#giv or take how part 3 goes it might be kinda short

[moonshine-nightlight]

Selfish - Part Two

Eisha felt bad complaining to her friend Mariella, since she was always putting other people’s problems above her own. She felt worse that, no matter how much she appreciated Mariella listening, she’d rather be living out some of the naughty fantasies about her instead. If she wanted to stay Mariella’s friend, and get some of her delicious cookies, she needed to keep those thoughts to herself.

But can she?

Urban fantasy; friends to lovers, Naga, FxF, SFW, (2/4)

[Part One] Part Two [Part Three] [Part 4 - NSFW]

Mariella got so caught up in Eisha’s venting session that the sound of the oven timer going off made her jump.

Eisha was a wonderful storyteller—hilarious and cutting—for all it did truly sound like a terrible day. It had been easy for Mariella to forget everything else around her. 

She grabbed an oven mitt to pull the tray out, checking the cookies over to ensure they were the right amount of done-ness, and then setting the tray down. 

After setting a timer on her phone for when to move them onto her cooling rack, Mariella hastily pulled out the chilled dough for the next round. Eisha had moved over to the other side of the room to get a refill on her drink and Mariella appreciated the space to focus. 

She knew some of the other residents were intimidated by the tall naga—Eisha herself certainly encouraged that perception—but Mariella had never been afraid of her. If anything, she rather liked how Eisha could get when she was putting someone in their place. Sometimes Mariella just felt self-conscious around her. Mostly she just wondered what someone as cool as Eisha was doing with a silly cafe owner who rarely left her building. Eisha traveled throughout the tunnels and likely met all sorts of far more interesting people across the entire city.

Eisha must have a million better things to do than keep Mariella company while she baked—trips outside of the city, which Mariella had never left, going to nightclubs Mariella would never be able to even find, let alone get into, more interesting friends to hang out with. Eisha was someone who liked to do, who was always moving. Even now her tail was flicking and recoiling, poking and prodding the cushions of Mariella’s couch. And yet here Eisha was, turning back around—too sharp and too real for Mariella’s cozy little apartment on a Friday night.

Mariella turned back to the oven with the fresh tray. No, she was just getting in her own head—Eisha never acted as though she didn’t want to be here. She was under no obligation to come over and help Mariella liven up her evening. Eisha didn’t have a problem with telling people off when she wanted to, never did much of anything she didn’t want to. 

That was why the customer service parts of Eisha’s job rubbed her the wrong way—she liked to make her honest thoughts and grievances clear, not stifle them because of how important the client was. Not when she had a legitimate complaint that any other delivery address would be forced to accommodate. But the Aerie felt they were above that sort of thing. The fact that Eisha’s manager agreed is what made it really rankle.

Mariella slid the next tray into the oven, set the timer, and without looking, said, “Don’t. They’re not cool yet.” She turned around with a smirk to see Eisha’s hand whipping away from the other baking sheet. “I haven’t even put the icing on,” she scolded, teasing.

“They barely need it,” Eisha grumbled, obviously trying to hide a pout.

Mariella couldn’t help but laugh at the disgruntled look on friend’s face—this was the person everyone was afraid of. With her fangs tucked away, her eyes purposely not making eye contact, her red hood pulled in close as if to make herself a smaller target—Eisha could only look like a kid caught with their hand in the cookie jar. 

Eisha crossed her toned arms as she wound dejectedly around the stool Mariella got for her. Mariella claimed she bought it so she could have seating for anyone who visited—and she did try to make sure she had something for everyone—but it was obvious that the sleek and black style was chosen to appeal to Eisha specifically. 

“You can wait another five minutes,” Mariella brushed off, pleased as she was by the compliment. It was a good reminder to focus back on the icing though. While she began taking that round off the baking sheet and onto the cooling rack to be iced, she asked, “Do you think you’ll have to go back next week?”

“At least once,” Eisha replied, more of a hiss to the final word than she usually allowed. Her hisses always got more prominent when she was annoyed. Actually, Eisha seemed more worked up than usual. She was twirling a candlestick holder with the hand not holding her second glass of straight vodka and her whole body seemed coiled tight, even though usually she relaxed after complaining. 

Granted, Eisha was technically more relaxed than when she arrived, Mariella thought as she whisked the icing one last time before moving to fill the piping bag. Is something else besides work bothering her? And if so, why hasn’t she mentioned it? Eisha could keep secrets better than anyone else Mariella knew—not that that was saying much given nearly everyone in the building was a bit of a busybody. She didn’t usually bother keeping them from Mariella, not if they were about her.

