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babylon5_loveTitle: Lips on Sweet Lips
Author:muccamukk
Pairing: Delenn/Mayan
Rating: Explicit
Spoilers: Up to season two.
Summary: Mayan and Delenn explore each other's bodies after Delenn's transformation.
Notes: Contains non-human biology and Minbari Sex Rituals. May be found here on AO3 or behind the cut.
Delenn had left standing instructions that Shaal Mayan was to be granted access to the ambassadorial quarters, be she unannounced, without appointment, or at an inappropriate hour. She was thus unsurprised to open her eyes after her evening meditation, and find Mayan sitting across from here, eyes open, a serene smile upon her lips. Unsurprised and not unhappy.
"My old friend," Delenn said, and bowed where she sat. Her hair swung forward in a way that she had not yet gotten used to. "Welcome back."
"Delenn," Mayan said, still smiling. She returned the bow, and then slid her pillow forward until they sat with their knees touching. Then Mayan could place her flat palm over Delenn's heart. "It is good to see you."
"And you," Delenn said, returning the gesture. The old connection sprang up between them the moment they touched, as easy as breathing. Delenn could feel Mayan's heartbeat slowing to match hers, and her skin flushed at the recognition. She wasn't used to the changes in her body temperature yet either, nor the way humans seemed able to read them. "What has brought you back to Babylon 5?"
"You do, my friend," Mayan said, not yet dropping her hand. "I heard of your change."
Delenn looked away, withdrawing her touch. "There is word of it even on Minbar?" she asked, though what she wanted to demand was whether Mayan had travelled all this way simply to gawk, even as she knew such a question was unfair and unkind.
"In some circles," Mayan said, unmoving, and Delenn's heartbeat quickened against her hand. "But I did not come because of gossip, but because of concern. No, do not look at me so. You know what is best, I am sure, but what of ritual? Who here will perform the ritual with you?"
"I don't know what you mean," Delenn replied. "There is no store of ritual around this, Mayan."
Mayan smiled—no she'd been smiling since Delenn had opened her eyes, but now her eyes crinkled in that silent laugh of hers, the smile that not even the brand on her forehead could mar. "I see you are ever the politician, the diplomat, the priestess. We who weave words are better fit for seeing likeness in unlike things, and new possibilities in the familiar."
"Better also at speaking highly of yourselves, and in riddles, too," Delenn replied, happy enough to revive this old quarrel.
"Do you not remember our third ritual together?" Mayan asked, and now she pressed her palm to her own chest, gesture as dramatic as a masked player's. "Have so many cycles passed?"
"Of course," Delenn said for a hundred cycles could pass and she would not forget so sweet a night as that. "But I do not see..." yet then she did. "I do not think that ritual appropriate."
"Why not? Is it not an exploration? An understanding? A celebration and a sanctification? Is it not meant to follow a change from one way of being to another?"
"My mother always advised me against arguing with poets," Delenn mused.
Mayan laughed. "Yet did that ever prevent you?"
"No," Delenn said. "But in this case I have no argument to offer. You are quite correct."
"What am I not?" Mayan asked. She rose and held out both hands for Delenn to take. "Would you like to prepare?"
Delenn took her hands, cool now against her new skin. "Would you assist me?"
"It would be an honour."
They went together to the cleansing room, as they had so many cycles ago that first time together. They had been fifteen cycles old, their children's bodies gone, but the newness of adulthood not yet settled upon them. Their bodies had still proved strange and surprising to them, and they'd laughed as they'd explored one another's pleasure. This made the counterpoint to Shan-fell: a ritual to explore your own body via another, rather than one to deepen a couple's commitment to each other via mutual exploration of pleasure.
Delenn had been brazen then, and unafraid, but now she undressed with careful slowness while Mayan quickly stripped. Delenn took her shoes of first, then her stockings. She folded the stockings and set them aside before she slipped out of her outer robe and hung it.
Mayan stood naked by then, the blue along her crest and down her spine darkening with desire. They had not been together like this since before Delenn had become Satai, and she needed to pause and take in how Mayan had changed. She'd grown a little stouter, and vividness of her colouring had faded, though that was hard to tell now with her skin glowing as it was. Some of youth's sharp angles had been replaced by the strength and softness of maturity. Mostly, Mayan was beautiful, in the prime of her life and full of confidence. If they had been Centauri, someone would have made a goddess figure out of her.
Now, Delenn stood unsure in her bare feet and her inner robe. It brushed against her thighs, and she felt a shiver as she always did when something touched her skin.
"May I undress you?" Mayan asked, and Delenn nodded silently. Instead of circling around behind her, Mayan stepped up to Delenn and kissed her softly, though it was too soon for kissing. Mayan moved Delenn's hair aside and traced her finger from the nape of Delenn's neck, where her crest had once ended, all the way down the length of her spine. The fastenings of Delenn's robe fell away at her touch. Mayan broke the kiss and stepped back, pulling the robe with her while Delenn held her arms out to let it peel away.
Delenn stood in her shift while Mayan hung the inner robe beside the outer. Mayan undid that with a touch at the throat and shoulders and let it pool at Delenn's feet. She studied the clothes beneath that with focus and intensity.
"There is a shop in the Zocalo that sells only human undergarments," Delenn explained. "I have found them more comfortable since..." Since every brush of fabric against her breasts made her heat and flush.
"Ah! I see the way of it," Mayan said, and her nimble fingers worked the hooks along the front of the bra. It opened, and the cool air on Delenn's breasts made the skin of this odd and contradictory body flush with warmth. More so as Mayan pushed Delenn's underpants off her hips and they fall to join the shift.
Delenn stood naked before Mayan as she had stood before no other since her transformation, not even Lennier. While her aide had clothed her when she emerged huddled and unsure, for Mayan, she could show herself with perhaps even a hint of that old brazenness. Delenn stood with her legs apart and her hands at her sides, and waiting while Mayan studied her from toe to crest. Mayan circled her for a moment, not touching her, but the intensity of Mayan's gaze felt like fingers on skin, and Delenn shivered and felt too warm at the same moment.
"Let us prepare each other," Mayan said when she stopped in front of Delenn at last.
"I am afraid that I don't have the proper oils," Delenn said apologetically. She should have thought of this before they'd undressed. She tried to think of where on the station might have something close but as she did, Mayan went to where she'd hung her robes and produced a pair of crystal jars.
"You do not think I would come unprepared?" When Mayan opened the first jar and tipped the contents onto her hands, the cleansing room filled with the scent of karnorr blossoms, the scent of the end of winter, and of new life. The smell would always take her back to that first time with Mayan, and every time she brushed her hand against a karnorr, shaking loose the sparking pollen, Delenn would think of beginnings.
"I will have to move my hair," Delenn said, and twisted it into a knot on above her crest and pushed a stick through it to hold it in place. Mayan watched with wide-eyed amazement, much as Delenn had when Susan had showed her. When she was done, she held her arms out, and waited as Mayan placed her oiled hands on Delenn's shoulders.
Though Mayan's skin was cooler than hers, the touch of the oil warmed them both, making Delenn's skin tingle. Mayan stroked the oil up Delenn's neck and over her face in precise strokes, making sure not to miss the least part of her skin. Before, she would have rubbed from Delenn's eyelashes to the top of her crest in in a double sweeping motion. Now, Mayan hesitated at the edge of Delenn's hair, frowning.
"We make all things new," Mayan said, the ritual words, but also a solution, and her fingertips traced Delenn's hairline down to her ears, then across to the back of her neck.
The preparations could not be hurried, but Delenn could not completely dampen a flare of impatience as Mayan's hands circled her breasts, her thumbs rolling over Delenn's nipples. Delenn had to press her legs together against the sweet need building between them, and then opened them again as Mayan knelt at her feet.
Mayan paused to renew the oil on her hands before sweeping down over Delenn's hips all the way to her feet, and moving ever so slowly back up the backs of her legs until her hands cupped Delenn's buttocks.
"That area is more sensitive now," Delenn said in a tight voice.
"Hush," Mayan answered. "We are still preparing, not yet engaged in sacred exploration of each other's pleasure." Then her hands drifted down, so that her fingers slipped between Delenn's parted legs, the very edges of her nails touching the highest point, before the ran breakneck down her inner thighs and calves, down over her ankles to the arches of her feet. One last stroke carried up the front of Delenn's legs, Mayan rising as she moved, then circling to touch the nape of Delenn's neck. Her crest would have ended there before, and before patterns of blue and purple would have followed down Delenn's spine, making the most sensitive place on her body, save one. Now, when Mayan painted oil down Delenn's back, the sensation rippled pleasure through her body, but it didn't bring every nerve to life as it had before.
