Chosen Family Pt. 03

Author's Note:

This is part three of five. If you would like anything here to make sense, you should read the first two parts first.

-------------------

Mary, about three weeks after game night.

Hazel - her girlfriend, how weird was that! - was much gayer than she was.

Was that the right way to frame it? Thinking in those terms felt wrong. Like it was some kind of contest or something, and that seemed toxic. But Mary still felt like there was some kind of gap between them, and she didn't have other words to describe it, despite it having nothing to do with their relative attractions to each other. No, Mary felt plenty gay in that department. The flurries of butterflies and tingles through her body whenever Hazel met her eyes were more than enough to be sure. The jury was still out on her view on men. Maybe she was bi like she'd always believed, or maybe she'd eventually figure out men sucked and she'd been gay the entire time. That debate had taken a back seat to this.

No, this was more like... cultural lesbianism? Was that a thing? Or maybe gay identity? It seemed that Hazel was a lot more confident - or maybe comfortable was the right word - in her own skin as a lesbian. Mary, by contrast, constantly felt like a fish out of water, and couldn't stop thinking of everything in terms of what she knew. Her lifetime of relationships with men.

There were some little differences and some big ones, and noticing them was amusing at first. Like when she'd seen inside Hazel's closet. All her dresses and bras were picked for comfort and utility, and there were pockets! So many glorious pockets, and not a single pair of heels. Like, the full fucking zero. Hazel had clearly never given a single solitary fuck about the male gaze in her life, and Mary loved it.

But then there were other things, and the things started piling up, and it started making Mary feel a little uneasy. She was sure Hazel liked her. Hazel had made that abundantly clear... but what if she didn't fit in with what Hazel was used to? Whenever she spent time around Hazel's friends as a group, she always felt like she stuck out. They were all so confident and sure in their identities, it was hard not to feel out of place. One on one with Hazel was easier.

That was mostly why she'd turned down their invitation to join their upcoming camping trip. Well, at least partially. She did also kinda hate camping, but she kept that to herself. She was already feeling insufficiently gay, and what kind of lesbian doesn't love camping! And of course, if she told them that, they'd laugh and tell her she was being stupid playing into stereotypes, and she'd have no counterargument. She knew it, but logic could only help so much.

The pressure kept building up inside her until she decided she needed to do something about it. Something to make herself feel more valid, even if it was just inside her own head. Tonight, she'd made up her mind to take a big step forward. Tonight, she'd kiss her girlfriend. That'd be pretty damn gay, right?

It wasn't really a date, they'd just planned to watch TV together after work. They hadn't decided what - probably just scroll through Hulu or Netflix until something caught their eye. They'd made it as far as the bed, which doubled as a couch because Hazel's apartment was too tiny to fit one, but then they'd gotten sidetracked by basically nothing but each other. Their conversation from dinner about all the life stories Mary had been hearing from Hazel's friends had spilled over, and they'd found themselves leaning into each other as the time passed, neither wanting to make a move for the remote.

One more difference to add to the list. Every man Mary had ever dated would have gotten bored ages ago and turned on the screen.

"Does it make it any easier to figure yourself out?" Hazel asked as they reached the end of talking through her friend Alex's history of lesbian self-discovery.

She got this adorable look - half hopeful, half hesitant. Like she really wanted Mary to feel secure in herself and this relationship with her, but she also didn't want her to feel pressured at all. It made Mary feel wanted, with an intensity she was surprised by for a relationship she'd only been in for a few weeks.

"A bit," Mary hedged, wanting to reassure her girlfriend but also trying to stay honest. "I think I've decided to take Rose's advice and try not to worry about the gay versus bi label so much." She wrapped her arms tightly around Hazel and pulled her into a tight hug. "I'm positive calling you my girlfriend feels fantastic, so I'm just going to focus on that. Trying to figure out how I feel about the men in my past isn't nearly as important."

Hazel beamed at her, her eyes huge with happiness. "That's great! I was a little afraid you'd feel overwhelmed."

Her sincere positivity made Mary's heart bleed. Smiling and nodding through that was definitely over the line into lying by omission. Deciding not to worry about ex-boyfriends was easy. Deciding how she felt about herself, and how she fit into this brave new world?

"Who says I'm not?" Mary made herself laugh to cover her anxieties. She took a breath and tentatively tried to put some of her feelings into words. "Really, there's so much I'm not used to, dating you, I feel like I'm constantly trying to play catch up. But in terms of feelings and discovery and stuff, I think I've finally figured out how to describe it."

"Oh?" Hazel snuggled deeper into her side, looking up at her expectantly and sending those tingles Mary liked so much cascading through her.

"Yeah. Do you remember the first time you got drunk?"

Hazel grinned in that adorable way that made her look like she'd just bitten into a bit of chocolate. "Mostly."

"Did you do the thing where you were, like, super self-analytical taking notes on everything you felt? Like you were watching your own reaction to the alcohol like a science experiment?"

"Of course I did! Doesn't everybody?"

"You'd be surprised. Keith called me a goddamn nerd when I asked him that."

"Which only implies denial, it doesn't mean he didn't do it."

Mary hadn't thought of that. "Damn, now I've got to ask him again."

"So, you're saying being with me is like being drunk?" Hazel teased.

"No! I mean the other bit, silly," Mary said, gently rubbing along Hazel's back, enjoying the little contented sigh she made. "I keep feeling things, and like, cataloging them. Like I'm doing a psych study, but I'm both the researcher and guinea pig at once."

"What do the results look like so far?"

Mary gave Hazel's side a little tickle. "You're trying to get me to sing your praises, aren't you!"

"No!" Hazel laughed, mirroring Mary's previous denial perfectly, but wriggling and glancing away for a second in a way that made it totally unconvincing. God, if she wasn't already planning to kiss her tonight, that face would definitely make Mary want to do it. "I'm just curious how dating me is different."

Mary feigned a thoughtful look. "Well, dating a coworker is a first for me."

"You know what I mean!"

"Oh, all right!" Mary gave her another little tickle, just for good measure, while going through the list. It was getting pretty long. Best to pick something funny, and not too serious or revealing. Now wasn't the time for some deep discussion about differences in communication or empathy. It'd spoil the playful mood. Instead, she went with, "You're much more cuddly, like a teddy bear, and it's awesome."

"What?!?" Hazel laughed, flexing her muscles to hardness. "That's a new one for me."

"I said more cuddly, not softer! Trust me, I absolutely love how buff you are."

"You compared me to a stuffed animal pillow, and I'm deeply offended."

"Oh, shut up!" Mary slouched back into the bed, letting Hazel's weight carry her over and bring them even closer. Without conscious thought, Mary felt her eyes dart down to Hazel's lips again, smiling broad and inviting. "The guys I've dated haven't really been cuddlers. Whenever they've done it with me, it's usually been because they wanted sex. Not just intimate closeness." She ran her fingers through Hazel's hair, brushing it out from between their faces and tucking it behind her ear. "I like this."

As she said it, Mary inwardly cringed. Here she was, trying to maneuver them into their first kiss, claiming she just liked being close to Hazel with no ulterior motives. Mixed messages!

Or actually, maybe it was a good thing? She didn't want to have sex with Hazel yet. Or rather, she did. Desperately. Hazel made her so fucking horny, she'd gone home and furiously masturbated after every time they did something together. Despite that, the thought of trying to have sex with another woman outside fantasy and in real life? Terrifying! She had no idea how to do it, and it made her feel so far out of her league! A lifetime of knowing she found women hot, and of devouring lesbian erotica to get herself off, but she still felt like she'd be useless in bed with Hazel. Hell, even her own vulva was a mystery to her. She'd always needed vibrating sex toys to give herself orgasms. What if she couldn't make Hazel feel good? What if Hazel decided she wasn't worth the effort of teaching, and went back to dating experienced women who knew about their own sexualities, and could confidently bring her to screaming orgasms with their mouths?

And besides all that, there was the other thing. Hazel said one of the rules of lesbian sex was not to compare bodies, because it never led anywhere positive. But it was kind of impossible to be with somebody as fit and attractive and impossibly beautiful as Hazel was, and not notice and feel inadequate.

Too many scary thoughts! She wasn't ready for that yet. Not for full blown sex, anyway. A bit of making out, though? YES PLEASE!

Hazel's eyes shone. They were close, close enough for Mary to feel her breath against her lips, making them quiver in anticipation. "I like it too," she murmured.

Mary braced herself, getting ready for it. Her excitement built on itself...

But they continued gazing into each other's eyes, and the moment dragged on without either of them making a move. What was Hazel waiting for? Didn't she realize how much she wanted it? Why--oh! Right, of course. Mary mentally jotted another line on her internal research notes. More gendered norms she was trying to unlearn. Not just being used to her boyfriends taking the lead, she also wasn't used to her partner caring so much about how she felt. Hazel had made it clear she'd go at Mary's speed, and she was probably worried she wasn't ready for this either.

No problem, she'd just have to show her she was ready!

Mary slowly blinked, like a cat expressing affection, then tilted her neck forward to plant a kiss on Hazel's lips.

It was... well, it felt like a kiss. She leaned back again, trying to detect any magical fireworks or distinct feelings. Good, but maybe not storybook-epically-life-changing? Wasn't her first gay kiss supposed to be magic? Maybe she'd hyped it up too--

"You're doing it again, aren't you?" Hazel brought her back to reality.

"What?"

"Self-analyzing, dumbass!"

"Oh--yeah," Mary felt herself starting to color. "Sorry, but it's hard not to."

"It's fine, but don't put so much pressure on it! Just relax and let yourself enjoy it."

This time, Hazel did take the lead, leaning into her and sensually letting their bodies fit into each other like puzzle pieces. Her lips felt soft, gentle but delightfully passionate as they connected with Mary's, slowly pressing together until she slipped between them, her mouth opening and tentatively probing inside.

There it was! The magic she'd hoped for! Mary felt herself melting inside, her tongue meeting Hazel's and twisting around her, dancing together in slow spins that left them both breathless.

"Better?" Hazel asked, panting when they finally came apart.

YES! Oh my god yes! Mary tried to answer, but somehow, the words got jumbled between her head and her mouth, and all she could manage was a dazed sort of nod.

Hazel seemed to understand. "More?" She asked in a teasing sort of voice, as if determined to make Mary even redder, then laughed at the urgent enthusiasm of Mary's wordless nod.

The longer they kissed, the more aware Mary became of the rest of Hazel's body. Their legs slowly sliding up and down against each other, their chests rising and falling with their excited breathing, Hazel's breasts pressing into her own, making Mary much more excited. She wanted to feel them. To feel every inch of Hazel's body. What should she be doing with her hands? If she started feeling Hazel up, what would she think? Fear and indecision battled in Mary's head, even as she tried to block them out and just enjoy kissing her girlfriend. Why couldn't anything be easy!

Much later that night, after Mary had gone home and feverishly gotten herself off reliving every second of making out until her vibrator's batteries died, she knew she needed more. Maybe she didn't feel totally ready, but one thing was for sure. She was really tired of feeling afraid of something she wanted, and it was becoming obvious that she would until she finally took the plunge. Hazel would help her figure it out, just like she'd held her hand through everything so far. She'd more than earned all Mary's trust, and suffering in silence like she'd just done felt like some kind of betrayal.

Better late than never. Pausing just long enough to plug her vibrator into its charger - because who knows? She might need it again soon - Mary found her phone and typed a message.

Mary: Tonight was amazing, and I loved it so much. I want to do more with you, but I have no clue how to have sex with you, and I'm afraid I'll be terrible at it. Please help me.

-------------------

Rose, a few days later.

If she got to pick one legend about the world to magically make true, it would have to be the one about teachers getting summer vacation off. Just like everybody thought she did, except, like, for real. That'd be sweet... but alas, not to be. Instead of living in a tent and spending all her time climbing, or going to explore a new European town by train every day, or hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, her summer months were a maze of google maps directions zigzagging across town from one tutoring client to another.

Not that she was complaining! The pay was good, there was much less tedious grading to do, and she got to teach SAT math prep, which was a nice break from her usual school year curriculum. A bunch of her clients were previous students, grown up and getting ready to apply to college. Seeing how they'd matured always made her proud. Like, apart from teaching them a bit about problem solving, she'd succeeded in helping them become better people.

But the biggest perk was setting her own schedule. Getting to take a few hours for lunch some days, so she could visit with members of the family, or go on hikes with the newly minted fitness junkie Brittany, or sneak away for some sexy time with Lydia.

Like she was doing right now!

Technically, it wasn't really a lunch break because Matt Laytham, her only afternoon student, was 'sick'. She was done for the day, but calling it 'lunch break sex' made it feel different. Like they were rushing off for an illicit affair that had to be kept secret from the world.

With the sorts of things she'd been getting up to with Lydia in the last few weeks, that last bit felt especially true.

Lydia was waiting in the driveway when Rose arrived to pick her up, looking a bit different than she had before. She'd combed her hair straight and left it draped around her shoulders, where it met up with the straps of the loose, flowing dress she'd picked to match the color. She also had a frilly parasol for the sun, and combined with the rest of the image, it was absolutely adorable.

"You remind me of my friend Alex," Rose said when she'd joined her in the car. "She also likes to mix up her styles from time to time."

"Oh? Remind me, which one is she?"

"She's the one who came to get me at the party when we met. You remember, she had the whole formal suit going?"

"Oh yeah! She isn't always doing the hyper masculine look?"

"Nah," Rose laughed. "She actually just recently switched to the opposite extreme. She's got a new lady she's chasing after, so she's presenting even more traditionally feminine than you are now."

"Really?" Lydia daintily adjusted her parasol across her lap. "I didn't think that was possible. Do you like this?"

"Yeah! You look really cute."

"Thanks. It's actually an idea I'm experimenting with for my next gig. I've got a track list set up that's more on the chill side and I want something to match the vibe. Anyway, how's Alex's look more fem than me? I thought I'd got it perfect."

"Well, maybe I'm wrong, but I'm betting she's more authentic underneath." Rose turned from the road just long enough to give Lydia a pointed look, drop her eyes down meaningfully to her chest, then back to driving. "She went and got these absurdly lacy lingerie sets, but I'm betting you've got nothing at all under there."

"You know me too well!" Lydia's voice shifted in a way Rose had learned to associate with very hot fun. "Wanna see?"

The way her eyes were drawn irresistibly back from driving over again to see Lydia playing with the hem of her dress made Rose feel like a stereotypical horny teenage boy. It wasn't helped by Lydia gazing back at her with the corners of her mouth turned up. Her tease grin! "I'm driving!" Rose complained.

"So?"

"If we die, I'm telling Saint Peter it was your fault."

Lydia had unbuckled her seatbelt and was fidgeting in her seat, but paused long enough to laugh. "Dude, you think we're getting into heaven? After all the things we've done outside the bounds of holy wedlock?"

Rose tried to ignore the little void that opened up in her stomach. Nevermind being married, she couldn't even work up the courage to make their relationship official! Lydia seemed perfectly fine with just being friends who happened to have regular sex, and Rose couldn't decide if that was the best or worst thing possible. It let her maintain the comfortable illusion, which was nice, but the illusion came with baggage. There were tons of things she wanted to do with Lydia, but couldn't without shattering it.

Like inviting Lydia to join their upcoming camping trip to the Adirondack High Peaks. It would be so much fun to have her there! All the secluded little trails to hide in and get sexy, while feeling the thrill of being out in the open? Perfect!

But being together for five days with no breaks and sharing a tent together was so far over the line into girlfriend territory, Rose got little panic attacks each time she thought about it. They were just supposed to be a summertime fling! Nothing serious! Lydia was leaving in a few months! Still, despite her intentions, Rose already felt herself getting emotionally attached. Feelings that frightened her but felt so very good at the same time.

Rose felt a gentle touch on her arm, drawing her back to the conversation. "But, as long as it's gonna be my fault we're going to hell anyway, might as well earn it."

"What do you--" Rose started to ask, but Lydia was guiding her arm across the console to her side, placing it on her leg, and the answer became obvious. Bare skin, no dress. Rose gulped, willing herself to stay focused on the road. Eyes forward, watch the other cars, pay no mind to the smooth warmth of Lydia's thigh, or the way she couldn't feel any hint of cloth resistance no matter how far up her fingers probed.

"Does this get your rush going?" Lydia asked, shifting in her seat and bringing her leg up to give Rose full access to her uppermost thigh. Just another inch or two and she'd be touching her-- Oh! There she was!

"Yeah," Rose admitted, the familiar excitement beginning inside her. Not just the erotic kind - though definitely that too. The kind that hit her inner thrill seeker. Keeping her eyes on the road and at least part of her mind focused on the car in front of them, she gently brushed her fingers along Lydia's intimate skin. Another car passed them, close enough to see in the windows if the figure driving had looked. Could they have seen Lydia's state, or would the angle not work to see what was happening in her lap? Not knowing somehow made it more exciting. "You're so hot," she breathed.

Lydia chuckled, amused. "What, this? This is just a bit of fun to pass the time before lunch. If you're looking for an adventure, wait and see what I've got in store for us when you're back from camping."

Rose frowned, quickly replaying Lydia's words in her mind. She'd gotten better at picking up on her social cues, but she was still far from fluent in her personal language. Was there a hint of something there? Was she disappointed not to have been invited? Rose couldn't hear anything like that in her voice, but that meant about as much as her failing to pick up the nuances of a novel written in Portuguese.

"Does it involve this outfit, the party you're DJing at, and me doing the same thing I am right now to you while we're dancing on stage?"

Lydia's chuckle turned into a full-on laugh. "No, but I love that idea! That's better than mine, we're doing it."

Rose momentarily left tracing Lydia's labia to give her thigh a squeeze. "You're insane. You know that, right?"

"Yep! Just like you, my extreme climbing friend."

"Hey! Climbing is safe! It's just, like, simulating a bit of danger for fun."

"And nobody ever got injured showing a bit of skin, but it still triggers the rush in both of us." She put a hand over top of Rose's, pulling it from teasing around her edges to rub her pussy directly. She was already moistening! Rose gripped the steering wheel harder, focusing herself while simultaneously feeling her excitement soar with each circle around Lydia's very hot, gently throbbing clit. "You see?" Lydia said, breathily. "I bet you love this just as much as I do."

She was right, no denying it. Part of her worried that Lydia was like a drug she'd become addicted to, and she was setting herself up for a heartbreaking end of summer, but she drowned it out. Between driving and pleasuring her lover, there wasn't room in her head for anything other than delight.

