FicWad

Aquroya was a city of water, exalted by the sea around it and eventually brought low--literally--by the same. Water echoed in its name. Even its resident celebrity thief wrapped her powers around the substance.

When Psiren woke and heard the steady drip echoing throughout the room, her first thought was that water had followed her into the afterlife. Common sense quickly assured her that this was not the case; she hadn't been hit that hard. A shred of returning memory confirmed this: she could recall a damp cloth pressed against her mouth after the light blow to her head, and then blackness. It was only the utter loss of control that made it seem like the end of the world.

As her awareness spread out from a silent point in the middle of her head to encompass the whole of her body, she realized that hadn't changed. She was spreadeagled against a hard stone wall, slender metal manacles binding her at her wrists, ankles, and waist. She opened her eyes--only to find that although her mask was gone, a blindfold had been applied in its place.

She twisted in her chains, or tried to, but there was no give whatsoever. She was bound almost tightly enough to cut off circulation.

A voice cut through her thoughts, low, petulant, and inhuman. "Lust, she's awake." A beat, and then, even more plaintively: "I'm hungry. Can I eat her?"

The voice that parried this one was about as close to a purr as human (or, at least, human-like) voices could get. If black velvet (fringed with black lace and probably applied in some indecent fashion) could have a voice, this would be it. "Not now, Gluttony. Let's go. She'll still be here when we come back."

Footsteps both heavy and light sounded from the floor. Then, suddenly, Gluttony said, "Lust, aren't you going to--"

"Not now. Let's go."

"But you said--"

"/Go/."

The footsteps picked up again, then stopped as a heavy door somewhere rumbled shut. Psiren waited, silently ticking off the seconds, then the minutes, inside her head. Finally, when it had been three minutes since she'd last heard her presumed captors, she took a deep breath. Very deep.

In the chill of the stony room, her nipples had already lifted hard from her chest, pressing against the leather of her bodysuit. Now, she felt the zipper slide slightly down. She inhaled again, long and deep, and felt it slip a little farther down. Then she reached out with her mind, connecting to the array tattooed between her breasts, and felt the world of alchemy respond to her.

She drew moisture from the air into her boots and into the infinitesmal space between her ankles and their manacles. When the boots were completely saturated and that space completely filled--

--with a thought, she turned the water to ice.

A sharp crack slashed the air as her bindings split. Psiren pulled more water into the cracks, then froze it again, and again and again until finally, the steel manacles fell in fragments to the floor, peeling off similarly shattered pieces of her boots.

There. Steadying herself with another deep breath, Psiren started to repeat the process on the bindings holding her arms in place. The fine detail of the work, so soon after swimming up out of unconsciousness, required all her attention and effort, and by the time she was finished and her arms were free, she was all but panting.

She still had the slim band of metal around her waist, but she'd deal with that in a minute. For now, she reached up to tug the blindfold off.

But someone else got there first.

Delicate gloved hands lifted the black fabric from Psiren's face. She blinked, then looked into the face behind the velvety voice she'd heard earlier.

Lust. She'd never left the room at all. This whole time, she'd been waiting. Watching the alchemy have its effects. The thief's gaze slid down her captor's form until it came to a twin to her own tattoo, different in design but nestled in the same place. The ouroborus.

"Homunculus," she whispered.

"You can call me by name," Lust said, perfect lips curving into a smile. "I think we're familiar enough for that, Clara."

"Really?" Psiren gave her best pout. "Does that mean you're going to let me go?"

"Then you'd just run off," Lust said. "Then we wouldn't be familiar at all. I'd like to get to know you a little better, first." She ran one gloved finger along the twists of the array like a caress. "You see, my friends and I heard of you, even from far away. We brought you here because we thought you might have something we want. But instead, you just have this beautiful tattoo. May I see more of it?" Without waiting for a reply, she moved slightly, and out of the corner of her eye, Psiren caught sight of something moving blindingly fast near the homunculus's hands. Still, nothing else seemed to happen. She took a cautious breath.

Her bodysuit slid off her in pieces, joining the shattered remains of her boots and gloves on the floor. She'd been wearing nothing underneath it. Lust looked down at the shredded remnants, a smile still playing across her face. "Maybe I overdid it."

"It did have a zipper," Psiren pointed out.

