Author's Note: This is a fic I wrote for "yurichallenge", a Livejournal community centered around writing yuri/femslash stories based on prompts that others provide. The 'challenge' leads to some interesting stories. This is also strictly a one-shot; I have no plans to continue this. Hope you enjoy.

Warnings: Femslash (Juri-Kozue), but if you didn't read the summary and don't read this, you've lost any right to complain about it. Warning for adult situations and fade-to-flashes sex.

Wicked Ways

On a quiet blue night, Kozue stared up at the moon, listening to approaching footsteps. She knew whose they were, and he was why she waited. If he worried for her, alone at night with most of the school dark and empty, so much the better.

When Miki emerged from the shadowed doorway, Kozue stepped out toward him, making sure he saw her. He would worry, he would ask questions, he would feel some distant kind of shame. He would–

He wouldn't even look at her, because he was staring down at something in his hand, something shining, something that dangled and sent off sparks of moonlight.

"What is that?" Kozue asked as she walked up to him. The frown he gave her evoked its usual response, and she gave a coy smile back. Let him wonder why she was here.

"None of your business," Miki said, pulling his hand back as he withdrew.

Kozue reached for his hand, fell short on purpose. So much the better if she could make him give it to her. "But I want to see," she said. "What is it, Miki?"

He gave in, as he always did. "Juri's locket," he said, his voice lowered as though he held something secret. "See, the clasp on the chain broke during fencing. It must have fallen off, I don't think she noticed. I'm going to have it fixed--"

"That's important to her, isn't it?" Kozue asked, tilting her head a touch and looking into his eyes. "You should give it back. I don't think she'd like to find out it's gone."

There. The faintest flush from him. "I can't give it to her now," he said, subdued. "She's still in the locker room."

Kozue reached again, snatched the locket from his grasp. The chain caught on his fingers, and he tugged once, then let it go. Of course. "I'll take it to her." Miki opened his mouth to say something, but Kozue cut him off with a look. "She might be in the shower," she said. "Do you want to walk in on her?"

"But Kozue, I want to have it fixed." Miki's voice was somewhere between persistence and pleading.

"And how long will that take?" she asked, just the right tone of voice to make him reconsider everything. "Do you want to leave her all night, wondering what's happened to something she treasures?"

Miki frowned, and for a moment Kozue thought he would demand the locket back. She held her ground, stared back at him, then leaned closer. The look in his eyes made it clear; he was trying very hard not to step back from her.

Finally, he turned away. "Do what you want," he said. "I'm going home."

Kozue twined the broken chain around two fingers, and studied the locket as Miki walked off. The moonlight gave the locket a blue-silvery sheen, making it look tarnished. She ran her thumb over the rose design, then paused.

Click.

So . . . that was what Juri hid. Of all the things to keep close to her heart. This picture. . . . Kozue closed the locket, and walked through the darkened doorway.

Once in the girls' locker room, Kozue walked up and down the aisles, taking her time. All was quiet, save for her own steps and the nearby rush of the showers. Juri had to be in here somewhere. And as it seemed Kozue was alone among the lockers, that left only one place to go.

At the entrance to the showers, Kozue paused and watched. Every single shower was on, but Juri stood under only one, her head bowed. Coils of coppery hair wound their way across her shoulders and halfway down her back; Kozue hadn't known her hair was that long. Slender and lithe, her muscles moved beneath her skin in ways that reminded Kozue of a jungle cat, of a wild animal.

Or perhaps . . . not so wild. Kozue unwound the locket's chains from her fingers. Someone still held Juri's leash.

Kozue watched her for a moment longer, then let the locket swing, its edge tap-tapping on the porcelain tiles, once, again, again, until Juri raised her head. The hurt in her eyes caught fire when she saw what Kozue held.

"Did you lose this?" Kozue asked.