When Mayan's fingers left the base of her spine, Delenn turned and took hands with her. "Thank you," she said. She took the jar from Mayan and oiled her own hands, and began to act in accord. Mayan closed her eyes and stood perfectly still under Delenn's touch, her face upturned and serene like a flower in the sun. She didn't move when Delenn touched her high breasts, but shivered deliciously as Delenn's fingertips slid between her legs, and it was so tempting to go ahead and see if she had opened yet. Instead, Delenn stood and stroked down Mayan's spine, over the brightening blue flush there. The first pass of Delenn's fingers on either side made Mayan roll her head back, while on the second she moaned softly, just a breath escaping almost without sound, but Delenn heard it. "Hush," she said. "Not yet."
She took out the second jar, this sweet smell deeper and sharper, the sap rising in the Lanwoods as the snow melted. They set the jar between them, and each placed dabs of it on the places that felt sweetest. Mayan at the back or her neck, and down her spine, at the peak of her crest, and where she would soon open. Delenn on her neck, her nipples, her buttocks and the forever-open flower between her legs.
"May I?" Mayan asked, and when Delenn nodded, she pulled the stick from Delenn's hair and let it cascade around her shoulders. "It smells of earth flowers," she said. "Perhaps that's what that song is about, to wear flowers in one's hair."
"You will have to tell it to me," Delenn said, pleased that Mayan liked the washing ointments Susan had given her. Delenn tipped her head back to let her hair swish across her back, then straightened. "Come."
She led Mayan hand in hand to the bedroom. There was a ritual alcove behind Delenn's bed, curtained off and unused since Delenn had come to the station. She'd meant to invite Mayan here on her last visit, but that had been before the attack that had scared her, almost an Earth year ago now. Delenn looked at it pensively for a moment, but Mayan tugged her forward, pushing the curtains aside so that they could climb in.
Delenn lay on her back, feeling odd and head-heavy as she always did lying flat. Being part human hadn't changed that it seemed. Mayan lay next to her, head propped on her hand, and ran her finger from Delenn's chin, down her throat, between her breasts across the flatness of her stomach to the crease just above the mound that now rested above her flower.
"Your skin is so pink," Mayan said, "especially when I do this." She cupped her hand between Delenn's legs, and Delenn's hips rose to press against her, wanting to feel more. The undressing and spreading of oil on her had been enough to make her body ready. None of the rituals were needed now, and she already missed them. Her skin was growing more pink though as it warmed under Mayan's touch.
"Your skin is so pale," Delenn said, "save when I touch you here." She traced her fingernail down Mayan's spine and watched the blue on her forehead darken.
"Yes," Mayan said. "Except there, and here," She bent her leg and so that Delenn could easily reach between them. Mayan's petals were still tightly furled, and Delenn was glad they were doing this together, so that she didn't have to just plunge straight ahead into unknown territory. The indigo splash between Mayan's legs had ripened to a full dark colour, and Delenn knew the few careful strokes that could open her and make her ready.
"May I?" She asked.
"Only if I may as well," Mayan replied. "but let it be for a now. Let me kiss you."
Delenn flopped back onto the pillow and closed her eyes. Her hair caught under her shoulders and she shifted and flipped it to fall loose around her head. Mayan combed her fingers though it, bringing a handful of the strands to her nose and breathing deeply.
"Truly, it smells sweet," she said, and then she bent and kissed Delenn.
Mayan's lips felt gentle at first. She pressed closed lips to the corner of Delenn's mouth, then to the other, then finally over the bow of Delenn's lower lip, ignoring Delenn's open invitation. Mayan pulled away when Delenn lifted her head to try to reciprocate the kisses. "You said here?" Mayan asked, and she placed an open-mouthed kiss on the side of Delenn's neck just below her ear.
"Yes," Delenn said. Her breath was coming faster already, and she flexed her stomach and thigh muscles to try to do something about the hot pressure building between her legs . She wanted Mayan's cupped hand to move, but it wouldn't, and it was blocking access to Delenn touching herself. "Yes," she said again when Mayan sucked at the newly sensitive places along her neck, then circled her tongue over them.
It was too soon to touch Mayan's flower and open her, so Delenn rubbed the flat of her hand in circles at the base of Mayan's spine. Her oiled hand moved easily on oiled skin, and Mayan's breath caught just as she was kissing the tip of Delenn's nose. This time she did not escape as Delenn lifted her head to catch Mayan's mouth for a kiss. This time, Mayan's lips were already parted, and all Delenn had to do was catch her and kiss her. Delenn sucked lightly at Mayan's lower lip, playing her tongue over it in circles in time with the circles of her hand over Mayan's spine. Delenn waited, filled with renewed patience, as Mayan leaned back down and opened her mouth to the kiss. Mayan's tongue greeted Delenn's as their mouths locked. As Delenn's hand swept up and down her back, Mayan edged closer wanting to press her body over top of Delenn's. Her hand cupping between Delenn's legs had, maddeningly, not moved, no matter how Delenn surged against it.
"Here as well, you said," and Mayan shimmied down the alcove until her head rested on Delenn's chest. Mayan's crest dug into Delenn's sternum in a way that she didn't remember from all the times they'd been together before. Delenn didn't have long to think about that. Mayan puffed a cool breath across her left nipple, and Delenn felt her hand ball tightly behind Mayan's back. Again she pressed her thighs together in search of sensation, and again found nothing.
When Mayan placed her mouth over Delenn's breast, almost able to take the whole thing in, Delenn felt too much sensation all at once. A storm seemed to fill her blood, and her heart pounded in her ears, but Delenn hardly noticed that over the sweat pleasure of Mayan's tongue circling her nipple. She arched her body up against Mayan's mouth, abandoning her attempts on the hand between legs, though this made the feeling there more acute as well. Mayan drew back, and Delenn almost sighed at the loss, until Mayan's sharp teeth caught Delenn's nipple between them, and let go a moment later to be replaced by a soothing tongue moving in slow circles. Delenn had almost missed the sudden spike of desire the pain caused, but she hadn't missed the way it made her breath quicken or her tighs clench together. She hadn't missed how much she needed Mayan to do that again. She wiggled against the pillows, enjoying the feel of the soft fabric against her skin but still needing more.
"Yes," she said again. This was the ritual, albeit a simplified form, Mayan tried to find all the places that made Delenn say that, and then she tried to bring her as much pleasure as she could until Delenn opened under her touch. Only Delenn was already open, was always open now, and wanted that touch so badly. "Come, allow me," she said and tugged at Mayan's shoulder until she lay flat on her stomach. It meant the lose of Mayan's hand over her flower, but Delenn knew they would make up for that later. Now, Delenn rolled on her side and leaned over Mayan.
She knew the bone of the crest would have no feeling, but the place where it met skin, the transition between flesh and crest, that would sharpen every feeling. Delenn touched the tip of her finger to the corner point of the crest just above Mayan's eye, and slowly followed the join of skin and bone up towards the peak of her head.
"Yes," Mayan said, her voice warm and fond. It was easier with her lying on her stomach, as this way Delenn couldn't see the brand. Even the thought of it made Delenn hot and fierce in a way this ceremony did not welcome. She buried the feeling in a long slow kiss to the back of Mayan's neck. Looking sideways down her spine, Delenn could see the flush of blue darkening to indigo there as well, and she ran her hand over it rejoicing in the way that still made Mayan shiver as it had when they'd first done this together. "Yes," Mayan murmured again. "Oh, Delenn. Yes."
No one else said Delenn's name exactly like Mayan did, and no one else's voice brought the same glow of delight to Delenn's heart. She moved closer until she could slide her thigh across the back of Mayan's legs. That pressed her centre to Mayan's hips, and Delenn rocked gently, but the angle wasn't right. Later, she promised herself.
Delenn moved her fingers more swiftly along the edge of Mayan's crest while at the same time kissing down her spine with wide-mouthed kisses, and her tongue pressing at the places between the knots of bone. Mayan moaned and squirmed under Delenn's touch, rubbing the backs of her thighs against Delenn's inner thigh and her hip against Delenn's flower. Her hands clenched and unclenched against the pillows beneath them. "Yes," Mayan kept murmuring, in a steady stream of assent and encouragement.