But It got her thinking. Climbing was a friends thing, right? Yeah, just a bit of fun, no romantic implications there. "Actually, my student after lunch cancelled on me, so I was going to join everybody at the climbing gym. Do you wanna come?"

"Damn, I can't! I've got work at the restaurant, I'd love to though. Next time?"

"Yeah, that'd be great! Brittany has been coming with us, I'd love to teach you too."

There was a short pause, then Lydia asked, "She's the one with the blue hair you were dancing with at the party, right?"

"Yeah! She really likes your music too."

"And she's the one you've mentioned doing hikes with while I'm at work, right?"

"That's her," Rose confirmed, happy Lydia remembered. "She's started a fitness journey with Liv, but Liv doesn't have time during the day for long cardio training, so I've been trying to help when I've got gaps between clients."

"Do you like her?"

"Yeah, she's cool, and I think she really wants to fit in with us."

"I thought she was supposed to be Liv's girlfriend."

Rose felt her smile drop a little. "She wanted to be, and they did hook up a few weeks ago, but it didn't work out."

"But they're still friends? Isn't that awkward?"

"It doesn't seem to be, they get along great. They would have made a great couple, they've got so much in common. I think Liv realized she isn't as over her ex as she thought she was, and Brittany is both really understanding and really needs friends."

"Oh," Lydia said, quietly, then pulled at Rose's hand and adjusted again to give her a better angle at her sex. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be a downer. I'd like to spend more time getting to know your friends."

"We'll figure something out when we're back from camping!" Rose said, excitedly. God, it was so hard to focus on talking and driving while Lydia's insides felt so good! She should apologize for not inviting her camping. She really should. But what if Lydia read into it? They were supposed to be just friends. Friends who had intoxicatingly risky outdoor sex and fingered each other while driving. Yeah. Perfectly normal. She could practically see Olivia scowling in her mind's eye, saying something about cognitive dissonance and how she should give Lydia a chance to be different than her ex-girlfriends.

They'd had that conversation a few times already, and Rose knew Olivia was right. But the scars left on her soul by Zelda, Faith and Astrid were still a little bit too deep. So, she pushed the hard thoughts aside and let herself keep enjoying pleasuring Lydia, loving the thrill of the drive and the rush Lydia's breathy reactions gave her. Lydia squirmed in her seat, gently rocking herself into Rose's hand and getting noticeably more slick beneath her fingertips.

On the console, Rose's phone buzzed twice for a new message. Then twice more, and then it kept on buzzing more or less constantly.

"Sounds like somebody wants your attention," Lydia half giggled, half cooed.

"Sorry," Rose reluctantly paused her ministrations for a second to squeeze the side button and stop notifications. "It's gotta be our group chat. I bet Alex just got out of a meeting. We've been talking about Hazel's new girlfriend, helping her plan out how to introduce Mary to lesbian sex for the first time."

"Sounds fun!"

"Have you ever done that?"

"Yeah, but it wasn't really thought out. We both just kind of launched at each other and did what felt good."

"Same with most of us, but Mary is really nervous, so we're trying to think of the best way to give her a positive experience. How would you do it, if you could plan out everything?"

Lydia leaned back and gave a contented little sigh as Rose's fingers circled her clit. "Do I have to assume Mary is a boring, normal person?"

Rose laughed. "She's not about to strip in her car and get fingered while driving, if that's what you're asking."

"Pity, more people should try it. But if she's the nervous type, probably just go slow and ease her into things. If I was your friend, I'd let her get used to touching my body for a bit first. Let her feel like she's safe to explore." She choked off a little moan as Rose circled faster and harder. "Hard to tell without knowing her. Fuck! Rose, are you trying to make me cum before we get there?"

Rose's blood pulsed, and she grinned wide, reveling in it. "Nope," she glanced over to meet Lydia's eyes, just for a second, to show her how excited she was. "I'm hoping to get you close, then park at the restaurant and get you out of the car, back you up against it, and finish you off there."

"Oh my god!" Lydia's thighs trembled and she audibly gasped. "I'm so getting you back for this!"

-------------------

Olivia

Eyes on the prize. El Capitan. The granite wall that was the Mecca of climbers all over the world rose thousands of feet above Yosemite Valley, and in a few short months, she was going to climb it.

Olivia sat in the climbing gym parking lot, staring at the pictures she kept loaded up on her phone, waiting for the rest to arrive and psyching herself up for another day of training. Eyes on the prize. Today: the gym again. Next week: practice on Wallface in the Adirondacks. The end of the summer: the real thing.

It sucked living on the east coast. Wallface was about 3,700 feet tall, but most of that was a hike up, and the climbing section only rose about 800 feet. Not short by any stretch, and there were challenging routes, but like... for fuck's sake, on the west coast, it would barely count as something worth bothering to put on the map! Everything out west was bigger, better, more epic, with better weather and parks actually designed with camping in mind. Yosemite Valley had both more and better climbs in a 10-mile radius than the entire northeastern United States combined.

And like... 'Wallface'? Really? Why couldn't whoever was responsible for naming these places come up with something that didn't sound like a fucking preschooler?

Whatever. It'd do for practice, and portions of it were easy enough for beginners getting their first taste of outdoor climbing, which made it perfect for her obsession-themed plan to fool Rose.

Keeping anything completely hidden from Rose was nearly impossible - at least for people Rose felt close to. Rose was completely oblivious to new people, but once she spent time around somebody and learned to interpret their social cues, she became like a mind reader. It was uncanny, she usually knew what Olivia was feeling before Olivia did herself. The only way Olivia knew to keep a secret from her was to make a mask out of enough true and strong emotions that one false one could stay hidden.

So that was the plan. Pretend she wasn't madly in love with Rose and consumed by romantic dreams of them together by being passionately obsessed with other things. Rose would still know she was upset about something, of course, but hopefully the mask would keep her from looking too closely, and she'd just assume it was caused by something else.

Part one, become completely obsessed with training for El Cap. Part two, become obsessed with helping Brittany, both getting fit and building friendships with the family.

After Olivia's disastrous meltdown following their night of sex, Brittany had been completely unreasonably understanding. She should have been furious. Olivia had basically led her on for a week, fucked her, then decided she was emotionally unavailable and dumped her. Sure, Brittany told the story in more charitable terms, but that was essentially what had gone down, and Olivia hated herself for it. Brittany deserved so much better. Hell, Brittany had even pretended to be interested in fitness just to give Olivia an excuse to feel better about something! Brittany was a goddamn saint and Olivia didn't deserve her, but if she wanted to get in with the family, Olivia would make it happen or die trying.

Speaking of self-loathing, she also hated herself for lying to Rose, but what other choice did she have?

Rose had heard the words "I love you" from three partners in her life. She'd been head over heels in love with all three of them, and they'd all gone on to break her heart in their own cruel and twisted ways. After Zelda, the third and last of them, had completely vanished into thin air - ghosting her after a year and a half of happy memories and planning for permanence, Rose had never really recovered. The part of herself that believed she was worthy of love had died, and in the time since then, she'd never had another girlfriend. Sure, there'd been some hookups and flings at concerts and parties, but Rose had unfortunately become conditioned to see romantic relationships as inviting inevitable agony.

From there, the fear had only grown in Rose's subconscious, twisting in on itself until it became like a beast she could hardly face down. It broke Olivia's heart, because it was so wrong for her friend. Rose had always been the fearless one. The one whose determination and grit could get her to the top of any climb. The kindest person she knew, who genuinely wanted nothing more than seeing her friends succeed.

So, if Olivia shared her feelings with Rose, it would not end well. She would take on that phobia space in Rose's mind, except even worse because she was supposed to be Rose's rock. Her best friend. Her sister. The one she could always rely on. The fear of losing her would eat away at Rose, and there'd be nothing Olivia could do to reassure her.

At least, not the way Rose was right now.

And so that led to Olivia's third obsession. She would do whatever it took to make Rose's relationship with Lydia work out. She'd failed so far finding some way to help Rose lift herself out of this rut, and that made her feel like a terrible best friend, but this time it would be different. She'd make it different. Somehow. Maybe it wouldn't cure Rose, but one positive datapoint had to be a step in the right direction. Something to convince Rose she wasn't cursed.

But holy fuck it hurt so much! And Olivia hated that it hurt, because she wasn't supposed to be jealous, and that made her feel guilty and hurt even more, and it was a vicious cycle! Why couldn't she just be a good, normal best friend? The kind who didn't lie about her feelings, and didn't have to pretend to be busy cooking or something when Rose shared stories about the wild sex she'd been having with Lydia, just for an excuse to turn her face away from Rose in case the mask slipped? Lydia was perfect for Rose, and the jealousy Olivia couldn't stop herself feeling was yet another source of self-loathing. Part of a list that was getting pretty long.

A knock on her car window made Olivia jump.

"Fuck!" She yelled at Brittany, who was waving innocently in at her. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

"I only knocked! How should I have got your attention?"

"I don't know, walk by the front or text me or something."

"I tried that, you didn't notice."

"No, you didn't," Olivia said, and was about to hold her phone out as evidence when she noticed the unread messages notification. Shit! How had she been staring at the screen and not noticed? Brittany, to her credit, maintained her innocent look. "Not a goddamn word to anybody."

"Wouldn't dream of it."

-------------------

Brittany

She eyed the next handhold above her dubiously. Olivia and Ivy had made this look trivially easy, but being here now, herself? Well, in theory, it was simple. Just reach up and right, and grab the rock. But one minor detail, she couldn't reach it while keeping her weight on her feet where they were. It was a dynamic move, she'd have to jump, catch the handhold, and support her weight there while quickly resetting her feet on those two rocks over there.

Brittany gulped, wishing her calves and hands would stop burning long enough to do this. But they didn't, and holding still here wouldn't do anything to help either. She closed her eyes, just for a second, breathing deep the way Olivia had taught her to calm herself. Just got to go for it.

She jumped, reached out, caught the hold, scrambled her feet over and--

And then she fell.

It wasn't a far fall. These bouldering walls were meant to practice specific moves, so it was only six feet down to the mat. The wonderfully soft, fluffy, feather bed-like mat. She sighed contentedly, lying back and letting herself sink down into it like a cloud.

She hurt. Everywhere. No exaggeration, her everything hurt. Her feet hurt because climbing shoes were fucking tiny, and she was borrowing Ivy's old pair that didn't fit quite perfectly. Her calves hurt because standing on rocks on the wall was basically like standing on her toes constantly, so they were working like they'd never done before in her life. Her legs hurt from all the jumping and hoisting, her stomach hurt from being so absurdly stuffed with food, her chest hurt trying to pump enough oxygen through her to keep up with everything Olivia threw at her, her back felt ready to collapse because lats were one of the most important climbing muscles, her arms radiated a deep ache from all the weights she'd been lifting and her hands pulsed and throbbed with each heartbeat because they'd been through absolute hell. That covered everything, right? Well, except her head. That didn't hurt. Thank god for small victories!

"You think she's dead?"

"Nah, probably just fell asleep. She's been going insanely hard."

Olivia's voice and Ivy's, somewhere above her. Yeah, maybe her whole body felt wrecked and she had no idea how she hadn't collapsed from pure exhaustion yet, but these last weeks had been the most fun she'd ever had! The broad grin Brittany felt herself wearing wasn't putting a brave face on anything, it was genuinely heart-felt. "You know I can hear you, right?"

"Actually, I think you're right. She's dead."

"Yep, definitely."

"Oh, fuck you two!" Just to prove them wrong, Brittany rolled over and forced herself up. Strangely, after making the hard decision to start moving, it was actually easy. Olivia had said she'd start feeling like she had more stamina and energy after only a few weeks if she stayed disciplined and did what she said, and she clearly knew what she was talking about. Sure, she'd gone through more ice packs and ibuprofen than in the whole rest of her life combined, but who was counting? Other than Olivia, obviously. She thought it was hilarious.

"There she is!"

"Run! It's a zombie!"

Brittany ignored them and focused her attention back on the wall instead. "I thought I had it that time. Was I close?"

"Yeah!" from Olivia, unconvincingly stifling a grin, and:

"Maybe," from Ivy, making no attempt to hide her own smirk.

Brittany raised an eyebrow at them.

"Well," Olivia amended, "close-er, at least."

"What am I doing wrong?"

Olivia motioned to Ivy, who quickly stepped up to the wall and made her way up to where Brittany had been. "See the way she's setting herself?" Olivia said, pointing to Ivy's feet.

"Yeah? Isn't that how I was?"

"Yes, but watch her feet before she makes her move."

Brittany watched, and realized the first time they'd showed her, she'd only been focused on their hands. Ivy didn't jump right away, instead she sort of shuffled first. Her right foot slipped aside, pressed against the wall in a spot Brittany had completely disregarded because there was no hold there, and her left foot took the spot on the hold she'd just opened up. Then she jumped off only her left foot, and her right was much closer to where it needed to end up, so when she caught the distant handhold, it was much easier to stabilize.

"But isn't it harder to jump far enough off one leg?" Brittany asked.

"It is. Sorry to keep saying it, but that's another fitness thing. Not much you can do about that but get strong."

She said it apologetically, like she wished she had some faster solution she could offer, but Brittany didn't mind. She was brand new to this game, so it made total sense that she needed to level up before unlocking the cool skills.

Ivy made it to the top and dropped down, landing on the squishy soft mat with a practiced grace Brittany hadn't gotten the hang of yet. "Honestly, it's a pretty solid V3," she said. "Definitely not the easiest I've ever seen."

Apparently, bouldering had a difficulty scale where the 'V' stood for some guy's name nobody knew. A V0 was basically a ladder, and a V1 was an uneven ladder with some tricky handholds. Easy. V2s, however, were a significant step up, and they required a bit of real technique. V3s were the first step out of beginner territory into intermediate. Olivia kept trying to tell her that conquering them in the first month of starting to climb was a real accomplishment, and Brittany was proud that she'd already been able to complete some, but still. That time estimate was probably for the general masses of beginners, not somebody who had a team of five experts coaching her every day.

And it really had been every single day, if not climbing, then some form of exercise, ever since the roller coaster of that first time in Olivia's bed. As amazing as the night had been, the next morning when Olivia opened up to her about Rose had sucked. She'd stung at the rejection, which hurt deeper than it should have for a brand new relationship.

But as much as she felt bad, it was obvious Liv felt much, much worse. She sounded distraught through all of it, apologizing again and again, and looking like she fully expected Brittany to slap her and never speak to her again.

Going into game night, Brittany had thought she was the one who needed friends, and Olivia had them in abundance. But after holding her while she cried in bed, and seeing her barely holding herself together talking about it that morning, Brittany realized it was mutual. Olivia had convinced herself that she was the only one she could talk to about this. She couldn't ask any of the family to lie to Rose for her, even if they didn't hate her for bringing drama into their safe space. Olivia needed her to be a good friend just as badly as she wanted that from her. So that's what Brittany did, setting aside her feelings of being romantically rejected and casting around for something - anything - to pull Olivia out from that dark place. She'd latched onto what Olivia had said about it being possible for Brittany to get into as good of shape as she was, partially because she'd been thinking about it while falling asleep and partially because it seemed the sort of thing to keep them both insanely busy.

In retrospect, if she'd known how right she was about that, she probably would have been too terrified to make the suggestion. But then again, in that hypothetical, she'd have to also know that she'd find herself here, right now, already addicted. This wasn't just some charity project to keep Liv from pining over Rose, even if it had kind of started that way. Brittany loved it. Loved the climbing, the hikes, the... well, maybe lifting weights wasn't her favorite thing in the world yet, but doing it with the group made it fun. More than a little bit intimidating despite their attempts to be inclusive, because they could easily lift three times more than her without trying, but fun too.

Olivia must have said something to them about her. Asked them to give her a chance and put up with her tagging along in all their stuff, and she really hoped her efforts were making a good impression. The more time she spent around them, experienced the dynamic they had with each other, the more obvious it became that they all loved each other dearly. She'd tried to tell Olivia that, and that she was being an idiot for shutting them all out. Alex, Hazel and Ivy wouldn't reject her, even if wanting to date Rose was some kind of pseudo-incestuous taboo to their chosen-sisterhood.

But Brittany could understand Olivia's fear. To have that kind of bond, and feel like she could lose it all? Brittany wasn't sure she'd be able to make herself take the chance if their places were reversed. She wanted to feel like she could have that kind of relationship with these people too. Desperately. It was exactly what she'd left New York searching for. They got her, they understood her life and her experiences, they cared for each other so much, it was hard for Brittany to be on the outside looking in. But that opened up a can of worms. Chosen families don't exactly have applications and interview processes. All she could do was stick around and hope for the best. Yeah. And hope that she wasn't intruding too much into their time together, and they didn't get tired of her.

Olivia had invited her to join their upcoming camping trip, and she couldn't say yes fast enough! But what if it was still just Liv feeling guilty? What if Ivy, Hazel, Alex and Rose resented her being there, on a vacation that had always been their time together? But there wasn't a plan B. All she could do was keep on trying her best, pour herself out into these activities with them, and hope.

It did feel like she'd made progress building bridges with them. On top of being Olivia's confidant, even if that was mostly just by default, Rose had volunteered to take her hiking for cardio because they both had open slots during the day, and Ivy seemed to enjoy being a climbing coach. They'd gotten pretty close. That had to be good, right?

Brittany took a deep breath and marshaled her remaining energy, focusing herself back on the wall. She could do this -- just needed a few more tries.

"Do you know how you're going to do the next part after you get the jump?" Ivy asked.

"Nope!"

"So what's your plan?"

"I'm going to get up there, make the jump, then figure it out."

Olivia and Ivy's joined laughter followed her up as she started climbing.

"She reminds me a lot of Rose," Ivy said, and Olivia agreed.

"Yeah, same all-or-nothing energy. Really doesn't do anything half way."

"But can you imagine Rose with her hair dyed blue like that?"

"Hell no!"

Up on the wall, Brittany grinned to herself. She'd touched up her color that morning, and it was nice to have it appreciated.

She fell two more times before finally getting it right, and it was a good thing she made it on the last attempt, because there wouldn't have been another one no matter what happened. She managed to hold herself on the far side for three triumphant seconds, more than long enough to maintain control and show it wasn't a fluke, before the last of her strength left her fingers and she let herself flop back down again to the comfort of the mat.

Brittany held her hands up in front of her face and grinned at the way they trembled and shook. "Is it weird that I like it when they get like this?"

