A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 53

"Oh Buttons, "she sobbed, "I'm so sorry."

He drew a deep breath and she heard it shudder out of him, "It's alright. You didn't do anything wrong. It was your parents. I couldn't tell them, and they were just too bull-headed to understand. I didn't cry for my mother, I couldn't even remember her face by then. I didn't cry at night if we were together. But they locked me out of your room. Then I cried because I couldn't help it. Your father used to beat me and kick me around because I scratched up the wall and the door trying to get to you at night. I didn't know how to work a doorknob until later."

She nodded her understanding and dove for his chest again, wanting only to feel him against her and the way that it felt to her to bury her face in his neck and inhale his gentle smell. It reminded her of a time when no one threatened her, when no one teased her or pulled her ponytail. One look from Buttons and everyone left her alone. "I'm sorry," she sniffled, "I just can't help wanting to hug you."

"It's alright," he whispered, "I still love to hold you as well."

She looked up into his eyes again, "I only know a little about what you are, but I'm dying to know as much as I can. About all I know is that your kind looks for somebody to spend their lives with and they stay that way. If you've got somebody, I'd love to meet her. She must really be something to –"

She stopped then, seeing the look in his eyes as he tried to blink away the last of his tears.

"There isn't anyone, is there?" she asked and he shook his head, "Females are very rare around here," he said, "and I'm not particularly – "

Finally, Nancy found that she could smile as she waved her finger at him, "Oh, don't even try to tell me that, Buttons. You look amazing to me, no matter how you are. Is there another name that I should call you? It seems a little –"

"It's fine, "he smiled, "It was good enough for me before, and I haven't heard it in so long. I like the way that you say it."

"Are you married or anything?" he asked, and she smirked, "I'm not well-liked enough to be married, Buttons. I've never found a man who could put up with me. I can't think that anyone ever would, to tell you the truth. So I guess I'm in that 'anything' category."

"How do you mean?" he whispered and she grinned a little, "I'm almost thirty and that's what I'd settle for – anything. But right now, I'm so happy that we've found each other somehow. Thank you for all of this and for taking care of me. I don't know what they'll do with me tomorrow. They'll have to decide something before we get to that hospital where they want to take Ewan. Maybe they'll want to shoot me. I know their secret now and maybe they won't want it known that the best roadmen are werewolves."

"I think it all depends on you and if you plan to tell on us," he said, "That kind of word gets around, my business will drop off pretty quick."

Nancy looked at him, "Your business?"

He nodded, "Yeah. I started this by myself a while ago. I needed a way to feed myself, so I'd hire out and guarantee anyone who hired me to get them someplace that they would get there alive and in good time, even if I didn't make it. I hired the rest as business got better – and as the roads got worse. I was the first silent roadman. It pays not bad now and it's a good way to make a living if you like being outside the way that I do. It gets a little adventurous sometimes, but that's life.

Nobody's going to shoot you, Nancy, but I'd like it if you didn't tell anyone what we are."

She shook her head, "I won't tell, Buttons. Besides, I figure that I'll be pretty busy just trying to stay alive myself. This morning, I had it pretty good. Now, I've got nothing and I didn't really mistreat the prisoners like some of the hub back there did, but I reckon I'll be going to jail for something or other. Ewan thinks I arranged it so that his sentence would be changed to hard time. I know who did it, but it wasn't me.

I actually don't have anything against him, but I won't even try to tell him that. He just keeps hitting me. The only thing that I wanted from him was one night in bed with him. I'm not mad at him for saying no the way that he thinks. I was just lonely."

She looked away, "I'm pretty much always like that."

"Tell me the things that you're good at," he whispered as he moved her hair out of her eyes, "most everybody's good at something."

"I dunno," she said with a shrug, "I can ride and shoot ok, I guess, and I can take care of myself – if I'm not up against one of you guys. I used to think I was pretty smart, but I guess I was maybe a little wrong. I do know that I'm not stupid, and maybe the thing I can do best is grow money. I never just put my money in a bank to sit and rot. I always try to make my money work for me instead of the other way around."

