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Two Dashes of Mid-Summer - 7
by Endrael (endrael@yahoo.com)

***

Introductions are made: Mike introduces Sara to ice 
and an unexpected toy; Kim introduces her girlfriend 
Georgia to Mike and Sara. Along the way, a Halloween 
party happens. (MF, inc, bi, mast, bd, rom)

***

Part 7: Wearing Masks

Chapter 1

It turned out I was far too optimistic with how long 
it would take Sara and Kim to come to terms with 
Jen's bungled outing. Where before they'd been fine 
with sisterly affection, they stopped altogether the 
rest of the week, and even stopped talking at times, 
leaving me as go-between. They'd regained some of 
their normalcy by the next week, but were still put 
off on displaying affection with each other. I don't 
think I was much help, since I had my own 
preoccupations with what had happened. Not that I 
neglected them, but I know I wasn't as effective as a 
sounding board or source of comfort as I usually 
tried to be.

I spent lunch with Jen when I was able, which eased 
some of my concerns about her, but it didn't solve 
the problem of her and I needing to set time to talk. 
For the foreseeable future, that would have to wait 
until the worst of Sara's and Kim's reactions had 
settled. I wasn't pleased, but I knew it would take a 
lot more to wedge Jen and I apart, so I let it be and 
focused on Sara and Kim.

Despite the new stress, Kim was fully enthusiastic 
with pursuing Georgia, and, taking our advice, 
invited her for a weekend sleepover.

"Mr. Man!" Kim crowed into my ear. I'd called Sara 
and gotten her instead. "Come here! Come here! Come 
here! I want you to meet Georgia! She's staying the 
night again, and she stayed last night, too! Mom and 
dad really like her, and so does Sara, and I think 
you would, too, so I really, really, really want you 
here to meet her! Hurry hurry hurry! Ok, here's Sara! 
Buh-bye!"

"Holy crap," I laughed once Sara was on. "How much 
caffeine has she had today? I could feel her bouncing 
through the phone."

"I think she had some yesterday, but nothing today as 
far as I know." She paused briefly and continued in a 
lower voice. "Her bouncy doesn't normally bother me, 
but she's seriously getting on my nerves with it 
right now. I want you here, too, but more to save my 
sanity."

"I don't blame you. I'm on my way right now, 
actually, and pick up something to eat on the way. Do 
you want anything, love?"

She paused and I heard a door opening and then 
closing before she continued in her normal voice.

"No. We just had lunch, but I am in the mood for some 
chocolate for later. What's the plan?"

"I just wanted to see if you want to come over for 
the night. My parents are out, so we'd have the place 
to ourselves. I expect we'll be spending time hanging 
out with Kim and Georgia first, though, but do you 
want to?"

"I would love that. I haven't gotten off at all since 
Wednesday, so I'm horny as all hell right now and 
seriously needing some fun of my own. I feel like I'm 
leaving a puddle every time I sit down. I didn't 
expect you and Kim ganging up on me with the denial 
would be so... frustrating and delicious and wet. I 
hate you so much for it but god it's fun."

I laughed and said, "What's got you all hot and 
bothered? Other than the obvious."

"Kim and Georgia spent a few hours this morning 
locked in her room while mom and dad were out, and 
most of last night doing exactly the same thing, and 
oh my god Georgia sounds so fucking hot when she's 
getting some. I was too distracted listening to them 
to get much sleep, and I was seriously tempted to 
find a screwdriver so I could break in and join them, 
but there's that whole... you know, and Kim's said 
she hasn't told Georgia about that yet. She's still 
feeling her out on stuff like that."

"Yeah, and we don't need more complications right 
now."

"Tell me about it, but not until you're here. How 
long you going to be?"

"Fifteen, twenty minutes, maybe. Not too long."

"Alright. Bye, love."

Sara was the sort who didn't spend any more time on 
the phone than necessary, so I didn't bother with my 
own, since I'd just get a click halfway through. 
Lunch rush on a Saturday wasn't something I wanted to 
deal with, so I went down the road to the Thai store, 
grabbed some chocolate nut rice cakes for Sara and 
some of their deli food for myself. Having the food 
sitting on the passenger seat was a pointed reminder 
I hadn't eaten yet, and my stomach was still growling 
when I got to Sara's, despite having inhaled three of 
the spring rolls on the way. 

Sara was waiting on the porch, and she met me as I 
came around my car. She grabbed my bag of food and 
set it on the hood before she pushed me back, snaking 
her arms around my neck and molding herself to me, 
assaulting me with a hungry kiss. My own arms went 
around her waist, holding her tighter against me.

"Hello to you, too," I said when our kiss ended, 
biting at her lip and smiling. "Feeling playful, I 
take it?"

"I'm leaking like a faucet, my clit feels like it's 
going to explode, and I've had to tape my nipples to 
keep them from poking holes in my shirt and bra," she 
said, moving in close to bite my lip. "Playful does 
not describe how desperately horny I am right now."

"I can have fun with that once we're back at my 
place."

She purred and ducked her head down to try biting at 
my neck, but I bunched my fingers into her hair and 
pulled, and she drew in a hot breath, moaning softly.

"Yes, you can," she breathed, closing her eyes and 
leaning her head back into my hand.

I grinned and let go of her hair to smack both my 
hands to her ass, making her jump and give me a 
startled look, and I squeezed.

"We'll figure out how to torture you once we're back 
at my place," I said, placing one hand on her hip and 
pushing her back a step as I turned to grab my food. 
"Maybe see how well you're able to listen and 
remember stuff while I tease you."

"Not very well," she shot back, her hand finding its 
way into mine and squeezing as we headed inside. "You 
know that."

"Guess we'll just have to keep trying and finding 
suitable... punishments when you don't."

She stopped on the porch and we turned to each other, 
her coming in close.

"What kind of... punishments are we thinking about 
here?" she asked quietly in my ear.

"We'll figure something out, I'm sure." I lightly bit 
her ear lobe.

She purred and smiled against my neck, biting lightly 
before pulling back and spinning away to open the 
door. She stopped briefly, posing like a pinup in the 
doorway and smiling coyly at me.

"We've claimed the living room," she said, taking a 
step back. "Mom and dad are upstairs watching movies, 
so we're safe from intrusions for an hour or two."

She twirled around and I grinned, following her to 
the living room, where Kim and Georgia were sitting 
leaning against each other. They were beating on each 
other in some fighting game, Mortal Kombat or Street 
Fighter or Killer Instinct or something. I couldn't 
tell. They were all the same to me.

"Mr. Man!" Kim cried when she saw me, bouncing up and 
unceremoniously dropping her controller to the floor, 
leaving her to be soundly defeated by Georgia. She 
also grabbed my food out of my hand and set it aside, 
hopping into me and giving me a bear hug and a brief 
kiss. "Yay! You're here!"

"Looks like I am," I laughed, snagging my food back 
before Georgia could get hold of it, too. "I am in 
major need of eating, though, so you'll have to let 
me go. I haven't eaten since dinner yesterday."

"Ok!" She shoved me into the couch and plonked 
herself down next to Georgia.

"You are such a nutter, Kimmy," Georgia said, 
grabbing the hair on either side of Kim's head and 
pulling her upside down into her lap. She leaned 
down, bending almost in half, and gave Kim an upside 
down kiss.

"She's not a nutter," I corrected, pulling out my 
noodles and chicken while I studied Georgia. "That's 
a guy's job. Kim is just insane."

Georgia laughed and smiled at me, Kim protesting 
being called insane and struggling back into a 
sitting position. Kim's assessment of her as eye-
catching was spot on. Of course, Kim and I agreed 
more often than not on what was attractive about a 
woman, so my agreement was no surprise.


Chapter 2

I'd noticed Georgia when she'd come in as a freshman, 
mainly because of her exotic look, mixed black and 
Asian. I assumed her Asian heritage was her mother's 
side, given that her last name was definitely not 
Asian. Unsurprisingly, her hair was black, and she 
had it swept back in a half braid held in place with 
swirling silver and jade hair pins. 

Her eyes were a vibrant, shocking green that were 
obviously contacts, and she had a light dusting of 
sparkly, deep green eye liner on her upper lids, but 
no makeup otherwise. She was obviously not wearing a 
bra, her nipples small domes atop her breasts and 
clearly visible under her loose fitting top. Neither 
her nor Kim had changed out of their pajamas, which 
were matching Animaniacs themed, the only difference 
between them being Georgia was a size or two smaller 
than Kim and she wore rainbow toe socks.

"Do something real quick for me, Georgia?" I asked 
her, holding out one hand, palm toward her and 
fingers splayed.

She rolled her eyes and said, "What is it with guys 
and wanting to hand size with me?" The protest didn't 
stop her from raising one hand and pressing her palm 
to mine, lining her fingers up with the ends easily 
curling over mine. "See? Long fingers."

"No, they're not. They're magic fingers."

I laughed as Kim went red and buried her face in her 
hands, moaning out a theatrical, "Nooooooo."

Georgia turned her hand back and forth as I leaned 
back, looking at it as she flexed and rolled her 
fingers.

"I have a few years of practice before I can be 
considered a master, so they don't qualify as magical 
yet. I need to practice a lot more with guitar before 
I have the flexibility I need."

"Not what I meant."

I grinned at Kim as she stuck her tongue out at me.

"I know." She arched her fingers into almost perfect 
circles, middle finger bending her pointer backward 
and her pinky doing the same with her ring finger, an 
impressive display of her manual dexterity. "I need 
more practice with that, too. I didn't think Kim 
needed any more embarrassment."

"Mr. Man is a meanie head," Kim proclaimed, nodding 
at the wisdom of her words and scooting closer to 
Georgia so their hips were touching. "I love him, 
though, and he makes sis happy. Have you seen his 
art? He's awesome!"

Georgia shook her head, turning to look at her.

"Does he know about us?" she asked, flexing her 
fingers again and grabbing Kim's chin to turn her 
face.

"That we like the womens? Yeah. He's one of the first 
people I told that I'm a gender traitor."

"Gender traitor." Georgia laughed and slid her hand 
to the back of Kim's head, pulled her in to give her 
a kiss. "You are such a major league nutter. Tell me 
again why we're friends?"

"Because we're hot for each other?" Kim grinned, 
bouncing where she sat. "And I guess getting along 
like bestest buddies is important, too."

"I see you have priorities in your world." She rolled 
her eyes in exasperation, though she was smiling, 
then looked back to me, her hand dropping to the 
small of Kim's back. "What medium do you work in?"

"Pencil and pen, mostly," I said after finishing the 
bite I'd just stuffed into my mouth. "It's easy to 
get hold of if I don't have my stock with me, but 
I've started teaching myself painting, too, doing 
acrylics."

"Really? My dad heads the art department at the local 
college, but he used to do story boarding for movies 
before he decided he liked teaching better. I could 
probably get some good word in with him, if you're 
interested. How long have you been doing art?"

I sucked down the last of my noodles and slid the 
food bag to Sara, remembering the chocolate rice 
cakes were in it.

"Probably longer than you've been alive. Seriously. 
The first thing I remember is sitting in a pile of 
crayons and scribbling pictures of the cats. I was a 
year and a half, I think, maybe two. My mom is always 
saying I learned to draw before I learned to walk."

"That sounds less painful than what my mum likes to 
say." She laughed and held her hands in front of her, 
dancing them in easy, fluid movements over an 
imaginary bed of keys and humming. "Legend says I was 
born with a piano and playing Beethoven. I think she 
just means she played a lot of Beethoven to me when I 
was in the womb. Music's been my obsession since I 
discovered my grandda's upright when I was four. 
Playing it now, I can hear it's a tuneless wreck, but 
I would spend hours sitting with him while he taught 
me."

"You've certainly been doing a lot of playing with 
something since you got here," Sara said, pulling out 
her chocolate rice cakes and giving Kim and Georgia a 
meaningful look.

"I need practice playing with that, too," Georgia 
replied evenly, and then turned to Kim with a shrewd 
look. "I think you have had lots of it, you crazy 
nutter."

"I like playing?" Kim said, putting on her best 
innocent look.

"But with whom? You still haven't told me."

"I can verify our friend Cindy," I said, snagging a 
piece of one of Sara's cakes. "They've been off and 
on since we met her, but I don't know if there's 
anyone other than her."

"Just Cindy," Kim verified with a nod, which turned 
into a theatrical pout. "My bad acting job of being a 
virgin was that bad?"

Georgia patted Kim on the head.

"Maybe it would work for a porn film, dear, but we're 
not doing porn."

"Cindy has video equipment if you ever want to," I 
said, and I looked at Sara. "Which reminds me. 
Where'd you put that disc?"

"It's in my comp," she said, going red. "I was... 
kind of watching it last night."

"What happens in the bedroom with me stays in the 
bedroom with me," from Georgia, arching an eyebrow at 
me. "That's private and stays between me and the 
person I invite. I won't stop you if you want to, but 
I won't."

I shrugged.

"Never said you need to or should want to. If it 
doesn't do anything for you, it doesn't do anything 
for you. The three of us are comfortable with each 
other, so we're ok sharing things, but that doesn't 
mean we're going to force you if you're not willing."

"That may be, but the insinuation was there. If I 
invite you, you're welcome in, but I'm not a piece 
for voyeuristic pleasures. You may not have meant it 
that way, but that's what I got from it."

"Definitely not what I meant." I shook my head and 
raised my hands. "Like I said, we're comfortable with 
each other, so that's what I'm used to. Once I know 
you better, I'll know where your boundaries are and 
won't seem like I'm trying to creep on you. If I do 
say something, it's not meant as a come-on."

She gave me an even look, absently tapping her 
fingers on her thighs in some tune I didn't 
recognize.

"I think we need to run that assumption both ways," 
she said after a minute, "only without the assumption 
I'll flirt with you even if talking about the details 
of sex is acceptably comfortable."

"Sounds fair to me. What would you like to talk 
about, then?"

She shrugged and was interrupted by Kim attempting to 
steal one of Sara's cakes. Sara swatted her hand away 
and matched Kim's puppy dog eyes with a comical 
frown. Kim let out a melodramatically injured sigh 
and stuck her tongue out at her sister.

"Bad Kim," Sara said, guarding her chocolate. "Bad. 
My chocolate."

"You're always eating, Kimmy," Georgia said to her, 
poking at her thighs and hips, "but you still have 
the looks of a cheerleader. What's with that?"

"I like playing?"

Kim grinned before leaning in to whisper in Georgia's 
ear, who laughed and kissed her.

"And you're criminally good at doing that, too. You 
may be arrested for arson because of all the fire's 
you start."

