She felt free as the air circulated through her uniform and bit at the sensitive skin between her legs. The hallway that once seemed so sterilized except for the crude Cardassian vaults suddenly appeared like a garden filled with exotic spices. And one of those exotic spices she smelled was Jadzia, sitting in Quark's bar, just steps away. Nerys knew the closer she got, the stronger the smell of Risian perfume, cedar, and azna. She was seeing, hearing, and smelling everything through her very core. All prompted by Dax. Dax, who had insisted she never wear underwear in her presence.

"I want you to do something for me," she had said the night before.

Eager to please, Kira had rolled from their embrace and asked, "What?"

"Give me your panties. And don't wear them tomorrow, or the next day, or ever again as long as you're with me."

"Dax," she whispered, not shocked, but amused. "This… I- I never thought you'd be as into this."

"Well, I love the idea of watching you in Ops, studying telemetries, or at the helm of the Defiant, and knowing how…accessible, you are," she said, the word accessible making her blush slightly. Kira never imagined Dax's dominant tendencies could reach such heights.

Dax had done this before, or so she had confided to Kira. Well, Lela, Dax's former host, had done this before. She explained how much Lela had loved the feeling of air in her skirt and cloth rubbing against her when her thighs parted as she would walk through the Trill Council Chambers filled with men who were wary of her feminine presence. Kira's awakening to Dax's sexuality made her giddy in a way that was familiar to her in her childhood; she remembered her heart ballooning as she could hear the shouts to the Prophets as the Resistance Forces had returned home victorious. It made her dizzy with hope, and willing to fight.

Kira nodded at Morn before joining Jadzia on the barstool next to her. She hadn't noticed her presence.

"You should have seen Quark shimmy. Audrid and him made one beautiful woman," Jadzia told him, returning to an old habit of former host Lela, who sometimes gestured emphatically as she spoke.

Reaching out, she webbed her hand across Dax's arm, making her turn, pleasantly surprised, and smile.

"I'd hoped you'd be up for more," she said, as Morn stood up and wandered off to bother some other poor patron at the bar.

Jadzia's electric blue eyes finally locked fully with her own. In them, Kira saw the memory of their coupling, and the familiar yet wholly unique feeling that it had inspired. She suspected Jadzia was thinking about the same thing.

***

Jadzia would never be able to look at Kira the same way. Not just because the Zhian'tara Right of Closure had briefly joined Lela to Kira, but also because of what Lela and Kira felt for her. After regaining the memories, she had retired to her room, pacing back and forth, her hands clasped behind her back, just as Lela would have done. Lela/Kira was… attracted to her. To Jadzia.

She now remembered being Kira/Lela and noticing Jadzia's aristocratic features: her height, her angular chin and nose, her confident stature, her tight skin. They loved how her pale, fine skin creased when she smiled. They thought her unusually beautiful, powerful, regal.

Yet Jadzia simply didn't know how to interpret the puzzle that's last piece was in place. She'd never thought of Kira in that way, but all Joinings, regardless of how brief or how long, were intimate. In the beginning, they often excited erotic feelings. The subversive sexuality that Curzon had incited had been the strongest thus far; she remembered gasping in awe as she received his memories.

In the same way that Curzon was a part of her, Kira was now a part of her. Lela and Jadzia and the sum of all that was Dax longed to bring Kira back, even if it were in the limiting sense of physical intimacy.

But something about the way Lela/Kira wanted to be with her was exhilarating. Lela regretted that the she'd never been with another woman in her lifetime, and the closest she'd come was being Joined with Emony, Audrid, and Jadzia. But what Kira wanted from her was alarming. Kira had studied the way her sinewy arm muscles stood out, even in her uniform, and turned into a graceful but strong neck. She was momentarily lost in the thought of being pushed down, overpowered, and lovingly dominated by another woman, by Jadzia.

She had no plans. No idea what she was doing or what she would say.

But she had to go to her anyway.

