Amaranthine

Despite being one of the few clubs where being a hot girl wasn’t actually a point in your favor, being a Guardian was, so Cait and Lira skipped the line and walked into the Blazing Saddle. Lira immediately strode up to the bar, greeted the barback by name, and retreived a package the man grabbed from behind it.

“Uh…” Cait said, uncertain what question to even ask.

“This is a leather bar! You look great, and I appreciate the effort, but head to the bathroom and gear up, girl. Don’t worry, I prepared.”

In one smooth motion, Lira pulled her dress over her head, revealing not nudity, not lingerie, but a leather and metal harness that was somehow lewder than either. She approached Cait, grabbing the belly of her dress in her fist and pulling her close for an intense kiss.

“Hurry up, my collar is in your package, and I feel naked without it.”

Cait watched her bounce back to the bar, ass just barely covered enough that it wasn’t winking at her.

Hell yeah.

She hustled back into the bathroom, skipping the line because she wasn’t really concerned about using a stall. Anyone who’d watched the news even once since she’d become a hero had seen her naked anyway. Cait stripped off the dress, and ripped open the gift-wrapped package Lira had handed her. While the Saddle was an all-inclusive queer bar, it definitely attracted more of a male crowd than anything else. That meant there were only a few stares from women coming in and out of the bathroom and getting an eyeful of the Amazon wiggling into a leather daddy outfit.

Cait looked herself over in the mirror as she put the gayest, most glorious, leather police hat on over her ash blonde locks. There wasn’t a lot to the outfit. Fitted (somehow) leather vest, tight pants, boots, and both items had cutout sides covered only by leather lacing the two halves together. All in all, couldn’t be much farther from her usual look, but, if she didn’t say so herself, she was pulling it off. More important than all that though, was the fur lined leather collar she held in her hands, complete with leash, and ‘tastefully’ adorned with a stylized rhinestone A, mirroring the one that had been on her dress.

Nicest thing Lira’s ever given me. Herself.

She walked out of the bathroom with appropriately accentuated swagger, liking the jingle of all the metal clasps and straps adorning the outfit. Cait spied Lira at the bar, bent over it enough to be indecent and monopolizing the barkeeps attention while he mixed her a drink nearly as green as her eyes. Speaking of eyes, if Cait had needed any further confirmation this was a gay bar, the barkeeps eyes were firmly on Lira’s face rather than her body, which would have been patently impossible for a straight man, or whatever Cait was.

Lira grinned up at Cait as she came up behind her, pressing her hips into her ass and leaning over her to kiss her from above. She could feel the throaty purr Lira gave into the kiss through her palm, resting on her throat.

“Don’t you have something for me?” she asked, pouting.

Cait slipped the collar around her neck, holding it tight with one hand while the other worked the belt strap to secure it. If the way Lira’s hips were wiggling into her crotch as she did were any indication, it was just as exciting for her as it was for Cait.

She let go of her grip on the collar, content to let its leash hang slack in her hand. To be honest, Cait much preferred physical domination, but had to admit that leash, and what it represented, felt good in her hand.

“Oh!” Lira said, turning back to the barkeep as he tapped her drink down. “Hey! Cait, this is Mark, he knows Austin!”

“Did you literally walk up to the first gay dude you saw and asked if he knew the only gay dude you know?” Cait asked, testing out the collar by pulling the leash taut in her grip. Lira squeaked.

“Yep!” the bartender, Mark, answered, chuckling and cocking an eyebrow to ask if Cait wanted anything. “No worries though. Pretty used to it by now, and fact is I usually do know who they're talking about.”

“Honey Jack ‘n Coke, my man. Oh yeah? The man responsible for keeping DSM’s Guardians caffeinated come here often?”

“The man? Nah. Twinkie Creampie? Every Friday night!” he said, lips curling up at what had to be a drag moniker.

“No. Shit.” Cait said, enjoying the way Lira’s breaths were getting shorter as she held the leash taut. She wasn’t pulling that hard, that definitely wasn’t all because it was hard to breathe. “Can’t help but notice tonight’s a Friday night.”

