Work Text:
Another New Year’s Eve.
Another day spent working in the office for Symboli Rudolf.
She yawned, her reading glasses perched on the tip of her nose as she flipped through a stack of proposals and documents, a combination of student petitions, school permission forms, and requests from the official board of that URA that she was somehow supposed to be the one to sort out. Her eyes traced the black words on white paper back and forth, and she thumbed immediately to the next page when she had skimmed and signed the contents.
Air Groove was sitting on the couch in front of Rudolf’s desk, reading a gardening magazine. “Are you really not going out to celebrate the new year? Spend some time with your Trainer?”
Rudolf shook her head. “Trainer’s gone to the night market with Teio. I doubt they’ll be back for a while, though I’m not sure endorsing a lack of sleep is something I or Trainer should be admitting to.” She pressed the back of her pen to her lips gently as she looked over the next paper. “What about you? Should you not be enjoying the festivities yourself?”
“I thought I’d accompany you,” Air Groove replied. “Help ease some of the workload.”
Rudolf leaned over the desk, peering at the page of that magazine Air Groove was reading: a short article about growing posies. “Well,” she said, beginning to chuckle at her own joke before it even left her mouth, “You’re doing a posie-tively amazing job of that right now.”
Air Groove immediately craned her neck back and shot her a frosty glare colder than the snowy climate outdoors. Unfortunately, Rudolf, who had spent years telling jokes that landed poorly at the Empress’ feet, was not even remotely deterred or bullied into shame by Air Groove’s expression. She simply continued smiling until Air Groove let out a huff and turned away. “I’m taking a break. If you wish for assistance, you are free to call me over.”
Rudolf let out a satisfied hum and continued her battle with the documents, but was surprised by Air Groove speaking up again after only a couple of minutes. “How long are you planning to stay here?”
“Until the work is finished, of course.” Rudolf sized up the ginormous stack of papers remaining. “That’ll be a while, I presume.”
“Well,,,” Air Groove hesitated, and then reached under the couch. “I think I may have something to help you get through the night.”
She rummaged inside of it, hand swishing carefully inside as if scared to disturb the contents. Rudolf set down her pen and watched as Air Groove extracted from the bag a shiny bottle of red wine. It was clearly the expensive kind, with a French label lettered in gold. It was sealed with a traditional-looking cork, a detailed carving of a horsegirl in a sprint etched into the top. Air Groove held it gently with both hands as if wrapping her fingers around a mug of tea, careful as to not damage it even slightly.
A slight crease graced Rudolf’s brow, though the strictness of her words that came with it were mostly for show. “Alcohol consumption is strictly prohibited on school grounds.”
“You and I both know that the rules don’t apply to us anymore,” Air Groove said, though her gaze shifted left and right guiltily. She had always been the one that cared the most about rules on the council. Rudolf, on the other hand, wasn’t afraid to argue away ones she found unreasonable, from the famous Oguri Cap exception to the ban on white rice in the cafeteria that may have caused more uproar than the former.
And so, she sat there, admiring the wine that had now been carefully placed onto her desk as Air Groove rose from the couch, moving to lock the door of the office. She turned her back and leaned against it, a slight smile appearing on her face. “There.”
Rudolf raised an eyebrow. “Where did you get this from?”
“My mother gave it to me. She went on a trip to France a few weeks ago.” Air Groove returned to lounge on the couch, taking out two small wine glasses from her bag as well and setting them on the desk behind her. She blew at the rim of them, scattering a tiny cloud of dust, and then finally procured a cork remover. With a pop, the beautifully made cork was yanked out of the bottle, spreading the faintly sour scent of the wine across the room.
Red liquid trickled slowly into the glasses, Air Groove’s eyebrows knitted in concentration, afraid to spill a single drop. When she finished, she exhaled gently, and slid one of the glasses across the desk to Rudolf. “Happy New Year, President Rudolf.”
