Booker and Liz Experimentation

        ELIZABETH GETS AN IDEA  

 

Elizabeth and I were happy; I’d like to make that clear. It was just… well…

        Dammit Booker, what the hell. Here you are, with a girl half your age, she wants you, you want her and you, what, can’t finish? Are you bored or something?

        I scratch at my neck.

        I’m probably just frustrated, or tired, or… I don’t know.

        It’d been a week since... well, it’d been a week since when Elizabeth decided she wanted to talk about it. She wrung and smoothed and wrinkled her skirt as she talked, clearly just as frustrated with it all as I was. As she talked I pulled out a cigarette and tried to light it with a snap. But that doesn’t work anymore. Where’s the damn matches?

        “Booker… uhm… about Saturday…”

        “I don’t really want to talk about it, Elizabeth.” I said, rummaging through my desk.

        “It’s just… well, I mean. We could… I could get the jelly, we could, you know”

        “It’s… it’s not that.”

        “Then what abou-“

        “I just think I need to get my head straight, Elizabeth. I don’t really think you can help with that”

        “But I want to help!”

        “I’m sorry”

We sat in silence for some time, the old creaking floorboards and symphony of the city outside the only sounds between us, until Elizabeth spoke again, “We-ll… there was, that is. I had this one idea…”

I sighed, “Yeah?”

        “B-but we can only do it if we do it both ways!”

That was… strange. Elizabeth blushed as she said it, “What do you mean?”

        “Well, like… well. Well you do it for me, and, and then the other way around…”

        “Do what for you? Huh?”

        “Well...I’d read in a magazine that… uhm. Sometimes…uh... bringing someone else can… well...”

I got up. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, “I don’t want to bring some other girl into bed with us, Elizabeth,” I went to the window and stared out into the little slice of the city I could see. After a few moments, I could feel Elizabeth snake her arms around me, her body pressed to mine, and her face against my back.

        “I… it wouldn’t have to be ‘some other girl,’ Booker…”

        “What?”

“Well… you know how, uhm, the twins. The Lutece twins?”

        “Yeah?”

        “And how they’re… not really… twins?”

It took a few moments for it to sink in, what she was saying. It was a mad little thought, and certainly only something that someone like Elizabeth or those two could think up. I toss away the unlit cigarette, “You… you don’t have to do that, Elizabeth.”

“But I want to help!”

It took the rest of the day of her pestering and he fleeting glances to get me to say yes. One of the only things I could think of was how I could tell them apart. It might have been her idea but I knew Elizabeth could get jealous now and then, even if it was for herself.

The sun was setting outside and I sat alone in the tiny apartment we shared. Elizabeth had… well, left. Off to find herself and convince her of what she had planned. That was a strange thought.

Was this whole plan really the answer? I wasn’t like I didn’t get excited about being with Elizabeth. It was more a problem of finishing, rather than getting started… I put my head in my hands and sigh and a small part of me wishes we were on the run again. Things were easier in the good old days with everyone trying to murder the two of us.

        It was at that thought that I heard the all too familiar sound of space opening to make more space, the fabric of whatever the world was unzipping at the thought of a girl. A light blared through the room, a light of another world, or a world between worlds, a sun and a sea of stars, and the emptiness of nothing in between. I closed my eyes, but the light shone through my lids. I’d looked at it once; it was a maddening display of colors and light and a darkness that somehow shone brighter then the sun.

        The light faded, and I blinked away the glare. When my vision finally cleared, there in front of my desk stood Elizabeth and she was most certainly beside herself. They both glowed with a pink blush to the cheeks. Whatever thoughts I’d been worrying over for telling them apart were thrown away, she must have thought of it. One of them wore a choker with a bird on it, the other with a cage.

 

        The next morning I awoke in pleasant warmth between two bodies. I half wondered where Elizabeth had, well, found herself. I still didn’t really understand how these tears worked. Maybe she’d just found some place where we’d already agreed to it, and found a her that already wanted to try it.

