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based on characters created by ~lighterheaven and *cellfaces

Neither of them could believe this was happening exactly.  Something they had both thought about in snatches but spent no time mentally elaborating upon and certainly never discussing it with the other.  And yet, here they both were, kissing full and deep and in the midst of an after-session rush in the middle of the campus.  Just moments before, Nadya had seen the postings outside the lecture hall.  Not only had she passed her descriptive geometry final, she had scored near perfect.  And in that rush of triumph, she happened to spot the person who had gotten her there.

Roxane had spotted her too, infectiously mirroring Nadya's brilliant smile.  "Hey, Nadya, how'd you-?"

It was Nadya who lunged, delightful, serious, straight Nadya who clamped her mouth over her friend's.  It could've been a gesture of gratitude but it lasted just a few seconds longer than that would explain.  It was so nice that both of them were lulled by the sensation.  Roxane was amazed at the softness of Nadya's lips.  Nadya could taste the lingering taint of cigarettes on Roxane's tongue and it strangely didn't repulse her, it just made her want to taste more.

When they parted, completely oblivious to the shocked and bemused looks on the fellow students passing by, Roxane's slightly closed eyes met Nadya's own wide blue eyes.

"I guess you did okay," Roxane said.
"Rox, I-" Nadya stammered, taken aback by the kiss and by herself even more.  "I'm sorry!"
And Nadya sprinted from her confused friend at an amazing speed, leaving Roxane alone in a swarm of people, suddenly aware of the wind brushing across those lips that now tasted of Nadya.

They had met not quite a year earlier in the most mundane of places: the gym.  It was a topsy-turvy world they lived in, a dangerous world where technology had surpassed its own usefulness and long-denied magic was fighting its way back into the human awareness.  Crime and random acts of terror, some carried out by the most fantastic of characters, were on the rise, bringing comic book warfare to full color life.  Yet people still did their laundry, shopped for groceries, and went to the gym.
Roxane was well into her twentieth set of reps at the machine press, sweat undaintily streaming from her pores and making her olive skin shine like steel.  She had no idea in the moment, so focused was she, that she had an audience of one.  The redheaded young woman standing at a respectful distance from Roxane's machine was mutely impressed with the stack of black weights Roxane was mechanically pushing skyward.  Two hundred and forty pounds handled like it was routine.  The darkly alluring woman flexed and exhaled in sexy little hisses as she pumped the metal grips.  Setting the weights down for the final time, Roxane finally snapped out of her trance-like state and realized she was being watched.  She sat up, rivulets of moisture coursing down her accentuated stomach muscles, rock hard yet still rolled with a layer of softness.  "Were you waiting for the machine?" she said, tugging a small towel back and forth behind her neck and underneath her jet black mane of hair, "I'm all done here."
The redhead had actually blushed at being caught watching, the bloom of roses standing out loudly across the tops of her cheeks, making her freckles fade in the color.  "No, I – well, yeah, I was going to-" as worldly as she thought she was, Nadya was feeling oddly flustered.  "You're really strong," she managed lamely.
Roxane stood and laughed.  Nadya liked how light her voice was, it wasn't what she expected from a woman who looked like Roxane.  Though she definitely had a woman's curves, a small chest but an impressive backside, there was a hard set to her features, an exotic firmness in her cheeks and jawline.  A strong hooked nose, her eyes leonine and smoky blue, the two perfect beauty marks above her upper lip; it all worked to create a striking image.  She playfully struck a bodybuilder's pose, flexing her impressively muscular, sculpted arms.  "Li'l ol' me?"
"Seriously.  You could be a superhero."
Roxane waved the flattery off, ready for the showers, but for some reason she stayed put.  The other girl was familiar - the taut, perfectly proportioned figure and the angular, almost elfin face, but it was the hair most of all that made her stand out.  Roxane had seen her around the gym before.  "You go to the university, right?'
Nadya was now seated at the bench press.  "Yeah, first year Architecture student."
"How's that going for you?"
Nadya ducked her head to adjust the weight pin, settling it at a more reasonable one hundred ten pounds.  Roxane was fascinated by the sweep of her long, straight coppery hair bound back in a pony tail.  It gleamed, burned like fire.  "Ah, it could – could be going better," Nadya admitted.  She looked back at Roxane with a goofy, self-deprecating grin, "I'm great with concept and design, but not so much with the math."  Even though she already knew the answer, Nadya followed social protocol to ask, "Are you a student too?"
Roxane was stretching as she answered.  "Psych major.  It's my last year, until I decide where I'll do my post-grad work."  She suddenly stopped her contortions and held out a hand, "I'm Roxane."
The redhead smiled generously as she shook Roxane's hand with a surprisingly strong returned grip, "Nadya."
Nadya reclined into the machine and took the bar in her hands.  Studying those hands as she spoke, Roxane was intrigued by the purple bruises along the knuckles.  Who or what the hell had this beautiful young woman been beating?
"You know, if you ever need any help with your math work, I'm a decent tutor."
Nadya huffed her response as she started her own lifting, "I thought you said you were a psych major?"
Roxane knelt, even with Nadya's face, "I'm more than really strong, I'm also really, really smart."
Nadya's smirk was sharp.  She darted her own blue eyes, a lighter crystalline hue than Roxane's, to the side, "And modest!"
Roxane just grinned back and rose.  "The offer stands.  You know where to find me."
And with that, Roxane headed off to the showers.  Nadya watched her go, fascinated by the jiggle and shift of the other woman's ass as she walked away.
What she hadn't admitted - and wouldn't for a while yet - was that she already knew Roxane.  Sort of.  Nadya's close friend Nadine had classes with another freshman girl named Sephanie who, after a few drinks at an off-campus party, rambled on about her exotic, Amazonian roommate - an older woman whom she had successfully seduced.  Sephanie had thrown her arm possessively around the woman in question, drunkenly, but with affection, referring to her as "my bitch."  According to Nadine, Roxane had smiled uncomfortably but still squeezed Sephanie in response.
Nadya had a hard time believing that the powerful woman she had just met could be anybody's "bitch."

For Nadya, it took only two more weeks of swimming upstream in her classes to seek out Roxane.  She handed over her Geometry texts and plaintively asked for help.  Roxane found herself glad to be asked.
They tried convening at local coffee shops, but Nadya found it nearly impossible to concentrate.  The same went for the university's library.  It seemed one offered too many distractions and the other too few.  When an exasperated Roxane finally asked where she felt most at ease studying, Nadya shrugged.  "Home," she replied.
Outside of the apartment, Nadya offered as something between explanation and apology, "I still live with my dad."
Nadya's thin, weary looking but still handsome father, who seemed pleasant and not overly nosy about his daughter's comings and goings, was hardly there most afternoons and when he was there he tended to do nothing more than comment from his place in front of the TV.  A smile, a greeting, a question of how their day had been.  And then the girls would vanish into Nadya's room.
It was (slightly to Roxane's disappointment) a very typical, though quite large, girl's bedroom – with a couple of notable exceptions.  Bright colors, comfortable blankets, scattered pillows and stuffed animals, magazines and comics strewn about, posters of romantic films and new and old bands adorning the walls, a bureau and vanity festooned with photo booth snaps of Nadya and her friends, old notes on pastel paper scrawled with inside jokes in perfect female handwriting - these were all to be expected.  There was also the drafting table supporting graphed drawings of the buildings that sprung from Nadya's imagination.  But what really drew Roxane's eye were the multi-limbed martial arts practice dummy and the space on the wall above her bed's headboard reserved for the display rack of four very well-kept, very real Japanese katanas.
"Wow," was really all she could say.
"Oh," Nadya replied, verbally brushing the topic aside, "I'm kind of into martial arts."
"Which ones?"
"Um, all of them, really."
"Huh."
Nadya brought Roxane's attention back to the reason they were there in the first place and Roxane nodded and pulled a desk chair up to the edge of the bed while Nadya plopped on her mattress and spread her Geometry textbooks between them.  Just as Nadya had suggested, the familiarity of her surroundings helped her focus and Roxane could tell immediately that her pupil was benefiting from her tutelage.  As for herself, Roxane was distracted, unable to stop herself from leaning in over their papers to draw in the scent of her new friend.  Nadya smelled of wildflowers and something surprising: she smelled like danger.

