Attaque au Coeur

I wanted to write friends turned rivals turned enemies turned lovers and then this happened. It takes place in a universe that I assure you is Napoleonic era ish fantasy but in this story you really just see two women fighting in a bombed-out church. Presume there are dragons somewhere off-screen.

This story has violence, EMOTIONAL THEMES, boinking on sacred ground, and maybe some sweetness at the end. Reader Discretion is Advised.

***********************

Lieutenant Astrid Vex, 1st Platoon, Basilisk Company, Princess Matilda's Royal Skirmishers, made peace with the idea that she was about to die.

Blood soaked through the white fabric of her frilled blouse, the slash to her bronze skin splitting through the silk like tissue paper. Her black uniform jacket had already been cast aside, used to catch a savage sword thrust and left in tatters on the cracked stone floor. Sweat trailed down from her close-cropped white hair, forcing her to furiously blink it away. The sting of salt matched the bitter copper taste of blood in her mouth. Neither of them would get out of this one unscathed.

If they made it out alive at all.

"Give up," Jenna Ravenstone demanded through gritted teeth. Her rapier pressed up against Astrid's throat. A hair's more weight put on it and the sword would draw blood.

"I'll yield to you when I die," Astrid responded. Her own blade slammed up and out, knocking the rapier away from her throat. The sudden motion nicked her, but it was nothing but a scratch compared to the fate that could have awaited her.

Their blades clashed once more, each parry echoing off the remaining walls of the church. Astrid's muscles ached from the strain of fighting for the better part of a day. She had shot until her shoulder swelled from the recoil, she had run a marathon up and down her line, she had called out orders until her voice was hoarse. And now she fought for her very life, her long-practiced sword skills now brought into full effect on the very woman who she'd trained against.

Ravenstone cut a fine figure, even in the revolutionary rags she now wore. You could see the Imperial technique pour through her every move. Even standing still, she put a ramrod to shame. Her black hair was longer than regulation cut now, and the red armband marked her as a traitor and a confederate of the so-called Wild Rose Rebellion, but one never truly left His Majesty's Forces behind.

Astrid feinted, but when she moved to exploit the gap, she found Jenna's sword already in the space she thought was clear. It was a move that she'd seen a dozen times in their sparring sessions and kept falling for. Every. Single. Time.

"Goddamnit!" She slashed wildly, powerful blows that cut the air but nothing more. Jenna moved with all the grace of a dancer when she needed to; it was at the top of a list Astrid had made of her many infuriating traits. "Why do you have to be so good at this?!"

"I'm not that good," her rival said through her heavy breathing. So she was human after all. "You're just predictable."

Astrid's eye twitched. "Predict this!" she cried, then vaulted off a turned over pew. She brought her blade down with her in a mad overhand swing. Their weapons met at crossguards, but the momentum forced them both to the ground. Astrid had Jenna straddled, her sword pressing perilously close to the other woman's face. They fought for control, arms shaking from the strain.

A flash of remembrance. They'd done this so many times it was impossible not to bring up all the other sparring they've done together. The interminable nights spent perfecting technique, the times Astrid tried to best Jenna with something she'd read in a book or some flashy gimmick described by one of their comrades. Always, Jenna found a way out of it. Through wits or speed or just predicting the next feint, the dark-haired swordswoman had Astrid's number.

But now...she could taste it. Astrid had her beat. She kneed the wound in Jenna's side as a distraction, then punched the guard into Jenna's sword hand. It loosened, and Astrid cast the blade to the side with a swing of her arm. It clattered off the stone far to the left, well out of reach.

"I did it..." Astrid said, almost not believing it herself. Jenna looked up at her with all the hate and anger that had built between them over the months, but there was hurt there too. Her eyes were beading at the sides. It was probably just sweat. Probably. Astrid held her blade to Jenna's throat, reversing their position from a moment ago. Had it only been a moment? It had felt like hours caught in that storm of metal. "You're coming with me."

Jenna didn't budge. "I'm not going back. Even if they don't kill me, they'll use me against my friends."