Olivia squatted beside her. "You're trying to hold them still, aren't you?"

"Yep! But they keep dancing like stubborn butts."

"I know I keep asking you this," Ivy began from somewhere above her. Probably the same spot she'd been, but everything further than her hands felt hazily uncertain. "But are you sure you've really never been a workout addict before?"

"Yeah."

"You didn't dance or play basketball in college or something?"

Brittany tried flexing her hands, and found that keeping them slowly moving made the trembling stop. As if getting a job to do made them stop being stubborn and behave. It made her grin wider, the same way it did every time she repeated the little experiment and got the same result. "I used to crush on the sexy butch girl from the track team. Does that count?"

Silence for a second, then "she's shaking her head," Olivia helpfully narrated.

Actually, silence definitely wasn't right. She'd just been hyper fixated on the little bubble surrounding the three of them and their section of wall. Beyond it, the gym was hopping. Motion all around, excited chatter of people having fun, and the hubbub of a larger group gathered to watch around one of the high walls. No mystery where the others were, then. The staff periodically rearranged routes, retiring old ones the regulars were bored of and putting fresh new ones up in their place. Rose, Alex and Hazel were testing out the newest one, advertised as the most challenging in the gym yet. It was tough for Brittany to tell from her position, laying down and watching upside down, but Alex seemed pretty close to the top.

On her first day here, Brittany had been blown away watching them climb. They'd seemed more like dancers than climbers, gracefully maneuvering themselves steadily upward like they'd all been bitten by mutant spiders. Now that she'd started scratching the surface of climbing technique and could understand what they were doing? Nevermind the impossible shit they did with their legs - just the way they could support themselves with their fingertips on tiny, mostly flat handholds? Yeah, 'Impressed' didn't do it justice. It was like seeing magic from a video game played out in real life, and Brittany wanted to learn to do it too.

"Ready for dinner? You're coming over to Hazel's with us, right?" Olivia asked, brightly, as she helped pull Brittany to her feet.

Oh god, anything but that! "Didn't we just have lunch?" Brittany said, meekly, suddenly feeling more intimidated than she'd been trying to make that jump.

"Seven hours ago," Ivy gave Olivia an amused smirk. "What's the matter? Hazel's cooking no good?"

"It's not that!" Brittany waved her hands emphatically, trying to communicate that she wasn't ungrateful for being included in the home cooked meals they frequently shared. "She's great! You all just keep throwing so much food at me. I can't fit all of it in my stomach!"

"You can and you will," Olivia gave her best drill sergeant look, which failed because she seemed on the verge of laughter again.

Ivy's serious-hardcore-trainer face was much more convincing. "Count your blessings, young padawan. Bulk food is much better than cutting."

"So you all keep telling me," Brittany said, doubtfully. Apparently, more than any amount of exercise, diet was the key to body changes. Literally every other time in her life she'd heard the word 'diet', it meant cutting calories. Eating salads, avoiding carbs, going to bed hungry, that kind of thing. Turns out, for this quest to gain muscle mass, she had to eat more food. Like, a lot more. So much more that, despite being treated to tons of delicious salmon and chicken based dishes from her new friends, the portions were so big that it was actually painful to force it down!

The good news, from her perspective at least, was that it went in cycles. Bulking would increase her body weight everywhere, not just her muscles. She'd gain some fat too, so she'd have to go through a cycle of cutting that back down again, then repeat bulking some more, and on again. Truth be told, she was quite looking forward to a break from feeling bloated to bursting, even if it meant being hungry sometimes.

"Don't you guys want to try that out?" Brittany asked, motioning to the wall where Alex was now victoriously fist pumping from the top.

"Nah, we'll get it another time."

"Are you sure? Sorry I keep dragging you away to teach me on these newbie walls. I'm sure it's boring for you."

"It's no problem, really!" Olivia reassured her, and Ivy agreed with another smirk.

"Yeah, trust me, Liv would much prefer being here watching your ass up the wall than any of ours."

Brittany forced herself to laugh along with her while inwardly cringing. She wasn't dating Olivia. They'd agreed it was best to be honest about that at least, even if they kept Olivia's confused knot of emotions for her best friend secret, but Alex, Hazel and Ivy didn't believe them. They thought she and Olivia were just being coy, and honestly, Brittany couldn't really blame them. Between joining their Dungeons and Dragons game, Olivia basically becoming her personal trainer, and all the meals they ate together, she and Liv spent more time together than most couples. They had chemistry. They shared music obsessions, similar humor, all the things that would have made them a great couple.

If only things had played out differently.

It left her confused by her own emotions. She liked Olivia. Like, A LOT. But, after the initial sting of getting her romantic hope smashed, she didn't feel terrible about it. Like, they'd only had sex once. It wasn't like they'd had a long relationship for her to feel the loss of. It'd just been a dream... a hot dream, and some really hot sex, but maybe they were better off as friends? This was a hell of a better spot than she'd been in before running into her at that party last month.

That fateful party where she'd danced with Rose, tried to flirt with her, and bonded with Olivia and Alex over how oblivious Rose could be. Olivia had said Rose got much more perceptive the better she got to know somebody, and Brittany hadn't really believed it at the time, but lately she'd been starting to wonder. For one thing, Rose never made any of the 'cute couple' jokes the others did. Neither of them had said anything, but Rose seemed to sense how much it got under Olivia's skin.

Brittany watched as Alex got down to the bottom of the wall and Rose started up, a graceful confidence in her movements that made the insanely difficult climb look easy.

Olivia, in her personal trainer capacity, insisted she needed cardio, especially if she wanted to keep up with them on this camping trip. But the treadmill at the gym bored her to tears. It had been Rose who had suggested they do hikes together, because her work from home arrangement and Rose's summer tutoring job schedule allowed them to arrange time out in the sun during the day together.

Honestly, she hadn't gone into it with pure intentions. Part of her had been looking for excuses to think of Rose as a bitch and feel jealous over Olivia. She'd completely failed. Even in retrospect, Brittany had no idea how Rose had done it, but she'd found herself talking about her Final Fantasy 14 friends, why she'd moved out of New York, her work projects, and whatever else came to mind. And, most amazingly, it felt easy. There wasn't any awkward 'hey, we met at a party but I fucked your roommate, and now we're trying to make friendship work' energy.

Sure, Rose had her quirks, but they only added to her charm, and... well, Brittany could totally understand why Olivia was in love with her.

-------------------

Rose

Hazel's apartment was probably the worst out of all of theirs for trying to hold gatherings of more than two or three. At the time she'd been apartment hunting, they'd thought they'd always gather at Ivy's place, or Rose and Olivia's like they usually did for game night. This tiny studio was close to Hazel's office, and was so inexpensive they were all a little jealous. Still, you got what you paid for, and it was very tight.

Rose stood in the kitchen, chopping everything Hazel put in front of her while Hazel kept one eye on her and her other eye on the stove. The others had offered to help, but there was only enough counter space for two of them. Ivy had her customary spot at Hazel's desk, head in a book, and Brittany and Olivia both sat on Hazel's bed right beside it. Alex had plopped herself down on the carpet in the middle of the room, the dress she'd changed back into after climbing rippling out around her like a lily pad.

"Hazel! Is tonight the night?" Alex was asking, the excitement in her voice leaving them in no doubt what she meant. "Please tell me tonight's the night!"

Hazel laughed, the musical sound of her voice merging with the sizzling chicken in a way that felt very wholesome to Rose. "Maybe. It depends, we'll see how it goes."

"Depends on what?" Alex slanted her eyes suspiciously.

"Depends how things go and if Mary wants to go further tonight."

Alex immediately perked up. "Oh! Then tonight is the night!"

They all laughed, Olivia especially hard, then she said, "You are aware, not everybody is hell-bent on sex all the time like you are?"

"Really?" Alex feigned disbelief. "Seems weird. They're doing it wrong. Why would anybody want to not have sex when they could, instead, be having sex?"

"You sound so much like Mary's brother," Hazel said. "I swear, if your voice was a bit deeper, that'd totally be something he'd say."

"Makes sense, we've recently collaborated on some stuff at work. He must be rubbing off on me."

Rose smiled to herself, listening as Olivia teased Alex about swapping her presentation style from masc to extremely fem coincidentally at the exact time she started working with Mary's brother, Brittany complained about being the only masc presenting one left in the group now, and Alex tried to get them back on track encouraging Hazel to fuck Mary. Hearing Liv sound so upbeat made Rose happy. She'd done a good job hiding how down she still was, and being around the family clearly helped.

"The way you keep going on about it, it's like it's a movie you've been waiting to come out," Ivy put in from behind her book. "Mary just had her first gay kiss, cut her some slack."

"Of course I'm excited! How are you guys not? We've all helped workshop the scene. In a way, it'll be like we're all fucking Mary!"

"Oh god," Hazel groaned. "I have so many regrets."

Olivia, apparently impatient for food, had gotten up to look hungrily over Hazel's shoulder. "Maybe it is going to be like a movie for her. Maybe she's planning to hide somewhere and spy on you two."

"Oh my god!" Alex hopped up, dress billowing around her, and rushed over to wrap her arms around Hazel. "That's an amazing idea! Can I! Please Hazel, I swear I'll be totally quiet, I'll--"

"NO!"

"--Oh come on! It'll be so hot, and she won't even hear me masturbating!"

Rose exchanged an amused look with Brittany, who looked like she hoped Alex was kidding, but wasn't quite certain. Alex had a magnetic way of drawing them all into being ridiculous with her. "We've all worked on the script with you, we should all get to watch," Brittany said.

"You too?" Hazel groaned at the same time as Alex exclaimed:

"Yes!"

"One of you record it so I can watch later," Ivy put in from behind her book.

"Remind me why I'm feeding you trolls," Hazel said, shaking her head at her friends' proposed voyeurism, then lifted the wok off the stove. "It's ready. Line up, perverts."

Olivia grabbed a plate, muscled Alex out of the way, got to Hazel first and was rewarded with a huge helping of chicken and roasted veggies. Brittany must have discovered her appetite too, because she'd queued up just behind Alex. Bulking was weird like that. Eating so much food made you feel stuffed, right up until your body realized how active you'd been all day, and it flipped to starving with basically no warning.

Rose took a plate over to Ivy, who gave Hazel's cooking her highest compliment by putting her book down long enough to eat it.

"Thanks," she murmured to Rose around a forkful.

"No problem."

Ivy glanced behind Rose, then continued in a low voice, "you've been hiking with Brittany, right? What do you think of her?"

Rose quickly glanced back to where Brittany was rejoining Olivia on the bed. Ivy, eh? Interesting! Ivy almost never asked about people she didn't like. She kept those opinions to herself and judged from a distance. No, the ones she asked about were usually because she did like them and was looking for validation. "I like her! I think she's fitting in really well. If you want to get her talking one on one, you should let her catch you reading more fantasy novels. That's her speed, trust me. Oh, and go on teaching her climbing with Liv, she loves that."

Ivy stared off into nothing - her way of communicating being deep in thought. "She's really not dating Liv, is she?" she finally asked.

"No," Rose said, firmly. "And you should lay off teasing them. Liv hates it."

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't realize. Should I apologize, or does she not want to talk about it?"

"Leave it be, at least for now." Rose smiled at her and gave her arm a quick squeeze. "And you should let Brittany see some of your sketchbooks too. She comes off techy, but she'll love your art."

"She's already seen some," Ivy murmured, thoughtfully trailing off.

Rose left her to eat and turned back to the conversation, where Alex was now explaining to Hazel why she loved them exactly because they were a bunch of pervs. "Because without us, you'd still be puzzling out how to initiate a newly minted lesbian to the joys of gay sex, and nothing would happen for months."

"I'm not so sure," Rose jumped in. "Mary kissed Hazel first, maybe she'd make the first move in bed too."

"I still can't believe she did that!" Alex laughed, sparing one arm from eating to hug Hazel from the side. "Dude, you got beat by a goddamn virgin. For shame!"

"She's not a virgin, she's been in a ton more relationships than me!"

"With men! They don't count, it's a totally different experience."

"And it isn't a race. That doesn't even make sense. If it was a race, wouldn't we be a team together, not competing to take credit for relationship milestones?"

"Nope. She initiated the kiss with you, therefore she won round one."

"Didn't I tell you the story! Mary and I agreed we'd go at her speed when she was comfortable."

"Not gonna lie, I zoned out until you got to the part where she stuck her tongue in your mouth."

Rose made for the spot next to Brittany on the bed, and Olivia flashed her a smirk from Brittany's other side as she sat down. "Would you believe, half an hour ago, this one swore she couldn't eat anymore."

"Shuddup," Brittany barely managed to articulate around a mouthful of food.

"You think your body is sending confusing messages now," Olivia continued, "just wait until we get to The Adirondacks. You'll be both stuffed and starving at the same time."

Brittany cast worried glances back and forth between them. "You're kidding, right? Tell me she's kidding."

"Afraid not," Rose confirmed. "Hiker hunger is a real thing, but don't worry about it! You'll have a great time. Liv's got you all packed up already, right?"

Brittany swallowed, and gave a contented sigh. "Yeah, thanks again for lending me so much stuff." She paused for another quick bite, then asked, "dumb question, but like, the area of The Adirondacks we're going to is called The High Peaks? Does that mean they're a lot taller than what we've done together?"

Rose's phone vibrated in her pocket, but she ignored it for a moment to raise an eyebrow at Olivia, who dropped her eyes down sheepishly. "You haven't told her?"

"I didn't want her to back out!"

"Oh my god!" Brittany groaned, rounding on Olivia. "I'm going to die, aren't I? You're going to be the death of me."

Rose chuckled and fished her phone out from her pocket while Olivia tried to fast-talk her way into assuring Brittany that the 1,000 feet of elevation gain hiking Mt. Toby near town was basically the same as gaining 3,000 feet to the summit of Algonquin in the High Peaks.

She had new messages from Lydia.

Lydia: Hey! I had a great time with you today!

Lydia: I just wanted to say, I'm sorry I sounded so bitchy when you mentioned Brittany.

Lydia: I didn't mean to sound jealous. Hope it didn't bother you too much.

Lydia: Hope we can do climbing together sometime soon! Have fun camping! Send lots of pictures!

Jealous? What? When? She'd completely missed it! Rose replayed the conversation in her head, struggling because of how distracted she'd been and how much her memory wanted to focus on feeling between Lydia's legs. She'd mentioned Brittany and... yeah, they'd talked before about showing Brittany some local hikes... damn. Rose squeezed her eyes shut, trying to separate Lydia's words out from the feeling of her pussy beneath her fingers.

There it was. Lydia's voice, warped in a way that she hadn't heard before, but in retrospect, reminded her of Ivy when she was trying to avoid anybody asking what was wrong. Okay, no point beating herself up over missing it. Just learn from it, and don't miss it again!

Except, Lydia was feeling jealous? Over her? Why? They were supposed to just be friends!

She sat, staring at the screen and inwardly panicking until Olivia reached across Brittany and gently took the phone out of her hand. Keeping up her flow of conversation to Brittany and not drawing any attention to what she was doing, she started typing, then passed the unsent message back for Rose's approval.

Rose: It's fine! I honestly didn't even notice. Yeah, I'll send you pictures, and I'm already looking forward to getting back to you!

But what if the last bit was coming on too strong? Sending the wrong message? Rose looked up to ask Olivia, but the phone was already vibrating in her hands again.

Liv: Don't freak out. She's not Zelda, she's not going to ghost you. She's not Faith, she's not going to cheat then gaslight you. She's none of your exes, she's her own person just like you are, and she likes you. That's a good thing! You like her too. Be calm and give both of yourselves a chance.

Olivia reached around Brittany's back and squeezed Rose's free hand reassuringly, and Rose felt it working. Liv, where would I be without you? They all talked about Rose herself being able to read them really well, but that was just because she'd known them all for so long that she'd been able to memorize all their expressions. Liv was the real magic one.

Rose hit send on the message to Lydia Olivia had written for her, then sent Olivia a quick hug emote and squeezed her hand back, hoping she knew how much she loved her.

-------------------

Mary

Damn, they're all still here!

"Mary! We were just talking about you!" Alex exclaimed, dashing any hopes she'd had of slipping in stealthily.

"Wha--oh! Hey guys." She'd wanted to be early and surprise Hazel, but she hadn't realized she'd be walking in on her with all her friends in the middle of dinner. Mary stood by the door, awkwardly trying to find any free space to occupy in Hazel's overcrowded tiny studio apartment. Everywhere was taken. Even a chunk of the floor was taken by Alex. "Um... where should I..."

"Here, take my spot," Rose offered, standing up from Hazel's bed and going to join Hazel in the kitchen to start scrubbing dishes. Damn, she should have thought of that. Inwardly kicking herself, Mary took Rose's spot next to Olivia and Brittany, awkwardly feeling like every eye in the room was on her. Well, except Ivy's. She was busy reading, lounging back with her legs up on Hazel's desk.

Glancing around at each of them in turn, Mary wished she knew how they all managed it. Each had a distinctively different look, all conveying a bit of themselves, and they obviously felt perfectly at home in their own skins. Still, there was a commonality between them. Even between Alex's new hyper fem look and Brittany's polar opposite masc one, both were clearly representing their lesbian identities. Even Ivy, with just a generic comfortable pair of jeans, converse and a band print t-shirt, fit that mold with her friends. Mary could feel it, but she couldn't figure out what it was in what she was seeing. How could she do that herself? Was it a look that she could copy? Maybe it was just the vibes they gave off?

While doing her circuit staring around the room, Mary accidentally caught Olivia's eye. Olivia's brow furrowed. "I keep feeling like I'm supposed to remember something to do with you."

"Oh? What?"

"That's just it, I don't - OH!" Her face brightened, and a devilish smirk spread across her lips. "Hazel! Have you told her the story yet?"

"What story?" Hazel asked, looking back over her shoulder from the sink with Rose.

"The one I was going to tell Mary at game night a few weeks ago! You know, the one about Dark Necessities?"

Hazel ducked back into the sink, almost looking like she was hiding behind Rose. "No," she admitted, meekly.

"Oh my god!" Alex exclaimed, hopping up from the floor and making her dress puff out like an umbrella. "Hazel, you've had us all telling Mary our sapphic origin stories, but you haven't told her about your secret straight crush?"

"Your what!?!" Mary seriously hadn't expected that. Hearing everybody's stories, she'd learned that her twisting path of sexual self discovery was fairly common in one form or another. By contrast, Hazel's experience of knowing immediately that she was totally gay and had zero interest in men was... well, not exactly rare, but less universal than Mary had always assumed. "You had a straight crush?"