"That's what I need to learn," the werewolf said, "I just earn money and then bank it. When I need to buy anything, I hate parting with any because I always remind myself of how hard I had to work to get it.

You don't have anything now, do you?"

She shook her head, "Just what you see. These are all the clothes I own now, since I can't go back to get my things. No coat, no clean clothes, no horse and saddle and no gun. D'Arcy gave my gun to Callie."

"You should try to get some sleep, Nancy," he said, "Let tomorrow work itself out. Just sleep for now. I'll stay with you."

He looked at her quizzically as she began to squirm and fidget under the blankets.

"What are you doing?" he asked, and she stopped, since his point of view had just come to her mind.

"I'm taking off my clothes, Buttons. I think I'll be pretty warm under here with you, but what I really want is to hold you with nothing in the way between us. We used to be family, didn't we? I was never so happy as when I was against you. Maybe tonight is all that I'm gonna ever get, but if I have my way, then I'll at least have one night with the closest friend that I ever had – that is, if you don't mind.

If you want to fool around with me a little, well that'll be alright too. I always wanted to be your girl when we were kids. So we're all grown up now and I don't know about you, but my life is pretty much ruined right now. I want a night in your arms if you still like me enough for that.

I used to have something that nobody else had when I was a kid," she said, "After I was grown, I found out that it's not really unusual for a little girl or boy to have a friend that nobody can see – because that friend is in their imagination. You were my friend then and you were real. You were my secret, Buttons. You were my boy."

She shrugged, "I've never really known anyone after you who seemed worth being close to."

He nodded, "Get undressed then and I'll do my best to keep you covered. When you're ready, then just come here. I'm still your boy. Nancy."

She stopped suddenly and looked up, "Huh? You – you are?"

He reached over to move her hair again, "I didn't want to go. I didn't ever want to be away from you. They whipped me and threw stones at me." She saw the tears there again as he struggled to speak, "I cried for you too."

Nancy almost dove against his wide chest and they stopped speaking as he made certain that she was well covered in blankets. To him, the feeling of her body pressed to his almost precluded speaking. There was nothing to say. He held her as tightly as he dared and drew comfort from her that she had no idea she could provide.

To Nancy, it was an epiphany. She remembered being a little girl and being held by her much larger friend. But over the course of the many intervening years she'd grown, of course, and he'd grown as well - a lot more than she'd grown.

Where she'd once loved to be in his arms against his chest when they were children, she now sighed and reveled in the way that his body felt against her bare skin. As she moved a little, Nancy felt as though her nipples almost sang to her in their joy at finding themselves in a warm furry place which wasn't all that soft underneath and felt so good to press herself against. His arms were around her, his large hands running over her bare back and bottom keeping warm and happy thrills in motion all over her. She opened her eyes and looked into his, only wet now and not weeping. She smiled and lifted her face to his, opening her mouth as she felt his lips against hers.

After the first one, she had to make a concerted effort to keep her moans down to quiet sighs. As children, they'd kissed each other, but this was different, fueled as it was by adult emotion and even need and driven by their want to hold onto someone from a time in their lives when things didn't have to make any sense.

He began to kiss her neck and throat and she threw her head back to give him the room for it as she hugged his head to her in the darkness. The night grew cold, but none of the feeling touched Nancy as she laid her cheek against his head and felt his ear as it grazed the end of her nose. He smelled so fucking good to her that she kissed his face over and over.

After a moment, she tried to pull the blankets tighter around them, and he noticed it, so he did that for her. As he moved things around for that, Nancy put her leg over his hip and moved it up until it was around his waist. The motion brought his sheath in contact with her mound and she smiled at him.

"I'm not like you, Buttons, but now I have a little fur myself. Want to feel?"

It made him smile and laugh just a little in his silent way and as he moved his hand there, Nancy moved a little so he'd have the room to feel her lips. She reached down herself and held his sheath to carefully rub the tip along her cleft when he pulled his hand away. They stayed like that for some minutes as he swelled and she felt the hot hardness as it began to protrude.

