The Ultimate Bubble

Posted on Fri Nov 17th, 2023 @ 10:22am by Connor Bruin & Bliss Hawkins

7,283 words; about a 36 minute read

Mission: Episode 3: X-Tra Ecclesiam
Location: Breakstone Lake / X-Mansion
Timeline: August 13th, 1990 - Night

[Warning: Mild Adult Content - Reader Discretion is Advised]

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The short hike to Breakstone Lake went pretty swiftly, as neither one was prone to fatigue due to their mutations. By the time they got there, though, the summer sky had been replaced by night, shining starlight and a half moon. They neared the shore with it's gently lapping waves, but otherwise it was starkly silent. Heartbeats, breathing, faintest breeze.

Connor felt inspired by the scene and tried a more subtle approach than his first attempt at affection. "Stars," he said, then placed his hand on Bliss's cheek with his thumb stretched up toward her eyelashes. "Eyes." And then he leaned in to kiss her again, this time his lips gently brushed hers like a braised brush. The feeling made him shiver with delight.

Bliss sighed happily with the soft brush of his lips over hers. Her eyes fluttered closed as she enjoyed the moment. What had started as an investigation fueled by curiosity had become something far more interesting. When the kiss ended, she leaned in to whisper to his ear, "You are a fast learner." She put her palm over his heart, then gestured towards the whole night sky. "Big."

Connor placed his hand on her breastbone with his fingers spread across either side of her neck. "Kind." He squeezed her hand a squeeze with his other, perhaps harder than he meant to, and then let go to sign the letters with one hand: YOU SEEM TOO GOOD FOR ME.

Bliss followed his signing, then shook her head. "Then you don't know your own value, darlin'. There's a lot of that going around. I've been told all my life then I'm not worth a damn, been called trash and worse. I know how words can hurt you inside. But I'm here to tell you that you're far more than what you think you are. You're something special." She reached out to curl her fingers through his scruff with a tender expression. "You're definitely special to me."

A rush of emotions went through Connor as she spoke. Anger at her being called trash. Glee at her calling him special. A surge of attraction when she played with his hair. Throughout the gamut his eyes shined with intensity. "You...not trash. Who?" He pointed a finger at his head and bent it, signifying that whoever thought so was stupid, crazy, or both. "I keep." And then he made a grasping motion in front of his chin. It could mean precious. It could mean treasure. In a broader context the hand sign could refer to anything valuable or cherished. The intense look in his eyes only flared brighter.

Bliss followed along with his interpretation and his signs. "Who? No one important, not any more."

He saw a brief flash of pain in her eyes, but soon that was gone behind her armor of self confidence. But then a rare blush came to her cheeks as she understood what he was trying to say about treasure.

"One man's trash is another man's treasure." She closed the distance so he could feel her body's warmth and her breath against his skin like a tropical breeze. "Can I be your treasure, Connor, if just for a little while?"

The question made Connor chuckle. He held his hands up, palms facing him, and then slowly turned them out toward her—hand-signing that she already was a treasure to him. There had been no need to ask.

But how has this happened? Connor rewound the evening through his mind and came up at a loss. There was no accounting for it. There was only acceptance. With the distance closed between them, Connor wrapped her in his arms and held her tightly. "Nev-ev-ver go."

A grateful Bliss buried her face in the crook of Connor's neck, her arms circled him and held onto him. She had wandered for a long time from where she had been born in search of a true home. Was this it? In this embrace, it certainly felt right.

After a long moment of relishing this acceptance, she whispered up to him, "The fastening on this dress is tricky. Think you can get it for me, please?"

If she wanted help, Connor was more than happy to give it. Clothes were obstructing in almost every way on general principle. He himself was only dressed in a sleeveless shirt and cotton shorts. After she turned around, Connor fiddled with the strings to the point of frustration before he finally got them loose. Then he chuckled to himself in the minor victory. Bliss was going to show him the good stuff.

Since they were beginning to shed clothes, he peeled his shirt off and cast it aside near the dock. A white pendant with ornate enamelwork dangled from his chest. He pulled that off as well, though gently so as not to rip the leather thong, and held it out for Bliss to see when she turned around. By the vintage appearance it was a family heirloom of middling quality. "My ma," he said simply by way of explanation.