When Delenn's kisses reached the base of Mayan's spine, she'd almost doubled up on herself, and it was easy to turn so that her head now rested on Mayan's thighs. Delenn kissed the back of each leg until Mayan parted them for her, and took a moment to bury her nose between her thighs and inhale the scent of Mayan's arousal. It was sharp and sweet like the sap of the Lanwood, like Delenn no longer smelled.
Mayan rolled away, and Delenn froze, afraid she'd moved too quickly, but Mayan was just flipping to her back. She parted her legs again, and Delenn saw the smooth indigo skin between them beginning to flutter. Mayan was opening without Delenn having even touched her, and the sight sent a flush of possessive pride through Delenn—a feeling that wasn't in line with the ceremony either. Delenn would examine that later. For now she leaned down and licked across her the closed expanse of Mayan's flower, feeling the edges of the petals ripple in response to her tongue.
"Yes," Mayan said more emphatically, and Delenn grinned.
Delenn licked again, making it slow, finding and tracing each of the nine petals with her tongue. She wasn't coaxing them open, not yet, only feeling her way forward. One of the petals unfurled all the way, curling up to meet Delenn's tongue and to feel her out in turn. The taste was sharper than she remembered, but she'd had wholly Minbari taste the last time—and she too had tasted like this. Delenn dipped the tip of her tongue down into the space left by the opening petal, feeling the opening of the sensitive places underneath.
Another petal rose up to join the first in feeling out the contours of Delenn's lips, one sliding against her teeth. They were looking to stimulate and guide in the man's part, and when she used her hand, they would coil around her fingers and tug them down into Mayan's core. Delenn's tongue toyed with them and more opened, until all nine spread out under her mouth.
"Oh, yes!" Mayan said as Delenn's mouth caught and sucked at the petals and she ran her tongue along the slick bottoms of each on in turn. This was her most sensitive place. Delenn held her fingers to Mayan's mouth for her to wet them, but lingered as Mayan sucked avidly and curled her tongue around Delenn's fingers as her petals curled around Delenn's own tongue. When Delenn at last pulled her fingers free—shivering at the delightful departing nip of teeth—they were slick enough to slide right into Mayan's core. If Mayan said yes again, it was lost in a gasping breath.
Mayan's nails dragged down Delenn's back in a way that still made her skin feel more alive, if not make ever part of her tingle as it had before. Mayan kissed Delenn's hip, squeezed her buttocks, spread her own legs, showed with every movement that she wanted Delenn's fingers inside her even as words failed her. Her petals cycled closed around Delenn's fingers, pulling them down and down and in.
For all Delenn's intent to focus on Mayan's pleasure, she couldn't set aside how Mayan's hands on her back, and how the satisfaction of making Mayan feel like this, was filling her body with a need so strong it bordered on pain. Delenn clenched her thighs, and whined at how that only made her feel more. It could take hours to draw Mayan to completion, and Delenn patience didn't seem as though it would stretch that far. As she kissed the insides of Mayan's thighs and circled her fingers inside her core, Delenn felt flushed and breathless. Her breasts had somehow grown, and lying on the had begun to hurt, and yet she didn't want the pressure of the fabric against her nipples to lessen either.
"Yes," Mayan said, having caught her breath, and she dug her fingers into the soft flesh of the backs of Delenn's thighs. "Delenn, may I touch you?" she pleaded.
"Yes," Delenn replied, and bent her leg as Mayan had earlier, opening herself.
Mayan reached between Delenn's legs and drew her finger from Delenn's spine all the way forward past her core to the centre of her new flower. It lay open already, as it always did. Delenn opened her mouth to tell Mayan about the little bud in the centre, but Mayan's fingers felt their way to it and rubbed in slow circles.
Pleasure shot through Delenn's body, tearing from her core straight up to her pounding heart. She gasped and her fingers curled inside Mayan. The sensitive petals rubbed and pulled at her fingers, trying to draw them in deeper, but Mayan's core was tight against just two fingers and Delenn knew that slow working would bring more enjoyment.
Though not more enjoyment than Mayan's fingers rolling over Delenn's bud. "Yes, yes, yes," Delenn said each time, and Mayan sped up, rolling her fingertips back and forth over the spot, each movement almost making Delenn's heart stop. The joy of it was striking and intimidate, not the slow build of her love making before the transformation. Delenn could feel something building as well. As Mayan touched her, she knew that it was leading to a height different than she'd ever felt before.
"Delenn, may I taste you?" Mayan asked, her own voice breathy and gasping from Delenn's touch.
"Yes," Delenn whispered.
Mayan rolled so that she too lay on her side, and pulled Delenn's hips towards her. She stopped circling Delenn's bud, and Delenn couldn't help sigh at the loss, even as she herself circled her fingers inside Mayan's core. She knew that Mayan would take three, and love the stretch and pull of it. She loved the way her petals would wrap around Delenn's little finger and thumb, trying to draw them in too, but Delenn would resist. Now that Mayan lay on her side, Delenn stroked up and down her spine again until Mayan's skin purpled and she nearly started to purr.
With all those distractions, Delenn didn't know how Mayan could focus or even move at all. Yet Mayan pressed her face between Delenn's parted thighs, her crest hard against soft skin, but warm and familiar. The tip of Mayan's tongue touched Delenn's bud, not nearly hard enough for Delenn's liking, but it carried a promise of more. In accordance with her request, Mayan licked across Delenn's flower, then thrust her tongue against her core, circling the rim. She licked again, then a third time, mixing her spit with Delenn's juices, and making Delenn tremble and moan. When her tongue wasn't long enough to enter Delenn, Mayan circled her core with a single finger.
"Yes," Delenn said, and moved her hand—already deep inside Mayan—in the same pattern.
Mayan pushed her finger inside Delenn, sending a dizzy tingling feeling all the way up her spine to the base of her crest, and at the same moment Mayan licked hard across Delenn's bud. They both laughed as one petal tried to wrap around Delenn's nose. Mayan's laughter against Delenn's flower made Delenn's breath catch, and she exhaled sharply. The warmth of her breath on Mayan's cool skin caused Mayan to gasp in turn, and she sucked sharply at Delenn's bud.
Their pleasure continued to grow on each other, until Mayan was moaning against Delenn's bud, her face buried so deeply that Delenn didn't know if she could breathe, while Delenn for her part pushed a third finger into Mayan as deeply as her hand would allow. The slender, quivering petals sucked and tugged at Delenn's hand as Mayan's hips began to roll against her touch. With each turn of Delenn's fingers inside her Mayan pushed up against her hand and her petals pulled down more sharply. When Delenn leaned in, a lock of her hair fell across Mayan's legs, and Mayan laughed again.
"Do you like how my hair feels?" Delenn asked. Mayan's mouth was spread wide across Delenn's flower, but Delenn could feel her nod, so she shook her hair free and finger-combed it so that it fell over Mayan's lower back like crystal chimes. Delenn nodded, and her hair played back and forth across Mayan's spine.
"Mmm," Mayan hummed against Delenn, and she pushed her own finger in and out of Delenn's core. Delenn was slick under her touch, had been slick long before being touched.
This body responded so eagerly to so little provocation. She'd wanted to spread herself under Mayan's touch the moment she'd seen Mayan sitting across from her. Delenn had felt the hot pressure growing within her at the mere mention of the ritual. She hadn't wanted to wait for the exchange of touches, she'd wanted Mayan to bring Delenn pleasure first of all.
But Delenn would not be controlled by this body or any other. She knew each feeling had its place, even when the least touch, the least breath of air, seemed to excite her.
This here now was the time to feel all that, and it sang through her. Her body felt like a plucked like lyre string, and each time Mayan touched her, she seemed to find a new note to draw out of Delenn. She sucked Delenn's bud between her lips and touched the edge of her teeth to it. The sharp cut of almost pain carried Delenn upwards to higher notes, and she knew that her fingers moved only spasmodically inside Mayan now.
"Yes, please, yes," Delenn said, though she didn't know what she wanted Mayan to do.
Mayan seemed to know at least. She sucked harder and ran her tongue over and over Delenn's bud until it seemed almost a blur. At the same time she thrust her finger in and out sharply in time with her tongue. It entered just to the first knuckle, but Delenn clenched around it, wishing she still had petals to pull it in.