Rudolf took the glass gingerly and reached out to accept Air Groove’s toast. “Happy New Year, Vice Prez.”
The wine burned slightly going on her throat, like most alcohol did. Rudolf wasn’t a heavy drinker, unlike Maruzensky, who could often be found chatting at bars with Tazuna, cocktail in hand. She could still appreciate the notes of the wine, though, its expensive, slightly fruity taste filling her mouth. Her senses became a little blurred at the edges as she continued through the stack of papers, but more so pleasantly than dangerously. She prided herself on her sharp gaze and expert reflexes in a race and in the office, but right now she felt safe enough to let them go.
Ever so often, she shot glances at Air Groove, who was drinking much more generously than she was. In fact, she’d finished her first glass and was starting on her second, cheeks slightly flushed. Her usually pent-up energy, with the square shoulders and forward gaze, seemed to dissipate as her muscles relaxed from the alcohol. She let out a soft hum once in a while, her hands moving more sluggishly against the magazine with each turn of the page.
Maybe around ten minutes later, Air Groove dropped the magazine onto her chest, face-down. “Come here,” she slurred, reaching an arm towards the ceiling and then flicking it in Rudolf’s direction.
Rudolf would have never thought Air Groove a lightweight, but from the way her vice president’s eyes were glassy and her cheeks were redder than when she didn’t understand an expertly crafted pun, she could draw no other conclusion. Hesitating for a moment, she stood from her desk, legs aching from sitting down for the better half of the day, and walked over to the other side of the couch, facing Air Groove directly.
Air Groove had abandoned all of her empress-like tendencies. She had pulled the collar of her uniform slightly free, revealing the slightest hint of her collarbone. She had her legs kicked up on the armrest of the couch, her head, lolling back a little with her hair mussed. When she saw Rudolf approach, her murky gaze sharpened into what could best be described as a stare of determination.
She reached up, and with one fluid motion, yanked Rudolf forward by the collar.
Rudolf’s heart nearly stopped in her chest as she and Air Groove were suddenly inches away from each other, so close that she could feel the heat of Air Groove’s breath on her cheeks. “Do you…” Air Groove panted. “Want to do something stupid?”
Rudolf, eloquent with her words and able to recite a hundred jokes a minute, was suddenly stunned into speechlessness. She was holding herself up with one hand against the back of the sofa and one against the cushioned seat, leaving as much space as possible between her and Air Groove. If she reached up to free herself from Air Groove’s grasp, one sudden movement could send her falling on top of her. So she was stuck there in a precariously balanced position, face blazing hot and heart pounding. “You’ve drunk too much.”
“I’m bored,” Air Groove said, and in her voice there was the lilt of a whine. “Don’t you wish we could go back to those days where we were actually reckless? Where adrenaline pumped through our veins day and night and we didn’t have to babysit children and read documents?”
Rudolf swallowed. Air Groove’s breath, her perfectly-shaped lips parting inches from hers, was bound to be distracting to anyone. The combination of their close proximity and her tipsiness made it hard to think. “Everyone looks back fondly on the old days…” she started. “But we have our jobs now, and I have no qualms against my current position.”
“I suppose not,” Air Groove said, “But being the student council president doesn’t mean you have to lose that spark in you.”
“What do you want, Air Groove?” Rudolf asked with a huff. “The melancholy preaching seems a little out of character.”
“Isn’t it obvious?” Air Groove used her other hand to roughly yank away the ribbon tied to the front of her uniform, tossing it over her head and onto the ground. Her collar was left limp and exposed, her uniform falling loose around her shoulders as she tilted her body to reveal a swathe of soft, milky skin. “ Emperor .”
Something about being called Emperor in that tone of voice sent a tingle down Rudolf’s spine. She tried her best not to stare at Air Groove’s bare skin, but her eyes kept hovering back to her long neck and collarbone. “I…see.”
