#kiplec

After Alec finished with the band, she met up with Kipling. They walked the grounds, arm in arm, trying to spend a little time together before the musician’s next set.

“Missing home yet, Kip?” Alec asked gently, just in case her girlfriend was actually homesick. Kip anchored her arm more against Alec’s side as she leaned against her shoulder.

“Only a little. If I had stayed behind, I would be missing you a lot more.” Kip said with a sigh.

“But…?” Alec prompted, letting the two of them slow to a stop under a swaying palm.

Kip bit her lip and shook her head sheepishly. “It’s a very small but.” Shrugging, she said, “It just feels like we’re missing out on the Lunar festival stuff. That’s all.”

Alec thought about chasing Kip through Vesuvia’s enchanted snowy streets and ice-skating with her in the Town Square. By the time the band made their way back in that direction, all of the cold weather would have passed. Taking the special festivities along with it.

That’s when Alec had an idea.

The musician glanced up at the underside of the broad, umbrella leaves of the palmetto and gasped.

“Oh, Kip. Look at that!”

The gardener tilted her head back and narrowed her eyes. “Look at what?”

“That!” Alec pointed, her gem blue eyes widening. “How did that get there?”

Kip shook her head. “I don’t see any–”

“Mistletoe.”

Alec stayed in character, gazing at the palm tree in wonder before lowering her chin and leaning forward. She placed her palms to either side of Kipling’s cheeks and applied a little pressure so the gardener’s lips would pucker.

“Alec,” Kip giggled, her words muffled against Alec’s lips. “What mistletoe?”

Alec kissed Kip again. “Don’t you see it? Just like the ones at the Lunar Solstice Festival.”

Kip’s hand slipped into the roots of the musician’s dark braid. She snorted one last time, closed her eyes and sighed dreamily, “If you say so.”

Not that Kipling or Alec minded at all. The band’s instruments all had their own place in the shop. And now they had a potted plant or two to keep them company. Sometimes Alec would come back from gigs to find the guitar mounted on the wall wrapped up in the embrace of one of Kipling’s hanging vines.

These days Alec found her lyrics drifting more and more towards descriptions of sunlight and water and growth. Kipling, too, noticed how her poems, which she kept mostly private, seemed to have taken on a more lyrical bent as she incorporated details of distant starry nights and faraway lands. They were all of the things she connected to her musician, and whenever Alec was gone, they made Kip feel closer to her.

On the days when Alec was home and booking gigs in the local area for the next few months, she often found herself bringing her guitar down from the mount and getting comfortable on the couch with Kip, who was scratching away in her journal with Taro stretched across her shoulders.

Without looking up, Kip slid her legs through the gaps in Alec’s, much like her plants did with instruments scattered throughout the house.

“Hey babe,” Kip said softly as Alec craned her neck, wondering where she last left her lyric book.

Alec squeezed her girlfriend’s thigh. “Hey. Have you seen my–”

Kip lifted up Alec’s book before she could finish her sentence. “It was under the couch.”

“You’re an angel,” Alec said, reaching for inky papers bound in old leather.

Taro chirped in soft indignation.

Kip narrowed her eyes slightly at her familiar before smiling. “Taro was the one who found it. But that’s only because she likes hoarding our things.”

Alec leaned close enough to let Taro nuzzle her cheek. After the purple pygmy lemur wandered off to go find Ravah, Alec kept close by Kip’s chin and whispered another quiet thank you.

Neither of them was sure who moved first, but their lips found each other’s. Light and sweet sensations passed between the gardener and the musician before they broke apart.

“I love you.” Alec said.

“Love you.” Kip hummed.

Their words came out in the same breath. And they meant them.

But Kipling did have to get up early—early for Alec, anyway—to tend her garden and get her shop ready for the day, so Alec often found herself waking up then, too, just to get more time with her.

She would follow Kipling around as she got ready, sometimes being a bit of a pest—in her own words—as she clung to the smaller woman, peppering sleepy kisses to her cheeks or playing with her hair. But mostly Alec just liked to watch her.

Her favorite place to watch her was in the garden. 

Kipling would tend to all of her plants, singing to them, watering them, and would stop every so often to explain a new patch of growth or flower to Alec, who had never had much of a mind for plants. She liked them, sure, but they never seemed to like her, unlike Kipling.

Alec smiled as Kip talked, staring at her. She loved seeing her like this, so passionate, so caring. It was what drew Alec to her in the first place, and it was one of the things she loved most about her.

