Why were there finals?

Seriously, after a full semester of classes, students were expected to cram all their accumulative knowledge back into their minds for one big show of force? If that was not bad enough, it was done in big, nerve-wracking tests and long, time-consuming papers! How was a girl to have any life outside of her studies?

With work and studying, Rebecca barely had any time to spend with Agnes lately, and if there was a sleepover, they were usually too tired to do much more than pass out. Date time was gone, and even affection had been limited, with both girls now sharing their rooms. Rebecca had gotten too used to her daily allotment of Agnes kisses, and now she was rather antsy without them.

Tonight was a big study night. Upcoming tests in math and bio for Rebecca-- neither subject being her absolute strongest. She was good in all her subjects, but that did not mean she could not worry herself over her non-English classes.

The girls were locking themselves up in the library for the evening so they could scour through necessary books and remove themselves from distractions. It was still nighttime and Rebecca wanted to be comfortable, so she wore cotton shorts and long soccer socks, as well as an oversized "red shirt" she stole from Drew. (Dating another girl, it was harder to come across a good oversized shirt to sleep in, so she made due.)

Rebecca had a trig textbook out and she was penciling math problems in her notebook, but her focus was split. As hard as she tried to be studious, she kept sneaking looks at her study-buddy across the desk. Agnes was so pretty! They still got to kiss, and that was sweet and good, but how long had it been since they really got to make out? Rebecca was getting fidgety, tapping the eraser end of her pencil on the desk.

"So... how's studying?"

These last weeks had been hell! Not only was there the stress of trying to get a year’s worth of studying memorized for a single week of testing, but on top of that, it had put a serious cramp on her alone time with Rebecca. The last that day they had together was when Rebecca went with her to her audition for Julliard, and since then there have been nothing but issues. Studying, roommates, exhaustion, all of it had added it to mean that Agnes had little spare time to have with her favorite girl in the world.

And it was hell because of that.

Thankfully, though, they would at least have a LITTLE bit of alone time. Though the entirety of that time would be spent studying, at least she hoped she could sneak in a kiss or two, at least the two could finally have a conversation that would last beyond just yawning and sleepy eyes. So, Agnes knew now that the old adage of “beggars can’t be choosers” could not be truer. At least she would have some time with her girlfriend, right?

Still, she wished and willed that time would move faster so that it was past finals already. It was just cruel torture to be sitting across the table from her girlfriend, her nose pressed into a book of poetry.

Argh! Poetry! She really hated poetry. Not Rebecca’s poetry! No! She loved everything that her girlfriend wrote, but all of that made sense at least! The poems that she was assigned in her literature class was definitely not the same. It was old, it didn’t make sense, and sometimes sentences were broken up at parts that she knew could not have been grammatically correct! Why was this considered classic?

Agnes truly had a hard time trying to wrap her mind around all of this. It was just too much to bear anymore but, she knew that if she wanted to graduated, she needed to complete this class. So far she was barely managing to hold onto her B in class and she needed to keep her average up. She was going to pass this class or die trying! That was the reason why, as silly as an idea as it seemed, she managed to corral Rebecca into locking herself in with her in the library. So long as they were not in their rooms, they would not succumb to distractions! Surrounded by books, they would be fine.

Dressed in loose, flannel pajama bottoms and a large black night shirt that she purchased for herself (mainly because it make Rebecca giggle when she showed it to her), her pinked socked feet idly flexed as she looked into the pages of her book. All the lines of the poetry were beginning to blur together when that sweet voice of her girlfriend spoke up.

>> "So... how's studying?"[/color]

“Hmm?” Agnes blinked wearily as she finally lifted her gaze from the book and stretched, arching her back just a little to try and crack her sore spine. “Bah, all looking like Greek to me, “ she mumbled. “My literature instructor wants us to write an essay interpreting a poem and it’s going to be on the final, and…I just can’t make heads or tails of it.” She grumbled before she sighed and rested her chin in the palm of her hand as she eyed Rebecca from across the table. “How about you? The words blurring yet?”

>> “Hmm? Bah, all looking like Greek to me. My literature instructor wants us to write an essay interpreting a poem and it’s going to be on the final, and…I just can’t make heads or tails of it.”

