Women In Red, Photographs In Black

A/N: This fic takes place in modern continuity, where all characters are above 18.

A moment after Mary Jane stepped into her dressing room, the door to the adjoining room opened and Kory was there, smiling brightly. "There she is!"

"Here I am!" Mary Jane agreed.

"Did you get my flowers?"

"Yes." She set down her purse at her vanity, sitting down to take off her shoes. "So how do you prefer to be addressed? Koriand'r?" she asked, with a passable pronunciation of the alien word. "Princess?"

"Just Kory's fine," Kory said brightly. "And may I call you MJ? Such a delightful nickname!"

MJ nodded. "Trading nicknames with Starfire. Feels like any minute now, we're gonna be on a squad with Taylor Swift."

"I already have a squad," Kory said seriously.

Mary Jane smiled to herself. Between Peter, Miles, Anya, and all the rest, it was beginning to feel like she did too. "You got the stuff?" she asked in noir movie nasal.

Kory nodded, reaching back inside her dressing room to bring out a box. She tossed it to MJ, who caught it and then struggled a moment under its weight. Sometimes, Kory forgot her own strength.

MJ set it down and opened it, nodding in confirmation that these were the same designs that had been e-mailed for her approval and not, say, a gimp suit.

"Well then, let's get on with it."

Mary Jane unzipped the back of her dress, sliding it down from her shoulders as Kory watched. Her body was long and lush, the curves sensuously rounded, the skin creamy and well-tanned. If Kory's skin was golden, then MJ's was a deep bronze. No wonder they had been booked together. They seemed like two skilled, but differing artist's take on the same lovely vision: Kory with the lush sexuality she took such pride in, and Mary Jane with a more slender, classical look that reminded Kory quite a bit of her friend Donna.

"Always a little awkward," Mary Jane said apologetically. "Meeting someone just before you're next to naked with them."

"Well, it beats having to wait to see them naked," Kory joked, and MJ whirled on her to see the adoring grin on her wide face. She smiled back.

"I suppose it is. I'm a huge fan of your aesthetic. I almost can't believe someone would want us on the same shoot."

"I almost can't believe they can afford the two of us."

"It is for charity. I lowered my rate a lot."

The charity was the kind that put the 'self-interest' before 'enlightened.' A lingerie company, Pink of Perfection, had noted how many seamstresses were among the refugees from the Latverian incident. Now it was putting out a call for them to work in its factories, making handcrafted underwear. Three times as expensive as usual, not an ounce of difference as far as MJ could tell. But it was money in their pockets, and every little bit helped. Besides, her agent kept telling her to keep her face in the papers.

"Me too." Though in Kory's case, it had a lot more to do with the chance to work with Mary Jane and her lovely husband.

She also began to shrug out of her clothes, unable to help a little feeling of loss as she took off the cut-off shirt and jeans she'd entered in. Attractive the lingerie she modeled would no doubt be, but surely not as comfortable as the clothes she'd been wearing. Especially since she'd been 'going commander.'

"Oh!" Mary Jane said gently, regarding her nudity. Kory smiled proudly, putting her hands on her hips to bask in the attention. She was glad she met with MJ's approval.

"Where'd you put the, ah, merchandise?"

"Over here," Mary Jane said, eager to look away with the excuse of guiding Kory to the box of samples. Something about how unabashed and prideful Kory's nakedness was just struck her. As a model, an actress, and a superhero's wife, she was no stranger to very attractive people in very different states of undress, but seeing Kory's exuberant confidence was just... enthralling.

She reached into the box, picking up one set of bra and panties. The bra was more than adequate for her modest, but full cleavage. She was guessing that wasn't the intent. "I think this one's yours," she said, handing it over to a grateful Kory. Then she picked up her own. Much more scanty. Between the two pieces, there was maybe enough cloth for a decent bandanna, just in case she had to rob a bank. "These things get smaller every year."

Kory said something alien with an unmistakable inflection of 'pish posh.' "Try it on! I bet you'll look wonderful! Uncomfortable, but wonderful."

Mary Jane gave her a knowing grin. She could only imagine what it was like to go into battle in what looked like metal fetish wear. Once again, she was glad to have a husband who was golden-retriever glad just to see her in a T-shirt and jeans.

Of course, MJ thought, eying her reflection in the dressing room mirror, she'd look pretty damn good, even in a T-shirt and jeans.

