#sotya

She was tempted to ask, but bit her tongue as she came to stand beside Katya. With idle, careless movements, Sofia perched herself on the edge of her loveseat, allowing her lips to brush against Katya’s cheek, the corner of her jar before pulling away, breathing in the scent of stale smoke and salt water. “You left me,” She muttered, because she knew Katya would drink in the attention, the wanting. “I thought you promised to stay by my side, this time.”

“My apologies, dear.” Her tone was light, flat, entirely devoid of remorse. She took another drag, then smothered her cigarette in a porcelain ashtray, her now available arm draping itself over Sofia’s shoulder. She held her close, but not tightly, not in a way that would suggest she cared whether or not Sofia returned her intimacy. "It must've slipped my mind."

The act was enough on its own to draw out an airy chuckle from Sofia. She brushed a stray hair away from Katya’s face, making a half-hearted attempt to rake her fingers through the tangle of platinum curls before abandoning the effort. “Are you thinking about your husband?”

“I may be,” She answered, rather simply. “Are you thinking about your family?”

“I may be.”

“Broke cunt.”

“Spoiled bitch.”

Katya smiled softly, drumming her fingers against Sofia’s back. It was a subtle hint, but a familiar one, In a moment, Sofia had closed the distance between them, pulling Katya into a shallow, lingering kiss. She was aware of the remnants of Katya’s lipstick staining her lips, but couldn’t bring herself to pay it a second thought, not as Katya let out a slight sigh, falling away and burying her face in Sofia’s shoulder. “Some nights, I wish he wouldn’t come home,” She admitted, with less reluctance than she should’ve had. “I wish I knew when my bed would be left cold and when I would long for it to be. I wish he’d have the decency to mind his distance or tell me when he couldn’t be bothered to.” And then, as her eyes fluttered shut. “I wish I could be with you for longer than a night.”

“No one says you can’t be.” It’d been an idea they’d played with in the darkest nights, in the latest hours. Leaving, running away, ‘eloping’ – when Katya was feeling especially romantic.  None of it was realistic, more akin to the fantastical musings of a pair of schoolgirls than plans two women would make for one another, but it was nice to think about, to whisper to each other when Katya couldn’t find the strength to hold her knife to Sofia’s throat and Sofia couldn’t summon the will to dare Katya to cut down. “We’ll go to Rome, or Florence, or farther – Greece, Spain, America. We’ll find somewhere they can’t follow, and we’ll be happy.”

Katya seemed to relax, a fraction of the tension in her shoulder melting away as Sofia spoke. “And when someone asks for my last name?”

“No one will think to. They’ll be so dazzled by your beauty, they won’t be able to speak at all.” She kissed the top of Katya’s head. “Or, we’ll make you a new one. Something so hideous, no one would ever believe you chose it for yourself.”

She could feel Katya grin against her chest, but her voice remained melancholy. “In another world, one with no husbands, and fewer guns.” And then, as she melted into Sofia’s chest. “In another world, you don’t know how much I would give to be with you.”

Sofia only smiled, holding Katya close for the seconds she could.