"Friends?" Astrid said, spitting the word out of her mouth like it was foul, "You call those vagrants and criminals 'Friends'?" A dozen more names and words for those she now called friends swirled in Astrid's head, but she got distracted momentarily by how she was now pinning her former friend to the ground. Her thighs were clamped tight to keep her from rolling away, but the sudden proximity was not conducive to maintaining emotional distance. She could feel Jenna's breathing slow. See the trickles of perspiration slide down her skin...

Astrid rolled off, removing the sword from Jenna's throat for as long as it took to pick up her foe's fallen weapon. They were the same sword pattern, so she sheathed the second blade while holding out her own to her disarmed opponent.

"Why did you do it?" Astrid asked, chalking up the break in her voice to how hard she'd yelled at her troops in the hours before. "Why did you turn against me, against everything you ever stood for, and joined with the terrorists?"

The silence between them let their ears pick up the light crack of gunfire in the far distance. Skirmishers and holding actions, nothing more. The fight, for today at least, was wrapping up. Another stirring victory for the Princess Mat's against the forces of chaos and disorder.

"You've seen Everything I have, Astrid. You know exactly why I left. Do I need to list off the names, or can we settle for the images I know you see in your head at night."

The Lieutenant's eyes narrowed. "You don't know me the way you think you do. I remember Voldward and Jasper's Falls. I also remember when your 'friends' killed dozens of my men. Your rebellion has hurt people I care about, who you USED to care about."

"That's it? That's all you..Astrid, look around!" Jenna held out her hands to indicate the ruined church that had been their battlefield. It was at the centre of a town which had once held a hundred families. Now it was little more than scenery for another great Imperial victory. "People are being killed in their thousands by the regime you serve. Just because you don't know them doesn't mean they're not real!"

"I know they're real! But they wouldn't be dead if they hadn't helped your friends and their mad quest for...what do you even want?! A world without laws? Without protection from harm? Where the weak are crushed by the strong?"

Jenna stepped closer. Astrid kept her back with the point of her sword.

"What do you think is happening now?" Jenna asked.

The Lieutenant scowled. Her sword couldn't cut through words like it could flesh. She could silence her, but that'd mean never talking to Jenna again.

Jenna.

Her friend.

Astrid dropped her sword arm. "Go," she said, looking away.

"Go?" Jenna repeated.

"Go! Leave! Go be with your damn friends. I'll say you got away, again. I've lost enough to you for that to be believable, and you've cut me up enough to make it incompetence and not treachery." She casually tossed Jenna's sword back to her. "Have this back too; can't leave you defenceless, there's still a war going on."

She kept her eyes glued to the crumbling wall. Stained glass had fallen in, and through a crack in the centuries old masonry she could see a torn white sheet fluttering from one of the houses. A white flag. Didn't stop the entire west half of the structure from being blown out. Howitzer, by the looks of it. Astrid waited for the sounds of footsteps so she could safely look back, but they never came.

"Why are you doing this?"

Jenna had sheathed her sword but hadn't moved. She had the queerest expression on her face. Astrid remembered it from looking over at her friend during the written exams for their commissions. Neither had had the money to just buy their rank, both had worked their fingers to the bone to get to Lieutenant. And then Jenna just...threw it away. Threw away the rank, the others, the king, the country, even Astrid. All to be some kind of folk hero.

"I thought," Astrid began, hesitating on the right way to phrase her reply without showing weakness, "I thought that beating you would make me feel better. That if I could hurt you like you hurt me, you'd beg to be forgiven. But it didn't work. You'd just make me kill you, and I don't want to kill you. So go. Run. I won't follow you anymore."

She still didn't move.

"Go on! I told you, you win. I can't beat you even when I beat you. You were always the better one with a sword anyway, I just got lucky."

Jenna reached out to place a hand on Astrid's arm. The Lieutenant shucked her off, turning back to the vista of destruction. The hand found its way to her shoulder nonetheless.

"You don't have to keep fighting for them, you know," Jenna mumbled.

"Give up everything I've fought for? I'm not THAT weak," Astrid replied with a bitter little laugh.

"What are you fighting for, Astrid?"

Answers flew out of her mouth without thought or consideration. "For the nation, for the King, for all the good things you and I were raised to believe in. What is there without loyalty? What is there without standing up for the things you believe in?"

