The Sacking of Rome

"That was two new friends ago," Daphne said, seemingly without a hint of guilt, though she immediately took a long sip of her drink in such a way that it hid her face.

"Do you have a fan club?" Rome said, loving every little spark of color this was bringing to Daphne's largely monochrome appearance. Sure, there were flashes of red in her hair and her lipstick was complimentary, but her hair was black, and her skin was pale, and her clothes were all either black or white.

"She's the only person I've ever unironically used the word body count with."

"Alright," Daphne said, drawing herself up to her full height while simultaneously rolling her eyes. "Alright."

"I've never been so excited about becoming a statistic!" Rome said, extremely pleased with herself. This earned her quite a stare from Daphne, good natured if not quite good humored.

Given Rome's penchant for trying to deliver jokes with a straight face and Daphne's perpetual goth-y disinterested expressions, only Bella really laughed at the joke, but Bella had a good laugh.

"I like her," Bella said. She held her hands out with a smile, and added, "What brings you to the palace?"

Daphne gestured to the booth, and when they were all seated and the music was loud she said, "We're looking for information. Wow, that sounded cliche."

"Not sure what I can do, but okay?"

Daphne turned to her. "You got a photo of Jimmy?"

"Ew," Rome said. "No."

"Come on. Nothing? No company photos?"

She thought for a second, and pulled her phone out of her back pants pocket with a frown. "I can show you his LinkedIn."

"What the fuck even is that?" Daphne asked, incredulously.

"Tindr for middle management." Rome said, without looking up. Bella was still laughing when she turned her phone around. "He would have been here... what day was on that receipt?"

"The tenth."

"I wasn't here," Bella said, looking closely. "I mean, I recognize him, but I wasn't here that night. Is the night important?"

"Maybe," Daphne said.

Bella turned, leaned back, and waved. And snapped her fingers. "Ey."

A redhead further down behind the bar finished making up a drink and slid it before turning toward them. "What's up," she said, drying off her hands on a hand towel tucked into the side of her pants.

"You seen this guy?" Bella said, brushing her hand against Rome's to angle it better for the newcomer.

Curiously, this little touch had all the hallmarks of Bella's sensuality, but it did not hit her with the same spark that even casual eye contact with Daphne did. To say nothing of Daphne's touch.

"He was here. Closed us out maybe... two weeks ago?"

"Here until 3 when we closed doors," Bella added, giving Daphne a look.

"Who was on him?"

"Him and a couple dudes. They were at the bar for a while. Jessa and Teri worked 'em, I think."

"Why?" Bella said, turning back to Daphne.

"Dating a friend of mine. You know if it was me, I'd've been here with him, but this ain't her scene."

"And he stepped out on her?"

"I know that's the bread and butter here. I'm not trying to get anybody in a jam. I just need to know how far it went, and I need something to show a friend."

Rome slipped her phone back into her pocket, and took a position just next to and slightly behind Daphne.

The bartender looked at both of them and said, "I'll be back in a minute."

They watched her go, and Bella rounded on Daphne. "I wouldn't hold your breath. Jessa ain't talkin' about no client, no hook up, no nothin'. Teri, well... maybe."

"And that's assuming it went past more than drinks," Rome said. Both Daphne and Bella looked at her, and she immediately regretted opening her mouth. "Oh."

"After hours," Daphne said, nodding, "some extra services show up on the menu."

Rome could only manage barely hiding a smile, because any amount of thinking about sex had her reliving a few minutes not so very long ago. Bella seemed to notice something in her composure, but not Daphne. Daphne would have said something. Something smart, and cute, and ever-so-slightly off putting in a way that kept Rome on her toes. Daphne was good at those.

"New friend, my ass," Bella said, smirking at Daphne.

Daphne replied, "We just met tonight!"

"Then you work even faster than I gave you credit for."

Daphne looked back over her shoulder and gave her a look, intuiting that Rome had given something away even if she couldn't have known how, but before that could go any further the bartender returned. "I found him," the bartender said. Her expression was flat, bordering on sour. She held up her phone, turned around, and blindly swiped left over and over on her phone. A series of Instagram selfies washed over the screen.

"Oh shit, is that really him?" Daphne said.

