Shina let out a howl as she returned to consciousness, pressing her hands over her ears, in a vain attempt to protect herself from HER laughter. She trembled; bringing her knees up to her chest, so close to sobbing that it was pathetic, trying to make the images that so burned in her mind fade. But to no avail, the bleeding sky and dead earth would not let her go, and all Shina could do was shut her eyes against reality.
"Shina, calm down, calm down!" a husky feminine voice broke in. "Lay still, all right? Just breathe and try to lay still." A cool hand pressed gently on her temples, stroking back her still sodden bangs. Shina felt calmed by the touch, comforted almost, and she obeyed, breathing as if she were meditating to lull the inane spasms. Her eyes remained shut tight, however, even when her convulsions ended.
"Okay," the voice cooed, continuing to caress her face gently. "Okay, good. Nothing's wrong. Now, I'm gonna help you sit up, right? Then I'm gonna go get a washcloth to clean your face up with. I won't be gone long, is that all right?"
Shina nodded, letting two capable arms pull her upright on the couch. The hand passed once more through her wet hair, worry radiating from the tips of its fingers, before footsteps clicked away into the kitchen area to turn on the sink. Shina's eyes were pressed together all the while.
"Chin up," the voice directed when it returned. Shina complied and was greeted by the feeling of a soft cloth against her nose, wiping her upper lip and around the nostrils. The young leopardess stuck her tongue out just far enough to catch a taste; sure enough salty copper coated the tip. For some reason, she didn't think this was a delayed reaction from boxing with Yugo a few days before.
"Jesus, little girl," the voice was joking as she cleaned the blood very delicately from Shina's face. "What have you been doing since you moved to this place? Please don't tell me you've been snorting up cocaine." The words were meant as a joke, but by those words Shina finally realized who her care giver was, which dissolved any hopes of laughter. Rage evaporated the terror that the vision had left within the young zoanthrope as icy blue eyes shot open to meet a pair of concerned emerald ones.
Shina's upper lip curled in a snarl, as she, fighting to keep herself under control, asked Jenny, "What in the hell are you doing here?"
Jenny blinked, and drawing back the hand that had been dabbing Shina's face. "Well," she finally said, "I guess maybe I should have called first? Huh?"
"Or maybe you shouldn't have come at all," Shina growled, standing up. "Just what in the hell do you think you're doing here, Burtory? Last time I checked, I'd told both you and my father, to stay the hell out of my life." She rubbed her still damp face on the fleecy white sleeve of her bathrobe.
"Shina," Jenny began in her most pacifying tones, rising, albeit more gracefully, to her feet as well. "I know how upset you still must be with us, but really, Alan and I–"
"NEITHER OF YOU KNOWS HOW I FEEL SO DON'T EVEN FUCKING TRY THAT ONE!" Shina yelled at the shapely blonde. Despite the force of the words, Jenny, did no more than blink a few times at the younger zoanthrope.
"Alan and I are worried about you," Jenny finished her sentence calmly, after a few moments of letting Shina pant and glare in her direction. She crossed her arms over her provocatively cut, red, business suit. "No letters, no calls, no emails in three months, we've been worried sick about you, Jane–"
"Oh don't," Shina cut in once more, though this time her voice carried a more quiet, yet equally venomous threat as compared to her earlier shout. Her eyes glowed a dangerous shade of blue. "Don't even think of using that with me, lady. That's my name. That is my personal name, only for people who haven't lied to me and whom I trust to use, so don't you even think of saying it. You or Alan Gado." She added those last few words as a tactful afterthought that would be sure to pierce both Jenny and the other subject to the quick.
Jenny, whether she was hurt or not, didn't show it, however, and instead of looking down as Shina had intended for her to, stared back with unflinching green eyes and said, "I know. Who do you think gave it to you?"
Shina clenched her fists, it took everything inside of her to keep from leaping onto the older woman and taking her pretty head off.
"Get out of my house," she ordered, crossing her arms. "Get out right now. You have no right to be here, Burtory. I didn't invite you in and I don't want you to stay."
"Do you really think that all of this will go away just because you moved across an ocean, Shina?" Jenny asked, suddenly, her irises ringing with something the younger woman couldn't really name. "Do you think that just because you change how you live, where you live, and your creed, that your genetic makeup will dissolve into something you find more suitable for yourself? It won't."