The night had been… well it was strange to be kissing a girl and hear her whisper sweet nothings in your ear. Two pairs of hands to touch you, to feel them both pulling at your clothing. I leaned my head back and clothes my eyes, and I could see the time the two of them kissed. Now that was a sight to see.

It took a few minutes for both of the girls to wake up. I was half expecting a repeat of the night when they did, and was only slightly disappointed when it didn’t happen. We all took our showers in the shared bathroom, first Elizabeth, then me, then Elizabeth. And then it was time to say our little good-byes

Once the light had faded again, I leaned against my desk looking at Elizabeth. She had a soft shy smile on her face as she came closer and we kissed.

 

----

 

TURN ABOUT

 

        “But Booker, you promised!”

        “I know I know… I just… well, I mean. It’s strange isn’t it?”

It’s been another week. The uh… event, with Elizabeth had been a boost, that wasn’t a doubt. It really had made things better.

        “Well… yes,” Elizabeth said back, “But it was…”he voice seemed to shrink away, “fun… And, and it did help!” she was a little too excited about that and blushed again.

        “Okay okay. Just, ah… I guess I should do the talking then?”

        She nodded and opened a tear and there, standing across an infinite sea, was me.

 

        It was a little depressing how little convincing I had needed, especially since it took nearly a day for Elizabeth to convince me the first time.

        Did I always look so smug as that?

        God I wanted to punch him. Me. Whatever.

In the end we both agreed on some ground rules and given how uncomfortable I am telling you this normally, there’s no way I’m telling you what those ground rules were.

        So in the end we both stepped back into my apartment. Or his apartment. Our apartment? I do my best not to think about it, it only makes my head hurt.

        Okay I’ll tell you one of the ground rules, this wasn’t going to be an all night thing that was damn sure. I could barely stand being me; I don’t think I should muscle up the courage to have to sleep next to myself.

 

        At least Elizabeth seemed to enjoy herself. The way she smiled, the way she called the both of us “her boys.”

        And each little squirm and chirp and squeal only made me want to work harder, maybe to prove that they were because of me. I wondered if that was how the other Booker felt. Hell maybe that was how Elizabeth and the other Elizabeth felt. Maybe that was the whole point of it?

 I sliced into the apple in my hand as I looked back at the bed. Elizabeth was sleeping rather soundly, had been for near on half an hour. Her back had cooled, whatever sweat was there was gone, and the way he laid there, barely covered by the sheets, you could see just the hint of her breast under her.

        I looked over at the other Booker and pointed my knife, “Hey. No funny stuff, alright?”

        He grinned back at me. Is that really how my grins looked? “I wasn’t thinking anything.”

        “Yeah… yeah right” I cut the apple in half and tossed one over to him. We munched on the fruit, doing our best not to look at each other.

        I looked back at Elizabeth as she stirred a bit and moved onto her side, her whole back facing me and the sheet sliding a little further down revealing more of her leg. It barely covered her now. I knew he was thinking the same thing I was.

        “So, uh… Booker. What’s your Elizabeth like?” I asked

        “Oh… just the same as yours I suppose,” he said, crunching into another bite.

        “She a, uh… teacher? Yours I mean?”

        “No, no. Actually,” he said back, “Librarian.”

        “Huh…”

Oh God, please something save me from this…

        Elizabeth groaned and turned over again and smiled eyes open and bright, I couldn’t help but smile back, “Morning” is was more of late afternoon but it felt right to say, you know? Elizabeth chuckled at it

        “Right well…” Booker said, getting up, “I think that’s it for me kids.”

        Elizabeth got up, pulling the sheets around her. The modesty was cute, given what’d just transpired. She walked over to Booker and gave him a little kiss on the cheek. I did not like it.

        The tear opened and soon he was gone. Elizabeth just stood there, sheets slowly slipping down her back, she’d pull them up again only for them to slip down once more. It was like a magic trick, parts of her appearing and disappearing and appearing again. She turned and smiled, walking back towards the desk and my chair.

