Scene III

Listen! Watch!

The phone rang out and Kahlan jolted from her reading in surprise. She had been waiting by the phone as soon as she got home, but the fact that someone had even called was still a shock. Kahlan had the most terrible habit of believing the worst in people. She had gotten used to relying on herself for everything, so whenever she had to give up a bit of that faith for someone else it was a nail-biting experience.

Her well-manicured hand picked up the phone lazily, as if her slow motions would translate her voice as casual versus anxious. Kahlan held the red phone up to her ear and spoke gently into the receiver.

"Hello?"

"Kahlan? It's Cara."

"Hi, Cara," Kahlan said, as if she had heard the most excellent news. "It was good to see you today, both times."

She heard Cara let out a low hum of amusement over the line. "It was. I'm sorry I had to ignore you all day," she said, and Kahlan waited for a moment, not entirely sure what to say. "It was incredibly difficult."

"How so?" Kahlan asked, pursing her lips even though Cara couldn't see.

"I wanted so badly to take you in the back of the town car on the way in," Cara said plainly. Immediately, Kahlan felt a warmth shoot down to her core. Kahlan felt Cara's voice in her ear as if she was leaning over her shoulder and whispering into it. Her full lips brushing gently over the shell of her ear.

"How would you have done it, Cara?"

She heard Cara hum again, and the blonde took the bait.

"I would have kissed you, hard. Pushing you back up against the car window," Cara began, her voice soft but intentional. "I'd move down to your neck while my hands started to undo the buttons on that white, silk blouse."

"You remember what I was wearing today?"

"Of course I do. I couldn't take my eyes off you," Cara told her, Kahlan detecting a hint of a smile in her voice. "Would you like to hear the rest, or would you prefer to interrogate me?"

"Keep going."

"I'd unbutton your blouse just enough to slide my hand under your bra," Cara proceeded. "I'd brush my thumb over your nipples until they got nice and hard."

"Mmhm."

"Are you getting wet?"

"Yes."

"What are you wearing?"

"Sweatpants and a sports bra."

"Take off your pants," Cara ordered, and Kahlan had no choice but to oblige her. Kahlan quickly slipped off her black sweatpants and tossed them on the floor. "Good girl."

The words sent an unexpected rush of wetness right through her.

"Touch yourself, slowly," Cara told her. Kahlan hummed in agreement as two fingers slid up her wet pussy. It didn't take long for Cara to hear quiet, stifled moans over the receiver. "What would you want me to have done next?"

"I would have wanted you to kiss your way down my chest, and my stomach, and down to my clit," Kahlan breathed, still touching herself, fully immersed in the experience. Everything else faded away, her book long forgotten beside her on the couch.

"I wouldn't have taken long to do that," Cara said, her voice somehow even lower now. "Keep touching yourself, faster now."

Kahlan's moans came quicker now, her clit swelling delightfully beneath her own touch.

"I wish it were you touching me right now," Kahlan murmured without meaning to. She had given up the ghost too quickly, she was meant to stay aloof. But something about Cara made her feel at ease.

"I wish that too," Cara said, her breath hitching ever so slightly, an accidental crack in her facade. Kahlan felt a rush of wetness coat her fingers knowing that Cara was touching herself too.

"I'm getting close, Cara," Kahlan said after a minute or so of soft moans and a lack of words. Neither felt the pressure to speak, too caught up in their own bodies, in this exhilarating experience, to break the spell they had cast together.

"Go faster."

"Cara, I'm— fuck, fuck, fuck yes," Kahlan said, starting in a stifled, restricted voice, and ending in a near shout. Cara listened to the delicious noises of Kahlan unraveling into the phone receiver.

"Kahlan?" Cara asked after a long pause.

"Yes, Cara?"

"Would you like to meet for dinner in an hour?"

Kahlan laughed softly, rubbing her eyes with her unwrinkled fingers. "Where, and what's the dress code?"

—

Precisely an hour after she had hung up the phone, Kahlan stood outside a battered storefront in Brooklyn with a sign that declared it was Zedd's, and that they had Italian food, Greek food, and cold sandwiches. Kahlan had only heard the name, so she did not expect to be waiting outside a dodgy pizza shop for Cara to arrive. What was even more peculiar was that Cara had told her to dress casually, which surprised Kahlan. They both had what some would call "big girl jobs" and as a consequence dressed well during the workday, so Kahlan had been expecting not only a nice restaurant, but nice attire.

