Botany...Of Course

*Previous chapter* As the concert went on, Larissa was swaying to the music, eyes fixated on the stage. She never let go of your hand. The lights reflected on her face, giving you the best view of her bright blue eyes illuminated with joy, and her white teeth showing off to the world. You shook your head. How had you fallen so hard for a woman after spending a few days with her? Yes, you had admired her, looked up to her, and revelled in her wit and beauty for the longest time, but now you truly were in deep. She was one of a kind. She was so many beautiful, wonderful things that you could never have the time to list. She was the mother of the outcasts, the voice that you'd listen to and tell it to never shut up, the sun when you thought that you wouldn't make it in your darkest days, and the moon when you needed to rest your blinding thoughts. She may have been a sight to others, one that they would revel in for a minute and then forget about. She may have been a random tall woman, a harsh principal, flesh and bones to others, nothing even. But to you and your poor neglected, touch deprived, useless gay heart, she was everything. You both made your way back to the resort, deciding to go for a walk in the gardens. Larissa asked you questions about the plants, and you answered them all with as much passion as you truly had for them. Intoxicated you wouldn't shut up, actually. Much like in your head, you wouldn't shut up about her.

Back at your hotel room, Larissa sat you down on the bed and told you she had another surprise for you. "Close your eyes" she whispered. Skeptically you closed your eyes, and she placed something in your hands. "Okay, open" she chirped excitedly. You looked down at your hands and found a small box. You opened it slowly to find a pair of amber earrings. They were stunning. They had a dark antique boarder design and the amber sparkled in the light as you moved them around. You recognized the store name on the box and couldn't help but think about how expensive they must have been. You looked up at her with your mouth open in awe. "Oh Rissa they’re gorgeous, but I can't accept these from you" you mumbled, frowning at your own words. She sat beside you and cupped your face in her hand, turning you to meet her gaze. "Peyton, I want you to take them and let them remind you of our time here. This was the best trip that I've taken in the longest time, and it's all thanks to you. As soon as I saw these, they reminded me of your eyes, so full of life and love. Take them darling, please." You felt yourself holding back tears as you thought about the gesture. Nobody had bought you anything so meaningful before, nobody had thought of you like this before. You wrapped the tall woman in your arms and gave her kiss on the cheek, mumbling a thank you as that's all you could say, regardless of what you really wanted to say.

You were both enjoying drinks on the balcony overlooking the garden. In your head you thought back to the few times Larissa had questioned you about the plants, something that was rather funny to you. "Riss, why do you ask me so many questions about the plants?" She paused, and taking a dink of her wine she looked at you, her brows knit in confusion. "What do you mean? I like learning about them, and you are the botany teacher" she said, picking on you. You giggled, "I know, but didn’t you win a botany award in 91? You probably know more about them than I do." She dropped her gaze to the floor and chuckled, "Oh, you saw that on the wall did you?" You nodded your head. "Well sweetheart, honestly, I just think that you're adorable. When you talk about them you look so happy and passionate, and I love seeing you light up." You blushed, this woman always found a way to make you shy.

You were staring out at the tall trees in the garden reminiscing over your first Fleetwood Mac concert when you had a fabulous idea. You ran inside and turned on some music. Walking back to the woman on the balcony, you held out your hand. "Larissa, since we couldn't dance at the concert, I was wondering if you would want to dance here, with me." She took your hand and stood up, wrapping one arm around your waist and one around your neck. She looked down at you with a loving smile on her face, "I would love to, darling." You both swayed to "Songbird" by Fleetwood Mac with your head against her chest. You listened to her heart beat. Usually, you would be bothered by the people in the garden staring at you, but here with Larissa, you didn’t give a shit. As you listened to the song, you couldn't help but think about Larissa's nightmare. What if the nightshade had killed her? What if she was no longer here, heart no longer beating? What would Nevermore do without her? What would you do without her? Would you be back in Europe, wallowing in your self pity and despair? Would you be ashamed of yourself, never admitting the fact that you liked women? What a turn of events that was, for she made you want to write it in the stars for everyone to see, scream it into the abyss for everyone to hear, talk to the moon and thank her for letting you see and appreciate the beauty of women. As you heard a line from the song "And I love you, I love you, I love you, like never before," you couldn't hold back your tears any longer. You didn’t want Larissa to think that you were fragile or needy, but the whole situation tugged at your heart strings, it really did.

