Work Text:
After her first jump-scare attempt at a meet cute, Feferi starts visiting the end of Jade’s comforter on the regular. Jade isn’t sure if she stays for the conversation or so she can ask Jade to explain earth ocean for her own amusement. Alternia ocean is vast and deep, dark at the edges, the same temperature as Feferi’s blood. Earth ocean (some how) “Sounds cramped” and is “Not salty enough”. Together they have conversations that go like this:
Jade goes, “What exactly are you laughing at??”
Feferi is like, “Do you sea-riously have green seaweed? No wonder you blew up your own planet! Any other sensible person would have.”
[Studio laughter.
Jade huffs, fakes offense, and starts a fight. Somebody is eventually punched in their jaw.
Rinse and repeat; scene.]
- Aside from staggering amounts of ocean-related racism, Jade does enjoy the company. She has never had an exceedingly close relationship with any of the trolls, bar Karkat. Feferi is fair-skinned, pale grey and smooth at the joints, dotted with dark freckles that stretch across the bridge of her flat nose. She smells like crusted sea salt all the time, and makes Jade brush the bits of hair at the back of her head that she can’t get at. It’s like having sleepovers, except the other girl was never actually invited and is a space alien, and on the Intergalactic Space Alien Kinsey Scale, Feferi peixes scores incredibly high.
She spends a lot of time underneath the sea because she was made for it. She has soft, tender skin underneath her large, round eyes: bioluminescent patches that turn maroon under dark light. She has two, perfectly slanting horns that slope to meet the curve of her skull. Feferi Peixes is creepily, and eerily beautiful. When Jade asks her why her skin isn’t permanently wrinkled over, Feferi scrunches up her nose and says, “What the fuck are you talkin’ about?” Her accent is thick on the letter ‘r’ in particular: “are” sounds, suspiciously, like “oar”.
For all that they’re different from each other, sometimes, they find similarities. They have the same kind of hair: black, thick, easily tangled. Feferi is endlessly fascinated by the hair that grows thick and dark under Jade’s arms, and on her legs.
“It’s actually unattractive,” Jade says blandly, both arms stretched out in front of her as Feferi examines the fine hairs on her wrists, “In earth culture, I mean. women aren’t supposed to have hair on anything except their heads, or they’re ugly.”
“Well that’s stupid, because you’re the most beautiful human I know.” Feferi pinches a hair between her claws, and tugs it out at the root; Jade yelps, jerks her arm back.
The conversations turn swiftly to makeshift biology lessons. Jade finds herself having to explain things like sunburn, and pimples, and fingerprints, to somebody that has never heard of any of it before. Feferi, in turn, allows Jade to look at her fins and the soft skin that stretches, transparent between her fingers. She talks Jade through the extra air sacs tucked in neatly underneath her gills, which at least explains why she sounds like a dolphin being violently strangled if she laughs too suddenly, or inhales too hard.
Shit gets super real the day Jade takes her shirt off.
She sits back on her bed and works it off over her head, scooping her hair out of the way and exposes for Feferi’s inspection: two (2) broad, dark shoulders, her bare breasts (2), her belly button (1); a treasure trove of previously unexplored human features. Until that moment, none of it had been sexual in nature. None of the talking, the poking and prodding at each other; it had always felt more like a scientific version of ‘I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours’.
The first thing Feferi does is wet her mouth.
“Now you have to take yours off too,” Jade says, pushing her glasses up a little high on the bridge of her nose. She’s never felt uncomfortable being naked, but Feferi’s careful stare makes her feel strangely put upon. “So that it’s fair.”
“No.”
“Why!”
“Because.” Feferi scoots in close, and puts her palms on Jade’s hips, frowning at them. “Wow, you’re so... sticky outy.”
“Gee, thanks. It’s so i can have a baby if I want.”
Feferi kisses her.
It’s awkward, and terrible. She surges forward too hard, the moment almost a lunge, and her jagged teeth connect soundly with Jade’s chin. Jade flinches, shoulders tensing; Feferi sucks the mauled skin firmly, her mouth rounding up, over Jade’s lower lip.
Jade says, “Did you seriously kiss me right after I talked about babies? That’s so hot.”
Feferi goes, “Your breath stinks.”
They sit up a little straighter. Jade tucks a strand of escaped hair behind her ear, and tries to radiate patience. “Okay Feferi, that is not how you kiss people.”
“Yes it is,” Feferi says, accusatory, “This is how i’d kiss anybody.”
“I think that’s how you’d kiss anybody who didn’t mind being bitten on the chin!”
“I was being romantic!”
“You were being shit,” Jade insists, enthusiastic. “Let me have a go.”
So they try kissing a little more. It’s all over the place; a little too wet on Jade’s side, but Feferi seems to not mind. Her hands on Jade’s hips rub in slow, tentative circles. Feferi isn't bad at kissing, but she does seem to be kissing as if Jade is also a troll. Teeth are present for a lot longer than Jade finds she cares for, not to mention the way Feferi keeps pressing her fingers one by one into Jade's ribs as if she expects a reaction.
