The Sunset Sonata: Pt 3
Sunset Shimmer
Sunset hadn’t been out long. She found upon beginning to make dinner that she hadn’t got any milk for the mashed potatoes, and so with a huff of impatience, had walked to the little corner shop at the base of the mountain. The journey would have been unremarkable if it hadn’t been for her encounter with Rainbow Dash.
In retrospect it hadn’t been anything extraordinary. As part of her personal training regimen for the Academy, Rainbow devoted two portions of every day to building her stamina. As such, it was not unusual to see her jogging up and down the mountain whenever one set foot outside one’s front door. What was unusual was to see her looking troubled, even distracted. She had almost ploughed straight into Sunset, who had had to lurch into someone’s garden to avoid her.
“Sorry!” Rainbow blurted, coming to herself. “I’ve really got to stop doing that.”
“Running into people?” Sunset asked, half laughing.
“Yeah, that,” Rainbow confirmed, still jogging on the spot. Sunset noted that Rainbow was not looking directly at her, but at the floor. Unremarkable as this may seem, it sent up a warning flag to Sunset, since Rainbow was one of those confident sorts of people who almost always looked a person directly in the eye at all times. Sunset secretly thought that if Rainbow ever had a boyfriend with a hint of sharpness, there would never be a secret between them.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
Rainbow looked up quickly. “Huh? Oh, nah. Just wondering if I’ll be ready for when the Wonderbolts visit during the fair.” She grinned. Sunset narrowed one eye knowingly. “See ya later!” Rainbow announced with affected cheer, and resumed her jog.
“What was that all about?” Sunset wondered aloud to herself. Shrugging, she proceeded home.
Getting home, she instantly knew that Sonata was home. Her bag was tossed casually on the sofa, which Sunset had told her expressly not to do countless times, and she could hear her walking around upstairs.
As she boiled the potatoes, she heard Sonata’s light step on the stairs, and the girl herself entered the kitchen looking oddly diffident.
“Hey there,” Sunset said cheerfully. “Clear your head any?”
“Huh?” Sonata asked, evidently confused. “Oh! Oh, yeah. Yeah I got some thinking done.”
“Good.” Sunset turned to pick up the milk, and found Sonata standing practically right next to her. “Oh!” Sunset only had a split second to be surprised. Before she could quite comprehend what was happening, Sonata placed both hands on her face, and kissed her full on the mouth. Sunset’s eyes widened, whilst Sonata’s were closed. It wasn’t their first kiss to be sure; they had kissed several times before, and each had felt special in their ways as kisses will, but Sunset thought she sensed something more in the slightly prolonged length of this one. When Sonata let go, Sunset cleared her throat, blinking once or twice.
“What was that for?” she asked, her face glowing.
Sonata smiled, looking coy. “Do I need a reason? That’s going to make this complicated.”
Sunset gave a nervous laugh. Why nervous? Why am I nervous? “No, I suppose you don’t. It’s good to see you’ve cheered up a bit.”
“Actually,” Sonata said, sitting at the table. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Okay,” Sunset said, tipping milk onto the potatoes. “What about?”
Sonata didn’t speak at once. She seemed to be contemplating her question. “What do you think about... um, drugs?”
Sunset frowned. On a list of subjects Sunset wouldn’t expect Sonata to raise, drugs was pretty high up the roster.
“What do I think about them?” she asked, mashing the potatoes. “Like, in what capacity? Medicinal? Recreational?”
“Recreational,” Sonata decided after a moment or two of thought.
Sunset had to think about this one. In all honesty she’d never thought too much about it, except when the subject appeared on the news, and one time when she’d applied to be on the student council. Having been placed in charge of apportioning funds to the various clubs of the school, she’d soon come into contact with the eco kids. Somehow, during their open petition to be allowed to pass out leaflets outside the school, they had explained to her the brief recent history of marijuana legalisation, and the war on drugs initiated in the sixties.
