It was a high-end party at Minako's penthouse, but then any party held at that residence could not be considered anything less than event. Katarina could hardly believe it sometimes. She had met the girl when she was just thirteen, battling monsters and struggling with English with a far away look in her eyes. The girl's dreams and aspirations had been too lofty for Katarina's practical mind, but when she heard the determination and saw the hope in those crystal blue eyes, she had almost thought that maybe one day Aino Minako would be the international star she so wanted to be.

Still, Katarina continued to find herself surprised with the breadth and depth of Minako's fame. She had started out as a renowned pop idol in Japan. It had been a nigh miracle when she began to make a name for herself first in Britain and then in the States. It was something Katarina was sure only Minako could do. She was now the darling of the music world and was quickly on her way to becoming a highly regarded actress as well. Minako liked to joke that Ebert's stroke had been due to the shocking discovery that she could act. She'd even gone so far as to send him flowers by way of apology, or so she said. Minako did have a tendency to exaggerate.

Katarina was also surprised at the length's Minako went to preserve their friendship. Katarina had not had the highest self-esteem ever since Alan, her first real boyfriend and almost fiancé, had broken up with her. It had been amicable enough and they still saw each other, but it did not relieve the hurt she still felt when she thought of him. She'd rather thought Minako would be too busy to keep in touch, but if anything, she saw Minako more now that she had her own place in London (and New York and Los Angeles and Paris and supposedly a secret getaway in Ireland). Minako was even kind enough to invite her to the soirees (there was no word in the English language that could do them justice, and Katarina found she had no choice but to revert to French), though Katarina had always refused.

Of course, then Minako had had to go and get sneaky and send Katarina an absolutely gorgeous dress with matching shoes, clutch, and diamonds for the next party with instructions that she would not take the gifts back unless she attended the upcoming party. The starlet had left Katarina with absolutely no choice in the matter, an infuriating trait that Katarina tried very hard not to feel the slightest twinge of pride for.

She had attended the party with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. She had socialized as much as she found proper, trying not to stick to Minako like a child to its mother's leg, but finding that hard since she was the only person Katarina knew at all. It hadn't helped that a number of good-looking, slightly intoxicated men had complemented every inch of her person with various degrees of taste. When she'd complained to Minako about it in secret, the woman (she still wanted to say girl, but it was hard to do that with Minako practically flaunting the bite mark on her left breast) had laughed at her, though not unkindly.

"What can I say, darling?" Minako said, liquor and humor affecting her speech. "I have excellent taste. The dress is absolutely divine, and I'm finding myself envying your jewels. And I got them for heaven's sake!"

Katarina could not begrudge her that. The dress was exquisite. Hunter green satin that hugged what few curves she had as if Minako had drugged her one night and taken her measurements. But of course, the diamonds at her throat were the real draw. Katarina found the heart-shaped pendant absolutely obnoxious in size, and the emeralds surrounding it made it that much more ostentatious. She'd found herself briefly offended by several men leering at her chest, but then she decided she could hardly blame them. Not with a headlight sandwiched between her breasts.

She couldn't say that she'd had a wonderful time, but she couldn't say she'd had a bad time either. Minako had insisted that she stay after to catch up, which they had, consuming even more martinis and cosmopolitans than they'd had at the party. Katarina wasn't entirely sure how it had happened, but Minako had wound up lounging in her lap, giggling at absolute nonsense if anything at all.

"You're rather heavy you know," Katarina informed her, trying to sound offended when really she was just amused.

"It's all water weight," Minako insisted, turning up her nose. Then she reconsidered. "Well, alcohol weight anyway." She giggled again, shaking her head and pushing her nose into Katarina's clavicle. "I think I might be drunk."

"I'd say that's a distinct possibility," Katarina muttered, remembering Minako's incredibly low tolerance from her sister's wedding. It had been just before Minako hit it big as they said, and it was a good thing too. If Minako had been famous, her antics with one of the groomsmen underneath the table that held the wedding cake would have been an international scandal as opposed to a funny family story.

