First Drops

Author Note

This story was originally going to be published in my compilation of short stories but I felt like a lot of the themes were such that I wanted to include an author note about it. Plus it ended up about twice as long as planned.

First I want to address the one part of this story that I admit is pretty fucked up: the fact that Cal kind of expected Lucas to attack her at some point and yet stayed. Is that okay? No, it really isn't. In real life I would tell someone who felt like that about their partner to run. That this is part of what drew Cal to Lucas doesn't mitigate that fact very much. However this is fiction with flawed characters and they have a relationship that will never be normal simply because of who they are. Sometimes it's sweet and romantic and sometimes it crosses that line into a darker place.

Of course, this whole story is a not-so-subtle metaphor for sex but more than that I meant it to be about negotiating limits in a relationship. Even as messed up as their relationship is at this point it's still very much consensual and they talk about that, this is something I think is really important. Real life often bears little resemblance to fiction, in reality if you didn't immediately run away from someone who wanted to drink your blood you wouldn't just agree to let them bite into your carotid artery. I enjoy writing these stories where I try to take a very normal situation, like having sex for the first time with a new partner, and translating that to a fantastic scenario. How would someone who has accepted that all this stuff exists, who has lived in this world her whole life because she is a mage, actually react. So I've tried to draw on some of my own experience negotiating new activities with partners and discussions with other people about consent.