“You see ?” Air Groove repeated, expression suddenly as stern as when she chased down students for scribbling graffiti onto the school’s historic brick walls. “I’ve always thought you quite the charmer, Emperor. I think you can muster up something better than that.”
Rudolf had an intensely competitive streak. Without it, she wouldn’t have won as many crowns as she had, swept as many races as she had. But her competitiveness had always been laced with rationality, her ambition etched into clear goals. Her impulses were reserved for the race itself, not for the deciding actions that came before it. And yet…the alcohol amplified the roaring fire of competition in her chest tenfold until it burned away all that could be considered rationality. Air Groove had somehow managed to provoke her, of all things.
She let go of the sofa and let herself fall, only to catch herself at the last minute by putting her hands by Air Groove’s head. Slowly, she leaned in until she was less than an inch away from the other Umamusume’s ears, which she could feel twitch underneath the heat of her mouth. “I’m flattered to know you find me charming, Empress .”
Air Groove’s eyes were wide, tear ducts glimmering. She looked at once bullied and proud, her mouth curving slowly into a smile. Rudolf reached over and brushed a long strand of dark hair from her face and leaned back on her haunches. Her face slid to Air Groove’s mouth, but she purposefully delivered a kiss not directly onto her lips, but at the sharp curve of her jaw.
Air Groove let out another one of those pleasant hums. “You’re good at this,” she admitted.
“Good to know I match your groove, Air Groove.” Rudolf couldn’t resist sliding in another joke, but this time Air Groove didn’t even react in revulsion, instead distracted by the series of kisses Rudolf began planting on her neck.
“Am I the first girl you’ve kissed like this?” Air Groove asked. “certainly not, right?”
“What would you prefer I say?” Rudolf said, hands on Air Groove’s shoulders now as she sucked on the place between neck and shoulder, leaving Air Groove gasping and a red mark behind. She brushed her lips down to Air Groove’s collarbone, this time prying at it with her teeth.
“Nothing,” Air Groove said, voice strangled. “Just…” she reached over and grabbed the back of Rudolf’s head, yanking her towards her own face again. Rudolf’s eyes flared wide, before her mouth twitched in a smile. Although Rudolf herself had been quite hot-blooded in her youth, taking a specific liking to demure, elegantly composed girls at times, Air Groove was an Empress in her own right. Of course she wouldn’t just let Rudolf have her way with her.
She let the rough hand at the back of her head pull her down as their lips crashed together. The taste of wine mingled twice over between their mouths, combined with other things Air Groove had eaten throughout the day—mints, honeyed pastries, and the faintly floral scent of her lipstick. Rudolf couldn’t resist pressing harder, completely atop Air Groove now, their chests pressed so close that their hearts intertwined in each other’s rhythm.
The Three Goddesses had certainly inspired a lethal beauty upon Air Groove’s face, since Rudolf had to break away from her kiss just to admire her features. Bold eyebrows and long lashes, combined with a sharply feminine seriousness that still clung to the edges of her frazzled, drunken expression. Rudolf used the lighter brush of her fingertips to trace a line down one of her cheeks, gentle enough to tickle. She made it all the way down to Air Groove’s lips again, before applying more pressure and thumbing away a drop of wine that still hung at its corner.
“You’ve surprised me today, Empress,” she chuckled.
Air Groove’s eyebrows raised. “Oh?”
She suddenly pulled herself up, closing the gap between their mouths again. While in the kiss, Air Groove pushed down on Rudolf’s chest, reversing their positions so that now Rudolf was using the armrest as a headrest and was pinned down by the shoulder with one of Air Groove’s hands. She let out a huff, half annoyed but mostly pleased, as Air Groove used her knee to push open Rudolf’s legs.
“You’re enjoying yourself,” she commented.
