Sue Is Still Nervous. She Needs More Practice.

Time was up. Sue Storm felt her heart pound. Dr. Stone was in her chair, lipstick smeared. She had shrugged out of her jacket and was dabbing a tissue at her nose, which was bleeding again.

"So. You normally go for a massage after our appointments, don't you?" Karla asked.

"Yes," Sue admitted. Her lips still tingled. She could taste that lipstick. Her body was tense as she sat in the chair. Knowing what came next.

"And what will you do when Nairobi tries to kiss you this time?" Karla pressed. "Will you kiss her back?"

The Invisible Woman's jaw worked. Her nails dug into her palms. She felt like a spring that had been compressed too tightly. Her cheeks burned in something that wasn't quite embarrassment and yet was more than just arousal.

"I...think...I need more practice," Sue said.

Karla stopped dabbing. Her glasses were clear, the hazel eyes behind them widened with surprise.

"Oh?" she said. "I don't have any other appointments this afternoon. If you'd like to, we could...extend your session."

Sue's face burned hotter. She knew this was weird. Karla was her psychiatrist; she was married...

"I am a licensed sex therapist as well as an accredited psychiatrist, Susan," Karla said softly. "There's no need to be embarrassed. If anything, openness to exploring this aspect of yourself in a controlled setting, rather than out in the world, speaks very well of you."

"I...yes," Sue said, as her internal war settled into a decisive decision. "I'd like to practice some more. If you don't mind."

"Not at all," Karla said, with a smile. "But this time, I'd like you to try being proactive. Instead of me coming over there to kiss you, I'd like you to get up and come over here to kiss me."

Sue Storm had faced down Skrull kill-squads. Time-displaced Nazis. Godzilla. She rose on steady legs and with a confidence she did not really feel. Her heart hammered in her chest, her guts knotted and unknotted. It felt like when she was courting Reed, that terrible tension between wanting and anticipating the act.

She placed her hands on the arms of Karla's chair as she bent down. One knee rested lightly on the cushion, between the seated blonde woman's legs. Karla tilted her head back, lips parted just slightly as Sue angled her own face downward.

The warm press of lips against lips. The soft flow of one breath into another's mouth. The almost electric moment when their tongues touched.

Sue Storm closed her eyes, focused on that strange and wonderful sensation of kissing another woman.

Karla, to her surprise, found she had closed her eyes too.