Kim whispered something else, which got Georgia 
laughing even harder.

"You are so bad! So, so bad! Oh my god."

She pulled Kim over so she was leaning into her, 
giving her a kiss on her way to her ear and 
whispering something of her own. Kim's grin broadened 
as she bounced in excitement, letting out an 
enthusiastic, "Yay!" before attacking Georgia with a 
long kiss. Georgia tried fighting her off, but it was 
a battle fought with half-hearted enthusiasm. Sara 
took the opening of them being distracted to move 
over and lean against me, dragging one of my hands 
over to her breasts, which I gave a hard squeeze. She 
drew in a heavy breath as I did, barely managing to 
suppress her pleased moan.

"Ahem," from me when it became clear Kim and Georgia 
were getting a bit too into it. "Bedroom action is 
for the bedroom, didn't you say?"

"Yes," Georgia breathed, short of breath and clearing 
her throat as she pulled her mouth away from Kim's, 
who thwarted Georgia's effort to compose herself by 
dragging her closer and holding her. "I did say that. 
Where were we?"

"Finding a different conversation topic," Sara 
supplied, trying not to stare at Georgia's chest and 
her obviously hard nipples.

"Right. Um. How'd you two meet? I think that's safe 
and non-sexual?"

I felt Sara go tense against me as she bit back her 
laugh.

"That depends on how sexual you think a see-through 
skirt is?" I asked with a wry grin.

"Oh my god..." She sighed, her head rolling back in 
exasperation. "Is there nothing with you three that 
isn't about sex!?"

"Nothing comes immediately to mind," Sara laughed, 
pulling my arms further around her. "The skirt thing 
isn't as bad as it sounds, though. Honest."


Chapter 3

"I'm having a hard time understanding," Georgia said, 
casting a quick look at me. She was straddling Kim on 
Kim's bed, weaving braids into her hair.

We had migrated from the living room, since there was 
somewhat more privacy in Kim's room than was 
available there. Not that any of us but Georgia were 
worried about Sara and Kim's parents getting upset 
about anything we talked about, but until Georgia 
understood the relaxed atmosphere, we accommodated 
her desire for some perceived privacy.

"What about?" I asked, teasing my fingers lightly 
over the back of Sara's neck, which I knew could make 
her cum if she were turned on enough. She didn't have 
that freedom with Georgia present, and her deep, even 
breathing told me she was focused entirely on holding 
back an orgasm. From the way the conversation was 
going, Georgia was oblivious. Kim knew what I was 
doing, but she knew Sara's reactions better than 
anyone.

"You and Kim slept together-"

"Only once!" Kim said, turning her head so Georgia 
could braid the other side.

"Once, but still. You slept together, and Sara knew 
about it, and you've all slept with Cindy, and Sara's 
slept with two other guys, but none of you see 
anything wrong with any of that?" She pointed at me. 
"You cheated on your girlfriend with her sister and 
another woman." She pointed at Sara. "And you cheated 
on your boyfriend with two other guys. I don't see 
how that's ok."

"How is it cheating if it's consensual?" I countered, 
and then nodded at Kim. "And Kim and I both 
understood it was just so she could see what it was 
like, and we all figured that experiment was better 
to run with me than some random guy who'd likely end 
up trying to 'cure' her being les."

"He has too many cooties," Kim said, shivering with 
theatrical disgust. "It was fun, but it just... 
didn't do anything for me like you do."

"But it's still cheating," Georgia pressed, brushing 
her fingers through Kim's hair to straighten it. "If 
you're in a relationship with someone, it should be 
exclusive as long as you're with them. Consent or 
not, you don't go to bed with someone else. That's 
infidelity."

"Not true," Sara said, lifting one hand to stop mine, 
squeezing my fingers hard. She held up a finger on 
her other hand and continued once she'd pushed her 
orgasm back and collected herself. "I think that's 
looking at relationships in a one-size-fits-all kind 
of way, but not everyone is like that. To me, that's 
like saying you can't love more than one person at a 
time, but we can. Everyone does. 

"I love Mike with everything I am, but I also love 
sis just as much, and I love Cindy, too, and my 
parents, and my grandparents, and my cousins, and my 
other friends. I'm not going to sleep with all of 
them, but I have relationships with them and I love 
them, but in different ways and for different 
reasons. I don't stop loving someone just because I 
love someone else, too."

"No, I'm not saying that at all," Georgia countered, 
shaking her head. "I'm not saying you can't love more 
than one person. I'm not saying you shouldn't love 
more than person. I'm saying it's not right to sleep 
with someone else when you've chosen one person as 
your partner."

"But what if being sexual with someone else is an 
acceptable form of affection?" I asked, settling my 
hands on Sara's shoulders and massaging. "What if 
everyone involved is ok with that? What if not being 
sexual with them actually ruins your relationship 
with them?"

She finished the last braid in Kim's hair and then 
rearranged Kim so her forehead was resting on her 
arms, taking the braids she'd just made and working 
the three cords at her temples into a braid down the 
back of her neck.

"Why should that be necessary? To me, that says 
you're unhappy with a relationship, that the person 
you're with isn't providing what you need."

Sara shook her head and took hold of my hands, 
holding them in hers on her shoulders and looking at 
Georgia.

"I am not in any way unhappy with my relationship 
with Mike," she said. "I wouldn't change a single 
thing about it, and the longer we're together, the 
more I love him. I don't know if we'll be together 
our whole lives, but does that matter as long as we 
love each other? Fooling around with others doesn't 
make me unhappy with him, or mean I am. We get 
different things from different people; experience, 
learning, emotion, growth. You have to have different 
people in your life if you want to grow as a person. 
No one can ever be everything someone else needs.

"Saying we're being unfaithful and we're cheating 
implies we're hurting each other and damaging our 
relationships, but I don't see it that way. I see it 
as being open to love, and being able to love, and 
learning and building up ourselves and each other 
together. If you're limiting yourself to only one 
relationship with one person at one time, you're 
going to learn so much more slowly, and if your 
single relationship goes bad, it's going to be harder 
to overcome that and become a better person.

"In a way, we're doing that right now with Cindy, 
learning how to be better people with each other. She 
screwed up a lot when we first met her, but we saw 
the good in her, that she was trying to be better. 
She knew she was making mistakes, but it's her PTSD 
and not us that makes things hard for her, and we 
worked things out together so we knew where we were 
all coming from. Our stability helps her stay stable, 
and her experience helps us avoid all the mistakes 
she's made.

"And I'm sorry if that seemed like a rant. I didn't 
mean it that way, but saying it's wrong and that it's 
immoral or unethical or whatever to do what we are, I 
can't agree with that. It's too narrow a view for me. 
I try to have a broad view of things, because then I 
can see nuance. The world doesn't work in absolutes, 
and people don't either. We never have and never 
will, and to look at the world and look at people as 
if we do is to miss so much that's good and beautiful 
amidst all the terrible, horrible, heart-wrenching 
things we do to each other because we don't let 
ourselves understand.

"There's more to loving people than just who you 
choose to be with or who you choose to be loyal to, 
or how many." She wiped at her eyes and drew in a 
deep breath, letting it out in a long sigh, 
continuing more softly. "I think I'm done. I didn't 
mean to go off like that. I'm sorry. I just want you 
to understand where we're coming from. If you get one 
of us, you get all of us. We'll accept you and love 
you in our own ways without reserve or condition, but 
we won't give each other up for anyone, not even each 
other. We can't. We'd lose part of ourselves if we 
did that, and if you ask us to choose, you'll lose 
all of us and not just the one you're wanting to 
keep."

She made an annoyed sound at herself and turned her 
head, biting at my wrist to keep herself from 
starting up again. I was surprised myself, since that 
was the most talking I'd ever known her do in one, 
uninterrupted shot.

"Just say yes, Jor," Kim said, muffled by her 
blankets before twisting to turn over and look up at 
Georgia. "We haven't talked about being together all 
serious like, but I want to, and I think you do, too. 
I don't want to hide who I am anymore, and I want to 
try things out with you. Sis is right, though. It's 
kinda like a hamburger, see, if you want to try being 
together all serious like. You need the buns to go 
with the meat, right, and it's not as good if you're 
missing one."

"You make some of the most bizarre analogies, nutter 
girl," Georgia said, quirking her mouth at Kim.

"We're not going to meddle in your relationship, if 
that's what it seems like," I said, drawing her 
attention. "We don't want to. None of us are going to 
force you to do anything you're not comfortable with, 
but we also want you to tell us if you're not 
comfortable. It's why we've been able to get so close 
with each other, because we do our best to 
communicate." 

I shifted my arms to around Sara's waist and leaned 
her back against me. "This is a lot heavier than I 
think we were expecting to talk about, but I don't 
think having it come as a surprise would have gone 
well, either. Kim's crazy about you, if that wasn't 
already obvious, and like Sara said, we'll love you 
in whatever way you'll let us."

"I feel you've handed me an ultimatum that must be 
met if I'm to date this nutter here," Georgia said 
after a few minutes of running her fingers through 
the braids she'd made in Kim's hair. She looked at 
Sara. "I've been raised on fidelity and taught to be 
devoted, so it's difficult agreeing with your 
position. You can call it polyamory or polygamy or 
polyandry or any other poly word, but in my head, it 
all translates as cheating and infidelity. I don't 
know if we'll ever agree, but if you can respect I'm 
not comfortable with sharing, I can respect you are."

Sara nodded and said, "I don't expect you to agree, 
hon. I'm not asking you to, and I'll do my best to 
respect you. That's all we can do. I can't tell you 
how to feel or what to think."

"I'd just like to point out that this isn't something 
you need to answer right now," I added. "Like I said, 
we're not going to force you. Everything needs to be 
consensual and we need to trust each other enough 
that we can talk about what's on our minds. If you 
want time to think, just let us know and we'll step 
back so you have that space."

"I think that would be best," she said, dropping her 
gaze from Sara to Kim and holding Kim's look. "This 
is my first relationship with someone I'm actually 
attracted to, but it's with someone I've grown up 
being told I shouldn't be with. You've already turned 
everything I imagined on its head, and dropped a lot 
on me, too." 

She gave Kim an accusatory poke on the nose. "You 
said take things slow because I'm still trying to 
accept my sexuality, but nooooo. The first thing we 
do is jump each other's lady boners the first chance 
we can and then have this all-or-nothing talk with 
your sister and her boyfriend. You are one pushy 
nutter, Kimmy. One. Pushy. Nutter." She poked Kim's 
nose with each of those for emphasis.

"I am not a nutter!" Kim protested, lifting her head 
and catching Georgia's finger in her mouth, talking 
around it as she grinned. "I'm bounthy! There'th a 
differenth."

"Oh my god. Nutter! Total nutter!"

She pulled her finger out of Kim's mouth and wiped it 
on Kim's cheeks, Kim protesting loudly and 
ineffectually as she rocked her head side to side 
trying to get away while Georgia laughed. She caught 
Kim's face in her hands and bent down to give her a 
kiss, whispering something to her before sitting up 
again and looking back and forth between the three of 
us.

"I want to go with Kim, but I don't know if I'll be 
ok with you two basically being in our relationship. 
If you were a guy-" She poked Kim's nose again. "-A 
talk like this would have me walking out the door 
because it's crazy. But you're not a guy, and I don't 
know if I'll have another chance to figure out my 
feelings before I go to uni. I think even just coming 
out is hard enough, but I want to try." She looked 
back up at Sara and me. "I can't promise anything. 
Just being alone with Kim for the first time was 
already pushing my comfort zone, and I'm now 
seriously creeped. This is going much faster than I 
wanted it to."

"They won't be involved in our relationship, Jor," 
Kim said, slipping her hands under Georgia's top and 
holding her hips, and Georgia looked down at her. 
"It's more like... It's more like they're the secret 
service, and I'm the president. They'll only get in 
the way if you hurt me, see? They'll care about you 
as hard as they care about me if you let them."

"You best not tell them I like to bite, then," she 
answered evenly, taking hold of Kim's hands and 
twining her fingers through hers. "That's a much more 
agreeable analogy, though. I think I understand now 
what you've been saying."

"And you say you're not smart," Sara said with a 
light laugh. "I rambled for ten minutes and you make 
her understand with one sentence. No more saying 
you're stupid, sis."

"Everyone is brilliant in different ways," Georgia 
said, pressing Kim's hands down to either side of her 
head and holding her with a look. "Sometimes you just 
need the right person in your life for it to come 
out."

"Are you?" Kim asked, giving Georgia a shrewd squint.

"I don't know if I am for you, but you have been for 
me so far. I want to be for you."

Kim grinned and brought her legs up, hooking them 
under Georgia's arms and rolling upward into a 
sitting position with one quick, smooth motion. 
Georgia didn't have time to do anything but squawk in 
surprise before Kim had her pinned, grinning and 
laughing.

"Damn nutter!" was all Georgia managed before Kim 
began tickling and incapacitated her with laughter. A 
flash of inspiration hit me and I raised one hand, 
closing it over Sara's mouth and turning her to look 
at me. Her eyes widened and she drew in a breath when 
I slid my other hand down her pants. She wasn't the 
wettest she'd been, but I didn't need to wet her 
clit, either, and it grew hard under my fingers in 
only a few seconds.

"You have until the count of thirty to cum," I 
whispered in her ear. "No sound, keep your hands away 
from your pussy."

I started counting when I started working her clit, 
opening with a count a second, my fingers moving 
faster than my counting, and I counted faster the 
closer I got to thirty. Sara's breathing followed 
suit, and she'd only just started trembling, 
teetering into climax, when I stopped, and she 
whimpered once against my hand. She clutched 
desperately at my hand, her eyes pleading, and then 
just closed one hand around my wrist and dug the 
fingers of her other into her thigh, her breath 
hitching as her orgasm fizzled in weak spasms. She 
opened her mouth and bit one of my fingers, growling 
her frustration.

"You had damn well better make up for that, mister," 
she said, voice low to not draw the attention of Kim 
and Georgia. She turned in my arms to press her 
forehead to mine. "That took the edge off, but 
ruining my orgasm only makes me more desperate."

I grinned and gave her a kiss, but Georgia's laughter 
changing into heavy pants of recovery cut me off from 
replying.

"Are you nuts for this nutter?" Kim said, still bent 
over Georgia with her legs holding her arms down. 
"'cause I'm nuts for you."

Georgia let out a breathless laugh and worked her 
arms free, beaming as she pulled Kim down for an 
enthusiastic kiss. Apparently that was the only 
answer Kim needed.