"Get the hell out!" Shina growled, trembling once more, though this time with fury. "Leave right now!"
"Alan and I are what we are, Shina!" Jenny continued, somewhat unable to stop her rant. "Yes we've lied to you your entire life, but only because we thought it was what we had to do to protect you! And no amount of brooding, running, or time, will ever change the fact that twenty-four years ago I gave you life, Jane Burtory Gado!"
"GET OUT!" Shina was now screaming. "GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!"
Jenny quaked at the look on Shina's face this time, knowing that she had pushed too far, too quickly with the girl. She swallowed, searching for something, anything, to say, but the damage had been done, and Jenny knew it. There were no words that could be offered up to Shina now; her offense was too great. The bat zoanthrope had forced the one word she'd kept from Shina's ears (in so many ways) down her throat. And there was nothing she could say to make up for it, of course, she knew there was no real way to make up for anything she had done in her daughter's life thus far. So she turned on the heel of her stiletto, and like so many years before, walked out the door.
In her wake Shina lifted up a glass she had left sitting on the end table by her phone that morning, and started to throw it with all of her strength at the door Jenny had just closed. Fortunately for Shina's front door, though, the grip she was putting down on the dish was just too much for it's smooth, crystalline surface to handle. Just as she raised her arm, Shina found it had already shattered into a million tiny pieces right in her hand.
She stood there, looking at her bloody right hand, feeling the sharp but melodic pain of the shards, as she continued to clench a fist. The leopardess swallowed hard before, very calmly, heading for the sink to wash her wound. She bandaged her palm, and swept up the broken pieces that were in the living room, before retreating back upstairs to dress and continue getting ready to meet her friends at Backlash's. In the truest ways of an emotional internalizer, Shina was going to push all that she felt to the back of her mind, for a later date, for when she could explode and take out Batwhore and Gado when it happened.
Interlude
"So what movie do you wanna go see?" Uriko asked her best friend, as they stood outside the Movie Theater in downtown Manhattan. "I vote we do the new Kung-Fu flick. It looks pretty sweet. I saw some chick doing a pretty convincing airborne roundhouse in the TV trailer." She did a high kick and a "hi-ya!" for emphasis but only managed to trip herself. Kenji, rolling his eyes, reached out to grab the sleeve of her jacket, yanking her upright before she could fall flat on her behind.
"You're hopeless," he informed her, crossing his arms as he let go of her sleeve. "Martial arts prodigy and you can't even keep your balance on the sidewalk, right..." He gave a rather derogatory snort, which Uriko replied to by stick her tongue out.
"Well you sure are in pissy mood," she said. Teasingly she stood behind him and threw her arms around his neck, jumping onto his back. "Who needs a hug!" she sang as Kenji flailed, attempting to get her off.
"Riko, would you knock it off!" he growled, reaching behind him and grabbing onto her leg yanking her off his back. He scowled at her as she tumbled to the ground, still grinning and snickering like a complete idiot. "Dammit, what is your problem–and what are you lookin at pal!" he directed this particularly biting remark to a man who'd stopped to stare at their antics a few feet away. He blanched from the look on Kenji's face, nearly sprinting down the sidewalk.
"Kenji, what's wrong with you?" Uriko asked as she picked herself up, worriedly looking over the other teenager.
"What' wrong with me!" he demanded incredulously. "Me! What in the hell's wrong with you, Riko? You're seventeen years old and you act like you're twelve! When in the hell are you gonna drop the immaturity act and grow the fuck up!" His eyes burned on her face as he spat those last few lines out, shoulders heaving as he tried to regain the breath he'd wasted on his little rant. Uriko meanwhile, drew down her eyebrows with worry. Kenji, was her best friend, he didn't yell at her, or at least he hadn't before. She stared at him, trying to hide the hurt looming behind her cocoa colored eyes, and after a few moments, Kenji sighed and turned away, crossing his arms once more.
"I'm sorry, Riko," he sighed finally, running a hand through his unruly brown hair. "Really...I–what movie did you want to see again?"
"Kung-Fu Dynamos," she said sort of distractedly. "Kenji...what happened today? What's wrong, bro?"