Mark popped Cait’s drink down in front of her, and she took a sip. Good as always. She and her dad had always called the simple drink a Honeybee, and it was her go-to anywhere she hadn’t seen a menu yet.

“That it is, show starts in 10,” he said with a smile. He nodded at the drink as she smacked her lips in satisfaction. “So, uh, you’re Amaranthine right? That even gonna do anything?”

“Not even a little bit!” Cait turned a ‘dazzle ‘em’ grin on Mark, a look that tended to have an effect regardless of sexuality. She winked, toasting the air to him. “But you mix a good drink, and looks like I’m invulnerable to getting fat too so keep ‘em coming.”

She thought for a second.

“Hey, does AEGIS put tips on tabs? I can’t be the first Guardian to come through, but I don’t get, like, paid like a normal person.”

Mark nodded towards Lira, and Cait followed his gaze to see her turning a little purple. She rolled her eyes and let the leash fall slack again as Lira gasped.

“Hey! I would’ve done something if I wanted you to stop!” she protested. Cait flicked the slack in the leash so it whipped against her ass.

“Pretty sure that would make you a bad sub. If I don’t want you to breathe, you aren’t supposed to breathe.”

It was Lira’s eyes turn to roll.

“Yeah, but unfortunately my dom is airheaded enough to forget she’s choking me.”

“I didn’t forget,” lied Cait, turning her attention back to Mark.

“They do add a tip,” he said, like the entire exchange hasn’t happened, “and a good one too since y’all tend to bring trouble of some sort with you, on purpose or not. Sometimes it’s a beast attack, sometimes someone accidentally chokes out their girlfriend in amateur breath play. Never a dull moment.”

“Amateur?” Cait glared at the man, but made sure there was plenty of good humor in it. “How do I make it so you don’t get that tip?”

Mark chuckled, and flipped her off, which Cait answered with a smile. Without saying anything to Lira, she walked away from the bar, searching for a table to take in the show. The slack in the leash let her know Lira was obediently following.

Honestly, this is fun, but if I had my druthers? I’d rather walk behind Lira. Better view.

She finally elbowed her way to a table no one seemed to be actively standing around, and placed her drink on it like she was planting a flag. Lira’s joined it an instant later.

“Wow,” she said, smiling pleasantly at Cait before she returned to people watching. “Ya know, it is really nice walking behind you. Its like following a snow plow.”

“Snow plows don’t have my ass.”

“Touché,” Lira laughed, bumping her head to Cait’s shoulder, then leaving it there and wrapping an arm around hers. She sighed like she’d just cuddled into bed.

“Shouldn’t be surprised, but how are you that comfortable in that outfit?” Cait asked, to which Lira grinned, pushing away to do a little spin. Cait laughed, letting her eyes wander as she held the leash up so it didn’t tangle.

“You like it!?” Lira asked excitedly, positively beaming at Cait.

Cait did like it. It really was just a series of straps, stitched or clasped together to give the illusion that Lira was wearing more than she was. It did what all of Lira’s best outfits did, meaning accentuate rather than hide her sculpted body.

“You’re going slack jawed, sweetie,” Lira cooed, cuddling back up to Cait. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

She tilted her head up for a kiss, and Cait came away grinning at the chemical apple flavor.

“Appletini? Really?” she asked, to which Lira just shrugged, and took another sip.

“We’re at a gay bar! What do you want from me?!”

“More than we can do in public.”

Lira’s eyes had been scanning the crowd, taking people in, but they shot back to Cait’s immediately at that.

“Rawr,” she purred, making a mock cat claw at Cait. “Someone’s frisky.”

“Wha-, Lira, OF COURSE I’m frisky!” Cait protested. “Have you seen yourself? And just holding this leash is a fuckin’ aphrodisiac, and—”

Lira’s eyes twinkled, and it was probably testament to how clouded Cait’s mind was that she hadn’t clocked that Lira was joking. Lira was always joking. Cait just chuckled, shaking her head, before pulling the leash taut and Lira close. She got a little splash of appletini on her vest for her trouble, but that was far from her mind.

“I am gonna fucking destroy you when I get you alone.”