Instead of listening to Cara's request, Kahlan opted to wear a short, black dress with shiny, black pumps to lift up her generous ass. The front was cut high; she had figured it would be easier for Cara to get through this dinner without eating her alive if she shielded some of her assets from the blonde's line of sight. When Cara turned the corner, a look of bemusement crossed her stern features.

"What are you wearing?" she asked, and Kahlan pursed her lips.

"You said we were going to dinner," Kahlan protested. "I didn't think you meant a pizza shop."

"We're getting a quick bite before the real fun," Cara told her. She closed the distance between them and pulled Kahlan down for a long kiss, holding the back of Kahlan's head with her hand. "You are woefully overdressed."

Kahlan looked down to see that Cara had on a tight, black t-shirt with even tighter dark wash jeans, giving way to the luscious curves beneath them. Her thick, black, Doc Martens boots were clearly the focal point of her outfit, taking her look out of the normal realm and into punk. There was a safety pin in the lobe of her left ear, the one she couldn't hear out of, and Kahlan's eyes could not tear away from it.

"Doesn't that hurt?" she asked, and Cara smirked.

"Come on, let's eat," Cara told her. "I've worked up an appetite."

As it turns out, the pizza at Zedd's was better than expected. Cara had ordered for them, two bacon and tomato slices, and slid into a nearby booth. The cushion underneath them was a hard, red leather that was clearly missing springs in some sections. Kahlan dropped herself down in the seat across from Cara, looking up to see that Cara's sharp, green eyes were already staring at her.

"I can't believe you dress like that for work," Kahlan said after a moment or two of silence. "You look completely different, I almost didn't recognize you."

"I've been fired from several jobs due to dressing butch," Cara admitted, rolling her lips together. "Once I started forcing myself to fit in, I suddenly became overwhelmingly desirable to employers." Kahlan couldn't help but remember Rahl's hand on her ass earlier that day.

"I never thought of that," Kahlan said. "I've never been out at work, but I suppose people just assume I'm straight. I've only ever been given problems for being a woman."

"Well, being a masculine woman is apparently one of the worst things you can be," Cara said, her eyes downcast for a moment. "But where I am now has been a stable place for the last five years."

"Your boss is… interesting," Kahlan said as the pizza arrived. It was then that she noticed how hungry she was, immediately taking the pizza and biting into the tapered end. "Wow, now I know why you brought me here."

"He is," Cara tried, unsure of what Kahlan was alluding to. "But I've gotten used to him."

"Does he know that you're a lesbian?"

"No, not at all," Cara told her. "That's why he thinks he can fuck me."

The candor which Cara engaged in was still uneasy for Kahlan. She lived in a world of hidden truth and courtroom deception, so someone coming right out and saying exactly what they meant was unexplored territory. But with Cara, it came so easily. She didn't want to hide, most likely because she had to hide all the time.

Kahlan noticed the aggressive way Cara folded her pizza over and ate it quickly, the red sauce catching on her bottom lip, and meant to tease her about it. Without thinking, Kahlan reached her hand out, cupped Cara's cheek, and wiped away the sauce with her thumb. Before she could pull her hand back, Cara took Kahlan's thumb in her mouth and swiped away the sauce with her tongue. Kahlan wished she could have pressed her whole thumb into Cara's wanting mouth, maybe even two fingers, and let her suck with those beautiful, plush lips. She realized where they were and steadied herself, Cara never losing her eyes as she pulled her hand back and wiped it off in a napkin.

"So, what's the 'real fun' that's meant to end this night?" Kahlan asked, having finished her pizza and wiped her mouth carefully, so as not to ruin most of her lipstick. Cara's eyes flitted down to her mouth before looking back up at her eyes.

"Do you trust me, Kahlan?"

Kahlan pursed her lips to feign hesitation.

"Why not?"

The 'real fun,' as it turned out, was a bar called CBGB, painted in sharp, red letters on a puffed, white awning. Kahlan had never heard of it, another mystery which surrounded Cara. Before they stepped inside, Cara offered Kahlan a pair of orange earplugs.

