“I think we should go!” Jahrae protested to llhaesa.

Llhaesa hesitated, weighing her inclination against Jahrae’s wish. Before she could formulate a response, Jahrae elaborated and expounded on her point. “You are always on stage, llhaesa. You never have a chance to enjoy a performance, or to move with a performance.

You do not incorporate choreography into your performances. Here is your chance to go out, not worry about pleasing an audience, and… dance.”

With Jahrae hinting that her performances lacked choreography, llhaesa feigned hurt, and her right hand moving to cover her heart. “I am mortally wounded by your piercing pronouncement of judgement, my dearest love.

I pivot, divot, and dither on stage, moving as the music hails and takes me. I will leave the schematic dancing to those better suited to pre-arranged performances of the feet.”

“You resist my well-intentioned effort to have you recognise your prowess afoot. You spin and play, leaving the mouths of your audience agape. Yet you resist my urging to take to your feet and dance for an evening?”

Jahrae started this discussion by mentioning there was a dance at Arrhazon College that night, and that she wished to attend. When llhaesa resisted this call, Jahrae chose to push the issue, prompting the current exchange.

They sat at the breakfast nook in the kitchen, munching on salt laden g’rsha and a concocted dip of spices and vegetables, each nursing a mug of beer as accompaniment.

“I resist because I am not of a mood to leave and dance this evening, Jahrae.”

“Yes, I know, you cramp and do not feel well. It is my experience getting out and moving leaves me feeling better. And it would help if you actually made use of the menstruation suppressant you are prescribed, llhaesa.”

“I forgot; so shoot me. Please.”

Jahrae laughed, precluded from going further with her remarks by llhaesa’s self-deprecating comment. Instead, she stood up and ran her hand haphazardly through llhaesa’s hair, teasing it into a hodgepodge of chaotic frizzies.

“Thanks. Undoubtedly my appearance now suits my mood.”

“You would like the dance once we got there. For once, I would like to interact with you on my stomping grounds. Please?”

Llhaesa threw her hands in the air, offering a surrendering ‘Oh, what the hell. I will go. And then you can shoot me – at least you will be happy in my loss subsequent to such an endeavour.”

Jahrae’s eyes lit up, at once accepting llhaesa’s change of heart, yet now feeling guilty for prying her away from a place of comfort when feeling not quite up to par. “Thank you. I promise, if after an hour you still feel lousy, we will return home.”

“There is another element, Jahrae. We each have had two beers. It is public transportation for us tonight.

If I am to go, please excuse me; a hot bath awaits and carries my name.”

Jahrae stayed and tidied up the kitchen while llhaesa drew a bath, adding various special salts and oils that suited her fancy. When the spacious bath – one created of fine crafted tiles, with the overall pattern designed by Jahrae – steamed and carried a fine froth of bubbles, llhaesa disrobed, tentatively slid her toes in to sample the water, found it irresistibly tempting, and sank near the whole of her body under the bubbly surface.

Not quite satisfied with this near total immersion, llhaesa sank further into the bath, placing her head completely underwater. She swished her hair about, and after a half minute, raised her head above the waterline. Reaching out of the bath, she depressed a flat surface, water safe switch, and hidden jets within the bath roared to life. Llhaesa adjusted the control to the desired speed and force, and then settled back to enjoy.

“Ahhhhhh, that feels so good!” llhaesa called out to no one, thoroughly relishing the moment. Llhaesa’s mind drifted off into pleasant thoughts, and all concept of time faded off with these thoughts.

Jahrae appeared in the doorway, seeing her temporarily indolent partner contentedly enjoying the swirling and steaming liquid. Jahrae again felt guilty, but if they did not leave soon, the opportunity would be lost. Llhaesa had soaked for an hour; it was time to ready. She walked over and shut down the jets.

Llhaesa’s eyes flickered open, carrying her mind back to active awareness. “I take it I have overstayed my quality time with the bath. No need to marshal me to readiness, I am on my way.”

Jahrae, restored to playfulness by llhaesa’s willing concession, teased, “On your way? While I savour and desire what stands before my yearning eyes in this moment, I would prefer you fully clothe before we embark, llhaesa. After all, we are not at E’sphara’s mythical au natural lake you claim actually exists and frequent when there, this is a college campus, where propriety and decorum are rules we must live by. Shall I dress you, m’lady, or shall you self tend to your evening wear?”

“Evening wear? Whoa, wait a minute. You said nothing about evening wear!”

“I merely invoke a figure of speech, ‘essa. Jeans and a top will do quite nicely.”

“That is still too dressy; how about hole strewn sweats and a tee?”

“You are impossible. Come on, ‘essa, lets go see to your clothing.” Jahrae teasingly walked llhaesa out of the master bath, into their adjacent bedroom, where she made a show of selecting jeans and a tee.

Far from demurring or actively seeking clothing on her own, llhaesa acceded to Jahrae’s selection. Having sufficiently towelled off, she dressed, then began the task of seeing to a more formidable challenge, drying her hair sufficiently so that they could head out. Leaving it semi-wet caused it to curl more than usual, an appearance that drove Jahrae wild with desire. Jahrae shut off the drier, determined to see it curl. “Let’s go.”

Llhaesa pulled a knowing face – knowing her partner preferred her wilder look with untamed hair. Within ten minutes, they were on public livery, headed for Arrhazon College, a forty-minute ride.