"Pity about that," Lust said dismissively as she lifted her gaze from the floor. It stopped at the array--or at least, Psiren thought the array was where the homunculus was looking. "This is a fascinating design," she murmured, leaning in so close the alchemist could feel the heat of her breath on her skin. She must have been too close to actually see the array.

But it seemed she wasn't interested in seeing the array. After a moment, she pressed her lips to it, then lapped her tongue against it. With her hands planted just to the side of Psiren's body, she pulled back enough to trace the lines of the array with her tongue.

Lust seemed utterly absorbed in this task; it occurred to Psiren that she could probably alchemize her way out of the band around her waist with the time this granted her. She concentrated, and suddenly the array blazed brightly beneath Lust's tongue. Instead of pulling away, Lust merely made a breathy, inarticulate noise and buried her face between Psiren's breasts, her black hair tickling the thief's skin.

She only moved back, a startled look in her eyes, when she felt water suddenly soak into the tight fabric of her dress. Comprehension abruptly dawned in the violet depths of her eyes. Then the water froze into ice, and in an instant, her clothes fell in shards at her feet.

The thief reached out. Lust did not back out of her reach, even when Psiren caught her around the waist and pulled her close enough that their nipples brushed, then closer, till they both could only breathe shallowly, and each could still feel the rise and fall of the other's chest.

"That," Lust murmured, her voice breathy, "was a dirty trick, Clara."

"But did you like it?" Psiren inquired solicitously.

"Very much," Lust breathed, and then she didn't say anything more, because Psiren pressed her in close and kissed her hard.

It was hard to tell how long the kiss lasted, but Psiren was dizzy when it ended--whether from lack of air or something else entirely. She found she was staring directly into the homunculus's violet eyes.

"It's funny," Lust said softly, "but you'd imagine that I'd get all the sex I could ever want." She shook her head; her hair shivered with the motion. Psiren could smell it, sweet and sharp at the edge of her senses. "Sometimes it gets so tiring being Lust. Sometimes you just want to give in. Don't you?"

With those last words, she abruptly closed her elegant fingers tight around Psiren's breasts. Pain flirted with her senses as claws pierced her skin so very slightly. She suddenly felt herself immobilized against the cold stone wall by more than just the metal around her waist. Still, she remained silent and faintly smiling, through all the effort it took. "No," she finally said.

Those inhuman eyes narrowed on her in challenge. Lust tugged at one of her handfuls. "Never?" When there was no reply, she leaned down and fastened her mouth onto that breast. Psiren merely put her hands behind Lust's head and pressed her closer. When Lust replied by biting down on the nipple she'd been tonguing, the alchemist simply raked her nails down Lust's back--although she did writhe a little against the manacle that bound her.

"I find it much more interesting," Psiren whispered, "to make others give in."

"Oh?" And in an instant, Lust was gone from her body and standing calmly--if quite nakedly--several feet away. "You wouldn't care if I walked away now, then."

Tiny trickles of blood slid down Psiren's chest from where Lust's claws had dug into her. She twisted against the cold metal and slowly reached out a hand. "You'd care, though."

For just a moment, then, she was afraid that Lust really would walk away.

Then there were startlingly strong arms pushing her legs open, hands clasped just above her knees. For the principle of the thing, she fought back, but within seconds Lust had buried her face in the neat softness between Psiren's thighs. After a moment, the homunculus released her deathgrip on Psiren's legs, leaving only faint bruises behind. Psiren immediately crossed her legs over Lust's back and arched into her waiting mouth.

But one of those thus-freed hands had slid silently between Psiren's legs without her ever realizing it. The first she knew of it was the sudden press of two fingers against her, and then they were inside her, lightly stroking. She could feel Lust smile against her.

Then Lust began with the tongue and the teeth, caressing her inside and out with every heartbeat. Psiren arched against her, tightened her crossed legs, but even so, she felt control sliding from her somewhere in the slickness between her legs.

She tried to keep her voice in, but in the end, she screamed.

Then her manacle fell to the ground, sliced right through, and she fell right after it, her breath trembling in her throat. When she looked up again, Lust was standing at the entrance to the cavern, smiling, perfectly composed, and perfectly, nakedly beautiful. "You can leave whenever you want, Clara." Then she was gone.

And Psiren, lying on the damp ground with blood on her breasts, could still smell Lust in the air around her.