"This isn't so bad!" Kory said, flexing in her own helping of economy-sized tissue. "Real comfortable! Feels like I'm wearing nothing at all!"

"Looks that way too," Mary Jane quipped. If Kory stepped in front of any bright lights, the only people willing to publishthosepictures would be Penthouse or a medical textbook. Her voluptuous body was so exposed, Mary Jane was tempted to check if the set wasn't a size too small for her. But then, Kory had said they were comfortable. And she seemed like the one person who could be comfortable, wearingor not wearingthose things in front of other people.

Well, maybe Felicia Hardy... but then, even she only unzipped her catsuit so much...

Time to face the music. Mary Jane took off her own underwear, replacing them with a bra and panties that looked like they were meant for a different species than her boxers and full-cups. She wiggled the panties up first—two wisps of insubstantial gossamer, one blooming over her pubic mound, the other like a hand trying in vain to cover all of the crevice between her smoothly rounded buttocks. Not even halfway down her cheeks, it became a thong, leaving the undersides completely exposed. Was that the newest thing in fashion? 'Underass'?

If the panties were unsuccessful in protecting her modesty, the bra didn't even try. Though it gave her C-cups uplift she couldn't complain about, it was also just translucent enough to make her uncomfortable, allowing the eye to ever so slightly penetrate to the nipples it was meant to be covering. Mary Jane looked in the mirror, shocked that she could recognize a few freckles through the frail, flimsy cloth that barely covered her cleavage to begin with.

If it were anyone other than Peter running the shoot, she would've gone to the director with a pair of sweatpants and a jersey, dead-set on not being photographed without one or the other.

"You look incredible!" Kory said, looking a second away from clapping her hands.

Mary Jane smiled at her—hard not to get swept up with Kory's enthusiasm. On second thought, they weren'tthatbad. As long as the lighting was dim, the photographs wouldn't show anything except that the bra reallywasthat alluring, her nipples (and softly curling pubic hair) evident, but not obvious. It would be risqué, but Mary Jane didn't think she'd take too much attention. Not when Kory was there as well.

The very material of the lingerie looked flimsier than ever on Kory's exuberant body, as if she would burst out of it at any moment. The thong panties seemed designed just for being pushed out of the way of sex, as that as all they covered, and her bra concealed even less, with panels of lace like the ribs of an umbrella, outright translucent on the wide expanses of her cleavage. MJ could just imagine Mr. Skin or whoever tallying up all the 'nudity'. Sideboob, underboob, good old-fashioned cleavage.

And that thong, God—if you wanted to see more, you'd have to be a proctologist. If it were Mary Jane being asked to wear that outfit, she would just as soon pose nude.

"Ummm... you sure you want to wear that?" Mary Jane asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" Kory turned around, giving herself a once-over. "Is my slip showing? Do I have a slip?"

"It's just a little revealing, that's all. And you don't have to wear it if you don't want to. We could put you in a blouse, button it up a little... it'd still be really sexy." Disturbing sexy, even. MJ was having visions of Kory in one of Peter's buttondowns, the thin layer of cotton between bra and eye suddenly making it tempting rather than... obvious.

"Oh, that's all." Kory smiled at her. "I don't mind being photographed in such a way. I know your culture places a great deal of importance in nudity, but I can't see the difference between my nipples being exposed and them being covered as so vast. I think this is a very becoming outfit, and I'm sure many people will be overjoyed to see me in it. As they will be to see you."

"Okay. As long as you don't mind."

"MJ, your husband is an artist. I want to give him as great a canvas as possible to paint on."

Mary Jane nodded at that. Even so, she put on a bathrobe for the trip to the set. It would be nice to have a lingering memory of modesty during the shoot. Besides, she'd like very much to see Peter's reaction when she took it off.

***

Mary Jane had never thought of herself as a prude—being friends with Gwen Stacy would do that to you—but she did find herself wishing she had Kory's confidence, the princess walking from the dressing room wearing only her Pink of Perfection creation, oblivious to the lecherous glances even from people who had been on hundreds of shoots. Mary Jane eyefucked them for her, and they soon had their drooling tongues pulled back into their mouths.

They made their way to the Graphics Studio, where the set dressers were putting their finishing touches on MJ and Kory's home for the next ten hours or so. It was a vast, pink cloud, laboriously constructed out of some new kind of plastic Peter had been very excited about. Mary Jane and Kory would laze about it, looking as happy as possible to be wearing Pink of Perfection underwear.