“I don’t want to keep thinking about it—that’s a problem for Monday. What about you?” Eisha asked. Mariella turned to find Eisha leaning forward to brace her arms on the counter. Her green skin contrasted vibrantly with the black halter top and black skirts she wore tied about her waist to allow free movement with her tail. Along with the red of her hood and the yellow scales she had scattered across her like freckles, she always seemed to be more real than the rest of Mariella’s muted apartment.

“What about me?” Mariella asked, more than a little distracted—always caught off guard by Eisha’s presence and appearance when she had looked away. She resisted the urge to sigh at Eisha’s magnificence as she leaned back against the counter.

“Come on, make me feel better about my stupid work by telling me about something you’ve had to deal with,” Eisha said. “I know how entitled those customers of yours are, not to mention the other leeches in this building.”

“Eisha,” Mariella bristles, because she doesn’t want to have the argument about letting her family take advantage of her.

Eisha holds up her hands, palms a lighter green the rest of her. “Yeah, yeah, I’m not trying to start shit.” Before she leans forward, her smirk wicked, “But that means one of them did do something, doesn’t it?”

Mariella sighed, putting a hand to her forehead. She didn’t want to give Eisha anymore ammunition, but she did really want to complain. Her brown eyes meet Eisha’s yellow ones and she could see Eisha really isn’t looking to push tonight, not about that. She still seems strung too tight, but she’s looking for a distraction, not a fight. “Jak might have been a bit pushier than usual this week. He always gets entitled when his little buddies from out-of-town stay with him.”

“What’d he do?” Eisha’s eyes glinted triumphantly, always satisfied when she was proven right.

“Parked across his spot and Mrs. Grunli’s—because of his fancy new car,” Mariella admitted, “and had his boys take all the visitor’s spots and the maintenance bay reserved Jilli’s van.”

“What a dick,” Eisha said, her voice sharp with contempt. “Let me know if you want me to talk to him. Or do more than talk to him.”

Mariella knew she shouldn’t find the offer endearing or hot, but it sort of was. “No, no, he’s all talk,” she said, knowing for all she appreciated and liked the idea of Eisha intimidating the most aggravating of her neighbors, it wasn’t worth the trouble—that he would stir up or to Eisha, who certainly had far more important things to do than help Mariella with difficult neighbors. “I’ve already talked to him. He fixed his own parking job—saying it wasn’t that bad even though it definitely was—and claimed he didn’t know about the maintenance spot.”

Eisha rolled her eyes as Mariella huffed. “I let his friend park their van in one of my employee spots—Hanna’s out for the week. He wouldn’t take one of the normal spots for it because it has a lot of sensitive equipment in it.”

“Oh does it now?” Eisha drawled, propping her head up on one hand, the red nail polish with some sort of speckled yellow and black design unfairly well done despite her short nails.

“Apparently, they’re in a band—one that’s gonna make it real big and I’d regret letting anything happen to it,” Mariella replied and this time she was the one to roll her eyes. “His neighbors certainly don’t agree, if that’s who’s been practicing all day. Had to deal with that too. Ran out of my whole supply of lemon and double chocolate chunk cookies trying to smooth things over between them all.”

“You shouldn’t have to bribe him or anyone else to get them to follow the rules,” Eisha pointed out, Mariella’s frustration mirrored in her voice. A bit of accusation there too.

“I just wanted his issue resolved in the shortest amount of time,” Mariella replied, a touch defensively. 

Eisha hummed in disapproval, but didn’t say anything more. Mariella knew Eisha thought she let the other inhabitants of the building get away with too much, but she couldn’t help it. They were her family, even shitty cousins who thought too highly of themselves.

“Don’t know why you let them walk all of you,” Eisha grumbled before tilting back her glass to finish off her drink. “Don’t deserve you being so accommodating.”

“I don’t let—” Mariella started, more than a little heated at the familiar argument, when the timer went off. The loud and unexpected beep caused her to automatically tighten her grip as she turned towards the oven. Unfortunately, she’d forgotten that what was in her hand was the filled icing bag.

It predictably squirted out.

Mariella grimaced at the feeling of icing hitting her neck—and the sight of it on the counter—but ignored that for now, grabbing a mitt to pull the second batch of cookies from the oven before they overcooked.