A narrowing of her eyes, the hint of a snarl to come, then pain and relief mixed in a bitter blend, all across Juri's face in the space of a second. She stood naked before Kozue in more ways than one. Kozue smiled, didn't bother to look innocent; Juri was too smart for that. Times before, it seemed Juri knew too much, a great deal more than she let on. How was it, Kozue wondered, being on the other side?

"Where did you find that?" Juri asked, her hushed voice barely rising over the sound of the showers.

"Miki," Kozue said, then let that hang for a moment. Let Juri think what might have happened. "He said he found it after fencing, and didn't know if you knew it was gone. He wanted to give it back to you." She dangled the locket still, letting it swing.

"I see." Juri stood up straighter, shaking off any apparent vulnerability. She showed no sign of embarrassment. She held out her hand. "Give it back to me, please."

Kozue held up the broken clasp. "It needs to be fixed," she said. "If you put it back on, it'll just fall off again."

"I'll take care of that," Juri said, her tone turning insistent. "Give me back my locket, Kozue." She hadn't lowered her hand.

A slow blink, and a deliberate glance around the still-running showers. "I'll get wet," Kozue said. She didn't move.

Juri's glare could have shattered stone, and Kozue caught a hint of why even the teachers feared to cross her. Still the locket swung, flickering in the light from overhead, catching tiny stray beads of water across its golden surface. Kozue watched Juri's eyes, to see if she was following the locket.

She wasn't. Juri stared right back at her, hardness around her eyes. For just a moment, Kozue wondered if she'd been wrong, if Juri was indeed still wild.

Then, in a step and slide almost too quick to notice, Juri was before her, scowling down at her and reaching for the locket. Kozue barely pulled her hand back in time, and Juri nearly collided with her. Kozue could almost feel the other girl's muscles grow taut.

"I know how you are with Miki," Juri said, a faint hint of softness in her voice, as though she was trying to evoke some kind of sympathy – whether in her or in herself, Kozue couldn't tell. "I remember what you told me. You say you'll do anything to keep him from being hurt, but I don't think that's true."

Juri moved close enough for Kozue to feel warmth from the water that dripped down her. "I think you like it when he's only thinking about you. I think you like toying with him. And I don't feel like playing."

Juri snatched her wrist. Kozue tried to twist out, but Juri's grip was too strong; even with Juri's hands slippery from the shower, she couldn't get away. Kozue snatched the locket with her free hand, then yanked that arm back before Juri could grab it too.

Juri's jaw was set, her eyes flashing. Kozue smiled, unable to help herself, and gave Juri the wicked, taunting look she usually saved for boys who chased her. She thought to let Juri be the one to come running this time, and a faint part of her mind delighted in the idea. Yank the leash and see if she heels, or if she begs.

Kozue hid the locket behind her back, her eyes still on Juri's. She didn't let her smile change. Juri's breathing quickened, and she yanked on Kozue's wrist, forcing her closer. Kozue cried out – that had hurt more than she'd expected, and she tried again to twist away as Juri reached behind her for the hand that held the locket.

With Juri suddenly closer, Kozue pressed her leg between Juri's, rubbing against the other girl's slick, bare skin. Juri's eyes snapped open wide, and she started to pull away. Kozue twisted her hand in Juri's grip, and reached, stroking Juri's hand with only the very tips of her fingers. Juri stepped back, and Kozue hooked her foot around Juri's ankle, just enough to keep her from moving away.

"What's the matter?" Kozue asked, then moved her arm out from behind her back, just enough to let Juri see the locket. "Don't you want this?"

Slowly, slowly, Juri put her free hand on Kozue's shoulder. "Kozue. . . ."

Kozue gave her an almost-innocent look, her lips slightly parted. It seemed that Juri would beg. It was almost too bad, she'd been hoping for–

Juri grabbed and spun and shoved, yanking Kozue into the showers and slamming her against the wall. Water spattered down over them both, sending trails down Juri's skin and soaking Kozue's uniform. Kozue gasped, then winced as her hand was squeezed between the wall and her own back.