        “Well… that was… fun” she said.

        “For uh, some of us maybe” she giggled at that, looking down at me.

        “Well it seems to have worked out” she said with a smirk.

She let the sheet fall away and pulled at my pants, before she moved to sit down in my lap, softly cooing and sighed as she sunk down. We both smiled and kissed.

        “So what’s next?” I asked.

 

----

SHADES

 

        Alright Booker, calm down, get a grip on yourself here. Nothing too terribly bad’s going to happen to you. You went over this. It’s a safe space, a safe space.

        I feel the rider’s crop slap against my arm and flinch.

        In hindsight, I really should ask Elizabeth a little more about these things before agreeing to them. It’s just so far to say no to that face sometimes.

It also didn’t help that she insisted I be blindfolded too. This would be so much easier to go through if I could see. Though last time I tried to turn my head I got a smack from that damn crop.

        Another welt was raised on my other arm. Elizabeth was getting more liberal with her use of that damn thing, hitting harder and more often.

        At first it was okay, and yes it was kind of exciting. Elizabeth had worn a black corset and black boots and not much else. Black wasn’t her color but she looked, well, ravishing none the less. But as it all wore on? Deprived of my eyes I can only sit inside my own head and wonder what else she might have read to be a ‘good idea’

        I’d told her to stop before, but that had just earned me another smack and a breathy whisper of ‘You do what I say,’ and yes, that got me going, but the rest of the whips from the crop ended that quickly.

        What was it she had said before, as she tied my hands behind my back and forced me on my knees to the floor? It was always best to have something that wouldn’t be said, unless you really wanted to say it. A safe word. What was it? Years of drinking and, frankly, half the ‘adventures’ we’d had from Columbia and back weren’t much help with the memory. I shook with anxious anticipation as she slowly slid the end of the crop across the back of my shoulders.

        “Now,” I could hear Elizabeth say, “What about this lovely… rear of yours…”

That was far enough, “Cabbages!”

        “What?”

        “Cabbages”

        “Oh thank God, Booker” hands went to my wrists, pulling at the rope, and then yanking off the blindfold, and there was Elizabeth, worry painted across her face, “Thank God, thank God. I didn’t think I could do anymore”

        I hugged the girl and the only thing I could think to do was laugh.

She was panting, her breasts heaving up and down beneath the matte black corset. Black wasn’t her color, but she still looked very good in it. I smiled and kissed her, my hands wandering.

        “B-Booker!”

----

 

ON THE RANGE

 

        It was strange, being back in uniform. I didn’t even know I still had it, I was sure I’d gotten rid of it when I left the army, I’d never wanted to see it again but Elizabeth found it somehow. It still fit, mostly. Tight around the midsection but twenty years of booze will do that to a man.

        It was, of course, all Elizabeth’s idea. She said her magazine – which I’d never seen, by the way – called it playing roles. Imagination, pretending to be someone else. I felt all too much like myself and I hated it.

        The idea was I was a cavalry officer, and lo and behold, I’d stumbled across an all too willing Indian maiden.

        Elizabeth didn’t have anything she could copy from the photographs she’d found, so she settled for a brown skirt and shirt, and wrapped herself in a blanket. She’d even put her hair into two tails over her shoulders. With the blanket about her she sat on the bed

        “Elizabeth this-“

        “Ahh?” he held out a foot and stopped me walking towards her, it was bare which was strange. I was sure her skirt was longer then that.

I sighed, “Uuh.. Prin-… ugh. Princess.. Bird… Song… I don’t really think this is a good idea…”

        “But you said this kind of thing happened! And it’s in all my books!”

        “Well yeah it… it did happen but…” It wasn’t like in the books. Not by a long shot.

Her leg withdrew back under the blanket, “So what’s the problem?”

        “Well Eliz-“ Her brows raised expectantly, I gritted my teeth, “Princess Birdsong, you know what I did in the army, I really don’t like this thing…”

“I think you look very dashing” she said, giving a cute little smirk.

