; [interlude/closed post]

[quote_gentle_unquote]

After a few dances -- with several attendees, but mostly with Lancelot -- Susan liberates two bottles of wine and a plate of food from the ballroom and slips off to go find Janet. Luckily, after struggling to track Lancelot down earlier in the week, she's made a point of mapping the location of everyone's rooms, and so she doesn't have to search to find Janet's.

She raps on the door with the back her hand, careful not to let the food or the wine jostle overmuch. "Diplomatic envoy for Queen Janet of Fillory," she calls.

Comments

[sorrowandsorrow]

"You're definitely pulling it off," Janet agrees. Especially with the bra off, the overall effect is... striking, to say the least. She reaches behind herself to unclasp her own bra and then lets it slide off her shoulders.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan doesn't bother pretending to look away. "Have you got any lotion or oil you'd like me to use?" she asks, and then tacks on a flirty little, "Your Majesty?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

"What I wouldn't give for a Bath and Body Works," Janet says wistfully, but she'll take the excuse to stand and stretch and cross over to her desk again. This is a two-pronged attack: first, she pours some more wine into her mug. Then she grabs a bottle of lotion that's been hiding behind a stack of magic textbooks and offers it to Susan. There's no label -- maybe the mansion can't afford sponsorships? But it smells okay, a sort of generic musky floral scent.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

It's actually a three-pronged attack, because Susan is feeling rather overcome by Janet just walking around bare-chested! She takes the lotion from Janet, letting their fingers brush in the process, and then picks up her own mug for a fortifying sip.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet takes her own long sip of wine, along with the opportunity to hide her smile, and then sets it down so that she can return to the bed. She stretches out on her stomach, pillowing her head on her hands with her face turned toward Susan, and says, "Well?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan puts her mug next to Janet's and comes over. She hesitates the barest of moments, and then climbs onto the bed, too, swinging a leg over Janet's thighs so that she's straddling her. Then she squirts some lotion into her hands, cupping them together to warm it for a moment before starting in on Janet's shoulders. Her touch is firm, deep; her hands are getting stronger from her archery practice. There's a faint callus forming on her draw hand.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet's not usually that vocal during sex, and this is close enough to sex that she hadn't planned on being vocal here either, but Susan's thumbs digging into the knots around her shoulder blades is too fucking good. She muffles a little groan, which wants to turn into a laugh, against the inside of her own wrist. "Your Majesty," she says, "holy shit."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I had a... brief assignation with someone learning Swedish massage several years ago," Susan explains, moving in closer to Janet's spine. She likes the warmth of Janet's body against her legs and the smooth skin of her back underneath her hands. "I learned several things."

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Mmph," Janet manages eloquently as Susan digs in right along her spine. She gets out another breathless laugh. "I owe that person a drink."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, I should like to see that! You would thoroughly overwhelm him," Susan says. She works her way down Janet's back - this first pass is to get a sense for whatever spots demand greater attention.

[sorrowandsorrow]

It's mostly Janet's shoulders that are tense and knotted up; that's the consequence of throwing around fuck-off axes to impress a girl. It's not that bad, but it's noticeable enough. "Overwhelming a man and entertaining my fellow queen at the same time? Sign me up."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Eventually, Susan works her way back up to concentrate on those (sexy, very sexy) shoulders. "It's so nice to know a like-minded monarch," she says.

[sorrowandsorrow]

"Mmhmm." That's about the sum of what this very eloquent Queen of Fillory can manage once Susan is back on her shoulders. She has to breathe through it a little, shutting her eyes and tucking her face into the crook of her elbow.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan sinks into the rhythm of this, working the kinks out of Janet's shoulders, moving slowly, steadily, but deep. Eventually, her hands start cramping, and she settles back on her haunches, stretching them. "What now, my lady?"

[sorrowandsorrow]

Everything's pleasantly blurry around the edges of Janet's consciousness right now. Susan has melted her like butter on a hot stove. She almost never feels like this -- this relaxed, this unfocused. After a second, she musters up the wherewithal to prop herself up on an elbow and half-turn to look at Susan. "Now come here and let me make out with you."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh, gladly," Susan says, slipping off of Janet's back and stretching out alongside her on the bed. She returns her hand to Janet's back - it's soft, and ever so warm - and leans in, stealing a swift, sharp kiss before settling down.

[sorrowandsorrow]

As soon as Susan's back in range, Janet draws her into another kiss with a hand at the back of her neck. It's a contrast to that first one, slow and languid; heated, but in a low simmer. Everything smells a little like the scented lotion Susan was using, and Janet's had exactly enough wine to lean into this feeling.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan settles into the feeling of this, of opening to Janet's kiss, and letting her eyes drift closed as she matches her, heat for heat, slow move for slow move. Janet's mouth is wine-tart; there's a sweetness underneath, a warmth like the warmth of her skin. Susan keeps her hand curved politely around Janet's back, their chests a barely an inch apart.

[sorrowandsorrow]

It's Janet, then, who slips closer, until her nipples are just catching on the fabric of Susan's barely-there pajama top. That, then, the pinprick of that feeling, makes her sigh and open her mouth under Susan's, chasing the slide of her tongue without too much urgency.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Since Janet is moving languidly, Susan matches her, but she does move her hand slowly down Janet's spine, coaxing her closer still. She's not used to this kind of pace, really - oh, with Miriam, they had danced around each other for several months, but they fell into bed together shortly after their first kiss. She finds that she likes it, in a queer sort of way. Janet generally makes her want to rise to the occasion; now she's slowing down, savoring her taste, letting the moment unfold as it will.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Honestly, this is far from Janet's usual pace, either, but there's something to the novelty of it. She curls in closer in answer to Susan's hand and the scrape of that single callus on her back, nudging her knee between Susan's legs. Her hand is still around the back of Susan's neck, and she strokes the tendons there with the pad of her thumb, then draws her fingers through Susan's hair, loose as it is for once.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan likes the feelings of Janet's hand in her hair. She smiles into the kiss, scraping Janet's lip lightly with her teeth, letting her legs part for Janet's knee.

[sorrowandsorrow]

Janet settles into this. There's some heat mounting in her, arousal climbing and a slow creep of additional urgency, but she's doing a better job than she usually does of keeping herself measured. She tucks her leg up between Susan's thigh and deepens their next kiss.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan moves her hand up Janet's back again, scratching whisper-light with the blunt tips of her nails, swallowing down the urge to roll Janet onto her back and really start diving in to her kiss. This is good, as is; she lets the goodness of it wash over her.

[sorrowandsorrow]

It is good, and different enough that it feels distinct -- like something Janet's sharing with Susan only, like something she hasn't really had with anyone else, at least not in a long time. It takes her a while to eventually let one lingering kiss fade away and to put the tiniest amount of distance between their mouths. That doesn't really help; Susan's mouth is slick and obviously well-kissed. Janet bites back a smile. "Well, shit," she says, "and it's not even the third date. I think."