Chapter 4

"I will cook for all of you!" Kim said, standing in 
the doorway between the kitchen and living room and 
holding a spatula out above her head. She'd opted to 
get racier with her attire when their parents had 
announced they were going out for dinner, and she was 
now in a bikini top and short shorts. "I will cook 
and it will be awesome, just like me."

She grinned and bounced over to us, dropping onto the 
couch next to Georgia and pointing the spatula at 
her. 

"Chicken parmesan," Sara said, apparently familiar 
with this routine, and Kim stuck her tongue out at 
her.

"I wasn't even pointing at you yet! Wait your turn, 
silly girl."

"Can you do enchiladas?" I asked, and she stuck her 
tongue out at me.

"Mediterranean style pizza," Georgia said before Kim 
could tell me to wait my turn.

"Bah! You all suck! I can't even combine any of 
those. Mu shu pork it is!"

"Please no," from Georgia, taking hold of Kim before 
she could spring to her feet. "I'm sure yours is 
good, but it's one of my mum's go-to dishes, so I 
have it all the time at home."

Kim blinked at her, confused.

"I wasn't going to make mu shu pork."

"I don't understand. You just said you were going 
to."

Kim grinned and hopped to her feet, bent down to give 
Georgia a kiss and said, "It's a surprise!" before 
skipping back into the kitchen, trailing a medley of 
Weird Al food songs.

"She never said anything about knowing how to cook," 
Georgia said, getting up to follow Kim.

"Yeah, that surprised me, too," I said after her, and 
she reappeared a moment later in a cloud of shoo'ing 
from Kim.

"Can't be a surprise if you're in here while I'm 
cooking! Shoo!" She stopped in the doorway and 
planted a hand on her hip, pointing a mixing spoon at 
all of us. "Stay!"

Georgia shifted her head to the side, putting on a 
drama queen pose and raising one hand to push the 
spoon aside, stepping inside Kim's reach.

"Gir'friend, ain't nobody boss me," she said, and 
they burst into laughter a few seconds later. "That 
didn't work, did it?"

"So totally not." She bent forward and kissed 
Georgia. "I mean it, though! No more coming into the 
kitchen while I'm making you awesome delicious food! 
You'll spoil the surprise. And you'll distract me and 
everything will burn. Even the water!"

"I would never distract you, you nutter. I'm quiet as 
a mouse."

I glanced at Sara when I felt her bite back a laugh.

"I doubt she's as quiet as you are," I whispered in 
her ear, and that did get a laugh, as well as a smack 
on the arm. I waved a hand absently at Kim and 
Georgia, and they went back to their own exchange.

"My parents throw a costume party every Halloween," 
Georgia said when she rejoined us, folding her legs 
beneath her and idly tapping her fingers on her 
knees. "It's kind of a formal invite thing, so I'd 
have to actually give you an RSVP card so they know 
who will be coming, but I can get those for you on 
Monday if you're interested."

"That sounds like fun," Sara said, turning to look at 
me. Georgia's laugh turned her attention back.

"It's ridiculously boring, to be honest, which is why 
I want to invite you. Almost everyone will be friends 
of my parents, so I usually end up costumed and 
sitting around with nothing to do. I've already 
officially invited Kim, but I think having you two 
along would make it seem less like I only invited her 
because we're dating." She paused. "That sounds bad. 
I don't mean to be insulting saying that. I'm just 
not ready to come out to my parents yet, and I don't 
want to bring it up until I'm ready."

"We completely understand," Sara said, looking toward 
the kitchen. "Kim came out to our parents last year. 
I was with her for support, but it was less traumatic 
than we were expecting. A lot less traumatic." She 
laughed and turned back to Georgia. "It turned out to 
not be an issue at all, because their reaction was 
more, "Yeah, we know. That's fine, and we're happy 
you're strong enough to accept it and let us know. 
Want to celebrate?""

"I have a feeling it wouldn't go quite that smoothly 
with my parents. Mum's very traditional. She's only 
second generation, so she grew up with rigid social 
standards."

"Not rigid enough she refused to marry your dad, by 
the looks of it," I said, and she nodded.

"I don't know how much mum would be happy with me 
telling you. I don't know everything that happened, 
but it didn't go well, and we barely see my 
grandparents on her side. It's always very formal and 
strained when they visit. They didn't approve, and 
still don't. They dote on me, though I expect that 
will change when I come out to mum and dad."

She gave a dry laugh and went quiet, looking out the 
window.

"Touchy subject?" Sara asked when it became clear 
Georgia was done.

"No." She shook her head and brought her attention 
back to Sara. "I've never known them to be different, 
so it's just the way things have always been. How did 
we get to my family history from inviting you to our 
Halloween party?"

"Because you're trying to figure out how to come out 
to your parents," I said, shifting Sara on my lap.

"That would be the subtext, wouldn't it?" She pulled 
her legs out from under her and got to her feet, 
wandering over to the rack of CDs to scan through 
them. "Are you always having deep and meaningful 
life-impacting discussions or something? You two are 
more articulate than I'm used to among peers."

"Yeah, you could say that," I said after a minute 
considering the last several months. "It takes a lot 
of effort to work through some of what we've dealt 
with the last few months."

"How much of it is because of Cindy and how much of 
it because of this Jennifer girl Kim's mentioned?" 
She made a sound of surprised pleasure and extracted 
a CD, holding it out to us. "Mononoke Hime soundtrack 
must be Kim's. Do you mind if I put it on? I love 
Hisashi's music."

"Help yourself," Sara said, waving her toward the 
stereo system. "Now you're the one getting into the 
touchy topics. I don't mind, but I don't want to talk 
about some of it, either."

"Which part is off limits?"

"The stuff that came up with Jen," I said, trying to 
sound more casual than I actually was with having it 
brought up. Sara took one of my hands and squeezed, 
and I returned it. "She and I have been best friends 
since before we were even in kindergarten, so she's 
family to me. A lot of what came up last week hit 
pretty hard, and we haven't had a chance yet to work 
things out with each other. As much as it needs to be 
done, I know putting off talking with Jen for a week 
or two while I sort things out on my end won't cause 
any problems."

Georgia pirouetted to face us once she had the CD in 
and playing, and we waited for her.

"That's more than what Kim said about what happened," 
she said, obviously measuring words and phrasing. 
"And it has me wondering why it's affected her so 
much if what happened is just about your relationship 
with Jennifer, but I'll to try to let it be."

I just nodded and Sara said, "Kim's very protective 
of the people she cares about. For all that Mike is 
mine, he's earned her devotion, too, despite the 
rough spots."

"Whoever put on Mononoke needs to turn it up!" Kim 
hollered from the kitchen. "That's one of my super 
favorites!"


Chapter 5

Dinner was scalloped potatoes and chicken stuffed 
with bacon, blue cheese, peppercorns, and dried 
apple, and was much better than I thought it would 
be. Kim accepted the praise with her usual, "Yes, I 
am awesome," aplomb, and we worked out our plans for 
costumes while we ate. Kim latched onto going as the 
Cheshire cat done mostly in body paint, modeled after 
the one from the 1999 Whoopi Goldberg rendition. Sara 
subverted the story and opted for Alice taking over 
the Red Queen's reign. I voted for going as the witch 
king of Angmar, which would require making or 
acquiring a variety of props, which I didn't expect 
too much difficulty doing. Georgia said only she'd 
surprise us.

Jack and Diane got home about half an hour after we'd 
finished eating, and Sara and I decided it was time 
for us to make our departure to my place, since it 
was almost full dark by then. I stopped around the 
corner from Sara's and had her strip her pants and 
panties off so she could play during the trip, but 
disallowed her from edging. Adding a side trip to 
pick up more chocolate and other late night snacks 
ensured she was well worked up by the time we got to 
my place.

"Take the rest of it off," I told her once I was 
parked in the driveway. "I want you only in your 
nightshirt the rest of the night."

She hummed and sucked her fingers clean before 
pulling her shirt off and replacing it, then leaned 
over to meet my kiss when I grabbed one of her 
breasts. She smiled and bit my lip, purring.

"I would ask what you're planning to do to me, but 
you wouldn't tell me, would you?"

I bit her lip in return, finding her nipple and 
pinching it through her shirt until it was a hard nub 
straining against the fabric.

"I might. If I never tell you anything, I can't 
surprise you, can I?"

"I suppose that's true." She drew in a breath when I 
dropped my hand between her legs, circling my fingers 
against her clit, her shirt adding extra friction 
between my skin and hers. "What're you planning to do 
to me?"

I smiled against her lips and gave her another kiss, 
her breathing deepening and speeding up.

"Tie you up, make you cum nonstop for at least an 
hour, and then leave you so horny it'll be like you 
didn't cum at all."

"That sounds intriguing. You got a new toy, didn't 
you?"

"I think you'll enjoy it."

"What is it?" Her voice was getting strained now as 
she held her orgasm, and she closed one hand around 
my wrist, holding my hand in place so I wouldn't 
stop.

"You'll find out after you've experienced it." I 
grinned and nipped her lip, working my fingers harder 
against her clit for a few seconds before pulling 
away. "Get inside and frog tie your legs, and no 
peeking."

She swallowed back her moan of disappointment when I 
stopped and took a few deep breaths to gather 
herself.

"Blindfold's still with the rope?"

"Always is."

She spun away and was out of the car in seconds, her 
pack clutched in one hand and hair swaying against 
her back as she hurried to the front door to wait for 
me. I was slower than she was getting out, since I 
had the bags of food to bring in, and she went 
straight to my room once we were inside, spinning 
once to flash me a smile that was both shy and eager 
before disappearing down the hall. My prep was in the 
kitchen, and I took longer than I thought necessary 
to give her time to get her task done. She was lying 
in the middle of my bed when I joined her, ankles 
tied to her thighs, blindfold on, a towel under her 
ass, and one hand playing slowly between her legs.

I unfolded one of my sketch stands to serve as a 
table and set my two bowls on it, then sat on the 
foot of the bed to watch her.

"Watching you play is one of my favorite things," I 
said, reaching into one bowl and pulling out an ice 
cube.

"I want more than watching," she breathed, lifting 
her head toward me. "What do you want me to do?"

"Edge and ride it."

She moaned and dropped her head back, her fingers 
moving faster on her clit for a few seconds before 
slowing, and she clutched her free hand into the 
heaped blanket beside her.

"You're not really going to let me cum, are you?"

"No, you'll get to cum. Just not yet."

I grabbed one of her legs and pressed it back to 
raise her hips, then let a drop of ice water fall 
onto her pussy just below her fingers. She gasped in 
surprise and tried to bring her legs together against 
the cold, spreading them again when I pressed them 
back. I let another drop fall, this one right on her 
opening, and she drew in a sharp breath and stopped 
her fingers, going still and trembling. I moved her 
hand away and watched the slow clenching of her pussy 
while she teetered on the edge, and I let her 
struggle for a few seconds before placing the ice 
firmly on her clit. She swore and arched hard, her 
hand closing into a tight fist in the blanket.

"Cum now," I said, pressing the ice harder against 
her clit and moving it as best I could like the 
fingers I'd just moved away.

She whimpered and strained her hips upward, seeking 
more pressure on her clit, though I was already 
applying as much as I could. She growled and arched 
slowly, tensing and her breath slowing as she 
growled, yearning toward climax, and then she tilted 
over, shuddering and quaking and crying out. I waited 
for her to start tapering off before sliding the ice 
down and pushing it into her, following it with my 
fingers and settling my thumb on her clit. She swore 
and arched again, letting go of the blanket and 
clawing at the air, fighting to keep herself from 
pulling my fingers away from her pussy and the next 
orgasm I was pushing her to. She swore again when I 
put a second ice cube on her clit, holding it there 
while I fingered her hard, forcing another orgasm out 
of her, and another three followed with the same 
routine, ice to her clit and then in her just before 
her next climax.

I stopped to let her catch her breath, climbing up to 
lay beside her without stopping my fingers working 
her pussy, slowly enough she wouldn't cum again. I 
slid a finger under the blindfold and waited a second 
before removing it, letting her prepare for being 
able to see again. She twisted toward me and worked 
her arms around me, holding to me and kissing me 
between bouts of breathlessness. I fingered what 
remained of the last ice cube out of her pussy and 
popped it into her mouth, and she hummed and sucked 
greedily.

"I don't think that was an hour of orgasms, mister," 
she said, grinning and biting at my lip. "That was 
not what I expected, but I really liked it."

"That was just the warm up. The hour doesn't start 
until I have you properly tied up."

"That was so not warm!" She laughed and squeezed my 
fingers in her. "How much will I be able to move?"

"With how much you squirmed with just the ice cubes, 
I think I need you immobile."

She hummed pleasantly and crunched the last bit of 
ice, then pushed me away, replaced the blindfold, and 
raised her arms above her head. I pulled her upright 
and lifted her nightshirt off before pushing her back 
over, and she laughed.

"I thought you said you wanted that on."

"I changed my mind. Wrists together, love."


Chapter 6

The ice, of course, was not the only thing I had. 
Once I had her hands tied above her head, her legs 
tied apart, and her hips anchored to the foot of the 
bed, I plugged in a pair of vibs so I could alternate 
and avoid overheating them, then knelt between her 
legs.

"Are you going to be able to stay quiet?" I asked, 
pressing a pair of fingers into her and clicking one 
of the vibs on and setting it against her clit.

She gasped and her pussy tightened on my fingers, and 
I pushed them deeper.

"Maybe?" she said, already tensing as her orgasm 
built. "Do I need permission to cum?"

"Only until you have this one, and then you can have 
them whenever you want until I say otherwise."

"Ok. May I cum yet?"

I laughed and curled my fingers against her gspot, 
working it slowly, which got another gasp and tight 
squeeze before she forced her pussy to relax again.

"Not yet. I'll tell you when I want you to cum, not 
before, and asking for permission is only going to 
make it take longer."

She moaned out a whimper of acknowledgment and 
nodded, closing her hands around the rope binding her 
wrists. I smiled and started finger fucking her 
slowly, circling the vib on her clit with the same 
rhythm, going a little faster every few strokes until 
I was pumping my fingers into her as fast as I could 
and she was straining against her bonds. I glanced at 
the clock to mark the time and slowed down to the 
speed I'd started with, and Sara let out a frustrated 
cry, her whole body shaking with tension.

"How much longer?" she managed to squeeze out between 
pants, lifting her head my direction before letting 
it drop back again. She swallowed hard. "Soon? Need 
so bad."