It really was not fair how the finals gods worked. Rebecca would gladly take a poem interpretation over what she was working on, but instead the task was forced upon her poor girlfriend, who could frankly care less for literature Rebecca had not penned herself.

>> “How about you? The words blurring yet?”

Rebecca chuckled. "Try numbers. And yes, at this point, Ah can barely tell apart a sine from a cosine." Maybe Rebecca was better off catching some sleep and hoping for the best when her test came. Was it better to go into an exam tired and studied or well-rested and uninformed?

Math was eluding her, and her focus already betrayed her when she tried to read up on science. Instead of studying, Rebecca found herself making Punnett Squares of a hypothetical baby the two girls could not have anyway.

Rebecca glanced away from her paper to look at her girlfriend as she struggled with the complexities of Elizabethan romantic poetry. She watched as perfect blue eyes scanned lines, moving beneath a furrowed brow accompanied by a pout in defiance of Dickinson. Agnes's already light complexion seemed to glow in contrast to her silly black shirt and her waves of tousled hair.

Rebecca became more aware of the quickening pace of her tapping eraser and her socked toe anxiously thumping against the floor. She crossed one leg over the other. The Agnes-to-Finals ration in Rebecca's mind did not favor productivity; maybe it was time for a little break from numbers. "Want a little help with yer poem?"

>> "Try numbers. And yes, at this point, Ah can barely tell apart a sine from a cosine.”

Agnes smirked a little as she finished her stretch and leaned back against her seat. That was the problem with the school library, the chairs were far too comfortable. Even made of wood, they had a nice cushion on them that made whoever sat in them feel like they were floating on absolute air. Agnes would have been just fine allowing herself to drift off to sleep while sitting up, rather than sit here, staring at a bunch of words that she really and truly just didn’t understand.

But she was a slave to the school system, a slave to the diabolical and sadistic minions of the ogre known as Academics. She mumbled a bit irritated again as she returned to trying to stare at her book and the words that floated by on the page.

Seriously! Who writes a poem about a volcano? she thought to herself as she once again went through the poem, line after line. It was so short and yet it still seemed like it wanted to make her heart palpitate with its confused words. Or maybe that was because of Rebecca’s presence.

Agnes caught herself, more than once, glancing up from her book and spying her redheaded girlfriend as she sat there, her face buried in her own textbook, mulling over the numbers that were splayed out in front of her, tapping gently with the eraser of her pencil. Rebecca looked almost as lost as she did at the moment to the point that Agnes heart beat with sympathy. But then again maybe there was something else underlining that feeling.

It was hard to not notice Rebecca. Not that she stuck out like a sore thumb or anything, but it was hard for Agnes to keep from stealing glances at her. Her exposed, pale skin, the flow of her beautiful hair, the flickering of her eyes as they passed over the pages and pages of text, the gentle nibbling of her lips that she did when she was deep in thought or concentration; all of it was a collection spotlight that was hard for Agnes to ignore. It was especially difficult since Rebecca was running around in shorts and a humorous red top (the joke being slightly lost on Agnes) and it was to the point that Agnes really had to keep herself until control.

She blinked a couple of times as she adverted her gaze before Rebecca found her staring and returned to her own book and the poem by Emily Dickenson. It was still just as confusing as ever…

>> "Want a little help with yer poem?"[/color]

Agnes looked up and sighed, smiling as if she had just been thrown a lifesaver. “If you don’t mind, sweetie?” she asked. “I mean, I know you have a ton of your own studying but, if you can at least point me in the right direction, you would be my absolute lifesaver.”

The young runaway stood up from the table and did a full body stretch. But the fact that her whole lower back and rear end were sore, only proved that she was sitting down for far too long. Agnes grumbled as she rubbed her sore posterior and gathered up her book. Calmly she walked around the table and beamed at Rebecca, taking an empty seat that was next to her.

She set the book down, open to the page that the poem was one. But she could not help just a little bit of levity as she smiled in a friendly manner to Rebecca and raised her hand, offering it to shake.

“Hello there, stranger,” she said in a cute way. “My name’s Agnes. I feel like I should know you.”