"Nothing," he said, with a careless shrug. Her reached down, taking hold of Uriko's hand to help her up off the pavement, before leading her over to the box office. Uriko kept her mouth shut until they were inside the theater, in the dark showing room.
"Kenji, seriously, what's going on with you?" she questioned again, as they settled into their seats in the back-most corner (they liked throwing Skittles at people who kissed during shows).
"Nothing," he answered quickly, as she knew he would, he grabbed his drink up and put the straw to his lips, avoiding Uriko's narrowed brown eyes.
"Nothing my foot, Kenji Ohgami," Uriko hissed throwing a Skittle at his head. "You've got something bugging you, and you'd better tell me now!"
"Yeah, I've got something bugging me!" he retorted, voice low as hers had been. "I'm looking at her right now!"
"Kenji!" she whined shaking his arm. "Come on! You know I won't leave you alone until you do!" A threat and a promise all at once, and Kenji knew it.
The mole zoanthrope let out an agitated sigh as he looked into Uriko's stubborn brown eyes. He took a long drink out of his cup. "I almost did a complete three-sixty this morning at the park," Kenji finally told her, staring down at his sneakers.
Uriko, who had been expecting something more dramatic, like a problem with Yugo or something at the W.O.C., let out a groan.
"Are you kidding me, Kenji?" she demanded under her breath. "Are you freaking kidding me? You're all wound up because of the other kids at the skate-park almost found out you were a halfway decent boarder? You ass! I thought it was something serious!" And she threw yet another Skittle at his head, just to get her point across.
"It is serious, Riko!" he exclaimed. "I can't let myself get too competitive that happens and he could come back!"
"Oh, Kenji, would you give it a rest!" she moaned, putting a hand to her forehead. "Bakaryu–"
"Don't say that name!" Kenji hissed fiercely, grasping Uriko by her arm, squeezing hard to make a point. "Do not say that name," he repeated letting her loose.
Uriko let out a sigh as she pulled her arm away, rubbing it. "Kenji, you worry over nothing, you know," she said trying to comfort him as best she could. "That part of you...it went away a long time ago, man. You're just Kenji now, Kenji Ohgami not Bakaryu." She emphasized the word, making him look into her eyes as she said it. "That means you're Yugo's little brother, an A honor roll student, and my best friend." Uriko smiled into Kenji's amber eyes, slinging an arm around his shoulders to rest her forehead to his as she did. "You're not an assassin anymore Kenji, and it ain't exactly like you had a choice in it the first time either." She reached up to ruffle his already unkempt hair. "Now cheer the hell up! You're no fun when you're stressing."
Kenji chuckled, rolling his eyes at her, but feeling much better nonetheless. As utterly goofy and childish as Uriko could be at times, she had the amazing ability to make him feel better no matter what. He was about to voice this to her when a couple of Skittles rebounded against their still very close heads.
"God dammit who did that!" Uriko screeched jumping up in her seat, ready to rip the first person that sniggered a new one. Kenji shook his head, smiling despite his embarrassment. Wordlessly he reached up to grab the back of his best friend's jacket and pull her back down into her seat. Sometimes Uriko was as apt at stressing him as she was at making him feel better. Of course in the end, he was pretty confident that's why he was enamored with her.
Interlude
"Is it just me or does Long look a little..." Alice began to muse as she and Yugo watched their friend talk to a woman on the dance floor.
"Outta place?" Yugo finished for her.
"Yeah," Alice agreed, shortly thereafter Long bowed away from the slightly confused looking girl, and returned to their table.
"What in the hell!" Yugo exclaimed as Long started to sit down again. "Long, I thought she was into you?"
"She said she found me attractive if that's what you mean," Long told him as he sank down into his chair. He adjusted glasses for the millionth time that evening.
Yugo glared at him. "Then–why–what in the hell is wrong with you, Long!" the wolf demanded, staring at him in utter disbelief. "Did you even look at her! Dude, she was a total fox!–And before you say a damn thing, Alice, I'm not staring at other girls, but I do know the difference between a hottie and a sea-hag." He gave his girlfriend a sidelong scowl that reflected her own raised eyebrows and sour twist of the lip.
"Just because I don't care to jump into the nearest available lady's bed, does not mean that there's something wrong with me, Yugo," Long informed him, taking a sip of the fruit juice he'd ordered.