It was, and Rome started nodding slowly.

"You said you need this, right?" the bartender said. When Daphne nodded, she said, "My girl doesn't want this coming back on her. That means he can't see it. If your friend needs to see this, I'll share it with you, but I need your word that she won't show it to him."

"Done," Daphne said.

The bartender didn't look impressed. "Is he the kind of guy who won't let up until she shows him something?"

Daphne shook her head. "Ange can handle herself."

"So if I send you an invite to follow her feed, you can show her and that's that?"

"That'll be enough," Daphne said.

"He can't see this."

"I promise," Daphne said. "This ends with me."

"She can't say anything about the club to him."

"She and I will work something out."

The bartender still didn't look fully convinced, not really, but she handed the phone over to Bella, and Bella started typing. After a minute she looked up, and the back pocket of Daphne's jeans lit up and started buzzing.

Daphne pulled out her phone, looked at it for a second, and nodded. "There he is," she said, after swiping for a handful of seconds. "I'll show her this, unfollow, and that'll be that."

The bartender looked unhappy, but she seemed satisfied enough to stop badgering Daphne. Daphne and Bella gave each other knowing looks, and Daphne reached for her pocket. Rome raised her eyebrows, but said nothing when a significant number of bills changed hands.

"Go easy on her," Bella said, smirking.

"I will," Rome said, excitedly answering even though the statement had obviously been directed at Daphne.

Both of them looked at her. Daphne had never looked more amused. It was, by far, the most expressive Daphne had been all night. The two of them gave each other a quick goodbye, and then Daphne's arm was around her shoulder and they were heading for the door.

"I'm gonna try to sell Ange," Daphne said, as they moved back out into the night air, "on a reverse uno card move. She cheated on him, with me, and she's leaving him."

"That might work," Rome replied. "Honestly, Jim might not back down if she tries to say something like I know what you did but won't elaborate further. He always wants the last word."

"Exactly! Then, because he's broken up and has nowhere to be, he's coming here just that much more often."

"Good for them," Rome said, staring back at the neon lights as she reached for the passenger side door to Daphne's car.

Daphne said nothing as she started up her car, and Rome drifted into a daydream imagining what changes would come over Jim. It was there in the back of her mind that she hadn't known he was in a relationship to begin with, and she'd worked with him long enough to know that, with a girlfriend or without, Jim was going to be Jim, but the mental image of him, drunk, acting out, bitter and lonely and hurting, was soothing in a way she couldn't quite grasp.

This schadenfreude, this imagined joy at Jim's upcoming suffering, presented a bit of truth to her that she had not been willing to confront; she was unhappy. Professionally, certainly. Personally, perhaps. There was some deeper thinking to be done there, something she pushed off for the upcoming weekend. There would be plenty of time to think about life, the universe, and everything when it was just her and Mitzy.

Just as she started thinking about her cat, and going home, and the two days off she had before she needed to be back in the office, she realized that they were back in the parking lot at TJ's. Daphne pulled to a stop behind her car, and Rome felt a deep and yawning chasm open up in her middle. It was over. Just like that.

"Follow me back to my place?" Daphne said, turning toward her just enough to generate a ferocious creak from the leather jacket.

She felt physical whiplash, and found herself leaning against the passenger side door for support.

"Or, you know, we don't have to."

"No!" Rome said, nodding. "I mean, yes. Yes."

"Okay," Daphne said, smirking with just enough warmth that it didn't really count as a smirk at all.

"Okay."

Rome's feet didn't touch the ground even once on her way back to the car. She simply floated around the back end of the car and into her own driver's seat. Daphne remained parked behind her until her car was started, and then they were off.

It was hard to quantify her feelings. It was a bit like numbness, and a bit like excitement, and a bit like already having a bullet vibrator taped in place, which was a thing she'd tried once. Like then, it was almost too much to take, but there was this little voice reminding her, over and over, that she hadn't given back. It was the first time anyone had ever focused on her, and made her cum first, and she'd been so overwhelmed that Daphne was out of the bathroom and into the hallway before she'd gotten her wits back.

She would keep her wits this time, come hell or high water.