“But I never did anything like this. I-“

        She pulled the blanket apart. She wasn’t wearing the skirt and shirt I’d seen her in before. She must have changed at some point. She had a much thinner brown cloth pulled around her, tight. On sash of it went over her shoulder, and the hem of the ‘dress’ seemed to just barely reach her mid thigh.

        “I... I…”

        “Oh great, strong warrior, my father will surely not let us be together!” she said, laying back against the bed.

        Well… why not?

        I fell upon the Indian Princess, staring into her beautiful eyes and kissing her soft, lips. My hands explored her supple body. She was young, nubile, and willing. I had a girl back home but what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. Besides, this maiden looked so much like her, how could I resist?

        I kissed from her lips to her jaw to her neck, my wandering hands floating down to her legs. I sucked at her neck as my hand slid up her thigh, pulling up on the fabric there. From her mouth, the Indian princess ohh’d and ahh’d as she wrapped her arms about my shoulders, bringing me closer until even the faintest of whispers could be heard from her lips.

        “Ahh, daddy”

It took a few seconds for me to realize what Elizabeth had just said, and I slowly froze in place. Elizabeth did to and we stayed that way for some time, stuck in place and not looking at each other. Eventually I got up the courage to speak.

        “Uh… prin..er.. Elizabeth..

        “Y-yes?”

        “What did you…er… just say?”

        “Uhm… I guess I uh…” I finally looked at her and she was the reddest I’ve ever seen the girl. Or any girl for that matter, “I… uhm… Always… sort of… liked to remember that… we’re…”

        Ever since our confrontation about our relationship, after Elizabeth got that letter, I think I’d been doing my best to forget that she was my daughter. But seeing her there in the sheet, her hair pulled from its ties, and glowing a bright red, the thought seemed a little more enticing.

        “I’m sorry,” she said, “W-we could stop if-” I kissed her again and again her arms went around my neck. When I pulled away she was still bright pink, but smiling now.

        “Say it again,” I said with a smirk, and buried my face in her neck, my hands back to exploring her body.

        “B-Book – Daddy!”

 

----

 

SECLUDED

 

        Elizabeth and I wandered about the park, we hadn’t been out and about in some time and we both decided a walk would do us both some good. In fact Elizabeth was enjoying herself a rare hotdog. She loved hotdogs, ever since the whole labyrinth thing, she just munched away enjoying the view from the bench we sat at.

The park was surprisingly deserted, both Elizabeth and I were playing hookie today but it was still just a little strange. Elizabeth leaned back, finishing her hotdog with a soft little sigh. I still chewed at mine.

        “It’s such a nice day,” she said a little dreamily, “I’m glad we did this, Booker”

        “mm, Yeah,” I grumbled back, she shot me a playful glare. She’d talked to me about talking with my mouth full, I chuckled at it.

        I finished mine own hotdog and took Elizabeth’s wrapper rolling it together with mine and got up.

        It was a nice day, a little cloudy, but I liked it like that, gives you some shade even when out in the open. Warm too, but a cool breeze made it very comfortable. I tossed away the trash and turned back. Elizabeth sat at the bench, blue skirted and white bloused, her usual look. She really was always a nice sight to see. Work was going well for both of us but sometimes you just needed to spend some time for yourself.

        I sat back down and she seemed to just stare out into space a smile on her face. I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, letting the sun and the wind just wash over me, until in a little voice Elizabeth started talking.

        “Booker, these last few weeks’ve been…” she began and went silent; I opened my eyes and looked at her. Even with everything she still blushed, “they’ve been really nice” she said with a smile.

        A little tremor of trepidation ran up my spine. Half the times her suggestions started like this, “uh... Yeah, they have” I agreed, “Why, uh…. Why’d you even start reading these things anyway?” Now that I thought about it, I’d never seen any of these magazines she said she read.

        She scooted herself closer.