Bliss had stepped away to carefully put her treasured dress safely aside. She returned to the light from the single light from the overhead lamp at the dock. She was in a rather fetching white bra and bikini set that left little to the imagination. She Let her fingers gingerly trace over the pendant with proper reverence. "It's lovely."

"Keep it," Connor said with stilted speech. Although the alcohol had loosened his tongue, the fetching and miniscule ensemble Bliss was wearing threatened to tie it all up again. "I keep you."

Bliss grinned up at him, and shook her head. She slipped her arms around his waist. "You keep it... And me. Deal?"

Fair enough. Connor nodded. And then he picked her up and chucked her into the water. He jumped in right after her, laughing hysterically.

Bliss was giggling and kicking her legs pointlessly as she entered the lake with a ridiculous splash. She emerged with her pale blonde hair slicked back over her head. Without her hair and makeup being done, she looked so much younger. She paddled over to him, laughing as he had never heard her laugh before. "You are such a stinker... "

Connor thumped his chest twice and laughed along with her. "Got you," he boasted and teased at the same time. His hands came up and his thumbs wiped her makeup clear from her face. "Better." He grinned at her natural look.

She smiled at him, her heart in her eyes for him. "You're sweet." She craned her head to brush her lips against his. He felt her hands sliding over his body under the calm waters. "Tell me if I make you uncomfortable." Her lips gave him sweet kisses while her hands enjoyed his form.

Eyes closed, Connor processed the sense of being touched by a beautiful girl. Soft hands displacing water, pressing against he contours of his body. Heavy breathing from her mouth reaching his ears, the scent of her breath in his nostrils, the almost worshipful way she admired him with her hands. It was stimulating as all hell and Connor trembled against the brunt of the gentle onslaught. "Good," he whispered, eyes still closed, still savoring her touch. "So good."

"I love to touch you...." Her husky purr filled his ears as her touch began to vary. Her smooth palm soothed over his skin, then her fingernails gave tentative rakes over his shoulders. Not that her nails were especially sharp or that the scratching was deep. It was the difference in the sensory input that was the question.

A gasp of delight hissed through Connor's teeth. His arms and legs made an involuntary twitch as his nervous system fought to regulate the new sensations. And he loved every second. "Touch." He raised a shaking hand and fumbled for her with his eyes closed.

Bliss was easy to find beneath the dark Waters. His hand found her wet shoulder, and the bra strap that led downward.
"You can touch..." Her reassuring words came with a slight tremor in her voice, one of excitement of her own in this moment. "Just take your time. There's no rush, I want us both to enjoy this."

She kissed across his shoulder and up his neck. The touches of her lips or as soft as the caress of a butterfly, but she knew that with his sensory abilities it would be amplified. She was beginning to worry that if she touched his more erogenous areas if he would be able to tolerate that level of sensation. She wanted to be careful. The last thing she wanted was to hurt him in any way.

The kisses against his body weren't more sensitive than against his lips but they made him shiver all the same. He gripped her clavicle and slid down from there. His hand knew the feel of her breast already from his blind grab during their rooftop wrestling match, but he was being intentional now. Careful, measured, ecstatic. He opened his eyes which held a dreamy look. The alcohol had full effect. "Good?" he asked, his voice a little slurred.

"Uh huh...." Bliss was the one becoming nonverbal for the moment. For a long moment she had cursed herself for not taking off the bra before Connor threw her in the water. ~It is what it is~ she thought. Thanks to the alcohol and her own overclocked libido, she can feel the butterflies in her tummy beginning to flutter downwards.

With a soft whimper, she kissed him. Now that she had demonstrated a good kiss, she gave him a great kiss. It held her passion and growing desire for him. Her pelvis ground against his, and despite both of them still wearing clothes, the friction pulled a muffled mewl from Bliss.

An involuntary grunt came out of Connor's mouth as well. He had taken matters into his own hands before, so to speak, but Bliss grinding against him was a much better sensation. The passion of her kiss brought back the fervency he had before, to say nothing of her pelvis against his. He returned her kiss and did his best not to overwhelm Bliss as he had before. When he made to laugh but what came out instead was a moan. "Good," he managed to say. He didn't want Bliss to think she was hurting him. It was quite the opposite.

