Liv felt alive, really alive. Not that she was dead before, not literally, but it wasn't the kind of life she'd wish on her worst enemy. Walking amongst the living once again was like a dream come true, her senses finally firing on all cylinders once again.
The smells were something she was just getting used to again, and she found herself closing her eyes and basking in the glory of her olfactory receptors, letting her nose lead her where it may. It was fall, and everything around her was pumpkin spice, cloves, and cinnamon. If anyone had ever told her that a Starbucks seasonal latte would one day bring tears of joy to her eyes, she would have called them a lunatic and continued to drink her black cup of joe. But it was true.
The first thing she did when she got home was toss all of her five alarm hot sauce directly in the trash can. She'd eaten enough of the stuff for a lifetime of heartburn. Dear god, delicious food was borderline orgasmic.
Actually, a lot of things seemed to be borderline orgasmic. Her heart fluttered at the feel people brushing up against her on the bus. Breezes were suddenly sensual, currents of air like thousands of electrified fingers skimming across her body, her hair brushing the pulse on her neck enough to send a shiver through her entire body. She seemed to walk around in a state of constant arousal, cheeks flushed, aching for the intimate touch of another person.
She'd taken off work, at Ravi's insistence, and was making her way through all the human experiences she'd been denied for the past year. The first week had been a dream, and she'd stuffed her senses to the gills, buying new bottles of her favorite perfume, eating at five star restaurant. And today it was finally time to explore touch once again. It wasn't quite what she expected, and for the first time she began to think that something was truly amiss.
A full body massage had seemed like logical place to start. It had been too long, the tenseness in her shoulders building and building as the months wore on. The need to be touched wasn't just physical, it was human. For the first time she wasn't afraid that she would be found out, tears springing to her eyes as the masseuse spread hot oil over her back. Things had escalated too quickly from that point on, and now she was laying on her stomach, upper torso bare, cheeks flaming more hotly than they'd ever flamed. Suddenly a massage seemed like the worst idea ever.
The masseuse hadn't even made her way to the dimples just above Liv's backside when the stomach clenching spasms of pleasure rolled through her. The first orgasm she'd had in god knew how long, pulsing through her like a tidal wave knocking over a brick wall. The little yell of pleasure had been completely involuntary.
She felt the warm hands retreat, slippery oil cooling on her skin. "Was that too rough, Miss Moore?"
Liv shook her head, not daring to look back at her masseuse. She could always tell the woman she didn't feel well, excuse herself from the appointment and flee in embarrassment. But she wasn't sure walking out of here without embarrassing herself was an option, her legs positively wobbly in the heady afterglow of pleasure. And a small part of her was curious whether or not it would happen again, craved it even.
The woman went back to work, and when she reached Liv's upper calves, Liv felt her toes curl in anticipation, breath shortening as her arousal began to mount again. This time she managed to keep quiet, pursing her lips together rightly and clutching at the edge of the table.
"Miss, you're extremely tense. Is everything okay?"
Liv couldn't form an articulate answer, unable to concentrate on any other than the feel of her nipples puckering against the towel beneath her. The abrasions sent electric little shocks arcing between the sensitive skin and the throbbing between her legs. This time when the hands retreated, Liv let them go, sitting up with the towel clutched to her breast.
"Yeah, I've, uh, got a lot on my mind. A massage today probably wasn't a good idea."
The woman looked at her strangely. Liv was sure anyone could tell what had happened just by looking at her pink cheeks and glazed over eyes. She had the strongest desire to wrap herself up in her favorite silk sheets and sink into a deep sleep, sated to the point of exhaustion. The woman didn't argue with her.
She fled from the spa as fast as her treacherous body allowed, making a bee-line to the morgue. She needed someone to help her make sense of what was happening, and Ravi was the only person she could turn to.
It wasn't what Ravi had expected. In fact, he'd made a rather long list of possible side effects, and not once did it cross his mind to include this. He held his clipboard loosely, watching open-mouthed as the two rats attacked each other. Well… attacked was maybe the wrong word, but "mating" seemed to lack the necessary connotations. The creatures were going after each other with vicious intent.
It hadn't crossed his mind to do social observation until rather late in the game, and he was almost embarrassed about it now. It hadn't occurred to him until he had placed two of the cages side by side, a male and female in each. The creatures had instantly jumped to the adjacent walls of the cages, gnawing at the wires, little paws reaching fruitlessly through the gaps.
He'd thought they would stop after a while, get used to one another again, but they hadn't, and when he'd released them into the same cage all hell had broken loose, the female rat pinning down the eager male. Ravi had never witnessed anything like it before. He briefly worried that maybe they would exhaust each other to the point of death. He was in the process of looking for his chainmail gloves when the two suddenly fell apart, little chests heaving as they panted.
He jotted down their strange behavior, feeling particularly doctorly as his graphite pencil scratched along the paper. Subject 1: The first of the 'cured' rats, maintaining non-zombie status for a period longer than any of the others. Vitals slowly became more erratic as time passed. When introduced to another rat, uninhibited mating began, initiated by Subject 1. Mating concluded with both rats' vitals returning to standard readings of healthy rats. Observation continues.
He paused, lifting his pencil slowly from the paper. It was only beginning to dawn on him that this was something Liv was possibly experiencing too. He reached for his phone, patting his left pocket. Shit. It was lying face down in a tray of dissection tools in the exam room, fifteen missed text messages and half a dozen missed calls. His eyes widened when he looked down at the glowing screen.
