“You said so yourself…” Ami waved goodbye to the other viewers and kicked them off her private channel. “I like to watch.”
Reina wrapped her arms around her wife’s torso and bit her shoulder. “I’ll let you take over then.”
“And what should I tell her to do?”
“Surprise me. God knows you do regularly.”
Aiko looked at the screen and met Ami’s expectant face. “Hi stud,” she said, getting closer to her camera and giving it a kiss. “Thanks for the tip. What can I do for you tonight? You get me for a full twenty minutes.”
A glance toward Reina. “Your move,” she said. “But make sure it’s good.”
Fingers hovered over the keyboard as Ami became impatient. “You there, babe?” she asked, sitting up on her legs as she dithered between concerned and flirty.
The keys ticked and tacked as Aiko wrote, Take off your nightgown.
“Ara! Going right for it! You don’t waste any time. I like that.” Ami winked at the camera and pulled her straps down one by one. “Should I put on some music and do a tease?”
No. Aiko grinned. This was kind of fun.
“All right.” Still smiling as if she had won the lottery, Ami pulled her nightgown over her head and presented her nude body on a platter of pillows.
“That’s what I’m talking about.” Reina patted her wife on the back.
Aiko couldn’t help but smirk too, especially as she looked at the beautiful naked woman on her monitor.
She then realized that this had been Reina’s plan all along.
It was so like her! Some things never changed after two damned decades. Reina would suggest something outlandish, Aiko would resist, and Reina would put it in her lover’s head that it could be fun, Aiko would take control somehow, and Reina got what she wanted all along. She wants me to control a woman over the internet for our anniversary? So not romantic.
But so fun.
Now knowing this, Aiko perched her fingers on the keyboard and told Ami to start touching herself.
She didn’t know how long it would feel until their twenty minutes were up. But it seemed like in only two more Aiko was nearing a state of euphoria, not from arousal, but from the power she felt telling another woman what to do. Reina remained behind her, silent but smiling while she ran her fingers through her wife’s hair. This was her stupid plan. Get off on the wife bossing around another feminine woman in the bedroom.
Since Ami was a professional, she managed to make Aiko feel both at ease with this arrangement and to entice her at the same time. She knew the right angles to show the camera for maximum response – in this case, that response came in the form of tips. Aiko deposited two of her extra tokens into Ami’s profile and told her to keep up the good work.
Reina finally broke her silence when Ami lay on her stomach, fingering herself from behind. “Does this turn you on?” Reina pulled her wife into her embrace and felt her up to the sights and sounds of a woman moaning over a webcam. “Because it’s sure as hell turning me on.” She pulled Aiko’s hands off the keyboard and typed something of her own. I really wish I could fuck you right now. Typical Reina. Aiko thought that her spouse should be thinking about fucking her, in all honesty.
Ami caught a glance of the words on her screen and stopped, laughing as she sat up again and approached the camera. “Tell me you’re giving me a kiss and I’ll make it feel like you really are fucking me, sweetie.”
Aiko batted her spouse’s hands away from the keyboard. You know I am. God knew Aiko would make out with Ami if she could. It was officially that kind of night now.
“Wait here a second. I’ll be right back.” Naked, Ami hopped off her bed and darted to the bedroom door. Her cute bare ass still hung in the room as she leaned out the door and called for something. Or someone. It was definitely someone, as evident by Ami’s girlfriend sneaking into the room a minute later.
Although Aiko never saw the other woman above her neck, she knew it was Ami’s girlfriend from the way she carried herself. She was a lot like Reina – except more sophisticated and practical. She remained silent as Ami cooed to the camera. “Is this what you want?” Ami grabbed the edges of her girlfriend’s dinner jacket and pretended to unbutton her blouse.
“Eh, she told me her girlfriend sometimes joined for shows, but this is kinky.” Reina flung one arm into the air. “We’ve got seven minutes left. Make it happen.”
Yes, Aiko wrote into the chat. No faking. She felt clever for that, not that she expected Ami to fake with her girlfriend.
