something else

by minachandler

"I know that I'm… something else to you," says Dinah. "Something else," Nyssa repeats, and she nods to herself. "Something that transcends meaning altogether."

"Gotta say, Ollie," Dinah says, taking a sip of wine and then lying back on the bed, "this isn't exactly how I pictured our honeymoon."

Oliver smiles sympathetically, presses a kiss on her forehead as he sits down next to her, just as another bolt of lightning strikes. "I know. I hate storms too."

Dinah flinches when the thunder strikes again, and this time the cruiser actually shakes with the impact.

"Okay, that one was really close," Oliver says. "You okay?"

"As long as I'm with you," Dinah replies, and she means it. The world could be ending and she would still feel safe in her new husband's arms.

He smiles, says, "I love you too."

But before Dinah can say anything in reply, the boat jolts and Ollie gets thrown off the bed against the low ceiling of their room.

"Ollie!" Dinah screams.

"I'm – okay, pretty-bird," Oliver pants, even though moments later another bolt of lightning hits the boat and it's turned upside down and both of them go flying this time, and Dinah watches in horror as her husband is washed away into the sea and –

"NO!"

Drenched in sweat, face covered in salty tears, Dinah springs upright in her bed, waking just in time from her nightmare as a bolt of lightning strikes outside her window.

"Dinah?"

She jumps, but in the semi-darkness she can just make out Nyssa's silhouette in the doorway. Nyssa's at Dinah's side in a heartbeat, enveloping her in a warm hug. "Shhhhh. It's okay, ya Dinah."

"I thought I was –"

"It doesn't matter. All that matters is that you're safe. You're home."

Dinah hugs back fiercely, not caring that she can feel the gentle swell of Nyssa's breasts – unencumbered by a bra, same as her – against her own or that she is probably wetting Nyssa's shoulder with her tears.

"I'm sorry," Dinah says. "For waking you."

"Nonsense," Nyssa replies, and Dinah manages a smile as she pulls away. Nyssa moves a little so she's more comfortable on the bed, her hand going to rest on top of the comforter a couple inches away from Dinah's leg.

"You should go," Dinah says. "Get back to bed."

"I am not leaving," Nyssa says firmly. "Friends don't do that to one another."

"And I love you for it," Dinah says sincerely. "Just – I don't know what to do, Nyssa. I know I've only just got back. And I know it was five years ago, but –"

"– it feels like it may as well be yesterday?"

She's disconcerted, just for a moment, at how quickly Nyssa seems to get it. "Yeah."

"It feels like yesterday that I went to your funeral and mourned you," Nyssa admits. "And yet that was years ago, too."

"I'm glad I got back. Even if it was without Ollie."

"I am glad you found your way home again too," Nyssa says, and she takes Dinah's hand, squeezes it. She makes to pull it away but Dinah instinctively holds on, not letting go.

"Will you stay here? Just for a bit. Till I fall asleep again. Only I can't stand this storm."

Nyssa just smiles and covers Dinah's hand with her other one. "You need not even ask, ya Dinah."

"Thank you," Dinah says gratefully. "Not just – for everything."

"You never have to thank me," Nyssa tells her. "You are my partner."

"Oh, I don't know," Dinah says lightly. "Tatsu probably wouldn't be happy to hear you say that."

But Nyssa shakes her head. "Even after the… funeral, I never stopped looking for you. And Tatsu knew. She helped."

Dinah manages a smile but it fades after what she says next.

"Where I was… I told you how I was tortured."

Nyssa's grip suddenly tightens on her hand. "Yes."

"You know what got me through the worst of it?"

"Oliver?" Nyssa asks.

"At first. But it didn't really work. Maybe because I knew he was gone, that nothing I could do would bring him back. No, I thought of… home. Of my family. Of you."

At this Nyssa seems to stop short. "Me?" she repeats.

"It was like… Star City was my safe place. It was where I went when things got really bad. Like here." Dinah pulls on her nightgown, turns, and reveals a lattice of scars that cover her shoulder blade and the burn mark the back of her neck. Part of her is grateful she has to crane her neck to see it, but just feeling the roughened skin beneath her fingertips I'd enough to make her shudder at the memory of the infliction of those scars.