The two young women drew closer over the weeks that followed.  Of course Roxane had her own studies to focus on, as well as an awkward extraction from a foolish (if, physically, very satisfying) relationship with her roommate Sephanie.  Nadya juggled her other classes, her social time with friends as well as various mysterious absences for which she never offered convincing excuses.  But when they were together, it gradually became less about Geometry and more about them.  They began seeing each other more and more frequently; their weekly study sessions becoming a three-time-a-week  appointment.  As much progress was being made on the academic front, the two women found themselves straying from the topic at hand to simply talk and laugh, enjoying each others' company.
Roxane was funny which was another surprise for Nadya and the rather serious younger woman  relished those moments when Rox (as she began to call her) would offer an outrageous, slyly muttered quip to crack the frown that often settled upon Nadya's face.  For Roxane, as a lifelong student of human behavior and a future psychologist, she found Nadya boundlessly fascinating.  The redhead was, on the most surface level, a bright, driven romantic.  But one thing Roxane knew almost from the beginning: Nadya was hiding something.  Roxane couldn't help but be intrigued by the obfuscations and the sudden exits.  Where was Nadya running away to?  Or was it to whom?  The thought bothered her more than she wanted to admit.
An answer of sorts came along at random on a day near the middle of June.
Roxane found herself downtown, running errands, dodging robot-piloted taxis and ignoring the whistles and catcalls from a nearby construction crew clearing away the rubble from the previous week's terrorist attack.  As days go, it was par the course for life in the city.  She had just exited a boutique, lighting a cigarette with her free hand, when she heard the "boom."  It was no explosion but rather the terrible sound made by a twisted steel vault door crashing to earth after having been thrown clear of the nearest bank – some two blocks away.  The huge door spun and skipped another couple of times, shearing the sides of parked cars and gouging up chunks of asphalt the whole way, before limply thudding to a stop.  It was an incongruous sight to be sure, but eliciting hardly more than a raised eyebrow from the jaded locals.  It was what she saw next that actually surprised Roxane.
While the foot traffic was actively steering clear of whatever was happening down the street, there came an unlikely trio running towards the scene; a trio lead by a young woman with the reddest hair and a Japanese sword strapped to her back.
Roxane stepped in their direction, calling out over the sound of distant alarms and sirens, "Nadya?"
Her friend halted so abruptly, looked so shocked at the chance encounter, that it was as if she had struck an invisible wall.  The people with her also halted, but out of confusion.  One was a tall, wiry guy of the same approximate age with close-cropped, spiky black hair and the most unnerving electric green eyes set in a pair of dark bruised pits.  He twitched as he stood still.  The other was just a little girl, no more than ten or eleven, wearing a pink hoodie and a sour expression.
Nadya exclaimed, "Roxane!  I-  Hey!"
Roxane watched as Nadya mentally scrambled for the next words or explanations while her two companions shared a look.  The popcorn sounds of gunfire echoed off the buildings.
"So how're-  What've you been up to?"
Roxane lifted her shopping bags and replied sarcastically, "Oh, you know, getting my oil changed.."  The spooky guy cocked an eyebrow at Nadya and their wordless exchange piqued Roxane's interest even more.  Not waiting for flustered Nadya to provide an introduction, she addressed him directly, "Hi, I'm Roxane.  I'm Nad's math tutor."
The intensity in his gaze dimmed for the moment as he remembered something of social etiquette.  "Ah, hey.  Ash-"
"This is Ashtro!" Nadya interjected unnecessarily.  "He's a friend!"
Two police copters passed by overhead while Roxane tried to discern, if only through their postures and their glances, what this odd young man meant to Nadya.  She knew she was interrupting something, but Roxane couldn't quell her curiosity.  She leaned forward to meet the sullen eyes of the little girl.
"And you are?"
"You got a big butt."
"Sarah!" Nadya blurted out, horrified, but Roxane was already laughing that wonderful, high laugh of hers.
"It's a blessing and a curse, Sarah," Roxane responded, "just like that mouth is going to be for you, I bet."
Another muffled explosion from down the street and a cloud of smoke and dust came roiling through the canyons of the street.  It blew back the distinctive canvas duster Nadya was wearing and left debris in Roxane's hair.  The quartet blinked harshly as it passed, coughing.  Sarah kicked Nadya in the ankle.
"Ow!"
"We gotta go!" the girl insisted.
Ashtro added, "We don't want to be late for the movie."
"Right," Nadya said, looking relieved for the input of her strange associates.  She put a hand on Roxane's shoulder and both women felt more than just the weight of that brief contact.  "Rox, I'm sorry, but we have to run.  Call you later?"
"Sure," Roxane said and gave her a smile.  And with that Nadya and her friends resumed their progress towards the noise and smoke, into danger.
Roxane thought for half a moment about chasing after, to prove or disprove her troubling suspicions, but she let them go and made for home.

