At first I wasn't sure about the pairing - Millicent is a "beholder" character I really like, but Marietta? Almost unknown and so unpleasant in the books! But then I decided to start reading anyway, and I couldn't stop until it suddenly ended and I was left with a sense of longing and wanting more - more touching and happiness and forgetting together what is socially expected...
A lot of things hit very close to the mark: their needy and embarassed first fumbling was oh-so-perfect,and made me recall fondly my first girlfriend (she was a bit on the sturdy side, like Millicent, but hell, her tits.. what a marvel!). But, overall, this:
She flushes, squirming under Marietta's gaze. "I know I'm ugly," she says, her voice full of the old defiance and yet sounding as if it's about to crack.
Marietta shakes her head. "No." If anyone is ugly, it's Marietta, who is a dry stick with pimples on her arms and scars on her brow that will never go away.
this made me think about how many ways there are out there to be "ugly", while it seems like there's just one way to get it right, and how many pain it has caused because one thinks his/her body is horrible and doesn't deserve to be kissed and stroked and watched in awe if it's not perfectly perfect... and sometimes this feels like the biggest injustice of all.