"Yeah, it just means that Long–unlike some people I know–has a few morals left," Alice defended, guiltlessly glowering at her boyfriend.
Yugo threw up his hands. "Fuck it, I'm damned no matter what I say, aren't I?" he moaned staring down at the table in defeat.
"That's usually how it works," a familiar voice joked. The three zoanthropes looked up to see Shina as she flopped down into the seat opposite Yugo and next to Long.
"Dude, it took you long enough!" Yugo exclaimed, glad he would finally have someone on his side there.
"Yeah, we'd all totally given up on you, Shin," Alice agreed, biting her tongue afterward to keep from saying anything about the clothes Shina had chosen for that evening, no doubt just to torment her. She wore a pair of black and red bondage shorts that rose low on her hips, a crimson wife beater that showed off her black bra in some areas, black leather armbands, and, of course, the boots. Alice felt her eyebrow twitching.
As if Shina noticed this, which, hey, she probably did considering Yugo had just yelped from the pain his girlfriend was inflicting upon his soon to be crushed hand, the leopardess looked straight into Alice's eyes and said, "Hi, Al, how's your night been?" Again Alice's eyebrow twitched and she let go of poor Yugo to stand.
"Excuse me," she said between clenched teeth and a put on smile. "But I have to visit the little bunny's room." And shortly after stalked off to keep from shouting at her friend.
"Hey, bring me back a beer, would you Al?" Shina called at her retreating backside. Alice let out a little shriek before running out of sight. Yugo and Shina laughed outright while Long chuckled into his sleeve.
"So I take it I haven't missed much?" the blonde asked as she propped her feet up on the table, grinning over at Yugo.
"No, not at all," Yugo sighed taking a drink of his beer. "Alice and I danced a little but mostly we've been sitting here, watching Tiger boy here turn down all the hot bodies that come his way." He scowled at Long who continued to stare back aloofly.
Shina glanced at her friend, giving him a silent appraisal and once over. He'd actually done' a pretty good job of picking out his own "modern" clothes. A dark green turtle neck that wasn't too baggy, black slacks, and a pair of non-pointy shoes. He'd taken out is braid, probably Alice's doing, to throw his long ebony mane back into a simple tail. For the first time since meeting him Shina thought Long's appearance to be...normal.
"Well doesn't someone clean up purty like?" she teased reaching over to pinch Long's cheek. He smacked her hand away while Yugo guffawed into his bottle, face tinging just a little pink. "Honestly, had I not been friends with you these last ten or so years I would not have recognized you–in Shay stadium."
"I hope that was a compliment," the scholarly fighting master said drawing his eyes down at Shina, a smile playing on his lips nonetheless.
Shina shrugged, smiling in an all too innocent manner.
"So what took you so long?" Yugo asked Shina. "We waited outside for you almost an hour, babes. What were you doing? Smacking around the punching bag in your basement until like fifteen minutes after we were supposed to meet?" He chuckled, missing the look on Shina's face entirely, Long, on the other hand, was far more perceptive, and after glancing at the clouds forming in the young woman's eyes, reached over to very lightly tough her shoulder.
"Shina?" he question when her eyes met his. "Shina, did something happen before you came here? You seem distracted."
Shina, looked down at her hands, both Yugo and Long, now noticed the white bandages so neatly wrapped about her right fist. Yugo, blinked, and reacting first, leaned across the table to grasp her palm in his, looking over her slender digits, so carefully wrapped in white gauze.
"What did you do?" Yugo asked his friend, screwing his face up as he noted some red seeping through on her palm. "Shina, what the hell did you do to your hand?"
The blonde zoanthrope pursed her lips, staring resolutely into the shining blackish-brown surface of the table, Long and Yugo both knew that face all to well. It was the one she'd been putting on since she was thirteen and didn't want to talk about something rather emotional that had befallen her. Gado had once nicknamed it her "clam face".
Yugo was about to demand an answer from Shina when Alice returned, bubbly once more, and carrying two beers, one for Shina and refill for him. Alice herself was done with her second margarita, meaning she didn't notice or care when Shina jerked her bandaged hand away from Yugo and Long's peeling gaze.
"Hey, you like Heineken, right?" Alice asked, cheerfully setting the drink down before her friend.