As Larissa felt you whimper into her chest she hugged you tighter, swaying with you until the song faded out. She led you back in from the balcony still hugging you to her. She cupped your chin and brought your gaze up to meet hers. Her eyes were glazed over and it made you feel better, yet more sad at the same time. "What are you thinking about love?" she whispered, her soft and caring voice making you sob loud. "Larissa I'm so, so glad you're still alive. I'm so grateful that you're here with me. I don't know where I'd be if you never gave me a job, if you never showed me love. I don't want you to be scared anymore, I want you to be free and happy and live." You paused for a moment, thinking about your next words. But alas, there was no question anymore, you made your decision. You looked deep into her eyes, "I want you to live Larissa. Please, let me take your memory for you." She sat down on the bed and pulled you into her lap as tears started steaming down her face. You frowned, you didn’t want to make her feel worse. Her voice was hoarse as she tried to form words. "Peyton, darling, what do you mean take my memory for me?" You stopped crying, confused, before you realized that you said 'take'. You had told Larissa that you could erase memories, you didn't tell her that you took them as your own. You didn't want her to know that, you had messed up. "Um, I didn't want to tell you, but when I erase memories, they're not actually erased. I get them as my own. They have to go somewhere, right?" you gave her a shrug and a sad chuckle. You watched her eyes widen as she took her hand from you and placed it over her mouth. She genuinely looked like she was in fear as she stared at you. Larissa no longer wanted you to take her memory. After seeing how it hurt you a couple nights ago, she decided that she would rather it hurt her than you. If you really cared about her, her memory would hurt you, but you would offer to take it regardless. If she really cared about you, she would not let you take it. You cupped her face in your hands, "Riss, it's not a big deal, I want to take it from you, I don't want you to be in pain." The woman buried her face into your shoulder as you heard her trying to muffle her cries. Tears streamed down your face as you realized the irony of the situation. Here you two were, distraught over trying to decide who should hold the memory, who should take the pain of her attempted murder when it never should have happened in the first place. Neither of you deserved it, but in the end she was alive. Larissa Weems was alive.

You cried into Larissa's hair, stroking it lightly to sooth her until you heard her start to mumble something. "I don't- want you to- be in pain either Pey" she breathed out. "You're not- taking my memory, and that's final." You wanted to laugh at the way she tried to sound authoritative and demanding in this situation, but you refrained. She finally looked at you again, her eyes red and makeup running down her cheeks. She took a deep breath and you waited for her to speak. "After I almost died, I realized that I was alone, utterly alone. I thought that I had people who cared about me, but when I survived, I realized that I no longer did. I realized that I still wanted to do so much more, and I wanted to love someone who loved me back. I never got to know what that felt like, and I almost died like that. People have broken my heart before, women have, Marilyn did. But what did the most was that when I thought I was dying, I realized nobody truly cared about me, nobody ever loved me like I loved them." You took a breath in as you felt your own heart break for her. You felt a deep pain in your chest, one you've never felt before. You stared into her eyes as you tried your hardest to find words, any words at all. Were you going to say anything to her or were you just going to stare at her? You decided to do the only thing that you could. You grabbed her makeup stained face and wiped the tears from her cheeks. You smiled at her and quickly brought your lips to meet hers. You kissed her with all the passion that you had for her, hoping to convey the message that someone cared about her, someone loved her, and that someone was you.

Tears were still streaming down your face as you kissed her. Apparently you both were full of different emotions tonight because after a few minutes, Larissa grabbed your waist and pulled you up to straddle her. As she did this you let out a whimper. This spurred the older woman on and she moved her lips down your jaw to your neck. As you felt her warm lips on you moving from the crook of your neck to suck at your pulse point, you couldn't help but grind your hips down into hers. Her lips trailed to your chest before she looked up at you and tugged at the hem of your shirt, silently asking if she could remove it. You nodded your head and it was gone in an instant. Larissa laid kisses all over your chest and stomach until she reached behind you to undo your bra. She kissed your breasts hard, leaving a couple marks behind before she took one in her mouth. God this woman turned you on so much, you couldn't help but grind into her harder. "Stand up" Larissa purred and you did as you were told. She brought her hands to your pants and undid them, slowly sliding them down your legs while taking you in. Larissa laid down and pulled you back on top of her, holding you close as your lips crashed into hers once again. She moaned into your mouth as you stuck your tongue into hers, you needed to feel her. You palmed her breasts as you tried to grind down into her. Feeling like the less dominant one here she demanded, "Stay still, don't move your hips." You froze at her tone, but you did as she commanded. She slowly sat up and started to lift her dress up around her hips. You almost started drooling at the sight of her when you saw her white thick thighs and hips, black lace panties covering her. She positioned you so that you were straddling one thigh, but she gave you a look that said 'don't move'. She cooed at you, "Do you want this Peyton? Do you want me?" and all you could mumble out was "Oh god Riss, please." Her hands landed on your hips as she began to move you against her. You couldn't contain your moans as you covered her thigh in your slick, thinking about how hot Larissa would look if she was in your position right now. As you grinded into her, you felt your release coming fast. You focused in on Larissa's beauty and listened to her whimpers as she breathed heavily, this sending you over the edge with a cry of her name.