Minako stopped giggling rather suddenly, as was her prerogative when she was in this state. She reached up, brushing her fingertips against Katarina's chin with a surprising gentleness given the level of her intoxication. They trailed from her jawbone down her throat until Minako reached the necklace. It gave Katarina goosebumps, though she didn't know why. Probably the air conditioning, though one would have thought the girl laying on top of her would have been enough to keep her warm.

"It's beautiful," Minako murmured appreciatively.

"And shiny," Katarina teased.

Minako didn't seem to notice, which Katarina considered a testament to just how shiny it was. "The jeweler who lent this to me said that he wouldn't part with this pendant for just anyone. He said that he created beautiful jewelry for truly beautiful people. He was quite happy he was lending it to me." She paused. "I thought it was sweet."

"I'm sure," Katarina said in clipped tone, disapproving of Minako's dreamy tone. She couldn't understand why the girl still couldn't tell when she was being hit on after all this time. "I suppose it's a good thing I wasn't there then. He would have refused you for certain."

"Don't be stupid," Minako said harshly, waving her hand as if to hit Katarina, though she missed by a considerable distance. "You're very pretty. You got flirted with loads at the party. Maybe even more than me."

"That's only because you kept sneaking off with that boy band person to your room. Don't think I didn't notice," Katarina said. "Besides, all of those men were drinking. We can't trust their judgment."

"Alan always said you were beautiful," Minako insisted, mispronouncing the world so that it sounded like she was three. 'Bootiful.' "He'd always quote Byron and things. 'She walks in beauty like the night" and all that."

Katarina was a little impressed that Minako had properly quoted the poem, but refrained from saying so. She sighed and said, "Well, apparently I wasn't beautiful enough for Alan. In case you've forgotten, he left me."

Minako snorted. "Alan is an idiot. I ought to know. I had a crush on him, and I only have crushes on idiots."

Katarina raised an eyebrow. "If he's such an idiot, should we really value his opinion on whether or not I'm aesthetically pleasing?"

Minako didn’t respond immediately, making Katarina think that perhaps she was pouting or preparing to tell her to shut up and leave her alone since she was clearly drunk or maybe even start snoring. It certainly wouldn’t have been the first time. Same thing had happened with the groomsman.

But that is most definitely not what happened next.

Katarina actually wasn’t too certain what happened next. She was aware of Minako’s fingers being replaced by a different kind of pressure. This less certain but with a heavier weight. It was damp and made Katarina’s eyelids flutter pleasantly. Lip gloss was left behind. Teeth nipped at the mole on the right side of her neck.

“What are you doing?” Katarina asked when her mind began to clear.

“You don’t think you’re beautiful,” Minako said, curiously matter-of-fact just before she licked Katarina’s earlobe. “I need to fix it.”

Katarina shifted, trying to sit up (though, she noted with some distaste, not necessarily trying to get away). She cleared her throat, which, judging by how the nibble dug in a bit deeper, Minako took to be encouragement. “I fail to see how this is necessary or even a proper remedy.”

“Don’t be stodgy,” Minako scolded. She bit Katarina’s neck.

Katarina gasped, hating herself for thinking of the phrase “pleasure mixed with pain.” She’d always found it abominable and clearly coined by someone who had been blessed with a simple kind of life where there was absolutely nothing to do but have sex with other people. She swallowed and dug her fingers (not her nails; she’d bitten them down to the quick) into the cushions. “I’m not being… Well, maybe I am being stodgy, but with good reason.”

“Katarina, when is the last time you had sex?” Minako asked very calmly as she ran her palms down Katarina’s arms. “Alan’s been gone over a year.”

In the occasional fantasy Katarina had indulged in since the break up, there had been conversation of a much less objectionable nature than her ex-boyfriend. She couldn’t help but be annoyed. “I thought this was one of those things that we didn’t talk about.”

“We talk about the last time I had sex all the time,” Minako pointed out somewhat nonsensically, still kissing her neck with skill Katarina could hardly call curious, but she could certain label it worrying.

“Yes, well it happens so often,” Katarina murmured, suddenly feeling that this must happen every time Minako got the slightest bit tipsy. It made a lot of things make sense. She began to get up, now feeling thoroughly cheapened. “I should go.”

Minako shook her head and held Katarina down. She’d forgotten the smaller woman’s strength. “Too early for that.”

