Chapter 23: Advancing the Warp

Elizabeth smiled as she waited for the next student to come up to the counter with books or supplies or even a snack. The student store wasn’t usually very busy late at night, but there was always someone who needed something last minute and were very glad that the store was open until 3am.

For Elizabeth it was an easy shift where she could relax and afford her classes a little easier so she hardly minded that.

I had a lot of fun hanging out with you last night. I’m sorry everyone made you feel awkward at lunch. Elizabeth typed on her phone between glances up at the counter to make sure she wasn’t ignoring some meek student. The last time she was sure they’d been waiting there for a full ten minutes too shy to get her attention. Thank you for explaining why you needed to leave—I had no idea! I would never want to come between you and a friend who means that much to you. Have you tried just telling her how you feel? I think she could use that right now if she’s skipping classes…

“I hope you haven’t been here all alone for very long.” Alexis’s voice pulled Elizabeth’s gaze up from her phone. She smiled, shaking her head. Alexis smiled a little more. One of her fingers was curling idly around the hair at the very end of her braid. The other hand was tapping away at her phone. “I ended up a lot, well… busier… than I anticipated.”

Elizabeth blinked at Alexis’s temporary blush, but soon her smile was back in full force. “Don’t worry about it! We only just met today, and I have plenty to be occupied with. Just look… The shelves are jam packed!”

Alexis glanced to the shelves Elizabeth mentioned. Sure enough there wasn’t a single empty space, every shelf filled to bursting.

No one was browsing said shelves, but she hadn’t mentioned the aisles.

“Not with people, but I’m sure I could start naming the staplers before I went crazy.” Elizabeth closed her eyes and giggled.

“If you’re thinking of naming staplers then you’re already too far gone to help.” Alexis grinned. “But that’s fine. A little crazy can go a long way. I love the sweater, by the way. It really brings out your eyes.”

“I-I’m not a lesbian.” Elizabeth blushed. “Not that it’s a problem with me. It’s really not. Just something about the way you said that…”

Alexis held both of her hands up in front of her. “My bad. I wasn’t trying to hit on you. You’re cute, but I can take a… what’s the next level up from a hint?”

Elizabeth smiled. “A rejection doesn’t really sound right. Maybe an indication…?”

“One word’s as good as another…” Alexis quietly laughed, shaking her head. “Anyway, I really am not here to flirt. I’m sorry. Can we still be friends? I’ll understand if me meeting you here like this and then coming on too strong immediately puts you off, but I hope it hasn’t.”

“Of course we can!” Elizabeth laughed, shaking her head as she peeked around Alexis to make sure she wasn’t missing sight of any shoppers. “Most of my new friends lately seem to be lesbians. Belinda, Michelle, Claire…” Elizabeth stopped, twisting her face up in concern. “Do you think two days is too soon to text someone after you’ve turned them down for a date? I really don’t want to open up a wound if she’s starting to feel better. I asked around, and she’s skipped all of her classes the last couple of days…”

Alexis smiled, and reached to rest a hand on Elizabeth’s arm. The blonde girl glanced to Alexis’s hand, but smiled before looking up to Alexis. The touch was through a sweater, but even still, something about the way her fingers moved was comforting. It was hard to not feel like she really cared.

“Well, you’re better friends with her than I am… embarrassing as that is for me.” Alexis moved her fingers higher up until they just barely grazed Elizabeth’s shoulder.

Something in her eyes shuddered, and her posture ever so slightly slackened.

“What do you think? Do you think it would hurt her to hear from you…? Do you think it would make it easier for her to talk to you again if we prepared something special… a surprise, just for her…?” Alexis’s smile softened, her finger trailing down Elizabeth’s arm.

On its way, her nail gently snagged pangs of concern, worry, and tangled them with a faint tingle of warmth. When her finger finally pulled free, pulling all of those threads so taut, making them hum and pulse through Elizabeth’s entire body, she had to take several moments of wordlessly fluttering her eyes and moving her mouth uselessly to be capable of anything but the softest of gasps.

Whatever impulses should have fired to make Elizabeth suspicious, or to question Alexis’s dedication to being her friend instead of flirting simply didn’t. She smiled a little softer as she took on a more thoughtful expression.

“I… I think that it might make her happier if we surprised her… but…” Elizabeth sighed. “I couldn’t put that on you… Didn’t you say that you wanted to know more about her…?”

“Mm-hm…” Alexis nodded slowly. “I don’t know a lot, but we’re family, and well… I wanted to make a good first impression. It’s silly, but…” She shrugged. “I have a flair for the dramatic.”