“What are you looking at?” Kipling pouted, tilting her head. “Is there something on my face?”

“No baby,” Alec laughed, pulling them closer together. “I’m just looking at you. You’re so pretty.” She kissed her cheek. “I could watch you work all day.”

Kipling snorted, pushing Alec’s chest. “If you could stand to watch me, you could stand to help as well.”

“Mm, but then I couldn’t do this.”

Her hands on Kipling’s hips, Alec pulled them closer still, pressing a gentle kiss to Kiping’s lips. She meant to move back—she was only teasing, after all, and of course she would help Kipling in the garden—but Kip’s arms wrapped around her shoulders, holding her in place.

So, Alec gave in, and kissed her again, and again, and again until she felt like she couldn’t breathe, and when she did breathe, resting her forehead against Kipling’s, she went back in for more. 

Soon they were both lying on the ground in the grass, Kipling’s fingers tugging at Alec’s braid, pulling her dark hair loose to fall over them, shielding them both from the morning sun. It wasn’t until Alec’s hand started to travel further up from Kipling’s waist, pulling a soft moan from the gardener, that Alec remembered where they were.

With a light laugh, Alec sat back, flipping her hair back over her shoulder. “Come on, baby, I’ll help you get ready.”

She held her hand out to Kipling, and they both stood up. Alec couldn’t resist pressing one more kiss to Kip’s cheek as she pulled away, walking over to her seedlings.

“If we get done early, maybe we can continue what we were doing, inside?”

Not for the first time, she wished that time would stop, just for a little while, so she could enjoy the moment a bit longer. But the sun only continued to rise, and Alec sighed.

“Kip,” she whispered, but the other woman didn’t move. Smiling to herself, Alec leaned over to kiss the top of her head, her hand still stroking Kipling’s side. “Baby?”

Alec heard her shift, the smallest change in her breathing to indicate that she was awake. But her eyes were still closed.

“I’m sorry to wake you,” she murmured, and felt Kipling’s arms tighten around her middle.

Her voice was low, and Alec felt her lips move against her chest as she spoke. “Then don’t.”

Alec laughed softly and moved to cup Kipling’s face, tilting her up to press their lips together. “I have to leave soon, baby, and I didn’t want to leave without telling you.”

“No…” Kipling moaned, holding Alec as close to her as she could, locking their legs around each other. “Why do you have to go?”

“I told you we have a performance at the palace today.” Alec glanced up at the window. “I still need to go back to the shop to get ready.”

Kipling pouted, her warm eyes finally blinking open slowly. “Next time you should bring your things here so you can stay longer.”

“Maybe I will,” Alec said, taking a moment to kiss her again, running her hand up and down Kipling’s back. Too soon for both of their likings, she pulled away, and moved over Kipling to peek out the curtain and check on how late it actually was.

She squinted in the bright light of the sun but figured she had just enough time to get back to the shop before the rest of the band started to worry, get ready, and make her way with them to the palace. It was going to be a long day but leaving was going to be the hardest part of it.

She could feel her gardener’s eyes on her as she moved, and when she turned back, Kipling was sitting up, blankets wrapped around her, still staring at her with a sad look on her face.

Alec sighed, crawling back over the bed to her. “Oh, please don’t look at me like that…” Sitting next to her again, she kissed between her eyebrows, and felt her breath tickle her collarbone. “I promise to come right back here once the performance is over.” She tugged gently on Kip’s ghost lock, twirling it between her fingers. “You need to open up your shop, anyway.”

“It’s just…” Kipling buried her face into Alec’s shoulder. “I wish you never had to leave.”

Alec paused, pulling back for her sapphire eyes to search Kipling’s brown ones. She thought she knew what she was thinking, but she wanted to make sure she wasn’t wrong. “Kip, do you… Do you want me to start staying here, like, living here, with you?”

Kipling nodded, her fingers running through Alec’s hair. “I know you’ll still have to leave for your performances and your travels but… when you come back, I want you to come back to me.” Her face felt warm, and she glanced away from Alec’s gaze. “It sounds selfish.”

Alec shook her head, pulling her into her lap. “No, babe.” She kissed her, softer than ever, and whispered against her lips: “I want that too. I want to come back to you.”

Once she admitted it out loud, all of the feelings she hadn’t known how to vocalize came pouring out.

