In Season

Lily turned the berry over in her hands, inspected it for any imperfections or bruises. It was the first crop of the season for her garden and, being the conscietious woman she was (some would say anal), she intended to get a comprehensive understanding of its quality. Assured that everything was in order, Lily placed the strawberry in her mouth, carefully chewing to check its flavor. Sweet, water-thin juice filled her mouth on the first bite—the light, red liquid dribbling down her chin from where her teeth had sunken in. Drops of it fell down, further wetting the soil.

"Up to standard?" asked a voice in the near-distance, a voice Lily recognized as belonging to her neighbor, Meadow. Lily and Meadow had been living next to each other in their bucolic town for three or so years, and knew each other quite well by that point. In fact, the two were so close to each other that a certain... awkwardness had been arising between them as of late. Said awkwardness coming about primarily from the mutual, unspoken yearning which seemed only to build with each night at the bar together or dinner shared at the local ethiopian restaurant (how their small town had managed to get a ethiopian restaurant, no one was quite sure, but nor did they have any cause to complain based off the food's quality).

Up to standard? Lily thought. Of course it's up to standard. You think I'd let these plants get the better of me? Half of these strawberries are going to you in the form of my tarts, after all, so I can accept only the very best. But instead of putting these thoughts to words, Lily stood up and brushed the dirt from her gloves. Even with the shade from her hat, she had to squint to see Meadow's form in the midday sun. A storm was brewing in the distance, but it'd be a while before that came to provide any cover.

Tall and with flowing black hair, Meadow ambled along the garden path, making her way from Lily's small cottage and back to the strawberry patch. She waved to Lily as she came. Lily waved back.

"They certainly look good," Meadow said, flashing a smile to her neighbor that Lily thought was nearly as radiant as the shabby ball of hydrogen they called a star. Lily tried to return the smile, but succeeded only in forming a mild grimace on her face, which was accentuated by the way she was forced to squint.

"Yeah, it looks to be a good crop, Meadow. At least, as good as last year's."

"Oh, that good?"

"Well, the weather's been favorable for once... twice I suppose it you count last year"

Meadow was close enough now that Lily could make out the faded band name on her tank-top. "Don't be modest. The weather didn't do more for those plants than your attention did."

Lord knows that's true. Lily shrugged. "I try." She shifted her feet on the ground, began rubbing the back of her head. "So, what can I thank for this visit?"

"Oh, I don't know. I was just sitting in my house on this lovely day and thought, hell, why not see if you're around?"

"So you were bored?" Lily asked with a chuckle.

"More than that..." Meadow dithered, her face beginning to gain a rozier complexion. In the unrelenting light, however, Lily couldn't see this florid change.

"'More than that' in the sense you were in the mood for strawberries? Cause if you give me a few minutes I should be able to scrounge up enough for us to have a little snack." Lily picked up the basket she had brought to harvest the ripe fruits. "In fact," she continued, rubbing her chin with her other hand, "I bought some fresh cream recently. Dip these bad boys in that and I think we could have a nice midday treat."

Meadow smiled faintly and looked off to the side. "That does sound nice. But... it isn't the reason I came over, either."

"No?" Lily said, cocking her head to the side.

Meadow shifted her gaze, meeting Lily's eyes with an unexpected force. "No." She bit her bottom lip at her neighbor's growing bemusement. "Ah, I know this isn't the best moment... Yet, I feel I need to tell you this now or I'll never work up the courage to try again."

Lily stood dumbfounded for a moment, willing the massive and inscrutable gears of her mind to grind against another just a little harder. She ran through every response she could think of while Meadow stood uneasily before her in lovely summer sun. Finally, after much internal deliberation, Lily earnestly settled on this: "you want to borrow a cup of sugar or something?"

There was no tinge of sarcasm in her voice, not even the smallest hint. Which was good, because if there was Meadow would've walked right up to her, delivered a righteous slap, and promptly marched off never to be seen again in Lily's presence. However, the truth was that the green-thumbed woman's mind was more like that of some gargantuan and ancient turtle than a normal human's, being that once she figured something out or gained new knowledge, it stuck in her mind for all eternity. Conversely, it took eons for her to work certain things out, particularly if they were things that might be uncomfortable to acknowledge.

