“I’m serious, baby. This is the Queen’s Gala. Do you know how long I’ve been planning these costumes? Do you have any idea how long it takes to grow this much vine?” She stretched her arms out wide and then let them fall at her sides. “If this doesn’t work—”
“We’ll figure something out,” Lina said, and laid a gentle finger under Arabel’s chin. Lina puckered up.
“Good,” Arabel said. “You figure something out. I have to pee.” Arabel spun around and trotted off. “There’s tree flower on the counter if you want some,” she called out over her shoulder.
Lina smiled. “I knew you were stoned,” she mumbled.
“What’s that?” Arabel’s words echoed around the corner.
“Nothing, baby,” Lina said. “Hey, where’d you get the idea for those ink designs? They’re really quite striking and I’ve never seen anything like them.”
“Oh that,” Arabel called from afar. “You’ll never guess what I found at work. Somebody tossed away a Book of Origin. Score!”
Lina hung her head in her hands and grumbled.
* * * *
“I think the problem is that you tried to tie it yourself,” Lina said. Lina was seated on the couch with Arabel kneeling in front of her, facing away, with arms raised in the air. “Couldn’t get it tight enough.”
“Ouch,” Arabel complained.
“Do you want this falling off in the middle of the Queen’s Gala?”
Arabel said nothing.
“I didn’t think so. Now keep those arms up.” Lina tied the last knot and announced it by taking a long, slow lick up the outside of Arabel’s triceps.
Arabel shivered.
“Arms up, baby.”
Arabel grumbled. “Don’t forget, I get to do you next.”
“And don’t you forget, I still have to do the bottom of you.” Lina leaned forward, taking full advantage of Arabel’s kneeling position, and used her tongue to begin outlining the scent gland behind Arabel’s right ear.
Arabel’s shiver became a shudder, and she bowed her head forward to give Lina unimpeded access. Lina continued ever closer to Arabel’s glistening scent gland, enjoying the drifting of mating pheromones she was getting.
“I should double-check the top, first,” Lina whispered.
“Mm-hmm.”
Lina continued exploring the area around Arabel’s scent gland, while she sent her fingers blindly tracing out the vines that wrapped around Arabel’s chest, squeezing her tiny breasts from above and below, before running over each shoulder to be tied off around back. Lina held a nipple in each hand, rolling it between her finger and thumb. Arabel threw her head back and moaned. There was no mistaking the scent now—the air around Arabel was thick with it.
“Once we get these covered with leaves,” Lina whispered, while casually rolling and tugging Arabel’s nipples, “you’ll be all set. At least for the top half.”
Lina licked. Arabel moaned.
“Mmm.” Arabel leaned her head back to rest against Lina’s shoulder. She looked up with fluttering eyelids. “You ready for me to do you now?”
“Almost.” Lina snickered, as she maneuvered to place Arabel’s scent gland between her parted lips. Lina inhaled slowly and steadily through her mouth as Arabel shuddered constantly beneath her.
Arabel stood up, whirled around, and straddled Lina with her open thighs. “That was not fair.”
Lina cocked her head to the side and grinned. “No grinding, baby. You’ll shred your leaf.”
“You’re going to pay for that.”
“I’m all yours,” Lina said, lifting her arms in the air and surrendering to Arabel’s embrace. “Just remember…”
“I know. Mustn’t be late and disappoint the queen.” Arabel puckered her lips and pressed her body forward.
“And hide that damn book.”
* * * *
By the time Lina stepped out of Arabel’s apartment, she was covered in crisscrossing of vines. Lina’s outfit was a one-piece, in contrast to Arabel’s two-piece, with a double pass of vines crossing above her breasts, twisted in the center and then reversed to pass below, until they met again in the back to twist again. Arabel had knotted several vines together so that Lina was covered, of sorts, from neck to thighs, in an open diamond pattern with green borders.
Everywhere that the vines lay, Lina’s skin was just a little bit pinker than usual, because Arabel had insisted that they be tight enough not to fall off. Lina hadn’t argued, much. And of course, there were also a few strategically placed leaves worked in to make the entire ensemble just barely passable for public consumption.
“I feel so sexy,” Arabel said, swinging her hips as the two skipped through the lower tunnels, hand in hand, lighting their own way with the myriad of bio-luminescent designs adorning their skin. Lina had even agreed to allow Arabel to paint on the same designs she found in the Book of Origin, but only so that they would be a matched pair, and not because she believed in anything the designs were said to represent.
“You are sexy, baby.” Lina squeezed Arabel’s hand a little tighter and she heard Arabel let out a contented sigh. “Just try to remember that this is an all-ages party, okay.”
“Yes, Mentor.”
“I’m serious. No tree flower in the punch bowl, okay?”
Arabel stuck her tongue out in Lina’s direction and giggled.
As the two ascended the ramps that led to the main commerce area, Lina could see the crowd was much denser than usual. Many of the shops were still open, selling festive masks, bracelets, delicious-smelling treats, or hand-held noise-makers. Of the shops that were closed, more often than not, there was a musician or dancer performing in front, much to the delight of small knots of people pausing on their way. There were even tattoo artists offering temporary painted-on designs for the younger crowd so that they could fit in with the markings of the adults.
The result was a cacophony of music and laughter echoing throughout the high-ceilinged area, and enough inked-on color that Lina had trouble discerning where one body stopped and the next one started. Of course, there was also the tree flower surging through her system that probably wasn’t helping in that respect. She looked over at the glassy-eyed Arabel on her arm who, for once in her life, seemed
