8 comments/ 29975 views/ 21 favorites Rocket Girl By: TaLtos6 I was looking over what I've put up here and realized that it could take a bit of time to bring even one to a conclusion since they aren't short, any of them. I wanted to give readers a nice little romance without any fur or horns in it. Well, other than what's supposed to be there, I guess... I have a few like this, but they're mostly woven into longer epics and I didn't want to pull them out of context. This is just a little tale and involves two people and the friend who helps out to make it happen for them, since she's the only one who can see it. It's really two stories, though one is 40 years in the past. Just so you know, this happens in the mid to late 1980s, mostly due to technology. I think that I can do this in three chapters minimum, four more likely depending on the sticky bits of the love scenes, but not much more. I hope you find the characters easier to relate to than demons or werewolves. :) ---------------------- He'd come home from work and showered, glad for the feeling that the water was washing the effects of the day's work off as well as keeping him clean. It had been a long day. A change into his leathers and he was out the door again. He pulled into the gas station and asked the young attendant to fill it with super, but retracted that when he saw the kid take the regular hose from the pump. "Thanks, but I'll just do it myself, Chief." he said. With a full tank now, he slapped the fuel filler shut and went inside to pay. Back at the bike, he turned the key, noted the neutral indicator, pulled the clutch and hit the starter. He still had his helmet on and no one saw his small grin at the growl coming from down there between his knees. He'd cut a lot of corners in his life to get this little red pony into it. After a long day putting up with everything that his life and his job could throw at him, this was the start of his therapy. He pulled the clutch again and snicked the gear selector down into first gear. A quick check for drivers snoozing along in their metal cages, and he was off, looking for his favorite route. Will had always wondered about this stretch of road. There were enough straights followed by winding and tight turns here to challenge the most frantic speed junkie. It hadn't been paved all that long ago judging by newness of the asphalt surface, and it was on the maps, but he never saw anybody out here. And not just bikes. He'd never, ever seen one other vehicle here. He'd begun to think of it as his own private track, but he never discounted the possibility of meeting some sweet grandmother out here on her way to a church function or something. It might be his addiction, he thought, but a glimpse of one other vehicle, and he'd stay at the limit. He only rode deserted roads fast. And he never raced with anyone. If he'd wanted to do that, he would do it properly on a track. This was just a solitary thing to him. The trees and small lakes flashed by as the engine sang its lovely song to him. It had been a rough week and he was trying to get some kinks out. Not from his body - doing this would make a few things hurt from the vibration and the taut suspension. And that's assuming of course, that he didn't do something stupid like go too deep into a corner and lose it. He had three short gentle bends coming up and pre-weighted his feet on the pegs and lightened his butt on the seat at the same time to flick through them. A light squeeze on the front brakes and an easy drift to the right, and he was lined up. Down two gears with a blip of the throttle. Will slid his ass to the left off the seat just a bit, and stuck out his knee a little, preparing to alternate this position back and forth through the series. And ... left, right, left, then down hard onto the tank with his chest while he let it wind out. The front end was getting light, so he slid forward a touch listening to his very favorite tune, and there was no radio. That transverse four's exhaust note was gorgeous - a snarl mixed with a howl, throaty at the lower end of the power band, but once it was on the cams, oh man... The back of his ass hit the rear of the notch on the seat, and screw Star Wars or any of the films or that genre, this was the only real, pure hyper-drive. Wail for me honey, he thought, I so need this today. He glanced quickly at the tach. He was in fifth gear at this point, headed for the up-shift to sixth, but there was one bump coming up in the road. He didn't want to get past redline when it got light on the tires there. The lower front edge of his helmet hit the filler on the tank and he grunted - never could help that right here, and then he raised himself up off the tank as he hit sixth gear. Will never looked at the small speedo - who the hell has time? But he guessed that his little red pony would be kissing maybe 260 klicks or so here, judging by the way that the edge of his low curved windshield buffeted in the windstream. He saw a black shape up ahead topped by red leathers. So somebody else knew about this place. The brake light came on, and even from here, Will saw the back end rise a bit as the front shocks compressed under heavy braking. But he was coming up on them quick now. It was time to get on the brakes himself. There were three disc brakes, but he didn't use the rear disc much. Once the beefy dual fronts take hold and the center of gravity shifts forward, there's no braking authority out back there anyway. Mostly he just used it to hold him at an uphill stop, or to flash the brake light to wake up Henry Q. Henpecked if he was getting too close to Will while checking out the ladies on the sidewalk in town. Right here and now, he heard and felt the hum of the front calipers on the big discs as he blipped the throttle and downshifted while squeezing the front brake lever at the same time. It had taken Will a while to learn that little move. The anti-dive forks were doing their thing and didn't compress. The system knew the difference between a bump and braking, so he was happy. He stuck out his right knee, and tugged the bars left, countersteering to flick the beast down hard to the right. Will's knee puck kissed the pavement lightly, and he forgot about hauling ass out of the turn so he could figure out what this rider ahead of him was going to do - and also, there was something about that butt on the seat ahead of him. Will saw the long black ponytail held with three ties and wondered as he let old Red beneath him wander sideways a bit. She slid that backside across the seat to prepare for the next right, and Will nudged his high beam button to let her know that she wasn't alone out of courtesy. Her helmet came up a bit to check her mirrors, and then she was up and downshifting, taking her upper body weight onto her wrists as he was. She didn't downshift like Will did. He could hear her revs sailing skyward through each downshift from back here. That habit is hard on drive chains and sprockets, he thought, but it sounds cool. Well if ya got money, you can travel, he always said. Maybe his sudden appearance had distracted her, but her line wasn't tight through the curve, and Will saw the daylight that he'd been looking for. He passed her on the inside, knee planted hard on the pavement, and just got a quick sideways glance over the side of his tank and past his left handlebar, since he was hanging off almost below it. Her dark eyes were like saucers in the clear visor. Well, she'd left him the opening... He saw her in the mirror as she dropped onto her tank. Her front tire came off the asphalt a bit as she launched to catch him, but it was already too late for that. That was all he could see in the vibrating mirror. She did know how to ride well, he could see that, and he kind of hoped to get a chance to talk with her, though he had his doubts. This addiction was pretty much a solitary thing with Will. He wasn't into trying to impress anybody, but anyone he met usually was. He noticed that his spidey-sense was tingling. Will somehow knew there was at least one cop up ahead, he almost always just knew. If they had a window open, they'd hear the howls of the headers. He sat up and tapped the top of his helmet a couple of times before he got onto the brakes and pulled to the right side of the lane. Rocket Girl did her noisy downshift thing and appeared on his left to pace him just below the limit. She looked over at him with raised eyebrows, and he tapped his head again and pointed. There was a downhill left coming up, and just as they crested the rise, he saw the edge of the cruiser sticking out of the trees, parked on the wide shoulder there. He made a mental note that it was a great place for a speed trap. Then he saw that there was a second one there in front of it. Wow... They motored by innocently, though there was no doubt in the faces that Will got a glimpse of. He didn't know if she had the same kind of sense that he seemed to have, but he kind of doubted it somehow. They rode like that for a couple of more klicks until the one cruiser that had pulled out to tail them turned off. A bit later they came to the end of the road. Will looked over, and raised his visor. But Rocket Girl just nodded her thanks curtly, turned left and was gone. Will shrugged and turned right, resuming his normal identity as just a guy who rode a crotch rocket painted in "arrest-me" red. -------------------- Will lived with a few friends and together they'd rented a huge house. There were odd invisible boundary lines all through it marking their personal spaces, but the rest was communal. It being Friday night, and with nothing social planned, they'd all sort of just cooked dinner. Will was thankful many times over that his buddies were married. For one thing, while they could all cook, it just wasn't great stuff - unless the wives were involved since they had some minimum standards after all, and for another, though it did make for an odd structure, he really liked having the girls around. It really cheered the place up for him, and if he was the one cooking, it always helped to have a bit of feminine direction to stave off food poisoning. They sat discussing things, and Paco told him that it was looking as though they had a new garage tenant. The thing was three spaces wide, and Paco kept his car in one, Jimmy just parked in the driveway as did Will with his truck, and Will used one space for his bike and tools. They thought to maybe offset a tiny bit of the huge rent. Paco was saying that his cousin might rent the open slot. That's all Will heard as he got up to make sure it was presentable in case anybody came by to look at it or something. There wasn't much to clean, but he made the space spotless, and then thought he'd ride some more, not pushing anything hard, just riding. That changed slightly when he found himself at the top of that road again. He still wasn't flying, just motoring. Will had some engine work coming up that would be a little unpleasant at the beginning and the end, and he'd be stuck in his truck for a little while as the open heart surgery happened on the engine. He thought about that until he saw the single headlight coming up quickly in his mirrors. There she was again. Will stayed at his pace, and though it was quick, it was slower than they'd gone earlier. He figured that if she wanted to pass, she'd have plenty of room and time for it. But she just hung there on his ass, turn after turn. He signaled for the shoulder and headed there. She hesitated at this unexpected behavior, and as Will slowed, she flashed by him. That was what he'd been after, and he rolled it on to catch her. He didn't want to race, he just wanted to see more of her style. He didn't push either, he just hung there. When they got to the end, Will pulled up beside her and gave her the sign, offering to go for coffee. He saw just the top half her thin smile in the helmet, but she shook her head, and again turned left. Will rode home thinking that he'd better get this work started if he was going to do it. He'd noticed a clank in at least one main journal bearing. It only happened just when the bike was stone cold, and it was gone within 5 seconds after that. The dealer had told him it wasn't anything to worry about - they all did that. Maybe the dealer was counting on some engine work out of Will, he didn't know. But he didn't like the sound of it, and had somebody in his back pocket who would do the work as a favor, so he'd bought the replacements and a few other bits. Getting the engine out was a chore, and his buddies were willing to stand and smile as he disconnected lines, hoses and cables and then busted his back working it out of the frame. They'd have helped if he'd asked, they said. When it came to the hard part, Will threw an old tire in the back of his truck to cradle the engine and pointed to the three cases of beer there as well, saying that one case was for the household. So that solved his labor shortage instantly. With the engine loaded, he drove it and the beer to his friend's shop. Ricky and his boys were happy for the beer on a Friday night. Will had one while they talked and then drove home two hours later. The next day, he had his carburetors in a lovely array of orderly bits on the workbench as Paco came out and asked if he had a spare rear race stand. He said that his cousin would like to borrow it for a day or two. Will said no, but offered his, since he wouldn't need it for a while, but that the width might need to be adjusted for the bike, and he'd help if necessary. Paco nodded and went back inside. About an hour later, Will heard a bike come down their quiet street and was amazed to see Rocket Girl pull hesitantly into the long driveway. Paco walked out and they talked. Will had already pulled his bike off the race stand and had it on its sidestand in his stall. She pulled into the garage and shut her bike off, asking Paco to hold the bike up as she got off to adjust the stand herself. That took a second, and then the back end of the bike was off the ground slightly and it was in no danger of falling. Will casually looked at it from his stall, and saw the damage to the fiberglass. She'd laid it down someplace, and he could see her mangled sidestand tied up out of the way. A glance at her leathers showed him she was mostly all right, though he could see some scuffing along one side and the back, and she was limping a bit as she unstrapped a small bag from the seat. "Who are the other people who rent here?" she asked her cousin. Paco knew Will was there, but didn't let on, "Oh, I'm in that slot, you're in this one and the other one belongs to some asshole. He owns the stand you're using. He shows up here and rides once in a while, but he's not very good at it. He mostly just drinks all our beer and then leaves the next day after he sleeps it off on the floor here." None of that was true, and with a smirk, Will was thinking 'Thanks, pal' with all of his heart. Without friends, you're nothing, he thought. Her eyes had adjusted to the light by then, and she caught sight of Will's engineless pony. "Puta -" she said under her breath, but caught herself and he was a bit glad she did. He'd heard the rest of the expression before. Will understood enough Spanish to start a bar fight in about any Hispanic bar anywhere, and he didn't want to hear his mother involved in any oath she was going to say. She walked around to the back of Will's bike, looking around a little for the missing engine. "Oh no, Paco," she said, shaking her head, "I know this one, and he can ride. Were you joking about him being an asshole too?" Her cousin laughed, "See for yourself, there he is there, as noisy as always. Rosa, meet Will. Will, my cousin Aurora. We call her Rosa." Not that he was looking for any, but Will saw zero interest in those eyes. He offered his hand anyway. She ignored it and her sarcasm was clear when she said in a purposefully phony way, "Charmed, I'm sure, thanks for letting me use the stand." The cousins went inside, and Will went back to his carbs. "Well that held no warmth," he told the little carburetor pieces in front of him, "or sincerity." There were imperfections from the classic Latin beauty in her, but since she wasn't just a collection of parts, the overall impression on him was stunning. It didn't matter much, he thought, he had no need of a bitch like that anywhere near him if that was how she went around meeting people. "Good luck if you need anything else, honey," he smirked quietly. After a minute, he overheard a few bits of the conversation from inside. Paco was chewing her out for her coldness, pointing out that Will was a good friend, and sure hadn't deserved her icy response. Half of the conversation was in Spanish, and although it was lively, it sure wasn't what he was interested in hearing, so not wanting to eavesdrop, he turned on the radio on the bench and got back to work. About twenty minutes later, he looked up and found her in jeans and a loose T-shirt looking at him intently with those dark eyes. Since he was one of those people whose day isn't badly dented by one little thing, he set down what he was working on and offered his smile. She stepped forward, this time offering her hand, "I'm here to apologize, Will. I was pissed off at dropping my baby there this morning, and I'm pretty stiff and sore. None of that is your fault, as my cousin has just pointed out loudly to me, and he's right. Can we just rewind and start over?" Her smile was genuine and dazzling. "Sure," Will replied, wiping his hands with a rag to shake her hand, " I saw the damage. What happened?" She shook her head, "I was out on that road where I saw you yesterday. Maybe I was thinking too hard. Actually, I was trying to figure out something I've seen you do before." She shrugged, "Guess I just don't have it today." "Have what?" "Concentration," she stated, "That wasn't the first time I've followed you." Aurora admitted, "though you weren't going your normal pace last night. I hate to admit it, but that's the closest I've come to catching you - and I knew you were leaving me room to pass. You do something when you downshift and brake - I can hear it, and see that your hand is busy with the brake, but I don't get it." She shrugged, "I kind of lost it in that turn where you passed me the first time yesterday. You were flying like a Frisbee an inch off the ground, just like butter on a hot pan. Me? I downshifted too late, too hard and it upset things. The back tire let go and I just skittered off." Will nodded as he thought about where she'd gone off, "Well, you picked a good place to dump it. There's not much to hit there. You hurt anything? I mean besides your bike. I can see you're limping." She shrugged, "Just busted my fat ass, my bike and my pride." She looked annoyed with herself. "Don't worry about it," he said, "I'd say your pride took the worst of it, the bike we can fix." He glanced down and then back up, "I've never seen a busted ass, but the mental picture isn't pretty. I'd help you figure out the braking-downshift thing, but..." He looked at his bike, "No wheels for me. The engine's in the shop for a bit. Getting main bearings and head porting." "Uh, try not to take this the wrong way, but I'm starved. How about I take your wounded pride and busted ass for a sandwich down the road? I could use some intelligent company to trade deep, intellectual thoughts with - like riding, and once I get these carbs back together with the carb kits I bought, I'm all yours, if you want some help with your wheels later." She nodded uncertainly, thinking for a minute, but then smiled, "Sure! I might not be able to get in though. I don't know if I can fold myself enough to sit in a car right now," she said as they walked. Rocket Girl Ch. 02 ~sigh~ OK, this might go a chapter or two beyond what I'd envisioned. -------------------- Aurora did do it to him the very next Saturday. She caught a ride over with a few of her friends who were going shopping. She made the quick introductions and asked Will if she could use his room to change. He nodded and she went into the house to get her one-piece leathers on and then try out her bike. He was alone with three gorgeous women while he was there on his knees in the bed of his truck trying to drag his engine back to the tailgate. He wondered what he'd done to deserve this. He'd already forgotten their names. Will felt like he was in a fun-house hall of mirrors - everywhere he seemed to see himself reflected in a pair of shining eyes. He didn't know where to look. The weather had turned hot over the last few days, and not knowing that he'd have visitors, he'd pulled off his T-shirt and was sweating buckets from the effort and the heat. It didn't help. Aurora was pumped to check out her newly improved ride and almost bounced coming out of the house. She set the choke and hit the button. The four-cylinder lit off and growled. It began to run roughly after a few seconds, and she took off the choke to smooth it out. "Will she run any hotter now?" Aurora asked, as she stood there next to her beast, pulling on her helmet. Will shook his head, "Check the temperature gauge now and then, but it shouldn't unless there's a problem. All we did was make it breathe easier. Your fuel consumption will go up some though." He cracked the throttle and the note rose instantly to a breathless-sounding shriek that dropped off as he took his hand away. He noticed from her still-open zipper that she wore no top under her leathers. He couldn't blame her for that, he thought, he'd have done the same today. Only her breastbone was visible in the gap that her zipper left. He reached over and zipped her up as she did up the helmet straps. She looked at him and smiled. She was stoked to try it now. He held his finger against her throat, and pulled the Velcro tab of the suit's neck strap over it, removing his finger now that he was sure it wasn't tight. She lifted the visor. "Nothing hard or stupid today, Rocket Girl. That will be like a new bike to you. You'll get the full benefit of the pipe now, plus the jetting - maybe as much as 15% more power. Just go easy and try to get the feel of the extra horses, ok?" She nodded as she got on and lifted the side stand. Rolling it around, she waved at them, and waited at the bottom of the drive for the light traffic to clear. "Hey Will," one of Aurora's friends said, "what does a girl have to do to get your attention?" Will realized that he'd been unintentionally rude and turned, "Sorry. I've spent quite a bit of time on Aurora's bike. I want to make sure it's right." He glanced as he heard her raise the revs a bit and pull out. The engine surged in response to her right hand and she briefly stood on the pegs as the front wheel lifted. Then she was back down and gone in a howl. Will smiled. "That." he said pointing over his shoulder with his thumb, "It's not a prerequisite, but if you can do that, you've got my undivided attention." He listened as he heard the exhaust note recede. He shook his head with a smile, "That's my Rocket Girl." One of them cleared her throat, "You um, you do know that she's engaged, right?" Will looked at them with a wistful smile, "Yeah, but I can dream, can't I? Hey, you guys want a beer?" Over the next hour, they looked less predatory, he thought, and he was thankful that they could all just shoot the breeze and laugh. He'd apologized and made an effort to get their names straight. One was married and the others were dating somebody, but he appreciated their improvement to the scenery. The atmosphere clouded over suddenly as a black Corvette pulled in behind Aurora and one of them mentioned that it was Cesar. Will ambled over with a genuine smile and offered his hand. He found it refused and sighed to himself as Cesar made a big deal out of telling him to stay away from his girl. Aurora took her helmet off and he could see the storm clouds there. Will was a bit sad to see and hear how the guy was plainly going to be a dick, but he listened politely until he heard enough of a gap in the idiotic tirade to get a word in. "Do I get to talk at all here or are you wearing ear plugs?' The statement at least bought him Cesar's attention, so Will leaned down and introduced himself, "I think you're a very lucky man, Cesar, and I'm happy to meet you. I'd just like to tell you that none of that shit was necessary. She's wearing your ring, and as long as that's there, I'm minding my business, pal. You haven't got a thing to worry about from me, unless you can't get over your possessive shit here in my driveway." Will nodded to Aurora momentarily, "We're just friends, and if you can't get past that, it's your problem, 'cause it sure ain't mine. I'm just helping my friend with her bike, and believe me, I keep my hands to myself. You want to act rational, then come on and have a beer. If not, you can piss off. That's the rules. Looking at her, I'd say you're gonna get an earful, but after that, I've got nothing against you, and there's beer in the fridge." Cesar looked as if he might explode for a second, but looked down and then back up with a rueful smile, "You're right, man. She's gonna pull out my chest hair here, and