He gripped her hips and bucked against her like she had done him, but more forceful and prolonged. "Oh..." Eyes closed, body convulsed, Connor left his head back and let his mouth fall open until the surge ebbed away some. "Tight." He looked Bliss in the eye and said her name. "B'liss..." The consonant blend came out as nearly two syllables but he'd said it. "Feels like magic." Connor had always known there was no such thing as magic, but Bliss made a believer out of him. No other word came close to describe the force at work between them.

You can't call it dry humping if it's underwater, but Bliss was as aroused by their grinding as Connor was. Between that and his careful upper body action, Bliss was thinking really hard about how far to go with Connor tonight. She didn't want to go all the way immediately and give him the wrong idea. She wanted to feel him inside her so badly, but she had to be strong. That didn't mean they couldn't have some fun.

The saying of her name, even as stilted as it was, made her heart swell dangerously inside her chest. "Maybe I'm going to make you happy, I can't leave you like this." Her eyes focused on his in the pale moonlight, one hand holding on to him to keep from floating away, her disappeared under the water. "I can feel the strength inside you, Connor. I ache for you, I just don't want everything to happen tonight."

Connor felt his entire body light up like a Christmas tree. Mouth open, eyes closed, he made short, little nods. His breathing turned ragged as his lungs went into overdrive. His hands and feet twitched of their own accord like a man possessed. When the sensation was too much, he opened his eyes and stared at her intently. What was about to happen was something he wanted to remember forever. His stare bore into hers with an almost hypnotic intensity matched only by the faint snort of his nostrils which couldn't decided whether to inhale or exhale. The memory imprint complete, Connor gave in to the rush and let himself be overtaken by the primed release.

"Yes, yes, yes, yeeeeessss!" The final word was more guttural shout than an enunciation but the meaning was still quite clear. Connor floated with Bliss while the surge of hormones played his brain like a xylophone.

Bliss supported him with a hand under his neck as the stars gleamed above them. Her kisses were tender as he came into the afterglow of the moment. "Sweetheart, was that good for you?"

"Div...ine..." Connor said as he was catching his breath. "God...dess." He found her mouth with his and expressed what words could not. Passion. Gratitude. Humility. He had been touched in a way no one had before by an otherworldly beauty who understood him like so few people had. It was like a fairy tale come to life.

All these things raced through his mind as he tugged her lips and tried to remind himself to be restrained. "Now you." He whispered in her ear as his hand slid down her abdomen toward her pelvis and stopped there. "Show me."

Even if he wasn't very good it was better than getting off by herself later in her room. Some help is better than no help at all. "Ok...." She kissed his scruffy cheek. "Safe word is red, stop everything. Yellow means careful. Green means go." She took a deep breath. He could sense her building up. "Connor..."

The guidance was good. Connor couldn't even work himself over like she had done, so he would do whatever she asked now when it came to her. It made him think of playing an instrument. A wonderful, alluring, glorious instrument.

Connor slid around behind her in the water and wrapped his free arm around her torso. Circular motions under the water rapidly increased in RPMs like winding up an engine. Connor even noted the increase in pitch of her moans. This wasn't so hard after all. He remembered how she reacted to him saying her name, so he tried it again.

"B'liss..." he whispered in her ear.

Her breathing got a catch in it when he whispered her name. She wrapped her arms up to circle his neck. "Green, Connor ... Green." She turned her face to his, kissing him with a newly discovered hunger.

Connor accepted her kisses like a thirsty man. With her arms encircling his neck like a garland, her breasts heaved upward as their bodies pressed together.

This would give him high marks for everything. She would do so once she was able to think coherently once more. Her mind became a little foggy, as Bliss was awash in rapture. She broke their kissing so she could mumble his name again while looking into his eyes. She had never met anybody like him, and she liked that. Liked HIM. She thought this school thing was going to be all drudgery and no fun at all. Now she had a playmate, and that made all the difference in the world.

"Green," he whispered. It wasn't a question but a statement. He kept going, following her nonverbal cues as only a nonverbal person could. The trembling of her body felt like she was going to explode. In that moment, he wanted nothing more than for that to happen. He would make another memory imprint, this one for muscle memory. "B'liss. G'reen."

Now it was literally pulsating between his fingertips, so he matched its pressure beat for beat in between swirling motions. Whatever was going to happen felt very soon. He stopped the circular motions of her breast and just held her tight while his two fingers went rapid-fire on her toggle switch.