Nancy moved her free hand and touched his face. "If you can be gentle, then I'd love to let you fuck me, Buttons."

His brow furrowed then, "I don't know if I can please a human, Nancy."

"You're already pleasing me," she said, "I know that we ought to be able to make each other happy, and I won't care if I don't get there. As long as you get there, Buttons, that'll be enough for me. I don't expect to hear a choir the first time. Things like that can take a few tries. I just want you to love me the way that I've always daydreamed about since I was old enough to know about things. When I was older, I used to pretend that you'd never left and I'd try to imagine what it would be like with you."

She rolled onto her back and the werewolf moved over her. He was careful and slow as he slid into her and Nancy wiped a tear or two away as she looked up at him. When they were together, he made sure that she was covered to keep her warm and then he began to move rather slowly.

They stayed slow the whole time and though he was gentle, there were a few times when he had to thrust a bit harder and Nancy was ready by then. She looked up and ran her hands over the finest male in the known universe to her. When that male lowered his head to nuzzle against her breasts, she arched her back to give him the best access and though she hadn't intended it, she told him that she still loved him.

His physiology was different to her in this natural shape for him and though she hadn't expected to feel much of anything other than strangeness, he surprised her. As she grew used to it, she found herself enjoying it more and more until she found that she did indeed reach climaxes under him – many climaxes which she twitched and shuddered through as she learned to clench onto his shaft.

When he came, Nancy felt something different again. She actually felt it when he came. It wasn't that she felt the actual ejaculation, other than the way that felt when he contracted. That was about all that she'd have hoped to be able to feel – if she thought about it.

And that was what she felt – at first.

What came to her a second or so later was the feeling of his very comforting warmth there inside her as his semen left him. It didn't feel like he'd left her a gallon or anything, but Lord, it was nice and so warm there. Nancy hadn't exactly had enough partners at this to qualify as an expert, but this was something which she'd never experienced before with a man. But then she wasn't lying under a man, was she?

She told him that she loved him again and he replied with the reciprocal phrase and a smiling shudder. That was when Nancy learned another thing about having a werewolf as a lover and she asked.

He shrugged, "I dunno, it depends, but I ought to be able to give you more about three times at least."

He watched her eyebrows rise and then she laughed a little, but very gently so as not to force him out of her or anything. She didn't want to disrupt this for anything. She felt some if it leave her and guessed that she must be fairly full - not that she knew exactly how much semen that she could hold – she just guessed that lying the way that she was and the fact that he was still inside of her must allow for some to be displaced.

Well she wasn't exactly an expert on the subject of fluid dynamics or anything.

Nancy just knew what she liked, and she decided that she liked being held by a gentle werewolf who loved her and could keep her filled with his seed.

"Buttons?" she asked as she looked up, "Buttons, if you think you want to do this with me after tonight, well, I'd love to sleep with you every night for the rest of my life, if we can find a way to let you fuck me the way that feels best to you – and doesn't kill me. Do you think you'd want that?"

He looked down at her and she saw that he was near to tears again. "I'd want that," he whispered, "I've always wanted that. I've always only really wanted you."

She reached up and pulled the blankets higher and then she put her arms around that neck as her legs rose up again to wrap around him, "Then I'll do my best to keep you happy, Buttons, and I'll never let you go again. I don't think either of us has had a great ride through life so far, but if you'll let me, I'll try to make yours better now."

"How will I make your life better?" he asked and she smiled then.

"Listen," she chuckled, "if we can each keep the other one fed, warm, loved, and laid, I don't think we'll be doing too badly."

-----------------------

"Where do you want to go?" Shane asked.

"Have you laid out your bedroll yet?" Callie asked and seeing his nod, she tried not to let her face show what she felt, "Then that's where I want to go. I don't even have a blanket."

"Oh," Shane said, wanting to curse himself a little for not thinking of it, "I'm sure I can get you something."

"No," Callie replied, shaking her head, "Please, I'd much rather sleep next to you. I don't snore – at least I don't think I do."