Katarina wasn’t really worried. After all, it was likely that Minako was going to pass out at any moment. However, the way her heart was beating, she would have thought that she was anxious enough to give herself a coronary at any moment. “Minako, you’re being ridiculous. More so than usual. And that’s saying something.”

Minako heaved a very dramatic sigh, hot and wet against her skin. She flipped her hair as she pushed herself up enough so that her elbows were locked, asserting her dominance and giving her the benefit of eye contact. Katarina was surprised to find how sober - no, that was the wrong word – how serious she looked. She blinked like a slightly exasperated college professor and said, “Katarina, you need this.”

Katarina wrinkled her nose, always having a certain distaste for people who used the word ‘need’ in terms of relationships. Surely people needed human contact and occasionally they needed someone to talk to (or at) and interact with, but needing a person was dependency and that was unhealthy. “Minako, I do not--"

“Oh, I didn’t mean it like that,” Minako said, rolling her eyes obnoxiously. “But you have been stuck in a rut for the past year and a half. You sigh every ten minutes. You’re always staring off into space. You brood more than Alan ever did. I had to manipulate you just to get you to come to the party. I could go on. Would you like me to go on?”

Naturally, Katarina did not.

After a moment, Minako repositioned herself somewhat clumsily. She straddled Katarina so that their hips were flush against one another, and she bent her elbows so that her face was hovering over her now. She spoke and Katarina inhaled vermouth and expensive perfume.

“You don’t think you’re beautiful,” Minako repeated, her voice pitched low and quiet. “I need to fix that.” Minako’s eyes were piercing in a way Katarina had never seen before, stabbing into her like chilled ice picks. Her breath did an odd thing were it stalled in her throat and her blood pooled in places it had not been to in a very long time.

Wearing borrowed diamonds and a dress with sleeves to her bracelets, Katarina had never felt so bare in all of her life.

She scarcely had time to think about that or anything at all really. Faster than a clock could mark the passing of a second, Minako had dipped her head. Katarina had forgotten what a kiss felt like, and she was a little surprised at the sensation of tongue to tongue and lips pushing together and pulling back rhythmically. The tingling was unfamiliar, but she could likely blame that on Sephora® Lip Venom.

Katarina had always thought that kissing was highly overrated. It was wet and sloppy and rather uncivilized in her opinion. She’d never really been moved by it with Alan. Not when his lips had a tendency to slip and his overbite got in the way.

Kissing Minako was obviously very different. Even inebriated, there was strength behind each one. There was purpose and control, just the sort of things Katarina liked. Minako kissed aggressively, and if ever teeth were involved, it was to tug on Katarina’s lower lip, an act that made her stomach do pleasantly terrifying cartwheels.

Then her dress was coming off. Apparently, Minako wasted no time in getting to the heart of the matter. While the zipper at her side was being pulled down by blood red nails, Katarina thought that it was the last moment she could leave. She could say no, and that would be the end of it, and this would be one of those things they didn’t speak about for the rest of their lives. She thought about leaving as Minako’s hand slipped between skin and fabric.

Minako pulled away from a moment, panting. “Do you want to leave?”

Katarina stared up at her and very simply said, “No.”

Minako grinned and continued with what she had been doing before the brief interview. Katarina’s dress was removed with a fair amount of wiggling, leaving Katarina in a bra and knickers that were sensible enough to be embarrassing. She decided not to think about it, focusing instead on kicking off her shoes and being thankful that she never wore hose.

Before anything else could be done, apparently it was Minako to get out of her dress. This was a much simpler affair given Minako’s position and the fact that she liked to boast about the amount of time she spent horizontally, and whether or not any of it was true, she certainly thought enough about it to be an expert. Katarina had been expecting Minako to be wearing something scandalous like garters or black satin underneath the blood red silk she had worn for the party.

In truth, she had been wearing absolutely nothing at all.

Katarina couldn’t help but stare and felt a blush rise to her cheeks. “Oh,” she said, her voice an octave or two higher than her normal register. “Well then.”

“Indeed,” Minako growled, thickening her British accent for affect.