It was easy to follow Daphne. She probably could have done it blind for all the noise Daphne's car made, but Daphne made it easy on her and kept the speed low. Signaled early. It was sweet, in a way. Or horny. Sweet or horny. Maybe a little of both.

"Am I okay to be parked here?" Rome said, as they both stood up from their cars a few miles down the road.

Daphne had a face for smirking. A natural, resting smirk face. One eyebrow shaped a little different. All the natural imperfections and asymmetries. The way her hair sat, down to the part in the middle but not quite exactly down the middle. She didn't answer Rome at all, just kept walking, which was an answer all on its own. Rome drew her purse tight against her middle as she hurried across the parking lot, and it wasn't until they were crossing the street that she saw that Daphne was heading straight for a tattoo parlor.

"Is this your place?"

Daphne still wasn't saying anything. Her gait had shifted, stride shortening. She was looking down at her hands, shifting keys around a ring.

"Black Quill Ink?"

Daphne stood in front of the door, and more and more it seemed like staring at her keys was just a pretense. Finally, she said, "I didn't plan for any of this."

"Is that a bad thing?" Rome said, suddenly clutching her purse that much tighter.

Then Daphne turned toward her a bit more directly. First, just a turn of her head. "Have you ever, like, gone to use a pen,"— Then, at the waist —"and you think it's just a pen, and you're gonna use it to write down the thing you need to write down, but then you get your fingers on it, and..."

Every hair on Rome's body stood up on end.

"And it fits just right in your hand. And you're like... where did this pen come from?"

"There's really no way of knowing," Rome said, voice barely above a whisper as she fell fully into that same surreal vibe. "Sometimes pens just be... showing up on my desk."

Whole body facing her. Had Daphne been this much taller than her all night? She felt so small under her gaze, and yet...

...safe.

"I don't respect pens," Rome said, even more quietly, as Daphne crossed the remaining distance between them. She really wasn't that much taller than Rome, but Rome had to have her head tilted back to meet the other woman's gaze. She really wanted to see the way Daphne was looking at her. "They're, like, pencil's stupid cousin who is terminally afraid of being outdone. Ooo, look, you can't erase me."

"What are you talking about?" Daphne said, breaking into the widest, toothiest smile yet.

"I'm babbling," Rome said, urgently. "Please stop me."

And then Daphne was kissing her again, and Rome floated up off the ground to meet her. Gaining four inches in height just from the sheer need of it. Daphne cradled her sides, just below the ribs, but these things were increasingly far away from Rome. She drifted away, and when Daphne finally turned to unlock the door she left a little part of herself behind.

There were low, red lights here and there, so it was easy to see her way around. Rome had never been in a tattoo shop, and had no idea what she was looking at, but it reminded her of a skate shop one of her high school boyfriends had dragged her to. The urge was there to ask questions, and let Daphne be witty. Of course Daphne would be witty. She'd have something funny to say, and it would surprise her, and the being surprised would make her stomach flutter, and the stomach fluttering would lead to blushing.

It was a whole thing.

Near the back, after a little bit of meandering, Daphne opened a door, and there were stairs. The exposed brick walls remained the same throughout, even once they were upstairs. There was another door at the top, heavier and with a deadbolt, and Rome felt a lot better once she was inside of it. When she put her purse down, in an armchair next to the door, it was the first time she'd put it down all night and felt good about it. There was a comfort to being around Daphne, even right away. Something that just clicked.

Her breath caught in her throat as she watched the same thing she'd seen earlier, Daphne taking off her leather jacket. It slipped from her shoulders, exposing tattoos she had only barely paid attention to before. The left arm had an air motif, with clouds and birds and an airship straight out of steampunk. A black cat perched on one of the clouds, peering as if in judgement.

The skin was soft. She didn't know why she expected tattooed skin to be hard or scaly; this wasn't the first tattoo she'd ever touched, but there was such childlike wonder in running her hand along Daphne's arm. She knew how thirsty she was coming off, and she didn't care. She'd just walked up and started touching another woman's arm, and it wasn't until she noticed Daphne watching her that she started feeling self conscious about it.

"How long have you had these?"

"Is that really what you want to be asking right now?" Daphne asked.