Lira chortled into what was left of her drink, though her eyes were all excitement.

“Duh, bitch. Why do you think I’m being such a brat?” she shot back, giving a theatrical moan as Cait twisted the collar to pull at her windpipe.

The lights went low, and someone the social contract insisted was a woman came onto to quickly clearing dance floor. With big makeup, bigger hair, and prosthetic proportions that would put Director Swan to shame, the nights scheduled entertainment had begun.

Cait loved a drag show. She’d been to plenty in college, since they tended to happen in the same places bi or gay girls congregated. She was vaguely aware the Des Moines shows in her parents time had been just okay, with the culture concentrated on the coasts, but since the Waves took those cities out, these things were a fuckin’ production.

Professional light shows, costumes that cost thousands, wigs that cost more. The performers ran the gamut from traditional campy drag to female impersonation so accurate Cait would have hit on the performer without a second thought had they been standing next to them at the bar. They clapped and whooped, more than one of the Queens getting a pleasant surprise during crowd work when they twerked on her and found the space between her legs wasn’t as empty as expected.

6 Queens had come and gone when the announcer finally said the words Twinkie Creampie. No one ever really said it, but in his green apron and cap, pointy ears and blonde hair, Austin looked exactly like Link. That was why, when he danced out dressed in the sluttiest Princess Zelda costume Cait had ever seen, she laughed out loud. His big eyes caught hers, and he hit her with the sauciest wink this side of Lira before breaking it down to some Bardcore.

“Holy shit,” Cait whispered.”

“I know…” answered Lira.

“Are we gonna try to fuck Austin?” To be fair, the elfy little guy was feminine enough that you wouldn’t really have had to work that hard to talk Cait into it, even before this.

“Don’t think he’s interested,” said Lira, but the look on her face was one she usually reserved for a select trio. “but fuck, yeah, would.”

“Claudio’s a lucky bull,” Cait said as the show ended and people shimmeyed back onto the dance floor. Cait shook herself, grinned at Lira, then yanked her collar tight as she stepped towards the floor. “C’mon. Let’s show ‘em what they’re missing.”

Lira stumbled forward, although she had almost supernatural balance so Cait thought that might be for show.

“You know there’s lesbians here too, right?” she complained, as Cait pulled her close, wrapping one arm around her waist while the other held the leash taut.

“Yeah? Do they get to take you home?” Cait asked, beginning to sway her hips to the bass-heavy beat that was still somehow a little country. She brought her lips close to Lira’s ear. “Are they holding your leash?”

Lira bit her on the neck, hard. That turned into a kiss, tongue lapping the sweat of the night off Cait’s skin. It didn’t hurt, but the shock made her gasp, and her hand shot to grab Lira’s throat, pushing her back and tilting her head to face Cait’s.

She was smirking, and licking her lips.

“That’s what I’d do if they tried,” she purred. “You’re just lucky your throat can’t get torn out.”

Cait’s leather pants did not have the modesty tech of her suit. That meant the effect Lira’s words had on her was very visible.

Lira’s fingers traced Cait through the leather as she stepped back, leash feeding through Cait’s fingers as she began to sway. Lira danced for Cait, not with her. Still, with each movement, she turned an act of submission into an act of power. Not personal power, no, but this girl had two of the most powerful women in the world wrapped so tightly around her finger that Lira Light had more military might at her disposal than most nations.

I know Lira can take care of herself, Cait thought, thinking back to the attack on AEGIS and the armed assailant laying dead at Lira’s feet when Cait found her, but fuck me if she’s ever going to have to again.

Slowly, as Lira moved like sex made woman, Cait wound in her leash, wrapping it around her palm. When she got close, Cait spun her around. Lira gasped as Cait pulled the taut leash down, forcing Lira’s face up towards her own. She kissed her, long and deep, as Lira’s hips moved like heaven against her own.

“Time to take you home,” Cait said. Lira’s throat was closed too tight to respond, but her eyes were as emphatic a yes as Cait had ever received.

She stuffed Lira’s leash in the girl’s mouth, then threw her over her shoulder, making a beeline to the door through the crowd.