Bliss was practically humping against his fingers, her eyes squinted tightly against the exploding color bombs behind her eyes. She struggled inside his grip, but she didn't give the safe word. She was mumbling incoherently. Connor could make out his name, the word green, amidst other things. She finally dissolved in a wracking orgasm, squealing loud enough to echo across the lake clear to Westchester. A force strong enough to make Connor nearly lose his grip on her emanated like a pulse from Bliss. But it was over in a heartbeat. He felt something not quite electrical emanating from her core. With the release of the electrical pulse, Bliss went completely limp inside his arms.

"Hot." Connor laughed like a giddy schoolboy. "Like it." The thrum of release felt bioelectrical as well as biochemical, something that Connor would likely dwell on for many an hour in the future, whether lost in thought or alone in the shower. The way Bliss lied limply in his arms brought a twinge of concern. "You okay?"

Her breathing was slowing down finally, her head lolled back against him. Her eyes were closed in blissful appreciation. At his question, she turned her head just enough to be able to kiss his fuzzy cheek. "Green..." she mumbled dreamily.

"More?" Green meant go, so Connor started up again, slower than when he'd finished but faster than when he'd first begun. "Green..."

Bliss's eyes flashed open with the beginning of a second round. She grabbed his hand and shook her head quickly, "Abort, abort! Red, red, red!" To show she wasn't mad far from it, she turned inside his arms and wrapped herself around Connor. "I'm not going to trade you for anything. I hope you didn't have any long-term plans because they just changed." With that she kissed him lovingly. There was no tongue involved, but the emotion was easy to feel emanating from the blonde.

Between the melatonin released in his brain, the buzz of the alcohol, and the hard line of focus he has expensed in order to do what he never thought he ever would to a woman who as beautiful inside as she was on the outside, Connor's thinker was not in top form. "OK," he said between kisses. Without knowing what would follow such a sublime experience as they had given one another, he contented himself to bob and float with Bliss entangled with him however she wanted.

But then the thinking began to return, a different kind of buzz, not a dulling one but a hyperactive one. She mentioned long-term plans. What were those? He was a bona fide genius short on actual life experience. He couldn't plan ahead. Not for things like this.

"To-mor-ow?" he forced out. Talking was getting difficult, like when his arm fell asleep, except in his jaw and throat muscles.

"Yeah, tomorrow and the day after, maybe longer if you like. Bliss ran her hands through his scruff with warm affection. Right now she was floating on a cloud of pure post orgasmic Joy. She really didn't want to go back to the old, dreary mansion. She felt better right now than she ever had before today. And the thing was she was feeling especially generous right now, not to mention still a little horny.

"Let's get out of the water, Connor. We can dry off on the bench, ok?" she said. "I want to see what's hidden under the water. If it's anything like the rest of you, and I'm certain it is, we're going to have some more fun."

Connor roared to life at the touch of her magic fingers. "I'm ...yours," he said. Then he gave a blushing grin. No one had described him in those terms before. It had never occurred to him that anyone ever would. "See."

If she wanted more, there was no way in hell he was going to stop her. Bliss was full of surprises and each one was better than the last. And so he waded toward the shore, letting his waterlogged shorts fall away under the weight and drag of the water. After kicking them free to rest in the same neck of the woods as the shirt he'd left near the dock, he turned around under the lone light that illuminated the dock and gave Bliss the display she had wanted. Despite the mild chill of coming out of the water, he was flushed balls to bone from her touch. Even so, he still bit his lip while she made her evaluation.

Bliss stifled a chuckle as Connor preened for her. She sighed happily as she appreciated the effort, and she decided that sauce for the goose is good for the gander. She could do a little bit of preening herself. From the darkness just outside the single lamp on the deck, a soaking wet bra was tossed and landed on the deck nearby, soon enough followed by a pair of panties.

After a few seconds of building up anticipation, Bliss stepped into the light. It would be difficult to describe Bliss in detail without dissolving into minutiae. How does one describe perfection? She was once described as the girl who lived next door, that is if you live next to the Playboy Mansion. Another observer said that she must have modeled for the painting of Aphrodite's emergence from the sea. Her long hair was slicked back over her head in between her shoulders. Her green eyes twinkled with mirth and she approached him slowly.