"If it has alcohol in it, I love it," Shina joked, trying to shake the feeling of awkwardness her two best friends had just unnecessarily filled the air with. She took a long drink, avoiding the eyes of Yugo and Long as she attempted the whole bottle in one gulp. She got it and, after a rather unladylike burp that made Alice cringe, stood up and grabbed the rabbit by the hand.
"Come on, Bunny, I'm bored as hell and there's no way I'm going to try and groove with the wet tiger or your man," she told Alice, putting an arm possessively around her friend's waist.
Alice, playing along, laid a hand against her chest, feigning prissy shock. "What?" she exclaimed, fuchsia eyes wide. "Shina, are you suggested girl on girl dancing?"
"I might be," Shina chuckled putting on hand on her hip and tossing her head to the side. "What if I am?"
"Then I would have to say you need to get your little ass out on the floor and stop makin me wait!" Alice giggled, and gave Shina playful little smack on her rear-end before heading onto the dance floor.
"You did not just smack my ass!" Shina exclaimed staring after Alice, who was laughing her head off. She glanced over at Yugo and Long who were watching the two girls with astonished faces. "Did you see that! She touched my butt! Alice you little trollop!" She called after the auburn haired woman, who was grinning back. "That is so not cool! I'm the macho-girl, if either of us is gonna be smackin the other's ass, it's gonna be me!" And she charged after Alice, who gave out a squeak as Shina grabbed her around the waist and started swinging her around.
Long and Yugo watched them, Long in somewhat shock, Yugo, with a grimace.
"And just why are you scowling?" Long questioned him. "Usually when two girls are that close to one another, you're drooling."
"Eww!" Yugo exclaimed his disdain deepening. "Not when it's my girlfriend and Shina! Gross! She's practically my sister!" He grinned just a little as raised his drink once more to his lips. "Now Alice and that girl you turned down a few minutes ago...I'd so be there." He chuckled and took a heavy drink while Long frowned at him.
Meanwhile Shina and Alice proceeded to goof around on the floor, making some guys drool and even some women raise their eyebrows. Shina thought it was all rather funny, how easy it was too make some of those people salivate, especially since she and Alice were two of the straightest women around and had about as much interest in one another as Long did in Yugo. They giggled as they danced around one another, both of them enjoying the mixed reactions they got from other club goers. It was so much fun that when Yugo came over, to steal Alice away, Shina was felt a slight air of melancholy come over her.
A fast beat started up and Shina looked about, Alice and Yugo were a few feet away, acting like a couple of hormonally driven teens, and Long was sinking down into his seat at their table. Shina frowned at the sight of her oldest friend looking so out of his habitat. This hadn't been all that good an idea, she decided, Long should have been eased into places like this, if even introduced at all. They should have started him out at a coffeehouse or a library, that would have been the most sensible choice, as he was a scholar. But no, brilliantly she had gone along with Alice—with Alice—and now Long was looking as if his skin was itching from the inside out. She bit down on her lip, this, in a way was her fault. She was about to make her way over to him, offer to take him home, but when she turned to avoid a flock of rather slutty looking girls, Shina found her way of getting to him a bit blocked off.
Red daiquiri mix flew through the air as Shina's lissome figure crashed against a taller form. The impact, very surprisingly, was strong enough to send her stumbling back a few feet, she might have tripped and fallen, had a long fingered hand not shot out to grasp her forearm. Surprised by the quick reflexes of her crashing buddy, Shina looked up to meet a pair of vivid amethyst eyes.
"Are you okay?" her savior, a man, asked her, voice worried. Shina's breath caught in her chest preventing an answer.
He was one of the better-looking guys Shina had seen in her stay in Manhattan, maybe even in her stay anywhere. His face was pale, lean, cut and crafted like a sculptor would design, an almost feminine caste to his lineaments. The handsome face was played upon by straight, shoulder length black and violet hair, streaked to complement his striking eyes, of course. He contrasted the femininity of his face by a hard, lithe body, slender but not useless, which he showed it off by wearing his jeans tight and low about his waist and leaving his shirt wide open. He wanted to be looked at; he wanted attention in a blatant and girlish fashion. But there was a hunger, almost like a predator's; burning beneath that attractive face that proved he was all but feminine in nature.
"Huh?" Shina felt herself saying, despite the fact that she knew what he had asked. Her mind wasn't really processing things like words for a few seconds there.