I pulled my fingers out and shifted the vib out of 
the way, then slapped her pussy hard enough to sting. 
She let out a surprised scream that lasted only until 
my fingers and the vib went back to torturing her.

"Not yet," I said, hooking my fingers in her and 
pressing the vib more firmly on her clit. "It's only 
been five minutes."

She whimpered and nodded, squeezing her eyes shut 
tight beneath the blindfold and struggling to hold 
her control. I kept my fingers fucking her slowly, 
moving the vib in smaller and smaller circles until 
it was settled firmly on her exposed clit. Her pussy 
was a constant spasm of wetly slick tension, her 
breathing hard and fast, and her body a sheen of 
sweat. I stole another glance at the clock and saw it 
was now past the time I'd chosen, and pulled my 
fingers out of her to reach into the second bowl, 
which was filled with ice water to chill a pair of 
glass dildos.

"Cum now," I said, and pushed a dildo into her as 
deep as it would go.

She swore loudly and arched hard against the freezing 
glass, and then exploded, screaming with each crash 
of her orgasm and pulling so hard on her binds the 
rope creaked. Once the strongest of her climax had 
passed, I started fucking her as fast as I could with 
the dildo, switching vibs and keeping that firmly 
attached to her clit. She rolled into another orgasm 
less than a minute later, and kept on like that for 
about the next fifteen, and I counted at least twenty 
orgasms. By then, her struggling against the cold 
tool had calmed, but I didn't let her rest, switching 
dildos and vibs every quarter hour, sometimes using 
ice and my fingers instead of the dildo or the vib, 
sometimes biting and sucking her clit so it wouldn't 
go numb from the vibs, sometimes flicking it to bring 
her focus back to the pleasure torture.

I had to stop just shy of an hour and a half because 
my arms and fingers were starting to protest, and by 
then she was a limp, incoherent mess and the towel 
beneath her was soaked through. I untied her hands 
first and moved her arms down, her hands resting 
beside her head, and then untied the rest of her 
before settling next to her. Her breathing had evened 
out by that time, and I lifted the blindfold away 
from her face.

"Still awake?" I asked, trailing fingers down her 
chest.

She made a sound that was supposed to be a yes, and I 
rolled over to grab the bowl of ice. It wasn't as 
melted as I expected, and I broke one off the clump 
and pressed it to her lips. She hummed and opened her 
mouth, sucking the ice in and swirling it with her 
tongue. I broke off an ice cube for myself and then 
just lay with her, tracing my fingers around her 
breasts.

"You need to be some sort of mad genius after that," 
she said after about ten minutes, voice cracking 
once, "if you really expect to get me crazy horny 
again."

"Don't worry. I have more surprises."

She hummed and smiled, flopping over to press against 
me, resting her head on my shoulder. I kissed her 
forehead and brushed my fingers through her hair, 
then fed her another ice cube.

"First we need to rest, though. I can't do more to 
you until I have my strength back."

"But I thought you could restore your strength by 
eating me."

I laughed and tilted her face up to mine to give her 
a kiss. She smiled and held my look, sliding one hand 
up my chest to trail her fingers across my cheek.

"I don't think it's physical strength I get from 
eating you, but we'll be able to answer that question 
later. Right now, there's food in the kitchen calling 
our names."

"It is, but I want to lie here with you a bit longer. 
It makes me happy."

"You sure it's not just because you can't walk yet 
after all that?"

She laughed and nuzzled closer.

"Hush. That has nothing to do with it, not even the 
smallest bit."

I laughed and shifted some so we were level, rolling 
her onto her back again and pressing her into a slow 
kiss, sliding a hand down her stomach to start 
fingering her again. She protested only enough that 
no more ice was used except for sating our thirst, 
and then protested some more when I stopped before 
she could cum again.

"You got all your orgasms, love," I said, smiling 
down at her and teasing her clit. "I did say I'd 
leave you horny by the end of the night, so I need to 
warm you up for that."

She laughed and hummed, sliding her fingers lightly 
along my arm from my hand to my shoulder, looking 
down to watch me playing with her.

"You are so evil I don't know if I should love it or 
hate it, but I don't ever want you to stop." She 
turned her eyes up to me. "You have something else in 
mind to surprise me with, don't you?"

"I think you just answered your own question by 
telling me not to stop."

I grinned and pressed a pair of fingers into her, and 
she moaned into my kiss when I brought her to the 
edge again.


Chapter 7

The money Aaron had given me went to purchasing a 
pump kit, which I had found an amusing idea and 
proved to be amazingly effective for returning Sara 
to a wantonly horny state. Pumping her clit was 
eventually enough by itself to bring her to the edge, 
and not removing the tube immediately forced her to 
fight her orgasm back the hard way, through sheer 
force of mind over screaming desire. It also left her 
sensitive well into the next day, so much so that 
even the friction of her panties against her pussy 
while she was walking kept her turned on. Never mind 
the sensitization her nipples got, too, and I stopped 
her from taping them up before returning home Sunday 
evening, ensuring her bra was another source of 
stimulation.

Naturally, I left her with instructions to tell Kim 
about all of it, and she was a libidinous wreck the 
rest of the week.

The following Saturday was used for gathering costume 
stuff and crafting. I spent the Sunday with Sara and 
Kim so we could work on our costumes together and 
make sure it wasn't all going to fall apart after 
we'd put it on. Not that Kim's costume had any chance 
of falling off, since it was no more than body paint, 
a furry bikini with a tail, and oversize ears. Hers 
was the first to be tested, being applied that 
morning so she could prance around in it for the day 
to see how well the paint held up.

Normally, this would have been done behind closed 
door in her room with just the two of us, but Jack 
and Diane needed to be out for an appointment, so 
Sara joined us. Kim bounced on her bed, naked except 
for the headband of her oversize ears holding her 
hair up and out of the way.

"There is one small thing that's going to make 
painting you not work out," I said, arranging my 
brushes and paints on Kim's desk.

"What's that?"

I dropped to my knees in front of her and pulled her 
legs apart, then took some of her pubic hair between 
my fingers and pulled. She flapped her hands at me to 
make me stop and I laughed.

"You need to lose your bush. I won't be able to get 
the lines right with that hair in the way."

She deflated in a pout and sighed heavily, lifting 
her legs and grabbing her ankles to pull them closer 
and spread her legs wider, looking down at her pussy.

"Can't you just, I don't know, hold it out of the way 
or something?"

"That would pull the skin in weird ways and the lines 
wouldn't be straight."

This was nonsense, of course. The only problem it 
would cause would be with catching the brush 
bristles. The area would be covered almost entirely, 
so any stray paint or uneven lines wouldn't be 
noticed by anyone but me before she put the rest of 
the costume on, and the fuzziness of the costume 
would hide any stray exposures.

"That and I want to paint your bare pussy, and I 
can't with the hair in the way."

"Feh!" She stuck her tongue out at me and rocked 
forward, sitting cross legged. "You just want to play 
with me again, Mr. Man."

I shrugged and shifted back onto my heels so I could 
stand and hold my hands out to her.

"If you want to play, I wouldn't say no, but I think 
it's better to keep things simple. Right now, that 
means getting you shaved and painted before your 
parents get back."

She heaved a theatrical sigh and latched onto my 
hands, and I hauled her to her feet.

"Fiiiiiiiine." She darted in and licked my nose, then 
nodded. "But sis gets to shave me. I don't think I 
could."

"Already on it," Sara said from the hall, soon 
returning with a bright pink razor, a towel, and can 
of shaving cream. She set those down and darted out 
again for a bowl of warm water.

"So what do I do?" Kim asked, plopping down on the 
towel. "Just kind of sit here?"

Sara grinned and pushed her onto her back, then fell 
on top of her, Kim automatically wrapping her legs 
around her.

"You let me lead this time," Sara said, then kissed 
her and trailed down her throat, chest, and stomach 
until she'd reached her pussy.

"This is so not part of shaving, silly."

"No, but it's a good opportunity, and you know I like 
those."

Kim closed her fingers in Sara's hair and held her so 
she was looking up at her.

"I don't want to get caught, sis. Not right now."

"Mom and dad won't be back for at least an hour."

"No is no, Sara," I said, sitting behind her and 
placing a hand on her hip. "And she's right. Right 
now really isn't a good time. We don't know when your 
mom and dad will be back."

"When will I be able to have you both? I don't care 
if it's even just a quickie. I want both of you right 
now."

Kim sat up but didn't let go of Sara's hair, then 
shifted her hands to hold her face.

"We know, sis, and we will. Just not right now. I 
don't want to get caught." She cast a short look at 
me. "I guess I'm just nervous, is all. I've been 
thinking too much about what Jen said, the whole 
disowned thing, and maybe she's right we shouldn't 
feel like mom and dad would act different."

"Your mom seemed to have a strict non-interference 
policy," I said, drawing Kim's attention again. "At 
least judging by what she said to me before Sara's 
birthday party, anyway. I don't think that's any 
guarantee she wouldn't say you need to stop, though. 
Just because she doesn't want to get involved in your 
relationship doesn't mean she won't if she's not 
given a choice on saying something about it."

I got to my knees and pulled Sara upright, slipping 
my arms around her waist and holding her. She turned 
to look at me and I gave her a kiss.

"We love you, and we both want you. Just because it's 
not a good time right now doesn't mean we won't be 
able to take you together later. We'll work something 
out." I glanced at Kim with that last.

"Soon, sis. Promise." She leaned down and bumped her 
nose against Sara's, then kissed her. "We'll even set 
a date! Me and Mike will figure something out, ok?"

Sara nodded, subdued, and closed her hands over mine 
with a squeeze.

"I'm sorry," she said, and sighed. "I just... I don't 
know. I feel like everything's different, and I want 
to take every chance I can to show you two how much I 
love you before it all goes away. I know it's stupid, 
because I know you're not going anywhere."

"Totally not stupid, sis. Nope! We love you anyway, 
right? You're the only one I'd let shave my fun bits, 
see?"

Sara laughed and pushed Kim onto her back.

"Thanks, sis. I feel so much better knowing that." 
She ran her fingers through Kim's pubic hair, closing 
her fingers to catch hold of it and pull. "It's going 
to be weird seeing you without hair."

"Probably going to feel weird, too."

"Once you get used to it, you might not want to let 
it grow back. Just sayin'."

"Feh! Feh, I say." She lifted her legs and planted 
her feet wide, giving Sara plenty of room to work in. 
"Do your thing, sis."

I passed Sara what she would need and she set to 
work, explaining while she did the finer points of 
shaving pussy, such as it being easier after a shower 
or bath, that moisturizer applied immediately after 
shaving helped prevent raw skin and chafing, and it 
would itch like mad when it started to grow back. 
That last mentioned only after she'd finished and 
wiped away the remnants of shaving cream.

"Why didn't you say that first!?" Kim cried, mock 
glaring at Sara.

Sara's answer was just to smile and drag Kim to the 
edge of the bed so she could latch her mouth onto her 
clit for a few seconds and then bite. She kissed her 
bite marks and traced her fingers lightly up and down 
Kim's now bare pussy.

"You wouldn't have agreed if you'd known, and you 
have a beautiful pussy. I think I like being able to 
see it without the hair in the way."

"That is so not the point! I don't like itchy!"

"I expect that's what you use the moisturizer for," I 
said, giving Sara's ass a slap to get her attention. 
"If the shaving's done, I need to get her painted so 
we can work on the rest of our costumes."

"I know. It's hard to resist temptation, though." She 
kissed Kim's clit and stood. "I love you, sis."

"I know. I love you, too, even if you are silly 
sometimes."

"I'm silly!?" Sara laughed, shaking the can of 
shaving cream at Kim. "You are seriously going to 
answer for that later, little miss hyper."

Kim grinned and clapped, then bounced over to stand 
in front of me, planting her feet at shoulder width. 
I laid out my reference pictures, spun her around a 
few times to get an idea where best to start, and 
began working.


Chapter 8

Sara was silent while I painted, glancing away only 
when the front door opened when their parents got 
back. I'd only been working for a few minutes at that 
point. She sighed and stood, and waited until I'd 
paused to pull Kim into a hug and a kiss.

"I was hoping I'd get to watch the whole thing," she 
said, biting Kim's lip, "but it looks like you were 
right. I'll be working on my costume. Promise I'll 
get to see you first when it's done?"

Kim nodded and pulled her back when she stepped away, 
gave her a tight hug.

"Sleep with me tonight?"

Sara smiled and kissed her, nodding as she stepped 
away again holding one of her hands. Kim was 
unusually quiet after Sara left.

"Did we hurt her telling her no?" she asked 
eventually, holding her hair in a bundle on top of 
her head to keep it out of my way.

"She seemed more disappointed than hurt. We do need 
to figure out a time for a date, though. A proper 
date, not just getting together like we always do."

"Yeah," was all she said, and we finished the paint 
job without further conversation. I closed up my 
paints while she put on the fur bikini and other 
accoutrements of her costume. I stepped up behind her 
while she was examining herself in the mirror and 
placed my hands on her hips, and we looked at each 
other in the glass.

"Something's on your mind," I said, moving my thumbs 
against her skin. "You're not this quiet unless 
something's bothering you."

She shook her head and rested her hands on mine, but 
didn't turn around to face me.

"I don't think you can help with this, Mike. I don't 
even know what's wrong. Not really. There's a lot 
of... I don't know. It's just been a big mess since 
Jen, and it hurts, and it scares me."

I turned her around and we stood in silence for a 
minute, just watching each other.

"I know we're not as close with each other as we are 
with Sara, but I'm here for you just as much as she 
is, ok? Any stress Jen's caused shouldn't be enough 
to break us. That's what I keep telling myself, 
because I don't want the alternative, because that 
would mean losing the two of you."

"Don't you hate her for it, though? Even just a 
little bit?"

I shook my head, and Kim's look was all I needed to 
know that wasn't the answer she wanted.

"She fucked up pretty bad, I know, but I can't hate 
her. I'm not going to tell you you shouldn't, because 
I understand why you would. She hurt me, too, a lot, 
but people do that when they're hurting. I can't hate 
her for feeling."

"But she didn't hurt just you! She hurt everyone! You 
and Sara and me and even her own stupid brother!" She 
shoved my hands away and started pacing, working out 
her energy. "And herself! And her and her stupid 
brother don't even have a family anymore because of 
it, and it's crazy, and I don't understand how you 
can't hate her for it."

"Would you hate Sara if the same thing happened to 
you?"

She stopped and blinked at me.

"Why would I hate Sara? She's... Sara. I don't know 
how to hate her."

"So you wouldn't hate her even if your relationship 
with her ended up hurting everyone you know and you 
get disowned for it just like Jen and Jason?"

