An Oracle's Pain, An Oracle's Pleasure

She was a fool. She'd seen the signs. In retrospect what was going on was obvious. The sidelong looks. The ever so slightly too long touches. The smiles that flashed a bit brighter each time. How could she have missed them. She knew how. She'd willed herself to miss them. Refusing to acknowledge the truth. But it was impossible to ignore it now. Not after her goddess had come to her, almost jumping with joy. Wanting her to be among the first to know the news. Not just because she was her Oracle, but because she was her friend. Friend. The word laid on her soul like a rock. She could never have been more than that. All those years, all that devotion. Never to become more than friends. Never to feel the body she desired so much.

She'd smiled. She'd congratulated her, even as her stomach was doing flips inside her. As soon as she could, she'd excused herself, citing important unfinished business. She'd run to her quarters, barely making it to her bathroom before her lunch came back up. After what felt like hours, she'd finally finished emptying her stomach of seemingly everything she'd eaten in the past week. Now she sat on her bed, knees pulled up to her chest, letting the tears fall.

She, Hakozaki Chika, Oracle of Leanbox, had nothing left to live for.

A soft knock filled the room. She ignored it. Again. Still ignoring it. Harder. Finally words.

"Chika-san, are you in there?" She recognized the voice. It was Lowee's Oracle. Nishizawa Mina. What did she want. "I'd like to talk to you."

"Fine. Enter." The door slid open, light from the hallway spilling into her darkened quarters. Chika didn't get up to greet her. The girl could come to her.

Surprisingly the lights didn't come on. Instead Chika was startled by the bed shaking, as Mina sat herself down on it.

"What do you want?" Her voice was harsh and accusatory.

"To see how you are doing. We were all worried about your reaction." Mina's words were comforting, in an odd way. Perhaps to be expected of one who cared for young children.

Something pricked at Chika though. "What do you mean, 'we'? Why would you think something was wrong with me. Why are you even here."

Mina let out a chuckle, its musical tone conveying only amusement, but no accusation. "Oh Chika-san. You really had no idea did you. Everyone knew. Everyone always knew. Perhaps the only one who didn't was Vert-sama. Even Neptune knew. I'm so sorry about this. I wish I could have warned you somehow, but it wasn't possible."

Chika heard two light thumps as something fell to the floor, then felt the mattress shifting as Mina moved next to her. "As for why I'm here, Blanc-sama and Vert-sama are making arrangements for the joint announcement. I came along ostensibly as her aid, though I really came to make sure you were ok."

Mina moved closer to Chika, their shoulders and hips lightly touching. "Kei, Histoire and I felt it would be best if one of us came to visit you. I volunteered." Chika almost heard a pause there, but she must have been imagining it. "I left the twins with Nepgear and Uni, so here I am." Mina pushed closer to Chika, who responded unconsciously. She felt the need for some sort of human contact.

"Th...thank you. I never realized you all cared so much." It was true. She'd considered the other Oracles friends, of a sort, but they mostly had business interactions. Chika spent most of her time with Vert, leaving very little time for other social interactions.

"Also...I..." Mina's voice had become nearly inaudible. Chika turned her head slightly to try and look at the girl, only to find her lips meeting Mina's in a kiss. Chika's body reacted as if she'd been shocked, but after the initial stiff reaction, she found herself reciprocating, only for the lips to suddenly pull away.

"Oh goddess I'm sorry I shouldn't have done that." the words came out in a stream, Mina beginning to scramble off the bed. Chika's hand darted out, grabbing the other girl by the arm.

"Wait." She had reacted without thinking. "Mina. Wait." She took a deep breath and spoke again, this time not to Mina.

"Lights, low." The room lit up with a dim light, revealing Mina's face for the first time. Her ice-blue hair framed a face red with embarrassment, nearly the same color as the rimmed glasses she wore. Behind them tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.

"Chika I shouldn't have done that it was wrong of me please let me go I'm so sorry." Mina struggled, but Chika was stronger.

"Mina. I said wait." The shock had knocked her back into something resembling functionality. "I...I just want to know why." Her voice held no accusation.

"Because...Chika..." Chika suddenly realized she'd called Mina by name, with no honorific as well. "I...I...I love you!" Chika's grip on Mina's arm slackened as the words hit her. Mina was no longer trying to escape. Instead she just slumped on the bed, her stockinged feet curled beneath her.

"You...you love me?" Incredulity stained her voice. "Why? How? Since when?"

"Since almost the first time we met. Right after I became Lowee's Oracle, when you and Vert-sama came to visit. I don't think we even talked. I was trying to keep the twins in line, and you only had eyes for Vert-sama." Tears streamed down her cheeks. "When Blanc-sama told me about her and Vert-sama I was happy because I thought maybe you would finally look at me. Thats why I came. The real reason. I'm so sorry." Mina rubbed her eyes with her hand, causing Chika to notice something was missing. Mina's ever-present red -coat. Chika had never seen her without it. A red shape on the ground caught her eye, it was the coat, along with a pair of red pumps. She must have taken them off when she crawled onto the bed.

