Chapter Text
Helena Eagan felt the suffering of her heritage as she moved through the world. Every morning she opened her eyes in a body that now only felt partly hers and she was sure at any moment she could climb out of her skin, leaving the other parts of her behind. The Helly parts of her. She was trapped now, burning from the inside out.
She was out of options. Options that didn't leave her at the mercy of her family. Of her name. There was only one person she could think to call in her desperation. Someone that could hate her more than she could hate herself.
A sharp rap at her apartment door drew her attention out of her thoughts. Helena opened it to the unmistakable smirk of Harmony Cobel.
"Have you changed your ways, Ms. Eagan?"
Helena tried to volley her own insult back. To keep up the ever present sparring that she had shared with Harmony Cobel since long before they both understood it. Instead she just crossed her arms over her stomach and stared at the older woman across from her.
Raising an eyebrow, Harmony stepped farther into the apartment, purposely brushing against the other woman as she stalked into the room. Helena's reaction betrayed her, she stiffened at the contact and let out a shaky breath.
This was the start of the real game. Harmony Cobel was a shark and there was blood in the water. "Helena Eagan in a moment of weakness?" One finger trailed from shoulder blade down the back of an arm, pulling her arm out from its protective placement, gliding to the fingers that Helly had threatened on the severed floor.
"Lumon requires your devotion" Helena began.
Harmony barked a laugh but her interest was piqued. She came to stand in front of Helena who, even barefoot, was taller than the older woman in her sensible heels. One finger came to rest in the hollow of Helena's throat and she hoped the hum that rose out of her wasn't palpable.
"You will give me what I want" Harmony leaned close to Helena's ear, the hot breath tickling its shell, "and I will fulfill my obligations to this work."
Helena gave an almost imperceptible nod and the air in the room shifted. Stepping back slightly, Harmony's hand reached the buttons on a silk shirt and one by one they fell open. Helena's breathing hitched with each new expanse of exposed skin.
The rest of her clothing followed suit, leaving Helena naked in front of a covered counterpart. As she reached up to touch Harmony, the woman gently pushed her hand away and pointed her toward the couch. "Sit" came the command.
Helena sat down on the edge of the sofa, trying to hide the tremble in her hands as she rested them on her knees. This was her last chance to change course, her last chance to come to her senses and do what was expected of her.
"What do you want, Helena?" Harmony asked her, for once not forcefully or cruelly. When had anyone ever asked her that? The tension in the room balanced on a knife's edge.
"Make me feel…" Helena whispered, "I just want to feel."
Harmony sank to her knees before her and gently spread Helena's legs. She was already so wet that if she could think clearly, she would have been embarrassed. Her breath was coming in shallow pants as Harmony lowered her head. With the devotion of someone approaching an altar, Harmony pressed her mouth to Helena and prayed. Her ministrations were unrelenting, licking, sucking and biting until she had run out of air. This was martyrdom.
She crashed three fingers into Helena without warning, drawing a strangled cry. The pain mixed with the pure ecstasy coursed through her and she felt it all build deep in her stomach. There was nothing outside of this moment, no person other than this. This was reality. This was hers.
Helena's hands were buried deep in silver hair as every thrust left a sting in its wake. Every nerve in her body was alive. Every synapse in her brain was deliciously hers. Helly couldn't have this. She would never know this feeling of being utterly consumed. All of the expectations of being Helena Eagan were gone and in their absence was the truth. In this one moment of transcendence she had changed.
Harmony's nails raked down Helena's thighs as their eyes locked through the haze that surrounded them. Helena was thoroughly undone — hair wild, skin flushed red and hot, sweat beading down her brow and chest. She marveled at the woman before her, face and hands slick and with a fire in her eyes that set Helena ablaze yet again.
The sensations passed the threshold of overwhelming into all consuming as her vision began to go white. "Please, please, please" became a chant as Helena rested on the edge of oblivion.
"Take it. Feel it." Harmony seemed to sing as she pushed farther, deeper, "This is who you are, who you are meant to be."
She was grasping, clutching at Harmony's shirt, her skin, her hair. Anywhere that Helena could find purchase she dug her fingers in to keep herself from floating away. She could hear a sobbing that was ripping up her throat from deep within.
This was heaven. This was hell. This was the beginning and the end. Helena had never known passion until that moment.
The strength was draining from her as the tears within her began to subside. She was still in Harmony's arms, being held in a way that she wished she had been by Mark. By someone who knew her. And who did know her now?
Every light touch to her hair, her brow, the soft shushing sounds that fell from Harmony's lips as as cradled the younger woman — this was reverence, this was worship, this was knowing.
"Harmony I —" Helena's throat was raw from the cries of pleasure and pain. A kiss stopped her, pressed against her temple. The only one they had shared. Helena's brain was finally quiet. She felt all of herself, she was in control.
Wordlessly, Helena wrapped her arms around Harmony's neck and pulled their bodies flush together. She felt strong. She felt whole.
"Brilliant one…" Harmony whispered into Helena's hair.
Helena Eagan was herself again and Harmony Cobel was done with being set aside.