>> “If you don’t mind, sweetie? I mean, I know you have a ton of your own studying but, if you can at least point me in the right direction, you would be my absolute lifesaver.”

How was Rebecca not supposed to love the black-haired sweetheart sitting with her at the table? She smiled, closing her notebook and allowing her bouncing pen to finally rest on the table. "Honey, Ah'm not gettin' anything done here anyway."

Agnes brought the book of poetry to her side of the table and set it down. Normally, a book of poems would captivate Rebecca's attention, but now Agnes was even closer than before and still just as beautiful, now offering her delicate hand.

>> “Hello there, stranger. My name’s Agnes. I feel like I should know you.”

She was so cute, Rebecca was forced to grin. She took Agnes's hand and kissed the back of it. "Well, mah name's Rebecca. Ye shoulds get tae know me."

All kidding aside, she needed to help her girlfriend pass, so she took a look at the Dickinson poem which she studied in a class previously. "Oh! Well, there are a couple ways tae read th' poem. It always made sense tae me tae read it as an Elizabethan feminist poem."

Rebecca propped herself up with her elbow on the table and her hand against her cheek, her other hand residing comfortably on Agnes's knee. Emily Dickinson would not mind if she enjoyed a little physical contact while interpreting her work.

"Elizabethan women were expected tae be very proper an' controlled an' timid. Th' volcano represents a lass— quiet an' dormant, bit there is more 'neath th' surface..."

Rebecca had read the poem before, but for some reason, as she pulled meaning from the words, the library felt like it was warming up, and she fidgeted in her chair, not sure how to get comfortable. Her idle hand started to absentmindedly rub Agnes's knee. "Th' woman has a powerful untapped force in her. There is a repressed sexuality waiting to erupt 'at is overwhelming— even th' dashes make th' words rush together, and th' word choice of torrid implies passion and feverish sexual energy, an' even th' lips—"

Rebecca cut herself off; her heart was beating much faster than it was before she started, and her face felt red and warm. She looked down at her hand to find it took her explanation to action, and as though it worked independently of her will, worked its way from rubbing Agnes's knee to moving further up the girl's thigh. Flustered and unsure of what to say, she began, "Um, Ah'm..."

What would she say? Sorry? There were a great many emotions filling her freckled frame, but "sorry" was notably absent.

>> "Well, mah name's Rebecca. Ye shoulds get tae know me."[/color]

Unbeknownst to her why, Agnes giggled like a school girl at the sight of the look on Rebecca’s face and words that she uttered. It was entirely sweet, and cute, and just plain silly. She was reminded of why she was so ridiculously happy to have someone in her life to be silly with . That was a true test of a relationship, if the pair could share a moments like this that were so small and insignificant, and yet still could mean so much. She smirked as she took her hand back and nodded her head.

But they had to get back to work, unfortunately. Agnes eyed that English book with a little bit of disdain. How dare it ruin her cute time with Rebecca. Maybe she would teach it a lesson by tossing it under her bed and letting it suffer in the dark with the dust bunnies!

Ahem.

Back to the moment…

>> "Oh! Well, there are a couple ways tae read th' poem. It always made sense tae me tae read it as an Elizabethan feminist poem."[/color]

The blank look on Agnes’ face obviously was a revelation into how she felt about what Rebecca had just said. It was not that Agnes was unintelligent, she clearly wasn’t, but her passions were more in the sciences and botany and such. Literature was just a concept that always seemed way too over her head. The only real poetry she liked was Rebecca’s and what she could play on her violin. That was it.

But, she guessed that she vaguely remembered something about Elizabethan feminist poetry. She was sure it was in her notes somewhere. Thankfully, Rebecca seemed to rescue her from that more treacherous fate of digging through her notes.

>> "Elizabethan women were expected tae be very proper an' controlled an' timid. Th' volcano represents a lass— quiet an' dormant, bit there is more 'neath th' surface…Th' woman has a powerful untapped force in her. There is a repressed sexuality waiting to erupt 'at is overwhelming— even th' dashes make th' words rush together, and th' word choice of torrid implies passion and feverish sexual energy, an' even th' lips—"[/color]

Agnes was lost. Listening to Rebecca explaining the words of the poem, Agnes actually began to understand it but it also proved to be extremely distracting. Not only were the words just a little tantalizing and the hand on her knee sensational, but it was Rebecca’s lips that seemed to be the most attention getting. Unsure why, but her eyes followed the lines of her girlfriend’s mouth, sighing a little as half paid attention, half fantasized. When was the last time they really had a good, passionate kiss? That day they stumbled across Twyla, wasn’t it?