"Yes," she said instead, and showed what she wanted by pushing deeper into Mayan and shaking her hair across Mayan's back.
"Mmmm," Mayan said again,and kept her tongue moving.
The sharp need, the closeness of it was too much to bear, and Delenn closed her eyes and pulled her lip between her teeth. She rubbed her full breasts against Mayan's stomach, trying to find more sensation when sensation overwhelmed her on every side. She could feel her pulse pounding in her throat, in her wrists, in her core against Mayan's finger.
"Yes," Delenn said in one long, slow exhalation as she rode over the top of her pleasure. Her core clenched around Mayan's finger, and now Mayan's every touch was both too much and not enough. Pleasure cascaded over her, and it seemed as though her very hair tingled with it.
Mayan let Delenn's bud escape her lips, but lapped her tongue across it as Delenn shuddered and sighed. Slowly the heat and lust became less overwhelming, but the glow of satisfaction remained, and the urge to feel more lay behind it.
Delenn's fingers had stilled inside Mayan, and she moved them again now. She rested her forehead on Mayan's hip and listened to the rise and fall of her breath and the little moans she made as Delenn stroked her. There was measure and patience to this, not the frantic faster faster faster that had drawn Delenn's new body out. Mayan's petals began to convulse around Delenn's fingers—stretching out up the her palm and almost reaching her wrist before they tightened back.
Mayan's tongue still lapped across Delenn's flower, but lazily now, almost sleepily. Mayan pulled her finger out of Delenn's core and sucked it clean, the very sound sending a deep swirl of arousal back over Delenn. She pushed it aside. It was not her time to pursue her own joy, but to find joy in Mayan's joy.
Her own heartbeat had slowed, but Delenn still felt a wash of satisfaction as she thrust her fingers deep into Mayan's core, rubbing her thumb around the rim at the same time. It caused Mayan's petals to flutter out wide, away from Delenn's hand, and then suddenly still. Mayan froze utterly in her moment of completion, and Delenn felt the dizzying feeling of both knowing what that felt like and knowing she would never quite feel it again. The alcove filled with the scent of Mayan's desire, mixed with the new smell of Delenn. She withdrew her hand, and Mayan's petals began to fold closed. They would seal Mayan's juices inside and protect the potential for new life, if such a thing were created.
"Yes,"Mayan said with easy satisfaction. She moved Delenn's hair before falling onto her back again. "You should come rest your head on me."
Delenn turned in the bed again, but lay beside Mayan, not quite touching her shoulder as they rested together. "Thank you, Shaal Mayan," Delenn said formally, which she knew would make Mayan laugh.
It did. "Thank you, Satai Delenn," Mayan replied with equal courtesy, though she could not hide the mirth in her voice. Her face was wet, so Delenn kissed Mayan's cheeks and her nose and finally her mouth. She tasted herself, no longer sharp and sweet like a Lanwood, but like the salt sea in the high summer sun, when it warmed at the equators. There was a sweetness of its own kind, and Delenn ran her tongue over Mayan's lips to get a better taste of it.
"Do you like your new body?" Mayan asked. She wrapped a strand of Delenn's hair around her finger and flicked at the ends.
"It has much to recommend it," Delenn said, speaking playfully but not dishonestly. "I miss some things, but have gained others. You seem very familiar with the pleasures of human women."
"Oh, yes," Mayan said, and smiled at Delenn. Her whole face was lit with delight, both from their time together, and from some recent memory. "I was on Earth last year."
"I remember," Delenn said. There had been a whole slew of new poetry, mostly sent in half-thoughts and fragments, sometimes via diplomatic courier.
Mayan flicked the ends of Delenn's hair again, then grinned and trailed them over the point of Delenn's breast. Delenn shuddered and felt herself begin to warm all over again.
"Well," Mayan continued. "I read a poem for a collective of human women in a city with a big orange bridge right across the entrance to its waterways. They do not have icebergs like we do, it seems."
"And these human women who listened to your poems..." Delenn left space for Mayan to complete the sentence.
"Several of them said they were part of a group that believed in privileging sensuality above all other things. They invited me to one of their rituals." Mayan flicked the hair over Delenn's other nipple. "It was very different than our rituals of pleasure."
Delenn had wanted to ask Susan about those, but had sensed a reticence about anything related to sex with so many humans. She could not deny that she would enjoy touching Susan and learning what made cry out and ask for more. "Did you enjoy it?" Delenn asked, turning her thoughts away from her friend.
"Oh yes," Mayan said. "I found it overwhelming, but educational."
"I am grateful for your knowledge," Delenn said, and kissed Mayan's nose.
"You are most welcome," Mayan replied. She unwound Delenn's hair from around her finger and studied it. "I should write a poem about this."
Delenn flopped onto her back. "You told me you would do that the first time, and I have spent thirty cycles wondering if in the end it was the one about the lanwood forest or the reflection of a sunrise on an icefield."
Mayan laughed. "You should have asked. It was the one about the gogs."
"Oh, no!" Delenn said, remembering it well. In retrospect, it made far too much sense. "You may not write about a poem about this."
"No?"
"I forbid you."
Mayan rolled on top of Delenn and planted her hands on Delenn's shoulders. "Perhaps I might convince you?"
"You might try," Delenn agreed.
"I feel there is yet more exploration to be done" Mayan's knee parted Delenn's legs and pressed up between them. "For example, have you considered what might happen if I touched my flower against yours?"
"Yes," Delenn said, and then they found out.
Author:
muccamukkPairing: Delenn/Mayan
Rating: Explicit
Spoilers: Up to season two.
Summary: Mayan and Delenn explore each other's bodies after Delenn's transformation.
Notes: Contains non-human biology and Minbari Sex Rituals. May be found here on AO3 or behind the cut.
Delenn had left standing instructions that Shaal Mayan was to be granted access to the ambassadorial quarters, be she unannounced, without appointment, or at an inappropriate hour. She was thus unsurprised to open her eyes after her evening meditation, and find Mayan sitting across from here, eyes open, a serene smile upon her lips. Unsurprised and not unhappy.
"My old friend," Delenn said, and bowed where she sat. Her hair swung forward in a way that she had not yet gotten used to. "Welcome back."
"Delenn," Mayan said, still smiling. She returned the bow, and then slid her pillow forward until they sat with their knees touching. Then Mayan could place her flat palm over Delenn's heart. "It is good to see you."
"And you," Delenn said, returning the gesture. The old connection sprang up between them the moment they touched, as easy as breathing. Delenn could feel Mayan's heartbeat slowing to match hers, and her skin flushed at the recognition. She wasn't used to the changes in her body temperature yet either, nor the way humans seemed able to read them. "What has brought you back to Babylon 5?"
"You do, my friend," Mayan said, not yet dropping her hand. "I heard of your change."
Delenn looked away, withdrawing her touch. "There is word of it even on Minbar?" she asked, though what she wanted to demand was whether Mayan had travelled all this way simply to gawk, even as she knew such a question was unfair and unkind.
"In some circles," Mayan said, unmoving, and Delenn's heartbeat quickened against her hand. "But I did not come because of gossip, but because of concern. No, do not look at me so. You know what is best, I am sure, but what of ritual? Who here will perform the ritual with you?"
"I don't know what you mean," Delenn replied. "There is no store of ritual around this, Mayan."
Mayan smiled—no she'd been smiling since Delenn had opened her eyes, but now her eyes crinkled in that silent laugh of hers, the smile that not even the brand on her forehead could mar. "I see you are ever the politician, the diplomat, the priestess. We who weave words are better fit for seeing likeness in unlike things, and new possibilities in the familiar."
"Better also at speaking highly of yourselves, and in riddles, too," Delenn replied, happy enough to revive this old quarrel.
"Do you not remember our third ritual together?" Mayan asked, and now she pressed her palm to her own chest, gesture as dramatic as a masked player's. "Have so many cycles passed?"
"Of course," Delenn said for a hundred cycles could pass and she would not forget so sweet a night as that. "But I do not see..." yet then she did. "I do not think that ritual appropriate."
"Why not? Is it not an exploration? An understanding? A celebration and a sanctification? Is it not meant to follow a change from one way of being to another?"
"My mother always advised me against arguing with poets," Delenn mused.
Mayan laughed. "Yet did that ever prevent you?"
