Weekly Drabble #310: Pearls Before Wine (Patreon)

This week's prompt is 'what is a pearl?' from AS900, which got me thinking more of the metaphorical side of things. We value pearls greatly, but they all start out as an irritant that the oyster wants to get rid of. With that in mind, we touch a little on that journey here with a return to superheroes. Enjoy.

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Pearls Before Wine

The guilty run when no man pursueth. Gargoyle had said that once and it kept coming to mind with the situation Starlight found herself in. The young woman paused, smiling in remonstration to herself. ‘Found herself in’, like this was all was completely by happenstance and she’d had nothing to do with her own circumstances. You got to say you ‘found yourself in’ a situation if you went to a restaurant that forgot to put up a closed sign, and walked into a mob meeting, or you didn’t get a notice that the bride was going to wear blue and showed up at the wedding in a blue dress.

You didn’t get to say you ‘found yourself’ in the bed of a notorious super-villain. Not if it kept happening, you had a secure phone just for messaging her and kept daydreaming about her. But then, that wasn’t really accurate, was it? Tasha wasn’t a super-villain; she was a mercenary.

Which, of course, made all the difference to the League, to Interpol, multiple law enforcement agencies, military and government intelligence forces and everyone else to whom ‘Rattler’ was among their Most Wanted. Not the highest on the list, but she was there. She’d had throw-downs with the League and some of them still bore grudges – and scars – from those encounters.

Besides me, of course, Kaley thought as she touched her right shoulder. She had a pair of fang-marks at the base of her neck, connected by a thin, raised ridge of scar tissue where the woman’s other teeth had bit into her. She thought she’d been about to die. There was no antivenin for Rattler’s venom. Those who’d survived had all been among the strongest Seeded out there and it still put each of them in the hospital, sometimes on the very edge of death. But Rattler hadn’t injected her that day.

Stay out of my way, firefly, she’d hissed after withdrawing her teeth from Starlight’s neck. Or next time you’ll get more than just a love bite.

Kaley should have listened to that advice. She hadn’t. She’d gone after Rattler, trying to track her down – a monumentally stupid idea, but she’d been angry and humiliated as a result of that encounter. Eventually she’d found the mercenary (though she still wasn’t quite sure whether she’d done it all on her own, or if Tasha had let her find her) and... things happened. Things that led her to guiltily and attentively check her surroundings to see if anyone was watching before she alighted on the balcony and let herself in to her super-villainess girlfriend’s apartment.

This wasn’t Tasha’s main residence; as a wanted mercenary, Rattler had homes and safehouses scattered across several countries. Kaley had no idea if Tasha had a place she called home, or if she was always on the move, but she’d offered to share this place with Kaley. She said it was so that they wouldn’t always need to hide in hotel rooms, rooftops, darkened clubs and the occasional back of a car, but Kaley knew that it was more than that. It was a symbol of trust, and it went both ways. Starlight could easily set up a trap for Rattler under the guise of date night, just as Tasha could do the same to Kaley.

She wouldn’t, though. She’d proven that when she’d broken Kaley out of Brian von Diem’s chop-shop. Just thinking of that made a cold flush run up and down Kaley’s spine. She was talking with a therapist, but the young woman still had nightmares. Some were about the fight with Ace of Hearts, but most involved her being tied to that cold table, her life ebbing out of her with every thrum of the pump, a tray of sharp surgical tools to her left, just waiting to be used to cut into her and start pulling pieces away. She’d never felt that helpless, nor that afraid.

It hadn’t even been a month ago during a course of escape artistry at League HQ that she’d had a full-blown panic attack. Being tied up or even held too tightly brought up a tidal way of fear that she couldn’t control. Even something as simple as an ordinary hug left her feeling breathless and anxious if it lasted more than a second or two or was even marginally tight. Her father used to give her bear hugs, picking her up the floor. When she’d been little he could hold her above his head with one hand. “You don’t need powers to fly when I am here!” he’d shout and she’d shriek with laughter, holding out her arms like she did when she first started flying.

He’d given her a hug when he’d come to see her in the hospital. She’d been awake and though she knew she was safe, she knew this was her father, his embrace had still pulled up too much. She’d tried to hide it, but he’d seen and though she knew it hurt him to be unable to hold his little girl, he was giving her the space she needed.

In a twist of fate that might be cruel, but was definitely ironic, the one person whose embrace didn’t push Kaley towards hyperventilation and panic was the woman who’d saved her from von Diem’s organ harvesting. In Tasha’s arms, Kaley was never afraid. She had nightmares of Brian finding her, his Rejects holding her down as he opened a bag and pulled out his scalpel, but whenever she was with Tasha, the dreams never became nightmares. Before von Diem or his thugs could lay their hands on her, a great serpent slithered out of the shadows, wrapping Kaley protectively in its coils as it opened its tooth-filled maw, great fangs dripping with venom and its rattle shook furiously.