Seemed like so long ago that she wondered if her lips had changed any. But before she could think about this too far, before she could allow her quickening breath to give her away, or the flushed feeling on her face make her pass out, Agnes was shaken back to reality. Rebecca had stopped talking and was looking at her oddly…

>> "Um, Ah'm..." [/color]

Agnes paused…then looked down to see that Rebecca’s hand was on her thigh. She could feel it in the pit of her stomach, that sensation, the volcano that wanted to make itself known, but Agnes did her best to calm herself. At least she thought she did. But if so, why was her hand own hand on top of Rebecca’s and gently squeezing it with affirmation that it was okay?

Spine tickling, eyes focused, Agnes slowly began to lean forward, watching Rebecca’s eyes, her hand reaching out to rest on her girlfriend's waist. Just one kiss? That couldn’t hurt anything, right? It was only one! But even as Agnes found herself leaning in closer and closer, she had to pause. A glance at the table, at all the books and suddenly she remembered why they were here. Studying, finals, that was most important now, right?

Agnes sighed, in defeat and in reluctance as she rested her forehead on Rebecca’s shoulder.

“Um, t-thank you,” she struggled to say, trying to keep her mind off the libido that wanted to overtake her. “I…I think I understand it better now,” she said with an appreciative smile and literally had to force herself to straighten up and turn her attention back to her book.

God! Why couldn’t finals be over?!

Rebecca waited with bated breath, not quite ready to rescind her hand until Agnes reacted. She could feel the tension like static between them, reaffirmed by a hand squeezing her own. Agnes was bridging the distance between them, and Rebecca knew finals would have to wait, because there was no turning—

>> “Um, t-thank you. I…I think I understand it better now.”

...Agnes totally shut her down! Her girlfriend just spurned her obvious advances in favor of responsible studying? Admittedly, Rebecca was acting uncharacteristically bold and on a normal night she would be in Agnes's seat.

But tonight? No, she was a dormant volcano ready to erupt.

Still... it was Agnes's desire to work hard on passing the last of her classes, and Rebecca was considerate enough to respect that. "Well, good. G-glad ye get it..." Defeated, the girl turned back to her notebook and flipped open the pages.

...Well, maybe she could continue her break from work for a little longer without hindering Agnes? In fact, she could help her girlfriend's focus! She pushed her seat away from the table and stood up, walking behind her studious partner. "Ah cannae focus yet, sae hoo 'boot a massage tae work away yer finals tension?" It was foolproof! Agnes could relax and Rebecca could fill her need to be touching Agnes.

Rebecca started with her girlfriend's shoulders, kneading away as much stress as she could find. Her hands eventually shifted to the area between Agnes's shoulder blades, where she did her best to press out knots. The process was relaxing for Rebecca and she hoped Agnes was enjoying it.

To work on Agnes's lower back, Rebecca used her thumbs and her fingers rested on Agnes's sides. As the thumbs moved up the lower back in small circles along her spine, the fingers simply shifted up Agnes's sides.

This process was pleasant but uneventful until the thumbs were close to the shoulders, which would leave the other fingers at Agnes's side just under her arms and just grazing a more sensitive area. When it occurred to Rebecca what her fingertips were touching, she could feel her cheeks blush lightly, but they were already painted with the redness from her poetry lesson.

She could move back to the shoulders, which would be more fair to Agnes and less tempting to Rebecca... but her thumbs seemed content working around the shoulderblades, leaving her fingers just barely brushing up and down along the side of Agnes's...

"Sae am Ah helping?" she asked, her voice wavering.