And MJwouldbe happy to model for Peter; a closed set, with only three other people to handle make-up and lightning, and them either gay or women. Her agent had known just what strings to pull to get her to agree to the offer. Under these circumstances, it was easy to imagine she was just putting on a show for Peter, relaxed and comfortable even if this was the most revealing outfit she had ever modeled.

She found Peter checking his equipment, still with a freelancer's diligence at making sure all his tools were well-cared-for and in proper order. "What do you think?" she asked, taking off her robe to hang it up on a peg.

The bug-eyes, the stammering, the pitched breathing—the pitched tent. She'd get the same response wearing a bullet bra and a set of boxers, but being dressed in the Pink of Perfection lingerie made her feel like she'd earned it. In fact, with the set closed and all, she was beginning to feel quite sexy.

"Mr. Parker?" Kory came up, offering her hand, the simple motion making her full, firm breasts sway back and forth with more temptation than Delilah. "I'm Kory. We've spoken on the phone, you and me and your lovely wife, of course! She's told me so much about you."

"Nothing about our Skrull infiltration of the fashion industry, I hope."

Kory laughed richly. "I just want you to know, I completely trust your judgment and I'll do whatever you say. So let's take some photos of me in my underwear!"

She hurried over to get on the cloud, the technicians waiting to appropriately light her and give her a last-minute touch-up.

"A lot to take in, isn't she?" Peter commented to Mary Jane.

"Only when she turns around," MJ replied. She lightened her voice to match Kory's breathy words. "Tell me what to do, Mr. Photographer..."

"Just get up on the cloud. And try not to get too close to Kory's hair, it might be hungry."

The next two hours passed quickly. Mary Jane was busy every minute, posing, changing positions, smiling, pouting, laughing, all to either Peter's direction or whatever ideas she came up with. The photos taken today would be used throughout the campaign, a vast backlog of them to be drawn upon for years to come. Old modeling photos never died, they were just Photoshopped into oblivion. As Mary Jane smiled for the camera, she considered that she would probably be a mother before that grin had faded from shopping bags and underwear packages.

Well, hopefully.

It was intensive work, but she had an easy rapport with Peter and he knew how to make her look good. Kory was less familiar with their working relationship, but she was good at what she did, concentrating on the work with all her energy, Peter never needing to repeat himself when giving her directions. Occasionally, they stopped to change the lighting or swap one set of lingerie for another.Tasting the rainbow,Mary Jane called it, going from a black demi-cup to a red balconette.

Modest or no, she was a married woman, and although she knew Peter wasn't some jock to make a fuss about her wearing a revealing outfit or changing clothes in the middle of the shoot, she thought it gave him some peace of mind to take the extra time to go behind the dressing screen and change there.

Kory didn't bother with that, changing her bra, her panties without a care as to who was watching. Mary Jane knew that was typical of models, and Kory wasn't being teasing or demonstrative, just switching out one set for another. Still, her full-bodied voluptuousness made even those brisk motions one hell of a show. Even Mary Jane was drawn to it. And Peter, who had datedthe Black Cat,tended to bury himself in checking his camera while Kory was doing it.

Mary Jane shouldn't have minded. So, the same way she wanted to spare Peter's feelings by being a little modest, he wanted to spare her feelings by not looking at a naked woman who wasn't her. It was kinda sweet, actually. But the Irish in her resented the idea that Petershouldlook away from Kory, that there was some temptation there or that Mary Jane would be jealous or that she had something to be jealous of.

It didn't make much sense, she knew. What mattered was that she felt challenged by Kory's free-wheeling irresponsibility, and no matter how friendly her rivalry with another woman, MJ liked it best when it ended with her one-upping them. Felicia dated Peter, she married him. Calypso tied Peter up and whipped him, she...

Well, she made sure Peter would think of her in reference to that situation. She was a lady, not a nun.

So, emboldened by Kory, dared by her, Mary Jane stopped Peter the next time he finished a roll of film. "Hey, tiger?"

"Yeah?" he replied, gesturing for Fritz to change the lighting arrangement so a shot of Mary Jane arching her chest wouldn't allow her nipples to be seen from space.

"I was just thinking... we're selling underwear, right?"

"I'd hate to think we were selling something else."

"So us girls and the underwear have to be on camera together."

"That helps, yeah."