On her approach, Connor stood spellbound. Nothing wasted but nothing wanting in her curves. His eyes raced from one part of her form to another like a speed rally. Her body flexed mass appeal while in motion. One instance emphasized the sway of her hips. The next the bounce of her pert, supple breasts. Her legs ran for days. Her taut abdomen gathered her entire hourglass figure together into a picture of feminine perfection. Connor up to a full salute that surged so hard it made his limbs go limp for an instant while his blood pressure equalized.

She leaned in and kissed him. The kiss was tender and brief before she knelt at his feet. Her expression was one of growing reverence as she slowly began to caress him. She looked up at him with quiet appreciation. "You're beautiful."
With that, she leaned in and made a man out of him. Periodically she would look up towards his face, her eyes twinkling and full of desire.

When she called him beautiful, Connor was confused. That was obviously a word to describe her. Before he could argue, she had taken her mouth to him and changed his world forever. This was different from before. This was next level. This was knocking on Heaven's door.

Connor looked down and said her name which felt like honey on his lips. "B'liss..." And then the look she returned to him, so sultry and full of desire, overwhelmed his sight. He closed his eyes and looked up, the sight of her etched into his mind like a retinal burn. One surge of pleasure bled right over into another. Connor felt weak at the knees and nearly buckled for the diminished control he had over his limbs. The sensations went beyond pleasure. It was like sweet relief given to a throbbing ache, as if he had been in agony and she was drawing it out.

Bliss could sense with the tremble in his legs he was getting wobbly. Without missing a beat she guided him back onto the bench to sit down, and then closed the gap between them once more. A charley-horse spasm locked down his body from chest to knees, leaving only his hands and toes to splay open, while a cry shot out of his mouth.

And then he roared. Oh, did he roar. The spirits of his Germanic ancestors, wherever they roamed, rallied in salute for his cry of victory.

Afterward, Connor took a deep breath and let out a softer moan that formed a singular name. "Bllllliiiiiiiiiiissssss..."

Words were meaningless. Most processes were closed for business while Connor's medulla oblongata practically had to reset itself from sensual overload, evidenced only by an addled, giddy laugh. Connor's eyes nearly crossed while his body cycled down from the ecstatic strain.

Bliss sighed looked up at him with a shake of her head. "I'm definitely getting on the pill before your little swimmers attack my egg like the second invasion of Atlantis."

When the world came back into focus, Connor heard what she The picture of his spermatozoa as armed soldiers invading an underwater city of three rings that represented her womb made Connor start laughing. Once he started, he couldn't stop and had to hold his ribs. "F-fun-ny!"

And he fell over on his side until the giggles subsided. When he laid down, though, his head found the scotch bottle that had started all of this. He unstopped it and took another deep swig that made him cough like before, then handed it to Bliss.

Bliss shook her head at the offer for the bottle. "Treat that like gold, sweetie. And that's all we have. We have to figure out what the connection is between the alcohol and your verbal growth." She pushed yourself up and jumped into the lake. She emerged after a couple minutes with a refreshed attitude and a clean face. She sat down on the bench and watched Connor. "This is not how I actually expected my night to go. But I much preferred how it worked out to compared to what I thought was going to be."

Connor agreed. He sat up, grabbed Bliss, and pulled her dripping body atop of him on the bench. Blue eyes met green. "Fate?" he asked, his teeth sinking into the F. "Luck?" The glottal stop at the end was a clicking sound. His eyes darted away and slowly drifted back to hers in a side glance. Something else was on his mind but he didn't say it. He wanted to hear her initial thoughts first.

Bliss made herself comfortable on Connor's lap. "I do believe in luck and fate and all those random things that can happen when you least expect them. I had a lot of bad breaks in my life, but I try not to dwell on them. Hell, I was born in Las Vegas, the capital of gambling on the whole planet. The trick with luck is to try to take every advantage to bend circumstances in your favor. Can't always be done. Sometimes just blind luck steers us in a particular direction. But look at us, because you are so kind to put a little salute to me in front of my door.... And here we are. But blind luck? Total randomness universe like some sort of chaos storm? No, I don't believe that. If that was true, you'd probably be with Aurora and I'd still be on Moira's island in a coma. And, trust me, if you were to end up with Aurora, I'd want to be in a coma. She's sweet, I'm sure, but I'm more your type."

