GLAHC: Soldier Girls

God Loves All His Children: Soldier Girls

Dank, muggy Florida night air wafted in through the crack in the window. Danielle Harris knocked on door 23, long shadows cast by the warm orange light of the streetlamp outside. Three minutes later it opened just a little, held back by the chain. A crooning voice floated out: "Greetings traveller. Speak the password and enter at leisure."

"Let me in you dumb bitch."

"Incorrect. You have two attempts left."

"This isn't funny. It's never funny. We do it every week and it's never funny."

"Incorrect once again. You have but one chance remai-"

"I could very easily kick this door down. You know I would, too."

After a few seconds of silence, the chain was undone with a satisfying crunch. Leah Morales opened the door, looking up at her friend, unimpressed. "You're no fun."

"Bitch, I'm tons of fun", said Dani, handing Leah a plastic bag. Inside was several paycheque's worth of hard liquor.

"Fuckin' A!" Leah exclaimed, passing to let Dani in. "You really went all out, didn't you?"

"Sure. I mean, why not?"

"Yeah. This is a special occasion, after all." There was nothing more to say about it after that.

Leah's apartment could have been better. It wasn't awful, but the creaky floorboards, cracked plaster and weird smells from somewhere left a lot to be desired. Leah said she didn't mind. She'd never known much better anyway.

There weren't a lot of personal touches either. Some might say the place was barely lived in. There were little hints here and there, however. Hints that someone lived their life in this space. A Surrealist painting on the wall, inherited from an aunt. A poster of Ziggy Stardust on another wall. Painted sugar skulls on the mantelpiece, flanking a framed, creased photograph.

Dani studied the photo, picking out her own face from the 42 present, then Leah's, then scanned the rest of the figures. The tall ones at the back, some with their rifles pointing to the sky, resting on their shoulder. Dani was among them. Directly in front of her was Leah, in the middle row, and in front of her were the guys kneeling. And in dead centre was the Big Man himself: Captain Aaron Weybridge, arms crossed, feet apart, his lined face betraying nothing but faint amusement. Practically all of them were without shirts. The women wore sports bras, but all proudly displayed their dogtags, and more importantly, their tattoos. Everyone in the platoon had one, in big, curvy letters: God Loves All His Children.

Captain Weybridge had died just the day before.

"Hard to believe the Big Man died in his bed like that" said Leah nonchalantly, fixing the booze over in the kitchenette. "Always figured he'd go out in a blaze o' glory like He-Man or Marx. You remember Marx?"

"Of course I remember Marx. Fucking tearing through the den, killed half the pricks before he even realized half his face was missing."

"No shit. Anything like that ever happen to you?"

"Last I checked, I still have my face."

"You know what I mean. That fight-or-flight crap, anything, ever?"

"Nah. After a fight, it'd always take a while before the adrenaline to get out my system. I'd be shaking for ages, then I'd always feel kinda, I don't know, empty."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Shit's crazy," agreed Leah walking over with a pair of shot glasses and a bottle of 80 proof Polish vodka. Pouring the shots and handing one to her friend, she raised the glass over her head. "To Weybridge."

"To Weybridge." The glasses clinked, and thus kicking the consumption of much alcohol.

Dani was 6 foot tall and beefy as hell. In the platoon, she'd had bigger biceps than most of the guys, and boobs the size of a baby's head. Now, frankly, she'd been letting herself go. She'd always been pretty heavy, but now her muscle was drifting closer to flab than she would have liked. She was only thirty, but everything was starting to droop. She pretty much looked permanently tired and her loose, jaw length hair didn't help. Sandy-brown and wavy, she'd never done anything much with it, but at least on tour she kept it tied back. Now it just looked dirty.

Leah didn't look much better, though Dani didn't say as much. 5'6", slender and soft-skinned, the Hispanic woman looked about as far from a warrior as was possible. Now, with her black hair down to her mid-back and shabby dress, you'd never guess she ever served. Never, if you failed to look at her feet.

On a ratty couch, watching shitty late-night TV, Leah sat beside her friend with her legs outstretched, unabashedly, resting on the low glass coffee table. Her prosthetic feet clicked rhythmically against the glass, as she chattered on and on, hopping between English and Spanish without even realizing it.

Dani stayed quiet, sometimes replying to something Leah said, but not offering anything of her own. Sweet Jesus, but it had been a while since she'd drunk like this. The room was actually swimming. She never puked from drinking before, but she reckoned tonight could be the night. Leah's voice seemed to come from far away. She never drank this hard, and she was beginning to remember why.