"You should… see someone. Talk about it properly," Nyssa says.

"I don't know if that's a good idea."

"You're traumatised, ya Dinah. You must be, those five years spent on that island."

"I'm fine," Dinah insists. Her eyelids begin to flicker and the tiredness she's been fighting finally kicks in. "And anything I want to say… that's what I've got you for, right?"

"Speaking of… Dinah… there is something I have been meaning to tell you. For a long time."

"What is it?" Dinah murmurs.

Dinah's eyes close, then, and she's still listening, just about, but the storm is getting louder, or Nyssa's getting quieter. One of the two.

"Tell me," Dinah whispers, but no sooner have the words left her mouth does she drift, dreamlike, into sleep once more with Nyssa's hand still enclosing her own.

The sun wakes Dinah up as it rises in the sky and peeps through the gap in the curtains. She opens her eyes, squinting because of the sunlight, and there's something comforting about Nyssa's warm presence behind her.

Part of her can't believe she's still there – Dinah had only asked her to stay a little while, after all. Just until she fell asleep. But somehow Nyssa stayed anyway, and the way her breath kisses Dinah's ear is oddly calming. So too is the hand that is on Dinah's hip, Nyssa's hand, resting lightly on top of Dinah's nightgown.

Instinctively Dinah covers Nyssa's hand with her own, squeezing it, and she holds her breath, waiting. Sure enough, Nyssa stirs moments later, and once she awakens fully she immediately tugs her hand away.

"Hey," says Dinah and without turning around she reaches backwards, blindly, for Nyssa's hand again, her fingers grasping at the sheets until they're locked with Nyssa's once more. "Sorry for waking you. Again."

"It is quite all right."

"I just… earlier. Before I fell asleep. You said there was something you wanted to tell me."

Dinah's shoulders fall in disappointment when Nyssa moves away and she can no longer feel the soft press of her torso against her back.

"I didn't think you had heard that. It does not matter."

"It does." Dinah turns round now. And then she is unable to hold anything back a second longer. "And… it's okay. I already know."

"Know what?" says Nyssa sharply.

Dinah takes a deep breath, hoping, praying, that she hasn't been imagining things, even though some primal instinct in her gut tells her she's right anyway. Bolstered a little by this, she reaches for Nyssa's hand and impulsively kisses her knuckles.

"I know," Dinah says softly, and really she doesn't have to say anything else. Nyssa looks at her wide-eyed, mouth parting ever so slightly with surprise. "I know that I'm… something else to you."

"Something else," Nyssa repeats, and she nods to herself. "Something that transcends meaning altogether."

Dinah's heart thuds with relief. Her next words come out a bit easier, then, encouraged by Nyssa's words of affirmation. "And all I wanted to say, Nyssa is that… you're something else to me too."

"I love you," Nyssa whispers.

"I know," Dinah says again. This time though she tugs on Nyssa's hand, places it on her breast. Nyssa gasps and it's the softest, purest sound to leave her mouth.

"Dinah…"

I love you too, Dinah wants to say. Her heart aches and her mouth opens to form the words but the sounds get stuck in her throat and all that comes out is a choked sound.

It doesn't matter, though, because moments later Nyssa kisses her.

Dinah's kissed women before. Twice. Once in a nightclub for a dare and once at a party on an impulse. Never has it been like this, though. Nyssa kisses her oh so slowly, like she is savouring every millisecond, like every moment in her life has led up to this kiss, in this bed, under the muted glow of this rising sun, Nyssa's foot curling around Dinah's ankle.

At the same time Nyssa hasn't moved her hand from Dinah's breast, and it's as she pulls away that she runs her thumb along the curve of it, until she reaches the stiff peak of Dinah's nipple beneath her clothing. Dinah lifts up her nightgown, revealing cotton panties and no bra,and the garment is up and over her head before Nyssa can say anything.

"Dinah…"

But Dinah silences her with another kiss. This time she slips her hand under Nyssa's camisole, and Nyssa moans needingly into Dinah's mouth at that. Nyssa reaches out again, more bravely this time, and her forefinger sweeps over the curve of Dinah's breast, lingering for a moment on her erect nipple before sliding down to her hip.