More giggling. Whether it was the alcohol or Cloud Nine was impossible to tell. Maybe a combination of both. "Why Aurora?" he asked, confused. The alcohol had loosened his tongue some more. "Don't... know her well." And it was true. Connor and Bliss weren't old friends but they went on couple missions together. Aurora could talk to him telepathically, which he enjoyed like with the Professor, but he hadn't connected with her like Bliss. With fingers stuck to the sides of his eyes, he said, "You see me."

"Yes. I see you." Bliss nodded with a soft smile, running her fingers gently through the scruff of his hair. "As for Aurora being your next choice? If you haven't noticed the dating population here is not very extensive. For a school for gifted youngsters the gene pool is very shallow. I suppose there's Hoodwink, but you can never find her when you need her. I guess that there's nothing wrong with Aurora. Who knows? She might be a freak like me. Telepaths, I hear, can be quite wild."

"No fate, no luck," Connor said with so deliberation, "means... no love." His mouth slammed shut like a steel trap as he waited to hear what she made of that. Air stayed trapped and unmoving in his throat in the brief silence.

"I think you're wrong," she said with confidence. "I've seen a lot of things in this world that I can't explain with science. I do believe in the randomness of life. You turn right instead of left, and your whole life changes. Look at us tonight. When you wrote that poem to me and lit that little candle of hope and left it in front of my door, did you expect tonight to happen a few days later? The world is full of magic and wonder, and if it takes me forever to show you that I'm right... well, that just gives us something to do between kisses."

Connor grinned. She had missed his meaning but went on to explain his point all the same. "I mean... No luck, fate, no love... with Aurora." He placed his palm on her bare chest over her heart. "Just you." As he said it, his grin faltered and he bit his lip.

Bliss was confused with his faltering words, but her understanding came quickly enough. Her face lit up with a smile, and she put her palm gently over his heart. "Fate, luck...magic...." She moved closer so they were touching, skin to skin. Her emerald eyes were full of her heart's feelings. Yes teenagers can fall in love quickly she told herself. What she felt for the big dude was real. She was always one for deeds meaning something, and words meant very little. Maybe they were a good match after all. "Love. "

That was exactly what Connor wanted to hear but was hesitant to come out and ask. He grabbed Bliss around the waist and hoisted her in the air with the ease of a ragdoll. He spun in a tight circle, holding her over his head like a figure skater and laughed with joy. It was a foolish thing to consider a word so charged as love, but if that wasn't what this was building toward, then what was it? Bliss's answer had put his feet back on solid ground and he couldn't help but hold her up high and celebrate.

Bliss giggled as Connor spun them around. She could have easily hoisted them into the air with her giddy energy, but right now she was more than happy to be in his hands. When he at last put her down onto her feet, she closed the distance with him and wrapped her arms around him. She pressed her ear to his chest and closed her eyes to listen to his heart. She held him for a long time, just listening.

He could hear the smallest of sniffles from her. "Crying?" Connor didn't want to see her tears, so he held her against him. He didn't know if that would help. If she were just cold, it might. Connor was a walking furnace. But somehow Connor felt it was more complicated than an evening chill.

"Happy." She said it softly against his chest. She reached up to wipe her cheek. After all she had a reputation as a tough girl to maintain. "It's just been a while since I felt the love of somebody. Don't don't pay attention to me... girls are crazy sometimes."

Paying attention was the one thing he couldn't avoid doing. Especially when it came to Bliss. Tears were weird, though, so Connor could accept that much. "Love..." he said softly while stroking her damp head still resting against his chest. "Happy crying, like happy shouting." He grinned and made a splat noise with his mouth.

Bliss pulled away enough to smile up at him, her lingering tears drying on her cheeks. She grinned up at him and thumped herself twice on her sternum. "Very happy."

Between the solidarity and the jiggle physics, Connor's eyes grew wider than his grin. He thumped his own chest for good measure, then threw his head back and said, "Naked for-ev-ver!" There was a fair amount of juvenile teenager left in Connor's statements but beneath that veneer was the delight of being so free that vulnerability turned invulnerable with the last person he expected to give him the time of day. "Safe and good."