"I don't understand."

"Maybe that's part of the problem right now. I don't 
know." I felt like sitting, but I knew if I did I'd 
just get right back up, so I busied myself putting my 
supplies away. "I've known Jen a long time, and I 
know she's hating herself right now just as much as 
you're hating her for how badly she fucked up, but 
she's doing it for the same reason you are. She's 
hurting, and she doesn't know how to handle it. 
You've hurt people, too, because you've been hurt and 
angry. I think we all have."

"Sara hasn't," Kim said, tense, and I put my focus 
back on her. She was standing still, watching me with 
her arms folded beneath her breasts.  "She's always 
good about controlling herself, especially when she's 
mad."

"Maybe not when she's mad, but she has hurt you, too, 
without meaning to. All I'm trying to say is Jen 
never wanted to hurt anyone, and she thought she was 
avoiding that."

"Except she wasn't."

"I know, but she didn't know that. She fucked up, and 
she's feeling worse now than she already was. She's 
made mistakes. That's all. I can't hate her, or 
anyone else, for the same reason you can't hate Sara. 
You understand Sara doesn't mean to hurt you, but 
sometimes it happens."

"I guess."

I figured it was safe to approach her now, and I 
slipped my arms around her waist. She didn't stop me, 
but didn't uncross her arms, either.

"I'm just asking you to try to understand, Kim. Maybe 
it will make it easier to work past the hurt she's 
caused."

She didn't say anything for a few moments, and then 
held my gaze, calm again.

"I can try, but I still think I'm going to hate her 
for a long time. Maybe that will make it harder, but 
right now I don't care. She hurt us, and I'm 
especially mad because she hurt you and Sara. Maybe 
she hurt you more because you're closer to her. I 
don't know. But I don't like that, and it makes it 
really, really hard for me to not hate her for 
hurting people I love, you know?"

"I know. Believe me, I know. It's hard, but with 
this, it's either do something really hard or lose 
each other, and I don't think that's a hard choice. 
Do you?"

A moment's silence again, and she sighed.

"I guess not." She moved her arms and draped them 
around me to hug tight. "I'll talk with Sara about 
this tonight, ok? See what she thinks about it."

"I think that's a very good idea." I gave her a kiss. 
"I also think she's waiting to see your pussy."

She grinned, making the painted grin widen even more 
and turn into a mildly disturbing maw of teeth, and 
bounced out of my arms to tug me out of her room.

"That will happen tonight!"

I tugged her back and stopped her, an idea coming to 
me. She peered at me, an impatient look.

"Since we weren't able to torture Sara by walking her 
around the mall with the dildo and balls in, what do 
you think of doing it when we go to the party?"

She about exploded with enthusiasm, clapping her 
hands together and bouncing up to me, though her 
enthusiasm dissipated as quickly as it came.

"What if Georgia finds out? I think that would be 
even worse than what Jen did."

"You don't have to let on we planned it together, or 
even that you know it's going on."

She considered for a few seconds before grabbing my 
hands and hopping a nod, grinning again with a happy, 
"Okay!"


Chapter 9

The four of us - Sara, Kim, Georgia, and me - got 
together a few hours before the party to deal with 
our costumes. Whether it bothered Georgia that I was 
painting Kim naked was impossible to tell, since she 
showed no indication either way. Sara was occupying 
herself fixing a seam on her costume, a slow process 
with her being unused to needle and thread, and it 
was made all the slower by the distraction of having 
the ben wa balls in.

"Keep your hair up, Kim," I said, poking her back 
with the nib of my brush. "Unless you want paint in 
your hair."

"I am!" she protested, gathering her hair into a 
tight ball again and squirming some more when I 
touched the wet brush to her. "It tickles!"

"This is mildly entertaining," Georgia said, sitting 
in front of Kim and watching her get painted, her 
eyes alight with laughter. "It's not fair play, 
though. Mike's painting instead of me."

Kim stuck her tongue out and twitched again when I 
drew the brush along one of her ribs.

"I don't think that costume would make tickling Kim 
very easy," I said, glancing around her at Georgia, 
and Georgia shrugged.

She was dressed in what she said was a cross between 
Mulan, Pocahontas, and Star Wars, but the first two 
were almost lost in the last. Regardless, it was a 
fantastic costume, and I'd done a quick sketch of her 
posed before I'd started painting Kim.

"Knowing now how ticklish she is, it shouldn't be 
hard to get my revenge on her for all the tickling 
she's put me through."

"I'd offer to let you borrow my rope so you could tie 
her up and make it easier, but I don't think she'd go 
for that."

"I'm not as into tying people up as you are," Kim 
said, kicking my leg with the side of her foot. "I 
think it's more fun when they try to squirm to get 
away."

"Ahem," from Georgia, giving me a bland look, and I 
mimed zipping my mouth. "Best behavior tonight, 
please. I don't often invite so many people, so I'd 
like to leave a good impression."

"Consider it done, though you might need to fight Kim 
off a few times throughout the night."

"Hey! I can totally behave! I will be a perfect 
angel."

Sara snorted a laugh while Kim kicked my leg again 
and almost lost her balance in the process, my brush 
sliding across an especially ticklish spot when she 
did. She squealed and I pulled back, waiting for her 
to finish squirming.

"Says the one with the most revealing costume," I 
said, resuming my paint job. "You weren't this 
ticklish the first time."

"Hush, Mr. Man. No more words from you. Nope! All my 
fun bits will be completely covered."

"So the plan tonight," Georgia said, redirecting the 
banter, "will mostly be wandering around the house. I 
might be able to convince mum and dad to let us use 
some bags and we could trick-or-treat, but that's 
iffy. I don't know if you want to talk with dad 
before the party or during, Mike, but it would be 
easier before."

"What's the time now? Kim has a bad habit of not 
keeping clocks."

"The mad hatter keeps smashing them," she said, 
nodding. "You can even ask Alice. It's a totally true 
fact."

"The red queen has decreed all clocks must tell the 
same time," Sara said, fighting her dress into place 
to finish her seam work. "Since there is no universal 
time server in Wonderland, all clocks are always 
wrong and must be smashed."

"It's just before four," Georgia said, tucking her 
phone back into a pouch hidden down the front of her 
costume. "There's hours yet before the party 
officially starts."

"You're very..." Kim started, peering at Georgia. "I 
don't know. You're not like yourself tonight."

Georgia shrugged and said, "I'm nervous. I'm bringing 
my girlfriend to meet my parents, and they don't know 
we're together."

"And you're worried they'll notice your attention is 
glued to Kim and disapprove," I said, glancing around 
Kim at her.

"In a nutshell."

"Would it be more comfortable for you if we could 
work out going to the mall or the movies or something 
and get away from their supervision?"

"You should totally say yes, Jor," Kim said, and I 
had to grab her to keep her still when she started 
bouncing. "It's harder coming out to your parents 
than anyone else. If you're not ok with them knowing 
yet, maybe it's not good for me to be at the party 
with you. I mean, I could be bouncy all over Mike and 
Sara, too, and they'd just think I'm super 
affectionate with everyone, but I don't know if you'd 
be ok with that."

"You're already super affectionate with everyone, 
sis," Sara said, glancing up. "That wouldn't be an 
act."

"Hush! No more words from you, either!" Kim stuck her 
tongue out at Sara and Sara matched it and smiled 
before putting her attention back on her dress.

"No, I want you there," Georgia said, attention 
straying back to Kim from Sara. "Just... without 
pretending, but try to keep the lovey dovey stuff 
toned down."

"We're already pretending to be things we aren't," I 
said, fishing for a fresh bottle of paint. 
"Pretending to be one more thing won't change a lot, 
will it?"

"No, but pretending all the time is exhausting, and I 
want to be honest about who I am."

I stopped and set aside my paint, leaning over and 
looking at Georgia.

"Would you mind an odd question on that topic?"

"Go ahead, though I don't expect I'll be insightful. 
I don't know myself very well, so I can hardly be 
expected to know anyone else."

"That's fine. What if you don't like what you see if 
you're being honest with yourself?"

She gave me an even look, absently tapping her 
fingers against her legs.

"Is this about your friend Jennifer?" she asked, a 
long pause later.

"Mostly, but it's a general question."

She nodded and leaned back, her feet tapping now too 
in a counterpoint to the rhythm of her fingers. She 
shook her head after a few seconds.

"Honestly, I don't know. The way I see it, if you're 
being honest with yourself, you should be able to 
accept you're not always going to like yourself. 
Don't do what you don't want to be in the first 
place. The usual new agey hippie stuff. I don't know 
Jennifer, and I wouldn't be able to give her any 
useful advice, anyway, unless she wants to learn 
music."

"That's alright. I was only asking because I'm 
curious. Sometimes just asking the question is the 
answer, but I don't feel like that's going to work 
for this."

I turned Kim so she was facing me and opened the 
fresh paint so I could get her body done.

"The more you waltz around revealing what happened, 
the more curious I get. You're going to have to tell 
me what happened."

"Can you let it wait, please?" Sara said, now intent 
on trying to tie a knot with a needle. "None of us 
are ok talking about it yet, and there's been a lot 
of unexpected fallout with each of us that we're 
still trying to sort out."

"I'm patient as a sphinx. You'll talk when you're 
ready."

"That's not always the best approach with Kim, just 
so you know," I said, flipping my brush around and 
poking her hip. "Sometimes you need to poke her to 
get her talking, kind of like a wind-up toy."

"I don't have any of those yet," Kim said, staring 
cross-eyed down at her chest where I was painting 
her. "Well, except for the Donkey Kong one, but I 
think that's in sis's room so it doesn't get lost. 
And a really old one from like the fifties or 
something, but it's been broken since I got it, so 
it's not really a wind-up anymore."


Chapter 10

Since I needed to drive, I wasn't able to get into 
costume until we were at Georgia's, which wasn't 
until six. That left an hour before the party 
started. From the outside, the house looked spacious, 
a broad two stories, but Georgia explained it had 
been framed as a courthouse and was later moved and 
converted to public housing during the Depression and 
WWII, and then sold. What the history lesson meant 
wasn't clear until we were actually inside: A small 
foyer let onto a large central room that occupied 
most of the first floor, with a large kitchen and a 
moderately sized washroom neighboring that. Stairs to 
the second floor were behind a door in the foyer, and 
beyond the stairs was a room that had been converted 
at some point to accommodate a washer and dryer.

Georgia's parents and one of their friends were busy 
getting things ready when we walked in, and her dad 
grinned and set down the bowls of salad he'd carried 
out of the kitchen.

"Now you show up, when there isn't any hard work to 
do," he said, striding up to us.

He was shorter and squatter than I had expected, 
standing only barely taller than Sara and twice as 
round, though I couldn't tell if his girth was his 
costume or his actual build, since he was dressed as 
Pennywise. Georgia's mom joined him, dressed as 
something I didn't recognize, a green skinned lizard 
thing with lank hair and a bowl shaped skull painted 
to look like water. Definitely a much better paint 
job than I had managed on Kim. He gripped our hands 
in turn while she stood beside him, and Georgia 
introduced us.

"Kim, Sara, Mike, this is mum and dad. Mum is Lin and 
Dad is Herbert."

"I'm going to explode if I don't get to bounce," Kim 
said, jittering toward Lin. "Kappa is the awesomest 
costume ever and I love it! I love it so much! Oh my 
god! I want to touch you. Can I touch you? The 
costume, I mean. Not, like, in any creepy kind of 
way."

Lin laughed and gestured Kim over, saying, "Yes, you 
can touch. Please be careful with the hair, though. 
It didn't fix well."

"She's always this excitable," Georgia said, poking 
at Kim, who beamed. "If she's not, something's 
wrong."

"No balloons?" Sara asked Herbert. "Or are you not a 
floaty kind of clown?"

"Ha!" He laughed. "Very good! I am indeed Pennywise 
tonight, but I shan't be eating any children, much to 
the joy of their parents, I'm sure. I believe I left 
my balloons upstairs."

"You left them tied in the washroom over here," Lin 
said, patient under Kim's enthusiasm.

"Excellent. Thank you. Could you remind me again when 
the party starts?"

I was only half paying attention to the conversation, 
instead taking in the room, which was decked out as 
much as possible in Halloween style. Painted wall 
hangings were suspended behind the tables that lined 
two of the walls, black table cloths draped over the 
tables, and fake spider webs were pinned in the 
corners. In one corner was a baby grand piano, the 
top currently down, the keys hidden away, and the 
bench slid in. Georgia noticed my gaze and tugged me 
with her to the instrument.

"I'll be playing a couple pieces when the party 
starts," she said, unlatching the lid and lifting it 
up to anchor it, then looked over at her parents, 
Sara, and Kim. "I'm going to make sure my piano is in 
tune. Does anyone mind?"

"You tuned it last year," her dad said. "It should be 
fine."

"Really, dad. It needs to be checked every time. I'm 
going to bang my keys."

She rolled her eyes at me and raised the keys cover, 
pulled out the stool, and sat.

"I'd guess you don't know how to play," she said, a 
half question, and motioned for me to sit next to 
her. "Too close. Over a little."

"I don't even know scales," I laughed. "Give me a 
sheet of paper and music is not what will spill from 
my fingers."

She nodded and stilled, focusing on the piano, 
fingers hanging over the keys.

"The trick is always listen for the music." She 
brought her fingers down and began playing, and even 
when she started humming a backing tune I didn't 
recognize it. "At least for me. This is 'Sweetness 
Follows' by REM, by the way. Not really piano music." 
She hummed a few more bars before continuing her 
thought. "There's music in everyone, for everything. 
Some of it's easier to hear, some you need to listen 
hard for, but there's always something worth 
listening for."

She swayed and hummed, fingers moving across the keys 
easy as breathing, teasing out evolutions on each 
pass through the rhythm. It was a simple song, 
translated to piano, which left a lot of room for 
interpretation, and fairly short, not more than a few 
minutes. Sara joined us, standing behind me and 
placing her hands on my shoulders, and I turned to 
kiss one.

"Have you written any of your own music?" she asked 
once Georgia had finished.

"I have, but none of it's finished enough to play. 
Maybe I'll play them for you when they are. Right now 
I'm trying to think of something interesting to play. 
The problem with most radio music is the repetition. 
It's fun to listen to, but boring to play. You might 
know this one, if I don't mess it up too badly."

She scooted me over to the end of the bench so she 
had more room, then started with a basic intro that 
lasted only a few seconds, and I laughed.