They break apart, and Feferi looks pleased. "You're just as bad at this as i am!"
"Pardon?" Jade says, breathless. She gives Feferi's shirt a customary tug in reply. "You gotta take this off now! You are cheating."
"Okay! Okay."
Off comes Feferi’s shirt. Jade’s eyes are drawn immediately (perhaps predictably, considering Feferi’s embarrassed cough) to the thin slits of skin scoring both her sides. They’re fringed with maroon, delicate, and folded into Feferi’s hips. When she inhales, they flutter, like nervous grey butterflies. Jade touches one very gently with the tip of her finger, and this makes Feferi kiss her again.
This time, they’re experts. This time, Jade understands Feferi’s insistent pressure upon her waist. She gently guides Feferi’s hands up to her chest instead. Feferi presses both thumbs immediately into her nipples, and shrieks on Jade’s mouth when the delicate skin puckers under the attention.
“Gross! Oh my god, stop doing that!”
“I can’t help it when you’re making me do it!”
“I didn’t make you do anything! stop blaming me for the things your creepy bits are doing!”
They kiss some more. Jade feels the rhythm of 1) smooching; 2) disturbing human body related revelation; 3) more smooching is becoming a little more natural now. She has been experimenting on and off with ghosting her fingers up Feferi’s side, something that makes Feferi do full body shivers against her. Feferi keeps doing these little low clicks and pops that sound like they’re coming right out of the back of her throat. They make the hair on Jade’s arms stand up.
This time, she stops the kiss. “Feferi, have you ever had sex before?”
“Duh,” Feferi says, then adds, “I have no idea what you’re talkin’ about.”
That answers that question. In reply, Jade raises an eyebrow, and starts to draw her skirt back, lifting it off her knees. “What I mean is: is it okay if I do this?” Feferi nods furiously, so Jade straightens up on her knees and pulls her skirt and underwear right down in one, no-nonsense movement. She kicks everything off her ankles and away, turning to watch it slither off the edge of the bed. For a moment, she can’t look at Feferi.
“I should have known you’d have hair down here too.” Jade looks back sharply; Feferi’s fumbling with her own skirt, pulling the black waistband down over her thighs. “Though I think without it, you’d look kind of the same!”
And they probably would. Feferi’s flat hips descend into a bony V shape that snakes down between the tops of her thighs. She grabs Jade’s hand and brings it to her, lets her trace over the tough bit of - bone? cartilage? It’s hard to the touch, almost shell-like. “My bone bulge,” Feferi tells her, introducing it proudly. The bone bulge extends slightly outward from her body, in a smooth, grey arch.
“It’s, uh. Big,” says Jade, unsure of what she should say. Feferi beams at her. Jade traces the shape of it with her fingers, letting her hand extend, palm up, down and between Feferi’s legs. “You're going to have to walk me through this,” she explains, embarrassed but intrigued, “Because I have no idea what I'm doing.”
“I kinda figured!” Feferi sits up a little more, and shifts her hips, taking Jade’s wrist and pushing her fingers back a little further. She's so smooth, even down here, right up until Jade feels her fingers dip inward just ahead of a hard bit of bone.
“Oh,” she says, almost relieved, and presses a finger gently against the small opening. “Oh, okay. This is exactly the same as me!”
“Is it?” Feferi has both her hands flat on Jade’s shoulders, hips angled towards her. She sounds out of breath now. “So you have a nook too?”
“Yeah. Wait, what? Oh my god, no.” Her middle finger slides in easily now that she knows where it should be going. “Mine is called a vagina.”
“That's a gross word.”
“Geez Feferi, is there anything about me that isn’t gross?”
“I just said the hair on your legs is quite nice, didn’t I??”
“That's the last thing you should find attractive about me! And I cannot believe you are arguing with me while I'm fingering you!”
Finally, she abruptly shuts up, and Jade starts up a rhythm of dragging her fingers in and out. Feferi’s nook is lined with soft little ridges that pulse with arousal when touched. She contracts, squeezes hard around Jade’s fingers, and it hurts but it also makes Jade shiver, a little thrill of hot energy trailing down her stomach and in between her legs. When she curls her hand and crooks her fingers as if beckoning, Feferi groans, and leans right into her.
“Ugh, too much!”
“Shit!” Jade says, “Sorry.” She makes the movements as light as possible but Feferi shudders and shakes her head, tugging on her wrist. Jade’s fingers come out feeling slippery, and she presses them together, rubbing forefinger against thumb. Feferi looks kind of tired. Her smile is lazy, hair fucked up at the back from all the pre-sex make-outs.
“What, you’re done?? Wow, that didn't take long.”
“Clam it.” Feferi is pink at the tips of her fins, along the flat of her collarbone: the same colour as the stuff on Jade’s fingers, now that she’s able to better examine them.
"Things are goin' to change now."
"Probably." She's never done anything like this before, with anybody. She liked it. "I don't mind, though."
Before Feferi can stop her, she puts both fingers in her mouth.