"Why do I need these?" Kahlan asked, looking at the silly looking pieces of foam in her hand. Cara was midway to putting one in her ear when she stopped.

"I don't want you to have hearing damage," Cara told her. "I'm putting them in too. It's going to get very loud in there."

Kahlan nodded and rolled the earpiece up and pressed it into her ear. It made a crinkling sound as it expanded to fill the cavity of her ear canal, effectively blocking out most of the sound around her. Everything was muffled as Cara took her hand and led her inside. As soon as Cara opened the door, music exploded out. It was dangerously loud even with the earplugs stuffed in, so Kahlan's trust in Cara was instantly rewarded. Kahlan looked around at the walls and saw that every inch of the place was lined with stickers, graffiti, or polaroids. The hallway leading into the larger area where the music pumped out from was narrow, Kahlan's hands brushing up against the walls a few times. Cara had to press herself against the wall in order to let someone move past her, their bodies sliding against one another. Kahlan put a hand on Cara's shoulder and the blonde whipped her head back, but Kahlan just shook hers.

"This is loud," Kahlan said. "I can see why you told me to—"

"I won't be able to hear you, I have no idea what you're saying, Kahlan," Cara said, her voice far louder than it needed to be. It was clear that she couldn't hear herself at all. Kahlan nodded in understanding and felt a little dull in the head at what she had forgotten.

In the main room there was a four piece band, on the drummer's bass drum were hastily written, black marker letters that read:

GAR TERRITORY

A young man with a lean, impressive body was at the helm, screaming into the microphone at the crowd. There were people in every corner of the room, holding up beer bottles, shouting back at the lead singer. He wore green, plaid-patterned pants and neglected to put on a shirt. His head was shaved, but the beginnings of soft, brown hair could be seen. There was something familiar about the lead singer that made Kahlan stare closely until she realized who he was. It was then that the lead locked his warm, brown eyes with her, still screaming, clearly not recognizing who she was.

It was her ex-boyfriend from college, Richard Cypher. Apparently, he had dropped out of law school and took up singing. Or more accurately, screaming and thrashing. As if to signal his clear emotional duress, Richard took a beer bottle from the stage and threw it at the wall, letting it smash and fall over a few crowd members. Kahlan reared back in shock but Cara stayed still, opting instead to shout in approval and raise her hands up. Cara seemed even more electrified here than she had in the club the night before. As people jostled her more, getting eager to push to the front of the stage closer to the band, Kahlan grabbed Cara's hand as if it would make her any safer.

Cara noticed that Kahlan was uncomfortable and simply turned around, found the person closest to Kahlan, and shoved them with both her hands. The scrawny woman shouted at her, Kahlan now in the middle of the two of them. Cara's face remained placid, Kahlan reasoned it was because she couldn't hear the profanities the woman was using.

"Cara—" Kahlan protested, but Cara stuck up a middle finger at the woman, took Kahlan's hand, and pulled her deeper into the crowd. The music was roaring, and they were close enough to Richard for him to lock eyes with her. There was a flash of recognition on his face, which made him forget the lyrics to his song for a moment, but then he flipped the switch and continued on.

"You have to stand your ground!" Cara shouted once she pulled Kahlan close to her.

Kahlan simply nodded, sliding her hand over Cara's shoulder and letting her arm rest there. The energy from the crowd was electric. Although Kahlan hated getting mushed into strange bodies, the more she focused on the band the more tolerable the pushes and elbows became. Kahlan pressed a kiss to the top of Cara's head, which came just up to her lips, and inhaled the intoxicating scent of her cologne. Cara relaxed into her, leaning back so her shoulders pressed back against Kahlan's breasts. Kahlan tapped Cara on the wrist and tried to shout in her ear as best she could without looking like a madwoman.

"Is there anything to drink here?" Kahlan asked, and Cara nodded. Cara motioned for Kahlan to stay, then disappeared into the crowd. It was then that Kahlan saw the band breaking down for the evening, and Richard hopped down off the stage and pushed through the crowd, his eyes glancing up at Kahlan every so often as he headed right for her. Instantly, Kahlan felt her heart drop to her stomach. It wasn't that she and Richard had ended on bad terms, but they also hadn't spoken in nearly three years. She had dated him for two years in law school before realizing she was a lesbian, however the story she told him was that she just fell out of love. It had never occurred to Kahlan that perhaps Richard would've still had some semblance of feelings for her, or at the very least the possibility of closure would be intriguing to him.