"No! They just like to embarrass me."

"Well, that I get," Mary laughed. "You are super cute when you're all blushy like this."

"Are you going to tell or are you gonna make me do it?" Alex was bouncing on her heels like a child dying to spill a secret.

"You weren't even there!"

"I was totally at that party!"

"Yeah but you were too busy hooking up with Kali Holt to notice anything."

"I thought that was the party she got with Fake Lashes," Olivia said, leading to a back and forth about what Fake Lashes' real name had been, and whether Alex had ever successfully seduced her or not.

"You all suck at telling stories," Ivy finally interrupted, contemptuously snapping her book shut and apparently deciding to take over the task herself. "As you've probably figured out, it was a party like any other. Liv was too drunk to remember anybody's name, Alex was on the hunt, Rose--" Ivy flashed Brittany a grin "--was breaking hearts on the dance floor."

"Oh!" Olivia exclaimed. "Fake Lashes was the one flirting with you that night, Rose, but you're too oblivious to realize."

"You really make a habit out of that," Brittany laughed while Rose was embarrassedly shaking her head.

"If you're talking about who I think you are, her lashes really weren't that bad."

"She's too nice," Olivia said sidelong to Mary, conspiratorially. "They looked like they were some kind of preschool arts and crafts project."

"ANYWAY!" Ivy resumed, "Hazel and I were babysitting Liv, trying to keep her from insulting anybody she'd regret too much the next morning, which is no small task let me tell you." Mary needed no convincing. "So, at this party, they'd set up the music with this projector for music videos, and we'd mostly been ignoring them all night, but then Olivia started drooling--"

"I WASN'T DROOLING!"

"--over these admittedly pretty hot longboarders up on that screen. Have you ever seen the video for the Red Hot Chili Peppers song Dark Necessities?"

Mary hadn't, but Brittany clearly had, because she immediately started laughing again and gave Olivia a playful little nudge. "I don't blame you, those longboarders are fucking hot in that video."

"I guess I'll have to look it up later, now you've hyped it up so much," Mary said.

"Doesn't really matter too much for the story. All you have to know is there's these four longboarders cruising around LA as the main focus, and they're hot. Like, really hot, and the video is shot to show off their rugged style and bruises and scrapes from falling off the boards. It's mostly them, but the camera cuts to the band every now and again, and the contrast is interesting. This came out in like twenty-fifteen or sixteen or something, so the Chili Peppers are not exactly looking young anymore, but they're still themselves. Flea being a spaz - Chad Smith wearing the backwards baseball hat because he's never been photographed without one and why start now - Anthony Kiedis has never worn a shirt in his entire life. That sort of vibe."

"I can picture it perfectly." Mary wouldn't have remembered the band members names off the top of her head, but her brother was into them enough that she'd seen Kiedis's abs a few times.

"So imagine the scene. There's like six or seven of us all chatting at this party, and slowly everybody realizes drunken Liv is eye fucking the models on this screen like there's porn up there, so naturally we have to turn and look too. The conversation dies down as everybody's watching, and then just as it ends, Hazel says to this group of lesbians all fantasizing about Californian longboarding ladies, you know, I think I get now why every straight girl I've ever known wants to have Anthony Kiedis's babies."

"Oh my god!" Mary laughed. "Hazel, did you really?"

"It was supposed to be just a joke! An ironic subversion of the situation!"

Mary shook her head in mock judgment at her girlfriend. "So that's what does it for you? Rock star older men with mustaches and an allergic reaction to shirts? Should I grow facial hair too?"

"No!"

"Well, I suppose it could be worse. I've been broken up with plenty of times before, but nobody has ever left me for an international celebrity."

Hazel gave up trying to defend herself, and joined in laughing at her own expense. Brittany jumped in, asking if they'd ever been to one of their live shows, and what concerts were coming up in driving distance they could go see, enthusiastically whipping out her phone to research as she did. Mary let herself fade to the background a bit. She liked the story. Apart from being a funny bit of Hazel's friends teasing her, it made Mary feel a little better. After all, if somebody as secure in her lesbianism as her girlfriend could have a small moment of heteronormality somewhere in her life, even in jest, maybe she shouldn't feel so bad about wasting a decade dating men.

Still... it would be nice to have the time back. What if she'd met Hazel years ago? Would they have connected? What if she'd been her college roommate instead of Ivy? Even if they didn't end up together, it'd be hard to picture herself stuck in delusions of bisexuality if she'd been exposed to Hazel's world back then.

Thankfully, it didn't take long for Hazel's friends to decide it was time to go. Brittany left first, saying all the food she'd eaten would put her to sleep if she didn't make it home soon, and she staggered out while absent-mindedly stretching her arms and shoulders. Was it Mary's imagination, or was she looking a little bigger? Like muscles were some kind of cold somebody could catch hanging around this group.

"Sorry about that," Hazel said, joining her sitting on the bed when they were finally alone together. "I know it gets a bit claustrophobic in here."

"It's fine, I don't mind," Mary lied, still too embarrassed to confess how intimidated the full group together made her feel, especially since they were all trying so hard to make her feel comfortable.

"They like you. Alex especially thinks we're cute together."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"Good. We are cute together," Mary said, scooting over to be right next to Hazel and wrapping an arm around her, feeling Hazel's warmth immediately lean into her too. She breathed deep, filling herself with Hazel's scent, and suppressing the urge to bury her face in her hair to get more of it.

But what the hell, why fight it? She leaned in, caught Hazel's eye like she was about to give her a peck kiss, then diverted.

"Hey!" Hazel laughed, hunching her shoulder like she was afraid she was about to get tickled, but relaxing when she realized what was happening. "You really like my hair, don't you?"

"How could you tell?" Mary breathed into her ear, sarcastically. She was about to say something about wanting to steal Hazel's shampoo when she felt Hazel's hand on her thigh, and the words caught in her throat. She froze, all her focus suddenly on those sensations. Playfully light, up and down, and Mary realized this was the first time Hazel had touched her so intimately. Even while they'd made out, she'd kept her hands to safer zones.

Shit! She'd frozen up just as Hazel had done something she liked! "That feels nice," she purred into her ear, hoping Hazel wasn't confused by mixed signals. Unlike pretty much every man she'd ever encouraged, however, Hazel didn't immediately charge on ahead further up her thigh. Instead, she kept tracing little designs in the same spot, and Mary swore it was making her progressively more sensitive.

Hazel gently repositioned, and Mary started backing off to give them some space, but Hazel closed the distance so their foreheads were almost touching. Her eyes filled Mary's vision, her soft breath played across her lips, and all the while her presence on her thigh continued. "What you said about wanting to go further together, but feeling nervous about how?"

Mary almost froze again. "Yeah?" She managed, hopefully.

"I think I know how to help, but you have to promise me something."

"What?"

"You'll stop me if you feel uncomfortable."

"Hazel! You don't have to worry about that."

Hazel didn't back down. Her eyes stayed firm. "Promise you won't stay quiet just because you think it's what I want."

Oh, fine. "I promise," Mary said, then quickly added, "but I think you're making a big deal out of nothing. I want this too! I'm just - I don't know -"

"Just exploring a new way of being intimate," Hazel said, making it sound as trivial as trying on new shoes.

And maybe it was? Maybe Mary was blowing this up in her head.

"Will you show me what to do?" Mary asked.

Hazel's eyes did little smiles. Mary wished she understood how she did that. It was fucking adorable, and she wished she could do it herself. "Actually, when the time comes, we're going to show each other what to do."

"We will?"

"Don't worry, it'll make sense soon."

"You sound like you have an evil plan."

"I do!" Hazel giggled, then leaned back, finally breaking contact with her thigh, which sucked. She playfully cocked her head to one side, filling Mary up with her smile, and deliberately raised her arms over her head. "Do the honors for me?"

Mary gulped. How many times had she done this same, exact thing herself with some man she was trying to be sexy with? Had all of them felt this nervous? Mary's eyes unconsciously dipped down to Hazel's chest, in exactly the same way she'd seen all those past men do to her.

Why was it so nerve wracking to take her girlfriends shirt off when she was sitting right in front of her inviting her to do it! What was she afraid of? That Hazel would suddenly yell GOTCHA! and laugh at how excited she'd been by the idea of seeing her boobs?

So Mary reached out and tugged Hazel's shirt up and over her arms. It was easy, it was just an athletic top with no buttons or anything. One motion, see, easy!

But then her eyes did the dropping thing again, and Hazel's shirtless glory was right there, and it was all Mary could do to stop herself hyperventilating. She wore a very nice looking lacy bra, but that wasn't what drew her attention. Her abs! Holy shit, she was so, so hot! "Daaamn," she breathed. "Hazel, if I had your body, I would never wear any top lower than my boobs. Can I feel? Please?"

"Of course!" Hazel's voice sounded very pleased, but Mary couldn't spare the half second it would have taken to check her face.

Tentatively, almost like she was afraid Hazel's skin would shock her, Mary reached, probed, and finally felt the warmth of Hazel's core beneath her fingertips. She had a goddamn six pack! Sure, she was obviously flexing as hard as she could, but if Mary had ever felt anything sexier in her life, she couldn't remember it.

"You should see your face," Hazel's voice floated, amused, around Mary's ears.

"Actually, I've had enough men gawk at my tits, I think I've got a pretty good idea how I look to you right now."

"Probably," Hazel laughed. "I swear, everybody is so obsessed with my abs, they forget all about my boobs."

"The worst of fates," Mary grumbled, sarcastically.

Hazel flopped sideways, laying herself out alongside Mary and gently guiding her down to join her on the pillow. Mary followed willingly. Now she'd finally gotten her hands on Hazel, anything to keep physical contact seemed great to her. Hazel seemed to be enjoying it as much as she was. Either that or whatever look she was making really was that amusing.

Should she go for her bra? Was Hazel expecting it, or had she left it on because it wasn't time yet? Maybe she should take her own off first? Oh shit! She still had her own shirt on! She should--

But Hazel had started brushing Mary's hair back and behind her ear, and was closing the short gap across the pillow to her lips. It was really distracting! Hazel peppered her with short, hot kisses, and every time Hazel's lips connected with hers, it was like momentarily hitting the pause button on her brain.

Kiss.

--Her lips were so soft! And her tongue, her whole mouth, so hot!--

Kiss.

--So unlike anybody else Mary had ever kissed. So distinctly feminine, and--

Kiss.

--Stop comparing her to a man! Stop it! Stop overthinking and enjoy this!--

Kiss.

--Her top. Off. Both of theirs. Off, now!--

Kiss.

"Touch me," Hazel sensually whispered between kisses, and it took Mary's starting and stopping brain a few seconds to realize she'd said it and it wasn't just her own wishful thinking.

"What?"

"I want you to touch me." Mary glanced down to her hands, still mapping out Hazel's core, and Hazel's musical voice sang amusement. "Not just there, silly." And just like that, Hazel whisked her straps down her arms, undid the clasp, and let her bra drop away. So easily, like it was no big deal! Another kiss, then she continued, "I want you to get used to how my body feels. Get comfortable with it. I promise, everything is okay, you don't need to worry about anything." And, apparently to make sure the message got through, Hazel took Mary's hands and guided them up to rest directly on her breasts.

But obviously it was a big deal! Mary's fingers sank into Hazel's heavenly soft, warm boobs, and she thought her heart was going to explode. She was so... well, feminine, in a perfect way that had Mary's excitement levels ratcheting up and up and up. It was also the contrasts that Mary loved. Hazel's strong muscles complimented her puffy, cloud like chest wonderfully, as did her roughly callused climber's hands pressing into the backs of Mary's own.

"You're so hot," Mary told her, wishing she could think of anything less generic to try to tell Hazel how wild she was driving her. She leaned back, dying for a better view of Hazel's chest, and drawing her fingertips to the pink centers of each breast. Gently - very gently - she circled the edges of her areola. "Does this feel good?"

"Kind of tickles," Hazel giggled.

"Oh, sorry," Mary reflexively made to stop, but Hazel caught her hands before she could pull away.

"I like it like this, let me show you," Hazel placed her fingers on top of Mary's, pressing them more firmly into her breasts. Internally, Mary was kicking herself. Of course, she had boobs herself, she should know better! Why was she treating Hazel's like they were fragile porcelain that would break at the slightest nudge?

But, as Hazel continued guiding her hands and puppeteering her fingers, Mary quickly realized that using her own body as a template wasn't foolproof either. Hazel pressed Mary into her nipples so hard, it made her wince even as Hazel hummed satisfaction.

"You're sure you like that?" Mary asked in surprise. "If I went this hard on myself, it'd hurt so much."

"I'm not surprised," Hazel chuckled, the vibrations tingling into Mary's fingertips through her chest. "I've got the least sensitive nips of anybody I've ever been with, by a lot." She leaned back, settling into the pillows, drawing Mary with her by their joined hands. Her apparent goal of getting them both fully horizontal accomplished, she finally released Mary's hands to enjoy their playing. With another quick, nonchalant motion, Hazel raised her hips, slipped down her leggings and underwear, and tossed them off the end of the bed. "When I said I want you to get used to my body, I meant all of it."

She was naked. Naked! Mary gulped, feeling her eyes go big and her tongue automatically lick over her lips. Her girlfriend was naked in all her beautiful glory, and she propped herself up on one elbow to give Mary a good view. It was totally unfair how she could do that. Just be so at ease in herself - in this situation - that she could make these grand gestures like they were commonplace.

But that was the point, right? To help her relax?

Slowly, Hazel raised one leg, bending and straightening it up in the air like a ballerina, and making Mary's eyes go haywire. Where was she supposed to look!?! Her hands were still glued to Hazel's chest, but how could she not watch Hazel's thigh muscles lazily rippling and flexing, the movement cascading right along to her pussy.

So much for relaxing. Just as she'd thought nothing in the world could possibly get her detached from Hazel's boobs, Hazel proved her wrong. Hazel's hand took and guided hers again, firm and steady as Mary felt hers trembling, down her body, down towards...

"Um - Hazel?" Mary said, a nervous tremor in her voice. "I'm - um - I'm really bad at this."

"We all are, at first. Don't worry, I'll show you."

"I have a confession to make. I've - um -" Mary felt herself glowing in embarrassment. "I've never managed to get myself off with my fingers before. I've always needed a vibrator."

Hazel held her hand steady, and with her free hand, laced a finger beneath Mary's chin and lifted her eyes up to meet her. "Mary, do you have any idea how common that is?"

Hazel's eyes were so pretty. Even after gawking at her body, Mary still felt like she could get lost in her girlfriend's eyes. "I've read shit like that online. Everybody tries to be so supportive, but it still feels like I just suck."

"Mary," Hazel began, and Mary was expecting some kind of monologue about different people and bodies and shit, but instead, she felt her hand finally guided the last few inches to rest directly against Hazel's labia. "Don't think about orgasms as the only important thing. As long as it feels good and we're both having fun, we're doing it right."

Hazel was already wet! Somehow, some way, she'd made her girlfriend wet. That, more than anything else, finally got through to her. Mary breathed in deep, taking Hazel's eyes in, feeling herself calming. She could do this! Hazel pressed with her fingers, sinking them between her pussy lips, and Mary felt them immediately start to slide. Whatever she was doing, clearly, it was already working!

"Do you remember the first time we met?" Hazel asked.

Mary started at the non-sequitur. "I think so? Wasn't it when our teams merged at work, we had a big meet and greet in the office, that was really awkward?"

"Close, but not quite. You actually gave a presentation on the architecture you'd developed for milestoning data, that Alex was on and supposed to be paying attention to, but she was working from home with me instead."

God, that was so many projects ago. Must have been more than a year at least. Mary thought back, trying to imagine what that call had been like, and failing. "Watching me on Zoom over Alex's shoulder doesn't count! How was I supposed to know you were there? Why do you even remember that, anyway? You barely pay attention for the calls you're supposed to be on."

Hazel pressed her hand more firmly into Mary's, bringing their joined fingers up to her clit and circling them slowly around it. "Normally, I wouldn't have. Except, you had this one slide where you showed a bit of your back-end code."

If she'd had to guess how feeling Hazel's clit for the first time would go, telling work stories would never have occurred to her as a possibility, and it almost made her laugh. Which was probably the point. The memory Hazel was describing clicked in Mary's head. That presentation! It'd been so bad, she'd only been told she had to give it the night before, and it was so rushed. But she knew exactly what slide Hazel meant, and the bit she hadn't been able to resist putting in. Just to screw with her boss for forcing her to do it last second.

Hazel continued the story. "Alex nudged me and said something like, okay, we get it, you developers are smarter than the rest of us. Don't have to rub it in. So I looked over at her screen, scanned over your code because I was curious, and down towards the bottom you had a comment--"

"If anybody actually reads this, message me and I'll buy you lunch," Mary recited, grinning. "Nobody claimed it. You should have! I completely forgot about the whole thing."

"I pointed it out to Alex, and we both thought it was hilarious. She thought I should message you too, but I was too shy. You were so confident and articulate going through everything and pushing back whenever anybody tried to trip you up with stupid questions, I was a little intimidated. But," Hazel pressed Mary's fingers harder into her clit, and let out a little cooing sound. "I knew I liked you, and I wanted to meet you."

Hazel's pussy was so hot. Literally, it was like a furnace beneath Mary's fingers, and every time she passed over Hazel's clit, it gave a little throb that sent a happy surge up through Mary's arm directly to her heart. "Oh, how the tables have turned," Mary sighed. "You've gone from too shy to ask me out to lunch, to my confident lesbianism teacher, while I've been to reduced to the terrified newbie in the relationship."

"A newbie who is making me feel fantastic," Hazel said, her voice breathy. "After that, when our teams merged and I got to see you in action, I got even more attracted to you. You're so smart, and you think of really elegant solutions so fast, and you're so good at jumping in to help on my projects and figuring out what I'm trying to do with my code, it's amazing."

"But you make it easy!" Mary complained to cover her embarrassment at the string of compliments, and how earnestly Hazel delivered them. "Your code is so well organized, you should see me try to make sense out of Roberto's stuff."

"It's so bad!" Hazel agreed with a laugh. "But that's not the point. The point is, you've got a very hot brain, and I spent months at work loving every day I got to see you use it."