Wait why am I thinking about such a minor thing. What she's wearing isn't important! Only it was important. She was trying to distract herself from how attractive she suddenly found the girl sitting on her bed. Those long legs clad in lacy thigh-high stockings. The white sleeveless mini-dress, showing off her bare thighs and shapely arms. Wide, inviting eyes the color of the ocean. How had she never seen it before. It was as if scales had fallen from her eyes, and revealed before her was an angel. She moved over to Mina, wrapping her in an embrace.

"No, don't be sorry. Don't ever be sorry." Pulling back from the embrace, she brought their lips together once more. This time they both lingered. The kiss was light, but Chika felt something she'd never felt before. Something inside her filled. As if a piece of her soul had been missing all this time. Breaking the kiss, Chika's eyes met Mina's. She could see that Mina felt the same way.

"You know, Mina. That was my second kiss." Mina just blinked, until the meaning hit her.

"Oh goddess I...I had no idea. I'm sorry, I 'm sor-" Chika touched her finger to Mina's lips.

"Remember what I said about that. Never be sorry."

"I'm sor..." she bit off the words. "I wish I could say that had been my first, but this one time Ram-chan got a bit rambunctious and there was an...err...accident." Mina's cheeks got even redder, a feat Chika would have sworn was impossible.

Chika laughed. "Well those two are a handful, but enough talk of the past." Before Mina could react, Chika pushed her down so she was lying on the bed. "Don't you think?" Mina blushed even harder, but nodded.

Chika lowered herself onto Mina. Their legs intertwined as they kissed once more. Chika felt at Mina's lips with her tongue, they parted and she felt Mina's tongue respond in time. Grabbing each other's hands, they intertwined their fingers, their bodies pressing together. Finally Chika sat up, straddling Mina's hips. She reached to the X-shaped ornament on the neck of her dress. She pushed it and twisted, causing her dress to almost literally fall right off. Mina's eyes widened as she got a look at Chika's breasts. But Chika wasn't done. She did the same to the ornaments on her hips, with a flick her dress joined Mina's coat on the ground, leaving Chika wearing just her gloves, boots and thong.

Looking down, she could see Mina's eyes glowing as she took in the sight of Chika's nearly-naked body. "Now now, let me get in my own eye-candy first!" She bent over and found the seal-point on Mina's dress. With a tug, the previously invisible seam began to open. Pulling down, she opened the dress entirely. Mina pulled her arms out, leaving her lying atop her now open dress. Beneath she wore just a pair of white lace panties. Chika admired the body of her lover. Neither girl had much to be ashamed of, Chika had to admit. She may win in the bust, but Mina's hips were to die for. Suddenly Mina reached up and grabbed her breasts.

"Get back down here already." Mina's voice was playful and Chika had no desire to resist. Their breasts pressed together as they kissed for the fourth time, their lovemaking only beginning.

Hours later, Chika lay in bed, along the way having lost the little remaining clothing she'd been wearing. Mina's panties were long since gone, but she still wore her thigh-highs, albeit they'd developed some holes after Chika had discovered how much she enjoyed the feel of them against her own skin. Her lover's head was nestled against her chest, Chika could feel her rhythmic breathing against her skin. Reaching over with her free arm, she lightly rustled the ice-blue bangs.

"Hey, you're crying." Mina's arm reached up and wiped the tears from Chika's cheeks. "I hope its not because you didn't enjoy making love to me."

Chika hadn't even realized the tears were there, or that they were still falling from her eyes, silently. She rubbed the tears away. "No, I just...it hurts, Mina. Your love is amazing, I don't deserve half the love you've already shown. But it still hurts. Vert...she was my entire life. I had no life other than serving her."

"You are still her Oracle, that hasn't changed. Even after the binding, we will still be the oracles. Lowee and Leanbox still need to be governed, after all."

"It's not just that." Chika turned in the bed, so she could look right into her lover's eyes. "Vert was my everything. If you'd asked me two days ago what I'd do if something happened to Vert I'd...I'd have told you that my life would no longer be worth living." A slight pause. "If you hadn't come tonight, I...I don't know what I might have done.

"You wouldn't have. You are stronger than that. You wouldn't want to hurt Vert-sama that way." Mina touched her forehead to Chika's. "Hakozaki Chika, of all the women in Gamindustri, you are the only one to steal my heart. The woman I love would never break. No matter her pain. You no longer have to bear your pain alone. I will always be with you, through pain...and through pleasure."

-End-