"A little overdressed for this place, as always," Richard smirked, tossing back some of his dark beer before looking back at Kahlan again. "You look beautiful, Kahlan."

"Thanks, Rich," Kahlan said, falling into old habits. His features were more hardened than she remembered, and she noticed that he had a tattoo of a sword on his upper bicep. "New look? I didn't expect to see you here."

"You could say that," he said, taking another long swig of his beer. It was clear he had more than a few before he dropped down to talk to her. Kahlan remembered his drinking had been heavy in college, too. She'd spent many nights picking him up from bars at 4am and cleaning him up when he'd thrown up on himself. It was a wonder she'd dated him as long as she did. Kahlan realized, however, that whatever Richard was in the throes of now was far worse than a few boozy nights. His eyes seemed unfocused yet wild at the same time, like he was searching for something to pounce on.

"Whose the guy you're with? He your boyfriend?" Richard asked pointedly, and Kahlan shook her head.

"Just a friend," Kahlan lied. Richard's eyes moved beyond her, and then Cara was tapping her shoulder with a cold beer bottle. He looked between the two of them skeptically before nodding. Cara looked at him too but made no move to introduce herself, completely unaware of the situation and unable to hear either way. "It was nice seeing you, Richard, but we have to get going."

"Hey, Kahlan?" Richard said, completely disregarding her polite attempt to leave, his hand grabbing her arm in a desperate way. "Is there… is there anyway I could call you? Maybe meet you for a drink or dinner?"

"It was nice seeing you again, Richard," Kahlan repeated more insistently this time. She took Cara's hand and pulled her towards the exit. Cara chugged the rest of her beer, dumped the bottle in a trashcan, and followed Kahlan outside. Once they were back in the night air, away from all the clatter, Cara pulled out her earplugs.

"You know him?" Cara asked while Kahlan pried her earplugs out. "I thought you said you didn't listen to punk music. Their stuff isn't even recorded yet."

"I… dated him, in college," Kahlan confessed, which elicited a small noise of interest from Cara. "I didn't know I was a lesbian back then, I just thought I hadn't found the right guy. And that sex was decent, but not amazing."

"Sex with men is usually altogether dissapointing," Cara smirked. "Was he bothering you?"

"No, no. I think he was just a little drunk," Kahlan said before downing most of her beer, then handing it off to Cara so she would finish it. Cara seemed to understand exactly what Kahlan needed, so she promptly drank the rest of the beer and tossed it from a fair distance into a trashcan where it shattered and sank to the bottom. "I'm sorry I pulled us out of there, I just—"

"Don't apologize," Cara told her, shaking her head and holding up a hand to stop Kahlan from rambling. "Did you have a little fun at least?"

"It's… not exactly my thing," Kahlan admitted, much to the disappointment of Cara. "But I can see the appeal. It feels like you can just let go of yourself in there. Become the noise sort of thing. But surely you can't hear anything with those earplugs in. Why do you come here?"

"I won't disappear in there," Cara told her. "After my final match, I felt lost. I stumbled upon this place, and for the first time in my life I could be a part of this… thing… that was angry and fed up and pissed off."

"I still can't believe you do this and then go to an office in the morning," Kahlan said, watching Cara as she shrugged.

"If this could be my whole life, I would let it. But for now, it's just my afterparty," Cara smiled. "Which reminds me. If you're still interested in going out tonight, there's a get-together at my friend's house. It's a few stops on the subway, she's got a pool on her roof, it's really nice. I don't know how you are about meeting friends, but—"

"Take me anywhere, take me everywhere," Kahlan teased, and grabbed Cara's hand, and walked down to the closest subway station, their light buzz from the beers making the trip all the quicker.

It was twenty minutes later when they arrived at the Manhattan high rise apartment complex. People who lived in these sorts of apartments had money to blow, as Kahlan had seen countless times with rich clients. From what Kahlan had seen, the run-down pizza shop and the crowded punk bar, it was curious that Cara would align herself with someone from this walk of life. Regardless, Kahlan was not one to turn down a fun evening at a rich person's luxury apartment.