Hazel continued talking, sharing stories and memories, all about Mary. Every one of them was a compliment, something she'd found attractive and appealing, and as one piled up after the next, Mary felt herself hanging on every word. Some of them she remembered. Naturally, they were about her! But others, she'd forgotten about, or had assumed nobody noticed because they'd never said anything. Like the brief time she'd experimented with bangs, which apparently Hazel thought was adorable. Little things that she'd done to try to get Austin, her ex-boyfriend before Hazel, to notice. He never had, despite being in a relationship with her. Hazel, her coworker, had. And they'd stuck out enough for her to remember. It made Mary feel so incredibly wanted, it was like being filled up with warm emotional light.

And as she felt that in herself, Hazel was obviously feeling something similar. Their eyes stayed locked together, Hazel guiding Mary's fingers around and around her clit, Hazel's breath getting steadily more ragged. Like recounting everything that had drawn her to Mary was getting her off. Her hips rocked in sync with Mary's fingers, rising to meet her as she pressed into her clit. Slowly, Mary could swear the dark of Hazel's pupils were getting wider and wider.

"But I was still too afraid to say anything. I was terrified of being wrong about everything, and coming off like a creepy guy hitting on you, and making work awkward for you. Finally, Alex got fed up with listening to me gush about you and continually do nothing, so she decided to help." Hazel paused for a quick moan, then purred, "Oh that's good. Your fingers feel fantastic. Anyway, I've only heard this story from Alex's point of view, but she says she did herself up in one of her more overtly gay looks and was lingering by your desk, trying to figure out if you liked women by whether she caught you looking at her."

"Oh Christ," Mary shook her head, embarrassed all over her again. "I was totally gawking at her."

"Yep! But that's not the part that finally gave me the nerve to say something to you."

"Say something to me!?! Hazel, you just came to lunch with Keith and me, and you could barely string two sentences together asking if you could join."

"Hush, you! The cute bit is what happened after Alex passed you over to my desk."

"Shit," Mary groaned, the scene replaying in her head. "Please tell me Alex didn't see..."

"She says you thought she was coming to hit on me, and you gave her the most 'back off bitch, she's mine' look she's ever seen in her life!"

"I... um..." Mary floundered. "Okay, fine! I was really nervous about approaching you too! Like, the idiot bi girl going to the openly gay team mate asking for her help experimenting? After all the times I've been sexually harassed by men, I really didn't want to do it to you!"

"We all try so hard to be better than the world has treated us, sometimes, we go too far the other direction." The philosophical sound was only slightly detracted by how erotic Hazel's voice had become.

"Somehow, it ended up with us here together, right?"

"Almost in spite of both of us," Hazel half laughed, half breathily moaned, finally taking her hand off of Mary's and bringing it up to tuck an errant strand of hair back behind Mary's ear. She bit her lip, her eyes going even wider, before clamping shut. "And that's the story of how we got here, right now, with you about to make me cum."

Even with the excitement of feeling Hazel's muscles going berserk and her clit throbbing uncontrollably, Mary couldn't help it. "Oh my god, you are so fucking corny!" She exclaimed, and it was probably a good thing Hazel shut her up by kissing her, or she might have completely ruined the moment.

Mary was sure to keep her fingers moving in the same circular pattern Hazel had been showing her, but mostly let herself sink into pleasure. This was what dreams were made of! Here with a front row seat to giving her girlfriend explosive pleasure! Hazel moaned into her mouth, and Mary found herself matching her. It was like a release all of its own. Even if she never figured her gay identity out, her girlfriend found her sexy enough to cum all over her, and at the end of the day, what more could she want?

Hazel cuddled into her as she came down. Her eyelids lazily batted, up and down, like she was slowly waking up from a pleasant nap. "You look like you liked that," Mary said, more than a little pleased with herself, even if Hazel had literally held her hand through most of it.

"What gave it away?" She grinned, then dropped the sarcasm. "You see, nothing to be nervous about." She stretched, raising her arms over her head and bending backwards like a cat, then sat up with a renewed burst of energy. "Your turn now! Do you want to get naked, or keep your clothes on?"

"Naked," Mary said quickly, finally moving to strip down. "It's a little weird being fully dressed up while you're naked."

"I thought it'd make you more comfortable, at least at first." Hazel helpfully shifted down to Mary's legs, easily lifting her hips with one strong arm and pulling her jeans down her legs with the other. Fast and rough, like despite her orgasm, she was very hungry to get at Mary's body. Her underwear went just as fast, and Mary felt her legs spread as Hazel brought them to either side of her body. She didn't even have time to feel self-conscious about her body! Hazel lowered herself, eyes locked with Mary's, her mouth seductively opening. Her face! So much lust!

Mary gulped, feeling herself react as anticipation built. So close, she could feel Hazel's breath against her sopping wet pussy. "Oh shit," Mary breathed. Despite seeing it happen, it still surprised her. Like as a kid, waking up on her birthday after weeks of waiting, and still not quite believing that it had finally come.

"I'm going to try all kinds of different things. Different places and different techniques. Tell me what feels good."

"Um? Hazel?"

"Hmm?"

"What if everything feels good?"

A little of the edge of Hazel's hungry look evened out, and she said more calmly, "it won't. Think of this as running a diagnostic test. I'm gonna push all your buttons, one after the other, and see which ones light you up."

And she did exactly that. Hazel started kissing and flicking her tongue all around her upper thighs and the edges of her labia, light and sensual, but in a way that felt a lot more like teasing than actual pleasure. It was nice, but even if she'd done that for hours, Mary would never get anywhere close to orgasm. One thing did stick out, though. The happiness on Hazel's face, and the enthusiasm in her lips and probing tongue was new to Hazel. Every other time she'd had her pussy eaten, it was some man who clearly saw it as transactional. A chore he did to earn blowjobs, and only put as much effort into as strictly required.

Hazel, on the other hand, clearly loved pussy. It shouldn't have come as so much of a surprise. A lesbian enjoying pussy? Shocker! But still, the contrast did make Mary feel wanted, just like everything else Hazel had done for her since they'd started dating.

As Hazel moved closer in, kissing over her labia and occasionally probing her tongue between them, she cast a questioning look up at Mary. "That's, um, nice?" Mary said, half questioning, wondering what else she should say.

"You don't have to worry about insulting my oral skills," Hazel stopped long enough to say. "I'm trying to learn your body, and I need data!"

"Oh yeah. Right. Well, that all does feel nice, but it doesn't really do much for me."

"That's better," Hazel said, then went back in.

Yet another thing that was new. Talking during sex. She should have noticed it before with all of Hazel's stories, but she'd made it flow so easily it hadn't dawned on her. Giving feedback to Hazel was a different experience for Mary. Everything felt good to men, so they didn't really bother communicating that, and god knows they'd never given enough of a shit about if she was feeling good to ask. Hazel wanted to understand her, and as Mary got used to it, it flowed from her much easier.

Hazel slowly shifted her attention from the peripheries of Mary's pussy inwards towards her more sensitive bits, the sensations blossoming from gently teasing to heavy pleasure that soon had her rocking herself up to meet Hazel's tongue. It was really starting to feel fantastic. Mary felt herself getting to a place she'd only ever shared with her beloved vibrator before, until Hazel hit a spot somewhere just barely off to the right of her clit, and her world rocked beneath her.

"Oh my god! Do that again. Right there, where you just were! YES!" Somewhere between her lungs and her mouth, Mary's moan turned into a feral scream as Hazel focused on that same magical spot, and sent Mary to a world of sexual bliss she'd seen in porn, but never believed was real.

She was going to cum. Fuck, she'd just gone from light teasing to the verge of orgasm like nothing! Mary forced herself to hold her hips still, afraid that any movement would make Hazel lose that spot, and wrapped her legs around her as tight as she could. It was like having a direct line from her pussy to her brain, she could feel every bump and flick of Hazel's tongue through to her very essence, where the sensations merged with all the affection and emotion Hazel had been giving her to become something beyond just physical. When it finally came, Mary's orgasm felt like a strange cross between bodily euphoria and focused love. It was magic. It was the perfect first lesbian experience everybody had told her not to hold her breath hoping for.

It was all because of Hazel. Her wonderful girlfriend had given her this, and Mary hoped to god that the tight embrace she wrapped her up into did enough to communicate how grateful she was. Hazel, easily moving both of their body weights despite Mary clinging to her for all she was worth, settled them back onto the pillows and gently rubbed along Mary's back while she babbled her thankfulness.

"You know you don't need to keep saying that like it's all altruism from me or something," Hazel told her, clearly amused. "I had a blast too! I can't wait for more sex."

"Yes, I absolutely do have to keep saying it! You know I've never had an orgasm with somebody else before? Fuck, Hazel, I never even knew I had that spot. I always thought it was just my clit. I'm 30, I've had this vagina my whole life, and you figured out my body better than me in a few minutes."

Hazel kept rubbing her back while hugging her. It felt so very relaxing and safe in her arms. "I think that spot is the very base of your clit. It's super close, I want to try the other side and see if it feels that good for you there too. I was going to keep exploring! I didn't even get to suck your clit yet."

"I would have killed you if you moved!"

"Yeah, I kinda figured that when you boa constrictor'd my head," Hazel giggled. She gently pressed into Mary's shoulder muscles, making little massage motions. "Something for next time, then."

"Next time," Mary agreed. Fuck, Hazel was good at this. Was there anything she couldn't do?

"Speaking of next time, got any other hot fantasies you'd like to bring to life?"

She did. And, an hour ago, she probably would have been too nervous about betraying her inexperience to ask, but now Pandora's box had been opened. "Yeah, actually. Um - so, is scissoring a real thing, or it just a porn myth for straight men?"

"That very much depends on who you ask."

"I'm asking you."

"I love it."

"You'll have to teach me."

"I'd love to."

Mary purred, relaxing even deeper into Hazel's massage. So this was sex could be like? Contentment and fulfillment spread through her in waves from Hazel's hands. So, so much better than anything she'd experienced in bed before. Night and day, no comparison. She'd been missing out her whole life.

She nearly sat up as the force of the implication hit her. "Hazel! I'm a lesbian!"

-------------------

Brittany

The week leading up to the big trip was the usual blur of activity Brittany had come to expect as her new normal. Climbing tougher walls, lifting heavier weights, eating more food than she'd thought she could fit inside her and passing out at night the second her head hit the pillow. Then, two days before they left, Olivia said they were taking a break to rest up, and Brittany had no clue what to do with herself. It was really weird. When she tried to relax and settle into Final Fantasy 14 like she'd done so often in what she'd unconsciously started thinking of as The Before Time, her body wouldn't be still, and her mind wouldn't quiet down. It was like her insides were charged with energy that needed an outlet. She kept shifting in her seat, getting up for water or something, despite still having a mostly full glass.

Still, it was fun to spend time with her gamer crew over Discord, who didn't seem to mind being ignored by her for weeks, and all made fun of her for what they called relapsing back to the virtual world after so nearly escaping it for the real one.

If only they knew. Climbing, hiking, lifting weights, things she'd never seen herself doing before, all while surrounded by amazing lesbians? The real world felt more like a dream than the one with magical spells and fantastical creatures on her screen. Especially since her new life included weekly D&D sessions, where she explored a fantasy world and really did cast magic spells. They'd even given her a pointy hat, that was far too embarrassing to wear in public, but that she loved for bringing Nalara, her elvish priestess, to life.

Anyway, the restlessness only grew, until she found herself awake at 6 in the morning, unable to get back to sleep, counting down the minutes until Olivia and Rose would pick her up. It was so bad that she actually considered going out to get bagels for all of them, just for something to do. She didn't. The problem with bagels in Massachusetts after having lived in New York City is that, after taking your first bite, you need to go find a trash can.

So instead, she went through all the gear Olivia had helped collect for her, again. A rain jacket and sleeping pad borrowed from her, an old sleeping bag from Rose, Ivy's extra backpack, and a ton of other stuff that, surprisingly, fit quite easily into the huge bag. Or, maybe not surprisingly. Apparently, there was an entire backpacking culture devoted to finding new and innovative ways to cut down on the weight they needed to carry. For example, they'd be sleeping in lean-tos, so they'd be leaving their tents behind. That made sense to her, as well as their approach on food. Olivia had shown her the spreadsheets. Food accounted for a ton of pack weight, especially with the bulky bear-proof canisters they were required to keep it in, so they'd decided to only bring what they needed for three days. They'd hike back to the car as a group halfway through the trip for more, then bring it back to their campsite in the park.

The part that worried Olivia was the very minimal clothing quota. Two sets of underwear, and singles of everything else. They'd all be wearing the same stuff for days before changing out on the resupply trip. Apparently, when backpacking, everybody smelled. Best to just embrace it and pack light.

It made Brittany nervous. If her hikes with Rose were any guide, she was going to be sweating the most. By, like, a lot. But, before she could talk herself into disregarding the expert's advice and packing more stuff, Rose and Olivia arrived to drive her away.

"Good morning!" Rose greeted her, brightly, from the driver seat while Olivia blinked sleep from her eyes beside her. "We got breakfast. Bagels for us and a blueberry muffin for you."

"Thanks," Brittany said, squeezing into the back seat next to a mountain of bags she knew were stuffed with ropes and harnesses and all kinds of climbing gear. "One day, I'll take you to my old neighborhood in New York and get you some real bagels."

"And ruin bagels for us forever?" Olivia yawned. "Better to stay ignorant."

It was almost four hours from Northampton to Lake Placid, but it wasn't an unpleasant drive. Once Olivia woke up enough to carry a conversation and manage the music, time passed easily. Outside the windows, the low rising hills of Massachusetts slowly gave way to higher slopes covered by densely packed trees. The towns got sparser, and the local attractions listed on exit signs got less impressive the further from civilization they got. Apparently, the people living here spent most of their time playing minigolf and eating frozen yogurt. Somewhere north of Lake George, signs for gas stations started specifying that they were open 24 hours, which was a thing Brittany had never even questioned before in her life.

Finally, Rose pulled into the parking lot of somewhere called the Noon Mark Diner, which surprised Brittany with how welcoming it looked.

"They say they're like 10 minutes behind us," Olivia said, looking at the text chain with Ivy, Hazel and Alex's car.

"Great. Grab us this table, I'll get somebody inside's attention."

Brittany settled into the table on the porch Rose waved at, and immediately realized why she'd picked it. The view was spectacular. Mountains stretched, one after the next, off into the distance as far as she could see. They were big. Really, really big. Brittany hadn't suddenly become an expert on measuring huge rocks by sight, but she was slowly realizing why this park was called The High Peaks Wilderness. These had to be three... maybe four times higher than Mount Tom back home! How the hell was she going to survive!?!

"Are any of those on our route?" she asked.

"Nah, we've still got to drive around the edge a little. We just like the view here, and they've got a bunch of good treats we load up on before hiking in," Olivia said, still distracted by texting.

"Oh," Brittany breathed a little sigh of relief.

"Actually, mighta spoke too soon," Olivia put the phone down and stood, pointing far into the distance. "Yeah, you can kinda see from here. See that big one there in the distance? That's Marcy, we'll do that one at the end of the week. The one we're doing today is Algonquin, it's the one a bit further beyond to the right of Marcy."

Oh, for the love of - she was pointing at the two highest ones! "I'm going to die," Brittany groaned.

"You're selling yourself short."

"Am I? Am I really?"

"I think so. You've been killing yourself for, like, an entire month and a half, you've made more progress than you realize."

"Pft," Brittany laughed and turned to the returning Rose. "You tell her. I'm still winded and sweaty every time we finish a hike." Rose and Olivia shared a knowing, conspiratorial look, which made Brittany instantly suspicious. "What?"

"I told you she hadn't noticed," Rose told Olivia, who looked incredibly amused.

"Noticed what!?"

"We stay out roughly the same amount of time whenever we hike, but I've been leading us a bit faster and further every week."

Brittany blinked. Rose always took them down a different path, across lots of local mountains, and she'd given up trying to keep track of them all. She just followed Rose and tried not to trip over too many roots. "You have?"

"Yeah. We started out pretty slow last month, but our last hike was almost twice as far as the first, and you kept up with me going my normal speed."

Olivia looked like she was struggling to hold laughter in. "Oh, go on bitch," Brittany told her. "I'm oblivious, I admit it. But Rose, why didn't you mention that! It would have been such a confidence booster!"

"I'm telling you now!"

"Only because I asked! The whole time, I thought I was barely making any progress."

"Progress is a tricky thing," Olivia said. "It's easy to get obsessed with standing on the scale and pushing heavier lifts, or racing through hikes. If you get caught up in that, it doesn't stay very fun for long."

"It starts feeling like you have to go faster and longer every time," Rose agreed, "and that's not sustainable. It's best to just enjoy what you're doing, and let the results come when they do."

That was... huh... Brittany looked between them again, half expecting them to say it was all a joke and she really was still pathetically struggling to gain any momentum. "Well, I'm still not sure I can climb those monsters," she finally said, gazing back out towards the High Peaks.

She left unsaid all the other parts clouding her mind. What if she couldn't make it, and she made them all turn around? She'd wreck the entire trip for everybody, and then they'd hate her. Or, what if they got tired of her being around while they were all stuck together, and they ended up hating her while she had nowhere else to go? They were going to be living together, constantly, for days, without the internet! What the hell were they going to do to keep from going insane?

Somehow, her concerns proved both baseless and completely justified at the same time. After meeting up with the others, eating lunch and stuffing their bags with more junk food than Brittany had seen them eat in the entire time she'd known them combined, they drove on into the woods and finally parked at the South Meadows campground. Apparently, this was where the sane people parked. The parking lot for the crazies was up the road two miles at the charmingly misspelled Adirondack Loj, which was perfectly situated in the middle of everything, and which filled up at five in the morning during summer weekends.

As they unloaded the car and heaved their packs onto their backs, Brittany couldn't help noticing, once again, how much bigger and heavier everybody else's was than hers. Olivia had said not to worry about it, but she couldn't help it. Nerves about intruding on the family's vacation bonding time were already plaguing her. Add to that that she was - quite literally - being a burden on them for not being able to carry her share?

"You'd tell me if I was being a freeloader not helping more, right?" She whispered to Olivia.

"Bitch, please, I packed your bag for you. If it's anybody's fault, it's mine."

"But--"

"Weren't you just talking about death by hiking? Now you want to carry more?" She gave Brittany her usual amused grin. "Get your stories straight."

"Liv! I'm being serious."

"You're worrying too much."