        “Well, I mean… we were having trouble and. Well, I really just wanted us to be happy,” She said, cuddling herself against me, I put my arm around her, “The people in the articles always seemed happy and I just wanted us to be together in any way we could…”

        “Well you certainly did that with your first suggestion” I said absentmindedly.

        Elizabeth squirmed her rear against the bench. She’d been more open on that front since we’d said good-bye to the other Booker. I grinned and pulled her close into a half hug.

        It took a few minutes of silence, me just holding her, until she spoke up again, “There’s not many people here… we could…”

        “Hmm?”

        “It could be… just like Arcadia.”

        “uhh… You know how I felt about that Elizabeth…”

        “I know! But… it was exciting wasn’t it?” She looked up at me, big beautiful cloudless sky eyes. I could never say no to those eyes.

        She dragged me over to a more wooded area, even fewer people were here, and most of them kept on the trail, you could barely be seen from the track. For a while we just stood in the little secluded clearing, kissing on each other. I figured it would be like before; she’d go in and call me later, but no.

        Eventually Elizabeth was backed against a tree, until she grabbed me and turned us around, pushing me down onto the ground. Elizabeth sank down, sitting on my legs and pinning me down, smiling. We kissed again and now my hands began to wander along her legs. She’d worn some leggings today and her calves and thighs looked a golden brown. My hands slid up her legs, under her skirt to her thigh and I realized she wasn’t wearing leggings. They were stockings, garters held up to a small skirt, with nothing else besides.

        The little minx still had some clothes from the fifties.

        When she felt my hands she pulled away, and smiled, pulling a few buttons at her shirt. It was a little heavier than her usual blouses, and underneath was her black corset.

        She wiggled herself down against me, biting her lower lip with a smile “Don’t disappoint, mon père” she whispered.

 

----

 

CUDDLES

 

        There was always a pattern on my ceiling that, to me, always looked like a man’s face sticking his tongue out at me. Like there was some kind of joke that he was playing on me that I never could understand. Though seeing him there now caused a small thought to blossom in my head. I hugged Elizabeth close.

        “Elizabeth, you’ve been able to look at all sorts of worlds, right?”

        “Yes,” she said, still a little drowsy so early in the morning.

        “And in them, we always seem to end up together, eh?”

She snuggled close, “mm-hmm”

        “Why?”

        “Hmm?”

        “Well I mean there’s got to be someone out there better for you than me.”

At that Elizabeth’s head perked up and she stared at me, confusion covering her face, “Why would you say that?”

        I looked from her back to the ceiling, “Well, it stands to reason, doesn’t it?” a sarcastic smirk I couldn’t seem to hide slid across my face, “I’m not a good person, I’m a drunk, I kill people”

        Elizabeth crawled on top of me, the sheets over us slipping off our bodies “You are a good person, Booker.”

        It would be a bit of a lie to say that seeing her body over me wasn’t a little exciting, “There’s still got to be a nice boy out there, just sitting waiting to sweep you off your feet.”

        “Would you like that?” she asked.

        I wasn’t really expecting that, I looked at her; she looked almost like she was going to cry, “Well… I’m your father. I just want you to be happy…”

        It felt strange to say to her, with her body pressed against mine, and the previous night’s activity. She slid herself down and snaked her arms under me, hugging me and pressing our bodies closer together, “I’m happy right now… I’ll always be your girl, Booker”

 

----

 

DARKER

 

        I’ll have to admit, I was a little scared at first.

Not of being hurt, no. I know Booker would never hurt me on purpose. It was probably more the grin on his face when he said what he said. The grin and remembering what it was like from my point of view.

        We’d been kissing. I don’t remember why. Seeing how most of our other ‘lives’ panned out I should really try to keep a hold on the good memories. Anyway we were kissing, and Booker pulled back.

‘You said before, that you’d only do all those things if it went both ways, right Elizabeth?’ he’d said.

‘Y-yes,’ I’d said back. Booker was smiling, and he only really smiled like that when he thought he had a clever idea. And then he held up the blindfold.