>> "Well, good. G-glad ye get it..."[/color]

Agnes paused in her reading as she glanced back at Rebecca. The sound of her voice really caught her attention but she really did not know why. Really, Agnes did not mean to come off as so rejecting, but she really did want to focus on passing this class. And as much as she loved Rebecca, the young Scot was certainly a distraction for her. Though it was obviously no fault of the sweet lass, it was simply that Agnes would rather spend time with her than studying.

That was behavior that she definitely needed to nip in the bud.

But still, that did not mean that she should have hurt Rebecca’s feelings. She glanced over to make sure that Rebecca was okay, but before she say anything or even gauge her girlfriend’s reactions, Rebecca had stretched and stood up from her seat.

>> "Ah cannae focus yet, sae hoo 'boot a massage tae work away yer finals tension?"[/color]

“What?” Agnes suddenly asked. A massage? She had never asked for one of those and Rebecca of course had to study for her own finals. But before she could protest, suddenly she felt those sweet, pale hands upon her shoulder and Agnes absolutely melted. “Oh…goodness…” she managed to squeak out.

Suddenly Agnes slumped a little, feeling those thin fingers as they kneaded her muscles and worked the knots out of her back. It was probably very undignified to drool right now but boy did she really want to. Rebecca really seemed to have the knack of finding just the right spots and, even with Agnes’ ticklishness, she managed to work past it in order to keep Rebecca from stopping. It just felt too good to stop so she allowed it as she closed her eyes and began to drift.

Agnes found herself lost in the excellent sensations that riddled throughout her body; the feeling of Rebecca’s hands, the warmth of her breath on the back of her scalp, tingling that meant that she was close by. Agnes reveled in all of it as she felt muscles loosening and knots disappearing. Slowly the young runaway groaned as she felt Rebecca move higher, her thumbs digging into stress points along Agnes’ back. It hurt but it felt so good at the same time…

Then she felt that accidental graze and suddenly Agnes stiffened up again, emitting a little squeak of surprise. Though she knew it was an accidentally (at least she tried to convince herself of that), Agnes still found herself reacting to that phantom-like touch. It was so insignificant and yet seemed to flip some kind of switch in the young runaway. She found herself thinking of Rebecca’s lips again, of holding her close, of kissing her deeply, losing herself in the long strands of the young Scot beautiful red hair. Agnes was merely seconds away from following through with this when Rebecca’s voice broke through the pounding in her ears…

>> "Sae am Ah helping?"[/color]

Agnes nodded. She certainly was helping…to distract her further. She bit her lip and smiled with a nod as she tried to keep her focus on her books but god it was proving far too hard. She knew that she if turned around to face Rebecca she would not be able to help herself. No, she had to prevent that. For once in her life, Agnes agreed that they needed to study.

“Y-You’re going great,” Agnes managed to say. Slowly, though, she edged away and stood up, stretching again. She smiled a beaming smile as she turned around to face Rebecca. It literally took everything she had to not suddenly lean forward and kiss her passionately. But Agnes managed to keep herself calm. “Um…I-I need to go grab a book from the shelves. I…I’ll be right back? Okay?”

But she didn’t want to suddenly just run away from Rebecca again. She didn’t want her to feel hurt or rejected. Maybe just a little contact would be okay? A smile on her face, Agnes leaned forward and wrapped her free arm around Rebecca’s waist, hugged her close, and kissed her on the cheek (maybe a little closer to the corner of her lips than she meant it to be. ). As she leaned back, her hand rested on Rebecca’s hip, a fraction of a second long than she meant it to really be, before she just accepted it and squeezed Rebecca’s waist.

“Umm…” she said as she tried to fight the blush that wanted to appear on her cheeks. “I-I’ll be right back?” she said with a smile. Another kiss to her cheek and Agnes finally managed to peel herself away from Rebecca, just long enough to start walking to the stacks. God, she really, REALLY needed to keep herself in check…

>> “Y-You’re going great.”

That was exactly what Rebecca was hoping to hear as her fingertips could almost anticipate the supple fleshy area before them. She could feel her touch moving closer, with contact almost inevitable, but Agnes managed to get to her feet. Why could she not just give in to Rebecca's powers of persuasion?!

>> “Um…I-I need to go grab a book from the shelves. I…I’ll be right back? Okay?”