Keeping the girlfriend’s face out of the camera’s way was an art in and of itself. Yet it soon occurred to Aiko that this was something that probably happened at least once a week in their home, and they had the choreography down pat. It makes it feel artificial. Until she also realized that the look on Ami’s face was genuine adoration as she pulled herself up and kissed her girlfriend just out of the camera’s reach.
It may have been choreographed, but Ami got off on it.
With only five minutes until their private time was up, Ami tossed herself onto the bed and told her girlfriend to give it to her hard and fast. Reina’s breath quickened behind her wife. Someone wants it. Aiko knew how to drive her spouse crazy. While the real show started, she reached between Reina’s legs and rubbed her inner thigh. Hello, her libido! Wouldn’t be long before Reina closed the laptop lid and took her wife for a wild anniversary ride.
Her attentions were so heavy, pawing at Aiko’s body and kissing her throat that it was easy to forget what was going on only a few centimeters away. Aiko plopped onto her stomach so Reina could overtake her, gently thrusting against her rear as the famous cam girl earned her living with the aid of her talented girlfriend.
Reina lifted her wife’s nightgown to expose her ass as Ami got an omanko full of toy. Aiko yelped in surprise at both, and her spouse clutched her by the chin with a kiss to her cheek.
Now she couldn’t look away. She watched in fascination – and arousal – as Ami clutched the comforter on her bed and braced herself against the hard thrusts careening into her body. This is a normal night for them. Aiko could relate. Her spouse pulled down the front of her nightgown and fingered her as if she had discovered it for the first time. Once their clothing came off, Aiko would be deflowered for the thousandth time in her life. More than that. Reina was a very thorough woman.
“Iku!” Ami shouted, her face scrunched up in pleasure toward the camera. She collapsed onto her bed with a wail, and her girlfriend pulled out with no further ceremony. That’s all Reina and Aiko had paid for.
“I’ll make you scream better than that,” Reina growled into her wife’s ear.
Aiko could barely contain her rising need for her spouse. “You always do.”
With one minute to spare in their private show, Ami collected her bearings and smiled at the camera. “I hope you were pleased,” she said, her cheeks still flushed. Aiko scrambled to type in some kind words before their time was up. “Aw, thank you.” Ami kissed the camera. “I have to get back to work now. You two lovebirds have a good anniversary. I hope I provided some inspiration!” The camera went dark.
Reina didn’t comment on how Ami knew it was them. Instead she slammed the laptop shut, pushed it to the end of the bed, and overtook her wife as if they hadn’t had sex in years. That’s exactly what Aiko wanted.
Even twenty-two years later, Reina could safely say she had never gone to a gay bar with one of Aiko’s relatives before.
They were at Heaven’s Kiss, a new place known for being low-key while also fashionable and trendy – as much as a lesbian joint could be on Saturday nights. Reina would rather be at one of her usual hangouts, where old friends and older lovers were available for a conversation about the old days. Sometimes new blood would find her way in there and become wrapped up in Reina and Aiko’s world of dirty threesomes. Kinda hard to make that happen with the little niece sitting across the table.
; There was no way this could be a good idea. When Aiko said she wanted to double date with her lesbian niece and her girlfriend, Reina did everything in her power to get out of it. She even offered to vacuum the living room to make sure this never happened. Not only did Reina vacuum the entire first floor of her house, but she was here at Heaven’s Kiss, drinking flat beer and avoiding eye contact with the big burly butch who was Eri’s girlfriend of however many years. It didn’t help that everything Reina knew about her niece-in-law came from her being a toddler so many years ago. When the hell did she grow up? Let alone go to college, get married, have a miscarriage and a divorce.
“This is a nice place,” Aiko said, talking solely to her niece. It was like the other woman, Ruu, didn’t even exist. Does she? Ruu was the big and somber sort, drinking straight beer and wearing a denim vest over an old T-shirt advertising a local fundraiser. Bouncer. Reina heard that Ruu was a mechanic during the day, but knew that this kind of woman stood outside nightclubs once the sun went down. Someone had to support Eri now that she didn’t have the salary-toting husband. “I’m glad you invited us.”