The talk had not been entirely coherent, given that the entire group insisted on speaking over each other, but Sunset had been left with the personal opinion that marijuana, and other drugs to their degrees, should be treated like alcohol, or cigarettes: that informed, consenting adults should be left to make their own choices.
“I don’t really have much of an opinion on it to be honest.” She sat down at the table, still feeling a little flushed. “Why do you ask?”
“Read a comment string on youtube about it,” Sonata said, looking at the table. She seemed flushed too. Sunset still wondered what had gotten into Sonata to make her passionate all of a sudden. Not that she was complaining. Good lord, no, not at all.
“Well then,” Sunset began, trying to think how to phrase her answer properly. “I suppose I think that if you’re informed about it, and you want to do it, it’s not really anyone else’s business to tell you what to do.” Yeah, that sounded good.
Sonata looked up at her. “I guess that makes sense.”
Sunset believed the matter to be over. Until the next morning however. The next morning, she found Sonata on the computer in her work room, and peering over her shoulder, saw that she was linked to several sites all with contemporary information on recreational drugs.
“Are you still on that?” Sunset asked, smiling. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
“It’s just interesting,” Sonata said, evasively.
“We don’t have a pot farm in the basement or something, do we?” Sunset asked in a faux serious tone.
Sonata snickered. “Well, I needed to put those ultraviolet lights to some use,” she said, playfully.
“Don’t be a smarty pants,” Sunset laughed, giving Sonata’s shoulder a shake. “Anyway, we got a call from Hoity. Apparently Fancy Pants wants to meet you again today.”
“Meet me?” Sonata asked, frowning. “He’s already met me.”
“I don’t know, it’s just what Hoity says,” Sunset sighed, waving an impatient hand. “I guess he wants to get to know you more or something. Maybe buy something,” Sunset said, the thought just coming to her. “Hmm, that’d be something, wouldn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Sonata replied, not sounding terribly enthusiastic. “Or ask me to paint something for him.”
“Maybe,” Sunset murmured thoughtfully. “You want to go and get ready then? We have to be there by five.”
They didn’t meet Fancy Pants in the gallery again. Instead, he invited them to the Changeling Queen, commonly assumed to be the most expensive restaurant in town. Sunset and Sonata had gone only once before, and Sunset had had to save up quite a bit to do so.
They met Fancy Pants, Hoity Toity, and -- slightly to Sunset’s consternation – Fleur Dis Lis in front of the restaurant chatting together. Fancy Pants spread his arms at their arrival, smiling graciously. Hoity tweaked his collar and straightened his cravat, smiling widely, whilst Fleur simply smiled her warm, mysterious smile.
“That’s who she reminds me of,” Sonata whispered before they were in hearing range. “She looks like the psycho mom from Kill la Kill.”
Sunset thought this was going a bit far in the insult department, but she forced a little chuckle, conscious of Sonata’s evident dislike for Fleur.
“Sonata! How good it is to see you again.” Fancy Pants extended a gloved hand which Sonata and Sunset shook. “And you as well Ms. Shimmer. We have reservations for us all. Shall we?”
He led the way inside. Hoity waited for Fleur to pass before him, whilst Fleur seemed to be waiting for Sunset and Sonata. She held out an arm and stood aside.
“Please, after you,” she sang cheerily.
Sonata moved first. Holding Sunset’s hand, she strode ahead between Sunset and Fleur, as though shielding Sunset from Fleur’s gaze. The older woman didn’t seem offended, merely amused.
“You both look just darling,” she went on behind them, setting slender, delicate fingers onto both of their shoulders. Sunset thought this a little condescending, but then she was older than them. Sunset’s attire was that of a lavender dress, one or two appropriately placed frills and lace accentuating it, with silver earrings and her hair in a long red and yellow plait. Sonata wore a shorter dress the same colour as her eyes that came down over one shoulder, a silver-chain net flowing from the ribbon tied around her waist. A pink ribbon was tied around her neck, and her hair was down out of its usual ponytail.
Sonata didn’t reply to the compliment, but Sunset offered a slightly nervous thanks.