        Oh now I remember, we’d just come back from a play and I was a little caught up in the romance of it all.

Anyway, like I said I was a little scared, but I trusted Booker. He had me stand there in my lovely dress. It was white, with sleeves to the shoulders and a little bit of lace at the hem’s and cuffs and framing the décolletage. Booker had liked it.

        He had me stand there, and he slipped the blindfold over my eyes, the same one we’d used before, and I was in total darkness.

        Before, when he was blindfolded, I’d done exactly what the magazine had talked about, but well, neither of us really liked it. Sometimes it’s nice when Booker gets a little rough…

What? I’m blushing? No it’s just warm in here.

        Well, we didn’t like it much before, so I was scared, wondering what Booker was going to do. He really is kind. He says he’s not a nice person, but he really is. He’s only ever gotten angry when people get hurt. I couldn’t imagine him using anything like I’d done. I kind of wished I’d never even brought it up before.

        But there wasn’t a whip, nor a smack, or anything like that. He just left me standing there in the blackness, with me sitting in my own head for the longest time before I felt the lightest of touches on my hand, and then a kiss at my neck. And from there whatever plan Booker had unfolded. He started undressing me, slowly, with each little inch of skin revealed getting a kiss. The lacing at the back of the dress came loose and I felt feather soft kisses run down my spine as the cords were pulled apart.

        He pulled the gloves off my hands, each digit getting its own kiss while he entwined the fingers on the other hand with his own. It seemed to go on four hours, magical blessed hours. There were times that, if I hadn’t sworn we were alone, I’d have thought there was someone else touching me as well. It reminded me of our first little experiment.

        As the dress fell away he held my hands again and I could feel his body pressed against mine and we kissed, but it wasn’t long enough, he pulled away again and I was left standing in my undergarments, I sighed sadly at the loss.

        Booker went to work again after minutes, hours, however long it was. He pulled at the cord of my bloomers and pulled them down; kissing my hips, my legs, my knees as he tortuously slowly pulled them down. It was the same with my corset, soft touches in the dark, kisses along my chest, my belly. If it wasn’t for me knowing I’d never see him again I would have wished it could go on forever.

        It was then his hand slipped along my trembling legs.  

Booker and I have known each other for years. We’re not always like… well, like we are. Sometimes he’s more of a father, and sometimes he’s not. But those were other lifetimes. We’ve known each other for a long time and he really knows how to make me sing.

        Oh I’m sorry, did you spill your drink? Here let me get that for you.

Where was I? Oh Yes, Booker’s hands, both of them, went to work, and after everything that proceeded it, it didn’t take long for me to be putty in his hands.

        It was when it was all so close that I finally said something in a quavering voice.

        ‘Oh Booker please… Please let me look at you when I-’but he cut me off with a kiss, while his hands still went about their business.

        He didn’t even give in to my plea. I like to think that I could convince Booker of anything, maybe that’s why he wanted the blindfold.

        Maybe I’d gotten it wrong. The story in the magazine made it seem like all the stuff with the ropes and the being tied up, and all that, that it was enjoyable for both people, but for us it wasn’t. Instead here, Booker just well, did what we might normally do, but since I couldn’t see it, since he didn’t say anything, since it was so slow… maybe you were supposed to find your own way for it to work for you.

        When I’d stopped panting, Booker took off the blindfold and for a moment he was a blurry mess, but as my vision cleared he still had that clever little smile on his face. I might never be able to say no to that smile now.

        We decided to keep the blindfold.

 

----

 

GIRL TIME

 

        “Oh Rosalind there you are!” I said, finally finding the table the older woman had found, “I didn’t see you there”

        “I’ve been here the whole time,” she said back.

        “Oh, er. Right,” given what I knew about her and her ‘brother’ I guess it was technically true, “So, what is it? I didn’t think I’d actually get a letter from, well, you of all people. We hadn’t seen or heard from you since… well, since…”

        “I have been busy.”