"No," Delenn said. "But in this case I have no argument to offer. You are quite correct."
"What am I not?" Mayan asked. She rose and held out both hands for Delenn to take. "Would you like to prepare?"
Delenn took her hands, cool now against her new skin. "Would you assist me?"
"It would be an honour."
They went together to the cleansing room, as they had so many cycles ago that first time together. They had been fifteen cycles old, their children's bodies gone, but the newness of adulthood not yet settled upon them. Their bodies had still proved strange and surprising to them, and they'd laughed as they'd explored one another's pleasure. This made the counterpoint to Shan-fell: a ritual to explore your own body via another, rather than one to deepen a couple's commitment to each other via mutual exploration of pleasure.
Delenn had been brazen then, and unafraid, but now she undressed with careful slowness while Mayan quickly stripped. Delenn took her shoes of first, then her stockings. She folded the stockings and set them aside before she slipped out of her outer robe and hung it.
Mayan stood naked by then, the blue along her crest and down her spine darkening with desire. They had not been together like this since before Delenn had become Satai, and she needed to pause and take in how Mayan had changed. She'd grown a little stouter, and vividness of her colouring had faded, though that was hard to tell now with her skin glowing as it was. Some of youth's sharp angles had been replaced by the strength and softness of maturity. Mostly, Mayan was beautiful, in the prime of her life and full of confidence. If they had been Centauri, someone would have made a goddess figure out of her.
Now, Delenn stood unsure in her bare feet and her inner robe. It brushed against her thighs, and she felt a shiver as she always did when something touched her skin.
"May I undress you?" Mayan asked, and Delenn nodded silently. Instead of circling around behind her, Mayan stepped up to Delenn and kissed her softly, though it was too soon for kissing. Mayan moved Delenn's hair aside and traced her finger from the nape of Delenn's neck, where her crest had once ended, all the way down the length of her spine. The fastenings of Delenn's robe fell away at her touch. Mayan broke the kiss and stepped back, pulling the robe with her while Delenn held her arms out to let it peel away.
Delenn stood in her shift while Mayan hung the inner robe beside the outer. Mayan undid that with a touch at the throat and shoulders and let it pool at Delenn's feet. She studied the clothes beneath that with focus and intensity.
"There is a shop in the Zocalo that sells only human undergarments," Delenn explained. "I have found them more comfortable since..." Since every brush of fabric against her breasts made her heat and flush.
"Ah! I see the way of it," Mayan said, and her nimble fingers worked the hooks along the front of the bra. It opened, and the cool air on Delenn's breasts made the skin of this odd and contradictory body flush with warmth. More so as Mayan pushed Delenn's underpants off her hips and they fall to join the shift.
Delenn stood naked before Mayan as she had stood before no other since her transformation, not even Lennier. While her aide had clothed her when she emerged huddled and unsure, for Mayan, she could show herself with perhaps even a hint of that old brazenness. Delenn stood with her legs apart and her hands at her sides, and waiting while Mayan studied her from toe to crest. Mayan circled her for a moment, not touching her, but the intensity of Mayan's gaze felt like fingers on skin, and Delenn shivered and felt too warm at the same moment.
"Let us prepare each other," Mayan said when she stopped in front of Delenn at last.
"I am afraid that I don't have the proper oils," Delenn said apologetically. She should have thought of this before they'd undressed. She tried to think of where on the station might have something close but as she did, Mayan went to where she'd hung her robes and produced a pair of crystal jars.
"You do not think I would come unprepared?" When Mayan opened the first jar and tipped the contents onto her hands, the cleansing room filled with the scent of karnorr blossoms, the scent of the end of winter, and of new life. The smell would always take her back to that first time with Mayan, and every time she brushed her hand against a karnorr, shaking loose the sparking pollen, Delenn would think of beginnings.
"I will have to move my hair," Delenn said, and twisted it into a knot on above her crest and pushed a stick through it to hold it in place. Mayan watched with wide-eyed amazement, much as Delenn had when Susan had showed her. When she was done, she held her arms out, and waited as Mayan placed her oiled hands on Delenn's shoulders.
Though Mayan's skin was cooler than hers, the touch of the oil warmed them both, making Delenn's skin tingle. Mayan stroked the oil up Delenn's neck and over her face in precise strokes, making sure not to miss the least part of her skin. Before, she would have rubbed from Delenn's eyelashes to the top of her crest in in a double sweeping motion. Now, Mayan hesitated at the edge of Delenn's hair, frowning.
"We make all things new," Mayan said, the ritual words, but also a solution, and her fingertips traced Delenn's hairline down to her ears, then across to the back of her neck.
The preparations could not be hurried, but Delenn could not completely dampen a flare of impatience as Mayan's hands circled her breasts, her thumbs rolling over Delenn's nipples. Delenn had to press her legs together against the sweet need building between them, and then opened them again as Mayan knelt at her feet.
Mayan paused to renew the oil on her hands before sweeping down over Delenn's hips all the way to her feet, and moving ever so slowly back up the backs of her legs until her hands cupped Delenn's buttocks.
"That area is more sensitive now," Delenn said in a tight voice.
"Hush," Mayan answered. "We are still preparing, not yet engaged in sacred exploration of each other's pleasure." Then her hands drifted down, so that her fingers slipped between Delenn's parted legs, the very edges of her nails touching the highest point, before the ran breakneck down her inner thighs and calves, down over her ankles to the arches of her feet. One last stroke carried up the front of Delenn's legs, Mayan rising as she moved, then circling to touch the nape of Delenn's neck. Her crest would have ended there before, and before patterns of blue and purple would have followed down Delenn's spine, making the most sensitive place on her body, save one. Now, when Mayan painted oil down Delenn's back, the sensation rippled pleasure through her body, but it didn't bring every nerve to life as it had before.
When Mayan's fingers left the base of her spine, Delenn turned and took hands with her. "Thank you," she said. She took the jar from Mayan and oiled her own hands, and began to act in accord. Mayan closed her eyes and stood perfectly still under Delenn's touch, her face upturned and serene like a flower in the sun. She didn't move when Delenn touched her high breasts, but shivered deliciously as Delenn's fingertips slid between her legs, and it was so tempting to go ahead and see if she had opened yet. Instead, Delenn stood and stroked down Mayan's spine, over the brightening blue flush there. The first pass of Delenn's fingers on either side made Mayan roll her head back, while on the second she moaned softly, just a breath escaping almost without sound, but Delenn heard it. "Hush," she said. "Not yet."
She took out the second jar, this sweet smell deeper and sharper, the sap rising in the Lanwoods as the snow melted. They set the jar between them, and each placed dabs of it on the places that felt sweetest. Mayan at the back or her neck, and down her spine, at the peak of her crest, and where she would soon open. Delenn on her neck, her nipples, her buttocks and the forever-open flower between her legs.
"May I?" Mayan asked, and when Delenn nodded, she pulled the stick from Delenn's hair and let it cascade around her shoulders. "It smells of earth flowers," she said. "Perhaps that's what that song is about, to wear flowers in one's hair."
"You will have to tell it to me," Delenn said, pleased that Mayan liked the washing ointments Susan had given her. Delenn tipped her head back to let her hair swish across her back, then straightened. "Come."
She led Mayan hand in hand to the bedroom. There was a ritual alcove behind Delenn's bed, curtained off and unused since Delenn had come to the station. She'd meant to invite Mayan here on her last visit, but that had been before the attack that had scared her, almost an Earth year ago now. Delenn looked at it pensively for a moment, but Mayan tugged her forward, pushing the curtains aside so that they could climb in.
Delenn lay on her back, feeling odd and head-heavy as she always did lying flat. Being part human hadn't changed that it seemed. Mayan lay next to her, head propped on her hand, and ran her finger from Delenn's chin, down her throat, between her breasts across the flatness of her stomach to the crease just above the mound that now rested above her flower.
"Your skin is so pink," Mayan said, "especially when I do this." She cupped her hand between Delenn's legs, and Delenn's hips rose to press against her, wanting to feel more. The undressing and spreading of oil on her had been enough to make her body ready. None of the rituals were needed now, and she already missed them. Her skin was growing more pink though as it warmed under Mayan's touch.
"Your skin is so pale," Delenn said, "save when I touch you here." She traced her fingernail down Mayan's spine and watched the blue on her forehead darken.
