"I wonder what it's like."

"Hmmn?" Harmony asked, pausing with the lip-liner just before her lips to shoot a glance at Cordelia through the mirror of the vanity.

"Kissing." Cordelia said, pouting her burgundy shaded lips slightly to kiss the air before her.

"But I thought you kissed Bobby Dumas at the Fourth of July party?"

Cordelia looked at Harmony. She should know better. On the social ladder to popularity those that were inexperienced fabricated it until they got to the point where they were experienced. Then you switched gears and became discreet so as to not become a slut.

"Oh, well, we could round up a couple boys and try it." Harmony said, trying to be helpful in that puppy dog way of hers.

Cordelia made a face. "What if I'm a bad kisser? Then it'll get spread around and my rep will be ruined before I even begin! No way."

"I'm sure you're a natural..." assured Harmony.

Cordelia shook her head. No, this was going to take some careful strategizing. She sighed. Plotting your way around the minefield of popularity was hard work.

Suddenly she eyed Harmony, a vague notion forming in her brain.

Hey, why not.

"We're just going to have to do this ourselves." she stated.

"Huh?" asked Harmony stolidly.

"We'll practice on each other. That way we find out if we're any good and even if we are horrible no one else will ever know." Cordelia explained, very pleased with herself.

"Uh...okay!" Harmony agreed with a little nervous laugh.

"Now?" she asked.

Cordelia lead the other girl from the vanity to a more comfortable place on her bed. "Okay, we'll just..." she began before thinking of something. Grabbing her purse from her night-stand where she'd left it she began to dig through it's contents. Producing a package of tic tacs she shook a couple out and handed one to Harmony and then popped the other into her mouth. "There. All set."

The two sucked on the mints for a moment, stared at each other in uncomfortable silence, and tried to quell the fluttery feeling in their stomachs. The space between them seemed to vanish inch by inch until their faces were millimeters apart.

Cordelia pulled back at the last second to threaten. "I swear, if you breathe a word to anyone..."

Shaking her head vehemently the other girl promised "No, no. Of course not." She giggled. "Like I'd really want anyone to know that I kissed you... , no offense."

Since they were in agreement Cordelia let out a breath and then leaned in to make first contact with Harmony's lips. Wintergreen sparks sizzled between them as she pressed a soft kiss to softer lips. Hmmn, not bad.

No longer needing her eyes to direct her she let them drift closed. Slim fingers slid into her hair, dragging just enough to make her scalp tingle in their wake. Lipstick smeared around their lips as they increased the pressure upon them and Cordelia cursed on a sharp intake of breath.

Thoughts of the mess they were making to eachother's 'faces' wasn't enough to make Cordelia stop her exploration, however. She flicked her tongue out to lick at the colored wax, eliciting a moan from Harmony in the process. Liking the sound she continued to tease and taunt, both with barely there and bruising kisses.

Harmony bent to her will, in this as in all things, and was soon pressed down upon the bed beneath her. And that was exactly how it should be, Cordelia felt. But things were quickly going over her head.

With a supreme effort of will she pulled away before she was tempted to go even further. To do things she'd only heard about when she eavesdropped on the senior girls.

Glancing down at Harmony's glazed blue eyes Cordelia smirked.

No, that wasn't a border she was willing to cross. Not at the sake of her reputation. But that didn't mean she couldn't do a little more 'innocent' kissing. After all, practice makes perfect, and that was just what she wanted to be.