“It’s so nice to get out without the media around, isn’t it?” Fleur commented to Fancy Pants.
“Oh I quite agree,” Hoity remarked eagerly, holding Fleur’s chair back for her, whilst Fancy Pants held Sunset’s out for her, and then Sonata’s.
“I’ve been meaning to ask about that, actually,” Sunset said. “How don’t the media know that you’re here? It’s not like you hide yourselves or anything.”
“Two things, my dear,” Fancy Pants explained. “First, we announced our arrival for three weeks from now. At the beginning of the Exhibition.”
“And secondly,” Fleur went on, giving Sunset a flash of her violet eyes, “we’re accustomed to the practises of the media. It does help that this city’s press doesn’t seem as virulent as that in the Capital.”
“Quite so,” Fancy Pants agreed, shaking his head in faint disgust. “One can’t pick up a vol-au-vent without someone trying to take a picture of it.”
“The press can be such a trial,” Hoity chimed in sycophantically.
It was almost worth having to sit there enduring Sonata’s frostiness and Fleur’s roving glances just for this. To see Hoity sweating in his ridiculously over-pressed shirt. She had to repress a smirk as she imagined all the ways in which, unseen by her, he might have creeped and grovelled to get on Fancy Pant’s good side. She saw no particular harm in Fancy Pants himself until she remembered what Fleur had said about his preferences. It was all she could do at that point to stop herself snorting with laughter at what lengths Hoity might go with that knowledge in mind.
“What’s funny?” Sonata asked, as a small squeak escaped Sunset’s throat.
“Nothing,” she said, trying to scrunch her face back to seriousness. “Just something I remembered. What’re you getting?”
Sonata picked up the menu again. “Um... maybe this,” she said, pointing to something written in French. “I don’t know what it is, but it has chicken in it.”
Sunset tried to pay attention to what Sonata was saying, but couldn’t quite help noticing Fleur glancing across the table at her. She tried not to look back, since every time she did, Fleur simply smiled pleasantly at her, like they were two old friends meeting up after some time apart. Fortunately, there came a sudden and startling surprise from Sunset’s right which caught the entire table’s attention.
“Ha-ha!” said a triumphant voice. “I haff it!”
Sunset’s eyebrows rose right up her forehead as she saw the flash of a camera, and the distinctive pink tint of Photo Finish’s iconic glasses. Sonata peered around Sunset’s back, whilst Fancy Pants and Fleur looked inquiringly at the girl in mild surprise. Hoity meanwhile turned red with indignation.
“What do you think you are doing?” he demanded, half standing.
Photo Finish pushed her glasses more firmly up her nose, smiling wickedly. “Zis vill make for an excellent piece I should think,” she said, in the comical tone of a monologuing villainess. Sunset had to stop herself from laughing.
“I thought you were a fashion artist,” Sonata said, looking confused.
“Yeah,” Sunset put in. “Are you doing news now?”
“Hah!” Photo Finish announced dramatically. A good proportion of the restaurant was looking towards their table now, and the red curtain behind which Photo Finish had been concealed. “My mozzer is za journalist. Alvays she is going on Photo Finish, you must give up zis silly dream of fashion und design! Vell I say no! If I can do her job better, zan I vill prove I have...” she paused dramatically. “Da magicks!”
Sunset couldn’t think of anything to say. What was with the speech? Was this even real? Then a thought came to her.
“You’re recording this, aren’t you?” she said, shrewdly. Photo Finish blushed and fumbled with something in her pocket.
“Eh, no,” she muttered.
Fancy Pants, who’d been watching all of this with a bemused air, looked as though he was suddenly understanding a little. He leaned forward on the table and interlaced his fingers.
“Photo Finish?” he asked. “You wouldn’t happen to be the daughter of Photo Shop, would you?”
Photo Finish cleared her throat and thrust her chest out a little. “Jawohl. My mozzer she is.”
Fancy pants and Fleur gave identical chuckles, evidently sharing a private joke. Fleur turned her radiant smile upon Photo.