"Yes," Mayan said. "Except there, and here," She bent her leg and so that Delenn could easily reach between them. Mayan's petals were still tightly furled, and Delenn was glad they were doing this together, so that she didn't have to just plunge straight ahead into unknown territory. The indigo splash between Mayan's legs had ripened to a full dark colour, and Delenn knew the few careful strokes that could open her and make her ready.
"May I?" She asked.
"Only if I may as well," Mayan replied. "but let it be for a now. Let me kiss you."
Delenn flopped back onto the pillow and closed her eyes. Her hair caught under her shoulders and she shifted and flipped it to fall loose around her head. Mayan combed her fingers though it, bringing a handful of the strands to her nose and breathing deeply.
"Truly, it smells sweet," she said, and then she bent and kissed Delenn.
Mayan's lips felt gentle at first. She pressed closed lips to the corner of Delenn's mouth, then to the other, then finally over the bow of Delenn's lower lip, ignoring Delenn's open invitation. Mayan pulled away when Delenn lifted her head to try to reciprocate the kisses. "You said here?" Mayan asked, and she placed an open-mouthed kiss on the side of Delenn's neck just below her ear.
"Yes," Delenn said. Her breath was coming faster already, and she flexed her stomach and thigh muscles to try to do something about the hot pressure building between her legs . She wanted Mayan's cupped hand to move, but it wouldn't, and it was blocking access to Delenn touching herself. "Yes," she said again when Mayan sucked at the newly sensitive places along her neck, then circled her tongue over them.
It was too soon to touch Mayan's flower and open her, so Delenn rubbed the flat of her hand in circles at the base of Mayan's spine. Her oiled hand moved easily on oiled skin, and Mayan's breath caught just as she was kissing the tip of Delenn's nose. This time she did not escape as Delenn lifted her head to catch Mayan's mouth for a kiss. This time, Mayan's lips were already parted, and all Delenn had to do was catch her and kiss her. Delenn sucked lightly at Mayan's lower lip, playing her tongue over it in circles in time with the circles of her hand over Mayan's spine. Delenn waited, filled with renewed patience, as Mayan leaned back down and opened her mouth to the kiss. Mayan's tongue greeted Delenn's as their mouths locked. As Delenn's hand swept up and down her back, Mayan edged closer wanting to press her body over top of Delenn's. Her hand cupping between Delenn's legs had, maddeningly, not moved, no matter how Delenn surged against it.
"Here as well, you said," and Mayan shimmied down the alcove until her head rested on Delenn's chest. Mayan's crest dug into Delenn's sternum in a way that she didn't remember from all the times they'd been together before. Delenn didn't have long to think about that. Mayan puffed a cool breath across her left nipple, and Delenn felt her hand ball tightly behind Mayan's back. Again she pressed her thighs together in search of sensation, and again found nothing.
When Mayan placed her mouth over Delenn's breast, almost able to take the whole thing in, Delenn felt too much sensation all at once. A storm seemed to fill her blood, and her heart pounded in her ears, but Delenn hardly noticed that over the sweat pleasure of Mayan's tongue circling her nipple. She arched her body up against Mayan's mouth, abandoning her attempts on the hand between legs, though this made the feeling there more acute as well. Mayan drew back, and Delenn almost sighed at the loss, until Mayan's sharp teeth caught Delenn's nipple between them, and let go a moment later to be replaced by a soothing tongue moving in slow circles. Delenn had almost missed the sudden spike of desire the pain caused, but she hadn't missed the way it made her breath quicken or her tighs clench together. She hadn't missed how much she needed Mayan to do that again. She wiggled against the pillows, enjoying the feel of the soft fabric against her skin but still needing more.
"Yes," she said again. This was the ritual, albeit a simplified form, Mayan tried to find all the places that made Delenn say that, and then she tried to bring her as much pleasure as she could until Delenn opened under her touch. Only Delenn was already open, was always open now, and wanted that touch so badly. "Come, allow me," she said and tugged at Mayan's shoulder until she lay flat on her stomach. It meant the lose of Mayan's hand over her flower, but Delenn knew they would make up for that later. Now, Delenn rolled on her side and leaned over Mayan.
She knew the bone of the crest would have no feeling, but the place where it met skin, the transition between flesh and crest, that would sharpen every feeling. Delenn touched the tip of her finger to the corner point of the crest just above Mayan's eye, and slowly followed the join of skin and bone up towards the peak of her head.
"Yes," Mayan said, her voice warm and fond. It was easier with her lying on her stomach, as this way Delenn couldn't see the brand. Even the thought of it made Delenn hot and fierce in a way this ceremony did not welcome. She buried the feeling in a long slow kiss to the back of Mayan's neck. Looking sideways down her spine, Delenn could see the flush of blue darkening to indigo there as well, and she ran her hand over it rejoicing in the way that still made Mayan shiver as it had when they'd first done this together. "Yes," Mayan murmured again. "Oh, Delenn. Yes."
No one else said Delenn's name exactly like Mayan did, and no one else's voice brought the same glow of delight to Delenn's heart. She moved closer until she could slide her thigh across the back of Mayan's legs. That pressed her centre to Mayan's hips, and Delenn rocked gently, but the angle wasn't right. Later, she promised herself.
Delenn moved her fingers more swiftly along the edge of Mayan's crest while at the same time kissing down her spine with wide-mouthed kisses, and her tongue pressing at the places between the knots of bone. Mayan moaned and squirmed under Delenn's touch, rubbing the backs of her thighs against Delenn's inner thigh and her hip against Delenn's flower. Her hands clenched and unclenched against the pillows beneath them. "Yes," Mayan kept murmuring, in a steady stream of assent and encouragement.
When Delenn's kisses reached the base of Mayan's spine, she'd almost doubled up on herself, and it was easy to turn so that her head now rested on Mayan's thighs. Delenn kissed the back of each leg until Mayan parted them for her, and took a moment to bury her nose between her thighs and inhale the scent of Mayan's arousal. It was sharp and sweet like the sap of the Lanwood, like Delenn no longer smelled.
Mayan rolled away, and Delenn froze, afraid she'd moved too quickly, but Mayan was just flipping to her back. She parted her legs again, and Delenn saw the smooth indigo skin between them beginning to flutter. Mayan was opening without Delenn having even touched her, and the sight sent a flush of possessive pride through Delenn—a feeling that wasn't in line with the ceremony either. Delenn would examine that later. For now she leaned down and licked across her the closed expanse of Mayan's flower, feeling the edges of the petals ripple in response to her tongue.
"Yes," Mayan said more emphatically, and Delenn grinned.
Delenn licked again, making it slow, finding and tracing each of the nine petals with her tongue. She wasn't coaxing them open, not yet, only feeling her way forward. One of the petals unfurled all the way, curling up to meet Delenn's tongue and to feel her out in turn. The taste was sharper than she remembered, but she'd had wholly Minbari taste the last time—and she too had tasted like this. Delenn dipped the tip of her tongue down into the space left by the opening petal, feeling the opening of the sensitive places underneath.
Another petal rose up to join the first in feeling out the contours of Delenn's lips, one sliding against her teeth. They were looking to stimulate and guide in the man's part, and when she used her hand, they would coil around her fingers and tug them down into Mayan's core. Delenn's tongue toyed with them and more opened, until all nine spread out under her mouth.
"Oh, yes!" Mayan said as Delenn's mouth caught and sucked at the petals and she ran her tongue along the slick bottoms of each on in turn. This was her most sensitive place. Delenn held her fingers to Mayan's mouth for her to wet them, but lingered as Mayan sucked avidly and curled her tongue around Delenn's fingers as her petals curled around Delenn's own tongue. When Delenn at last pulled her fingers free—shivering at the delightful departing nip of teeth—they were slick enough to slide right into Mayan's core. If Mayan said yes again, it was lost in a gasping breath.
Mayan's nails dragged down Delenn's back in a way that still made her skin feel more alive, if not make ever part of her tingle as it had before. Mayan kissed Delenn's hip, squeezed her buttocks, spread her own legs, showed with every movement that she wanted Delenn's fingers inside her even as words failed her. Her petals cycled closed around Delenn's fingers, pulling them down and down and in.