I probably deserve it. I might as well get this over with." He opened the door and got out as Will walked to the garage and opened a beer. Aurora was reading Cesar the riot act. Will didn't pay that much attention but he noticed her friends watching intently. "He's got an awful temper," Clara said. Helen laughed quietly, "And so does she. We might need paramedics, this has been coming for a while." It was mostly in Spanish, Will noted, and wondered if that was a good thing, Clara said likely not, and it was worse now, she said, since they had suddenly gotten very quiet. The only time that they heard anything clearly was near the end when Cesar ordered her to sell her bike. Aurora's face showed no reaction as she looked at him and walked to the garage. She took Will's beer out of his hand, "Sorry for all this, Will," was all she said. He'd barely had any of it, and she took a long pull from it making sure Cesar could see. Then she walked back to him. He had already gotten into his car and told her to do the same. She leaned down, "I've been thinking a lot lately about who I am, what I am, and what I'm not. I'm not your property and I never will be." "Look," he said apologetically, "I'm sorry for saying that, I-" Aurora was shaking her head, "No you're not, Cesar. If you were, you'd at least try not to do it again, but you do it at least twice a week at minimum. And we're not even married yet. For damn sure this won't get one bit better for me afterward." "I'm not stupid, and in case you've never taken the time to notice - and you haven't - I've gotten this far in life without you and your shit attitude. And I was a lot happier before you. With you around, I'm miserable. My life is gonna feel like one big party for me without you in it." She took off her engagement ring, "Be sure to complain to my father for my behavior as you always do. I don't want to marry you, now or ever. I don't ever want to see you again." She dropped the ring in his lap. As he looked down for it, she shook Will's beer and dropped that in his lap too before turning to walk into the house. Cesar began to get out, but Paco walked down the steps and stood beside Will. They both looked at Cesar with great interest. Cesar tore off a lot of rubber as he left. Will found Aurora in his room. She'd changed, but was sniffling. She looked at him and her tears began again. "I'm sorry I embarrassed you and myself. I wish that hadn't happened here. He saw me at the bottom of the road that you and I ride and began to yell at me right there in the middle of the road. When he got ready to get loud again here, I'd had enough of it - and him." She looked at his eyes, and thought he looked so sad himself. She came closer and asked. Will just said that he was sad for her if she'd been embarrassed and if he had cost her a chance at happiness in any way. She shook her head, "What happiness? I get told what to do at home, and what I will do when I'm with him. I must have missed the happy part." She put her hands on his shoulders, "I'm happy when I'm not near any of them but my cousin, his wife, and you, and not in that order either. THEN I'm happy." She kissed his cheek, "I've never had anyone like you in my life before. Thanks for being my friend. And in spite of Cesar, I'm really happy with my bike now. Thank you so much for that too." Aurora talked with her friends a while before they left, and then she helped her cousin's wife with dinner. "What are you going to do?" Leona asked, "You know the phone will ring here any minute and it'll be your dad or mom. And by the way, Aurora, I'm in your corner here." "Thanks, Leona," she sighed, "I don't really know," Aurora said, "but I know I'm not going home for a few days if Will can let me use his couch. Then I'm going to move out as soon as I can. I wasn't put here to be told all the time. Will hates that when I bitch about it - I can see it in his eyes. And I know it's not my bitching that bugs him, it's that I'm unhappy." She stopped and looked down at the salad that she was making, "He thinks people should be able to do what they want to." She found Leona smiling at her. "What's so funny?" Leona shook her head, but the smile remained, "Nothing's funny. Go on, I'm waiting for you to get to the end." Aurora shook her head, "What end? What do you mean?" Paco's wife threw back her head and laughed, "Listen, Will and I were in love once - puppy love you could say since we were only 13. The love of my life is your cousin - my heart and soul, you know it's true. But I've always loved Will as a friend all along. There's nobody in this whole world who's more interested in him being happy than me. So he thinks people should be able to do what they want to - you said that. What do you think that he'd want for you?" "To be happy and do what I want to." Aurora said, not following. "Right," Leona said, "He'll understand about you not wanting to go home, and he wants for you to be happy, most of all. So, if you're not too broken up about telling Cesar where to go, maybe think about being happy yourself for a moment and answer this question since it's just us here." "Without any of the upset or the distractions, or any other thing in the way, just pure feeling, where would you be happy - on Will's couch?" Leona looked at Aurora's face as the penny dropped, and Aurora studied the salad intently. Leona waited for the tiny smile and put her arm on Aurora's shoulder when it appeared, "You said you'd be here for a couple of days. Maybe not tonight but within the week, you might want to think about it. The time is important, no more than a week or the chance is gone, and even that's pushing it from what I see. It's the upset that's what you both need for this. If you need to be told plainly, Will already loves you. He has for a while now." Aurora looked over suddenly, "Really? I thought he just liked me as a friend." "He does," Leona laughed, "he really does. But in his book, the sun shines out of your ass, Aurora, and to him you walk on air. I see him having coffee in the morning, way too early yet for any of us who have to get up that early to do much more than grunt at each other. He sits right there and looks out of the window at nothing and sips his coffee. But I can see the thought bubble over his head. He loves you, trust me. If there's anybody who'd know it, it's me. Hey, if you doubt my word, just ask your friends. They saw how he looked at you while you were fiddling with that bike." Aurora stopped thinking about her troubles for a moment and allowed herself a smile. She didn't notice when Leona took the salad bowl away to put it into the refrigerator. "Yeah, honey," Leona said, "you think about that, but there's just one small hitch." Aurora looked over. "Huh?" "You just have to make him see that he's worth you, that's all. He can't imagine that you'd ever want him." Aurora stared, "That's stupid." Leona smiled as she shrugged, "Stupid or not, that's Will. The last person on the planet that he thinks about is himself as far as love goes. Haven't you noticed that about him? The happy loner," she smirked, "as if there could be such a thing. " Aurora thought back and nodded, "Yeah, now that you mention it. At first I thought that he was joking around. Later as I drove home one time, I got the feeling that he's not even looking around, like he's going through life looking at the sidewalk a little bit too much." Leona's smile disappeared as she nodded, "He plays at being an idiot with that 'aw, shucks' grin that he wears and he thinks nobody sees, but I know he's not happy. I know him better than his mother does, not that she ever gave a shit. When we were kids, it was all about his brothers, since nobody kisses ass better and he never learned how. He hasn't seen his own family in years, so we're his family, Jimmy, Steph, Paco and me." Leona shook her head, "He won't even try anymore. He was miserable the last time he was in anything that you could call serious. The only thing serious about her was how she tore pieces off him every chance she got, from how he combed his hair to how he wore his socks. When he'd had enough, she showed up here to try to get her hooks back into him, I guess. He just turned and walked away. He was done with her but I saw his face as he walked off." "He looked like he was walking straight into a blizzard, right back to where he thinks he belongs. I've become like his sister. I can see how he sees things. I saw that his choice was either the bitch queen or his ice fortress. He chose the ice fortress. She took one step to go after him. That was more than enough for me." Aurora looked at her quizzically. "What happened then?" "Oh, she was about to follow him and start on him all over. " Leona snorted with a smirk, "I kicked her ass across the street for her, and told her not to come back." She looked at Aurora, "I don't know if you can understand this, but yeah, we were just kids when Will and I were in love. We didn't even know what we were doing, but to us it was everything. It was the most wonderful thing in the world, but then I met Paco, and everything changed for me. The last thing I ever wanted to do was break that boy's fine heart, but it happened anyway." Leona's beautiful eyes looked so sad as she continued, "Since then, I've worn that guilt and never showed it to Will because though he's never said a word, I've watched all of this happen - I was somebody else who he thought he wasn't good enough for. So he's made himself into a guy who is good enough for anybody, a buddy to everybody and a true friend who would give you his last dime. But that's as far as it goes, Aurora. It's all one way and that's outward. He'd do anything for anyone. He just won't ever do anything for himself." "He thinks that he's learned that something like love isn't for him, it's for everybody else. He might see a woman and appreciate her more in one glance than she'd ever know or imagine because that's the way he is. And believe me, that's how he really is. He sees more about a woman in an instant than anyone I've ever known." "We used to make a game of it. The guys would sit at a café or someplace and make a very quiet comment about a girl walking past. Nothing she could hear, and nothing rude or stupid – remember that Steph and I were there too, and even so, none of the three are like that. The game was that they had to mention some quality about the woman that they could see clearly with just a look. Mostly, our husbands would mention obvious shit that took no heart to pick out. But Will would blow Steph and I away with his observations every damn time. He might not have been bang on – who's to say? He could glance once, close his eyes and tell us about half a page about her, and we could see – as women – that he was very likely right." "So he looks and he sees more than most. But if he likes her, it's like she's something that he might wish to have in his wildest dreams, like the world's best handmade motorcycle, as a really lousy example." Leona shook her head sadly. "But he knows that after a few seconds, it'll be time to step away from the showroom window and walk away with his hands in his empty pockets. He doesn't have whatever the price is. To him, it's like - if you have to ask how much, you can't afford it, so he never asks," Leona shrugged, "he just walks away." "Believe me, I consider him my blood, and I take care of my own. Lucky for me that Ashley bitch didn't press charges, but she got the point. Enough was enough." She caught Aurora's sideways glance and laughed, "Don't worry, I'd say you'd be about the best thing that could ever happen to that boy. It might remind him how it feels to be alive." ----------------------- The dreaded phone call didn't come, though Cesar called to apologize. She took the call in front of everyone in the kitchen and Aurora wasn't having any of it this time. "The ring's off, Cesar, and it's never going back on. I noticed something right away. It was amazing how the diamond on that ring felt like a stone around my neck... No, we're done... No. You need to find yourself a girl with less backbone – and maybe a blow up doll or something while you look. Better still, just find one of those really good ones and get that one a ring. Then you could take her places that you want to go and she'll never give you an argument. No, I've made my final decision. You're gone and best of all, the bike stays." Will found her as she was getting ready to bed down on his couch. There wasn't an argument, but he managed to talk her into sleeping in his bed and he slept on the couch. He didn't mind and it was what he wanted. The only thing that really bothered him was the quiet sounds that came to him through the closed door as she cried over the whole mess. -------------------- The next day, Will and Jimmy had gotten Will's engine off the truck and onto some wood blocks near his bike on Jimmy's way to help Steph with their laundry. The garage extension rang and Aurora watched Will with new eyes as he took the call. Will was a supervisor in a small factory. To him it seemed that his hat changed every day there. They'd hired a young kid who wouldn't have been worth a look to Will, but he'd turned out just fine and was one of Will's best workers. Bobby had approached him one day asking if there was a chance that they'd need more help. Will had nodded and said maybe, so the kid told him about his friend who was waiting out back to meet him. Will spoke to the friend, but was against hiring him. Frankly, he looked like he was 6 miles high, and there were plenty of ways to get hurt or killed there. Will had wanted no part of it, but the Bobby had told him that Steve just looked like that, and Steve almost pleaded with him for a chance. Will shrugged and invited the guy in to fill out the forms. Together, they were just awesome workers and were happy to be working for Will. Will himself was amazed and it was a lesson to him about reading people. One day Steve came to him almost in tears, saying that the owner's son had reamed him out for sweeping the floor. Will went to see the owner, and told him that the running of the workforce was his job, not his son's. Steve had been sweeping the floor because Will had told him to do it if there was no work for him. Steve's uneven workflow only happened because of the lousy job that the owner's son did at scheduling. Will was furious, and said that if the guy ever ragged on his workers again, Will would walk. The owner agreed, and things had been fine ever since. Rocket Girl Ch. 02 Today, Will was surprised that it was Bobby calling him at home. They were going out, he and Steve with their girls, he said, but they were painfully tight on cash, and could he help just a little? "No problem, Bobby," Will said, "If you need the money, tell me what's so special about tonight." He noticed Aurora listening to his side of the conversation and put the phone on speaker for her. He knew how Bobby loved Jenny, and how they struggled together to face the world - a couple of really young kids trying desperately to get by. He wanted Aurora to meet somebody who he thought was pretty special. There was a pause, and then Bobby spoke quietly, telling him it was Jenny's birthday, and that Steve had just met her friend, but they were hitting it off. They thought they had enough for the date, but likely not enough for gas to put into his mother's car since she'd loaned it to him. Will had been checking his pockets as he listened. He grinned as he watched Aurora's smile, and then he gave Bobby directions to his house. After he'd hung up, he told Aurora that now he had to meet those girls. He thought so highly of the guys and just took a bit of an interest in their lives, "They've had it a bit rough, those two, but they always stick it out, and since they work so hard for me, I'd prefer it if the world just didn't piss on them for once. I'd have lent them the money regardless, but now I want to see what Jenny looks like so I can put a face to the name." He shrugged shaking his head, "Call me a hopeless romantic. Bobby and Jenny - the love story." Will got the engine partly into the frame, and supported the free end with blocks. Aurora wore a tube top, and was reaching through the frame to guide the engine into place. With her arms stretched out like that in such a narrow space, she began to overflow the top a bit, but she didn't dare stop. She looked down quickly and then back up to see Will's eyes locked onto her own. "I'm not looking there, baby. Don't worry about feeling uncomfortable. Only a few seconds more, and we'll be done here." She stared into his eyes and smiled, "it's ok Will. I see how you're trying not to look, and thanks, but I'm not that upset." "Ok, watch your fingers now, I don't want to get them pinched under this pig," he said, inhaling and then giving the last push as he exhaled. The engine slid the last quarter inch and sat in its cradle in the frame. She'd guided it perfectly. He looked over his shoulder as he heard a car slowing at the bottom of the driveway, "Stay right there, and I'll block you." Before Aurora really had time to pull her arms back, Will was beside her, and she pulled up her top as they stood up together. "Thanks Will," she said. He was turning away, but she pulled him back and her arms were around his neck before he knew it. In the second that Will was confused, she kissed him and then hugged him as she looked over his shoulder, "I have to get a look at these friends of yours too now." She sighed, and he felt her smile. "They're really cute, I can tell which one is Jenny from here. You're right about how they're so in love. Wow." They all got out and Will noticed that Bobby was looking a bit uncomfortable, so he pulled him aside in the garage, "How much you need, Bobby?" "I think ten bucks would be enough for gas, Will." Will peeled off a twenty and handed it over, "Where you guys headed for dinner?" He'd asked it that quickly to get Bobby past the need to refuse the extra money. "Huh? Oh, just some fast food." Will looked past him to see Aurora chatting with Steve and their girlfriends by the bikes. Fast food, he thought, how romantic, the only place they can afford to go on her birthday in 1986. It just didn't seem right to him, not for those two. "I'll tell you what, Bobby. You said you needed ten and you'd pay me back. I gave you twenty, so you can each pay me back ten, and don't worry too much about when. But I'm thinking here. I've heard you talk about Jenny a time or ten at least, and I know you guys are just starting out living together. That's a bitch at any time, but you're only eighteen. So here's a deal for you." "Keep this to yourself, but I know there's some overtime coming up this next month for a big order. I'd like it if I could count on you and Steve when I ask you to work over - just for the next month, and nothing that'll kill you. I just want to be able to tell Sam in the front office that my guys have it covered. If there's no overtime, you're in the clear, and you can forget this anyway, but, here." He pulled out three more twenties, "You guys make sure you take them someplace nice tonight, like where you can sit down and they serve you. Call it a birthday gift. I only want to see the twenty back when you have it. Wish Jenny a happy birthday for me. And if you get lucky tonight, hey, wear a condom. I don't want any kids named after me, right?" They both laughed and Bobby went back after thanking Will. But they didn't leave. There was a short conference in the old car, and then Jenny got out with Bobby and walked up to Will. She looked up at him and spoke quietly, "Bobby always tells me what a great boss you are to them both and how you stick up for them. I see why now, and I'm glad I could meet you and your wife. Thank you so much, Will." She hugged him and kissed his cheek. Looking at Aurora, she smiled shyly, "I hope that's ok, Mrs Schaeffer." Aurora nodded and smiled warmly, "Have a great time, Jenny. I'm very glad to have met you too." Aurora smiled and waved as they stood together watching the old car drive off, then she looked over at him with a grin, "They think I'm your wife." "Sorry about that," Will said, "nobody gave me enough time to set them straight. I'll tell them at work on Monday." "Don't worry about it, Will. It's got kind of a ring to it. They're so cute together, aren't they?" Will nodded, "I gave them enough to get them to a better place to eat and told Bobby that there was overtime coming up and I hoped that if I gave them some extra cash they'd stay and work it. It's true, but I just really wanted them to have a good time for once like anybody else. I doubt they'd refuse the work and extra pay anyway, but it was the only way I could think of for him to take the money." "I don't know about Steve and his girl yet, but Bobby and Jenny were both thrown out of their homes by their parents. They met while living in a park, and I think they've got that kind of love that can get past anything if you give it just a little help. They're struggling every day, but they're happy. Bobby tells me everything, and often comes to me for advice. Not advice with Jenny, just about how you get credit, how you deal with a bank, stuff like that. His mother at least is seeing that he and Jenny are serious about life together. If there's one love story that simply has to succeed, they're it. I'm glad I now have a face to put to Jenny's name." They walked inside to get washed up for dinner. Will was wondering what Aurora had meant. "They sure think the world of you, Will," she said as they scrubbed their dirty hands in his bathroom sink. "Factory work is a bit primal," he said, "You do your simple thinking about the job, and I try to make them keep their own safety in their minds too, but for the most part, it's just grunt work. And don't think I'm a pushover. I've chewed on them both pretty hard on occasion, but I know they give a lot harder for me. I'm listening in on Bobby's life as he tells me. I'm looking for a time when it gets a bit more solid. Then if I can, I'll suggest that he pick up his high school at night and maybe goes on somehow. A factory job can end really quickly, and one day there could be extra mouths for them to feed. I don't know enough about Steve yet - he doesn't talk about himself as much." Aurora laughed quietly as they dried their hands, "You're some piece of work, Will. I used to be amazed by you every day. Now it's continuous." Will didn't really have an answer to that, but Aurora did. She hugged him. When he looked down at her, she quietly said, "From the first second, you've always made me feel like I'm your friend – a real friend who you appreciate, and I've never felt that from a guy before. There's always some hopeful mileage that they're trying for, even if they don't know it themselves. You're not like that. I'm so happy that you've fixed my bike - even made it better. Now I'm finding that you take care of people in your own way. I think you're pretty special. I've got a lot of things going on right now, but I'm not worried about them at all because I know that if I get stuck, you'll either just help somehow or at least offer suggestions. Thanks, Will." She kissed him then, but not as a friend. He looked a bit dazed and it made her laugh a little, "Uh, was that too much, baby, or do I just need to wait for you to adjust?" His considered opinion came out as "Uh, ..." She laughed, and took his hand, "Come on, let's eat before dinner's all gone or at least gone cold." They sat in his study after dinner. Aurora hadn't let go of his hand since they'd walked down there. "I'm about to call my folks and tell them a few things instead of listening for a change. So, what do I do, Will? I guess I'm asking for options." He thought about it, "If this isn't too far away from where you work, I've got one right off the bat. This house is huge, Aurora. There are two levels of basement, and we only use the upper one as storage. Let's ask everybody about you moving into the upper level, and we can move the stuff down to the lower one. We could move you there, and if you kick in a bit for the rent, then -" She'd put her hand over his mouth. He looked funny to her with his eyes staring over her thumb like that. She smiled, shaking her head. "That's pretty typical for you, isn't it, Will? You're always working on solutions. That's great, and I like that idea, but I wasn't thinking that far out just yet. I was thinking about now - tonight." He was uncertain now. "Why are you even asking? I know you won't want to go home tonight. You can stay here with us until you have a plan. I was just thinking that you could live here. There's plenty of room, your bike's already here, and for now, you can use my bedroom. I'll bunk here on my couch." He stopped suddenly. She was shaking her head. The last pieces of her thoughts had landed in the middle of everything else in her head, and in one instant, the puzzle had solved itself for her. "No. I already have a plan just now, Will. It's pretty bold for a girl who always does what she's told, but once you think about it, you ought to be proud of me. I'm scotch-taping this together from a lot of places. I got some pieces