"'One,'" I said, and she nodded, leading into the 
accompanying counter melody. "Old Metallica song," I 
said to Sara, "before they decided all their songs 
needed to be radio length."

"It's better on guitar," Georgia said, "but also a 
lot harder. There's a reason Kirk Hammett is 
considered one of the best players ever. The solo at 
the end of the song is crazy."

She stopped playing and bobbed, hovering her fingers 
in the air across the keys and humming out the song, 
finding her place, and then set into a wildly 
frenetic string of notes. Both hands moved faster 
than I was able to clearly follow, some keys missed 
entirely because they didn't have time to come back 
up before she hit them again, and she was at it for 
close to three minutes. She heaved a deep breath and 
swept her hands across the keys from the middle when 
she finished, and Kim cheered and clapped.

"Again!" Kim cried, bouncing over and draping over 
Georgia. "Super duper awesome encore time!"

Georgia laughed and untangled Kim from around her to 
push her upright.

"I missed way too much of that one for it to be good. 
I can't even do it on guitar yet." She turned back to 
the piano and set to playing again. "I have one more, 
though, and I love it. I'm not always fond of big 
budget soundtracks, but the work Klaus Badelt did on 
Pirates is spectacular. Catchy, intricate, plays with 
theme, and plays well on everything."


Chapter 11

"Georgia said we should talk shop," Herbert said, not 
bothering with preamble conversation while I helped 
him finish the party prep. "Says you have a 
reputation as the go-to guy for art at school, even 
in her class."

I chuckled and said, "Yeah, I've been drawing since 
before I could walk. Figured I could make money at 
it, since people kept asking me to draw for them. I 
somehow managed to get a few pieces accepted at a 
local press a few months back. That's become somewhat 
steady, but I want to do more than pen and pencil 
stuff. That's a bit more complicated than I 
expected."

"What did you start with?"

"Acrylics, and Kim's body paint is the mark of a rank 
amateur."

He laughed and turned his back to the kitchen door, 
walking backward through it since he was holding a 
giant bowl of punch. I followed with a covered tub of 
dry ice, which would end up in the punch over the 
course of the night.

"Truer words, Mike. Truer words. You have a good eye, 
but you are right that your painting needs some 
practice. Believe me, though, it's a Michaelangelo 
when compared to what I've seen from some of my 
students. To look at their work, you'd think the most 
advanced class they ever took was finger painting in 
pre-school."

He grunted when he set the punch bowl down, then 
shoved it back so it was centered.

"Georgia showed me the sketch you did earlier and I 
thought it was quite good. What do you think of it?"

I shrugged, breaking a chunk of dry ice in half and 
setting it in the punch to watch it bubble and mist.

"It was a quick sketch, maybe twenty minutes, I 
think? I'd have to look at it again, but I know I 
wasn't happy with the proportions on the 
foreshortening. It's something I'd fix if I had more 
time to work on it. There's probably other things I'd 
change, but that was the main thing that caught my 
eye."

"Good to know you can recognize the flaws in your 
work. That will make it easier. I'll skip all the 
questions about what you want to learn, seeing as 
you're taking initiative to learn on your own, which 
is good. Where do you see yourself going with your 
art?"

"I haven't really thought about it, honestly. I enjoy 
illustration, especially when I have creative 
freedom, but getting into a big company as an 
illustrator is pretty difficult, from what I've been 
told."

"Also true." He stopped and surveyed the kitchen, 
which was, by now, mostly emptied of everything that 
would be on the tables come party time. "Can you put 
together a portfolio of your work and bring it to me? 
It's a formality for the advanced courses to have a 
portfolio. If you're interested, I can hold a spot 
for you in next semester's enrollment."

I blinked at him.

"You can do that?"

"Of course! I run the art department. It's magically 
bureaucratic." He swayed his hands in an arc, miming 
a rainbow and putting on a mock happy face. "I'll 
talk with the enrollment office and put your name in. 
They'll keep an eye out for your enrollment 
paperwork, and you'll be slotted in."

"That makes it sound a lot simpler than it probably 
is."

"Sadly, yes." He sighed. "It's magically 
bureaucratic. There's loan paperwork, FAFSA 
paperwork, enrollment paperwork, course paperwork, 
triplicate paperwork, triplicate of the triplicate. 
It's a nightmare, especially for people who just want 
to do art. So what do you say? Interested in 
paperwork hell so you can get to work being artsy 
fartsy?"

I laughed and held out a hand, and he shook it.

"Fantastic decision! If I can't convince Georgia to 
be a portfolio mule, just drop it off as a package 
for me in the main office. I'll get it when they want 
it out of the way. I can get things moving once I 
have it. The primary thing will be walking you 
through the courses to best place you, though I'm 
afraid you'll be stuck with one of the advanced 
drawing classes, seeing as they're mandatory."

"I won't complain unless I'm not learning anything. I 
think a preemptive thank you is in order. This is an 
opportunity I wasn't expecting to get."

"Nonsense. Talent needs recognition, I like to think. 
It's my job to help that happen, but I do it because 
I love it. That's the secret to doing well in our 
field. You won't get anywhere if you don't love it, 
even when it's not paying the bills."

He leaned against the oversize island and took up a 
plate of skull shaped cookies. He munched on one and 
held the plate out to me, and I took some. We turned 
to the kitchen door as it opened, Georgia walking in.

"Are you selling him your art-is-life motto yet?" she 
asked, smiling and joining us at the table.

"I was preaching to the choir with this one. He can't 
match my best student, though."

He grinned and slid the plate of cookies across to 
her, his meaning clear, and she laughed.

"You have all the rhythm of a drunken monkey throwing 
drums down the stairs."

"Much to the disappointment of my da. I redeemed 
myself when you came into the world, though. He's 
always saying teaching you to play was the greatest 
thing he's ever done."

She nodded and decapitated a skeleton cookie she dug 
out from under the skulls, thinking while she 
finished the rest.

"I was talking with mum before coming to you, to see 
if the four of us could make like McFly and make off 
for a time and come back later. I still want to play, 
but I'd like to do my own thing this year instead of 
hanging around for the party."

"What'd she say?"

"She's worried I'm going to be kidnapped by my 
friends and bad, horrible, unspeakable things will 
happen to me, so she's passing the buck to you."

"I thought so. Will you kidnap my daughter and do..." 
He looked at Georgia. "What was it? Bad, horrible, 
unspeakable things to you?"

"None of us are the big bad wolf this year, so we 
won't eat her," I said, snagging another cookie. 
"We'll probably just go see a movie if we don't go 
trick-or-treating. We might terrorize little 
children, but that's pretty low on the priority 
list."

"Last time I checked, you're old enough to make your 
own decisions," he said after a few seconds. "Sweets 
don't count as food, so make sure you've eaten before 
you go, and be back at midnight."

"Can it be one, please? If we go to a movie, we won't 
be done until midnight, maybe later."

"Right. New fangled movie theaters and their late 
night movies. You're driving a hard bargain here, 
leaving me to assuage your mother."

She made an amused annoyed sound and said, "She's not 
that bad."

"Ha! So you say. You'll understand once you have 
kids. No later than one. If something happens that 
keeps you out later, let us know."

I glanced at Georgia at the having kids comment, but 
there was no outward indication I could see that she 
wanted to say anything about it. She just lit up like 
Kim and scooted around the table to hug her dad and 
kiss his cheeks when he agreed to the curfew time.

"Thank you! I love you."

"I love you, too, sweet. Now since you're here, help 
us take out the last of these plates."


Chapter 12

"I'm playing two pieces this year." Georgia was 
standing in front of her piano, sheet music in hand, 
and everyone was gathered to listen. "The first is a 
piece I transcribed myself over the last month. It's 
called Danse Macabre, a piece composed by Camille 
Saint-Saëne which he based on a poem about the French 
superstition of Death dancing in the graveyard on 
Halloween. The second piece will be Night On Bald 
Mountain, which I'm sure you'll all know once you 
hear it if you don't know it by name."

She bowed, took her place, and played, music drifting 
from her fingers like there was nothing else in the 
world. Sara swayed in my arms, and turned to my ear 
after a few minutes.

"She's playing the whole thing in her head," she 
whispered. "She hasn't turned her pages at all since 
she started."

I hadn't noticed, but I did once it was pointed out. 
Georgia drifted across the keys like they were part 
of her, swaying and flowing and almost never looking 
at what her hands were doing. She didn't stop between 
the pieces, either, just trailed one into the other, 
and I watched Kim light up in amazed glee when she 
realized what had happened. She raised her hands to 
clap and barely caught herself, bouncing in place 
instead until Georgia had finished, and then she 
burst into loud applause and a cheer. She hopped over 
when Georgia stood and gave her a bear hug and a 
brief kiss, which made Georgia tense.

"Super awesome!" Kim said, grabbing Georgia's hands 
and bouncing back and forth. "That was one of the 
super coolest things ever! Can you do it again?"

Georgia laughed and said, "You are such a total 
nutter, Kimmy. Stop bouncing and give me my hands 
back. I need them to play."

"Yay!"

Kim scooted back to stand with us so I was between 
her and Sara, and she flopped against me, arm around 
my back with a thumb hooked into Sara's corset. 
Georgia just shook her head, smiling in amusement.

"It looks like I have a vote for an encore," she 
said, looking around at everyone, and she was met 
with various calls of support and agreement.

Her demeanor shifted, more a whole shift than any 
discrete change, as if she was basking. She bowed and 
sat again, starting immediately into the Beetlejuice 
theme, which migrated into The Addam's Family, then 
'This Is Halloween' from Nightmare Before Christmas, 
and finally into Ghost Busters. Everyone, of course, 
sang along with Ghost Busters, because how can you 
not? The three of us cheered when she finished, and 
she was beaming when she stood to bow. She wandered 
around to receive her praise and give out hugs before 
joining us, and we stopped to talk with her parents 
before leaving.

"You stay safe," her mom said, clasping her hands.

"I know, mum. We'll be fine. We're not going down 
dark alleys or anything."

"I think we're just going to wander around the mall 
and maybe catch a movie after we have dinner," I 
said. "Hardly dangerous stuff."

"You still should stay safe," her mom persisted, 
giving me a stern look. "Lots of children out 
tonight, so be careful driving."

I nodded, and we eventually managed to escape the 
party and pile into my car, which I had, fortunately, 
parked on the street. The driveway of Georgia's place 
was packed full.

"Food first and then mall?" I asked once we were 
underway. I noticed Sara nod and catch herself from 
pressing a hand between her legs.

"Sushi!" Kim said, nodding vigorously.

"You always want sushi, you nutter." Georgia laughed 
and leaned over, catching hold of Kim and giving her 
a kiss, then whispering something in her ear, which 
got a purr and lick from Kim. "I want something with 
less rice. A good piece of steak and a salad sounds 
good."

"I'm ok with anything right now," Sara said, "though 
a steak pizza sounds really good."

"Would somewhere with fish still satisfy your 
constant sushi craving, Kim?"

I glanced at her in the mirror and she perked.

"Fish and chips? With lemon wedges and super 
delicious tartar sauce like they have at Steakhouse? 
Am I right? You know I'm right."

"Yes, you're right. Now calm down, Ms. Hyper."

She stuck her tongue out at me and poked the back of 
my seat.

"I am not hyper. I keep telling you this, but do you 
ever listen? Nope! Not ever. Not even once."

"Hush and stop complaining. We're on a double date 
tonight, thanks to Georgia's parents allowing her 
out."

"Wait," Georgia said, jabbing at my arm with a 
finger. "When did this get decided? I don't care for 
surprises like this."

"Just now. Is there some other definition of dinner 
and a movie I don't know? And we both have our 
girlfriend's. It's not a planned date, but dates 
don't always need to be planned, do they?"

"I don't know. I wasn't expecting we'd be able to 
leave the party. That was as far as I was thinking."

"Still nervous about being open about being with 
Kim?" Sara asked, turning to look at Georgia.

"It's not that. I wasn't expecting this would turn 
into a date night if we got away from the party."

"But it's Halloween!" Kim said, pulling Georgia over 
and leaning to meet her halfway. "Is there a more 
awesome night for going on a date?" She wiggled her 
eyebrows at her, grinning.

"Incorrigible nutter. Completely incorrigible, you 
know that?" She gave Kim a kiss and sat upright. "I 
don't think I can consider this a date, to be honest. 
It feels more like a night out with new friends to 
me."

"That's fine," I said, waiting for traffic so I could 
pull into the parking lot of Steakhouse. "We did 
decide we're going to Steakhouse, right? You all have 
about ten seconds to issue objections."

"Fooooooooooood!" from Kim was all that met my 
announcement.


Chapter 13

Dinner was uneventful, filled with talk of arts and 
Kim dancing in her seat next to Georgia whenever 
Georgia started humming or tapping out a tune of any 
kind.

"You should go into dancing," Georgia said after the 
sixth or seventh time, wrapping one arm around Kim 
and swaying in time with her. "I could do the music, 
you could do the dancing, and we'd have a 
collaborative thing we could do together."

"Would I be able to do you, too?" Kim asked, giving 
her an earnest look.

"Oh my god." Georgia laughed and pushed Kim. "You 
don't ever stop! No, we couldn't do dirty dancing. 
That would be porn."

Kim mock pouted and gave Georgia a puppy dog look, 
holding her hands together in front of her. Georgia 
took her face between her hands and gave her a kiss.

"We'd have a bed for that, nutter."

Kim grinned and clapped, then tried to dart in and 
lick Georgia's nose. Georgia pulled back just in time 
and then did the same, succeeding where Kim had 
failed. She laughed while Kim wiped her nose and 
stuck her tongue out at her.

By the time we'd finished, the mall was already 
closing up and there weren't any movies we would 
could agree on seeing, either for a first viewing or 
a repeat, so we swung by Sara and Kim's to grab some 
spare pillow cases to trick-or-treat with. Sara and I 
let Kim and Georgia lead, mostly so there'd be less 
attention on the fact Sara was obviously having a 
hard time staying focused.

"I didn't think not wearing panties would make it so 
much more difficult," Sara said while we were stopped 
at the foot of a walkway, waiting for Kim and 
Georgia. "I'm pretty sure my thighs are slicked down 
to my knees by now."

"So you're saying next time we should include a 
remote vib, too?" I asked, smiling and lifting her 
chin so she was looking up at me, and I gave her a 
kiss.

"I wouldn't be able to walk at all if you did that, 
and you know it."

