Aberrant: Wild Card - [HW #2] Full of Promise [Complete]

[Nadya Lunălescu]

After handing Matt the flash-drive with his truly unreal performance on it, I was about to close my laptop before we headed out to the Lynx, when my computer's background changed. My breath caught in my throat as an image I had made faded into view. Unconsciously, my hand reached out to stroke the rendered pixels. It was of Mad Maddy, some artistic license taken, back when she wasn't Mad and our intimate relationship was in its first bright bloom. We had gone camping in the Okanagan region of British Columbia for the first week of summer break, and everything had seemed so full of promise.

That one perfect moment, when the world held its breath, and everything seemed possible, was worth all the heartache and pain that would come to follow.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Madeline Moore.

Jadzia woke up with a languorous smile, a slender arm around her, and a long-fingered hand cupping one of her small breasts. She rolled over on the air mattress, her smile widening as her grey-eyed gaze fell on the beautiful woman sharing her bed. With a gentle hand, Jadzia brushed strands of red hair from Maddy's face, her deft fingers tracing the line of her smooth jaw.

When Maddy didn't stir, she stretched a little closer, planting a soft kiss on those lips she loved to well. Her hand drifted lower, caressing the heavy swell of a full breast, fondly tweaking a stiff nipple. Maddy gave an aroused murmur, snugging the blankets closer, but didn't waken. With a husky chuckle, Jadzia slid out of bed, careful not to jostle her new love. She slipped on a knee-length flannel shirt, then quietly left the tent, computer bag in tow.

Though she could feel the building warmth of the rising sun, dawn in the mountains and valleys of Okanagan were still chill. Jadzia poked at the banked coals within the ring of stones, setting a few more sticks of wood on them. As she waited to the wood to catch and the heat to spread, she settled on a block of wood, her Wacom Cintiq resting on her lap.

They had gone hiking yesterday. Jadzia was a city girl, more comfortable sitting in front of a computer or television screen with the AC blasting - she had left her small farming town as soon as she could. Still, watching Madeline wander through towering trees and scenic terrain of the stunning Okanagan region, like a faerie queen through her demesne, Jadzia could feel a growing appreciation for the magnificence of nature.

One image in particular stayed with her, Maddy coming around the trunk of a giant redwood, a butterfly flitting around like a courtier paying court to her queen. Though the sight was burned into her memory, it was one that deserved to be painted in pixels. Pen flying over the tablet, eyes resting on the dozing Madeline through the screen of the tent, Jadzia reflected on how she ended up in a relationship with her room-mate.

She had come home from a frat party, more than a little drunk. She had been flirting heavily with Chet Micheals, a gorgeous tailback that she was tutoring. When she tried to suggest getting more intimate, he had laughed, saying that it would be like making it with his sister. Jadzia had laughed along, though inside she had been furiously embarrassed. She had begun drinking more heavily after that, pretending to have fun with the guys, being treated as one of them, and ended up staggering home, alone.

She had made her way back to the dorm-room she shared with Madeline, almost crawling to the bathroom to pray to the porcelain god. Once she felt half-way human again, she stepped into the shower, still clothed. Her thoughts clouded by an intoxicated haze, she hadn't been aware of hearing the shower running, nor that the stall had been already occupied.

Madeline had turned around, evincing no surprise at the intrusion. Beneath the warm, man-made rain, Madeline had tilted Jadzia's head up and kissed her full on the lips. The gamer-girl found herself responding, their tongues entwining, the surreal moment feeling completely natural.

Hours later, intertwined with Maddy beneath the tangled sheets of her bed, Jadzia basked in the blissful afterglow. She certainly didn't consider a lesbian, wouldn't even have called herself bisexual. But somehow, being with Maddy, it didn't seem to matter. In the same vein, even though Maddy was tall and well-endowed like her own sisters, Jadzia didn't feel the least self-conscious about her less impressive appearance - last night, Maddy had been every bit as passionate as she had been.

"What'cha doing, luv?" Maddy asked in her lyrical voice, as she sat up in the tent.

The picture that Jadzia was making was too dark for her taste. She finished adding a radiance to the butterfly, modifying the cast of light and shadow across Madeline's stunning face, then looked up at Maddy, lips curved in a dimpled grin.

"Nothing - just spending time playing with pixels, waiting for you."

"And now that I'm up, what do you want to do?" Maddy's smile was wicked, the sleeping bag slipping from her shoulders, a leg and breast bared.

"You," Jadzia replied, her grin matching the leggy nymph's. She set her tablet aside, and rejoined Maddy in the dome tent, one hand in her red hair as she kissed her fiercely, the other reaching down between her parted thighs.

[Forge]

Rewarded you are...yes.