from you, one from my friends, one from Leona, and maybe the biggest from those workers of yours and their girlfriends. I just need some input from you later. Can I use your phone?" Rocket Girl Ch. 03 Will's pretty easygoing, he just needs to be shown if it's something that he'd never assume. Leona knows this about him, and on some level, Aurora does too. ------------------ Will went upstairs to the kitchen without knowing what plan Aurora was talking about. He found Leona there, and asked her if she knew how Aurora liked her coffee. She prepared three cups of coffee, and Will's eyebrows rose. "This one's for Aurora, this one is yours and this one is mine," she smiled, as she added the milk, "Go take this to her and come back. You and I need to have a talk." Will came back and sat with a confused expression. She looked at him, "Paco is on the phone in our bedroom to back Aurora with her folks. It's probably going to get loud, and you ought to have your shoulder ready for her when it's all over." Will nodded, "I already thought about that. What's on your mind, Leona?" Leona looked down the hall to the stairs that led down to Will's part of the house. "Aurora has been living in a cage like a bird. The cage is unlocked, and she's just noticed it. She's about to push the door open and fly, Will. You showed her exactly where the door was. That's what you do when you care about someone. I know you. You always try to help in the most perfect way that people need at that moment, and the beauty of it is, you don't even know that you're doing it. One way or the other, Aurora will probably never be the same, and I'm happy for her." Will sat looking at her lovely face in profile, remembering when they couldn't be parted and expect to live. That had been so long ago, he remembered. She'd grown up and turned into exactly the woman that he'd always known that she'd become one day. He considered himself to be so fortunate that they were still so close. Leona had miscarried once and between doing his damndest to hold Paco up and comfort Leona, it had almost torn him apart that two of the closest people to him were so hurt. It had been physical pain to him. Only Leona had known and later she'd thanked him as they'd both cried. He couldn't imagine living his life and not knowing the two of them. She turned to look at Will, "Now I want to be happy for you too. I just want to be sure that you understand things." Will shook his head, "Well, you can be sure that right now, I don't really have a clue what you're talking about, pretty much." She smiled and reached with her hand to push some of his longish dirty blonde hair behind one ear. "You know? I think that if this were California or someplace like that, you'd probably be a surfer on top of everything else that you are. You've got that look to you, that slightly long blonde hair, 'I don't give a shit as long as it's a good time' kind of look." Leona nodded, "Plus you've got that killer soft smile of yours. It's too bad you don't know how to use all of that the way that some of them do. I mean too bad for you because you're not that kind of man. Guys like that just love to smile their way into a room full of women and tally up the number of phone numbers they can get in only one pass through. You're gorgeous, Will. Not in a classic lady killer sort of way, though. You're just a little off of that because you're real. That makes you the real prize in the heap of shit that passes for men these days. I hear all about it at work and it makes me so thankful that I've got real men around me, you three honest to God real men." She shrugged, "Too bad it's a just a shield to you, this disguise that you wear." "You walk around like you're fat, dumb, and happy, Will. You carry on like you don't give a damn about anything. But there are people who don't believe any it for a second. We know that you're none of those things; not fat, not dumb, and especially not happy. The ones who see it are the people who know and love you." She put her hand on his. When he looked up, he found her dark eyes boring into his own. He couldn't look away. When he tried, she closed her hand on his hard, and he looked into those eyes again. Her words were quiet, but direct. "And now the one you call Rocket Girl is one of them." Will's mind stopped along with his breathing. He heard his pulse. "I was standing with Paco at the door when Cesar arrived behind Aurora. I was also there when she spoke with her friends after she'd broken it off with him. The married one told her she'd been wasting her time with Cesar. Clara told Aurora very plainly that if she wasn't interested in you to just let her know, and Helen?" Leona smiled, "She was a lot more direct than that." "Aurora was trying hard not to show how upset she was, but I think she felt all of those things. She'd heard what you said." He was mystified, "What I said?" Leona nodded, "Something that you said yesterday. It was just a little thing and I doubt that you even remember it. But it said something that I know is in your heart." Leona took his hand in both of hers, "Remember who we were once Will, you and I. I know you inside out, and I always have. It was a thing you said that you thought would settle down that brute Cesar a little. He wasn't listening, but every woman there heard it like a clear bell, especially Aurora. You said that as long as she wore his ring,..." Leona allowed a second for him to absorb it. "Well the ring is off, Will. I'm trying to tell you that you'll have your chance, if that's what you want - but I'm also here to tell you that now it's you who needs to smarten up, because it's really what you both want. I'd even say that it's what you both need." She stopped for a moment to let it sink in, and then smiled, "I'm just saying, I won't guess here, but if it were me in her place, and I'd never known Paco," she looked into his eyes. "When that call is over, you ought to be prepared for a few things. There's a good chance that in the next few days or so, you and Paco will be moving a few of her things here from her home in that truck of yours. You already probably had that in mind if she asked. But that's not the way that I see it happening. You'll move her stuff here for a slightly different reason and she won't really ask because she won't need to." She looked down, "Our people come from Andalusia, and I'm part gypsy. You know how my feelings turn into little realities sometimes, so listen carefully now. There's a chance that my daydream for you and Aurora will come to pass, and you'll be having a talk with her parents one day. That might not happen, but I can tell you one sure bet if I were her, and I know we're alike in a lot of ways." He looked at her in some surprise, but he knew she was right far more often than her daydreams, as she called them, were off the mark. She held both of his hands and shrugged, "You tell me if I'm wrong later, but that bird is free now, or about to be. This is it for you Will, unless you reject her. This is your own great love, right there for you. I know because I've seen it in her face. She'll be upset and will probably be crying hard, but she'll have made up her mind. To her, it finishes what she's leaving behind at the same time that it hopefully begins a love with you in no uncertain terms." Will sat transfixed as Leona went on. "Unlike you, that girl doesn't need to be hit on the head. Our families come from the same place, and even know each other back in Spain. I've known her for a long time and she's exactly the same as me." Leona leaned forward to be sure that her eyes locked onto his. For his own good, she wasn't about to let his wonderful mind wander very far from what she was telling him. "In her family's history and in that place, in our culture and most of all in her beautiful heart - she's exactly the same as me, so I know what's behind all of what she's feeling." "For damn sure Will, when you go downstairs after this call, you sure wouldn't find me on your couch. I'd bet a week's pay that she won't be there, either. She knows her great love when she has it in front of her. Forgive her the speed of this, but she knows what she wants now, and it's you and her together. She really has no choice in it if she wants the chance at that love, and she knows that too. You need to see that you don't have a choice either, unless you want to go on alone from here." "That's the way love works sometimes. You're standing at the same crossroads, both of you. Make the right choice here, Will. Everything I ever learned from my grandmother says this is happiness for you both. Here, I'll show you." Leona stood up and returned with her worn cards, "I know you don't doubt me, since we've known each other most of our lives. You once asked me to do this for you. I brushed it off at the time, and said that it wasn't a parlor game for bored people." She smiled apologetically, "You know how I love you, my old friend. I've always been doing this for you, though you've never known it, because I want so much for you to be happy. I just told you that when you asked because aside from a few little blips, there's never really been anything on your horizon - until now." Leona shuffled and laid out the cards, and then took a piece of paper from a shelf, "I'll do this once more with you here. I've already done this twenty times at least over the past week and a half. The cards will come up very close to what I've written down here. I've done this in other ways besides my cards, and the answers lately have always been consistent." She didn't say anything when she was done. Will compared the cards to the paper. When he looked up, Leona nodded, "When this is all over, I'll explain everything here to you both and what it means, but for now I can say that in my life, I've only ever been so sure of the cards for one other man." "And I married him." She laughed softly, "Is that good enough?" She indicated one card with her finger. "This is the only one that has changed today from what I've written. It concerns the timing." She looked up at him and he waited but she said nothing. He sighed, "Ok, what about the timing?" Leona pointed to the card again. "Tonight." It was all that she said. Will sat back with a feeling something like having been hit in the chest with the broad side of a shovel. He looked up from the table, "Does Aurora know this?" "In her way, yes," Leona smiled, "I haven't shown her any of this. But she knows it, Will. Where we come from is a region known for the finest horses and life there is lived by one's heart. The women there have never forgotten how to listen to their own hearts." She nodded to him once, "It's who we are." Will shook his head as if to clear it, "Look Leona, I'm not successful like Cesar obviously is, and I'm sure not rich. I'm just a guy, a regular guy. I'm not what she deserves. How the hell could that ever work?" She shook her head sadly, "One day, Will, I really will hit you over the head. Maybe I just ought to do it right now and save a lot of time." She pointed to the stairs, "Listen to her voice right now, not the words - the voice, Will! Does that sound like a woman who has been deliriously happy to you? Mother of God, why do you have to be so thick?" She reached over and grabbed his jaw, pulling it so that he could look nowhere other than into her darkness of her eyes, "Do you think that you could spare that girl one kiss? If you haven't heard one thing I've said here, then you'd better listen well now." "Whether you've been trying to win it or not, you idiot, you already hold Aurora's heart in your hand. I'm telling you now, one touch - one caress from you and a kiss. That's all you need to do if you want her." "How is that not successful? Picture her in your mind and tell me this, would you think yourself to be rich if you had her love?" The thought blew his mind right there. He nodded weakly, "Yes." "Rich beyond any measure?" There was no hesitation, "Yes," he said. "Well good, because you already have it! She's already decided what she deserves." She shook her head in a bit of frustration, "Did you hear what I called this? This is no casual thing here. Not for someone like her. Not for someone like you and how much I love you even still almost thirteen years later. Neither of you would even sniff at something like that. I've seen it," she pointed to her cards, "I know it, or we wouldn't be talking here right now. I'd never even tell you because you're worth that much to me and I never want to see you hurt again. Now," she wiped a tear from her eye, "do you believe me or not, Will?" He nodded slowly, "I've always believed you, Leona." Leona nodded as she released his jaw and softly slapped his cheek, "Besides the way that you have of lighting up a room - and melting female hearts with your soft smile, I think women must love you so much because you're such a fool." She smiled, "The greatest challenge comes from trying to get through the thick insulation over your heart, and the even thicker layer over your brain. You're the best friend that girl has ever had and you were just being your fine self. I've watched you guys since her bike showed up here." She shook her head, "This is obvious to everyone, and now it's even obvious to her. She didn't want to have dinner tonight, she just tortured it on her plate while you ate. More than anything now, she wants to be closer to you that that stupid T-shirt." She looked at the writing there on his chest, reading it aloud, "'Everyone loves a Canadian boy', Gawd, I need to find a marker and fix that. It ought to read 'Aurora loves her stupid Will'." Leona laughed as he shrugged helplessly, "God help her." It took over two hours. Will heard Aurora weeping at the end of it, and realized how he ached to go to her. He knew that Leona was right. He had no choice at all, and was surprised that it made him happy to know that. At last, he walked down the stairs and didn't bother to look in the study at all. He didn't need to. He closed his bedroom door behind him. Aurora was a weepy mess, but he stared at her in wonder anyway. He'd never seen her hair spilling down free like some shining dark fluid - she'd never had it untied like that before. He felt as though he was in some dream someplace, and then thought of Leona's words. It made absolute sense to him then. While she'd been telling - for the first time, telling her parents that she intended to change things for herself and live her own life now, no matter what they said or thought, she'd been thinking things through in other areas. While they'd continued to order and harangue in their attempts to regain control with regard to what their daughter was to do, she'd come to several realizations. She was proud of herself and what she was as the daughter they'd raised. She hoped that sooner or later, they'd be able to feel that way about her too because other than trying to marry her off to a self-centered jerk, they'd done a fine job and she was thankful for it. Aurora knew what she looked like, and she knew what she felt, and could feel. She was wasted with a fool who'd take her to bed, grunt over her as though she was the doll that she'd mentioned to him in that last phone call, totally absorbed in himself for the three or four minutes that he'd needed to fill a condom. It made her furious now to think about. She was sure that the condom wasn't there to prevent an unwanted pregnancy; it was there because he considered himself so much better than even the woman that he professed to love. She was on the pill and he knew it. And then the great stud would fall asleep within two minutes every time leaving her to feel like just another one of his acquisitions - another of the things that he surrounded himself with. She wanted a man who would make her feel like a thoroughbred rather than a statuette of a mare to be placed on Cesar's shelf along with all of the other possessions. From what she'd seen of his heart, Will was a man like that. She really didn't have any doubt, but if it turned out that he was the same way, she'd leave this as a friendship and keep looking. Because that was what she was prepared to do now if she had to. She'd raised the bar all by herself and her sense of worth with it, but in a less self-centered way for the first time. But then she'd smiled to herself while her father was pissing and moaning about the money spent on the preparations for the wedding that Aurora had been given very little say in. She'd smiled again, thinking of Will's term. She didn't give a rat's ass about any of that. She'd almost laughed to herself in the middle of her father's hair-pulling. Aurora reminded herself of all of the things that had just seemed to pull her to him. It was why she was here in his bed right now. She already knew that Will would do anything for her, and the feeling was mutual. What they did - or didn't do here tonight would tell her for certain, but for her part, she was pretty sure that his heart was all that she needed because that would drive the rest Well she knew that she already had that if she could get him to see how this could be. Aurora could almost hear what her father would have to say about Will if they met. She already had her cannons loaded if he thought to try to argue. Who cares if his eyes are blue instead of brown? She thought that his eyes were amazing. Her dad would have something to say about his slightly long hair but she didn't give a damn about what he thought anymore. She'd just gotten rid of her father's choice, and that wasn't going to happen to her ever again. She already knew what her sisters would say, not that it mattered to her. All the acceptance that Aurora would need would come from her mother once she got a look at him and seen that little smile of his. She already knew that her mother would keep still, but smile at her and nod only once when no one was watching. She heard the door close and looked up to see him there with concern written all over him. "I heard you and brought a box of tissues," He didn't know what else to say. She nodded with a sniffle, "Thanks. Can I hold you for a while?" He smiled softly,"Sure," He noticed her little top and the panties that she wore as he got into bed with her. It was so easy to hold her to him as she hid her face against his chest and wept for a while longer. When he became aware of the wetness of her tears on the bicep that her head was on, he felt so sad for her and kissed her head. "If there's anything I - " She shushed him with a sniffle and whispered, "I already know you'd do anything for me. It means a lot, you know?" She reached up and caressed his face with a soggy smile, "It took me a long time to figure out that you're different, like how I'd just met you and after I treated you so badly you were wanting to help me with my bike, and even after you knew I was engaged." "Would you really let me be anything that I'd want to be, Will?" He nodded, "Yeah, whatever you'd want. You know that. Right now, I just can't stand seeing you hurt like this." "It's ok," she smiled, "I've cried a lot over this for a long time. Now I feel as though I'm coming to the end of it. It's not so much over that asshole, it's more over how I've felt so,... so alone in the middle of my family. Like I was forsaken or something." She sniffled, "But at least my mother is mad at my dad too now. Both of my sisters were allowed to find their own men. One minute, I was riding free in the wind, and the next, I had this guy pressuring me. I think my dad was just trying to find a way to get me settled down, but it hurts." She looked up at him, "So you'd let me be the Prime Minister, or the head of XYZ Corporation, you said. What if I were the faster rider between us? Would you let me be that?" He nodded, "I told you, I don't care. Do whatever you want to, and I'll be proud of you. Who cares who's the faster rider, as long as we ride? But sure, I won't mind. There are lots of people who are faster than either of us, but if it's between us, I sure don't mind if it's you. But now, I think I'd prefer it if you actually raced on a track, since it's safer for everyone." Rocket Girl Ch. 03 She watched his small smile change into a grin. "Besides, there are benefits to riding behind you." Aurora laughed a little, "You're still fascinated with my ass, aren't you? I don't mind at all since it's you, and you can make me feel prouder about myself with that one little smile when you see me coming than any ten thousand fools." She kissed him softly, "That goes beyond flattery Will, because any woman can see that it's genuine in you. I've already gotten compliments about the way that the guy who really cares about me looks when he sees me. Way past flattery and deep into feeling worth something." She laughed a little, "I think I actually want you to be fascinated with my ass, but –" She looked at his downcast eyes. "What's wrong?" He began to mumble something that sounded as though he was in a confessional and it ended with him confessing that he'd been having impure thoughts about her and not only about her ass. Aurora laughed and hugged him to whisper, "Then we're both going to hell, baby. I've had the very same thoughts about you." She shook her head with an amazed grin, "You always know how to make me feel better." She shrugged, "Anyway, I don't think I want to ride all that fast, now that without even knowing you or even what you looked like, I seem to have caught up with the one I was chasing so hard." She pushed him over onto his back, before pulling herself up to lie on him, "Well, I might want to do those things some day, but for now, I just want to be one thing, more important than anything else that I can imagine right now, or maybe ever could." Will tried to think, but was a bit overcome with having her here and the feelings that she seemed to be injecting into his chest. He gave it up, "What do you want to be, Aurora? I'll help if I can." She smiled again, "You already have. I think that I've been a little superficial, and I'm not sure when that happened, either, because it's not me. Now I want to be something that feels to me like it's a great achievement for somebody like me. It's a responsible position, since it involves thinking more outside of my own slightly selfish nature than I've ever gone, because it'll mean that I'm thinking about somebody who needs to be thought of more than once in a while." She kissed him very gently, "I'm pretty sure that I was turning into a bitch because I was so unhappy. It was making me mean-spirited, I think. But being around you just rubs off on a person. I saw it for myself with the people around you from this strange family that you live in to the people you work with. You think about other people and you care about them. But there's nobody doing that for you, Will." Aurora grinned, suddenly feeling much better. "I want that job. I want to be Will's girl. That's what I want to be now, more than anything. I just need you to lean on sometimes, and I didn't know how much until yesterday and today." She pulled back a little to look at him, "What if I told you that I want that kind of love that can get through anything with a bit of your help? Would you want that too with my help? Because I think that's what we could have here." He kissed her then. It took a long minute after they broke it before either of them could form a coherent thought. He pulled her head gently beside his own and kissed her ear softly. "More than I want to breathe." Aurora pulled her head back a little to look at him as the corners of her eyes stung her a bit again. "Nobody's ever said something as nice as that to me before. But I need for you to breathe, honey. I need that so much." She smiled at him then, just a tiny little hopeful smile that spoke volumes to him of how she felt. She nuzzled against his throat, "So, what do you say, Will? I guess that I'm asking for some reassurance from you. I really want that kind of love with you because, well, ... every girl wants that, but it doesn't happen much. I've never even wanted the fairytale romance thing. I only ever wanted someone to love and not get trampled over in the process because I was stupid enough to give my heart." She looked at his eyes because she needed to, but fought off the need to let herself be taken away in them at the same time. If this worked out and they could maybe understand each other, there'd be plenty of time for her to drift happily while she looked into them. "But, ... you have to give your heart to play, don't you? That's what makes me want to give up and stop trying. I was feeling pretty hopeless and I was thinking that I didn't want anything to do with loving somebody anymore since I just ended up miserable all of the time. Love to me was just a word covered in sharp broken glass." She kissed his cheek for a moment, and then began again. "I'd want to play once more with you, Will." She nodded, "I'd want to risk it one more time then. But from what I can see, and from what I've learned about you, you don't play at all anymore. This isn't a high school dance where the hopeful girl is trying to pull the boy she likes out onto the floor, this is for real, Will." Aurora sighed, "This is me standing on your