Setting the tray down, she turned from the oven to grab the cooling rack and she caught Eisha’s long split tongue flicking out to taste the scent of freshly baked cookies. Trying her best to ignore the heat the sight of that tongue stirred up, she fussed with the cookies. “Shoot, I’d meant to start the next batch so they’d be ready to put in right away.”

With a sigh, Mariella reached over to turn off the oven for now. She needed to ice the first batch and then move the second batch to cooling racks—and clean up the icing—before rolling out the dough for the third batch to put in the oven. Better to just shut it off for now.

Taking off the mitt, Mariella retied the icing bag and made sure there was still enough icing for this round. Glad there was, she began carefully piping, barely noticing out of the corner of her eye that Eisha had moved around the counter, from the living room side to the kitchen side.

“Alright there, Mariella?” she asked, voice sweeter than usual—tempting Mariella to do something that would ruin their friendship. Mariella felt an odd sort of tension go up her spine–not intimidated but…Eisha only talked sweet when she was up to something.

“I’m fine—but this is why I don’t usually let anyone in the kitchen with me,” Mariella replied, trying her best to focus on icing but wanting to make sure Eisha knew she was only kidding. 

“Am I too distracting?” Eisha teased, her voice slipping into a more flirtatious tone while her tongue flicked against her fangs.

Mariella immediately trained her eyes back on the cookies, cursing her friend for being so effortlessly seductive. “Yes,” Mariella replied belligerently. “You’ll be sorry when these don’t come out right.”

Eisha chuckled. “Don’t be ridiculous, I’m sure they’ll be perfect. You made them after all.”

Mariella’s cheeks flushed and she hurried to get a plate down, purposely bumping Eisha as she did so. “Oh shut up,” she muttered. “You’re already the taste-tester. No one else is stealing them from you.”

As soon as they were all on the plate, Mariella put that cooling rack to the side, but before she could turn around, a slim green hand came over her shoulder to pluck one of the cookies. Mariella could feel Eisha’s presence behind her, above her. 

She waited with bated breath as Eisha took a bite, a satisfied hum leaving her mouth. Even if Eisha always seemed to love these, it was still a relief to hear and Mariella felt some of the unusual tension that’d been building up her release at that sound.

“Delicious,” Eisha complimented, particularly sibilant in her delivery.

Maybe Mariella was relieved too soon, as heat of an entirely different kind swooped in to make her nervous all over again. No one else’s comments on her baking did this to her, Mariella thought resentfully. Just Eisha’s. Stupid crush. “T-thanks.”

Mariella needed some space or else that slightly industrial smell from Eisha’s motorcycle mixed with her perfume, which was cinnamon, was going to make her do something she regretted. Turning, Mariella tried to get Eisha to move backwards, which worked to some extent. 

Of course, now there were the naga’s eyes to contend with—hypnotizing and intent. A change seemed to come over her friend, a strangely determined light entering those eyes. 

Eisha reached out a hand and carefully wiped off the icing that’d been on Mariella’s collarbone for the last few minutes. “You work so hard, taking care of everyone else,” Eisha said, her voice soft and leading. “But who takes care of you? Hm?”

“I do, I guess,” Mariella replied, staring far to intently the icing on Eisha’s finger. Mariella nearly choked on her own saliva when Eisha’s long, red tongue flicked out to wrap around her own finger, cleaning it off. Mariella only barely held in a whimper of desire, heat pooling low in her stomach at the sight.

Obviously turning around had been a bad idea so Mariella turned back from Eisha to grab a dish towel and wet it—maybe cleaning up the rest of the icing would prevent any more distracting Eisha…well, anything.

“You should let someone else help,” Eisha’s hand landed on Mariella’s back, cool and strong, causing Mariella to suppress a shiver. Why did everything the other woman say sound so suggestive? Mariella just wanted to have a conversation with her friend in her home without illicit thoughts taking over. 

“Are you sure there’s nothing I could do?” Eisha wheedled. “Even just so you can relax?”

Mariella’s mind flooded with a myriad of ways Eisha could help her relax, none of them likely what the naga actually meant. 

“R-really, Eisha, you don’t need to do anything special,” Mariella managed, moving away along the counter, vaguely wiping at it as she went under the weak pretense of cleaning. Once she was a few feet away, she turned back to give her friend a smile. 

It wavered when she realized just how close the naga still was—how tall she was still making herself by rising higher on her tail than usual—causing Mariella to suppress a shiver. 

“Just being here with me is more than enough.”

[Part Three]