Arriving at the student gathering hall where the dance was held, the newly arriving couple found the place near full of participants, though they managed to find one empty table near the back and towards a corner of the seating area. The music of the live band throbbed in their ears, calling the energy-laden students to the floor to expend that energy.

Claiming their table, the partners bounced back up and headed for the dance floor. Llhaesa began reluctantly, her heart not quite finding a wish to grab on and ride the musical wave. By the middle of the second song, something within found purchase with the music, and llhaesa felt better than she had all day.

Jahrae noticed the sudden change in her partner’s mood, the change reflected in the shift from lackadaisical and half-hearted dancing to fully into the endeavour. As Jahrae well knew, llhaesa fully engaged and dancing to the music was a sight to see.

Taller than most of the students on hand, llhaesa was clearly visible to most in the hall. Add in her overall attractiveness and that most of those in attendance knew who llhaesa was, and people in the seating area actively began to take notice and watch.

Jahrae and llhaesa danced through a dozen songs before taking a break. Now overheated from dancing, they relished the prospect of feeling the circulating air generated by the numerous fans that were located around the seating area. Returning to what they thought was their table, the couple found two men seated at their table, their bags tossed to the floor.

“Excuse me,” Llhaesa politely spoke. “We were sitting here; those are our things you put on the floor.”

The two men looked at Jahrae and llhaesa and laughed; quite obviously buzzed. One of them continued laughing, but the second chose sarcasm. “It is our table now; those things were on the floor when we got here.”

“I see,” llhaesa replied. Jahrae saw the look on llhaesa’s face, and knew it would not take much more for llhaesa to react less kindly.

Before llhaesa could speak again, the man ratcheted up the confrontation. “We were just watching you on the dance floor, discussing how sizzling hot the two of you are. What do you say to us leaving, finding a quieter and more comfortable place, where we can um… get to know each other better?”

Another glance towards llhaesa, and Jahrae knew the threshold moved closer. She attempted a pre-emptive strike. “That is ok, llhaesa, why don’t we let them have the table?”

Emboldened by the initial exchange, the student was not about to let this matter end simply by the couple walking away. “We prefer to have you with us, we think it would be mutually satisfying.”

“Is this why you carelessly tossed our things to the floor?” llhaesa asked, her words spoken through increasingly clenched teeth.

“You are not very friendly, contrary to what people have told me.” The student replied. “I think you need a man to set you straight and teach you a lesson. One night with me, and you will forget all about this one,” he angrily replied, while nodding towards Jahrae. “You are a bit too uppity for my taste.”

Jahrae felt her anger rise. “She isn’t interested in men – or in you, thank you, sir.”

“That is because she never slept with a man quite like me. I will change her outlook, if only she come down off her high horse and visit with us mere mortals.”

While Jahrae spent the time worrying that llhaesa would react, as it turned out, it was Jahrae that reached for the three quarters full pitcher of beer in the middle of the table and dumped it over the student’s head, the amber liquid cascading down every side of the student, soaking a substantial portion of his clothing.

His companion burst into laughter at his friend’s wet misfortune, while the chatter around the periphery of the seating area quieted, now turning to see what occurred at the table with the beer soaked student.

The student reacted by grabbing his friend’s near full beer, and holding the mug, jerked it forward such that the contents splashed over Jahrae’s tee shirt, creating an immediate unintended revelation, given she went braless.

“Yes!” the two students called out in unison, high-fives accompanying their exclamation, while unabashedly staring at Jahrae’s barely covered breasts.

Llhaesa spotted throw pillows on the bay windows off to the side. An educated guess led her to suspect the pillows were down. Moving quickly before things got out of hand, she reached in her bag and pulled out something that she purposely kept hidden, walked over to one of the fans, and redirected it towards the table, while moving it closer. The student thought this move a concession, trying to dry him off.

Grabbing two of the pillows, llhaesa sliced them wide open, and using her hand to pull out the contents, and allowed the down to flow into the driving air of the fan. The down drifted through the air as if blowing snow, made easy grasp and attachment of the previously soaked student, and accumulated thickly across his face and shirt.

The room howled with laughter at the student’s feathery misfortune, and not enjoying this reaction, yelled out to his friend ‘let’s go!” and they stomped off for the exit, the bird-like student pulling off wet down as he went, leaving a trail in his wake.

Jahrae reclaimed the table, while llhaesa made her way to the bar and paid for the damage, adding a substantial sum more as a donation to the student activity centre.

Returning to the table with a pitcher of beer for she and Jahrae, Jahrae remarked, “I worried that you were going to drop that student, ‘essa. I could see it in your eyes; given how you felt awful earlier this evening, it seemed that moment grew perilously close. I was never more relieved to see you choose an alternate plan! That was beautiful!”

“To be honest, I thought you were about to tear into him, Jahrae; that is when I decided it was best to develop a quick plan. I will not attack another, not unless he struck at one of us. He is just some immature student who feels a sense of entitlement, embarrassed that he was exposed as the child he still is, and this exacerbated by alcohol and perhaps drugs.”

The evening unfolded uneventfully thereafter, the couple spending large segments of time upon the dance floor, both fully engaged and relishing the interaction. For once, llhaesa spent a night enjoying the benefits of a performance, not generating one.