Two days later was the hottest day of the year so far, summer having snapped its chains.  Sparkling with sweat and wearing only a tank top and underwear, Nadya was in her room working on her extracurricular skills.  The blade in her hands swung through the air silently and smoothly, cleaving the afternoon sunlight and shattering it into reflections that winked and flashed with each arc.  Her movements were absolute and precise and she wielded the katana like one of the storied masters of legend.  So focused on her regimen was she that she had no idea that Roxane was watching from the door until her friend made a noise.  The noise was a soft gasp and Roxane was embarrassed to have made it, but she had been struck by Nadya's form, by the sheer perfection of a fit, firm young woman expressing herself through movement, her face placid and serene even as she danced with a deadly weapon.  It was one of the most beautiful sights she had ever seen.
Alerted to Roxane's presence, Nadya jumped slightly – the sword now looking clumsy in her hands while she self-consciously grabbed for a nearby robe.  "Rox!  You, uh-"
Roxane grinned and came into the room.  "Your dad let me in.  I know we weren't going to be meeting up today, but-  Damn, you're dripping!"
Nadya blushed and wiped the matted hair from her glistening forehead.  "Well, yeah.  It's kind of warm, if you didn't notice and our a/c is on the fritz, so..."
From her shoulder bag, Roxane produced her small gym towel.  "Don't worry, it's clean."  And she reached out to wipe the side of Nadya's face, under her chin, pleased at the way Nadya let her and the way she angled herself to receive the attention.  "Is something up?" she asked Roxane.
"There's something I wanted to ask you," Roxane replied, moving the towel across the back of Nadya's neck.  She could see the pulse throb in her neck and she saw Nadya gulp as she answered, "Oh?"
Roxane didn't respond immediately.  Instead she brought the towel to Naddya's upper chest, swiping away and the droplets of sweat just there at the start of the slope of her breasts, stopping at the line of her shirt where the hint of her cleavage showed.  She could feel Nadya's heart beating at a quick tempo.
"Why do you want to be an architect?"
Nadya laughed and it sounded like relief.  She also took the towel from Roxane's hand and brusquely ran it under her armpits before dropping it on the floor.  "Really?  That's what you came all the way over here for?"  Her last word choked off as she watched with some alarm as Roxane pulled off her shirt and the sports bra underneath.  "What are you doing?"
Roxane threw up her hands, unashamedly bare from the waist up, "You said it yourself, it's a sauna in here."
Nadya hopped over the clutter on her floor to quickly shut her door.  "What if my dad were to walk by?" she hissed.
"Then he gets a thrill," Roxane smirked.  She sat on the edge of Nadya's bed and waited for her to smile back before she asked again.  "Why do you want to be an architect?"
Secure in the knowledge that they were no longer on display, Nadya joined her.
"Why?  Well, I mean, it's something I've always wanted to do.  I see these shapes, designs, in my head and I want to see them become reality.  But -"  She collected her thoughts, staring into her bed sheet, and Roxane sat quietly by.  "I guess, really, I've just wanted to build something.  Install a little order out there.  Make places for people to be safe and happy.  It sounds kind of idealistic, but-"
"I thought so," Roxane said, her arms folded beneath her small breasts.  "Not so different from the reasons you're a superhero, wouldn't you say?"
Nadya sat bolt upright, sputtering.  "A – what?!  You think I-?!"
"Nads, please," Roxane said, "who takes a sword to the movies?  And did you think I wouldn't watch the news to see what was happening at the Bank of the National Trust?  All the footage was mysteriously blurry and even the eyewitnesses had trouble recalling specifics, but it still gets broadcast that the robot minions of Doctor Whatever were stopped by the timely appearance of-"
"The Painkillers," Nadya interjected, quietly.
"The what?"
Nadya went to her open closet and extracted the ankle-length khaki duster Roxane had seen her wearing.  Nadya pointed to the emblem sewn to the upper arm of the coat: a medicinal capsule with a halo and angel's wings.
"Painkillers.  That's Ashtro, Sarah and me."
Roxane shook her head.  "That little girl-"
Nadya chuckled dryly, "That little girl controls an ancient wolfen spirit form that can take out a squad of ten in a blink.  And Ashtro's a mage with scary powerful spells at his command.  He's the one that cloaks us from the cameras and people's memories."
"Where did you find these people?"
Nadya knew that question was coming and she prepared herself by not looking Roxane in the eye as she said, "I put out an ad."
Roxane broke into a laughing fit that swelled, died and then started again, making the bed shake.  Nadya waited.
"An ad?!" Roxane heaved incredulously.
Nadya's hands had clenched into little white fists.  "The bottom line is we came together because we all believe in trying to make things better.  And we're really good at it, too!"
Roxane leaned forward, her smile fading, "What about you, Nads?"  Nadya looked confused.  "Sarah's got a big, bad wolf spirit, Ashtro is like a hipster Merlin, but what are you doing out there?"
Nadya's eyebrows lifted and she tilted her head, "Me?  I'm what you might call 'highly adaptable.'  I'm trained in multiple martial arts disciplines.  I'm tougher than I look, I'm fast and I'm an expert with the katana."
Roxane was still staring at her like she was a new type of creature.
"I had an odd childhood," Nadya shrugged.
"No doubt."  Roxane's voice was softer now and she reached out a hand, stroking Nadya's right arm, feeling the strength in it, "Look, your secret is safe with me.  But now that I know you'll have to expect me to be a little … worried about you."
Nadya's face darkened.  She pulled her knees up and rested her chin upon them.  "I know.  That's why I work so hard to keep all of these parts of my life separate.  There's a Nadya for my father.  One for the classroom.  One for my friends.  One for the bad guys.  One for you -"  Those words felt a bit revealing and she sped past them, not noticing the impact they had on Roxane, "The whole package is just too much, I guess, and there's nobody I would want to jeopardize by sharing all of it with."
"Hey," Roxane said, touching Nadya's cheek, "I told you before, I'm really, really strong."
Near tears, Nadya smiled.  "Is it okay if we drop this for now?  I'm really kind of worn out."
"Absolutely," Roxane agreed.  "Do you want to get some studying in?  Your descriptive geometry final is in a couple of weeks."
The redhead quickly responded, "Nah.  I don't feel like cracking the books.  Besides, I think I'm ready."
"Great!" Roxane said, "Then let's just take it easy."  She punctuated her heartfelt declaration by leaning back against the wooden headboard, hooking her thumbs under her waistband and sliding her track pants all the way off.  She was removing her panties before Nadya could react.
"Roxane!"
"What?" her friend replied as innocently as she could while stretched out fully nude on top of her bed.  "Unless an arctic breeze blows this way soon, this is the only way I'm gonna feel comfortable in this hotbox of yours."  As if to emphasize how completely natural her state of undress was she grabbed up a celebrity gossip magazine from Nadya's floor and began flipping through it, "It's not like we haven't seen plenty of each other in the gym's showers."
"Yeah, but-!"  Nadya's retort wilted in the thick air of the room, stirred weakly by the air that perfunctorily pushed its way in from her open window, barely making it past the light curtains.  When she looked back at Roxane she was shooting her a rather taunting look.  A dare.
Nadya hopped up and made sure her door was locked in addition to being merely closed and then she stripped down herself.  She giggled as she did so and Roxane fought the urge to stare.
"We need music!" Nadya announced and made for her stereo.  From behind her magazine, Roxane said, "Knowing you that means-"  And, indeed, when she raised her eyes, she saw Nadya mischievously holding aloft a particular CD.  Stars: The Best of the Cranberries.
"No!" Roxane warned with a pointed finger, "None of that ancient music!"
"It's not ancient!"
"It's terrible pop music from the dawn of Time!"
Nadya, undeterred, snatched up her equally archaic Discman and came back to the bed.  "You just have terrible taste."
But even bickering, they smirked at each other.  Nadya playfully set one of her stuffed animals in Roxane's lap, making a pillow for her head.  She reclined and set about putting the CD in the player, clapping her headphones on.  She almost didn't hear Roxane mutter, "Does Ashtro like the Cranberries?"
Nadya lifted one of the phones of her ear and craned her neck, "Ashtro?  I don't know.  I don't think we've ever talked about music."
"I thought you two were close."
"Well, we are, but-"
Roxane felt she should withdraw, but kept going anyway.  "You like him, don't you?"
"It's … complicated.  You wouldn't understand."
"Ignoring for the moment that I'm a student of the human psyche, why do you think I wouldn't understand?"
"Because you're, you know, gay."
"Whoa!" Roxane reacted, setting the magazine aside and sitting straighter, Nadya's head jostled by the flexing of her abdomen.  "Says who?"
Nadya sat up now, sensing she had blundered, feeling instantly contrite, "I didn't mean-  Well, you know, we've talked about you and Sephanie-!"
"I'm not offended by the implication, Nads, but I don't like being pigeonholed.  Yes, I've had girlfriends before, but I've had boyfriends too.  And one thing I can assure you of: 'complications' of the kind you're talking about are universal."
Nadya raised her hands in placation, "Look, I'm sorry.  You're right.  I just – don't want to talk about Ashtro right now, okay?"
Roxane just nodded and reached for Nadya's wrist, pulling her slowly back down, letting her nestle again on the stuffed panda.  They were quiet now, the comfort rising up their extremities like a chill.  Roxane kept reading – a comic book now – and Nadya had pushed play on the disc player.  Her eyes fluttered closed by the middle of the second track.   Roxane enjoyed looking over her face as she drifted to sleep, but had trouble keeping her own eyes open for much longer.  They weren't aware of it but their breathing had even synchronized as the afternoon heat lulled them both into a welcome oblivion.

Nadya was holding on for dear life, her fingers clawing for purchase on the ledge of the building.  Strangely, her fingernails were digging ruts in the solid stone.  She knew her time was up and she knew there was a long, long way to fall.  And below her, though she couldn't see it, was fire.  She screamed to the two people she could make out above, the ones who were standing right at the edge of the building, peering over at her.  Though she was pleading for their help, they seemed, at best, mildly curious.
Ashtro!  Sarah!  Grab my hand!  Help me up!  Please!
The little girl's face flickered for a moment, seeming fierce and wolf-like, then normal again as she looked to the other.  Who is she?
The man hardly seemed to be there at all, appearing like a skeleton held together by smoky bands of black energy in constant motion, whipping about and always in danger of flying free.  But where his eyes should be, there were two fierce green orbs.  I don't know.  The face is familiar.
They stepped back from the ledge until she could see them no more.  They were leaving her but she still heard the little girl's voice as they went.  I think she built this place.
And then she fell – but not far.  A steely arm arced through the air and caught her, pulled her close.  Roxane was holding her and smiling.
Did you think I was going to let you go?  See?  I'm holding you.

Nadya slowly roused in the cool blue-violet of the early evening.  How long had she dozed?  An hour or more?  She became aware that Roxane and she had not shifted positions at all and that her friend was still asleep, her breath coming slowly, heavily.  And something else Nadya realized was that Roxane's left hand had incidentally settled on her left breast.  It wasn't an unpleasant sensation at all.  Possessed by an impulse and confident that Roxane was still under Morpheus's spell, Nadya placed her own hands on top of Roxane's and gently pressed it into the giving flesh of her bosom.  It was a uniquely wonderful feeling and Nadya's nipple stiffened under the caress by proxy.  Fully awake and tingling at her core, Nadya kept Roxane's hand in place, manipulating it to simulate a kneading of her breast.  Nadya's heart was thudding at such a powerful rate that she was afraid it would waken Roxane.  When, in time, her friend did begin to stir, Nadya guiltily released her hand and immediately pretended to be asleep herself.
Roxane left the apartment not long after dressing and nudging Nadya "awake."  They had become closer than ever, the biggest secret between them revealed and shared, yet there was a new awkwardness present as well.  Something had changed that hot summer afternoon but neither woman was sure what it was.

Outwardly, the pair carried on much as before.  Now that Nadya felt confident in her grasp of geometry, the two women primarily spent their time together working out at the gym, making dinners for each other (though neither was a very good cook), and chatting.  They napped together again, a couple of times, both finding it comforting and comfortable.  Any other feelings their cuddling may have stirred went unacknowledged, as were any concerns Roxane may have had when she saw Nadya rush off, katana on her back, in response to an overheard news item or phone call from Ashtro.  She got better at smiling and wishing Nadya well, trusting the fates to bring the one she loved back again, bruised but safe.  For her part, Nadya hated to go.  Despite the ribbing she took from Nadine, Ashtro, and even her father, all of whom pointedly questioned or mocked the amount of time she was spending with her "math tutor," Nadya just didn't feel as happy anywhere else.
And this stasis of friendship and support, boundaries mutely established and mutually recognized, sustained them until the day Nadya aced her geometry final.  Until the kiss.