Dinah throws her head back, groaning softly, and Nyssa's watching her, waiting, almost expecting her to tell her to stop. In answer to her unasked question Dinah kisses her again, murmuring, "It's okay."

Encouraged, Nyssa kisses her back, coaxing her mouth open, while her fingers hook around the elastic of Dinah's panties, tugging them down. She pulls away, then, so she can take Dinah's underwear off completely, and it's as she's untangling the garment from her right ankle that Nyssa drops a kiss there, unexpectedly, causing gooseflesh to erupt up Dinah's spine.

She moves up, to a spot just above Dinah's knee, and this time Dinah feels it, the fresh rush of arousal, white hot, right between her legs.

"God, Nyssa…" Dinah whispers as Nyssa's lips trail up her thigh. She stops, though, halfway up, and her hand retraces where her mouth has just been, and further up, until her forefinger just kisses Dinah's entrance.

Nyssa looks up and Dinah nods, but Nyssa still looks unsure, so Dinah reaches forward, grabs her shoulders, kisses Nyssa until they're both breathless and gasping for air.

Nyssa's lips are still on Dinah's when she slips her finger inside, and Dinah moans into her partner's mouth.

"For the record, Nyssa," Dinah says, gasping and arching her back so her hips slam up against Nyssa's, "I… love you too."

At this Nyssa stops, her hand stilling, fingers curling slowly inside her and making Dinah cry out.

"You do?"

"You look so surprised," Dinah says, half-laughing. She squirms a little under Nyssa's touch.

"I just never thought the day would come when you would utter those words to me," Nyssa says softly. "Not when your heart belonged to someone else."

"That was five years ago," Dinah breathes. "Here, now… it's different. What I want is different."

"What do you want?" Nyssa asks quietly.

Dinah answers her with a kiss. When Nyssa pulls away Dinah moans in protest, until Nyssa's lips graze her neck and further down, leaving a molten trail in her wake from where her tongue flicks against hot skin. When she reaches the crevice between Dinah's breasts Nyssa licks the rivulets of sweat that fall into her cleavage, kissing her way down until she gets to Dinah's navel.

Then Nyssa's tongue is at once buried between Dinah's legs, and Dinah's hands find Nyssa's hair, tangling through so she can run her fingers through it.

"Nyssa…" she murmurs, and when she utters her partner's name it's like a prayer, a heavenly refrain that she keeps saying, louder and louder with each caress of Nyssa's fingers and every kiss from her mouth. Her tongue encircles her clitoris, so Dinah's almost at screaming point now. And then Nyssa places the flat of her tongue on that throbbing spot inside her and Dinah comes with a loud cry that reverberates around the sunlit room, and her legs slacken where they were hooked around Nyssa's shoulders, and Dinah falls back onto her covers, spent.

For a minute she can't quite speak. She smiles to herself; no one's been able to render her speechless just through sex before. But she knows, too, that that wasn't just sex. It was more than that. It has to have been, with what she said to Nyssa.

"Are you okay?" Nyssa asks after a moment. Their faces are level now, and when she kisses Dinah, the sharp sweetness of her own taste is felt on Dinah's tongue.

"Yeah," she replies. "Just… thinking. Remembering."

"What do you remember?" Nyssa says softly.

"What I was dreaming about," Dinah says. "I was – remembering the moment the Gambit capsized. I was… unconscious for a bit, I don't know how long, exactly. But I remember how the last person I thought of before everything went black was – you."

"It was?"

"You in that dress you wore to my wedding. The blue one. Kissing my cheek."

Nyssa flushes, visibly, and she hides her face in the crook of Dinah's neck at that. Still, Dinah can feel lips upturn into a smile against skin and that makes her smile too.

"I told you that you looked beautiful," Nyssa says.

"I remember," says Dinah. "And I remember… being on that boat, sure I was going to die just like Ollie, and it was like my life flashed before my eyes, Nyssa. And all I could think about was you. I've had five years to think, Nyssa, and being on that island… it made me realise the important things in life. The important people. People I should stop… taking for granted."