Cara demonstrated her chivalry by opening the glass lobby door for Kahlan, who smiled warmly at the gesture. It was partially because she truly wished to be polite, but the other, more devious part of her wanted an excellent view of Kahlan's ass as she walked up to the elevator. Cara felt a surge of heat soak her body at the sight of her, knowing that Kahlan had no idea what she was looking at. When they reached the open elevator, Cara pulled Kahlan inside and before the doors even closed backed her up against the wall.

"Cara—" Kahlan breathed, the hitch in her tone signaling surprise, not resistance.

Cara pressed warm kisses on Kahlan's neck, and although it physically pained her, she restrained herself from sucking deep, red marks into the smooth, pale skin beneath her lips. A soft moan escaped Kahlan's throat, low and quiet, just for Cara. Her hand gripped Cara's short, blonde hair as she moved to the other side of her neck, bringing new moans to the surface. Without warning, Kahlan pulled her hand away from her, Cara's head going with it. Cara's lips were already showing signs of slight puffiness, making her already full lips even more delectable. Kahlan dove into them, intoxicated with the feeling of sensitive skin on skin. She wanted so badly to pull Cara down to her knees. She wanted so badly to watch Cara slide her black panties down her thighs. But the elevator bell rang, and they had arrived. Kahlan needed Cara's skin pressed against hers, her fingers at the place where she craved them, like she needed air to breathe.

Cara smirked, grabbed Kahlan's jaw, and kissed her quickly before pulling her from the elevator as the dark-haired woman struggled to catch her breath. Kahlan felt a tug on the bottom of her dress and saw Cara pulling it down her leg; she had been so caught up in the moment she hadn't noticed her dress was hiked up over her ass. Cara couldn't help herself, squeezing it gently before pushing Kahlan forward.

"Cara!" a blue-haired woman shouted from inside the dimly-lit apartment. "You brought a friend?"

"This is Kahlan. Kahlan, this is Viv," Cara said in her low drawl. "I met Kahlan last night at the Midway."

"I still can't believe you go there, the booze is disgusting," Viv said with a roll of her eyes. "But you always find the girls."

"It's nice to meet you," Kahlan smiled, and Viv's deep, brown eyes locked in with hers. She said nothing for a long moment before diving into a hug. Kahlan looked to Cara with a small look of panic before circling her arms around Viv cautiously.

"You have a wonderful aura. What's your star sign?" Viv asked. "Ugh, I'm so rude. Come in first, then tell me your sign."

The apartment was lit with a few, warm lamps which illuminated the scantily clad bodies of people Kahlan was not quite sure what to make of. Most were female bodied people, obviously lesbians, but several were either men who dressed femininely, or women who dressed masculinely. Kahlan was searching for evidence of what their true nature was, her deep, blue eyes scanning their legs, their chests, and the bulges in their pants. Cara gently touched her elbow and pulled her to sit down at a couch next to a thin, Black woman with a safety pin stuck into the upper cartilage of her ear. Her hair was worn in a tight-clipped afro, a relic from the 1960's. She smiled over at Kahlan, and then at Cara, and her hands flew up in shapes which did not seem like common gesticulations, especially because the woman wasn't speaking at all. Cara returned different gestures as wordlessly as the Black woman, then nodded.

"I'll go get us something to drink, wait here," Cara told her, and Kahlan was left alone with the safety-pin woman.

"I'm Kahlan," she said, turning to the woman. The woman was already looking at her when she turned, watching her lips instead of her eyes.

"I'm Hazel," the woman replied, her voice sounding as if she had something in her mouth that muffled and warped her words. The neurons of past experiences fired in Kahlan's brain, and it was then that she realized that the woman was most likely Deaf, or at the very least hard of hearing. It had not occurred to her that although Cara could understand her well enough, she was a part of the Deaf community due to her unexpected hearing loss injury. Kahlan felt a tinge of embarrassment heat up her ears and wondered if she should have been more open-minded and less expectant that everyone was just like her.