front step asking if you want to come out and play for real, just you and me, for real and all grown up. No bullshit and no games. I already know that neither of us want to play that way. I don't want to do the dating thing again and probably end up the same way. I'm so in awe of you and we do have a thing between us. I'm just trying to get it said and we can just go from there. So, are you in? I need to hear it from you." Will looked at her for a moment, "You're really serious here, aren't you?" She nodded hopefully, "Yeah. I really think that's how we ought to look at it." He smiled, "Ok." Aurora looked confused. "Ok? What does that mean?" "It means I give up, Aurora. I want to come out to play for real. I hear you and I get it." He looked at her a little sideways, "Were you expecting more of an argument from me or something? I'm not as dumb as I look." "You mean it?" Aurora was amazed. She had expected all sorts of above-mentioneds and notwithstandings from him. She laid her head on his chest, feeling like a happy cat suddenly. "Ok," she said, "here's the rules then." Will lifted his head to look at her, "Wait a minute, rules?" He sighed, thinking of his conversation with Leona, "Look, just so you know, I happen to have a lot of time and effort invested in this 'fat, dumb and happy' character that I'm sporting here. It goes with the 'I haven't gotten around to getting a haircut yet' and the 'I didn't feel like shaving today – just like yesterday' look and the 'I don't give a flying fuck' attitude." "I'm pretty sure I took the 'I play by the rules' tag off of my jeans even before I took off the price tag when I got home from the store." He sighed, "But I do want to see where this will go, so what are the rules? I'm listening." Aurora stared at him and started to laugh. Cesar was fast becoming a dark cloud on the horizon and moving away. She pulled herself up higher on him and took his head in both hands with a grin. "Holy cow, Will. That wasn't what I meant at all. Don't you dare change even one of those things. I love them. I want you to keep them. That's not what I meant by rules." "You know what? One of my very favorite things about you is that you can stand there while a woman walks past you and I can see that she's about to start drooling. She's already thinking about trying to talk to you. But I know that you're having really deep thoughts like trying to decide if you're hungry." She chuckled, "It tells me that something in you has changed, even from when I first met you." "Some fool looks at you like they hate you and you have this amazing ability to say 'fuck you' just by the way that you're standing. All of that's going on and then you see me coming to hand you a Coke. And that smile of yours begins. Do you know how that feels to me?" She kissed him quickly because she just had to. "What an amazing man. That happened last week, Will. I saw it myself. I was there. The important thing to me was the way that you lit up just to see me, and I'd only been gone like four minutes, but I was watching you for most of that time." She laughed, "I felt like a million bucks, just for that, right there. The rest isn't important to me, but the guy would have licked my shoe for a shot at me and that smile shot him down before he'd opened his idiot mouth to talk his hopeful noise to me." She pointed to herself, "That's one of the ways that I'd found that I've changed as well because I wasn't interested in how a guy that I wasn't interested in thought. It always mattered to me before. I didn't care about most guys - as long as I knew they were staring at me. I only need to know that one guy wants me now and that's you." "The woman grew a cloud over her head and that happened for the same reason that Jenny thinks I'm your wife." She kissed him hard then and took his breath for a second, but pulled back before he'd passed out in bliss. "Why the hell would I want to change something wonderful like that?" She rubbed the scruff on his cheek with her thumb thoughtfully, "We both know where we're going so there's no harm in saying it, is there? No, I was talking about the playground rules, baby. The here and now, where we are rules. There's only a few, honey, and they're for your personal safety." "Ok." Aurora almost collapsed in laughter. When she had it together she looked at him and waved her finger, "Oh no. I understand how you're playing this." Her dark eyes peered into his blue ones and she found that he was wide open, and really would do anything for her - just because, not for any hopeful intent. It was something that was brand new for her. Cesar hadn't been worth the effort. Will watched her shrug. "I love how you always look like you could use a shave. Women like me melt over that sometimes. But as much as I love it, there's a danger here in the playground, so you'll need to shave before we start just sometimes, but not today, so that's one." Will was listening intently and she could see that, but his hand slid slowly under the bottom edge of her top and he began to caress her there. She smiled, "That's another rule," she said, "I'm a little proud of these, and they're pretty demanding all by themselves, so you can't let them feel like they're being left out." He smirked, "Can we just play for now? I promise to sit with a notebook like the studious little guy that I once never was and write it all down for later." Will smiled that smile and Aurora felt a groan coming to her, but she fought it back as she spoke almost to herself, "I can't believe how you make me feel." She looked at him and pushed his hair back over his ear, "For damn sure I can't believe what I'm about to tell you, but – " She came to a decision, "Look baby, here's the quick and dirty version." Aurora pulled up on him to get her mouth to his ear. Will's hand was lost in the confusion of it. "Put it back, Will. Keep doing that," she smiled. He heard her whispers as she dragged her lips across his ear, "Hold still. I love you, Will, and if you want to play, you can do it two ways. Just so you know, I'd be happy with the first one, but really, it would mean a lot more to me if you play it my way." She put her hand over his lips. "I already know that you're about to say 'ok', and right now, I don't want to laugh, so..." She moved her head and brought her lips up against his. Just as before, she dragged her lips so lightly, and though she thrilled over how it felt, she noticed the nudging twitch that came to her through his jeans. "We can play right now, Will. Any way that you want, but if you choose that, I'd prefer it if you put as much love into it as you can manage the first time because right now, that's what I'd want." She sighed as he licked slowly along her lips before dragging his own lips over hers as he whispered, "I love you too, Aurora. I'll do anything that you want me to." He groaned quietly because of the discomfort of his erection under her. She noticed and began to try to move, but he held her still and then she felt his lips dragging across hers again. "Don't move, honey. It's not painful if that's what you think. It's just hopeful and it'll go on being that way no matter what we do until it gets happy or gives up and goes home. It's designed to do that so that I'll try to help it." She felt his hand moving under the edge of her panties and she groaned then, "Even my ass loves you, I can't believe it," she whispered, "What were you going to say?" She felt his smile under her lips. "I was just going to ask you to give me the rest of the rules. The ones that you'd really like for this." Aurora buried the fingers of one hand in his hair and sighed, "This is really important to me, so you can't laugh, ok?" "Sure," he sighed, "go." "I want to take a shower with you." He smiled, "I thought this was going to be complicated or something." "Well," she said, feeling a little embarrassed, "there is a bit more. Things about me that nobody knows. Things I never told what's his name – the asshole who needs a blow-up doll now because he was too stupid to see that he had what he wanted the whole time if he'd have used his brain." She drew a breath and made her decision. If she couldn't get what she wanted from Will, then she could spend years searching, so she had to try. She brought her lips back against his. "Nobody ever let me be me, but I think that I can see that you can do that, so... I'm, ...I'm very oral, if you don't try to force me like the same asshole who always wondered why he only got to do that one time, and, well,... "she sighed, "I'm not even sure about this, but the way that I feel is that if you let me, I think that I can get pretty aggressive." She couldn't believe what she was telling him, but reminded herself that he seemed to be worth the risk, so ... "Please, Will, you can't ever tell anyone these things." She looked at him, "Doesn't that bother you? I thought guys always had to be in charge or something." She saw his smirk. He just said, "Let's go back to how dumb do I look. If I really want a cheeseburger, but for some reason, all I can get is buttered bread, it'll do, but I won't be happy. So? It's the same thing, isn't it? You're telling me that you want the cheeseburger, so I'll hold still." She lifted herself up and pulled his T-shirt up as far as she could get it with one hand. When her fingers hit his stomach, he tensed and she ran her fingers down him with a smile. "No baby. I don't want a cheeseburger. I want the triple 'A' grade. Nothing else will do." He smiled, "Listen, these are things that you like or think that you might like. I think that you see telling me like this to be a huge risk or something, but it's not. All I'm hearing from you are bits and pieces – clues that I'll file away in my own twisted little head so that I can do the things that you want so that I can love you the best way that I can, that's all. They're nobody's business but yours and mine. So is that it?" She nodded, but then said, "No, wait. There are a few more, but I've never tried them except for one and I always do that one alone. I want to do that one with you too." She smiled a little shyly, "If I get really carried away, I get so wet, but – at both ends. I've grossed guys out before. I'm a really wet kisser. I can't help it." He smiled, "So?" "No, I mean I drool like crazy – because I, ... I like that, and I want to." He sighed, "I can't wait." She looked at him in a little shock, "Really?" "Yeah," he said, "I think that's sexy as hell." Aurora felt a lot better, so she pushed another one forward. "I've never tried, but I think that I'd really like to get pearl necklaces from you, and ..." He just shrugged, "I can do that, honey. What's the tough one? This is the one that you tried yourself?" he asked. "Yes," she whispered, "if we're going to be together, I don't want to go on with this one locked away from even you. I want this one for sure, but I don't even think that I can say it." "Damn, this is hard to admit." She looked away for a moment, trying to will the words to her lips. He stroked her back. "You can tell me anything. Just don't tell me that we need to get a dog and a goat, ok?" She smiled, "It's nothing like that, Will. I just want, ... I want you to, ..." "Look," she whispered as she thought for a second, "Your hand... No, the other one." "Yeah, what?" "Well, ..." she didn't think that she'd even be able to say it to him and she was getting annoyed with herself. She didn't think it was such a big deal. She knew there were other women who ... she knew for a fact that her sister liked it when ... Aurora's thoughts stopped when she felt his hand sliding along between her flanks, pushing them aside so that he could slide one finger along. He felt her shiver and then he knew. "This is it, isn't it, Aurora? Right here. This is what you want to tell me about, right?" She nodded with her eyes closed tightly. "I know you're having a tough time with it, and I don't understand why, but it's ok. I'd like to try it too." He ran his finger a bit deeper and she sighed. "It's ok with you, Will?" He smiled, "Two things, Aurora. One, have you noticed anything about the thing that you're lying on while you've struggled with this?" She looked at him and he smiled, "Big tip-off there, huh? And that points right to something that you're always saying to me. Now I'm beginning to think that it's been you telling me the whole time that I've known you and we didn't even know." She didn't get it and said so. He sighed, "I've always been fascinated by your sweet ass. I thought there was something tough here." He began to mutter in a hopefully comical way about having to wait all of this time, worried that there was something dark and awful about to be spelled out to him and how he hated goats. He didn't get very far with it. He found that he had a much more difficult time just catching his breath. Rocket Girl Ch. 04 Just a word here - Aurora has been a little repressed up to now in her life, but she sees a chance that Will would allow her the little things that she's always wanted to do. I was mindful that one of those things might not be for everyone, but I wrote it from her side of it so that you might see how she feels to be, ... well, in charge, now and then. She's a bright woman and rather confident, but she's been hemmed in for so long... -------------------- When Will had a moment during which his brain could actually function with any clarity, he found himself pinned by a very happy woman. Aurora was over him with the most beautiful smile on her face because she was just ... happy. "You know, I like this look on you," he said, "It makes me feel really good to see you so happy." "I actually feel a lot of things here besides happy, "Aurora giggled, "I can't think of a time when I've felt like this, Will. I don't feel any pressure on me anymore, and from you, I feel so appreciated. I know what I look like, I hear it all the damn time and I get the worst shit come-ons - yeah, one of my personal faves to hear is when somebody says that I'm built like a brick shithouse, loud enough for me to hear. That sure doesn't make me interested, and just think, I get to hear walking pigs tell me that I'm so fuckable like that's supposed to make me want them. I don't get any of that kind of feeling from you, but I know that you want me because you love me, and you'd let me be anything, do anything, so I know that you appreciate me for other things than just how I'm put together." She bent down and kissed him, "So yeah, I'm feeling pretty happy right now, and I know that I don't have to be what's expected of me, here -- even right here like this with you. It's all more freedom for me, and that makes me happy -- and really horny too, because I'll get to do what I want for a change with you." She looked down at her breasts under the little top and tried to put on a more serious expression. "Heeeyyy, Will," she said softly, "I thought I made it clear that my boobs were never supposed to feel left out." "Oh yeah," he smiled, "right," he said, reaching under the top with both hands. "Better?" "Mm-hmm," she smiled, with closed eyes, "I hate it when they feel like that. It's really tough having boobs complain to you that they're feeling, you know, a little high and dry." He was so content for the moment just to admire her, and she sensed it somehow and gazed back at him. Her long hair hung down all around him. "I'm an idiot," he said, apologetically, "I can't believe that it's taken me this long." "What, Will?" "You've always had your hair tied back, I guess that you did that for riding and for when we were working on your bike. This is the first real chance that I've had to see your hair like this, and I've just noticed that it's not actually black." He took one of his hands from her breast and touched her hair, "This is the darkest shade of brown that I can imagine. There can't be anything darker brown than this or it would be black. I'm kind of amazed." He sighed sadly, "and feeling pretty stupid for taking this long to see it. I'm sorry." "Well that's good that you're amazed, then," she whispered as she bent a little to kiss him, "Most people never see that, and I know that shithead Cesar never looked long enough to notice." She smiled again, "I think this will be one long road trip here for us," she said, "but for this part of it, I think we're wearing far too much protective equipment." Aurora sat back and pulled her top over her head. Sitting back a little further, she smiled and tossed her head to the side, "Get out of bed for a minute, Handsome. Let me help you out of those clothes." When he stood before her, Aurora wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him for a few minutes. "I feel like I've got to do this every now and then in case I wake up wherever I really am to find that this is all a dream." Will tilted his head and grinned, "No dream, Aurora, unless it's the one I'm having now." She put her head against him and kissed the side of his throat. She had a good idea that only a few seconds of this would get her his sigh, and she had to stop for a moment when it came, because she was smiling too much to continue. "Well, if this is your dream and not mine, I hope you don't mind if I tag along. I need to be here so that I can make your dream come true, just like this feels to me right now." Will noticed Aurora looking at him with a slightly hopeful expression. "I just have to know," he said, "What's going on in that awesome brain?" "Well," she whispered, "I was wondering if you've decided which way you want to play today." Will chuckled, "I keep waiting for the hard stuff." He kissed her and smiled, "I want to do this your way tonight." She grabbed his T-shirt and began to lift it upward. By the time that she had it halfway up his chest, his arms were over his head, and she got it off a second or so later. She shook her head a little bit in admiration, "Oh baby," she grinned, "you bring that chest over here. My boobs need to feel that, and it's time that your chest got to meet the new neighbors." When he had a second with her in his arms, he smiled at her, "I'm feeling just a little inadequate here." "Why?" she grinned back, "they're not that big." "No," he said, "but they're perfect, and there's two of them. I've got enough hands, but I'm thinking that I need another mouth or something. I'd hate for one to get jealous." "Don't worry," she smiled, "they're very happy up against you like this and they are pretty understanding, you know, for being uh, tits and all." They stood like this for several minutes until Aurora pulled back and reached for the button on his jeans. Once he'd stepped out of them, Aurora got to her knees and began what she'd wanted to do for the past two days. It took her no time to lose herself to it, and Will was a little pleasantly shocked at just how fast she had all of him wet. He listened to the soft sounds that she made in her throat and felt thrilled at how she was being so noisy at sucking him. He thought about what he wanted to do but ... "Aurora, honey," he whispered hoarsely, "I remember what you told me, and I'd never force you, but would it be ok if I just touch your head? I really want to." She pulled back, and kept the tip of him against her lips as she looked up. He watched her consider for a moment and then she spoke to him quietly, dragging her lips on him as she did. "Normally, I'd say no," she said, "but I know there's more heart in just what's in my hand than most guys have in their bodies." She closed her eyes and sighed as she ran her tongue over the end. "As soon as I had the idea that maybe there was a hope for you and me, Will, I've wanted to do this so bad. I've never felt this way before. So ok, but please let me run this show here this time." She lifted him a little and ran her tongue against the underside of his scrotum with a groan, and then she was back, holding the tip against her lips. Will saw that her chin was shiny with drool and he smiled. She kissed it for a minute, "Maybe we can try it soon, and I'm almost coming to the idea that I could like it with you, so I think if it works out and you're patient with me, I'll be able to let you fuck my face then, but ... look Will,... whatever you do, please, please don't jam into me and hold my head there when you come. Just let me get what I can. You know I'll appreciate it more that way, right?" He stroked her head, "I don't want anything that you don't want to do." She smiled, "Thanks, Will, I promise that this'll be much better between us like this." "You don't have to promise anything," he said, "I'm living a dream that I've never allowed myself to have, here." Aurora went back to it, but she made slightly louder noses in her throat now. After a minute, she stopped and pulled back. He watched her look at all of the male that he was. "Oh God," she said, watching it throb in the air before her, "This just has to work for us, Will. I've never seen one -- even in pictures -- that I've wanted more than this." She glanced up at him as she reached to cup his balls, "Don't even say it. I know enough about you now to know that you're going to use my own words here and tell me that it's not that big." She groaned and took it in as far as she could and back out one time, "All that leaves me to say is that it's perfect, doesn't it?" she nodded, "and it is from my point of view. And hey," she smirked, "I'm the one who's looking at the business end, aren't I? I'm not looking to get fucked by a horse here. This is plenty for me, I'll tell you right now. I'm not that big and I want really nice, not Godzilla. I like comfort for a long time and apes are overrated, believe me. If you can last more than five minutes in me, you're already my hero. All I've had were insecure guys who cover their fears with macho. You know what kind of macho gets me wet?" She reached up and patted his chest, "The quiet kind." Will was confused, "I thought women wanted Kingkong every time." He had to wait and groan along for a minute until she was ready to stop. He watched as she licked so slowly and then smiled up at him. "Think about it," she said, "we all want to be filled, but you shouldn't get all caught up in hype. It won't do either of us any good if you're huge and I get tired of being stretched after I've gotten where I want to be and you're not there yet. A lot of guys think they're God's gift because they think they're bigger or hope that they are, like they've got some kind of python living in their jeans. But the truth is that any woman can take the biggest man hypothetically, since what you're trying so hard to stuff has to be able to pass a baby on the way out. Nobody's that big, and no thank you, I don't want that every night. I want this." She chuckled in admission to herself, "I really want this." She kissed the underside wetly. "Have you noticed something? I know that you'll let me do anything I want. Well the first reward is that I love doing this to you, don't I? How long do you think I'd want to be doing this to a zucchini? My older sister's husband is actually huge from what she says and what did it get her? He always wants head, but then he goes off in however many minutes that he lasts, he falls asleep a minute later and she's lying there trying to get to sleep with a sore jaw and numb lips. When they screw, it's bang, bang, groan. Done." "He STILL falls asleep and she's wondering what the hell it was all for. Believe me, I've heard that a lot from her when my sisters and I end up someplace together and just talk about men." She smiled to herself, "It doesn't happen that often, only about once a week, though I'm already missing this week's meeting. Don't you worry, baby, I'm not spilling a thing about MY secret lover. They can just guess," she chuckled as she leaned forward again. She was back at his balls again, licking and mouthing what she could gently. It took him a bit by surprise the first time that it happened, but he felt the drops of her saliva on the tops of his feet quite often. She reached for his ass and pulled him toward her and he gasped as he felt her warm and wet tongue sliding against him behind his scrotum for a moment to try to get to his opening. She didn't make it and licked as far as she could get for a moment as her other hand stroked him. Will marveled at how sensuous it could feel to have those lovely breasts pressed to his thighs and the feeling of her tongue was a surprise to him. Nobody had ever licked that spot on him before. He'd always just considered it a flat spot of skin on himself, though he loved the same flat spot on a woman. "I dunno," he felt himself smiling, "I think that somebody as wonderful as you -- you know, in a lustful private moment and all -- well I don't think that I could blame you if you had a thought about wanting a pony." Aurora smirked, "I had those thoughts and now I've got one. See? The perfect pony for me. It's all about what you wish for." She chuckled, "I just don't remember wishing for a poorly hung, selfish jackass the last time, but I must have, since that's what I got. They never tell you, but there's a danger to this storybook romance crap." She lifted his penis straight up and did her best to get as much of his scrotum into her