"Touch of wood, caress of water."
by Michael Treiber
Ami woke with a start, her body shaking and covered with sweat. Burying her face in her hands, she moaned softly to herself.
"What's wrong with me? Why wont that dream leave me alone?" The same dream that had been haunting her nights for almost two weeks so far...the same horrible, beautiful dream about her...and Makoto...
Had she been fantasizing about all her friends, she might have been able to shrug it off. After all, it was natural to be curious about that sort of thing...wasn't it?
But no. Every night, she dreamed about Makoto...and every day it was harder to look Makoto in the eyes...those beautiful, strong, gentle emerald pools...
'Damn it! Quit thinking like that!' Ami thought angrily.
Glancing at the alarm clock on the nightstand, she sighed and got out of bed.
Entering the kitchen, she was greeted by the smell of hot coffee, and her mother's smiling face.
The older woman looked up as her daughter entered the room, instantly taking in the bags beneath her eyes, and her pallid skin tone.
"Is something wrong, Ami?"
Ami considered telling her mother everything right there...getting everything off her chest in one confession...a purification by fire, as it were.
"Bad dreams, that's all." As soon as the lie was past her lips, Ami cursed her own cowardice.
But rather than say that it was obviously more than just bad dreams upsetting her daughter, Ami's mother looked thoughtful.
"You know...the Osaka University psych department has a site on dream interpretation. Here...I'll give you the URL and you can look at it after school.
She scrawled the address down on a scrap of paper, drained her the last of her coffee, and left.
Looking down, Ami saw the neatly written URL.
Dreamscope.net
Ami hit her computer as soon as she got home from school. She connected to the net, and quickly typed the URL into the address bar of her browser.
As soon as she hit enter button though, she knew she had miss keyed.
Just as she was about to hit the BACK button, she saw what was loading up on the screen, and hesitated.
"Welcome to Dreamscape.net, a free forum exchange of Saphic romance stories."
'Saphic...Saphic...I know that word...' Ami thought to herself. Then memory hit her, and she felt the blood drain from her face.
Saphic...as in Saphos, the Greek writer/philosopher who had spoken the praises of the love of women...for other women.
Ami had stumbled onto a lesbian romance story site.
Beneath the title of the site, was a list of text links, arranged in alphabetical order by author.
She knew she should back out. After all, she didn't want to read a bunch of lesbian romance stories...did she?
Seemingly with a mind of its own, her cursor drifted down to the first link in the list.
Several hours later, Ami shut down her computer, and rubbed her dry, gritty eyes. It had been an...enlightening evening, to say the least.
As Ami drug herself to bed, scenes from the stories she had just read kept flashing through her mind.
When she awoke after that nights dream session, she couldn't help but put pen to paper...
Makoto knew something was wrong. For the past couple of weeks, Ami had been avoiding her. But she had a flawless way to confront her friend about it, without the presence of the others to interfere, or any excuse for Ami to flee without answering.
She was going to Ami's house, to get tutoring on information processing. And as Ami was the only one of the senshi group who owned a personal computer, there was no way she could pass this one off.
Arriving a few minutes before five o'clock, Makoto walked up to the front door of Ami's house and rang the bell.
No answer.
"Oh well...I'm sure she won't mind..."
Opening the unlocked door, Makoto entered the house.
"Ami? Are you here?" Makoto called softly, but with no answer.
Entering the girl's room, she saw that the computer was on.
'Hmm...wonder what she's doing? I know I shouldn't look at her computer without her here, but...she probably wouldn't care.'
Things started to happen rather quickly then. Makoto saw what was on the screen, Ami entered, and they both tried to stammer out an apology.
"So...you're into this stuff?" Makoto asked, rather unbelievingly, gesturing at the screen, which showed the Saphic romance site.
"Umm...I..." Ami stuttered, " I suppose so..."
"Well then, why don't you show me a good one then?" Makoto suggested, feeling just a hint of curiosity.
"A-alright." Ami said shyly. "Please move."
Taking the seat before the keyboard, she began scrolling down to one of her favorite stories- a soft, rather funny romance that had very little sexuality in it. That's when things started to get tough.
Makoto bent closer to the gleaming screen, inadvertently bringing her cheek within inches of Ami's.
The blue-haired genius felt a well of warmth rise within her body. Makoto's cheek was so close to hers that she could feel the other girl's body heat. And the smell!
Oh God...the smell of Makoto's soft, musky perfume was so intoxicating that Ami had trouble thinking.
She was saved a moment later by the ringing of the phone. At the first shrill tone she was out of her chair. Within a heart beat, she was in the kitchen picking up the receiver.