For all Delenn's intent to focus on Mayan's pleasure, she couldn't set aside how Mayan's hands on her back, and how the satisfaction of making Mayan feel like this, was filling her body with a need so strong it bordered on pain. Delenn clenched her thighs, and whined at how that only made her feel more. It could take hours to draw Mayan to completion, and Delenn patience didn't seem as though it would stretch that far. As she kissed the insides of Mayan's thighs and circled her fingers inside her core, Delenn felt flushed and breathless. Her breasts had somehow grown, and lying on the had begun to hurt, and yet she didn't want the pressure of the fabric against her nipples to lessen either.
"Yes," Mayan said, having caught her breath, and she dug her fingers into the soft flesh of the backs of Delenn's thighs. "Delenn, may I touch you?" she pleaded.
"Yes," Delenn replied, and bent her leg as Mayan had earlier, opening herself.
Mayan reached between Delenn's legs and drew her finger from Delenn's spine all the way forward past her core to the centre of her new flower. It lay open already, as it always did. Delenn opened her mouth to tell Mayan about the little bud in the centre, but Mayan's fingers felt their way to it and rubbed in slow circles.
Pleasure shot through Delenn's body, tearing from her core straight up to her pounding heart. She gasped and her fingers curled inside Mayan. The sensitive petals rubbed and pulled at her fingers, trying to draw them in deeper, but Mayan's core was tight against just two fingers and Delenn knew that slow working would bring more enjoyment.
Though not more enjoyment than Mayan's fingers rolling over Delenn's bud. "Yes, yes, yes," Delenn said each time, and Mayan sped up, rolling her fingertips back and forth over the spot, each movement almost making Delenn's heart stop. The joy of it was striking and intimidate, not the slow build of her love making before the transformation. Delenn could feel something building as well. As Mayan touched her, she knew that it was leading to a height different than she'd ever felt before.
"Delenn, may I taste you?" Mayan asked, her own voice breathy and gasping from Delenn's touch.
"Yes," Delenn whispered.
Mayan rolled so that she too lay on her side, and pulled Delenn's hips towards her. She stopped circling Delenn's bud, and Delenn couldn't help sigh at the loss, even as she herself circled her fingers inside Mayan's core. She knew that Mayan would take three, and love the stretch and pull of it. She loved the way her petals would wrap around Delenn's little finger and thumb, trying to draw them in too, but Delenn would resist. Now that Mayan lay on her side, Delenn stroked up and down her spine again until Mayan's skin purpled and she nearly started to purr.
With all those distractions, Delenn didn't know how Mayan could focus or even move at all. Yet Mayan pressed her face between Delenn's parted thighs, her crest hard against soft skin, but warm and familiar. The tip of Mayan's tongue touched Delenn's bud, not nearly hard enough for Delenn's liking, but it carried a promise of more. In accordance with her request, Mayan licked across Delenn's flower, then thrust her tongue against her core, circling the rim. She licked again, then a third time, mixing her spit with Delenn's juices, and making Delenn tremble and moan. When her tongue wasn't long enough to enter Delenn, Mayan circled her core with a single finger.
"Yes," Delenn said, and moved her hand—already deep inside Mayan—in the same pattern.
Mayan pushed her finger inside Delenn, sending a dizzy tingling feeling all the way up her spine to the base of her crest, and at the same moment Mayan licked hard across Delenn's bud. They both laughed as one petal tried to wrap around Delenn's nose. Mayan's laughter against Delenn's flower made Delenn's breath catch, and she exhaled sharply. The warmth of her breath on Mayan's cool skin caused Mayan to gasp in turn, and she sucked sharply at Delenn's bud.
Their pleasure continued to grow on each other, until Mayan was moaning against Delenn's bud, her face buried so deeply that Delenn didn't know if she could breathe, while Delenn for her part pushed a third finger into Mayan as deeply as her hand would allow. The slender, quivering petals sucked and tugged at Delenn's hand as Mayan's hips began to roll against her touch. With each turn of Delenn's fingers inside her Mayan pushed up against her hand and her petals pulled down more sharply. When Delenn leaned in, a lock of her hair fell across Mayan's legs, and Mayan laughed again.
"Do you like how my hair feels?" Delenn asked. Mayan's mouth was spread wide across Delenn's flower, but Delenn could feel her nod, so she shook her hair free and finger-combed it so that it fell over Mayan's lower back like crystal chimes. Delenn nodded, and her hair played back and forth across Mayan's spine.
"Mmm," Mayan hummed against Delenn, and she pushed her own finger in and out of Delenn's core. Delenn was slick under her touch, had been slick long before being touched.
This body responded so eagerly to so little provocation. She'd wanted to spread herself under Mayan's touch the moment she'd seen Mayan sitting across from her. Delenn had felt the hot pressure growing within her at the mere mention of the ritual. She hadn't wanted to wait for the exchange of touches, she'd wanted Mayan to bring Delenn pleasure first of all.
But Delenn would not be controlled by this body or any other. She knew each feeling had its place, even when the least touch, the least breath of air, seemed to excite her.
This here now was the time to feel all that, and it sang through her. Her body felt like a plucked like lyre string, and each time Mayan touched her, she seemed to find a new note to draw out of Delenn. She sucked Delenn's bud between her lips and touched the edge of her teeth to it. The sharp cut of almost pain carried Delenn upwards to higher notes, and she knew that her fingers moved only spasmodically inside Mayan now.
"Yes, please, yes," Delenn said, though she didn't know what she wanted Mayan to do.
Mayan seemed to know at least. She sucked harder and ran her tongue over and over Delenn's bud until it seemed almost a blur. At the same time she thrust her finger in and out sharply in time with her tongue. It entered just to the first knuckle, but Delenn clenched around it, wishing she still had petals to pull it in.
"Yes," she said instead, and showed what she wanted by pushing deeper into Mayan and shaking her hair across Mayan's back.
"Mmmm," Mayan said again,and kept her tongue moving.
The sharp need, the closeness of it was too much to bear, and Delenn closed her eyes and pulled her lip between her teeth. She rubbed her full breasts against Mayan's stomach, trying to find more sensation when sensation overwhelmed her on every side. She could feel her pulse pounding in her throat, in her wrists, in her core against Mayan's finger.
"Yes," Delenn said in one long, slow exhalation as she rode over the top of her pleasure. Her core clenched around Mayan's finger, and now Mayan's every touch was both too much and not enough. Pleasure cascaded over her, and it seemed as though her very hair tingled with it.
Mayan let Delenn's bud escape her lips, but lapped her tongue across it as Delenn shuddered and sighed. Slowly the heat and lust became less overwhelming, but the glow of satisfaction remained, and the urge to feel more lay behind it.
Delenn's fingers had stilled inside Mayan, and she moved them again now. She rested her forehead on Mayan's hip and listened to the rise and fall of her breath and the little moans she made as Delenn stroked her. There was measure and patience to this, not the frantic faster faster faster that had drawn Delenn's new body out. Mayan's petals began to convulse around Delenn's fingers—stretching out up the her palm and almost reaching her wrist before they tightened back.
Mayan's tongue still lapped across Delenn's flower, but lazily now, almost sleepily. Mayan pulled her finger out of Delenn's core and sucked it clean, the very sound sending a deep swirl of arousal back over Delenn. She pushed it aside. It was not her time to pursue her own joy, but to find joy in Mayan's joy.
Her own heartbeat had slowed, but Delenn still felt a wash of satisfaction as she thrust her fingers deep into Mayan's core, rubbing her thumb around the rim at the same time. It caused Mayan's petals to flutter out wide, away from Delenn's hand, and then suddenly still. Mayan froze utterly in her moment of completion, and Delenn felt the dizzying feeling of both knowing what that felt like and knowing she would never quite feel it again. The alcove filled with the scent of Mayan's desire, mixed with the new smell of Delenn. She withdrew her hand, and Mayan's petals began to fold closed. They would seal Mayan's juices inside and protect the potential for new life, if such a thing were created.
"Yes,"Mayan said with easy satisfaction. She moved Delenn's hair before falling onto her back again. "You should come rest your head on me."
Delenn turned in the bed again, but lay beside Mayan, not quite touching her shoulder as they rested together. "Thank you, Shaal Mayan," Delenn said formally, which she knew would make Mayan laugh.
It did. "Thank you, Satai Delenn," Mayan replied with equal courtesy, though she could not hide the mirth in her voice. Her face was wet, so Delenn kissed Mayan's cheeks and her nose and finally her mouth. She tasted herself, no longer sharp and sweet like a Lanwood, but like the salt sea in the high summer sun, when it warmed at the equators. There was a sweetness of its own kind, and Delenn ran her tongue over Mayan's lips to get a better taste of it.