She couldn't believe she was listening to the Cranberries.  In the hours since Nadya had kissed her – since they had kissed – Roxane had returned to her apartment, left four messages on Nadya's voicemail, and waited.  She tried watching TV, reading a novel, painting her toenails, but she couldn't focus so she sat on her couch and smoked.  And smoked some more.  And actually started playing Nadya's CD of the Cranberries.  She shook her head and continued chewing on her thumb.  The fucking Cranberries.
The knock on her door was quieter, more hesitant than usual, but she knew instantly that it was Nadya.  Roxane bolted up to answer.  The girl on the other side of the door appeared more conflicted and unsure than Roxane had ever seen her.
"Rox," Nadya began after a pregnant pause, "I should apologize."
"Don't you fucking dare," Roxane returned, pulling Nadya into the apartment with one hand and shutting the door with the other.  She then thrust Nadya's back to the door and pressed her muscular frame against Nadya's, their breasts flattening out against each other.  She kissed her fiercely, surprising herself at the force of it but pleased to note that Nadya wasn't resisting.  Indeed, the redhead hungrily kissed back, desperately seeking Roxane's tongue with her own.
Roxane's hands were holding Nadya's face and she couldn't help but open her eyes as they kissed, seeing the clouded, unthinking, hungry look in Nadya's own eyes.
"Is-" Nadya gasped as she came up for air, "is Sephanie home?"
Roxane shook her head, "She's spending the session break with her family."
And Nadya grinned wickedly, grabbing handfuls of Roxane's ass and pulling her back into the kiss.  Roxane responded by clutching at Nadya's breast with her right hand.  It was large and warm and her thumb found the nipple, rubbing it in circles through the cloth of Nadya's tank top.  Nadya gasped into Roxane's mouth.
They were now clumsily moving into the living room, stepping together without looking, refusing to break up their clench. Roxane spun them around so that she could steer.  When the back of Nadya's knees bumped up against the couch, Roxane pushed her down.
Standing above Nadya, Roxane whisked off her shirt.  She wore no bra underneath, so her small breasts were immediately on view, her dark, puffy areolae standing out proudly.  She looked regal, her shoulders back, arms slightly angled away from her hips, her jet hair tousled about her face.  Nadya was devouring her with her eyes, heart beating against its cage.
Roxane, with appropriate, clear-headed deliberation, asked, "Are you sure you want this, Nadya?"
Nadya was edging back farther onto the couch, making room, never breaking eye contact with Roxane.  She almost couldn't find her voice to respond.  "Yes.  I want this so much."  And to underscore her statement she reclined and started unbuttoning her jeans.
Roxane (as Nadya had witnessed on a few occasions) was lightning fast when disrobing and was already fully nude before Nadya had awkwardly shuffled her pants to her ankles.  Roxane set a knee on the couch and reached out to help, forcefully yanking Nadya's jeans free and tossing them to the floor.  She clambered on top of Nadya whose legs were open to accommodate her.  They continued kissing, though now their mouths roamed the slopes and angles of each other's bodies.  Roxane kissed and licked at Nadya's neck.  Nadya kissed her way down Roxane's chest and Roxane encouraged by placing a hand behind Nadya's head and leading her to her breast.  Nadya hesitantly at first, then wholeheartedly devoted herself to suckling at Roxane's nipple.
Both women were panting now, but Nadya expelled an unselfconscious moan when Roxane's hand traveled over the top of her panties.  "Damn, you're dripping!" she said as she rubbed expertly at just the right spot.  Nadya gasped and raised her hips to grind against Roxane's hand which had slipped beneath her underwear and was now exploring her inner recesses.
"S-sorry..." Nadya managed, but Roxane quieted her with a finger to her lips.
Roxane slipped Nadya's panties off gently, making it its own form of caress.  Nadya was so exposed at this moment that her legs involuntarily closed, but Roxane pried them open making sure that Nadya watched her eyes as she lowered her face to the locus of her pleasure.  Roxane began with feather-light kisses along the inside of Nadya's thighs, marking a trail to the vulva.  Nadya could feel Roxane's breath on her sex and it was driving her crazy; she tossed her head back and chewed on her bottom lip as Roxane finally drove her tongue past Nadya's labia and into the warm, wet center of her lover.  She lapped and probed and kissed, all with extreme focus and loving attention.
The orgasm arrived so suddenly, so forcefully, that Nadya yelped and quaked against Roxane, who held onto her hips with all her considerable strength.  A galaxy of stars danced in front of Nadya's eyes as she went limp.  In her dazed mind she couldn't recall ever having cum as quickly or powerfully as this before – not with her two previous boyfriends or by herself.  She shivered, gasping, while Roxane rested her glistening face on Nadya's heaving belly.
"Wow," was all she could say, a languid smile on her lips.
"Yeah!" Nadya replied, running a hand through Roxane's hair and then pulling her to her with both hands.  She kissed Roxane full and urgently, tasting herself on her lips.
They clung together in the afterglow, hugging their bodies together as they had before but never with such intensity.  Nadya was taken aback when Roxane suddenly giggled.
"What?
"I'm just really happy right now," Roxane said.  "This has been such a good day."
Nadya's brow creased, "The day's not over yet."  She made sure that Roxane saw the devilish grin on her face, "And I think it's your turn to cum."
Roxanne grinned back and allowed Nadya to flip her.  She gave herself over as she had never done before, feeling for the first time in her adult life as weak as a kitten.  Beneath Nadya's hands, mouth, tongue, she was powerless but to receive pleasure.
She came just as quickly as Nadya had and they spent the rest of the evening exploring, cataloging and testing the limits of each other's endurance, matching orgasm for orgasm, coming together.  They made love until these two unnaturally strong women could physically no longer continue.
By the time they fell apart, depleted and pleasantly sore, no longer on the couch but tangled in sheets and throw pillows on the floor, they hadn't spoken words in two hours.  Roxane finally broke the cozy silence.
"You weren't lying about your super-power.  You really are 'highly adaptable.'"
The pair shared a laugh, holding hands.  Their smiles softened, nearly vanishing, as they gazed into each other's eyes.  This was a moment that both women, without confessing as such openly, wished would linger forever.  And they held onto it for as long as they could, their exhaustion and comfortable stillness nearly seducing them into sleep.  Until Roxane's eyes popped open, struck by sudden inspiration, "You know what I could really go for right now?"
"What?"
"Cereal!"
Nadya, just as suddenly re-energized, sat up and slapped her open palms against the floor.  "Good call!"
Minutes later they were kneeling on the floor, each with a bowl of the cereal of their choice in hand.  The sugar rush was just what they needed and they laughed as they ate spoonful after spoonful, milk dribbling down their chins.  Their talk was easy, full of dumb jokes and plans for the day.  They had found the place that nearly everyone aspires to, the place where someone knows you for everything you are and still loves you, wants to be with you; the place where eating cereal in the nude, in the middle of the night, is tantamount to supreme joy.
And then her phone rang.  Specifically, Nadya's phone chirped, letting her know she had a new text.  Mentally, Roxane pleaded for her not to pick up the phone, but she knew better.  Nadya, like any dedicated police officer or fire fighter, automatically grabbed up the phone and read the message.
"Oh, man.  This is big..."  Nadya shot an apologetic look to Roxane and started madly collecting up her clothes.  Almost to herself she muttered, "I may have to keep a couple of katanas here.  Just in case."
"Do I want to know?" Roxane asked as she closed up the cereal boxes.
Dressing at a frantic pace, Nadya appeared to think about the question for a second before rendering her verdict; "Probably not."
Roxane nodded in acceptance, but somewhat glumly.
Nadya saw her reaction; she sensed what abandoning this moment could mean for them both.  Nadya stopped in the midst of pulling her jeans up over her ass and leaned in to kiss Roxane.  She didn't know what they were together but she knew they worked.  She didn't know where they were going but she wanted to go there.  She put all of this into her kiss and felt Roxane rise to it, sharing her strength and her love.  She knew that they were both stronger for it.
Her lips still just an inch from Roxane's, Nadya spoke in a whisper, "This-  What happened tonight; what does that make us?"
"I don't know, but I don't think we need to attach a name to it."
"Friends still?"
Roxane kissed the back of Nadya's hand, "Friends always."
She smiled and Roxane returned it.  Nadya finished dressing and ran for the door, bolting out into the night, carried by her passion for making the world safer and better for all.  And I'll be here to make the world better for her, Roxane thought as she stretched.  She lit a fresh cigarette and watched the sky outside all the way into the sunrise, listening to the Cranberries.
She was starting to like them.