Jenna squeezed her shoulder. "But I am fighting for the things I believe in. I want to help build a better world for people like us. For the people of Basilisk Company. For Bast and Socke and Miller. For all the people we lost along the way, dying for some rag on a pole. There is a new world being born, Vex. You can help us. You can help...me."

"Pretty bold of you to use their names, considering you've been trying to kill us for the last few months."

Jenna shook her head. "You don't have to be on their side! The rich, the nobles, all their little schemes and plots to use the poor against one another. We're shooting at the rich; you keep standing in front of them."

"Ugh," Astrid threw up her hands, collecting her jacket. It looked terrible, but she could get another one from the quartermaster. All she had to do was return to camp. Tell them all about how the famous rebel leader Jenna Ravenstone, Jenna Redknife, Jenna the Traitor, had bested her in single combat. Believable. Besides a dressing down by her commanding officer (another empty uniform she had to deal with), she'd be in the clear. Every step out of the church made her legs feel like they were filled with lead. Whatever this was, it was final.

"Astrid!"

She'd reached the threshold, hand resting on a great hinge on which there had been a giant wooden door leading into the church. It lay in splinters around her boots. With a deep sigh, she turned around to face Jenna. Before she knew what was happening, lips pressed into hers.

It was an awkward gesture. There'd been momentum in Jenna crossing the entire church hall to press the kiss to Astrid, and she'd very nearly toppled them over onto the ground again. But unlike before, there was no sense of threat screaming at her to react. There was none of the confusing mix of rage and hurt that made her every movement feel poisoned. She just...stood there, accepting a brief moment's peace in the midst of a world on fire.

When their mouths parted, Jenna looked sheepish. Not something Astrid had ever seen from her friend. She'd always been the confident one, the golden child in the eyes of their teachers and peers. A single act of affection had disarmed her better than a swordfight to the death.

"Don't...don't go," Jenna said, her voice soft, "It killed me to leave you before. To leave everyone. I love them all but...I wanted you."

Another memory. Of the night Jenna had left. Of Astrid screaming through her tears about what a mistake she was making and that if they'd ever met again, one of them would have to kill the other. Deep down neither believed it. But it had almost happened. Astrid had almost killed the one person who understood her in this world.

There was no mistaking the flow of tears for sweat now. Astrid sagged into Jenna's arms. "You idiot. You fucking idiot...why did you have to make this so hard?"

Jenna hugged her former companion. "You know me. Always making things difficult for you."

They both laughed, which flowed seamlessly into more tears. Astrid held Jenna tight enough to hurt, the need for physical contact making the wounds they'd inflicted on each other inconsequential. When she looked up, Astrid kissed her. This time was different. Rather than the spontaneous release of pent-up emotion, this was an affirmation of something deeper. Astrid had wanted her too. Ever since they'd met, in fact. She just hadn't realized it until they were fighting to the death. Without words, she said more than she ever had.

When the kiss broke once more, both sprang into action. Not in violence, but in pure unshackled lust. The clothes of their respective causes fell to the ground, leaving two women and their desires. Astrid reached up to run her fingers through Jenna's hair.

"You've let it get long," she said with a sly smile, "I like it better this way."

Jenna pressed her into one of the undamaged pews. Crawling into her lap, they only broke lip contact to breathe. Kisses left her face to trail down Astrid's neck, making her quiver. A brush of fingers against a scrap on her leg made the Lieutenant suck in air through her teeth.

"Sorry," Jenna said, "We should really get our cuts cleaned."

"Later. Fuck me first."

Jenna giggled again. "You know I love you, right?"

Astrid rolled her eyes. "Of course I do, you fool. I love you too. I should have never let you go alone."

Jenna's mouth found Astrid's breasts. Their nipples were unevenly shaped, one slightly wider than the other. It'd been one of her many physical imperfections that had dogged her self confidence. Jenna licked them like they were the only pairs of tits in the world, and Astrid could only lean her head back and moan. How many times had she masturbated to this idea? She'd convinced herself that the woman in her fantasies had different names, different faces. But it had all been Jenna's mouth. Jenna's tongue. Jenna's hands holding her tight and never letting her go.