Rebecca sighed, accepting Agnes's steel will. It was for the best; the two girls had big college plans and studying factored heavily into them. The daft strawberry blonde would just have to give rest to her boiling libido.

The challenge would be less daunting if Agnes did not decide to wrap her up and press her lips oh so close to Rebecca's. Still, the gesture was sweet, and her girlfriend's arms were always a safe place. All she had to do was uncross her wires and flip the "turned on" setting to "turned off and comforted" setting.

Rebecca took her seat and Agnes left for the book shelves. After a few minutes of vaguely taking shots at graphing, Rebecca's large sum of experience in the library's poetry section kicked in and she found Agnes scanning book bindings. "Nae tae distract ye, bit Ah remember a great book on sexuality in poetry."

Rebecca scanned the shelves for the familiar title and eventually noticed it about three shelves higher than her head. "There it is! One sec." Trying to extend her height, Rebecca got on her tip toes, reaching as high as her arms would allow. She could feel her shirt being pulled up, revealing her pajama shorts and a small peek at her waist. It would be much easier if books had metal bindings or something.

Agnes had escaped! She sighed though, trying to catch her breath as she maneuvered herself towards the book shelves where she knew the poetry books were housed. Though she knew that Rebecca was not literally trying to distract her, Agnes knew that the only way she would get her homework and studying done was if she managed to find at least some way in order to calm down. Separating herself from her sweet, redheaded girlfriend seemed to be exactly what the doctor ordered…

…great, NOW she was imagining Rebecca in a nurses outfit! SO not cool!

The young insect queen sighed for a second as she rest her forehead against the well kept bookshelves. She was actually beginning to consider that her idea of studying with the redhead was a bit of a mistake. They were both starved for one another’s attentions, they were under stress to be ready for finals, and there was just a lot going on in their lives. They could not give into one another right now since they needed to focus. But it just seemed like every passing second it was proving to be more and more impossible for each other. Well, maybe Agnes more than Rebecca since she was not exactly sure how Rebecca was feeling about this whole situation.

But Agnes shook her head and tossed all those thoughts out the window. No! She needed to stop thinking about things and just focus on getting this job done. Once she was done studying, she could kiss Rebecca on the forehead and return to her room where she could soundly sleep until tomorrow and start the process all over again.

Finals were not THAT far away, right?

One deep breath and Agnes raised her eyes back to the stacks. She hoped she could find a book that would help with this damn paper…

>> "Nae tae distract ye, bit Ah remember a great book on sexuality in poetry."[/color]

Agnes blinked as she turned back to Rebecca. The young Scot had removed herself from her seat and sauntered over, glancing at the bookshelves. Agnes did not stare but simply nodded. She needed all the help that she could get and if Rebecca had a good tip for her, damn straight she was going to take it. A calm smile on her lips, she nodded appreciatively as she stepped back in order to give Rebecca room to glance over all the books on the shelf. They all seemed like so many and had nearly the exact same title (at least to Agnes since she didn’t understand many of the titles).

But she would trust Rebecca.

Crystal blue eyes scanned Rebecca as she stepped over and looked over the books. The redhead indeed looked very attractive in her black shirt and shorts that, Agnes felt, were probably far too dangerous for her to be wearing in front of the young runaway. Soon she found her eyes roaming, following the curves of Rebecca’s body while she struggling to keep her arms crossed over her own chest. Steel; her resolve was a steel door that she was not going to push open.

No matter how tantalizing Rebecca looked, or how much she wanted to take her into her arms, or how desperate she was to kiss her lips. Studying was most important! She had to study!

>> "There it is! One sec." [/color]

Rebecca smiled triumphantly and began to lean up in order to reach for the book that she had been talking about moments ago. Then, Agnes saw the pale skin of her flat stomach, a full view of the shorts she wore and suddenly Agnes felt cracks all over her fortress of resolve. Cautiously she had stepped forward her wings aching to buzz but she kept them at bay as she made a step or two towards the Scot. Soon, she was directly behind her and as soon as she caught the scent of Rebecca’s shampoo…that was in.