Violet eyes gleamed with a smile, as hands belonging to those eyes steadied Shina. "I asked if you were okay," he repeated, laughter making little creases at the corners of his eyes.
"Oh—yeah, sorry," Shina said with a nervous little laugh. What the hell? She thought to herself as soon as that escaped her lips. Since when do guys have this effect on me? This isn't natural! She lowered her gaze for an instant; catching sight of a well developed six-pack. Of course I really don't think he's natural either… Averting her eyes to the side before he could catch her staring, Shina noticed several smatterings of red that tainted his white shirt.
"Oh shit, I'm sorry!" she exclaimed, pointing out the stains with a shameful grimace.
The man looked down, raising his eyebrows, just a little, tugging at the garment. He looked at the splatter for a few moments, then with a shrug, took the napkins he'd been carrying along with his drink to casually brush the majority of the mess off.
"Oh well," he said almost cheerfully, giving a little shrug, as he finished mopping up the daiquiri. "I'll just get a new one."
"I am really sorry," Shina apologized yet again. "I should learn to look where the hell I'm goin' once in awhile."
Her new acquaintance chuckled. "Why on earth train yourself to do that?" he asked, his grin slightly infectious, as Shina felt the very corners of her mouth twitch. "You stop running into people and you'll have no way of meeting them."
It was at this point that Shina realized the man's hand had slipped from her forearm down to her wrist, overlapping her own. She noted how spindly and thin her callused fingers appeared in his wide palm, Shina also took note of how their flesh contrasted, white encircling fading caramel.
"My name's Sying," he offered to Shina before she could become too startled and jerk her hand away.
"Sying?" she repeated, eyebrows raised. She knew little Chinese, as Long did French, but they'd learned enough from on another for Shina to know that Sying, in Chinese, meant something like "Star".
Sying, guessing at what made the right side of her mouth turn up, chuckled and made a rather understanding face. "I know," he sighed. "My parents weren't all that okay upstairs, I'm guessing my mom used to be a hippie. My friends call me Sy though—you can too, if you want." That invitation belied more than a simple name, and Shina knew it did.
"Shina," she told him, slipping her hand into his to shake it.
It was now Sy's turn to cock an elegant black brow. "Shina?" he chuckled. "Call me strange, but you certainly don't look Japanese."
"Worse," she joked, though her features were very serious. "French. But my parents, too, weren't all there." Not a lie, she thought bitterly to herself.
Sy continued to chuckle as he brought Shina's hand to his lips, gracing her callused digits with a kiss. Shina felt chills resonate through the core of her being.
"Heureux pour vous rencontrer, then, Shina," he said in a soft voice, eyes smolderingly touching over her face.
"Le plaisir est le mien," she said as a familiar feeling began to creep through her skin. She smiled with sincerity.
"So would you like—" he began.
"Love to," she finished for him.
Again Sy's left eyebrow went up, though he continued to grin. Willingness was always a good thing, and understanding that, he wasted no time with Shina, and grabbing her roughly by the hip, pulled her into the middle of the floor, and closer into him.
Hey sister why you all alone?
I'm standing out your window
Hey little sister can I come inside there?
I want to show you all my love
I want to be the only one
I know you like nobody ever, baby
Shina, slightly turned on by the possessiveness, played his game…for a little while. She let him hold her, direct her movements, and push against her for a few moments, playing docile. Then, as Sy attempted to press his hip between her legs, Shina moved a little to the right, to press her hip into him. Once again that one studded eyebrow went up as the leopardess started to toy with him. She made out somewhat like a house cat, rubbing against him at all the right times, running her fingers along all the right places, but moving just out of his reach when he tried to reverse their parts once again.
Little sister can't you find another way?
No more living life behind a shadow
Little sister can't you find another way?
No more living life behind a shadow
At some point a battle for complete dominance started up, both Shina and Sy vying to control the other. She was moving to the left when his hand moved out, too fast for her to slink away from, and grasped her hip more firmly than before, pulling her back up against him. Feminine curves met hard muscles as they both continued to grind. Waves of heat raced down Shina's spine as the hand Sy had used to grab her with slid farther up her side, stroking, before slipping into the small of her back. Shina almost let out a leopard-like growl, liking the contact to an extreme; of course she also had to combat this.