She glanced up the walkway at Kim and Georgia, who 
were now talking with whoever lived there. Apparently 
at least one of them knew the person at the door, a 
friend of Kim's dressed as Sally from Nightmare 
Before Christmas, and Kim raised her hands above her 
head and started swaying her hips when her and 
Georgia started in on a song. We spent a minute 
watching Kim dance, a languid tease with her 
attention on Georgia, which was about as unsubtle a 
come-on as we'd ever seen from her.

"What if I said there's no plans for getting you off 
tonight?" I said to Sara, drawing her attention back. 
"That we're just planning to tease you and leave you 
horny and wet because we enjoy it when you are?"

"I'd say I'm not surprised." Her attention drifted 
back to the show Kim was putting on, a show Georgia 
was now matching while keeping up her part of the 
song, before switching back to me. "I love it, but 
right now I don't know if it's what I want. I think 
right now what I want is a long tease and then making 
love. I really want the both of you, but I don't know 
if that's ever going to happen."

"We're working on that, love."

She nodded, her arms going around my neck so she 
could press against me. My hands drifted down her 
back to her ass, and I squeezed it while we kissed, 
then bit at her lip when that broke.

"Do you have a time figured out yet? I know it 
wouldn't be this weekend, but maybe next?"

"We're still working on that, but we already have 
some ideas what we're going to do to you and for you. 
We'll have a date once we have the date plan worked 
out."

"As long as it means I get to have both of you, 
that's all I care about."

"That's a promise."

She smiled and purred, and we kissed again until Kim 
snuck up on us and jumped Sara with a loud, "Boo!" 
Fortunately, Sara doesn't surprise easily, so we 
didn't end up with bruised lips, though Kim did get a 
good smack to her arm. She just grinned.

"That was a bit of a show you put on up there," I 
said to her and Georgia when we started on our way 
again.

"Impromptu practice," Georgia said with a nod, one 
hand holding Kim's and her other swinging her pillow 
case of candy. "It was a good opportunity to see if 
we could play off each other."

"Don't you mean play with each other?" Kim asked, 
putting on an innocent look.

"In a certain sense of the phrase, that also 
applies."

Kim grinned and twirled forward to walk backward in 
front of Georgia, leaning in to give her a kiss.

"It was really fun dancing with you. We need to do it 
more."

"Do you think you could handle practicing together? I 
play at least an hour a night if you want to come 
over."

"Really!?" Kim stopped dead, barely managing to hold 
in her enthusiasm, and we only avoided a pileup 
because of Sara and me lagging behind. "You'd be ok 
doing that? What about your mom and dad?"

"I'll worry about that, nutter girl. Can you promise 
me you'd be able to behave?"

Kim nodded, bouncing and crossing her heart before 
snatching up Georgia's hands and hopping in a circle 
with her. Georgia laughed and tugged her to a stop so 
she could pull her in for a kiss.

"This isn't a promise it will happen, nutter. It's an 
offer. I still need to run it by my parents, but I 
need to figure out how to do that so it won't seem 
weird. It might take a week or two, ok?"

"I am totally the most patient person ever in 
existence," Kim declared, and we all laughed. She 
stuck her tongue out at us and continued, undeterred. 
"I think we can always find ways to spend time 
together, like Romeo and Juliet, see?"

"Only without the whole suicide part, I hope," I 
said.

"We're so not that dumb, Mr. Man." She stuck her 
tongue out at me and looked back at Georgia. "I think 
we can totally make it work, right?"

"We'll find a way, yes," Georgia said, stepping into 
Kim and slipping an arm around her waist, other hand 
taking one of Kim's. "You will need to work on your 
focus, though. I take practice seriously."

"Feh." She licked Georgia's lips and set her feet to 
start into a slow dance with her. "Just because I'm 
bouncy doesn't mean I can't focus. I will show you my 
report cards! They are proof! Straight A's!"

Georgia hummed and kissed her, then stepped out of 
the dance.

"I'll ask mum and dad about it tomorrow. We still 
have trick-or-treating to do."


Chapter 14

"I feel like I'm seven again," Georgia said, peering 
into her quarter full pillow case before reaching in 
to sort through it. We'd all managed a similar haul, 
hitting the tail end of people handing out candy and 
wanting to get rid of it. "I haven't seen this much 
candy at once since I was in grade school."

We'd landed in the riverfront park to catch the 
closing end of the city's Halloween festivity, and 
had taken over one of the park tables at the 
periphery of the festival. There was a band with a 
ridiculously long name playing Lovecraft themed music 
from the bandstand, but there was enough stuff 
between them and us the music was only partly 
intelligible.

"I'll take anything you don't want," Kim said, 
leaning against Georgia to peer at her haul. "Like 
those Nutter Butters, maybe?"

"Nutters for the nutter?" Georgia laughed and flipped 
them in the general direction of Kim's stash. "I'll 
trade them for anything coconut you have."

"Sweet!" Kim set to sorting through her candy, and 
the two of them passed stuff back and forth.

"You've seemed out of sorts tonight, Sara," Georgia 
said, giving her a glance.

"It's just cramps," Sara said, peeling the wrapper 
off a candy bar. "Or at least feels like it. Might 
get Mike to give me a massage later, see if that 
helps."

"How would a massage help cramps?"

"Gets rid of tension when she's wound up," I said, 
giving Sara a look. "There's been a lot of stress 
lately."

"Because of Jennifer."

"Mostly."

Several minutes of silence followed, if silence could 
be considered to include Kim and Georgia going back 
and forth about what candy they were willing to trade 
for what and how much. Sara leaned against me and I 
circled my fingers lightly on the back of her neck, 
and it wasn't long before she reached up to stop me.

"Has tonight been more interesting for you than 
staying home at the party?" Sara asked once she had 
her self-control back.

"By far," Georgia said, shifting her attention. "It 
was kind of awkward at first, since I wanted to just 
spend time with Kim, but it's turned out better than 
I anticipated."

"I'm glad. We don't normally do a group outing like 
this, and I just realized it may have made you 
uncomfortable, since you don't really know Mike or me 
very well."

Georgia thought for a moment before saying anything.

"You all seem very earnest about being honest, so I 
hope I'm not crossing any lines saying there have 
been times you've come across much too strongly. I 
was unsure I wanted to be out with you, but I spent 
some time thinking about some of what you said when 
we first met. It was more you wanting to be 
understood than trying to be malicious and keep me 
away from Kim, for whatever reason."

Sara quirked her mouth in a small smile and shook her 
head.

"No, I wouldn't want to keep you away from her, or 
her from you. I'm her sister, not her keeper, and 
watching the two of you I see a lot of joy. You work 
together and complement each other, and I haven't 
seen her as alive with anyone as she is with you. I 
don't want to take that from her. I'm sorry if it 
seemed like I was trying to come between you. We both 
are. Sorry, I mean, not trying to come between you."

Sara was pointedly not looking at Kim, though I could 
tell she was fully aware of Kim's reaction. Whatever 
it was she was feeling, she was putting a lot of 
effort into controlling herself so she wouldn't let 
it out. Even years of pretending the two of them 
weren't madly in love with each other only went so 
far, though Sara seemed to be having an easier time 
of it. I expect that was because she wasn't entirely 
hiding her feelings and was using the context as 
cover. It would make it easier to direct Georgia away 
from suspecting they were involved. If I hadn't known 
the background, I doubt I'd have picked up at all on 
what she was doing.

"That seems an odd thing to say."

Sara shook her head again and looked at Kim, who'd 
composed herself by now, the fastest conceal I'd ever 
seen from her. She held her look for a second before 
turning back to Georgia.

"I'm just happy she's found someone who makes her 
happy. I was the first person she came out to, and 
I've watched her end up hurt a lot. She got a lot of 
teasing in middle school for not having any 
boyfriends. For the longest time, I wanted to make 
everyone love her, because I didn't like seeing her 
unhappy, but I realized that was... unreasonable. So 
I just loved her and gave her my support, instead. 
Whatever other people thought didn't matter. I like 
to think it's part of why she's so strong now."

She paused, long enough Georgia or Kim could have 
routed her thought off track, but neither of them 
said anything, and she continued with, "Which I guess 
kind of comes across as me being protective, but I 
hope you understand why? We've been each other's 
confidants since we were little."

"That explains some of why this nutter's so ebullient 
about you," Georgia said after a few seconds, nudging 
Kim with an elbow. "There isn't anyone in my life I 
have that kind of connection with, so I can't 
appreciate what it's like. Why tell me this, though? 
Do you feel we need your blessing to be together or 
something?"

Sara blinked, caught off guard.

"That's not what I meant at all, no. I'm just saying 
I'm happy you two are happy together, and why I'm 
happy. If I wanted to keep you apart, I'd be a lot 
more of a bitch about it. I was actually encouraging 
her to pursue you when she first started telling me 
about you. It would have taken her a lot longer if I 
hadn't."

"By, like, a week or two," Kim said, nodding to 
herself and leaning into Georgia to peer at her. "But 
then we would have totally missed Halloween together! 
That would have been epic."

"I don't think you're using that word right, nutter. 
It wouldn't have been epic at all."

"It totally would have been! Epically bad! Horrible! 
We would totally have missed out on free candy 
together, and you being super duper awesome with your 
piano, and dancing, and all the other stuff." She 
kissed Georgia and scooted closer so they were hip-
to-hip, draping her arms around her. "Want to know a 
secret about Sara? She's wordy. When she's talking a 
lot it means she likes you."

Sara opened her mouth to retort and only managed a 
stunted, "I... You..." before settling on an amused 
glare at Kim, who only grinned. Georgia and I 
laughed.

"Sounds like she nailed you pretty accurately there," 
I said, leaning Sara into me for a hug.

She just growled and swatted me, returning her head 
to my shoulder.

"I fully expect compensation for being outed, you 
know," she said to Kim, flipping her gaze between her 
and her tower of Nutter Butter packages.

"Only if I get my pick of trade," she answered, 
giving her a shrewd peer.

Sara moved her pillow case of candy from the bench 
beside her to the table, and Kim dug through it, 
tongue sticking out of one corner of her mouth in 
mock concentration. She narrowed her eyes at Sara, 
covering her find with her hands.

"I will trade..." She paused for a few seconds, then 
flourished a package of Nutter Butters in the air. 
"For this!"

"Hm. You drive a hard bargain, my dear sister, a very 
hard bargain indeed, but it is agreeable. Commence 
trade."

Kim grinned and clapped, bouncing while Sara snagged 
a pair of cookies.

"This must be the sort of thing I'm missing by being 
an only child," Georgia said, giving Sara and Kim a 
perplexed look.

"That makes two of us," I said, and she looked at me. 
"I've learned just to enjoy being a voyeur and let 
them have their crazy."

"I am bouncy!" Kim stuck her tongue out at me. 
"There's a difference."


Chapter 15

With no movie to keep us out late, we returned to 
Georgia's a little before midnight, catching the tail 
end of her parent's party, though we mostly stayed on 
the front porch. Georgia put Sara and I in the 
swinging bench, and she and Kim relocated a pair of 
chairs from inside. Georgia disappeared for a few 
minutes to change out of her costume, reappearing 
with her guitar, a nice looking acoustic.

"I'm in the mood for playing," she said, leaning over 
it and strumming a few times to test tuning. "It 
occurs to me that most of what you've heard me play 
is my clarinet for school events, but that's not what 
I enjoy most. If they had real pianos, I'd play 
those. Everyone and their neighbor plays guitar, so I 
don't think of it as anything special."

"Are you going to show off your beat boxing again?" I 
asked, and watched her look sour.

"Not anytime soon." She picked off a few quick 
chords, short and sharp. "They're 'reviewing' until 
further notice to determine if it's 'acceptable as a 
form of music.' It's bullshit, but I expected it. 
It's the same reaction that's been leveled at any 
other music rooted in black culture, especially rock 
and roll.

"I really don't want to bore you with musical 
history, though. I'm hoping I'll be able to perform 
more of it when this year's class graduates, but 
they'll probably drag their feet into next school 
year."

"What do you feel like playing?" Sara said, 
tightening her grip on my hand when I started teasing 
my fingers at the back of her neck.

"Nothing particular. It's been a while since I've had 
an opportunity to play guitar for anyone, and it's 
more portable than my piano."

"Do you take requests?"

"Depends on the song. If I don't know it, I can't 
play it."

"Do you know any Moody Blues? They're Kim's 
favorite."

Georgia turned to Kim and gave her a hard poke, 
making her rock in her chair.

"You never told me this, nutter. I'd be playing for 
you all the time if you had."

"I didn't think you liked them?" Kim said, cowering 
dramatically.

"Give me a Moody Blues song, nutter. It doesn't 
matter what it is. I know them all."

"'Your Wildest Dreams?'"

Georgia laughed and started playing a second later.

"You're lucky I have a lot of practice transcribing 
piano to guitar and vice versa, since this one's 
pretty light on guitar, especially with the opening. 
Do you know the words?"

Kim just grinned and grabbed a candy bar, then hopped 
to her feet and began singing. She wasn't superstar 
great, but she held the tune and only broke a handful 
of notes, using the candy bar as a mic and dancing 
while she serenaded each of us, but mostly Georgia. 
Georgia joined her about halfway through, a much more 
level singer than Kim, but she also had years more 
practice. Georgia transitioned immediately into 
another song, one Sara and I didn't recognize, but 
they knew it inside out.

"You dance and sing and cook," Georgia said after 
that song, still swaying and idly strumming. "And you 
call me magical." She shifted tune and riffed on 
Heart. ""Try, try, try to understand, she's a magic 
girl.""

"Kim has super powers?" Sara said, laughing, and Kim 
grinned and spun in place, striking a Sailor Moon 
pose.

"I totally wish I had super powers," she said, 
bopping her hips back and forth, her cat tail swaying 
wildly. "I'd be saving the world every day and 
everyone would get adorable little kittens and puppy 
dogs and everything nice."

"You're too crazy to be a Sailor, nutter. You're ani-
maney, totally insaney."

"Yes!" Kim cried, beaming and bouncing, and Georgia 
rolled into the Animaniacs theme, laughing.


Chapter 16

Georgia played for another half hour or so, Kim 
dancing and singing along more often than not, and 
Sara and I joined with the singing on fewer songs 
than we cared to admit. Mostly we enjoyed the 
goofiness and dynamic Kim and Georgia had going, 
mostly forgetting there was still a party going on on 
the other side of the wall from us. We had our own 
party, and that's all we cared about.

"One of my favorite pieces was done by Yasunori 
Mitsuda," she said when Kim's energy had mostly 
tapered off. "It's the theme for Schala from Chrono 
Trigger. I can't do it justice with just my guitar, 
because it's really at least a three person piece if 
it's to be performed well, but I like to try. It's a 
very calming work." She grabbed Kim's hand and pulled 
her toward her chair. "Sit down, nutter. You're going 
to distract me."

