In Private.
Shaina had been waiting in the cottage for many an hour already. She did not know why he had not left sooner that evening or why was she still waiting there. Maybe Marin would not show up and she would have just wasted her time.
She felt bizarre, yet intimately connected to that old cottage. Marin’s house was always neat and perfectly ordered. Every little piece was in its place, the bed, the box of the Eagle’s Armour. Even Marin’s clothing, carefully kept in a trunk some meters away from where she was sitting.
Ophiucus liked it, though. She loved to see and noticed how different they had always been and still were, no matter how close they had become.
Slowly, the Silver Saint started to take his clothes off. Taking care to fold them and place them in the chair where she had just been sitting. First her shoes, put on a side. Then her pants, her blouse. Finally her underwear. The last thing she took from her body was her silver mask, which rested over her belongings.
Once naked, she got in the bed.
It was a warm night; hence, Shaina looked for the sheets to cover herself. She loved how soft they were. It was all soft about Marin, she recollected. Her skin, her voice. Even her hair, which she loved to braid. Soon, and still absorbed in her thoughts, Shaina fell asleep.
“Shaina, wake up.” Marin whispered. When she had arrived, she had found Shaina sleeping in her bed. She had spent the last minutes carefully observing the other woman’s features and had thought about the Saint’s beauty. Shaina turned to look at her and smiled, yawning a little. “Look at you.” Marin pointed, lifting the sheets to reveal Shaina.
“Don’t you like it?” The woman responded, a mischievous look on her face. She sat, inviting Marin to accompany her, by patting on the empty spot next to her.
“Always” Marin responded moving towards the bed.
Ariadne, December 25, 2005