"I told you I don't want to be played with," Juri said, and she sounded like she thought herself completely in control. She lowered the hand on Kozue's shoulder, reaching down along her arm, heading for the locket.

But Kozue had heard the faint quivering in her voice, the shaking nerves behind the steel. She ran her hand up Juri's arm, letting the locket trace over Juri's wet skin. She watched goosebumps rise at the touch of the cold metal. When her hand reached Juri's shoulder, she pulled back the wrist that Juri held, drawing her closer, and whispered, "Why don't you want to play?"

"I don't play," Juri said, tension in her voice tight enough to snap. "Not like that."

"I looked in the locket," Kozue said. "Don't lie."

"Kozue--"

Juri hissed her name through clenched teeth, but Kozue pushed her hand through the tangles of hair and pressed the locket to the back of Juri's neck. A single gasp from the sudden cold, and Kozue leaned into Juri and kissed her open mouth.

Her lips were soft but tense, and a different kind of wet, and Juri's body refused to relax as Kozue pressed herself against it. Kozue flicked her tongue, testing, and let her free hand slide down Juri's bare back, trailing the locket along the way. Juri's grip on Kozue's other hand clenched–

And suddenly Kozue was hard against the shower wall again, Juri forcing her back, a passion and force in her. Kozue tried to gasp, but Juri's fierce kiss stifled her. She caught her fingers in Juri's hair and tugged, trying to pull her back or away, but Juri's teeth dug into her lip. Kozue bit back in turn, and Juri made a noise somewhere between a moan and a gasp, a startling fierceness there. Kozue felt Juri's leg part her own, felt the cold, wet wall pressed harder against her.

The kiss broke all at once.

Kozue gasped for breath, and held her hand to her mouth; there were red finger-marks around her wrist from where Juri had bound her. Juri was breathing hard as well, then looked at Kozue with a tangled mix of pain and empathy and a raw, primitive kind of lust.

"Did I hurt you?" Juri breathed. A red flush spread down her neck and across her chest.

Slowly, deliberately, Kozue took her fingers from her mouth and looked. No blood, not for lack of trying. She caught Juri's look and held it.

"Not yet."

Steam, then; steam and bare skin and ripping cloth and the struggle; hands caught in hair and nails that scratch; pushing down and pulling and pushing again; lips and tongues caught against each other; hot water spattering across naked flesh; gasps for breath between it all; and the kind of sex fueled by animals' passions that leaves both lovers marked with crescent bites and tiny bruises the shapes of fingertips.

Juri retrieved the locket from the corner of the showers, from where it had been knocked away. She slid the chain safe around her neck, then slipped part of the broken clasp through a link, and forced it, bending the ring shut.

The gold was icy against her skin, and she shivered.

Slowly, Juri looked behind her. Kozue was donning her drenched uniform, trying to hold the top in place. The shirt was ripped from collar to hem–

Juri turned and lowered her eyes. She clenched her hand around the locket, let the rose press into her skin, forced her hands to be still. Taking a deep breath didn't help; the showers smelled of them both.

"I'm sorry," Juri whispered.

Gentle splashes from behind, then Kozue's hand snaked around her, fingers tracing across her bare stomach. Kozue's head rested on the back of Juri's shoulder. "Why?"

"That wasn't – it's not--"

"Juri," Kozue said, tapping her fingers and drawing out her name. Juri stiffened, held herself steady. "Didn't you want that?"

Juri didn't answer. Kozue's other hand trailed up her arm, over her shoulder, then her fingers danced over a semicircle of teeth marks at the base of Juri's neck.

"Stop," Juri hissed.

"Why?" Kozue's hand wandered lower.

Juri tensed, held the locket more tightly, moved to brush away Kozue's hand but stopped when that hand covered her own. "What do you want from me?"

Kozue pressed closer, and Juri felt the other girl's skin against hers again, a warm place against her back where the ripped, wet cloth parted. Kozue's breath was hot against Juri's ear.

"More."