Makoto was a bit startled by the way Ami bolted to the answer the phone, but shrugged it off. She was probably nervous. After all, it isn't every day that one of your best friends finds out your deepest, darkest little secret.
When Ami still hadn't returned a moment later, the tall brunet took her place before the keyboard and started scrolling through the list of stories. As she clicked her way down the list, her eye caught on a title.
"Touch of wood, caress of water" ...by Lady Mercury.
'Something tells me I really need to read this...' Makoto thought to herself.
She clicked the glaring blue link, and, as she read, everything began to come together in her mind...
Ami had just hung up the phone with her mother when a shadow entered the doorway. Looking up, she saw Makoto, who wore an expression mixed of shock, surprise, and confusion.
"Ami...are you...or should I ask, is Lady Mercury in...love with me?"
She knew...oh God no, she knew. Ami heard a rushing sound inside her head, and her vision started to go black.
Makoto saw the blood drain out of Ami's face and knew she was about to collapse.
Quickly stepping forward, she caught her friend before she could hit the ground.
The larger girl effortlessly held her smaller friend upright and silently reflected on what had just happened.
'I expected her to laugh it off, or blush and tell me it was just a harmless story. But the way she freaked out...it cant be...true, can it? IS she in love...with...me?'
As Makoto carried Ami to the living room couch, she thought about it.
Ami.
In love.
With her.
True, Makoto had never really thought of herself with another girl, but as she did, she found the idea didn't repulse her. After all, Ami was smart, funny, beautiful, and one of her best friends. If either of them had been male, everyone would have agreed that it was a good match. But because they were both female, she should be horrified, and completely dismiss the idea.
Actually, the more she thought about it...the more she liked it.
There were so many things that just clicked.
Ami was sweet, sensitive, bright....and she was a fellow senshi. Someone who could understand the obligations and duties that entailed; someone with whom she could share the blessing/curse of immortality.
While Ami slowly, gently regained consciousness, Makoto considered possibilities.
When Ami awoke, the first thing she thought was 'A dream. Oh merciful ancestors, let it have been a dream.'
But when she cracked her eyes open and saw Makoto sitting in the chair across from her, she knew that the whole thing was totally, brutally real.
Makoto knew...she knew about the hidden fantasies, about the secret net alias...everything.
There was only one thing she could do.
Choking back tears, she whispered
"I'm sorry..."
Makoto had been lost in thought, so Ami's harsh, whispered apology caught her off guard.
'hmmm...' she mussed, 'She seems kind of upset...'
Ami slowly sat up, unable to look Makoto in the face.
"You're sorry, are you?" Makoto asked in a low voice. "You've been fantasizing about me for weeks, maybe even months now...and you say you're sorry?"
As the well-endowed brunet spoke, she was slowly making her way to where her friend sat, eyes downcast.
"I...I know. I should have said something, told you...but..." Ami choked out, her head still bent.
"But what?" Makoto asked, "But you're to good for me? But I'm not good enough for the daughter of a wealthy doctor? But I'm not smart enough for you? But you just had an itch between your legs, and telling me might have lead to something serious?"
"No! I..." Ami sputtered, the usually articulate girl's tongue stilled by her friends vehemence.
"Or maybe you thought I'd laugh you off? Get pissed, tell the other girls, and make a complete outcast out of you?"
Ami just swallowed, hard and dry.
Makoto didn't even pause before continuing her tirade.
"Well, you're right. I am pissed. Do you have any idea how hurt I am that you thought you couldn't trust me with this?" And she began purposely striding toward Ami.
Ami clenched her eyes as tight as they would go, prepared for a slap...anything.
Anything but Makoto's hand gently lifting her chin...anything but Makoto's soft whisper in her ear.
"I'll show you just how mad I am." Makoto breathed into Ami's ear before pressing her lips into her friend's...her beloved's...her Ami's.
Nearly an hour later, the two girls lay entwined in Ami's bed, both covered in a fine sheen of sweat and the warm glow of sated exhaustion.
Makoto lay on her back, Ami curled against her side and cuddling her head into the crook of her lover's shoulder.
Gently rousing Ami, who was quickly falling into a contented sleep, Makoto softly asked her,
"Why didn't you just say something?"
Ami looked deeply into Makoto's eyes and said, oh so carefully, as if weighing each word,
"Alright, I'm saying something now. Makoto...I love you."
Makoto smiled.
"Good. Because I love you too."
The two new lovers were once again falling asleep in each other's arms when a sudden thought occurred to Ami.
"So...um...when are we going to tell the others?"
"Hmmm?" Came Makoto's sleepy reply, "Tell them what?"
"About...us."
"Later." The yawned reply came.
"Later."
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