Arakhne of the Floating Mountain (#OpenNovellaContest2020)

A Gallery of Mice

"You are not ingratiating yourself at the moment," Estelle whispered into her sister's ear as she took Rhode gently into her own hands.

Squeaking to herself, Rhode kicked her small mouse feet in the air at this before she scurried up Estelle's arm and up to her head. Rhode waded through her curly hair with glee, burrowing inside as if she were creating a nest. Estelle giggled, reaching inside the nest of her coils and withdrawing Rhode. She pressed the mouse's cheek against her own and squealed.

Arakhne narrowed her eyes, but her face softened when she saw Estelle playing with Rhode, as they both seemed to be enjoying themselves. She pursed her lips.

"Perhaps... I didn't know you well enough. What am I to do when someone comes into my house and starts making demands of me, hm?" Arakhne said finally, gritting her teeth at the end.

Soledad said nothing for the moment, instead stepping closer to Arakhne and looking her up and down, eyes trailing across every curve of her body, over each drape of the fabric of her robe, snaking along the curls of her hair, one by one. She smirked, taking another step forward.

Then another. 

Until she stood mere centimeters away from the woman who had challenged a goddess --  and won.

Estelle's eyes darted between the two women like the pendulum of a clock. Her mouth fell agape, wide enough that the snow caps of her teeth shone in a brilliant contrast to her dark, full lips. Rhode patted Estelle's face with her small rodent hands and squeaked in her attempt to reassure the woman.

"Are you starting something with me?" Arakhne said as if it were a reflex. However, she remained where she stood, her body refusing to shrink away from Soledad's encroachment even as her cheeks flushed ever so slightly.

"It depends," Soledad replied, making a show of eyeing the other woman.

"On what?"

The two women stood eye to eye now, noses brushing against each other with the touch of a dove's feather. Arakhne bit her lip without meaning to and Soledad's smirk grew wider still.

Until that moment, Arakhne had not been cognizant of the solid granite countertop digging into her lower back. She gasped, but otherwise made no move to remove herself from her current position.

Looking on from across the kitchen, Estelle could only observe. She could barely register that Rhode was pulling at her fingers and guiding her hand to Rhode's head so as to pet the little mouse; her attention instead lay fixed on the scene before her. Things could only go downhill from here, Estelle realized. But knowing Soledad she would not take well to being told what to do by her youngest sister, even if they were only created a few minutes apart. What is a few minutes to an immortal being, then?

Meanwhile, the mice hard at work in the kitchen seemed to pay the trio no mind as they continued on with cooking and chattering among themselves as they passed each other ingredients. After a moment, Rhode seemed to jump as if jolted by an electric current, and she scurried away from Estelle's hands as if being chased by a hawk to continue helping her comrades.

Arakhne's gasp tickled the microscopic hairs of Soledad's face, and the glowing woman chuckled. As Arakhne swallowed, eyes fluttering closed, Soledad reached up to cup the other woman's cheek in her hands. It was as if on instinct that Arakhne left out a small moan, rubbing her face against Soledad's hot hand like a cat.

"You are so starved for affection that you will take it from anywhere," Soledad said as more of a statement than anything else. "I meant only to tease you but this is a bit sad."

It would have been an excellent time for a retort, but Arakhne could feel the warmth engulfing her and it was so pleasant that she lost her ability to respond in any sort of witty way. Soledad raised an eyebrow and looked to Estelle and then back at Arakhne again, seeming to suddenly realize what she had been doing. Before she could pull away, however, the other woman's arms began to wrap themselves around the back of her neck, holding her in place. She almost pitied Arakhne, truthfully. And she was not sure herself about her own intentions.

Did she want to comfort this lonely, bitter woman? Or had her original jest gone too far?

Rolling her eyes, Soledad scolded herself for thinking too far into things and instead placed her other hand on Arakhne's waist, pulling the other woman against her chest and tilting her face toward her so she could press a fiery kiss to her parted lips.

At that moment, Estelle shrieked and ran from the room; but neither Soledad nor Arakhne paid her any mind.

Instead, the two women held onto each other as Arakhne melted against Soledad, seeming to never have enough warmth as she clung to the other woman as if she were a star that would soon grow to a massive scale only to collapse into itself and become a supernova and then later, a black hole, which would never exude any heat ever again. At the same time, the seamstress took her time, kissing Soledad back languidly as if she were savouring the taste of her lips.

When Soledad pulled away after quite a bit of time, Arakhne continued to stick to her like a fly to a spider's web. She was lucky she did not have to be the spider in this situation.

"You are very beautiful, I will admit it," Soledad mumbled, her face between a grimace and a smirk as she eyed the mice around them. "But as happy as I would be to fuck you on your kitchen table, I do not like to have an audience. Especially not one that is so... innocent..."

Arakhne paused, her hair disheveled and her face flushed from the contact she had had with Soledad; she appeared to be in a daze of sorts. Her face fell once she realized what she had done, and she raised her hand, only for Soledad to react in time to grab a hold of her wrist and stop her mid-swipe.

"Did you mean to slap me?" Soledad almost snarled.

Struggling against Soledad's very warm hand around her arm, Arakhne stared at the ground, face still flushed, but she could not decipher why in that moment. Her eyes began to flutter closed again, but this time she stopped herself.

"You meant to take the piss out of me, didn't you?" Arakhne asked as she swiped with her other hand and Soledad blocked her once again.

"Of course I did!" Soledad responded; she was only half joking.

Scowling and trying to free herself from Soledad's vice-like grip on her wrists, Arakhne could feel her face reddening as she thought of Soledad's body against her once more. She did not know if she wanted to cry or kiss her again or smack her or run away or all four of those things. And even worse still, she hated herself for letting the other woman get into her head.

"Get the fuck out of my face and out of my fucking kitchen, then!" Arakhne roared, finally able to break free and using the rest of her energy to push Soledad away.

Without waiting for Soledad to comply, Arakhne stormed out of the kitchen, which had suddenly gone silent as the mice had paused their work to observe them.

Head tilted to the side, Soledad could only watch the other woman leave, her glowing eyes alight with fire as they trailed down every one of Arakhne's curves. But at the same time, Soledad could not remove the image of Arakhne from her mind as the other woman clung to her so desperately that it was as if they were to become one volcanic being if they were any closer to one another.

She brought her fingers to her lips absently, as if the shadow of Arakhne's lips had left an imprint where they had been.