"But we don't have to be wearing the underwear, do we? Maybe I could just..."

She turned her back to him, taking off her bra, then sliding the thin, silky panties down her thighs. Inching carefully about so a crest of the fake cloud covered her ass, she crossed her arms over her chest and crossed her legs over her groin, hanging the bra over one shoulder, holding the panties at her side—dangling from a single finger.

"Jesus," Peter said. "That is good."

Even Kory had to stare, Mary Jane seeming to feel her eyes anew with every flash of Peter's camera onto her shapely breasts, her partially exposed ass. Enjoying herself immensely, Mary Jane gave a mischievous grin to Kory, who returned it—seeming somehow lascivious with the way it cocked her full lips.

"You look so gorgeous," Kory breathed, circling MJ. "I can'twaitto see how the pictures turn out. Can you do me too? Please?" She looked to Peter as if for permission. "I want your wife to do me, pretty please?"

"I... suppose..."

"Yeah, Pete. Of course."

Mary Jane approached Kory, who preened before her. Although anyone listening might've thought it was MJ's force of personality, too strong for Kory to resist, Mary Jane felt like it was the other way around. Like Kory was cajoling Mary Jane into undressing her, posing her.

"Okay, I think—straddle that bit of fluff there." With a submissive thrill, Kory did so, wrapping her legs around a crest of cloud. "And..." Kory untied her bikini bottoms, pulling away the ribbon of a thong so that now only this outcropping of puff hid her sex. Mary Jane nodded belatedly. "Yeah. And undo your bra—I think one cup covering your breast, and the other hanging down?"

"Can you help me?" Kory asked. "I always have a little trouble with bras. Guess that's why I usually go without!"

Of course she does,Mary Jane thought, very loudly.

Again feeling the force of Kory's charisma drawing her in—Kory's sheer desire to please making MJ want tolet herselfbe pleased—MJ reached behind her back for her, unfastening the brassiere. Kory's heavy, mountainous cleavage fell forward out of its confinement, barely sagging, just assuming a more natural rest upon her chest. The bra cups hung from her loosely, but still close, like they were as reluctant as a living being would be to part from her breasts.

"And then..." Kory said, Mary Jane sucking in breath as she prepared for a sentence that seemed like it could end in any way. Any way at all. "One strap off?"

"Yes," Mary Jane agreed, like it wasn't her idea at all. She was being pulled into Kory's orbit, sucked into the deep, pure green of her eyes. Moving with the slowness of a dream, she drew Kory's shoulder strap up higher on her shoulder, so the cup hung naturally over her right breast without letting her nipple be seen. MJ looked down to double-check. Stopped. Between cups and flesh she saw that the vivid red of Kory's nipples were swollen, turgid. But she could not know if Kory was aroused or if it was simply a trick of her alien physiology.

Kory held up her left hand, offering it to Mary Jane like she was a genteel lady waiting for a gentleman to kiss it. Mary Jane took it, the fingers were callused, tough like so many of the superheroes whose hands she'd shook, but the palm was soft and warm, the languidness that came after the kick of good whiskey. She raised Kory's hand to her left breast, again shielding the hardened nipple from the camera's eye—touching it with Kory's fingers instead of her own.

"Mary Jane, don't move," Peter said, and she heard his camera whir, its lens extending into place. "This is one hell of a shot."

Mary Jane stared into Kory's eyes as the camera flashed, and thought that both of them were only seeing each other.

***

There was very little space in the dressing room for pacing, but still, Kory paced. How exciting. How truly exciting! She had been worried about doing a shoot without Donna, her personal photographer (and I, her pet model,Kory mused happily), but variety was the spice of life, as her favorite Earth saying went. W

hile sessions with Donna were relaxing and comfortable, this one had beeninvigorating. She felt alive, ecstatic, full of energy. The display of her body had not been as routine as it was with Donna, but instead had a strange frission. The others were clearly put off-guard by her nakedness, and she had enjoyed a sense of power over them—none of them, not even the so-beautiful Mary Jane Watson, able to look away.

She had had many more pictures taken, inside her lingerie and out, before Peter had declared the shoot was over: the pictures becoming routine, the poses becoming sluggish, the energy of the room dissipating. MJ had asked to see his work as he encrypted it to be sent to the Pink of Perfection marketing department, and together they had disappeared into Mary Jane's dressing room, right next door to Kory's.