Brittany sighed, glancing back at the others again, then dropped her voice even lower and let her nerves out. "You've all done this together a hundred times, so I bet it feels normal. It's new to me, and there's pressure! Like, everything I've done with them has been rehearsal for this! Sure, they all like me well enough for a few hours when I'm tagging along, but this is the real thing, and I just don't want anybody to hate me because I'm being a burden on them not pulling my weight!"

Olivia looked like she wanted to laugh, but she must have realized Brittany was being serious. "You're treating us like we're some kind of exclusive club or something. We're really not that special. You've got nothing to prove to anybody, and even if you did, you would have more than done it already. Do you know why it's always been just the five of us on these sorts of trips, and friends or girlfriends rarely ever get involved?"

"Because it's just, like, you guys's private time?"

"Not even close. No, other people just aren't into it like we are. Sure, they act interested at parties and say shit like 'I wish I was there' when they see our videos, but when it comes time to actually schedule vacation days and make it happen? Suddenly the people who say they'd love to spend a week camping vanish, and get replaced by bitches who suddenly remember that doctor's appointment, or can't miss a work project, or whatever. You're different because you're actually here, and you've been here with us for a month and a half, and you haven't run away screaming yet. It matters to us! So yeah, while you're worrying about how to impress those guys," Olivia waved back at the cars, where Alex seemed to be trying to stuff a last bit of climbing rope into Ivy's bag, "they're all just as worried about how to make sure you have a good enough time to want to come back."

"But I'm easy!" Brittany complained. "I'm happy to just go with the flow. They should know that by now."

Olivia cocked an eyebrow up. "Just like you should have gotten it into your head that they like you, and not just because they think you're my super secret girlfriend."

"But--" Brittany tried to protest some more, but the others were finally done and coming to join them.

"Ready?" Alex cheerfully asked, marching past them and on, purposefully into the trees with Rose and Hazel flanking her. Olivia flashed her a quick grin and a little shrug, as if to say that the time for talk was over, and followed her family.

"Great," Brittany muttered to herself. "Five seconds in and already behind."

"Sorry, what?" Ivy's voice asked from behind, making her jump.

She spun around to find Ivy distractedly fiddling with a pair of wireless earbuds, "Nothing!"

"Oh, thought you were talking to me." She held one of the earbuds out to Brittany. "Want something to distract you from your feet?"

Ivy's typical image passed across Brittany's mind's eye, making her chuckle. "Hiking and holding a book at the same time too much for you, eh?"

"Don't think for a second she hasn't tried to make it work," Olivia called back over her shoulder.

Brittany laughed, assuming Olivia was joking just like she'd been, but Ivy's sheepish look made her reconsider. "Really, Ivy? Really?"

"It was only once! I finished all my audiobooks too fast and I was desperate!"

"Didn't you, like, crash into trees and trip over rocks and stuff?"

"That's why it was just the one time. Not every experiment ends in success."

"Fair enough, I guess," Brittany took the earbud and slotted it in, praying she didn't get it too embarrassingly sweaty. "What are we listening to?"

Apparently, Ivy was in the middle of an audiobook that was too complicated to quickly catch her up on, so it was music for them instead. Big, epic sounding music, to go with the big, epic landscape. Brittany was far from a connoisseur of classical music, but she recognized most of what was on Ivy's playlist. Things everybody knew, like The Shire music from Lord Of The Rings and the theme from Jurassic Park.

It framed the mood of the trail perfectly. The woods surrounding them, opening every now and again to give hints of the mountains above before hiding them again in leaves felt like something out of high fantasy. Adding to that, a bunch of the groups of hikers they passed spoke French. She hadn't realized it until Ivy explained, but Montreal was only an hour and a half away, much closer than any American population center. Not speaking a word of French herself, it might as well have been Elvish to go with the fantasy.

Without any lyrics in the music, one song rolled seamlessly into the next, and Brittany lost all sense of time. It was a weird headspace. On the one hand, time seemed to drag while she huffed and puffed her way up the gradually steepening path. Simultaneously, it passed in a flash. When they came to their first high open overlook, Brittany realized they must have been hiking for hours already without her noticing. They were so far up! The mountains stretched out around them, miles in every direction off into the horizon, while a song she was pretty sure was from Harry Potter filled her ears.

She breathed deep, leaning back and stretching, taking it all in, and suddenly a realization hit her. She wasn't sore. She wasn't even tired. She felt... really good, actually. More than good, with her blood pumping and her legs engaged, she felt downright powerful. What the fuck? How? She flexed her legs, bending over to stretch, almost expecting to find they weren't hers after all.

But they were, and they responded with an energetic spring as if they were still fresh. It was awesome! Was this how all the rest of them felt all the time? No wonder they loved being constantly active.

A huge grin spread across her lips, and she turned to Ivy, trying to find words to describe this new feeling, and failing to come up with anything better than a Final Fantasy 14 comparison. The same idea would carry over to their Dungeons and Dragons game, right? "You ever been struggling to do something in D&D, then level up, and suddenly that thing feels easy?" Ivy cocked a quizzical eyebrow. Damn, with no context, that must have seemed like a hell of a mental leap. Brittany gave up the analogy. "I was actually kind of freaking out earlier about holding everybody back, but I feel like I can do this, and it's really nice. I think I'm figuring out why you love this so much."

Ivy smiled back at her and nodded, knowingly. "It's fucking awesome, and it only gets better."

She slipped a water bottle from a convenient pocket on the side of her bag and passed it over, letting the moment stretch on quietly between them. Out of all of them, Ivy had always seemed the most chill. The most comfortable with quiet moments, and it made for a really nice change of pace. Like she was the walking embodiment of that peaceful, comfortable feeling of snuggling up beneath a warm blanket on a rainy day with a book. Or maybe that was just the mental association that sprang to mind because of how often she saw her reading. Either way, even her music fit. After Olivia's metal obsession and Rose's electronica, both of which Brittany did love, this classical playlist of Ivy's was quite the contrast. They stood together, taking in the view, until Alex's voice called them back to reality.

"Come on! We've got to get to Lake Colden before sundown!"

"She's always in such a hurry," Ivy muttered, apologetically.

"If it wasn't her, I bet it would have been Liv," Brittany whispered back, motioning to their pumped looking friend keeping pace with Alex. "I bet she's dying to break out her fireball stash."

"I thought she'd gone with tequila this trip."

"Maybe it's both?"

Brittany made to follow Alex and Olivia, but Ivy hung back, letting Hazel and Rose pass them by, and finally speaking again once they were alone. "I'm sorry if I'm overstepping, and please feel free to tell me to fuck off if I am, but what happened with you and Liv? Usually, when she breaks up with somebody, there's a big explosion and they storm out of her life forever. It's unusual for somebody to want to stay close afterwards, and... well, we're all really happy you're here, and we're hoping Liv didn't drag you into too much drama."

Drama?!? Brittany's internal voice dripped sarcasm. Dude, you've got no fucking idea! We'd literally just had sex! It was great, we were cuddling in bed, and then she decided she'd rather pine after her best friend!

But the image of Olivia's face that next morning flashed before her eyes. So sad and uncertain, with so much self-loathing... How could anybody not feel bad for her? Her feelings weren't her fault, and if it was possible to change them, Brittany was pretty sure Olivia would do it in a heartbeat. "Yeah, that makes sense. I think she was pretty surprised I didn't scream at her and leave," she told Ivy, then gave what she hoped was a nonchalant shrug. "I don't want to lie, but it's also not my story to tell. All I can really say is Liv's got somebody else she's got feelings for, and she's feeling a bit wrapped up in that."

Ivy cocked an eyebrow. "She asked you not to tell us, didn't she?"

"Well, um--"

"Liv's got a mystery woman she's crushing on hard enough to break up with you over, but who she wants to keep secret from us." Ivy paused, theatrically, like she was putting on a show solving a puzzle out loud in D&D. "You know the list of candidates there isn't very long, right?"

Shit! "I--um--really?"

"It's Rose, isn't it?"

Fuck! Brittany stopped dead in her tracks, tried to think of a convincing way to keep Olivia's secret, and came up with nothing. That was assuming her reaction hadn't given it away, and judging by how Ivy was looking at her, it had. "Liv's going to fucking kill me," she finally said.

"Nah, don't worry," Ivy tossed a reassuring arm around her shoulders, huge backpack and all, and started them both up the path again. "Unless one of us tells Rose without her permission. Then Liv will have all our heads on pikes."

She sounded surprisingly upbeat. Brittany had expected her to be mad that somebody extremely close to her had been deliberately keeping secrets, especially after Olivia had psyched herself out so much. Oh well, now the cat was finally out of the bag, at least she could advocate for her friend. "She's been freaking out that you'll all hate her for bringing drama between you. Like being into Rose is betraying your family dynamic. And she also really didn't want to ask anybody else to lie to Rose for her, so, I guess that's how we got here."

Ivy nodded, as if nothing Brittany said was surprising. "All logical enough. Still, Liv is an idiot. Don't worry, we'll talk some sense into her."

Brittany nearly stopped short again. "So you're not mad?"

Ivy just chuckled again. "Do you know what Alex and Hazel are going to say?"

"What?"

"It's about goddamn time. Seriously, Liv and Rose have been in love with each other for years, and it's been obvious to everybody except for them." They got to a steep scramble uphill, and Ivy unhooked her arm so they could climb up. "But enough about our little sorority and our failures to communicate. How have you been? I hope Liv didn't lead you on too much before having her little epiphany."

She shouldn't dish on Olivia. Not too much, anyway. She really shouldn't... but she finally had somebody she could dish to, and she really wanted to vent. "Dude, you have no idea. We'd literally just had sex."

"NO!"

"Yes!"

"I'm so sorry. I swear, Liv isn't usually that much of a bitch. At least, not to people she likes."

"Yeah, I know. Don't worry, we've worked it out. It just sucked, you know?"

She dove into the story of her and Olivia's very short lived fling, and found Ivy to be a sympathetic listener. It felt so good unburdening herself, she almost didn't notice how intense the path had become, or how her body was finally starting to feel the strain.

The trail got even steeper, relentlessly up and up until it was more like being on the stairmaster than walking, especially when they got out above the trees and made their way over bare rock to the very top. It took a toll, and Brittany did end up pretty exhausted, just not in the way she'd originally been worried about. This felt different. Like, somehow, tired in a way that felt enabling? Which made no sense, but she didn't have any better way to frame it. She still felt powerful, and confident in her body in a way that was completely new to her!

Their spread out groups came together at the top, putting a stop to Brittany's therapy session with Ivy and drawing them both into a discussion of the hat Lydia had given Rose, featuring an otter on a surf board. Apparently, her name was Otter 841, and she was famous in California for stealing kayaks and boards from surfers.

Rose broke off mid-sentence as she spotted Brittany and Ivy cresting the summit, immediately coming over and giving Brittany a big congratulatory hug. "You made it!"

"Yeah," Brittany said, breathless. "Definitely harder than anything we've done back home."

"But much more rewarding," Rose released her and stepped back, letting Brittany take the sights surrounding them in. They'd been above tree line for a bit of time, so she'd been able to see the views behind them, but on the bare rock summit, it was truly open in every direction. Mountains surrounded her, distant tiny trees coloring their slopes, up and down all the way to the horizon where they met up with some puffy white clouds and the blue of the sky. Brittany turned, slowly, feeling her jaw go slack. It was endless... and she was on top of all of it. Technically, this was only the second highest peak in the area, but Mount Marcy was far enough away that it didn't spoil the effect. Every other mountain around her was lower. She was on top of the world! She'd done it! She'd conquered this rock, and now it was her bitch!

"That's where we'll be staying tonight," Rose said, pointing far down below to a lake in the valley between Algonquin and the next mountain over, which had a ton of open rock stretches that made vertical stripes of gray between the green of the trees. That must be Colden, the mountain that the lake was named after, which was apparently famous for rockslides and avalanches that created those features.

"Cool."

"And that's Wallface," Ivy pointed the other direction, indicating a nearby mountain, which looked more like a hill from their vantage point high above it. Or rather, half a mountain. Wallface had an open, vertical bare rock wall that looked like its side had been sheered off by a landscaping giant.

The mountain might have looked smallish from their perspective up here, but still, it was obvious that stretch was hundreds of feet high! "We're going to climb that?" Brittany asked, wonderingly.

"Yep!"

"But... it's got to be, like, ten times longer than the tallest walls at the gym."

Rose did some mental math and corrected her. "More like twenty times, but don't worry! You don't do it all in one go, you divide it up into pitches and rest between them. We'll show you."

They stayed up there for a while, lounging and snacking on cookies from the diner, which felt like the most delicious thing Brittany had ever tasted. High in calories though her new diet was, most of the foods they'd been giving her were high in protein. She'd been close to sugar free for weeks, and tasting chocolate again made her appreciate it like never before. When they finally started their trek downhill, Brittany felt well rested and ready for the challenge.

And what a challenge it was.

Hiking with Rose, she'd quickly learned that hiking down a rocky slope was actually harder than going up. The balance and footing required a good deal of focus, and with the weight on her back, her knees took quite a beating. The trail took on a much different feel. Nearly everybody they'd seen at the top had turned around and taken the same path back to the parking lot, and this path was much more narrow and overgrown because it was so much less used. It actually helped a lot, as the abundant close branches were great for handholds to help climbing down the steep rocks.

Finally, they emerged at the bottom and found an empty lean-to to claim.

Then they made their way over to the lakeside together, kicking off their boots and lounged back on the shore, feet soaking in the luxuriously warm water. It was perfect. Algonquin stretched above them, the sun setting behind it while its reflection rippled across the water, and it was about the most beautiful sight Brittany had ever seen. She'd really defeated that beast. They all had, together, and sitting between Ivy and Olivia, Brittany truly felt like she belonged. Like sharing the experience had earned her a spot here, enjoying their comradery and the last of the cookies.

"You're glowing," Olivia said to her, softly, but with the familiar tease in her voice. "Good day, eh?"

She knew, of course. Just like she'd known from the start Brittany would end up feeling this way. "You know, normally I'd think of some witty way to tease you back, but I'm in too good a mood to spend brain cells thinking."

"Damn! Ivy, did you eat her out while none of us were looking?"

Olivia casually tossing that sort of sexual joke out didn't surprise her. She'd learned to expect it from her. No, the little half choked sound, followed by a distinct blush from Ivy was what surprised Brittany. "Ivy?" She questioned, while Alex, Hazel and Rose all laughed.

"I keep forgetting you don't know all our old stories!" Alex exclaimed. "This is perfect! We've finally got a perfect excuse to relive our best moments."

"Alex," Rose said, gently, from Alex's other side. "If Ivy doesn't want--"

"Nah, it's fine," Ivy put in, her initial surprise giving way to a grin. "It just opens her up for some revenge storytelling later, and not gonna lie, it was a pretty damn good moment for me."

"Bitch, you made us wait like half an hour at the car!" Olivia huffed. "We thought you'd gotten so immersed in whatever book you were listening to, you'd wandered off the trail and straight into Westeros."

Brittany, putting the clues together, gawked at Ivy. "Ivy, did you really hook up with somebody while hiking?"

"Not just somebody," Alex answered for Ivy, emphasizing the last word. "She hooked up with the hottest mom you've ever seen in your life. Picture this, we'd just finished The Great Range, which is one of the most epic hikes in this park. It goes along a ridge and you hit a bunch of peaks all in a row, so you can imagine we were beat when we finally staggered into the parking lot, starving and salivating thinking about dinner in Lake Placid. But we kept waiting, and this one," she pointed accusingly at Ivy, "never turned up. Group after group came down the trail while we waited, getting into cars and leaving, going to eat and making us jealous. All except one other Canadian family, a dad and two kids all speaking French waiting by a car close to us. Eventually, like 15 minutes later, we finally see Ivy, but she's not alone. She's walking with somebody who turned out to be that family's mom, and they've both got these enormous sloppy grins on their faces like they just fucked the shit out of each other. And then, as they get to us, the mom says in this adorable French accent - your friend, she is very good! Then she gave Ivy a wave and went off to her family!"

"Ivy!" Brittany exclaimed, "I never knew you were a homewrecker!"

"I didn't know she was married! She never said anything - she wasn't even wearing a ring!"

"Are you sure?" Olivia asked, teasingly, and Ivy backtracked slightly.

"Well, not exactly... my French isn't perfect, I mighta missed it."

"You speak French too?" Brittany asked. Ivy was full of surprises.

"Just what I remember from high school."

"She's being modest. She's basically fluent, she translated for us when we went to Montreal." Rose told her.

"Everybody in Montreal speaks English anyway!" Ivy protested, but Alex had the kicker.

"You're sure fluent enough to get into that sexy momma's pants and make all the rest of us jealous."

Ivy, it seemed, couldn't disagree with the evidence of history. Olivia fished around in her bag and pulled out a Nalgene bottle filled with something that clearly wasn't water. She took a sip of it, gave a great sigh, then offered it to Ivy. "To sexy milfs."

Rose stood up and stretched. "Speaking of dinner, I left the cooking stuff up at the lean-to. I'm gonna grab it and inflate my sleeping pad before it gets too much darker. Anybody else want me to do theirs?"

"I'll come with you," Hazel said, and Alex agreed that she should do hers before she got too drunk to remember how, but then she wouldn't go before making them promise to leave enough booze for her.

The three of them disappeared back up towards their campsite, and Ivy passed the bottle to Brittany, who took a tentative sip. Knowing Olivia, she'd half expected pure liquor, but she'd mixed enough juice in with the vodka to make it taste pretty good, despite being warm. "Thanks," she told Olivia, who had leaned back against a rock and closed her eyes, looking peacefully content.

"No problem. This is what it's all about, you know. Climbing shit is great, but it's really just how you make alcohol hit you just right."

"Um - Liv... Sorry to bring the mood down, but..." Ivy said, hesitantly enough to make Olivia open a questioning eye.

"Sup?"

"We need to talk."

Olivia took the bottle back and took a big drink. "Yeah? About what?"

"About why you've been acting so strange for weeks."

"I haven't been--"

"Or about you and Rose, if you're going to make me spell it out."

For a second, Brittany thought Olivia would deny it. Olivia's nostrils flared, and her eyes darted around, like a cornered animal trying to decide whether to fight or flee. But, just as quickly as it had come, the defiance seemed to drain out of Olivia. She seemed to deflate, like she was collapsing in on herself. "Oh. Right. That." She shook her head slowly, as if the idea of talking about her feelings tired her more than hiking over Algonquin had. "This is the part where you tell me wanting Rose is basically incest, and I should drown myself in this lake, right?"