Elizabeth giggled. The full shine didn’t return to her eyes, still a little glazed, a little simpler, but that didn’t seem to bother Elizabeth or Alexis. “Then that’s just something else you have in common…! She can be very sweet, and she obviously cares, but she can be a little lost inside of her head. She’s smart, clever really, but doesn’t always apply herself. She’s good at problem solving… really good at finding interesting solutions to problems… A little oblivious…”

“Mm-hm… Mm-hm…” Alexis nodded along, her lips twisting as she allowed herself a momentary frown. “Sounds good so far. Hm…”

Elizabeth smiled, and then waved at a student who pointed at themselves awkwardly. “Sorry, one moment, I need to help ring them up…!” The student approached, setting down a smattering of supplies.

Alexis nodded and stepped back, offering Elizabeth a patient smile before she lost herself in her phone.

It wasn’t long before the student was walking away, and Elizabeth looked up with a warm smile. “Sorry about that! But yes, Claire is a really great person to have around when she’s invested in something. When she isn’t then she really isn’t, but she usually at least tries to participate. She can just be a bit of an introvert.”

“We really do have a lot in common, then.” Alexis laughed, and Elizabeth joined her. “Does Claire talk about her family much?”

“I don’t think so!” Elizabeth frowned before shifting back to a warmer smile. Her gaze continued to shift between Alexis and the rest of the store. “But I haven’t known her that long and she’s probably been trying to impress me the entire time… her mothers come up every so often. She seems to really get along with them—and everyone says that they’re very nice, especially Belinda.”

“Belinda didn’t seem to like me very much.” Alexis frowned, and then shrugged as she tucked her phone back away. “Any clue why?”

“She was just in a bad mood. I’d tell you why, but…” Elizabeth zipped across her lips. As her hand fell back onto the counter, Alexis grabbed it up and slowly traced her fingers along the back of Elizabeth’s hand. She shivered, her eyes hooding as nails hooked threads, and she quietly mewled. “Thought you said that you weren’t… trying to flirt…”

Alexis shrugged, and turned over Elizabeth’s hand. “Maybe I lied. Maybe I like to read hands, and I can see more than just the palm… The back of your hand told me a lot about you, actually. You’ve never been in love, have you? Never even been kissed…?”

Alexis’s fingers moved across the inside of Elizabeth’s palm, slowly and delicately. Each little touch traced along a line, dipping in with a nail just enough to make Elizabeth shiver. Her eyes were starting to hood a little lower, and time was starting to slow. She wasn’t looking up to see the rest of the store anymore.

“H-how can you tell that from my hand—”

“—and it says right here…” Alexis spoke over Elizabeth, not so much interrupting her as ignoring her entirely. “That you’re not happy about that. It’s not that no one’s ever asked. Boys. Girls. Everything in-between. You just haven’t felt… something… You’re waiting for… some thing that no one’s been able to make you feel.

“Am I wrong?”

Elizabeth slowly, breathlessly shook her head.

“But how do you—”

“—How I know isn’t important.” Alexis trailed her fingers down to Elizabeth’s wrist, slowly curling her fingers in so they teased all four nails in towards the blonde’s palm. Each time they connected, Elizabeth shuddered and gasped, but she didn’t pull away. “What’s important is that I do know what it is that you’re looking for. I know what it is that you haven’t found, and why you might still have urges and desires, but no idea how to feel them… fulfilled…”

Elizabeth pitifully mewled. Breathing was becoming so difficult for her, and there was a faint whine with each inhale.

“Wh… how… what…?” She struggled to manage any kind of response. “We… we only just met… you should… shouldn’t touch me like this, it’s… too familiar, it’s too… too…”

“Didn’t I tell you it wasn’t important how I knew…?” Alexis grinned, leaning over the counter until their faces were so incredibly close. “You want to understand why some things can still make you feel so hot but you’ve never felt compelled to say ‘yes’ to any of those advances… why me being like this has you shaking, but our dear Claire couldn’t grasp your interest…”

Elizabeth finally pulled her gaze away from Alexis, only to see someone approaching.

“A-Alexis, there’s… another… student…”

“I know…” Alexis pulled back, winking as her grin deepened. “I’ll be right here. Take your time. I’d hate for you to make a mistake…”

Elizabeth shuddered from head to toe, nodding quickly before she tried to turn all of her attention to the approaching student. Scanning everything, taking the payment, wishing them a good night—so much of it was automatic. Without her instincts, Elizabeth wasn’t quite sure that she could have achieved anything at all.

When she was done, Alexis was right there, watching her from behind thick lenses, and heavy eyelids.

She tried to calm her breathing before beckoning Alexis closer, but no amount of deep breaths seemed to be doing anything at all. Eventually, Elizabeth finally waved Alexis back, and the other woman quickly answered her summons.

