Freeing My Heart

TITLE: Freeing My Heart

AUTHOR: WotanAnubis

FANDOM: Another Code R: A Journey into Lost Memories

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Another Code R: A Journey into Lost Memories or any characters from it. No profit is being made.

RATING: NC-17

PAIRING: Ashley/Elizabeth

NOTE: You know, writing Elizabeth was a lot more fun than it had any right to be. The sex scene, on the other hand, was a lot harder than usual.

* * * * *

It was another beautiful day at Lake Juliet. The sun shone brightly in a clear sky, making the calm waters of the lake sparkle, and a warm breeze made the trees rustle soothingly. It was a heart-wrenchingly magnficent testament to the sublime beauty of pristine nature. If you were wired that way.

Elizabeth Alfred wasn't wired that way. Oh sure, a clear blue sky was better than one choked with smog and a nice, warm breeze was better than either icy coldness or stifling heat, but she didn't get all lyrical about it. The way she saw it, human history was all about getting away from nature so people could actually focus on something interesting. Like fashion. Or music.

It was music that held her attention now. More or less. Elizabeth stood at the edge of the sparkling lake, lazily tossing stones at the surface of the water and completely failing to make any of them skip. What she wasn't doing as was looking behind her, where the Lonely Oak stood. And where Ashley sat strumming her acoustic guitar.

The problem was that she liked Ashley. She just didn't really know why. OK, sure, she was usually nice and she stood up for... well... everyone and she made the world seem like a more gentle place just by being around. She wasn't supposed to do that. She just had to be there whenever she, Elizabeth, felt like bitching. She wasn't supposed to make her feel like there was nothing to bitch about.

And then there was the other thing. The... the gay thing. Not that Elizabeth was gay. She totally liked guys. It was just that... well... on lazy afternoons during a hot summer vacation it was... fun to fool around. If there was nothing else to do (and at Lake Juliet there usually wasn't), making each other feel nice was something that they both enjoyed. There was nothing gay about that. It was just a bit of bicuriosity. Which was still the in thing to be for girls her age even if there weren't any guys around to impress. It was just that when she was all alone at night and feeling... bored... well... it was Ashley who'd started getting into her thoughts. And that wasn't supposed to happen! She liked dicks. Guys. She liked guys.

Because that was the third thing that bothered her about Ashley. She should have seen it coming, really. Half Japanese and half American; white hair and dark eyes; being friends with her, but persisting in wearing indie fashion anyway. The girl'd lived in two worlds her whole life. So she shouldn't have been that surprised to find that the rest of Ashley's body, too, sat awkwardly between worlds. It was so unfair. I