Astrid's heart was pounding once more. The cold shell she'd built around it melted with every touch. Warmth grew in her chest that threatened to explode outward. She wanted to say so much but could only whisper 'I love you' over and over as Jenna slid out of her lap and down to the floor, placing herself between her knees.

"Tell me if this is okay," Jenna asked, her mouth hovering just off of Astrid's right thigh.

"It's okay. Yes, please, please I want it so much I can't...fuck, words, sorry. Yes."

Jenna smiled. "There's the eloquent speaker I know. Let's see what other things I can make you say."

Before Astrid could reply, she felt Jenna's kiss her lightly on the thigh. She left wet lip marks trailing up and down her shapely legs, making her squirm in the pew. Astrid opened her legs further, allowing access to her inner thigh.

"Aah~" she sighed. Jenna's lips drifted perilously close to her dewing pussy lips. It was all happening so fast. Was it even happening at all? Was this a dream?

When Jenna's mouth brushed against Astrid's clit, she got her answer. She tensed, pleasure jolting out of her little bud. No dream could feel this good. She sagged into the rough wood, ignoring the discomfort. Nothing could take away from this moment.

Jenna's tongue flicked out next. Gently tasting and teasing her labia, but always circling back to flitter underneath the hood. Neither of them had been with a woman before, but the anatomy was familiar ground. Jenna was pressing the buttons she enjoyed having pressed on herself, and the effect was better than any of the rough, awkward attempts her male companions had given her in the past.

Astrid pinched her own nipple. The cathartic release of their emotions played out in another kind of buildup, starting in her lower abdomen and raising with every loving lick. She wanted to show Jenna how much she was enjoying this. There was no need to fake it, but heightening her own sensation would make the oncoming climax more dramatic. This was their first orgasm together. It needed to be special.

Or maybe Astrid was just being greedy, squeezing herself to heighten her own enjoyment while Jenna went to work eating out her pussy. Her fingers joined the act as well, carefully clipped nails sliding in effortlessly into the slickened hole. Astrid bucked against the intrusion, but not in a way to avoid their movements.

"Hng...oh God...Jenna I've never gotten this close so fast..." Astrid said, trying to explain her wetness like it was a matter of shame. But her partner merely licked up the excess juices and continued.

"You can cum whenever you want. Don't wait around on my account. Be a good girl and obey me for once, alright?" she said with that damnable grin. Astrid wanted to shout something rude, but a pair of thrusting fingers cut her off. She squealed, deep wells of pure bliss accessed for the first time in her life. Jenna, her friend, her lover, her life, was making her climax.

Heaven paled in comparison.

She lost all control, thrashing like an animal around the head between her legs. Finally clamping down her thighs, she rode out the rolling wave of endorphins and tried to hold on to consciousness. Her aching muscles quaked, spasming in sympathetic rhythm. The whole experience reached from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. It was incomparable. It made all the stupid stuff they'd said to one another worth it.

As the orgasm trailed off, Jenna stood up and kissed her once more. Astrid tasted herself but didn't mind at all. They traded tongues and took from one another what they needed. The world without Jenna had been bleak, monochrome. Astrid didn't know if she could go back.

"What...what do we do now?" Astrid asked. She folded her arms together, hugging herself. A chill wind slid through the ruin.

"My unit is based southwest of here. It'll be a long walk, presuming we can meet up with them. But I know they'll take you in."

The tension returned. Astrid had taken for granted the moments she'd been without it. The self-doubt. The worry. Jenna hugged her, breasts pressing into hers.

"I can't leave behind my men," Astrid said, "I love you. I love you so much. But this war is cruel and without me, the King will put in some aristocrat fool who will get them killed."

Jenna nodded. "Then we get them. Or we get as many as we can."

Astrid's eyes widened. "You'll do that with me?"

She nodded. "Basilisk were my family once too. I miss them. If they don't want to come, so be it. But with both of us, together, I know we can convince a few. Socke especially. She hates the royals."

They helped each other dress. Astrid thought about picking up the black jacket with her rank insignia on it, but stopped short. It had represented so much effort on her part. She pulled her hand back, leaving it where it had been tossed. No. She didn't need it. Not where she was going.

Sliding their belts into place, they nodded at one another. Astrid held out her hand. Jenna took it.

"How do you know I won't turn you in?" Astrid asked with a smirk.