Meadow was starting to fume, the red of her face now owing more to anger. Though she shortly settled after a couple of deep breaths. An airplane flew overhead while she calmed herself.

"I don't think I've been clear enough with you," she said in a measured tone. "You see, I was sitting in my kitchen with nothing to do and I just happened to see you out here. So, being that I had nothing to do, I decided to watch you while you gardened. At first I just thought you looked cute with how focused you were, face scrunched up in the sun, bent over your plants. But I kept watching, kept looking out at you from my window, and.. I don't know, something came over me—a kind of lucidity."

Lily continued her obdurate misunderstanding, though trickles of an idea were now forming in her mind, soon to turn into a river. Meadow saw this coming realization dawning and gently wet her lips with her tongue. The eye-contact she began the talk with was too tense for her to maintain, so she again turned to see the leaves of strawberry plants rustle in a quiet wind.

"I don't want us to keep acting like we're just friends, Lily. Before it seemed like admitting that might cause an end to the light our friendship shone into my life, that you could reject me and we'd be through. I can see now how cowardly that kind of thinking is. What I'm trying to say is that I love you, Lily, I probably have all the time I've known you."

Lily was silent. The only noises that came to Meadow's ears were the distant humming of insects and steady breath of the breeze. Still, she was unable to look up to gauge Lily's reaction to her proclamation of love. It continued this way, with no change in feedback, Meadow's fears seemingly confirmed and coalescing into a cimmerian dread.

Then, as the last vestiges of hope were fading from Meadow like the sun at dusk, she felt a pair of hands grasp onto her shoulders. She snapped her head back and was met with Lily's piercing gaze. The gardener's dark brown eyes held a supernatural power, deep as ancient caves and dark as a rich mahogany; they rooted Meadow to the spot. The work gloves and sunhat lay discarded on the open dirt.

"Can I kiss you?" Lily asked in a flat voice.

Meadow nodded. "Please."

Lily drew her lips to Meadow's, gingerly pressing the soft flesh together. It was meant to be a short kiss, but became more languid as each woman thrilled at the sensation. At last, Lily was about to pull away, but Meadow coaxed her in again with a gentle press on the small of her back. The kiss deepened from there. Meadow snaked her tongue into Lily's mouth and tasted her sweet spit, felt the woman's own slippery tongue return her affection.

Lily rubbed her hand over Meadow's back, gradually moving it down until she was cupping her firm ass. Their embrace tightened, was transformed by a rising need. The womans' hearts beat firmly against each other's chest, pressed together as they made out.

It lasted no more than a couple minutes, but to Meadow the moment seemed to span millennium. She felt like mountains rose and fell as she met with her beloved. Because of how long she had waited for this expression of reciprocation, the kiss made Meadow hotter than any other she had experienced. Not even her first kiss got her pussy throbbing as it did while she united with Lily.

Despite this, though, Meadow took her lips off Lily's, disentangled her tongue from the other.

"I want to feel more of you," she said, moving her own fingers over Lily's cloth panties. "I want to taste more of you."

Lily's hips pressed forward to this touch. A slight dampness spread in her undergarments. "Then do it," she growled. "Cause I've been waiting as long as you have."

"Do you... Do you want to go inside first?"

"No, screw that. I want you right now. Besides, this is way hotter."

Meadow smiled. "My thoughts exactly."

Their clothes were off in near-record time—shorts, t-shirts, and panties tossed to the side with Lily's gloves. There was pesky part of Lily's brain that demanded she take the time to fold the discarded clothes before they continued, but luckily she was able to quiet that part of herself before it completely killed the mood.

The dark clouds that were hanging at the edge of the horizon were now directly above the two women. The sun lost its piercing brightness as the clouds began to cloak it, and the temperature took a small dive in response. All of this was irrelevant to Lily as she laid back onto the soft grass of Meadow's garden, meticulously cared for and free of stones or thorny weeds.