Katarina was too dazed to notice when her bra was removed, but she certainly came back to herself when Minako rolled a nipple between her thumb and forefinger. She gasped loudly, arching her back in surprise. Minako raised an eyebrow and grinned wickedly. “That long, huh?”

Katarina paid her no attention save to hook an arm around the girl’s neck and pull her back down, barely avoiding an accident between their noses. Minako continued fondling her breasts, pinching and squeezing and rolling to see what would get the biggest reaction. That came when the kissing stopped and Minako began suckling her. Then Katarina uttered what was almost a moan, digging her fingers into Minako’s back so that both of them were very glad she had no nails to pierce the skin.

“Thank God we aren’t actually sisters,” Katarina joked breathlessly.

Minako didn’t respond. She merely dragged her teeth across the nipple, making Katarina’s hips jump.

Katarina suspected that under other circumstances, Minako might have dragged this part out until Katarina was a sweaty, panting wreck of a woman for purposes Katarina had never been able to understand. But given that Minako’s patience seemed to decrease with every ounce of alcohol she was given, Katarina got lucky. That reaction was all the encouragement Minako needed to inch her way down Katarina’s stomach, marking the trail with lips and teeth and tongue. Her fingers forged ahead, hooking onto either side of the remaining cloth, pulling them down as far as mid-calf. Katarina was about to either complain or go about removing them herself when Minako gripped her hips with force that should not have been as surprising as it was and moved her head between Katarina’s legs.

Then it was very hard to think of anything at all.

Katarina gasped and tangled her fingers in Minako’s hair, ruining what had probably been a very expensive trip to the salon and not caring. She was too wrapped up in Minako’s tongue licking from vagina to clit, sometimes plunging in or circling around. It felt too good to agonize about anything else. She found herself pushing Minako’s head in farther, wanting more from her. Perhaps even needing more from her.

“Oh, God…” Katarina breathed, hoping she didn’t sound too like the women in those movies she’d always pretended that Alan didn’t have. “Please…”

She heard Minako moan into her skin, making Katarina crane her neck to look down at her. She couldn’t say that Minako made an elegant picture with her head between her legs, her hair in disarray, and her right hand pumping in and out of her own folds. But for whatever reason, it made Katarina that much more flustered.

She whimpered when Minako closed her lips around her clit and sucked it in, pushing her hips up and thinking that perhaps she was close. Katarina would have thought it would have happened much sooner given the amount of time that had passed, but it seemed that wasn’t the case. Minako seemed equally frustrated as she sat up, breathing hard. She removed Katarina’s knickers the rest of the way and repositioned herself once again. Katarina found herself gaping at the other woman’s flexibility once she finally settled, pushing their pelvises together so that Minako’s center was pushing against Katarina’s.

She rocked her hips forward and closed a damp hand around Katarina’s wrist. “Push back,” she instructed, her blue eyes slightly hazy.

Katarina did as she was told, somewhat awkwardly at first. But they quickly developed a rhythm with one another, perspiration speckling their bodies and Katarina making enough noise to now be certain that she was exactly like those women and not caring in the slightest. She tossed her head back and forth, grunting with effort. True to her stories, Minako was not a quiet lover, shouting and moaning in a way the neighbors would have though unseemly if Minako didn’t own the whole building. It certainly would have bothered Katarina had she not been thrashing against Minako, finding that the experience was becoming increasingly erotic.

The orgasm took Katarina almost completely by surprise. Her eyes widened so that she thought they might pop out of her head, her hips bucking wildly as she crested. It was a good thing to because the last movement was just enough to send Minako over the edge. The blonde actually screamed and somehow kept up the momentum to continue the experience for as long as possible. It was nearly a full minute before things began to return to equilibrium again.

Once Minako felt she was satiated, she collapsed completely on Katarina, gasping as though she hadn’t inhaled in ten years. It was hot and uncomfortable, but Katarina couldn’t move nor did she want to in spite of that. Though that could have been the dizziness she felt talking.

A moment later, she felt Minako’s fingers at her throat again. She was preoccupied with the jewelry again, the heat from her fingers fogging up the silver.

“Diamonds look fucking great on you,” Minako murmured, licking her inner ear.

She laughed. “I suppose so,” Katarina conceded.