“So in order to outdo your mother, you decided to find out a, what do they call them...?”
“A ‘scoop’ I believe,” Hoity interjected, helpfully.
“Yes, a scoop,” Fleur agreed, “that your mother hadn’t caught onto yet?”
“Precisely!” Photo Finish announced, raising a pedantic finger. Before she could delve once more into another monologue however, Fleur turned to Fancy Pants.
“Are you thinking what I think that you’re thinking?” Fancy Pants asked, his tone rising with mirth.
“I do believe that I am,” Fleur answered playfully. “Would you all excuse me for a brief moment?” she asked politely, rising from the table. They all gave their assent readily, and she moved away, using a gentle hand to guide Photo Finish before her.
She returned not five minutes later, looking a little self satisfied. Sunset barely had time to register her return, when Photo Finish dashed passed as quickly as the confines of the restaurant would allow, looking positively ebullient.
“You didn’t,” Fancy Pants said, smiling knowingly.
“I did indeed,” Fleur replied in the same playful tone.
“Oh, she is going to be so angry at you,” Fancy Pants pretended to chide her.
“I think you mean us,” Fleur replied. They both gave that same, controlled, cultured laugh. Sunset noticed that Hoity seemed as perplexed as she and Sonata were. Seeing this, Fancy Pants toned down his laughter and began to explain.
“We have a bit of a history with Photo Shop,” he said in a close approximation to a mischievous tone. “Nothing harmful as such, but she certainly likes to be the who-is-who of the Capital media.”
“Let’s just say that we owe her one,” Fleur summarised.
“Or twenty,” Fancy Pants chuckled.
“So how have you gotten back at her?” Sonata asked.
“Photo Shop doesn’t like to be out done,” Fleur said, smiling a little wider than she had done at any previous point, her eyes taking on a look Sunset would normally expect to see on that of a prowling tiger. “I genuinely wonder what her reaction will be when her daughter manages to outdo her in her own business.”
“So you’re going to help her?” Hoity surmised.
“I promised her access to all of our public appearances,” Fleur said, taking a sip of wine. Hoity didn’t seem to think much of this idea, but Fancy Pants simply smiled pleasantly to himself. It appeared to Sunset that he was enjoying the whole thing immensely. It was hard to imagine him with any kind of malice. Fleur on the other hand... well, Sunset didn’t like reading much into her expressions, but there had been no mistaking that predatory gleam as she described getting one over on Photo Finish’s mother.
The group talked a great deal during dinner, although Fleur and Sunset kept mostly to themselves. Hoity spoke mostly, about anything and everything, trying to get Fancy Pants to agree with him about whatever he was referring to. Being a companionable man, Fancy usually did, but directed most of his energy towards making inquiries to Sonata. How long had she been painting? Did she enjoy it? How long did it take to make a piece in general? In short, innocuous questions of general interest.
After the dinner however, Fancy Pants made what Sunset thought was an unusual suggestion. Hoity had already departed, using a phone call as his excuse to make his exit, when Fancy turned to his remaining companions.
“I rather feel in the mood for a stroll in the park,” he said amicably. “Might I ask you all to join me?”
Sunset and Sonata looked at each other, somewhat surprised. The Changeling Queen was only a few blocks away from the school, and thus the city park as well. From here they could see the clamshell-like stage where the battle of the bands had taken place.
“I think we should take a little air,” Fleur agreed. “The restaurant was a little stuffy.”
Sunset couldn’t think of any objections, and so they proceeded.
The early evening air being warm, Sunset didn’t much mind walking around in the dress she had one. It was a little airy around the knees. She did have a vague worry of being mugged, but crimes like that were uncommon in the city. She glanced sideways at Sonata, who looked as equally ill-at-ease as Sunset was herself.
They wound around hills and trees, following the lit trail as lampposts began to ignite around them, when they came to a sudden divide in the trails. Fancy Pants spoke up again.
“My, my, what a conundrum,” he said, twiddling his moustache.