THE END

Description
based on characters created by ~lighterheaven and *cellfaces

Neither of them could believe this was happening exactly.  Something they had both thought about in snatches but spent no time mentally elaborating upon and certainly never discussing it with the other.  And yet, here they both were, kissing full and deep and in the midst of an after-session rush in the middle of the campus.  Just moments before, Nadya had seen the postings outside the lecture hall.  Not only had she passed her descriptive geometry final, she had scored near perfect.  And in that rush of triumph, she happened to spot the person who had gotten her there.

Roxane had spotted her too, infectiously mirroring Nadya's brilliant smile.  "Hey, Nadya, how'd you-?"

It was Nadya who lunged, delightful, serious, straight Nadya who clamped her mouth over her friend's.  It could've been a gesture of gratitude but it lasted just a few seconds longer than that would explain.  It was so nice that both of them were lulled by the sensation.  Roxane was amazed at the softness of Nadya's lips.  Nadya could taste the lingering taint of cigarettes on Roxane's tongue and it strangely didn't repulse her, it just made her want to taste more.

When they parted, completely oblivious to the shocked and bemused looks on the fellow students passing by, Roxane's slightly closed eyes met Nadya's own wide blue eyes.

"I guess you did okay," Roxane said.
"Rox, I-" Nadya stammered, taken aback by the kiss and by herself even more.  "I'm sorry!"
And Nadya sprinted from her confused friend at an amazing speed, leaving Roxane alone in a swarm of people, suddenly aware of the wind brushing across those lips that now tasted of Nadya.

They had met not quite a year earlier in the most mundane of places: the gym.  It was a topsy-turvy world they lived in, a dangerous world where technology had surpassed its own usefulness and long-denied magic was fighting its way back into the human awareness.  Crime and random acts of terror, some carried out by the most fantastic of characters, were on the rise, bringing comic book warfare to full color life.  Yet people still did their laundry, shopped for groceries, and went to the gym.
Roxane was well into her twentieth set of reps at the machine press, sweat undaintily streaming from her pores and making her olive skin shine like steel.  She had no idea in the moment, so focused was she, that she had an audience of one.  The redheaded young woman standing at a respectful distance from Roxane's machine was mutely impressed with the stack of black weights Roxane was mechanically pushing skyward.  Two hundred and forty pounds handled like it was routine.  The darkly alluring woman flexed and exhaled in sexy little hisses as she pumped the metal grips.  Setting the weights down for the final time, Roxane finally snapped out of her trance-like state and realized she was being watched.  She sat up, rivulets of moisture coursing down her accentuated stomach muscles, rock hard yet still rolled with a layer of softness.  "Were you waiting for the machine?" she said, tugging a small towel back and forth behind her neck and underneath her jet black mane of hair, "I'm all done here."
The redhead had actually blushed at being caught watching, the bloom of roses standing out loudly across the tops of her cheeks, making her freckles fade in the color.  "No, I – well, yeah, I was going to-" as worldly as she thought she was, Nadya was feeling oddly flustered.  "You're really strong," she managed lamely.
Roxane stood and laughed.  Nadya liked how light her voice was, it wasn't what she expected from a woman who looked like Roxane.  Though she definitely had a woman's curves, a small chest but an impressive backside, there was a hard set to her features, an exotic firmness in her cheeks and jawline.  A strong hooked nose, her eyes leonine and smoky blue, the two perfect beauty marks above her upper lip; it all worked to create a striking image.  She playfully struck a bodybuilder's pose, flexing her impressively muscular, sculpted arms.  "Li'l ol' me?"
"Seriously.  You could be a superhero."
Roxane waved the flattery off, ready for the showers, but for some reason she stayed put.  The other girl was familiar - the taut, perfectly proportioned figure and the angular, almost elfin face, but it was the hair most of all that made her stand out.  Roxane had seen her around the gym before.  "You go to the university, right?'
Nadya was now seated at the bench press.  "Yeah, first year Architecture student."
"How's that going for you?"
Nadya ducked her head to adjust the weight pin, settling it at a more reasonable one hundred ten pounds.  Roxane was fascinated by the sweep of her long, straight coppery hair bound back in a pony tail.  It gleamed, burned like fire.  "Ah, it could – could be going better," Nadya admitted.  She looked back at Roxane with a goofy, self-deprecating grin, "I'm great with concept and design, but not so much with the math."  Even though she already knew the answer, Nadya followed social protocol to ask, "Are you a student too?"
Roxane was stretching as she answered.  "Psych major.  It's my last year, until I decide where I'll do my post-grad work."  She suddenly stopped her contortions and held out a hand, "I'm Roxane."
The redhead smiled generously as she shook Roxane's hand with a surprisingly strong returned grip, "Nadya."
Nadya reclined into the machine and took the bar in her hands.  Studying those hands as she spoke, Roxane was intrigued by the purple bruises along the knuckles.  Who or what the hell had this beautiful young woman been beating?
"You know, if you ever need any help with your math work, I'm a decent tutor."
Nadya huffed her response as she started her own lifting, "I thought you said you were a psych major?"
Roxane knelt, even with Nadya's face, "I'm more than really strong, I'm also really, really smart."
Nadya's smirk was sharp.  She darted her own blue eyes, a lighter crystalline hue than Roxane's, to the side, "And modest!"
Roxane just grinned back and rose.  "The offer stands.  You know where to find me."
And with that, Roxane headed off to the showers.  Nadya watched her go, fascinated by the jiggle and shift of the other woman's ass as she walked away.
What she hadn't admitted - and wouldn't for a while yet - was that she already knew Roxane.  Sort of.  Nadya's close friend Nadine had classes with another freshman girl named Sephanie who, after a few drinks at an off-campus party, rambled on about her exotic, Amazonian roommate - an older woman whom she had successfully seduced.  Sephanie had thrown her arm possessively around the woman in question, drunkenly, but with affection, referring to her as "my bitch."  According to Nadine, Roxane had smiled uncomfortably but still squeezed Sephanie in response.
Nadya had a hard time believing that the powerful woman she had just met could be anybody's "bitch."

For Nadya, it took only two more weeks of swimming upstream in her classes to seek out Roxane.  She handed over her Geometry texts and plaintively asked for help.  Roxane found herself glad to be asked.
They tried convening at local coffee shops, but Nadya found it nearly impossible to concentrate.  The same went for the university's library.  It seemed one offered too many distractions and the other too few.  When an exasperated Roxane finally asked where she felt most at ease studying, Nadya shrugged.  "Home," she replied.
Outside of the apartment, Nadya offered as something between explanation and apology, "I still live with my dad."
Nadya's thin, weary looking but still handsome father, who seemed pleasant and not overly nosy about his daughter's comings and goings, was hardly there most afternoons and when he was there he tended to do nothing more than comment from his place in front of the TV.  A smile, a greeting, a question of how their day had been.  And then the girls would vanish into Nadya's room.
It was (slightly to Roxane's disappointment) a very typical, though quite large, girl's bedroom – with a couple of notable exceptions.  Bright colors, comfortable blankets, scattered pillows and stuffed animals, magazines and comics strewn about, posters of romantic films and new and old bands adorning the walls, a bureau and vanity festooned with photo booth snaps of Nadya and her friends, old notes on pastel paper scrawled with inside jokes in perfect female handwriting - these were all to be expected.  There was also the drafting table supporting graphed drawings of the buildings that sprung from Nadya's imagination.  But what really drew Roxane's eye were the multi-limbed martial arts practice dummy and the space on the wall above her bed's headboard reserved for the display rack of four very well-kept, very real Japanese katanas.
"Wow," was really all she could say.
"Oh," Nadya replied, verbally brushing the topic aside, "I'm kind of into martial arts."
"Which ones?"
"Um, all of them, really."
"Huh."
Nadya brought Roxane's attention back to the reason they were there in the first place and Roxane nodded and pulled a desk chair up to the edge of the bed while Nadya plopped on her mattress and spread her Geometry textbooks between them.  Just as Nadya had suggested, the familiarity of her surroundings helped her focus and Roxane could tell immediately that her pupil was benefiting from her tutelage.  As for herself, Roxane was distracted, unable to stop herself from leaning in over their papers to draw in the scent of her new friend.  Nadya smelled of wildflowers and something surprising: she smelled like danger.