        “With Robert?”

        “With many things.”

Always the informative one... “So why the letter?”

        “When I am part of an experiment, even one not necessarily of my own choosing, I like to follow up on it,” the woman in yellow said, rather matter of factly.

        “You… were… wondering how I was doing?”

        “I suppose that’s one way to look at it.”

        “Ah…” We sat there together for some time, a waiter brought tea over and we sipped it together in silence. It felt like an hour had passed before Rosalind spoke again.

        “It would seem there is a certain formality for these situations that must be adhered to for it all to move forward,” she set down her tea and cleared her throat, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs and putting her hands on her raised knee. She smiled too, “’So how are things?’”

        The look of the woman’s face was… the nicest word I can think to use is unsettling. It was like she was doing her best to copy a face she’d seen other people use, it was a little sad but very disturbing, “Er… fine, fine.”

        “You and your fath-“

        “Uhm.. Rosalind… uhm.. There are people here that uh…” I trailed off and looked down, Rosalind leaned over the table   

“Hmm?”

        “I know some people here and they uhm.. don’t know about Booker and I…”

Rosalind’s mouth formed a perfect little ‘O’ “I see,” she said, “So, you and Mister DeWitt are getting along fine then?”

        “Yes, yes we are.”

        “Good, good. A few months ago Robert was sure there was some kind of problem”

A few months ago? We hadn’t seen them since we left Rapture, “What do you mean? Are you spying on us?”

        “Well an experiment mus-“

        “You were spying on us!”

        “No. Robert was simply taking notes.”

        “On me! And Booker! Without us knowing!”

        “It was the only time since the letter.”

        “How do you know about the letter?!”

        “Who do you think had to deliver it? Really you all ask so much of us.”

I sighed and put my head in my hands. It’s so easy to look at the prim and proper looking woman and forget that she can barely think on a human level anymore. I could hear her sipping her tea, and after a few moments and chimed up again.

        “So what was wrong?”

I sighed again and looked up, “Nothing is wrong.”

The cup settled on the small plate with a chink, “A few months ago, what was wrong?”

        “Why don’t you just go and look for yourself?”

No Rosalind sighed, “My brother has taken this fancy of acting ‘like normal people’ I told him it was a waste of time but you know how he is with his little dalliances.”

I ground my teeth and bit back the urge to reminder her that my life could be considered one of those ‘little dalliances.’

        “In short, he said we should make more of an effort, so here I am.”

        “And where is he?”

        “I’m not entirely sure. But he said he could be back.”

I still glared at the woman, if she cared she didn’t show it. She simply took another sip of the tea and set the cup down.

        “So, what happened?”

I might as well tell her, she’d just keep pestering me about it otherwise, “We were… there was some trouble in the, uh, bedroom, so to speak.”

        “He no longer found you attractive?”

        “No!” my shout was louder than I expected. I put my hands over my mouth as other people in the bar looked my way, “No, it wasn’t that… it… well, I don’t know. I don’t even want to talk about it.”

        She just sat there and looked at me, in that disapproving way I remembered from Columbia, like I was never quite what she hoped for. I imagined it’s how a mother looked at her daughter when she brought a roguish near-do-well home for dinner. I gave her my best glare back.

        “Alright, fine,” I hated that stupid stare, I leaned closer and lowered my voice, “It was, well. We couldn’t you know… finish?” God this was horrible, “and then after a while we just kind of well, stopped.”

        “The horror,” the woman could at least pretend to sound interested, she’s the one that wanted to know after all.

        “So we… tried… things…”

        “Like?”

I really didn’t want to tell her, not here. I glared at her again and she dueled back with the stare of hers. That stupid stupid stupid stare.

        I told her anyways.

I told her about the time in the park, convincing Booker to do it. I also told her about pretending to be out west.

        “And then I uhm, I called him… something…”

        “Oh?”