“Well,” Fleur began, “why don’t you two take that route, and we take this one?” She gestured down the routes, indicating Sonata go with Fancy, and Sunset with her.
Before Sunset or Sonata could set up any sort of protest, Fancy pants had insinuated an arm around Sonata’s shoulders and given her a companionable shake.
“Splendid idea!” he said felicitously. “We’ll meet back up around the other side I expect. Come now, Ms. Dusk, we can have a little conversation all to ourselves.”
“O-Oh, but I—“ Sonata protested, trying to look back.
“We’ll see you soon!” Fancy called, as the two of them disappeared around the side of the hill dividing the path.
Sunset stared after them, dumbfounded at how swiftly and easily they’d been separated. Despite how banal the tact had been, it had nevertheless been entirely effective. She all of a sudden became aware that she was alone, in a darkening park, with a self-confessed lesbian who, if her vanity wasn’t getting the better of her, had shown a keen interest in her only too recently.
“So,” Fleur said, sending an electric shock up Sunset’s spine. “Shall we go on? We wouldn’t want to keep them waiting if they should reach our destination first.”
All the same, Sunset’s fears were not immediately aroused as they walked along the darkened path. She attempted once or twice belatedly to get Fleur to agree to rejoin Fancy Pants and Sonata.
“I have heard that there have been muggings here at night,” Sunset lied.
“One must expect such things,” Fleur said calmly. “But not to worry. One doesn’t get to my position in life without learning a thing or two about self defence.” She smiled reassuringly at Sunset. “Although I can certainly see why a deviant might set their sights on the pair of us. We are quite the stunning pair, aren’t we?”
“I suppose,” Sunset said, tugging a little at her plait.
“I have to say,” Fleur said with a little laugh, “it’s so good to see open and honest emotions. One does not meet with it in the Capital.”
“I’d think it unsafe to wear your heart on your sleeve with so many people watching you,” Sunset commented, thinking she should give some input for politeness sake.
“Indeed,” Fleur sighed. “Not that I don’t enjoy it. I do immensely. But high society can be so friendless.”
“Is that why you hang around with Fancy Pants?” Sunset asked.
“Hang around,” Fleur chuckled. “So colloquial. But in short, yes. We’re childhood friends, you know. We grew up together; him rich and talented, myself poor as a church mouse.”
“You were poor?” Sunset blurted, realising too late how rude that was.
“Oh my, yes,” Fleur said conversationally. “I was quite a different person as a child. I think that’s what drew Fancy Pants to me. Every other child our age was fawning and sycophantic around him.”
“And you weren’t?” Sunset guessed.
“I beat him up in front of the school because he said my dress was dirty.”
“Oh,” Sunset blinked.
Fleur tittered. “You looked surprised.”
“Well,” Sunset said, trying to speak through her surprise.
“One wouldn’t expect someone like me to have such a rambunctious side, I suppose,” Fleur said for her. Sunset didn’t challenge the term. “I think he liked having a friend who considered herself his equal. And he has proven to be the most enduring and sincere of my friends, perhaps the only one. I certainly wouldn’t have gotten to be where I am without him. As they say, a pretty face can only take you so far.” She smiled at Sunset. “But enough about us,” she said with a wave of her hand, ”tell me about you and your girlfriend.”
Sunset, who had started to feel more comfortable, now felt her mental defences rising again. “Like, what kind of thing?”
“Oh, you know, how did you meet, for instance?”
Sunset explained the brief details of how they had met. Instead of dark-magic devouring sirens, she tried to reword the story slightly to make it seem as though Sonata and the other Dazzlings had simply been manipulative troublemakers. Fleur listened to the story in silence as they walked along.
“A girl after my own heart,” Fleur commented eventually. “So how was it that you two got together? I’m having a difficult time imagining the scenario.”
Sunset wasn’t eager to describe Sonata’s troubled time after the battle of the bands incident. Instead, she simply said that the sisters had gone their separate ways, and that she, Sunset, had invited Sonata to be her roommate because she had felt some sympathy towards her for having been in a similar situation before.