Kim pouted but sat, and Georgia closed her eyes and 
began humming, plucking at her guitar and 
transitioning into the main melody, somehow soft, 
sad, longing, and peaceful all at once. She cycled 
through twice more, building variation as she went, 
and then let the last notes linger, fading.

"The main melody really is better when it's done on 
flute like it should be, and piano and guitar 
backing."

"I think you can play anything," Kim said, nodding. 
"I really liked that one."

Georgia smiled and bowed her head, then stood and 
stretched.

"I can't play everything. Some music is very much 
dependent on the instrument. Acoustic can't do some 
of what an electric can do."

"Silly girl." Kim jumped to her feet and took 
Georgia's hands, swinging them back and forth. "You 
have magical fingers, and they can play anything."

Georgia leaned forward and whispered in Kim's ear, 
and Kim grinned and whispered back before Georgia 
pulled away.

"It feels like it's really late," she said, taking 
her hands back from Kim and rubbing at her eyes. "I 
wasn't expecting we'd go on like this."

Sara reached down the front of her dress and pulled 
out her phone to check the time.

"It's almost one," she said, "which means we should 
probably get ourselves back home."

She shoved to her feet and gave Georgia a hug, and I 
followed suit.

"Thank you for inviting us. We had a lot of fun."

"Are you satisfied I'm not going to eat Kim now?" 
Georgia said, giving Sara a wry smile.

Sara laughed, mostly because of Kim actively biting 
her tongue to keep from blurting anything out she 
shouldn't.

"Yes, I'm satisfied you won't eat her, but I wasn't 
worried you would, anyway. You're not enough of a big 
bad wolf."

"No, I'm a siren. I catch people with my music."

She nodded and strummed her guitar, turned to Kim.

"I'll see you at school, nutter, first thing?"

"Yep!" Kim said, grinning and pumping her fists into 
the air. "Monday's our long day together?"

"It is, and don't forget that research stuff for Ms 
Kerridge's class."

Kim saluted and said, "Already done, Jor, and even 
with a bibliography! Super ahead of the curve!"

"Even better."

She hugged Kim and they looked at each other for a 
second before pulling apart. Kim bounced once, then 
hopped off the porch and spun, waving frantically. 
Georgia laughed and waved after, watching us depart.

"I wanted to kiss her so bad before leaving," Kim 
complained once we were in my car, watching Georgia 
amble back inside, playing her guitar. "Stupid having 
to wait sucks so bad."

"I doubt it's going to get any easier," I said, 
pulling away from the curb and into nonexistent 
traffic. "You're going to have to find different ways 
of being affectionate when you're at her place until 
she's able to come out to her parents, I think."

"Easy for you to say. You don't have to pretend."

"I know. I'm not trying to pretend I know what it's 
like to be you, hon. I'm not gay, a woman, or in love 
with a sibling because I don't have any. That doesn't 
mean I can't be here to support you. It's like Sara 
was saying earlier."

She sighed and leaned against the door, resting her 
chin on her fist and staring out the window.

"I think I'm falling in love," she said after a few 
minutes.

"We know, love," Sara said, reaching back and 
grasping one of Kim's knees. "We can see it, and 
we're going to do our best to stay out of the way."

"It's that obvious?"

I laughed a bit and glanced at her in the mirror, 
said, "We know you pretty well, hon, so we know how 
you act. Sara better than me, but still. I'm pretty 
sure Georgia's falling, too."

"Really?"

"If tonight was anything to go by, yes."

She resumed staring out the window, which wasn't the 
response I'd expected. Sara either.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Sara said, twisting around 
to look at her sister.

"Just figuring things out," was all she said, shaking 
her head. "Trying not to be nervous, I think. There's 
a lot going on, and it's hard to keep track of 
everything."

"Do you want to talk once we're home?"

"I'm not ready yet."

Sara nodded and gave her knee a squeeze before 
turning back around.

"There's two things I want to get out of the way 
before I drop you two off for the night," I said, 
glancing at Kim in the mirror and then over at Sara. 
"Also, food."

"Nutter Butters are all the food I need," Kim said, 
nodding and patting her sack of candy.

"It's one in the morning, love," Sara said, looking 
at me. "I don't think anywhere's even still open."

"We can get tacos. Drive thru's open for another 
hour."

Sara hummed and Kim leaned forward between the seats, 
pointing vaguely.

"What about Bull Horn?" she asked, peering at me. "Do 
you think we might be able to catch Cindy? I want to 
tell her about tonight!"

I shook my head and said, "Not tonight. I'll take you 
by her place tomorrow, if you want, but if we see her 
tonight, we're going to end up sidetracked and not 
getting things planned out that we need to plan out."

"What's on your mind, love?" Sara asked, waving Kim 
back into her seat.

"Food first. I don't want to have only half my 
attention available."

We picked up tacos for Kim and me and a burrito for 
Sara, and we settled in at the park down the street 
from their place to eat. Kim claimed one of the 
cartoonish animals that sat atop a giant spring, a 
few feet away from the table Sara and I were at, and 
rocked while we ate and talked.

"We need to sort out when we're doing a date with 
Sara," I said, and forestalled Kim from interrupting 
by holding up a hand at her, "but I need to talk with 
Jen before that. I can't put that off any longer. 
None of the stress we've had since the other day is 
getting worked out very well. I know you-" I looked 
at Kim, "-don't want anything to do with her, and 
you-" I looked at Sara, "-aren't sure what to do 
about her, since you were starting to be friends with 
her. I don't want to push either of you to deal with 
her before you're ready, but cutting her out doesn't 
work for me. As much as I want to spend time with you 
two and be here for you while you get your groove 
back, I need to have at least a day with her."

"I'm still going to hate her for a while," Kim said, 
leaning down to grab another of her tacos. "I still 
don't know if I'll be ok with her again, and I'm 
trying really hard not to tell you to stop being 
friends with her. I'm still mad."

"I know, which is one of the reasons I need to talk 
with her. Like I told you the other day, she's not 
feeling too great about what happened, either. I 
don't know if there's anything else I can say right 
now that would do anything to change how you feel 
about her. I think the only thing that would right 
now is action from her."

"You don't need to convince us she's important to 
you, love," Sara said, then muttered at her burrito 
as it collapsed and spilled onto the wrapper she'd 
laid out. "We'll be ok without you for a day or two. 
You don't need to try taking on our wellbeing. We 
know you're worried about us, but we aren't that 
fragile. This isn't going to break us if you take 
some time for yourself, and you need it."

"I don't like her right now, but you need to be 
happy, too, Mr. Man. That's an order! Be happy!"

She twirled a hand in the air and made a whoosh sound 
as she pointed at me, and I laughed.

"I wish it were that easy, just wave a magic wand and 
poof, everything's fixed. Do you have one hidden 
somewhere that you haven't been telling us about?"

"I think it's out of fairy dust." She pouted. "It 
hasn't worked since we were little."

"Try replacing the batteries, you goof," Sara said, 
pulling apart her tortilla and improvising soft 
tacos. "If it's the vibrating one I'm thinking of, 
that's usually the problem."

"Right! I totally forgot it vibrates! I so need to do 
that!" She gave me an earnest look. "Can we pick up 
batteries before you drop us off?"

"Don't you have other toys that vibrate that can get 
you through the night?"

She stuck her tongue out at me and said, "Those are 
all Sara's. She shares, but I don't have money for my 
own sexy fun toys."

"Sounds like we'll have to do something about that, 
but not right now." I paused to finish a taco, then 
took one of Sara's hands in mine, holding her gaze 
and glancing occasionally at Kim. "I know we need to 
do a date with Sara, and that would help us a lot, 
but I want to take next weekend to talk with Jen, and 
we can do our date the weekend after. That will give 
us two weeks to sort out what we want to do, where we 
want to go, put together outfits if we want to be all 
fancy, whatever."

"Two weeks is a really long time," Sara said, 
frowning a bit.

"I know, but I'm pretty sure talking with Jen first 
and getting things sorted out with her will get a lot 
of stress out of the way and we'll be able to enjoy 
our date more."

"Will we get to tease sis until then?" Kim asked, 
leaning forward onto the nose of her animal ride. 
"With how she's been feeling lately, I kinda do and I 
kinda don't. It's hard for me to tell if it's what 
she wants when she's in this kind of mood."

"What do you want, love? You in the mood for 
teasing?"

She sighed and squeezed my hands, looking at our 
twined fingers.

"I don't know, honestly," she said after a long 
silence. "What I really want is both of you right now 
making love to me, and making love to you, but we 
can't. Especially here in the park, and doing it in 
the car is... it wouldn't feel right. It's not the 
right spot for it." She looked up at me and then at 
Kim. "I know you enjoy teasing me, and I love when 
you do, but my libido's been really hit or miss for 
the last two weeks because I haven't been getting 
that, making love to you both, and it's what I need 
right now. I want to be teased, but I don't know how 
into it I'll be. It goes away pretty fast if 
something isn't being done to me in the moment. I'm 
sure you've both noticed it tonight."

She shifted her attention to Kim

"I was telling Mike earlier the balls without any 
panties on have me running like a faucet, and by the 
time we were done trick-or-treating, I could feel it 
running down my calves. Once we stopped walking, the 
mood just went away."

"I'm your sun, your moon, your starlit sky, and it 
just went away!?"

Sara laughed and quoted, "As you wish."

Kim grinned and tumbled off her animal ride, 
scurrying over to sit with Sara and wrap her arms 
around her. Sara smiled and leaned into her, pressing 
her face against Kim's neck.

"I don't recognize that first one," I said, giving 
Kim an inquisitive look.

"It's from Willow," she said. "Joanne Whalley is 
super hot, but her character totally fails as a good 
one in that movie. She turns into a total bimbo after 
Val Kilmer's character shows how awesome he is with 
all his sword swinging."

She made whishing sounds and waved an arm around 
before going back to holding Sara. We sat quietly for 
a bit, and I took the opportunity to finish my food, 
thinking. Kim stroked her fingers through Sara's 
hair, humming mostly in-tune to her.

"How about we don't plan any teasing or play for 
between now and our date?" I said once I'd eaten and 
cleaned up our trash. "If we have a chance to tease 
or play, we take it or not, if our mood's ok for it, 
but otherwise no expectations."

"I'm ok with that," Sara murmured, stirring against 
Kim and pulling away with a low moan. She stretched 
and yawned. "You almost put me to sleep, hon."

Kim put on an innocent look and said, "Oops?"

"Uh huh. I believe your oops as much as I believe 
you're an angel."

"Totally not playing an angel this year. Cheshire cat 
is more awesome." Kim nodded once to herself, then 
leaned over and kissed Sara, pulling her close again. 
"I love you, sis. You're the best person ever."

Sara smiled and returned the kiss, pulling Kim's cat 
ears off so she could run her fingers through her 
hair.

"I love you, too, and I want you forever. Do you 
think you can go two weeks without fooling around 
with me, though?"

"Easy peasy!" Kim grinned and kissed her again, 
biting at her lip. "I'll just invite Georgia over for 
another sleepover and we'll keep you awake all night 
with our orgasms."

"Oh, you are so evil. So, so evil." Sara laughed and 
gave her a small shove, then turned to me. "What 
about you? You're as bad as she is."

"Probably," I said, leaning across the table to kiss 
her. "I'll just have Cindy record something new for 
you to watch every night and tease yourself with."

"Oh my god. You're both going to kill me with teasing 
before our date."

"Not tonight. It's pretty late and we should be 
getting back."

Sara hummed agreement and said, "Bed sounds really 
good. I like this plan. I will get naked and pass out 
in no time."

"Pft!" from Kim, looking down at herself. "Easy for 
you to say. I still need to shower to get this paint 
off before I can sleep."

"Then let's get going."

I poked at her and stood, and they followed me to the 
car. I gave Sara a kiss before she headed inside once 
we got to their place, but I had Kim wait.

"What's up, Mr. Man?"

"Can we be serious a minute?"

She peered at me, rocking on her heels and bending at 
the waist, hands behind her back.

"What kind of a question is that? A silly one?"

"Just making sure we don't end up talking past each 
other. Do you think you could put together a list of 
stuff you want to do with Sara for our date and get 
it to me on Monday? And make sure she doesn't see it. 
I want to surprise her, but I want it to be special, 
and I haven't been able to think of anything. My 
mind's been too busy with everything else, and this 
is something we need to work on together."

She nodded and put away her bounciness, looked over 
at the front door after Sara. She turned back to me 
after a second.

"I'll try to think of stuff tomorrow. I don't know 
how much of it we'll be able to do, though. A lot of 
stuff I want to do for her costs a lot. Like, a lot a 
lot."

"I'll worry about cost once we know what we want to 
do. Right now we just need to agree on what to do. 
I'd like to have that figured out by next weekend, so 
there's time to put everything together, but I don't 
know if that's possible."

She poked me in the chest, hard, and I gave her a 
look just as hard, rubbing the sore spot.

"What was that for?"

"Because you're doubting we can do right by her. 
Don't do that. I will kick your ass again."

I just looked at her, then laughed and hugged her.

"Alright, though it's more I'm doubting myself, I 
think, being able to do everything like she deserves. 
I want her happy."

"We both do, Mr. Man. You need to stop trying to do 
everything for everyone, ok? I'm serious." She poked 
me again, less severe. "I can do stuff, too. We're 
working together, right? We're doing this together. 
To-geth-er." She poked me some more with each 
syllable. "That means helping each other, right? You 
keep trying to do everything and you don't give me a 
chance, and we end up..." She waved her hands wildly 
in all directions. "Whatever. You know what I mean."

I had to think about that for a minute, and 
eventually nodded.

"You're right." I hugged her tight and held her hips, 
looking at her. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, Mr. Man. You're just you. That's 
what you would tell me, right? You said we need to 
learn how to talk and work together, so let's do 
that." She kissed me and stepped back, then bent and 
picked up her candy sack. "I'll work on that 
brainstorm list tomorrow, but I want ideas from you, 
too. No excuses, ok? Ok. I'll see you Monday."

She nodded and spun, not giving me time to reply, and 
skipped up to the door and inside.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It's okay to *READ* stories about unprotected sex with 
others outside a monogamous relationship. But it isn't 
okay to *HAVE* unprotected sex with people other than a 
trusted partner. 4-million people around the world 
contract HIV every year. You only have one body per 
lifetime, so take good care of it!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Kristen's collection - Directory 41