Bliss nodded, running her fingers through his scruffy hair. "That's right, safe and good." She reached out and rested her hands on his hips. "You know, I'm still hungry."

"Bacon..." Connor said. He had nearly forgotten. "Uh... wet clothes." The pile of sopping garments made him bite his lip. They would take all night to drip dry and then most of the following day before the dampness evaporated. Gallivanting around without clothes at night was one thing, but they couldn't stay out here until morning. Others were prone to wander too.

Bliss touched Connor on the shoulder with a fresh smile.
"Who says mutant Powers can't be practical? Hand them over, baby boy."

"Baby man," Connor corrected as he handed over the garments.

Bliss nodded at his correction with a nod. "100% man. "

Once Bliss had the wet clothes in hand, she let her eyes go unfocused as she concentrated on the water in the clothing. She could feel the liquid and solid molecules in the matrix of the wet shirt. She began to sift the water from the fabric. The dripping water quickly turned into rivulets. The process sped up until at last the shirt was dry as well as his shorts. With a flourish she handed over the clothes to him and picked up her own to treat the same way. "And that's about as domestic as I get. That saved me a lot of money on the trip here. Who needs a laundromat when you can make your clothes clean on your own?"

"Fuck!" Connor's jaw fell open in a rare moment of profanity. Was there anything this girl couldn't do? His enchanted Lady of the Lake. If next she pulled a magical sword out of the water and gave it to him, he wouldn't be surprised. His eyes locked on her like the stunning creature she was.

She looked over to him with a playful smirk. "You just have to have an imagination and the will to try. You just never know what you can do unless you give it a shot."

Soon enough all the clothes were dry and ready for use. "Ta da! For my next trick I'm going to make bacon sandwiches on toast. " In response, her stomach growled loudly. It reminded that she hadn't eaten since the plane.

Returning her smirk, Connor yelled, "Race!" He hastily hopped one leg at a time into his cotton shorts, as he'd gone commando that day, and started running back up the trail while pulling his sleeveless tank over his head.

"Oh, you!" Bliss was hopping on one foot as she tried to get into her panties. He was already out of sight when she was struggling to get her bra on. It fastened in the back, so she had to get her arms twisted just to get it fastened. "No fair! You try to get boobs like these into a bra while you're running! Oooh, you're gonna pay, pal!"

There was no way she was going to beat him to the house, so she decided to take her time and be fully dressed by the time she arrived back at the house. Connor was waiting for her of course. She just primly poked him in the sternum when she walked past. "I may be last, but I'm last with style."

Connor hooted at the poke, but waited for her to walk by before he playfully slapped her shapely butt. Then he ducked the inevitable blind backhand that her shoulder telegraphed a mile away.

The confident Caveman deftly ducked the backhand, but he ducked directly into a twirling throw pillow spiraling into him from a chair in the foyer. "You are so lucky that I'm a good guy these days."

Connor soaked the impact of the throw pillow without a flinch, still sporting his shit-eating grin. "Flirting," he said with a wink. "Homework."

Bliss chuckled and motioned Connor to follow her into the kitchen. "Come on, you can help me pull ingredients together. I'm going to need bread and bacon. I found the bacon in the fridge earlier, see if you can find sliced bread. I also need to get something to drink, this time maybe some orange juice? Do you like chocolate milk? It's my comfort food. When I was on the road, sometimes I would get chocolate milk when I didn't have money for much else. It made me feel happy inside."

"Yes!" Connor said to all of the above. He would eat shit on a shingle if Bliss served it to him. When he started rutting through the cupboards for the bread, he saw the busted cabinet that led to their whole wonderful night together. "Oh..." He stared at the incriminating cabinet door on the countertop. Picking it up, he sized the holes and the screws. Stripped. That would be a problem. "Aye!" he called to Bliss. Maybe she had another trick up her sleeve. "Magic?"

Bliss walked over and looked at the incriminating evidence. She tapped her chin and deep thought for a long moment.
"So are the screws stripped or is it the holes in the wood?" She pondered it for another long moment. "If it's the screws that are the problem we don't have time to search the house for replacements. Take the ones out of the cabinet on the other side of the kitchen and use those to replace this one. If it's the holes that are the problem you could go down to the workshop and see if there's some wood glue? All we need to do is hold everything together for one night and then we can create a satisfactory alibi for everything. Are you in with me on this?"

