Different Kind of Venom

Chapter V

What Medusa saw when she woke up the next morning would surely embed itself in her eternal memory.

Her head was on Aria's lap - how her snakes were so soothed and friendly Medusa didn't know, Aria had one hands on the gorgon's forehead and the other on her shoulder. Aria had somehow fallen asleep in that mess, her own forehead rested on the edge of the sink next to them. Medusa knew the healing would be awful but she thought she would manage. She didn't understand why a simple hit to her immortal leg would trigger such a violent healing, but it seemed that all healings were violent nowadays.

The gorgon lifted her hand to Aria's face. This was the first time in a long, long while she was this close to someone (feeding put aside). She pushed down the bitter and pathetic thoughts, taking a moment to just study her surroundings: Aria's face, her smell, the sound of her steady heartbeat...

The moment her hand touched Aria's cheek, the latter flinched for a second- which may have bruised Medusa's mentality - before Aria unconsciously leaned into her hand.

In Medusa's broken mind, this almost felt like love. She ignored that feeling; she knew it was impossible.

Aria felt four things as she woke up, the unpleasant wetness on her clothes, the heaviness on her lap - maybe even something moving slightly too - the pain on her forehead from laying on the edge of the sink, and the soft touch of a hand on her cheek. When her eyes opened, Medusa was still there laying on the floor with her head on Aria's lap. Her beautiful vipers slithering softly at Aria's abdomen. She lifted her head - Medusa removed her hand - muttered a soft hi, and smiled at Medusa, who, in return, continued to stare at her.

Then, all of a sudden, Medusa just sprung up and stood.

"Thank you. But... this changes nothing," her voice was painfully cold.

"Yeah. Yeah. Whatever floats your boat. Come on help me up now," she extended her arm. She stifled a laugh as she could almost feel the gears turning in Medusa's head. After a second or two, Medusa did help her up.

Aria continued to suppressed the urge to ask what the hell was it that caused her black-out and why the hell was she dressed as an old lady (or did she, like, eat the old lady?).

Turns out Medusa had passed out for no more than a few hours. Now, it was almost four in the morning, and Aria had gone upstairs to fetch her some clothes - seeing that she was still naked. Aria came back down a few minutes later with some of her clothes and two pairs of scissors.

The two ended up spending hours sitting close on the couch, cutting holes into several of Aria's shirts and tank tops so that they could fit Medusa's wings. Aria did try to measure the beginning of Medusa's wings - for the precision of the holes - but Medusa had clamped shut on the request.

"Do you seriously expect me, an immortal to wear this?"

"What? It's cute." Medusa looked at her incredulously - the most human expression Aria had seen on her yet - holding up a grey sleeveless crop top with the words 'too precious for ya' written on it in a glittery pink color.

Aria continued to stare her down (which was very hard with the multiple staring eyes of the snakes) until Medusa just lowered her gaze, shaking her head and mumbling something about the stubborn youth jokingly, Aria hoped.

Whether eithee wanted to admit it or not: this was comforting. Nice, even.

"You know what? I am starving." Aria got up, putting aside the clothes that had amounted in her lap. "We'll finish this later," she concluded.