2200. Kira stared into space. The station was now in the shadow of Bajor, the meandering waters and greenery of the planet obscured in darkness. The last thing she remembered was preparing for Lela to enter her. That was six hours ago. Six hours of blackout. Six hours, an insignificant number yet a significant hole. She knew she should probably go to Jadzia, to find out what happened, to make sure she was all right. But something about the stillness of the air in the room and the stillness in space kept her pleasantly motionless, like inertia.

The door beeped effectually breaking her thoughtless meditation. "Enter," she called, turning to see who it was.

Jadzia took a cautious step into the room, keeping her hands behind her back so that the other woman wouldn't be able to see her wringing them. She gave her a little nod. "Hi Nerys."

"Dax, I'm glad it's you." But there was something different about Dax. Her eyes were still but coated in hidden meaning. Her lips were tight. She was deadly serious; a side Kira infrequently saw when she was off-duty. Jadzia was looking at her with a mixture of uncomfortability and awe. Shakaar had looked at her that way once.

Dax finally walked over to Kira, there faces and feelings only seconds apart. "Do you remember what happened?" she asked.

Kira crossed her arms over her breast. "Not really, and I don't understand why."

"I think… I think when Lela was in you, she released something in your subconscious. Something you've apparently blocked out," she said. Her hands reached out to hold the other woman squarely. Her eyes darted back and forth, searching. "Something I don't want you to block out, something we don't want you to block out." Dax leaned forward and kissed her without restraint, and all Kira could do was wonder at the feel of her forehead pressed against her own and love the look of her long eyelashes up close, especially the imperfections in their spacing. "Lela loves me, and so do you. And I love you too."

Lela loves me, and so do you.

The remnants of Lela pulled at something in Kira, urging her to admit to her love. She might not remember what Lela had made her feel, but there was no denying it now. When she returned the kiss, Dax's thumb came up to part her lips, allowing access for her tongue. Her tongue darted inside her mouth, twisting around, teasing her, entering and exiting. Dax reached up to hold Kira's wrists, and took a step forward as Kira stepped back, toward the bed. And just as her sensations were brought to a boil, Dax's lips left hers, and she sent her flying down on the bed, the hard mattress ungiving. And then Jazia was on top of her, positioning herself on her hands, so that she was staring Kira in the eyes. Jadzia's head was erect, but their bodies met at the groin. Kira reached up to feel the curve of her back, fingering the indentation of her spine before clasping the other woman's butt in one hand. Kira kept trying to reach Dax's lips with her own, but each time, Dax's neck had snapped back, her head shaking left and right, saying "no."

"I think I know what you want from me," Jadzia said. "But I want you to say it."

Say what? She thought. That this was what she'd always wanted, but never knew it… That she wanted this more than anything since the Occupation had ended. That Jadzia laying on top of her, toying with her, was stirring something inside of her that had been sleeping since she joined the military… What was it? Kira could practically hear her heart going thump-dunk as she realized what it was… She needed to feel vulnerable, and she needed to feel it with someone she trusted, and who better than the woman she'd subconsciously lusted after and who'd become her closest confident.

"I want… I need you to do whatever you want with me. I want to be utterly yours," she said the words as if they were someone else's.

"Then I want you to take off your clothes in the refresher and come back to present yourself to me."

Kira didn't hesitate. She lifted herself from the bed as Dax rolled over. She was very conscious of Dax eyes on her as she walked to the fresher, so she made it a point to hide her nervous anticipation and over-emphasize the swing to her hips.

Kira undressed and cupped a hand under her own breast. Where she touched herself her flesh was taut and smooth. Under her hands her nipples wrinkled and hardened like chestnuts. The thin line of peachy down led over the gentle curve of the base of her belly, to her reddish-brown triangle, like an arrow directing a lost traveler.

She ran her hands through her hair, giving the short tufts more volume. Even nude, the bathroom seemed hot. Small beads of sweat studded her skin like diamonds. Then they broke and trickled down the recessed line of her spine. She looked a little cynically at her round, heavy behind. It wasn't big in itself. But big because the rest of her was so slender. It belonged to a more voluptuous body.