The fortress cracked in half and most of her reason was flooding out and away…

Looming behind the redheaded beauty, Agnes leaned down slowly as she paced her chin on Rebecca’s shoulder. The scent of her hair filled the runaway’s nostrils and it was almost as if Agnes getting ready to molt again and Rebecca was just a large sweet pastry. In the seconds that followed after she cutely rested her chin on the redhead’s shoulder, Agnes slowly wrapped her arms around Rebecca’s waist from behind, fingertips running across her stomach as she gently pressed her lips upon her girlfriend’s neck.

She had to stop herself. She knew she did. But right now, just as she brushed her lips upon that pale, freckled skin, the reasoning to halt her actions all flew out the window.

Rebecca's fingers grazed the binding of the book she was reaching for, wondering whose idea it was to place literature on feminism in a place where most young women of average height could not easily access it, and really, how many boys were going out of their way to read up on--

Oh...

Rebecca felt hands move along her oversized shirt, pulling along the fabric on the way to a place resting on her stomach, Agnes's arms securely holding her as she felt the sensation of warm breath near her neck. Her hair was being moved to give Agnes a clean canvas of neck to work with, and that Agnes did. The tingling sensation of her girlfriend's lips sent a tremor from the epicenter through her body. Her heartbeat swelled, pumping hot blood through her, reddening her skin and causing more of her body to begin pulsating.

Rebecca's hand involuntarily left the shelves, leaving a few criticisms and chrestomathies to fall to the floor. She spared no attempt to save them, instead occupying her hands: one resting on Agnes's hands at her waist; the other moved behind Rebecca to rest on Agnes's hip, pulling her body closer to leave even less distance between them.

Rebecca tilted her head to the left, doing her best to expose more of her neck and right shoulder, hoping the invitation did not go to waste.

Agnes did not know what she was doing. All she knew was that it felt like her body was moving into autopilot. Where a second ago she was fighting back her sensations, not she was fully embracing them. The thoughts of finals, of needing to be proper, or keeping things under control, all of it just flew out the window the second that she had pressed her lips down onto the young Scot’s neck. Part of her, a small part of her wished that Rebecca would have declined, or backed away, or tried to be the voice of reason…

Then Agnes felt the hand lying on top of her own, and other pressing against her hip and she knew that Rebecca was not going to stop her either. The runaway sighed, the last bits of her logical thought slipping away as he continued to kissed that pale skin of her girlfriend’s neck.

This was not right. They were supposed to be studying, preparing for their future schoolings, being responsible adults; but in the end Agnes just didn’t care anymore. The tenderness that Rebecca displayed, the mingling of emotions, it was all just too much for her to ignore anymore. They had yet to take this step and, quite frankly Agnes was a little worried. That was the only sobering thought she had.

But it was enough to stop her just for a second.

In that moment of pause she reaches that her hands were now underneath the oversized, pajama shirt, caressing her girlfriend’s hips. Agnes had just barely been able to hold herself back as she chin against her girlfriend’s shoulder, really unsure of what to say or ask her. How does one go about that anyway? With Rhythm, it was just combustion that she could not control, she never got this far with Jasmine, and Rebecca…she was entirely new to this.

Agnes took a second to catch her breath, form linger against Rebecca’s as she sighed. Somehow in the midst of kissing, Rebecca had turned around and was pressed against the tall bookcase behind her. Agnes looked into the young woman’s eyes, trying to find the right words…

“Rebecca…” she started to say. But found not find the words to really ask her if she was okay with this. Agnes just remained there, watching her eyes, almost willing her girlfriend to catch onto her thoughts…

Agnes was finding spots on Rebecca's neck that the Scot did not know would feel so good, but she was glad to widen her small index of intimacy with new information.

Her body tensed up when Agnes's delicate hands slipped under the protection of the red shirt and graced the goosebumped skin of Rebecca's waist and quickly down to the hips, dangerously close to the waistband of those cotton shorts. The feeling began like a ripple in a pond, but was starting to grow like a current surging through a river, and that was what her body was doing: surging.

As much as the neck and hip treatment was heaven for her, Rebecca finally managed to turn herself around to get face to face with her lover. Her heart was rapping against her rib cage and her lips were trembling. Her body was screaming at her to go forward like a fount of hormones ready to burst, but she knew what could come next was untrodden territory.