Among the ripe strawberry plants, silent and unwatching, Meadow brought her face to Lily's glistening pussy. Her tongue darted out to tease Lily's throbbing clit, drawing circles like she was trying to make one flawless ring, and was frustrated by her repeated failure. Lily's body warmed to the touch, and she felt the blood rush more fiercely to her groin. Rich, brown earth contoured to her body, its heady smell making it to her nose while Meadow worked her clit.

First her breathing was thrown off, then before long Lily was releasing low, steady moans. Finally, Meadow slipped a finger into her wet folds, and Lily felt a shock ran through her body, initially mistaking it for a bolt of lightening loosed by the coming storm.

"You like that?" Meadow asked with a fox's smile, pulling her head up from Lily's crotch.

A throaty "yeah" and a light hand on the back of her head, urging her to keep going, were all she got in response. So Meadow kept pumping her finger in Lily's pussy—grool sticking to her each digit, allowing her to move faster in the woman's tight hole. Meadow's chin was covered in juices as she continued to eat Lily out. The wonderful, faintly sweet taste of sex filled her mouth and coated her taste buds (Lily must've been on a pretty healthy diet, if the quality of her flavor was any indication).

Lily was in bliss as well, her pussy being pleasured by the person she had loved secretly for years. She massaged her bare breasts, rubbing the pliable flesh while her bottom half squirmed in ecstacy. She was approaching a climax, and voiced that fact to Meadow in a near-unintelligible squeal of words.

"I'm about to come!" she cried, and though she was unable to articulate it fully, really meant that she loved Meadow, and because of this, she thought she was about to have the most intense, brain-frying, eyes-rolling-into-the-back-of-her-head orgasm she had ever experienced.

Meadow doubled her efforts, curling her fingers up to better stimulate her lover's sweet spot. Her other hand rubbed Lily's clit more firmly. Soon Lily was coming all over her hands and face, vagina clenching and unclenching in waves of ecstasy. Lily cried out again, scaring birds away from their branches, and hoped to God that no passersby could hear her moans.

The storm roiled above them, dry thunder and distant lighting illuminating the clumped clouds. Still, no rain came. Though it seemed ready to at any moment. Having orgasmed, Lily lay panting on the soil, sweat cool on her skin.

"Was it that good?" Meadow asked, moving up to plant another kiss on Lily's lips.

Lily nodded, eyes firmly open in the aftershocks. "I even think I could use a drink of water," she said weakly.

Meadow laughed. "Wow, I'm better than I thought." She knew Lily's comment was likely a joke, but right then Meadow caught a glimpse of her plants. "Here, try this," she said, plucking one of the strawberries from its bush. She brought the fruit over to Lily, hovering it over her mouth like a roman servant feeding their master a bunch of grapes.

The berry's sugary juices spilled into Lily's throat when she bit down into it—another model strawberry. The flesh both perfectly firm and soft, easy to eat but with a resistance to the teeth. Its miniature seeds crunched as she ate.

Meadow kissed her when she was finished, tasting the lingering strawberry. "Mmm," she cooed, "that is tasty. Feeling refreshed now? Wanna switch?"

Lily answered by sitting up and rubbing her tongue over one of Meadows hard nipples. Meadow ran her fingers through Lily's curly hair, jaw somewhat jutting out as her nerves took in the stimulation coming from her breast.

After Meadow's breasts were both glistening with spit, Lily turned her attention to the vagina hiding between pressed-together thighs. She fingered Lily with one hand while the other reached at the fresh crop surrounding them, plucking yet another strawberry from its vine. She took the fragile red fruit and squashed it in her hand over Meadow's chest. Lily watched the trail of transparent, red liquid flow down to the navel, then to Meadow's lower lips. She removed the remaining green leaves and fed the mash to her lover, who graciously licked it off Lily's palm.

"More," Meadow commanded her. So Lily again took one more perfect strawberry away from its home and smashed it to allow the juice to coat their naked skin. The fresh nectar was sticky and cool on their flesh as the wind grew stronger—an omen of the nearing squall. It was a sensation of pure Epicureanism, mixed with a strange closeness with the Earth, a connection to nature and all its less praised, though no less noble creatures.