"Do you like your new body?" Mayan asked. She wrapped a strand of Delenn's hair around her finger and flicked at the ends.
"It has much to recommend it," Delenn said, speaking playfully but not dishonestly. "I miss some things, but have gained others. You seem very familiar with the pleasures of human women."
"Oh, yes," Mayan said, and smiled at Delenn. Her whole face was lit with delight, both from their time together, and from some recent memory. "I was on Earth last year."
"I remember," Delenn said. There had been a whole slew of new poetry, mostly sent in half-thoughts and fragments, sometimes via diplomatic courier.
Mayan flicked the ends of Delenn's hair again, then grinned and trailed them over the point of Delenn's breast. Delenn shuddered and felt herself begin to warm all over again.
"Well," Mayan continued. "I read a poem for a collective of human women in a city with a big orange bridge right across the entrance to its waterways. They do not have icebergs like we do, it seems."
"And these human women who listened to your poems..." Delenn left space for Mayan to complete the sentence.
"Several of them said they were part of a group that believed in privileging sensuality above all other things. They invited me to one of their rituals." Mayan flicked the hair over Delenn's other nipple. "It was very different than our rituals of pleasure."
Delenn had wanted to ask Susan about those, but had sensed a reticence about anything related to sex with so many humans. She could not deny that she would enjoy touching Susan and learning what made cry out and ask for more. "Did you enjoy it?" Delenn asked, turning her thoughts away from her friend.
"Oh yes," Mayan said. "I found it overwhelming, but educational."
"I am grateful for your knowledge," Delenn said, and kissed Mayan's nose.
"You are most welcome," Mayan replied. She unwound Delenn's hair from around her finger and studied it. "I should write a poem about this."
Delenn flopped onto her back. "You told me you would do that the first time, and I have spent thirty cycles wondering if in the end it was the one about the lanwood forest or the reflection of a sunrise on an icefield."
Mayan laughed. "You should have asked. It was the one about the gogs."
"Oh, no!" Delenn said, remembering it well. In retrospect, it made far too much sense. "You may not write about a poem about this."
"No?"
"I forbid you."
Mayan rolled on top of Delenn and planted her hands on Delenn's shoulders. "Perhaps I might convince you?"
"You might try," Delenn agreed.
"I feel there is yet more exploration to be done" Mayan's knee parted Delenn's legs and pressed up between them. "For example, have you considered what might happen if I touched my flower against yours?"
"Yes," Delenn said, and then they found out.
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Date: 2019-02-12 04:39 pm (UTC)Somehow I doubt I'll find words to do justice to how much I love this. But this is amazing. I mean sensual is one thing, and sensual with their dynamic really well done and Mayan's gog poem?
Also, I really love "I am afraid that I don't have the proper oils," Delenn said apologetically. just this "sorry, I didn't prepare for this" and then Mayan telling her that she did... <3 Truly delighful. :)
trying to find more sensation when sensation overwhelmed her on every side. Oh and this one... just... (I will need to post this comment quickly, lest I lose my nerve!)
So:
"I forbid you."
Mayan rolled on top of Delenn and planted her hands on Delenn's shoulders. "Perhaps I might convince you?"
"You might try," Delenn agreed.
This is actually my all time favorite, because it's just wonderful and perfect, and I really enjoy seeing them playful at this point.
Amazing work. Thank you so much for sharing this with us.
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Date: 2019-02-12 05:59 pm (UTC)I'm really glad you liked it. I love this pairing.
(Nenya and I swapped days, so I had to push forward something I had more or less ready. Will do the Jeff/Michael one another time, I guess.)
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Date: 2019-02-12 06:29 pm (UTC)I really love all the little touches of ritual among them, and the hinted-at Otherness that Delenn now is (like how she still feels strange being in a flat bed). I love that Mayan is really not bothered by it and is in fact intrigued. Open-minded Mayan is just so great!! It's maybe an anthropocentric assumption to make but I feel like the artistic creators and visionaries among us are always the more eager to expand their horizons. So it really suits her character, being such a poet and being such a creative spirit, to not shy away from getting her feet wet but rather plunge right in without even an explicit invitation (but certainly one that is welcome!). I just love it. In fact there's a lot of fantastic little Mayan Moments here for her characterisation, like how she comes prepared with oils (because of course she does, this is literally the reason she came, for this express purpose), how she's been to earth and *ahem* already sampled its pleasures (bless). You do her voice (and Delenn's, ofc!) real justice in this piece, I can hear them both really clearly in the dialogue.
"Is it not meant to follow a change from one way of being to another?" -- ahah when you boil it down everything is a rebirth ceremony. EVERYTHING! I joke but the detail about this particular ritual is really great, how you frame it as like a foil to the shan-fall in specific. I'll admit that to read 'flower' is difficult but the thing is, it really seems like there's no other better way to describe the Minbari genitalia, and I love that you go into such detail about it (nine petals, where precisely they become slick, that the petals have some kind of proprioception/muscular motions of their own, etc). The anatomy is really cool and I'd love to read more about it :D
Delenn stood naked before Mayan as she had stood before no other since her transformation, not even Lennier. While her aide had clothed her when she emerged huddled and unsure, for Mayan, she could show herself with perhaps even a hint of that old brazenness. Delenn stood with her legs apart and her hands at her sides, and waiting while Mayan studied her from toe to crest. Mayan circled her for a moment, not touching her, but the intensity of Mayan's gaze felt like fingers on skin, and Delenn shivered and felt too warm at the same moment. so after some (lots) of deliberation I think this is my favourite paragraph. It was such a great paragraph for so many reasons. my god. I am slain. help me. it's the perfect intimacy for them and you really nailed it. I like that Mayan has seen this side of her before anyone else, and that Mayan helps bring out that old brazenness. It's a lot of new stuff, mingled with a lot of old stuff, and it works well as a microcosm of the whole work's meaning. (Plus it's super sexy to have Mayan eye her like a feast.)
I also love the imagery of Delenn with season 2 hair, with her hair up, and then down over Mayan's back. <3333 just beautiful
And everything after that was so lush and lovely. thank you so much for writing this and sharing it!!
(btw I hope it's ok to leave this comment here, I wasn't sure if you would prefer to have comments at this comm, or on your personal, or on ao3, in case you like to keep track of them, say. ao3 does such a good job of that, too. just let me know if you'd prefer that I move it and I will!)
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Date: 2019-02-13 09:00 am (UTC)Everything IS a rebirth ceremony, isn't it? :D
*slips back out*
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Date: 2019-02-15 09:42 pm (UTC)Thanks so much for the wonderful comment! I'm enjoying having them on DW. Feels retro!
I just love the possibilities of the religious caste essentially having a poet order so much, and love that we got one on screen (thank you DC Fontana!). Also going to City Lights and getting laid by a lesbian sex club is entirely what happened on her Earth trip (if anyone thinks there isn't a City Lights in 2268, I don't want to hear it).
Sorry about flower. It was Georgia O'Keeffe or make up a Minbari word, so everyone gets soft willows as the lesser of two evils.
I always wanted more about Delenn's emotional life around her change. We get that great shot of her mostly ignoring Lennier while she looks in the mirror, but mostly she's so interior and self assured (outwardly) that it's left to Mira's acting (with is great! but!). Anyway, this is my take. I'm glad you liked it.
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Date: 2019-02-17 12:38 pm (UTC)Ahaha, no fault, only praise!!
I always wanted more about Delenn's emotional life around her change. We get that great shot of her mostly ignoring Lennier while she looks in the mirror, but mostly she's so interior and self assured (outwardly) that it's left to Mira's acting (with is great! but!).
We Just watched this ep on the stream last Friday and I see exactly what you mean. It's also possible she's still kind of in shock and is processing the change even just for herself - maybe a week passes before she starts feeling more conflicted emotions about it. Delenn strikes me as being extremely self-aware about spiritual, psychological, and physical things, so I definitely feel like she would pick up on even the slightest differences. It's really great to have a whole fic about them :D
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Date: 2019-02-17 04:27 pm (UTC)It's interesting that we never, to my memory see Delenn talk about what she must have lost with the change. She always has to defend it, and never has anyone close enough to talk about her feelings. Maybe she just never looked back.