This time Ashe doesn’t have drink to spit up, and the tensing of her whole body manages to hide her bodily flinch. She hopes. The feeling of being stifled by her clothes is now secondary to the unbearable softness of One pressed warmly against her side, the contact feeling so much better than it had any right to! She just wanted to lean into it, lose herself in it, and in the feeling of her fingertips twirling sweet nothings into her leg, sending shivers directly into the aching need in her lap.
Just kiss her - what! Why the hell, what is wrong with you, with me, what the fuck! She’s right there, she’s stroking your leg, she wants you to kiss her! She’s just being polite! Don’t read into it, it’s nothing, don’t be weird, don’t be the human that tried to kiss the alien leader!
Ashe chances a look over at One, seeing her right there beside her, watching her. Why is she watching me, why - I HAVEN'T ANSWERED HER QUESTION! Shit what was the question, oh yes it was oh fuck she totally knows!
“Iiiiy” Ashe takes another swig of the drink, feeling the coolness open her dry throat, swallowing before trying again, “I, um… fan… fiction?”
“Oh yes, like this,” One leans somehow closer, holding up a solid circle of what looks like glass in one hand. Where did she - but more importantly One is now leaning over Ashe, one arm draped over her shoulders, One’s front pressed against Ashe’s side.
Travelers didn’t look like they had breasts, but One’s chest still feels very soft pressing into Ashe’s arm. She shivers as she feels One trail two fingertips down her other arm, palm pressing warmly against her skin. She’s painfully aware that One’s hand is at the same level as Ashe’s chest, where the same radiant feeling of potential sensation is growing, punctuated by the pounding of her heart.
She’s trying not to breathe too hard, which is a struggle with her whole body feeling like it’s running out of air and sweating buckets. Can One feel the sweat? Am I sweating on her?! Ashe tries to look down, force herself to see the glass circle. Instead she sees through it where One’s hand has shifted from her leg, moving naturally with the change in position over to her other leg, palm pressed against her bare skin higher than before, thumb stroking the inside of her thigh, making her feel the open distance between her legs, and One’s hand between them, an even shorter distance from touching her, her...
“Um-m-m, what” another swig, “what am I looking -” she sees words, fine glowing lines within the glass forming bold titles and neat blocks of text, a main title at the top of the...
It's the website where her stories had been posted!
One’s voice tickles her ear, “See anything you recognise?”
“Iiiii, um...”
“My favorite is this one, Just A Drink, written by one,” she leans closer, pressing Ashe’s arm into her chest as One leans into Ashe’s view, “sorry I haven’t learned this internet-dialect yet,” she points at a word, the sight of which stops Ashe’s heart, “how do you pronounce this author’s name?”
“… Yelhsa? The one and five are a 'l' and 's'...”
“Yelhsa, thank you, Ashley,” she feels One’s breath on her cheek. “They’ve written so many stories about me, but I think I like this one the best. It feels like the author is having the most fun, writing about a naïve human being tricked into drinking an alien beverage that’s actually an aphrodisiac, and only figuring out what’s happening just in time for me to have my wicked way with them. How’s your drink by the way?”
“Good,” Ashe squeaks, reflexively taking another swig.
“I hope I made it taste is like you imagined?”
“Very much... what?”
“The mammalian effects of Air Rose Nectar are already pretty close to what you described. I assume that’s why you're trying to hide your erection?”
“... My... what?”
“This is what you wanted, isn’t it, what you described in your story?”
“Okay hang on,” the words tumbled out of her, and once she started she couldn’t stop, “Firstly no-one was ever meant to see that, my roommate posted it as a stupid joke and that wasn’t okay and it was private and... and that doesn’t give you the right to drug me!”
Did she just say that? Out loud? TO ONE?!
“I’m, I’m sorry,” she heard someone say, and realized it was not her.
One was looking at her, no longer smiling, not looking angry, not at all. She looked miserable. “I’m so sorry, I assumed - I’m sorry.” One lunged forward, Ashe almost collapsing as much from the sudden movement and from the feeling that the world had been pulled out from under her, as One grabbed the silver flask on the table. She unscrewed the bottom so quickly it dropped spinning onto the tabletop, the small compartment’s contents jumping out and rolling across the surface.
One picked one up, holding the long silver bead between slender fingers, offering it to Ashe. No, not a bead. A tablet.
When One speaks it is with great import, like she’s putting all her earnest effort into every single word. “I’m, so very sorry.” She’s no longer touching Ashe’s arm, nor her side nor her leg, the only part even close to touching being the lone hand offering the silver tablet. “This is the antidote. It’ll work fast, and the shuttle will take you back home or to your group or anywhere you’d like to go.”
Two of One’s other hands take the drink from Ashe’s unresisting grip, holding one of Ashe's hands up so One can press the tablet into it. Then all touches retreat again, One sitting beside Ashe with the glass now held in One’s laps by all six hands. She looks like she wants to say more, then just looks down at the glass instead.
Ashe stares at the tablet in her hand for a long, long while. Slowly, she raises it to her lips.
When she speaks it’s as if she’s talking to the tablet, “And… what happens if I… don’t… take it?”
She looks over at One, who looks back at her, those faceted eyes just, starting.
She stands, and, with a heartfelt smile, offers Ashe a hand.
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