“I know I tell you this every time I come back, but I miss you so much when I’m gone. More than just thinking about you at night, lying together like this, I think about you when the sun peeks through the clouds in the morning. When I’m performing and watching people dance together, I imagine dancing with you until the sun goes down, and dancing under the stars.” Alec brought Kipling’s hand to her mouth, pressing her lips to the back of it. “I dream about holding you like this, about waking up to you next to me every day.”

Kipling stared at her, tears welling in her honey-colored eyes. “Really?”

“Really, baby,” Alec murmured. “So, if you want me to stay, I’ll stay. For as long as I can. And then I’ll always come back, here, to you.”

She fell back onto the bed with an oof as Kipling threw her arms around her, peppering quick, tearful kisses over her face. “That’s all I want,” she said, between kisses, her hair falling into both of their faces. “Thank you, Alec.”

Kipling did her best to stifle another squeak as Alec’s thumb carelessly brushed over her excited nipple. The gardener pressed a heated kiss to partner’s lips as she shifted a little out of reach. Alec was done with rehearsal and finally had time to spare. Kip was determined to not let it go to waste.

“Is everything alright, Babe?” Alec pulled back some. “You seem more sensitive than usual.”

Kip sighed. “No, it’s not that I’m more sensitive. It’s just that I’m getting worse at hiding it.”

Alec lifted a dark brow and chuckled. “Hiding what?”

Kip blushed as she explained her shortcomings. She expected Alec to laugh, but the musician only seemed intrigued. 

Spider-walking her fingers closer to where Kip’s nipples tented through the fabric of her shirt, she asked, “So, what would happen if I were to keep this up?”

Kip trapped her lip between her teeth in an effort to hold back from grinning too hard. “Oh, not much.” She gave a casual shrug. “I would just come too fast.”

The way Alec’s gem blue eyes lit up brought instant heat to Kip’s cheeks. 

“Really? Just from this alone?” Alec emphasized by tapping one of her partner’s stone piercings. 

The gardener couldn’t hold her eyelashes back from fluttering. With a blissful smile she said, “Yep.” Then she reached out and started to absently wind the tail end of Alec’s braid around her finger. “I don’t even need to touch myself anywhere else… Alec? Is something wrong?”

Alec shook her head. “I was just thinking about what it would be like if you came too fast… on my thigh.”

Kip imagined grinding against one of Alec’s strong brown legs and coating it with her warm slick. This time it was her turn to walk her fingers along the inside of her partner’s leg.

Kip drifted towards Alec’s ear and whispered, “You know your thighs are one of my favorite things about you.”

Alec did know this. She turned her head until their mouths found each other. Meanwhile, Alec helped Kipling out of her shorts and into place high up her leg.

After Kip got comfortable, she glanced down at where she was holding onto Alec’s braid before looking back up. “Is this um… okay?”

Alec encouraged Kip to pull as much she wanted. “More than okay.”

Before long, Kip was bucking hard against Alec’s taut muscle while the latter used her fingers and her tongue to tease and test Kip’s sensitive nipples.

Alec loved the way Kip grinded against her, rolling her hips easily, but firmly at just the right time, her pussy leaving sloppy kisses against her thigh.

Alec gently nipped Kip’s hard bead of flesh. It was just enough to elicit a gasp. Alec’s hand came up to entangle in Kip’s springy curls and tug down. The gardener swore under her breath and kicked her hips a little faster. 

Alec came off Kip’s nipple with a wet pop. She quickly replaced her mouth with her hand, rolling the hard bead of flesh between her forefinger and thumb.

“That’s good, baby,” Alec panted, “keep doing that.”

Kip cried out at the effort, but a good yank on her hair gave her the final wind she needed to buck furiously through her orgasm. Alec, meanwhile basked under the friction where her partner’s pussy met her muscle.

When Kip was spent and breathing heavy, Alec praised her softly with kisses in between.

“Good girl.”

Kip hummed. She loved it when Alec whispered these things. She loved making Alec feel good. Kip unhinged her legs and lowered herself to Alec’s thigh. She started lapping up the glistening streams along her partner’s skin.

Alec sighed happily as she moved Kip’s hair out of the way.

“That’s my girl.” 

Kip licked up the last traces of sweat and cum before tipping Alec’s thigh towards her and glancing briefly between her legs.

“Lie back,” she whispered softly before smoothing her mouth over Alec’s dripping warmth.