It was the same defeated, lifeless voice she'd had that morning more than a month before, and Brittany's heart immediately bled for her. It made her want to give her a hug, but Ivy beat her to it, wrapping her arms around Olivia and squeezing. "No, Liv, you moron. This is the part where I make you remember why we're a family."

And then there were no more words. Olivia burrowed herself into Ivy and started silently sobbing. Brittany sat, awkwardly, wondering if she should go away and give them some space or if that would spoil the moment, but Olivia blindly grabbed her and pulled her roughly into the hug too. And maybe it made her a shit person to feel good while her friend was crying, but Olivia wanting her support too alongside her chosen sister made her heart feel complete.

-------------------

Olivia

"I'm not telling Rose," Olivia said, flatly.

"She loves you just as much as you love her," Ivy said. She probably thought she was being comforting, but it only made the Rose-shaped hole inside her seem bigger.

"Even if you're right," she said, hearing the depression in her own voice, "it doesn't really matter. She's with Lydia, and they're doing really well. Rose is improving so much so fast."

"You should still tell her."

Olivia glared at Ivy. "I am NOT breaking Rose up with her girlfriend."

"I'm not saying you should!" Ivy said, quickly. "I'm just saying, you should let her know, so you don't have to keep torturing yourself pretending everything's normal."

"Umm," Brittany said, softly, from her spot still hugged into Olivia's back. "I think Liv's concern is that it kind of amounts to the same thing, right Liv? Like, if she opens up to Rose, she's worried Rose will feel forced to make a choice."

"Exactly," Olivia agreed, dully. "And then, Rose will feel like she's forced to pick me or lose me altogether, and she'll freak the fuck out."

Ivy didn't sound convinced. "So your plan is to just be miserable until Rose and Lydia maybe break up, some day?"

"Something like that," Olivia said, choosing to leave off how the plan was actually to support Rose into making the relationship last.

"And if they never break up, even after Lydia goes back to LA?"

"Then Rose will be happy forever with Lydia, who, if you hadn't noticed, is absolutely perfect for her."

"And you'll be miserable forever."

Olivia shrugged. "What's your point?"

"You know what my point is, you stubborn bitch!"

Olivia gave a half sob, half chuckle. Damn Ivy, going and making her feel things again after the pleasant numbness of hard liquor and the releasing freedom of crying. "Whatever happened to comforting me. Aren't you supposed to agree with everything I say, no matter how stupid it is, and tell me everything will be okay?"

"At least you admit you're being stupid. That's a good first step."

"Trust me, I hate this too! On top of everything else, I hate how I'm taking away all Rose's agency, and justifying it by saying I'm protecting her." She sighed, dabbing at her eyes again. "I know that makes me a shitty friend, but I just can't lose her. Better to be a bad friend than no friend at all."

"Oh Liv... I understand, I really do." Ivy said, soothingly, but with emotion and sadness lacing her voice. "I really hope you don't believe you're being a shitty friend. You're absolutely not."

"Would you do anything differently?"

Ivy thought for so long that Olivia thought she hadn't heard the question. She didn't feel the need to repeat it, though. It was very nice and calming, snuggling between Ivy and Brittany's warm embraces. Hell, it was nice to finally be able to talk about this out in the open, even if it didn't really change anything about the situation. At least she wouldn't have to wear the mask around Ivy, Alex or Hazel anymore.

"Honestly, from your point of view, I'm not sure I would," Ivy finally answered, "I get why you think this is the right thing to do. It's just, from my perspective knowing both of you, I think the problem is you've got one of your underlying assumptions wrong."

"You sound like a programmer. You've been spending too much time around Hazel and Mary."

"That assumption," Ivy continued, ignoring Olivia's attempted distraction, "is that Rose doesn't love you the same way you love her. I think she does. I really do, and if you tell her how you feel, I think she'll finally realize it."

More emotions swelled up inside Olivia's chest. Damn, hadn't she flushed them all out? "Iiivvyyyyyy," she complained. "You're gonna make me cry again."

"If you're gonna do it, make it fast," Brittany warned. "The others are coming back this way."

"Fuck." Okay, mask back on, you can do it. Game time. Just like before. She took a deep breath and another big drink, then, painfully, forced a smile back onto her face. "How do I look?"

Ivy looked her over. "Like you just spent all day getting your face dusty hiking, then cried."

"You could have just said I look like shit, you know."

Ah well, desperate times and all that. Olivia passed Ivy the bottle, stood up and tossed herself into the lake. Warm water enveloped her, instantly soaking through all her clothes and sticking her hair to her face, but feeling absolutely wonderful on her sun blasted body. Olivia swam underwater, letting her skin drink the moisture in, and surfacing just in time to see Alex charging over.

"Oh my god, are we doing this!" Alex called. "Yes! Pass me that, Ivy. Wait, damn it! You already drank so much, you were supposed to save more for me."

"I barely touched it, it was all Liv!"

"Liv, you thief!" Alex scrambled onto a rock and made a shallow but graceful dive into the lake, swimming underwater right at Olivia like a shark. It was obvious what was about to happen, but Olivia just grinned and let her get on with it. Why not? Let Alex have her fun. Sure enough, Olivia soon felt herself grabbed around the legs and lifted high out of the lake, just to be dunked down with a huge splash. She wrestled with Alex under the water, managing to wriggle her way free and splashing water in her face when they both came up for air. Olivia laughed as Alex splashed her back, and only realized a few seconds later that it was genuine. Not the mask. Either she'd broken her sober-to-drunk record, or childish splashing was more cathartic than she'd expected.

Or being free from worrying her family would disown her helped. Yeah, it was probably that. Olivia looked back at Ivy and Brittany on the shore and mouthed "Thank you," to them, which they might not have seen because Alex picked that moment to jump on her back and wrestle her back into the water again. They went back and forth, splashing and dunking each other in a contest for supremacy of the lake that got even more epic when Hazel and Rose joined in. Battles were fought, alliances were made and betrayed, Brittany threw everything into chaos again when she joined in, and in the end the pictures Ivy took from the shore were trophy enough for everybody.

The last rays of the sun were disappearing as they lounged lazily back on the lakeside, eating the rehydrated food Ivy had boiled water for them all while they frolicked. Sadly, she'd had to use their tiny camp stove. One of the few failures of The High Peaks is the blanket prohibition against campfires of all kinds. Once again, idiots have ruined something beautiful for everyone. The food - rehydrated chicken pad thai - was one of those magical things that seemed mediocre back in civilization, but here in the woods tasted better than a 5-star restaurant.

Alex was the first to say goodnight, but not the first to fall asleep. Brittany had nodded off using Ivy's shoulder as a pillow, a happy smile on her face that made Olivia guess she hadn't wanted the day to end, but had simply run out of gas. Quite the turnaround from your misgivings this morning, eh Brittany? Olivia made a mental note to tease her in the morning.

"I think Alex has the right idea," Olivia yawned, standing up and moving towards the lean-to. "Goodnight guys."

"Wait, Liv, one more thing," Rose called after her.

"Yeah?"

"Are you going to be up early tomorrow?"

The alcohol in Olivia's head picked that moment to spin around. "Probably. Probably be hung over too."

"Want to go on an early adventure with me? I'm thinking of taking some pictures to send back to Lydia and... um... I think you'd make them better."

That slant to Rose's voice. Taking special pictures for Lydia? She wanted lewds. One hundred percent. Suddenly, all the peacefulness was gone. Shattered. Olivia mentally grasped for the pieces, frantically tossing enough of them back together onto her face to reform the mask. Laugh. Laugh, damn it! It's funny, you have to laugh or she'll think something's wrong! "Rose," she forced her voice into tease mode, then glanced back over her shoulder at her, "are you asking me to be your photographer so you can send outdoor erotic pictures to your exhibitionist lover?"

Hazel laughed, but concern creased the edges of Ivy's eyes. Damn, and Ivy was supposed to be the actress in the family. "Umm..." Rose covered her face with her hands, obviously glowing red and fortunately not looking Ivy's way. "Yeah."

"Count me in." Olivia managed to say, and quickly dove for her sleeping bag. She burrowed into it, hid herself down in its depths, and wished the darkness surrounding her would smother her to nothing.

It wasn't fair. How the hell was she supposed to do that and keep the mask intact? The only question was which would break her composure first - taking sexy pictures of Rose that weren't supposed to turn her on, but undoubtedly would, or knowing the pictures were meant for somebody else.

Ah well, at least it wasn't all bad news. Rose feeling comfortable sending Lydia nude pictures? She must be finding it easier to trust her. Rose's heart was taking steps in the right direction. Maybe she'd heal enough to call Lydia her girlfriend soon. That'd be good. Very good. Olivia kept telling herself that, hoping that repeatedly reminding herself Rose would be happy would convince her own eyes to stop watering at the thought.

One day at a time. Survive tomorrow, then worry about the next day.

It wasn't like she'd never seen Rose naked before. They'd shared an apartment for ages, after all, and they were comfortable enough with each other's bodies that Rose asking her to be her photographer probably hadn't seemed weird at all. It'd just been the intention of sexting Lydia that'd turned her red.

Obviously, that was the paradigm before she'd started fantasizing about tasting her best friend's lips while burying her fingers as deep as they'd go in her pussy. How comfortable would Rose be with her if she knew that? God, she really was a shit friend.

But that did give her the beginnings of an idea. Maybe that was how to keep the mask in place. Play into being the stereotypical over-the-top porn photographer who was convinced they were creating art, be flirty and complimentary of Rose to the point of parody and just... not mention that it wasn't fake, and she meant every word? Would that actually work?

-------------------

Rose

Lake Colden is a very popular place to camp. It's beautiful, and it sits at a crossroads between a bunch of major trails. The path north, from Algonquin where they'd come in, as well as several options east, including the highest peak in New York, Mount Marcy. Mount Marshall, to the west, was much less popular. People who climbed it were mostly just trying to check it off their list of 46 peaks over 4,000 feet, so they could complete them all. It had good, but not great views at the top, and it was kind of set on its own, so it was hard to include in a route to another peak in the same day.

That's what made Rose think they should have the trail to themselves, especially early in the morning. Day hikers started at one of two parking lots, both miles away, and it'd be rare for anybody camping here to want to do Marshall. Sunrise seekers had much better options.

Still, it was on their way to Wallface, and Marshall did have one very unique feature. There was an old wreck of a crashed airplane on the path, and something about it made the small child inside of Rose excited whenever she passed it. It was small, but you could climb inside and sit in the cockpit and everything!

She and Olivia stealthily re-packed their bags and crept out of the lean-to into the early pre-dawn twilight.

"Fuuuuck me," Olivia groaned. "I'm never drinking again."

"And you all wonder why I don't drink. You guys do such a good job selling it every morning." Rose led the way down to the lake so they could filter some water and refill their bottles, enjoying the crisp cold of the morning air before the sun could drive the mists away.

"You're wiser than us all, oh sober one." Olivia's sarcasm dripped through her hangover. "Wait, where are we going?"

"Up Marshall, like we normally would. We'll get the good lean-to by Wallface and meet everybody there. I was thinking we'd take pictures along the way, maybe start at the plane and then if nobody's at the top, we'd get some up there too?"

Olivia shook her head, then winced as it triggered her headache. "You've got no idea how to make porn. It's a good thing you've got me."

"Yeah, I figured a connoisseur like yourself would be the perfect teacher," Rose chuckled. "What do you suggest?"

Olivia thought for a second, then turned around back towards their campsite. "The best porn isn't about the hot bodies. It's about the fantasy. The story you're putting into the viewer's mind, that they can imagine along with you."

"Oh, yeah?" Rose followed, thinking she understood but asking anyway. "And the story you have in mind starts at the campsite?"

"Yup," Olivia whispered as they passed closer to their sleeping family. "Do you know if Hazel brought her selfie stick? Think you can get it from her bag without waking her up?"

"Yeah, she did," Rose stealthily made her way to Hazel's bright yellow pack. Hazel had offered to let them use the stick last night, but Rose hadn't thought they'd need it with Olivia taking the pictures.

"It's just a prop for these first shots," Olivia explained when she returned. "We're going to try to tell the story that it's just you alone with the camera, and the viewer is alone with you vicariously through that." Rose raised a questioning eyebrow, and Olivia gave her a playful shove to go stand by the lean-to. "It's sexier like that, trust me. No, face the other way so I can get the lake and the mountains in shot behind you. And try to look sleepy, like you just crawled out of your sleeping bag."

Olivia stood very close and took quite a few pictures from slightly different angles, muttering about trying to capture the misty light, and Rose's hair looking too neat before mussing it up a bit and taking some more. When she was done, Rose had to admit it had worked. They looked like Rose herself had woken up and taken some selfies, and the fact that they were perfectly set and lit was just lucky coincidence.

"You're so good at this," Rose told Olivia, but she just grunted.

"Could be better if we had more time. I'll touch them up a bit before we send."

"You can do that without your laptop?"

"Yeah. Technology is crazy. Phones these days have better cameras and editing tools than most professionals were using just like 15 years ago."

They started the climb, but rather than doing it together, Olivia immediately told her to "pretend I'm not here. Just be yourself and be beautiful."

Rose wasn't quite sure what that meant, especially since Olivia kept telling her to look at the camera and smile, but that didn't seem to matter. She kept saying things like "This is great," and, "The camera loves it when you smile like that," and, "Do that thing with your hair again. No, that one. Hold the pose a second and... great! That's hot right there." Whatever she was doing, it must be good? Rose smiled to herself, skipping a little from rock to rock and earning another compliment from Olivia. "You look so innocent. Like a frolicking Disney woodland creature. It's perfect, it'll contrast the slut shots we're gonna take later. Now, smile like you've got a dirty secret... Dirtier... Rose, smile like you want to jump on Lydia, please. There it is! Perfect!"

There was something a little insincere in Olivia's aura. Her smile and the way her eyes creased was sort of off, but Rose didn't think too hard about it. Olivia was probably just focusing through her hangover, and besides, she'd tell her if she wasn't having a good time. And the silly photographer bit was pretty funny, even if Liv was putting it on.

Little butterflies of excitement started flapping around the edges of her chest, which surprised her. Every time she'd done something like this with Lydia, she'd kind of assumed the feelings were mostly because of her. Sexual excitement from her lover, with just a bit of spice from the daredevil public settings they'd been getting it on in. But, as Olivia kept taking pictures and her suggestions started taking a less-safe-for-work tone, Rose felt the effects.

"Freeze when you step over this big rock here. Stretch your leg up. Yeah! No, wait, stick your butt out more."

Olivia squatted down, getting an angle along her outstretched leg up Rose's body towards her butt that immediately put Rose in mind of Lydia. Lydia loved her legs. "Like this?" Rose flexed a bit and bent forward a little further.

"Angle your arm back towards me like you're aiming the selfie stick. Perfect! Your ass was made for film."

"But we're not using film," Rose laughed.

"Shut up and look pretty. I swear, models these days, think they can sass all the time. Damn unprofessional."

But, as Rose made to continue on, Olivia stopped her. "Here's what we've got so far," she flicked across the phone screen, pictures flashing by quickly, mostly just of her walking. "I'm thinking we just pick two or three of these as teasers for the opening. I like this one with your hair, and maybe this one here where the light shows your eyes. I'll have to fix up the brightness a bit, but it highlights how pretty your face is perfectly. What do you think?

"I - oh, um -" Rose looked from the phone, to Olivia's face, and back again, the excited butterfly feelings speeding up a little. "I think I'm in very good hands. You really should go pro."

"Nah, fuck that. Pictures are fun, but every professional I've talked to says it starts being really stressful when you have to be continuously creative for rent and food." Olivia got to the picture she'd just taken, and she flashed Rose a very wide grin. "Plus, as you can see right here, I'm hardly doing anything. My sexy model carries the art all by herself."

Rose was, as she'd been told many times, painfully oblivious to people flirting with her. If only everybody else could be as obvious as Liv was right now, it would be so much easier! Rose gave her friend a playful little nudge. "But you can't see my face at all, that could be anybody's legs. If you took a picture of your legs, I bet you could make it look just as good."

"That's what the lead in pictures are for. We're setting the stage for the body shots that come later. Speaking of, how far are you thinking you want to go?"

Rose's internal butterflies spread their wings wide. "All the way."

"Oh? Like, you mean flashing everything, or--"

"All my clothes off, right out in the open," Rose said, and giggled at the way Olivia's jaw dropped and her eyes went wide. "What? I've told you about the stuff Lydia and I have been doing."

"You're fucking nuts," Olivia breathed.

The giggle intensified. "You know how many times I've heard that from somebody? You know how I always say something like: oh, I'm not that bad?" Rose paused, fidgeting a little as the beginnings of fear combined with excitement to create nervous energy.

"Yeah?"

"Well, this time, I won't. You're right, it's insane, and I think that's why I love it so much."

"And something like flashing the camera raising your shirt for a few seconds doesn't feel the same?" Olivia asked as they started walking again.

"It really doesn't," Rose said, trying to think of how to explain it. "Like, that's just nudity, and this is more of a feeling. With that, it still feels safe. If somebody's coming, I can just drop my top and everything's normal. But, if I take my shirt off completely and give it to you, then there's no hiding what's happening. Sure, I can cover my boobs up with my arms, but it's impossible to pretend I'm not hiking topless."

"So it feels much more real and risky? Like climbing without ropes?"

"Kind of, yeah," Rose said, thoughtfully. She hadn't really thought about it in those terms before. Why, though? The analogy seemed obvious... except, it actually didn't fit very well. "But also kind of not. Like, climbing without ropes is risky in a stupid and dangerous way. If you fall, you're just dead. That makes it not exciting to me."

"Good to hear."

"Something like this, though, feels like it's got real stakes that would be hugely embarrassing, but it wouldn't be the end of the world. I guess that makes it feel more exciting and less just stupid. Does that make any sense?"

"Kind of," Olivia said, frowning like she was chewing over the idea. "So it isn't just the nudity that makes it fun for you and Lydia, it's the taboo of the situation, plus the separation from the safety net of your clothes?"

"That's it, yeah!" Rose, agreed, but then stepped it back a little, giving Olivia a conspiratorial grin. "But it is also just being horny and getting to see Lydia's sexy body too."

Olivia ducked her head back down to the phone, muttering about how to capture that feeling in pictures while stepping over tree roots on autopilot. It was too fast and low for Rose to follow, but she thought she could occasionally make out words like "perspective" and "pace." Weren't those usually creative writing terms? She must have been serious about photography being like storytelling.