The two young women drew closer over the weeks that followed.  Of course Roxane had her own studies to focus on, as well as an awkward extraction from a foolish (if, physically, very satisfying) relationship with her roommate Sephanie.  Nadya juggled her other classes, her social time with friends as well as various mysterious absences for which she never offered convincing excuses.  But when they were together, it gradually became less about Geometry and more about them.  They began seeing each other more and more frequently; their weekly study sessions becoming a three-time-a-week  appointment.  As much progress was being made on the academic front, the two women found themselves straying from the topic at hand to simply talk and laugh, enjoying each others' company.
Roxane was funny which was another surprise for Nadya and the rather serious younger woman  relished those moments when Rox (as she began to call her) would offer an outrageous, slyly muttered quip to crack the frown that often settled upon Nadya's face.  For Roxane, as a lifelong student of human behavior and a future psychologist, she found Nadya boundlessly fascinating.  The redhead was, on the most surface level, a bright, driven romantic.  But one thing Roxane knew almost from the beginning: Nadya was hiding something.  Roxane couldn't help but be intrigued by the obfuscations and the sudden exits.  Where was Nadya running away to?  Or was it to whom?  The thought bothered her more than she wanted to admit.
An answer of sorts came along at random on a day near the middle of June.
Roxane found herself downtown, running errands, dodging robot-piloted taxis and ignoring the whistles and catcalls from a nearby construction crew clearing away the rubble from the previous week's terrorist attack.  As days go, it was par the course for life in the city.  She had just exited a boutique, lighting a cigarette with her free hand, when she heard the "boom."  It was no explosion but rather the terrible sound made by a twisted steel vault door crashing to earth after having been thrown clear of the nearest bank – some two blocks away.  The huge door spun and skipped another couple of times, shearing the sides of parked cars and gouging up chunks of asphalt the whole way, before limply thudding to a stop.  It was an incongruous sight to be sure, but eliciting hardly more than a raised eyebrow from the jaded locals.  It was what she saw next that actually surprised Roxane.
While the foot traffic was actively steering clear of whatever was happening down the street, there came an unlikely trio running towards the scene; a trio lead by a young woman with the reddest hair and a Japanese sword strapped to her back.
Roxane stepped in their direction, calling out over the sound of distant alarms and sirens, "Nadya?"
Her friend halted so abruptly, looked so shocked at the chance encounter, that it was as if she had struck an invisible wall.  The people with her also halted, but out of confusion.  One was a tall, wiry guy of the same approximate age with close-cropped, spiky black hair and the most unnerving electric green eyes set in a pair of dark bruised pits.  He twitched as he stood still.  The other was just a little girl, no more than ten or eleven, wearing a pink hoodie and a sour expression.
Nadya exclaimed, "Roxane!  I-  Hey!"
Roxane watched as Nadya mentally scrambled for the next words or explanations while her two companions shared a look.  The popcorn sounds of gunfire echoed off the buildings.
"So how're-  What've you been up to?"
Roxane lifted her shopping bags and replied sarcastically, "Oh, you know, getting my oil changed.."  The spooky guy cocked an eyebrow at Nadya and their wordless exchange piqued Roxane's interest even more.  Not waiting for flustered Nadya to provide an introduction, she addressed him directly, "Hi, I'm Roxane.  I'm Nad's math tutor."
The intensity in his gaze dimmed for the moment as he remembered something of social etiquette.  "Ah, hey.  Ash-"
"This is Ashtro!" Nadya interjected unnecessarily.  "He's a friend!"
Two police copters passed by overhead while Roxane tried to discern, if only through their postures and their glances, what this odd young man meant to Nadya.  She knew she was interrupting something, but Roxane couldn't quell her curiosity.  She leaned forward to meet the sullen eyes of the little girl.
"And you are?"
"You got a big butt."
"Sarah!" Nadya blurted out, horrified, but Roxane was already laughing that wonderful, high laugh of hers.
"It's a blessing and a curse, Sarah," Roxane responded, "just like that mouth is going to be for you, I bet."
Another muffled explosion from down the street and a cloud of smoke and dust came roiling through the canyons of the street.  It blew back the distinctive canvas duster Nadya was wearing and left debris in Roxane's hair.  The quartet blinked harshly as it passed, coughing.  Sarah kicked Nadya in the ankle.
"Ow!"
"We gotta go!" the girl insisted.
Ashtro added, "We don't want to be late for the movie."
"Right," Nadya said, looking relieved for the input of her strange associates.  She put a hand on Roxane's shoulder and both women felt more than just the weight of that brief contact.  "Rox, I'm sorry, but we have to run.  Call you later?"
"Sure," Roxane said and gave her a smile.  And with that Nadya and her friends resumed their progress towards the noise and smoke, into danger.
Roxane thought for half a moment about chasing after, to prove or disprove her troubling suspicions, but she let them go and made for home.