mouth as she could with a moan. Will felt the slight discomfort, but he appreciated how she was doing her best to make what was there boil for her. He gasped as she managed to suck one of his testicles into her mouth to torture it with her fantastic tongue. She loved what she was doing now and let him know with a loud groan. Aurora released him gently and licked firmly from there all the way to the tip. He felt that as far away as the spot at the nape of his neck. Aurora was about to really go to town on him but she had a thought. Will seemed to her so far to be a dream walking. He was just what she'd wanted, but things had never gone her way before, and so she had a moment of doubt. Not about him, just that this all seemed so right somehow and she felt a need to test him a little. She stood up, making sure that she held him in her hand to continue stroking. He watched her with a curious expression. She noticed that her palm was a bit dry for him, so before he could say anything, she bent quickly and left some saliva there to work him against. Coming back up, she worked her tongue and felt her spit glands respond. She really hoped that he'd been truthful with her. Before he could react, Aurora had her arm around his neck. She was still stroking him, but now if there was a comparison to be made to what she was doing to him, well, she was taking him. His lips parted before the onslaught of her tongue and she was a little sorry now that she hadn't waited until she had a mouthful of his semen to really test him with here, but from her side of it, his mouth was hers now and she did her best to fuck him with her overactive tongue. They both groaned, and she almost grinned and ruined it, but she managed to give him all the saliva that she could, wanting to see if there was revulsion there in him. To her amazement, he moaned loudly though obviously not in complaint, so she held his head to prevent him pulling back and she did it again. She wasn't about to let him get away to lose it, not unless he really pushed her. She felt him swallow and felt her own response to it almost instantly. She'd been wet before, but her panties were now officially sopping. She pulled back and grinned at him. Will gasped once and stared at her. She saw what she'd never seen in a man before right there in his face. He really would allow her anything. She could have wept in joy. She set her hip confidently, letting go of him just long enough to bring her hand up and fill it with spit while watching his face as he saw it run from her smiling open mouth. Most of that went onto her thigh and she grabbed him again to rub him against her as well. His penis swelled in her hand, rock hard. She felt as though her own juice was going to run down her leg for sure in just a minute or two now. She shook her head, looking at him from under her eyebrows, "Oh no, you come right back here, baby, I need to fuck that wonderful sexy face of yours with my tongue some more." He had something of a deer in the headlights look to him and it made this even better for her as she took him again. Aurora made sure that his manhood got what it needed from this while she got hers. She drew back a little to see him looking at her, though some of the shock of it had faded. "You like that, don't you, baby?" she asked as she pushed against him. He got the idea, and left one leg forward a little. What a perceptive man, she thought to herself. Aurora chuckled at how confident she felt and for a girl like her, that translated directly into feeling sexy. She nodded in pleasure, "Yeah, you love it." Will had no words. He could only nod a little. Aurora moved forward to get his thigh between hers and found the spot to rub herself against quickly. "Well that's good," she whispered, putting as much of the lust that she felt into it as she could manage, "'cause I've got lots more for my beautiful boy." Aurora opened her mouth to let him see how wet she was for him there. "Show me now, honey. Open your sweet mouth and suck a little for me. I'll feed you all the spit you want." She closed her fingers, gently grabbing a handful of his hair as she invaded him again and he began to do what she'd always longed to have the chance at. They groaned into each other for long minutes until it became more urgent between them. It felt like she'd always imagined it to feel, only better, the way that he sucked so gently and hungrily once he had the idea. She wasn't letting him get away more than about an inch or so as she fucked his mouth with her tongue, stopping now and then to seal her lips to his to give him more saliva. One of his hands went to her head as he moaned and he held her while the other pushed down between them so that he could rub her aching clit before the wet friction of her soaked panties could take the skin right off his thigh. They grew more urgent, but it took only seconds. Aurora moaned into his mouth as her orgasm ripped through her and she stood trembling and willing her knees to hold her up. She found herself hanging against him, resolving that if there could be a repeat of this act between them, it was going to happen while they were lying down. The nerves in her hand and forearm were telling her that he'd delivered. This was better than she'd ever hoped that it could be, and as soon as she could, she went after as much of his seed as she could get, making sure to offer her warm wet thanks to his penis even as she struggled for breath through her nostrils. When she straightened up he was waiting for her, and Aurora almost wanted to cry. She could see that he knew full well what was coming. She was on him in a heartbeat, sharing what she had and grinding her mound against him. After a minute, she pulled back. Both of them were trembling. Their foreheads came together as the last of their gasps faded. "God damn, Will, that was incredible." she said, without looking at him. His face was out of focus in her field of view, "Nobody has ever let me do that. Thank you so much." His voice was hoarse as he whispered back so quietly, "Thanks Aurora." She needed to remove the possibility of doubt now. "So you liked it?" She felt him nod, but it took him a second after that to make his admission. "Very much. I've never felt anything like that." Her voice disappeared as she spoke, leaving him to hear only the softest whisper, "I'm so happy then. I want to do that lying down the next time, and baby, you have such a sweet, fuckable mouth, I'm going to want that a lot. If you want to try it, you can do that to me too. Any time you want." "Get on the bed," he whispered, "please, Aurora, I need to taste you so bad." She was in bliss over the next hour. Will loved her bottom end continuously and took her to where her waves crashed onto her three times. But he never really stopped and it amazed her. If she grew sensitive, he just grazed on somewhere else. He spent time over only her throat until she whimpered. It was sweet and such a delicious feeling, but he seemed to know just how to complete it for her when he repositioned himself and she felt her thighs being swept open so that he could press against her with his knee. When he reached her ribs she warned him that she was very ticklish, but he only answered her with a "mm-hmm" and then he surprised her by not stopping and making her groan in delicious agony as he kept right on grazing over the places that would have made her jump right out of bed -- but she didn't. Will made love to her collarbones and the insides of her elbows and forearms. She thought she'd jump when he got to her navel, but no... After that, he went back up and he made love to her breastbone, telling her that hers was the most erotic one that he'd ever seen. Up to that point, she didn't even really know that she had one, never mind how that man could make it feel in her heart with those kisses. Rocket Girl Ch. 04 He moved back down her body, taking his sweet-ass time until he began to chew thoughtfully right at the spots where her legs joined her body as his hands loved her thighs and belly seemingly all by themselves. By then, Aurora was beginning to doubt her own hold on her sanity. If he didn't get to her dripping sex again soon, she was sure that one or both of them would be dead by morning. Yet when he finally completed his tour, though she was so ready, he insisted on playing with her inner lips. After he'd gotten them to peek out, he used his fingers after wetting them to make her step away from the jagged anticipation, though she now prayed to him that he wouldn't forget the core of her. After a while, her prayers became vocal, though she didn't notice. Will did, and surmised that he was doing this right for her. Aurora was a little amazed when he did it, but he was able to softly hold both lips between different sets of the fingers on one of his hands as he pulled his body back to speak to her. "Be really careful here, since I'm holding some sensitive parts, honey, but please, lift your awesome legs for me." "Huh?" she asked. Well it was the best she could do as far as intellectual ability right then. "Where?" "Just lift them up and hold them with your hands if you have to. I'm not going to let go of your lips here if I can manage it. You should see this, baby, There's almost no light here, but I can see these tiny little drops from you. They're the most lovely jewels that I'm sure I've ever seen. But you have to hold your legs up for a couple of minutes at least, Aurora. I need to lick your ass just a little. I'm sure that I'll die very soon if I don't." It was just the talk of two people loving each other and she knew that, but somehow, Aurora was almost just as certain that he meant it somehow, so she moved her legs slowly, folding them back to give him as much room for it as she could, and feeling pleased that he'd been listening to her when she'd asked him for something along these lines in her hopeful list. He didn't penetrate her. Not even a millimeter, though it was really what he wanted to do here. He only kissed and licked, but Aurora was sure that she felt his love there too, just as she'd felt it since they'd begun this. Will reached up her front with his free hand to work one of her nipples softly as he licked. She gasped at the first contact, but after that she could only groan and sigh, taking his hand to suck on his fingers a little hungrily and squeezing one her nipples herself. He wouldn't give her as much of them as she seemed to want, knowing that he'd lose the angles for everything else if he did. Then he went after the parts that she'd been aching for him to love. When he'd taken her nub between his teeth and went at it with his amazing tongue, she began to cry out and buck. It was what he'd been waiting for of course, and just as she neared the crest, his thumb slid into her vaginal opening to open her just a little with the thick muscle at the base of it. Aurora's desire surged as she inhaled and bucked harder, and while she felt herself crying out in her throat, she couldn't have seen the gears turning there in his head. She didn't let go of his hand and went back to sucking whenever she thought of it. In that half-minute or less, Will decided that it was a risk, but he reminded himself that she'd tried so hard to tell him what she'd really wanted. For no reason that he could fathom, other than he remembered it as a personal goal in his own life, the motto of the British Special Air Service came to his mind in its Latin form -- "Qui audet adipiscitur". Who dares, wins. Will wanted Aurora to know that she'd won anything that she asked of him, and so he worked her harder with his tongue on her clit and rotated his hand a little. When her chest expanded with her next intake, he stopped twisting his thumb and the finger that he'd been wetting whenever he could shifted down and penetrated her ass. For the briefest moment, he winced a little as she bit his finger. Aurora howled out his name once in a long braying call that tickled the hair at the back of his neck to hear, before she made three desperate-sounding noises that were unintelligible but wonderful for him to hear and then she lay still. Will checked on her breathing and smiled to himself, though he was a little amazed that he'd have been able to manage a Latin motto right here, but he now revised the thought to include himself. He'd wanted someone to do this with for so long, and now he felt as though he'd accomplished something. Might not be much on a planet where people surely fucked each other millions of times a day, but to Will, what he'd managed here was the same thing as climbing Mount Everest, or maybe building the biggest pyramid there could ever be over the course of one evening. It had taken a bit of work and his manhood had been left pretty much alone on the beach for most of it, but that didn't matter to Will. He'd found somebody to love, and she deserved this because she was worth it to him. If she gave him more chances at this, he was sure now that he could do this for her often. Hell, he thought, he could devote this kind of effort to somebody like this one incredible girl for the rest of his life -- if she'd let him. He shook his head, and wondered where the hell that thought had come from, but he resolved it a second later and just accepted it with a quiet hope. Aurora awoke in his arms to his kisses, those incredible kisses of his all over her face. He'd answer none of her confused questions -- he didn't have time, he said. "places to go and parts to enjoy," he said with a happy grin. At one point, he made love only to her breasts, and when she asked him the redundant question about whether he liked them, he amazed the hell out of her with his thoughtful reply. "I have an admission to make," he said, "I've always tried to appreciate the wonders of any woman -- even if she's only walking past me. I never stare, but I take it all in, and if telepathic communication was a possibility for people, they'd hear my quiet compliments. What you have here, Aurora, are the most amazing warheads I've ever had the chance to see, and what I'm doing here, well, I just think they deserve a little worship from me, that's all. I love you, obviously, and I so love these. They're perfect." He smirked, "I'm not even going to try to tell you how I love to taste them in my mouth. There aren't the right words in my vocabulary, and we don't have the time." "But tomorrow's a holiday, Will, we have all night," she joked hopefully, and he amazed her again when he picked up on it. "Then I've got all day tomorrow to find my words and string them together into something which wouldn't do them justice anyway. I will try, if you insist, but for now, Beautiful, actions speak louder than words." With that, he sucked a nipple into his mouth while squeezing the other one carefully. Aurora gasped, filling her lungs as she arched her back to unconsciously present them to him even more. Will thought that he'd weep at the sight of it, but he did his best to love her through them. After some minutes, she pushed him away onto his back and she closed the distance to put her hand under his head. She took a minute to get herself positioned so that his shoulders were on on his pillow on top of one of her bent legs and she offered him a breast as she brought it to his lips. "Come on, honey. You treat these so nicely. Just stop working so hard and enjoy this for a little while." Will's hand reached to touch the side of it as he suckled softly. Aurora sighed as she toyed with her other nipple and hung her head looking down at the man she wanted for a long time now. When he released her nipple twenty minutes later, Aurora's eyes opened. "That was the sweetest thing I've ever felt there," she said earnestly, "I was so happy and I was just drifting, you know? I could have fallen asleep." She rolled her eyes, noticing the complaint coming to her brain, "but my leg beat me to it. Could you get up now, honey?" After the contortions that she went through for the next several minutes, she was on her side, looking into his eyes while her hand found his hardness again in the dark. "Please, baby," she whispered, "please fuck me now. I need you so bad." Will smiled, but shook his head, "Unless you want to be pounded -- and I'd be happy to do that if you want -- I think that I'd just prefer to love you." "Lift yourself up so I can get my leg under you, Will. You're the boss. Do me however you want to." Aurora found herself with yet another surprise. She hadn't said it, but she'd really have preferred that he fuck her hard, but instead, what he did just couldn't be described using that word. His word for it had actually been right on the money. He'd begun very slowly and gently. It wasn't what she'd hoped for, but before very long, it became exactly what she wanted from him. Aurora looked at Will and found herself being taken by so many details. She touched his hair and his chest for a moment until her other hand felt the muscles over his ribs as they worked. If she tried really hard, she could just reach only a little of his really cute bum and it made her smile to pet and stroke that until he rolled them onto her back and shifted higher above her. She left those rib muscles behind after a moment and her hand found his thigh and then his hipbone. It was amazing to her how erotic something like a man's hipbone could feel to Aurora -- well, Will's hipbone anyway, she thought as she raised her legs to get him deeper. But the overall effect to Aurora was that she felt herself falling deeply in love with him over some detail or another in quick succession over the course of about twenty-two and one-half seconds. When she knew what it was that she felt, she gasped, and felt just the barest of tiny stings at the corners of her eyes. There is a shield. It's a thing that is erected by almost all women who find themselves copulating face to face with a new lover for the first time. It's a thing which they hold up in front of them to peer through as they examine their feelings. It doesn't matter what brought them to this moment, the shield is always there the first time at least. Most women discard this defense to their feelings very shortly afterward, if the act is being done with some love behind it, though some never discard it at all. In his own past, Ashley had been one of these. Will knew nothing of this, he just hated the distance that he almost always saw between his eyes and those of whatever woman that he was trying to have a relationship with. It almost always settled it for him and was the first thing which made him distant as he drifted away from yet another one. He'd tried hard to ignore it with Ashley, but she'd added a lot to it when she'd caused him to retreat, finally. She was too self-absorbed to notice the sounds of his doors slamming and the rattle of his chains being added. He'd never said it to anyone, but sex with her was what he imagined it to be like to screw a shark. There wasn't a lot of feeling returned to his heart and you just never knew when she'd turn on you again. Her final error was when she'd done it to him in bed and had actually felt as though she'd won something from him when he'd stopped. Her first clue was when he'd pulled on his clothes in silence, ignoring her startled abuse to walk out. Somehow, she'd managed to say exactly the wrong things perfectly. Will's problem was that he didn't know what this was. All that he knew was that there had only ever been one girl who hadn't looked at him in some slightly distant and mildy appraising way. And they'd never even gotten to anything like this, because they were only kids when they were in love. But she'd never erected anything in between them and though it was unconscious in him, it was one of the things that had doomed him since he'd never ever seen the complete absence of that shield ever again. Until now. At the sound of the sweetest little gasp that he could have imagined, he looked at her eyes and saw the color seem to run out of them a little. He wondered if he'd hurt her somehow, but watched Aurora's soft smile forming. "You really love me, don't you?" She'd said it as a tiny whisper, but Will knew what she was really saying and he might have struggled with it if he hadn't seen right through the shield which wasn't even there in between them. His own smile began then, just a little one. He hadn't meant it to show as it did, but whatever parts of her heart there were which hadn't already melted now slid into the warm cauldron with the rest there inside her chest. "Yes, I do." He wondered how he could feel such a glow in his own chest, but before he could wonder long, she fired the shot from the cannon loaded with the tiny words -- the only ones that would have worked their barbs into him as surely as a harpoon. "Please, Will, I love you. Please don't ever leave me behind." He stopped and smiled, knowing that he was lost, and not giving a damn. "Why would I ever want to do that?" He'd thought that he'd been doing his best to love her like this. Up til now, he'd been offering her his quiet and heartfelt love. But he found that he now had more and Aurora felt it as he began again. He moved so that he stayed with her as he stretched himself out over her. The first things to go, he decided were those little tears and he licked them away, but they were replaced almost immediately afterward and it took him a little time to come to the idea that she was crying as she smiled, pushing against him until he understood that she wanted to go back onto their sides again. Just as before, he was careful to include some surprising parts of her in this. He was so gentle, but she found that she could even rise to it this way. He'd pull almost out and tease at her opening, holding himself with his hand, and then he'd glide in and to her, it felt like a reward or something very much like that. When she sought out the dark space against his throat under the side of his head, she found herself loving his collarbone instead, because he was working her throat and ear over. When his saliva ran across her cheek, Aurora shuddered, and reached to catch it with her fingertip to get it to her mouth as quickly as she could. She felt him reach for her backside and she groaned as he stroked her haunches and slipped his finger in between, but it never stayed for long, and she smiled, remembering his line - places to go and parts to enjoy. She smirked in happiness. Such a busy guy. The pace did pick up toward the end. Despite what he'd said, Will had no intention of just coasting her through this. They got to another orgasm for Aurora, and she felt herself ramping up again, but his release came first. She sure didn't mind. She smiled softly and enjoyed him as he kept on for a while. "I need to tell you something, Will," she said, "there's an old rule about this that I'm about to break, but I don't care. It's probably carved in stone on the back-side of the ten commandments or something for all I know." Aurora looked into those blue eyes and smiled. "You're never supposed to tell the other person that you love them while you're screwing. I guess it doesn't matter if you're married, but if you're not, this is a biggie, because you might say something that's true because you're feeling happy right then and it could change really soon afterward." She kissed him and drew back to take a breath. "I love you so much, Aurora." She stared and then smiled with a huge sigh as she hung onto him. "I love you, Will. I'll tell you this over and over later, but this isn't just my happy parts talking here. I just wanted you to know that." He nodded and kissed her nose softly. "I know." They stayed like this while he softened and slipped out of her, but they stayed together and just whispered to each about anything they could think of. Every now and then, one of them would ask the other if they wanted to go to sleep, but the answer was always as smile and a shaking head every time. When he hardened again, they continued slowly for a time, but Aurora stopped them after a while. "Hey Will, remember that you said you wouldn't forget about my uh, warheads? "she giggled, liking his term for them. "Yeah," he said, "but I thought they'd be happy for a while." "Well, honey, it's been a while, but I thought of a way that you could maybe grant me a wish, since this all seems just about that magical." She chuckled, "I've been feeling like I was living the best storybook romance there could ever be, but you'd never find the best parts of this one in the library." He just kissed her for a few minutes, but he didn't forget. "Ok," he said, "I must be missing something, but tell me what you want, and we'll do that. Remember no goats. You didn't sneak one in here in your bag, did you? I hate goats." "No." she shook her head sadly, "no goats. But I was reading an article about these cute little pigs. Would you like one of them? You'll have to tell me which kind you'd want, male or female, but you know, if you've got that kind of kink, they might be fun in bed..." "No pigs either." He growled with finality. "Well shit, "she said in a disappointed tone, but then her eyes lit up, "I know! I've got a little vibrator in my purse. How about that?" He stared at