It was embarrassing enough to tell Booker about it the first time, God I felt like I was on fire then, this almost felt worse. In the strongest, voice I could muster I said “I called him ‘Papa’” It still sounded so small and mousy.

        When I looked back up at her Rosalind wore a shark’s grin over her face. It seemed far more genuine than the smile she gave me before.

        “Well… it’s true, isn’t it?”

        “That’s!... that’s not the point…” God my ears were red, weren’t they?

        “Hmm?”

        “We... hum… we both really liked it.”

The more I told her, the easier it was for me to talk about it. I told Rosalind about the stuff with the blindfold, and how we didn’t like the whole hurting each other stuff. Eventually I got to how it all started with me opening tears and convincing our other selves to, well, ‘Help out.‘

        “You’re certainly more adventurous when I’d have expected,” Rosalind said, she waved a waiter over and asked for more tea, I felt like I hadn’t even touched mine.

        “I think it’s a bit to do with the other places we’ve been together. I uhm.. I don’t think we’ve ever done anything like this before…”

        “Of course you’ve done it before, you always will have.”

        “I don’t think you’re very good at this, Miss Lutece.”

“I like to think I’m getting better at it,” she said, “What would you say Mister DeWitt likes best about you? Physically I mean?”

She really wasn’t getting any better. I wondered if it’s possible for your entire body to blush, “What?”

        “It’s a simple question”

        “But not one you’re supposed to ask!”

        “So? Given our current topic I’d say it’s very appropriate”

I looked down and wiggled myself further into my chair, “I uhm… I think,” I felt a little dizzy thinking about it, “He always like to, er… squeeze my uh, my rear…” I took my tea and drank it all in one go and ordered more.

        “What makes you say that?”

        “Well every time we kiss his hands always seem to venture downwards and when it was me and him and, well, me he’d always try to keep a hand there on both of us… A-and when it was two Booker’s they both uhm… well, we’d tried doing it that way and…” I wiggled my butt more into the seat. Rosalind nodded.

        “I find Robert is much the same.”

        “So you two do…?”

        “When the biological imperative strikes us, there’s not much one can do, is there?” Was she blushing?

        “Why do you want to know all this anyway?”

        “Well some time ago waiting for certain experiments to come about my brother and I found ourselves with some free time, so we started a little magazine.”

Oh no. Oh no oh no nononono, “What kind of magazine?”

 

----

 

BRASS BASINS

 

        There was nothing I could do to mask the easy sigh that escaped my lips as I relaxed in the hot water, feeling it buoy my body up, I was nearly weightless. It was a bath that I sorely needed, not just for the dirt and grime of the world, but for the grime of life too, I could feel the stress of dealing with criminals, snotty pricks, and the general worst that New York had to offer slough off me, like well, water off a ducks back.

        It felt good.

I sighed again as another little wave of water splashed over my chest. I would have liked to stretch out, really release the tension in my muscles, you know? But the wash basin was barely large enough for one person, and the only reason the both of us could fit in it was because Elizabeth was so small. I smiled at her as she splashed another little wave of water at me. I grabbed the soap and a sponge.

        Soon enough we were both scrubbed pink and raw and clean. Elizabeth cupped water in her hands and poured it over her hair. She’d cut it shorter some time ago and it was just long enough to reach her shoulders, it was very fetching plastered against her skin, shiny and wet. Elizabeth had figured it would all be very romantic but up to this point it really wasn’t. The entire time we’d been bumping into each other and getting in each other’s way, at one point I was sure someone’s eye would be put out. My foot gently prodded her thigh and she glared at me and crossed her arms as I grinned.

        “You know, I might not have liked all that much from Rapture, but I can say this, the larger baths were a Godsend,” I said looking up at the ceiling. The laughing man was still there, over my bed.

        “I don’t know, Booker. I kind of like it like this,” I heard Elizabeth reply, water swished and swirled as she moved around and I soon felt her body running up against mine. When I looked back down it was into her sky blue eyes, “It’s nice and cozy. Like our bed.”