“Mm.” Rudolf could only make a quiet admission as they went for another kiss, this one the roughest yet. Air Groove wrapped her arms around Rudolf’s neck, one knee pressed against Rudolf's thigh with the other leg crossed over her calf. Her tongue, as elegant as she usually held herself, snaked between Rudolf’s teeth, running against the inside of her cheek, before retracting like a shy little girl caught in the act.
“Getting flustered, Empress?” Rudolf asked when they parted again.
“Never,” Air Groove snapped, her hands fumbling for Rudolf’s collar this time, frantically untying the ribbon with shaking hands. She seemed to purposefully lengthen the act, even moving to slide her hands up and down the length of Rudolf’s neck. The mixture of cold and heat the pads of her fingers brought set a violent shudder down Rudolf’s back.
“How long are we going to keep this up?” She asked as Air Groove pulled her collar down to the shoulder, carefully planting another kiss there.
“As long as you aren’t bored, Emperor.”
Rudolf grinned, lazily raking her fingers through Air Groove’s scalp. “Of course, my Empress.”
However, before Air Groove undressed Rudolf completely, and before Rudolf could even let her, having purposefully pressed her body harder against the sofa so that she could see the Empress busy around her like she did her student council work, there was a knock at the door, a rattling of the doorknob.
“What’s going on in there, my cuties? I left my earbuds on the desk!”
Maruzensky’s voice called from outside the office, and both Air Groove and Rudolf turned their gazes to the desk, where a case of wireless earbuds rested.
“You’re not supposed to lock the door, you know,” Maruzensky chided, rattling the knob again.
Immediately, Air Groove sat up, scrambling off the couch and picking up her ribbon from the ground. She struggled to pull it back over her head, before letting out a faintly frustrated growl and tossing it back to the hardwood floor. She raked her hands through her hair, attempting to untangle the strands that had been mussed by Rudolf’s fingers.
Rudolf, too, slid off the couch and straightened her collar, pulling her shirt back over her shoulder. With a cough, she leaned against the desk, watching Air Groove make an attempt to swipe the wine glasses off the desk before giving up entirely on saving the situation. The Empress, who seconds ago had been sitting on top of Rudolf, pulled her collar up to cover the marks that Rudolf had left on her skin, and unlocked the office door.
Maruzensky strode inside, looking around at the slightly disheveled office. The gardening magazine was resting on the ground face-up, same for the ribbons of both the office’s occupants. The wine glasses, one half-finished and one downed to the bottom, rested on either side of the giant bottle taking up space and attention on the desk.
“My, my…” Maruzensky tapped her chin. “You guys have been having a little fun, huh?”
“We—I—It’s not—” Air Groove grumbled, shaking her head to no avail.
“Oh, don’t get all worked up about it,” Maruzensky giggled, closing the door behind her and walking over to retrieve her earbuds. “What’s so wrong with a little drinking? It’s New Year’s, and you two are already bored enough sitting in this drab office. Though…you could have at least invited me over! This is good wine.”
She immediately poured herself a glass using Air Groove's empty one, drinking from the opposite side. “Mmm. Perfection.”
Rudolf, still hot all over from her earlier activities with Air Groove, felt an insatiable appetite that came from a conquest cut short. She stared for a moment too long at Maruzensky, taking in her long, glossy brown hair, her beautiful profile and her glittering eyes that sparkled with enjoyment at getting to taste the wine. Her fists clenched, and her gaze flitted away for a moment towards Air Groove.
They came to some sort of silent agreement then. Air Groove gravitated towards the door, as if to lock it again, but Rudolf reached up and grabbed her wrist to stop her. The two of them exchanged another glance, and Air Groove’s lips flitted into that same waiting smile as when she had been underneath Rudolf.
“Maru,” Rudolf started. “Are you busy tonight?”
“Well, I was planning to go out on a nighttime drive,” Maruzensky shrugged. “Why?”
“No, it’s just…” Air Groove walked over, leaning to look over Maruzensky’s shoulder. “Since you’re here, we were wondering if you ever get… bored of your present situation as a retired Umamusume.”