Agnes could only call her name, but it was the crystal blue eyes that revealed what the question was: Agnes wanted to know is it was truly okay. She needed to know that Rebecca was ready and that this was the right thing for them to do as a couple. There was fear, but Rebecca knew the answer. She took a deep breath, locked in her girlfriend's gaze, and nodded. She took her Agnes's hands in her own and guided them under the hem of the red shirt and upward along Rebecca's bare stomach, lifting up the fabric along the way.

Rebecca focused less on the increasing amount of skin she was exposing (in a rather public area,) and simply enjoyed the presence of intimate contact, kissing Agnes with escalating tempo and intensity.

The magma in her was rising to the surface and churning, boiling, coming nearer and nearer to the breaking point.

Agnes had been watching Rebecca’s eyes, imploring her for some kind of telepathy or mind reading that would let her know exactly what she was thinking. This was new to Rebecca and Agnes did not want to push her girlfriend into anything that she was not ready for. Kissing, touching, that was all fine and dandy, but when it got down to real intimacy, it could be a terrifying thing. Agnes definitely remembered that and she wanted to make sure that when they did decide to share this experience they were both ready.

Eyes imploring one another’s, Agnes searched those mismatched eyes, the gap between them closed to the point that she could feel her goosebumping skin underneath her shirt. Their touches were electrifying and enough to make the young runaway want faint. Her heart thundered in her chest and muscles were tense with nerves.

Maybe she should stop. Maybe Rebecca really was not ready for this…maybe Agnes wasn’t ready for this yet…

But, as she watched Rebecca sweet face, and saw the gentle nod of her head, it was as if the floodgates of emotion had been released from the back of her head. Her body was flushed with warmth as she looked down, noticing that Rebecca had taken her hand and was helping her to pull off that long, oversized shirt. Agnes actually trembled a little bit, but she smiled sweetly at Rebecca all the same. This was actually happening.

Leaning forward, she nuzzled the redhead’s cheek gently, planting a tiny kiss along her jawline before pressed her lips against her.

Carefully she aiding Rebecca in discarding her own comical shirt, trying to keep her nerves from making her seem too awkward. But as she their lips met, she began to calm. The force was strong with this one…

There was so much exposed blushing skin now that Rebecca's shirt had made an elegant departure to the floor. Amidst the kisses Agnes was leaving along Rebecca's face, her girlfriend's shirt soon joined her own in a black and red pile of unwanted fabric.

Being so close, their bodies pressed against one another, and the first thing Rebecca noticed about pressing one stomach against the other was the heat: Agnes's body was like a furnace, burning. This made sense to Rebecca; she was surely not the only volcanic being churning and growing feverish within.

With more discovered territory came new chances to explore. Rebecca moved away for a moment to kiss the spot just above Agnes's navel, then a few inches higher. She ended up at Agnes's collarbone, sucking at the delicate skin until the suction broke blood vessels underneath. After all this time, Rebecca finally took revenge on her first hickey in the very same spot.

Rebecca's hands were pulling tightly on Agnes's back, but eventually she knew what had to happen next: the "no turning back" point. The two hands met at the center of Agnes's back at the clasp of her bra. With swift and nimble hands--

Rebecca failed.

And again. What the hell was going on? She could do this for herself with no issue! Maybe it was the angle? Sure enough, the longer she tried, the more frustrated she got. Eventually, she pulled away from kissing to chuckle, her cheeks more red from the embarrassment of failure than every other part of what was happening.

"Heh, ye think a girl wouldnae hae this problem. Um, let me try this." Not one to give up, Rebecca tried kissing Agnes's neck to get a peek behind her back, but it was just barely out of site behind the horizon of a shoulder blade. Sighing, Rebecca stopped kissing and just moved forward until she could just awkwardly undo her nemesis. How did people do that in a smooth way? She felt like an idiot!

Playing it off with another laugh, annoyed at how badly she slowed down the mood, she joked, "Well, at least that's done."

At first Rebecca was worried she killed the momentum so badly they would just have to stop, but with time and more contact, the heat and the tempo continued to rise, and new frontiers were discovered and the magma roared and skin met skin.

And Rebecca erupted.