"Oh baby, you're so messy" she moaned as you removed yourself from her thigh. You blushed and looked down, embarrassed. "Unzip my dress, darling" she breathed and you did so right away. She stood up to remove her dress and before you could get a good look at her she was on top of you, pushing you into the bed, one hand around your neck. She squeezed at your throat as she demanded "Open your mouth, pet." You did as you were told as she looked down at you with her piercing lust filled eyes. The next thing you knew, she spit in your mouth and your eyes went wide, you weren't expecting her to be like this. You swallowed and let out a small giggle as Larissa noticed your reaction and reeled it back for a second, realizing that you weren't aware of how dominant she could be. "Oh Peyton I'm sorry, I should've asked what you were alright with sweetheart." Hearing her words so caring and sweet during something like this made you need her more, but they also confirmed that you could trust her, and you did. You grabbed her face and pulled her closer to you again. "Larissa Weems I absolutely adore you, please, do whatever you want, I need you." The way the words came out of your mouth was so needy and Larissa let out a low growl before making her way down to your core. She kissed up your thighs so slowly that you just reveled in her touch, and she caught you off guard with how quickly she brought herself to your center and ran her tongue up your slit. You let out a loud moan as she did this which made her moan against you. She looked up at you and slowly inserted two fingers. As she began her pace, you were a mewling mess underneath her, you couldn't contain yourself. When her fingers got faster you screamed "Oh god mommy" before realizing what you just called her. She chuckled, "You like it that much, hm?" You nodded your head in confirmation. "You can call me mommy, love" she panted at you. She knew you were close when you started saying "Mommy, please" and your thighs started shaking. You came again with a scream and Larissa let you settle before she slipped from you and gathered you in her arms. "Mommy can I do you now?" Larissa looked at you with a smile on her face but refused, saying that you were probably tired. "Please, I want to. I want to taste you" you whimpered, longing to touch the older woman. You kissed her again, running your fingers through her white hair. "I never thought I'd hear you say that, fuck that's hot" she moaned as she sprang up and removed her panties, positioning herself over your face. You finally got a view of Larissa, and it was way better than you ever imagined it would be. You nipped at her thighs before you licked your lips and dove right in. You moaned against her clit, she tasted better than you thought she would too. As you licked and sucked at her, moans started spewing from her mouth. These were the prettiest sounds you've ever heard. She lowered herself more and grinded her hips on your face, this eliciting profanity from the woman. "Darling, keep going, that feels so good" she panted. You picked up the pace, doing the most you could without much experience. You flatted your tongue, letting her grind against you. Pretty soon her hand came down on the bed to steady herself and her hips got more erratic. "Fuck baby" she moaned loud and you felt more heat travel to your core. As you let out a whimper she came on your tongue, moaning your name. You licked up all of her before you kissed her thighs and let her climb off of you.

She gathered you in her arms again as she slowed her breathing, your head coming to rest in her neck. After a minute she kissed you again, tasting herself on your lips. She stroked your hair and cupped your cheek as she stared into your loving amber eyes. Maybe after all these years she could have a friend, a real friend. Maybe she could trust somebody and love somebody, maybe somebody could love her back. You smiled taking in her gorgeous features, hoping that she felt at least a bit better now. You gave her a kiss on the nose. She thought that maybe she would give it a chance, for nobody had loved her before, nobody had cherished her before, nobody had looked at her before, nobody like you. She smiled, "Peyton, I want to thank you for showing me respect and kindness, and for treating me like I deserve to be loved. Thank you for giving me the ability to trust again. And most of all, thank you for teaching me, about botany…of course."