"Yes. Wait." Instead of her plan, Connor rushed about the kitchen and pantry, grabbing everything in sight. Milk. Vinegar. Flour. Sugar. Lemon juice. Baking soda. Coffee filters. Mixing bowl. He started mixing and whipping it all together until the concoction turned from a stank liquid into a thick, gooey paste. He dipped the wood screws into it and then reinserted them into the cabinet door. "Sticky," Connor said, replacing the cabinet door. "Cure."

Bliss continued to work on the bacon sandwiches while looking over her shoulder towards Connor took care of the situation with the cabinet door. She had wrapped up her part and cleaned up while he hung the door back in place with the improvised glue. She hooked an arm around his waist as she looked at his success.
"Connor, I'm impressed. You're like MacGyver, only hotter."

The compliment made Connor blush. He wasn't shy about showing off his intellect but this hadn't been one of those times. He just wanted to spare himself unnecessary craftsmanship. Didn't everyone know how to make glue from household ingredients?

"Now if you'll be so kind as to carry our plate of sandwiches into the television lounge I will bring our cold and tasty beverage. Do you have a preference for television that isn't dull and boring? Maybe a movie?"

Connor blinked back into the moment. Yes. Food. Movie. Maybe more. Whatever it would be, Connor was in for the long run.

She turned to wrap both arms around his waist and look up into his eyes. "I don't want to let you go just yet."

That was convenient. Connor was losing himself in overanalyzing the situation. Her hug pulled him back to the now, so he returned it with a fierce squeeze. Didn't want to get him go? Connor made a gesture with the edge of his hand that was something like an S-pattern or a question mark, then a sweeping motion that pantomimed a hand-broom. ~Never let go~

"You're sweet. But I'm hungry and my bacon sandwiches are getting cold. Can I trust you to take them to the TV room without eating all of them? I'll get the OJ. "

Connor bit his lip to hold back his grin. "Hurry." And then he cleared the distance from the counter to the hallway in a single bound.

"It's not a race... " Bliss watched the freshly minted boyfriend skedaddling out of the kitchen like a scalded dog. She looked heavenward with a sigh. "Girl, you really know how to pick 'em."

Once Connor had rushed into the parlor with the big screen TV, he realized that he had absolutely no idea what Bliss would want to watch. There were dozens of channels thanks to the SatCom setup, but Connor was dismally behind on pop culture. What was good? He flipped through channels until...

The screen was black except for blue letters slowly moving across them. A staccato drumbeat held Connor in thrall while he watched the letters E and R slowly etch their way across the screen. More letters followed. What could they possibly spell out? Possible anagrams flashed through Connor's mind: martinet... anterior... retirant... nitrator. After several seconds, the perspective jumped back and revealed the full title card.

THE TERMINATOR

"Oooohhh..." Connor mused aloud.

Bliss finally caught up with Connor and plopped down into the comfortable couch. She looked up at the screen with the dramatic music playing and was immediately intrigued. "What's the movie, Bubblicious?

Looking at her in confusion, Connor signed at her with a hooked finger near his mouth that expanded into his whole palm. The question was clear on his face... bubblegum?

Bliss looked up to Connor from the couch with a sly grin. She considered it a rare victory that she could say something and he couldn't figure it out in 2 seconds or less.

She used sign language so no eavesdropper could understand. She was quite elaborate in her explanation. When she finished, she primly dabbed at the corner of her lips with her pinky.

The elaborate and colorful explanation left nothing to the imagination. Connor turned beet red. Bubblegum. He was the bubblegum. Her bubblegum. The innuendo sent a flutter all through him which brought out a bashful grin through his blushing cheeks.

Bliss grinned at his realization and reaction. Then she patted the couch next to her. "Come on, Connor, I haven't seen this movie and I hear it's good. Have a bacon sandwich and relax."

What movie? Between food, Bliss, and... bubblegum... Connor didn't have much bandwidth for anything else. In the end, that was just fine with him. Connor sat down, put an arm around Bliss, ate his sandwich in three chomps, and settled in to get comfortable. Before the night was through, Bliss would fall asleep on Connor's shoulder, Connor would calculate an almost 1:1 average breathing to blink rate for Bliss, and he would carry her to her room before retrieving the speech-generating device he'd forgotten on the roof.

 

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