He stopped then and looked at her. Callie did her best to summon up what little courage this day had left her to play with now. She moved to press herself against him very gently as she looked up, "I really want to talk to you, Shane. Please try to hear me out, ok?"

"Alright," he said, "talk. Here."

Callie didn't like the way that this was going to this point, but she really couldn't see an alternative, so she began. "Look, I want you to notice something. I'm human, but I know a lot of things about the wolf-born. I was raised by one." She looked up at him and raised her arms a little slowly, as though she was afraid of frightening him away.

"I know that humans are smaller to you, but for a human girl, I'm just the right size for you, aren't I?"

He had to think about it, but he saw that she was right. For a male of his size, Callie was the perfect height for a human female. If she was what he was, they both knew that she'd be just a bit taller on the sort of legs that she'd have then. Like this, she'd have to just about stand on her tiptoes to kiss him.

"I see that," he said quietly, "but what are you getting at?"

"Well," she said, "do you have a girl right now?"

He looked as though she was about to lose him, so she went for it, putting her arms around his neck again to pull herself up and she did in fact go to her tiptoes. It stretched her body out and it made her a little unsteady on the uneven ground there. Without thinking about it, Shane put his arm around her and in the space of one and a half breaths, he was pulling her against him to steady her. He looked down into her eyes and felt her breasts pressing themselves against the bottom edge of his ribcage.

"You don't, do you?" she asked and Shane returned a rather curious look, "Don't what?"

Callie grinned a little, "Hey, stay with the program, ok? I just want to say that I know how to be and behave for what you are, that's all, so if you think you might – "

"What are you trying to say?" he asked, "Look, Callie, I'm not really wise and sophisticated like my brother is. I'm sorry, but you're losing me here. You'll need to say things pretty much directly or I'm liable to just miss what you mean."

Callie looked down for a moment. This was going to require her to be even more direct. She looked up again, "Shane, I know I'm not beautiful like Rudhi there, but I don't think I'm exactly homely either, so – "

She saw it then. He wasn't going to get it because he didn't think he could understand anything other than direct speech. She knew that he was wrong, but she was afraid that he'd just shut down or something.

"Hey," he said as he tried to smile, "I like her and I even like the way that she looks, but she's not exactly a human and I think you look a lot better to me."

"Thanks, but you know what I meant. Ok," she said, "I'll try to show you what I mean. For now, just trust me a little and kiss me just one time."

He stared at her a little, but he allowed it as she stretched herself up again and he kissed her. He felt her lungs filling in a deep breath and then she sighed as they pulled apart. He looked at her, but she didn't say anything; she just laid her cheek against his chest with her eyes still closed.

Shane felt his heart pull a little as he looked at her, because that face said a lot to him, even though they weren't speaking at the moment.

When she did begin to speak, his eyebrows shot upward and remained there for a time.

"Humans live in houses," she growled to him softly in the language that she shouldn't really know and certainly not be conversant in, "When Bobby found me, the last person that he thought that he'd see alive there was a little girl. He was living in a burrow, since he was all alone.

But he knew that I needed someone to take care of me, so he dug his den a little larger for me and we lived there for the first little while; a little girl and a young wolf-born. I can barely remember it, really. We were poorer than dirt, but my clothes were always clean and I was never dirty when he walked me to school and back every single day. He'd work at whatever he could to make a little money so that I'd have shoes and such, but it was a year or so before he found a deserted farmhouse for us to live in.

Even so, the only place that I felt safe was in his arms when he'd hold me." She looked up then, "Do you know what I mean?"

Shane nodded, "I remember when my folks would hug me when I was little," he said in the same language, "I remember."

"I'm just a human," she growled to him softly, "so I'm a little slower and weaker, but I can hear and smell a couple of rabbits rooting around in that grass over there on the other side of the road. I'm not as fast as you'd be, but if you grabbed one of them, I'd show you how I know how to get his fur off and get him ready to cook in only a minute with only my hands. If we didn't have a way to make a fire, I could sit down with you and eat it raw, since I had to learn how to do that.