Finally, Olivia seemed to come to a decision. She jogged up ahead, found a spot she liked, and beckoned Rose over. "Okay, we're going to do a quick video here."

"Okay."

Olivia was lining up the phone very deliberately, setting it on different rocks and branches and checking each view before settling on one she liked.

"Okay, it'll be recording everything but you should start off with your hand on the phone like you've just hit play, and we'll clip it later."

"Like I'm alone out here and I've set it to stand by itself?" Rose guessed.

"You got it. Then you should step back a bit and slip your bra off from under your shirt, maybe show a bit of your abs but definitely no boobs, and then give the camera a naughty smile like you've got a dirty secret and turn the recording off."

"More of your dirty secrets," Rose chuckled. "Isn't it going to be obvious that the secret is my boobs?"

"What did I say about shutting up and looking pretty! You hot shot models - always gotta tell ya what they think."

Rose instinctually glanced up and down the trail, though they hadn't seen another person yet that morning. Despite her big talk, as Olivia hit play and motioned her to start whenever she was ready, nervousness struck into her excitement. Olivia kept quiet, watching her expectantly, and Rose could imagine Lydia there too, waiting for her to perform. Of course, the nerves only fanned the flames of her excitement. She took a deep breath, enjoying the feelings coursing around inside of her, then went for it.

But in the end, Rose couldn't help feeling like it was a bit of a letdown. She really didn't do very much. Just unzip her sports bra from the join in the front, attempt to slide the straps around her sleeveless tank top shoulders, fail because her backpack got in the way, take that off and then slip her bra down the bottom. Not really any opportunity to tease. Oh well, she'd just have to make up for it later.

"God, that's hot," Olivia said, immediately picking up the phone after Rose had mimicked stopping the recording.

"But it was so short," Rose complained. "I barely did anything."

"Um, Rose," Olivia held out the phone, which was frozen on one of the last frames as Rose had leaned into the camera. Even without zooming in, it was obvious what Olivia was trying to show her, and Rose felt her very hard nipples tingle as they saw themselves on screen poking distinctly into her shirt. "I think you've got that dirty secret bit down."

Rose imagined the situation revered. What if it was Lydia sending her these pictures, where she was visibly turned on? Especially in a risky public setting? Tingles prickled across her skin. Yeah, that would be pretty hot. "Okay, maybe you're right."

"Of course I'm right! I'm an artist, I've never been wrong about anything in my life!"

From there, things escalated like a long, drawn out striptease. They got higher and higher on the trail, high enough to start getting ledges and overviews, and Olivia had her stop at each of them and show progressively more skin. A bit of her stomach and abs visible on the side of the frame, with a sweeping view of Lake Colden where they'd camped in the center. Then, another shot from the same location, but over Rose's shoulder so her face was in the frame. Olivia kept the picturesque lake was as the main focus, but Rose's bare shoulder and the start of her chest, extending far enough down to tease the top of her breast, was barely visible on the edge of the frame. She'd only slid her shoulder strap down, not taken it off, but it still looked like she was completely topless.

"If you're this much of a tease with my body," Rose giggled looking at that one, "I can only imagine how much you tease your girlfriends."

"You've got no idea. If I had your body, I'd be the worst tease in the world."

Finally, at the last overlook before the crashed plane, Olivia said it was time to cross the line. It was just going to be three pictures, but after all the buildup, it should be enough to get a reaction from Lydia. First, Rose standing with her back to the camera, body facing out towards the sweeping mountain view off to the horizon, but smiling back over her shoulder at the camera. That one was easy enough, the fun, excited smile Liv wanted was pretty much glued to her face at this point anyway.

"Now lose the shorts. Whenever you're--" Liv sounded like she expecting her to need to psych herself up. Like she expected Rose to draw it out. An hour ago, she might have been right. Now, Rose felt like she'd been dying to do this for ages, and she'd been fighting against the excitement thrumming inside her to keep her clothes on. So, she immediately hooked her thumbs under her waistband and pulled down, baring her butt to the camera and loving Liv's quick intake of breath. "--ready... Holy fuck Rose, I wanna grope you so bad."

Even if that thread of insincerity was still there, letting her know Olivia was just fooling around with her, if Rose could get that reaction out of her, hopefully Lydia would like it too.

The breeze tickled across her bare skin, making her feel her exposure more acutely. She gazed out over the land, her back to the path. What if somebody came up behind them? What if somebody out there had a pair of binoculars and happened to be looking at exactly this spot? Okay, maybe that was vanishingly improbable, but still! It was all about the fantasy meeting reality, and right now, everything about it felt really good.

"Okay, ready for next shot now. Unless you wanna stand there like that all day, which I'm totally cool with if you are."

The next shot? Oh, right! Rose pulled her shorts back on, then turned back to the camera, posing with her underwear dangling from one finger. "Isn't this one a little much?" Rose asked.

"It's to go along with the dirty secret thing."

"But isn't the no panties thing a dirty old man fantasy?"

"If it is, I've been a dirty old man all my life, and I've never realized until right now." Rose laughed so hard she nearly dropped her underwear, and Olivia glared at her. "Don't you dare say it."

Rose didn't say it. It'd be too much like the pot calling the kettle black. "In fairness, I met up with Lydia recently, and she had this dress on with nothing beneath it, and it was pretty hot."

"There you go! We can both be lecherous dads together."

They were almost to the crashed plane when they finally met their first group of fellow hikers. A few college age kids by the look of them, coming along towards Olivia and her. Judging by their yawns and loud comments about needing coffee, they must have just gotten up. Maybe they'd camped at the plane? There was a nice, flat and open stretch there that would be perfect for tents, and a nearby stream, but Rose hadn't anticipated that possibility because it was above the maximum elevation for legal campsites. Any park rangers who found them there would have made their lives miserable.

Olivia leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Now seems the perfect time to tell you, your nips are still fucking diamonds, and you've got a hell of a camel toe."

Rose gasped, glanced down at herself, saw Liv was right, and looked back to her. She was probably supposed to be horrified. Embarrassed, at least - and she was! Except, when that feeling got added to the mixture of excitement and anticipation already floating around her, it didn't come through as a negative. It felt like fear usually did on her adventures. Like something to run towards, and not away from.

So that's what she did! "Hey!" Rose greeted the hikers when they came close enough. "Are you coming from the plane?"

"Yeah, we just left it," the first hiker made a good show of keeping eye contact with her while answering. His friends behind him didn't. They eyed her up like they couldn't decide if they were still dreaming, and it made Rose feel like Olivia's compliments might have had more validity than she'd given herself credit for.

"Is that where you camped?"

"Yeah. Don't tell anybody with a badge."

"Don't worry, your secret's safe with us."

She and Olivia stepped to the side to let them pass, and Rose gave them a friendly wave.

"Rose," Olivia hissed, "are you sure getting seen isn't a part of this fantasy of yours."

"Positive," Rose confirmed, insincerely.

Olivia smirked sidelong at her, deliberately looking down at her obviously aroused chest, then back up. "Right. I believe you."

Rose didn't bother trying to deny it again. Olivia knew how to read her too well to buy it anyway.

The feelings inside her built and built with every step upwards. Rose's fingers twitched with restless energy, which was surprising with how tough the hiking had become. "Brittany is going to hate this when they come join us for climbing."

"She did great yesterday. I was really proud of her. She's been really worried about fitting in, and I think Ivy sticking with her all day helped. Remind me to thank her."

"I don't think you'll have to," Rose said, and excitedly shared her guess from dinner at Hazel's. "I think Ivy's got a bit of a thing for her."

"Really? Huh..." Olivia thought about it, her eyes unfocusing like she was replaying scenes in her head, then she nodded enthusiastically. "I hadn't thought about it, but I think you're right! She's always hanging out with us, and she's been really invested in teaching Brittany to climb and stuff. They're both really chill people, they'd be great together. Rose! We should totally try to pair them up!"

Rose agreed, and they spent the remainder of the hike planning how to play matchmaker. The second the plane appeared through the trees, though, both of them fell silent. A sight they'd seen many times before, charged with a new significance. Rose's fingers twitched again, her inner restless energy searching for an outlet. Good thing she wasn't thinking about doing exhibitionism while climbing, or she'd be falling all day.

"What's the plan here, director?" Rose asked.

"Set my hot and talented model loose. If you toss your clothes onto the other side, I'll warn you if anybody's coming, and you can dodge around the plane with plenty of time to cover up."

Rose took a deep breath, but far from steadying the butterflies now in full flight inside her, it sent them into a frenzy. After so much buildup, she really wished Lydia was here to enjoy the feelings with her. Olivia was doing a great job as an encouraging stand-in, but actually being able to have sex here would have been really perfect! Oh well, next best thing had to be putting on enough of a show for Lydia that she'd sweep her off her feet when they were together again.

Rose turned and faced Olivia, who had the camera ready and had followed her close enough to maintain the illusion that it was just her posing with a selfie stick, and eased her backpack off. She hooked her thumbs underneath her top. "Ready?"

"Yeah," Olivia said, actively hitting the picture button and dragging across the screen to zoom while talking. "That's good, like you wanna jump on the camera, she'll love that. Now do just one boob, and do that naughty smile - yeah! That one! That's sex right there."

Olivia kept up her string of instructions and play-horny stream of consciousness, and Rose set to action. Revealing her breasts to the world felt freeing, like her top had been made out of lead, and tossing it aside was like taking off a heavier weight than her backpack had been. The wind blew across her, softly playing with her hair and cooling her sweaty skin. It was so glorious across her chest! It was like she could feel individual rays of sun playing on her breasts, and they welcomed it like they'd been trapped in a cave their entire lives.

Which, more or less, they had been.

Olivia was saying something silly about having "the best rack in the world," and Rose couldn't help grinning wider, even if she knew it wasn't true. After all, she'd experienced Lydia's boobs up close and personal, and they were pure magic!

Rose spread her arms wide and leaned her head back, letting the morning light play across her, and closed her eyes. The pure smell of the forest filled her up, open and free and beautiful. The breeze rustled the branches around her, combining with birds singing and some chittering squirrels. Logically, taking her clothes off really shouldn't have made such a big difference, but she knew it wasn't that. It was the excitement and nervousness she felt making her hyper aware. Her ears straining for any sign of somebody coming who might see her, her instincts jumping at any suddenly moving branch at the corners of her awareness, giving her constant tiny spikes of fear into the pit of her stomach.

How had she never thought of this before meeting Lydia? It was so perfect for her, it felt like she'd been missing out her whole life.

Rose did the smile Olivia seemed to think the camera loved so much, hooked her thumb under her short's waistband suggestively, and cocked her hip to one side. Liv was right. Knowing there was nothing beneath them, and one easy motion would have her vagina on display was very, very exciting. She held the pose just long enough for Olivia's confirmation, then went for it.

In her mind, it should have been graceful. A smooth motion, then naked! Her natural state out in nature. Poetic. Instead, her shorts got caught on her shoe, and she hopped around on one foot, desperately trying to keep her balance. She was about to fail when Olivia's arms caught her.

"You're such a klutz," she laughed. "How do you balance better than all of us on the rock wall, but fall over trying to strip?"

Olivia's arms felt strong and firm. She'd never felt so much of her against her bare skin before. "Maybe it was deliberate. Maybe I just wanted a hug."

"Bullshit! I got the pictures, you were totally about to eat dirt."

"You held off rescuing me to take pictures!" Rose laughed, pulling her leg free of her shorts and playfully pushing Olivia away. "No more hugs for you!"

Olivia seemed not to have heard. She was staring at Rose, directly between her legs. "Damn," she murmured, very soft, with her eyes wide. Rose watched her eyes, curious. Her reaction seemed... genuine?

But just as soon as she thought it, Olivia came back to herself. She brought the camera back up between them and went back to snapping pictures. "Keep your legs together like that, and turn a little sideways. No, the other leg forward, like you're trying to hide yourself. Lets keep this shoot classy."

Rose shook her head. She must have imagined that desire in her best friends eyes. Too much of projecting her as Lydia's stand-in. "Classy? You mean you want me to be as much of a tease as possible?"

"You gotta make her earn the pussy!" Olivia was taking small steps back and forth, adjusting her position minutely each time.

"What are you looking for?"

"A spot where the shadows are just right. Take a tiny step left." Rose obliged, though she couldn't tell what was different. "Perfect!" Olivia exclaimed, excitedly tapping the screen.

"What did you do?" Rose asked, curious.

Olivia held the phone out to her. "See the way there's a shadow from the leaves right across your puss? The way your legs are, you should be able to see her there peeking out, but you can't because of the light?"

She was right. Looking at herself in the picture, Rose had to admit, classy might have been the right word - even though they were making porn. "You're a merciless tease!" Rose exclaimed, laughing.

"Thank you," Olivia said, mock solemnly, putting a hand over her heart like she'd just been paid the greatest of compliments.

The last shots they took were up on top of the plane. Rose climbed up to the flat portion on top of the cabin and lay down on her back, tucked her hands behind her head, and imagined she was sunbathing. She closed her eyes again while Olivia was taking pictures, partially to enjoy the sensations better, but also partially hoping to get those spikes of fear again. Maybe they should have picked a time later in the day? More risk, more of the adrenaline that felt so good?

But that was probably pushing too much into being stupid. The wind shifted the trees again, sending the patterns of warm sunlight and cool shadow dancing along her body. Rose stretched, feeling it all over her, and loving it. If only she could do this all the time. Have this as her normal. That'd be great.

A stick fell somewhere, and adrenaline spiked through her body. Her breath caught for a second, but she held herself still and didn't open her eyes. Olivia had her back. If anybody was coming, Liv would have seen and warned her.

If this became her normal, she'd eventually get used to things like that, and they wouldn't scare her. It'd just be... well, routine, and that'd make it less fun. Ah well. Like all things, best to be enjoyed in moderation.

So, with some disappointment, Rose finally got dressed again. Mount Marshall's summit was pretty close, and by the time they got there, Olivia had already decided which pictures she wanted to edit and use in the final album. They sat with their feet dangling over the ledge overlooking Lake Colden, far in the distance down below now, and Rose watched Olivia at work turning already great pictures into masterpieces. Rose usually preferred to wait for a while before looking at pictures or videos of their adventures, to keep her own memories in her head fresh, but watching Olivia work now was a lot of fun. She was so fast and confident, knowing exactly what she wanted to change in every shot and just how to do it.

"There you go!" Olivia said when she finished. "Now just gotta send them to your phone, and then you can send them off."

There was usually enough service on the tops of the taller mountains, and sure enough, they each had two bars. Enough to get the pictures sent, even if it was at a snail's pace.

"Thanks a ton for this, Liv."

"What? I would have just been in my sleeping bag reading smut anyway. Whenever you want to make some more porn, I'm your girl."

Rose rolled her eyes at her friend's attempt to dodge taking any credit. So like Liv - she'd move this mountain they were sitting on one rock at a time if she thought it'd help one of their sisters, and when she was done, she'd try to say it was nothing. Years ago, when they'd first been getting to know each other, Rose had thought it was some kind of embarrassment thing. Like, something similar to how some people fall to pieces when they get complimented. But later on, as she learned more about Olivia and they started thinking of each other as the sisters they'd never had, Rose came to understand that Liv hated thinking about friendships as transactional. She did things for people she cared about because she wanted to. It made her happy to make her friends happy, pure and simple. If they felt like they owed her a return favor to pay her back, that ruined it for her.

"Seriously, though," Olivia said, gazing out across the world. "You're doing the real work, and I'm not talking about being the model. Sending pictures like these to Lydia is a lot of trust, and I'm really happy you're feeling comfortable enough with her."

Rose followed Olivia's gaze, not focusing on anything in particular, just letting her eyes flow from one distant mountain to the next. "I guess it has been a while for me," she murmured. "I've been thinking about what you've been saying since the start. You're right, she's not any of my ex-girlfriends. Not trusting her because of things other women have put me through isn't right." Rose sighed and stretched her arms above her head. "I'm going to tell her about Zelda, Faith and Astrid. I still can't keep myself from freaking out over basic stuff like just us calling each other girlfriends, but Lydia deserves to know why it's that way for me. Hopefully she understands it's nothing to do with her."

Rose turned to find Olivia staring at her, looking like she'd just been told Christmas was coming early. "Rose!" She squealed. "That's - I'm so proud of you!" She suddenly choked up, like she'd gone full circle and was about to cry.

"It's not that big a deal," Rose murmured, Olivia's intense reaction making her blush for the first time that day. Huh, how about that. Parading around with Olivia naked, but this was what got her? Had to be some amount of irony there.

"It's absolutely a big deal!" Olivia insisted. "Rose, it shows you believing in yourself! You're not treating yourself like you're a lost cause! Lydia likes you, and you're not pushing her away! That's--" This time, Olivia really did choke up. "Fuck me. Sorry, ignore the fucking waterworks, I'm just being hormonal."

Rose wrapped Olivia up in her arms, and she immediately hugged her back, though it was unclear who was meant to be supporting who. "It still frightens me," Rose admitted, quietly. "Lydia liking me, and me liking her back. Like, even assuming she doesn't go psycho out of nowhere, Lydia is still going back to Los Angeles at the end of the summer. The more we get invested in each other, the more it feels like we're driving a car towards a cliff."

"Yeah... I'm really sorry about that. I wish I had a fix for you." Olivia paused, cursing her rampaging hormones again, then steadied herself and hesitantly suggested, "Maybe you could try long distance?"

Rose nodded without really feeling happy about it. "Yeah, maybe. It's an option, but even that will hurt, you know? It's still goodbye, just not completely."

"Yeah..."

"And the worst part is, this is what I thought I wanted! Her having this timetable is the whole reason I felt safe starting anything with her! It was supposed to be easier like this. Just some summer fun, then back to our real lives." Rose held onto Olivia tighter, half expecting to join her crying soon. "I'm such an idiot."

"What if," Olivia started in a very small voice, stopped, then tried again. "What if you went with her?"

That shook something loose in Rose, and it came out of her as laughter. "Now you're being the idiot."

"What? They need teachers there too. You'd get a job easily, and you could stay with Lydia, and LA is basically paradise, and--"

"Unless you and our sisters can come with me," Rose cut through Olivia's nonsense, "it's not worth even considering." Olivia didn't say anything, but Rose felt her squeezing her extra hard, heard a fresh wave of emotion, and she understood. She felt the same way. Girlfriends came and went, but family was forever.

To be continued.