Sanguine

the next morning

“Why the hell am I doing this again?” asked the human girl, seeming concerned. Tessla sighed, once more glancing over her new lover’s darker-pigmented skin, her unseemly and unfeminine muscles, her large feet which didn’t so much walk as clod their way across the ground as though they didn’t belong to it, as though they didn’t spring from the womb of the earth, as though they weren’t made of the same clay as the rest of the planet. Humans were always so clumsy, noisy, and arrogant, as though they owned the planet they belonged to, as though…
Tessla found a silly grin working its way onto her face as she gazed in her lover’s eyes, however. Silly, impertinent, arrogant, and masculine as her lover might be.. Tess couldn’t help but find herself desiring nothing more than to spend the day in her arms.
Which was why she’d dragged the clumsier girl out for breakfast.
“Shut up and open your mouth,” grins Tess, tucking some stray hair behind her ear. Her grin only grew as she saw the human girl’s face begin to turn red, her loud mouth opening to chew Tess out as the slimmer girl slid her spoon into Meg’s mouth, letting her taste the tangy tartness of the lemon. She let the girl swallow before feeding her a second spoonful of her lemon pie (dairy-free; it was wondrous what they could do with fruit juices and tofu); as the human swallowed, she spoke again. “That’s what you’re like, to me. Tart, slightly sour, but ultimately delicious.”
“I had no idea the caf could do requests…” mumbled Meg, unsure how to take the compliment. Tess laughed, loving the look of puzzlement on her lover’s face.
“They don’t, usually. But I can’t eat your cruel human food, so they’re instructed to give me whatever I want. Cool, huh?”
The other girl merely sighed, closing her eyes and sitting back, hanging her head in her hands. “Tess…”
Tessla sighed, sitting back in her own chair, feeling her good mood and elation fade. “Look. I know, you’re going to say it’s wrong, you’re not a lesbian, blah blah. I’ve heard it all before. You have to understand, I’m not a human. In my culture, love among women is the utmost purest form of love.”
“..it is?” asks Meg, blinking. “But, it doesn’t lead to babies, how can it be…”
“Oh, we do that too,” corrected Tess, hurridly. “It’s just… among your kind, you put the men in charge, right? And look what happened. It’s been proven that men have a biological need to kill, rape, murder, maim, and oppress anyone with a slightly different outlook on life. Women, on the other hand, have a biological imperative to nurture and protect. Sex between a man and a woman, then, is a force of wills, wherein to be satisfied – and produce a child – the man has to dominate and plunder his conquest, usually with little to no thought for her satisfaction. Sex between women, however… both parties want to care for and nurture the other, so it’s more gentle and loving. The purest form.”
Meg blinked a few times. “Tess.. that’s…”
“I know it’s strange to you,” she began, only to be cut off by the human girl.
“No, Tess, it’s complete and utter shit!” Meg pushed her chair back from the table loudly. “I won’t be party to this.. this… slander!”
Tessla was stunned. Were human girls really that stupid and shallow, that they’d believe any male hetero-centric propaganda over the plain and simple truth? She could overlook the girl’s barbarous consumption of the remains of living creatures, mercilessly slaughtered for their unneeded and wasteful consumption, but this? Could she truly prefer hairy, smelly, disgusting, uncouth, burly, clumsy, domineering, deceitful MEN to the gentle touch of a woman? Tessla looked over Meg once more, taking in every detail – the way she stood, legs apart, shoulders back, hands balled into fists; the way she walked, as though her hips didn’t exist, as though she owned not only the room but the whole wide world; her hair pulled roughly back into a ponytail, with no attempt to style or even conditioner it..
“You’re just like them!” blurted Tess, startled. “You not only buy into the hereto-male-centric worldview, you want to be a man!”
Meg’s surely eloquent retort was cut off by the clearing of a throat from the doorway. Tessla looked up to see a man standing there, his elven features marred by obvious human blood that thickened his lines, dulled his features, and destroyed his intrinsic beauty; even the avian wings seemed tacked on as an afterthought, though his blond hair was at least clean, unlike most human men. The half-man spoke softly, but his voice easily carried to their table near the door:
“Sorry to interrupt your startling discovery, ladies, but we have bigger issues.”