You whisper secrets in my ear
Slowly dancing cheek to cheek
Such a sweet thing when you open up, baby
They say I'll only do you wrong
Come together cause I understand
Just who you really are yeah, baby
Sy pushed against her, as if trying to bend her backwards, yet another controlling move, but Shina refused to give in. She pressed back with equal fierceness and heat, catching Sy off guard, in the end however, he smiled, licking his lips and continuing their dance. Hands slipped closer and more securely around one another's bodies, fiendishly provoking wherever they grazed. The fire within Shina intensified as Sy's fingertips traveled up her spin, crawling to the back of her neck. Sky blue looked into violet for a few long seconds, then, slowly, he leaned down and she stood on her tiptoes.
Little sister can't you find another way?
No more living life behind a shadow
Little sister can't you find another way?
No more living life behind a shadow
Pure electricity, that was all Shina could think of to describe the feeling that went through her when Sy pressed his lips to hers. She felt a little gasp escape her throat as he pushed her head back, forcing her mouth to open wider and gaining entry. The leopardess was not taken aback for very long, as she initiated a second type of supremacy battle. Pressed so close to him, Shina felt the laughter emanating from her dancing partner before she could even hear it. His chuckling only added to the heat fanning inside of the young zoanthrope, and had a feeling this night was going to get very interesting.
Or at least she thought it was going to, until Sy pulled away from her. Granted he did it slowly, savoring the taste of her as if to keep it forever, but when Shina attempted to initiate another passionate kiss he stopped her, continuing to hold her close but evading her caress. She looked up at him, a million thoughts buzzing through her somewhat heated brain, the foremost being that she shouldn't be this easy, and that she was about ready to push him down onto the floor.
"I'm sorry, kitten, but I have to go now," he whispered in her ear, leaning down so that his lips just barely brushed against her lobe. Another ecstatic trill shot through the leopardess, and she felt her fingers tighten into the fabric of his shirt. The trills intensified as he let his mouth travel up the side of her face to meet hers. She started to open her mouth but he did not take the hint, and, almost coyly, nipped her lower lip.
"Don't worry, though, chaton," Sy continued to whisper, the edge of his mouth just barley caressing hers as he spoke. "We'll be seeing one another again soon enough." And after planting on last kiss on her expectant lips, Sy let go of Shina, and disappeared into the crowd, leaving a very frustrated female leopardess in his wake.
Shina stood completely still for a few moments, on hand pressed over her thigh, the place he had been gripping so tight. She swallowed hard, running her tongue across the inside of her mouth, the ghost of his lips continued to linger over her own. Finally, she let out aggravated growl and made for her original destination. Whether Long wanted to or not, Shina was going home right at that moment, she would irritably tell him. Then he could wait on Yugo and Alice, who were practically entwined in one another that second on the dance floor. As she brooded and stormed of Shina forgot to admit that, had he not just left her there, she might have been doing that same sort of thing with Sy. Instead she was going to go back to her place and find the bottle of vodka she kept around for occasions like this and shower. Sy didn't know what he had missed.
"Yo, you ready to go?" she demanded of Long as soon as she came within earshot of their table.
The scholar looked over his shoulder in surprise. "Yes, of course," he said, sounding somewhat relieved (she didn't blame the guy). "But shouldn't we wait for—"
"No," she growled. "Trust me they're gonna be awhile. Now are you comin' with me or are you gonna stay here and sit? Decide now because my jeep's pullin' out of the lot in the next two minutes." And without another word she stormed off in the direction of the Exit.
As startled as he was by his friend's outburst and sudden urge to leave without saying anything to Yugo and Alice, Long did not question Shina or her mood. He simply jumped to his feet and rushed to follow her out before she left him. After all, Long reasoned when the urge to ask her where her sudden burst of ire came from, he was only thirty-two years old and as far as he was concerned that was too young to die just yet.
Authors Note: I hope you liked Chapter 6 (well technically chapter 5). I just want to let everyone know chapter 7 is under construction even as this is being read but it will take a bit of time to post if I don't get any good reviews over this, so... Thanks to all my reviewers, Tigerboy11, Mack, Aimielee, and Tiger5913. Oh and the song Shina and Sy danced to is called "Little Sister" and it was written by Queens Of The Stoneage, it's all theirs, I take no credit for it's conception.