“Oh,” Fleur said with interest. “Am I to assume that you were a bad girl as well?” Sunset blushed, only able to give an embarrassed nod. Fleur laughed lightly. “My, my, you are quite full of interesting things.”
They stopped walking under the canopy of a group of overbearing trees hanging across the path. Sunset wondered why they had stopped, but Fleur seemed to be interested in a fountain standing opposite the trees. It was a simple thing, just a decorative platform and pool with a spray of water shooting up and out. Sunset stood next to Fleur, feeling the awkwardness of the silence growing. She wondered if she should say something.
“I’m sorry to say,” Fleur began,” that I must confess to a little duplicity.”
“Duplicity?” Sunset asked.
“Indeed.” Fleur exhaled quietly. “It would have been most impolitic of me to express my true feelings in front of your significant other, especially when it’s evident that she at least feels strongly for you.”
Sunset’s brain seemed to have jammed a little. Express her true feelings? To Sunset’s mind, Fleur had been quite open with her flirting. But she’d dismissed it as a joke, a little upper class fun that Sunset and her friends simply didn’t understand. But now she was saying that that had been a lie?
“Um... perhaps we should keep going?” Sunset tried, faintly.
“Why so eager to leave?” Fleur asked.
“Look,” Sunset said after a short and awkward pause. “I’m... flattered, really. But I thought you said that I was too young for you.”
Fleur seemed to consider this. “You’re... what, sixteen? Seventeen?”
“Seventeen,” Sunset said slowly.
Fleur smiled. “How old do you think I am?”
“Uh...” Sunset didn’t know. Fleur had that unnerving sense of maturity about her combined with an appearance of agelessness leant to her by her startlingly good looks. Sunset had assumed that she was in her early thirties by the way that she carried herself, but simply going by looks, she could be twenty years old, or forty for all she knew.
Fleur smiled sympathetically. “I’m twenty two last March.”
“Oh!” Sunset said, unsure of how to respond.
Fleur on the other hand was in complete command of herself. “You see? What’s five years to mutual attraction? In the Capital it would hardly be blinked at.”
“Hey, wait a second,” Sunset argued, trying to assert herself a little. “Mutual attraction? Where have you gotten—“
“Are you saying that you’re not attracted to me?” Fleur asked, a faint note of disbelief in her voice. Sunset paused. Fleur’s blunt self assurance and undaunted confidence were making it difficult to find an opening. It was clear that she wasn’t the sort of woman who usually gets denied anything. Fleur smiled when Sunset said nothing. “Let us at least be honest for this moment,” she said coaxingly. “I feel that you and I could have a wonderful relationship if we were both agreeable. By all that I’ve heard of you, and what I’ve seen of you, I can honestly say that I for one feel a certain connection.”
Something in that last sentence cut through Sunset’s distractedness. “What have you heard of me?” Sunset asked sharply.
This seemed to give Fleur momentary pause, but she hitched her usual manner back into place just as quickly as it had slipped.
“Nothing to worry about,” she said. “I simply made some inquiries about you. About your time in school, that battle of the bands event you mentioned. The fundraiser you held.”
Sunset was giving her a scrutinising look as the older woman spoke. Perhaps Fleur realised that she’d done something wrong, for she stopped talking and looked uncertain again.
“I don’t know how things are done in the Capital,” Sunset said coldly, “but I’ll be honest; that makes me kind of uncomfortable.” When Fleur seemed stumped, she began to move away back along the path.
“Wait,” Fleur called after her. “I wasn’t trying to offend you. Perhaps I did go too far.” Sunset consented to pause. “I’ll admit,” Fleur began again, a little of her good humour returning, “that I’m not really used to being in this position. I’m usually the one being sought after, not the seeker.”
However slightly, this amused Sunset. She could just imagine it. Lines of suitors all awaiting their chance at the supermodel who would never have them. Or at least, never love them. Perhaps Fleur sensed the lightening in Sunset’s mood. She stepped slowly forward until she was behind Sunset and a little to her side, able to peer over her shoulder.