Rome only hesitated for a moment before whispering, "No," and it was such a weight from her shoulders to be able to express her desires so openly. She knew that she could; she knew it in her bones. She could want, with Daphne. She was free to want, and that was maybe the most empowered she'd felt in her whole life. She wanted, and was wanted. That much was also clear, given the way Daphne's eyes were drifting down along her form.

The next time Daphne met her gaze, Rome began to unbutton her top. She wanted to be looked at. She wanted that hungry gaze again, and two buttons in it was on her. She was proud of herself for slowing down as she reached the fourth button, just at the center of her bra, and started spreading the sides of it as she went. Her eyes were on Daphne, but Daphne was taking in every square inch of flesh she exposed.

In a moment of panic, she said, "Is this okay?"

Daphne took Rome's hands in hers, and pulled them away from the shirt. Her eyes bored right through Rome. "Maybe..." Then her smile widened a little. "Let me."

That was how Rome found herself being very slowly undressed. Shirt unbuttoned. Untucked. Spread out over her shoulders. Belt loosened. Pants loosened. Daphne even knelt down to untie her boots, and when she stepped out of them, she was clad in just her panties, bra, and thin ankle socks. She tried leaving her hands at her sides, and she tried crossing them over her belly, grabbing one wrist with the other hand.

She just had a moment, there, to take in the apartment. What looked like a dozen reclaimed and repurposed neon signs from various bars did most of the lighting. The furniture was sparse, but tasteful. Daphne had good taste.

When she moved to cross her arms over her chest, Daphne had just finished grabbing her pants and shirt, and folding them neatly. Daphne said, "You look good enough to eat."

"What?" she said, recoiling. "No." She looked down at herself. "Ugh, these aren't even cute. I wear them because they don't show through."

When she looked back up, she almost swallowed her tongue. Daphne's top was off, and the sports bra she'd had on went with it. There was barely enough time to appreciate them before Daphne was moving back through the apartment, shimmying down out of her jeans, but Rome followed and locked onto a mirror against the far wall.

Daphne's breasts were very different from her own. They were bigger, and sat lower. The nipples were pale and wide. There were faint blue veins close to the skin level. They were beautiful, and so unique, like all the weight in them had settled to the bottom. She was so focused on them, especially when Daphne leaned forward, that she completely missed that Daphne was stepping into something. Pulling it up like panties.

And then she turned around, black and red hair swirling as those burning coal eyes turned on her. The strap-on bobbed around for a second, taking longer to settle. One of Rome's hands settled over her heart, an unthinking reaction, as she took in the whole of the woman in front of her.

"Oh," she said, mentally awarding herself the Understatement of the Year. She wanted to say more, but when her jaw opened nothing came out.

"Bed," Daphne said.

"That looks big," Rome finally managed to say, though she was surprised to find that she was already walking. Closing the distance between them.

Daphne, of course, smirked. "Too big? I have options."

Rather than getting on the bed, though, Rome slowly reached behind herself to loosen her bra, and she kept her hands over her breasts modestly as she moved to stand in front of the taller woman. The navy blue bra forgotten long before it hit the ground. She'd bravely held Daphne's gaze the whole walk over, but once she was there she looked down. Eyes travelling over the body in front of her. She reached over, placed her hands on Daphne's hips, and traced.

There were so many body parts she wanted to lick, a reaction she hadn't had since that one time in college that she'd tried molly. She didn't know where to start, paralyzed by the choices, and it was a surprise when Daphne reached up and gently nudged her chin until they were looking at each other again.

"Bed."

The giggle that escaped her was involuntary. She didn't dare look away, though. Not this time. She took a step back, taking Daphne's hands and pulling the other woman along with her, and when her calf brushed the bedsheet her peripheral vision told her was coming, she sat. The bed was high, so she didn't so much sit down as she did wiggle backwards.

She didn't let go of Daphne's hands until she was rolling onto her back, but she continued to hold Daphne's gaze. Her knees came up, legs spreading more and more as Daphne moved between them. Her toes curled, legs curled, so that her calves were brushing Daphne's sides.

The dong slid over her panties, right up along her middle. She looked down when Daphne did, both of them staring at the flesh-toned head as it hovered over the waistline of her panties.

"Are you sure this is what you want?"

Daphne's smirk slipped for a moment, replaced by amused confusion. "Me?"