her, "Seriously, you've got a vibrator in your purse?" "Oh yeah," Aurora replied with a bright nod, "A pocket rocket. What the hell kind of Rocket Girl would I be without one? You know what they say, don't leave home without it." "That commercial is about a bank card, honey." "It is?" she opened her eyes in mock surprise, "Well screw that. How much fun can you have with a bank card? No wait ... why, with a bank card, I could buy ... a vibrator. Already did that. But what do you say? You could lie here and I'd get to have all kinds of fun with you. How about it? I could pop your cherry." He thought that she sounded far too hopeful. He looked at her blankly for a moment and then mumbled, "Maybe later." She didn't mean to, but she ejected him while she laughed. He groaned and she apologized. But then she became curious, "You're not bi or anything like that, are you?" Will snorted, "No." "But you sounded almost about a quarter interested there. Hey, just hypothetically, would you consider letting me do that?" He kissed her nose again, "I dunno, I might." She was confused now. "I don't get it then. Why would you even think of letting me do that?" He sighed, "Because it's you." Her mouth fell open. "I love you so much Will, you have no idea how much." "Why? Because of that?" "No," she shook her head, "Because of what you just said. It tells me a lot about how you feel. Anyway, let's forget about that. What I'd really like to ask you is ... would you give me a pearl necklace now? I think I'd love to do that now if we could." Will smiled as he turned on the dim light on his nightstand. He was mindful of what she's said, and never thought for a moment that she might have been joking about her breasts, choosing to interpret her words to mean that she liked to have attention paid to them during lovemaking. So as he stroked between her breasts, he made sure to hold onto them himself as much as possible, only relying on Aurora when the angle bothered him. She had her head on the pillow staring in fascination. She'd stop him now and then to tell him something, and during those brief moments, her wet fingers and thumb took over his pleasure. While he was working her breasts during the times that he did, he made certain to include her nipples while she gasped and ran her hands over his hips and his lower abdomen during the slower periods. As he came, she lay with her mouth open hopefully, though she really wanted the necklace of glistening droplets. Rocket Girl Ch. 04 "How do I look?" she asked, as she smiled at him. "Wait a second, "he said and leaned in to lick the drops from her chin. "There, "he said, "perfect. Just like everything else about you. I think it says something about you that you can do that and make it look like it's suddenly got class." Aurora knew what he meant and she smiled. She chuckled as she quickly rubbed the semen all over her breasts. Will was a little amazed. "Is this why you wanted it?" he asked. "Uh-huh," she grinned, "but it's not the main reason. I liked how it felt and it was great to watch you work from down here. It kinda made me proud. But yeah, now that it's here," she sighed, "It's boob cream now." Will stared as she worked it into her nipples very carefully. She caught the look, "Well it's not like the dispenser's ready every second, is it? Or do you want me to push on the end like my regular hand crème dispenser?" She laughed at his wide-eyed stare. "Do you think you've got a little more left in you tonight, Will? If you want, I think I'd like a little, um, ..." "If it's not a huge deal to you tonight, Aurora , I'd prefer to do that for you tomorrow sometime. I think for me, it'll work better for you sooner rather than later and I think that's what you really meant about taking a shower with me. I think that you meant afterward, right?" She smiled at him softly, "You even knew what I was trying to say. Oh, I could get used to this. It's ok, Will." She reached for him and found him responding again, though he was tiring. "Mother of God," she said, we've been playing here for hours and you've still got juice, haven't you?" "Pft, maybe a drop or three, I dunno, You might have to work to get it now." "Oh, I don't mind the work, Handsome," she smiled as she forced him to lean against the headboard. She looked up, serious now as she moved herself to lie on her front between his legs. She wet him quickly and began to rub the tip over one of her nipples. "This is still like a dream for me, Will. I've been with a couple of guys, not many. But nobody ever kept me interested like this, not for this long. Cesar lasted minutes before he was asleep every time. My other boyfriends were a little better, but not like you." She sucked him for a little while before repeating the process against her other nipple. "How do you do it? I'm sure that if I'd insisted, you'd be doing your very best to fuck my ass now, but I'm going to save that for next time, like you said. So what's your secret?" He thought about it as he watched her looking up at him suckling so slowly. "I think it's rude to go to sleep like that. If I'm doing this with somebody as incredible as you, I want to stay awake as long as you do, but ... "He sighed, "I've never been with anyone like you, Aurora. I've always had more to give, but, well, nobody wanted it. They got what they thought was enough and then I couldn't sleep, though they did, every time." "Well that's not going to happen to you again," she said as she stroked him, "I don't care who falls asleep first, as long as we try for each other." She stopped then, staring at him. "Do you think that we could get along in everything else if we're this good for each other in bed? I'm serious, Will. I guess that I'm saying that I'll do my very best if you will. There's all kinds of stupid things to fight over, but I don't ever want to argue with you because I know that you'd just let me have my way because you don't want to fight and where the hell is the satisfaction in that? I know that you'd do that too." She went back to it, sucking and licking as he thought about it. "I don't think that I could bear to lose you after this," he said, "I've never known anyone like you and that was before tonight. You know I'd do my best to get along." He smirked, "I have to, I think. I don't want this to ever stop. I'm annoyed that I'll have to even sleep tonight, but I will if you want to do something like this again tomorrow with me." Aurora lifted her head and crawled farther onto the bed beside him. "What do you mean 'if'? We're doing this, Will, because it's awesome and perfect, and - " "And there's nothing good on TV tomorrow since it's a holiday," he offered. "Yeah, that too," she said. "Besides, you'll get bored at how I'm going to say stupid sappy things to you all day if we don't, so you'd better just let me show you how I feel instead, it's way more fun. In fact, I feel some of that coming on right now, so why don't you just come here, baby. Let's screw real slow and talk until we can't anymore." When they'd started, she reached up and pushed his hair behind his ear. "Oh I will want this tomorrow, trust me. Now that I've got you, I've got somebody to give a damn about. I don't know about a whole ton of things in my life right now, but I know one thing. I'd do anything for you, Will, and not just because of this. We'll have to see how it goes obviously, but unless I scream at you that it's over..." she rolled her eyes, "as if THAT'S going to happen, -" "Why wouldn't it happen?" "Because, Will, I love you to death, and you love me the same way, and we can fuck each other into happy puddles. There is no more than that. Billions of people never get a sniff of the place where we are right now. They hump each other and groan and then roll over. But we're lucky enough to have each other now, that's why." She kissed him, "I'm not as dumb as I look either, so unless it all goes south in a huge way, and I'm going to do my best -- just like you -- to make sure that never happens, I'm telling you now. Whenever you're ready, just say the word, and I'll marry you. Don't you even worry yourself over what I'd say. You just ask and we'll do it. Ok?" She stretched her arms over her head and then put them back on his shoulders, luxuriating in the feeling. "How about next week?" he asked. Aurora didn't blink. She just sighed. "Sure, baby. I'd hope that you're really kidding, but if you're not, I'll marry you next week. I'd marry you tonight, but there's no way I'm going to get out of this bed here with you for anything now." She felt him swell inside her and grinned, "Lift yourself just a little so I can get my legs up and around you better." She groaned, "This is wonderful, Will. But tomorrow, I really do want to try it with you in my butt if we can." "You know that might not be all that easy, and I'd never want to hurt you," he said. "It might not be, "she smirked, "but I doubt that it's impossible. I told you that I've experimented alone before. I know that's not exactly the same thing, but beside my little rocket, I've got a half a gallon of lube in my bag too - the industrial size," she winked at him. " "And sometime in there, I'm going to insist on the Will Schaeffer patented, super-duper, tilt-a-whirl flying fuck. Do you think you could do that for me?" He chuckled, "Super tilt-a-what?" Aurora rolled her eyes and began to recite it again looking like a teacher who was patiently explaining a simple concept to her thick-headed pupil for the hundredth time, "The Will Schaeffer patented, super-duper, tilt-a-whirl flying fuck," she said, "I don't know why you'd find that hard to remember." "I think it got in the way of the Super-lubed, hydro - vibro spit-polishing Aurora horny something or other that I'm trying to think up for you tomorrow as well," he smiled evilly. Aurora gave him a dismissive smirk, "Oh shut up, baby and poke me a little faster, wouldja?" She chuckled softly as she buried her face under his chin, "God I love you so." ------------------------------- He awoke and looked at the ceiling. The only dim light in the room came from his alarm clock. It only took him a second to feel her gaze on him, and he turned his head to look over at her. He found her lying on her side, staring at him with a soft smile and she noted the question in his eyes. "I'm just happy, that's all. For the first time in so long, I'm not worried about anything at all. This has to be right, Will. I feel like I belong somewhere - to somebody. Does that make any sense, baby?" Will nodded, "It does. I can feel it. But I can't take much more of being so far away from you. There must be almost a foot between us here." She chuckled quietly as she came to him, "I was watching you for maybe five minutes, and I felt like my life depended on holding you in the next few seconds. Thanks for waking up." He held her to him and smiled, "Thanks for having such irrational fears. You don't ever have to wait for me the next time, just come on over." Rocket Girl Ch. 05 This is the final chapter of Rocket Girl. So if you're ready, let's get to the happy ending, shall we? ------------- Aurora awoke first and spent a little time watching her new man sleep. At one point she felt as though she could almost begin to cry. She was so happy. She didn't know where this would end up, but she'd been serious the night before. Despite the joking between them, she knew that Will had meant it every bit as much as she had. That was what was really hitting her so hard this morning. He'd meant it. He'd meant everything that he'd done from the softest kiss to his suggestion that they get married next week, though that was impractical. This still felt so right between them, and before they'd gone to sleep, they'd both admitted that what she'd suggested to him had worked. They really could just start. No missed chances or misconstrued glances for them. No false starts, no pressure, just one big-assed on-ramp in front of them. She got out of bed carefully and pulled on Will's T-shirt, just to have something that had a bit of his scent right next to her skin. She smiled to herself, thinking that she could use it to sleep in, but almost laughed at the thought. It would do for now. She padded up the stairs to the kitchen in bare feet. Aurora was reaching for the kettle to fill it when she noticed that it was already hot, and turned to find Leona smiling at her from her seat by the window at the other end of the kitchen. "That's a really good look for you, Aurora," she grinned, "long hair free and bare-ass naked under that stupid shirt of Will's. You're looking a little um, well-loved this morning, I have to say. I'd ask if it went well. but I heard it last night anyway." She got up and walked over, "Here, you sit down and I'll make you your coffee. You've got to keep up your strength," she laughed. Aurora didn't know whether to feel embarrassed or not, but before she could decide, Leona's hand was on her shoulder. "Come on," she said, "It's me here, your biggest well-wisher. Don't even think about feeling bad. Will's had to listen to Paco and me for years. Besides, I ought to be thanking you. When you screamed out his name that time so loudly, well, I mean the loudest time, Paco and I just looked at each other and began it ourselves. You don't have to say anything, honey, it's written all over your face and I'm so happy for you guys." As they sat by the window together, Aurora struggled with something, but Leona finally got it out of her and grinned. "Anyway," Aurora said, "I joked to Will that I had a big can of lube in my purse, but I really don't." "Don't sweat it, Aurora, I've got you covered. It's not exactly a foreign concept to me, and I've got a new tube that you can have for later today." Her friend's expression made her laugh quietly for a few moments. "Well, Steph and Jimmy are headed out to visit her mom and Paco and I are going to drop by your place to try to unruffle a few feathers today, so you'll have the house to yourselves all afternoon. By the way, is there anything that you need from home for the next few days? I figure that you're not going home for a little while at least, unless you can fit Will into your purse." "Not all that much," Aurora said, "other than a couple of pairs of panties, maybe. I wasn't exactly planning our little romp yesterday, and I soaked mine. I'll wash them in the sink in his bathroom, but I've got nothing else until they dry." "I've got some that I picked up last week and we're the same size for sure," Leona smiled, "Could there be anyone more in your corner?" she laughed at herself, "And anyway, it's about time that Will learns about the dreaded underwear in the bathroom thing. Paco used to grumble about it until I told him that it was his fault they were there, mostly." They chatted their way through the first cup of coffee, and by the time the kettle clicked off for the next round, Will came stumbling up the stairs wearing only his jeans. He looked just a little worse for wear, but not by much. He ran his fingers through his hair, but he'd forgotten to do much more with his pants than pull up the zipper and the motion caused the jeans to slip down an inch. He squinted out of the side window of the kitchen, muttering something to himself about how everyone had the wrong idea about robins being chipper. He knew them to be loud-mouthed bastards, he grumbled, who loved to sit outside his window and scream at him while he was trying to sleep. He'd never figure out why there wasn't open season declared on them, he said. But all of that changed when he heard Aurora's soft laughter. He turned to them and smiled sheepishly as he ran the fingers of one hand through his hair again. "I'll need to make a doctor's appointment," Aurora said, "Something's gotta be wrong with me, Leona, I got out of a bed with that in it." Leona chuckled, "I'm warning you right now. Watch out for when he's feeling a little embarrassed, like he's done some small thing wrong that he ought to have known better about. Like he'll need to be told ten thousand times about putting down the toilet seat. He doesn't even mean to be selfish about it, he's just thinking about important things like food and then he forgets. You'll want to hit him, but he'll toss you that little boy smile because he's genuinely sorry, and then you just can't stay mad at him." "I already had my first lesson," Aurora laughed. "He left me about an inch of space between me and the edge of the bed. I wanted to wake him up and ask him to push over a little, but he had this smile like an angel, and I just didn't have the heart." "I've got the answer to that one, "Leona smiled, "I used to have the same problem, but then I just started sleeping right ON Paco. You put your weight on the right spot, and he'll have to get up to pee and then you stake out your rightful claim to your half of the bed. It only doesn't work well if it's really hot and you don't have AC. Sometimes it makes them wake up and try to get you in the mood for some more fun. I've never minded that. You might want to file that away for later." Will had seen their mugs by then and made them all coffee. "If you guys have about had your fun with me..." He got their mugs sorted out as to who had which one, but turned when Aurora pulled his hand. "Come here, Will. We're just having some fun and I want to fix your pants." She sat and grinned up at him as she ran her hands over his chest for a moment before reaching for his jeans, "Ok, help me if it looks like I'm about to do what I really want to do here, Leona." "No freakin' way," Leona grinned with mock interest, "You're on your own here. I never got much of a chance with that. So pardon me, Aurora, but you might say that I've got an interest in you getting it wrong. I'm banking on 'down', just so you know." Aurora tugged his pants up a little and did up his button. Will beamed at her, "Thanks, Mom!" "Now remember while you're at school today, play nice and share your t-" Aurora stopped, giggling, "What am I saying?" Leona couldn't speak for a minute from her laughter. Finally, he sat down and hugged Aurora after kissing her. "Hey, want to go for a ride this morning?" Leona put her face down on her arm as she laughed. Will shot her a dry look, "Involving motorcycles." "Sure, baby," Aurora grinned. "Don't be too long coming back," Leona sat up, wiping her laughing tears away with the heel of her hands, "It'll be just you guys here, unless you get lost. Paco and I are going to visit Aurora's parents. Just a family thing to calm the waters and maybe do a little prep work for you guys behind the scenes since they'll all be meeting you someday, and if little Leona does this right, everything will work out and settle down." She looked at Will, "They are an awesome family, and I'd hate to see this turn into a big rift. Besides, if I can manage it, they'll tell Aurora to bring you along to the biggest, most wonderful family barbecue you could ever imagine in a couple of weeks. Food like you've never seen, and you can just spend time walking around just listening to the music, because like, every fifth person will bring a guitar or something. It's really wonderful, Will. It goes on for like two days. Spanish music everywhere and I don't think she's told you, but Aurora is one fantastic flamenco dancer." "Really?" Will turned to look at his girl, "I'd love to see that." "Oh, you will," Leona smiled, "I don't think we'll have any trouble fixing this, and there'll be two of your very favorite things in the whole world there -- Aurora and --" "Food!" Aurora laughed, rolling her eyes. "Hey," Will said thoughtfully, "I've never asked, and I guess that shows the kind of lout that I am underneath, but what do you do, honey? I mean at where you work." "I manage an office for a large travel company," she said, "And I hope that you've got some vacation time coming up, 'cause you and me, baby, we're going places." They sat in the kitchen enjoying the morning with Leona as the sun streamed in the window. Leona studied their faces for a minute and then sat back with a satisfied look. Aurora smiled back at her, but Will was curious. He asked, "I had the feeling from talking with you and the feeling I got from Aurora that I might have had the least vote in the start of this. Not that I mind, if it had been up to me, it would never have happened, since I'm so slow and all." "We know," Aurora said smiling. Leona said, "Women just know these things and can feel the undercurrents far more easily than most men - and you? Aurora could have hired skywriters and stood under a big flashing 'I LOVE YOU, WILL' heart-shaped sign and you wouldn't have gotten it. You're a hell of a guy, and I have no doubt that you can move mountains, but for this, you're thick as a post." She smiled, looking out the window at a pair of sparrows, "When I was thirteen, I was so in love with you, Will. And you know, at that age, there's nothing more important than that to a girl. I was happy - until I met Paco through you. Then I was as confused as anything. If you remember that summer, my family went to visit my grandparents. My grandmother was and still is very much an old fashioned Gitano fortune teller. One day, she looked at me as we walked to a meadow with some lemonade, and then she told me to tell her my troubles. I hadn't said anything to her, but she's always just known these things." "Anyway, I told her that I was torn, that I loved you very much - as only a thirteen year old girl can - but that I'd met Paco and felt drawn to him somehow. Most people in their fifties listening to that would have just shrugged and mumbled something about kids. But she didn't. She stopped me and told me to think of Paco for a minute, and then she said that we were very young, but that I'd met the one for me in him. I even knew that she was right. She told me that there is always someone for each of us, and sometimes more than one. She told me that as adults, either of my boyfriends would have worked well for my heart and theirs, but that Paco was the true one for my heart. It had just happened that I'd met him so early. She told me to hang onto him for our lifetime," she smiled, "and so that's what I'm still doing." "My grandmother said that sometimes we can even see the one for us coming to us, if we know the old ways. She taught me and to no one's surprise, it was Paco for me, as plain as day. I asked her if this was normal, and she just said 'This is almost normal for us, Leona. Never forget who you are - what you are.' Then she told me her own story." ------------- He was dog-tired, soaked right through and frozen in the cold wind. But he was determined to know, and he was scared to death. Those things alone kept him in the saddle. Down the road, a raccoon was about to leave the tall weeds at the side of the road to cross. She hesitated, listening. The rain poured down everywhere this awful night, and the wind almost screamed at times. But she'd counted on that tonight. It made being seen less likely as she'd foraged in the back of the kitchen tent that she liked to frequent. She'd just stepped out from cover when she was blinded by the huge eye of the roaring beast, and turned to run for her life. She didn't stop until she was sixty feet from the road and halfway up the first climbable tree that she found. Ramon hadn't seen anything. He was listening to the roar and kept the throttle open as wide as he dared, watchful only for the road conditions in case they worsened, and for the turns that he'd have to make tonight. He'd woken from a dead sleep two nights before because he'd heard his wife cry out to him, and he hadn't really slept since. He'd been working at any job that he could get, and sending as much as he could back home to buy Rosalinda and their young daughter the fare to come to live with him here in this land of promise. He grimaced, most of the promises that he'd heard had been empty ones so far. Her last letter told him that they were just leaving for Madrid, and it gave the name of the ship that they'd be coming on. From there, it was a long train ride to his arms, she'd written. The morning after he'd heard her he was on his way to work when he'd caught a look at the headline of the newspaper in the hand of a boy who was selling them. What he'd seen in one quick glimpse on the front page of the paper would have driven him to his knees if he were on foot. Ramon could read English fairly well, but didn't normally buy newspapers - he saved every penny he could. His only expenses so far had been a little now and then for food and clothing, and the cost and fuel for his motorcycle. He'd bought it used, an old pre-war model Harley-Davidson, but it sure helped him in his search for the better job that seemed to always be just out of his reach. It kept him mobile, and he didn't mind the lack of a roof. None of the cars that he'd seen for his money looked like they could make it out of the county. He pulled over and ran back. After fishing in his pocket, he bought a copy and tried to read the text, but was too upset to make much sense out of it. He got back on his bike and went to work with a sense of foreboding. When he got there, he was still early, so he went to see his foreman. He