"Nice to meet you, Hazel," Kahlan offered, speaking louder and slower, so much so that a few people turned around to look at her. The woman looked her up and down, smiled sourly, and turned her back to speak to someone else in sign language. Kahlan felt immediately angry; what had she done wrong? All she was trying to do was talk to this woman, and she'd literally turned her back on the conversation. Thankfully, Cara had returned with two, red cocktails in her hand, offering one to Kahlan. The cold condensation already forming on the glass coated her palm and was enough to cool Kahlan down for a moment.

Hazel signed furiously to Cara, who raised an eyebrow and pursed her lips. She signed back, her mouth half forming the words as if out to habit. Her firm, green gaze bounced from Hazel to Kahlan, then back to Hazel, as if she were trying to assess the situation. Kahlan was certain that Hazel was complaining about her from the way she quickly signed.

"Don't shout at Hazel. She can read lips. She says that if she doesn't understand you, only knowing half of what you're saying would be better than being rude," Cara said plainly, looking back at Kahlan. The dark-haired woman immediately felt a pang of embarrassment, and that familiar sensation of heat in her ears.

"Sorry," Kahlan said, unsure of what action would be deemed most to least insensitive. Hazel had already begun a sign-language conversation with a pink-haired man beside her, and Kahlan did not think it wise to impose herself once again. The cold moisture from the glass in her hand began to drip onto her bare leg. Her calculating and often clinical mind was racing as if she were in a trial. What was the evidence she had overlooked? What could she have done differently? She had been a fool to speak before she thought. She should have known.

"Hey," Cara said, a gentle hand smoothing over Kahlan's shoulder. "Let's step outside."

Cara pulled open a sliding glass door with ease, her biceps bulging out from under her loose, black t-shirt. She did not need tight clothes to show off her enthralling body, Cara was absolutely impossible to ignore. If she wasn't so wrapped up in what happened on the couch, Kahlan would have been rotating through images of Cara's ass in her pencil skirt from earlier that day.

"I'm going to apologize," Cara said unexpectedly. Perhaps it was biased, or maybe Kahlan felt as though she had gotten considerably good at reading people, but Cara being openly apologetic without prompting was surprising.

"For what?" Kahlan asked incredulously. "I should be—"

"I wasn't entirely honest with you, I shouldn't have expected you to know about Deaf culture. It's a sacred space, and not only did I hurt Hazel, I hurt you as well. So I'm sorry for not telling you sooner."

Kahlan stood there for a moment, collecting her thoughts, before she nodded and rolled her lips together. "You are a very genuine person, Cara."

"I know."

"So are you Deaf, or… I don't know the right words to use."

"I'm hard of hearing, technically," Cara said. "I went to a Recently Disabled support group when I initially lost my hearing. I met Hazel and Viv there, and they introduced me to other non-hearing people. I learned sign language for myself when a room is too loud, but also because they were my friends. I wanted to be able to talk to them in a way that wasn't taxing for them."

"So you can dance, you're disgustingly sexy, you have a skilled tongue, and now you've got a big heart? How can I say no to you?" Kahlan smirked, sliding two fingers into the top of Cara's jeans and pulling her close, their bodies fitting together like spoons. It was easy to press her lips onto Cara's, it was even easier to slide her leg in between Cara's. The blonde hummed against her, and Kahlan could feel Cara's involuntary smirk pressing against her lips.

"You're not meant to say no to me," Cara mused, pressing light kisses on Kahlan's exposed neck. "You're supposed to scream yes, over and over."

"Yes, yes, yes," Kahlan said quietly. An insistent banging came from behind the glass door, then hooting and whistling. Kahlan turned her ice blue gaze to see a few partiers up against the window, among them Hazel and Viv. "We have an audience."

"We can amuse them, or disappoint them. Your choice," Cara purred, and it was then that Kahlan knew she was right; how could she possibly say no? Still holding a drink in her hand, Kahlan dipped Cara low and gently bit on her neck, the hollering from inside the apartment all the more ardent.

A/N: For those who are interested in reading on, this fic will not be like my others in that I am not writing several chapters ahead of updates. I am writing this as a passion project with a little less gravity than my other series, so therefore I am going to leave it fairly open ended and more like a series of vignettes in order to keep it fun for me. I don't know how long it's going to go or when it will be finished, and I will update on a less regular schedule than I usually do.