Captain Aaron had been like the dad of the platoon. Like a big, mean, grisly dad, and God help you if you pissed him off, because the rest of them certainly wouldn't. Despite that, he was always fair, never needlessly cruel and accepting of everyone as long as they did their jobs right. Dani remembered still her first earful from the Captain. She could almost hear him, so brutally eloquent, stringing curses and insults together in such a way that almost poetic.

Dani also remembered a different time, when the Captain had spoken softly She remembered how much worse it made it, for that man to talk like that. To say to her that there wasn't anything she could've done. To lay his hand, so gently, on her shoulder. To tell her it wasn't her fault, when it so obviously was.

Dani remembered why she didn't drink so hard anymore. Staring at Leah's fake legs, while she chattered endlessly, she remembered that when she drank, she remembered things she didn't want to. And the thing she wanted to forget the most was always the first thing she remembered. It could have happened an hour ago.

A regular patrol in Afghanistan. It was a hot, muggy day, and all had got maybe two hours of sleep, thanks to a false alarm the night before. Dani stepped down, and she was answered with an ominous click. Her guts dropped and a clod, sick feeling rose from that space and circulated within her. Time slowed to syrup. She felt like she was underwater. She saw Leah running toward her, looking like those lifeguards on Baywatch. Some part of her brain chuckled at such a dated reference, just as Leah leapt into her. Then a sound like the end of the world and Dani found herself on her back, streaked with sand and dirt. Leah was on top of her. Her legs were missing.

Leah was halfway through her newest drunken tirade before she looked over and noticed that Dani was crying, making no sound.

"Dani? Dan, Dani, Dani, what's-what's up? What's wrong?"

Dani couldn't form words for a while. Eventually she choked out "My fault."

"What are you talking about?"

"M - m - my fault. All my fault. You got hurt, 'cos of me. You didn't have to - you- you didn't - you shouldn't..."

Leah fumbled for the right words. "Dan, that's - you - you can't blame yourself for these things. It was - it was long time ago, I mean, I'm over it. Like, I mean, it's just - ridiculous to -"

"I AM NOT BEING RIDICULOUS!!"

Leah jolted away. Dani was now quite sober.

"Captain Weybridge tried to sling me the same shit; not my fault, nothing I could do, fuckin' forget about it. Fuckin' lyin' to me, lyin' to - to my face. They were all thinkin' it, we'd all been trained the same, all trained the same. We all knew what to do with a mine, but no, I just had to fuck up, didn't I? Just had to fuck up right when it mattered most, just like always. You shouldn't have had to pick up for me, shouldn't have had to pick up after my mistakes. Shouldn't have got hurt for me, I should have just - just paid for it myself."

Leah's hands shot out and grabbed Dani by her head, pulling her to look her in the eye. "You bitch," she whispered, her face contorted, like she was deeply offended and hurt, "DON'T YOU EVER FUCKING SAY THAT AGAIN!"

Dani blinked, tears still running. "Where would that leave you, huh? What would be left of you? Everything you are, what you were, reduced to a pine box with a flag over it. Fuck that! And what about me, huh? What would I do with you gone?"

Dani didn't have an answer. Leah now had tears of her own to spill out. "You are not allowed to die, Dani. You hear me? I won't let you."

"You don't - you don't need me. Not really. You're smart, I mean, you could whatever you want."

"Oh right, sure. Fuckin' border-jumping bitch, barely keeping herself alive on Cup Ramen and cheap booze, shitty apartment, shitty everything." Leah's grip softened, her hands falling down to Dani's face. Staring into her eyes, she drew her body closer to Dani's. "You are the best thing that has ever happened to me. And I would save you a hundred times over if meant I could still be part of your life."

And before either knew what was happening, Leah planted a kiss on Dani's lips. It took Dani a quarter of a second to realize what was happening, and she instinctually pulled her head back. But then she saw her friend, her soft features illuminated in the orange light of the outside and the flickering light of the TV, and it was like seeing her for the first time.

She returned the kiss with one of her own, and soon enough they were passionately making out. It was a rather bizarre scene, with everything still in place, the moronic TV show still playing, the glasses and empty bottle still arranged on the low glass table. It seemed terribly outlandish, for them to be furiously kissing each other now, when not ten minutes ago it had been an ordinary Saturday night. Some part of Dani's brain marveled at this, but was drowned out by the moment.