found him reading the same paper that he'd brought along. With a fair bit of humility, he apologized for the interruption, but wondered if he could get something straight about the story in the paper. His boss's explanation did little to ease Ramon's concern. "Look. Ramon," the man said, "we don't have much time, but I can see you're having trouble understanding me here, and you're upset. Go see Juan over by the forming presses, he can translate for you. I'll allow you to come back five minutes late, since you were ahead so much when we stopped last night." Ramon thanked him, and ran off. Juan translated the story in the paper, telling Ramon how the French liner had left the Spanish port, but had been torpedoed and then sunk by a British submarine that had mistaken it for an old liner that was often used to refuel German U-boat packs. Ramon asked about the name of the ship to be certain and then asked if there had been any survivors. Juan shook his head, saying that from the story, the liner had been found stationary and was hit by four torpedoes, and that had broken the ship's back. It sunk below the waves within two minutes. Ramon felt as though he'd been hit with a hammer. Juan asked why he wanted to know, and Ramon had explained in a hollow voice. They talked for a couple of minutes, trying to come up with ways to determine for certain whether Ramon' family had been on board. Both were from small villages where there were no telephones, except for maybe at the police station and even then, the odds of even making a call back home in wartime... and the cost. Juan had an idea. He wouldn't have mentioned it to anyone but a countryman from the same kind of place where he'd come from. "I know of a Gitano woman, east of here. She might be able to help you. But you will need money, my friend." He told Ramon that he'd bring a map the next day. Ramon thanked him and walked back to his department to begin his shift. Juan was as good as his word, and provided Ramon with a hand-drawn map. The place was a hundred miles to the east, and more like a hundred and fifty if you took the bends and switchbacks into account. Ramon booked his one week of vacation for the next week in case he had trouble finding the woman, took his pay and left right after work in the driving rain. --------------- Two months before, Lola Montoya had gotten her few stringy cattle fed and collected a few eggs from her hens. She walked mechanically to her little house. She felt the need to do a few things at once. She wanted to laugh, but had no reason for it, and so she didn't. She wanted to cry again, but that was about all that she ever did lately. She looked at the small pistol that her brother had left her. She kept it mostly as a reminder of him, but it also had its use for her protection, she thought. But lately she'd begun to think of another last use that she might have for it. That use might well come soon, she was running out of reasons not to. They'd come ten years before, her father wanting to get away from the stigma that had dogged them here in this new land. As a people, they were Iberian Kale, and together they were proud of their origins and the fact that almost no one understood those same origins. They had other names, in Andalusia where they'd come here from, they were called Gitanos. Here, everybody just called them Gypsies, and they said it as though they were spitting. Her mother had taken sick in an influenza outbreak and died. Gitanos usually marry for love alone and their marriages last forever, through anything - that had always been their way. Her death had pretty much spelled the end for her father, but it had taken four years of very hard drinking to do it. Her brother had gone to find work, but that was two years ago now, and she doubted if she'd ever see him again. That had left her here on her own. She'd had to sell herself sometimes for a bit of money. She hated to do it, and had wept for a week after the first time. Among her people, virginity was paramount to a groom - to everyone. Well, she doubted that a fine Gitano man was about to come over the hill for her, and even if one did, he'd have found her dead of starvation. Besides her brother, she'd never even seen one here. She'd used the money she'd saved to buy a cow. It hadn't looked that good, but she'd gotten a good price because of it - and she sensed that it was pregnant. So that gave her a cow and a young bull. The chickens and rooster, she'd just stolen. She'd sold some eggs and a few fortunes and if she had enough left over, she bought herself a bottle. She was careful to stretch it, and wanted to avoid what had killed her father. That just wasn't the way that she wanted to go, and it cost too much as well. But she knew that if she ever reached the point that she'd use the pistol, she would pour the liquor around the place and light her own pyre before she did it. One fitful stormy night not long after, she'd sat by candlelight and sipped slowly as she laid out her cards for herself. The question in her mind was a delicate one. She wanted a clue to her life and its future. If it came up as more of the same, well, she had her pistol and just needed the courage to finish this. There were all kinds of reasons in her religion not to think this way, and maybe she'd find the strength to go on, but she doubted it somehow. She considered each card as it was turned, but purposely ignored what might be spelled out until the end. When the last card was turned, she poured herself a second small drink and sipped as she looked. What she saw made her put down the glass and stare. She ran through the shack to find a pencil, and made notes. Then she shuffled and laid them out again. The messages were very similar. The third time is charmed they say, and it read the same. Lola tried other methods of divination that she'd learned from her parents. That night, nothing failed her, and at last she felt some hope for herself and wept a little. She'd been waiting since then. What was the worry for her was that she'd seen that there would be pain in the cards, but she didn't know what that meant yet. Rocket Girl Ch. 05 Ramon was about to fall off his motorcycle from cold and fatigue. He stopped and stared at his wet map and the road ahead. His body shuddered violently with its involuntary attempts to shiver and that made things more difficult along with how his numb hands wouldn't work. Folding the map as carefully as he could, he turned the handlebars to swing the headlight in the rain, and just caught sight of the thin wagon ruts in the weeds that had been indicated on his map. He doubted if he could even get the bike through the mud here. Lola had almost gone to bed but for the thunder that shook the house. She sat staring into the candle praying and calling to the one whose coming she'd seen. She'd been fairly certain that it would happen either this night or the next, but didn't know why. It would happen within the waxing of this moon - that was all that she knew. Above the clouds and the crashing storm, the moon was full. She was mesmerized as she sat, and had begun to think that her mind was sending sounds to her ears. And then she saw a light over the hill, one light attached to that sound, and it was winding its slow, tortured way up the hill through the ruts. She got up to light her oil lamp. Ramon had gotten to the top of the hill, but what hill was it? He wasn't sure of anything anymore, but there was a house, so he motored over to it slowly, and pulled up under the overhang of the eaves. He shut off the bike and tried to get off. It took him several tries, but he managed it and even got the thing onto its stand without them both falling over. He felt nothing at all of his body. All that he felt was cold all through him. He hoped it wouldn't feel this way to be dead. The rain teemed down even harder, but he was past feeling anything now but cold. He didn't think that he could get up the three steps, they might as well have been the Pyrenees mountain range. The next thing her knew he was looking at the door. He raised his hand to knock. Lola heard the machine under the eaves in front of her house. She listened to the loping sound as it idled there for several minutes until it finally stopped. There were dull footfalls up the short stairs and then nothing. She was quite frightened, despite her trust in the cards. Her right hand was in the large, deep pocket of her peasant dress, clutching her brother's pistol as she opened the door with her left. She saw the shape of a man just as the lightning flared close by and thunder boomed. She suppressed a scream, but then managed, "Yes?" The whole front of the house was in the cloud of steam from the cold damp air on the hot machine out there. Ramon had seen her face in the lightning flash. The thought came to him that such beauty couldn't possibly be found growing wild in a miserable place such as this land of empty promises. He found that his English failed him. He'd need a working brain to be able to manage his broken English. All that would work was his Andalusian Spanish. "Habla Espanol?" "Si Senor," the apparition said, nodding earnestly. He thought that if he wasn't dead, he might be pleased. "Montoya? Lola Montoya?" Even Spanish was failing now, he thought. She nodded and he fell into darkness. --------------- Lola stared at the wet form on her floor. She didn't know what to do, really. But there seemed to be only one thing to do, no matter how she looked at it. She doubted that she could have gotten him to her bed even if he was conscious and helping. He was too weak from cold, and he was unconscious. Moving him like this? It just wasn't possible. She set her lamp on a table, got all the bedding that she could find, and laid it out on the floor. Then she stripped all of his wet clothes off. After a minute, she smirked. All of his wet clothes were all of his clothes. She felt his skin and wondered how to get him warm. He'd need some warmth pretty quickly. It took a bit, but she rolled him back and got some blankets under him, and then repeated the process until he was covered. Then she began to make a big pot of soup. If he made it through this, he'd need plenty of it. Then she lit some candles and turned out the lamp to save oil. She checked on him again. She was dismayed to find that he was still icy to the touch. Now she was afraid that he might die. She thought about a lot of things in a short time, and decided that if this man was the one, then it was up to her to help him somehow. She took off her clothes and though it was difficult for her for a lot of reasons, she stretched herself out on top of him, and pulled the covers over them both. It was like lying on a corpse, she thought, and then pushed that thinking away as far as she could, hoping that it wasn't what she'd find beneath her in the morning. After a while, Lola took the time to look at him in the dim flickering light as the rain kept up its incessant hiss. She was freezing herself now. She was sure that he was breathing. She must have checked a dozen times, but even with her weight on him, she heard and felt his shallow breath. He was in his late twenties, and might maybe be as old as thirty-two, she decided. She hoped that he didn't die - for a lot of reasons. She had no idea how she'd bury him, for one. For another, she felt in a way that she'd been given someone for herself in him - she just hoped that worked somehow, because if not, she was back to wishing she had the strength to use that pistol. Lastly and to her importantly, she found that she liked him, and that made the warming of him easier for her. She just hoped that he was like what she saw in him and fervently prayed that he would like her. She felt that he was not a cruel man, and from his face she knew that he smiled often, and she liked that. His body told her that he was very strong, and she felt in her mind that he was a caring man who had not felt happiness for a time, but was not haunted by anything. Yet. She would know more if he lived and the reason for his trip became clear. What bothered her was her sense that he was not... connected to someone, and this might also have a reason in his questions later, because she'd seen his ring. But the message to her so long ago now was clear - this one was for her. That changed a lot of things for Lola. She ran her fingers through his wet hair, and her thumb along the ridge of his ear. Then she touched his mustache for a full minute before finally giving in to her urge. She kissed him softly a few times, and began to speak to him quietly. It was mostly nonsense, but it made her feel better. An hour later, she ran her fingers through his hair again, and smiled. He felt a bit warm now. Lola did her best to hug him, and she kept up her soft chatter the rest of the night. In the morning, she left him for brief periods to check on her animals and the soup. As soon as she could, she was happy to feel her skin on his as she talked and sometimes kissed him softly. Late that evening, he opened his eyes. Lola said a silent prayer that he could be kept here by the love and concern that she was beginning to feel for him. He was feverish now, but Lola did her best to answer the weak questions that his wandering mind could get past his lips. He often drifted off to sleep in the middle of a sentence, but Lola didn't mind now, she was happy that he'd come back this far. She was surprised that he was gone again, and yet she'd felt his body stir beneath her. After a bit of a debate with herself, she did what she thought the strange situation called for, and it didn't seem strange to her at all. She knew that he was too weak from how bone-cold he'd been to even stand, but if this could be done, then his heart would have to work at pushing his blood around, and that would warm him more. She smiled very shyly to herself. It was her first attempt to claim him for herself, and - she admitted it - she hoped to set her hook in him in this way. She only hoped that her poor charms were sufficient. His eyes opened a bit as he watched her above him, "What are you doing?" She answered his weak question with a light kiss, "Shh, Senor. I am doing what I think we both need for me to do. There is no one here to see. Do you know your family name, Senor Ramon?" He nodded, "I am Ramon Reyes. Are you an angel that you know my name, Senora?" It made her smile, "Perhaps I am, Ramon. And perhaps I am only your angel. Is that good enough?" He nodded, "Do you have a name, angel?" She smiled, "You have forgotten it, but you told it to me yourself. I am called Lola. We can talk of it later, no? Right now, I want very much for you to get better." "You are Lola Montoya?" She nodded, "I am." It was almost noon when he was able to sit up and she fed him the soup. He learned that he had found the right place somehow in the terrible storm. He told her of his search for her, and marveled that she didn't seem surprised. He asked her about it. Lola smiled, and he found that he liked it when she did, but her answer troubled him, though at the same time, it spoke of her ability. "I knew that you would come here, Ramon. The only thing I did not know for certain was the night, but I knew that it would be during this moon's waxing. I know some other things, but perhaps they would be best saved for later. I know that you are here to learn something. Can you tell me of it?" He surprised her when he explained how he had gotten her name and then told her why he'd come, and what he ached to know. He offered her the money that he had in the saddlebag of his motorcycle. Lola listened. She already knew how much he had since she'd looked for herself as he'd slept. As destitute as she was, she'd squeezed her eyes shut and closed the cover again. "Ramon," she said, "If you can wait only one day more, I will do my very best for you. I am tired myself now and would not trust the answers that I might find. Do not bother yourself about the money, Ramon. I need money, it must be obvious, but for this - for you? I want nothing but the smallest money that you have. It will not work without some money. Only let me rest a little, and if it is not too much to ask of you, could you please hold me for a while?" He held her to him and wondered at her smile as she slept in his arms. She still looked like an angel to him, and he thought that she really must be one, the way that she seemed to feel no shame in her nakedness with him here. He admired her throat and her face, her shoulders - all that he could see of her. To him, she was surely a heavenly thing. She seemed to sleep with the pure and simple trust of a child, and so he concluded that if she was no angel, then she must be the earthbound equivalent - whatever that was. He knew that he was ill, and why. He still felt driven to know. But he knew that he'd come here on the last reserves of his strength - and when that had failed him, she'd done her best to care for him, and given everything to do it, he remembered. Yet she'd asked for a minimum of money. It was difficult for him to comprehend. It was also difficult to bend his head down to kiss her softly, but he managed it a very few times before wrapping her up in his arms and the covers as he slowly repositioned himself to hold her while lying down. He was determined to let her sleep as much as she needed. ---------------- That evening, they ate the last of her soup, and she began. Since he'd arrived and she'd cared for him, she'd fallen in love with him as if by magic. To make his blood move and to get some warmth into him, she'd lain with him, though he was far from her when she'd begun it, and she'd hoped desperately in her heart that he'd recover and stay with her. She didn't want the one-sided loving that she'd engaged in to be all that there could ever be between them. That would be such a cruel turn of her already sad life, to have lived here alone, had a man for a night or two and then to watch him ride off. If nothing else, she resolved that at least she'd had a man now, and it would make the use of her little pistol somewhat easier for there could be nothing after this final shame. So for all of this time, they'd lived on her floor in her blankets. He'd been too weak, even after gaining a bit of his strength to walk steadily. She'd had to help him to stand and hold him up when he'd needed to urinate outside, and she'd even had to help him with that, since he trembled too much in his fever. She'd had to leave him to look after her animals, but every time as soon as she could, she returned to him, took off her simple clothes against all of the ways of her people, and just held him to keep him warm and help his shuddering weakness. Lola was actually afraid of a few things. The pain that she'd learned would be in the cards made some sense to her now, but she did her best for him. What she learned surprised her, but she didn't think it would bring him much peace. At last, she looked at him. "Ramon, I have tried several ways and several times each way. At first I thought that there was a mistake in the name of the ship, but it is the one. It is sunk - that I know. I also know that none survived the sinking. What I want to know now - is this enough for you?" He looked sad, but shook his head, "No, Lola. I must know if my wife and child were on it. Please, Lola. I must know this." He watched a tear form in her eye and wondered about it. Lola sighed and began, "Before this sinking, Ramon, before this ship had left port. I was tired of being alone here. I began to hope that I would die soon. Look around you. My parents are dead, my brother gone. I have been here alone for two years. But I learned that one night - during this moon - a man would come to me to learn something. I asked the questions many, many ways, Ramon. Always I learned the same things, and one of them was your first name." She looked him in the eye, and he watched her tears run slowly. "I learned that the man who would come to me during this moon would want to know something from me, and that he is also the one for me. I know that you cannot believe it. Women who tell fortunes are famous for holding themselves as walking mysteries - knots of wisdom who cannot be unraveled. But I do not feel wise here with you now." She took her kerchief and wiped her eyes, "I have some knowledge for your question, Ramon. But either you will not believe me, thinking that I try to keep you here for me - and I do want for you to stay with me now very much, or you will believe me and still will not stay." She sobbed and looked down, "All that I knew in the beginning was that there was pain in the cards. I did not know that the pain would also bring my own sadness back to me." Lola drew a breath and looked up. "I know one name," she said, "Amaya. " Ramon hissed between his teeth, "Antonio Amaya. Yes, I know that name. He was a suitor while I courted Rosalinda. He comes from old money, he stinks of it, and always he tried to come between us, Rosalinda and I." Lola hung her head and wept hard. Ramon wondered at this for some minutes and waited for her to calm herself, but she didn't. She bent forward and touched her head to his crossed legs. She almost wailed in obvious grief. He reached out to her and stroked her bare shoulders and back, "Lola, I am only a simple man and do not understand many things, I admit it. But if you are not an angel, then you most certainly have been as one to me. I need to know what I came here to ask, but to see you like this... Why?" It took her some time, but she gained some control and began to speak haltingly. "Ramon, I learned that you would come, and that you are supposed to be mine - I have told you this to show that I am honest with you. I have already begun to love you in my poor way. I cannot lie to you and I never would, Ramon. But what I know of this here, ..." She raised herself to look at him, and what he saw tore at his chest to see it on her face. She sniffled, "One cannot ask the questions and only pick and choose from the answers that come. Most times, we hold back and do not tell it all. We let the one who questions find their own meanings. It is often better that way." She wiped her tears and her nose with her kerchief, "But I cannot do this for you, Ramon. It is the same about the money. You came with much to find your answer. I saw, but I did not touch it, though I am needy myself. For you, I must tell it all and hold nothing back, though it means that I will probably lose the one for me in the telling of it." She sobbed for herself a bit more, and then looked into his eyes, "This will hurt you to hear, Ramon - and I would never want to hurt you. Are you prepared for this?" Ramon was confused. He felt a lot for this one, he thought, this angel who had brought him back from a cold hell. But he needed to know the truth if she had it in her to tell him. "I sought out a Gitano because there is no other way for me to know here. I want to say to you that for what you have done for me - for what you are doing - I tell you that you have my trust, Lola." He smiled warmly, "It is said among us that one should never trust the words of a fortune teller fully. But like this and with what has happened between us, how could I not trust such a one as you?" He reached for her hands and held them gently. "If you say that there will be pain, Senora, then I remind you that I came here already in pain to learn if there was a hope. But I have already prepared myself for the worst. I must know this. I am ready." Lola sobbed and looked at him with pity in her eyes. She shook her head and whispered, "Not for this, Ramon." She hoped that he didn't do anything unthinking in his pain, and closed her eyes, praying for his poor heart for all that she was worth for one last moment. And then she said it in the same whispered voice, "Jesus, Mary and all of the saints forgive me for what I say to you now. I believe that you did hear her call to you. Rosalinda Reyes was on the ship, along with the child Isabella. Rosalinda was with this man, Amaya. It feels strongly to me that she never planned to come to you here. They had planned to land in New York and travel by train to Los Angeles to live there together. And perhaps the worst for you comes now, Ramon. Isabella was not your daughter. She was fathered by Amaya." She watched the effect that her words had on him. His face opened with the shock of it, and then he began to quietly cry. Lola wanted to tear her hair out for what she'd said. She would have done anything to have made this better for him. But there was nothing that she could do. She leaned forward to raise herself to her knees and she hugged his head to her as they wept. The pain of a husband is one thing, and the pain of a father is another. The pain of both combined can tear a man apart. But this? She had no words for it and no idea what else to do other than what she felt that she had to do. Ramon wept for most of the night. Lola held him, only letting him go when he sunk lower in his grief, before holding him tightly once more. Toward morning, he still wept, but she began gently to love him. It was the only thing that she felt that she could do for him. She chattered softly to him all