“Let’s say I let you… teach me what it is that I’ve been missing…” Elizabeth quivered. Her eyes fluttered. Alexis didn’t need to glance down to know that her thighs clenched. “Am I supposed to believe that you have it…? That you can give me what I need…? This sounds… a lot like you’re trying to ask me out and not taking no for an answer. This sounds like… maybe I should be asking you to leave…”

“You could… and maybe you should.” Alexis chuckled. “But you won’t.”

“Why not…?” Elizabeth frowned. “I should tell you to leave right—”

Alexis pressed a fingertip to Elizabeth’s lips, but she didn’t just silence her with the touch of flesh on flesh. Her finger grazed those lips as it settled into place, grasping at the very volition of her words and binding them around the very tip of her nail. Moving her finger along those lips, the threads tightened around her nail, and Elizabeth whimpered pitifully.

“Because I’m going to tell you—not ask you—to come to my hotel room after your shift is over. You’re going to say ‘yes Mistress’ and you aren’t going to worry about how wet that makes you, or how it feels like you’re physically incapable of saying anything else.” Her finger continued to move, and Elizabeth groaned as her eyes rolled up, crossed at their utmost point. “You’re just going to say it, and I’m going to spend the evening behind the counter with you, massaging your shoulders, waiting for your shift to end. So…

“You’re going to come to my hotel room after your shift is over.”

Alexis paused, pulling her finger back and tipping up Elizabeth’s head with a fingertip under her chin.

“Y-yes Mistress…!” Elizabeth hissed out the sharp whisper, her whole body shaking and clenching as though the idea itself were filling her up. “I… I can… help you... back here and you… my shoulders… A-Alexis…” She whimpered as she moved to comply.

Soon Alexis was behind Elizabeth, hands resting between her shoulders and her neck, thumbs pressing into her back. She shivered, staring out at the empty store.

“I feel… like I’m in danger but like… I can’t be afraid… are you…” Elizabeth whimpered. Tears hovered in her eyes, quivering as Alexis began to knead and squeeze. The force was rough, but it didn’t exactly hurt, not in any way that Elizabeth minded. There was so much tension in her back, tension that felt like a very natural response but was hardly helping her feel particularly relaxed. “Are you going to hurt me…?”

“Now why would I do that…?” Alexis kissed Elizabeth’s ear. It was a quick, soft kiss, but it made Elizabeth draw in a whimper that shuddered down through her knees. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to say ‘as long as you’re a good girl.’ You’re precious to Claire, and Claire is family… why would I hurt you…? I want to help you…”

Alexis licked her lips, her thumbs grinding more firmly into Elizabeth’s back. The motion was a common enough massage, but the way that her thumbs knew how to catch the threads of tension and loosen them so they were harder to feel, more distant, made it so much more effective. Elizabeth groaned, slumping forward as she stared with increasingly blank eyes. Each time that Alexis’s thumbs began another pass Elizabeth momentarily clenched only to slump lower, her body looser.

“You’re also a very lovely woman.” Alexis chuckled softly into the woman’s ear, just low enough that when her thumbs pulsed with heat, with longing, with a soothing tenderness, Elizabeth merely quivered. “And I can see why Claire likes you. You’re pretty. You’re warm. You’re friendly. We both have a lot to offer you… so will you let me show you what you’ve been missing without the words to express, or ask, for what you need…?”

For several long moments, Elizabeth offered no words. She mewled, or moaned, but she didn’t respond.

Eventually a student came to the store, and then another. She rang them up, wished them a lovely night, and then slumped again as though they’d never approached the counter. It took a long time for her to decide on her response.

“Y-yesss… Mistress… but…”

“But…?” Alexis raised an eyebrow. “Presumptuous of you to think you can ‘but’ anything, but… why not. I’ll humor you. ‘But’ what…?”

“D-don’t… Tell anyone…? I don’t… I don’t want…”

Alexis kissed the back of her head, and whispered a low ‘shhh' beside her ear. “I won’t be telling anyone until you think it’s the right thing to do. Like I said… I didn’t come here to flirt with you, but I can’t resist giving a woman what she needs—showing her what I can see that she can’t. I think that’s a good way to start being friends…” Her thumbs pressed harder, and Elizabeth whined. “Don’t you…?”

“Y-yesss…” Elizabeth’s thighs clenched, and her eyes fluttered. Her lips rubbed together, but slipped away as though they lacked the strength or friction to stay together for long.

“Yes… what…?”

“Y-es…” Elizabeth’s cheeks turned a deep pink. “M-Mistress… I… saying that, it… it makes me… feel so… so… Not just hot… or wet… but… weak… Like I… can’t resist you… don’t want to… like you’re… what I… need…”

Alexis purred.

“That’s because I am… but don’t worry. I’ll tell you everything—back at my hotel room.”

Elizabeth nodded, groaning with hazy eyes as she waited for the next student to approach the counter. “I… can’t wait…”

Alexis grinned.

“Try.”