“I apologise if I came on a little strong,” she said quietly. “I’m sure you can imagine. I’ve become accustomed to getting what I want. But I can see that if I’m to get you, I’ll have to work for it.”
“And saying things like that,” Sunset said flatly, “isn’t going to help you.” She turned to face Fleur, looking directly into her eyes. Her admittedly beautiful, shapely, and alluring eyes. “I’m sorry, but I love Sonata. I’m not going to abandon her for you. Our relationship developed over a time when I didn’t even know what love was meant to feel like. You and I; we barely even know each other.”
Fleur nodded as though agreeing with her. “True. We don’t know each other very much at all. But I’m hopeful that that will change.”
“Don’t you understand the words I’m saying to you?” Sunset asked, impatient now. “I love Sonata. I’m not leaving her for you.”
There was a short silence. Fleur’s expression was unreadable. Just when Sunset thought she should just continue on, Fleur held out her hand.
“May I?” she said, gesturing. Sunset offered her own hand and Fleur took it in both of her own. Sunset frowned slightly, wondering what was going on. “Would you say that you’re attracted to your girlfriend?” she asked. Sunset blinked, confused. “Sexually, I mean,” Fleur clarified.
Sunset’s face turned redder quicker than a thermometer dunked in boiling water. Fleur smirked as she spluttered for a moment or two. “I, uh, well—“ Sunset stammered. She thought of Sonata; a typical scene in her art smock, splattered with paint, the end of her ponytail bright red. Without Sunset consciously causing it, the scene shifted. Suddenly Sonata was wearing only her art smock. The ideal Sonata in her head smiled alluringly, her eyes sparkling rather like Fleur’s did.
Sunset put that image away in a box deep inside herself. Deep, dee-e-e-p inside herself... for later...
“Well, yes, I suppose... yes, in short.”
Still holding Sunset’s hand, Fleur’s expression shifted a little. She looked as though she had heard exactly what she wanted to hear. “And what about me?”
“You?” Sunset croaked, weakly.
Fleur pulled the hand closer. Keeping hold of it with her left hand, she stretched the right hand out to the base of Sunset’s neck. Sunset felt tingles run up and down her body at the touch of Fleur’s slender fingers.
“Do you happen to find me attractive?” Fleur asked. Sunset was utterly bewildered. How could she ask a question like that so casually? In the same kind of nonchalant tone one might inquire about the weather with. Surely that wasn’t normal behaviour. The warm hand on her neck was very distracting. She didn’t know how, but something in the way Fleur’s fingers slowly moved over her skin was sending tiny impulses all the way down the muscles of her left side.
“I-I...” Sunset’s mind was sluggish. She found it suddenly hard to form words properly as her tongue and lips struggled to catch hold of them.
That was all the answer Fleur needed. She let go of Sunset’s hand, and moved her own up Sunset’s neck to her hair. Taking hold of the long plait of red and gold, she let it slip silkily through her fingers. Sunset said nothing.
“I flatter myself,” Fleur said pleasantly, “that I stand as much chance as Sonata, once you get to know me better. You’ll forgive the lack of modesty, but I think in one aspect least, I have the advantage of her.”
Fleur moved passed Sunset, continuing their walk. As much as she’d prefer not to add any unjustified meaning to Fleur’s subtle expressions, Sunset could not deceive herself as to the openly seductive look in the older woman’s eye as she sauntered passed.
Sunset followed after her, feeling distinctly rattled. She was uncomfortable and confused, and this made her angry. She glared resentfully at Fleur’s back, but at the same time, found herself tracing Fleur’s outline with her eyes. Her curvy, shapely outline.
It’s okay Sunset thought, trying to ignore the sweat forming on her brow. Just think... think, think, think...! Try um... imagining her in her underwear! she thought triumphantly, remembering something she’d seen on television.
Fleur looked over her shoulder just in time to catch Sunset blush violently.
Not my best idea... Sunset realised too late.
- To be Continued