over again, but now she was telling him in a small voice how she loved him in between her soft kisses. At first, only his manhood listened to her - the rest of him was passive. But as the sun rose over the mountains, she found that she was no longer the only one of them giving to the other. Her soft cry in the dim light signaled the very first orgasm that she'd ever experienced in the arms of a very thankful man who loved her. ----------------- Ramon awoke from a beam of sunlight in his eyes. He turned his head away, and found that he was alone in their nest of blankets on the floor. His heart was still hurting him and he felt sadness, but he knew that it was no longer completely broken. Rocket Girl Ch. 05 He smelled coffee, and found the pot with two tin cups, one of them still with some drops in it. The coffee tasted thin to him, no doubt because she was using it sparingly to make what little she had last. He looked out toward the stream, and saw Lola doing something there, but he couldn't see what it was for the vegetation. He looked again at the coffee in his cup. He decided something, or rather, he finished deciding something then. This was no way to drink coffee, and he'd fix that. He looked for his clothes, but didn't see them. That was when he knew that Lola was doing the washing at the stream. He shrugged and walked out into the late morning sunshine wearing what he'd been born in. He parted the tall grasses which grew at the edge of the stream, and watched Lola for a time. She wore only a long flowing skirt, hitched up to her knees as she stood in the stream washing their clothes. She wore nothing from the waist up. He thought about her and what she had done for him. Then he thought about what she'd told him - that he was the one for her. He had no doubt of it now. She felt his gaze on her and stopped, turning to him with the soft angel's smile that had played such a part in bringing him back twice now. He smiled back at her. He was surprised that he could, and realized that he was totally smitten. Whatever the ways of her people were that stood them apart from his in the beginning, they had enabled her to know him before he'd come, and commit to him totally before he'd even opened his eyes or decided anything for himself. "Are you still my angel this morning, Lola? Do you try to tempt me now?" She laughed at him, "I am still your angel, Ramon, as much as I can be for you. And I am dressed now as I usually am to do the washing on a hot morning such as this. If it tempts you to want to help with the work, then it must be working well for me. When this is finished, we can play if you would like, I will not refuse you. You are for me, as I said, but also I am for you. Come on then and help me finish this chore." They buried most of his money under a corner of the house later. With what was left, Ramon took Lola for her first of countless rides on his motorcycle into the little town. He took her to a small diner, and watched in delight as she ate as much as she wanted, since she'd told him that she couldn't remember when she'd last had the option. They walked hand in hand around the little farmer's market in the square, and they bought food and a new blouse for Lola. Most important for Ramon, they bought coffee. They were in the dappled shade of a tree in the afternoon two days later. Ramon ran his fingers down her back to watch her shiver and sigh, "What is it that you would want, Lola, for your life's wish?" She kissed his throat before taking some of the flesh of his pectoral muscle in her teeth to nip him gently. She sighed, "For my life, Ramon, I think I already have what I would ever want if I never lose you." He chuckled, "I wonder now which one you are, an angel or a witch, for I feel myself bewitched by you, and I am thankful for that - and you should not fear, you will never lose me." Lola laughed, softly, "Bewitched?" She raised her head to look at him, "I bewitched you, Ramon? I must tell you that you have your enchantment on me as well. I am now only content if you are touching me. The spell may last if you are not, but still I feel the little ache if I cannot feel you against me." She smiled warmly, "But the sun shines for me if you are close enough to reach out and only touch me and even better still if I have you in my arms and inside of me as soon as possible after that, my love." "I think that I am the one who is bewitched, and you know that it is said that if you make a change by sending out your desire for something to happen for good or bad, then that is what comes back to you, but grown by a measure of three. To bewitch someone's heart is a serious thing, Ramon, for it creates a need to feel complete." She smiled as she laid her head down and licked his nipple softly for a moment, "I am only complete when your arms are around me." He touched her long dark hair and decided that his angel Lola was surely the most beautiful woman on the whole of the earth and while he wasn't absolutely certain, he was certain enough to know that if he felt any more for her, that his poor heart would surely burst."You did not answer me, Lola. What would you want?" "Nothing more than what we have, Ramon," she kissed him, "but if you must know the dream of the girl that I was, I would tell you that I had a small horse before we left Spain, and I loved him so. My father sold everything we had to come here. I still miss riding, but I can ride with you on your motorcycle." It made her chuckle to feel him stir beneath her again. Lola brought her knees forward and raised herself, guiding his hardness into her as Ramon groaned. "I love this riding now, Ramon, the best of all. We never go anywhere, but I like the saddle very much." Ramon left for his job early in the evening on the Sunday. He worked all week, and brought his pay home to Lola every Friday evening. She would fuss all day to make him a king's dinner for when he came home, and he would refuse to touch a bite unless she ate it with him from the same plate in the same spot on her floor, in the same nest of blankets and naked together as they'd been then. The rest of the time, they joked that they were more civilized, but for the first night, they always enjoyed this and each one would tell the other of how the week had gone and how they'd missed this between them. When the snow began to fly, he bought a used pickup truck, and they continued their life and love together. After another year of it, Ramon quit his job and became a farmer as he had once been, one of the few in the area who always seemed to know what crop and how much to plant every year. As soon as they could manage it, Lola had a horse again. ------------------ "Sometime in the sixth year, my mother was born," Leona said, "the third daughter. And when she'd met and married my father, they took over the farm, where they still live with my grandparents. Paco and I always think of their love whenever things are hard for us, and it always makes everything all right then." She leaned over to Will and Aurora and softly kissed each face, "You want to know how I knew you were for each other? Women either choose or settle for their men. But it is not too unusual for women of our background to actively decide the men for ourselves. Aurora just knew it somehow, right?" Aurora nodded, smiling, "When I met you, we were chasing each other down a road, but I'd already been hunting for you - I just didn't know it, trying to learn from you, I thought. I didn't even know what you looked like under your helmet. When we had lunch, I already felt it in my new friend. But really, you're right Leona. I just knew. What I didn't know was what to do about it, and I was engaged with a wedding over the hill and coming to me quickly. I tried and tried to ignore the obvious just as you did." She looked at Will and kissed him, "I was going to yell and scream at Cesar once again for being an idiot as always. But I heard what you said that while the ring was there ..." "I didn't even think about it, I think the ring came off by itself," she laughed, "then I just hoped that you would hear my heart. I hoped that you might see me as more than a friend. I didn't even really know how you felt about me because you're hard to read sometimes. But I knew that you'd help me if you could with my problems, if nothing else. " "I knew I had to change my life right away, and I knew you had to be the one - if you had the same kind of feelings for me. I think it all came to me at once, really. Leona and I spoke of it in roundabout terms, but I already knew that I'd fallen for you. I just ached that you'd come to me last night, because I knew that if you did, then anything was possible for us. I'm very happy now and I know that you are too, so I think that we ought to never forget how it was before this. I don't ever want to go back to that place again. I like the sunny side of the street right here." "As for me," Leona laughed, "I am the third daughter of a third daughter. For me, it was as sure for you both as the sun coming up. I glared at him over this table after Paco came to tell us that the call had ended. If Will hadn't gotten the message in about another minute, Aurora, I would have walked him down the stairs and into the bedroom by the ear and presented him to you." "Wow," Will chuckled, "you were that sure?" They laughed together, but Leona was loudest. She was so happy for them, "Call it what you want, but for you two? I knew I wasn't wrong." She smiled, "Lola taught me well." ---------------- The End Rocket Girl "That's why I have a truck," he said, "I fall off too." He held the door open as she climbed up painfully. As they drove off, Aurora turned to Will, "Why did you pull over to get behind me last night?" He shrugged, "I kind of like your style - the way you ride. Like I think you've got something, but I wanted to tell if that's what I really saw earlier, or if it's just that male thing that was powering my eyeballs. Might sound weird, but I wanted to separate that out." She nodded, "I thought you were just checking me out. It's a problem for me, and that's why I like the backroads. I can just leave any flies that I pick up in the dust, mostly. That's also why I didn't go for the coffee. I thought you were just hanging back there to stare at my butt." She glanced over and saw his small smile. She laughed, "It WAS my ass, wasn't it?" "Some," Will grinned, "I won't lie to you, but you're also able to move around that bike better than I can on mine. I was trying to figure that out." She slapped his arm with a chuckle, "It was my ass." "Ow! Come on, Rocket Girl, I not dead, you know. Yes, I was looking at your butt, but I really was trying to see how you can move from side to side so easily." "Rocket Girl?" She looked at him quizzically. He nodded, "Rocket Girl. You sure can hustle along yourself down some asphalt. How come you hung on my tail before I pulled over to let you by?" Aurora's thin smile was back as she looked through the windshield, "Because I can't catch you, though I'm getting quicker, and mostly that's from tailing you from way back." Will looked over, "Mostly?" She nodded, "I'm not dead either." They passed smiles at each other as they went down the road. ----------------- Aurora and Will sat in the sandwich shop. He didn't seem to be full of himself, he was just friendly. When asked, he'd just shrugged, "I like to ride that way. It clears my head since I need to dismiss everything that might be rattling around in there." He smiled a bit sadly as he went on, "I know it can't last, though. One day, I'll either kill myself - which is no great loss for the planet - or the law will get me. I don't ride that hard often, mostly I tootle along like Grandad. Why do you do it, Aurora?" She thought about it, trying to come up with something that he might understand. Just one look at him had told her that they were from different backgrounds. Will watched her compose her thoughts and was actually a bit pleased since he could see that hers wouldn't be a flip, off the cuff line. "I've always been headstrong," she said, "ever since I can remember. My mother always said that I was a huge pain as a kid. If this were another continent and time, I'd be riding a high-priced horse on a large ranch, for sure. That's what my family always did back there then. It's freedom to me. You might not understand it, but I feel a lot of constraints and family pressure about how to act, even what to do sometimes. I rented the garage space because I've been getting a lot of noise from my family to settle down." She nodded once at him. "My riding is my freedom, the same as you I guess. I can just escape and forget it all." She grabbed a napkin and reached out to him, wiping at the corner of his forehead, "Hold still a second. There's a bit of grease or something... Ok." Will nodded, "Thanks. I can see what you're saying. YOU might not understand, but I can relate, and don't forget that I've known your cousin since we were maybe 12. Actually, Leona was my first girlfriend, but Paco stole her from me. I think we were 13 maybe, and they've been together all these years. It took me a while, but I've forgiven him for it." He smiled at the small joke. "Though I do get better kisses at Christmas and New Years from her than I get from Jimmy's wife Stephanie. Maybe that's why." He grinned. Aurora nodded, pleased that she'd gotten her point across. She was even more pleased as Will began to explain how he managed the right-handed multi-tasking thing when he downshifted under hard braking. They discussed what her bike would need to look better again, and Will said that he'd get some part numbers from a dealer that he knew, and could maybe get her a good price. She liked that Will seemed to be trying to make her friendship based on their common interest, so the conversation went to a lot of topics in no definite thread. At last, Aurora looked at him a bit wistfully. "I'm really happy that I got to meet you today. And thanks for sticking with my proper name. Not even my parents use it anymore. We'd better be getting back soon, though. Paco said he'd give me a ride home. I'm going out tonight for dinner with my fiance." The statement was the truth, but she'd also wanted to get her status across to him. Will nodded, "When's the big day?" "Less than three months," she said, "if he can get his head out of his ass and quit telling me what his wife is and isn't going to do. It's getting worse all the time and it doesn't seem to matter what I say. What's really upsetting is that in my family, everyone but Paco always takes his side," She looked out the window for a second and her next words were more to herself, but they made Will a bit sad, "I never knew that once I got to a certain age, the collar would get tighter. I thought it would be the other way around." She seemed to be a bit self-absorbed for a few seconds, so Will nudged her wrist slightly and she looked at him. "It happens to a lot of people, Aurora. I got to a point where I just couldn't take how I was such an obvious failure in my parent's eyes, so I left." He chuckled, "Then I found somebody and we lived together for a while before we were going to get married, but,..." He looked at her face and her eyebrows rose, indicating her silent 'but what?', so he continued. "Well, I learned something else then. I thought I knew about each and every one of my own character flaws, but I guess I'd been wrong. Ashley found several hundred others that I didn't even know about, and I decided that I have trouble with authority figures like wives." Aurora smiled, "Wives are authority figures?' He nodded, "Some are self-appointed, apparently. Anyway, you're all grown up and from what I can see, you have a job to pay for a bike, at least. So you don't have to live at home if you don't want to - and I know you're gonna feel stuck in those pressures again, but it's maybe time to think about that." He smiled warmly, "Listen, you've always been headstrong, you told me. Maybe it's time you were headstrong in a constructive way." Aurora smiled. She thought that he might just be the kind of friend she needed if he could see into and around her troubles like that. They left the sandwich shop and returned to the garage. The two of them laughed and joked as they finished his carbs together and to her it was fun and a bit educational. "Could we re-jet mine, too?" Will shrugged, "Was anything done when you had the header installed?" She shook her head, "I put it on myself, only a thousand klicks ago." "Then we're going to do it, Aurora. You know how to push your bike, and if you added a header, but didn't re-jet, you'll fry your exhaust valves. I'll explain it sometime if you can't sleep, but it is important to do, and right now you have an opportunity. We can work on that too." She left to get cleaned up, and told Will that she was glad to know him now. In the car with Paco, she told him how they'd gotten on, and he smiled, "I told you, hard-head, he's a great guy. You two have a lot in common, and if you start riding together, I'll have a little less to worry about since you'll look out for each other, though your guy might have a problem with it. Cesar might not ever get it, but you're as safe with Will as you are with me - as long as you're engaged, and maybe even if you're not." She looked at him, "Why is that, Paco? I didn't get that from him, not really. What I got is that he's a gentleman, but if I was single and not engaged like now, I'm telling you, cousin, he'd be in some trouble," she smiled. Paco thought about it, "It's none of my business, but I've known him a long time, you know? We're all getting a bit older and settling down some. He's not immature or anything, but he's always alone. I know he dates once in a while, but nothing ever comes of it. I got him together with a lady from where I work, and after he threatened to kill me if I ever did that again, they went out - twice. She adored him, but he just drifted away as usual." "Leona and Steph always joke that they love going grocery shopping with him. They say he wanders around lost and looking for what we need on his list, but they love watching some of the women there crank their heads around, or maybe plan to jump out at him from the frozen food section. They laugh their asses off watching it, but between us, we've all talked about him, and it makes us a little sad." At last, he just shrugged, "Anyway, I'm glad you guys get along. I thought you both could maybe use a new friend - and you couldn't find a better one." Aurora sat with her jaw in her lap, "You sneaky thing! You planned this?" He nodded guiltily, "Not a big devious thing, I just think you both need somebody with you when you ride, and neither of you fit with the regular 'coffee cup' racers. You needed a place to get your bike out of your dad's garage, and he needs somebody to ride with, just like you. I just thought that if I could get you together, you'd be pals - and I was right!" He seemed pleased with himself now. "Besides, none of us want to listen to him talk about riding anymore. That's your job now." ----------------- Will and Aurora became fast friends over the next three weeks. They were always hanging out in the garage at some point, and Will took her bike on as a personal project while his was down. Re-jetting her carbs was one of the first tasks after the damaged covers came off. Will didn't have one of the one-piece vacuum gauges - his was four individual gauges, each on a hose. "She looks like she's in intensive care like that. Will she live, Doctor?" Aurora looked at Will. "Looks more like a lab experiment to me," he said. "Ok, punch the starter, and we'll see if she lives again." It took a few cranks, and then one at a time, the cylinders lit off and the thing idled roughly. "There we go," he said, "running with all the precision and finesse of a disgruntled sow, but she's lit, and this is where we start." "She's not the only one." Aurora commented. Will looked at the gauges but caught the comment. He quickly adjusted the idle settings from one carb to another, and it smoothed out. He turned to her, and noted that her expression had lightened a bit from a few minutes before. He shut it off. "What's up?" She pursed her lips and blew softly, "I don't know how to say it. Uh, after this, can I talk to you? About guys?" He smiled, "I'd have thought that by now you'd have had us figured out, honey. We're rather simple creatures from the way that I hear most married women talk at work. Yeah sure, I guess. Light it off again and let's get this done. I want to turn her back into a cheetah. Sows fart too much." It took a while to synchronize all four carbs together over and over as each individual adjustment produced a small effect of how the whole thing ran. Each carb had three jets and the adjustments took a while At last, the bike ran contentedly. Will opened the garage doors to get some fresh air inside the large space, and they took out the ear plugs that he'd provided. "Hate to do that closed up," he said, "but when it's on the main jets even briefly like that - gotta think of the neighbors." He put his hand near the pipe opening and then brought it to his nose, sniffing. He did the same thing with it running quicker. Finally, he shut it down and ran a finger lightly inside the end. "What are you doing?" she asked. "Looking for this," he smiled, holding up the very slightly sooty finger, "I have it idling just a touch rich so it'll idle cooler, but not smoke. In traffic or running hard, it's perfect and won't do that." He walked to the old fridge and came back with a beer each for them, "Ok baby, what's bugging Rocket Girl today?" "My ownership I think," she said unhappily, "Cesar seems to think us getting married implies some kind of ownership or control. Are all guys like that?" He shrugged, "That's a whole, huge ball of tangled thread right there. Goes back as far as some idea of monogamy at least. The general answer is no - not today anymore, but it's something you have to work out with Cesar, baby." He looked at her over the end of his bottle, "I'd say you need to get it settled before the rice gets thrown, just sayin'." She nodded, "That part, I know. How do you feel about it?" "What, me personally? I don't know if that's really relevant to your situation, Aurora. If you mean how I'd feel if I were married, I'd say the girl can do what she wants, be what she wants - whatever. But the balancing act comes in if there's an effect on us. Like say if we were married, and you decided that you wanted to be the President or something. I'd be supportive and do what little I could to help, but I'd want some kind of vote too, because it would affect the relationship. But hey, if it could be managed so that we stayed together no matter what, well you just shine as brightly as you want or need to, I guess." "I'd be happy with the girl's heart and her love. I don't care if she runs XYZ Corporation in her spare time. I assume you're not running in the next election, though. Anyway, there's another nasty little thing in there, and it's a male thing. I don't give a rat's ass personally, but some guys want their women to, I dunno, not outshine them, I guess." He rolled his eyes. She smiled at him with a slightly playful expression, "Why wouldn't you care if the girl outshined you, as you said?" He smirked, "I don't know why some guys can't see this, but my self-image isn't tied to being better than my girl, or anybody else for that matter." He pointed down the driveway at his old truck, "Take a look at my chick machine there. Just think of how many girls there are who see me in that and instantly melt. I can tell you it's a round number." "I dunno," she said, "you seem pretty interesting to me. I'm kind of surprised that you're such a well-kept secret in this town." Will laughed, "Are you kidding? Exactly how many jealous women did you have to beat up or push out of the way to get into the garage here tonight to work on your bike with me? If I'm in a relationship, all I'd ever want is for everybody to be happy. I think that's the important thing - not that I'm exactly an expert - " He looked to the empty rafters and called out, "Right honey?" Looking back at Aurora, he smirked, "That's what I love about her - she let's me say or do anything I want." She smiled, "Who, Will? There's nobody here but us." "My girlfriend," he said smiling. "You don't have a -" "Exactly," he smiled, "It kind of sucks sometimes, but at least we never fight, and I save a ton at Christmas and birthdays and the dreaded anniversary." "I've got some single friends," she smiled evilly, "I could bring a couple over next time, and they can pull out their bachelor spears and try to nail you while you run around bleating for help." Will looked wounded and spoke in a sad little boy's voice, "Why would you do that? Friends aren't supposed to hurt each other. I thought you liked me." Aurora's heart melted, and she leaned over to him to kiss his forehead as she hugged him very briefly, "I wouldn't do that to you. Just promise me you'll never change, Will." He smirked, "Change? From what to what? I have enough trouble being me. I don't have the smarts to be any other way."