Eri smiled. The first time Reina saw her smile since her engagement announcement almost two years ago. How does one decide to get married and make a baby while seriously dating someone else? Reina glanced at Ruu. Maybe she was a saint in her own way, like Aiko.
“I’m glad that you and your spouse could come with us tonight, Auntie Aiko,” Eri said with confidence. “Although I never thought in an eon that I would be in a place like this with one of my older relatives! Can you imagine Auntie Saki in a place like this?”
Reina spat out some of her beer as she saw that prissy housewife with the soccer mom haircut sitting in the middle of Heaven’s Kiss, sneering at every lesbian walking by and crying about gay cooties. Such an overdramatic fuckhead. “That woman wouldn’t last a minute,” she said, cleaning up her minor spill. Aiko playfully chastised her, but had to agree about her sister.
“So, have you and Reina-san been up to anything interesting lately?” Eri clutched her empty glass as if it would sprout legs and flee from her inane questions.
Aiko talked about the hot springs, recommending it to the younger couple if they were looking for a place to get away to. She left out the sexy details, but Eri got the gist of that when Aiko said, “And it’s completely private this time of year, so you don’t get caught…” She stopped herself as she realized who she was talking to. “It’s private.”
Reina tuned out the conversation after that. She was here because she had to be, to show moral support for the Takeuchi femmes who obsessed over talking about these sorts of things. But she didn’t have to actually listen. Instead she covertly stared at her phone beneath the table, texting naughty messages to Jun hundreds of kilometers away. Every so often she got a reply promising phone sex if she was a good girl. Wonder if I can sneak off to the restroom…
“Hey, Reina!”
She looked up and saw an old acquaintance from her early party days. Finally, someone worth talking to. Reina put away her phone and turned to the empty table behind her. The friend pulled out a chair and began talking about the latest.
It was another night out on the town for Reina, who was happy to let her wife talk to family while better things went on behind her. Reina lit up a cigarette and talked about her job, her marriage, and a new show on TV that apparently both she and her friend liked.
“I’ve heard other interesting things going on with you as well,” the woman said. “Though they sound so crazy that I almost can’t believe them!”
“Eh? What is it?” Reina puffed herself up. She prided herself on scandalizing as many people as possible.
“I heard you fucked the tranny that works up the block from here. Is it true?”
Smoke obfuscated Reina’s vision as she stared at her friend. What did she say? It took her a moment to realize that the woman meant Shio.
“Come again?” Reina slumped her shoulders. “Where did you hear that?” Was Shio blabbing about their night together? Not that it gave this woman the right to say such foul words.
“Some people saw you two locking lips in the alley two weeks ago. Then you took off together. Back to his place? Jesus, I can’t believe it!” The woman laughed as if it were some joke.
Reina squished her cigarette into the ashtray. “First of all, she’s a woman. It’s not that difficult to understand. And last I checked, I fuck women. You know me, I only discriminate if you’re an asshole.” Like you.
“Oh, come on. You don’t really believe that, do you?”
“Believe what?”
The woman bristled. “That it’s really a woman.”
Conversation continued at the table behind Reina. Suddenly I would rather talk about whatever they’re laughing over.
“Jeez! You really did fuck the tranny!”
She said it so loudly that the other table went silent. Reina glanced over her shoulder to see Ruu and Eri staring at her while Aiko put one protective hand on her spouse’s shoulder. Down, tiger. “So what if I did?”
“You’re getting crazy with age.” The stupid woman laughed nervously. She knew what she said was nothing but trouble. “You used to be so anti-dick. Then you started dressing like you had one, and now this? What’s next? You gonna marry some dude?”
Reina furrowed her brows. “I’m already married.” She felt Aiko’s grip on her tighten. “Quite happily, thanks.”
“Well, yeah… I was joking…”
“It was a shitty joke.”
