Skin to Skin: A Shoujo Parallels Relationship Short

Alpha Belt
Mortal Realm
November 2014

Aria Venura yelped upon feeling something light brush against her foot. Beside her, Bea Mora lifted a brow curiously. “Anything wrong, Broski?”

“I – no, it’s nothing.” She forced out a laugh, trying not to let the blush on her cheeks be so obvious to the others. Bea merely shrugged and chewed on her pasta, talking at a rapid speed as Diana Alrada and Marie Ramos listened. Aria flushed upon feeling it again, knowing who exactly was doing that and sending her into a flustered state.

Giselle Rivers listened blankly to the conversation, chewing on the sausage bun slowly. She had lifted a brow at Aria’s noises, chuckling quietly to herself as the girl next to her attempted to calm herself down. Casually leaning over, she took advantage of how close Aria was and whispered:  “Did you like that?”

Aria scowled and punched Giselle’s arm immediately upon hearing that, Giselle keeping in her laughs as much as she could. Under the table, however, Aria felt the other’s foot gently play around with hers, heels off and feeling. Her breath hitched as the feeling intensified.

Slowly yet surely, Aria flitted her other foot around and nudged Giselle’s gently. Giselle showed no reaction and Aria wasn’t so surprised – the other didn’t tend to show her reactions that easily.

Despite that, she merely went on. She did her own thing and when the other retaliated, casually leaned her head on the other’s shoulder, making sure to lace her fingers with Giselle’s.

On the other hand, Giselle Rivers was merely keeping calm. The conversation flowed easily and Aria gave her own loud replies, Giselle agreeing and talking every now and then. Despite what it seemed to be above the table, however – underneath, it was getting intense.

Aria felt herself reddening the longer it went on, relief (and disappointment) flooding when Diana and the others announced that it was time to go back upstairs. She was about to untangle their feet from Giselle’s, but the latter did something that made her breath hitch yet again:

She felt the other’s toes run up her leg, then down, and then pulled away.

“You look like you’re going to get an asthma attack soon,” Diana wisecracked. Aria pretended to ignore that, shakily putting back on her shoes without as much sound as she could. Unbeknownst to her, Giselle was smiling widely, folding the paper bag into quarters.

“Nah. She won’t. She’s fine.”

“Yeah. Totally fucking fine,” Aria mumbled. As the others moved on, Giselle lingered and Aria caught her hand, dragging her out the cafeteria. “I hate you so much,” she whined. Giselle merely laughed, Aria pouting (quite adorably) as they went up the stairs.

“It felt nice.”

Aria merely grumbled in response.

* * * * *

The next few days went on just like that – except Aria was able to keep her composure easily than ever, even taking care to initiate the action between them during the times they sat next to each other. Giselle would give her an odd look at first and Aria would smile back innocently, and they would go on, eating and talking with the other XDees while feet played around underneath.

Their “game” had just stopped when Giselle turned to look at her – feeling slightly saddened, she slipped her feet back into her shoes.

“Necklace or bracelet?” the Storm Original asked suddenly.

Aria blinked.

“…why?”

“Just answer,” Giselle replied patiently. She added, “I’ll show you upstairs.”

“Oh, okay. In that case, necklace.” The long-haired girl merely nodded, Aria wondering what the question as all about. As she turned to listen to a joke that Belle wanted her to hear, she didn’t quite notice Giselle starting to take her usual bracelet off her right wrist.

They had gone up soon after and were in their booth – Bea, Anna and Diana were looking at the mind trick art posted on the blackboard, and their other batchmates were still eating downstairs. Aria was closing her eyes and humming when Giselle’s soft taps got her zoned out.

“You said bracelet, right?”

“I did,” she answered happily, only to have her eyes widen and mouth fall open upon seeing what Giselle held out in her hand.

It was the bracelet she wore everyday to school, bearing a muted pink pendant which was spotted all over; except it was longer this time. And Aria realized at that moment that it was a bracelet that could easily be turned back into a necklace. “What are you…”

“Remove your glasses,” Giselle told her simply. Aria did and laid them on the table, Giselle adjusting the necklace a bit more and putting it on the smaller girl. Aria felt the light weight land on her chest, the necklace taking the place of the dog tag she wore frequently. She rolled it in her fingers, feeling the slight warmth that radiated from it.

“Won’t you need this…?” Giselle shrugged.

“I can make do without it. You need it more than I do.” And Aria felt herself blush again, opening her mouth to at least say something. “Don’t say anything else.”

“But River,” she protested, about to say that she was just going to keep it for that day and that day only – but she froze up upon feeling Giselle’s lips on her forehead.

“Again: don’t stress about it,” she repeated coolly.

Aria merely covered her face, Giselle smiling in satisfaction.