Two days later was the hottest day of the year so far, summer having snapped its chains.  Sparkling with sweat and wearing only a tank top and underwear, Nadya was in her room working on her extracurricular skills.  The blade in her hands swung through the air silently and smoothly, cleaving the afternoon sunlight and shattering it into reflections that winked and flashed with each arc.  Her movements were absolute and precise and she wielded the katana like one of the storied masters of legend.  So focused on her regimen was she that she had no idea that Roxane was watching from the door until her friend made a noise.  The noise was a soft gasp and Roxane was embarrassed to have made it, but she had been struck by Nadya's form, by the sheer perfection of a fit, firm young woman expressing herself through movement, her face placid and serene even as she danced with a deadly weapon.  It was one of the most beautiful sights she had ever seen.
Alerted to Roxane's presence, Nadya jumped slightly – the sword now looking clumsy in her hands while she self-consciously grabbed for a nearby robe.  "Rox!  You, uh-"
Roxane grinned and came into the room.  "Your dad let me in.  I know we weren't going to be meeting up today, but-  Damn, you're dripping!"
Nadya blushed and wiped the matted hair from her glistening forehead.  "Well, yeah.  It's kind of warm, if you didn't notice and our a/c is on the fritz, so..."
From her shoulder bag, Roxane produced her small gym towel.  "Don't worry, it's clean."  And she reached out to wipe the side of Nadya's face, under her chin, pleased at the way Nadya let her and the way she angled herself to receive the attention.  "Is something up?" she asked Roxane.
"There's something I wanted to ask you," Roxane replied, moving the towel across the back of Nadya's neck.  She could see the pulse throb in her neck and she saw Nadya gulp as she answered, "Oh?"
Roxane didn't respond immediately.  Instead she brought the towel to Naddya's upper chest, swiping away and the droplets of sweat just there at the start of the slope of her breasts, stopping at the line of her shirt where the hint of her cleavage showed.  She could feel Nadya's heart beating at a quick tempo.
"Why do you want to be an architect?"
Nadya laughed and it sounded like relief.  She also took the towel from Roxane's hand and brusquely ran it under her armpits before dropping it on the floor.  "Really?  That's what you came all the way over here for?"  Her last word choked off as she watched with some alarm as Roxane pulled off her shirt and the sports bra underneath.  "What are you doing?"
Roxane threw up her hands, unashamedly bare from the waist up, "You said it yourself, it's a sauna in here."
Nadya hopped over the clutter on her floor to quickly shut her door.  "What if my dad were to walk by?" she hissed.
"Then he gets a thrill," Roxane smirked.  She sat on the edge of Nadya's bed and waited for her to smile back before she asked again.  "Why do you want to be an architect?"
Secure in the knowledge that they were no longer on display, Nadya joined her.
"Why?  Well, I mean, it's something I've always wanted to do.  I see these shapes, designs, in my head and I want to see them become reality.  But -"  She collected her thoughts, staring into her bed sheet, and Roxane sat quietly by.  "I guess, really, I've just wanted to build something.  Install a little order out there.  Make places for people to be safe and happy.  It sounds kind of idealistic, but-"
"I thought so," Roxane said, her arms folded beneath her small breasts.  "Not so different from the reasons you're a superhero, wouldn't you say?"
Nadya sat bolt upright, sputtering.  "A – what?!  You think I-?!"
"Nads, please," Roxane said, "who takes a sword to the movies?  And did you think I wouldn't watch the news to see what was happening at the Bank of the National Trust?  All the footage was mysteriously blurry and even the eyewitnesses had trouble recalling specifics, but it still gets broadcast that the robot minions of Doctor Whatever were stopped by the timely appearance of-"
"The Painkillers," Nadya interjected, quietly.
"The what?"
Nadya went to her open closet and extracted the ankle-length khaki duster Roxane had seen her wearing.  Nadya pointed to the emblem sewn to the upper arm of the coat: a medicinal capsule with a halo and angel's wings.
"Painkillers.  That's Ashtro, Sarah and me."
Roxane shook her head.  "That little girl-"
Nadya chuckled dryly, "That little girl controls an ancient wolfen spirit form that can take out a squad of ten in a blink.  And Ashtro's a mage with scary powerful spells at his command.  He's the one that cloaks us from the cameras and people's memories."
"Where did you find these people?"
Nadya knew that question was coming and she prepared herself by not looking Roxane in the eye as she said, "I put out an ad."
Roxane broke into a laughing fit that swelled, died and then started again, making the bed shake.  Nadya waited.
"An ad?!" Roxane heaved incredulously.
Nadya's hands had clenched into little white fists.  "The bottom line is we came together because we all believe in trying to make things better.  And we're really good at it, too!"
Roxane leaned forward, her smile fading, "What about you, Nads?"  Nadya looked confused.  "Sarah's got a big, bad wolf spirit, Ashtro is like a hipster Merlin, but what are you doing out there?"
Nadya's eyebrows lifted and she tilted her head, "Me?  I'm what you might call 'highly adaptable.'  I'm trained in multiple martial arts disciplines.  I'm tougher than I look, I'm fast and I'm an expert with the katana."
Roxane was still staring at her like she was a new type of creature.
"I had an odd childhood," Nadya shrugged.
"No doubt."  Roxane's voice was softer now and she reached out a hand, stroking Nadya's right arm, feeling the strength in it, "Look, your secret is safe with me.  But now that I know you'll have to expect me to be a little … worried about you."
Nadya's face darkened.  She pulled her knees up and rested her chin upon them.  "I know.  That's why I work so hard to keep all of these parts of my life separate.  There's a Nadya for my father.  One for the classroom.  One for my friends.  One for the bad guys.  One for you -"  Those words felt a bit revealing and she sped past them, not noticing the impact they had on Roxane, "The whole package is just too much, I guess, and there's nobody I would want to jeopardize by sharing all of it with."
"Hey," Roxane said, touching Nadya's cheek, "I told you before, I'm really, really strong."
Near tears, Nadya smiled.  "Is it okay if we drop this for now?  I'm really kind of worn out."
"Absolutely," Roxane agreed.  "Do you want to get some studying in?  Your descriptive geometry final is in a couple of weeks."
The redhead quickly responded, "Nah.  I don't feel like cracking the books.  Besides, I think I'm ready."
"Great!" Roxane said, "Then let's just take it easy."  She punctuated her heartfelt declaration by leaning back against the wooden headboard, hooking her thumbs under her waistband and sliding her track pants all the way off.  She was removing her panties before Nadya could react.
"Roxane!"
"What?" her friend replied as innocently as she could while stretched out fully nude on top of her bed.  "Unless an arctic breeze blows this way soon, this is the only way I'm gonna feel comfortable in this hotbox of yours."  As if to emphasize how completely natural her state of undress was she grabbed up a celebrity gossip magazine from Nadya's floor and began flipping through it, "It's not like we haven't seen plenty of each other in the gym's showers."
"Yeah, but-!"  Nadya's retort wilted in the thick air of the room, stirred weakly by the air that perfunctorily pushed its way in from her open window, barely making it past the light curtains.  When she looked back at Roxane she was shooting her a rather taunting look.  A dare.
Nadya hopped up and made sure her door was locked in addition to being merely closed and then she stripped down herself.  She giggled as she did so and Roxane fought the urge to stare.
"We need music!" Nadya announced and made for her stereo.  From behind her magazine, Roxane said, "Knowing you that means-"  And, indeed, when she raised her eyes, she saw Nadya mischievously holding aloft a particular CD.  Stars: The Best of the Cranberries.
"No!" Roxane warned with a pointed finger, "None of that ancient music!"
"It's not ancient!"
"It's terrible pop music from the dawn of Time!"
Nadya, undeterred, snatched up her equally archaic Discman and came back to the bed.  "You just have terrible taste."
But even bickering, they smirked at each other.  Nadya playfully set one of her stuffed animals in Roxane's lap, making a pillow for her head.  She reclined and set about putting the CD in the player, clapping her headphones on.  She almost didn't hear Roxane mutter, "Does Ashtro like the Cranberries?"
Nadya lifted one of the phones of her ear and craned her neck, "Ashtro?  I don't know.  I don't think we've ever talked about music."
"I thought you two were close."
"Well, we are, but-"
Roxane felt she should withdraw, but kept going anyway.  "You like him, don't you?"
"It's … complicated.  You wouldn't understand."
"Ignoring for the moment that I'm a student of the human psyche, why do you think I wouldn't understand?"
"Because you're, you know, gay."
"Whoa!" Roxane reacted, setting the magazine aside and sitting straighter, Nadya's head jostled by the flexing of her abdomen.  "Says who?"
Nadya sat up now, sensing she had blundered, feeling instantly contrite, "I didn't mean-  Well, you know, we've talked about you and Sephanie-!"
"I'm not offended by the implication, Nads, but I don't like being pigeonholed.  Yes, I've had girlfriends before, but I've had boyfriends too.  And one thing I can assure you of: 'complications' of the kind you're talking about are universal."
Nadya raised her hands in placation, "Look, I'm sorry.  You're right.  I just – don't want to talk about Ashtro right now, okay?"
Roxane just nodded and reached for Nadya's wrist, pulling her slowly back down, letting her nestle again on the stuffed panda.  They were quiet now, the comfort rising up their extremities like a chill.  Roxane kept reading – a comic book now – and Nadya had pushed play on the disc player.  Her eyes fluttered closed by the middle of the second track.   Roxane enjoyed looking over her face as she drifted to sleep, but had trouble keeping her own eyes open for much longer.  They weren't aware of it but their breathing had even synchronized as the afternoon heat lulled them both into a welcome oblivion.

Nadya was holding on for dear life, her fingers clawing for purchase on the ledge of the building.  Strangely, her fingernails were digging ruts in the solid stone.  She knew her time was up and she knew there was a long, long way to fall.  And below her, though she couldn't see it, was fire.  She screamed to the two people she could make out above, the ones who were standing right at the edge of the building, peering over at her.  Though she was pleading for their help, they seemed, at best, mildly curious.
Ashtro!  Sarah!  Grab my hand!  Help me up!  Please!
The little girl's face flickered for a moment, seeming fierce and wolf-like, then normal again as she looked to the other.  Who is she?
The man hardly seemed to be there at all, appearing like a skeleton held together by smoky bands of black energy in constant motion, whipping about and always in danger of flying free.  But where his eyes should be, there were two fierce green orbs.  I don't know.  The face is familiar.
They stepped back from the ledge until she could see them no more.  They were leaving her but she still heard the little girl's voice as they went.  I think she built this place.
And then she fell – but not far.  A steely arm arced through the air and caught her, pulled her close.  Roxane was holding her and smiling.
Did you think I was going to let you go?  See?  I'm holding you.

Nadya slowly roused in the cool blue-violet of the early evening.  How long had she dozed?  An hour or more?  She became aware that Roxane and she had not shifted positions at all and that her friend was still asleep, her breath coming slowly, heavily.  And something else Nadya realized was that Roxane's left hand had incidentally settled on her left breast.  It wasn't an unpleasant sensation at all.  Possessed by an impulse and confident that Roxane was still under Morpheus's spell, Nadya placed her own hands on top of Roxane's and gently pressed it into the giving flesh of her bosom.  It was a uniquely wonderful feeling and Nadya's nipple stiffened under the caress by proxy.  Fully awake and tingling at her core, Nadya kept Roxane's hand in place, manipulating it to simulate a kneading of her breast.  Nadya's heart was thudding at such a powerful rate that she was afraid it would waken Roxane.  When, in time, her friend did begin to stir, Nadya guiltily released her hand and immediately pretended to be asleep herself.
Roxane left the apartment not long after dressing and nudging Nadya "awake."  They had become closer than ever, the biggest secret between them revealed and shared, yet there was a new awkwardness present as well.  Something had changed that hot summer afternoon but neither woman was sure what it was.

Outwardly, the pair carried on much as before.  Now that Nadya felt confident in her grasp of geometry, the two women primarily spent their time together working out at the gym, making dinners for each other (though neither was a very good cook), and chatting.  They napped together again, a couple of times, both finding it comforting and comfortable.  Any other feelings their cuddling may have stirred went unacknowledged, as were any concerns Roxane may have had when she saw Nadya rush off, katana on her back, in response to an overheard news item or phone call from Ashtro.  She got better at smiling and wishing Nadya well, trusting the fates to bring the one she loved back again, bruised but safe.  For her part, Nadya hated to go.  Despite the ribbing she took from Nadine, Ashtro, and even her father, all of whom pointedly questioned or mocked the amount of time she was spending with her "math tutor," Nadya just didn't feel as happy anywhere else.
And this stasis of friendship and support, boundaries mutely established and mutually recognized, sustained them until the day Nadya aced her geometry final.  Until the kiss.