"You never took me for granted," Nyssa says, looking into her eyes now. "You are the most loyal person I know." She steals a cursory look up and down Dinah's naked body and Dinah automatically shivers. "And the most beautiful."

Dinah reaches out, tugs at the strap of Nyssa's camisole, presses a kiss on her bare shoulder. The garment falls off, and Dinah pushes gently at Nyssa's shoulders so she's lying on her back, breasts in the air. She runs her hand over Nyssa's left breast, fingers teasing her erect nipple – whether from her touch or from the cold she's not quite sure. Then, tentatively, Dinah drops a kiss on her breast, eliciting a moan from Nyssa this time.

Daringly, Dinah does it again, opening her mouth this time so her tongue flicks against hot skin. She mimics what Nyssa did to her, licking the skin between her breasts, just above her ribcage, all the while dipping her fingers into Nyssa's cotton pyjama pants. She feels, blindly, for Nyssa's entrance, and when her hand meets dripping warm wetness Dinah can't help but gasp.

"That all for me?" she says lightly.

But Nyssa is solemn when she grabs Dinah's chin, kisses her fiercely.

"All for you," she promises.

Still Dinah's hands shake a bit when she pulls down what's left of Nyssa's clothing. It's bright outside now, and she can feel the warmth of the sunlight on her hair as she hoists Nyssa's leg, hooks it around her elbow, then does the same with her other leg. Dinah kisses her way up Nyssa's thigh, going slowly, stopping to suck on the inside of her thigh and delighting in the way Nyssa strokes her hair and murmurs her name in response.

And then Dinah's at Nyssa's entrance, and when her tongue darts out the sweet, sweet taste takes a moment to get used to. Nyssa's pretty sensitive, though, by the way she jerks her hips forward at the slightest touch, so Dinah goes slower, slides just one finger in first, tentative, patient. She takes her time, explores, adds a second finger, and there's just something about the way Nyssa whimpers that sends a rush of hot arousal through Dinah's blood, her bones, settling firmly, achingly between her legs.

And then her tongue replaces where her fingers have been and Dinah knows Nyssa's close, from the way Nyssa's trembling against her mouth and arching into her. Nyssa's fingers spear through Dinah's hair, and somehow she's quieter than Dinah, much quieter, so much so that at one point Dinah stops, looks up, wonders if she's doing it right.

But Nyssa just smiles, grip tightening on her hair, rocking her hips against Dinah's mouth encouragingly, and it's as Dinah's lapping up every drop of her essence from her silken folds that a keening sound leaves Nyssa's lips, and she shudders and gasps and her nails dig into Dinah's scalp as she comes with a final gasp that leaves her completely and utterly breathless. Dinah smiles, going up to kiss Nyssa on her lips, and she can't help but delight in the way Nyssa cradles her cheek with her hand and whisper her name under her breath, a murmured supplication hummed against her mouth.

There's something beautiful about the way Nyssa looks so – undone, her hair a tangled mess and her forehead gleaming with sweat and her eyes shining with something that looks like love.

Dinah probably looks a sight herself: her jaw aches and her mouth feels raw and she's sure her lips are swollen.

She's never felt more alive in her life.

She can feel it now, deep in her bones, the way her blood rushes through her veins and exhilaration and pleasure makes her heart pound faster and faster and the throb of arousal that's started up again in her groin.

"I love you," she says again, and Nyssa's eyes light up in a way that makes Dinah's breath catch in her throat.

Nyssa's kiss catches her unawares, but then Dinah kisses her back, burying her tongue in Nyssa's mouth so their kiss becomes sloppy and messy – but Dinah doesn't care, and from the way Nyssa sighs against Dinah's mouth, she doesn't either.

"Never will I tire of hearing you say that."

Automatically Dinah grins. It used to weird her out, the overly formal way Nyssa spoke, but now it's the most comforting thing in the world. "God, I've missed you."

"How much?" Nyssa asks softly.

Dinah catches her hand, guides it below her navel and between her thighs, so her Nyssa's fingers are coated in the wet slick heat of her arousal. "That much."