They couldn’t touch her as long as it was there and they ran and ran and ran...

Locking the balcony door behind her, Starlight peeled herself out of her uniform. She loved her outfit. It was a dark blue with a sun in the middle of her torso, its stylized rays and corona shimmering and shifting as she moved and the more power she drew upon, the brighter the sun shone, shifting colours from a pale white at rest, to a warm red, to orange, bright yellow and finally the intense colours of a blue supergiant. It came with a short tear-away cape and a half-mask with goggles.

The outfit was bullet and knife resistant for added protection on top of her kine shield, and thermally insulated for operating at high altitudes, with a respirator system and radio discretely built into the front of her mask. It was comfortable, functional, protective... and just a little sexy. She’d had it designed to play into her ‘princess’ persona, and because she needed a new outfit that wasn’t a lot sexy.

When Tasha got particularly worked up, she could get bitey. And clawy, if that was even a word. Bullet and knife resistance didn’t count for much against a lustful kine-breaker’s teeth and claws. She did try restrain herself, but sometimes she got a little too excited and Tasha had to come up with a story for how she’d damaged that particular uniform. The ‘princess’ outfit had better survivability... not that Kaley hadn’t let loose the occasional burst of sparkles or other side effects when she got excited, but all Tasha had to do was buy some good blackout curtains, not explain why she was going through outfits so quickly.

The TV was on; Tasha was already here and a soft tka-tka-tka from nearby let her know her girlfriend was behind her. She liked to see Kaley jump when she surprised her, but she always gave her that forewarning when she was about to put her arms around the younger woman.

Though her heart skipped a beat, it quickly settled as Rattler wrapped her arms around Kaley’s torso. “Mmmm,” one of the most dangerous Seeded on Earth purred. “I missed you.”

“I know,” Kaley teased her. “I got your texts.”

“And I got yours.” One of the serpent woman’s hands slid up Kaley’s stomach, the other down to her waist.

“Easy, anaconda.” Kaley called her that whenever Tasha got in a certain mood. “You promised me a romantic dinner.”

“Mmmm.” This time the sound was a little disappointed, but acquiescing. “I suppose I did. How do you feel about takeout and wine?”

“After today, that sounds like heaven. Let me shower and get changed.” Kaley would unashamedly steal from Tasha’s wardrobe. Tasha liked to sleep in large T-shirts. Kaley liked to wear them and Tasha liked it when she did, especially if that was all she was wearing. When she got out of the shower, she put her left side towards the open door and stretched as far as she could ‘accidentally’ pulling the shirt up far enough up her thigh that if Tasha were watching, she’d see that that was indeed the case.

tka-tka-tka

She was watching.

The takeout smelled good and Kaley plopped down on the couch next to Tasha.

“Busy day today?” the mercenary asked.

“You have no idea,” Kaley complained. “Back and forth across the city all day. Even had to travel upstate twice. I’m worn out.” They didn’t talk shop except in generalities. Even as a low-ranking member of the Liberty League, Starlight had access to a lot of useful information and scuttlebutt, and various law enforcement agencies would kill for this kind of access to Rattler... and they had done just that in the past. “Too many assholes out there.”

“We agree on that, pearl.”

“Speaking of assholes, how did your thing go?”

“It went. The client really is an asshole, but the job will be easy and the pay is good. It’s nice to have something straightforward.”

Kaley nodded, then frowned. Tasha liked using pet names for her. ‘Firefly’ was one of her favourite, and self-explanatory, but others... “Why do you call me pearl?” It was one of the rarer nicknames, and asking about it kept slipping her mind.

“Because you are one,” Tasha told her. “You’re pretty...” she raked her claws gently up starlight’s arms, making the younger woman shiver. “And smooth...” Rattler’s serpentine grin took on a more playful air. “...and you started out irritating the shit out of me.” She nuzzled Kaley’s neck. “You still do.”

The tawny-haired blonde stroked her lover’s head. “Because I believe in your better nature?”

“And there it is,” Tasha teased. “How pearls are made.”

“But you don’t complain when you’ve got one in your hands,” Kaley giggled, biting her lip as Tasha cupped her right breast, her claws gently poking her soft skin through the shirt. “I thought we were having dinner first,” she protested, but she didn’t resist as Tasha leaned her down on the sofa, cupping her face.

“I couldn’t wait. Besides,” her smiled widened. “Haven’t you ever heard that saying?”

“What saying?”

Tasha placed a kiss on Kaley’s lips. “Pearls before wine.”

“I don’t think that’s a real thing...”

“Do you want me to stop?”

As an answer, Kaley spread her legs, inviting her lover’s touch. “Pearls before wine,” she repeated, letting out a soft gasp and arching her back.

I like that saying.