Leah's hands searched up and down Dani's body, and Dani reciprocated, but neither ever directly "touched" each other. A brush past the breast here, and light graze of the hip there. Leah's hands dipped ever closer towards Dani's pubic mound, but no further than the very edge. Never any further, but oh so close. They did not remove their clothes. Their tongues coiled round and round each other, probing each other's mouths, thoroughly tasting every inch. Their breathing was so hot and so heavy. Sweat ran. Juices flowed. They drooled and panted like dogs.

After what could have been an age, they finally pulled away. Huffing and puffing, they locked their eyes. Leah was the first to speak. "You're drooling."

"So are you."

"Heh. God, I've wanted to do that for such a long time."

"What, really?"

"Of course. What, you're telling me you never noticed."

"I knew you weren't into guys, I just never thought..."

"That you're what I'm into?"

"Ah - well, yeah - I mean, yeah."

"Hee hee. And what about you? Couldn't help but notice how into me you are."

"Don't - don't flatter yourself. I'm just, super drunk right now, is all."

"Mm-hm". Leah lay her head into her friend's chest, neck supported by the globes of her boobs.

"What do we do now?" asked Dani.

"Oh, I know exactly what I want to do" was Leah's answer, accompanied a hand creeping up to Dani's breast.

"You mean - you mean, you wanna - "the statement gave her some difficulty, "- have sex?"

"Oh yeah, it'll take a while to make up for all this lost time." Leah's hand hovered over Dani's boob, edging ever closer. Dani took hold of it, not really knowing why she'd done so.

Leah looked up. "You don't want to?" she said, looking into her friend's eyes. Dani made to answer, but she seemed to forget how to use her words.

Leah sat up after a moment, lighting touching Dani's arm with her free hand. "That's cool," she said, smiling gently. Dani wanted to say something, but her words still wouldn't work. "I get it. It's cool. This's all pretty sudden." With that, she made to get up from the couch. "You can stay here if you want. You can have the bed, I'll sleep out here. Or I can call a taxi- "and Leah didn't finish her sentence because Dani's brain started working again, embracing the Hispanic woman from behind.

Still, Dani struggled to find the right words. She eventually decided on, "L - lost time. We - we have to - make up for lost time, right? The sooner we start, the better, right?" Holding her like this, Leah looked so small compared to her friend. Dani's breasts, so much bigger than Leah's, pressed against her back, promising all sorts of things to come. Leah grinned a secret grin.

"Hey" said Leah, looking back. "Hm?" said Dani. "Carry me into bed. More space in there." Dani didn't answer. It seemed like the wrong time to answer back. Lifting Leah like a princess, she wobbled a little. "Whoo - careful, baby."

Dani blushed furiously. "Baby", she called her. What was even happening here? Walking over to the bedroom door, she looked at Leah out of the corner of her eye. She saw in her mind's eye glimpses of her body beneath her clothes. The body she had seen so often in showers: the small breasts with their little nipples, the lean navel sloping down to form those wide hips, the little shock of pubic hair that always peaked just over her underwear. All of it, which never troubled her before, now tantalized her endlessly. That delicious light brown skin, those little nipples which must be so, so sensitive, those sticky pink lips that must be drooling with all manner of juices. How had she never noticed them before? What had she been doing all this time?

"Dani? Dani!"

"Eh - what- what?"

"Um, we're here. You can put me down."

Dani blinked. She saw that they were, indeed, in Leah's bedroom. "Ah, yeah, right, here." She lay her on the double bed. Leah shifted into a sitting position and patted the space to the left. Blushing, Dani went round to the other side.

There were a little more personal touches in here than outside. A stereo; a mostly full bookcase; and five more candy skulls, painted in bright colours, three on the bookcase and two on the night stand. Leah turned on the lamp, went over and switched off the big light, then sat back down.

"Hey" she whispered in Dani's ear, making her jump.

"Ah - what?"

"Whassa matter? You're being really quiet. Everything okay?" She had a mischievous grin on her face which Dani didn't like.

"It's - nothing. Don't worry about it."

"Oh really? You sure?"

"Yeah I'm sure. It's nothing, forget about it."

"Hmm, I don't think that's true. Come on, tell me what's on your mind."

"It's nothing, I said - It's just..."

"Yes? Go on."

"It's just - it's - it's my first time with another girl, okay?"

