Disclaimer: still not mine.
Author's notes: this came to me with the phrase 'love and murder are bound inextricably'. probably not very coherent.
Hurt
Alice likes to make necklaces out of strands of Lily's hair and the tiny rocks she picks up at every occasion. She twirls a lock of fiery curls around her thumb until it fits around her hand like a glove, then whispers "watch out" and pulls. Lily winces, then sighs as Alice soothes the sore spot on her skull with long fingers.
"I like to hurt you sometimes," Alice tells the top of Lily's head, "because it means I can make you feel better again."
For a moment, it makes sense to Lily. They kiss and when they pull back, Alice is wearing the slow smile Lily loves so.
"I like to be hurt by you sometimes," she says, and it feels like exposing herself even more naked than she already is.
Alice's fingers skate down, the nails raking over milky skin.
When they disentangle themselves, plucking limb from limb, Alice reaches into the pocket of her vest on the floor and fishes out a handful of small rocks. Lily's hair is still wound tight around her thumb, making the fingertip turn white. Lily watches as she pierces the rocks and slides them onto the hairs, not so red now.
"I want you to wear this when you marry James." Alice's eyes are anywhere but here, and Lily thinks that sometimes she doesn't like being hurt. But she takes it, she takes it and doesn't even think to protest when Alice sweeps her hair aside with sharp nails to tie the ends of the necklace together.
"There," and her smile is a bit like the sun seen from underwater. "You'll feel me even when he's holding you."
Lily says: "What will you wear when you marry Frank?"
Alice holds up her hands. Around every finger save one thumb is a ring of tight-wound Lily-hair. "I'll be wearing you." They kiss, and for once, it's Lily who bites Alice's tongue, instead of the other way around.
"I wish," she whispers, "that I was a vampire." I'd share your blood.
Alice's long fingers are on her cheeks, pressing. "He'll never even think about hurting you."
"I know." That's why I like you better.
The rocks are sharp and cutting on her collarbones as Lily walks to meet her groom.
- fin -