The woman got up and left after that. Irritated, Reina returned to her original seat, surrounded by silence. Great. Now the in-laws know my recent sexual history. Didn’t matter who she was sleeping with. Some things didn’t need to be shared.
Ruu nodded her head toward the distance. “Want me to go fuck her up for you?”
Yup. Bouncer. “She ain’t worth getting thrown out of here.” Reina clasped her wife’s hand beneath the table. “But thanks.”
She tuned out the rest of the conversation, not that it ever regained its merriment. Fuck me. Reina wondered what people said behind her back – let alone what they would say once the gossip spread like it always did. She tried to tell herself that she didn’t care. Her stomach hurt, but she wouldn’t care.
The end of the year was always fast-paced, and that year was no different. The moment the holidays began, Aiko lost track of the days and couldn’t believe it when three weeks passed.
That year was particularly hectic. It began on Christmas, when Reina came home from work declaring that was the night they broke out a board game Michiko gave them for their anniversary a year ago. After all, it was the anniversary of the first time they made love, and Reina wanted to make sure it was honored. Any excuse to get laid. The board game was a naughty one, telling the players what to do and in what position. A lamp broke on the nightstand when Aiko accidentally rolled over mid-coitus and slammed her foot into it.
Yet it was the New Year’s holiday that always brought with it the most chaos. At midnight on New Year’s Eve, Reina agreed for the first time in years to go with Aiko to the local shrine to get their blessings. Since apparently the whole neighborhood knew they were gay by now, she allowed Aiko to ask for a couple’s blessing. The Shinto priest looked at them askance but did not say anything. They were the only two women in the crowded shrine getting blessed together that night. There’s her religious obligation for the year.
The actual holidays were spent apart, as they were a time for family reunions and Reina wanted nothing to do with the Takeuchis. Aiko went by herself, as was common, and dodged the questions from the extended family asking when she was going to get married. Such questions were worse that year now that nobody wanted to talk about Eri’s pending divorce.
Aiko and Reina received a record number of New Year’s cards. They continued to pour in even after the first week of the year, a vast majority of them from women who remembered fun times or wanted
to say hi. Due to the sheer number in their mailbox every day, Aiko started putting them up on the wall in the front hallway to show off how popular she and her spouse were. At the top were the cards from Sachiko, Junko, Yuri, Jun, Haruka and Kaori, Michiko, and Mayumi. Aiko also received a card from her cousin Shizuka who now lived in southern Japan. “All five of my kids make me want to hurl. Are you still married to that pervert??? God I hate you. And by that I mean I’m jealous.”
Late one afternoon, Reina tacked on a card from Shio and went on about her business without a word. Aiko waited until her spouse was upstairs before stealing a peek at the contents of the card. “Hope you have a fortuitous New Year’s,” the card said in careful handwriting. Then, in a more casual tone, “Thank you for making 2014 a good one.”
Aiko hadn’t asked about the young woman in a while now. She wondered if Reina still wanted to see her.
“Eh?” Reina asked later that night. “I haven’t talked to her since I last saw her. Did we send her a card?”
“I don’t know.” Aiko turned off her light and snuggled beneath the heavy covers. “That one would’ve been yours to send. Why haven’t you talked to her?”
Reina shrugged. “Haven’t seen her around. Too busy for Ni-chome this time of year.”
That was the end of that. Reina went back to doing the budget, and Aiko stared at their wall of connections.
When she went to bed that night, she dreamed of something so ridiculous that she woke up with a start – and woke Reina up as well, who grunted in what sounded like fright.
“I had the strangest dream…” Aiko said, putting her hand on her spouse’s shoulder. “For some reason we had dissolved our marriage, although we hadn’t broken up. We apparently decided to marry other people instead. Except I didn’t have anyone to marry.” Not even Takeshi. Someone was absent from her dream. “And you married Jun-san, and it was legal for you to do it, but not for me.”
Reina lied back down. “Why would I marry her? You’re ridiculous.”
“Money?”
“I guess. Wouldn’t be enough to put up with her family though.” Reina pulled up the covers. “What else?”
Ikigai Page 23