Leah grinned even wider. "Yeah, I knew that already."

"Then why did you make me say it?!"

"Because I wanted you to say it."

Dani wanted to have something to say to that, but couldn't think of anything clever, so instead she sulked. Leah smiled, then rather abruptly reached around to remove Dani's shirt. It surprised Dani at first, but she allowed her to lift the fabric up, past her boobs, raising them up, then letting them free to breathe. "No bra?" she asked. "It gets too hot" was the answer. "Mm. Put your arms up." She did. The top was discarded to one side of the bed.

"You wanna do the pants yourself?"

"Mm." Dani unbuttoned her jeans and slid them down her legs. Her panties, a normal white pair, slid down with them. She instinctually went to pull them back up, then remembered what was happening. She blushed at the sight of a string of juice coming from her pussy to the panties.

A metallic noise caught Dani's attention. Looking over her shoulder, she saw Leah in the process of removing her prosthetics. At the sight, Dani involuntarily released a sigh, remembering . Leah looked over, and stopped what she was doing. She seemed embarrassed.

"Ah. Yeah. Well, I don't wear them to bed. I guess I wasn't thinking. Its fine, we can just -"

Dani didn't say anything, but laid a hand on Leah's shoulder. "Let me do it," she said, with an odd expression.

Leah sat on the edge of the bed, pants legs rolled up, "feet" on the floor. Dani knelt on the floor directly in front of her, opening the mechanism that held the prosthesis in place. As she did so, she started remembering, and thinking. Thinking about her time on tour, the time she spent with Leah, in those long months. Had she really not known how Leah felt? Now that she thought about it, she couldn't remember Leah hanging out with anyone else. And what she had said before. The best thing that had ever happened to her? What kind of life had she lived for her to be the best thing? Only now did she realize how little she knew about her friend.

The legs came off easily enough, as did Leah's jean and panties. Her legs were amputated just below the knee, the right one being a little longer than the left. She still had on her white blouse, but she was now pantless. Her pubes had grown a bit, but were mostly the same. Hers was an "inny" pussy, unassuming and almost innocent. It looked so pristine, so untouched. Like she'd kept it away from any harm all her life. Waiting for something.

"Leah?"

"Hm?"

"Did you mean what you said in the living room? You really think I'm the best thing that ever happened to you?"

Leah frowned ever so slightly. "I know you are."

Dani frowned herself. "That's stupid", she said, and before Leah could reply she leaned forward and planted a wet kiss on her pussy.

Leah released a satisfying little gasp. Dani looked at that as damn good start. However, the obstacle remained that she had no idea what she was doing. She'd never licked pussy before, and she'd never thought to learn how. It seemed simple on paper, but actually doing it, like most things, was something different altogether.

Remembering something she'd read online about using the alphabet, Dani figured it was better than better nothing, she began tracing out the letters on Leah's pussy with her tongue. Keeping her tongue sufficiently wet, she began at the bottom left of the pussy, lapping up to the clitoris, then down to the other side. Finally she crossed over back to the other side, completing the "A". As she started on "B", she reached under Leah's thighs and gave her butt a good squeeze. Leah clenched her fist, gripping the bed sheets and inhaling through a bitten lip. At the end of "B", she lay down onto her back.

Dani was careful to take her time with each letter, covering every inch of Leah's soft pussy. It was kind of weird, really. She found it had a strange taste, only it didn't really taste of anything. It simply tasted like "juice". Also, her tongue and jaw were getting quite tired. She wasn't sure if she could keep this up for much longer. Thinking quickly, she retrieved her hands from under Leah's ass and gently began stroking her pussy with one hand, while attending to herself with the other.

Soon, however, Leah became less and less responsive, until finally she reached down. "Dani, baby, that's enough. You can come up now."

"Awh, no. Was I crap? Did I do crappy?"

"No no. You were good, really good, especially for your first time. Besides, I have an idea."

"An idea? What -"

"Just sit on the bed and wait, I need to get something."

So Dani sat and waited while Leah reached under the bed for something, lying on her stomach. She had, by this time, removed her top, so they were both totally nude. Inked on her lower back, on her right side, was her tattoo: God Loves All His Children in long, looping text. Dani looked down at her own ink, on the opposite. They'd gotten them together. On Leah's left shoulder was her own design, a candy skull, resting on a bed of bright flowers and adorned with flourishes and roses in its eye-sockets.