervous as she slid her hand under the pajama pants and undies. Rey took in a sharp breath at the touch, and an even harder one when Print started rubbing circles. Rey had never had such an empty head as at that moment. Hands grasping at Print’s back, breathy moans that escaped her lips, hips moving against the hand, none of it was a choice. It was all pure instinct that could not be stopped. She let herself drown in the strong sensations and what felt like a few minutes later she was over the edge, eyes rolling back and hips squeezing the hand between them.

Rey collapsed into Print’s arms and tried to catch her breath the best she could. As she regained her hormone-free consciousness back, she got annoyed at Print. She removed Print’s hand from her underwear.

“That was so intense. Couldn’t you have eased me into it a bit more?”

Print chuckled.

“I guess I have too much practice with my own body.”

Rey slapped her arm and blushed. “Perv.”

Print just laughed more.

“Don’t tell me you had never?”

Rey blushed harder and looked away.

“Who would spend their alone time doing such things?”

“Khun Rey is too well-behaved to do it to herself! If the whole world could know of such things.”

“Hey, stop it.”

“Alright, alright.” Print took Rey’s hand and kissed it. “I’ll be gentler next time.”

Rey pulled her hand away and scowled.

“Who said there will be a next time? Perv.”

Rey laid down on the bed on her side, back turned to Print. Print hugged her from behind and whispered sweetly in her ear.

“Hopefully we’ll be in our own bodies by then...”

Rey didn’t bother answering, but the butterflies at the pit of her stomach agreed.

Print let go of her and was quiet for a while. Then she started shifting around in bed.

“Can I sleep here tonight?”

Rey took her time to answer, not wanting to make it too easy on Print.

“Okay... But no hugging.”

Maybe Rey did want to be hugged, but she couldn’t risk losing control of her mind and body like she had just then. She had much to think about. She had someone to think about...