She couldn't believe she was listening to the Cranberries.  In the hours since Nadya had kissed her – since they had kissed – Roxane had returned to her apartment, left four messages on Nadya's voicemail, and waited.  She tried watching TV, reading a novel, painting her toenails, but she couldn't focus so she sat on her couch and smoked.  And smoked some more.  And actually started playing Nadya's CD of the Cranberries.  She shook her head and continued chewing on her thumb.  The fucking Cranberries.
The knock on her door was quieter, more hesitant than usual, but she knew instantly that it was Nadya.  Roxane bolted up to answer.  The girl on the other side of the door appeared more conflicted and unsure than Roxane had ever seen her.
"Rox," Nadya began after a pregnant pause, "I should apologize."
"Don't you fucking dare," Roxane returned, pulling Nadya into the apartment with one hand and shutting the door with the other.  She then thrust Nadya's back to the door and pressed her muscular frame against Nadya's, their breasts flattening out against each other.  She kissed her fiercely, surprising herself at the force of it but pleased to note that Nadya wasn't resisting.  Indeed, the redhead hungrily kissed back, desperately seeking Roxane's tongue with her own.
Roxane's hands were holding Nadya's face and she couldn't help but open her eyes as they kissed, seeing the clouded, unthinking, hungry look in Nadya's own eyes.
"Is-" Nadya gasped as she came up for air, "is Sephanie home?"
Roxane shook her head, "She's spending the session break with her family."
And Nadya grinned wickedly, grabbing handfuls of Roxane's ass and pulling her back into the kiss.  Roxane responded by clutching at Nadya's breast with her right hand.  It was large and warm and her thumb found the nipple, rubbing it in circles through the cloth of Nadya's tank top.  Nadya gasped into Roxane's mouth.
They were now clumsily moving into the living room, stepping together without looking, refusing to break up their clench. Roxane spun them around so that she could steer.  When the back of Nadya's knees bumped up against the couch, Roxane pushed her down.
Standing above Nadya, Roxane whisked off her shirt.  She wore no bra underneath, so her small breasts were immediately on view, her dark, puffy areolae standing out proudly.  She looked regal, her shoulders back, arms slightly angled away from her hips, her jet hair tousled about her face.  Nadya was devouring her with her eyes, heart beating against its cage.
Roxane, with appropriate, clear-headed deliberation, asked, "Are you sure you want this, Nadya?"
Nadya was edging back farther onto the couch, making room, never breaking eye contact with Roxane.  She almost couldn't find her voice to respond.  "Yes.  I want this so much."  And to underscore her statement she reclined and started unbuttoning her jeans.
Roxane (as Nadya had witnessed on a few occasions) was lightning fast when disrobing and was already fully nude before Nadya had awkwardly shuffled her pants to her ankles.  Roxane set a knee on the couch and reached out to help, forcefully yanking Nadya's jeans free and tossing them to the floor.  She clambered on top of Nadya whose legs were open to accommodate her.  They continued kissing, though now their mouths roamed the slopes and angles of each other's bodies.  Roxane kissed and licked at Nadya's neck.  Nadya kissed her way down Roxane's chest and Roxane encouraged by placing a hand behind Nadya's head and leading her to her breast.  Nadya hesitantly at first, then wholeheartedly devoted herself to suckling at Roxane's nipple.
Both women were panting now, but Nadya expelled an unselfconscious moan when Roxane's hand traveled over the top of her panties.  "Damn, you're dripping!" she said as she rubbed expertly at just the right spot.  Nadya gasped and raised her hips to grind against Roxane's hand which had slipped beneath her underwear and was now exploring her inner recesses.
"S-sorry..." Nadya managed, but Roxane quieted her with a finger to her lips.
Roxane slipped Nadya's panties off gently, making it its own form of caress.  Nadya was so exposed at this moment that her legs involuntarily closed, but Roxane pried them open making sure that Nadya watched her eyes as she lowered her face to the locus of her pleasure.  Roxane began with feather-light kisses along the inside of Nadya's thighs, marking a trail to the vulva.  Nadya could feel Roxane's breath on her sex and it was driving her crazy; she tossed her head back and chewed on her bottom lip as Roxane finally drove her tongue past Nadya's labia and into the warm, wet center of her lover.  She lapped and probed and kissed, all with extreme focus and loving attention.
The orgasm arrived so suddenly, so forcefully, that Nadya yelped and quaked against Roxane, who held onto her hips with all her considerable strength.  A galaxy of stars danced in front of Nadya's eyes as she went limp.  In her dazed mind she couldn't recall ever having cum as quickly or powerfully as this before – not with her two previous boyfriends or by herself.  She shivered, gasping, while Roxane rested her glistening face on Nadya's heaving belly.
"Wow," was all she could say, a languid smile on her lips.
"Yeah!" Nadya replied, running a hand through Roxane's hair and then pulling her to her with both hands.  She kissed Roxane full and urgently, tasting herself on her lips.
They clung together in the afterglow, hugging their bodies together as they had before but never with such intensity.  Nadya was taken aback when Roxane suddenly giggled.
"What?
"I'm just really happy right now," Roxane said.  "This has been such a good day."
Nadya's brow creased, "The day's not over yet."  She made sure that Roxane saw the devilish grin on her face, "And I think it's your turn to cum."
Roxanne grinned back and allowed Nadya to flip her.  She gave herself over as she had never done before, feeling for the first time in her adult life as weak as a kitten.  Beneath Nadya's hands, mouth, tongue, she was powerless but to receive pleasure.
She came just as quickly as Nadya had and they spent the rest of the evening exploring, cataloging and testing the limits of each other's endurance, matching orgasm for orgasm, coming together.  They made love until these two unnaturally strong women could physically no longer continue.
By the time they fell apart, depleted and pleasantly sore, no longer on the couch but tangled in sheets and throw pillows on the floor, they hadn't spoken words in two hours.  Roxane finally broke the cozy silence.
"You weren't lying about your super-power.  You really are 'highly adaptable.'"
The pair shared a laugh, holding hands.  Their smiles softened, nearly vanishing, as they gazed into each other's eyes.  This was a moment that both women, without confessing as such openly, wished would linger forever.  And they held onto it for as long as they could, their exhaustion and comfortable stillness nearly seducing them into sleep.  Until Roxane's eyes popped open, struck by sudden inspiration, "You know what I could really go for right now?"
"What?"
"Cereal!"
Nadya, just as suddenly re-energized, sat up and slapped her open palms against the floor.  "Good call!"
Minutes later they were kneeling on the floor, each with a bowl of the cereal of their choice in hand.  The sugar rush was just what they needed and they laughed as they ate spoonful after spoonful, milk dribbling down their chins.  Their talk was easy, full of dumb jokes and plans for the day.  They had found the place that nearly everyone aspires to, the place where someone knows you for everything you are and still loves you, wants to be with you; the place where eating cereal in the nude, in the middle of the night, is tantamount to supreme joy.
And then her phone rang.  Specifically, Nadya's phone chirped, letting her know she had a new text.  Mentally, Roxane pleaded for her not to pick up the phone, but she knew better.  Nadya, like any dedicated police officer or fire fighter, automatically grabbed up the phone and read the message.
"Oh, man.  This is big..."  Nadya shot an apologetic look to Roxane and started madly collecting up her clothes.  Almost to herself she muttered, "I may have to keep a couple of katanas here.  Just in case."
"Do I want to know?" Roxane asked as she closed up the cereal boxes.
Dressing at a frantic pace, Nadya appeared to think about the question for a second before rendering her verdict; "Probably not."
Roxane nodded in acceptance, but somewhat glumly.
Nadya saw her reaction; she sensed what abandoning this moment could mean for them both.  Nadya stopped in the midst of pulling her jeans up over her ass and leaned in to kiss Roxane.  She didn't know what they were together but she knew they worked.  She didn't know where they were going but she wanted to go there.  She put all of this into her kiss and felt Roxane rise to it, sharing her strength and her love.  She knew that they were both stronger for it.
Her lips still just an inch from Roxane's, Nadya spoke in a whisper, "This-  What happened tonight; what does that make us?"
"I don't know, but I don't think we need to attach a name to it."
"Friends still?"
Roxane kissed the back of Nadya's hand, "Friends always."
She smiled and Roxane returned it.  Nadya finished dressing and ran for the door, bolting out into the night, carried by her passion for making the world safer and better for all.  And I'll be here to make the world better for her, Roxane thought as she stretched.  She lit a fresh cigarette and watched the sky outside all the way into the sunrise, listening to the Cranberries.
She was starting to like them.

THE END