Ravi, do you think pumpkin spice is an aphrodisiac?
Have you ever REALLY pet a dog? I mean REALLY. I can feel every single strand of fur against my fingertips and it's the softest thing on earth.
He scrolled worriedly through the innocuous texts until he found one that was worrisome.
Rav, something's not quite right. I'm pretty sure the masseuse is supposed to charge triple for the service I just got.
He kept scrolling, brow furrowing as he got to the last message.
This isn't right! This is ten times worse than stripper brain. Every god damned person I look at is like a page ripped out of my own personal playgirl magazine. I almost dragged an unsuspecting skateboarder into an alley. A SKATEBOARDER! You better be at the morgue! DO YOU EVEN HAVE YOUR PHONE?
His swiped across the touch screen, pulling up her contact. His pulse jumped as he listened to the call ring in his hear. He did hear her voice, finally, but it wasn't coming through the tinny speaker of his cell phone.
"Chakrabarti!" Liv burst through the swinging door into the morgue, flying down the short steps toward him. Her eyes were blazing, chest rising and falling as she panted. Her fingers found the lapels of his lab coat and jerked him close to her. "What the hell is going on?"
For a moment he was strictly clinical, cataloguing all the physical changes in her since the last time he saw her. Her hair was a soft chestnut brown now, only one remaining strand of white in the front leftover from her zombie self. She was glowing, quite literally, pink with health, cheeks completely flushed. Standing nose to nose with him, she panted hotly against his skin. The only thing that seemed to remain from her previous condition was this abnormal strength, and he supposed that could be attributed to a flood of adrenaline.
He gently encircled her wrists, one thumb finding it's way to the soft skin against her ulna. "Liv, calm down, take a deep breath. Your pulse is racing." His words were soft, like someone trying to gently coax a wild animal. Her rapidly darting eyes paused, locking with his. Her bottom lip trembled as she followed his instruction and took a deep cleansing breath. The pulse beneath his fingers didn't slow. "We can figure this out."
"What's happening to me?"
He gently led her into his office, the worn out sofa once again turning into an exam table. This time they sat side by side, Ravi pulling out his emergency medical kit to check her pupil reaction and temperature. "Your vitals seems okay, just abnormally elevated. It could be that your body is just testing out all of its systems. Giving itself a kind of kickstart. Everything might settle back down in due time."
She peered at him, the shimmer of frightened tears in her eyes was painful. He couldn't imagine what waking up half dead must have been like for her. He wished he could have been there for her then too. He wanted to tell her he was certain about the prognosis, but the words caught in his throat.
"What aren't you telling me? I can see it on your face."
Of course she could. He couldn't count the time she's relieved him of his entire paycheck playing poker. Letting out a long breath, he began slowly, "The rats… they appear to be experiencing the same thing, but…"
She snatched the front of his shirt, fisting the material in her fingers as she practically climbed on top of him. "But what?" He eyes kept darting down to his lips distractedly. She swallowed hard, dragging her gaze back up to his eyes. "Tell me."
"They're a bit.." He trailed off.
"Ravi…" She said his name low, drawing it out in a gravelly whisper.
He closed his eyes, and let the words tumble out rapidly. "The randy little buggers have been going at it since I put them together in the cages."
He peaked over at her, opening one eye slowly to gauge her reaction. Her mouth dropped open, alarm on her face. "Does that mean… I'm… um… randy too? I mean I know I am, but… Do I have to do something about it… right now?"
She pulled him closer, one finger dipping beneath his collar, absentmindedly tracing along his clavicle. He swallowed, feeling what he could only assume was a faint echo of her own physical need. She was practically on top of him, straddling one of his legs, a knee pressed in close to his groin. She settled against him, pushing in close. He had never expected the heat, after having only known her cool touch. His mind raced, momentarily, lost in the feel of her.
He had all the sympathy in the world for her predicament. He imagined it had to be something like being a teenage boy, and after all he'd been one of those for several years. "I don't know. It does seem to help, but I can't say whether or not it's necessary. The subjects I've observed have only seemed to get worse without it…"
There was a shift in her, the desperate movements against him suddenly becoming languid with intent. Her eyes dropped down low. "Ravi, this isn't just you trying to get in my pants is it?"
He laughed, the thick atmosphere between them temporarily punctured. "If only I'd known medical jargon and talk about rodents was what got you hot and bothered, we could have been doing this all along."
She smiled, slowly letting go of his shirt. Her hands were hot against his throat, traveling up the smooth column, fingers threading into his hair. She tugged at the strands. "All along?" Liv wasn't the only one short of breath. She rubbed her thigh against the bulge in his chinos, the evil grin spreading across her face as she pressed closer. "Why didn't you say something?"
He buried his face in the hollow of her neck, breathing deeply before giving her a mumbled answer, his lips pressed firmly against the skin there. "There was always something in the way."
He was clutching the arm of the sofa with his right hand, knuckles straining to keep the tight grip. She gently pried his fingers loose, guiding his hand under her shirt. "There's nothing in the way now."
A/N: I guess now's the time to admit that this SORT of started as a crack fic prompt about a possible "side effect" of a cure. :P Let me know what you think. I should have one or two more chapters before it's finished. Thanks for reading.