Lily kept pumping her fingers in Meadows folds as peals of thunder rang out in the sky. Her body and neck arched forward so she could lap up every drop of strawberry juice spilled on her partner, tongue tracing long paths over her exposed flesh.

Sweat and strawberry juice mingled on their bodies, creating a strange and tantalizing aroma. As you might imagine, it was also quite sticky for all involved. However neither woman minded the mess. They were too enthralled with each other and the realization of their long suppressed desires. The experience transcended all fantasy or daydream, had become so hyper-realistic as to resemble almost an enlightenment, an opening of the third eye.

"I want to feel you come," Lily whispered in her lover's ear. And as she slipped two more fingers inside her pussy, Meadow could tell she meant what she said. Lily nibbled on Meadow's nipples while she squeezed her ass with the hand not busy.

"I'm almost there," Meadow assured her neighbor. As she said it, she could feel the pleasure mounting in her core, a massive build-up ready to wreak havoc on her senses. Her inner flesh was twitching to each the gentle rhythm of Lily's four digits, further jolts coming as her partner lightly bit down on a nipple, sending another shockwave through her. The intervals between her spasms reduced rapidly, and soon Meadow was cresting a gargantuan wave of pleasure that caused her womanhood to spasm wildly as Lily continued her short thrusts.

"Yes!" Meadow screamed, an orgasm exploding inside her.

Lily held her lover tightly through the whole thing, lips planting small pecks on her collarbone. A torrent of come shot out onto Lily's palm, further adding to the intoxicating cocktail of strawberry nectar and body fluid. Lily continued her embrace as Meadow settled down, residual convulsions arising along with ragged breath.

"Now we're even," she said into Meadow's ear.

"Actually I think I might owe you a little after that," Meadow said, still reeling from her orgasm.

Lily laughed. "I'm simply happy to please. It really strokes my perfectionist itch to see such an... enthusiastic response."

"No problem. Call me up if you ever want to get 'stroked' again."

Lily's smile faded a little. More thunder echoed in the sky. "We will do this again, won't we? It isn't done now that the impulse is sated?"

"Oh... Lily," Meadow said, leaning over and caressing the woman's face with the back of her hand. "I was the one who confessed first, remember? I wouldn't have put myself out there if I didn't hope for a serious change in the nature of our relationship."

"Cool." Lily sighed in satisfaction, the back of her head resting on interlaced fingers. "We should have done this much earlier."

Meadow smiled. "But at least we did get here. Now we can be girlfriends for real—not only as, like, the BFF kinda girlfriends."

"Girlfriends? I like that." Lily tried to move her head off her hands and found the task much more difficult than she expected it to be—owing mainly to the strawberry juice sticking to fingers and hair. "You wanna go inside and take a shower?"

"Yes," Meadow replied immediately.

Right then, without so much as a warning crack of lighting, the rain that the clouds had been holding back came down with heavy drops that splashed on impact. The quiet noises of the nearby forest were replied with a frantic patter and soft roar of plump droplets.

The rain washed away the sweat and sticky syrup covering the lovers. It was cold on their skin, but sweetly refreshing. The leaves trembled in the squall, as did those of Lily's precious plants. The Soil hungrily drank up its vital sustenance while Meadow and Lily were drenched in her garden.

"Well, that solves the shower problem," Meadow said, giggling at the convenience of it all.

"But our clothes are getting soaked," Lily said pointing to the small heap of their discarded outfits, laughing along with her neighbor.

"You've got clothes inside," Meadow said, "however I don't think we need to stand on ceremony when we're alone with each other."

Lily shrugged. "I don't mind going around naked if you don't."

She and Meadow picked up their clothes then ran, as unburdened as they'd been since birth, into the warm security of her home. Lily got out her towels so they could dry off, though they never did put a new pair of clothes on.

The storm raged on and the two women paid no mind to it. They sat together on Lily's couch, wrapped in an old blanket, nuzzled close and drinking steaming tea. Rain pattered against the roof and the window, an ambient background to their evening in.

Outside, thunder rumbled while the little crop of strawberries reflected on what they'd been witness to. Their master's new relationship was the talk of the patch for weeks on end.