Kira reached for the control panel, unlocking the door, and found Dax on the other side, nude, waiting.

Jadzia knew that this was what Dax wanted for her. Dax longed for this experience because Lela longed for this experience. And experience was nearly everything to a Joined Trill. So she put aside her reservations about treating the tiny woman harshly and forcefully grabbed her by the waste, lifting her up and then pressing her against the wall.

"Be still, and keep your arms at your side," she commanded Kira, who was still trying to lure Dax's mouth to hers. She ran two fingers along Kira's jawline, and then moved her other hand up to cover Kira's mouth. Kira's lips separated, and Dax's index finger was inside of them. With her free hand, she continued her exploration of the shorter woman, tracing her neck before reaching her nipple and giving it a sudden pinch, releasing a muffled whimper. Dax removed the hand covering Kira's mouth and placed it on the other breast, and with her free hand groped the other woman's crotch.

"Mmm," she moaned, before slipping a probing finger inside of her, positioning her thumb to move Kira's clit in circles. The feel of the wrinkled piece of flesh made her need more pressing. There were so many things she wanted to do to Kira and so many things she wanted in return. But she had to control herself to exert the kind of control over Kira that Dax wanted to experience.

Dax began by slowly moving her finger inside of her, then another, and another. She was propelling her fingers inside the other woman at an accelerating speed. But just as Kira's eyes started fluttering and rolling, her moans growing louder, Dax stopped, simply letting her fingers harness the other woman, and began rubbing her clit in circles again, which elicited a disappointed groan followed by a deeper moan. She moved to kiss the other woman, gently this time.

"Come here," she said, her hand still deep inside Kira, as she led her to the living room. "Now lay on your stomach on the ottoman." Dax removed her fingers and allowed the other woman to situate herself. She ran her hands along the front of Kira's arms before pulling them back to her legs. "I want you to hold them," she said, motioning for Kira to grab her legs by the tender skin on the back of her kneecaps. "Like this." She then pushed the other woman's ass forward, causing her breasts to hang off the cool leather. "Now keep your ass in the air and your head down," the words harsh but her manner soft.

Dax took a step back, admiring her handy work, which took little of the accoutrements she had always suspected. But the absence of Dax's hand began to frustrate Kira further in her need. And the mere sight of Kira, her back and butt raised in offering, was giving her own needs more immediacy. But she had to control herself, because Kira needed her to and her symbiont had all but demanded this experience. She came behind Kira, parting her cheeks to expose her sex. With one hand, she wiped a streak of liquid that was migrating down her leg.

"I can see what Kira wants. Now I want Kira to tell me."

"I want you to fuck me."

"No, say, 'Kira wants you to fuck her.'"

Kira paused, seeming a bit confounded, before caving in. "Kira wants you to fuck her," she whispered, completely objectified.

And three fingers were trenched inside of her. Dax began slowly, but each time she accelerated the force and the speed of her fingers, Kira's moans began to sound more like cries. The steady slurping noise of Kira jacking herself up and down on Dax's fingers and her gasps of pleasure the only sounds in the room. She could tell by their spacing that Kira was ready.

"Is Kira going to come?"

She could only nod her head back and forth.

Irritated but keeping her patience, Dax said, "Tell me."

"Kira's going to," but then she was clamping down on her fingers, her walls contracting and her hips jerking. There were no words left in her.

Dax removed her hand and placed it on Kira's back, rubbing the muscles that she'd never seen or felt relaxed until this moment. She bent forward to give the other woman a peck on the cheek. "I'm not done with you yet," she told her, grinning. She helped her to her feet and led her by the hand back to the bed.

***

Kira heard the metal chink of someone's glass meeting with the bar, breaking the memory that Dax's absorbing blue eyes had refreshed.

"I have something special for you," Dax said, with a sinful smirk.

"Oh?"

"A little holosuite program."

Kira's eyebrows lifted. "And?"

"Are you familiar with the writings of the Marquis de Sade?"